Chapter 6

After taking Nami's jacket off and tucking her into bed, Dr. Kureha goes back to her desk to see the liquid antibiotics meant for Nami's illness, that are being boiled, are now ready for the finishing touches. She turns off the heater for the medicine, before she turns to her assistant who's in his human form. "I gotta say, these brats are pretty tough for making it out here on their own."

Chopper nods as he's placing the bandages on Rose's shirtless torso just below her cotton bra while she's unconscious. "Yea, from the looks of these injuries they must have faced the lapins."

Once Chopper places the last bandage on his patient, he puts a short sleeved t-shirt on her, gently lays her down on the bed, and turns his attention to the scratches and bruises on her arms, neck, and right cheek. From the age and shallowness of the wounds, he can tell that these marks have nothing to do with the lapin attack. Especially when he sees bruises that have to be weeks old. The more he observes them, the more concerned he grows for his patient.

He goes to the medical bag on the desk, to find something for the wounds, while Dr. Kureha finishes mixing the cooled down antibiotics and fills a needle with it. "This should do the trick. Chopper, answer this: what kind of bug gave the redhead that bite on her stomach?"

Chopper goes over to Nami to look at her stomach, then widens his eyes at the swollen, red, bite. "That's a casha bite!"

She nods as she walks over to Nami, sticks the needle in her arm, then inserts the medicine into her bloodstream. "Very good."

Chopper looks at her in utter shock. "I thought those bugs were extinct!"

"Looks like that's not the case. They probably went to an ancient island where they still thrived, or something. How's the other one doing?"

Chopper remembers what he was doing then starts digging into his medical bag again. "She has a bad scrape on her back, as well as frost bite, and a few bruised ribs on her left side. There are also scratches and bruises on her arms, neck, and a few on her cheek. I'm going to apply that ointment you made to make them go away faster."

Dr. Kureha quirks an eyebrow at the analysis before she goes over to the sleeping brunette, and looks over the marks. She narrows her eyes at the scratches, and can easily guess that a person did this. With the ointment that Chopper is getting, they should go away in a day so it doesn't matter to her about where they came from.

When Chopper grabbed the bottle of ointment from his bag, he walks up to the bed. However, Dr. Kureha quickly takes it from him before he could do anything. "I'll take care of applying it on her. I need you to hold her down. While this is effective, it burns like a bitch on scratches."

Chopper nods as he gently holds their patient down by placing one hand down on her thighs while the other is on her left arm. Dr. Kureha pours some of the ointment on her hand, takes Rose's right wrist, and starts roughly applying it on the patient's arm.

Rose groans as she flinches from the burning pain and tries to pull herself free, but Chopper's making sure that she stays in place no matter how hard she struggles.

When Dr. Kureha finishes applying it on the first arm, she looks over the gasping girl to see that she's still asleep. "She's definitely a tough one. Even when unconscious, a normal girl would at least yell from the pain. That should make things easy."

She grabs her lefts arm, while Chopper holds down the treated one. Once the old woman knows that Chopper is ready, she applies the ointment on her other arm, and causes Rose to start squirming again while Chopper keeps holding her down.

Rose grits her teeth in her sleep as she tries to turn and move her arms, but Chopper, and Dr. Kureha won't let her go. She kicks her legs to try to do something, but Chopper's hand won't let her legs go up any further than an inch. For the wind girl, the pain and restrictions are making the unconscious girl more anxious, and it took little time for her to reach the point where she couldn't take it anymore. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Chopper and Dr. Kureha widen their eyes when they feel a strong gust of wind blow off her and send them flying!

The wind quickly fades before the doctors can hit the wall, so they land on their butts while they keep their shocked eyes on the bed. Rose settles down, while she's still gasping for breath, as the burning pain starts fading away from her arms.

Chopper blinks at the sudden flight and slowly gets up. "What was that?"

Dr. Kureha warily stares at the girl as she looks at the arms that she applied ointment on, only to see that they dried up. "Looks like she's a devil fruit user. Whatever she did dried up the ointment on her arms to stop the burning."

She groans in frustration as she closes up the bottle. "This stuff doesn't work unless it stays applied for at least five minutes. Looks like we're gonna have to wait for her to wake up before we do any more with them. Her other injuries are fine?"

Chopper slowly nods as he keeps his innocent eyes on the sleeping girl. "Y-yea, her body temperature's been slowly rising to normal levels, and I treated all her other wounds. Is she really a devil fruit user like me?"

She shakes her head. "Her powers aren't like yours, but she's definitely some sort of monster. I'm going to check on the other two. Watch over the girls for a bit."

