A storm caught us as we sailed towards Reverse Mountain. It was one of the worst I could remember- almost as bad as the one that had ripped the roof off our treehouse when my brothers and I were little. Unlike back then, Luffy didn't whimper and cry. Instead he bounced around through the rain, relaying instructions from Nami as to how to best ride out the storm.

It probably helped that he now knew lightning couldn't hurt rubber.

"Blue! Secure the flag before it's torn off!"

I complied, though I doubted that was our biggest problem at the moment. Rain poured into my eyes as I climbed the mast. With or without my glasses, I couldn't see. Wood and rope were slippery under my hands and feet. My oiled cloak did little to keep me dry as the wind whipped water everywhere, though it did help keep my hat from blowing away.

Swollen ropes don't tend to take knots well. It took me several tries to secure the flag. Once I was done, I slid down the mast like a fire pole, landing in front of Luffy with a thud.

"Flag secure Nii-chan!"

Luffy grunted acknowledgement as he hauled on a line. He didn't seem to know what he wanted me to do next, so I ran to check the safety tethers. All nine were good. Sabo and I had opted not to tie ourselves down- me because I kept having to climb up into the rigging, and Sabo-nii because he was the best swimmer. If someone else did go over in the storm, Sabo was the one with the best chance of rescuing them.

"Ah!" Usopp was having trouble with the cannon. It slid and rolled as the Merry was tossed on the waves. I ran to help him tie it down.

"Thanks!" I could barely hear our sniper's voice over the roar of the wind.

"No problem!"

Lightning forked across the sky. I flinched at the thunderous noise that followed. Hopefully there would be a lighthouse at Reverse Mountain, otherwise we would run aground. Although with our luck it wouldn't be so much a lighthouse as a lantern in a fisherman's window. I hummed grimly.

We followed your tiny red light

Said the man

Til it vanished from sight

On the rocks are ships ran…

Twin splashes, one after the other, were barely audible over the sounds of the storm. I raced to the starboard side and threw a rope over. Sabo climbed up a moment later, hauling a limp Ace. The charred remains of his safety tether were still wrapped around Ace-nii's waist. His hand spontaneously burst into flame, giving me an idea what had happened.

"I'll put him inside!" Sabo yelled in my ear. "He's just a liability out here!"

"Okay! I'll keep an eye on everyone for a few minutes!"

Nami was worrying at the helm when I slid over to check on her. "This storm's driving us too far south! We'll end up in the Calm Belt if it doesn't let up!"

"Is that bad?" I made a futile attempt to wipe water away from my eyes.

"Yeah, it's bad!"

"Is there anything we can do to stop it?"

"Not unless someone can control the weather!"

Snap! Something broke on the main deck; Zoro cursed. I skidded through ankle-deep water as I raced to grab one end of the snapped line. The first mate had the other. Between the two of us we managed to get both ends tied off, though we would need to splice that line later.

"This is insane!"

"I know! But it can't last forever! Just hold on!"

xXx

The Merry rocked gently. I groaned, not wanting to open my eyes. The storm had exhausted the entire crew, leaving us sleeping sprawled on the deck as soon as it was over. Even the ankle-deep water couldn't discourage us.

Someone soft and warm was breathing beneath me. It didn't feel like one of my brothers- too small to be Ace or Sabo, not squishy enough to be Luffy. I didn't think it was Nami or Kaya either. Their chests would've felt like boobs, not muscles.

Eh, who cared? Whoever it was, they were warm and comfy. We were all family here anyways.

Kaya giggled somewhere to my left. "Usopp, look. Aren't they cute?"

"Huh? Yeah, yeah, they always- Holy crap! That's the most adorable thing ever! Too bad Ace and Sabo are gonna flip."

Sabo yawned from the opposite direction. "What are you yelling about Usopp?"

"Nothing! Certainly nothing involving your sister! Please don't kill anyone!"

