The fight ended up being less of a battle and more of a curb-stomping that turned out in the StrawHats' favor.

Thirty seconds in and Zoro had stolen a sword from a soldier and promptly used it against to practically turn the man into frozen sashimi. One minute in, Kim drop-kicked a man and used the butt of her naginata to knock out another. Five men fell to Usopp's shots after a minute and a half. Jianyu rushed in after his mistress, tearing the ground up beneath the soldiers' legs and knocking them down to his level where they could only scream before he fell on them in a tangle of teeth and claws.

Kim ducked as Zoro launched a man through the air and over her head, sending the soldier into the roof of a nearby building. She gave the man's backside an unimpressed look before turning back to Zoro.

"Overkill, much?" she asked mildly, stomping on the hand of a soldier by her feet, stopping the man from reaching his fallen gun. She ground her heel against his fingers and walked off as Jianyu went after him to finish the job.

Zoro smirked at her as he flicked the blood off Kitetsu before sheathing it. "I was trying to have a little fun. With wimps like that, you finish too quickly. I'm the kind of guy who likes to take things slow." His voice dropped to a quiet murmur as he said the last part, quiet enough so only Kim could hear him, the girl faltering in her steps and turning red as she got what he was implying.

Usopp took one look at them and groaned in exasperation. "Is now the time to flirt?!" he hollered, putting his hands on his hips as he gave them a disapproving look.

Kim went even redder from embarrassment and launched herself at him, not liking the way he called them out in front of all the villagers and Vivi. "Shut it!" she hissed, trying to smother him with snow. "Not all of us have a girlfriend waiting back home, y'know! Out here, you gotta work to get laid!"

"O-oi! Kaya's not my girlfriend!" the sniper protested, blushing as well, and flipping them over, this time grinding the heel of his hand against Kim's head in a forceful noogie.

"But you like her! You have a crush!"

"I do not!"

Zoro rolled his eyes at the squabbling seventeen year olds and walked over to stand beside Vivi, the princess taking in the results of the battle with wide eyes. "So what was that all about anyway?"

Vivi startled, finally noticing the swordsman, and glanced at the villagers who had just realized nothing was stopping them from going to Dalton now. "The leader of this village was hurt and buried by the avalanche. Because he opposed the former king, the soldiers here were keeping anyone from helping him… Oh no!"

Vivi's suddenly panicked tone stopped Usopp and Kim in their tracks, the older teens turning to her in shock. "Vivi?"

"Wapol headed up the mountain to the castle!" Vivi reminded them, whirling around to look at the mountaintop with horror. "Luffy and Sanji took Nami up there hours ago! They'll be in danger!"

"Wapol?" Zoro asked in confusion, still unsure of what was going on.

"Wapol was the former king of this land," Vivi explained, looking disgusted by the very idea of the man. "But he fled when a pirate crew attacked and took all of the country's doctors with him – except for the one who lives on top of the mountain! Luffy and Sanji took Nami up the mountain to find the doctor, but we heard news that she was in one of the neighboring villages and set out to meet her there. But when Dalton heard about Wapol's return, he came back to Big Horn and was defeated."

Ahead of them, the villagers finally located Dalton and were frantically freeing him from the snow. A horrified hush fell over the village when they failed to find a pulse in their leader's frozen body.

Vivi lifted her hands to her mouth in shock and Usopp looked like he might cry. Kim and Zoro shared a grim look, moving closer to the younger kids for their comfort. The princess tried valiantly not to cry as Kim tugged her into a hug and Usopp was trying his hardest to stop sniffling as Zoro put a hand on his shoulder.

The doctors who had been abandoned by Wapol and his soldiers came forward to redeem themselves by saving Dalton. The villagers and Usopp all expressed fear and distrust towards them, but the doctors pushed forward, insisting on treating Dalton. The memory of Hiruluk still remained a strong memory, not only in Chopper and Kureha's memories, but in Dalton and all the doctors' who were affected by his words and determination.

With Dalton being taken care of, Vivi's mind returned to panic mode over the rest of the crew. She chewed on her lip as she watched the doctors bring life back to Dalton, color returning to the man's face, and the princess swung around with wild eyes.

"Kim! Usopp! Mr. Bushido! Let's go up that mountain!" the princess decided, urging the crew to go along with her request. "We have to help them! With that avalanche… And what if Wapol went up there? And – and Doctor Kureha and Nami's fever!"

Surprisingly, it was Usopp who broke the girl out of her spiral of despair, leaning casually against the fence near them. "Yeah, and also Dalton and Alabasta." the sniper cut her off, finishing off her list of worries and fixing her with a firm stare. It was odd to see him as the unworried one for once. "Vivi, you worry too much! Calm down. Luffy and Sanji are with Nami – those two wouldn't let her get hurt for anything. She's in good hands. So have faith in them!"

