Iris watched in amazement as Chopper transformed into multiple different states from than the cute little form and the larger human-like form she had already seen. There was a form that looked more like a regular reindeer, and he seemed to be able to combine the forms as well. She had no idea such a thing could even be possible.
She listened to the king's henchmen go on about being able to predict Chopper's movements because he should only have three forms, but then the men were quite surprised to see more than three forms. Since Iris knew nothing about this devil fruit that allowed transformations she listened intently.
She found out from listening to the henchmen talk that Dalton also possess a devil fruit ability that allowed him to transform. Typically this type of devil fruit, called Zoan, had an animal state, a human state, and a half human/half animal state. Were there Zoan devil fruits for all animals? That seemed like it would be a useful ability to posses. Not that she'd be interested in eating any sort of devil fruit no matter how useful it might be; there was no way in hell she could ever give up being able to swim.
Chopper then went on to explain that the Rumble Ball, which she assumed was the small ball he had just put in his mouth, was behind why he could transform into seven different forms rather than three. It had something to do with disrupting the frequencies emitted by the devil fruit, though Iris wasn't sure what any of that actually meant.
Luffy was immensely fascinated from hearing about all of the transformations that Chopper could do. She was impressed as well. The reindeer had to be awfully smart to be able to come up with a medicine on his own that could break down how the devil fruit worked. She knew that Luffy was going to want Chopper on the crew after watching all the transformations he could do, and she hoped that Chopper would join them. If he joined then she wouldn't be the only non-human on the crew.
Iris glanced to Luffy from the corner of her eye to see that he was completely immersed in watching Chopper fight. She understood being excited about the cool new ability standing in front of him, but he shouldn't be completely ignoring the king that was still standing right there.
Just as those thoughts were passing her brain she noticed the king starting to sneak away towards the castle. She immediately jumped up off on Sanji and ran towards the king. Since his back was turned to them as he tried to sneak off she didn't have to worry about him trying to eat her with his ridiculous devil fruit ability, and so she rammed her shoulder into his back with as much force as she could put into it.
The king hadn't been anticipating her catching him wandering off, and so she was able to catch him by surprise as she rammed her shoulder into his back. He fell face forward into the snow, and then she tried to pin his big, fat body to the ground.
"Luffy! How could you take your attention off of the enemy in front of you?!" she shouted. Luffy was, however, completely immersed in watching Chopper fight. He didn't even seem to hear her shouting at him. "Luffy!" she called out a little louder and a little angrier.
"Huh?" Luffy said as he looked at her with a startled look on his face. The look of confusion on his face told her that he hadn't even noticed her run by him to take down the king. She wasn't terribly surprised at his behavior, but that didn't mean she didn't find it annoying. What if the king had made it into the castle and then harmed Nami?
"Luffy... You should know better than to take your attention off an enemy..." she grumbled as she tried to focus on holding the king down. His large body was proving to be troublesome to her. She was having a hard time reaching the places she needed to hold him down; if she was a bit taller she'd have an easier time with this.
"But the reindeer is so cool! He needs to join us!" Luffy said as he looked back to Chopper.
She obviously wasn't going to get through to him as long as Chopper was fighting and impressing him. She could hear Sanji in the background going on about needing to come help her and for the doctor to move off of him, and Iris called back for him to be quiet. The doctor must have known that Sanji would try and enter the fight and sat on him after Iris moved off of him.
She then felt some movement coming from the king that wasn't the struggling he had been doing. She realized that he was trying to eat the snow beneath them to create an escape. She had no way of stopping him from doing so in this position, and she grimaced at the thought of what she was going to have to do next. She was going to have to bite him and cause enough pain that he'd stop his movement. The thought of having this repulsive, racist son of a bitch's flesh in her mouth was almost more than she could stomach, but she wasn't about to ask for help from Luffy either. She was strong enough to handle this on her own.
She took a moment to mentally prepare herself and then sunk her teeth in the back of the king's neck through the fur coat he was wearing. Since his neck was so fat she wouldn't be able to snap his spine with her jaw, but there were plenty of arteries in the neck that she should be able to hit one relatively easily. If an artery was hit and not repaired it would be a short matter of time before he bled out and died.
