Tony Tony Chopper was just about to head down to Gyasta with Doctorine to find and treat anyone sick when he picked up a few new scents. He informed Doctorine and thus the two were there at the ropeway station when a green-haired human with two more humans tied to him reached the summit.
The green-haired human had quickly confirmed her identity and asked her to treat the other two, who had apparently gotten the Five-Day disease from a Kestia bite, which was a disease he thought had gone extinct a hundred years ago.
He studied the rashes on the two's necks along with Doctorine and confirmed that it, in fact, was from a Kestia bite.
"How did you know what it was?" Doctorine asked curiously.
"Those 20 doctors diagnosed it."
"Wait, what? The Isshi-20? They're back? Is Wapol back?"
Chopper tensed up and tried to sniff out Wapol's scent anywhere near them but thankfully, he didn't pick up on any.
"Later," the human waved her questions off. "They told us that they couldn't cure it and you're the only one who could… Today is the third day. Can you cure it?"
His voice was even but Chopper didn't miss the underlying desperation in it.
"Kak kak kak kak! Lucky for you, you came to one of the only people who can cure it!" Doctorine laughed and the human's posture relaxed, like he had had a mountain lifted off of him. "Come along," she said walking towards the castle. "I'll start their treatment while you tell me where and how you met the Isshi-20."
While the two unconscious humans were made to lay in beds, the human explained in simple and blunt terms about how they had run into another pirate ship on the sea which had turned out to be Wapol.
They're pirates! Chopper grew excited.
"So you didn't kill Wapol?"
"No, he was just knocked out," the human said, not elaborating how exactly that had happened.
"That spoiled bastard is as resilient as a cockroach. He'll probably be back one day," she sighed. "Anyway, Chopper, do you know how to treat this?"
Chopper nodded and only then did the green-haired human seem to notice him. He was in his Walk point, which was a form he often used in front of others so as to not alarm them, so the human's eyes just lingered on him for a second, his hat mostly, before losing interest and looking back at the old doctor.
"We have another patient. He was poisoned," the human continued as he took out a file from inside his coat. "Those doctors weren't able to cure him either… I don't know much but they said it's some new type of poison. All the blood work and tests they ran are in here. They told me to give it to you."
Doctorine read it closely for a few moments before her eyes widened. "A phytotoxin huh? This is interesting. He's still alive? Where is he?"
"He," the human sighed in frustration, "fell when we were climbing up. He'll be here soon though."
"You dropped him?" She asked incredulously while Chopper almost yelled, 'He fell?!'
"Kinda…" The human let out another sigh of frustration as he took out a small black rectangular slab and after tapping on it for a few seconds, a voice started coming out of it.
"Did you find the doctor?"
"Yeah. They're gonna be okay."
"Oh thank god!"
"Is that a transponder snail?" Doctorine asked, curiously looking at the device.
"Something like that," the human said before speaking into the device again. "How's Luffy?"
"Uhh about that…" the voice at the other end sounded hesitant. "I haven't found him yet."
"What?!"
"I saw some non-human tracks walking away from where he fell. Probably one of the animals here picked him up and took him somewhere. I'm tracking it down now."
"Shit!" The human rubbed his eyes in irritation.
"Describe the tracks," Doctorine spoke up and the voice at the other end did.
Oh no…
"Sounds like a Lapin," she sighed. "They're huge carnivorous rabbit-like creatures that live here. They're very territorial and hostile. I'm sorry but if a Lapin took him away, I don't think your friend will make it."
"No way." / "Nah."
Both the human and the one on the call responded so calmly that it left Chopper a bit confused. It wasn't a denial out of fear or desperation— Chopper had seen plenty of that in people who were told that their loved ones were incurable— but rather, the idea that their friend was killed was something that just seemed impossible to them.
"I'll come down to search too," the human said into the device, before looking back up at Doctorine. "We'll get him here soon, so please get ready to treat him. Please take care of these two too." He finished with a deep bow and once she nodded, ran out.
"That confident he's alive eh?" Doctorine grinned before glancing at Chopper. "Go with him and find his friend. If he's alive, great. If not, there's a small chance that the Lapin that eats him might get poisoned and die, and anything that eats it might get poisoned, and so on. We need to quarantine and find out how potent this toxin is."
"Oh! I didn't even think of that!" Chopper nodded vigorously thinking that Doctorine was amazing. He felt anxious being told to tag along with a human but if what was in the reports was true, that toxin needed to be contained.
Quickly fetching his medical bag, and also suppressing his anxious feelings, Chopper ran out of the castle, hoping to catch up to the human… but strangely, he was running back towards him.
The human saw him and clicked his tongue. "Where the hell did that damn ropeway move to?"
"Oi brat, take my reindeer with you!" Kureha yelled from inside the castle and the man stared at him.
"This thing's a reindeer?" he asked with a tilt of his head and Chopper slightly bristled. "You can understand me?"
Chopper nodded. As long as he didn't talk and was in his Walk point, most humans usually didn't get scared of him.
"Okay. Where did you move the ropeway to?"
Chopper's brows furrowed as he tried to understand the question while the human just kept looking around and mumbling, "Stupid ropeways are being moved too."
It's right there though… maybe it's a human thing I don't understand yet? Chopper blamed his own naïveté and just pointed at the station that was clearly visible from where they were.
"Ah, there it is!" The human said as he ran ahead of him and without warning, jumped off. Using one of his sheathed swords—Why does he have three?—as a hook, he began sliding down the rope.
Wait for me!
—)(—
For the first time in his life, Chopper looked at someone and thought, "This person is a monster!"
And that person was the green-haired human.
The first of many instances that made him think that was when the human was still sliding down the rope and he was running behind him, struggling to keep up with him.
When he reached a certain red mark on the rope about two-thirds of the way down, which Chopper realized was blood, he had just put his right arm completely around the rope to stop himself. The speed of descent was insanely high as he was sliding down and thus, when he put an arm around the rope, the friction caused the entire length of his arm to burn and there was a trail of blood over the rope as he came to a stop.
Chopper had seen the spectacle from afar as he was lagging behind and had screamed in horror, thinking he was crazy. He ran faster to catch up to check up on him but before he even caught up to the human, he just let go of the rope.
"AHHHH WAIT! NO!" Chopper gasped and screamed as he arrived where he was but the human had already disappeared into the fog below.
"What do I do?! What do I do?!" He panicked and debated only for a couple of seconds before he realized that the human would have surely gotten injured from the fall.
"Rumble-" Without wasting any time, he jumped off the rope too while fishing out a rumble ball from his medical bag and bit into it. "-Guard Point!" His fur grew out all over his body at a shocking rate and soon, he looked like a huge ball of fur.
He fell a long way down, the freezing winds not affecting him much because of his thick fur, and braced himself for the impact. Thankfully, a tree broke his fall and he landed in the snow after crashing through a few rows of leaves and branches, his overgrown thick fur negating most of the damage and leaving him with only minor bruises. He didn't waste any time as he quickly scanned and sniffed the area to find the human. A thick stench of blood was permeating nearby so he immediately ran to the place, thinking that the human had broken all his bones and was bleeding out… but he was left bewildered when he laid eyes upon him.
"Ah dammit, there was a tree…" The human dusted some snow off of himself and stood up, checking his own body. "Just my luck. Should've landed in the snow directly and nothing would have happened."
No, you stupid human! This is hard snow! The tree broke the fall so that's a good thing! Chopper almost yelled as he transformed back into his walk point and went up to him, studying his body for injuries.
He definitely had more than two broken ribs, had multiple bruises, one of his legs seemed to be fractured, his right hand was broken, he had friction burns on the same arm… but that was it. Not that those weren't heavy injuries but given that he had fallen from so high up, he had gotten off too lightly. There were also two deep gashes in the snow, like someone had cut into the snow, and Chopper didn't understand what could have caused it.
"Wait, you jumped down too?" The human was surprised when he noticed him and for the first time, actually took a good look at him, a glint of respect in his eyes. "Good strong animal."
Chopper swayed from side to side but controlled himself from saying anything. The human gave him a weird look after the display but quickly shook his head and looked around.
"Alright, need to find Luffy… which direction to go?"
