Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.

"One Piece." – Speaking

'One Piece.' – Thinking

One Piece. – Flashbacks

One Piece. – Devil Fruits and Techniques

Deadly Drinking Pirate

A Witch and Her Reindeer

Previously on Deadly Drunken Pirate,

"Her temperature is 106 degrees!?" Dalton shouted in disbelief. They were in his house that had a bed for Nami to rest in. And the crew saw an increase in Nami's fever, and that is not a good sigh, at all. "That is not good. If it keeps up, her organs will overload and fail."

"We know Mr. Dalton." Vivi said, she was hoping a cold wet cloth will help but that was just wishful thinking. "The captain had already determined Nami's condition. She only has about a day and a half left to live, seventy-two hours the most, unless we can find a doctor that has a cure."

But Dalton didn't respond. Everyone turned to him and saw that Dalton was looking down with the expression of a man ashamed and shaking like a tree leaf in a storm. "Look out there…" Dalton then pointed through one of the windows that showed some large mountains that were remarkably cylinder-shaped. "Those mountains are known as the Rockies. You will need to go there is you want a doctor, but…" Dalton left off again, creating yet another thick atmosphere.

"The only doctor on this island lives at the castle on the top of that mountain, and is rumored to be a witch." Dalton said simply and the Straw Hats could only look at each other with faces of uncertainty.

"Comfortable back there Nami?" Luffy asked with a concerned tone while Usopp and Gin were tying his girlfriend by the wait with a spare, sturdy piece of cloth. Nami still was too week to speak so she just nods at a painfully slow rate. "Good."

"Are you sure that you want to do this? I am sorry that there is no other way to get to the Doctor's castle. Maybe we can wait until the doctor is in one of the town and take our navigator there?" Dalton asked and tried to talk the Straw Hats out of this crazy plan. They were told that there was no way up the mountain where the castle was located, except to climb it!

The freezing temperatures and snow fall were bad enough but Dalton also told them about another danger. He called them Lapahns, creatures that were considered to be the by-product of polar bears and snow rabbits. They are among the fiercest creatures on this island that the locals refuse to name; especially with those that walk into their territory.

"Sorry Dalton but we can't." Luffy said once he got a sturdy and comfortable grip on his girl. "If that castle is where the doctor lives, then that is the best place to wait for." Luffy explained his haste. "I may not be a doctor but I do know about most poisons and cures. I will be able to find what Nami needs in that castle."

"And besides, I've got Gin and Sanji along." Luffy then turned to the pair by his side. "Whatever we will find at the base of the mountain, they won't be a problem. Right Sanji?" Luffy smirked to see Sanji with eyes that were brighter than street lamps.

"Of course! I will never allow a woman to suffer any longer!" Sanji could have said anything else but he did mature a little and toned down his perverted rants ever since Little Garden; when everyone, including the ladies beat on the cook. And Luffy added his own spice to the soup when the captain dragged like a sack of potatoes, scolding Sanji as well as other examples of verbal abuse.

That was why Sanji hadn't been flirting with the local girls that were out in the open. He was officially afraid. Afraid of what people like Luffy will do when Sanji is at his own devices. "Well then…" Luffy replied at last, "Let's go and get Nami healed! Hurry it up!"

And with that, Luffy disappeared out of town with Sanji and Gin by his sides and Nami on his back, handing on life by a delicate thread. "That captain. What will he won't do that won't surprise us?" Alvida said with memories of her first encounter with the man that would be her own captain, and all the adventures she had in the East Blue up till now. And every other Straw Hat was doing the same.

"Just what kind of captain is that boy?" Dalton then spoke up and wondered why each of the remaining Straw Hats got sullen all of a sudden.

"That boy, Dalton…" Usopp spoke up with an edge in his tone. "Is the captain that is going to be the next King of Pirates. And so far, he has no equal. What's worse, he had a power that will enable him to kill very single living being on this island if he wanted to." Usopp explained and Dalton gotten sullen himself; his expression had gotten a little tense and darken.

"That will be the worse threat to this island, even topping Wapol." Dalton then remarked and the Straw Hats turned to look surprised. "What's wrong?"

"Wapol, as in the pirate captain named Wapol?" Kaya spoke up. "The one with a metal ship?" Alvida asked. "And has a devil fruit power that allows him to consume any material?" Usopp finished and Dalton just chuckled.

"I don't know about that bastard being a pirate. I am sure that is just a front, he actually was our ex-king." The Straw Hats were shocked this time. Who would have thought that with Vivi being a princess instead of an assassin, a there was a king that passed off as a pirate? "This happened when another group of pirates arrived and attacked our island. There were only five pirates this time. The captain called himself, 'Blackbeard'."

