Monster Among Monsters

Drum Castle.

Nami had just awakened from unconsciousness when she saw a humanoid creature covered in brown fur, wearing a tall red hat, busy with something. She asked where she was, only for him to suddenly panic. He stopped grinding medicine, ran behind the wall, and peeked out with half his body exposed, leaving Nami thoroughly confused.

Before she could say anything else, the creature hurried off again. The sounds of bottles and jars being knocked over rang out from time to time, while Nami stared blankly from the bed, speechless.

At that moment, Doctor Kureha came out from a nearby room, complaining that Chopper was too noisy as she introduced herself as the island's doctor. Zero followed behind Kureha and mentioned that Kureha and Chopper were the ones who had treated her. Nami immediately understood and quickly nodded her thanks to Kureha.

Kureha then stepped forward and explained the cause of her illness, pointing at Nami's ankle. "This condition was caused by a bite from Kestia, an insect-like creature. Patients can usually only hold on for five days. These past few days must have been quite miserable, right? You're already on the third day. Luckily, your companions brought you here early. Otherwise, your life would've been in danger!"

Hearing that, Nami looked at Zero, her eyes filled with complicated emotions—gratitude, joy, and affection. The lingering warmth between them made even Kureha helplessly rub her forehead as she interrupted, "That said, this species went extinct a hundred years ago. If not for the antibiotics I developed earlier, bringing you here wouldn't have saved you either."

Zero explained their previous experience on Little Garden. There was a good chance the island still had a species that had supposedly gone extinct long ago. Of course, he kept the matter of the Giant Tribe to himself. Only then did Kureha nod in realization.

Afterward, Kureha told Nami to rest properly and said she would need at least three more days before she could leave. Nami initially disagreed, feeling that it would delay their journey, but under Kureha and Zero's insistence, she could only agree.

"What are you doing?"

Chopper, who had been peeking from the side, suddenly felt his fur stand on end. The man before him vanished from right in front of his eyes, only to appear behind him the next instant!

"A ghost!"

Chopper shouted and tried to run away again, but Zero caught him, turned him around, and carried him over to Kureha's feet. Chopper clung to her pant leg as he watched the two of them.

"Chopper, your medical skills are pretty good. Do you want to be the doctor on our ship?"

"Ship's doctor?"

"Yeah, we're pirates!"

"Pirates!"

Chopper and Kureha were both surprised. They had heard from the villagers that a pirate crew had once come to the island, not only scaring away the king but also destroying the country. They had never expected these two seemingly harmless people to be pirates as well!

But that was all. To doctors, things like terminal illnesses were probably far more interesting. As for pirates, it did not really matter.

Before Chopper could respond, Zero walked over to Nami's bed on his own and said, "Still, I'll have to ask our captain about this first! Forget it, we'll leave it at that for now. Once Luffy gets here, I'll talk to him properly about it."

"..."

Chopper looked at them once more, then walked away, apparently going off to busy himself with something.

Kureha simply sat down and began telling Zero and Nami about Chopper. Only then did Nami learn that Chopper was a reindeer who had eaten the Human-Human Fruit, gaining human abilities and emotions. Having been driven away by both his herd and humans in the past, he was somewhat resistant to humans, which was why he had reacted so strongly to the two of them.

After finishing, Kureha looked at Zero and asked, "Did you really want to invite Chopper onto your ship? He's a monster, you know!"

Zero and Nami exchanged a smile and replied, "Our pirate crew is full of monsters!"

Kureha laughed. "Hahaha!"

After an unknown amount of time, Nami woke up from her sleep again.

Seeing that the door was open and cold wind was constantly blowing in from outside, she felt a little chilly and wanted to get up to close it. But before she could rise, Chopper appeared and shut the door. He also reminded Nami to be careful, warning her that the illness might relapse otherwise.

Nami felt a warmth in her heart and apologized to Chopper for her earlier rudeness. Chopper turned away and said that he would not accept an apology from a human, yet the next moment he awkwardly acted embarrassed. Nami immediately felt that Chopper was someone who was terrible at hiding his emotions.

Looking at Chopper's behavior, she suddenly thought that if he became the pirate crew's doctor, she could probably leave earlier. After all, Chopper could take care of her aboard the ship, and their previous plan to head to Alabasta could continue. So she invited Chopper again, asking whether he wanted to join their pirate ship.

Chopper retreated in fright until he reached the bookshelf, pointing at his blue nose as he said, "Look at this blue nose of mine. I'm a monster! I can't stay with humans!"

"Idiot, what are you thinking?"

Zero happened to enter through the door carrying food. He brought it to Nami's bedside and said that although it was not as delicious as Sanji's cooking, it should be nutritious enough. Then he turned to Chopper and said, "If you're a monster, then the ones we met before were monsters among monsters!"

"Really?"

Seeing the curious look on Chopper's face, Zero began telling him about their previous adventures—fish-men, the Millennium Dragon, and the enormous whale at Twin Capes. Chopper listened with growing longing. When Zero mentioned Dorry and Brogy of the Giant Tribe, Chopper exclaimed in amazement that such a wondrous species as giants actually existed in this world!

Later, Zero also spoke about the members of his pirate crew: a swordsman who liked using three swords, a cook who could not move whenever he saw a beautiful woman, a long-nosed sniper, and a princess of a kingdom. When Chopper heard that Luffy had eaten a Devil Fruit and was a rubber man, he suddenly felt that Zero's words did make some sense.

Zero said, "So, what do you think? Interested in being a pirate? If you join our ship, the adventures ahead will be incredibly exciting! Hahaha!"

Chopper was clearly tempted, but the next moment he ran out of the room, leaving the two of them baffled. In the end, Zero could only say disappointedly that his personal charm was indeed not enough. The role of inviting new crew members still had to be left to Luffy. Nami immediately burst out laughing at that.

"All right, Nami, stop laughing. Come eat."

"Okay~"