"Bardock, I have two pieces of news for you. One is good, and the other is bad. Which one do you want to hear first?" Robin teased playfully as Bardock walked into the tavern, having successfully left the two dwarves in Kureha's care.
"What if I want to hear both of them at the exact same time?" Bardock countered, tossing the dilemma right back at her.
Unfortunately for Bardock, while that trick worked on normal people, Robin was the worst possible person to challenge with that logic.
"The good news is that I successfully found the blue-nosed reindeer," Robin's actual mouth said.
"The bad news is that the reindeer is currently just an ordinary reindeer," a second mouth, sprouted directly on the palm of her hand, said in perfect synchronization.
Bardock sighed, defeated by her Devil Fruit. "Are you saying he hasn't eaten the Human-Human Fruit yet?"
He stroked his chin, a slight frown forming. This was troublesome. If Chopper had already consumed the Devil Fruit, Bardock could have just swept him up and taken him away right now, saving the poor creature from years of brutal isolation and trauma. But if he hadn't eaten it yet, Bardock taking him away meant Chopper might completely miss out on his canonical powers.
"Yes, exactly," Robin nodded, the extra mouth vanishing into pink petals. "Honestly, finding a specific reindeer in a country famous for its massive reindeer herds was supposed to be incredibly difficult. Even though you gave me the specific 'blue nose' identifier, scanning through hundreds of herds spread across the snowy mountains is a daunting task."
Robin took a sip of her hot tea before continuing. "However, once I started actually looking for him, it was surprisingly easy. He's technically part of a large herd, but he's constantly ostracized and forced to live on the extreme outer fringes. The herd absolutely refuses to accept him. Whenever he tries to get close, the larger stags immediately attack him and drive him away. From what I could observe, he's just a completely ordinary, helpless reindeer calf right now."
"Regardless of his current state, I need to see him with my own eyes. Ideally, we can track down the Human-Human Fruit and just feed it to him ourselves," Bardock decided. If they couldn't find the fruit, he'd just have to sail away and come back for Chopper in a few years.
"I'll go with you, then. I'm actually quite curious about him myself," Robin smiled, her eyes crinkling slightly. "You seem to know an awful lot about the future, Bardock."
Robin stared intently into his golden eyes. She had suspected it for a long time, but recently, it had become glaringly obvious. Bardock wasn't even trying to hide it anymore.
"The future..." Bardock murmured, looking out the tavern window at the falling snow. "When a butterfly flaps its wings, the timeline slowly warps into something completely unrecognizable."
Bardock didn't bother denying her suspicions; there was no point in lying to her. He frequently let advanced knowledge slip, and as an intelligence gathering expert, Robin was naturally going to pick up on the clues.
"Oh? If you hadn't interfered... what would my future have looked like?" Robin asked softly. She quickly caught herself and shook her head. "Never mind. Forget I asked."
What was the point of knowing? Based on the miserable twenty years she had spent in the West Blue, it certainly wasn't going to be anything happy. She was on a different path now, and she was determined to walk it properly.
"Come on. You give the directions, and we'll fly over there on the Flying Nimbus," Bardock said, standing up.
In the past, he rarely summoned the Nimbus in heavily populated areas to avoid drawing attention. Now that his combat strength had reached a level where he didn't have to fear the immediate consequences, he no longer cared about hiding his abilities.
In a long, narrow, snow-covered valley, a massive herd of reindeer was grazing. The alpha of the herd was a towering, heavily scarred stag that radiated an intimidating presence.
Far, far away on the extreme outer edge of the valley, a tiny reindeer calf with a bright blue nose stood completely alone in the snow. He stared longingly at the herd. Several times, he took a few hesitant steps toward them, only to quickly retreat in fear. The herd made it abundantly clear that he was not welcome. If he dared to approach, the adult stags would violently trample him to teach him a lesson.
Weak, pitiful, and utterly helpless. That was Bardock's first impression of Tony Tony Chopper. It was a miracle that reindeer were herbivores; if they were predators, Chopper would have starved to death months ago.
"It's so strange. They completely ostracize him just because his nose is a different color? Are reindeer naturally obsessed with uniformity or something?" Bardock frowned, genuinely unable to comprehend the logic. Was a blue nose really that offensive?
"Perhaps a blue nose carries some sort of negative superstition within reindeer society," Robin theorized, observing the herd from the cloud. "Or maybe they simply instinctively reject any form of physical mutation to keep the gene pool pure. Regardless, as an herbivore, he's actually quite lucky. Many predatory species will outright kill and eat their offspring if they deem them weak or deformed."
"Let's split our focus and scan the immediate area. The Human-Human Fruit should look somewhat like a bright red mushroom with swirling patterns," Bardock instructed.
He wanted to find the fruit before another animal accidentally ate it. If a random snowbird or a bear ate the Human-Human Fruit, Bardock would have absolutely no idea where to find a replacement for Chopper.
