And here comes the third new chapter of the batch!
The rest will come once I wake up.
The crew started somewhat at Vivi's hurried tone, but before they could do anything, they were hit with strong winds that caused them to cover their faces for a few moments, before managing to open their eyes to see…
"It's a huge sandstorm!" Zoro gasped at the sight.
"What… what is this?" Vivi said, eyes wide "They've never been this big before." she said in fear.
"So… something unnatural is going on then." Sanji frowned.
"In that case…" Lumen trailed off as he drew the Medajalibur and loaded it with three Cell Medals before scanning them.
"TRIPLE SCANNING CHARGE!"
"OOO Bash!" he shouted as he slashed towards the sandstorm, the world being cut for a moment, before sliding back in place… right as the sandstorm practically imploded on itself, the winds stopping abruptly as the sand that was carried in it blew away.
"That sword is a bit TOO strong sometimes," Usopp sweat dropped, seeing as Lumen had basically cut down a force of nature.
"Yeah well, that only works as long as I have Cell Medals AND the scanner," Lumen shrugged. "More importantly, looks like that sandstorm did a number on this town. We sure the Rebels are still here?"
"Only one way to find out." Sanji said as they headed into the town itself, and upon getting close enough…
"This is… so horrible." Vivi said sadly as she gazed at the destroyed town."All that sand...it swallowed up the oasis…"
"Hey, I think there's someone here," Nami spoke up, as they saw what appeared to be a figure walking among the sand. The group went closer and saw what appeared to be an older man using a shovel to try and dig through the sand.
"Travelers, huh?" The man spoke up, noticing their presence. "Well you must be awfully tired. Sorry to say but the town is a little dried up at the moment," he sighed as he continued digging. "But you folks still ought to rest up for the night. We've got plenty of inns and rooms to spare. That's one of the things Yuba is known for."
Vivi frowned a bit as she quickly covered her face with her robe. "Um...excuse me. I heard the rebel forces were using this town as a base. Is that tru-" she didn't get to finish as that….triggered the man.
"Don't tell me you're just another bunch of degenerates that came to join the rebels?!" he shouted as he started throwing random bits of debris around him.
"W-what's with this old man all of a sudden!?" Luffy said as he ducked a barrel.
The man calmed down after a few more moments, before letting out a sigh as he grabbed his shovel to continue digging again "Those fools… they left this town already."
"WHAT?!" the crew shouted, incredulous.
"We're at the wrong place?!" Lumen groaned.
"You saw that sandstorm just now, right? Brief as it was for once, that wasn't the first one this town has experienced. Ever since the drought began 3 years ago, this town's constantly been hit by sandstorms. Because of that, the oasis is in this sorry state you see here." the man sighed as he continued digging. "Trade caravans have since stopped coming here, and the rebels realized they couldn't hold out here any longer. So they relocated to Katorea and set up their main base there."
"Katorea?!" Vivi gasped in horror.
"Why, where is that Vivi?" Luffy asked.
"It's an oasis town beside Nanohana!" Vivi explained urgently.
"Seriously? So we came all the way out here for nothing?" Lumen groaned.
"Vivi? Did you say Vivi?" the man asked in surprise.
"S-she's not Princess Vivi if that's what you're thinking!" Luffy quickly said….causing everyone to hit him.
"Shut up idiot!" several of the crew shouted, because Luffy's inability to lie reared its ugly head.
"Vivi? Princess Vivi, is that you?" the man gasped, clearly not fooled by Luffy's sorry excuse to cover up Vivi's identity. "I'm so glad to see you're still alive!" he said. "It's me! Don't you recognize me?!" he said, to which Vivi seemed...a little confused. "Well...I guess I HAVE lost quite a bit of weight."
"Wait…" Vivi looked at him more closely, her eyes slowly going wide "Is… is that you, Toto?"
The man smiled, his eyes growing watery as he nodded.
"Who's Toto?" Luffy said in confusion, but the others simply shushed him.
