Chapter 9

Chopper ran back into the castle to say his goodbyes to Dr. Kureha while Vivi, Rose and the Straw Hats waited outside in the snowy night for the newest pirate.

Rose rolls up a large snowball to get started on a snowman as she thinks about what's to happen. She recalls how, while Chopper and Kureha's goodbye wasn't the most traditional, it was still a great way for them to have parting words before Chopper's journey began, unlike her...

Rose stops making her snowman when she remembers the few friends in her world that she accidentally left behind and looks back at the castle sadly. Sure, if she had known that she was leaving New York, she would've said something to Timothy, Naomi, and Bobby. Still, the thought of her friends worrying about her disappearance makes her feel like the scum of the earth.

"How come we can't say goodbye to Dalton and the hag?" Rose snaps out of her trance to see Luffy sitting on his own giant snowball while talking to Nami.

Nami quietly sighs as she looks at the castle. "It's better if we let Chopper go by himself since this will be a very sad goodbye. Even though Dr. Kureha looks scary and mean, she's a kind person."

Usopp finishes up his snowman before he turns to Nami. "So we're leaving without saying a word?"

The navigator nods. "That's right; once Chopper comes back, we're heading to Alabasta."

She turns to Vivi with a smile. "I hope that's fine with you Vivi."

Vivi quickly nods with a reassuring smile. "Of course, since we have a doctor on board, I have no problems with it."

Luffy tilts his head at the comment. "We have a doctor?"

Usopp ignores the question as he heads to the lift station. "Well, since we're leaving, I'll get the lift ready. Hey Luffy, would you give me a hand?"

Luffy nods as he rolls towards him on the large snowball. "They have a lift too? Cool!"

He follows Usopp into the lift station to get to work on getting the lift ready while everyone else continues to wait for the humanoid reindeer to come out.

Which didn't take long because as soon as the lift was ready, they heard screaming from men, women, and reindeer alike followed by the sound of throwing knives!

Before anyone can investigate the chaos, they're astonished by the sight of Chopper running outside in his walk point while pulling a sleigh, with Dr. Kureha running after him and throwing weapons at him.

Chopper continues to dodge the weapons, with no time to explain, as he runs towards his new friends. "EVERYONE, GET ON THE SLED! WE'RE GOING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN!"

No one needed to be told twice as they run to the sleigh, and jump on to join the crazy cjaze between the reindeer and the knife throwing elder in shock.

Zoro yells in horror when he quickly tilts his upper body back to dodge one of her knives. "What the hell is with this hag?!"

He almost falls off the sled, but Usopp grabs him and pulls him on the sled before he quickly ducks to dodge a knife. "The hell if I know!"

"STOP!" Dr. Kureha yells as she throws the last of her knives at the sled which everyone ducks to avoid when Chopper jumps onto the lift line, and runs on it to head down the mountain.

Luffy looks around at the island view where village lights shine below him with stars in his eyes. "Whoa, this is awesome!"

Sanji goes into his pocket and grabs a cigarette before he starts smoking. "Enjoy it while you can, because as soon as we reach the ship we're leaving."

Rose looks around to take in as much of the beautiful view as possible. Even with the sky being dark, all the lights from the villages could be seen from the incredible height, and with the gentle snowfall, it a sight to behold. With an amazing sight like this actually possible for her to see, she's all the more grateful. Especially since the best sight of them all is still yet to be seen.

She looks back at the castle and softly grins at the pirate flag that's flying at the top of the castle. *I look forward to seeing your cherry blossoms Dr. Hiruluk.*

As she and the others continue to enjoy the beautiful night, Chopper looks back at the mountain top to see Dr. Kureha scowling down at him through the snowfall. He can't handle her disapproving look anymore, so he focuses on getting his new crew down the mountain. Once Chopper makes it down to the large tree, where the line is tied, he jumps onto the ground while he continues to drag the sled with him.

Luffy grins in excitement of the sleigh ride as they travel through the forest. "That was awesome! Let's go again!"

Nami whacks him on the head in disapproval. "This isn't a ride!"

Vivi nods in agreement as she looks ahead. "Nami's right, we need to get going. Are you alright Chopper? We can walk from here."

Chopper shakes his head as he keeps pulling the sled through the woods. "I'm fine with this, which way to the ship?"

Zoro looks around for the right direction, then looks left. "We should go left."

