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Luffy
When the Straw Hats sail away from Drum Island, Chopper refuses to look back.
The image of pink snowflakes falling softly through mountains of white; the sound of Luffy’s rubbery fist against Wapol’s steel-reinforced face; the sharp, metallic scent of Dr. Kureha’s knives whizzing past him – these sensations are ingrained into Chopper’s mind, already a part of him he’ll never forget.
One glance behind, and he might hesitate.
Instead, Chopper focuses on the chaotic scene in front of him, sniffs at the smell of booze and juice that Sanji has served. As he watches, sitting slightly apart and against the ship’s railing, his eyes are drawn to Luffy.
The pirate who challenged a king, stood in the line of cannon fire to raise Dr. Hiriluk’s flag, and perhaps most unexpectedly, called a strange, blue-nosed reindeer his friend, seems entirely at odds with the boy running around with chopsticks in his nose, but when Luffy stops to offer Chopper his own pair of chopsticks, Chopper can’t help but glow. (And try sticking them up his own nose, of course.)
During the celebration, the crew radiates friendliness: fuzzy, welcoming, and warm . For a moment, Chopper feels his normal shyness dissipate, and in its place, bright, blazing courage for the future.
Chopper sees his new crewmates and realizes he wants to know them better – like them, he believes in the boy they have all chosen to call captain.
Zoro
Although, if Chopper could decide which crewmate to approach first, the scary swordsman probably wouldn’t have been his first choice. Yet here Zoro stands, several feet away from the reindeer, stretching his arms and following a pre-workout routine.
Gathering his courage, Chopper copies the swordsman’s movements and focuses on the feeling of his muscles loosening. Zoro finishes stretching, one hand hovering over a dumbbell while his eyes settle on Chopper. Suddenly, Chopper feels submerged in ice, thrust into the position of Zoro’s opponent, his own strength being measured and appraised.
Rarely has the reindeer been looked at in such a way before, especially not while in Brain Point, and it takes every bit of control he has to suppress the urge to run. After several beats, a curious look spreads across Zoro’s face.
He tilts his head towards one of the dumbbells. “You wanna try lifting this?”
Chopper nods. “I’ll try to!”
Excitement thrumming beneath his fur, Chopper wastes no time in transforming into Heavy Point. Zoro’s eyes widen as Chopper uses his hands – no longer hooves – to smoothly raise the bar to his shoulders and down.
Zoro follows suit with the other weight, and once they finish a few reps, Zoro laughs. Chopper nearly drops the dumbbell on his feet at hearing such a carefree sound.
“So, you’re pretty strong,” Zoro remarks.
Chopper tries to deflect, “Dummy, you can’t win me over that easily! Stupid!”
Zoro just grins wider and ruffles the fur on Chopper’s head. “But, strength isn’t about lifting heavy weights, or even lifting them a hundred times in a row.”
“It’s not?!”
“Nah,” Zoro pauses to think. “I’d say it’s having the diligence to do your stretches and work out every day, to keep the promise you made to yourself and stick with your routine no matter what.”
He offers a few tips to improve Chopper’s form, and they resume doing reps. By the time they finish, sweat has begun to cling to Chopper’s fur, both from weight-lifting and the exertion of maintaining Heavy Point. Nevertheless, he feels an all-encompassing sense of accomplishment, which grows twofold when Zoro sits down on the floor and pats the space next to him, grumbling about wanting to take a nap.
Chopper transforms back into Brain Point and practically skips his way there. The little doctor leans against Zoro’s side, his hat brushing against the rough fabric of the other’s shirt.
Before drifting off, he catches Zoro murmuring, “Our captain chose well.”
Chopper falls asleep soon after, his heart full of joy.
Sanji
The overwhelming scents of spices and food, both cooked and uncooked, are one reason why Chopper avoids the galley. The other reason, not unexpectedly, is that he is still a little afraid of the chef and his ill-timed jokes about using the crew’s doctor as “emergency food.”
Yet so far on their voyage to Alabasta, Sanji has proved steadfast in caring for all of the crew, including Chopper. Within a day of him joining the Straw Hats, Sanji thoroughly interrogated him on his dietary restrictions, allergies, and even his favorite foods.