I hugged whoever I was lying on, trying to bury my face in their chest. Why wouldn't everyone shut up? I was tired, soaked, and freezing- all I wanted was to sleep!

"Um… Bluejay-san?" Coby's voice wasn't far from my head. "Could you please let go of me? I think Sabo-san is about to explode."

"He won't attack as long as I'm in the way of your vital organs." So saying, I spread myself out more so I was covering Coby completely, protecting him from assault by pipe. Sabo whined.

"Blue, you're too young to date!"

"Not dating. Sleeping." I raised my head to glare at Sabo-nii. "You never have a problem when I do this with you, Ace, or Nii-chan."

"Because we're your brothers. We won't do… things."

"And neither will Coby, so shut up."

Sighing, Sabo relented. Before I could go back to sleep though, Nami's panicked voice rang out across the ship.

"Ah! Everyone, get up! We've gotta get out of here! All hands to the oars!"

"Oro?" I rolled off Coby, much to his relief. Nami paused in her yelling to explain.

"It's like I said last night- we were blown into the Calm Belt. We need to head north quick."

The Going Merry shook. Our crew paused in our run for the oars to look over the side. Usopp screamed.

A massive sea king had risen from the water, lifting our ship on its nose. All around us were other sea kings of various sizes. None of them appeared to have noticed us. Yet.

"It's a nest," Luffy breathed. "Awesome!"

Ghin was turning a curious shade of grey. I think it had something to do with the Krieg Pirates' return from the Grand Line. They'd probably had to row through the Calm Belt or something.

"Nami's right, Don Luffy. We should get out of here before they notice us."

"Okay. How?" Luffy shot Ghin a confused look. Our resident adult didn't have an answer.

Ace popped of the ASLB cabin with a yawn. "Ah! Morning. What's everyone shouting about?"

I looked from Ace to Sabo. "Can we Sabo-nii? It's an emergency."

After a moment's thought, my blond brother nodded. "Alright. Just try to come up with a way to stop us without capsizing."

Luffy bounced over, landing with his legs wrapped around Sabo's shoulders. "My D senses are tingling!" he announced.

"Yep." I grinned. "Ace-nii, to the stern. Nami, Sanji, point us where we need to go."

"Okay…" Ace took his position skeptically.

"Of course Blue-chan!"

"If you say so… What are we doing?" Right, Nami hadn't been with us last time.

Everyone grabbed tight to the rails, except Luffy, who wrapped himself around the figurehead. I hugged the mast.

"Fire!"

Whoosh! The entire Going Merry shot forwards off the sea king's head. We soared through the sky with great speed. I watched the water carefully. Sure enough, the water changed colour as we left the Calm Belt, becoming darker and less green. I immediately shouted to my brothers.

"That's enough Ace-nii! Nii-chan, wrap your hands and feet around the rails and stretch yourself out as big as you can! Like a sail!"

As soon as the flames guttered out, our ship started to fall. A loud snap filled the air. Luffy spread out above the Merry, catching the air and slowing our fall- a rubber parachute. He made faces as we drifted down.

"This's really uncomfortable."

"Sorry Nii-chan. I'll make a canvas one so you don't have to do it again."

Nami looked green. "You're planning to do this again?"

"Why not? It gets us places fast." I picked my nose. "Wish I could figure out how to steer in mid-air though. Maybe I could do something with the cannon?" I edged towards the aforementioned weapon.

Luffy flinched. "Don't try it while I'm up here! This feels weird enough!"

"Fine." I pouted and backed away from the cannon.

Splash! The Merry settled into the water relatively gently. Luffy fluttered to the deck while the rest of us raised the sails. He spent a few minutes lying there like a red rubber pancake before pulling himself back into humanoid shape. As soon as he did so, his eternal smile popped back on.

"Okay! Where to next?"

