Previously: The crew left Little Garden, having defeated the Baroque Works members and befriending the Giants. Luffy was about to tell the others that they were going to change course and head to Drum, when he sensed despair coming off of someone on the ship. He dashed to the women's room only to find that both Nami and Vivi had fallen sick. He also felt his head throbbing.
A/N: Hey! Long time n- *ducks to avoid thrown bottle*
Yeah, I deserve that. It has been over a year. Notes at the end explaining my absence. Happy reading!
Chapter 20 - Drum Island
There was a sombre atmosphere hanging over the Merry.
Zoro was on deck, acting as the lookout, while the rest of the crew were gathered in the women's room where Nami and Vivi had been made to lie on different beds. Sanji and Usopp were applying wet towels on their foreheads to bring their temperature down while Carue was worriedly rubbing his beak on Vivi's hand.
"It's on her neck," Luffy said as he stood over them while pointing the phone at the purplish-red rash on Nami's neck.
"
Hmm… Yeah, looks like a bug bite alright… Can't tell which one at first glance though," Reiju sighed worriedly. "
And Vivi?"
"The same thing," Luffy moved the phone over to Vivi's neck. "Same pattern and colour here too."
"And their temperature is 101 degrees? That's not good. You mentioned you guys were on a prehistoric island, right? So the disease is most probably prehistoric in nature too. I need to go through some old books to find what it is exactly…" she trailed off in frustration. "
But I don't have access to any currently…"
"Are they gonna be okay?!" Sanji cried as he studied the two, who were actually awake and listening in.
"H-Hey, they won't die, will they?!" Usopp asked in a trembling voice.
"You're all overreacting!" Nami belted out in annoyance, but given how weak her voice was, it only worried the others more. "It's probably unrelated. I just have a little fever, that's all…"
"Yeah…" Vivi agreed, her voice just as weak. "So many sailors get sick because of the extreme weather changes. It will soon pass."
"No, we're changing course," Luffy stated resolutely. "We're gonna go find a doctor."
"What?! No!" Vivi and Nami both sat up hastily before simultaneously wincing as their heads hurt.
"What are you saying?" Nami hissed massaging her forehead. "We need to go to Alabasta as fast as possible!"
"Yes, Luffy. This is common… Nothing to worry about…"
"Listen, you both got infected with something from a prehistoric island and are running a high fever. This isn't normal."
"
I agree with Luffy. I've seen the kind of sicknesses you get from weather changes, and this is not it. I've seen Sanji'scooking skills, so I can say that there's no way it's related to nutritional deficiencies either."
"That's right!" Sanji couldn't decide between swooning for being praised by her or being worried for Nami and Vivi, so he settled for a calm response. "I take extra special care when it comes to the ladies' food, so it's definitely not that."
"Okay fine, we're terribly sick," Nami relented. "So what? It's all the more reason to go to Alabasta faster."
"Yeah!" Usopp agreed. "There will be loads of doctors in Alabasta, right? How much farther is it, Vivi?"
"I… don't know… A week, at least."
"This isn't up for debate," Luffy said calmly but with finality. "I'm making the decision. We're changing course."
"Luffy!" Nami sharply hissed before wincing again. "You of all people should know how important it is that we reach Alabasta as fast as possible!"
"What? Why?" Vivi asked confused.
"My des-"
"She doesn't need that stress on top of already being sick, Nami."
Nami began to argue but actually thinking about what he said, remained silent. What the two were talking about was the newspaper that had the article that 300,000 soldiers from the Alabastan Army had defected to the rebel side. Only the two knew, having decided to hold the information from Vivi so as to not worry her unnecessarily.
"What are you ta-" Vivi began but Luffy cut her off.
"Look at each other," he said while gently turning their heads to make them face one another. If there was one good thing that came from both of them being sick, it was how easily he could come up with an argument that could convince them both that they needed to find a doctor. "However sick and awful you feel, know that the other person is feeling the same."
And that did the trick.
They both thought that the brave facade the other was putting up was real and decided that they themselves shouldn't be a burden. So even if they felt like they were dying inside, they were adamant that their sickness wasn't a big deal. But they finally realized that the other person was feeling just as shitty as they themselves were, and they nodded simultaneously.
"Let's change the course."
"If we need to get to Alabasta as fast as possible, then Nami needs to be healthy first."
"Okay, good. Now just rest," Luffy said, going to the exit. "Sanji, with me."
He quickly went to the men's room and brought out the chest of log poses while Sanji went to the upper deck where Zorowas and updated him on what was happening.
"
Oh yeah! Drum Island!" Reiju excitedly exclaimed as Luffy walked up to the two men and took out an eternal pose. "
We bought it at that island we stopped at!"
"Drum Island?" Zoro asked. "What's there?"
"They have some of the best doctors on the Grand Line. We're also gonna recruit our doctor there."
"Oh!" Sanji's face brightened up as he took the pose. "How do we know it's close though? These things don't tell how far an island is."
"It's close."
"Okay then, that's great!"
"You and Usopp are the next best thing to navigators we have. Take turns with him and watch it like a hawk."
"Got it! I shall safely and quickly get us there so that my beautiful Nami-swan and Vivi-chwan can be healed!"
"Right," Luffy nodded, letting out a deep sigh of relief, extremely glad that he had bought the eternal pose back when he was with Reiju. With even Vivi out of commission, it would have been way harder to navigate randomly and hope to reach Drum without it.
Sanji began to change their course with Zoro's help when Luffy's brows furrowed and he kneaded his forehead, feeling a stinging pain in his head. He began making his way towards the restroom but stopped when he heard Nami yelling.
"I'm telling you we need to move! I feel something coming!"
"Just go to sleep, Nami. You're sick," Usopp argued as the two came out on deck, with Nami leaning on him for support.
"Nami-san, you shouldn't overexert yourself," Sanji said as Nami looked around at the calm and serene sea.
"There's something…" Nami trailed off in worry and Luffy looked around too, but only saw clear skies.
"Just go to sleep, witch. The weather's fine and we have an eternal pose to an island too," Zoro informed but Nami didn't listen to him as her face paled.
"Change the course now!" She ordered with as much urgency as she could muster.
"Nami, sto-"
"Which way?" Luffy cut in.
"South! Hurry!"
Luffy quickly went to the whipstaff while the rest stopped arguing and followed her order, changing the direction of the ship.
Not even five minutes later, everyone's jaw fell as a gigantic cyclone, much bigger than anything they had come across until then, suddenly formed right in the path they were previously on. The cyclone almost pulled them in but they had changed directions in the nick of time to be able to escape it.
"Damn, that was a close call," Usopp shivered. "How the hell are we supposed to look out for something like that?!"
"That's why you have me," Nami smugly but weakly smiled while Sanji danced in the background singing her praises.
"You can gloat later. Go back to bed now," Zoro scoffed and Nami stuck her tongue out at him before Usopp dragged her back to the women's room.
Luffy then made his way to the restroom while massaging his forehead in slight irritation.
Once in, he locked the door and sat down on the floor, clutching his head in pain. From before he had found that Nami and Vivi had gotten sick, his head had been throbbing and it had been getting more relentless as time went on. Fortunately, that was all he felt. He didn't have a fever nor did he feel weak, so he was sure he didn't have the same disease as the other two.
I took precautions but things ended up getting worse…
He logically understood that the two had been half-encased in wax, and when it had melted off, it also probably cleansed them of the bug repellant that they had applied, thus resulting in bugs getting close to them and biting their exposed necks. But he still berated himself for not doing more. Sitting around a campfire while he gave the Giants a history lesson also didn't help.
As for himself, he had gotten wounds from his battle which were exposed for a long period of time during which he had even fallen in a swamp, so something probably had entered his body.
He sighed deeply as he undid all his bandages to see if he had any bites or rashes just like the two girls had. After checking every inch of his body with the help of his stretchy neck, he confirmed that there weren't any that resembled theirs. However, his skin had taken on a slightly whitish hue just around the cut on his right arm.
"Still there, Rei?" He asked aloud. They sometimes kept the call open in the background even if they were busy with other things. It was mostly for Reiju's sake as if she was free, she would listen in on all the silly antics the crew got up to.
"
Yeah."
"I kinda have an unnaturally painful headache."
"
You're sick too?!" Her tone immediately shifted to one of worry.
"Hey now, there's no way I'm sick! I just have a headache… and my skin is pale around a wound, that's all."
"
Show me!"
Luffy took the phone out and focused it on his wounds letting her study the discoloration closely.
"
Hmm… Do you feel nauseous? Any tremors?"
"Nope. Just a killer headache."
"
You're not lying, right?"
"Why the hell would I do that?"
"
You are
hiding in the bathroom instead of being in front of the others."
"There are already two of us who are sick on the ship. Don't wanna alarm the others unnecessarily… Just tell me if this is something more than just a headache that'll go away."
"
Fine," she sighed softly. "
If headaches are all you got, you should be fine. Judging by the discolouration pattern, I'm pretty sure this is weed hemlock poisoning."
"What's that?"
"
It's a phytotoxin. Plant poison, basically."
"I'm poisoned? Yes!"
"
Why are you happy about that, idiot?!"
"It means I'm not sick!" Luffy declared happily. "I don't get sick. Period. So, this would have been a blemish on my record."
"
… You got weird priorities, Luffy… And you can
get sick! Maybe not with something like the common cold, but there are many fatal diseases out there that can affect even the strongest of men! Don't be so careless!"
"Okay, okay," Luffy relented. "So, I'm fine? Hemlock isn't that dangerous?"
Reiju huffed, wanting to lecture him more but realized it would be a waste of time and just answered his question. "
No, it's very dangerous. Especially the variant of hemlock you have. You will first start experiencing headaches, nausea, and tremors. Then it escalates to memory loss and coma. And then, finally, death. There is a very selective treatment for it but even if a person recovers, they'll sometimes be left with serious side effects like amnesia."
"Damn."
"
But you
should be fine. How well a person recovers from this depends on how quickly the poison is identified after it's in them and treatment is started. In your case, I introduced the poison to your body and also the cure when we were together, so it already knows how to fight it off. Your body should produce the necessary antibodies to break down and flush it out of your system soon."
"Oh, that's great! Guess being your guinea pig was worth it."
"
Yeah. But still," she groaned worriedly. "
You were on a prehistoric island, so the poison plant has probably evolved in some unique way and we could be dealing with a new variant of the poison. Call me immediately if you get any of those symptoms I mentioned earlier, or anything else really. If so, then…" she trailed off, wondering what she could realistically do if it really was some new poison and buried her head in her hands in frustration. "
Ugh… I wish I was there so I could run tests."
"I keep telling you to come to me."
"
Yeah yeah, don't start this now."
Luffy sighed as he stared at her. He had been insisting that she join them instead of going back to North Blue ever since they reestablished contact, but Reiju had been adamant in her decision to not join him yet. "Where are you anyway?"
"
Don't worry about it," she answered, not meeting his eyes.
Luffy sighed harder. She wasn't telling him where exactly she was either.
Knock! Knock!
"Luffy, you okay?" Zoro yelled from outside.
"Yeah! Well, no."
"What?"
"Wait a minute," he yelled before addressing Reiju. "Do I need to be quarantined?"
"
It spreads through ingestion so basic distancing is enough. No drinking from the same glass and things like that… And obviously no kissing or you know," she added the last part with a smirk.
"Yeah yeah. See ya!"
"
Call me immediately even if you feel slightly off!"
——][———][———][——
Oh god, can I just chop my head off? Luffy groaned, banging his head against the floorboards as the throbbing in his head had just gotten worse.
He was pretty much fine on the first day as the headaches were mild at best and he was still able to function normally. But early morning on the second day, the throbbing in his head had increased significantly and even his eyes had started to burn. By midday, he couldn't keep his eyes open for more than a few seconds without them tearing up and he could also feel his body gradually weakening.
"ROW US AWAY! FASTERFASTERFASTE-
IS YOUR HEAD ACTUALLY FILLED WITH MOSS, YOU STUPID MOSSHEAD?! WHY ARE YOU ROWING
TOWARDS THE WHIRLPOOL?
ROW THE OTHERFUCKIN' WAY!"
"SHUT UP AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE SAILS, YOU CRAP-COOK!"
"PLEASE WORK TOGETHER JUST THIS ONCE, YOU BASTARDS! WE'RE GONNA DIE! WE'RE GONNA DIE!"
He winced at not only the loud shouts and sounds but also because Sanji, Zoro and Usopp were having a hard time navigating. They hadn't run into anything major like the massive cyclone they had narrowly escaped the previous day, but they still ran into half a dozen challenging situations like sudden hail storms and small whirlpools, which they narrowly escaped.
Everyone on board had gained a whole new level of respect for Nami, who usually got them out of such situations while keeping their ship safe and sailable, and they truly understood just how integral a competent navigator was to their continued existence on the Grand Line.
Luffy wanted to help out but once the others learned that he was poisoned, they had tried to retire him to a bed too, to which he had adamantly protested, saying that he could still function perfectly fine. They argued, and since he seemed fine on the first day, he was involved in ship handling and patient-care duties, but once his condition grew worse on the second day, the others told him to rest.
Luffy still adamantly refused to acknowledge that he was sick, so he put himself on patient-care duties and the others relented. They were barely able to keep the ship out of trouble between the three of them, so Luffy made sure they didn't have to worry about taking care of the two sick people at least.
Thus, Luffy was in the women's room, keeping Nami and Vivi's beds stable so that the rough rocking of the ship wouldn't make them fall over. Carue was with him too, frequently letting out sad squawks whenever he saw Vivi's state.
"GYAAAAH! A SEA KING!"
"SHIT! WHY NOW OF ALL TIMES?!"
"I'LL TAKE CARE OF IT!"
"WAIT! WE CAN'T STOP ROWING OR WE'LL GET SUCKED INTO THE WHIRLPOOL!"
"GRR! THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO?!"
Luffy stood up to go help when a cannon went off.
BOOOM!
"
GRWWAAAAHHHhhhh…"
A huge splash sounded and their ship suddenly accelerated, presumably because of the Sea King falling over and the resultant wave pushing them away.
"USOPP! YOU DID IT!"
"AHAHAHAHA! I, THE GREAT PIRATE CAPTAIN USOPP, CAN TAKE DOWN A MILLION SEA KINGS WITH MY SPECIAL BURST BALLS, NO PROBLEM!"
Luffy sat back down with a sigh of relief. Burst balls were what Usopp had named the improved-upon Buggy balls. Even Reiju had given some inputs on how to make them deadlier and Usopp had truly made it into a cannonball that could easily take down a battleship with a single shot.
"So noisy… what's happening…?" Vivi whined semi-consciously, tossing and turning around on the bed.
"Just normal Grand Line things," Luffy replied, adjusting the blanket over her.
"Qua…" Carue shuffled closer to her to comfort her.
"I need to be out there…" Nami said weakly as she too had regained consciousness.
"Don't worry. I'm sure they can handle navigating at least for a couple of days."
"Hopefully… You're not letting Zoro be in charge of directions, right?"
"Of course not," Luffy chuckled. "We explicitly told him he wasn't allowed to touch the pose."
Nami and Vivi giggled softly before they involuntarily slipped back into unconsciousness. Luffy wanted to slip into deep sleep too but his head was throbbing so hard that he felt like someone was smashing the inside of his skull with a sledgehammer, which prevented him from even resting calmly.
Despite this, Luffy was kinda happy that this was happening to him. Happy because he thought it was a great opportunity to train his Haki. Concentration was key to wielding Haki so what better time than now when he had a killer headache that didn't let him focus on anything.
He still didn't have a complete mastery of even basic Armament hardening yet. When he was idle, he could coat just his arms, and in the middle of battles when his concentration wouldn't solely be on channelling his Haki, he could coat only his fists properly. Maintaining a coat of Haki over other parts of his body was a bit difficult to concentrate on at the same time as his arms, and even on his arms, he didn't feel like he was doing it efficiently.
As for Conqueror's, he had already learned to direct it to a specific area only and was also able to control the range. From what he had gathered from Hancock, one couldn't just train to strengthen Conqueror's, only train to control it. Conqueror's Haki grew stronger only when the person themselves grew stronger.
But then again, she didn't know that one could infuse Conqueror's into attacks, so he still trained it nonetheless and even tried to figure out how to infuse it too. He did recognize that that was a very advanced application of the skill and knew he was trying to run before he had even learned to crawl, but he just couldn't help but try. He tried everything really, from Emission to Internal destruction in Armament, Future sight in Observation, and even tried to awaken his fruit, but of course, he couldn't grasp any of it in actuality yet.
Throb… Throb…
He let out a deep sigh, his fingers pressing against his temple as the throbbing headache intensified, shattering his focus and causing the coating of Haki on his arms to dissipate.
I should be able to coat it even when I feel weak as hell. It should be as easy as breathing! Luffy declared as he took a few deep breaths and began channelling his Haki again. Despite feeling like he would lose consciousness at any second, he persisted, maintaining a steady coating of Haki on mainly his arms but he did coat other body parts too. When his Haki got depleted, he would allow himself a few minutes to recover it before he started the same process again.
He continued on for hours, his single-track mind of wanting to strengthen his Haki and get stronger trumping all other thoughts. It would have been even better if someone was hitting him with a stick at the same time, but he had grown weak enough that anyone looking at him would insist that he lie down and rest.
He only paused training hours later when the ship suddenly lurched violently, and he heard a smug voice from outside.
"MAAAHAHAHA! Are you surprised by my submersible ambush ship 'Tin Can King'?!"
Luffy was annoyed but also relieved.
Annoyed because Wapol was here and the bastard would try to eat Merry.
Relieved because that meant they were getting closer to Drum. And also because Wapol's ship had doctors on board.
Let's go kidnap some doctors.
—)(—
Sanji lit a cigarette in irritation as multiple pirates from the opposing ship descended onto the Merry, encircling them with guns at the ready. His gaze swept over their enemies searching for any captivating women but when he saw none, it was a source of both annoyance and relief. He lamented the missed opportunity to witness some beauties, yet a larger part of him felt grateful that no women were subjected to the company of such brutes.
"Only three of you on a ship this big? There should be more inside," A man with an unusually large jaw—
Are those tin plates?— said as he ate the blade of a sword, which made Sanji first gawk, then cringe. An action that was mirrored by his crewmates.
"I-Is he eating swords?!" Usopp blanched while the shitty swordsman just looked on with irritation.
"Well, whatever," Tin-jaw dismissively continued. "We want to go to Drum Island. Do you have an eternal pose or a log pose pointing there?"
Sanji sighed as he exchanged a look with Mosshead. Any thoughts of playing this peacefully went out the window as the pirates wanted their log pose and they obviously weren't going to give it to them. "Oi Mosshead, let's do this quickly and as silently as possible."
"They have guns. It's gonna be noisy," He answered with a sigh, and Sanji clicked his tongue, knowing he was right. He had seen how Luffy had winced at any loud sounds and the ladies needed their beauty sleep too, so Sanji was extra annoyed.
"Hey, answer my question!" Tin-jaw demanded and Sanji was about to start attacking when the storage deck door opened and out stepped his captain, slowly rubbing his eyes.
"It's chilly out here," Luffy lightly shivered as he closed the door behind him and walked ahead. "That's good."
"STOP!" The pirates yelled while pointing their guns at him but Luffy just looked around with half-lidded eyes.
"Why is it good that it's chilly?" Zoro asked curiously, ignoring all the hostility directed at them.
"If it's stable, it means we're nearing Drum."
"Huh? How?"
"Hmm get a detailed explanation from Vivi later but basically, the sea surrounding an island will have the same weather as the island. Drum is a Winter Island, so it's gonna be chilly and snowy around it."
"Oh, I see." Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, and even a couple of the pirates nodded along in understanding.
"Ooh looks like you guys are trying to get to Drum too?" Tin-jaw asked with a smug smile. "That means you must have a log pose pointing there! Hand it over! Also, hand over all your treasure! And then
maybe, I might let you live!"
"Oi Luffy, just go inside and look after the ladies. We'll take care of this."
"Y-Yes, Luffy!" Usopp also yelled in support despite his violently trembling legs. "We'll kick these guys' asses!"
"Hey, don't ignore me!" Tin-jaw yelled offended when none of them reacted to his threat but he was again ignored.
"It'll get too noisy though," Luffy whined. "And just us talking is making me feel like my head is being put through a grinder."
"SOLDIERS! TAKE AIM! HOW DARE THESE PEASANTS IGNORE ME?!" Tin-jaw finally snapped and the soldiers all got ready to fire at them.
Sanji was about to jump into attack when he heard Luffy say, "You should be able to handle this" and before he even had the chance to process what he meant, all his thoughts came to an abrupt halt and his body flinched in alarm when he felt a very powerful pressure pressing down on him.
His wide trembling eyes were stuck on Luffy, who looked to be simply standing without a care in the world, but Sanji felt like he was seconds away from being torn to shreds by him. He couldn't tell if there was something actually physical attacking him as he didn't see anything but it sure
felt like someone was suffocating his very soul and he could see dark spots appearing in his peripheral vision.
What's happen-?! His mind screamed but his thoughts soon broke down into an incomprehensible mess as unbridled fear crept up in him and every instinct he had was telling him that he was in danger and that he had to run away.
Yet amidst the terrifying unknown assault, there was a flicker of resistance and defiance that kept him from buckling under the pressure and made sure he didn't fall.
He became slightly more aware of what was happening as time went on and he felt wind blowing in his face, so there was definitely some physical aspect to this attack too. He tried to look around when suddenly, the pressure was gone just like that.
Sanji gasped loudly when he became aware of all his senses again. He was lightly panting, rivulets of sweat had formed all over his body, his cigarette had fallen out of his mouth, and his body had tensed and poised defensively… but he was still standing. He slowly relaxed his tense posture as he surveyed his surroundings and it didn't take even a moment for his now rational mind to realize what had happened.
Luffy had only told him in words as to what Conqueror's Haki was. The others had apparently seen it briefly in one of their earlier adventures on Usopp's home island, but all they had seen was Luffy looking at a group of pirates and them collapsing.
"It's hard to explain but I basically clash my will with others. If they have weak wills, they'll collapse." His captain had said and the concept had seemed absurd to him and he had even wondered if Luffy was just messing around.
At least until that moment.
Right before his eyes was the undeniable proof that his captain was a terrifying monster who could retire people to unconsciousness just by
willing it.
The more-than-thirty enemy pirates, including Tin-jaw, who had invaded their ship had all collapsed, and Merry's deck was a sea of twitching bodies that were foaming at the mouth with their eyes rolled back into their skulls.
Usopp too had collapsed in a similar state.
Zoro, the only other person who was still standing, was also observing the surroundings with wide eyes. Sanji saw that his swords were out and his grip on them was so tight that it had turned his knuckles white.
And finally, there was Luffy, who was just casually standing around scratching his head with his eyes closed like he hadn't just rewritten his fucking common sense.
Again!
Sanji took a few moments to recompose himself before fishing out and lighting another cigarette as he contemplated his new reality.
"W-W-WHAT HAPPENED?!" Someone on the other ship screamed, and that finally brought everyone out of their shocked stupor.
Sanji saw Luffy letting out an annoyed huff at the shout before he jumped over to the other ship in a single leap, and a couple of seconds later, everyone standing on their deck collapsed unceremoniously too, and Sanji whistled in awe.
"Well… That was something…" the swordsman sighed as he sheathed his swords.
Eloquent as ever, Sanji scoffed at the Mosshead.
It was a testament to how awed he was by the spectacle that Sanji hadn't even thought of the ladies up till that point. "Wait! Luffy, are the ladies safe?! Were they affected by this?!"
"Don't worry, it didn't reach them," Luffy yelled from the other ship but Sanji was already on his way to check up on them. He would take any reason to lay his eyes upon the gorgeous and tantalizing figures of his lovely and beautiful Nami-swan and Vivi-chwan!
—)(—
"Is Usopp okay?" Zoro heard his captain yell from the other ship as he checked on the sniper.
"W-wh-what happ…" Usopp slurred semi-consciously when Zoro slapped him a few times to awaken him. He nodded when it looked like he would just be in a daze for a while so he just made him lie more comfortably.