When blood started soaking through his jacket and flooding into her mouth she removed her teeth and spit out the blood. As soon as this was over she'd have to brush her teeth to get rid of the metallic taste that blood left in her mouth. She hated that taste more than anything.
When she was sure the king wasn't getting back up she got off of him and stood next to his motionless body. She looked up see Chopper transform back to the cute little form and see the king's henchmen passed out on the ground. She was glad that the reindeer had won his fight. Him winning proved that he wasn't just smart, but strong too.
Luffy looked over to the king's motionless body now that Chopper's fight was over and had a disappointed look on his face. He really had no right to be disappointed about her dealing with the king when she had already brought to his attention that he shouldn't have been so distracted with Chopper.
"No fair! I was gonna kick his ass!" Luffy whined.
"Actually, he was my opponent to start with until you butted in, Captain," Iris retorted.
"H-H-How... How dare a filthy fishman touch me..." Iris heard a weak, but angry voice say. She quickly turned her head to the side to see the king turning his head towards them as he remained laying in the snow.
"How are you not dead yet?" she growled as she glared at the pathetic looking king. He looked like he was about ready to pass out, but he was trying his best to remain conscious. He had to know that he would die if he let himself go to sleep with all the blood loss he was experiencing.
"Don't talk about my friend like that!" Luffy shouted when he realized the "filthy fishman" the king was talking about was Iris. She was glad that Luffy had said something; nobody ever defended fishmen. She had always been defending her dad growing up, and the only other person she could ever remember standing up for him was the old village chief. None of the other villagers, even the ones that claimed to like her dad, ever stood up for him to the travelers and pirates that came through. So even though Luffy had no problem with her being a fishman it was still a bit of a shock to have him stand up for her, and it made her quite happy
Luffy then proceeded to stretch his arms out behind him in a move that she was starting to become quite familiar with. As Luffy's arms stretched behind him the king's mouth started to open and a cannon started to come out of his mouth. Did the king seriously have enough energy to fire a cannonball at them? He was on the brink of death as it was. Perhaps he thought that if he was going to die anyway that he'd take them out with him.
"Gum Gum... Bazooka!" Luffy shouted as his arms then flung forward towards the king. The king shot out a cannonball right as Luffy's hands got to him, but it was too late to stop Luffy's attack. Luffy's hands made contact with the king and shot him flying away from them cannonball and all. This fight was finally over.
"Let's go check on Nami," Iris said to Luffy, and he agreed with that plan. Before she turned to head for the castle she saw something sitting in the snow, and so she bent down to pick it up. It was some sort of key that must have fallen off of the king. It must be to some room in the castle. She had no interest in what might be hidden away in the castle, but Dr. Kureha might since she was living in the castle.
After sticking the key into the small pocket on the side of her pants she turned towards the castle to see Luffy already walking towards it, and Sanji trying to crawl towards it. She sighed at the pathetic sight that Sanji was and then walked over to him. She grabbed onto the collar of his jacket and pulled him up to his feet. She had thought about throwing him over her shoulder and carrying him to the castle because it would be easier, but realized if she held him like that his face would be too close to her butt for her comfort level. There was also the fact that he'd probably enjoy that too much.
So instead she let him put his arm around her shoulder and tried to help him alleviate some of the pressure on his spine. He thanked her with a big grin and they walked to the castle together slowly. She could tell that he was still in a good amount of pain, and he was trying his best to not let it show. She could tell, though, by how tense the muscles in his body were.
Before they got to the castle, however, Iris heard a noise coming from behind them. She turned to see what appeared to be a lift of some sort and a bunch of people. She saw Zoro, Usopp and Vivi coming out of the lift with a bunch of humans from the village including Dalton. Her eyes fell on Zoro and she felt her heart flutter and skip a beat. It angered her slightly that she still hadn't been able to stop that response at seeing him.
"I thought you were going to stay on the boat, Zoro!" she called out to him as she turned away from the castle and towards the people arriving on the mountain top.
