Untitled

 

 

"FINALLY! Victory is mine, Chopperman!" sneered the evil Doctor Usodabada, as a clap of thunder timed itself with an eerie precision to the mad doctor's laugh. His long mustache bounced with each belly laugh he let out. His castle's lighting gave off more of the appearance of a tomb than the once proud sign of the kind king's that had come before it. He looked to his nemesis, the heroic Chopperman, illuminated under the light of a single spotlight he had kept for, seemingly, just such an occasion and seeing him brought so low before him, his flair for the dramatic couldn't help but get the better of him; he began gloating like any great villain would.

 

"Capturing you like I had was mere child's play! The fair damsel I captured made for a fine bait didn’t it? You, and your predictable heroism! Now nothing stands before me as I prepare to take over the wor- HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

 

"Huh?" grunted the fair damsel the doctor had just spoken of. She had taken the liberty of freeing herself and her rescuer from their treacherous fate, leaving them both to do whatever they had pleased; in this case, they had started walking up the stairs to the kitchen to see if the cook had anything to eat. "Oh yeah, that was boring sitting there waiting. I wanted to do something else."

 

The evil doctor fumed, his nose shaking with anger, "WAIT. I JUST HAD YOU AND CHOPPERMAN CAPTURED AND YOU GOT BORED WITH IT?!"

 

"Well, yeah, I was just sitting there and you kept talking,"

 

"I was talking because that's what the villain does when he thinks he's won! It's what ANY villain would do!"

 

"Well, it's BORING!"

 

"HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT! I HAD THIS STORY ALL FIGURED OUT!"

 

The small hero, bedecked in his traditional fuzzy pink hat and billowing cape, let out a sigh of frustration as he tuned out the bickering going on before him. This was the third time they had tried to play Chopperman, and the third time it ended with the damsel in distress getting bored and changing the story.

 

Chopper's imagination had faded. No longer were they in Doctor Usodabada's secret castle hideout, but aboard the Going Merry, sailing her way through the oceans of The Grand Line. No longer had the evil Doctor laughed his belly laugh with a mustache that bounced with each chortle; he was just Usopp, with his long hair tied to the base of his equally long nose as if to simulate a handlebar mustache. No longer was the damsel who had just effortlessly escaped her predicament standing before him, but instead it was his friend and Captain of the Going Merry, the decidedly male Monkey D. Luffy. And no longer was he Chopperman, his cape billowing in the wind as it would for any great hero, but instead the meek ship’s doctor; Tony Tony Chopper. He and his two friends had found the biggest towel they could find on the ship to make the perfect cape for this game, but the way this game looked to continue still remain a towel; something not entirely easy to have flying from anyone’s shoulders in any heroic fashion.

 

Chopper peered out across the deck of the ship while his two friends continued their argument, and looked about to see if anyone else on the crew would like to join in and break up this disagreement. Nami, the ship’s navigator, was busy working on a new map in her room, and never liked to be disturbed unless it was for the most critical of moments. To interrupt her with something like this would have been a terrible idea. Sanji was busy cooking up food for the crew and so that left him usually preoccupied throughout the day. Zoro had Crow’s Nest duty today, but he was fairly sure he could hear their resident swordsman sleeping soundly from the high up perch. He looked over to the last member of the crew; she had only been with them a short while, not even a month, and had usually kept to herself, preferring to read one of her many books more than anything else, but the few times he had been alone with her, he felt he could consider her as much a friend as any of the other crew members of this ship.

Though being forward with her, or anyone else for that matter, was not typically within his character, the young reindeer shyly walked up to the dark haired woman he had gotten to know as Nico Robin, in hope that she might be able to join their game so as to cease the bickering that continued behind him.

“Umm, excuse me,” his voice spoke with a squeak, “Miss Robin?”

The woman’s eyes never faltered from the book she read, “Mmhmm?”

Not entirely sure he had heard her acknowledgement, Chopper repeated himself, “Miss Rob-?”

Without so much as a glance away from her book, the woman spoke up, startling the young boy. Her calm voice wrapped the small doctor like a warm blanket, “Please, I told you, you can just call me Robin.”

For a moment, he had thought her cutting him off was an indication she had no interest in even speaking to him, but hearing her, and the friendly tone in her voice, he relaxed, but only a little bit. He took a gulp and spoke up again, his mouth felt dry as sand.

“R-Robin? Could you help us play our game? Usopp is supposed to have kidnapped a fair damsel, but Luffy’s not really good at playing her.”

“Hey, I was doing alright!” spoke Luffy, feeling slighted by the doctor’s remark. After being told his role, the captain’s idea of a damsel’s outfit equated to taking some of the spare cloth for the sails (the girls refused to offer any clothes to him) and wrapping them around his waist, then stuffing whatever was left down the front and back of his shorts, making the corners stick out rather oddly out of the bottom of the cuffs. He then wrapped one of the unused table cloths around his chest, saying that that was what he had seen some girls do. Finally, he applied red paint on his eyelids and mouth, making him look like some sort of grotesque clown better left avoided than any sort of damsel needing to be rescued. Behind him, he could hear Usopp shouting about how wrong he was.

Robin’s warm smile never wavered, as her eyes turned from her book as she turned to see her new captain and crewmate arguing like two children, then down to the eyes of the child sized reindeer that stood before her imploringly. She considered her options: The tome she had been reading wasn’t particularly interesting to her, more of a speculative alternate history than a true rumination on political history like she had hoped, and to be fair, something inside her felt she just couldn’t possibly say no to the doe eyes before her.

“Alright,” she said calmly as she rose from her chair, while simultaneously creating a pair of hands to set the book down with care, “How do we play?”

 

"FINALLY! Victory is mine, Chopperman!" sneered Usopp, now fully in character once again, "Capturing you like I had was mere child's play! The fair damsel I captured made for a fine bait didn’t it? You, and your predictable heroism!”

“Daba!” came a voice from behind the mad doctor as his ghastly assistant entered the scene, red makeup smeared upon his face.

“Oh dear!” mewed the fair damsel tied up and sitting pleasantly next to Chopperman.

“Once I dispose of you and our fair damsel, taking over the world will be mere child’s play!”

“Daba!” spoke the energetic assistant once again, raising a hand joyously into the air.

“Oh dear!” spoke the damsel once again, her face appearing composed and contented.

The great hero’s chest puffed out in defiance, his attempted tone was a rather melodramatic and deep voice, the type of voice any hero would have (or so he supposed), “Don’t worry fair damsel! Once I’m free from these ropes, I’ll see you brought to safety at my hideout!” The youth of his voice undercut any of his attempts to sound mature and full grown.

“Daba!” spoke the assistant, now egregiously out of turn.

The evil doctor turned to the assistant in confusion, “Minion! You don’t have to keep saying that!”

