Chapter 42: The Witch and the Reindeer

It took three days of traveling along the frozen road for the climate to drastically shift.

During the journey, the warm cabin of Franky’s reinforced metal carriage became a quiet recovery ward.

I spent a few hours each day sitting beside Robin, gently transferring a steady stream of my kinetic energy into her system.

The hyper-accelerated cellular growth worked wonders.

By the time the icy, snow-battered shores of Drum Island finally appeared on the horizon, the jagged, horrific surgical lines on her face and arms had completely faded away, leaving her skin flawless once more.

The Glacial-Inferno Sovereign pulled our heavy metal pontoon-sled and the chained galleon onto the frozen coastline.

Outside, a brutal blizzard was howling.

I left the Sovereign to guard our ships and trudged through the deep snow into a shivering coastal settlement called Bighorn.

I pushed open the heavy wooden door of a local supply shop, brushing the snow off my coat.

The shopkeeper, a bundled-up older man, jumped slightly at the sight of a stranger.

“Brutal weather,” I noted casually, pulling a few gold coins from my pocket and setting them on the counter.

“I’ll take a crate of those winter rations.

And some information.

I have a patient who needs a doctor.”

The shopkeeper looked at the gold, then nervously out the window.

“You picked a bad time to visit Drum Kingdom, stranger.

You won’t find a doctor here.

King Wapol took the castle back and hoarded all the top physicians, the Isshi-20, for himself.”

“Is there anyone else?” I asked.

“There’s the witch,” the man whispered fearfully.

“Dr.

Kureha.

She’s over a hundred years old.

But she doesn’t live in the castle.

She lives in a massive tree on the outskirts of Gyasta, a lakeside town way up in the northern mountains.

It’s an impossible trek in this weather.”

“Thanks,” I smiled, grabbing the crate.

“Keep the change.”

I walked back to the metal carriage.

I wasn’t about to drag a recovering Nico Robin through a blinding blizzard on a mountain hike.

I stepped out onto the ice, unhooked the Jade Wings from my waist, and channeled a pulse of fa-jin energy into the blades.

Summon: Sky-Rift Roc.

A massive pillar of emerald mist erupted over the frozen sea.

The giant jade bird shrieked, its wings easily cutting through the blizzard.

I directed the Roc to grab the heavy iron chains of our metal carriage.

With a powerful beat of its wings, it lifted our entire crew into the sky, completely bypassing the treacherous mountain paths, and flew us directly toward the northern town of Gyasta.

We touched down softly on the snow-covered outskirts of Gyasta.

Looming in front of us, exactly as the shopkeeper described, was a massive, towering tree with a fully functional house built right into its colossal trunk.

I knocked on the heavy wooden door.

It swung open to reveal an incredibly tall, impossibly fit elderly woman wearing a midriff-baring top and a pair of stylish sunglasses.

Dr.

Kureha.

“Are you happy?!” Kureha grinned sharply, taking a swig from a plum wine bottle.

“Want to know the secret to my youth?”

“I want a doctor,” I replied easily.

Behind her legs, a small, furry creature with a blue nose and a pink top hat frantically tried to hide behind a doorframe, though he completely botched it, hiding his face behind the wall but leaving his entire body exposed to us.

“A tanuki!” Gammamon gasped, waddling out from behind my legs.

“I’m a reindeer, you jerk!” the little creature snapped defensively, then immediately shrieked in terror as he realized he had just yelled at a human.

Gammamon didn’t care.

He walked right up to the terrified reindeer and held out a piece of chocolate.

“I’m a Digimon!

I’m Gammamon.

Do you like chocolate?

Let’s be friends!”

The reindeer’s jaw dropped.

He looked at the chocolate, and finally at the little white Digimon who was smiling at him with pure, unadulterated warmth.

Slowly, hesitantly, the reindeer took the chocolate.

“I’m…

I’m Tony Tony Chopper.”

“Cute kid,” I noted, looking back at Kureha.

“I have a patient in the carriage.

She needs a full internal examination.”

“I don’t work for cheap, boy,” Kureha laughed, crossing her arms.

“My fee is fifty percent of everything you own.”

I didn’t blink.

I reached into my coat, pulled out a massive, heavy sack of pure pirate gold from Moria’s vault, and casually tossed it onto her wooden floor.

The gold coins clinked loudly as the bag slumped over.

Kureha stared at the gold, then looked up at me, a genuine, terrifying grin spreading across her face.

“I like your attitude.

Bring her in.”

Thirty minutes later, Kureha was standing in her medical ward.

Robin was sitting on the examination table, looking remarkably calm as the eccentric doctor pressed a stethoscope to her chest and examined her pulse and reflexes.

