The moment was broken by Luffy, "Hey reindeer!"

"Huh?"

"I'm gonna beat these guys up for showing you friend's flag disrespect, you in?"

Chopper was still a little stunned by the heart-felt speech Luffy had given. He said something, but I couldn't hear what.

"You idiot!" Wapol shouted, "All right then, since you feel so strongly about that flag, I'll destroy you along with that piece of trash!" He, again, aimed his cannon arm right at Luffy.

That's when Sanji shifted in to action, "I don't think so, tubby." He shifted all his weight to one side, then pushed of, gaining speed quickly.

I frowned, there was something... "The boy with no coat and the man with the spinal injury." Spinal injury...? My mind raced, Spinal injury. Then it hit me. Spinal injury! I ran after him, managing to loop my arms around his, bringing him to a sudden stop.

"Wha-?" He glanced back, "Leanah! What are you doing?"

"Sanji, you hurt your back on the way up, remember?" I kept my voice low, trying to emphasize the seriousness, "If you go any farther your back might give out, making you useless."

Sanji bristled up, but then quickly relaxed again, conceding a defeat that only cost him a little pride.

"Thank you..." I whispered, genuinely relieved I'd stopped him before he hurt himself.

He whirled around, "No promblem, Leanah de-" There was a painful sounding crack as Sanji expression changed for love to extreme pain. He crumbled to the ground.

"There goes his back bone..." Doctorine remarked.

I sighed, "You idiot..."

Wapol laughed, "You keep blathering at each other as much as you want, but I'm taking that flag down! Straw Hat, Say your prayers!"

Chopper turned, "STOP IT!" He ran at Wapol as I tried to get Sanji to his feet.

"Go get him, reindeer guy!"

Chopper pulled back his arm, readying to punch Wapol square in the face. "Wapol, sir! Look out!" Chassmarimo blocked the punch using all four hands.

"Hehehe! Would ya look at that!" Doctorine said, "The little fur ball's got more courage than a full grown man."

"It looks that way." I dragged Sanji back to the castle entrance.

Chopper jumped back from Chessmarimo, They laughed, "Wahaha! I'm sorry freak, but there's no way I'm going to let you lay a single paw on our king." Chopper stiffened, then changed forms again, back to his half form. "Wow, there really are some strange creatures in this world. You must be that yeti the villagers were terrified of. They hated you,. And even tried to kill you. You're a monster with no friends." Chessmarimo pointed at Chopper, "No body likes you, they all want you dead, and yet here you are trying to save this country! That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

"Shut up!" Chopper shouted, "Even though I don't have any friends, I can still fight for something I believe in! And as long as the flag flies, I will!"

"Hey!" Luffy and I shouted in unison, "That's not true!"

Chopper turned to us, and I looked up at Luffy. I couldn't see him, but I assumed he was coming down.

"You do have friends, reindeer! I'm your friend! ME!" And then I saw him, rocketing towards the ground, he was going to make impact, and it was going to be big.

I followed his trajectory and he landed in the snow, right in front of Wapol and Chessmarimo, knocking both of them off their feet. "Oh no! Straw Hat!" Chopper shouted.

The snow cloud cleared, and Luffy just laughed.

"You should be flat as a pancake!"

He laughed some more, "Yeah... But I'm fine, because I'm a rubber man!"

"Rubber!?"

Chessmarimo sat up, prompting Luffy to point over to him, "Hey reindeer, can you finish off that two headed guy for me?"

"That one over there?" Chopper asked, staring at them, "Piece of cake."

"Good. While you're doing that, I'll take care of fatso here." Luffy stood up.

"Captain!" I called, still holding Sanji up, "What do you want me to do?"

Luffy just barely turned to me, "Make sure Sanji's okay, and watch our backs, make sure they don't cheat."

I nodded, "That I can do."

Wapol got to his feet clearly angry at Luffy, "You dare knock this country's monarch over?" Luffy stuck his tongue out.

Meanwhile Chopper was staring down Chessmarimo, "I'm takin' you down!"

"Oh yeah?" Chessmarimo sneered, "You an what army? You little freak!"

Sanji managed a tiny laugh as he pushed off of me, "Freak? that's the pot calling the kettle black."

I tightened my grip, "Sanji, your back will only get worse if you continue trying to move!"

"The girl's right, you may end up losing your ability to walk. And don't worry, when push comes to shove, my little reindeer can hold his own."