“Daba!” the makeup smeared face of the minion couldn’t help but giggle in response, “I can’t help it! It’s funny to say!” Falling over in a fit of giggles he then began laughing repeating the word “Daba,” over and over again, his legs kicking in the air uncontrollably. The evil doctor had begun to berate the minion, ordering him to take a more serious stance to the proceedings, but his words would fall upon deaf ears.

Chopperman turned his head to the doctor’s victim, the fair damsel, and smiled, as the din of squabbling between the pair continued. “Would you like to go now?” he asked casually.

The damsel looked to her hero, a pleasant smile crossing her face, “I’d like that very much.”

Upon finishing her sentence, and before Chopperman had even started to do anything, a hand was produced from the ground and untied her ropes. They hadn’t been tied particularly tight, and had been secured with a large bow knot, tied by the captain himself, so it only took a single short tug to release her from her confines. Chopperman simply stuck his arms through the ropes, making it appear as if he had been part of some sort of new fashion statement.

The two readied to leave when a thought had occurred to the daring young hero, “Oh wait! Hang on!” he then scampered over to the bickering villains, their petty argument now moving in circles.

“Hey, Usopp?” he cheerfully spoke in his natural voice.

The mad doctor, stopped in mid shout to turn and speak to his nemesis, his minion looking to the both of them “Yeah?”

“I’m gonna go save Robin now,” and gestured to the fair damsel who stood off to the side, very much enjoying herself.

The villain nodded and smiled, “Okay! Then we have to find you right?”

A nod came from the hero, “Yeah, but we’re gonna hide over there first,” he pointed to the small grove of mikan trees the ship carried, “That’s Chopperman’s hideout, so that’s the safe spot and you can’t get us there.”

“Okay, we’ll wait and then come find you.”

The two fierce enemies smiled and nodded in agreement and then returned to what they were doing before; the mad doctor shouting at his giggling minion, and a great hero ready to rescue the fair damsel from the clutches of evil.

“Ok, Miss Damsel, let’s go!” he energetically took Robin’s hand in his hoof and lead them to the small grove of trees, to hide.

“Oh dear,” the damsel spoke again, in a most untroubled tone of voice, and attempting (and failing) to stifle a chuckle of her own, “Chopperman, you’re so brave!”

Taking a moment to compose themselves, they sat comfortably among the mikan trees and let out a sigh of relief. With the danger behind them, now was a moment to relax and forget their frightening experience. The little reindeer looked about the area first to be certain they weren’t followed. Once he had confirmed that they were safe he then sat down in front of the damsel, who was unable to stop smiling at all of this.

“Are you ok, Miss?” he spoke returning to the false timber he had spoken with previously.

With a nod, the rescued maiden smiled and chuckled once again, “Mmhmm, I’m fine, thank you, Chopperman,” she spoke warmly to the small reindeer, even placing a hand, softly upon the top of his hat, “I just hope those terrible people don’t find us here.”

A soft breeze slipped through the trees, causing Nico Robin’s raven black hair to sway gently. She brought a hand through it, as the scent of the oranges filled her nose. The young hero’s towel almost lifted into the air and so he puffed his chest out further. “This has to be what it feels like to be a great hero,” he thought to himself as he chuckled with pride and placed his hooves upon his hips, in that familiar pose all great heroes do.

“They’ll never find us,” Chopperman spoke with confidence, “No one can get us here!”

Robin smiled mischievously, with a soft, and warm chuckle, “Well, then,” she picked up her hero and set him on her lap, teasing him the way any adult would tease a small child, “If we’re so safe, then it’s time for the hero to give the fair damsel a kiss, shouldn’t they? It IS what the hero does in these stories, isn’t it?”

The hero’s eyes opened wide as saucers upon hearing this heroic duty, one of which that he was unaware of until now, as a wave of timidity suddenly threatened to submerge him. Out of sheer shyness he seemed to shrink in his friend’s arms and began to tremble slightly as he felt his face get hot. As mousy as a reindeer could get, he tried to laugh off the duty placed before him, though unable to look away from the smiling face of his friend, as she slowly leaned in, her lips beginning to purse.

He began to giggle nervously in her arms, fidgeting like a newborn seeing someone making faces in front of him.

“No way! I couldn’t do that! Kissing’s gross!” He giggled further, and gingerly tapped the woman’s shoulder as if feigning an attempt to push her away.

Robin saw that her friendly teasing left her rescuer in a deeply bashful state, and found it positively adorable, as she broke off her lean toward the boy and let out a laugh as she felt the taps of his hooves against her. She then arched an eyebrow to him when she heard his reason for not wanting to follow his heroic duty.

“No? Well then, I must tell you you’ve made a grievous mistake, Chopperman!” she spoke with a false indignation (as shown by her continued smile) as she held the hero in her lap and then closed her eyes in concentration, producing a number of hands from the hero. At first, the boy had no idea what to do, as her holding him had left him very little room to get away. When he saw where the arms she produced were pointing, he then realized the true danger he was in. Before any sound could be uttered, the hands he saw began tickling him; one hand in each arm pit, one arm on his fuzzy belly, and one for the bottom of each foot.

“You see, I am also working for the evil doctor!” Robin’s voice suddenly shot out with an even greater flourish than any of the other players in this game, and was loud enough so that the two villains could both hear her reveal the latest plot twist over the wails of laughter coming from the great hero. For a moment they looked over to her, perplexed by this moment of improvisation, and then the long nosed doctor smiled devilishly as he caught on to what she was doing.

The evil Doctor Usodabada cackled in joy, “YES! Excellent Robiflowon! You did your job just as I knew you would! Now, we have truly defeated my greatest enemy!”

The traitorous woman smiled at the evil doctor and his minion, and helpfully presented Chopperman before them, who was still unable to break free of the fiendish torture she had given him, laughing uncontrollably.

 

It was later on in the day, as that same crisp blue sky began its slow fade to a soft purple. The sun’s setting gave the clouds a vibrant orange almost as if setting them aflame. All the crew had had their fill of Sanji’s exquisite cooking and, with a most satisfied disposition, took to doing their evening duties about the ship. Zoro went to the back to do his nightly training routine, leaving the crow’s nest to the cook; the two of them trading verbal barbs with each other as they switched off. Usopp had kitchen duty today and took to cleaning all the dishes and utensils that had gotten used. Nami ran through her checklist to make sure everything was running in top form, to making sure all their gold was left untouched, down to every last coin (something she would make sure of after every meal). Luffy would usually end up joining her, as he particularly liked looking at the glistening gold before him and the memories of the previous adventures it left them with. This tradition usually ended in one of two ways; with the navigator’s frustration reaching a boiling point with the captain’s constant need to look at and touch the treasure (and thus ruining her inventory count) leading her to violently kick him out, or the young captain eventually tiring of the activity, getting bored, and leaving her be to take his favorite seat atop the ship’s figurehead. In this case the action taken was the latter, as he had found himself unable to look away from the beautiful sunset they sailed towards. To say the navigator was relieved would not have been exaggerative.