"He'll be fine," he yelled back.
"Okay, then come over!"
A few seconds later, Zoro was making his way through the enemy ship alongside Luffy. There were pirates still conscious below deck, pretty much oblivious to what had happened just above them on deck, so whenever they crossed paths with such pirates, Zoro took them out with a single strike before they could even scream.
"Your headache okay?"
"It's fine still."
"Bubble said to update her every half-hour. Did you call her?"
When they had learned that Luffy was poisoned and it had worsened on the second day, they had obviously called and informed Bubble about it. She had completely freaked out, asking him to run blood tests and other procedures, but they obviously didn't have the right equipment and materials for that.
Watching the two bicker was…
interesting, to say the least. Bubble began hurling curses and insults at Luffy for being reckless and careless while also simultaneously worrying about him, and Luffy tried to calm her down by telling her that there was nothing to worry about as it wouldn't be long before they reached Drum Island. He had also called her 'annoying' for worrying too much, which had only triggered her wrath.
Zoro would have found it to be comical, if not for the dire situation they were in.
Bubble had finally calmed down somewhat after a few minutes but had asked him to update her on his condition every thirty minutes, and Zoro had amusedly watched as Luffy called her annoying again, resulting in her
epically snapping at him again.
"Ugh… she gets so annoying when she's worried," Luffy whined before handing the phone to him. "You do it. Call her later."
"… Sure," Zoro wanted to refuse, not wanting to be on the receiving end of Bubble's mix of worry and anger, but seeing his pitiful state, he relented. They were again interrupted by a couple of pirates who he quickly dispatched. "How come these guys are still conscious?"
"I focused it only on the deck. I can control the range… though I still need more training in properly controlling it. I tried to stop it from affecting Usopp, but he still felt some of it."
Zoro nodded in awe. Seeing such power in his captain only made him more sure that he had followed the right person and motivated him to get stronger himself. There was frustration sure, but after getting his ass handed to him by Mihawk, he already knew he had a lot of catching up to do.
"How do you know if you have it? Is there some test?"
Conqueror's was apparently something inborn and one wouldn't know whether they had it before they awakened it, so he was curious.
"Hmm…" Luffy scratched his head as he thought about all the Conqueror Haki users he knew. "There's no specific method. It usually awakens when a person is helpless and in despair… But it might happen once you get strong enough too, I guess."
Zoro just hummed. He wondered if he should ask what the circumstances were when Luffy had awakened it, but thinking about the slave brand on his back, he didn't want to pry.
Luffy made no real effort to hide his back, so of course, the others on the ship had already seen the botched hoof brand. At least the boys had since they shared a room.
Zoro and Usopp had seen it a day after they had gotten the Merry when Luffy was drowsily changing his shirt. Usopp had commented that it was a cool tattoo and asked if it had any meaning, to which Luffy had responded simply with 'Slave brand' with a yawn as he walked out of the room.
Usopp had just gaped in wide-eyed horror and didn't know how to respond, Zoro didn't say anything, and the topic was never brought up again.
Sanji had seen it a couple of days after they had left Cocoyashi, and he had just stared at it in confusion for a second, then disbelief, and then his eyes had widened as if he understood something.
Zoro didn't know what the cook had realized, but he surely knew more about Luffy's enslavement than anyone else on the ship. It did honestly irritate him a little that the damn pervert knew more about Luffy than he did. But Sanji never talked about it and no one really asked him about it.
"Anyway," Zoro cleared his head of unnecessary thoughts, "what are we looking for?"
"They have doctors on board. We'll take them with us."
"We're kidnapping people?"
"Kinda. They were kidnapped from their homes, so we'll just kidnap them again and take them back home."
"Huh?"
"Ah, it's a long story," Luffy kneaded his forehead. "Got some info on Drum from Koala. It's kinda going through some stuff right now. That guy with the big mouth was Wapol, its former king. He was a very bad king."
He sure has a very wide information network, Zoro thought. "I see. So these guys are soldiers then? Was wondering why they seemed more trained than usual," Zoro said as he knocked out a group of three more soldiers.
"Yeah."
The ship was large but it wasn't long before they came across a locked room being guarded by two men. Zoro quickly took care of them and then broke the door open. Middle-aged to old men and women wearing lab coats occupied the room and they were all alarmed at the sudden intrusion.
"Yo!" Luffy greeted them with a smile. "You're the 20 doctors from Drum, right?"
"Yes, that would be us," an old man, who they later learned was the Head Doctor, stepped up with confusion visible on his face. "Who are you two? Where's King Wapol?"
"Monkey D. Luffy, Future Pirate King. And Wapol is unconscious."
"… what?"
"We heard about your country's situation. If you want to go back to Drum, come with us. We're heading there. We have patients on board, so it would help us too."
"… Huh?"
"Come take a look outside," Zoro interjected when his captain's blunt words didn't seem believable to them.
It took a bit of time and only after coming out and seeing all the fainted soldiers on deck did they realize that their ship had somehow been invaded by pirates and that their King had been defeated.
"What did you do to them?" One doctor asked, checking the pulse of one of the unconscious soldiers. "Some sort of sleeping gas?"
"Not really," Zoro replied, scratching his head. "You know how sometimes a small animal faints when a larger, terrifying animal intimidates it?"
"Yes…?"
"That's it," Zoro nodded and patted Luffy's shoulder. "This guy is the larger animal."
The doctor alternated his gaze between Zoro and the simple and harmless-looking Luffy.
"So… sleeping gas?" The doctor reiterated.
"… Yeah sure, whatever," Zoro waved it off with a sigh as he walked away with Luffy while the doctors checked the others. "Okay, I see why you don't bother explaining such things. Even I wouldn't believe this if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."
"Right?" Luffy chuckled, a bit amused at how Zoro had explained Conqueror's. "It's like telling someone that there's a war going on between aliens and robots on the moon and expecting them to believe it."
"Heh yeah," Zoro chuckled too before suddenly pausing and slowly turning towards Luffy. "Did you just say alien-robot war… on the moon?"
"Uh-huh."
"… You're messing with me, right?"
"Maybe. Who knows?" Luffy just shrugged but had a shit-eating grin on his face.
"Idiot!" Zoro reflexively yanked his cheek and felt bad when he groaned in pain. Only slightly though as he still sported that shit-eating grin.
He thought he had gotten good at recognizing when Luffy was joking and when he was being serious, but looked like he wasn't there yet, cause it seemed like he was telling the truth but there was absolutely no way something like an alien-robot war was happening on the moon.
"Anywho, convince these guys," Luffy said as he pointed at the doctors who were still checking on all the soldiers. "Imma' go back."
"Sure."
Luffy went back to Merry, Sanji soon started throwing all the soldiers who had fainted on Merry back to their own ship, and Zoro allowed the doctors ten more minutes before he got impatient and called out to them. "Hey, they've just fainted. They'll wake up eventually, so what are you even checking?"
"Ah yes, sorry," the head doctor came up to him with a scared, apologetic expression. They were clearly stalling.
"Hurry up and decide. We need at least one doctor. There's twenty of you, so there should be someone who wants to go home, right?" He asked looking over everyone, who cowered under his gaze.
"We would all like to go home if possible."
"Yeah sure, we don't mind taking you all. Get your stuff and move. We're wasting time," he ordered as he went back to the Merry without waiting for an answer.
Zoro waited for a couple more minutes, watching the doctors discuss amongst themselves, and just as he was about to get impatient again, they finally started moving. Looked like they were all coming along.
A plank was placed between the two ships, the doctors packed their things and walked over, and soon, Merry was again sailing towards Drum leaving a ship full of unconscious soldiers and their King behind.
Thirty minutes after the Strawhats left, a tall and lanky man in pajamas walked out on the deck of the Tin Can King while sleepily grumbling, "Where are all my damn servants?!"
He froze when he saw the unconscious soldiers and spotted Wapol in a similar state. "Wapol!" He screamed as he ran to him. "What the hell happened?! Wake up! Who the hell did this to my little brother?!"
—)(—
A few doctors checked up on the three patients while the rest stayed on deck, fidgeting uncomfortably in fear and apprehension. Sanji observed that they weren't properly fed, so first provided meals for them, which helped ease the doctors' anxiousness a lot, before he joined Zoro and Usopp who were sitting on the stairs that led to the upper deck.
"You should be fine. You have the same symptoms as the soldiers had back there," a doctor said, having finished checking up on Usopp.
"Thank you," Usopp sighed in relief and the doctor bowed slightly before leaving them. "So that was Conqueror's huh?" Ussop shuddered wiping the sweat off of his face. "Never ever want to experience that again!"
"He tried to hold back on you, so you didn't even feel it at full force," Zoro informed, causing the sniper to shudder more.
"So what's the deal here?" Sanji asked eyeing all their new passengers. "I get that we needed a doctor but why are there so many here? And why are we still heading to Drum if we already have doctors?"
Zoro was about to explain when the phone rang.
"Ah wait, Bubble would also want to know," he said as he took out the phone and blankly stared at the screen. Professor Luffy had made another appearance and given 'A crash course for Dummies on how to use a phone' lesson a while back.
I slide my finger up over the circle thingy, right? He recalled as he slid his finger
down on the screen. "Bubble?"
"You just cut the call, you stupid Mosshead!" Sanji raged.
"You still haven't learned the controls?" Usopp snickered with a smug expression.
"Shut up! I did it just like Luffy explained it!"
"No, you didn't! Give it here!" Sanji irritably said holding his hand out.
"Give it to me. I'll call her," Usopp said as he reached for it but Zoro leaned back, not letting him have it.
"I can do it!"
"You'll end up destroying it! Just hand it over!" Sanji lunged for it but again, Zoro didn't let go.
And it wasn't long before Zoro, Usopp and Sanji were fighting over the phone, while the doctors watched them with a tiny bit of amusement.
Poor Reiju called a couple more times and each time, they accidentally cut the call making her increasingly worried. Thankfully, the fourth time she called, they accidentally received it.
"
LUFFY?! LUFFY?! ARE YOU OKAY?!"
"Ah, Bubble! It's so lovely to hear your voice!"
"
Sanji! What happened?! Are you guys okay?!"
The three men, who had ended up tangled together, awkwardly eyed one other before sighing and separating. "Yeah, everything's fine."
"
Then why the hell were you cutting me off?!"
"Zoro's fault," Usopp immediately sold him out.
"Hey!"
"It is!"
"
Boys!" She finally snapped angrily and the three quickly calmed down before updating her on the situation.
"
So you guys ran into some pirates, who turned out to be Wapol of all people. You then knocked him out and kidnapped the doctors from their ship?"
"You know that guy?"
"
I've had the displeasure of seeing him, yes. He's the King of Drum Kingdom though… What was he doing out on the sea as a pirate?"
"Not sure," Zoro answered, "But something bad happened on their island-"
"How the hell do you know that, Mosshead?"
"Luffy got some info from Koala."
"Ah, okay."
"
Who's Koala?"
"One of his seven wives," Usopp answered with a snicker.
"
… I'm sorry?" Reiju's voice was incredulous.
"Hey, don't confuse her," Sanji chided, lightly hitting him on the head.
"Those are the exact words she used though!"
"
Wait wait, what?! Seven wives?! Luffy's
seven wives?! What are you saying?!"
"It's just a joke," Zoro cleared up the misunderstanding, noting how agitated she sounded with amusement. "She acts like a sort of informant for Luffy, I think."
"
Oh…"
"So what stuff is going on?" Usopp continued.
"He didn't say much…"
"He was a horrible King," One of the doctors interjected as he came up to them with an apologetic expression. "Sorry for eavesdropping. I just came to thank you all for taking us home."
"No problem! You can count on the Great Pirate Captain Usopp!"
"What do you mean by horrible?" Sanji asked and they all learned of all the atrocities Wapol had committed from the doctors and also how he had abandoned the country when some pirates had attacked them.
Meanwhile, a few doctors checked Nami, Vivi, and Luffy's conditions and had a grim look when they finished diagnosing and running a few tests. They gathered the crew in the kitchen, minus Nami and Vivi, and explained with apprehension. They didn't want Luffy to be there either but he insisted that he had to hear it too.
"First off," the head doctor began hesitantly. "We… don't know how you're still alive," he said pointedly looking at Luffy which alarmed the other Strawhats.
"The hell does that mean?!" Zoro demanded.
The head doctor gulped nervously as he continued. "You have what we thought was weed hemlock in your system, but there are some new symptoms we haven't seen before, so it's definitely a new variant. Still, it's very similar to weed hemlock so you should already be dead but you seem to have a very high tolerance to a lot of poisons, including the weed one. Honestly, your immune system is amazing! It's like someone pumped hundreds of deadly poisons into you and you somehow miraculously survived, thus gaining antibodies to all those poisons!"
"Yeah, that's pretty much what happened," Luffy confirmed like it was no big deal while the rest looked on in shock and alarm, coming to all sorts of conclusions. Everyone knew he was immune to a lot of poisons given what had happened at the Baratie but they hadn't really thought about
how he had gotten it. And given that they had seen the brand on his back, it painted a very bad picture in their minds.
"… No matter the circumstances in how you acquired such resistance," the head doctor continued, "It's actually beneficial in this case. You're holding up relatively well, which gives us time to run tests to identify what detoxifies this new poison. We are already working on it and we will find an antidote as soon as possible."
"I understand. Thanks!" Luffy nodded with a smile and the head doctor heaved a sigh of relief as the pirates didn't irrationally lash out. "The girls?"
"As for them," another doctor spoke up grimly. "We've managed to diagnose what it is but we don't know its cure. They were bitten by a bug called Kestia… a-and they have the Five-Day disease…"
"Five-Day?" Sanji gulped, not liking how ominous that sounded.
"It's called that because anyone infected with it dies within five days."
——][———][———][——
The three healthy members of the crew became extremely serious and determined to reach Drum and even took turns rowing just so that they could go a little bit faster. The doctors had told them about Kureha and how she would probably know the cure, so they were desperate to reach Drum as fast as possible.
Some doctors took over looking after the two girls and made sure to keep their conditions as stable and comfortable as possible while others worked at making Luffy the antidote.
As for Luffy's condition, it only worsened. Or more accurately, he turned things worse for himself.
Despite the doctors' best efforts to alleviate his symptoms, the throbbing in his head went up a notch and fatigue was setting in by the time the sun set. The sane and responsible thing to do would have been to rest and let the doctors give him some painkillers or sedatives until they made the antidote.
But Luffy had other ideas.
When he was training in South Blue, one of his major goals was to be able to fight even when he's exhausted and pushed himself too far like his story counterpart had in the Paramount war.
Him falling to his knees in exhaustion, Akainu lunging for him, Ace getting in between, a magma fist through Ace's chest… Just recalling that sent shivers down his spine and he had no intention of ever letting that happen in his reality.
Thus, he had pushed himself further and further, increasing his stamina more and more, pushing the time limit where he could still move and fight even in an utterly exhausted state.
In his current poisoned state, it was very hard for him to focus on anything, his body felt weak, he felt exhausted just by sitting still, and all he felt like doing was sleeping. Thus, the perfect conditions to train his stamina.
He didn't let up on Haki either, which he continued to train. Haki gets stronger only in stressful situations like in the middle of intense battles, and if the poison could be considered an enemy, he really was in a life-or-death battle with an enemy that was weakening him and would eventually kill him.
So, he made the stupid decision to not tell Reiju or the twenty doctors about his worsening condition, and after giving the doctors some blood samples, found himself a quiet place near the back of the ship and told the others that he was gonna spend his time there as he needed the silence.
His body started emitting steam as he activated Gear 2, causing his entire body to scream in protest but Luffy pushed through the pain and started coating armament haki over different parts of his body.
Keep up Gear 2 until it is literally impossible to maintain it anymore, take a few minutes to rest, and reactivate it. Rinse and repeat.
Coat armament haki on as much area of the body as possible, maintain it for however long possible, and when it ran out, rest for a few minutes to recover, and then again start all over. Rinse and repeat.
He was at it the whole night—His head increasingly throbbing, his body increasingly protesting and begging for rest— but he forced himself to continuously train, almost falling into a trance-like state.
He honestly wanted to move and fight but considering he was on a ship, there wasn't much he could do. He continued training well into the next morning, not even realizing that hours had passed, and he was only broken out of his trance when he heard loud shouts.
"I see an island!"
"Finally! We reached it!"
"We're finally back home!"
"Nami-swan! Vivi-chwan! Please hang in there just a little longer!"
Only then did Luffy pause his reckless actions and pay attention to his surroundings.
On the ship, both Zoro and Sanji were paddling as if their lives depended on it, probably for the entire time as it didn't look like they had slept even a wink. Same with Usopp who was in the crow's nest, ordering a few of the doctors around to help with the sails.
Stupid! He smacked himself on the forehead for not even considering the mental state of his crew.
He obviously knew that Kureha and Chopper would be able to cure them all with no problem, so he hadn't even worried a bit about that. But the others didn't. For them, it was a desperate situation in which two of their friends had a rare and dangerous disease while another was slowly dying due to a deadly poison, and no one knew whether Kureha could even cure them.
Luffy sighed at the oversight and berated himself for a few moments before thinking about what would happen next. They would have to reach the castle at the top of the mountain somehow, and feeling his body slightly trembling, he knew he wouldn't be able to do the climb…
Or could I? It would be a great challenge!
Thankfully, he was at least sane enough to not gamble his crew's lives for such a stupid reason. He also wasn't going to let Zoro or Sanji do the climb. He recalled that there was a ropeway to get to the top so if they could just find it, they wouldn't need to climb the mountain.
Where is the ropeway though…?
"Stop right there, pirates! Turn your ship around and leave!"
Hostile shouts welcomed them as they traveled through an inland river and Luffy just waited to see how it would all play out. They had the 20 doctors on board so he didn't think he would need to do anything and as expected, the hostile shouts soon died down and became replaced with confusion.
"Hey, it's the Isshi-20!" / "What?!" / "The doctors that left the country with Wapol! They're here!" / "How?! Is that bastard back too?!"
"You all!" An authoritative voice yelled. "What are you doing with these pirates? What happened to Wapol?"
"Ah, Dalton! These people actually defeated Wapol out at sea!" The head doctor began and briefly explained what had happened. It took a few minutes but they finally believed the doctor's words while Luffy paid minimal attention.
"Hey, old man," Zoro growled lowly to the doctor. "We don't have time for this."
"Ah yes, of course!" The old man hastily nodded and called out for Dalton again.
Luffy didn't have to get on his knees and beg as the doctors basically explained their situation and even though there was mistrust from many of the civilians, Dalton trusted the words of the doctors and let them dock.
Luffy finally stood up from where he was sitting and after taking one step, felt his mind spinning and collapsed.
—)(—
"THE HELL DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T CONTACT HER?!" Sanji's feral growl, followed by hostility directed at them, woke Luffy up and he found that he was on Zoro's back.
We're in town already, Luffy guessed as he looked around.
Damn, did I faint?
Nami and Vivi were on Sanji and Usopp's backs respectively and Sanji had pinned Dalton down to the ground with his leg while the rest of the civilian-soldiers had raised their guns at them again. Luffy closed his eyes as they began to burn and kept an ear open for what was being said.
"I-I sincerely apologize," Dalton apprehensively said while raising a hand towards his men, telling them not to shoot. "But once Wapol left with the doctors, she made that castle her base and only comes down when she feels like it and treats people."
"Shit! We don't have time for this! This is already the third day!" Sanji cursed angrily.
"Back up," Zoro put a hand on the cook's shoulder and pulled him back, and only then did Sanji realize what he was doing and lifted his foot off of Dalton apologetically. "What do you all do when there are sick people here in the town then?" Zoro asked, his voice even but it betrayed a sense of urgency and desperation too.
"We don't have any choice," Dalton sighed, slowly getting on his feet. "We just have to wait and hope she shows up… She's not exactly a sane person."
"We'll just go to her then," Zoro announced. "Lead the way."
Dalton shook his head. "I'm deeply sorry but we don't have a way to reach the castle."
Zoro made an annoyed expression and Sanji looked like he was about to lose it again when Usopp hurriedly cut in. "How does
she travel up and down the mountain? Maybe we can use the same method?"
"We don't know for sure but many people have seen her supposedly riding on a sleigh through the sky on moonlit nights… People have also seen a bizarre creature with her which she apparently uses for travel."
"Dammit! What the hell is with that?!" Sanji cursed.
"Map…" Luffy weakly said as he lifted himself off of Zoro's back, knowing he had to intervene.
"Luffy! You okay? You had a seizure and collapsed back there."
"I can manage," Luffy said as he tried to stand on his own feet, failed, and just plopped down on the ground. "Show me the map of this place," he said turning towards Dalton with his eyes still closed.
"Uhh yes, of course," Dalton told someone to get a map while Luffy opened his eyes briefly to look at the Drum Rockies in the distance. His vision was hazy but he could still make out how tall the mountains were and he didn't want to make anyone climb that.
"Close your eyes, Luffy," Usopp worriedly said. "They're completely bloodshot."
"Yes, we'll figure out a way to get to her," Zoro reassured. "Go to sleep."
"It's fine… I just have to…" Luffy winced as he racked his brains for the name of the town where the ropeway was that Zoro and the others use to get to the top in the story.
He was hoping something would trigger his memories if he saw all the names of the towns on a map, and when Dalton got him one, he studied all the names closely through watery eyes but other than Bighorn where they currently were, nothing stood out to him.
"What are you looking for?" Sanji asked.
"Hmm…" Luffy blinked a few times, forcing himself to stay conscious as he tried to think. "There's a ropeway."
"A ropeway?" Dalton sighed. "I'm sorry but there are none anymore."
"There is. Kureha can't just ride a sleigh on air."
'Says the guy who can literally walk on air,' went through the Strawhats' minds but they understood what he was trying to say. Dalton was a bit befuddled as he hadn't ever considered that. Kureha was considered a crazy witch so he had just chalked it up to one of her eccentricities, but what Luffy said made sense to him.
"So, picture it," Luffy continued, pointing at the mountain. "There's a rope connecting the mountaintop to somewhere down here… Usopp, can you see anything?"
"Me?!"
"You have the best eyes."
"Uhh, O-Of course! Leave it to me!" Usopp puffed his chest out proudly and quickly put on his goggles. Silence prevailed as everyone waited for him to say anything, but Usopp just looked towards the mountaintop for a few awkward seconds before shaking his head and putting his head down in shame. "S-sorry…"
"Maybe it's too thin then," Luffy sighed, massaging his forehead as he tried to remember the name.
Dammit! Usopp saw his pitiful state and felt like a failure for not being able to respond to his captain's trust in him. Before his self-deprecating thoughts could occupy his mind, he hastily forced himself to think of any solutions to the problem at hand.
"Wait!" He perked up only a second later. "If it isn't visible, it just means we're too far. You said people have spotted Kureha in the sky, right?" He addressed the last part to Dalton, who nodded in response. "Where exactly? If we get close enough to where people saw her, I'm sure I can spot the rope then!"
"We can do one better," Sanji added thoughtfully. "If we know where she was in the sky, and more importantly which direction she was facing and how much she was tilting, we can just extend that vector to get from where to where the rope stretches to."
"Oh! Yes, yes!" Usopp agreed enthusiastically.
"I see. That's a sound theory," Dalton agreed too and turned to the rest of the townspeople. "This is a matter of life or death, so anyone who has
actually seen her, please come forward."
"I have!" Three people stepped up.
"It was a full moon night, so I saw her clearly in relation to the moon. She was right there," One of them said pointing in the distance and tracing a finger on Kureha's supposed position, "about 2000 meters high and the sleigh was facing that direction. I only saw her for about twenty seconds before I lost sight of her, but she moved from there to there."
"We need a cartographer!" Dalton called out and someone stepped up to chart the points on the map.
The other two also told them where exactly they had seen her and even though they had spotted her on different nights and at different heights, her position was relatively in the same path, which gave credence to the theory that there was, in fact, a ropeway she was using.
They all discussed with the cartographer plotting all the points and vectors on the map before they finally had the place.
