Eren endured the sympathetic gazes cast his way, a feeling he knew all too well from a past life. Whether in the grim world of the Titans or this new era of pirates, pity was a poison he refused to swallow. He had his own freedom to chase now, unburdened by the ties of Mikasa. Nothing would hold him back.
"My Amber Lead Syndrome has its benefits," Eren explained, gesturing to his now-hardened skin. "It lets me use this—the ability to harden. That's why the 'titan' bodies turn so white and rock-hard."
His words, Eren knew, were a stark oversimplification. This wasn't a Devil Fruit power; it was a symptom of his affliction, a twisted blessing born from a deadly curse. The hardening ability, which made his body as durable as stone and allowed him to fashion his own limbs into weapons, came at a terrible price: the accelerating ravages of his disease.
Of course, all of this was a narrative fabricated by Kaito, with the system's help, to make it appear as though Eren suffered from Amber Lead Syndrome
"Amber Lead Syndrome is incurable," Doctor Kureha stated bluntly, her tone devoid of sugar-coating. "You're lucky to be alive at all. To cure it completely, you'd need someone with the Ope-Ope ni Mi or a similarly powerful ability. With my medical knowledge, I can only delay its progression."
Kureha had done all she could. For a patient whose bones were already permeated with the deadly poison, her specially concocted medicine could only act as a temporary suppressive agent. It was a reprieve, not a cure, and it only postponed the inevitable. It was simply buying Eren time.
"I never expected you to cure me completely," Eren said, his voice level despite the gravity of her words. "Just buying more time is enough for me."
A hush fell over the room. The joyous relief from Nami and Sanji's recovery was replaced by the cold, hard reality of Eren's condition. The Straw Hats were a band of misfits, but they were also a family.
Even though Eren was never part of their crew, he had saved them countless times. They couldn't bring themselves to offer hollow words of comfort, so they stayed silent, a shared weight pressing down on them all.
Suddenly, a laugh broke the tension. Luffy had sneaked up behind the small, shrunken Chopper and was now mercilessly tickling him. "Eren's future might just depend on this little tanuki," he declared with a grin. "Chopper, will you come with me to sea?"
"Shi-shi-shi! I'm not a tanuki! Shi-shi-shi! Stop it! I'm not going with you if you keep doing this! Shi-shi-shi!" Chopper's tiny body shook with laughter. In his more powerful, human-hybrid form, he could have easily broken free from the rubber man's grasp with a single punch, but here, he was at Luffy's mercy.
"The Sky Screen said you'll be my partner in the future," Luffy continued, his fingers relentless. "And I like you a lot. I'm definitely taking you with me!"
"The Sky Screen is changing again," Eren announced, his voice pulling everyone's attention to the window. The text on the colossal projection shifted, revealing a new saga to the world.
[Luffy scaled Drum Mountain with frostbitten hands, an injured nakama clenched in his teeth. Thanks to the captain's perseverance, Sanji and Nami were finally treated by Chopper. Had he lost his navigator and cook, this brilliant-minded captain would have been lost at sea and starved long before reaching the Kingdom of Arabasta.]
[After careful treatment from the doctor, Nami was the first to wake. She was the first crewmate to lay eyes on Chopper. The sight of this blue-nosed, talking creature did not fill her with fear; instead, she found him incredibly cute.]
[Luffy's initial motive for recruiting Chopper was not his skill as a doctor. He was simply intrigued by the reindeer's multiple transformation abilities and thought it would be 'fun' to have him aboard the pirate ship.]
[Luffy chased Chopper through the snow, finally winning over the doctor with his boundless enthusiasm. Chopper, the future 'Zoan God,' finally joined the crew. During this time, the Straw Hats helped liberate the island by defeating the former king, Wapol, laying the groundwork for the future establishment of the Sakura Kingdom.]
[Future historians will attest that joining the Straw Hat Pirates was the best decision Tony Tony Chopper ever made. Without the adventures alongside his companions, who cherished and understood him, he would have never achieved anything of note. He might have simply become an ordinary doctor on Drum Island, and his name would have been lost to the annals of history.]
[Here, using the Straw Hat Pirates as an example, some believe that the crew's affection for Chopper is so great that they inadvertently influenced the world's perception of him. The Marines, for instance, were misled into believing Chopper was a mere pet, failing to give proper attention to the ship's brilliant doctor.]
[Ms. Nami, the Navigator, will go on to become the wealthiest woman in the world. Tesoro, the Golden Emperor who consumed the Gold-Gold Fruit, was said to possess one-fifth of the world's wealth in a single country, but even he would pale in comparison to this legendary woman.]
[In later archaeological discoveries, it was found that the coffin used to hold her body was crafted from a single, thousand-year-old Adam Tree. In addition to being inlaid with hundreds of fist-sized gemstones, more than twenty Devil Fruits were found growing beside the coffin.]
[Analysis of the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia revealed that these were not ordinary Devil Fruits used as burial objects. The least valuable of the bunch was the Jiki Jiki no Mi (Magnetic-Magnetic Fruit). The collection also included several Mythical Zoan-type fruits, with a staggering three Logia-type fruits found in the collection.]
[After extensive archaeological investigation, the entire island beneath our feet was confirmed to be the mausoleum of Ms. Nami. The area of the island is roughly equivalent to the former Kingdom of Arabasta.]
[She also utilized the lost technology of creating Poneglyphs, using murals and text to fully record her legendary life. The level of detail rivals a ship's log. The treasures buried with Nami are beyond measure; it would have taken hundreds of large ships to transport them all.]
[This was mainly because this wealthy woman excavated most of the island from below, digging seven or eight layers deep and setting up many fake main tombs and hundreds of burial chambers. Had it not been for mature laser scanning technology, we would have been fooled by the tomb's owner and missed the real main tomb entirely.]
[According to calculations by several of the world's leading economists, if this wealth were measured in the era of the Great Pirates, with the unit of measurement being Berry, the value of Ms. Nami's burial objects is more than 10 trillion Berries. This is still a conservative estimate. Her wealth during her lifetime was truly immeasurable. She was, in every sense, "wealthy enough to rival a country."]
[This overwhelming wealth, according to the historical records she left behind, had an incredibly important connection with the Straw Hat Pirates—they had found the legendary treasure of the Ancient Kingdom.]
[Ms. Nami had a strong relationship with Chopper and often invited him to bathe with her. As a reindeer, however, he had no interest in human women and preferred to take baths with the male members of the crew.]
[Nami, Chopper, and Usopp were later interpreted by historians as a group of 'Weakling Trio'. They had the lowest combat power within the Straw Hat Pirates, yet they always played a crucial role during critical moments. The financially powerful Nami fully funded Chopper's research, which allowed him to finally develop the Blue Panacea.']
[Like Ms. Nami, the other crewmates regarded Chopper as their most important nakama. He grew up alongside his companions and defeated powerful enemies on their journey. Without this global voyage, he would never have gained the medical wisdom of the future, nor would he be remembered by future generations.]