Warm Memories and Brotherly Bonds

by RoseDragonWitch

In the middle of some strange ruins, Luffy disappeared. As the rest of the Straw Hats try to find him, they end up travelling through his memories and are trapped in the past, with no idea to how to get out or how to find their captain. But not all things are meant to be seen… how will they take to seeing what had Luffy been hiding from them?

21. Odd Numbers and Strange Days

Chapter 21: Odd Numbers and Strange Days

"Now that's something that you really don't see every day," Franky said, his eyes wide as Chopper and Brook screamed from behind him.

"BUT THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" Chopper yelled, pointing wildly at the creature, "DINOSAURS DIED OUT MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO! HOW COULD THEY…?"

"Believe me, we were as surprised as you are," Nami said firmly. "I still don't get how this is all…?"

"Listen," Robin answered as Vivi started to talk again. She spoke about how this island somehow stayed frozen in time. Luffy looked at her and she explained that the climax must've stayed like this since ancient times.

"Can that really happen?" Brook asked in amazement.

"Given the circumstances, I would have to agree," Robin answered calmly. "And that creature's proof. It's impossible to say for certain… however, I believe that this would be the most likely reason. It's truly a fascinating thing to see…"

"Have you been here?" Nami asked her in surprise.

"Once," she admitted. "But merely to investigate. I have to admit that it was a marvel to see… in one way, it's an archeologist dream."

"Yeah, if you don't get eaten that is," Usopp whispered as Luffy's laughter rang out and he stretched out his arms so that he could hang onto the dinosaur's neck. "DINOSAUR!" he screamed joyfully.

"Of course he would be happy to see that," Zoro said shaking his head.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Vivi screamed in terror.

"Actually, those are plant-eaters," Robin stated calmly. "The Brachiosaurus are strictly herbivores."

"Oh really?" Chopper asked in relief. "That's good to know. So Luffy isn't in danger."

"However, just because they don't eat meat doesn't mean that they still won't kill you," Robin added and Chopper's face turned a little blue at the thought as he stared at her.

"Robin, why do you love doing this to us?" Usopp asked, "Can you at least keep your morbid thoughts to yourself?"

She shrugged back as Luffy went jumping up to the dinosaur's head. He was standing up and looking around eagerly.

"How does he do it?" Nami asked in amazement, "I mean… turn even something dangerous like this into almost a game?"

"Luffy's a very complicated person to figure out," Robin said softly, "But… at the same time… he's not that hard at all. He's reckless and wild… but he's always had that childlike personality. It's like he hasn't grown out of that state of mind."

"Yeah," Usopp said, but he couldn't help but feel a little uneasy at that. Sure, Luffy was still like that in a lot of ways, but their Luffy wasn't exactly like the same person he was here. Of course, after travelling the Grand Line all this time, and everything they've been through together, he supposed that they shouldn't be surprised. He shook his head, pushing it from his mind as Luffy began yelling down at Vivi that he found a place to have their lunch.

"I really hope that he didn't mean on top of a dinosaur's head," Sanji said in a warning voice. "I don't care how nice the view is, that would ruin the taste!"

Vivi seemed to agree, but for a different reason. "It's dangerous up there! Come down already!" she yelled—like a mother would to a child who had climbed too high in a tree, "It may seem nice but it's still a dinosaur!"

"We have something in common! We both love to eat!" Luffy waved down happily.

"And imagine trying to fill his belly," Franky laughed.

"Hey, I bet that Luffy eats more than any dinosaur," Sanji said knowingly. After all he was the one who was stuck feeding that bottomless pit for a stomach. Luffy called out that there was a mountain full of holes and that they should go and check it out.

Vivi was continuing to yell at him to come down as he was trying to get the dinosaur to take him to that mountain. The poor thing howled in pain when Luffy turned its head sharply, the noise it made was so loud that it shook the land and soon dozens of other dinosaurs—much larger ones—appeared from out of nowhere.

"Oh, look how small it is. So that must mean that it's still just a baby," Robin commented as the others all looked up at it with open mouths.

"Imagine the meal I could make from just one of those things," Sanji said softly to himself.

"If I had run into one of those things I would've won that contest with no problems," Zoro said to himself, thinking of the hunting contest that he was still convinced that he won.

"Yeah, too bad you lost though," Sanji informed him.

"In your dreams," Zoro snapped back. "I won that contest and we both know it!"

"Please! My dino was clearly way bigger than yours!" Sanji yelled at him.

"Contest?" asked Franky in confusion.

"By the time that we got here we were really low on food," Nami said annoyed, "No thanks to Luffy… anyway, these two morons decided to go out and hunt dinosaurs for food."

"Which ended in a draw!" added Usopp, hoping that they understood that.

"A DRAW!?" they both yelled at him.

"They were both the same size you idiots!" Nami yelled at them.

"Please, mine was inches bigger!" Zoro disagreed, and he looked ready to go into a fight when Luffy was now fighting with the dinosaurs. They were all going at him, looking like a tangle of snakes above them as he slid down their necks like slides… jumping from head to head with laughter—until he was finally eaten by the biggest one that was covered in scars.

"That idiot!" Usopp and Nami yelled as Chopper and Brook screamed.

"Luffy was eaten!" Chopper yelled, looking ready to panic.

"That must be the head of the herd," Robin stated calmly, looking at it with curiosity. "That would explain the scars."

"I knew that I should've sent one of you with him!" Nami snapped at the others. But as they watched, some of the Straw Hats screamed when they saw the giant blade come flying out of nowhere and lobbed the neck of the beast off so suddenly that Luffy popped right out of the neck as it fell.

Chopper and Brook hugged each other as they screamed in terror when they saw the giant hand appear and caught Luffy like he was an action figure.

"That's…!" Sanji yelled.

"IT'S MASTER DORRY!" Usopp screamed in joy, tears in his eyes as he stared at him. The giant's head appeared and they all saw him. A well-built giant with a beard so long, that it went past his waist; he was dressed in Viking attire with a helmet that went right over his eyes. Luffy was standing on the giant's palm as the giant began to laugh.

"Gegyagyagyagya!" Dorry laughed, "What fun! That was glorious! Watching the likes of you grapple with long-necks is the most entertainment I've had in quite awhile! You are my first visitor in a long while!"

"Wow! You're huge! Are you human?!" Luffy asked, without a trace of fear.

"Really, anyone can tell that these guys are giants, Luffy!" Sanji said in annoyance.

"Human? What a joke!" Dorry laughed as he heaved his sword up on his shoulder, "Greatest Warrior of all Elbaf! I am Dorry!"

"These are the two you were talking about, Usopp?" Franky asked, staring at Dorry in amazement, "He fought with another warrior for a hundred years."

"Yes, these two are legendary," Robin answered for him, "They were pirates about a hundred years ago before they disappeared. Most assumed that they were dead."

"Well, they were wrong!" Usopp proclaimed proudly. "You are all looking at the legendary Dorry! A brave warrior of Elbaf! A true warrior of the sea of honor and pride!"

"Really?" Chopper asked, as if making sure. "So he's… not a bad person?"

"Are you kidding?!" Usopp asked eagerly, pointing up at him, "He helped to save us when we left this place! He and the warrior Brogy are so strong that they cut the sea itself!"

"AWESOME!" Chopper cried out in astonishment as Brook and Franky stared up at the giant with new admiration.

"Well, I guess I won't disagree with that," Zoro said, watching with new interest.

"Well, hi! I'm Luffy! And I'm a pirate!" Luffy answered as if he hadn't noticed that there was anything wrong.

"I'm beginning to think that nothing fazes him for long," Franky said lightly.

Dorry laughed again as he said, "A pirate? Well, good for you my friend!"

"Awww… he's already made a new friend," Robin laughed.

"He's always like that," Nami said shaking her head, but it was in a fond way. "He's very charming when he wants to be."

"WHAT?!" Sanji gasped at her, horrified at the thought.

"I didn't mean it that way," Nami sighed in annoyance, "I just mean that his positive attitude is very catchy. It's hard not to enjoy yourself when he gets like that even if he is an idiot."

"By the way," Luffy said, pointing down to Vivi, who was trying to get Carue—who seemed to have fainted—to wake up so that they could get out of here. "I'd like you to meet Vivi and Carue! Say hi to Dorry!" Luffy added, waving down at them.

Vivi was looking angry with him and yelled back from the ground, "That's great, Luffy! Just can't shut up!"

"No, he can't," they all agreed as Brook laughed happily.

Dorry just laughed again and invited them to his home in a good natured way as he bent down and picked Vivi and Carue up—both of them screaming fearfully as Luffy laughed. They were all enjoying this and were cheered up when the fading memory appeared again quickly. They spotted the mountain that Luffy talked about before and Dorry had already thrown an enormous chunk of meat to Luffy while the two were laughing.

"Oh, Luffy must be in heaven for that," Franky laughed as Luffy sat up on top of it, and was already making a head start on it.

"You sure knew how to cook, giant!" Luffy laughed up at him.

"Why thanks for the compliment! Your pirate goodies are good too, my little friend," Dorry said happily as he laughed with them, "Although the portions are a little small."

"Well, at least he has good taste," Sanji said proudly.

"What do you expect? He's been stuck living on an island with dinos and who knows what else. And he considers them good food… don't think that's a compliment," Zoro said with a shrug and soon the two were in another fight.

"Just ignore them," Nami said as the two began going at each other's throats as Luffy went on speaking, enjoying the meant, "Yeah, I know what you mean. But the chief on my ship made it special for this trip so I'm glad you liked it otherwise I'll have to beat you up!"

"Did he just threaten a giant?" Nami asked, rolling her eyes.

"I believe so," Robin said good-naturedly as Dorry stopped in mid-laugh and demanded, "Was that a threat, shorty?!"

Vivi and Carue freeze up in terror before he then started laughing, slapping his knee, "I like you little pirate! You're really funny!"

"Wow, they're becoming fast friends," Franky said impressed.

"Yes, almost as if they were two old friends instead of strangers who just met! Yohohoho!" Brook said joyfully. He liked this Dorry right away. It was a very interesting conversation from that point on as Luffy then asked Dorry why he was living here all on his own, and Dorry explained about how he and another giant named Brogy had been battling here for a hundred years. How that, in their land, when a fight breaks out and neither side yields, their god would then decide who is right of winning the duel and their life… so they had been battling each other all this time but there has yet to be a winner.

Vivi however couldn't believe the reason for that and was asking if there was possibly any hatred between the two after all this time, but Dorry just laughed as she continued to look confused. Suddenly, the volcano went off and Dorry was getting to his feet, a flash in his eyes and as they looked up at him—all of them feeling the surge of energy go through them. Dorry picked up his sword and shield, heading off to the battleground as he quickly explained how that volcano was their marker—they must rush off to fight whenever it erupts. Vivi tried to stop them, telling him that it was senseless to keep fighting and asking why he hated the other giant so much, but Luffy told her to stop, that this wasn't anything like that.

"He's right!" Usopp said firmly, "That's got nothing to do with hatred! They're best friends! This is all about honor!"

"You forget that she's a princess, so she hasn't grown up the warrior's life," Zoro said suddenly, and they looked back to see that the two had finished their fighting for now, but they were both glaring at the other. "So when she hears about fighting, naturally she assumes that it's all about hatred."

"But then… how did she intend to stop the rebellion without fighting?" Brook asked confused.

"That was a problem that she had to learn," Zoro stated, "Because the way that she planned to stop it wasn't going to work. She thought that they could stop it from happening without anyone getting hurt."

"But that's…?" Franky began, but Dorry was speaking again.

"You're right," Dorry agreed with a firm smile, "This is about honor! I had forgotten…" he then went running off towards the battle, "Our reason for our brawl!"

And at that moment they felt it—an enormous shockwave that came through the entire island. It was so great that they could all feel it, despite it being a memory. It sent a few chills up their spines and even Luffy was knocked backwards by it.

"Amazing!" Brook whispered, truly amazed by the strength these two had, "What a fight! One can only dream of such a battle!"

Usopp felt tears in his eyes once again. "I know! And that's what I'm going to be someday! Just wait and see!"

"Huh?" Chopper asked in confusion. "You mean you want to be a giant?"

Usopp glared at him as the others laughed. "THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT AT ALL!" he yelled as he breathed hard, mastering his temper quickly, "I mean I want to be a great warrior! Like them and the other warriors of Elbaf! It's been my dream to go there ever since I heard about it here!"

He stared up at the sky as he remembered seeing the fierce battle. When he first met them, they had heavily inspired his dream to seek out the land of Elbaf and train with Giants to become a great warrior of the sea. They were like heroes to them and when he fought to protect their honor, it was one of the few moments that he showed absolute bravery and confidence when he was against a strong opponent!

They watched and soon the battle ended… in a draw.

When it ended, they were able to get a good look at the giant Brogy. Like Dorry, he too dressed in Viking attire, complete with a red helmet with two horns. Brogy, himself, had a blond beard shaped like an axe's blade, beady eyes, pig-like nose—but he looked to be just as good-natured as Dorry was as he tossed him several barrels.

Dorry had rejoined Luffy, Vivi and Carue as he explained that he had seen Usopp and Nami with Brogy and that he thanked them for the drinks.

"Oh no," Usopp said, looking at the barrels nervously.

"Yeah, that was some good alcohol," Zoro said tragically.

"It was a trap you bonehead!" Usopp yelled at him.

"Trap?" Sanji asked in confusion as Vivi began asking Dorry if it really took a year for the Log to reset.

"A YEAR?!" Brook yelled out in amazement, "Why does it take so long?!"

"The Log is usually different for each island," Robin stated calmly. "Some are longer than others… for some islands the time is short. Though most is only a couple days, Little Garden probably takes the longest of any island I know of."

"Still… a year? I think it might be safer to just leave," Franky said, looking around at the dense jungle and thought of what else could be lurking here.

"If we didn't get our hands on another Eternal Pose to Alabasta, I don't think we would've had any other choice," Nami sighed. "It's a good thing that we did get one."

Meanwhile, Dorry admitted that it was the truth to Vivi, and also informed them that no human had ever survived on the island for the full year. He told them that some become dinosaur food, others have died from heat or starvation… some of them have even been dumb enough to attack him and Brogy. Dorry ended by stating he supposed that an entire year just seemed to be too long for humans.

Vivi was looking stricken, telling him that her country could be destroyed even if they could survive the year.

"She's right," Luffy added, "plus I'd get bored here after a year. Isn't there anything else we can do about it old man?"

"I was already bored of this place after the first few hours," Zoro yawned. "But I had to admit, there was no shortage of food."

"Well, I know I wasn't going to stay there for a whole stinkin' year!" Nami said firmly.

Dorry thought it over as he put the barrels down and admitted that there was another Eternal Pose on the island, but that led them to Elbaf… and that was basically what he and Brogy had been fighting over this whole time. He stated that they could try to take it from them if they wanted. But Luffy shook his head, telling him that they weren't trying to get to Elbaf, but to Alabasta. Vivi agreed, saying that they had to stay on the course that would lead them back to her home.

Dorry thought it over again and stated that they could try sailing randomly… if they were lucky, they'd get somewhere sooner or later. They all thought about it before Luffy burst out laughing.

"Maybe so!" he laughed, "We may actually get there!"

Dorry began laughing with him, along with the Straw Hats. For some reason, the whole thing did seem funny now that they mentioned it.

"Now that I think about it, someone did leave the island once before his log was reset!" Dorry confessed as he roared with laughter.

"And what happened to him?" Luffy asked, through tears of mirth.

"How should I know that?!" Dorry stated and soon, Luffy was practically rolling on the ground from laughter.

