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"Popo, the bazooka!" Popo quickly brings him the bazooka, then runs towards the group to avoid the line of fire. Scorpion takes the bazooka in his hands, and aims it at Ace.
"This is the end, Fire Fist!" he shouted as he light up the new ignition rope, that's attached to the bazooka, just before Dip and Chip cling to their father from behind.
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"Stop dad!" Chip says as he starts tearing up.
"Boys?!" Scorpion looks down at his boys in shock.
"Please stop! We won't give up on our dreams!" Dip holds onto his father tighter in hopes to reason with his dad.
"I'm sorry for doubting you! Please, we don't want you to lose you!" Chip nods as he keeps a hold of his dad's overalls.
"We love you dad!" both brothers say simultaneously.
"I love you too!" Scorpion can only stay stoic for a moment before he drops the bazooka, and turns around to hug his sons.
The others watch in shock as the bazooka somersaults down the dune, and fires straight up to the tall rock next to then. The shot blows up the side of the rock, and causes the debris to fall towards Scorpion and his family. Luffy got ready to act, but Ace was faster, and blasted the rocks with his fire fist.
He manages to destroy not only the debris that was about to hit the family but also the whole rock behind him. The family stares at the burnt rock in awe while they looked at the thin whip of water around the three of them that had pulled them back. Scorpion quickly snaps out of it, and kneels in front of his sons.
"Are you two ok?!" the boys quickly nod before they tackle their father in a hug. Scorpion tears up at the affection before he wraps his arms around his boys "Thank you for coming to get me... What do you say we go home?"
"Yea..." the boys quickly answer, and refuse to let go. The rest of the group grins at the touching moment when Scorpion leaves the embrace and turns to Ace.
"Sorry about luring you out like this. I can give you some real information about where Blackbeard can be, to make it up to you" he tells the Whitebeard pirate.
"That would be great!" Ace's eyes widened at this before he widely smiles at him.
"The last I heard he's heading out west. I'm not sure what he's planning to do there though"
"This is still really helpful. Thank you very much"
"No problem" Scorpion gives him a small smile before he looks down at his kids "Let's go home boys"
The boys quickly nod, but before they head out Chopper runs up to them after hopping off of Sable.
"Wait, we need to take a look at your injuries Scorpion! Come with me!" Chopper leads him to a spot where he can get to work on healing the bounty hunter while the others relax.
It was nearly sunset when Chopper finished treating Scorpion's injuries, and the group has bid farewell to Scorpion's family. Now that Ace has learned that Blackbeard wasn't in Yuba, he decided that it was time for him to say his goodbyes as well.
"Are you really leaving Ace?" Chopper asks as he, and the others, watch Ace finish preparing to leave.
"Yea, since Blackbeard's not in Yuba, I have no reason to be here. Following Scorpion's lead will be my best bet in finding him" Ace nods with small smile, as he flings his bag over his shoulder. He digs into his pocket, and tosses something to his brother. Luffy catches the object in his hands then looks to see that it's a folded piece of paper.
"Always hang on to that Luffy" Ace says with his little brother looking at it in confusion.
"Huh? It's just a scrap of paper" Luffy asked in confusion just like Anamaria who poked her head over his shoulder.
"That 'scrap of paper' will bring you and me together again someday"
"This thing can bring us back together?" Luffy unfolds it to see that it's completely blank.
"Yup, so keep it close"
"Ok" Luffy replies shortly.
"It's natural for a big brother to worry about his little brother. He can be a lot to handle, but please take good care of him" Ace grins in satisfaction, before he bows to the others.
"Of course" the rest of Luffy's crew, except for Ana who was still staring at the blank piece of paper with Luffy, bows back to him.
"Luffy, the next time we meet we'll both be top pirates" when Ace straightens up, he looks at Luffy with a serious look on his face.
"Yeah, I'll see you at the top" Luffy smile stretches across his face as he nods.
Ace softly grins at him, when the group hears the sound of loud noise from above. They look up to search for the source to see that it's the sound of a flock of white birds flying over them. When Luffy turns his attention away from the birds, he widens his eyes to see that Ace vanished.
"Huh? Where did he go?" the others follow his gaze to see that the Whitebeard pirate has completely disappeared.
"Looks like he left" Zoro says with a grin.
"So that was Fire Fist Ace huh?" Sanji smiles at the departure, while he takes a cigarette and lighter from his pocket.
"Yea" Luffy looks down at the piece of paper in his hand, then puts it in his pocket.
