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"One Piece." – Speaking
'One Piece.' – Thinking
One Piece. – Flashbacks
One Piece. – Devil Fruits and Techniques
Deadly Drinking Pirate
The Metal Pirate and the Island Without a Name.
Previously on Deadly Drunken Pirate,
"You have been bitten by the Kestia, Nami." Luffy then spoke up, letting loose his grasp on his girlfriend's shirt so her stomach won't be flashed for much longer. "Like Dinosaurs and Sabre-Tooth Tigers, they were thought to be extinct. They are tropical insects that might be small enough to be barley seen but when they bite, they live visible bug bites like yours."
"But bug bites don't cause a fever Captain." Vivi brought up and soon, everyone saw the look of dread in Luffy's eyes.
"Most bug bites don't Vivi. We are still in the Grand Line, none of you forget that." Luffy responded and everyone else on the ship nodded. "But the Kestia were once deadly insects that once they bite into the flesh of their targets, they spread a virus." Now the air is getting thick with tension and dread that spread through their hearts like wildfire. "It is known as the Five-Day Disease, called that because within five days of infection, the contaminated will be fully eaten inside-out and…die."
"DAMMIT LUFFY!" Sanji roared like a bear finding his food supply stolen right under his nose. "If you know about this then why haven't you treated Nami!? You are supposed to know everything about the Grand Line! And I thought you will get us ready and Nami is going to die!? WHAT IS WRONG WI~*choke*!" Sanji ranted on and on like an angry fool until Luffy, out of the blue, grasped the cook by the throat in an effort to shut him up and get his attention.
"Sanji, I thought that I was clear on how the Kestia were thought to be extinct. And the Kestia are the only causes of the Five-Day Disease so everyone thought that the illness was also extinct." Luffy started. "I will admit that I know more about the Grand Line for someone that 'never left the East Blue' but you had no right to say such things to some who is not happy about this either, Sanji!" The crew were wondering, just who is Luffy and what else about him will surprised them? "Even if you go to the best clinics in the East Blue, they won't have a vaccine for this illness! The Five-Day Disease is a Grand Line illness, why would the cure be found in the East Blue!?"
Nobody answered. And the silence was broken when Luffy felt his hand getting tired, holding Sanji over the deck, so the captain released the cook for the latter to catch his breath. "So what do we do Captain? It is your cue." Vivi then spoke up.
"Yes, yes it is. There is a way to cure Nami." Luffy spoke before getting Nami off the base of the mast and into her arms; she showed signs that the posture was at least slightly more comfortable. "On the way to Alabasta is Drum Island. Years ago, it was famous and most-sought out in the entire Grand Line for its system of doctors. And those doctors were skilled enough to cure nearly any illness, both from the Grand Line and the other Blue Seas."
"Do you think that they can cure Nami? I thought that you said the Five-Day Disease was thought to be extinct." Carol spoke this time, she had grown to like the navigator and found her presence to be like close friends.
"The ones from the Blue Seas also though the dinosaurs were extinct. But those who grew up in the Grand Line will know that Little Garden will harbor the supposed extinct animals, plants, reptiles and insects." Luffy explained. "And any good doctor will have a cure ready, even if it will never be used for another hundred years. I will make a bet that even one doctor on Drum Island will have the cure for the Five-Day Disease in storage."
And just like that, the next course of action became clear. All they can do is follow Luffy's path to this 'Drum Island' and hope that a cure for Nami can be found there.
"Presenting our captain, Wapol the 'Tin Pirate'!" Luffy and the Strawhats couldn't find the words for this silly and stupid attack on this ship. Or even the captain presented.
"You seem to be just regular pirates but, there could always be something about you underneath." Wapol said, eating a piece of meat off a fancy knife. But then he bite off that chuck along with the blade it was resting on!
Wapol is an overweight man with an unusual appearance. He has dark violet hair and a cylinder-shaped jaw made up of tin plates, hence his epithet. He dresses in tin-plate armor and a hooded cape made from kind of skin. He was also wearing brown thick gloves. He spotted a pair of purple and orange woolen shorts and a brown belt around his waist and a pair of thick short boots.
"No regular man can just eat the knife and not get harmed by it." Luffy remarked, he might be a glutton but he knows what he couldn't and shouldn't eat. Zoro, Alvida and Gin were not looking any better about it.
"I'm getting a mouth ache just by watching!" Usopp had to add his own two cents, while trying not to raise his arms right in front of his crew. And especially not the one from a ship that appeared out of the ocean.
