Luffy and Usopp both blinked taking another look to see if they weren't imagining things. There was man really standing in the middle of the ocean. He had a sad expression on his face and wavy lips, wearing a checkered green and blue jester like costume with purple lining at the sleeves, a white winter coat with purple lining tied against his chest, dark green pants and blue shoes with white buckles. Strapped behind his back he had a bow and some arrows in a bag. Aya came out from the medical room and stepped outside on the deck, wearing a light purple coat and saw she the man as well.
"Hello! Sure is chilly today, isn't it?" the man shouted out.
"Yeah, it is chilly, today." Luffy replied.
"I'd say it's freezing." Usopp murmured.
Suddenly, a large dome shaped metal ship rose out from the water in front of the Going Merry. It was knocked back by the large waves, rocking back and forth.
"What is that thing!? A watermelon!?" Luffy shouted.
"Why are we shaking!?" Vivi exclaimed as she was looking after Nami, feeling the violent tremors from the ship rocking. Sanji quickly grabbed the bed to keep Nami from falling out of it.
"Hold the rudder steady! If anything happens to Nami, I'll hold every one of you responsible!" Sanji shouted to everyone outside. But he received no response. "What was going on out there?" He wondered to himself.
"What the hell is that? A ship?" Zoro questioned. The dome began to transform, growing large and expanding out turning into a pirate's ship with multiple sails and a hippo with a crown on its figurehead.
"Oh, crap. It's a pirate ship!" Usopp cried out.
"It's huge!" Luffy cried out.
"Great, just what we needed." Aya murmured. A large overweight man with dark violet hair and a cylinder tin shaped jaw hopped off from his ship and landed on the railings of the Merry. He was dressed in tin plated armor and a hooded white woolly hippo cape, wearing thick brown gloves and purple and orange woolen shorts with a brown belt around his waist and brown boots with some white fur.
"What's the matter? Don't tell me my underwater raid ship surprised you." He smirked.
"Vivi, you're in charge!" Sanji told her. Vivi tried to stop him. "Hey, what's going-!" But Sanji was already gone and ran onto the deck. His eyes widened and he stopped. He sighed and pulled out a match relighting his cigarette. There were several guns were pointed at his face.
"So, what's going on?" He asked Luffy, Zoro, Aya, and Usopp seeing the pirates surrounding everyone on board.
"Well, we're under attack and it's still snowing." Luffy told him.
"And we're completely surrounded." Aya spoke.
"Yeah, the guns pointed at my face kind of gave it away. What now?" Sanji asked.
"You call yourselves a band of pirates? That's amusing. I only count five of you." Wapol laughed looking at the straw hat crew. "Sort of strange that your group would have few members." He pulled out a small sword with a large piece of meat on it and ate the whole thing, including the blade. Everyone stared in disbelief and in shock at what they had just saw and cringed.
"My mouth hurts just watching him!" Usopp exclaimed.
"What kind of guy would eat knives?" Luffy cringed.
"All keep this simple, my men and I here wish to travel to Drum Kingdom. You wouldn't happen to have an eternal log pose or a log pose would you?" Wapol asked them.
"No, we don't have one." Aya lied.
"We've never even heard of that place before." Sanji spoke.
"Now that we've have that settled. Would you guys just leave already? We're kind of in a hurry!" Luffy shouted.
"You won't enjoy life if you're always in a rush. But if you have neither pose then what can be done? I suppose I'll have to settle for your treasure and your ship!" Wapol replied.
"What?" Luffy blinked.
"First thing's first, I'm feeling a bit hungry." The man gripped the railings of the ship and ripped half of it off and started to munch down on it.
"He's eating the ship!" Usopp exclaimed.
"Hey, this ship isn't your lunch!" Luffy shouted, furiously.
"Be quiet! Wapol doesn't like to be disturbed while he's eating!" one of his men shouted at Luffy, pointing his gun at him.
"Shut up!" Luffy punched him, knocking him out.
"We're under attack! Shoot him!" Wapol's men fired at Luffy at the rest of the straw hats. Usopp screamed and quickly took cover behind the ship's mast.
"Now things are finally getting interesting." Zoro smirked, pulling out his swords.
"So, I can beat their asses now?" Sanji asked.
"They've been asking for it!" Aya smiled and the three of them began to clash against Wapol's men.
"Wait! I'm sure we can talk this out!" Usopp shouted.
