Crash!

Usopp woke up to stars blooming in his eyes.

"Ow."

And pain.

He sat up groggily, massaging his face where he'd impacted a crag.

"Shishishishi!" Luffy laughed, rolling on the ground. "Shade! Feels good~!"

"I'll make to appreciate it after reattaching my nose, cap'n." Usopp grumbled with a nasal twinge in his voice.

"Graaaak…"

"Huh? Aah! Usopp, look!"

"?"

Usopp blinked blearily, looking around to find half a dozen twitching, bruised birds strewn about, all squawking feebly.

"They're dying!" Luffy fretted, jumping to his feet. "They need help! OI, CHOPPER–!"

"Better idea, Captain," Usopp said. "We could have a roast."

Luffy didn't hear the aborted choking sound the ailing birds made, but Usopp did. His captain's countenance changed in an instant, eyes lighting up and a line of drool at the corner of his mouth.

"OI, SANJI~!" Luffy shouted, with a markedly different tone as he ran off to fetch the cook.

Usopp grinned cattily at the Warusagi, who all suddenly looked vaguely nauseas. The sniper loomed over them with a low chortle.

"You really think you can pull one over on me?" He taunted, scoffing. "I may not have invented the game, but I damn sure perfected playing possum. You're second-rate pranksters at best."

More than a few of them broke into a cold sweat.

"Choice is yours; be barbecue or"

With how fast they fled, even Carue would've been hard-pressed to keep up. Luffy reappeared with the others moments after they'd disappeared from sight.

"Hey," he said, whipping his head around in confusion. "Usopp, where'd lunch go?"

"They didn't like the menu," Usopp said absently, rooting around the sled with all the luggage. He'd woken up with cotton in his mouth and needed a drink. Of course, that was when he noticed the barrel fragments scattered near the crag he'd crashed into. "Aw, man, my water!"

"Oh, good," Sanji muttered. "Don't have to engineer an accident."

"Huh?"

"It's lucky Usopp-san stayed with the supplies," Vivi said. "Warusagi are the bandits of the desert; they use whatever trickery they can to deceive travelers and steal their food."

Usopp had a few choice words for luck under his breath. He cocked his head and looked out toward the dunes.

"Oi, Vivi," he said, pulling down one of the lenses on his goggles. "Any other desert species we should know about?"

"Um," she said. She looked at her hand, ticking off fingers. "We should check our clothes periodically for scorpions, especially if we leave them unattended for a while; I've heard there are subterranean plants that hide beneath the sand and attack unsuspecting travelers, but we'll be able to avoid those if we stay on course, I think. You've met the Warusagi…"

"And that?" Usopp asked, pointing opposite the direction they'd come.

Vivi paced beside the marksman, squinting.

"…The camel?"

"No," Usopp said; a faint rumble felled loose rocks from the crags. "The thing chasing the camel."

The princess' eyes widened as the rumbling quickly grew louder; behind the screaming, warbling camel, a wave of sand gave way to a huge, violet lizard dashing after it with gnarly sharp fangs.

"A Sandora Dragon!"

The alarm in Vivi's tone had everyone on their feet with varying degrees of urgency.

"Ah," Usopp nodded. "That fits."

"It's big!" Luffy said with a grin. He swung his shoulder around. "Hey, Sanji, let's eat!"

"Sure," Sanji answered coolly, cigarette secure between his teeth. "Perfect weather for a barbecue."

Though all present save Usopp–honestly just vaguely amused–advised against it, the Monster Trio ran out to meet the creature.

Gomu Gomu no–

Tatsu–

Épaule–

The poor bastard didn't stand a chance.

Muchi!

Maki!

Shoot!

Snap.

Clank.

Shuff.

The beast gave one strangled cry of agony before keeling over, dead on the spot.

"I almost feel bad for the monster." Nami said.

"Yeah," Usopp quipped. "They really shouldn't bully the local apex predators."

Sanji set about portioning cuts of the slain dragon and quickly discovered the sunbaked rocks were perfect for roasting the meat.

"Hey, Chopper," Zoro said, pointing at the camel with his thumb; now that his life wasn't in imminent danger, he had a fairly haughty sort of look on his face. "What's his deal?"

"Can we ride him?" Luffy asked, in the moment before the camel bit the rubber boy's outstretched hand.

"'I'm thankful that you saved me, but I'll only give rides to the ladies,' he says." Chopper said, translating various snorts and grunts.

"What kinda crap is that?!" Luffy yelled, kicking the stingy animal.

"Who d'you think saved your neck? What kinda shitty camel are you?!" Sanji demanded, joining in the beatdown.

