Voyage Name: Trial Vial Supplial
Location: Jordsand
Participant(s): With others
Description:

Sofia is starting out in the world of medicine, and she will request help from the new friend she has gotten from the Hunter Jacquelin encounter: Doctor Kouse, aka Dr. K. With his help, she will begin her studies in how to treat people, as well as treat a few of the abundant amount of injured people that there is on Jordsand, given its constant state of warfare.

Reg: https://strawhats.rpg-board.net/t2269-trial-vial-supplial?nid=1063#14473

Sofia was hidden in a cave that she had found, with Kouse. It was one of the quieter places here on Jordsand - there was always so much commotion at the main areas of the island. She had even set up a little picnic for them as well, given the notable lack of restaurants around this part. It was quite close to the guerrilla area, but far enough to not be part of the the main combat areas.

There was a cloth on the floor for them to be on, and a basket with fruits for the two of them. Sofia helped herself to an orange, and was peeling it with her hand, using her fingers as a blunt knife.

"So, Kouse." she started off, to then swallow down a slice of orange. "How do you think we could practice here? There's bound to be a lot of injured people with this constant war going on. But it might be hard to get close, no? Maybe... We could ask at a nearby clinic if they need help. Or set up our own little medical service, perhaps."

Then, she felt something inside of her. It was probably Anna Blue, moving around again. She was still not totally used to being this castle being just yet, but she was getting the hang of it. She already had it for a long time now, but she was still surprised at times from it.

"Coast is clear." the Navigator told her, from her insides. "But I'll still keep watch."

On the arrival at Jordsand, Kouse had heard about a part of the island, that was currently engaged in a severe and bloody war, and with war comes casualties.
This was the perfect environment to practice his medical skills and also start Sofia's medical training. A war zone might seem like an extreme situation to start off someone's training with, but Kouse wanted Sofia to experience first hand, how it was to handle trauma cases. Things would get bloody and crazy quickly enough, and no matter what people say, the right amount of pressure does help someone learn faster.

Kouse took a bite of an apple as Sofia asked how they would start things.

"Well, both of your suggestions are good. We could either set up our own service or help out in a nearby clinic." Kouse took another big bite from his apple. "But I think getting some experience working in a clinic would be best, I'm betting with this war, they'd need all the help they can get."

Once Kouse had finished his apple, he would stand up, dusting himself and pick up his personal and well stocked first aid box.

"Let's head out and check if we'll spot any clinic out there, shall we?." Considering Sofia agreed and followed Kouse out of the cave, Kouse would continue talking. "The clinic might be a makeshift one though, or it might not even be a building, just a tent or something. But I believe, once there are doctors and patients gathered together, its a clinic."

Sofia followed him, and took the basket with her, to then also pick up the cloth they had been sitting on and tuck it into there as well. "I see." she replied, after hearing Kouse's advice to go find a clinic for them first.

"Maybe we could scout a bit around her." she then proposed, as she peered around the entrance of the little cave. "Hopefully we can find a place we can help out at."

---

After some time looking around, Sofia eventually found a little house-hut of a sort, in a clearing in the forest. It had some wet clothing hanging outside too - doctor's coats.


Curious, she approached the place, and knocked on the door, to then hear a old, hoarse voice come from within.

"Yes?" it said. "Who is it? What do you want?"

"I'm Sofia." she replied. "Is this a clinic? It seems like it, given the coats hanging outside..."

"And if it is?" the grandma on the other side replied.

"Well, I was wondering if... We could help out." the noble mentioned. "I'm a doctor myself. Well, a doctor-in-training. So, I was wondering if I could volunteer here."

"Volunteer? You mean like, work for free?"

"Yeah."

"Oh. Ohohoho." the elder one then replied. "If it's thaaat, then I could definitely arrange something for us. Please, come inside."

Then, the door opened, revealing the short granny, who then gestured for them to go further in.

"Alright, let's check around. There should surely be a clinic set up nearby." Kouse agreed to Sofia's suggestion.

With some searching, they finally got to a hut, where doctors coats were visibly hanging outside, drying up under the sun. The small building was in a newly cut clearing, and also looked newly set up.
'Well, the prolonged war must have forced several small medical centers to pop up in the area.' Kouse thought.

Sofia approached the hut and knocked, introducing herself to an old woman who opened the door. Sofia confirmed that this was in fact a hospital and offered their help, voluntarily and for free.
On hearing that, the woman was much more receptive to them, immediately inviting them in with smiles.

