I don’t want to die. I can’t stop now.
Those thoughts were the only thing that kept my feet moving. With each step, snow crunched softly underfoot. I wondered how far I had walked. All I could see in any direction was fir trees and a world of silvery white. I couldn’t guess how far I had to go until I reached the town Cora had told me about.
Dammit! My hands and feet were starting to go numb. This shouldn’t have come as a surprise; after all, I had walked for three days with no food. At this rate, I’d die of starvation and cold before I could succumb to my white lead disease.
My body felt heavy and I began to lose consciousness. The thought occurred to me that it would feel so good to just collapse into the snow and rest forever. But I couldn’t. If I died here, the man who saved me would have lost his life for nothing. Corazon had rushed urgently around the land in an attempt to cure my disease, and his efforts cost him his life. His death had to mean something.
I reached into the pouch at my waist and pulled out a scalpel. Then, without thinking, I stabbed it hard into my left arm. The pain caused me to scream reflexively.
That should wake me up, I thought. I tied a bandage around the cut and started walking again. If a wolf or a wild boar caught wind of my spilled blood and found me in the forest, I’d be helpless to defend myself. But there was no point in thinking about that now—I just needed to get to the town. The next town over, where I’d promised to meet Cora.
✦ ✦ ✦
Just as I was starting to lose my ability to put one foot in front of the other, I saw them: Lights! This was it; those were the lights of a town.
“I’m saved! I’m gonna make it!” I mumbled out loud. My steps suddenly felt lighter. There would be food in town, warm soup to fill my belly, and a soft bed for me to sleep in.
Before long, I had reached the edge of town. It was encircled by a brick wall, with a sign at the entrance that read “Pleasure Town” in large letters. I hadn’t seen it from a distance, but there were crowds of people walking in the streets. This boded well; it seemed I was going to make it after all. Once I explained my situation, the people here would show me to a nice warm house and take care of me. I started to run, ready to call out to the first person who saw me.
Then my feet stopped moving. I stood in a daze, just outside town, thinking back on everything that had happened to me. I had memories of being persecuted for having white lead disease: memories of being shunned, despised, and wounded by so many people. A wave of horrible, bitter memories flooded back all at once.
Flevance, my hometown, was known as “White Town,” and it had been isolated, cut off from the rest of the world by people who believed that white lead disease was contagious. We were abandoned by the World Government and left to suffer brutal attacks in which my parents, my sister, and the other children at our church were killed.
I escaped by hiding in a pile of bodies. Each hospital Cora and I had visited treated us like garbage and threw us out. The day Flevance was set on fire and every person who had ever been kind to me in my life was slaughtered, I swore an oath to never believe in anyone again.
The only reason I joined Doflamingo’s Donquixote Family was for the chance to fight back a little before I died, to do my part to ruin the world that had ruined me. Despair was the only emotion I knew.
But there was one person who cried for me: Cora. He sobbed and blubbered and called out my name. The world was hell for me, and I saw no hope in it, but thanks to Cora, I was able to believe in someone, and to believe in humanity again.
But now, on the brink of salvation, I couldn’t move, suddenly terrified at the thought of going into a town full of people. What if I were to be persecuted again? Maybe I’d be hurt even worse than before. The thought brought me up short, and my knees knocked with fright. Somehow I managed to push onward and walk through the gate. A short way in, I came across a person shoveling snow.
“Um, excuse me!” I called out.
“Oh goodness! Your face…” Her voice trailed off. She’d seen it. She knew I had white lead disease. I could predict the scornful look that would come next, the expression of disgust. It was a look that said I had no right to be alive.
“Hey, wait!” the woman called out, but I was already running the other way. I wasn’t brave enough to continue speaking. Pathetic. You showed all the love in the world for me, Cora, but I still can’t bring myself to trust a single person.
✦ ✦ ✦
I wandered away, finally arriving at a shoreside cave I’d seen on my approach. At least there I might find a little protection from the cold. My stomach growled—what I really needed was food. Fortunately for me, a bunch of dead branches near the entrance to the cave had been protected from the snow and were still dry. Some of the branches were thick, some were thin; I was able to grab a few and rub them together to start a fire. It was ironic to me that the survival skills I learned from the Donquixote Family were coming in handy now. Once the fire was smoking and popping, I warmed my hands over it and was momentarily comforted.
Although I knew I couldn’t spare the time to sit around and rest, I didn’t realistically have the strength to go out and hunt for food. I tied a string around the end of a branch, then dug around in the dirt for worms. Finally, I crawled toward the shore and lowered the bait over the nearby rocks into the sea. Despite being assembled in a pinch from scrounged materials, the little fishing rod was good enough to fetch me two large fish.
I was about to pass out from hunger. I hurried back to the cave, gutted the fish, skewered their meat on a stick, and cooked my meal over the flame. It smelled heavenly, and I couldn’t wait to eat and recover some strength and spirit. Then I would be able to sleep and figure out what to do next. But before any of that happened, a stabbing pain hit me all over my body. My limbs, head, and back were in blinding agony, and I could barely breathe.
Though I always knew this moment might come, it still took me by surprise. According to my calculations, performed as soon as I knew I had the disease and based on my parents’ medical data, I would have three years and two months left to live from the time I contracted the disease. Those calculations had been made almost three years ago. Only once before had I experienced a painful spasm like this, when I was with Cora. Considering the margin of error, this could easily be my time. But what could I do?
I’d eaten the Op-Op Fruit, and from what Cora said, whoever ate the fruit gained body-altering powers that would allow them to heal any disease. But that didn’t mean that I could suddenly perform magical feats, and I found that it didn’t mean my disease was cured the moment I ate the fruit. I needed to learn to wield the fruit’s powers or they would be useless to me.
“Dammit!” I cried out, slamming my fist against the ground. I was already feeling feverish. Death had been pursuing me, and now it was just around the corner. I could feel it—my muscles were already going weak. I toppled backward.
✦ ✦ ✦
No! I can’t give up yet.
The Op-Op Fruit was Cora’s life’s work. He wouldn’t have died if it weren’t for his determination to get that fruit for me.
“I have to survive! I can’t let his death be for nothing. I refuse to let that happen!” I yelled out loud. I couldn’t let Cora’s kindness—that last smile he gave me—mean nothing. Never!
Ba-bump.