"I got bored," he shouted back to her. When he realized that she was shouldering Sanji's weight he sneered and made a comment about how incapable the cook was. Sanji tried to push off from her in his anger at Zoro, but his spine gave way again and he collapsed onto the ground. When it became obvious to her that he was going to try and move some more she stuck her foot onto his back with just enough pressure to cause him enough pain to stop his movements.
"I'm just glad you didn't get lost..." she said with a sigh before looking down to Sanji. "Knock it off, would you? How many times have I told you to not do anything that'll further your injuries?! I feel like I'm dealing with children here..." she grumbled.
"Actually, Zoro did get lost! Vivi and I found him half frozen to death wandering about the island," Usopp chimed in while hiding behind Zoro to make sure everything was safe. Iris could feel her eyebrow twitching as she shook her head. At least Usopp and Vivi found him. Iris would have been pissed if they had gotten back to the boat and found Zoro gone and lost.
"Where's Wapol?!" Dalton suddenly shouted as he pushed past Zoro.
"You mean the king? I beat the crap out of him and then Luffy sent him flying," Iris responded. The look in Dalton's face instantly changed from rage to shock. He obviously hadn't expected that they would beat the king. Iris didn't think the king was anything special in terms of strength, but obviously these people felt differently. The only real challenge she had had with the king was his size, but even that proved to be trivial once she used her powerful jaw filled with shark teeth.
The people around started cheering when they realized that Wapol was in fact gone. Dalton was still in shock and not quite ready to accept that Wapol had been defeated. He asked about the other two men that had been with the king, and Iris heard Luffy chime in from behind her that the reindeer had taken care of them.
Iris looked to see Luffy walking out of the castle with Nami tagging along with a big, thick blanket wrapped around her. Even if Nami was feeling better Iris wasn't sure that Nami should be out walking in the cold, but it wasn't her decision to make she supposed.
When Iris turned her attention back to Dalton his was face down in the snow bowing to Chopper to show his appreciation. Chopper looked terrified as he hid half of his face behind a tree, and she couldn't help but laugh at him. He was such a goofy creature! He must have very little survival instincts.
When the townspeople noticed Chopper they started screaming about a monster and raised the weapons they had brought with them despite the great amount of gratitude and respect Dalton was showing to Chopper by bowing his head to the creature. The look of terror intensified in Chopper's eyes and he started to run away. Even Usopp screamed out about a monster as the crowd's shouts made him fear the creature he hadn't even met yet. If she had been closer to him she would have hit him for his rude behavior.
Luffy immediately started chasing after Chopper shouting about how the reindeer was going to be part of their crew. She didn't think the reindeer had agreed to that yet, but Luffy had a way of persuading people to join him. If Luffy had made up his mind about the situation then Chopper would surely be joining them when they left the island.
The townspeople seemed confused as to why Dalton had stopped them from attacking the monster, and she could feel anger swelling up inside her. If these humans had taken the time to meet Chopper rather than judge him by his appearance they would have known he was a gentle, smart, and caring creature. This was why she hated humans; they always judged others by appearances. It never failed.
Seeing the behavior of these humans was making her regret thinking she could give humans the benefit of doubt. Her opinions of humans had began to be altered by her friends and what great examples of humans they were. This was a needed reminder that her friends were exceptions to the human race. Most humans would not be accepting of those different than themselves like Luffy and the others. This was exactly why she couldn't trust humans.
She then lifted her foot from Sanji as she walked towards the crowd of humans. Somewhere in the back of her brain she knew she should approach this calmly so that the negative stereotypes of fishman that were so prevalent wouldn't be reinforced with her, but she was too worked up to listen to that voice of reason. That same voice in the back of her brain tried to tell her that her father would overlook these humans and their discrimination, but she wasn't able to do that.
