One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Cursed Island of the Devil Fruit Gods ❯ The Doctor's Code ( Chapter 27 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chopper was breathing through his mouth as he ran away from his opponent in Walk Point. The stench his opponent was giving off was unbearable. "You smell like you've got a terrible disease...something that I know has no cure!" Chopper shouted back at him. He stopped abruptly and grabbed some pebbles, stuffing them into his nose as he shrank back into his tiny form so he could no longer smell the horrible odor and be distracted by it.
"What are you babbling about, animal? You're a freak, who are you to tell me something's wrong with me?" his opponent scoffed. "I, Byoukin, am a master of the plague. I can invent a disease and spew it forth from every orifice! Watch!" Byoukin introduced himself, and prepared to demonstrate his power. He took a deep breath and, closing his eyes, thought up a virus to torment Chopper with. "Get ready!" he exhaled powerfully, and a cloud of green spores shot forth from his mouth and expanded into a large cloud that began to thin as it spread, but remained nonetheless lethal. "Just inhale one tiny bit, and you'll double over in pain, and spew out your insides! It's not the most horrible death I could've imagined, but it should still suffice for someone as full of crap as you!" he laughed.
Chopper sighed. He stood up and breathed in deeply, even though it meant the virus was inside him now.
"What?!" Byoukin cried in surprise. "You...are you trying to commit suicide? You aren't even trying to escape any more?"
Chopper cross his arms after turning into Heavy Point. "You call yourself a master of disease, but yet you don't know anything about it at all, do you?" Chopper shook his head. "Stupid! It's a terrible thing to die of a disease! You can't die saving someone you care about, you can't die honorably in battle...it's the worst thing!" tears began to stream from Chopper's eyes.
"Why aren't you dying?!" Byoukin completely ignored Chopper's words.
"Asshole! I'm talking! You shut up and listen!" Chopper stomped forward at the apprehensive Byoukin, who was frightened of Chopper's seeming immunity to his power. "Listen to me! I am a doctor! I know a hell of a lot about medicine and health than you ever could! And I'll prove it!" Chopper punched him in the face, knocking him down to the ground. "A virus is something that affects humans and other kinds of animals. But some animals can't be hurt by viruses that hurt other animals! Any virus that affects a human will not affect a reindeer like me. The species are incompatible! Your powers are useless against me! If you fight me like that you'll never win!" Chopper yelled.
"Impossible...!" Byoukin shook his head, refusing to believe it as he got up to his feet and lunged at Chopper. Chopper bashed him in the face again, once again putting him on the ground.
"What do I have to do to get through to you? Bastard! I shouldn't even help you! But I made a promise to a very important friend who died because of disease and his desire to help others recover! Now listen to me-I don't care what your Devil Fruit power does, you're still diseased and you're going to die!" Chopper told him.
"You lie..." Byoukin did a backwards somersault to escape Chopper and put some distance between them. "If what you're saying isn't a pack of lies, then all I have to do is conceive a virus that hurts reindeers!" he laughed sinisterly. He breathed in and unleashed another cloud of viral spores. "Breathe this one in, if you're so confident you won't be affected!" he challenged.
Chopper did so. "You don't understand anything, do you?" Chopper growled. "You're a human! You can't make a virus affect anything except humans if you're a human! You don't know what a virus even is, do you? You don't know what they do! You've never seen one under a microscope, you've never cursed a disease, have you?" Chopper began to sob. "And you're really going to die unless you let me help you!"
Byoukin panted, staring at Chopper in disbelief. How could the gods have sent such an opponent against him? "I...I can't win...?" he dropped pathetically to his knees.
"There is no need to fight!" Chopper told him. "Listen to me! The virus that will kill you is something that I know has no cure. But you must have had it for a long, long time. I think all your Devil Fruit has done is slow down its effect on it. But if you let me try to use your blood to synthesize a cure, we can change that! You'll continue to live a long life and many others will be able to have their lives saved if you just stop acting selfish and proud!"
"Never! You'll never escape this island, so why bother? And you're not taking even a drop of my blood! I'll kill you first!" Byoukin roared angrily, lashing out at Chopper. "You think using viruses on others is the only thing I can do? With my Yamai-Yamai no Mi I can do many other things! Viruses aren't all I control...I also control bacteria!" he laughed. Spitting out a wad of phlegm, he stretched out his arm and the phlegm began to grow into a large amoebic blob. "Get him!" he ordered, and the blob rolled at Chopper.
