MARINE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE SERVICE

VALERIS ISLAND HQ - ARCHIVES

SUPPORTING EVIDENCE

CASE NO. 2306-4837

ENTRY 26

[REDACTED], 1518

I met with my coordinator earlier this week. It's a required thing – he has to check up on my case every few weeks to report back to the higher ups. Document my improvement and evaluate my potential to commence my duties as an officer.

Well, during that meeting he suggested that I could possibly end my leave early. They have a program to help Marines transition back to active duty status & he recommended that I enroll in it.

I was excited at first because I thought that meant I would be allowed to return to the Grand Line. But he told me that I still would be required to stay here for the time being. Instead of sending me back to Valeris Island, the recommendation was that I be temporarily transferred to Vice Admiral Yamakaji's unit here as a part of my recovery plan. This way, I can resume training & aid in preparing for missions again while still reporting to Wildcrest for routine checkups.

According to official instructions, Auryn is also to continue handling my case while I remain in this program.

It isn't the end of the world – progress is progress, no matter how little. And I have been feeling so much better these last few weeks.

Maybe it's farfetched, but there is a part of me that wonders if Auryn could have had a hand in making the recommendation.

If that's the case, it doesn't make sense to me. Surely she would have told me about this beforehand... right?

I'm not sure if I should bring it up with her. If I even want to.

If I do, I know it can't be during an appointment. Anywhere near the Medical Center even.

She's made it clear from the beginning how we both need to be very careful.

ENTRY 27

[REDACTED], 1518

I saw Arisa again. We've run into each other several times already at the Medical Center, since the internal medicine & general surgery suites are so close to Dr. Minerva's office in the neuromedicine wing. Most times we end up waiting at the same patient lounge for our appointments.

Sometimes Yukito is there with her. But most times not.

It took a while for us both to warm up to each other, but eventually we started chatting to help pass the time. She doesn't act much differently from the couple times I've met up with her on group outings – maybe a little quieter. More tired. I wouldn't be surprised if I came across the same way.

Today was a bit different though – I ran into her at the park. She was alone. On a walk, she said. I was surprised to see her hand all bandaged up, but she laughed when I asked about it. Said that it was no big deal, that she'd just tripped and landed on her wrist wrong the day before.

Our conversation quickly shifted to the topic of health as it usually did. She asked me about my progress and I told her about the coordinator's recommendation. Tried my best to be enthusiastic about it. I think she bought it though, because she seemed genuinely thrilled for me.

Sometimes I can't help but wonder what she'd think if she knew the whole truth.

──────────────────

Some time prior

Megitsune's cold gray eyes snapped open. She lay completely still for another beat or so, listening for any voices or footsteps in the near vicinity. Then she planted her right palm into the dust and shoved herself upright into a sitting position. Her teeth gnashed together into an unseemly snarl as the movement intensified the tight, throbbing waves of pain emanating from beneath her clavicle.

Her upper left side felt strangely heavy and stiff, with even the slightest twitch from her arm or shoulder intensifying the harsh burning sensation which had enveloped it. Combined with the overpowering scent of blood which settled over the empty clearing, she was left feeling slightly nauseous.

Megitsune found herself swaying slightly, and leaned in against her free arm to support herself.

Worse than I thought, eh...?

Licking her bloodied lips, she deliberately breathed in and out to acclimatize herself, then closed her eyes to focus. Waited for that familiar flux of energy which thrummed through her dying flesh like a rising tide. Grounded herself in it.

Easy now, she told herself. It was easy to forget how weak and flimsy the average human body was — and it wasn't as if this particular vessel she'd chosen had been anything special.

But as long as she didn't overdo things, this amount of Kyōki would surely be sufficient to sustain her until the end.

Her free hand darted upwards, blood-caked fingers clamping down around the arrow shaft protruding from the front of her kimono with a steel grip. The arrowhead was wedged into the fleshy portion below her collarbone, and there was a good chance it had embedded itself deep into the shoulder blade.

