Chapter 9

I started screaming before I'd even fully registered what had happened to me. I could barely think straight, it hurt so fucking much. I felt some milk pour onto my damaged skull, mercifully easing my pain. The hole and surrounding cracks mended themselves almost right away. Although I could still feel an ache in my forehead from the gunshot wound, it was at least bearable now. A bullet to the head hurt so much worse since I was still alive to actually feel it.

When I finally came to my senses, I noticed Sanji standing over me with a carton of milk. The rest of my crewmates looking at me with relief while the islanders were staring at me in shock.

'Okay, they're clearly surprised by my recovery. Just play it cool, don't wanna freak them out further,' I thought.

I gave an overexuberant double thumbs-up to everybody and yelled, "I'm okay!"

Epic fail. Dammit!

"You're alright?!" Luffy shouted happily.

I nodded. "Remember how I healed myself last time?"

My captain looked like he was thinking hard for a moment. "Ohh, right."

The islanders were visibly scared, some of their jaws dropping. "He's a monster!"

Before the situation could escalate, I got down on one knee—a gesture which I was pretty sure equated to a bow—and pleaded, "This monster is begging for your help."

With the tension in the air beginning to break, Vivi looked back at our crew. "Guys, please don't forget why we're here. We need a doctor for Nami." With that, she bowed down as well, prompting the rest of the crew to follow her example.

It seemed to be working. The residents of Drum Island exchanged glances for confirmation before Dalton made his decision. "Lower your arms, everyone."

Once his forces had done so, he continued, "Very well, we shall let you on our island. My name is Dalton. I am the mayor of the nearby village, Bighorn. Follow us."

As I was about to hop to shore, Luffy stopped me. "Wait, Declan! You're the ship's guard. You have to stay here."

"Oh, right!"

Skeleton Buddy materialized next to me. "Ready for guard duty, captain," he said rather unenthusiastically, probably because he was just gonna be sitting on the ship this whole arc with nothing to do but watch Mantax.

Suddenly, Luffy got a thoughtful look on his face. "Wait a second. How about instead of Declan coming with us this time, Other Declan comes instead?" he suggested.

Skeleton Buddy and I looked at each other before deciding we shouldn't bother to argue. I had just been shot in the head, after all. Maybe I deserved a little break to recuperate.

So I stayed on the ship with Carue while the rest of the crew hopped onto shore. I sighed and asked the big duck, "Wanna play cards or something?"

As they walked through the forest, Skeleton Buddy decided this would be a good time to make something clear to Luffy. "Hey, captain?"

"Yeah?"

"My name isn't Other Declan, you know. Just call me SB."

"SB?"

"It stands for Skeleton Buddy."

"It does?"

"Yeah. Remember when we first met? Declan and I told you guys then," said SB, hoping he'd made his point. But it was impossible to tell if Luffy would actually remember this time.

Before long, the crew reached the village, Bighorn.

"Alright, let me see if there's anything I can do for your crewmate," the mayor said.

They set Nami down gently on the bed for Dalton to examine her. "Oh, my. I don't know what this is, but you should get her to the doctor immediately."

"Alright, where is he?" Usopp asked.

"She could be anywhere. She goes from town to town as she pleases, treating any patients she finds. And I must warn you, her fees are often… costly."

"Do you have a way to contact this doctor?" Sanji asked Dalton.

He shook his head. "No, we don't have any transponder snails on this island."

"Even if they did, transponder snails don't work in cold weather," Skeleton Buddy added.

Luffy had been thinking for the last few seconds and came to a decision. "Okay, I guess we'll just have to find this doctor ourselves. Where does she spend the most time?"

"That would be the castle at the top of the mountain."

"Then that's where we're taking Nami. Who's with me?" Luffy asked.

"I am," SB said.

Sanji volunteered next. "A gentleman should always help a lady in need."

SB jabbed a thumb at Fencer, who was perched on Vivi's shoulder. "She's also in."

The fire ferret pouted at that. "Why do I have to go? It's freezing out there!"

"That's why you need to come. We may need some extra heat. Speaking of which, how'd Vivi get you to be her personal heater?"

"She paid me," Fencer explained, pulling out some beris.

"Did… Did you just take that out of a pocket?"

"Yeah, so?"

"I can't believe you have pockets. That's so cute!"

Luffy was already out the door. "Hey, SB, let's get going!" The skeleton and chef quickly followed their captain outside.

