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, 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 not to 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 as long as possible, and when it runs 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 several 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 up its mind and turning 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 who 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.