Chapter 5

As Luffy, Sanji, and Rose make their way to the perilous mountain, the captain makes sure that Nami's sleeping body is secured on his back.

Sanji shivers for a second before he looks down at the rubber man's sandals in disbelief. "Why the hell are you still wearing sandals?! I'm getting cold just looking at you!"

"It's my police!"

The chef rolls his eyes at the mispronunciation before he corrects him. "You mean 'policy'."

A dark figure growls at the group from the shadows while Rose chuckles and looks down at Luffy's feet. "Still, aren't your feet numb or something?"

Luffy chuckles at the question and acts like it's not cold at all. "Nope, I'm good. Hey, do you guys know that the people in snow countries don't sleep?"

Sanji raises a swirly eyebrow at the question. "Why's that?"

"Because they'll die if they do."

Rose stifles a laugh when the group narrowly dodges a feral rabbit that tried to pounce on them. She widens her eyes at the small attacker while she continues to run with the guys. She sees the rabbit is still pursuing them from the shadows so she keeps a close eye on the beast.

Sanji ignores the small lapin while he looks at Luffy in disbelief. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

Luffy ducks to avoid the rabbit who tried jump him from behind. "It's the truth! That's what the guy said!"

Sanji quirks an eyebrow at the declaration as he jumps to dodge the lapin. "Who, Usopp?"

"No, a guy from a bar."

The lapin tries to bite Rose, but she uses her wind to throw him back into the trees while she giggles at Luffy's explanation. "That still doesn't mean that people from snow countries don't sleep Luffy."

"How would you know?"

Sanji groans in frustration of dealing with his captain's stupidity. "Ok, then explain this, why did Dalton have a bed in his house?"

Luffy tilts his head in thought before he figures out an answer. "I know! He got it for when it's time for him to die!"

Sanji starts getting angrier by the answer. "That's even more ridiculous!"

Rose laughs at the small argument while the lapin tries to attack them again, but he misses and bites a tree again. He snaps the tree in half with his fangs which causes the top half of the tree to fall towards the group, but they run ahead to avoid getting hit.

The lapin sweat drops at the running group while Rose tries her best not to look at him. She knows that sending him flying too far would get him to call his family in, so she's trying her best not to hurt him too much. Hopefully, she can convince the boys to do the same.

She turns to the others while she gestures her head to the rabbit. "I've heard of one guys. Lapins, like the one that's been tailing us, tend to travel in packs, so we shouldn't mess with them. I'm sure the little guy would call his folks if we try to hit him."

Luffy tilts his head and grows confused by her warning. "Facing a pack of those guys doesn't sound that bad."

Sanji however, just looks to Rose with hearts in his eyes. "If any of them try to hurt you or Nami, I'll be sure to protect you dear Rose-chan!"

Rose groans at the flirting and narrows her purple eyes at him. "I already said that I don't need protection!"

He nods as if he's listening before he starts happily daydreaming. "Since we're talking about snow countries, I have a fact. Did you two know that the women of snowy countries have beautiful smooth skin?"

Rose quirks an eyebrow at the statement, but stays silent while Luffy becomes skeptical. "Why's that?"

Sanji stays in a love daze while he explains the rumor. "Isn't it obvious? You know how when it gets cold you rub your skin together? Well that's why."

Rose chuckles at that while she jumps to the side to avoid the lapin from biting her. "Where'd you hear that from?"

"From a few customers at the Baratie. They even showed me a photo that proves having smooth white skin is the trademark of women from snowy countries."

Luffy tilts his head at the weird comment. "Why white skin?"

Sanji shows off a goofy smile at the thought of beautiful pale women. "Because the beautiful white snow seeps into their skin."

The captain jumps to dodge the lapin while he blankly stares at the chef. "That's pretty stupid."

The blonde twitches an eyebrow at the insult as the lapin charges towards him. "I don't want to hear that from you! AND WILL YOU KNOCK IT OFF YOU STUPID RABBIT?!"

He kicks the rabbit to send him flying so far that they lose sight of him.

Luffy sighs in relief of not having to deal with the baby lapin anymore. "Man, that rabbit was annoying."

Rose widens her eyes at that kick and bites her lip in frustration. Now that the lapin got kicked like in the manga, it's only a matter of time before they face an army of bear like creatures.

She looks around for the lapins then stops when she sees a large branch on the ground. With her still being at the beginner level of her powers, she's going to need all the up she can get in fighting the animals.

She picks up the branch while the guys stop and look back at her.

"What are you doing?" Sanji asks.

She tests the tall, and thick, stick's weight then smiles in satisfaction when she feels confident that she can manage with it. "Getting a weapon in case that lapin comes back with his pack."