Nami pulled out a map and put it on the galley table for us to see. "We need to adjust our course west-north-west to Reverse Mountain, but after that I'm not sure. It's supposed to be the entrance to the Grand Line, but how? It's a mountain."

I grinned. "Looks like I need to put Sabo's dress on hold and get to work on that parachute."

Zoro blinked. "Wait… If we're gonna fly in anyway, why not just fly over the Calm Belt? I'd rather land on water than rocks."

"No!" Luffy slammed a fist down on the table, startling everybody. "We've gotta go through the mystery mountain! It's cooler that way!"

Ace and Sabo looked at each other, eyes wide. I shared their panic. All three of us were currently seeing a disturbing resemblance. I ran and hugged Sabo from behind.

"Sabo-nii! Nii-chan's reminding me of Grandpa! Make him stop!"

My oldest brothers both turned and clubbed Luffy over the head. "Just because something looks cooler doesn't mean it's the best way to do things."

"If you start busting through walls instead of using the door, I'll burn your hat."

"Shishishi… Oops." Luffy rubbed the back of his head. "Do I really look that much like Gramps?"

"Yes." All three of us answered in unison, sweatdropping. A blue pall appeared around Luffy.

"Ne… Usopp?"

"Yeah?"

"I wanna get hair dye in the next port. Would blond make me look like Blue and Sabo?"

Ace facepalmed. "That's not what makes you look like Gramps."

"And there's no way a baboon like you could look like cute little Blue-chan anyways," Sanji felt the need to put in. I growled and kicked him in the face.

"I'm not cute!" My assault made Zoro laugh.

Sabo tapped his pipe on the table. "Focus please. Nami, do you think you can figure out how Reverse Mountain works by the time we get there?"

"Probably."

"Okay. Blue, can you get the parachute done for then?"

"Not without help. Does anyone else know how to sew?"

Usopp and Ghin raised their hands. I was surprised. Neither of them seemed the type for needlework, not counting Ghin's thing for tattoos. And apparently labelling, if the new ink on Ace's arm was any indication. If Ghin tried to write my name on me anywhere I'd stab him with my knitting needles.

xXx

We got the parachute done just as Reverse Mountain came into sight. It was a massive grey thing with, at Luffy's insistence, the Straw Hat Jolly Roger painted in the middle. The parachute was far larger than my brother could've stretched in that shape. I wondered if I could find a way to use it to make the Merry fly for real.

Nami called everyone into the galley. "Alright, I think I've got it figured out. The current we're riding joins with a few others that ram into the Red Line. Most of them go under, but one goes into a channel and actually has enough momentum to flow up the mountain. At the top there's another channel that flows down into the Grand Line."

Most of us got it, to some extent or another, though Luffy just stared blankly. Since our captain wasn't saying anything, our first mate took charge.

"So… Who wants to go over the mystery mountain and who wants to try out the parachute?" Zoro rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. Sabo smiled.

"Don't be so nervous Zoro; you're doing fine."

Everyone voted to try the new parachute- even Nami. Whether it was because we preferred the danger we knew or because we were starting to enjoy flight, I couldn't say. At least, not for anyone else. I personally loved flying via Ace-rocket.

We tied the parachute to eight rings Usopp had installed on the Merry's rails, bundling the fabric by the mast. Nami and Sanji aimed our ship while Ace got into position. I looked at Nami's map, trying to figure out how far we needed to fly. My head started to ache.

"Sabo-nii! I need help!"

"What's wrong?"

"Physics for me!" I demanded, shoving the map in my brother's face. "I can't figure out what angle or how long Ace-nii needs to fire."

"Just a moment." Sabo grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled down a short series of calculations. He positioned himself next to Ace and pointed at a specific point on the water.

"Right there Ace. Thirty seconds."

"On it. Hold on tight."

Whoosh! The Going Merry launched into the air, trailing fire and steam. Luffy laughed from the figurehead.

"This is awesome!"

Zoro grinned and elbowed Coby. "Bet you'd never get to do this in the marines."