"It should be in this general region," the cartographer said circling a small area over the map. "Somewhere around Gyasta."
"That's a wide area to search though," Dalton sighed.
"Just get us near there," Zoro cut in. "Usopp just needs to be close enough so that he can see the rope. Once he spots it, we'll just follow it."
"Yes!" Usopp nodded with determination.
Dalton nodded, telling his men to get them a sleigh as they got ready to leave.
"What if there's no ropeway?" Sanji voiced out the worst-case scenario.
"If it's not there," Zoro said, looking up at the mountain. "Then I'll just carry them up."
"Are you crazy?!" Sanji, Usopp, Dalton, and a few other civilians shrieked. "A fall from that hei-"
"I don't care!" Zoro hissed cutting down any and all arguments. "We would have no other choice."
Sanji gritted his teeth in irritation but knew that he was right. "There's no way I'm letting you carry the ladies up there! I'll be carrying them up!"
"Whatever," Zoro rolled his eyes. "Luffy said there's a ropeway, so it's most probably there. Let's hurry."
"C'mon," Zoro made Luffy climb on his back again and Luffy didn't say anything. Once they had run with the idea, he had tuned them out, knowing they would be able to figure the rest out on their own. Instead, the idiot had begun training his Haki again.
—)(—
The next thing Luffy knew, he was in the back of a sleigh and Usopp was shouting, "I see it! I see it! I can see the rope!"
"Really? I don't see anything," Sanji said skeptically.
"Yes! It's painted white so it's hard to spot it!"
"Lead the way then," Dalton said while Luffy continued training… but soon lost consciousness.
—)(—
"I can't believe this was here all along…" Luffy heard Dalton say as he woke up, feeling like he had blackouted again.
"Mmm…"
"You okay, Luffy? You just had another seizure."
"Hm."
"Hang in there for a bit longer, we've found the ropeway."
"
I found it!"
"Yeah yeah, Usopp found it. There's no lift though, so we'll just carry you all up."
"I'll ask some people to attach one," Dalton said with worry laced in his voice. "Can't you please wait for an hour or two?"
"No, we can climb that in half an hour so we'll only be wasting time by waiting here. We're going." Zoro announced with finality and Dalton gave up on changing their minds.
"I can easily climb up that rope in twenty minutes, Mosshead!"
"Oh yeah? Then I can do it in ten, you crap-cook!"
"I can do it in one then!"
"I can do it in thirty seconds!"
"Just fucking stop, will you?!" Usopp cried exasperatedly as he made sure their sick crewmates were all tied securely and comfortably to the two arguing idiots. "Alright, they're secure. Go!"
Meanwhile, Luffy wondered if he would see Chopper when he opened his eyes next before going back to focusing on maintaining a coat of Haki over his body again.
Unfortunately, things were never going to be that simple.
—)(—
The next time he paid attention to his surroundings, Luffy found himself dangling high in the sky, hugging Zoro's leg. He confusedly wondered why he was hugging his leg before realizing that ropes were tied all around him, holding him in place on his leg. He looked up to see that Vivi was tied to Zoro's back and just behind them, Sanji was there with Nami tied to his back.
He imagined that the rope would be thick enough to walk on but it didn't look like that was the case as both of them were hanging off of the rope and slowly making their way up using their hands. But the rope wasn't thin enough for them to completely wrap their fingers around it either, so it was more of a thick pole rather than a rope, which made it difficult to grip on to, but the two were managing just fine.
They were definitely inside a snowstorm as there were fierce icy winds blowing in their faces and fog and mist covered their path making it hard for them to see anything farther than a few meters around them, but the conditions were leagues better than climbing a mountain, so he was content with their new path.
Luffy closed his eyes again as he resumed training his Haki… when he had another seizure, where his body violently convulsed.
Zoro only had one hand on the rope at that precise moment as he was reaching forwards and when Luffy unexpectedly jerked, he got slightly pushed backwards and downwards, which led to his balance going off, which further led to his hand sliding off the thick rope.
His eyes widened with dread at the mishap and he tried to reach for the rope with his other hand, but Luffy's continued and violent shaking further messed with his balance, and gravity had pulled him down just enough that he missed grabbing it by a few centimetres.
NO!! Behind him, Sanji watched with a horrified expression as Zoro's hands weren't able to grab the rope. He didn't have time to think and the distance between them was a few feet too much for him to catch him, so he instantly swung himself forward extending his left leg as far as possible.
His leg reached the swordsman in the nick of time and Zoro had the sense to look back for help. Thus, he was barely able to see and grab onto his leg.
Once Sanji felt a hand grabbing his leg, he had to worry about grabbing the rope again. He had obviously fallen a bit too as he had let go of the rope when he swung himself and there was a distance of about two feet from the rope even with his hands extended out.
It's now or never! Sanji grit his teeth as he brought his right leg up…focused… and kicked down with everything he had.
The first time Sanji had seen Luffy performing airwalk was back at the Baratie when he had carried Moodie up in the air, immediately followed by Nami. Lots of customers at the restaurant had also witnessed the spectacle and Luffy had told them all that it was his devil fruit ability.
Sanji had erupted in jealousy then, his desire for whatever devil fruit he had second only to the Clear-Clear fruit. He cursed the world for being unfair and also cursed Luffy as he got to live out a fantasy every man (in his mind) dreamed of - Flying in the air while carrying a beautiful girl, bridal-style!
Luffy had told him later in the day that it wasn't a devil fruit ability but something anyone could do if they trained hard enough, and ever since then, he had become obsessed with learning it.
This was the main reason he hadn't learned Soru yet. He just concentrated solely on learning airwalk first. While Sorufocused on kicking multiple times in the blink of an eye, airwalk was straight up just kicking hard enough to walk on air, so the two techniques had different mechanics involved.
Sanji had made Luffy perform it repeatedly while he analyzed it and learned all the specific muscles that would need to be strengthened in order to perform it. He had started training it from his very first day on the Merry by basically kicking Luffy repeatedly while the latter tanked it.
The two had spent a lot of time together - even entire nights, where Luffy used Iron Body or Armament and stood in place while Sanji kicked him over and over again for more than a thousand times an hour for hours and hours on end, where he honestly felt like he was kicking an iron wall.
He had had multiple days where he had to limp because his legs hurt terribly and yet, he pushed through, his dream of wanting to take his lovely ladies flying trumping all other thoughts.
Sanji hadn't fully achieved it yet but had felt like he was close to a breakthrough. And in this moment of desperation where Luffy, Nami, and Vivi's lives quite literally hung in the balance, he focused everything he had on the kick.
And he jumped on air.
Crack!
Something cracked in his leg too but more importantly, he covered the two feet easily with that single kick and managed to grab the rope.
"Gakh! Hah…Haha…" he laughed while also groaning and wincing in pain. He had definitely broken a bone or two in his leg but he felt ecstatic at having performed it once at least. Luffy could stay in the air for hours if he wanted to, so he still had a very long way to go but he was happy.
WITH MORE TIME, I TOO CAN FLY IN THE SKY WITH NAMI-SWANAND VIVI-CHWAN!
Alas, it was not the time to celebrate though as Luffy was still convulsing, making Zoro shake violently too, so he put his arms around the rope tightly to keep them stable.
"Is he okay?!" Sanji yelled, looking down.
"He's having a seizure again!"
"We can't go up like this! We have to wait for him to stop!"
"I know!"
Ten seconds passed and Luffy's body finally stopped jerking and he came back to his senses, feeling something wrong as he panted hard and wildly looked around to figure out what was happening.
"Okay, good! He stopped. Climb up, Mosshead!"
Still on the rope… Zoro is climbing up Sanji? I stopped? Oh no, did I have a seizure while on the rope? Oh no! Did I almost make us fall?! Luffy looked horrified as he came to the correct conclusions. Zoro and Sanji would be fine but Nami and Vivi couldn't handle a fall here, especially in their current condition. And he was apparently having repeated seizures.
If I have another one and they fall-
Luffy immediately forced his body to move and hastily started squeezing out of the binds that held him in place on Zoro.
"Wh-Luffy?! Stop!"
"What are you doing?! Luffy, st-"
"Get those two up and then come back for me!" was all he said as he managed to get out of the binds and let go. He tried to stretch his arms to see if could grab the rope and make the climb himself, but he was too tired, and so, he fell.
"
LUFFY!" / "YOU DAMN
IDIOT!"
It had happened so fast that all the two could do was helplessly watch as Luffy disappeared into the fog below.
"Dammit! Dammit!" Zoro cursed, wanting to let go and go after him but knew that Vivi wouldn't be able to handle the fall. He thought only for a second more before quickly climbing the rest of the way over Sanji and then snaked one hand around the rope while his other hand began to untie Vivi.
"You take Vivi. I'll go aft-"
"No, you take Nami-san. I'll go after him."
"This isn't the time to argue! Just ta-"
"Zoro," Sanji calmly said, using his actual name for once, causing the swordsman to shut his mouth and actually look at him. "After finding him, we have to go all the way back to where we found the base of the ropeway and then climb this again. And when it comes to following directions, you're the last person for the job. So, I'll go."
"I won't ge-"
"Now's not the time to entertain your delusion," Sanji cut him off, and Zoro stayed silent, giving him an irritated look. They spent a few moments trying to figure out how exactly to transfer Nami before Sanji spoke up. "Keep your feet straight, I'm gonna stand on them."
Zoro silently complied. The cook cautiously let go of the rope and balanced himself on Zoro's feet and only after making sure they were secure did he start carefully untying Nami from his back.
"Why the hell are you so… composed?" Zoro grunted in annoyance.
"Do you think that killed him or something?" Sanji scoffed.
"Of course not… but… he didn't have to let go… We could've managed."
"Yeah, but I don't think he's thinking straight. He saw that he almost made us fall and decided to let go to keep the ladies safe."
Zoro let out a deep sigh, agreeing with him.
Luffy had been acting really strange since the previous night. They had thought that he was sleeping by sitting against the wall at the back of the ship but whenever they silently peeked to see if he was doing alright, they could see that he was actually awake and steaming. His eyes were closed but he was sitting ramrod straight, not even leaning against the wall, and when they did try to talk to him to make him stop, he just hummed and ignored them. They had even tried to force him to lie down by pushing him down but he had just gotten right back up after a few seconds.
The doctors told them that the poison was probably affecting his mind as he kept getting headaches, so that was probably it.
Zoro didn't give it much thought, chalking it up to the poison, and kept his feet stable so that Sanji could safely transfer Nami over… But he noticed a small smile on the cook's face.
"I swear to god, ero-cook. If you're copping a feel or something…"
"What…? Oh, fuck you."
"The hell are you creepily smiling for then?"
"… Just thinking that I followed the right person as my captain, that's all," Sanji said softly.
"…Because he chose to save the
ladies first?"
"Yes," Sanji grinned and Zoro rolled his eyes at him. "…We-Our crew hasn't ever
truly been in danger, you know," the cook continued. "The kind of danger where loyalties are tested, lives are on the line… Until this incident, at least."
Zoro instantly understood what he was getting at. Pirates were backstabbing scoundrels, always looking out for themselves above all else. Pretty much every pirate captain he knew would sacrifice their crew without a second thought, putting their own survival far ahead of anyone else's.
Luffy had stormed into his life like a battering ram, shattering every preconceived notion he had ever had about pirates, and giving a whole new meaning to what a pirate truly is.
But a person's true character only came out in dire situations. And with Luffy's strength, they had never really seen him struggle. The whole of East Blue had been a breeze, he was singing and having fun when they were stuck in the insane Grand Line weather, and had only gotten hurt with the Giants, so they hadn't really seen what kind of person Luffy— or, each other, for that matter—would be in dire situations.
At least until just now where he had proven himself again. They had had faith in their captain, and now they could say with absolute certainty that their faith wasn't misplaced.
It wasn't just Luffy either, as in their current situation where three of their crewmates were on the brink of death and they had no certainty about whether a cure even existed or if they would even survive the night, the rest of the crews' loyalties were also truly tested.
"Okay, I get it," Zoro sighed. "Will you hurry it up already?"
"Yeah yeah, making sure Nami-san is securely tied… By the way, do you know which way 'up' is? Please don't mess up such a simple direction. When you reach the summit, there will be a huge castle. Just go to the front door, okay?" Sanjistarted giving directions to him like he was a toddler out on his first excursion. "Wait, do you know what a front door is? It'll be a big door, so you should be able to see it, okay?"
"I'll cut you."
"Heh, I'd like to see you try… number two."
"Huh?"
"Don't play dumb. I know you saw me do airwalk.
Now who's number two?"
Zoro rolled his eyes at him. "That's because I didn't even try to learn it, you stupid crap-cook!"
"Excuses, excuses," Sanji finally finished tying Nami securely to Zoro's front. It was an uncomfortable position with Nami's arms and legs snaking around Vivi but that was the best they could do."Okay, that should do it. Just go up… Up is that direction."
"Go before I seriously cut you in half."
"Whatever, number two," Sanji snickered as he stepped off of him.
Zoro sighed watching him disappear into the fog below. He then bit his thumb hard enough to make himself bleed and wiped the blood on the rope to mark the place before he resumed going up as fast as he could.
—)(—
Luffy found himself buried under a blanket of snow.
Ugh… things are never gonna be that easy huh… Well, whatever. More time for me to train until they come to get me.
He activated a low Gear 2 to keep himself warm as he climbed out of the hole he had created. As soon as he was out, he tried to make out his surroundings but suddenly sensed an attack coming at him from behind. Unfortunately, even though he sensed it, his body was too slow to react and before he could duck, something hard hit his head, making him flop right back into the snow.
The next thing he knew, he was being moved. He forced his eyes open and could only see the hazy outline of a huge white creature carrying him.
A Yeti…? Bunny ears…? Oh, it's a Lapin… Is it helping me…? He wondered semi-consciously as his eyes closed.
A sudden stinging pain made Luffy's eyes shoot wide open and he found himself in the arms of a Lapin… and it was biting into his abdomen.
Oh, I'm its food, he concluded when its teeth became dyed red with his blood.
He instantly unleashed Conqueror's before the animal could rip his flesh out and the Lapin fell on its back unconscious, releasing him in the process, and he rolled onto the snow.
Luffy quickly got onto his knees while clutching his bleeding abdomen and tried to look around, his mind much clearer because of the sudden rush of adrenaline. There was a frozen lake just beside him, while the rest of his surroundings were populated with snow and trees. There were also a dozen Lapins all around him, growling at him in alarm.
"Right. I fell… and now I'm in a feeding ground," he said seeing many animal carcasses strewn around before his eyes fell on the Lapin that had tried to eat him. It was lying on its back and the blood-red coating its teeth stood out like a sore thumb in the white snowy landscape.
Shit! It's gonna ingest my blood! His eyes widened and he quickly moved towards it. He could hear the other Lapins growl viciously in response, but he didn't pay them any attention as he mustered up strength to flip the downed Lapin on its stomach using just one arm. He then pushed its face into the snow and began shoveling some snow into its mouth.
"GRRRAAW!" Another Lapin attacked him at the moment and he wasn't able to move fast enough to evade it. As a result, he got punted away and landed a few feet away from the downed Lapin while a few others came forward and stood protectively in front of it.
Luffy groaned as he sat back up and saw that a Lapin with a scar across an eye was leading the attack and a number of other Lapins had also surrounded him. A baby lapin was riding on the shoulder of the one with a scar and they were all viciously baring their teeth at him.
"I'm poisoned," he said, hoping they would understand. "My blood is too, so if you don't want your friend there to die, clean its mouth."
Most Lapins didn't react but a few, including the one with the scar, perked their ears up in alarm.
"Good. You understand me," Luffy nodded and turning his head to the right where a group of three Lapins were, unleashed Conqueror's to make them faint before looking back at the one with the scar, who looked shocked. He then looked to the left, again made a few more Lapins faint and looked back at the one with the scar, who was backing away in fear.
"I can take you all out in a second if I want to. I have no reason to lie," Luffy said groggily as the adrenaline seemed to be wearing off and he felt energy leaving his body. "Hurry and rinse its mouth," he said before falling on his back.
The Lapin with the scar gulped and stared at him for a couple more seconds before finally making its mind up and turned back to the poisoned Lapin and began cleaning its mouth with snow.
Luffy just nodded with relief, not really wanting to spread the toxin around, lest more people fall victim to it. He reached for his phone but found that his pocket was empty.
"Shit, it's with Zoro still," he sighed as he forced himself to sit up again and looked around. He didn't even know how long it had been since the Lapin picked him up so there was no telling how far he was from where he fell. When Sanji or Zoro came to look for him, they would be looking in the wrong location.
Luffy spotted the Drum Rockies in the distance and shakily got on his legs before he slowly began walking towards it. A grunt from a Lapin stopped him and he turned back to see the one with the scar looking at him in weariness.
It pointed at the ones he had knocked out with Conqueror's.
"Are they going to be okay?"
Luffy nodded, not even registering that he was hearing the Lapin. "Yeah, don't worry. They'll wake up soon."
The Lapin nodded with a look of relief.
"Sorry I'm intruding on your turf and all. I'll leave soon… Oh, I think that one did ingest a tiny amount of my blood. Not sure if that's enough to cause anything to it, but I think it's better if you take it to a doctor. I know you don't trust humans but the old lady that lives in the castle at the top of the mountain can be trusted."
The Lapin hesitantly nodded, not saying anything, and Luffy began walking towards the mountain after giving it a wave.
——][———][———][——
Tony Tony Chopper was just about to head down to Gyasta with Doctorine to find and treat anyone sick when he picked up a few new scents. He informed Doctorine and thus the two were there at the ropeway station when a green-haired human with two more humans tied to him reached the summit.
The green-haired human had quickly confirmed her identity and asked her to treat the other two, who had apparently gotten the Five-Day disease from a Kestia bite, which was a disease he thought had gone extinct a hundred years ago.
He studied the rashes on the two's necks along with Doctorine and confirmed that it, in fact, was from a Kestia bite.
"How did you know what it was?" Doctorine asked curiously.
"Those 20 doctors diagnosed it."
"Wait, what? The Isshi-20? They're back? Is Wapol back?"
Chopper tensed up and tried to sniff out Wapol's scent anywhere near them but thankfully, he didn't pick up on any.
"Later," the human waved her questions off. "They told us that they couldn't cure it and you're the only one who could… Today is the third day. Can you cure it?"
His voice was even but Chopper didn't miss the underlying desperation in it.
"Kak kak kak kak! Lucky for you, you came to one of the only people who
can cure it!" Doctorine laughed and the human's posture relaxed, like he had had a mountain lifted off of him. "Come along," she said walking towards the castle. "I'll start their treatment while you tell me where and how you met the Isshi-20."
While the two unconscious humans were made to lay in beds, the human explained in simple and blunt terms about how they had run into another pirate ship on the sea which had turned out to be Wapol.
They're pirates! Chopper grew excited.
"So you didn't kill Wapol?"
"No, he was just knocked out," the human said, not elaborating how exactly that had happened.
"That spoiled bastard is as resilient as a cockroach. He'll probably be back one day," she sighed. "Anyway, Chopper, do you know how to treat this?"
Chopper nodded and only then did the green-haired human seem to notice him. He was in his Walk point, which was a form he often used in front of others so as to not alarm them, so the human's eyes just lingered on him for a second, his hat mostly, before losing interest and looking back at the old doctor.
"We have another patient. He was poisoned," the human continued as he took out a file from inside his coat. "Those doctors weren't able to cure him either… I don't know much but they said it's some new type of poison. All the blood work and tests they ran are in here. They told me to give it to you."
Doctorine read it closely for a few moments before her eyes widened. "A phytotoxin huh? This is interesting. He's still alive? Where is he?"
"He," the human sighed in frustration, "fell when we were climbing up. He'll be here soon though."
"You dropped him?" She asked incredulously while Chopper almost yelled,
'He fell?!'
"Kinda…" The human let out another sigh of frustration as he took out a small black rectangular slab and after tapping on it for a few seconds, a voice started coming out of it.
"
Did you find the doctor?"
"Yeah. They're gonna be okay."
"
Oh thank god!"
"Is that a transponder snail?" Doctorine asked, curiously looking at the device.
"Something like that," the human said before speaking into the device again. "How's Luffy?"
"
Uhh about that…" the voice at the other end sounded hesitant. "
I haven't found him yet."
"What?!"
"
I saw some non-human tracks walking away from where he fell. Probably one of the animals here picked him up and took him somewhere. I'm tracking it down now."
"Shit!" The human rubbed his eyes in irritation.
"Describe the tracks," Doctorine spoke up and the voice at the other end did.
Oh no…
"Sounds like a Lapin," she sighed. "They're huge carnivorous rabbit-like creatures that live here. They're very territorial and hostile. I'm sorry but if a Lapin took him away, I don't think your friend will make it."
"No way." / "
Nah."
Both the human and the one on the call responded so calmly that it left Chopper a bit confused. It wasn't a denial out of fear or desperation— Chopper had seen plenty of that in people who were told that their loved ones were incurable— but rather, the idea that their friend was killed was something that just seemed impossible to them.
"I'll come down to search too," the human said into the device, before looking back up at Doctorine. "We'll get him here soon, so please get ready to treat him. Please take care of these two too." He finished with a deep bow and once she nodded, ran out.
"That confident he's alive eh?" Doctorine grinned before glancing at Chopper. "Go with him and find his friend. If he's alive, great. If not, there's a small chance that the Lapin that eats him might get poisoned and die, and anything that eats it might get poisoned, and so on. We need to quarantine and find out how potent this toxin is."
"Oh! I didn't even think of that!" Chopper nodded vigorously thinking that Doctorine was amazing. He felt anxious being told to tag along with a human but if what was in the reports was true, that toxin needed to be contained.
Quickly fetching his medical bag, and also suppressing his anxious feelings, Chopper ran out of the castle, hoping to catch up to the human… but strangely, he was running back towards him.
The human saw him and clicked his tongue. "Where the hell did that damn ropeway move to?"
"Oi brat, take my reindeer with you!" Kureha yelled from inside the castle and the man stared at him.
"This thing's a reindeer?" he asked with a tilt of his head and Chopper slightly bristled. "You can understand me?"
Chopper nodded. As long as he didn't talk and was in his Walk point, most humans usually didn't get scared of him.
"Okay. Where did you move the ropeway to?"
Chopper's brows furrowed as he
tried to understand the question while the human just kept looking around and mumbling, "Stupid ropeways are being moved too."
It's right there though… maybe it's a human thing I don't understand yet? Chopper blamed his own naïveté and just pointed at the station that was clearly visible from where they were.
"Ah, there it is!" The human said as he ran ahead of him and without warning, jumped off. Using one of his sheathed swords—
Why does he have three?—as a hook, he began sliding down the rope.
Wait for me!
—)(—
For the first time in his life, Chopper looked at someone and thought, "This person is a monster!"
And that person was the green-haired human.
The first of many instances that made him think that was when the human was still sliding down the rope and he was running behind him, struggling to keep up with him.
When he reached a certain red mark on the rope about two-thirds of the way down, which Chopper realized was blood, he had just put his right arm completely around the rope to stop himself. The speed of descent was insanely high as he was sliding down and thus, when he put an arm around the rope, the friction caused the entire length of his arm to burn and there was a trail of blood over the rope as he came to a stop.
Chopper had seen the spectacle from afar as he was lagging behind and had screamed in horror, thinking he was crazy. He ran faster to catch up to check up on him but before he even caught up to the human, he just let go of the rope.
"AHHHH WAIT! NO!" Chopper gasped and screamed as he arrived where he was but the human had already disappeared into the fog below.
"What do I do?! What do I do?!" He panicked and debated only for a couple of seconds before he realized that the human would have surely gotten injured from the fall.
"Rumble-" Without wasting any time, he jumped off the rope too while fishing out a rumble ball from his medical bag and bit into it. "-Guard Point!" His fur grew out all over his body at a shocking rate and soon, he looked like a huge ball of fur.
