The evacuation from Cocoa Weed was rapid, and Sanji and Robin found themselves among a crowd of people storming out. The women, children, and elderly had already been escorted out first while the men gathered up their provisions and important belongings in case the city would be razed. The Straw Hats found themselves walking along with the gold miners as they evacuated town, walking down main street together. "Don't take it too personally," the first old man they'd talked to told Sanji with a strangely warm clap on the back. "We're not!"
"I don't like leaving this town to fall to someone like that," Sanji told the man as they moved quickly through the snowy road. He had his hands jammed in his pockets and his back was stooped over, wearing a depressed look on his face with a cigarette hanging from his lips lazily.
His gaze turned toward a porch nearby. There were about six or seven old timers standing or sitting on their rockers, each with a gun in hand or on their lap. They sat rocking or sucking on seeds from a big basin in the middle of their gathering. "What are you all doing? We're evacuating!"
"We ain't," one of the old women in the rockers said. "This is our home. We lived here. We gon' die here."
Sanji, Robin, and the miner stopped walking and Sanji spread his arms. His cigarette fell forgotten to sizzle out in the snow. "You can't be serious! Come on, there's still time!" He kneeled in the snow. "I can carry a few of you if need be."
The old timers all laughed together, sharing a look. "Oh, I like this one!" one of the standing men said as he adjusted his stance.
"We're staying," the woman told Sanji.
"Our bodies can't do much more fightin'," said another of the men, "but if Wapol wants to kill us, he can. Our souls're gonna do a lot more haunting his soul than we'd cover staying alive for another few months."
"Come on! You can't just throw your lives away!" Sanji blared as he stood back up.
"We're not throwing them away," said the most wizened of all the old people, a cronish man shriveled up so bad he looked like a dried raisin. "We're ending them on our terms, and maybe we can take a few of our lost sons with us." He spoke slowly, his voice trembling, yet Sanji did not detect weakness there. His eyebrows knitted together, and he had no other response.
"Come on," the miner said softly, and gently placed his hand on Sanji's shoulder to urge him onward. "Let 'em keep their choices at least." Sanji's head was bowed the entire way out of Cocoa Weed from then on. He fell silent. Robin kept a side eye on him, but he again jammed his hands in his pockets and let his hair shield his eyes from view.
"Pick up the pace, people! We need to get to Gyasta!" called a crier from the front edge. Far off, they could hear the war cries of the soldiers in Wapol's Court, and a great, booming laugh, annoying and putrid to Sanji's ears.
The soldiers found nothing in town except for those old timers. There was a short volley of gunfire, only about fifteen seconds long, but rapid while it lasted. There were clearly two different rounds of guns firing. When it started, Sanji stopped moving and stood in place. Robin stopped a few paces ahead, but stayed put with him. The gunfire ended shortly after, and Sanji finally looked up at the path ahead of them. He did not look at Robin as he walked past.
"Are you okay, Sanji?" Robin asked tenderly. It was unexpected for a pirate to act that way, even pirates such as these.
"Yeah," Sanji said, finally reaching for his cigarettes again. "But if I get the chance . . . I'm going to give this king a payback shot like he's never seen." The journey to Gyasta was almost over now, but they could already see the soldiers at the edge of Cocoa Weed ready to continue their march.
Nami walked back in a haze to Bighorn, choosing to trust in Luffy completely but feeling the exact opposite. The sounds of battle were huge and rumbled deep in her chest. She still held her bowstaff and stared at it in hand when she finally reached Bighorn again. What good is this against an army? What good am I?
She began to breathe heavier but suddenly scrunched her face up and slapped herself on each cheek. "Get yourself together!" she said sternly. "What can you do? Think!" One option was to return to the battle with Usopp, Gaimon, and Maria, but she had no gun . . . what good was she there? Another option was to return to Castle Drum -
"That's it!" she exclaimed, and bolted to the left where the road would lead her to Maria's home.