"Stubborn idiot!" Chopper growled. He pulled a Rumble Ball out of his bag and used it. Thankfully enough time had passed so that he could use it without losing control of his powers, or triggering Monster Point. "Jumping Point!" he cried, leaping over the blob, which seemed to keep on growing. He pulled out a small vial from his bag and waited for the blob to reverse direction and come back at him. Once it returned, Chopper threw the vial at it and it shattered, the contents spilling all over the blob. The blob began to give off steam, until it slowly dissolved and became a puddle of sludge.
"How the hell did you do that?" Byoukin screamed in exasperation. Everything he was throwing at Chopper wasn't working at all.
"I told you-I cure diseases, I'm a doctor! I have things that kill bacteria in my bag, so I used them! Now are you ready to stop fighting?" Chopper sighed, irritated.
Byoukin started to cough. "Oh...what's..." he dropped to one knee and began coughing and hacking, a drop of blood trickling down his chin.
"I told you, stupid! Your disease will kill you unless you let me help you and you're only making it worse by straining yourself using your powers so much trying to kill me!" Chopper explained.
"I..." Byoukin panted, starting to cry. "I don't want to die..." he pleaded.
"Then lay down! This is going to hurt." Chopper told him, withdrawing a syringe from his bag. He held Byoukin's arm roughly in case the sickly man decided to lash out again. He obtained the blood sample he needed, and began to work with the various chemicals in his bag, antibodies and sterile fluids, trying desperately to synthesize some kind of cure, but without a lab it was difficult. Thankfully his blood was strong and resistant to most of the other major viruses Chopper knew about. "I think I understand...you contracted the virus as a young child, before you got your Devil Fruit powers! That's why you're not immune to it. That's very unlucky. But I will help you. I promise." Chopper began to sweat, trying to finish before it was too late. He didn't know how much longer Byoukin had, but using Brain Point, he was close to his goal. Finally, he was prepared with a serum that should have done the trick. "Here...I hope this works." he said, injecting Byoukin with his experimental cure.
Byoukin breathed deeply for a few minutes, but he seemed to be recovering. "I...don't believe it..." he managed to wheeze. "It feels...like it's working..." he sighed.
"You're lucky I was here...very lucky." Chopper smiled.
"What's this...I feel...oh, no...no!" Byoukin began to convulse. His body shook like it was experiencing a human earthquake, and out of his mouth burst forth a large, bloody assortment of bug-like limbs. They unfurled in the form of a human-sized virus, and its aim was at Chopper.
"So this is the virus with no cure...I drove it out of his body and now it wants revenge? I will stop it for good, then." Chopper took a fighting stance. The Rumble Ball's effect had worn off and he was unable to use another one for six hours. "Though it'll be tough to do..." Chopper gulped.
The virus was floating in mid-air, eight spiny tentacles were protruding from its crystalline core, like a bizarre arachnid. At the bottom of its core was something like a mouth, but rather than being used to eat, the mouth opened to release a drill-like tongue that spun around. That was what it used to burrow inside a cell and implant its genes for when it reprogrammed cells to create more viruses. "I know all about you! You viruses are a lot harder to kill than bacteria! But I'll stop you somehow!" Chopper declared.
But the virus was too fast for the reindeer. It latched onto him with its tentacles and kept him from escaping. And then came the drill, right into Chopper's stomach. Chopper shrieked in pain, and his mind fluttered before he passed out. The virus was attempting a life-sized replication of itself inside Chopper's body, but Chopper's reindeer DNA was too different for it to work. Instead, the virus was tampering with Chopper's DNA in a way even Chopper's ever-changing body was unfamiliar with. The virus continued to drill, transmitting its genes into Chopper's body, unaware that Chopper was fighting back in a way no other virus had ever experienced. Chopper's eyes began to glow and his body began to increase in size. His arms increased in mass and grabbed the tentacles, forcing them to let go, and as he squeezed them to crush them and make them powerless, his fingers began to grow clawed nails at the end. Something was happening to him that wasn't natural. The virus attempted to flee from him, withdrawing the drill, but it was too late-Chopper's DNA was fluctuating and it would take time to stablize.
