Another Friday, another chapter. I hope you all enjoy!

"I'm sorry," Dalton said weakly as the sled sped towards Cocoa Weed Town. "She came down yesterday, I never expected her to come down this soon."

"It's not your fault," Vivi reassured as she kept her hair out of her face. "We just need to get there."

"There's no way those three will come back anyway," Usopp said as he watched ahead of them. "And with how strong they are, they probably won't have a problem getting there. So we need to ask the Doctor to go back to the castle to meet them."

"So Dalton," Sanji said from behind them, trying to keep his cigarette lit. "You say the Doctor is 140 right?" Dalton made a face at this.

"Yes, why?" He asked.

"Does she look good of her age or no?" The Cook asked.

"You need to stop right there," Usopp said. "Just don't."

"I was just curious!" Sanji said. Vivi ignored the men as they descended into an argument, presumably about the appearance the Doctor would have. She kept her eyes forward, hoping to see the town on the horizon soon. After all, the Doctor needed to get back to the Castle.

"I'm sorry," Dalton said, making her look over at him. "It's my fault there's no Doctors here."

"Don't be silly," she said with a smile. "This isn't your fault. Just focus and get us to Cocoa Weed. We'll be okay." Dalton didn't seem to really believe her, but he nodded and kept his eyes ahead. Vivi looked back and watched Usopp and Sanji argue about the Doctor's appearance, smiling a bit. It was good to see that despite the bad luck, they were easily staying high spirited. After all, it could be worse.

"Lord Wapol, this is it! We've arrived!"

"Hahahahahaha! Drum Kingdom! Your ruler has returned!"

Zoro hid under Merry's railing as soon as he saw the ship breached the waters surface. He knew that he'd recognised it. It was that weirdo who had attacked them the other day. Why was he here? Had he followed them? He had just been about to dive into the icy water to train, and now this was happening. Could they never catch a break?

Karoo quacked fearfully next to him, and Zoro signalled for the bird to shush. As far as he could tell they didn't know he was here, which was all the better.

"Chess!" The guy with the big mouth said. "How does my precious castle look!"

"Undamaged, sir!" Another voice, presumably Chess, said. "Just the way we left it!"

"Wonderful! This is it men! We can leave the pirate life behind and live like the royalty we are!"

"Sir!" Another voice said. "Those brats ship is right over there!"

"Huh?!" Crap, they'd spotted Merry. Zoro peaked over the side slowly, spotting the ship resting in the bay same as Merry. "Those annoying brats are here too?!"

"Yes, but the ship doesn't seem to have anyone on it! There's no activity."

"So they all went inland, huh?! I won't allow such annoying tykes to run around my Kingdom! Once we retake our land, we'll scour the island for them! One thing at a time, though! Men! Let's retake what is ours!" The crew cheered with the Captain, all of them eventually making their way inland. Zoro just watched as they dealt with the small defence force that had been stationed at the bay, not wanting to risk revealing himself just yet. Once he was sure they were gone, he turned and looked at Karoo.

"Looks like we've got trouble, duck." He said.

"Quack."

"What should we do, huh? Do we leave the Merry and go to find the others or what?"

"Quack."

"Hm, you're right. We can't follow the same path they did, they'd spot us. Maybe we should head a little more North, that way they won't see us through the snow."

"Quack?"

"Well duh. I'm not leaving the action to everyone else." With this, Zoro got to his feet and walked towards the cabin, looking for his coat. "Get ready, duck! We're heading inland too!"

"Quack..."

"What do you mean she isn't here?!" Usopp shouted angrily, startling the people in the bar. However, the man who ran it didn't seem phased.

"You just missed her, sadly." He said. "I think she said she was heading to Gyasta? I'm not sure."

"What's that?" Vivi asked, looking at Dalton. The man still looked upset with something.

"It's a lake North of here," he replied. "If she's going there, she might be trying to skate on the surface. We don't have any time to waste, let's go!" Without wasting any more time talking everyone jumped back into the sled, but before they could go someone grabbed the edge of the sled to stop them.