"Waitwaitwait—" SB turned around at the doorway, looking at the handful of villagers who had joined the crew in Dalton's house, and adopted a stern tone. "Before I go, which one of you people insulted my grandma?"

Although the four Straw Hats had just begun their journey, it was already going horribly. The snow had started coming down harder, reducing visibility and making it difficult for the pirates to find their way.

"Dude, this snow is harsh. I can barely see my paw in front of my face," Fencer complained from SB's shoulder.

"Uh, guys?" The three pirates looked over to Sanji and found him pointing; they followed his finger to a nearby snowbank from which strange creatures had begun to rise. They looked like a cross between a rabbit and a bear, with eyes the color of fresh blood.

Unfazed by the creatures, Luffy barked out, "Hey, move it! We need to get our friend to the doctor!"

As the bunny-bears advanced, SB thought he might need to educate his captain. "Luffy, these are lapahns, and trust me, they're not gonna listen to you."

"So we just fight?" Fencer asked as she hopped down from SB's shoulder.

Sanji took a fighting stance. "Seems like it."

The lapahns charged and the Straw Hats fought back. Sanji went on the offensive, kicking the rabbit monsters one after another. Luffy and Skeleton Buddy let their enemies come to them. Luffy was backing off slowly, not wanting to jostle Nami too much, while Fencer used her flamethrower attack on any lapahn that got too close to them. SB was hesitant to drop his defensive stance and strike at them simply because he was nervous about facing so many adversaries at once. But then he thought of Nami, and overcoming his doubts, he tapped into his martial arts training and began to dispatch his enemies with swift punches and kicks.

Fencer spared SB a glance in all the chaos. "I bet you wish you'd stayed on the ship instead of Declan!"

"Got any twos?"

Carue shook his head, so I drew from the deck. The duck lightly stomped his foot four times, which was his way of asking for a four. I handed him the card, but before I could get one from him, we heard a shout. We looked to see one of Wapol's men running away from the ship.

Moments later, the ship was surrounded by green-coated goons, along with the tyrant himself.

"You!" the fatso yelled. "You have some nerve. You claimed to have never heard of this place, throw me into the sea, and then have the balls to show your faces on my island, and—" He blinked and looked around. "Wait, where's Straw Hat and the rest of your friends?"

"They're gone. I'm the ship guard," I answered simply.

"If I may make a suggestion, my king?" Chess interjected. "The Straw Hats put up quite a nasty fight in our last encounter. Perhaps they would be more docile if we had some hostages."

Wapol grinned wickedly. "Excellent idea. Seize them, men!"

Oh, shit. I tensed up. Last time, I'd had the rest of the crew with me, but now I was going solo. Carue may have been able to help me when we fought Miss Valentine, but that was mostly because he'd taken her by surprise.

"Unchain me," came a voice from beside me.

"Gah!" I flinched. When the hell had Mantax gotten up here?

"You can't fight this many enemies alone. I can help."

I'd watched more than enough TV to recognize this scenario: a captive claims he can help in a bad situation, then makes his escape the first chance he gets. Unfortunately for me, even knowing what I knew, that offer was still pretty tempting.

Wapol's men had come aboard by now. I made my choice and undid Mantax's chains.

I mentally sifted through all the martial arts forms I knew, and just as I'd settled on kickboxing, the fighting began. Despite my recent injury, I actually did pretty well landing blows on my foes. Fortunately, mook chivalry seemed to be in effect because the goons only attacked two at a time—one for me and one for Mantax. I briefly took note of Mantax's fighting style; he aimed his strikes mostly at vulnerable areas like the groin, throat, and solar plexus. In addition, he sometimes bit enemies with his mandibles.

Eventually, I knocked one guy out, stole his rifle, and pointed it at the crowd of enemies.

"Holy shit! He's got a gun!" one of them cried in terror.

"You idiots! Lots of you have guns!" Wapol pointed out.

A look of realization crossed each of his minions' faces before they came to their senses and pointed all the guns they had at Mantax and me.

We looked at each other and put our hands in the air.

When the lapahns started to realize they were losing the fight, they began jumping up and down. As they jumped, they caused vibrations, and SB and Sanji picked up on their intentions immediately.

"We need to find cover!" Skeleton Buddy shouted. Fencer hopped back onto his shoulder as he started running.

