Chapter 4: Submerged

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Warning: I am anything, but a medical professional. This explanation is solely from the research I've done. 

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"What's wrong, Y/n?" The reindeer looked up at with curiously innocent eyes as he watched me sit down on the medical bed he had in his doctor's office. 

I placed the bag next to me as Chopper took a seat in his chair. I smiled at him gently, knowing how the boy would take the news, "Do you remember how my mother died from an illness?" 

He nodded slowly, a hint of concern gradually growing in his eyes, "It was an unidentified one right? No one had seen it before?" 

I nodded before slowly taking my jacket off so he could see the condition I was in, "It turns out it was hereditary." I placed the jacket on the other side of me before looking at my arms, "I started feeling the symptoms around Thriller Bark, but it started visibly showing when Luffy and I were at Impel Down."

The doctor's pupils shrunk and the light in his eyes dimmed, he looked at my arms in horror before snapping out of his frozen state and inspecting the damage, "I've never seen anything like it even when I was researching for Doctor Hiriluk." 

I nodded, remembering the name from when I asked Chopper about his backstory 2 years ago. I watched as he observed the color of my skin and the popping out of my veins, "When I returned to Sinthaya, my father told me everything they had found out about the illness." 

Chopper took a step away from me and grabbed a clipboard, getting ready to write down everything I was going to say. Despite him trying to keep his composure, I saw the shaking of his hooves and the watery glaze over his eyes. He nodded at me to continue, gesturing me that he was ready. 

"My bones are breaking down within my body and the fragments of it are entering my blood system. My veins are working overtime to try to pump as much clean blood to my heart and expel the fragments out of my body which causes me to cough up blood," I continued to explain to him, making sure to slow down so he had time to write it all down, "The only problem we have is that we can't figure out what's causing my bones to break and it's breaking at too fast of a rate for my body to heal and replace the blood or heal the bones." 

"Is it the periosteum that's breaking off or the endosteum?" Despite his concentrated questions, he held a deep frown on his face and his voice was shaky.

"The periosteum."

I watched as his figure flinched at the answer he didn't want to hear, "I was hoping it wasn't the periosteum." 

I nodded in agreement, remembering everything Law had told me, "Although the endosteum is closer to the inner core of the bone, it would've been better than the periosteum. The periosteum is the outer layer of the bone so it enters the blood stream faster." 

"It also contains blood vessels, nerves, and lymphatic vessels," I watched him shake his head, his expression of concern and terror only deepening as the conversation continues, "That's most likely why your body can't replace the expelled blood and heal your bones fast enough."

I unbuckled the bag I had put off to the side of me, the one that I had to place down before my fight with Zoro, "It's also why my limbs give out. The bones can't provide stability and the nerves on the periosteum are damaged." I gave the opened bag to Chopper and watched as he looked at the multiple pill bottles inside, "The medical and science team at Sinthaya has come up with a pill for me to take to speed up the Hematopoiesis process."

He nodded in approval, placing the bag on his desk and going back to writing down the information, "That would allow the increase of hematopoietic stem cells and the development of blood cells. With the help of that, your body won't be fighting as hard to replace the expelled blood. You said you cough up blood?" 

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