"Ok." He watches her leave, then goes to check on Nami's temperature. He's still astonished about how this girl suffered the five day fever. Thankfully, her skin tone is improving, so the antibiotics are working.

He replaces the rag on her head with a new one, then turns his attention to Rose, who's scowling in her sleep. If she truly is a monster like him, then it can be easy to guess that it's from a painful experience.H e looks at her softly as he goes to her bed and tucks her blanket over her torso. Once he knows that she's comfortable, he does his best as a doctor to watch over his two patients while they're resting.

It's a sunny day in New York as fourteen year old Rose sits alone, at a table in the far corner of the courtyard, on her first day of high school while she eats a peanut butter sandwich for lunch.

Once she finishes her food, she passes the time by reading the fifteenth volume of Inuyasha until the book is suddenly swiped from above. She looks up to find the perpetrator is a pale, skinny girl with short black hair, who's wearing a mini skirt, and a shirt that's short enough to show part of her stomach.

Three girls wearing similar clothes as the dark haired one in front of them smirk down at Rose while their leader scowls at the manga.

"Are you seriously still reading a comic book Rose? How are we the same age?"

All of the surrounding students in the courtyard look away from the conflict, while Rose rolls her eyes at the bully's questions. "First off, it's a manga. Second, is what I read really your business Carrie?"

"It is when you're embarrassing Marie and Laura with your weirdness! How can such amazing people like them deal with having you for a foster sister? Can't you learn to be a little more normal?"

Rose narrows her eyes at the question as she takes the book and grabs her backpack. "Maybe when there are less bimbos like you around."

The freckled girl walks away while Carrie goes to grab her, but one of her friends stops her.

The tan brunette points to the teacher that's staring at them while she whispers to her friend. "Not when there are teachers around!"

Carrie groans at the situation as she nods and watches scrawny girl leave. "Fine…"

For the rest of the school day, Rose managed to avoid any conflict from her classmates. Once the final bell rang, she quickly left the classroom and went straight for her locker near the door to the courtyard.

Once she placed her backpack inside, she closed the door with a small smile as she thinks of how her day went. Even though she didn't make any friends and had to deal with Carrie's bullshit, it wasn't as bad as she expected. As long as she can keep a low profile, and avoid her foster sisters along with their cronies, she should be able to survive.

She starts walking past the courtyard door to get to the library, when she's suddenly yanked by the arm by two girls and dragged out to the courtyard! When she finally manages to pull herself free, she finds herself cornered by Carrie and her three friends.

Carrie smirks at the scrawny tomboy in front of them, and crosses her arms over her chest. "Glad to see you can join us."

Rose groans at the confrontation, and looks around to see that they're the only ones in the courtyard. When she feels like she's being watched somewhere else, she looks up at the second floor window, and angrily narrows her eyes at the sight of her two foster sisters smirking down at the skirmish. "I take it Marie and Laura ordered the show?"

Carrie shakes her head at the assumption. "No, but I thought they would enjoy this so I invited them to watch. You know, I really wish that you had given up this anime and other world shit over the summer. I really am concerned about you."

Rose scoffs at the fake concern as she keeps her eyes on her. "Is that so?"

"Absolutely, didn't you notice how throughout the day no one would talk to you unless they had to? No one would sit with you at lunch either, why do you think that is?"

The freckled girl grows angry by the questions when Carrie grabs her by the collar of her t-shirt. "It's because freaks don't belong here. All you can do is normal up or live the rest of your life alone."

Rose pushes her away then she glares at the girls. "If those are my options, then I'd rather be alone."

The other girls mirror her glare while Carrie sighs in fake disappointment. "What a shame, I guess you can always go with the third option."

Rose quirks an eyebrow at the option while Carrie continues to taunt her. "You can always go to those other worlds you always spouted on about as a kid. That is, unless you and your folks really are crazy like everyone says."

Rose tightens her fists to the point where her short fingernails were digging into her skin. It's only a matter of time before she loses it, so she tries to walk away, but one of the girls pushes her back.

The nerd groans at how she's outnumbered, and tries her best to stay calm. "Carrie, let me leave before I beat the shit out of you and your friends. Or did you forget the last time I kicked your ass?"

Carrie chuckles at the threat. "Oh I remember. Even though you won, nobody backed up your side of the story, and you're the one that got punished. Even if you manage to beat us up, you're still screwed."

The tan brunette, who's been quiet this whole time, steps up from the crowd. "It really is a shame. No matter what you do, you'll always be the lonely crazy girl with a-!"