Nami shakes her head. "We need to go right!"

"Got it!" Chopper follows Nami's advice and runs to the right while Dr. Kureha stares at the fleeing sled from the top of the mountain.

"Is it really ok to say goodbye like this Dr. Kureha?"

The doctor doesn't turn her attention to Dalton's voice as he walks up to the old woman, but instead she starts smiling. "Heh, he's just a pet that I was asked to take care of."

She keeps a strong smile on her face as tears start falling off her cheeks and land into the snow beneath her. "Sad goodbyes are pointless..."

Dalton softly smiles at the weeping old woman until she stops crying, grabs his ear and starts dragging him back to the castle. "Come with me!"

"Ouch!" He struggles to keep his footing as she brings him into the castle.

Once they're inside, she releases his ear and smirks to see that almost all the cannons are out of the weapon room. "Since he's leaving the island, we need to give him a goodbye that he'll never forget! Make sure that the cannons are ready on the roof."

Dalton nervously nods as he runs to the roof to make sure that there are no problems with the cannons. Dr. Kureha heads into the infirmary and takes out a brown sack, that Hiruluk gave her, from one of her drawers with a smirk on her face. "Time to see if your research paid off you old quack."

She heads up to the roof where ten cannons are lined up at the edge of the roof and gives the bag to Dalton. "Be sure to use this in all the cannons."

Dalton nods as he rushes to place the red powder that was in the bag in each cannon. Once the cannons are ready Dr. Kureha keeps her smirk up while crossing her arms over her chest. "Everyone, aim the cannons for the sky and fire!"

The villagers manning each cannon salute her before they follow her orders. "Yes ma'am!"

They fire the red powder into the clouds causing Dalton to look at her in confusion. "What exactly are you planning here?"

She looks out into the forest once more before looking up at where the cannons were shot. "You'll see in a moment."

Chopper continues running through the woods with the sled and tries his best not to look back at the mountain that he abandoned when thoughts of his adoptive father's research come into mind.

As he begins to remember how happy Dr. Hiruluk was when he told him that his research was completed he starts clenching his eyes shut. He doesn't want to believe that his adoptive father lied, but since he never saw them it's hard to believe it.

He pauses when he suddenly hears the sound of cannon fire behind him then stops the sled. He turns around along with the rest of the group and they freeze at the sight in front of them.

No one could believe their eyes when they see that the summit of the drum shaped mountain that they just fled became covered with a large pink cloud to make the mountain resemble a tree. What's the most amazing about this sight is that pink snow started falling from the cloud just as cherry blossoms would from their tree.

Chopper turns back into brain point and slowly walks to the front of the sled to get a closer look at the sight when the pink snow starts gently falling towards them.

Luffy widely smiles at the pink snow that's flowing with the wind around them. "Wow, this is so cool!"

Usopp quickly nods as he grins at the cherry blossom like snow. "This is amazing!"

Rose softly grins at the beautiful sight, that the result of Hiruluk's research, while she unconsciously caresses her crystal necklace. As she gazes at one of the many wonders of this world, she can only feel gratitude for being able to see it in person instead of from a book.

Chopper though, is the most stunned of them all. All it took was for one of the pink snowflakes landed on Chopper's blue nose for him to snap out of it, and let tears begin welling up in his eyes. "T-these, are cherry blossoms? Doctorine... WAAAH!"

The other turn in shock to see the new pirate openly crying from joy of the sight. They softly smile at him before they look away to allow him to continue crying from seeing the cherry blossoms.

Dr. Kureha manages to hear her assistant's crying, then tears up herself as she grins down at the forest. "Take care, my stupid son."

Dalton softly grins at her as he watches the pink snow gently falling around him. "This truly is an amazing sight."

Dr. Kureha nods as she looks out at the ocean. "They should be sailing away any moment now."

Dalton nods as he takes a seat and enjoys the view. "I honestly never thought that a reindeer would carry out that great doctor's will."

Dr. Kureha chuckles as she sits down, grabs a flask from her jacket and takes a swig. "If Hiruluk can make cherry blossoms appear on a winter island, then I can't see why a reindeer can't become a pirate."

Dalton begins to chuckle before two villagers that stayed inside to get warm ran over to Dalton. "Mr. Dalton!"

He looks back in confusion when they run up to him with a wanted poster in one of their hands.

