Drum Island possessed a peculiar cold.
It was not the cold of the sea, although the water of the Grand Line was just as cold here.
It was not even the cold of the mountain, but rather, of the island itself.
Kael picked up on it, before they reached the shore of the island, while still navigating the waters offshore.
It was a kind of stillness.
Kael stood at the bow as the mountainous island appeared through the waves.
They were white peaks, reaching up into the clouds, like teeth lined up in a row.
The Going Merry sailed toward the harbor, and as they entered the calm waters of the southern bay, the wind became lighter.
Nami kept her eyes on the map she had been updating with the information Kael provided, and which had become the most precise chart of this section of the Grand Line.
The ship anchored in the harbor.
The little town that occupied the shore was a sad place, built in fear and sustained by it.
The king had chased away all doctors and healers, killing those he couldn’t drive off, and no medicine remained on this land.
The only way to treat one’s illness here was to die of it.
Kael accompanied Luffy, Sanji, and Nami ashore to speak with the townspeople and ask them for help.
Zoro and Usopp stayed on the ship.
The dock was empty, and the street beyond the harbor was not crowded.
Figures wandered through the street, moving with caution and wariness, as though each one would rather not linger in the open too long.
There were no children here, and the shops were all closed.
One woman walked out from the door of a building a little ways down the street.
She wore heavy wool clothes and looked tired.
She held a child in a sling across her hips.
She regarded them with a hostile stare.
Nami approached her, and she said something to her.
Kael realized he should learn more of Nami’s interactions with strangers in such circumstances.
There was a way she spoke, a certain softness in her tone, that seemed neither to invite nor threaten her interlocutors, but rather to put them at ease.
She told her that they didn’t want to take anything, and that the woman on the ship was sick.
The woman laughed, a bitter sound.
There were no doctors left in this place, she replied.
Once, there had been twenty of them, but now, the king had driven them all away, and there was no medicine left.
They were all doomed to die, if they fell ill.
Nami opened her mouth, but she was cut off mid-sentence.
There was a witch, she said.
On the mountain.
Sometimes, people visited her.
A few returned.
Most did not, and she would not advise visiting the witch.
And then, she went back into her home.
Kael stood in the cold, snowy street and activated his Sage Mode.
From the docks, the mountain rose into the clouds.
They could see the peak, somewhere far above, but they could sense its shape and structure rising from the snowy fields of Drum Island itself.
Kael allowed his sensory field to explore the mountain, searching for signs of life.
His search yielded results.
About two-thirds up the mountain, he found her.
The chakra of the witch was unusual, different from anything he had encountered before.
Her chakra was ancient, not because of her age, but because of her profession.
Her chakra buzzed with discipline and self-awareness, as though she had come to know herself inside and out over the years.
Next to hers was another chakra.
It was much weaker than hers, and this is what caught Kael’s attention.
It was not human chakra.
He couldn’t determine the age of the animal, but he suspected it was not particularly old.
Kael retracted his senses and reported his findings to the rest of his crew.
“There is a doctor.
Up on the mountain.
Two-thirds up the mountain.
We’ll have to climb.”
“Right now?” Nami asked.
“Soon.
Probably tonight.”
She looked up at the peak of the mountain.
The clouds hung heavily over the summit.
The wind in the bay was gentle, but up on the mountain, it must be considerably stronger.
She didn’t object to his plan.
In fact, she had ceased to do so weeks ago, after realizing that her arguments about the weather and the terrain did not persuade him.
She began discussing the supplies they would need.
Their climb up the mountain was difficult, but it was not as challenging for them as it would be for another team.
Luffy felt most comfortable here.
With his rubber arms, he climbed effortlessly up the steepest paths, pulling everyone else up with him.
Sanji carried the backpack.
Nami navigated their ascent.
Kael followed behind them, scouting for the safest path and making sure they didn’t lose track of it under the snow.
They reached the doctor’s tower near the break of dawn.
Doctorine met them at the door, brandishing a revolver.
This was not a personal matter.
As Kael quickly detected from the nature of her chakra, it was her custom to greet her patients with a weapon.
However, when she noticed that they were unarmed, she lowered her gun and invited them inside.
She accepted their patient.
She prepared tea.
She did both of those things only after asking who they were.
Luffy replied honestly, answering without hesitation.
“What’s that?” Luffy suddenly asked, pointing at the thing standing next to the stove.
It had watched them since their arrival; it hadn’t moved.
“That’s my apprentice.”
“Cool,” Luffy agreed, genuinely impressed.
