Usopp sighed as he stood straight and tall, the broom in his hand. The last of the snow had been brushed from the Merry's back, banister and deck and crow's nest and all. It was an honest day's work, and he imagined doing this day in and day out for a living. It made him chuckle; but he looked toward the Merry's figurehead and said, "I'd do it for you ten days, ten weeks, ten months, or ten years in a row, Merry. I'm just sorry we left you alone for so long." The lack of reply was almost comfort enough; the figurehead's smile could be seen even from behind it as he was.
The afternoon was interrupted by the sounds of running; it was not the militia, Usopp could tell, but the heavy breathing was not much farther off. He and the militia in charge of watching the Straw Hats at their ship looked past the camp to see two figures running through the snow slowly. Their legs pumped hard, but the snow drift was too tall and heavy to make good speed. All the same, Usopp recognized the straw hat and Nami's red hair from this distance.
"Oy! What's up, you two?" Usopp called from the banister happily. He noticed suddenly that Luffy was covered in blood and pursed his lips, pointing at his captain. "Luffy, what the Hell? Don't tell me you actually fought those rabbits?"
"Usopp! Gaimon! Everyone!" Luffy screamed. He waved his arms back and forth frantically. "Get out here! We've got problems!"
Usopp's brow furrowed at the comment as he heard the distant voices ring out into his ears. He turned and dropped the broom, stalking into the cabin. Gaimon sat at the dining table, poring over a book with a finger pressed against the text. "Gaimon! It's Luffy and Nami. There's trouble, apparently," he told him before leaving the cabin.
Gaimon sighed through his nose and dog-eared the page he was on before closing his book: "Devil Fruit Encyclopedia". He plopped from the booth seat and trotted over to the door, stepping out on deck alongside Usopp and waiting at the gangplank for their friend.
"Hold it! Hold it," exclaimed one of the militia guards. "What's the meaning of this?"
Luffy and Nami stopped short of the guard party, hands held up. Usopp had to wonder why Luffy would even do such a thing, but between the two of them, Nami looked more panicked. "Please, forgive us, but there's trouble!" Nami told them. "Wapol has returned! He's here on the island! His forces are attacking as we speak!"
The militia gasped in response, and looked between one another, panic on their faces, their muscles trembling, their trigger fingers ready for the fight. But their commander here looked between them all and the four pirates, licking the inside of his lips before bellowing, "Wait, wait, wait! Wapol? Back on Drum? How do we know you aren't lying to us?"
"It's true!" Nami began emphatically.
"Look what he did to me!" Luffy exclaimed as he pointed as his beaten, bloody body. "I tried to fight him but he blew me away! Come on! We've all got to fight!"
Gaimon tugged on Usopp's sleeve. "Uh, hey," he said as he motioned his thumb toward their crewmates, "he's just kidding, right?"
"Oh, my God!" yelled one the younger militia guards as he crumpled to his knees. Tears were streaming down his cheeks. "This is . . . this is . . ."
Luffy rushed toward him and grabbed him by the shoulders and stared deep into his eyes as he said, "Come on! Get yourself together! They're not at Bighorn yet, but they could be at any moment! We have to get back to Bighorn!" He let go of the man and stood fully facing the Merry. "Usopp! Gaimon! Come on! It's all hands on deck!"
"Wow," Usopp said, "he is serious." Usopp turned his head down to look at Gaimon, his brows set together. "I guess this is really something." He whined as he said it. "And here I thought this would be a calm, quiet little place where we could gather ourselves together." With slumped shoulders, he walked back to the cabin. "I'll get you a couple pistols."
The tavern at Cocoa Weed was all aboom, fully bolstered by the arrival of Sanji and Robin. Their first threshold was listening to the long winded stories of the miners, but it had gone on far beyond that. Sanji had come fourth place in a drinking competition and Robin second, losing only to the oldest miner there with the fewest teeth but the heartiest laugh. When joined by the others, it made the walls of the tavern shake.
Then, the miners had ordered the newcomers all the specialty food items from the menu, and they had a forkful each, sharing their opinions on Drum's samosas, flatbreads and hummus, hot curry, chicken soup, and a small myriad of desserts. Sanji and Robin grew well drunk as the day wore on, and Robin even managed to forget about the irks of Jaya in the back of her mind. I'll get the info out of that doctor, no problem, she thought. For the first time in years, though, Drum was a welcome respite from the constant running and hiding her life had become since fleeing Ohara.
Until the front door burst open.
