Chapter 25
AN- Bloody hell. Its been a while. Like, five months. Literally. Sorry for the wait. Real life was a pain in my neck, I had other fanfics to worry about and I have a real life outside of the internet (Much to my continued shock)- plus this chapter was a pain to write. Besides which, this chapter is basically a five for one deal anyway.
NOTE! READ THIS AN!
On another note, anybody remember the beginning of this fic? It sucks, doesn't it? It was began when I was lacking in experience and ability, so now that my style has evolved I have also dedicated some of my writing time to utterly rewrite the first few chapters. Not revamp or just rewrite- THEY ARE LITERALLY NEW. Seriously, this is effectively five updates at once, so go back and read the beginning and you'll see how much better it is.
I'll eventually go through each of the following chapters gradually and hopefully by the time I'm done all the chapters will match the quality here. Either way, I am still working on new chapters, so have no fear of me putting story progress on hiatus in favour of revamping.
Disclaimer: I own many things- like the laptop I wrote this on and my OC's. I also own people- mostly on Super Smash Bros 4. Seriously- I play a mean Bowser Junior, and I am still notorious amongst my circle of friends for my Dickish playing style of Snake back with Brawl. Now, this disclaimer has gone off on a tangent... either way, I definitely don't own One Piece.
Beta: The Handsome Twin- praise his name, for his contributions shalt destroy punctuation errors.
Saying that Luffy's and my argument resulted in fallout was akin to claiming that fire burns and computers crash - pretty obvious. It was clear that it was on everyone's mind, especially my own.
I mean, I was leaving the Straw Hat Pirates. This was a Big Thing. It's been so long since before I teamed up with all these strange people... and it's been so long since I decided to help these oddballs however I could.
However, recent events have taught me to expect life to throw me unexpected hands and for the Game Master to constantly screw me over.
Two days since Luffy damn well broke my nose. Two days of him avoiding me like the plague as I continued to recover in my room under the restless watch of Vivi. Two days to reach the next island.
As the weather chilled and the air cooled, the Going Merry approached Drum Island. It was hard, but I had managed to push myself to try and move. My limbs were starting to do as I commanded, though the Devil's Arm did not. I was feeding myself, which did wonders for bringing my pride back up a few notches. Hopefully I'd be able to get up soon, since the rest of my body was much more responsive too, though I doubt it. This 'nearly dying business' is a serious pain in the ass, since even after all this time my passive healing still hasn't brought me back up to 10 percent, let alone 100.
"I think we're docking soon..." Nick trailed off from besides me as he sniffed loudly, wiping his nose with a handkerchief. The blacksmith really didn't like the snow. A little bit of it was fine, but prolonged exposure disagreed with him.
"Yeah," I agreed. "It won't be long now. Until I say goodbye to this ship for good."
"Until we say goodbye to this ship," corrected Nick with one of those wide grins of his.
"Indeed. We." I hadn't even needed to ask if Nick was going to accompany me or not. Wherever I went, my shadow would inevitably trail after me, and likewise so would the man besides me. Even someone like me could tell that Nick would never stick around with the crew unless I was amongst them, and since I had chosen to step off in Drum Kingdom I would not leave alone.
In fact, it was actually quite reassuring to have him agree to come with me. These last two days involved a lot of me sitting around, thinking and planning. My previous plans need to be edited, but I have a general idea of what I'm doing now. Kinda. And to do anything in an RPG, you always need a party. Two of us can do a lot more than what I alone can do. Plus there's the whole 'friend' factor to consider, but that's secondary to having a Tank.
"So what we gonna do once we get off, man?" Nick questioned, finishing in his usual verbal tick.
"As much as I hate to admit it, I think I need a medical expert," I reluctantly conceded. "So first we find a doctor. Then, we make our way to Alabasta, since we damn well can't leave Straw Hat and the others alone. After that, shit goes down and the rest of my Master Plan kicks in."
"Ooooh! Ooooh! What's your Grand Plan!?"
"Well, my loyal, stupid follower you," I began, "step one - get strong. Step two - get allies. Step three - ?. Step four - profit!"
"What's profit got to do with anything?" asked Nick in confusion. I sighed, not bothering to explain how I was referencing the typical money grabbing scheme found on Spacebattles.
"Nathan, I'm back!" Vivi said happily as she walked into the room, carrying a bowl of soup in tow. "Mr Chef gave me some soup to bring back!"
