To all my loyal readers, thank you for still being here! Officially, this is the last chapter, but like I mentioned earlier, because of the emotional flow, I decided to cut off the tail end and put it in a separate chapter. It will be uploaded next saturday, or once I recieve four reviews! Happy reading!

Part 7; Human or Reindeer?

Chapter 5/6; When Spring arrives to a Winter island

Chopper stood on the ground, staring up at the castle since the explosion in one of the towers. He knew Wapol was up there, and also that girl. Ruffy. Chopper had heard her name when she told Doctorine.

"Don't be absurd. This is my nakama. He is one of us."

The words. The pat on his back.

Was it because they were pirates? Chopper didn't know. There was so much he didn't know! His world of understanding was so limited. Doctorine had filled him with everything she knew about medicine. But there was a world outside the medicinal one, beyond botany, entomology, herpetology, anatomy and fauna.

"You know, a monster."

A monster was something to be scared of. That's what Chopper knew. He'd been called a monster and been hunted and shot at. So why? Why would these pirates call each other monsters so affectionately?

Dr Hilruk's flag suddenly changed direction, as if it noticed something and turned to look. Chopper couldn't tell what was happening, but he saw a small figure climb through the new hole and up to the roof.

"Doctorine," he said, and his voice cracked. "This country…"

"Drum Kingdom fell in battle against the skull and crossbones," Doctorine confirmed, and Chopper ignored that it lacked the usual giggle, and that she had pulled down her shades. Because he felt it too. The relief. It prickled, hot and wet behind his eyes and heart. The air suddenly felt a little easier to breathe.

The crash on the roof was almost deafening. Chopper saw something fly away and rocks, wood and tiles came raining down from the broken tower.

And just like that, Wapol was gone.

"She called me… nakama…"

Chopper pulled his hat down over his eyes.

"Whatever you're doing is affecting Ruffy too!"

She'd trusted him. And he'd hurt her. So no. Chopper couldn't be one of them like Ruffy had said he was.

A sudden noise had the reindeer jumping around, and then promptly flee. A cart had just docked! The ropeway had been found! How?! Why now?!

The journey to the peak had taken well over an hour and it was already late. Zoro had been nodding off from time to time, unaffected by the quiet tension around him. He wasn't really interested in their drama, but he was a bit worried about Ruffy. A while ago she had suddenly felt more distant, like she was fading.

So when the cart finally arrived and got anchored in place, a quick business by the people who'd grown up using this transportation, Zoro assumed, he headed up the stairs to look for his captain, closely followed by Usopp.

"You all wait here," Usopp told the townspeople and Vivi behind them. "I'll go take a look and clear the way for you!"

Where the stairs ended, there was a lever in the wall that opened up a hatch. The air was even brisker here, and Usopp pressed in right behind Zoro, using him as a human shield!

"Stop pushing!" Zoro snarled.

"I-I-I'll cover you!"

Zoro twisted out of the way. There was nothing out here for him to hide behind. "Just stay back with the rest of them if you're scared!"

"Not scared!" Usopp denied, holding up his hands as if ready to fight whilst crouching like a shivering bunny ready to flee for the hills.

A familiar sharp sound shot through Zoro's body like an arrow. For the first time since he met her, Zoro felt Ruffy's whistle directed at him. She was attacking them! Was she asleep again?!

Zoro's head snapped up, and unprepared as he was for Ruffy's hostility, couldn't dodge.

But Ruffy's snarling face, coming at him from above like a rocket, blinked and softened in recognition. It didn't stop her decent and she crashed into her crewmates so hard she might have crushed both them and herself if the snow hadn't cushioned the impact.

"WHAT THE HELL, RUFFY!" Zoro roared as he rubbed his ribs and the back of his neck.

Her relieved laugher mixed with the dancing snow crystals that had blown up around them. It didn't erase the fact she'd attacked him out of nowhere and unprovoked, but seeing her face, awake, alive and without the lines that had marred it for the past couple of days, eased Zoro's heart embarrassingly fast.