Chopper shook his head, but the man just said, "Need to find Luffy first" and started going in a random direction. The doctor side of him wanted to knock him out and treat all his injuries right that instant but knew that finding this Luffy person first was important as he was in danger.
Finding two distinct scents, he bit the lower end of the human's pants and pulled on it, making him almost trip.
"What?!" He growled irritably but paused when Chopper pointed in a different direction while sniffing the air.
"You're able to track his scent?" he asked surprised, and Chopper nodded.
"Oh. Great, lead the way then."
And so, the two began trudging through the snow, the human sticking very close to Chopper for some reason. The doctor kept taking worried glances at him, thinking he might fall over anytime soon because of his injuries, but the human held up extremely well given his condition. Not even wincing or groaning in pain as they steadily walked through the snow at a great pace. And before long, they found a blond human.
"H-How?!" The new human stuttered in shock.
"Ah, this idiot? I want you to track down Luffy, not him," he complained while the blond human alternated his gaze between the two before sighing in relief and nodding in understanding.
"Wow, I was shocked for a second there thinking you had actually tracked me or something. But you're just using a sniffer dog huh?"
I'M A REINDEER! NOT A DOG! Chopper growled at him, but the two humans had started arguing with each other seemingly forgetting about him.
The new human was also injured - both his legs seemed to have a fracture as he was heavily limping, he had a couple of broken ribs and various bruises and scratches all around his body, and Chopper realized that he too had recklessly fallen from high up. Again, he should've been unable to walk given his condition, but he had managed to track this Luffy person a long way already.
He was the second person that day who Chopper looked at and thought, "He's a monster!"
"Why are you injured? Couldn't you airwalk to break the fall?"
"I could only jump twice more before my other leg broke. Need more training before I can take my lovely ladies flying!"
"Hah… Should've known you were learning it for some pervy reason like that."
"What was that, Mosshead?!"
"You heard me, Dartbrow!"
It was here that Chopper finally learned their names, but didn't understand much else of what they were talking about.
He wanted to give them medical treatment as soon as possible, so he again pulled on Mosshead's pants to get his attention before pointing ahead.
"The hell is this thing doing?" Dartbrow said irritably.
"Leading the way," Mosshead replied as Chopper walked ahead while the two followed while exchanging information - Just barely though as they were more focused on insulting one another.
Chopper thought they were part of the same crew but was that not the case? They were fighting too much that it left him unsettled. Or were pirate crews just like that? He had no idea.
He just focused on finding the last human so that they could all get treatment, and soon they arrived at a frozen lake where multiple carcasses of dead animals were strewn around.
"A feeding ground?" Dartbrow guessed before they began exploring the area.
Luffy was nowhere to be found though and there weren't any Lapins around either which baffled Chopper. He found a little blood that smelled like a human's and more tracks leading away from it. He just walked away?! He couldn't believe it.
"Is that Luffy's blood?"
Chopper nodded as he continued following the scent with the other two following him closely.
—)(—
Luffy didn't know how long he had been walking. His mind was hazy and he was semi-conscious at best, so he wasn't really following the best path or even a proper path towards the mountain. He also completely lost sight of it when he walked into a blizzard.
He was in a fight with Mother Nature now. At some point, he had removed the coat that the others had put on him, and with just a thin vest, shorts and sandals, Luffy walked through the blizzard. Gear 2 was constantly active to keep him warm and avoid getting frostbitten while a coat of armament also shielded his body.
This is what a fight with Aokiji would be like, Luffy told himself as he began punching the air, shadowboxing an imaginary Admiral. It was slow at first, his fists moving at a snail's pace, and at one point, his body had refused to move and he simply stood in place for some time.
But bit by bit, his body began moving again, steaming and melting off the snow on him as he walked.
His fists began moving faster, his legs moved faster, and soon he was lightly jogging through the blizzard. In his mind, he was dodging slashes by ice swords, jumping and punching the tall Admiral in the face, using Gear 2 to escape the insane attack that was 'Ice Age'. In reality, he was punching down trees, uprooting and swinging them around, and when the icy cold winds chilled him to his bones, heat his body up with Gear 2.
From time to time, he felt his body shutting down and he froze and stayed standing still for a minute or two. His body begged for rest and his mind wanted to just fall into oblivion, but Luffy forced his body to move… and somehow, his body began responding to him again and moved.
Luffy didn't realize how or even acknowledge that it was strange, and just continued on. He also didn't realize that controlling his Haki was getting much easier and his body parts were getting covered with a black metallic sheen.
It was only after the blizzard passed—Or had he walked out of the blizzard?—and he no longer felt the fierce winds biting into his skin did he come back to his senses, remembered where he actually was, and what was happening to him.
He slapped his head a few times, trying to alleviate the throbbing pain, before spotting the mountain in the distance. His mind, for some reason, became a bit clearer as he resumed going towards the mountain.
That is until he heard sounds of battle and laughing.
He immediately followed the noise, only to find a herd of Lapins and four humans locked in combat. He recognized three of the four humans. Wapol, with his irritatingly loud laugh, was there, along with his two lackeys- the guy with the afroand then the sad jester. And lastly, there was a tall lanky man who was wearing a regal outfit including a purple cape whose head and pink hair resembled a mushroom.
"MUSHUSHUSHU!" The one Luffy didn't recognize haughtily laughed. "THAT'S IT, MY LITTLE BROTHER! TAKE CARE OF THESE INSIGNIFICANT RABBITS!"
"MAAAHAHAHA! YES, BRO-CHAN!" Wapol matched his laughter as he chewed out and spit out a lapin while Chess and Kuromarimo fought with a few others. It was a one-sided battle in favour of the humans.
Bro-chan?! What the heck? Wapol has a brother? Luffy studied the supposed big brother closely.
"King Wapol! Lord Musshuru! It's the brat!" Chess suddenly yelled, and all eyes - humans and Lapins alike, turned towards Luffy.
Luffy lifted a shaky hand up and managed a grin. "Yo."
"GYAAAAHHHH!" Wapol screamed, backing away in fear before hastily turning to Chess. "Gas mask! Hurry! Give me the gas mask!"
"Yes, King Wapol!" Chess complied, passing a gas mask each to Wapol and Kuromarimo while also wearing one himself.
"So this is the guy who attacked us when I was sleeping?!" The big brother asked in anger and annoyance, not bothering to wear a mask.
"Yes, Bro-chan!" Wapol nodded. "He released some sort of fear and sleeping gas on us!"
Luffy lightly smiled, not bothering to correct the misunderstanding.
"Good, good, I get to have some revenge on the fool who dared to attack my little brother," he grinned before turning to Wapol. "And call me 'Big Brother' not 'Bro-chan'."
"Bro-chan?"
"Big brother."
"Bro-chan."
"Big brother!"
Luffy idly watched as the two seemingly argued while the Lapins took that time to retreat, dragging away any hurt ones.
"Looks like he's hurt, Lord Musshuru," Kuromarimo observed and everyone studied him closely, including Luffy himself, who looked down at himself.
The blood from the bite on his abdomen had long since frozen over, he had patches of white all over his body, half his body seemed frozen, and honestly, he looked like he was on the verge of death.
"Hoh? He's also definitely poisoned. MUSHUSHUSHU!"
"MAAHAHAHA! That's what you get for daring to attack me, you peasant!"
"You look like you're already heading to the gates of hell but let us help you get there faster," Musshuru continued with a sadistic grin. "Chess, Kuromarimo, finish him off!"
"Yes, Lord Musshuru!" Both soldiers yelled as one aimed a bow while the other put on boxing gloves.
An arrow flew at him, aimed right at his forehead, and Luffy coated the body part with armament and didn't move.
The arrow broke on contact, much to the shock of the others present there.
"Is he wearing armour?! Keep attacking!" A short panicked scream later, more arrows flew at him.
Luffy closed his eyes, using Observation to sense where it would hit him and then used armament to protect the region. Sounds of arrows breaking and cursing from the enemies filled his ears, but he also felt like some projectiles were clinging to him. He opened his eyes to see what it was and was dumbfounded.
Hairballs?
A few black hairballs were sticking to him all over his body.
