Second chapter of the day, enjoy.
The Going Merry approached the island, the group finding a frozen waterfall that actually could serve as a good port. However...just as they were pulling in, they were met with a 'welcoming committee'.
"Stop right there Pirates!" somebody in the welcoming committee said… as quite a few dozen guns were aimed at them.
"Woah boy… that's a lot." Lumen muttered, not moving at all, knowing they'd probably shoot him if he did.
"You will turn around, and leave here at once." said a tall man that stepped forward, wearing a green coat.
"Sure we'll do that...right after we go see a doctor, seeing as our friend is sick and needs medical attention," Lumen said...though unsurprisingly they all thought it was a ruse.
"Yeesh, talk about bad first impressions," Sanji frowned, but it seemed someone was trigger happy and took a shot while yelling at him to shut up, the bullet narrowly missing his foot. Needless to say, Sanji was going to retaliate...but Vivi stopped him, just in time for the tigger happy idiot to fire again, and catch her in the arm.
THAT was a trigger, as Luffy flew into a rage, but before he could lash out, Vivi once again stopped him, and in a feat once thought impossible...she actually talked reason into him, stopping him from further antagonizing the soldiers.
"...miracles DO happen…" Lumen couldn't help but say. The feeling grew when the pleas were enough that the leader was willing to let them in...with escorts of course. However...there was a slight snag.
"If you're looking for a Doctor, there's only one Doctor left, and she's a witch," the man said with a frown.
That confused everyone, but they figured he would explain more once they were warm, as the group followed the man into a village shortly after, with Lumen carefully carrying Nami on his back.
"At the moment, this country is without a name." the man, who had named himself as Dalton earlier, said.
"I assume this is because the king ran out six months ago?" Vivi asked.
Dalton nodded "He ran because we were attacked by a group of pirates known as the Blackbeard Pirates, and took all the doctors save for Kureha with him."
"Blackbeard…?" Lumen muttered, the name making him think of the historical depiction of the man from his world, flaming beard included.
"GYAGH! HUGE BEAR! PLAY DEAD!" Usopp suddenly shouted in fear before falling face first into the snow as a large bear was walking by with a walking stick in hand.
"It's just a Hiking Bear." Dalton reassured everyone "It poses no danger as long as you remember hiking manners." he said, before bowing his head towards the bear, the others all doing the same, the bear returning the bow. The rest of the trek was much less eventful, though they hoped leaving Zoro behind with Carue wasn't going to end up being a stupid idea. Eventually the group reached a town named 'Big Horn', with Dalton telling them to come to his house for the time being, even if the people clearly didn't trust them.
"There aren't any soldiers here or any proper protectors?" Lumen blinked.
"Not at the moment no," Dalton sighed "Our former king took all soldiers with him after Blackbeard's attack. He left the country defenseless while he ran like a coward, both he and his brother."
"Sheeesh. Talk about a useless king," Lumen snorted, a sentiment Darlton clearly fully agreed to. As they approached his home, he looked at Vivi again and frowned a bit.
"Pardon me, but may I ask something?" he started.
"Hm?" Vivi blinked.
"Have we met before? I feel like I've seen your face somewhere," he asked.
"Ah...no I don't believe so," Vivi said quickly. "You must be mistaking me for someone else. Anyway, could you tell us more about that 'witch'?"
"Right, let's just make sure your friend is alright first." he said as they went into his house and put Nami in a bed while he started a fire in the nearby fireplace, and after checking her temperature…
"42 degrees?!" Dalton gasped in shock.
"It's just not stopping… it's been steadily rising these last few days." Lumen frowned in worry as he put a bag of ice on Nami's forehead to try and ease things a bit.
"If it goes any higher, she'll die..." Dalton frowned.
"We have no idea what the cause of her illness is, so we have even less of a clue how to fix it." Vivi explained.
"Look, just tell us where this so called witch is, we have no choice BUT to ask for her help to heal Nami." Sanji said, getting impatient.
"You should be able to see the mountains from the window." Dalton said, seemingly unrelated, but the three turned to look out the window… only to see Luffy and Usopp being idiots and building a huge snowman and an equally large snow lizard, Sanji giving them a dry look before going outside and kicking them both upside the head, knocking down their creations before dragging them back inside.
"Alright, now that those idiots are taken care of…" Lumen sighed.
Dalton nodded with a mildly amused look at how they treated the two, before focusing on what he wanted to say "Those mountains are called the Drum Rockies. You should be barely able to see a castle from here. It used to belong to our former king. But, Dr. Kureha, the last doctor in our country, has taken up residence there."