Her lungs were heaving and panting by the time she reached Maria's backyard and hauled the barn doors open with a grunt. Her breath stopped steaming once she entered the warm barn, but Bo and Po were nothing like they were weeks ago. They were on edge, snuffled, and shook their heads this way and that. "I know. You must be unnerved by all this," Nami said, stroking both of their muzzles for a moment before moving to the carriage.
She pressed her shoulders into it from behind, but the thing wouldn't budge even an inch under the hay floor. She grunted, groaned, and all but screamed to try and get a bit of momentum rolling. It was to no avail.
Nami was touched as the White Wullies walked over and grabbed the tongue with their mouths, tugging it out to the center of the room. Nami stumbled but watched as the twin Wullies stood at position on either side, still snuffling and shaking their heads from the stress. "We'll be away from the battle for a bit, but I can't promise it'll be for long," Nami said, bolting across the barn, gathering their harnessing, and quickly attaching them from memory as best as she could. "If things get too hairy, I won't be mad if you two run off to take care of yourselves. But for now," she struggled with the harness and readjusted one strap, "I need you to get me to Gyasta!"
Bo and Po snuffed in unison, their legs stomping and ready to go.
The defensive line at Bighorn was now on the edge of the army, everyone pushing against each other as other fighters stabbed or shot over their compatriots shoulders. "Don't kill too many of them! Remember, a kingdom thrives on taxes!" Kuromarimo cackled as he said so, pacing on the back line of his army as the soldiers tried to break the wall.
Usopp was firing relentlessly, having to dig around in the snow for pebbles hidden underfoot to add to his arsenal. I'm already running out of ammo, he thought, and examined the battlefield. I wonder how everyone else is doing for ammo . . . I wonder . . . He began to only hear ringing in his ears and his hard breathing.
Bighorn was being pushed back, killed, and worst of all, beaten.
"Mayor Maria!" Usopp clamored suddenly, still standing near Maria, Gaimon, and Tamachibi's body. "We need to think of a new strategy! We need to fall back!"
Maria ignored the pain in her shoulder from her gunshot wound, pressing the butt of her rifle against it firmly to send off shot after shot at the attacking army. Even though three of Wapol's people went down for every one of Bighorn's, the difference in effect was vast. The defensive wall was quickly becoming a phalanx, and Maria saw the truth in Usopp's words. They'll box us in at this rate, and then what'll we do?
"FALL BACK! TO BIGHORN'S EDGE! WE MUST LET THE TOWN FIGHT WITH US!" Maria bellowed out, stooping down to scoop Tamachibi in her injured arm and drape him over her shoulder. Usopp was in awe as she kept her rifle trained at Wapol's men, one handed, firing the thing off despite it's incredible recoil and hitting her shots.
"We have no opening!" one of the members of the militia cried out.
Usopp fished around in his satchel and brought out an experimental star he had been working on. "Glad I brought this," he muttered. "Mayor, I'll create an opening!" He stuck the star in his slingshot and tucked it back, aiming up instead of directly at the army. "Blasting Cactus Star!" His slingshot flung the green star into the air to arc back down, but before it did, he loaded another star in his slingshot. "And Smoke Star! Get back!"
The Bighorn defenders let the wall fall for a moment, giving the army a moment where their front liners stumbled. A few even fell to the ground, faces plunging into the snow. The Smoke Star activated first, but Usopp saw the Cactus Star enter the smokescreen. There were screams coming from the smoke cloud after he heard it pop open, sending needles and spikes into the attacking soldiers. Their bunching up worked against them! Gaimon thought, grinning like a mad man. "Great job, Usopp!" he cried as the two Straw Hats were the last to join the retreat to Bighorn's edge.
"Do you have any more of those?" said the hostile girl from the militia who had been unfriendly to the Straw Hats on their arrival. She had a smile on her face now, glad to have Usopp on their side now.
