The silence in the room was thick, broken only by the crackle of the fire and Chopper's nervous, sniffling breaths. Mario looked at the small reindeer, his mind a whirlwind of strategy and desperation. He had to fix this. He had to mend the thread of fate he'd carelessly severed. But how does one recruit a crewmate without the captain present, especially one as traumatized and self-loathing as Tony Tony Chopper?
"They call you a monster, don't they?" Mario said, his voice soft, not with pity, but with a simple, stark understanding.
Chopper flinched as if struck. The fake bravado evaporated, and his head drooped, his pink hat tilting forward to shadow his eyes. He didn't answer, but the tremble in his small shoulders was confirmation enough.
"I know the feeling," Mario continued, leaning back against his pillows, his own bandages a testament to a different kind of pain. "Not being what others expect. Carrying something inside you that frightens them. It's a lonely weight to carry alone."
Chopper's head lifted slightly, a flicker of wary curiosity in his large, dark eyes. "You… you're not scared of me?"
"Should I be?" Mario asked, a gentle smile touching his lips. "The one who's been changing my bandages and monitoring my fever? The one who, from what I overheard, helped save my friend Nami? That doesn't sound like a monster to me. That sounds like a doctor."
The word 'doctor' seemed to electrify Chopper. He stood a little straighter, but the ingrained shame quickly pulled him down again. "I'm… I'm just a student. Dr. Kureha says I have a lot to learn. And… and I'm not even… I'm a…"
"You're the one who saved us," Mario stated, cutting off the self-deprecating spiral. "That's what matters to us. My captain, Luffy… he doesn't see things the way other people do. He doesn't see monsters or humans. He just sees people."
Chopper shuffled his hooves, looking down at the floor. "Your captain… he's the one with the straw hat. He's loud."
"He is," Mario chuckled. "But his heart is louder. He's the kind of man who would look at you and not see a reindeer who ate a Devil Fruit. He'd just see a friend who wants to be a doctor. And he'd probably ask you to join his crew before you even finished introducing yourself."
There it was. The invitation, laid out not as a demand, but as a simple, plausible fact.
Chopper's head shot up, his eyes wide with a mixture of yearning and pure terror. "J-Join? A pirate crew? No! I can't! That's… that's impossible!"
"Why?" Mario asked, his voice still calm, though his heart was hammering. He was walking on a knife's edge. One wrong word, and Chopper would bolt.
"Because!" Chopper cried, his voice cracking. "I don't belong with people! I'm not a human! I'm a monster! Humans… they hurt you! They shoot at you! They call you names!" The words tumbled out, a torrent of old, festering pain. "I have a place here. With Dr. Kureha. It's… it's safe."
"Is it?" Mario pressed gently. "Or is it just a cage you've built for yourself because you're afraid the world outside these walls will be just like that one terrible memory?"
Chopper stared at him, his mouth slightly agape. Mario had struck a chord deeper than he intended.
"The world is big, Chopper," Mario said, his gaze drifting to the window, towards the endless white sky. "Bigger than you can imagine. There are islands made of sand, islands in the sky, seas that burn. And on those seas, there are all kinds of people. Some will be cruel, yes. But others… others will see you for who you are. They'll fight for you. They'll call you nakama."
He looked back at the reindeer, his expression utterly sincere. "Nakama means more than friend. It means family. It's a bond that's thicker than blood. It's a promise that you're not alone anymore. That's what Luffy offers. That's what we all offer."
Tears welled in Chopper's eyes, but he fiercely shook his head, swatting them away with a hoof. "Stop it! You're just saying that! You don't know me! You don't know what I am! I'm… I'm a freak!" His voice rose to a desperate pitch. "This… this is what I really am!"
In a moment of growth, the small, cute reindeer was gone. In his place stood the hulking, muscular, yet man-faced form of his Heavy Point. He loomed over the bed, his hat nearly scraping the ceiling.