"You ok Luffy?" Usopp quirks an eyebrow at his captain's quiet answer.
"Yea, like Ace said we'll see each other again. I'm sure of it" Luffy nods with a large smile.
"Of course ya will cap" Ana smiled at their innocent captain.
Ф
For the first time in a while, the crew's journey has been going on without a hitch as everyone continues travelling through the blistering heat. From time to time throughout the day, Anamaria kept misting them with the water she had collected after Ace left, which had had Luffy, Chopper and Usopp staring at her as the water trickled to the surface.
"How are you holding up doc?" Ana asked the reindeer as he rode right on top of Sable's head.
The snake had gotten very attached to the doctor of the crew and Anamaria was more than glad that the snake was no longer trying to eat Chopper and that the deer was now more than glad to be close to the snake, most likely because of the colder scales in the warm climate. He gives her a hoof's up while he stays on the sled.
"I'll be ok, thanks for the water and the carrying. It's been helping" Chopper said as he patted the head of the snake.
"How much longer until we reach Yuba?" Usopp asks as he uses a walking stick to keep himself from collapsing. Vivi looks through the map, as she's riding on Eyelashes' back, to figure out the length of their journey.
"If we keep going at this rate, we should be there by nightfall"
"Seriously? That'll take forever..." Luffy groans at this as he's straggling behind.
"You can still get up here cap. I can get down and walk for a bit" Anamaria suggested "Sable don't care too much"
"YAY!" Luffy shouted as he quickly jumped onto the snake making Sable hiss a bit in annoyance as Ana hopped off at the same time.
"Don't take the spot from the lady!" Sanji frowned.
"I'll be fine darlin'. I needed some exercise anyway" Ana told him with a small smile as she wiped the palm of her hand under his chin making him shiver a it "Ya can get on as well Greeny"
Zoro stopped himself from denying it when he felt how tired he actually was. Sable slowed down significantly when Anamaria placed the palm of her hand on the large snake's neck to give the swordsman time to find a place to sit on her.
"If one of them gets down, you can get on Usopp" Ana told the sniper as she cooled him down once more.
Ф
As the sun begins to set for the day, the group shows no signs in stopping to take a break. As the crew keeps walking, Vivi widens her eyes at the small buildings coming up ahead.
"I think that's Yuba over there!" the others pause at the announcement and look at the distant town that they're approaching.
"Are you sure this is Yuba, Vivi?!" Nami asks as the town becomes more clear in view.
"I'm sure of...!" Vivi nods with a large smile, as she looks at the town. She loses her smile when they reach the town, to see that it's half buried in the sand "No..."
Anamaria slipped her arm around the princess' shoulders in the most comforting way she could as Zoro scowled at the dry town as he scans the area.
"Damn, it's no different than Erumalu..."
"The oasis has been swallowed up by the sand too..." Vivi couldn't take her blue eyes off the village as she remembers Erumalu. Sable kept moving on in front of them with Chopper trying to pull the snake back to the other.
"I think Sable spotted somethin'" Ana said as she moved to follow her snake, Vivi staying close to her in her dazed state.
The others look at the direction she's staring at, and rush to the hole to see a skinny old man digging in the hole. The old man doesn't spare them a glance as he keeps digging.
"You're all travelers? You all must be tired after that long journey. I'm afraid the town's dried up, but we have plenty of inns that you can rest in" he tells them. Vivi moves her hood, so that her face is a little more concealed, before she speaks up.
"Excuse me, we heard that the rebel army is based here. Do you know where they are?"
The villager stops digging, and turns around with a furious look in his eyes.
"You want to speak to the rebellion?" he suddenly throws his shovel at them, along with any sticks that he can grab "DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE OUT TO JOIN THOSE ROTTEN REBELS!" the group flinches at the flying objects as they dodge the shovel and sticks. Usopp quickly dodges the flying shovel in shock.
"What the hell?!" he shouted in surprise. Once the old man runs out of things to throw, he sighs in exasperation, and climbs out of the hole.
"The rebels aren't here anymore..."
"What?!" everybody's jaws drop at the news. The old man nods as he grabs his shovel, and goes back to his hole to dig.
"This town's been through a lot of sandstorms. With all the sand eating away at the oasis, along with no rain, it's led to the dried up town you see here. When the town completely dried up, the rebels couldn't work here anymore. I was told they moved to Katorea"
"The rebels went to Katorea?!" Vivi gasps at the news.
"Is Katorea close to us?!" Nami asks, but the princess can only shake her head with a look of defeat.