"One more," Usopp explained. "It's an experiment. I didn't even know if that one would work." He, the girl, and Gaimon looked over their shoulder at the dispersing smokescreen. Many of the soldiers laid motionless with the spikes coming out of them, while others pried them from their limbs or had their friends tear them from their back.
But as he faced forward, Usopp became aware of the casualties. The militia and defenders carried their dead back to Bighorn for safety, but the soldiers from Wapol's Court trampled over their dead to advance forward - All at the orders of that bastard, Usopp thought, just able to spot Kuromarimo through the incoming soldiers.
"Gaimon," Usopp said as they reached the edge of town, taking up cover in the first most alley along with the other defenders. "That guy who killed the captain . . . You wanna do something about him?"
At ease, Gaimon reloaded his pistols one at a time. "Him?" Gaimon said heavily through forced breaths. He snapped the chambers shut and held the pistols up. "Yeah. I'm in."
The news from Cocoa Weed was not welcome to Gyasta, but the town nevertheless rallied and prepared itself. The skycar and a great town hall where the elderly, disabled, and children gathered were the heart of the defensive operation, branching out from there. Sanji and Robin overheard chatter throughout the town as leaders organized the defending parties, arming them with one hand and directing them with the others. The refugees from Bighorn were here, but the defensive formation was going well there. They would be able to focus everything on the road from Cocoa Weed - for now.
"You head to the town hall," Sanji instructed Robin. "I'll stay here at the first line and wait for that crap king."
"You see any other women tucking tail?" Robin asked smarmily. "Don't forget who got you up that mountain."
Sanji chuckled, nodding along with her point, and the two made their way to someone directing folks to defensive positions. "Excuse me," Robin asked once he'd finished sending five people on their way, "what can we do to help?"
The man in his thick coat narrowed his eyes at the two of them, checking them out up and down and glancing between them. "The pirates, right? You want to help us?" He shrugged and sighed, the suspicion draining from his face. "Well . . . here, take these rifles."
Sanji raised a hand up. "I won't need that," he said.
Robin waved her arm and from the elbow sprouted five more forearms and hands. "I've got other means of helping. Save those for better shots than us," she suggested. "Just point us to where we could be of the best help."
The man swallowed and looked around the side streets they stood on, a great vantage point to the edge of town. From across the field, there was a massive figure leading the troop of soldiers toward Gyasta. Cocoa Weed had fallen. It belonged to Wapol once more. He pointed to a group of people wielding spears, clubs, and whatever else could be fashioned into a weapon. "Join them. They're assembling numbers and can guide you around to the alleys. When the soldiers come into the town limits, you all are going to let them surge through and then hit them from their flank."
Sanji and Robin nodded their confirmation and walked to join the large group assembling in the mouth of the alley. The defender stared at the back of the pirates' heads, and suddenly said, "Hey!" They turned back around. "You're seriously gonna help us?"
"Yeah," Sanji said blithely, "I owe your king a kick."
Across town, Bo and Po tore down the road, the carriage rumbling behind them as it sprayed snow behind them. Nami traced her path to the skycar, tugging the reins left and right. The town was deserted in this stretch, but she wondered if perhaps they were gathered on the opposite end or even in the center of town. What's our best course of action here? Part of her knew that the other half of the army was just as terrifying as the force assaulting Bighorn. And King Wapol is with them . . .
The carriage rattled against the cobblestone street at such high speeds that Nami worried she would break the cart apart, but it held together until she reached the street the skycar station was on. There were more folks just up ahead there, a few guards stationed outside the skycar's door, and even more by the town hall just nearby. She pulled up on the reins to stop the rattling carriage.
As she did, she heard the sounds of battle here as well.
Gun fire. Screams of pain. Screams of war. Explosions.
Nami shuddered and dismounted from the carriage. She knew the guards were already giving her strange looks for driving Maria's carriage without her, but she had to address Bo and Po first. "Remember, if things get too hairy, get out of here," she told them, a reassuring pat on their muzzles each to give them the comfort that she meant it.
