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And so, in the shadow of Vegapunk's forgotten research, and under the flutter of a pirate flag, Chopper began his journey into medicine, whether he understood it or not.
Chopper's lessons began simply. Kureha tossed him a thick primer with casual disinterest, telling him to read it himself and only ask questions when he truly couldn't understand.
The little reindeer clung to his new life with all four hooves. For once, he was not chased, rejected, or called a monster. He had bonds, with Giorno, Jolyne, and now Kureha, that gave him warmth. So he worked hard, every page turned with determination.
"Finished already?" Kureha finally glanced up from behind her mountain of research notes, arching a brow. "Has a whole month slipped past?"
Only then did she look around, realizing she'd lost track of time in the strange halls of this so-called 'pirate base.'
Chopper pushed the thick tome onto the table with both hooves. "Not at all. But I read for four days straight, and…I finished."
"…" For the first time, Kureha really looked at the reindeer.
"Doctor Kureha, this knowledge is incredible!" Chopper's eyes sparkled. "If I master all of this, I'll be able to help people too, won't I?"
"…So even after those same people chased you with guns, you're still dreaming of helping them?" Kureha asked, her voice flat but her eyes sharp.
"…" Chopper's mouth opened, then closed again. Almost unconsciously, he mimicked Liam's habit, stroking his chin in grave thought. The contradiction sat heavy in his mind.
Kureha suddenly peppered him with sharp questions from the text. Chopper's head snapped back to attention, and he answered each one with ease, voice lit with childlike joy, as though it were a game.
Finally, Kureha leaned back and laughed heartily. "From this day on, call me Master Kureha! …Or 'Doctor' works too."
"Doctor Kureha!" Chopper shouted gleefully, stamping his hooves in excitement.
The old woman nodded, secretly pleased despite herself. Extraordinary talent, no, extraordinary spirit, lived in this strange little student.
Stretching her arms, she casually asked, "And where are those two?"
At that moment, Liam and Robin appeared. "Heading into the city for food supplies," Liam explained.
"Perfect," said Kureha. "I was planning to go into town anyway."
With Wapol having fled the island, and the royal medical team with him, Drum's people had been left utterly alone. No doctors, no healers, none to turn to in times of need.
Robin offered Kureha a pouch of money, but the elder waved her off with a bark of laughter.
"Do you even know who I am?" She lowered her sunglasses, smirking. "When doctors treat patients, it's perfectly normal to be repaid with food, clothes, fine booze, even property! Fufufufu…"
"You're the real pirate here," Liam muttered under his breath.
"Pirate? Ha! Bandit is more like it!" Kureha cackled, then squinted into her bottle. "…Heh. There was a bandit once, long ago. Later, he went out to sea. Might've ended up a pirate… he's probably bones somewhere now."
They reached City Castle's entrance when Chopper suddenly cried out:
"Ah! I remembered! There was a ghost outside!"
Robin only smiled faintly. "Haven't we been living inside its body these past several days?"
"…I-I-I-INSIDE A GHOST'S BODY?!" Chopper shrieked, fur bristling, and dove behind Kureha's legs. But then, right on cue, a white pool of fluid welled up from the floor. His eyes nearly popped out as he bolted skyward. "GYAAHHHH!!"
Liam sighed. "Didn't you say not to scare him?" he asked Robin pointedly.
"I wasn't trying to," Robin replied serenely, tapping her chin.
He retaliated by pinching her cheek again, while the spreading pool drew itself upward, coalescing into B.I.B's armored giant form.
"See? That's your ghost," Liam said cheerfully, thumbs up. "Look at the armor, those markings, cool, right?"
"Wooooah…" Chopper's terror melted into sheer wonder, his eyes glittering like stars.
Robin smiled gently. Kureha merely sipped from her bottle.
The black-armored figure lowered its head, narrow eyes glowing, and offered a deliberate thumbs up right back.
"Ghosts are so cool…" Chopper whispered in awe.
In the blizzard, Kureha trudged on with the little reindeer at her heel as they entered Horn City.
"Hurry, arm yourselves!" came Dalton's rough voice as he roused the townsfolk in the square. "From today, every city will post guards at the harbor. This country is ours now! We will protect it! Wapol must never return to plague us again!"
The crowd roared their resolve, until a single voice broke through:
"And pirates! We can't let pirates come either!"
