Chapter 8: Arrival at Ryugu Palace! Luffy and Ellix meet the Mermaid Princess!
Colour Spread: My Hobbie-The Strawhats all take up professions from the real world! Luffy is charging head first recklessly into a building as a firefighter, whilst Zoro is standing over a blithering criminal as a police officer. Chopper is seen teaching as an elementary school teacher, whilst Brook is shown as a detective investigating a crime scene. Franky is piloting a plane whilst Robin is the flight attendant, and Sanji is scaring off woman in his lovey dovey mode whilst as a beauty salon worker. Usopp is seen working on a picture as a graphic designer, whilst Nami is looking after young children as a childcare worker. As for Ellix, he is wearing spy gear, working as a secret agent.
I walked around the main town area aimlessly, trying to find the way to Mermaid Cafe. Unsuccessfully.
"Maaaan, don't tell me I'm doing a Zoro." I whined.
xxxFishmanxIslandxxx
Elsewhere, a certain swordsmans eye twitched. "Ellix..." He growled.
xxxFishmanxIslandxxx
Still walking around, I stumbled upon a town made of coral and rocks. "Where the heck am I now? I'll never get to Mermaid Cove at this rate!"
"Elliiiiiix!"
"Huh!?" I immediately looked up to see Luffy, Nami, Usopp, Brook, Camie and Pappug...riding on that same shark from before...and it was FLYING. "Everyone! And why is that shark flying!?"
I Geppoed my way up and had a heartfelt reunion with Nami and everyone as they explained the situation. "Please elaborate on how Sanji nearly died from a nosebleed." Wish I had some snacks whilst listening to this.
"Right, guess it was lucky we got Megalo back then. Thank you for your hospitality, King Neptune."
"It's no problem at all, jamon." He said. "In fact, we are at the entrance now." We slipped into the bubble as the king opened the hatch into the palace and we dived in, where we were met with an extraordinary undersea palace filled with ancient Japenese/Chinese ornaments!
"Sugoiiiiiiii! What an awesome place!" Luffy approved.
"This is my home, please feel free to make yourselves comfortable." Neptune invited us...right before he got severely scolded by his ministers.
'Sheesh, who's actually in charge here?' I sweatdropped. "Oi, Luffy..." I turned TO SEE HIM WONDERING OFF! 'CAN'T THAT BAKA STAY STILL FOR FIVE SECONDS!?'
I poked Nami in the back (WITHOUT Shigan). "Our baka of a captain has wondered off, I'm gonna go get him."
"Nani!?" She whispered loudly. "Can't he stay still for five seconds!?"
"That's what I thought."
She sighed. "Okay, I'm leaving him to you, Ellix."
"Yes ma'am!" I saluted before chasing after the rubber man.
I found him down a corridor. "Luffy!" I hissed running up to him.
"Oh, hey Ellix." He greeted me calmly. "I can smell tasty food this way."
"Stop wondering off! We're in a royal palace!" I told him.
"The smell must be behind this door!" He ignored me, gesturing at a giant door. "Is this the way to the banquet hall? He said Zoro was here already right?"
"I don't care if behind this door is One Piece! We're heading back!" I seized his wrist only to catch a scent of something. "Eh...?" It was food. Really, really good food. "Ohhhh..."
'NO!' I mentally scolded myself. 'Nami is counting on you!...But it smells so goooooood...'
I stood tall and inhaled deeply. "Five minutes in here, tops."
"I knew you'd agree, Ellix!" Luffy smiled. "But this door is pretty thick and heavy..."
I looked up at it and noticed an assortment of giant weaponry all stabbed into the door and wall. "Why are there so many weapons stabbed into it?"
"Maybe the food is really good." Luffy suggested.
"Enough to try and stab your way through?" I sweatdropped sarcastically.
"Hup!" Luffy grabbed the handle and pulled the giant door open easily, revealing a pitch-black room with nothing in sight except a giant pile of food. "Woah, it's dark! I guess this isn't the banquet hall..."
"Well then, let's head back." I said.
"But there's plenty of tasty food over there!" Luffy pointed at the spread before running towards it.
"Luffy!" I chased after my captain, my shoes smacking against...what was I running on? Coral? It was kinda hard, but much softer then rock.
"Is this like a big pantry?" Luffy thought aloud. "Whatever, I'll just take some! I'm too hungry!"
