The mountain was never meant to be climbed.
It rose like a giant pillar driven into the sky. Its surface was smooth, sheer stone glazed with ice and buried beneath a screaming white storm. Wind tore across the cliff face in violent gusts, ripping heat from flesh, faster than breath could replace it.
On that frozen wall was a single human being who refused to fall.
Monkey D. Luffy climbed.
Nami was held tight against his back, her fever burning hot enough to almost feel unreal in the killing cold. Every breath she took trembled weakly. It was the only proof, that she was still alive.
Sanji hung limp across his shoulders, tied there with strips of torn cloak. His head rolled with every movement, snow gathering in his blond hair.
Bartolomeo dangled from Luffy's mouth, still unconscious except for occasional weak murmurs.
The only thing preventing him from slipping free into the abyss, was Luffy's jaw locked around the thick collar of his coat.
His teeth had long since cut through fabric.
Still, he didn't let go.
One hand up.
Then the other.
Naked feet searching blindly for surface to push up.
The storm howled so loud, it erased thought.
Luffy's fingers pressed into a thin crack in the stone.
They slipped.
He caught himself on the next grip, arm jolting violently under the combined weight of four bodies.
His hands and feet started to bleed.
He didn't react.
He climbed.
"L… Luffy…senpai"
Bartolomeo's voice barely existed behind him.
"…drop me…"
No answer.
"You'll die… senpai…"
Luffy pulled upward again.
His blood got smeared across the rock.
This was a thought, that would never cross his mind.
His hands were no longer numb.
They hurt again.
Which was worse.
The skin along his fingers had split open. Now every hold painted the stone dark red and every smear froze instantly into glass-slick ice.
His right hand gripped a ledge.
His left followed.
The blood beneath his palm froze.
His hand slid.
Suddenly the world moved.
Luffy dropped.
A meter — two — three —
His feet scraped uselessly across the cliff face, as his grip vanished beneath frozen blood.
With every second he fell, he lost valuable meters.
Luffy slammed his forearm into a narrow jut of stone.
The impact hurt like hell, but it stopped the fall.
He hung there, his entire body suspended from a single bent elbow.
For a moment even the storm seemed silent.
Then his arm began to shake violently.
His fingers clawed for purchase, but found only ice polished by his own blood.
They slipped again.
Another half meter drop.
Bartolomeo groaned weakly.
Luffy exhaled once sharp and controlled.
His hand forced itself into a crack too small for it.
Skin tore open further, but the grip held.
He pulled himself back upward slowly and painfully.
Time blurred.
The storm never changed. The mountain never ended. Only the rhythm remained.
Reach.
Pull.
Slip.
Correct the grip.
Repeat.
His arms now trembled constantly, even when holding still. His breath came in ragged bursts, with white vapor freezing along his collar.
His jaw never loosened from Bartolomeo's coat.
At one point his vision darkened entirely.
Still he moved.
Sanji stirred faintly.
"…idiot…" he whispered hoarsely. "…you can't… climb forever…"
Luffy dragged himself up another meter.
"…watch me."
The wind stole the words instantly.
Hours passed… or maybe just minutes.
The storm did not weaken.
If anything, it grew worse the higher he climbed.
The wind no longer simply pushed him down, it felt like strikes.
It came in violent bursts that tried to peel him from the cliff face, tearing at cloth and skin. Snow flew sideways in sharp white sheets, that erased depth and distance.
Luffy climbed through it blindly.
His fingers no longer felt like a part of him. They responded only when commanded.
The rock beneath his hand felt smoother now.
Ice had claimed this section completely.
He searched for a crack.
His foot scraped for purchase and only found frozen surface.
For the first time since he began this monstrous climb, he stopped.
The wall ahead rose with polished ice layered over stone for several more meters.
There was no clear path, he could take.
Bartolomeo stirred faintly.
"…are… we dead…"
"No," Luffy muttered.
He leaned his forehead against the ice.
His breath fogged the surface briefly before freezing again.
Then he moved.
He drove his bare fingers straight into the ice.
The skin split instantly again.
Blood ran over the surface and froze red beneath his grip.
He used the frozen blood as traction and pulled upwards.
His left foot slid out completely.
His body swung sideways in the wind.
Sanji's weight shifted violently, nearly tearing free from his shoulder. Nami slipped downward against his back.
Luffy bit down harder on Bartolomeo's coat.
He slammed his knee into the ice wall.
It cracked slightly.
He drove his fingers deeper into the broken ice, just enough to allow a hold.
He climbed centimeter by centimeter.
Halfway up the frozen stretch, his right arm locked.
Completely.
It stopped responding.
He tried to lift it.
Nothing.
The muscle had seized from cold and strain.
The wind struck him sideways again.
His left hand trembled violently, barely holding.
For a suspended second, the mountain waited.
Then Luffy did something simple.
He let go with his right arm.
His entire weight shifted to one bleeding hand.
He forced his frozen right arm against the rock, slamming it repeatedly until sensation returned in flashes of agony.
His shoulder screamed.
He grabbed a new hold and pulled again.
His vision tunneled.
Black crept inward from the edges.
The storm became distant.
All he could hear, was his own uneven and strained breathing.
Nami's warmth against his back felt weaker now.
He adjusted her slightly upward, shielding her face from the wind with Sanji´s body.
"I will save all of you," he rasped.
The final ledge came without him really noticing.
His hand finally found rough stone again.
He dragged himself upward, collapsing on the snow covered summit plateau.