"Katorea's next to Nanohana, the town that we first visited..."
"Are you serious Vivi?!" the group looks at her in utter shock.
"Did you kids say Vivi?!" the old man stops digging as he recognisees the name. The others jolt at the question but they quickly shake their heads. Luffy nervously steps up in front of the group, while he waves his hands around.
"Listen old guy, Vivi's not a princess!"
"DON'T TELL HIM THAT!" Zoro and Sanji yell out as they whack their captain on the head. The old man ignores the scuffle, as he climbs out of the hole again to get a closer look at the nervous princess.
"It's really you Vivi-chan! I'm so glad you're alive! Don't you recognize me?!"
Vivi takes a closer look at the thin old man's face, then widens her eyes when a name comes up in her head.
"Mr. Toto?!"
"That's right!" the old man grins at being remembered, with tears welling up in his eyes.
"I can't believe it!" Vivi looks at him in utter shock as she remembers how chubby he was, when she last saw him as a little girl.
"You know him Vivi?" Chopper looks down from the villager to the princess in confusion, still on top of Sable.
"He's the father of my childhood friend. They both helped build Yuba from the ground up years ago"
"Listen to me Vivi-chan, I believe in your father! I know he wouldn't betray this country! The majority of the country does as well!" Toto places his hands on her shoulders while he allows his tears to flow down his cheeks.
"Y-you believe us?" Tears begin to well up in Vivi's eyes at her friend's kind words.
"The rebels won't listen though! They almost have enough power to overtake us!" Toto can only nod before he falls onto his knees.
The group can only remain silent as they watch him silently weep. Vivi looks at him softly for a moment before she grabs a handkerchief from her pocket, and hands it to Mr. Toto.
"Here Mr. Toto" Mr. Toto lifts his head to see the handkerchief, and widens his eyes when he sees her smile "It'll be alright, we'll stop the rebellion" he starts sniffling at her kindness, before he takes the handkerchief to wipe his tears.
"Yes, thank you... I insist that you and your friends rest here for the night. I can show you an inn that you can all use" he stands up, and leads the group over to an inn "I'll leave you to settle in. If you need anything, let me know"
"Thank you very much" Vivi says before Mr. Toto leaves to let the group settle in for the evening.
Ф
After Sanji prepared dinner for the group and Mr. Toto, most of the group gets ready to settle in for the night.
"Alright guys, great work today! We deserve a good rest!" Usopp says with a large smile, but his smile quickly fades when a pillow hits his face courtesy of Zoro.
"You're acting like you did something"
Chopper chuckles at the throw, but stays out of the pillow fight while Usopp grabs a pillow.
"Like I could do anything you jerk! I'm not a monster like you guys!" the sniper throws the pillow back at Zoro, then grabs another one for the reindeer.
"And I wouldn't be laughing, you win the award for the laziest traveller!" he throws the pillow at him.
"Yea, it's not my fault I can't stand the heat!" Chopper quickly nods, as he grabs his own pillow and hides behind the large snake that had once more curled around herself on the sand.
"Umm Sanji, that's my bed" the group stops their argument to Vivi's complaint, and looks to see her bed being occupied by Sanji. The chef lifts the cover for her with a carefree smile on his face.
"I know, I just figured that you'd want some company ton...!" he was cut off by a pillow to the face courtesy of Usopp.
"The reward for biggest pervert goes to Sanji"
"Oi, you wanna fight?" Sanji growled as he saw Zoro and Usopp laugh at him getting hit.
He quickly grabs a pillow, and gets off the bed to commence the pillow fight between the group. Nami huffs at the childish fight, and tries to ignore it until a stray shot hits her head.
"DON'T YOU GUYS KNOW THE MEANING OF THE WORD 'QUIET'?!"
"HAHAHAHAHA...!" Anamaria's laugh was cut off as she shouted when a stray pillow hit her right in the face. Luffy and Usopp grew quiet and froze when the pillow slid slowly down the dark haired pirate's face and onto the sand below.
"A-Ana-chan?" Usopp calls out to her in a shaky voice while he and Luffy tried to hide behind each other.
The Sparrow takes the pillow from the ground where it had fallen and clenches her fist around the shabbily made cushion before swinging it hard and fast at the two boys.
"Luffyyyy!" Usopp cried out as the pillow hit him square in the stomach and made him bend over from the hard hit.
"You don't throw a pillow at Ana-chwan!" Sanji shouted as he grabbed Luffy by the back of his red top.
