章節 39: We're the same!
Doctor Kureha was surprised to see Chopper and an unknown woman carry three patients into her home. She wouldn't turn away a patient of course and being strangers they might have something of value she could fleece from them in exchange for her treatment.
The two men weren't in too bad of shape and they were strong enough to recuperate on their own, so she had Chopper tend to their wounds.
The orange haired woman was the real problem. She was infected with an ancient disease only carried by a certain insect on ancient islands.
Thankfully it wasn't too late to treat her and she also possessed the necessary antibiotic. It wasn't a common medicine, so the young woman was very lucky she had some.
"Is Nami going to be okay?" The black winged woman asked. She was sitting on a chair away from all the shelves, after being shouted at for knocking things off with her wings.
"She'll be fine in about 3 days." Kureha answered.
"Oh, that's great!" Cabernet beamed. "Cherry said she would be within the week. I'm glad she'll be okay!"
Kureha was surprised to hear that. 'Kestia is believed to have gone extinct a hundred years ago. Is this Cherry that knowledgeable or does she just have good senses?'
When Kureha came out of her thoughts, Cabernet was looking at her like she had more questions.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Do you want to know the secret to my youth?" Kureha joked.
"OH! Will you tell me?!" Contrary to Kureha's expectations, the winged woman was actually interested.
"Sure, you just have to pay me 100,000,000 Beri! Heeheeheehee!" She laughed seeing Cabernet slump in disappointment.
Later on, Nami woke up and startled Chopper who promptly scurried off. Doctor Kureha checked on her condition and explained just how close she'd been to death.
A loud commotion began somewhere outside. Chopper came bounding into into the room with Sanji and Luffy close on his tail, seeming to want to eat him.
Cabernet appeared behind them with a demonic look on her face.
Both Cabernet and Chopper transformed, Chopper into a larger muscular humanoid form and Cabernet into a 5 meter tall wooden version of herself that looked like the figure head of a ship. They clobbered the heads of Sanji and Luffy simultaneously and ran off into the castle together.
""You transformed! How did you do that?!"" They asked simultaneously as they ran.
""I ate the human human fruit."" They both answered, but Cabernet added "Model: Lunarian."
"But you looked like you turned into wood?" Chopper asked, confused.
"I was originally a ship! What were you before?" Cabernet asked.
"I'm a reindeer..." Chopper informed, still trying to wrap his head around a ship eating a devil fruit.
"More importantly, we're the same! Kind of sort of in a way..." Cabernet smiled in delight for having something in common with him.
Chopper was filled with mixed emotions. He didn't know just how much he longed for similarity with another living creature until this moment. Doctor Kureha and Doctor Hiriluk were as good as family, but they were also normal humans. He could not truly feel the same as them even if they had treated him as if he were no different than any other person.
But here was another non-human who had eaten a human human devil fruit. Although she looked fairly normal by human standards, she was also terrifying. He imagined she would have been feared by humans just as he had.
*sniff sniff*
Chopper caught a scent on the air as they passed the front door of the castle. "This scent?!"
He transformed into his reindeer form and charged back towards where Kureha was. To warn her that Wapol had returned.
...
In Big Horn, the snow of the avalanche had settled.
Most of Wapol's standard soldiers had returned to take shelter from the blizzicane that grew ever more ferocious by the minute.
Wapol's Isshi-20 doctors had stayed behind and began treating the citizens who needed any medical help, as well as came to tend to Dalton and Cherry.
The citizenry didn't want to help Wapol's soldiers, but leaving them to die in the storm left a bad taste in their mouths. They decided to help, but only if the soldiers gave up their arms first.
The soldiers were more inclined to use force to get what they wanted, but after finding out about Jaxin's humiliating defeat at the hands of Cherry they surrendered.
After being treated, Dalton stood and made his way out of the home.
"Where are you going, bull-man?" Cherry asked.
"I'm going after Wapol, I can't let him do whatever he wants in this country." He said resolutely.
His words seemed to stir something within Usopp and Vivi, while Zoro just seemed to want a good fight. All three said they'd come along. Cherry just followed along, figuring there wasn't any real risk with Cabernet being up there with the others.
Some of the hardier militia men joined him as well, one of whom seemed to know of a safer way up the mountain that was only just found. A cable attached to Doctor Kureha's old home leading to the castle.
The piling snow and hail rained down upon them, but Cherry and Zoro were able to deal with the worst hailstones. They reached the cable car and began there way upwards.
Dalton revealed some of the country's history of oppression under Wapol, as well as the sacrifice of a kind quack doctor named Hiriluk. He revealed some dynamite that he planned to use to end Wapol's reign of terror once and for all.
