Shachi and Penguin were there to greet him when he finally came back, and their spooked expressions didn't bode well.

"I thought you went with Trafalgar to the city for supplies?" The Nobody asked them. They gave a start at his voice, having not been paying attention, but turned to him rapidly as if he was their only hope. It made Toshiro a bit nervous.

"Well, uh, we couldn't get in for some reason, didn't hear why but Captain got really mad. Say, what happened to Thursday?"

"…what?"

"She got back and was all out of breath and trying to explain something to Captain, then she just collapsed. You were watching out, right, what happened?"

Teal eyes widening in shock, Toshiro didn't answer, instead ran past and ignored their shouts as he hurried inside. Could this plague really spread so fast? This wasn't good, and if she didn't get time to explain, he needed to make sure Law knew what was happening.

Sure enough they were in the infirmary, Thursday already looking paler than when he'd last seen her just minutes ago but awake. Law turned towards him with a scowl as he entered.

"What the hell happened?" He demanded, Toshiro tensing at the harsh tone, understanding he was being blamed.

"Papa…not his fault." Thursday wheezed out, clearly still very tired. "Stigma…"

"What's this stigma?"

Seeing as she was in no shape to keep talking, Toshiro stepped forward to explain.

"The people on this island are suffering from something they're just calling Stigma, it's highly contagious, more so than even I thought…I was looking into it and she went with me, one of the children we were speaking to I tried to heal, but it didn't work, and she went to help him. All she did was touch him for a few moments…I didn't think it would be so quick to spread."

"How long ago was this?"

"Not even an hour ago. The characteristic of this Stigma seems to be patches of black, like a bruise, and it seems to cause occasional attacks. When I tried to heal one of the children it started one such attack instead…I'm not sure what it is."

Law seemed tense about the topic as he got more information, almost as if remembering something unpleasant. He looked her over carefully for any dark splotches like Toshiro had described, but it seemed all she had for now was a high fever and fatigue. The silence stretched on until Law had done all he could for now, taking a blood draw at the end so he could perhaps see what this contagion was, donning a mask as he should just to be careful.

"You seem fine." Law finally said something, Thursday dozing off again for now with her Papa watching over her.

"I can't get sick." The Nobody responded. "It was hard before with my lower body temperature, only persistent illnesses could get me, but I believe with the way I am now it's not possible at all anymore."

"I suppose you have a point, with no heart there's no circulation, so nothing can move through your body."

"Correct. Though…it's odd, Nobodies can still bleed…not quite sure how we work, I guess it's just the unfortunate life of not really existing."

"I could probably find out, but I doubt you want me to." Law spared a glance at his guest before returning to his work.

"Not really…I just don't want to be this way at all anymore." Toshiro answered, though part of him did wonder… maybe he should let Law find out, if only for the sake of figuring out a 'cure' so to speak. It was better than letting Kurotsuchi get hands on him.

"I'm still looking into it, but for now I would like to figure out what this disease is."

"I understand. Oh, but…" Toshiro shuffled nervously and the surgeon turned back to look at him, raising a brow. "The boys we spoke to…they said people die within two to four days of contracting the disease."

Law looked angrier than he already did, cursing loudly and returning to his research with a heavy weight on his shoulders. Two to four days… he needed to work fast.

"Tell everyone to remain out of the infirmary. If anyone feels even slightly sick they need to come see me, and not to touch anyone on the island. Once they know, since you don't get sick, see what you can figure out that would help." The surgeon demanded.

Though part of him didn't appreciate the orders, he knew this was not the time for pride, anything but that really. Feeling guilt for being the one to allow this, Toshiro simply responded with an affirmative and headed out. He had to help fix this. Though no expert at illnesses and cures, he could at least find out the cause and signs, maybe even what some do to stave off the Stigma for more time. There had to be something… a reason for its existence here.

Once all the Heart Pirates knew the new quarantine rules, worry for Thursday going around the ship, Toshiro was off to seek answers. He denied Heinrich's wishes to go with, not wanting another of the orphans sick on his watch, and darted off before any argument could be made.

"Only appeared a couple weeks ago…" He muttered to himself as he jumped easily across rooftops. "And if it kills in just a few days… there would be no one alive who would have been around to know where it came from… damn."

His only choice was to find those victims, to see if there was any indication of what gave them this killer plague. If he could find the very first victim, even, it may provide some insight.

