Chimera Luffy

by mellra

What if Luffy ate a different Devil's Fruit as a child? Not just any fruit, but the most powerful of the Zoan fruits, the Chimera-Chimera Fruit. It is a legendary Zoan fruit that allows the user to take on the forms of any Zoan fruit users, as well a true form as the mythical chimera. How will this change the course of the One Piece world? Pairing most likely Luffy/Boa Hancock, but

13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: If I owned One Piece, I'd try focusing more on one perspective then all over the place like Oda does.

Chapter 13

Sanji and a mountain ram form Luffy with an unconscious Nami strapped to his back kept up their march towards the drum shaped mountain. Luffy suddenly called out, "It feels like it's gotten a little colder. The wind's picking up too."

Sanji rolled his eyes, as if fighting back to urge to tell him 'No duh…'

Luffy, trying to pass the time, decided to spark up a conversation with his chef. He talked to Sanji about how people in countries of snow never sleep at all.

Sanji looked to him. "Huh, why?"

"Cause if they do they'll freeze to death," Luffy said as if it was a little known fact.

Sanji thought that over before he cried out, "Don't be an idiot! Everyone has to sleep sometime!"

"It's the truth! Someone told me a long time ago!" Luffy insisted.

Just then, a strange white rabbit jumped them, attempting to bite Luffy. Luffy easily moved out of the way as the rabbit, which could only be one of the Lapahns Dalton mentioned, missed and hit the snow behind them. Luffy didn't show any signs of even noticing that something just tried to attack him as he and Sanji went on with their discussion.

"Who? Usopp?" Sanji said, who didn't react at all at the rabbit attacking them a second ago.

"No, I heard it at a pub in my village," Luffy explained.

Sanji challenged Luffy's theory by asking why Dalton would have a bed in his house if he never slept.

Luffy blinked, having never thought about that. "I guess that's a good point," he admitted before his eyes widen as if he just figured out the answer, "Hey! Maybe it's for when he dies."

As the Lapahn continued to try and attack them—this time going after Sanji—probably thinking that he might've been an easier target. But Sanji easily dodged it without even bothering to stop running.

It was really funny to watch after a while. The little guy kept trying to attack them, but they kept going onwards, still continuing their conversation without ever stopping. Sanji then began to ask Luffy about if he knew that women who lived in snowy countries all have skin as smooth as silk.

"How come?" Luffy asked curiously.

"Isn't it obvious?" Sanji asked with a tone of irritation. He went on to explain that the women who live where it's cold have to rub their skin all the time to keep warm and that's why their skin was always soft, smooth, and so white that it was almost see-through. When Luffy asked why it was white, the whole time the Lapahn continued to try and attack—though it never worked. But Sanji answered as if he was being dumb, "Because, the snow. It's constantly falling all over them so it dyes their skin all white."

"Geez, you're really dumb, you know that?" Luffy said.

Sanji glared as he shouted out, "Give me a break, like you're really one to talk!" And to take his anger out, when the Lapahn attacked again, Sanji kicked it far away from them, as if kicking a ball as it went flying. "YOU'RE BECOMING A PAIN IN MY BUTT!" he yelled and watched the rabbit disappeared into the distance.

"Really, what's with that thing?" Luffy asked as he watched it fly away, to which Sanji gave a non-concerned shrug.

Onwards they went towards the mountain. For Sanji and Luffy the journey was becoming harder with each minute. The wind picked up and was trying to blow them backwards… the cold slowing them down as they reached even deeper snow. Even with Luffy's thick wool pelt, he started feeling the biting cold as Nami shivered on his back.

"Nami, just hang in there a little bit longer," Sanji said as he ran next to Luffy, and muttered more words of encouragement. "We gonna get you to a doctor alright?!"

"The snow getting really deep around here," Luffy commented as they fought their way through the deep snow, and Sanji barking at him to try and run more smoothly because he was making it hard on Nami.

But the two suddenly stopped and were staring in front of them at the white snow, Luffy's animal instincts started going haywire while Sanji got a bad feeling that was honed thanks to his years of training.

The whiteness in front of them suddenly moved and, for a moment, they thought they were looking at a herd of polar bears… but bears don't have long ears. It was hard to guess how many there were, but there had to be several dozen of them at least… large rabbits as big as bears, standing upright with arms like gorillas… pinkish-red eyes looking at them and fangs bared.

Sanji seemed completely taken aback as he stared at them. "What are these things!?"

"Well, they're big and they're white. So they must be polar bears!" decided Luffy, though for the life of him he couldn't figure out the overly long ears.

Just then, the one in front jumped, his teeth showing as he attacked.

Sanji screamed, "LOOK OUT!"

Luffy jumped out of the way as the Lapahn's attack broke the snow like stone.

"Serious, how can it move like that?" Sanji asked in shock. "Is it a gorilla?"

"No, it's a polar bear," cried out Luffy.

"It's a rabbit!" Sanji screamed suddenly.

"How'd you go from a gorilla to rabbit?" Luffy yelled back.

"These must be the Lapahns that Dalton was telling us about," Sanji suddenly spoke as they looked back at them, and he was clearly trying to think of a way out of this. "Well, there sure are a lot of them!"

Just then, Nami groaned a little on Luffy's back and everyone turned their attention to her. They couldn't tell if she was aware of what was going on, or if she was dreaming now as she whimpered a little in her sleep. Obviously in a lot of pain…

"Nami?" Luffy suddenly asked and she looked up as even past Sanji was looking at them, ignoring the threat of the Lapahns for the moment.

"Hurry… Ala… basta…" Nami whispered, though it had been very difficult to make out the slur in her words, they didn't need to guess what she was trying to say.

Luffy's eyes grew concerned as he whispered quietly to her, "Just rest, never mind that. We'll worry about that later."

It wasn't clear if she could understand his words, but the gentleness in his voice seemed to soothe her because she did appear to fall back into a deep sleep when she pressed her face against his back.

Sanji was also smiling at her. "She's not even worried about her own life," he said softly as he looked back to the Lapahns. "Just hang in there a little longer, Nami. Let's get going! We have to make it to that castle where the doctor lives, quickly." He stepped forward and yelled out, "Move it, you stupid bunnies!"

The Lapahn in the front took a step forward, clearly tired of waiting.

"They're coming!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Yeah," Sanji agreed before he said very seriously so that there couldn't be room to argue, "Listen Luffy… I don't want you fighting these guys alright?"

Luffy was about to argue against that, but in the end Sanji managed to convince Luffy to stand down and he nodded in understanding as he heaved her back onto his back when she slipped a little. Then, Luffy had one of his once in a blue moon brilliant ideas. He asked Sanji to momentarily hold Nami, which he eagerly did but still asked his captain what he was doing. Luffy went back to his human form, grinned, and said, "I'm going to try and talk them into letting us pass."

With that, his hair turned white and went to cover his entire body. In a moment, Luffy took the form of a Laphan nearly identical to the ones in front of them minus the scar under his one eye. The giant rabbits in front of them seemed fairly surprised by the sudden change, but they held back for the moment to see what was going on. Luffy stepped forward and started making grunting and growling noises to the other Laphans. One, obviously the leader by its stance and the crescent scar by its one eye stepped forward and growled back. This went on for about a minute before Luffy turned back to his human form, calmly took Nami from Sanji's hands, tied her back to his back, took a deep breath, and yelled, "RUN!"

The Lapahns finally attacked, all of them at once and Luffy had to dodged every blow that was sent his way. "What the heck did they say Luffy?!" Sanji screamed as he kicked one of the Laphans away from the group.

"That smaller rabbit you kicked earlier? Apparently that was the alpha's kid, and they're not gonna stop until they either pay us back or eat us!" Luffy shouted out.

Sanji paled, "Oh crap!"

Though large for their size, they were all remarkably light on their feet and acrobatic… not to mention this was their territory—their home island. They clearly had a big advantage not just in numbers but on terrain as well.

"Remember not to fight Luffy!" Sanji reminded the straw hat wearing boy.

Luffy yelled, "THAT'S A LITTLE DIFFICULT!"

Luffy continued to escape around the Lapahns, trying to be as gentle as possible with Nami as Sanji kicked every Lapahn that got too close; however it didn't seem to be doing much damage for they kept throwing themselves at them. Sanji cursed. He explained to Luffy that he couldn't get his footing well enough in the snow to land a good kick.

Each one of the Lapahn's ears twitch a little and…

"THEY'RE ATTACKING ALL AT ONCE!" Luffy screamed as the sky was filled with the monster rabbits and Sanji screamed for him to head to the trees as he covered him. Luffy gently placed Nami on his back, turned back into his mountain goat form as he turned and ran, heading right to the cover of the foliage—the wind blowing off his hat at the same time. It was a bit of a shock when he didn't turn back for it. But here, Nami really was the first priority…

Thankfully, Sanji had managed to grab it as he ran after him, with the rabbits still after them.

The rabbits were easily able to catch up to them, even able to cut them off more than once. They charged out at every direction and it was impossible to tell where they would come from next. Once they had reached the trees however, the rabbits only kept watch, not able to move as easily with all the tree trunks in the way.

"Go left!" Sanji ordered, pointing straight to a high cliff, the only chance they had to get away here, "We'll head to the mountains!"

"Ok!" Luffy said and they turned together as Sanji went on about how to shake them off. The biggest problem was when they looked through the trees, they could see that they were keeping up with them, ready to strike when they escaped the cover of the woods.

Another rabbit appeared and tried to strike at Luffy, who dodged it and he looked like he was about to attack back but Sanji stepped in. Once he took it out, he began to tell Luffy off for attacking as he tried to keep Nami from slipping again.

Luffy apologized as Sanji put the straw hat back on Luffy's head. "This is no time to be screwing around," he said as they ran, getting nearer to the cliff, but that meant running out from the trees and they were surrounded again. Sanji was forced to stay behind fighting them off as Luffy reached the ledge, screaming that they could go up from there.

"Right! Go on!" Sanji yelled as another Lapahn tried to attack him, but Luffy used him as a stepping stone to jump up safely to the ledge, with Sanji right behind them.

