Chapter 25: Wapol the Tyrant

Chapter 25:

Leaving Little Garden, Wapol the Tyrant

The Going Merry had been stocked with all the dinosaur meat that could be shoved into the hold. It had taken longer than expected; Zoro and Sanji had restarted their previous argument about whose catch was bigger, but in the end, Nami had scared/charmed them into submission. Coby had also suggested that they bring along the horns from Zoro's triceratops and the teeth from Sanji's dinosaur to sell if they ever needed some extra money. According to both him and Vivi, ivory could fetch a high price of sold to the right bidder.

Grace and Amy had moved into the woman's quarters with Nami and Vivi, both of whom did not fully trust them yet. Nami ended up writing out a sleep schedule for the two of them to keep an eye on the sisters at night. Especially Amy.

Coby had gone through with Grace's suggestion and worked on only altering his eyes. It was not easy, but by pushing himself like he had learned to from Zoro, Coby was able to do it. There had been quite a few mishaps with the wrong things changing (that was a story for another time) and his eyes still shifted every now and then, but for all intents and purposes he no longer needed glasses, even if he now had slitted pupils. He'd also taken to wearing a pair of sandals he'd gotten from Luffy after the loss of his tennis shoes during his initial transformation.

Finally, they were ready to depart, though it would have been two hours earlier had Luffy not insisted they eat all the meat they couldn't store on the ship. Either way, they were ready. The Merry slowly made its way down the river until it came to the mouth and gave way to the ocean. The giants were standing there, one on each side.

"Remember," Dorry began from the left. "There is an obstacle standing in your way of getting to the next island."

"We will take care of it," Broggy insisted on the right. "Just keep going straight, no matter what."

"You guys heard him," Luffy said. "Set sail!"

The obstacle turned out to be a giant, red goldfish known as the Island Eater. The fish had come up, eaten them, and promptly been shredded by the combined efforts of Dorry and Broggy at the expense of their aged weapons. They continued on their path, full speed ahead.

It had been two days since the Straw Hat Pirates had left Little Garden. Grace and Amy were slowly gaining the trust of the crew, with a few exceptions. Sanji and Luffy had instantly taken a liking to both of them, Luffy because he trusted easily and Sanji because of obvious, gender-related reasons. Zoro and Gin seemed to trust Amy more than Grace, the former because she had helped them by knocking Mr. 5 unconscious in their battle and the latter for their similar sadistic natures. Vivi was adamantly against Amy, likely because Mr. 5 had killed both Mr. 9 and Ms. Monday back in Whisky Peak, but the princess had nothing against Grace. Nami and Usopp were still questioning their motives, but Usopp was coming around (Grace had asked about what chemicals he used in his attacks to try to come up with some new ones of her own and the two had gotten into a long-winded chemistry discussion). Naturally, Coby had welcomed Grace with open arms, him having been the reason she decided to defect right then and join them. He'd tried to open up to Amy, too, but the blonde had brushed him off with a cold shoulder.

It was a beautiful day, fine flakes of snow drifting down onto the deck of the ship building into a blanket of white powder. Despite the suddenly cold temperatures, Zoro, Gin, and Coby were working out shirtless, Zoro lifting weights that no normal person would be able to.

Grace and Amy were in the kitchen, Sanji doting on them and the window in the door giving them an unobstructed view of the men. Amy was openly oogling them, more so Gin and Zoro in that order (Coby was too young for her and she didn't like him for as-of-yet unspecified reasons). Grace was only taking glances at the youngest of the three when she thought no one was looking, her face growing redder by the minute.

Unfortunately, it seemed her blush was not due to what she was seeing because, when Grace went to stand, she collapsed. The girl had a high fever and her breathing was labored. Sweat shone on her brow, dripping down her face and onto the floor. There was no doubt about it; the painter was sick. Luffy and Usopp soon found Carue below deck, quacking in pain and exhibiting the same symptoms.

The crew (sans Gin, who was directing the ship since he didn't trust Zoro's sense of direction, and Usopp, who was in the crow's nest) were with the two in the women's quarters. Cold washcloths sat on each of their heads. Both Grace and Carue were moaning in pain, fading in and out of consciousness. The others were arguing about what to do.

"Just feed them a lot of meat," Luffy tried to reason.

