Later that night I had some trouble sleeping, so I lay down on the living room sofa to read by myself. Soon Wolf showed up.
“You feel well enough to walk around, old man?” I asked him. “It’s only been a month.”
“Hmph. Don’t judge me by other people’s standards. At one time I was pretty much the fittest man in the world. A month is more than enough for me to recover.”
“Ah. Well, I’m glad to hear it,” I said, feeling an unexpected flood of emotions knowing that I’d well and truly saved his life.
“But I’ve got something to talk to you about, Law,” the man said in a serious tone.
“T-talk to me about?!” I yelped. This couldn’t be good. “What is it, Junker? Did you notice the ink?”
“Ink? Oh, is that slang for your tattoos? No, I don’t care about that. Getting tattooed is a personal choice. That’s not something I’m going to bother with.”
“Oh, okay…” I said expectantly.
“Come over and sit with me,” Wolf said with a serious expression as he pulled up a chair. I took it, and we sat face-to-face across the table.
“I’m going to be straight with you, Law. That power you used when you operated on me… That was the Op-Op Fruit, wasn’t it?”
“Huh? How…how did you know about that?” I had never once spoken to Wolf about the Op-Op Fruit. Whenever I practiced using my powers, I made sure that I was completely alone.
“Hmph. Being old doesn’t mean I’m ignorant. When I was a young man, I sailed all around the world. You hear all kinds of stories when traveling that way. There was a time when I was fascinated by Devil Fruits and read many books about them.”
“Really?” I was fascinated by his story. I always knew he wasn’t just an ordinary old man, but I hadn’t guessed that he’d traveled the whole world.
“Do you know about the true power of the Op-Op Fruit?” he asked.
“True power?” I asked. What did he mean? All I knew is that it gave me the ability to perform miraculous operations and cure even unfamiliar and difficult afflictions.
“I take it that you don’t, then,” the old man said.
“Well, tell me. What is it?” I asked.
“The Op-Op Fruit is sometimes called the Ultimate Devil Fruit. And that’s not because you can use it to perform surgeries and heal people. Those who master the powers of the Op-Op Fruit can perform something called the Immortality Operation. It’s a procedure that gives another person eternal life.”
“The Immortality Operation? I’ve never heard of that,” I murmured.
“It might sound like a wonderful power, but it comes with a terrible price. Performing the operation will cost the user his own life. It’s a miracle that can only be performed one time, because it will result in your death.”
“A surgery that costs your own life…” I wondered. The idea was incredible to me.
“Everyone in the world who knows about it wants to get ahold of that fruit, and there are even more who seek to use the one who possesses its powers for their own advantage. So you should never, ever tell anyone else that you’ve eaten this fruit, Law. People will flock to you with all sorts of devious plots to get you to perform the Immortality Operation. That’s how intensely powerful the fruit is, and the allure it holds for others,” Wolf explained.
Things were starting to add up now.
“If he’s already eaten the Op-Op Fruit, I’ll need to raise him so that he knows to die for my sake!”
Those were the words I had heard spoken by Doflamingo while I was under Cora’s protection. So, he had wanted to make me perform the Immortality Operation. He’d wanted eternal youth, at the cost of my death. Which explained some of the things that Cora had said to me.
“Someone who meant a great deal to me said something about that,” I told Wolf.
“What did they say?” he asked.
“That if I ate the Op-Op Fruit, everyone would be my enemy—the pirates, the Navy, the government. He said I’d have to be ready to fight to survive. This must’ve been what he was talking about.”
“Even if you just want to lead an ordinary life, you’ll have to be very careful,” Wolf explained. “That fruit’s power drives people mad. You’ll constantly be under threat from the greed of those who seek eternal life.”
“Ah…” I sighed with frustration. Now I knew why Doflamingo was so fixated on the Op-Op Fruit, but it was too late for me to do anything to help Cora.
Damn this stupid power!
“Hey, don’t look so gloomy,” Wolf said. He put his hand over mine where it rested on the table. “The Op-Op Fruit is certainly powerful and dangerous, but the books I read also talked about how many lives the people with Op-Op Fruit powers saved in their time. Diseases that we didn’t know how to cure in those days, lives that no one else knew how to save. The power you hold is a wonderful thing indeed.”
“Yeah, but it can also cause a lot of grief for a lot of people,” I retorted.
“Hmph! Have some perspective, kid!” Wolf insisted. “You have the power to save the lives of people who would otherwise die. I was on the brink of death, and now I’m perfectly fine. That can’t be such a bad thing. Listen, Law—if you’re going to continue being a doctor, you must make use of these wonderful abilities. The real issue is what’s in your heart. If someone who is consumed by greed gets their hands on this fruit, the consequences could be dire. But if someone who truly desires to help others obtains it, the fruit becomes something entirely different. That’s how all power works. It can be good or evil, depending on the person who wields it. And the Trafalgar Law I know would use his power to make people’s lives better.”