"SEE? I'm a monster! A real one!"
Mario didn't flinch. He didn't even blink. He just looked up at the transformed Chopper, his gaze steady.
"Can you still hold a scalpel with those hands?" Mario asked quietly.
The fight seemed to drain out of Chopper. The anger on his face melted into confusion, then sorrow.
"I… I can," he whimpered.
"Then you're a doctor," Mario said, as if it were the most obvious conclusion in the world. "A doctor who can climb mountains to save patients. A doctor who isn't afraid of his own strength when it comes to protecting others. That doesn't sound like a monster to me. That sounds like the kind of doctor any pirate crew would be lucky to have."
He let the words hang in the air, letting Chopper absorb them through his tears.
"We're leaving tonight," Mario finally said, his voice barely above a whisper. "And going to a desert kingdom called Alabasta, where people are sick and hurting, caught in a war they didn't ask for. They're going to need a doctor. A good one. We all will."
Chopper looked up, his eyes red-rimmed and full of a conflict that was tearing him apart. The longing was there, so bright and clear it was painful to look at. The dream of being a real doctor, of being accepted, of having friends… it was all being laid out before him like a feast after a lifetime of starvation.
But the fear was a cage with bars of solid iron.
"I… I can't," he whispered, the words a final, broken surrender to his own insecurities. "Dr. Kureha… she needs me. This is my home. I'm… I'm sorry."
Chopper wanted to turn and flee, his quiet sobs echoing in the room, a heartbreaking sound of a spirit on the verge of breaking. The door, his escape, seemed to pull at him.
But then Mario's voice, soft yet impossibly clear, cut through the noise in his own head.
„Is that your dream?"
Chopper froze. His hooves, poised to carry him away, felt rooted to the stone floor. The word—dream—was a key turning in a lock he had kept sealed for a long time.
„You want to stay here?" Mario continued, his voice not accusatory, but filled with a profound, aching sadness. „Hiding in this castle, where no one ever sees who you really are? Not a monster… but a brilliant doctor. A healer."
The words struck Chopper with the force of a physical blow. They didn't just describe his present; they condemned his future. A future of eternal winter, of shadows and silence. A future where the title "Doctor" would only ever be whispered within these stone walls.
And in that moment, a memory, vivid and warm as a summer sun, bloomed in his mind's eye. Not of Dr. Kureha, his stern and loving teacher, but of his first friend, his mentor, the man who was more of a father to him than anyone could ever be: the magnificent, foolish, beautiful Dr. Hiriluk.
He saw the man's wild, grinning face, his ridiculous outfit, his unshakable, roaring belief in a reindeer that everyone else saw as a demon. He heard his voice, loud and full of life, proclaiming his dream—a dream so grand it was laughable, so impossible it was sublime. To create a sakura bloom that blossoms in the snow of Drum Island! To cure the very hearts of the kingdom, to heal the sickness of hatred and despair itself!
Dr. Hiriluk hadn't hidden. He had stood on the castle ramparts and screamed his dream at the whole world, consequences be damned. He had believed that a single, beautiful act could change everything.
And he had believed in Chopper. He had seen the brilliant doctor within the "monster" long before anyone else.
A sudden, shocking realization dawned on Chopper, so bright it was almost blinding. By staying here, by hiding in this "safe" cage, he wasn't just betraying his own potential. He was betraying everything Dr. Hiriluk had fought and died for. He was letting his father's dream—a dream he had inherited, a dream to sail the world and become a great doctor who could heal any heart—wither and die in the very snow it was meant to conquer.
Tears, different from the ones of shame and fear from before, now streamed down his furry face. These were tears of clarity, of grief, and of a long-dormant resolve finally stirring awake.
He wasn't just a monster. He wasn't just a student.
He was Tony Tony Chopper.
And he had a dream to fulfill.
He slowly turned to face Mario, his small body trembling, but no longer with the desire to flee. His eyes, though still wet, now held a new, fragile, but undeniable light.
