We had been in the sea for several days now, and I could already feel a chill in the air, indicating that we were nearing Drum island as it is known for its wintery weather.
Of course, the weather in the past couple of days has been anything but pleasant as we had to cross a sea area affected by the magnetic fields of two different islands affected by two utterly contrasting weather phenomena.
I already knew what I was getting into when I decided to head into the grand line. But seriously, what the fuck is with this weather? One minute it's a snowstorm that would last for hours, only for a dust storm to come with hurricanes and shit when it ended.
How there is dust, not to mention dust storms in the middle of the sea, I do not know, and I hardly have the mental capacity to process this level of nonsensical gibberish.
So I took a page out of Luffy's playbook and merely considered it as mystery weather. Seriously, that air-headed, rubber human might be on to something here, but I digress.
Though Laffite, like all of us, failed to process these nonsensical weather phenomena like the rest of us at first, he proved himself more than worthy of being one of the best navigators in one piece once he spent some time navigating us through them.
I could go on and on about how lucky I was to recruit him into my crew, but it's nothing I haven't said before, so I'll spare you the details.
On another note, Bepo also had some time to shine during these past couple of days, as he was a navigator of sorts himself.
Though he may be nowhere near the skill level of people like Nami and Laffite, he was still the heart pirates' navigator, and he managed to take them all the way to the new world.
So it was no surprise that the polar mink could actually help Laffite in navigating through the harsh weather, earning the navigator's respect.
Oh, and how could I forget about the mishmash of gigantic sea monsters with too high an opinion of themselves that attacked the black pearl?
One of them, a giant, worm-like, pink creature with the head of a wolf, destroyed part of the railings, and that's all I could remember about the affair.
Wilson later told me that he hadn't seen me this angry since those damned baboons threw a half-eaten apple on the deserted island where I first met him, and that particular sea monster would be having flashbacks of the beating it received even in its next life.
"Land ahoy!" I heard Elly's voice coming from the deck, and I smiled, shaking my head as I made my way outside the captain's quarters.
And sure enough, I could already see the silhouette of the Drum Rockies, the drum-shaped mountains that the Drum island was known for on the horizon.
I scanned the deck and located Doc Q lying on the ground right to his horse, stronger, and made my way there with a smile.
Doc noticed me from the corner of his eyes and turned to look at me with some difficulty, grunting as he did. "Is that the island you told me about?" He asked, holding his mouth as a streak of blood leaked out of it.
"It is," I replied with a nod as I sat on the floor next to him. "If your illness can be cured anywhere, then it will be here," I added, smiling as I turned to look at Drum island, still a mere silhouette on the horizon.
"And here I thought that the pirate king's doctor and ope-ope fruit user were your aces in the hole...," Doc Q remarked with a smile, squeezing a wheezing chuckle.
"Once you get to know me more, you'll realize that I always go the extra mile and leave nothing to chance," I replied with a smirk. "But that's neither here nor there," I added, shaking my head.
"We'll be there soon, so pack up some warm clothes as I hear it's quite chilling on drum island," I said as I got up, making my way towards the black pearl's prow.
"I don't want your sorry ass dying on me from a cold before we even meet the doctors there," I added, chuckling as I waved a hand at him from behind.
...
"For a wintery island, their welcome sure is warm," I remarked with a chuckle as we docked the black pearl at the drum island's port, only to be received by several dozens of armed soldiers wearing heavy winter clothes.
"It sure is, captain," Laffite replied with a chuckle. "Should I take care of them?" He asked, giving the armed soldiers an unimpressed look as they stood their ground, flintlocks, and spears in hand.
"There's no need," I replied, shaking my head. "We might be able to reason with them yet," I added as I turned to look at the drum island's soldiers with a smirk, causing them to grip their weapons even harder.
"I don't know what you pirates want," said a tall, imposing man with slicked hair and goatee in a solemn tone. "But the only thing you'll find here is a fight," he added, calmly looking at us with an even expression.
"We're not here to cause trouble," I remarked, dismissively waving my hand to the side. "We're here to meet doctor Kureha," I added with a shrug of my shoulders, maintaining a friendly attitude.
"Regardless of your reason, I can not allow you entry into Drum island," the man stubbornly replied. "So turn and leave this place, pirates," he added, still refusing to grant us passage.
"Listen here, Dalton, buddy," I remarked with a sigh, using his name, which caused his eyes to open wide in astonishment. "We will get on the island one way or another," I added as I looked him dead in the eye.
"So you either get out of my way and maybe we can have some of that rice with chestnuts from Bighorn you like so much," I stated, causing dalton's eyes to widen in further surprise.
"Or I can simply beat the living shit out of everyone here and make my own way to the island," I added, raising an eyebrow as I released a small shock wave of conquerors Haki, knocking a dozen of the guards closest to me unconscious.
"So, what's it gonna be?" I asked, holding back a chuckle at the soldier's panicked expression and Dalton's troubled one.
"You may enter, but you must give me your word that you will not cause trouble," Dalton stated after several seconds of thought, sighing as he did.
"Well, I could do that, but it wouldn't mean a single thing now, would it?" I replied with a question, smiling as I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm a pirate, and there's no one on this island capable of making me keep my word," I added with a laugh.
"Fair enough," Dalton remarked with a sigh. "But I warn you if you endanger the lives of the people here, then I will stop you, even at the cost of my life," he solemnly warned, and I merely shrugged as we began exiting the black pearl.