"Vivi… I still believe in the king…" Toto said as he started crying "He's not the type that would betray his people. I'm right, aren't I?! Those rebels are all out of their minds! You have to stop them! You're the only one who can!"
Vivi for her part couldn't help but remember the past, how she met Toto, and thus her childhood friends. Even if the memories felt like they were playing out at normal speed, in reality it was just a moment.
When her mind came back to the present though, Toto was still talking "So what if there hasn't been any rain here in 3 years? I still believe in King Cobra! And I'm sure most of the other citizens still do as well!" he said, before sighing sadly "Honestly… I tried and tried to stop them so much. But those brats just won't stop. Even though their supplies are running low and they know they can't hold out much longer… That's why they plan on settling things once and for all in their next offensive! They've lost their minds… they're practically suicidal at this point!" he said, before falling to his knees "Please, Vivi, you HAVE to stop those fools…"
"Toto...please don't worry anymore," Vivi said, holding out her hand. "I'll stop the rebels no matter what!" she smiled.
"Vivi…" Toto said, tears falling but the smile on his face was unmistakable. "Thank you, Vivi."
"Hey, old man. What were you doing exactly?" Luffy asked after a moment.
"Ah… I was trying to dig up the water that I KNOW is hidden underneath all this sand. I can just dig deep enough to get back to it, I'm positive this town could flourish again." Toto explained.
Lumen hummed at that, looking down at the pit of sand, before he smiled "I think I can help with that."
"You're about to go over the top aren't you?" Usopp asked in deadpan.
"Eh, probably." Lumen shrugged before he pulled out the OOO Driver and loaded it with the grey medals before putting it to his waist. "You guys might want to go hide behind some cover, unless you want a mouthful of sand."
Everyone blinked...before quickly scrambling behind rocks or into nearby buildings while closing the doors and windows.
"What's he planning to do?" Toto blinked as Vivi pulled him into one of the houses.
"Something that will probably work, but we don't want to be in the way for," Vivi sweat dropped
Back outside, Lumen had scanned the medals and transformed into SaGohZo Combo, before slowly getting into a low stance and raising his right arm up, holding it there for a moment… before hammering it down onto the ground as hard as he could with a shout.
The result?
An explosion of sand rushing out of the hole, the shockwave carrying most of it out of the city as well. Once the sand started to settle, the ground shook, followed by a small eruption of water coming out from the center of the hole. "The Oasis is back!" OOO called out to everyone as the water rained around him.
Everyone soon exited their cover, and well...other than the still less than well kept buildings, the town now looked MUCH better than before.
Toto however, looked on in shock at the oasis being actually back. Granted, the level of the water was low, but he could see it was steadily growing. It wasn't much, but it was the first big step to being able to bring Yuba back to its former glory. So caught up in the emotions, he fell to his knees and wept tears of joy. "Thank you...thank you...thank you…" he said.
"I'm not quite done yet," OOO said, making him blink in surprise. "The sandstorms aren't natural, but do they all come from one particular direction?"
Toto was caught short for a moment "Y-yes, they come mostly from the north it seems."
"The north… the direction of Rainbase?" Vivi said, some surprise in her voice.
"Right, so need to cover from the north." OOO nodded "Alright… let's hope this works." he said, walking towards the northern edge of the oasis town, the others following curiously, and when he reached it… he started beating his chest… loudly… and the ground started shaking.
"Lumen, what are you doing?!" Nami asked in shock as they all had to grab hold of something to keep their footing.
Instead of answering, he simply continued to beat his chest… and they all noticed that stone was rising up from the sands.
It wasn't long before a tall and rather thick wall of natural stone wrapped around Yuba's northern side. "There, now you won't have to worry about any sandstorms burying Yuba again," he said, and they could see the grin he had under his helmet.
"Lumen, this is perfect!" Vivi gasped before smiling. Now there was no way Crocodile could bury Yuba, not unless he came here himself.
"Glad you all like it," OOO chuckled. "Now I'm gonna transform back. Someone be ready to catch me in case I still fall over."
