One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.
-Chapter Thirty-Six-
"Hey, carry me too, Zoro!" Luffy cheerfully laughed.
"Morons!" Zoro growled in annoyance.
"Looks like you attracted them like light attracts a moth" I laughed.
"Oh yeah?" he questioned with a raised brow. "Well, it seems I've gone and attracted myself another moron" he playfully teased, grinning.
"Well, at least this moron knows her north from her south" I huffed, childishly sticking my tongue out as I giggled at the way his face flushed bright red.
"S-shut up!" he snapped, quick to turn his head the other way as he started to grumble. I smiled, my heart practically swelling as I started to laugh—good memories flooding my mind for just a moment. Subconsciously, I found my grip on his hand tightening as we continued to walk.
-Later-
"Look up ahead, I see light" Vivi brightened, pointing towards the distant light that practically stood out like a sore thumb against the night sky.
"Does that mean we made it to Yuba?" Luffy hopefully asked. "I can't see anything with all this sand blowing everywhere" he squinted, attempting to see past the thin veil of sand that wisped through the air.
"Finally, hopefully now we can rest" I yawned, stretching my arms before instantly pouting the moment I cast a glance beside me. "Can't believe you actually gave in to carrying him and not me" I childishly huffed, jealous of the sharpshooter that was currently being carried by the swordsman next time.
"Because he wouldn't stop annoying me—this was the only way to get him to quit..." Zoro grumbled. "Jealous?" he asked, lips twitching upwards into an amused smile.
"Pft! You wish" I snorted, slipping my hand back into his own as I lightly bumped him with my shoulder.
"Something doesn't feel right here" Vivi frowned. "There's something wrong down there, I can tell..." she nervously muttered, already beginning to fidget as she squinted her eyes in an attempt to get a better look at the city in the distance. "Oh no! The entire city is being struck by a sandstorm!" she gasped in realization, the wind now starting to violently pick up as a massive sandstorm suddenly struck the city. "It can't be..." she shakily whispered once the storm had passed and we were finally able to enter the city.
"It doesn't look good—this place doesn't look much different from that Erumalu town from before" Zoro noted, quick to notice just how deathly silent and empty the city was.
"Your right, you would almost think we had gone in circles if it wasn't for the fully intact buildings" I remarked.
"Hm? Where?" Luffy panted, tongue now lulling out in exhaustion as he started looking around for any signs of life.
"Vivi, I thought you said this city was supposed to be some sort of oasis" Sanji said.
"It looks like the oasis has disappeared, it's been swallowed up by all the sand" the princess sadly answered. "Huh?" she perked up the second she caught sight of the extremely thin, old man who was currently digging not that far from where we were.
"I'm assuming you're travelers, you must be exhausted from all the time spent in that heat, huh?" the old man asked once he finally spotted us. "Sorry, but this town is a bit dried up too, it doesn't have much relief to offer—but still, you're free to rest here awhile" he kindly offered with a smile. He was a scrawny little thing, looking as if he hadn't had a decent meal in a long time and was slowly wilting away...such a sight made my stomach churn and chest hurt. "We may not have much water, but there are plenty of inns in town—it is what we've prided ourselves so much on after all" he continued, proudly boasting about the now deserted town as if it was still thriving.
"Thank you, but we came here because we thought the Rebel Army was in this town" Vivi politely rejected, doing her best in hiding her face in an attempt to prevent the man from possibly recognizing her.
"What business do you have with the Rebel Army?!" the man suddenly spat with a venomous glare, his attitude doing a complete one-eighty at the mention of the Rebel Army. "Curse all of you! If you're here to join the Rebel Army, then you can just go back from where you came from!" he angrily snapped, already starting to throw various items at us until eventually, he succeeded in striking Luffy in the head with one of them. "If you're looking for those fools, look elsewhere! They're no longer in this town!" he hissed.
"Wait! They're not!" Luffy angrily screamed, barely able to contain his frustration alongside everyone else.
"Hey! Loosen your grip—that hurts!" I hissed the second Zoro's grip tightened until it started to hurt.
"Sorry..." he quietly mumbled, quick to loosen his hold and gently rub his thumb along the back of my knuckle as if to apologize.
"They left?" Vivi questioned.
"I'm sure you've noticed that the town was hit by a sandstorm, but that certainly wasn't the first" the man told her as he motioned all around us. "After three years of no rain, the land has become increasingly dry—sandstorms became a regular occurrence here" he revealed, eerily describing a fate that was no different from Erumalu. "Little by little, the oasis that we knew was swallowed up until the town became what you see now—a dying wasteland" he tiredly sighed as he went right back to digging. "When the full of supplies for the town ended, the Rebel Army couldn't maintain their drawn-out struggles, so they packed up—they've moved on; the Rebel base is now located in Katorea."
