One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.
-Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Nine-
"Then why are you here?" I asked, brows furrowed in confusion. "Not to be rude, but this clearly is far out of your expertise" I said, aware that the work of a military doctor was far different from the work of a pediatrician.
"All the other doctors were called away on business, you see—I was the only one left in charge as a temporary substitute" the woman explained as I owlishly blinked.
"But..." I muttered, still not quite following along with how the Marines thought it wise to assign a pediatrician as a temporary doctor for their military base. Surely they could have just asked a nearby base for a temporary replacement.
"Temporary?" Nami questioned.
"Substitute or not, you're still in charge of the infirmary right now, aren't you?" Chopper asked.
"Uh...yeah, seems so..." the woman weakly nodded.
"It seems so?" Chopper frowned.
"You don't sound too sure of yourself" I said, though I didn't really blame her. Dying men with such serious wounds were far different from a child with a high fever or minor injury.
"Hey, Chopper, don't you think it's time we got out of here?" Nami suddenly asked, already looking ready to go as if she no longer wished to keep hanging around here and get caught up in anything serious. No doubt afraid that we'd inevitably get caught if we were to keep hanging around.
"Yeah, but…" Chopper trailed off as he worriedly looked back at the doctor who looked like she was once again on the verge of another breakdown.
"I think we're overstaying our welcome here—perhaps Nami's right, we should start leaving" I said, although I didn't fully like the idea of leaving this poor woman to stew in the problems her superiors have clearly pushed her into, I realized that we were running on thin ice here the longer we stayed. It was only a matter of time before someone realized that something wasn't quite right.
"Right! I found out this isn't a lake, it's connected to the ocean" Nami nodded, revealing information she hadn't yet shared with me. "We just have to find the Going Merry and escape this stupid fortress" she said.
"I can't go yet" Chopper shook his head, taking the ginger aback. "You're a doctor—it's your duty to preserve life, isn't it?" he asked as he turned back to the woman.
"That is what I was sworn to do, but still...I have limits..." she sadly confessed as if ashamed by her inability to adapt to this new environment. "Even the best doctors have things they just can't do" she sighed, causing the reindeer to frown.
"The man who taught me medicine used to tell me a story" Chopper suddenly said. "There once was a man who was told by his doctors that he would soon be dead, in despair, he wandered the wilderness in search of a place to die" he began. "Then when he walked through the mountain paths, he saw something extraordinary—the entire mountain was covered in brilliant cherry blossoms. After seeing this, he went to visit the doctors again, where they were astounded to report that the man was now completely healthy" he finished. "You are the only doctor for those patients in there, you alone can save them from a terrible death.
"A healer must never give up, there's no illness that can't be cured—don't ever let your fear limit you" he urged, trying his hardest to encourage the woman and bring her out of the slump she was currently putting herself in. "There are no patients that we doctors can't try and cure—as doctors, we have the power to make miracles happen. We have to always believe that."
"Will I…I be able to see the cherry blossoms too?" she hesitantly asked after a moment of silence. "No—I will show them the cherry blossoms! All of those suffering people in the operating room!" she boldly proclaimed as she was hit by a wave of confidence that hadn't been there before.
"That's the spirit! I'll even stick around to help!" Chopper brightened.
"Hey, we don't have time for this!" Nami huffed.
"I don't know, I think it's a pretty noble thing he's doing—maybe we should stay for a bit" I grinned.
"Skylar, no! We can't risk sticking around and getting caught!" Nami frowned, causing me to shrug.
"Yes, that may be true, but my first priority always has to be helping those in need" Chopper argued. "I'm a doctor, Nami" he reminded her.
"And a great one at that" I smiled, causing him to bashfully blush. "I wouldn't expect anything less from such a noble doctor like yourself."
"If that's your decision then Skylar and I must leave you behind, is that really what you want?" Nami frowned, opening the door to the infirmary before flinching when two nurses suddenly barged straight in.
"Doctor, the operating room is prepped and ready to go!" one of the nurses relayed to Chopper.
"Good, I'm on my way" the reindeer nodded.
"Cho—I mean yes, doctor..." Nami grumbled before blinking as we looked back at the pediatrician who had suddenly stood.
"Right, let's go" she firmly nodded, confidently following the women out of the infirmary and toward the operating room.
"Hey, Chopper" Nami piped up, stopping the reindeer before he could follow after the women.
"You can leave me behind if you need to, but I have to stay" Chopper told us. "If I didn't, I'd be abandoning everything Doctor Kureha had taught me—I need to uphold!" he firmly huffed before finally leaving the room.
"Well, what are we going to do now, Nami?" I asked, the corners of my lips twitching upward as she gave a heavy sigh.
"Geez..." she groaned in slight irritation as her shoulders slumped downward. "Well, we're not going to leave him here all by himself" she said, already motioning for me to follow along as we exited the room and caught up to the two doctors.
"We'll start with the critical cases" the doctor instructed after we had changed into the appropriate gear and entered the operating room to get started.
