Where it all began (III)

[Chapter 72: Where it all began (III)]

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"At that moment, Chopper did his best to save me. Unfortunately, that little rascal actually mistook a deadly mushroom thinking that it was a miraculous medicine and gave it to me to cure my illness... Normally I couldn't have eaten it, but since my time was shortening as well, I decided to eat it and make him happy at least for the time I thought I had left... After that, I went directly towards the Drum castle and faced Wapol and his army alone. Not without a plan though, I actually planned to blow myself up and try to take him with me to the other life as a way to save the Drum Kingdom"

Hiriluk, who was reminiscing the old times, scratched his beard briefly before he laughed a little bit thinking about that situation with a rather embarrassed smile on his face.

"I even prepared a speech for that occasion. However, somehow right when the explosion was just a second about to happen... he suddenly appeared..."

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Flashback

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"A monster will be coming here soon. He is my son, don't touch him"

As the cold and beautiful snow fell upon the giant Drum castle and Wapol's army, Hiriluk, who was waiting for the right timing to die, finally realized that the mushroom could take effect soon and that he could die in just a few seconds more.

Remembering all those beautiful moments he spent with Chopper developing the ultimate cure that would help all the people in the Drum Kingdom, small tears appeared at the corners of his eyes, and a wide and heartful smile appeared on his lips while looking at the falling snow with melancholy.

Inhaling his one and last breath, Hiriluk raised his voice with happiness and joy while looking at the sky with a longing expression.

"Damn, this has been truly a wonderful life!!"

Finally, as Hiriluk moved directly the liquid that could detonate the bomb in his body towards his mouth, a last gentle and calm smile appeared on his face.

'Thank you, Chopper...'

For the first time in many years, he finally felt relieved and knew that there was hope.

'With a kid like you, this world will inevitably become a better place to live in... Maybe you will become an even better doctor than me in the future...'

His intestines, which were being burned and corroded by the powerful poison of the mushroom, made Hiriluk flinch for a second in pain before the then released a breath of resolve and started moving the cup with the detonating liquid towards his mouth.

'Goodbye...'

However, right when the cup was about to touch his lips, and he was going to drink the liquid inside it, suddenly he heard a very deep and mysterious voice reach his ears.

"No need to die so soon Doctor. There are still many other things you can do before leaving this world"

*Tap!*

His cup was knocked away in the blink of an eye, and suddenly, an enormous explosion of fire engulfed completely his body. But unexpectedly, it did not burn, as if something was keeping him away from the heat of the explosion.

When he noticed what happened, he saw the figure of a dark and mysterious man standing in front of him with some kind of spherical transparent shield keeping them away from the fire. But before he could even be able to ask what was his purpose, he started losing consciousness, as his life was already slipping away from his body due to the poison making an effect on his body.

'Poor guy, he tried to save me. But unexpectedly for him, I'm going to die from poison either way... At least I now know that there are still people like him who are willing to sacrifice themselves for others...'

Hiriluk smiled faintly seeing at least one last act of kindness before his death and closed his eyes exhaustingly thinking that maybe it was time for him to rest.

Unfortunately for him, he was far from being able to rest like that...

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Two days later...

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Hiriluk was having a strange and confusing dream. In it, he could see the figure of a young man of red eyes looking far towards a red figure on the horizon. This figure had an enormous and overwhelming power that suppressed all of them and made every one of them flinch in surprise, but even then, the young man did not retreat and then started walking towards the red figure with a confident pace on his steps.

However, the more he approached that strange red being, the more his figure could disappear from everyone's view. Soon, when the young man finally was standing face to face with the mysterious being, his body disappeared completely, and nothing was left of him.

After that, seeing that the young man had disappeared, the red being finally made a movement and pointed his hand towards the group of people that had been following that red-eyed young man along. He included.

Soon, a shinning ominous crimson-colored light enveloped his whole vision and ...

*Gasp!!*

He woke up.

Cold sweat covered his whole back, and his heart was beating faster than any other time in his life. The shock of that dream made him unable to notice that not only did he not die, but that he was also lying in a bed from a place he had never seen before.

It was only a few minutes later that he finally noticed the oddity of his situation. But seeing that he was actually cured of a supposedly deadly mushroom and a supposedly incurable illness, his eyes widened enormously and he looked around to see if he could identify who was the one that had actually accomplished something so unthinkable like this.

Unfortunately for him, it seemed that he was actually alone in the room.

"How in hell am I fine?"

Hiriluk took off the sheets of the bed and started checking up his own body to see if he could understand how did whoever did this manage to accomplish it.

But soon, someone opened the door of the room and entered carrying some fruits and meat in a tray.

When he turned to look there, he saw a short kid with reddish-brown eyes looking frowningly at him, as if his whole presence annoyed him.

'What's with this brat?'

"You woke up it seems... Here, take some fruits so that your body recovers its strength"

Unexpectedly for him, unlike his expression, the kid's tone was rather gentle and amiable. Something that surprised Hiriluk as he expected him to talk to him with a rude tone judging by his hostile gaze.

