Chapter 24: Wapol
The three of them crossed the snowy plains crowded with Lapahns and entered the cedar forest.
"With mountains shaped like this, how do they even go up and down?" Akame asked bluntly, as always catching her captain off guard with unanswerable questions.
"Who knows? Maybe they use thick ropes and tightrope walk?" Eric shrugged. He had forgotten most of the details anyway. All he cared about now was getting the Munch-Munch Fruit and heading to the next destination.
"I think it's nearby," Chiron said. The compass needle shifted slightly even when Eric walked around a single cedar tree—clearly reacting to minute changes in position.
"Is that it? A purple fruit with jagged edges, like a closed mouth with rings around it," Chiron spotted it with his clairvoyance. Devil Fruits looked nothing like regular plants or fruits, so they were easy to spot at long range.
Hearing the description, Eric lit up. "Yes, that's the one!" But Chiron's next words wiped the smile off his face.
"There are people around it."
"Quick! We need to get there!" Eric shouted.
"Who goes there?!" shouted one of Drum Island's Iron Barrel Kingdom guards, pointing his weapon at the fast-approaching trio.
"Stop right there. I can't let you get any closer," said Dalton, now the captain of the guard, standing in their path.
"What's going on? How dare you disturb me, the king?!" Wapol stormed forward in a huff from behind Dalton.
"!!!" He was holding the Munch-Munch Fruit in his hand.
"Oh, I'm just here to buy some fruit. Look." Eric pulled out his treasure stash to show Wapol. "How about trading this for that fruit?"
"Hah? This is a Devil Fruit! Do you take me for a fool?! That's not nearly enough!" Wapol might look like an idiot, but he was sly—more than capable of setting traps and using underhanded tricks.
"Besides, this country is mine! Drum Island belongs to me! And everything on it—including the treasure you're carrying—belongs to me! Wahahaha!" Wapol declared grandly as he raised the fruit to his mouth.
"Chiron! Stop him!"
"Understood."
Chiron's hands moved faster than a certain legendary "falcon," loosing several arrows at once. One pierced Wapol's right hand, knocking the fruit away. Other arrows aimed at vital spots were blocked by Dalton.
"Lord Wapol!" Jesso and Chess rushed to his side in panic.
"It hurts! Doctor! Doctor!" Wapol collapsed, wailing. One of the twenty doctors forced into his elite team sprang into action, pulling out bizarre tools and expertly performing emergency treatment—removing the arrow, stopping the bleeding, and stitching the wound.
"Whew, thought I was gonna die," Wapol said, suddenly standing up as if nothing had happened—like he had just taken a Senzu Bean.
"You dare attack the King of the Iron Barrel Kingdom?! Even if you kneel and beg, I won't forgive you!" Wapol roared. "Guards, attack! Kill all three of them!"
Click. The guards raised their rifles and aimed.
"Don't kill the green-clad square-faced one in front, or the one named Wapol. The rest? Do whatever."
"Understood."
"How dare a peasant call me by name! I am Lord Wapol!" he fumed, sneering at the trio. "Do you think three people can take on my entire guard force?!"
"We? We're pirates, not peasants. Wapol, you bastard!" Eric snapped back, completely unafraid.
That was the signal. The guards opened fire. Akame and Chiron dodged with agile movements and launched their counterattack.
"They're mostly cowards who only bully the weak—don't hold back!" Eric reminded them, worried his crew might go soft.
"Raging Horn Charge!" shouted a bull-headed man rushing at Eric .
Clang! Eric blocked the strike. Though Dalton was technically attacking, Eric knew he was just reluctantly following orders. A kind man at heart, Dalton didn't deserve harm, so Eric held back.
"Dalton! Do you really support this? Forcing all the doctors into one team and exiling the rest?" Eric asked, aiming for his conscience.
Dalton said nothing.
"Just because the last king was kind to you, you're going to let this scumbag do whatever he wants? That's small justice. True justice is protecting the people and this nation!"
Eric , suddenly full of rhetorical fire, delivered the speech of a lifetime.
Dalton froze. His grip on his weapon weakened, and it was clear something in him had changed.
"Can this country still be saved?" he muttered—perhaps to Eric , perhaps to himself.
"That depends on you! This is your country! If you won't fight for it, don't expect anyone else to save it!"
Once meek and mild, Eric now argued like a full-blown keyboard warrior.
"Dalton! Stop standing around! Help me!" Wapol shrieked.
In the time Dalton and Eric had been talking, the guard squad—and even Wapol's two fusion freaks from the anime—had all been laid out in the snow. Their blood stained the pure white ground like strawberry syrup on whipped cream.
Akame and Chiron had flanked Wapol, and the doctors had wisely backed far away.
"I'm a king of a World Government member nation! If you kill me, the World Government won't let you go!" Wapol screamed, repeating the kind of standard lackey dialogue one would expect from an NPC.
"We're already pirates, being hunted by the Navy. What more can the World Government do besides increase our bounties?"
Eric laughed. Wapol's threat was worthless.
"But don't worry. We're not going to kill you."
Eric walked over, picked up the Munch-Munch Fruit, and brushed off the snow. He smiled reassuringly—then his tone changed.
"But if you think we're going to just let you off… that's not happening! Wahahahaha!"
Eric let out a villainous laugh, hands on hips. His two companions rolled their eyes.
"Anyone got rope?" Eric looked around. "Let's tie him to a tree and give him a good beating."
"Don't worry, Dalton. We won't kill him. Maybe a good ol' beating will teach him something. I know you hoped he'd become a better person. Maybe this will help," Eric said, cutting Dalton off before he could object.
If Dalton didn't have hope Wapol might change, he wouldn't have tolerated him for so long—until Wapol betrayed the nation during Blackbeard's arrival, fled to sea, and finally proved he was beyond saving.
(END CHAPTER)
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