"Sorry, sorry. I was distracted and didn't hear your heartbeat. Saw the clothes and thought you were reinforcement for that king idiot."

"It… it's fine, Ruffy," Usopp's voice spoke from under the snow. Ruffy helpfully pulled him up and tried to brush the snow out of his curly hair.

"So you scaled the mountain too? I thought you couldn't climb, Usopp?"

"We didn't and I can't. I'm not a monster like you… That's not what I was going to say! Why does that happen every time?!"

Before Ruffy could answer, Vivi came running out the hatch behind them. "Ruffy-san. We came up the ropeway just now. What happened? How's Nami-san? Where's Sanji-san?"

"They're fine." Ruffy grinned widely and turned towards an elderly woman standing a few paces away.

Zoro's eyes zeroed in on the woman's bared midriff and the ring in her bellybutton before they went to her face. Usopp had said the only doctor on this island was a one hundred and something impossible year old witch. If that was her, she was nothing like what Zoro might have imagined. Didn't she feel cold?!

"Real… I mean. Of course. Thank goodness."

Well, at least Vivi was trying. "So, why'd you come flying from the roof just now?" Zoro demanded.

"I sent the king flying!"

"The king?"

Zoro turned, unconsciously stepping closer to Ruffy. Apparently Dalton had come out too. He just couldn't sit still, it seemed. But then again, it had been a long trip up.

"We saw something flying from the peak a minute ago. Was that Wapol? What about his ministers?"

Zoro watched as his captain's face scrunched up in thought and tilted her head from side to side.

"I think they're gone? I can't hear them. But Wapol's devil fruit infected them and made them a puppet. The reindeer said he'd take care of them, but I don't remember what…"

"Reindeer?!"

Dalton looked around. Hiding between the trees that covered the west side of the castle, was a little creature he couldn't identify. But… "a blue nose…" Dalton hadn't forgotten. After Dr Hilruk had killed himself there had been a beast like himself. A desperate being, caught in the claws of a grief Dalton couldn't fathom, but Hilruk had said this was his son, and Dalton wanted to honour that one last demand of the old man. Because Hilruk had been a lot of things. A criminal, a quack, a trouble-maker. But in this country, he was the one who had cared. Truly cared. And this creature, Kureha's pet now that he thought about it, someone who Dalton would have thought would rather turn against them than fight for their sake, had been here all this time, fighting a war for the people who shunned him.

Dalton fell to his knees and pressed his head against the snow. "THANK YOU! THIS LAND CAN FINALLY BE REBORN!"

Just then the people who'd come along, nervous and confused from the lack of noise, came out with weapons drawn, and the first thing they noticed was a lone creature amongst trees, called monster and readied their guns.

"No! Stop it!"

"MONSTER!"

Zoro's ears rang for a second after Usopp's high-pitched howl that could possibly be heard across the entire island, and the creature fled.

"No! Idiot!" Ruffy turned on Usopp and actually slapped him, clean across the face. "That was our new comrade! That was a horrible first impression! You lot too! Anyone who dares call him names or hunt him will get a beating! Hey, wait! Mr. Monster!"

Zoro blinked after his captain. "Well, that's a first," he hummed to himself. Ruffy's methods so far was to either accept people who came to her or corner the ones she wanted to recruit. This was the first time someone successfully fled from Ruffy's love. And it was love. Zoro could almost see the hearts around his captain's head when she chased after the critter.

The old woman suddenly stepped up to them.

"Oi, youngsters! Bring the wounded into the infirmary. Every single one!"

Zoro blinked when the she turned to glare at a wall of stone, which she then proceeded to kick a hole through. "BACK TO YOUR BEDS, YOU DAMNED RASCALS!"

From the shouts, it appeared Nami and the idiot cook had tried, and now failed, to escape. Zoro couldn't help but grin. This old bitch was entertaining!