A woman stood there in militia garb, sweating through it completely and wiping thick beads of moisture from her forehead. "Cocoa Weed! Everyone!" she began in a loud yell that became a thick cough. "You must evacuate this town and join your forces with Gyasta!" She panted before she got the last words out. "Wapol has returned!"
And the silence was replaced by a terrible cacophony. "Dear God, not yet!" yelled the bartender, suddenly seeming like a little girl despite her earlier gruffness. The crowds began to drain the last of their drinks, wipe their mouths, and rush out the front door, or else get their drunker compatriots to listen to reason. "We can't fight them! We have to band together if we stand even half a chance!" patrons would tell to one another, shaking them by the shoulder until someone made a move to leave.
Sanji shook his head slowly as he took in his surroundings, kicking his feet up on the table. "Come on, now. This is your home, isn't it? We're not gonna stay and fight these bastards off?"
The head miner chuckled after draining the contents of his mug. He scraped the legs of his chair on the floor as he stood. "Oh, brother. You must be the kind of guy who knows everything?" the miner asked sarcastically. "Me, personally? I don't know, but I'm gonna assume Wapol's got the same amount of people he left here with. Which is a lot! If we want a chance, we'll let this place burn and join with the others to keep our lives."
Sanji narrowed his eyes. "Maybe you don't understand. You got two experienced fighters here to help you out."
The miner scoffed and guffawed here, shaking his head as he turned from the table but looked at Sanji over his shoulder. "Look, you might be pirates, but we don't give a good god damn what sort of power you got. Gyasta's where we've decided to go, to protect the skycar. So . . . bye now!" He laughed aloud again with the rest of his mining team as they conversed to each other; some would return home to arm themselves, while others would rush through town as criers to get everyone else ready to evacuate Cocoa Weed.
"Can you believe this?" Sanji asked Robin incredulously, though she walked to his side and placed a hand on his shoulder, looking deep into his eyes.
"Sanji," Robin said politely, "I think they'd know better than us. Come on." She tried to tug him from his seat, but his body was hard as iron, and though he wasn't technically straining against her, he did not budge.
"I don't like wanton destruction," Sanji said, slurring his words ever so slightly, just enough to clue Robin in.
She softened up and massaged Sanji's shoulder. "Come on. You're drunk. Listen to reason." Robin nodded her head toward the front door where the rest of the tavern was steadily evacuating from, no care brought toward the Straw Hats'. Sanji's exhales became emphatic as he watched the last ten people steadily file out the front door, but he finally shook his head, his eyes rolling around in their sockets, and rose from his seat. He followed Robin out of the tavern.
"Everyone! We are mounting up outside of town limits!" Tamachibi called to the newcomers who were joining up, armed and equipped for battle. His arms directed them toward the formation his militia and the other prepared townsfolk were already at, thirty yards from the town's border in the plain that bordered it on the South side. Some of the soldiers massaged the snow into giant mounds, dense as could be, to hopefully catch the bullets that would be fired at them on the first charge. Tamachibi stared at these defensive mounds they constructed. That won't stop a bullet, he realized grimly.
"Listen to Tamachibi! Mount up where you're instructed or where you see gaps," Mayor Maria clamored from further down the line, a large Lapahn rifle in hand that still seemed to just be a pistol compared to Maria's huge size. Though Tamachibi was glad for her support. Both of them together would be able to cover more bases than one, and more than that, it was her leadership above all else that inspired people to Bighorn. Tamachibi might inspire folks against a potential Wapol return, yes; but it would be the defense of their home that would make them last.
Maria peered up the main street she stood by to see the families of Bighorn saying goodbye. Most of the fathers and some of the mothers left their children in the care of their loved ones or their elderly parents, and gave tearful farewells on bended knee. Even from twenty yards out, she could see the tears in their eyes as they parted with their children. The children's tears could be heard. Maria bowed her head and bit her lip to keep the tears from falling down her own eyes as the evacuees made their way to Gyasta for safe keeping.
"Mayor Maria! Miss Mayor!" came Nami's familiar voice, and Maria raised her head to see the four Straw Hats running up. A most welcome sight, she thought, blinking the tears away until they were properly gone. She walked toward the Straw Hats as they ran up as fast as they could.
"They're not here yet?" Usopp asked, craning his neck over the defensive formation that Tamachibi continued organizing. The head of the militia looked toward the Straw Hats with disdain, but only spared them a moment before barking more orders at the formation to tighten up.
