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Chapter 96: The Doctor
"Doctor, join our crew!"
In the castle's great hall, Luffy slammed his hands onto the wooden table with a thud. He leaned forward, his eyes burning with intensity as he looked at Kureha, who was grinding medicine in a stone mortar. His tone was utterly sincere.
"Hah?"
Kureha thought she had misheard. She looked up at the straw-hatted brat.
Seeing the lack of any joking manner on the kid's face, she realized he was genuinely inviting her.
Kureha fell silent for a moment, her gaze drifting almost imperceptibly toward the sickroom on the second floor.
"Kid, I'm over a hundred years old," she shook her head.
"It's okay! I don't mind that you're old!" Luffy waved his hand dismissively.
Old?
Kureha's aged eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.
She slowly set down the pestle. Then, with a speed completely inconsistent with her "advanced age," she snapped her leg up.
Bang!
Luffy, who was still eagerly awaiting an answer, felt a massive force slam into his face. He went flying across the room, smashing into the wall and collapsing into a heap of rubber.
"You brat!" Kureha retracted her long leg, dusted off her pants, and tilted her chin up. "I am a woman in the prime of her youth at 139!"
"So fast... what a sharp kick..."
Sanji and Zoro watched, dumbfounded, swallowing nervously.
Wait, how old did she just say she was?
"Listen up, you brat, and the rest of you rude little ones."
Kureha placed her hands on her hips. Her gaze swept over Luffy, who was rubbing the back of his head in confusion as he climbed up from the wall, and then to Zoro and Sanji, who were still reeling from the shock of her age.
"I have no interest in being a pirate." She picked up a bottle and took a swig of liquor. "Running around the sea with a bunch of brats like you would be a waste of my precious youth! You'd best give up on that idea right now."
Luffy opened his mouth, seeming ready to try and persuade her again.
But Kureha seemed to see through him. She cut him off with a grin.
"You've seen Chopper, haven't you? He's learned almost all my medical skills. If you're capable, try to trick him into going with you."
With that, she picked up her mortar and headed for the storage room alone.
She left Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji looking at each other in confusion.
After a long silence.
"Who is this 'Chopper' the granny mentioned?" Luffy asked, question marks practically floating above his head.
He hadn't seen anyone else in this castle besides Kureha.
"No idea," Sanji lit a cigarette and shook his head. "I didn't notice anyone else."
With the old woman gone, he could finally smoke in peace.
Zoro thought for a moment, looking up toward the second floor with a thoughtful expression.
"I didn't see a person... but I did see an interesting 'monster' earlier."
"Monster?" Luffy and Sanji paused, then realized what he meant. Their gazes snapped to the second floor in unison.
Right! That reindeer!
The blue-nosed reindeer that pulled the sleigh and had vanished the moment they entered the castle.
At that exact moment, the door on the second floor creaked open a crack.
A small, brown, humanoid creature wearing a pink hat cautiously poked half its body out.
Just as it took a step with one hoof, it locked eyes with the three intense gazes shooting up from the main hall below.
The air froze instantly.
"You are..."
Luffy stared blankly at the small brown creature above. His gaze gradually turned heated, and drool began to pool at the corners of his mouth uncontrollably.
He had been on this island for most of the day and hadn't eaten a single meal.
His stomach was already growling.
"Meat!"
Luffy screamed. His rubber arm shot out like a cannonball, stretching with alarming speed, fingers spread wide to grab Chopper!
"Aaaaaah!"
Chopper's soul nearly left his body at the sight of the incoming hand. He let out a short shriek and jerked back, retreating into the room.
"What's wrong?"
Inside the sickroom, Ganyu was using a damp towel to wipe sweat from Vivi's forehead. Seeing Chopper, who had just left, dart back in with panic written all over his face, she asked in confusion.
But before she could finish her sentence, a loud bang echoed.
The door was blasted open. Luffy shot in like a human rubber bullet. Carried by inertia, he flew straight toward Ganyu.
Luffy?
Ganyu was momentarily stunned, but her body reacted faster than her mind. She instinctively dodged to the side.
But the moment she dodged, she regretted it.
"Oh no, Vivi!"
Under Ganyu's horrified gaze, Luffy slammed heavily onto Vivi, who was still unconscious in bed!
It was a textbook body slam. Luffy's entire weight crushed down onto Vivi's abdomen.
Vivi's upper body and legs jerked upward from the impact. Ganyu's eyes went wide. She could practically hear the muffled, agonizing scream caught in the princess's throat.
Good lord. He just crushed the patient awake after she'd been sleeping all day.
"Cough, cough... Gag..." Vivi's eyes snapped open. She coughed violently, a bit of bile forcing its way up her throat.
Her face was pale as she looked blankly at Luffy, who was pressing down on her stomach. Her brain hadn't quite processed the situation yet.
"Yo, Vivi, you're finally awake," Luffy greeted her cheerfully upon hearing her voice.
"Ugh... what's going on... my head, and my stomach... why do they hurt so much..." she rasped weakly. Her gaze traveled with difficulty from Luffy on the bed to a worried-looking Ganyu, and finally to the trembling Chopper hiding behind Ganyu.
"If your head hurts, it's definitely because you're sick. The old lady said you caught some weird illness called 'Five-Day Disease,' but it's already cured now."
Luffy scratched the back of his head, seemingly forgetting why he had burst into the room in the first place.
He paused, looking a bit puzzled. "But I don't know why your stomach hurts. Maybe you slept too long?"
"I-Is that so... Luffy? Well, thank you all, then."
Vivi forced a grateful smile, but she couldn't help asking the most pressing question.
"Then why... are you lying on top of me?"
"That's right! I came up here to catch the meat!"
Reminded by Vivi, Luffy quickly recalled his objective.
He leaped off the bed, his eyes instantly locking onto the brown creature hiding behind Ganyu.
"Hehe! Ganyu, help me catch it!" Luffy pointed excitedly at Chopper, drool threatening to spill over again. "That's our dinner for tonight! It looks delicious!"
"Idiot!" Ganyu rolled her eyes at Luffy, stepping sideways to completely shield Chopper, who looked ready to curl into a ball of fear. "What do you think you're doing to the doctor who cured Vivi?"
"Doctor?" x2
Luffy and Vivi exclaimed in unison.
This small brown creature was a doctor?
At that moment, Sanji and Zoro walked in from the hallway.
Zoro pointed at Chopper behind Ganyu, his tone confirming his earlier suspicion.
"That's right. If the old hag wasn't lying, then the apprentice she talked about is most likely this shapeshifting reindeer."
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