Vivi looked over at Nami's sick visage and her heart was torn. On one hand was her country, which is tearing itself apart because of misinformation by the Baroque Works, and the potentially hundreds of thousands that might die not only might die from the fighting itself, but also its aftereffects, like even further hunger and thirst because of destroyed infrastructure and the lack of labor from the people fighting instead of working. On the other hand was Nami, who saved her life, someone she would already personally call a friend, and one whom she hopes would also share the same sentiment.
Nami, albeit barely consciousness, also felt torn when looking at Vivi. She knew that them delaying to get a potential crewmate might just be condemning tens of thousands to their deaths just from their detour. On the other hand, she couldn't just stop Zoro's plan to go to Drum Island to meet his old friend from his past life. Just tactically speaking, she can't really physically force Zoro to do anything, and even in the worse case scenario, if she didn't help him, and even exposed all of his plans, Luffy still loves and respects him too much to just not get Zoro medical help. Emotionally, she couldn't just betray the man training her to be stronger, the strongest person who helped her free her entire village, and her friend, who really just wanted to get his friend back. Intellectually, Nami knew she was not making the most moral choice. But Nami has never really been a hero.
Zoro too was torn, but not as much as the other two girls. He knew how much Vivi cared about the citizens of Alabasta, but he was not truly saddened about the deaths of these men in civil war. He cares far more about saving Chopper, and only truly feels guilt with giving Nami and Vivi internal conflict. "I have a Log Pose of Drum Island, which was famous for its doctors, as far as I've heard." Zoro stated with a straight face.
Luffy as the captain, was significantly more conflicted in this timeline. Due to their plan, Nami didn't push herself and pretend that she was fine to keep going, so Luffy wasn't as ok with just letting Vivi by herself deciding whether or not they were to keep going or find other islands for doctors. He was also far more concerned as the normally strong willed Nami seems to be significantly meeker than normal, which he attributes to her being ill. He kept looking back and forth at Nami and Vivi. "We gotta have a doctor cure her!"
"Would you like some juice Nami? It's pretty nutritious and you'll need all the fluid you can get with how much you're sweating." Sanji said, offering Nami a glass of juice, his face completely filled anxiousness and his eyes with pity. Nami slowly nodded, and he assisted Nami as much as possible drinking it. He too was undecided whether to side with the sick Nami, or Vivi who needs to take care of her people, and decided too sit this one out for now.
"Guys! I kinda need help right now. The log pose is somehow wanting to turn the ship around or something." Usopp, who was given the job to keep the ship in the right direction this time instead of Zoro, called out from outside. As soon as they opened the door, Nami immediately knew that the weather wasn't safe. While the other went outside to help, Zoro stayed back a bit later to support Nami and also pull a chair. As soon as he supported her to the railings, he then pulled the chair where she could comfortably and look over everyone.
"Wind...There's a big wind coming up ahead...I think...Probably a cyclone..." Nami said in between deep breaths, while she sat on the chair.
"Are you sure You should be getting up from your bed? Leave the sailing to us, and us long as shrubtop over there isn't the one watching for directions, we should be fine." Sanji said.
(AN: I can't understate how irrationally proud I am of thinking of shrubtop.)
"Don't mind me...Turn the ship 150 degrees starboard..." she stated at a volume barely higher than a whisper, and yet everybody followed her orders with much more gusto than when she's shouting at the top of her lungs. The ship then turned almost completely when somebody decided to finally clear the air.
"Everyone!" Vivi shouted out. "You all know that there's nothing more I would want than to get to Alabasta as fast as possible. I know the reason everyone is hesitating on setting a course is because of me...So let's do both. Let's get to Alabasta as fast as possible by getting our amazing navigator properly up and running. Set the course for Drum Island."
"That's right. We can't move any faster without her." Luffy claimed. "Ahh! What the fuck is that?!"