Luffy nods before the group continues onward while they ignore the snow at their feet ,that's getting thicker by the minute.

Sanji sees Luffy roughly pulling his legs out of the knee deep snow to keep going, and grows concerned for their beautiful patient. "Be more careful when carrying Nami or her body won't hold up."

Luffy nods as he makes sure that Nami is secured on his back, then the group freezes when they see a large pack of lapins, that are the size of polar bears, facing them.

"What the hell are they?" Sanji asks when he notices the small rabbit that he kicked on one of the animal's backs.

"I think they're polar bears." Luffy says.

Rose shakes her head as she tightly grips onto the stick in her hand. "They're fully grown lapins. The one Sanji kicked called his folks for revenge."

One of the giant rabbit makes her statement true by rushing over to the group, and jumps to attack, but everyone rushes to the side to dodge.

Luffy manages to land on his feet then he looks at the pack in shock. "How can they move so quickly in all this snow?"

Sanji scowls at the animals that are getting ready to pounce on them. "They're used to the terrain, so we're at a disadvantage. Luffy, whatever you do don't attack them."

Luffy furrows his eyebrows at the order. "Why not?"

"Every blow you deliver or receive will be transferred over to Nami as well. If that happens she'll die for sure."

Rose looks at Nami softly before she glares at the pack. She can't take Nami away from the captain without drawing the rabbits' attention to them. The best thing she can do now is protect Luffy and Nami as they try to escape them.

She grips her stick while she dodges a lapin's attack and sends him flying with her wind. "Sanji and I can cover for you Luffy. What's important is Nami's health."

Luffy slowly nods in understanding. "Got it, I promise not to fight."

He quickly ducks to dodge one of the lapins' strikes. "Wait, what should I do then?!"

Sanji dodges another rabbits attack before he gives Luffy his orders. "Just dodge for now, but don't run too fast!"

"THAT'S WAY TOO HARD!"

Another lapin tries to strike at Luffy, but Rose rushes over and whacks him in the face with the branch before she sends him flying with another gust of wind.

She keeps her focus on the snarling rabbits while she grips her branch. "I don't think we have much of a choice here!"

Luffy quickly agrees and starts running with Rose and Sanji following.

A rabbit tries to attack Sanji from behind, but he manages to kick him first. "Flanchet, SHOOT!"

He sends him flying but he lands on his back just a few feet away from him.

The chef groans in frustration as he catches up to the others. With how this the snow is, his kicks aren't as strong as they usually are. Even so, he won't stop protecting Nami from this.

All the rabbits jump towards them at once, but before they can touch them, Rose swings her branch at the direction of the rabbits to create a large gust of wind to push ten of the closest rabbits back and slams them into the ones behind them.

Luffy looks back at the attack and grins in excitement of the cool move. "Whoa, nice shot!"

"Thanks, but they're not gonna give up that easily." The wind girl says when she looks back to see them getting up and sees them continuing their hunt.

The chase continues on when the group reaches a rock ledge that gets them closer to the summit. Luffy jumps on a lapin to make it onto the cliff side, while Rose blows some wind onto the ground to gain some altitude, with Sanji jumping after her.

A lapin jumps at Sanji from behind, but he manages to kick him away while another one was about to strike him.

Before the rabbit could hit the blonde, Rose uses her wind to pull chef onto the cliff side, but leaves herself wide open for the rabbit to hit her left side and send her flying into the forest!

She tries to use her wind to start flying, but nothing happens when she sees herself about to crash into a large tree!

Before she could hit the tree, she takes a deep breath to blow her wind against it to stop herself just a foot away from it, and falls face first into the soft snow.

She sits up and catches her breath while she clenches onto her left side where the rabbit struck her, and she uses her branch to help stand herself up. *Shit, that really hurt... I better catch up to the others before they try to come back for me.*

She keeps the branch in her hand as she runs as fast as she can while she ignores the aching pain in her side.

Sanji and Luffy stopp running away after they saw Rose's flight in hopes of her coming back, but there's no sign of her as four of the lapins run to the woods to go after her. The rest of the pack starts jumping onto the mountainside where they were, and tries to strike them while they all continue to dodge.

"ROSE! YOU OK?!" Luffy yells as he continues to dodge the lapins.

Sanji furiously kicks the rabbit that sent her flying to send him crashing into another rabbit. He knows that they can't just leave her alone to face the,m even if they have to backtrack on their journey. "Luffy, we need to-"

"I'M OK!"

Luffy and Sanji widen their eyes at Rose's voice as she keeps yelling from the forest. "DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME! I'LL CATCH UP WHEN I LOSE THE OVERGROWN EASTER BUNNIES! KEEP GOING AND DON'T STOP! SANJI, SO HELP ME IF YOU DRAG THE OTHERS DOWN HERE TO FIND ME, I WON'T FORGIVE YOU!"