"What?! That high up?" Lumen asked in surprise.
"Of all the damn places… Well, we better go call her quickly then, it's an emergency." Sanji sighed in annoyance.
"As much as I'd like to do that, there's no way to contact her." Dalton sighed, drawing surprised looks from the others, who asked if she was even a good doctor "There's no denying her skills. Though… she's something of a kook, and nearly 140 years old at that."
"Wow… she's old enough to be someone's great-great-grandma." Lumen blinked.
"But, what do the people here do when their ill or injured?" Vivi asked in worry.
"She just comes down the mountain whenever she feels like it, finding people to treat, and then stealing valuables from them." Dalton explained with a tired sigh.
"Man, that mean old hag is almost like a pirate." Usopp muttered.
"How does she get down from the mountain though?" Luffy asked with a confused look "I don't see any stairs from here." he asked, looking out the window at the mountain.
"Well, I don't know this for sure, but people have claimed she comes down riding a sleigh pulled by a reindeer." Dalton answered… and was met with incredulous looks.
"Jeez, that's Santa's schtick, not hers." Lumen muttered.
"Then there are also reports of seeing her in the company of a most bizarre creature, other than the reindeer of course…" Darlton mused...to which Usopp began panicking, saying they shouldn't have come here, and that...well...that was as far as he went as Lumen promptly duct taped his mouth in annoyance.
"We're already here and we're here to save our friend, so again, grow a pair," Lumen said dryly.
"At any rate, even if she IS the only Doctor left, she's really the type I'd rather not associate with," Darlton sighed. "I'm afraid your only option is to wait for her to come down."
"Well that's not going to work," Sanji frowned. "There has to be a way for us to get her to come down."
Any further conversation was cut short...when Luffy was slapping Nami lightly to try and wake her.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" the others roared at their idiot captain (including Usopp after he got the tape off). Luffy soon answered their question...by telling Nami that since the Doctor was up the mountain they'd have to climb.
"Are you crazy?! What the hell are you trying to put Nami through?!" Sanji roared.
"Don't worry, I'll be carrying her," Luffy said simply.
"Even so, you're still going to make her condition worse!" Vivi protested.
"What's the big deal? We need to get her to a Doctor, and the only Doctor is up the mountain, so we're gonna climb up there," Luffy said as if it made all the sense in the world…and knowing him it probably did.
"I mean, I understand your reasons, I really do Luffy. But you need to realise that Nami is not a crazy powerful human like you. She's normal." Lumen sighed.
"Well...what do you think we should do?" Luffy asked.
Lumen opened his mouth, same with the others...and they all promptly closed them. "...I hate the fact that we literally can't think of an idea that can have us see the Doctor and not involve Nami dying cause we took too long…" he groaned.
"Even so we can't just bring her up the mountain," Vivi said, but ultimately the decision was taken out of her hands...when Nami mustered the strength and said she'd leave it to Luffy...meaning she was agreeing to the insane...but ultimately only real option they had...plan.
"Alright, fine, but you need to get one thing straight Luffy. If you're carrying Nami, that means you can't jostle her around too much, so in case anything hostile is up there, I'm coming along." Sanji said.
"Same here, I need to make sure you two idiots move fast enough." Lumen added with a sigh. It wasn't long before Nami was secured to Luffy's back with a bundle of blankets to try and keep her warm during the climb. At the same time Lumen was also going through his Medals, no doubt thinking what would be good at any moment.
"Whelp, looks like we're doing this, so the sooner we're done the better," Sanji sighed.
"And remember, if you drop her even once, that's probably it for her," Usopp said, making sure Luffy didn't do anything stupid...and judging by his reaction to 'not even once'...he probably was right to do so.
Along the way Dalton gave them advice regarding a path up...but the problem was it would be a scenic route, and in typical Strawhat fashion, Luffy and Sanji decided to go the faster, but apparently more dangerous route...though to be fair, hearing the worse they had to apparently worry about was a bunch of rabbits...made that hard to take seriously. Of course, when they actually DID meat these rabbits…
"...suddenly I think we SHOULD have taken the scenic route," Lumen groaned, followed by a shout of 'Henshin!' as he scanned the Medals. "TAKA! KAMAKIRI! ZOU!" "Think this is because of that other rabbit you kicked earlier Sanji?"
"Probably." Sanji said, breathing out some smoke from his cigarette "Anyway, Luffy, you absolutely can't fight these guys right now, just dodge them and don't let them hit you no matter what."
"Honestly, we'd be better off aiming to get away than trying to fight," OOO frowned. "But anyway, me and Sanji will try to make an opening, you get through."
