The memory of Wapol's sneering face hung in the frigid air like a ghost. "I am the most powerful person on this island. Everything—everyone—exists for my consumption."
The past shattered as Luffy's fist connected with the present.
CRACK.
The sound of knuckles meeting jawbone echoed across the castle courtyard. King Wapol of Drum rocked backward, a comical look of pure astonishment plastered across his face before he stumbled into the snow.
"Y-Your Majesty!" Chess shrieked, her voice a sharp blade of panic.
Kuromarimo, his afro crackling with static, rushed to his king's side. "You dare strike the sovereign?!"
Luffy just shook his hand, unfazed. "He was in my way."
Sanji landed lightly beside his captain, smoke curling from his cigarette into the glacial air. "Nice punch, Captain. But a tactical question." He gestured at Luffy's bare arms and legs. "How are you not a human Popsicle right now?"
Luffy blinked. Looked down at his shorts and vest. Looked at Sanji's suited frame. Looked back at his own arms, where goosebumps were now rising with violent urgency.
A full, five-second pause stretched between them.
Nami facepalmed from the castle doorway. "Oh, for the love of—"
"I'M COLD!" Luffy yelled, the realization hitting him like a delayed tidal wave. His teeth began to chatter violently. "SO COLD!"
The entire crew stared, momentarily stunned by the sheer density of his delayed reaction.
"Go! Get a coat!" Sanji barked, already turning his attention back to the recovering king. "Move!"
Luffy didn't need telling twice. He became a blur of panic, scrambling back through the castle doors, his shouts of "COLD! COLD! COLD!" fading down the hall.
Wapol pushed himself up from the snow, a trickle of blood from his lip staining his chin. His eyes, wide with disbelief, boiled over into pure, unadulterated rage.
"You… you former subjects," he seethed, his voice trembling. "You let this happen! You let this rabble into my castle!"
Before him, blocking the main doors to the tower, stood Dr. Kureha and Chopper.
"This isn't your castle anymore, you gluttonous fool," Kureha stated, her arms crossed. "It's a clinic. And that—" she pointed a thumb at the flag waving above them, the jolly roger with its cherry blossom emblem, "—is flying over my old friend's grave. No one touches it."
"Out of my way, you old hag!" Wapol roared.
"No!"
The voice was small but fierce. Chopper stepped forward, his small reindeer form trembling—not from fear, but from resolve. Then, he changed. Muscles expanded, fur receded, and in a flash of transformative power, the Human-Human fruit user stood in his brawny human form, a wall of muscle and fury.
Kuromarimo gasped. Chess's eyes widened.
"The monster…" Wapol whispered, then a cruel smile split his face. "The pet. You're that quack doctor's little experiment."
"Don't you talk about Dr. Hiluluk!" Chopper bellowed, his voice deeper, raw with pain.
"Enough nostalgia," Kuromarimo snarled. He ripped two clumps of his own electrified hair, spinning them into crackling spheres of blue energy. "Eleki-Marimo!"
He hurled them not at Chopper, but at the defenseless-looking Kureha.
"You don't throw things at ladies!" Sanji's voice was a whip-crack of anger. He was a blur, intercepting the missiles mid-air with two devastating kicks.
THWACK! THWACK!
The balls of hair and electricity shot downward, embedding into the snow… and then, with a sizzle, they leaped and clamped onto Sanji's legs.
"What the—?!" Sanji grunted, trying to shake them off. The spheres clung like magnetic leeches, their current buzzing up his limbs, locking his joints. "They're stuck!"
"Sanji!" Chopper cried.
"Worry about yourself, reindeer!" Chess laughed, nocking three arrows. The tips burst into flame. "Flame Arrow: Triple Shot!" She let them fly—straight for the immobilized cook.
Sanji braced, but Chopper saw his chance. While the duo focused on Sanji, he lunged, his massive fist aimed at Chess's smug face.
He never made it.
A shadow fell over him. The smell of oil and gluttony filled his nostrils.
"My favorite snack," Wapol's voice gurgled, his jaw unhinging grotesquely. "Munch-Munch Power!"
Chopper's eyes went wide with primal terror. The giant mouth descended. There was a horrific, muffled cry, and then Chopper was gone, swallowed whole into the dark, cavernous gullet of the king.
"CHOPPER!" Kureha screamed.
Sanji struggled violently against the paralyzing spheres, his eyes burning. "You bastard! Spit him out!"
Wapol patted his distended stomach, a contented burble rising from within. "So tasty. So full of spirit. He'll make excellent energy."
The doors to the castle burst open.
"FOUND ONE!"