"Gunfire!? Karoo, stay here and watch Nami! I'll be right back!" Vivi spoke after she heard the gunfire coming from outside. She quickly ordered her bird to stay with Nami and ran out to see what was happening.
"You shouldn't take on something that you can't handle!" Sanji shouted and he slammed his foot down on one of Wapol's men, slamming him on the deck. "Reception!"
"All bark and no bite." Zoro murmured and quickly took out several crew members as they were coming up from behind him. Aya slammed two members heads together and pushed them off the ship, sending them falling into the ocean.
"Hey, Wapol, we need help!" Several of his men cried out to him for help. Wapol was starting to munch down more of the ship's railings.
"Stop eating our ship!" Luffy shouted at him, pushing two of Wapol's men away from him and slammed them against the ship. Wapol burped.
"It doesn't taste half bad." Luffy growled and threw back his fist, stretching it.
"You fool! You're no match for Wapol!" One of Wapol's men shouted at him. Luffy flung his arm forward to punch Wapol. Wapol opened his mouth and chomped down on Luffy's entire body as he was still stretching his arms out.
"Now you'll be eaten by the power of the Munch-Munch Fruit!"
"Luffy!" Usopp shouted.
"What's this?" Vivi asked.
"Hey, Vivi, everything okay with Nami?" Sanji asked her.
"You're tough to chew through, aren't you?" Wapol spoke, still trying to eat Luffy.
"GET OFF OF MY SHIP!" Luffy roared and he threw his fist forward, punching Wapol in the gut, making him spit out Luffy. Then Wapol was sent soaring high in the sky as his crew watched in disbelief and quickly sailed after him. "Wapol!?" The rest of the straw hats watched them as they left.
"Crazy. Those guys were really upset. What were they calling that old garbage can? Wapol?" Usopp asked.
"Who cares about his name. Don't worry about it. The guy's obviously a moron, its best to just forget about him." Sanji replied.
Vivi, Luffy and Sanji went back to see Nami only to see that she wasn't getting any better.
"Are you sure she isn't just hungry? Maybe we should try to feed her lots of meat!" Luffy insisted. He was kicked and punched in the face by Vivi and Sanji and sent flying back, crashing into the wall. A picture frame fell down on top of him.
"This isn't good. The sun's about to set and she's still the same." Sanji said.
"You're right. Maybe it'll be best if we drop anchor somewhere. We can't navigate at night anyway without Nami." Vivi spoke. The ship docked for the night and Sanji took lookout duty. Vivi continued to look after Nami until she eventually fell asleep. In the middle of the night, Nami woke up to find her sleep by her beside and saw Luffy, Usopp and Zoro and Aya all crashed out sleeping the room as well. Nami made a weak smile and fell back to sleep.
"Crap, I fell asleep." Sanji sniffed before he noticed he had a blanket wrapped around him. He blinked in confusion before he saw Aya sitting down beside him, keeping looking out duty. She glanced over at him when she noticed that he was awake. "Oh, good you're up."
"How long was I out for?" Sanji asked her.
"For a while." Aya told him. "Everyone's tired and worried."
The two heard hammering down below and looked down and saw Usopp fixing up the railings that Wapol had torn off, replacing it. "You're up early."
"Can't just sit here and do nothing." Usopp said.
"I'm going to go check on Nami." Aya spoke and she climbed down the crow's nest, leaving the two and headed towards Nami's room. Zoro followed behind her as the two walked inside.
"Come on Nami, smile! Just one little one, please!" Luffy pleaded. Aya and Zoro stepped into Nami's room and saw Luffy sitting down beside her bed.
"Luffy, come on. Leave her alone." Aya told him before Luffy turned his head to face the two of them. His face was painted and he stretched his mouth with his hands sticking his tongue out.
"Ah!" Aya screamed. Zoro fell back falling to the ground, startled as well.
"What do you think?" Luffy grinned.
"You look ridiculous." Aya told him.
"Maybe so, but what's that on your face, a smile perhaps." Luffy grinned some more as he pointed out and Aya smacked his hand away from her.
"Shut up. I'm going to go check on Ichi and L." She walked out leaving Zoro with Luffy and headed to the medical room to find Ichi by L's bedside, crying.
"L, please wake up. I can't do this without you!" Ichi cried.
Aya walked over and slowly began to undress L's bandage, replacing it with new ones.
"Is L gonna die?" Ichi asked her. Aya stared at him, unsure of what to tell him.
