Chapter 184: The Treatment and the Truth Behind the "Patricide"
"Interesting."
Kureha flexed the arm Law had completely severed from her body, opening and closing the hand, curling and straightening the fingers with ease, as if the limb had never left her shoulder at all.
Then, as if a switch had flipped, she asked Law to take her apart even further.
Under everyone's stunned stares, Kureha proceeded to reenact Louis XVI and Shang Yang on herself, letting Law slice her into multiple pieces and still staying very much alive and talking.
Watching her dismembered and still perfectly fine, every person on deck could only gasp in awe.
Now they finally understood why Kai had gone out of his way to recruit Law.
The Ope Ope no Mi's power was nothing short of miraculous in medicine.
"Come on, keep going. I want to see where your limits are," Kureha said.
Once she had reassembled herself perfectly, she grabbed Law again, completely absorbed in testing one clever application after another of his Devil Fruit. She was already lost in the joy of exploring new medical techniques.
After some time at sea, the vast crown of the Treasure Tree Adam slowly rose into view over the far horizon.
"Welcome back, King Kai!"
"Good day, Your Majesty!"
The giants working the harbor quickly spotted the familiar silhouette of Rayquaza.
They set down what they were doing and crowded over, booming greetings with bright grins.
"King?"
The Heart Pirates, who had no idea what was going on, stared, eyes wide, all looking toward Kai.
A human could be king of the giants?
As expected of their new boss.
The racket only grew louder when Loki's raft came drifting in behind Rayquaza.
"It is the Cursed Prince, Loki!"
"King Kai has brought him back in chains!"
The moment they recognized Loki, the giants' gazes turned complicated, thick with hatred, fury, and long-festering resentment.
When word spread that King Kai had returned with the criminal Loki in tow, the patrol squad in charge of order rushed over.
They were led by the giant Leiden, and Kai also spotted Hajrudin among them.
"Loki!"
Hajrudin burst out of the ranks, roaring up at his brother on the raft. "You bastard! You finally got caught!"
Loki only laughed. "Hajrudin, all this time, and you are still this weak. You have not grown at all."
"You—" Hajrudin's face flushed red as he clenched his fists, unable to refute it.
"All right. That is enough brotherly 'bonding' for now," Kai cut in before the shouting match could escalate.
He turned to Leiden instead. "Where is Elder Jarul?"
"We have already sent word. He will be here soon," Leiden replied respectfully. "King Kai, did you return this time to pass judgment on Loki?"
"His trial can wait."
Kai shook his head. "There is something more important first. I am going to help Elder Jarul and get that troublesome sword out of his head."
They did not have to wait long.
Elder Jarul, his beard flowing like a waterfall, soon arrived at the harbor.
Kai briefly introduced the medical team he had brought with him to the gathered giants.
"With them here, we can take that sword out of your skull safely," Kai told Jarul with complete confidence.
"Your Majesty… is that not too risky? Elder Jarul is very old," one giant said hesitantly.
His worry echoed the thoughts of many.
If a system could still run, you did not mess with it lightly.
Even giants understood that.
"There is another reason I want to treat Elder Jarul," Kai said, pausing, his expression turning grave. "I want to uncover the truth of King Harald's death."
"What?!"
The giants erupted.
Had that not all been settled long ago?
Loki was the killer. How could that be wrong?
"Your Majesty, please do not let that man deceive you," Hajrudin said urgently. "He is a thorough bastard."
Many giants nodded at once, glaring at Loki with raw dislike. Clearly, they had suffered plenty under his "pranks" over the years.
Viola and the others looked toward Loki, now the focus of so much hatred.
Just what had he done in the past to make a people who should have revered him turn this sour?
Loki only snorted, folding his arms with open contempt.
He could not care less what a bunch of weaklings thought.
Jarul, one of the people actually present that day, stroked his white beard, a faint hesitation in his eyes. "I may have forgotten what happened back then, but for some reason… I do not seem to feel any real hatred toward Loki."
"Perhaps King Kai is right. Maybe there really was more to that day than we know."
"Elder Jarul! Even you…" Hajrudin frowned deeply, unable to accept it.