The captain is surprised by Rose's demand, but he knows this is the best option, so he calls out to her. "GOT IT! WE'LL SEE YOU AT THE TOP!"

He runs ahead to get away from the pack with Sanji following closely behind.

Sanji looks back to the forest where Rose is, and starts having conflicted feelings about the plan. "I don't know about this Luffy. She doesn't have full control of her power yet."

Luffy shakes his head as he keeps running. "I think she'll be ok. She's pretty good at fighting. Besides, she said she won't forgive you if we go get her."

Sanji groans at the mention of not being forgiven as he follows Luffy up the mountain with the pack of lapins in pursuit. "Fine, then let's hurry and bring Nami to the castle, so we can come back for Rose."

The rubber man nods as they make a run for it while Rose is running away from the four lapins chasing her.

She groans in frustration when she looks back at the lapins chasing her. "Seriously, what's with the carnivores in this world? There's a lot more meatier prey than me around here!"

She reaches another part of cliff side where she finds herself cornered by the rabbits. She grows more irritated at her situation by the minute as she glares at them and gets in a stance. "Ok, you know what? Screw it, if you want a fight then bring it!"

The four animals couldn't agree more as they get ready to pounce but stop when they feel the ground shaking.

Rose widens her eyes at the shaking ground and realizes that this is the moment when the rest of the lapins cause an avalanche.

She looks up to the sky and quickly yells out to the others. "GUYS, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, RUN DOWN THE MOUNTAIN AS FAST AS YOU FUCKING CAN! THESE CRAZY RABBITS ARE TRYING TO START AN AVALANCHE!"

The rabbits in front of her snap out of it, and snarl at the insult before they jump at her. Just when the brunette is about to retaliate, she suddenly flies straight up, and leaves them to crash head first into the mountainside to knock themselves out.

Rose is shocked by the sudden flight when she stops rising about fifteen feet in the air, and hitches her breath at the sight of a giant avalanche falling from the mountaintop. "I fucking hate rabbits... Where are the others?"

She starts flying towards the path that the guys took, when she sees the pirates running onto a tall cliff in hopes of escaping the avalanche. She widens her eyes when she sees that they're still not high enough, because all three of them crash into the avalanche.

Once the snow collided with the group, Luffy and Nami were sent flying while Sanji was swept away into the flow!

"GUYS!" Rose flies as fast as she can to them when she sees Sanji struggling to keep his body above the snow. She flies down to grab his hand and flies up to pull him out of the avalanche.

However, before she can start getting Sanji flying on his own, the wind holding her up fades away!

"OH SHIT!" She manages to send Sanji flying so he doesn't fall with her, but before she hits the snow a rubber arm wraps around her waist!

It hastily pulls her to its owner while she uses her wind to bring Sanji with her.

Rose grins at the rescue when Luffy sets her down on the broken tree that he's riding with Nami on, then sets Sanji down next to her. "Thanks Luffy, are you ok Sanji?"

The chef nods and grins at the freckled girl. "I'm more than alright since I was saved by an angel. What about you? That shitty rabbit hit you pretty hard."

She gives him a reassuring smile while she ignores the compliment. "Yea, I'm fine. I'm more glad that we escaped the avalanche."

Luffy nods then looks ahead in frustration. "Yea, we made it, but now we're riding down the mountain!"

Rose widens her eyes when she sees that they really are going down the mountain, so she scoots to the front of the tree. "Hang on, let me try."

She lifted her arms up to create a gust of wind in front of the tree to try to drive it up against the snow current, but it only slowed the ride down until the wind faded away. She tries again, but this time tries using her wind to make the tree fly off the snow, but it won't budge. "Dammit, my wind's not strong enough. Sorry guys."

Sanji shakes his head at the apology before he scowls at the memory of the rabbits. "Don't be, it's those damn rabbits who are to blame. If I see them again I'm going to make hot pot out of them!"

Rose sighs as she looks back, then drops her jaw at the sight behind them. "Um guys, we might have that chance sooner than we think..."

Luffy and Sanji look back in confusion before they're also slack jawed at the sight of the lapins pursuing them again by snowboarding on broken trees.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Luffy yells before a rabbit rides next to them and tries to hit Luffy and Nami, but Luffy pulls Nami down along with him to dodge.

Sanji and Rose start fighting off the rabbits that try to attack them while Luffy dodges with Nami on his back.

Sanji kicks a rabbit to send him flying. then widens his blue eyes when he looks ahead to see that they're heading towards a rock ledge with broken trees standing on top. "Oh shit!"

