"Are you feeling better, little girl?" An elderly woman with a surprisingly good figure appeared. "I am Doctor Kureha, you can call me Doctorine."
You stared at her blankly. If she is a doctor, then that must be the reason why I could come back to my senses again. But how did I get here? For a moment you pondered about that question.
"The two guys who brought you here are sleeping in the room next door," Doctorine said as if she was able to read your mind. "This was the first time I've witnessed a case like yours." She sat down on the bed.
"What happened to me?" you asked curiously.
"It's known as the reverse fever. I only read about it in books before. To be frank I always thought it was a theoretical condition. Of course, I've seen low body temperature before but the cause was nothing quite as strange as yours."
Doctorine stood up and faced the wall. Only now did you notice the bottle of wine in her hand. "There were two possibilities. First one is your body went into a state of hibernation. You should know that humans don't do that but that would've been the most logical option." You could see a grin on her face grow while she spoke. "The second one was simply a speculation. Little girl... did your body generate a lot of heat at once perhaps?"
Generated a lot of heat? You remembered in an instant. The situation at Little Garden. You burned down the candle tower which trapped your friends with fire produced from your own hands. Now that you thought about it, that whole ordeal seemed more than surreal.
"Did you just remember something?" Doctorine laughed. "It was actually a mix of both possibilities. Your body reacted to balance out the temperature and thus it induced a state of hibernation. To generate that amount of heat, it cost a staggering amount of energy too. Another reason for hibernation."
You were amazed by her explanation. It felt like she understood more about you than you did yourself. For that reason, you became even more eager to ask questions.
"Doctor... do you know how my body was able to do that?"
"It's not a Devil's Fruit is it?" She was still grinning. "You wouldn't ask such a question if it was." You quietly shook your head. "Unfortunately, I can't help you with that. I'm just a doctor, my job is to cure you."
Suddenly, Luffy and Sanji stormed in, chasing the little reindeer across the room. "Don't run away, you sweet meat!" the pirate shouted as he tried to grab the animal. Your jaw dropped a bit while watching this commotion.
"That's Chopper, a regular blue-nose reindeer. I teach him about medicine," Doctorine said calmly despite what's happening in front of her. "The only extraordinary thing is..."
Chopper had enough them trying to make him into food. Without a warning, he shapeshifted into a version ten times bigger than himself and smashed his pursuers to the ground.
"... that he accidentally ate a Hito Hito fruit."
You watched in awe as the enlarged version of the little reindeer rushed out of the room, leaving your friends lying face down in shock. Only Doctor Kureha was quite amused by this scene. Eventually, Luffy and Sanji stood up again and gave up on chasing after Chopper... momentarily.
Their eyes glistened when they saw that you woke up and they did not hesitate to express how relieved they were.
"Y/N-chan... the colour finally returned to your rosy cheeks!" Sanji said with a hint of sweetness.
"You slept for so long." Luffy interrupted the cook's speech.
At the sight of your comrades, an overwhelming feeling of warmth swept over you. Hearing their voices suddenly made you overly emotional and without noticing it, tears started welling up. But at the same time, a big smile formed on your lips. "I'm so happy to see you guys."
Luffy ruffled your hair. "Don't worry, you'll still get to see a lot from us!" He smiled proudly at his own statement.
Chopper peaked curiously into the room, trying to catch the conversation you were having without him. He immediately realised what a horrible mistake that was because two pairs of eyes suddenly preyed on him. With a panicked scream, he once again fled from the starving pirates.
"Please wait for a second, I will cook some reindeer soup for you!" Sanji exclaimed as he ran off.
So there they went. It was far too late for you to try to stop them from terrorising the poor thing but you could not just restlessly sit in bed either.
"You should take a rest," someone said as soon as you took one step outside of the sheets. To your surprise, Chopper came back to this room. He looked around cautiously, making sure that neither one of those hungry humans is around here. "Doctorine's medicine is working but your body is still weak. You will need an injection and more rest."
"Chopper must've been taking care of me all this time..." He stared at you with big round eyes. A drop of sweat rolled down his head. "Oh, I said that out loud." You scratched your cheek awkwardly. "Well, thank you for taking care of me."
"Shut up! I don't want gratitude from a human!" he said while being obviously flattered and pleased by what you said. He twirled around for a moment but got serious again. "Are you pirates?" he asked.
"Yes, Luffy is looking for a crew."
"Really? Do you have a pirate's flag?" he continues to ask, slowly inching closer.
"Yes, we painted it ourselves."
After a brief moment of silence, you realised why he was so curious. "Do you want to be a pirate?"
With alarming speed, Chopper backed off and crashed into a bookshelf. "Don't be stupid! Who told you that?!" he shouted as several books scattered to the ground.
You tilted your head. "Do you want to come with us?" you questioned. "You seem like you're interested. I think you'd be a great addition to the crew."
"But I'm a reindeer! And despite that I can talk and stand on two legs..." he whispered defeated. "My nose is blue too."
"That just makes you special. Besides, you're adorable!"
You were not sure if he heard what you said because the next moment he went rushing out the door again. A trail of dust was left behind when Luffy and Sanji discovered where their meal was hiding. The cat and mouse chase was not stopping so soon.
"While I wasn't here you must've given my reindeer a stupid idea without my permission." Doctor Kureha sat down next to you.
"Oh, I'm sorry," you quickly said. "You don't want him to leave, right?"
Kureha broke out in laughter. "Hahaha! No, just take him with you." She looked into the distance. "It's not going to be easy, though. He has a wound inside his heart that not even a doctor can heal."
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