Ch. 4- Deep Sea Adventure
One Piece © Oda
Blizzard © Me
The Straw Hats sailed through the Deep Sea, trying to find the missing Monster Quartet with the Sunny's headlights.
"Luffy! Zoro! Sanji! Blizzard!" Usopp called, now wearing a coat and looking through a spyglass. "Where are you?!"
"Where did they go~?!" Chopper wailed. "Come back, you guys~!"
"The seafloor is too vast," said Franky. "Not even Sunny's headlights are bright enough to penetrate the darkness."
"I say, this is quite troublesome," said Brook. "I get nervous in the dark."
"The darkness seems to go on, forever," said Usopp. "What do we do, now?"
"Well, we can't stop the ship," Nami said. "The best thing we can do is keep our eyes peeled."
The Straw Hats sailed so far, they ended up in the middle of a school giant jellyfish. One of them ended up swimming right above the ship.
"Ah!" Chopper yelped. "Look! A jellyfish! It's right above us, and it's huge!"
"Indeed it is!" Brook said. "Not to mention shiny! It's almost like looking at a starry night sky!"
One of the jellyfish's tentacles penetrated through the bubbles, reaching for Chopper.
"Hey, look!" Chopper said. "It's reaching for me! Maybe it's friendly."
"Chopper, wait!" Robin cried. "Don't touch it! It could sting you and it might be poisonous!"
"HUH?!" Chopper cried.
"Not good!" Franky shouted. "Mini Coup de BURST!"
FWOOM! In a short burst, the Sunny managed to shoot away from the jellyfish, which was soon bitten by a giant fish.
"AAAAAAAAAAAH!" Usopp and Chopper screamed.
Brook looked up and saw that the bubble had sunk a bit since using the Mini Coup de Burst.
"Oh, my," said Brook. "It appears you were right, after all, Mister Franky. We have a bit less air, now."
"Beats being seafood," said Franky.
"THAT GIANT FISH ATE THE JELLYFISH!" Chopper cried.
FLOP! The fish went belly-up while the jellyfish swam away.
"IT'S DEAD!" Chopper cried.
"It must've been a neurotoxin," said Robin.
"AAAAAH!" Chopper screamed. "THE DEEP SEA IS SO SCARY! AND DARK!"
Usopp soon joined Chopper's side and put a hand on his shoulder.
"I-it's gonna be okay, Chopper," Usopp said. "I mean…look at them! Some of them look blind!"
"Hey, you're right!" Chopper said. "A lot of the fish have white eyes! It kinda makes them look scarier, though."
"The Deep Sea is a world of pitch black darkness, Young Chopper," Brook said, sipping some tea. "Eyesight has devolved in some species."
"So that means that they really can't see us!" Chopper said.
"What's that?" Brook asked. "You say that you want to know how I can see, even though I have no eyes?"
"Nah-nah!" Usopp sang, teasingly as he blew a raspberry at the supposedly blind fish. "You can't see us!"
"That doesn't mean that all of them are blind," Robin said. "Some of the creatures here have advanced eyes."
GRRAAAAAWWRR! A giant electric eel roared at Usopp and Chopper, who screamed and ran to hide behind Brook.
"The truth is…it's a secret! YOHOHOHOHO!"
"What are you mumbling to yourself about, Bones?" Franky asked.
"It's quite all right," said Brook. "I'm used to solitude, you know."
"We weren't talking about that!" Usopp said.
"I still can't see the others, though," Chopper said. "HEY~! LUFFY! ZORO! SANJI! BLIZZARD! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?!"
Just then, Brook picked up something. It's the rope that Franky used to tie up Caribou…but Caribou was nowhere to be seen.
"Hmm…how odd," Brook said. "Err, pardon me, friends, but has anyone seen that pirate fellow?"
"Huh?" the Straw Hats muttered.
"Oh, yeah," Franky said. "I forgot about that guy."
"Where did he go?" Chopper asked.