"Only five? No wonder you wanted us to leave once we arrived." Frank replied and the other Straw Hats nodded. Dalton also did,

"And Blackbeard, that sounds scary if he and his crew were able to attack an entire island on their own." Carol added her own two cents, not caring if most didn't agree with her comment.

"But then again, everyone who lives here considers that attack to be a blessing." Dalton spoke up and this didn't go well with some of the Straw Hats.

"How can a pirate attack be a blessing!? It looked like they destroyed your homes, harmed a lot of people and did your king in!" Vivi shouted and Dalton could only chuckle in response.

"I could agree. But their views on the attack was justifiable. As the king who once ruled here was nothing more than a tyrant. He was hated by all but his subjects. His rule brought fear and despair. Once he was gone, we were free to build a much better society on our island." Dalton explained and that when Vivi had to open her big mouth.

"So the pirates were strong enough to defeat Wapol and his army so they had to leave the island?" She asked, innocent enough but didn't like the look on Dalton's face.

"No. Not. At. All." Dalton spoke, dragging each word like it was a concrete brick attached to a string. "When 'Blackbeard' and his pirate crew attacked us, Wapol's army didn't try to fight. In fact, once he saw their overwhelming over, he took his men and fled like a coward. Like a rat leaving its family trapped on a sinking ship! Our king left us at the mercy of pirates so he won't be harmed!"

"WHAT KIND OF KING WILL BE SO DISGRACEFUL AND DISLOYAL!?" Vivi then burst open in rage, which was clear as fresh glass on her face. And after that, no one said another word. This island and its inhabitants were so unfortunate to be attacked and ransacked by pirates and their only army fled instead of fighting.

"Dalton!" One of the townspeople hurried to where the Straw Hats were with the said man. "Wapol has been sighted, heading towards the neighboring town of Cocoa Weed!" Dalton then looked like he witnessed a cold blooded murder right in front of his eyes.

"Thank you." Dalton then got up from the snow and armed himself with his large weapon. "Sorry my friends. But I can't ignore this situation or delay a single second. I swore to never let Wapol set foot on this island, with my life!" The Straw Hats said nothing as they simply watched Dalton burrowed a horse and hurried towards the direction of Cocoa Weed.

XXXXX

Later,

"Well, guys, the wind had gotten slightly stronger and it seems to get colder all the same…" Luffy spoke up. He and his group had just cleared of the town Bighorn, about to head into the forest at the base of the mountain they must climb.

"We can tell!" Gin shouted, "And maybe you will be better off actually wearing shoes!"

This time Sanji had to agree. "Just seeing you run in the snow with those sandals is painful enough to watch!"

"Sorry guys. It is my policy. I like to feel the ground on my feet. You will be surprised at what you can sense if you do." Luffy replied and his two crewmates just sighed and gave up on asking any further. "So, wanting to pass the time, I heard that people barely sleep at all if they live in snowy countries like this."

Sanji and Gin were suddenly interested again. "Why not?"

"When a person falls asleep, the body starts to cool down, to the point that a human can freeze to death in this weather. So most of them are afraid of dying that way if they do go to sleep."

"That's idiotic!" Sanji spoke up before flinching when Luffy turned his eye's glance into his direction. "I mean…everyone needs to sleep sometime. If they don't, it will be like running a machine to ground even through it is overheating. If they don't stop and let it cool, it will explode. We can die if we don't have enough sleep."

"I am not sure since I grew up in the East Blue. And we sleep just fine. I only know heard this from a customer from the pub I usually hang out in." Luffy then turned back to facing the base of the mountain. And while the trio were running through the snow, they were dodging ignoring a little creature that had been trying to eat at them since they first entered the forest.

"And the snow keeps falling on their skin so they are dyed whiter than pure marble! It makes women more beautiful and more like goddesses so most of them come here!" Sanji then brought up a story he heard himself. He said that in snowy countries, women have skin that is as smooth as skin and as white as the very snow that falls on this island; this was done when the women get cold and rub their skin most of the time until the skin surface is just like expertly cut marble.

"And cut that out!" Sanji then finally lost his temper with the creature trying to bite his head off while telling his story. Luffy and Gin frowned to see Sanji kick that creature like a soccer ball.

"Seriously Sanji, you won't be much of a father if you treat kids like that." Gin remarked and Luffy before they both got a little ahead of Sanji who just stood there in his sweet temper. It took a few seconds before the cook hurried to catch up.

But they didn't get very far when they were halted. Halted by a herd of large beasts that were like grown-up versions of the creature that was harassing and stalking the trio earlier. That was why Luffy and Gin found themselves scowling at Sanji once they saw the latter on the shoulder of the other. "For this, you get most of the action. Make sure that not one follows us. And Gin, you make sure that not one of them attacks us. Any jolt will just make Nami's condition turn fatal."