"You humans are all the same!" she shouted to get their attention. "First, you opened fire at us without so much as listening to our intentions when we were trying to find a doctor for our dying friend! Then I find out you assholes have completely ruined Chopper's image of humans! He's not wrong though... You see someone different than yourselves and assume that we're monsters without getting to know us. If you had taken even two minutes to talk to him you'd know he's smart, kind, and good. Instead you'd rather start shooting off weapons and kill him for being different!" she growled at them.
The blank looks on their faces pissed her off further. The were obviously confused as to why she was talking to them as if she wasn't a human and so she held up her hands up and spread apart her fingers to show the webbing. She then bared her teeth, and pulled the collar of her jacket down to reveal her gills and watched as the blank look on their faces turned to confusion.
"I'm not all human, even if I look it. Humans like you are why I hate the species. My dad is a tiger shark fishman. Does it make you want to shoot me too knowing I'm half fishman? Go on, I dare you," she hissed.
The people slowly lowered their weapons as they stared at her. The anger coursing through her veins was continuing to grow and these idiots didn't seem to understand that. If they understood why she was so upset they'd apologize to Chopper rather than looking at her with such blank expressions. The only human from this village that seemed to be understanding at all was Dalton. One understanding human didn't make up for an entire rest of the village though.
She then felt a hand on her shoulder and whipped around angrily to see Zoro standing behind her. He had a concerned look in his eyes as he looked at her. She realized that the hatred of humans she was expressing was most likely concerning to her friends since they were humans, but she didn't really care about that right now. The hatred that these people had stirred up in her was making it nearly impossible for her to think rationally.
Zoro suggested they walk away from the situation. She started to protest, but he gave her a stern look that stopped her from protesting further. The more rational voice that was still in the back of her brain had been telling her that she needed to remove herself from the situation, but she hadn't been listening to that voice. It was being covered by much louder and angrier voices telling that these humans needed to know how wrong and horrible they were.
The stern and concerned look in Zoro's eyes wasn't wavering, and so she gave in and agreed to walk away with him. Her feet were heavy as she followed him, and her attention was still on the pitiful humans. He grabbed onto her hand and pulled her away so that she was forced to walk away. She was still so worked up that she didn't hardly notice that he had grabbed onto her hand.
She glanced towards Sanji as she was being pulled long to see him looking at her with grave concern and so she flashed a grin as best as she could to him to try and convey that she was fine. She wasn't really fine, but she didn't need him worrying about her. Him being worried about her would only serve to annoy her with the chaotic state of mind she was in.
She followed Zoro into the tree cover, and once they were out of sight and out of hearing distance he stopped and let go of her hand. The sternness had now left his eyes and he just looked concerned. She realized that the concern in his eyes wasn't for the humans that she had been on the verge of harming, but for her. That realization made her temper start to curb, even if only a little bit.
"Are you okay?" he asked. She shrugged her shoulders and kept her mouth shut; she didn't really want to talk about it. He wouldn't understand her feelings on the matter, and she was afraid she might flip out on him. Even if her temper was starting to calm she was still so worked up and full of raging emotions that she knew she wasn't going to respond to him like she should.
"Iris... I know you're upset. Is there anything I can do to help?" he asked, and again she shrugged her shoulders. He sighed and put his hands on her shoulders. "You know, it's hard for all of us to see you so upset by these people. We might not be able to understand what you've been through or even how you feel, but we will all stand beside you, always, in this. You know you're not alone, right? We want to help you. I want to help you," he continued.
His words made her suddenly calm down a lot. He wasn't trying to claim to understand how she felt when he couldn't possibly understand, and that meant a lot to her. Back in her home town humans would try and say they understood her frustrations and anger when they didn't. They meant well, but it only served to isolate her from them even more. She appreciated his words more than she'd be able to put into words.
"Thank you, Zoro... I needed to hear that. It means more than you know to hear that I'll always have you guys backing me up," she said after a long pause.
"So you're going to be okay, right? You're not going to start beating people up or anything, right?" he asked.
"I promise I won't beat anybody up. At least for right now," she responded with a half hearted smile. He tried to smile at her in a reassuring manner, and it made her happy. Moments like this made it hard that he didn't want to be distracted by a relationship, but it also proved to her that he cared about her. She supposed that would have to be good enough for now.