"Ahaha! Those are my Static cling marimo attack!" Kuromarimo boasted while Luffy tried to remove them but they got stuck to his hand instead. "And now, our special attack-"
"Fire arrow!" Chess continued, and lit up an arrowhead before launching it at Luffy. The arrow hit its mark and broke as expected but the fire ignited the hairballs, instantly setting him on fire.
Luffy didn't panic and just fell face-first into the snow, rolled around until the fire was out, and got back up again, looking thoroughly unimpressed.
"Gah! Bastard!"
"I'm aiming at his exposed skin! How are the arrows breaking?!" Chess yelled in confusion and rage as they kept up the attacks.
Luffy was about to run at them to fight in close quarters when he felt his body shutting down again.
Just knock them out with Conqueror's and then please sleep! The sane and logical part of his brain was screaming at him but Luffy didn't listen to it.
Akainu's fist coming at him, Ace intercepting it, a hole through his chest…
If I can't handle just these four weaklings, what will I do on that battlefield?!
That shut down all the protests that his body's condition was making him think and he forced his body to move again.
MOOVEE! A surge of adrenaline flooded his veins and he took one step forward. Breathing became slightly easier, the pain wracking his body dulled, the pounding in his head became a little bearable, his thoughts sharpened, and he took another step forward.
He sensed another arrow slicing through the air towards him and he tilted his head, letting it whip past. With renewed strength, he began running, each step easier than the last. Panicked voices and shouts filled the air and more projectiles came at him—some he dodged, some he tanked—but he kept running.
It wasn't something Luffy actively tried to learn. But his constant training where he purposefully put himself in a weakened state only to force himself to keep going had had the unintended effect of him being able to control his own adrenaline production.
Basically, Luffy had learned a biofeedback technique.
One where he could intentionally make his body continuously produce adrenaline, well above the limits that the body put on itself.
He only realized it later in hindsight though, but for now, he rushed at Wapol.
"GYAAAHHH! WAIT WAIT!" Wapol frantically screamed when Musshuru stepped up in front of him.
"Don't worry, little brother. I'll take care of h-"
Before he could even finish the sentence, Luffy accelerated and reached him. Fist connected to gut and only a moment later, Musshuru found himself flying in the air before crashing into a tree.
Luffy didn't let up and went for Wapol next. He punched him in the jaw, grabbed him by his jacket before he went flying back, and then kicked him right under the chin, launching him high up in the air. Before Wapol fell back to the ground, he reached for and grabbed Chess by the throat and smashed him into the ground. Luffy then kicked at Kuromarimo's ankle, which made him fall to his knees, before grabbing his head and kneeing him right in the face.
Luffy sighed in disappointment as he stood over three downed and groaning men, wishing there was an army of people he could fight at that moment.
"You bastard!"
Luffy ducked under a punch and saw that Musshuru had come rushing back, blood flowing from his mouth, and a wide angry scowl on his face.
He can use Soru? Luffy was pleasantly surprised as the mushroom-head man seemed to be a capable fighter.
"You can't keep up with my speed!" The man boasted but his Soru was way too slow. Barring Kuro who hadn't fully mastered it, this guy was the first person he had actually seen using Soru, so Luffy couldn't tell if this was the standard or not. One thing he did know was that his own Soru was much much faster.
Luffy, after concluding that Musshuru wasn't going to give him a challenge, accelerated to catch him and proceeded to deliver a series of straight punches right into his gut, knocking the wind out of him.
Luffy sighed as Musshuru collapsed in front of him. Wapol's jaws enclosed on him next but he sensed it coming from a mile away and simply stepped back, letting him chomp on empty air.
"Do you know who you're messing with? I am Wapol, the Ki-" he began, spit and blood spilling from his mouth, but Luffy, not at all interested in hearing him speak, cut him off with a kick right under his chin again.
Luffy looked back at the others and was surprised to find all three standing up again. The jester and the boxer were cowering in fear though, not at all ready to fight him, but the mushroom-head was angrily glaring at him.
"You bastard! This is the last time you'll hurt my little brother!" He lunged at him with a palm thrust and Luffy fell on his back and raised his legs to kick him far away.
Two things happened at the same time then. Something purple formed on his palm and exploded right above Luffy's face. And Luffy's feet met Musshuru's stomach and he got flung high up in the air.
The purple explosion turned out to be a cloud of purple particles.
Wha-?! Luffy involuntarily inhaled those particles which triggered a violent fit of coughing.
The rubber captain writhed on the ground, having a hard time even to breath as his coughing fit didn't stop. He tried to shovel snow into his mouth to try to cleanse whatever it was that had entered his system but it had also entered his lungs, so it was pointless.
"MAAAHAHAHAHA! That's Bro-chan's shroom-shroom powers!"
"Mushsushushu!" Musshuru came limping back from where he was flung, wiping the blood from his mouth. "I've eaten the Shroom-Shroom fruit. You may be strong but you're nothing in front of my poisonous shroom spores!"
Poisonous spores? Luffy heard their words and cursed himself for getting too arrogant.
His lungs felt like they were on fire, his vision became tinged with red, his mouth dried up, his skin turned into an unhealthy shade of purple, and his body became weaker and weaker while he wheezed, trying to get his breathing back in control.
He soon felt a few kicks in his stomach, courtesy of the big brother who was taking out his frustration on him, and all Luffy could do was take it as he kept coughing and wheezing.
"Stupid peasant! I'm the King of this place! How dare you even think of attacking me?! Kick him more, Bro-chan! Kill him!" Wapol kept encouraging Musshuru as the latter kept stomping on Luffy. He wanted to join too but the cowardly king didn't want to come in contact with his brother's poisonous spores.
"Gah, this stupid bastard!" Musshuru finally let up when Luffy started coughing up blood. He rubbed his chin, which was still throbbing in pain courtesy of Luffy's earlier attack, and he kicked him one last time while whining like a kid. "You put me in a bad mood!"
"Don't worry, Bro-chan!" Wapol patted his brother's shoulder assuredly. "Let's go to the castle and drop the Fatal Bomb! It'll be a fun sight and you're mood will improve!"
"You're right!" Musshuru nodded excitedly. "I can't wait! Let's go!"
The brothers, plus the two lackeys, left the writhing rubber man and went towards a couple of hippo-like creatures called the White Walkies.
"Should we launch it at night? Or daytime?" Musshuru excitedly talked. "Both are good! Hearing people's screams at night as they suddenly wake up, unable to breathe and find themselves dying with no explanation, or in the morning where they can see the bomb falling, but be able to do nothing as their doom approaches them! Yess! I can't wait!"
"W-wait…" Luffy spoke up, triggering another bout of coughing. He had no idea what the hell they were talking about. He quickly gulped in some blood to wet his throat and hoarsely wheezed out, "W-what's f-fatal bomb?"
"Maaahahahaha! Curious, eh? We'll be launching a huge ball of my Bro-chan's poisonous spores over the whole island!"
"Then we can watch as all the stupid and ungrateful citizens here writhe in agony just like you! Mushsushu! Don't worry! You'll long be dead by then so you at least don't have to watch!"
Luffy shook his head in disbelief. "Y-you stupid bastards…"
"Huuh?! Did you just call me a bastard, you bastard?!" Wapol raged before pointing at him. "Bro-chan! Torture him more!"
"Yes! Let's teach th-" Musshuru agreed as he stepped towards him.
"Assholes," Luffy cut him off and unleashed Conqueror's.
Wapol, the two lackeys, and the White Walkies all fell unconscious but surprisingly, Musshuru didn't. He did swagger and collapse to his knees though, trembling violently while staring at Luffy with unbridled fear.
Luffy sat cross-legged, still trying to get his lungs to function properly while taking in calm and deep breaths.
"Y-Y-you… what did you do?!" Musshuru screamed out. "Are you a devil fruit user too?! Is that how you release this fear gas?!"
Luffy ignored him as he stared at his surroundings.