He fell a long way down, the freezing winds not affecting him much because of his thick fur, and braced himself for the impact. Thankfully, a tree broke his fall and he landed in the snow after crashing through a few rows of leaves and branches, his overgrown thick fur negating most of the damage and leaving him with only minor bruises. He didn't waste any time as he quickly scanned and sniffed the area to find the human. A thick stench of blood was permeating nearby so he immediately ran to the place, thinking that the human had broken all his bones and was bleeding out… but he was left bewildered when he laid eyes upon him.
"Ah dammit, there was a tree…" The human dusted some snow off of himself and stood up, checking his own body. "Just my luck. Should've landed in the snow directly and nothing would have happened."
No, you stupid human! This is hard snow! The tree broke the fall so that's a good thing! Chopper almost yelled as he transformed back into his walk point and went up to him, studying his body for injuries.
He definitely had more than two broken ribs, had multiple bruises, one of his legs seemed to be fractured, his right hand was broken, he had friction burns on the same arm… but that was it. Not that those weren't heavy injuries but given that he had fallen from so high up, he had gotten off too lightly. There were also two deep gashes in the snow, like someone had cut into the snow, and Chopper didn't understand what could have caused it.
"Wait, you jumped down too?" The human was surprised when he noticed him and for the first time, actually took a good look at him, a glint of respect in his eyes. "Good strong animal."
Chopper swayed from side to side but controlled himself from saying anything. The human gave him a weird look after the display but quickly shook his head and looked around.
"Alright, need to find Luffy… which direction to go?"
Chopper shook his head, but the man just said, "Need to find Luffy first" and started going in a random direction. The doctor side of him wanted to knock him out and treat all his injuries right that instant but knew that finding this Luffy person first was important as he was in danger.
Finding two distinct scents, he bit the lower end of the human's pants and pulled on it, making him almost trip.
"What?!" He growled irritably but paused when Chopper pointed in a different direction while sniffing the air.
"You're able to track his scent?" he asked surprised, and Chopper nodded.
"Oh. Great, lead the way then."
And so, the two began trudging through the snow, the human sticking
very close to Chopper for some reason. The doctor kept taking worried glances at him, thinking he might fall over anytime soon because of his injuries, but the human held up extremely well given his condition. Not even wincing or groaning in pain as they steadily walked through the snow at a great pace. And before long, they found a blond human.
"H-How?!" The new human stuttered in shock.
"Ah, this idiot? I want you to track down Luffy, not him," he complained while the blond human alternated his gaze between the two before sighing in relief and nodding in understanding.
"Wow, I was shocked for a second there thinking you had actually tracked me or something. But you're just using a sniffer dog huh?"
I'M A REINDEER! NOT A DOG! Chopper growled at him, but the two humans had started arguing with each other seemingly forgetting about him.
The new human was also injured - both his legs seemed to have a fracture as he was heavily limping, he had a couple of broken ribs and various bruises and scratches all around his body, and Chopper realized that he too had recklessly fallen from high up. Again, he should've been unable to walk given his condition, but he had managed to track this Luffy person a long way already.
He was the second person that day who Chopper looked at and thought, "He's a monster!"
"Why are you injured? Couldn't you airwalk to break the fall?"
"I could only jump twice more before my other leg broke. Need more training before I can take my lovely ladies flying!"
"Hah… Should've known you were learning it for some pervy reason like that."
"What was that, Mosshead?!"
"You heard me, Dartbrow!"
It was here that Chopper finally learned their names, but didn't understand much else of what they were talking about.
He wanted to give them medical treatment as soon as possible, so he again pulled on Mosshead's pants to get his attention before pointing ahead.
"The hell is this thing doing?" Dartbrow said irritably.
"Leading the way," Mosshead replied as Chopper walked ahead while the two followed while exchanging information - Just barely though as they were more focused on insulting one another.
Chopper thought they were part of the same crew but was that not the case? They were fighting too much that it left him unsettled. Or were pirate crews just like that? He had no idea.
He just focused on finding the last human so that they could all get treatment, and soon they arrived at a frozen lake where multiple carcasses of dead animals were strewn around.
"A feeding ground?" Dartbrow guessed before they began exploring the area.
Luffy was nowhere to be found though and there weren't any Lapins around either which baffled Chopper. He found a little blood that smelled like a human's and more tracks leading away from it.
He just walked away?! He couldn't believe it.
"Is that Luffy's blood?"
Chopper nodded as he continued following the scent with the other two following him closely.
—)(—
Luffy didn't know how long he had been walking. His mind was hazy and he was semi-conscious at best, so he wasn't really following the best path or even a proper path towards the mountain. He also completely lost sight of it when he walked into a blizzard.
He was in a fight with Mother Nature now. At some point, he had removed the coat that the others had put on him, and with just a thin vest, shorts and sandals, Luffy walked through the blizzard. Gear 2 was constantly active to keep him warm and avoid getting frostbitten while a coat of armament also shielded his body.
This is what a fight with Aokiji would be like, Luffy told himself as he began punching the air, shadowboxing an imaginary Admiral. It was slow at first, his fists moving at a snail's pace, and at one point, his body had refused to move and he simply stood in place for some time.
But bit by bit, his body began moving again, steaming and melting off the snow on him as he walked.
His fists began moving faster, his legs moved faster, and soon he was lightly jogging through the blizzard. In his mind, he was dodging slashes by ice swords, jumping and punching the tall Admiral in the face, using Gear 2 to escape the insane attack that was 'Ice Age'. In reality, he was punching down trees, uprooting and swinging them around, and when the icy cold winds chilled him to his bones, heat his body up with Gear 2.
From time to time, he felt his body shutting down and he froze and stayed standing still for a minute or two. His body begged for rest and his mind wanted to just fall into oblivion, but Luffy forced his body to move… and
somehow, his body began responding to him again and moved.
Luffy didn't realize how or even acknowledge that it was strange, and just continued on. He also didn't realize that controlling his Haki was getting much easier and his body parts were getting covered with a black metallic sheen.
It was only after the blizzard passed—
Or had he walked out of the blizzard?—and he no longer felt the fierce winds biting into his skin did he come back to his senses, remembered where he actually was, and what was happening to him.
He slapped his head a few times, trying to alleviate the throbbing pain, before spotting the mountain in the distance. His mind, for some reason, became a bit clearer as he resumed going towards the mountain.
That is until he heard sounds of battle and laughing.
He immediately followed the noise, only to find a herd of Lapins and four humans locked in combat. He recognized three of the four humans. Wapol, with his irritatingly loud laugh, was there, along with his two lackeys- the guy with the afroand then the sad jester. And lastly, there was a tall lanky man who was wearing a regal outfit including a purple cape whose head and pink hair resembled a mushroom.
"MUSHUSHUSHU!" The one Luffy didn't recognize haughtily laughed. "THAT'S IT, MY LITTLE BROTHER! TAKE CARE OF THESE INSIGNIFICANT RABBITS!"
"MAAAHAHAHA! YES, BRO-CHAN!" Wapol matched his laughter as he chewed out and spit out a lapin while Chess and Kuromarimo fought with a few others. It was a one-sided battle in favour of the humans.
Bro-chan?!
What the heck? Wapol has a brother? Luffy studied the supposed big brother closely.
"King Wapol! Lord Musshuru! It's the brat!" Chess suddenly yelled, and all eyes - humans and Lapins alike, turned towards Luffy.
Luffy lifted a shaky hand up and managed a grin. "Yo."
"GYAAAAHHHH!" Wapol screamed, backing away in fear before hastily turning to Chess. "Gas mask! Hurry! Give me the gas mask!"
"Yes, King Wapol!" Chess complied, passing a gas mask each to Wapol and Kuromarimo while also wearing one himself.
"So this is the guy who attacked us when I was sleeping?!" The big brother asked in anger and annoyance, not bothering to wear a mask.
"Yes, Bro-chan!" Wapol nodded. "He released some sort of fear and sleeping gas on us!"
Luffy lightly smiled, not bothering to correct the misunderstanding.
"Good, good, I get to have some revenge on the fool who dared to attack my little brother," he grinned before turning to Wapol. "And call me 'Big Brother' not 'Bro-chan'."
"Bro-chan?"
"Big brother."
"Bro-chan."
"Big brother!"
Luffy idly watched as the two seemingly argued while the Lapins took that time to retreat, dragging away any hurt ones.
"Looks like he's hurt, Lord Musshuru," Kuromarimo observed and everyone studied him closely, including Luffy himself, who looked down at himself.
The blood from the bite on his abdomen had long since frozen over, he had patches of white all over his body, half his body seemed frozen, and honestly, he looked like he was on the verge of death.
"Hoh? He's also definitely poisoned. MUSHUSHUSHU!"
"MAAHAHAHA! That's what you get for daring to attack me, you peasant!"
"You look like you're already heading to the gates of hell but let us help you get there faster," Musshuru continued with a sadistic grin. "Chess, Kuromarimo, finish him off!"
"Yes, Lord Musshuru!" Both soldiers yelled as one aimed a bow while the other put on boxing gloves.
An arrow flew at him, aimed right at his forehead, and Luffy coated the body part with armament and didn't move.
The arrow broke on contact, much to the shock of the others present there.
"Is he wearing armour?! Keep attacking!" A short panicked scream later, more arrows flew at him.
Luffy closed his eyes, using Observation to sense where it would hit him and then used armament to protect the region. Sounds of arrows breaking and cursing from the enemies filled his ears, but he also felt like some projectiles were clinging to him. He opened his eyes to see what it was and was dumbfounded.
Hairballs?
A few black hairballs were sticking to him all over his body.
"Ahaha! Those are my Static cling marimo attack!" Kuromarimo boasted while Luffy tried to remove them but they got stuck to his hand instead. "And now, our special attack-"
"Fire arrow!" Chess continued, and lit up an arrowhead before launching it at Luffy. The arrow hit its mark and broke as expected but the fire ignited the hairballs, instantly setting him on fire.
Luffy didn't panic and just fell face-first into the snow, rolled around until the fire was out, and got back up again, looking thoroughly unimpressed.
"Gah! Bastard!"
"I'm aiming at his exposed skin! How are the arrows
breaking?!" Chess yelled in confusion and rage as they kept up the attacks.
Luffy was about to run at them to fight in close quarters when he felt his body shutting down again.
Just knock them out with Conqueror's and then please sleep! The sane and logical part of his brain was screaming at him but Luffy didn't listen to it.
Akainu's fist coming at him, Ace intercepting it, a hole through his chest…
If I can't handle just these four weaklings, what will I do on that battlefield?!
That shut down all the protests that his body's condition was making him think and he forced his body to move again.
MOOVEE! A surge of adrenaline flooded his veins and he took one step forward. Breathing became slightly easier, the pain wracking his body dulled, the pounding in his head became a little bearable, his thoughts sharpened, and he took another step forward.
He sensed another arrow slicing through the air towards him and he tilted his head, letting it whip past. With renewed strength, he began running, each step easier than the last. Panicked voices and shouts filled the air and more projectiles came at him—some he dodged, some he tanked—but he kept running.
It wasn't something Luffy actively tried to learn. But his constant training where he purposefully put himself in a weakened state only to force himself to keep going had had the unintended effect of him being able to control his own adrenaline production.
Basically, Luffy had learned a biofeedback technique.
One where he could intentionally make his body continuously produce adrenaline, well above the limits that the body put on itself.
He only realized it later in hindsight though, but for now, he rushed at Wapol.
"GYAAAHHH! WAIT WAIT!" Wapol frantically screamed when Musshuru stepped up in front of him.
"Don't worry, little brother. I'll take care of h-"
Before he could even finish the sentence, Luffy accelerated and reached him. Fist connected to gut and only a moment later, Musshuru found himself flying in the air before crashing into a tree.
Luffy didn't let up and went for Wapol next. He punched him in the jaw, grabbed him by his jacket before he went flying back, and then kicked him right under the chin, launching him high up in the air. Before Wapol fell back to the ground, he reached for and grabbed Chess by the throat and smashed him into the ground. Luffy then kicked at Kuromarimo's ankle, which made him fall to his knees, before grabbing his head and kneeing him right in the face.
Luffy sighed in disappointment as he stood over three downed and groaning men, wishing there was an army of people he could fight at that moment.
"You bastard!"
Luffy ducked under a punch and saw that Musshuru had come rushing back, blood flowing from his mouth, and a wide angry scowl on his face.
He can use Soru? Luffy was pleasantly surprised as the mushroom-head man seemed to be a capable fighter.
"You can't keep up with my speed!" The man boasted but his Soru was way too slow. Barring Kuro who hadn't fully mastered it, this guy was the first person he had actually seen using Soru, so Luffy couldn't tell if this was the standard or not. One thing he did know was that his own Soru was much much faster.
Luffy, after concluding that Musshuru wasn't going to give him a challenge, accelerated to catch him and proceeded to deliver a series of straight punches right into his gut, knocking the wind out of him.
Luffy sighed as Musshuru collapsed in front of him. Wapol's jaws enclosed on him next but he sensed it coming from a mile away and simply stepped back, letting him chomp on empty air.
"Do you know who you're messing with? I am Wapol, the Ki-" he began, spit and blood spilling from his mouth, but Luffy, not at all interested in hearing him speak, cut him off with a kick right under his chin again.
Luffy looked back at the others and was surprised to find all three standing up again. The jester and the boxer were cowering in fear though, not at all ready to fight him, but the mushroom-head was angrily glaring at him.
"You bastard! This is the last time you'll hurt my little brother!" He lunged at him with a palm thrust and Luffy fell on his back and raised his legs to kick him far away.
Two things happened at the same time then. Something purple formed on his palm and exploded right above Luffy's face. And Luffy's feet met Musshuru's stomach and he got flung high up in the air.
The purple explosion turned out to be a cloud of purple particles.
Wha-?! Luffy involuntarily inhaled those particles which triggered a violent fit of coughing.
The rubber captain writhed on the ground, having a hard time even to breath as his coughing fit didn't stop. He tried to shovel snow into his mouth to try to cleanse whatever it was that had entered his system but it had also entered his lungs, so it was pointless.
"MAAAHAHAHAHA! That's Bro-chan's shroom-shroom powers!"
"Mushsushushu!" Musshuru came limping back from where he was flung, wiping the blood from his mouth. "I've eaten the Shroom-Shroom fruit. You may be strong but you're nothing in front of my poisonous shroom spores!"
Poisonous spores? Luffy heard their words and cursed himself for getting too arrogant.
His lungs felt like they were on fire, his vision became tinged with red, his mouth dried up, his skin turned into an unhealthy shade of purple, and his body became weaker and weaker while he wheezed, trying to get his breathing back in control.
He soon felt a few kicks in his stomach, courtesy of the big brother who was taking out his frustration on him, and all Luffy could do was take it as he kept coughing and wheezing.
"Stupid peasant! I'm the King of this place! How dare you even think of attacking me?! Kick him more, Bro-chan! Kill him!" Wapol kept encouraging Musshuru as the latter kept stomping on Luffy. He wanted to join too but the cowardly king didn't want to come in contact with his brother's poisonous spores.
"Gah, this stupid bastard!" Musshuru finally let up when Luffy started coughing up blood. He rubbed his chin, which was still throbbing in pain courtesy of Luffy's earlier attack, and he kicked him one last time while whining like a kid. "You put me in a bad mood!"
"Don't worry, Bro-chan!" Wapol patted his brother's shoulder assuredly. "Let's go to the castle and drop the Fatal Bomb! It'll be a fun sight and you're mood will improve!"
"You're right!" Musshuru nodded excitedly. "I can't wait! Let's go!"
The brothers, plus the two lackeys, left the writhing rubber man and went towards a couple of hippo-like creatures called the White Walkies.
"Should we launch it at night? Or daytime?" Musshuru excitedly talked. "Both are good! Hearing people's screams at night as they suddenly wake up, unable to breathe and find themselves dying with no explanation, or in the morning where they can see the bomb falling, but be able to do nothing as their doom approaches them! Yess! I can't wait!"
"W-wait…" Luffy spoke up, triggering another bout of coughing. He had no idea what the hell they were talking about. He quickly gulped in some blood to wet his throat and hoarsely wheezed out, "W-what's f-fatal bomb?"
"Maaahahahaha! Curious, eh? We'll be launching a huge ball of my Bro-chan's poisonous spores over the whole island!"
"Then we can watch as all the stupid and ungrateful citizens here writhe in agony just like you! Mushsushu! Don't worry! You'll long be dead by then so you at least don't have to watch!"
Luffy shook his head in disbelief. "Y-you stupid bastards…"
"Huuh?! Did you just call me a bastard, you bastard?!" Wapol raged before pointing at him. "Bro-chan! Torture him more!"
"Yes! Let's teach th-" Musshuru agreed as he stepped towards him.
"Assholes," Luffy cut him off and unleashed Conqueror's.
Wapol, the two lackeys, and the White Walkies all fell unconscious but surprisingly, Musshuru didn't. He did swagger and collapse to his knees though, trembling violently while staring at Luffy with unbridled fear.
Luffy sat cross-legged, still trying to get his lungs to function properly while taking in calm and deep breaths.
"Y-Y-you… what did you do?!" Musshuru screamed out. "Are you a devil fruit user too?! Is that how you release this fear gas?!"
Luffy ignored him as he stared at his surroundings.
His own erratic heartbeat thundered in his ears, his breathing was laboured, his vision was hazy and he saw everything through a red tint, he could taste iron on his tongue, he felt prickling cold stings from all over his body and he felt himself going numb…
At the same time, he felt the earth
breathing. He sensed creatures all around him and the emotions they were radiating. A wild hare was trying to burrow a nut it had found, completely uncaring of him. A snowy owl was curiously looking at him from atop a tree. A few Lapins were close by, too scared to approach. He felt Musshuru too, an intense wave of fear and dread emanating from him.
It was strange. The border of life and death. He had been in it plenty of times, especially during his early days of training in South Blue where he had constantly fought one ferocious beast after another. But he never tired of experiencing and thinking how strange it was. Paradoxically, it was in this state that Luffy felt the most alive. Or more accurately, he felt more
connected with himself.
He raised his right arm up and watched as a black metallic sheen spread over it. He marvelled at it as he moved and flexed his fingers, feeling the energy making him more stronger than ever before. He finally felt like he was using Hardening efficiently.
It was also much easier to control haki. Was it because he was in this life-and-death state or had he gotten better at controlling it? He didn't know, but he watched in glee as the black sheen covered other parts of his body according to his will.
"-YOU BRAT! STOP IGNORING ME!"
Luffy was sure he had gotten Hardening down perfectly now. He had asked Hancock about it and she had assured him that he would
just know when he had mastered it, and currently, he knew he had done it. Now that the basics were mastered, he just had to strengthen it, coat more body parts at the same time, increase the time… But that would all come with constant use.
"THAT'S IT! I AM MUSSHURU! HOW DARE YOU IGNORE ME, YOU PEASANT!"
After being happy for a few moments at his breakthrough, Luffy immediately began to think of the next steps. Emission, Internal destruction, Ryou…
The anger coming off of Musshuru finally overrode his fear, causing Luffy to stand up and get into a horse stance. He pumped his legs despite the sheer pain that shot through him at the action and activated gear 2.
There was another technique he had been dying to achieve ever since his fight with Hancock. But probably because his Haki or control wasn't strong enough, he hadn't been able to. But now that he had gotten stronger and better…
"TAKE THIS! SNOW SPORE!"
He thought of Ace as he willed armament to coat his fists, threw his arm back and let it stretch far back, and then launched it towards an enraged Musshuru.
"Red…"
—)(—
"THOSE STUPID RABBITS! I'LL ROAST THEM IF I GET MY HANDS ON THEM!"
"YOU JUST HAD TO KICK ONE OF THEM, YOU STUPID CRAP-COOK!"
"DON'T PUT THIS ON ME! HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THEY WOULD START A
FUCKING AVALANCHE?!"
"GAH! JUST RUN!"
Chopper ran with all his might, along with the arguing humans, as they tried to escape an avalanche, courtesy of the Lapins. They had run into a few of them a while ago and after kicking a couple of them away as they kept blocking their path, Chopper had heard a Lapin with a scar across an eye cry out in frustration that there were too many humans showing up in their territory. And soon, a group of Lapins gathered at the top of the slope and started an avalanche.
"HEY! IS THAT LUFFY?!" Sanji suddenly yelled pointing ahead of them.
Chopper followed his direction and saw the third monster of the day.
A man in just shorts and a torn vest, not at all dressed for the cold, was standing in a stance. Even from afar, he could tell he was badly wounded and his skin was an unhealthy shade of purple. Across from him, a pink-haired man in a cape was screaming in frustration.
"Yes! We found him!" Zoro cheered before face-palming. "Shit! We're bringing the avalanche right to him!"
"Why the hell isn't he running away? Does he not see the avalanche?!"
"Looks like he's locked in combat! Let's hurry!"
Chopper agreed as they all slightly changed course to go towards him. In the short distance they had to cover, they saw the man in the cape angrily bring his arms up and something purple formed in his palms.
"TAKE THIS! SNOW SPORE!" He yelled as a massive wave of a purple substance erupted from his palms, forming a gigantic cloud in front of him that got launched towards Luffy.
Luffy then threw an arm back and Chopper's jaw dropped when it stretched unnaturally long behind him. There also seemed to be steam coming off of him!
The long arm then snapped back like a rubber band and whizzed right past him, going right into the oncoming purple cloud as Luffy yelled something like "Hawk!"
The speed and force of his punch was so strong that the huge purple cloud got completely blown away. The man in the cape had a dumbfounded expression on his face as the stretchy arm came right at him and the fist landed straight on his nose, causing a shockwave to spread out. Chopper was sure he saw the man's head snap unnaturally backwards before he got flung a long way back, his body crashing through a few rows of trees and yet, he still kept going until he disappeared out of sight.
Chopper's shocked eyes were on the stretchy arm though as it snapped back to the human. If the threat of being buried in the avalanche wasn't a glaring issue, Chopper was sure he would have frozen right then due to awe and confusion.
As they got closer, the remnants of the blown-off purple cloud still floated in the air and Chopper realized what it was.
Poisonous mushroom spores!
And looking at Luffy's body, he had definitely inhaled some of it already.
"Damn, he looks like a freaking zombie," Sanji said when they got close enough to see him properly.
Chopper agreed and shuddered at the sight.
"Oi Luffy! Run!" Zoro yelled.
Luffy, who had been staring at his hand with dissatisfaction for some reason, finally looked up and squinted. His bloodshot eyes widened when he saw the massive amounts of snow cascading down on them.
"You guys brought an avalanche with you," Luffy wheezed as they got within an arm's distance.
"Yeah, sorry! Run for now!" Sanji said as they rushed past him thinking he would follow, but he stood rooted to the spot.
"Luffy!" Zoro stopped first and ran back. "You can't run? I'll carry you, c'mon!" He made a grab for Luffy but his captain walked ahead, right towards the avalanche that was dangerously close now.
"Luffy!" / "The hell do you think you're doing?!"
Luffy vaguely heard his crew's shouts over his own thundering heartbeat in his ears but he was more focused on the avalanche coming right at him.
Fiery magma fists, huge glaciers, light-speed laser attacks, city-size string bird cages, fists that could cause earthquakes… What's a stupid fucking avalanche in front of all that?! Luffy said to himself before planting his feet into the snow-covered ground. Just as the snow was about to hit him, he pumped his legs and arms again and steam started coming off of him.
"JET -" He puffed his chest out and launched both his hands at the snow. "-GATLING!"
Chopper couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Punching an avalanche? That was the most reckless, brainless, stupidest thing imaginable!
"Is he crazy?! Wait, shit, the poison! He's not thinking straight! Let's grab him a-" Sanji and even Zoro and Chopper had taken a step towards him but their legs froze.
Because against all common sense and logic, the megatons of cascading snow actually parted.
Chopper had to crouch and balance himself as fast blasts of wind blew in his face, courtesy of Luffy's fists. A parting point actually formed as any snow flowing down right at them met Luffy's fists and got blown back. He couldn't even see his fast moving arms but judging by the mini shockwaves that were being created, Luffy seemed like he punching the snow at least thirty times a second, each punch with enough intensity and speed to push back the cascading snow and change its path.