"Dalton!" The man said. "Bad news!"

"We're in a hurry!" Dalton replied. "What is it?"

"It's Wapol! He's back!" Dalton's eyes widened, and from what Vivi had been told this wasn't good.

"Where?" He demanded.

"He's on his way back to Big Horn! He came from the same bay the pirates are docked at!"

"I wonder if green hair is okay," Sanji said. Vivi figured he would be. She'd seen what he could do. Dalton looked pained for a moment, before finally he got off of the sleigh and turned to them.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I have to go and deal with this. Go North and you will reach Gyasta, trust me."

"Okay," Vivi replied. "Be careful." Dalton nodded, before he turned and sprinted into the distance. Vivi watched him go before she turned to look at the others.

"What?" Usopp asked.

"Should we help him?" She asked. Sanji shook his head.

"We're spread too thin," he said. "If anyone can help, it's Marimo. He's closest. We need to make sure that Doctor gets back to the castle."

"Sanji's right," Usopp said. "Trust Zoro, I'm sure he can help. He's not that dumb."

"Usually," Sanji added.

Nojiko felt like she had been running forever, because her lungs were on fire. Ironic considering the it was the opposite outside her body, but as it turned out running in knee deep snow was easier said than done. Both her and Johnny had stopped where they were, not able to push themselves any further than this.

"D-Did we get away?" Johnny asked, barely able to breath.

"God I hope so," Nojiko replied, looking behind them. "I can't run anymore...I feel like I'm dying."

"Don't you dare," Johnny replied, still panting. "I can't carry three people to this mountain."

"Don't worry, I'm fi-Wait," She said, drawing her revolver. "What's that?" Johnny turned as well, spotting the same outline in the snow that she had seen. Both waited, unable to slow their breathing due to how exhausted they were. The outline got closer and closer, and before long Nojiko saw what it was.

"Luffy?!" She asked, gaping as the Captain returned to them. His coat and and shorts had been completely torn up, leaving him in nothing but his shirt underneath to protect him from the cold. He had slash wounds all over his body and face, but he looked relatively unaffected by it.

"Oh, there you guys are!" He said with a grin, holding his hat down on his head. "I've been looking for you!"

"Never mind that moron! Are you okay?!" Nojiko asked. "You're covered in bites and slashes!"

"Ah, I'm okay." Luffy replied as he looked down at his arms. "The snow makes it hard to feel it. Those rabbits sure put up a good fight! But I taught them a lesson."

"That's bad Big Bro!" Johnny shouted. "You're getting frostbite!"

"Frost what?" Luffy asked, making both of them face palm. And this guy wanted to be King of the Pirates? "Never mind that, look ahead! We've almost made it to the mountain!" Looking back, Nojiko saw that he was right. They had almost reached the mountain, much closer to them than it had been before. She and Johnny had been too busy trying to get air into their lungs to notice.

"Well let's hurry then," she said as she turned to face ahead of them. "Now you need a Doctor too. You might get rabies from those things."

"Yeah, that's what my Grandpa warned me against as a kid! Radio." Nojiko rolled her eyes and ignored him, trudging forward. She wasn't in the mood to deal with his idiocy. The trio rushed as fast as they could towards the mountain, Nojiko and Johnny doing their best to keep up with the injured Captain. Once they made it, they stared up at the mountain in awe, trying to figure out how exactly they were going to make it up there.

"Well, we made it!" Luffy said with a laugh. "Nojiko! Get that gun out and let's go!"

"Alright, alright." Nojiko replied, digging into her picket to take out the grappling gun. She looked up at the mountain again, trying to look for any sort of angle she could use to latch onto. There had to be one at least, right?

"So what do we do once we get the hook attached?" Johnny asked.

"We carry Nami and Yosaku up, obviously." Luffy replied, "Then we get them some help and we can continue to Alabasta!"