Luffy dodges another rabbit then sees the incoming rock. "Holy crap!"

Before he could do anything, Sanji quickly throws Luffy and Nami up off the tree to protect them from the crash and the rabbits.

Rose uses her wind to slow down the tree and try to turn it, but it's still approaching the rock. She scowls in anger as she keeps trying to use wind while not noticing the gentleman approaching her from behind.

"Pardon my roughness Rose-chan, but I'd rather not see a lovely lady get hurt on our behalf twice."

Rose turns around only for Sanji to pick her up and throw her into the air just before the tree crashes into the rock to send him flying.

Luffy widens his eyes in horror of the crash. "SANJI!"

Rose grits her teeth, while she's still in mid air, and goes to use her wind to try to grab Sanji before he hits the snow. However, before she can save him, a lapin manages to strike her so that she lands back first onto the rock!

The rabbit couldn't do much more because he and the rest of his pack fall into the snow!

Luffy grabs onto the edge of the rock with one hand while he keeps Nami secured on his back with the other.

Sanji lands in the snow and starts getting carried away by the current while smiling in satisfaction. "Good, they're safe..."

Rose forces herself to get up and sees Sanji sinking into the avalanche. She tries to use her wind to try to pull him out, but it won't lift him out of the snow because her wind can only make things fly off the ground or mid air.

She sees Luffy starting to pull Nami and himself onto the rock, so she goes to the edge and helps pull them safely onto the rock.

Luffy gently lays Nami on the ground then turns around to see that Sanji's hand is the only thing left above the snow. "WE DIDN'T TELL YOU TO DO THAT, YOU IDIOT!"

He stretches his arm to grab his hand, but it turns out that the only thing that was above the snow was his glove! "AAAH! WE LOST SANJI!"

Rose rakes her hands through her hair in anger at Sanji for throwing her off before she could throw him off. "THAT DUMB ASS!"

The avalanche finally stops, so Luffy takes off his jacket and lays it on top of Nami. He takes off his straw hat and gives it to Rose. "Watch Nami and hold onto my hat for a bit. I'm gonna go get Sanji."

She nods as she holds onto the hat while Luffy swan dives into the snow to go after his friend.

The brunette quietly sighs in frustration of how things went, then slowly sits next to Nami and looks at the sleeping redhead softly. "I'm sorry Nami, I promise I'll make sure we get through the rest of the trek as quick and painless as possible..."

Nami doesn't respond as she shivers in her sleep.

Rose notices her shivering then places the hat next to her before she starts unzipping her own jacket, but she stops to cringe at the pain in both her back and side. She hisses at the pain when she realizes how much pain the rabbits delivered to her, along with the new warmth to her back. Wait, warmth?

She shakes her head at the thought as she finishes unzipping her jacket then slowly pulls it off of her. Once the coat's off, she widens her eyes to see that the inside of the back of her jacket was blotted with blood.

She quickly touches her back, and groans in pain before she pulls her hand back to see that her gloved fingers are lightly stained in blood because her fall onto the rocks scraped her back!

"Shit!" The freckled girl becomes angry at herself for not being used to her power enough to phase through attacks on command, and gathers up some snow. She uses it to wash half of the blood off the jacket before she covers Nami with it to give her some warmth.

To do some first aid on herself, she gathers some more snow to stuff in the back of her shirt. She cringes from the seething cold before she lays on her back to let the snow ease the pain. Lucky for her, the bleeding just started, so the snow can stop it before it's too serious.

Once she started to relax, she grabbed Luffy's hat and looked it over to distract herself. When she gazes at the hat, she becomes starstruck when she realizes that this is the legendary hat that started everything in Luffy's adventure. It's seen not only the start of the great pirate era, but all of Shanks' early adventures too.

The brunette inspects the thirty year old object and is impressed with how good of a condition it's in despite a few stitches. Guess it just shows how much Luffy values his treasure.

She softly grins at the beloved bundle of straw when she hears the sound of snow shifting. She slowly sits up to see Luffy walking towards her while he's carrying an unconscious Sanji on his back.

She quickly took the half red snow out of her shirt, and covered it in some of the surrounding snow. in order to prevent the captain from worrying about her, she grabs her jacket and places it over her shoulders to cover her stained shirt.

Luffy climbs onto the rock and lays Sanji down, before he catches his breath, and turns to Rose. "Did any rabbits come back?"

Rose shook her head as she placed the straw hat back on his head. "No, it's been quiet."

She goes over to Sanji and reaches for his jacket's zipper.

When Luffy sees her unzipping the chef's coat, he tries to stop her only for his hand to be swatted away. "What are you doing?! He's cold enough!"