Thus, Chopper gathers his courage once again – this time to ask Usopp for a clothespin to put on his nose and tiptoe towards the galley. Chopper peeks at Sanji from behind a door frame, noting that the chef’s work has entered full swing.
Pausing from slicing the carrots, Sanji glances in his direction. “I can see you, you know.”
“N-no you can’t!” Chopper denies, but one of Sanji’s curly eyebrows raising is enough for the reindeer to scurry out of his hiding spot and admit, “Sorry for intruding! I… You see, I was hoping to get to know you and the other crewmates better.”
He looks up to see Sanji gesturing to the dining table while a small smile plays on his lips. “In that case, have a seat.”
Chopper climbs onto one of the stools, his short legs dangling well above the floor. Sanji appears entirely focused on his meal preparations -- he boils the stock, cuts more vegetables for a side salad, and curiously, sets aside a jar labeled “Fine Sugar” in neat script. While he cooks, Sanji offers Chopper little samples of stew, asking the reindeer for his opinion on the stew’s taste and whatever scents that get past the clothespin on his nose.
At the end, Sanji adds several cups of fine sugar and a drop of food dye into a pot. Chopper watches curiously as the sugar melts into reddish-pink liquid, which Sanji slowly tips into a bowl on the counter.
At a speed faster than what seems humanly possible, Sanji whisks the mixture as it drizzles downwards. Thin, gossamer-like strands start to form along the bowl’s sides.
“Now this,” Sanji says as he skewers a pink, fluffy clump of strands with a stick, “is what we call ‘cotton candy.’ It’s not quite the same as something made by a machine, but I think you’d enjoy it.”
Chopper’s eyes grow as wide as saucers while he squeals out his joy, his gratitude. Sanji has to explain why he needs to keep the cotton candy hidden until Luffy has cleared the area, but cheerily promises that Chopper can try it after dinner.
When Chopper does eat it, his jaws unsure how much pressure to apply to a substance that feels like it could float, cotton candy immediately rockets up his list of favorite foods, easily competing for the first spot.
It tastes like clouds dyed the color of cherry blossoms.
Robin
Chopper sits in the women’s quarters, sinking into an expensive-looking couch while Robin comfortably reads beside him.
As his latest patient, Robin has agreed to be monitored by Chopper as she recovers from the crew’s run-in with Aokiji on Long Ring Long Land. An occasional tremor still runs through her fingers, but the archaeologist appears surprisingly peaceful for someone frozen by a Marine admiral not two days earlier.
As for Chopper, he finds himself grateful for Robin’s calmness. After all, the scent of fear – of cold sweat, heavy breathing, and bad dreams – has started to linger around the Going Merry. The reindeer thinks he can smell it most strongly around Usopp, but almost everyone, except maybe Luffy, seems to carry it.
Chopper mulls over what he can do to help them when Robin stands up to grab something from a nearby shelf. She unfurls a roll of paper, and small, brightly colored pieces of plastic fall out onto the table in front of them.
While setting up the pieces, Robin explains, “After the battle with Enel, one of the Skypieans introduced me to this game. She insisted that I take a copy of it.”
She gestures to the colored game pieces, as if asking Chopper to choose one. “Would you care to join me?”
“I’d love to!” Chopper grins eagerly and chooses the pink-colored piece. “Now, what should I do?”
Robin gestures to the bottom left corner of the paper. “You start here. Every time it’s your turn, you’ll roll the die and move your piece forward based on the number you get.”
Chopper listens along as Robin explains the rest of the rules about special tiles and how the game’s objective is to get to the end of the board. (“Like how we’re going to reach the end of the Grand Line!” “Yes… You’ve got the gist of it, Doctor.”)
Once they begin, Chopper can’t help but cheer every time the dice rolls on a six and he can speed ahead of Robin, or groan when he lands on a one and watches Robin pass him by. His opponent watches him with a thoughtful smile but otherwise doesn’t react much.
He is halfway across the board when he notices the growing gap between his and Robin’s pieces. Conflicted, Chopper asks softly, “Are you going to lose, Robin?”
Robin laughs and shakes her head. “I wouldn’t call it over just yet.”
