Chapter 10

Catch me if you Can

Chopper was upset.

All three of the Straw Hats were rather upset, and all their emotions were justifiable. But it was the doctor who was being most vocal about his distress in their tiny room.

"You let them leave? Nami why? Zoro's hurt, he shouldn't be moving around so much," the reindeer cried, tears of worry beading at his eyes. "I told Drop they needed to rest," he sniffed.

Nami sat on the bed, her hands fisting the old mattress in frustration. Sanji leaned against the wall by the door, gazing at the wall in thought as he puffed on a cigarette. The navigator had come and woken them up a handful of minutes ago to explain everything that had happened.

"What was I supposed to do Chopper?" Nami said in irritation. "If I had tried to restrain them both of us could have gotten hurt, and Drop doesn't want things to get violent."

"How do you know?" Sanji asked, flicking ash from his cigarette.

"They told me and I believed them," Nami said firmly.

Chopper frowned but when he spoke it was calmer. "Yeah, remember when Drop didn't fight back when you almost attacked them, Sanji?"

"Or that thing just doesn't care about the idiot its possessing," the cook scoffed, taking another drag of smoke.

"Lets just all calm down and think about everything for a second," Nami said, looking around at the other two. "What do we know so far about everything that's happened?" she prompted.

"Something called Drop took over Zoro's body when he fell in the river," Chopper began. "After examining him, I can say that Zoro's state is very worrying. But if Drop is telling the truth, they are the one keeping Zoro alive."

"And they're keeping him alive because of an agreement," Nami added, thinking back on her conversation with the creature. "Drop needs to do something, something they've been needing to do for a while, and they need Zoro's body to do it."

"But why his?" Sanji asked, making the others glance up at him. "Why his body?" he clarified.

"Something must have happened while we were separated," Chopper said worryingly. "The state of his body is what's troubling me. I don't know if it's caused by Drop or if Zoro was already like that before Drop found him. If that's the case…" the doctor trailed off.

Nami glanced at Sanji again, giving him a pointed look. The cook grumbled, it was beginning to make sense, but to say it aloud would be to admit what they had been hiding from their crew mate. With a long sigh, Sanji spoke up.

"All of this must have happened after Zoro fell over the water fall, he must have almost drowned and that… thing…. Made its agreement with him to keep him alive," the blond said, keeping his voice as level as possible.

"What!?" Chopper balked. "Zoro went over a water fall? When?"

Nami and Sanji's silence convicted them both and answered the doctor's desperate questions.

"At the river bank… you guys said…. But…" tears began to fill the reindeer's eyes once more.

"We didn't know what happened to the swordsman, we didn't want you to panic," Sanji said.

"But you just said he went over a water fall," Chopper sniffed.

"And hasn't he survived worse?" Sanji demanded harshly.

"You can't expect someone to go over a water fall and be alright," Chopper cried back.

"Well I survived a freaking avalanche and broke my back, I seem fine don't I?" the doctor waved his arms out.

"But I treated you, so did Docterine," the reindeer said angrily. "Zoro didn't have anyone for at least two days and he was already injured before all that happened."

"And all that's his fault!" Sanji shouted, his voice echoing in the room.

A fist came down on each of the boys' heads. "Stop it you idiots, this is getting us no where," Nami barked.

Chopper yelped and massaged his bumped head, Sanji didn't bother taking care of the newly grown lump on his head. "Sorry, Nami-san. Of course, you're right."

"Of course I am," Nami huffed. "How Zoro got like this isn't nearly as important as what's happening now. Drop is out there, heading to the river to fulfill their 'purpose', and we need to figure out a way of getting Zoro back."

"But what can the purpose be?" Chopper asked sadly, "Drop doesn't explain things very well."

"You're telling me," Nami growled.

Sanji sighed and chewed on his cigarette in agitation. "What did they say again?"

Nami paused as she recollected her talk with Drop. "Like I told you, they said they need Zoro's body to do whatever it is they need to do. It involves this island… how did they say it?" Nami tapped her forehead to find the exact words. "The life of the island, that's it. They say this island will die if they don't act quickly."

"Die from what?" the doctor asked in worry, shifting from hoof to hoof.

"How should I know?" Nami snapped, "We've only just gotten to this island a few days ago."

The group went silent again as they fell into their own thoughts. Sanji looked over at Nami and felt a pang of sympathy when he saw her sad frown. His emotions then turned to annoyance towards Zoro for being the cause of Nami's distress. Hadn't they been through enough? After the ordeal in the river, and then again in the forest, and all the close encounters with those… things.

The dark memory of those monsters in the forest made Sanji jerk his head up quickly as his thoughts fell into place.

"Those things from the forest… those wouldn't be natural, would they?" he pondered aloud, drawing the others attention.

"Now that you mention it," Nami said slowly, "Martha said the village didn't know where they came from… which could mean they weren't always here."

