"Vanessa?"
"You… you're awake?"
Not only was Kingpin's body trembling, even his voice shook.
The shock and joy surging through him at that moment were beyond words.
He almost wondered if he was seeing things.
Because three minutes ago, Vanessa had looked like someone with one foot in the grave.
And now, just three minutes later, she had become lively and radiant all over again.
That kind of thing shouldn't have been possible.
It completely shattered common sense.
As that thought hit him, Fisk's eyes slowly turned back toward Helen Cho.
No matter how hard he tried, he simply couldn't understand it.
How had this woman done it?
She had only held Vanessa's hand—and healed her?
What kind of godlike ability was that?
"Unbelievable…"
"How is this possible?"
Even Wesley, who was usually calm no matter what happened, had gone wide-eyed in disbelief.
Their investigation had already shown that Helen Cho had cured multiple incurable illnesses over the past half month, earning her the name of a miracle worker.
But the process had only taken a few minutes?
That was so outrageous it almost felt offensive to logic itself.
"Wilson, what happened?"
Vanessa sat up in bed, looking at Fisk with confusion.
Fisk hurried over instinctively to support her, but Vanessa gently pushed him away.
She smiled.
"You're acting like I'm some critically ill patient. But right now, I feel perfectly fine."
"Vanessa, how does your body feel? Are you uncomfortable anywhere?"
Fisk immediately stared at her, his voice full of concern.
"I'm fine. Better than fine." Vanessa carefully felt herself out, then her eyes widened slightly. "Actually… I don't think I've ever felt this energetic in my life. I feel full of strength."
Only after seeing her state with his own eyes and hearing her say it herself did Fisk finally let out the breath he had been holding.
Then Vanessa frowned slightly.
"Wait… I remember now. I think I drank a glass of wine, and then everything got hazy. Did I get drunk, Wilson?"
She wasn't a heavy drinker, sure, but her tolerance wasn't that bad.
Then she glanced around the room, took in the medical setting, and noticed the woman in the white coat standing nearby.
Vanessa was smart.
She instantly realized this was probably much more serious than she had first assumed.
"Don't worry, Vanessa," Fisk said in a low, heavy voice, as if swearing an oath. "I'll find out exactly what happened."
This woman was his greatest weakness.
Whoever had laid a hand on Vanessa—
He would never let them go.
"Mr. Fisk, Vanessa should be alright now. Since that's the case, I'll take my leave."
Helen Cho stood and politely said her goodbye.
"Dr. Cho, you truly opened my eyes. No… that's not enough. What you did was nothing short of astonishing."
Fisk walked up to her, looking at her the way one might look at a miracle itself.
"What you just did… was a genuine miracle."
"You flatter me, Mr. Fisk. I'm just a lucky person, that's all."
Helen didn't look remotely proud. If anything, she sounded even more humble.
In her view, gaining this power really had been nothing but luck.
If she hadn't happened to run into Wade…
If she hadn't kept bothering him…
How could she ever have encountered something as miraculous as a Devil Fruit?
She truly was just fortunate.
"Dr. Cho, you're too modest."
Fisk felt even more respect for her now.
He had met far too many people in his life—people who achieved the smallest thing and immediately started boasting like they ruled the world, as if everyone else should kneel and worship them.
But Helen Cho?
She had just created something that could shake the entire medical world to its foundations.
And yet she remained this humble.
The contrast was staggering.
"You cured Vanessa. That makes you a great benefactor to me, Wilson Fisk. Dr. Cho, no matter what, please give me a chance to express my gratitude."
Fisk spoke with complete sincerity.
"Mr. Fisk, there's no need to thank me. I only did what I should have done. Helping people is something I wanted to do in the first place."
Helen waved her hand dismissively.
"Dr. Cho, please don't refuse. If I let you leave like this, Vanessa will definitely scold me later."
He actually smiled.
"And you wouldn't want that, would you?"
It was a rare sight.
For a man like Fisk—cold-faced and rarely seen smiling—to actually smile at all showed just how good his mood was.
Unfortunately, his features were far too intimidating. Even when he was being friendly, he still didn't exactly look like a good person.
"Dr. Cho, don't refuse," Vanessa said as she walked over and gently took Helen's hand. "If we let you leave hungry after what you did for me, that would be truly rude. Don't you agree?"
Vanessa hadn't seen what happened herself—she had been unconscious the whole time—but the situation was obvious enough.
She wasn't stupid.
She could tell perfectly well what had happened.
In the end, Helen couldn't resist the joint assault of Fisk and Vanessa's enthusiasm and reluctantly agreed.
Overjoyed, Fisk immediately arranged a lavish dinner at a luxury hotel nearby to thank her properly.
And on the spot, he donated five million dollars to Helen's research center as research funding.
That was his way of expressing gratitude.
It was exactly what one would expect from someone who truly didn't care about money.
During dinner, Fisk finally asked the question that had been burning inside him all along.
"Dr. Cho, this may be a bit presumptuous, but… may I ask how exactly you healed Vanessa?"
That bizarre method of curing someone just by holding their hand—
Even with Fisk's experience and knowledge, it was something he had never seen or even heard of before.
He was genuinely curious.
"Of course, if it's inconvenient to say, then pretend I never asked. I'm only asking out of curiosity, not because I mean to pry."
Afraid he might offend her, he quickly added the explanation.
"There's no real reason to keep it secret."
Helen didn't hesitate for long before answering.
After all, hadn't the shop owner asked her to introduce customers for him?
That alone proved he had no intention of keeping Devil Fruits hidden.
In fact, Helen herself had only learned about Devil Fruits because Wade introduced her to them.
Under those circumstances, she naturally saw no reason to conceal it.
Truthfully, she had mentioned Devil Fruits to other people before.
It was just that no one had believed her.
"The method I used to heal Vanessa wasn't a medical technique," Helen said after briefly gathering her thoughts. "It was an ability I gained from a Devil Fruit."
A Devil Fruit?
Fisk froze on the spot.
What was that supposed to be?
He had never heard of such a thing in his life.