And all this started when Zoro was on his patrol duty and called out to everyone else on the deck at the time; he said that he saw someone standing on water!
Luffy and the others were trying to ignore the freezing cold and snow that fell on the King's Gourd for the second time. Luffy said that they weren't sailing into a storm but that they were getting closer to Drum Island. He called it a 'Winter Island'.
Vivi then came out and explained to the crew what Luffy meant. She told them that even though the Grand Line is supposed to be chaotic and didn't follow any of the rules for weather or navigating, it did have some certain patterns. For one, each island has a climate that is based off the four seasons; and island retains that climate every day of the year.
But while that was smoothing for the crew in the cold, they never forgot what Nami did before she was sent into her cabin. She actually helped the crew avoid a Grand Line typhoon! And weather on the Grand Line is supposed to be unpredictable!
Luffy then kissed Nami full on the mouth, shameless in public too. He then said, "I told you that there is no one replacing Nami as our navigator. She has been ready for the Grand Line for years." Vivi then realized what Luffy meant. Nami doesn't predict the weather by tools, but by her body.
Nami has trained her senses to pick up even the smallest changes in wind direction, temperature and air pressure. After all, weather can only happen by a delicate balance of each in order to occur. It took a lot of practice but Nami was able to tell what weather is to happen next and that was how she was able to sense that typhoon before it happened.
But then there was the man standing on water.
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He was a man who is a bit taller than average. He has wavy lips and a sad expression. He wears a checkered jester-like green-blue costume with purple lining at the end of the sleeves, a white winter cape with purple lining (that is tied against his chest) and grey buttons, with a light brown bow and a bag of arrows on his back. He has dark green pants, and blue shoes with white buckles.
After an awkward chat, the Straw Hats were shocked to see that this guy was not standing on water. He was merely standing on top a submerged ship that suddenly emerged and shifted back into sailing mode right in front of the King's Gourd. And before they knew it, they were surrounded by pirates wearing coats on their own ship.
"Now then…" Wapol said, tossing what was left of that knife into his mouth while standing on one of the railings. "We will like to go to Drum Island. Do any of you have an Eternal Pose set to that island? You seemed to being going in that location."
"I am the captain of this ship so I will be asking the questions." Luffy said in an irritated tone, given that the guards will poke him with their guns even when he tried to scratch his chin. "Why are you all on my ship? What do you want with the King's Gourd and why aren't you at your kingdom, ruling it like a tyrant?"
This never gets old but the other Straw Hats were not the ones shocked anymore. It was their unwelcome and uninvited visitors that were baffled at how a random pirate knew that they came from Dum Kingdom? "If you have no answer then scram!" This, of course, was only a sample of Luffy's menacing and overpowering presence; just enough to try and scare away off the pirates.
"Not now! I am still hungry!" Wapol foolishly and stubbornly retorted; just like a spoiled kid in a grown-ups body. But when his mouth enlarged to impossible limits, Luffy painfully grasped and clamped his rubbery fingers around Wapol's lips.
"Hey! Let go of Captain Wapol! He needs to eat to satisfy his-!" One of the goons was more foolish than Wapol and yet he didn't get the chance to see out his 'captain' when Luffy cut him off,
"His Baku-Baku no Mi (Munch-Munch Fruit)?" Luffy spoke, shocking everyone this time. The name for a Devil Fruit is always a give-away to what it can bestow to the user. "I have heard of it. It allows the user to be able to consume any substance, toxic or not, dangerous or not, edible and inedible. But I also heard that it takes this phrase literally; 'You are what you eat'." Luffy droned off like he was reading a rather burning book out loud. "Now get lost!"
Luffy then turned to face the opposite direction and used the elastically and sheer strength of his arm and fingers, still keeping Wapol's mouth shut, to fling the tin pirate into distance. Then he turned to the remaining 'Tin Pirates', "You better hurry and collect your 'captain', Akuma no Mi (Devil Fruit) users don't last even a minute in the cruel and merciless sea."
Finally, that was enough to scare the intruding pirates off the King's Gourd and they hurried to try and save their captain. Whatever they succeed or not, they should be too busy to bother the Straw Hats again. And they never did, on the sea that is.
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Pretty soon, an island that looked like it came out of a snow globe or something was in the horizon. The Straw Hats were still working hard on shoving the snow, keeping the ship on course and to make Nami's condition the least painful as possible. It has already been three days since Nami was bitten on Little Garden. Things are not looking so good for her unless they find a doctor, today.
