The Grand Line, a certain sea area. The second day after the Straw Hats left Little Garden. Under the morning sun, the Going Merry sailed quietly across the boundless sea.
"Listen up! I will definitely go to the warriors' village, Elbaf, one day!"
"Yeah, Usopp! Let's go to the land of the giants together!"
Usopp and Luffy, arms around each other's shoulders, stood on the ship's railing early in the morning, shouting energetically.
"El-Elbaf-Elbaf-baf-baf! Everyone's so big, 'cause they're all giants!"
As Luffy and Usopp stood on the railing loudly singing their Elbaf warrior song, Tom, who was training on deck, happened to pass by.
What kind of messy song are those two singing? Tom thought upon hearing them.
"2,691!"
Tom, with heavy lead weights tied around his ankles, performed a textbook-perfect frog jump past Luffy and Usopp. Upon landing, he caused the ship to sway slightly, nearly shaking the two singing on the railing to fall straight into the sea.
Karoo, resting nearby, suddenly saw Luffy and Usopp fall down and quacked in alarm.
"What are you doing?"
"Be more careful!"
After finally climbing back onto the ship, Luffy and Usopp yelled at Tom, who remained blissfully unaware of having set them up and continued his training.
"What's wrong with you two? Falling like that. Seems like you didn't rest well last night, leaving your legs weak and unsteady," Tom said, turning his head as he crouched and jumped forward.
"What did you say? You weirdo hopping around like a frog!"
"When it was still dark, you were jumping all over the ship. I thought we had an extra frog on board," Luffy and Usopp retorted.
Their words immediately darkened Tom's face. He turned to face them. "You two bastards, singing nonsense early in the morning? Since when did this ship get a two-man choir? And you sound terrible."
Before he finished speaking, Tom, Luffy, and Usopp immediately started brawling on the deck.
"They're so energetic," Nami said, leaning against the mast, watching the brawl with a slightly listless expression. "I'm feeling a bit tired now. Vivi, can you watch the Log Pose for me?" Holding her forehead, she handed the pose to Vivi sitting nearby. Clearly, she wasn't in good spirits.
Vivi took the Eternal Pose, looking down at the device pointing toward Alabasta with a grave expression, clearly preoccupied with worries.
Seeing Vivi's demeanor, Nami knew she was worried about her country. A knowing smile appeared on Nami's face. "You can finally return to Alabasta."
"But that's on the premise that we can reach Alabasta safely," Nami added, a trace of mischief appearing on her face, adding a spark of liveliness to her lovely features, speaking in a joking tone.
Vivi knew Nami was trying to help her relax. Her eyes were bright and spirited, full of vitality. "I know. I must go back. Because the only way to save the country now is..." She paused, remembering Igaram's words. The only person who could save Alabasta now was her. The citizens no longer trusted the king's words. To quell the rebellion, she had to tell the people the truth herself. So, she had to survive no matter what.
Even if it meant sacrificing those around her, or betraying others—though painful, she had to live. She had resolved not to die.
"I must return to Alabasta alive!" Vivi declared with solemn and resolute determination, unconsciously tightening her grip on the Eternal Pose.
Nami and the recently finished brawlers—Tom and the others—heard Vivi's words and all looked at her. The previously noisy ship fell silent, the atmosphere growing heavy.
"Vivi, you don't need to be so tense," Sanji said, walking down the deck stairs with a plate of pastries, a cigarette in his mouth, full of confidence. "With me here, you can rest assured about everything."
"Would you like to try the light dessert cake I made today? And would you prefer black tea or coffee?" Sanji gallantly offered the plate to Vivi and Nami.
"That looks really delicious!" Luffy and Usopp rushed over at once to Sanji, drooling profusely with greedy expressions, speaking in unison.
Seeing them try to snatch food meant for ladies, Sanji angrily told them their portions were in the kitchen. Luffy and Usopp immediately ran toward the kitchen, with Karoo quacking close behind.
Nami and Vivi watched them squeeze toward the kitchen with sweatdrops, about to speak when Sanji said, "Stupid fisherman, aren't you going to eat?"
"Of course I am," Tom said, quickly taking a cake from Sanji's plate and stuffing it into his mouth.
Sanji immediately got angry. "You dare steal food from ladies?! You shameless bastard!"
"What nonsense are you spouting? Trying to snatch food from Luffy would be worse. Do you think I'm stupid?" Tom figured fighting Luffy for food was too difficult; grabbing from Sanji was easier.
"I'll kick you into stir-fried beef!" Unfortunately, Sanji ignored Tom's hardship and charged at Tom with the plate, starting to fight.
"It's just one cake! The things you make are for us to eat, right? Why be so petty? What's in your head?" Tom said, dodging Sanji's kicks.