Chopper was standing on a stool next to Kureha, taking meticulous notes on a clipboard.

“Fascinating.

Absolutely fascinating,” Kureha muttered, taking another swig of wine.

She picked up Robin’s hand, inspecting the retractable black nails, then gently prodded the jawline where the venom glands were hidden.

“Two perfectly synchronized hearts.

Panther claws.

Venom sacs.

I don’t know what kind of back-alley butcher grafted these freakish animal mutations into her biology, but it shouldn’t be biologically possible.”

She looked at me, her eyes sharp.

“Whoever did the surgery was a butcher.

But whoever healed her is a miracle worker.

You forced her cells to rapidly fuse the foreign tissues, didn’t you?”

“I just transferred energy to stimulate hyper-accelerated cellular growth,” I confirmed.

“Is she stable?”

“Perfectly,” Kureha nodded.

“Her body won’t reject the organs.

However, maintaining two competing circulatory systems and these foreign animal traits takes a massive toll on the nervous system.

If she doesn’t eat right, she’ll suffer from severe neurological fatigue.”

Kureha began barking highly specific, complex dietary requirements and vitamin regimens.

I watched as Chopper frantically and perfectly transcribed every single medical term without missing a beat, his blue nose twitching with pure focus.

The reindeer was a savant.

Before Kureha could finish her prescription, a loud commotion erupted outside the treehouse.

“Where is the witch?!” a loud, obnoxious voice bellowed over the wind.

I walked out of the medical ward and stepped through the front door.

Standing in the snow just outside the massive tree, flanked by dozens of armed soldiers and the shivering Isshi-20 doctors, was a round, metallic-jawed man in a tin-pot crown.

King Wapol.

He had clearly seen the giant bird land and marched his men out to Gyasta to investigate.

“I am the King of Drum Kingdom!” Wapol shouted, catching a glimpse of the gold sack resting inside the hallway.

“And by royal decree, all gold, doctors, and strange birds belong to me!”

Chopper rushed out the door, instantly recognizing the tyrant who had terrorized his homeland.

The little reindeer grit his teeth.

He pulled a small, yellow pill, a Rumble Ball, from his pocket, ready to consume it and fight the army himself.

I reached down and gently patted the reindeer on the head, stopping his hand.

“Save your energy, Doc,” I said quietly, stepping past him.

“I handle the trash on this crew.”

I stepped out into the freezing blizzard.

The royal army aimed their rifles at me.

Wapol unhinged his metallic jaw, preparing to eat me alive.

I didn’t draw the Jade Wings.

I just stood there, taking a deep breath of the freezing air.

I calculated the trajectory, making sure my angle was absolutely perfect.

If I kicked him straight back, he’d crash into the Drum Rockies.

I shifted my stance, pivoting slightly to the right, aiming perfectly toward the distant coastline where we had parked.

“Fire!” Wapol screamed.

I tapped into my Fa-Jin and channeled a massive, overwhelming surge of raw power entirely into my right leg.

I moved faster than sound.

Before a single trigger could be pulled, I was standing directly in front of Wapol.

I raised my boot and delivered a devastating, blunt-force Spartan kick squarely into the center of his chest.

BOOM.

The shockwave shattered the snow beneath us in a massive crater.

Wapol didn’t even have time to scream.

The sheer kinetic trauma launched him into the sky like a fired cannonball.

He broke the sound barrier, streaking perfectly over the town, over the forests, and completely off the island, plunging somewhere into the freezing ocean miles away.

The remaining royal soldiers stared at the empty space where their king used to be.

They immediately dropped their rifles and fell to their knees in absolute surrender.

I dusted the snow off my coat and turned back to the treehouse.

Chopper was staring at me, his jaw on the floor, absolutely terrified and awestruck by the casual display of god-like violence.

“You’ve got a good heart, Chopper, and you’re a brilliant doctor,” I said, walking back to the doorway.

“But the high seas are a meat grinder.

You aren’t ready for the Grand Line yet.”

I looked at Kureha, who was smirking from the doorway.

“Keep studying under the witch.

Get stronger.

Maybe one day you’ll be ready to sail.”

Chopper clutched his clipboard tightly to his chest, tears welling in his eyes.

He wasn’t being chased away, he was being acknowledged.

He gave a firm, determined nod, wiping his nose.

He would stay on Drum Island, but for the first time, he knew exactly what he was studying for.

Word Count: 1581

———————————————————————————————————

For more chapters

This month’s adventures wouldn’t be possible without the generous support of my patrons:

Greylocke33, Jordan D’souza, Big_Bro_Byakko, Doglore63, Curtis Branscum, Rudell Vincent Samson, Kevins Green, Eric, Diem Delgado

thank you for believing in the story!