Chapter 046

Days later...

Back at Strawhats...

Liz approached Luke once again. However this time, she was full of determination.

"Sigh.. I told you. Your healing ability won't work on me." Luke still looked deathly pale as if he's on the edge of his life. Seeing Liz so determined like this, he almost reveal his secrets on her to ease her mind.

"I will try one last time. However, this healing is a bit different." Liz insisted as she proceeded to heal Luke.

Luke was calm at first, but his expression changed when he felt something different was happening to his body.

He frowned and asked, "Stop. What kind of healing is this? Did you do something that's harming your own body?"

Liz gritted her teeth as she continued to heal Luke.

Nami and Vivi was also there watching closely of the treatment. When they heard Luke's question, they were alarmed and got concerned for Liz.

Minutes past and Liz slumped to the floor with no strength left of her body. Nami went to support Liz with concern.

Luke kept frowning as if something in him got erased. Still, he was baffled what it was. After checking all his powers were working just fine, he got even more puzzled.

Liz stared at Luke's condition. However, she was disappointed her spell didn't heal him.

"What did you do? How's your power?" Luke wanted to scold her for doing something reckless he didn't know yet, but he sighed when he saw her so determined.

"Temporarily disabled. It'll return once I rest for a few days." Liz smiled in dismay. This is the first time she doubted her ability to heal.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. I know my body well. I just need some little rest and I'll be back to normal." Luke patted her head to reassure her.

"But your condition is getting worse day by day." Liz retorted as if a wife on a tantrum.

Luke simply smiled and didn't say more. He wouldn't reveal his facade on her.

Right now, he was focused in self reflecting on his battle with Ulquiorra.

The guy was so powerful that he spent everything he had on that one final attack.

He must prepare soon now that Ulquiorra's group are on tracks with the Strawhats. As for which organization these people belong to, he's not clear of it yet.

'Seems like I need to gather bunch of high quality souls soon.' Luke thought.

Meanwhile, the Strawhats are actually meditating for the past few days after leaving the Little Garden.

Since Sanji was recuperating, Igaram surprisingly handled everthing well in the kitchen to prepare food for the Strawhats.

Luke was also satisfied that these Strawhats are starting to glow up. They looked refined and composed.

Even Usopp, the most hard headed narsicist of the Strawhats is now more mature than before.

Without Sanji's absence and still recuperating in bed, the lively atmosphere was temporarily gone.

Luffy also meditated while his practice with Color of Arms became evident. Such monstrous learning talent was truly rare in this world.

"Land Ho!" Yosaku announced after seeing the snowy land.

Everyone went to work as their aim is to find a doctor and also recruit one to be their Nakama.

Unlike the original story, the Strawhats didn't met with King Wapol before arriving at snowy Drum Island which now known as Drum Kingdom.

King Wapol was ruling the Drum Kingdom and the people are suffering from his regime.

Luke mused, 'Since there's no Blackbeard Pirates that terrorized the Kingdom, the aim of King Wapol should probably the same as before, to hunt down every medical person on the Island. That means, Kureha and Chopper doesn't live on the highest peak. They probably lived on a secluded area around the Drum Kingdom.'

As the Strawhats landed on the snowy land, they were met with trouble.

Marines!

"Surrender now pirates or we will have no choice but to kill you all here!"

Around twenty marines in winter coat aimed their gun at the Strawhats.

These marines were deployed to every kingdom led by each Vice Admirals. Their goal is to defend the kingdom by those pirates that escaped from Impel down a month ago. Although temporary, it serves a great help for common people.

"Great. This will be tricky." Zoro held his only sword, Wado Ichimonji, preparing to silence the marines.

"Wait, Zoro! If you kill them, we will be hunted down by all the marines in the Grand Line." Vivi held Zoro as she warned them in worry.

"Vivi's right. There's two options I can come up with for now." Nami stepped forward and she continued, "First, we leave this place and find a doctor to the next Island or we subdue all the marines here and proceed to our goal."

Luffy's eyes shone. He said, "We subdue them."

With that, the Strawhats prepared to act when suddenly Luffy unleashed his Conqueror's Haki to the marines, rendering them unconscious.

Although surprised, the Strawhats proceeded to gather the marines in one place and tied them down.

The people left in the Going Merry were Liz, Mr. 9, Ms. Monday, Johnny who's still recuperating and Sanji who's in coma.

The rest, including Luke entered the nearest village of the island.

As for the Baroque Work agents, they were dumped and tied together with the unconscious marines.

Luke on the other hand gazed at Mr. 5 in secret. He was debating of which Devil Fruit he will use on his second ring.

There's two candidate Devil Fruits for his second ring. The first one is the Bomb Bomb power of Mr. 5 which he can use as an ammo for his Special Gun Homie. The second one is the Munch Munch power of King Wapol on which he can create bunch of Homie Soldiers with multiple functions.

As the Strawhats entered the village, some of the villagers cautiously hid their home while warily glaring at the newcomer.