"Speaking of Devil Fruits... they really are bizarre," Robin noted as she began sprouting eyes on the surrounding trees. "If a normal human ate the Human-Human Fruit, what kind of powers would they even get?"
She had often wondered if giving the Cat-Cat Fruit to an actual cat, or the Dog-Dog Fruit to an actual dog, would do anything at all.
"If a human eats the Human-Human Fruit (Model: Ordinary Citizen), they simply gain the incredible ability to never be able to swim again," Bardock deadpanned, his eyes rapidly scanning the snowy ground. With his Fiery Golden Eyes, if the Devil Fruit was anywhere on the ground within a mile radius, he would definitely spot it.
"Model: Ordinary Citizen? Pfft-hehehehe..." Robin covered her mouth, failing to stifle a laugh. The sheer absurdity of the name was hilarious.
The Flying Nimbus slowly circled the snowy valley.
Suddenly, Robin's eyes widened. "Bardock. I think I actually found it."
"Seriously?! Let's go!"
Bardock had almost given up hope. The fact that Robin had found it so quickly proved that Chopper's canonical fate with the fruit was practically predestined.
They flew toward the location Robin indicated. Surprisingly, the Devil Fruit wasn't growing on the ground like a mushroom at all; it was resting high up on the branches of a frozen, twisted pine tree.
It was incredibly bizarre. Bardock had assumed that since Chopper (a reindeer) had originally eaten it, the fruit must have grown low to the ground where a grazing animal could reach it. Consequently, Bardock had focused his entire search on the snowdrifts, completely ignoring the canopy.
Thanks to Robin's 'sprout-eyes-everywhere' technique, she had easily spotted the vibrant red fruit nestled among the high branches. 'Did Chopper originally eat it after it naturally fell out of the tree?' Bardock wondered.
"Robin, when it comes to finding hidden objects, I humbly bow to your absolute superiority," Bardock joked, leaping off the cloud to pluck the fruit from the branch.
Robin rolled her eyes. "It was just blind luck. And frankly, your phrasing sounds incredibly weird."
"Don't worry about it. Probably a translation error," Bardock waved it off, hopping back onto the cloud. "Come on. Let's go feed our new doctor. He's incredibly lucky to have a nice guy like me spoon-feed him a Devil Fruit."
Bardock steered the cloud back toward the lonely reindeer calf.
As Bardock suddenly dropped down from the sky and landed right next to him, Chopper's legs completely gave out in sheer terror. Humans! They were so close! They were going to eat him!
Before Chopper could even open his mouth to bleat in panic, Bardock swiftly shoved the entire Human-Human Fruit directly into the calf's open mouth. Startled, Chopper swallowed the fruit whole out of pure reflex.
A moment later, a bizarre transformation occurred. The reindeer calf rapidly shifted, standing upright on two legs as his body morphed into the iconic, miniature 'Brain Point' mascot form Bardock was so familiar with.
"Did it taste good?" Bardock asked with a wide grin.
"Eh?" Chopper let out a confused, high-pitched squeak. He looked down at his hooves—which now resembled pudgy hands—in utter disbelief. "W-what happened to my body?!"
"Ah, so the Human-Human Fruit actually does come with a passive utility buff. It instantly grants animals the biological capacity to speak and comprehend human language," Bardock noted, nodding in satisfaction. He was incredibly relieved he wouldn't have to spend months teaching Chopper how to talk. "From today onward, your name is Tony Tony Chopper. And you are my crewmate."
"EH?!" Chopper shrieked, stumbling backward into the snow.
"Bardock, he looks incredibly gullible and not very bright... but he's absolutely adorable," Robin cooed. Unable to resist the sheer cuteness of the mascot, she reached out and gently patted Chopper's furry head.
"E-even if you praise me and call me cute, it won't make me happy at all, you jerk! I'm not gullible, you jerk!" Chopper immediately began doing his iconic, noodle-armed happy dance, his face flushed bright red with joy, even as he awkwardly tried to dodge Robin's petting.
"So, what do you say, Chopper?" Bardock knelt down in the snow, his expression turning completely serious as he looked the reindeer in the eyes. "Will you become our crewmate?"
"Chopper? You mean... me? A... a crewmate?"
Chopper stopped dancing. He looked down at his hooves. Ever since the day he was born, he had been violently rejected, attacked, and treated as an abomination by his own kind. And now, a human—a creature he had been taught to fear—was giving him a name and asking him to join them?
Bardock reached out and gently placed a hand on Chopper's pink hat. "Yes. I mean you, Chopper. Come sail the seas and explore the world with us."
Tears welled up in Chopper's large eyes, rapidly overflowing and streaming down his furry cheeks. He tried to wipe them away, but he was smiling so hard it hurt. Crying and laughing at the exact same time, he looked up at Bardock.
"Mmhmm!"