"Um...where's that? Is Katorea close to here, Vivi?" Luffy asked as the princess's expression slowly changed to one of realization and horror.
"It's near Nanohana—back the way we came from" she dejectedly answered, shoulders practically slumping in defeat upon realizing that all this time we had been moving away from our true destination.
"Katorea?" Chopper questioned with the tilt of his head. "That's where I got separated from Sanji and met Eyelash" he suddenly revealed, looking towards the camel when it made a noise. "That's right, when you helped me—wait a second, Eyelash is saying that he was carrying Rebel Army goods to Katorea" he translated for the animal which caused Sanji, Usopp, and Luffy to violently lash out. "Whatever" he once again translated for the animal, which only further enraged the three.
"Quick to resort to violence, I see" I commented.
"Well great, coming all this way was just a waste of time" Zoro irritably sighed.
"Vivi, wait, your name's…" the old man trailed off, shakily stepping towards the princess.
"Wait, hold on! She's defiantly not a princess!" Luffy quickly shouted before being struck on top of the head by Zoro.
"Nice one, Luffy!" the swordsman growled.
"Real smooth" I deadpanned. "Truly a nice save, even I now have my doubts that she's a princess" I sarcastically praised with the roll of my eyes.
"Princess Vivi, is that really you?" the old man asked. "You're alive...? I can't believe it, thank goodness" he suddenly sighed in relief, sounding as if he had thought her dead this entire time and maybe he had with how long she's probably be gone from the kingdom. "It's me, Vivi, don't you recognize me? I look different—I lost some weight I suppose" he weakly chuckled while grabbing a hold of the princess' shoulders.
"Toto...? Is that really you?" Vivi asked, covering her mouth in shock once she finally recognized the man in front of her.
"That's right" Toto nodded, causing the princess to tremble as choked sobs now started to slip past the hand which covered her mouth.
"Toto? That's this guy?" Luffy questioned.
"Whatever it's worth, Vivi dear, I have faith in you and the king" Toto confessed. "He's a good man, a true king that would never betray his country—I know it" he reassured her as he pulled her into a hug, tears of his own now leaking from his eyes. Tightly did the two hug one another, both heavily sobbing for a few seconds before eventually calming down enough to actually sit down and talk. "True, our country hasn't seen a drop of rain in three years, but I still put my trust in the king as I always have—most of the country still has faith in him, actually. So many times, I've tried to stop them, so many times..." he sadly admitted.
"But they won't listen to anything I say, the rebellion isn't stopping—their strength, supplies, and men have reached their limit, however, their intention is to settle things once and for all with this next attack" he gravely explained. "Their backs are against the wall, they're stuck in a corner, prepared for death. Please, Vivi, you have to stop these fools from tearing our country apart!" he pleaded.
"Toto, old friend, please don't be worried" Vivi reassured him, handing him a rag so he could wipe away his tears.
"Vivi, dear..." he whispered.
"We'll succeed, we're going to stop this" she firmly stated, a clear look of determination on her face.
"Thank you, Vivi!" Toto cried as he wrapped her up in another hug.
-Later-
"Well, great job today, everybody" Usopp smiled, waving his hand. "Really, we did some good work—now let's all lie down on these comfy beds and get some well deserve rest, okay?" he suggested. "We'll need our strength, goodnight, you guys" and with that, he hopped into one of the beds. Loudly snoring as if that would convince us that he was actually asleep.
"Please, this whole trip you've been nothing but lazy" Zoro insulted, throwing a pillow and knocking the sharpshooter off the bed.
"Why you—quit comparing me to you and all the other superhuman freaks!" Usopp angrily snapped, throwing the pillow right back.
"Ooo, you're a dead man!" I grinned, laughing at the deadly look on the swordsman's face the moment the pillow fell away.
"Now you're annoying me" Zoro glared.
"I think blue nose here wins today's award for the laziest talking animal in the desert..." Usopp grumbled, throwing another pillow but this time at Chopper.
"You try walking around in a fur coat!" the reindeer snapped, getting right up in the sharpshooter's face.
"Sanji, I think that's my bed" Vivi pointed out when she finally noticed that the blond was currently lying underneath the covers of her bed.
"Could he be any less subtle..." I sweat dropped.
"I know, I thought you might have trouble sleeping here all alone tonight, Vivi" Sanji innocently smiled before suddenly being struck in the face by a pillow.
"Nice shot!" I laughed from my spot atop one of the beds—legs crossed as I held my feet and rocked back.
"And the award for biggest perv goes to Sanji..." Usopp grumbled, causing Chopper to giggle.
A/N: Enjoy
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