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Wapol tears up as he watches Luffy pull his arms forward.
"Wait, I'll make you the heir to the throne!"
Luffy continues to ignore him as he pulls his arms forward and punches him as hard as he can with both arms to send him flying off the island.
"...BAZOOKA!"
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Dr. Kureha ignored her patient's complaining as she reaches the doorway then turns back to them.
"Listen to me, I have things that I need to take care of downstairs. I'm going to leave this door open. In the closet there are some of my jackets and there's no one else going to be in the room but you guys. I managed to treat the blonde's injuries as well. Under no circumstances are you allowed to run away from here. Those of you that aren't injured follow me"
The villagers jolt at the command before they reluctantly follow her out of the room to help her, and leave the only ones in the room to be Vivi, Nami and Dalton. Nami quirks an eyebrow at Dr. Kureha's statement.
"I get the feeling that she wants us to take her jackets, take Sanji, and get out of here"
"That's what I heard too" Vivi slowly nods. Dalton nods before he falls asleep. Nami gets out of the bed and grabs a long black jacket from the closet.
"By the way Vivi, what happened to the others?"
"Usopp and Zoro are outside and Ana went to see Sanji, while Luffy is out looking for the reindeer"
"Oh really?" Nami blinks in surprise.
"Yes, what's the story with the reindeer?"
"He's a doctor that was trained under Dr. Kureha. Luffy wants him to join the crew"
"We all have scars from our past. We shouldn't dig too deep into it if she's not ready to talk about it. Let's get Sanji and meet with the others" she shakes her head before heading to the door leading to Sanji's room.
Vivi's eyes widened at the statement before she followed Nami into the next room to help her bring the cook out.
"Ana, we're going to leave now" Vivi told the black haired woman who was at Sanji's bedside.
"Righ't" she wrapped her arm around Sanji's waist on one side while Nami grabs him from the other side in order to half drag him out of the castle.
Ж
"COME ON CHOPPER! JOIN MY CREW!" Chopper looked down at the front of the castle to see Luffy calling out to him.
"Give it up Luffy, he just keeps running away" Usopp sighs as he works on his snowman.
"He might not want to be a pirate you know?" Zoro nods as he watches his captain call out to the reindeer.
"How can you know that?! I want him in my crew!" Luffy turns to his first mate in shock.
"THAT'S ONLY YOUR DECISION!" the swordsman shouted back at his captain. After a while, Chopper came down from the building, Luffy walking up to the reindeer happily.
"There you are Chopper! You showed yourself so that you can join my crew right?!"
"I can't..." once Chopper calmed down he looked at Luffy nervously before he lowered his head.
"Why can't you? The life of a pirate is really fun!" Luffy looks at him in shock.
"I don't think that's the point..." Usopp looks at him in disbelief.
Nami, Vivi, Anamaria and Sanji make it outside while Chopper keeps his head down and continues.
"...I only came down to thank you for all your help..."the four of them watched the exchange with the others when Chopper raises his head to show the sadness in his eyes "Please listen to me! I'm a reindeer! I have hooves, horns and a blue nose!" Vivi and Nami look at him softly as he continues with tears in his eyes "The truth is, I want to be a pirate, but I'm not human! I'm a monster! I can't be friends with humans! I only came here to thank you!" he starts calming down as he looks back to the castle that's been his home for a long time "Just to thank you for asking me. But, I plan to stay here and learn more. If you guys want to visit you're more than..."
"SHUT UP!" Chopper's eyes opened even wider when he sees Luffy raising his arms up "JOIN MY CREW!"
Chopper tears return to his eyes when he sees that he won't give up on him because he doesn't care about what he looks like, he still wants to be his friend. Everyone else softly smiles at him to show that they accept him as well as he yells back at Luffy.
"OK, I'LL JOIN YOU!"
Ф
Chopper ran back into the castle to say his goodbyes to Dr. Kureha while Vivi, and the Straw Hats waited outside in the snowy night for the newest pirate.
"How come we can't say goodbye to Dalton and the hag?" Luffy's says as he sat on his own giant snowball while talking to Nami. Nami quietly sighs as she looks at the castle.
"It's better if we let Chopper go by himself since this will be a very sad goodbye. Even though Dr. Kureha looks scary and mean, she's a kind person"
"She's completely awesome" Anamaria muttered as Sanji still stuck to her side, more out of want than necessity, not that she minded. Usopp finishes up his snowman before he turns to Nami.
"So we're leaving without saying a word?" he asks her.
