(A/N: Thank you son of mogana for your review. And thank you to everyone who followed and favorited as well! :) And I hope everyone has a Happy New Year! We definitely need one.
I was listening to music while writing, and one of the videos was on theme songs that matched the One Piece characters. If Toffee had one, I could see it being 'Rather Be' by Clean Bandit. It could match her feelings for her little shadow or for the Straw Hats. x3 If you've never heard of JazitJ on youtube, you should check out his videos. He has some really amazing and hilarious ones.)
Rushing higher up the steep mountain slope that would lead them to the so called 'witch', Luffy found himself commenting, "It's getting colder, huh? The winds picking up,"
"You dork. Why are you running around barelegged? It hurts just looking at you," Sanji muttered, giving the Straw Hat wearing male a look of incomprehension. He supposed it was a miracle Luffy had remembered to keep his jacket on.
"Well, it's just my polisuu!"
"I think you mean policy, Luffy," Toffee corrected with a smile. "It's just a good thing you're not the type to get sick easily."
Luffy just grinned at this, bringing up, "Oh yeah, you know what? People in snow countries never sleep!"
"Really? I've never heard that before!" Toffee said with a curious look.
"Yep! 'Cause if they fell asleep, they'd die!"
"Don't be an idiot! No person could do that! Sanji scolded with a shake of his head.
"It's true! I heard it from someone a long time ago," Luffy claimed, ducking along with Sanji and Toffee when a small bunny with red eyes and teeth sharp like razors lunged at them.
I wonder if we should be more concerned about that Toffee pondered sheepishly while Sanji and Luffy continued to argue over random topics. The little rabbit kept trying to jump them, but they were easily able to dodge its sneak attacks. If this was one of those Lapahn Dalton had talked about, they didn't seem to particularly be that dangerous. Which was why Toffee felt bad for the animal when Sanji kicked it away.
"Nami-san...Just hold on a little longer," Sanji voiced, glancing over at the flushed and barely conscious girl. Each breath she took was strenuous on her. "We're gonna get you to this doctor!"
"The snows pretty deep around here..."
"Oi, Luffy! Run more gently, will ya!" Sanji lectured as the male was staring at his feet instead of keeping his focus ahead. "You're gonna jostle Nami-san's body!"
"I think we have another problem..." Toffee spoke up with a small sweat bead trailing down her cheek, being the first to stop in place-Luffy and Sanji soon doing the same. They had been swarmed by a large number of rabbits, and these were much larger than their previous pursuer.
"What the hell are these?" Sanji grumbled with an indifferent look.
"They're big and they're white...Must be polar bears!" Luffy decided with a nod of his head.
"I have a feeling they're those Lapahn Dalton-san warned us about," Toffee mentioned with a small frown, her words causing Luffy and Sanji to turn to her. "That little one you kicked must have went and told his friends that we were here, Sanji."
"Kicked? When did I kick one of these weird creatures?" Sanji inquired, a question mark appearing above his tilted head.
"Shishishi! You trip over even when you're not running, huh, Toffee?" Luffy laughed out since the girl had fallen over on her side. What made it funnier was how her body would twitch every so often.
Heartless had materialized next to Toffee where he gently patted at her head, wearing an expression that read, 'I know. We're traveling with a couple of idiots, huh?'. Seeing one of the creatures jumping at them, Heartless grabbed Toffee and hopped away with her, quickly transforming into Neoshadow and narrowing his yellow eyes as he prepared himself for a fight.
"That's crazy! How can it move like that?!" Sanji cried out. The creature was equally massive in weight and size, so it made no sense that it could be so agile.
Feeling Nami stir, Luffy blinked at her. Sanji and Toffee turned their own gazes on the orange haired girl in concern when she weakly whispered, "Soon...to Alabasta..."
"It's okay. Just go back to sleep," Luffy reprimanded with a frown. "Don't worry about anything else right now."
Sanji smiled at this behind his ever present cigarette. "Even though her own life is in danger...Nami-san, just hang in there a little longer. We have to reach that castle where the doctor lives...So move aside, shitty rabbits."
"Shadow Intercept: Paralysis Technique!" Toffee shouted, her shadow instantly sinking into the snow and breaking off into multiple tendrils that rushed for the snow monsters. "Luffy, Sanji, I'll hold them back while you make a run for it!"
"Eh? Your going to stay here and face the polar bears alone?" Luffy gasped out, staring at the gray haired woman in shock.