"Such is your logic..." I muttered as suddenly what I was running on became much softer, like flesh.
Suddenly, Luffy smacked into something and fell back. "Woah! What is this!?"
"You bumped into something?" I stopped next to him and felt the thing. "It feels like you bumped into coral..." I peered around and spotted an identical amount of coral next to it. "There's another coral wall there." I had to admit, I was now interested.
Me and Luffy slipped in between the two coral walls, stumbling on the soft ground, I leant on a wall next to me which felt soft like the ground.
"What's this? It's soooft!" Luffy exclaimed as I pressed my hands against one, they sunk in a bit before I pulled them back.
"Weird..." Me and luffy climbed onto one each, finding it to be really soft and bouncy.
"Hahaha! It's like jelly!" Luffy said as he began bouncing on his one.
"Whatever this stuff is, it's really soft and bouncy!" I said as I too began bouncing up and down.
"Ahhh! I-Is somebody there!?"
'A voice!?' As I thought that a blight light blinded me, and the ground underneath us suddenly rose up and we got bounced off!
"Ahhhhhh!" We both cried as we unceremoniously landed on velvety ground.
"What is going on!?" I asked as I looked up, causing my jaw to drop.
Towering above us was a giant mermaid, but not just any giant mermaid, with her flowing pink hair and curvaceous body, there was no doubt that it was the mermaid princess Shirahoshi! And it suddenly dawned on me that we'd been bouncing on her boobs!
'Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!' I clutched my head in panic. 'If Nami ever finds out I jumped on the mermaid princess' tits, I'll have a gravestone next to Marcus'! With me under it!'
"Wh-What were you two doing on top of my body!?" She panicked.
'Please don't phrase it like that!' I thought as I cried a small stream of tears.
"Who exactly might you be? I-Identify yourselves!" She whimpered.
"Woooaaaah! It'a a giant person! I mean mermaid!" Luffy stated the obvious.
"Are you here to make an attempt on my life as well!?" She continued, though this did catch my attention, and sorta, not really explained the assortment of stuck weapons outside. "W-Well I'm not scared of you at all!" She was obviously lying, as...oh no...tears were building up in her eyes. "I am the daughter of King Neptune! W-Why should I...be...WAAAAAAAAAAH! SOMEBODYYYYYYYY! FATHEEEEEER! BROTHEEEEEEER!" She burst into tears!
"Nani!? We haven't even done anything!" Luffy shouted. "Oi! Calm down! We were just looking for some food!"
"Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit!" I panicked. "Guards are gonna be here any minute! And then Nami's gonna kill me! WHY do I listen to you!?"
"Maaaaan! She's so noisy!" Luffy complained over her crying, and admittedly, I had to agree with him.
"Humans have entered this chamber to take an attempt on my life!"
"That's an overexaggeration!" I shouted.
"I didn't know this food was yours, okay!?" Luffy continued to yell.
Suddenly we both sensed it at the same time, an axe came flying into the room, aimed straight at Shirahoshi! Quickly, Luffy jumped up and blocked it just before it hit her, though it still looked like it was pushing against him!
"Soru Ken!" I punched the axe and sent it smashing into the wall, completely broken. "Ouch!" I shook my throbbing red hand. "Note to self; do not punch steel without Haki!"
Me and my captain looked at the not screaming giant mermaid princess as voices drew closer, we exchanged silent understanding as she picked us up and his us behind her back.
"Ahhhh! What are you doing!?" Luffy cried. "Let me go!"
"Urusai!" I whispered as I clamped my hand over his mouth. "She's hiding us! So don't give us away!"
"I...I apologise for causing you alarm!" She said. "It was nothing, really. I think it must've been a bad dream, that's all."
"I see..." A somewhat elderly voice spoke. "If that is the case, then I am most relieved...ah yes, there is something else I must speak with you about. It regards the pirates Strawhat Luffy and Rokushiki Nightmare Ellix, who were responsible for saving Megalo. It seems the situation has become rather complicated you see..."
'Complicated?'
"As such, under the suspicion of kidnapping mermaids-"
'NANI!?'
"-and as a precaution against these possible future misdeeds-"
'FUTURE misdeeds!?'
"-The decision has been made to confine the entire Strawhat crew to the palace dungeons-"
'OH COME FRIKKIN' ON!'
"-The swordsman, who arrived at the head of the palace ahead of us, has already been apprehanded."