Asa's body was still strewn a couple meters away. Megitsune's eyes locked onto it as she slowly brought her other hand up to grip the arrow stem. Had "Ito" truly been as she'd claimed, she would have died of blood loss within minutes of being caught up in the crossfire, just as her former colleague had.

A sneer curled her lips as she rose to her feet. Then, with one crude twist, she snapped the shaft at the base and flung it away.

Jagged patches of sunlight slanted pale, wavering patterns over her blood-mottled kimono as she turned and disappeared into the brush, her movements as silent as they were seamless – as if the injury were nothing more than a shadow of an afterthought.

It was about time she'd regrouped with Haimushi.

──────────────────

Polar Tang

Scrub room

The metal doors to the scrub room barely had time to fully slide open before a breathless Clione hurtled past the threshold. Uni had already changed and scrubbed, and was in the process of gowning up.

"Everything ready?" Clione asked, hurrying over to the nearest wash station. He retrieved a disposable sponge from the dispenser and ran it under the water.

"Pretty much." Uni's pale eyes flickered over to one of two metallic doors lining the opposite wall, labeled Operating Room #2. "Ikkaku's already gone in."

Clione nodded as he continued to scrub diligently away, working up a lather over his knuckles and forearms. It was only when he began to rinse that he noticed the look in his crewmate's eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Uni fell silent as he adjusted his gloves, pulling them further up the cufflink of his surgical gown. Reading the unease in his body language, Clione started to frown, before forcing out a snort of amusement. "Hey... don't tell me you're actually worried now! Everything will be fine!"

Still no answer. The Heart felt his smile waver a little.

What's up with this guy all of a sudden?

"Have you forgotten that this is Captain we're talking about?" he pressed. "Don't look like that! It'll be a breeze."

"I just couldn't help but think...." Uni sighed heavily as he pushed his mask higher up his nose. Above the brim of the disposable fabric, a glimmer of worry lurked within his eyes. "This is... gonna be our first official operation since Ikijo Island, isn't it? The first one.... without..."

A stifling blanket of silence settled over the room as Uni let his words hang in the air. Clione's face instantly darkened, his hands freezing beneath the running water. A dull, bitter ache had resurfaced in his chest. It was a familiar pain, one that had never fully gone away since its inception in the immediate aftermath of what had happened back at Ikijo Island.

The first one without her.

Uni had wisely left the name unspoken. But now, even the mere thought of that person had Clione's stomach twisting up into knots of anxiety.

Sucking in air between his teeth, he recollected himself.

"Is that it?" he demanded, assuming a veneer of careless bravado. "Seriously? Come on, we have Azarashi and Kurage trained up now. It shouldn't make a lick of difference!"

Uni's gaze had fallen to the floor.

"If you say so..." he muttered, not even making an attempt to hide the doubt which remained in his voice.

Clione nodded, mustering another grin as he finished rinsing. Somehow it seemed harder than before.

"Everything will be fine," he repeated. With Uni's concerns freshly seeded, however, the declaration was more an attempt at self-assurance at this point. He couldn't help but steal a glance towards the doors to the second operating theater. "Just... just don't breathe a word about this to nee-san, alright?"

This only earned another heavy sigh from his crew mate.

"Yeah. I know," he said briefly. "You don't need to remind me."

──────────────────

"Come on. Pick up, pick up...!" Arisa felt her heart sink as she watched her miniature Snail abruptly droop its eyestalks and cease its droning. It was a sure indication that the connection had been severed. "Damn it, Tatsuhito...!"

She lowered her wrist with a muttered curse and locked her gaze ahead, maintaining her dash down a thin dirt path bisecting a rice field. It had been this way for a while now, this uninterrupted patchwork of farmland which made up the whole of her surroundings. Given her excitement, it was hard to tell how long it'd been since she'd left the village proper for Yuzu-gawa. Hidamari Village itself was a settlement of only a modest size, but the fiefdom itself still encompassed a wide turf for its agricultural sector – all of which she had to traverse in her haphazard shortcut to the wooded regions up north.

The dark fringe of trees visible up ahead was a welcome indicator that she was close to completing this first leg of the journey. Beyond this forest would be the abandoned fishing village and the river delta.