She gets cut off when Rose grabs her arm, and flips her over her shoulder! "Shut up Peggy!"

Carrie watches the two other girls in her group simultaneously lunge at Rose, for her to side step so she can grab one of them. As soon as she punches her in the face, she was kicked in the side by the other. She continues to dodge while Peggy gets up, and punches her in the face, while the others grab her arms to hold her back.

Rose struggles to get out of the hold while Carrie punches and kicks the front side of her body while Peggy does the same with her back. Rose manages to fight back by back kicking Peggy in the face, that causes her to keel over. Before she can deliver another kick, the two girls that are holding her arms step on her feet with all their weight to pin them down.

Rose doesn't stop trying to break free, but winces when her arms begin to feel like they're on fire. She has no idea why her arms feel like they're burning, but can barely care because of the situation she's in.

Carrie takes a step back to laugh at the bruised up girl's predicament. "See what I mean? If you keep acting like a freak, you're just going to stay alone forever. The sooner you accept that and normal up, the sooner you can have friends. I'll even be nice and help by getting rid of that creepy necklace for you."

Rose widens her eyes at the offer, and pulls back to try to get her away from the crystal hanging from her neck, but the others are keeping a strong hold of her. "Don't you dare touch it!"

Carrie ignores the warning and grabs onto her parents' necklace.

When Rose sees that she's about to rip it off her, something inside the freckled girl just snaps and lets her rage takes over. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

She head butts Carrie with all her might, before she can take the necklace off, and knocks her out!

The two girls, that have her trapped, look at the brunette in utter shock as they accidentally loosen their grip on her. Rose takes advantage of the opportunity by freeing her right arm to punch the girl holding her left arm in the nose. The crony stumbles back from the blow as she grips her aching nose, and frees Rose's left foot, so she kicks the other girl off.

Both girls lunged at her, but she dodged and grabbed one of them by the arm. She furiously punched her in the nose again, then flipped her over her shoulder. She jumps back to dodge the last girl's punch before she grabs her by the arm, knees her in the gut, and gives her a cross punch to the nose to knock her unconscious.

Rose steps back from her attackers, as she pants from exhaustion, to give herself some space. She looks down at her necklace to see that it's perfectly safe and grabs the red and black crystal to help calm her down. In a few seconds, she releases the necklace, grins in satisfaction, then looks up at where Marie and Laura are scowling down at her, so she can flip them off with both hands.

Laura scoffs at her victory as she walks away from the window with her sister.

Rose sighs in relief that it's all over, then loses her smile, and puts her fingers down to let her no longer burning arms hang lifelessly. She knows that she's going to be in deep shit for this, even if she told the truth. From what she learned from experience, she'll get off easier by taking the girls to the nurse, so she-!

She jolts when she hears someone clapping then turns around to see a slightly muscular, dark skinned, boy in shorts and a t-shirt applauding her by the door.

A pale girl with short red hair, and a tan boy with short dark hair, who are wearing t-shirts and shorts, nervously look at Rose from behind their friend who finished applauding. "Now that was a good fight. Looks like the rumors about you being a fighting monster are true Rose Catone."

Rose furrows her eyebrows at the nickname as she keeps her guard up around the people she's never met before, and picks Peggy up to throw her onto her back. "Glad to confirm your suspicions. Excuse me, but I have to get them to the nurse."

She starts walking to the door with a deep scowl on her face, but the boy who her applauded blocks her off. "Wait, don't be upset. It was a compliment. My name's Chris and I'm the president of the martial arts club."

Rose quirks an eyebrow at the introduction. "Martial arts club? This school has one of those?"

Chris nods with a smile before he points to his two friends. "Yea, that girl's name is Sarah and that guy's Hector. They're members too. Anyway, I'm here because I want you to join our club."

Rose widens her eyes at the offer when Sarah and Hector pull Chris to the side and start whispering loudly.

"That's why you wanted to watch her fight?! Sure she's strong, but a crazy girl can't join us?!" Sarah says in fear of dealing with the outcast.

Hector nods in agreement as he angrily whispers to his club president. "Haven't you heard the rumors about her?! She believes in some comet that goes to other worlds! Her parents were declared lunatics after their deaths, because they researched the thing! Anyone who insults them gets a broken nose!"

Chris sighs at their protests, but he doesn't waver from his decision. "I know, but we can't let this opportunity pass. We need strong ones like her, so we can start winning tournaments. We don't need to be friends with her, but we need her!"