"Just make sure Nami gets through this in alive!" Sanji added, before they soon ran into the horde of bunnies...bunnies the size of bears...and who could jump around like normal ones too...seriously, what was WITH the biology in the Grandline?
Between them fighting the Lapins, Luffy was able to find an opening to spring off a few and get higher, Sanji and OOO following after him (OOO switching to Batta to keep up).
Of course, the Lapins were making it clear they meant business since they continued to give chase, and even when they stopped...well… "Son of a bitch! They're trying to start a fucking AVALANCHE!" OOO gasped. "Get behind me quick!" he shouted, while he quickly switched out his medals again. "LION! KAME! ZOU!" once the transformation was done, OOO scanned it again. "SCANNING CHARGE!" OOO quickly held his shields up, while the Zou legs pulsed and the Lion head glowed brightly. "Blazing Bunker!" OOO called out, his legs rooting him to the ground while a large projection of his shields appeared, and were glowing with both light and intense heat that was aimed forward, making the shields look like a pair of suns. The Avalanche soon hit...and there was a massive gout of steam where it made contact with the shields, Sanji and Luffy bracing OOO just in case, but thanks to the Zou legs, he remained perfectly stable.
"Man am I glad you decided to come along right now." Sanji muttered "This would probably have been even more dangerous."
"Why are those freaking rabbits so persistent in trying to kill us though?" Luffy asked while making sure Nami was still secure on his back.
"Beats me, probably has to do with Sanji kicking one of their young though." OOO mused, while Sanji balked a bit at the accusation… before realising he was probably right, as much as he hated admitting it.
The avalanche continued on for a good few minutes after that, before eventually coming to a halt, OOO keeping his shields up for a moment longer still, before he finally pulled them back, letting out a sigh of relief "Glad that's over." he said, walking up the melted down path, Sanji and Luffy right behind him.
"I don't see the rabbits anymore." Luffy said, squinting his eyes to look up the hill where the Lapins had been bouncing to cause the avalanche.
"Maybe they finally decided to give up the chase, thinking we're dead… that or they got caught up in it too." Sanji said with a sigh "Either way, we're past the worse of it now."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." came a voice from within the trees, one familiar to Luffy… followed by a yellow carpet being rolled out and someone walking along it. It was a lanky looking man dressed in a three piece suit. The shirt underneath was a bright yellow, with the vest being black and left open, with the sides of the vest being decorated with yellow designs that looked like lions. The pants were mainly black, but with a generous helping of yellow in the mix, his hands not visible as they were shoved into his pockets. The man had a rather stone faced expression, but it also had a strong hint of smugness added to it, something added by his wild black hair that had several blonde streaks in it while his eyes were yellow. "Well now, it's been a while, hasn't it, Straw Hat?" the man smirked.
"Kuro?!" Luffy said in surprise, remembering the man that had tried to kill Usopp's friend back when they were still in East Blue, and had openly mocked Usopp's dream even.
"That's the guy Usopp said was causing trouble in his home?" Sanji muttered, remembering Usopp recounting the tale of how he joined.
"Indeed… or rather… not anymore." Kuro(?) said with a smirk.
While Luffy and Sanji both looked confused, OOO stepped forward, his eyes narrowed behind his mask "Kazari… why do you look like one of Luffy's old enemies?"
The now revealed Kazari laughed "Ah, OOO, how nice to meet the inheritor. Uva said you would recognize me easily."
"Try not to use excessive amounts of your signature color...or the obvious large cat theme, and I MIGHT not recognize your human forms," OOO said. "Not that it matters, if you're here, I can't let you just run free. And on top of that, you're avoiding my question."
Kazari grinned "Ah, you see, I have Uva and Mezool to thank for this new body of mine. They found the perfect new host for me, and all it took was for my consciousness medal to be put in his body along with as many cells as they could manage… and I returned." The Greeed did a mock bow "More than a thousand years later, and I finally have a body again. I'm grateful to them for doing this for me, so I decided I won't be double crossing them… especially when YOU have three of my medals." he finished with a hard look.
OOO glared under his helmet. "Guys, you two go on ahead first," he said. "I'll deal with Kazari here and now."
"Are you sure? You had a hard time with the last guy, didn't you?" Sanji asked. "Besides, knowing you you're going to need someone to carry you," he added. "Luffy, you go ahead. Make sure Nami gets to the Doctor in one piece. We'll catch up."
Luffy looked like he wanted to argue, but Usopp's words came back to him "Alright, but I want you two right behind me! Captain's Orders!" he said, before running towards the mountain, Kazari glancing at him before looking back at OOO.