Zoro just chuckled before walking up next to him as he untransformed, swaying a bit before the swordsman put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from falling, and Lumen managed to find his center of gravity "Alright, I'm good."
"Glad to know all that practicing you do on the Merry is paying off." Sanji chuckled.
Toto hummed as he looked at the medals as Lumen removed them from the driver "Those… look familiar… Vivi, didn't you bring something like that to Yuba once when you were younger?"
Vivi blinked at that, once, twice, before slapping her forehead "I had completely forgotten about that!"
"That's nothing new." Usopp muttered, before wincing as Nami slapped him upside the head.
"When I was still young, I actually took one of the royal treasures out of the palace and brought it here to hide it. I think I was playing a prank on my father or… something. I can't fully recall. But, the important thing is, one of the royal treasures is the very proof of our alliance with the Multi-King. One of his Core Medals!" Vivi explained.
Lumen's eyes widened "Where is it?"
"I do believe Kohza kept the box in his old room… hopefully he didn't take it with him." Toto muttered at the end. With that he quickly went into one of the buildings, Vivi following after and after a bit, they came out with an old but well kept box. Vivi quickly opened it up to reveal the inside had a cushion-like substance, but more importantly, what was resting on it. A Core Medal, and one depicting a cobra on it. The Cobra Medal.
"I didn't understand it when I was younger, but there's no doubt now, it's one of the Core Medals," Vivi said, taking the medal...and offering it to Lumen.
Lumen blinked at that. "Are you sure? I mean...it IS a royal treasure. Not really sure I should be using this."
"If it can be of help to save Alabasta, then it's a small price to pay," Vivi said with determination, causing Lumen to blink before nodding and accepting the Core Medal.
"Only one more to complete BuraKaWani then." he said, grinning a little.
"Wani… Crocodile? Seriously? What are the odds of that?" Usopp said in surprise.
Lumen chuckled "You got me, but it's funny in a weird way."
After a bit more talking, the crew was now in one of the few inns of the town, Toto letting them sleep there for free for the night.
"Alright everyone, good work today!" Usopp said cheerfully...standing in front of one of the beds. "You must all be exhausted by now so why don't we all get some rest so we have enough energy for tomorrow!" he said, before quickly getting into bed… only to have a pillow thrown at him.
"Some talk coming from the guy who was sleeping most of the time," Zoro said in annoyance, arm still extended.
"Yeah that's right! I passed out because I was freakin exhausted! Got a problem with that?!" Usopp roared, throwing the pillow right back. "Sorry I'm not freakishly strong like you monsters!" he added before throwing a pillow at Chopper. "And don't go insulting me for passing out when blue nose over there takes the top prize for that today!"
"Oh so it's a fight you want is that it…?" Zoro glared...while Chopper threw a pillow right back.
"I told you I'm not good with the heat!" Chopper roared...right as Usopp evaded the pillow meant for him causing it to sail through the air...and bean Sanji on the head right as he was...practically offering to 'spend the night' with Vivi seeing as he was on her bed.
Needless to say that provoked him, and before long the four of them were throwing pillows at each other.
Lumen was watching and chuckled at the comedy...before a stray pillow beaned him on the head. "Well...if that's how it is…" he said, his voice level, enough so that the others stopped since they'd never heard him use THAT tone before...before he grabbed a pillow and looked at them with a grin. "You do realize that this means war, yes?" he grinned before throwing the pillow right into Zoro's face. "PILLOW WAR!"
"Heck yeah! Let's freaking go!" Usopp shouted, about to throw another pillow.
"Gum Gum Pillow Punch!"
"Wait, wha- GAH!?" he was however stopped as he was suddenly punched in the face by Luffy's pillow covered hand.
"Jeez, even when we're about to sleep these guys are so rowdy," Nami huffed, while Vivi blinked...right before a pair of pillows flew and nailed both of them. "Okay that's it, if these morons want a war, they'll get one," Nami said, though the amused smirk she had made it clear she was having some fun too as she soon joined in.
Despite it all Vivi just smiled and chuckled in amusement as she watched her friends duke it out with pillows.