Luffy looked at his crew in confusion. "Why?"

Sanji gave him the obvious answer, "They're trying to start an avalanche! Now move!" That got the point across and Luffy broke into a sprint, joining his crewmates in the search for cover.

As they ran, they heard a deep rumble behind them. They looked back and immediately regretted it; a tidal wave of snow was hot on their heels. The depth of the snow beneath their feet was slowing them down, making it seem all the more certain they wouldn't get away.

'Wait a minute,' SB thought. He looked at Fencer. 'That's it!'

He plucked Fencer off his shoulder. "Can you melt all that snow?"

Fencer looked apprehensive. "I don't know! I-I've never tried to melt a whole avalanche!"

"Well, try anyway!" SB ordered.

Fencer wiggled out of his grip and stood between her crewmates and the avalanche. All at once, the red markings on her body caught fire. She took a deep breath and cried, "FIRE BLAST!"

A stream of flame much larger than her flamethrower shot out of her mouth, melting the part of the avalanche that would've hit them. The snow arced around them, flying over their heads but leaving them unharmed. The avalanche eventually stopped, and Fencer was breathing heavily.

SB picked her up and placed her in Luffy's vest for warmth. "Good job!"

"So cool," the captain whispered to himself; Fencer heard him, though she was too exhausted to let him know.

The group pressed on, getting closer to the mountain. Along the way, they encountered a sight SB recognized instantly from the anime: a baby lapahn trying to dig its parent out of the snow.

SB stopped them for a moment. "Hold up, guys. I need to do something."

Once he'd pulled the adult lapahn out of the snow, they continued.

"Why'd you bother helping them?" Sanji asked.

"Because at this point in the story, we—"

"No spoilers, Declan!" Luffy cut him off.

Skeleton Buddy got a little annoyed. "I told you, Luffy, I'm Skeleton Buddy."

Luffy was unfazed. "Yeah, but you're a clone of Declan, so that means you're Declan."

SB didn't know what to say to that, so he just kept walking, thinking, 'What does a clone have to do to get out of his original's shadow?'

With the avalanche averted and the lapahns dealt with, the gang could breathe a little easier as they continued on their journey. Everything seemed to be going well compared to how things had gone down in canon, and even the snow had started to lighten up. Sanji's back was fine, so Luffy didn't need to carry any extra weight, and since the captain had Fencer heating him up, he could spare Nami his coat. As they walked, SB realized something pleasant: since they had avoided the avalanche, they might have saved enough time to make it up the mountain without running into Wapol.

Wapol's men had hogtied my hands and feet behind my back. Interestingly, they'd restrained Mantax the same way our crew had tied him up. They really went overboard with Carue, tying him in so much rope that he looked like a mummy.

Being taken prisoner kind of pissed me off. Sure, there wasn't much we could've done to prevent it, but still. Other than the added frustration of being tied up at Wapol's mercy, it was about as boring as guarding the ship, so I decided to chat up Mantax.

"Sooo, how'd you get on our ship?" The big guy said nothing.

Maybe not my best attempt at small talk. But there had to be something that would get a response out of him.

"Hey, if we break out and actually work together, maybe we can beat all these guys," I whispered.

"No."

I should've known he wouldn't like that idea, but at least he'd given a verbal reply. "Come on, teamwork works when the Toa do it," I persisted.

That did it. He turned his head toward me and asked, "How do you know about Toa? None of them are present in this world."

"I'm from another world too," I answered, looking around to see if anyone was listening. Dalton's confrontation with Wapol had begun, ensuring that our conversation wouldn't be noticed.

"Really? What was your reason for coming here?" the Bionicle villain inquired.

I guess this was an interrogation now. "I don't have a reason. I actually don't know how I got here. What about you?"

"Let's just say I walked into a trap."

We heard something hit the snow and looked up. Dalton had collapsed, having shielded some villagers from arrows with his body.

Then the ground started rumbling.

I knew what that meant, so I detached my hands and feet, reattaching them once I was free from my ropes. Seeing my breaking out as a sign to do the same, Mantax grunted and tore through his ropes with brute strength. I grabbed Carue and started running as soon as I saw where the avalanche was coming from. Mantax followed close behind me, giving me a chance to ask another question.

"Hey Mantax, do you want to join our crew?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

I didn't get to answer that question before we were buried alive.