She finishes unzipping Sanji's jacket before she points to the blonde's red face. "He got frostbitten from being buried in the avalanche. One of the best ways to warm someone up is to get their frozen clothes off and replace them. Since we're short on time and clothes, I'm just going to switch jackets with him."

Luffy is taken aback by the explanation and is impressed with her quick thinking. "I thought you said you didn't know any medical stuff."

"I said that I didn't know how to treat Nami's illness, but this is basic stuff." Rose says as she watches Luffy hum in acknowledgement and get Nami onto his back. While his back is turned, she quickly gets her jacket on Sanji without zipping it, because the coat is too snmall, then throws on his jacket to cover her back.

Luffy keeps his jacket on Nami's shoulders, then picks Sanji up under his arm. "Ok, let's get going. We just gotta climb up now."

Rose nods as she picks up her branch and starts walking with him towards the mountain. "Alright, just remember to run if we face anymore enemies."

He nods as he focuses his gaze on the mountain. "Got-!"

He cuts himself off when they hear small cries, and look to see that the baby lapin Sanji kicked is crying next to a giant paw sticking out of the snow. From the way he's crying, it's easy to tell that the buried rabbit is his parent, and weakly tries to dig the rest of the body out.

Rose looks at him softly for a second because she feels his pain, and goes to help. Before she can do anything though, Luffy goes up to the paw, grabs it with his free arm, and pulls the large lapin out of the snow. After he pulls the rabbit out, Luffy walks ahead with Rose quickly following while the two rabbits silently watch the humans walk away.

As the group continues walking, Luffy keeps his focus on the large drum shaped mountain while he carries his crew mates. "Don't worry guys, we'll be there soon."

Rose looks at the large drum shaped mountain in thought of what she can do to ease Luffy's climb. Out of all the things she can do, the best she can go for is-!

"THERE THEY ARE!"

Rose and Luffy look back in confusion to see a man dressed as a jester, a boxer wearing a black afro, and their leader Wapol riding on a furry white hippo towards them.

Wapol stops the hippo in front of them as he scowls at the group. "It's been a while brats. You have a lot of nerve coming to my kingdom after you disrespected me."

Rose clenches on her branch, but stays quiet while Luffy scowls at him. "Get out of our way."

Wapol laughs at the demand. "Hahaha, are you nuts? Why should we get out of your way? After all, those pieces of trash you're carrying are dead anyway."

Luffy and Rose stay quiet as they duck under the hippo to get past him, and keep walking towards the mountain like nothing happened.

Wapol widens his eyes at their disrespect before his shock was replaced by fury. "HEY, DON'T WALK AWAY FROM ME!"

Neither of them respond to his commands, so he turns to the court jester that's riding with him. "Chess, write down this new law that I came up with."

Chess nods as he grabs a pen and a piece of paper from his bag. "Yes sir, what's the law?"

"Whoever turns their back on me is to be executed! Now go and kill them!"

Chess jumps off the hippo and charges towards Luffy and Rose. "Yes my lord! Let's go Kuromarimo!"

The boxer complies by joining the assault with his partner. "You don't have to tell me!"

Luffy turns around to see Kuromarimo jump up and grow iron spikes on his gloves. "Face my- WAAH!"

He cuts himself off when Rose swings her branch to create a gust of wind to send him flying into Chess, then starts running with Luffy.

Luffy grits his teeth in frustration of not being able to fight them, and keeps running. "Dammit, quit bothering us already!"

Chess gets up and aims his bow, that's containing three large arrows, at them. "How about you quit running cowards!"

He fires the arrows, but before they can hit, Rose creates another gust with her branch to deflect the attack then catches up with Luffy.

"Winter Empire's secret technique, hiding in the snow." Rose widens her eyes at Wapol's voice, and looks back to see that he and his henchmen are out of sight.

Luffy looks back in confusion while they keep running. "Where did they go?"

Rose shrugs then looks ahead in shock to see a large mouth open up right in front of Luffy, but before he got bit, he quickly jumps back next to Rose.

Wapol smirks at his prey as the rest of his body comes into view. "Don't think you can just run away from a king and live! Now guys!"

Chess and Kuromarimo come out of hiding with their weapons at the ready. "LET'S SEE YOU BLOCK US BOTH AT ONCE!"

Rose grits her teeth as she gets her stick ready, when suddenly two giant lapins swoop in and slam both Chess and Kuromarimo to the ground!

Wapol is petrified at the sight of the pack of lapins blocking his path from Luffy's group, while his henchmen slowly get up.

"They're helping those kids?" Kuromarimo asks.

Chess looks at them in disbelief, because his eyes aren't telling him otherwise. "That can't be right! Lapins hate humans!"

The baby Lapin that Luffy helped stays on the leader's back while he nods for Luffy and Rose to leave.