This had left the last two members of the crew with their own activities. Robin had retired to her room as the lighting in there was more conducive to a pleasant and relaxed reading experience. All was well and quiet, until she heard a knock at the door. Creating a hand to hold the book and keep her page, she got up from her seat and opened the door.

At first there was no one she saw in front of her, not at eye level anyways, but she had grown used to this happening and looked down to see the cheerful, smiling face of the ship’s resident Doctor, Tony Tony Chopper.

“Hello there, Mr. Doctor,” she spoke with her typical warmth to him.

The small reindeer nodded a hello back to her and a pleasant smile to accompany it. No matter what mood he would be in, anytime Miss Robin called him “Mr. Doctor,” he couldn’t help but smile. To be called as such made him feel like a giant. He carried with him a small book he had been borrowing from her on ancient medical techniques.

“I finished the book you lent, me,” he began, “It was a really big help with some of the new medicines I’ve been mixing.”

“I’m glad it was so useful to you,” she said as she picked them up from the presenting hooves of her little friend.

She looked over her shoulder as she returned the book to its appropriate place on her shelf to see the small doctor was still standing outside the room looking around at the inside of it. She couldn’t help but laugh quietly to herself at the show of such good manners. “You’re welcome to come in. You don’t have to wait for my permission.”

With a small start the young doctor quickly walked in and joined the newest member of the crew by her bookshelf. He looked up to her as she looked for the proper place for each of the books. As she found the spot for each one, she spoke up to him. “Are there any other books you’d like to borrow?”

Chopper’s eyes scanned the spines of each of the books his new friend kept. There were so many he barely knew where to start. Most seemed to be a random collection of books from all manner of various locations and publishers; there was one book that spoke of an historical family tree dating back to old kings and queens from a land too far away for him to had ever heard of it. There was another book regarding sicknesses found only on islands with summer climates, and considering how often they took time to enjoy a day of playing on the beaches of those islands in particular, he thought it might be best to freshen up on that subject just to be safe. He reached out with a single hoof to pull the tome out as his eyes glanced at another title that caught his attention.

“Is that one of the Adventures of Stanislaw Del Toro?”

There was a brief moment of confusion from the archeologist, followed by realization as she followed her little friend’s gaze to a well worn and somewhat forgotten book. “Oh, that? Yes, it is. I had almost forgotten I had that one. I used to have a few of those adventure stories.”

A smile of familiarity crossed the furry muzzle of the doctor as a feeling of old memories passed through his head like recently unclogged water in a stream. “I didn’t know there were more!” he looked at her with great excitement.

Not often had Robin seen a reaction like this in her small friend. With a look of curiosity, she spoke to him, her voice pleasant as satin, “You read those books?”

Gently pulling the book out, making sure to show a well worn book, the proper care, Chopper looked at the title of the book with wonder. “I only read one of them and that was back home on Drum Island. It was the only one I had…”

Robin knelt down next to him watching the great care he took to look over the book, and smiled, recounting an old feeling from a faded memory she had convinced herself she had long since forgotten. “I was quite a fan of them when I was young,” she caught herself saying but was unable to stop herself. Hearing a sound in her mind like sound of a falling stone, she realized what she had blurted, and quickly and smoothly changed the subject back to the doctor.

“You didn’t have many books back home?”

Chopper brought a hoof down, gently, across the cover, appearing almost lost in his own recounting, “No, w- well, not books like this, more just medical books. I would study all day, but when I went to bed I would read The Adventures of Stanislaw Del Toro and The Legend of the Red Tide before I would go to sleep.”

He turned to his friend and crewmate with a smile and a giggle, “I had to have read it so many times, I could probably still remember it if I tried!”

“I always wanted to be a great hero like him,” he looked back to the cover before him, speaking almost more to himself than to his crewmate.

Robin was quite surprised to see this little fellow be so open with her; she certainly had not expected to have such a personal conversation with any of this odd crew she had been welcomed into, and yet here they were. She found herself quite welcoming to the situation.

She brought her gaze from the cover of the book, back to Chopper, “Well, after what happened in Alabasta, I’d say that makes you a hero, wouldn’t it?”

With an almost uncertain shrug, Chopper’s eyes remained fixed upon the book cover and the faded painting it was adorned with, “Yeah, but… Luffy was the real hero there… We were all just there to help.”

Seeing the doctor speak with such modesty and filled with such warmth, Robin could feel something inside of her chest melt like ice in the tide. Bringing a hand to the top of his hat, she ruffled the top of it gently.

Robin gazed back down to the book cover, exploring the faded painting with the young reindeer, then peered up to his eyes with a smile more natural than the usual one she carried about with herself. “Doctors themselves can be heroes every day to some,”

She saw her small friend, smiling, taking in all she said. Chopper closed his eyes and quietly snickered, muttering to her how such kind words would never make him happy.

After taking a moment to compose himself, he then turned his head from the old tome before him, and looked to her, “Is it ok if I borrow it?”

Attempting to stifle herself with a hand over her mouth, and a laugh that sounded like the soft flap of a bird’s wings, she nodded to the boy, “I think I’d have to insist you do, after what you’ve told me.”

Chopper’s eyes lit up like lanterns, as Robin could imagine almost exactly what the doctor was most assuredly going to do later tonight. Clutching the book almost like an embrace one gives an old friend, the doctor gave an energetic “Thank you!” before almost running out of her room to find the perfect spot to begin reading it.

Robin chuckled quietly to herself as she sat back down to continue reading where she had left off, when suddenly the little reindeer appeared in the doorway again, huffing and puffing.

“I forgot! I wanted to borrow another book!”

With another laugh, she gracefully gestured to her bookshelf, welcoming the young doctor to take his pick.

“Go right ahead!”

 

After the boy had made a definitive exit, (borrowing the book he had found earlier on medical conditions found on summer islands) and assuring her that he was done, Robin finally went to return to the book she had been reading, only to find the place mark she had created was gone, and paused. She was unable to even remember the last time she had made a mistake like that, and if she had, it would have only been back at her old ho-… “No,” she caught herself, “that couldn’t have been the case.”

The relaxed, natural, and warm smile Robin had been carrying since seeing the doctor faded to a brief look of introspection. After a moment, she went back to her book, and attempted to find her place again.

 

The island of Kitt was, upon a first glance, not any sort of remarkable location. Its docks reached out like long thin fingers in an almost unassuming fashion, with some nearby buildings starting off small, reaching to only one or two floors then branching higher, with some buildings reaching up to 5 floors. It was towards this entrance the Going Merry had now faced, and carried with it a crew eagerly awaiting a chance to disembark and see what this island had to offer.