Around ten minutes later, the crew arrived at the base of the mountain. "Well, we're here at the mountain and Sanji's back is fine, so I'd say this is going well," SB said.

"What was that about my back?" Sanji asked.

"At this point in the story, you break it or something."

"What?!"

"Or maybe you just sprain it, I forget. But who cares? That didn't happen here."

Luffy looked up at the mountain, frowning. It was so high he couldn't see the top. "This isn't gonna be fun, is it?"

"No, Luffy, it isn't." SB walked up to the mountain, grabbed some handholds, and started climbing, his crewmates following suit.

Digging myself out of the snow was a hassle, but at least I wasn't capable of freezing. Once I was free, I started digging around, looking for Mantax.

"Okay, maybe he's here," I said, picking yet another spot to dig. As I searched, I thought about what I'd said before being caught in the avalanche. Having a guy from Bionicle join the crew would be awesome. The others might need some convincing, but I didn't think Luffy would mind Mantax being onboard. My thoughts were interrupted when a big, black foot shot out of the spot where I was digging and hit me in the chest, knocking me back.

Mantax worked himself free from the snow, looking ready for a fight. "Oh, it's you. I was expecting one of the fat man's henchmen."

"Hey, you!"

We looked over to see some of Wapol's men aiming their guns at us while the rest of them stopped the villagers from reaching the pile of snow I knew Dalton was buried under.

"I guess I asked for that," Mantax sighed.

"This'd be a good time to try that teamwork I mentioned," I said.

Mantax looked annoyed, or at least I thought he did. His face was about as expressive as mine, which is to say it revealed nothing at all.

"That again? First you ask me to work with you, and then you ask me to join your crew. Now you want my help all the time. Why?"

"Uhh..." Come on, brain, think of something. Anything! "How about this? If I can give you six good reasons to join our crew, then you have to do it."

"Six? Most people would say three or five."

"So?"

"Fine. I'll consider it."

Fuck yeah!

The black Barraki walked towards me with a sinister chuckle. "Now, let's practice our 'teamwork.'" He grabbed me by my shin and swung me through the air, using me as a bludgeon.

"THIS—AHHH! ISN'T! WHAT I—OW! FUCKING MEANT!"

"Just relax. You're doing great." I couldn't believe it. He was messing with me.

Every goon Mantax hit with my body was knocked out right away. Only one enemy even got a chance to counterattack, and when he fired his rifle, Mantax just leaned forward and let the shot bounce off his shoulder armor.

The fighting stopped pretty soon, which was great, since all my bones were aching now.

Mantax seemed almost disappointed. "Hmm, I could've sworn there were more of them."

"There were," came a new voice. "I got the rest."

Mantax dropped me and we both looked toward the sound.

"Zoro!" I yelled. It was so good to see his face, along with Vivi and Usopp.

Our sniper pulled out his slingshot while the swordsman readied his blades. "Move away from the skeleton," Zoro ordered.

Mantax raised a hand. "Hold on. Your skeleton and I have struck a deal. We are no longer enemies for the time being."

"Then why were you using him as weapon?" Usopp asked.

"It was his idea." Mantax pointed at me.

I looked at our possible future crewmate. "I think the concept of teamwork got a little lost in translation."

Zoro and Usopp looked uncertain, but eventually they lowered their weapons.

"It's nice that that's all settled, but right now we need to help get Dalton out of the snow," Vivi said.

We all got to work after that. As we dug, we noticed Mantax was standing back.

"Hey, if we're on the same side now, you should at least pull your weight," Usopp complained.

"Are any of you the captain of this crew?" Mantax asked in response.

Usopp raised his hand.

"No, he's not," Zoro and I said in unison.

Mantax nodded. "Well, if that's the case, I believe this means you can't order me to help out," he said smugly. "And even if you could, I haven't officially joined this crew yet."

Zoro and Usopp growled at him, but I just sighed. I'd invited this guy to join the crew knowing full well that he wasn't a good person, so I figured this was the price I'd have to pay—although I could probably work on that later.

I distracted myself from the tedium of digging by talking to Zoro. "So what did you do with the crew in Bighorn?"

"Not much. I just went with Vivi and Usopp to look for that doctor, but we got caught in an avalanche," Zoro said. "Did it go differently in your comic?"

"You stayed on the ship, got bored, went for a swim in the freezing river, got lost, met the doctor without realizing who she was, then she sent you flying for calling her old, you trained some more, got caught in the avalanche, met up with Vivi and Usopp, then took down all of Wapol's goons by yourself. The end," I said, then finally took a breath I didn't need.