His own erratic heartbeat thundered in his ears, his breathing was laboured, his vision was hazy and he saw everything through a red tint, he could taste iron on his tongue, he felt prickling cold stings from all over his body and he felt himself going numb…
At the same time, he felt the earth breathing. He sensed creatures all around him and the emotions they were radiating. A wild hare was trying to burrow a nut it had found, completely uncaring of him. A snowy owl was curiously looking at him from atop a tree. A few Lapins were close by, too scared to approach. He felt Musshuru too, an intense wave of fear and dread emanating from him.
It was strange. The border of life and death. He had been in it plenty of times, especially during his early days of training in South Blue where he had constantly fought one ferocious beast after another. But he never tired of experiencing and thinking how strange it was. Paradoxically, it was in this state that Luffy felt the most alive. Or more accurately, he felt more connected with himself.
He raised his right arm up and watched as a black metallic sheen spread over it. He marvelled at it as he moved and flexed his fingers, feeling the energy making him more stronger than ever before. He finally felt like he was using Hardening efficiently.
It was also much easier to control haki. Was it because he was in this life-and-death state or had he gotten better at controlling it? He didn't know, but he watched in glee as the black sheen covered other parts of his body according to his will.
"-YOU BRAT! STOP IGNORING ME!"
Luffy was sure he had gotten Hardening down perfectly now. He had asked Hancock about it and she had assured him that he would just know when he had mastered it, and currently, he knew he had done it. Now that the basics were mastered, he just had to strengthen it, coat more body parts at the same time, increase the time… But that would all come with constant use.
"THAT'S IT! I AM MUSSHURU! HOW DARE YOU IGNORE ME, YOU PEASANT!"
After being happy for a few moments at his breakthrough, Luffy immediately began to think of the next steps. Emission, Internal destruction, Ryou…
The anger coming off of Musshuru finally overrode his fear, causing Luffy to stand up and get into a horse stance. He pumped his legs despite the sheer pain that shot through him at the action and activated gear 2.
There was another technique he had been dying to achieve ever since his fight with Hancock. But probably because his Haki or control wasn't strong enough, he hadn't been able to. But now that he had gotten stronger and better…
"TAKE THIS! SNOW SPORE!"
He thought of Ace as he willed armament to coat his fists, threw his arm back and let it stretch far back, and then launched it towards an enraged Musshuru.
"Red…"
—)(—
"THOSE STUPID RABBITS! I'LL ROAST THEM IF I GET MY HANDS ON THEM!"
"YOU JUST HAD TO KICK ONE OF THEM, YOU STUPID CRAP-COOK!"
"DON'T PUT THIS ON ME! HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THEY WOULD START A FUCKING AVALANCHE?!"
"GAH! JUST RUN!"
Chopper ran with all his might, along with the arguing humans, as they tried to escape an avalanche, courtesy of the Lapins. They had run into a few of them a while ago and after kicking a couple of them away as they kept blocking their path, Chopper had heard a Lapin with a scar across an eye cry out in frustration that there were too many humans showing up in their territory. And soon, a group of Lapins gathered at the top of the slope and started an avalanche.
"HEY! IS THAT LUFFY?!" Sanji suddenly yelled pointing ahead of them.
Chopper followed his direction and saw the third monster of the day.
A man in just shorts and a torn vest, not at all dressed for the cold, was standing in a stance. Even from afar, he could tell he was badly wounded and his skin was an unhealthy shade of purple. Across from him, a pink-haired man in a cape was screaming in frustration.
"Yes! We found him!" Zoro cheered before face-palming. "Shit! We're bringing the avalanche right to him!"
"Why the hell isn't he running away? Does he not see the avalanche?!"
"Looks like he's locked in combat! Let's hurry!"
Chopper agreed as they all slightly changed course to go towards him. In the short distance they had to cover, they saw the man in the cape angrily bring his arms up and something purple formed in his palms.
"TAKE THIS! SNOW SPORE!" He yelled as a massive wave of a purple substance erupted from his palms, forming a gigantic cloud in front of him that got launched towards Luffy.
Luffy then threw an arm back and Chopper's jaw dropped when it stretched unnaturally long behind him. There also seemed to be steam coming off of him!
The long arm then snapped back like a rubber band and whizzed right past him, going right into the oncoming purple cloud as Luffy yelled something like "Hawk!"
The speed and force of his punch was so strong that the huge purple cloud got completely blown away. The man in the cape had a dumbfounded expression on his face as the stretchy arm came right at him and the fist landed straight on his nose, causing a shockwave to spread out. Chopper was sure he saw the man's head snap unnaturally backwards before he got flung a long way back, his body crashing through a few rows of trees and yet, he still kept going until he disappeared out of sight.
Chopper's shocked eyes were on the stretchy arm though as it snapped back to the human. If the threat of being buried in the avalanche wasn't a glaring issue, Chopper was sure he would have frozen right then due to awe and confusion.
As they got closer, the remnants of the blown-off purple cloud still floated in the air and Chopper realized what it was. Poisonous mushroom spores!
And looking at Luffy's body, he had definitely inhaled some of it already.
"Damn, he looks like a freaking zombie," Sanji said when they got close enough to see him properly.
Chopper agreed and shuddered at the sight.
"Oi Luffy! Run!" Zoro yelled.
Luffy, who had been staring at his hand with dissatisfaction for some reason, finally looked up and squinted. His bloodshot eyes widened when he saw the massive amounts of snow cascading down on them.
"You guys brought an avalanche with you," Luffy wheezed as they got within an arm's distance.
"Yeah, sorry! Run for now!" Sanji said as they rushed past him thinking he would follow, but he stood rooted to the spot.
"Luffy!" Zoro stopped first and ran back. "You can't run? I'll carry you, c'mon!" He made a grab for Luffy but his captain walked ahead, right towards the avalanche that was dangerously close now.
"Luffy!" / "The hell do you think you're doing?!"
Luffy vaguely heard his crew's shouts over his own thundering heartbeat in his ears but he was more focused on the avalanche coming right at him.
Fiery magma fists, huge glaciers, light-speed laser attacks, city-size string bird cages, fists that could cause earthquakes… What's a stupid fucking avalanche in front of all that?! Luffy said to himself before planting his feet into the snow-covered ground. Just as the snow was about to hit him, he pumped his legs and arms again and steam started coming off of him.
"JET -" He puffed his chest out and launched both his hands at the snow. "-GATLING!"
Chopper couldn't believe what he was seeing. Punching an avalanche? That was the most reckless, brainless, stupidest thing imaginable!
"Is he crazy?! Wait, shit, the poison! He's not thinking straight! Let's grab him a-" Sanji and even Zoro and Chopper had taken a step towards him but their legs froze.
Because against all common sense and logic, the megatons of cascading snow actually parted.
Chopper had to crouch and balance himself as fast blasts of wind blew in his face, courtesy of Luffy's fists. A parting point actually formed as any snow flowing down right at them met Luffy's fists and got blown back. He couldn't even see his fast moving arms but judging by the mini shockwaves that were being created, Luffy seemed like he punching the snow at least thirty times a second, each punch with enough intensity and speed to push back the cascading snow and change its path.
Avalanches were terrifying disasters. Chopper had personally seen a few of them and knew of their disastrous effects. They were dispassionate, merciless, and an uncaring force of nature that buried entire landscapes under them and snuffed out anything living.
And yet here was someone who was somehow standing in front of it like a mountain. Chopper knew it wasn't a good comparison considering avalanches occurred on mountains, but he couldn't help it. That's what Luffy looked like to him. A small human-sized mountain that was forcing an avalanche to bend around him.
A minute passed. Two minutes passed. Four minutes passed. And the shock still didn't wear off. He glanced at the other humans and they too were looking on in wide-eyed fascination and disbelief.
Instead of tiring and weakening, his punches only seemed to grow stronger and faster as the distance between Luffy and the parting point in the avalanche seemed to be widening, and Luffy's arms were stretching farther and farther.
"He's gonna get tired sooner or later!" Zoro yelled, bringing Chopper and Sanji out of their stupor. "We should get ready to grab him and run when that happens!"
Sanji and Chopper nodded with determination and kept a close eye on his movements but they needn't have bothered. Seven minutes in, Luffy was still going strong. But he seemed to have hit a limit as his hands slowed down enough that they were visible again.
