Capítulo 30: The Hospital
"If I have to take a guess as for why she asked you to cover your face, she might have thought the thing that happened to her face might happen to you," Leo said.
Bolt shivered just imagining his face becoming something like her. "Then should I cover my face?"
Leo sighed. "Do you think anyone can do that to your face?"
"Oh. You are right. Even if a stronger enemy came I can just run," Bolt said in realization.
Appearance-wise the girl was okay to pass herself as a man because her face was so prominent that almost no one would ever take notice of how fair and smooth her arms were. The problem was with her voice. She tried her best to sound like a man, but still, there was a little girlishness in her voice.
"I don't know the reason, but she is trying very hard to disguise herself. So next time we meet, act as if she is a man," Leo reminded him.
"Okay." Bolt nodded.
They continued their search of pirates, but even after some time, there wasn't any result. "What is going on?" Leo was puzzled. In anime, pirates would always be somewhere in the Gray Terminal. This place was kind of their turf. So it was odd for him to not find any pirates after so much time.
Finally, Leo gave up on searching, he decided to ask someone. He saw a man sitting on a heap of junk.
The man had a rabbit-eared girl doll in his hand. Like any others, he wore dirty and ragged clothes. His short black hair sticking out from the torn top of a wide round hat over his head.
When the man saw the boys approaching him he flinched a little. "Are you a noble, boy?" He asked, more like he was just confirming his guess.
"No. I am not," Bolt said flatly. Initially, he found this 'noble' thing amusing, but after a while, he was rather annoyed because of how everyone was keeping their distance from him as if he was carrying some contagious disease.
The man gave him a look that said I don't believe you at all.
"I am really not a noble," Bolt said sullenly.
"Really?"
"Really."
"It would've been better if you were noble, but as you aren't, you might find yourself in big trouble. This isn't a place for a boy like you to be, you must return from wherever you came from. And before that, if you encounter anyone, especially pirates, pretend to be a noble. Only this way you can leave this place safely," the man warned them seriously. Just then man thought of something. "Ah. You don't even need to pretend, just don't say no when someone asks you if you are noble."
Leo and Bolt understood what trouble man was talking about. That was the same old slavery thing.
Still, Leo asked, "What will happen if pirates know that he isn't a noble?" He wanted to understand how these people here viewed the Bluejam pirates.
"Of course, what else, they will abduct him and sell somewhere as a slave," the man said as a matter of fact.
"What? Pirates can't be so cruel. I don't believe it. You are just trying to scare us," Leo said with a fake unbelieving expression.
The man was shocked at how naive this boy was. He thought if he didn't wake him to reality, the boy might not live very long. "I don't know about the other pirates, but Bluejam pirates are so cruel that selling people is as good as fart to them. They can do far more evil things that you can't even imagine. Let me tell you a story, a real story that happened right here in the Gray Terminal."
"Sit here." He gestured at the boys to sit on the large metallic sewage pipe in front of him. Both of them sat on it.
"About two years ago, a family of three came here and opened a hospital." He looked at the boys' unchanged expression and sighed.
"You don't understand what does hospital represents here. Do you know how much is the death rate of people dying from illness here?" He continued without expecting an answer from them. "At least one person per week."
"What?" Bolt and Leo were shocked hearing this.
Leo thought, "So roughly fifty-two people per year, then how come the population here is still so large." From what they had seen until now, Leo could take a rough guess that the population here is around two thousand. "Hmmm. The rate of people coming here must be greater than the death rate."
In anime, if someone actually counted the number of people running towards the Dragon's ship when he came to rescue them they wouldn't even amount to a hundred. This One Piece world is far bigger than what was shown in the anime. Population and number of islands are almost ridiculous compared to anime. Even though the world was bigger the number of major characters didn't change. There are still four yonkos and three admirals.
"Now you can imagine how important this hospital was to the people here. And what's more the treatment was free, how ridiculous was that. People in this country consider us as the shame of this country, they wish that it was better if we all were dead, but someone actually came to save us. That family was the brightest lamp of hope in our despairing darkness."
"We never actually knew what kindness meant, but after seeing them we understood: that family was the meaning of kindness. Even though there was nothing to gain they worked tirelessly day and night to treat us. When we asked them to take a rest they would refuse by saying, how can we take a rest when so many of you are in pain? In the end, we had to force them to close the hospital."
"There would always be a long line of patients in front of the hospital. Husband and wife would treat each patient, and their equally clever and beautiful daughter would always be there to help them. Most patients would feel half better by just looking at her cheerful smile. She was so lively and friendly that patients would forget their pain when she talked to them. No matter the age everyone called her little sister. She was the little sister of the whole Gray Terminal. Her parents healed their bodies, and she healed their souls." Two teardrops streamed down the man's cheeks. "Ah. Sorry," the man apologized as he wiped his tears with his sleeve. "Just reminder of that poor girl feels my heart with pain and sadness."
"What happened to her?" Bolt asked.
The man gestured at Bolt with his hand. "Wait. I will come to that."
The man continued. "Everyone respected the family, they were almost God-like to us. No one even dared to raise their voice in front of them, even so, many strong men always stood guard in front of the hospital to take care of anyone who tried to trouble the family. But they never had to take any action because everyone in the Gray Terminal behaved themselves when they came to the hospital. On the contrary, the family was most troubled by these strong men themselves, because whenever anyone from the family asked for any kind of help, this rowdy bunch would fiercely fight among themselves to get the honor of serving the family."
"We didn't know how skilled doctors they were compared to others, but one fact was clear after they arrived not a single person in the Gray Terminal died to any kind of illness. Those were the most wonderful days of our lives. For the first time, we dreamed of something more than death and hunger. For the first time, our lives were full of hope. For the first time, we were united. For the first time, there was an almost festive-like atmosphere in the Gray Terminal. Those were the times in which the Gray Terminal saw many of its firsts."
"But our wonderful days were short-lived." His tone was full of sadness and regret. "About three months after the hospital opened, ten in the morning, approximately two hundred people were in front of the hospital. Fifty strong men on their guard duty, around a hundred patients waiting for their number, and about fifty onlookers. I was one of those onlookers. That time most people's favorite pastime was to gather here and watch everything happening. People getting treated one by one, and sometimes rowdy bunch fighting among themselves, and cheerful smile of the little sister were some of the most enjoyable things at that time."
"Everything was going on as usual, but just then a group of hundred pirates with their captain Bluejam in front arrived. Everyone: sick, old, weak, strong. Stood up with a resolve. We didn't know why they came, but one thing was sure, pirate means something bad was going to happen."
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