One Piece, Volume 16

Chapter 137
Usopp and Vivi and the villagers are fleeing from the avalanche.

Elsewhere, Luffy and Sanji try to find higher ground but are unable to escape the avalanche. Luffy grabs a tree and rides it like a sled as he grabs Sanji. They are confronted by more lapahns who throw trees at them, but Sanji kicks Luffy away while he takes the brunt of the attack and saves his friends. Luffy tries to grab Sanji's hand but only grabs his glove.

Meanwhile, the villagers are freaking out about the avalanche, as well as Wapol who flees on his pet.

Luffy dives into the snow to retrieve Sanji. After the avalanche has hit and the village is covered, Wapol eats his way out and blames the avalanche on the Straw Hats as an elaborate plot to attack him.

Luffy finds Sanji and begins to bring him back up the mountain. As he passes by a buried lapahn, he also pulls out the parent lapahn. The baby and adult lapahn are shocked that a human has helped them. Luffy is soon found by Wapol's men.

Chapter 138
Wapol confronts Luffy, who ignores him, and is attacked for his lack of respect. However, Luffy cannot fight back due to the fact that he is carrying his critically-injured crew mates. Fortunately, he is helped by the lapahns he helped out earlier.

Luffy then arrives at the base of a nearly vertical cliff. He begins to climb the mountain wall while carrying Sanji and Nami on his back. Finally, after 3 hours of climbing, he reaches the top of the mountain right before he collapses.

Meanwhile, Wapol and his men have defeated all the lapahns. He then vows to gain revenge on Luffy.

At the mountain top, Luffy has finally arrived but passes out due to sheer exhaustion. As he is about to fall off the mountain, a mysterious figure reaches out to save him.

Chapter 139
After the avalanche, Vivi and Usopp are still alive but lost. On their way, they accidentally bump into an almost naked Zoro who tells them he was performing training when the avalanche struck. Together they continue their journey and they realize they have returned to Bighorn. They learn from the villagers that Dalton is still buried by the avalanche, but that Wapol's men prevent the villagers from freeing him. Hearing that they are enemies, Zoro beats up one of the guards and everyone lauds him as a hero. However, he quickly reveals he just wanted their warm clothes and the fact that they were in the way was just a bonus.

Meanwhile at the castle, Nami wakes up. In her room is a strange animal that can walk and talk, who seems quite impersonal. When Dr. Kureha enters, she reveals that everyone is safe and that Nami narrowly escaped death. Would it have been 2 days more, she would have died from a disease named Casha. Moreover, even if she feels better, she still has to be treated for another 3 days. Nami finds that's too long and wants to leave.

Suddenly, Luffy and Sanji burst into the room, pursuing Chopper in order to eat him. When asked about this strange animal, Doctorine reveals that it is a reindeer who accidentally ate the Hito Hito no Mi, hence becoming a reindeer able to talk and transform himself into a human.

Chapter 140
Luffy asks Dr. Kureha to join the Straw Hats, however she rejects his offer. When Chopper appears inside Nami's bedroom, he is immediately hunted by Sanji and Luffy who want to cook him, however, they are chased by Kureha who does not want to lose her assistant.

Chopper loses Luffy and Sanji and returns to Nami's room to take care of her. When she saw that he is interested in pirates, Nami asks him to join their crew, but Chopper declines, saying that he is a reindeer and cannot be involved with humans. Their conversation is suddenly interrupted by the appearance of Luffy and Sanji, and Chopper quickly flees.

Kureha then enters the room. She heard Nami and Chopper's discussion and explains to Nami that she has no objection if Chopper goes with them. However, it will be difficult to convince him (or earn his trust for that matter), as Chopper has been horribly scarred throughout his life, something which Kureha claims not even a doctor can fix. Dr. Kureha reveals that Chopper has always been alone, even more since he ate the Hito Hito no Mi, rejected by both humans and reindeer. When Chopper was still very young, his whole herd, even his own parents, shunned him all because of his blue nose. When he ate the Hito Hito no Mi, he became even more of an outcast and chased him away. Realising he was able to take on a human form, he tried socialising with the local humans, which ended disastrously as they mistook for a monster (he did not look entirely human, despite his abilities, and his blue nose made him stand out). Only one man was able to talk to him: Dr. Hiriluk.