"Meat is protein," Sanji acknowledged, "but they aren't sick because of lack of nutrients. I put far more care into the girls' meals than you morons'.

"It must be an infection," Vivi deduced, trying to be heard over the male members' outcries at the chef. "That's the only explanation I can think of. We need to find a doctor."

They continued to debate on what to do until a doctor could be found. Their argument halted when the ship suddenly turned to the right, throwing them all to the floor.

"What is Gin doing out there?!" Nami shouted.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Coby muttered. Amy and Sanji stayed behind while Coby, Luffy, Nami, and Zoro rushed to the rudder to find their acting helmsman on the ground, his face red and his breathing ragged.

"Not you, too," Nami whined.

"You could show a little more concern, you know," Zoro chastised.

"It must have been something from Little Garden," Coby muttered worriedly. "We need to find a doctor. Now."

"On the bright side," Vivi commented, "infections aren't contagious, so we don't have to worry about getting sick as well."

"Zoro," Nami ordered. "Move Gin into the guys' room and get him a washcloth."

"No," Gin moaned, trying to stand. "I'm fine. It's nothing serious. I'll be better in a couple hours."

"We're not taking any chances," Zoro told him, literally picking Gin up and throwing him over his shoulder. As the swordsman walked off with his sick friend, they heard Usopp call from the crow's nest.

"There's someone standing on the water! 40 degrees port side!" He was right. There, where he had specified, was a man dressed like a clown from a circus. A bow and a quiver of arrows rested over his shoulders and his mouth looked like a zig-zag line.

"Hello," he chattered. "Quite cold, isn't it?"

"Uh, yeah," Luffy blinked. There was an awkward silence before the man tapped his foot, causing a clanking sound. The submarine he was standing on rose out of the ocean and raised a pirate flag. Men poured from inside and boarded the Going Merry, pointing their guns at the Straw Hats who did not move. The ruckus drew the attention of Zoro and Sanji, who came out from their respective places.

"What's going on out here?" Sanji asked, lighting a cigarette without worry of the sword in his face.

"We've been boarded," Luffy responded unnecessarily.

"You call yourselves pirates?" a large man laughed. He was as wide as Coby was tall and his jaw seemed to be plated in iron. He wore an embroidered purple cape that made him look like a king and the way he talked down on them only solidified this. He held a sword, but it looked like it was more for show rather than battle because he was eating a piece of meat off of it. "Well, it doesn't matter. Do you happen to have an eternal pose to Drum Kingdom?"

"Never heard of it," Luffy replied, heedless to the weapons in his face. "Could we do this some other time? We're kind of in a hurry."

"Well," the fat man said, taking all of the meat and most of the sword into his mouth with one bite, "if you don't have a pose to Drum Kingdom, we'll just settle for all of your treasure." He threw the handle of the sword into his mouth and ate that too.

"Hell no!" Nami yelled. "You aren't going to go anywhere near my treasure!"

"If you won't give it to us, we'll have to take it by force."

"C-C-Can't we j-just talk about this l-like c-civilized people?" Usopp stuttered, a gun so close to his face that it was bending his nose.

"I guess," the man sighed. "Man am I hungry." His mouth opened up to an impossible length and he bit into the railing of the Going Merry, much to the shock of the crew on deck. The man then tore that bit of the ship off and swallowed it whole.

"Don't eat our ship!" Luffy yelled angrily. Two men moved to try to hold the captain back.

"And who's going to stop me?" The man took another bite out of the railing, pushing Luffy's anger over the edge. The captain punched the men holding him before charging at the bastard that had decided to eat the Merry.

"I guess it was inevitable," Sanji sighed. His legs shot out, throwing way his opponents before they could react.

"Shrimp!" Zoro called, pulling out Kitetsu III and Yubashiri. "Scare tactics!"

"Yes, Zoro-sensei!" Coby called back. "Hybrid Mode!" The boy's form shifted, his forehead elongating and spouting three horns, his skin turning into dull green scales, and a tail forming. He stood in his Hybrid Mode, the Sabaku no Kiba blades out and ready. Several men panicked at the sight of what Coby had become. One even tried to shoot him in the head, but it only bounced off the crest his forehead had become.

"Do you want to play that game with me?" Coby growled. The men fled.