"No," Maria responded, staring out over the plain that extended to the forest's edge. Far off down the plain was a small stretch of sea; she wondered if they might be able to wedge Wapol's Army down that narrow slice and drive them into the freezing sea, but she doubted their numbers would fare well against Wapol's.
Luffy began cracking his knuckles. "Well, bring 'em on. It's been a while since I had a good fight," he said. Maria bridged her brows together as she noticed his entire body trembling. Who are you, Straw Hat?
"Quiet!" called one of the women in the defensive formation, a mother Maria had seen just say goodbye to her children. "Do you all hear that?"
The formation, Tamachibi, Maria, and the Straw Hats drew quieter as the stragglers formed up with their weapons at the ready. Maria grew steadily more nervous; most of them were up close and personal weapons, melee weapons or even farm equipment useless in a long range situation this field exhibited. A vision of her people getting shot down by Wapol and his army flitted across her eyelids. She blinked them away.
There was a deep cry bellowing from the forest, though.
A war cry.
"Good god," said one of the men, standing up straight and balking from formation. "It's true! I hear them!" His breath shuddered out of his lungs.
"Ease up and mount up!" Tamachibi ordered him gruffly but not unkindly. "We're at war here! We need every arm we have!" He approached the man and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I'm here with you, brother." He set his trembling lips together and nodded. The Straw Hats and Maria watched the other man muster courage, nod back to his commander, and set back at his kneel in formation with the other defenders.
The field remained quiet then, listening to the growing war cry from the forest.
Nami, Usopp, Maria, Gaimon, and Luffy stood in a line together behind the main defenders, with Tamachibi alone in front of them, and the wall of townsfolk from Bighorn forming a massive two-walled line in front of him, rifles at the ready.
At the front of the enemy line was Kuromarimo, sprinting ahead, with the might of half of Wapol's Army behind him, weapons at the ready. Some flew to their knees and began firing at the defenders while others ran past them, bayonets leveled at the enemy said to be their own people.
But their numbers outnumbered Bighorn's defenders twenty-five to one.
The defenders balked. Some fired their rifles at the attackers, and dropped a couple, but most balked. "We should surrender!" one cried out. "We stand no chance!"
Gaimon suddenly felt a tremendous presence at his right, and looked up at Luffy. He was trembling all the more, and gritted his teeth at the oncoming attackers. "Luffy?" he had time to ask, but suddenly - Luffy screamed, and charged forward, leapt over the first line of attackers, and charged ahead on the snowy plain.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" he cried as his legs pumped him ahead.
Kuromarimo balked. "The rubber kid's still alive?!" he screamed as he stopped in place. His army ran past him, unaware of Luffy or believing he was one man among many they could pierce through or shoot. Shoot they did - the bullets plunged into Luffy's body without effect, and bounced back at the attackers before they could fire shots at Bighorn.
"GUM GUM GATLING!" Luffy cried, and his fists began pumping at the first line of attackers. They did not pass him as they converged on him, unable to stop his beating fists as he stood in place and pushed his arms harder and harder, making sure not to miss a single soldier until finally he ran out of juice.
Three soldiers cried as they sprinted toward him, bayonets leveled as his heart, but Luffy leapt up in the air, spinning, and deliver a Spear into the ground where they stood, scattering them and many others like him.
"What the Hell?!" Tamachibi yelled, eyes wide, unaware of what power Luffy possessed until now. The other Drum Islanders felt similarly, and even the other Straw Hats were glued to the spot.
"Yah! Yah! YAAAAAAAH!" Luffy screamed as he sent punches and kicks this way and that, unwilling to let a single soldier pass him from where he stood.
"What do we do, Commander?!" one of the soldiers asked Kuromarimo at his side.
Kuromarimo stood in place, floored himself, but for a different reason. I do not want to fight that man! he thought shamefully, glad Wapol was not here to rain punishment for insolence upon him. He gritted his teeth, wondered what to do himself. How am I supposed to lead them like this?!
"FIGHT! FIRE! STAB! FIIIIIIGHT!" he finally cried.
"What, are you gonna let the boy fight alone?!" Mayor Maria suddenly called.
Tamachibi looked up at her; she looked back at him. Her words were for everyone, but he heard them first, and he suddenly felt his eyes widen with the power of Luffy and Mayor Maria himself. "CHAAAAAAARGE!"
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" the townspeople yelled, stirred. For not only was Luffy ahead of them nor their leaders' words behind them; the pirates Usopp, Nami, and Gaimon led the charge, with Mayor Maria and Tamachibi following them suit, weapons in hand. Luffy held the enemy at bay fifty feet more than they had prepared for; they would not waste that charge.
