Location: Sea
Time: Afternoon
"W-wapol..."
"H-he's back"
"What'll we do Dalton?" The crowd of men with guns immediately lost their nerves at the sight of the former King of Drum Island. He was much large than I first imagined him to be, looking close to 7 feet tall but due to his oversized gut, he looked squat. His purple spikey hair was hidden under the white fur of some poor creature he no doubt ate. He appeared to be wearing metal armor over his body and extremely pronounced chin and mouth but I knew it wasn't armor.
"Dalton, I see you've come all this way just to welcome me back home." Wapol seems to ignore us entirely focusing instead on his former subject. Who still seemed shell-shocked at his arrival.
"Wapol." Dalton's voice was filled with so much venom I was surprised the cliffside didn't melt. From the moment Wapol's ship arrived till this moment his face had progressively darkened.
"Huh? I don't particularly like your tone, Dalton. Is that any way to greet your returning king?"
"King? What king? All I see is a pirate. MEN, AIM YOUR WEAPONS AT THE WAPOL PIRATES." The terrified men immediately bucked up and took aim at Wapol and his men.
"Dalton, what do you think you're doing threatening your king like this?" Kurimarimo demands. This man took nappy head to a whole new level, with an afro dry enough to catch fire if rubbed too hard he wore mostly tones of orange, fist clad in what could only be his own hair.
"Don't do anything you'll regret now Dalton." Chess adds, if the squiggle face emoji was a person it would be Chess, cool pastel colors were Chess whole deal, massive hands that fit his oversized bow and arrows.
"The only thing I've regrated is not doing this sooner, FIRE." All together they fired. I'm not certain what they expected to happen but it definitely wasn't Wapol's mouth opening wide enough to cover all three men and swallow all the incoming bullets in one giant gulp.
"D-did he just eat the bullets?!" Usopp's mouth drops open in shock.
"I wonder if bullets taste good?" Nami's fist comes down like the wrath of God on Luffy's head for such a stupid question.
"Thanks for the meal, but I'm watching my weight so you can have these back. Munch-Munch Gatling." He opens his mouth wide and a multi-barreled gun pops out firing bullets back into the crowd. Dalton manages to shield himself from the bullets but the rest of the men aren't so lucky. No one seems to be dead but they certainly weren't getting back up. "See what happens when you go against me!?"
"Should we be doing something about this?" Usopp looks between the two groups unwittingly drawing the attention of both.
"Hmm, Pirates? What a welcome gift, Chess, Kurimarimo gather all the treasure on that ship in the name of the king."
"A king? Aren't you a pirate?" Luffy clearly ignored the whole interaction between him and Dalton.
"Like hell, you're setting so much as a finger on my money." And Nami always keeps her eye on what's important.
"That's old news, I'm done with playing pirate, time to go back to ruling my beloved Drum Kingdom."
"Playing pirate?" A dangerous air surrounds the usually playful pirate.
"I'm tired of waiting, get me that ship, think I'll have it as a late lunch. Get rid of the pirates." A group of cookie-cutter guardsmen appears and begin boarding ours ship led by the two weirdos.
"He wants to eat the Merry?!"
"Relax Usopp we can handle it. I'll take afro puncher; Zoro think you can handle the court jester?"
"Of course." He places Wado Ichimonji into his mouth.
"Can the rest of you take care of the others? Looks like our Captain wants to have words with king fake over there."
"I'll do it but I don't take orders from you."
"Just do it Sanji."
"OF COURSE, NAMI-SWAN."
"And try to remember that Vivi is in there sleeping, so aim overboard." That got everyone's attention.
"You done planning? Or do you need it a bit more time?" Chess knocks an arrow and aims. "Feel free to take all the time you need." He releases. I have just enough time to watch Zoro slice down the arrow before I dash towards Kuromarimo.
"Think you're tough, eh pirate, well have a taste of this." He throws a decently fast punch aimed at my head. I match his fist with one of my own "Marimo's Surprise" Kuromarimo's face morphs into a look of victory as spikes grow out of his gloves just as our fists meet.
"Normal Punch" I honestly couldn't help myself. Kuromarimo's fist spike shatters on impact with my punch and based on the sound his arm makes it's in equally bad condition.
"AUGH, my arm, what kind of attack was that?" He grips his arm.
"Just a normal punch. Everyone is always calling out their attack names,"
"Gum-Gum Pistol."
