The sterile scent of the hospital room hung in the air as Law stood at the side of the examination table, his gaze fixed on the wound. The injured arm lay before him, bandaged hastily but still showing signs of the shark bite’s brutal damage. The blood had long since stopped flowing, but the marks were fresh, and the bite’s severity was undeniable.

Law’s expression was unreadable, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly as he examined the injury with clinical precision. A deep, jagged gash, the kind of thing that wouldn’t just heal on its own.

The room was dim, lit only by the soft, flickering light of a single overhead lamp. The sounds of the bustling Wano outside seemed distant here, as if this small hospital room existed in a different world entirely. Law was used to the stillness of hospitals, the kind of places where life could feel momentarily suspended. But that didn’t mean he enjoyed it. He’d been here before, dealing with injuries much worse than this, but this time was different. The person before him—no, the one lying in front of him, was an unknown. A stranger, someone he had yet to learn anything about.

“Hold still,” he instructed calmly, his voice low and even as he prepared the necessary medical tools. His fingers moved with practiced efficiency, sterilizing and checking the wound, never flinching despite the possibility that the one in front of him might not be a patient he would normally see. This place, this moment, was uncharted territory.

He noticed the way the patient’s chest rose and fell in time with shallow breaths, the tension that lingered in the air as if the two were trapped in a moment of uncertainty. Law had been through enough battles and strange encounters to know how unpredictable people could be when injured or frightened. He couldn’t quite place it yet, but there was something familiar about this situation.