"Awful confident, aren't we?" he smirked.
"Nothing to do with it. If we tried running you'd just follow," OOO frowned. "So if you want the medals…" he started pulling out the Tora and Cheetah medals. "Come and get them," he said, before he placed them into the Driver and scanned. "LION! TORA! CHEETAH! LA-TAH LA-TAH, LA-TORA~~TAR!"
(Play 'Ride on Right Time')
OOO let out a roar as the energy surged through him and was released in a wave of heat and light, Sanji stepping back when the wave hit, and even Luffy couldn't help but look back for a moment when he felt the wave, considering for a moment, they didn't feel cold at all anymore.
"So you intend to take me using my full powers?" Kazari frowned. "Very well then, just try it!" at that, Cell Medals soon covered him and his form shifted. The result was a being whose legs almost looked like they belonged on a badly bandaged mummy, a black belt around his waist with an empty circle in the middle, his torso sporting what looked like a studded jacket, his hands having clawed gauntlets over them, and his head was feline like in shape, with dreadlocks falling down his shoulders.
"So that's what these things really look like huh? They look like shit." Sanji muttered, trying to get into a stance that would let him move as normally as he could, despite all the snow.
"Don't underestimate him," OOO warned. "Even incomplete he's no pushover. If he gets all 9 of the Yellow Medals...let's just say we wouldn't like that. At all."
"You say that like you think you can stop me," Kazari smirked.
"We'll just have to find out, won't we?" OOO frowned...before they were both moving in a blur, charging forward with fast speed and started exchanging blows with their claws. Despite the snow around them, neither of them seemed bothered as they traded blows and kicks at high speed, the fight becoming almost surreal for Sanji as he watched from a safe distance.
The battle remained a stalemate as both sides scored hits, Cell Medals and sparks flying through the air with each exchange, till one such exchange caused both to stumble back, Kazari holding a wound that 'bled' a few Cell Medals, while OOO noticed some of his armor parts momentarily lost color before regaining it. "Looks like you're reaching your limit," Kazari smirked.
"You're not looking so hot yourself," OOO shot back, before both got into a ready stance...and soon charged forward again, claws at the ready as they impacted against each other, OOO getting slashed in the chest, but not before he plunged his hand into Kazari's chest and grabbed hold of something. The impact was enough that he was sent flying back, his chest armor parts sparking before the Tora Medal was ejected from his Driver, which Kazari saw and quickly caught.
"I'll start with one," Kazari smirked...before he felt something wrong as parts of his armor started to fall off. "What?!"
"Looks like its a Discard and Draw," OOO managed, to say, showing that aside from a handful of Cell Medals, he'd stolen one of the Yellow Medals inside of Kazari too, though when he saw which it was… "...really?" OOO asked dryly, before quickly inserting the Medal he'd just stolen into his Driver to keep his armor active, said Medal being another Tora Medal.
"I feel like I'm the butt of a bad joke," Kazari growled, quickly absorbing the Tora Medal he'd stolen, his armor quickly stabilizing again too. It seemed even after that they were back to square one.
"And I'm about to give the punchline," OOO frowned, pulling out the Medajalibur, and loading up three Cell Medals (from the bunch Kazari so graciously 'donated'), and scanned the sword. "TRIPLE SCANNING CHARGE!" The energy quickly built up, before OOO slashed diagonally, Kazari NARROWLY managing to avoid the energy slash...and when he saw what the attack did, his eyes would have bugged out seeing the MOUNTAIN cut in half, before it realigned itself, while several trees fell over with clean cuts.
"I'll come for my medals another time, OOO. For now, a tactical retreat is in order," Kazari glared, before in a blur, he ran off the mountain and down a nearby slope.
(end song)
OOO glared at where Kazari was, before he felt the tension leave his body, relaxing a bit "Won't be the last time we see him."
"Probably not… still, didn't think an enemy of the crew from before we joined would show up again… outside of Buggy according to what Nami said." Sanji sighed, before looking at OOO "How you holding up?"
"Starting to handle it better, I'm tired, but not as much as the first time I did a Full Combo. Practice is paying off at least, all that exercise on the deck while in Gatakiriba shows that I can make my body get used to it slowly. Though… I think I'm still gonna pass out. Probably won't be as long as the last time at least." OOO said, before undoing his transformation, Lumen staggering before Sanji lent him his shoulder, earning a nod from him "Yeah… fading out… I'll try to… wake up soon…" he trailed off, before completely passing out, Sanji sighed before pulling him onto his back.