'Zoro?...Wait, that means that Nami, Usopp and Brook are-!'
"The three further crewmembers who arrived at the castle have likely been apprehanded as well."
'Crap!'
"The only problem is that Strawhat Luffy, the captain, and Rokushiki Nightmare Ellix, the mercenary, who also entered the palace with those three, seem to have gone missing. Presumably they discovered our intentions to apprehend them and have concealed themselves within the castle."
I sweatdropped. 'You could not be further from the truth...'
"Fear not, we will apprehand Strawhat's other crewmembers from the various other areas of Fishman Island and ensure the safety of our proud kingdom! It pains me that we are forced to greet Megalo's saviours with chains and cells rather then the planned celebrations...ah...it appears five minutes have passed. In that case, we shall be leaving."
As they left, Shirahoshi held us out in front of her, it always felt weird being in front of a giant, you felt so small... "Typical." I grumbled. "Things start going wrong and people IMMEDIATELY blame the pirates."
"Your names...are Luffy-sama and Ellix-sama, yes?" Shirahoshi asked.
"Uh-huh." "Yep." We confirmed, whilst Megalo grinned at us.
"And you are both pirates...does that mean you are bad people?"
"Hm? Uhhh...I dunno. You can decide that yourself." Luffy shrugged it off.
"It basically depends on the viewpoint you build of us." I said, using experience of the allies we'd made throughout our journey.
"It would appear your companions have been captured by the palace guards." She noted.
"Yeah...but they'll never keep our nakama locked up for long." Luffy shrugged it off.
"Shirahoshi-hime..." She looked at me as I pointed at the destroyed axe. "Do you know who threw that axe in here? I didn't see anybody outside, so somebody must have thrown it from an incredible distance."
"I believe...I know the one responsible." She confirmed. "It is aman named Vander Decken-sama, he seems to have a grudge against me because I refused his marriage proposals."
"That's a sicko grudge." I muttered as I glanced at the axe.
"From what I gathered, he is cursed with a demonic power by the name of 'Mato Mato', it allows him to target me at any time, no matter where he may be. As such, I am never able to leave this Shell Tower, for it would be far too dangerous for me to be out in the open!"
"A Devil Fruit, huh?" I said to myself. "The Mato Mato no Mi, Mark-Mark Fruit, able to target a certain person when throwing something...that's despicable, throwing weapons at you just because you refused a marriage proposal from a psycho!? Forcing you to be trapped in this room!? That's unforgivable!"
"It does get lonely at times, Ellix-sama." She admitted as she placed us down on her table.
"Ooooh! Foood!" Luffy went for it, but I blocked him.
"Be polite." I reminded him. "Shirahoshi-hime, please may we have some of your food?"
"Huh? O-Of course! You helped me after all."
"Arigatou!" And so we both dug into the giant food and began eating ravenously...what? You can't help it if the foods giant and delicious!
Shirahoshi explained how she'd been trapped for ten years with only Megalo for company as we continued eating, I was slurping up several strands of spaghetti as she switched the focus on us: "Still...for people so small, you certainly do eat a lot, Luffy-sama and Ellix-sama."
"Mghlfh grhflph mflrphgr." Luffy garbled through a mouthfull of bread.
"Don't talk with your mouth full, Luffy." I scolded him.
"Oi, Ellix, you called her Shirahoshi-hime, right? So she's the mermaid princess?" Luffy asked.
"Indeed, I am the daughter of King Neptune, Shirahoshi." She smiled.
"That's a weird name." Luffy commented.
"I thought so, Oren would tell me stories about you off of info he got from Marineford." I said.
"R-Really? There are stories about me?" She said in a mixture of embarrassment and amazement.
"Oh yeah." I said as I shovelled in a chunk of bread. "Your regarded as very beautiful by many people." 'Including a certain ero cook...'
She smiled in disbelief. "Ah, arigatou Ellix-sama! Your so nice! You can't be bad people at all. Hey, since your pirates, do you go out on 'adventures'? Have you ever seen the 'sun'? Have you seen many types of 'flowers'? Or those hair covered creatures known as 'animals'? Have you ever been to a 'forest'?"
"Matte! Matte! Too many questions! Hold on a minute, I'm eating!" Luffy said as he sucked up some spaghetti.
'She really doesn't know much does she?' I thought as I tore some skin off a giant shrimp and bit off half in one go.