"Oy! You!" one of the guards called as he walked toward her. "Whatchu doing with Mayor Maria's carriage and Wullies?"
Nami turned to the guard. "I came from Bighorn! They're under siege, as well, but I came to help with the skycar."
The guard scoffed. "What do you hope to do? You don't have a gun, or any weapon. Head on inside to the townhall where it's safe. We'll handle guard duty."
Nami stood firm across from the two guards and said, "We can't guard the skycar station. We have to destroy it!"
"What?" the other guard said, but Nami was already storming past them and threw herself into the door. As suspected, the skycar operators were inside, fully armed and ready for anything. As the door slammed open, they raised their weapons at Nami but promptly lowered them. The guards came in after her and the same one said, "She's crazy! She said we have to destroy the station!"
"Or at least the skycar," Nami said. "Everyone, I know it's a sad fact, but Wapol cannot be allowed to reach Castle Drum! If he reclaims this kingdom, the doctors -."
"The doctors are dead. We know," one of the operators said gruffly, crossing her thick, heavy arms. "But this is our last connection there. If we cut it, what could happen to our last lifeline? If our grandmother trips and breaks her knee? If our child wakes in the middle of the night with a rapid fever?"
The sounds of battle grew outside. Nami began to shiver. This is getting us nowhere! But she had to continue trying. "My captain is searching for Dalton as we speak, so he can come back and join the fight!" Nami protested.
"Your captain, the pirate?" another of the operators said.
"Dalton, that damn dirty bastard?" the other guard behind Nami grumbled. When she looked over her shoulder, she saw his grip on his rifle tighten.
No! Nami thought desperately, feeling like a little kid petitioning to the adults around her. "Please, you have to trust us! We don't want any harm to come to Drum! We owe you our li-!"
Before she could finish the words, there came a great explosion that rocked the guards and Nami to their stomachs. Some of the skycar operators fell backward, and screams began to cry out across the skycar station. Nami could mostly hear ringing in her ears. Some rubble had collided into her, and she felt pain in her back, felt scratches along her left cheek that began to bleed. The guards behind her were out cold or dead; Nami couldn't tell.
"Dear God, no!" cried the same woman who had initially rebuked Nami, crawling backward on her elbows.
Nami stared up at the indomitable form of King Wapol, riding his White Wullie with his retainer on the saddle behind him. Soldiers stormed into the station and formed two rows, the first kneeling and the other standing behind them, their rifles aimed at Nami and the skycar operators.
The foreman raised his hands slowly but stared daggers at Wapol, who laughed greedily. "Hello, my loyal constituents!" Wapol cried out in between laughs, spreading his arms wide. "I thank you immensely for guarding this last remaining skycar in my name during my sabbatical!" He reached back down and gripped the reins; his expression turned venomous. "Now, step aside and get this hunk of junk running."
"No!" screamed the stubborn operator ahead of Nami. As she stood, she continued with, "We'll never bend -."
A gunshot rang out from one of the soldier's rifles, and she fell to the ground, dead instantly. Some of the other operators cried or flinched, curling nearly into the fetal position whether standing or sitting.
"Calm yourselves!" the foreman yelled across the station. He lowered his hands slowly, but made no move beyond that. Nami thought he was relaxed, cautious, and measured. He breathed heavily. "What do you want, Wapol?"
"That's 'My Liege,' 'Your Grace,' or 'Your Highness' to you, scum," said Chess from behind Wapol, and leaned around him with an arrow notched to his bow. Before he could fire, Wapol set a hand on the bow, pushing it toward the floor.
"Peace, Chess," Wapol instructed. "I will forgive such insolence once. It has been long since Drum has known their king! Peasants will forget their pleasantries in merely a week," he explained condescendingly as he spurred Robson ahead. The White Wullie took lumbering, menacing steps toward Nami and the foreman. "After all, this is the first person on this island to offer me service."
"You bastard," Nami sputtered out, struggling to stand up from the blow her back had taken from the pieces of the wall around her.