The two were looking down at the whole herd of them, and Luffy just had to stick his tongue out at them childishly… which lead them all to jump at once.

"Did you really have to taunt them?" Sanji demanded.

"Sorry!" Luffy cried out as the cook ordered them to just make a wild run for the top of the mountain.

They kept going for what felt like hours. And they only stopped when Luffy and Sanji when they had to catch their breath, but when they looked back, it was a shock to see that the rabbits had disappeared.

"They coming?" Luffy asked.

"No… it doesn't look like it," Sanji called behind him, looking back and forth, trying to make sure that there wasn't anything there.

"Alright, I guess we lost them," Luffy said with a smile.

Sanji disagreed, pointing in front of them to see that they were back.

In front of them, the whole herd was there—much farther away than they had been when they first ran into them. "How'd they get there so quickly?"

"They don't give up!" Luffy exclaimed loudly just before the entire herd suddenly started to jump up and down in place.

"Why are they jumping up and down?" Luffy asked, his instincts causing his fur to stand on end. Still, he tried to remain optimistic. "Maybe they're grouchy cause they're hungry?"

Sanji went as white as the snow around them.

"Wait a second… don't tell me… oh no," he gasped as his eyes widened in realization. He was so shocked that he dropped his cigarette, looking ready to cry. "Those stupid bunnies… Great. They've done it now… this isn't good."

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Luffy asked, looking back at him. "And what are the bunnies doing?"

Sanji was telling Luffy that they had to run, and as he said that, he was actually backing up a few steps.

"We're running again?" Luffy repeated in confusion. "Where to?"

"Anywhere! As long as it's far away!" Sanji screamed, completely losing any cool that he had. That was when they could hear a deep rumble going through the snow beneath their feet, as if there was another giant walking around…

Just then, the whole ground was trembling, almost like there was an earthquake happening. The thick snow above them slowly began to slide off the mountain… and before anyone knew it, a giant wall of white appeared and was heading straight for them as big as an ocean wave during a Grand Line storm.

"Because there's about to be an avalanche!" Sanji shouted as Luffy screamed and they ran for it. Without looking back, Luffy quickly did the same and they ran back down the mountain as the endless waves of snow continued to chase after them. As fast as they were however, they couldn't outrun this.

"Those stupid overgrown bunnies, I'm gonna kill them!" Sanji screamed.

Luffy screamed out in panic to Sanji as to how they were supposed to escape all the snow.

"No clue!" Sanji screamed over the roar that was quickly catching up. "All I know is that our first priority is Nami, our second priority is Nami and our third priority is Nami! Got that Luffy? Protect her even if it kills you!"

"I got it, but how do I do that!?" Luffy screamed as the avalanche pulled trees up and they became part of the mess that was still hurtling towards them. A lightbulb went off in Luffy's head and he asked if it would be a good idea to turn into a bird and fly them all to safety, but Sanji gave a negative as it would both take time to lift off that they didn't have, and there was no telling what the rough mountain winds would be like for turbulence. They kept running as fast as they could before Sanji spotted a high ledge just ahead of them and he screamed to head for it.

"Why?!" Luffy yelled back.

"Just run! We need to get up as high as we possibly can!" Sanji yelled back in reply. His expression showed that he didn't understand, but he followed Sanji to the cliff anyway just with the snow was at their heels. And as they continued on they jumped just as the avalanche finally caught up.

But it was far from over. Sanji was just starting to say that they made it in time… but then more snow came tumbling down, this time there was nothing they could do as it washed over their heads.

The two froze in fear as they stared at it, and suddenly the force of the avalanche knocked them right off their feet and were sent flying in the air. Suddenly they were all suddenly sliding down the avalanche with all the wreckage from the nearby trees.

Luffy was up in the air, spinning a little as he looked around desperately for a way out of this, Nami still sleeping like a baby on his back. But just as it looked like Luffy had run out of luck, he turned in the air and managed to land onto a one of the tree trunks, now sledding down the mountain like a toboggan.

Luffy was looking around for Sanji and he spotted the cook ahead of him, quickly being buried alive in front of them.

"Sanji!" Luffy screamed in worry as he stretched out his horns for him. "Grab on!"

Sanji pulled out of the snow and pulled onto the tree behind Luffy and Nami.

"Thanks for that, Luffy," he panted.

Luffy noticed they were going back the way they came as he yelled that they were just going to keep going down the mountain unless they did something. Sanji was furious.

"No way!" he yelled out at once as he looked back at the quickly shrinking mountain behind them. "I'm never gonna let that happen! We've come all this way and we were almost at the base of the mountain, just feet away from the doctor!" He glared back at Luffy and yelled, "Luffy, you need to come up with a way to stop all this right now!"

But Luffy looked completely lost as Sanji continued to rant. "It's all because of those stupid bunnies!" he declared. "Next time I see them, I'm going to turn them into a big bowl of stew!"

As if they heard the threat, the Lapahns appeared out of nowhere and looked ready for round two. They could only look on in amazement to see that the overgrown rabbits were riding tree trunks like snowboards. Luff didn't notice them right away and was muttering about rabbit stew and how good that sounded.

The battle went on against the duo and the Lapahns—unlike before however, the two couldn't run anywhere but down on the makeshift sled. They were completely surrounded on all sides and the bunnies just kept jumping up with perfect teamwork. It was only going to be a matter of time before they hit their target and do some real damage.

"What do we do?" Luffy yelled frantically, already running out of room where to go.

"The only thing we can do at the moment—slide faster!" Sanji yelled as he pushed their tree to go faster.

"What is their problem!? Getting all this worked up over one little brat?!" Sanji yelled as they were ruthlessly attacked and they were forced to jump a little on the tree to avoid the attacks. "Seriously?!" he yelled, unsure as to how much longer they could keep this up. But things just when from bad to worse when they looked down the mountain and could see that directly in their path was a giant rock with several broken and jagged tree trunks. And they were heading right for it—with the bunnies on either side of them they couldn't maneuver to avoid this incoming impact.

The two on the tree spotted it as well and they were screaming about what to do.

"You can't crash into that thing!" Sanji yelled as the Lapahns started their attack again. "You're the one in charge of keeping Nami safe right now!"

"That's easy for you to say!" Luffy screamed, the rabbits determined to make the kill here. Just as Luffy declared that they were going to crash, Sanji did something truly selfless this time. At the last second, he grabbed hold of Luffy by the back of his jacket and threw him right off the tree. "Ladies get treated gently!" were the last words he cried out, a satisfied smile on his face as he made his last request. "So you take care of her!"

"Sanji!" Luffy yelled in horror as he crashed. With a horrible crunching sound, Sanji hit the rock and, as limp as a rag doll, he was thrown right off with several other Lapahns and the debris of some trees.

Almost as if in slow motion, Sanji's body fell from the air and hit the snow, being buried a second time.

Luffy screamed out, horrified at what just happened before he transformed back into his human form in order to grab hold of the same miniature cliff that almost killed them. Dangling on as the rush of snow rushed all around them, he looked back, seeing that Sanji was already mostly buried and he screamed out his name.

But Sanji never answered, and it was either because he was out cold or too hurt to do so.

"What were you thinking?! Next time you do something like that… WARN ME!" Luffy screamed as a long monkey's tail burst from his spine and wrapped around Sanji's hand, but this time Sanji was pulled away too fast and hard for Luffy to pull him back… all he was able to save was a single mitten and Luffy freaked out.

"Sanji!" Luffy yelled in desperation. His voice echoed around them as he screamed out, "SAAAANNNNNJJJJJJIIIIIIII!"

After the avalanche subsided the landscape was different. There was snow covering everything, much more than before… you could still make out the shape of the avalanche surrounding them—instead of even level of snow, there were large packs of it like miniature hills and large, broken trees scattered every few feet.

It was as silent as a grave around them.

Luffy was still hanging from the cliff—apparently it had been just high enough to have protected him and Nami from the current of snow.

He appeared to be unharmed, but he was shaking as he stared around him, trying to figure out what he should do. He pulled himself up to the ledge, quickly untying Nami from his back and gently laying her down beside him.

He was breathing hard as he looked up, trying to get some kind of glimpse of Sanji, but nothing. He looked from the landscape, to Nami and back again before he seemed to have made up his mind. He pulled off his coat and covered her like a blanket and even pulled of his mittens to serve as a pillow for her head. She wasn't looking good at all. Her face was as red as a tomato and it was clear that her fever was reaching dire levels by this point.

"Nami, I'm sure you're cold," Luffy said to her softly, though he wasn't sure she could even hear him. "Just hang in there a little longer."

Luffy took off his hat and placed it on her chest, finishing up by saying, "Listen, hold on to this for me and I'll be right back ok?"

Convinced that she would be alright by herself for a moment he turned and dove off the ledge, as he started to look around for Sanji. When he landed he took the form of a black furred St. Bernard and started sniffing around at the snow.

Luffy was running across the snow, sinking deep every few feet before he was able to pull himself back up and continue searching. Every time he called out for Sanji's name, it seemed to become more desperate as he picked up his pace and began to run. Onwards he went before the snow that he stepped let out a soft groan beneath his feet. Luffy stopped dead as he looked back and he got down on his knees as he began to dig.

Luffy's paws worked frantically as he continued to dig down deeper and deeper… finally he spotted the dark coat that Sanji had been wearing. Luffy let out a cry of shock and dug more desperately.

Soon, Luffy had been able to pull him out and lay him on the snow with his muzzle… the chef was a mess. There was a blue tint to his face as he struggled for breath, and he was completely out of it—but miraculously alive. Luffy sighed in relief as he went back to human from and tried to shake him awake, but realized that there was blood on his hands when he touched Sanji's chest. Not enough to worry about him bleeding to death right away, but even Luffy could tell that he needed a doctor just as badly as Nami did.

"Sanji! Are you okay!?" Luffy screamed out, but he might've just been talking to the snow for all the good it did. Realizing that Sanji wasn't going to answer him any time soon, Luffy got back up, carefully dragging him with him up the snowy slope to where Nami was waiting for them.

