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==Chapter 7==

Right now, Franky really, really hated snakes. Or anything with scales, for that matter. Even fish. Before this day, he had nothing against them; he had never so much as seen a snake except in picture books, and since he grew up in a city, he had no desire to go looking for one. After all, he had ships to build and sea kings to (try to) kill!

Of course, now that he was a pirate, visiting an island devoid of all human life (or three) was to be expected. He found that the relative quietness of the jungles (save for the birds' cawing at dawn and dusk) was a somewhat welcome change from the hustle and bustle of the never-sleeping Water 7.

The island that the Strawhats were on was not really devoid of human life; roughly three dozen villagers lived where the ship had docked, and they were the standard Grand Line islanders: friendly and dependable, but with their own strange quirks, often having to do with the geography or fauna of the island. This batch of villagers in particular were happy to help the Strawhats stock up by warning them of what was safe to eat and what wasn't. They had let the rest of the crew wander in without much fuss, but when Franky decided to set out for the western trail in search of good ship-building wood, they had, for some reason, been riled up into a panic.

When he had asked them to explain themselves (none too politely) after they all but dragged him back, they explained how fearsome snakes dwelled in that part of the jungle. Even the most fierce of jungle cats and wild dogs steered clear of it. The snakes, they said, grew as big as twenty meters in length, but size hardly mattered. One bite from even the smallest of them, they claimed, and you might as well be on your way to hell, because there was no cure for their venom. For the next ten minutes, they had all told tales of how a single drop of venom was enough to fall a man in a single minute, and how a tree would turn into a leafless caricature of itself if they so much as touched the tip of their fangs to the trunk.

In fact, they had been so busy with their tall tales (Franky was sure that even Usopp would be impressed with them) that they had failed to notice Franky had given them the slip. Snakes or not, the shipwright decided, there was definitely some good-quality wood on the western trail!

He had just been inspecting a tall oak, tall and strong but not too old, when he had sensed ill intent all around him. Barely a second later, several snakes had launched themselves out of the trees and right at him. He easily strangled two of them with his beefy arms, but the third somehow managed to slip past his defenses and deliver a painful bite to the back. It was odd, Franky thought, that it would bite him there when his arms and chest were all exposed. It was almost as if they knew that his entire front contained nearly no veins to pierce and was almost solid metal...

A sharp pain in his stomach jolted him back to reality. He had been slowly wandering in reverse on the western trail for the last five minutes, but he knew that he had covered only a couple hundred meters at most. The villagers hadn't been bragging (well, maybe a little) - the snakes' venom really was that potent. Even now, he could feel his body beginning to become sluggish. It was probably because his body was half metal that he wasn't pushing up daisies yet.

Wait, what was he thinking?! He was Franky, the SUPER shipwright who would sail to the edge of the world! He couldn't... die... here...

Franky collapsed against the trunk of a massive tree. Great. Now even his vision was starting to fail him. The watery sunlight that pervaded through the leaves made his field of vision even worse, and he began to feel his forehead heating up. Not good. Definitely not good.

SPLAT.

"What the...?" Franky murmured. It took a while to register that something cold and wet had made contact with him, and a few more moments to realize that it was around his mouth area. Instinctively, he swallowed, and was treated to a strange sensation - a mixture of sweetness and bitterness that reminded him of cola.

In the distance, he heard the mischievous hooting of some monkey. Lacking the strength to even get up and yell at it, Franky simply continued to swallow the juices in his mouth (the fruit itself had fallen to the ground). So, this was to be his tomb...

Twice, he made attempts to get up. If he was going to die here, he was certainly not going to make it easy for the venom and simply close his eyes and shrivel up! He picked up the fruit from the ground and crammed it into his mouth. At least he got to eat something interesting on his deathbed...

He struggled once more to get to his feet, and this time, to his surprise, he succeeded.

Now that he thought about it, the pains that had plagued him seemed to be fading...

And the heat coursing through his entire body a few moments ago was cooling...

And his entire body felt like renewed strength had been pumped into it...

He still felt pretty bad, but at least he could walk now. Within the next five minutes, he had finally made it to the edge of the jungle. By now, the effects of the venom had been reduced to a state that was no worse than a hangover (but he could not accurately compare, since he rarely got drunk).

What a weird world they lived in, Franky thought. Snake venom being cured by fruit...

==End of Chapter 7=

Did a dangerous snake bite you? A few sips of grandma's carrot stew will put you right as rain! Accidentally drank from a contaminated stream? The berries growing on the trees along the shore will spruce you back up! Secret syndicate's specially-developed body-destroying poison turn you into a six-year old? Just gulp down some Chinese rice booze!

Sadly, in real life, antidotes to poisons are typically made rather than discovered.

Trope Namer: The anime/manga series Detective Conan (Case Closed in English-speaking countries).