Wapol's men aimed their guns at Dalton, who transformed into his hybrid Bison form, "I owe a great debt to your father, the former king. I had hoped that you would one day realize the errors of your ways but I now see how futile that is!" Dalton said to Wapol. The men aiming at Dalton pulled their trigger and shoot at him. But to their surprise, Dalton started to dodge each and every bullet by side stepping and leaving afterimages. "AHHHH! HE'S DODGING ALL THE BULLETS!" Dalton then took his own weapon and readied himself, "I won't go easy on you just because you're my former subordinates....." with that, he rushed at them with such speed that they couldn't able to react in time. "FIDDLE BANFF!"
With just one move, Dalton took out Wapol's every lower ranked lackies. The civilians watching this were shocked and in awe, "W-what strength!!" "So strong!!" "This is the power of wild beasts that dwell in Zoan-type Devil Fruits....!" Dalton then looked at Wapol and rest of his men, "You people have no place here....A kingdom that would choose to abandon its people at the first sign of troubles is better off destroyed....!" hearing this, Chess snorted, "Hmph....look at him spout such arrogant words...!" "The two of us and you used to form the 'THREE HEADS OF STAFF'. You should know that you stand no chance against both of us." Kuromarimo stated.
"Not only that, I've know you for far too long.....that is your misfortune. I know all about your weaknesses..." saying that, Chess aimed three arrows at particular direction. Seeing the direction the arrows were aimed, Dalton started to sweat. A crowd of civilians were rushing towards them, "DALTON!! WE'VE COME TO HELP YOU FIGHT!!" but then suddenly, Dalton was infront of them with three arrows plunged his body. "Dear Dalton, that soft heart of yours is your weakness....." Chess said with a mocking smile, "MAHAHAHAHAHA!! A most fitting death!" Wapol laughed seeing Dalton fall to the snowy ground and the white snow is slowly started to turn red because of his blood. The civilians were all shocked and horrified seeing the scene, "DALTON!!"
Then suddenly the ground started to shake, "Huh? What's that shaking!? An earthquake?" Walop looked around in confusion. Meanwhile with Ussop, the dogs that were carrying the sled come to an abrupt stop. Ussop looked at them in confusion, "Oi, what happened!?? Why you all just stopped!??" then the ground around them started to tremble, "Huh!??" Ussop looked around in confusion, and then the dogs started to bark while looking towards the mountain. Ussop looked up and immediately his eyes widen in terror, "Oi oi oi.....You gotta be kidding me!!!!" he immediately yanked at the ropes tied to the dogs, "Oi, turn around....turn around...we got no time!!!" the dogs immediately turned around and started to track down the mountain with great speed, as a very huge Avalanche is headed right towards them.
Back in the town, the people started to run away, "Everyone get away from here!" "It sounds like a big one! This town is gonna be hit by an Avalanche!" the Avalanche reached the foot of the mountain with great speed, "IT'S COMING! AND IT'S NOT SLOWING DOWN AT ALL!" "SHIT! THIS WHOLE TOWN'S GOING TO BE BURIED!" "RUN FOR IT". With Ussop, the sled was broken by the force of the Avalanche and by now, the dogs and Ussop were running for their life. Tears were rolling down from Ussop's eyes, as he ran faster than he has ever run, "WAAAHHHHH!!!!!! I DON'T WANNA DIE...I DON'T WANNA DIE.....I WANNA DIE....."
By now the whole town of Big Horn was buried deep in the snow and only the top part of the houses can seen from the outside. Then within the snow, a giant metallic mouth emerged and spit out two people. Then the owner of the giant mouth digs himself out of the snow and looked around himself. "This must be their doing!!" Wapol said with rage in his voice. Both Chess and Kuromarimo looked at him with confusion, "Hm? Come again, your majesty!??" "They said Straw-hat and his crew were climbing the mountains right now, did you forget!? Then it's obvious isn't it!?? They've been waiting up in the mountains until we'd show up so they could have their revenge!!" Wapol stated.
"Ahhhh! Of course!! So it was them who caused the Avalanche just now!" Kuromarimo commented on Wapol's statement. Wapol then looked at them, "Is it true all the ropeways to the castle are gone now!?" Chess nodded at that, "Yes, according to the villagers, your majesty." Hearing that, Wapol looked at the mountains, "Then we'll climb up the mountain too!!! I'll teach those lowly pirates what winter warfare is all about!!"
