The cold bit deeper than any blade.
Nami shivered against Luffy's back, her skin burning through layers of blankets. Each ragged breath she took fogged in the Drum Island air, a fragile sign of life that grew fainter with every step up the treacherous slope.
"Luffy… it's too steep," Sanji warned, his eyes fixed on the sheer ice-coated cliffs above. "If we slip—"
"We won't slip," Luffy said, his voice uncharacteristically flat. His arms, locked beneath Nami's knees, hadn't trembled once. "She's getting hotter."
Nami's head lolled against his shoulder. "Put me down… you're both being stupid…"
"Quiet," Luffy ordered, not unkindly. "You save your breath for getting better."
Below them, the village of Bighorn was a scattering of lights in the gathering twilight. Dalton's words echoed in the frozen air: One doctor. A witch. At the top.
Sanji lit a cigarette, the flare of his lighter a tiny rebellion against the encroaching dark. "This 'witch' better be home."
---
Meanwhile, in Cocoa Weed Village…
"You expect me to believe this boy was dying?" a burly villager roared, slamming his tankard on the bar. "He had a cough!"
Dr. Kureha, 140 years of life etched into a face as sharp as a scalpel, didn't even look up as she counted her berries. "He had pneumonia. Another six hours and his lungs would have filled like two sacks of seawater. But by all means," she said, finally fixing the man with a gaze that could frost glass, "next time, let him cough. Save us both the trouble."
The boy, now color back in his cheeks, tugged his father's sleeve. "Papa, I can breathe. It doesn't hurt anymore."
The father's anger deflated, replaced by a shamefaced grumble. Kureha snatched the final berry from the counter.
"Sentiment doesn't pay for medicine," she stated, tucking the money into her fur-lined coat. "Survival does. Remember that."
As she pushed through the tavern doors into the cold, she paused. Her eyes, old and impossibly keen, scanned the distant, looming shadow of her castle. A flicker of movement on the mountainside? Or just the Lapins hunting?
A wicked grin split her face. "Looks like the mountain has more fools climbing it tonight."
---
Back on the slope…
The first Lapin emerged from a crevasse, a hulking rabbit-like beast with fangs dripping frozen saliva. Then another. And another. A pack of five, their blue fur bristling, forming a semi-circle on the narrow path ahead.
"Luffy," Sanji said quietly, stepping forward. "Don't you dare put her down."
"Wasn't planning to."
Sanji's leg ignited with a familiar heat. "Good. You're the stretcher. I'm the distraction."
"Sanji… no fighting…" Nami whispered, her consciousness fading in and out. "Just… run…"
"Sorry, Nami-san," Sanji said, his voice softening for her before hardening like steel. "But some things block the path to a lady's recovery."
He launched forward. "Party Table Kick Course!"
The lead Lapin met his heel with a sickening crunch. But as two more pounced, Sanji's eyes widened. They weren't just animals—they were coordinated, herding them toward the cliff's edge.
"Luffy, they're cutting us off!"
Luffy's head snapped to the side. The path behind them was now blocked by three more, eyes glowing in the dusk. They were surrounded on a ledge barely wide enough for two men.
Nami coughed, a wet, terrible sound. Luffy felt her fever spike, a new heat against his back.
"Sanji," Luffy said, his voice low. A tone Sanji had only heard before a storm.
"I see it," Sanji replied, back-to-back with his captain now. The pack closed in, a ring of fangs and hunger.
---
At the village outskirts…
Dalton stopped dead, causing Vivi and Usopp to nearly collide with him.
"You… you were at the Council of Kings?" Dalton breathed, turning to Vivi, his face pale. "Only royalty or their direct emissaries attend. Which means you are…"
Vivi's heart hammered against her ribs. Idiot! In her worry for Nami, she'd let her guard down. "I… I misspoke. I meant I'd heard stories from—"
"Princess Vivi of Alabasta," Dalton finished, awe and dread warring in his eyes. "What is a royal doing with pirates? And in my ruined kingdom?"
Usopp jumped in, waving his hands. "Whoa, whoa! You've got it all wrong! She's just… a very good actress! Right, Vivi?"
But the lie died in the frozen air. Dalton's hand went to the hilt of his sword. "Explain. Now."
Before Vivi could form another desperate cover, a thunderous, familiar laugh rolled down from the harbor, shaking snow from the pines.
A laugh they all recognized.
Dalton's blood drained from his face. "No… it can't be."
They turned as a massive, grotesque figure waddled into the village square, followed by a ragtag band of pirates. His mouth, wide enough to swallow a cannonball, was curved in a triumphant grin.
King Wapol had returned.
"MY KINGDOM!" he bellowed, his voice echoing off the mountains. "I've come to reclaim my throne! And I'm HUNGRY!"