"Food!" cried Nick joyously. "Any for me?"
"Mr Blacksmith," Vivi chided, "you ate like two hours ago."
"So?"
Vivi sighed. No doubt she had difficulty arguing with him- it was like trying to reason with a Troll. "Here." She handed the bowl and spoon to me, and I gratefully placed it on my lap (since I was sitting up in bed). With my one hand I was able to spoon the food in easily enough - it was actually a good test for my muscle control. Oh, that's nice. Say what you will of my decision - the lack of Sanji food will be the most missed aspect of leaving the crew.
"Man am I glad to be able to feed myself again," I commented.
"I don't know- that grumpy face you pull whenever I fed you was adorable," joked Vivi with a small giggle.
"Laugh it up..." I muttered darkly, slurping my broth. "One day I'll feed you soup, and it might just have poison in it..."
"Man, your face was hilarious, though."
"Shut up, Nick. She kept making Chocobo noises whenever she fed me."
"It was a super spot-billed duck sound!" argued Vivi.
"Does it really matter?" I retorted.
Vivi sighed, then took her seat next to me. Nick shuffled his makeshift seat away to make room.
"Anyway," began Vivi nervously, "are you really going to go through with... you know... leaving the crew?"
"Yes," I said. "I made my decision. I'll damned well stick with it."
"But why?" Vivi leaned forwards in curiosity. "I know that these are your friends, and that this is your home, and that you care enough to die for them. So why are you abandoning them!?"
I plopped down my spoon perhaps a bit too forcefully and sighed. "Vivi, I made a decision. They are my friends and I will continue to support them, but my pride refuses to let me serve someone that won't give me independence. Even if I did want to change my mind, there is no going back." In-game, you could always turn off and head back to the last Save Point, but in real life you couldn't. And even if I could, I wouldn't, because then the choice itself would have had no weight. "As such, this is the path I've chosen, and I'll walk down it to the bitter end."
Not that my end WILL be bitter. RNG no! I refuse to accept anything but a Good one.
"Nathan..."
"No," I said.
"But-"
"Whatever it is that you want, no."
Vivi flushed in anger or annoyance. It was hard to tell sometimes. "You haven't even heard yet!"
"True, but it's more than likely nothing good." I shook my head.
"My ma did say that all women are troublesome," noted Nick.
"Look, when you leave, I want to go with you," Vivi stated. Not asked - stated.
"No," I retorted.
"Why, though?"
"Because you need to get to Alabasta," I said like it was obvious. Which it was. "Numerically, even with Nick tagging along, the Straw Hat's roster is larger, while their numbers are stronger than Nick and me on average. To make sure you get there safely, going with them is the better choice."
The desert princess' face fell. "I... knew that. But I trust you to protect me, and you did say you were heading there regardless!"
"Sa-fer," I repeated. "Wherever I go, the GM declares his hatred. Because really, ever since Arlong Park it's been one giant car jacking filled with explosions and ridden with corpses. I refuse to let you get hurt."
Her frown became a smile. "Are you worried about me?"
Clearly not- it's just plot related. She needs to tag along with the Straw Hats to get their help due to being 'nakama', and she actually needs to live to get to her home country to actually stop all the bullshit happening there. Admittedly her comments have suggested that more things are afoot there, but the fact remains that her partying with me is unnecessary.
So I just answered with "No."
Her smile remains. "We'll see..."
I resisted the urge to groan. "I swear that if you do something stupid like stowaway on whatever ship I take, I'm going to throw you overboard."
"You'd need to have the physical strength to do that first." Then, as if to prove her point, she wrenched my spoon from my hand, dunked it in the soup, and shoved it into my mouth- effectively silencing me.
As she removed the spoon I scowled at her with an expression that could be described only as 'scathingly promising revenge'. Vivi was a force on this ship that was too damned good at getting through my shields.
XXXXXXXXXX
"What the hell is going on this time?" I growled to Nick as he bore the bulk of my weight and helped me stagger through the ship and up deck. What I was doing wasn't anywhere close to walking, but more akin to my friend half dragging and half carrying me. Even so, we'd reached Drum Island and the shouting coming from deck was loud enough to warrant me getting up.
I would have needed to be dragged off the ship eventually anyway, so better now than later.
As we reached the deck I saw a familiar sight, or at least one I remembered from the anime. There was a showdown between the gun armed peasants of the Drum Kingdom and the Straw Hats.