There was also a patrol outpost located on the coast further up north, from which additional help was due to arrive via Misokatsu's orders. In fact, she could wager that the yōgari had already reached Yuzu-gawa and were scouring the region in search of Tatsuhito's group.

Her gaze fell back to the miniature Snail as she thought back to Law's call earlier.

As it turned out, the snoozing creature had been perfectly capable of handling three-way calls using Himuro's Snail as a proxy. It had been a small mercy in the midst of the pandemonium; Arisa was sure she would've gone insane had she been tasked with relaying the entirety of the Heart Pirates' misadventures to her uncle.

Even with Law's penchant for brevity, the constant influx of questions from the elders ensured that it had taken a good fifteen minutes for everyone to get on the same page...though it wasn't as if reaching this mutual understanding helped to bring about any peace of mind to anyone involved. In fact, it had taken her and poor Himuro nearly all they had to keep Shiori and Riyu from dropping everything and booking it to the village outskirts upon hearing of the ambush on the Hachinobe family.

Indeed, it had seemed that the situation had gone from disastrous to a degree of perilous that made all that had transpired this morning – Himuro's initial scare over finding the Tang missing, Arisa's relief over finding Riyu, and her childish anger at the Hearts – come across as laughably insignificant in comparison.

That wasn't to say Arisa had felt entirely foreign to this feeling, however – no, there wasn't a single yōgari who'd faced the reality of a mission gone wrong that could claim as such. But buried beneath that familiar torrent of urgency had been a distinct, helpless sense of surrealism which still persisted to this moment, a feeling she hadn't experienced once since she had been taken away from Valeris Island – not even during the Saboardy incident – which cemented an anchor's weight of apprehension at the pit of her stomach. Perhaps it had been borne out of the fact that this...all of this...was actually going down here at Amenoka-ji instead of your Saboady or Lulusia or Alabasta... any other distant place in the Grand Line that wasn't a place she called home, really.

It felt invasive. It felt wrong. And she hated it –

Arisa's jaw suddenly clenched as a sharp spike of pain beneath her ribs scattered her racing thoughts, jolting and needle-sharp against the dull, familiar burn of exertion which had long shrouded her lungs. Her pace faltering abruptly, she smothered a gasp and felt her right hand curl tightly against the fabric of her tunic.

Already...?

Blue eyes flickering upwards in a momentary rush of panic, Arisa scrambled to mentally map the sun's position in the sky.

No, this can't be happening!

("What the hell are you thinking, Mototatsu!?" Uzuki Donabe shouted through Himuro's Transponder Snail. "Taking a pirate's word at face value like this... it's completely reckless! You must reconsider!

Arisa's miniature Snail shook its head resolutely.

"It isn't merely a pirate's word when Dr. Yotsuji agrees with his assessment," Hachinobe Mototatsu's firm voice rang from its lips. "Tatsusada needs this transplant right away, Donabe-dono. Whether you accept it or not, I've made up my mind – the situation is dire enough already!" His voice hardened. "Misokatsu-sama. Please understand that any retaliatory measures you employ against this submarine carries a substantial risk of harming Koga and Waka-sama. If only for the sake of the alliance you could refrain from escalating things any further...!"

"This is just unbelievable–" But Donabe's protest was cut off swiftly as Himuro's Transponder Snail coughed out a crackle of static, presumably as the receiver was handed off to someone else on the other end.

"Very well. I understand." Uzuki Misokatsu's measured expression filled out the Snail's features as his voice came back over the line. Arisa hid a flinch as his eyes darted sideways to lock with hers momentarily. "...perhaps we should consider ourselves very lucky to have crossed paths with the Surgeon of Death under these circumstances."

Law remained silent, but Arisa could almost hear him roll his eyes.

"Thank you, Misokatsu-sama." Mototatsu sounded relieved.

Uncle... Arisa couldn't help but thin her eyes a little at the Snail's inscrutable face. What exactly are you devising...?

As it turned out, she didn't wait scarcely a moment before she found out.