"There's no way we're just going to leave you here!" Sanji argued. She should know there was no way she could take on the Laphan by herself. Not when the girl hated fighting to begin with...
"I-it won't last long, but I can keep them immobile and buy you some time! Besides, Nami will be upset if you don't get her to a doctor quickly," Toffee explained with a smile, sweat trailing down her face. She had never held off this many targets before, and it was difficult to maintain her technique. "All I have to do is dodge when they're free. I'll catch up later! Promise!"
"Okay! We'll see you then!" Luffy said with a grin, tipping his hat at Toffee before taking off.
"Dammit...!" Sanji grumbled, clearly not agreeing with this plan like his captain, but he pursued after Luffy before he lost sight of the male.
Three minutes is my limit, but I need to focus and try and keep them paralyzed for longer Toffee told herself, gritting her teeth at the fearsome growls the Laphan unleashed as they struggled to break free. Two minutes ended up being her end point, and Toffee's shadow shot back toward her where he became immobile himself. Heartless-kun will need a bit of time before he can help again...I'm on my own for now...
Seeing all the Laphan jumping at her, caused Toffee to squeak. "Why are they attacking at once?!" she shrieked out in a panic, some how managing to dodge before she was crushed underneath the multiple weights.
Bobbing and weaving to dodge the clearly angry rabbits, Toffee took to using the trees in the forest she had fled into as leverage. It was pretty terrifying to see the foliage being sliced down behind her, knowing that could be her at any moment.
The mountain Luffy and Sanji are heading for is to the left, so that means I should go right Toffee thought with furrowed brows, leaping from the limb she was upon and back onto the crunchy ground. She couldn't help but quiver when feeling the killing intent creeping down her spine, and she glanced behind to see that one of the Laphan's had gotten a bit too close for comfort. Flipping around and shielding her face and chest from the strike that was about to hit her, she hoped maybe she could reduce some of the damage if she at least saw it coming.
"BASTARD!"
At the familiar voice, Toffee's lips parted seeing Sanji kicking the snow white rabbit hard enough that it ended up crashing into the ones further behind. Her wrist was then being grabbed at, and Toffee was drug off before the Lapahns' had time to react.
"W-why aren't you with Luffy?"
"Man, I can't believe that knucklehead was right for once. He said you were going to lead those freakish rabbits down a different path just to keep them from following us," Sanji huffed out, these words making Toffee's eyes grow big. "I'm glad I decided to come back. You can be pretty reckless, Toffee-chan."
Toffee said nothing to this. She wasn't sure what to say. It made her happy knowing how much they cared about her, but there was also a small feeling of shame seeing that Luffy and Sanji hadn't gotten that far. Luffy was waving them over toward a nearby cliff, and they all safely jumped up on top of it by using one of the Laphan's, who had ended up head-butting the cliff, when trying to spring at them.
Sticking his tongue out at the Laphans', Sanji and Toffee shrieked out, one in anger and the other horror, "What the hell did you do that for?!" after Luffy's taunt caused the annoyed bunnies to vault up high just to reach them.
"I should have kept leading them the other way even at the chance of being sliced apart!" Toffee slightly whined with teary eyes, ducking to dodge a large rock one had flung at her. The Laphan's seemed even more aggressive than they had before, and that was saying a lot.
"Eh? So I was right! You can be pretty silly and do some really dumb things at times, Toffee!" Luffy chirped out.
"YOUR ONE TO TALK!" Sanji snapped with his eyes having turned completely white due to anger.
"U-um, I think we might have finally out run them...I don't see them behind us anymore," Toffee spoke up meekly. She had wondered why things had grown so quiet.
"I wish that were the case..." Sanji muttered, noticing the Laphan must have taken a short cut. Some how they had ended up higher up on the mountain and were menacingly staring down at them.
The Laphan's had started jumping up and down, and Luffy cocked his head at this. "What're they doing? Are they pissed because they're hungry?"
"No...Hold on a second," Sanji uttered, his eyes soon shrinking from fear. "Oh shit...! They're going to...!"
"Oi, Sanji? What's happening?" Luffy asked, turning to the panicked cook in confusion.
"Luffy...Toffee-chan...Run for it. We need to get as far away from here as we can! They're causing an avalanche!" A mass of snow, trees, and rocks had already started to rapidly fall down the mountain, and the three took off at a mad run.