"Well then, what seems to be the problem?" I asked loudly, announcing my presence to the group. Jumping slightly, the gunmen on the island proper swivelled their heads to look at me and immediately paled.
"Is it?"
"Was it-"
"No! It can't be-"
"Him." One man ruffled through a pile of tattered pages he pulled from his coat until he reached the one he was looking for. Bringing it up he looked from it, to me, to the sheet, and back to me, before he finally dropped it and ran away screaming.
Another man picked it up and saw just why he was running.
"That's him! It's definitely He Who Marches Alongside The Devil, the son of Dragon, the Demon overlord!" He screamed in horror.
Oh yeah, I sometimes forget that despite the falseness of it I do have a horribly large Bounty, am considered the son of the most infamous man on the planet (due to said man's conniving trolling) and am also the scapegoat for literally all Demonic events on this planet.
"I swear that I am going to murder whoever came up with that name," I announced, then inclined my head to Nick to get him to help carry me forwards into the conversation proper.
"You're up," Zoro noticed. "Should you really be active?"
"Probably not, but this racket was a pain in the ass. So what's the problem then?"
"These shitty people won't let us on the island, and they dared try to shoot at Vivi dearest!" Sanji spun like a twister in his anger. The princess in question just looked sheepish at the attention.
"They missed," she said quietly.
"Who the hell do they think they are..." Sanji growled, muttering about pig roasts and steaks... or maybe stakes.
"Well, you don't look dead, so what's the problem." I tried to shrug and failed. Suddenly, pain shot through my leg. "Shit- okay, Nick, sit me down or something."
Nick dropped me and enthusiastically ran inside to get me a chair. I sighed from my painful position on the floor, knowing it was going to be a pain in the ass to get up again. "I meant sit me down after you got a chair."
"You're so useless sometimes." Vivi sighed, coming over to see if I was all right.
"Oi," a voice said simply. Luffy strode forwards to the side of the ship closest to the shore and looked over the assembled people. "Why won't you let us come onto the island? You tried to hurt my friend, and you won't let me get a doctor for another, so why not?"
"Because you're pirates!" declared the townspeople like it was obvious. "The last time we let some of you onto our island, that Blackbeard man pillaged it, and so we can't take any chances! And that was before we found out the injured pirate in question is him of all people, the Son of Dragon!"
"One," I pointed out from the floor, "Dragon is a lying troll, and when I level up to an extent that even a hardcore Disgaea player would be jealous, I intend to ingrain into his body the very concept of 'curbstomp'. Two, if my reputation is as terrifying as you suggest, then don't you think denying me treatment even in my weakened state is just asking to be set on fire?"
The lightbulb moment passed over the assembled people as they realised that they had just tried to piss off a man with an over 200 million bounty on his head. Yes, it was bullshit, but they didn't know that.
"So... all you want is medical treatment?" The man from before hesitantly stepped forwards.
"How many times do we have to say it?" growled Nami. "He's injured. All we want is for a doctor to look over his wounds and treat him, to stay until the log pass resets, and go."
"So there will be no raping, raiding, robbing, ravaging," he took a deep breath, "pillaging, drinking, stealing, desecrating-" the man continued to rattle off, counting off the offences on both hands until he went past 10 and needed to borrow a neighbours fingers to count. "murdering, plundering, or littering."
Luffy stepped forwards himself and nodded his head. "On my word as Captain, we won't do any of that stuff. I just want to help my..." he looked over to me, and an expression I couldn't identify settled on his face. It might have been sadness, regret or even anger, but in the end Luffy decided on the word "friend."
It brought what might have been a smile to my face that even on some level, after our argument and fallout, he still considered me a friend, even if we disagreed and were no longer crew mates. Luffy was stubborn, but he wasn't malicious, and he was far too willing to do the impossible for his friends. It was one reason why I respected him.
"Very well, then," the man agreed reluctantly. "I'll let Dalton know. However, we don't actually have any doctors in our village."
"What!? How useless," complained the navigator.
"It does seem a little silly that we argued over all this when there isn't even a doctor to treat him," remarked Usopp.
"It's not our fault!" the villager argued, flinching away as if scared that as pirates we would tear off his head for not having one. "Wapol, our previous ruler, had the monopoly on all doctors in Drum Kingdom, and when he left he took the doctors with him! There is one doctor left though..."
