The preparations were a frantic blur of purpose. Mario worked with a desperate efficiency, weaving a harness from strong rope and canvas, reinforcing it until it was a secure cradle. He then bundled Nami in every blanket they could find, swaddling her until only a pale sliver of her face, beaded with sweat, was visible against the white fabric. She was a precious, fragile cargo, and he would secure her against the mountain's wrath.
„This will have to be enough," Mario muttered, more to himself than anyone, as he did a final check on the straps.
„Will you guys be alright?" Vivi asked, her voice thick with worry as she watched the three of them prepare for the impossible climb.
Dalton shook his head, a look of profound concern on his face. „I don't know if you are brave or profoundly reckless…"
Usopp, despite his own terror, puffed out his chest. „But… if it's you guys, I know you can do it!" He then pointed a trembling finger at Mario. „Just… don't drop her!"
Luffy tilted his head, a genuinely curious look on his face. „Not even once?"
„OF COURSE NOT, YOU IDIOT!" Usopp shrieked, his brief moment of courage evaporating.
Sanji took a long drag from his cigarette, his eyes fixed on the treacherous peaks. „Sigh. Are we ready?"
„Yup, we are!" Luffy declared, his expression turning deadly serious. „LET'S GO BEFORE NAMI DIES!"
„SHUT UP, YOU STUPID CAPTAIN!" The cry came from everyone in the room, a unified blast of superstitious fury.
Without another word, Mario stood, adjusted the harness, and felt the concerning heat of Nami's body against his back. Then he began to run. It wasn't a jog; it was a full-on sprint, his legs pumping, kicking up plumes of snow as he charged towards the base of the colossal Drum Rockies. Every second they had spent preparing felt like a wasted eternity. The road was long, too long, and the clock in his head was screaming.
As they shot past Dalton, the man called out a final, crucial warning, his voice nearly lost in the wind: „BE CAREFUL OF THE LAPIN! THEY ARE SNOW RABBITS! CARNIVOROUS AND EXTREMELY VIOLENT!"
But the trio was already a blur, three determined figures against a vast canvas of white, racing toward a witch's castle perched in the clouds, a life hanging in the balance with every labored breath from the bundle on Mario's back.
***
The three of them moved like a single, multi-limbed organism, a desperate engine of motion against the sheer, white face of the mountain. Mario, with his precious cargo, led the charge, his feet digging into the deep snow with a jarring, rhythmic crunch-crunch-crunch.
"Can you run a bit softer?" Sanji snapped, his voice tight with anxiety. Every jolt that traveled through Mario's frame was a jolt felt by Nami, and it was fraying the cook's already strained nerves.
"I'm trying!" Mario grunted, the strain evident in his voice. Balancing speed with stability was a brutal challenge.
"Don't try, do!" Sanji shot back.
"Leave him alone, Sanji," Luffy interjected, his voice uncharacteristically low and serious, cutting through their bickering. "I know you're worried about Nami, but there's no time to waste." The simple, direct truth from their captain silenced the cook.
They pushed on, their path a frantic zigzag through a forest of frost-laden pines. The world was a blur of white and green until a flash of pure white, faster than the falling snow, launched itself from the undergrowth. It was a Lapin—a creature with the deceptively soft fur of a rabbit, but the size of a large dog, with eyes like red coals and teeth like shards of ice. It went straight for Sanji's throat.
Lapin!
Mario yelled, a fraction of a second too late. "Sanji, Luffy, don't attack it! It's not just one, they're—"
The cook didn't even break stride. With a fluid, almost contemptuous motion, he sidestepped the lunge and delivered a powerful kick, sending the furry cannonball yelping into the trees.
"Fuck…." Mario cursed, his stomach sinking.
"What? It was annoying," Sanji retorted, not understanding the gravity.
"You just declared war on the whole mountain," Mario said, his voice grim as he poured on more speed, the castle looming ever higher above.
"You're dealing with the aftermath. I'm not stopping."
***
Just as Mario had feared, their path was suddenly blocked. It wasn't just a few more Lapins; it was a horde. And these weren't the smaller, dog-sized scouts. These were the adults—towering three to four meters tall, with hulking bodies of dense muscle coiled beneath their deceptively fluffy white fur. Their eyes glowed with a predatory intelligence, and their low, rumbling growls vibrated through the very ground.
"I knew it…." Mario sighed, the sound heavy with resignation.
"How was I supposed to know they had backup?" Sanji retorted, falling into a fighting stance.
"They're fluffy as hell…" Luffy observed, his head tilted in curiosity.
"You both deal with them!" Mario commanded, his voice sharp with urgency. "Protect me and Nami! I can't fight with her on my back!" He glanced back at the harness, ensuring the straps were secure, his primary duty clear.
"Of course! You just keep Nami safe!" Sanji yelled, already becoming a blur of devastating kicks, each impact sending a massive Lapin stumbling back but failing to deter the relentless pack.
Mario weaved and dodged, moving with as much gentleness as he could muster to avoid jostling Nami, while still maintaining his frantic pace up the slope. A furious battle erupted around him as Luffy and Sanji created a moving perimeter of defense, their attacks a whirlwind of rubbery limbs and fiery kicks. They weren't trying to win the fight, just to clear a path, and the three of them pushed forward as a single, desperate unit.