The Snail's eyes gave off a calculating glint.

"However," Misokatsu went on briskly, "there are a few terms you will have to follow, Trafalgar, in order for all of this to work."

Arisa's Snail assumed Law's expression without missing a beat, taking on his signature smirk.

"Fine. Let's hear them.")

Arisa felt herself falter again as the pain sharply intensified. She bit back another curse.

No... She gritted her teeth as she forced herself to quicken her steps. No way in hell I'm turning back.

I can't afford to be weak.

It isn't just Waka-sama's life that's on the line now...!

Beyond that point, it was as if all her immediate worries had dulled somewhat to accommodate for the physical pain. The worst part was the inconsistency of it. At times it became unbearable to the point where she was forced to fully stop – where sometimes all she could manage was to focus on her breathing amidst the internal agony. When her Transponder Snail began to ring again, the attack had subsided somewhat – at least enough to allow her to resume, albeit at a slower, more cautious pace than before. Her first inkling was that it might be the elders again, though that assumption was scattered the moment she activated the call.

"...Chidori... Chidori?!" The background was so inundated with static that the words were almost incoherent at first.

"Tatsuhito...!" Arisa felt her heart stop. "Are you alright? Where are you?"

The Snail's eyes sharpened with focus as it locked to hers. She could hear other garbled voices further away – presumably the other yōgari Mototatsu had mentioned who'd stayed behind with him.

Tatsuhito's voice grew muffled for a moment, as if he were addressing someone else.

"Shh, it finally went through!" His voice grew clearer again as he spoke closer into the receiver. "Chidori, you need to listen to me. Something's messing with our Transponder Snail transmissions, so there's no guarantee I'll be able to reach you again after this. There's... Tell the lord there's been an ambush! My brother –!"

"We know – Mototatsu-sama was able to contact us!"

The Snail's eyes went wide.

"He was?!"

"Yes. The entire family has been evacuated. He's told the lord everything."

"So they're safe?" Tatsuhito demanded. His voice grew frantic when Arisa visibly hesitated. "You need to tell me, Chidori!"

"They... they were able to get out of there," Arisa repeated weakly.

"But Waka-sama... Tsubu-dono, he was saying something about poison. Did my brother mention anything about that? Will Tatsusada be alright?"

"...according to Dr. Yotsuji, he's going to need emergency surgery."

There was a pause as Tatsuhito digested this – a pause so heavy and awful Arisa couldn't help but brace herself for an impending outburst. But when he spoke up again, his voice was surprisingly subdued, weighed with a palpable sense of resignation.

"Surgery, huh..." He breathed out tremulously, voice fading a little. "I... I should have seen this coming. Damn it...!"

Arisa felt a keen pang of sympathy. In retelling the day's events, Mototatsu had mentioned that they had made the decision to ignore the lord's order to return to Hidamari. And though the eldest Hachinobe had claimed that he had made the decision... Arisa knew Tatsuhito. As suspicious as he had grown of the Heart Pirates over the last several days, it was easy to see him wholeheartedly endorsing the decision.

Had that been the case, no doubt the guilt must be eating him alive.

"Tatsuhito..." She waited, then hardened her voice when he didn't respond right away. "Tatsuhito."

"...I'm here."

"You're near Yuzu-gawa, right? I should be there soon. Uncle has notified the people at the outpost up north, so they should also be sending help."

The Snail sharpened its gaze and imitated the speaker by shaking its head.

"...is Himuro with you? I think we're going to need him for this."

"What do you mean?" Arisa frowned in confusion, racking her brain for any conceivable reason why the Seer's assistance would be warranted in an active situation like this.

Could it be that a predatory yōkai had wandered onto the island? But that didn't make any sense. Hachinobe Mototatsu had only mentioned human attackers.

In any case, there was no way the culprit could be a Kyōgui. It wouldn't have taken a Seer of Himuro's caliber to detect a Kyōki signature that anomalous the moment one managed to breach the Remote Clime barrier. That wasn't even to mention the utter lack of precedence of such a thing ever happening in Amenoka-jima's history.

