It is rare for a person to die of two causes simultaneously, but three? It must be some kind of record the character Dr. Hiriluk sets with his grand exit from the One Piece stage.
Stricken with an incurable disease, the kindhearted doctor already knew his time was limited. He even banished his own son from his home to spare him the trauma of watching his father die. But when said son returns anyway—with a proclaimed miracle cure, no less—Hiriluk can’t possibly turn him away.
Alas, the mushroom young Chopper has dug up in Death Valley is poisonous, and so Dr. Hiriluk, in a final act of compassion, knowingly seals his own fate. The soup tastes terrible, but “that’s how you know it’s working.” And with some last words of encouragement, “You’re going to make a fine doctor one day, Chopper,” Hiriluk sets off for his curtain closing.
At Drum Castle, Dr. Hiriluk expects to find fellow doctors in ill health yet only meets King Wapol, the tyrant ruling the island kingdom with an iron fist. It was a trap sprung to capture a dissenter, and again, whether he knew it or not, Dr. Hiriluk is all too happy to walk into it.
Inside Hiriluk’s body, the disease ravages, and the mushroom soup speeds up the countdown. Outside, he has a dozen guns pointed right at his face. With little left but to accept impending death, what better last stand to take than to deliver a powerful speech?
“You can’t kill me,” Hiriluk counters King Wapol’s command to shoot him. For…
“When does a man die? Is it when a bullet pierces his heart? Or he’s stricken by an incurable disease? No. Is it when he eats soup made from a poisonous mushroom? No. No, no, no. A man dies when he is forgotten. I may disappear, but my dream will live on! And the ailing people of Drum will be healed.”
Hiriluk’s speech is reminiscent of a line from a Macklemore song: “I heard you die twice. Once when they bury you in the grave, and the second time is the last time that somebody mentions your name.” In that regard, Dr. Hiriluk has just ensured his own immortality.
Not only is Dalton, reluctant captain of the evil King’s royal guard, so moved by his speech that he will soon finally rise up against the oppressor. There is also Chopper, Hiriluk’s son, Dr. Kureha, an old colleague, and now the Straw Hat pirate crew, all of whom only learn of Hiriluk’s tale after his disappearance. Yet they all will remember him, and so will their children and children’s children.
Which is why, in the end, it is not his illness, poison, or one of the king’s men’s bullets that brings Dr. Hiriluk’s time on Earth to a close—but two small explosives, just big enough to cause a spark without hurting anyone, which he decisively smashes over his head.
As the doctor goes up in smoke, he does’t know for certain, of course. But, ultimately, he’ll have guessed right: The spark he caused was much larger than the fireworks. His son will be a fine doctor. His dream, as his name, will live on. And Drum kingdom will be healed.
When does a man die? Never—if only we remember him in word, deed, name, tale, or even legend.