"I completely forgot that we have something to tell you."

"What is it?"

"Take a look!" He gives the wanted poster to him causing Dalton and Dr. Kureha to widen their eyes to see Luffy's smiling face on the paper.

Dalton couldn't take his eyes off the wanted poster as he reads that Luffy's capture is worth 30 million beli. "His bounty's worth 30 million?"

Dr. Kureha couldn't help but laugh at the bounty as she takes the poster. "Looks like Chopper left with some dangerous people. Hahaha!"

Dalton turns back to the villagers. "Where did you guys get this?"

"Well, we forgot to tell you. Last week there was a man in Ropel. Nobody knew where he was from, but he said that he's looking for the Blackbeard pirates."

The other villager nods. "When we told him that they weren't here he asked if we knew a pirate with a straw hat."

Dalton widens his eyes at this while continuing to listen to the villager's explanation. "When we told him that we never saw him before, he gave us the poster and told us to give him a message if we saw him."

Dalton quirks an eyebrow at the statement. "A message?"

The villager nods as he continues. "He said to tell him that Ace will be waiting for him in Alabasta for ten days."

Dalton nods in understanding. "I see, I don't think we should worry about that."

The villagers look at him in confusion. "Why's that?"

"Because their next destination is Alabasta."

One of the villagers looks at Dr. Kureha who has been quiet the whole time in confusion. "You've been pretty quiet Doctor Kureha."

The doctor nods as she gives them the poster. "Do you know who Gol D Roger is?"

The other villager looks at her in confusion. "D? Wait, you mean Gold Roger? There's not a single person in the world who doesn't know his name."

Dr. Kureha chuckles at the name. "So they're calling him Gold Roger now huh?"

The others look at her in confusion as she gets up and walks inside. "Good to know that his will is still alive. Can't wait to see what happens next."

Everyone outside could only stare at the leaving doctor before they follow her inside to get some rest in order to get ready to recreate their new country.

Once the crew made it back to the ship, Vivi widened her eyes in shock when she saw a large frozen duck floating in the water. "CARUE!"

Carue weakly quacks when Luffy stretches his arm to grab Carue's wing, that's above the surface, then pulls him out of the water.

Vivi quickly brings Carue onto the deck while Rose and Nami run inside and come back with a few blankets to warm up the duck.

"Thank you!" Vivi quickly wraps the blankets around him while the others climbed aboard. "Why were you in the water Carue?!"

Carue weakly quacks in response with Zoro chuckling at him. "He probably fell into the water."

Vivi glares at him as she keeps warming up the duck. "Shut up!"

When Carue starts warming up he begins quacking more.

Chopper listens to him closely before he translates for the others. "He says that 'he saw Zoro jump into the water and disappear. He thought he was drowning so he jumped after him.'"

Nami widens her eyes at the explanation before she whacks the swordsman on the head. "So this was your fault!"

Vivi blinks at the translation Chopper gave her. "You can understand what Carue says?"

Chopper nods. "Since I was originally an animal, I can understand animal language."

Nami grins in excitement. "That's wonderful! This ability along with your medical knowledge will be really helpful."

Chopper couldn't help the smile growing on his face as he starts dancing. "Quit it asshole! You should know that words like that won't make me happy!"

Rose couldn't help but grin at the dance that she can never get tired of.

Usopp and Luffy could only sweat drop at the dance. "If you're not happy then you shouldn't be dancing..."

Sanji looks at Nami in confusion. "Hey Nami, what did you mean when you said he had medical knowledge?"

"He's a doctor."

All of the boys look at the reindeer in utter shock. "WHAT?!"

Nami sweat drops at the reaction. "Why did you think I wanted him to join us?"

Luffy stares at her blankly as he answers. "Because he can grow big and small."

Sanji puffs a smoke from his cigarette before answering. "Emergency food supply."

Chopper flinches at that before he realizes that he forgot something. "Wait, I forgot my bag! It has all of my medical supplies in it!"

Rose tilts her head in confusion before she points to the sled. "You mean the bag that's in the sled?"

Chopper widens his eyes when he sees Rose use her wind to lift a blue medical backpack, with a white 'X' mark decorating it, off the back of the sled and land it on the deck in front of Chopper.

Chopper quickly grabs the bag and looks inside to see that everything he needs is inside. "How did it get in the sled?"

