A series circumstances that test the blood and bond of each of the strawhats.
— Will be a multi-chapter fic—
Was going for something more fluffier for this one :)
Enjoy!
(Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or any related characters)
"Friendship is held to be the severest test of character.
It is easy, we think, to be loyal to a family and clan, whose blood is in your own veins." ~Charles Eastman
Nami, Chopper, and Brook
~In which Nami is human, Chopper is a reindeer, and Brook is dead~
The vast variety of characters on the ship wasn't ever overlooked. Sure, the crew had grown used to their nakama. If they were to describe the cast of people on the ship to anyone else it would have sounded like they were telling some sort of old pirate folktale.
'There once was a pirate crew made up of a shapeshifting reindeer, a corpse, a half-nude cyborg, a curly eyebrow, a piece of seaweed, a woman resembling the goddess Durga, pinocchio, a money grub, and an idiot.'
Nami giggles to herself at the prospect quite often.
They were colorful. They were vast in size and shape and demeanor. They completed each other— filled in the pieces that every member hadn't known they were missing previously. They were perfect.
That's why, when Chopper very subtly mentions one day to Nami, "Luffy, Zoro and Sanji are scary, but I think I'm the monster," in a tone that forces the idea that its not necessarily a good thing, she can't help but frown.
It's the day following a rather taxing battle with a marine vessel. Nami had gotten hurt and the rest of the crew had gone ballistic. Luffy, Zoro and Sanji had sunk at least five ships before the marines had chosen to retreat. Chopper had unleashed his Monster-Point, preventing several dozen marines from boarding the Sunny.
She had only been grazed by a random bullet during the scuffle, and a few stitches later meant she was practically good as new.
Now, Chopper merely was checking the wound, prodding it with his hooves with the infirmary door wide open to allow for fresh air. Nami gleams down at the young doctor, "Why do you say that?"
Chopper hums, "I can literally turn into a monster, is all. Luffy's completely unnatural abilities can be as they are, but that doesn't make him a monster."
"A matter of opinion, really," Nami drones, watching her captain swing from the mast with inhuman ease. The way he devours everything edible is pretty inhuman, too. Even his exuberant energy is inhuman. Everything about him, except his genome, is inhuman. Nami sighs tiredly.
Chopper begins wrapping Nami's forearm back up with white bandages, being as gentle as he can, "I really don't mind anymore, though. With a crew like ours, somebody has to stick out as the odd-ball."
"Well," Nami sighs, "what about Brook? Or Franky?"
Chopper giggles lightly, no doubt picturing Franky's new form, which had amazed multiple members of the crew when they had reunited, "Franky's still human. So is Brook, technically— he's just dead."
Nami smiles, watching as Chopper pushes away from the medical bed after finishing tying off her bandages. She thoughtfully places a finger on her chin, "Then, wouldn't you eating your devil fruit make you human, too?"
Chopper spins around dubiously, surprised at the continuation of the conversation, "I mean, not really. I still have a reindeer's genome, I'm just...different."
Nami growls, "I'm not letting up," she informs the young doctor, "I'm going to come up with something you can't refute."
It's not until much later that evening when the sun is setting in the sky, Zoro's snores are more pronounced than usual, and a red splotch appears on the previously white bandages on Nami's forearm does she think of her point.
Chopper comes down to tell her he wants to change the bandages, and that's when she catches him.
She smiles at him from her lawn chair, frightening the young doctor, "I've figured it out."
"What?"
The low hum of a guitar in the distance alerts Nami that her other victim is nearby, and the living skeleton comes dashing her way when she beckons him, loudly. He comes fumbling across the deck, still holding onto his guitar despite his hurry.
"Yes, Nami-san?"
"Are you aware we share a blood type?" she asks him, still sitting in her lawn chair without a care."
Brook hesitates, "I believe so, Nami-san."
"And are you aware that we also share a blood type with Chopper?" She doesn't wait for a response, believing herself to have made her point. She turns to face Chopper once again, "See? You fit in with Brook and I with our blood types, just like how you fit in with Luffy, Brook and Robin with being a devil fruit eater, and with Zoro with sleeping a lot, and Robin with loving to research— the list goes on!"
Chopper taps his hooves together apprehensively, looking from Brook to Nami repeatedly— lost in thought.
Brook laughs merrily, "It is an honor to share your blood type, Chopper-san— though I no longer have any blood yohohoho~"
Nami groans, rolling her eyes at Brook's skull joke as she reaffirms her attention to Chopper. She pauses when she lays her eyes on him, taking note of the happy smile on his face, eyes watering.
"Luffy belongs," he murmurs, still tapping his hooves together, "yet he's still monstrous... in a way…"
Nami turns once she hears her captain charging across deck towards the sleeping swordsman snoring on the opposite side of the ship, Sanji's angry voice and Usopp and Franky's undying laughter following him. He tackles Zoro to the ground in the beginning of a dog pile. Usopp follows suite even as Zoro's startled and annoyed shouts echo across the green lawn.
Brook grows distracted, laughing merrily along with the ruckus in front of them.
"If he can be, then...so can I…"
Nami smiles fondly at her rough-housing captain before turning back to the doctor standing in front of her.
"Then you're our monster," she says, tapping him playfully on his blue nose which elicits a delighted giggle in return, "and don't you ever doubt that."
Next: Zoro and Franky