Wapol stopped Robson and craned his neck down at Nami, peering at her from under one raised eyebrow. "Who are you? I'd certainly recognize if there was a beauty like you on this island," he grumbled. "Perhaps I'll have a queen-wife after all." He began to belly laugh at that, and then pointed a finger down at her. "Keep her here while the operators get to work." Two of the soldiers stood by Nami, their guns aimed at her back. One even stepped on her, planting her right back on the floor face down.
The foreman looked around the room gravely, connecting his gaze to the other workers here. "Let's do as he says."
"Chief, you can't be serious!" one of the younger men on the floor cried. "They just killed Daisy!"
"Do you want to see more of us go with her?!" the foreman suddenly blared, spittle flying from his mouth as his eyes turned glassy. Nami stared at his balled up fists, trembling at his side, and he said, "Do as I say! Do as he says," he added, far more sagely. "I . . . I can't stand to lose more good people to this man."
"I am no mere man! I am king, you," Wapol corrected as he spurred Robson toward the door of the skycar. "But I'll pretend I didn't hear such insolence. Now get this open for me!" Not too rushed in their action, two of the operators still did as Wapol bid them and opened the skycar while the rest of the station's operators solemnly stood at their stations and began turning levers to get the skycar running.
"Please . . . no," Nami whispered, wanting to scream it louder but knowing it would be in vain. Zoro would be murdered in just a few short moments. The doctors, even Chopper, would be wiped out by Wapol if they didn't bend the knee to him. She began to feel tears dripping from her eyes onto the floor. It can't end like this! Luffy . . . where are you? We need you!
The skycar began rumbling, warming up as Wapol entered it. He stooped his head but refused to get off Robson, and still clocked the top of his skull as Robson entered the skycar. "Ow! Damn stupid beast!" Wapol grumbled, punching the top of Robson's skull. "Lower yourself for your king and best friend, Robson!" Robson growled but settled into the skycar.
"There's no more room! You all wait here and garrison the town," Chess instructed some of the soldiers attempting to get on the skycar with them. "You'll only need a skeleton crew here. There aren't many of these dissenters to watch over," Chess said, considering the skycar team as well as Nami on the floor.
"How much longer?!" Wapol yelled, making Nami feel as if they were at the behest of a large baby. "This reclamation operation is almost concluded! Get a move on!" He smacked his big hand against the glass. "Is this glass tasty?"
"Why on earth would we eat glass?" the foreman scolded. Wapol glanced his way with a snarl, but pretended not to hear it. The king's cheeks grew red at the obvious response. The foreman changed the subject quickly anyway. "We usually let it warm up a while longer, but we can send you up now."
"No!" Nami cried out, louder than she meant to for she felt the soldier's heel dig into the small of her back. The foreman glanced at her but said nothing. He waited for two of his men to shut the doors to the skycar and pulled a lever. The cable began running, and the skycar hovered out through the big hole in the side of the building that led up to Castle Drum.
Wapol's laughter could be heard echoing through the thick windows of the skycar as it rose higher in the air. It hovered above Gyasta to where the entire town could see its climb. The massive onslaught of soldiers gave a cry of victory, hoisting their arms in the air or else driving a further wedge into the defenses of Gyasta.
The front forces saw this, too, including Sanji and Robin. Together, they'd been able to carve out a street of combat with the other defenders alongside them, but they were panting and growing tired, even from Robin's support position within the encirclement. They just keep coming, and the king is winning whether Gyasta falls or not, Robin realized.
"That son of a bitch! He can't just get away like that," Sanji grumbled nearby. He easily took his kick into the side of a soldier's face and slammed it against the closest wall, cracking his nose open in a spurt of blood.
"Sanji," Robin said as she trotted to his side. She took her hand and rested it on Sanji's shoulder, turning him toward her. "I think we need to get out of here and find the others."
"What?" Sanji said. "They'll be fine! We have to defend the people!"