"I'm sure he was able to get to the next island!" he said, though it was clear that he didn't believe it as Dorry agreed just the same as they enjoyed themselves.

"Hey, what's wrong with Vivi?" Chopper asked, wiping away the tears of laughter in his eyes. Carue was looking close to laughing with the other two, but stopped when he saw the outraged look on Vivi's face. As if she couldn't understand just what was so funny.

"She's upset, and wants to get back home as soon as possible," Brook offered as he also began to calm down.

"Yes, but unless she had a way off the island, there wasn't much that could be done," Zoro stated.

"Now that's harsh, Zoro," Usopp said firmly, his smile fading a little.

"Just stating the truth," Zoro answered.

"Watch it, Moss Head!" Sanji snapped. "Don't you dare insult Vivi!"

"And her getting upset over everything is making a heck of a difference isn't it?" Zoro answered and they all looked at him. "I get the fact that she was in a hurry and I don't blame her for that. But getting ready to bite our heads off for every little thing wasn't going to help matters."

Nami stopped and thought that over. "This isn't about me," Zoro said, "I'm just saying that even though Vivi had a lot of guts and determination, she had to learn more about the world if she wanted to do something about it. Determination will only get you so far if you don't have a way to back it up or, in this case, know a way to go. Otherwise getting angry is just a waste of time and energy."

But just then, what sounded like an explosion came from within Dorry's stomach. He let out a strangle yell, his eyes rolling into the back of his head and smoke began to billow out of his mouth like the volcano. Most of the crew freaked out as Luffy let out a horrified yell as he jumped up to see for himself. He was yelling at Vivi what happened, stating that was the same alcohol they had on the ship.

"What's going on here?" Chopper yelled, running forward to get a good look at Dorry with his own eyes.

"The barrels of alcohol were bombs!" Usopp yelled, staring up at Dorry. "That's what happened! And when he drank them they went off!"

"How horrible! What happened?!" Brook yelled as Franky cracked his knuckled together furiously.

"Who would dare do something like this?!" he demanded, glaring around, as if hoping someone would come out so that he could punch them.

"It was Baroque Works again!" Nami explained.

"And the only person who could've done something like this would've been Mr. 5," Robin declared, thinking about him. "He ate the Bomb Bomb Fruit I recall. In other words… he's an exploding man."

"Exploding…?" Brook gasped.

"Yeah, you get weirdos in all shapes and sizes," Sanji stated.

"You mean that same guy we saw Luffy and Zoro beat up before back at Whiskey Peak?!" Chopper asked.

"Yeah, that was the same guy," Usopp said angrily, still furious that someone would dare get in the way of such an honorable duel. And he was outraged when Vivi suggested that the Brogy was responsible for this.

"WHAT?!" yelled Usopp at her, "HOW COULD YOU EVER THINK SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!"

Luffy obviously felt the same way. His eyes turned dangerous as he jumped down and yelled right in her face, "HOLD IT! WERE YOU EVEN WATCHING THEM?! THEY FIGHT THEIR DUELS HONORABLY! NO WAY HE'D DO THAT!"

"LUFFY HOW DARE YOU YELL AT A LADY LIKE THAT!" Sanji screamed.

"WOULD YOU ALL JUST STOP SCREAMING?!" screamed out Nami, "YOU'RE ALL GIVING ME A HEADACHE!"

"Alright then who did do it?!" Vivi demanded just as Dorry got back to his feet, reaching for his sword. His eyes were so angry they were now practically glowing red.

"What's… what's he doing?" Chopper asked, now suddenly terrified. There was no trace of the friendly, gracious giant here. There was cold fury practically radiating from him. Blood spurt from his mouth and Chopper screamed, trying to yell at Dorry to lie down so that he could take a good look at him.

"This isn't good," Zoro stated, seeing where this was going.

"What? He doesn't really think that Luffy-san was the one who did it does he?!" Brook cried in worry.

"It's only natural," Robin answered for him. "There were no problems before they arrived. And if Brogy would never do something like this…? Then it would only make sense that he would believe that they were behind this. After all, they already admitted that the barrels had been on their ship."

"But how did those barrels become bombs in the first place?!" Franky yelled.

"I'm guessing that Mr. 5 must've done something to them before they even left Whiskey Peak," Robin shrugged. "It's impossible to know for sure unless we ask the man himself, and as far as I know, he's dropped off the face of the earth."

"You strangers!" Dorry growled, breathing hard, "It wasn't Brogy! No way… no warrior of Elbaf would dare so… who else is there to suspect on this island then? BUT YOU!"

"Yep, can't say that I argue with that logic," Zoro confessed.

"Damn it Luffy, you better do something to keep Vivi-chan safe!" Sanji yelled as Luffy glared up at the giant. Carue screamed and went running off as Vivi told Luffy that they should get out of here. But Luffy wouldn't move, declaring that maybe talking wouldn't change anything, but running wasn't going to do any good either.

"Hell ya," Zoro nodded approvingly.

"He's not really going to fight him is he?!" Chopper yelled.

"Yeah, he's injured!" Nami yelled as well, pointing up at him. "And even if he wasn't he's still a giant!"

"Fighting is the only way," Sanji agreed dully. "If that idiot can show him that he fights honorably, then he'd know that he'd never do something like this."

"Are they crazy!?" screamed out Chopper horrified as he tried to get a good look at Dorry's wounds, but it was hard since he couldn't even touch anything. Luffy passed Vivi his hat and told her to stand back while he took care of things. She stared at him as she took the hat and asked, "You're going… to fight Dorry?"

"It's that, or have Dorry-san come after them," Brook said, "And if they run, it will only make it look like they're guilty!"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures!" Franky agreed. "Let's see how this works out."

Chopper could only stand back and looked on fearfully. Luffy cracked his knuckles and admitted that he didn't want to, but he had to settle this. Vivi shook her head as she looked to Dorry and tried to reason with him that they weren't the ones who did this and that he was in no shape to fight.

But he was beyond listening as he swung his sword, blood coming from his mouth so that Chopper cried out. The fight began and as it went on, it soon Chopper and Usopp were both cringing, half angry and half appalled at what Luffy was doing. But Dorry wasn't done yet as he finally slammed his foot down on top of Luffy.

However, this little fight seemed to be too much for him as he held onto his stomach, falling to his knees and finally passing out when he hit the ground. Crying out, Chopper went running over to where his head lay as the rest of them went to look at Luffy.

Luffy was laying in the boot print, gasping for breath. Dirty and bruised, but otherwise looked relatively unharmed. Nami sighed in relief, "Thank goodness…"

"Luffy should be glad that it ended when it did. If Dorry was at his full fighting power, I doubt he'd be coming out of this as well as he did," Robin stated as Vivi came running to him, asking if he was alright. But Luffy brushed off his own minor injuries and instead asked about Dorry as he took his hat back.

"He should be ok," she said softly looking at him. "Guess you were right about fighting," she admitted, "He seems a lot calmer now."

"Yes, hopefully he'll see now that they had no reason to fight," Brook said softly as Usopp went over to Chopper and asked if it was that serious.

Chopper had a hard time trying to look over him like this, but he looked up to answer him. "He suffered a lot of damage to his stomach," he answered, "And most likely to his digestive system… but it doesn't look like he ruptured anything… he should be alright if he gives his wounds to heal."

Usopp sighed. He had always wondered about that. Though he knew that it would take a lot more than that to kill Dorry off, he had been worried that these might've been permanent injuries.

Luffy put his hat back on and snapped, "Well, I'm not! The old guy was right about one thing anyway! The other giant would never do anything like this! But I know that our friends would never do it either! They aren't like that!"

"Here! Here!" Brook cheered on firmly.

"Yeah…" Vivi said softly, "But then…?"

"There must be somebody else on this island!" Luffy decided without hesitation.

"I'm surprised that he was able to figure that out on his own," Nami said impressed.

"I noticed that," Robin answered with half a chuckle, "Luffy also has a habit of saying things with a lot more weight and, occasionally, wisdom than he realizes without even thinking or meaning to."

"I guess even Luffy can use his brain once in awhile," Sanji stated thoughtfully as the volcano went off again. At the noise, Dorry's eyes opened and he looked ready to go off.

"NO!" Chopper screamed, "HE NEEDS TO REST! HE COULD GET HIMSELF KILLED IF HE GOES OUT TO FIGHT!"

"But sometimes a man has to it!" Usopp said, his heart constricting painfully watching how brave this was. "Even if it means risking his life he can't turn down a battle."

"His stupid pride could've gotten him killed!" Nami yelled.

Breathing hard, still having blood on the side of his mouth, Dorry tried to get up, but he doubled over in pain, still holding onto his stomach. Luffy tried to stop him as Vivi pleaded for him to rest. But he wouldn't listen. He claimed that he was a warrior and that if he was going to die, he was going to die as a warrior no matter what—even as blood erupted from inside him. With a great effort, he managed to get back to his feet.

Still breathing hard, Dorry made to run off. But before he did, he took hold of the mountainside and picked it up so that he could drop it on Luffy—to keep him from moving. Screaming loudly, Luffy fought to pull himself out. But Dorry said softly to himself, "Forgive me, Elbaf."

Luffy stopped as he watched Dorry go over to pick up his battered sword again. "It's been over a century… since we started the battle… this duel. Injured or not… I cannot allow myself to run away from this fight!" He held his sword tightly as he straightened up and Chopper was now screaming for him to lay down before he made his injuries worse.

"To do so would be like running away from the title 'warrior'. And if I was no longer a warrior of Elbaf…" Dorry stated grimly, "then I would no longer know who I am." He looked down and added, "I'm sorry I suspected you of causing the explosion."

"Well, he doesn't think that we did it anymore and that's good, but he should just tell Brogy what happened and just postponed the fight until he recovered!" Nami said anxiously. Though she knew that he survived, it was still a hard thing to see.

"Good luck trying to stop him like that," Sanji said, as Luffy was now struggling to pull his body out from under the mountain.

"That's got to be painful," Franky winced at the thought of having a mountain on top of him.

"I guess it doesn't take anything less than a mountain to keep Luffy from doing something stupid," Nami said softly.

Dorry sighed as he said that he knew now that this was judgment from Elbaf… their god of war. Luffy was looking furious as he screamed out, "LISTEN TO ME! GOD'S PROTECTIONS AND JUDGMENTS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT'S GOING ON! IF A GOD TOLD YOU TO JUST RUN OFF AND DIE WOULD YOU?! SOMEONE'S INTERFERED WITH YOUR DUEL!"

"I agree!" Brook yelled. "This is no longer a fair fight! It's obvious that someone set this up!"

"Besides, what god is there?" Zoro asked with a yawn.

"Luffy's on a roll today," Franky said, "He's actually making sense here."

"Don't worry, he'll make up for that," Nami sighed, remembering how the moron only ended up helping that Mr. 3 jerk in turning them into wax statues even faster and how he kept getting stuck under that painter girl's color traps. Those weren't going to be pleasant to watch.

"But why is he so upset about this?" Chopper asked softly, looking at Luffy's enraged expression. Zoro followed his gaze and explained for him.

"The one thing that Luffy does not allow is someone or something getting involved in another person's fight," he told him, remembering his own battle with Mihawk and how Luffy held Johnny and Yosaku back.

"Even if it means forced to watch a friend die?!" Chopper yelled.

"If you can't watch it, then cover your eyes," he answered as Dorry stopped for a moment and listened to what Luffy was saying.

"AND A DUEL THAT'S BEEN INTERFERED WITH ISN'T A FAIR FIGHT ANYMORE!" Luffy screamed out at the top of his lungs. "ISN'T THAT RIGHT?!"

"SILENCE!" Dorry screamed out, sounding angry again. "What could you possibly know about this? You're a human who can't have been living on this earth for more than two decades! How can you possibly hope to understand the ways of the warriors of Elbaf?!"

"You don't need to be from Elbaf to know when something's not right!" Nami said in frustration. She didn't think it was possible, but the bigger that men are, the more stubborn they get.

And without another word, Dorry kept walking with Luffy beating his fists around like a child having a tantrum—trying to get the rock off him—screaming for Dorry to let him go. Vivi just stared at him, trying to calm him down—the look on her face clearly asked why he was so upset.

"Who was it?" Luffy demanded angrily, "Who would dare to interfere? I'll kill them!"

"Wow, he hasn't looked this angry since you two fought at Whiskey Peak," Franky said in awe. "I almost feel bad for the jerks who were behind this."

"Well, you can't say they didn't deserve it," Usopp said angrily as he remembered everything the guys who did dare to interfere in this.

"So if those bombs came from that Mr. 5 guy, does that mean that he was here with that Valentine's girl?" Franky asked.

"They were sent here," Robin agreed, "As well as two others. Mr. 3 and his partner Miss Goldenweek."

"They sure gave us problems," Nami sighed, shivering at how close they were to becoming whatever that Mr. 3 guy thought art was.

"Why? What did they do?" Brook asked but a familiar voice suddenly sounded off behind them, screaming for Luffy. Past Usopp came bursting through the trees, tripped, bounced on a rock before crashing right into the mountain.

"Quite the entrance, as usual," Sanji teased and Usopp sighed.

"What? You're not complaining about us teasing you anymore?" Sanji asked.

"I've gotten used to it," he said darkly.

"Shame," Sanji said, "You complaining was half the fun.

But past Usopp was looking up and when he spotted Luffy and Vivi there, he ran over to the, shouting out, "I HAVE TERRIBLE NEWS! A DINOSAUR ATE NAMI!"

"WHAT?!" screamed out Sanji, Franky, Chopper, and Brook.

"Nami!" Sanji burst out crying.

"I wasn't eaten you idiots!" she screamed at them as Luffy also yelled in terror.

Memory Usopp cried out that they were running away from the dinosaurs together, but when he turned around, she was gone. They both began to freak out until Vivi yelled for them both to calm down and think things through. That just because she disappeared didn't mean that she was eaten. Usopp demanded to know just what else she thought could've happened and Vivi finally suggested the answer.

"I don't know for sure," she confessed, "But if Baroque Works followed us from Whiskey Peak it would make sense for them to go after Nami, not you. I think we may be in great danger! We should go."

"Pretty much," Nami stated angrily, still sore that Usopp left her there. "That Mr. 3 dork used one of his wax statues to trick me and the next thing I knew… I was captured."

"Wax statues?" Franky repeated. "Well, that had to be one heck of a statue."

"It was very realistic," she admitted. "Mr. 3 had the powers of the Wax Wax Fruit."

"Wax Wax Fruit?" Brook repeated, "But how could that be dangerous in battle?"

"I've seen his powers," Robin nodded, thinking back. "It's a Paramecia-type of ability that allows the user to tap large quantities of wax from their body and mold it into any shape they wish to. When the wax hardens, it becomes as strong as steel. I've seen some of his work, and I know for a fact that he can create wax statues that completely resemble other people in every little detail. So it doesn't surprise me that you fell for it Nami."

Zoro looked away, not intending for any of them to know that he fell for that same trick. If they heard, then that idiot cook would never let him hear the end of it.

"Sounds dangerous when you put it that way," Brook said, thinking it all over. "I'm almost afraid to find out just what else he can do with it."

Past Usopp gasped at Vivi's words. "You mean Baroque Works is here on the Island with us?" he asked before he thought it over, and his fear was temporarily replaced with confusion. "Wait… but why capture Nami and not me?"

Vivi explained that that they most likely didn't know about Usopp or Sanji even existed and so that meant that they were probably not on Baroque Works assassination list because they never got in their way. She then suggested that the alcohol was probably meant for them instead. Luffy and Usopp's eyes widen as Usopp asked what she meant and she told them the whole story about the exploding drinks.

