After eating, I did as the old man instructed and took a bath. Having eaten a Devil Fruit, I couldn’t move that well in the bathwater, but it didn’t feel bad to just lie back, soak in the hot water, and feel my muscles relax.
As I scrubbed my skin, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and noticed a major change.
“Oh! They’re gone,” I said out loud. “The white patches from the white lead disease are gone. My face is back to normal!” I slapped my cheeks, confirming that the disease was well and truly cured. Incomparable relief flooded through me as I realized that I’d never have to worry about white lead disease again. Finally, I relaxed enough to truly enjoy the bath. And once I was done, a clean change of clothes was waiting for me.
“Those are my son’s. I’m glad I kept them around. They’re old, but they should do the job,” the old man said.
I put on the clothes he gave me, and we sat down in two chairs, facing one another. The menacing, antagonistic air was gone. I no longer felt wary of the old man.
“Hey,” I said.
“What is it?”
“Did you really just, like, save my life?” I asked him.
“Hmph! I was on my way to town and heard screaming coming from the cave. When I went to investigate, I found a bedraggled, unconscious kid in there,” the man explained. “If I’d let you stay there and die, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep well tonight. All I did was take you home and put you in bed.”
“Hmm,” I said, considering this. So he wasn’t an agent of Doflamingo’s or a greedy person hoping for a reward. The old man had saved me purely out of the goodness of his heart. Suddenly, I felt terrible for doubting him.
“Old man,” I said.
“Yeah?”
“I’m grateful to you for saving me.”
“Hah! Obnoxious little brat!” the man exclaimed sarcastically. “It’s a give-and-take world, kid. Now you owe me a favor. See what I’m saying?”
“Yeah,” I responded, waiting to hear his price.
“So tell me about yourself. I’ll consider that your payment, and we’ll be even. Why would a young boy be passed out all alone in a cave in the dead of winter, anyway?”
I answered all of his questions, telling him my story bit by bit. I told him about how I was born in Flevance, the White Town; about learning medicine from my parents; about the white lead epidemic, and how our town was abandoned by the government. I explained to him about the war, how my parents and sister and the other kids were burned alive, and how I came down with white lead disease. I told him how I became cynical toward the world, and so I joined a pirate crew. And I told him about Corazon, the other man who had saved my life.
As I revealed the details, one after the other, I felt my heart growing lighter. Maybe what I really needed was someone to simply hear my story and share that burden. The one thing I didn’t tell him about was the Op-Op Fruit—I didn’t want him to change his attitude toward me and start thinking of me as either a freak or a way to make money. I revealed only that a skilled doctor had cured me of my white lead disease. Once my story was finished, the old man crossed his arms and murmured to himself thoughtfully.
“I see,” he said. “So you might be just a brat still, but you’ve been dealin’ with a lot of rough stuff already.”
“Don’t call me a brat,” I protested. “My name is Trafalgar Law.”
“Law? Pretty bold name, that. So basically, you’re all alone in the world now, and you got nowhere to go and no goals in life. Do I have that right?”
Goals? No, I didn’t have any of those. For a long time, I’d only ever thought about how to wreak vengeance on the world. Thanks to Cora, my goal had become saving my life, but now that had been achieved, and I didn’t know what exactly I wanted to do next. I felt anger at Doflamingo for taking the life of the man who saved me, but I didn’t have any plans to seek revenge.
“What are you going to do with yourself now?” the old man asked.
“I dunno,” I replied.
He slapped his knees and laughed. “In that case, you should stay here until you figure out what you want to do.”
“R-really?” I said, surprised. “I can stay here?”
It was a tempting offer. I was in an unfamiliar place where I didn’t know anyone, and I couldn’t safely show myself in town. Having a warm bed, meals, and a roof over my head would be truly life-changing.
“But keep one thing in mind,” the man added mischievously. “Life is always give-and-take. This is a deep conviction of mine. You’re going to go to work for me—washing, cleaning, tending fields, and helping me with my work. There’s a lot to be done! I’ll give you a safe place to live, and you give me your hard work. Do we have a deal?”
Was this how the old man expressed his affection? The thought was so funny that I accidentally let a chuckle escape my lips.
“You finally smiled,” the old man said, beaming.
