Chapter 307: The Body Revealed
A Marine warship bearing the familiar seagull emblem docked at Drum Island.
Soon afterward, crates of valuables were unloaded onto the pier.
Most of the payment consisted of gold, accompanied by a smaller amount of banknotes. Altogether, the value reached roughly one hundred million Berries, perhaps even slightly more.
Dalton watched the entire process with a strange expression.
It had happened exactly as Axel said it would.
He finally turned toward the white-haired youth.
"Who exactly are you?"
Being able to have the Marines personally transport such a massive amount of wealth across the Grand Line was anything but ordinary.
Axel answered without hesitation.
"A civilian."
Dalton stared at him.
"A civilian can't arrange something like this."
"I didn't arrange it."
Axel gestured toward the cargo.
"The person who owed me did."
Dalton's expression grew even stranger.
"A normal civilian doesn't have someone owing him one hundred million Berries either."
Axel thought about that for a moment.
"Then maybe I'm a high-level civilian."
Dalton frowned.
"High-level?"
He did not understand the strange term, though from the context he assumed Axel meant some kind of rank or status.
Axel had no intention of explaining.
The more he said, the easier it would be for Dalton to connect him to his real identity.
Instead, he motioned toward the gold.
"Take the payment."
The guards immediately began handling the crates.
Axel then asked,
"When can the doctors begin?"
Dalton paused before answering.
"Everything has already been arranged."
"They can start whenever you're ready."
His gaze sharpened slightly.
"But do you really need all twenty doctors?"
"And why insist on a sealed room?"
Dalton folded his arms.
"This sounds more like a secret operation than medical treatment."
Axel chuckled.
"It's only treatment."
"I just have certain... private problems that I don't want spreading outside."
"As for the number of doctors, I don't know which one of them might actually be capable of helping me."
He looked toward the castle.
"If I knew which doctor I needed, I would have asked for one."
His expression cooled slightly.
"Unfortunately, a great many so-called doctors are little more than executioners with medical licenses."
Dalton blinked.
"Executioners?"
The comparison made no sense to him.
Doctors saved lives.
Executioners ended them.
Axel glanced at him.
"Have you ever heard the claim that nearly eighty percent of diagnoses are wrong?"
"Eighty percent?"
Dalton's skepticism was immediate.
"Of course, that number is exaggerated."
Axel continued walking.
"But the idea behind it isn't entirely wrong."
"Even illnesses that appear identical can have different causes, different developments, and different complications."
"Every doctor has habits."
"Methods they trust."
"Treatments they prefer."
His tone remained flat.
"If those treatments work, excellent."
"If they don't?"
Axel's lips curved without humor.
"As long as the patient doesn't die immediately, there's always an excuse."
"A rare disease."
"An unusual mutation."
"A stubborn condition."
"Something never seen before."
He looked toward Dalton.
"It's very convenient."
Dalton remained silent for several seconds.
Then he said,
"That way of thinking is too extreme."
"You're taking the worst examples and using them to judge an entire profession."
Axel nodded.
"You're right."
Dalton looked slightly surprised by how easily he admitted it.
"But there's nothing wrong with assuming the worst when preparing for something important."
Axel continued.
"Call it pessimism if you want."
"People say those who constantly worry shorten their lives."
He glanced toward the snowy mountains.
"But optimists can have an even harder time."
"They keep smiling because they never notice what tripped them until they're already falling."
Dalton said nothing.
Axel's tone became quieter.
"Still, I don't think I'm describing some tiny minority."
"Doctors who truly put their patients first, who treat another person's life with the same seriousness as their own..."
He paused.
"Those are the rare ones."
"I've traveled for years."
"I'm speaking from experience."
Dalton looked at him for a long moment.
Then he said,
"I hope you leave this island soon."
Axel glanced over.
"Because you dislike what I said?"
"No."
Dalton adjusted the rifle slung over his shoulder.
"That's the problem."
"Much of what you said is accurate."
His expression became grim.
"Drum Island was once known throughout the Grand Line as a Medical Kingdom."
"I've seen enough doctors to understand exactly what you mean."
"People like the ones you described really are rare."
Axel tilted his head.
"Then why do you want me gone?"
"Because someone who looks as young as you shouldn't have enough experience to speak like that."
Dalton met Axel's crimson eyes.
"And my instincts tell me you're dangerous."
"Your instincts?"
"They've kept me alive more than once."
Dalton looked toward the snowy coast.
"When you first arrived, I saw something in your eyes."
"If I had ordered my men to drive you away..."
He paused.
"I felt that something terrible would happen."
"That's why I stopped them and allowed you onto the island."
Axel sighed.
"The way you describe me makes me sound like some Demon King from a children's story."
Dalton gave him a meaningful look.
"Maybe you are."
The wind strengthened.
Snow swept between them.
After a moment, Dalton looked away.
Vivi and the others handled the remaining arrangements.
Wapol had already received the money, and once payment was secured, his efficiency improved dramatically.
Authority was delegated.
A private medical room was prepared.
It was large enough to hold several dozen people and equipped with some of the best medical instruments available in the kingdom.
Soon, twenty of Drum Island's finest doctors gathered inside.
Their expressions varied.
Confusion.
Unease.
Curiosity.
Resignation.
But above everything else was obedience.
King Wapol had ordered them to treat one patient.
More importantly, they had been told to follow that patient's instructions during the examination.
Now that patient stood before them.
Axel looked across the room.
Then he asked a single question.
"Can you cure me?"
The tone was doubtful.
Almost mocking.
The reaction was immediate.
These twenty physicians were among the finest doctors in a kingdom once famous across the seas for medicine.
Even if years under Wapol's control had worn down their pride, those words rekindled some of it.
"Of course we can examine you."
"Let us see what's wrong first."
"You won't know until we try."
Several answered almost at once.
Axel said nothing.
He walked toward the medical equipment.
The examination began.
Then the images appeared.
One by one, the doctors fell silent.
Their confidence vanished.
What appeared on the instruments was difficult to describe as a human body.
Internal structures overlapped in ways that made no sense.
Tissues appeared damaged, displaced, or altered while somehow continuing to function.
Systems that should have failed long ago remained active.
Other areas seemed less like living anatomy and more like something forcibly held together in the shape of a person.
It contradicted too much of what they understood about medicine.
For physicians who had spent their entire lives studying the human body, the sight was almost offensive to reason itself.
Like discovering that a fundamental law they had trusted their entire careers simply did not apply.
This was not merely an injured patient.
It was a body that should not have been capable of functioning at all.
Some of the doctors unconsciously stepped closer to the displays.
Others simply stared.
Their expressions slowly changed from professional concentration to disbelief.
One question surfaced in several minds before they even considered treatment.
Was this really a human being?
Axel watched their reactions.
Then he spoke again.
His voice carried clearly through the sealed room.
"So."
He looked across all twenty doctors.
"I'll ask again."
"Can you cure me?"
No one answered.
The confidence from moments earlier had disappeared completely.
None of them dared make another promise.
They had treated diseases, severe injuries, congenital abnormalities, infections, organ failure, and countless conditions gathered from across the Grand Line.
But none of them had ever seen anything like this.
The problem was no longer simply how to cure Axel.
Looking at the impossible state of his body, some of them could not stop wondering something even more basic.
How was he still alive?
....
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