 “Now, before some of you get ready to jump off of here and run into the first thing that gives us trouble, we need to go over who’ll be staying here on the ship to keep an eye on things.”

Nami’s tone was in a clear state of irritation, as their captain had already hoped to make his way to the main promenade after catching a whiff of the various foods being prepared. He had stood ready to leap off of the figurehead of the ship before any proper moorings could be made, and so, to keep things in some state of control, The Navigator held Luffy in a headlock with a remarkably strong grip to it. The rubber captain could only futilely try to pull himself out as the navigator’s headlock remained steadfast.

Nami’s grip tightened with each attempt by the captain to free himself, until the subject of who would stay behind would be addressed with the raise of a small cloven hoof.

“I can stay behind for now. I have a few more medicines to finish making before I go out and buy some new supplies,” Chopper spoke up cheerfully.

With a nod and a smile, the navigator accepted the doctor’s volunteering, “Ok, anyone else want to stick around while we get a few things?”

After a pause, a hand raised by Nico Robin was seen, and with an almost unnoticeable shrug she spoke, “I suppose I can stay. There’s a few chores I need to finish up here, anyway.”

Following herself up, she turned to the small reindeer, “After that, if you’d like, you can join me when I step out and we can go together.”

Chopper listened, and smiled, “That sounds great!”

Nami nodded and she released Luffy from her grasp, who appeared to almost fly as if launched from a catapult in the direction of the commons. “Alright, we’ll take a look around, see what’s up, and then come back here. After that, Chopper and Robin, it’ll be your turn to look around. Sound good?”

 

It was approaching dusk by the time they had all returned to the ship, and once all was set, both Chopper and Robin disembarked to see what waited for them in town. Before they entered the main stretch, Chopper had taken a moment to change his shape into an ordinary reindeer and made sure to stick close to Robin. If there was any need for someone to carry a number of things, being in the natural shape of a reindeer showed the young boy was more than ready to help. His cloven hooves tapped happily upon the well trodden cobblestones of the road before him, unknowingly keeping beat with the steel drum they heard as he looked from shop to shop, eyeing each one eagerly.

The main promenade stood at the entrance way to the docks to introduce any travelers to the many wares being sold by the local shop owners. Weapons, building materials, and clothes all lined the busy streets. Amid the sounds of the bustling marketplace were various musics overlapping into a bizarrely soothing cacophony. Steel drums, violins, woodwind instruments; all of the sounds mixed in the air to welcome newcomers to their town. As one would get used to the sounds that filled the air, the scents that would drift by any newcomers would charm visitors in further, filling their senses with scents of cooked meats, fresh fruits, and exotic spices not commonly found on the Grand Line. Indeed with all of the hustle and bustle that bombarded the senses, the town appeared to have more the look of a local fair than the simple town its’ outward appearance implied.

Robin glanced to her friend as Chopper excitedly looked about like a child at a carnival, not bothering to pay the occasional gawker even the slightest moment of recognition. The sounds of music and idle chatter of the people around them filled her ears. Somewhere, inside her, a fond memory, one she once thought had been long since buried and forgotten, bubbled up, making her smile brighter.

“Where would you like to go first?” the reindeer looked over to Robin, hearing her ask the exact question that he had just been thinking.

Unsure, as the sights and smells and sounds flooded all his senses in an almost joyous, overwhelming deluge, the young reindeer looked to the first shop he saw.

“Can we go to that one?”

With a chuckle, she replied “Sure.”

 

They walked about, looking over many assorted goods and products, as the sky began to turn to the deeper blue tones of evening, leading the townsfolk to light the lamps and lanterns that lay across their town; their bright light ushering in many new sights for newcomers to take in. By this point in the day there were now more street performers and acts of various sorts lain all across town, some showing skills in various styles of sword and knife play, others jugglers and magicians happy to allow interaction with any young soul who wished to participate. Making their way through to the center of the town, Chopper and Robin took in all the sights with looks upon each of their faces that evoked a sense of an innocent joy they had each thought gone. As the two friends had each crawled, for however short a moment it may have been, into whatever memories they had each kept, they were just as quickly snapped out of it by a thunderous roar of applause from the crowd. A look to each other was clearly all that was needed as they both decided to see what had caused such a reaction.

As they walked closer, they looked to see growing flickers of light popping out from above the heads of the crowd. Unable to garner a clear glimpse of the commotion, Chopper paused then looked to his friend, an idea seeming to have come to him like a bubble floating to the top of a glass of water. Changing his shape from a reindeer back to a small child, he looked to Robin and spoke, making a gesture to the crowd behind him.

“Lift me up?”

Nico Robin immediately understood his request and reached down to gently pick up the small doctor. Making sure he was in no discomfort, she hoisted his toddler sized form up and then placed him upon her shoulders, like a parent may with a child.

“What do you see?” she asked, her voice was louder, just loud enough to reach over the rumbling of the crowd and be heard by her small companion.

Chopper’s hooves blocked out any glares of light from nearby lanterns as he looked above the heads of the crowd before him. He could make out a sallow colored figure, moving in some sort of twisting slow dance on stage. His head tilted in curiosity.

“It’s a performer,” he spoke to his friend, his voice cracking with the increase in volume to make sure Robin could hear him, “Can we go see?”

Without an answer, Robin began to walk toward the stage, still carrying her passenger on her shoulders and chuckling to herself in amusement, imagining what they must have appeared like to people unaccustomed to such sights.

A large grey skinned man, standing at what appeared to be over six feet in height, performed gregariously to the crowd’s approval, lit by a handful of tall oil lamps. An adjacent sign declared him as “THURDIL THE CONTORTIONIST.” He performed poses as the sign advertised him, contorting his body into all number of painful looking poses, but never once uttering a wince or sound of discomfort much to the amazement of the crowd. As the show continued, the beat of the nearby musicians provided a rhythm for him to follow. After each stretched position, there was a gracious bow that was taken. After one bow in particular, he spied a curious looking pair that had found their way to the front of his stage; one beautiful woman, and a small reindeer-boy, both smiling in amusement.

Making eye contact with the two of them, he looked out again and spoke to the crowd with a voice that could have boomed across half the island if he wished it and asked for a volunteer. Robin wondered if the rest of the crew could have heard him just then all the way back on the Merry, until her attention was taken from her by the large man reaching out to invite Chopper to the stage to help as his volunteer. The crowd applauded the small doctor, with some squealing like gulls over how cute he appeared, while Robin’s eyes narrowed.

