Chapter 40- Heart to heart talk

{Sorry about yesterday... I wanted to read a little on my bed and fell asleep... My bad. But I want to ask you to please review the story since It's really bugging me. So if you enjoy it, or even if you don't enjoy it, please write a short review. Also, this chapter was a little emotional and I'm sure I ruined it so go easy on me please}

Luffy sat in the snow for hours and hours. He stayed hydrated by warming up snow and drinking it,. He did that by putting the snow in his mouth, piece by piece, and let the snow sit there and melt a little before swallowing. He wasn't moving around so his body didn't generate a lot of heat, and the last thing he wanted was to catch hypothermia. As for food, he didn't sit there long enough to worry about that but he was getting close.

From time to time you could see a pair of eyes peeking from a window, these eyes were full of cautiousness and fear. "Hahaha, don't worry Chopper, if he gets hurt we could always heal him when he passes out and throw him out before he regains consciousness", Kureha said with he wide smile while reading. "Y-yeah, but I w-wish he'd go a-away". Luffy was satisfied knowing that although Chopper was afraid of him, he still wanted to make sure he's well. That reindeer is an ideal doctor.

And so they waited. When Luffy got hungry... He did nothing. He couldn't cook the animals and he wasn't going to eat them raw. God knows what diseases he'd catch from them. Plus he suffered way more then this, if it only took a little starvation to comfort Chopper, he'd do in a heartbeat.

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"Where is Luffy? Isn't he supposed to be done by now?" Sanji asked. "Katakuri, you have the best observation haki, where's Luffy?" Nami got curious as well. "...He's currently starving himself while waiting in front of a door, apparently, he's trying to recruit our newest member in that way". "What?! Let's go help him! Luffy loves eating more than anything, so if he's going as far as to starve himself it must be serious" Zoro jumped to help his captain. "I agree, Katakuri, can you lead the way?" Robin asked. "Follow me".

After a couple of minutes of running and climbing, they stood behind a sitting Luffy. "Luffy, what are you doing?" Usopp asked. "I'm waiting, obviously" Luffy looked back with a smile. "*Sigh* so this is how it's going to be, huh? Alright, this looks like a good place", Zoro said as he sat down on a rock he found. The others got the message quickly and soon everyone sat down, either on the ground or on a tree log or rock. "Oh, that's quite the crowd gathered outside" Kureha stated. "..." Chopper stayed silent as he watched Nami shivering from the cold.

"God damn it, Luffy, couldn't our new member be in a jungle or something?! I'm freezing!" Nami complained. "It is cold...", Robin also complained in her unique way. "Can you tell us about the new member?" Law asked. "Yohoho, is it another musician?" Brook asked. "No, it's a doctor actually". Law looked at Luffy with a deadpan expression, "I'm the best surgeon in the world, and I'm also very knowledgeable about how to treat diseases. Why are you recruiting another one?". "He... He has his dreams and ambitions, which is the requirement for this crew. I'm not recruiting you to use you as a tool for your expertise. I'm recruiting you for your personality and dreams. I'm building a family, one that he desperately needs" Luffy said with a sad expression while looking at Chopper. {May be a little cringe but that's how Luffy is. Still, I try to keep the cringe to a minimum while still being as loyal as can be to the original characters.}

No one talked after that as they all sat quietly.

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*Midnight*

It has been more than twelve hours since they started waiting. Now that Katakuri was here food was no problem since he could create mochi and all, but it was very hard eating only Katakuri's mochi for half a day. Suddenly, the door opened a little and several plates slid outside with a note that said "eating only sweets is bad for you! Take this but you're still staying outside". "That's awfully nice of them, considering the fact they don't want to see us", Usopp said. "Don't judge a book by its cover, the one who doesn't want to see us has a pretty good reason", Luffy replied. "Oh? Do tell", Law intervened as he got tired of waiting for someone he doesn't know. "Well the first thing you should know is that he's a reindeer", Luffy said. "You mean he ate the deer-deer fruit?" Robin tried to correct him. "No, he's a literal reindeer who ate the human-human fruit". "Huh?" Zoro raised a brow.