Avalanches were terrifying disasters. Chopper had personally seen a few of them and knew of their disastrous effects. They were dispassionate, merciless, and an uncaring force of nature that buried entire landscapes under them and snuffed out anything living.
And yet here was someone who was somehow standing in front of it like a mountain. Chopper knew it wasn't a good comparison considering avalanches occurred on mountains, but he couldn't help it. That's what Luffy looked like to him. A small human-sized mountain that was forcing an avalanche to bend around him.
A minute passed. Two minutes passed. Four minutes passed. And the shock still didn't wear off. He glanced at the other humans and they too were looking on in wide-eyed fascination and disbelief.
Instead of tiring and weakening, his punches only seemed to grow stronger and faster as the distance between Luffy and the parting point in the avalanche seemed to be widening, and Luffy's arms were stretching farther and farther.
"He's gonna get tired sooner or later!" Zoro yelled, bringing Chopper and Sanji out of their stupor. "We should get ready to grab him and run when that happens!"
Sanji and Chopper nodded with determination and kept a close eye on his movements but they needn't have bothered. Seven minutes in, Luffy was still going strong. But he seemed to have hit a limit as his hands slowed down enough that they were visible again.
Contrary to the awe the three were feeling, Luffy himself was dissatisfied. If it was his grandpa, he would have parted the snow all the way up to the top with a single punch and even disintegrated the mountain itself. Kaido would have done the same with a single swing of his club, and Shanks with his sword…
And here he was struggling to keep it at bay. And he was getting tired. Just when it felt like his body was giving up on him, thoughts of Sabaody and Marineford kept him going. He buried his legs further in the snow and his hands moved faster as a roar emerged from his lungs.
"GRAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Chopper covered his ears at the shout and the gusts of wind emerging from the attack almost made him close his eyes but he squinted and made sure to look on until the end. Even his scream seemed to be causing some sort of sonic shockwave, and Chopper couldn't figure out if it was an illusion or something that was really happening.
Just when Chopper thought nothing could top the spectacle, embers appeared on Luffy's blurring arms. Soon, lines of flames formed from Luffy to the avalanche, it being clear that his hands had somehow caught on fire. The fast-paced punching with fists that were on fire created a sort of illusion of a stream of fire emerging from Luffy, and almost created a circular wall of fire at the parting point
"What the fuck…?" Sanji muttered in disbelief as the fire illuminated their dark surroundings and Chopper was glad that he wasn't the only one in utter shock and confusion.
The wall of fire seemed alive, shifting and crackling as it seemingly held the cascading snow at bay. It melted the snow and a huge wave of water and steam was forming right in the middle. Not only that, Luffy's body was also radiating intense heat, melting the snow around him and under him which caused him to sink a little into the melted snow, but his arms never stopped.
Finally, after what seemed like enough time for Chopper and the others' common sense to utterly break, the cascading snow finally slowed. It slowly lost its deadly momentum, decreasing in intensity, and finally, Luffy's fists punched through a column of the cascading wall of snow.
And only then did the flames start to die down and his fists come to a stop. His hands came back to his sides and for a moment, everything was still. The reduced wall of snow trickled harmlessly, skirting around Luffy as it settled.
And then Luffy suddenly collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
"Luffy!" Zoro and Sanji sprinted and Chopper was also on their heels.
A small pond had actually formed under him and Luffy had fallen face-first into it. Zoro immediately grabbed and lifted his head out of the water before pulling him out of the pond. He coughed up some water which was dyed red with blood but he himself was unconscious.
"We need to get him to the castle fast," Sanji said, studying him closely. "C'mon, let's run."
Zoro nodded and was about to start running when a scream stopped him.
"Ahhh! He needs a doctor! He needs a doctor!"
Both men turned and saw a panicked small creature flailing its little…
hands? hooves? around as it seemingly moved its mouth and words came out.
"Wait, that's me!" Chopper gasped.
Zoro and Sanji stared at the little creature in confusion, noticing that it had the same hat that the reindeer with them previously had. The small creature then suddenly grew large, transforming into a beast which was taller than them, causing both men to step back in alarm.
Chopper, panicking at seeing all the wounds on Luffy, had reflexively transformed into Heavy point and reached for him but Zoro jumped back and brought a sword up.
"A monster?!" Sanji gasped and only then did Chopper realize what he had done. But he didn't linger on it for long as seeing Luffy's state was triggering all of his doctor senses.
"H-he needs help! Please! I'm a doctor! You have to let me treat him!" Chopper pleaded and even brought forward the bag on his back. "S-see! I have medical supplies! Please let me help him!"
"You're a doctor?"
"Yes!"
Zoro looked at his pleading eyes, then looked at Luffy's state, and nodded as he looked back at the reindeer doctor. "Okay."
He handed over Luffy and Chopper slowly laid him down and began checking him while Sanji came next to Zoro.
"Oi, where did you find this monster?" He asked and Chopper tried his best not to show the hurt or resignation he felt at that moment.
"It was with that old doctor, so I think it's telling the truth. She called it… I don't remember."
"A monster that's also a doctor, huh?"
"Looks like it."
Chopper internally sighed, knowing not to expect too much from anyone. But it still hurt dammit! At least they weren't attacking him, so he tuned them out and just focused on treating Luffy.
The more he tried to diagnose him though, the more confused he became. First, he brought out burn cream to treat his burnt hands… but his hands were fine. Well, not completely fine as he had multiple chipped nails that were bleeding profusely but he was expecting it to be a lot worse given that they were somehow on fire. But he had absolutely no burn marks.
How…?
Given how he was wearing flimsy thin clothing, he should have had severe frostbite already but no part of him was frost-bitten.
How…?
He treated other injuries he could recognize and stopped the bleeding in multiple parts of his body. He could see the effects of the poisonous spores on his body and he had also identified what type of spore it was by its scent, so thankfully, it would be easy to treat once he was brought to the castle. But just as he thought that, he saw that Luffy's body seemed to be recovering from that poison. The unhealthy purple complexion already seemed to be fading for some reason he couldn't understand.
Did he take the antidote for the poisoned spores?
He also had another poison in his system, the toxin which Chopper didn't have much data on. But seeing the white patches and pale skin in places, he still hadn't recovered from that.
After the preliminary examination, only one thought ran in his head-
How is he even alive?
While Chopper checked on Luffy, Zoro and Sanji sat to the side giving him some space while also taking a minute to process everything they had seen. The avalanche had still buried their surroundings and a bit further down, the parted area joined together, thus forming a tear-drop shaped valley around them.
A bit below them, Wapol, Chess, Kuromarimo, and the White Walkies were still unconscious but safe from being buried under the avalanche. Zoro and Sanji did spot them, but they didn't care enough to check up on them, and just stayed close to their captain and the creature.
"Didn't Luffy say that we're gonna recruit our doctor from this island?" Sanji eventually broke the silence while massaging his aching legs.
"Yeah," Zoro nodded, keeping a close eye on what the weird creature was doing.
"Bet you a hundred thousand berries that this is our guy."
"Please," Zoro smirked. "That's a losing bet."
"Yeah," Sanji chuckled before pointing at Zoro's pant pocket. "You have a vibrator shoved up your ass or something?"
"I'm not you, ero-cook," Zoro pulled out the phone which had been vibrating non-stop for quite a while now and picked up the call from Bubble.
"
LUFFY?!"
"My lovely Bub-"
"
Sanji, where's Luffy?! He's dying!"
"Ah, don't worry. He's right in front of me. A doctor is treating him already."
"
Really? Is he okay?!"
"Yes, he's fine."
"
Are you sure?!"
It took a bit of convincing, but she finally heaved a sigh of relief and calmed down.
Aaand then she became furious. "
That bastard! This is like the tenth time this has happened!"
Zoro wanted to ask what she meant but Koala's call came at that moment and he saw that she had rung quite a few times too, so he added her to the same call, which was something the phone could apparently do.
"
LUFFY?!"
"Ah, Koal-"
"
Luffy's dying! Wher-"
"
It's fine. A doctor is apparently checking up on him," Reiju answered.
"
What's wrong with him?"
"He was poisoned."
"
Oh… are you guys on Drum Island right now?"
"Yeah."
"
Okay, good."
"Why did you both think he was dying?" Zoro asked curiously and Sanji was wondering the same too.
"
His Vivre card was burning out," they both replied.
"The paper thingy?" Sanji said confused, prompting Koala to explain that it also showed a person's life force and that Luffy's paper had almost burnt out.
"
It's less than a centimetre wide now… But it has
stopped burning, so looks like he's gonna be okay."
"
Yeah… Who are you by the way?"
"
Oh hey, I'm Koala."
"
Luffy's seventh wife?"
"
Ah, you already heard?" Koala giggled before some background voices interrupted her. "
Sorry, I gotta go! I'll call ya later!"
She disconnected and Reiju sighed. "
So why did you guys not pick up for so long? I've been calling and calling…"
"Ehh… stuff happened…" Zoro shrugged before quickly saying, "We gotta go" and cut the call, not giving her a chance to say anything.
"Why the hell did you cut her off?!"
"She's annoying when she's worried."
Sanji lunged and grabbed him by his collar. "You asshole! How dare you call a Holy Goddess like Bubble annoying?!"
"Shut up, you curly-eyebrowed pervert!"
"Umm…" Someone interrupted and both men turned towards the voice to find Chopper hesitantly looking at them. "Y-you guys n-need to be treated too."
Both backed away from each other and walked towards Luffy who was wrapped up in a few bandages, but still looked worse for wear. "Is he okay?"
"T-the phytotoxin is still killing him. I've done what I can here but we need to get him to the castle quickly!"
"Alright, let's go," Zoro picked Luffy up and started walking along with Sanji when Chopper interrupted them again.
"N-no! You guys are injured too! I need to treat you!"
"Let's get him up first," Sanji said patting the tall beast on the shoulder but backed off when he flinched. "He's still not out of danger, right?"
"Y-yes," Chopper nodded as he stared at Luffy while following them. His body was way too strange and he needed to perform a comprehensive checkup on him to figure out how he wasn't dead yet. "W-what is he?" He blurted out while thinking of the earlier spectacle.
Sanji smirked. "The guy's a monster."
Chopper flinched at the words and couldn't understand the merry tone behind it. "Oh…"
"So what exactly are
you?" Zoro asked.
"I-I-…" Chopper stuttered for a few moments before he suddenly transformed into his walk point and ran away.
Zoro and Sanji blankly watched until the creature went out of sight behind some trees before turning to each other.
"He probably thought you were talking algae and got scared."
"No, your freakish twirly eyebrow must have scared him off."
Insults flew as they resumed running with Sanji leading the way towards Gyasta while Chopper followed them from a distance.
Luffy's stomach soon started grumbling, so Sanji brought out fruits from inside his coat and held it in front of Luffy's mouth, which immediately opened up and chomped on it.
"He can eat while he's sleeping?"
Sanji chuckled as he fed him another fruit. "Found this trick a while back. You know how Luffy sometimes gets melancholic?"
Zoro gave him a surprised look.
"What?"
"I thought I was the only one who picked up on it."
"He does hide it pretty well," Sanji nodded. "But his eating habits are a dead giveaway. He eats less whenever he gets like that and there will be lots of leftovers."
"Ah."
"The first time it happened, I took the leftovers to him to confront him if he didn't like my cooking but he was sleeping. I was deciding whether to wake him up or not when he started sniffing the air and then suddenly lunged for the food. He gulped everything down without ever waking up!"
"He sleep-eats," Zoro shook his head in amusement.
"Dahaha yeah! From then on, whenever he eats less, I just wait till he's asleep and feed him more. He doesn't even know he can do that."
Sanji brought out another fruit but paused in confusion as it looked a bit strange and he definitely didn't remember buying anything like it. He kept it back in his coat to investigate later and continued leading the way.
Thankfully, there weren't any more hiccups on the way and their journey to the top of Drum Rockies was much more smoother. Lapins also stayed away from them as some of them had witnessed Luffy's terrifying display and didn't want to get on his bad side.
By the time they reached the base of the ropeway, the civilians had already attached a lift to it. Thus, they easily rode it to the top. The avalanche had buried some town apparently so Dalton had gone for search and rescue efforts with Usopptagging along with him, so they couldn't meet up.
And so, finally, all the sick, poisoned, and injured people were at the castle.
"The hell happened to you guys?" Kureha asked with a raised eyebrow when she laid eyes on them.
"Long story," Zoro shrugged and handed Luffy over to her. "Please cure him."
"So this is the boy huh?" Kureha eyed him before realizing that he was the most critical out of all of them and quickly disappeared somewhere inside while Zoro and Sanji finally let their bodies relax and fell asleep right near the entrance.
Chopper arrived just in time to see them collapse, having run up the ropeway, and dragged them inside.
——][———][———][——
Luffy slowly awoke, his memories and vision taking a few moments to come back to him before his eyes registered an unfamiliar stone ceiling. He was on a bed with bandages wrapped all around him and the scent of chemicals was heavy in the air. He looked around to find that he was in a crude hospital ward of sorts with multiple patient beds, two of which were occupied by Nami and Vivi.
An old woman, with a killer bod, was sitting at a desk, mixing something in a small bowl.
"Did you somehow sew only your head onto a much younger headless body?" was the first thing that came out of his mouth as he sat up and made sure his hat was nearby.
Kureha was slightly startled when he suddenly spoke but snorted at the rest of his comment. "Hah! As if something like that is possible!" She strode up to him and touched his forehead. "Believe me, I've tried."
Luffy blinked dumbly, not able to tell if she was joking or not. "You suddenly became hella terrifying."
"Kak kak kak kak!" She cackled as she put her hand down. "I'm Kureha, your doctor."
"Monkey D. Luffy, Future Pirate King."
Kureha chuckled at the introduction.
"You sure heal unusually fast, your temperature's already normal… Headaches?"
"Not as intense as before but still there, and my body is throbbing with pain all over."
"That's to be expected," Kureha reassured. "The Isshi-20 were correct in diagnosing you. It
is a new variant of weed hemlock. I've made the antidote building on their tests and looks like it's worked, but it's gonna take some time for the poison to get flushed out. So, you'll feel that for a few more hours."
"That's fine," Luffy shrugged before pointing at the other two in the room. "How are they?"
"They'll be fine too," she replied, sitting back in her seat. "Just had a deadly disease that would have killed them in a couple more days, that's all. Kak kak kak kak!"
Luffy bowed his head in gratitude. "Thank you so much."
"You're welcome, kid. But don't think you can pay me with just thanks."
"Shishi sure, we'll pay."
"That's what I like to hear. Well, we'll talk about that later. For now, go back to sleep. You shouldn't even be up for a few more hours."
Luffy did still feel really sleepy so he laid back down but started reflecting on the past 48 hours.
I think I almost killed myself. I sure was reckless…
It was like he had had a long two-day battle with the toxins in his system where he kept using Haki and pushing himself with gear 2 while the toxin tried to kill him…
At least it had borne results.
He raised his right arm and after willing it, a black metallic sheen spread across his fist and forearm. He smiled wide as it was as easy as breathing now. He had even managed to create Red Hawk, although only his fists had ignited. The repeated punches had caused the flames to grow stronger but Luffy wanted to create the same intensity and power with a single punch.
Can't truly call it Red Hawk until I make the fire much stronger and ignite my entire arm… Should I call it Red… Pigeon? Lame… Eagle?
"You're not sleeping," Kureha interrupted his thoughts and Luffy looked up to see the old lady looming over him.
"Uh… can't sleep?"
"That's imposs-" she cut herself off in frustration. "Kid, do you know how close to death you were?"
Luffy nodded. "Very."
Kureha somehow seemed even more frustrated by his nonchalant response and opened her mouth to say something before deciding against it. She sighed as she went back to the desk while Luffy wondered what had gotten into her.
"Are those bastards using poisons now to torture people?" She asked after a moment.
"Hm?"
"Your high tolerance to poisons… You were injected with a lot of them, right? And I saw the brand on your back."
"Oh. Nah, those are two different matters. The tolerance is because I was a willing guinea pig for someone who liked playing with poisons."
"Really? You crazy brat! That's not something you should have been willing to do."
"She knew what she was doing and I trust her."
"Well," Kureha didn't argue, hearing no doubt in his voice. "Going by how strong your immune system is against poisons, I can say she did a marvellous job. It really saved your life here."
"Shishi yeah! She's great!"
She didn't say anything more and Luffy was about to drift off into sleep when the door creaked open and a small reindeer wearing a pink hat walked in on two legs. Luffy's drowsiness washed away instantly and his eyes sparkled with interest as he studied his new crewmate.
"Here, Doctorine," Chopper said as he handed a vial to Kureha, who emptied its contents into a bowl with other ingredients and began mixing it, while Chopper studied her actions, not having noticed that even though Luffy was lying down, he was wide awake.
"Yo!" Luffy suddenly piped up, making the poor reindeer flinch and jump in shock. He jerked his head towards him as he reeled away and crashed into a table, making the things on it fall over. They both stared at each other for a good two seconds before Chopper gasped and hastily ran out of the room. He then slowly peeked in while hiding himself… in his own unique way of peeking, of course.
"You're doing it wrong," Luffy pointed out and he hastily flipped his position.
"Nope. No matter which way you try, your antlers will stick out."
"Sh-shut up, human!" Chopper yelled hesitantly. "Also, h-how are you feeling?"
"I'm so hungry that you're looking like a really good piece of venison right now!" Luffy grinned, licking his lips and showing all his teeth.
"EEEEPPPP!" Chopper yelped as he dashed away. Luffy giggled as he sat up, ready to chase after him, when a scalpel flew right past his neck and embedded itself into the wall.
"Lie down," Kureha ordered and Luffy slumped back down. "That little guy is Chopper and he's my assistant. So if you do eat him, be ready to say goodbye to breathing rights."
"Yeah yeah…"
Kureha waited for the obvious questions about the talking reindeer but Luffy just stayed silent. "You don't have any questions?"
Luffy curiously turned towards her, wondering what she meant when he took an actual good look at her and a question did pop up in his head.
"You're 139, right?"
"Oh? You want to know the secret to my youth?" She asked with a coy smile.
"Not really. But I am curious as to
why you've lived so long."
Kureha's smile dropped as she reevaluated the boy. "Are you telling me I should die?"
"No no… Just… I can't imagine living that long without my friends… Doesn't it get lonely?"
Kureha was taken aback at the heavily loaded question and the room descended into silence as she seemingly got lost in her past. It took her a few moments but when she finally came out of her stupor, she noticed that Luffy was closely studying her, analyzing her. She sent an irritated glare at him before launching a scalpel right at his forehead, which he dodged by tilting his head. "Aren't you too young to be thinking about stuff like that?"
"Yes, yes I am," Luffy replied with a small grin and gave up on finding out about her past. Kureha was someone who knew about the Will of D, so he was a little interested in knowing what she did in her long life, but if she didn't want to talk about it, he wasn't gonna press it. "Well, I'm sorry but you're gonna be a bit more lonely because I'll be taking Chopper with me."
"What?"
"He's gonna join my crew."
"Hah! You want him?" Kureha chortled. "I don't mind but it won't be easy to convince him. He has a wound in h-"
"It's fine, it's fine. I don't need to hear it," Luffy interrupted making a dismissive shooing motion with his hand which made the old doctor's eye twitch in irritation.
Before she could decide how to beat some manners into him, Chopper came back and slowly peeked into the room. Luffy turned his gaze back to the door and the reindeer flinched and again hid himself, but he eventually resolved himself and cautiously made his way inside.
"H-Here, human!" Chopper quickly shoved a plate of bread and warm soup towards him before running away and hiding again.
Luffy smiled wide as he gulped the food down in less than a second.
"YOU ALREADY FINISHED?!" Chopper yelled in shock, rubbing his eyes in disbelief as he hadn't even gotten a glimpse of him picking up the food.
"That was good. Thanks!"
"Sh-Shut up!" Chopper bashfully yelled, his body swaying from side to side in happiness. "I don't need gratitude from a stupid human!"
"Shishishi you're funny!"
His stomach decided to gurgle loudly at that moment and he turned his gaze towards Kureha, who was leaning back in her chair and observing him. "I need more food… I heal faster that way."
Kureha sighed as she dismissively waved him off. "Just go. I can already tell you're the kind of stubborn fool who's not gonna sleep quietly. But no strenuous activity."
"Okay!" Luffy instantly got on his feet and glanced at Chopper, who stared back at him like a deer caught in headlights.
"Imma' eat you!"
"AAAAHHHHH!" Chopper bolted out of the room like his life was on the line and Luffy followed right behind him.
"I HAVEN'T TASTED VENISON IN A WHILE!"
"GYYAAHHHHH!"
"MUHAHAHA I'M SURE YOU TASTE
REALLY GOOD!"
"I'M NOT FOOD, YOU STUPID HUMAN!"
"IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE EATEN, THEN TAKE ME TO THE KITCHEN!"
"WHA- OKAY! I'LL TAKE YOU! I'LL TAKE YOU! STOP CHASING ME!"
"HURRY UP IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE COOKED!"
"GYAAAAH!"
"MUHAHAHAHA!"
Luffy heartily evil laughed as he kept chasing the poor reindeer around the frozen castle until Chopper skidded to a stop in front of a door.
"Here! This is the kitchen!" Chopper yelled pointing at the door and was about to run away when Luffy accelerated and caught a hold of him, making him scream again. "GYAAAH! I'M NOT FOOD!"
"Relax, relax, I was just kidding," Luffy placated as he dragged him inside and closed the door to make sure he didn't escape. "I won't hurt you."
"AHHH- Wait, really?!"
"Really."
He expected Sanji to be in there as the soup he ate earlier tasted like his cooking, but he wasn't. There was a large pile of covered dishes though, with a note on top which read -
Leave some for the ladies, you shitty captain.
Luffy grinned as he separated a small pile from all the dishes before he started devouring the rest. As he ate, his eyes caught sight of a strange item kept away from all the food. It seemed to be something which was wrapped around in multiple layers of duct tape, and 'DO NOT TOUCH' was written on it in big bold letters. It also had a note on top.
Seriously. No one touch this box. Luffy, especially you, stay away! You will die. This is not a threat but just a fact. I'll explain later.
Luffy raised an eyebrow as he looked at the box and then picked it up.
"Ahh! It says not to touch!" Chopper protested but Luffy shook the box wondering what was inside it when he found another note stuck to the bottom.
You shitty captain, I said not to touch! Keep it back down!
He chuckled debating whether to tear it open or not for a moment before deciding to accept his cook's warning and kept it back.
"Where's Sanji?"
"Who?" Chopper asked cautiously.
"The blond guy."
"Oh! Dartbrow left for the town a little while ago to buy some ingredients."
"Pfft-" Luffy stifled a laugh. "W-Why are you calling him that?"
"That's his name, right? Mosshead kept calling him by lots of names but that was the frequent one…" Chopper trailed off unsurely.
"Oh," Luffy easily inferred what had happened. "Yes, that's right. Those are definitely their names," he nodded as he continued opening his maw wide and shoving food down his throat while Chopper looked on in fascination.
"H-How does your body stretch like that?!"
"Devil fruit," Luffy answered through stuffed cheeks. "It turned my body into rubber."
"Rubber…" Chopper nodded. After a minute of staring, he slowly walked out of his hiding spot and inched closer to him. "Y-You're not scared of me?"
"Why would I be?"
"B-Because I'm a talking reindeer! I-"
"You look more like a small bear actually," he interrupted with a mischievous smile.
Chopper lost his train of thought. "I'M NOT A BEAR! I'M A REINDEER!"
Luffy looked on in amusement as the little reindeer lost his anxiousness and instead, huffed in irritation.
"You don't look like a reindeer though… Ah! You must be a trash panda then!"
"I JUST TOLD YOU! I'M-" Chopper paused mid-shout. "… what's a trash panda?"
"They're also known as raccoons."
"RACCOON?!
RACCOON?! I'M NOT A DAMN RACCOON!" Chopper again snapped, looking more offended than before, while Luffy fell to the floor laughing. "I'M A REINDEER! SEE THESE ANTLERS?! SEE THESE HOOVES?!" He yelled shoving said body parts in Luffy's face, who only laughed harder.
