What is Absolute Justice?
After spending nearly two years at G-5 Base, Tina absolutely did not believe that opening fire on ordinary civilians could ever be considered justice.
The reason she had joined the Navy in the first place was to protect her hometown and protect innocent people.
How could justice mean firing cannons at them?
Then there was Vice Admiral Kuzan's and Vice Admiral Borsalino's version of justice, that vague, ambiguous form of justice...
Vice Admiral Rowan was right.
That was nothing more than compromise born of necessity.
Just like how Rowan had chosen not to intercept the Donquixote Family's merchant ships this time.
"Tina?"
"Hm?"
Turning around, she saw Smoker.
Tina let out a sigh.
"Sometimes Tina really envies someone like you."
"Every few days you get beaten up, and your goals are always simple and straightforward."
"Huh?"
Smoker froze.
He had only come over to say hello.
How had he suddenly become the target of sarcasm?
"There was a problem along the patrol line of Unit 03."
"You're the fastest one available."
"Go check it out."
After saying that, Tina turned and left.
Her thoughts were a mess.
She needed time to sort everything out.
Meanwhile, inside the Base Commander's office.
Rowan was no longer thinking about Tina's question.
Instead, his thoughts had shifted to Doflamingo.
Dressrosa was a source of strength worth winning over.
King Riku was willing to let go of power.
And among the Tontatta Tribe, Princess Mansherry's Heal-Heal Fruit would be an incredibly powerful support ability on any battlefield.
But changing that country would still take time.
Eliminating Doflamingo right now to prevent future casualties would be easy.
The entire Donquixote Family was nothing to Rowan at this point.
He could wipe them out without much effort.
However, doing so would make reforming Dressrosa far more difficult.
It might even make success impossible.
The Riku royal family was different from the Donquixote kings who had ruled Dressrosa centuries ago.
King Riku was the sort of ruler who could kneel before the Tontatta Tribe and sincerely apologize.
He was the reason Dressrosa had become prosperous.
As long as people could survive, they rarely thought about changing anything.
That was the lesson Rowan had learned from the bloodshed and chaos in Wano.
If he killed Doflamingo now and then tried to reform Dressrosa, even more people would die.
How hypocritical...
Rowan laughed at himself.
Sure enough.
He wasn't exactly a good person either.
At the same time, in the North Blue.
The White Town of Flevance.
"Cough...!"
"Cough! Cough! Cough!"
The once-bustling and prosperous city was now filled with coughing people.
White patches had already begun appearing on many faces.
Everyone knew they were sick.
But injections, medicine, treatments...
Nothing worked.
Only then did the people finally realize something.
Over the years, many residents of Flevance seemed to have died from illness.
At the time, nobody had cared.
It hadn't affected them personally.
People died every day.
One after another.
But no one paid attention.
No one asked questions.
Only now, after the same symptoms began appearing on their own bodies, did they realize something terrifying.
The people who had died before...
Had suffered from exactly the same disease.
Hospitals became the most crowded places in the country.
"Big brother..."
An orange-haired little girl tightly held the hand of a young boy.
Fear filled her eyes as she looked toward a man who had just collapsed in the alleyway.
"That man... coughed up blood."
The little boy wearing a spotted round cap shook his head and immediately grabbed the girl's hand, running home as fast as he could.
Before long, the two returned home.
Their parents had just gotten back from the hospital around that time.
Their mother hurried into the kitchen to prepare food, while their father searched frantically through books and documents in his study.
Soon, their mother packed two lunch boxes into a bag and placed the remaining food on the dining table.
"Law, take good care of your sister while we're gone."
"Okay, Mom."
Law nodded.
But as he watched his parents preparing to leave again, he couldn't help bringing up what he had seen earlier.
"That person... he couldn't be saved anymore, right?"
"The pain from organ failure, coughing blood... those symptoms mean it's already the final stage, don't they?"
His parents exchanged a glance.
The man walked back over and rubbed Law's head through his hat.
"Don't worry."
"Law has always said his father is the best doctor in this country, hasn't he?"
"So your mother and I will definitely cure them."
After saying that, the two of them grabbed the lunch boxes and hurried back toward the hospital.
At home, Law helped his younger sister finish dinner.
After washing up, they both went to bed.
But late that night, the sound of crying woke Law from his sleep.
Rubbing his eyes, he walked toward the living room.
Then he realized the crying was coming from the bathroom.
As he approached, he saw his sister staring at her arm while sobbing uncontrollably.
In an instant, all traces of sleep vanished.
Growing up in a family of doctors, eight-year-old Law already knew a little medicine.
And his parents had talked about the disease many times.
His sister knew about it as well.