Rose narrows her eyes at the group for she can every word of the conversation. The more that she can hear them, the less that she likes all three of them. Even so, joining a club involved in fighting could help her in a number of ways, even if she can't make friends in the club.

She stares at the ground in thought of the benefits of being in a martial arts club, while Sarah nervously looks over at the brunette. "Yea, but-!"

"I'll join."

All three of them jolt at Rose's answer, then look to see her showing them a friendly smile as if she didn't hear them saying mean things about her. "I'll join on two conditions: One, help me bring these jerks to the nurse. Two, back me up on my side of the story, so that I don't get suspended."

Chris nods as he goes over to pick Carrie up on his back with Sarah and Hector reluctantly following his lead by helping with the last two girls.

Chris walks over to his new recruit with a happy smile for gaining a new asset. "You got a deal! We meet every Tuesday and Thursday after school at the small gym for about an hour. Will the timing be a problem?"

She shakes her head as she starts heading inside. "No, that's perfect."

"Great, we start tomorrow."

Rose nods as she walks away when she overhears Hector whispering to Sarah. "Just you wait, having her around will just be a disaster for everyone…"

The freckled girl softly frowns at the insult, but doesn't say anything, as she heads to the nurse to deal with her bullies with the help of her new club president.

Rose kept a small frown on her face from the dream as she continued sleeping while Nami slowly started waking up. She sat up and looked around the room then stopped when she saw a small two legged reindeer moving a book to its shelf. "Who are you?"

"AAH!" Chopper jumps back in fear as he drops the book and rushes to the doorway to hide with most of his body exposed.

Nami quirks an eyebrow at the failed attempt to hide, and feels the need to help him. "Umm, you're hiding on the wrong side…"

Chopper corrects himself and hides most of his body behind the doorway, which causes Nami to sweat drop at his actions. "You're a little too late now…"

"Shut up human!" Chopper angrily says, but his anger quickly fades as he nervously stares at the redhead. "By the way, are you feeling any better?"

Nami widens her eyes at the question that came out of the reindeer's mouth. "Wait, you can talk?!"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING CHOPPER?!" Chopper scrambles to run away at the sound of Dr. Kureha's voice when she walks into the room with a bottle of liquor in her hand.

The old doctor looks down at Nami with a smirk as she opens the bottle. "Hahaha, so you've woken up have you? You feeling any better?"

Nami looks at the old woman in surprise, then slowly nods. "Who are you?"

The old woman ignores her question as she takes a swig from her liquor, then nods in satisfaction. "The name's Dr. Kureha, but you can call me Doctorine."

"Doctor? So then this place-!"

"You want to know the secret to my youth?"

Nami shakes her head at the doctor's random question. "No, not about that, but are we at the castle?"

"That's correct."

"What happened to the others?"

Dr. Kureha drinks some her booze before she points to the doorway behind her. "The boys are sleeping in the other room, and the girl's sleeping in the bed behind yours."

Nami quickly turns around to see Rose sleeping in a separate bed, then quietly sighs in relief before Dr. Kureha sits down on the edge of the redhead's bed.

"Ok, let's see." She slightly lifts up the navigator's shirt to show the bug bite. "Looks like it's getting better too."

Nami widens her eyes at the big, red, bite on her stomach. "What the?!"

Dr. Kureha chuckles at her surprise before she explains what happened to her. "You were bitten by an insect called a casha. It's a deadly bug that lives in tropical forests. When it bites someone, the bacteria spreads within the person's body. Then for five days that person will suffer with a high fever. This will then affect every part of your body. Judging from the bite, my guess is that it's been three days since you've been bitten. If you had left this without treatment for two more days, you would surely be dead."

Nami widened her eyes in shock while the doctor continued. "It used to have been known as the five day fever, but cashas were known to be extinct. You're lucky I knew how to make the antibiotics. Where'd you go to get that kind of bite anyway? Some ancient jungle?"

Nami quickly remembers being bitten by a bug on Little Garden, and quickly she relaxes. "Oh, so that's it."

Dr. Kureha quirks an eyebrow at her nonchalant attitude about everything. "That was your reaction to almost dying? That's kind of boring." She gets off the bed then pushes her patient back down. "Anyway, just go back to sleep. You're not completely cured yet."

"Thank you, but I feel fine now."

Dr. Kureha chuckles at her misplaced confidence in her condition. "Are you kidding? It takes ten days to cure this illness. Even with my medicine, it will take at least three days."

Nami widens her eyes at the diagnosis and sits up. "Three days?! We're in a hurry, we can't-!"