"NO WAY!" memory Usopp screamed out, sweat falling and his eyes wide in horror, "THEY ACTUALLY EXPLODED INSIDE THE GUY?!" he looked behind him in the direction of the battling giants and asked, "Wait, he was injured that badly and he still ran off to go fight?!"

"Seeing that determination is truly a sight that both warms my heart and causes it to ache!" proclaimed Brook. "Not that I have a heart…"

"Not now, Brook!" Usopp told him.

"I tried to stop him and that's how I ended up like this!" Luffy explained darkly, still trying to pull himself out.

"This is horrible!" memory Usopp yelled in panic, "Those two have been fighting for as hard as they can for a hundred years and they always ended in a draw!" In the distance they could hear the sounds of them fighting. "Plus, their duels are fought with the most honor and pride in the whole world! There's no way they can settle it once and for all like this!"

"And that's what would've been most tragic!" Usopp said, agreeing with his past self's words. "They would never be satisfied if it had to end like this."

"Was Dorry alright?!" Chopper asked at once.

"Don't worry, they were both still alive and kicking by the time we dealt with Baroque Works here and left," Zoro said. "We definitely had worse days."

"Yeah, but almost dying is still considered a bad day in my book," Nami told him darkly. Vivi just looked at them as Luffy fought harder than ever to get out. However… soon they saw what looked like a geyser of blood shoot above the trees. They all stared at it and knew it could only mean one thing…

"DORRY!" Chopper yelled in terror.

"DORRY-SAN!" also screamed Brook.

"Didn't you two just hear me?" Zoro asked in annoyance.

"How could he survive that?!" cried Franky, the blood falling back like rain. "That's…"

"Apparently, giants are tougher than we thought," Sanji said explained, "And their weapons were almost worn through by this point. It was a narrow miss, but it all ended on a good note."

"Thank goodness for that," Usopp agreed firmly. He learned a lot from the two of them in such a short time, and he never would've forgiven himself if something happened because they came to the island.

Luffy was now going crazy, banging his head against the ground in fury. Usopp and Vivi tried to calm him down but he ignored them both as he fought. "WHO WAS IIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTT?" he screamed out at the top of his lungs. "WHO DID TTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSS?!"

Past Usopp was with him completely, also looking angry. "I don't know what we're up against here… but I'm gonna take care of them by myself!" This lost its effect because his knees were shaking together—but Chopper didn't notice this as he looked to current Usopp with a sparkle in his eyes. Vivi said that she was going to go with him, but someone said, "You're not going anywhere!"

Looking back, they were standing there were the two they saw before. Though it was hard to tell it was them without the beat up faces…

Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine's were there, holding onto a beat up Carue—with Chopper looking furious as he yelled that they let him go. Mr. 5 did, but only because he wanted to. He threw the hurt duck to the ground and Vivi ran over to him in horror, calling out his name.

"You can have him back!" Mr. 5 said, "We don't need him." Miss Valentines laughed mockingly as past Usopp asked Luffy who they were and he said that they were from the last island.

"How could they?!" yelled Chopper, running over to examine Carue. "What happened?! He looks like he was holding a bomb that went off!"

"Yes," Robin nodded, looking to Mr. 5 stated and had a bad feeling to what must've happened. "In a way… that's what happened."

"Carue never did anything to you! Why did you have to do this to him?!" Vivi screamed at them.

Mr. 5 merely answered that they didn't have to hurt him if he just cooperated with them. They had wanted to use him as bait to lure them into the jungle where they could attack them. But Carue had refused to help them and kept silence the whole time. But when they found out that Luffy was trapped like this they didn't think they had anything to worry about. As they laughed at Carue, Vivi declared she was going to kill him. Usopp demanded to know if they were the ones behind injuring Dorry, which they didn't bother to deny.

As soon as he heard, Luffy was now looking ready to kill as he tried to crawl out. Vivi pulled out her weapons and looked ready to fight as well but they didn't seem concerned. The two charged ahead, but Usopp's Exploding Stars didn't work as Miss Valentine's flew out of the way and Mr. 5 sent his own bomb at him. The Straw Hats all winced as Miss Valentine's fell on Usopp like a boulder and Mr. 5 grabbed Vivi by the throat.

"YOU LET HER GO YOU SHITTY BASTARD!" Sanji screamed, looking ready to kick his brains in, but he roared in rage when he passed right through. These memories were going to kill him…

Mr. 5 reassured them that he wasn't going to kill them because Mr. 3 gave them orders to bring them in alive. He passed Vivi to his partner as he walked over to Luffy, and some of them gasped in horror when they saw that he actually exploded—burning Luffy, Usopp, and Carue in the process.

"How can he explode and not have anything happen to him?!" Franky yelled out. Devil Fruit Users and their powers were such a pain to deal with.

"He's immune to explosions," Robin explained as the three lay there, their eyes rolled back and smoking.

"What a freak!" Usopp yelled, almost whimpering in pain at the memory of fighting that guy. He remembered when he grabbed hold of him and was close to exploding—and he was about to die… Oh, that was terrifying.

Mr. 5 smirked down at Luffy. "Consider this our 'thank you' for what happened at Whiskey Peak. You should learn to mind your own business you pathetic excuse of wannabe pirates. It will be quite beneficial for your heath. By the way, we have your swordsman friend. We've captured the other girl you brought along with you as well."

"They captured you too, Zoro-san?" Brook said in surprise.

"It was a dirty trick," Zoro said in deep annoyance.

"That must be painful considering how easy you and Luffy were able to deal with them," Franky said and Zoro felt a muscle going in his forehead at the reminder. "Please, in a fair fight, they wouldn't stand a chance," he snapped.

"So you caught… Zoro?" croaked out Luffy, his face still in the dirt.

"Damn right," Mr. 5 said with a sneer and suddenly, Luffy was chuckling softly.

"In that case," he whispered, "You're in more trouble than I thought."

Zoro smirked, glad that someone thought so.

"See?" Robin whispered to him quietly, "He does trust you."

"Well, I would've gotten us out of that mess if he had come or not," Zoro said confidently.

"You mean before or after you tried to cut off your own legs?!" Nami demanded.

"WHAT?!" Chopper screamed, "ZORO CUT HIS OWN LEGS OFF!?"

"Don't be stupid, I clearly still have them," he snapped back.

"Don't tell me you forgot!" Nami snapped, "We were trapped in some wax and were almost turned into wax statues by that freak 3 and you got the crazy idea to cut your feet off so that we could escape. Do you honestly still think that was a good idea?"

"That wasn't the point! I was going to chop them off so that I could fight those losers!" Zoro yelled.

"Oh, was that the plan? Because that was an even worse idea!" exclaimed Nami.

"What? I didn't hack them off in the end did I?" he demanded.

"You would have if the others didn't show up when they did," Nami reminded him.

"What are you all talking about?" Chopper demanded, completely lost, and sounding close to crying.

"Well," Mr. 5 said, bringing an end to the fighting, "Let's see how big you talk… after one of my kicking bombs blows up that little face of yours."

Luffy forced his head to look up, a smirk there, "Try whatever you want… I'm gonna kick your ass." And then he spit on Mr. 5's shoe.

"He did it now," Usopp said, shutting his eyes as he remembered what that bastard did next. Mr. 5 grew furious and then he kicked Luffy's face—which did explode. Vivi screamed as Mr. 5 continued to kick one… two… three…

He kept kicking about thirteen times—each kick exploding… until he was tired and Luffy was burnt black.

"I didn't think it'd be that brutal!" Nami said, shaking her head, "All those bombs to the face?"

"You weak little fool," Mr. 5 said, as Vivi screamed out for them and that was when the memory faded.

"Who's he calling weak?!" Franky demanded. "He couldn't fight on his own!"

"How was that girl able to fly away though?" Chopper asked quickly. "Is it levitation?"

"Not quite," Robin answered. "The Kilo Kilo Fruit is behind it. It's a Devil Fruit that allows the user to change their weight from 1 to 10,000 kilograms without, in any way, affecting the overall size of their bodies."

"What good is that?" Franky asked in confusion.

"This fruit's main strength is that it allows the user to change their weight at will. They can go from being 1 kilogram, light enough to float on the wind, to 10,000 kilograms, dropping with intense force to crush the opponents," Robin explained. "All Devil Fruits are different… but they can be dangerous in unexpected ways. It all depends on how you use them."

"I see," Franky said, thinking it all over. "But still… I'd never eat one. I'm SUPER enough without one!"

"If it's a good one, I might…?" Usopp said, thinking it all over. "But at the same time, the thought scares the hell outta me."

"I wouldn't eat one even if someone begged me," Zoro said. "I don't need it."

"There was one Fruit I wanted to eat," Sanji said, thinking of Thriller Bark in disgust, "However, it was already eaten by the time I found it so there's no point in it any longer."

"Really?" asked Brook in surprise. "What one was that Sanji-san?"

"It doesn't matter anymore," he stated, breathing deeply on the cigarette. "Even if I had it here with me, I wouldn't eat it. It's not worth it."

"You're making it sound like eating a Devil Fruit is something bad," Robin answered calmly. "The odds of you becoming weaker because of a Devil Fruit are slim… but if you can use its powers to your advantage, not being able to swim's not that bad."

"Maybe," Nami said with a shrug, "But I like being normal thanks."

"What? You're saying we're not normal?" Chopper asked her.

"No, you guys are far from normal. But in a good way," Nami smiled at him and he blushed as he did a little dance.

"You're just trying to make me happy, it won't work!" he said, a smile on his face.

The memories came back and they were all startled to see what was going on. The giants were on the ground, Dorry was face-down and bleeding as Brogy was being restraint with large quantities of wax—including what looked like large wax spokes impaled in his hands and feet.

Vivi, Zoro, and Nami were there as well… and they seemed to be trapped in a giant cake with a spinning pumpkin on a pillar above them. Flakes of wax from the candles on top of the pumpkin were falling fast and covering everything beneath them with a coating of wax. The four underneath were already halfway covered with it and Zoro seemed to be arguing with the girls over something.

Watching them were Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine's… however there were two others there with them. There was a young girl with blushed cheeks and braided pigtails while the other was a rather frail-looking man with one big 3 achieved through his top knot.

"I'm guessing that's Mr. 3?" Brook asked.

"Jeez, what gave that away?" Sanji said, rolling his eyes. "I remember this shitty candleman."

"Right, you beat him up to get him to let us out of that cage in Alabasta!" Usopp added.

"What cage?" Franky asked, but Chopper screamed just as Zoro plunged the blades into his feet, and then Luffy, Carue, and Usopp came bursting into the clearing with such force that they were sent flying. "When I get back I'm gonna kick your asses!" screamed Luffy as they threw by and smashing into some trees.

Zoro shook his head at the scene as Chopper was screaming into his ear about how stupid he was.

"Did you have a better idea?" he demanded harshly. "Besides, I'm alright!"

"Don't you know that once you cut a limb off, how difficult it is to reattach it?" Chopper demanded, "Even if you got medical help right away, there's no guarantee that you will use them just as well as before!"

"Luffy!" past Nami's voice called in relief, "Usopp!"

"Carue!" Vivi yelled as the three came marching back. All three of them were looking ticked off.

"We're here Brogy!" Usopp yelled, "Don't worry! We'll pick up where you left off!"

"Thanks Usopp," he said, from where he lay as Nami screamed for them to hurry up and beat them until they were beyond recognition. Luffy promised that he intended to as Mr. 3 laughed at him. Trying to mock him, on how pathetic it was that he had such a high bounty. But Luffy just noticed his hair and gasped that it was on fire as Mr. 3 screamed at him to shut up.

"Yes, he has weird hair!" memory Nami screamed at him, "Now could you break this pillar?! We're about to turn into wax statues here!"

Luffy looked up at them in blasé surprise and asked bluntly, "Oh, are you guys in trouble?"

"What did he think?" Nami demanded them all as she looked ready to slap him for such a stupid question.

"Nope," past Zoro said, his sword over his shoulder. "No trouble at all."

"Wait, Zoro! Your legs!" memory Nami gasped and that was when they saw blood seeping over the edge of wax.

Zoro pretended that he couldn't hear Chopper screaming and throwing out insults at him as his past self admitted that he must've made it about halfway through and memory Nami screamed at him, asking how that was no trouble at all? Vivi looked sick at the sight of it, her face turning a bluish tint as Zoro ignored the girls and asked Luffy if he could take care of the pillar and Luffy smiled confidently.

Zoro then smirked back as he lifted his white blade high and Nami asked him why he was standing like that.

"If I'm gonna be a statue I prefer this pose," he said as if answering telling her what two plus two was as Vivi shouted at him, sounding close to hysterical.

"You're so cool here, bro," Franky laughed as Chopper twisted his own face around in frustration. How stupid was Zoro here? Look at all that blood!

"Were you trying to kill yourself?! You could've easily bled to death here!" he yelled, pointing a shaking hoof to the blood. Past Nami was also yelling at him for that, telling him to at least do something about all the blood because she was getting nauseous looking at it all.

"So quite looking at it then!" memory Zoro told her off.

"It's kinda hard to ignore!" she yelled back. And soon they were both arguing as Vivi stared at them, as if she was convinced that they just didn't realized how much danger they were in.

"It really is incredible how much trust you all had in each other back here," Robin said, watching them as Brogy smiled in understanding at their now calm attitude. Even Miss Goldenweek noticed as she spread out a blanket and served herself some tea. She pointed out the Mr. 3 how they didn't seemed concerned with what was about to happen to them.

"I was sure that they would get us out of there eventually," Zoro stated casually as his past self and Nami continued to argue about posing.

As Usopp and Carue moved back to hide in the trees, Luffy went against Mr. 3. Right off the bat, the Candleman was able to trap his feet—this proved to be a bad thing because in the end, Luffy was able to use this to his advantage by grabbing hold of Brogy's helmet and slamming his leg locks into the pillar, smashing it.

"It's amazing how, when he's fighting, he becomes intelligent with some pretty ingenious skills," Usopp said as the pillar cracked and Brook and Chopper cheered him on.

"He just goes by instinct, even more so than a wild animal would," Nami stated as she shook her head at what was going to happen next. The giant pumpkin fell, and for one horrible moment, they thought they were going to crush the three trapped below. But instead, it landed on the top tier of the wax cake and continued to spin—the process picking up rapidly.

Brook sighed in relief. "Oh, I thought for sure you would all be crushed under that!"

"Yeah, but that idiot didn't help matters!" Nami said in annoyance as Luffy asked them why they didn't run for it. Her past self and Vivi screamed that they were stuck.

"Oh, really?" he asked in surprise, "Is that what's going on?! The only thing you guys kept saying was for me to break the pillar. So that's what I did!"

"Fair point," Franky said, thinking it all over.

Robin laughed. "Maybe you should've been more specific?"

"I suppose," Zoro said with a nod.

"Mr. Bushido do you really think it's a good idea to put our lives in that guy's hands?!" Vivi screamed at his memory self.

"I think she's freaking out here," Usopp said, tilting his head.

"Well, we don't exactly have much of a choice here do we?" memory Zoro asked, not looking the least bit concerned. "I don't know about you but I'm having a little bit of trouble moving right now!"

"And you don't seem to be bothered by it somehow!" she screamed hysterically.

"You know, it wouldn't have killed her to trust us too," Zoro said, rolling his eye.

"Well, you guys aren't really kicking ass here," Franky laughed. Mr. 3 laughed out, saying that all Luffy had done was moved the candles closer and sped up the process turning them into wax statues.