"Good... 'cause I really thought you were going to start rampaging back there. I also thought that stupid cook was going to start crying... He was obviously worried about you too. Oh, and since when are you two friends?" Zoro asked sounding annoyed as he mentioned Sanji.
"Sanji and me? Well..." she started and then explained the saga of how Sanji had saved them during the avalanche, and how she had had to carry him up the mountain. Zoro mumbled something about how worthless the stupid cook was, and she laughed. She definitely felt much better now. "You're not jealous, are you?" she asked with a smirk and his face turned bright red.
"Why would I be jealous... That's stupid..." he grumbled.
"I'm only kidding," she teased, and his face turned a deeper shade of red. "On a more serious note... Thank you again for pulling me aside. If you hadn't have pulled me aside I probably would have done something that I would have regretted. I appreciate you looking out for me," she said quietly.
Zoro nodded his head while muttering that it was no big deal. It was a big deal though, even if he didn't want to act like it was. He seemed somewhat embarrassed, and so she let the subject drop. He decided he was going to go find Luffy, and she decided to stay back in the cover of the forest to make sure she fully calmed down her anger before chancing running into those humans again.
She was watching Zoro's silhouette disappear into the trees when it hit her like a ton of bricks that somehow she had let herself fall in love with the man. She wasn't simply infatuated with him or experiencing a crush; she truly loved him. She was in love with a human.
She was frustrated with herself for feeling that way since he didn't feel the same way towards her, but there didn't seem to be anything she could do about it. She had tried to talk herself out caring for him on a romantic level before and it had failed; there was no way that she'd be able to talk herself out of it now. Her feelings were rooted too deeply to be dug out any longer.
She leaned against a tree and let her body slide down it until she was sitting in the snow against the tree. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even notice the cold from sitting in the snow. Hopefully they weren't planning on leaving right away since she needed to be alone for a moment to process her feelings.
It was obvious after the interaction that had just occurred between them that he cared about, though she didn't think it was on a romantic level. He was closer to her than probably anybody on the crew other than Luffy, and thankfully their friendship hadn't suffered too much after the events at Whiskey Peak. Hopefully acknowledging to herself that she was in love with him wouldn't put strain on their friendship. Even if friendship wasn't where she wanted to settle it was still better than nothing.
She wondered how long it would be before the others figured out how she felt about Zoro. Nami had picked up on Iris' feelings quickly, and so she figured it was only a matter of time with the others. Luffy might not notice, but Sanji and Usopp surely would.
Thinking about Sanji figuring out that she was in love with Zoro made her cringe; it was going to hurt him a lot. The fact that she was in love with somebody other than him wasn't necessarily where she thought the problem would lie... It was the fact that it was Zoro she was in love with. Those two mixed as well as water and oil. The rivalry between the two was irrefutable. Iris was concerned that if Sanji knew she loved Zoro that his dislike of Zoro would turn into hatred.
Perhaps Nami had been right awhile ago when she suggested that Iris tell Sanji. It might be easier for him to take it from her directly than if he were to figure it out on his own. Though she didn't want him to try harder to gain her affections if she told him either. Perhaps he wouldn't notice for awhile if she tried harder to hide her feelings.
The fact that she cared at all about what the cook thought was humorous enough to her that she sat chuckling in the snow to herself. Half a day ago she wouldn't have cared in the least about his feelings, and now she was debating how to best save his feelings. The change in attitude towards him was so sudden that she wasn't quite sure how to deal with it.
She decided she didn't want to think about it further right then. She was about to stand up to go find the others when she heard the noise of somebody or something approaching her. She scanned the area quickly and saw Chopper hiding, but not actually hiding, like she had seen him do before. She tried not to laugh at him, but was having a hard time keeping her laughter inside.
"Is he around here anywhere?" Chopper asked.
"Who?" she asked, though she knew he was meaning Luffy.
"The boy with the straw hat... I think I finally lost him..." Chopper continued.
"Luffy? I haven't seen him come through here. He's a pretty great guy, isn't he?" she asked.