"I'm not entirely sure, but the attackers..." Tatsuhito trailed off, sounding as if he had paused to address someone else.

"Tatsuhito?" Arisa's grip tightened in alarm as static crackled over the line.

"Yeah," he answered after a moment. "I'm still here."

"What about the attackers?" Arisa narrowed her eyes. "Surely it can't be a Kyōgui. They would have detected it from the outpost."

"I know... I know that. But... None of this is making any sense." Arisa waited, her stomach churning with anxiety as his voice momentarily faded beneath another burst of crackling. "Listen. The attackers... they seem to be locals."

"Locals?"

"Yes...based off the bodies. We picked off several of them in the outset; there were more but they ran. They were all men... and from the clothes they were wearing, I'd guess that they were farmhands from around the area. The weapons they were using also look to have been taken from the Isseki armory.

"We considered spitting up to find the rest but after further examining those bodies..." Tatsuhito hesitated. "It's... it's far too dangerous. I don't know if it's a Kyōgui or what, but there's something else going on here and we need to get to the bottom of it fast. Tell the lord to send Himuro over here as soon as possible. And the reinforcements... they need to form a perimeter around the forest. Whatever is in here with us...we can't allow it to spread."

"Spread?" Arisa stared at the Snail in horror, a sudden chill creeping down her spine. "What do you mean?"

"Arisa, the bodies of the attackers we found... they were all hollowed out by maggots."

──────────────────

"First," Uzuki Misokatsu began, narrowing his eyes, "it is essential that we take all precautions, especially considering that there is still an active threat in the area. As such, I will have Isseki Shiori deploy the rest of the ōnamazu to protect your vessel while the operation is ongoing."

"Protect, I see," Law repeated, a corner of his lips curling. "In other words, I better not try anything, unless I want my crew to end up as catfish bait."

"Trafalgar...!" Yotsuji hissed, shooting him a panicked glare.

Law ignored him.

"Have I deciphered that correctly, Murasaki-ya?" he challenged, raising his chin.

She didn't answer. The Snail's expression only flickered to capture Arisa's conflicted face for a fleeting moment before shifting back to imitate her uncle's grave features.

Law sneered, seemingly undeterred.

"Well, it doesn't matter to me either way," he went on. "I've always made my intentions clear from the start. Whatever grief you put yourself through with all this effort is all on you."

Misokatsu returned his icy smile and carried on with no further elaboration.

"Do you keep any Surveillance Transponder Snails on your submarine?"

Law looked over to Azarashi, who gave him a double thumbs-up from where he was listening in with Hakugan by the control panels.

"We may have a couple lying around."

"Good. Arrange to have one set up in the operating room so that Hokyū-dono can monitor the procedure in real time. We will provide all the necessary assistance in connecting them to our Proko Snail. That is the second condition."

"What–?!" Yotsuji half rose to his feet, his face visibly blanching.

Law didn't bat an eye.

"Fine. I'll have my navigator send you the information for both Snails once they're set up."

Misokatsu tilted his head slightly.

"Both...?"

"One for each operating room, of course." The surgeon smiled scornfully when the Transponder Snail stared mutely back in confusion.

"I'm not sure that I understand," Misokatsu said slowly. "I assumed that with your Devil Fruit abilities, it would be possible to conduct both operations simultaneously –"

"Sure." Law's eyes had drifted shut, as if he were trying to picture something far more interesting to amuse himself. "But I've decided against it."

For once, Uzuki Misokatsu made no attempt to stifle the utter bafflement that crossed his features.

"Hah?! What are you –... ?" Donabe interrupted, sputtering. "Is this some sort of joke?"

"Quite the opposite," Law answered, eyes flashing back open. "I mean every word of what I said."

His smile melted away, giving way to an icy determination. He leaned in over folded arms, voice steeling over with authority as he made the following declaration:

"I refuse to use my Devil Fruit abilities for this operation in any capacity, Misokatsu-ya. That is my sole condition."

──────────────────

Polar Tang

Operating Theater #1

Tsubu was on edge. In the midst of all this uncertainty, that much was apparent to Shiro as they waited in the operating room.