Nami grins down at the bag. "Dr. Kureha must have done it."

Chopper looks down at the bag softly as he remembers looking back at Dr. Kureha when he was running down the mountain and spots a glimpse of her sadly watching him leave before she scowled at him. "Doctorine..."

Luffy begins to grin before he raises his fists into the air. "ALRIGHT, LET'S SET SAIL!"

The rest of the crew nods as they release the sails and begin sailing off the island. Once the ship began to move, Zoro went into the kitchen and came out few bottles of liquor in his hands. "If we're going to watch the cherry blossoms while we're leaving then we should have a cherry blossom party."

"Don't go taking the booze when you want to moss head!" Zoro manages to safely put the booze down before getting into a leg and sword clash with Sanji.

Luffy widens his eyes at the idea before he eagerly nods. "Yea, come on guys! Let's party!"

Usopp eagerly nods before he turns to his new crew mate. "Hey Chopper, come join us!"

Chopper widens his eyes at the invitation before he nods and joins Luffy and Usopp in dancing with chopsticks up their noses. "Ok!"

As Drum island was growing smaller in view, the party continued to erupt on the ship. Zoro doesn't hesitate to drink as much booze while Nami and Vivi are eating some of the treats that Sanji prepared together.

Luffy, Usopp, Chopper and Carue snuck a few drinks before they danced around with chopsticks up their noses while they sang as out of tune as they possibly can.

Rose could only smile at the party as she sits on the railing, a few feet away from everyone, and watches them having fun while she eats one of Sanji's treats. As she watches the crew enjoying themselves, she can't help but think back on the fantastic adventure that she experienced with them and admire how they can overcome everything that she's read about them and then some. It makes her all the more excited to experience Alabasta with them before she makes the island her home.

She swallowed the last of her food when she felt her heart grow a little heavy from the thought of leaving the crew. She shakes her head to get rid of the feeling, because she shouldn't be upset about that. She already knew that she had to stay behind to not cause them any trouble with her research. She just needs to enjoy her time with them while she can.

She snaps out of her trance when she suddenly starts floating off the railing. She softly sighs as she stops herself from rising up any further, but doesn't try to land. At the very least she can distract herself from the thought of being alone again by training on her powers.

She flies past the party to get to the back of the ship when she feels a rubber arm stretch around her waist and pull her towards the owner.

Luffy reels the blushing girl next to him, and gives her a toothy grin. "What are you doing flying away? The party's right here."

She turns away from Luffy to hide her blush from the embrace when her wind drops her on her feet, and pulls herself out of his arms. "I think it's better if I get the hang of my flying ton-!"

She cuts herself off when Nami stumbles in and hands her a mug of beer. "Quit worrying about your flying and have some fun! It's a party!" She starts hiccuping before she goes off to grab herself another mug.

Luffy grabs a mug for himself before he turns to the wind girl. "Nami's right, don't worry so much and join the fun!"

Rose is surprised by the order, but slowly nods in agreement and looks down at the cup while Luffy yells out to the crew. "HERE'S TO CHOPPER JOINING THE CREW!"

"YEA!" Everyone clashes their mugs together and parties the night away while the winter island fades off in the distance.

Hours after the party had commenced, Rose and Vivi, who were the only sober ones left, have begun dragging their drunken friends to their beds. After a lot of struggling and listening to their friends' drunken babbling, they've managed to work together to get almost everyone to their rooms.

Vivi manages to bring Carue onto the futon then sighs from exhaustion before she realizes something important and turns to Rose, who's tucking Chopper in on a spare hammock. "Wait a minute, why didn't you use your wind to carry everyone in at once?!"

Rose widens her eyes at the realization that she could have spared them an hour of scraping their drunk friends off the deck before she blushes in embarrassment, and rubs the back of her head sheepishly. "Umm, can we go with all the excitement from the island, along with the party, made me forget that I could do that?"

Vivi is taken aback by the excuse before she groans in defeat. "I suppose so, I forgot too... Who's left?"

Rose looks around the guys' room to see that everyone is sleeping soundly except for one person. "Since we brought Nami to our room, it looks like Luffy's the only one left. Since he's passed out, it shouldn't be too hard."

"Ok, then let's-!"

Vivi accidentally starts yawning while Rose turns to her. "Why don't you go to bed Vivi? Like you said, I can use my wind to carry him, so it'll be easy."