"Listen up!" Chopper shouted, "My name's Tony Tony Chopper, not freak! It's a name the world's greatest doctor gave me!" I could see he was getting worked up. "Even if he forgave you for disrespecting his flag... I WON'T FORGIVE YOU!"

A moment passed through the air.

Chessmarimo straightened, "No, the only one who will show no forgiveness is me, I'll stomp you."

Chopper reached into his back pocket and pulled something out, holding it between his hooves. "Rumble ball."

"Huh?" Chessmarimo asked. "What's that?"

"The effect of the rumble ball lasts three minutes." Chopper explained, "That's all the time I need to take you down."

"Three minutes?! Haha, you couldn't defeat me in three years let alone three minutes!"

"Just three?" I whispered, smiling to myself while still keeping Sanji restrained. "I'll bet he can do it in two and a half."

"Well, alright." Doctorine said, almost as if taking my bet, "This is looking like an interesting battle."

"Come on, Leanah. Let me get in there and help a little." Sanji complained.

"Shoosh!" I said, watching Chopper closely as he tossed the small yellow ball into the air and ate it.

"Rumble!"

A part of me gushed, Awwww! He's got his own little catchphrase for when he uses it! Too cute!

"You're no match." Chessmarimo said, pulling out two bows, already loaded with flaming arrows, "Not against this... Marimo snow-melting arrow!" He fired the arrows.

Chopper switched forms to his reindeer form and dodged them both.

"Just a transformation, eh? I was expecting something more, but all you have to show are Devil Fruit powers?" Chessmarimo couldn't seem to see it, but I knew there was something bigger going on. "You're a Zoan-type, just like Dalton," I frowned, Dalton was a Zoan-type? "So.. you're a reindeer human, huh?"

"No!" Chopper shouted as he changed forms again, "I'm a human reindeer!"

"Whatever!" Chessmarimo said, "You're still a Zoan-type and I know all about the three form transformations you zoan-types use!" he pulled out four hammers "Marimo's big super surprise big quatro hammah! And speaking of surprises, you've got none left to spring on me! I've seen all your forms now, you're nothing but a power fighter like Dalton, so there's no way you can-"

"-Jumping point, jump boost!" Chopper shouted just as Chessmarimo brought on of the hammers down.

"-get the jump on me!" the hammer smashed into the ground as Chopper launched into the air.

"Whoo-ee..." I whistled watching Chopper continue to go higher.

"Jeeze, that guy can really jump..." Sanji said.

"What the-? I don't get it! What's that form? Wasn't his human-animal form the little reindeer from earlier?!" He was struggling to keep an eye on Chopper while also trying to work out what the hell was going on, "What's going on now!"

"Guard point, fur boost!" Chopper changed again, just in time to be smacked by one of the hammers, but... He was a giant ball of fur.

"Another form?!"

"Whoa! Awesome!"

Chopper's legs emerged from the fur ball, and then it shook and Chopper's head emerged.

"No way! I hit you dead on!"

"It won't work!" Chopper shouted.

"I don't understand! You Zoan types are limited to a three form transformation! What are you?!"

I found Chessmarimo's distress quite funny despite probably how I would feel in the same situation. It was also hard to take Chopper seriously while he looked like a giant fur ball.

"The rumble ball is a special pill that enhances the power of the devil fruit's transformation. Over five long years of research, I discovered four additional transformation points! Do the rest fo the math yourself!"

Eight... wait.. no... Three... plus four... seven? I frowned, attempting to bite my lip in thought, but only being met with that horrid bitter lip stuff. Why am I thinking that he has eight transformations then?

"A- A seven form transformation!? That's impossible, I don't believe it!"

"Well then what are the two other forms apart from the already established three?" I said under my breath.

Luffy looked frozen in shock, I sighed as he went giddy with excitement, "A talking reindeer who can change into seven different forms!" He eventually dropped to his knees, laughing like a mad man.

"Your friend..." Doctorine started, "What's wrong with him?"

"My guess..." I shifted, trying to keep Sanji upright, "He can't handle Chopper being a Talking transforming reindeer."

"Yeah, there's only so much happiness of meeting a talking reindeer a guy can take."

Wapol loomed over the still laughing Luffy, most likely pissed that Luffy forgot about him.

"It has to be a sham!" Chessmarimo shouted as he-they-it... What the hell I'm going with he, launched into action again.

"It's not one!" Chopper said and he too, went back into action.

They ran at each other- well, Chopper more bounced at Chessmarimo, but that's beside the point. "Arm point, arm boost!" All the fur suddenly molded back into a body shape, this time with far more muscular arms than any other form.