Another grunt paired with a cocky grin.

"'A chivalrous knight.' He says."

"Hell is that?!"

"You like nice-sounding bullshit, huh?!"

"Aw," Nami cooed, placing a hand on the camel's neck once the boys had vented their frustration. "Are they being mean?"

The camel's nostrils flared eagerly, preening at the affection.

Usopp shuddered.

'Creep.'

"What should we call you?" Nami wondered aloud.

Luffy and Sanji both raised their hands.

"Idiot."

"Shithead."

Usopp pursed his lips.

'Too obvious, too easy, don't say it'

"Sanji." He blurted.

'Dammit, mouth.'

"SHITTY TENGU!"

Usopp dove out of the way of the cook's indignant counterattack and ran for his life while Luffy and Zoro bust out laughing.

"Got it!" Nami declared. "Eyelashes!"

"I prefer Usopp's." Zoro said, still chuckling.

"Shut up, marimo!" Sanji bit out, shifting his anger to the swordsman.

"C'mon, Vivi," Nami said, hoisting the princess up with her before she could protest. "Go, Eyelashes!"

"Oi! You witch!"

"Nami-swan, Vivi-chwan~! Wait for me!"

Aside from one narrowly diverted disaster

("Hey, dessert!"

"Do not eat that cactus, Captain."

"Huh?"

Smack.

"No.")

And… one unfortunate accident

("Usopp… Water~!"

"You've proven you can't be trusted, cap'n; wait until we've caught up."

"Stingy!"

"You just took a drink, anyway!"

"Pipe down."

"Hah? Oi, the camel went that way, marimo!"

"Gh!"

Woing.

"I can see you stretching."

"I'm the captain; gimme!"

"No!"

"Tengu, pass it here–it's my turn anyway!"

"Shut up, dartbrow!"

"No one's talking to you, shithead!"

Whok.

"Ow–dumbass rubber!"

Thwack.

"Damn cook!"

Doff.

"I'm thirsty!"

"Stop, you idiots, you're going to–!"

CRACK!

Bwash.

Sssssss….

"…"

"…"

"Wha's wrong? Why'd we stop?"

"Nothing, Chopper."

"All good."

"I didn't stop, did you?"

"Nuh-uh.")

They managed to catch up to the pervert camel within a few hours. As daylight gave way to nightfall, the temperature took a nosedive; the group picked up their pace to ward off the sudden chill, despite the day's accumulated fatigue.

"Hey, Vivi," Usopp said. "Yuba's an oasis, you said?"

"Yes," she replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Nothing," he said, leaning forward to peer closer at the buildings on the horizon. "Just, I don't see a lot of lights on."

Howling winds in the distance paired with the princess' alarmed outburst.

"Something's wrong," she yelled over the maelstrom, leaping down off Eyelashes; they were just beyond the threshold of the storm, yet the violent blades of sand ripping through the air impaired even Usopp's eyesight. "SANDSTORM!"

Undaunted by the ominous picture of nature's wrath tearing through Yuba, Vivi charged on ahead. The storm had passed by the time they reached the town proper, but the scene that greeted them was unfortunately familiar and dry. Wind-whipped sand piled around and clung to buildings like suffocating hands.

"It's abandoned," Zoro said, glaring. "Just like Erumalu."

Shuk!

"Ha!" Someone rasped. "Not yet it's not!"

A wire-thin old man stood in the middle of town, taking to the sand with a shovel; weary and weathered as the town itself looked, he nonetheless spoke with nothing short of earnest determination.

"Sorry there's no water right now," he said amicably. "I'm sure you're tired. But please enjoy our inns and make yourselves comfortable."

He turned toward the group and smiled, his thick, bushy mustache twitching.

"Yuba prides itself on hospitality, you know."

Vivi ducked her head, pulling at the hood of her robe to hide her face.

"Uh," she said. "We heard the rebels were based here…?"

Any sort of welcome or friendliness the old man might've offered vanished in an instant.

"What do you want with them?!" He demanded.

Barrels, loose stones, and empty water buckets came hurtling toward them with startling ferocity.

"Whoa! Hey!"

Vivi flinched at the brief siege, but tellingly, she didn't take so much as a single step backward in retreat; despite the old man's obvious aggravation, none the crew were actually injured. He huffed, turning back to his digging.

Shuk.

"They're not here," he said with a scoff. "Those fools have left Yuba."

"What?!"

Vivi went pale, hands clenching at her sides.

"No…" She whispered.