Vivi nods as she heads out of the room. "Ok, if you say so. Thank you."

"Don't mention it." Rose heads out of the room and onto the deck where Luffy is snoring away with his face flushed from all the alcohol he drank.

She walks over to Luffy, while being careful to not step on his limbs, and looks down at his passed out body blankly. "Damn, how much booze did you drink?"

She doesn't get an answer when she starts using her wind to lift Luffy up, just when the drunk captain's dark eyes began to slowly open up. Once he saw Rose's pale face, he smiled from ear to ear. "ROSE~!"

The freckled girl didn't have any time to react when Luffy suddenly stretches his arms around her and slingshots towards her!

She stumbles back from the hug, and breaks her concentration before she forces herself to stumble forward to regain her balance with Luffy clinging to her.

Once she managed to keep both her feet on the deck, she blushed at the closeness as she pushes him away, but he won't let go. "What the hell Luffy?"

Luffy stubbornly keeps his arms around her shoulders while he laughs at her flustered face. "Shishishi, your face got red again. Hey, can you change your face into different colors?"

She blinks at the question before she chuckles, and gives up on getting the clinging captain off her. "I think I might be able to turn green."

He widens his eyes at the answer before he stares at her with excitement in his eyes. "Really?! I wanna see!"

She teasingly smiles at him before she looks away. "Sorry, only happens when i'm super nauseous."

He pouts at the rejected answer. "Boo~!"

He looks at her blankly, as if he forgot the whole thing and changes the subject. "Hey, can meat poop?"

She chuckles at the random question before she turns to the door while keeping her arm around Luffy's waist to keep him standing, and starts walking to the door with him. "I don't think so. We should get you inside."

Luffy blinks in surprise before he drags his feet to slow them down. "Aww, why? I don't wanna go to bed."

She struggles to keep them balanced as she gives him a questioning look to hide her frustration. "But if don't go inside, then how are we gonna get to Alabasta?"

Luffy widens his eyes in utter shock while he stops them from walking. "Alabasta's in the ship?! Merry knows that we need to go to Alabasta! Why's she hiding the island from us?!"

She starts trembling from holding back from laughing, because she didn't expect him to go to that conclusion, and points to the door to go along with it. "I-I think she wanted to surprise you..."

Luffy grins at her, as if she makes perfect sense, then stumbles along with her, while he raises a fist in the air. "Really?! Then what are we waiting for?! Off to Alabasta!"

"Off to Alabasta!" She walks to the door while half dragging a fumbling rubber man with her.

Once inside, Luffy looks around in the hallways to try to find the mystery island. "Where's Alabasta?!"

"I think Merry hid it in the guys' room."

Luffy starts nodding as if what she said wasn't weird at all. "Oh, hey if lapins are rabbits then why are they so big? Are they mystery rabbits? Can they poop?"

Rose couldn't take it anymore and starts laughing which starts irritating the tipsy captain. "This is a question of life and death! Be serious!"

She takes a deep breath to calm herself down before she gives him a shaky smile . "Hahaha, O-ok, umm, I think they're definitely mystery rabbits, and I'm sure they can poop too."

Luffy blinks in surprise before he shows off a toothy grin. "Awesome~! We should ask them to join the crew!"

She shakes her head, while she recovers from her laughing fit, when they reach the door to the guys' room. "I don't think you'd want them in your crew, we should focus on getting to Alabasta."

She manages to bring him into the guys' room when Luffy looks around the room. "This is Alabasta?"

She nods as she looks around as if she's looking for the crew's enemy. "You can say that. It looks like Crocodile ran away after he heard that you were coming."

Luffy nods in approval, with a determined scowl, and marches inside with her. "Good, if he was here I'd kick his ass!"

She chuckles as she takes his hat off to place it on the night stand next to his hammock, before she uses her wind to lay him down onto his hammock while pulling his arms off her. When he's finally lying down on the hammock, she pulls a blanket over his body. "I have no doubt about it. Now that Alabasta's safe, I have to go. Good night."

She turns around to leave when Luffy suddenly grabs onto her hand.

Rose widens her eyes at the hand that's stopping her from leaving then looks to see Luffy sitting up with his bangs covering his eyes. "What's the matter Lu-?!"

"I want you to join my crew!"

TO BE CONTINUED