Luffy quickly understands and runs off to the mountains with Rose. "Thank you for helping us!"

Rose looks back while she grips her stick, because that king deserves at least one hit, so she creates a gust of wind to flip Wapol over and slam him down on his head! "That's for trying to eat my friends, you jackass!"

Wapol widens his eyes at the attack that kept happening to him on the Merry. He immediately knows how it happened now, so he gets up and glares at the escaping girl. "SO YOU'RE THE ONE THAT RUINED MY MEAL!"

He starts running after them, but his path was cut off by the pack of lapins. He grits his teeth furiously at the pack. "Dammit, Chess, Kuromarimo, I don't care what it takes. Get these vermin out of our way now!"

"Yes sire!" The two soldiers charge the pack and begin the battle between man and snowy beast with no signs of surrendering!

After their escape from the tyrant king, Luffy and Rose continue their journey with their unconscious friends for what seemed like hours, and are struggling to stay warm in the freezing cold.

Rose rubs her arm to stay warm with her free hand while holding onto the branch with the other. She turns to Luffy to see that he's lightly panting from the exhaustion of carrying Nami and Sanji then sees that his skin is turning red from the cold. "Hey Luffy, I think we're safe from here on out. I can take one of them off your hands if you want."

He shakes his head as he steps away from her, and keeps a hold of his friends. "I'm fine, we're not that far from the mountain."

Rose slowly frowns at the denial, but leaves it alone when she sees the base of the cylinder shaped mountain coming into view. "Ok, I have an idea on how to get to the top quickly."

Luffy curiously looks to her as they keep walking. "What kind of idea?"

"When we get to the base, I'm going to use my wind to lift the three of you up to the top."

He widens his eyes at the idea. "What?! What about you?!"

She shows him her stick, and gives him a smile to mask her insecurities about her powers. "Once you guys are at the peak, I'll make my branch fly to ride to the summit."

He blinks at the crazy idea before he brightly smiles at her. "Really?! That sounds awesome!"

She chuckles at his enthusiasm when they reach the base of the steep mountain. "Ok, I'm going to take it a little slow, so that nothing happens. If it looks like Sanji or Nami are about to fall from your grip, let me know and I'll create a gust to catch them."

Luffy nods as he takes a few steps back while he's keeping Nami on his back and Sanji under his arm. "Alright, once we're at the top, I'll yell for you to come up."

"Alright." The brunette focuses her purple eyes on the group, and then raises her hand up to create a gust of wind around Luffy that starts lifting his feet off the ground.

Luffy grins in excitement as he starts ascending towards the top with his crew mates. "This is awesome! Just hang tight guys, you're gonna see a doctor right now!"

Nami and Sanji didn't respond, because they're still unconscious on the flight to their healers.

Rose lightly pants from exhaustion as she concentrates her powers to keep raising the others to the top. No matter how tired she gets though, she refuses to stop until she knows that her friends are safe.

When she sees that they're reaching the ledge, she manages to bring them over the edge before she breaks her concentration and stops the wind. After her wind fades, she collapses on her knees from the exhaustion. As she sits down to rest, she looks up at the mountain top with an accomplished smile on her face from doing something useful for them. "I fucking did it!"

"HEY ROSE, WE MADE IT! COME ON UP!"

Rose snaps out of it to the sound of Luffy's voice, then stands up to see his head peeking over the edge while he's waving to her. She chuckles at his childish enthusiasm as she waves back to him. "I'M COMING! BRING THE OTHERS INSIDE!"

"OK, BUT HURRY IT UP!" Luffy rushes away to the edge to go get the others to the doctor.

When the wind girl no longer sees him, she shifts her attention to the branch in her hand. "Alright, Harry Potter time!"

She focuses her wind to lift it up and takes a seat on the branch, just as is she's a witch on a broom.

When she sees that she's starts slowly float up, she can't stop smiling in excitement of the new experience and for what's to come when she reaches the summit.

Luffy can't wait for his friends to get better as he carries his friends to the enormous castle that's coated in snow. "Whoa, this castle is huge!"

"Who are you?" Luffy turns his attention to the voice at the door to see a large, shirtless, blue nosed man at the door. What's the most surprising about him though, is that he's coated with brown fur, and only wearing purple shorts and a pink top hat.

The rubber man drops his jaw at the strange sight, but if he can help his friends, he doesn't care how he looks, so he slowly approaches the door. "Are you the doctor?!"

He shakes his head. "No, I'm her assistant. Doctorine's inside right now."

A wave of relief rushes over him and turns his attention to the unhealthy crew mates. "Great, then please help my friends! Nami's sick, and Sanji's injured!"

