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"We'll be waiting in Alubarna!" Vivi yelled to us as the crab sped away.
"Okay!" I yelled back. "We'll see you there!" Luffy and I crashed into the sand near Crocodile and his partner.
"I'm sick of your games," Crocodile told us.
"You know, Vivi is so weak, but she tries to save everything. She wants this rebellion to end without any deaths," I said, looking up at Crocodile.
"There are many sympathetic fools like that. They don't know true battle, don't you agree?" the man asked me.
"Yes, I do. You're absolutely right. Vivi is a bratty, naive princess who can't see the world for what it truly is. But regardless of all that, she's my friend, and as long as you're alive, she'll fight 'til she dies. That's why I have to stop you. I'm not a fan of letting my friends die," I responded to the man.
"How ridiculous. Those who conspire with others all end up dead. I've played hundreds just like that," said Crocodile.
"Well, you must be pretty frickin' stupid then," I spit back.
I heard Miss All-Sunday try to hold in a laugh. I made her laugh!
"What's so funny?! Do you want to die as well, Nico Robin?"
"If that's how you feel, but what happened to your promise not to call me that name?" Miss All-Sunday walked away, saying she was headed to Alubarna.
Crocodile threw an hourglass into the sand. "You two have three minutes. After that, I have business to attend to."
"No problem, that's plenty of time," Luffy told the Warlord. "Gum-Gum Pistol!"
Luffy threw his fist at the man, but Crocodile easily dodged it. Crocodile reformed from the sand and tried to clothesline us with his hook. I ducked under the attack and pulled back for my own.
"Whip Typhoon!"
The whip slammed through Crocodile, but since his body was sand, the attack just dissipated.
"You two can't win, no matter how hard you struggle!"
"Gum-Gum Gatling!" "Whip Hurricane!"
No matter how much we attacked, his body just kept coming back, restored like he was never touched. Attack after attack had no effect on the sand human in front of us.
"You two are in a completely different league from me. I'm done playing games; it's time to end this! Desert Spada!"
A huge sand blade came barreling toward Luffy and me. We jumped away, and when we looked back, there was now a huge chasm between us.
"The desert got cut in half!" Luffy freaked out.
"Depending on how you use them, Devil Fruit powers can be incredibly powerful," Crocodile explained. "I've honed my skills to perfection. You'll regret opposing me! Desert Girasole!"
Crocodile stabbed the ground, and a huge pit formed around us. It started sucking Luffy and me to the bottom. We tried to get out of the pit, but running was getting us nowhere; we just kept sliding lower and lower.
"I'm not getting buried alive! Gum-Gum Bazooka!" Luffy blasted himself out of the pit and tried to catch Crocodile in a Fingernet. Crocodile easily escaped the attack and swung at Luffy's arm with a sand blade.
"My arm! It's all mummified!" I heard Luffy scream while I continued to struggle in the sand pit.
"My sand dries out anything it touches," Crocodile explained.
I finally pulled myself out of the hole and found Luffy chugging water and restoring his arm to its usual state.
"Sand can't stop me!" Luffy ran up and tried to bite Crocodile's head off.
"Don't do that, it's disgusting!" I yelled.
"ENOUGH!" Crocodile erupted from Luffy's mouth in a cloud of sand. "Die with Yuba! Your time is up, Sables."
A massive sandstorm formed around us and sped off over the desert.
"Give up. Once that storm picks up speed, even I won't be able to stop it," he said. "It's headed right for Yuba now."
"Stop this! Cut..." Luffy suddenly stopped yelling mid-sentence.
"LUFFY!" I saw Crocodile's hook had penetrated right through Luffy's midsection.
"Whip Jetstream!"
"You shut up, too, Crescent Cutlass!" Crocodile's sand arm cut right through my lower leg, dropping me to the floor under Luffy. "Yuba will die today, just like the rest of this country."
I looked up and saw that Luffy was grabbing Crocodile's arm. When he had stabbed Luffy, he broke Luffy's canteen and got water all over himself.
You can touch him if he's wet!
"Just die already!" Crocodile threw Luffy into the sand pit. "You can sit there and wait for the sun to come up and dry you out."
Crocodile walked away, muttering to himself. I tried to get up, but my leg was too dry to do anything. I managed to find a small puddle left inside the pieces of Luffy's busted canteen. That was enough to re-energize my leg.
"Don't worry, I'm coming," I said, getting to work digging for Luffy, but all the sand falling into the pit made it impossible to get any work done.
Luffy's head suddenly emerged from the sand, and he began screaming for meat.
"Don't yell! If Crocodile hears you and comes back, we're screwed," I said, trying to pull him out of the pit, but the leverage was terrible, and I had no footing in the sand.
A group of hands suddenly emerged and threw Luffy out of the quicksand pit. I grabbed Luffy and brought him to the more stable sand nearby.
"Thanks, but why?" I asked the woman that stood in front of me.
"Why do you fight? Those with the initial 'D'?"
"What the hell are you talking about, Miss All-Sunday?"
