First OP fic not counting some filk a while ago. Honest reviews please. Sorry if anything is a bit off. I only saw a few epis of the Drum Island ark, and it was the 4kids one. (MUST. GET. MANGA.) But still, I really wanted to attempt this, so thank goodness for OP wiki.
Disclaimer: One Piece property of Echira Oda, Shonen Jump, and Funimation.
Scent
By Netbug009
Tears were rolling down his cheeks as the petals fell to the Earth. He didn't even try to hold back. He didn't care id anybody thought he was a crybaby or a weakling for it. He'd stopped caring if people thought of him badly a long time ago.
People's guess concerning his reason for crying was that he was happy. After all, he was watching an overdue dream of somebody he cared about unfolding. Why wouldn't he be happy?
He was happy. He really was, and yet he felt terrible. There was something besides a dream hidden in those petals. There was a scent to it.
A smell is the thing that helps bring up one's memory better than anything. When you take in a scent, you often recall what that scent is, and sometimes even events that you also smelled it at. But it's more than just a literal expression. A scent can also be part of mentality. To Chopper, there was a mental scent in the air as individual as a thumbprint.
Dr. Hiruluk's thumbprint.
For the first time since the doctor had died, Chopper felt like Hiruluk was with him, because the cherry blossoms had the same mental scent.
Yet, it was torture. To lose somebody who was like a parent to him was still tearing him apart, and now Hiruluk felt so close... yet he wasn't. He was still so far away, and yet the scent gave the illusion that he was otherwise. It was like watching sand slip though your fingers. The whole feeling of immense sadness and joy threatened to tear Chopper apart.
But, what good would letting sadness win the tug of war do? Especially with what was happening? So he rooted for the other side, and his tears finally chose to be joyful ones as he tried to take in the fond memories held in that scent before it was gone again.
Hiruluk's goal had been to cure sickness of heart caused from never ending snow, but that wasn't the only heart disease on Drum Island. Chopper had the heart sickness that is grieving. It was something harder to cure than any other disease, but Hiruluk was succeeding at that too.