After a few brief introductory words with the small boy to prepare his next pose, the pale skinned man turned to the crowd to announce his next part of the act. In those few moments Chopper noticed just how bizarre of an appearance the man carried; his long hair reached past his waist and was colored a bright aqua blue with tips of yellow, offsetting the pallor of his skin. He had dark stripes, appearing to be some type of tattoo reaching down his large arms and ending at wrists that were garnished with various jeweled and ornamented bracelets, with one bangle in particular reaching from his upper forearm up to his bicep. His shorts were brightly colored in an orange and white floral arrangement while his upper body was clad in a small sleeveless t shirt colored a loud neon green, with the center tied off higher up to show off a toned midsection. Finally, a horned Viking helmet sat very steadily atop his head

Taken in by his own nerves, the strange appearance of the man, and perhaps by the crowd watching him, the young doctor had almost forgotten why he had been brought on stage. He looked to the crowd in hopes of finding Robin for a show of support; a smile or a wave, but instead, found her looking past him and towards the performer. Her expression was one he had never seen from her before; cold and patient, as if she were studying him.

Chopper’s concern was quickly snapped away with a shout from the man behind him. The crowd let out a friendly bit of laughter to the small doctor as he scampered over to Thurdil who had just called out to him in mocking urgency as he began to get in position. Nervously, the boy began to help the performer, as the look on his friend’s face concerned him.

 

After only a small time the end of the show had arrived and the audience applauded with thanks to the grey skinned man before them and also in legitimate appreciation to the small reindeer child that had volunteered to help. Chopper bashfully fidgeted, giggled, and wiggled about in response to the claps and cheers and hopped down from the stage as he saw Robin joining in the applause, smiling. He trotted up to her and energetically began asking her if she had seen everything he had done just mere moments ago. A warm smile and nod confirmed to the reindeer just what he had thought, but before she could speak to confirm it, he saw her look up and past him again, as that previous expression of study and focus returned for what felt to him like a long moment. Turning around, he saw the looming pallid form of the grey skinned contortionist, Thurdil.

“I just wanted to thank my little assistant for a doing a good job,” he spoke in a softer tone now, still a deep rumble but no longer the booming voice that called to the audience during the show. He crouched before him, “You were great up there, kid,” he smiled, his lips never parting, then looked up to the beautiful woman that Chopper appeared to know, her gaze never leaving him for an instant. He took a breath to speak but…

“Yes, I was just about to tell him, myself, just how well he did,” Robin spoke up, cutting off any words that the performer seemed poised to speak. She made a quick, subtle gesture to the performer, as if instructing him to wait, and then lowered herself down, resting her arms on her knees, smiling at Chopper, “I think for such a good performance you deserve something special, Mr. Doctor,” she reached into a small pocket and produced a thin wallet, colored to match the leather jacket she wore. Chopper looked to his friend with curiosity.

“Here, take this and go to the concession stand over there and get some cotton candy. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Holding out the money for him, Chopper hesitantly reached a hoof out. Unease set in at the pit of his stomach and his blue nose twitched like he had tasted a lemon.

Seeing his hesitation, Robin smiled warmly and brought a hand to rest at the top of his hat in a sign of reassurance, “Don’t worry, I just wanted to talk to our friend a bit. You go enjoy yourself.”

With a small nod, the small reindeer took the money Robin offered him and trotted over to the nearest concession stand, casting a quick glance behind him to see what business the two wished to talk about.

Once the boy was out of sight, the warm smile that graced Robin’s face vanished as if it had never been there, and was replaced with something fierce and cold. Her eyes never left the performer for an instant.

“Well?” the welcoming tone she had so recently spoken to the reindeer with had vanished just as easily as the expression on her face. Her tone was curt, her words having no hint of civility to them.

In an instant, the friendly look of the performer had changed and an expression of smug superiority replaced it, like a predator that had cornered new prey. His words were spat out like he had a rotten nut in his mouth, “Don’t tell me that the legendary ‘Devil’s Child’ is now a babysitter.”

A slight snarl began to creep across Robin’s face, but she attempted to hide it, “Imagine my surprise when I see someone the likes of Thurdil ‘the Huntsman’ performing on a stage for handouts.”

Amused, Thurdil smiled again without showing his teeth, “Well, they always say the Grand Line is full of surprises. And besides, no one can live off of bounties alone.”

A long uncomfortable silence followed as the two eyed each other over, waiting to see who might blink first,

“So, how would you prefer we deal with this matter?” Robin finally spoke as she crossed her arms, her voice calm, yet coiled tight as a spring, “I figure something like a fight happening in the middle of a crowded street like this may impair future performances of yours.”

Another chuckle rumbled like boulders from deep inside Thurdil’s chest, “I have a special spot where I prefer to deal with customers. If you follow me I can bring you right there,” stepping to the side he gestured away from the stage, his eyes never once looking away from her as he sneered, “Ladies first?”

The small snarl that had almost crossed Robin’s face now seemed to grow. One would have almost expected her to spit in his eye after his flourish, but instead she remained still.

With a smug puff of a short laugh, he grinned again at her, his eyes flashing flames greater than any of the nearby lanterns, “I suppose not. Follow me,” and gestured for his opponent to follow him.

Uncrossing her arms, Robin took a few steps to follow the man, then paused, looking back to see if she could spy Chopper. Unable to see him through the crowds, she began walking.

 

Rounding a corner, Robin followed the bounty hunter to what appeared to be a small, poorly lit, closed off alleyway. The close, set buildings made the space take a hexagonal shape. The area appeared weathered and unclean, with a sour smell of trash filling the air. Mildew gathered at the edges of the bricks as grime caked the sides, smearing down like long spindly fingers, reminding her of the long piers the ships were left upon. Cans of garbage sagged like bags of sand against a nearby wall, most of them rusted shut, or too cracked and weathered to hold anything as the litter spilled out their broken sides.

Thurdil turned to look at his bounty, an arrogant smile cut across his face like a fresh razor. He began to adjust his shoulder the way a prize fighter might to prepare to throw a punch, only to be surprised to see his prey not even looking to him. Nico Robin’s eyes were closed as she crossed her arms, a look of concentration upon her face. At first befuddled by her actions, Thurdil paused momentarily to speak when he found himself slammed violently into the closest wall, face first, the victim of the several human arms that had suddenly grown from his side.

“Sorry,” Robin’s eyes opened, and she spoke to her opponent with a frank curtness to her voice, “but I would much rather get this over with so I can return to my own matters.”

With a second look of concentration, more arms appeared to turn the contortionist into the adjacent wall with greater force. The grime and moss smeared across the performer’s face as the stone began to break and fray and crack under the impact of the blow. Staggering back from the wall, Thurdil brought a hand to his face in an attempt to stifle a steady stream of blood coming from his nose. With a sniff that sprayed small flecks of blood onto his shirt and to the ground before him, he smiled and then spat any excess blood to the side, and turned to his opponent.

“You’re every bit as ruthless as they say you are, Nico Robin,” the blood coming from his nose made his voice gurgle like fresh mud, “But I’d be a fool if I lost that bounty you got on your head.”

Robin paused, unused to seeing such a reaction.

