38 Chapter thirty eight- Fate and new skill

The rest of the day and the next had been rather stressed on the going Merry, mainly due to two of those on board. Ever since the yelling match on the main deck the day prior Nami had been completely giving Gabriel the cold shoulder, and glaring at him behind his back as he did things. While Gabriel gave her annoyed looks and returned the cold shoulder treatment with his own which only further enraged the red head more and fuel her anger.

No one on the crew knew exactly why the two were being so cold to one another but the females on the crew could take a guess and most would guess right as to their reasons.

Gabriel was currently out on the deck of the ship at the front treating his two swords looking them over as he applied oil to them and ran the sharpening stone along them. He knew that he would have to speak with Luffy later that day to give him his request to head to drum island, he already had a plan made up for what he was going to say.

Drum kingdom was known for its medical knowledge, and it was within range of Alabasta, if they went off course looking for it the odds were good of them finding it and as both crews were currently without a doctor Drum island would be "the ideal" place to look for a doctor, or it would be if his information wasn't "out of date", given recent reference events.

He was sure he could talk Luffy into a slight detour, he knew that it wouldn't take much to get the straw hat captain to go exploring if he mentioned a rumour to him while there about the supposed monster that lives up on the mountains, that would get him to find chopper and invite him to the crew, and it wouldn't be long after that for Luffy's charm to kick in.

But it proved to be all for not, as just as he was finishing sharpening Kurobuchi he heard a clatter from the stairs and a cry of, "Nami!" from the others.

Gabriel looked up and his eyes instantly went wide when he saw Nami laying on the deck breathing heavily. 'What!'

Putting his sword down he quickly went to her like everyone else checking on her, Vivi checked her forehead, "She's burning up, this isn't good, someone help me get her inside" Vivi said as she Keren came and knelt down next to Nami and lifted her up to carry her up to the upper cabin.

Gabriel stood there as he watched everyone go after her a worried frown on his face, 'this shouldn't be happening, Gem and Mikita weren't helping Mr three this time, Nami didn't lose her shirt in the fire, so how could she have possibly been bitten' he ranted inside his head as he began to pace.

He had tried not to focus on things like this too much, or the fact that his presence in the story would no doubt cause some major changes to happen, he knew that all he could do was try to change things for the better and try to keep things on track as much as possible until he was strong enough to handle himself against much stronger opponents.

But it was this event that Gabriel was now worrying over because of exactly that fact, he had tried to change things, to prevent this from happening, what if in doing so he had made matters worse.

While Gabriel was pacing down on the lower deck the girls all hustled the men out of the cabin for privacy as they began to check Nami over who was unconscious, when the door opened again Gabriel snapped out of his thoughts and looked up.

"Keren, what're the facts," Gabriel asked blankly.

Keren frowned, "it looks like a disease of some kind, I've never seen one get this bad so quickly, she's breathing heavily, and her temperature is high. She also has a rash on her right leg, it looks like it is spreading from a spot behind her knee."

Gabriel frowned as he listened, 'right knee? But in the story, she was bitten on her stomach… I see, it seems that no matter what I did she was always going to get bit, damn you Oda' he thought to himself before nodding and looking to Luffy.

"Luffy, I was going to bring this up later but there doesn't seem like there is going to be that," Gabriel stated, "on our current course we should be near by an island called Drum Island, it's a winter island that is known world wide for having the best doctors you can find. I was going to suggest that we could maybe make a pit stop there in order to get a couple of doctors for our crews but given Nami's illness it's now become a necessity, wouldn't you agree."

Hearing him Vivi nodded, "I can confirm what he says, Alabasta has had dealings with Drum Kingdom in the past, they do indeed have better doctors than anywhere else, even in Alabasta. If we want to help Nami then going there would be our best bet to do so. As much as I want to get back to Alabasta as fast as possible, we can't do that if a member of our number is too sick to travel."

Luffy listened to them both with a serious look and nodded, "Alright, then it's decided, we'll go to…" Luffy began to say only for Nami to cut him off from the doorway.

"Hold on," Nami said as she leaned on the doorframe with a blanket over her shoulders, "I'm fine, we don't need to change course, it's just a little cold that's all" she said as she tried to stand on wobbly legs.