...
Chopper, Kureha, and Cabernet were waiting outside the castle as Wapol and his two goons arrived at the top. Luffy and Sanji came outside as well, then Luffy rushed towards Wapol and nearly knocked him back down the mountain.
Apparently he was quite frustrated from before when he couldn't fight back.
Wapol transformed into some strange human factory hybrid and ate his two followers, spitting them back out in a "combined" stated, though it looked more like they were piggybacking as Sanji suggested.
Wapol tried to destroy the pirate flag flying over the castle, but Luffy protected it. A fight ensued with Luffy vs Wapol and the combined minions vs Chopper, Kureha stopped Sanji from interfering and Cabernet seemed to understand at least a little bit that Chopper needed to fight for himself.
Chopper used some strange medicine, which caught Cabernet's attention, and ultimately won his fight. Luffy had been distracted, so Wapol escaped into the castle.
A big chase ensued with Wapol running around in search of weapons and threatening Nami. Eventually Wapol was stuck in the roof of a tower and Luffy blasted him into the distance with his "bazooka" attack, just in time for Dalton's group to arrive and witness it.
The whole thing was wrapped up real nicely. Chopper resolving his past trauma, Dalton having his homeland's foe dealt with, and Luffy seeming to find his crew's new doctor.
The storm raged for only 3 or 4 hours as they took shelter within the castle. Nami managed to get her treatment fees waved since she swiped Wapol's armory key, which Kureha wanted for some reason.
Luffy and Cabernet managed to track down chopper who had been dodging them. He insisted he wouldn't join the crew, but it was clear he wanted to go with them. Luffy told him to shut up and come along, which seemed to be the last push he needed to accept.
He went to tell Doctor Kureha he was leaving, but it started an argument between them. Chopper insisting that he had to go and Kureha refusing to allow it.
Chopper brought the group down the mountain on a sled along the cable. When they reach the bottom and had traveled a ways, they heard cannon fire from the castle.
They turned to see an incredible sight. In the night sky illuminated by the full moon, there was a great mass of pink snow that was shaped like a beautiful, blooming cherry blossom.
章節 40: Human Human Fruits
After they set sail, Cabernet excitedly approached Cherry to tell her about her first outing by herself.
Cherry listened patiently and was particularly interested in Chopper. Having another sample of the human human fruit had the potential to further her understanding of devil fruit by leaps and bounds.
When Cabernet reached the part of her tale where Chopper used his Rumble Ball medicine to give himself additional devil fruit forms, Cherry looked across the deck at the little reindeer with greed in her eyes.
'A talented doctor with insights into the workings of devil fruit? Perhaps he is the one I am looking for to help supplement my lacking knowledge in the art of pill refining?' She pondered, but there was no point in just thinking about it in circles. So she simply went over to talk to him directly.
"Hello, I'm Harpin D. Cherry. It's nice to meet you." Cherry introduced herself. She held out her hand to him and gave her best business smile, which was the only way for her to deliberately look less menacing.
Chopper looked at her hand in confusion, but then he realized what she wanted from him. He could barely contain himself at the thought of his first handshake.
He reached out a tiny hoof, but stopped himself. He transformed into his large form, the only one with proper hands, and clasped Cherry's hand gently, eyes twinkling with wonder.
"Weren't you shouting about being a man before? A man has to have a firm handshake, like so!" Cherry said and clenched his hand hard.
"Geh!" Chopper winced, but he quickly gripped her hand in turn.
"Hehehe, there you go. I knew you could do it." Cherry said, releasing the handshake.
Chopper rubbed his hand seeming proud of himself.
"Cabernet told me that you have a medicine that can influence your devil fruit powers, can you tell me more about those?" Cherry inquired.
"Oh, my Rumble Balls! Hmm, I suppose I could tell you, but you might not understand..." Chopper clearly wanted to go on a passionate rant, but was worried he'd go too far.
"Don't worry whether I'll understand, just let loose and I'll ask questions where I need to." Cherry encouraged.
Chopper kept things simple at first, explaining the basic idea of the wavelengths of devil fruit and how the Rumble Balls distorted them to create new forms. However, as Cherry asked her questions, he quickly realized he could go into the deeper nitty gritty details.
The two of them chattered away for hours throughout the night before their hungry stomachs forced them to pause their discussion. The others aboard the Going Merry stopped understanding what they were talking about 10 minutes in and gave up trying to follow along. Except for Luffy and Cabernet, who were completely lost almost immediately.
While the group ate breakfast, Cherry compared the devil fruit inscriptions of Cabernet and Chopper with her Life Sense. She noted the various similarities between the two, then a thought occurred to her.