Contrary to the awe the three were feeling, Luffy himself was dissatisfied. If it was his grandpa, he would have parted the snow all the way up to the top with a single punch and even disintegrated the mountain itself. Kaido would have done the same with a single swing of his club, and Shanks with his sword…
And here he was struggling to keep it at bay. And he was getting tired. Just when it felt like his body was giving up on him, thoughts of Sabaody and Marineford kept him going. He buried his legs further in the snow and his hands moved faster as a roar emerged from his lungs.
"GRAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Chopper covered his ears at the shout and the gusts of wind emerging from the attack almost made him close his eyes but he squinted and made sure to look on until the end. Even his scream seemed to be causing some sort of sonic shockwave, and Chopper couldn't figure out if it was an illusion or something that was really happening.
Just when Chopper thought nothing could top the spectacle, embers appeared on Luffy's blurring arms. Soon, lines of flames formed from Luffy to the avalanche, it being clear that his hands had somehow caught on fire. The fast-paced punching with fists that were on fire created a sort of illusion of a stream of fire emerging from Luffy, and almost created a circular wall of fire at the parting point
"What the fuck…?" Sanji muttered in disbelief as the fire illuminated their dark surroundings and Chopper was glad that he wasn't the only one in utter shock and confusion.
The wall of fire seemed alive, shifting and crackling as it seemingly held the cascading snow at bay. It melted the snow and a huge wave of water and steam was forming right in the middle. Not only that, Luffy's body was also radiating intense heat, melting the snow around him and under him which caused him to sink a little into the melted snow, but his arms never stopped.
Finally, after what seemed like enough time for Chopper and the others' common sense to utterly break, the cascading snow finally slowed. It slowly lost its deadly momentum, decreasing in intensity, and finally, Luffy's fists punched through a column of the cascading wall of snow.
And only then did the flames start to die down and his fists come to a stop. His hands came back to his sides and for a moment, everything was still. The reduced wall of snow trickled harmlessly, skirting around Luffy as it settled.
And then Luffy suddenly collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
"Luffy!" Zoro and Sanji sprinted and Chopper was also on their heels.
A small pond had actually formed under him and Luffy had fallen face-first into it. Zoro immediately grabbed and lifted his head out of the water before pulling him out of the pond. He coughed up some water which was dyed red with blood but he himself was unconscious.
"We need to get him to the castle fast," Sanji said, studying him closely. "C'mon, let's run."
Zoro nodded and was about to start running when a scream stopped him.
"Ahhh! He needs a doctor! He needs a doctor!"
Both men turned and saw a panicked small creature flailing its little… hands? hooves? around as it seemingly moved its mouth and words came out.
"Wait, that's me!" Chopper gasped.
Zoro and Sanji stared at the little creature in confusion, noticing that it had the same hat that the reindeer with them previously had. The small creature then suddenly grew large, transforming into a beast which was taller than them, causing both men to step back in alarm.
Chopper, panicking at seeing all the wounds on Luffy, had reflexively transformed into Heavy point and reached for him but Zoro jumped back and brought a sword up.
"A monster?!" Sanji gasped and only then did Chopper realize what he had done. But he didn't linger on it for long as seeing Luffy's state was triggering all of his doctor senses.
"H-he needs help! Please! I'm a doctor! You have to let me treat him!" Chopper pleaded and even brought forward the bag on his back. "S-see! I have medical supplies! Please let me help him!"
"You're a doctor?"
"Yes!"
Zoro looked at his pleading eyes, then looked at Luffy's state, and nodded as he looked back at the reindeer doctor. "Okay."
He handed over Luffy and Chopper slowly laid him down and began checking him while Sanji came next to Zoro.
"Oi, where did you find this monster?" He asked and Chopper tried his best not to show the hurt or resignation he felt at that moment.
"It was with that old doctor, so I think it's telling the truth. She called it… I don't remember."
"A monster that's also a doctor, huh?"
"Looks like it."
Chopper internally sighed, knowing not to expect too much from anyone. But it still hurt dammit! At least they weren't attacking him, so he tuned them out and just focused on treating Luffy.
The more he tried to diagnose him though, the more confused he became. First, he brought out burn cream to treat his burnt hands… but his hands were fine. Well, not completely fine as he had multiple chipped nails that were bleeding profusely but he was expecting it to be a lot worse given that they were somehow on fire. But he had absolutely no burn marks. How…?
Given how he was wearing flimsy thin clothing, he should have had severe frostbite already but no part of him was frost-bitten. How…?
He treated other injuries he could recognize and stopped the bleeding in multiple parts of his body. He could see the effects of the poisonous spores on his body and he had also identified what type of spore it was by its scent, so thankfully, it would be easy to treat once he was brought to the castle. But just as he thought that, he saw that Luffy's body seemed to be recovering from that poison. The unhealthy purple complexion already seemed to be fading for some reason he couldn't understand. Did he take the antidote for the poisoned spores?
He also had another poison in his system, the toxin which Chopper didn't have much data on. But seeing the white patches and pale skin in places, he still hadn't recovered from that.
After the preliminary examination, only one thought ran in his head- How is he even alive?
While Chopper checked on Luffy, Zoro and Sanji sat to the side giving him some space while also taking a minute to process everything they had seen. The avalanche had still buried their surroundings and a bit further down, the parted area joined together, thus forming a tear-drop shaped valley around them.
A bit below them, Wapol, Chess, Kuromarimo, and the White Walkies were still unconscious but safe from being buried under the avalanche. Zoro and Sanji did spot them, but they didn't care enough to check up on them, and just stayed close to their captain and the creature.
"Didn't Luffy say that we're gonna recruit our doctor from this island?" Sanji eventually broke the silence while massaging his aching legs.
"Yeah," Zoro nodded, keeping a close eye on what the weird creature was doing.
"Bet you a hundred thousand berries that this is our guy."
"Please," Zoro smirked. "That's a losing bet."
"Yeah," Sanji chuckled before pointing at Zoro's pant pocket. "You have a vibrator shoved up your ass or something?"
"I'm not you, ero-cook," Zoro pulled out the phone which had been vibrating non-stop for quite a while now and picked up the call from Bubble.
"LUFFY?!"
"My lovely Bub-"
"Sanji, where's Luffy?! He's dying!"
"Ah, don't worry. He's right in front of me. A doctor is treating him already."
"Really? Is he okay?!"
"Yes, he's fine."
"Are you sure?!"
It took a bit of convincing, but she finally heaved a sigh of relief and calmed down. Aaand then she became furious. "That bastard! This is like the tenth time this has happened!"
Zoro wanted to ask what she meant but Koala's call came at that moment and he saw that she had rung quite a few times too, so he added her to the same call, which was something the phone could apparently do.
"LUFFY?!"
"Ah, Koal-"
"Luffy's dying! Wher-"
"It's fine. A doctor is apparently checking up on him," Reiju answered.
"What's wrong with him?"
"He was poisoned."
"Oh… are you guys on Drum Island right now?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, good."
"Why did you both think he was dying?" Zoro asked curiously and Sanji was wondering the same too.
"His Vivre card was burning out," they both replied.
"The paper thingy?" Sanji said confused, prompting Koala to explain that it also showed a person's life force and that Luffy's paper had almost burnt out.
"It's less than a centimetre wide now… But it has stopped burning, so looks like he's gonna be okay."
"Yeah… Who are you by the way?"
"Oh hey, I'm Koala."
"Luffy's seventh wife?"
"Ah, you already heard?" Koala giggled before some background voices interrupted her. "Sorry, I gotta go! I'll call ya later!"
She disconnected and Reiju sighed. "So why did you guys not pick up for so long? I've been calling and calling…"
"Ehh… stuff happened…" Zoro shrugged before quickly saying, "We gotta go" and cut the call, not giving her a chance to say anything.
"Why the hell did you cut her off?!"
"She's annoying when she's worried."
Sanji lunged and grabbed him by his collar. "You asshole! How dare you call a Holy Goddess like Bubble annoying?!"
"Shut up, you curly-eyebrowed pervert!"
"Umm…" Someone interrupted and both men turned towards the voice to find Chopper hesitantly looking at them. "Y-you guys n-need to be treated too."