Vivi was shocked into silence, looking at the older boy with awed respect. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as tension flooded from her frame. He's right. I have to have faith in my friends. "Thank you, Usopp."

Zoro cocked an eyebrow at the boy's shaking knees, but Kim grabbed the hand he was going to jab the sniper with and covered the swordsman's mouth with her free hand.

"Let him have his moment." the Chronicler scolded, pulling Zoro to the side. "He's managed to calm Vivi down – don't rile them up!"

The swordsman scoffed. "He's just afraid to go up the mountain – he should admit it."

"I'm pretty sure Usopp knows well how scared he is." Kim sighed. "But he's not a monster like you. Fear is a normal survival response. If he's got to fake it to make it, let him be. Maybe he can lie to himself so well that he'll even believe it."

"That makes no sense."

Kim pouted at Zoro, pulling at his cheeks to annoy him. The pair tumbled over into a snow drift when he retaliated, the oldest present members of the crew too busy wrestling in the snow to pay attention to Dalton rising out of the snow and reaffirming his decision to free the kingdom from Wapol's reign of terror.

Usopp and Vivi, however, were paying close attention to the man's words, the boy moved deeply by the man's convictions.

He was going to make sure Dalton made it up the mountain even if it meant Usopp had to carry him on his back.

It was, of course, a valiant offer and attempt, but Usopp simply didn't have the strength to do it.

The villagers and the crew watched in exasperation as the skinny sniper tried to carry the mountain of the man even a few feet, their travel going so slowly that they were more likely to be buried by the slow falling snow than trudge through it.

Zoro dropped his head onto Kim's shoulder with a groan, muffling his annoyed muttering with her neck. The girl twitched and squirmed at the feeling of his lips on her neck and pulled away with a face so red and hot the snow might have been melted by it.

"Well," she said brightly, scurrying away from Zoro to stand by Vivi. "Expedition Drum Rockies starts now!"

The swordsman rolled his eyes at her as he pulled himself out of the snow drift, passing the girls to steal Dalton from Usopp. He carried the man over one shoulder with frightening ease.

"To the top of the mountain, right?" he sighed, heading in the right direction for once. Usopp chased after him angrily, arguing with him over stealing the moment.

Kim snorted, urging Vivi after them. "We'd better hurry – Zoro'll get lost as soon as he's out of sight."

The villagers urged them to wait, reminding each other about rope ways up to the castle and how one was found in Gyasta by a local kid.

Kim and Vivi rushed after Zoro to turn him around in the right direction.

"IT'S NOT SOMETHING TO BE LAUGHED OR SHOT AT!"

Kim jolted, hand freezing on Zoro's shoulder as Luffy's voice rang out around them. The Chronicler looked around in bewilderment, wondering how Luffy's voice had carried all the way down the mountain.

"You alright?" Zoro asked, frowning at the way Kim had suddenly stopped moving even though she had been trying to hurry him along just a moment before.

She looked up at him with wide, golden eyes. "I just heard Luffy screaming."

Usopp and Vivi shared a concerned look. "We didn't hear anything, Kim."

The older girl frowned, turning to look at the top of the mountain they were trying to climb. "It was so loud – how could you miss it?"

"Perhaps it was the wind," Vivi suggested gently, trying to get Kim to look at her.

The Chronicler shrugged her off, hurrying after the villagers again. "I don't think so. I know Luffy's voice. He sounded… really angry."

The rest of the crew watched her worriedly.

"YOU HAVE A FRIEND… RIGHT HERE! I'M YOUR FRIEND!"

Kim jumped as she heard it again, pausing on the outskirts of Gyasta. "There! I heard him again!"

"Do you think getting buried by the snow made her sick?" Usopp asked, grabbing her by the shoulders and looking Kim over frantically. "We need to hurry to the doctor!"

Kim shrugged him off, annoyed. "I'm fine!"

Angry, she stalked off to join the villagers as they all clambered into the mushroom shaped carriage attached to the rope way, ignoring her friends as they followed after her closely.

She could hear it. Hear her captain, even from all the way below the mountain. Kim wasn't sick or crazy or even imagining things.

Her fingers curled around the railing as she stood at the front of the car, eyes fixed on the top of the mountain.

Once more, she heard another sound on the wind, this one shockingly young and unfamiliar, but clear as to who it was.

Kim's eyes widened as she heard their future doctor declare himself to the world for the first time.

"My name… is Tony Tony Chopper!"