The Supreme Grand Staircase

After a long while, Louis hung up the Den Den Mushi.

A moment later, Louis spread his broad wings and took flight, slowly making his way back to the temporary courtyard Koshiro had arranged for him at Isshin Dojo.

Soon, Louis descended slowly and folded the wings on his back.

"You're back?"

As soon as he entered, Louis heard Yelena greet him.

Yelena was seated at a table beside the tatami.

Beneath the soft lamplight, her long white hair fell loose, strands of it hanging like silver threads. Her deep, bright red eyes quietly watched Louis as he returned.

Louis pulled out another chair, specially chosen and brought in to suit his size, and sat down.

"It's so late. What brings you here to see me?" Louis met Yelena's deep red gaze, bewildered.

Ever since beginning her treatment, Yelena had kept a very regular schedule. Normally, she would already be asleep at this hour.

Yet today, she had come to find him, which left Louis somewhat puzzled.

Yelena reached up and tucked a strand of silver hair behind her ear, then softly explained why she had come.

"Louis, we'll be going to meet up with Shanks and the others soon, won't we?"

"Yeah. Including the time it'll take to get back, it's about time."

"Then will you invite Uta to stay?" Beneath the soft lamplight, Yelena looked calm, as if none of it mattered to her.

Louis was taken aback, but the next second he smiled and replied, "Of course."

"Is that so..." Yelena smiled. "When are you planning to formally invite her?"

"In a few days..." Louis thought it over before answering.

Yelena gave a slight nod.

"Then I'll head back first." She rose, preparing to return to her temporary room to rest.

But to her surprise, Louis also slowly stood and turned to look in the direction of another part of Isshin Dojo.

Then, under Yelena's gaze, Louis left the courtyard again, spread his broad wings, and took flight toward a particular spot.

Without a moment's hesitation, Yelena leapt up and followed him, running across the rooftops.

At over 2.8 meters tall—slightly taller than Louis—and with a considerable weight, she made quite a racket as she moved.

Her commotion drew plenty of attention, including that of Isshin Dojo's master, Koshiro Shimotsuki.

He put on his glasses and stepped out of his room, watching the two figures with some confusion. Then he extended his Observation Haki in the direction they had gone.

The next instant, his face turned deathly pale. He dropped the katana in his hand and sprinted off at an astonishing speed, racing in the same direction.

In an instant, he had overtaken Yelena and arrived beneath a loft.

When Yelena reached the scene, the sight before her left her stunned for a moment.

Kuina, dressed in plain clothes, lay on the ground, her body spattered with blood and her neck twisted at a bizarre angle.

She was barely clinging to life, just one step away from death.

The moment Louis arrived, he used his Devil Fruit ability. Golden particles of light appeared in his palm, then drifted down over Kuina, whose body was stained red with her own blood.

Koshiro arrived a moment later. Seeing his daughter's condition, his mind went almost completely blank. He instinctively wanted to rush forward and carry her away to seek treatment.

But when he saw the light particles emanating from Louis and seeping into Kuina's body, and saw her condition gradually improve even as she continued coughing up blood,

he restrained himself. Anyone could see that Louis was trying to save Kuina.

Nearby, Yelena, who had just arrived, took in everything at the scene.

The loft's staircase was covered in a series of marks left by someone tumbling down.

A bloodstained whetstone lay off to one side on the ground.

After piecing together all the clues, Yelena quickly understood what had happened.

"Koshiro, straighten Kuina's neck."

Louis's calm voice came from ahead, drawing Yelena's attention once more.

The treatment had reached a critical point. Louis needed Kuina's fractured neck bones to heal back into place.

To prevent the bones from healing crookedly, her neck first had to be manually set.

Koshiro realized this as well. Hearing Louis call out, he did his best to control his emotions and reached out with trembling hands to reset his daughter's bones.

"Crack..."

"Ugh... cough, cough..." With a sharp sound, Kuina let out a series of pained groans.

Seeing this, Louis controlled the Life Energy and quickly repaired the broken bones in Kuina's neck.

A moment later, once Kuina's injuries had mostly healed, Louis slowly drew back the Life Energy.

The Life-Life Fruit's ability to heal external injuries was beyond question. In just a moment, it had pulled Kuina back from the brink of death.

Soon, Kuina's eyes flew open and she sat up, clutching her chest and breathing hard as if trying to calm the fear that came with her brush with death.

Beside her, Koshiro, covered in blood and terrified, pulled Kuina into his arms and gently comforted her. "It's all right now, Kuina..."

At that moment, Koshiro looked up at Louis, his eyes filled with boundless gratitude.

His pale lips moved. Almost trembling, he said, "The Shimotsuki Family will never forget this life-saving kindness..."

With that, he held Kuina, who was beginning to realize what had happened, and dropped to his knees with a thud. Respectfully, he tried to bow his head to Louis.

But Louis didn't care for such formalities. He raised a hand to stop him. "Get up. I'm staying at Isshin Dojo. I couldn't just ignore something like this."

Ever since Louis had arrived at Isshin Dojo, Koshiro had treated him with great courtesy. He had even offered to give Louis the forging materials Kozaburo had left behind and invited him and the others to stay.

Saving Kuina had not been difficult for Louis.

And Louis wasn't heartless. He wouldn't stand by when he could help.

Only after doing all that did Louis look up and gaze thoughtfully at the wooden staircase nearby, marked with a trail of scuffs.

"The Supreme Grand Staircase."

In this absurd world, where everyone was tough as nails, bodies could split mountains and shatter rocks, and injuries could be healed with a few bandages,

some people could grow teeth in an instant by drinking milk and tear through the sound barrier with their bodies. Yet others could fall down a flight of stairs and die.