Everything was in order to proceed. The three Navy doctors had changed, scrubbed in, and were ready to go in record time. (Had Tsubu had absolutely no regard for the consequences, Shiro was half-convinced he would have started the operation on his own.) The patient had been draped and put under, the surgical field had been prepared, all the utensils were organized on the tray, and the necessary equipment was ready for immediate use.

Tsubu had already assumed his spot directly across from the prospective surgical site – Shiro hadn't even attempted to fight for the position as first assistant – and though his mask concealed much of his face, his budding impatience was glaringly obvious in the way that he muttered beneath his breath and shifted his weight repeatedly from one heel to the other.

Koshi sat at his usual station a little beyond the head of the operating table, with only his head and upper torso visible from the protective drapes from Shiro's position next to the instrument trays. He had been watching Azarashi set up the Surveillance Transponder Snail on one of the walls, but the furrow in his brow also betrayed his unease.

"Wonder what's holding him up," he finally remarked, shooting Azarashi a pointed look. "Does he usually take this long?"

"Ah?" The engineer looked away from the Snail with a sheepish expression.

Tsubu huffed.

"Don't even bother – of course he doesn't know." He raised his chin to address Azarashi. "Isn't this your first time standing in as a scrub tech?"

"I mean..." Azarashi squirmed, then let out a nervous laugh from behind his mask. "You guys don't have to look so scared now. Captain coached us a few times in case of an emergency. It'll be alright."

"Fucking hell."

Fucking hell, indeed...

For possibly the first time that day, Shiro found himself agreeing with Tsubu's sentiment. He had worked in his fair share of understaffed hospitals throughout his career, but this was on a whole new level. After all... who'd ever heard of a functional operating team sans a scrub nurse, for goodness' sake?

Maybe Tsubu and Koshi were right. Maybe Trafalgar does rely too much on his abilities to be considered an actual surgeon...

If that's the case, then he'll be in way over his head...

("What do you mean you aren't using your abilities?!" Shiro hid a flinch as Kurowashi's voice came thundering over the Transponder Snail speaker. "Are you trying to get my grandson killed?"

Law shook his head.

"It won't make a difference in the outcome. Whatever additional risks that come with a standard operation as opposed to my Room-assisted one..." He paused, chuckling a little. "...well, that only exists in your imagination."

"How?"

"Because I'll be the one doing it either way.")

"Alright. Listen up, both of you!" Tsubu's voice shook Shiro out of the memory. "Let's get a couple things straight before he comes in here."

Shiro nodded reluctantly, while Koshi leaned in slightly over folded arms.

Tsubu's eyes were uncharacteristically solemn over the line of his mask.

"I still don't know what Dr. Yotsuji was thinking, giving in to this stupid fucking arrangement without a fight. But now that we're in this situation, we should make the most of it and be hyper vigilant. Do everything in our power to protect Waka-sama. That means not being afraid to stand up to that asshole when he makes a mistake!"

(Azarashi sweat dropped in the background.

"You... you know I'm still here, right...?")

"We should be prepared for a switch-around, basically," Koshi elaborated, nodding along.

"Exactly! If he fucks up, we're gotta move in there and – shwoop, shwoop! – minimize the damage as quick as we can." Tsubu's glaring eyes swung over to Shiro. "Shiro-kun. You'll back me up when the time comes, right?"

Shiro gulped, but nodded hastily.

"Yeah... b-but hopefully it won't come to that–"

Tsubu snorted.

"Oh, it isn't a matter of if, but when. Trust me. Remember what Uzuki Misokatsu-sama said – under no circumstances can we allow for any mistakes, no matter how small!

"I don't know about you two, but I sure as hell am not risking anything. The moment he tries to deviate from procedure, it's our job to take over!"

──────────────────

"I think you're too quick to dismiss the circumstances my crew is in right now, Misokatsu-ya," Law continued matter-of-factly, squinting down at the Transponder Snail. "If what Mototatsu-ya is saying is true, then there is still an active threat in the area – those were your own words. A threat with unknown, potentially unnatural capabilities which has already demonstrated a willingness to go after my patient. In effect..." with a nonchalant glance over to Mototatsu and Koga, "...the brat's presence here could very well make my submarine a target."

