As everyone waited, time seemed to drag on forever.
At last, after what felt like ages, Kureha finally came out.
"Doctor, how is she? Can you treat her?"
"Glug, glug. Ha!" Kureha had barely quenched her thirst from her bottle before Kuma sprang up, unable to wait any longer. "Tell me how she is!"
"Hmph! Do you have any idea who I am? It's only a case of Sapphire Scale. I have a few ways to deal with it."
"Huh?" Kureha's words left even Gray stunned. He hadn't expected her to actually have a solution.
"Please tell me what that solution is, Doctor, and what we need to do."
At that, Kureha stopped keeping them in suspense. "Your daughter's illness is congenital, passed down from her mother. You've done well to keep her out of the sunlight."
"But as she grows older, so does the disease."
"Judging by her current condition, she has at most about four years left."
Kuma had known Kureha's prognosis already. It was why he was so anxious, and why he had never dared tell Bonney that she had so little time to live.
"Doctor, just tell me what we need to do to cure Bonney."
Kureha ignored the question and explained the only solution she could think of. "Given your daughter's condition, medication would only suppress the disease's daily progression. It would do little to treat the root cause."
"Going by my prescriptions, I could only delay it by five or six years at most."
Gray, who had been listening from the side, had to speak up. "Doctor Kureha, could she be cured if Princess Mansherry's abilities were used alongside yours?"
Kuma nodded quickly. "That's right, Doctor. We also have Devil Fruit abilities to help."
"Could Princess Mansherry's healing ability, or my own ability to