Chapter 311: The Cabin in the Snow
"Memorized all of their treatment methods?"
Vivi was surprised by Axel's claim.
Then again, after everything she had seen from him, it was difficult to be truly shocked anymore.
Axel's abilities were difficult to understand.
Sometimes they made him seem almost omnipotent.
At the very least, Vivi had yet to encounter a problem that genuinely left him helpless.
Still, one question bothered her.
How could Axel be so certain Dr. Kureha was better than the twenty doctors they had just left behind?
If Kureha turned out to be no more capable than they were, then this entire trip into the mountains would have been pointless.
Worse, they would have abandoned a relatively safe treatment facility only to expose themselves to the snowstorm and the approaching Marines.
Before Vivi could finish that thought, the warmth surrounding her vanished.
Cold rushed back into her body.
She shuddered violently.
"What are you..."
Before she could finish, Axel answered.
"Nothing."
He looked completely unconcerned.
"I just suddenly wanted to test something."
Vivi stared at him.
Don't get angry.
Don't get angry.
Then Axel added,
"Alternating between hot and cold can make you sick, though. Be careful."
Vivi almost exploded.
She forced herself to swallow the irritation.
Then, perhaps partly in retaliation, she said,
"You know, dismissing the doctors who spent so much effort treating you like that makes you sound like an ungrateful bandit."
The comment was supposedly about the doctors.
Mostly, however, Vivi simply wanted to get back at him for the teasing.
She was not some sheltered princess incapable of understanding Axel's reasoning.
What he said made sense.
But Vivi had always been stubborn and competitive.
If she were the type to quietly accept whatever happened around her, she never would have left Alabasta in the first place.
Axel showed no sign of taking offense.
"I am a criminal."
Vivi looked at him.
"My hands have probably been stained with more blood than you could imagine."
His tone remained casual.
"As for gratitude, loyalty, sentiment, all of that..."
Axel shrugged.
"I deal with those things depending on how I feel."
Vivi went quiet.
She had not expected such a direct answer.
There was something in the way he said it that made her reluctant to continue pushing.
So she changed the subject.
"You said the animals in these mountains were dangerous enough to stop ordinary Marines."
Axel glanced at her.
"But I haven't seen a single one since we entered."
Vivi looked through the blowing snow.
"Not even tracks."
She had remained alert from the moment they entered the mountains.
The blizzard was terrible, but apart from the wind and snow, the surroundings had been strangely quiet.
Igaram had taught her long ago that danger often hid beneath calm appearances.
Still, this felt almost too quiet.
Vivi narrowed her eyes.
"Don't tell me the animals here can tell people apart."
She pointed back the way they had come.
"Are they deliberately avoiding us so they can attack the Marines instead?"
Axel answered immediately.
"Yes."
Vivi blinked.
"They really can tell the difference."
That only confused her more.
If the creatures here were intelligent enough to feel emotions like Karoo, that was one thing.
But could they actually judge the strength of someone approaching them before deciding whether to attack?
To Vivi, it sounded suspiciously like Axel was making things up again.
"What exactly do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said."
Axel scratched his head lightly.
His normally neat white hair had become somewhat messy from the journey, giving him the appearance of someone who had just woken up.
Snowflakes swept toward him.
Yet none actually settled on his body.
The moment they came close, they changed direction and slid harmlessly past him.
"If I wanted to be more precise, I'd say the animals are being forced to distinguish between us and everyone else."
Vivi frowned.
Axel continued.
"Animals are often more sensitive to danger than humans."
"Especially when that danger involves life and death."
He glanced toward the surrounding forest.
"You've heard stories about animals behaving strangely before natural disasters, haven't you?"
"Ants abandoning their nests."
"Dogs barking without reason."
"Birds becoming restless."
"Animals reacting before a predator even appears."
Vivi nodded slowly.
"People can be similar."
Axel continued.
"Some have unusually sharp instincts for danger."