"Perhaps there is another witness who can give us some clues," Kai said.
He looked past the crowd and beckoned. "Scopper Gaban. You were there that day too, were you not?"
"Is that true, Ashan? You never told me," Ripley gasped, staring at her husband.
Gaban gave Kai a long, meaningful look, scratched his wild white hair, and walked forward with a wry smile. "Shanks and I were nearby that day. We did not see everything from start to finish, but when we arrived, I definitely felt a strange Haki in the air."
"That Haki did not belong to any giant warrior I knew. Instead, it felt a lot like a certain enemy I once crossed blades with."
"Who?" Hajrudin demanded.
"Cannot say yet," Gaban replied, turning cryptic. "If Jarul's memories come back, you will all learn the truth anyway. If they do not… then knowing would do Elbaf no good. It might even bring trouble you do not want."
Hajrudin was left sputtering, glaring in frustration, but he had nothing to hit.
"In any case, that settles our priorities," Kai said. "We focus on treating Elder Jarul first. I trust no one has objections to that?"
Though doubts lingered, no one spoke up against it again.
Soon, they had moved to the square in front of a tavern near the harbor.
The open space there was wide enough to serve as an operating theater.
"Then I will trouble you all. Do not hold back. This old man has lived long enough. If I die, I die. Do not let it weigh on you," Jarul said cheerfully, lying down in the center of the clearing with an easy smile.
"Room."
At Law's low call, a massive translucent dome burst outward.
He swung Kikoku and used his power to slice Jarul's head away along the edge of the embedded sword.
"His head… came off."
The sight made the watching giants hiss through their teeth, eyes nearly popping from their sockets.
If they had not seen with their own eyes that Jarul was still alive and talking, half of them would already have been charging at Law.
Jarul himself was in high spirits.
Seeing his own head removed, he even laughed. "So that is what the inside of my skull looks like."
The medical team wasted no time. They gathered close, carefully examining the inside of Jarul's head.
They spoke in low voices, pointing and tracing with their fingers. The discussion went on for a while before finally settling.
"How is it?" Kai asked as soon as they were done.
Kureha took a pull from her plum wine. "One good news, one bad. Which first?"
"Just give me the important part," Kai said helplessly.
"Boring."
She curled her lip, but dropped the suspense. "Good news: with the Ope Ope no Mi on our side, we can remove that sword with minimal trauma. Add in the little princess's healing as backup, and the theoretical success rate is extremely high."
"Bad news: taking it out will require ultra-fine work. The brat has to maintain his ability while focusing every last scrap of attention on separating the blade. That will drain him, body and mind."
"Most likely, the operation will hit the most critical moment, and his stamina will give out. That would be a disaster."
Instead of worrying, Kai stroked his chin thoughtfully. "In other words, as long as Law's stamina and focus hold and he can stay at his best, the operation will go through, right?"
"In theory, yes," Kureha said.
"Then it is simple."
Kai smiled and snapped his fingers. "Kuma. Time for you to shine."
For a procedure that demanded constant "recharging," the Paw-Paw Fruit might as well have been made for it.
The last piece of the plan fell neatly into place.
Preparations moved quickly.
The team hooked Jarul up to customized, giant-sized nutrient drip lines and monitors tracking his vital signs.
On the "operating table," Law, following Kureha's guidance, began using his powers to slowly separate the sword from the brain tissue, blood vessels, and even the bone it had fused with.
Time had done its work. Steel and flesh were all tangled together.
To minimize damage to the brain, Law had to proceed with extreme care, which chewed through his concentration at a terrifying rate.
Fortunately, Kuma stood waiting at his side.
Whenever Law started to blur at the edges or feel his strength flag, Kuma would gently slap the fatigue out of him.
Kai, standing nearby, casually absorbed each pink paw-shaped bubble.
Production, transport, and consumption all in one smooth line.
With the two of them backing him up, Law became a tireless, nuclear-powered surgery mule.
From blazing noon to a sky full of stars, his hands never stopped.
The intricate, dangerous operation advanced steadily in defiance of common sense.
