After Burgess was knocked back, Ikki and Luffy began discussing Chopper's situation.
"Chopper, co to sea with us!" Ikki said, stretching out a hand and smiling warmly.
Chopper hesitated, his gaze shifting to Doctor Kureha. Seeing his uncertainty, Ikki added with a reassuring smile, "Dr. Kureha already agreed! Co with us and have an adventure at sea."
Chopper's eyes widened slightly, a flicker of happiness showing on his face, but doubt still lingered. "Well... Doctor Kureha is getting old, and I still need to take care of her. I thought... I'd wait until she..." He trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.
Ikki thought to himself, 'Chopper is so loyal and kind. He's truly like a devoted son... But Kureha...'
Glancing over at Kureha, Ikki saw her smiling gently, completely unbothered by Chopper's words. She had always treated Chopper like her own child and seed to find his concern endearing.
Still, Kureha thought confidently, 'Who says I'm going anywhere anyti soon? I've got decades left in !'
Ikki, relieved by Kureha's reaction, smiled and said, "Don't worry, Chopper! When the ti cos, we'll co back with you and—"
Before he could finish, a sharp gust of wind from behind took him by surprise. Kureha's boot connected with his side, sending him flying down Drum Rock.
Though there were so comical mishaps along the way, Chopper eventually boarded the Going rry with the Straw Hats.
Of course, Ikki nursed a bruised side for a while. Fortunately, Kureha hadn't put much force into her kick. If it had been as powerful as the one Burgess took, Ikki might have been wailing, "My kidneys are leaking out through my forehead!"
anwhile, back in the ward, Nami had finally woken up. Her fever had subsided, and she was sipping on a bowl of Sanji's special soup.
"Sanji, how long have I been out?" Nami asked, her tone tinged with worry.
"Almost two days," Sanji replied, his voice soft but steady.
At the ntion of two days, Nami bolted upright in bed. "Two days?! No, we need to leave right away! Vivi's country is still waiting for us!"
"Well... Nami, I think you should just rest for now," Sanji suggested, concern lacing his voice.
He didn't want the crew to set sail imdiately. Nami had just recovered from her fever and needed proper ti to recuperate. Besides, their ship was still without a proper doctor.
At that mont, the door to the ward swung open, and in walked Ikki, Luffy, Vivi, and Usopp. Ikki, holding his side gingerly, grinned as he announced, "Don't worry, Sanji. It's all good! We've found a doctor to join our crew!"
Sanji blinked in surprise before asking skeptically, "Wait... don't tell that old woman agreed to co aboard?"
Before Sanji could even finish his thought, a blur moved beside him, and a swift kick sent him crashing into the wall. The culprit? None other than Dr. Kureha.
Kureha ignored Sanji's groan of protest and instead pointed a finger at Nami's forehead.
"Thirty-eight point five degrees," she said calmly. "Looks like you're in decent shape."
Hearing this, Nami's face lit up. "So... can I leave now?"
By Kureha's strict rules, her patients had only two outcos: they either got cured and left after paying, or they... didn't make it.
However, with Chopper already aboard the Going rry as her apprentice and heir to her dical expertise, the usual rules didn't fully apply.
"Pay up, and you can leave," Kureha stated bluntly.
Nami's cheerful expression imdiately turned serious. "How much exactly?"
"As I said before, all the treasure on your ship," Kureha replied coolly.
"All the treasure?! Are you trying to rob us?!" Nami exclaid, her shock evident.
However, after a mont of thought, Nami's deanor shifted, and a sly smile crept onto her face. "Oh, all the treasure, you say? But there's no treasure on our ship! So does that an we don't owe anything?"
Kureha raised an eyebrow but said nothing, instead turning her sharp gaze to Ikki.
Feeling the weight of her stare, Ikki flinched and, without hesitation, pulled an assortnt of treasure from his system space. The room was instantly filled with gleaming gems, gold, and even fist-sized diamonds.
Nami, who had been gloating just monts ago, froze in disbelief. Then, moving faster than anyone thought possible for soone recovering from illness, she threw herself onto the pile of treasure, clutching it protectively.
"You idiot, Ikki! How could you take out all my treasure?!"
Ikki: ...
"Nami, these are the consultation fees we agreed to pay Ms. Kureha beforehand," Ikki explained, exasperated.
"No way!" Nami barked, still guarding the pile as if it were her own child. She quickly sifted through the treasures and picked out two small gold nuggets, thrusting them toward Kureha. "This is enough! My life is worth exactly this much!"
Kureha stared at the gold nuggets for a mont before taking them with a bemused expression. "Fine, the consultation fee is settled. But..." she added with a sly grin, "you'll need to stay here for ten more days for follow-up treatnt."
"What?! Why?!" Nami protested, her jaw dropping.
Kureha smirked. "Don't forget, this is my territory," she said with playful nace. "And you... are my patient."
Nami was left stunned and speechless.
If there hadn't been an urgent matter like Vivi's plight, staying here for ten more days with so much treasure wouldn't have been a problem. But with Vivi anxiously waiting, the idea of being detained for unpaid dical fees weighed heavily on Nami.
After a mont of internal struggle, Nami sighed in defeat and shot Ikki a venomous glare that practically scread: If you're going to give up the treasure, why did you give up so much?!
Ikki simply smiled and shrugged. What could he say? There was plenty more where that ca from, and he wasn't exactly worried about money.
After all, as he thought to himself with a smirk, 'I'm not interested in money.'
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