Tom pierced through the Heliopsis plant's body with his spear and climbed out. Only then did he realize that the plant had carried them far away.
He hadn't expected the Heliopsis to move so quickly through the sand. While traveling underground, it could contract its roots, only extending them again to anchor itself once it stopped.
This meant Tom and the others had been separated from Luffy and the rest.
Fortunately, they had recovered their luggage. Now they just needed to reunite with the others.
"Good, we're all okay."
Tom said, relieved. While inside the Heliopsis, he had tried several times to get out, but the plant kept moving through the sand, shaking his body around and making him uncomfortable.
"Then you can carry all this."
Nami pointed at the luggage on the ground and smiled at Tom.
Looking at the bulging bags, Tom was speechless. Carrying all of this would take quite some effort.
"I can help carry one bag."
Vivi was considerate.
"Um, no need."
Tom felt that with over a dozen bags of various sizes, having one more or one less made little difference.
But Tom didn't plan to pull the luggage like Luffy had. Instead, he loaded everything onto the camel. Given the camel's carrying capacity, hauling this much luggage across the sand wouldn't be a problem.
The main reason was that there were only three of them. If Tom had to pull a large pile of luggage, it would slow him down. If something happened that Nami and Vivi couldn't handle, he might not be able to help in time. So the heavy work had to go to the camel.
Nami and Vivi had no objection. After all, they still needed to wait for Luffy and the others to catch up. Moving too fast now wouldn't do them any good.
Meanwhile, Luffy and the others followed the camel's footprints for a while until the tracks disappeared. Tom and the others were nowhere to be seen.
"Where did Nami-san and Vivi-san go?"
Sanji looked out at the vast desert ahead but saw no one.
"Tom is missing too."
Chopper said worriedly.
"Forget about him. If anything happens to Nami-san and Vivi-san, I'll make that stinky fisherman pay."
As soon as Sanji finished speaking, Luffy, who was chewing on roasted lizard meat, suddenly pointed ahead excitedly. "Look! There's a lake up ahead!"
Looking in the direction Luffy pointed, they could indeed see a large lake in the distance. The clear water sparkled under the sunlight.
"That's strange. I didn't see that lake just now."
Zoro felt something was off. He hadn't seen such a large lake ahead before, but in the blink of an eye, it had appeared.
"Let's go check it out."
Luffy didn't overthink it. He ran toward the lake first.
Seeing Luffy already running, Zoro and the others had no choice but to follow.
When Luffy reached the lake, it suddenly became hazy and then disappeared entirely.
"What's going on?"
Luffy stared at the yellow desert before him. There was no trace of any lake. He was dumbfounded.
"It's a mirage."
Ace had heard before that people walking in the desert, due to the refraction of light, could see scenes that appeared close but were actually far away.
Tom and the others, meanwhile, were moving at a leisurely pace, chatting as they walked.
"Don't worry. We'll get to Yuba as fast as we can."
Nami saw the worried look on Vivi's face and said to her.
"Yes. I have to convince the rebel army."
Vivi snapped out of it, forced a smile, and replied to Nami.
"Why are you focused on the rebel army?"
Tom felt Vivi's approach was putting the cart before the horse. If she truly wanted to save the Alabasta Kingdom, she should understand that even if she successfully stopped the rebel army, the country wouldn't be saved.
"Didn't Vivi already say it? If seven hundred thousand rebels and three hundred thousand royal soldiers go to war, the consequences would be disastrous."
Nami saw Vivi staying silent and spoke up.
"So we go find the rebel army?"
Tom retorted and continued, "A million people in rebellion—if you could stop them with just words, there would be no wars in this world. Everyone would live happily."
"Only a complete fool would believe that!"
As Tom said this, he glanced meaningfully at Vivi.
Hearing Tom's words, Vivi's face seemed to grow even paler. She took a deep breath. Though her expression was calm, her voice unconsciously rose a few notches. "Then what do you think I should do?! I don't want to watch my people kill each other! That's why I don't want the rebel army and the royal army to go to war! What's wrong with that?!"
"Can't you two just talk nicely?"
Nami rubbed her forehead. She had noticed on the carrier crab that whenever Tom and Vivi discussed going to Yuba, they would soon clash. They hadn't continued arguing then because they had run into Usopp in the hands of the sand bandits.