For several seconds he didn't move.
The storm raged behind him.
The wind didn't try to push him down anymore.
The sky above was still covered with dark storm clouds.
Ahead he saw through sheets of snow dark walls and tall spires.
A medieval castle stood right in the middle of this mountain.
He stared at it through half-closed eyes.
Then he laughed weakly through chattering teeth.
"…found it."
He forced himself onto his knees, then onto his feet.
The plateau stretched across frozen stone toward the massive wooden doors of the castle.
He began walking.
One step.
Then another.
Each movement mechanical.
Each breath heavier.
His feet dragged.
Snow swallowed his footprints instantly.
Halfway across the plateau, his legs buckled.
He dropped to one knee, but didn't fall.
Just paused.
His hands no longer felt like hands.
His arms no longer felt like arms.
His body had reached its limit.
He didn't care.
He stood again and walked.
The castle doors loomed before him at last.
He released Bartolomeo's coat from his teeth.
His jaw throbbed.
He adjusted Nami carefully on his back.
Then he raised his fist.
The knock was weak, barely making a sound.
He tried again.
The second knock echoed faintly in the storm.
He waited.
The world tilted.
His knees gave out.
Luffy collapsed face-first into the snow at the castle gates.
The storm swallowed the sound.
Nothing happened.
For several seconds nothing moved.
The castle doors remained shut, until he heard a metallic click.
Heavy locks shifted from within.
The massive wooden doors creaked open just enough to allow lamplight to spill into the storm.
A tall silhouette appeared in the doorway.
"…What kind of idiot knocks like that?"
The voice sounded sharp, old and irritated.
Doctor Kureha stepped forward into the snow, with a bottle resting lazily in her hand.
She wore her signature violet leather pants and jacket, with an exposed midriff despite the bitter cold.
She also had sunglasses on her head, even so.
Her eyes scanned the scene.
The unconscious bodies.
The blood streaked across frozen stone behind them.
The torn skin on Luffy's hands.
She looked up at the cliff face.
Then back down at the boy lying motionless in the snow.
"…He climbed with all of them. Reckless but not bad."
She grinned.
Behind her, a smaller figure stepped into the doorway.
It was a small creature with brown fur, antlers and a blue nose wearing dark pink shorts and a hat with a white cross on it.
It resembled a little reindeer.
"D-Doctor Kureha! They're freezing!!"
"Obviously," she snapped.
She crouched beside Luffy and pressed her fingers to his neck.
After a small pause, a slow smirk formed on her winkly face.
"Still alive."
The reindeer blinked in disbelief.
"How is that possible? He lost so much blood!"
Kureha stood and took a long sip from her bottle.
"He's stubborn."
She turned toward the others.
"The woman's fever is the worst. Get them inside. Now."
The reindeer nodded and transformed into a hulking brute.
He carried the bodies inside the castle.
Warmth swallowed them.
The doors shut against the storm.
The castle interior felt like another world.
Firelight flickered against old stone walls. Medical instruments lined shelves. The scent of herbs and alcohol replaced frozen air.
Kureha worked quickly.
"Remove all their clothes, or they really will freeze to death."
Chopper panicked instantly.
"O-O-On it!!"
Sanji was placed onto a bed first.
Kureha examined his injuries with clinical precision.
"Concussion. Rib bruising. Severe hypothermia."
She glanced at Chopper.
"Heat packs. Slowly. If you warm him too fast, he dies."
Chopper moved instantly.
Bartolomeo was next.
His arm had twisted badly during the earlier strain.
"Shoulder ligament damage. Minor frostbite."
She reset it in one clean motion.
Bartolomeo didn't even wake up to scream.
"Lucky," she muttered.
When she turned to Nami, her expression changed.
The girl had a high fever.
Her pulse was irregular and her breathing was shallow.
"Ah," Kureha said quietly.
Chopper swallowed hard.
"Is it bad?"
"Yes."
Silence filled the room.
"She'll die without treatment."
Chopper's ears drooped.
Kureha moved quickly, gathering tools.
"Prepare the mushroom extract. No, not that one — the brown one. Also bring boiling water."
Chopper ran.
In another bed, Luffy stirred after a while.
Searing pain returned first.
His fingers burned, as sensation flooded back into shredded nerves.
His shoulders screamed and his jaw throbbed from clenching fabric for hours.
He forced one eye open.
The ceiling above him was wooden.
Warm air touched his face.
"…Doctor…?"
A small figure jumped backward with a yelp.
"H-He's awake!!"
Luffy blinked at the reindeer.
"…You're weird."
Chopper froze.
"I AM NOT WEIRD!!"
The door behind him slid open.
Kureha entered, looking a bit impressed, that the boy was awake.
"You're loud for someone, who nearly froze to death."
Luffy slowly tried to sit up, but pain forced him back down.
"My friends?"
Kureha studied him for a long moment.
Then she nodded slightly.
"Alive."
That was enough.
Luffy's body relaxed immediately.
His eyes closed again.
He fell back asleep without another word.
Kureha clicked her tongue.
"Unbelievable."
She took another drink from her bottle and glanced toward the medical room where Nami was already treated and finally breathing normally again.
"That boy didn't just climb a mountain."
She looked back at Luffy's torn hands.
"He dragged death up here and refused to let it take them."
"Can´t say I´ve seen something like that in all my years."
Outside, the storm continued to rage against the castle walls.
For the first time since the climb began, Luffy could finally rest.