"Others barely notice anything until the threat is right in front of them."
"It's a kind of talent."
He looked toward her.
"And part of that sensitivity comes from something you could call magnetic sense."
"Magnetic sense?"
The term was unfamiliar to Vivi.
Axel smiled slightly.
"Think of it as another form of perception."
"Like touch, hearing, or balance."
"Living creatures can react to changes in magnetic fields."
"Some are more sensitive than others."
He gestured toward the snowy wilderness.
"What I'm doing is deliberately altering the surrounding magnetic field so even creatures with poor sensitivity notice it."
Vivi stared.
"You're communicating with animals through that?"
"In a very crude way."
She suddenly remembered something.
"Wait."
Axel looked at her.
"That suffocating feeling you gave off before."
"Was that the same thing?"
Axel shook his head.
"Not exactly."
He thought for a moment.
"A certain mad scientist once said that humans are the craziest creatures in the world."
Vivi's expression became strange.
Axel continued regardless.
"Humans constantly act against their own instincts."
"Because of that, they often ignore subtle perceptions that animals rely on."
"So compared to many animals, people tend to have a weaker awareness of this sort of thing."
He raised one hand.
"But that doesn't mean the field around a person never changes."
"Someone powerful creates a stronger presence than an ordinary person."
"When I let some of mine leak out before, your body interpreted it as danger."
"That's why you felt suffocated."
Vivi looked at him.
"Was that explanation just an excuse to compliment yourself?"
Axel considered it.
"Partly."
Vivi sighed.
He continued.
"Anyway, think of the magnetic field as a very simple language."
"I change it."
"The animals sense it."
"And they understand the message."
Vivi became curious despite herself.
"What kind of message?"
Axel answered casually.
"Something like, 'Come closer and you die.'"
Vivi stared at him.
Axel continued as though that were perfectly normal.
"It isn't a complicated language."
"There aren't sentences or detailed meanings."
"Mostly basic impulses."
"Fear."
"Rejection."
"A request for help."
"Courtship."
"Things like that."
He glanced toward Karoo.
"It's similar to how insects communicate through limited signals."
"While I was warning the animals away, I also used them to help guide us."
Vivi froze.
"Guide us?"
Then her eyes widened.
"You found her?"
Axel's crimson eyes shifted toward the storm ahead.
Visibility was terrible.
The blizzard allowed them to see only a short distance in front of them.
Yet Axel looked into the white haze with complete confidence.
"Yes."
Vivi stared.
"Otherwise, did you think I was wandering around these mountains at random?"
His expression made the rest of the sentence unnecessary.
Do I look that stupid?
Vivi immediately remembered something.
"But you said finding Dr. Kureha would be difficult."
"It was difficult."
Axel spread his hands.
"But I still succeeded."
He paused.
"To be fair, it was my first time trying this."
"It took some effort."
Vivi looked at him in silence.
Terrifying.
That was the only word that came to mind.
She did not fully understand most of the concepts Axel had just explained.
But she understood the result.
Soldiers from Drum Kingdom had searched these mountains repeatedly without finding Kureha.
Axel had done it in half a day.
And he had accomplished it using a method he had apparently invented while doing it.
More troubling was what his so-called magnetic sense implied.
If he could influence animal instincts strongly enough to drive them away or guide their movements, then he had effectively found another way to control the behavior of living creatures.
Vivi was still processing that when Axel stopped walking.
She looked ahead.
Through the curtain of snow, a shape emerged.
A small wooden cabin.
"Is that it?"
The cabin stood alone in the middle of the storm.
It was simple, old, and covered in signs of repeated repair.
Several boards had clearly been replaced over the years.
The roof sagged slightly beneath accumulated snow.
By all appearances, it had no business surviving weather this severe.
And yet it still stood.
A fragile little shelter buried deep in the mountains.
For now, at least, the miracle was holding.
....
https://discord.gg/KvMN2CFsMR
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03].