"It's a cyclone!" Vivi then informed Luffy. 'Amazing...they say cyclones in the Grand Line appear without warning yet...She doesn't just use the wind and sky to predict the weather...It's pretty much instinctual for her!' she thought as the crew showered Nami with praises, which barely registered.
"Land!" Zoro shouted. While everyone was freezing outside and trying to keep warm, Zoro volunteered to keep watch on the crow's nest. He did it to both train his body against the extreme cold, and also to continue squeezing the physical potential left in his body.
Only Sanji came out as it was still a few minutes after the sunset, and Sanji was doing meal preps. After confirming Zoro's sightings, he then went back inside to wake up the guys to get ready for docking- but not the women because he wouldn't even dare inconvenience them.
'We got here pretty quick with the log pose. Though those bastards probably still saw us, and likely would still follow. I'll deal with them on land.' Zoro thought. He then watched as his, initially groggy, crewmates walked out then go gaga at Drum's snow. Well, not everyone who walked out and saw the view was ecstatic about it.
"Are we really sure this place is safe? I heard predators tend to become bigger in colder climates...Oh no! My "Don't-go-to-that-island" disease is acting up!" Usopp complained. "Luffy, aren't you cold dressed like that?"
"Huh? uh...It's cold!"
"You just noticed?!" both Sanji and Usopp shouted back at their captain.
"I think we could dock around there." Zoro pointed at a river that went further inland, knowing full well who would be there. They agreed with Zoro's assessment and directed the ship there to anchor, wherein they finally met with the locals.
"Stop right there, you pirates!" they shouted, almost completely surrounding them except for backwards, their guns aimed at them.
"There's actually people here."
"They look intense." Usopp commented on their demeanor.
"Turn your vessel around and leave." a large man with a strangely shaped spade blade on his back who appeared to be their leader, Dalton, ordered at them.
"We came here to find a doctor!"
"We have a sick person on board!"
"Don't you try and trick us you dirty pirates! We won't let you step foot unto out country so raise you anchors and go! Or else we'd pump you all with lead!" they replied, uncompromising on their position.
"They really don't like us. And we just got here." Sanji muttered, which they didn't take very kindly. They immediately tried to shoot him, to which he quickly dodged away. "You fucking-"
"Wait Sanji!" Vivi then ran towards Sanji to stop him. They then proceeded to shoot at her too. She wouldn't have been capable of dodging that bullet and gotten hit, if someone hadn't blocked it.
"Here what we're going to do." Zoro said while letting the still very warm bullet to clatter on the floor. He then let out a small blast of his conqueror's haki. The instant the garrison made contact with it, they felt a cold on a primal level, even their dull unsharpened instincts told them the grave danger they're in. Half of them couldn't even remain on their feet- either taking a knee or dropping on all fours. "We're going inside this island to find treatment for our friend. We promise not to hurt anyone, or damage anything, unless we are threatened. After our business is done, we'll even leave a generous donation to compensate you for the troubles." he clearly stated. "But if you're insistent on somebody else raising your sons and daughters, then I will oblige." he let lose that fatal implication together with another wave of Conqueror's haki, now literally scaring the piss out of some of them.
"P-please have mercy! My son only arrived a month ago!" some of them even started to plead for mercy. "My wife can't feed our children without me sir, please!"
"De-demon!"
"Monster!"
"Take it easy Zoro!" Usopp felt that Zoro went a little too far in 'informing' the locals on where truly stood. Even Luffy and Sanji who were about to actually try and fight the locals felt similarly. "You might actually scare some of them to death." he genuinely said.
"It's not my fault that I value Nami's life more than some of them valued theirs." Zoro muttered.
"All right. We won't set foot on your island. But can you send us a doctor? Our navigator is very sick. Please help us!" Vivi bowed towards them.
"Vivi?"
"Luffy, you need to learn when to try and be diplomatic for your crew. Don't be such an irresponsible captain." she whispered to him.
"You're right. Forgive me, I was wrong. Please call for a doctor to help our friend." Luffy said as he joined Vivi after briefly internalizing her words.