"I-I don't know. But crying about it is not going to help him. You have to stop. It's only going to make you feel worse." She told him, which only made Ichi cry more. Aya sighed. "Hopefully, we'll find the island soon and then we can get L and Nami to a doctor." She patted Ichi on his shoulder, trying to reassure him then walked out on the deck, meeting with Usopp, Sanji and Vivi.
"How's the duo doing?" Sanji asked her.
"L's stable for now. Ichi's...doing what he can for now." Aya told them. "Say, Usopp, does this area seem unusually cold?"
"Now that you've mentioned it, it sure does. To be honest it's freaking me out. The Grand Line just keeps getting stranger." the sniper spoke.
"That's not necessarily true." Vivi said. "Maybe, there's an island nearby. Sanji, can you check the horizon for any sign of land?"
"Sure thing." Sanji nodded and climbed up to the crows nest to have a look.
"There's a winter island somewhere nearby I think." Vivi told them.
"Winter island?" Aya asked her.
"Scattered within the Grand Line there are four basic types of islands made distinct by their varying climates. Summer islands, Spring islands, Fall islands, and Winter islands. Each one has their own four independent seasons. When traveling in the Grand Line there are at least 16 different types of weather patterns you must be prepared to endure. Range from Summer to Winter. There can even be unknown climates at any given moment." Vivi explained.
"I think I get it. The Grand Line has different islands one after the other and that's the reason why the seas in between them have crazy unstable weather patterns." Usopp said.
"Correct. The closer we get to an island the calmer the sea is around it. Which is way I asked Sanji to start looking for land." Vivi said.
"That's it. I see it! Island dead ahead!" Sanji pointed out. Luffy and Zoro heard Sanji and Luffy quickly turned to Nami.
"Are you serious!? Nami, we've found an island! Do you hear that!? This means we can get you to a real doctor! He can fix you up! Wake up! Wake up!" Luffy shouted, excited to see the new island.
"Just go. I've got it covered." Zoro told him. Luffy quickly raced out while Zoro stayed inside to look after the navigator.
'There it is! Nami's saved! A snow island!" Luffy exclaimed, happily.
"Whoa, Luffy, wait. Just that there's no misunderstanding, we're stopping to find Nami and L a doctor. We're not here to have an adventure. Are. We. Clear?" Sanji told him.
"I like snow. It's so white!" Luffy ignored him, looking around as the snow was falling slowly from the sky.
"He's gone."
"Hold on, are you sure this is a good idea? There could be snow monsters! Besides we don't even know if there's people there or not!" Usopp gulped. "Oh no! My I-can't-enter that island disease is acting up!"
"Look at all that snow!" Luffy shouted.
"Luffy, aren't you cold dressed like that?" Usopp asked him. The straw hat captain was the only one not wearing a coat.
"10 below freezing out here. That's when bears go hibernating." Sanji spoke. The two of them saw Luffy stop running around.
"Oh boy...Cold!" He shivered.
"You just figured that out!?" Sanji and Usopp exclaimed at him, angrily and in disbelief as well.
"It's a stream of melted snow. This may provide a good spot to disembark." Vivi told everyone as they sailed the ship closer to the shore.
"Hey, guys, I'm about to search. Who want's in?" Zoro asked. Luffy raised his hand.
"I'm in!"
"Me too!" Sanji shouted as well.
"Bye! Go have fun!" Usopp shouted. However, everyone stopped when they saw many people standing on the cliffs above them pointing at them with loaded guns.
"That's far enough, pirates!" A man shouted at them.
"Hey, look! People! That was easy!" Luffy shouted.
"Isn't that nice. But they don't seem too friendly." Aya replied.
"I'll only say this once. Your kind is not welcomed here. Leave immediately." The man spoke again.
"We only came here to find a doctor!" Luffy shouted.
"We have sick and injured on board!" Vivi shouted out as well.
"You'll have to do better than that! We won't fall for that old trick!" The man shouted at them, not believing a single word.
"This is our island! We won't let any filthy pirates land here!" Another shouted at the straw hat crew as well.
"That's great. We've barely said hello and they already hate us." Sanji murmured. One of them raised their gun at Sanji.
"Get out of here!"
"Look out!" Aya warned him. Sanji barely dodged the bullet as it hit the deck near his feet. He growled, looking back at the group of people.
"Big mistake!" He charged towards them about to jump off the ship. Vivi quickly jumped in front of him, stopping Sanji.
"Sanji, no!" She shouted. Then another shot rang out. Everyone watched in shock and horror as they saw Vivi was hit.
"VIVI!" Luffy shouted.