During their hunt, Luffy and Sanji realise that the castle is full of snow due to the entrance, which has been left open. When they are about to close the door, Chopper prevents them from doing so by turning into his Heavy Point form. Sanji and Luffy realise the reason for the door being open—a nest of baby birds is on the top of the door—as well as the fact that Chopper is not really a common reindeer.

Chapter 141
In Bighorn, Zoro gets rid of Wapol's guards easily, which allows the villagers to search for Dalton, who was heavily injured before being buried into the avalanche. After some searching, he is found but is in a critical state.

At the castle, Chopper has smelled Wapol's return. The former king has decided to take his former castle back, but Doctorine and Chopper will not hand it back to Wapol. The castle, as shown by the pirate flag on its roof, is now the grave of Dr. Hiriluk.

6 years ago, Wapol banned every doctor from Drum's kingdom. The only ones allowed to stay were the Isshi-20. However, two doctors resisted against the tyrant: Dr. Kureha and Dr. Hiriluk. However, the skills of Hiriluk were highly questionable, and the villagers fear his treatments more than Wapol, hence his surname of 'Fake Doctor'.

One day, after having escaped the kingdom guards, Hiriluk bumps into a wounded creature. Hunted by everyone so far, he does not trust the charlatan and beats him. However, Hiriluk stands up, and to prove his true feelings, stands naked and defenseless in front of him. Later, Chopper wakes up and his injuries had been cured by the doctor. He cannot retain his tears as he had finally been accepted by someone.

Chapter 142
Three days after rescuing him, Hiriluk found out the reindeer could talk. He wondered why he had been silent, and the reindeer said that talking would make the doctor hate him, since he was shot the last time he talked. Hiriluk saw no issue with the reindeer talking, and the two of them were forced to evacuate outside when one of Hiriluk's chemical containers exploded. Hiriluk was happy to see that the reindeer was fine after the explosion, and named him Tony Tony Chopper for his strong horns that could bring down a tree. Chopper liked the name.

As Wapol rode down the mountain wondering what new laws he would make, captain of security Dalton met with Chess and Kuromarimo, who noted he was acting weird since coming back from the global conference Levely. Dalton wondered if their kingdom would be the same with a growing inequality between the royals and the people, but Chess and Kuromarimo failed to see an issue. They claimed that Wapol's stricter method of ruling was for the good of the country, but Dalton told them about one girl he had met at the Levely. In Mary Geoise where it was held, King Thalassa Lucas had held up a picture of the Revolutionary Dragon, warning that he would be a great danger to the world in five to six years. Wapol blew him off, failing to see any danger to his kingdom. King Nefertari Cobra of Arabasta reprimanded Wapol for his selfishness, and after the meeting, Wapol struck his young daughter Vivi under the guise of an accidental bump. Igaram became enraged, but Vivi stopped him, claiming responsibility for the altercation. Dalton was greatly impressed with the young princess' poise in such a volatile event, and overheard in shame from around the corner as Vivi cried when alone with Igaram. Back on Drum Island, however, Chess and Kuromarimo thought little of this action, telling Dalton not to mix emotion with policies.

As Hiriluk experimented with chemicals, he told Chopper not to hate the people on the island for casting them out, saying they had a sickness in their hearts. He told Chopper about a thief from the far west, who went around looking for a cure for his heart ailment. Doctors could not provide a cure, so he went wandering around until he came to a mountain. There, he saw beautiful cherry blossoms, and a doctor later found that his ailment was completely cured. Hiriluk believed that there was no disease that could not be cured, and declared that he would stand with his Jolly Roger to fight every disease that threatened the people in the country. Chopper was intrigued by the Jolly Roger, and Hiriluk said it was a symbol of faith, encouraging him to some day get out to other parts of the world and see how small his problem really was. Hiriluk told Chopper to get back home to keep recovering while he treated patients, but Chopper wanted to assist him. They overheard that a patient needed medicine from a mushroom, but were promptly chased away after trying to give him lizard eyes. Hiriluk and Chopper were run off by everyone they tried to help, and one time the former kicked the latter into the mob to serve as a decoy. After almost dying, Chopper returned to Hiriluk's base. He was angry at the doctor, but Hiriluk insisted that Chopper should have never followed him on his missions. However, he gave Chopper a pink top hat as an apology, which caused the reindeer to tear up. Hiriluk and Chopper did everything together for a year, until Chopper was finally cured. Hiriluk had no intention of taking care of him, and Chopper pleaded to stay with the doctor, but Hiriluk shot at him and told him to never come back again. As Chopper ran off, Hiriluk sobbed and hoped the reindeer would forgive him.