'That green-haired swordsman is going to kill us if somebody tries to shoot one of them again' Dalton genuinely believed as that was what his over a decade long instinct as a Royal Guard was telling him. Understanding that if they truly wanted to, they could've just slaughtered through everyone here like those pirates a few months ago, he decided to also be diplomatic. "I'll take you to the village. Please come with me."
"Tell us about this witch."
They were in Dalton's house. Due to the island's climate, houses were generally built with very little of physical separation among rooms so that a fireplace can more easily heat most of the house. It was nice and cozy, if a bit of a cookie-cutter of a house, except for a the tiger skin hung on the wall. Nami was put on a bed in front of the fire place.
"The witch...You see those outside through the window. Those mountains are the Drum Rockies...See the castle on the highest peak? The only doctor in this country, Dr. Kureha, whom people call "The Witch", lives there." Dalton explained.
"Why would she want to live way up there? Anyway, can you call her here? It's an emergency." Sanji impatiently demanded.
"I'd like to, but we have no way of contacting her."
"What do the people do here when they get sick or injured?" Vivi asked.
"She comes down whenever she feels like it. She looks for patients, treats them...and takes whatever she wants as compensation."
"How would she even go up and down from there?"
"Some people have claimed to seeing her ride a sleigh through the sky during moonlit nights. It's partly why they called her a witch...She's our only doctor, but people don't like to get involved with her if they can help it. It's best to wait here until she comes down the mountain."
"How did the old residents used to go up there? Obviously she didn't used to live in the castle, and isn't this country's ruler if people call her a witch out in the open." Zoro then asked a leading question, already knowing about the difficult to perceive ropeway.
"Well, that would be a long story...A few months ago, this country was defeated by pirates."
"No wonder everyone was so nervous when we showed up."
"Yes, the mere mention of pirates still makes most of the citizens uneasy...There were only five pirates. Their captain called himself Blackbeard. They were immensely powerful. We didn't stand a chance."
"You've gotta be kidding?! Five pirates?!"
"Blackbeard?!"
"But a sizable portion of the population think it a blessing."
"What can be good about being defeated?!" most were unable to understand how that could be.
"Until then, this land was ruled by a king unloved by the people. The king's name was Wapol, and this was kingdom was called the Drum Kingdom. He was a spoiled tyrant!" Dalton lost his cool on his last sentence, his anger leaking when on the subject.
"Wapol! I remember that name!" Vivi exclaimed, remembering her past. "I remember him clearly now. When I was little, my father took me to a summit of monarchies, and I met him there."
"Just who are-"
"Oh no! I mean...So how does that connect to how they went up and down the castle?! They were defeated right?!" Vivi scrambled a way into changing the subject and not revealing her true identity than she already has.
"Defeated?! Saying they were defeated would be generous, to say the least. The cowards didn't even attempt to fight!" Dalton said as he started seething and grinding his teeth. "When they saw the pirates' power, they abandoned the country's people to their fate! They fled like rats from a sinking ship! Wapol escaped to the sea! The country lost hope- that their own king would-"
"How could a king do such a thing?!"
"Vivi..."
"It's despicable for a king to abandon his own people."
"Yes, and now his reign is over. The country finally belongs to us who remains...Our towns and villages are starting to recover, united and trying to build a new nation. Which is why people fear of his return...Anyways, the ropeways were removed during the conflict to reduce their options of transportations. We had hoped to discourage them from scouring the island by forcing them to move through the cold by foot, minimizing the amount of villages that they plundered."
(AN: This is the best I could come up with for the ropeway fiasco since Oda didn't give a canon answer for it.)
"Couldn't she have reinstalled a new ropeway? The castle would've already been built for them right?" Zoro 'suggested'. Both Luffy and Vivi were impressed with him, while Sanji and Usopp correctly assumed that what Zoro was suggesting was actually a fact, waiting for him to give the location of where this ropeway is so that Nami can finally get medical treatment.