"Don't talk to him like that Swirly Brows!" Zoro said as he threw another pillow at the blond, missing him and hitting Vivi instead. Soon, it was a full blown pillow fight and Anamaria found herself smiling and laughing along with the rest of the crew.
Ф
After the pillow fight; Ana, Nami and Vivi helped Sanji pick up the pillows and dirty plates, Anamaria saw Luffy talking to the old man before taking a shovel himself and digging his own hole.
He goes into Luffy's hole, carries him to the inn to rest with his friends, passing the young captain over to the black haired woman with the tattoos, before he returns to his ditch for the rest of the night.
As a few hours pass, Mr. Toto gets out of his hole to take a breather, then looks in Luffy's hole to see that the boy fell asleep in his ten foot hole. The old man softly grins at him then freezes then he sees the third hole in the corner of his eye. The old man looks over the sleeping kids and couldn't stop the proud smile that grew on his face.
"Vivi-chan's has some good friends" he told himself.
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Anamaria slipped her captain into the wedge between Chopper and Zoro before making herself comfortable between Vivi and Sanji's beds so as to try and keep the cook away from the princess. Ana snuggled herself into Sable's side hide before drifting off to sleep, waiting for the next day.
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"Sanji, food!" the shout and the step on Anamaria's stomach did the trick to wake her up as Luffy rushed inside to get his breakfast.
"Mmmmmph" she groans out loud as she tried to cuddle into Vivi's back making the princess mumble something under her breath and bring Nami closer to her chest.
"Aaaawww" Usopp and Chopper's chorusing voices woke them up and both Anamaria and Nami frowned up at the two males looking down at the three cuddling women.
"Fuck off" Ana said as the orange haired navigator jumped up and hit the two.
"Mornin'" Ana said as she and Nami went over to where Sanji was cooking their breakfast.
Before the crew starts getting ready to leave for the next leg of their journey, they're happily enjoy the breakfast Sanji prepared at the abandoned restaurant next to the inn.
"Thank you Sanji" Ana told the cook as he happily offered her her plate of food.
"Of course Ana-chwan" the cook swooned. Her hand snaps to her side to slap away Luffy's hand without even looking when he tried to take her food from her plate.
"Hey Vivi, do ya happen to know if there's a well somewhere?" Ana asked the blue haired woman once she joined them.
"I'm not entirely sure" Vivi responded as she took a bite from her food.
"Al'right just give me a moment ta look around before we go" Anamaria said as she stood from her place and dumped the remaining food onto Luffy's plate.
"Shan'k yuo" the captain said through a full mouth.
Anamaria left to go look around for any possible source of water. Her keen eyes scoured the horizon, looking for any signs of water. The desert land seemed barren, and the heat was unrelenting. The prospect of finding water in such harsh conditions was dim, but Ana was determined since she was used to similar situations.
After a while she found a well which looked just about dried out, but she could at least do something with it. Not long after she had the water bottle filled to about half of its fill before going back to the rest of the crew.
Ф
After the group loses sight of the town they left behind, they continue walking towards the direction that they came from to get to Katorea. This time Usopp had replaced Sanji on the snake as Sable moved faster in front of everyone else.
"Can't you tell that worm to slow down?" Zoro grumbled as the snake slithered past them quickly.
"Don't call her 'worm'" Sanji growled as he defended the snake.
"Thank ya for defending her darlin'" Anamaria smiled at the blond cook as Eyelashes also ran past them carrying Vivi and Nami on his back.
"Of course Ana-chwan" the cook said with heart eyes.
They look to see Luffy resting once more under the shade of a thin tree with his back propped against the trunk of it. The group looks at him in confusion, while Vivi steps up.
"What's the matter Luffy?" the princess asked the captain of the Straw Hats.
"I quit" Luffy keeps his seat as he looks back to them.
"What do you mean 'you quit'?! We don't have time for your games! Get up!" his crew looks at him in shock at as they try to understand what he's saying. Nami furrows her eyebrows at his resolve.
"But we're just going back the way we came" Luffy whined.
"Weren't you listening to Vivi-chan? We need to take the path we took yesterday in order to get to Katorea and stop the rebellion" Sanji's eyebrow twitched at his stubbornness.
"Booring~!" Luffy sighs as he keeps his hands behind his head.
"WHAT?!" Sanji fumes in irritation, but his captain ignores his complaints.
"Vivi" the rubber man keeps his relaxed spot as he turns his head to the princess.
"What is it?"
"I want to beat the crap out of Crocodile" he said shortly. Everyone, but Ana and Zoro, widens their eyes at what he's saying. However, they all remain quiet as he keeps talking.