The fragile, pivotal moment shattered as the door flew open with a bang.
„Oh, and Mar—…" Luffy's voice cut off abruptly. He stood frozen in the doorway, his eyes wide, not with fear, but with pure, unadulterated astonishment. His gaze was locked on Chopper, who was still in his towering, muscular Heavy Point form, tears of resolve still glistening on his fur.
The world seemed to hold its breath.
„Luffy, what is—" Usopp's voice came from behind him as he peered into the room over Luffy's shoulder. His eyes landed on the hulking, horned figure, and all the color drained from his face.
„HIIIII! MONSTER!"
The word was a dagger.
All the newfound courage, the dawning resolve, evaporated from Chopper's face in an instant, replaced by the raw, familiar terror of rejection. The panic was immediate and absolute.
„UAAAAHHHHH!" A heart-wrenching wail tore from him as tears of shame and despair welled in his eyes. In a transformation, the powerful form vanished, replaced by his small, defenseless reindeer point. With a final, devastated look, he bolted, a blur of brown fur streaking between Luffy's legs and out the door, his frantic hoofbeats echoing down the hall.
„YOU STUPID IDIOT!… Ouch!" Mario roared, trying to sit up and immediately gripping his wounded side with a sharp hiss of pain.
„Mario! What was that?!" Luffy exclaimed, his shock turning into explosive excitement. He spun around, his eyes sparkling like a kid who'd just seen a magic trick. „IT LOOKED AWESOME! How did it transform? What happened? Did you see it? It was so cool!"
„That was a monster ready to eat him, Luffy! Did you not see the horns?! The muscles?!" Usopp shrieked, still trembling.
„God damn it, Usopp, you and your loud mouth!" Mario panted, the pain and frustration making his head throb. „That was our future doctor! His name is Chopper! He's a reindeer who ate a Devil Fruit—a Human-Human Fruit! He can transform!"
Luffy's jaw dropped. „Transform…?" he whispered, as if Mario had just revealed the secret to One Piece itself.
„Into seven different shapes," Mario added, driving the point home like a master fisherman setting the hook.
Luffy's eyes turned into giant, glittering stars.
„SEVEN?!?!" he yelled, his voice vibrating with pure, uncontainable joy. He whirled on Usopp, his expression morphing into one of comical fury.
„USOPP! YOU STUPID IDIOT! YOU SCARED HIM AWAY! NOW COME WITH ME, WE NEED TO RECRUIT HIM THIS INSTANT!!!"
Before Usopp could utter another word of protest, Luffy grabbed him not by the collar, but by his long nose, and literally dragged the wailing sniper out of the room and down the hall after the fleeing reindeer.
Mario could hear Usopp's fading cries of „I'm sorry! It was a reflex!" mingling with Luffy's booming voice.
Mario slumped back against his pillows, a weary but triumphant smile finally spreading across his face. He exhaled a long, deep breath, feeling the tension leave his body.
„Good," he murmured to the empty room. „I can now leave it to our captain."
From outside, the chaotic symphony of a Straw Hat recruitment began in earnest. He could hear Luffy's voice echoing through the castle corridors:
„OIIIIII! RAINDEER! COME BACK! I WANNA SEE THE SEVEN TRANSFORMATIONS! JOIN MY CREW!"
Mario closed his eyes, letting the familiar, beautiful noise wash over him. The thread was re-knotted. The story was back on track.
But they had left the door wide open in their frenzy. A cold gust of wind swept into the room, making the fire sputter. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Mario moved to get up and close it.
He never made it.
A figure appeared in the doorway, silhouetted against the bright, snowy light of the hall. She was bundled in a thick, heavy coat and wrapped in a massive blanket, her orange hair a vibrant splash of color against the monochrome backdrop.
Nami.
Mario's heart leaped into his throat, his own injuries and the chaos with Chopper forgotten in an instant. She was upright. She was awake. She was here.