29 Chapter 10

Chopper glared at Chessmarimo, "My Rumble Ball lasts for three minutes! I'll beat you within that time!"

Chessmarimo laughed and mocked Chopper, "Three minutes? You'll never beat me much less in three minutes!"

Wapol and Luffy both looked over at Chopper. Luffy looked excited while Wapol looked contemptuous. Both said, "Three minutes? I'd love to see that."

Markus looked over at Chopper and grinned. The Rumble Ball was the only thing he could remember that could unlock more power in a Devil Fruit. It gave chopper additional transformations with his Zoan class Devil Fruit. Markus wanted to know if it would have an effect on other Devil Fruits or not. He also wondered what would happen if it was given to someone with a really strong Zoan-type Devil Fruit like Marco and his Tori Tori no Mi, Model Pheonix. Markus had once considered holding out for a chance to steal Marco's Devil Fruit. Its regenerative power put it on the same level as a Logia and there had been a theory that, like Brook's Yomi Yomi no Mi, it would allow a person to revive after death. After all, wasn't that a big thing about the phoenix? Rising from its ashes? Who wouldn't want to have a second life just in case?

Now imagining having Marco's Devil Fruit with additional abilities granted by the Rumble Ball was an impressive thought. Ultimately, he'd discarded the idea though. Even though Whitebeard was ultimately destined to die, the rest of his crew were still powerful people. If he messed with Marco he'd have all of them on his ass until he found out whether or not the owner of the Tori Tori no Mi, Model Phoenix really could revive after death or not. Like stealing Smoker's fruit, just not worth the hassle. At least when he stole Enel's fruit the locals would likely love him for it.

While he was ruminating, Chopper had already started his fight with Chessmarimo. Chopper was charging while Chessmarimo pulled out a hammer with each hand. Chessmarimo mocked Chopper, "You've already shown me your three forms, you're a power fighter just like Dalton!"

As Chopper arrived in front of Chessmarimo, Chessmarimo swung his hammers at Chopper. In response, Chopper shifted into a whole new form and launched himself into the air attaining incredible height. His new form had thin long legs and a well-developed torso with long arms and fingers, "Jump Point."

Chessmarimo looked up at Chopper in the air, "What's that form?! I thought your hybrid form was that midget reindeer on two legs! You sly freak of nature!"

As Chopper started to fall down toward Chessmarimo, he muttered, "Guard Point."

His whole body suddenly transformed into a giant furball as he came into range of an attack from Chessmarimo. When the hammer hit him, Chopper was harmlessly batted away. After a couple of gentle bounces on the snow-covered ground, he came to a stop. As Chopper came to a stop and poked his head out of the furball, Chessmarimo was shocked, "Another form!? Impossible! A Zoan fruit should be limited to only three forms! What the hell are you?!"

Chopper, like some B-rate villain, began to explain what his Rumble Ball could do, "My Rumble Ball is a drug that alters the wavelengths emitted by each form! After five years of research, I've discovered four additional transformation points!"

Markus rolled his eyes. That was something he needed to fix in the future. Explaining your strength and abilities to an enemy before fighting them was just plain stupid. It gave them information and removed the advantage of surprise. If Chopper didn't explain his abilities, he could have maintained his advantage using the surprise of his newly revealed forms. Meanwhile, Chessmarimo was shouting, "Seven transformations?! So what if you have a few extra!"

His shouting caught the attention of Luffy. As could be expected from his Captain, Markus watched as Luffy completely turned his attention away from Wapol and stared at Chopper with stars in his eyes, "Se-Seven transformations?! He's the world's coolest reindeer!!"

Kureha looked at the starry-eyed Luffy and commented from her seat on Sanji, "What's gotten into your friend?"

Sanji just looked at Luffy helplessly, "Oh, he just can't control his excitement after hearing seven transformations."

Markus nodded, "He's simple-minded but he's a good man. Still..." He looked over at Chopper, "That's a hell of an impressive medicine he's made. He'd better be careful or someone will want to take it from him."

Chessmarimo lifted his hammers and swung them at Chopper while shouting, "A few extra forms just for show isn't enough to scare me!"

Chopper shifted to another humanoid form with massively inflated arm muscles, "Arm Point."