"Wh-what do we do?! W-what are we going to do, Sanji?!" Luffy badly stuttered, peering back nervously at the encroaching avalanche.
"Like I'd know! In any case, Nami-san comes first!" Sanji yelled out. "Protect her with your life!"
"I got it! But how? Oh, I know! Toffee! Stop the avalanche with your shadow!"
"I-I don't think my ability would work for that! We need to find somewhere higher to get up," Toffee gulped out, rapidly peering around. "Ah! A cliff! There's a cliff over there!"
Making a sharp U-turn, Luffy, Sanji, and Toffee dashed for the ridge. The snow was getting closer by the second, and the three pirates let out sighs of relief when they had reached what they hoped was a safe spot. That hope was instantly dashed as the cliff turned out to not be high enough and they were all sent flying when hit by the large amount of snow that felt like pounds of concrete connecting with their bodies.
Noticing tree logs raining down with the snow, Toffee managed to attach herself to one, quickly jumping to a nearby large rock and latching onto it for dear life as the snow thankfully brushed past her without carrying her away. "Luffy! Sanji!" she cried out, seeing that they had managed to hop upon one of the fallen trees themselves, but they were sailing further down the mountain.
"Don't worry about us, Toffee-chan! Just stay where you are!" Sanji shouted back.
Toffee nibbled on her lower lip, letting out a startled "Eek!" when seeing the Laphan actually riding the logs like skis as they pursued after Luffy, Sanji, and Nami. Who would have known these creatures were multi talented? Another startled scream ended up leaving her lips when one of the rabbits jumped up, it's mouth open wide to take a bite out of her head.
"Neoshadow-kun! You're all rested up!" Toffee exclaimed happily when her shadow had quickly appeared, kicking the Laphan in it's jaw and causing it to go tumbling down the mountain. Her shadow's response was to pull at it's antenna's, clearly freaked out by the position they were in, and he grabbed Toffee and started hurtling over fallen trees like an Olympic until he spotted a cliff side they'd be safer upon.
"I don't see Luffy or Sanji..." Toffee said once she had been placed down, peering around worriedly while Neoshadow had collapsed beside her, his eyes larger than normal and his chest heaving. Tensing up when she could have sworn she heard Luffy screaming out Sanji's name, she wondered if something had happened to the cook?
After waiting a few more moments and still not seeing any sign of them, Toffee was about to go search, but sighed a breath of relief when spotting Luffy struggling up the bank. He had taken off his jacket and placed it over Nami to provide her with further warmth and Sanji, who wasn't moving, was being carried underneath Luffy's arm.
"You're okay then, Toffee. Good," Luffy addressed, shifting Nami a little where she'd be in a more comfortable position. Noticing Toffee's focus on Sanji, he frowned. "Sanji got swept away in the snow after helping me, and he's pretty banged up..."
"Now we have more of a reason to get to the doctor even faster." Toffee expressed softly as Luffy's only answer was a nod to this.
Despite having lost a lot of ground, the two continued their hike up the mountain. The smaller Laphan from before was ahead and desperately trying to dig what was more than likely it's mother out of the snow. Turning around to give the most vicious growl it could muster at the two humans, Luffy stared silently down at the animal, suddenly reaching out to tug the adult Laphan out of the snow.
A soft look on her face as she turned back to see the baby crying and hugging its mother, Toffee noticed the mother staring at Luffy as he continued to head silently off. She must not be able to understand why he'd help after all the trouble they caused us Toffee figured, smiling at Luffy's back as she trailed behind him a bit. Luffy's kinder than most would be in this situation...
It seemed like they hadn't walked very far when a voice shouted out, "Wait, you brats!", and Toffee turned with furrowed brows to see Wapol of all people rushing toward them. Soon in front of them, he snarled out, "You've brought so many humiliations upon me! I'm gonna make you pay!"
"Move," Luffy uttered out with a blank look on his reddened face from the cold and his lack of protection.
"Why the hell should I move?! The girl on your back and the guy you're holding look like they're dead," Wapol commented, gritting his teeth when the dark haired male simply walked by him with Toffee silently following after him. "Chess! I've just thought of a new law. Write this down. Anyone who ignores the king is to be executed...at that very instant! Kill the sick and injured ones first!"