Both backed away from each other and walked towards Luffy who was wrapped up in a few bandages, but still looked worse for wear. "Is he okay?"
"T-the phytotoxin is still killing him. I've done what I can here but we need to get him to the castle quickly!"
"Alright, let's go," Zoro picked Luffy up and started walking along with Sanji when Chopper interrupted them again.
"N-no! You guys are injured too! I need to treat you!"
"Let's get him up first," Sanji said patting the tall beast on the shoulder but backed off when he flinched. "He's still not out of danger, right?"
"Y-yes," Chopper nodded as he stared at Luffy while following them. His body was way too strange and he needed to perform a comprehensive checkup on him to figure out how he wasn't dead yet. "W-what is he?" He blurted out while thinking of the earlier spectacle.
Sanji smirked. "The guy's a monster."
Chopper flinched at the words and couldn't understand the merry tone behind it. "Oh…"
"So what exactly are you?" Zoro asked.
"I-I-…" Chopper stuttered for a few moments before he suddenly transformed into his walk point and ran away.
Zoro and Sanji blankly watched until the creature went out of sight behind some trees before turning to each other.
"He probably thought you were talking algae and got scared."
"No, your freakish twirly eyebrow must have scared him off."
Insults flew as they resumed running with Sanji leading the way towards Gyasta while Chopper followed them from a distance.
Luffy's stomach soon started grumbling, so Sanji brought out fruits from inside his coat and held it in front of Luffy's mouth, which immediately opened up and chomped on it.
"He can eat while he's sleeping?"
Sanji chuckled as he fed him another fruit. "Found this trick a while back. You know how Luffy sometimes gets melancholic?"
Zoro gave him a surprised look.
"What?"
"I thought I was the only one who picked up on it."
"He does hide it pretty well," Sanji nodded. "But his eating habits are a dead giveaway. He eats less whenever he gets like that and there will be lots of leftovers."
"Ah."
"The first time it happened, I took the leftovers to him to confront him if he didn't like my cooking but he was sleeping. I was deciding whether to wake him up or not when he started sniffing the air and then suddenly lunged for the food. He gulped everything down without ever waking up!"
"He sleep-eats," Zoro shook his head in amusement.
"Dahaha yeah! From then on, whenever he eats less, I just wait till he's asleep and feed him more. He doesn't even know he can do that."
Sanji brought out another fruit but paused in confusion as it looked a bit strange and he definitely didn't remember buying anything like it. He kept it back in his coat to investigate later and continued leading the way.
Thankfully, there weren't any more hiccups on the way and their journey to the top of Drum Rockies was much more smoother. Lapins also stayed away from them as some of them had witnessed Luffy's terrifying display and didn't want to get on his bad side.
By the time they reached the base of the ropeway, the civilians had already attached a lift to it. Thus, they easily rode it to the top. The avalanche had buried some town apparently so Dalton had gone for search and rescue efforts with Usopptagging along with him, so they couldn't meet up.
And so, finally, all the sick, poisoned, and injured people were at the castle.
"The hell happened to you guys?" Kureha asked with a raised eyebrow when she laid eyes on them.
"Long story," Zoro shrugged and handed Luffy over to her. "Please cure him."
"So this is the boy huh?" Kureha eyed him before realizing that he was the most critical out of all of them and quickly disappeared somewhere inside while Zoro and Sanji finally let their bodies relax and fell asleep right near the entrance.
Chopper arrived just in time to see them collapse, having run up the ropeway, and dragged them inside.
——][———][———][——
Luffy slowly awoke, his memories and vision taking a few moments to come back to him before his eyes registered an unfamiliar stone ceiling. He was on a bed with bandages wrapped all around him and the scent of chemicals was heavy in the air. He looked around to find that he was in a crude hospital ward of sorts with multiple patient beds, two of which were occupied by Nami and Vivi.
An old woman, with a killer bod, was sitting at a desk, mixing something in a small bowl.
"Did you somehow sew only your head onto a much younger headless body?" was the first thing that came out of his mouth as he sat up and made sure his hat was nearby.
Kureha was slightly startled when he suddenly spoke but snorted at the rest of his comment. "Hah! As if something like that is possible!" She strode up to him and touched his forehead. "Believe me, I've tried."
Luffy blinked dumbly, not able to tell if she was joking or not. "You suddenly became hella terrifying."
"Kak kak kak kak!" She cackled as she put her hand down. "I'm Kureha, your doctor."
"Monkey D. Luffy, Future Pirate King."
Kureha chuckled at the introduction.
"You sure heal unusually fast, your temperature's already normal… Headaches?"
"Not as intense as before but still there, and my body is throbbing with pain all over."
"That's to be expected," Kureha reassured. "The Isshi-20 were correct in diagnosing you. It is a new variant of weed hemlock. I've made the antidote building on their tests and looks like it's worked, but it's gonna take some time for the poison to get flushed out. So, you'll feel that for a few more hours."
"That's fine," Luffy shrugged before pointing at the other two in the room. "How are they?"
"They'll be fine too," she replied, sitting back in her seat. "Just had a deadly disease that would have killed them in a couple more days, that's all. Kak kak kak kak!"
Luffy bowed his head in gratitude. "Thank you so much."
"You're welcome, kid. But don't think you can pay me with just thanks."
"Shishi sure, we'll pay."
"That's what I like to hear. Well, we'll talk about that later. For now, go back to sleep. You shouldn't even be up for a few more hours."
Luffy did still feel really sleepy so he laid back down but started reflecting on the past 48 hours. I think I almost killed myself. I sure was reckless…
It was like he had had a long two-day battle with the toxins in his system where he kept using Haki and pushing himself with gear 2 while the toxin tried to kill him…
At least it had borne results.
He raised his right arm and after willing it, a black metallic sheen spread across his fist and forearm. He smiled wide as it was as easy as breathing now. He had even managed to create Red Hawk, although only his fists had ignited. The repeated punches had caused the flames to grow stronger but Luffy wanted to create the same intensity and power with a single punch. Can't truly call it Red Hawk until I make the fire much stronger and ignite my entire arm… Should I call it Red… Pigeon? Lame… Eagle?
"You're not sleeping," Kureha interrupted his thoughts and Luffy looked up to see the old lady looming over him.
"Uh… can't sleep?"
"That's imposs-" she cut herself off in frustration. "Kid, do you know how close to death you were?"
Luffy nodded. "Very."
Kureha somehow seemed even more frustrated by his nonchalant response and opened her mouth to say something before deciding against it. She sighed as she went back to the desk while Luffy wondered what had gotten into her.
"Are those bastards using poisons now to torture people?" She asked after a moment.
"Hm?"
"Your high tolerance to poisons… You were injected with a lot of them, right? And I saw the brand on your back."
"Oh. Nah, those are two different matters. The tolerance is because I was a willing guinea pig for someone who liked playing with poisons."
"Really? You crazy brat! That's not something you should have been willing to do."
"She knew what she was doing and I trust her."
"Well," Kureha didn't argue, hearing no doubt in his voice. "Going by how strong your immune system is against poisons, I can say she did a marvellous job. It really saved your life here."
"Shishi yeah! She's great!"
She didn't say anything more and Luffy was about to drift off into sleep when the door creaked open and a small reindeer wearing a pink hat walked in on two legs. Luffy's drowsiness washed away instantly and his eyes sparkled with interest as he studied his new crewmate.
"Here, Doctorine," Chopper said as he handed a vial to Kureha, who emptied its contents into a bowl with other ingredients and began mixing it, while Chopper studied her actions, not having noticed that even though Luffy was lying down, he was wide awake.
"Yo!" Luffy suddenly piped up, making the poor reindeer flinch and jump in shock. He jerked his head towards him as he reeled away and crashed into a table, making the things on it fall over. They both stared at each other for a good two seconds before Chopper gasped and hastily ran out of the room. He then slowly peeked in while hiding himself… in his own unique way of peeking, of course.
"You're doing it wrong," Luffy pointed out and he hastily flipped his position.
"Nope. No matter which way you try, your antlers will stick out."
"Sh-shut up, human!" Chopper yelled hesitantly. "Also, h-how are you feeling?"
