Day by day, time passed. Before they knew it, more than two months had passed since they left Kujai Island. Over half a year had passed since they left Kujai Island.
...
Wind and snow. A great blizzard.
On this island, which was locked in an eternal winter, storms like this were common. Icy gales howled as Dalton and many of the townsfolk patrolled the coastline, hunting guns and other weapons at the ready.
They raised their telescopes through the storm and scanned the sea. Never again would they allow the evil King Wapol to return to this country.
At the doorway of a treehouse in the mountains, Kureha leaned against the frame with a wine bottle in one hand and a medical text in the other. Outside, in the snow, Liam, Robin, and Chopper were having a snowball fight.
Whiz, whiz, whiz...
Snowballs flew across the clearing, passing through the black, phantom-like suit of armor standing in the middle of the snowy ground.
The reindeer followed Kureha, leaving hoofprints in the snow as they entered a city in this nameless country.
The centenarian doctor kicked open a door and, grinning, called out, "Hey, kid, over there! If you don't get treatment, you'll be dead by 4:20 p.m. four days from now.
The old man drinking at the bar froze, looked left and right, and pointed to his nose. "Me? Dr. Kureha, you must be joking. I'm not sick at all..."
"Are you a doctor?" Kureha smiled.
While Kureha was treating patients in one part of the city, a girl named Ross quietly slipped into a corner in another part. Using her Pipe-Pipe Fruit powers, she opened a round hole in the wall, crept inside, and took some food.
"Hm?" Just as she was about to sneak away, she noticed an old newspaper on the table. When she unfolded it, a few bounty posters slid out.
Whiz! Smack!
A snowball from Chopper hit Robin on the shoulder. She smiled and formed one of her own.
Whiz! Smack!
It landed on Chopper's antlers. Chopper blinked, covered his mouth, and giggled. Thinking it was fun, he rolled up another snowball and threw it at Liam's face. Then he threw another one at Kureha in the doorway.
"You stupid apprentice!" Kureha kicked up a spray of snow that buried Chopper's face. "Don't bother me while I'm reading!"
"Ugh!" Chopper crawled out from under the snow only to look up and see Giorno hefting a massive snowball nearly the size of a person over his head and stepping toward him.
"Heehee! Pikachu, let's play snowball fight!"
Chopper panicked and transformed into his reindeer form. He scrambled away to Robin's side.
A reindeer carrying a crate of liquor and a crate of food followed Kureha through the snowy mountains. With a bottle in hand, Kureha spotted a large herd of reindeer scattered across the white expanse ahead.
Chopper, walking beside her, slowed his steps. The blue-nosed reindeer stared hard at the herd, his fur trembling all over.
A full-grown stag with vicious antlers snarled and charged toward Chopper—clearly, he remembered this blue-nosed outcast. Whether out of resentment toward his odd nose or scorn because he carried human cargo, the stag lowered its head, its bristling antlers poised to charge.
...
When Chopper and Kureha returned, they were both injured.
After treating their wounds, Liam cracked his knuckles, pointed at Chopper, and gestured for him to follow.
In the snowfield, the herd still roamed casually. The thorn-antlered leader twitched its nose, then suddenly looked up. There, stepping down from the snowy slope, was the blue-nosed outcast once more.
The outcast was still tense and timid. But beside him now walked a tall man. Liam stepped forward with a cheer and leaped down the slope.
Soon, a pile of reindeer lay defeated in the snow. Liam looked up at Chopper on the slope. He mimed hugging his arms around himself and crying in fear. Then he shook a finger at Chopper, raised a fist, and nodded.
Thud!
Liam set down a giant snowball.
Then, he picked up a branch and drew intersecting rings across its surface, as if they were orbital paths wrapping around the sphere.
"What do you think this looks like?" he asked, tapping the cross-shaped marks.
Robin stepped closer. Chopper peeked out from behind his long legs.
"Hm?" Kureha brushed snow from her head and glanced at the ball. "The Red Line and the Grand Line?"
"Bingo, old grandma!" Liam pointed.
Whiz, smack!
A snowball flew from Kureha. He caught it with a flip of his hand and instantly flung it back — smack! — onto Chopper's face.
"Why…?" Chopper shook the snow off his muzzle.
Robin walked closer to the giant snowball and studied the intersecting "Red Line" and "Grand Line."
Liam grinned. "Don't they look like something else, too? Like two highways circling the world and running alongside the Grand Line?"
...
In the city, a resident suddenly choked on food, his throat blocked, and he collapsed unconscious. Kureha hoisted him upside down and nodded at the nearby reindeer.
The surrounding townsfolk didn't understand what was happening. Chopper was nervous and lacked confidence, but, urged on by his master, he mustered the courage to bump the back of the choking patient in perfect alignment.
The residents gasped in alarm. Soon, however, the choking man coughed violently and expelled a chunk of meat, gasping for air.
Everyone exhaled in unison, some with tears in their eyes. Kureha playfully scolded Chopper with her bamboo stick.
The townsfolk clicked their tongues in admiration, amazed that a reindeer could serve as a doctor's assistant.
Chopper trotted lightly alongside Kureha, thinking to himself: I helped my first patient. Is this what being a doctor feels like?
…
"A highway?" Kureha asked, walking over.
Robin gazed at the snowball and the tire-like marks that symbolized the Grand Line. Liam had even drawn two thin lines on either side representing the Calm Belts along the Grand Line.
"The people of this world," Liam said, waving the stick in his hand, "are so divided by their civilizations because of the isolation between islands. Some islands are still primitive, while others are urbanized. In some places, medicine is advanced, while in others, people leave life to fate. Scientific research, like herbal medicine, is largely limited by the local natural environment. In regions where navigation is underdeveloped, there is almost no contact with the outside world. They are effectively cut off."
"If you could gather all the islands of the world and piece them together into one contiguous landmass, everyone could communicate freely and spread civilization across it..." Liam's stick traced the "Red Line" on the snowball, then swept across the intersecting "Grand Line." "Is there any sea better than the Calm Belts for quickly circumnavigating the world? Always calm, always safe..."
...
In the snowfield, a scarred stag lowered its head, its thorny antlers extended.
Before it stood Chopper, in reindeer form and still trembling, who lowered his head and raised his small, fledgling antlers.
The herd watched quietly all around them. Not far away stood Liam and Robin.
Chopper pawed at the snow twice, summoned his courage, and charged forward.
Soon, he collapsed, bruised and battered. But he saw Giorno give him a thumbs-up from across the field.
...
(To Be Continued…)
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