Kureha was proud of her longevity. It was her ultimate badge of honour that no matter how old she got she was still healthy and strong. It didn't matter to her how the island moved around her with the change of government. She'd been born at the tail end of a political reform on the island, where they saw a surge of medicinal breakthroughs and the reigning king encouraged further research in various areas of the field. She'd since seen death. Her very first patient had died as she watched over him, because even though there had been breakthrough, it wasn't enough. It was never enough! Bacteria, viruses and diseases evolved and changed. Thus, Kureha had dedicated her life to become knowledgeable, to research in all medicinal fields to battle everything that threatened the lives of the young.

But as she lived through her years, she's been forced to realize not everyone wanted to live long lives and be healthy as can be. Depression and alcoholism were old friends of hers that she wished she could break free from, but the two often came together to fight each other. It ate away at her patience with people who tried to live their entire lives within their teenage years. So once she got her hands on the rascal who had twisted his spine out of position, again, she didn't bother being gentle, or waste painkillers on him. The girl got her next shot of medicine and was then confined to the bed as Kureha studied how Dalton's injuries had been treated.

"Dr Hamada took care of you, I see," she observed as she considered the stitching and shape of the wounds and their placement. "He knows you well, but cares too much. Gets flustered easily. Bad combination."

"He taught me all I know about my body after I ate that devil fruit," Dalton spoke up in the old man's defence, but knew not to resist Kureha's treatment.

"Really bad combination. Being aware of the changes can leave you with way more psychological pitfalls and make you start actively fighting it."

"He stressed that I shouldn't do exactly that."

"The only reason you managed is because your original temperament aligned with that of the fruit. There, last one." She disinfected the wounds again before wrapping them with only a few expert twists of wrists.

"Now, Dalton. The armoury of this old pile of rocks is locked and the door's reinforced. Where's the key?"

"Key? Armoury? Why would you want to enter there?"

"That's my business. Well?"

Dalton carefully moved up the bed so he could lean against the headboard. He looked guilty. "Since consuming the devil fruit, Wapol always kept the key on his person."

And Wapol had been sent flying right off the mountain. Kureha's expression darkened. "Now, that's a problem."

Hilruk had thrown down the results of his idiotic research at her feet and demanded she fulfilled his wish. It had rested there at the back of her mind as a shackle, and here was a perfect opportunity, the perfect time, and she was blocked by a single locked door! She had already tried everything she could think of to force it open without that little apprentice of hers noticing and right now he was busy running away from a love-struck pirate. Damn!

"Doctorine."

The sing-song voice came from the other bed, where Nami sat up with a look of such optimism that Kureha's alarm bells went off all at once.

"How about you waive the fee of our treatment and release me immediately."

Kureha had lived for over a hundred years, been praised and hunted, and would only have needed a handful of those years and experiences to know the girl suddenly thought she had a bargaining chip up her ass. Kureha stood to face her with her fists on her hips.

"Out of the question! The fee for all three of you are all your money and cargo, and you're staying in that bed for two more days if I so have to tie you to it!"

"She's right, Nami-san, let her finish her treatment," the other girl butted in. A pure-blooded worrywart, in Kureha's opinion.

"I'm fine! This much isn't enough to kill me."

"You can't know that?!"

Kureha ignored the long-haired chick and stared challengingly at her patient. The bitch actually thought she would have survived the Kestia without Kureha's medicine? That captain of hers had literally scaled a five thousand meter high mountain exactly because she couldn't!

The youngster just smiled smugly and raised her hand. "So you don't want the key to the armoury, then?"

Kureha's face slackened. "That's the key? Where'd you find that?"

"I lifted it," the girl sang, spinning the heavy brass key into her hand.

So the little scoundrel actually had a bargaining chip. The old doctor couldn't help but be impressed, no matter how much she didn't like it.

"So you like playing foul, little bitch? Fine," the key changed hands and Kureha reached for her jacket. "Humph, I'll let you have the treatment for free. But I'm a doctor, and you're not allowed out of that bed for the next two days!"