"I can't take it anymore. We're settling this today!"
Tom said to Nami, then turned to Vivi. "I don't care if you're right or wrong. I only know that if you truly care about the lives of your people, the last thing you should be doing right now is wasting time negotiating with the rebel army!"
"Don't act like you know everything!"
Vivi seemed angry. She gritted her teeth and looked at Tom. "You have no idea how deeply I love this country. To save it, I would do anything—even sacrifice my life!"
"Then why, since returning to this country, have you never mentioned that man's name to us? All you talk about is the rebel army and Yuba. When did your judgment get so bad—worse than mine?!"
Tom said to Vivi. "Remember when we went to Drum Island? You grabbed me and Luffy and told us not to recklessly attack the villagers. Back then, I thought you truly deserved to be a princess—able to assess the situation accurately, with better poise and foresight than a pirate like me."
"But now, you give me only one feeling."
Tom spoke bluntly to Vivi. "You look like a complete fool. You don't even know what you should be doing. You don't even know who the greatest enemy of the country you love is. Like this, you aren't worth anyone sacrificing themselves for you. If Igaram were still here, seeing you like this, he would be very disappointed. Because you've been running away."
It had to be said, Tom's words were harsh and unpleasant. Nami wanted to stop him, but after hearing him out, she noticed something.
That was: since returning to Alabasta, Vivi had rarely mentioned Crocodile's name in front of them. Sometimes she even deliberately changed the subject. After thinking about it, Nami found it increasingly troubling.
Logically, Crocodile was the head of Baroque Works and the mastermind manipulating the Alabasta Kingdom. He was the reason the country had become so destitute and war-torn. Vivi should have been talking about Crocodile often. Why did she keep bringing up the rebel army?
Although the rebel army was important, in the end, they were just a pawn manipulated by Crocodile.
As long as Crocodile remained in Alabasta, the country could never have peace, because he could incite another conflict at any time. Nami understood this after some serious thought. There was no reason Vivi wouldn't.
Just as Nami was about to say something to Vivi, she saw Vivi, head bowed, shoulders trembling, fists clenched, biting her lip hard. Then she suddenly looked up and slapped Tom.
"Of course I know Crocodile is the enemy I need to defeat! But don't make it sound so simple! You don't understand what I'm carrying! And don't you dare speak about Igaram that way! His sacrifice will not be in vain! I will save this country!"
"You're still hesitating."
Tom caught Vivi's wrist with one hand. His dark pupils quickly turned blood-red. "You have the courage to hit me, but you still don't dare to point your矛头 (spear) at Crocodile. Maybe you have some concerns about him—after all, he's the hero of Alabasta now. His words might carry more weight than the king's. People would rather trust him than your father."
"If you keep hesitating, the name Nefertari will sooner or later disappear from this country. That's no joke."
Tom held Vivi's right wrist tightly, his blood-red eyes fixed on her, speaking very seriously.
"Again with this. Why do you always say things that hurt me?"
Vivi looked up at Tom. She had even bitten through her red lips, a thin trickle of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth. For some reason, she suddenly felt like crying, but she held it in.
The first day she met Tom, he had said she looked like a princess of a fallen kingdom. Today he said her royal family would disappear from Alabasta. She understood that if Crocodile remained in this country, what Tom said could very well happen. But knowing something and hearing someone say it out loud were two different things.
"To this country, I'm an outsider. But even so, I see things more clearly than you. At least after seeing Rasa and the others, I, more than you—the princess—understand what needs to be done. Rasa is just one insignificant victim of Crocodile's schemes. People like her, in this desert, will not be the first nor the last. You can't possibly not know that."
Tom released Vivi's wrist. His emotions seemed to have calmed. The blood-red in his eyes returned to normal. "If you want to keep running away, I won't stop you. But I can tell you one thing for certain."
"I will never risk my life fighting for a fool who doesn't have the courage to face her own enemy. Do you understand that, Nefertari Vivi?"
Tom's words were merciless. Even Nami, standing nearby, couldn't hold back. "What do you mean by that?!"
"We're a crew! When a comrade is in trouble, shouldn't we stick together and help each other?"
Nami felt Tom was acting very differently toward Vivi this time. In the past, whether at Cocoyashi Village or Syrup Village, Tom had fought with everything he had. But now he was saying things like this to Vivi.