Chessmarimo swung one of his hammers up at Chopper, only to have it snapped by Chopper's punch. And the same fate met another one of his hammers.

"Could a sham do that? If you thought that was something, you should see what my iron hooves do against rocks."

Luffy snapped out of his crazed laughter, "Whooooaaaa!"

"Not my hammers! What nerve!" Chessmarimo bristled, then pulled axes out from nowhere. "These will teach you! Marimo super surprise quatro Ax!" He raised the axes in X patterens, "Snow splitting blades!"

He brought them down, causing the snow to reacting in a way that normally shouldn't have been possible. It shot up in an X shape, and went straight for Chopper, making a cutting sound as it went through him and created large cuts in the caste wall. I stared, "That snow must have had enough force to take somebody's arms off!"

"Damn..." Sanji said in awe, "That reindeer can really take a hit."

There was a moment of stillness, Doctorine chuckled slightly.

"Damn!" Chessmarimo swore, "You dodged it." He smiled manically, "Let's see you dodge... this!" He ran at Chopper, axes held high, ready to attack. "Omnidirectional stone splitah!"

Chopper dodged each swing of an ax, changing form as necessary.

"Come on! You can do it!" I bit my cheek, watching this dance of Chessmarimo attacking and Chopper dodging was maddening!

"Ha! You expect to defeat me like that! You're not attacking, you're just dodging!

There had to be some structure to it all, Chopper wasn't just dodging, he was deliberately trying to get farther and farther away from Chessmarimo. He said something, and changed back into his hybrid form. "I wasn't just dodging your swings." He said, staring straight at his opponent, "I was looking for your weak spot."

"Huh?!"

"SCOPE!" He brought his hooves together, and focused.

A moment passed, "A.. A beam!" Luffy said, "He's gonna shoot a beam!"

"No he's not, you idiot!" Sanji shouted.

"Hey!" Luffy stared at him, annoyed, "You shut your mouth! I'm telling you, it's gotta be a beam!"

Sanji glared, "How do you know that, huh, mr. Smart-guy?"

"I just do!"

"Fine! What kind of beam?"

"A ginormous one!"

"BOYS STOP FIGHTING!" I screamed.

"Any thing for you~"

"Sorry..."

Meanwhile, Chessmarimo seemed to snap out of his trance, "Looking for my weak spot, huh? Well I've got some news for you!"

Everyone was watching this go down, but I had a nagging feeling there was something we were forgetting. Something big...

"I don't have one, and your little parlor tricks can't save you now! Soon you're about to find out that you're the one who's going to be finished!" He was right up in Chopper's face now, swinging one of his axes down.

Chopper jumped up, just narrowly dodging it. I tried to follow him with my eyes, but... he just vanished.

"Where'd he go?"

Everyone looked around for him, until the snow just at Chessmarimo's feet broke apart reavealing Chopper in Arm point. He swung his right hoof up, hitting Chessmarimo right in the jaw. Sending him flying.

Chopper went back to his hybrid form and dusted off his hat. "Ah, three minutes."

Luffy let out a grand cheer, "Alright! Wow! You were incredible, reindeer! No! You were more than incredible! No! You were even more than that! You were-"

"Shut up!" Chopper shouted, smiling as wide as possible and red as a beet.

"Hahehaha!" Luffy laughed, this was obviously a little to much for him to remember that there was still Wapol to deal with.

Speaking of...

Where is Wapol? I glanced around, "Ummm..." I frowned, "Sanji..."

"Hm?"

"Isn't someone... missing?"

Sanji looked around as well, "Yeah... Hey Luffy?"

"Yeah?"

"Where's that guy?"

"That guy who?"

"That tin-plated bastard! He's not here!"

"WHA-!?" Luffy began looking around in sheer panic.

"Well..." Doctorine looked down at the ground, "Since his hippo got knocked away I doubt he got very far.."

"Yeah, but how?" Luffy asked, "When'd he go!?"

Sanji bristled, "Probably when you were drooling over those transformations!"

"how sneaky!" Luffy huffed, "I'll find him! Where do you think he ran off too!?"

I sighed, "Well, if I had to guess, I'd assume the castle. It's the only place to go."

"Yeah, Leanah's right... there's just the castle." Then something dawned on Sanji, "Nami's all alone in there!"

Luffy took off, running into the castle, yelling as he did so.

Sanji pushed off of me and ran inside as well, "If he lays a finger on her I'll chop him up and feed him to the sharks!"

"Hold it!"

"Sanji, your back!" I started after him, but Doctorine grabbed my arm.