Chopper threw a punch at one of Chessmarimo's hammers and shattered it with a single blow. In response, Chessmarimo dropped his remaining hammers and pulled out four steel axes. His first attack with them managed to score a hit on Chopper's heavily muscled arm and draw blood. Markus couldn't help wondering where the hell he kept getting the weapons from. He clearly wasn't wearing them on his body. The fight intensified as Chessmarimo started attacking Chopper with his four axes. Chopper dodged them by jumping around and changing his form to various sizes to help him dodge the attacks.

As the fight continued, Chopper eventually leaped away from Chessmarimo and opened up a fair amount of distance between them. Simultaneously he shifted to his smaller humanoid form, "Brain Point."

Chopper lifted his hooves and placed them together to form a diamond shape, "Scope."

Luffy immediately looked shocked and excited, "T-that pose! It's gotta be a beam! He's gonna shoot out a beam for sure!"

Sanji immediately countered and the two began to argue. Markus though was wondering something. How the hell did Luffy know about beams?! Even in the One Piece world beams were not a common thing so where the hell did he get that idea? It didn't make sense! As the two argued and Luffy paid zero attention to Wapol, Wapol took the opportunity to sneak past him and moved toward the interior of the castle. Naturally, Markus was completely aware of what Wapol was doing and didn't stop him. His passive Observation Haki had a range of 61 feet which put the door well inside of his senses. He just wouldn't interfere with the events that happened here too much so he let him do whatever he wanted.

He turned his attention back to the fight going on off to the side. Chopper was staring intently at Chessmarimo as his mind worked faster and more efficiently than a normal human brain was capable of. His Brain Point basically turned Chopper into a living supercomputer. Chopper exclaimed, "There it is! The chin!"

Chopper leaped forward in his Jump Point form. He dove beneath Chessmarimo faster than they could see. The freak looked around confused, "Where did he go?"

Below Chessmarimo's sight, Chopper shifted to his Arm Point, "Kokutei..." He cocked his arm back while Chessmarimo looked down at him in surprise. Chopper launched his iron-harm hoove up, "ROSEO!"

Chopper's hoof slammed into Chessmairmo's chin with a resounding cracking sound. Chessmarimo was launched into the air with his lights knocked out. As he collapsed to the ground completely unconscious, Chopper pat the hat on his head after shifting back to his small semi-human form, "Three minutes."

Luffy threw his hands up in the air while shouting, "You did it reindeer!"

Markus, happy to rain on Luffy's parade, called out before anyone else could, "Hey, Idiot Captain, where'd Wapol go?"

Luffy looked around, "Ah..."

Markus grinned and cracked his knuckles, "Looks like I'll need to train you to pay better attention when we get back to the boat."

Luffy shivered and immediately took off, "I gotta find Wapol!"

As everyone looked around and tried to figure out where Wapol was, Sanji was the first to realize he went into the castle. Sanji began to scramble across the ground using his hands, he looked like a weird crab as he shuffled along the ground, "If he lays even a finger on Nami I'll kill him a hundred times over!"

Kureha yelled after him, "Hey, stop right there!" When Sanji ignored her, she just sighed, "Reckless kids these days."

Markus decided to stay outside and out of the way, but he activated his Observation Haki so he could keep an eye on what was happening inside of the castle. As he did he watched Nami being chased by Wapol. As she ran down a set of stairs, his fat body got stuck in the trapdoor-like entrance. Markus watched, shocked, as Wapol literally ate himself! He'd totally forgotten about that scene. As Markus watched through his Haki, he had to admit that he was pretty impressive. Wapol ate himself and then spit himself back out as a thinner and taller version of himself.

Yet again, Wapol's Devil Fruit had shown an interesting aspect. Yet again, if it could do more than just make the user thinner and taller, it could prove to be pretty powerful. Too bad Wapol was an idiot. If it wasn't necessary for him to live and Markus had more than one extraction serum, he'd be more than happy to steal Wapol's fruit and give it to someone more creative.

As Wapol tackled Nami to the ground, Luffy kicked his leg out and knocked Wapol away. Markus stopped paying attention once he was sure Nami was safe. Besides, Wapol and Luffy were running deeper into the castle and leaving the range of his Observation Haki. He deactivated it and looked over at Kureha and Chopper standing in the snow silently. Chopper was looking off into the distance when he called out, "Doctorine... He... He called me his friend."