"We are a team. That's exactly why I'm saying this to her before things become irreparable."
Tom glanced at Vivi, who was still silent with her head bowed, then turned to Nami.
Meanwhile, Luffy and the others had run into a small problem while chasing after Tom, causing them to split up again.
It turned out Luffy had eaten another stimulant cactus. Before long, he shouted that he saw a tsunami coming and told everyone to run.
Then, hallucinating, Luffy saw the tsunami sweeping toward them. He yelled that he would punch it away. He started throwing punches at the air and, in an attempt to "save" Usopp, who was standing in front of him, he tossed him backward.
Seeing Usopp thrown off a dune, Sanji hurried over to check on him. "Seriously. Does he feel uncomfortable if he doesn't cause trouble?"
By the time Sanji pulled Usopp out of the sand, Luffy and the others were gone. Even Ace, who had been waiting ahead, had disappeared.
"You have to get me out of this desert! I don't want to die here!"
Usopp had been walking in the desert for half a day and was already exhausted. Realizing he had been left behind, he desperately clung to Sanji's leg, tears and snot streaming down his face.
"Get up! Don't rub your filth all over me!"
Sanji knew exactly what Usopp was plotting—he just wanted Sanji to carry him. Unfortunately for Usopp, he wasn't a beautiful woman; otherwise, Sanji would have agreed without hesitation.
As for Zoro, after fighting the frenzied Luffy for a while, Chopper took the chance to inject the rampaging Luffy with a tranquilizer, successfully knocking him unconscious.
Then Zoro hoisted the sleeping Luffy onto his shoulder and continued walking with Chopper.
"Aren't we going to wait for Sanji and the others?"
Chopper looked back but saw no one. He asked Zoro.
"They'll follow our footprints and catch up."
Zoro kept walking without looking back.
"I wonder if Tom and the others are okay."
As soon as Chopper said this, Zoro, walking ahead, replied, "Don't worry about him. If something happens, he'll find a way to deal with it."
"I see."
Chopper remembered how Tom had faced the female Marine who came after him yesterday and had returned safely. He stopped worrying and asked Zoro, "Is it always like this for pirates?"
"First climbing a snowy mountain, now crossing a desert."
Chopper didn't quite understand. Now that he was a pirate, shouldn't pirates be sailing on the sea most of the time?
"That's true. Maybe we're just particularly strange."
Zoro glanced at Luffy sleeping soundly on his shoulder and said to Chopper.
"I've really boarded a strange pirate ship."
Chopper spoke his thoughts plainly.
"What a coincidence. I was just thinking the same thing."
Zoro's thoughts aligned with Chopper's.
"Zoro, you're one of the founding members of this crew, right?"
Chopper said to Zoro.
"Rather than 'founding member,' it's more accurate to say I just joined early. I'm not really any different from you."
Zoro replied.
"Why did you join?"
Chopper asked a question he had always wanted to ask.
"Why do you ask?"
Zoro didn't understand why Chopper would ask such a thing.
"I noticed it as soon as I joined. Everyone on the ship is very independent. Especially you and Tom."
Chopper felt that when they were on the ship, Zoro and Tom were either training or doing their own thing. Unless someone approached them, they rarely interacted with others. Tom was a bit better—he sometimes fooled around with Luffy—but Zoro would rather sleep than play around with Luffy and the others.
"That's true. I only ended up joining this crew by chance. That's all. The others are the same—they all have their own goals."
Zoro said to Chopper. "You probably don't know this, but when I first met Tom, he wasn't very strong. Back then, if we had really fought, I could have beaten him in a few moves. But now, it's different."
"Was Tom really that weak before?"
Chopper asked in surprise. Since meeting Tom, he had never seen him lose a fight against an enemy.
"He was the first to set sail with Luffy. Then me."
Zoro smiled and said to Chopper. "At first, I didn't understand why Luffy would invite someone of average strength to join. But I quickly understood."
"When Luffy chooses crewmates, what matters most isn't how strong you are, but who you are as a person. Tom rarely feels lost. Maybe that's one of the reasons he's grown stronger and stronger in just a few months."
Zoro continued, "Everyone is doing what they want to do. And Tom knows exactly what he should do at any given time. That's why Luffy and I trust him."