"If the nincompoop has a death wish, we can't stop him."

I sighed. "I should still go after them. I mea-"

"No, you shouldn't go over-exerting yourself, you're still recovering as well."

"I feel fine, doctorine!" I shook her off my arm, "I haven't hallucinated, I'm getting plenty of water, my hands aren't shaky, and some of my memories are even returning! I'm not sleep deprived!"

She just stared at me.

I sighed, "Fine..."

"Doctorine..." Chopper said softly.

I just barely glanced back at the reindeer, as Doctorine smiled slightly.

He pulled his hat down over his face, "Did you hear what that guy said about me?" He paused, I could guess he was blushing like a maniac. "He called me his friend."

I didn't want to ruin the moment by saying anything.

"Girl." Doctorine addressed me in a quiet voice.

"Yeah." I answered in an equally quiet voice.

"You and your friends seem very close."

I nodded, "Yeah, we're almost like one big messed up family." I reached up to fix my bandana, but it wasn't there. "My bandana..." I pat down my pockets, I knew I put Shanks's one in my pockets. "Where..."

"Looking for this?" Doctorine held out my bandanas. "Heeheeheehee. I took them for safe keeping after you passed out."

I grabbed it from her. "So you know then?"

"Girl, I have no idea what you're talking about." She smiled, and leaned against the castle wall.

There was an explosion from the other tower, like a cannon going off.

We waited a minute in silence.

"Chopper, are you worried about your friend?"

"No, Doctorine... Not a bit." The reindeer answered, I turned to see him better, "Know why? 'Cause he's a pirate."

"And a first-rate pirate, at that." I said, "There's nothing my captain can't handle."

"He's a little odd, though, isn't he?" Doctorine asked.

I nodded, "But... That's his charm. And probably his saving grace, no one can predict his movements."

There was another crash from the roof, and a yell that could only be Wapol's.

"Doctorine..." Chopper said.

"Yep. It seems like it's finally over." She became very reverent. "The long nightmare has reached it's end."

More Screams from Wapol anounced that Luffy was finishing the job.

"GUM-GUM..." I saw his hands stretch, "BAAAAAAAAAAZZZOOOOKKKAAAAA!"

Wapol was sent flying to some far distant land, not that I really cared or care.

I smiled, Luffy had just brought down a whole kingdom, and no one would ever care. "It's over."

Doctorine laughed, "So Drum kingdom ultimately fell to the skull and cross bones, eh?"

I nodded. "Yep."

Something large surfaced from the snow behind us, I turned to look. There was now a door where there hadn't been, and two people were coming out, one man wearing Wapol's colors and the other crouching behind him. I grabbed the hilt of the sword. Ready to attack if need be.

Luffy had the same idea, I guess, "RrrrraaaaaaAAAAAAHHHH!" He came shooting down from the roof towards the two newcomers.

The one not in Wapol's colors let out a shout, "L- LLUUUUFFY!"

The voice registered in my brain. Usopp? Why is he here? Wait, if that's Usopp, then the guy next to him has to be Zoro... isn't he supposed to be guarding Merry with Carue?

Luffy crashed into them, creating a giant snow mound as another person came out of the door.

Blue hair.. "Vivi!" I waved, then ran over to her. "Vivi, is everything OK?"

"Leanah? But- how did?"

Luffy surfaced from his created snow mound, laughing. Usopp and Zoro surfaced after him.

"What the hell was that about, Luffy!?" Zoro shouted.

"I thought you were bad guys!" Our captain was still laughing.

"In the idiot's defense," I said, pointing to Zoro's coat, "You are wearing a coat Wapol's men wear."

Luffy stopped laughing, but was still smiled, "I'm really surprised you guys came up here. Well, not you, Zoro, but you, Usopp. Aren't you normally scared of doing stuff like climbing mountains?"

Usopp laughed, it was a fake one, but a good try, "Yeah right! Where ever there's a mountain that needs climbing, I'll be there to climb it. But let me tell you, it wasn't easy climbing hand over hand until we reached the top!"

"Actually..." Vivi said, stepping forward, "We took a rope way up here." Usopp deflated, and the princess walked up to Luffy, "Nami and Sanji... are they Okay?"

Luffy smiled, "They're both fine!"

I coughed, and whispered to myself "If you don't count Sanji nearly fracturing his spine, and all of them almost succumbing to frostbite..."

Vivi didn't hear me, which was good, I suppose, she didn't need to be worrying about that.