"Shishishi… Okay, okay, you're a reindeer," Luffy calmed down after having had his fill of teasing the little doctor and patted his hat. "Cool hat."
"Oh!" Like a switch had been flipped, the irritated expression on the little doctor's face melted away and a bashful one took its place. "You bastard! I'm not happy that you said that, you stupid jerk!"
"Shishishi you're fun!" Luffy grinned as he got back up on the table and continued to eat. "So you ate a devil fruit to become like this, right?"
"Ah! Yes…" Chopper seemed a little hesitant to talk about it but Luffy had shown no signs of aversion to him yet, so he sat at the table too. "B-But I'm not a human who ate the Reindeer-Reindeer fruit… I-I'm a reindeer who ate the Human-Human fruit…"
He just nodded, not having much of a reaction, which left Chopper a bit befuddled as he expecting fear, disgust, or anything negative really.
Luffy didn't let it show on his face but he did wonder why he felt the need to clarify that.
Hm… He does know about Zoans so he probably thinks he could find some sort of kinship there. But he's still afraid as he's originally an animal… He thought for a moment before opening his mouth.
"I've been wondering about this and you're the perfect person to ask this…"
"What?"
"So you're just a normal raccoon go-"
"Reindeer! I'm a reindeer, you jerk!"
"-Shishi a normal reindeer going about your life and one day, you eat a disgusting fruit and suddenly your intelligence rises. But animals aren't that… unintelligent, right? I've met plenty of animals that seem to completely understand what humans say. Even a couple of those Lapins down here understood when I talked to them too."
"Oh… umm… some are intelligent," Chopper answered thoughtfully. "But they're the exceptions. A handful of individuals in a species turn out to be smarter than their fellow mates but even then… hmm… They're like human toddlers… but with more awareness and experience but also, no ability to grow further… d-does that make sense?"
"Yeah," Luffy nodded with a hand on his chin. "So they stop at the 'imitate' process of learning?"
"Yes!" Chopper nodded enthusiastically, happy that Luffy understood him. "They rely more on instinct and life experience. They pretty much lack the questioning part too."
"Right. Was it the same for you too?"
"Ah, yeah… Before, I never really thought about things, but once I ate the devil fruit, I suddenly started having all these questions, like why our herd just couldn't grow food like the humans did or why the water in the sea was salty and wondered if we could somehow make it non-salty…"
Chopper trailed off and his face darkened, and Luffy could guess why. His new self had been shunned more by his herd and he was kicked out as a result too, so it was probably not a good time in his life.
"You can talk to other animals too, right?"
"Ah," Chopper came out of his thoughts and nodded. "How did you know?"
"Just do," Luffy shrugged. "Ever talked to a cat?"
Chopper sheepishly smiled. "Yes. They are… well…"
"Haughty? Demanding?" Luffy grinned.
"Yeah!" Chopper giggled. "Most of the ones I talked to wanted me to become their servants."
"Heh. What about elephants?"
"Never met one before…"
"Right. Oh, you know what?! You should write a book! Something like 'My conversations with animals!' where you write down actual interviews you have with different animals. People would die to read stuff like that!"
"A book? Me?! Really?!" Chopper's legs hanging off the table swayed in excitement.
"Yeah! You can do it while we travel and publish it alongside all the new medicines and medical practices you come up with."
Chopper's mind stalled and his excitement died down as he
tried to process his statement. "While we… travel…?"
"Oh," Luffy facepalmed. "I forgot to tell you but you're joining my crew."
"… Huh?"
"You're my crew's doctor. Oh, I don't think I introduced myself either. I'm Monkey D. Luffy, Future Pirate King. Glad to have you on my crew, Chopper!"
"HUUUHH?!" Chopper had an over-the-top reaction as he backed into a wall with a confused and gobsmacked expression. "DON'T BE STUPID! I'M A REINDEER! I CAN'T JOIN A PIRATE CREW WITH HUMANS!"
"You're joining and that's final," Luffy stated matter-of-factly just as laughter erupted from outside the window and a second later, Zoro's head popped up.
"This is way more funnier when you do it to someone else," he chuckled as he climbed in.
Chopper already knew he was there because of his scent and was ready to bolt out of the room if it looked like he was coming in. So, as soon as his head popped up, he tried to run out of the room.
And realizing what he was about to do, Luffy wrapped an arm around him and held him in place.
Zoro sighed watching the little reindeer shiver and try to break out but ultimately failed. "He keeps running away whenever I try to approach him," he said as he walked over to Luffy's other side and sat next to him so that Luffy would be in between him and the scared little fella. "You good?"
"Yeah, just gonna take some more time to recover, that's all," Luffy said as he eyed his swordsman. He was covered up with bandages too, his right arm, both his legs, and torso mostly. "Who did you fight?"
"Injuries from falling and then trudging in the snow because
someone decided to do something
very stupid."
"Oh right," Luffy sheepishly grinned. "Sorry, that was my bad."
Zoro lightly hit his head with the hilt of his swords. "Yes, it was, idiot."
"Shishishi anyway, what did you do to make Chopper this scared of you?"
"It's that idiot cook's fault," Zoro eyed the doctor who was pulling his hat over his eyes while shivering. "When I woke up, I was already bandaged up and this guy was tending to us. He was asking me if we were pirates when the cook woke up, saw him, and started talking about venison soup. And he ran away."
"Ah…"
Zoro shrugged. "We tried to talk after but he keeps running away. He did tell us off when we tried to close the castle doors because there's a bird's nest up there but other than that, he's been avoiding us."
"Well, you do have a very scary face," Luffy joked. "Maybe he thought you were a monster."
Chopper flinched at the last word and Zoro picked up on it. He stared at him in confusion for a few moments before speaking up. "Oi, did you get mad the cook and I called you a monster?"
Judging by the way his shoulders sagged, Zoro had hit the nail on the head. They had indeed still referred to him as a monster while they tried to talk to him as they didn't remember his name, so was that why?
Does he have a complex? He wondered, genuinely confused.
"Why are you mad about that? You
are a monster. So is Luffy. And so am I."
"…Hu—Wha…?" A bewildered Chopper slowly lifted his hat just enough and locked eyes with the green-haired man. Every human who had called him a monster had contempt or fear or disgust in their eyes but he found none of it in these ones. He shifted his gaze over to Luffy, who seemed more interested in the food rather than the conversation.
"You call yourselves m-monsters…?" He managed to choke out. Even though he himself had seen them as monsters, they were still humans. Maybe a bit abnormal— He glanced at Luffy.
Okay, way too abnormal! — but still humans nonetheless. So them referring to themselves as monsters was baffling. "W-Why?"
"Because we are," Zoro reiterated bluntly. "Why deny it? Besides, what's wrong with being a monster?"
"What's… wrong…?" Chopper parroted, clearly not able to keep up with the logic of the human. Luffy had overshadowed their feats but now that he thought back to the search and rescue, the other two had also shown monstrous resilience and definitely could not be classified as 'normal' humans either.
"How can you be okay being called monsters?" He asked in a bit of an accusatory tone.
Zoro scratched his head, not really knowing how to answer him. He had honestly never given it a second thought when people had started calling him a monster, so he had no clue why this was such a big deal to the little guy. He looked at Luffy for help and only then did the rubber captain speak up.
"Because we're the cool kind of monsters!"
"…huh?"
"There's all kinds of monsters, you know," Luffy began when Chopper didn't seem to grasp it. "The bad horror and terror-inducing kind, the selfish and heartless kind, the unknown kind, the misunderstood kind-"
"The stretchy kind who can now somehow produce fire from his fists," Zoro added before looking at Luffy. "I'm gonna grill you for details later."
"Shishishi sure. Then there's the really badass sword-wielding kind who has a monstrously bad sense of direction-"
Thwack!
"We travel the seas so we've seen all kinds of monsters! Some of them suck, sure, but so many of them are
so cool! The world's so much more interesting because of them!"
Chopper's mouth gaped like a fish, having a hard time associating the word 'cool' with 'monster'.
"You wanna know what kind of monster you are?" Luffy continued.
Chopper leaned in. "W-what?"
Luffy was about to say when his head suddenly fell and hit the table with a thud.
"Luffy?"
Chopper's doctor senses kicked in and he checked to see what was wrong but found that he had just fallen asleep.
"Is he okay?" Zoro asked.
"Yes, he's fine. The fact that he was awake so soon was the strange thing. His body is completely spent… even that, I don't know how. It's like he was shot with multiple doses of adrenaline again and again… but you all deny that he did anything like that and he himself didn't have any adrenaline injections either…"
Zoro shrugged. "Don't break your head trying to understand him."
Chopper slightly sighed.
"You can ask him later when he wakes up," Zoro said and Chopper looked up to meet his eyes. "About what he was saying."
The reindeer nodded and after a few awkward moments, hesitantly asked, "Y-you also think monsters are cool?"
"Sure," Zoro shrugged. "I honestly don't care what people call me. There is an extraordinarily strong man that I want to defeat. And to do that, I can't be ordinary myself. As long as I reach that goal, I don't care if I'm a monster or a devil or whatever."
Chopper looked at Zoro with awe and respect, his words making him think about his own dreams and goals, when the latter stood up. "Let's get Luffy back to bed."
—)(—
A loud and obnoxious voice woke Luffy up and his brows furrowed, recognizing the voice. He sat up with a yawn, realizing he was back in the patient ward on a bed and the two others occupying the room were also up.
"Luffy! You're finally up!" Nami greeted.
"You guys good?" Luffy asked looking at both their conditions.
"Are
you good?" Nami asked back. "I didn't even know you were sick until we woke up here."
"Poisoned, not sick," Luffy corrected before glancing at Vivi, who was making it a point to not look at him. "Oh c'mon, you're still thinking about the 'incident'?"
Vivi blushed and covered her face. "I want to forget it ever happened!"
"It's okay, Vivi," Nami patted her shoulder, enjoying her shy reaction too. "I made him lock the doors so it's just the three of us who know about
it. I'll charge him a hundred thousand berries if he ever tells anyone about it… and you mister," she eyed Luffy, "I'm charging you a million for seeing us naked."
"Why? I'm the victim here. I'm the one who had to clean your shit and chan-"
"Stop being so blunt!" Nami cut him off with an embarrassed blush while Vivi whimpered, recalling what had happened on the first day they had fallen sick. Their bodies had become so weak that they couldn't go to the restroom themselves, so someone had to take care of their regular bodily functions. And the responsibility had fallen to Luffy.
"Alright, alright, pact to never talk about this again?" Luffy asked holding a hand up.
"Seconded!" Vivi raised her hand up immediately.
"Aye!" Nami followed.
"Good. Now, you found out about the rebel forces yet?"
"Yes…" Vivi deflated. "Nami told me about it."
"Sorry for not telling you before. You were too sick and I didn't wanna burden you with this too."
"That's alright. I understand why," Vivi nodded but bit her lip anxiously. "But the war has entered a critical stage. I have to be in Alabasta as soon as possible!"
"Don't worry. We'll leave here soon and head straight to Alabasta."
"There's a problem with that though," Nami sighed. "That old lady is saying that we
have to stay here for three more days to recover!"
"Nah, it's fine."
"Really?" Vivi said worriedly. "She said your condition was the worst and you need a couple more days to re-"
"Vivi, it's fine. Whatever happens, we'll leave tonight," Luffy reiterated and the princess' tense posture relaxed slightly. "Why are
you still so wound up?" He then asked Nami, noticing that she was still highly agitated.
"There's a bigger problem than that!" Nami grit her teeth in anger and frustration. "That doctor bitch is asking for forty-nine percent of my treasure as payment!"
"
Excuse me?!" Vivi looked offended. "
That's a bigger problem than my entire nation being in peril?!"
"Shut up!" Nami hissed at her, causing the young princess to lose all her resolve to retort and she just averted her gaze. "We are
not paying a single berry to that old crone!"
"She did save our lives, Nami." Luffy pointed out.
"And if she named a price, we would've paid it! But she's clearly ripping us off by demanding half of my treasure!"
"She's clearly
not ripping us off though," Luffy argued.
"Y-Yes, Nami," Vivi bravely joined in, knowing Luffy was on her side. "We could be dirt poor for all she knows, and statistically, pirates usually are, so she might be getting nothing by asking for a percentage of our treasure… She's being considerate… in her own way."
"I-That-…" Nami's anger fizzled out as she couldn't come up with a rebuttal.
Vivi and Luffy glanced at each other and grinned, silently exchanging a high-five at having turned Nami speechless.
"So what did I miss?" Luffy asked her as he still heard Wapol and more people's yells in the background.
"Not much. We woke up, Sanji made us food, we met Chopper, and we were just talking about him with Kureha when he came running in saying something about a Wapol… They immediately left after that."
He later learned that he had been asleep for almost six hours during which Usopp, Dalton, and some soldiers had come up along with some victims of the avalanche, and had even set up camp near the courtyard.
"Alright," Luffy nodded and started heading out.
"Wait, I'm coming too," Vivi got up and followed. "That name sounds familiar for some reason but I just can't put my finger on it…"
"He's the former king here."
"Hm? The King…? King Wapol… Oh, that's right!" Vivi snapped her fingers in realization before her face scrunched up, recalling the exact circumstances in which she had met him. "I remember him, yes…"
"Former king?" Nami joined them too. "We got embroiled with more royals?"
"Yep."
"I WON'T LET YOU TAKE DOWN DOCTOR'S BANNER OF FAITH!" Chopper's loud declaration rang out in the air just as Luffy stepped out into a balcony overlooking the front courtyard of the castle.
Wapol, Chess, and Kuromarimo were on the left side. Dalton and a squad of soldiers with guns were standing to the right with Usopp standing at their forefront. Zoro, Sanji, Kureha, and Chopper, were standing right in front of the castle entrance just below them.
"Maahahaha! Banner of faith?! What nonsense are you spouting?!" Wapol laughed. "This is good!
Very good! Dalton! You annoying Strawhats! The monster! The doctor witch! All the people standing in my way are gathered here! My Bro-chan is cooking up the Fatal Bomb as we speak! You're all gonna be dead soon along with all the ungrateful citizens of this country!"
"Wapol!" Dalton growled furiously. "What kind of King does that to his own people?!"
Wapol started mocking him when Sanji down below asked Kureha what a Fatal Bomb was, their voices reaching the balcony too.
"Musshuru has eaten a devil fruit that lets him create deadly poisonous spores. Every ten years or so, the buildup of spores in his body becomes too much and he has to release it," Kureha had a dark look on her face as she took a swig from her flask. "All he has to do is burn off the excess spores and the problem wouldn't exist but no, the sick bastard decided to drop it on the island just for his own amusement and wiped out a large portion of the population a couple of decades ago… He was banished to the Fire Country for that crime, but looks like he's been brought back now."
"That's right!" Wapol jumped in. "I'm feeling really generous right now, so if you all agree to die here, maybe I'll consider leaving the rest of the populace alive!"
"You still need the Bilking canon in this castle to launch your Fatal Bomb," Kureha countered. "As long as we don't let your brother inside, he won't be able to launch it."
Wapol only grinned savagely. "Sure the Bilking cannon is the biggest one and will have the most reach… but I have plenty of other cannons that are more than enough to wipe out a few towns and villages. And Bro-chan has already set them up!"
Luffy looked around at the various groups present there. Dalton looked downright thunderous but just as frustrated, the soldiers behind him were scared, Usopp was nervously shifting, Kureha was silently seething, and Chopper was glaring at the tyrant.
Next to him, Vivi was gritting her teeth furiously. "That's horrible! And he calls himself a King?'"
"How despicable!" Nami scoffed before turning to Luffy. "You sense that guy?"
"Nope."
She bit her lip wondering how they could find him when Zoro and Sanji down below looked up at Luffy.
Luffy saw the question in their eyes and nodded, which had the both of them grinning as they turned back to Wapol.
"What will it be, Dalton?! Tell your men to drop the weapons and you all surrender or I'll signal my Bro-chan to start wiping out towns down there!"
Dalton seethed as he took deep heavy breaths before looking back at his men. "D…Drop the w-"
"Don't," Usopp cut him off with a pat on his shoulder. "Didn't you say you wanted to fight? You really think he will let the people live after you give up your life here?"
Dalton grit his teeth, not knowing what to do.
"No?" Wapol smugly smiled. "Kuromarimo! Let's make an example! Start with the witch doctor!"
"Yes, King Wapol!" The boxer grinned as he pulled out clumps of hair from his head and threw it at Kureha. It was intercepted by Zoro though, and the hairballs clung to his swords.
"What the heck?" Zoro mumbled as he tried to shake off the hairballs in annoyance but they didn't budge.
"Ahahah! This is my Marimo Static Cling!" The boxer said throwing more hairballs at Zoro, who cut it with his swords. But the cut strands of hair just clung to his body, covering him with small clumps of hair all over which irritated the hell out of him.
"Shit! What the hel-"
"Hey look! It's our Marimo versus
Kuromarimo!" Luffy loudly commented, grabbing everyone's attention.
"PFFTHAHAHAHAHA!" Sanji and Nami instantly burst out into raucous laughter.
"GYAAAH! It's you again!" Wapol, who only looked up at the balcony then and spotted Luffy, screamed. "You're still alive?!"
Luffy and the others ignored him however, more focused on making fun of their swordsman.
"Look! Marimo is covered in black marimo now! Hehahahaa!" Nami guffawed.
"Go, Zoro! Show him who the original Marimo is!" Usopp yelled, snickering.
"You do it too!" Sanji added on, banging his fists on the ground as he laughed. "Pull out hair clumps from your algae-infested head and you two have a battle of hairballs! Green versus black! Dahahahaha!"
"Shut up, you crap-cook!" Zoro cursed as he tried to pull off the hairballs but it only got stuck to his hands, which only amused the others more.
Usopp fell to his knees while clutching his stomach, Nami doubled over, Sanji fell on his back laughing like Christmas had come early, and Vivi tried not to join in on roasting their swordsman, but couldn't help but let out giggles.
Anyone who was not a Strawhat, however, had a very different reaction as the atmosphere had been very tense and heavy until that moment. Chopper and Kureha were wondering if they had missed diagnosing brain damage in the entire crew while Dalton and the soldiers were dumbfounded.
"Agh!" Zoro got fed up with the sticky hairballs and locked eyes with the one responsible. He lunged at him and before the confused Kuromarimo could even react, cut him right across his chest, leaving a deep wound and taking him out of the fight.
Wapol and Chess backed off in fright as the swordsman irritably used Kuromarimo's hand to remove the hairballs off of himself, then looked at the still laughing crew, then saw the terrifying straw hat-wearing young man who had somehow made them faint twice already, and gulped in fear.
"S-S-STAY BACK! OR I-I'LL SIGNAL MY BRO-CHAN!" Wapol screamed bringing out a transponder snail. "I just have to hit this call button and he will launch a bunch of poisonous spore cannonballs into multiple towns!"
Zoro, still clearing the hair off himself, looked up at him and rolled his eyes. "Go ahead."
"What?!"
"Oi brat!" Kureha blew up while Chopper gaped. "You gotta death wish?!"
"Relax, old lady," Sanji got up, having had his fill of laughing at the swordsman, and lit a cigarette. "Pretty sure Luffy already killed that guy."
"What?"
"Pink hair? Head looks like a mushroom? Stupid outfit?"
"Ah! The spores!" Chopper yelled in realization. Musshuru was banished well before his time so he hadn't ever seen him but he recalled that the guy Luffy was fighting had created a large cloud of poisonous spores from his hands. "That was Musshuru!"
"I-Is that really true?!" Dalton cried hopefully.
Luffy nodded in affirmation when multiple sets of eyes turned to him. He was trying to create Red Hawk, so he had held nothing back. Gear 2, armament coated fist, and a stretched arm had landed square on the guy's face, and he was pretty sure he had felt the guy's neck crack. Even if he had somehow survived, he had still been launched somewhere far where the avalanche would have definitely buried him.
"LIAR!" Wapol spat with hate. "There's no way Bro-chan lost!"
From his perspective, after suddenly falling unconscious, he had woken up beside only his two soldiers, and given how Luffy had been dying to the poisonous spores, they had assumed he had been killed by Musshuru. And considering how an avalanche was surrounding them, they also thought that Musshuru had saved them from being buried. Finding him nowhere though, they assumed he had either gone to get help from their army or gone ahead to the castle. Thus, they had flipped a coin and decided to come to the castle. Still not finding him though and finding Dalton and his army, Wapol had tried to bluff his way to a victory, but well, it didn't work out.
"Call him then," Zoro taunted and that only made the tyrant sweat.
"Hey hey!" Nami perked up and caught Kureha's attention. "You want those guys gone right?" She cattily grinned. "We can do that! In return, you waive off the medical bill!"
"Ah," Kureha scoffed with a grin. "Clever little girl… Alright, deal."
"Yes!" Nami cheered as she scaled down the castle wall like a cat and landed below. She then took out her shock staff and started walking towards Wapol and Chess. "Let's make this quick."
"C-Chess! Kill her!"
"Yes!"
Arrows whizzed by as Nami dodged them all and ran straight at them. Seeing her small frame though, they of course underestimated her and when she launched the grappling hook from her staff at Wapol, Chess caught it. He was about to mock her for the meaningless attack when Nami turned the dial up.
A
literal shocking display of electricity silenced everyone as they stared at the sad jester being thoroughly electrocuted for five seconds before Nami decided to stop and Chess' electrocuted and burnt body fell over.
Nami panted, just the short sprint having winded her out. Looked like she needed more time to recover but she still turned to Wapol next to give him the same treatment, only to find him running.
Wapol was dashing towards the castle in a panic, hoping to enter and reach the Bilking cannon or the armoury, but Sanjiwas there at the entrance, ready to intercept him. A kick right under his chin made the tyrant go flying back.
"Ow!" Sanji held his already fractured foot in pain. "The hell is the guy made of?!"
From the despair-filled situation to now where all their enemies were down had left Dalton and the rest a bit befuddled.
"You guys are awesome!" Chopper breathed in awe, but his attention was taken away when Wapol sat up, rubbing his chin in pain.
"All you bastards…treating your King like this…"
"Wapol!" Dalton interjected. "Surrender now! Your two strongest fighters are done for! Your army has already surrendered! Ther-"
"My army surrendered?!" Wapol yelled in shock. "What did you do to my army?!"
"This young man here subdued them!" Dalton said patting Usopp's shoulder.
"H-HAHA! THAT'S RIGHT!" Usopp yelled, crossing his arms while puffing his chest out, pretending like he was full of bravado. "THEY WERE NOTHING IN FRONT OF THE MIGHTY USOPP!"
What had really happened was that Usopp was with Dalton when news of Wapol's army attacking Bighorn had reached them. Usopp had tagged along as they travelled there, but once there, he hid behind a building while Dalton exchanged words with the enemy soldiers. They were apparently ordered by Wapol to take over, find if any doctors were left as the Isshi-20 were kidnapped by pirates, and basically kill any opposition.
Dalton had tried to reason with them, but gunshots and screams had soon rung out. A shivering Usopp had peeked from behind from safety only to see that Dalton was tanking all the bullets and pushing people out of the way, protecting his civilians.
He had resolved himself then and announced himself with a loud yell, grabbing the attention of everyone present in the area while getting ready to employ hit-and-run tactics to take them on… But as soon as the enemy soldiers had seen Usopp, they had screamed pointing at him in fear.
Apparently, the Conqueror's blast had left a deep impression on them and not knowing what it was, they had assumed it was some kind of chemical weapon. And seeing one of the crew members who could deploy such fear-inducing chemical weapons, they were scared.
Usopp had quickly noticed and capitalized on it, threatening them to throw away their weapons if they wanted to live. A few did protest, however, but a well-placed rotten egg shot right into the mouth of a soldier, which made him immediately faint, put out any embers of protest.
Well, Usopp obviously told it differently.
"THEY TREMBLED AND GROVELLED BEFORE ME AS SOON AS THEY HEARD MY FEARSOME NAME!"
"He subdued the entire army?!" Chopper exclaimed.
"You have nothing, Wapol!" Dalton continued. "Surrender now."