The next morning, somewhere else...
In the town of Rainbase was a large casino with a giant, golden crocodile statue sitting on top of the roof. Inside that casino, people were playing the various games, from cards to slot machines, and either winning big or losing everything.
Walking through this casino was a man wearing a heavy cloak over himself, several bandages on his body to hide all the healing bruises… but it was unmistakable that this was Mr. 3.
"I have to warn the boss… that message I managed to intercept said everyone would be meeting here… this is the perfect chance to tell them the Strawhats are coming here soon." he muttered to himself.
Making his way to a section near the back, and soon found a room that had more stairs leading down. True enough, down there he could see several of who he assumed were the other Officer Agents in the room. Namely, a man with a shaved head, wearing an open sleeveless coat that showed a tattoo on his muscular torso, a woman with a mane of frizzy blue hair wearing some mildly revealing brown leather clothing, an okama of all things, a large man wearing a mostly green outfit who appeared to be rather slow, and a short old woman with red hair, as well as Ms. All Sunday and one other person, no doubt Mr. 0 judging by how everyone was deferring to him. Getting closer, his eyes widened when he realized who Mr. 0 was, the Warlord Crocodile.
The man had slicked back black hair and a scar running across the bridge of his nose, going all the way over his cheeks as well. He was wearing an orange vest that had white sleeves and a blue cravat with a pair of black pants, a large green coat over his shoulders… and his left hand was replaced with a golden hook.
Staying hidden, he heard the explanation of what was going on, as well as the situation such as Princess Vivi and the Strawhats having managed to reach Alabasta, as well as the details of the plan called 'Operation Utopia'. Eventually…
"About this Operation Utopia, could you hold up for a sec…?" Mr. 3 spoke up, catching everyone's attention.
"You… who…?" Crocodile spoke, some irritation on his face at being interrupted.
"This is Mr. 3." Ms. All Sunday told him.
Crocodile frowned "I see." he said, before lighting a cigar on one of the candles in front of him and putting it in his mouth "So… Mr. 3… care to explain about that false report you sent me a few weeks ago?"
Mr. 3 blinked in confusion "False report sir? I never sent a report though. I was coming here to tell you that the Strawhats managed to get past me after a rather annoying fight."
Crocodile frowned at that, thinking back "Hmm… it seems… somebody duped me then… and it wasn't you, so count yourself lucky. I remember getting a report from someone who said they were Mr. 3 when I asked, but they didn't have the same voice as you. It's likely they were one of the Strawhats, and they took the Eternal Pose from Mr. 13 and Ms. Friday."
"That does seem to be the case." Ms. All Sunday answered, still smiling.
Crocodile grunted at that, before tapping his cigar over an ashtray, and then looking at Mr. 3 "Alright… I'll give you a single chance then Mr. 3. First, tell me what you know of their battle capabilities. If it's satisfying enough, I'll give you a chance to be part of Operation Utopia."
Mr. 3 bowed deeply "Thank you very much sir!"
"Even if it was a bit of a detour, I'm glad we stopped by Yuba," Lumen mused as the group left Yuba, now carrying not just their supplies but several jugs of water, all taken from the oasis that had filled up in the night.
"We're a lot better equipped to handle the desert now." Zoro grinned.
"So, Vivi, we're doubling back so we can get to Katorea now, right?" Nami asked.
"That's right. If we can just talk to Kohza, then we have a chance at stopping this war before it gets to the point of the country collapsing on itself." Vivi said with a determined nod.
"Right, let's go everyone!" Sanji grinned...before they heard the sound of something plopping down, and saw Luffy sitting against a tree not far away.
"...uh Luffy? What are you doing? We gotta keep moving," Usopp said.
"...I quit," Luffy said.
It took everyone a few seconds to process that and… "Eeeeeeh?!"
"You quit? What's that supposed to mean?!" Lumen couldn't help but ask.
"Come on Luffy, we don't have time to play along with one of your whims right now," Nami added urgently.