Luffy lay Sanji down before he turned Nami over and heaved her onto his back again, letting her keep his coat, but he left his mittens there. Luffy's body seemed to stretch and grow as translucent, nearly white colored fur. In the form of a polar bear, Luffy snorted as he picked up Sanji like a sack of flour under his arm and began the long hike back up the mountain.

Luffy wasn't moving as fast as he had been before with the added weight and cold hanging around him. Even with his enhanced strength, the bear boy knew not to apply too much force or to go to fast, least his precious cargo wind up worse than before. He went through all this freezing cold on his own… but suddenly he spotted something digging in the snow up ahead.

It was the baby rabbit that caused the whole mess. The little rabbit was digging desperately in the snow where he saw that it was trying to dig out a gigantic paw with claws, which could only be its parent. Luffy was slowly making his way towards the little baby, still trying to dig around the clawed paw.

As Luffy looked closer, there was some pink in the snow and the little baby's own paws looked frozen. He was sucking on them in pain as he cried out, still trying to help free its parent though at this rate it wasn't making much progress on its own. But it didn't give up as it kept going, and they knew that it probably would've kept going even if it destroyed his paws.

As Luffy's crunching footsteps drew nearer, it heard him and stopped to glare back at him. It turned around shielding its parent's giant paw with its own body, growling at him not to come any closer.

Luffy came right up to the baby Lapahn and stared down at him, his expression unreadable as the little guy snarled, trying to scare him into just leaving.

His eyes shadowed over so that they couldn't be seen, with his other arm, he slowly reached down towards them. The little baby covered his head and closed his eyes—clearly thinking that he was going to hurt him, but instead, Luffy reached over to grab the large Lapahn by its paw, and with a great pull, managed to pull it out of the snow.

The full grown Lapahn seemed to be dazed and confused, but was still alive as the little baby cried out and hugged the massive, furry stomach—burying its face in the warm fur. Luffy heaved Nami up higher on his back and continued on his way, both crewmates lying limp as dolls.

Luffy was speaking again as they got closer to the mountain. "I'll get you there, don't worry. You just stay alive… both of you."

They walked on for about fifteen more minutes and nothing happened… but that soon changed. There was the sounds of something crunching through the snow behind them and a familiar voice yelling out smugly, "FOUND YOU!"

Wapol was running towards them on the back of giant hippo-like animal with long hair with his two flunkies. Luffy turned as well just as Wapol went riding right up to him and stopped so that he was blocking his way.

"NOW I'LL MAKE YOU PAY YOU STRAW HATS!" Wapol cried out.

Wapol declared that he was going to chew Luffy up into little pieces and spit him out. While he wasn't sure if the bear holding the two people was in fact that boy who sent him flying earlier, he recognized the blonde man from the ship as well as the hat placed firmly on the bear's head.

"Move it," Luffy said simply.

"Ha! I don't think so," Wapol said smugly. "Why would I wanna do that!?"

Luffy must've known that he couldn't afford to waste any more time here as Wapol declared that he had no intention of making it easy for them to get away from here after what he did to him. But to add insult to injury, Luffy just turned and walked around him as if he wasn't worth the trouble of fighting and continued upwards.

"HEY!" Wapol yelled.

Wapol began yelling at Chess to write down a new law in a giant book—that anyone who ignores the king will be executed and he ordered the two flunkies to kill Nami and Sanji since they were ignoring him the most.

Luffy immediately turned around in shock. "What did he say!?"

The two jumped high in the air and were giving chase.

"I got the woman on his back," Chess cried out

"I'll take the man," the man with the afros, whose name was Kuromarimo, declared as they jumped, several sharp spikes coming out of the afro on his fist.

Luffy immediately moved back, making sure that he was able to get Sanji out of harm's way, before he made to attack.

Suddenly, Luffy stopped. His eyes looked to Nami and Sanji and gritted his teeth as he started to run, narrowly missing the arrows that Chess shot.

"Can't fight!" Luffy cursed as he made a run for it. "You're gonna regret this later!" Luffy yelled to the three of them, "Don't follow me!"

There were several more arrows heading for him—they would've struck Nami in the back, but at the last second, Luffy actually did a back flip, narrowly missing them as he kept running as soon as his feet hit the ground. It was quite impressive, given Luffy's nine foot tall frame and 500 pound bulk, but let it never be said that Luffy was ordinary no matter what form he's in.

Luffy kept running as fast as he could, despite everything. He ran on for some time, eventually losing sight of Wapol and his men far behind him.

Luffy looked back for a moment and he couldn't see anyone either. "Huh? There's no one! That's weird! Did they already give up?" he asked himself in confusion.

Suddenly, Wapol's giant mouth appeared through the sleet in front of him. Luffy looked back to avoid it at the less second…

He missed being eaten by jumping up high into the air as the rest of Wapol stepped out of the snow, but he was smiling as the two henchmen appeared as well from just above them.

"Here's what a snow battle's really like!" Kuromarimo yelled. "White concealment!"

"Those two are so incredibly weak that just one shot should be enough," Chess said, his wavy lips turning into a slight smile. But this time Luffy couldn't move in midair like this and he screamed out as they moved in.

Just as all hope seemed lost, several white blurs jumped up from behind them and knocked the two lackeys away like cats batting balls of yarn away.

"Lapahns?" Wapol cried out in disbelief.

The two flunkies were wondering the same thing. Kuromarimo just demanded, "Did those things just protect him?"

"That's impossible," Chess cried out, "Lapahns never form bonds with humans! They're nothing but wild beasts!"

Luffy landed farther in front of them as the two rabbits stood between him and Wapol. One of them looking back at him with a baby hanging onto its back and a jagged scar over one of its eyes. Luffy stared at it and it stared back.

"I know you…" Luffy whispered quietly, looking at them.

The two just continued looking back at Luffy, this time there was a calmness in their eyes that hadn't been there before. Just then, they both pumped their arms out. Luffy smiled as well as he cried out, "Thanks a bunch! You guys saved me!" And without another word he turned and continued to run as the Lapahns turned back to face Wapol and his men.

The journey got harder as the blizzard quickly got worse. Luffy was soon struggling to take a single step forward; it was like every step forward he took, the wind blew him back two steps. It didn't take too long for it to become so that he couldn't even see in front of them. The snow was now up past his knees, and even as a bear he was feeling cold by this point.

He was shivering as he forced his freezing body to keep going forward, his face now almost as red as Nami's under his fur and he was gritting his teeth together to keep them from chattering.

Luffy kept walking. He kept chanting one word under his breath as he fought against the powerful wind like a spell. "Doctor… doctor… doctor…"

Luffy was now forced to move had hardly more than a crawl by this point. He contemplated turning into a penguin to just ride the snow on his belly (which he cursed the fact he didn't think of it during the avalanche), but realized it was too risky with two sick/injured people and also there wasn't a sharp enough decline to gain momentum.

But at long last, after what felt like a lifetime, he finally came to a solid, white wall directly in front of them. It took him a minute to realize what it was as he looked up and couldn't even see the top. They finally made it to the base of the mountain.

Luffy stared up at it, as if he couldn't believe that he got here. Luffy looked around, clearly hoping for some kind of way up.

"There's a doctor up there," Luffy said to himself, and he seemed to be preparing himself for something unpleasant. He took another look at his two friends before he said, "Alright Nami and Sanji… just a little farther to go! Hang on a little longer."

The captain retied Nami extra tight on his back, shifted back into his human form, and picked up Sanji by his teeth. His body then took on the shape of a monkey and… it could only mean one thing.

Luffy found several grooves in the mountain and tested his weight. Luffy had pulled himself up the ground and very slowly was making his way up the impossibly tall mountain. How he was able to climb like this was anyone guess… but he was definitely making progress as the ground soon disappeared from sight from the snowstorm around them.

Every second the wind got harsher and it the temperature seemed to drop; there was so much snow that it was a miracle that Luffy could see more than a foot in front of him.

Yet despite all this, Luffy kept going with surprisingly gentle moves, as to not make it any harder for his friends than was necessary. When he looked back down at the ground to see it disappear in the blizzard, there was a powerful resolution shining in his eyes; he was going to climb this mountain and reach the top no matter what it took.

Luffy would stop every few feet to catch his breath or to search for more grooves in the mountain for him to grab hold of before he was able to pull himself up even farther. Time seemed slow down around them as quickly as Luffy was freezing… his body was turning a dark red color under his much thinner fur and blood was dripping down his arms as his fingers and toes were cut like they were digging themselves into shards of glass. And fate seemed to laugh at him as an extra strong gust of wind came out of nowhere and blew his red coat right off Nami's back and fluttered away from them like the very last leaf in autumn being blown off the tree.

The scariest moment was when Luffy stretched his hand out to grab hold of the next groove, his hand ended up slipping and his nails—that had already frozen—cracked, Luffy screamed. However, when he did open his mouth to shriek, he ended up accidently drop Sanji who fell lifelessly.

Luffy looked down, horrified that he had dropped him.

"SAANNJJII!" he screamed at the top of his lungs and he stretched his tail down like a snake and hooked on Sanji's coat, causing Sanji to bounce up and down a few times like a yo-yo.

"That was… a close one," Luffy muttered as he carefully brought Sanji back up before he kept going, blood now rushing down his arm from his injured hand.

It only became even more painful to watch as Luffy's visible bright red skin slowly started to turn red to blue to a very sick looking purple. Luffy stopped, his chest breathing hard through gritted teeth, trying to get as much air as he could before he kept going. His hands were now starting to go to a very pale color, though it was hard to tell with all the warm blood that froze on his arms and shaking limbs. Luffy continued to heave himself up several feet, but the rock he grabbed onto broke and he slide down the mountain.