"As much as I hate I can't give a piggyback ride to a woman instead of you, you're still a friend, and I won't be a jerk." Sanji said before he started running up towards the mountain, hoping to catch up to Luffy quickly, though he darted into the trees when he heard sounds of battle, being able to spot…
"Wait, that's the idiots who attacked the boat earlier." he realised as he saw Wapol and Musshuru fighting against the Lapins, their two annoying followers out cold "Nevermind them for now though." he said before pushing on.
Eventually they reached the foot of the mountain peaks...and Sanji saw a figure already a quarter of the way up the sheer drop, and he didn't need to think hard who it was. "That crazy bastard is actually doing it," Sanji frowned. "Gotta get up there, but how to do it?"
"I'll climb," Lumen muttered, still sounding a little dazed, but it was clear he was awake again.
"You sure?" Sanji asked as he let Lumen back on his feet, keeping a hand on his fellow blonde's shoulder to keep him steady.
"Yeah, it'll take too long to catch up to him otherwise." Lumen said, taking a moment to center himself, before strapping the Driver back on and choosing his next medals, quickly scanning them "TAKA! KAMAKIRI! BATTA!" and he was donned in the armor once again, turning to Sanji "Climb on, I'll reach him fast even with the extra weight."
Sanji simply nodded before climbing into OOO's back, ignoring the fact this was embarrassing and focusing on the fact they were trying to save Nami, as OOO crouched down and suddenly jumped high, the blades on his wrists flicking out as he stabbed them into the face of the mountain.
"Oh hey, you guys made it!" Luffy grinned when he heard the sound and turned to look.
"Well, you DID order us to follow as soon as we could," OOO chuckled. "Now let's get climbing. I'll warn if anything else is around. Sanji, keep an eye on Nami just in case that bundle gets loose. Be ready to grab."
"You didn't even need to tell me that," Sanji smirked a bit.
"Really wish I'd gotten the Blazing Combo," OOO groaned a while later as they continued to climb. Fortunately they hadn't gotten anything in the way, but the winds buffeting against them wasn't helping. "How's Nami doing?" he asked.
"I think she's still okay, but we're in trouble if we don't get out of this soon," Sanji said with a shiver. The winds were starting to get worse.
"Can you use that thing you did earlier to make it warm again?" Luffy asked.
"Can't! I'm in no position to change Medals, and if I did, we might end up falling if I melt the snow too!" OOO responded, right as Luffy's hand slipped a bit, but Sanji quickly reached out and grabbed hold, stopping him from losing momentum.
"Right, then I guess we need to try to stay warm ourselves." Sanji said, rubbing his hands together a bit when he had the chance.
The climb wasn't easy and it took a while, but eventually the peak was in sight, and with tired and shaking limbs...the group pulled themselves up and onto flat ground, seeing the castle standing before them. "We...did it…" Luffy gasped, even his seemingly endless energy used up for the climb, while he placed Nami on the ground before him, while Sanji got off of OOO's back, shivering violently thanks to the extreme cold, but quickly moved to help Luffy and OOO up.
Of course, it seemed the universe wasn't quite done screwing with them, as right before they could fully pull themselves up...the ground broke, and threatened to send Luffy and OOO falling to the unforgiving rocks below...or it would have if a figure didn't run past Sanji and grab hold of them both, and with a sudden pull, got them back on solid ground, Lumen pretty much passing out when he landed so much so OOO's armor vanished from his body. Luffy was barely conscious and Sanji was looking in surprise.
Lumen groaned as he cracked his eyes open slowly "What…? What happened?" he asked, feeling that his body was under a blanket.
"Hey." he heard Sanji's voice say, making him turn to see the cook sitting on a nearby chair "The doctor lady and her assistant brought us inside when you and Luffy passed out. Luffy's still asleep, still recovering, but she said you were pretty much fine, just exhausted."
Lumen nodded, sitting up slowly "What about Nami?"
Sanji let out a sigh, of relief this time "We got her here just in time, apparently she has some old illness that doesn't exist in most of the world, comes from something called a Kestia."
"That's a prehistoric bug." Lumen muttered, recognizing the name from some archaeology books "She must have been bitten by one when we were in Little Garden."
Sanji nodded "Yeah, that's what I said to. Apparently if we had been a day more, Nami would be dead."
Lumen winced at that, but was very glad they had gotten Nami here fast enough.
"Oh, by the way… don't freak out when you see her assistant, he isn't human." Sanji said, Lumen raising an eyebrow.
"Define 'isn't human'," Lumen said dryly. "No offense, but a few of our crew don't exactly fit the bill on being 'human' at times."
