2 You're a doctor, right?

"Crocus!!" A booming and comforting voice reached Shanks's ears from far away, but he didn't dare take his eyes off of Alex.

Shanks felt someone prying him away from Alex and desperately struggled to free himself of the grasp.

A man with what seemed to be a flower on his head bent over Alex and started working quickly, while the man holding Shanks with one hand laughed merrily.

"Hahahaha! Don't worry kiddo! My doctor is the best!" A man with a massive mustache told Shanks.

Shanks slowly began calming down and stopped fighting the man. "Is he going to be okay?" He asked in a panic.

Crocus sighed and stood up, Alex was wrapped in a large bandage that was slightly red all over.

There was silence for a while. "Shouldn't you introduce yourselves first?"

The man with the moustache smacked Crocus in the back. "Just tell him the kid is gonna live!"

Crocus stopped playing around. "Fine, Roger. He should live."

Roger gave a hearty laugh. "See? My crew is the best in the world!"

Shanks gave a sigh of relief and smiled.

3 days later.

Alex's eyes shot open and he tried to sit up. He groaned in pain and a hand clutched his shoulder, gently guiding him back down into his bed.

Alex looked up and saw a man with a flower for hair Alex, took a couple deep breaths to quell the immense pain before speaking. "Thanks for saving my life. I'm Alex."

The man smiled. "Finally, someone with manners. I'm Crocus."

Alex took a while to collect his thoughts and get used to the pain. "How long do you think I'm going to be in bed?"

Crocus, raised a brow. "I was hoping to ask you the same question."

Alex looked confused. "What does that mean?"

Crocus took a stick and slowly lifted Alex's shirt. "You were shot in the stomach 3 days ago, if I wasn't there, you would have certainly died, but…" Crocus pointed at the wound on his abdomen, the bandages were gone and his wound was already closed. The only thing in its place was a large scar.

Alex looked down at himself. "I assume that that isn't how it usually works."

Crocus nodded. "Far from it."

Alex's stomach grumbled. "Well, I don't know either, but maybe that's why I'm so hungry."

Crocus cracked a smile and left before returning with a bunch of food. Alex scarfed the food down at an inhumane speed before burping loudly and smiled with a satisfied look on his face.

Alex took another nap and started to relieve his fatigue.

When he woke up, Crocus was still beside him. Alex looked around curiously. "Where are we?"

Crocus didn't even look up from his book. "God valley. Same place you got shot."

Alex was surprised. "Were you the one who attacked??"

Crocus flipped a page. "Yes and no. Yes we are pirates and our fight destroyed a lot of the island, but we were fighting against someone who wanted to take over the world, or become king or something… Who cares?"

Alex facepalmed. "Everyone cares! You just forgot what he wanted!"

Crocus ignored him and continued reading his book.

"Don't just ignore me cause I was right!" Alex called out.

Crocus cleaned out his ear with his pinky. "Did you say something?"

Alex sighed in defeat. "You're a doctor right?"

Crocus nodded.

"Can you teach me?" Alex asked with stars in his eyes.

"I don't need an apprentice." Crocus replied.

"Then just teach me while I'm still injured!" Alex refused to back down.

Crocus looked at him seriously. "Do you want to become a doctor? It's not as fun as you might think, many people will die because you failed to treat them. Can you live with the guilt?"

Alex wasn't phased in the slightest by Crocus's words. "I want to be-no, I'm GOING to be the smartest person in the world! And to do that, I need to become a doctor."

Crocus was slightly amused that he wasn't scared off by his threat. "Why do you have to be a doctor to do that?"

Alex looked at him like he was an idiot. "Cause doctors are smart."

Crocus looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

Alex sighed. "I'm surrounded by idiots…. Don't you get it? If I want to be the smartest person in the world I need to be smarter than all the smart people."

Crocus laughed. "Fine, I'll teach you a bit while you recover. Mr. Genius."

Alex smiled happily.

Meanwhile, outside of the makeshift medical room. Shanks was charging at Roger.

"HAAA!" He yelled as he swung a metal pipe down at Roger's knee.

Roger laughed and smacked him into the floor. "I like this kid! He's got guts!"

Shanks used the pipe to stand up and panted heavily. "Why can't I see my friend?"

Roger smiled from ear to ear. "You can… if you beat me!" A wave of conquerors haki attacked Shanks and he fell to his knees for a bit while resisting before passing out.

Roger laughed. "Hahahaha! He's good!"

A man with gold hair and a black beard stood behind Roger and shook his head in dismay. "You're too hard on him, he's just a kid."

Roger laughed. "It builds character, Ray!"

Rayleigh just shrugged and walked away.

Roger spoke up again. "Call it what you want, but if the kid wants to survive in this world, he needs this, and you know it."

Rayleigh sighed before nodding. "Unfortunately you're right."

Just like this, the days passed. Eventually two full weeks had gone by.

Alex was soaking up knowledge like a madman. Asking Crocus a constant barrage of questions, some of which, even Crocus couldn't answer.

Shanks was constantly getting thrown around by Roger and sometimes even Rayleigh, he had started developing the basics and was silently shocking the two each and every day with his growth.

Alex's wound was finally fully healed, completely destroying Crocus's knowledge of gun wounds. This kid was weird.

Alex walked out of his little home. The sun assaulted his eyes after being absent from his life for so long.

Shanks saw him covering his eyes with his forearms and smiled. He ran over and called out to Alex. "You're alive!"

Alex turned to face him and smiled. "Of course I am. It was a simple surgical revision of the abdominal cavity."

Crocus shook his head with a soft smile. Look at this rookie, trying to sound smart when he was still a frog in a well.

Shanks and Alex laughed and started catching up, talking about the last two weeks of training for both of them. Shanks was really jealous of Alex…

"What do you mean you didn't get smacked around? You didn't even get thrown into a building once?! Bullshit!" Shanks cried out.

Alex laughed at his friend's misfortune, that's what friends are for after all, to make fun of you!

As the two were catching up a loud laugh echoed through the valley. Everyone looked towards the one remaining mountain before feeling the very earth beneath them tremble and crack.

Roger laughed and his crew drew their weapons before Roger waved them all back, pulling a black blade engraved with the word 'Ace' on it, from its sheath.

"You're still alive!" Roger exclaimed in excitement.

A massive shadow outlined the rubble that was once a massive building in front of Shanks and Alex. The shadow was easily the same size as the building and Shanks and Alex started trembling in fear as the ground trembled with each step the shadow took.

Eventually, a large man with blonde hair and a massive white mustache came out from behind the mountain. Laughing in a hearty tone.

"GURARARARARA!"