The tyrant glared at Dalton and Usopp, and then at Luffy with eyes filled with hate before his emotions finally burst. "I'VE HAD IT! I'LL SHOW YOU ALL THE MIGHT OF THE MUNCH-MUNCH FRUIT! EVERYTHING I EAT BECOMES A PART OF ME! MUNCH-MUNCH-MUTATION!"
Everyone watched in bewilderment as he grew and grew and transformed into a small house with cannons for arms, a chimney on his head, and a door right in his chest. "WAPOL HOUSE!"
"That's actually kinda cool!" Luffy cheered.
"No, it's not!" Zoro, Nami, Sanji, and Usopp rebutted.
"YOU'VE DISRESPECTED ME FOR THE LAST TIME, YOU PEASANTS! THIS IS MY KINGD-"
"Hey hey!" Luffy cut him off, excitedly jumping up and down on the balcony as a thought struck him. "If you eat more things, you'll be able to fuse them into yourself and transform further, right? Then go ahead," he grinned pointing his thumb at the castle. "There's an armoury inside, right? Eat up all you want!"
"DON'T BE STUPID, YOU BRAT!" Kureha snapped.
"STOP PLAYING AROUND!" Nami added.
"DON'T LET HIM DO THAT OR WE'RE ALL DOOMED!" Dalton cried.
"I WON'T LET HIM STEP ONE FOOT INSIDE THE CASTLE!" Chopper declared with conviction, and Luffy deflated.
He didn't care about the others' protests but if Chopper didn't want Wapol to desecrate Hiruluk's resting place, then he wasn't gonna insist on it.
Oh well, not like there are many strong weapons here… it would've been cool if there were lightsabers and all though,Luffy thought, imagining a cooler version of Wapol who could transform his hands into cool weapons.
"I intend to do just that!" Wapol continued. "The first article of Drum Kingdom's constitution states, 'Whosoever denies the King's wishes shall die!' This is the foremost law of the land! This is my Kingdom! This is my castle!" He raised one of his arm-cannons up at the pirate flag at the top of the castle. "First goes that unsightly flag! It ruins the whole look!"
Chopper stared in horror as a cannonball was fired from his arm and it flew straight at his beloved flag and exploded right on it. He watched the fire and smoke as anger rose up in him before he whirled on Wapol.
"WHY DID YOU DO THAT TO DOCTOR'S FLAG?!" He yelled as he ran towards him with surprising speed and jumped right up to his face. "Doctor even tried to save you!" Chopper got ready to punch him but Hiruluk's words of not hating all humans came to the forefront of his mind. "He even… saved you…"
Chopper looked conflicted and held himself back from punching the tyrant in the face. "I won't hurt you! But leave this country forever!"
"What are you saying, Chopper?!" Kureha screamed in anger. "You can't reason with him!"
"B-But…"
"Get off me!" Wapol yelled as he smashed Chopper in the face with his cannon arms and he fell to the ground.
"Oi Chopper!"
The reindeer looked towards the voice only to find Luffy standing atop the roof of the castle right next to the completely unharmed pirate flag.
"What…?"
"You annoying bastard!" Wapol yelled and pointed his arm cannons and shot at him. "Die! Die! Die!"
Luffy punched the cannonball away and it exploded in the air, far away from the flag. But Luffy didn't look away from Chopper and the latter also stared at him in wide-eyed wonder.
"You said it yourself, this is a banner of faith!" Luffy said pointing at the flag. "People like that idiot won't understand but you do, don't you?!"
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING AN IDIOT?!" Wapol raged as he fired a couple more cannonballs, but Luffy punched each one away, still keeping his eyes solely on Chopper, who stared at the spectacle in awe.
"You understand the meaning behind this flag, right?!"
"Meaning behind the flag?!" Wapol yelled in frustration. "Don't make me laugh! It's just a stupid rag! I'll bring it down no matter what!"
Luffy didn't even acknowledge him while Chopper recalled the time when Hiruluk had talked about the master-thief who was miraculously saved by cherry blossoms.
'That means there's no such thing as an incurable disease!'
'No matter what anyone says, I will save this country as a doctor!'
'That's why I raised this skull and crossbones against all diseases! This is a symbol of belief that nothing is impossible! By raising this, I'll fight just like pirates would!'
"You don't fly this on a whim!" Luffy's words cut right through his thoughts. "Once you decide to fly it, it's a pledge! AND NO ONE," he grabbed one of the cannonballs, redirected it 180 degrees, and threw it right back at Wapol with double the speed, "SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO MOCK IT OR DESTROY IT!"
"GYAAAH!" The cannonball exploded right in Wapol's face, pushing him and making him fall on his back.
Chopper's eyes shone.
Wow… so this is what a pirate is… Amazing!
Wapol growled as he sat back up, blood leaking from his mouth. "I'VE HAD IT! DIE! DIE! THIS IS MY KINGDOM! ALL OF YOU, DIE!" He yelled as he randomly started firing cannonballs all over the place.
"He's acting like a cornered animal!" Zoro cursed as he pushed Chopper out of the way just as a projectile whizzed past him.
His tantrum didn't last long, only five more cannonballs were fired before he seemed to run out of materials to produce any more, so apart from a wall getting destroyed and displacing some soldiers, not much came of it.
"So, are you gonna stand around and watch," Zoro said sternly looking at Chopper, "or are you gonna fight?"
Chopper looked back and forth between Zoro, Luffy, Wapol, and himself before finally looking at the tyrant with resolve in his eyes. "I will fight!"
"Good man," Zoro smirked and crossed his arms, interested in seeing what this new crewmate of theirs was capable of.
"That bastard! Those cannonballs might have hit the ladies! I'll kill him!" Sanji said but before he could take a step, someone kicked him right in his broken bone, making him fall on his face. "Who the fu-"
"Just sit this one out, will you?" Kureha said sitting on top of him. "I want to see what my snot-nosed brat can do." She then ignored his grumblings and focused on Chopper who held something up.
"I only need three minutes to take care of you!" Chopper declared as he bit into a Rumble Ball.
"Three minutes?! Don't make me laugh! You won't be able to beat me even if you had your whole life!"
"Walk Point!"
He ran up to him and just as he reached him, Wapol swung his arm at him.
"Jump point!" Chopper's physique changed and he jumped high up, reaching a staggering height well above the castle.
"Woah! Is he flying?" / "No! He jumped so high up!"
Shouts of exclamation rung out as everyone watched the battle unfold.
"Doesn't matter! I'll eat you!" Wapol yelled as he opened his mouth wide just as Chopper's downward descent began.
"Arm Point!" He transformed again where his arms buffed up and just as he reached Wapol's maw, smashed his hooves right on his upper jaw that had the tyrant reeling back on his feet while Chopper used the attack as a launching pad and jumped off of him.
"GYAAA!" Wapol screamed holding his mouth in pain while Chopper got ready for the next attack.
"Heavy point!"
He straight up punched the tyrant, his large human fists landing on his jaw again.
"H-How the hell do you have so many transformations?!" Wapol cursed as he panted. "There's supposed to be only three!"
"It's the power of my Rumble Balls!" Chopper said as he transformed into his Arm point and jabbed his hooves at him, this time in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. "It's a special drug that distorts the wavelength emitted by each form. After five years of research, I have discovered four new additional forms!"
"Whatever, who cares how many forms you have?!" Wapol spat as he wiped the blood leaking from his mouth before suddenly opening his maw wide and a cannon came out from his throat.
A cannonball was fired but Chopper shrunk down into his Brain point, dodging the projectile completely.
"Bastard!" Wapol cursed. "This is not working, I have to be able to move quickly! Munch-Munch Factory!"
He then began eating himself.
"Self-cannibalism!" Usopp screeched.
"H-Hey stop!" A concerned Chopper couldn't decide what to do.
He ate his whole body up until only his large mouth was left.
"He… He turned into a bucket!" a shocked and confused Nami pointed out.
"Haha! That's so cool!" Luffy cheered, enjoying the fight from above.
"It's weird, not cool!"
Sounds of munching came from his mouth and soon, his entire body came out, his physique having undergone a transformation.
"Slim-up Wapol!"
Wapol, now slimmer and taller, stood before Chopper. "Maaahahaha! Now you won't be able to land a single hit on me!"
He ran straight at Chopper, his speed being much faster, but Chopper was still able to dodge his charge. He whirled back, predicting his next move but Wapol just kept running.
"He's aiming for the castle!" Chopper realized before transforming into his walk point and chased him.
"You won't be able to cat-" Wapol was saying before he turned his head to see Chopper right on his heels.
"Horn Point!" Chopper's horns grew and became sharper, his hands became larger, and his speed increased. He rammed straight into his back, lifting the tyrant with his powerful horns, and launched him away. Wapol screamed as he fell face first into the snow, his back experiencing tremendous pain.
Chopper's three minutes were running out, so he quickly changed back into brain point and brought his hooves together to form a small hole and looked through it. "Scope!"
"Gah! I'll kill you!" Wapol cursed as he stood back up, groaning in pain. He spit out blood before charging at him, this time transforming his hands into chained maces and swung it at him. Chopper got hit a couple of times but he dodged most of the attacks, still looking through his hooves, his brain working overtime as he analyzed his opponent.
"Got it! The head!"
"What are you on about?!" Wapol spat as he abandoned his attack seeing the agile reindeer and ran to the castle again.
"I won't let you go inside!" The reindeer declared as he transformed into Jump point and lunged at Wapol.
He transformed into Arm point just as he reached Wapol, and bashed him right in the head. "Carving Hoof, Roseo!"
A sakura-shaped hoof print got imprinted on his head and Wapol fell face first into the snow again.
"G-Gah!" Wapol groaned in pain but he still wasn't down for the count.
Only ten seconds remained in Chopper's transformation, so he ran to him and delivered another Roseo right in his head.
Wapol became disoriented but was still mumbling.
"Roseo! Roseo! Roseo!"
Chopper kept bashing his skull in again and again while Wapol mumbled "Stop… I'll… make you… Vice… King…" in between smashes.
With only three seconds remaining, Chopper jumped high up again and came straight down with his arms outstretched for one final attack.
"Carving Hoof, Roseo!"
That seemed to do the trick.
Chopper shrunk back and panted hard as he finally took a breather. Thankfully, Wapol had passed out, with blood leaking from his head. "Phew!"
Luffy was in his face the next instant and picked him up with a crazed look in his eyes. "That. Was.
So. Cool!" He cheered swinging the little reindeer around.
"I'm getting dizzy~" Chopper's eyes spun while Luffy happily danced.
"THANK YOU SO MUCH!" A loud shout rang out and Luffy finally stopped. Chopper followed the voice to see that it was Dalton, kneeling and pressing his head to the ground while some civilian-soldiers behind him were cheering.
"Shishishi look, Chopper. They're cheering for you!"
The reindeer was a little shell-shocked to say the least as he hid his eyes under his hat, not knowing how to respond to gratitude from people who had hurt him before. His body did sway happily though.
"Damn, this guy was something," Zoro said, looking down at Wapol, and Luffy, still holding Chopper in his hands, went to him.
"I know right?" Luffy nodded with a bit of respect. "He wasn't all that much in combat but he definitely has an insanely high durability."
"Yeah," Zoro nodded, seeing that the ground had even cracked.
"Nice!" Nami came up next to them and looked at Chopper. "Good to see that you're a fighter. That was great!"
Luffy let him go as he swayed and danced around. "Hehehe! I don't need praise from a human, you jerk!"
"Luffy! Good to see you up and about!" Usopp came up next and Chopper froze before beginning to slightly fidget while Usopp awkwardly looked at him.
"What happened between them?" Luffy whispered to Zoro.
"He yelled 'Monster', screamed, and ran away when he first saw Chopper in his Heavy point," Zoro whispered back.
"Ah…"
Zoro had smacked and told him that he was their new crewmate after his little mishap, and Usopp had been looking for an opportunity ever since to apologize, but the little doctor had avoided him.
Now that he finally had a chance though, he got closer to him, awkwardly meeting Chopper's wary gaze. "Uhh sorry about before. It was just a reflex… I-I had been vanquishing great powerful enemies during the entire way up, so I was on guard, that's all!"
"R-Really?!" Chopper asked seriously and an encouraged Usopp nodded as he began narrating how he had lassoed and tamed a huge vulture to get up the mountain and the gullible doctor believed every word.
—)(—
"What are you doing?" Chopper asked as he climbed up to the roof of the castle where his pirate flag was proudly flying.
"Hm?" Luffy, sitting next to the flag, smiled. "Just paying my respects to the old quack."
Chopper's eyes widened. "You knew Doctor Hiruluk?!"
"I knew
of him, that's all."
"Oh…"
They stayed silent for a while, the sounds of celebration by the soldiers wafting through the air. Nami was again taken to the patient ward by Kureha as the short fight she had had with Chess had actually tired her out, and so was Sanji as his leg had also broken more. So they had a bit more time to kill.
Chopper hesitantly spoke up. "E-Earlier… you were… you were about to tell me what kind of monster you think I am…"
"Oh right," Luffy grinned turning to face him. "You're a really cool monster who can transform into seven amazing forms! And can even shoot laser beams out of your eyes!"
"I-I can't shoot beams!" He rebuked, a bit disappointed by the answer. He was expecting something mor-
"You're also a lonely monster."
Chopper's head snapped towards his face. "Lone…ly…?"
"Yeah. Lonely monsters are sad… They don't really fit in anywhere, get rejected by g-" Luffy paused. "Well… I suppose you know all about that, don't you?"
Chopper gulped, his eyes becoming glassy as he looked away and slowly nodded.
"The monster part?" Luffy continued and Chopper slowly turned his eyes towards him again. "Coming to terms with it, or changing yourself so that you're not a monster anymore, that's something you're gonna have to figure out on your own… But the lonely part? That has an easy solution. You just have to make friends!"
"F-friends? … You really think I can make friends?"
"Idiot," Luffy grinned flicking his forehead. "You already have!
I'm your friend!"
"Y-You want to be… my friend?" Chopper asked with wide eyes.
"Yep! So does everyone on my crew! And when you travel with us, you'll meet so many new people and can have so many more friends too!"
Chopper looked down. "I-I can't join your crew…"
Movement down below caught Luffy's eyes and he stood up. "C'mon Chopper, being a pirate is so much fun! You travel and get to see so many interesting things and meet so many interesting people! You're gonna love it! Think about it."
Luffy jumped off, giving Chopper some time to think, and landed in the courtyard where Kureha, a bandaged-up Dalton, and Vivi had gathered around the now chained-up body of Wapol.
"What's up?" Luffy asked popping up next to Vivi.
"Ah, we were just discussing what to do with him," Dalton answered pointing at the former king.
Seeing the questioning look on Luffy's face, Vivi clarified. "No matter what, he was still the King and the citizens here have overthrown him. It will be seen as an attack on the World Government if the situation is handled poorly."
"Hmm." Luffy wanted to offer to send him flying away so that they could simply claim that he ran away, but that would mean Wapol would probably create the Black Drum Kingdom. Who knew how the citizens of that country would suffer under his rule, so he really didn't want to.
"Don't worry about it," Dalton said with a smile when he noticed Luffy in thought. "You have done more than enough for us already. We will take care of the rest. We'll imprison him and send a detailed message to the World Government of what transpired here. We will keep your names out, of course."
Luffy nodded, glad that the Black Drum Kingdom was butterflied away into non-existence.
It also meant that Wapometal would get butterflied away which was an important material in Franky's creations but Luffy didn't think it was a big deal if it was never created. Wapometal was basically a shape-memory alloy and the Vinsmokesalready had such a powerful alloy, so Reiju could easily help Franky out when the time came.
"Wouldn't he just eat the chains and break out if you put him in a normal prison? Do you guys have sea-stone cuffs?" Viviasked.
"No." Dalton sighed sadly.
"I'm sure I can keep this guy on a leash until we decide what to do with him and make sure he doesn't just eat his way out. Kak kak kak kak!" Kureha cackled with a wild look in her eyes.
"Leash?" Vivi questioned.
Kureha just grinned taking out and showing her a few syringes that were filled with a vile purple liquid and Vivi's eyes widened.
"I want to say you're planning to… keep him sedated?" She asked hopefully.
"Sure. Let's say that that's what I'm doing," Kureha smirked, unnerving the others.
"… Don't you have that oath as a doctor?" Luffy asked.
"Eh," Kureha shrugged dismissively. "It's not like I'm planning to kill him or refusing treatment. Just… keeping him down for a while."
"You're definitely more a pirate than a doctor, old lady," Luffy said shaking his head.
"Who are you calling old lady, brat?!" Kureha jabbed him while Luffy laughed.
"Have we met before?" Dalton suddenly asked and Luffy saw that it was directed at Vivi. "You look familiar."
"O-Oh?" Vivi nervously fidgeted. "I don't think so. Anyway, gotta go!"
She hastily walked away and Luffy left with her.
"Phew, that was close," Vivi sighed, but Luffy was a bit confused.
"Wouldn't that have been a great opportunity to build a relationship with this Kingdom?"
The Princess stopped in her tracks. "What?"
"I'm not that good at politics," Luffy said crossing his arms. "But you could have revealed yourself as princess of Alabasta and built a friendly connection with this kingdom right?"
"But I'm still in hiding."
"Does it matter anymore?"
Vivi opened her mouth to answer but paused, realizing that her secret was already out and known to Crocodile, so there wasn't much of a point to it anymore. She was supposedly dead in his book too, and Dalton and Kureha didn't seem like they would spread information about her if she just asked them not to, so there really wasn't a reason to hide from them.
"Wait, you're right. I suppose it doesn't matter now… Saving my kingdom from Crocodile is all that's on my mind right now, but I must think about the future too
after we're freed from Crocodile…"
Luffy nodded in understanding. He had a unique perspective where he could already think about the situation in hindsight, but all she could probably think about was how she could save her Kingdom from Crocodile's clutches.
Vivi nudged him with a smile. "You say you're not good at politics but that was a good idea. I didn't even think of that but you did!"
Luffy smiled back. "Yeah, I don't know about that. My first thought to a problem is always if I can punch my way out of it. Diplomatic thoughts are like fourth or fifth in line."
Vivi chuckled and now that the topic was brought up, her mind suddenly went on a thinking spree about the future. She had heard that Dalton would probably be selected as the next King and if so… "At the next Reverie, I will be revealed to him anyway, so we can still form a friendly relationship with this Kingdom."
"The next Reverie huh? Right…"
Vivi saw a sudden serious expression on his face and became curious. "You could also claim this island as yours, can't you?"
Luffy chuckled. "Nah. They got a good thing going already with Dalton and all."
"So you don't plan on bringing islands under your name like some pirates do?"
"Hm… I'm not gonna force anyone but if they need my protection, sure."
"Then you're going to have to learn how to govern a Kingdom!" Vivi said adamantly. She had a good enough understanding of Luffy that she could say that he wasn't someone like the Yonkos who forced islands under their control. She had read many an article in the newspapers about how pirates had killed ruling families and taken over Islands and Kingdoms, only to abandon them soon, leaving them in ruins after stripping them of resources.
The papers also mentioned how badly they governed the islands, which appalled her, and she hoped that Luffy and crew wouldn't turn out like them too.
"Hm," Luffy nodded, thinking about Wano. Food was there in the the capital, so he easily stole and got it for Tama and the rest of their poor town. But if there was no food on the island or if an island had no way of sustaining itself for a long period of time, wouldn't he have to step in and do something? "Guess I'll have to look for a diplomat of sorts when the time comes…" Luffy mumbled.
"Oh, yes, that would be one way!" Vivi nodded happily.
I can be your diplomat! She was about to say but her mind froze as soon as the idea formed.
What am I thinking? The Strawhats are escorting me to my country right now. I'm not exactly a part of the crew. After they drop me off and I convince the Rebel side of the real enemy, will I still be with them? Will I go with them on their future adventures…?
Luffy was also having an internal debate.
Maybe I'll recruit someone who's well-versed in governing and all? Or I can just call up the Revolutionaries too and see if they can help? Or maybe… He turned to Vivi, thinking she would be a great choice when he saw that she was lost in her own thoughts and her face was scrunched up in slight distress.
Slap! Slap!
Luffy slapped his own cheeks, causing Vivi to break out of her musings.
"W-what?"
He let out a long sigh as he ran his fingers through his hair. "You know, sometimes I get so lost thinking about the future and long-term goals, that I lose sight of the present."
He had messed up earlier too by forgetting to reassure his crew that Kureha could definitely cure them. And now too, Viviwas still worried about her country and here he was, thinking about her role in something that would happen so far into the future.
My original self had it right, taking things as they come. Here, the story's memories are messing with me… But… But I also can't not
think about the future… Haaahh…
Vivi started giggling, bringing Luffy out of his musings.
"What?"
"Was having a similar thought, that's all… My father used to tell me that as a ruler, I must be able to strike the right balance between focusing on short-term as well as long-term goals, considering both actions and consequences… I thought I understood at the time. But only now am I truly grasping the weight of those words."
She turned towards Luffy only to find him staring at her with a knowing look, before both broke out into matching grins.
Luffy looked away and turned to stare up at the moon. "Pirate King and the Queen of Alabasta… Guess we still have a ways to go before we grow into those roles."
Vivi smiled wide as she stared up at the moon too, liking how that sounded. "Yes, we do."
The two future rulers shared a quiet moment atop the snow-covered mountain bathed in the delicate moonlight as snowflakes began to gently drift from the sky.
"C'mon, let's get out of here and go save your kingdom."
"Yes!"
—)(—
"We made a deal!" Luffy heard Nami say just as he and Vivi walked into the patient ward.
"That was only for the medical bill," Kureha countered. "You all are not going
anywhere until I say so! My patients leave my care in only two conditions- Fully healed or Dead!" Kureha then noticed them and pointed at Luffy. "Especially you! I'm not letting you out of my sight until I de-" She suddenly paused and looked at everyone in the room which included all the Strawhats plus Dalton, before looking back at him. "You're coming with me," she said as she walked towards the exit and grabbed Luffy on the way out.
Luffy mouthed 'Meet you outside' to his crew and they nodded as he let himself be dragged.
"Where are we going?" He asked as they walked along a corridor but she didn't answer. "Chopper is coming with us, so he'll take care of us. You don't have to worry."
Kureha sighed. "The two girls, yeah, he can take care of them. You, on the other hand…"
Luffy's brows furrowed. "What's wrong with me?"
"Physically, nothing. You should heal in a couple more days."
"Okay?"
"Psychologically though…" she trailed off with a sigh.
"Huh?"
They reached a window then and Kureha stopped, staring out at the scenery for a moment before turning to face him.
"I'm not able to get a read on you, kid. The state of your body indicates that you're putting yourself through hell. I can't tell if its because you're punishing yourself or something else."
"Punishing myself? Why would I do that?"
"I've met people who had that brand. Slaves they threw away because they were deemed useless… I know how they break you down, drill into your head that you're not human and don't deserve rights or any reason to live… and that persists even if they're 'released'. Most kill themselves cause they can't handle it anymore, and the strong ones who do survive have a deep seated trauma in them…" she trailed off rubbing her eyes before looking back at him. "Right this instant, you want to sleep, don't you? You abused your body so much that you shouldn't even be up for at least 36 hours, and yet here you are, waking up every three or four hours. And now, you're even forcing yourself to stay awake."
"Hmm…" Luffy took a few moments to gather his thoughts before answering. "I can see how my actions seem like a trauma response to you, but I'm really not punishing or abusing myself. It's stamina training, nothing more. Ever since I was like four, my grandpa threw me in deadly jungles that had carnivorous four feet tall beasts in the name of making me stronger, so training that looks like abuse isn't anything new to me."
"… Okay."
"As for the rest, well… it's a long and complicated story."
Kureha sighed. "Fine, I won't pry if you don't wanna talk. But understand that I have practiced medicine for over a hundred years, including psychology. So I'm the best bloody psychiatrist you'll ever find."
"That's honestly super impressive! Too bad I don't need any psychological treatment."
Kureha rolled her eyes at the rejection.