Kureha just smiled and said nothing. As the silence continued, there was an explosion in one of the towers. Everyone looked up at the tower and watched in silence. A few moments later the very top of the steepled tower exploded as Wapol's face was used as a projectile. As the three of them watched Luffy climbed the tower and faced Wapol. They could see Wapol struggling as Luffy's arms stretched back for an ungodly distance. Chopper looked up at the scene, "Doctorine... Drum Kingdom is..."

Kureha chuckled, "It's been beaten by a pirate's flag."

With a massive explosion of force, Luffy used his Gomu Gomu Bazooka to blast Wapol with enough force to send him flying out of sight. Markus sighed as he watched Wapol fly off into the distance. Thank god this was over now. He didn't like sitting around doing nothing at all. He also didn't understand the quests he was given. Two out of three of them could be completed without him lifting a finger so they were basically freebies. As for defeating Wapol... He chose not to because he would invent the memory metal in the future. Franky would use it but Markus was thinking more about himself. Combining memory metal with the electrical powers he planned to gain would be extremely powerful.

As he was contemplating these things, he spotted Zoro and Usopp coming out of a door that rose from the ground. Zoro was wearing a green overcoat that looked like the uniform that Wapol's men wore. Luffy came flying off the roof while screaming, he was flying directly at Zoro and Usopp. He slammed into the ground and sent up an explosion of snow that tossed the two off to the side. Zoro immediately recovered and yelled at Luffy, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

Luffy laughed and rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry sorry, your clothes made you look like an enemy from a distance."

Markus turned and walked back into the castle. He didn't need to see the events that were about to unfold. Luffy would ensure that Chopper joined their crew. He wanted to get Kureha alone for a bit to talk to her. He'd thought of a good way to get Kureha to be a member of his future crew.

As he explored the castle he found a small storeroom containing a variety of regular quality swords, flintlocks, gunpowder, and ammo. He swiped the room clean and sold everything but the gunpowder and ammo to his system store for a tidy sum. The twenty swords went for half a million while the ten flintlocks went for 375,000, netting himself just under a million Belly. His personal holdings increased to a little over 2.4 million Belly.

As he exited the small armory, he could hear loud screams coming from one of the other rooms. It sounded like Sanji's voice. Judging by the screams, Kureha was either curing his back or killing him slowly. Maybe both. As he took his time to get to Nami's room, he arrived just in time to hear Kureha speaking, "Listen up, missy. I'm going to leave this room for a while to take care of some business. In the inner room over there you can find my coat. And there won't be anyone standing guard. Also, I've finished fixing up your friend's dislocated back. But don't you dare use my absence to make your escape!" She turned and started walking out of the room, "The rest of you, come with me. I need you to lend me a hand."

Markus followed behind them and watched Kureha unlock the door to the main armory and begin instructing the men from the village to get all the cannons out and set them up. As she finished giving the orders and made her way back toward Nami's room, Markus held his hand up to stop her. Seeing him she grinned, "Not going to run away? You're about to lose our little bet."

Markus grinned back at her, "Nah, I'm sure I'll win that. I had something else to talk to you about."

Kureha looked curious and gestured for Markus to continue. "One day in the future, I plan to start my own pirate crew. I want you to join me after I do."

Kureha laughed in his face, "Why would I want to waste my precious youth as a pirate? Your Captain asked the same thing so I'll tell you what I told him. Hell no."

Markus gave her a mysterious smile, "What if I told you I know of a way to give you your real youth back? I know someone with a Devil Fruit that can change a person's age. With her help, you could return back to a thriving young woman. How young would you like to be? 50? 30? 20? Back to a teenager?" His grin grew as he saw the interest in Kureha's expression, "With the help of that Devil Fruit you could be returned to your prime and live for another hundred-plus years!"

Kureha was clearly interested, she always acted youthfully but to really be youthful again? Still, she was suspicious, "Do you have any proof?"

Markus shook his head, "Nope. But I'll make a promise to you since your life will soon be mine anyway. Sometime in the next couple of years, I'll send the user of the fruit to you. Once your youth is returned I want you to come and find me in the New World to join my crew. If I don't find you first, that is."

Kureha eyed Markus before walking past him, "We'll see."

Markus smirked and left the castle, joining the rest of his crew outside of the castle. He arrived just in time to hear Luffy shout, "SHUT UP AND LET'S GO!"

Chopper got emotional and nodded, "Okay!"

He took off to get his stuff and tell Kureha he was leaving. Markus joined the rest of the crew with a smile, "Looks like everything is going well."