His eyes, scanning the terrified villagers, landed on Dalton, Vivi, and Usopp.
A slow, malicious smile spread across his face.
"Well, well," Wapol chuckled, cracking his knuckles. "Look what didn't run away."
---
On the cliffside…
Sanji was a blur of motion, but the Lapins were relentless. One managed to swipe at Luffy, its claws tearing through his shirt and drawing thin lines of blood across his chest. Luffy didn't flinch, his only movement a slight adjustment to keep Nami safe.
"Luffy, we need to go through them!" Sanji yelled, dispatching another with a spinning kick.
Luffy looked at the sheer rock face to their left, then at the pack leader directly ahead, its maw open for a killing bite.
He made a decision.
"Sanji," Luffy said. "Clear me a path. Just for a second."
"What are you—"
"DO IT!"
Sanji didn't hesitate. He put every ounce of strength into a sweeping kick that shattered the ice under the lead Lapins' feet, causing them to scatter and stumble.
It was all the opening Luffy needed.
He didn't run through the gap.
He jumped.
"GOMU GOMU NO…" he roared, stretching one arm far back and anchoring it to a jagged outcrop high above. With Nami secured on his back, he launched himself and Sanji vertically up the cliff face, leaving the snarling pack far below.
The wind screamed past them. Sanji grabbed onto Luffy's shoulder, eyes wide as they rocketed toward the castle peak.
They landed hard on a wider ledge, the castle gates looming just another hundred feet above. The stone was slick with black ice.
Panting, Sanji looked at his captain. "You could have dropped her!"
"Never," Luffy panted, his arms trembling now from the strain. Nami was silent, too silent.
They scrambled toward the final ascent. The massive castle doors were shut, sealed against the world.
As they reached them, Luffy slammed his fist against the ancient wood. "HEY! DOCTOR! OPEN UP!"
Only the howling wind answered.
He pounded again, the sound echoing into the vast dark behind the walls. "WE HAVE A SICK PERSON! OPEN THE DOOR!"
Nothing.
Sanji's hope began to curdle into despair. He placed a hand on Nami's forehead and jerked it back. "Luffy… her fever… it's like fire."
Luffy's face set into a mask of grim determination. He stepped back, clenched his fist.
"If she won't open it," he growled, "we'll make our own door."
He wound up, his fist swelling to monstrous size.
"GOMU GOMU NO—"
The massive door groaned inward, just a crack.
A single, ancient eye peered out from the darkness within, glinting with cold amusement.
"Making a racket," a woman's voice, like grinding stones and fine whiskey, cut through the night. "And damaging my property. That'll be extra."
Dr. Kureha swung the door wide, taking in the sight: the desperate pirate captain, the exhausted cook, and the dying girl on his back.
Her smirk didn't fade. "Well? Are you bringing her in, or are you waiting for her to freeze solid out here? The consultation fee is one million berries. Payable in advance."
Luffy didn't move. "You'll help her?"
"I said I'd see her. I didn't say anything about helping." Kureha's eyes narrowed. "Now, do you have the money or not, boy?"
Luffy's jaw tightened. Sanji stepped forward, ready to beg, to bargain, to fight.
But from the darkness behind Kureha, another figure emerged—tall, silent, and shrouded in mystery. A man with a bizarre, cross-shaped face.
Kureha didn't look back at him. "Chopper. Take the girl to the operating room."
The man—Chopper—nodded, moving with a surprising gentleness toward Nami.
Hope, fragile and desperate, flickered in Luffy's chest. He began to carefully hand Nami over.
Just as Chopper's hands were about to take her, Kureha held up a single, gnarled finger.
"Ah-ah. Payment first. No money, no medicine." Her grin was a surgeon's cut. "What's it going to be, pirates? Your friend's life… or your principles?"
---
In the village square…
Wapol advanced, his gaze locked on Vivi. "A princess, all the way out here? What a delicious coincidence."
Dalton drew his sword, placing himself between Wapol and his friends. "You will not touch them, you coward! You abandoned these people!"
"I preserved myself!" Wapol shot back. "And now I'm back to take what's mine. Starting with… a little snack."
His jaw unhinged, wider than should be possible.
"MUNCH-MUNCH ABILITY!"
He didn't charge at them.
He took a gigantic bite out of the stone house next to him, chewing and swallowing the rubble in an instant, his body morphing and swelling with the consumed material.
He turned, now a monstrous hybrid of man and stone, his fist the size of a cart, and swung it directly at Usopp and Vivi.
"RUN!" Dalton screamed, pushing them aside as he raised his own blade to block the blow.
The last thing Vivi saw before the impact was Usopp's terrified face, Dalton's sword shattering like glass, and Wapol's stone fist filling her entire world, coming down to crush them all.
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