Chapter 10: Dr Kureha
"That's a big mountain right there, and Luffy climbed the whole thing while carrying Nami on his back."
"Luffy carries Nami so hard; his back must hurt doing all this carrying."
Ace whistled in amazement. Luffy always does things Ace would never consider doing. Ace had almost stopped bothering with Luffy's antics.
"So how should I climb this thing? Or better yet, should I just blast the whole mountain with flames?"
"This will probably destroy the mountain, but it will also save me some time. What to do?"
Just when Ace was having some dangerous thoughts, he heard two hooves fall onto the snow behind him.
Ace quickly turned around, and he found a weird creature—a two-legged, hairy reindeer-looking thing—who was wearing a doctor's hat.
*Step*
By this time, the creature had also noticed Ace and was frozen in fear.
'That's chopper? I almost didn't recognize him. At this point in time, he was still considered a monster and I can see why.'
Ace grinned and casually sat down, coming face-to-face with Chopper. Who was currently frozen in fear?
"How are you doing, little fella? I was hungry and you showed up just in time."
Ace gave Chopper a cheerful thumbs up, but his words made Chopper almost get a stroke.
"No! I am not food! Save me!!"
Chopper snapped out of his shock and screamed in fear. He turned around and ran.
He was just out in the forest looking for some herbs. When he wanted to walk back home he bumped into Ace, who standing below the mountain.
If he knew there was a human here, Chopper would never show his face.
"Where are you going? I am still hungry and you can definitely help. You look like a doctor, right? It's your duty to help people."
Ace ran behind Chopper smoothly, happily patting Chopper's hat as if he were checking the food quality.
This made Chopper almost faint from fear. In his terrified state, Chopper turned around.
"No! I can't help you like that! I am sorry."
Chopper wiped his tears, and suddenly his body grew twice the size of Ace. His muscles bulged, and his aura changed. Chopper's muscles were now four times Ace's own biceps.
"Aaaa!"
The big Chopper punched Ace with force, yet strangely, Ace didn't dodge. He instead stood with his hand on his hat.
*Bang*
Chopper's eyes widened comically; he had just punched Ace. But instead of knocking Ace out, he had punched a hole in Ace's chest.
"Aaaagh! I am sorry. I will treat you right away. What do I do? What do I do?"
Chopper's large body immediately shrank down to his small form. He panicked and ran up to Ace.
"Lie down quickly. You are seriously injured."
Chopper quickly pulled Ace down and took out his medicine bag. He didn't notice Ace's curious look and seriously started to treat Ace.
"Huh, your wound is on fire! How is that possible? It's not going out; I cannot put out the falmes!"
Chopper was fully confused and flustered; not only did he seriously injure someone, he also could not treat the patient's wounds.
Ace silently chuckled at this display of professionalism, then grabbed his chest in mock pain.
"Oh no, what have you done? I have a rare body that's flammable. Now that you have punctured me like a balloon, I just might die. Gah!"
Ace held his chest and tried hard to squeeze out some tears, but he couldn't. So Ace did the next best thing and looked away.
"I didn't know; I am so sorry!! How can I help you??"
Chopper was bowing down and apologizing profusely. Ace shook his head with a sigh.
"How cruel to die at the hands of a doctor!"
"But if you must help me, you have to promise. Join my crew reindeer person. It's the least you could do for me."
Ace trapped Chopper with zero guilt or shame. Chopper was visibly taken aback by this, but agreed after a lot of internal struggle.
"I can join your crew. Dr. Kureha might be upset, but I will join. It was my fault for injuring you."
When Chopper finally agreed to join, Ace immediately got up like nothing had happened.
"Welcome to the crew; you won't regret joining us."
Ace shook Chopper's hand and quoted Dragon by the way. And just like Dragon, his promise was entirely hollow. Chopper shook his hands happily for a few seconds before he snapped.
"Wait, why are you standing? Where is the wound? Weren't you dying??"
Chopper questioned Ace angrily, and Ace just whistled.
"I am dying, of old age. I got like a 100 years left in me or something."
Ace casually made up a clumsy excuse, which miraculously did confuse Chopper somehow.
Ace quickly hit the hammer on the head and said,.
"Wait, you just agreed to join my crew. You aren't going to break your promise are you?"
"Gasp! Don't tell me you are one of those promise breakers.!"
Ace stumbled back in fake shock, which made Chopper even more confused and panicked.
"Huh? No, I never break my promise. I will join your crew!"
"I am Chopper; what is your name, Mr. Captain?"
Chopper spoke again; he was now convinced that this was the right thing to do.
And Ace laughed happily; he had finally tricked the good doctor into his crew.
"Nice to meet you, Chopper. My name is Ace. Portgas D Ace."
Ace held his hat and introduced himself to Chopper.
"Are you sure it's not Gol D Ace, kid?"
When suddenly, Ace heard these words from behind. It made him pause for a second and then turn around.
"Dr Kureha.. I am a bit curious; how could you tell?"
Ace spoke softly, but hearing his voice somehow made Chopper's hair stand. Something about Ace's aura had changed just now.
It felt like he wanted to kill someone. Like he wanted to silence Kureha for saying something she shouldn't have.
*Snort*
"You don't need to kill me, kid. I know better than that. I won't open my mouth about some things."
Kureha snorted with a toothy smile. She was indeed a witch-like person. Her body was very young but her face was extremely old.
Although she noticed her words weren't enough to extinguish Ace's desire to kill her, now she was suddenly regretting opening her mouth.
Ace meanwhile, was silently watching her. He knew she was the first person in the series to call Roger by his real name, she also knew something deeper about his story that she refused to tell.
Ace knew his identity was very dangerous; he did not want it to leak so soon. But Kureha somehow connected the dots between him and Roger.
Ace wanted Kureha gone but he also wanted to know where he had slipped up. What did he do that made it obvious, that he was related to the pirate king.
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