"She is a witch named Kureha," spoke a gruff voice as Nick picked me up and shoved me onto a chair. The crowd parted like Miyamoto had graced the room, revealing a tall, muscular, well-dressed man who was very familiar to me. I remembered him from the anime, but as far as I could tell, it was only a small role.
"It's Dalton!"
"Where has he been?"
"Think he can sort this out?" the villagers discussed. The larger man named Dalton ignored them, looking towards our ship.
"In the distance lies the Drum Rockies, and at the top of the tallest plateau stands Drum Castle. Within lives a medicinal witch and her apprentice, who occasionally comes down the mountain to treat our villagers," Dalton explained roughly, gesturing to the great behemoths in the background that couldn't be missed.
"And can she help my friend?" Luffy asked equally seriously, stepping forwards.
"If you come with no ill intent and swear not to harm anyone on this island, then yes," responded Dalton.
"I swear on my hat and my flag, on my dream to be the Pirate King," Luffy swore solemnly. I swallowed loudly- this really was the most serious I had ever seen Luffy act. No joking, no rudeness - just determination. Is this just a taster of what Luffy will one day be like, once he seriously starts getting close to becoming King? Is this why so many powerful people take the goofball seriously later on in the series?
Dalton deliberated for a moment before nodding, a small smile touched his face. "With an oath like that, how could I not believe you? Very well, you can stay on Drum Island until she comes down to treat our village next."
"And how long will that be?" asked Nami.
"Maybe a month or two," he admitted.
"What!? That long!?" said Vivi in disbelief.
"Maybe a week or two if you're lucky," Dalton added.
"I'll be bloody healed by then," I muttered.
"And it'll be too late by then!" Vivi interjected.
"Can't we get my bro here fixed up sooner than that?" Yosaku entered the conversation.
"You could always go up to her, I suppose." He sounded doubtful. "With the snowstorms, avalanches, lapahns, and the sheer climb up to the top, I, for one, wouldn't risk going up - you might end up with more dying people than you began the trek with."
"I don't care," stated Luffy. "I'll carry him up myself."
"Straw Hat..." I began.
"No, shut up, Nathan," he snapped. "I'm gonna carry you up there. You're not my nakama anymore, but I won't leave you like that when-" When it was my fault you ended up like that- he left unsaid.
"Luffy, man, are you sure?" Nick asked his former Captain. "I'll gladly carry him."
"No. I'll do it." And like that it was assured - Luffy's stubbornness equalled my own, and if he said he'd carry me, he would. Nick conceded this point and nodded in agreement, though I knew he'd be with me every step of the way on this journey irregardless.
"Very well, then." Dalton motioned for us to join him. "If you are that desperate for medical help, then we'll take you to the village first so you can at least get ready, and so that those not making the journey can wait behind."
The crew and not-crew began to disengage from the ship and follow Dalton, with only Johnny and Yosaku staying behind at the ship to look after it. ("There are so many people going that we won't be needed."- Johnny. "You get better, Nath-bro, we'll... look after the ship.")
I just wondered how events would happen now. Would Drum Island go like in canon? Was Chopper even going to join, or had my actions caused things to diverge rapidly? Either way, all I could do was wait and see. It wasn't like I could do much anyway in my condition.
XXXXXXXXXX
It was cold.
Correction. It was freaking cold.
Further correction. It was so stupidly freaking cold that my entire body is numb!
"Th-th-this sucks," I chattered from Luffy's back (securely tied to with rope) as we trekked through the snowstorm, the mountain we planned to climb gradually growing larger as we approached.
Nick stood to my left, chattering if not as equally loudly, then in greater intensity. If I was cold, then he was frozen - Nick truly hated the cold in large doses.
"I-I'm so c-cold I can't even f-feel my k-knees, man," Nick complained.
Luffy said nothing, only pressing on harder. He'd said nothing to me since he began carrying me.
There were only three of us taking the trip up to see the good doctor – Luffy, Nick, and me. Nami, Usopp, and Vivi were staying down in the village (Much to the latter's annoyance), Johnny and Yosaku were with the ship, while Sanji and Zoro had agreed to stay with the trio to look out for them and be a combat presence in case something fucks up like it normally does and requires able-bodied, competent fighters to deal with it.
Either way, with two of us speaking only to complain about the cold and the third staying silent, the conversation was hardly flowing.
"L-like really!? I h-have badass Demonic powers and the c-cold is getting the better of me?" I asked out loud.