Wapol's two henchmen charged directly for Luffy, and the young captain swiftly dodged their attacks. Before the jester looking male could shoot Luffy with an arrow, the man known as Chess yelped out in pain when he was suddenly kicked in the face by Neoshadow while the afro male, Kuromarimo, quickly held up the furry boxing gloves he sported to block the senbon needles that had been flung at them.
"Keep running, Luffy!" Toffee called out to the wide-eyed male as Luffy nodded, doing so as Toffee quickly pursued after him when seeing Wapol and his men stunned by her and her companions sudden attacks.
They're catching up quicker to us than I thought they would Toffee realized, clenching her teeth. Placing her hand on her small purple satchel, she slowly lifted up the flap. Should...should I use my dagger and go into that mode? I'll...be able to handle the large amounts of blood if I do...But will I be able to stand the mess and what I've done after I come out of it...?
"The polar bears!" Luffy cried out, this causing Toffee to trail out of her thoughts where she was surprised to see the Laphan sending Wapol's henchmen literally spinning in mid-air. Staring at the carnivores, Luffy's dark eyes grew large when he realized one of Laphan's was the one he had helped, and his face broke out into a grin. "Thanks! You're a big help!"
I hope they'll be alright Toffee pondered, seeing more of the Laphan surrounding Wapol, Chess, and Kuromarimo, completely blocking them off from pursuing. This was a lucky break, but the weather had decided to take a worse turn on them, the wind having picked up while it had started to snow. They had found themselves in the middle of a small blizzard.
"Maybe I should take Sanji at least from you, Luffy?" Toffee offered. He was struggling to walk. Not only that, but it looked like he was starting to get small signs of frost bite from having so much skin exposed to the harsh elements.
"Nah. Just focus on yourself," Luffy said, his words making the older girl lightly frown. Blinking when he realized they had finally reached their destination, Luffy said in slight awe, "I can't even see the top. But at the top...there's a doctor. Hang on a little longer, Nami. Sanji." Tightening the strap that was around Nami, Luffy shook off his sandals and held onto Sanji by gripping the male with his teeth, proceeding to start up the long mountain pillar.
Taking off the gloves she wore so she could grip at the rock easier and making sure her hood was secure to protect her face from the cold, Toffee started following him up. The climb was harsh, and even with her jacket, Toffee felt the cold beating down on her through the fabric. With Luffy so ill suited for the scaling, it had to be extra hard on him, and she watched with trepidation when his coat flew off Nami, knowing that could very well be one of them if they weren't careful.
He's really focused Toffee thought, hearing Luffy chanting doctor over and over again. Doing her best to ignore the numbness and pain she felt in her fingers, she gasped when blood shot from Luffy's own hand when his fingernails cracked, and his scream of pain caused him to release Sanji.
"SANJI!" Luffy bellowed, his head elongating to stretch downwards in order to reach the falling male, and he managed to latch onto him with his surprisingly strong teeth once more. "T-too close..."
"Th-thank goodness!" Toffee sighed out a breath of relief. "Are you alright? We still have a ways to go..."
"Yeah!" Luffy exclaimed through his muffled voice. "Doctor...We have to reach that doctor...!"
Just giving a small nod at this, Toffee wondered how much more Luffy's body could take? It was difficult watching him slide down the mountain, leaving a trail of blood in his wake, something that made her shiver. But she focused on the rock before her and continued to climb upwards when witnessing Luffy struggling to do the same.
"The top! I can see it! Just a little bit further!" Toffee cried out, wincing as she could feel the tips of her fingers having badly cracked. What seemed like such a little injury hurt like hell, but she knew it was nothing compared to the lacerations Luffy's own body suffered. Reaching the top first, Toffee reached a hand out to the dark haired male, for once not focusing on the blood that covered his arms as she helped him onto the plateau.
"Made it..." Luffy voiced weakly, gazing almost blankly at the beautiful snow white palace that stood before them. His body had reached it's limit, and he cried out "Doctor" before he fell forward, no longer moving.
"L-Luffy?!" Toffee screamed out when the snow he was upon started to break loose, and she reached out to latch onto his arm. Much to her shock, someone else had grabbed onto his other arm. He didn't appear to be human either from the fur that covered his muscular form, and her eyes greatly widened at this.
The monster's eyes had grown large when seeing the girl staring at him in what he assumed was open mouthed horror, and he inwardly gulped, expecting that she was going to start screaming her head off.
"Amazing! The abominable snowman does exist!" Toffee exclaimed, her pink eyes shining in wonder.
"...I'm not an abominable snowman!"