Kuromarimo! Tamachibi thought, glowering at the commander of the forces through the throng of heads forcing themselves on Luffy. The bastard was always Tamachibi's least favorite from the court, and to see him now incensed him all the further. He was the court judge, and trialed anyone guilty regardless of evidence or accusation. The worst example of the law! The worst example of a man!
"Gum Gum Whip!" Luffy cried, sending a force of thirty strong from the front line with a single kick. He saw the Straw Hats approaching over his shoulder and smiled. "Oh! You guys are joining in? Hell yeah!" He turned back to Wapol's army. "Gum Gum Gatling!" Another volley of rapid fire punches blew a wall of soldiers back from the attack formation.
"You're just gonna keep walking into his attacks? Idiots!" Kuromarimo finally bellowed. "Focus on the townspeople! They're all rebels! We kill them all, and when Straw Hat stands alone, we skewer him until he's mincemeat!"
Wapol's Army gave a resounding cry at the sound and turned focus to the line of charging townsfolk from Bighorn. "Oh no you don't," Luffy said, and stretched his arm out to grab a tree on the edge of the forest. His arm ran parallel to the oncoming Bighorn defenders and Wapol attackers, and the defenders stopped. The attackers did not.
Luffy waited, and looked at his crewmates, Maria, and Tamachibi. "You guys cover those guys," he said casually, craning his neck back to motion toward the line of attackers behind him. And then he let his feet off the ground.
"Gum Gum Scythe!" Luffy extended his arm out and caught one, two, three, then more, then more, and more and more of Wapol's soldiers, barreling one into another. The pile grew behind him or expanded against his arm as he clotheslined the lot of them, zooming toward the forest, sending the soldiers flailing helplessly into the line of trees on the forest's edge.
Luffy went careening into the foliage, too, spraying snow about him and into his own nose and mouth. He sputtered as he came up, brushing the snow from himself, but glad to see the attacking soldiers were down and out. Yet the army was still hefty, far, far too many against the defenders. "I've barely tipped the scales," he realized, but before he could charge back to the battlefield, he felt eyes on him.
He turned over his shoulder and spotted the pack of Lapahn watching the attack. He found the Alpha center among the bunch, staring deepest into Luffy's eyes. Luffy smiled at the Lapahn and tipped his hat at them. "Sorry! Now I'm busy," he told them, and charged back into the throng of things.
"Gum Gum ROCKET!" Luffy reached his arms out and grabbed hold of the nearest soldier, who went still at being grabbed. He screamed as Luffy lifted himself off the ground and came hurtling toward him, barreling into his chest and sending another bunch of soldiers into pain and peril as they all became a pile of unconscious men.
"What the," Maria had the power to say, motionless alongside Nami as the others charged ahead to fight. "I . . . I never . . ."
Nami could only smile suddenly. She wasn't glad about this, but she found herself saying, "We should all be thankful Luffy's here. He just may change the fate of this battle."
"But . . . how?" Maria wondered. "Wapol is a king! Even now, his numbers far outrank us. We got lucky when we drove him from Drum. Even with Straw Hat . . . will we be so lucky?"
"You'd be amazed what luck can do!" Usopp said from a few paces ahead. He and Gaimon stood side by side, firing slingshot and pistols respectively into the attackers one after another.
"Ya ya ya ya ya ya ya!" Luffy rattled off as war cries, battering his fists this way and that into the overpowering enemy on either side of him. They crowded him, but none was smart, skilled, or strong enough to bridge the gap between striking Luffy and being struck themselves.
"Let's try this one on," Kuromarimo said, and took a pinch of his afro from his hair, balling it up in his left hand and rolling it around until it gained size and began sparking from the edges. "Spark-Fro!" he called as he tossed the afro from his hand. It spun through the air and collided against Luffy's exposed back - and sparked, indeed, but fell from his back harmlessly. Luffy looked at Kuromarimo over his shoulder with a cold glare that made Kuromarimo take a step back. Who is this kid?!
"KUROMARIMOOOOO!"
Tamachibi cried out a great bellow as he brought his rifle around in a great arc, holding the barrel of the gun so the butt of it came colliding into Kuromarimo's face as he leapt over the soldiers on his side and Wapol's that slammed against one another. Kuromarimo went flailing into the snow and Tamachibi landed on his feet, his lungs huffing and heaving. "How dare you return?!" he exclaimed as he brought his rifle back to normal position and aimed at Kuromarimo.