Nobody responded, but I suddenly had an idea. A glorious, brilliant idea. One I should have thought of from the start.
"Nick, h-hand me my phone."
"S-sure." He did as I instructed, pulling out my device from the secure pocket of my coat (I couldn't physically reach for it) and placing it into my numb hand. I fumbled, bringing up my stats page where I could assign skills, and then I did what I should have done from the very beginning.
I assigned two skills- Absorb Fire and Null Ice. I instantly felt much better, as my body began to draw in extra heat from the environment and nullify the effects of ice on me- or rather, the cold.
I cackled like a maniac. "Screw you mother nature! Once more, vigorous skill abuse wins out! Yahahahaha!"
"W-wait a second, y-you just stopped the effects of the cold?" Nick asked me in desperation.
"Yup," I smugly said.
"C-can it work on me?"
"Nope," I said equally smugly, now quite toasty in the borrowed coat I was wearing.
"S-so unfair, man!" the blacksmith complained.
"I know." My smugness radiated from me like heat from a flame or tears. "Now, what's with all the complaining? It's just a bit of snow."
"S-screw... y-you..." Nick muttered, the cold affecting him to the point of reducing him to irritability.
"Oh yeah, giant bunny at seven o'clock," I warned Nick. From the direction I stated strode a big-ass rabbit, more yeti than Flopsy and more pissed off than a fan of Star Wars.
"Another one?" he cursed darkly under his breath and just pulled out two guns from his vast arsenal and emptied them into the beast, far too pissed off to save ammo or bother using melee attacks. It hit the ground hard and stopped moving.
"Let's carry on," I suggested, looking up to the mountain. I just knew it would suck climbing it.
XXXXXXXXXX
I was right, it sucked. Nick had to literally climb the sheer face with his knives, leaving jagged holes as he climbed, because he was unable to grip the narrow handholds and could only just clench them around his blades - his fingers were that stiff. Luffy was faring no better. His hands were raw from climbing and he left bloody marks behind him instead of holes.
"Just a bit more," I whispered to myself, cursing my lack of power. Because I was injured I was putting my friend and my ex-captain through all this pain, and that sucked. I couldn't even use my Demons. The sole flier I had couldn't ascend to the skies in this horrible weather, and our attempt to do it anyway had nearly killed us from fall damage.
All I could do was shut up, be as little a burden as possible, and wait until we reach the top. I swore that this would be the last time I would be so powerless that my friends would be hurt just getting medical aid - the last time.
XXXXXXXXXX
I awoke to much better conditions than before. I remembered the climb up the wall; I remembered Luffy and Nick practically collapsing after reaching the top; I remembered calling out for a doctor, desperately waiting for help as I was unable to even get up to drag them from the edge or even untie myself. I remembered the helplessness, and I remembered the two figures that came from the castle into the snow... I remembered...
… being knocked unconscious by an old lady after I complained that "It was about time that she showed up."
Hell, that woman had a mean kick.
I blinked away my sleep and looked around my surroundings: a clean, warm stone room, stocked with beds, shelves, and lots of books. I knew where I was immediately - Drum Castle. It was the only place I could be, and the stone walls and medical-ward-like atmosphere only matched this impression.
There was a wooden door to my right, and hiding behind it was a small, fluffy animal. It was trying to peak out from behind the door to look at me but was failing miserably.
Doctor Chopper was in the house, and as a man who has been bedridden for far too long, I decided to give the reindeer my best bed manners. So I called out to him, "Hey, you, reindeer! Get the doctor over here before I kick you... like a puppy."
"Waaaaaa~" The reindeer ran away crying. Apparently I just made the adorable woodland critter cry. Excellent- my journey to the Dark Side must be complete. Anti Hero status, here I come!
I laid there, unable to do anything - my body was utterly numb and it seemed like only my mouth and head was under my control. Perhaps I was drugged up or something?
A few minutes later, the old woman that knocked me out casually strolled into the room, bottle of sake in one hand and the other at her hip. She wore clothing that was about five generations too young for her.
"Hey, brat, you're awake and already scaring my apprentice," she greeted.
"Hey, granny, you're finally here and are just as inappropriately dressed as ever," I responded.
She scowled and prodded my chest vigorously with each word she spoke. "Inappropriate!? I'm in the spring time of my youth, a beautiful virgin flower and I. Am. Not. Old!" she finished with one final painful strike.
