After Ace's farewell, they were able to calm down a bit after seeing such destruction caused by a single man.
"What did your brother give you?" Nami asked him, looking at the piece of paper he had.
"I don't know, it's just a blank piece of paper" Luffy said, turning it over.
"Just a piece of paper?" Chopper asked him.
While they were talking, Oliver was training after seeing such a display of power.
'Ace lost to Blackbeard despite being quite strong... I have to get stronger if I want to try to help Luffy save Ace at Marineford' Oliver thought while exercising.
"I don't know what that paper is, but if Ace gave it to me I have to keep it close. Please, sew it on real tight" Luffy told Nami, who grabbed the hat and the paper.
"Alright, I'll sew it like a ribbon on your hat" Nami said while sewing the hat. "Okay. All done. Here you go"
"Thanks Nami! Now I won't have to worry. I'll never lose it" Luffy said with a smile.
"How are you so sure?" Usopp asked him.
"Luffy doesn't even take his hat off to sleep, do you really think he's going to lose that paper?" Oliver told him, continuing with his exercises.
"Put this on, Luffy-san" Vivi told him, handing him desert clothes.
"Uh? Why?" Luffy asked, not knowing why.
"You have to cover yourself because of the heat, it will be around 50 degrees in the desert. Your skin will burn if you're too exposed" Vivi told him.
"Then why are you guys wearing such thin clothes?" Luffy asked her.
"We will also wear clothes like this" Nami explained to him.
"WHAT?! YOU'RE GOING TO WEAR THAT TOO?!" Sanji yelled, crying at the thought of not seeing them in those outfits anymore.
"Did you seriously think we were going to go through the desert like that? The clothes are nice, but they don't help in the desert" Elegg said, starting to put the other clothes on over them.
"Well, I guess there's no choice, I'd better put it on" Luffy said, starting to put on the clothes.
"What?! We're already at the edge of the island." Chopper said, surprised to see the sea, but Vivi turned to look.
"This isn't the edge of the island. This is the mouth of the Sandora River. You can see the other part of the island in the distance" Vivi explained to him.
"Oh, it's true." Chopper said, noticing the other part of the island.
Vivi pulled out a map to show them the path to follow.
"This is a somewhat rough map of the area. And this is our destination." Vivi said, pointing to their destination on the map. "It's called Yuba. We will cross the Sandora River and head out from there"
"And Yuba is where the leader of the rebellion is" Zoro said.
"So I just have to kick his ass!" Luffy said decisively.
"NO, LUFFY-SAN! I want to persuade the leader of the rebellion to stop the bloodshed" Vivi explained to him.
"There are about 700,000 rebels, right? Do you think they're going to stop?" Zoro asked her.
"Whether they're going to stop? You'll understand when we get to Yuba. What Baroque Works has done to my country! And how much the people of Alabasta have suffered!" Vivi said, remembering everything they had been through. "WE HAVE TO STOP THIS SENSELESS WAR! I WON'T ALLOW BAROQUE WORKS TO DO WHATEVER THEY WANT IN MY COUNTRY!"
"A war, huh?" Oliver said out loud, remembering the ones back on Earth.
"Alright, Vivi! Let's go now, towards Upa!" Luffy said, motivated.
"It's Yuba" Vivi corrected him.
"YUBA!" Luffy yelled again.
"Yes!" everyone yelled at the same time.
Everyone got off the ship where an excited Luffy headed to the city.
"We've arrived! Yuba!" Luffy yelled happily, but he looked around and only saw a destroyed city. "Wait a minute... There's nothing here!"
"This isn't Yuba" Oliver told him.
"What do you mean it isn't?" Luffy asked him.
"We haven't reached Yuba yet, Luffy-san. We still have to walk through the desert to the northwest for half a day." Vivi explained to him while Usopp was surprised.
"Half a day?!" Usopp said, somewhat surprised by how long it would take.
"Look at the map. We've crossed the Sandora River and arrived at Erumalu, the green city." Vivi explained, map in hand.
"Green city? There's nothing green here." Luffy said, confused.
"No, not anymore." Vivi said.
Just then, a strange seal came out of the river.
"Wow! What the hell is that, a turtle?!" Usopp said, scared.
"Kung-Fu Dugongs!" Vivi said.
"There really are quite a lot of curious animals" Oliver said as Usopp approached.
"If you want to disembark, you'll have to defeat me first. If not, you'll have to go to the other shore, cowards. That's what he said." Chopper said after translating what the animal said.
"I can't just stand by when someone calls me a coward. Here I go!" Usopp said, jumping in.
"Wait, Usopp-san!"
Vivi tried to warn him, but it was already too late, as the Kung-Fu Dugong had already beaten Usopp up.
"Kung-Fu Dugongs are strong" Vivi said.
"What a way to lose" Zoro said while Luffy yelled triumphantly after defeating it.
"If he had only waited a bit, he wouldn't have suffered like that" Oliver said, looking at Usopp with pity. "I think Usopp lacks training."
"Do you want to make him do your hellish training? I don't think he'd survive" Elegg said.
"We have a winner here." Nami said, pointing out to Vivi how Luffy defeated the Kung-Fu Dugong.
"It's also bad to beat them!" Vivi yelled, while the Kung-Fu Dugong stood up, bowed to Luffy, and its eyes sparkled.
"What?" Luffy said, confused.
"Their rules say that if they lose a match, they become the victor's pupil." Vivi explained to him.
"So, they really are martial artists." Zoro said.
"But it doesn't look like they know how to fight much" Oliver said, watching how Luffy was teaching them to fight.
"HOW DID YOU GET SO MANY?!" Vivi yelled upon seeing that he had so many others imitating him.
"Why do you keep getting shocked after spending time with us? It's better if you just start accepting Luffy's craziness" Oliver said, resigned.
After a few minutes, they were already ready to leave for Yuba, while the Kung-Fu Dugongs stayed behind to guard the Going Merry.
"Alright! Let's go to Yuba!" Luffy said with a smile.
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