"Wait!" Luffy yelled, finally understanding what was going on, "You guys are gonna turn into wax figures?!"

"THAT'S WHAT WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU!" memory Nami screamed.

"Well, you never mentioned anything about turning to wax," Usopp pointed out.

"I would've thought it was obvious since we couldn't move!" Nami snapped, giving Usopp a hard punch to the head. "Jeez, don't any of you boys have any common sense?"

"Hey!" all the men yelled at her, but she shut them up with a dangerous look.

"Please just hurry up and destroy this thing Luffy!" Vivi begged and Luffy said that he got it this time. Mr. 3 tried to attack him just as Usopp sent an Exploding Star at him; however Mr. 5 stepped in and, not only did he catch it with his mouth, but he swallowed it.

"Now that's some spicy food," Robin said causally as Brook shrieked at that.

Luffy went back to trying to break the pumpkin. He started up a Bazooka just as Mr. 3 created a wall to block it. He then tried to trap him up again—but had only been able to trap one of Luffy's arms in the wax. Which Luffy used to launch another attack at him—using the wax on his arm to break through Mr. 3's shield and sent him flying.

"YEAH!" Chopper cheered, jumping up and down, "NOW SMASH THE PUMPKIN!"

Luffy, however, was suddenly standing there as if frozen and Nami screamed at him to hurry up… but he kept saying no. Despite them pleading… he just kept saying no. That he didn't feel like saving them.

"What's going on?" Chopper gasped, he couldn't believe that Luffy was refusing to save his friends when they were right in front of him.

"That's not like Luffy-san at all!" Brook stated, suddenly anxious.

"It's because that moron is so simple-minded," Zoro stated, "Look at his feet."

"Feet…?" Franky asked, and looked to realize that Luffy was standing on a strange, black symbol on the grass.

"What is that?!" Chopper asked nervously.

"I recognize that," Robin said knowingly, and looked around to see Miss Goldenweek holding a black-tipped paintbrush in her hands.

Past Nami's eyes widen. "Luffy…? What's wrong?"

"He really scared me here," Nami confessed, "Thankfully, I know now that it's because his mind was being controlled."

"CONTROLLED?!" Brook gasped as they continued to yell at him. "But how…?"

"Yeah," Luffy said, still in that dead tone, "But for some reason I can't get motivated to help."

"Can't get motivated?" Sanji hissed. "DAMN YOU BASTARD! NAMI-SWAN AND VIVI-SAN ARE ASKING YOU FOR HELP! AND YOU CAN'T MOVE?!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN CAN'T GET MOTIVATED!?" the three screamed. Finally, Vivi noticed the mark and yelled at Miss Goldenweek that she was behind it, which the girl confirmed.

"It's my colors trap: Betrayal Black," she said as she enjoyed some rice crackers. "If you touch the paint you'll want to betray your friends no matter what they might say. Even if they beg and pled for help."

"So she ate a Devil Fruit too?!" Chopper asked at once.

"Not quite," Robin said, and they all looked at her in surprise as she went on, "Remember that Jango person from Usopp's village?"

"Jango? You mean that dumbass who kept hypnotizing himself by accident?" Sanji asked.

"Exactly," Robin confirmed. "This is what it is. Hypnotism—only instead of a ring, she uses the colors of her paints to alter a person's emotions. Once someone is under the spell of her Colors Trap they are unable to break out of it unless the trap is removed or smeared. The trap overwrites all other actions attempted by the person under its influence, forcing them to do whatever the trap enables no matter what."

"Oh, that makes sense," Sanji hissed, turning back to watch, "That simpleton is already too easy to manipulate."

Vivi had also explained pretty much the same thing as Robin about Miss Goldenweek's ability. How her paint created different emotions and it could use it to manipulate others minds.

"Luffy does not do well against tricksters," Robin stated. "It really is a dangerous ability in the wrong hands. I guess we should count ourselves lucky that she's so laid-back."

"I guess that's true," Nami sighed.

"Yeah, if even someone as strong as Luffy is able to ignore his friends, it's dangerous," Chopper said firmly.

"Does that mean that all he has to do is get away from the paint and he'll be ok?" past Nami asked as she tried to yell at him to get out away from it, but Vivi was telling him the opposite; screaming at him not to step outside the symbol and not to save them.

And he did.

"Thank goodness," Brook said as Luffy snapped out of it and came back to his senses. Once he was freed, Vivi was screaming for help again. Luffy tried to charge in again to help, but Miss Goldenweek trapped him in another Color Trap and the yellow paint on his back was making him laugh helplessly.

"Color's Trap again: Laughter yellow!" she declared, "Shouldn't have stepped outside the circle."

"God, he better do something about her," Franky said, rubbing his head. "At this rate he's never going to be able to save you guys."

"If he can get the paint off his shirt then he should snap out of it!" Sanji declared. Memory Nami realized this as well and yelled at him to take his shirt off to get rid of the paint, but he couldn't move from laughing. Past Zoro glared at the wax covering his arms and mentioned that they'd be lucky to stay alive for another five minutes. It was looking bad, but thankfully, Usopp came running out on Carue—running from Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine's. They ran into Luffy and smeared the paint getting Luffy to stop laughing.

"Hurry and take her out before she does something else!" Usopp yelled.

Luffy, now looking annoyed, yelled at Miss Goldenweek for her to stop as he tried to fight. But instead she painted another symbol on the ground—this time a bright red color. And like a bull to a red cape, Luffy couldn't attack anything but the spot on the ground.

"Great! It doesn't matter how strong his attacks are! They're useless like this!" Franky yelled in frustration, "Man, this is a problem."

Finally, Miss Goldenweek combined her yellow and blue paints to make Colors Trap: Tranquil Green. So now Luffy was so peaceful that he was having a cup of tea with her.

"You've got to be kidding me," Sanji moaned, slapping his face. "Stupid…"

"Yeah, we were pretty much screwed here," Zoro confessed, looking to see that Luffy's face was twisted in pain—trying to break the spell. By this point, even past Usopp was yelling at him about what the hell he was doing. With the help of Usopp and Carue, they hit him with another Exploding Star so that they were able to burn the shirt and the Color's Trap right off.

"Nice going Usopp!" Chopper cried joyfully and Usopp grinned proudly.

"Well, when things get at their worse, someone had to step in and make things right!" he declared. The others didn't bother to correct him here, they knew that he deserved it this time.

"Yeah, but everyone has already turned to wax!" Brook yelled, pointing to the four encased in the wax and Chopper screamed at that. He treated someone completely frozen before—but wax?!

"Yeah, I don't remember anything that happened after this," Nami said, shaking her head. It had been an unpleasant experience to be trapped in that wax… but she was glad that they were eventually able to break them out of that… though she wished that they thought of another way besides almost burning to death.

"I'm tired of your stupid paints, you're through!" Luffy declared, waking up and gasping for air, his skin now burnt. "I'm not going to let you hurt anymore of my friends!" His eyes narrowed as he yelled out, "NOW I'M REALLY MAD!"

"Oh, this is gonna be good," Franky rubbed his hands together, looking forward to seeing them all get their asses handed to them. Mr. 3, who finally came back, had used the distraction to create himself a wax suit of armor; before he had Miss Goldenweek paint it to make it stronger.

"That is so cool!" Chopper gasped out and Usopp hit him over the head.

"GET REAL!" he yelled. As Luffy turned his attention back to Mr. 3, past Usopp suddenly realized and he screamed out the way to save the others. That he reminded him that it was still wax and if they could melt it, they could still save the others.

"Clever Usopp," Robin said and he beamed proudly at his own observation.

"Anyone with a brain could've figured that out," Sanji stated.

"Now, don't be jealous because you weren't here," Usopp poked fun at him.

"Yeah, where were you?" Franky asked suddenly, just realizing the cook was nowhere to be found. "Wow, first there was Whiskey Peak, and now Little Garden… you're missing all the action."

"Hey, I had my hands full with something else!" Sanji said loudly.

"No way! Seriously?!" Luffy cried out excitedly and Miss Goldenweek confirmed it as Mr. 3 yelled at her for that.

The Straw Hats all watched the battle go on. Luffy fought Mr. 3 while Usopp worked out a plan to get the others out of the wax. He covered a rope with oil and told Carue to run around the whole thing while he was slowly being crushed to death by Miss Valentine's. Thankfully, Luffy was able to grab hold of Mr. 3's burning hair and brought the little flame over to light the rope.

Franky lowered his sunglasses in time. "Oh, this is going to be a big boom!"

He was right. It was a massive fireball, like an explosion, going up in a tower of flames—the heat alone felt like it was going to knock them over.

"WOW!" Chopper gasped in awe.

"Imagine being stuck in it," Zoro said, thinking of his flaming swords and smirked. Those weren't half bad…

The heat alone was easily enough to melt the statues and Mr. 3's armor until they were a mass of wax—with his protection gone, Mr. 3 turned and went running off into the jungle with Luffy and Carue on his heels.

"Were you all alright?" Brook asked anxiously.

"Yeah," Nami answered, as they ran after them, "A little singed but nothing permanent."

The Straw Hats all kept chasing after Luffy until they came to a very strange sight.

"I think I'm seeing double," Usopp said, rubbing his eyes.

"Forget seeing double!" Sanji said loudly. They were in a clearing full of wax statues of Mr. 3. There were more than they could count—of all different positions all looking at him.

"I can see what you meant," Franky said, remembering what Robin said about Mr. 3's figures. "Wow… they're amazing!"

Just then, they heard Mr. 3's voice around them, trying to taunt Luffy into coming closer and try to find him. He then claimed that when he least expect it, he would stab him.

"Dumbass," Zoro growled. "He shouldn't go around tell people his plans!"

"I thought that he was smarter than that," Usopp said, shaking his head. Luffy just stood there—as if lost in his own thoughts before he looked up.

"But how's he going to find him in all…?" but Chopper's question ended when Luffy cried out, "Gum Gum… STAMP!" and he stretched his leg out in one random direction—and amazingly found him.

"How could you… have known… that this… was where I was?" he asked before he passed out, a giant footprint on his face now.

"Instinct," Luffy answered just as Carue spotted Miss Goldenweek trying to sneak away and he went after her, her scream echoing around them before the memory faded.

"Wow…" Usopp said in amazement, "How'd he know?!"

"He just answered," Sanji said, breathing out a puff of smoke. "He doesn't think… he just goes instinctively."

"But…?" Usopp began but Zoro cut him off.

"With Luffy, you don't ask… you just go along with it and hope for the best," he stated. The images came back right away and they were back in the clearing with everyone, even with Brogy out of the wax and was crying his eyes out. He was crying so much that his tears were making a waterfall and a rainbow to match. But to their amazement, the sounds of his wails had woken Dorry up and he was now sitting up—freaking everyone out. As Usopp, Chopper, Franky, and Brook all cried in joy at that, it turned out that it really had been the weapons that saved him and past Usopp realized that no weapon could hold up for a hundred years of battle. They had to have been dull by now…

"I'm running out of wows," Usopp said, staring at them in awe. "I can't tell you how relieved I was to know that they were ok… I was really scared there."

"You really thought that Dorry was dead?" Chopper asked.

"Are you nuts?!" Usopp yelled, "Like a warrior of Elbaf will die that easily!"

"All in all, it all ended well," Brook cried out happily, strumming up his guitar, "Yohohoho. This could inspire a whole new set of songs for me!"

"Aww man… I'm so happy that it all ended well," Franky sniffled. "Not that I was worried!"

Brogy however was crying shamelessly as he hugged Dorry and continued to sob and laugh at the same time; but the playful punches they were throwing at each other and soon they were fighting again. Chopper was just glad that they were alright. After all this madness, they took care of their injuries as they told Dorry everything that happened while he was out cold. As they talked, the two apparently forgot all about their bounties thanks to their years trapped on this island.

Vivi tried to apologize to them, telling them that it was her fault that they came here in the first place but no one else seemed to buy that as they all enjoyed the rice crackers that Miss Goldenweek left behind—and Luffy was even trying to get them to have a party.

"That is a wonderful outfit, Nami-san," Brook suddenly said, after it was discovered that the fire burned her shirt off so that she was in only a bra and shorts. Nami hit him over the head and told him to shut up as he tried to make another skull joke—but failed when he moaned in pain.

"Wait a minute!" Chopper yelled out when memory Nami was scratching at a bug bit on her stomach. "That's what happened!"

"What happened?" Robin asked curiously.

"Nami got really sick from a bug called Kestia!" Chopper exclaimed loudly. "Just one bite is enough to give someone a serious case of Jungle Fever! It gave Nami a fever so high that it almost killed her!"

"You mean you were that sick?" Robin asked Nami in great surprise.

"It's nothing," Nami said, waving her hand, "After all… it was just after this nightmare did we meet Chopper and he fixed me up."

At those words, Chopper blushed again. "Saying something like that won't make me happy or anything you jerk!" he smiled, as past Nami was yelling at Luffy and Usopp—who were fighting over the crackers—about what they were supposed to do over their Log Pose.

"All of you helped save us from those other guys," Brogy said. "If we can, we'd really like to repay the favor."

But when Luffy suggested that they could help with their pose, they sadly admitted that there wasn't anything they could do about that.

"Yeah, what were you guys gonna do?" Franky asked in concern. "Even if you did stay the year, you had to get Vivi back in time?"

Just then, Sanji came out of the jungle—swooning declares of love when he saw the women.

"Funny that you show up now…" Usopp hissed at him.

"Well, if I had known that the ladies here were in trouble, nothing would've stopped me from coming here," Sanji said, angry at himself that he was wasting time while he almost ended up both the loves of his life. "But I was busy talking with Crocodile."

"WHAT?!" half the crew yelled, gapping at him.

Usopp's past self and Carue were looking just as outraged as current Usopp. "Of course he's happy the big, useless jerk!" his past self yelled, "He shows up after we take care of everything!"

Sanji yelled in shock after he spotted the giants and demanded if one of them was Mr. 3. When they pressed him to how he learned that name, he explained that he had been talking to Mr. 0 over a transponder snail in a hideout in the jungle and pretended to be Mr. 3 when he talked to him.

"And since I had him on the line," he finished up, "I went ahead and told him that we were all dead."

"Clever," Robin laughed. "I always wondered what happened here…"

"Thank you!" Sanji yelled joyfully, hearts back in his eyes.

"So he thinks that he doesn't have to send anyone else after us anymore!" Vivi gasped in understanding.

"So your saying that we're finally free from people chasing us now that we can't go anywhere anyway?!" past Usopp yelled dramatically. "Oh, that is just perfect!"

Sanji couldn't see what the problem was as he pulled out the Eternal Pose to Alabasta that he stole. Which stunned them all, their jaws dropping open as they stared at it—but soon it was a celebration as Vivi hugged him tightly and they were getting ready to leave.

"You did it, Sanji!" Chopper yelled happily.

"Hey, I pull my weight," he said proudly as Zoro rolled his eye.

"'Kay! Giant old guys! It's really been a lot of fun," Luffy said, waving up at them, both giants seemed to have been lost in their thoughts for a moment—as if remembering something from a long time ago when they heard Sanji and Zoro go on about their hunting contest, "But we gotta go!"

"Of course," Brogy said in understanding, "Right. We can tell that you really need to get going."

"It's too bad that you have leave so soon," Dorry added, looking directly at Vivi, "I hope you make it to your homeland in time."

"Me too! Thank you," Vivi said gratefully and they all started to head off with Usopp declaring that someday he would visit Elbaf one day.

"Such nice guys," Brook said, he truly hoped to meet them someday, and he could understand why Usopp looked up to them so much. The next memory that came up, they were standing on the Merry's deck and sailing down the river to the ocean's edge. It turned out that the giants were standing on either side of the river, their backs to them and their capes waving in the wind. It looked as if they had come to say goodbye.