Silence crashed down instantly. That one word, pirates, hung in the air like a curse.
If those two pirates returned… could they really stop them?
"…Set out," Dalton said finally, voice low but steady.
When Kureha entered town, people looked startled, but none spoke. Dalton gave her a respectful nod, his eyes briefly falling on the little reindeer at her side, before turning away and leading his men into the snow.
Chopper, true form revealed as a reindeer, stood small but proud as he watched Dalton's men vanish, fading into the storm, swallowed whole by wind and white.
"Let's go, Chopper." Kureha raised her bottle and sniffed the wind. "I smell sickness in the air."
Moments later, she kicked open the door of a shop. Startled gasps echoed inside, the patrons frozen under her mischievous grin.
"Kids, are you feeling happy?" Kureha cackled.
The room broke into stammers and apologies. In the corner, a patient lay stretched out on a table, pale with fever. Hovering at his side was a flustered young girl, Los, the same one they had met before. She fumbled through her work, hands trembling, her voice breaking as she apologized over and over to both the patient and his anxious family.
"Little one."
Los froze under the presence of Kureha's towering shadow. She raised her eyes nervously as the old woman said evenly, "Only when you master medicine can you truly heal people. Understand that well."
Without another word, Kureha pushed her aside, taking the man's treatment into her own steady hands. Los bit her lip hard, retreating into the corner. Her wide eyes drank in every movement of Kureha's weathered hands, the effortless confidence in every stitch, every press, every dose.
"…" Kureha twirled a surgical scissor lazily, casting a glance backward. By the time her eyes flicked to the corner again, Los was already bolting out the door into the snow.
"That's done," she declared briskly to the family. "Take the medicine on schedule." Then, with a familiar smirk: "As for payment…"
In the white fields beyond the village, a reindeer trudged faithfully through the snow, balancing a crate of food on his back.
His blue nose twitched. Lifting his head, he thought he glimpsed a form… a silhouette gliding within the storm itself.
There, in the heart of the blizzard, Los sat curled into herself, arms wrapped around her knees, drifting through the mountain wind like she was trapped within an invisible tunnel.
Back in City Castle, warmth pressed against the storm.
"So," Liam said with rare seriousness as he leaned toward Chopper, "the reason people mistake you for a yeti isn't your blue nose. What's wrong with a blue nose? There are folks out there with noses as red as apples. Are they monsters?"
On the upper floor, Kureha sat comfortably behind her wall of notes, while Robin reclined elegantly on a sofa, cup of steaming tea in hand. Liam sat cross-legged on the floor before Chopper, who stood stiffly in his burly hybrid form.
"The real issue," Liam continued, voice calm but firm, "is shape. Even in human form, your nose doesn't change. It still looks like a deer's nose."
Chopper, frowning, touched his face.
"Mirror," Liam ordered, tapping the wall.
Fluid rippled and reshaped into a tall full-length mirror. Chopper leaned forward, grazing his reflection with his hoof-hand, his eyes falling on the little blue nose that stood out no matter what shape he wore.
In the glass, a new figure appeared beside him. Giorno rested an easy arm across Chopper's broad shoulders, flicking his nose with a smile.
"See? From deer to man, that nose never changes. The people here recognize it instantly, it marks you in their eyes. Human or reindeer, your form confuses them. Their unease makes them call you a monster. That reaction is natural."
"Ohh…" The blue-nosed man pouted, shoulders slumping. "But… even when I was just a deer, the moment I spoke, people tried to attack me too…"
"That's their fault," Liam declared bluntly. Then, with a grin: "Next time, let's go beat them up together. Hah!"
Chopper blinked, and laughed. Small at first, then bubbling until it filled the room. "Yeah!"
"Good. But besides studying medicine from the old lady, you've got another task. You need to fix the way you use the Human-Human Fruit. You're still relying on instinct as a deer. If you transform into a human, then you need to act like one."
"Mm!" Chopper nodded eagerly, eyes shining with newfound determination.
Robin flipped another page in her book, smiling faintly over the rim of her cup. Kureha hummed, sipping from her bottle as she glanced sidelong at her new apprentice.
The storm howled outside, but within the walls of Stand City Castle, bonds were being forged, of medicine, of identity, of family yet to be chosen.
(End of Chapter)