With Luffy, he had truly underestimated the height of the mountain and because of the snow storm, he couldn't see anything. Sanji who was following him from behind was also in same condition, but due to their resilience, they had finally made it up to the top of the mountain and reached the castle. Luffy slowly reverted back to his normal form and took his winter jacket from Sanji and put it on. "Sheesh...temperature here is really bad." Sanji said and then walk towards the castle gate and knocks on it few times, but got no response in return. He then knocked it few more times and the result was same, "Oi oi.....don't tell me there is no one in there!!!" Sanji said with wide eyes. But Luffy then sensed someone hiding behind the outside castle wall, "Hey.....I know you can hear me...please help us!!! My friend here is in extremely bad condition and she need immediate medical treatment!! Please....."
Down below the mountain, Ussop shakes off the snow from his jacket and sighed in happiness, "I am alive.....!!!! Man I survived that disaster!!!" he then wipes the imaginary sweat from his forehead. Then looks around and saw only snow covering everything. "Where the hell am I!!??" he walked around for few minutes then he saw a hand sticking out from the snow, he immediately ran towards it and started to dig out the person buried in snow. He was surprised to see it was Zoro, "Agh, bloody hell.....a random avalanche on the top of this freezing cold? Talk about a bad stroke of luck.....well, I guess I should just consider this as an extension of my winter endurance training!!!!" exclaimed Zoro, as he was shaking a little bit.
"Zoro!!?? The hell you're doing here...and why in the devils name are you half-naked!??" Ussop asked him with some irritation. Zoro looked at him, "Huh?? Oh it's you!!! I was doing some Ice-water swimming!??" Ussop's eyes widen at that, "ICE-WATER SWIMMING!??" Zoro nodded. "Yeah and I surprisingly saw some fish swimming in the freezing river so I thought it'd be cool to go after it. But then afterwards, I got lost so I started walking in one direction and before I knew it, I was lost in this forest...." Ussop's eyes started to twitch furiously, "How stupid could you get!?" "Whatever man, just lend your coat...." "Oh hell no!!"
They then started to walk in search of anything, "Then at least lend me your boots!!! Even a single one'll do!!" Zoro asked as he was shaking because of cold. "Not so tough are you now!??" Ussop taunted, making Zoro's lone eye to twitch. Ussop then pointed ahead, "Hey look!! There's a whole group of people gathered there!!" as they neared the group, Ussop saw the houses completely covered in snow, "Hey, those houses look familiar.....wait a minute! Ah shit, we're back at BigHorn town!!" Ussop sighed, "Back to where we started!!" Zoro ignored what Ussop said and walks near one of the men, "Yo, what's going on??" the man looked at him shocked look, "Wh-what's going on with you and your half-naked body!??" then the other man recognised Ussop, "The avalanche buried Dalton!! But these bastards won't let us dig him out of there!!" he explained while pointing towards a bunch of men standing on the piled up snow with guns in their hands.
"Beat it, peasants!! Dalton's already dead so deal with it!!" one of the men with the gun announced this to the civilians. "AS IF DALTON COULD DIE THAT EASILY!!" one civilian yelled, "YEAH, AND WASN'T YOU ALL HIS SUBORDINATES ONCE!!! DON'T YOU HAVE ANY SHRED OF COMPASSION!??" another civilian shouted. Hearing this, one of the men with gun looked at the civilians, "We're servants to one man only and that's King Wapol!! Any who goes against his majesty's will is as good as dead!!" while Zoro noticed those men and narrowed his eye, "Oi Ussop, I think we've seen those uniforms once before...those guys were the ones we met on the sea, right?" Ussop blinked and looked at Zoro, "Uh, yeah...." then Zoro grinned like a demon as he eyed Wapol's men.
"If you've got any complaints, feel free to step forth!! Or do you not even have that much courage now that your precious Dalton's dead? HAHAHAHAHA!!" another of Walpo's men taunted the civilian when suddenly, he was punched hard in the face by none other than Zoro. Seeing this, both civilians and Ussop was shocked, "WHY YOU...." Walop's men pointed their guns at him, but to everyone shock, Zoro just took off the winter jacket of the man he just punched and put it on himself, "Ah man!!! This is warm!!" he said with a huge smile. "YOU ATTCKED US JUST FOR THAT!??" Wapol's men yelled at him, but then Zoro looked at them with a smirk, "These guys just never learn, do they...."
In the Drum castle, "Doctress, I've detected an antibody reaction." Said a child like voice, "Oh, is that so!??" a gruff and old voice asked. "Then tell me, what's the cause?" the same voice asked again, "Kestia." Answered the child like voice. "Alright, I'll leave the treatment to you." Replied the old and gruffy voice. Inside a warm room, Vivi was sleeping soundly with a bag of ice over her forehead. A tiny reindeer looking creature walking on two legs with some herbs in his hand and then it placed the herbs in the mortar and pestle and started to make a paste out of it. Suddenly it heard a groan and saw Vivi slowly sat up and looked at the creature. But seeing this, the creature immediately ran towards the door, "Hey, wait!!" Vivi slowly said.