She cuts herself off when she finds herself pinned to the bed by Dr. Kureha with a scalpel pointed at her neck.

The doctor gives her patient a sadistic smirk as she points the scalpel closer to her neck. "There are only two cases in which I let my patients leave. The first is when my patients die, and the other is when my patient fully recovers. I'm sure you want the latter."

Nami gulps before she slowly nods, so Dr. Kureha takes the scalpel away and gets off. "Good, then relax." She goes to take a seat at her desk while Nami groans in frustration, and silently wonders how she can get out of this mess.

Chopper calms himself down in the room next door, where Luffy and Sanji are sleeping, then takes a look at Sanji's injuries. Thankfully, both of them are healing strongly. It'll still take a while before any of them can leave though.

He walks over to Luffy then stares at the sleeping boy curiously as he remembers him running back for Rose. He keeps his stare on Luffy until he hears the captain mumble something. "H-hun…"

Chopper steps closer to him, and listens curiously as he tries to make out what he's saying. "Hungry…"

Luffy slowly opens his eyes to see Chopper standing in front of him, and starts drooling from the potential food. "Meat…"

Chopper nervously scurries back until his back hits Sanji's bed.

"Venison stew needs to marinate in a pot for three hours in order for the meat to become nice and tender."

Chopper jolts at Sanji's voice and slowly turns to the blonde to see him slowly smirking like the devil in his sleep.

Chopper slowly steps back when Luffy sits up with a waterfall of drool falling from his mouth. "Meat…"

The tiny reindeer trembles in fear when he feels the chef grab his arm. "Venison…"

Chopper yelped as he jumped away from the chef's grasp then quickly looked back and forth at the two awakening pirates. His heart sinks in fear before he makes a run for it with Luffy and Sanji grabbing onto his arms. "AAAH! HELP ME!"

Nami and Dr. Kureha turn to his screaming when Chopper comes running into the room with both boys holding onto him.

"HOLD ON MEAT!" Luffy takes a bite of Chopper's arm, which makes the reindeer scream in terror, while he pulls his arm away from his mouth and runs to the corner.

Sanji smirks at the reindeer as he and Luffy approach him. "Hold him Luffy, but don't eat him. I have to cook this guy first."

Kureha watches the fight between her assistant and the two pirates in amusement as it turns into a full out brawl. "I'm impressed, those boys recovered fast."

Nami blinks at the skirmish as she watches the reindeer curiously. "What kind of creature is that reindeer?"

Kureha takes a swig from her liquor then smirks at the question. "You want to know? He's just your average blue nosed reindeer. The only difference is that he ate the human human fruit."

Nami widens her eyes at the devil fruit name then looks back at the fight between Chopper, Sanji and Luffy.

Rose groans from all the noise, and slowly wakes up to see the crazy fight happening between the three boys, and mumbles under her breath. "Dammit guys, quit trying to eat Chopper..."

She slowly sits up while Luffy and Sanji are fighting Chopper, but before she could say anything, the reindeer goes into heavy point to become a large man and punches both guys into the floor. "I'M NOT YOUR FOOD!"

Luffy and Sanji collapsed while Chopper went into brain point, to turn back into a two legged reindeer, and walked out of the room.

Rose places a hand over her mouth as she starts trembling from holding back from laughing.

Sanji and Luffy get up and smile in relief when they see that both Nami and Rose are up.

"Guys, you're awake!" Luffy says while Sanji runs up to the girls.

"How are you two feeling? Did your fever go down Nami?"

Nami nods at the chef's questions. "Yea, I'm feeling better."

Rose nods as she relaxes on her bed. "I'm feeling better too." She looks down at her scratched and bruised arms curiously when she feels them stinging. She remembers the feeling of them burning in her sleep and wonders if they tried something in her sleep.

"Please join my crew old lady! I'm begging you!"

Rose snaps out of her thoughts to see Luffy confronting Dr. Kureha.

The doctor only relaxes at her desk then motions her hand for him to come closer. "You said your name was Luffy right?"

Luffy nods before she kicks him in his face. "You better watch your mouth! I'm only 139 years old!"

Sanji blinks at the assault that he didn't expect to see from the elderly woman. "That's one tough hag…"

Chopper hides by the doorway, with most of his body revealed, as he watches Dr. Kureha kick Sanji to send him flying into the wall.

Dr. Kureha settles back into her chair and glances back at Luffy. "You want me to be a pirate? Don't be stupid. I don't want to waste my time on the ocean."

Luffy widens his eyes at her refusal. "Oh come on! Don't you want an adventure? Join my crew old lady!"

