Chapter 143

"Hey, old man," I said with a smirk as I brought the transponder snail's speaker closer to my mouth and paused, waiting for a reply.

"What do you want, brat?" replied an aged voice from the other side of the call. "If you're calling to gloat about how great the devil fruit I gave you back in Kano country again, then I'll just hang up, so don't bother," the voice added in an annoyed tone, sighing.

"Not this time," I replied with a chuckle. "I'm calling to inform you that I'm at Drum kingdom, and I've already made the necessary preparations," I added.

"So make your way here as soon as you can, and we'll give you back that pointy head of yours," I concluded in a cheerful tone.

"Very well, brat," the voice replied in a neutral tone, but I could detect the eagerness the speaker tried to hide. "I'll set off tomorrow, and I should be able to arrive in a week or two at most," the voice added.

"Then I'll be waiting for you until then, old man," I said with a smile, nodding my head. "See you," I concluded as I hung up the call and sighed as I slumped into my chair.

It has been a week since I beat the shit out of Wapol, and Kureha had finally finished studying Doc's heart.

She extracted a sample of the virus alongside some tissue from Doc's heart with Law's help. And she performed many experiments on them to find a way of exterminating the virus without harming Doc's heart more than it already was.

Kureha, of course, being the badass doctor she was, managed to do just that, and now it's only a matter of testing whether her medicine would affect Doc's other organs negatively or not.

However, Kureha was confident that her medicine wouldn't have any harmful side effects on Doc's other organs, so the testing shouldn't take more than a few days, but I digress.

My crewmates, other than Law, who was helping Kureha and Doc, who had to stay in Kureha's house for apparent reasons, were doing their own thing.

Bepo, of course, decided to come along to Gyasata so he could stay with Law, and Elly did the same as soon as she heard about the skating lake nearby.

We couldn't all stay at Kureha's house, of course, so I went ahead and rented a residence for us to stay there while waiting for Kureha to cure Doc, so we could move on to explore the island.

However, several of my crewmates were already doing just that, with the first being Kozue, as she was the first to leave, stating she would be training in the mountains and that we should call her if she's needed.

Byron, the horny bastard, decided to stay in Bighorn, as it was the only town with a brothel on Drum island, while Bob decided to stay there and watch over the ship.

Wilson unsurprisingly stayed in Bighorn as well. However, he stayed there because of how much he seemed to hate the snow, rarely going out to do anything other than buying alcohol.

Laffite went to the Drum castle to check it out and maybe look around the rest of the town once satisfied with that.

And as much as I wanted to go out and explore myself, I couldn't do it just yet. Law was stuck here, working hard to cure Doc's illness, and as the captain, staying here until that happens was the least I could do.

So I spent the past week training in the snowy forest, trying new techniques with my devil fruit ability, training to waken my observation Haki, and occasionally going out into the town with Elly and Bepo.

I even came across Drum island's snowbirds, the cute little pink birds that made a nest inside Wapol's weapon in the anime, and I have to say the tiny winged creatures were even more adorable in real life than they were in the anime.

So yeah, the past couple of days had been mostly peaceful, except for one expected but still frustrating incident; Wapol escaped.

And not only did the piece of shit escape, he even managed to take Chess, Kuromarimo, several loyal scumbags, and even a warship with him.

I can't say that I didn't expect this outcome, but it still made me feel frustrated. The fact Kureha not only didn't let me kill the bastard, but even prevented me from crippling him by placing a piece of sea stone inside his body just made this even more frustrating.

I honestly don't know what that crazy hag is thinking about, but whatever, I did my part, and if Wapol comes back again, then the people of Drum island will have to deal with him themselves.

However, on a brighter note, my training was going well as I increased my control over my devil fruit's powers considerably. And although I'm still far away from awakening my observation Haki, I was slowly, but surely, getting there.

Once Doc's treatment is over, and we move to the Drum castle, I'll try to awaken my observation Haki as I'll have the needed space to install a dark room, where I would use dials to make the room completely silent and dark.

Such an environment would stop my overly strong senses from distracting me, allowing me to focus on actually sensing instead of hearing and seeing.

I shake my head with a smile, getting up from the chair, realizing that I must have been drowning in my own thoughts for a while as I take a look out the window and notice the darkening sky.

However, a knock came from the door as soon as I reached for the handle, and I opened it with a curious expression, wondering who it could be.

I smiled at the sight of the small, humanoid dear glaring up at me as he stood at the door. "What is it, Dr. Chopper?" I asked with a smile as I looked down on the humanoid reindeer.

"You... You're a pirate, right?" Chopper asked, still glaring at me, but there seemed to be a hesitant expression on his face.

"That I am," I replied with a nod, pausing and allowing Chopper time to think about what he intends to say.

"Do you think... Do you think a monster like me could be a pirate too?" Chopper asked, his glare dissipating, only to be replaced by an expression that was a mixture of nervousness and hope.