Reindeer apprentice – Kael could read him perfectly now, as the chakra extracted from the bay had been sharpened considerably with close proximity and there had definitely been a sense of grief within the chakra, which Kael had anticipated in his previous readings – flinched in shock at being addressed.
The creature had ducked behind the chair and whispered that it wasn’t a thing in a voice so quiet that Kael wondered how he could even hear it.
Luffy waved and chuckled.
Kael approached the chair, knelt, and didn’t stretch his hand towards the animal.
Instead, he regarded it, watching the reindeer’s eyes – big, black, intelligent – studying him back.
“I’m Kael.
I’m very glad to meet you.”
Reindeer made no noise.
However, a tiny bit of energy that was chakra flickered inside of it, changing its nature somewhat.
Hope?
Perhaps it was its precursor?
Doctorine observed it all from the kitchen; there was something in her expression that Kael couldn’t decipher for a while.
The seasick woman recuperated overnight.
On the next day, Doctorine took them around the clinic located within the tower; partly driven by her professional pride, and partly because Kael looked like the doctor – the woman had deduced it quite quickly – and she wished him to see how impressive the facility she had created for herself was.
First, she introduced her tools, then her medicine, then the child that she had not managed to cure from high fever.
The child was three years old, its temperature rising.
Doctorine had used everything she had to help it, yet the situation didn’t improve.
Kael asked for permission.
Kael approached the bed, put his hand on the child’s chest.
He allowed his Sage Mode to go deeper inside the small body until he found out the cause of the fever – it was bacteria, and it had spread through the blood, affecting the lungs and kidney.
Then he reached his chakra into it as if he untied a knot.
He had been working for a few minutes when the child’s fever broke; the infection remained inside the child but was lowered down to the point where Doctorine’s medicines could easily eliminate it.
Kael withdrew his hand and looked up.
Doctorine stood at the door of the room, resting on the wooden frame.
“… What did you do?” she asked, after a pause, in a calm tone.
“It’s complicated.”
“Try.”
It was difficult to translate Sage Mode abilities into understandable language, but he tried anyway.
He told her what chakra was and how he could manipulate it to influence the cellular processes in the body.
Doctorine listened quietly with her arms crossed, as the reindeer – that had somehow crept out from behind the chair – stood right behind her in the doorway, listening intently, as if it believed that the conversation was the most important event in its life so far.
When Kael finished speaking, Doctorine studied him for a while.
“You can teach that,” she said slowly.
“Some of that stuff.
The reach is mine, however.”
“How much?”
“Enough to change how you work,” Kael said without hesitation.
Doctorine thought about that.
She glanced at the reindeer standing in the doorway, then focused again on Kael.
“He’s called Chopper, and he’s always wanted to become a doctor ever since he was born.
He has more potential in that than human apprentices.”
“I know that.”
“You’ve read it.”
Kael nodded in confirmation.
“Will you teach him.
During your stay.”
Doctorine paused, thinking about it.
Then she answered, “Yes.”
She turned her face away, trying to find her usual composure – Doctorine had already started to gather her tools to go back to work, but Kael saw that she suddenly poured the whole bottle of brandy into a cup and drank it in one sip.
He guessed that she couldn’t say anything about the matter because she still didn’t understand it properly herself.
Chopper was still in the doorway; he stared at Kael with those big, intelligent eyes.
“Will you really?” he asked, finally finding his voice again and sounding no longer shy.
“Mhmm,” Kael said, nodding.
Chopper approached the bed.
He went all the way there and stood beside the doctor.
Without making any noise, he waited for the doctor’s approval, and when he received it, he touched the child’s head, just like the doctor had done some minutes ago.
His face expressed so much concentrated amazement that Kael had to turn aside to allow him room.
They stayed in the tower for a few days more.
When they finally left, the child had recovered fully, two other villagers were cured from their illnesses, Doctorine drank a whole bottle of brandy one night and refused to explain her motives, and Chopper – the small reindeer – asked whether he could travel with them.
The crew had agreed to this before Kael could have.
In fact, Luffy intended to invite Chopper from the first moment, but he only waited to see if the reindeer would ask first.
They had left the tower in the morning, descending the slope of a mountain.
Doctorine stood at the door of the tower, watching them go down; she didn’t wave, but she didn’t have to.
Kael walked in the tail of their company with Chopper sitting on his shoulder.
With his Sage Mode activated, he could still feel Doctorine’s chakra.
During their stay, it had changed in an unusual way, which meant that during the coming weeks, it would develop further into a form that it never wore before.
This was what teaching entailed.
Kael smiled and turned his face to the wind.