"Three years," the old man muttered grimly. "The desert has waged war on Yuba for three years; this was hardly our first sandstorm."

Usopp frowned, checking on a hunch through Haki. As he suspected, the old mans was the only 'voice' in Yuba aside from the Straw Hats.

Shuk.

He'd been holding out on his own.

"When the water dried up, they abandoned this place," he said. "The rebels are based in Katorea, now."

"Katorea?!" Vivi exclaimed.

"Where's that, Vivi?" Luffy asked. "Is it close by?"

She glanced at them guiltily, hesitating.

"Katorea's another oasis," she said. "…Near Nanohana."

"WHAT?! We were going the wrong way this whole time?!"

The old man suddenly dropped his shovel.

"Vivi," he said, staring back at them. He took stuttering, tentative steps toward her. "Did you say Vivi?"

She balked.

"Oh, um, I"

"WHOA, old man!" Luffy shouted, frantically waving his hands. "You got it all wrong! It's not like she's the princess or anything!"

"Be quiet, moron!" Zoro growled.

"I'm" Vivi stammered.

"Princess? Is it really you?" The old man reached his hands out, lurching forward to clasp her shoulders. Heartbreaking elation colored his tone. "You're alive! Thank Kami! Do you–do you remember me? I suppose I must look quite different now."

All pretense of hiding her identity gone, Vivi stared back at him; recognition sparked in her eyes, and her lower lip quivered.

"… Toto?"

The old man–Toto–breathed a wet chuckle, tears streaming down his face.

"I've never lost faith," he said. "I still believe in the King who saved us; who spared my reckless son, praised him for his character. I know he hasn't abandoned us, has he?!"

"Of course not," Vivi said, straightening her posture with clearly practiced seamlessness. She put a steadying hand on Toto's trembling shoulders. "And neither have I."

Toto hung his head and fell to his knees; Vivi went with him.

"This rebellion, it's idiocy, madness! I've stopped them so many times, but they're beyond reason now; I know many of King Cobra's subjects still hold faith as I do!" Toto buried his hands in the sand, sobbing freely. "Yet they insist on fighting–those fools have resolved themselves to die, my son at the lead!"

Vivi's chin briefly wrinkled before she erased any hint of distress from her face. She reached into her robe and offered Toto a cloth for his tears.

"It won't come to that," she said with a winning smile. "Please don't worry; I'm going to stop this rebellion!"

Usopp sighed.

'Singular, huh?'

The marksman side-eyed Luffy. The rubber captain's expression had gone blank–a telltale sign that something didn't quite sit right with him. A sentiment shared by everyone else, at a glance.

None of them said anything though.

Save Luffy, they all retired to one of the inns Toto had advertised when they first arrived.

"Hey, Usopp," Chopper said, tugging at his sleeve while everyone stashed their bags. "What's tonight's story gonna be about?"

"Eh~?" Usopp said in exaggerated disbelief. "I just finished the last one. You want another already?"

"One would think it's called a bedtime story for a reason." Zoro grunted with a roll of his eyes, carefully propping his swords by one of the many bunk beds.

Chopper didn't react to either comment, staring at the sniper with a starry, hopeful gaze; Usopp heaved a put-upon sigh.

"Okay, okay."

"Um," Vivi said uncertainly from the other side of the room. "Sanji-san, that's my bed."

"Oh, well," Sanji practically trilled, almost posing on the mattress, one knee bent and his head propped on one hand while the other held up the sheet invitingly. "I thought, it's so cold out, you might want compa"

FWUMP.

A pillow flying smack into the cook's face muffled his voice.

"Tonight's tale will even feature the king of perverts over there." Usopp said with a disdainful sniff.

Chopper, hanging off the marksman's shoulders, snickered.

"Ho, someone's feeling ballsy," Sanji said, immediately on his feet; the flirtatious lilt was gone from his voice, replaced with poorly veiled menace. "Which of you bums wanna fight so bad?"

Usopp puffed out his chest.

"Do your worst, I'll never tell!"

"Oi, Chopper," Sanji said, arming himself. "Keep hold of the tengu and you won't get hurt."

"Uh…"

"HA!" Usopp barked, leaning into the role that'd just sort of happened. "The good doctor would never sell out a"

Heavy Point!

The weight on Usopp's back suddenly multiplied several times over; large arms locked him in place as Chopper shifted to his human form.

"Et tu, Chopper?!" Usopp shouted, hamming it up.

"Eat down, tengu!" Sanji said, pitching two pillows his way.