Usopp was just blathering on about how truly brave he was, and that he wasn't a coward.

I sighed, pulling tighter on my coat.

"So..." Zoro said turning to Luffy, "What were you doing on top of the castle?"

"Beating the crap out of the king."

I almost laughed at how nonchalant Luffy was when he said it.

Zoro met the statement wit dull surprise. "Oh. Okay."

Dalton hobbled out of the door way just in time to hear Luffy say that. "You mean that person I saw flying through the air... was actually Wapol?" He was far more surprised. "You beat him?"

"Yeeup, I sure did!"

"And his two henchmen, what happened to them?"

"If you're talking about the tow guys that became Chessmarimo..." I started.

"The reindeer beat them up."

"What?" Dalton asked, utterly confused, "A reindeer? But-"

Luffy rudely interrupted, "Oh hey! Usopp, I made a new friend! You'll love to meet him, get this: He's a reindeer!"

Usopp stopped spinning his tale of a giant condor bird, to look at Luffy, bringing his goggles up. "Hm? A reindeer?"

"A reindeer..." Dalton repeated.

"Tony Tony Chopper to be exact." I said, rubbing my arms. A shuffling sound came form the small grove of trees next to us. We looked, and saw Chopper... I guess he was trying to hide... but he had it backwards.

"It.. It is you!" Dalton said. I now felt awkward and shuffled back next to Zoro. This was a moment for Dalton, and Dalton alone. "Blue nose... you never gave up... you never stopped fighting. Believing in what this county could be one day." The former royal guard fell to his knees and bowed. "And now, thanks to you... Drum kingdom... it can finally be reborn."

This was a very touching moment, having listened to Dalton speak about how Wapol was before, and now a new, better nation can rise from the ashes of Drum kingdom.

A whole slew of poorly armed, obivously not trained soliders came running out from the doorway. They reacted in confusion.

"What is that strange creature behind that tree?"

"It... it almost looks like a reindeer!"

"No! You're wrong! It's a.. a monster!"

Several of them raised their guns and aimed.

"No! Don't shoot him!" Dalton yelled.

Usopp didn't quite get that Chopper was friendly, "AAAAAHHHH IT'S A YETI! SOMEBODY SHOOT IT!"

A few villager's cocked their guns, causing Chopper to run in fear.

"I SWEAR IF ANYONE SHOOTS I WILL PERSONALLY BEHEAD THEM!" I screamed, drawing the sword and moving to block at least some of the potential shots. They got the message

Luffy hit Usopp on the head. "ARG! You idiot! That's not a Yeti, that's our new friend!"

"He's your friend!?"

Luffy huffed, "You guys scared him so bad he ran away!" He started off towards the forest, "I'll bring him back so you can meet him, you jerks!"

And he was met with one angry, "HEY!" from the villagers as he chased after Chopper, again.

Although you couldn't see it, it was pretty clear what was going on from the screams of pure terror and Luffy shouting, "Reindeer! Wait! I want you to come meet my friends! They really want to meet you!"

"No they don't! They want to shoot me!"

"That's just because they don't know you yet! COME BACK!"

I laughed, almost hysterically.

"Are you alright?" Zoro asked.

I looked at him, trying to stifle my laughter. "Me? Uhm... Well... I've gotten about 3 hours of sleep total over the past three days, met a talking transforming reindeer doctor and helped bring down a nation! I'm fine!"

My fellow swordsperson looked at me like I was crazy. And sure as hell I was. "Sure you are."

"Darn skippy I am!" I smiled.

Author's note:

OK. So I meant to have this chapter out by around this time last week, but then FUNimation did that "Can Scott Porter watch 206 Episodes of One Piece by it's air date on the 19th at 1 AM EST" Livestream and... well... there went my week.I'm happy to announce that while this sleep deprivation stunt will hurt Leanah at the moment, there are some unexpected blessings that come with it. Like say... Her getting little bits a pieces of her memory, and even returning to some old habits (No, not... that old habit- you know the one I mean-, She's passed that, and not alcoholism, that is a current habit that will haunt her for the rest of her life).

Gosh that livesteam was fun though. I kind of miss it since it ended Saturday morning *sigh* Oh well, we're moving on to a few of my favorite planned plot points soon! (I will give you three hints: The first has to do with a confession, the second has to do with a certain someone appearing in the next arc, and the third involves one of my favorite marines (not Smoker).)

Oh! When next I post a chapter, my birthday will have passed! I'm a May 22nder, Woot Woot! Well, I'll see you later!

Your ever willing author,
Kari910