"Your cheeks are all puffy." Shirahoshi noted as she poked Luffy in said area, causing him to spit out the contents of his mouth.
"What the hell did you do that for!? Stop that!" Luffy shouted at her with shark teeth, causing her to start crying again.
"Now look what you did." I sighed, nevertheless continuing to eat.
"I-I-I'm sorry! Please don't shout at me with such a loud voice!" She sobbed. "You are a scary person, Luffy-sama! Awaaaah! Nobody has ever gotten angry at me before!"
'Don't tell me she's the spoiled type.' I thought grimly.
"Huh? Hey, I wasn't trying to make you cry! Stop that!" Luffy snapped with food dangling out of his mouth. "Man, you're a real crybaby for someone so big...I don't like you!"
"Far too blunt!" I facefaulted as she started crying again. "Don't you know anything about a persons sensitivity?"
"I just told her to stop! She didn't need to cry over it!" He argued, still eating.
"Shaaaaaa!" Megalo also argued.
"I-I don't know how a nice person like Ellix-sama can be friends with such a mean person like Luffy-sama!" Shirahoshi blubbed.
"I have my doubting moments." I mumbled.
"That was good, arigatou for the food!" Luffy said as we walked away from the clean plate. "Still, ten whole years in this place? I couldn't stand that."
"Luffy-sama, would you please leave?" She begged.
"Hey, isn't there anywhere you wanna go?" Luffy asked.
"W-Well of course." She confirmed. "There are many such places...but..."
"Yeah, there must be, huh?" I thought aloud.
"Let's go somewhere then, for a walk!" Luffy declared. "If anything comes flying at you again, me and Ellix will send it flying right back!"
"Eeeeh!?" She gasped. "I-I could not possibly..."
"Shirahoshi-hime." I spoke up. "For once, I agree with Luffy. You can't spend your whole life trapped in this place, you need to get out and have your own experiences, drink life to the lees, satisfy your hunger for adventure! That's what being a pirate is all about!"
She sniffed. "...O...Okay, if I'm with you and Luffy-sama Ellix-sama, I feel I'll be okay."
"Yosh! Then let's go!" Luffy cried as he marched towards the door.
"Hold on, Luffy." I stopped him. "We can't just stroll out of here with Shirahoshi, the guards will think we're kidnapping her. We need to find a way to sneak her out without being spotted."
"Eh!? But she's huge!" Luffy protested.
"That's why we need to think." So, me and my captain closed our eyes in thought, him cocking his head to the side, whilst Shirahoshi imitated us, until Luffy glanced at Megalo, causing the shark to sweat nervously.
"I have an idea." He said.
'Oh joy...' "Is it stealthy?"
"Yep."
"...Alright, what's your plan?"
In no time at all, Shirahoshi was stuffed inside Megalo and we rode the bloated shark out of the palace, riding on top of it.
"THIS IS THE LEAST STEALTHIEST PLAN POSSIBLE!" I facefaulted angrily.
Finally! Got another new chapter up, and in the middle of exams no less! I'm quite pleased with myself.
Ellix: Baka Luffy, this is all his fault!
Your the one that went along with it.
Ellix:...The food smelt good!
Brilliant argument there. Review time!
Nexus: Yep! It also goes by the name 'Haoakumu'
Ellix: Wooo! I'm awesome!
Thief-chan: Thank you! I hope this is soonish...
Ellix: Arigatou! That guy was just a nuisance anyway.
pokemonking0924: What makes you think that? I have plans sir, relatively average sized plans...
Ellix: Why'd you get all sinister all of a sudden?
Exile037: It sure has been for his past two years.
Ellix: Eh!? What secret!? Tell me!
AngelofDeath666: Yep.
Ellix: Now what are YOU guys talking about!?
TheRealEvanSG: That's okay, I'm just happy your reading!
Ellix: *sweatdrops* Neither of you are right.
Ikaros Light: Well, you won't have to wonder for much longer, their about to make their move.
Ellix: Who are!? Stop keeping stuff from me!
R.E.W. 4: Hey, that's great to hear!
Ellix: Oi! When can I meet Cray again!?
And now, we must bid farewell once more...Ellix! Get out of that spy gear!
Ellix: Never! I look sugoi in this!
Aw geez, reviews are appreciated! See you next time! Give that back!