Luffy dug his hands and feet into the mountain, the already sensitive skin was being torn to shreds and left four long trails of blood on the mountains. Luffy slowed down and eventually stopped. He was shaking as he hung onto the side of the stone, biting down on Sanji's coat as he seemed to be fighting the urge to scream again, his unshed tears freezing like icicles on his face. He must've slid down a good forty or fifty feet, yet he began again, still climbing up as if nothing happened once he got his bearings. No matter how cold it was, no matter how much pain he was in, he wasn't not giving up. He would not let go…

It could've been hours or even days before the top of the mountain finally came into their sights. These last few feet were clearly the most painful for him and he slowed down considerably, now struggling to move. He was either so cold that he couldn't move his limbs properly, or was in so much pain that it was too much for him to do so—most likely both. But he kept going, using what was left of his inner strength to climb…

His eyes were glassy and dazed by this point and it seemed as if he was fighting hard to stay awake. Finally, Luffy's hand reached the top… his whole body was shaking so badly that it was a wonder that he was able to hold onto anything as he heaved his sick body up and over.

Only when he was up did he open his mouth and let Sanji fall into the soft snow beneath them as he slowly looked up and stared in front of him. They looked up and there was a beautiful castle that shone in the light and seemed to twinkle as if it was made of ice itself.

Luffy finally spoke. His voice was so hoarse that it almost didn't sound like his, "We're here…" but even as he said it, everything around them seemed to blur and fade until he fell face-forward in the snow, blacking out. His body went back to his human state in his exhaustion and the cold hit him 10-fold.

He could vaguely recall hearing the sounds of snow crunching around them as the memory faded and they were back in the warm night air… But he vaguely saw two figures. One was carefully turning Sanji over and opening his coat so that he could get a look at his chest, which was bruised and bleeding.

The other figure was an elderly woman. Despite her aged face and thick sunglasses, from the neck down, her body appeared to be very young and she was dressed in a flowered-print shirt that showed off her middle and her navel ring as well as a purple hipster pants. Luffy could only watch as she lay aside her bottle of alcohol as she examined the three of them.

She spoke, her voice sounding age but also a hint of a witch's cackle was there, "He climbed this mountain with his bare hands? That's almost three miles of sheer rock to go up!"

Luffy was shivering on the ground as she looked down at him and added, "His entire body is on the brink of Frostbite. What was he thinking dressing like that for such a climb? Draw some hot water and throw him into it."

The other figure, who curiously looked like a small bipedal reindeer with a large pink top hat, continued to look at Sanji's injuries and declared, "This guy's bleeding a whole lot. He's got six broke ribs, and a spinal fissure. Can I operate on him, Doctorine?"

The woman, who could only be Dr. Kureha, gently lifted Nami up to get a good look at her. When she frowned, they could tell that Nami was in serious trouble. It was confirmed as she said, "Apparently the most critical of our three patients is this girl. This one's dying."

Dr. Kureha turned to the other and started listing a list of things to get for her. He looked back up at her and asked, "She has an infection?"

"Yes," she confirmed, looking back at Nami and finishing, "and the infection isn't from anywhere on this island."

Suddenly, Luffy's bloody hand shot out and grab hold of Dr. Kureha's arm.

The two looked at him in surprise, clearly having thought that he was out. Luffy slowly turned his face towards them, trying to form words, but his teeth were chattering together so much that it only came out a short pants and garbled words.

But Dr. Kureha seemed to understand as she said in a slightly gentle tone, "Don't worry, boy. I'll make the bleeding boy and the sick girl better… you can rest easy alright?"

Luffy still seemed to want to say something as he continued a choking sound.

His vision grew darker with every second, but Luffy took one last deep breath and finally forced himself to say something, so cold that he stuttered.

"Those t-two are m-my f-friends ok?"

Dr. Kureha observed him as a smile pulled at her withered mouth. "I figured that kid, I'll save them so don't worry," she said before she turned towards the other figure. "Chopper! Let's begin treatment!"

That was when Luffy seemed to be at peace with the thought that they were in good hands, and he let his hand fall, he was out before it even hit the ground. When he awoke, he was in a room filled with a mixture of objects and books—judging from the stone walls, they guessed that they were inside the castle. There were two beds and both Luffy and Sanji were sleeping in them, both of them were covered in bandages. Most of Luffy's body, as well as Sanji's chest, were both heavily wrapped up as the reindeer, named Chopper, lay a bowl of bloodstained wrappings on a small table next to Luffy's bed before he looked over at him. He cautiously approached the bed, as if getting ready to back away should something happen.

He was looking over Luffy with a critical eye—but not as if he was trying to detect the source of a medical problem… but as if he was trying to figure something else.

Just then, Luffy's eyes opened and the fuzzy room slowly started to clear and Luffy croaked out, "Hungry… So hungry…"

He turned his glassy eyes next to him to see Chopper there. "Need meat," Luffy said in a groan and drool was starting to form from his mouth, his teeth taking on a fang-like quality.

Chopper backed away from him, knocking a tray of tools to the floor before he backed into Sanji's bed. That was when Sanji began to speak, almost as if he was in the middle of a dream… "Venison stew should be shimmered in a large pot for three hours until all the meat because tender." Chopper slowly looked over and Sanji was finally waking up, a vindictive smile curling on his lips as the little reindeer backed away, shaking with fear.

Luffy sat up in bed, his eyes never leaving Chopper as he croaked, "Meat…"

Sanji then grabbed Chopper's arm.

"Venison…" he declared as Chopper screamed and backed even farther away as drool was cascading down Luffy's mouth and he finally screamed out loudly as the two jumped from their beds and threw themselves at him.

"SOMEBODY HELP ME!" he screamed at the top of his lungs as he bolted, Luffy and Sanji were on each side of him like a couple of kids fighting over a toy.

Luffy shouted for Chopper to stop running as he tried to chew down on Chopper's arm with Sanji screaming to wait so that he could cook him up first.

They ran around the room, before breaking through the door.

Suddenly they were in the next room with Dr. Kureha and Nami sitting up in a bed, finally awake. Though her eyes were still glazed over and her face was still red, she looked a lot better than she had been before.

Luffy noticed that she was sitting up, and all thoughts of trying to eat Chopper had been driven from his mind at the moment.

Sanji skipped over to Nami's bedside as well. Luffy cried out happily that she looked like she was all better.

"Getting there, thanks," Nami answered, her voice still sounding a little weak, but she gave them both a smile.

"Right!" Sanji decided, clapping one of his arms, "One tasty venison dish for Nami coming right up!"

They then looked behind them to see Chopper was trying to sneak out the door without them noticing. The moment that he felt their eyes on him he froze for a moment before the two screamed out, "COME BACK!"

Naturally, Chopper turned and ran on ahead with the Straw Hats behind him. Onwards they went, Luffy and Sanji were able to catch up to him and were now attempting to stop him, Luffy actually chewing on one of Chopper's antlers. Mentally, Luffy cursed that he lacked the strength to simply become a wolf or another predator and take the strange deer down right then and there, but beggars can't be choosers.

Sanji kept telling Luffy not to eat him until he cooked him up.

But then Chopper finally had enough of fighting them off and grew big by changing his form, which actually looked more like a gorilla crossed with a reindeer, but looked almost human.

The two sure didn't see that coming as he screamed out, "I AM NOT FOOD FOR YOU OK?!"

And he gave them both a hard punch, sending them straight into the floor and things blacked out there as their heads cracked the stone beneath them.

Later, they were back in the room with Nami sleeping in the bed, and the two were finishing up some food as Dr. Kureha watched them. Luffy stood up and slammed his hands on the table as he said loudly, "You should be one of my crew! Please, old lady. We really need to have a doctor on board."

Dr. Kureha raised a single finger up to silence Luffy as she asked, "Luffy? You did tell me that was your name right?"

"Yeah," he said slowly.

"And did you just call me old lady?" she asked, as if making sure she heard her hearing was working correctly.

"Yeah, right," he answered bluntly, "That's what I said, old lady."

With a loud cracking sound, Dr. Kureha kicked him so hard that he went flying across the room and slammed into the wall, leaving deep cracks in it as she yelled out, "IF I WERE YOU I'D BE A LITTLE MORE CAREFUL OF WHAT I SAY!" Dr. Kureha smirked as she leaned back in her chair and said, "I'm still within my youthful one hundred and thirties thank you."

"Geeze, you're a tough old hag," Sanji said and she answered him by slamming him face-first into the wall and he slid painfully down it.

"Are you boys really asking me to become a pirate?" Dr. Kureha said. "That would be an incredible waste of my precious time. Besides, I have no interest in life on the sea."

Luffy dragged himself back to the table and when he got back up on his feet, they could see blood dripping down from his nose and from between some teeth. "Those are all lame excuses, it's about adventure old woman!"

"Well, this one's a slow learner," she said, "Didn't I just tell you to watch what you say?"

It was then that Chopper was noticed standing in the doorway—and as soon as they saw him Sanji and Luffy's jaws dropped hungrily as Chopper's fell open in fear—literally hitting the floor. Soon they were chasing him around the castle again with Chopper screaming the whole way.

However, as the two kept chasing Chopper, Dr. Kureha eventually put an end to it when she showed up with a pair of swords and charged at them. They completely forgotten about being hungry as they screamed and ran from her.

"SCARY HAG!" they screamed. Chopper was out in front as the duo ran right behind him as Kureha gave chase.

This went on for a while, but the two eventually lost Kureha in the chase, but then the two were standing in a large room, most likely like the entrance hall of the castle. It was covered with snow everywhere, icicles were handing from the roof, even the doorknobs on all the doors were frozen shut as the wind was blowing so hard that you would swear that you were outside.

Sanji also asked why the castle was freezing. Luffy looked at him blankly for a few seconds, as if trying to process what he said before he hugged his shivering body, saying that he was freezing.

"Not the sharpest knife in the drawer are ya Luffy?" Sanji demanded as they came to the railing to get a good look at the whole place.

But before they could really get to observe everything, Dr. Kureha appeared once again. She swung from out of nowhere with many sorted weapons on her back—everything from swords and knifes to spears and maces. Luffy and Sanji didn't waste any time and ran for their lives as she threw them all at them.

"COME BACK HERE JUST A MOMENT BOYS!" she screamed as they dodged the weapons. An ax almost beheading Luffy as she screamed for them to stop.