Sanji smirked at that, before pointing at the door into the room… where a small, furry creature was standing, his hands and feet were hooves, he had wine red pants on, and a pink hat with a white X on it, from which reindeer antlers came out… oh, and he had a small blue nose on his face… he was also trying to hide behind the door frame, but doing so the wrong way.
"... Uh… wrong way." Lumen said with a sweatdrop, the creature jumping a bit, before slowly moving himself so he was hiding correctly "... are you Rudolph's cousin or something?"
"Apparently, he's REALLY shy." Sanji said, amused "The doctor said his name is Chopper."
"Oh, well then, nice to meet you Chopper, the name's Lumen." Lumen introduced himself after a moment.
Chopper seemed...more surprised than anything. "A-aren't you afraid of me?" he asked, confused.
"...and why would I be?" Lumen blinked, not even surprised that Chopper could speak.
"Because I'm a monster," Chopper said, to which Lumen gave him a stare that could dry an ocean.
"Chopper, let me be fully honest when I say I have seen a lot and I mean a LOT of 'monsters'...and trust me when I say you don't even REGISTER on the scale. You look more like something my little sister would catch to keep as a pet," he said, snorting at the last bit.
"W-what does that mean?" Chopper asked, confused, but coming out of his hiding spot, letting them see one of his antlers had a piece of metal around the base of it.
"It means you're pretty cute looking, and that you look like she'd want to cuddle you lots." Lumen clarified.
Meanwhile, back in his home world, his sister glanced at her bed, full of Chopper plushies… yeah, her brother knew her well.
"In short, I don't know what whoever called you a monster was on, but unless you're secretly a deranged psycho with a cute face, something I highly doubt since if you were, Sanji would have sent you flying, you are most definitely NOT a monster," Lumen chuckled.
Chopper, in response… did a silly looking dance "Being called cute doesn't make me happy, ya bastard!" he said… with a really happy look on his face.
"Sure it doesn't." Lumen sweat seemed Chopper REALLY couldn't hide his emotions.
Any further conversation was cut short when the door opened...rather loudly...and there was Luffy. "You guys are okay too!" he said with a grin.
"You've never been to a hospital, have you?" Sanji deadpanned.
"Do you really think our Captain is even CAPABLE of getting sick?" Lumen shot back dryly.
"...fair point," Sanji sighed.
Then they heard was sounded like a low growling noise… and turned to see Luffy's stomach visibly rumbling while he was drooling… and looking at Chopper.
"Oh dammit." Sanji sighed, knowing what was coming.
"Hey Chopper? Run, like right now." Lumen said… and Chopper wisely listening as Luffy lunged for him.
Sanji sighed "I'll go stop the idiot." he said, before running after Luffy.
Lumen shook his head with a sigh, before taking the blanket off and seeing he still had his socks on, so he put his shoes back on and got up "I'm sure there's no problem with me walking if I'm not sick… yeah?" he muttered, before shrugging and went off to find Nami. Along the way he caught sight of the comical looking chase on another floor, and couldn't help but hum the Benny Hills theme to himself thinking how fitting it'd be right now. Come to think of it…
"What is with this castle? Its covered in snow," Lumen frowned as true enough, it was covered in snow with several doors frozen over...though he noted several doors were not, so he guessed correctly that they were probably the rooms that saw more use and thus less chances to freeze over. That in mind, he started randomly checking rooms, mostly finding empty ones until he found the room Nami was in. Eventually he found the right room...and noticed Nami wasn't alone. When he saw the person he ASSUMED was Dr. Kureha… "...wow, they weren't kidding," he couldn't help but say as she was pretty ancient by human standards.
"Hmm? What's that kid? You want the secret to how I got this old and still look this good?" Kureha asked with a joking cackle.
"You know, if I didn't have this feeling you'd make me pay more than I can make in a lifetime, I'd probably take you up on that." Lumen told her in deadpan, making the doctor grin.
"Smart boy. Still… I'm pretty sure I didn't say you could leave your room." she said threateningly.
Lumen rose an eyebrow "Well, you told Sanji all I really needed was to rest up a bit. And I assume I was asleep for a few hours. I feel perfectly fine even." he shrugged.
Kureha sighed in annoyance at that "Fine, fine, I'll give you that one, but I want to do a quick checkup to be sure. Lift your shirt up." she said as she grabbed a stethoscope that was hanging on a coat rack.
