Book One: Treasure of the Heart (Zoro X OC)

Chapter Forty Four ~ Yuba

~Third~

Once again we join the Strawhat Pirates as they are STILL traversing through the desert, the girls were taking a brake from riding Eyelash stretching their legs as they walked with the group, Nicole as always walked near Zoro passing by Usopp and shortly followed by Vivi "Hey Luffy" Usopp called to him "Huh?"Luffy responded "What was that thing your brother gave you?" Usopp asked.

"I don't really know just looks like a scrap of paper do you know Nicole?"Luffy asked "Why are you asking me?"she asked "Well you just seem to know a lot about mystery stuff like this"Luffy said "Alright, can i have a look at that paper?"Nicole asked "Sure"Luffy shrugged handing it to her, Nicole examined the paper and paused as she held her hand flat, the paper moved ever so slightly "As i suspected"she said handing the paper back to Luffy.

"So what is it?"Luffy asked "It's something called a Vivre Card or paper of life, basically it can point you to wherever Ace is no matter how far"Nicole said deciding not to go into to much detail to overwhelm the captain with too much info "Oh is that all?"Luffy asked "Well i can go into more detail but it could just confuse you"Nicole said "HEY!!! I'm not that stupid!"Luffy yelled waving around and the wind picked up sending the paper flying but Eyelash caught it and started munching on it.

"Don't eat that!"Luffy yelled punching the camel on the head making it spit out the paper, Luffy grabbed the paper "Dumb camel"he grumbled "Hey Luffy give me your hat"Nami said "Huh why?"Luffy asked "If it's really that important to you i can sew it to the underside of your hat ribbon"Nami said "Good idea, sow it on real good"Luffy said "Yeah yeah"Nami said "There it's all done"she then said finishing sewing.

"Here you go"Nami said handing the hat back to Luffy "No i don't have to worry about losing it thanks"Luffy said "If there isn't anything written on it then what's the point of hanging on to the thing?"Zoro asked "Ace said it's important and to hang onto it so i'm hanging onto it that's all"Luffy said.

"So you're pretty much basing your decision on nothing"Sanji said "No my instincts they're right a lot"Luffy said "You guys we're close now Yuba's just past those rocks there one last push and i'm sure we'll make it"Vivi said "Yeah!"Luffy and Chopper cheered and the group continued their way.

~skip~

"Look up ahead i see a light!"Vivi called "Does that mean we made it to Yuba? I can't see with all this sand blowing everywhere"Luffy said there was a beat of silence as everyone looked to the city of Yuba "Something here doesn't feel right, there's something wrong down there i can tell"Vivi said, the group went a little closer "Oh no! The entire city is being struck by a sand storm"Vivi said.

As the storm died down our group walked into the town of Yuba, everything was covered in sand and palm trees were bent from the harsh wind "Can't be"Vivi whispered in shock "This doesn't look good this place doesn't look that much different from that Eramalu place from before"Zoro said as he was carrying Usopp, Nicole nodded in agreement as she looked at the devastated landscape, she wouldn't be surprised if the rebel army had moved their base.

"Vivi i thought you said this was supposed to some sort of oasis"Sanji said "It looks like the oasis has disappeared it's been swallowed up by all this sand"Vivi said but then the group could hear someone digging and went to see, an old man was digging away at the sand "I'm assuming that you must be travellers you must be exhausted from all the time spent in that heat"the old man said.

"Sorry but this town is a bit dried up too it doesn't have much relief to offer but still you're free to rest here for a while we may not have much water but there are plenty of inns here in this town it's what we pride ourselves on after all"the old man said as he continued to dig "Thank you but we came because we thought the rebel army was in this town"Vivi said "What business do you have with the rebel army?"the old man asked and started throwing buckets at the group.

"Cure all of you if you're here to join the rebel army you can go back to where you came from!" the old man yelled at them "If you're looking for those fools look elsewhere they're no longer in this town"the old man said as he continued digging "Wait they're gone?!"Luffy asked "They left?"Vivi asked.

"I'm sure you noticed the town was just hit by a sandstorm that one certainly wasn't the first after three years of no rain the land has become increasingly dry sandstorms became a regular occurrence here, little by little the oasis we knew was swallowed up until the town became what you see now  a dying wasteland but before supplies to the town ended the rebel army couldn't maintain their struggle so they packed up, the rebel base is now located in Katorea"the old man said.

Vivi gasped "Katorea?"she asked "Uhm where's that?Is Katorea close to here Vivi?"Luffy asked "It's near Nanohana back the way we came from"Vivi said "Well great coming all this way was just a waste of time"Zoro said "Vivi? Wait your name's?"the old man asked walking over "Hold on she's definitely not a princess!"Luffy said "Nice one Luffy!"Zoro said bonking him on the head.

"Princess Vivi is that really you?"The old man asked clasping her shoulders "You're alive i can't believe it, thank goodness, it's me Vivi don't you recognize me?I look different, i lost some weight i suppose"the old man said "Toto, is it really you?"Vivi gasped in shock "That's right"the old man said his eyes tearing up, Vivi recalled back to when she said goodbye to the originators of the town of Yuba.

"Toto? That's this guy?"Luffy asked "Whatever it's worth Vivi dear i have faith in you and the king, he's a good man a true king who would never betray his country i know it"Toto said and started crying "This rebellion is ridiculous! A bunch of faithless fools, it's true our country hasn't seen so much as a drop of rain in three years but i still put my trust in the king as i always have most of the country still has faith in him actually"Toto said.

"So many times i tried to stop them so many times but they won't listen to anything i say, the rebellion isn't stopping, their strength supplies and men have reached the limit however their intention is to settle everything once and for all with the next attack, they're backs are against the wall they're stuck in a corner, they're prepared for death, please Vivi you have to stop these fools from tearing our country apart"Toto begged and started crying again.

Vivi offered him a handkerchief "Toto old friend please don't be worried"she said "Vivi dear"Toto said "We will succeed we're going to stop this"Vivi said "Thank you Vivi"Toto said.