Ice Armor

While Ace was attempting to determine what kind of dynamic Luffy's crew had, Sanji pulled out exotic dancer clothes he had somehow managed to acquire and handed them to Yuna, Nami, and Vivi.

Seeing the white and blue outfit, Sanji was presenting to her, Yuna took the outfit and decided to put it on. She was never shy about showing off her skin and found the outfit rather good-looking, so she didn't mind.

While a trickle of blood was slowly flowing out of Sanji's nose due to Yuna, Nami, and Vivi wearing revealing outfits, the Going Merry had reached its next destination: The Green City Erumalu.

However, after getting a little closer to the city, question marks popped up above Yuna and the rest of the Straw Hats.

"""""Green City?"""""

There was nothing green about the city they were approaching. It was a ruined desert town with nothing but abandoned ruins.

"Yeah, that was how it was once called. However, after three years of not a single drop of rain, it became the said ruin you are seeing in front of you."

Hearing Vivi's explanation, everyone nodded in understanding while Usopp's gaze was drawn to a little creature seemingly waiting for them at the shore.

"Oh? What kind of creature is that? A weird-looking turtle?"

Following Usopp's gaze, Vivi also noticed the little creature, causing her eyes to widen in shock.

"That's a Kung-Fu Dugong. It probably is here to challenge us to a sparring match."

"I see! Then it's time for the GREAT CAPTAIN USOPP to shine!"

"No, wait Uso..."

Seeing the little creature, Usopp's courage rose to the sky, and before Vivi could say anything else, around three seconds later, Usopp was beaten to the ground. Turns out, Kung-Fu Dugongs were pretty strong.

Following Usopp, Luffy decided to issue a challenge as well, and yet again, the fight ended within seconds. Obviously, the winner wasn't the dugong this time, but Luffy.

"SHISHISHIS!!! YOSH!!! FOLLOW MY LEAD!!!"

Without warning, Luffy seemed to have opened a dojo, as he started giving the dugongs combat training. Somehow, within seconds, Luffy had turned all the dugongs into his students, and not even a minute later, Luffy was ready to march into war with his newly formed troops.

So, while Nami was beating up Luffy for messing around too much, Vivi explained that Kunf-Fu Dugongs couldn't survive within the desert, so after a tear-filled goodbye, Luffy left his new students behind.

Additionally, Ace also said his goodbyes, as he was still hunting a man named Teach for killing one of his comrades.

Seeing Ace leave, Yuna couldn't help but have a bad feeling, but didn't comment on it. After all, it was not like Ace would listen to her just because of a feeling.

Just like that, Yuna and the Straw Hats arrived at the "Green City" Erumalu, which had turned into nothing but ruins and sand.

"Years ago, Erumalu could easily sustain itself from the rain alone, but after years of drought, it turned into what you see now..."

The moment Vivi saw the ruins of Erumalu, she couldn't help but feel sad as she began lamenting its history. She spoke about how Erumalu wasn't the only place in this country that suffered from a heavy drought: Three years without a single drop of rain.

Following that, she explained how only the capital had rainy days initially, causing the populace to call her father the king the "Miracle King", but only up until an accident happened. A cargo cart broke down, revealing sack after sack filled with dance powder, which caused local rain where you burn it, but drained the rain from the surrounding regions.

"WHAT!? VIVI, YOUR FATHER IS A BAD MAN!!!"

BANG

"HE WAS OBVIOUSLY SET UP!!!"

After hearing what Dance Powder did, Luffy instantly concluded that Vivi's father was the guilty one, followed by Nami's fist, "correcting" that opinion.

Yuna, on the other hand, stroked her non-existent beard, as he gaze landed on Vivi.

"So, we have a shapeshifter that can turn into your father, a cart that is loaded with Dance Powder that 'accidentally' breaks down in the middle of the street, and rain that only falls on the capital, while the surrounding regions go dry. Yeah, even when you think with your feet, that's an obvious setup.

However, since no one knows about the shapeshifter, and the rain situation is actual, the blame falls on your father. If I weren't in the loop, I would probably come to the same conclusion."

Hearing Yuna's words, Vivi bit her lips so hard she almost started bleeding as her fingernails bore into the palm of her hands.

"That's right! The peace of the land is gone. The cities are in shambles, and families are destroyed. It was all the Crocodile's fault! I WILL NEVER FORGIVE HIM!!!"

"Well, Vivi. Then all we have to do is beat up the croco, stop the rebels without any more casualties, and make sure your father's name is cleared."

"H-How can you speak so casually, Yuna?"

"Mhh? Casually? Why wouldn't I? Sounds like a normal workweek for me. Isn't that right, Luffy?"

Luffy, hearing how desperate Vivi's situation was, was already raring to go from the start. So, as fierce determination shone in his eyes, he loudly punched the palm of his hand, while a confident smirk appeared on his face.

"Oh! Let's beat up the Crocoguy!"

Frankly, all the information Luffy truly managed to retain from everything Vivi said was that Vivi was desperate, and that Luffy could help her by punching Crocodile, but was there more to know than that? Luffy knew that he could leave the nuances to his crew, while he only needed to take out the top dog.

"It's so hot~"

Around half a minute later, Luffy's fighting spirit had literally evaporated, as the crew was now trudging through the desert, with the sun shining on them at full power, easily surpassing 40°C.

