Once they arrived at the ship, Chopper turned to Zoro with far more gravity than the swordsman had ever seen from him before. "Zoro, you're going to have to help me here. Robin usually monitors vital signs and administers anesthesia, and if I need it, Usopp assists. But neither of them are here right now so I'll need you to do both. And on top of that, she'll need a transfusion again, although I know your body can't stand to give up much more blood," he said fearfully. Not only had Zoro already donated far more blood to her than was healthy, but he had lost much more in the battle on top of that.
"Whatever you need, take it. I'll do everything you ask, we just need to save her," Zoro said desperately. Chopper nodded and began first by connecting Zoro's blood to Iris once again, with extra tubing so he could move around more freely to monitor and assist. After bypassing Iris's multiple severed arteries, Chopper asked for a report on her status.
"How's her blood pressure looking?"
"Um… 37/65?"
"You mean 65/37," Chopper corrected. This is going to be rough enough without having to rely on someone who has no idea what he's doing, he thought. But there's no sense in worrying about it; I know he's doing everything he can. Chopper worked tirelessly on Iris's multiple injuries; the newest ones being the most severe, but the grafts on her arms and the pinning in her face needed repairing as well. While Iris's condition warranted the vast majority of his attention, he was worried about Zoro as well; Iris's blood pressure was rising very slowly, even with all the blood Zoro was giving her. Chopper could see his eyes losing focus and he noticed that Zoro was getting pale, although he still wasn't as pale as Iris was. He clamped off the arteries he was working on and walked around to Zoro's side.
"What are you doing? You're not done, even I can see that," Zoro muttered impatiently. Chopper prepared to disconnect the transfusion. "Hey, what are you doing? She needs that! Her blood pressure's still only 77/42. That's lower than the last time you operated!"
"I can't have you passing out on me. I can't finish this surgery alone. She needs your assistance as much as she needs your blood," Chopper explained. "It's dangerous but I'll have to risk it. We don't have any other choices here." Zoro grimaced but silenced himself as the reindeer returned to his surgery; he couldn't argue with him, as much as he wanted to. The swordsman's vision was going in and out and he found he was having difficulty just focusing on Chopper's instructions. He really couldn't give any more blood or he wouldn't be in much better shape than Iris. His perception of time and space warped as the surgery progressed; he began to hear noises on the ship, and thought at one point he might actually be losing his mind. Zoro felt as if they had spent an eternity suturing gashes, suctioning out internal bleeding, and repairing her previous surgical damage before Chopper finally announced the conclusion of his work. "There. All her organs and arteries are back where they should be and working. Now it's up to her to keep fighting and come back to us," he said.
Zoro let out a sigh of relief. "How long have we been working?"
"Eleven hours. You did really well, Zoro, thank you. She wouldn't have made it this far without you," he smiled. He was eager to go up and let the others know that they were done; he had heard them return at some point during the surgery and guessed that Robin had prevented anyone from entering the infirmary until this point. He was grateful; any interruptions would have disrupted his concentration and he could have easily made a fatal mistake, although he was a bit concerned that the ship was still anchored. What happened to the navy?
"Don't thank me yet. She's not awake yet," Zoro said warily, watching her rest for a few moments more before his vision fuzzed out and a look of confusion crossed his face as he saw stars; the last thing he heard was Chopper's voice calling his name as he felt his own body give out on him and collapse on top of Iris.
While Chopper and Zoro took care of Iris, back at the trade center six Straw Hats looked up at the building that was now in a state of shambles from their attacks. "Usopp, are the explosives ready?" Luffy asked.
Usopp grinned. "Already planted and ready to blow on your signal. But where the hell is Nami? We can't wait here forever."
As if on cue, the red head sprinted out of the building carrying at least half a dozen burlap bags stuffed to their brims with berries. "There's still some inside! We can't blow it up yet until we get the rest!"
"Nami, we don't have time! The navy's regrouping and they'll probably bring friends! Isn't this enough for you?" Usopp asked impatiently.
"Wait!" a voice called from inside the building. Nami turned around protectively, only to see four guards rushing towards them carrying the additional money bags from the vault. "You forgot some," they added, dropping it next to her with the other bags. It was then that the crew noticed their armbands. "There isn't enough cash in the vault to thank you for what you've done. We were forced to guard it before, but thanks to you, we don't have to worry about that anymore," they finished, grinning from ear to ear. The expressions of gratitude disappeared, however, when they noticed the crowd approaching the Straw Hats from the rear. Luffy turned around.
"You four, go find someplace to hide. We'll take care of protecting our money," he said, winking at them. They only returned his grin and took off down a side street away from the battle.
"Straw Hat! Hold it!" The arbiter of Liberty Island was now addressing Luffy.
"What do you want? We've got a building to blow up."
"Are you sure you want to do that? The navy's already here to haul you all away, do you want to add more to your crimes?" the arbiter challenged.
"Yup, I'm good with that. Besides, they won't be able to haul us off so easily," Luffy answered, not hesitating for a second with a broad smirk covering his face. He cracked his knuckles in anticipation of a new fight. "Stop us if you can."
The rest of the Straw Hats turned around, the same air of confidence and determination emanating from them all. The arbiter and the slave owners stared at them in anger and incredulity that the threat of the navy wasn't enough to deter them from taking the building down; the arbiter himself beginning to tremble, whether it was out of fear or rage wasn't completely clear, but the crew suspected that it was terror. A vice-admiral leaned over and whispered something to him, and he snapped his head to the officer with even more disbelief and fury. "You… what? But, we need-"
"I don't give one solitary shit about your slave trade. We're here for the sole purpose of capturing the Straw Hats. For the tip that they had landed on your island, we're grateful. But whether we stop them from blowing up the building is no concern of mine. This is Liberty Island, it's under no protection by the navy," the officer said out loud.