At last, just as the eastern sky began to pale with the first hint of dawn, the sword that had been buried in Jarul's skull for so many years came free in one whole piece under Law's control.
"We did it."
The giants, who had watched in taut silence, finally let out a low cheer.
King Kai had done what they had failed to do for years.
"Quiet. Do not distract us."
Kureha whipped her head around and glared at the cheering giants.
In her eyes, there were no giants or non-giants.
Only patients and doctors.
Even these hulking warriors flinched under her stare. They slapped hands over their mouths and nodded frantically, not daring to make another sound.
Only then did Kureha turn back, helping Law begin the slow work of reassembling the brain tissue they had sliced apart to reach the sword.
After more than an hour of painstaking effort, the last piece of Jarul's brain was set back into place.
"Princess Mansherry. It is all yours now," Law said.
He let out a long, shuddering breath. His body finally eased a fraction, exhaustion and strain written all over his face.
Even with Kuma constantly knocking away his fatigue, nearly twenty hours of high-intensity use of the Ope Ope no Mi, combined with the precision demanded by brain surgery, had pushed him harder than ever before.
Now that the focus holding him together loosened, that stored-up sense of depletion washed over him like a tide.
"Leave it to me."
Mansherry hopped lightly onto Jarul's huge forehead, stepping up to a wound that, to her, was the size of a canyon.
She closed her eyes and folded her small hands over her chest.
Soon, tears heavy with healing power streamed down her cheeks like a string of pearls, falling one by one straight into the wound.
Something miraculous happened.
Inside the empty gash, fresh tissue began to sprout at a speed visible to the naked eye, weaving together and sealing the gap.
In barely a dozen minutes, the gaping, bone-deep wound was completely gone, leaving only a faint pink line of new flesh.
"I am done," Mansherry said.
She opened her eyes and smiled, tired but radiant as she looked at her work.
"Amazing!"
"Long live King Kai! Long live the doctors!"
The giants, who had been holding their breath for so long, finally let their joy explode, cheering loud enough to shake the harbor.
The roar finally woke Jarul from his sleep.
"Mm… is it over?" he yawned. "That was the best sleep I have had in years."
"How do you feel?" Kai asked, stepping up beside him.
Jarul frowned slightly, probing the state of his head.
Moments later, disbelieving delight spread across his face. "Better than ever. My head does not hurt at all."
"Before, if I tried to think too hard or remember something, the pain was unbearable. Now it is completely gone. I feel light."
"Wonderful."
Every doctor there exhaled at once.
The super high-risk operation had been a complete success.
"We truly owe you our thanks," Jarul said.
He sat up and looked at each member of the team, gratitude clear in his eyes.
"Hey, old man. Do you remember what happened that day now?" Loki cut in.
Jarul's smile faded at once, replaced by a heavy, pained, helpless expression. Seeing his face, everyone knew his memories had returned.
"Loki did kill his father, King Harald," Jarul said bluntly. "But it was not something he chose."
"There is no such thing as 'forced' patricide," Hajrudin protested. "How can anyone be forced into that?"
Jarul sighed deeply. "There is. Because if Loki had not done it, the one destroyed would have been all of Elbaf."
Back then, Harald had summoned Jarul and Loki to Aurust Castle
Jarul had assumed it was to discuss joining the World Government. Instead, the sight that greeted him in the audience hall still made his blood run cold to this day.
"For some reason, Harald had changed. Not just in his looks. The aura around him had become monstrously evil and strange."
"The palace soldiers were surrounding him, stabbing him with everything they had, trying to kill him."
The description left everyone gaping.
It was nothing like the version of events they had been told for years.
"Why would the soldiers do that? Were they rebelling?" Hajrudin asked.
Jarul shook his head. "No. It was the opposite. Harald himself had ordered them."
"He shouted to us, 'I have been taken by a demon. You must kill me.' That is what he said."
"But their attacks did nothing. His life force only grew stronger, and that evil presence thickened with every moment."
So in the end, he turned to Loki and me and begged us.
What happened next, everyone already knew.
Loki killed Harald and took on the brand of patricide.
Jarul was gravely wounded in the battle and lost every memory of that day.