Once Kouse walked into the clinic, he was further reminded about the war going on, and the casualties one so long caused. There were 50 beds crammed into the little hospital and all were occupied by bleeding and dying soldiers. Some were fortunately for them, already passed out due to either blood loss or extreme pain, while the others that were still conscious were delirious, moaning helplessly in pain, with wounds infected and festering.

Kouse had never been a doctor in a war zone before, but he had read several books written by doctors who had, and yet, he couldn't have expected the feelings going through him right now. Seeing so many people in need of different kinds of medical treatment all gathered into one place, triggered his doctors instincts and sent it into overdrive.

The moment Kouse had walked into the building, he'd used his immense ability of deduction to separate, the lost causes with the almost lost causes and the non fatally injured soldiers.

He rushed over to a patient with several bullet holes visible in his exposed body. Kouse took a better look, noticing that one was in his chest and two in his stomach. He was bleeding through the bandages placed over the wound. 

With the level of treatment Kouse could see, the old woman was either way past her peak as a doctor, or wasn't even one, just a nurse who was quickly promoted to help with the war front. Like he always said, 'Good doctors are hard to find.'

"I'm Dr K, I own a hospital of my own, we were in the area, heard about the war and decided to help out with the injured." Kouse was already quickly but carefully removing the bandages to take a closer look at the patients chest, deciding to take the bullet there out first. "I take it you can't handle the more severe injuries, I'll take over the serious cases, while you can handle the others."

The moment Kouse took off the bandage, the bullet hole bled freely, he instantly plugged the hole, applying pressure on it with a fresh piece of absorbent material. 

He spotted Sofia standing beside him watching closely.

"Okay, we've got severe bleeding here, thankfully the other two holes aren't bleeding as bad. But if we don't do something about it soon, he's going to be our first patient and our first 'lost' patient today." Kouse didn't like putting the pressure on Sofia, but something learned under duress was something you never forgot, and Kouse wanted Sofia to learn as much as she could, as fast as he could teach her. "No time to think, say what comes to your mind first and do so quickly."

The old woman smiled and she let the two do their thing. She seemed a bit nervous at first when they got inside and the pirate doctor started to get to work, but she soon looked relieved instead. By the way that she walked around, it seemed like she wasn't going to be able to move much herself - how was she practicing medicine until now like that?

After hearing Kouse's orders, Sofia nodded. "OK" she replied, to then approach the patient and take their hand, to then look at them. She wanted to tell them that it was all alright, to soothe them with words. But then she made a double-take. She wasn't here to just palliate people's injuries with nice speaking, she was here to cure them.

She then took a pair of prongs with her free limb. "Hold on tight" she mentioned, holding his hand tighter, and then carefully inserted it into the wound - the man flinched and started to exhale loudly through his teeth - to then pull out the lead bullet. Blood started to pour out of it like a small fountain, and she quickly wrapped it up in bandage while applying a light tourniquet so that the flow would stop.

Then, she did the same with the other bullet, and after that, she started to clean up some of the blood that had been splattered around from this with a small hand-towel.

"Did I do it alright?" she asked her teacher, looking at Doctor K.

What he expected was for Sofia to first say what she thought was the correct course of action, then after he agreed to disagreed with her choice, he would then show her how to do it.
But Kouse wasn't expecting her to take things entirely into her own hands. Kouse adjusted his glasses as Sofia, skipped the learning phase and went straight into performing a surgery. She took out the bullet in good enough speed, and stopped the bleeding on time. 
Kouse realized that there was no way she could do all that without some history treating injuries. Removing a bullet wasn't something one just knew by chance.

"Well, that was a pleasant surprise Sofia." Kouse said as he looked over Sofia's work. "You've surely got some experience treating patients, alright then, we'll turn this to an intense practice session for you."

Kouse would turn round and rush over to the next patient. "You can go off, handling other patients, preferably the less fatal ones, and if you have any questions or you're not sure of what to do, just ask."

Kouse took a quick look at the young man laying on the bed,unconscious before him. His head was bleeding and he had a piece of metal sticking out of it.
Kouse hated head injuries, they always proved almost impossible to treat. The complications that are possible from head injuries are just so much, ranging from tissue damage to brain bleed and finally, being brain dead.
A person being permanently 'brain dead' was the worst kind of death and the hardest one to explain to people.

With a sigh he activated his 'ROOM' ability, he had to give his all, if he was to save his patient.

"Oh! I'm glad you were pleasantly surprised" she replied with a cheery tone, clapping her hands togther. "And yes. I think I'm ready for an intense one, then."