"Didn't I tell you to watch your mouth brat?"

When Chopper heard the mention of pirates, he looks at the group of patients curiously.

That gave away his spot to Luffy and Sanji though, which makes all three of them to look at each other in shock before Chopper makes a run for it.

"COME BACK HERE!" Luffy and Sanji yell before they run out of the room, and into the snow covered hallways.

"JUST GIVE IT UP MEAT!" Luffy yells.

Chopper groans at the name as he keeps running. "I'M NOT YOUR MEAT, DAMMIT!"

"DON'T WORRY LADIES, I'LL WHIP UP SOME VENISON STEW TO MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER!" Sanji yells as he looks around to see that the hallways of the castle are filled with snow. "What the? Why is it so cold in here?"

Luffy widens his eyes at the chilling temperature before he rubs his arms. "Cold!"

"Can you be any slower?!" Sanji asks before he brings his attention back to the chase. "Forget it; let's just focus on getting the reindeer."

Dr. Kureha grabs a bunch or random weapons from the walls, and goes after the running pirates to save her assistant. "I'LL MAKE SURE YOU'RE EATEN BEFORE YOU EAT MY REINDEER!"

Luffy and Sanji widen their eyes at the flying weapons heading towards them, as they narrowly dodge for their lives. "AAAH! SCARY HAG!"

Sanji quickly avoids a knife that flew past his head before turning to Luffy. "Luffy, I don't think we should let her join the crew! Doctors don't normally try to kill their patients!"

Luffy nods in agreement as he dodges a sword, and flying chicken, before they continue to run for their lives.

Nami sweat drops at the chase before she lies down. "I don't want to eat anyone. I just want some peace and quiet…"

Rose chuckles at the display she just saw, as if she's watching it for the first time. "Hehe, those two are nuts."

Nami turns to her then smiles in agreement. "Yea they are. Thanks for helping us by the way."

The brunette nods before she lays down. "Don't mention it; I'm just glad we made it."

Nami silently agrees as she relaxes in bed, when a gust of wind blows into the room, and carries flying snowflakes inside. "Huh? Why is there snow in the castle?"

Rose turns to the door then sits back up. "I'll close it."

Before she can get herself off the bed, Chopper runs into the room and closes the door behind him. "Stay in bed!"

Both girls widen their eyes at seeing Chopper looking around for Luffy and Sanji, before he turns his attention back to the girls. "You both still need to rest!"

Nami blinks at the order before she gives him a reassuring smile. "You don't need to worry. I feel a lot better."

Chopper shakes his head at the assumption. "Even though your fever's gone down, you still have the casha's bacteria in your body. You still need an injection and some more rest."

He turns his attention over to Rose. "And even though I treated your injuries, you still need rest too. I also want to treat your arms later."

Rose widens her eyes at the comment before she nods to him. "Ok."

Nami grins at the small reindeer in gratitude for what he's doing for them. "Thank you for taking care of us."

Chopper widens his eyes at the gratitude before he yells at her. "SHUT UP!"

Rose and Nami look at him in confusion when Chopper suddenly starts dancing with a blush creeping onto his happy face. "I don't want any gratitude from stupid humans like you! Heehee, what makes you think I want your thanks?!"

Rose widens her eyes at the dance before she starts smiling widely, and holding back from laughing at the adorable sight.

Nami sweat drops at the dance that clearly shows how happy he is despite his harsh words. "You don't hide your feelings well do you?"

Chopper finishes dancing then looks at the girls curiously. "Are you two really pirates?"

Nami nods at the question. "Yea, I'm a pirate."

Rose however, shakes her head. "I'm not; the others are giving me a ride."

Chopper tilts his head at the statement. "Really?"

Rose nods to confirm it, so she he turns his attention back to Nami. "Umm, do you have a pirate flag?"

"Yea, it's on our ship. Do you want to be a pirate?"

Chopper widens his eyes at the question, before he scrambles backwards until he hits the bookshelf. "NO WAY! DON'T BE STUPID!"

Nami quietly sighs as she runs a hand through her hair. "Ok, I'm sorry." She starts relaxing before she smiles at the reindeer. "But, do you want to join the crew?"

Chopper widens his eyes at the question. "WHAT?!"

"I'm serious, please join us. If you come along, it could really help us out. Our ship needs a doctor."

Chopper quickly shakes his head at the offer. "No way! How can a reindeer live with humans?!"

