My heart pounded in my chest. Ba-bump, ba-bump. The pulse grew stronger and fiercer. Ba-bump ba-bump ba-bump ba-bump ba-bump ba-bump ba-bump…
It felt like my body was a pump whose sole purpose was to circulate blood. It wasn’t a bad feeling—if anything, it was like a new force was awakening within me.
Next I heard a hum. I realized that I was in the center of a dome-like membrane. What the heck is this? Inside the dome, I could see through everything—even my own body. I focused my thoughts: Brain, heart, lungs, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, spleen. In some new way, I understood each organ. From my internal organs to my muscles to the pathways of my nerves, I had an innate understanding of how each part fit together and what it all did.
This must be the Op-Op Fruit’s power.
It wasn’t just that I could see inside my body; my instincts told me that I had the ability to augment anything inside of the dome. I could move things, switch their positions—I had power over everything within. This dome would become my operating table.
I think I can do it now… Once again, heat surged into my dying body. I would cure my white lead disease. There was now a powerful intent driving my actions. I closed my eyes and focused. White lead disease was caused by an internal buildup of the particular metal the disease was named for. To cure it, I only had to remove that buildup. Carefully and thoroughly, I checked every place in my body. When I looked into my liver, I found a huge deposit of white lead.
I walked to a barrel that had been left behind in the cave and took out my liver. There was no pain. I could simply reach in and take out my internal organs, as though it were perfectly natural. I put my liver on the barrel.
This is the hard part. I couldn’t cut the liver out entirely. That would kill me before the white lead disease did. I had to remove the lead, then put the liver back into my body. First, I used my powers to gather the lead from all around my liver and concentrate it in one place. Then I took a scalpel from my pouch.
It was time for me to make use of the medical expertise my parents had passed on to me. Ordinarily, a person’s internal organs don’t feel much pain. But because the organ I’d removed was still connected to my body, when I touched it I would feel the pain in the membranes that surrounded the organ. I took a deep breath and wished I’d prepared an anesthetic.
Finally, I was ready. I grabbed the scalpel and jabbed it into my own liver, then screamed out loud as the agony jolted my body. It felt like an electrical current passing through my body, threatening to seize my consciousness and drag it into darkness.
The effort made me pant and groan, but the operation wasn’t over yet. Somehow my wits were still intact, and I was able to remove the built-up white lead with another bold stroke. Again, I screamed in pain; I worried that the agony alone might kill me. But I wasn’t done, and I knew I had to see it through to the end. I removed a needle and thread from my bag, stitched up the spot I’d cut out of the organ, and then returned my liver to my body. Operation complete.
After removing the white lead, I gradually felt the pain and heat begin to recede from my body. It was a success. I was going to survive.
“Did you see that, Cora? I managed to use the Op-Op Fruit you got for me! Thanks to you, my life will continue!” I shouted to the empty cave. The joy was so fierce that I nearly forgot the pain.
The flood of relief also brought fatigue. I had a fire going, but I didn’t want to lose consciousness now. Still, my stamina was nearly gone. I just needed a little sleep. Before my mind slipped into darkness, I saw Cora standing before me. He was wearing his black hood and his silly makeup, like always—and underneath it, I knew he was smiling.