Grand Line, Sakura Kingdom (formerly Drum Kingdom).
By the time Taro flew here, it was already dark.
He had set off from Sabaody Archipelago in the morning, and after wandering around without even eating lunch, he had basically been flying for a whole day, which almost made him cough up blood.
Taro circled in the air a few times before using the cover of the night and the snow to land at the castle atop Drum Rockies.
There were more lights in the castle than the last time he visited; it seemed the scale of doctors under Dr. Kureha had increased quite a bit.
Inside the room, Kureha was just as she had always been, wearing a slim-fit jacket and a midriff-baring top.
In weather so cold that even Luffy would feel it, she showed no discomfort at all, nonchalantly holding a wine bottle and gulping it down.
"Little Marine, what are you doing here again?"
Kureha sat with her legs crossed, her back to Taro. Without even looking at him, she tossed a bottle of wine over.
Taro caught the bottle, unscrewed it, and took a sip. "Kureha... Ma'am, let's not talk about that for now. Is there anything to eat? I'm starving to death!"
Hearing Taro say this, Kureha was clearly a bit surprised. She turned her head and looked at Taro, who was dressed in casual clothes and flip-flops.
"Ho, looking like this? Did you get fired from the Marine?"
Taro's mouth twitched. "I'm serious, just give me something to eat first!"
"Hahaha, wait here!" Kureha stood up, gave a raspy laugh, and walked out the door.
Soon, she walked back in carrying a plate of some kind of meat.
Taro looked at the few Pickled Plums garnished on top, and his mouth began to water.
"Thanks for the treat!"
After offering his thanks, he began to feast greedily.
While Taro ate, Kureha remained silent, quietly drinking while observing him.
It wasn't until Taro finished the food that she spoke up.
"Now, speak! Little Marine, why are you looking for me this time?"
With his stomach full, Taro was satisfied. He raised his wine bottle to toast Kureha.
"How did you know I came to see you and not Ace?"
Kureha let out a light laugh. "Little Marine, could it be you didn't sense that the brat isn't in the castle?"
Taro indeed hadn't sensed Ace's Qi earlier.
However, hearing Kureha's tone, Ace was likely fine, which put his mind at ease.
He now had something more urgent he wanted to know.
"Ms. Kureha, I want to ask, what did a group of guys called Blackbeard come to the Drum Kingdom for six months ago?"
Kureha took a casual sip of wine upon hearing this and replied nonchalantly.
"What else would a group of pirates do? Burning, killing, and looting. As a Marine, don't you know about the destruction of the Drum Kingdom?"
Taro could tell Kureha was being perfunctory. He shook his head with a serious expression.
"Blackbeard is no ordinary pirate; he wouldn't come all the way here for a reason like that!"
"Furthermore, he murdered a crew member under Whitebeard and is currently on the run. He didn't even know that the person pursuing him was Ace!"
"With the possibility of Whitebeard sending many people to hunt him down, he risked exposing his escape route just to destroy the Drum Kingdom..."
"That reason simply doesn't hold up!"
Taro said a lot in one breath, then stared intently at Kureha.
"Dr. Kureha, what I want to confirm is whether he came for the Nuke Nuke no Mi ability user, Wapol!"
Kureha was unfazed by Taro's aggressive gaze and shook her head gently.
"I'm just a doctor, Little Marine. You're asking the wrong person."
Taro frowned deeply and took a deep breath.
"You know Dragon, the leader of the Revolutionary Army. When I asked you to teach Ace Haki, you didn't refuse."
"More importantly, your physical constitution is more resistant to cold than most ability users."
"Ms. Kureha, you are no simple doctor!"
"Even the world's strongest man like Whitebeard is riddled with illness in his 70s, yet at your age..."
Just as he said this, Kureha suddenly lashed out with a kick, sweeping toward Taro's legs.
Taro pushed off the table with his hand, lifting himself off the ground to dodge Kureha's attack.
The chair beneath him was kicked flying, crashing into the wall with a loud bang.
His mouth twitched as he looked embarrassed. "Uh... sorry, I take back that last sentence!"
"Brat, I am still in the prime of my youth!" Kureha retracted her long leg and crossed it again.
Taro pulled over another chair and sat down.
"Yes, yes, yes. Everyone wants to know your secret to eternal youth, especially the girls!"
Kureha's mouth curled into a slight smile. "Even so, I still don't want to answer your previous question!"
Taro raised an eyebrow. "You 'don't want to'? Not that you 'don't know'?"
Kureha ignored Taro catching her slip of the tongue and continued drinking on her own.
Taro thought for a moment and said in a low voice, "Is it because Blackbeard has a 'D' in his name that you don't want to speak?"
Kureha, who was tilting her head back to gulp wine, stopped. Her eyes grew sharper.
"Little Marine, not only is your body very strange, but your mind is also quite sharp!"
Was it really because Blackbeard belonged to the d clan?
Whitebeard hadn't dealt a lethal blow to kill Blackbeard before he died, and Kureha's current intentional concealment was all because of this!
Taro felt quite helpless about this!
In his past life, many one piece fans had spread rumors that Blackbeard's 'D' was self-added because they disliked him.
Especially certain bullet comments that would frantically spam the screen.
It might have started as a joke, but as clickbait accounts wrote nonsense about it,
many new one piece fans later actually thought Blackbeard's 'D' was self-added and believed it firmly!
It was quite ridiculous!
However, Blackbeard's name inherently contained a 'D'; he was indeed a member of the d clan.
Taro pondered his wording for a while and finally nodded.
"Dr. Kureha, if you can see the strangeness of my body, surely you've seen the abnormality of Blackbeard's body as well!"
"I want to know, is his body two or three?"
Kureha's expression changed upon hearing this, her gaze becoming even sharper.
"It might be possible to see that his body is abnormal, but to accurately ask this question... how did you manage that?"
Kureha's refusal to answer directly gave Taro quite a headache.
After some deliberation, Taro said solemnly, "Dr. Vegapunk reminded me!"
Kureha was stunned for a moment when she heard Vegapunk's name, then seemed to realize something.
"Oh, it's him!"
"Since he's the one who told you, isn't it redundant for you to come and ask me?"
Taro then realized that Kureha and Vegapunk also knew each other!
It seemed that these people in scientific research and medicine were all part of the same connected circle!
He rubbed his face hard.
"Vegapunk used a three-layered box to hint that Blackbeard's body is three!"
"At the same time, he also hinted that this physical abnormality is related to the Nuke Nuke no Mi ability!"
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