Taking advantage of the fact that Chopper was giggling too much to maintain a good grip on him, Usopp slid one foot back into the doctor's and disrupted their balance. They went tumbling to the floor, and Sanji's projectiles sailed over their heads. The first beaned Zoro in the face before the swordsman caught the second.

"That tears it."

Things devolved quite cleanly–or, chaotically–from there.

"What part of rest do you idiots not under"

Whap.

Not even Nami was totally safe; she didn't join in the main brawl, but she didn't hesitate to angrily return any stray pillows that flew in her direction.

In the midst of the madness, Chopper persuaded Usopp to bury the hatchet over his betrayal, and they extricated themselves from Sanji and Zoro. Usopp sat on the edge of his bed and cleared his throat.

"Hang on a second," Zoro said before he could start. "I was on watch the other night; how'd the story end?"

"Who's this bedtime story for, marimo?" Sanji asked with a derisive scoff. "The kids, or you?"

"I was about to get a fight scene!" Zoro argued. "You were the one whining every night because you weren't in the story!"

"This is a regular thing, Usopp-san?" Vivi asked, wisely choosing to let the imminent bickering play itself out.

"Yeah!" Chopper said. "He just got done with one about their adventure to find Woonan's treasure!"

"I've never heard of Woonan." Nami said, showing interest for the first time and shooting the marksman a knowing look.

Usopp waved a dismissive hand, feeling a little warm in the face.

"They're just stories." He murmured.

In his first round, his audience had consisted of just Luffy, Chopper and Brook most of the time, when they wanted to pay attention. Having the rest of the crew invested in his tales was a new experience for him.

"I'd like to hear one." Vivi said without a hint of irony.

"Since we're in it," Nami said with a sly smile. "Any libelous portrayals will result in a fine."

"Sure, sure," Usopp said, clapping his hands on his knees; at that signal, the others quieted. "Ahem. Well, I suppose I'll tell you about the adventure on Clockwork Island. We were taking a break, an afternoon at the beach, and…"

Inevitably, there were inane comments and interruptions.

("Ah~, the privilege of applying lotion to Nami-san's wonderful, fair skin!"

"What kind of dumbass steals a wanted pirate's ship?"

"You've literally done that."

"Yeah, but I know what I'm doing. And I don't suck.")

Overall, though, it seemed a universally effective means of winding down the normally rowdy Straw Hats and sending them off to sleep.

("I got kidnapped, did I?"

"O–only because we'd been disarmed; I'm just telling the story here!"

"This and that… This and that? This AND that?! I'll kill shitty Bear!"

"Shut up, dartbrow!"

"The Trump Kyoudai certainly seem like bad news.")

More or less.

Toto saw them off the next morning, all smiles despite obvious signs that he hadn't slept.

"I'm sorry, Vivi-chan," he said. "For how I behaved; I'm embarrassed to show you Yuba in such a state."

Vivi shook her head; if anything, seeing him still so earnest and stalwart had just inspired her all over again to press on.

"Nothing to be embarrassed about," she assured him. "I wish our reunion had happened under better circumstances."

Toto huffed with a somber nod, though he quickly shed any hint of gloom.

"Luffy-kun, take this with you," he said, handing the rubber man a small tankard of water. Luffy's eyes bugged out and he eagerly accepted the gift. "I managed to extract that from the damp sand thanks to your help digging last night. I'm sorry there isn't more, but that's genuine Yuba water!"

Vivi still remembered her father asking Toto to build the city of Yuba when she was a child; how his son, Koza, promised that they'd establish the city as the oasis of the kingdom's western desert.

Toto's eyes shone just as proudly now as they had back then.

"I'll drink it slowly!" Luffy promised, hanging the tankard around his neck.

With nothing left to say, they departed, steeling themselves to backtrack toward the east. Vivi knew better than to risk heatstroke or other complications from overexertion in the desert, but she nonetheless set as quick a pace as she dared.

Thud.

Her body didn't exactly agree with the pace, especially with how restless her sleep had been last night, but they had to make up for lost time after all. And it was a small price to pay if it meant she could–

"Luffy! What're you doing?"

Nami shouted from astride Eyelashes. Vivi looked back over her shoulder.

Luffy had plopped down to sit under a bare, lone tree with a stark frown on his face. Mr. Bushido stood beside him, having apparently stopped on a dime when Luffy did.

"Luffy-san?" Vivi prodded gently.

The rest of the group doubled back, waiting for an explanation.

"I quit."

Luffy declared.

A beat of silence.

"You 'quit'?" Nami parroted, too baffled to even raise her voice.