Hearing this, the reindeer creature looked at her with some nervousness and then hid his head behind the door while his entire body was visible. Vivi sweatdropped seeing this, "Ummm....I think you're supposed to do it the other way." Hearing her again, the creature corrected himself and hid his body behind the door and was peeking at the Vivi, who double sweatdropped at that, "A little too late for that now....and I can still see like, half your face. Just what are you?" the little creature then spoke, surprising Vivi. "S....shut up! Y...you darned human! By the way, how's your fever?"
Vivi's eyes widen, "It talked!!" the reindeer seeing her surprised expression screamed, "GYAAAAA!" "KEEP IT DOWN, CHOPPER!" Kureha yelled at the reindeer, which is now identified as the same reindeer that went with her in the village. Kureha then walk towards Vivi and checked her fever, "Looks like your fever's gone down quite a bit, missy. You Happy, Pappy?" Vivi looked at her in confusion, "And you are...." "I'm Dr. Kureha, but you can just call me 'Doctress'." "Wait doctor!? Then this is...." Kureha looked at her and winked, "You want to know the secret of my youth?" "No, I never asked."
"Well whatever!! This is the castle on top of the mountain." Kureha stated, to which Vivi looked at her with some concern, "There should have been two people with me! Do you know where they are!?" "Ah yeah, they're sleeping soundly in the room next door. Real tough boys, those two." Vivi sighed listening this. Then Kureha sat next to her and lifted Vivi's t-shirt and showed her a mark on her stomach, "Here look. This here's the cause of your fever." Vivi looked confused, "What!?" Kureha then explained, "You were bitten by a Kestia, a poisonous tick that lives in the tropics. The bacteria living in that tick changes hosts when the tick sucks on the blood of another animal. Once inside, the bacteria caused great pains for its new host for 6 days. Fevers of 40 degrees or more and inflammation of various body parts occurs, including the myocardium, artery and even the brain!! Judging by the bite mark, it looks like today was 5th day since infection. It must've been quite painful but the pain would've naturally subsided after 6 days of infection even if we left your body as it was.....HEE HEE HEE....." Kureha then did her creepy laugh and looked at Vivi with a weird smile, "Because in just one more day, you'd be resting in peace in the after-world."
Vivi's eyes widen in terror after hearing what Kureha just told her. "It's why it's also known as the '6 days disease'. From what I've heard, Kestia should have gone extinct over a hundred years ago. So you're real lucky that I happened to have the antibiotic for it. Just what the hell have you been doing, missy? Running around on a prehistoric island?? HEE HEE HEE...I'm just teasing....." but then seeing Vivi started to sweat and averted her eyes, Kureha gawked at the revelation. "What, did I actually hit close to the mark? Well, aren't you a hopeless case." She then pushes Vivi back and made her lay down again, "Just go back to sleep for now. You haven't fully recovered yet."
Vivi looked at Kureha, "Thank for your help, but I'm fine as long as my fever's going down. My body can heal now, right?" Kureha just laughed at that. "Don't go underestimating a normally fatal disease now, you naive little girl. It'd normally take 10 whole days to recover with the proper treatment. So unless you feel like experiencing a world of pain again before dying, I'd suggest you stay put. Besides, with my medicine, you'll fully recover in just 3 more days!!"
Listening to her and hearing it will take more time to recover, she sat up. "3 whole days!? No, I have somewhere I need to be right n---" but she was cut by Kureha, who pointed a surgical knife at Vivi's neck, "There're only two cases in which I let patients leave my sight. HEE HEE HEE.....when they've healed.....or when they've died! You're not going anywhere, missy." Vivi hurriedly nodded at that. Then suddenly, the gate of the room was kicked open and chopper rushed in with Luffy and Sanji holding his legs, "GYAAAA! HELP!!!" he shouted. "Stop right there, I just wanna play with you!!!" Luffy stated while Sanji was completely different case, "Hey hey, who plays with the food!! I'm going to make a nice deer stew for Vivi~chan"
Vivi looked at them, "Luffy, Sanji....and huh? Just what is that blue-nosed talking deer-doll?" then a brawl started between Luffy and Sanji and poor little Chopper was the centre of the mess. Kureha seeing the scene just laughed, "Well, colour me shocked. Didn't think those two could be up and about so soon." She then smiled and remembered how she met them.