Outside, in Ark One's medical bay.
"Thank you for your hard work, Dr. Kureha!"
Ain bowed slightly to Kureha as she left the operating room. Her eyes were red.
At that, Dr. Kureha stopped and snatched the bottle from Ain's hand.
Glug... glug...
"Ah... that hit the spot!"
After a long drink, Kureha gave a satisfied belch.
"I've been a doctor for so many years. I thought I'd seen everything this world could throw at me..."
"Never thought I'd end up operating on a dead man."
Then she saw the grief on Ain's face and shook her head.
"Anyway, I've done what I promised. Whether he comes back to life is up to you."
Even with every airship and ark combined, they could evacuate only a fifth of the planet's population. The closer people lived to Mountain Ancestor, the lower their chances of being among that fifth.
Unless they boarded before the Marines made their move.
Kureha still cared deeply about the Kingdom of Sakura.
So she had taken this job in exchange for priority boarding for its citizens.
With that, she glanced at the crowd of important figures gathered outside the operating room. Utterly unfazed, she gave them a sidelong look and staggered away with her bottle.
"Who exactly is she?"
Aokiji covered his nose. The smell of alcohol was so strong that she clearly hadn't stopped drinking even during surgery.
Wasn't she afraid of making a medical mistake?!
Well... perhaps she really wasn't.
After all, Ron had been confirmed to have no brain activity whatsoever. He had been, in every sense, a corpse.
"No idea. I only remember that when I first became commander-in-chief, the Five Elders personally told me that no matter what happened in Drum... the Kingdom of Sakura, no government personnel were to go near