"Let's just hurry this up," Nojiko said, aiming the pistol. Not wasting any time she fired the hook, watching it fly up and latch onto the wall. She gave it a testing tug, and frowned as it strained a little bit. Jumping up a bit, Nojiko was able to land on her feet as the hook came detached, falling back down to the ground. Great. She should of thought about this.

"What happened?" Johnny asked.

"Uh... this is bad," Nojiko said, turning back to them. Both men just watched her curiously. "A thought occurred to me. I-I don't think this grappling gun can carry too many people."

"What do you mean?" Luffy asked. Nojiko swallowed hard and looked down at the gun, punching herself for not seeing the problem with this sooner.

"I don't think this one rope will sustain more than one person, let alone five." She said weakly. Silence came over the group for a moment, the snow whistling around them the only company they had. Before long though, that was different.

AHHHHH!" Luffy and Johnny screamed at once, startling Nojiko. "NAMI AND YOSAKU ARE GONNA DIE! WE MESSED UP! AAHHHHH!"

"Shut up, both of you!" Nojiko shouted angrily, hoping that didn't bother either Nami or Yosaku. "They'll be fine, we've just gotta find another way up!"

"Like what?!" Luffy shouted. "There's no way up there!"

"There has to be!" She refuted. "Listen, there's no way this mountain had a castle up there with no form on transport up there. That means that there has to be a way up there!"

"Okay, so how do we find it?" Johnny asked weakly. Nojiko made a face and looked around, trying to find the answer to that herself. Before long, she came up with an idea.

"Luffy, can you take Nami for a sec?" She asked, working to unfasten her sister from her back.

"Sure, why?" Luffy asked.

"I'm going to use the grappling hook to get a vantage point," She replied. "Hopefully I can see more from higher up, do you know what I mean?"

"Aha!" Johnny said, snapping his fingers. "To see if there's a way up we weren't told! I see."

"Exactly," Nojiko said as she transferred Nami to Luffy's back instead, picking up the hook to use it again. "So give me a second, I'll see what I can see."

"Okay, hurry though." Luffy said. "I can't feel my arms." Taking this worrying statement in stride, Nojiko nodded and turned back to face the mountain, aiming the gun as best she could. Deciding she had a good enough shot, she pulled the trigger. The hook exploded out of the front of the gun, flying upwards and latching onto the side of the cliff. Giving it a few good tugs, she decided it'd be able to sustain her weight. Just like she'd assumed though, no way it'd hold another person at the same time.

"Alright, here we go." She said. Using all of the strength she had acquired training with Zoro, Nojiko slowly climbed up the rope. She gained height slowly, unable to go fast seeing as she was already exhausted. Slowly but surely she was able to gain the height she was looking for, turning to see she'd made it about thirty feet up. Looking around, Nojiko did her best to look through the snow and find what she was looking for. A transport of any kind, anything at all. She just needed something.

"See anything?" Johnny called from below, voice muffled by the snow flying around them.

"Nothing yet!" She called, back, angrily whipping her hair out of her face. "I can't see anything through this snow!"

"Keep looking!" Luffy encouraged. Doing as he said, Nojiko continued to look for what she was after. Something, anything, was all they needed. No matter how hard she looked, nothing was standing out to her. It was all white. Angrily gritting her teeth, Nojiko tried to keep her emotions in check. She'd been stressed out for the past few days, and now she was running out of time to save her sister.

Come on! You came on this journey to look after Nami didn't you?! Well hurry up and start doing that, because she needs you now!

Feeling a prick in the back of her head, Nojiko felt compelled to look off into the distance. She didn't know why, but she felt like there had to be an answer there. Narrowing her eyes, for the briefest of moments, she saw through the snow. It was only for a moment, but she felt like she saw the outline of a building, and a rope leading up over her head. After only a second it faded back into the snow, and Nojiko made a face. Was why losing her mind, or had she really seen something through the snow? For some reason though, she felt extremely confident in her feeling. There was something over there, she could feel it. Deciding to trust her gut, she slid back down the rope slowly and landed back on the ground, both men watching her expectantly.

"Over there," she said, pointing in the direction of whatever she had seen. "I saw a rope leading up to the castle. If we're going to find a way up, it's over here."