"Probably not." Coby was gripping the rails so hard his hands turned white, but he was smiling.

We soared through the air for several minutes, upwards and forwards. Shortly after we reached the zenith of our arch, Sabo shouted a set of instructions. "Ace, fire another blast straight backwards- thirty seconds. Blue, release the parachute as soon as he's done."

The Merry shot forwards. Wind made my eyes sting and from the looks of it, I wasn't the only one. We'd reached a ridiculous speed. The Calm Belt was wide enough that even with a good wind, crossing it would take about two days. Our giant Ace-rocket would have it covered in a few hours.

Flames guttered out. I tossed the parachute into the air, where it immediately caught the wind. Our descent slowed; forwards momentum stayed more or less the same. Sabo had Ace fire another blast, ten seconds this time, to make sure we kept our speed.

Reverse Mountain was on our right. I looked down at its current channels and shuddered. They were so narrow, and the water was moving so quickly… If we'd taken that route and anything had gone wrong, we'd have been smashed to pieces.

With a few hours to kill before landing, I went back to work on Sabo's dress. Coby came over to sit by me. He kept shooting nervous glances at my brothers, as if he was worried they would attack him. It was funny to watch; Coby's hair was getting long and kept getting in his eyes, so every glance was followed by him shaking his head.

"I can cut it if it's bothering you."

"Huh?" Cue Coby's glorious response.

"Your hair. I can cut it if the length bothers you. I do Nii-chan's all the time."

Coby shot a look at Luffy's messy black locks and shook his head. "No thank you Bluejay-san. I'll ask Kaya-san later. Right now I'm more worried about what Ace-san and Luffy-san are planning."

"Why would they be planning anything?"

Wide green eyes stared at me in disbelief. "You mean they won't be angry that you slept on me last night?"

I nodded absently, stitching two bodice panels together. "Oh, they'll be furious, assuming Sabo-nii tells them. He won't though. Sabo-nii's the sensible one. Besides, they know I don't sleep well alone, none of us do, so they'll know it wasn't your fault."

"Maybe a logical person would," Coby muttered fearfully.

"Nah, my brothers are usually pretty good about who's at fault. Survival tactic from dealing with Gramps- never allow someone to take the blame for something they didn't do. Helped minimize the Fists of Love."

"That's another thing. You, Ace-san, Sabo-san, and Luffy-san are all monsters. Ace-san said your grandfather was a marine, but that doesn't explain why you're so scared of him. Who is he?"

I shuddered. "Pray you never meet him to find out."

xXx

We were getting close to landing when Usopp started yelling from the crow's nest. "Abort! Abort! There's a big, black… thingy in the middle of the Twin Capes! We're gonna crash!"

Ghin looked at Ace with amusement. "Thingy?"

Ace-nii nodded. "Thingy."

Sabo raced to the bow to check it out. Soon he was shouting frantic instructions. "Ace, we need a two second blast from the center of the starboard rail! Blue, Coby, Zoro, bring in the parachute in as fast as you can! Sanji, Ghin, help me with the sails!"

You know, sometimes it felt like, despite the vote, we had three captains instead of one. Maybe we should've just been the Cool Hat Pirates? Except Nii-chan was the one with the biggest bounty and biggest dream, so having him as captain made sense.

The Going Merry shunted sideways before stalling and falling with a- crunch? I was pretty sure the ocean wasn't supposed to go crunch. Looking down, I saw the wreckage of a small boat floating around us. We'd landed on some sort of fishing vessel.

Two head popped up- a woman with blue hair and a man with weird makeup like the number nine under his eyes. Luffy stretched to pull them out of the water before they could even shout at us.

"Who're you?"

"We should be asking you that!" Oh cool, more people who could do the shark tooth thing like Nami. "How the Hell'd your ship fall out of the sky like that?"

"Shishishi! I know, cool right? We used Ace as a rocket!"

