The snow kept falling, thick and heavy, muffling sound and swallowing color until the world seemed reduced to white, gray, and the dark silhouettes of armed men.
Luffy stood at the front of the group, head lowered, fists clenched at his sides so tightly that his knuckles had gone pale. His breathing was slow—deliberately so. Anyone who knew him well could tell this wasn't calm. This was restraint. Forced. Artificial. Like holding a storm inside a bottle and pretending it was just air.
The villagers stared at him in disbelief.
Pirates didn't bow. Not real ones. Not captains.
The man in the green jacket studied Luffy for a long moment, his grip tightening on his rifle. He looked from Luffy's lowered head to Vivi, still kneeling in the snow, then back to the ship behind them—the strange ship, crewed by strangers who didn't look afraid enough.
Finally, he turned.
"I'll take you to the village," he said gruffly. "But make one wrong move, and you're dead."
Luffy lifted his head slowly. His face was blank again, perfectly controlled, like the moment before lightning strikes.
"Understood," he said.
The tension didn't ease, but it shifted. Rifles lowered just enough to suggest hesitation rather than mercy. The villagers began to move uphill, boots crunching through snow and ice.
"Sanji," Luffy said quietly without looking back.
"Yes, captain."
"Bring Nami. Carefully."
Sanji didn't joke. He didn't flirt. He simply turned and went inside, shoulders set, jaw tight. He emerged moments later with Nojiko and Vivi helping him carry Nami on a makeshift stretcher of blankets and planks.
Nami's skin was burning hot despite the cold. Her breathing was shallow. Every step uphill felt like time itself scraping against Luffy's nerves.
They followed the villagers in silence.
Behind them, Zoro watched Vivi with unreadable eyes. Johnny and Yosaku stayed close to him, hands near their weapons, while Usopp hovered awkwardly near the back, eyes darting between the armed locals and Luffy's rigid posture.
After a few minutes, Usopp leaned toward Vivi, his voice low.
"…You really shouldn't have said that."
Vivi blinked. "Said what?"
"That he wasn't fit to be captain."
Her lips parted slightly. "I—"
"I know you were trying to help," Usopp continued, not unkindly. "But you don't understand what you did."
Vivi looked ahead at Luffy's back. He walked straight, steady, coat snapping in the wind, snow melting the moment it touched his shoulders.
Usopp swallowed. "I've seen him kill people for less."
Vivi's breath hitched.
Ahead, the village finally came into view—simple wooden houses half-buried in snow, smoke rising weakly from chimneys like the island itself was struggling to breathe.
The man in the green jacket stopped and raised a hand.
"Doctor Kureha doesn't like outsiders," he said. "Especially pirates."
Luffy stepped forward. "Then tell her this," he said evenly. "If she saves my navigator, I'll leave without breaking a single rule of this island."
The man studied him again, then nodded once and gestured toward a steep slope leading higher into the mountains.
"She lives up there."
Vivi looked up at the path, eyes widening. "That's impossible in this weather!"
Luffy didn't hesitate. "Sanji. Zoro."
Zoro smirked faintly. "About time."
Sanji adjusted his grip on the stretcher. "Hold on, Nami," he muttered. "We're not losing you to a snow-covered rock with an attitude."
As they began the climb, thunder rolled faintly in the distance—not from clouds heavy with rain, but from something deeper, angrier. The sky above Drum Island darkened despite the snow, flashes of lightning dancing far above the peaks.
Zoro glanced upward. "He's still holding it back."
Johnny shivered. "Holding what back?"
Zoro didn't answer.
At the rear, Vivi slowed, her heart heavy. She looked at Luffy again—at the way his shoulders were too stiff, the way the air around him felt charged, dangerous.
She finally understood.
Luffy hadn't bowed because he was weak.
He had bowed because if he didn't… this island might not survive the alternative.
Another thunderclap shook the mountains.
"Yeah," Zoro muttered quietly, eyes on the sky. "She's really lucky."