But as he fired, Kuromarimo rolled out of the way and sprang forward, running past Tamachibi at first to get out of his line of sight before rounding against him. Tamachibi fired off round after round at Kuromarimo, but they all missed at Kuromarimo's speed as the magistrate cleared the distance between the two and suddenly came upon him.
Kuromarimo brought his fists down against Tamachibi's rifle, and gripped it with his right hand. The rifle began to grow immensely hot, and Tamachibi let it go before it could burn him. Exactly what he wants, Tamachibi realized before it even happened, but he sent his leg into Kuromarimo's chest, kicking him back, and spun overhead to grab a handful of snow and throw it into Kuromarimo's eyes.
"Blasted cheap fighter!" Kuromarimo grunted as he wiped the snow from his face, but Tamachibi was already there and sent his fist into Kuromarimo's gut.
"I'll be a cheap fighter if it means you're dead," Tamachibi told him, and after the gut shot, he arced his other fist overhead and sent it into Kuromarimo's face, bringing him to the ground.
Maria stood nearby, firing from her rifle into the crowd of soldiers charging ahead. Already, the battle had reached her and Tamachibi's defenders, but they all did their best; where one fell, another took their place. And all the while, Straw Hat managed to draw the numbers as best he could to himself rather than the townsfolk. I see you, Straw Hat! she thought.
A soldier charged Usopp, and he ducked, spinning him up and over his back to land in the ground. With his enemy prone, Usopp stepped on the back of his neck, tugged his slingshot back, and yelled, "HEAVY LEAD STAR!" sending a ball into the back of the soldier's head and rendering him unconscious. At his side, Gaimon cried out with every shot he fired, utilizing the benefit of not even being considered by the enemy fighters.
"Stay by my side, Nami!" Maria called out as she held the rifle to her shoulder, standing stock tall above the defensive formation and firing her rifle one shot after another. Nami watched the soldiers push forward and reach the defensive line, but Bighorn stood strong against them. A few still spilled through, the defenders changed focus slightly - and Nami stared at one of the soldiers charging right for Maria, his bayonet leveled at her gut.
Nami whipped her bowstaff out and slung the end upward into the man's jaw, sending him flipping onto his back in the snow, out cold and missing an extra tooth. "Good shot! You want a gun, too?" Maria joked, kneeling down to reload her rifle.
Luffy was still in the throng of soldiers, but the fight's dynamic had changed. At first, the soldiers had tried dogpiling him, but that had not worked, and he was too fast for them to really get their swords into him. Some of them fired their guns into him from afar, but his stretchy body bounced them back or at least flying off into the air. Luffy wore a rabid smile on his face, but his brow was knit together furiously. His attacks were rapid fire, and he seemed to be losing no steam.
But Gaimon noticed something in the crowd of legs ahead. Tamachibi stooped in the snow, pounding his fist into Kuromarimo's face, gut, and chest. The magistrate jerked with every attack and his blood squirted out of his nose, but he made little noise. Gaimon watched his arms slowly rise and grip the side of Tamachibi's head.
And arcs of lightning ran from his body as he simultaneously erupted into flames. A great scream erupted from his throat as a sinister laugh came from Kuromarimo's lips, and the defense line saw their militia leader fall to the side, flailing about in the snow. It at least put the flames out, but once they were, he still laid there, twitching, groaning, unable to stand.
Kuromarimo stood first and wiped the blood from his face. More drained from his nose as he sent a driving kick into Tamachibi's diaphragm. "That oughta teach you!" he said with another kick into Tamachibi's gut. The militia leader still twitched, but laid face down, far more motionless.
"No!" Gaimon cried out, and tucked his guns into his chest, stuck his tongue out, and ran through the crowd.
"Gaimon, wait!" Usopp cried out, reaching out in vain to grab a handful of his afro.
Gaimon was already well into the crowd of legs, bowling some soldiers over as he ran. Most did not notice him, but it was impossible for all of them not to. Usopp narrowed his eyes and made note of where Gaimon's afro just poked into his view at people's waist level. When a soldier would point or call out Gaimon's location, Usopp sent a lead ball or an exploding pachinko into their heads, knocking them out in one go.
Gaimon came to Tamachibi and grabbed hold of his shoulder, jerking backward through the crowd. "Gaimon," Usopp whispered, moved by his comrade. He kept the slingshot working overtime until his cold fingers split from the rapid friction. This time, he worked to clear out a path for Gaimon and Tamachibi to get behind the defense line safely. He was acutely aware in that moment just how hard everyone was fighting. Here and there, though, Bighorn's defenders were falling.