"Well, we're going back aren't we?" Luffy said.
"Yeah, we're going to Katorea because that's where the rebels are!" Sanji said. "We're trying to stop the huge civil war involving a million combatants that could start any time now!"
"This is to help Vivi! Did you forget already?!" Nami roared.
"I dun' wanna," Luffy said, sounding almost lazy, before turning to Vivi. "Vivi…"
"What is it?" Vivi asked.
"I want to kick Crocodile's ass!" Luffy stated.
Vivi was stunned into silence at that.
"Even if you stop the rebels, do you think Crocodile will just stop? Even if we go with you to the rebel base, there's nothing we can do. We're pirates after all. It would be even better if we weren't there at all." Luffy said, and everyone was silent at his words.
"Well… damn." Lumen said softly with wide eyes.
"I'm surprised an idiot like him can still hit the bullseye at times." Sanji muttered.
"Yeah, you said it." Usopp nodded.
However, Luffy wasn't done. "In your mind, you think that everything will be just fine as long as nobody dies. The citizens, the rebels, and even us," he said. "Even though you're up against one of the warlords, in the midst of a civil war involving a million people, and you're still hoping for everything to be alright," he listed out, showing an odd moment of intelligence unlike his usual persona. It was enough that everyone was honestly stunned silent, allowing him to finish his point. "Don't you think that's naive?" he asked in a neutral tone.
"Luffy! You're not thinking of Vivi's feelings at a-!" Nami started, but Sanji stopped her.
"Nami wait!" Sanji said. "Let him finish."
"S-so what if that's the case!" Vivi defended. "What's wrong with wishing for no one to die?!" she said.
"...people die," Luffy said simply, earning a slap from Vivi...that had enough force that it actually launched him aside.
"Don't you ever say that to me again or I'll never forgive you! That's EXACTLY what I'm trying to prevent!" Vivi shouted. "The Rebels! The Royal Forces! Even the Citizens! None of them did anything wrong so why do they have to die?! The only one at fault here is Crocodile!"
Luffy got up and punched her right back. "Then why the hell are you willingly putting your own life at risk?!" he shouted back.
"Hey, Luffy that's going too far!" Usopp shouted while he tried to hold back a raging Sanji.
"Even I can tell from a single glance, what needs to be done for this country!" Vivi shouted as she and Luffy were still fighting, rolling around in the sand, though she soon managed to pin him and kept repeatedly punching him in the face.
"You think risking your life is gonna be enough?!" Luffy managed to say through the hits.
"What else can I risk?!" Vivi shouted, before Luffy managed to push her away enough he could sit up "I don't have anything else to ri-" she was cut off from continuing however, as Luffy suddenly grabbed her shoulders.
"You can risk our lives too! We're friends, aren't we?!" he shouted right at her.
Vivi was stunned silent at that, eyes tearing up. "So you were hiding that all along," Luffy sighed. "You still do have some tears left," he said as Vivi was trying hard not to cry. "Truth be told, you're the one who most wants to beat him up, right…?"
Vivi couldn't say anything, too overcome with emotion to speak.
"So tell me...tell me where Crocodile is!" Luffy said.
The group was silent for a bit, before Lumen sighed, scratching the back of his head. "Hate to admit it, but Luffy isn't wrong. As long as Crocodile and Baroque Works is around, he'll keep springing more and more stuff till he gets what he wants. Taking him out is pretty efficient…" Lumen mused. "But still, just because it's gonna be really hard to actually save everyone...doesn't mean it's impossible, nor that we shouldn't TRY to anyway," he said with a grin. "We just gotta give this our 110%."
Despite everything, Vivi couldn't help but a grin a bit at that. That sounded nice honestly.
"Alright, the town Crocodile is at is actually closer than if we wanted to go to Katorea. Where we would have had to go all the way back the way we came, now we only need to go north," Vivi said, pointing to their new heading. "It's about a day's walk at a leisurely pace, but because we're pressed for time, we'll try to reach it in a few hours at best."
"That's going to help us a LOT," Lumen mused.
