đź’– If you enjoy my work, consider supporting me on Patreon! I'm offering discounted advanced chapters there as a thank-you to readers.
--------------------
Check out advanced chapters on : patreon.com/Veni_V
---------------
I woke up after a long nap, but I still felt like crap. I opened my eyes and looked around the room. Luffy and Sanji were also on beds, still sleeping. My hands were wrapped in bandages, but I was in good shape overall. I sat up and climbed out of bed, feeling the urge to stretch my legs.
I should look for Nami.
I wandered around the place where we were staying. After a few hallways, I came across an old woman.
"Excuse me, ma'am, I'm looking for my friend," I said. "She has orange hair. Have you seen her?"
"You're awake," the woman said, walking into a side room. "Your friend's this way."
I followed her and found Nami awake in a bed. She looked much better than she had just a few hours before.
"Nami, I'm glad you're okay," I said, walking up to her with a pleasant smile.
She smiled back, but pretty much ignored me and stared at a nearby doorway. When I looked, a small, furry creature was trying to hide behind the wall.
"What are you doing, Chopper?" the woman asked as she walked up to Nami and took her temperature. "You're getting better, girl. I'm Dr. Kureha, but you can call me Doctrine."
"Where are we?" Nami asked.
"The castle at the top of the mountain," she explained.
"So we did make it," I mumbled. "It wasn't just a dream."
Nami asked where Luffy and Sanji were, and Doctrine explained they were sleeping in the room next door. Dr. Kureha then walked up to Nami and began to lift her shirt.
"Whoa! Man in the room!" I said, clamping my eyes shut.
I heard Doctrine explain that Nami had been bitten by a bug and infected with a disease long thought extinct. She said that if Nami had waited any longer, she probably would have died.
Thanks again, Little Garden.
"Anyway, back to sleep, girl. You can open your eyes now," she said as she walked past me.
"I feel fine; we can leave," Nami said, trying to get out of bed, but as soon as she moved, the doctor had a scalpel at her throat.
"My patients only leave if they're cured or dead," the woman told her.
I reached for a whip to protect Nami but found nothing in the holster.
They must have taken them off.
The door at the far side of the room burst open, and the furry creature from earlier came running through, with Luffy and Sanji trying to drag him down.
"Just wait, Luffy! I'll cook this up really good."
"MEAT!"
Right on time.
"Just what is that reindeer?" Nami asked.
"That is Chopper; he's just an ordinary blue-nosed reindeer," Doctrine explained.
"What kind of deer talks?" I asked.
"Chopper..." as the doctor talked, the reindeer grew huge and threw Luffy and Sanji off him. "...ate the Human-Human Fruit."
A Devil Fruit that can make something human? Sounds pointless if not eaten by an animal.
"He's my student," she said. "I teach him medicine."
"Luffy, leave the thing alone. You just woke up. You need to relax and take a breath," I said, grabbing him off the ground.
When things finally settled down, Luffy and Sanji left Chopper alone and joined us in the doctor's room. Luffy asked the old woman if she would be the doctor on our ship, but she refused and attacked him for calling her old.
Luffy jumped out of his chair. "It's the reindeer! Sanji, let's catch it!" he yelled, running out of the room with Sanji.
Doctrine ran after them, leaving me and Nami as the only ones inside. Nami attempted to get out of bed and close the door, but the little reindeer appeared and told her she was supposed to be resting.
"Doctrine's medicine is strong, so your fever broke. But you still have bacteria in your body, so you have to rest," Chopper explained, looking around the room for signs of Luffy and Sanji.
"Thank you for looking after me," Nami said to the reindeer.
"I don't need thanks from stupid humans like you," the reindeer said, doing a little dance.
Yeah, you look really ungrateful.
"Are you guys really pirates?" Chopper asked.
"You bet," I told him.
"Do you have a flag?"
"Yes, it's on our ship," I explained. "Why all the questions? Do you want to be a pirate?"
Chopper flailed about and crashed into a bookshelf. "What made you think that?!"
"Just come with us," Nami told him. "If we had a doctor on board, it would speed up our departure."
"I've been looking for a doctor for a while now, and Luffy clearly likes you, so you'll fit the bill," I smiled.
Chopper said the idea was ridiculous and that he couldn't live with humans. He thought we were scared of him because he could walk and talk. Once again, Luffy and Sanji burst into the room and chased the poor animal off.
"Kids these days," Doctrine mumbled as she stepped back into the room. "What strange ideas are you two putting in my reindeer's head?"
"Nothing that wasn't already there," I answered.
"It won't be easy to take him with you," she told us. "He has a wound on his heart, and even a doctor can't cure his pain." She explained that Chopper had been ostracized by his herd for his blue nose and that eating the Human-Human Fruit only made him more of an outcast. Because of his blue nose, his human form was also imperfect, making him appear as a monster.