Once she was told to go off handle the less fatal ones, she nodded, to then say "Alright. I'll go do that then, I hope I do well! I'll give it my all."

She then went off, but then she felt the ROOM expand and go past her. She was familiar with what it was - it was this doctor's Devil Fruit ability. Curious, Sofia decided to stay and peek at how he treated people with this strange and unique power.

Then, the old lady that allowed them in arrived too, and put herself next to Sofia.

"So, who is that guy anyways? And who the fuck are you? Like, I'm super happy y'all are here treating the people. But, who are you?"

"I'm Sofia. Lady Sofia, of the island of Sofia." the noble replied, feeling the need to be quite specific about it because of this demand about who she was. "And this is Dr. K" she added. "He's quite the fantastic doctor."

"Yeah, I can see that." the granny replied. "Some Devil Fruit powers, huh? That feels like cheating."

"Nothing is cheating when you're saving a life." Sofia then replied. "D-don't take that as that I endorse drugs to keep people alive or anything, some of those are dangerous! But... Yeah. I think it's great that he can use his Devil Fruit like that."

And thus, Sofia wondered if she too could use her Castle Castle abilities for medical use as well...

Focusing on the surgical procedure in front of him. Kouse picked up his scalpel and rongeur and placed them just to his right, so it was easy for him to reach.
He adjusted his glasses as he took a closer look at the injury and the piece of metal protruding from his head.
There was no way Kouse could know how deep the metal was or the kind of damage the metal had already done. For all he knew, irreparable damage might have already been done and his patient was already a goner. Also the risks of removing the piece of metal were humongous. Even if by chance, on entry the metal hadn't already caused serious damage to the brain, then taking it out the wrong way would surely cause it.

Damage 'was' done on entry. Hope it isn't irreparable.

Damage 'will' occur if left in.

Damage 'might' occur if taken out.

All these scenarios and options passed through Kouse's mind in seconds, and it also only took that much time to decide to take the risks. 
The probabilities of success of such surgeries in the present time that Kouse was, was near non-existent. But with his devil fruit ability helping him out, Kouse had at least taken out one problem, which made the probability of success of the surgery skyrocket.

'Damage 'might' occur if taken out.'

With his 'ROOM' activated, Kouse could perform all kinds of operations without any risk of causing any 'more' damage himself. 

He grabbed his scalpel and with sufficient speed, cut open the scalp around the head of his patient.
He would then clean the exposed part properly before bringing out the 'Rongeur'. 

With this equipment, Kouse would slowly and carefully cut open the bone in the skull, surrounding the part where the metal had passed through, until it came loose.
Slowly, Kouse would take the metal out of the brain. 
Fortunately, the part of the metal that was lodged deep into the brain wasn't as long as Kouse had feared, meaning the damage might be less.

Kouse looked at the exposed brain intently for sometime, before replacing the piece of skull back by placing a few metal screws, closing it shut. He would then stitch back the exposed scalp, completing the procedure.

Kouse would stretch his hands out wide, and take a deep breath before he moved to the next patient. Adrenaline was stopping him from taking even a moment to rest.

He wondered how Sofia was doing, he had noticed her move past him and start speaking with the elderly woman, but he had paid no attention to them, concentrating on his patient instead. Kouse hoped she was getting some good practical experience.

Sofia watched how the Ope Ope doctor did his work - it was remarkable. She had seen him in action before with this, given how he removed the bombs back at the Jacquelin encounter, but it was still a spectacle to see regardless.

Then, when he was done, she remembered that she should probably be doing some work herself, but before resuming, she looked back at the old lady.

"So..." Sofia started off. "Are we doing alright here?"

"Oh yes, of course!" the granny replied. "It's all free right? Right?"

"Yes." the noble then admitted. "Just practice, mostly."

"Then no problem. Free money for me, haha! I hope you don't mind."

Sofia did mind, though. She enjoyed money too, but given the situation, she didn't know if it would be the best to vie for that right now here. But it irked her to have to work for free like this. But, there definitely was the reward of experience, so that helped palliate the feeling a bit.

"By the way..." she then mentioned. "Do you sell medicine here?"

"Of course." the granny replied. "Some people just come to get their pain meds or whatever."

Sofia then held her chin. That could be a business opportunity - for Kouse too, if he'd like to join in. And to get further into that, she would have to get on her good side - which meant working for free more.

"Oh, OK. Cool." she replied, to then go back and start to attend the wounded again, making sure that the granny was watching her work hard.

Kouse's next patient's condition, wasn't complicated, the solution was clear, it was necessary and without doing it soon, she would lose her life. 