"And that is precisely what the ōnamazu are for."

"Quit bullshitting me." Law scoffed. "Even if you are being genuine, you'd be delusional to think I'd so happily leave my crew's safety up to a bunch of giant catfish." His eyes flashed. "The duration of my powers aren't infinite. If given the choice to expend them all on an operation that I know I can do just as easily by hand or to defend my crew, I'll always choose the latter!"

There was a small pause as his audience digested this spirited declaration, as seemingly uncharacteristic as it was. Eventually, the Snail assumed a faint, grim smile and turned slightly towards Hachinobe Mototatsu.

"I assume Yotsuji will handle the donor operation then?"

"Yes, my lord," Mototatsu quickly spoke up. "We've agreed on it."

Next to him, Yotsuji bowed his head in confirmation.

Misokatsu turned his unnerving gaze back to Law, who merely scowled back.

"I'll allow it," he finally said. "However, I have one final stipulation to make.

"In case something goes wrong... Yotsuji, I want your students to operate with the Surgeon of Death."

──────────────────

Hokyū sat rigidly in the darkened room, eyes riveted to the flickering monochrome screen cast by the Proko Snail. Next to him, Kurowashi leaned in and squinted at the gowned figures milling about across the projection.

"Damn it," he muttered, nervously fidgeting with his fan. "It's so hard to make out who's who with their masks."

"You'll know soon enough from their positions," Hokyū answered serenely.

"When will it start?"

"I don't know. We'll have to wait and see." Then, after a pause: "This one is showing Mototatsu-sama's operation. And this..." Hokyū reached over and turned a dial, causing the screen to blink to another view into a separate but identical-looking room labeled Operating Room #1 at the bottom of the screen, "...is Tatsusada-sama's."

Kurowashi gave a faint nod. Hokyū switched back to the footage of the second operating room, and they watched it together for a while. Three of the four in the surgical team – the Hearts, presumably – had already scrubbed in and were waiting around the operating table.

"A surgery like this would be a first, would it not?" Hokyū suddenly remarked.

"What?"

"Looking at it from a collaborative angle, I mean. Navy and pirate doctors working together in a joint operation. In any other circumstance you might consider this preposterous."

Kurowashi's jaw gave a small clench as he watched the gowned figures move across the screen.

"I worry for Mototatsu," he muttered. "Dr. Yotsuji is more than capable, but... who knows how experienced the pirates are with this procedure, really? As long as they don't cause him any trouble...!"

Hokyū arched a brow.

"Indeed," he answered dryly. "And yet somehow, I have a feeling this team will turn out to be the less contentious one of the pair."

He turned the dial again when Kurowashi shot him a questioning look, and the screen seamlessly blinked back to the live footage from the other operating room. Trafalgar was still yet to enter the theater, but the three students were clearly visible from where they stood waiting at the operating table. They were discussing amongst themselves, with Tsubu's loudly, assertive voice coming through the most clearly.

"Yotsuji's students may have more experience, but there is still such a thing as having too many hands on deck." Hokyū chuckled a little as Kurowashi's face fell. "Look at that one – the first assistant. He alone has enough ego to cover for the rest, don't you think?

"Unless Trafalgar knows how to rein them in, I imagine he's going to be in for quite the headache for the next few hours."


 

──────────────────

Polar Tang

Scrub room

The two doctors didn't exchange a single word as they scrubbed in. Each used the wash station closest to the entrances of their respective operating rooms.

It wasn't until they were both about to go in when Law suddenly stopped and turned, shooting the Navy doctor a strange look.

"You'll scare my team," he muttered, "going in with that face."

"...what?"

"You look like you're about to be led to the gallows."

Above his mask, Dr. Yotsuji's eye twitched a little as the doors to Operating Room #1 sprang open with a faint hydraulic hiss.  

Thanks for reading & see you next chapter.

-shiba