"Ouch," I said.
"So, is that where it hurts?" she asked mockingly, a witch's grin on her face.
"Well, no," I deadpanned.
"How about here?" She elbowed me in the face.
"Well now it does." I scowled back.
"That was for being mean to Chopper," she said matter-of-factly.
"Has anyone ever told you that your bedside manner is horrible?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"Has anyone ever told you that you are an atrocious patient?" she snapped back.
"Yeah," I admitted. "Vivi says it all the time."
The witch cackled. "Poor girl."
"I suppose." I looked over my form. My bandages had been changed, as had my clothes. There was an IV drip connected to my good arm and the Devil's Arm was just as wrapped as ever. I guess it was time to cut to the chase. "Let's skip the banter - how bad a shape am I in?"
Doctor Kureha shrugged. "Not good, not bad. That rapid healing of yours that your friends described has done you a lot of good, speeding up your recovery from a few months to a few weeks. Hell, if I left it be, you'd fix yerself. Still, your friends were adamant I helped you, so I'm treating you to make sure your recovery is as natural and fast as possible by working with your healing."
"So, what do you need to do?"
"Apply some medicinal bandages occasionally, make sure that your wounds don't get infected, make sure that your body doesn't get hit by secondary ailments while your defences are down and clog up your healing, top up your immune system and deal with imbalances in your body - the usual." She gestured at the IV drip. "I can remove that soon, it's just there to administer some medicine and drugs into your body."
She trailed off and looked off to one side. I could almost sense that she'd left something unsaid and I knew what.
"There's something else though, isn't there?" I asked her. "What about... it?"
"It?" Kureha raised an eyebrow. She prodded the Devils Arm with a dissatisfied grimace on her face. "It's unnatural. It's definitely not human. It's not supposed to be there. Even with healing, I'm not sure an amputation can be recovered from, and if it could be, then this is not the result you should get."
"So what the hell is it, and what do we do with it?" I couldn't even move it yet - it was deadweight and seriously freaked me out still.
"I don't know what it is. I've never seen anything like it in all 140 years of my life," Kureha declared. "Well, there was that one time, but it's not the same. No. Whatever it is, it has to go."
"You mean…?" If she was suggesting what I thought she was suggesting...
"Yup. It's gotta go." The witch's smile returned, and she quickly unwrapped the bloody bandage from around the limb we discussing. Its twisted appearance only enhanced her answer to the problem. "Sorry, brat, but amputation is the only treatment I can prescribe. Whatever the hell it is, it can't help you in the long run, and you're better off with only one arm than with that in its place. Prosthetics can be bought now after all."
I pondered her words, running through quick lines of thought as fast as I dared do so. I didn't like the arm. It shouldn't be there. She was right in that its purpose there couldn't be good when it looked like that, and ultimately, I could go part-cyborg like Franky if I really had to. As medieval as it sounded, perhaps amputating it was the best idea.
"Fine," I conceded. "It's gotta go. When?"
"No time like the present." Kureha went over to a nearby trolley in a part of the room I hadn't noticed and pulled it closer. On it were regular tools I expected, like knives, syringes, tweezers, and other stuff, but worryingly, a larger hatchet also sat on it. She picked up a scalpel and began to lean over me. I gulped, not expecting the pace.
"Wait, now? How long has that trolley been there?"
"I was gonna cut it off while you were sleeping, but you woke up and your friends wouldn't let me." She shrugged again, as if saying 'what ya gonna do?'. "You feel this?" She drove the scalpel into the monstrous limb. Even as blood dribbled from the wound and clung to the blade as it was removed from the wound it had just made, I didn't feel a thing.
"Not a thing," I admitted. "Though, do we have to do it now? Without anaesthetic? When I'm still conscious? Sounds brutal and inhumane."
"Poppycock!" She brushed my complains off. "That IV's been pumping body relaxants into your body for hours. You're so drugged up that I doubt you can move a muscle of your main body, let alone feel pain. Besides which, man up! Back when I was a lass, doctors used to pour a bottle of whiskey on the wound before operating and leave it at that."
"So you're just going to cut it? Here and now."
"Yup. Get it over with." She put down the bloody scalpel and picked up the hatchet. Holding it tightly she positioned it at the point just before the arm began, right at my shoulder. She aimed, pulling the weapon back and preparing to carve the arm straight off on the downwards stroke, when-
My lifeless body jerked to life.