"Oi, we don't have time to spare for your whims right now," Sanji said, words coming out quick with impatience and exasperation. "We've got at least another day's walk to Katorea to stop the rebels; this is for Vivi-chan, yeah? Come on, get up."

Luffy snatched Sanji's outstretched hand by the wrist and flipped the cook over his shoulder.

"That's boring."

"The hell's that mean?!" Sanji snapped, shooting back to his feet.

Vivi frowned. She knew well of the boy captain's bouts of childishness, and how some of the crew was more willing to indulge his whims than others. Yet, by the air around him, by the way Usopp and Zoro simply watched without comment, this didn't feel like an indulgence.

"Vivi."

"Yes?"

Luffy put his full attention on her; she found it impossible not to respond in kind.

"I wanna beat the crap out of Crocodile!"

Vivi startled–not because of the sentiment, but by the sheer vehemence in his tone.

"We're pirates," he said. "Even if we find the rebels at that Katorea place, we won't be any help there."

Another quiet beat.

"Huh," Sanji muttered. "Despite being Luffy, he can talk good sense sometimes."

"That's because he's Luffy." Usopp said.

"But," Vivi stammered. "I still have to"

"What are you gonna do, anyway?" Luffy asked. "A million people, geared up to fight each other–are you gonna kneel in front of them and beg them not to?"

"If that's what it takes." Vivi said, glaring back at him.

Did he honestly think she hadn't resolved herself to do anything necessary?

"We're dealing with a Shichibukai," Luffy said. "And you think you can end this without anyone getting hurt or dying?"

Vivi grit her teeth; she didn't answer him.

"That's naïve."

"Why?" She demanded, clenching her fists. "Why should they have to suffer when they haven't done anything wrong? What's wrong with not wanting people to die?!"

Luffy leveled her with a flat stare from under his hat.

"People die."

THWAM!

Luffy went rolling over himself across the sand, hat flying off his head; Vivi's hand stung, but she was too livid to care.

"Don't try to tell me how the world works!" She shouted. "What's wrong with trying to save innocent people? With trying to prevent bloodshed? Crocodile's the only one at fault!"

Pow!

Stars exploded behind Vivi's right eye; she collapsed on the ground, raising a hand to her burning cheek.

Vaguely, she heard Sanji bellowing in the background.

"Then why," Luffy snarled, raising his voice. "Why's it okay for you to risk your life?!"

Vivi hurled herself off the ground and tackled him. She pinned him down. She threw her hands at him. She punched. She slapped. Sand chafed her knuckles. Her palms went numb.

"Shut up! I know how this ends!"

Smack.

"I know how hopeless it is; but what else can I do?!" She screamed.

Thok.

"I don't have anything else to fight him with!"

Whap.

Luffy caught her wrists, glaring up at her. She panted, struggling a moment more before hanging her head.

"I only have my life."

She went slack.

She was exhausted; frustrated and spent. She'd been forcing herself to smile, even as it wore her down piece by jagged piece.

"You have us," Luffy said, shoving her up off him. "You've got our lives to fight with!"

He lurched forward, his face inches from hers, his eyes burning and furious.

"WE'RE YOUR NAKAMA!"

Vivi's breath hitched.

"Nami-san?"

"Hm?"

"I've been wondering since Little Garden–how do you all have such unwavering faith in each other?"

"How…? It's just the way we are, I guess. I've never put much thought into it!"

"I can't," Vivi said, fighting to still her trembling lower lip. "I can't ask you to"

"Not about asking," Mr. Bushido said with a grunt. "We're pirates. We do what we want either way."

Vivi wanted to take out Crocodile more than anything. More days than not, her fury on behalf of her kingdom had sustained her the past two years.

Against a Shichibukai, though, she was powerless to face him.

"You're royalty, Vivi-chan," Sanji said. For once, all flirtation was absent, his tone gentle and mildly teasing. "You need only give us the order to fight."

They'd already done so much, with her and for her; she'd never imagined asking for more than that.

"We pirates may not be all that great for diplomacy," Usopp mused aloud. "But we're damn near peerless when it comes to making a mess."

Vivi still didn't understand the source of their trust and kinship.

But maybe she didn't have to.

Maybe it simply was.

And maybe… that was enough.

Vivi stopped fighting her tears and hunched over sobbing. She accepted the silent comfort Nami offered, leaning into the arm wrapped around her shoulders.

"So," Luffy said, voice gruff after their brief scuffle. "Princesses do cry after all."

He gathered up his hat, dusting it off.

"You wanna kick his ass more than any of us."

Luffy stood up and set his namesake squarely on his head.

"Now tell me," he said. "Where do we find Crocodile?"