Keren came to her side to help her and Nami gave the much larger woman a grateful look before looking down to everyone else who were all looking up at her, "I'm fine really" she said though not fooling anyone.

Gabriel shook his head, "Nami, we just came from an island lost in the prehistoric era, and now you are sick, and with a rash from what we've been told, for all we know this could be much more than a small illness, like it or not we are going to get you to a doctor for your own good"

Nami gave him a glare, "and just how do you think you're going to get there, I'm not going to navigate us there even if I could" she said heatedly.

Gabriel frowned and walked up the stairs to her before reaching out in a flash his hand vibrating as he plucked the log pose from her wrist before she could say anything, "I will navigate us there since you're being too stubborn about this, I may not be as good as you but we both know I'm capable of at least that much" he told her.

Nami's eyes widened, "hey give that back," she said as she reached for the log pose but he caught her wrist and looked at her firmly.

"no, you will get it back only after you have been seen by a doctor and are getting better," Gabriel told her, "now get yourself back inside and into bed, or so help me sick or not I'll scalp your arse and have Mikita sit on you to keep you there" he added before releasing her wrist.

Nami took a step back at his tone and threat, but before she could say anything a bout of dizziness came over her and she began to collapse again only for Keren to pick her up.

Gabriel sighed and gestured to the room, "take her inside," he said before looking to Vivi, "go with her, look after her"

Viv and Keren both nodded and left to go back into the cabin with Nami breathing heavily again, too weak to put up any form of protest.

Gabriel sighed as he strapped the log pose to his wrist, and blinked for a second when he did, in the upper most part of his vision a small arrow appeared pointing in the same direction of the log pose and a screen appeared up as well.

Eternal log poses detected in Inventory; would you like to select a destination from options available?

Gabriel thought for a moment and remembered that it was the log pose that Robin had tossed him back in whiskey peak, he hadn't even thought about that for a while but put it from his mind again, it wasn't any use to them now given that it was in another direction from Drum island, and mentally thought no to clear the screen before he looked to Luffy.

"what were you saying Luffy before Nami interrupted you in her illness induced ranting?" he asked

Luffy gave him a nod, "set course for Drum island,"

Gabriel nodded, "will do," he agreed and checked the log pose before noting the arrow in his vision, "for now just continue on course, when the weather changes to winter we'll be close, Drum island is a winter island so once the weather changes to that we'll have to start keeping watch" he said before looking to Usopp and Mikita, "both of you, to the crow's nest, keep an eye out for snow all around us, if you see any give a yell and we'll change direction"

Both nodded and quickly went up to the crows next to carry out their orders.

Gabriel remained standing at the runway between the staircases as everyone else went back to doing their own things. With no one paying attention to him Gabriel opened the system store and began to look through the skills to find one he'd been meaning to buy. It took him a couple of minutes of looking but he eventually found it.

Weather detection

Hone your senses to detect the slightest change in the climate around you to predict weather coming your way. Unlocks mini map weather option

Purchase Cost: $2,500,000

Unlocking Cost: 3TP

It was a pricy skill, but Gabriel didn't mind with the money he had, and instantly bought it and unlocked it, he would need it.

Weather Detection: 0/5000AP

He thought for a moment before looking to what AP he had, he wasn't expecting any big fights in Drum kingdom so decided that it would be best to spend them on what he needed at that very moment before dumping the five hundred he had gotten from his last quest into it.

Almost the next second he felt his entire body tingle and his vision go blurry for a moment before it came back into focus and at the bottom of his vision was what he could only describe as a mini map of the ocean with the straw hat icon in the centre marking their position and he could see various outlines with count down timers in them all around the area of the merry. It took him a couple of second to realise what he was looking at.

The map was showing different weather phenomena in the surrounding area and the numbers were count down timers until they began to form, they were only ranging from fifteen minutes or less and Gabriel guessed that the more he increased his detection skill the more he would be able to predict.

'what Nami wouldn't give for this, if she knew about this she'd likely call me a cheater' Gabriel mused to himself before turning his attention back to the job at hand, they needed to find drum kingdom and fast.

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