"That would require a lot of manpower or heavy machinery, which would've been fairly overt to at least an entire village. You'd need a lot of stre-...You know what, you might be unto something." Dalton said, after giving it a bit of thought. He then went into another room in order to grab a large roll of paper, which turned out to be a map of Drum Island. "Most of the sightings of her came from hunters and residents of Bighorn, Gyasta and Whitetree. But the only two instances of people claiming to have heard her were hunters who said they were near the forests of Gyasta at the time. So if it were the case that she was travelling through a ropeway, then it'd likely be around there." he pointed at the forested areas north of Gyasta.
"So we search for the area for the ropeway." Luffy succinctly put it. "We're gonna need your eyes and your legs on this one...Usopp, Sanji." he looked at them both expectantly. The two then turned their heads towards Zoro who briefly shook his head.
"Anything for my dear Nami."
"God, I hope we don't meet any snow monsters...Please don't tell me we'll split up to search!"
"Of course we will, don't be such a baby Usopp. Shishishi!" Luffy just laughed at Usopp's fears.
"Let's stop dilly-dallying then. Let's go find that rope."
"You're going to stay here mosshead."
"Why?!"
"Shishishishi! You could barely get around the ship Zoro. If you came with us, we're gonna have to try to find you and the rope."
"Can't he just come with me?"
"Someone needs to stay here and guard the ladies Usopp, remember?" Sanji said, but also alluding to Wapol's forces, which they were briefed on earlier could be a danger.
"I shall guide you there, please stay here in the meantime." Dalton offered while requesting Zoro and Vivi to stay put for now. They both nodded at him. Luffy, Usopp, Sanji all then went out to go search for the ropeway.
Karoo then walked over to his master and snuggled right beside her. She then reciprocated the gesture by laying her head on his soft fluffy feathers. The flickering flames warmed them all with its heat, making for a warm homey haven. Everyone was fairly cozy, comfortable with staying put for now- almost.
"I'm heading out. Don't worry, I won't go far." Zoro called out as he left to Karoo and Vivi who were already half passed dreamland.
He walked around the unique cylindrical architecture of Bighorn. The town lacked paved roads and pretty much everywhere is thickly covered in heavy snow. Zoro was actually impressed at first of how new their rooves were. Until he accidentally stepped on a very dark black object through the thick snow. He picked it up and realized it was a burned piece of wood, and based on its curved shape, it used to be a piece of roofing in the town.
Then he remembered what this country just went through - Blackbeard. That's when he also started noticing several goats hauling building materials on the west side of the town. He followed them towards that direction, eventually seeing the construction of several buildings.
"Mister, why aren't you wearing a coat? Aren't you cold?" a boy no older than 10 walked up to Zoro to ask him. Ever since landing, the locals, while not exactly going out of their way to get away, were minimizing their interaction with the pirates. Some of the adults around seemed to want to pull away the child.
"Well, if you master your body and mind, this level of cold won't bother you too much. I've felt worse."
"What does that mean?" the boy asked sincerely.
"It means if you train your body and properly meditate, you would be capable of many things...Like this." Zoro explained, before catching a metal decorative sphere the locals put on top of their roofs that was dropped from the construction nearby. The public were initially horrified in the instant they realized where it was likely to fall unto, before being thankful to Zoro for catching it. Some even verbalized their appreciation to him.
One of the construction workers then walked up to him and started bowing, thanking him.
"It's fine. It isn't a big deal." Zoro simply replied to him and offered the metal sphere to him. The man then took it but was instantly caught off guard, forgetting how heavy it actually was because of how haphazardly Zoro was gripping the thing with one hand. He then had a great idea - and that's how Zoro got roped into carrying heavy things around in construction which helped the construction to finish a few days ahead of schedule. Zoro was swept up doing that till he felt Luffy and company's presence near the town.
He then excused himself away, and then ran around town for over a dozen minutes before he finally got back in Dalton's house, being the last one there.
"Luffy, with you rubber body, you'll be best suited for carrying her. Try to reduce as much of the impact to her as much as possible. I'll be there as your escort just in case anything were to happen."