The rabbits pursued them relentlessly, a churning, snarling tide of white fur and sharp teeth. It was a terrifying race, not just against time, but against the very mountain's inhabitants.
Did I forget something? Mario's mind raced, a nagging feeling clawing at the edge of his consciousness. What did I forget…?
Then he heard it. A low, deep rumble that was entirely different from the growls of the Lapins. It was a sound of the mountain itself groaning.
As he lifted his head towards the peak, he saw it. A massive section of the snowpack high above had been fractured and dislodged.
"Those rabbits did it…..Those damn rabbits did it now!" Sanji said, his voice laced with a rare edge of genuine fear as he stared at the impending doom.
"What the….." Luffy muttered, his eyes wide.
A colossal wave of white death was now thundering down the mountainside directly toward them—a devastating avalanche that filled the entire horizon, moving with the speed and force of a natural disaster. Their path was completely cut off.
Mario wanted to hit his head against the nearest tree. The sheer, obvious oversight felt like a physical blow.
For God's sake, am I that stupid or do I have amnesia? Why didn't we just use the cable like Chopper did in the story? For fuck's sake! The simple, elegant solution he'd known about all along had been completely forgotten in the panic.
"Go back! RUN!" Sanji roared, his voice cutting through the deafening rumble. "Mario, you keep Nami safe and only Nami!"
"Crap, crap, crap! Those damn rabbits!" Luffy cursed, his face a mask of fury and frustration as they were forced into a desperate retreat.
The sound was overwhelming, a world-ending roar of grinding snow and ice. Mario turned and ran, pouring every ounce of his strength into a sprint that was both blindingly fast and agonizingly gentle, his body a shield for the precious burden on his back.
"What do we do now?!" Sanji yelled, the strategic mind of the crew at a loss against nature's raw power.
They tried to veer towards a rocky outcrop, but the avalanche was too vast, a tidal wave of white that threatened to swallow them whole. The leading edge of the snow was already nipping at their heels.
"Jump onto the trees! Follow me!" Luffy commanded. In a move of insane, brilliant instinct, he leaped onto a thick pine tree that was being torn from the earth and swept up by the avalanche. He rode it like a surfboard, using his rubbery body to maintain a precarious balance. Mario, with no other choice, mimicked the move, landing on another uprooted tree and holding on for dear life, his focus entirely on keeping Nami's harness steady.
So did the rabbits.
"You have got to be kidding me!" Sanji cried out, landing on a tree of his own as the avalanche became a surreal, high-speed battlefield. The massive Lapins, using their powerful legs, bounded from tree to tree, their red eyes fixed on the intruders. A frantic, chaotic fight erupted mid-slide, with Luffy and Sanji creating a protective cordon around Mario, deflecting leaping rabbits with Gum-Gum whips and concussive kicks while Mario white-knuckled his ride, steering his arboreal sled as best he could.
At one terrifying moment, a coordinated pounce from three Lapins knocked both Luffy and Sanji from their perches, sending them tumbling into the churning sea of snow.
"LUFFY! SANJI!!!" Mario cried out, his heart lurching, but he was powerless to stop. He could only hold on, the image of his swallowed crewmates searing into his mind.
***
After what felt like an eternity, the avalanche's momentum finally spent itself, the thunder fading to an eerie silence. Mario hopped from his tree, his legs trembling with adrenaline and exhaustion. His first action was to check Nami; she was unconscious but stable, her fever no worse. He gently laid her against the trunk of a half-buried tree.
Then he sprinted to the vast, piled snow, stretching out his senses. His fledgling Observation Haki, sharpened by desperation, picked up two familiar, vibrant energies buried deep. He dug frantically with his hands, soon pulling a gasping Sanji and a sputtering Luffy from their icy tomb.
"Kough! Kough! Those damned rabbits!" Sanji wheezed, brushing snow from his suit.
"I thought I would die!" Luffy exclaimed, spitting out a mouthful of snow with a grimace.
Mario breathed a sigh of sheer relief, sweat he hadn't even felt now cooling on his brow. "You guys okay?"
"We're fine," Sanji frowned, his eyes scanning the area. "But we got held back a lot." His face then paled. "WHERE IS NAMI?!"
"Relax, I set her down to get you guys," Mario assured him.
"Phew, thank god," Sanji breathed, the tension leaving his shoulders.
The three of them, battered but unbroken, trudged through the deep snow back to where Mario had left their navigator. "We need to hurry," Sanji said, his voice thick with renewed worry.
As Mario knelt to carefully pick Nami up once more, a smug, nasal voice cut through the quiet.
"Your Majesty! There they are!"
SON OF A BITCH!
Mario's head snapped up. There, standing atop a pristine snowdrift as if they owned the very mountain, were Wapol and his two henchmen, Chess and Kuromarimo. The gluttonous king looked down at them with a triumphant, vengeful grin. They had survived an avalanche and a rabbit army, only to be cornered by the most pathetic villain of them all.