The wind on the mountain ridge screamed like a wounded animal, matching the fury in Luffy's chest.
"I won't fight," Luffy gritted out, his knuckles white where they gripped Nami's makeshift sled. "I promised."
Beside him, Sanji kicked a lunging lapahn aside without breaking stride. "Good! Keep that promise, Captain! Just run!"
The pack of giant rabbits—eyes blazing red with territorial rage—surged after them, a tidal wave of white fur and gnashing teeth. Luffy's every instinct screamed to turn, to face the threat head-on, but Nami's shallow, fevered breaths against his back were a chain holding him back. He leaped over a fallen log, the sled bouncing dangerously.
"Faster, Sanji!" Luffy yelled.
"I'm going as fast as I can without leaving you behind, you idiot!"
Behind them, the thunder of hundreds of paws shook the snow from the pines.
---
Big Horn Village – The Return of a Tyrant
The Going Merry sat in the frozen harbor like a forgotten toy, her cheerful colors a stark insult against the gray ice.
On the dock, Wapol's bloated face split into a wide, grotesque grin. "Well, well," he chuckled, the sound like grinding stones. "The little gnats who stung me have left their nest unguarded."
One of his lackeys, a man with a face like a weasel, scurried forward. "Your Majesty! Scouts report the castle is intact! And that old hag, Kureha, is living there!"
Wapol's grin vanished, replaced by a snarl. "My castle? That thief is in my home?" His beady eyes swiveled back to the Merry. "No. First, we crush these insects. Then, I reclaim my throne and hang that old woman's skeleton from the gates!"
He turned to the cowering villagers who had been gathered at spear-point. "You hear that? Your 'saviors' are here! And when I'm done turning their ship into kindling, you will kneel and beg me to be your king again!"
A child whimpered. An old man clenched his fists, but the cold steel of a guard's blade at his throat stilled his protest.
"Now," Wapol bellowed, "bring me their—"
"WAPOL!"
The roar cut through the icy air like a cannon shot. Dalton skidded into the village square, chest heaving, his breath pluming in the cold. His eyes burned with a fire no winter could extinguish.
"You will not touch another soul," Dalton vowed, his voice trembling with rage.
Wapol blinked, then laughed. "The failed guardian! Come to watch your people bow?"
"I've come to finish what should have been done years ago!" Dalton didn't hesitate. He charged, his powerful form a blur. Before Chess or Kuromarimo could react, Dalton's fist, hardened by a lifetime of protecting this land, connected with Wapol's jaw with a sickening CRACK.
The tyrant king spun and crumpled into the snow.
A stunned silence fell over the square. Then, a cheer began to rise from the villagers—a fragile, hopeful sound.
It died in their throats.
Wapol twitched. Then, he laughed, spitting out a tooth and blood. "You think it's that easy?" He gestured weakly.
From behind the ranks of guards, twenty figures in pristine white coats stepped forward. They moved with cold efficiency, surrounding Wapol. In moments, they had splinted his jaw, administered a stimulant, and helped him to his feet. The Isshi-20. The twenty best doctors in the entire kingdom, now personal slaves to the king's health.
"You…" Dalton's voice was hollow with horror. "You exiled every other doctor. You let people die in the streets so you could hoard the best for yourself."
"A king deserves the best care," Wapol slurred, his eyes gleaming with malice. "The sick are just weak. Now… kill him."
Chess and Kuromarimo moved, but not toward Dalton. They turned their weapons on the unarmed villagers.
"You know this fool," Chess sneered, aiming a crossbow at the old man. "He'll choose you over victory."
Dalton's heart stopped. He saw the calculation, the perfect, cowardly trap.
"NO!" he screamed, throwing himself forward.
The twang of the crossbow was a small, final sound. Two heavy bolts meant for villagers thudded into Dalton's chest, punching through his fur cloak. He staggered, his strength flooding out onto the pure white snow, now stained crimson.
He fell to his knees before his people, a silent protector to the last.
Wapol's laughter echoed again, loud and mad. "Now, burn that ship! Then, to my castle!"
---
The Mountain's Wrath
Higher up the slopes, the world was coming apart.
The lapahn, frustrated and enraged by their elusive prey, began slamming their powerful hind legs into the ground in a bizarre, rhythmic fury.
Thump. Thump. THUMP.
"Why are they doing that?" Sanji panted, looking back.
Luffy's eyes widened. He didn't know why, but a primal fear, deeper than any battle instinct, shot through him. "The mountain… it's shaking!"
A low, growing rumble answered him. It wasn't the rabbits. It was the mountain itself.
Above them, the entire snow-packed crest of the peak shuddered. Then, with a sound like the sky tearing in two, it broke free.
"AVALANCHE!" Sanji screamed.
A wall of white death, fifty feet high, swallowed the chasing lapahn whole and roared down the mountain, gaining speed, devouring trees and boulders in its path.
"RUN! UP! WE NEED TO GO UP!" Luffy yelled, but the slope was too steep, the snow too deep. The tidal wave of snow was faster.
Below, in Cocoa Weed, Usopp saw the white horizon descending. "Vivi! Everyone! MOVE!"
Panic erupted. Villagers and Straw Hats alike scrambled, a desperate, screaming river of fear flowing away from the oncoming doom.
Luffy and Sanji were trapped, the avalanche filling the world before them and the sheer cliff face at their backs. There was no higher ground left to find.
Sanji met Luffy's eyes. "The sled. Get her into that rock crevice! Now!"
They shoved Nami's sled into a shallow fissure in the cliff, Luffy throwing his body over hers as a human shield.
"SANJI!"
"JUST COVER HER!"
The roar became everything. The last thing Luffy saw was Sanji bracing himself in front of them, a lone chef facing a frozen apocalypse, before the world turned blinding, crushing white.
Silence.
Then, a different sound.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
Heavy footsteps in the new, settling snow.
From the swirling white haze, a massive, shadowy figure emerged, stopping directly before the buried crevice where Luffy, Nami, and Sanji lay trapped. It wasn't snow. It was something else. Something alive.
A deep, gravelly voice cut through the muffled quiet, dripping with disdain.
"So these are the fools causing all this racket on my mountain?"
Luffy, half-buried and pinned, could only stare up as the silhouette of a giant, crowned by the glint of monstrous horns, loomed over them, blocking out the pale sun.
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