"I'll stay here and, uh...watch out for things! The trolley I made could easily be pedaled by one person." Usopp justified himself staying.
"Meathead stays here. His strength won't really be useful and his complete lack of direction means that if he falls off, it might take days to find him. He should stay here and take on whoever comes."
"Who you calling meathead, pervert cook?" Zoro shot back as they glared at each other.
After Vivi calmed the situation down. Sanji then cooked them a good warm hearty dino stew, and helped Nami consume her lunch. The others then readied Luffy, Nami and Sanji for their trip, equipment, gear, supplies and all, and sent them off.
"See you guys later!" Luffy, optimistic as ever, cheerfully waved back at them, as his group disappeared into the white of snow.
"I have duties to attend to in Whitetree, so I will have to ask you again to stay put as I need to tend to them. Please excuse me." Dalton too went away to another town.
"Usopp, keep your eyes out for any enemies. I'm gonna go train." Zoro gave Usopp watchdog duties before going for a workout.
"Are you kidding me?! What if Wapol's army attacks and I'm the only one here?!" Usopp complained. "No offense Vivi."
"None taken. I'm by far the weakest person in our group. Even Karoo might beat me if it truly came down to it." she said as Karoo then quacked at her, as if telling her to not underestimate herself. "It's just objectively true Karoo. Everyone in the Straw Hats is strong." she genuinely believed. That straightened Usopp's back a little. He then activated his observation haki as they both went back inside.
He observed what he can with his observation haki while inside. He felt the flow of people going around, invigorating Bighorn, life begetting life. Usopp became very familiar with the life signatures of everyone in town for the several hours he observed them, human or otherwise.
He felt another presence approach town, monstrous yet familiar. At first, Usopp felt the locals slowly gather around Zoro, till he heard the he heard the great celebration coming from the outside.
"Usopp, do you know what's happening?" Vivi asked him, knowing that he has some mystical ability.
"It's Zoro." he informed her as they both got ready to go see what the fuss is all about. Just beyond the confines of the town proper they saw the town folks surrounding the giant carcass of a Sea King that looked like a hybrid between a walrus and a whale. It was almost the same size as Bighorn itself, but was longer still.
"Finally somebody took care of that bloody glutton of a whale. We could finally fish again." Vivi and Usopp heard a man say, and a few others in the crowd expressed similar sentiments.
"Did this Sea King attack fishermen quite often?" Vivi approached and asked.
"Not really. All things considered, this one was quite dormant compared to others. It only attacked three times this year, and never went inland. The problem was the fat fuck is a filter feeder of fucking fish! It ate any fish above five kilos within a kilometer of the shore. It'd have been better if it actually attacked on the shore so we'd actually have a chance to kill it. Instead it stays in the water and nearly completely cut us off any seafood." he explained to the two the beast's history.
"Imagine how much oil is inside the fat fucker."
"Not our kill Erik."
"Yeah, but surely he'd sell some right. That's not gonna fit on their boat. The meat alone could probably feed the entire country for at least a month. Hopefully we could get a good price."
Usopp and Vivi walked over to Zoro who was talking with an older couple.
"You can have the most of the thing. Just give us enough to completely stock up on the butchered meat and rendered oil."
"Look here son, a discount is good enough. You don't have to give us what is easily hundreds of millions of Berries worth in meat and oil for free. Take most of the oil at least." an old man tried to reason with Zoro.
"I'll see what I can do...Usopp! How much oil do we have left?"
"Last I checked we're running pretty dry since we last stocked up on Logue Town. But we really don't need that much. Our oil barrel can only carry 200 kilos at maximum capacity and we still have around 10 kilos of it." Usopp gave a run down on their oil situation.
"Say Usopp, can we store oil in a water dial?"
"Of course not, it's called a wat-...Hold that thought!" you could almost hear the light bulb in Usopp's head turn on as he quickly sprinted towards Merry, kicking snow up in his path, and vanishing away from their sight.