Lumen blinked before shrugging, lifting his shirt up as she put the stethoscope to his chest "Heartbeat is normal…" she muttered, before pulling it off and Lumen dropped his shirt "Open your mouth." she said, Lumen complying as she looked in, before closing his mouth and turning his head from side to side, and then letting go of him "Alright, fine then, you're the picture of health, but your friend here isn't. She still needs 3 days at least, if not a week."
"That's...problematic…" Lumen frowned. "Is there any way we can speed that up a bit? We're kinda in a hurry...like literally lives depend on it, hurry."
"No can do," Kureha chuckled. "Lives may depend on you hurrying, but your friend's life depends on you not running off like fools."
"...fair point…" Lumen deflated, before thinking of something "What if we had a doctor to look after her while on the ship though?" he asked curiously.
"If you did, then, and only THEN, would I allow it." Kureha said "But don't think of asking me, I'm not wasting my youth on pirating around."
Lumen wisely decided not to press the issue...and resist the urge to question the 'youth' bit. Something told him he'd regret it dearly.
Any further discussions were cut short when Chopper came bursting into the room, with Luffy grabbing hold and Sanji trying to stop him...before they suddenly devolved into an honest to god ball of violence what with SOMEHOW generating enough dust to actually obscure most of what was going on save for a few limbs that stuck out. "...so, what's HIS story?" Lumen asked, referring to Chopper, honestly not sure WHAT he should do right now. Someone could lose a limb if they got in the middle of that…
"He's just a regular blue-nosed reindeer…" Kureha said… before suddenly Chopper grew into a tall and muscular man, his reindeer horns gone from his head and he slugged Luffy in the face, sending him to the floor "... one that ate the Human-Human Fruit."
"...well, he got his money's worth," Lumen chuckled as Chopper soon ran out of the room.
A short while later…
"Give it up Luffy, she told me earlier that she's not interested in being a pirate," Lumen sighed, as currently Luffy was...okay, asking would be too nice a word, he was somewhere between asking and demanding that Kureha join their crew to be their doctor. THEN Luffy made the mistake of calling Kureha 'Granny', earning him a kick to the face which actually sent him into a wall.
Sanji was about to say something, but Lumen quickly stopped him. "Not a word if you want to live," he deadpanned.
Sanji thought about it...and nodded in agreement. "Good idea."
That was when Chopper came back...and the comical chase resumed as once again Luffy proved he thinks with his stomach...oh and Kureha was now chasing him with knives brandished looking ready to gut him.
"...is she a doctor or an insane psycho?" Sanji deadpanned after she was gone.
"Nami's alive isn't she?" Lumen pointed out.
"...fair enough…"
"Still, it's pretty cold in this castle." Nami realised.
"Yeah, there's snow everywhere in the main hall." Lumen said as he closed the door Luffy had left through… and then Chopper came back.
"Is… is he gone?" Chopper asked, looking around warily.
"Yeah, the doc is chasing after him." Sanji chuckled.
Chopper breathed a sigh of relief before he started busying himself in the room "Good, anyway, I just thought I'd inform you." he started, looking at Nami "Doctorine's medicine is highly effective, so you probably feel like your fever is gone. BUT! Your body still hasn't finished fighting off the bacterial infection yet. That's why you need to rest more, as well as get another dose of antibiotics."
Nami smiled a bit "Thanks." she said, confusing Chopper "You're the one who nursed me back to health right? I wanted to thank you for that."
"Sh… shut up! I don't want some praise from a human! Don't mess with me, ya hear!" Chopper said… doing his little dance again.
"He really wears his heart on his sleeve doesn't he?" Nami deadpanned.
After a minute, Chopper had calmed down, and seemed to hesitate about something, before speaking "Say… you guys are pirates, right?"
"That's right. We're sailing on the Grand Line, trying to reach our dreams." Sanji said with a smile.
"R-really?" Chopper asked.
"Really. You can probably see our ship from up here if you use a spyglass." Lumen added.
"I-I see." Chopper nodded.
"Could you perhaps be interested in pirates?" Nami asked knowingly.
The result… was Chopper jumping back and colliding with a shelf full of books, knocking some of them down "No! Of course not! You idiot!"
Nami sighed "Riiight, of course not. My bad." she said, before brightening up "But, even so, would you like to come along with us?"
"WHAT?!" Chopper gasped, backing up...till he bumped against a bookshelf… again.
"...she just meant out to sea with us," Lumen said dryly. "We kinda DO need a doctor as recent events have made glaringly obvious," he added, scratching the back of his head.
"Yeah, we could definitely use a Doctor, especially where we're going," Sanji mused in agreement. "So how about it? Wanna join up?"
"Don't be stupid! I'm a reindeer! I can turn into a weird monster looking thing! I couldn't ever fit in with some humans!" Chopper rebuked.