"This was specially made for those two ladies! Do you know how much effort I put in?!" Sanji's words puzzled Tom. Were the cakes Luffy and the others ate different from the one he just had?
Vivi, seeing them fighting fiercely, was about to step in to stop them when she suddenly heard loud laughter from Luffy and strange cries from Usopp coming from the kitchen.
"Wah! This is so delicious!"
"Wah... this is really delicious!"
Their emotions were completely opposite: one laughed heartily saying the food was delicious; the other cried with a heavy sobbing tone while saying similar words. It was bizarre. Could Sanji's pastries make them laugh and cry?
"What's wrong with them? Could it be..." Vivi suddenly remembered they had an extra person on board: Miss Goldenweek. The little girl had been brought along when they left Little Garden. As Luffy said, she'd shared senbei with them, so she couldn't be bad. Giving her a ride was fine.
However, this morning, after Miss Goldenweek's repeated pleas and sincere promise not to cause trouble, Tom finally returned her palette and brushes, seriously warning her not to doodle on the ship.
Who would have thought Miss Goldenweek had been eating snacks alone in the kitchen when Luffy, Usopp, and a duck charged in, dividing up the snacks she wanted to eat, leaving her only a plate of crumbs. Even the special children's meal Sanji made for her was accidentally stuffed into Luffy's mouth.
So, the teary-eyed Miss Goldenweek, full of grievances, threw Tom's warning to the back of her mind, took out her brush and painted "Laughter Yellow" on Luffy's back and "Sadness Blue" on Usopp's, making them laugh and cry uncontrollably while eating.
Meanwhile, Tom and Sanji were fighting vigorously. Seeing Sanji kick from the front, Tom instinctively raised his right leg to block. But with heavy lead weights on his legs, he was half a beat too slow. Unable to block in time, he hurriedly dodged to the side.
As they fought, Tom and Sanji reached the bow where Zoro was training.
"2,603! 2,604!"
Zoro, his feet still bandaged, swung an iron rod strung with four heavy round iron weights up and down. He thought if he could have cut through wax as hard as iron back then, he wouldn't have troubled others.
"I will get stronger! At least strong enough to cut iron!" The seriously training Zoro had just shouted this when Tom and Sanji charged over.
At that moment, Zoro happened to turn and swing the heavy iron rod backward.
Sanji, rushing over, saw Zoro suddenly turn and swing the rod toward him and hurriedly stopped his movement. "Marimo! What are you doing?!"
While braking to a stop, the plate in Sanji's hand wasn't hit, but the strong gust generated by Zoro's swift turn and swing of the heavy rod blew the pastries on the plate into the air.
"Hey, these cakes aren't bad," the sharp-eyed Tom said, spotting two heart-shaped cakes among the many scattered in the air. He quickly reached out, grabbed them, and without hesitation ate one. It was extremely delicious, far better than what he'd eaten before.
Sanji, holding the empty plate, caught back the falling cakes one by one with astonishing agility, not letting a single one hit the deck.
However, seeing Tom eat one of the specially made heart-shaped cakes meant for Vivi and Nami, Sanji's eyes nearly spat fire. He had imagined how touched they'd be upon discovering the hidden heart-shaped cakes among the ordinary ones. Now that one was in Tom's stomach, he wished he could kick Tom a few times.
"You're the ones who suddenly rushed over! Get your facts straight, you curly-browed cook!" Zoro, hearing Sanji call him "Marimo," couldn't tolerate it.
Sanji, busy catching cakes and dealing with Zoro, had no time for the moment to settle accounts with Tom.
As conflict erupted between Zoro and Sanji, Tom, finding the heart-shaped cake delicious, thought of giving the remaining one to Nami.
With that idea, Tom threw the heart-shaped cake toward Nami. "Eat this. It tastes great."
Nami had felt unwell since morning, her head spinning. After being on deck awhile, she felt worse, her vision blurry. She barely supported herself to stand up, wanting to return to her room to rest when she heard Tom call and something came flying her way.
Before Nami could see clearly what it was, it hit her head, and she collapsed unconscious on the deck.
Vivi, right beside Nami, saw her collapse without warning and hurriedly stepped forward to check.
Tom, seeing Nami lying on the deck, was so shocked his jaw dropped. "What's going on?! Nami was knocked out by a heart-shaped cake?!"
"That was a cake I specially made for Miss Nami! It has nothing to do with you!" Sanji, while fighting Zoro, didn't forget to curse Tom, then reacted. "Wait, what happened to Nami-swan?"
"I'd like to ask you! Did you put iron in your cake? How could a cake knock someone out?" Tom asked Sanji, just as Vivi panickedly shouted: "It's terrible! Come quick!"
"What's wrong, Vivi? I can't... even though something seems to have happened, I still really want to laugh..."
"Are there enemies? Even so, I still really want to cry..."