"I haven't seen him since we got down here in the Deep Sea," said Robin. "Maybe he ended up getting thrown off the ship when we got pulled into the Downward Plume."
Unbeknownst to the Straw Hats, there is a strange, mud-like substance leaking out of a nearby barrel.
"That is possible," said Franky. "We did tie down his hands and feet, so he couldn't be able to grab onto anything."
"I find that a bit unlikely," Brook said. "As you can clearly see, he somehow managed to get out of these ropes without cutting them!"
"Then that means he could still be aboard!" Chopper cried.
"That also means he could be hiding in one of our rooms!" Nami added. "The women's quarters, in particular! EW~!"
"Oh, no!" Chopper cried. "He could be in the sick bay! He might steal all the medicine!"
Inside the barrel, it is revealed that Caribou is hiding inside.
"KIHIHIHIHI…" he laughed, silently. "I might just sneak into the woman's quarters, like Cat Burglar suggested!"
"Crap!" Usopp cursed. "This means we let down our guard for even a second!"
"Ah, who cares?" Franky questioned. "He's not so tough."
"KIHIHIHIHI…" Caribou laughed, silently, again. "This is perfect. Now those three strong fools, as well as that mutt, are gone for good!"
Franky came down from the helm and noticed the opened barrel.
"Getting sucked into Deep Sea in such a little bubble certainly means death," Caribou whispered. "Too bad I couldn't kill Straw Hat, thought, but I can still take the heads of the rest of the Straw Hats to prove that he's dead! KIHIHIHIH! Oh, but wait! Let's not be hasty here, Caribou. You shouldn't rush such things, you know. If you kill off these fools here and now, then who's going to sail the ship? They've got a pretty good navigator. I know! The moment they arrive at Fishman Island, it'll be perfect opportunity! I'll kill the rest of the men, and then, maybe I'll spare Cat Burglar and Demon Child…and I'll show them a real man. KIHIHIHIIHI!"
Suddenly, KLANK! Franky shut the lid of the barrel tight, and even hammered the lid down and tied the barrel up. Caribou is now trapped inside barrel with no way out.
"HEY!" Caribou shouted. "LET ME OUT OF THIS THING! LET MET OUT!"
"Found him," Franky said. "We don't have to worry about him, now."
"My word!" Brook exclaimed. "How did he managed to get inside that barrel?"
"We should've been more alert," said Franky. "If he wasn't such a dumb-ass, we might've been in real trouble. Looks like he ate a Devil Fruit that makes his body turn into mud or something, so that makes him a Logia Type. He only let Luffy punch him like that and let himself get caught on purpose."
"HEY!" Caribou cried from inside the barrel. "COME ON! LET ME OUT OF THIS THING! HEY, YOU! OLD MAN! IN THE SPEEDO! I'LL BE YOUR SLAVE, FOREVER! PLEASE LET ME OUT!"
"Dream on!" Franky called before he looked down to see Chopper, slumped on the deck. "Hey, what's up with you, Chopper?"
"I dunno," Chopper replied, tongue hanging out of his mouth. "All of a sudden…it got really hot. I can't stand hot places."
"I can't see anything up ahead!" Usopp exclaimed, pulling off his coat. "And it's so freaking stifling in here!"
"You're right," Nami said as she began to strip off her coat, too.
Outside, the Straw Hats spotted what looked like plumes of smoke, billowing through the water.
"Is that…smoke?" Usopp asked.
"Why is there smoke coming out of the seafloor?" questioned Brook.
"Wait," said Nami. "This can only mean one thing. We're sailing right towards some hydrothermal vents! A region full of undersea volcanoes!"
"VOLCANOES?!" shouted Brook, Usopp, Chopper, and Franky.
It is revealed that Nami is right. All around them, there are many volcanoes, billowing smoke like chimneys.
"They all look like they're pretty active!" Usopp exclaimed.
"If those volcanoes erupt, our goose is cooked!" Franky shouted. "Let's get outta here, and quick!"
"It's so hot…" Chopper complained.