“But you’re so far behind!”
“You can always catch up after a few bad rolls, and you only know you’ve lost a game once it ends. Even then, you can simply play another round.”
Chopper lights up, thinking of an idea. “Then, could we play more games after this one? We could invite some of the others too!”
“That sounds like an excellent idea.” Robin smiles, her eyes crinkling at the corners as she adds, “But first, let’s see where this game takes us, shall we?”
Chopper nods determinedly and makes his next move, understanding that whatever challenges the crew will face, even if they don’t know what’s going on, or who their enemy is, they will face them together.
Brook
One job of the Straw Hats' new musician, Chopper learns, is to chase away nightmares.
When Brook joins the crew, Chopper isn't quite sure how the skeleton will fit in. For sure, a small part of the reindeer is comforted knowing that there is now another crew member who is… a bit stranger than human, but he never quite understood what Luffy meant by needing a musician for his pirate crew.
However, one night, he dreams of wandering the mountains of Drum Island. Hard, icy snow pelts at his face from every direction, yet experience tells him he needs to keep walking or risk freezing. He screams for help, but no one answers.
At last, he slips on a patch of ice and begins sliding forward uncontrollably. He nearly collides with the ground when someone shakes him awake.
Chopper’s vision is still blurred with sleep, but he catches the scent of Brook near him. The musician whispers, “Let’s go outside, Chopper-san, so as to not wake the others.”
Nodding mutely, Chopper takes Brook’s hand and follows him out of the men’s quarters. He steps out onto the deck and is buffeted by a gust of cold, chilly wind, and suddenly, he’s thrown back into the dream.
A sweet lullaby teased out from Brook’s violin breaks through Chopper’s growing panic.
“Take a deep breath if you can. Try to remember where you are,” Brook says gently.
Chopper inhales, catching the scents of his crewmates and of the Thousand Sunny’s still newly finished wood. He exhales and repeats the process over what feels like hours but must be no more than several minutes.
“I’m sorry for waking you up.” Chopper stares at the floor.
“It’s no bother at all.” The older man fiddles with the knobs on his violin, alternating between adjusting one knob and playing a string until each string is in tune. Meanwhile, he keeps talking to Chopper.
“You are not the only one on this crew who gets nightmares. I’ve encountered a few others before and offered to play lullabies for them to get back to sleep.”
“I… um…” Chopper stalls for a moment, still not sure how to phrase it, then bursts out, “Don’t you need to sleep too?”
Brook laughs, high-pitched and airy, “Normally, people would just close their eyes and drift off to sleep. But I don’t have eyes, yohoho!”
Chopper’s jaw drops – despite all this time on the Grand Line, he can barely believe such a person exists. “So you don’t sleep at all?!”
“I never said that!” Brook teases. “But the joy of seeing people delighted by my music makes up for any sleep lost over it. Speaking of which, is there a song that might put you at ease?”
The reindeer thinks about what songs he has heard over the years, and which would be most comforting. As it often does, his mind wanders to his time in Drum Island and recalls folk songs he heard while wandering the streets outside of villagers’ homes.
“Do you know any songs from Drum Island? It’s just a small Winter Island, early on in the Grand Line, but–”
Brook gently taps Chopper’s shoulder. “Of course – I’ve been there, even.”
“What! How?!” Chopper gapes at the skeleton.
Brook begins to rosin his bow and responds, “I traveled there with my old crew, back when we were just rookies.”
Before Chopper can respond, Brook starts to play. His voice becomes mellow, warm , and he brings lyrics about the daily lives of Drum Island’s miners and fishermen to life. The words are so achingly familiar that Chopper’s heart swells along with the music.
When the doctor begins singing the same words he would whisper while peeking through the windows of log cabins of families and thinking he would never belong, Brook plays with renewed fervor.
Though his arms are preoccupied, Brook’s voice seems to reach out to Chopper and hold him close. In between verses, he joyously cries out, “Please sing with me, Chopper-san! You already know the words, after all.”
Chopper takes a deep breath and joins Brook. His voice nearly cracks, then does, but he finds his footing. Soon, the reindeer and the skeleton are lost together in a duet.
Chopper thinks to himself, This… this is my family .