Vivi looked dumbfounded. "Um, what?"

"Heh, what an idiot," Mantax chuckled, eliciting a "Hey!" from the swordsman.

"Well, that all sounds pretty much like Zoro," Usopp said, and we got back to digging.

The three Straw Hats had been climbing for what felt like forever—and Luffy's impatience wasn't helping pass the time.

"Are we there yet?"

"No," said Sanji.

"Are we there yet?"

"No," said SB.

"Are we there yet?"

"No," said Fencer.

"Are we there yet?"

"Yes, Luffy," everyone chorused with tranquil fury.

"…Liars," Luffy said to himself. His friends just grit their teeth and kept climbing.

After what felt like forever, Fencer saw something up ahead. "Guys, I think I see the top!"

In another twenty minutes or so, the group finally reached the top. Luffy and Sanji collapsed as soon as they stopped moving. SB felt just fine since he didn't have muscles that could get sore or lungs that could run out of breath. Fencer was doing fine as well due to her free ride up the mountain from Luffy. She had even recharged enough of her firepower to keep both herself and her captain warm.

As the fire ferret crawled out of Luffy's vest and onto SB's shoulder, the two heard the sound of footsteps crunching through the snow and looked to see two figures coming out of the castle. SB recognized them instantly as Kureha and Chopper, the doctors they had come for.

Kureha said, "Well, what do we have here?"

Skeleton Buddy wasn't sure what to say to Kureha and Chopper, so he just told them the truth. "Please help my friends."

As soon as SB opened his mouth, Chopper yelped and tried to hide behind Kureha, only to hilariously fail.

"What the he—" Fencer began to ask before SB put a finger to her lips.

"Shh. I'll explain later."

"Did you all climb up the mountain to get here?" the old doctor asked.

Given he had just spent who-knows-how-long doing just that, SB's patience was starting to wear thin. "Yes, we did. Now please help them."

Kureha frowned. "Watch the tone, kid. Alright, Chopper, help me get them inside."

Once the good doctors had gotten SB's friends into the castle for treatment, the skeleton and the fire ferret sat out in the hallway, where Fencer resumed her questioning. "So, what the hell was that little thing?"

Knowing she was referring to Chopper, SB answered, "That was a reindeer that ate the Human-Human Fruit."

"WHAT?!"

The pair of Straw Hats looked to see Chopper standing in the doorway.

"H-how do you know that?" he asked in a quiet, shaky voice.

"Uhh…" SB wasn't sure how to explain himself.

Fencer tapped his skull. "Psst! Say something, dummy."

SB's mind raced for an answer. "Uh, it's a long story?"

"T-tell me how you know about my Devil Fruit!" Chopper insisted, raising his voice.

"Okay, okay!" SB raised his hands defensively. He took a second to think about what he would say and eventually decided just to be blunt. "I'm from another world."

Chopper squeaked and went back to hiding. "What?! Y-You mean you're an alien?"

"Yep, and he read about your fruit in a comic book," Fencer added.

"What?!"

Wow, kind of a broken record, isn't he?

"Okay, listen… You listening?" The reindeer nodded. "Alright, in my world, the comic showed the adventures of my crew, the Straw Hat Pirates," SB explained. "Also, I have no idea how I even got to this world."

Chopper took a minute to process what he'd just heard. "So then you knew about me and my fruit because I helped your friends in that comic?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Well, if that comic book you mentioned told you about your crew's adventures, does that mean you know why one of your friends is all scaly? Because I've never read about anything like that in any textbooks."

"Uh, actually, I don't know about that," SB admitted. "That didn't happen in the story."

Fencer piped up again. "I've actually been wondering about that. You said that in the story, she just got a bad fever. How come that didn't happen here?"

SB thought back to what had happened at Little Garden, trying figure out what could've caused this new disease.

Okay, in canon, Nami and Vivi take down Miss Valentine, then Sanji shows up, and then Nami swats the bug on her stomach and that's how—"Wait."

"What? Why 'wait?'" Fencer tilted her head.

"In the comic, the bug bit Nami on her stomach. Here, it was her wrist."

"So?"

"So, if the spot where she was bitten was different, then maybe the bug that bit her was different too!" SB declared. Fencer's eyes widened.