"Looks like it's a good thing we didn't go over the mountain," Sanji commented, taking a drag on his cigarette. "That black thing's in the way."

Kaya squinted at it. "Is that a whale? It's enormous."

"And it'll feed our village for a year!" The two strangers jumped up and pulled bazookas out of nowhere. Before they could do anything, Luffy clubbed them over the head, sending them sprawling on the deck.

"Leave the whale alone! Can't you hear him crying?"

The rest of us were confused. As far as we could hear, the whale wasn't making any noise. It did look sad though. The whale's eyes were droopy; its head was covered in scars. There were strange metal hatches and patches on its flanks, as if someone had performed some sort of bizarre veterinary procedure.

"Bwao!" When the whale eventually did cry, it was loud and haunting. It reminded me a little of Ace when we first met, back before he and Sabo had saved Luffy and I. Back then Ace had such lonely eyes.

Ba-wham! Ba-wham! The whale began ramming its head into Reverse Mountain. The resulting waves rocked the Merry. Trails of blood appeared in the water.

One of the hatches on the whale's flank opened. A small island floated out- complete with cottage and palm tree. As the island approached the whale's head, a giant flower began shouting.

Oh wait, that was a man. My bad. I needed to clean my glasses.

"Calm down Laboon! Please stop doing this to yourself! What would Brook say if he saw you like this?"

"Bo-ah." The whale- Laboon- calmed down. Then both he and the flower-man noticed the Going Merry.

"Beh?"

"Who are you kids? How did you get here?"

"Shishishi! We flew!" Luffy bounced excitedly. The flower-man shot him a dubious look.

"You expect me to believe you flew over the Calm Belt?"

"Yep! Ace threw fire off the back, then whoosh! And Blue's parachute kept us up til we got to the right spot!"

Sabo smacked Luffy upside the head. "Introduce yourself properly Lu."

"Oh! Right!" Luffy grinned at the flower man. "I'm Monkey D Luffy, and I'm gonna be king of the pirates!"

Flower-man nodded. "And my name is Crocus." Then his eyes narrowed. "That hat… Boy, where did you get it?"

"Shanks gave it to me! Do you know him?"

"I sailed with him when I was a ship's doctor." Crocus smiled fondly. "Of course, back then he was just a cabin boy. Little scamp ended up in the infirmary at least once a week."

Luffy looked like he was about to explode from excitement. He wanted to hear stories about Shanks. I grabbed onto him before he could rocket over and tackle Crocus. "Nii-chan, no glomping non-family people. They can't always handle it."

"Oops. Sorry."

Ace joined us at the rail and waved at Laboon. "The whale- why's he going after the mountain like that?"

"Ah. Poor Laboon." Crocus shook his head. "He's been here with me for the better part of fifty years. A pirate crew left him here- he was just little at the time, too small to travel the Grand Line. They promised to come back for him, but they never did."

My brothers and I winced. Ace's hat shadowed his eyes. "So they died then."

"I'm afraid it's worse than that. Though they are surely dead by now, they didn't die on the Grand Line. They fled through the Calm Belt and never reappeared."

Sabo gripped his pipe so tightly his fingers turned white; Ace burst into flame. Behind me, Zoro growled. Luffy looked grim. None of us knew what to say.

At least, until Luffy grabbed the back of my shirt and jumped into the air. I yelled in surprise and tried to kick him. "Nii-chan, what are you doing?"

"Shishishi! We're gonna fight the whale!"

"What?!"

Luffy threw me at Laboon, launching a Gomu-Gomu no Pistol with his other hand. Nii'chan's fist smacked the whale in the eye. I flipped in the air, landing on all fours on Laboon's bloody head. One of my feet planted on a huge abrasion.

"Sorry bud." I jumped sideways onto some undamaged skin before yelling at my brother. "Don't just throw me into things! I don't wanna fight a whale!"