"Sanji!" Robin said more forcefully, spinning him to face her fully before he could turn away. With both hands on his shoulders now, she looked deep into his eyes with worry - and maybe a hint of fear - and said, "This is not looking good at all. We need to keep all our options open, and staying here won't change anything about this day."
Sanji began to breathe heavier even than battle made him breathe. His chest heaved like a small child's, powerless to some greater force. He bit his lip until it bled out of the corner of his mouth but nodded. "Fine." And he turned to the defenders of Gyasta, waving his arm down the alley they had easy access to. "Everyone! We gotta get together with more of our allies! This street may be ours, but the town will be lost if we focus on this too much!"
"He's right!" someone said quickly. "We're still losing too many people for how many enemies keep coming!" They wrestled with one of Wapol's soldiers and threw him over their shoulder, slamming him into a wall and butting his face with the end of his empty rifle.
"Retreat!" called one of the gold miners from Cocoa Weed. "On me! Retreat!" With what they could, the defenders poured down the alley, but breaking their defensive line gave the soldiers ground to run at them from two sides. More of their people fell, either subdued to surrender or outright killed by Wapol's men.
The alley helped give them grounds to run, and it was there that Sanji stopped. "Come on, let's keep going," Robin suggested.
"No! We can't let them follow us out of this alley," Sanji said. "Will you help me with this? And then I'll follow you wherever you want to go."
Robin took a deep breath through her nose but nodded, and crossed her arms. "Dieciseis Fleur!" she said, and arms grew from the walls of the alley, grabbed hold of the nearest soldiers by their ears or collars, and rammed their heads into the stone faces.
"Frites Assorties!" Sanji yelled, and vaulted himself forward with a crate sitting nearby into the first wave of attackers, launching his foot one into another. Some fell at his feet, growing a pile right there as he knocked them unconscious in this cramped space just big enough for Sanji's kicks to fly. Others launched over the procession charging ahead, falling into others and creating more piles among the soldiers Robin sent her own attacks at.
"Who are these two?! They're a couple of freaks!" one of the soldiers finally said as the Straw Hats allowed no soldiers to pass them. He turned from the alley first, already stumbling over the bodies of his fallen comrades. "I'm getting out of here!"
"Coward!" yelled one of the sergeants. "If you get a clear shot on them, take it!" he ordered his men, but arms grew from his shoulders and changed the aim of his rifle to the back of one of his own men as he fired. His eyes went wide. "Fliggo! I'm so sorry!" The arms yanked the sergeant's own arms back, ramming the rifle's butt into his nose as hard as possible and launching him onto his back, unconscious.
"Change focus! If we can kill 'em later, we will, but this alley's not our friend!" one of the other soldiers called. They began to stream back out of the alley from the end, but there were a great many already stumbling over their fallen friends, unable to leave quickly.
"Oh, no you don't," Sanji said as he strode over the soldiers easily, battering his heel down into the retreating soldiers one after another. "I'll make sure no one else leaves this alley, and then I'm gonna kick your damn king's teeth in."
The skycar rumbled up toward Castle Drum while the doctors relaxed with tea and biscuits in their lounge room. "It's good to get some peace and quiet," Kureha said as she finished her first cup. She rose with it and strode to the boiler. "Want some more?"
"Still working on this one," Hililuk said, and his gaze turned out the window as he said so. He peered through the snowy pane and noticed the skycar cable was working. "Looks like they're on their way back. Unless there's some emergency," he said with a deep sigh. "Hope our day off's not over yet."
Kureha chuckled but shook her head. "There's not really any days off, are there?" she wondered.
In the great hall, Chopper hummed as he walked up the ramp to join the other doctors, swinging his arms wide and wearing a great smile. Doctor, Doctorine! Forgive me! Neither he, nor Hililuk, nor Kureha, nor Zoro could suspect exactly what was coming for them up the skycar in the form of a cackling king.
I want to be a pirate!