Growing Heart

Ch 4 - A Dual Nature

Chopper's eyes fluttered opened. As his mind and sight refocused itself, he slowly became aware he was staring up at a big blue sky with a ring of trees surrounding the edges of his vision. Then he felt the aches and pains all over his body. "Oh...I'm alive...?"

"Welcome back."

He let out a gasp and leapt back at the sight of the guerilla woman sitting across the chest of the injured Sky Knight. Her skirt was hiked up and Chopper could see between the fringes the gleam of a blade strapped to her thigh. She had a dagger in hand and the sharp blade was pointed towards the fallen knight.

"Ah! No! Don't hurt him!" Chopper shrieked as he raced towards her only to have his way blocked by the sky sheep.

"Boo!"

Chopper blinked. "What do you mean she's healing him?"

The woman motioned for Chopper to come closer. When he did, he saw that she was mashing and smearing some leafy greens against the Sky Knight's hard chest plate. She then swiped up the paste with her free hand and smeared it against the wound in his chest. "I'm stopping the bleeding and helping the burn. Whether he pulls out of this is on him."

"Are...are you a doctor too?" Chopper asked as he leaned over the Sky Knight to get a better look at his wound.

"Too?," the woman asked. She reached into her bag, pulled out a handful of leafy greens and used the dagger to separate the leaves from the stem, "So you're a doctor? And you ate a Devil Fruit?"

Chopper nodded. "My name is Tony Tony Chopper. I ate the Human Human Fruit. I'm a reindeer human."

"I see."

"Y-you're not surprised by what I am?"

"Oh, I am but I can't dwell on it right now. There's no point in reacting to something when you have more important things to tend to. Like this," she said with a nod towards the Sky Knight as she continued to apply her paste.

Chopper's nose twitched. So...so that's why she didn't react to me when she first met me on the Merry....

"Did you save us?"

"You? Yes," she said, "Him and Pierre? No."

"Then...then who did?" Chopper asked.

She pointed up at the sky, still with her eyes on her patient. "Them."

"Yiouuuuuuuuu!" As if on cue, a South Bird flew down towards them and Chopper covered his hands with his hooves, fully expecting to be gobbled up. "Yiouuuuuu!"

Chopper peaked out from under the rim of his hat, "What? What? What? He's God?!"

The whole flock of South Birds joined the first one and they all flapped their wings incessantly. "Yiouuuuu! Yiouuuu!"

"Why...Why are these South Birds this huge?!" Chopper asked.

"So to them, you are still God," the woman mumbled as she got off the knight and pulled out a roll of bandages from her bag. She took the last glob of paste and smeared across a long strip. She went over to Chopper, "Alright. He's done. Now it's your turn. Stick your arms out."

"Wait...What?! What does this mean?" Chopper gasped. Since he was too surprised to do as she said, she moved Chopper's arms up and away from his body for him and began to bandage up his burnt torso.

"Who...Who are you then? Are you a priest?" Chopper asked with widened eyes.

The woman scoffed. "No. Far from it."

"Then...who are you?" Chopper asked, "Are...are you his friend?"

That made the woman pause and she frowned as she thought about her answer. "I am not his enemy and I'm not yours either," she said slowly and then she looked Chopper dead in the eyes, "But I can't say the same for the rest of my people so you better be careful."