As they got nearer, Brogy spoke without looking at them. "A great danger still lies ahead of you!"

"It is an obstacle that has always been here," Dorry added, just as dramatically, "To try and prevent people reaching the next island."

"What? What's here?!" cried out Chopper fearfully.

"Relax!" Usopp said confidently, "They took care of it for us!"

The past Straw Hats were looking scared as their jaws dropped. But Dorry went on, "But every one of you fought like true warriors to protect the pride of our duel."

"You all truly did," Brook said respectfully.

"And because you were willing to do that no matter what enemy you may face…" Brogy stated.

"We will never let them destroy your pride, friends!" Dorry declared, his voice echoing around them, as if proving the sincerity of their words.

"YOW!" Franky cried out enthusiastically, "These two are SUPER awesome!"

"You must have faith in what we say!" Brogy told them. "Go straight! No matter whathappens, keep going straight! Understand?!"

"Yeah! Got it!" Luffy cried out. "No matter what happens, just go straight!"

They sailed passed them both, with them bidding their final farewells; but soon past Nami yelled out in terror to see something enormous rise out of the sea. The water rising up and some of them screamed when it was revealed to be an enormous goldfish—greater than even some Sea Kings.

"That's the biggest goldfish I've ever seen," Sanji stated as more screams came around them from both past and present selves.

"Hello Island-Eater!" declared Dorry's voice from behind them.

"You will open the path!" yelled Brogy, "In the name of Elbaf, you will open it!"

"This is going to be amazing to see again!" Usopp cried out eagerly, running to the upper deck to get the full view of what was going to happen, his heart racing.

"Why?! Why would you willingly go sailing into the belly of a giant fish?!" yelled Franky.

Past Nami screamed at them to turn, but Usopp and Luffy both refused, saying that they just had to keep going straight. When she couldn't calm down, Luffy just told her to calm down as he threw the last cracker at her.

"Now you know that he's confident if he's sharing food," Sanji stated as past Nami kept screaming at him to chance course, but Zoro leaning back against the door telling her to just give it up. Sanji, Vivi, and Nami continued to try to change his mind, but onwards they went—the last thing that they saw before they were swallowed was the two giants holding their weapons high.

"JUST GO STRAIGHT!" Usopp screamed, but he sounded close to tears. "GO STRAIGHT!"

"What does it matter?!" Nami hollered at him, it was so dark that they couldn't see anything in front of them, "We've already been eaten here!"

"Straight, you hear?!" Luffy yelled from the front, "Just keep going straight!"

"Now… how'd you get out of this?" Franky asked. He had an idea, but he was afraid of getting beaten up again if he suggested it to Nami.

"You'll see!" Usopp called from the front, impatiently looking around—waiting. But before they were able to ask anymore there was a shockwave behind them and they were shot forward as the entire goldfish was ripped apart so that they were sent flying out into the open sky—the giants battle cries behind them. It was just like how Luffy arrived with Sanji and Yosaku to Arlong Park as they were soaring high, across the bright blue sky and warm sun…

"We're flying!" Luffy screamed out. Both past and present Straw Hats were smiling in amazement as Vivi and Carue cowered in terror. "Don't bother looking back; cause we're going straight ahead! Look at us! Look at us! It's so incredible!"

Past Usopp was crying with his future self. "They cut… the sea… itself! The strength of… the Elbaf warriors… IS AMAZING!"

"Took the words right out of my mouth!" cried current Usopp as Chopper joyfully screamed out, the two doing a dance together as Brook watched on with his jaw wide open.

"Amazing doesn't even describe it!" he yelled, "It's so unbelievable that I cannot believe my own eyes! Not that I have eyes, yohohoho!"

The Merry hit the water, and by this point the island was almost out of their sight. But they could still just make out the voices of the giants behind them yelling out one last thing to them. "FRIENDS! GO! GOOD LUCK!"

"Truly remarkable," Robin said calmly, a hint of a smile on her face.

"I get why you look up to these guys so much, bro," Franky commented as Usopp continued to swing Chopper around.

"They're so cool!" Chopper cried out as past Usopp declared to the others that he will go to Elbaf someday—to one day see the village of warriors.

"Me too!" cried Chopper as he hung onto Usopp's arm, his eyes dizzy from the spinning around. "I wanna see them too!"

"I've been looking forward to seeing them ever since this adventure," Usopp proclaimed excitedly. "And I will! I'm going to go there and become a great warrior just like them!"

"Go for it Usopp!" Chopper yelled and they were jumping around again as Luffy and memory Usopp were both singing and dancing on the Merry's railing about the giants of Elbaf with Carue running in circles behind them.

"Yohohoho, that looks like fun," Brook laughed. "You all recovered from that ordeal rather quickly."

"Yeah, we're resilient," Nami said sighed as her past self leaned up against the mast, looking a little red in the face.

Finally, the duo slipped and almost fell off the railing—but it didn't faze them—they were still laughing the whole time. Sanji was inside making some snacks while Zoro was lifting a set of weights that were even bigger than he was. His ankles were heavily bandaged and Chopper shot Zoro a deeply annoyed look while the swordsman ignored him as he watched himself train—he remembered how weak he was here. Here, he wasn't even able to cut through steel… but now he was able to slice and dice it like fruit.

He shook his head at his own foolishness. He had much more to train if he wanted to get even stronger.

All in all, it was a pretty normal day.

Soon, Sanji came out with a whole platter of sweets for the girls before snipping at the boys that there was more food inside when they began drooling over the plate. They went climbing up the stairs like a group of monkeys and they followed them to see them tearing into the food like pigs at a trough.

"Disgusting," Sanji hissed as his past self came in and began working on the dishes. He always said that he would beat some manners into them, but it seemed that no matter what he did, it just wasn't good enough to get through those thick skulls.

"But why was this so important?" Brook asked them. He had his answer almost at once because Vivi was suddenly shouting at them from outside—and her voice sounded close to panicking. "Hey everyone come quick!"

"So it's this part," Nami said quietly as their past selves went to the door to see what the matter was.

"What part?" Robin asked softly.

"One of the scariest things we had to go through," Sanji said in a long-suffering voice.

"Sanji," she warned softly. "It doesn't matter anymore."

"As brave as ever about it," Sanji swooned softly as Luffy called to Vivi, with a mouthful of food, "What's wrong, Vivi? Are you ok?"

"Nami has an awful fever!" Vivi shouted.

"Oh, that," Chopper said nodding as past Sanji knocked Usopp and Luffy out of his way and screamed in terror, "WHAT!? NAMI'S SICK?!"

Those who weren't here that day, went to go look for themselves. The memory Nami was lying on the deck and breathing hard—as if it hurt to take a single breath. Her face was a bright red and already she was starting to break out in a cold sweat.

"That looks serious!" Brook whispered, having a bad flashback to how sick Captain Yorki had been, "Where you alright, Nami-san?"

"Just a nasty bug-bite from Little Garden," she answered. Vivi had the boys carefully bring Nami down below deck, after giving Zoro the Eternal Pose, and they did what they could to try and help. The best that they could do was to make her a little more comfortable as her fever continued to rise. Past Sanji was crying his eyes out, looking heart-broken, while Vivi wet a town in a bowl of water.

"How serious is it Chopper?" Robin asked as she crouched down to speak with him.

Chopper didn't have to look at Nami to know. "By the time she was brought to us it was really serious. Her fever was over a hundred and five by that point," he whispered back. It was no use worrying over something like this anymore. "Another two days and she would've died for sure. It was very lucky they brought her to us before then. Any longer and I don't think there would be anything we could've done."

Robin frowned a little in concern. "I see. Well, it's a good thing that they met you when they did. So it looks like you're going to start seeing yourself here as well."

Chopper looked back to the small group crowded around the bed as present-day Nami told the others off for worrying. "Is it really that bad to watch yourself here?" he asked her.

She didn't answer for a moment before he sighed. "It's a surreal experience," she confessed. "But difficult as well. You see how you were then, and the mistakes you made, but are unable to do anything about it now."

Chopper looked at her confused for a moment

"It's most likely the climate," Vivi said as she lay the cloth across Nami's forehead. "It's quite normal. See, sailors in the Grand Line aren't used to the change in weather and can become quite ill. There are countless stories of tough, notorious pirates who suddenly died."

"That is true," Brook said softly and they all knew what he was talking about. It must've been a very painful thing for him to go through to see a man he admired grow so sick so suddenly with him not being able to do anything about it. "But…" he added, "I am glad to see that you recovered from this sickness so completely, Nami-san. If you had died here, I'd never have a chance to see your…"

"SHUT UP!" she yelled, kicking his head again, "I NEVER SHOWED YOU ANYTHING THAT I NEVER WANTED YOU TO SEE!"

While they argued, Vivi explained to the others that because of the changing climates, a person's immune system was ravaged by colds and fevers until they just couldn't take it anymore. And she also warned that even the slightest cold could be deadly if they weren't careful. As past Sanji cried out in despair, Vivi quickly asked if there was anyone on board who knew anything about medicine.

Wordlessly, Luffy and Usopp both pointed to Nami and that was when everyone knew that they were in worse shape than they first thought. Vivi looked anxiously as she smoothed out Nami's blankets and Robin stated, "You're sailing the Grand Line without a doctor. That is just foolish."

"The bottom line here is that we're pirates," Usopp reminded her, "And we all do what we can to take care of each other. Sure, there might not be many of us, but when push comes to shove, you can always count on Captain Usopp here!"

"You're awesome, Usopp," Chopper said as he grinned back cockily.

Robin smiled back. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I should've known this from the start. This crew isn't exactly known by playing by the book."

"We knew enough basic first aid," Nami told her. "The worse was Zoro's injury from Mihawk, and the doctor on my island took care of that for us. But this was our real first challenge."

"Well, when you're sick eating lots of meat always helps, right Sanji?" Luffy suddenly asked their cook.

"Nah, that's cola!" Franky said firmly.

"Just because you men get better by eating and drinking certain foods doesn't mean that the rest of us do," Nami sighed.

"How does he do it anyway?" Usopp asked, scratching his head. "Even when he's lost a lot of blood and is hurt… all he needs is some meat and he's back in action."

"It doesn't heal him," Chopper said with a frown. "It's more like… more like a power source. It doesn't heal his wounds, but it gives him energy to get back and fight."

Memory Sanji sniffled a little as he looked to Luffy and answered him."Meat is protein and that does give the body energy to operate properly. I can cook some food to give her energy, but there's no guarantee that it'll cure her, him not a doctor." He looked to Nami sadly and went on in a forlorn way, "Besides, if my cooking made that big a difference, she'd never get sick. I put a hundred times more care in preparing her meals than I do for you losers."

"Who are you calling loser?" current Usopp yelled at him.

"Just speaking from the heart," he replied as his past self finished, "I feed Nami fresh meats and vegetables to ensure balance diet… anything that's rotten or moldy…" he pointed to them, "Goes to you."

"JERK!" memory Usopp exclaimed, slapping his hand.

"HEY!" Chopper yelled out.

"Well, I'll remember this," Franky said darkly.

"Always knew you were worthless Cook," Zoro said in disgust.

"Watch it," Sanji snarled. "You mess with your cook, and you sign your own death warrant."

"I'll remember that when we get a decent chief," he snapped back.

"Would you both grow up?" Nami yelled as Luffy proclaimed that Sanji's food still tasted good to him.

"He'd eat an old shoe if you cooked it long enough," Usopp whispered exasperatedly.

"My point, as long as I'm this ship's cook, nobody's going to feed Nami better in terms of nutrition," past Sanji said firmly. "I can do anything in the kitchen…" Zoro snorted at that as he went on, "still, I do know that there are specific foods for different kinds of illnesses. But I can't make that call, she needs to be diagnosis by a doctor who'll tell us how to help her!"

Chopper nodded firmly at that, agreeing completely. After all, for some illnesses, if you don't get the right food, it would only make you even sicker.

"Just feed her everything that we got," Luffy suggested.

"Was he trying to kill me?" Nami asked herself as everyone looked at him in annoyance. Past Sanji was just telling him that she was too sick to eat as Vivi checked her temperature and gasped out that she had a fever of a hundred and four."

"HUNDRED AND FOUR?!" cried out Brook. "A few more degrees can kill you!"

"Just another four degrees is fatal," Robin answered, though even she sounded a little uneasy at that.

"Must you be so blunt?!" yelled Usopp harshly.

"I'm alive! So there's no need to worry!" Nami said fiercely.

"So Chopper was the one who fixed you?" Franky asked, remembering what they said before.

"That's right," Nami said gratefully, clapping a hand on Chopper's shoulder as she did and he turned a bright red again.

"Flattery won't work on me you jerk!" Chopper said spinning a little before he became serious again, "But… you were in really bad shape when we found you guys outside the castle."

"Found us?" Nami repeated in confusion.

"What castle?" Franky and Brook both asked at the same time.

"Yeah!" Chopper said, holding his hooves up, answering Nami's question, "When me and Doctorine got back, we found you guys all out cold just outside." He didn't tell them that she and Luffy had almost ended up falling over the edge of the mountain if he hadn't pulled them back up.

"There's bound to be doctors and nurses in Alabasta that can help, right?" past Usopp asked anxiously as Vivi leaned back on her knees, "How much longer till we get there, Vivi?"

Vivi thought it all over, trying to think of a way out of this mess as she confessed, "I don't know, at least a week, and that's too long!"

Chopper fought the urge to nod. He knew that was true… if they hadn't come across Drum when they did, Nami never would've survived the trip.

"Kay, she's sick, maybe we're over-reacting?" Luffy asked the other two.

"I don't know, I've never been sick," Usopp and Sanji answered together, tilting their heads in confusion.

"I'm guessing that you guys aren't counting life-threatening injuries?" Franky asked consciously.

"Don't you have a bad case of scaredy-cat-itis, Usopp?" Zoro asked and Usopp glared at him.

"None of you guys are normal," Nami sighed. Honestly, was she the only normal one here?

"Just what are you people!?" Vivi screamed at them wildly. "This is serious! She shouldn't have such a high fever unless her body's fighting an infection! This is bad! Whatever's wrong it's possibly life-threatening!"

"She shouldn't have said that," Robin said knowingly. And sure enough, those words put the entire room into an uproar as the three men freaked out.

"YOU MEAN NAMI'S GONNA DIE?!" Luffy screamed in horror, while Sanji broke down sobbing and Usopp running around in circles in panic.

"Your screams aren't helping!" Vivi yelled.

"I don't know whether to laugh or… not," Franky said with a dead-panned expression.

"Looking back, we do look stupid here," Usopp said, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

"WE HAVE TO FIND A DOCTOR TO HELP NAMI BEFORE SHE DIES!" Luffy screamed loudly, his words almost being drowned out by Sanji's sobs.

"Ok! Everyone just calm down!" Vivi commanded, "You're only going to make her feel worse!"

"They always give me headaches, it wouldn't have changed anything," Nami said without any heat. It was touching that they cared about her so much. But then a weak voice spoke up. It was so quiet that it was hardly heard over the noise, but it was enough to calm everyone as they looked to memory Nami. "Listen…" she whispered, and she slowly sat up, "I'm fine…"

"Nami?" Vivi asked worriedly.

"Oh, she's cured!" Luffy cheered happily before Usopp hit him over the head and screamed at him to shut up.

"Yes, just because he heals freakishly fast, doesn't mean that we all do," Sanji stated.