Chopper continued to change. His fur receded on his arms and legs, becoming as smooth as a human's skin, and his nose shrank back into his face, while his teeth fell out and grew back...as fangs to rival Arlong's. The virus couldn't speak, but if it could it would be screaming about making a fatal error and being in mortal terror. Chopper grabbed the virus by the center of its core and opened his jaws wide. With no mercy, Chopper bit off the entire top of the virus core and spat it out, the virus' liquid genetic material gushing out like its life's blood, and Chopper slammed the rest of it into the ground. The virus convulsed for a moment before breaking apart and dissolving into slime just as the amoeba from earlier had. Chopper roared loudly, more like a lion than any other animal, and stalked over to Byoukin. His new form was only temporary, and he would not know how to awaken it again, but if he had to name it, it would have been called 'Predator Point'.
"No-no! Not now! Not after I've been cured..." Byoukin trembled, though he was unable to move after such a radical change in his body.
Chopper stood over him, breathing heavily, but remained motionless. It wasn't clear if Chopper was conscious inside of his new form, but he wasn't attacking mindlessly like he would have in his Monster Point. He sat down, looking at himself with his glowing eyes, as if trying to comprehend what was happening to him. The wound on his stomach was healing slowly but surely, and Chopper was indeed slowly but surely returning back to normal along with it. The claws receded and his teeth shrank back to normal, and he lay down, unable to stay conscious any longer. But his opponent was no longer a threat, and he could rest easy knowing that the battle was over.

Smoker and Tashigi finally reached the hill leading up to the Paramecian village. "I wonder how Straw Hat and their motley crew is doing..." Smoker grumbled, hearing all the commotion even from there.
"They're sure to win...they triumphed over the Zoans, after all." Tashigi said, though it upset her speaking so highly of people she should by all rights have been arresting.
They scaled the hill and saw the winning Straw Hats gathered together around Luffy, minus Nami and Chopper. "Hey, it's you guys!" Luffy smiled and waved to them.
"How are things here?" Smoker asked.
"We're almost done beating some sense into them, like we did with the Zoans. But big guy over there just won't stay down." Sanji pointed to Daikyojin, who was starting to get back up.
"Well we've got some news for you that you're not going to like." Smoker was about to explain everything he and Tashigi had learned, but Daikyojin roared, and began to rise to his feet. "But that can wait! In fact what I have to tell you hinges on Straw Hat winning this fight!"
"Oh, I'll win, all right!" Luffy grinned. A huge shadow loomed over them, and Daikyojin was its source.
"Ready to die, rubber boy?" he thundered, raising his leg to squash the lot of them. "Even if I cannot defeat you, the gods will surely strike you down with their omnipotent wrath. They've strengthened me, I can feel it, they've blessed me with a second wind so I can have another chance to vanquish you! And they'll do it again and again...I am the chosen mortal ruler of this island and no matter what happens, you shall perish!" he laughed maniacally.
"Not until I become Pirate King!" Luffy stuck out his tongue. He shot out his hand at Daikyojin's foot and grabbed the hairs on it. "Gomu Gomu no Rocket!" he cried, launching himself up and breaking one of Daikyojin's toes as he blasted past it and sprang up to the middle of the giant's leg, climbing up the hairs on it to get further up. Daikyojin resorted to trying to squash Luffy but the wily pirate flipped and rolled out of the way each time, like a pesky mosquito that was just to quick to be swatted. He climbed up Daikyojin's loincloth, sheltered in his belly button, then rocketed up again to the giant's nipple. He was now high up enough to deliver his coup de grace, without resorting to Gear 2 or Gear 3. He fired both arms up and with each one, grabbed onto Daikyojin's eyelashes. "Gomu Gomu no Missile!" Luffy roared, soaring faster than ever up to Daikyojin's face. The impact was focused directly above Daikyojin's nose, right between the eyes. That critical point on his face cracked upon the collision, and his eyes squirted out tears of blood. Daikyojin didn't utter a single sound, the shock was too great, and he collapsed once more, unconscious. But this time, he shrank back to normal size as he did so, utterly and completely defeated.
"Let's see him get back up after that one!" Usopp cheered.
"But what happens now?" Tashigi wondered, now that the fight belonged to Luffy. She felt a cold chill...the four Shinigami were coming, to carry out their mission. This was the calm before the storm, and their last stand was approaching rapidly. Would they really stand any chance against the four Shinigami, whose powers were comparable to villains like Crocodile?