Luffy nodded excitedly, "The Reindeer is joining us!" He tilted his head, "Should we go say goodbye to the granny doctor and the guy shaped like an acorn?"

Nami shook her head, "Just let Chopper do that alone. It's going to be a big tear-fest for them."

Markus chuckled a little as he listened to Nami. If only she knew. Usopp looked at Nami, "Then should we really just go like this?"

Nami nodded emphatically, "Yes, as soon as Chopper comes back we'll go down and sail straight for Alabasta." She turned to address Vivi, "That's fine with you too, right Vivi?"

Vivi smiled brightly, "Yes! Especially since a doctor will be coming too."

Luffy looked confused, "Doctor?"

Usopp called Luffy over to get the rope tram ready to take them back down to the ground. While they did that, Markus walked over to Nami and Vivi, "Nami, I know you're feeling a lot better, just remember what I said and take it easy for the next couple of days. I know Chopper will be around but we can't risk you having a relapse."

Nami blushed a little while she nodded her head, "I'll keep that in mind."

As they talked a lot of noise could be heard coming from inside of the castle. As everyone looked at the door to the castle they all were shocked to see Chopper come running out while pulling a sleigh with Kureha chasing behind him and constantly throwing knives, spears, and axes at him. He shouted, "Everyone, get on! We'll be going down the mountain right now!"

Kureha shouted from behind him, "STOP RIGHT THERE!"

Everyone but Markus jumped onto the sleigh, Usopp was dragging Luffy by his slightly stretched arms. Markus laughed as he watched them running away without realizing he hadn't joined them. Kureha eventually came to a stop and watched as they ran down the rope. She had a melancholic look on her face as she watched Chopper leaving. Markus called out, "Looks like I win our little bet. Don't be too sad. You'll see him again, after you join my crew."

Kureha shouted, "Who's joining your crew?!"

Markus immediately took off using his footwork as Kureha started pulling knives out of thin air and launching them at him with deadly force. The last thing she heard was Markus laughing while he chased after his friends. He caught up quickly and ran just behind the sleigh. As they continued to run, they heard cannon fire coming from behind them. The group came to a stop and looked behind them to see what was happening.

Light suddenly began to shine brightly from the top of the mountain. As they watched, the snow falling from the sky turned pink and looked a lot like cherry blossoms. Markus stepped next to Nami as Chopper started to loudly cry at the sight before him. Nami smiled happily as she said, "It's so pretty."

Markus placed a hand on her shoulder, "That's one hell of a way to say goodbye."

The group stayed and watched the display before them while Chopper cried loudly with tears and snot dripping down his face. They watched for a while longer before continuing their escape from the island. As soon as they got to the ship they found a frozen Carue floating in the water next to the ship. Vivi freaked out while the crew got him onto the ship to defrost.

Once they got a fair distance away from the island, a party mood instantly appeared. Luffy and the others started to mess around and drink. As everyone partied, Nami shouted, "Guys! Would it kill you to pay attention over here too?!" She pointed at Vivi and the shivering Carue wrapped in a thick blanket.

Vivi was hugging Carue tightly, "Carue! What were you doing frozen in the river?!"

Carue started quaking while Zoro laughed, "Maybe he slipped and fell in? Haha! Clumsy little guy!"

Chopper, sitting on the railing of the ship translated, "He said he saw someone called Zoro disappear in the river. So he jumped in to rescue him and became frozen."

Nami punched Zoro in the head, "So it was your fault!!"

Vivi looked at Chopper in surprise, "You can understand what Carue is saying Tony?"

Chopper looked embarrassed and held onto his hat as he said, "Well, I was originally a normal animal so I can communicate with other animals."

Nami clapped her hands, "That's amazing Chopper! Not only are you a doctor but you can talk to animals!"

Chopper squirmed and wiggled around in delight and spoke with a clearly happy voice, "S-Shut up! That doesn't make me happy at all!"

Markus laughed as he watched everyone that didn't previously know discovered that Chopper was a doctor. Usopp climbed to a higher spot on the ship and raised a mug into the air, "Alright! Attention everyone!" While he was talking there was a ton of noise as everyone continued to be rowdy and do their own thing, "I'd like to welcome our new friend and doctor, TONY TONY CHOPPER! CHEERS!"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and held up a mug, "CHEERS!"

Chopper smiled with a pair of chopsticks stuck in his nose and mouth as he awkwardly said, "This is the first time I've ever been so happy!"