"He keeps chasing me... And now he's saying I should join his crew... But I can't join humans! That's ridiculous!" he said with his voice getting louder.
"Why is it ridiculous? These humans don't care that you're not a human. If they cared about that I wouldn't be with them," she continued.
"You at least look like a human! I'm a reindeer! There's no mistaking me for a human!" he shouted.
"Stop shouting or Luffy will hear you and come running," she said with a sigh. "If you don't believe me just go ask Luffy and the others yourself. These humans are some crazy cool people. You'll forget you're different from them when you're around them," she explained.
Chopper was looking at her with eyes wide and seemed to want something more from her. She wasn't sure what it was he was seeking, but she decided to tell him about how she joined the crew. She told him about how she met Luffy, Zoro, and Nami at her home island. She went on to tell him about how she hid her fishman heritage from them in fear of them hating her, and how Luffy had thought she was cool for being a fishman. She hoped telling him about this would ease his fears a bit.
"... Really? They really don't care that you're a fishman?" he asked with a slightly hopeful look in his eyes.
"Yeah. You should have seen how silly Luffy looked chomping his teeth pretending to have shark teeth like mine," she said while flashing her big, sharp teeth to Chopper.
Chopper then excused himself from her and said he had stuff to think about. When she asked what his decision was on joining them he still said he couldn't do so, but he didn't sound so sure of that any longer.
She decided now was a fine enough time to head back out and find the others. She stood up and realized that the snow she had been sitting in had made her pants wet and freezing cold. She groaned as her soaking, cold pants made walking difficult. She ran through the snow to the edge of the forest trying to heat up her muscles with movement.
When she got to the edge of the trees she could see Luffy, Zoro, and Usopp all outside. Chopper wasn't in the area yet; she figured he still had things to think about it all before confronting them. He still had a lot of reservations about humans, and rightfully so, but he also seemed to want to leave the island. She also felt that he wanted to find a group that would accept him as well.
"Oh, Iris! Where have you been?" Luffy asked.
"In the forest. I wanted some peace and quiet. Did you find Chopper?" Iris asked.
Luffy shook his head no and started shouting for the reindeer to come out. Zoro and Usopp seemed annoyed at Luffy's shouting, and so she knew he'd been yelling for awhile. The forest had done a good job of buffering the noise Luffy was making as she didn't realize he was shouting like this until she walked out of it. If Chopper was still in the forest somewhere he probably wouldn't hear Luffy shouting.
Usopp approached her and asked if she'd teach him some more martial arts while they were waiting to leave. She asked him to show her the movements she had shown him already, and he sighed. She raised an eyebrow at his contempt for her request, but he did decided to show her the movements she had taught him.
The movements he was making were common blocking moves. She was having him sweep his arms in towards his face and then pushing them out and away. The move was good for blocking inexperienced fighters, and could be evolved into different moves to block more experienced fighters. Despite his protesting the moves he had be practicing them anyway; it was evident in the smooth movements he was now showing her.
"Okay, that looks good. Now I'm going to throw some punches at you, and I want you to block me only with this movement," she instructed. His eyes seemed somewhat unsure that he'd succeed, and that would be a big downfall for him. In a fight you couldn't hesitate because you were unsure of yourself.
So without hesitation she started throwing some punches at him, and with much surprise to him he was actually able to block her punches. She was holding back a lot, but still using enough force that it would hurt if a punch landed on him. His confidence seemed to be growing, and so she sped up her movements and added some force.
When he still seemed to be blocking her well enough she decided to mix it up and kicked up her leg. She caught him by surprise and his movements faltered. Her foot made contact with his head and knocked him to the ground.
"This is why I need you to show me better moves!" he whined while rubbing the spot on his head where he kick had landed.
"Again, you have to master the basics first. And you should have seen just now how effective a simple movement like that can be," she said as she held out her hand to him. He grabbed onto her hand and she pulled him up to his feet.
She sighed as she could see he still didn't see the importance of learning the basics. He needed to learn some patience if he wanted to learn martial arts from her. She wracked her brain to think of what she could do to reinforce the importance of the basics, and a great idea popped into her head.