Rose quirks an eyebrow at the question. "Don't you live with Dr. Kureha though?" *Of course, it's hard to believe that she's really human…*

"That's different, I'm learning from her! Besides, aren't you two scared of me? I'm a talking reindeer that can walk on two legs…"

Nami looks at him in confusion. "It sounds like you want us to be scared…"

Rose shakes her head at the question before she gives him a gentle smile. "You're too cute to be scary."

Chopper widens his eyes at the compliment before he hesitantly defends his refusal. "B-but, my nose is blue…"

Before the girls can say anything, the door sudden bursts open to Luffy and Sanji running in. "THERE YOU ARE!"

"AAAH!" Chopper makes a run for it out of the room with both pirates hot on his tail.

Rose widens her eyes at the scene as she remembers how the boys act when they finally realize that Chopper's a devil fruit user. Her bangs shadow over her eyes when she remembers Chopper's sadness from their words, so she gets up with clenched fists, throws on her clean green jacket, and runs after them.

Nami tilts her head in confusion at the freckled girl's sudden departure. "What's with her?"

She snaps out of it to see Dr. Kureha walk into the room and take a seat. "So the girl ran after them too now? They're recovering faster than I thought."

The old woman sighs before she turns to Nami. "You're definitely not cute. You gave my reindeer a stupid idea without my permission right?"

Nami chuckles at the question as she relaxes in her seat on the bed. "Do I need your permission to flirt with a guy?"

Dr. Kureha widens her eyes at the question before she laughs. "Hahaha, not at all. Take him with you if you can, but getting him to join won't be easy. He has a wound in his heart that even a doctor can't heal. I'll tell you the story if you want."

Nami nods as she listens intently to Dr. Kureha's story about Chopper's past.

Luffy and Sanji lost the reindeer as they wander into the snowy lobby for any leads.

Sanji stops when he sees the open door that's letting the snow in. "That explains why it's so cold in here. Come on Luffy, let's close it."

Luffy nods as they both rub their arms together and walk towards the door. "Why was it open in the first place?"

"DON'T CLOSE THAT DOOR!" The boys turn around to see Chopper on the second floor as he glares down at them.

Sanji shakes his head at the order and turns around. "Don't listen to him. It's freezing."

Luffy nods as he steps closer to the door. "Right."

Chopper starts growling as he transforms into his heavy point and breaks off the railing. "I SAID DON'T CLOSE IT! DON'T YOU PEOPLE UNDERSTAND?!"

Luffy widens his eyes at the falling railing as he jumps to the right to get out of the way. "Whoa, what's his problem?!"

Sanji looks up at the door, then spots something out of the ordinary on top of it. "Hey Luffy, look at this."

Luffy follows Sanji's gaze to the top of the open door to see a nest containing a small family of white birds inside. "Whoa, a snowbird's nest."

The chef nods as he stares at the nest with interest. "If we closed the door we would've destroyed the nest."

When Chopper sees that they understand the situation, he calms down, shrinks back into brain point, and watches Luffy and Sanji run away from the doorway to warm up.

Luffy stops then looks at Sanji in confusion when he finally recognizes that Chopper was talking. "Wait, didn't that reindeer talk?"

Sanji keeps warming himself as he realizes that he's right. "Yea, and he was able to walk on two legs…"

Both boys widen their eyes at the realization and look at each other in shock. "HE'S A MONS- WHOA!"

Chopper widens his eyes when he sees a gust of wind lift the boys up, flip them over, and slam them down on their heads.

"Assholes…"

Chopper turns around to Rose's voice, and sees her standing next to him as she glares down at the collapsed pirates. She quickly changes her face to a sweet smile when she looks down at Chopper, and picks the small reindeer up. "Let's get out of here before they recover doc."

"Umm, ok..." The reindeer shyly replies as he stares at the girl, who's walking away, with him with mixed emotions of shock and awe on his face.

Luffy rubs his head to get rid of the headache as he gets up and sees that they left. "What did she do that for?"

Sanji slowly gets up and stares at the direction they took. "I'm not sure, I think she didn't want us to call him a monster."

Luffy tilts his head at the thought before he smiles at how awesome the transforming monster is. "But he's so cool! Hey, let's get him to join us!"

Sanji nods in agreement as he starts walking away. "If it can make Rose-chan happy then do it. I'm going to make something to help Nami-san recover faster."

Luffy nods as he quickly runs off to try to catch up to Rose and Chopper.

Rose walks into what appears to be a small medical lab, then sets Chopper down with a small smile. "Sorry about those two doc. They can be insensitive sometimes, but they're good people."

Chopper blinks at her kindness before he steps back and looks at her nervously. "Did you really flip them? And why do you keep calling me doc?"

