Yuba, known as the largest oasis in Alabasta and the crossroads of the western desert. In the past, countless travelers and merchants passed through this city every day.
But when the Straw Hat Pirates arrived in Yuba, they found it had become a city on the verge of being swallowed by the merciless yellow sands. Withered branches, dilapidated houses... it was estimated that in a short while, this former capital of commerce and travel would follow in the footsteps of Erumalu, becoming yet another victim of this natural and man-made disaster.
"How could this happen?" Vivi's face instantly turned pale. she hadn't expected that the once-greatest oasis would have turned into such a state.
"Where is the Rebel Army? Where are they?" The blue-haired girl walked forward quickly.
Although the group didn't believe the rebels would still be stationed in this abandoned town, they followed Vivi inside.
Shortly after, inside a large crater, the Straw Hats discovered the only person left in the town.
It was a gaunt old man. The skin on his face had become as rough as tree bark due to the dryness. At that moment, he was digging vigorously in the crater, leaving the group with only a view of his frail back.
"Is that a traveler? I am truly sorry, but this town has already dried up." The old man climbed out of the deep pit and looked at Vivi and the others. "However, if you wish to rest here for a while, that is no problem. There are many empty houses here..."
"...That is currently the only thing this town has to be proud of."
To avoid being recognized by the old man, Vivi covered the lower half of her face with a veil and gently tugged on Sherlock's clothes.
Sherlock nodded knowingly. He stepped forward, first bowing elegantly to the dust-covered old man, then asked softly:
"Old man, I heard that the Rebel Army has already migrated to [Katorea]. Is that true?"
"You're quite well-informed..." The old man glanced at Sherlock strangely, then spoke in a tone of extreme disappointment: "That's right, those idiots have already left. If you're here to join the rebels too, then leave quickly. You are not welcome here!"
Hearing this dialogue, the Straw Hats all wore expressions of disappointment. When Vivi explained that Katorea was actually not far from their starting point, the port city of Nanohana, the faces of Luffy and the others turned even uglier. They had essentially made this trip for nothing.
Sanji reached out to flick the ash from his cigarette and asked with some suspicion, "Hey, Sherlock, if I heard correctly, you just asked [if the rebels had migrated to Katorea], right?"
"Mr. Glasses, did you already know the rebels weren't here anymore?!" The blue-haired girl stared dead at Sherlock with her dark eyes, as if trying to drill a hole through his face.
"Why didn't you tell me?!"
Luffy and the others also looked at the Warlock with eyes full of suspicion. After all, Sherlock's actions this time were truly nonsensical.
"Correct. Before we reached the west bank of the Sandora River, I already knew all of this through intelligence collected from the Marines."
Sherlock pushed up his glasses with a calm expression, took a deep breath, and said in an extremely tranquil tone, "I deliberately did not tell you."
(Sherlock...)
Nami raised her delicate eyebrows. Although she couldn't read anything from Sherlock's eyes this time, her intuition told her that the Warlock's actions had a deeper meaning.
Zoro's expression was serious, and he remained silent.
"Sherlock, that was wrong of you!" The little reindeer looked angry.
Usopp listened to the long-nose (Chopper) and nodded, clearly also very dissatisfied with the Warlock's concealment.
Luffy picked his nose: "Yeah, Sherlo, don't you want to help Vivi?"
Sighing lightly, Sherlock was just about to explain when he was interrupted by the old man, who had become incredibly agitated upon hearing Vivi's name.
"Vivi? Are you really Princess Vivi? Thank heavens, you're alive!" Tears welled up in the old man's eyes. He walked forward tremblingly, grabbed the blue-haired girl's hand, and said with a raspy voice, "Do you not recognize me? Well, I suppose I have lost a lot of weight over these years..."
Hearing this, Vivi looked carefully at the old man's face again. She found his brow so familiar; the chubby, kind face in her memories slowly overlapped with this weathered, aged face before her.
"You are... Uncle Toto?!" Vivi covered her mouth in sheer shock. She truly hadn't expected that the father of her childhood friend would end up looking like this.
