Chapter 30

Grandline, Paradise, Drum island

Speeding through the air with flames billowing from his feet in the air, as it framed his rushing figure, Azul soon reached the plateau the castle was build on. It was a truly majestic sight. Covered in snow and ice, like from a fairytail, the chateau towered into the sky, made from white stones, and glistening in the reflecting sun.

Azul began walking towards it and with each step he took melting the snow in his way like the embodiment of heat. A minute or two later he had reached the slightly opened gates that had been frozen in place, obviously being open for a very long time. Not pondering the strange sight any longer, Azul stepped inside while stretching out his observation haki, searching for the souls of the doctor that he was told was living here. Not long after he started to walk up the stairs to his left and down the corridor. At the end of it he was met by a large door against which he knocked, knowing that the doctor or someone else was staying behind the door.

A few seconds after he had knocked the door opened and a small creature peeked out of its gap.

"Yes? What do you want?" The little creature asked Azul who smiled warmly at the timid little creature, hoping to not frighten it away.

"Apologies, I was told there was a doctor living here. Would that by chance be you little guy?" Azul asked with a calm voice, which seemingly had the d.e.s.i.r.ed effect of calming the little guy a little.

"Errr, I-I mean, yes I am a doctor but also only the apprentice. Follow me, I'll bring you to the doc" the little guy said while shuffling back a little and taking the door with it opening it fully, to allow Azul entrance into the room.

The room he entered was filled with medical equipement and a few beds, for patients, Azul assumed.

Following the little guy, Azuls attention was drawn back down to his guide. 'A devil fruit maybe?' He thought to himself.

"Excuse me, would you kindly tell me what kind of species you belong to?" asked Azul his guide who in turn only answered with one word.

"Reindeer." and kept on walking.

After some time they reached another room into which the little reindeer called "Doc Kuleha, we have a visitor!" which resulted in some female grumblings though Azul couldn't clearly hear the womans words.

"Oh my, what fine specimen we have here! What's your name honey?" the old witch asked which sent an undescribable shiver down Azuls back, but he still remained polite, otherwise he may have come here for nothing and his ego wasn't worth the lifes of some civilians anyways.

"Greetings, my name is Azul. I've come here in order to inform you that the village at the foot of the mountain has somehow been completely been reduced to rubble and alot of people were wounded. I and the rest of the survivers would like to request your help in healing the people down in the village." Azul said while lightly bowing his head in order to support his request with his demeanor.

"Is that so? Well little Chopper, it seems we have some money to make checheche. Ready the carriage!"

"Oh, that won't be necessary. I will take you down with me. It will be faster and the less time we need the better." Azul spoke while observing the little reindeer, now identified as Chopper, back a few seemingly important things into his small bag after which he walked over to the doc Kuleha, waiting for her decision.

"And how would you take us down there? the gondola have been destroyed when Wapol left the kingdom not too long ago to become a pirate." Kuleha asked with an inquisitive look on her face.

"Like this!" Azul said, disappearing from his position and reappearing behind the doc, whos eyes widened slightly at the young mans sheer speed, before she was grabbed and sat ontop of his right shoulder and Chopper onto his left, who couldn't help but cry out in surprise, but after seeing Kuleha remain calm he calmed down a little himself.

"Hold on tight! This may be a little bit faster than you normally travel" Azul spoke, bending his knees slightly before disappearing from his position, which was followed by Choppers maniacal scream for help and doc Kulehas mad cackling. A few seconds later Azul was outside the castle and jumped down the mountain but before either of his passengers could start screaming again his feet began to burn and billow in heat and he started sprinting on thin air, which earned him incredulous eyes from his left and appraising eyes from his right.

"Say sonny, would you be interested in becoming my new driving vehicle? Much more efficient the the carriage and I'll pay you well checheche" the old witch cackled in mirth which caused a sweatdrop to develop on Azuls head.

"No thanks doc, I'm good." he replied.

With a gleam in his eyes, possibly having spotted a worthy opponent, Azul tried to get some more information but was disappointed to find nothing else.

'Hmm, maybe I'll get lucky and meet him somewhere down the line. After all the routes of the grandline are fairly linear once you picked a certain route.' he thought to himself.

And so it came that Azul put his two passengers back on his shoulders and disappeared into the night sky as nothing but a red blurr, bringing the doctor and her assistent back into their castle while taking in the beauty of Drum island from above.