"He is neither a reindeer nor a human. Everyone treats him like a monster," she said. "Chopper just wants someone to call a friend. Can you cure the pain in his heart?"
Nami and I gave the woman a sympathetic look. "There once was a man, though, that he talked to," she continued. "His name was Dr. Hiriluk, a fake doctor who gave Chopper his name and treated him like his own son."
Rose's Point of View
Zoro and I were out for a romantic walk, which he decided to turn into training by not wearing a shirt. Not that I'm complaining. We hadn't gotten too far when the entire mountainside fell on us. When we dug ourselves out of the snow, we found Vivi and some other man.
"Oh, hey, Vivi," I said. I looked closer at the man with her and realized it was a very swollen Usopp.
"What are you two doing here?" the still-shirtless Zoro asked them.
Zoro tried to get Usopp to lend him a jacket, but he refused.
Thank you, Usopp!
"If you're cold, Zoro, we can hug for warmth, just the two of us."
We walked for a while until we came across a village buried in snow. Vivi said this place was called Big Horn and it was where she and Usopp had come from. Zoro asked for a coat, but still, no one spared him one.
It's a miracle!
"Dalton is buried under the snow, and those guys won't let us help him," a man explained the situation to Vivi.
"I remember them. Those are the guys who attacked us on the way here," I told Zoro.
"So they're our enemies?" Zoro asked me.
"I guess so. Why?"
Zoro ran up to one of the men and knocked him out. He stole his coat so that he could wear it himself.
Why, God?!
The men attacked Zoro to avenge their fallen friend. I eliminated them before they got too close. Everyone else began digging, looking for this Dalton guy who was buried in the snow. They found him, but it was already too late. He had stopped breathing.
Steve's Point of View
Chopper burst into Nami's room, breathing heavily. "Doctrine! Wapol is back!" he explained.
He just won't give up.
The doctor and Chopper left the room and went outside. I wandered back into the room Luffy and I were originally in and found my whips on the nightstand. I strapped them back onto my belt and went back to Nami's room.
"I'll be outside," I said, popping my head in.
"Try not to make too much of a ruckus," she sighed.
I walked down the stairs and found the front door. Luffy and Sanji were standing nearby.
"Let's go, we have work to do," I yelled to the two.
"What are you talking about?" Sanji asked.
"It's him!" Luffy yelled, charging forward.
Glad to see we're on the same page, buddy.
Luffy ran outside and punched Wapol in the face, sending him flying back. He would have fallen off the mountain if not for his two lackeys. The doctor and the reindeer looked stunned at what Luffy had done. Sanji and I walked out onto the snow.
"That's Luffy for ya," Sanji mumbled, lighting a cigarette.
"It doesn't matter who you are. King, so what. If Luffy doesn't like you, he'll crush you," I explained to Chopper and Doctrine.
"You know those guys?" Doctrine asked us.
"Yeah, they attacked our ship. Even tried to eat it," I told them.
Luffy came to the shocking conclusion that Wapol was a king, not a pirate, and became even more upset. He also realized that it was cold and ran inside to get a jacket.
It's like his body moves faster than his brain.
"Your friend can stretch his body?" Chopper asked.
"Correct. He's a rubber man."
"What does that mean?"
"It means he's a monster," I told the little reindeer. "He's been a monster almost his whole life."
Chopper grew to his large form. "Doctor just wanted to save this country. I won't let you take a single step into that castle!"
Sanji asked the old lady if she would be joining us in the fight, but she just beat him for his terminology. The man with the afro, who Wapol had referred to as Kuromarimo, threw a large ball of fur at Doctrine, but Sanji blocked it with his leg.
"A man shouldn't throw things at a lady," Sanji told the man before he realized that the ball wouldn't come off his pants.
Sanji tried to put the balls on Chopper, and the two got into a fight over who was going to have the balls stuck to them. Chopper forced all the fur onto Sanji and ran for it. Chess shot flaming arrows at the pitch-covered Sanji. The fur lit on fire, forcing Sanji to roll in the snow to snuff it out. Chopper went after the archer, but Wapol tried to eat him on his way.
"I'm back!" Luffy yelled.
"Grab my leg!" Sanji threw Luffy toward Wapol. "Armée De L'air Assault Gum Shoot!"
Luffy flew toward Wapol and crashed into his stomach, forcing him to spit out Chopper.
"Not bad," I congratulated the two. "I'm enjoying not lifting a finger."
Rose's Point of View
"There is no reason to panic, Dalton is still alive," a man told the crowd.