"What's the city like?" Chopper asked.
"Rainbase is called the Town of Dreams, as it's a vibrant and popular casino town," Vivi said.
"Did you say Casino?" Nami gasped in delight, her eyes turning into Berry signs.
"Save that for after Crocodile is out," Lumen snorted in amusement, though he had to admit, he was interested too. He'd never been to a Casino himself.
"Hopefully it's cooler than it is out here." Usopp said as he took a small sip from his own water.
"It should be yes, Rainbase is known for having a large oasis around the main casino in town, Rain Dinners." Vivi told him.
"Let's go then! Let's get there fast so we don't use too much of the old man's water!" Luffy shouted.
"Oh, so you DO have some self restraint." Nami said with a raised eyebrow.
"Of course! He's been trying to dig up that water forever before we came along, so we gotta respect that!" Luffy said with a nod.
"As soon as it's related to hard earned food or drinks, it's nothing but respect for him." Sanji muttered to Lumen, who chuckled with a nod. "Well let's get going. We're burning daylight."
"I am SO glad we got the extra water…" Usopp groaned as they could finally see the town of Rainbase. As one might expect, running across the desert for a little over half a day was VERY exhausting.
"Hey Vivi? Next time you try to guess how much time it'll take us, don't say a few hours, when you really mean 14 of them!" Lumen said while panting.
"I'm sorry!" Vivi said, her face red in embarrassment at being reminded of her mistake once again "I just… I've never actually walked through the desert myself. I'd always get a transport of some kind, either a camel, or a wagon."
"Oh NOW you tell us!" most of the crew said in exasperation together.
"By the way, Usopp." Nami said once they calmed down "Did you finish that thing I asked you about?"
"Oh, that? Yeah, it's finished." Usopp grinned, pulling out three blue pieces of a staff made of metal from his pouch "I put the finishing touches on it when we took that break a few hours ago. Say hello to your new weapon, the Clima-Tact." he said, handing the pieces to her, along with a sheet of paper "I wrote the instructions on this here."
"And I made sure he took this seriously, because when he was about to start to work on it he was muttering about putting some kind of party tricks in them." Lumen said, and Usopp withered a bit at Nami's annoyed look.
"Good thing you caught him then." she said with a huff, before reading the sheet of paper while spinning one of the pieces in her hand… and it was releasing balls of cool air, making her pause and look at it "Huh… that works." she said with a small grin, before continuing to read, all while continuing to spin the piece.
"By the way, think Baroque Works has an idea we're here?" Zoro asked.
"They might," Vivi frowned. "They know for a fact we're in the country, but whether they know where we are exactly...there's no telling for sure, but I hope they don't. Either way, since Mr. 2 saw us, odds are they already know what we look like…"
"That means the head on option is out," Lumen sighed. "Guess we'll have to play covert first…" he mused...before looking at the idiots of the crew, and thought about how likely they were to follow this plan...or the odds of them messing this up somehow. A fact that was easily answered when Luffy was shouting about kicking Crocodile's ass. "...we should have a Plan B ready in case we're found out…" he sweat dropped.
"Good point…" the saner members of the crew agreed with equal sweat drops.
"But you know...Luffy might be right about this one," Vivi mused.
"...someone check the sky. Is it getting closer?" Lumen blinked. "The end of the world has to be near."
The funny part was that some of the crew actually did that.
"I'm being serious," Vivi said in mild annoyance. "We've got no time to play things safe. A short and direct approach might be our best chance."
"So an all or nothing strategy huh…" Lumen sighed, face palming. "I hate the fact you're not wrong right now…"
They really didn't have time to mess around, so with that in mind, they made their way into the town.
And there you have it!
We've even finally gained the next Medal!
Hope you're looking forward to the rest!
Count The Medals:
Red: Taka
Green: Kuwagata, Kamakiri, Batta
Yellow: Lion, Tora, Cheetah
Grey: Sai, Gorilla, Zou
Blue: Unagi
Orange: Cobra, Kame
Purple: Tyranno