"There should be a bar here. I'm kinda low on booze." Zoro looked around.

"Heh. How can you say that when your debt with me already rose to 500 thousand berries. You better find a new sword and pay up soon." Nami squinted her eyes at Zoro.

Zoro flinched as he glared at Nami. Due to his two broken swords, he had no other choice but to loan 100 thousand berries again on Nami with 300 percent interest rate.

Plus, he has a debt of 200 thousand berries at Logue Town before. That adds to his total debt to 500 thousand berries.

The group dealt with some patrolling marines around the village and tied them to a corner.

They finally found a bar. However, the villager was too scared to cater them. This made them helpless.

"What are you guys doing in our land?"

Suddenly, the Strawhats saw a bulky man in green leather armor suit entering the bar. He looked at them with serious look on his face while carrying a rifle on hand.

"We've come in peace. We are here to find a doctor for our friend here." Vivi stepped forward as she pointed at the sickly looking Luke.

The man stared at Luke for a second before returning to Vivi. He paused for a few good seconds and frowned,

"Why are you, a princess, mixed with these bunch of pirates? If the marines were to know about this, your kingdom is as good as done."

Vivi's expression changed. She didn't expect there's someone who recognized her in this kingdom so easily.

The man frowned deeply before he turned to leave the place, "Follow me."

The Strawhats and Vivi stared at one another before following the man.

"Dalton-san." A random villager greeted the man before hiding away in fear seeing the Strawhats.

Every house they passed by, the people respectfully greeted the man named Dalton.

Along the way, Luffy, Usopp and Yosaku were throwing snowballs at one another for fun.

After the Strawhats entered a simple looking house, the man introduced himself as Dalton, one of the three generals of Drum Kingdom directly serving King Wapol.

Everyone except Luke was surprised. They didn't expect such a man was a high official himself in the kingdom.

"For your problem, I'm afraid no one can help you. There's no doctor here. They all lived in King Wapol's place." Dalton shook his head. He added,

"King Wapol also won't help since you guys are pirates. Plus, he's... a mean king. The moment you enter his palace, it's your end."

"No doctor lived in every village here? Then what about those sick people? Who will treat them?" Vivi frowned as she asked.

"It's a complicated story. Basically, King Wapol is a madman that wanted all the doctors to be his own slave. This is a dying kingdom and people here relies on themselves to survive."

Dalton blurted out. He hope for this princess here to understand the dire situation of his kingdom.

"This.. What about the marines?" Vivi asked with concern.

Dalton shook his head, "Marines never interferes with the internal strife of a kingdom. Their only role is to protect it's safety from other elements like pirates and vile criminals."

Luffy assumed a poker face.

Luke already noticed this strange behavior of Luffy and things may turn into mayhem soon.

"There's still one doctor here." Luke muttered which heard by everyone.

Everyone turned their attention to Luke.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Every doctor in this kingdom goes to Wapol's palace. There's no other doctor here." Dalton frowned as he stared at Luke.

"There's one here? Who is it?" Nami asked in anticipation.

Everyone ignored Dalton as Luke's words is like a real imperial edict that cannot be faked. It became a normal routine for them to trust Luke's words as if he's spitting out facts.

Dalton was speechless. He never expect these people would believe their friend than him, a resident of this kingdom.

"If I'm not wrong, you guys called her Witch." Luke stared at Dalton who visibly showed surprised expression.

"You mean that witch?" Dalton stared back at Luke with profound meaning. After thinking for a bit, he replied with a grave tone, "She's indeed a doctor here. But she stopped treating people a month ago after the unending pursuit of King Wapol's soldiers."

"So we only need to find her hideout?" Zoro squinted his eyes on Nami. He somehow noticed that Nami has the ability to seek things at wider range. With her help, it will be easy for them to approach the place of this witch.

"Yes-"

"I found one."

Dalton was about to explain how hard it is to locate the home of the witch when Nami cut his words.

"Really? That's amazing!" Luffy's eyes lit up after hearing Nami.

Nami nodded as she pointed at a direction. Then she added, "A woman lived in a secluded place with a.. should be a pet raindeer or something."

Dalton was surprised that this woman in front of him also detected that old man's friend raindeer. He wondered just who are these people? How are they so knowledgeable of this land and able to locate a hidden person.

"Then let's go!" Luffy already activated his adventurous nature as he stepped out of the house.

"Wait!" Nami shouted which puzzled the group.

"I think we need to hurry. Another group are heading there too. They should be armed with guns."

"That must be King Wapol and the soldiers! I never thought of them insisting on finding her." Dalton also readied his gun.

Everyone stared at Dalton's weird action. They found it strange for a high official to do something that against his king's orders. Still, they didn't mind it too much since they have intuition the man really cared for that woman's safety.

"Yosh! Let's save them!" Luffy announced.

While the Strawhats raced to the snowy mountains to save the witch, a marine saw the group and secretly sent the news to the Vice Admiral who was stationed at the Drum Kingdom.