Usopp told us that these were doctors who had fled the country with Wapol. The men begged to be able to save Dalton's life since they were still doctors. They were given permission and operated, saving Dalton's life.
"Let's go to the top of the mountain," Vivi suggested.
"Stop, Vivi, you worry too much," Usopp told the girl.
"You have a lot on your mind: Alabasta, your fight with Steve. Just relax; the boys will take care of Nami," I told her.
Vivi didn't look happy that I had mentioned the fight with Steve.
"Listen, about Steve, he didn't really mean all that. He's stressed out, too, and when he gets stressed, he gets... cranky. He has to get you home because Luffy promised Igaram. He has to take care of Nami, and he has other things bothering him, too. He just didn't like the way you talked to Luffy. Please forgive my stupid little brother."
"I don't understand. I was only trying to help," Vivi said with an upset look.
"What are you two talking about?" Usopp asked.
While Zoro filled in Usopp, I kept talking with Vivi.
"What I meant was that Steve and Luffy go a long way back. You've seen how immature Luffy is. He jumps in without thinking and gets involved with the wrong people if left alone. Steve is Luffy's best friend and considers himself responsible for him.
He doesn't want him being taken advantage of. If Luffy gets tricked or fooled because of his personality, Steve feels this urge to protect him... or at least that's how I see it."
"So he wasn't angry that I had stopped them from fighting the village, but that I had come across as trying to bully Luffy?" Vivi asked.
"Exactly," I told her with a smile. "Don't worry, I'm sure he'll apologize soon."
We started to walk back to Zoro and Usopp when someone yelled out that Dalton was awake. We made our way over to the house he was in to find Dalton trying to walk up the mountain and fight Wapol.
"I will fight them. I will save this country," Dalton said, leaning on his weapon.
Gotta admire that determination.
"Get on, I'll carry you to the top," Usopp said, crouching near Dalton.
"Usopp!" Vivi and I were both stunned by his determination.
"You can't carry me," Dalton told our long-nosed friend.
"Who says I can't?" Usopp told the man. "I'll do it! I won't let you down!"
Usopp tried but barely got a few steps before the weight of Dalton became too much.
"He's nuts," Zoro said, walking over to the duo and picking up Dalton. "You wanna go to the top, right?"
Usopp was upset that Zoro had stolen his big moment. Vivi and I ran after the boys when a group of people alerted us to a ropeway in a nearby town that would take us right to the top.
"Then our path is set," I said as we turned toward the ropeway. "We'll see you at the top."
Steve's Point of View
"I'll show you the true powers of the Munch-Munch Fruit," Wapol said. "Chess, tell me what I had for breakfast this morning."
The archer read off a list of strange and bizarre foods like cannonballs and gunpowder salad.
"What a strange breakfast," Luffy mused.
"An insult to food," Sanji mumbled.
"The things I ate have become part of my body. Munch-Munch Shock!"
Wapol's body shifted and grew. He mutated into a large house with cannons for arms. He had quite the unique appearance.
"Wapol House!"
Luffy was far too excited by the mutated king. Sanji and I were grossed out. Then Wapol did more strange things and ATE his own men.
"He ate his own crew!" we all yelled in surprise.
The door on Wapol's body opened, and something emerged.
"We are the strongest warrior in Drum Kingdom," a figure emerged from Wapol's stomach. "Chessmarimo!"
The two men emerged looking just as ridiculous as their boss.
"They're just sitting on each other's shoulders," Sanji pointed out.
"Only the clothes actually combined," I sighed. "Must not work on people except Wapol himself."
"So cool," Luffy yelled in awe.
"What is cool about that!" I berated.
"Don't underestimate them," Doctrine warned. "If they were weak, the village would have fought back."
Wapol moved one of his newly acquired cannon arms up toward the flag on the castle. "I won't allow fake flags from fake doctors at the top of my castle!"
Wapol shot at the flag, knocking it off the spire.
"A pirate flag?" Luffy wondered.
"Well, it does have a skull and crossbones," I told him.
Luffy's face contorted with rage. He ran up to the top of the tower to grab the flag before it could fall. Chopper, on the other hand, ran at Wapol for attacking his father's flag, but when he got there, he just stopped.
"Just leave, and I won't hurt you," the reindeer told the king.
What's he thinking?!
"Don't be stupid!" I yelled, charging in. "RUN!"
"Chopper! He won't listen! He doesn't care!" Doctrine yelled to the fur ball.
Wapol blasted Chopper and was getting ready to finish him off.
I'm not fast enough...
"Hey, big mouth!" Luffy yelled from the top of the tower. "You're a fraud! You called yourself a pirate without ever understanding the risks! You will never understand this flag!"
Luffy had tied the flag down with a