"Hey, what?! That's not the agreement! Give the key back!"

Girl still had a lot to learn. As if Kureha was going to return her price just because the other party demanded it. Claiming victory prematurely could cost her a lot in the future.

"Listen up! I'll be busy for the rest of the evening. My coat is in the drawer in the next room, the treatment of the spine-boy is complete and I don't have any guards to place on you. Get it? Don't you dare leave that bed or so help me! Get a move on, boys," she ordered the rest of the idle dwellers who had come with Dalton. "I need your help, all of you!"

Key in hand, Kureha went downstairs, eyes locked on the doors that had mocked her for the past six months. Her years as a teacher had come to an end, and she was going to send off Hilruk's stupid pet and fulfil his damned dream in one fell swoop. Just the thought was enough to make her heart beat faster.

The key turned and the lock clicked. The inside had an automatic lightening system, enabling the people coming in to see a greatly organized room that looked like a smaller version of the hall outside. The room was a tower high with balconies above. Kureha would investigate those later, because what she wanted was right there in front of her.

"All of you, bring out all the cannons to the courtyard. I'm going to find the ammunition."

"Y-yes ma'am…" the youngsters were glancing at each other, but didn't move at first. Not before showed her fist full of throwing knives and a gleeful expression at the prospect of causing them all wounds she could then patch up and demand payment for.

Young people who valued their lives were so delightful.

Chopper sat on the roof over a door, gasping for breath and only then realized the moon was high. He could still hear Ruffy call for him.

He'd run from her almost since she woke up. He hadn't known her for a day, hadn't interacted with her much at all aside from running away and yelling at her. And yet… she had saved doctor's flag, protected his dream and awoken the memory of his presence. Chopper knew he had imagined the scent of his father figure, that it had been a memory and nothing more, but it had meant something important. It meant he hadn't forgotten Hilruk.

Chopper had never had a real parent, and not a leader. He'd followed the doctor around and stayed with him because Hilruk had shown him kindness, had taught him things and because the old man had let him. Chopper had stayed with Doctorine because she could teach him about medicine, teach him how to save this country Hilruk had died for. Ruffy had had his back. She'd trusted him, called him nakama.

But all Chopper had done was hurt them all. He'd confused Hilruk's teachings and betted everything he had, his life, on a treatment he didn't know was poison. Doctorine had taken him in because that had been Hilruk's wish, but he knew he'd mostly been a burden on her. Today Ruffy had scaled the mountain to save her friends, had saved him, but all Chopper had done was make her lose her mind.

If he went with her, would he end up killing her like he had Hilruk? Because he was a monster?

Why then, was she still calling for him to be a pirate with her?

"One day you'll set sail too, and realize just how small your worries are."

Was that it? Was he worried because his world wasn't bigger than this island? But he was a reindeer! He couldn't live with humans just because he'd eaten the human fruit. The fruit didn't make him an actual human just like it didn't make that green soldier an actual bison.

"Monster! Kill it!"

Those words were Chopper's experience with the majority of humanity. He was a monster. A freak of nature. No longer a reindeer and still not a human.

"Reindeer! Come and be a pirate with us!"

Chopper shook his head. He couldn't! This was his home! He had Doctorine and Hilruk's dream here. Even though he'd never found out what Hilruk had meant. But before he died, he'd said he was successful. That his dream had finally been realized. His dream to heal this country.

Yet, to this day, Chopper hadn't seen any results. Nothing other than that one happy moment of Hilruk's victory dance. He'd never really understood either. He'd been so young and the world the doctor had introduced him to was complex, difficult even for most humans. But he knew… no, he hoped…

"Reindeer!"

Ruffy was still calling. She had more people behind her. They were a herd. Chopper could smell it. Both of those men, and Nami and the other one too, had traces of Ruffy's scent on their hands, and Ruffy carried their scents too.

Just like he had once carried a hint of Dr Hilruk's smell in his fur from extended contact.