"Haa~ I'm already out of sweat."

"Stop whining, Luffy, you are even draining my energy."

"My fur. I can't. It's too hot~"

"I don't know, guys, I think the temperature is pretty good."

"Eh, aren't you attuned to ice? Why are you fine with the heat as well?"

While Usopp and Chopper were complaining and Nami was scolding Luffy, Yuna made a rather easy-going comment, dumbfounding Vivi, who could still remember how easily Yuna endured the cold on Drum Island. Since Yuna seemed to endure the cold easily, Vivi expected her to have trouble with warm weather, but apparently, that was not the case.

Realizing that that was indeed weird, everyone's gaze landed on Yuna, causing all of them to freeze in place. First of all, unlike Nami and Vivi, Yuna hadn't changed out of her dancer outfit before entering the desert, which could lead to devastating skin burns. However, Yuna wasn't worried about that, as she was entirely in the shadows, thanks to a huge umbrella made entirely of ice that she was holding. Not only was she carrying said umbrella, but there were also two armbands made out of ice on her wrists, legs, and torso, always keeping her cold. Frostbite? Please~ As if Yuna would get that.

Seeing Yuna, everyone immediately realized what was going on. After all, all of them have seen her controlling and creating ice, so why wouldn't she do the same to cool herself down?

"Yuna, can I get some ice as well!"

The first to react was Chopper, who undoubtedly had the hardest time with these temperatures. So, seeing cute little Chopper looking at her with tears almost flowing out of his eyes, Yuna quickly waved her hand, resulting in an ice armor forming around Chopper, immediately causing his eyes to shine.

"So comfortable! Thank you, Yuna!"

"Haha, no need to thank me, Chopper. Aren't we comrades? Besides that, take a look at this!"

Before Chopper knew what was going on, a sheet of ice rose in front of him, reflecting how he was currently looking.

"SO COOL!!!"

Naturally, Yuna didn't just form some random ice armor around Chopper, but put some actual design into it. She decided to go for an ancient Japanese samurai armor, filled with all kinds of decorations. Even the look of Chopper's horns was enhanced by Yuna giving them more spikes with her ice, making them look more menacing.

As soon as she was done "modifying" Chopper's looks, she felt multiple sets of eyes on her. Especially the eyes of Luffy and Usopp, who seemed to be shining almost as brightly as the sun cooking them from above.

Needless to say, those two wanted to be part of the fashion show as well. Yuna also noticed that other boys, Zoro and Sanji, were interested, but both of them acted too cool to show that. Well, Zoro did, and Sanji didn't want to appear immature in front of Zoro, who would undoubtedly mock him for acting like that.

Nami and Vivi, on the other hand, were hoping for their own ice suits as well, but rather than using them for looking cool, they only wanted to be able to travel through the desert comfortably.

Seeing everyone's gaze on her, Yuna only chuckled in amusement as she rolled her eyes at everybody's attitudes. Moments later, she waved her hand, resulting in more ice outfits appearing.

Unlike for Chopper, whose body was covered by a thick coat of fur, Yuna had to put a little more thought into how she formed her ice. After all, Chopper had no trouble being covered in a sheen of snow or ice, but a human would undoubtedly suffer from their skin being in contact with ice for a prolonged time.

So, she decided to modify the temperature of the ice, actually creating it to be above the freezing point of regular ice. For others, that might be a problem, but for Yuna, that was a walk in the park.

So, just like that, Luffy, Usopp, Sanji, and Zoro were covered in elaborately decorated Samurai armor, making them look extra cool. At the same time, Nami and Vivi had only a few ice ornaments attached to parts of their bodies.

While "the boys" were clearly thrilled about their newly acquired badass armor, Nami and Vivi couldn't help but be somewhat thrilled by their freshly gained ice accessories as well. After all, what woman didn't fancy a new set of matching jewelry? Nami and Vivi certainly did, causing Yuna to smile.

"YOSH!!! WITH THIS NEW ARMOUR I'M READY TO FIGHT CROCOGUY ANY TIME!!!"

Before anybody could react, Luffy's hands had already stretched toward a rock visible in the distance, and after grabbing said rock, using his rubber powers, he catapulted himself into the distance.

Seeing Luffy blasting himself god-knows-were, the rest of the crew barely reacted, most of them only wondering whether they would meet Luffy again before or after he had fought Crocodile.

"Sigh That idiot is doing whatever he wants again."

Hearing Nami's complaint, Yuna couldn't help but laugh out loud, while gently shoulder bumping Nami."

"Hahaha, is that really a surprise. Since I joined you guys, it's always been like this."

As an answer, Nami only rolled her eyes and bumped Yuna back, enjoying the closeness to her, while lamenting her fate.

'Indeed, it has always been like this. Luffy, doing what he wants, Zoro getting lost, and Sanji... being Sanji. Well, at least Yuna is reliable...'

Slurp

"W-What exactly are you drinking, Yuna?"

"Mhh? Oh, I found a dangerous-looking scorpion, and I was curious what its poison tastes like, so I killed it and took its poison sack. Anyway, that is what I'm currently drinking."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Slurp

'Somehow I feel like I need to, for the sake of my sanity, get away from this crew as soon as possible.'