"It seems my question has fallen on deaf ears," the woman answered, handing me Luffy's hat.
"I've got you now! Where is Princess Vivi?!" a man in white came up. "I won't lose so easily this time."
"What perfect timing. Why don't you save this boy's life? He is the one who escorted the Princess here."
What is her game?
"These two are brilliant fighters. They made sure the Princess got to Alubarna. I'm not sure if we'll meet again, but it was a pleasure to see you again, Mr. Steve." The woman hopped into a Gator car and rode off toward Alubarna.
"MEAT!"
"Come on, I'll help you get your friend some help. My name is Pell, a royal guard." The man helped me pick Luffy up and get him patched up.
"I'm running into town real fast. I'll be back in ten minutes."
"Wait! Why are you going that way?"
"I need a barrel!"
I returned with a pair of empty barrels I found in the street. When I got back to Pell, he was finishing treating Luffy, who was stuffing his face.
"I'm ready to go!" Luffy said.
"How are we going to catch up with the others?" I told him.
"Actually, I think I can help with that," Pell said, explaining he had Devil Fruit powers that allowed him to become a giant falcon.
We got on Pell and flew to Alubarna to try and catch up with the others. Along the way, we filled the barrels from the river and attached nozzles. I explained to Luffy how to fight Crocodile, and we made our way to Alubarna.
"I think this should work. Look, I'm no armorer," I told him. "Even Usopp could rig up something like this."
"Maybe we should get a person to do that, make us powerful weapons!" Luffy laughed.
"You fight with your fists, stupid," I laughed back. "But sure, we'll think about that after all this is over."
Rose's POV
"What do you mean this crab can't cross water?!" Usopp yelled.
"It's a sand creature. It's not meant to swim," Vivi explained.
"We better do something, the river's getting close," Sanji pointed out.
Nami took off her outer coat, and the crab sped up to maximum speed, running across the water.
Stupid bimbo. They only like her because she has big boobs.
"We're sinking!" Zoro pointed out.
We were going to have to swim to shore; there was just no other option. We hadn't even started when a giant catfish erupted and tried to eat us.
"That's a Sandora Catfish! It loves to eat humans!" Vivi yelled.
"Oh, come on!" I yelled, swimming as fast as I could.
The fish stopped chasing us, and we looked back and saw the Dugongs from the other day had beaten it into submission.
Chopper translated for the seal creatures. "They said they won't let their fellow students perish. Hop on, they'll give us a ride to the next shore."
Fellow students?
We got to shore in under an hour, but we were still unsure if we'd make it in time to stop the rebels.
quack
"It's Karoo."
We saw Vivi's pet duck along with a handful of other ducks. We each hopped on a duck while Zoro came up with his 'master plan.' The plan just boiled down to covering ourselves so that we looked like Vivi in a cloak and pulling Baroque Works in multiple directions, thereby buying Vivi time to get to the rebels.
We got close to the palace in record time. There was an explosion that provided good cover for us to split up. I went with Zoro and Nami through the western gate.
We zigzagged through the streets. We were followed by a duo I didn't recognize, but the man had a big sign for 'one' on his chest, so I assumed the people following us were Mr. 1 and his partner, Miss Doublefinger. When we got far enough into the city, we stopped running and turned to face the ones following us.
We each took off the cloaks we were wearing. "Sorry, better luck next time!"
We got off the ducks, and Nami pushed Zoro and me forward. "Get 'em, you two."
"Always start with the weak. That's rule one," the members of Baroque Works began marching toward Nami.
Zoro intercepted Mr. 1 just before he could kill Nami. The pillar behind us split like it had been cut by a sword.
Zoro's sword collided with Mr. 1's arm, and there was a cling. The man was unscathed. "What are you?"
"I ate the Dice-Dice Fruit, so my body is blades," the man explained to Zoro.
"A few years ago, these two," the woman gestured to Zoro and me, "declined an invitation to join as Mr. 7 and Miss Father's Day. They killed the agents who met with them."
"Good times," I laughed a bit.
"Well, I told him I wanted to be the boss, and he attacked me. I had to put him down," Zoro explained. "You two plan on inviting us as well?"
"I'll deal with this guy, Miss Doublefinger. You take care of the girl," Mr. 1 instructed his partner.
"Rose! Take Nami and run!"
I grabbed Nami's hand and went down a back alley.
"Don't worry, Nami, I'll protect you."
We stopped against a building to catch our breath when a spike pierced through the wall and stabbed my shoulder.
"Gaahh!"
Nami ran to my side as I squirmed on the ground, trying not to cry.
"She must have Devil Fruit powers," Nami said.
"I ate the Spike-Spike Fruit, so I'm a spike human," Doublefinger explained, walking around the wall.
I stood up. It hurt to move my arm, but I'd manage.
"Stand back, Nami, I'll take care of this," I told the girl, getting a dagger out from under my robe.
"No. I can fight too. Usopp made this Clima-Tact for me. I won't stand around and let everyone protect me," Nami pleaded with me to let her fight.
Damn girl.
"Fine. Let's go!"