"You should rethink this idea of asking the old hag to join our crew!" Sanji screamed at Luffy as more items went flying by, "A real doctor doesn't chase her patients around a freaky snow-filled castle trying to kill them!"

Finally it looked like they had been able to shake off the mad doctor as they headed to a large wooden doorway that was left wide open.

Sanji pointed out the door to Luffy and they went over to it, both of them hugging their bodies as they tried to keep warm and headed over to shut it.

"Hey!" called a familiar voice from overhead them and they looked up to see Chopper standing on the balcony on the floor above them. "Stop it! Don't touch that door! Get away!"

Sanji and Luffy both looked up at him in surprise.

"Never mind him, let's close it," Sanji told Luffy and they moved back to the door. "Or we're gonna to freeze to death."

"That's a good point," Luffy agreed but that only made the Chopper furious.

"STOP!" he screamed out. "Didn't you hear what I said!?" And when he shifted into his human/gorilla/reindeer/thing form, he ripped off part of the railing as he screamed out, "GET BACK!"

Luffy freaked out and had to jump back to avoid getting hit with shrapnel. "What is with this guy!?" he screamed out in shock. "What's the heck is he so angry about!?"

Chopper panted angrily at them, practically acting like an angry bull as he glared down at them. Suddenly, Sanji told Luffy to come over as he stared up at the door. Luffy looked up to see what Sanji was looking at and they saw a nest of baby birds chirping loudly on the top of the door.

Sanji said to Luffy, "It's a bunch of baby Snowbirds. See? If we closed the door, they'd fall."

"So, that's the reason they're leaving it open," Luffy said in wonder. They stood there for a moment staring at the nest happily before they remembered that it was cold and went running back in to get out of the wind. While they had been distracted by the birds, they hadn't noticed that Chopper had already left. But then Luffy paused for a moment. "Hold up a sec," he said quietly.

"Yeah?" Sanji asked from behind him and making him jump.

"That weird reindeer guy, wasn't he speaking earlier?" Luffy asked him slowly as Sanji's eyes widen at that as he realized that he was right.

"Now that you mentioned it, I remember seeing him walking on two legs too," the cook said. They stood there frozen for a moment before they screamed out, "HE'S A MONSTER!"

After a second, Sanji realized the irony the direction this conversation was going and whacked his captain over the head with a kick. "Idiot, like you're in any position to call someone else a monster! You freaky walking zoo!" he admonished Luffy.

Rubbing the lump on his head, Luffy seemed to ponder this for a moment before bopping a fist into his other hand and saying, "Hmm, you're right!" he then gained a wide smile with his mind still on Chopper. "What a cool guy! I bet he's really interesting!" Luffy suddenly screamed out eagerly "Hey wait! I know! He should join us!"

This leads to Luffy looking around the castle, clearly looking for Chopper and when he went bursting through random rooms, calling out for the 'monster'. He kept grinning the whole time until he finally found him after about five minutes of searching. Chopper, who had been looking through a microscope, was startled so much that he accidently sent some of the equipment flying off. Panicking, him jumped up and caught them all. In the end he was forced to stand on one leg, while his arms, leg, and even his antlers were balancing the test tubes and bottles—it was such a way that one wrong move would cause him to fall and everything would break.

"Whoa! Amazing!" Luffy said impressed. "You are cool monster!" Suddenly a wicked grin came over his face as he came forward, "But what happens when I do this?"

And he did an evil thing by starting to tickle him.

Chopper almost fell as he yelled at Luffy to stop it, but Luffy kept tickling him as the reindeer fought hard to keep himself from laughing. Luffy had no such problems and was laughing loudly, tears in his eyes, "That's funny!"

That seemed to make Chopper angry as he yelled out, "Shut up! Get outta here!"

But Luffy grinned as he came almost face to face with him. "Come on! Let's you and me be friends! Please? I really, really, really do like you, you know?"

Chopper's limbs were shaking worse than ever as he stared at him. His expression holding nothing but shock as he croaked out, "You… like me?"

Luffy nodded to what Chopper said and added, "You'd make a great pirate."

Chopper put most of the equipment down and backed away from him, holding onto a vial full of purple liquid. "Did you slip and hit your head on the ice or something?" he demanded hotly, "I don't want to be a pirate or your friend, see?"

Luffy came forward, telling him that he had to become his friend and that his crew would love him.

Chopper just turned and ran. "HEY! WAIT!" Luffy yelled as he gave chase.

"Why would I wanna be friends with you?! Are you making fun of me?!" Chopper yelled back, almost childishly as he ran down some stairs, slipping and bouncing down the rest of the way. He was forced to catch the vial with his feet as Luffy laughed when he saw how he landed on his head.

"I think you're the funniest guy I know! Oh yeah, we're gonna be great friends!" Luffy decided firmly as Chopper put the vial down.

However, the reindeer was able to escape which led to some sort of storage with Luffy still calling out for the reindeer to come out. But he was distracted when he saw the plate of food there and he would naturally put his search on hold until he ate. "I love being a pirate!" he said happily to himself as he swallowed the apples.

Chopper stuck his antlered head out from behind a large crate as he watched Luffy swallow the entire plate of food.

"Hey?" he said called cautiously, looking ready to run at first notice, "Y-you're really a pirate?"

Luffy looked back to him. "Well, yeah, of course I am," he said before he swallowed and went on about all the awesome things that pirates did and he definitely got Chopper's interest. As he started talking about adventures and everything they went through, Chopper was like a child being told an amazing bedtime story.

And when he was done, Luffy asked, "So will ya join us?"

Chopper was looking deeply tempted by the offer but seemed to snap out of it as he looked over his shoulder. "Ah… sure…" he said carefully, "But first… why don't you come this way first?"

"Really?!" Luffy asked eagerly. "What?"

Chopper led Luffy to a random room with bars on a little window and locked the door behind him.

"HEY!" Luffy yelled, shaking the bars, "WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA!?"

"Now you can't pester me!" Chopper declared as Luffy glared down at him with a heavy frown.

"I just want you to join us!" he pouted like a little kid who had been told to go to his room for being bad.

"That's exactly what I mean by pestering!" Chopper yelled and Luffy began to whine for him to keep joining. "Shut up! Now you stay right there!" he finally called, holding up the key for Luffy to see. "You were injured too you know! So just settle down!" As he turned, he didn't notice Luffy stretching his hand, now in the form of a sloth's paw, out to grab the key.

As Chopper walked away, he noticed that the key was gone and his face turned a little blue as Luffy opened the door, a grin there as he held up it up.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Chopper yelled out as he ran once again and Luffy was right after him, telling him to come back.

Luffy continued running, calling for him to stop running, and to everyone's surprised, Chopper did stop so that Luffy slid and crashed into the wall. But Chopper didn't notice pay any attention to that as he stood there, shaking and his eyes wide. "That scent…" he said, anger in his face.

Luffy looked up from the hole he made in the wall and Chopper only said one word. "Wapol."

With that, Chopper bolted once more but with much more urgency than earlier. In fact, he was so fast that Luffy couldn't even keep up with him while in his human form. Luffy sighed at losing sight of the cool monster again before his face lite up as his head took on the form of a bloodhound. Sniffing the frigid air, Luffy easily caught Chopper's scent and went running after it.

Soon he was standing outside the castle—Chopper and Doctorine were facing down Wapol and his two flunkies on either side of him and even that strange hippo that Wapol rode on was right behind them.

"This castle is no longer yours Wapol! It saw enough corrupting and misery during your reign! Leave!" Doctorine yelled, not showing the slightest bit of fear as she stared him down, "Not just here! The country too! Drum Kingdom has already died out moron!"

"Wait!" yelled a voice behind them and looked back to see that Luffy had come running out of the front doors, his eyes burning fiercely. "This guy is mine!"

Luffy ran past them all, straight at Wapol, who looked stunned at his appearance before Luffy slammed his fist right into his face, sending him flying. Everyone was gapping at him, even Doctorine and Chopper, their jaws wide open. However Wapol's flunkies had grabbed hold of Wapol's feet and were holding onto him as he dangled from the edge.

"I'm really sick of you guys you know that?" Luffy said angrily as the wind continued to blow around them all. "What's your problem? You were getting in our way before we even got to this island! The last time I ran into you guys I couldn't fight cause I had to protect my friends," Luffy continued, his eyes shadowed over again before he looked up, grinning wildly, "But now… you guys are soooooo gonna get it!"

"How dare you?!" Kuromarimo cried out in outrage, kneeling on Wapol's side. "Do you know who you attacked? This ain't no lowly commoner! This is Wapol! The king and absolute ruler of Drum Kingdom!"

"That's right!" Chess yelled, also sounding outraged, "Show some respect! He's this country's monarch! How dare you do such a thing to his most excellent of excellences? For shame!"

"Who cares? He ticked me off again!" Luffy yelled, pulling his cheeks out and sticking his tongue out at them.

Dr. Kureha asked if Luffy had run into Wapol before, though it sounded like she already knew the answer.

"I sure have!" Luffy yelled, looking at her, "He's that annoying big mouth pirate!"

"What'd he do?" she asked, and he went into a rant about how he attacked him and his friends as well as ate part of their ship. He was yelling, stamping his feet in the snow and declared that he was going to take him out. But before he did, Sanji asked if he was cold without a coat. Luffy blinked as if he just realized something.

"Hey!" Luffy yelled, looking back at Wapol and yelling out, "Did he say he was a king? But I thought he was a pirate!"

"Took you long enough!" Sanji yelled at him, it was so funny hearing them talk when their enemy was here that they all completely ignored Wapol when Luffy finally said that it was cold out here.

"You really are an idiot," Sanji said in annoyance.

Quickly, Luffy bulked up into his polar bear form, much to the two doctors' shock, but they quickly got over it due to the more serious threat grabbing their attention. The two lackeys suddenly went to strike at Dr. Kureha, but Chopper in his human form went to intercept them. This was a front, however, as Wapol suddenly appeared from behind the two with his mouth open wide.

They all cried out in shock to see that Wapol was now chewing on Chopper like he was a stick of gum.