Chapter 143
Dr. Hiriluk learns from Dr. Kureha what he knows already: he is on the verge of death. Infected by a strong bacteria, he will not live more than three or four days. However, that is not sufficient to complete the research he has made during the last 30 years—a cure for any disease. He begs Kureha to give him more time so that he can complete the Cherry blossom miracle. Kureha mocks him and tells him that his one time cure that he believe to help him as a thief will not cure Drum Island, revealing the man in the story was actually Hiriluk himself.

While Dr. Kureha argues with Hiriluk, she notices Chopper is spying on them from the window. Chopper, understanding that Hiriluk chased him only so that he does not see his only friend die, started a journey to help the sick doctor.

After a week of hard struggles, he returns to the fake doctor's lab with an Amiudake mushroom in his hand. While he gave the mushroom to Hiriluk, Chopper asks him to live and to teach him how to become a doctor.

Chapter 144
After eating the Amiudake soup, Hiriluk feels much stronger. But while he was eating the medicine, a reaction happened in his lab. That was the reaction he was researching since so long ago. In joy after this miracle, he departs, suddenly telling Chopper to rest. He heads toward Dr. Kureha's house and begs her to complete two things, pretending he has not enough time to fulfill them: to continue his research on the Sakura powder and to teach Chopper medical knowledge so that he can become a good doctor. Kureha is angered by the favors and the request for them to be completed for free. She kicks Hiriluk out.

In town, people are desperate. The Isshi-20 are sick and there are no more doctors left to help them, the reasons for Hiriluk to hurry back to town. He is determined to cure the sick doctors and rushes toward the castle, despite the fact he is blocked by Wapol's soldiers.

Meanwhile, Kureha is worried because she does not understand why Hiriluk is in such hurry while he has still 2 weeks to live. When she rushes into his house, she encounters Chopper, who claims that the doctor is much better thanks to his mushroom soup. The old woman is in shock, as the mushroom is poisonous and Hiriluk has only one hour left before he dies. Chopper does not understand and he shows the pirate sign that Hiriluk told him was a symbol of a magic cure next to the mushroom picture he found in a book. Kureha tells the distraught reindeer that the skull in the book means poison and there is no cure for all diseases. She further explains that good intentions are not enough to help people and he can do nothing without learning medical knowledge and the skills to use them. Chopper then starts wailing uncontrollably because of his foolishness as Kureha pities him. Hiriluk has reached the castle so that he could die there.

Chapter 145
Dr. Hiriluk arrives at the castle in order to cure the Isshi-20 only for Wapol to reveal that it was a trap in order to capture the rebellious doctor. While Wapol laughs at and taunts the doctor, Dalton questions why the doctor came to such an obvious trap. Chess and Kuromarimo laugh alongside their king while Wapol's troops aim at the doctor. Instead of breaking down, Hiriluk drops to his knees, thankful that the Isshi-20 are fine. Dalton is extremely shocked. Hiriluk refuses to be shot by the king's soldiers, saying that he will die soon.

Chopper is shown running in an attempt to stop Hiriluk, who is making a speech about his death, stating that he will only die when he is forgotten. He begins to pour himself a drink when he notices that Dalton is crying. He shares the fake doctor's pain for this sick country. Hiriluk explains that he has lived happily and that his task is accomplished: the country will be cured, by those who remember him if not by him. He then downs the drink, which was a dangerously explosive substance, committing suicide.

Chopper arrives to find Hiriluk's hat float to the ground, the only remaining part of the deceased doctor. Wapol laughs at the doctor's death, angering Chopper and causing the reindeer to charge. While he is targeted by the soldiers who see him as a monster, Dalton interposes and begs him to depart. Since he is too weak to even defend himself, Dalton says to Chopper not to end up as another sacrifice for this country. Annoyed by Dalton's reaction who let the 'monster' escape despite his orders to kill him and his clear defiance towards him, Wapol threatens the guard chief of what would happen if he made him "really annoyed" as the two prepare to fight.

Meanwhile, Chopper has reached Dr. Kureha's house, raising Hiriluk's flag. He asks her to help him become a doctor who will be able to cure every disease in the world.

Back at the castle, Wapol has defeated Dalton and tries to negotiate with the guard chief. Dalton denies the request, stating that he will not stop until peace has returned to the country. Dalton only laughs and says that he is the most powerful person.

The flashback ends, returning to a scene where Luffy punches Wapol in the face.