Luffy and Usopp, hearing Vivi's shout, hurriedly ran out of the kitchen—one laughing till tears streamed, the other crying till eyes were red.
"Now is not the time for jokes! Nami has a high fever!" Vivi said seriously after touching Nami's burning forehead.
"A fever? Miss Nami?!" Sanji, hearing Vivi, lost all desire to fight Zoro, pushed Zoro aside and ran to Nami.
"How did this happen..." Tom, arriving at Nami's side, saw her lying on deck, breathing heavily, her face flushed, face and body covered in sweat, looking extremely distressed. He without hesitation picked her up and carried her toward the cabin. Carrying her, he felt her body burning hot, her consciousness unclear—clearly a severe fever, otherwise she wouldn't have fainted.
After carrying Nami to her bed, everyone gathered in the room, watching the unconscious Nami, each filled with anxiety. Zoro remained outside to watch their course.
"Will... will Nami-swan die?" Sanji asked, so anxious that tears flowed, biting his sleeve.
Seeing Nami's face still flushed with unnatural redness from the persisting high fever, Tom had never imagined such a spirited woman could fall ill so suddenly.
Vivi thought Nami's illness might be due to not adapting to the Grand Line's strange and ever-changing climate. Many who came to the Grand Line faced this—it could be said to be the first major hurdle of sailing here.
"I've often heard that even world-renowned, powerful pirates have suddenly died from diseases caused by the abnormal climate here," Vivi said, while placing a warm towel on Nami's forehead. Sailing the Grand Line, even minor symptoms could be fatal if one wasn't careful. Seeing Luffy and the others seemingly clueless, Vivi couldn't help asking if anyone on board had any medical knowledge.
Then Luffy and the others all pointed at the bedridden Nami. Clearly, the only one with medical common sense on this ship was Nami herself.
If it was just a fever, Tom vaguely remembered a few fever-reducing methods but couldn't recall them immediately. Besides, Nami's condition wasn't clear. She was fine yesterday, but had a high fever this morning—unlike an ordinary fever. Without a proper diagnosis, Tom dared not act recklessly.
Earlier, seeing Nami ill, Luffy and Usopp kept loudly laughing and crying—one seeming to gloat, the other to mourn. Sanji and Tom inevitably beat them up, tearing off their clothes.
Learning Miss Goldenweek had painted on them, Tom wanted to severely discipline the little girl. But knowing she'd caused trouble, Miss Goldenweek had already hidden herself first. Preoccupied with Nami, Tom had no mood to find her.
"Shouldn't getting sick be fixed by eating meat? Right?" Luffy asked Sanji and the others.
"You might think so, but Nami can't even eat delicious cake now, let alone meat. If eating meat cured illness, the world wouldn't need doctors," Tom told Luffy, who still didn't understand. In his view, meat should cure all. He even told Tom to force-feed meat to Nami if she couldn't eat, leaving Tom speechless.
"I was preparing to make some basic food for the patient, but that's only care, not treatment," Sanji said, looking at the bedridden Nami. "Normally, I put a hundred times more effort into the food for Nami and Vivi than yours. I use fresh vegetables and meat to perfectly balance their nutrition. Even the fish the stupid fisherman catches—I give them the best parts." He pointed at Luffy and the others. "The almost-spoiled food is what you eat."
"Hey!" Usopp, finally learning the truth about their meals, rudely slapped away Sanji's hand.
"No wonder you were so angry when I ate the cake earlier. Those weren't almost-spoiled," Tom said suddenly realizing, understandingly.
"But even then, the food is still delicious! Hahahaha!" Luffy said indifferently.
"In short, as long as I'm this ship's cook, daily nutritional intake won't be a problem," Sanji stated firmly. He indeed put thought into nutritional balance. "But there are many types of food for patients. I can't diagnose which symptom requires what."
Hearing this, Luffy told him to make Nami eat everything. Sanji replied that's why she's a patient—she has no appetite.
While Tom and the others were talking, Vivi exclaimed in shock: "F-forty degrees?! Her temperature has risen again!" Using a thermometer, she found Nami's fever had increased by another degree. This was bad.
"A forty-degree fever could cook her brains!" Tom urgently exclaimed upon learning Nami's temperature.
"What? So Nami's going to become an idiot?" Luffy shouted in shock, holding his head with both hands.
"What will happen to Nami-swan?!" Sanji was anxious like an ant on a hot pan, pacing back and forth.
"Don't panic! There will be doctors in Alabasta, right?" Usopp asked Vivi how long to Alabasta. Vivi said at least a week. Nami obviously couldn't last that long.
"Is being sick really that painful?" Luffy asked, seeing Nami's distressed appearance.
"Don't know. I've never been sick," Sanji and Usopp both said, tilting their necks.
