Chapter 198

I opened my eyes and looked at an unfamiliar ceiling.

"You're finally awake."

I turned my head to the right, where I saw Deuce with a serious look on his face.

"Did I fall asleep or something?"

"Did you know?"

"Know what?"

"About what's going on with your body and the reason you fell unconscious?"

"Yawn, I don't know what you're talking about. But thanks for bringing me to a bed. I needed some sleep," I said as I tried to get out of the bed, but something was holding me back. I threw the blankets off of me and saw that my legs were being held down with lightning.

"You won't be going anywhere before we talk."

"Sigh, I guess there is no reason to hide it anyway. Chopper said that I had some incurable disease, and after that, I had Robert take me to Kureha, but she said that this is even worse than the disease of Roger. She said that she didn't even know where to begin to diagnose this disease."

"Of course it is worse because this is not a disease."

"Than what is it, some magical curse?"

"Close."

"You must be kidding me."

Deuce walked over to a table and picked up an old, thin, and worn-down book.

"I found this in my father's library. I presumed that I could find knowledge here that would be impossible to find anywhere else, and I was right. However, I don't know whether or not the contents of this book are real. But it does resemble your condition a lot."

"What does it say?"

"It talked about a person called Im. Im was someone with great and unimaginable strength. However, that strength was also his undoing. He was in a fight with an unknown person with similar strength, and to defeat that person, Im used a powerful attack that combined all three Haki's. The attack was so powerful that it completely annihilated his opponent and wiped the island they were fighting on from the map."

'That sounds like what I did to kill Kaido. But to think that Im's name would be written down in a book. I would have expected that his name would have been wiped from the history books, but I guess it would be impossible to find and wipe everything.'

"After the fight, Im seemed to have become weak. His Haki started becoming weaker and weaker. He seemed to have lost his will and apparently even thought about suicide a couple of times. And after two months, he died as a shriveled-up corpse. So does this story sound familiar?"

"It might."

"And the suicide part?"

"Of course not. I still have too much I need to do."

"So what I'm getting from this is that you thought about suicide but realized that you had people depending on you, so you decided to push your plans forwards by a lot so that you could die peacefully knowing that we would be fine."

"You're such a creep when you're in doctor mode."

"I'll take that as a compliment for my skills."

"So, are your great deducting skills capable of finding a cure or whatever."

"To be honest, I don't really have an idea. This was the only information I could find about it. But I guess the cure should be simple. It happened because you used your powers over the limit of what should be humanly possible, which shattered your willpower. Now it's steadily decreasing till nothing is left, and you die. So you need to find a way to restore your willpower. But I'm not really good with things that have to do with the mind. If it was something else, I would have been confident in making you better, but this is beyond my abilities. I'm sorry for being such a useless doctor when you need it the most."

I broke out of the lightning bindings and walked towards Deuce. I put my hand on his shoulder.

"You idiot, I'm the one who should apologize. I had already given up hope before even coming to ask you. If you can't do anything about it, then nobody can. I'm truly blessed to have amazing people like you at my side."

"Tsk, no need to get all mushy. Just get back to bed and rest some more."

"There is no time for that. Call Sabo."

"Why?"

"I know that idiot is planning something, just call him and don't tell him I'm here. Devon, let me know right away if you see any suspicious movements. I don't know why those Elders haven't done anything yet, so make sure not to miss a single ant."

"Leave it to me, Captain," I heard from the other side of the door. Deuce called Sabo, and it didn't take long for him to pick up.

"Who is this?"

"Yo."

"Deuce! Why are you suddenly calling? What happened?"

"You bastard! How dare you kidnap my little sister and switch her with that ugly hag! Are you looking to die!"

"Calm down, Deu-"

"I'm not going to calm down! Do you know how many embarrassing things I've said to that wench! Just wait till I see you again! I swear that you'll regret everything!"

"Please don't hurt me. And I'm surprised that it took you so long. Normally you would have known with just a touch."

"Well, of course, she didn't let me touch her."

(Fyi, they aren't talking about touching weird places.)

"Did you meet Ken?" asked Sabo in a much more serious tone.

"No, why?"

"Laffitte thinks that he is going to Mary Geoise. He has already destroyed Marineford and defeated the Fleet Admiral and the 3 Admirals."

Deuce looked at me with a shocked look.

"Sigh, so what are you guys planning?"

"We've almost completely assembled our crew. Only the giants and soldiers are staying behind, but the rest of us will backup Ken in Mary Geoise. I'm assuming that you'll be joining us."

The Den Den Mushi's face suddenly changed, and so did the voice.

"Deuce, if you see him before us, please tell him I'm sorry. I went against his orders and called him by his name instead of Captain. It was extremely disrespectful of me, and I don't know how to face him now," said Laffitte.

I grabbed the Den Den Mushi out of his hand.

"You idiot, if you want to apologize, say it to my face. Don't have this idiot do it for you."

"Captain!"

"And I've already told you countless times to drop the Captain bullshit. You're kinda like that weird uncle to me, so just call me Ken. "

"Bu-"

"Sabo, get your ass back here!"

"Yes, sir!"

The Den Den Mushi's face instantly changed back to Sabo's.

"So eh, Ken. I know that you're going to tell us not to come, bu-"

"Hell no!"

"Bu-"

"As my subordinates, you guys have the responsibility of backing me up when I go into battle. I'll be expecting all of you guys here in tip-top shape. I can sense a strong presence that I haven't felt before, close to Mary Geoise. It's probably Blackbeard, so I'll leave him to you guys. You, Ace, and Deuce will take care of Blackbeard himself. And the rest will take care of his crew. If the 4 Elders show up, I'll step in. Also, have Kuzan and Tani back me up when that happens. I'll leave the rest of the planning to you."

"Sigh, you're so hard to read sometimes. But don't worry, we will be there shortly, and I'll handle the rest. Also, get ready to sleep on the couch once you get home, hahaha! You really fucked yourself!"

"Ey Deuce, didn't you say one time that you have super diarrhea pills, which give explosive Diarrhea to the one that swallows them." I winked at him, and he smirked back.

"Yeah, I have a couple dozen of them. Why are you asking?"

"Oh, it's nothing. I was just thinking that I know someone that might want to eat all of them."

"Gacha."

Sabo hanged up the Den Den Mushi immediately. Deuce and I were about to die of laughter.

"Poor Sabo, the funny thing is that I actually have them. They even work on you…."

He looked at me as sweat started pouring down his face like rainfall.

"Oh, so that's why I was on the toilet for 12 hours that one time. Care to explain why you did that?" I asked as I started cracking my knuckles.

"April fools…"

"Shusui, let's use the Itachi Style!"

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Anime Quotes:

"If you let yourself get depressed, you'd be making light of the people who trust and follow you."

- Ogami Rei (Code:Breaker)

"I haven't done anything yet. Getting depressed and losing confidence is way too egotistical."

- Sorata Kanda (The Pet Girl of Sakurasou)

"It's okay to feel depressed. It takes time to overcome things. And then, by taking that time, you just start moving forward again. That's just what humans do."

- Mondo Oowada

"I'm such a hopeless idiot. All this time and I haven't grown up one bit. I thought maybe the rain would wash away some of this gloom that's been following me… but right now, every drop that hits my face is even more depressing."

- Edward Elric (Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

"No matter how hurt someone is, they're meant to overcome it and try to go forward."

- Mirajane Strauss (Fairy Tail)