"Bang!"
Law rushed forward so quickly that he tripped and fell.
Ignoring the pain in his knees, he immediately grabbed his sister's arm.
A white patch had appeared on her wrist.
How could this happen...?
Dad had said before that the disease wasn't contagious.
The reason so many people were suffering from the same illness was likely because they had all been poisoned by the same substance.
Because of that, the family had been extremely careful about their food recently and had not brought anything new into the house.
So how could she have been poisoned?
Late that night, Law's parents finally returned home.
The moment his mother saw the white patch on her daughter's arm, she fainted on the spot.
The exhaustion from the past several weeks, combined with the sudden emotional shock, was simply too much.
She felt as though she was reaching her limit.
And now her daughter had begun showing the same symptoms.
Law comforted his sister while watching his father stagger through the house, settle his unconscious wife into bed, and then lock himself inside the study.
Even after his sister had fallen asleep, the light in the study remained on.
Law walked in and looked at his father.
"You already found out what it is, didn't you?"
His father froze.
The next moment, tears streamed from his eyes.
He had indeed discovered the truth about the disease.
And it was precisely because he knew the truth that he felt so powerless.
Even so, every day he continued searching for new methods.
New medicines.
New surgical procedures.
Anything that might prove his conclusions wrong.
All for one reason to save his family.
Yes.
After learning the true nature of the illness that had suddenly erupted throughout Flevance, he understood something all too well.
His family would not be spared.
Neither would he.
Perhaps everyone in the entire country except for the nobles who had already made preparations and spent most of their time outside the kingdom.
No one would be spared.
Amber Lead Syndrome.
A form of heavy-metal poisoning caused by the extraction and use of Amber Lead Ore.
It was incurable.
Worse still, it could be passed on through childbirth, silently affecting future generations.
The first generation might die at eighty years old and be mistaken for having died naturally.
The next generation might die at fifty.
Then thirty.
Then thirteen.
Then six.
Until eventually children would begin dying before they had even truly lived.
"Law... trust your father..."
The middle-aged man looked at Law with reddened eyes and unwavering determination.
"I... I will save you."
"I'll definitely save you all!"
"Trust me!"
Law nodded blankly.
But compared to his younger sister, he possessed far greater talent in medicine.
The very next day, he began conducting his own investigation.
His primary target was the study that his father had practically torn apart while searching for answers.
He knew very well that the expression on his father's face that night had not been caused by an ordinary illness.
So many people had already died in this country.
His sister's condition could not possibly be a coincidence.
Soon enough, he found the answer hidden among the books and documents in the study.
At the same time, the citizens of Flevance discovered that barbed-wire fences had been erected around the nation's borders.
Soldiers from neighboring countries stood guard along the perimeter.
Isolation.
The moment this reality became known, the people finally understood.
Flevance had become a quarantined nation.
Small-scale chaos began breaking out across the country.
In the past, this wealthy kingdom had an extremely low crime rate.
But when their lives were threatened and the entire world had abandoned them, the emotions many people had suppressed finally exploded.
Meanwhile, the kingdom's security forces discovered something even more terrifying.
Every noble in Flevance had vanished.
Every single one of them.
They had all escaped.
The people had been abandoned.
Fear and betrayal intertwined.
Even the security forces themselves began to fall apart.
Some soldiers went mad and started killing indiscriminately.
Others who still retained their conscience shot those murderers down.
Only to be stabbed through the heart by another comrade moments later.
For three days, Flevance lost all semblance of order.
Fires spread throughout the city.
Screams and furious shouts echoed everywhere.
On the fourth day, someone finally stepped forward.
Then another.
And another.
Until more than a hundred doctors stood together at the largest hospital in Flevance.
Standing atop the hospital's front steps, they revealed the complete truth about Amber Lead Syndrome.
Terror swept through the crowd.
Some people burst into tears.
Others collapsed to the ground and sobbed quietly.
"No one can save us!"
"But if you're willing to trust doctors..."
"Then restore order on your own!"
"Only then can we continue searching for a way to survive!"
"If this chaos continues, everyone in this town will die before the disease even kills them!"
"Please trust us!"
"For your own sake!"
"For your families!"
The doctors' words slowly restored order.
Faced with death, everyone wanted to survive.
And the only hope of survival lay within the hospital.
Many people had not yet developed the white patches.
Clinging to a sliver of hope, they were unwilling to die in meaningless chaos.
One month.
Two months.
Three months...
During that time, some people attempted to cut through the border fences and escape.
The moment they crossed, they were gunned down.
Neighboring soldiers wearing protective suits opened fire without hesitation.
Flamethrowers followed.
The bodies were burned where they fell.