SWUP! Some strange grass-like creatures with teeth began to wriggle their way up to the Sunny.
"DAAAAH!" screamed Usopp. "There's something coming after us!"
"Those are carnivorous tube worms!" cried Nami. "Franky, quick! We have to lose them!"
"What do you think that I'm trying to do?!" Franky asked as he steered the ship away from the tubeworms, which he managed to lose, but then, something else came after them.
"OH, NO!" Usopp cried. "CRABS WITHOUT EYES!"
The Straw Hats eventually managed to lose them, too, but once again, they got chased by something else: giant blobfish.
"WE DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THOSE ARE!" Usopp cried.
The Straw Hats kept getting chased by giant sea creatures, one after the other, and needless to say, they were starting to get very tired of it.
"There's no way that Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Blizzard could survive down here," wept Chopper. "It can't be…I waited two years to see everyone again, and now, four of my friends are probably dead!"
"HOW COULD YOU EVEN SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!" Usopp questioned. "YOU OF ALL PEOPLE KNOW BETTER THAN TO DOUBT THEM SO EASILY!"
Chopper looked at Usopp and sniffled, his tears threatening to fall at full force. Usopp, realizing his mistake, just sighed and put a hand on his head.
"Look, Chopper," he said. "I didn't mean to snap, okay? It's just…everything's been so crazy since we set sail and…I guess it's getting to me. But still, you should never doubt Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, or Blizzard. We know those guys. They're fighters. They always manage pull through, somehow."
"…yeah," Chopper said.
Usopp smiled at the little reindeer before he pulled him into a hug, making him smile.
Meanwhile, Franky looked up at the bubble, which had gotten a lot smaller since he kept using Mini Coup de Bursts to escape from the sea monsters.
"Damn," he cursed. "If I keep using the Mini Coup de Burst like this, we'll be all out of air before we even know it!"
FWASH! Chopper spotted a small but bright light up ahead.
"Hey! I can see a light, and it's really bright!" he exclaimed. "Maybe it's Fishman Island! Luffy and the others could already be there!"
FWASH! FWASH! Franky began to flash his Nipple Lights in Morse code.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"WHY ARE YOU USING THOSE TO SEND A MESSAGE?!" Usopp questioned.
The Straw Hats sailed the Sunny further toward the light, which got bigger and brighter.
"Do you see anything?" Usopp asked.
"I can't tell," Nami replied, squinting her eyes. "It's too bright."
It is soon revealed that the light was not Fishman Island, but the lure of a humungous anglerfish!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" screamed the Cowardly Quartet.
"HOLY CRAP!" Franky cursed.
"IT'S A GIANT ANGLERFISH!" cried Usopp. "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"
"WE'VE BEEN TRICKED BY A PREDATOR OF THE DEEP SEA! YOHOHOHOHO~!" Brook screamed in terror.
"Mini COUP DE BURST!"
FWOOM! CHOMP! In another short burst of air, the Sunny managed to escape the jaws of the monstrous anglerfish, but at the cost of their bubble getting flatter.
"Man, that was too SUPER close!" Franky cried.
"Yeah!" Usopp agreed. "We were totally caught in that thing's trap! You think we can get away from it?!"
Suddenly, Franky looked out the bubble and spotted something.
"What the…?!" he muttered.
The Straw Hats followed the shipwright's gaze and saw what appeared to be a hairy giant with a rounded head with facial hair, child-like eyes, and a large, wide mouth with rounded teeth that are quite distant from each other. He is wearing loose-fitting pants with a dark indument tied around his waist, and he is barefooted.
"…koro…" the giant muttered.
"WHAT~?!" the Straw Hats screamed.
"YOHOHO!" Brook cried.
"NOW WHAT?!" Franky questioned in shock.
"A MAN?!" Nami asked.
"IT'S A SEA MONSTER IN THE SHAPE OF A GIANT!" cried Usopp.
Robin just stood in silence, while Chopper sobbed in fright.
"IT'S A SEA SPIRIT~!" Usopp screamed.
