It didn't take Luffy long to find the reindeer again. But when we did he suddenly changed forms into one more like a typical reindeer and took off running on all four hooves. "He changed himself back to reindeer form. That's so cool. And he's faster too!"

We chased him back up the stairs and down the hall to where Nami's sick room was. He skidded to a stop at the open door, "Doctrine! It's an emergency! Wapol is back!" I skidded to a stop as well and grabbed Luffy's vest to stop him.

"Hold up, cutie. Something's happening. We should wait a minute and see what's going on," I told him as both the old hag and the reindeer hurried downstairs.

"Huh? But why?" Luffy whined. "I wanna ask that cool reindeer to be a part of my crew!" he said pointing after them.

I sighed. "You can, Luffy. But later. Let's see what freaked him out first. Maybe there's a huge monster or something outside," I offered as I made my way downstairs, dragging Luffy along with me. "It's called tactics. We find out what's going on then we do something," I explained.

"That's stupid," he said while pouting.

"No, that's smart. Running in blindly is stupid," I replied as I heard shouting coming from outside the castle. "Come on. Let's see what's going on."

"Finally, you show up, the last doctor on this empire, Dr. Kureha! Why don't you just die?" Someone was shouting. The voice sounded kinda familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.

"This castle is Hiluluk's tomb! It's not a place for a rotten kid like you. Just get out of this place! Drum Empire has already been destroyed!" Kureha shouted back at whoever it was outside the castle.

"Tomb? That stupid doctor's tomb!?" Whoever she was talking to broke into a loud laugh. "That's not funny at all!"

Finally, we got close enough to see what was going on and I instantly recognized that stupid furry hippo cape thing from the pirate that tried to eat the Merry on the way over here. I wasn't the only one to recognize him though. "It's him! You got me bad last time!"

"Eh?"

"Lord Wapol! It's that kid!"

I didn't have a chance to stop Luffy as he darted forward. "Rubber Bullet…"

"Hey!" I shouted, but with how Luffy's arm was already reeled back I knew it was useless to try and stop him. This wasn't really the tactics I had in mind, though…

"Punch!"

Luffy's arm snapped back, and his fist slammed into the pirate's metal jaw. "Augh!" Wapol went flying backwards towards the edge of the mountain and it was surprisingly satisfying for not doing it myself.

"Lord Wapol!" The two guys with him screamed as the launched themselves to try and catch him.

"What's going on here?" the hag asked behind me.

"What are they even doing here?" I asked as I exhaled a long stream of smoke into the air. Honestly, how many times did Luffy have to send this guy flying? I hummed a bit as I saw the two henchmen managed to catch their overweight leader and they were now hanging half off the side of the mountain.

"You treated me badly the last time we met," Luffy nearly growled from where he was still standing in the middle of the snow-covered yard. Suddenly, he broke into a huge grin and held his fist up a little. "Hehe, this time, I won't let you get away with it."

"How dare you hurt Lord Wapol, the King of Drum Empire!?" one of the henchmen said as they managed to drag the guy back up on top of the mountain.

"That's right! Didn't you realized that Lord Wapol is a King who governs this country!? How dare you fight against the King?" the other shouted at Luffy in clear outrage. I rolled my eyes at that. Like Luffy really cared about Kings… unless we were talking King of Pirates, of course.

Luffy reached up and pulled his mouth wide to each side to stick his tongue out at them. "A King? So what? I just know that I hate all of you very much!"

"You know them too?" Kureha asked.

"Of course! They are just annoying pirates who tried to stop us. He even ate my ship!" Luffy said pointing across at them. "I won't let them get away easily this time!" he declared.

"Hey, aren't you cold at all?" I asked him, eyeing how once again he wasn't wearing anything but his usual vest and shorts. I, at least, had grabbed my coat on the way out here.

"Eh?" he asked looking at me in surprise.

"See?"

"Did they just say that he is a King? They're not pirates!?" he exclaimed, whipping back around to stare at them.

"You just realized that?" I snapped. How did I get stuck with such an idiot for a Captain!?

"You fools! You just realized that our Master is King of this Empire?"

"It's cold here!" Luffy suddenly yelled, shivering violently.

"That's why I asked you before!"

"It's negative fifty degrees now," Kureha volunteered.

"They are insulting us!" One henchman yelled in outrage, but I didn't care. They didn't look that strong after all.

"Aaahh!" the hippo king yelled as he suddenly sprung up.

"Lord Wapol!"

Wapol started laughing even though his nose was dripping blood. "You really made me mad. I will eat you this time." He looked up and gave a start. "Where did he go!?"

"Just wait a sec, ok?" I said holding up my hand. "He just went inside to grab his coat," I told them. It wasn't like Luffy ran away from fights. He just suddenly realized we were standing outside in below freezing temperatures and that throwing a coat on might be a good idea.

"Can I ask you something?" the reindeer suddenly, edging a little closer to me.

"Huh?"

"That guy can stretch his body, right?"

"That's right. He's a rubber man," I told him, shoving my hands into my pockets to keep them a little warmer.

The reindeer looked at me, looking shocked that I'd said that. "What do you mean?" he asked, clearly bewildered.

"It means that he's a monster," I informed him cheerfully. His eyes widened at that, but he didn't say anything in reply. Partially because he wasn't given a chance.

"Dalton is already dead, and those brats and that witch, who always opposes me, are all here. If we can take care of them all right now, there will be no one left to stop us," Wapol stated. At least someone knew how to strategize. Too bad it was an enemy…

"That's right Lord Wapol. We can rebuild our Drum Empire again. Do not worry, Sir. We will take care of them," the henchman with the long bow told Wapol.

"I don't know what you're thinking, Dr. Kureha, but I must say that you are really brave to go and take over our castle while we weren't here," the other said holding up his fists, which were enclosed in what looked like furry punching gloves.

Kureha laughed a little at that. "Actually, I don't want to live in this big castle, but this guy doesn't want to leave. No matter how many times I tried to tell him, he always insists that this castle is Hiluluk's tomb," she said as the reindeer's body started changing. He grew into his larger form that stood on two feet and didn't have any horns.

"Lord Wapol, that's-" One henchman started.

"A monster! The same that followed Hiluluk!" the other finished.

"Doctor just wanted to help this country. That's why I can't allow you to get into this castle," the reindeer said in a much deeper voice than he'd had before. "I will never allow anyone to take Doctor's symbol of faith down from here!"

Wapol laughed loudly at that. "If you wanted to die that much, why didn't you just ask? I'll kill you all!"

I groaned some. How did I get pulled into this? "What? I never wanted to get involved with them in the first place," I muttered before taking a drag of my cigarette. Why was it, everywhere we go, we had to get into a fight? "Are you going to fight them with us, granny?" I asked.

Something hard slammed into my head, and I stumbled forward a few steps before catching myself. "I will lend a hand if you're in trouble," she said.

"Ouch… thanks," I said sarcastically as I rubbed my head. Damn, old people…