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Disclaimer: One piece and all of its characters belong to Eiichiro Oda.
Chapter 5: Yuba
"There is nothing here!." Luffy complained as soon as we got off the ship.
"We are not in Yuba yet, we still need to walk through the desert for half a day." Explained Nami before showing them the map.
"This is where we are now. It's called Green town."
"Green town? but there is nothing here." Said Luffy while looking around. There was only sand and some broken structures poking out of the ground.
They started to walk through the ruins of what once must have been a lively town.
"What happened to this place?." Sanji asked Vivi.
She sighed. 'I wish they stopped asking me questions. I don't remember much of this. Just that Crocodile did something to the weather with some powder.'
"Lack of water. It hasn't rained in a long time. Once the water wells were completely drained, people were forced to move somewhere else. I'm sure Crocodile had something to do with that since the lack of rain started shortly after his arrival."
She wasn't sure if that was very accurate and just tried to speculate about the fate of that town.
The Strawhat crew seemed to believe the story and didn't ask more questions about it, much to Vivi's relief.
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By the time they made it to Yuba, they had no more food or water after some birds stole most of their supplies and Luffy ate the rest.
They all gasped at the sight of the town. There was a giant sand tornado covering most of it.
"A sandstorm!." Yelled Nami.
'So, this is Crocodiles doing too. I may not have the attachment to this land that the original Vivi had....but using his ability to torture these people like this is just messed up. ' Thought Vivi.
It took almost half an hour before the storm calmed down and they were able to enter the town. By then, everything was covered in sand.
"Water….I don't see any water here." Complained Luffy with dry lips.
"Wasn't this supposed to be an oasis, Vivi?" Asked Sanji.
Vivi raised an eyebrow at the question since the answer was quite obvious. "The sandstorm has covered everything, including the water of course. I doubt this was the first one they had, looking at the state of this place."
Further ahead, they found an old man working with a shovel in an obvious attempt to find water.
"Travelers, uh?. I'm afraid this town has dried up. But if you want a place to sleep, we still have an Inn running." The old man said.
"Excuse me, we heard that the rebels had a base here." Said Usopp.
"What?!, you came here to join those fools?!." The man said with anger.
"What do you mean?." Asked Nami.
"The storm that you just saw was not the first one. The drought has lasted three years already, and the sandstorms are becoming more frequent. The sand has been eating at the oasis for a while, so we barely have any water left. The rebels realized that they would not win a war of endurance and moved their base of operations to Katoera." Explained the old man.
"Where is that? is it close?" Asked Luffy.
"It's the oasis next to Nanohana." Answered Nami, who was now looking at her map.
"What? that's where we came from!." Yelled Sanji.
"You look very familiar." The old man said to Vivi.
Vivi covered her face quickly. "I have a very common face."
'I rather not get involved with this person. He was very familiar with the original me and I don't want more raise any questions.'
She then turned to the rest.
"We need to get moving. The rebels are probably desperate enough to launch some sort of suicide attack at this point."
"She is right. We need to hurry up if we want to stop them." Said Nami.
"But what about supplies? we have no more food or water. We will die in the desert!." Said Luffy in desperation.
"I'll give you some food and water. I don't have much but it should be enough to get to Nanohana." Said the old man.
"Oi, are you going to be ok after giving us that?." Asked Sanji.
"I'll manage. I just want to ask you one thing in exchange. Please….stop the rebels. They are all going to die…and… my son is one of them…please." Begged the old man.
"Don't worry old timer. Leave it to us, shishishi." Said Luffy with confidence.
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In the end, we decided to change course. Instead of going back to Nanohana like we initially planned, we are going to an Oasis called Rainbase, north of Yuba.
That is where Crocodile has his base of operations. Luffy had been insisting on defeating the Shikibukai first since then it would be easier to stop the rebellion.
It was a reckless plan but no one had any better idea. Vivi already knew that Luffy was going to lose his first encounter with Crocodile, but He would survive and win next time after learning about his abilities so she wasn't that worried.
'Or maybe He could win his first encounter if I tell him to use water.'
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A few hours later, Rainbase was on sight.
"Yes!! Crocodile, your ass is grass!" Yelled Luffy.
"Shut up already." Complained Zoro.
"Oh yeah, Usopp, how is it coming along?." Asked Nami.
"I finished it." Said Usopp, then proceeded to pull some tubes out of his bag.
"This is your new weapon. I call it 'Clima Tact'."
"How does it work?." Asked Nami while observing the device.
"With this, you can create different effects depending on how you assemble it. I have included an instruction manual. Make sure to read it." Said Usopp when handing Nami her new weapon.
"Hey, don't give Nami any dangerous weapons, Usopp!." Yelled Sanji.
"Besides, Nami and Lady Vivi don't need to fight, because I'll protect them!."
"Shut up, you idiot." Said Zoro before turning towards Vivi.
"Do you think the Baroque Works knows that we are in the country?."
"Probably. We already had an encounter with Mr2 and we know that Mr3 was coming here too. We can assume that they know about us." Answered Vivi.
"So what if they know?." Asked Luffy, not understanding the problem.
"So, no more random actions. They know our faces." Said Usopp.
"What about it?." Asked Luffy.
"We don't know where they could be hiding and we don't even know what some of them look like. We are at a disadvantage. If we want to get to Crocodile, we cannot get caught too soon." Explained Usopp.
"And their specialty is assassination." Zoro pointed out.
"We just have to beat them up then. Crocodile!, I'm coming for you!." Yelled Luffy.
"Idiot!, are you not listening?!." Said Usopp while hitting Luffy in the head.
Vivi sighed, she knew that stealth was not going to work…