The assistant quickly helps by taking Sanji from him, and leads Luffy inside. He brings the pirates to the medical room where an old woman, dressed like a teenager, is mixing up medicine. "Doctorine, we have some patients that need help!"

The old woman grins at the new chance to get paid, and puts her medical equipment down. She gets up from her desk, and points to the only empty bed in the room. "Really? Ok Chopper, place the girl in that bed and bring the blondie in the room next door. Straw hat boy, we'll treat your injuries too."

Luffy gently places Nami onto the bed and covers her with a blanket before he frowns to the doctor. "I'm fine, just heal my friends."

She smirks at his stubbornness, before she gets ready to go back to her medicine. "I won't heal them unless you let me heal you too."

Luffy is annoyed by the threat, but he knows that he can't argue with her, so he slowly nods. "Fine, there's another girl on her way here too."

Chopper hums in acknowledgement as he starts bringing Sanji out of the room. "I'll go get her after I place him down. Follow me."

Luffy complies as he follows him into the room next door where two beds are available.

Once Chopper takes Rose's jacket off the chef, he widens his eyes at the faded blood on the inside of the jacket!

He looks at the back of Sanji's shirt to see that he wasn't bleeding, so he grows worried for the potential patient that needs his help. "Who does this jacket belong to?!"

The captain looks at him in confusion as he sits down on the other bed. "It belongs to my friend that's on her way here, why?"

He turns around and shows him the blood stain. "There's blood on this jacket!"

Luffy widens his eyes at the new information, and realizes that Rose's been travelling with an injury this whole time!

He can't leave her alone now that he knows that she's hurt, so he gets off the bed and storms out of the room!

Chopper couldn't believe that he ran off to face the cold again, so he chases after him to try to stop him. "Wait, where are you going?! You're in no condition to go out there again!"

"I don't care! I gotta go help my friend!"

Chopper is shocked by his determination to not leave his friend behind, and stops to watch him face the bitter cold.

Dr. Kureha walks out of the room, and goes up to her assistant from behind. "Go make sure that he doesn't die. I'll start treating the others."

He slowly nods as he keeps his gaze on the fleeing pirate who just left the castle. He can't shake the feeling of being moved, but he doesn't let it stop him from his duties, so he runs after him.

Rose is now heavily breathing from exhaustion as she uses as much wind as she can create to lift the branch up along with her.

Her bony body won't stop shivering from the freezing cold as she keeps floating up. She looks down at her numbing hands, and flails one arm at a time to keep her blood flowing. No matter how much flailing she does, she can feel herself getting frostbite with each passing second.

She looks up to see the edge of the mountain coming into view and smiles at the knowledge that it's almost over, until she starts sniffling. "Please, not now!"

The brunette tries holding back her sneezing by covering her mouth and nose with her elbow. It didn't do her any good, because she releases a sneeze that creates a gust of wind strong enough to send her flying up and lose her grip on the branch!

She quickly caught herself by grabbing onto the mountain wall, and tried to create a new gust to grab the branch, but nothing happened.

"Shit!" The new devil fruit user can only watch her weapon fall into the snow, and break from the high fall.

With no confidence in being able to fly on her own, she finds that they only way to avoid the same fate as her branch is to climb to the summit. She looks up to see that she's about twelve feet away from the edge of the mountain.

She grits her teeth at the odds stacked against, but doesn't complain when she starts scaling the mountain. The outsider keeps her purple eyes on the icy rocks in front of her, to keep herself focused on the goal instead of the dreadfully steep fall that could await her.

As she continues to scale the mountain, her mind begins to wander on how things were when she read this scene in the manga. She's astonished about how not the rubber man she's come to know was not only able to climb this entire mountain alone, but while carrying two people. If anything, her appreciation in how he would face unimaginable odds for the sake of his friends only grows from knowing that what she read about him reflects the truth in his character.

She snaps out of her thoughts when she feels her feet slip. She tries to gain a better footing, but all she could do is slip around until she loses her balance before she falls off the rock!"Crap!"

She tries to grab onto the mountain again, but before she can grab anything she feels something grab her wrist causing her to stop falling!

When the brunette finds herself not dead yet, she looks up in shock to see Luffy, a few feet above her, with one hand stretched to hold onto the snowy ledge while the other is pulling her up.

Once the wind girl sees the pirate's pissed off facial expression, she quietly gulps at the realization that he saw the blood on her coat.

Luffy pulls her up, so that she's face to face with him, then keeps holding her up by the wrist. "Why the hell didn't you tell me that you got hurt?!"

She nervously scratches the back of her head with her free hand while she looks away from him. "It was just a scrape on my back. It's not a big deal..."

"Not a big deal?! I saw blood on your jacket!"