Thurdil began to move towards her, his eyes the color of melted gold. She took a step back to keep a defensive stance. But with a wind up so fast it almost went unseen, Thurdil threw a heavy right arm straight towards her.  Barely dodging it, Robin turned to get her eyes back onto her opponent, her mind spinning like a top to think of a counter measure of some sort, and then froze as she looked to see a muscled, grey arm embedded up to its elbow into the cracked and crumbling brick wall that was behind her just seconds ago.

Robin crossed her arms once again, her eyes slammed shut as tight as drums and the look of concentration returned to her as the performer’s fist was removed from the wall with ease. Thurdil’s smile never faded as he shook the remaining dust and grime from his arm and began to walk calmly to his bounty before looking to see he had now almost two dozen arms of Robin’s creation growing out from his body. Looking to her again, his eyes widened in panicked surprise when he could have sworn at that moment he heard the woman mutter something under her breath; the word “Clutch.”

Quick as a whisper, the two dozen arms grabbed hold, seizing and folding the performer backward the same way one might break a twig. Thurdil’s breathing turned to broken glass. Silence hung in the stale air of the alley like a wave at its crest. The performer’s pale body was left arched in an unnatural and rigid state.

Robin’s eyes opened as the silence covered her like a falling blanket. She exhaled as if her lungs were filled with ash, and began to relax her muscles so she could release her opponent. The arms that constricted the contortionist’s body began to go slack, and some even vanished in a breeze of flower petals, when a slow gurgle, like the last bit of water flowing into a drain, passed through the sharp bend of Thurdil’s body. On instinct alone, Robin tensed, ready to bend the man further back if need be, when a small thought began to curdle in her mind like bad milk.

At first she couldn’t hear it, but like the quiet rumble of tumbling rocks that would signal an avalanche, she could feel something. It began to build in his chest, and shook him from beneath his grey skin until Robin understood what she had been hearing.

Thurdil laughed “Well, now you just revealed the big secret to my performances.”

At that moment, something began to excrete from the pale skin of the performer. It left a sour scent in the air, something acrid and toxic, something that began to burn away at the remaining arms and hands that held him so tightly.

Robin’s thoughts turned to sand. Her vision became streaked with red and violet as she let out a sharp cry of pain, releasing the man as she fell back against a nearby wall. Clawing at her jacket in a pained frenzy, she removed it and looked to see her arms streaked in painful red burns. Her mind sagged like soaked parchment as daggers shot from the marks on her arms, traveling up her spine and into the back of her head.

“See, I don’t have any bones. I’m part sea slug.”

Robin tried vainly to keep focus long enough to conjure up more arms to stymie the fishman, but with each attempt, she felt her spine jolted with another lance of white hot iron. The remaining arms on the fishman vanished in shower of cherry blossom petals.

Finally free of the obstructive appendages, Thurdil began to right himself, “That’s fine though,” he spoke with a shrug; now standing the full 8 feet of his height, “You’ll just have to promise not to tell anyone.”

His tone oozed with self-satisfaction as he reached down to pick up Robin by her hair. She kicked away ferociously at his legs and arm as he bent down to grab her, but nothing seemed to come of it. Bringing her face to his, he finally smiled in full, his lips parting to show rows of sharp teeth.

“’Course, I know a way to make certain you won’t tell anyone…” His hand began to reach toward her face. The acrid smell of his venom filled Robin’s nose as he began to slowly wrap his hand across her mouth. His shadow now large enough to swallow the moon and then consume her, Robin closed her eyes tight.

Just then, a great impact was felt, as if a canon ball had just been fired and struck the fishman. His grip loosened, and Robin fell to the ground the way melting snow falls from a tree. Feeling the hard stone beneath her, her pained eyes opened to see what could have caused her freedom.

The new figure loomed over her like a bulwark, in a size almost equal to the fishman, but carried differently. At first, Robin had mistaken the form as that of a bear, but later considered that the silhouette she had seen was more like a gorilla. Broad shoulders rolled back and up into a thick neck, its head lowered between them, like a bull ready to charge. His large arms made his head appear almost ridiculously small, and the brim of his pink hat blocked any light from illuminating his eyes. With a slight turn of the head so as to not take his eyes off of his opponent, the figure looked down, and spoke with a voice not at all suited for the size of the person she saw before her.

“Are you ok, Robin?” his voice was like that of a child.

“Ch-Chopper?” she spoke up before another wince of pain passed through her like barbed wire.

 “You’re hurt!” Chopper’s head snapped fully toward her as he knelt down to better observe her injury.

A short breath of air was taken to respond to the doctor, but before any words could be said or even thought of, the pair looked to the sound of an angered, rumbling. Only a few feet from them, in a heap of sickly grey sinew, Thurdil stood up again, trembling with rage like a great fire.

With a shake of his upper body, Thurdil tossed off any rubble that had covered him, but was still left stained in the soot, dust, and grime that covered the alley. His eyes flashed the color of lit amber as he moved forward. Each footstep he made wished to rend the very ground they stood on, but the ground refused to give. The stinging scent of his venom filled the doctor’s nose and made Robin’s eyes tear.

“You’re interrupting another man’s work here, pal,” he showed no patience as he walked forward, his voice sounding like great stones grinding against each other, “You leave now, and I might forget you ever showed up.”

Chopper’s anger stood ready to erupt like a volcano with each passing word the bounty hunter said.

“You think I would leave a friend behind to get hurt by someone like you?” his voice shook like boiling water as jets of fire seemed to snort out from his blue nose.

Thurdil balked for a moment, unsure of what to make of the surreal image he saw before him; with the sound of such a young voice coming from such a large and imposing figure, his confusion left him open for attack. He stood even more unprepared for the speed with which the large, furry hulk charged at him with, leaving him no time to get out of the way of the punch it threw at him. Standing like a prizefighter, he brought his arms up to his face, he braced himself as a fur covered fist came crashing down across him, almost pushing him back to the wall he had just previously removed himself from. With only seconds to react, he ducked out of the way of the second arm that swung toward him, and rolled off to the side to get some distance. Righting himself, he began to excrete his venom once again, lacing his fists with the substance, and prepared to strike back.

Chopper swung at him a third time, and missed, allowing the fishman a chance to swing back. His venom covering his fists like oil, he caught the doctor on his arm, leaving the smell of burning fur in the air. Chopper clutched at the injury to his arm, glancing down at the burn instinctively before bringing his eyes back to the contortionist that was smirking like a hyena. Thurdil pressed his advantage, swinging several hard blows to the doctor’s mid section. Just barely dodging the last blow, Chopper’s arms reached around his mid-section as his eyesight became smeared like fresh paint in a rainstorm.

Suddenly, several arms grew out from the fishman, grasping at his face, covering his eyes, and wrenched his head back as far as it could go. Chopper’s eyesight cleared for a moment as he looked on at the bizarre sight, then spun about to see Robin, her arms crossed and her face etched in pained focus. Without opening her eyes, she spoke through gritted teeth,

“Hurry!”