She shifted her Life Sense over to Luffy who was currently trying to eat from everyone else's plates despite not even having finished his own.
"Luffy, are you sure the fruit you ate was a paramecia?" Cherry asked, prodding his thieving hand with a fork.
Previously she had noticed some similarities between his and Cabernet's devil fruit inscriptions, but had not thought much more about it. However, she realized now that the areas of overlap between Cabernet and Chopper's devil fruits overlapped a great deal with Luffy's devil fruit as well. She did not think this was coincidence.
"Of course it was a paramecia, Shanks told me so." Luffy answered with a mouth full of food.
"Hm, I don't think that's right though. I think your devil fruit is a zoan type. Specifically one of the human models. It bears many similarities with both Chopper and Cabernet's devil fruits." Cherry speculated.
"I've never heard of any humans with rubber bodies, though?" Nami posed. The others indicated they hadn't either.
"Well, it's not like you've seen all the kinds of people in the world. It could even be a mythical model like the Fleet Admiral Sengoku's human human devil fruit. He can transform himself into a golden Daibutsu. At least that's what Don Chinjao told me." Cherry responded.
"Mmm, it doesn't matter either way, does it?" Luffy asked, not seeing the point.
"Well, to put it in a way you might be interested in, it could mean you can transform." Cherry said.
'Oh, wow. His eyes are shining so brightly it actually hurts to look at him directly.' Cherry thought, covering her eyes with her hand.
Luffy jammed the rest of his food into his mouth in one go, then rushed outside.
The rest finished up as well and went outside to see what he was up to. Luffy was doing various poses while shouting different words and phrases, trying to trigger a transformation presumably.
"I can't figure it out. Chopper, how do you transform, tell me pleeeeease!" He begged, grabbing onto Chopper's leg.
"I don't know, I just do it! Let go of my leg now!" Chopper tried to pull his leg away from him.
"Oh, I know! Give me one of your Rumble Balls, Chopper! That'll let me transform, right?!" Luffy demanded.
"I created those through years of painstaking trial and error! They'll only work properly for me and my devil fruit!" Chopper insisted.
While the two were arguing with one another, Cherry was thinking. 'Was I wrong after all? Then what could it be that makes them the same? Perhaps mythical zoan fruit work differently? Maybe I'll get a chance to see the fleet admiral in action some day and confirm it.'
...
About 5 days into the voyage, the ship was running low on food supplies thanks to a few idiots. Said idiots were currently being forced to fish with little luck.
They spotted a large amount of steam directly in their path, which Nami explained was safe enough to pass through.
When they passed through to the other side, they were greeted with a strange sight.
"PLEASE, HELP ME SOMEBODY! ANYBODY!"
A little ways ahead they spotted a ship that seemed to be drenched in blood manned by a crew of cannibals.
How did they know they were cannibals, you ask?
Because they were currently roasting a man dressed in strange swan-themed garb over a bonfire.
Naturally, the Straw Hats could never ignore a cry for help and decided to interrupt a perfectly good meal.
They sailed full speed ahead and leapt onto the other ship once it was close enough, almost slipping in the disturbing amount of blood soaking the deck.
"Who are you bastards!" Cried the 'nameless' goons who were promptly swept away by more important characters.
Cherry landed next to the swan man. "Hey, not to be a DOWN-er, but it looks like your GOOSE is COOKED. Hehehehehe."
"THEY'RE SWANS, DAMN IT! OUCH! UNTIE ME ALREADY, YOU FOOL!" The swan man shouted.
Cherry cut him free and he took part in kicking goon butt with a rather... "flamboyant" martial art. Cherry didn't feel that it was really her style, but it seemed decent enough that if she had the chance she would consider learning it. One could never have too many weapons in their arsenal.
"Oi Oi Oi. What's going on out here?" A deep voice issued forth.
A man wearing a leather apron covered in blood and wielding a massive cleaver came out onto the deck. He stood 4 meters tall, had an enormous gut, had not a single hair on his body, and had teeth filed to points.
"Captain Butch! They're too strong for us! Please help!" A goon shouted near him.
"HAH!" Butch swung his cleaver cutting the goon in half. The blood from the corpse flowed unnaturally fast out onto the deck. "Coward, don't come to me to solve your problems."
Luffy, ever the proponent of the bond between friends, was naturally enraged at the sight of this betrayal. He charged towards the cleaver wielding brute without any other thought than to pummel him into the ground.
每周推薦票狀態
200+ 推薦票
榜單 
348 推薦票 您可能也喜歡
段落評論