"I would still love to hear about your life some day though. I'm sure you have great stories to tell!"
"Whatever," Kureha dismissively waved. "Chopper's good but he still has a long way to go before he's able to psychologically treat someone, so I wanted to keep you here so I can do it, but if you're not ready-"
"It's not needed."
"- there's nothing I can do." She then patted his back. "You want something done about this, at least? I can graft skin to cover it up if you want."
"Nah, it's fine. I promised someone that I'd change the world such that no one would be ashamed or scared to walk around with this brand exposed. And I think I'll need this to prove it."
Kureha flipped her glasses up and stared at him with incredulity. "Boy, you don't do things in moderation, huh? That's one of the wildest promises I've ever heard in my life! I hope you understand the severity of that promise. You'll have to bring down the Gods of this world for that to even remotely come true."
Luffy smiled. "As I keep saying, you've read me wrong. I'm not scared of them. And I'm not angry or looking for revenge either. It's just that they're gonna stand in the way of my dream, and so, I'm gonna destroy them."
Kureha's eyes twinkled. "And what's your dream?"
"To be the freest man alive. I'm the man who's going become the Pirate King!"
Kureha cackled.
"Looks like my reindeer is joining up with someone
really dangerous."
Luffy could see the conflict in her eyes despite her jolly words. "I can't promise 'always safe'," he said before she asked, "but I will give him a place he can call home while he chases his dream."
Kureha's features softened and she nodded. "Make sure you do."
"Honestly, it'll be more like
he's keeping
us safe. Zoro and I, especially, will be a handful for him."
"Hah!" Kureha scoffed. "I have no doubt about that… Now shoo! Go convince that little idiot to go with you, already!"
"See you, granny," Luffy waved goodbye and before she could pull out scalpels, he jumped out of the window.
Kureha leaned on the window sill, watching him in wonder as he kicked off the air and land safely on the ground below.
"So The Will of D. lives on…" she breathed wistfully. "What an insanely terrifying kid. He's definitely going to bring the storm down onto the world. Kak kak kak kak!"
Around a corner, Vivi hid behind a wall, her mind abuzz with everything she had heard. When Kureha had dragged Luffy away, she thought that she was pulling him aside to tell him that his condition was much worse than they thought and that he had to stay to recover. So, she followed them, intending to tell Luffy that it was okay and that they should wait if needed, but the conversation was completely different from what she imagined.
Luffy is punishing himself? Brand? Luffy has a slave brand?! His grandpa abused him? …what are they talking about…? Promise to not be ashamed or scared? …!!… He's going to have to take down the Gods of this world…? They don't mean the Celestial Dragons, do they?! … The Will of D. lives on…?
Kureha moved and Vivi quickly left the area, replaying and trying to make sense of the whole conversation.
—)(—
"I can't co-"
"Shush!"
"B-but I'm a reindeer! I can't jo-"
"
Shush!" Luffy again cut Chopper off as he tried to say his goodbye. "Stop using the word 'can't' and use 'won't' instead, and I'll stop pestering you."
"I-I won't… I-I…" Chopper tried but he couldn't say it. "No! I w-want… I want to be a pirate!"
Luffy grinned, triumphantly raising his arms up. "THEN JUST SHUT UP AND COME ALREADY!"
And finally, Chopper came to his decision while trying to hold back happy sobs but ultimately failed and bawled his eyes out. "OKAY!"
"Shishishi good!"
"Now it's just 'shut up and come'," Sanji shook his head with amusement as he and the rest came out of the castle.
"Looks like your recruiting methods are getting more and more outrageous," Zoro commented.
"It won't be long before he just kidnaps someone and
then tells them that they're a part of our crew," Usopp added and the others didn't think it was that wild of an idea.
"That
would be a fun way!"
"You're
not doing that!" Nami rebuked. "Anyway, you talked things out with Kureha?"
"Yeah, we can leave."
"Great!"
Chopper sniffled and calmed down as he walked up to them. "G-Give me some time. I need to say goodbye to Doctorine."
"Right," Luffy said grimly as he patted the doctor. "Go on, Chopper. And be brave!"
Chopper nodded and went inside while the rest looked questioningly at him.
"Why?"
"Because that old witch is crazy," Sanji answered.
"She got to you?" Luffy chuckled.
"Yeah," Zoro nodded with an annoyed expression. "Before you woke up, she chased us around the castle when we made just a little noise."
"While throwing knives, axes, spears, scalpels…" Sanji added, a haunted look in his eyes.
Luffy patted the two's backs in understanding while the rest gulped, glad to not have been on her bad side.
Ten minutes later, they truly understood what they meant when they saw a hysterical Chopper come running out and Kureha, with a crazed look, chased him while throwing anything sharp she could get her hands on at him.
"AHHH!" / "THE HELL IS THAT OLD HAG DOING?!"
"GET IN! HURRY!" Chopper yelled frantically as he passed by them, not even slowing down, and the rest scrambled to jump into the sleigh that he had attached to himself.
Luffy laughed as he grabbed the back of the sleigh and let his hand stretch so he would essentially be parasailing as they went down the ropeway.
"HO-HO-HO!" he bellowed and people below saw the sight of a flying sleigh in the sky with a human hanging off of it.
—)(—
Reiju discarded her bloodied clothes before quickly taking a shower and settled into the tub for a nice and long relaxing bath. She had finally finished her mission in Paradise - it being a hunt for a few stragglers from a company takeover.
There was a new tech company that was trying to encroach on Germa's customers in North Blue, so Judge had decided to take out the competition. Reiju and her brothers had already extracted relevant information and assassinated most of the major players in the company but a few had managed to escape into Paradise. Hence, her presence in the area to track down and kill them all.
She had finally tracked down the last of them, only to find that they had hired a few mercenaries to protect them, and thus, she had to fight a large group.
She usually would have assassinated them quietly with the use of poisons but the frustration of seeing Luffy's Vivre card burn out while not being able to do anything had made her use non-poisonous ways of dealing with her enemies, which was bloody. Only after Sanji called and told her that they had successfully met a competent doctor did she come back to her senses, and found herself beating up an already dead man.
At least it wasn't innocent families and children this time… Reiju sighed. Not that she or her family had any right to talk about inhumane practices but the men she had killed weren't saints either. They had performed illegal human experimentation which had resulted in the deaths of hundreds, so at least she didn't feel guilty for killing them.
Such thoughts were plaguing her mind a lot ever since Luffy came into her life. As much as he liked to say that he wasn't a hero, if he saw injustice right in front of his eyes, he was someone who would do something about it. Especially if little kids were involved. If he ever saw her inciting a civil war or helping a royal family eliminate their undesirable citizens, he would definitely fight against her…
But then again, at the back of her mind, she knew that Luffy already knew and still didn't judge her. She had never directly asked, too scared to hear what he would say, and Luffy had never broached the topic either.
She shook her head, emptying her mind and just let the scalding hot water, which she barely felt, wash away her exhaustion.
Not long after, she heard a transponder snail ringing and hastily jumped out of the bathtub to pick it up.
"You're okay n-" Reiju began to ask about his condition when Luffy cut her off.
"
Hush. Watch this."
The snail started projecting the video feed onto a wall and Reiju saw one of the most beautiful and picturesque sights she had ever seen in her life.
Cherry blossoms against the backdrop of a snowy, wintry landscape during the night was certainly a sight to behold. Said cherry blossom being as huge as a mountain was something else entirely.
The delicate pink mist slowly spreading and filling the sky at the top of a mountain, the full moon up in the night sky, the slowly falling snow… All of it contributed to creating a serene and magical atmosphere.
"So beautiful…" Reiju breathed as she sat down on the bed, silently taking in the view.
She could see the crew too as Luffy seemed to be sitting behind them and they all had similar awed looks as they stared up at the sky.
"
OOOAHHHH!" A bit further, a strange creature was bawling its eyes out as it cried into the night sky.
They stayed there, sharing the beautiful moment in silence for a few minutes before the strange creature turned back and came to them.
"
Let's go," he said and Reiju wondered if he was a Mink.
"
Alright," Luffy said and faced the camera. "
Call you later… Also, you should dry off and wear some clothes before you catch a cold."
Only then did Reiju see that the transponder snail had one eye trained on her and she waved with a smirk.
"
WHAT?! SHE'S NAKED?! LET ME SEE!" Sanji yelled, his voice desperate.
"
No."
"
I just saw one heavenly sight and there's another right there?! Give me that pho-"
The call got cut before she could say anything and she just laughed, shaking her head in amusement.
They had two lines of communication between them - A visual transponder snail and a normal voice transponder snail. Luffy knew the numbers to both but called the visual snail only when it was just the two of them, but the rest of the time, they used the voice snail, which was the only number known to the rest of the crew. The snails also had an attachment that modified her voice, so there was no chance of Sanji ever figuring out her identity, and she couldn't wait to meet him one day and reveal everything.
Her mood only dipped after that thought as she laid back on her bed, wondering when that would happen.
God, I want to be with them so bad! She whined, hitting the bed a few times in frustration. She wished she had Luffy's optimism of everything turning out right but unfortunately, she was a cynical person by nature. Dark
what if? scenarios plagued her mind and stopped her from going to him.
Her thoughts were interrupted when a transponder snail rang again, only this time, it was the one she used to stay in contact with her family.
Father is probably expecting me to be done and is calling me back.
It was a voice transponder snail, so she received the call and dressed herself while hearing her father talk. Judge first asked her if the mission was done and after she answered in affirmation, he began rattling about some of their other projects and missions, which Reiju paid half-hearted attention to.
At least until he brought up a completely new mission that was for all four siblings, which grabbed Reiju's full attention.
Ten minutes later, she 'accidentally' disconnected the call as she fell to her knees and had her first-ever panic attack.
——][———][———][——
A few hours later, the Merry was sailing away from the newly dubbed Sakura Kingdom and Chopper's celebration party was finally winding down, the highlight of the night being Chopper when he said, "This is the most fun I've ever had!" which had only made everyone cheer and party harder.
At the end, Sanji finally brought out the strange duct-tape-wrapped box.
"What's in the box? What's
in the box~?!" Luffy cried as everyone gathered around, curious as to what it was too.
"If I didn't wrap it like this, I was afraid you would mistakenly inhale this too while eating," Sanji said tearing the tape. "And well, you would have exploded."
Luffy perked up in surprise just as Sanji pulled out a strange-looking fruit. It was dark purple in colour and loosely resembled a mushroom with a flat head, with a bunch of smaller mushroom-like protrusions all over it.
"I've only seen pictures but this is a devil fruit right?"
"Yeah." Luffy and Chopper confirmed.
"Wow! Is this what they look like?" Nami took and inspected it.
"Where did you get it?" Luffy asked as the fruit got passed around.
"It was in my coat."
"It was in your coat?" Usopp repeated, confused.
"Yeah. Before we went up the ropeway the first time, I didn't know if the castle would have food, so I bought and stuffed some items inside my coat just in case. When I pulled them out later, this was just there."
"These things sell for millions! And you bought it for the price of a normal fruit?! Good going, Sanji!"
"Oh Nami-swan! I'm so blessed to be praised by you!" Sanji swooned happily but flipped back to serious again. "But I inspect each and every ingredient I buy, so I'm a hundred percent sure I didn't buy this from a vendor."
"So what? It just grew out of you?" Zoro asked semi-seriously.
"Devil fruits do manifest randomly," Vivi added.
Sanji shrugged.
"I think I know what happened," Luffy said thoughtfully. "There's a theory that when a fruit user dies, the nearest normal fruit available will transform into the person's devil fruit. I don't think it applies to all devil fruits but some actually do… Judging by the look alone, I'm guessing this is the Shroom-Shroom fruit."
"Oh," Sanji nodded, understanding what had happened. Luffy had killed that guy and he was close when that happened, so one of the fruits in his coat must have been the closest one and transformed. "So? What do we do with it?"
"It's yours."
"I'm not eating this," Sanji firmly denied before looking at the others. "Anyone wants it?"
Nami hummed staring at it. "If it was one of those logias, maybe. But shrooms don't seem like that good of a power."
"Quack!" Carue squawked and Luffy understood him.
"Poisons don't sound good."
"Carue says that poisons don't sound good," Chopper translated.
"Wait, you can understand animals?" Nami asked.
"Yes. I was an animal originally, so I can understand them."
"Wow, that's so amazing, Chopper!" Vivi praised.
"Hehe don't think that makes me happy, you stupid jerks!"
"So you're a doctor, a transforming reindeer, and an animal translator," Nami said appreciatively. "That's incredible."
"Don't forget emergency food supply," Luffy added.
"Ah yes, of course," Sanji nodded sagely, causing Chopper to fidget nervously.
"Don't scare the poor guy!" Nami bashed their skulls together.
"You're called Chopper?" Carue said after introducing himself.
"That's a scary name for a healer. Makes it seem like you'll chop someone up instead of healing them…"
"Pffft-" Luffy choked on nothing and collapsed to the deck in a laughing fit while Chopper gasped.
"Hey, take that back!" Chopper angrily transformed into his Heavy point, scaring the shit out of Carue who ran away and hid. "That's the name a great doctor gave me! Don't make fun of it!"
"H-He isn't wrong!" Luffy managed to say in between wheezes. "How did I never think of that?! The
Chopper! It
doessound like a doctor serial killer's name!
Hahahaha!"
"Hey!" Chopper jumped on him and started punching him while Luffy continued laughing, but paused only a second later. "Wait, you understood Carue too?"
"Is that what happened?" Usopp said, him and the rest having no idea what had transpired.
"Ah yeah," Luffy wiped away tears as he sat up and Chopper reverted to his brain point. "I can kinda understand some animals too. Not all of them like you, but some intelligent ones at least."
"Really?! How?"
"I was raised by ducks when I was young and thought I was a duck too. By the time I figured out I wasn't a duck, I had already learned their tongue."
"Wow!" Chopper gaped while the rest rolled their eyes.
"Anyway," Sanji interjected. "I'll lock this up somewhere."
"Not in the kitchen," Nami warned. "Someone might eat it by mistake."
"Yes, Nami-swan~" he sang as he went to the men's room.
The rest dispersed too, Vivi and Nami going to bed, Zoro was already dozing off against the mast, and Usopp dragged Chopper to the figurehead saying, "There's still one more crew member you haven't met yet." Luffy chose to go with the last group.
"I didn't know pirates talked to their ships!" Chopper exclaimed after Usopp explained.
"I don't think anyone else does but we do," Usopp grinned as he patted the figurehead. He had one night found out that Luffy talked to Merry, and he
loved the idea. And since then, every time they left an island, he would join Luffy in telling Merry about all the stuff that she had missed.
"Also, this is my spot," Luffy said patting the figurehead. "No one else sits in my spot."
"You're the only one who would think a place where you can easily slip and fall into the sea is a spot to fight over," Usopp rebuked. "Especially since you're a devil fruit user!"
"Eh. Still my spot."
"Right. Anyway, go ahead. Introduce yourself!"
"Hello, Merry," Chopper bowed to the figurehead and Usopp began telling Merry about their adventure on Drum—an embellished version, of course.
—)(—
Late at night, Luffy was lying in the crow's nest thinking about the next steps, still refusing to fall asleep for a little while longer, when Koala called.
"Hey, Cuddly."
"
Hey, just checking up on you. You good now? Gave quite a scare back there."
"Yeah. l just overdid it a bit, that's all."
"
Overdid it? I heard you were poisoned though?"
"Ah, that," Luffy sheepishly laughed before telling her how most of what happened was due to his own recklessness.
"
You goddamn idiot!" Koala suddenly yelled making Luffy flinch. "
I can't believe you! What made y-"
"I already know. I was stupid."
"
You're goddamn right you're stupid! What is wrong with you?! God, you're just like Sabo! Reckless and stupid and-"
Luffy waited for her to finish venting before explaining himself.
"Well, I guess I have been a little frustrated."
"
About what?"
"I'm not progressing fast enough in Haki. I'm only now able to do Hardening properly."
With all the pointers the Kujagave me, I should have been much faster, he added in his mind.
"
Oh… Well, you truly grow stronger in Haki in the middle of stressful battles… Ohhh, I get it now. You pushing yourself while being sick gave the effect of you being in a stressful battle."
"Pretty much. I realized when I was fighting the Giants that my haki hadn't gotten that much stronger for a while now. Like I was in a bottleneck. So this turned out to be a great opportunity to train. And it worked!"
"
Did you just say you fought Giants?"
"Yeah. A couple of Elbaf warriors on Little Garden are locked in a never-ending duel with each other for the past hundred years."
"
Wow… and you didn't get a good fight from them?"
Luffy crossed his arms thoughtfully. "How do I say this? Hmm… I guess the best way to describe it is to say they were
rusty."
"
Rusty?"
"Yeah, you know how it's always better that you fight different types of opponents to grow?"
"
Yes. Fighting the same kind of opponent for a long time stagnates your growth."
"Exactly. Forget fighting the same
kind, those two have been fighting the
same opponent for the last hundred years. They had fallen into routines and patterns which were tailored mostly for each other, so they had trouble suddenly facing another strong opponent like me. They were way too easy to read and I'm very fast, so I didn't let them hit me all that much. Plus, they were already heavily injured and their weapons also broke… So even though I enjoyed the fight, it wasn't enough for me to go all out and push myself."
"
Ah okay."
"After that fight, I took an objective look at my growth and I felt like I was stagnating too because I haven't faced a challenge in a while. So, I pushed myself when I saw the chance."
Koala sighed, still thinking it was too reckless to fight a disease and Mother Nature, but understood where he was coming from.
"
Okay, I get it… So what's next for the future pirate king?"
"Mm… Gotta stop the civil war in Alabasta," Luffy said staring off into the distance.
"
You're gonna take down the King there?"
"No, Cobra's good. As a man and as a King too. It's Crocodile who's manipulating everything and soiling his name."
"
Crocodile is responsible?!"
"Yeah," Luffy nodded when a sudden thought crossed his mind. "Umm… you guys aren't, you know, pouring oil into the civil war, right?"
"
Uhh… no."
"Why did you hesitate?"
"
No no… I just… I don't know everything
that happens in the Army. I kinda remember hearing something about Alabastaa while ago though, but I'm not sure. Let me check."
"Alright."
"
Speaking of war, I think it's about time you tell me about whatever huge war is gonna take place soon that will reveal your relationship with Dragon to the world. You keep avoiding this topic…"
"Hmm… okay, I guess now is as good a time as any," Luffy said and gave her a brief rundown on how Ace going after Teach dominos into the Paramount war.
"Ace's parentage is also a bit special, so they reveal that. And I'm also there to save him, so they reveal mine too, saying both of us shouldn't have been born."
"
Damn those bastards!" Koala raged a bit but soon sighed, calming herself down. "
Okay, so the main trigger for the war is Ace going after Teach, right? Isn't it simple then? Just tell Ace about all this and he'll stop. Do you need help getting in touch with him?"
"No, I'll meet him soon, so that's not the issue. You don't know Ace. There's no way he'll stop going after Teach."
"
C'mon, if he learns that it'll start a war where many of his crewmates might die and even you participate, won't he stop?"
"And let Teach get away with killing his crewmate?" Luffy shook his head. "The Whitebeard crew is like a family. They call their captain as Pops and consider each other as sworn brothers. Ace liked Teach enough that he took him under his division and him turning out to be a lying snake who killed a brother just for a devil fruit? That all the times that they spent together was nothing but a facade? The bastard pretty much pushes all of his trigger buttons! The thought of doing nothing while Teach is out there bolstering his forces wouldn't sit well with him."
"
Hmm… yeah, I completely get it, sure… But still, if someone tells me that my revenge path leads to my precious friends and family getting embroiled in a brutal war, I would definitely reconsider. Maybe wait for the right moment instead of chasing after him?"
Luffy thought about it.
Really thought about it.
Ace, the big brother that he knew who had a fiery temper, definitely wouldn't. But Ace never really showed any weaknesses in front of him. Always presenting himself as the reliable big brother who never wavered.
But the Ace in the story in Marineford who's watching his friends and crew sacrifice themselves for him, the Ace that's struggling with his own self-worth, the part of himself that he never showed to his little brother…
Luffy's fists clenched just thinking about how Ace still didn't think he deserved to live…
"I'll talk to him."
"
At least tell him to have a good escape plan so that he can run if it looks like he's losing."
Luffy laughed. "That's the one thing he'll never do. Ace doesn't run… Honestly, if I tell him he loses a fight, he'll first beat me up for looking down on him, and then he'll be even more motivated to hunt down and defeat Teach just so he can prove that future wrong."
"
… No offence but your brother sounds like a real pain in the ass."
"Yeah well," Luffy chuckled, "everybody's got issues… Anyway, enough about that. I'll see how it goes when I meet him."
"
Alright."
"You got any updates on the Zoan devil fruit I asked for?"
"
Yes actually. We have options too! We got the Dog-Dog Fruit Models - Greyhound and Basenji. Which one do you want?"
"…" To say that Luffy was underwhelmed was an understatement. "Uh… you got anything better?"
"
Oh, do you have a specific fruit in mind?"
"Not really. I was… I guess I was just looking forward to some amazing mythical Zoan fruit."
"
Why didn't you just say so sooner? They were having a two-for-one sale on Mythical Zoans at the grocery store last night, and I just walked right past it."
"Okay, okay, I get it."
"
Idiot," Koala giggled. "
So which one?"
"Uhhh keep it with you for now. I'll have to think about this."
"
Sure, no problem."
"So… how's your day going?"
"
Oh, you wanna know about me? Sure!"
Luffy was expecting to hear about how a person's life in the Revolutionary Army sounds like but Koala began talking about her struggles with teaching her students. He tried to be attentive but when she started talking about how one student was more focused on finding a boyfriend rather than training in Fishman Karate, he dozed off.
A/N: Thanks for reading. Hope you liked it!
If it wasn't clear, I'm using the mechanic that only proficient Haki users can see Haki.
Now, onto my absence.
It's been a really long year for me. I don't want to get into it too much, but I was in jail. (Not prison, wasn't really aware of the difference before.) I didn't kill or hurt anyone. Just a string of stupid decisions one night led a drunk me to crash my car. DUI plus other offences piled up and I was sentenced to 8 months.
I feel so bad for not updating you guys, but at the time, I was so busy with making arrangements for dependents and other responsibilities that I didn't have the time to think about anything else.
Cue 8 months where the major emotions I felt were humiliation, boredom, and loneliness. Not gonna get into details but it took a toll on me mentally.
I was released around three months ago, and have been trying to get my life back in order. Sometimes, you need some sort of 'trigger' to make you seriously reflect on your life and make changes for the better. And I'm choosing this incident to be mine. I'm trying to make a lot of changes and the whole shebang, but I digress.
Anyway, now that we're done with the depressing stuff, one of the first things I did after I came out was read the One Piece chapters! I don't think I've ever let chapters pile up like this since I started reading it more than a decade ago, so I got to read the end of Egghead in a binge. I did miss the weekly wait and discussion which I've realized has become a constant in my life, but binging was fun too. I got stopped in the middle of the Kumaflashback and was out just as Emeth was releasing the knot Haki. God fucking hell, was that so hype! The previous chapter too with the widespread with all the major players! Damn, One Piece is so good!
As for this fic, I keep coming back to write it no matter what. I wrote like 80% of this chapter a year ago and then began writing the rest a couple months ago. I've definitely lost my groove, so I wrote this multiple times, revising and changing stuff again and again.
I'm thinking of rewriting the earlier chapters just so that I can get back into the proper mindset. Not with any major changes plot-wise (except for Bonney's part but it's like two small sections, so it won't be much), but better grammar and dialogue. I haven't decided but if I do do it, two or three days for every revised chapter should be enough. I'll update on it soon.
Lastly, I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart. I've received so many comments and dmsasking about my whereabouts, whether I'm dead or not, and wonderful messages of how you guys miss this story. Honestly, it made me emotional reading all of it. It's thanks to you guys that I still have the motivation to continue uploading. Once again, thank you!
Stay saf-
Also, how good was the One Piece Fan Letter! It made me tear up and I rewatched it again and again.
Stay safe and happy y'all. See you next time!
