Strength (One Piece fanfiction)

Ch 26

Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper were sat in a circle, toasting to random things. I laughed as they got Chopper to cheer for bad medicine. I sat next to Ace with a drink in my hand as well.

He explained that he was here to follow a lead he had on a certain man. He heard he was last seen in Yuba. I smiled as that meant we'd be traveling together for a little while more.

Vivi requested to dock the ship for a short while. She wanted to send Karoo on his own to the palace, to inform her father of her safe return.

We told Ace exactly what we were doing here, and he said there must be some hidden goal behind Crocodiles schemes. A pirate wouldn't usually just settle down like this.

We set sail once more, wanting to get as close as possible to our destination before crossing the desert on foot.

Vivi had made sure that everyone was properly covered. Sanji cried as he lost sight of the dancer girl outfits.

"In the desert, exposed skin will get terribly sunburnt," she explained. Sanji only rolled around in circles on the deck.

I laughed, "that looks so stupid!"

Zoro whacked my head, "that goes for you too, idiot!"

"When have I ever done that?" I asked innocently. He just sighed and walked away.

I smiled and helped get ready to dock. Zoro paused as he spotted some weird seal turtle things on shore.

"Kung-foo Dugongs!" Vivi shouted.

Chopper translated for them, "if you want to come on shore, you have to beat us first! Or else go to another shore, cowards!"

Usopp smirked as he saw an opportunity to showcase his strength against the weak looking opponents. He lay twitching not even a moment later.

Luffy had beaten one, but apparently that was bad too! The dugongs accepted Luffy as their master, and were about to cross the desert with us.

Chopper gave them some food to appease them, and we were able to leave without them. No way a water creature could survive in the desert!

We reached a city called Erumalu, previously known as the City of Green. It used to be lush with water and plants, but the Kingdom of Alabasta hasn't seen rain in 3 years. The green city was void of any moisture, and now it was a ghost town.

Vivi explained what exactly caused the civil war, blaming it on something called Dance Powder. It created artificial rain using premature rain clouds, causing droughts in neighboring countries. It was banned by the World Government for that very reason.

The King, Vivi's father, was set up to look like he used the powder, causing the terrible drought. The pain in Vivi's heart was so strong.

The wind blew through the empty city, causing it to cry out eerily. Sand picked up all around, temporarily blinding us. I glanced up in alarm as I felt another humans presence. It was gone with the wind.

Luffy took off when he saw someone further ahead. He slowed when he realized it was a skeleton. His anger picked up and he ran off to take it out on one of the empty buildings, causing it to topple. Usopp and Sanji as well.

With renewed determination, we left the city and headed into the desert.

We had been traveling for just a few hours now, and everyone was a little cranky from the heat. Chopper was ready to pass out from the heat, so I had him rest in my home. I made Luffy stay with us, I couldn't trust him to conserve the resources I did have.

He only proved my point when he filled his cheeks with water on his next drink, angering everyone else.

We mostly trudged on in silence, way to exhausted from the heat. It got even harder when we had to go climb sand dunes that Vivi mentioned to be over 300 meters high!