Usopp ducked just in time for all of the men pointing weapons at him to fire at each other. When he realized that they were all on the deck injured, he started ranting about the greatness of Captain Usopp.

Nami had pulled out her bo and was whacking away, sometimes playing the defenseless damsel card to get the better of whoever came after her.

Luffy tried to charge straight for the man whose crew had boarded his ship, but said crew was trying to get in the way. The captain was beating them away with Gum-Gum Pistols, Whips, and Gatlings, building a wake of unconscious enemies behind him. Luffy ran at the man, his rubbery arms grabbing the mast as be ran by.

"Gum-Gum-!" he began.

"Giant Chomp!" The man ate Luffy, whose arms were still out and holding on to the mast, and started chewing. "Huh. This guy's really chewy."

"Luffy, no!" Nami shouted.

"Captain Luffy!" Coby yelled in worry.

"BAZOOKA!" they heard Luffy yell from inside the man's mouth. His arms snapped forward and hit the man with enough force to get the Luffy out of the pirate's mouth and send him flying into the horizon.

"King Wapol!" all of his men shouted. They hurried to their ship, worrying about their king and telling the Straw Hats that they would pay for that.

"What did they call him?" Usopp question as the submarine boat faded into the distance. "Waffle or something?"

"Doesn't matter," Nami insisted. "If the map of this part of the Grand Line I stole from Whisky Peak is right, there should be an island just a few kilometers west of here. Usopp, you take the helm. We should be able to reach it by tomorrow, but we'll have to stop for the night."

"Sounds like a plan," Luffy agreed. He went to check on Gin while Coby and Sanji went to see Grace. Zoro, under the direction of Nami, dropped anchor before joining Luffy in the mens' quarters.

"Land dead ahead!" Coby called from the crow's nest. It was his turn to be on watch, his ability to change his eyes into those of a triceratops increasing his visual prowess tenfold, therefore increasing his eyesight far past that of anyone in the crew. Sure, he had trouble keeping the transformation for hours on end, but he was getting better. Currently, he could keep them changed for an hour and a half without having to rest.

The crew spilled from inside. Luffy and Coby had been the only ones on deck due to the cold weather that had only gotten colder. Vivi had explained that this was because they had to be approaching a winter island, an island that had a cold climate all year round. As a result, everyone had pulled on the winter clothes Kaya had seen fit to stock on the Merry. In the distance was the island, five circular mountains shooting up from into the sky like thick candles.

They sailed into the mouth of a wide river and followed it deeper into the island, looking for civilization as they went. Sanji was inside, caring for both Grace and Carue while Gin did not want a caretaker. Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Amy, Vivi, and Coby were on deck, waiting for something to happen.

And happen it did. Islanders rose up on either side of the ship much like the people of Whisky Peak had, but where those bounty hunters had played nice, these people were outright hostile.

"Zoro," Luffy said. "Drop the anchor." The swordsman did so, careful to make no sudden movements lest the islanders attack. The weight plopped into the freezing water and brought the Merry to a halt. The man who they assumed was the island's leader stepped forward. He was bundled up in a green overcoat and matching pants. Hiking boots were laced onto his feet and a green hat protected his ears from the cold. He gazed at the pirates with eyes filled with contempt, eyes that had seen death at the hands of pirates.

"Leave now," he ordered. "Your kind are not welcome here."

"Please," Nami pleaded. "We're just looking for a doctor. We have three crewmates who are sick. We don't know how long they'll last. One of them is only a little girl."

"Do you think we'll fall for that old trick?" one of the men on the shore yelled angrily. "We aren't stupid!"

"Please," Vivi begged, throwing herself to the deck. "One of those who is sick is my oldest friend. Whatever it is you want, I'll do anything! Just please. We need a doctor."

"Another is my little sister," Amy called, falling to bow as well. "I would do anything for her, but I have no medical experience. Please, help her." There was a pause before Luffy knelt down as well. One by one, the others followed suit until Zoro, being the last and most prideful, dropped too.

"We have only one doctor here," their leader finally sighed. "I'm sorry. You can bring them ashore to my home, but I cannot guarantee their survival."

"It will have to do," Vivi muttered. "Thank you."

End of Chapter 25

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-SwordOfTheGods