"Please, like you're hardly one to talk!" Nami yelled. "You're all monsters!" She jerked her thumb at Luffy and went on, "At least this bonehead has a reason for that. He's had to put up with his brothers, grandfather, and giant monsters growing up… you guys… I don't even want to know why you two became monsters!"

Her memory self however was breathing hard as she pushed the cloth away and told Vivi to look in her desk for a newspaper. Once she found it, it turned out that their situation was worse than they ever thought. Apparently, three-hundred thousand of Alabasta's Imperial Soldiers had defected and joined the Rebel Army so that now the Rebels outnumbered the soldiers and the tide has changed. But the worse bit of news was that Nami confessed that she had been hiding the paper from them for the last three days.

Hearing that devastated Vivi so that she fell to her knees, looking ready to cry.

"I'm sorry I didn't say something earlier," memory Nami told her softly. "We can't change our speed so I didn't want to worry you. There's nothing anyone can do right now," She looked to Luffy and asked, "You understand, Luffy?"

Luffy looked like he was trying to figure out a really hard math problem before he said, "Things are bad and they're beyond our control?"

"That sums it up about right," Franky muttered.

"That sunk in better than I hoped," past Nami said with a smile like a teacher who was just given the right answer from a difficult student.

But past Usopp was insisting that they take her to a doctor, which Nami dismissed; stating that no one has a temperature that high and that she probably had a little heat stroke. She got out of bed, but it was clear to them that it seemed to take a lot of effort as she got up; merely stating that she appreciated their concern but that they still had to get to Alabasta as she walked up the stairs with some effort. There was a long silence in the room as they watched her go.

"Wow, she recovered fast?" Luffy asked in confusion.

"No," past Usopp hissed at him, "She's faking!"

"You really shouldn't have pushed yourself so hard," Robin said softly.

"I didn't realize how serious it was," she answered back. "I thought that I could fight it off."

"And you criticize me for doing that," Zoro said darkly.

"That's because you lose half of your blood when you try to walk something off," she reminded him in irritation.

Vivi, meanwhile, was still on her knees and staring at the paper. "Now that this conflict has escalated, even more blood will be shed throughout the kingdom. We're at war," she whispered tearfully as she looked at it. "If I don't put a stop to this insanity the entire kingdom of Alabasta will be doomed. Crocodile will move in and seize control!" she crumpled the paper and cried out desperately, "You're trying to get me home safely, but there's no time! I need to get home as quickly as possible! If I don't make it back in time a million innocent citizens will give their lives needlessly!"

"There are a million people there?!" Luffy gasped, "Wow!"

"And all those lives could easily be lost," Brook said softly, thinking of how close that Fishman Island was to suffering a tragedy just like that not long ago.

"But there's nothing else that could've been done here," Franky said, "That's as fast as the ship can go… you couldn't move any faster unless you either had perfect weather or could fly. And you can pretty much forget those options."

"I don't know," Brook said, "You guys do seem to fly a lot… Yohohoho."

"What a horrible burden you have to carry, I'm sorry," Sanji said to her sympathetically, asshe cried. Just then they heard Zoro's voice from outside yelling at them to hurry up and get on deck.

"What now?" Chopper asked, afraid that something bad happened to Nami as they all followed them to find that Zoro and Nami were on the upper deck. Sanji began telling Zoro off for the orders, but Zoro replied that they were to shut up because Nami told them to chance course. For those who weren't here, they couldn't understand why because the weather was perfect.

"The wind," past Nami said, without looking at them. They looked confused as she went on, "There's a powerful wind… and it's heading right this way." She turned, but Luffy was there, checking her forehead for a fever.

"How do you do that?" Usopp asked. "You had a fever and were half dead on your feet but you were able to detect a storm like that?"

"Wait, there was a storm?" Brook asked.

"We learned never to doubt Nami-swan when it comes to this," Sanji said firmly. "Not that there had ever been any doubt in my mind," he added lovingly to her, who ignored him. Luffy hollered in pain because her fever was so hot that it hurt his hand. He began giving her orders to get back to bed while they found a doctor for her.

Instead, she got angry, and began yelling at them all that she was just fine. But they were all giving her worried looks, none of them—not even Luffy—buying that for a minute. Even Sanji was actually backing Luffy up, trying to convince her to just go lie down, but she finally lost her temper and screamed at them until they got the message.

'Even sick, she's a bigger monster than all of us,' Usopp thought to himself.

"I don't get what took you idiots so long to follow orders," Nami said annoyed. "When I say that there's a storm, you should listen."

"You looked like you were about to pass out!" Zoro barked back, "How were we supposed to know that it wasn't your fever talking?" he asked harshly.

But their attention was drawn back to the scene as Vivi came charging out of the door and begging them to listen. They looked up as she called, "I have to ask you all a favor! As a passenger on your ship, it's not my place to ask this, but I have no choice. My homeland is in jeopardy of being destroyed so I would really appreciate it if we could move even faster! Every minute that I'm out here, puts more of my people in danger of losing their lives. We need to head to Alabasta at full speed!"

The men were all looking at her with hard expressions.

"We wanted to help her," Sanji said as Chopper looked questionably at them. "And we were going to. I would've gone to the ends of the earth for Vivi-san but risking Nami-swan's health wasn't one of them."

"The sad fact is," Usopp said quietly, "While, we all felt bad for her and the idea of losing a million people was a horrible thought, but to us, the idea of losing just one of us was even worse. And sad as it is to say… we rather take our chances getting Nami help and risk the rebellion already happening."

"It's hard to feel sympathy for others when someone you know is dying," Robin answered for him softly; her own heart squirming with guilt for her part in this whole scheme.

"Of course we will," past Nami said agreeably, "Just like we promised!"

"If Vivi had insisted that we just kept going, I think that everyone would've had something to say," Zoro confessed. "After all, she was just a passenger on our ship and should've been glad that we took her at all. After all, pirates don't have to follow orders from any princess. But, thankfully, she didn't say that."

"Then what did she…?" Chopper began as Vivi smiled and suggested that they hurry up and find a doctor. After all, the only way they could move tops speed was to get Nami healthy as soon as possible.

"Now that is kind of her," Brook said quietly.

"But also practical," Nami said, her hands on her hips, a smile playing on her mouth as she jerked her thumbs to Usopp and Zoro on either side of her. "After all, if something happened to me, she would be stuck with these guys and they'd never get anywhere."

"Right!" Luffy called out, smiling in approval, "No one makes this ship move like Nami!"

Nami smirked proudly. Of course she did. She couldn't imagine what would happen to the crew if she wasn't around. If she died who's going to keep an eye out for storms? Who's going to know where to go? Who's going to get after Luffy when he does something stupid?

Everyone agreed and Nami thanked her as she tried to walk over to her. She apologized… just before she fainted.

Luffy then screamed, "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"

They looked to see what he was talking about as Chopper and Brook screamed as well. Not too far away, an enormous cyclone had appeared out of nowhere—one so big and large that it towered over them as large as the giants on Little Garden. The lightning flashed and the wind was so strong that even though they were far enough away not to have to worry about getting sucked in, the Merry was tossed around like a toy in a bathtub.

"IT'S A CYCLONE!" Vivi screamed.

"IT'S HUGE!" yelled Luffy, hanging onto the mast.

"No duh!" Franky yelled.

"Isn't that the same direction that you all were heading into?" Robin called, shielding her eyes as she stared at it.

"Hell, you're right!" Franky called in amazement. The past members noticed this as well and they yelled at how close a call that was. If they hadn't changed course when they did, they'd be dead right about now. The lightning got harsher and they hung on as Luffy yelled that they barely missed it before he yelled, that they were to find Nami a doctor no matter what and that was when it all faded.

"Amazing that you were able to sense that storm, Nami," Robin told her. "They say that cyclones are some of the weather patterns that are impossible to predict in the Grand Line."

"I just listen to my gut instincts," she answered proudly, "When it comes to the weather, I doubt you'll find a better navigator if you searched."

"You're beautiful and astute!" Sanji cried, looking ready to fall over from happiness.

"But you shouldn't have tried to push yourself so hard!" Chopper scolded her. "You were only making your sickness worse! Rest was what you needed most! Not to be up on deck with a cyclone going on!"

"I wanted to help Vivi," she said stubbornly. "I felt terrible, but I thought that I could sleep it off later… Vivi had her entire nation to help." She didn't tell them this, but she really understood Vivi here. After all, she was trying to carry the weight of her entire country on her back…

She had spent years doing that to her village—trying to save everyone on her own. But she couldn't imagine what that must've been like trying to save a million people instead of just a single village. She knew that she was putting herself at risk, but she didn't want Vivi to go through what she had been forced to go through.

Franky sniffed. "The effort alone touches me," he said in a choked voice.

"Don't tell me you're going to cry!" she said to him.

"NO, I'M NOT CRYING!" he yelled back loudly, as if he hoped that would prove it. He was glad that the newest memory came up and that the first thing they saw was of a gentle snowfall around them. Usopp, Zoro, and Luffy were all on deck, the first two wrapped in tight blankets.

"I don't get it," Sanji hissed as he looked to Luffy. "He goes everywhere in shorts, sandals, and a shirt but he doesn't get cold?! I'm freezing just watching myself!"

"I don't think it'd take anything less than a blizzard to get him cold. But even then, I'd find it hard to believe that will be enough," Zoro stated with a shrug as Chopper looked up at them all in surprise. Didn't Luffy ever tell them about the shape that he was in when they got to the castle?

"See any doctors yet?!" Luffy yelled up to Zoro.

"Luffy, you can't be serious," past Usopp whispered to him as Zoro called down what they thought about people standing on water.

"Well, we've seen a lot of crazy things, but standing on water isn't one of them," Sanji said, blinking as he thought that over. He then looked to Brook and added, "At least until we met you."

"Yohohoho, it takes a lot of effort for that," Brook answered. "You just have to keep running and don't stop until you reach land. Though if I do it for too long, I get muscle cramps. Ah, not that I have muscles to cramp. Yohohoho."

"Why were you asking, Zoro?" asked Robin as Luffy and Usopp were asking the same questions. Instead of an answer, he told them to look ahead and they all did. And it was just as he said. A man was standing on the water directly in front of them.

"Ok… that's new," Franky said slowly, in a stunned voice.

"Oh, no…" Usopp said, slapping a hand over his face. "Don't tell me… I remember this now." For standing there was a tall man with wavy lips and a sad expression. He looked a great deal like a jester with his green-blue costume but as soon as Chopper saw him, he gasped.

"That's… that's Chess!" Chopper called out as Luffy asked Usopp if he thought that he was a doctor.

"Who?" Brook asked confused.

"He was the former minister of defense serving under Wapol!" Chopper yelled, his fur now practically standing on end as he glared at him. "NO, we have to see Wapol?!"

"This is Luffy's memory so I assume so," Nami answered softly, "But I was asleep for most of the time that we were on Drum, so I don't remember too much."

"Wapol?" Sanji asked, "Oh… right… that big, tin-mouthed king. I remember him. This was where we first met the guy. He attacked our ship just before we reached Drum."

"Drum? Drum Island?" Robin repeated thoughtfully, "I know that place. "It was once renowned for its advance medical research."

"Yeah, and that was where I was born," Chopper nodded, his heart beating faster than ever at the thought of seeing his home again.

"But who is this Wapol guy?" Brook asked.

"He was a spoiled and corrupt king, who held not even the slightest regard for his people," Chopper said angrily as Chess began talking about how chilly the weather was to the Straw Hats. "All the citizens both feared and hated him. Before Wapol took the thrown, the Drum Kingdom really did have some of the best doctors around. But he then took the twenty best for himself before he banished or murdered the rest! He made it so that if anyone wanted medical help, they had to go to him and swear loyalty."

"What?" Brook yelled in horror.

"That's right," Usopp said, "While we were there, we heard some of Wapol's history. Basically if anyone got hurt or sick they had to go and throw themselves at Wapol's feet and hope that he'd lend them some medical help."

"That's terrible!" Brook yelled. "What kind of king would do that?!"

"The bad kind," Chopper said firmly. "In the end, there were only two doctors left in the whole kingdom who managed to escape. One of them was Dr. Kureha…"

"You mentioned her before," Robin said, remembering not long after she joined the crew, and Chopper had been really uneasy around her. While they went to collect water, he told her about her… "She was your teacher."

"That's right," Chopper nodded, a smile on his face, "She taught me everything I knew about medicine… she's someone I owe a great debt to. I wonder how she's doing right now?"

"You mean that crusty old hag?" Zoro asked darkly, remember how that old lady suckerpunched him.

"Old hag?" Franky asked, "What kind of doctor is she?"

"Well…" Chopper stated with a nervous laugh. "She really loves alcohol, but she's best described as a doctor who's like a pirate, who's also a doctor. Did I mention she really loves alcohol?"

"I'm not sure I'd want someone like that treating me," Usopp said, remembering how the crazy old lady tried to kill them as they left Drum.

"So who was the other doctor?" Zoro asked him and Chopper froze as he became lost in thought. Nami and Sanji shared a quick look—they alone knew about Chopper's past, but they never told the others about it.

"Hey, what's that?!" Nami called quickly, and was glad of the distraction as the water underneath Chess rose up suddenly. A wave so big that it almost overturned the Merry…

"What's that?!" cried Brook fearfully, "A Sea King?!"

"I don't recall Sea Kings being made of metal," Robin answered. She was right. Rather than a monster, a large round ship had rose up beneath them like a submarine would. It had large steel plating around the ship, with a star-like pattern. Two large gears are seen towards the side of the ship and the form of a giant hippo wearing a crown as its bow. There were hundreds of men on board and the pirate flag held a skull with a tongue out and a crown on its head.

Franky whistled impressed by that as the men jumped onboard the Merry and threatened to shoot as they held the three men at gunpoint—though only Usopp looked scared. "Nice ship…"

Just then two more men showed up with the Chess guy they saw a moment ago. The first was a man wearing a long, orange cloak, with gloves that cover all fingers but his thumb, and resemble an afro each. He also had a large black afro on his head, and three small ones on his beard. But Chopper was shaking as he glared at the one in front.

"That's Wapol alright!" Chopper cried angrily. A heavy, overweight man with dark violet and a cylinder-shaped jaw made up of tin plates, was standing there as he enjoyed a large slab of meat on the end of a knife. He was dressed in tin-plate armor and a hooded cape that made this guy look a bit like a hippo.

"Metal-mouth?" asked Franky. "Huh, he doesn't look so tough."

Chopper was grinding his teeth together. Though he hated Wapol, though he could never forgive him for what he did, he just couldn't bring himself to want to take revenge either. Whether it was because of what he learned from his father or not, he wasn't sure.

"What a freak-show," Sanji said, just looking at this guy ticked him off.

"So that is the former king of Drum?" Robin asked, to be honest, she expected someone… more impressive looking.

"Wait a minute," Brook asked, suddenly thinking of something, "If he's a king, what's he is doing at sea?"

"Because months before you guys showed up," Chopper said, his hooves curling tightly as if making fists. "Drum was attacked by Blackbeard and his pirates!"

"Blackbeard? That name sounds familiar…" Brook said softly, trying to think back.

"We ran into him for a moment in Mock Town," Nami stated, sharing a look with Zoro, who nodded. "Course, we had no idea who he was."

"You said he attacked you?" Robin asked quietly.

"He just came out of nowhere and started to attack the villages!" Chopper said loudly. "And when Wapol learned how strong he was, he took his men and fled from the island as Blackbeard destroyed everything!"

"But why would he attack your island?" Robin asked.