Chopper bit down against the yearning that welled up in him.

Ruffy had stopped running, but that didn't mean she'd given up. Usopp and Zoro were building snowmen outside, the full moon offering plenty of light that reflected off the snow.

"Reindeer! Come and be a pirate with us!" Ruffy yelled.

"Why don't you give it a rest. He probably doesn't want to be a pirate," Usopp sighed.

"He does! He's my nakama! I'll bring him kicking and screaming!"

"That's kidnapping, you dumbass!"

Zoro placed the head on his little snowman and gave it arms and a face with dry sticks from the cluster of trees beside them. He'd never been artistic, and he hadn't spent his childhood being a child, playfighting and roughhousing just for the fun of it. Building snowmen was probably the most childish thing he'd ever done, and he found it surprisingly fun.

"Reindeer!" Ruffy kept calling, but she was also keeping her eyes locked on a certain point. She knew exactly where the other was, she'd just changed tactics.

Usopp finished up a larger snowman and Zoro placed his little ones around it, thinking of them as ducklings, and started making more.

"There you are! Be a pirate with us!"

Ruffy's happy exclamation had both boys look up and Zoro got his first good look at what had his captain so excited. It didn't look like it shared the sentiment. It had a really light voice though, making it hard for Zoro to determine if it was a boy or a girl.

"I can't! It's impossible."

"Impossible is impossible…" Zoro glanced at his captain who looked like she'd just twisted her own brain into a knot with those strange words. "It's fun!" she salvaged.

"I'm…grateful… for your help and everything."

From the corner of his eye Zoro noticed Nami and Vivi coming out of the castle, pulling the stupid cook along by the legs.

"But I… I CAN'T BE WITH HUMANS! I'M A REINDEER! I HAVE ANTLERS AND HOOFS AND A BLUE NOSE AND I TALK!" the little guy howled, and even Zoro could hear how those words weren't meant to convince them. They were just the roots of his insecurity. But Zoro supposed he understood. If that little guy had only ever seen this island and never met, say, fishmen, then it was understandable if he thought of himself as a freak.

There was a moment of mumbling that Zoro couldn't catch before the little guy started shouting again. "I'M NOT A HUMAN! I'M A MONSTER! I COULD NEVER BE ONE OF YOU! But I wanted to… thank you… for inviting me. But I…"

"SHUT UP AND LETS GO!"

Ruffy's patience had evidently run out. Zoro almost slapped the snowball he'd just made against his face. Same old Ruffy. The rest of them chuckled.

"You just can't win when Ruffy's made up her mind," Usopp lamented and started making a face for his snowman.

"Let's go!" the little guy echoed with a thick voice and allowed Ruffy to pick him and spin around.

"We've a new nakama!" Ruffy shouted and set the fluffball down in front of them.

"Good for you, captain," Zoro smiled and accepted her joyful squeeze. Usopp stumbled into his snowman when Ruffy threw herself at him too, making him squawk indignantly and Nami just barely managed to brace herself.

"Huh, Sanji? Why are you unconscious? I want to hug you too."

"He's probably sedated? His treatment sounded painful," Vivi offered, and she looked rather relieved Ruffy hadn't jumped her too.

"I… I need to tell Doctorine!" the new guy gasped and ran.

"Let him go alone," Nami said, holding up her hands when Ruffy made a move to follow him. "It might be difficult for him."

"Hm?" Ruffy hummed and stared at the castle. "I… don't think so? There's something going on?"

Just then the first cannon rolled out the gate.

"So are we leaving right away?" Usopp asked, abandoning his broken snowman and its little babies.

Nami nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, as soon as Chopper comes back we'll set sail straight for Alabasta. Sounds good, Vivi?"

"Yes. Now that there's a doctor aboard I feel reassured."

Ruffy blinked at them. Since when did they have a doctor on the ship? She hadn't allowed that.

"Okay then. Might as well prepare the ropeway. Come help me, Ruffy."