"Who do you think is physically stronger, Usopp. Zoro, or me?" she asked him. He looked as if he didn't want to answer and say the wrong thing, and she sighed again. "Come on, Usopp. My feelings won't be hurt no matter what you answer," she sighed.
He finally answered that he thought Zoro was probably stronger than she was, though he answered very sheepishly. She called out to Zoro and asked him to come and fight her. Zoro seemed confused about her request, but after she asked again he came over.
"Watch carefully, Usopp," she said. She turned to Zoro and motioned for him to start. He came at her and threw a punch to her left side. His punch had plenty of force and speed behind it, but she could deflect it. She used the sweeping movement she had shown Usopp, twisted her wrist so that she could grab onto his forearm, shoved the palm of her free arm into his stomach, twisted her body at the torso, and flipped him over her body so that he landed in the snow on his back with a thud on the other side of her.
"Thanks, Zoro," she said to a confused looking Zoro before looking back to Usopp. "Did you see how I was able to turn that simple defensive move into an offensive move? The basic movements I'm trying to teach you are the building blocks of all martial arts," she said.
Honestly if Zoro had come at her with his full force she would have had a harder time deflecting this punch, though she was confident she'd still be able to do so. He was muscular and strong, but he wasn't trained in the arts. He was a swordsman. He had obviously been confused about why she had suddenly asked him to fight, and so while he had been trying to process what she had asked of him he wasn't coming at her with all of his strength. It was enough to convey her point to Usopp, though.
She was about to suggest he try to block her movements again, but turned back towards the forest instead when she could hear something small coming out of it. She turned to see Chopper walking slowly towards them with some tears in his eyes.
"Reindeer! Join my crew!" Luffy shouted.
"I appreciate the offer, but I just can't," Chopper responded.
"Why not?!" Luffy shouted back.
"I'm a reindeer with a blue nose! I can't travel with humans! It just won't work!" Chopper shouted.
"Shut up and join us!" Luffy shouted louder while throwing his arms up in the air. The tears started pouring out of Chopper's eyes at Luffy's words, and finally he nodded his head yes. Iris had already figured Chopper would join them, but she was glad to have him agreeing himself. She knew that Luffy wasn't going to leave the island without the seven transformations reindeer that he had become so enamored with.
Chopper said he had to go talk to Doctor Kureha, and they all knew he was going to say his goodbyes. Usopp decided that they should get the lift ready to take back down, and Iris wondered why they hadn't been told about said lift before. That lift would have saved her and Luffy a lot of pain if they had been able to use it rather than climb up the mountain.
Apparently the lift was something that had been discovered by a little boy recently, and there really was no way that Dalton could have directed them to it. Talk about bad timing; if somebody had discovered the lift even a few hours earlier it would have made their trip up the mountain a whole lot easier and safer. Sanji wouldn't have been injured, Nami would have seen the doctor sooner, and both Luffy and Iris wouldn't have had to get frostbite. She supposed it didn't really matter though. They made it to the top of the mountain on their own and they were all safe now.
A few moments later Nami and Vivi were coming out of the castle dragging a still injured Sanji along. Nami looked 100x better than she had a few hours earlier; it actually was hard to tell she was ever sick.
"Where'd you find that key, Iris?" Nami asked. Iris put her hand to her pocket to find the key she had picked up from the snow was now gone. Nami grinned back at Iris as Iris tried to figure out how and when Nami could have possibly taken the key from her.
"How did you manage to swipe that key off me?" Iris asked.
"I'm a thief. You know that," Nami grinned. Iris couldn't even recall being close enough to Nami after picking up the key for Nami to steal it. She was also amazed that Nami had been able to grab the key without Iris realizing it had happened.
"What was the key for?" Iris asked with a sigh.
"A weapons room. I was hoping for treasure, but it wasn't anything that exciting," Nami responded.