"Tongue Cannon"
"Oni Giri"
"Checkmate"
"Exploding Star"
"I was starting to feel left out." I silently thank the anime gods and their sense of timing. Intermission over Kuromarimo yanks a chunk of hair from his fro and throws it at me.
"Marimo's static-" My eyes flash red and the hairball burst into flames and is consumed before he can even finish his attack name."
"So, your hair is highly flammable huh." The heat from my eyes is so intense that the air around them is turning to mist, Kuromarimo gulp at the implied threat before his head catches fire. The man runs around screaming for far too for a person surrounded by snow and water, he eventually jumps from the ship and onto the cliffside and smothers his hair out with the surrounding snow. Unfortunately for him, he lands next to the stunned Dalton who in a move I didn't expect from Mr. Honorable immediately slams his oversized weapon into the back of Kuromarimo's skull, knocking him out. We make eye contact before I turn back to help the rest of the crew. Only to see everyone is already finishing up, Sanji has tossed the last of Wapol's men off the ship Chess has been blasted into the cliffside with several cuts on his chest and as the king himself.
"Gum-Gum…"
"Wait Straw-hat don't do anything-"
"BAZOOKA" Wapol is sent flying, directly towards Drum kingdom Castle. Goddammit, Luffy. I spin on the spot and fire my heat vision at his rapidly vanishing body he smashes into the top of the mountain kicking up snow and obscuring him.
"That's no doubt going to bite us in the ass later." I help the guys toss the rest of Wapols men off the ship, but as we do a group of men appear on the deck of the ship all dress like they were seconds away from going into surgery.
"The 20 MDs." Dalton whispers.
"You're doctors? Hey, our friend is sick and needs a doctor." Luffy immediately jumps in front of the men.
"Apologies we are under strict orders from king Wapol to only-"
"I sent him flying so you don't have to worry." Luffy cuts him off before grabbing on to the group and tugging them towards the ship. "Hurry she's burning up really bad." Luffy quickly yanks the men onto the ship and into Vivi's room.
"Not you," I grab Sanji.
"Get your hands off me, I have to make sure these guys don't do anything to my precious Vivi."
"Nami can do that and stay out of their way," I turn to the money-obsessed navigator "if they try anything scream and I'll release the dog of amore here." I gesture towards Sanji.
"Say the word Nami-Swan and I'll…"
"We got it."
"Hold on, what about my men they need help." Dalton calls out from his perch. We look over at the man along with all his down and groaning men. "Please." He drops down to his hands and knees. Nami grabs the lead doctor, the one that's been speaking this whole time, as well as the one closest to him.
"We only need two anyways." She pushes them forward. I grab the back of two of them and chuck them towards Dalton. The men are startled for a moment before they land softly on the ground. I launch the rest of them onto the cliffside next to them, it's a testament to their professionalism that they quickly got to work. Dalton seemed to be taken aback by how easily a group of pirates agreed to help them. I'll give the doctors this they are efficient; it didn't take too long before everyone one of Dalton's people was fixed up and at least able to walk on their own.
"What do you mean you can't treat her?!" Vivi's situation on the other hand. The door swings open and Nami and the two doctors come out. The men looked like they just came from a marathon not from examining a sick girl.
"What's going on? Is Vivi ok?" Luffy springs up and we all gather around the doctor.
"Like we told your Miss. Nami, your friend is suffering from an extremely deadly infection the likes of which we've never seen before. We've managed to stabilize her for now but without a sample of what she was exposed to we can't formulate a cure."
"So, it's a mystery sickness." Which earns him a hook from our navigator.
"Shut up Luffy, so how do we fix this?"
"Like I said you'll need whatever she was exposed to, as well as the necessary know-how and equipment to make a cure no of which any of has. We mostly focus on trauma surgery." The doctor finishes.
"I know someone who may be able to help." We turn and look at the now much better-looking islander and their leader who spoke up.
"Dalton, they're pirates we shouldn't-"
"They helped us, we're not going to return that kindness with suspicion and scorn. I'm sorry for the way we treated you earlier, please let me make it up to you. There's a witch on this island."
"A witch? Are you speaking of Doctor Kureha? She's still around? Yes, if we can find her, she could help, she's forgotten more about medicine than any of us has ever known."
"Alright so how do we find this Doctor Kureha?" Zoro asks.
"She lives in the castle atop the center mountain."
"The one Luffy just launched Wapol into?" I gestured behind us.
"Yes."
"Knew that would come back to bite us. Fine is she okay to be moved?" We all look to the doctors.
"Yes, but be careful not to move her around too much, her body is fighting for its life."