Luffy turned to Usopp and nodded, and the sniper flipped the switch on the trigger. A muffled rumbling could be heard coming from underneath the building, and grew louder as tremors were felt throughout the ground. The internal structure of the building could be seen collapsing through the holes in the exterior, and through the falling debris fiery explosions rose up loudly and demolished the remaining walls, completely leveling the building. The slave owners and arbiter watched on with shock and despair at the complete annihilation of the heart of the economic center of Liberty Island. The vice-admirals reformed their line preparing to attack, but the navy officers, the Straw Hats, and the slave owners of Liberty Island noticed something unusual before their attack could be made.
Faces began to peek out from alleys and buildings around the trade center, then hesitantly people began to exit them with the light of hope on their faces as they watched the last remaining fragments of the slave trade burn away brightly. The slave owners first noticed it; that the people exiting the surrounding buildings all had gold armbands clasped around their wrists. Several owners pulled out small remotes attempting to activate the timers, and the Straw Hats grinned smugly; not a single armband began a countdown. The fiery signal rising from the center of the business district was quickly drawing a large crowd of people who, until only a few minutes ago, had been slaves to the island. The slaves approaching the billowing smoke and fire seemed to have no end, and as they began to realize that the owners no longer had control of the armbands, many took up arms and advanced on the owners, the officers, and the arbiter. The Straw Hats were amazed at how quickly they outnumbered and overpowered the navy and the owners, driving them back to the harbor and the warships anchored there.
The Straw Hats smiled on happily; they had successfully deactivated the system, blown up the slave trade center, and freed thousands of human beings on the island. Of even greater importance, they now had about a dozen bags of berries to add to their cargo. "Looks like our work is done here," Sanji observed.
"Well, we ought to hit the road, then. Even if the navy supports the slaves' freedom, they'll still hunt us down. They'll probably try to reclaim the money," Nami thought out loud, hugging a bag of berries close. The rest of the crew nodded and gathered up the money, and then began to head back to the harbor.
"I wonder if Iris is okay and if Chopper was able to get her put back together!" Sanji worried aloud.
"Of course he did, and of course she is. They're both part of our crew, right?" Luffy smiled confidently.
Arriving at the Thousand Sunny, they saw Zoro and Chopper working on Iris's surgery. Robin stopped any of them from interrupting; she could see clearly how much Chopper was concentrating on the surgery and as much as he probably could have used her help, she knew it wouldn't be wise to risk the distraction of someone entering the infirmary at this point. She then realized that there was a bigger problem than the crew interrupting the surgery; they needed to sail out and were probably going to fall under attack. The noise and the tremors would be far more disruptive to the surgery than even Luffy would be.
The dilemma had dawned on Nami as well. "How are we going to get out of the harbor? We can't sail out while Chopper's still working on Iris," she asked with urgency to the crew gathered on the deck.
Franky looked into the distance beyond them back at the island. "Looks like we may not have to worry about that," he said, as he observed a huge crowd of the former slaves marching throughout the harbor. Large groups broke off and planted themselves on each of the docks, most with weapons, some with fishing rods, towels, and beach chairs.
A burly gentleman who appeared to be leading the procession approached the Sunny. "Gee, it feels so good to be able to walk around and do whatever we want now! Most of us have never just enjoyed hanging out by the docks fishing and taking in the sunshine. Straw Hat, you wouldn't mind if some of us came up and lounged around on your ship, would you? Being on the water is so peaceful, don't you think? Too bad two of your crew can't be up here to enjoy it, I heard they got into an accident of some sort? Hope they'll be okay soon," he said, with a devious grin on his face.
Robin grinned; this solved their dilemma. The slaves truly were grateful and weren't about to let the navy take down their saviors, and the marines couldn't possibly fire on a ship that had civilians aboard. "Sure, take over the deck for a little while! We weren't quite ready to leave yet, anyway," Luffy answered, graciously inviting them up the gangplank. Several sprawled out on the deck's lawn, camped out on top of the galley, and ascended the crow's nest to see the view.
Robin and Usopp waited just outside the door of the infirmary while the doctor continued his work on Iris. After several hours, they finally heard Chopper announce the end of the surgery and Zoro answer him, only to be followed by an alarmed shriek from Chopper. Robin and Usopp burst into the infirmary to see Chopper lifting Zoro's unconscious body off of Iris on the operating table.
"What happened?!" Usopp asked urgently.
"He's donated too much blood and his injuries are too severe for him to have been assisting me like he's been doing, but I couldn't have done it without him! He needs to rest as much as Iris does. Get Franky; I don't think there's enough blood between these two for even one whole person, let alone both of them." Robin dashed back upstairs to get Franky as Usopp helped Chopper lay Zoro down on a cot and then gently transferred Iris to one next to his as well.
Chopper quickly took a few pints of blood from Franky, who stated that he could easily donate more if needed. "No!" Chopper argued. "I'm done with treating you all for anemia right now! I will not allow a single person on this ship to donate blood to the point of passing out anymore! This much will help them plenty. Now all we can do is believe in their strength to recover." Franky knew enough to let it be, and let Chopper do what he needed to do to help Zoro and Iris best.