When looking from above gave no hopeful answers, he went below, examining recently passed and grimacing at the terrible conditions they had to die in. The black patches looked more like acid burns, sinking into the skin in an inky black mass of dissolved flesh, open and oozing, bones visible in some, bodies mangled as the plague seemed to decompose the victims quickly. This gave him little hope to find patient zero of the Stigma, it would seem there would hardly be anything left at this point.

Leaving the dead be, as only horror and bad news could be gleaned from them, he went to the living instead. It was getting dark out by this point, people hiding away in dull houses or hidden corners, no one wanting to deal with him. The sick were scared to go near anyone, abused and scoffed at, not wanting to drag a 'child' into their misery, whereas the living just didn't want to talk to pirates, having seen him with the Heart Pirates by now and trying to avoid any trouble.

Overall the day was overwhelmingly unsuccessful, the start of the night going no better as it got even harder to find people. He gave up and returned to the ship with a solemn expression. There was no way he could tell Law that all he learned was the state Thursday would be in if they didn't save her. Gritting his teeth, he pivoted on his feet just before reaching the submarine and went back into the town. He couldn't give up yet, not with that. Standing on deck, Dextra watched him leave again, determination in his expression. She appreciated him trying so hard to help, she just wished she could go as well. Law had forbidden it.

Instead, she went back inside, as it was dinner time and their cook would scold her if she missed a meal again. The galley was depressingly quiet, even though they had actual food to eat again. The feeling of worry and paranoia in the air made Dextra shudder as she got her plate of pork chop and potatoes. Sitting next to her siblings, she noticed Heinrich was the most put out, pushing his potatoes around on his plate and looking ready to cry. She thought she noticed something else off, curious but not wanting to push him when stress was radiating off him in waves, just silently observing.

"Thursday's gonna be okay…right?" Daniel asked with a sniffle.

"Don't worry, buddy, Captain's the best doctor ever, he'll figure it out." Penguin assured, him and Shachi also at the table with the children. "And our resident Soul Reaper is on the case."

"The only one, though, I'm guessing cause dead people don't get sick." Shachi added on. Book elbowed him for speaking so harshly of their guest. "What? That's why he's the only one going, right?"

"He's trying really hard too, I saw him." Dextra spoke up between some bites. "He was about to come back, but then he took off again. He didn't look happy though."

"Probably hasn't found anything then…" Heinrich sighed. He scratched absentmindedly at his arm.

"We'll just have to hope either he or the Captain get a breakthrough then." Penguin tried to seem confident, but there was no hiding his concern. "This will be over before we know it, just a crazy thing we can look back on and say that wasn't so bad."

"Yeah, Papa can cure anything with his power." Book agreed, head high. He would follow Penguin and try to keep everyone's spirits up.

"Heinrich, quit scratching, you better not have fleas." Dextra complained with a flat tone to the older boy next to her as she spotted him once more running his nails over his arm.

"I don't have fleas, Dextra, I'm just itchy." Heinrich rolled his eyes. "Haven't been feeling all that good honestly, been really worried."

"Can hardly blame you, this place was the worst place to dock… should have taken our chances at the other place." Shachi just nodded solemnly. "Now we're stuck here."

Puffin came over to the table, having been overhearing their conversation, and as a nurse to their Captain, felt he might as well see if Heinrich was alright with Law busy on more important things.

"You get a rash or something, Heinrich?" He asked, lifting up the boy's sleeve.

"Don't think so- "

"Oh shit!"

Everyone turned to look at the sound of Shachi's sudden yell, Heinrich and Puffin gaping at the small black patch now revealed on the young man's arm. It was still small and light, but with how things were on the island nothing could be risked, and everyone paled at the possibility.

"You… you got sick?" Penguin paled, looking at the patch in horror.

"But, I… I didn't know that person was sick! I just helped them pick something up!" Heinrich was terrified.

Puffin calmed himself and grabbed Heinrich's arm. He'd already touched the boy, so now both of them were heading straight to the infirmary before panic got out of hand. It was part of his job to keep cool in bad situations, he had to contain this quick.

"Keep away." He demanded as he and Heinrich rushed out of the galley. Everyone obeyed.

Once they left, the silence held thick over those left inside. Another one down, possibly two… would everyone be sick by the day's end? How were they supposed to deal with this? Marines and other pirates they could handle, fighting was easy, but this… everyone was paranoid and worried now, trying to make sure nobody else had touched Heinrich since he'd come back, seeing if anyone else had come into contact with a native of any sort that may have been hiding their own sickness.