The living skeleton turned back to the talking reindeer. "Can we see her?"

"Okay, I guess, but—" Before Chopper could finish, Luffy appeared behind him.

"Meeeaaat," he drooled.

Chopper's pupils shrank while SB shouted out a warning, "Run, little dude!"

As the captain started chasing the young doctor through the halls, Skeleton Buddy got up off the floor and walked into Nami's room.

SB closed the door behind him. Aside from himself and Fencer on his shoulder, no one else was present in the room besides Nami. Their navigator had a pained look on her face. SB and Fencer wanted desperately to help in some way, but they simply didn't know what they could do—or if anything could be done.

"Oh, it's you two." The pair of Straw Hats turned to see Kureha entering the room holding some notes and a vial of blood.

"What's up with our friend, doc?" Fencer asked, pointing at Nami.

Kureha gently set the vial on the desk and looked through her notes. "This is actually my first time seeing symptoms like this. I took a look through a microscope and found that her cells are taking on reptilian traits, but what I don't get is her immune response. Her white blood cells are just…well, wandering around. It's like they know there's a problem but can't find it."

SB was stunned. There was a disease even a doctor like Kureha didn't know about?

"What was the last island you were on?" she asked.

"Little Garden."

"What was it like?"

"It had dinosaurs on it."

"Hmm…" Kureha took another look at Nami, then picked up the vial of blood and left the room.

They heard a groan from behind them. The two Straw Hats looked back at Nami and realized with horror that their navigator's changes were slowly, but visibly, accelerating. Her snout was getting a little longer and her skin scalier. However, a blanket concealed whatever other alterations were occurring.

"What the—?" SB said.

There was a crash from outside the door, followed by some screaming. Chopper barged into the room, Luffy and Sanji clinging to him like monkeys on a branch. They exited the room almost as quickly as they'd come in, but the captain and the cook quickly backtracked into the room to greet their friends.

"Hey, Declan, Fencer, you're awake!"

"Not Declan," SB muttered.

Fencer waved a paw. "We were never not awake."

"So, how's Nam—"

"Uggh, what happened?"

Everyone whipped around to see the navigator slowly sitting up in her bed.

"Nami! You're awake!" Luffy grinned.

"Yeah, I'm awake. Now where are w—" She froze. She had gone to rub her eyes and noticed her scaly, three-fingered hand. "W-What?" She brought her hands to her face, where they came to rest on her burgeoning snout. "What—What's going on?" she asked, her voice filling with panic.

Luffy tilted his head. "Oh, that? Don't worry about that. You've been transforming into something weird for a while now."

Nami's eyes widened.

"Shut up, Luffy!" the rest of his friends hissed.

Nami's breathing sped up. She pushed off her covers and tried to get out of bed, but stumbled before she could take two steps. Fortunately, Sanji caught her.

With the blanket gone, her standing position allowed the crew to get a better view of her. Fencer noticed that her feet had changed even more; they had become completely digitigrade. And an even more obvious mutation was—

"Woah, you have a tail!" Luffy said excitedly. Just as he said, there was a foot-long tail sticking out from the waist of her pants.

"That wasn't there when we were climbing the mountain. When the hell did that happen?" Fencer wondered out loud.

The captain seemed unfazed and even enthusiastic at the situation, while his crewmates were just stunned.

"Cool! Well, I gotta go catch that meat. See you guys later!" Luffy said before dashing off.

As Sanji helped Nami back into bed, Kureha reentered the room, chuckling at the captain's antics. "Kak kak kak. I'm surprised to see him up and at 'em so soon."

"So, did you figure out anything new about this?" SB asked, having to physically restrain the still-panicking navigator.

"Before that, who exactly was that little dish we were chasing?" Sanji cut in. The doctor proceeded to kick him against the wall so hard it produced a Sanji-shaped imprint.

"I'll answer those questions in order." She turned to SB. "When you said the last island you traveled to had dinosaurs, that got me thinking that there could've been extinct or even simply unknown diseases on such an island as well." Her audience nodded as she continued. "With that in mind, I started thinking outside the box, and when I took another look at the sample, I found something incredible."

The crew waited in suspense for a minute, until it didn't seem like she was going to continue. SB could stand it no longer.

"Uh, are you doing a dramatic pause?" he asked.