"Tamachibi!" Maria called as Gaimon returned to their side of the fight, and rushed to his side with Nami. She dropped to her knees and cradled the smoking man's head. He stared up with eyes clear, strangely stark in contrast to his blackened, burnt face. He stared up at the cloudy skies as they slowly cleared more than they usually did on Drum. Usopp stood by, slingshot at the ready to defend the other four, but stared down at Tamachibi. Why should I be worried? This guy hates me! Usopp thought, feeling strong sympathy all the same.
Luffy leapt over; he had seen the whole thing from across the field and saw Gaimon emerge with him, ignoring the battle to hop across soldiers' shoulders to reach his friends. "What the Hell kinda powers are those?!" he exclaimed, looking Kuromarimo up and down with huge eyes.
"It looks so beautiful, even on a day like this," Tamachibi said softly, weakly, sagely.
"Hold on! Let me get you inside where you can rest," Maria told him.
"Mayor," Tamachibi said, and took Maria's hand. "My . . . heart don't really feel right." He had to take a few deep breaths in between his words. Tears filled his eyes. "I want to give this country peace . . . but I can't."
"Yes you can! We all will make it so!" Maria said through gritted teeth. There was a gunshot and Maria jolted as she got tagged in her shoulder, but she didn't look away from Tamachibi. "You will live to see a new day for Drum."
"No . . . none of us will," Tamachibi sobbed, his voice weakening. "We . . . we need D . . . we need Dalton . . . we don't st-stand a chance . . . without . . . Dalton . . ." The life left his eyes though the light didn't. The tears left little salt streaks as they kept falling from his face. But Maria and the Straw Hats knew he had passed.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Luffy screamed as he arced his back to stare straight up into the sky.
Nami was crying, but wiped the tears from her cheeks, meaning to address Luffy - but before anyone could say or do anything, Luffy took off. He was not running for the battle - he was running for Bighorn. "Luffy! Where are you going?!"
"I'm going to the Merry!" he replied.
"What? At a time like this?!" Usopp cried out. He looked at Nami and jerked his head to Luffy. "Go stop him and bring him back!"
Nami nodded and stood, but rested her hands on Maria's shoulders a moment. "Maria, we should get you inside. You're injured."
Maria shook her head slowly. "I'm going to sit here with him a moment longer . . . and then I'm going to kill as many of these bastards as I can."
"Let her fight," Gaimon said from the hood of his brow, his eyes shaded and glossed over with intensity. Nami's eyes widened to behold Gaimon in such a light, but she nodded and waited not much longer. Luffy was already far down the street, and was far faster than she was.
"Luffy!" she cried out the entire run through Bighorn. The far off sounds of battle were more chilling than they felt while she was up close and personal. Luffy barreled ahead with his head bowed and arms pumping furiously. Before very long at all, they were both out of the other side of Bighorn. The sounds of battle grew ever quieter.
They crossed the rolling hills to get to the river where Merry waited, already covered in a fresh layer of snow despite her recent cleaning. Luffy immediately hauled the anchor up and brought the gangplank back onto the deck before Nami could reach him. By the time she was at the river's edge, the Merry was drifting backward toward the sea. "Luffy! What are you doing?! Are you crazy?!"
"No! Shut up! I'll be back soon!" Luffy said. "If I'm not back in an hour . . . it means I failed." It took a lot for him to say those last words as he came to the helm and spun the Merry around so she faced forward as the river current led her out.
"Drum won't last an hour without you!" Nami objected.
"Yes it can! These people have hours still ahead of them, because they win or they die!" Luffy protested firmly, staring Nami in the eye as she walked alongside the Merry. He faced forward again when she had no reply. "You heard the military man, though. There's no winning without Dalton. I have to find him and bring him back!"
"What?!" Nami exclaimed. "What if you drift too far from Drum and can't get back? You could search for hours and not find him! Luffy, anchor up and come back."
"Nami, we all have to do what we can," Luffy responded. "Miss Mayor is still alive, and she won't go down easily. Besides," and here he smiled sincerely and looked into Nami's eyes once more, "she has my crew to help her until I get back."
Nami stopped walking as they reached the end of the inlet and the Going Merry plunged into the open sea. Her lip trembled but even she couldn't fight the smile that came across her face. "I'm still pissed at you for this! One hour! Then I'm swimming out to find you and bring you back myself, y'hear?!"
Luffy lifted his hand in the air and gave her a thumbs up as the Merry entered the fog of the sea.