"What's a ropeway?" the girl pirate asked excitedly and followed Usopp down the hatch.

Everything was ready. The sleigh was packed, the cannons were getting stationed. All that was left was to wait for that little pet of hers to make an appearance. Shouldn't take that girl too long to snare and convince him.

Kureha walked into the sickbay. "Well, well. Aren't there a few patients missing here?"

Dalton lay on his bed, eyes guarded, but otherwise calm. "They slipped away. Didn't want to obey your orders."

Kureha ignored his tone and huffed. "Those brats. What a bunch of troublemakers." She reached for a bottle on the table. Only a mouthful left. She still wasn't happy about those children's attitude towards their lives, but at the end of the day it was their business. They'd sought her out because their situation at the time was dire. But pirates had always been a restless bunch, and now that the immediate danger had passed they were eager to be on the move again.

"Doctorine! Doctorine, I have something to tell you!"

"There you are, Chopper," Kureha said and drained the bottle. "Go downstairs and help carry out those cannons."

"Do-Doctorine, listen! I'm going with them! I'm going to be a pirate!"

The old woman lowered the bottle and stared at her pet. "You what?"

"I'm going out to sea!" Chopper called out, so excited and nervous and flustered he was shaking where he stood. "I-I'm going to be their ship doctor and see the world with them!"

"LIKE HELL YOU ARE!"

The reindeer flinched, and the flushed look waned. "Doctorine?"

"Don't you dare speak nonsense to me. You're my only assistant. Who taught you everything you know about proper medicine, huh? Don't you have a grateful bone in your body?"

"I… no, Doctorine. It's not like that, I owe you and doctor everything."

"Then be smart about it and stay," Kureha said offhandedly and started peeling off the label on the bottle. Bottles were always useful. "You'll never get the chance to live in a luxurious place like this ever again. Pirates are villains. The scum of the sea. You'll be dead within a week."

"I don't care!"

Good response.

"Don't talk back to me! Who ever heard of a seafaring reindeer?!"

"I know I'm a reindeer! But I'm a man too!"

Really good. What had those pirates done to the feeble little guy who jumped at the slightest hint of danger.

"You can talk but you're not leaving!" Kureha howled and threw the first knife, making sure it hit close enough for Chopper to know she was being serious.

"Doctor…" Chopper started, but then saw Kureha was still wearing the fully loaded coat she'd prepared to fight Wapol and promptly fled, screeching like a pig going to slaughter.

"If you want to be a pirate you'll do so over my dead body! A cry-baby like you, a man? Don't make me laugh! Get back here you ungrateful pest!"

She would kill him. She really would kill him! Chopper hadn't expected Doctorine to get so furious, but his fur was already shorter on both sides where her throwing knives had grazed him and he'd barely made it down the hall!

He darted downstairs, in between the people carrying cannons, and still the knives were raining down on him. But at least those people would slow Doctorine down enough for him to secure himself to the sleigh and take off.

"What do you think you'll accomplish at sea?!" Kureha's voice yelled after him. "You're going to live off of dreams like that quack?"

"It wasn't a dream!" Chopper shouted back. "Doctor was successful!" He had to hope so. What did he have if it wasn't so?

Outside, Ruffy and the others looked up when they saw him coming.

"I don't have time to stop! Get in the sleigh!" Chopper screamed at them desperately.

Behind him came one last rain of knives. Chopper felt the weight of the sleigh increase and jumped right off the edge of the mountain with a load of screaming pirates.

"Yahooo!"

"What the… How tall is this mountain?!"

"Ruffy! Hold on! Whoaaa!"

"We're going too fast!"

Chopper didn't have time to look behind him. The sleigh was much heavier than normal with so many people in it and he had to extend all his speed to make sure he was ahead of it. He would bring his newfound friends down safely!

There were people gathered at the end. The whole village! Chopper grit his teeth and got off the ropeway earlier than normal to avoid hitting anyone and just kept running.