Just as the two, who hadn't seen each other for a long time, were catching up, Chopper's expression suddenly changed. He lifted his little head and sniffed the air, then shouted in panic to everyone, "This is bad, everyone! A sandstorm is coming!"
As a reindeer, Chopper had an extremely powerful natural instinct for various natural disasters.
In the desert, nothing was more terrifying than a massive sandstorm capable of swallowing everything.
Before the tsunami-like wave of yellow sand arrived, Uncle Toto had already led the Straw Hats into a sturdy house to hide. Judging by his practiced manner, it seemed this wasn't the first or second time he had experienced such a natural disaster.
The sand struck the stone walls, making a ceaseless rustling sound. The wind and sand outside were exceptionally strong, so strong that the small house was trembling slightly.
"Over these years, a sandstorm strikes Yuba almost every few days. Coupled with the lack of rain, Yuba's oasis has turned into this state." Toto secured the door of the house and shook his head helplessly. Then, he began to speak to Vivi and the others about the Rebel Army.
"...I have always believed in the King. I believe the King is not that kind of person!" Toto covered his head with his dry, withered hands and collapsed to the ground in pain, his wrinkled face covered in tears. "Vivi, I beg you, please stop those idiots!"
"Uncle Toto..." Vivi hurriedly helped Toto up from the ground, her gaze becoming increasingly firm. "Rest assured, I will definitely stop the Rebel Army!"
"Enough!"
"How long are you going to deceive yourself, Vivi?" Sherlock, sitting on a chair nearby, let out a sharp shout.
"Mr. Glasses, why would you say that?" Vivi looked at Sherlock, who remained as calm and composed as usual, with some confusion. Her pearly white teeth gently bit her lip, her eyes filled with incomprehension and anger.
"Sherlock..." x5
Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, Nami, and Chopper all looked at the Warlock simultaneously. It was the first time they had seen the usually amiable Sherlock speak in such a tone.
Sanji frowned. "Hey, Sherlock, how can you talk to a lady like that?"
"Stop the rebellion? With what will you stop the rebellion? Do you naively think that you can persuade 700,000 rebels with just your mouth?" Sherlock ignored the curly-browed cook's admonition; instead, his tone intensified. "Do you think Alabasta will believe a bunch of unknown pirates, or will they believe their [National Hero]?"
"If you go like this, you will only fall right into the Sand Crocodile's trap."
"Wake up, Vivi. Who do you think you are? You can't do anything right now. You can only watch as those people live in misery, watch them swallow their last breath with endless resentment toward your father in their final moments, and watch that Sand Crocodile steal your beloved country without blowing the dust off a book."
"Because you are just a silly girl living in a dream!"
"You bastard, how can you say that?" Uncle Toto, hearing this four-eyes speak so disrespectfully to their country's princess, immediately exploded. He grabbed a shovel from the ground, seemingly intending to fight Sherlock to the death, startling Usopp and Chopper (who had transformed into Heavy Point) into hurriedly holding him back.
Princess Vivi lowered her eyes. Her sky-blue hair covered the upper half of her face, hiding her expression from others. However, judging by Vivi's trembling body and the increasingly oppressive atmosphere around her, her expression must have been terrible.
As the Warlock's words became heavier, the blue-haired girl's trembling intensified. Finally, having reached the limit of her endurance, Princess Vivi jerked her head up, revealing a pair of bloodshot eyes.
"What do you know?! Sherlock!" Vivi stomped furiously toward Sherlock. She was so angry she even started using the Warlock's real name. She extended her hands and hauled Sherlock up from the chair by his collar.
"My beloved country is suffering from an unimaginable rebellion! Who knows how many people lose their lives every day because of this revolt? If I don't go stop the Rebel Army, how am I supposed to save this country?!"
"Calling me naive? What is wrong with thinking this way? I don't want anyone to die—is that wrong too? Answer me! Sherlock!!!"
Princess Vivi's pretty face was flushed red with agitation. As she spoke, she waved her small fists and pounded them hard against Sherlock's chest to vent her frustration. The dull thud, thud, thud sounds were exceptionally clear in the pin-drop silence of the room.