Chopper jumped, waving his arms as he spoke. "And Martha also said that eating anything in the forest where the monsters came from would most likely make you a monster too, or at least wouldn't end well."

"There has to be a connection," Sanji said in a low voice. "The monsters, that forest... why that idiot swordsman is walking around like a possessed puppet."

"We have to find Drop," Chopper said firmly. "As a doctor, I can't let them be walking around in Zoro's body in the state that he's in."

"Well we know where they're going," Nami said picking up her map of the island. "Drop wants to get to the river, this is where it is," the navigator pointed to the rumpled paper, showing the lines and colouring that indicated a waterway. "So that's where Drop and Zoro will be."

"It's already light out, and Drop had a head start," Chopper pouted at the red head pointedly.

"We can still catch up to it," Sanji assured, glaring at the doctor for blaming Nami. "It is the swordsman we're dealing with; the idiot will just get lost and double back for us to find him."

Both Nami and Chopper opened their mouths as if to disagree, but after moments pause and some thought they nodded in agreement.

"So, lets get after that idiot algae and sort this out," Sanji said and promptly lead the way out the room.

The others followed quickly, scrambling slightly to catch up. "We should probably split up to cover more ground," Nami suggested as they hurried after Sanji.

"Yeah, we can find Drop faster that way," Chopper nodded, transforming into his walking point as they exited the house.

"I'll go with Sanji," Nami said immediately.

"Of course, Nami-san!" Sanji tittered happily.

"No Sanji protect me," Chopper whined tearfully.

"You're a transforming monster reindeer, you can look after yourself," the cook snapped back immediately to his gruff manner.

With Chopper still whining tearfully, the group split up into two. Sanji and Nami heading in the direction that would take them far upstream while Chopper went to search a bit further downstream. The two pirates hurried to their destination, but after a while Nami slowed down and turned to Sanji. The cook slowed to the navigator's pace and gave her a curious look.

"Yes, Nami-san?" he asked.

"I want to talk to you about Drop," the red head said simply.

"What about it?" Sanji asked.

"That, that's what I wanna talk about," Nami pointed out. "You always call Drop an it, you are really hostile towards them too."

"Are you expecting me to be all buddy buddy with a thing we don't even understand?" Sanji said indignantly.

"No, that's not it Sanji," Nami shook her head. "What I'm trying to say is that you are so hostile to Drop and to Zoro as well. You can't seem to tell them apart -" she shook her head quickly – "No it's something more than that. It's like you're distancing yourself."

"What are you talking about, Nami-san? I can definitely tell them apart," Sanji said.

"Whenever we even talk about Zoro now you always take everything out on him," Nami said in frustration. "You always make your final point that it's his fault, hoping that will be the end of it."

"Well he was the idiot that fell into the water," Sanji huffed.

"We all fell in the water Sanji, Zoro went over the water fall while saving Chopper," the red head said seriously.

Sanji crossed his arms and looked angrily. "I'm just saying none of this wouldn't have happened if the marimo had only tried to swim away."

"Going over the water fall wasn't Zoro's fault and you know that," Nami accused. "I don't know what you're thinking, but I can tell you're frustrated at something and are taking it out on Drop and Zoro. Remember Sanji, at the moment they are one and the same. I tried to talk to Zoro and couldn't because Drop is in control, they are keeping Zoro's body alive, we should be thankful for that at least. We are trying to save Zoro, but we may need to listen to Drop to do that." With that Nami turned on her heel and walked away from the cook, but then she paused briefly. "Also, I wish this all wasn't happening as much as you do, but acting like nothing is going on isn't helping." The navigator left after that hoping the message got through.

Sanji remained where he stood, thinking on Nami's words. Ever since they had reunited with Zoro things had just felt so off. For starters, one couldn't even say their crewmate was Zoro because he was currently possessed and controlled by this thing called Drop. But Sanji knew it was the swordsman, at least in body; he was just so confused and frustrated at the whole situation that part of him didn't want to understand anything. It was mostly because he didn't really know what was going on that made the cook so angry. This was all too much like Thriller Bark.

Zoro had sacrificed himself back then and had come out of it on death doorstep. And all the swordsman had said about it was that is was nothing. 'Nothing had happened'. That's all Sanji had gotten out of him. Now again Zoro sacrificed himself so that Chopper could be saved from the water, but he had ended up going down the water fall and most likely drowning, only saved because this mysterious being needed him for something. What would happen when Drop didn't need Zoro anymore?

Never would Sanji ever admit it out loud, but he was scared for Zoro.

Back at Thriller Bark and right now on this island Zoro's life was at stake and no one seemed to be able to help him. If that idiot died because he was trying to save a crewmate by sacrificing himself, Sanji would never forgive him.

"If he dies I'll kill him myself," the cook growled.