The supposed sea spirit reeled back his fist.
"Oh, no!" Nami cried. "He's gonna hit us! He'll capsize the ship!"
"Dammit!" Nami cursed.
Suddenly, BAP! The sea spirit…punched the giant anglerfish in the head.
"Ankoro!" he shouted in a surprisingly child-like voice. "Bad fish!"
"He's hitting the fish?!" Usopp questioned.
The anglerfish turned to the sea spirit, rubbing the bump on its head.
"I said 'no'!" the sea spirit shouted. "Don't eat any ships! How many times do I have to tell you?! Captain Vander Decken will get mad at us!"
"D…did it just save us?" Nami asked.
"Who cares?!" Usopp asked. "Let's just get outta here, while we can! They're both monsters!"
All of a sudden, an eerie song began to fill the air.
"Dead men tell no tales~
Dead men have no desires~"
"Hmm?" Brook hummed, inquisitively. "What's that?"
"In this blackened nation, where not even a crow flies~"
KREEEEEK! Just then, a disheveled, dilapidated ship appeared behind the sea spirit. It had a skull-and-swords figurehead at the bow, and had the words "Flying Dutchman" on its main sail. The ship is being pushed by a row of oars…and on board, the singing still continued.
"Dead men's fingers have no need for jewels~
The darkness hides even their regrets~,
Find it! Find it!
The sunken is mine for the taking~,
I'm the richest man in the world~!
Captain Vander Decken~!"
"Aye-aye captain!" shouted the crew aboard the ship.
Usopp, Chopper, and Nami gasped.
"N…NO WAY!" Usopp cried.
"There's one here in the Deep Sea, too?!" Nami questioned.
"SCARY~!" Chopper screamed.
"A GHOST SHIP~!" Brook yelled.
"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU SCARED?!" questioned Usopp.
"B-Because," Brook began, "that one…is REAL! Look at the sail! It's the infamous Flying Dutchman!"
"The Flying Dutchman?!" Chopper repeated. "What's that?!"
"A ship that does not belong in the realm of the living," Brook explained, ominously. "It's centuries old! One stormy night, a pirate captain suddenly went mad and threw all of his men overboard! He drowned them every last one of them and cursed at the gods! His name was…Captain Vander Decken, and his ship was the Flying Dutchman! To punish him, the gods decreed that he should roam the seas for all eternity! The ship we see before us is Vander Decken's cursed vessel!"
"WHAT~?!" cried Nami, Usopp, Chopper, and Franky.
"Ankoro! Wadatsumi!" shouted a voice from the ship. "If you eat that ship, then we can't collect its treasure. Smash it to smithereens!"
"Yes, captain!" cried the sea spirit, known as Wadatsumi, as he reeled back a fist.
"Oh, no!" Usopp cried. "The sea spirit! He's on their side!"
"Franky, quick!" Nami ordered. "Use the Coup de Burst!"
"I can't!" Franky replied. "We're out of juice!"
"WHAT?!" Nami questioned.
Just when Wadatsumi is about shatter the Sunny into pieces, WHABAM! The giant had been punched by, surprisingly, the Kraken!
"THE KRAKEN?!" the Straw Hats cried.
"The monster of the North Pole?!" muttered Vander Decken.
WHAM! BAM! WHAK! WHAK! THWAK! The Kraken continued to pummel Wadatsumi, using its tentacles like fists.
"STOP! THAT'S ENOUGH!"
The Kraken stopped beating on Wadatsumi and turned to face the owner of the voice with a sheepish smile.
"Good octopus!"
Nami gasped and smiled.
"That voice! It's…"
"Luffy!" Usopp cried, joyfully. "Zoro! Sanji! Blizzard!"
"YOU'RE OKAY~!" Chopper sobbed, tearfully.
In the water, is revealed that it is indeed the Monster Quartet. However, the Straw Hats noticed that Luffy is now sitting with Blizzard in his bubble while Sanji had been crammed into Zoro's bubble.