"I've been sick before. But with a fever, sweating a lot should help you recover quickly, right? Last time I had a high fever, I fought a Fish-Man and pulled through. So I think Nami will be fine," Tom said.
As soon as Tom spoke, Vivi shouted at them: "What kind of people are you?! Of course Nami's in pain right now! Normally, you don't get a forty-degree fever! And a forty-degree fever isn't something ordinary people can endure! If things go badly, this is an illness that could kill her!"
Initially, hearing Sanji and Usopp say they'd never been sick made Vivi think they weren't normal. Fish-Men were much stronger than humans. Hearing Tom say he fought a Fish-Man with a high fever and lived made Vivi certain—there wasn't a normal person on this ship!
Vivi finally understood why, though they seemed anxious upon learning Nami was sick, none showed genuine worry.
"You say Nami might die? But we just entered the Grand Line a few days ago! That can't happen!" Tom said, so shocked his mouth hung open upon hearing Nami could die.
"WAAAAAAAAH!" Luffy and the others reacted exaggeratedly, screaming in fear.
"Nami's going to die?!" Luffy's jaw nearly fell, panicking and waving his hands wildly.
"Nami! Don't die! ...I mean, Nami, don't die!" Sanji was completely flustered, even misspeaking.
"Without a navigator, how will we sail from now on?!" Usopp ran back and forth holding his head, utterly panicked.
They acted as if Nami had truly died. Seeing them making a huge racket, even Karoo quacking incessantly, Vivi shouted angrily: "Don't panic! Keep quiet!"
"A doctor! We need a professional doctor!" Tom, seeing the critical situation, immediately said to Luffy.
"Right! Let's find a doctor! Get a doctor to help!" Luffy urgently shouted.
"I know! Just stay calm, or you'll affect the patient!" Vivi hadn't expected them to panic this much upon hearing Nami might die.
"No!" Nami, lying in bed, suddenly spoke, stopping Luffy and the others.
"Isn't there a newspaper in the desk drawer?" Nami sat up, removed the warm towel from her forehead, and said to Vivi.
Luffy, seeing Nami awake, thought she was fine and immediately cheered, happily shouting that Nami was cured. Usopp promptly smacked his head, telling him that was impossible.
Meanwhile, someone else got smacked on the head by Nami. When Tom saw Nami sit up, he hurriedly stepped forward to ask about her condition, then accidentally knocked Sanji flying.
"So, your brain isn't cooked? Do you know what one plus one equals?" This was Tom's first question to the conscious Nami, earning him a headbutt. "I'm fine, you big idiot."
Seeing Nami speak weakly, her face still covered in sickly redness, making her look especially fragile, Tom rubbed his head and said with surprise and seriousness: "Don't say anything more. I'm sure you're very sick, because hitting me didn't hurt at all! You should lie down and rest. Don't move."
"This illness isn't serious. You've been sick before too. Like you, I'll be fine in a few days. Don't worry unnecessarily," Nami said. It was the first time she'd seen Tom so concerned about her. Though his questions were still nonsensical, it lifted her spirits, making her feel much better.
As Tom was about to speak, Vivi, reading the newspaper, exclaimed in shock: "How could this be?!"
"What's wrong?"
"Is it about Alabasta?" Luffy and Sanji asked urgently, seeing Vivi's shocked and stunned expression. Preoccupied with Vivi, Sanji stopped messing around with Tom.
"Thirty thousand royal army soldiers have defected to the rebel army! It was originally a suppression battle of 600,000 royal troops against 400,000 rebels. With the defections, the situation has reversed in one go!" The worry on Vivi's face was plainly visible. Alabasta's situation was far worse than she imagined.
Nami said it was a three-day-old newspaper. Knowing wouldn't speed up the ship, and to avoid making Vivi uneasy, she had hidden it.
"Do you understand now?" Nami asked Luffy and the others, her face still flushed, still constantly breaking out in cold sweat. It looked uncomfortable to others, let alone to her.
"I think it seems very bad."
"So, over a million people in Alabasta will be dragged into war?" Luffy and Tom's words comforted Nami—at least they grasped the severity.
If this continued, the entire country would soon erupt into a blood-soaked war!
Vivi's body trembled slightly. "If we don't stop the war, the Kingdom of Alabasta is finished! This country will definitely be seized by Crocodile!"
"Just wanting to return safely isn't enough. I must go back quickly! If I'm too late, a million citizens will engage in meaningless mutual slaughter!" Vivi said, gripping the newspaper tightly, her body curling inward, filled with fear and worry.
"Vivi... the burden you carry is truly heavy," Sanji said, voicing everyone's thoughts. They hadn't imagined a million-person rebellion in Alabasta.
"But... can a war involving over a million people really be stopped?" Tom's words seemed directed at Vivi, and also at himself.
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T/N :
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