“Hey, wait a minute. What kind of work do you do, old man? Because I don’t want to be an accomplice to a burglar.”
“You little fool! Who do you think I am? I’d never stoop to such dishonor,” he grumbled.
“Actually, I have no idea who you are,” I responded.
“Ah, good point. I haven’t introduced myself yet,” the man conceded. “So clean out your ears and pay attention. My name is Wolf! When people talk about Wolf, the genius inventor with the once-in-a-generation talent, they’re talkin’ about me!”
“Genius inventor?” I gawked. “You?”
I took another cursory glance at the sun visor and brightly patterned tropical shirt he was wearing. He looked more like a con artist than an inventor to me.
“What, you don’t believe me? Wait right here,” he said, and left the room. He came back holding a box full of strange objects. “This here is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You get a demonstration of several of my greatest inventions. Look at this one! It’s the Anywhere Hot Spring, Version One! Using this, you can make even frigid water boil immediately. No need to gather firewood when you want to heat up a bath!”
“Whoa…” I marveled. That did sound pretty helpful. The old man seemed like an eccentric coot, but maybe he actually was a genius inventor.
“There’s one downside, however,” he continued. “There’s no function to stop it once the desired temperature is reached, so the hot water will eventually boil off and evaporate.”
“That’s not helpful at all!” I cried.
“But wait! Wait! That’s not all. Look at this one—it’s the Super Cleaner, Version Three. It senses garbage and messes and will clean your whole house with no effort on your part.”
“Whoa.”
“But there’s a downside. If it’s in operation for over three minutes, it will explode with enough force to knock this house clean over.”
“That’s more than just a downside!” I marveled. “It’s worse than useless!”
“Incidentally, the original Super Cleaner, before I improved it, couldn’t tell garbage and non-garbage apart. It nearly tore off my right foot, believe it or not.”
“Stop telling me about these things!” I protested. “They’re horrible!”
The man continued to show off his inventions, but each one of them had some flaw or drawback that made it completely useless.
“Anyway, I think you’ve seen my greatness for yourself by now,” he concluded.
“No, I haven’t,” I replied indignantly. “Not even the tiniest bit!”
“Well, starting tomorrow, you’ll be my research assistant. You need to learn which of these items are safe and which are dangerous, and keep them straight at all times.”
It seemed crazy—a job that could actually cost me my life. I took a deep breath and sighed. Then I considered my situation.
“Hey, Junker.”
“That’s even worse than calling me ‘old man’!”
“Thanks again for saving my life. And I appreciate you giving me a place to stay for now. You’ve got yourself a deal,” I said, and stuck out my hand. Wolf snorted with laughter, grabbed my hand, and shook.
“I’m going to get some good use out of ya! That’s how give-and-take works.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Thus my life with Wolf began. I would wake up before sunrise, help him out in the fields, and then assist with research for his inventions, sift through various books on his shelf, have a home-cooked meal, practice my swordplay with a borrowed weapon, and talk and laugh with him at night. It was a peaceful, comfortable life.
The field work was perhaps the most surprising to me. Swallow Island has long winters, and trying to grow vegetables in the cold season was a waste of time. But Wolf had built a plastic greenhouse in his backyard and had come up with mechanisms that adjusted the temperature and light inside, allowing him to cultivate a variety of plants all year long.
“What do you think, Law? With the Veggie-Veggie Boy, Version Seven, you can practice greenhouse horticulture at home. Pretty soon we’ll have so many vegetables, we’ll be selling them to the townsfolk!”
That invention was incredible, even if it had a stupid name. Knowing that I was playing some small part in creating products that actually helped people felt kind of good, deep down.
Depending on the day, I sometimes went hunting with Wolf. I worried about an old man confronting wild boars and large bucks, but Wolf’s shooting ability was legitimate—he could take down any target with just one shot. Once I asked him how he had become such an accurate marksman. He just smiled and said it was a skill he’d learned a long time ago. I didn’t inquire further.
Together we shared meals, talked, and laughed at one another’s jokes, but I didn’t interrogate Wolf about his past. In return, he wasn’t too obnoxious about hovering over me and treating me like a child. That was the kind of relationship I needed, and it felt good.