"That's right; once Chopper comes back, we're heading to Alabasta" the navigator nods.
"I hope that's fine with you Vivi" She turns to Vivi with a smile.
"Of course, since we have a doctor on board, I have no problems with it" Vivi quickly nods with a reassuring smile. Luffy tilts his head at the comment.
"We have a doctor?" he comments, making Anamaria face palm since she was sure that he just thought Chopper looked cool. Usopp ignores the question as he heads to the lift station.
"Well, since we're leaving, I'll get the lift ready. Hey Luffy, would you give me a hand?"
"They have a lift too? Cool!" Luffy nods as he rolls towards him on the large snowball.
He follows Usopp into the lift station to get to work on getting the lift ready while everyone else continues to wait for the humanoid reindeer to come out. Which didn't take long because as soon as the lift was ready, they heard screaming from men, women, and reindeer alike followed by the sound of throwing knives.
Before anyone can investigate the chaos, they're astonished by the sight of Chopper running outside in his walk point while pulling a sleigh, with Dr. Kureha running after him and throwing weapons at him. Chopper continues to dodge the weapons, with no time to explain, as he runs towards his new friends.
"EVERYONE, GET ON THE SLED! WE'RE GOING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN!" no one needed to be told twice as they run to the sleigh, and jump on to join the crazy sled while the reindeer and the knife throwing elder in shock.
"What the hell is with this hag?!" Zoro yells in horror when he quickly tilts his upper body back to dodge one of her knives. He almost falls off the sled, but Usopp grabs him and pulls him on the sled before he quickly ducks to dodge a knife.
"The hell if I know!"
"STOP!" Dr. Kureha yells as she throws the last of her knives at the sled which everyone ducks to avoid when Chopper jumps onto the lift line, and runs on it to head down the mountain.
"Whoa, this is awesome!" Luffy looks around at the island view where village lights shine below him with stars in his eyes.
"Wooohooooooo!" Anamaria shouts with the captain, feeling the sting of the cold wind on her face as Sanji tried pulling her back. Sanji goes into his pocket and grabs a cigarette before he starts smoking.
"Enjoy it while you can, because as soon as we reach the ship we're leaving" Anamaria takes the other cigarette he handed her as she listens and observed the scenery they pass by.
Even with the sky being dark, all the lights from the villages could be seen from the incredible height, and with the gentle snowfall, it a sight to behold. Anamaria looks back at the castle and softly grins at the pirate flag that's flying at the top of the castle. She leans back against Sanji, feeling the man tense under her as she could tell that he was freezing up.
Ж
As she and the others continue to enjoy the beautiful night, Chopper looks back at the mountain top to see Dr. Kureha scowling down at him through the snowfall. He couldn't handle her disapproving look anymore, so he focuses on getting his new crew down the mountain. Once Chopper makes it down to the large tree, where the line is tied, he jumps onto the ground while he continues to drag the sled with him.
Ж
"That was awesome! Let's go again!" Luffy grins in excitement of the sleigh ride as they travel through the forest.
"This isn't a ride!" Nami whacks him on the head in disapproval and Ana shuts her mouth since she was about to agree with her captain.
"Nami's right, we need to get going. Are you alright Chopper? We can walk from here" Vivi nods in agreement as she looks ahead.
"I'm fine with this, which way to the ship?" Chopper shakes his head as he keeps pulling the sled through the woods.
"We should go left" Zoro looks around for the right direction, then looks left.
"Don't ya listen to him Chopper" Ana and Vivi chorused since they had found out exactly how bad the man was with directions.
"We need to go right!" Nami shakes her head.
"Got it!" Chopper follows Nami's advice and runs to the right while Dr. Kureha stares at the fleeing sled from the top of the mountain.
Ж
"Is it really ok to say goodbye like this Dr. Kureha?" the doctor doesn't turn her attention to Dalton's voice as he walks up to the old woman, but instead she starts smiling.
"Heh, he's just a pet that I was asked to take care of" she keeps a strong smile on her face as tears start falling off her cheeks and land into the snow beneath her "Sad goodbyes are pointless..." Dalton softly smiles at the weeping old woman until she stops crying, grabs his ear and starts dragging him back to the castle "Come with me!"
"Ouch!" he struggles to keep his footing as she brings him into the castle. Once they're inside, she releases his ear and smirks to see that almost all the cannons are out of the weapon room.