"Hey, guys~!" Luffy called, waving his hand.
"Nami~! Robin~!" Sanji called.
"We were looking everywhere for you guys!" Luffy said.
Zoro just heaved a sigh.
"What a bunch of clowns, getting themselves lost like that," he grumbled.
Look who's talking, you prude, Blizzard thought, irritably.
"Hey! Wadatsumi!" cried one of the men on the Flying Dutchman. "Get up, you fool! You gotta fight back!"
It was no use. Wadatsumi is out cold.
The Kraken gently took the Thousand Sunny in its tentacles and placed her on its head.
"What happened to you two?" asked Robin.
"Well, Sanji's bubble and mine burst," Luffy answered. "So, I had to get into Blizzard's bubble, while Sanji got into Zoro's."
"Don't remind me," said Zoro. "I'll be washing the stink of idiot off my back for at least a week!"
"Hey!" Sanji snapped. "That wasn't exactly my first choice, either, moss-head, but Blizzard wouldn't let me in!"
"HAHAHA!" Luffy laughed. "I thought we were gonna die!"
"WILL YOU STOP SAYING MORBID STUFF LIKE THAT?!" Usopp questioned. "IT AIN'T FUNNY!"
"He's right, Luffy," Blizzard said, telepathically. "You have no business worrying us like that!"
"Okay!" Luffy said. "Sorry."
As the Monster Quarter entered the ship through the bubble, Nami immediately embraced Luffy, who returned it.
"It's good to see you, too, Nami," said Luffy.
"You had me worried sick about you," said Nami. "Don't ever do that again!"
BONK! She struck Luffy in the head, leaving a large bump behind.
"OUCH!" Luffy cried. "Dammit to hell, Nami! When are you gonna stop hitting me so much?!"
"When you start to smarten up!" Nami cried. "Which is NEVER!"
"WAAAAAAAAH!" Chopper sobbed as he hugged Blizzard's muzzle. "BLIZZARD~! I'M SO HAPPY YOU'RE BACK~!"
"I wasn't gone that long, little buddy," Blizzard said in his own language. "But…yeah, I'm happy to see you, too, Chopper. Sorry I had you worried."
Chopper nodded as Blizzard put his paw around the little reindeer in a hug.
"Are you all right, Zoro?" asked Robin.
"Huh?" Zoro muttered as he looked to the historian. "Oh! Uh…yeah. I'm just fine."
Sanji couldn't help but notice that Zoro seemed to be blushing while scratching his hair, and almost instantly, he sneered at the swordsman.
That son of a bitch, he thought.
"Looks like nothing can kill you guys!" Franky commented, referring to the Monster Quartet.
"So, you really managed to tame that giant octopus?" Nami asked.
"Oh, yeah!" Luffy answered. "We're taking the advanced route! Isn't that right, Surume?"
The Kraken, or rather, "Surume" nodded.
"You do realize that that means 'dried squid snacks', right?" Usopp asked.
"What?" Luffy asked.
"Never mind," Usopp muttered.
The Kraken started to carry the Straw Hats' ship through the volcanic region.
"He's pulling our ship along," Usopp started, "but we have to be careful we don't get crushed around here."
RRRMMMMMMMMB~! A rumbling sound is heard.
"Uh…Luffy?" Usopp asked. "Was that your stomach, again?"
"Not this time," Luffy answered.
"I was hoping you wouldn't say that," Usopp said, pathetically.
RRRMMMMMMMMMMBB! The rumbling is heard again, and the sea floor began to shake.
"W-w-what's happening?!" Chopper asked, frighteningly holding onto Blizzard's legs.
"Captain Vander Decken!" cried the crew of the Flying Dutchman. "This is bad!"
"Oh, no," Nami muttered. "Guys! We gotta get outta here, right now!"
"Why?" Luffy asked.
"Because," Nami began, "the undersea volcano…is about to erupt!"
"WHAT~?!" the Straw Hats cried.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Review, please! And please be nice.