Chopper looked to his feet and confessed, "I don't know. I was out picking some special herbs for Doctorine by the time that I heard what was going on. When I got back to her, Doctorine told me that there had been a vicious attack and Wapol fled. We spent weeks treating all the injured… and once we were done with that we decided to move into the old castle."

Wapol stood on the Merry, watching the whole thing with a bored expression, as if he could think of a million places he rather be, as he watched them all. Just then, the cabin door shot open and Sanji came running out, demanding to know what was going on.

"That must've been a shock," Chopper said to him as Sanji saw that they had guests. But rather than be concerned, he casually lit a match for his cigarette before he asked again coolly, "So… what's going on here?"

Luffy looked up, "Well, we're under attack, and it's still snowing."

"Well yeah," memory Sanji stated patiently as he looked to the guns with mild interest, "The guns pointed at my face kinda gave it away. What's next?"

"You're taking the news that you're under attack very well," Brook said.

"They weren't anything to worry about," Sanji retorted as Wapol continued to chew a chunk of meat off his knife. "You all consider yourself a band of pirates?" he asked, "That's amusing. I only count four of ya!" he then bit down on the blade, breaking it with his teeth.

"AHHH! My gums are bleeding just watching!" Brook yelled out in disgust. "Not that I have gums any longer, Yohohoho."

"I've heard of sword-swallowers but this is ridiculous," Robin stated. "I don't want to imagine how painful that is trying to digest food like that."

"You're hurting me just talking about it, Robin," Usopp said.

"Seriously, what is this guy?" Franky asked as he chewed up the knife and swallowed the whole thing like it was a cracker.

"He's a Devil Fruit User," Chopper told them. "He ate the Munch Munch Fruit. So he's able to eat just about anything and fuse his body into a weapon depending on what's in his stomach."

"So since he just ate a knife, he can turn some part of his body into one?" Robin asked curiously.

"That's pretty much it," Chopper explained seriously, "And it's because of that power and all the men he had at his disposal that made the people unable to fight back."

"So your king was a human garbage disposal," Zoro stated darkly and Chopper nodded sadly.

"Which is hard to understand why," Chopper said, thinking it all over, "I don't remember, but Doctorine said that Wapol's father, the previous king, was a good man. She said that he was a just king who wished for the well-being of his people and was well loved. I don't understand why Wapol turned out the way that he did."

"Maybe he was rotten to begin with?" Sanji suggested.

Chopper sighed. He always wondered about that… thinking about it now, Wapol was a lot like those stupid nobles from Goa. He remembered what they said… that those nobles stunk of a different kind of trash. They smelled of rotten people… were nobles just born like that? He looked to Vivi and knew that wasn't true, but then why did it feel that way sometimes?

Wapol finished up the knife and added, "So strange… that your group would have so few members."

"'Kay, that's just weird," Luffy said as they all stared at him, "What kind of guy likes to eat knives?"

"And that's a lot coming from someone who eats almost anything he can catch," Sanji added, looking at him.

"Alright," Wapol said, still chewing, "I'll keep this simple. See, my men here and I wish to travel to Drum Kingdom. You wouldn't happen to have an Eternal Pose or a Log Pose would ya?"

"Even if we had, we weren't going to give it to him!" Usopp said loudly.

"Yeah, if we gave someone something whenever they asked for it, we wouldn't have anything left," Zoro stated.

Past Sanji agreed, and told him a straight no, that they never even heard of Drum. Luffy then told Wapol to leave because they were in a hurry; though Wapol merely shrugged, not at all surprised that they didn't have anything, but he didn't seem upset. Instead, he said that he would settle for their treasure and their ship. And to their amazement, his jaw spread wide enough as he went and bit down on the ship's side.

"HE'S A SHIP-EATING MONSTER!" past Usopp yelled terrified as he pulled off a huge chunk of wood and began swallowing it.

"Very good way to put it," Franky said, his own jaw falling open as he stared. Now that was something you didn't see every day.

"Hey, our ship isn't your lunch!" Luffy yelled out, and the men all pointed their guns at them, warning him to stay quiet. Luffy of course, took them both out. As the men all prepared to fire, the Monster Trio all went out of control, taking out all the guards with no effort at all. The whole time, Wapol was eating the side of the ship—Luffy came charging over, just as Wapol clamped his mouth down on him—swallowing him whole.

But Luffy's arms stretched out far back before his mouth closed, and they all knew what this meant. Just before he attacked, Vivi came out this time, demanding to know what was going on, but arrived in time to see Luffy send him flying, screaming out for him to just leave.

"Well… that wasn't too difficult," Robin said.

"He was hardly a challenge," Zoro said in a bored voice. The men were all staring with their jaws open as they watched Wapol become a star in the sky. Freaking out, they all climbed back onto the ship and immediately went off to try and save him. "THIS IS FAR FROM OVER!" Chess yelled, pointing a finger at them, "YOU'LL PAY! I PROMISE YOU'LL PAY!"

And that was when the memory faded away.

Chopper however was smiling as he watched it. While he'd never wish anyone death, it felt good to see Wapol get beaten as he did. This was some payback to the suffering that he had caused from his years he reigned here.

They were back in Nami's room in the next memory. Though it was hard to tell, but it must've been a couple days at least since they last saw her. Past Nami's faces was a bright red and she seemed to be struggling for breath as she tried to breathe.

"Oh, Nami-san," Brook said softly as he leaned over the bed to get a good look at her face. "That looks painful."

Nami sighed as she watched.

"You look like you're knocking at death's door already," Franky said before Sanji kicked him.

"I'll kill you if you ever say that again," he warned him darkly as Chopper looked over her as well. He could tell that she was already just into day three of her infection. She was in bad shape here…

Luffy and past Zoro were there keeping a close watch on her as present-day Nami stared at her past self. She couldn't remember much of anything of her sickness—the memories she did have were a bit hazy and the only clear thing she could remember before she woke up in the castle was Luffy standing over her, telling her that they had to climb a mountain to get to the doctor. Everything before and after that was almost like a black hole…

Suddenly they could hear Sanji's voice calling out from above deck, "ISLAND DEAD AHEAD!"

Luffy looked up, looking thrilled. "Are you serious?!" he cried happily, before he looked to Nami, "Oh an island! We found an island! Hey Nami did you hear that? This means we can get you a real doctor! He'll fix you up!" he then chanted that she should wake up, but Zoro told him to go up and that he'll watch her.

Luffy didn't need to be told twice as he almost went skipping up to the deck. Chopper was the first of the present day Straw Hats to get up on deck and he went running forward to see it. His eyes widen and he felt his heart beating faster as he saw it.

It was an island covered completely with white snow with several tall mountains that looked like tall cylinders covered with ice and snow—almost like drums. The tops of them were completely flat and they towered over everything on the island, casting shadows across the landscape.

"I'M HOME!" cried Chopper, his eyes watering up a little. He didn't think that he'd ever see this place again, and he never realized just how much he missed it till now.

"So, this is where you were born?" Brook asked, "It's beautiful. Like a winter wonderland…"

"It's been such a long time since I've seen snow!" Chopper said, wondering just how his home was doing these days. He wiped the tears away and began jumping around excitedly at the thought of going home again.

"Almost like a dream," Robin stated, looking at the gently falling snow and Luffy began to scream almost as excitedly as Chopper was. He had run up to jump onto the Merry's head and was yelling at the others. "THERE IT IS! NAMI'S SAVED!"

"Oh, boy," Sanji groaned, shaking his head. He forgot about Luffy's love of snow.

"Alright! It's snow!" Luffy yelled with stars in his eyes, "An island of snow!"

"Whoa! Luffy, wait. Just so that there's no misunderstanding between us!" past Sanji called loudly, "We're stopping to find Nami a doctor! We're not here to have an adventure! Are we clear?"

But Luffy wasn't even listening as he went on to say how much he loved snow; and Sanji rolled his eyes, knowing that there wasn't any point going on when he got like this.

"Hold on!" past Usopp asked, shivering from the freezing weather. "You sure this is a good idea? There could be snow monsters! Besides, we don't even know if there's people there or not! Oh no!" he gasped his hand over his heart, "I'm having a relapse of my 'don't go to the island' disease!"

"Snow… it's so white, it's beautiful," Luffy continued to say dreamily as he looked at the sparkling snow while Sanji just shook his head at them.

"He's acting like a little kid here," Nami said, shaking his head.

"And how is that any different than usual?" Zoro asked inquiringly.

"I mean, he's acting even more like a little kid here," she stated, watching Luffy looking ready to jump off the ship once they neared the shore and heading inland along a river.

Robin laughed as she said, "I thought we went over this. His mindset really hasn't changed since he was a child."

Memory Sanji was staring up at the mountains in wonder. "Look at the mountains," he said. "There unlike anything I've ever seen."

But then past Usopp was asking Luffy if he was cold dressed like that, and he looked back in confusion, as if wondering what he was talking about.

"Its ten degrees below zero," Vivi added, "That's when bears get ready to hibernate."

Luffy was silent for a moment, as if this thought was being processed and then…

"IT'S COLD!" he cried out, shivering where he sat and both past Sanji and Usopp yelled at him, "You just figured that out!?"

The small ship continued onwards, deeper into the island. The snow shone so brightly that it was almost painful to look at. So far they hadn't seen anyone else, but as they went forward, current Zoro could just make out the forms of people watching them from the safety of trees or behind boulders—watching them go onwards. Soon, Vivi had spotted what seemed like a good place to anchor as Zoro called to them all, "'Kay guys, doctor search. Who wants in? Guess we gotta find people here first."

Luffy, who was now wearing a coat, raised his hand. "I'm in!"

"Me too!" past Sanji exclaimed.

"Fine! Go have fun!" memory Usopp yelled in the background.

Nami rolled her eyes. Well, at least she knew who she could count on if she ever got sick like that again. But then someone yelled out, "That's far enough, pirate!"

At the voice, their heads jerked up to see that they had been surrounded on all sides on the cliffs, by several dozen people at least. Though they looked like ordinary citizens, they were all armed and looked ready to fight.

"Wow, what a friendly place," Franky muttered sarcastically. "I feel welcomed already."

"People! Well, that was easy," Luffy said, not sounding concerned.

"Ya, think?" current Usopp said as his past self looked around nervously, and informed Luffy that they didn't look friendly.

Suddenly, a man stepped forward. He was a large and rather imposing man, with slicked black hair and a slight goatee. He was dressed in a long white fur-lined green tunic and armor plates on his arms; with an extra-large spade, in a sheath hanging on his back—and the way that the people all gathered around him, it was clear that he was the leader.

"Dalton," Chopper said softly as he walked in the front.

"You know him?" Robin asked.

Chopper didn't answer her as he thought back to a few years ago when his father died. After Dr. Hiluluk died, he lost his mind and went into a blind charge. He didn't care if he died then, all he wanted to do was to make those people who laughed at his father's death pay for it. Dalton had been the one who stopped him from fighting a hopeless battle.

"I'll only say this once. Your kind is not welcomed here. Leave immediately," Dalton called.

"We only came here to find a doctor!" Luffy yelled.

"We have someone who's sick!" Vivi yelled pleadingly.

"You'll have to do better than that! We won't fall for that old trick!" someone shouted.

"This is our island!" another person yelled, holding up his gun. "We won't let any filthy pirates land here!"

"Harsh place," Brook whispered. "They won't listen."

"Well, after finding out about Blackbeard destroying their country, I can't say that I blame them," Robin stated. "The idea of pirates alone is usually enough to scare everyone out of their minds."

"Without any proof that you guys aren't like Blackbeard, I don't think that they'll be willing to listen," Franky said a twinge of uneasiness stirred inside him as everyone screamed for them to leave or else they'll blow them out of the water.

"That's great. We barely said hello, and they already hate us," memory Sanji said charily.

"Get out of here!" a person yelled at him as he shot near his feet, startling them all.

"If they shot at any other pirates, they would've taken that as an act of war and probably killed them," Robin said bluntly.

"These guys seem a little too trigger happy," Brook said, knowing that these kind of people could do a lot of damage even if they didn't mean it.

"Big mistake!" past Sanji growled, looking ready to fight as Vivi moved to stop him from acting recklessly, but in the end, that same man lost his head as he fired again—this time he struck Vivi in the shoulder.

"Vivi!" Luffy screamed. He turned towards the shooter, completely enraged. "Why you…!"

They all held up their weapons, looking ready to fire on them all—Luffy looked ready to take them all out, but then Vivi got up and stopped him by his waist, holding him back, even as the blood rushed down her arm.

"Stop it!" Vivi pleaded. "Fighting is not going to help anything!"

Luffy glared at Vivi as she tried to tell him that she was alright, that it was only a graze. She then lowered her head to the deck and cried out, "As you wish, we will not dock here. But please, will you summon a doctor? Our friend is suffering with a severe illness. Please help her, I beg you!"

Luffy looked dumbfounded. "Vivi…"

"You don't deserved to be captain," Vivi stated harshly without lifting her head. "We can't get into a fight here!"

"Now that was uncalled for here," Brook said angrily.

Robin shook her head. Though she did agree that they shouldn't be picking a fight in this case, she doubted that a princess could ever fully understand. Though Vivi may believe that talking can work things out, she knew better than anyone that it's not always the answer. For outcasts and misfits, they have it especially rough… for them, fighting is the only thing that they knew. After all, until she joined this crew, that was all she really understood as well.

"She makes it sound so easy," Zoro said darkly, unknowingly voicing Robin's thoughts. "But it's hard to do so when they have weapons pointing at you and aren't afraid to use them."

"Even if you do try to ask nicely, all they have to do is see the pirate flag and any chance of them wanting to listen go out the window," Sanji added angrily, "That's no excuse to shooting a lady."

"True, but in some situations, they have to know when to fight, and when to stay down," Nami whispered as she looked on. Luffy's expression was void of all emotions as he merely looked at her as she continued to beg for help.

"Think about Nami, what will happen to her?" Vivi asked him. Luffy looked back to the townspeople and seemed to come to a difficult conclusion. "Yeah, right, I'm sorry about that," he said softly. He fell to his knees next to Vivi and bowed his head just like she did, his hat flying off as he also asked for help that they bring a doctor.

The townspeople merely looked on for a few agonizing seconds before Dalton said, "I'll show you to our village." They all looked up at him as he turned, "Follow me."

"See, just ask politely," Vivi said in a know-it-all voice before the memory faded.

"Is that really what happened?" Nami said quietly, looking at them. Her heart feeling warm at the gesture…

"Exactly like that," Sanji admitted. "We needed help, and we couldn't be too picky about it. Though it's not easy to humble yourself and bow your head, every man needs to learn when to do it."

"Why are you looking at me?!" demanded Usopp when Sanji looked directly at him.

"He's merely saying that humility is something that every warrior needs to learn," Robin offered as Franky put a massive hand over his heart.

"Oh! How touching! Ready to do whatever it takes for your friends! It pulls at my heart!" Franky cried out dramatically as Zoro looked away, the hair on the back of his neck standing up uneasily. He hated this… he was being watched, he just knew it, but why couldn't he sense anything? Every time that he tried to pinpoint what was out there, a memory came up to distract them.

No sooner did he think that did they suddenly appear in a small, but warm house. There was a roaring fire going in the fireplace while Luffy, Usopp, Sanji, and Vivi were all gathered around Nami's bed with Dalton there and he even passed them a few warm drinks.

"It's that Dalton guy again," Zoro said, vaguely recalling meeting him. "Who is he, again?"

"He was once the Captain of the Guard under Wapol," Chopper said.

"Wait, that gentleman worked for Wapol?" Brook asked in surprise.