"That's all I need to hear; we need to get her ready to move."
"I'll get her dressed." Nami moves quickly.
"I'll help."
"No, you won't." I grab him.
"Usopp, can you fix up a harness so I can carry her?" I turn to the resident handyman.
"Yeah, shouldn't be a problem."
"Feel free to use any of my stuff."
"Why do you get to carry her? If anyone's going to protect Vivi it'll be her prince charming." Sanji spins around the deck in his love haze.
"Think about it, there are six of us, two of who couldn't carry a stack of pillows up a mountain let alone a person." We all look at Usopp before nodding.
"Oi"
"That leaves Zoro, who just the other day got lost going to the bathroom so decide to piss over the side of the ship."
"I wasn't lost."
"Luffy," we all looked over at him and received a dumb smile in return, "enough said. That leaves you and me, the chances that we get into a fight how do you plan to protect Vivi and fight at the same time Mr. My-Hands-Are-For-Cooking?" He looked as if he was thinking of a way to refute my words but came up with nothing. It takes a few minutes to get everything set up and ready to move. We move the ship to shallower waters and drop anchor, with Vivi now strapped to my back, Zoro and Karoo stayed on the ship, while the rest of us help get the villagers' back safely. Dalton explained to us the rise and fall of the Drum Kingdom under Wapols' rule. He also explains a bit about Doctor Kureha and her reindeer helper. We moved slowly due to all the injured men but we eventually make it to town, the men split apart, and while some stayed to help Dalton secure the prisoners. After grabbing some clothes for the journey seeing as I was still dressed like I was on Little Garden, we got back to the topic at hand.
"So, we need to climb up that mountain to reach the Doctor." Luffy tilts his head back to see the top.
"There used to be a rope bridge that connected to the top, but it was cut years ago." Dalton adds.
"What about that one over there?" I point out into the distance. Everyone turns to look squinting their eyes as if that would help.
"I don't see anything." Luffy states.
"It's connected to a large tree."
"If you're right then it shouldn't be a difficult trip to make, we can get you a sled you'll be there in an hour or so." It takes only a few moments to get everything set up, after getting Vivi situated we realize the sleigh wouldn't be large enough to fit everyone.
"It's fine I'll stay back here and resupply the Merry so she's good to go once Vivi's all better." Usopp acts as if he's making a great sacrifice.
"You just don't wanna go cause you're scared." Sanji ruthlessly cuts him down.
"Have you seen those mountains?!"
"I'll go, to protect Vivi. I'll use my own body to keep her nice and warm." We proceed to ignore him after.
"So Nami, Luffy, Dalton, and I sounds good to me." I look at the two.
"Hey don't ignore me Shitty-barbarian." He brings his foot down onto my head.
"Let's go find us a doctor." Luffy whips the reigns and we take off.
It didn't take long before the others spotted the rope bridge and even less time spotting the massive tree it was tied to. At the bottom was a carriage with bicycle pedals clearly someone was meant to pedal the cart up the mountain. We quickly move Vivi and once everyone else has entered I hop onto the pedals and go. The trip up to the top of the mountain takes us less time than imagined, Kypto power for the win, waiting for us at the top was a hellscape of epic proportion. The ground was filled with large holes that steamed with intense heat; portions of the run-down castle appeared to be torn apart some of the stone had literally become magma glowing red hot.
"I'm invincible! I'm unstoppable! With this power, I'll have no problem reestablishing order of Drum Kingdom, or better yet the whole world." A very familiar and much more deranged voice echoed across the land. One the walls blast outwards and something lands heavily in front of us. It was big 7 or 8 feet at least, topless showing off, and an extremely muscular chest that was completely covered in brown fur. A pink hat with deer antler seeming sticking out of it and a pair of maroon shorts are all that covers the creature. The creature was covered in burns as well and seem to be barely conscious at the moment. "Now where is that quack doctor? I'll show her what happens to people who disrespect the king." Through the broken wall comes Wapol but not the one from early, he seems to have gone through his Wapol House transform. With two cannons for arms and a door, chimney, and windows coming out of his body. But this transformation was slightly different from the show as fire seem to be coming out of his chimney. The moment he sees all of us he pauses before a nasty smile crosses his face. "Straw-Hat and that traitor Dalton, perfect I can rid my kingdom of all of you at once. Then I'll find the rest of your crew and finish them as well." He levels the barrels of his cannon arms at us as they began to glow a sinister and horrifyingly familiar red color. "Wapol Heatwave." And I experience what it's like on the other side of my heat vision.