She only needed her leg chopped off at the knee. 

Although it was a simple solution, it was a painful one. One that was necessary and had to be done.

"I'm so sorry, Emma" Kouse said as he drew out his sword slowly. "Your leg is way too infected, it has to come off. I'll make it so you don't feel any pain from it."

Emma's body was incredibly hot, the infection on her leg was weakening her rapidly, and would lead to her death soon. Just a sword wound that only needed proper cleaning and dressing was left unattended to for just too long. Now the leg had to go, the infection had even gotten down to her bone. 
Kouse looked at the leg, she was even fortunate that the infection hadn't spread even more.

"Dr, i, I can't... I'm nothing without my leg, my life is over without one." Emma stammered out, whilst panting heavily. "If you take it away, I can no longer be a soldier, and a soldier is all I'll ever be."

Kouse reached out to stroke her hair, smiling down at her. "Your live is worth more, you're still young. You still have your whole life ahead of you." Kouse showed her the anesthetic injection. "With this, you won't feel any pain, you'll sleep through the whole thing, and wake up feeling much better."

This was the only way to save her life, lose a leg or lose your life.
It was her only option and Kouse wanted nothing more than to save her life.
He was about to inject her when she shouted.

"No!" 

Kouse stopped himself just before he injected her with it.

"Listen to me Emma --." 

"I said no!." She said again. "I understand all what you've said. I lose my leg or I die. But I choose not to lose it Dr. Without my leg, I'm nothing, I refuse to become nothing after all my --." An intense bout of coughing interrupted her sentence.

Kouse nodded once and dropped the syringe, also putting down his sword. He wouldn't help her. After all it was a patients choice if they wanted to be treated or not, he wouldn't force her, it was her live, if she wanted to live or die was her choice.

"Alright, Emma, but you will be in intense pain. Hope you are prepared for that." 

"I'm not Dr K. I've had enough. I just want it all to be over."

"You want to die." 
It wasn't a question but a statement. This was not the first time a patient chose death over a costly or painful treatment.

"I will not help you do that." Kouse took a step back.

"Please Dr, you are here to help us, then help me, you don't know what I've been through, the last month."

Kouse looked straight into Emma's eyes, making absolute certain she was coherent and meant what she was saying. After a moment, Kouse knew she did mean it.
But she was still alive!, if only he could convince her to live with one leg.

"I still think you--."

"Please Dr.....please." Tears began to fall down Emma's face.

Kouse adjusted his glasses, finally accepting that there was no saving this patients life. "Okay here,take this pill."

Kouse would hand her a small white pill. "Take it, when you're ready. You'll feel no pain." 

With one last long look and a nod to Emma, Kouse would leave her and walk over to check on Sofia, there was nothing more he could do for Emma, she had made her decision.

"So how is the treatment going here?." Kouse would ask Sofia, the moment he got to where she was, Emma was already out of his mind.

It was completely occupied by the next patient he had to attend to.

Sofia went back to helping more patients as well, and now and then, look at Kouse, who was diligent at work himself as well. Once to became dinnertime, the granny came over with a bowl of noodles with bologna for the two of them.

"It's the least I can do for you two." she mentioned, as she came next to each of them to let them have the plate. "You've got to eat to have energy to do medicine!"

"Oh, I appreciate it a lot." Sofia then said, to then take her plate and sit near Kouse, so that he could hear and input as well to what she was about to suggest.

"So, ma'am" the noble then said. "As you well know, we can't be here forever..."

The other woman nodded. "Well, of course. But I'm glad to have you here for the time being! Stay as long as you'd like. I don't mind you volunteering around here."

"Yes." Sofia then replied. "And, Of course I'd love to help, after we're gone."

"Helping after you're gone? How are you going to do that?" the granny asked.

"We can make medical products, and have them shipped here for you." Sofia noted. "We could sell them here and keep you stocked up with all of the latest you may need."

The woman held her chin. "Well, you do seem to be really good doctors..."

"Indeed!" Sofia replied.

It was the ingenuity of Sofia's suggestion that snapped Kouse out of his thoughts. He'd lost two patients all day, and while a normal doctor would see it as a very good days work, Kouse didn't. Most of the patients he'd treated had not only suffered severe wounds, but said wounds had been badly treated and most were infected. Once wounds got that way, it became far more difficult to save the patients life. 
This reason however didn't make Kouse feel any better. Thankfully, Sofia and the old ladies discussion finally interested him.

