My husband is dead. My child has no father. My son did not come home. My childhood friend is gone. My father is no more. My brother is missing.
"Agh!" Koby screamed, throwing off his covers and scrambling out of bed.
"Koby!" shouted Helmeppo, rushing to his side, "Koby what's wrong!? What happened?!"
"Their voices!" Koby sobbed, "There're too many!"
Koby threw himself on the floor, is body twitching and contorting.
My lover broke her promise to come back. My sister will never cook for me again. My aunt, whom I never met, is gone. My mother is in the ground.
"STOP!" screeched Koby, clenching his stomach and throwing his hands over his ears. "STOP IT!"
"KOBY!" said Helmeppo, shaking the crying boy, "WHAT'S WRONG!"
My cousin is no longer. My uncle is buried under rubble. My nephew is not alive.
"KOBY!" shouted Helmeppo, yanking the boy up by his hair and slapping him, "SNAP OUT OF IT!"
Tears ran down Koby's face, soothing the hot red marks on his cheeks. But the voices didn't stop. He couldn't get rid of them.
"A DOCTOR!" screamed Helmeppo, "SOMEBODY GET A DOCTOR!"
A nurse rushed into the room, her hair frizzy and her eyes tired. She assesed the situation, and quickly paged the healing ward's psychiatrist.
"He''ll be right here," she said, keeping her voice calm, "control him until he does."
Helmeppo nodded, restraining Koby the best he could.
My wife lost her limbs. My teacher can no longer speak. My daughter has gone to heaven.
"Give him a sedative," said a rather elderly man, stepping into the room dressed in a white coat. His nametag read 'Doctor Reed'.
"He's gone insane," said Helmeppo, while the nurse attended to the heavily breathing Koby.
"PTSD," replied the doctor, making a note on his clipboard, "very common in soldiers, especially those who've been in wars. I've a seen a lot of it lately, too much of it actually. Medical files?"
Helmeppo rushed to Koby's bedside table, and from the drawer retrieved a thick folder, filled with documents. He handed it to , who plucked out a few pages and handed it back.
"Let's see," said , as Koby settled down, "a history of asthma, many allergies, weak bone structure, and oh! Haki?"
"Yes," responded Helmeppo, wringing his hands nervously, "after the war, he unlocked it."
"That must be it. Did he mention anything about voices?"
"Yes."
"Haki users often start off with Kenbunshoku Haki. They can percieve everything around them acutely. In the early stages, they're unable to control it, and these episodes are quite frequent. I remember Kuzan had a tough time dealing with it…" said the Doctor.
"Will he be ok though?" asked Helmeppo sweat dripping down his forehead.
"He'll be fine," replied the doctor, "but he needs to learn how to control it. I'll give you a few sedatives just in case he gets out of control."
Helmeppo took the sedatives apprehensively. Even if Koby did get out of control, Helmeppo probably wasn't going to use them. Koby hated medicine.
'I've already used enough medicine for a lifetime!' he remembered Koby saying, referring to his medical problems, 'I don't want any more!'.
Helmeppo smiled at the memory, and stored the sedative in the nightstand.
"I'll be off then," said Doctor Reed, tearing off a sheet of paper and handing it to the nurse, who had put Koby back in his bed. "Mako-San here will stand by. Just in case anything happens."
"Thank you," said Helmeppo, nodding at the nurse and doctor respectively.
Rayleigh watched him grow. Slowly but surely, his apprentice grew stronger. You could see it in the way he walked, the way he carried himself, the way others sensed him. The wild animals themselves praised him as the lord of the island. Hancock herself had noticed the change. He would forever remain a child at heart, just as his captain once was. But on the outside, he had changed. His hands were rough and hardened from the long days of labor. His legs were tense and muscular, ready to spring at the drop of a pin. His aura's colour had changed. What was before a light red was now a velvety crimson with tinges of yellow and orange. His fiery spirit raged inside him, begging to released. And Rayleigh couldn't wait to see when it did.
A.N.: I felt the need to give Koby PTSD. I don't usually go off course from canon, but this is something that I think is unavoidable. And of course, the bromance between Koby and Helmeppo is strong. So a dash of that in there too. Rayleigh's bit is short, so I think I'll either change it or add more onto it. It was a drabble I wrote a while back and tweaked. So we're almost done with the long list of May birthdays! It went by much faster then I'd thought! June is tame in comparison, so maybe I'll be able to update 'The Coffee Shop' (I know some of you are waiting patiently, so don't lose hope just yet!). As well, I want you guys to send in your birthdays for shoutouts and maybe even OC inclusions! I'd love to recognize everyone who supports this story, and even though I plan on doing a recognition page at the very end of this project, I felt like it would be fun to have you guys interact with the story! Reviews, Favourites, Subscriptions, and Requests are welcomed and much appreciated! See you on the 20th for Conis!