The moonlight was as bright as if it was day, and the silence and peace and the crunch of snow that was natural to his world engulfed him.

'It wasn't a dream, was it, doctor?' he asked silently. 'You really did archive your goal, right? Or was it another lie?'

"I… I thought we were going to die…"

"Wha…? Shodai!? What's she doing in here?"

"And's what's this? A purse?"

"Urgh… Where are we?"

"Sanji-san, you're awake. How are you feeling?"

"O-oh my heart… my poor body. If only I could rest my head against… OW!"

"Nami-san!?"

"He's perfectly fine. Don't listen to a word he says."

The pirates were laughing in the sleigh, but Chopper couldn't hear them over the sound of his own heart beating in his ears.

Hilruk had lied a lot. Chopper had been aware but never cared. He'd thought he understood. Now he knew better.

'Because I would have been sad if you died without succeeding? Nothing is impossible for the men who raise the skull and crossbones! Isn't that right, doctor?!'

Chopper kept running, towards the sea, through the snow and the moonlight and darkness.

Dalton put his clothes on with care and headed outside. Dr Kureha stood at the edge where the ropeway was attached.

"Is that truly how you wanted to say goodbye?" he asked gently.

"Ha! That pet was just a loan anyway. Weepy farewells aren't my style either way."

Dalton smiled and ignored the wetness on the old woman's face.

"Dr Kureha, we've carried out all the cannons!" someone announced.

"Perfect! Come on, Dalton. Get to work! The cannons are to be loaded with those sacks over there. Teach these youngsters how to do it right and aim the cannons skyward!"

The old soldier grunted at the pat he received on the shoulder. Considering her size it always amazed Dalton how strong the old woman was.

But what was she planning? The bags they were stuffing into the cannons had the faintest scent of chemicals, but none of gunpowder. There were also the magnifying lights standing around, ready to be lit.

Since the "ammunition" was light and since Wapol had always kept the cannons themselves loaded and ready, everything was done within a few minutes. Some men had lit torchers and stood ready at the lights and cannons.

"Everything's ready, doctor!" Dalton reported.

"Fire!"

The shots disappeared into the air, the fabric they'd been wrapped in falling down undamaged but… red? Dalton caught and sniffed one. It wasn't blood but didn't smell like paint either. "Doctor. What in the world?"

"You'll see. This is Hilruk's stupidity at play. Enjoy the show."

"Hilruk?"

"We fired them all, doctor!" a voice called from the end of the line.

"Light up the sky!"

Dalton lifted his gaze with the light. His breath escaped.

"The snow…?"

All over the island people had been on pins and needles after the news of Wapol's return. Hearing the cannons everyone ran out or searched for their sons and brothers, mothers and daughters, fearing the worst. But what they saw was not a rain of fire.

The lapins were wounded, but not dead. Mama lapin had been bitter and disappointed they hadn't been able to kill those who had hurt the little human, but likewise proud of her warriors. They too knew the sound of cannons and had stood prepared for what would come, ears up and hind legs tense.

But they relaxed. The snow had changed colour. The light from the mountain lit up in pale pink, the colour clear against the silvery moonlight.

"How pretty," Nami mumbled.

"Cherry blossom! It's a cherry tree made of snow!" Ruffy cheered.

Chopper… he couldn't believe it. It was indeed a tree like the pictures Hilruk had shown him. The grandest in the world. Large enough to cover the entire island with its gentle petals. Doctor had wanted cherries to bloom in Drum Kingdom. It wasn't a dream! It was so incredible and beautiful Chopper could only cry, howl towards the sky. Happy, relieved, heartbroken, everything at the same time. Because doctor had succeeded after all. Doctorine hadn't turned her back on him. Those two had made cherry trees bloom on a winter island.

Kureha giggled so hard she cried. "If ever one could fathom the way idiots' minds work." She turned away with a wide smile in place and faced the edge of the cliff. "So get going now, foolish son!"