Without even a nod of acknowledgement, Chopper rushed toward the fishman, his fist pulled back as far as he could reach. Thurdil’s venom began to excrete once again from his skin, as he frantically clawed at the hands that covered his face. Pain shot through every limb of Nico Robin’s as she let out a growl of pain, but never let go. She breathed deeply and tensed every muscle she had, as the hands she had conjured held the fishman’s head in place like a boulder in a catapult. Her eyes squinted through her pain just long enough to see her crewmate moments from releasing his raised fist, and with barely an instant left, released the hands from the fishman’s face, vanishing once again in a shower of cherry blossom petals. Thurdil’s head snapped forward, burying itself completely into Chopper’s knuckles. His face took the contours of Chopper’s fist, as Robin could have sworn she had heard a sound like rotten fruit trampled underfoot. The full arc of the punch seemed to conclude as if time slowed down, yet the fishman reeled from the blow in real time. Thurdil’s legs looked to be as sturdy as cooked noodles as he moved backwards trying to keep his balance. He slowly turned about as if he had been slow dancing by himself, then finally stopped and collapsed knocking over one of the broken, sagging garbage cans. Silence took over the alleyway again, and Robin and Chopper looked to each other, breathing heaving breaths of air.

Chopper’s shape twitched like a reflection on water as he shrunk to his smaller size and rushed to his friend. In-between gulps of air, Nico Robin righted herself, then slumped back down to the ground with a great exhale. She moved to bring a hand across her brow to keep any sweat from entering her eyes, but found her hand swatted away by a doctorly hoof.

“You may have some of his venom on your hands, still,” Chopper explained as he reached into his pocket, quickly producing a handkerchief and began to dab gently at Robin’s forehead.

Robin gave no response, and instead turned her head to the flickering lights of the marketplace in the distance. She could feel her heartbeat becoming calmer as she closed her eyes and exhaled.

Chopper gathered several medical supplies from the backpack he had been carrying with him.

“You have his venom all over your arms. I have some medicine here, but we need to get back to the ship so I can treat you properly,” he spoke to her calmly and clearly as he began to apply an anti inflammatory cream to the affected areas of her arms. Robin nodded quietly as her eyes remained closed, feeling the cream begin to blunt the pain in her arms and hands. She thought of the usual child like demeanor she had become so used to seeing from the boy and how it had been replaced right before her eyes with the type of focus an old doctor would carry.

Chopper suddenly winced, motioning to grab his midsection and arm, but stopping mere inches away. He looked again to the supplies he carried in his backpack, and saw there were no other tubes of his ointment to be found; the only one and he had had been used all on his friend, and was now empty. Exhaling through his front teeth, he smeared the remains of the ointment as best as he could to his injuries. An irritated pain lumbered through him like a boulder rolling down a hill, causing him to wince again. Realizing how this must have appeared, the boy looked up to see Nico Robin, her eyes now open and looking at him with the type of concern a mother gives an injured child. Chopper let out a limp wave of his arm and an equally limp chuckle as he gathered his supplies into his backpack, trying not to worry her. He began to slip the bag onto his back until his injured arm suddenly scraped against one of the straps with a feeling not unlike like sandpaper. Dropping the bag, he looked up to see Robin, now standing up straight, her eyes never leaving him.

“Come on, let’s go,” she spoke calmly, as she picked up the backpack herself, and offered to him her free hand.

Chopper’s hoof shook as he slowly reached up, then felt Robin’s soft fingers gingerly wrap around his hoof. He exhaled gently as they began to walk back to the docks.

 

Chopper awoke the next morning to the sounds and motions of the sea quietly welcoming the Going Merry back to the Grand Line. The smell of the ocean mixed with the breakfast Sanji was preparing which produced a pleasant aroma that passed effortlessly through his blue nose and brought a gentle smile across his muzzle. He had worked hard throughout the night tending to the injuries Robin and he had received from the fight in the alley, and looked down to the medicated gauze he had prepared that wrapped tightly around his arm and midsection. He hoped Robin’s bandages held together just as well.

At breakfast, the crew gathered to talk of the news that had gone through the town just as they were weighing anchor to leave. The stories talked of how Thurdil’s body was found, unmoved, and wearing an ensemble of grit, grime, pebbles, soot, and broken glass in some empty alley that morning. How he had told the local authorities, at length, of an attack made upon him by some sort of gorilla in a top hat that talked with the voice of a child, and with strength so great, he saw it punch through stone walls. And how, when he asked the authorities if such a figure had been seen walking about the town, it was deigned he must had suffered a concussion of some sort.

 

Two days later, in the pleasant light of the afternoon, towards the back of the main cargo hold, wedged in between cases and boxes of treasure and souvenirs that had all been accumulated from many adventures, worked a pair of hooves. The sunlight passed through the hold’s windows in wide columns, and shone down upon Chopper’s hooves with a pleasant warmth. He worked his mortar and pestle like a professional apothecary, grinding various herbs and leaves for whatever medical needs might arise when one traveled the Grand Line. It was something that he had learned to do at a young age, and never minded doing it as it would sometimes allow his mind to wander.

However, his thoughts seemed to remain fixed to that night in the alley, and the confrontation that he and Robin encountered with the contortionist. He had been almost afraid to talk to Robin since then, only speaking to her when needed; giving a proper diagnosis on her injuries, and if she should continue wearing the special medicated gauze he had prepared.

He paused with his pestle in one hoof and looked down to the gauze that wrapped his own arm and midsection, and his brow furrowed. He looked ready to say something of great importance to himself, until he had heard a dull knock against one of the light colored crates. Chopper looked to almost fall out of his chair in surprise. So lost in his thoughts was he that he hadn’t even heard the mewling creak of the door to the hold opening, or even the sharp click of shoes against the wood floor. Composing himself with a sharp breath, he looked and saw Nico Robin, smiling pleasantly.

“I’d like to see how my injuries are,” Robin spoke, her voice was civil and unstressed.

Chopper nodded, his face filled more with apprehension than any uncertainties, and clambered down from his seat, looking like a child expecting to be scolded. Robin knelt down and held her arms out. They were covered from her fingers to her elbows in thin, medicated gauze that he had prepared that night. The medicine stained the gauze the color of milk and left a gentle smell of lavender mixed with rubbing alcohol, and soothed the burns from the venom like a cool drink on a summer day.

Chopper carefully removed the medical gauze from Robin’s arms and looked closely, studying for any remaining marks and gently running his hoof across each arm to make sure no further damage or infection had remained. If there was any discomfort from his patient, Robin made no effort to show it, as she peered out a nearby window, listening to the sounds of the churning ocean.

