One hour later

At some point or another, the ones searching in the forest had met up with one of the other groups and passed along the molehill suggestion. Now in addition to scanning the ground, they kicked away dirt whenever they saw the telltale piles and called softly into the hole.

"What even made Sanji think of this?" Usopp grumbled after he and Robin checked their third molehill.

"It's not so farfetched," Robin said. "Doctor-san may have fallen underground in another tunnel."

Usopp sighed. "I hope he's okay . . ."

"Moles mainly eat worms," Robin said as they went on their way. "If he did end up underground, I'm sure he could find a way out." She looked up in thought. "Unless a mole mistook him for a worm, and . . ."

Usopp shrieked.

Chopper's arm twitched and he blinked in surprise.

He slowly tried moving his arm with a little response. He would have smiled if he could.

Slowly feeling began returning to his body. When he was finally able to move, the first thing he did was shudder upon feeling the worms beneath him.

He slowly sat up, wincing, and smiled. After stretching out his limbs, he leapt off of the worm pile and ran around in circles for a minute.

He stopped and looked up at the light above.

"So how do I get out . . . ?"

The hole was shallow, and if only Chopper had a shrunken Rumble Ball, he could have leapt out easily. But for now . . .

He ran to the sloped wall, turned big, dug his hands in, and started to climb.

It took him a while, but he finally made it to the top and fell to the ground outside, breathing heavily.

"I did it," he said to himself happily. He stood and turned back to his regular form. "Now to find the others . . ."

"Luffy, what makes you think he's in a tree?"

Chopper's ears perked up and he turned to see Nami and Luffy not too far off. Luffy was checking some knots in a tree as Nami scolded him.

"I mean, really, how would he even get there?" Nami continued exasperatedly.

Luffy shrugged as Chopper started running towards them. "Maybe an owl carried him off. Or a squirrel. I dunno, it was just an idea."

Nami sighed. "Seems like Sanji-kun's molehill idea isn't doing much, so I guess that's worth a shot."

Luffy grinned. Chopper climbed onto his foot and started shimmying up his leg to get his attention.

"See, I can be smart," he said proudly. He frowned, glanced at his leg, and flicked it, sending Chopper flying past Nami's face.

"There was a bug," he said in response to her look.

"That was Chopper, you idiot!" she yelled.

"What?! Really?!" Luffy yelled in shock.

Nami smacked him and pointed. "He flew that way! Go find him!"

Luffy hurried off in the direction she'd pointed, keeping an eye out for their tiny doctor.

Chopper had hit a tree and slid to the ground through a bush, dazed. He shook his head, got up, and looked around. He spotted several arrows on the ground and followed them curiously.

"Luffy?" he yelled as he walked. "Nami?"

No response.

Chopper made it out of the bush, but they were nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe I should keep following the arrows," he mumbled to himself.

Luffy and Nami had gone too far in their search for Chopper and ended up looking everywhere but where the reindeer had landed.

"Well, I dunno where he is," Luffy mumbled after a few minutes.

Nami hit him. "Pay attention next time!"

"Sorry," Luffy mumbled, drawing circles in the dirt.

Chopper made it out of the forest and blinked in the sudden brightness of sun on sand.

"Merry!" he cried, spotting the ship. "I'm back! Yes! I did it!"

He ran to the ship with all his might and collapsed in front of it. After regaining his breath, he straightened up and stared up at the ship. Spotting the anchor resting on the sand, he jumped onto it, ran up the rope, and hopped onto the deck, where Zoro was sleeping against the railing.

"Zoro!" he exclaimed happily. He ran up to the sleeping swordsman, climbed up his shirt, reached his face, and grabbed onto his nose.

"Zoro!" he yelled.

Zoro awoke with a start and went cross-eyed when he spotted Chopper on his nose.

"Oh, Chopper," he said, yawning. He held out his hand and Chopper fell into it. "You're okay?"

Chopper nodded and yawned hugely. "Kinda tired . . ."

"I'll make you a bed or something," Zoro said, standing and heading into the kitchen.