"Yeah,and if the war persists long enough, I could send a couple of intern doctors from my hospital here, to get a little much needed practice and also help out as much they can."

In war, there was mostly always a winning and a losing side. A more brutal and weaker side. It was fate that had it, that Kouse and Sofia would in fact be helping the injured of the losing side, they didn't know this, but it would soon be clear.

Kouse adjusted his glasses as he was about to continue talking when he heard a loud sound like a cannon firing from just outside the building, then several voices shouting out in alarm as they ran.

Then a young looking man, not more than 25yrs opened the clinic's door.

"Our eastern defense line got breached!, we have to get out of here!, you guys should--." A loud gun shut sounded right behind him and his speech ended prematurely with a gasp of both surprise and pain. He was dead the moment he hit the floor.

Kouse finally got to see the enemy, he walked in waving his gun at them all boldly, not scared once he realized that this was a clinic filled with injured soldiers and harmless doctors.

Kouse and Sofia had only agreed to help treat the injured, not to join in the fight, so he didn't make a move.
All his senses were screaming for him to attack, cause although Kouse was a doctor, he was a pirate also and had lots of battle experience.

"You all are now prisoners of war, we'll be transporting you all to prisons shortly." The man with the gun announced.

The old lady doctor finally spoke up. "Most of the people here will need extensive medical care if they are to survive, will you guys be providing proper medical care for them?"

"Naa, no medical care at all, you know how much that shit costs? the ones who can't survive the transport and prison as they are now, dies. Simple." The gun man said, just as half a dozen others joined him.

That statement was all Kouse needed to hear, to make him decide to join the fight.

"Fuck." Sofia thought to herself, and immediately spawned a clone of herself inside of her body, and started to rush towards the Den Den she had inside of her.

"Huh? What happened?" her Navigator asked, waking up from her nap, as the miniature clone dashed past her.

"We're under attack!" the internal Sofia said, and grabbed the Den Den. Who would she call? Madori? And try to get more Phantom Raiders in here? Just in case, she dialed them, and let them know that herself and Dr. K were going to be in a mess for a bit, for information's sake.

Prison? Soldiers? she wondered. If they were affiliated with the World Government, this was bad, because she couldn't touch them.

But they weren't. She could clearly see that they were just another group of guerrillas - Revolutionaries, to be more exact. She could recognize that they weren't part of any sort of local or established government given their appearance, through her knowledge of being a noble, and them being organized like this was a lot more reminiscent of Revs.

"We-we're in Revolutionary territory?" Anna Blue then asked her from within, having reached the same conclusion, confirming the idea even more.

"Apparently so." the mini-Sofia then said. "But, it's a chance for us to look good for our good old World Government."

"Hohoho, right on!" the little Marine then said. "All hands on deck, Gruntsons!"

Sofia then got into a combat stance, holding her Poise.

"I can stop them from getting closer to the patients!" Sofia told Kouse. "But you'll need to handle taking them out!"

Kouse had no ties to any particular faction, so it didn't matter to him who the men with the guns were affiliated with. All Kouse could see were animals who wanted to get his patients imprisoned and most likely killed in the process, seeing as most of them were too sick to be moved.

"Alright Sofia!" Kouse replied.

He could have taking them all down himself and without his devil fruit ability, but Kouse also knew that without it, there could be possible casualties. With the door, 30 meters away from where Kouse stood, he instantly increased the range of his already active 'ROOM' ability to its limits, and with a slight flick of his left hand, the gun with the enemy soldier being pointed at them all, swapped locations with Kouse's empty scabbard.

With his sword held firmly in his right hand. Kouse sent a wide horizontal slash, cutting all 7 enemies right in half, from the waist.
With another slash, Kouse cut off their arms, followed by another slash which took out their legs.
The shock on their faces was hilarious as their bodies lay in several pieces on the floor, completely incapacitated and helpless.
With another flick of his fingers, all the various weapons, swords,guns and knives the 7 soldiers brought in with them all levitated and gathered together in a little circle, just 10 meters in front of Kouse.

Kouse deactivated his 'ROOM' ability and turned to the old doctor.

"This place is compromised. We need to get the patients all out of here, and to a safe location." Kouse would say even as his mind took on the disheartening probabilities of this being successful. 

Seeing as most of the patients were in critical state, moving them could cause them harm and aggravate their injuries. Also, while they are being moved, he had to be in direct and constant contact with them, to monitor their conditions and handle any unforeseen circumstance that might arise.

Moving them all to a safer location was necessary, but the probabilities of it actually working, and working well was extremely low, and Kouse knew it.