Sanji scream out, "Luffy, grab my leg from there!"

"Leg?" called Luffy before he smiled, understanding what he wanted him to do. "Sure." He quickly reached out paw and grabbed onto Sanji outstretched leg. "Like this?"

"Yeah, just don't let go!" Sanji yelled as he prepared to swing his leg.

Sanji swung his leg out and sent Luffy flying towards Wapol. Spinning like a torpedo, Luffy hit Metal Mouth right in the stomach, and not only did this cause Wapol to spit Chopper back out, but he was hit so hard that when he flew back and knocked into his hippo it was sent—not just off the mountain—but flying into the sky. It flew farther and farther away until it was a little star in the distance… and was gone.

Chopper was thanking both of them for saving him, praising how amazing they were. Luffy merely nodded as he looked back to Wapol. "Whoa Big Mouth is still alive, but his hippo is heading towards the moon."

Wapol grew furious that they had dared to attack him.

"That's right! I'll show them the Munch Munch Factory!" he declared and Luffy seemed impressed that he got back up to his feet.

"Wow," he even said, "He stood up."

"Yeah, but how?" Sanji asked him, letting him go, and from the look of things decided to deal with Luffy later, "You hit him pretty hard."

"Guess… he's… tough?" Luffy suggested.

Wapol then turned to Chess and demanded that he remind him what he ate today and in the order. Chess pulled out a notebook and recited them all; which included two cannons, some cannonballs and gunpowder along with a cottage.

"And you thought I ate a lot," Luffy said to Sanji.

"You do," Sanji reminded him, "But this guy's a bigger pig than you."

Wapol slowly began to transform. Wapol transformed into a house complete with doors, chimney, and windows included. He also transforms his arms into cannons, and a large door in his stomach.

But then, once he was an overgrown house, he turned and swallowed his two henchmen.

"THAT'S SO MEAN!" Luffy yelled. Wapol moved around awkwardly for a moment, as if doing some kind of dance, with steam coming out of the cannons and chimney on his head. But then the large door on Wapol's stomach opened up and stepped out a new creature. Now, they had been expect to see something like a horrible monster… but instead…

"So lame…" Sanji deadpanned as the two morons seemed to just be piggybacking on each other, with only their outfits merged. Luffy, however, was staring at them with a freaked out expression. "Oh come on!" Sanji groaned, wishing his rock for brains captain would stop getting excited over every little thing.

As Luffy and Sanji stared at it, Doctorine suddenly started speaking, warning them that they shouldn't let their guards down. She explained that it was because of these two the citizens couldn't stand up to them and how the doctors were all exiled.

"Article one of the Drum Kingdom's constitution, those who don't do as the king wishes will be put to death. That's the number one law of this country," Wapol declared, pointing one of his cannon arms at them. He then yelled out that they broke that law and he was going to punish them for their crime. But he added that he was going to get rid of the quack's flag on the top of his castle.

They all looked to the tallest point of the castle and spotted it as well. Though it was hard to tell at this distance, it was a pirate flag with the skull and crossbones. However, what made this one special was that it also had cherry blossoms.

Wapol held up his cannoned arm and fired, "It's time to take that flag down!"

"NO!" Chopper gasped and stared up in horror as they watched, as if in slow motion, the cannonball struck the flag and exploded. As the smoke cleared, the waving flag leaned and started to fall, barely hanging on.

Rage was building up in Chopper as Luffy also stared up at it. "Hey reindeer… that flag…?" he began but he stopped as he looked at past Chopper's expression. A strange understanding seemed to cross Luffy's face as if he suddenly knew what the problem was.

Chopper lost his temper completely as he turned with tears burning in his eyes and he ran at Wapol. "HOW DARE YOU?! YOU ATTACKED DOCTOR'S FLAG YOU CREEP!"

Chopper ducked under 'Chessmarimo's' legs and shifted to his human form, or 'Heavy Point', as he jumped up to grab hold of Wapol by his face.

But what got them all was the fact that he was crying…

"Doctor… tried to… he tried to save even you!" Chopper yelled in tears as he held up his fast, looking ready to attack him but he froze… as if he couldn't bring himself to do so.

Chopper choked out, "I… I won't hurt you if you just… leave this country forever!"

Dr. Kureha started yelling at him, looking both angry and worried as she told him that he couldn't trust a word what he said. But as they argued, Luffy spread his arms out, turned them into wings, and was now rocketing up to the castle to grab hold of the falling flag.

Chopper didn't notice any of this as he turned back to his mentor and stuttered out, "But… Doctor said…"

Wapol's worried face turned into a smug smile and pointed his cannoned arm right in his face before he fired.

"CHOPPER!" Doctorine, yelled out worriedly as Chopper slowly fell back—his eyes rolled into the back of his head, blood falling from his face and his fur burned.

"Hey, Big Mouth!"

That got everyone's attention as they stared up. Luffy was standing on the top of the tower, he had ripped off one of his sleeves and used it to tie the flag back up.

Wapol called up furiously at him.

But Luffy wasn't fazed. "You guys weren't real pirates! You were just fake ones, weren't you!?" he screamed back down at him angrily. "That's why you don't know what flying a pirate flag means! Cause you were just a bunch a fakes who didn't risk your lives!"

"What a pirate flag means, Straw Hat!?" Wapol began to laugh as if Luffy had asked the simplest question in the whole universe. "Don't make me laugh! Flags have no meaning!"

Luffy glared down at Wapol and shouted out, "If you think that, you're dumber than you look!"

"Listen, pirate flags stand for something, Big Mouth," Luffy said, holding onto the pole of the flag as it blew in the strong wind. "There're not raised as some kind of joke!"

"Moron!" Wapol yelled, clearly not caring about anything that he said. "The only joke is that I've let you live as long as I have. Since you dare put that flag back after I knocked it down, it's time I deliver the punch line!" He raised his cannon arm once again and Chopper screamed for Luffy to look out. But even as Wapol fired and sent the cannonball flying at him, Luffy stood his ground and refused to move.

"Do your worse! You can't break this flag!" Luffy proclaimed just before the ball hit and there was an explosion.

Wapol just laughed smugly, grinning cockily as he said, "He was blown to pieces!"

When the smoke cleared, Luffy was still there, holding the flag high, not caring about the fact that he was burned black.

Wapol stopped laughing and the spectators didn't blame him for that.

"I told you, you can't break it!" Luffy yelled as he continued to hold the flag up.

"What? How'd he do that?! That's impossible!" Chessmarimo cried out.

"I have no idea who this pirate flag originally belong to, but it doesn't matter," Luffy declared, still holding the flag as he glared down at them all, ignoring what they said. "A pirate flag is someone's pledge to risk their life! It's not something to laugh at!" Even as they stared up at him, Luffy then screamed out at the top of his lungs, "IT STANDS FOR SOMETHING THAT YOU JERKS WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND IN A MILLION YEARS!"

Wapol and Chessmarimo looked like they were being hit with a wave of power. Luffy's anger was so strong that they could all feel it. Before their eyes, they felt as if the entire animal kingdom was baring down on them.

"It won't break, ever!" Luffy shouted out, glaring fiercely down at them, "Because the skull on it is a symbol of faith!" He then turned to the other group. "Hey, reindeer!" Luffy suddenly shouted down at Chopper. "I'm going to kick these guys' butts for showing your friend's flag disrespect! You in?"

Chopper blinked, startled before he asked, "Me?"

"You idiot!" Wapol yelled, getting his anger back. "You just don't get it, do you!? Alright then! Since you feel so strongly about that flag, I'll destroy you along with it!"

He looked like he was about to fire once again, but Sanji was finally about to step in. "I don't think so, tubby!" he shouted out, but just then there was a loud cracking sound and he screamed in pain, almost falling

"Looks like your backbone gave out," Dr. Kureha informed Sanji from behind just as grabbed hold of his ribs in agony and she added, "You condition will continue to worsen if you keep moving. So, stop!" she screamed as she ran up and kicked him hard in the back, "Doctor's orders!"

Wapol however was laughing at seeing Sanji now screaming in pain as Dr. Kureha dug her heel into his back. "If you two want to fight among yourselves, then please, by all means do so! But I hope you will at least watch your friend and that flag get blown to bits!" He turned his attention back up at Luffy and started dishing out threats by the time that Chopper spoke up, "Stop it!"

"That's the spirit!" Luffy encouraged as slammed the flag back in its place, cheering Chopper on the whole way. Encouraged by that, Chopper went back to trying to attack Wapol, but he was blocked with Chessmarimo jumped in the way and blocked Chopper's attack.

Dr. Kureha watched, still having a foot on Sanji's back, "Would you look at that? That little fur ball has more courage than a full grown man."

"I'm sorry, freak. But there is no way I'll going to let you lay a single paw on our king," they declared together.

Chopper changed back into his usual form as Chessmarimo looked him over. "Wow, there're really are some strange creatures in this world. You must be that yeti the villagers hated and feared. They tried to kill you and chased you away, right?"

Chessmarimo went on to try and mock Chopper. Reminding him that he lived alone and that he was a monster that everyone wanted to kill. But he couldn't understand why he was trying to save this country and that had to be the stupidest thing that they ever heard of.

Luffy watched the scene calmly as if he knew how this would all play out as he got ready to descend.

"Shut up!" Chopper yelled at Chessmarimo. "Even if I don't have friends, I can still fight for something I believe in! And as long as the flag flies, I will!"

"Hey, that's not true!" Luffy's voice called and once again, they all looked up to him just as he jumped off the tower with grasshopper legs and went hurtling down at them, "You do have friends! I'm your friend, reindeer! ME!"

Chopper seemed too stunned to speak, his eyes wide in amazement as Luffy fell towards them. Wapol screamed in fear as he hit the ground and knocked him and his freaky fused henchmen right on their butts.

Chopper screamed in worry for him. But when the snow cleared, he was kneeling in the snow, perfectly unharmed.

"You should be flat as a pancake!" Chopper yelled in a stunned voice.