"Someone once said that from the outside, we don't seem to have any team spirit at all. And with a captain like that—so weird it's hard to describe—"
Zoro paused, and he and Chopper both glanced at Luffy, who was snoring on his shoulder. Then he continued, "But what exactly is team spirit?"
"Is it helping each other, protecting each other?"
Zoro touched the hilt of the sword at his waist. "Some people might think so. But I think that's just bluffing."
"I think it's about everyone doing their own part with the determination to risk their lives."
Zoro said, "I do my part. Then it's your turn. If you mess up, I'll beat you."
"That kind of resolve is the bare minimum for team spirit."
Zoro concluded, "So from that perspective, it doesn't matter if your crewmates are independent or not."
"So that's what Usopp means when he's always saying, 'Do your own job.'"
Chopper suddenly understood.
"Even though most of what he says is bluffing."
Zoro couldn't help but laugh, then continued, "Why do crewmates stay together?"
"The longer you know each other, the more other goals appear."
Zoro's words puzzled Chopper. "Other goals?"
"Sorry, I don't really know how to explain it either."
Zoro wasn't sure how to put it.
"Tom told me that as long as we clearly understand what we can do, we won't hold others back. Is that what you mean?"
Chopper remembered what Tom had said to him yesterday and asked Zoro.
"Yes. Something like that."
Zoro continued, "If someone in our crew doesn't even understand what they need to do, it could easily affect everyone on the ship. That's definitely not a good thing. If handled poorly, it could even lead to our downfall."
Just as Zoro was about to say more, Luffy, who had been asleep on his shoulder, woke up. Zoro set him down. Still groggy, Luffy spotted a rocky area not far ahead.
Without thinking, Luffy stretched his arm and grabbed the rocks ahead. Then Zoro and Chopper, who tried to stop him from being reckless, were sent flying toward the rocky area along with him.
Meanwhile, Tom and the others were walking in a somewhat沉闷 (heavy) atmosphere, likely due to their earlier argument. Nami understood that Tom was speaking the truth, and once he got stubborn like this, there was little she could say to change his mind.
Just as Nami was thinking about how to break the ice, over a dozen huge gray-black spheres appeared on the dune to their right, slowly rolling toward them. She quickly asked, "What are those?"
"Oh no! Those are giant dung beetles!"
Vivi's complexion had already been poor after arguing with Tom. Seeing the large black spheres rolling down toward them, her already fair face turned even paler.
"Giant dung beetles?"
Tom was stunned for a moment, then exclaimed, "Those gray-black things—they're made of poop, aren't they?"
"Yes. They're insects that move giant piles of dung in the desert."
Vivi watched the gray-black spheres slowly rolling down the dune toward them and slowly backed away.
"Then what are we waiting for? Run!"
As soon as Nami shouted this, the dozen or so large, round dung balls lined up on the dune rolled down toward them.
The ground shook, and sand billowed into the air. As the dung balls rolled closer, Tom and the others could clearly smell an overwhelming stench—nauseating.
"We really should run!"
Seeing all the large dung balls rolling toward them, Tom grabbed Nami and Vivi's hands without hesitation. Together with the camel carrying all the bags, they ran for their lives. "Run faster! If we get crushed by those, we're done for!"
"That's right. I heard about a hundred people get crushed by these things every year—"
Before Vivi could finish, Tom shouted, "If we get crushed by those poop balls, we'll be covered in crap! Just thinking about it is disgusting."
No, you've completely missed the point.
Nami's forehead was covered in dark lines as she looked at Tom pulling her along. She glanced at Vivi and whispered, "Shall we yell at him together?"
"Huh?"
Vivi was startled, then quickly understood. She hesitated for a moment, glanced at Tom's back, took a deep breath as if facing a great enemy, her face turning red from holding it in. Then she and Nami shouted together at the man pulling them, "You idiot! If we get crushed by those things, we'll die!"
"Why are you two suddenly so energetic?"
Tom looked back at them as he ran, pulling them along. "Is it because... you smelled night-blooming jasmine?"
"Keep talking nonsense and I'll hit you!"
Nami had had enough. Her pretty face clouded over. Soon, across the vast, boundless yellow desert, a piercing scream rang out: "Waaaaah!!!!!"
"Nami, that might have been too hard."
Vivi peeked at the unrecognizable figure lying in the desert, her pointed jaw dropping in shock.
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T/N :
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