"I suppose they're simply terrified," Kaido murmured.
Even he found the sight unsettling — the people standing at the harbor were pale as corpses.
According to the unwritten rules of the seas, there were three kinds of pirates who reached the Drum Kingdom:
1⃣ Ordinary pirates — easily crushed by the royal army.
2⃣ Notable pirates from the Four Seas who dared enter the Grand Line — defeated by the local Navy branch.
3⃣ Great pirates — the royal guard couldn't resist them, and even the Navy struggled to contain them.
When such a threat appeared, the commoners usually had only two choices: hide in secret tunnels or wait for death.
This time, the king had already fled through a back port, claiming he was going to join the Navy reinforcements. In truth, he had simply abandoned his people to face danger alone.
And what could they do? Those who couldn't flee could only wait for the inevitable.
"Is that so?"
Sharn watched the people of the Drum Kingdom as his massive ship pulled into port. Their faces were white and hopeless — sheep awaiting slaughter.
"Pirate Sharn!" someone cried. "We can offer Berries and gold — please, just don't step onto our land!"
The citizens were desperate to negotiate. They'd heard the stories from the West and South Blue — of how Sharn razed kingdoms and crushed naval blockades. With no army or reinforcements, they could only hope to buy mercy.
"Berries?" Sharn smiled faintly. His ship already carried gold from Skypiea, research from Ohara, and the royal treasures of Sorbet. Of all things, money was what they had least to worry about.
"If Dr. Kureha isn't here, I have nothing to say to you."
He had come to find the woman known as the Witch Doctor. These terrified citizens could offer nothing. Their wealth had long been drained by the Celestial Dragons and their royal masters.
"If I ever need Berries, I'll just take them from your king," Sharn said, stepping off the ship. "Now, let's resupply. Drum's food is said to be excellent — I'll go first."
The moment his boots struck the frozen dock, the people shrank back in terror.
"The king has already left with the guards! The Navy will return soon!" someone shouted, his voice trembling.
But even as he tried to sound brave, the man's heart pounded uncontrollably. Just standing near Sharn was suffocating. The pirate's aura alone — not even true Conqueror's Haki — froze them in fear.
To the world, Sharn wasn't the calm, oddly gentle captain his crew knew. To them, he was the Tyrant of the Seas — a killer without mercy.
"Don't kill me!" someone screamed, falling to their knees.
Sharn ignored them and walked into the snow. Only when his dark figure vanished into the white wilderness did the townsfolk realize they were still alive — and that, in itself, was cause enough for gratitude.
"Dr. Kureha… lives here?"
Following his memory and maps of the Drum Kingdom, Sharn soon found it — the treehouse that would later become legendary.
"Hey, brat!"
A sharp voice snapped behind him. "Rude guests aren't welcome here. Unless you're after my secret of eternal youth — which I won't tell you anyway!"
The Witch Doctor Kureha, flask in hand, looked up with a smirk. She seemed in good spirits, busy with some experiment.
"I'm sick," Sharn said, sitting down near the stove. The cabin was warm, the fireplace crackling.
"Oh? I don't treat just anyone," Kureha replied. "Depends on my mood."
She'd lived over a century and seen the rise and fall of legends — Rocks, Roger, even the Giant Warrior Pirates six decades ago. Few things could surprise her anymore.
"I met Crocus at Reverse Mountain," Sharn said quietly. "He told me my body's no longer human — it's like a demon's. I believe only you might understand what's happening to me."
Kureha's eyes widened slightly. She turned, staring at him more seriously now.
"Brat… are you trying to flatter me?"
But the longer she examined him, the more her grin faded.
"Even for someone as youthful as me — just a hundred years old — I've never seen anything like you. To call you 'demonic' isn't enough. Your body is a demon."
She frowned, grabbing a stethoscope-like device and listening to the faint resonance beneath his skin.
"You have multiple hearts. And every organ — every cell — moves as if alive on its own. Each dances to a different rhythm. Trying to merge such conflicting forces is impossible. No one could survive it."
She slumped onto her sofa.
"You're a Devil Fruit user, aren't you? Even the strongest ones can only awaken a single fruit. Do you think you can defy that law? To be a host to multiple devils?"
Kureha's insight pierced him — she could sense the truth without being told. Sharn said nothing.
"No," Sharn said, his eyes bright. "I want more. I want to know how to hold more demons. What if I transplant another heart?"
Kureha almost dropped her flask.
"You idiot! Do you even hear yourself? The devils within fruits repel one another! Even your mutated body has limits. Three hearts — three devils, at most. A fourth would make you explode!"
She shook her head. "Creating a new monster isn't medicine — it's suicide."
"So it really can't be done?"
Sharn stood, expression unreadable. "Devil Fruit awakening is just learning to merge with the devil without losing oneself. Have I truly reached my limit?"
He turned toward the door.
"Crazy boy," Kureha muttered, watching him go. In her mind, echoes of the Will of D crossed through time — from Garp and Roger to whoever would come next.
There had always been four paths to the D's will: Justice, Freedom, Equality, and Dream.
When Dream and Freedom intertwined and turned to obsession, it became Ambition — Rocks, Blackbeard… and perhaps Sharn.
"Which one are you?" she whispered.
"The human body is misunderstood," Kureha said suddenly. "People think the devil merges as a whole. But every part of a body — each organ — has its own will, its own life. Think of the bear in the snowfields, the salamander in the desert, the ancient soldier on the battlefield. They all adapt, they all live."
Her words were cryptic, yet Sharn's eyes lit with comprehension.
"Make the dead parts live again."
"Let the devil give life."
"Thank you, Kureha," he said softly.
He could feel it — every organ stirring, pulsing, alive.
Only the heart could hold a devil fruit?
Ridiculous.
They had underestimated humanity's potential — and the imagination that birthed devils themselves.
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