"'Follow the snowfall.' You really are a little kid Captain. Then again, you weren't wrong." Luffy just chuckled as he took a short break after a couple of hours of shoving and taking rounds, looking after his girl and navigator.
"I wasn't wrong yet. You refused to say such things about yourself, Kuro." Luffy turned to see the same pirate strategist that seemed to have been out of action for a while. "And you really got everyone thinking you jumped ship again with your ridiculous long nap."
"What can I say, Captain? I am a cat and cats do sleep whenever they like and as long as they want." Kuro joked before getting comfortable with his new all black winter outfit that was similar to his old attire. Only the jacket and long pants were replaced with a coat and winter slacks, wooly like a lamb; best of all, he didn't have the pair of golden…poop things on both sides. It disgusted the girls way too many times.
"And what about our pet otter? What did you think of him?" Luffy then brought up that no one has seen the former 'Mr. Thirteen' or his vulture partner 'Miss Friday'. Then again, they were wondering, Sanji included, where the cooked bird for the dinner of the night they left Whiskey Peaks.
"He is not bad company once you give him a hot bowl of donburi." Kuro said. "And I like his choice of weapons, a pair of bivalve sea-shells with short claws along the front edge." Luffy nodded,
"I noticed those weapons, they have been sharpen to the point I can be sure they could cut at the wax that 'Mr. Three' makes." Luffy remarked and then changed the subject. "I am sure that you can learn a few more things about him. After all, he and his former partner were trained and entrusted by a Warlord to be his messenger."
"Ah, Crocodile." Kuro replied. He did had to get caught up as he did miss out on the events surrounding Reverse Mountain, Whiskey Peaks and Little Garden. "He has gotten my respect for grouping together outlaws and keep his operations a secret, even from the World Government and its investigation officers. Such as CP9."
"But no longer once we get Nami healed and finally arrive in Alabasta. Then again, I told my crew that I will not leave Drum Island without a doctor." Luffy said and Kuro only needed a second to figure out why.
"Why is it that as we are now approaching Drum Island, we are the only sailors in a ten meter radius? I thought you said that Drum Island was a hotspot for doctors to learn and patients to be healed." Kuro then replied. But he noticed that Luffy's calm and relaxed expression turned completely sour.
"It would seem that things have change for Drum Island." Luffy said no more and Kuro just left with it. And after another while of sailing straight and shoving snow, the King's Gourd finally arrived at the winter island. But then the 'welcome community' showed up,
"Halt pirates! You are not setting another foot on our island! Scram!" One of the men in the large crowd shouted, armed to the teeth like the rest. But when nobody moved a muscle,
"We mean it! Scram or die!" Another one from the crowd happened to have a rifle compared to the spears and farm tools. "I said, scram!" Then he foolishly shot at the Straw Hats and it also happened to be Luffy.
But the captain didn't respond, not that the bullet actually did anything to his rubber body. Then he started to move, making the crowd on edge. However, what Luffy did, nobody saw it coming.
"Please!" Luffy shouted while he bowed on his deck, his forehead touching the wood of the ship. "Our friend is sick and dying! We need the help of a doctor that can be found here! Please!"
"Like we will help pirates like you! How do we know that you are not lying!?" Another man from the crowd shouted and the other cheered in agreement. But then,
"Here now! There will be none of that. No 'liar' will bow his head with such honestly. I believe him." A large man came from behind the crowds and the locals seemed to know him.
"Dalton!"
Dalton is an imposing man, with slicked black hair and a goatee. He wears a long, white fur-lined green tunic and has armor plates on his arms; these plates are retained on his fore legs when assuming his full-bison form. Sometimes he covers his head with a green and white fur lined hat, equipped with ear-flaps against Drum Island's intense cold, and he always wears long boots. He carries his weapon of choice, an extra-large spade, in a sheath that hangs on his back.
"I am sorry about our cold welcome but the island and its people hate pirates more than most." Dalton said. "If your friend is terribly ill then we will let onshore so we can look at her." Dalton then signaled for the crowd to make way while the Straw Hats carefully carried Nami out of the captain's quarters. But someone was needed to watch the ship; Zoro, Carue the Duck and Koro volunteered for personal reasons; and also the otter wanted to stay since the cold temperatures and snowfall are especially dangerous for an otter like him.
And so the other Straw Hats left for the village. But any hopes of making sure that this Drum Island were dashed when Dalton responded to such a question with this as an answer,
"I am sorry, but this island has no name."
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"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.
End of Chapter 16.
*Hope you like it.*