“I-It looks like everything’s cleared up,” Chopper finally spoke as he looked up to her, and a smile attempted to crawl its way across his snout, but eventually hid itself away when he saw the historian wasn’t even looking at him. Her gaze remained affixed to the nearby window, as she took in the feeling of the warm sunlight that covered her and the sounds of the ocean filled her ears. Unsure as to if she had even heard him, the boy gently cleared his throat and spoke again,

“Y-you don’t have to wear those bandages anymo-“

“Why did you help me?” her voice cut off the young doctor with as much ease as a stone breaking through water. Chopper was so startled by the question and the nowhere it seemed to come from he could only stammer and sputter like an old engine in response before the historian’s question could be spoken to him again.

“Wha-“

“I mean back in the alley… when you came back to help me.” Robin turned her head and looked directly at the boy, and Chopper saw then that the usual smile she would carry was gone, replaced with an expression that looked as comfortable as cold irons. Her eyes looked to his with a steely implore that belied the calm, undisturbed tone of her voice.

He shrunk back as his eyes attempted to look back at his friend, but couldn’t stay still. His gaze shifted about the room and his eyelids fluttered as if he had been looking at the sun. He tried to keep his hooves busy so they wouldn’t shake, and fidgeted with the bandages on his arm. He tried to focus on the lavender smell of the medical gauze to keep him from giving in to his apprehensions.

“I sent you away so you wouldn’t get hurt. So that maybe you would’ve just gone back to the ship if you didn’t find me,” Robin’s gaze moved downward to look at her own arms as her voice never wavered. Her breathing stayed steady and the tempo and tone remained controlled yet carried with it a certain resentment. The kind of resentment that always seemed to spill out, accidentally, onto others.

“Instead, you found me, and you saved me,” Her tone softened as she looked to back to the boy, and she felt the corners of her mouth begin curl upwards, even letting out a puff of air through her nose that sounded like a laugh “The only other person who ever did that for me was your captain.”

Chopper’s stomach tightened like a fist hearing the words the historian spoke to him. His head was hung low, and the bandage he had been nervously playing with as she talked had started to undo itself and now hung limply from his arm like wet paper.

Realizing what her words must have sounded like, Robin’s expression began to soften and her eyes began to offer an apology. She took a quiet, deep breath, and began to mouth the words she wished to say, before speaking them.

“I’m not mad at you. I just want to know why you did it... Why you came back for me.”

Chopper stood still, unable to look at his friend and feeling as dignified as a freshly shorn lamb. It took him a moment to realize what Robin had asked him, and when he finally did he still lacked any confidence in himself to explain himself properly. As he searched for the right words, he continued to fuss with the bandage on his arm, which had now become loose and looked ready to fall off. Finally, he raised his head to meet his friend’s gaze, and took in a quiet, deep breath of his own.

“Because we’re friends,”

For a moment only the sounds of the churning ocean could be heard inside the hold as Robin looked at the boy, almost as if she was skeptical. Chopper’s doubts began to grab at him, tugging away with unseen hands until seeing the corners of Robin’s mouth begin to once again curl upwards, and her eyes relaxed.

“You think you and I are friends?” her voice was clearer now, and felt warmer than any light that was felt in the room (though it did carry a harmlessly teasing tone to it). Her posture softened as she sat down properly upon the floor of the hold, her legs crossed. “I haven’t been part of this crew for very long.”

Chopper blinked, hearing the new question she asked, and tilted his head to one side in confusion, “Why wouldn’t we be friends?”

Robin couldn’t help but stifle a small chuckle. The tone Chopper’s answer carried had a certainty or sureness to it that she was surprisingly unprepared for. To Chopper one would have expected the question need not have even been asked.

“Chopper,” Robin began as she set her hand gently atop his small fuzzy top hat, and offered a smile that felt more valuable than any gold that was being carried,

“Thank you. I’m very happy we’re friends.”

Robin ruffled the top of the boy’s hat gently, as the pair shared a small chuckle. Chopper could feel a smile that worked from the tip of his snout and worked its way around, curling up into his cheeks, and began to giggle quietly. He began to pull his hat brim down, more out of personal reservations than any sort of embarrassment, and wiggled back and forth like a caught fish, attempting to stymie some sort of dance. Suddenly, his fidgeting and shifting stopped, as a thought of great importance had entered his mind.

He looked back up to the historian, and his smile dropped only a fraction as his voice squeaked like small bird, “Robin?” He asked, as he felt his cheeks become flushed,

Robin looked to him, her smile still bright, her hands now folded upon her lap, and nodded.

“Could you still call me Mister Doctor? I really like it!” He began his wiggling and fidgeting again, and started to pivot about on one foot, as if in a dance, until his back now completely faced his friend. He couldn’t help but giggle the entire time as he thought of how ridiculous he must have sounded.

Hearing a chuckle from his friend, Chopper suddenly stopped to notice two arms had laced around him and lifted him up into a warm embrace. Robin brought her cheek and pressed it closely against his, happily taking in the boy’s laughing. Then, with a swift shift, Robin pressed her lips against the side of Chopper’s face in a soft kiss.

Chopper’s eyes went wide as he suddenly stopped fidgeting and gasped in surprise. He felt his face and neck get hot and would have sworn the shade of red he had turned could have lit the entire cargo hold at night. His whole body became heavy and unmoving and he could feel his head float like a balloon.

Robin moved her lips away from the furry cheek of her friend and released him from her embrace, setting him down as she brought a thumb across the mark she had just left. She couldn’t help but giggle as she saw how the young doctor now teetered about, as if dizzy and then landed squarely on his bottom.

Chopper shook his head in an attempt to compose himself and hopped to his feet, suddenly breaking into a full fledged dance in front of his friend.

“Don’t do stuff like that, you asshole!” he giggled as he spun about, “Kissing me doesn’t make me happy! Not one bit!”

Nico Robin smiled brightly and laughed at her friend’s performance, when suddenly a sound as loud as a thunderclap was heard, startling the pair. Their eyes darted to the door instantly and saw their captain, Monkey D. Luffy, his eyes darting madly from side to side until seeing them towards the very back of the hold, and grinned.

“HEY, CHOPPER!! I’VE BEEN LOOKIN’ FOR YA! USOPP GOT YOUR CAPE OUT OF THE WASH SO WE CAN PLAY CHOPPERMAN AGAIN!!!!”

As quick as if a switch had been flipped, Chopper looked to his captain with a sudden and instantaneous, equaling of enthusiasm. He ran up to him and followed him to the deck of the ship, the pair mentioning various new stories to embark upon.

“HE DID?! I WANNA BE ABLE TO FLY THIS TIME!”

“YEAH! I WANNA BE A ROBOT THIS TIME!”

Robin’s shoulder leaned gently against the side of the doorway, watching the members of the Straw Hat Pirate crew playing their games. Her arms were gently crossed, and her smile showed no signs of leaving. Perhaps, she thought, perhaps she would stay with this crew for a while longer.