Sherlock didn't dodge, nor did he speak again. He simply endured it silently. Looking at the blue-haired girl's eyes, which resembled shattered stars, he felt very uncomfortable in his heart.
All of this was truly too heavy for a sixteen-year-old girl.
(Forgive me, Vivi. For your country, for yourself, you must understand what you need to do now! I will take on the role of the [villain] who wakes you up...) Sherlock thought to himself.
However, just as Sherlock intended to continue speaking, the dim-witted captain who had been standing quietly to the side suddenly did something that made everyone's jaws drop.
Bam! Princess Vivi fell to the ground in response to the blow.
"People die, Vivi." Luffy retracted the fist he had swung at the blue-haired girl and gently pressed down on the straw hat atop his head. His face held neither sadness nor joy, looking like a completely different person from his usual carefree self.
(Oi, oi, oi, I wanted to 'wake her up,' not actually punch her!) Sherlock looked at Vivi, who was slowly crawling up while clutching her face, his mind in utter disarray.
"Luffy! You bast..." The lovesick cook, who could least tolerate hitting women, was about to explode, but a thin, dried-up figure beat him to it.
"You bastard! You dare hit Princess Vivi!" The enraged Uncle Toto broke free from Usopp and Chopper's restraint. Gripping the shovel tightly, he swung it in a full arc, smashing it ruthlessly toward Luffy's head.
Snap!
Having taken a heavy blow to the head, Luffy merely twisted his neck slightly. Instead, the weathered, broken shovel snapped in two, startling the hot-tempered Toto into sitting down on the ground.
"What Sherlo just said is right. You can't stop the rebellion just by doing this," Luffy said calmly. "If we want to stop the rebellion, we can only defeat Crocodile. Even I understand this logic, so why have you never mentioned it?"
"How can you fight them by risking your life alone! You idiot!!"
Good heavens, even Luffy had started calling others idiots. What was happening to this world?
Hearing Luffy's words, Nami and the others fell silent. They hadn't been optimistic about Vivi's plan from the start; they just hadn't pointed it out explicitly to spare Vivi's feelings.
"Then what on earth should I use to fight him?! He is a Warlord of the Sea!" Vivi, her emotions completely out of control, pounced on Luffy like an angry female leopard, slapping the Straw Hat Captain to the ground.
"Right now, apart from my own life, I don't have anything else..." Vivi gasped for air in great heaves. The image of the sacrificed Igaram suddenly flashed through her mind, and her eyes gradually lost focus.
"Then risk our lives together!" Luffy, lying on the ground, suddenly raised his voice, shouting a cry that reached straight to the heart:
"AREN'T WE FRIENDS?!!!"
Boom! Luffy's words exploded in Vivi's mind like thunder, instantly filling the corners of her eyes with tears.
In truth, with the country in imminent danger, Vivi was the most unwilling of them all. She wished she could eat the Sand Crocodile's flesh raw. But she also knew clearly in her heart that she couldn't defeat a Warlord of the Sea. So, she had buried this thought deep within her heart, putting on a mask of feigned strength to escape reality.
But now, she no longer had to hide her thoughts.
(Yes, I am not fighting alone. I still have my friends...)
Sherlock looked at Princess Vivi, who was sitting on the ground crying her heart out to vent, sighed, and walked over to squat down.
"Don't cry, Vivi. The nightmare will end soon..."
"Uuu Mr. Glasses" Perhaps feeling that covering her face and crying alone was too uncomfortable, Vivi didn't hesitate to dive headfirst into Sherlock's arms. The force was so great it nearly knocked the Warlock over.
Seeing this, the others smiled knowingly. It seemed Princess Vivi's inner knot had been untied.
With her soft form in his arms, a trace of panic flashed across Sherlock's face before returning to calm in an instant. He gently patted Vivi's back and turned his head to look at Luffy, who was sitting on the ground nearby. The latter immediately responded with a bright, cheerful smile, seemingly also happy that Vivi's knot had been resolved.
(That idiot is more suited to be the [villain] than I am. Sigh~ It seems I am still too kind...)
Sherlock smiled with a bit of self-mockery, then spoke to everyone:
"Alright, since our objective is clear, it is time for me to tell you my [Battle Plan]."
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