Puffin entered the infirmary and was immediately met with a disapproving look from Law, but the surgeon didn't take long to notice the scared look on Heinrich.

"…you're joking." He scowled.

"Sorry, Captain." Puffin replied with a shake of his head to show no, he was not kidding. "He didn't know the person was sick."

"Papa, I'm-" Heinrich was usually the most confident, but this wasn't really something he could just punch at and laugh off anymore, so his tone was nervous.

"Over here." Law interrupted, pointing to another bed. He wasn't going to let the boy apologize for something beyond his control, not when the surgeon himself worried he wouldn't be able to fix it… that HE should be saying sorry. "Hitsugaya back yet?"

"No, Dextra said he almost came back, but then ran off again. He probably hadn't found anything yet." Puffin answered.

"I suppose it would be a miracle if he did, it's only been a few hours, and I doubt anyone here is willing to just tell him everything." Law sighed in resignation.

So far he hadn't found much either. It was definitely a virus, his examination of Thursday's blood sample had made that clear, but it was a far more intelligent virus than he had ever come across, avoiding any attempts he made to isolate and study it. The body was definitely putting up a fight, the high fever proved that, but it was as if the virus thrived off that fight and spread further. The sample he had taken was almost completely black in color. At this point he was just waiting for it to finish atrophying that way it was nothing but virus and easier to examine. He just had to be careful it didn't touch anything remotely biological.

"I guess since I'll be in here too, Captain, I can offer some help until it gets to me too." Puffin spoke up in the silence. "I don't mind doing anything where it might spread."

"You may not have it yet, I'd rather you still be careful. Apparently it reacts differently per person, Thursday got her fever and fatigue first, but no bruising until just now. Heinrich is showing the opposite." As the pirate Captain spoke he was checking the boy's temperature just to be sure. Not as high a fever as Thursday yet, he wondered why it was interacting differently. Heinrich looked over at Thursday with concern after Law mentioned she had just showed signs of the bruising. Sure enough, some small dark spots were beginning to surface on her neck, the tall girl sleeping restlessly with a worried expression.

"It's fast either way, the more help I can give before it shows up on me the better, right?" The nurse tried to reason.

Law just waved him off, a silent way of letting him do what he wanted as he was focused elsewhere. After all, Puffin had a point, since he was now assuredly infected, he'd be able to do what Law couldn't since the latter had to avoid physical contact, he was thankful it didn't seem airborne as he had felt no symptoms even during his time with Thursday. There was something about how it moved in the body that only allowed it to move victims with skin to skin contact, though he didn't even risk touching with gloves on to be sure.

With Puffin there to help the children be more comfortable and handle the virus samples better, the two worked well into the night even after the other went to sleep, if they slept. Bepo hung out on deck outside to wait for Toshiro, his concern for his crew mates rising as the hours ticked by. Sometime around two in the morning, the bear could stay awake no longer and thought to take a short nap. Toshiro still never came back to the ship.

Two others fell ill, but thankfully it wasn't the stigma as first feared, Law telling them they were getting too stressed. Their Captain looked hardly any better, dark circles under his eyes as he tended to have when working too long. He gave his crew something to keep them calm but took none himself as he wanted a clear mind to figure out this virus. Even with a second pair of eyes from Puffin and the now pure virus sample there was little he could gain. It wasn't a natural virus, it preyed on any biological material in contact with it, and no gloves did not prevent spread. Puffin's infection showed first on his hands, worsening the more he interacted with it until Law finally had to assign the nurse to a bed as well as his hands shook worse with each passing hour. The sun rose to another gray, dreary day and Law still had no idea what he could do to cure it. Any medicine he tried to introduce fell apart, the virus was extremely potent.

"It's like it has a mind of its own…" He growled to himself. He turned back to the three others in his infirmary. Heinrich had decided to move to Thursday's bed, hugging her tight, and he didn't argue. The boy had the patch spreading over his arm, and when the attacks Toshiro had mentioned before happened, said arm would curl in on itself painfully as the seizure went through. He hated watching it. Thursday's was worse, as the bruising spread over her neck, up part of her cheek, and down to her chest. She would simply tense up completely with mouth open in a silent cry until it passed. Gritting his teeth, Law turned back to working with the virus. He had to figure this out, they didn't deserve to suffer like this… surely there was some clue that would give away the nature of this disease… once he found that, he could start undoing it. His power could take care of it once he knew how, but until then it only helped him examine without touching.

He scratched absentmindedly at his chest.