"If we stop the rebels, then will Crocodile stop messing with this country? If you just want the rebels to stop, then you don't need us"
Sanji nearly drops the cigarette that's hanging from his mouth after he hears Luffy's explanation, Anamaria catching it and placing it in her mouth since she didn't like wasting cigarettes.
"Sometimes he can hit the nail on the head without even thinking" the cook said.
"That's Luffy for you..." Usopp slowly nods.
"Well..." Vivi looks at him worriedly as she tries to give him a reason to stop the rebels. Luffy doesn't give her a chance to make an excuse as he keeps going.
"You just don't want anyone to die in this war right? Not the people in your country, us, or anyone else right? That's naive"
"Luffy, that's...!" Nami's eyes widened and goes to stop him. She cuts herself off when Sanji blocks her off.
"Wait a minute Nami"
Nami looks from him to Luffy then decides to remain silent. Vivi however, glares at the captain as she finds her voice.
"How is that naive?! What's wrong with not wanting people to die?!"
"People will die no matter what you do"
"Don't you dare say that again! That's exactly what we're trying to stop! It's not the rebels or my people's fault, so why should they die?! This is all Crocodile's fault!" the princess couldn't take it anymore, and gives Luffy a punch across the face that knocks him onto his knees.
"Then why are you risking your life?!" Luffy grits his teeth as he gets up, and punches her back surprising everyone. Vivi narrows her eyes at him as she tackles him, and starts punching him repeatedly and Anamaria holds Zoro back as his instincts kick in.
"I need to in order to protect my country!"
"You risking your life is not what this country needs!" Luffy ignores the pain in his cheeks as he glares at her.
"What?!"
"You just risking one life isn't enough to help Alabasta!"
"Then what am I supposed to risk?! There's nothing else I have to...!"
"Why not try risking our lives too! I thought we were friends!" Luffy grabs her wrists and sits up.
Vivi's anger immediately washes away, and is replaced with mixed emotions as tears fill her eyes. She gets off of Luffy, and tries her best to hide her tears, while the others look at her with sympathy in their eyes.
"See, you want to kill Crocodile the most. So where is he?" Luffy sighs as he dusts himself off.
Once Vivi calms down she goes into her bag to bring out a map. She spreads it out so that everyone can see it, and then points to a town that's North West of Yuba.
"Crocodile's based in a town called Rain Base. The town's north of here, and will take about a day for us to get there from here"
"Will there be water?" Chopper looks at the map for a moment, before he turns to Vivi with hopeful eyes.
"Yes, this town should have it. It's a gambling town, that's separated from all the fighting, so it shouldn't have been affected by the war" Vivi nods.
"It's a gambling town?!" beli signs begin to appear in Nami's eyes at the sound of gambling, as a large smile forms on her face.
Zoro rolls his eyes at the money loving navigator's antics but stays quiet. Usopp looks at the map pensively for a moment, when he spots Luffy's water barrel. He goes to grab it but Luffy quickly pulls it out of his reach.
"You're not getting it Usopp!" Luffy says as he keeps moving the barrel to make sure that Usopp can't reach it.
"One sip won't kill us! He gave it to us!" Usopp groans as he keeps trying to grab it, but Luffy keeps pulling it away.
"No way! The old man dug all night for this water! We can't just drink it right away!" Luffy shakes his head.
"Wow, you can actually restrain yourself when you want to" Nami blinks at Luffy's newfound restraint then starts smiling.
"Of course I can! How rude!" Luffy says as he makes sure Usopp can't grab it.
"I'll give ya some Usopp" Anamaria said as she handed the sniper her newly found water. The others grin at the exchange, as Zoro starts leaving in the opposite direction.
"Alright already, let's just go" the swordsman said.
"This way Greeny" Ana said as she pulled him back to them by the back of his shirt.
The swordsman looks at the brunette in shock, as she puts him down and walks with the others. He groans to himself as he follows the rest of the group on their journey to Rain Base.
Ф
A half an hour has passed since the crew has redirected their journey to Rain Base, and the heat has begun to take effect on almost everyone. Luffy and Usopp continue whining as they use walking sticks to keep themselves from collapsing. Sable had gotten tired from carrying all their weight so now only Chopper and Anamaria rode on him.
"Shut up guys!" Nami says as she keeps riding Eyelashes.
"Easy for you to say, you're riding a camel" Usopp says.
"Ana-saaaaan. Are you sure we can't ride on your snake?" Luffy says with a whine from the heat.