"Yeah, as a result, he's exiled from both sides as a monster. His fruit gave him intelligence, the ability to walk on two legs, and several human-like forms so he was exiled from his pack. And on the human side, he was exiled and shot for being an 'unnatural' creature with a scary appearance. He then met a human doctor who accepted him as his assistant and inspired him to become a doctor himself. Unfortunately, the doctor had a very bad disease, which made his health worsen. The doctor tried to hide it since he saw Chopper, the reindeer were going to recruit, as a son and didn't want him to suffer as he watched him die. However, Chopper discovered it and went on a very hard and tough journey to find a mushroom he thought could cure the disease."

"The doctor, who saw Chopper bringing him a mushroom with his broken body, was so grateful at Chopper's gesture he ate the mushroom even though it was poisonous. He then went to suicide as to not make Chopper know he killed him. But then, a friend of the doctor by the name of Kureha, told Chopper what he did. Chopper, griff stricken, wanted to become a doctor and continue the dream of the dead doctor, which is to cure all diseases. I left out a couple of other stuff, like how he was mistreated even before he ate the devil fruit due to his blue nose, but that's about it. As a result of his past, Chopper sees himself as a freak of nature. A monster, if you will. He also developed a deep mistrust of humans and that's why we're sitting here. It's to gain his trust. I know that you all have sad pasts, some of you have had it worse than he, but we still need to treat his situation with the care it needs if he is to join our crew".

*Creeeek*

The door slowly slid open to reveal a crying reindeer. "H-how d-do you k-know that?" the reindeer asked while crying. "Well, I got the information from a former guard of Wapol. A guy who can turn into a cow if you know him", This was Luffy's excuse. Hopefully, no one calls his bluff. "Can we talk, Chopper?" Luffy said with a gentle tone. "...Can I talk with him?" Surprisingly, it was Katakuri who spoke up. "Are you sure? I know you can be incredibly caring, but you aren't that good with strangers" Luffy asked. "Yes, I want to talk to him", Katakuri insisted. "So be it, I'll trust you", Luffy said as Katakuri walked towards Chopper.

"Where do we talk?" Katakuri asked in a tone that frightened Chopper to his bones as he was already intimidated by Katakuri's appearance and hight. "A-AHHHHH" Chopper sprinted back into the castle. "*Sigh* follow me", Kureha said. Katakuri was taken to a couch where he sat and waited for Kureha to drag our Chopper.

"..." Silence filled the room. "I can't stand this, I'm going to get a drink!" Kureha got annoyed and left. "S-so, w-what did you want to t-talk about", Chopper asked in a frightened tone. "I heard about your problem, and... I know how you feel" Katakuri said in his deep voice after some difficulty. "Huh?" Chopper was surprised as Katakuri removed his scarf, revealing his scarred jaw. Normally, he would never do something like this, but to convince a monster he had to show that he too is a monster. {Don't kill me please! See where I'm going with this and then kill me}

"I already heard your backstory and problem, so I believe it is only fair I tell you mine", Katakuri spoke as his sense of honor directed him to start a conversation."My name is Charlotte Katakuri, I'm one of the sons of the yonko 'Big Mom'. I was born with this mouth. I don't know how, but my mouth can open to an incredible size. Although it wasn't on your level, I wasn't shot at for my appearance, but I was bullied and ostracized by society. One day, one of the bullies I retaliated against me by hurting my sister and scarring her face. That day I swore I'd become strong enough to protect my family. For that, I had to constantly hide my weaknesses like my mouth and my glutton habits. No one could exploit my weaknesses if no one knew I had any".

"Although I didn't expose my weaknesses to the rest of the crew yet, they managed to slowly make me stop my acting. I no longer feel the need to pretend to be invincible, I feel like I could trust them with my back. I've been training them for a month and I thoroughly judged them. So trust me when I say that they are humans you can trust, they are a bunch of quirky pirates that value friendship and loyalty. Luffy knew about your story and still came for you, and you saw for yourself that when the rest of the crew heard your story, they didn't feel even an ounce of fear or hatred. All they felt was sympathy. I don't know the stories of everyone in the crew, but I know that all of them had incredibly tragic pasts, some even more tragic than yours. And that old lady can't teach you everything. You need to research for yourself with our other doctor and gain more field experience. I'll give you some time to think it over, but as one freak to another, you shouldn't waste this chance" Katakuri spoke very slowly, but you could hear in his voice that he meant every word.

"I-I'll think about it" Chopper replied.