Hiriluk then grabbed an apple from the tray and started munching while now taking a proper glance at his surroundings.

He was in some kind of laboratory filled with tubes of medical liquid, and many other strange tools that he supposed were for medicine as well... Except some chainsaws and even other bizarre stuff lying at the corner of the room.

Seeing the strange technology in that room, a great curiosity rose in Hiriluk's mind.

'What the heck did they do to cure me?'

Finally, unable to contain his curiosity any longer, he decided to ask the small kid in front of him. He seemed to be a normal kid that was working around here, judging by his appearance at least. So he must know who is in charge of this place right?

'Maybe there's a step further into creating the ultimate medicine, that I have yet to discover...!' That was what Hiriluk was screaming anxiously in his mind right now.

However, before he could be even able to open his mouth and ask the kid, suddenly an enormous-sized Gyojin of yellow skin appeared at the entrance of the room and looked around as if checking if everything was ok.

Seeing that finally, someone had appeared, Hiriluk's heart jolted and an incredibly surprised expression appeared on his face.

"You, the Gyojin there, were you the one that managed to cure me?!"

When the yellow-skinned Gyojin heard him, he widened his eyes slightly and then started laughing heartily while glancing at him as if looking at something funny.

"Tahahaha!! No, I'm just another patient of the one who cured you. But I'm already cured as you see... I just came here to check how everything was going with your recovering"

"Then who...?"

Before the Hiriluk could even finish talking, suddenly the Gyojin placed his hand on the kid's shoulder and chuckled briefly before he opened his mouth once again.

"The one who cured you was this kid here. He may look like he wants to kill you, but that's just his natural expression"

"I'm still here you know" The kid just looked annoyingly at the gyojin, and then turned to look at Hiriluk with a more solemn expression on his face.

"It's a pleasure to get to meet you, Dr.Hiriluk, I've known about your research of the ultimate medicine for a long time, and honestly, it was very interesting..."

Still shocked by the fact that the kid who was not even half his health was the one who cured him, Hiriluk barely managed to get some small words out of his mouth while still looking at the kid in front of him with widened eyes.

"M-my research? How do you-"

But before Hiriluk could be able to finish his words, the kid once again raised his voice and looked at him with a slight grin on his face.

"I'll go straight to the point... Would you like to join my crew?"

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Flashback end

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"And so, that's how I met the boss. After that, he simply showed me his advances in medicine, and told me that he could provide me with materials to continue my investigation, and develop an even better medicine than the one I perfected previously"

"That's boss for you... He seems to be able to do anything with perfection" Yasu, who looked slightly dizzy, sighed softly before he then looked towards Kayn, who was just eating silently acting as if he didn't exist.

"What about you Kayn, how did ya get that half robot face of yours? Does it have to be with the boss as well?"

Kayn just turned to look at him with an annoyed expression, and then just sighed before he leaned back on his chair and began telling his story, seeing that everyone at the table seemed to be curious as well.

"Unlike my current appearance, I was once just a normal human without any robotic parts. My left eye was perfectly fine as well, unlike now that it looks like a cyborg-like eye"

Everyone sweatdropped a bit hearing Kayn's ironic tone. He didn't seem to like that much his new robotic eye, but they still chose to just shrug it aside and continue hearing the story in silence.

"I was once a kid that lived in the streets. At those times you could say I was still in a way a "Happy" Kid. At least that was until my Kingdom decided to enlist all the orphan kids in the military, with or without our consent... And after that, I was submitted to very harsh training in order to put my weak body into shape and learned several combat styles in order to know how to afront many situations on the battlefield... The thing is... my Kingdom was conformed by some pretty greedy and ambitious bastards that were planning to use all of us and our short age to deceive the enemy troops and make them doubt whether to attack us kids or not. Unfortunately for most of them, I had always been quite a rebellious kid, so after I discovered everything they were doing, I visited the palace without anyone noticing me, and killed most of them rather rapidly"

Everyone gasped hearing the rather turbulent childhood that Kayn had. However, seeing that most of them were about to die before being saved, all of them knew that something must have happened to Kayn after doing that.

"It was only after they discovered what I did, that I was captured and condemned to execution... Unfortunately for them, I was a rather slippery kid so I escaped rather easily after they caught me. After that, I decided to move out of my Kingdom, and moved to the one where I thought could be safe, at least for a while. Unexpectedly, the Kingdom I chose ended up being the same one my Kingdom was planning to attack previously. So, after a few months living there..."

Kayn's expression turned serious and even a little upset while remembering those moments. But soon, he calmed down and glanced at everyone around the table.

"...War erupted"

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A/N:

I'm fast as lightning and stealthy like a storm.

Here's another chapter! And the second-last chapter of this arc of the crew's past. After this, Sid will go back for a little bit to work as a mob and will have a pretty interesting meeting during it.

After that, Thanatos will make his big strike on the world, and will officially become one of the most dangerous and wanted Pirates of all in the world. Though he may be considered one already...

Anyway, that's all for today.

Bye bye