One Piece Chapter 144

Cover

Storyline

Drum, Chopper’s past: Dr. Hiriluk is sipping soup from the witch’s mushroom that Chopper got him and cooked. The reindeer immediately inquires if the soup tastes good, which the quack denies, but says that medicine has to taste bad for it to work and says he feels much better already and thanks Chopper. Chopper is overjoyed. At this moment, Hiriluk notices something strange about his experiment. He happily realizes that his 30 years of research have finally paid off, because his experiment has succeeded and he can produce cherry blossoms on the winter island of Drum. Immediately, Dr. Hiriluk sets out to take care of something. He advises Chopper that he still needs to recuperate from his hard journey, grins broadly at Chopper, and tells him that he will definitely make a good doctor. The little animal is pleased.

Dr. Kureha’s house: The quack and the old witch are discussing Drum’s situation. They have heard that all the doctors are seriously ill. Kureha now asks him about his request. Hiriluk replies that she needs to do him a favor and shows her a small sack of powder, Hiriluk’s universal remedy. Kureha can’t believe Hiriluk has spent 30 years researching for this little bit of powder. Hiriluk wants Kureha to make more of the powder and make the cherry blossoms bloom in Drum. Kureha won’t agree at first, and Hiriluk also wants her to apprentice Chopper because he wants to be a doctor so badly. Dr. Kureha wants to refuse his requests, but Hiriluk doesn’t relent and bows to her, saying that although Chopper is a monster, he has a soft heart and is sure to become a good doctor. Kureha is pissed and kicks Hiriluk out of her house. Hiriluk is still sure, even though she angrily kicked him out the door, that Kureha will grant his wishes.

Cable car station: The villagers want to go to the doctors, but a few guards block the way up to the castle to Wapol, because they themselves are seriously ill. Even after much pleading, they are not let through.

Meanwhile, Dr. Hiriluk approaches the cable car station. With a few bombs, he takes out the soldiers at the cable car, threatens one of the guards still standing with a gun, and demands that he drive him to Drum’s castle. Meanwhile, Dr. Kureha appears to Chopper at Hiriluk’s house. She asks the startled Chopper where Hiriluk is. The reindeer replies to her that he has gone to town and is well again. The witch reprimands him that he can’t be cured and that he will die. Chopper, however, firmly believes that Hiriluk is better and holds the rest of the witch’s mushroom out to Kureha. When she sees it, Chopper proudly says that the mushroom can cure everything and that Hiriluk will definitely not die. Pissed off, she knocks him down and calls him names. Chopper doesn’t know why she did that, whereupon Kureha tells him that the witch’s mushroom is a poisonous mushroom!

According to Kureha, Hiriluk only has an hour to live, but Chopper is still convinced that what the woman says isn’t true, because he looked it up in the dictionary, where there was a skull and crossbones next to the picture and Hiriluk is fighting for his beliefs under a skull and crossbones flag. On the verge of tears, Chopper angrily yells at the doctor that Hiriluk will survive and calls her a liar. Kureha opens up to him about the truth, telling him that he only acted the way he did because of him and that the skull next to the picture means “poisonous.” Dr. Kureha also yells at him that you can only cure people with the right medicine and there is no universal cure. Crying, he cries out and is finally convinced by Kureha’s statements.

Cable car: After Hiriluk is in the cable car, the guards clear the way for the rest of the patients. They are told about the trap, which the villagers cannot believe. At Drum’s castle, Wapol is told that Dr. Hiriluk has indeed fallen for the trick. Hiriluk has now arrived, intent on saving the seriously ill doctors. Chopper, meanwhile, also makes his way to the castle.

Miscellaneous

• This chapter originally had a color page in addition to the color chapter cover in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine and 5th Log. In the 16th anthology of the saga titled Fulfilled WillHowever, these were printed in grayscale as usual. This was, until chapter 598, the last chapter color page that was not a cover or color spread that Oda drew.