"There's a large iron shard lodged in his upper torso, it must be extracted" Chopper explained as my nose scrunched up into a wince. Standing there, I found it both fascinating and nauseating as I watched the woman operate—Chopper occasionally guiding her or speaking comforting and encouraging words to her any time she showed signs of distress or hesitation...
It was clear that these next couple of hours were going to be rather long.
-Later-
"Pardon the intrusion" perking up to the sound of the double doors opening, a man of a high ranking poked his head into the operating room.
"We're operating, please leave" the doctor politely requested.
"This is urgent, I assure you—I need to ask you a few questions" the man said, brushing off the woman's request as he didn't seem to care all that much that he was interrupting a very critical moment that involved his men's lives.
"Doctor, his blood pressure is dropping fast" Nami pointed out, causing Chopper to hand out orders to the surrounding nurses in hopes of getting the patient's blood pressure back up.
"Doctor Kobato" the man impatiently frowned, displeased that the doctor wasn't stopping everything just to listen to him talk.
"We're in the middle of an operation! If you're going to stay, please be quiet!" Kobato snapped, not wanting the man to distract her any further during this important procedure.
"Excuse me, did I hear you right? You're performing surgery?" the man amusedly asked as if he couldn't quite believe what the woman had said. "The doctor that nearly faints every time she sees a paper cut!" he laughed before becoming serious once more. "There are reports of an unidentified doctor here" he glared, getting straight to business.
"Get out! The only thing you and your thugs will find in here is people giving their all to save precious lives—is that clear?!" Kobato scowled, not caring about whatever it was the man needed to say as she tried to regain focus on the patient before her.
"Let's go!" the man gruffly huffed when he finally realized that the doctor wasn't going to answer him—angrily turning and motioning for the men that surrounded him to follow as he left.
-Later-
"Surgery completed" Kobato sighed in relief as she finished operating on the last of the men.
"That was the last of our patients" one of the nurses smiled as they rolled the man out of the operating room and back to the infirmary where he could properly rest with the others.
"Good job, Dr. Kobato!" Nami grinned.
"You did a wonderful job for someone afraid of seeing others in pain" I praised. "Didn't even faint once."
"No, Chopper! Don't!" Nami gasped when the reindeer suddenly returned to normal size.
"You really are a great doctor!" he complimented as the woman turned around to face him.
"Thank you, but you're a much better doctor than I'll ever be, Mr. Raccoon Dog" Kobato smiled as if she hadn't even noticed the sudden change in the once large doctor's height nor the fact that he no longer even looked vaguely human-like.
"You stupid face! I'm not a raccoon dog, I'm a reindeer!" Chopper snapped before flinching as an alarm suddenly began to blare throughout the base. Curious, Kobato stood and peeked her head right out the doors of the operating room.
"Hello, excuse me" she said, attempting to get the attention of the two soldiers that were stationed right outside the room.
"Yes, ma'am?" one of them asked.
"The alarm? What's going on?" she curiously asked.
"Jailbreak, ma'am—it's those pirates" the soldier explained. "We're under a Code Red situation until they've been recaptured" he informed her.
"The Brass thinks that some of them might be held up in the base somewhere" the other soldier added.
"Those morons!" Nami irritably growled as the three of us quickly took refuge behind a curtain in an attempt to stay out of sight.
"I mean, this was bound to happen sooner or later" I sighed. "Should we really be surprised that they tripped the alarm and now have this whole place practically on lockdown?" I grumbled, already wondering who it was that tripped the alarm in the first place.
"I know, but why couldn't they have waited until we were all together" Nami frowned. "Now I bet Luffy and the others are going to the docks where the Going Merry has to be impounded" she huffed.
"Then that means that Luffy must have rescued Zoro—that's great new!" Chopper brightened.
"Rescued Zoro? What happened to him?" I curiously asked. "Pfft! Moron" I snorted once the reindeer was done explaining to me what had happened to the swordsman after Nami and I had left him.
"It would be great news if we knew the way out of the fortress or had an escape plan..." Nami grumbled. "Leave it to Luffy to forget the important stuff—I swear that guy is so absent-minded" she groaned.
"That's our captain for you" I sighed as the corners of my lips twitched upwards.
"Yeah, but now we don't have any choice—we got to get to that dock too and quick" Chopper said.
"You're right, we got to get out of here and meet up with the others before it's too late" Nami nodded. "The only problem is them" she said, motioning toward the two soldiers stationed right outside the room. It wasn't long after that that Kobato finally ended her small talk with the men as she gently closed the door and refused to open it when one of the men on the other side started knocking.
"Bloodthirsty...in disguise..." she weakly muttered, causing a startled gasp to leave Nami and Chopper's lips as they both quickly scampered over to the window and attempted to leave right through it. I only stood there, watching with a deadpan expression as they tried to fit through a window that was clearly too small for them to fit through at the same time.
A/N: Enjoy
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