Rose chuckles at the questions as she lists off her answers. "First off, yes, I flipped them with my devil fruit. Second, I called you that because it's a cool nickname for doctors. If you want me to stop calling you that then just say the word."

He starts blushing before he begins grinning like a clown while dancing. "Stupid human, why would I want to be called something cool like doc?! That doesn't make me happy at all!"

Rose giggles at the cute dance before Chopper looks at her curiously. "What kind of devil fruit did you eat?"

"I ate the wind wind fruit, though I'm still pretty new to being a devil fruit user."

Chopper nods before he sadly stares at her arms arms that still show the scratches and bruises. "I'm sorry."

Rose tilts her head at the apology. "What for?"

"Doctorine and I tried to treat your arms with an ointment that makes marks like those go away when you were sleeping. While it works great, it really hurts."

Rose blinks at the explanation before she looks down at her arms. She processes what he said before she looks at him in confusion. "Wait, you said that you tried to?"

He slowly nods as he remembers getting sent flying. "Yea, when we were applying it you used your wind to push us away and dry up the ointment to stop the burning."

Rose widens her eyes in horror before she frantically looks him over for injuries. "I did what?! I'm so sorry! I didn't hurt you did I?!"

Chopper blinks in surprise before he shakes his head. "No, but you dried up the ointment before it can take effect. Can we try again? I have a bottle of the ointment here."

Rose nods as she takes off her jacket.

Chopper looks over the desks various bottles as he finds a bottle that holds the same ointment that they tried before. "It's going to sting, but after five minutes we can get it off."

Rose places the jacket on the back of the chair and takes a seat before she holds her hand out for the ointment. "Ok, I can take care of getting the ointment on."

The blue nosed reindeer quickly shakes his head as he goes into heavy point and walks over to her. "No way, as a doctor it's my job to finish treating my patient!"

Rose blinks at the stubbornness to treat her marks before she quietly sighs in defeat. "Alright, you're the doc."

Chopper grins at the nickname before he applies the ointment on her arms.

Once the ointment made contact on her skin she immediately stiffens at the intense pain that came with it. She clenches her teeth and fists as she holds back from yelling in pain and tries hard to stay still. *Holy shit, and I thought Neosporin stung! No wonder I felt it in my sleep!*

Chopper notices her tension and looks down at the freckled girl softly. "Sorry, I promise it'll be done soon."

Rose slowly nods while she forces herself to smile to ease his worries. "Ok… Oh right, I didn't tell you my name, I'm Rose."

"I'm Chopper, how come you're travelling with pirates?"

She tries her best to relax on the chair as she answers his question. "It's kind of a long story. I ran away from home and wound up on an island that they were visiting. When I asked them for a ride to Alabasta they were nice enough to take me with them."

Once he finishes rubbing the ointment on her arms, he nervously looks down at her when a single question comes to mind. "They… They were ok with your powers?"

Rose widens her eyes at the question about the crew before she gives him a big smile. "More than ok with it if you ask me. One of the pirates ate a devil fruit too."

Chopper looks at her in shock as he rubs the ointment on her neck and cheek. "Really?! Which one?"

Rose winces at the new burning pains before she pulls up a playful smirk. "Now where's the fun in giving you the answer? It's better if you see it for yourself. You ate the human human fruit right?"

Chopper slowly nods at the reminder of how he's different as he finishes applying the ointment. "Y-yea, I'm a talking reindeer that can grow big and small…"

"Cool!"

A look of shock was an understatement for the reindeer, as he stared at the excited girl to see no signs of her having any fear for his power. "W-what?"

"That's awesome, since you ate a zoan devil fruit you have three forms right? Is it ok if I see your third one?"

Chopper stares at the ground nervously while trying to find the right thing to say to the girl. "Umm, I-"

He cuts himself off when Luffy slams the door open. "There you are reindeer!"

"AAAH!" Chopper screams as he picks Rose up bridal style and runs away from the chasing captain.

Luffy doesn't give up as he chases after him and calls out to him. "Come back reindeer! Join my crew!"

The reindeer widens his eyes at the sudden offer to be a pirate before he runs faster with the freckled girl in his arms. "No way, I don't want to!"

"What?! Rose, help me out!"

Rose blinks at the chase, she was dragged into, before she chuckles and waves back to Luffy. "Sorry, can't make him do anything he doesn't want to. Good luck."

"HEY!" He groans in frustration as he runs after the humanoid reindeer carrying Rose, without knowing that the former king of Drum Island was on his way to the castle.

TO BE CONTINUED