"Oh that boy is quite light on his feet." an old lady commented.
"That he is...Anyways, don't feel bad, we're the ones here staying in your town anyways. Think of it as gift for your hospitality." Zoro thoughtlessly said.
They were then hit with a wave of guilt, remembering that the Straw Hats almost went into a fight with the militia when they weren't initially allowed to dock and find a doctor for their sick friend. Vivi immediately read their thoughts and tried to console them.
"Oh no, don't mind what happened earlier, Zoro didn't mean anything bad about it." she told her while not so subtly elbowing Zoro.
"I didn't mean to sound sarcastic, it makes perfect sense for everyone in this country to be very wary of pirates." he tried to save the awkward situation, to little effect. Several seconds of uncomfortable silence ensued before it was broken up by Usopp sprinting back towards them, again kicking quite a bit of snow everywhere.
"It works! I should've realized it when the breath dials could store all sorts of gasses that the 'water' dial could also probably store different kinds of liquids as well! Here's an empty water dial." Usopp quickly explained before throwing the dial towards Zoro.
"I'll take our share of the oil once you've rendered it. Please call us at Dalton's home." Zoro got ready to go back at Dalton's house when...
"Would you like to eat with us? Such a significant hunt such as this begets a celebration, but it wouldn't feel fight to not have the hunter with us. We invite you all to come, if you would care to join us." the old lady invited them.
"Of course, we would love to join you." Vivi answered for Zoro who simply accepted his fate.
In the town square, they started a great bonfire surrounded by four smaller ones. Dozens of barrels of blood were bled out of the Sea King and collected, and that was despite the fact that nearly half of the blood already spilled, either during the collection or while Zoro carried it near the town.
A dozen butchers were working over time to get the meat down to a somewhat manageable size. Zoro took one of the bigger butchering knives they had and went to work with it. His work wasn't the best, but his cuts were clean and it did help the butchers from trying to carve the town sized carrion to simply working on house sized chucks of meat.
The blubber were separated to be put on try pots to render the oils out. Most of the meat were readied to be preserved. Among the remaining meat, the organ meat were put in a pot to stew while the rest was simply roasted over fire, some not even having any seasoning.
After Zoro helped the butchers, he was then ordered to get into a cleaner shirt and was dragged by the arms by Vivi, as she paraded the 'great hunter of the massive leviathan', they called him. He was forced to retell the story of how he killed the Sea King, which he did with as much as gravitas as if he simply butchered a goat. Luckily the sentries who were at the shores when he did added their own perspectives.
Soon the whale was cooked and booze came out. Zoro mainly stayed by himself, drinking and eating his fill. Vivi was the complete opposite, talking and socializing with as much people as she can. She tried her best to improve the Straw Hats' reputation and also tried to learn how they lived their lives in such hard conditions.
"The dragon tried to use fire breath against me, but using my invincible shield, I blocked his fire, which was as hot as the Sun! The ground melted around me, but soon the fire stopped as the dragon was sapped. Quickly, I shot its eyes to blind it. Then I bravely charged at the evil beast stabbed at his heart." Usopp, ever the life of the party, entertained the kids with his fantastical stories, even using his shield as a prop.
Zoro then looked away from the party and focused his attention upwards. He focused his observation haki towards the castle, where he observed Luffy and Sanji still together with Nami, just a dozen or so meters away from reaching the Drum Rockies.
"Luffy! Come on, just a several meters left till we reach it! Watch your grip!" the blonde chef shouted. Both Sanji and Luffy were climbing the white ropeway. Sanji powered the trolley while he had Luffy maintain a hand on the rope in case the trolley malfunctions.
Soon they reached the station where the ropeway ends. They then walked out into the icy yard of the Drum Castle, wherein they met face to face with a creature. It was large over two and a half meters tall, a humanoid shape, antlers and fur all over. This caused them both to be wary, with Sanji putting on a fighting stance.
"Please, we need a doctor! My friend is sick!" Luffy shouted.
"Come."