"I'm so hungry that you're looking like a really good piece of venison right now!" Luffy grinned, licking his lips and showing all his teeth.
"EEEEPPPP!" Chopper yelped as he dashed away. Luffy giggled as he sat up, ready to chase after him, when a scalpel flew right past his neck and embedded itself into the wall.
"Lie down," Kureha ordered and Luffy slumped back down. "That little guy is Chopper and he's my assistant. So if you do eat him, be ready to say goodbye to breathing rights."
"Yeah yeah…"
Kureha waited for the obvious questions about the talking reindeer but Luffy just stayed silent. "You don't have any questions?"
Luffy curiously turned towards her, wondering what she meant when he took an actual good look at her and a question did pop up in his head.
"You're 139, right?"
"Oh? You want to know the secret to my youth?" She asked with a coy smile.
"Not really. But I am curious as to why you've lived so long."
Kureha's smile dropped as she reevaluated the boy. "Are you telling me I should die?"
"No no… Just… I can't imagine living that long without my friends… Doesn't it get lonely?"
Kureha was taken aback at the heavily loaded question and the room descended into silence as she seemingly got lost in her past. It took her a few moments but when she finally came out of her stupor, she noticed that Luffy was closely studying her, analyzing her. She sent an irritated glare at him before launching a scalpel right at his forehead, which he dodged by tilting his head. "Aren't you too young to be thinking about stuff like that?"
"Yes, yes I am," Luffy replied with a small grin and gave up on finding out about her past. Kureha was someone who knew about the Will of D, so he was a little interested in knowing what she did in her long life, but if she didn't want to talk about it, he wasn't gonna press it. "Well, I'm sorry but you're gonna be a bit more lonely because I'll be taking Chopper with me."
"What?"
"He's gonna join my crew."
"Hah! You want him?" Kureha chortled. "I don't mind but it won't be easy to convince him. He has a wound in h-"
"It's fine, it's fine. I don't need to hear it," Luffy interrupted making a dismissive shooing motion with his hand which made the old doctor's eye twitch in irritation.
Before she could decide how to beat some manners into him, Chopper came back and slowly peeked into the room. Luffy turned his gaze back to the door and the reindeer flinched and again hid himself, but he eventually resolved himself and cautiously made his way inside.
"H-Here, human!" Chopper quickly shoved a plate of bread and warm soup towards him before running away and hiding again.
Luffy smiled wide as he gulped the food down in less than a second.
"YOU ALREADY FINISHED?!" Chopper yelled in shock, rubbing his eyes in disbelief as he hadn't even gotten a glimpse of him picking up the food.
"That was good. Thanks!"
"Sh-Shut up!" Chopper bashfully yelled, his body swaying from side to side in happiness. "I don't need gratitude from a stupid human!"
"Shishishi you're funny!"
His stomach decided to gurgle loudly at that moment and he turned his gaze towards Kureha, who was leaning back in her chair and observing him. "I need more food… I heal faster that way."
Kureha sighed as she dismissively waved him off. "Just go. I can already tell you're the kind of stubborn fool who's not gonna sleep quietly. But no strenuous activity."
"Okay!" Luffy instantly got on his feet and glanced at Chopper, who stared back at him like a deer caught in headlights.
"Imma' eat you!"
"AAAAHHHHH!" Chopper bolted out of the room like his life was on the line and Luffy followed right behind him.
"I HAVEN'T TASTED VENISON IN A WHILE!"
"GYYAAHHHHH!"
"MUHAHAHA I'M SURE YOU TASTE REALLY GOOD!"
"I'M NOT FOOD, YOU STUPID HUMAN!"
"IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE EATEN, THEN TAKE ME TO THE KITCHEN!"
"WHA- OKAY! I'LL TAKE YOU! I'LL TAKE YOU! STOP CHASING ME!"
"HURRY UP IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE COOKED!"
"GYAAAAH!"
"MUHAHAHAHA!"
Luffy heartily evil laughed as he kept chasing the poor reindeer around the frozen castle until Chopper skidded to a stop in front of a door.
"Here! This is the kitchen!" Chopper yelled pointing at the door and was about to run away when Luffy accelerated and caught a hold of him, making him scream again. "GYAAAH! I'M NOT FOOD!"
"Relax, relax, I was just kidding," Luffy placated as he dragged him inside and closed the door to make sure he didn't escape. "I won't hurt you."
"AHHH- Wait, really?!"
"Really."
He expected Sanji to be in there as the soup he ate earlier tasted like his cooking, but he wasn't. There was a large pile of covered dishes though, with a note on top which read - Leave some for the ladies, you shitty captain.
Luffy grinned as he separated a small pile from all the dishes before he started devouring the rest. As he ate, his eyes caught sight of a strange item kept away from all the food. It seemed to be something which was wrapped around in multiple layers of duct tape, and 'DO NOT TOUCH' was written on it in big bold letters. It also had a note on top.
Seriously. No one touch this box. Luffy, especially you, stay away! You will die. This is not a threat but just a fact. I'll explain later.
Luffy raised an eyebrow as he looked at the box and then picked it up.
"Ahh! It says not to touch!" Chopper protested but Luffy shook the box wondering what was inside it when he found another note stuck to the bottom.
You shitty captain, I said not to touch! Keep it back down!
He chuckled debating whether to tear it open or not for a moment before deciding to accept his cook's warning and kept it back.
"Where's Sanji?"
"Who?" Chopper asked cautiously.
"The blond guy."
"Oh! Dartbrow left for the town a little while ago to buy some ingredients."
"Pfft-" Luffy stifled a laugh. "W-Why are you calling him that?"
"That's his name, right? Mosshead kept calling him by lots of names but that was the frequent one…" Chopper trailed off unsurely.
"Oh," Luffy easily inferred what had happened. "Yes, that's right. Those are definitely their names," he nodded as he continued opening his maw wide and shoving food down his throat while Chopper looked on in fascination.
"H-How does your body stretch like that?!"
"Devil fruit," Luffy answered through stuffed cheeks. "It turned my body into rubber."
"Rubber…" Chopper nodded. After a minute of staring, he slowly walked out of his hiding spot and inched closer to him. "Y-You're not scared of me?"
"Why would I be?"
"B-Because I'm a talking reindeer! I-"
"You look more like a small bear actually," he interrupted with a mischievous smile.
Chopper lost his train of thought. "I'M NOT A BEAR! I'M A REINDEER!"
Luffy looked on in amusement as the little reindeer lost his anxiousness and instead, huffed in irritation.
"You don't look like a reindeer though… Ah! You must be a trash panda then!"
"I JUST TOLD YOU! I'M-" Chopper paused mid-shout. "… what's a trash panda?"
"They're also known as raccoons."
"RACCOON?! RACCOON?! I'M NOT A DAMN RACCOON!" Chopper again snapped, looking more offended than before, while Luffy fell to the floor laughing. "I'M A REINDEER! SEE THESE ANTLERS?! SEE THESE HOOVES?!" He yelled shoving said body parts in Luffy's face, who only laughed harder.
"Shishishi… Okay, okay, you're a reindeer," Luffy calmed down after having had his fill of teasing the little doctor and patted his hat. "Cool hat."
"Oh!" Like a switch had been flipped, the irritated expression on the little doctor's face melted away and a bashful one took its place. "You bastard! I'm not happy that you said that, you stupid jerk!"
"Shishishi you're fun!" Luffy grinned as he got back up on the table and continued to eat. "So you ate a devil fruit to become like this, right?"
"Ah! Yes…" Chopper seemed a little hesitant to talk about it but Luffy had shown no signs of aversion to him yet, so he sat at the table too. "B-But I'm not a human who ate the Reindeer-Reindeer fruit… I-I'm a reindeer who ate the Human-Human fruit…"
He just nodded, not having much of a reaction, which left Chopper a bit befuddled as he expecting fear, disgust, or anything negative really.
Luffy didn't let it show on his face but he did wonder why he felt the need to clarify that. Hm… He does know about Zoans so he probably thinks he could find some sort of kinship there. But he's still afraid as he's originally an animal… He thought for a moment before opening his mouth.
