Luffy knew she wasn't alright. Not when she could hear soft murmurs in her ear coming from someone who smelled so much like Makino-nee. Fresh Forest, Morning Due, Sea Salt and Freedom tinged with the bitter smell of worry and fear. It was so much like Makino-nee's Fresh Forest, Sweet Maple, and Morning Due. She couldn't help but relax in the arms of the person. God, she missed her Makino-nee and straw hat. She missed when Ace could do this hold her tight. She missed when Ace and Sabo didn't constantly smell like guilt whenever they looked at her. She missed Shanks and Danadan. She missed the bandits and the villagers. She missed her life before the marines. Before Justice and absolute loyalty and obedience.
This weakness, it wasn't allowed. She wondered what her punishment would be when they got back to base if they got back to the base. Her head hurt, and her arms burned. Her back was stinging so much. She wanted Ace and Sabo. She felt her mind become numb again.
. . .
Ace woke up to an ache in his shoulders. A fuzzy head and a metallic taste on his tongue. His back is aching, and sharp pain in his jaw. He tried to move his hand to rub at his jaw but was unpleasantly surprised to find that his arms had been chained up behind him. It was wrenching his arms at an unpleasant angle. That explained the ache in his shoulders. He blinked his eyes slowly to let his eyes adjust to the new lighting.
He slowly but surely was able to see. He saw sabo in the same position in front of him, but he was still passed out. There also were bandages wrapped around his middle. Fuck what had happened to him.
He suddenly realized one person was missing; where the fuck was Luffy? No, no, no, what did they do to her!
. . .
Izo dragged his eyes away from the meeting room door as Marco, the last person they were waiting on, slipped into the room. Then, as Marco slipped in, a hush fell across the room: all the commanders, Whitebay, the head nurse, and Oyaji were there. So yes, Haruta, Marco and him did cause quite a scene with their dramatic entrance.
A file was then plopped down on the table they had all gathered around—a thick file at that and one that was definitely new. The file was titled, arctic wolf child. Whitebay looked at him and said in a quiet voice that carried across the room, "Do you mind telling me why the CHILD that you brought on to this ship has a bigger medical file than you and Thatch combined? And I have seen her once."
Chaos could only describe the following moments. Other commanders were yelling over each other and looking slightly green. It was a secret or not that Thatch was the most accident-prone mother fucker ever born. His medic file was single-handed, the biggest on the ship other than pops. For hell's sake, there was a literal make sure Thatch doesn't die, set himself on fire, or fall overboard job.
"Quiet" was yelled out by Pops. Everyone instantly shut up at his voice laced with the tiniest amount of conquering haki, letting everyone know that Pops was truly angry. "Whitebay explain," Pops said slowly, his usual joyful tone nowhere to be heard.
Whitebay opened her mouth and began to explain what she found, "On a base layer looking at the most evident problems was the week-old infection, well that infection comes from whip wounds on the girl's back."
He felt his hand curl, digging into his palms at that. "What's worse, the whip wounds have been continuously coated in a cream that contains small amounts of Strychnine."
Everyone went quiet at that before hesitantly Jozu asked, "What does Strychnine do?"
Whitebay laughs sardonically to herself before replying with a slightly hysterical voice, "Strychnine prevents the proper operation of the chemical that controls nerve signals to the muscles. The chemical controlling nerve signals work like the body's "off switch" for muscles. When this "off switch" does not work correctly, muscles throughout the body have severe, painful spasms."
Everyone went quiet. You could hear a pin drop. Thatch quietly spoke up before gradually getting louder "why? Why? WHY? would somebody do that to a kid. Even the worst sort of pirates would just kill the kid. Even the worst sort of people would just put the kid out of her misery. Instead of the people who are supposed to care for her doing that! The fucking sick sadistic marines. The kid is one of their OWN to top it off."
"It gets worse," Whitebay says quietly, and he feels his heart drop to his stomach. Vile burns his throat. He felt like he would be sick. How can it get worse? "The Cream was found in one of the two other marines bags."
Grumbles erupted after that but quiet enough that Whitebay could continue on. "The whipping that she seems to have gotten the infection from is not new. Her whole back is covered in scars. Knife, whip, and cane scars. Her arms are covered in burn scars." At that, Marco drops the pen he was holding before shakily saying, "The marine I was fighting, he had a fire devil fruit." The amount of killer intent that filled the room at the news had made it almost impossible to even move.
Pops had a thunderous expression on his face. Pops slowly said, "The marines that you brought along with the child. Will have to pay them a visit and talk about what happened to the girl with Kato, of course." The murmurs of approval filled the room.
Kato was part of the 3rd division Jozu division. They were a big and intimidating person, with a truth devil fruit. They could tell if anyone was lying to them, so they would be best to find out exactly what happened to the girl. That would say to them how to proceed with the marines, but it was not looking good for those marine scum right now.
But they needed to know everything because they didn't want to accidentally harm the girl if they took care of the marines now. So he wouldn't put past the marines to have some sort of power over the girl, so they needed to wait to do something about the marines.
He takes a deep breath before saying, even if he really dreaded the answer, "Is there anything else?"
Whitebay closed her eyes tightly before saying, "We found needle marks all along the nape of her neck and arms. So, of course, we took her blood work and well we found high amounts of GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyric acid) in her bloodstream. GHB makes you sleepy, forgetful, or weak with a heightened sensitivity to touch. It can also cause seizures, a slow heartbeat, slow breathing, and comas. GHB is better known as the date rape drug."
Everyone was quiet and horrified before Haruta finally said, "Did you test for rape?" Haruta had a slightly haunted look on her face as she asked. Whitebay sighed before saying, "Yeah, it was a positive test. To find out more, though, like if it was a repeated offence, I would need to talk to her about it." The since was palpable after that. All he could feel was rage and disgust. Who would do that to a child?
Before anyone could even process what was just said, Whitebay continued, "The child is suffering from a lot of wounds and is very malnourished. I am sure you are all aware that the child is a devil fruit user. A zoan, to be exact. The nurses think she is an arctic wolf. Well, as you know, devil fruit users need more calories to survive, and I estimate that the girl gets about half the calories needed for her estimated age of 6 to 8. That is everything we found out about her physical state currently, and she is currently sleeping in the infirmary. So she should wake up in the next few days. We have already started a detox program and antibiotic treatment for her infection and fever. That is everything." Whitebay said before sitting back down.
After a long meeting, it was decided we would wait for the girl to wake up before doing anything. Hopefully, this would give us more information on the situation and make the marines squirm.