She frowns at the worried tone, and explains herself to try getting him to let it go. "While you went to dig out Sanji, I placed snow on my back to stop the bleeding."

Rose sees that he's only wearing his regular clothes, with no winter apparel on him, and gets annoyed by his reckless behavior. "Speaking of jackets, why the crap didn't you grab yours before heading out again?! You're gonna get frostbite!"

"Don't change the subject! You should have told me that you got hurt!"

She growls in frustration of his pointless scolding, when he's being just as careless, and looks him in the eye with a pissed off look of her own. "Look here, I don't want to fucking hear it when you're doing the same thing right now! At the time, Nami and Sanji were our first priority, so I didn't tell you so we can focus on them! I'll get myself treated when I know that they're safe!"

His face softens at her anger, and sees that she was looking out for his friends' best interests, just as he was. At the very least, he's glad that he can help her too, so he smiles at her. "Well, they're getting treated right now! When they're done, you're next! Get on my back, I'm gonna pull us up!"

Before Rose can say anything, Luffy pulls her onto his back, so she quickly wraps her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, so that she doesn't fall off. "G-got it, but please don't try rocketing us from here."

Luffy complies to her request as he stretches his other arm onto the ledge, then starts slowly pulling them up. "Alright, just hang tight until we get there."

She softly grins at the rubber man, and starts relaxing on his back with relief washing over her for not falling to her death. "Ok, thanks for coming back for me by the way."

He flashes her a cute, toothy grin as they get closer to the ledge. "Don't worry about it, that's what friends do right?"

She widens her eyes at being called his friend, but considers it an honor in her book. She can only nod with a sweet grin as she looks up at the mountain. "Right."

Once they reach the ledge, Rose gets off of Luffy to grab onto the edge while he pulls himself up. Before either of them are safely on the mountaintop though, the snow under them collapses and get them to fall!

"What the fuck is with this?!" Rose exclaims in frustration as she tries to use her wind, but before anything happens, two large brown hands grab onto their wrists and pulls them up.

Rose widens her eyes in shock, and looks up to see Chopper in his human form throwing them onto his shoulders.

Luffy grows annoyed at being carried like a rag doll before he weakly struggles to get out of his hold. "Hey, put us down!"

Chopper ignores the demand as he brings them inside. "Shut up, you shouldn't be out here in the first place! You're lucky you didn't already freeze to death by wearing that!"

Rose swallowed her excitement from seeing the humanoid reindeer as she's carried throughout the castle. *Holy crap, it's Chopper! His nose really is blue! This is so cool!*

Chopper goes into the room where Dr. Kureha is currently treating Sanji, then drops Luffy onto the bed. "Just stay there and wait to get treated."

Luffy furrows his eyebrows as he sits up to protest, but he suddenly feels a needle hit his arm before he falls unconscious.

Rose widened her purple eyes at the sedative shot that was thrown at Luffy courtesy of Dr. Kureha.

The doctor keeps a sadistic smirk on her face, as she turns to the brunette, while she holds up another sedative needle. "Now kid, I'm sure you're not going to cause any trouble like your friend there right?"

The wind girl quickly nods while she keeps a nervous smile on her face. "R-right ma'am..."

Dr. Kureha nods in satisfaction as she finishes treating Sanji. "Good then Chopper, go place her in the room where the redhead is while I deal with the other boy. I cleared my medical supplies off the other bed."

Chopper nods as he walks out of the room with Rose still on his shoulder.

Rose turns to him when they enter the room, then bows her head. "Thank you for saving us. If I can ask, could you please treat the redhead first? Her disease is really bad. If you don't believe me, you could check her stomach."

He nods to the request as he gently sets her on the bed. "Don't worry, we'll take care of her. Right now, you should focus on yourself."

She gives him a small smile as the exhaustion from the journey begins to catch up to her. "Thank you doc."

Chopper widens his eyes at the nickname as he watches her fall asleep. "D-doc?"

He jolts back to the reality of the situation when Dr. Kureha walks in. "She fell asleep?"

He nods as he shrinks down until he turns into a tiny two legged reindeer. "Yea, she said that we need to take care of the other girl first because her disease is serious. She also said that the proof is on her stomach."

Dr. Kureha quirks an eyebrow at the claim before she goes up to Nami, takes her jacket off, then slightly lifts her shirt to see the red bug bite on her stomach. "This bite!"

She quickly goes to her medical equipment to get the antibiotics ready then turns to Chopper. "You take care of the freckled girl. I know what to do with this one."

Chopper hastily agrees and gets to work with Dr. Kureha on treating the mysterious group that traveled to their secluded home as their reward for making it through the dangerous woods.

TO BE CONTINUED