As time passed, the suffocating despair continued to spread.
No one knew how much longer order could last.
Inside the hospital, doctors argued endlessly, revising treatment plans day after day.
Every result ended in failure.
They wanted to save people.
Save their own lives.
Save their patients.
Save their loved ones.
Save their nation.
Every doctor's eyes were bloodshot.
Many of them could no longer remember the last time they had slept.
Cases of death from exhaustion had already begun appearing among the medical staff.
Yet no one dared stop.
During those three months, the doctors of the largest hospital in Flevance experienced emotions pushed to their absolute limit.
Unwillingness.
Frustration.
Despair.
Why did every treatment fail?
Why couldn't surgery remove the disease?
Why was every medicine useless?
And on that very day inside an alley beside the hospital a rotten apple underwent a strange transformation.
Within only a few seconds, the decaying fruit changed shape.
It became a heart-shaped fruit.
At that moment, a middle-aged man walked into the alley.
His bloodshot eyes were filled with nothing but confusion.
"Bang."
The man dropped to his knees.
Both fists slammed into the ground.
"Why?"
"Why did it fail?"
"What do I have to do?"
"How do I remove the poison?"
"AHHHH!!"
"Crash!"
With a furious roar, the middle-aged doctor punched a nearby trash can, knocking it onto its side.
The heart-shaped fruit rolled out from inside.
It slipped into a storm drain and disappeared from sight.
After muttering to himself for a long time, the man finally stood up.
Rubbing his bloodshot eyes, he turned around and headed back toward the hospital.
He knew he couldn't vent his emotions inside.
Whether it was the patients serving as experimental subjects or the doctors who had already failed countless times, everyone's nerves were stretched to the breaking point.
One spark was all it would take to set everything off.
The alley beside the hospital had gradually become the place where doctors came to release their pressure.
Every day, someone would come here.
It didn't disturb others, and it gave them a chance to let out some of the emotions they had been bottling up.
Three months passed.
Meanwhile, at G-5 Base, Rowan had spent those same three months steadily cultivating his "friendship" with Spandine.
During one of their calls, however, Spandine casually brought up Flevance.
"You remember that operation in the North Blue, right?"
"Thanks to you, I didn't get killed by that bastard Vinsmoke."
"Though his research facility is under CP0 security now."
"Oh, right."
"You remember Flevance?"
"The White Town where you came looking for me that time."
"Amber Lead Syndrome has already broken out there."
"Even the World Government didn't expect it to happen so soon."
"Based on the projection that third-generation victims die around thirteen years old, those peasants should've had another two years before they noticed anything."
"The lives of commoners are the cheapest thing in the world."
"Once Flevance lost the value of its Amber Lead mines, those people lost the value of their lives as well."
"This time I made a fortune."
"Those nobles needed places to relocate to, so I gave them a few conveniences."
"I've got to admit, they've made ridiculous amounts of money over the years."
"They were incredibly generous."
"That miserable place called the New World is boring."
"Let's head to Sabaody Archipelago sometime."
"There aren't any Celestial Dragons around right now, and the entertainment industry there is booming."
The day's "friendship-building" session ended.
Rowan sat quietly, thinking about Flevance.
According to the timeline, Trafalgar Law still had about a year and a half before he would strap explosives all over his body and seek out the Donquixote Family.
But thinking about it carefully, it made sense.
A country didn't go from the outbreak of a disease to total annihilation overnight.
First came the sickness.
Then the chaos.
Then conflicts with neighboring nations under mounting pressure.
And finally, the massacre.
All of that took time.
As for Amber Lead Syndrome...
The only known cure was the Op-Op Fruit.
But that Devil Fruit would not appear for another four years.
And while many people in Flevance would ultimately die at the hands of neighboring soldiers, that didn't mean they could survive another four years waiting for a miracle.
Flevance...
The environment faced by its ordinary citizens was perhaps the perfect breeding ground for awakening both ideology and willpower.
One Trafalgar Law alone wasn't enough.
The history of Flevance would become a symbol.
A warning.
A lesson.
A banner.
Author's Note:
In the original series, a normal fruit becomes a Devil Fruit when the previous user dies nearby. I know that.
However, Devil Fruits also possess their own will and choose people who are compatible with them. The Nika Fruit is an example of this. Despite the World Government's efforts for eight hundred years, they never managed to secure it because accidents always occurred.
Based on details from the original story, this is my personal interpretation.
After the Vegapunk arc, Vegapunk suggested that Devil Fruits are manifestations of humanity's deepest desires, dreams, and wills.
As for "will," consider Kaido's statement that only those who are compatible with a Devil Fruit's will can fully awaken its power.
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