Luffy finished his orders and turned to face the creatures just in time for the leader, judging by his scar, initiated an attack on Luffy. But Sanji was quick to act and sent him flying. Luffy then charged through the snow towards the rest of the herd and Gin protected them with his twin tonfas, sending each one of them away. "These are the Lapahns alright but we can't afford to fight all day!" Gin shouted with an edge; seriously, with everyone that falls, another will appear from the other side of Luffy and sicken Nami. "Why aren't you…?"

"Because like I said!" Luffy was doing his own share of frustrations trying to dodge the attacks from the Lapahns. "Any jolt to Nami will be fatal. And any blast of my Haki won't be good for her. All except for my Kenbunshoku Haki (Observational Haki) and it won't defeat this beasts! Only avoid them!"

Gin and Sanji heard that and growled to themselves. They both know that Luffy could just knock them out right at the start of the ambush. But they had no idea that Luffy's Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki) can also attack allies in a way that a person with a fever can be fatally affected, while otherwise nothing if they are in prefect health.

Then they all noticed it. All the fallen and attacking Lapahns suddenly halted in their tracks and were summoned far up the hill, much closer to the base of the mountain than the pirates are. And at first, they did nothing. Nothing but stare at the pirates who also did nothing; they had no idea what to make up from this. All they knew was that they had to hurry up with Nami getting to the castle and they can't afford to start another battle.

After a while, the Lapahns started to move. But instead of charging for them, they instead just umped. They jumped up and down on the snow for seemingly no good reason. The pirates didn't know what to make of it until Luffy then heard it. Even through the roaring winds of the blizzard, Luffy heard it. He heard the snow getting weaker around where the Lapahns were jumping. That was when it happened, when all that snow started to fall apart and slide down the hilltop.

It was an avalanche! "Luffy!" "Captain!" Sanji and Gin shouted with shocked, how are they going to survive something like that and they were so close to the mountain! All Luffy did before the shadow of the falling snow covered them was gasp, with fear finding its way back into his soul after ten years.

XXXXX

When Nami finally woke up since the fever had knocked her out, but not on Luffy's back or in his arms anymore. She was in a bed, with thick warm sheets. Nami also saw that a bag of ice was laying on her forehead, and being stabilized by the handle of an axe that was also tied to back of the bed.

But then Nami heard a door opening and closing. She found that even turning her head was difficult with her heavy head still dizzy and feeling hot at the cheeks. But Nami was able to see that it was a woman coming in. And when Name slowly got up from her pillow that woman came next to her with a beer bottle in one hand and sent the other into Nami's way.

"101 degrees. Slowly but surely, the antidote is working just fine." The woman said with a single finger on Nami's forehead. "As for who I am. I am the one that is looking after you, you silly and sick girl. The name is Doctor Kureha." She smiled, "What to know how I am so young?"

Kureha dresses in a style more suited to women in their twenties; far from her real age. This includes a navel ring, a shirt that bares her midriff, a purple blazer and purple low-riding pants. She has a pair of small sunglasses that, when they're not over her eyes, she wears on her forehead even when she's using glasses. She wears bracelets and rings on her left hand.

Kureha wore pants with a pink design on the left leg and a blazer with a yellow line along the shoulders and down each arm. She wore a white shirt with a pink cherry blossom on the front and green sleeves and borders.

Ignoring that last, unrelated question, Nami just looked around. She was definitely in a castle room and had a change of clothes. And the bed was definitely comfy. "Where am I?" Nami was able to get out before coughing. This promoted Kureha to push Nami back onto the bed.

"I wouldn't move around much with the virus still doing some strong damage to your body. I only gave you the cure a couple of hours ago." Kureha lectured Nami. "And as to where you are, you are in my home. I am still amazed that you, that skinny boy, the zombie and the blonde are still alive."

Nami widened her eyes. 'Gin and Sanji did looked beat up and Luffy was about to freeze to death!' "Are they okay!?" Nami tried to get up but only got uncomfortable and coughed up again.

"They are alive, like I said." Kureha said. "The blonde had a broken back and several splintered ribs. The zombie looking guy had about fifty breaks in his arm and leg." Nami cringed from her pillow to hear such horrible injuries. "And that boy with the straw hat was just seconds from dying of frostbite. And that was from climbing the entire mountain; three entire miles in height!"

While Kureha was ranting, Nami just took a heavy sigh before looking extremely happy. 'Luffy, you did say that you will go through hell and back for even one of us. And you never once a jolt to me while you were carrying me. You're my hero Luffy.' Then Kureha noticed Nami's expression and didn't say a word until,

"SANJI!" That outburst had pretty much rattled the entire castle and got both Nami's and Kureha's attention. "Get back here! Don't eat him!" Nami begun to smile as she recognized that voice from anywhere.