"Since he's leaving the island, we need to give him a goodbye that he'll never forget! Make sure that the cannons are ready on the roof"
Dalton nervously nods as he runs to the roof to make sure that there are no problems with the cannons. Dr. Kureha heads into the infirmary and takes out a brown sack, that Hiruluk gave her, from one of her drawers with a smirk on her face.
"Time to see if your research paid off you old quack" she heads up to the roof where ten cannons are lined up at the edge of the roof and gives the bag to Dalton "Be sure to use this in all the cannons"
Dalton nods as he rushes to place the red powder that was in the bag in each cannon. Once the cannons are ready Dr. Kureha keeps her smirk up while crossing her arms over her chest.
"Everyone, aim the cannons for the sky and fire!"
"Yes ma'am!" The villagers manning each cannon salute her before they follow her orders. They fire the red powder into the clouds causing Dalton to look at her in confusion.
"What exactly are you planning here?" as the doctor looked out into the forest once more before looking up at where the cannons were shot.
"You'll see in a moment" she said mysteriously.
Ж
Chopper continues running through the woods with the sled and tries his best not to look back at the mountain that he abandoned when thoughts of his adoptive father's research come into mind.
As he begins to remember how happy Dr. Hiruluk was when he told him that his research was completed he starts clenching his eyes shut. He doesn't want to believe that his adoptive father lied, but since he never saw them it's hard to believe it.
He pauses when he suddenly hears the sound of cannon fire behind him then stops the sled. He turns around along with the rest of the group and they freeze at the sight in front of them. No one could believe their eyes when they see that the summit of the drum shaped mountain that they just fled became covered with a large pink cloud to make the mountain resemble a tree.
What's the most amazing about this sight is that pink snow started falling from the cloud just as cherry blossoms would from their tree. Chopper turns back into brain point and slowly walks to the front of the sled to get a closer look at the sight when the pink snow starts gently falling towards them.
Ж
"Wow, this is so cool!" Luffy widely smiles at the pink snow that's flowing with the wind around them.
"This is amazing!" Usopp quickly nods as he grins at the cherry blossom like snow.
Chopper though, is the most stunned of them all. All it took was for one of the pink snowflakes landed on Chopper's blue nose for him to snap out of it, and let tears begin welling up in his eyes.
"T-these, are cherry blossoms? Doctorine... WAAAH!"
The other turn in shock to see the new pirate openly crying from joy of the sight. They softly smile at him before they look away to allow him to continue crying from seeing the cherry blossoms.
Ж
"Take care, my stupid son" Dr. Kureha manages to hear her assistant's crying, then tears up herself as she grins down at the forest.
"This truly is an amazing sight" Dalton softly grins at her as he watches the pink snow gently falling around him.
"They should be sailing away any moment now" Dr. Kureha nods as she looks out at the ocean.
"I honestly never thought that a reindeer would carry out that great doctor's will" Dalton nods as he takes a seat and enjoys the view. Dr. Kureha chuckles as she sits down, grabs a flask from her jacket and takes a swig.
"If Hiruluk can make cherry blossoms appear on a winter island, then I can't see why a reindeer can't become a pirate" Dalton begins to chuckle before two villagers that stayed inside to get warm ran over to Dalton.
"Mr. Dalton!" he looks back in confusion when they run up to him with a wanted poster in one of their hands.
"I completely forgot that we have something to tell you"
"What is it?"
"Take a look!" he gives the wanted poster to him causing Dalton and Dr. Kureha to widen their eyes to see Luffy's smiling face on the paper. Dalton couldn't take his eyes off the wanted poster as he reads that Luffy's capture is worth 30 million beli.
"His bounty's worth 30 million?"
"Looks like Chopper left with some dangerous people. Hahaha!" Dr. Kureha couldn't help but laugh at the bounty as she takes the poster.
"Where did you guys get this?" Dalton turns back to the villagers.
"Well, we forgot to tell you. Last week there was a man in Ropel. Nobody knew where he was from, but he said that he's looking for the Blackbeard pirates. When we told him that they weren't here he asked if we knew a pirate with a straw hat" Dalton's eyes widened at this while continuing to listen to the villager's explanation "When we told him that we never saw him before, he gave us the poster and told us to give him a message if we saw him"
"A message?" Dalton quirks an eyebrow at the statement.
"He said to tell him that Ace will be waiting for him in Alabasta for ten days" the villager nods as he continues.
"I see, I don't think we should worry about that" Dalton nods in understanding.
"Why's that?" the villagers look at him in confusion.
"Because their next destination is Alabasta"
End of Drum Island Arc
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