Kureha chuckled. "Yes, I was. Now, there is a virus in her system. The pathogens crudely imitate her cells to fool her immune system, then strike and alter her cells to become reptilian. Exactly how a virus can behave like this is a mystery to me."

"Whoa," said SB.

"And as for the little guy?" said Kureha. "He's a reindeer that ate the Human-Human Fruit."

Nami seemed to have calmed down a bit during the doctor's explanation. "So that's why I'm like this?"

Sanji peeled himself off the wall. "It doesn't make you any less beautiful, Nami-swan!"

Luffy wandered in again moments later, moping.

Fencer tilted her head. "Couldn't find the little guy?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

SB sighed. He took a seat at the foot of Nami's bed and watched with his cheekbone in his palm as Luffy asked Kureha to join the crew, followed by Kureha pounding Luffy for calling her an old lady and then refusing to join them. After that, Luffy and Sanji spotted Chopper again and continued chasing him while being chased in turn by Kureha, leaving SB, Fencer, and Nami alone in the room.

Fencer just laughed at all of it. "Ha! I love this crew."

SB looked back at Nami. "You okay?"

"No," she muttered.

"I meant physically, not mentally."

"Dude, not helping." Fencer glared at him.

Nami tried her best to compose herself. "Um, well, it's really chilly in here. Could you close the door?"

"Sure." Just as he closed the door, Chopper reentered the room. "Oh, hey, you're back."

Chopper surveyed his surroundings to make sure Luffy and Sanji weren't present, then gave them his attention. "Yes, I'm back." He glanced at Nami. "Are you feeling any better?"

"Physically, yes." She and Fencer glared at SB again.

The little doctor hesitated before speaking again. "I have some questions for all of you."

"Ask away," Fencer said.

He directed his first question at the ferret. "For starters, how can you talk?"

Fencer rubbed her collar. "See this thing? Well, that's how. Declan bought it back when he got me in Loguetown."

The reindeer nodded, then faced SB. "Are you a skeleton because you ate a Devil Fruit?"

"Yeah."

"Thought so." Chopper went quiet for a moment. "So, are you guys really pirates?"

The three Straw Hats nodded.

"With a flag with a skull and crossbones and everything?"

They nodded again, and Fencer gasped. "You wanna join our crew, don't you?"

"What?!" Chopper shouted. "N-no!"

"You sounded really eager just now," Fencer said.

"Well, I'm not! I'm just a reindeer. I don't belong on a ship with a bunch of humans, let alone pirates!"

"So what?" SB shrugged.

"…What?" Chopper asked.

"So what if you don't belong with us? We'd still take you," SB said in a gentle voice.

Chopper's own voice started getting shaky. "But I-I have hooves and antlers a-and a blue nose," he protested weakly.

"Eh, I'm not judging," Fencer said.

"Blue's my favorite color," SB followed up.

Chopper seemed almost frozen. "B-But…But…"

Before he could give a proper response, Luffy and Sanji returned and resumed chasing him around. If he still wanted to join up after that, SB thought, everyone would certainly be impressed enough to welcome him into the crew.

Kureha entered the room seconds later. "I overheard a bit of your little chat. You aren't planning on stealing my assistant, are you?"

SB waved her off. "We weren't gonna kidnap him or anything like that."

"Kak kak kak, not if you know what's good for you. Anyway, I hope you don't think it'll be easy to talk him into going with you. The little fella has a scar on his heart, one even my medicine can't heal."

SB tried not to sigh as Kureha's tale about Chopper's past began. It wasn't that he didn't care; he'd simply heard it all before.

Partway through the flashback, Fencer interrupted, "Wait!"

Kureha looked annoyed. "What?"

"Where'd Chopper get those pants?"

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, in the first part of that flashback, he wasn't wearing anything, but in the next shot he had pants. When? How?"

"I don't know or care where he got them. Now let me continue," Kureha growled.

Once the flashback had finally finished, Fencer had another question. "How did you know about all the parts you weren't there for?"

"What?"

"Well, you didn't appear in the flashback at all. Doesn't that mean you weren't there to see any of it?"

Kureha cracked a grin, but SB could tell she was irritated. "Well, Chopper eventually opened up to me enough to show me flashbacks of his past. What you just saw were my memories of his memories."

"Ohh," Fencer and SB said in unison.

With everything said and done, Kureha left the room.

"Well, if that's everything, I guess I'll take a nap," Fencer said as she hopped on Nami's bed.