"I've been wondering about this and you're the perfect person to ask this…"
"What?"
"So you're just a normal raccoon go-"
"Reindeer! I'm a reindeer, you jerk!"
"-Shishi a normal reindeer going about your life and one day, you eat a disgusting fruit and suddenly your intelligence rises. But animals aren't that… unintelligent, right? I've met plenty of animals that seem to completely understand what humans say. Even a couple of those Lapins down here understood when I talked to them too."
"Oh… umm… some are intelligent," Chopper answered thoughtfully. "But they're the exceptions. A handful of individuals in a species turn out to be smarter than their fellow mates but even then… hmm… They're like human toddlers… but with more awareness and experience but also, no ability to grow further… d-does that make sense?"
"Yeah," Luffy nodded with a hand on his chin. "So they stop at the 'imitate' process of learning?"
"Yes!" Chopper nodded enthusiastically, happy that Luffy understood him. "They rely more on instinct and life experience. They pretty much lack the questioning part too."
"Right. Was it the same for you too?"
"Ah, yeah… Before, I never really thought about things, but once I ate the devil fruit, I suddenly started having all these questions, like why our herd just couldn't grow food like the humans did or why the water in the sea was salty and wondered if we could somehow make it non-salty…"
Chopper trailed off and his face darkened, and Luffy could guess why. His new self had been shunned more by his herd and he was kicked out as a result too, so it was probably not a good time in his life.
"You can talk to other animals too, right?"
"Ah," Chopper came out of his thoughts and nodded. "How did you know?"
"Just do," Luffy shrugged. "Ever talked to a cat?"
Chopper sheepishly smiled. "Yes. They are… well…"
"Haughty? Demanding?" Luffy grinned.
"Yeah!" Chopper giggled. "Most of the ones I talked to wanted me to become their servants."
"Heh. What about elephants?"
"Never met one before…"
"Right. Oh, you know what?! You should write a book! Something like 'My conversations with animals!' where you write down actual interviews you have with different animals. People would die to read stuff like that!"
"A book? Me?! Really?!" Chopper's legs hanging off the table swayed in excitement.
"Yeah! You can do it while we travel and publish it alongside all the new medicines and medical practices you come up with."
Chopper's mind stalled and his excitement died down as he tried to process his statement. "While we… travel…?"
"Oh," Luffy facepalmed. "I forgot to tell you but you're joining my crew."
"… Huh?"
"You're my crew's doctor. Oh, I don't think I introduced myself either. I'm Monkey D. Luffy, Future Pirate King. Glad to have you on my crew, Chopper!"
"HUUUHH?!" Chopper had an over-the-top reaction as he backed into a wall with a confused and gobsmacked expression. "DON'T BE STUPID! I'M A REINDEER! I CAN'T JOIN A PIRATE CREW WITH HUMANS!"
"You're joining and that's final," Luffy stated matter-of-factly just as laughter erupted from outside the window and a second later, Zoro's head popped up.
"This is way more funnier when you do it to someone else," he chuckled as he climbed in.
Chopper already knew he was there because of his scent and was ready to bolt out of the room if it looked like he was coming in. So, as soon as his head popped up, he tried to run out of the room.
And realizing what he was about to do, Luffy wrapped an arm around him and held him in place.
Zoro sighed watching the little reindeer shiver and try to break out but ultimately failed. "He keeps running away whenever I try to approach him," he said as he walked over to Luffy's other side and sat next to him so that Luffy would be in between him and the scared little fella. "You good?"
"Yeah, just gonna take some more time to recover, that's all," Luffy said as he eyed his swordsman. He was covered up with bandages too, his right arm, both his legs, and torso mostly. "Who did you fight?"
"Injuries from falling and then trudging in the snow because someone decided to do something very stupid."
"Oh right," Luffy sheepishly grinned. "Sorry, that was my bad."
Zoro lightly hit his head with the hilt of his sword. "Yes, it was, idiot."
"Shishishi, anyway, what did you do to make Chopper this scared of you?"
"It's that idiot cook's fault," Zoro eyed the doctor, who was pulling his hat over his eyes while shivering. "When I woke up, I was already bandaged up and this guy was tending to us. He was asking me if we were pirates when the cook woke up, saw him, and started talking about venison soup. And he ran away."
"Ah…"
Zoro shrugged. "We tried to talk after but he keeps running away. He did tell us off when we tried to close the castle doors because there's a bird's nest up there but other than that, he's been avoiding us."
"Well, you do have a very scary face," Luffy joked. "Maybe he thought you were a monster."
Chopper flinched at the last word and Zoro picked up on it. He stared at him in confusion for a few moments before speaking up. "Oi, did you get mad the cook and I called you a monster?"
Judging by the way his shoulders sagged, Zoro had hit the nail on the head. They had indeed still referred to him as a monster while they tried to talk to him as they didn't remember his name, so was that why? Does he have a complex? He wondered, genuinely confused.
"Why are you mad about that? You are a monster. So is Luffy. And so am I."
"…Hu—Wha…?" A bewildered Chopper slowly lifted his hat just enough and locked eyes with the green-haired man. Every human who had called him a monster had contempt or fear or disgust in their eyes but he found none of it in these ones. He shifted his gaze over to Luffy, who seemed more interested in the food rather than the conversation.
"You call yourselves m-monsters…?" He managed to choke out. Even though he himself had seen them as monsters, they were still humans. Maybe a bit abnormal— He glanced at Luffy. Okay, way too abnormal! — but still humans nonetheless. So them referring to themselves as monsters was baffling. "W-Why?"
"Because we are," Zoro reiterated bluntly. "Why deny it? Besides, what's wrong with being a monster?"
"What's… wrong…?" Chopper parroted, clearly not able to keep up with the logic of the human. Luffy had overshadowed their feats but now that he thought back to the search and rescue, the other two had also shown monstrous resilience and definitely could not be classified as 'normal' humans either.
"How can you be okay being called monsters?" He asked in a bit of an accusatory tone.
Zoro scratched his head, not really knowing how to answer him. He had honestly never given it a second thought when people had started calling him a monster, so he had no clue why this was such a big deal to the little guy. He looked at Luffy for help and only then did the rubber captain speak up.
"Because we're the cool kind of monsters!"
"…huh?"
"There are all kinds of monsters, you know," Luffy began when Chopper didn't seem to grasp it. "The bad horror and terror-inducing kind, the selfish and heartless kind, the unknown kind, the misunderstood kind-"
"The stretchy kind who can now somehow produce fire from his fists," Zoro added before looking at Luffy. "I'm gonna grill you for details later."
"Shishishi sure. Then there's the really badass sword-wielding kind who has a monstrously bad sense of direction-"
Thwack!
"We travel the seas so we've seen all kinds of monsters! Some of them suck, sure, but so many of them are so cool! The world's so much more interesting because of them!"
Chopper's mouth gaped like a fish, having a hard time associating the word 'cool' with 'monster'.
"You wanna know what kind of monster you are?" Luffy continued.
Chopper leaned in. "W-what?"
Luffy was about to say when his head suddenly fell and hit the table with a thud.
"Luffy?"
Chopper's doctor senses kicked in and he checked to see what was wrong but found that he had just fallen asleep.
"Is he okay?" Zoro asked.
"Yes, he's fine. The fact that he was awake so soon was the strange thing. His body is completely spent… even that, I don't know how. It's like he was shot with multiple doses of adrenaline again and again… but you all deny that he did anything like that and he himself didn't have any adrenaline injections either…"
Zoro shrugged. "Don't break your head trying to understand him."
Chopper slightly sighed.
"You can ask him later when he wakes up," Zoro said and Chopper looked up to meet his eyes. "About what he was saying."
The reindeer nodded and, after a few awkward moments, hesitantly asked, "Y-you also think monsters are cool?"
"Sure," Zoro shrugged. "I honestly don't care what people call me. There is an extraordinarily strong man that I want to defeat. And to do that, I can't be ordinary myself. As long as I reach that goal, I don't care if I'm a monster or a devil or whatever."
Chopper looked at Zoro with awe and respect, his words making him think about his own dreams and goals, when the latter stood up. "Let's get Luffy back to bed."