Eyelashes follows suit without challenging her to a race this time, to keep the remainder of his pride. Vivi looks towards the group, then smiles at Luffy.
"Thank you as well Luffy"
"For what?" Luffy looks back at her, and tilts his head.
"I wouldn't have come to this decision without you" he blinks at the gratitude before he smiles at her.
"Don't worry about it. You can pay me back in food when this is all over"
"I promise" Vivi chuckles at the request before she nods.
As the heat builds up, Usopp and Luffy go back to relying on walking sticks to travel. Zoro looks over the reindeer, who's now using walk point to travel, to see that he's not complaining one bit.
"You're not getting tired?"
"No, I can manage" Chopper shakes his head as he keeps walking. Sanji sneaks a glance at the corner of his eye, and smiles in pride of his crew mate as he lights up his cigarette.
Ф
After what feels like an eternity of walking, a town starts coming into view.
"Hey Vivi-chan, is that the place?!" Sanji asks as he throws away his finished cigarette. Vivi looks at the large town from the distance, and immediately recognizes the large crocodile head at the top of a pyramid shaped building.
"That's definitely Rain Base!"
"YEA, WE'RE COMING FOR YOU CROCODILE!" Luffy grins in triumph as he raises his fists into the air.
"SHUT UP LUFFY! WHAT IF HE HEARS?!" Usopp yells as he whacks his captain on the head.
"Calm down Usoop" Anamaria told the sniper of the crew "It looks like we're still a bit far from 'here"
"It's Usopp" the man said with a downfallen attitude. Nami gives the dangerous town a quick glance, before she turns to the sniper.
"Hey Usopp, were you able to finish 'that' yet?" Usopp pauses at the question then remembers the weapon request that she's talking about, and he digs into his pockets.
"Yea, I was able to finish it" he pulls three blue rods out of his pocket with a smirk then shows them to the navigator.
"Captain Usopp is proud to present your new weapon: the clima-tact!"
"The what?" Ana asked in confusion as she slowed down to see it better.
"The clima-tact?" Nami blinks at the name as she takes the three rods from him.
"Yea, you can put them together to make them into a staff, and you can change your attacks depending on how you use them" Usopp takes a piece of paper from his pocket, and hands it to her "Here's a list of instructions to help you start out"
"Great, thanks!" she takes the piece of paper, starts studying the instructions, and playing around with her weapon as Ana looks curiously at it.
"Hey, do you think Baroque Works knows that we're here?" Zoro looks towards the town then turns to Vivi.
"It's possible since we met Mr. 2, and Mr. 3 should be here as well" Vivi nods at the question.
"So what?" Luffy tilts his head in confusion.
"This means that they know we're coming. We lost the element of surprise" Usopp says.
"We don't need to surprise them. We just need to kick their asses" he shrugs off his sniper's worries.
"We can't just bull rush there! We have no idea where they could be hiding!" Usopp groans at his captain's recklessness.
"I think the cap's right" Ana said as she raised her hand only for Nami to pull it back down.
"Assassination is their specialty after all" Zoro hums in thought as he looks back at the town.
"Then let's just kick his ass before he gets us!" Luffy doesn't see what the problem is as he looks at the town.
"Were you even listening?!" Usopp whacks him on the head again while Vivi glances at the incoming town, before she shakes her head.
"Wait Usopp, Luffy's right. We don't have a lot of time to think up a plan. We should rest up for a moment then reach the base"
"Are you scared?" Usopp trembles at this, so Chopper looks at him in confusion.
"Of course not! Nothing scares captain Usopp!"
"In that case Usopp, you and Luffy go into town to get us some water. We'll wait right here" Nami rolls her eyes at this when they reach the town borders, and stops at an intersection.
Usopp and Luffy quickly nod at this before they run deeper into town to get some water since Anamaria had used the last remaining of her own to cool them all off one more time.
"Imma go see if I find anything sweet" Ana said as she nodded.
"Hold on, let me come with you" Sanji blinks at this, then grabs his bag.
"Sure darlin'" the black haired woman told him with a smile before turning to the others "We'll be back as soon as we can"
The both of them start walking off when Chopper goes up to her.
"Can I come with you? I need to head to the bathroom anyway"
"Of course" Ana smiled as Sable tried to follow the three of them "Ya stay there Sable love"
Vivi looks at the crocodile building with determination, to finish the war, in her eyes then sits to wait for the rest of the group to return along with a now downfallen Sable who curled on the ground at the princess' feet.
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