"Are you sure?" Luffy asked as she tugged the hook off the mountain to shove it back in the gun.

"Positive," she said, somewhat lying. She wasn't positive, but for some reason she just had a really good feeling about this. "I'm positive," she repeated, trying to convince herself as much as Luffy. The Captain nodded, grinning.

"Alright then! Let's get over there as soon as possible!"

"Are you sure we haven't passed it?" Sanji asked.

"Yes! Well, no." Usopp replied, looking off the sleigh as they rode through the snow.

"I can't read maps very well," Vivi said weakly as she stared at the one Dalton had left with them. "I can't tell how far we've gone."

"Surely she'll just return to the castle eventually right/" Sanji asked, sounding bored with what they were doing. "I think we might be wasting our time. If she's so fast then she's probably already left Gyasta."

"Doesn't mean we can't look," Vivi replied. "Besides, it's like you guys said. Zoro can handle the problems at Big Horn."

Come on you stupid duck, how have we not gotten there yet?!" Zoro demanded angrily as Karoo sprinted through the snow. "I told you where to go!"

"Quack!" Karoo replied angrily as it turned to glare at him. "Quack quack quack! Quack!"

"What did you call me?!"

"Quack quack!"

"I am not hopeless! I know exactly where I'm going!" Zoro growled as the duck ignored him and continued on it's way. He knew this stupid thing was going the wrong way, but it didn't believe him. How hard was it to follow a path? Honestly.

"Quack!" Zoro looked down as Karoo came to a stop on a hill, which coincidentally overlooked a town.

"Huh, we got here." He said, Karoo looking at him smugly. "Don't start with me bird, or I'll tell the Princess you got eaten by the wildlife out here." The threat seemed to shut the bird up, and Zoro disembarked to watch what was happening. From the looks of things, they were a bit too late to stop the devastation. Wapol was standing amid whatever was left of the surrounding buildings, chewing on part of one. He laughed as he swallowed the building, just like he had part of the Merry.

"Listen up citizens!" He shouted. "Your king has returned! And I will eat or take whatever I want! Why is that again, Kuromarimo?!"

"You're the King of Drum, Lord Wapol!" The man with an afro said. "You are welcome to any and all possessions the citizens have!"

"Damn right!" Wapol agreed. "And as such, I will take any and all things that I deem worthy!"

"Your highness!" Another voice said. Zoro watched as the man who had stood on the water appeared there. "I have news on those children. They were seen heading towards the castle!"

"The castle?!" Wapol demanded angrily. "Why?!"

"It seems that the insufferable Doctor Kureha has moved in there!"

"What?! That witch is in my castle?! This will not stand! Men, gather to me! We're heading to the castle this instant to kick out the witch and kill those children!"

"Looks like things are going south, Karoo." Zoro said as he watched the pirates organise around a massive snow hippo or whatever that was. "We may have to intervene here."

"Q-Quack?"

"Yes, both of us. What if they catch Vivi?" This seemed to disturb the duck, who managed to put on some sort of battle face. It wasn't much, but Zoro supposed it was enough.

However, before he could jump down, a cry rang out. Zoro looked back down. The man who had led his crew into town had appeared, carrying what looked like a shovel. Despite it's appearance, it was clearly a blade. Using it, he'd slashed down Wapol's front, throwing the man backwards onto the ground as he bled.

"Dalton!" The townsfolk around them shouted happily. "You're here!"

"So you're still roaming around huh, you useless cow?" Kuromarimo said with a smirk. "What do you want?" Dalton frowned as he spun his shovel around a bit, glaring at the men.

"I've come to kill you all," he said flatly. "To end this, and bring peace to this land at last." Zoro smirked as the man faced off against Wapol and his men, looking menacing for a one versus who knew how many.

"Looks like things are just getting interesting, huh Karoo?"

"Quack."

This seems like a decent place to leave it foe today! I hope you all enjoyed, let me know what you thought! And as always, I'll see you next Friday!