"Yes, but he wasn't like Wapol," Chopper explained. "He was the servant to the king because he was loyal. But he didn't like what they had done to the people. When… when a brave doctor sacrificed his life for the country, he rebelled against Wapol and was then thrown into prison for it. At least that's what Doctorine told me. After Wapol ran away, he took charge and kept the island from falling into disarray, soon gaining the trust of the people."

"I knew I liked that guy," Usopp said; thought he knew most of this already after Dalton told him and Vivi a little about his past.

Dalton then started to speak to them as he pointed to the window, "Those mountains out there are known as the Drum Rockies. Look closely… Do you see the castle on top of the tallest one? The one in the middle?"

"There's really a castle up there?" Franky said in surprise as he went to the window and looked through it. "Huh… fancy that. You lived up there?"

Chopper nodded as Usopp questioned Dalton about the castle.

"That castle has lost its king," Dalton explained.

"Yeah, I see it up there," past Sanji said as he looked as well. But Vivi was asking what was so important about the castle.

"That castle is where this land's only doctor lives," Dalton informed them. "Doctor Kureha. She's the one who the people here call a witch."

"Witch?" repeated Robin. That word brought a few bad memories back to her as she remembered how the kids back at Ohara called her that.

"She was all that Drum Kingdom had," Chopper said quietly. "I told you before. She was the only doctor to survive the entire Doctor Hunt without being captured, killed or banished. She had been in hiding for most of those years as Wapol's men searched for her. After he left, there wasn't any need for her to hide anymore…"

"What a mess that Wapol jerk did to this place," Nami said angrily.

"So… you learned everything about being a doctor from a witch?" Brook asked startled. Chopper always seemed so gentle. You'd never guess it…

Chopper laughed a little. "She is an amazing doctor… though a little… different than most." Though she's rough on the outside, he knew that deep down, she had a soft side. After all, she honored his father's last two requests to make his life's work come to fruition and to train him in medicine. He always knew that she had a soft side—deep down.

"But why is everyone calling her a witch?" Franky asked.

"Wait till you see her, then you'll understand," Zoro said darkly, thinking of that hag.

"And she's insane," Sanji said bitterly. "What kind of doctor chases her patients around a freaky snow-filled castle trying to kill them?"

"What?" Robin repeated, not sure if they were joking or not.

"Ah… ha ha… Doctorine… she's called that for a few reasons," Chopper admitted. "She's got an eccentric treatment of her patients… she'll… she'll often violently threaten or beat them up if they don't follow her orders. And she's got a forceful method of checking for injuries."

"Tell me about it," Sanji hissed, his hand going to his back as he remember the surgery that she gave him to put his back into place.

"What!?" memory Sanji cried out. "Of all places, why does she live on top of a mountain!? We need to call her here right now! Nami needs her help!"

"I'm sorry but I'm afraid there's no way to contact her," Dalton answered, and he truly sounded sorry here.

Past Sanji growled in frustration. "You can't be serious! What kind of doctor is she?"

"That's true… so you had to go to her? Even though you have the sick person?" Robin asked worriedly. "You think that they'd have a way to contact her…? A transponder snail or…?"

"We usually came down the mountain every couple days," Chopper said as Dalton explained that her medical skills are actually impressive but that she was also nearly one-hundred and forty years old.

"Hundred and forty?!" cried out Franky. "You're kidding!"

"Well, I think that should be proof of her medical skills," Robin stated thoughtfully. "I wish to meet her."

"No, you don't," Zoro stated at once, "Believe me, that old hag is far from interesting."

"You better be careful," Chopper warned. "She sees herself as really young and hates being called "old" or a "hag". In fact, she even begins conversations by asking if whoever she's speaking to wants to know the secret of her youth."

"Youth? She's got a face that looks like it's withering away!" Usopp said.

"Wow, now she sounds like one heck of an old lady," Brook said, "She's even older than I am! Yohohoho!"

"Hundred and forty?" Sanji repeated, "No wonder she doesn't get around much."

"Oh, she gets around fine," Chopper said with a gulp. "She's also really strong."

"You think that you would've learned your lesson to how strong she is since she smashed yours and Luffy's faces through brick walls," Nami reminded Sanji who shivered at that.

"She did what now?" Robin asked as she giggled at the idea. Dalton just explained that she likes pickled plums as Vivi asked what the people here do if they get sick or injured.

"She comes down from the mountain whenever she feels like it," Dalton explained. "She looks around for patients, treats them, and before she leaves, she takes whatever she wants from their houses as payment."

"She doesn't sound like a very nice lady," memory Usopp said.

"It kinda sounds like she's a pirate," Luffy added.

"Yeah, I think that's the best way to put it," Chopper laughed a little.

"You wonder why she rejected the idea of joining the crew when Luffy asked," Nami said, thinking back.

"Wait, Luffy asked that hag to join?" Zoro said in horror. Now, he'll support almost every crazy idea Luffy has… but if that old woman wanted to join them, he would have to put his foot down.

"Well, she didn't want to come anyway," Nami said and Sanji silently thanked whatever deity out there for that.

"But how is a woman as old as she is capable of getting down that mountain?" Vivi asked,not understanding something like that.

Dalton seemed to think it over for a moment before he confessed, "It's an odd rumor around here, but several of the villagers have claimed to have seen her at night riding a sleigh of some kind through the sky. They see her silhouette when the moon is out. That's the reason she is thought to be a witch."

"Ok… that's creepy," Franky said and Robin had a mental image of that.

"That must be scary…" she said softly, "when your only doctor's a mountain witch."

"Well, she wasn't all that Drum had," Nami said with a smile at Chopper.

"There are others who say they've seen her with a strange creature… a creature none of them recognize," Dalton added and Usopp seemed to freak out about snow monsters.

"So that's when you guys first heard of me?" Chopper said, feeling a little let-down.

"Don't worry," Sanji said, waving his hand at them. "Luffy never listens. Besides, it's the fact that he thought you were a monster that he wanted you to join."

"Dr. Kureha is the only doctor we have but she's still a woman I would prefer to stay away from," Dalton warned, "All we can do is wait for the next time she decides to come down the mountain."

"And we couldn't wait that long, so Luffy decided to do it his way," Sanji said.

"You mean…?" Brook asked, already guessing what Luffy must've done as Vivi and Sanji were both exclaiming that they couldn't wait that long. But Luffy got up from the floor and went over to Nami as he began to gently slap her face, trying to wake her up. "Hey Nami? Nami, wake up now," Luffy asked.

"That really wouldn't help things," Chopper said as he sweat-dropped.

"LUFFY YOU IDIOT WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HER?" the other three yelled at him. But past Nami slowly opened her eyes and she looked over at him.

"I thought that I was dreaming for a minute," Nami said, thinking back to his crazy idea of mountain climbing.

"Hey, look she's awake!" Luffy exclaimed to them before he looked back to her and explained, "Here's the thing. The only way to see the doctor is to climb the mountain. So, we're gonna have to climb mountain."

"I still think that was a crazy idea," Usopp said, watching past Nami's face turn to one of great surprise.

Past Sanji agreed and shouted out, "Are you crazy!? What about Nami? How do you intend to get her up?!"

"Easy, she'll ride on my back," Luffy answered.

"That's only going to make her even more sick!" Vivi yelled at him angrily.

"Yes, but at this point, it was either that or to wait for the chance she comes down," Robin pointed out.

"What's the problem? I thought we needed to hurry?" Luffy said, not understanding what the problem was.

"We do, but you'll never make it up there!" Vivi yelled, pointing out the window at the mountain. "Look at how steep and tall that thing is!"

"How did you guys get up there anyway?" Usopp asked.

"Don't look at me," Nami said, shaking her head before she glanced at Sanji.

"I don't remember too much either," he confessed, a little ashamed at that. "I got hurt on the way up and was unconscious until I woke up in a bed at the castle."

"So… you guys… don't know?" Chopper asked, just making sure.

"Nope, nothing," Nami answered. "Why? Do you know?"

"Well, I can't say for sure… but I have a good idea," he answered back. Doctorine had decided that he must've done climbed up that mountain with his bare hands. Normally, Chopper would dismiss that thought, but after meeting Luffy, he knew better… and knowing how crazy that Luffy was… it really wouldn't surprise him if he did what he thought he did…

"I can do it," Luffy said confidently.

"Maybe you can, but climbing that thing will be way too hard on Nami!" past Sanji exclaimed.

"Yeah, but look, even if we fall or something we'll land in snow," Luffy said indifferently.

"Not everyone is made of rubber! Luffy, you really need to be around some normal people," Nami sighed.

"That doesn't matter! A fall like that will kill even a healthy person!" Vivi yelled out, and acting like that ended the matter. Even past Usopp was backing them up, arguing that Nami's fever was too serious and that she's almost dying.

"Let him do it…"

The voice had come from Nami started to groan in bed, and like before, the entire room fell silent as they looked over at her. "I… I need to get over this thing… and quickly. We need to hurry… for Vivi." Still breathing hard, she pulled her hand out from under the covers and held it up as she forced a smile. "Come on, captain. Let's go!"

"I really thought that you lost your mind here," Usopp said as the other three stared at them, dumbfounded—even Dalton was looking at her in surprise. "First we have a crazy captain, then our navigator…?"

"I was tired of being sick," she said firmly, folding her arms. "It was my fault that we were in this mess and I needed to get over it as soon as possible. Vivi couldn't wait much longer. Besides, I trusted Luffy to get me up there."

The crew smiled at her. You can say a lot of things about Nami, but she truly did trust them all in the end. "After all that you've been through together, you truly are all so close," Brook said, a little enviously. "I suppose that it's only natural… you've been in this whole thing together since the very beginning."

Luffy grinned back at her and gave her a high-five that reminded them when Arlong Park fell and she had given back the Straw Hat… even back to when they first met and she agreed to join up with him for awhile. "That's what I'm talking about. Leave it to me!" he promised as the memory faded at that to see the familiar night sky.

"Normally, I would've said that you were insane!" Chopper told them. "But since it's you guys, I know that there's nothing that can change your minds once you decided what you're going to do. But… with such a high fever, running around in the snow like that didn't do you any favors!"

"Maybe," she said, waving her hand at him. It was hard to believe that she would've learned to trust people as she trusted these people. For years she was used to trusting no one… it was something that she truly did love the most to being here. "But he pulled through in the end and that's all that matters."

"You're so brave here, Nami-swan," Sanji told her.

The memory reappeared and they were all standing outside Dalton's house. Luffy was carrying her piggyback as Vivi was tying a cloth around them to help make sure she stayed on.

Sanji sighed a little as he watched them. How he wished that he had offered to carry Nami-swan up like this? He was sure that he would've made the journey a lot more comfortable for her than that shitty bastard.

"You know you're in no shape for a trip like this Nami," his past self told her, but she was already sleeping like a baby.

"Are you sure you'll be ok?" Vivi asked worriedly, "It'll take you hours to get there."

Luffy didn't answer that as he looked to Dalton and asked for some meat for the road and he looked at him in bewilderment.

"I should've known," Zoro said with a laugh. That Luffy could be on his deathbed and he would ask for his last meal for the road. Memory Sanji declared that he would go with them to make sure that they got up there in one piece as Usopp warned Luffy that he couldn't fall, not even once, or Nami will die.

Vivi finished tying Nami on and told them that she would stay behind because she would only slow them down. Usopp nodded in agreement as Luffy told Nami to hang on tight and they looked ready to start running.

"I guess you're set on going," Dalton said, "I'm not going to try and stop you, but I will ask that you climb up from the other side. That way you can avoid the Lapahns on this side. They're fierce carnivorous rabbits. You run into a pack of them, you're as good as dead."

"Fierce carnivorous… rabbits?" Brook repeated carefully, as if sure he heard wrong. "I'm sorry, but when I picture rabbits, fierce and carnivorous aren't the first words that come to my mind."

"Oh, don't laugh," Sanji warned Franky, who had started to chuckle. "They're far from cute and fuzzy!"

"You're afraid of bunnies, Mr. Nosebleed?" Zoro asked with a smug smile.

"Well, you haven't seen them," Sanji growled at him, "They're as big as freaking bears."

Luffy was reassuring him that they'll be fine as he looked to Sanji, who agreed firmly.

"Hell, yeah," current Sanji said firmly. He wasn't going to let Nami down here. She needed a doctor and he would've climbed a hundred mountains if that's what it took to get her there.

"You can't be serious!" Dalton said loudly, "Do you know how easily those things can kill you?!"

"Very easily," Chopper said at once. He remembered how careful he had to be whenever he went that way for herbs. That was the one chore that he hated doing more than of the other chores that Doctorine made him do.

"Nah, we'll be alright," Luffy said confidently as he took off, calling back to Sanji, "Now hurry it up Sanji before Nami dies!"

"Why does he do that? It's not a joke!" current Sanji hissed when his past self looked just as annoyed, yelling after him, "Don't say things like that you idiot, you wanna jinx us?!"

And so they took off, the current Straw Hats right after them. It was already starting to snow with a wind picking up quickly so that it was difficult to see anything in front of them. But they could still see the main mountain in front of them as they made a straight beeline for that… leaving nothing but deep imprints in the snow behind them.

*Luffy*

Luffy struck at Ace with a Gum Gum Jet Pistol, but Ace easily dodged it as he charged as well, sending his signature Fire Fist right back at him. Grinning wildly, Luffy stretched one arm high to grab hold of a branch and rocketed out of the way as Ace gave chase.

"Come on," Ace taunted, laughing as jumped and then flipped upside down as he created hundreds of small, glowing greenish-yellow fireballs that floated around them like fireflies before they went flying at Luffy. "Two years and all you can do is run?"

"You wish!" Luffy laughed as he easily dodge that before he appeared in front of Ace and hit him with a Haki effused fist.

Here, he was able to hit his brother's body and sent him flying back. Blinking in surprise, he watched as Ace fell, but caught himself by landing on a lower branch. "Why didn't you try to dodge that?!" Luffy called in confusion. Ace was a lot of things, but predictable wasn't one of them.

Ace shrugged as he smiled up at him. "That was my biggest problem," he admitted. "Because I was so used to attacks going right through me, I got over confident. In the end… I think that's what did me in."

Luffy blinked down at him as Ace sighed.

"It's why I lost to that asshole Teach," Ace told him, his fist now coated in fire as he sent flames up at him, which Luffy dodged and fell towards him, throwing another Haki-infused fist down at him. Two were jumping around in the high trees like monkeys as they threw punches at the other, each punch hurting but they fought their way through easily.

"If that's true… then how will I be able to fight him?" Luffy asked himself, not realizing that he spoke outloud.

"Come on," Ace stated. "You're giving up before you even faced him? I thought I knew you better than that."

"I never said I was giving up!" Luffy said loudly, as he slugged Ace's face. "I just mean that out of the three of us… you were always the strongest."

"And you were the weakest," Ace nodded. "But in this world there's only two choices. Die or get stronger. That's why we're fighting here aren't we? I've been worried about you… I know that what happened that day had to have messed with your head didn't it?"

Luffy's eyes turned sad as he foresaw the flames aimed for him and he moved his head in time so that only the tips of his hair were singed. "But… I let you die…?"

Ace sighed. "Come on. I thought you learned something… you don't stop living just because someone else does. That's not what I wanted."

"But…" Luffy asked as his brother chased him up farther through the treetops and into the blue sky. The two were left suspended in midair for a moment before Ace told him, as if it was obvious to everyone from the start, "You gave me a reason to want to live… don't you remember?"

(So how was it? To long? Please tell me what you think and I hope that you enjoyed the first part of the fight. Any requests to what you would like to see here? And don't worry, the monster that the Straw Hats are chasing will appear again soon, but I won't tell you who.)