"Yeah, but I'm not. It'll take more than that to do me in anyway, 'cause I'm an animal man," Luffy explained, still grinning.

Luffy pointing to the fused freak and asking the reindeer if he minded dealing with them.
"That one over there?!" Chopper repeated, glaring at Chessmarimo, "Piece of cake!"

"Good, while you're doing that," Luffy said, looking to Wapol, who had just gotten back to his feet with a loud clunking sound. "I'll deal with this one."

"You dare to knock me, this country's monarch, over?" Wapol demanded hotly as he glared down at Luffy. "You'll pay for that insult!"

"I'm taking you down!" Chopper declared, facing down Chessmarimo, who snapped back, "Is that so? You and what army? Huh you little freak?!"

"Freak?" croaked out a feeble voice and saw that Sanji was trying to get up, but Doctorine was forcing him to stay still. "That's like the pot calling the kettle black."

Doctorine kept stepping on his back and making him scream in agony as she informed him that if he kept moving around, he could lose the ability to walk. "And don't worry," she added, "When push comes to shove, my little reindeer can hold his own."

"Listen up!" Chopper yelled, interrupting the fight. They looked back at him as he glared at Chessmarimo. He took a deep breath and proclaimed with pride in his voice, "My name's Tony Tony Chopper! Not freak! It's a name the world's greatest doctor gave me! He was a wonderful man, and even if he forgave you for disrespecting his flag, I WON'T FORGIVE YOU!"

Luffy smirked at him and Chessmarimo stepped forward, ready to fight. But then Chopper pulled out a small yellow ball that Chopper called a Rumble Ball. Chessmarimo vowed that he was going to protect Wapol, and then engage a fight with Chopper. The reindeer then bit down on a Rumble Ball, and much to Chessmarimo surprise, he achieved more than his regular 3 transformations, and Chopper admitted that he has seven different forms after taking the Rumble Ball. Luffy was so amazed that he started crying.

"Your friend," Doctorine said, noticing the tears and asked, "What's the matter with him?"

"There's just so much happiness of meeting a transforming reindeer that a guy can take," Sanji answered as Wapol appeared behind him, looking ticked off at how he was ignoring him.

After witnessing him evading their attacks with Jump Point, and blocking them with Guard Point, and even destroying their hammers with Arm Point, Chopper used his Brain Point to locate Chessmarimo's weak spot. After identifying his chin as the weak point, Chessmarimo was easily defeated in three minutes.

Sanji noticed a certain lard-butt king was missing as he barked at Luffy where he went. When Luffy realized what he was talking about, he began to look around them wildly as Dr. Kureha said, "Well, since his hippo got knocked away, I doubt that he snuck off very far."

"Yeah, but how? When'd he go?" Luffy demanded.

"Probably while you were drooling over those transformations!" Sanji roared out. As they thought it over, they realized that there could only be one place that Wapol snuck off to. "There's not much up here, just the castle," Sanji before his eyes widen and he shouted out, "AND NAMI'S ALL ALONE IN THERE!"

Luffy went charging off with a loud battle cry, Sanji forced to crawl behind him, threatening to cut Wapol up into pieces and feed him to the sharks if he touched her.

It didn't take them too long to find old metal mouth… but when they did, they were startled at what they saw.

Instead of the fat man they had seen before, he was now thin and slender—it was as if he lost all his weight in just a few minutes.

He had Nami pinned to the floor and he was licking his lips as he opened his big mouth and declared, "Time to gobble you up Straw Hat!"

Luffy's voice almost sang out from behind them as he cried out, "FOUND YOU!" and he kicked out with a donkey's leg, hitting Wapol in the face and sending him flying back and away from Nami.

Nami was breathing hard as he came up to her, now just as confused as the rest of them to how he got so thin so quickly. But as soon as she caught her breath, she gave him a hard bonk on the head.

Nami's face became dangerous as she asked in a forced calm that made his voice die in his throat, "So… do you mind telling what took you so long?"

Luffy gulped nervously as he tried to explain why he let the corrupt monarch get as far as he did. Nami decided to forgive him…so long as he paid interest.

"Hello!" Wapol yelled out, getting their attention. "I'm still here!"

Luffy looked up at him in surprise and said, "Oh, that's right… I still need to kick your butt!"

Wapol was now standing in front of a door he declared was the room to the arsenal and that all he had to do was devour all of the weapons in there and he'd finish them all off. But as soon as he reached for the key, he noticed that it was gone and then he went running off with Luffy right on his heels.

He chased after Wapol again to the upper levels and through the snow-filled castle. The upper levers were even colder than the lower ones, with snow up to their knees as Luffy went hunting around looking for Big Mouth. He finally found him in one of the towers, found with a giant Gatling gun with a hippo head decorating the cannon head that he was about to fire at him.

Convinced that victory was finally his, Wapol pulled the lever, laughing as he did so. He froze, waiting to see what happened, but just as the cannon began to fire up… it suddenly died out, a little of steam snaked out into the cold air just seemed to add insult to injury as Wapol stared at it with a stupefied expression. Even as Wapol pulled the level again and again, nothing happened as Luffy looked on, as if wondering if this was a joke or something. And they noticed why the gun wasn't working right. There was chirping going on inside the cannon's barrels and they spotted another family of Snowbirds there, the mother and her chicks.

Luffy smiled at the little birds before he began laughing at Wapol.

"Stop it, how dare you laugh at me!" Wapol yelled, sounding like a little kid who was being laughed at. Now embarrassed, Wapol resorted to yelling at the birds as they chirped at him. "Shut up! You dare mock me too!? Stupid bird, I'm the King of Drum!"

Wapol opened his mouth to try and eat the mother bird. Thankfully, Luffy stopped him by transforming his lower body into a snake and using the powerful tail muscles to grab his mouth.

"Yeah, so what?" he demanded, still grinning. "It doesn't matter if you're a king, or even if you're a god. It doesn't matter if you're someone who's great, or someone who's not so great." He grinned even wider, "I'm still going to kick your lousy butt."

Wapol just chucked darkly to himself, not caring if his mouth was being restrained as he said, "It does matter, Straw Hat! Drum Kingdom is a member of the World Government. Don't you know what that means? It means this is a capital offense because I'm the king!"

Luffy only grinned even further, as he stated, "Like I said, Big Mouth, it doesn't matter. King or no king, I'm taking you down."

Wapol seemed to realize that Luffy wasn't bluffing here as he started to panic, but then he grinned evilly as he asked, "Oh really? Not if I kill take you down first!" He then forced his mouth open, Luffy's tail stretching out to keep Wapol from trying to eat him like on the ship.

"That won't work!" Luffy laughed as Wapol tried to free himself.

"But this will! Munch Munch Tongue Cannon!" Wapol shouted out, and he wasn't kidding around here. His tongue really did turn into an actual cannon and was pointing directly at Luffy's face. Startled, Luffy jumped back just as the blast went off.

"That idiot, he let his guard down!" Wapol laughed loudly, not noticing Luffy had appeared behind him and grabbed hold of his shoulders.

"Well, looks who's talking," Luffy stated as he became a Lapahn and Wapol screamed in terror when he realized that he wasn't dead. Jumping up, Luffy began to spin around rabidly.

"Lapahn Seismic Toss!" Luffy shouted as he sent Wapol crashing right up to the ceiling and through the roof. Jumping out the window so he was outside, Luffy crawling up the tall turret that Wapol was trapped in.

Luffy jumped up, right into Wapol's face and he screamed fearfully when he saw him, tears in his eyes as Luffy said, "I told you not to mess with that flag. Now I'm finally gonna kick your butt!"

Luffy stretched his Lapahn arms out, even as Wapol pleaded for mercy—giving him offers of status and even offering him to be vice-king—Luffy had enough and sent him flying off with his new attack, Laphan Lariat, to the face. He was going…Going…Gone…far off into the distance and out of sight.

After the short but satisfying victory, Luffy, the newly arrived Zoro and Usopp were all standing there, pulling themselves out of the snow. Apparently, Zoro stole a coat from one of Wapol's men and he thought that he was some of his guards and tried to attack them. Luffy began speaking about how impressed he was that they climbed up here, but Vivi, who just came up from some stairs, explained about the rope car before she asked how Nami and Sanji were. Once he reassured them that they were alright, a look of relief came over her face as Zoro asked him what he was doing on the top of the castle.

"Beating the crap outta that king," he answered coolly as Dalton was heaving himself up the stairs and into the cold air. He looked a real mess. He was deathly pale, and blood was dripping from his mouth and as he held onto his chest, they could see more blood seeping through.

"Oh… ok," Zoro said, looking as if he couldn't care less about the answer as Dalton looked up in amazement.

"You mean that person I saw flying through the air…? That was Wapol?" he asked, standing unsteadily on his feet as he came over to gab at him. "You… you beat him?"

"Yep, I sure did," Luffy said proudly as Usopp went on about fighting an imaginary Condor on the way up here.

"And his two henchmen? What happened to them?" Dalton went on.

"Oh, well the reindeer beat them up," Luffy answered back happily and Dalton was looking completely lost here.

"What? Those two… a reindeer?" he stuttered as Usopp's story got old quick.

Luffy changed the subject by calling to his sniper, "Oh, hey! Usopp! I made a new friend! You gotta meet him! Get this! He's a reindeer!"

"Reindeer?" Usopp repeated, clearly not understanding what he was talking about a look of marvel came over Dalton's face. Just then they heard some snow crunching a little bit away and they looked to see Chopper hiding behind some trees as he watched them.

"Blue nose…" whispered a voice and he looked up at Dalton who was staring at him. "You never gave up… did you? You still kept fighting… believing in what this country could become." He then fell to his knees and gasped out, sounding like he was crying. "And now thanks to you… Drum Kingdom can… it can finally be reborn!"

Soon, the other villagers showed up and spotted him hiding, at once they started to freak out and backed away as they looked for their weapons. Dalton tried to stop them, telling them not to shoot as Usopp freaked out and screamed out that he was a yeti… and that someone should shoot him.