Luffy stood framed in the doorway, now wearing Nami's fluffy, pink winter jacket over his vest. It was too small, the sleeves ending far above his wrists. He looked ridiculous.
And his eyes were utterly, deathly calm.
He took in the scene: Sanji paralyzed, Kureha's horror, Wapol's bloated belly. He saw the lump inside the king's stomach move.
"Sanji," Luffy said, his voice low. "Can you kick?"
Sanji, sweat beading on his forehead from the electrical current, gritted his teeth. "One leg. For about three seconds. Make it count, Captain."
"That's all I need."
Luffy sprinted, not toward Wapol, but toward Sanji. He jumped, grabbing onto Sanji's raised, trembling leg.
"Anti-Manner Kick Course!" Sanji roared, channeling every ounce of strength into one explosive release. He kicked upward, launching Luffy like a human cannonball straight at the king.
Wapol barely had time to look up.
Luffy's fist, coiled with a rage that turned the air hot, slammed into the center of Wapol's engorged stomach.
"GUM-GUM… PISTOL!"
The impact wasn't just a punch. It was a seismic event. A shockwave of pure concussive force erupted from the point of contact.
Wapol's eyes bulged. A choked, wet gasp escaped his lips. And from his mouth, propelled by the internal blast, Chopper came flying out, covered in slime, gasping for air, and tumbling into a snowdrift.
Luffy landed, panting slightly, the pink jacket flapping. He looked at his friend. "You okay?"
Chopper spat out snow, nodding shakily.
But the fight wasn't over. Wapol was on his knees, vomiting, but his eyes were insane with hatred. Kuromarimo and Chess regrouped, flanking him.
And from the tower above, a new sound echoed down—the sound of a window shattering.
---
In Bighorn, at the base of the mountain…
The twenty royal guards, the Isshi-20, threw their weapons at Dalton's feet. "We stand with you, Chief!" their leader declared. "We're done serving a monster out of fear."
Dalton, battered and barely standing, accepted a sword. His gaze was fixed on the distant peak, on the castle where the flag of a dream still flew. "He will destroy everything. The clinic. The legacy. I have to stop him."
"You can barely walk," Vivi said, her voice thick with worry.
"Then I'll crawl."
A hand clapped on Dalton's shoulder. It was trembling.
Everyone turned. Usopp stood there, his knees visibly knocking together, his face pale. He had been terrified of the mountain's height just moments ago.
"I… I'll carry you," Usopp said, his voice squeaking before he forced it steady.
Vivi stared. "Usopp?"
"Luffy and Sanji are up there. They're fighting for a doctor they just met, for a dream they just learned about." Usopp swallowed hard, puffing out his chest. "If my captain can wear Nami's jacket into battle without blinking… the least I can do is carry a brave man up a mountain. Get on."
As Dalton, moved beyond words, climbed onto Usopp's back, a new rumble shook the ground. Not from the peak.
From the forest.
A thunderous crashing of trees approached the village outskirts. A shadow, massive and ancient, moving with purpose. The villagers screamed, pointing.
It was the giant, armored figure of the island's oldest guardian—the Bighorn itself—awoken from its centuries-long slumber. And its single, blazing eye was locked not on the village, but on the castle atop the mountain, as if answering a call to war.
Usopp looked at the colossal creature, then at the treacherous climb ahead, with a king to fight at the top and a monster now at the bottom.
His legendary courage evaporated. "On second thought," he whispered, his soul leaving his body for a moment, "we're all going to die."
---
Back at the castle…
Wapol climbed to his feet, wiping his mouth. He wasn't smiling anymore. He was eerily calm.
"You ruined my meal," he said softly. Then he raised his voice to a deafening roar. "CHESS! KUROMARIMO! MERGE!"
The two henchmen didn't hesitate. They ran at each other—and at Wapol. In a grotesque flash of light and contorting flesh, their bodies folded into the king's. His arms bulged with Chess's archer muscles. Kuromarimo's crackling afro sprouted from his own head. Wapol grew, swelling into a monstrous, three-in-one chimera of gluttony, flame, and lightning.
"MUNCH-MUNCH… KING OF THE FEAST!" the abomination bellowed, its triple-voice harmonizing into a nightmare chorus.
Luffy and Sanji stood back-to-back, Chopper and Kureha behind them.
The transformed King Wapol opened all three of its mouths. In one, flames gathered. In another, electricity crackled. In the central, original mouth, a vortex of pure consuming power began to spin.
"I'll eat this castle," the monster promised. "I'll eat the flag. I'll eat your dreams. And then… I'll eat you."
Luffy clenched his fists, the fabric of Nami's tiny jacket straining.
The feast of the king had just begun.
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