"...Chopper...that's normal on our crew," Lumen deadpanned. "I mean, our captain can stretch like a giant rubber band, somehow can take punishment without even feeling it, and lives in his own little world sometimes. Our swordsman who'd do basically anything for 'training'...and has a sense of direction so bad he'd probably walk into another world and out without realizing it. Our sniper is a chronic liar who seems to half believe his own lies even if just a big 'maybe' is enough to make him fold. Our navigator over here is quite...dedicated...in securing wealth, and can tell the weather on the level of animals who can literally predict disasters. Our chef here is a failing flirt who can kick holes through walls with ease, and probably cook a buffet doing it too. Then there's me who literally has a bunch of coins that make REAL monsters if used in a certain way and my armor and weapons are basically powered by their corpse pieces seeing as they explode into coins when you beat them," he finished. "So yeah, you're normal by our crew's standards."
"We'll find something wrong with you to riff you on, trust me." Nami shot back at him, though no heat behind her words.
"Be happy I was being polite on you two since you're the saner members along with me." he shot back with a joking snort.
They would have talked more but… "Found you, reindeer!" Luffy all but roared when he opened the door and soon Chopper was running for his life again.
"...think he'll stop being hungry long enough to actually grow a brain if we filled his stomach with rocks?" Lumen deadpanned. This was getting stupid.
"If I weren't a chef and take the utmost pride in being one, I'd almost consider that," Sanji said just as dryly.
"Tch! Fast little bugger isn't he?" Kureha said in annoyance as she entered the room, and took a seat. Note that she didn't seem particularly winded, which was very impressive considering she was over 130 years old AND she'd been chasing Luffy...while throwing knives. "And you're all no better than that friend of yours. Trying to abduct my reindeer while I'm gone are you?"
"I prefer calling it a recruitment run," Lumen snorted.
Kuraha pinched the bridge of her nose, chuckling a bit "Fair, fair. You can take him away if you manage to convince him… but that's no easy feet, I can tell you that much."
"I'm going to take a guess and say its long, and it's sad, and probably will make me want to punch a person or two…" Lumen sighed. He knew the ROUGH backstory of most of the Straw Hats thanks to his sister mentioning them a bit, and he remembered Chopper's was one of the sadder ones.
"You'd be correct there," Kureha said, before telling them Chopper's backstory, of how he was treated like an outcast even by his own parents just because he had a blue nose, then how that got worse to the point they kicked him out after he accidentally ate the Human-Human Fruit. Then how even among humans he was driven away until he met and was befriended by the local quack, Dr. Hiriluk. Then came the happy year Chopper spent with the good quack...until the sad fate that befell their friendship and Dr. Hiriluk. When it was over…
"I want to go reindeer hunting, see if I can make a working sleigh with skeletal ones." Lumen muttered darkly.
"And I feel like kicking even more ass." Sanji added with some heat.
"If I could control weather, I would put a snowstorm on top of the heads of EVERYONE who treated him like that." Nami hissed through grit teeth.
"Well if that's how you feel I'd say you're a step in the right direction," Kureha cackled.
"Wait right there monster, come and join our crew!" Luffy's voice was heard as Chopper ran by, Luffy hot on his trail.
"...you're friend on the other hand...not so much…" Kureha sighed.
"Gimme a second." Lumen muttered, and the Driver shouting "TAKA! TORA! CHEETAH!" was then followed by a beat, before Luffy was thrown onto the floor in the room, with Chopper blinking in confusion as he was under OOO's arm, the transformation undoing itself shortly enough "There we go." he said as he put Chopper down.
"Sorry about the rubberhead. He kinda does as he pleases, and we're the ones who have to keep him straight," Sanji said in annoyance.
"But we were serious about if you wanted to join. We heard about what happened from Dr. Kureha. You didn't deserve to go through that," Nami said.
Chopper didn't know what to say...and his train of thought was cut short when he sniffed the air...and found a familiar scent. "Doctorine, this is bad!" he said in worry. "Wapol! Its Wapol!"
A silence descended on the room before…
"Well...guess we'll get to punch someone and feel good real soon after all," Lumen said darkly.
Count The Medals:
Red: Taka
Green: Kuwagata, Kamakiri, Batta
Yellow: Lion, Tora, Cheetah
Grey: Gorilla, Zou
Blue: Unagi
Orange: Kame
Purple: Tyranno
Betcha nobody expected that for Kazari did you?
But yeah, that's right, he's using Kuro's body now.
We thought it would be an original way of bringing him in, and we hope you like it.