The group continued talking for a little, and then was stopped when a big commotion could be heard coming from the castle. They all turned to look and see what was going on to find Chopper running towards them in his fully reindeer form with a sleigh on his back. He looked just like what you pictured when you thought of Santa's sled being pulled by a reindeer. The scene was somewhat humorous.
Chopper was followed by Dr. Kureha chasing him while throwing weapons and shouting at him. Chopper yelled for for everybody to jump into the sled, and Iris hopped in as he ran past her. The entire crew jumped into the sled one way or another except Sanji who still was injured, and so Luffy stretched out his arm to pull Sanji into the sled.
Chopper continued running and then jumped onto the wires that were connected to the lift. The sled tracks attached perfectly to the wires as he pulled them down to the base of the mountain. This was definitely easier than their way up had been.
When they got to the bottom of the mountain they all climbed out of the sled and they started heading towards the ship. Luffy was leading the way still looking ecstatic about his new crew mate. His joy was palpable and contagious. They were all excited to have a new crew member.
As they continued towards the Going Merry the sound of cannon fire could be heard coming from the castle. They all instinctively turned towards the sounds and found a sight that none of them were expecting.
The night time sky was lit up with what looked like fireworks, but was insanely more beautiful than any firework Iris had ever seen. The snow fluttering through the now lit up night time sky was glowing a soft, delicate pink. The snowflakes looked like delicate and stunning cherry blossoms floating all around this icy, cold island.
Chopper then burst into hysterics as he watched the pink snowflakes with a look that was both joyful and sorrowful on his face. She had a feeling from the emotional display that he was putting on that this had some deeper meaning than a farewell from Dr. Kureha. Iris would have to ask him about the meaning of the cherry blossom snowflakes sometime.
When Chopper's tears started to slow and he seemed ready to move on they continued on their way to the Going Merry. It was a long, cold trek back to the ship, and Iris found her feet going numb once again. When they finally got there Iris didn't think she'd ever been so happy to see the Going Merry. She was more than ready to leave this snowy winter island.
When they got back to the ship they found a very frozen Karoo floating in the river near the bank where the ship was docked. Vivi immediately started freaking out, rightfully so, and went to pull the duck out of the water.
After they had all gotten on the boat, including the frozen duck, they set sail towards Alabasta. Vivi was still tending to Karoo as he defrosted and wanting to know what had happened to him that he ended up in the ice cold water. Iris was curious as well since the duck didn't seem like the type to jump into an icy river on his own. He seemed to prefer to play it safe.
"He says that he jumped in after Zoro. Zoro jumped in and disappeared and he was worried," Chopper said, and they all looked at him. He could understand the duck? "I am an animal, even if I did eat the human human fruit. I can understand animal language," he explained.
With that Nami smacked Zoro in the back of the head for being so careless, and they all laughed. Iris glanced back to Chopper who had a happy look on his face. This was probably the first time he had felt accepted by a group of others. She gathered from what he had said and from what Doctor Kureha had said that he didn't think he could ever fit in among humans or animals; feeling like one didn't fit in was a feeling Iris could identify with. Now he had a group of humans, and a half fishman, that accepted him without questioning him. She knew what a good feeling that was, and she was genuinely excited for him.
She looked around and saw that Sanji was now up and moving around; he looked like he was feeling a little better. He was headed for the kitchen and she thought now could be a good time to try and get to know him a little bit better. If he was going to cook a meal she could offer her bartending services and make drinks to go along with the meal.
She walked into the kitchen after him and he looked up with a smile when he saw her coming in. He asked her if he could get her anything and she shook her head no.
"Have I ever told you that I ran a bar before I joined Luffy?" she asked as she reached for the cabinet where the booze was kept. "I'll leave the cooking to you, but I figure I can help out making drinks. I'm one hell of a bartender, you know," she stated.
"That's great! I'd appreciate your company while I cook," he responded gratefully.
With that the two went to work in their domains. He started preparing food, and she started preparing to mix up some drinks. This was an opportune time to spend time with Sanji since they could both focus on what they were doing and not have to talk. This was a good start to forging a friendship with him, and she was actually glad to be starting to view him as a friend. She wouldn't admit that part, though.