Chopper turned and began crying as he ran away. Luffy got angry and hit Usopp over his head. "JERKFACE! HE'S NOT A YETI YOU IDIOT! HE'S MY NEW FRIEND!"

"THAT THING'S YOUR FRIEND?!" he screamed back in shock.

"You guys scared him so bad he ran away!" Luffy yelled as he went running after him, "I'll bring him back so that you can meet him you jerks!" He then yelled out, "Come back reindeer! I wanna introduce you to my friends!"

Later outside the castle but it was night and the snow was falling in thick, heavy flakes and the snow sparkled from the full moon—that was illuminating the Doctor's flag at the top of the castle.

Usopp was busy building a snowman as Zoro watched Luffy walking around, still calling out for Chopper.

"Let's be pirates together!" Luffy continued to shout. "COME BE A PIRATE WITH US OK REINDEER GUY!?"

"Come on, Luffy," Usopp said tiredly, holding the snowman's head in his hands. "Why don't you just give it up? We've been tracking him forever and he still hasn't shown up."

"He's not interested in becoming a pirate," Zoro stated patiently, "You're just gonna have to accept that."

Luffy turned to give them a hard look. "No!" he said stubbornly, "That's not true! I want the reindeer to be a pirate with us!"

"Just because you want something doesn't mean it's gonna happen!" Zoro yelled, losing his patience. Luffy ignored him as he went back to calling for Chopper, and he probably would've kept looking all night if that's what it took.

There was another crunch of snow behind them and they all looked up to see that Chopper had finally come out and he had turned to face them just as Vivi and Nami were dragging Sanji out of the castle—literally dragging him by his legs—he seemed to be out cold.

"Reindeer guy!" Luffy exclaimed happily as Zoro and Usopp both looked up—and this time Usopp didn't panic when he saw Chopper.

"Tony!" Nami exclaimed in surprise when she saw him standing there.

"Hey, you gonna come on our ship and be a pirate with us, kay?!" Luffy asked excitedly and they all knew that even if he said no, he wasn't going to let it go. Chopper had his face down so that they couldn't see him and whispered that he couldn't.

"Sure you can reindeer! It's a whole lotta fun!" Luffy insisted.

"That's not a very good argument!" Usopp yelled at him.

"I can't…" Chopper whispered before he looked up and yelled out, "I'm not a human I'm a reindeer! I have antlers, and hooves, see? I even have a blue nose!" He paused here for breath… it seemed as if he had been wanting to say all this for years.

"Ok… maybe I do want to be a pirate," Chopper cried out, "but… but I can't ever be one of you! I'm not human! I'm a monster! I can't be your friend and I can't become a pirate on your ship, you see?! I'm just here to say… thank you." He looked like he was about to cry as he finished up and looked directly at Luffy, "I appreciate you asking me to join your ship. That was really nice, thank you."

Luffy frowned at him, looking close to a pout as the Straw Hats looked at him.

"I'm going to stay here for now," Chopper said, sounding like he was trying to convince himself that as he looked up with a forced smile, "but… if you wanted to… you can stop by here again."

But Luffy heard enough. "Shut up!" he suddenly shouted, "Let's ggggggggooooooo!" he screamed out, punching the air and his hat being knocked off. And, to the reindeer doctor's amazement, Luffy transformed into a half human, half reindeer that, while bigger than him and lacked the blue nose, was almost identical to Chopper. Suddenly, Chopper saw Luffy's image overlapped by another man who'd found him wounded in the snow all those years ago. In order to show the younger Chopper he meant no harm, he had stripped down naked in the snow to show him that he meant no harm. Now, another human was showing him that it didn't matter to him if he was a human or an animal, and that he wasn't alone. It was here that Chopper couldn't stop the tears as he burst out crying. With that, Tony Tony Chopper became an official member of the Straw Hat Pirates.

Chopper had told his new captain that he was going to say his goodbyes to Dr. Kureha before leaving. Shortly afterwards, the other members of the crew all gathered. The Straw Hats were all standing outside the castle again, only now Chopper was missing and they could hear screams of terror inside the castle.

"What's going on?" Zoro asked, looking back to the castle. "There's a lot of noise going on inside the castle."

"How inconsiderate," Nami stated, "Making all that noise while those two are trying to say goodbye. That's just downright rude."

Suddenly, they heard someone call out to them. Turning towards the castle's entrance, they saw that Chopper was pulling a sleigh behind him and was being chased by Dr. Kureha who was swinging around a heavy spiked ball—and looking like she was trying to kill him with an insane look on her face.

Chopper screamed at them to get in the sleigh and that they were going down the mountain. They jumped in just as Doctorine threw the spike ball, narrowly missing them as they jumped down onto the rope that connected them to the ground and rode on through the night sky, their silhouettes against the bright full moon, making them look as if they were flying.

After the entire crew was now down the mountain, near the shoreline and they could see the Drum Rockies in the far distance, so small that you never guess what a nightmare it was to climb. They were all just starting to get out of the sleigh, Sanji having to lean a little on Usopp's shoulder, just as they could hear the sounds of miniature explosions in the distance.

The booms were coming from the castle and suddenly lights appeared so that they could all gasp.

"Oh, cool…" Luffy said next to them in awe as they all stared at it. There, on the middle mountain, it looked like it had turned into the biggest cherry tree imaginable and pink blossoms fell like snow.

The mountain was enshrouded by cherry blossoms. The entire sky was lit up and millions of petals were falling around them, drifting everywhere and turning the white around them into a brilliant shade of pink. Chopper could only cry in happiness as the crew stared in wonder. Soon they were back on the Merry and sailing away from the island, the cherry blossoms still fluttering everywhere, making the whole thing seem more beautiful than ever. The Straw Hat men were all partying, as Usopp was yelling for Chopper to come join them and Luffy was trying to get him shove the chopsticks up his nose.

Sanji cheering out that, "It's a great moonlit night and cherry blossoms are in the air, how can we not party?"

"They're a handful," Nami whispered to Chopper, who was trying to crawl away from them—already looking like he was second-guessing his choice to come with them, "I hate to tell ya, but your new friends are about as crazy as they come."

"My… friends?" Chopper repeated slowly as she nodded back at him, telling him that he would get used to it. Meanwhile, Vivi was trying to warm Carue up, apparently they found him in the river. And after Chopper spoke to him, it turned out that Zoro was swimming in the river and disappeared, so he jumped in because he thought he was in trouble and he got frozen in it instead. It was then that it was revealed that he could speak to animals as well, no matter what form he was in. Nami praised him for his medical skills and talking to animals, he was pretty talented and he began dancing in happiness.

When Zoro asked what she meant, she explained that Dr. Kureha taught him everything she knew.

"HUH?" the three of them gasped.

"Impossible," Zoro said in a stunned voice all three of them staring at Chopper, "Chopper are you really a doctor?"

"How cool…" Luffy said in shock.

"No way," Usopp gasped.

"Really Luffy, if you didn't know that then what did you think Chopper was when you asked him to join us?" Nami asked irritably.

"I was thinking he was a transforming, reindeer monster, and that he's cool," Luffy answered, folding his arms without a second thought.

"Back-up food," Sanji added and Chopper froze at that before he gasped that he left his medical bag behind with all his tools. But Nami held it up for him, asking if this was it and he stared at it as she explained that it was in the back of sleigh and she asked if he was the one who packed it and got it ready but it was clear that he hadn't.

The party went on, as loud and wild as it always was when they threw a celebration. Zoro and Sanji were fighting and Luffy was cheering them on as Usopp tried to get their attention as Vivi was trying to help Carue who was choking on food… Even Chopper was getting in on it as he put the chopsticks up his nose.

Usopp cheered out, "I propose a toast to our new friend Chopper!"

And soon they all cheered, holding their glasses up high as they sailed into the night.

AN: So, I noticed a common critic from my readers is that I keep this story too close to canon. All I can really say is sorry. When I began writing this, which I stated in the very first chapter, I planned on keeping this story close to canon. There are several reasons for this, the top ones are that while I'm great at coming up with story concepts and ideas, I have trouble writing them out, specifically dialogue among characters and non-action scenes. Second, the main reason I wrote this story wasn't to completely change the plot of One Piece, but to introduce the idea of Luffy having the powers of a Zoan Devil Fruit instead of the usual Paramecia or Logia Fruits. Do you know how many stories had Luffy with Zoan Devil Fruit powers? Not many I can tell you that, and most were either canceled or yaoi (which, no offence, I do not read). Even now there aren't too many stories like this one, but I am pleased that I did help inspire Odin999 to write a Zoan Devil Fruit Luffy story where he has the powers of a Raiju (Please check it out if you get the time, it's really shaping up nicely). So, if you wish to see a Zoan Luffy story that is not too close to canon, I encourage you to try writing one yourselves or see if any of your friends would like a crack at it.

That all being said, I'm also making a bit of a point with how I write this story. Do you know how many stories there are that give Luffy a completely different personality if he has different powers? More than what can be counted, I promise you. They either make him super smart to the level of Steven Hawkings, making him some sort of sadist that kills literally every enemy thrown against him, have him take on multiple girls in a massive harem, or make him so ridiculously overpowered that he curb-stomps his foes without breaking a sweat. Granted, some of these stories can be good when they're well written, but they are done so frequently that it's become the norm of fanfiction! Also, all these things tear apart all of what makes Luffy the lovable captain that we all came to enjoy and become fans of the series for in the first place! One of the points I'm trying to make here is that, just because Luffy has different powers, doesn't mean he's going to be completely different from canon, it doesn't work that way. Of course there will be some changes, and I've subtly added them in my chapters one way or another, but not always to the extremes that are usually depicted.

All of this aside, I am trying to make this as enjoyable for you readers as possible, and I've added change in the form of Luffy's fights as he is even more versatile than his canon counterpart. Though these changes will hopefully become more noticeable as he begins to fight the higher level foes (Crocodile, Eneru, CP9, etc.) that can actually cause him to give it all he's got. So far, all the villains haven't been much better than cannon fodder levels but have given Luffy a slightly harder time by outwitting Luffy for the most part. In the meantime, please continue to Read, Review, and Enjoy!