Sure enough, both doors to the room were all opened, with a pair of blurs entering and exiting. And then there was the young man that appeared on his legs, trying to catch his breathe. "Seriously. That is the fifth time we went down this corridor. Where does he get all that energy for…?"

It was Luffy and as soon as he saw Nami, still with the fever and reddening of her face, awake, he froze and lost his voice.

"…Nami…"

"…Luffy…" The couple said in that order until Luffy finally moved again. And he did in another blur to grasp Nami and kiss her square on the lips. Being used to the show of her boyfriend's power, Nami didn't even hesitate to kiss him back.

"I told you that I will get you to a doctor." Luffy said in a breathless tone and Nami could only nod before getting comfortable in his chest. "Kureha is going to get your healed in no time."

"It is rather rude to talk about someone while they are in the same room and while facing away from them." Luffy then turned to face the said doctor with a sheepish expression. "Now then, you love birds will love to hear that the Five-Day Illness is not contiguous, only spread by the bug bite of the Kestia."

"We know. We had been in Little Garden." Luffy replied and that gave the doctor an 'ah' look on her face.

"Then you also should be glad to know that unlike those brat doctors I have known years ago, I always keep a cure of diseases that are supposed to be extinct. Only in the Grand Line can I even find the materials I need to make one!" Kureha ranted, stopping to hear the couple laugh at the sight.

"…I guess that you were right. What you said to Sanji." Nami whispered as her voice was killing her throat. "About how you couldn't get your hands…on the cure for me from the East Blue."

"Sanji is still a good cook and a reliable marital artist but I swear that his insanity and perverted foolishness with women runs in his family." Luffy said, having a shiver for some reason; if only Luffy realized how true that was.

"Whatever brats. I administered the cure because your girl was just on the verge of dying. Even with you and your frostbite, or even that blond kid with the broken ribs chasing my pet!" Kureha replied and Luffy looked sheepish all over again.

"I know. I already gave up on getting to that idiot, let him go to you. Please doctor?" Luffy then had the expression of a kid who is begging for his mother to let him into a candy store and pay for everything.

And, coming through a doctor and closing it behind, was a little reindeer. But unlike any normal reindeer, this one stood on its hind legs, wore a strange hat that had an 'X' on top and the nose was blue-colored. "I lost him!" Nami was then shocked to hear it speak, speak clearly like a human's and yet sounded a lot like a child's tone.

"Hello Chopper." The reindeer then turned to Luffy with the look of a child who is seeing his father for the first time.

"…Big Brother…you're back. You're really back!" Nami had absolutely no idea what is going on but the cute scene of a talking, walking reindeer embracing Luffy, calling 'big brother', was enough to make her giggle. Luffy has yet another secret to share and explain.

XXXXX

Meanwhile,

"Hey! Look at the sky!" Usopp shouted, pointing upward. Everyone who happened to hear him also looked up and saw the sky still filled with thick clouds. But it wasn't what Usopp wanted to point out.

"So what? It is a winder island and…" Alvida answered, not seeing the problem; she was getting a little tired of the snow fall falling down her slippery skin faster than rainfall. But then came the realization that slowly, one by one, came to everyone's head.

"It's not snowing!" One of the local shouted, "That never happens here! This is a Winter Grand Line island! It always snows!"

Dalton tried to keep the crowd under control but something about that group of scared and confused locals had caught the attention of the Straw Hats. There was one member of the crowd that wasn't panicking or yelling; he didn't even look concerned or confused. That's is as suspicious as a clear sky with thunder strikes.

The man in a cloak noticed that the Straw Hats were staring at him and walked out of the crowd, unnoticed by the locals. "Greeting all." He spoke in a rather polite tone that deter the Straw Hats one bit.

"You are definitely not a local." Usopp spoke up. "Just who are you?"

"The name is Ace and I heard that Luffy is sailing this sea. Where is he?" The cloaked man said and the Straw Hats just didn't know what to think of respond. Is this Ace fellow a friend or a foe; what is he under that cloak?

End of Chapter 17.

*What a week! I finally got this done with three quizzes to study in a row! It seemed to be so hard since I spent the summer without a summer semester (I do have a valid excuse!)

Another thing is that I had my laptop taken in to have its old hard drive replaced with a fresh one. I did manage to save most of my work onto a flash drive but not all of it. I will need to work hard to get back on track. Wish me luck!

And Ace is finally back after I briefly introduced him in Chapter 1. I do have something planned for the relationship between these sworn brothers. If you can guess and get it right, you deserve a cookie! I will be listening! *