-the Devil's Arm moved without my approval and shot towards Kureha's throat like a viper, pulling my unresponsive body with it. The sharp, demonic fingers clasped around the good doctor's throat, gripping tight, and held fast.
"M-my arm!" I shouted. "It moved on its own!"
Kureha dropped the hatchet and desperately grabbed the arm, trying to futilely pull away the fingers now robbing her of oxygen. I focussed on the phantom feeling of having an arm, and desperately tried to stop the arm. To even just cause it to stop, to make a finger twitch. I was powerless, though - I had no control over that limb. My original assumption that it wasn't 'my arm' was horribly correct.
And right now, that arm had a will of its own, and was going to strangle the life out of the woman that tried to sever it.
"Stop!" I shouted. "HELP! Someone stop me!"
The hand continued to squeeze and I grew worried. The woman's face was going blue and her struggle to escape intensified. I knew, though, that soon her struggles would stop, along with her breath.
Just as I gave up hope, in stormed Nick, furiously worried. He ceased up at the sight he had run into - me throttling my doctor.
"Stop me!" I commanded him. Nick caught on quickly and threw himself at me. Nick was much stronger than me, and even with me being unable to help him I had to hope he could stop me.
His strong hands wrapped around my arm, tried to pull it away. That failed. He tried to pull off my fingers. That failed. He cursed, pulled off the hammer from his back and swung it straight into the back of the Devils Hand.
I smiled. That did the trick. The hand could hardly throttle with broken fingers. A second, more careful swing then the hand let go, dropping the old woman to the floor. She spluttered as she desperately drew in breath.
The Devil's Arm stopped moving and fell still. I had been pulled up by the arm dragging me as it flung itself at its assailant, but now that my attacker was incapacitated and had stopped, there was nothing keeping me up. I fell back into my lying down form. The offending limb draped over one side of the bed, almost touching the floor.
"What the fuck was that?" Nick demanded, utterly confused and horrified.
"I don't know," I told him honestly.
"That thing's evil. It tried to kill doc. It could do that again. It's gotta go." Nick decided, dropping his hammer and drawing a cutlass.
"NO! NICK!" I desperately shouted. "STOP!"
"But Nath-"
"No!" I shouted, breathing heavily. I caught my breath until I could speak normally again. "No. The doctor tried to cut it off, that's why it attacked. Just... don't. We'll deal with it later; leave it be for now. Is the doctor okay?"
The thick Blacksmith suddenly remembered the frail woman who had just been strangled half to death and dropped down, rushing to her side. "Crap! Doc! Man.. woman! Are you okay!?"
She coughed weakly, but was able to recover after a minute and was led shakily to a nearby chair. Even after that all she could do was take shaky breaths and fret over just how close that had been.
"Doctor, I heard shouting! Are you okay!?" A muscular, hairy man with a pink hat ran through the door. Chopper in his human form, I recalled. He flinched at the weakness in Kureha's stance.
"No, I'm not," Kureha quietly said, looking back to my prone form and the arm that had attacked her in particular with much more caution than before. "That truly is the Devil's Arm."
AN- This was just basically filler, a transition chapter that unfortunately I couldn't skip because its important plot wise. Still, I enjoyed it. We can't have bullshit plot twists every chapter, though I did get my allocated 'Being Nathan Is Being Suffering' quota filled. Seriously, next chapter comes with an update where there is a counter at the bottom of the screen counting every time I make Nathan's life even more complicated and suckier. Its just so... therapeutic... making Nathan's life hell.
But yeah, we got more Vivi interaction, Nick gets a cold, Luffy is Luffy and Nathan and his doctor have awesome banter... where failed amputations due to sentient Demon Arms is a normal thing. And yes, you did just read that last phrase. Things only get madder from here.
Look forwards to Drum Island being concluded next chapter, where we should hopefully have some scenes from other members of the crews perspectives to see how the fallout of Nathan leaving the Straw Hats is effecting everyone else. Then the chapters after that will be the Alabasta Arc... the one that I am totally hyping as fuck. Like, bloody hell, what happens there will make Logue Town and Whiskey Peak look minor. Maybe. Might not be able to top the 'Nathan's death Troll attempt'.
Either way, I hope you enjoyed, and if you have any feedback or criticism to give me (Or even if you just want to flame me) then feel free to leave a comment in the reviews box, or read those early written chapters of glory if you haven't already. Undying Soul out.