It was too late. Laboon roared, almost throwing me off. I dug my fingers into scar tissue to hold on. The whale shook himself violently, then slammed Luffy into a cliff with his tail. Had it been Sabo squished in such a way, I would've been worried and angry. But the rubber-head would be alright.

"Calm down," I told Laboon. "Nii-chan wouldn't hurt you for no reason. He must have a plan."

"Bu-wah!" Laboon responded by rolling over and putting me under water. I kept my hold. If I'd let go I was sure to be crushed by the thrashing behemoth. Unfortunately I forgot that whales can hold their breath much longer than humans. Blackness crept in from the edges of my vision.

xXx

The sound of metal slamming into rubber was the first thing I heard on my journey back to consciousness. It was accompanied by Sabo's voice.

"Idiot! Don't drag Blue into your crazy schemes, she has enough of her own! What would you've done if she got hit like you? Just because she doesn't feel pain doesn't make her rubber!"

"Oops…"

"Do you think she needs mouth to mouth?" That was Sanji, sounding more worried than eager, thankfully.

"Touch my sister's lips and I'll set your ass on fire." And there was Ace.

Someone small and warm leaned over to check my breathing, pressing gently on my chest. Delicate fingers- Kaya. I coughed. It didn't take long for the water to start clearing from my lungs.

"No Sanji-san, Bluejay-san wil be fine without mouth to mouth. Someone help me sit her up; it might help her breath."

Warm, solid, muscular- Zoro. The swordsman patted me on the back, holding me up with one hand. It felt like he was trying to burp a baby. It did help me cough the water out though. My lungs burned. I cracked my eyes opened and leaned back against Zoro's chest.

"Thanks Shrubbery."

"Don't thank me. Sabo got you out."

"Yeah, but he's done that before. Never had anyone help me get the water out though. They're usually more worried about Nii-chan that way."

Sabo looked like he wanted to drown. "I never thought you needed it."

"I don't, but it's still nice."

Looking around, I saw Usopp and Ghin climbing about on Laboon's head, painting something. They appeared to be using one of Nii-chan's drawings as a reference- a drawing that they were obviously trying to improve on.

"What's going on up there?"

Ace sighed. "Lu wanted Ghin to give the whale a tattoo. They convinced him it would take too long, so he told them to paint our flag on Laboon instead."

"Why?"

"Shishishi!" Luffy bounced in place. "Cause then the whale can't bash his head or he'll break the picture. I promised him that if he didn't break our Jolly Roger, we'd come back and spar with him again."

"If we do, you're doing it yourself. I don't wanna be drowned by a whale again."

Luffy pouted. "Fine."

Off to one side, Crocus was teaching Nami how to use our log pose. Hopefully it wouldn't get broken- we only had the one. All I heard was that there were a number of routes through the Grand Line and we were going to have to pick which one to take.

The two strangers whose boat we'd destroyed were starting to wake up. Luffy was standing over them in an instant. They flinched. Nii-chan was frowning, emphasizing his resemblance to Grandpa in his displeasure.

"You can't hurt the whale; Laboon's my friend. We'll take you home though, since we're the ones who broke your boat."

"…Thanks…" The strangers sounded like Nii-chan was pulling their teeth.

"Who are you anyway?" That was Zoro. He and Ace shot the strangers suspicious looks.

"I'm Mr Nine, the prince of Whiskey Peak."

"And I'm Miss Wednesday."

A flicker of recognition crossed Zoro's face. It was gone quickly. I wondered what he knew about these strangers, why their names were familiar to him. Were they bounty hunters?

Once Usopp and Ghin had finished painting Laboon, we prepared to set out. Crocus stopped us before we left. His eyes were fixed on Ace.

"You boy, with the orange hat. I think I knew your parents."

Ace-nii's face went hard. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Really? Because I sailed on the Oro Jackson and you look just like Ro-"

"My father's name is Monkey D Dragon," Ace interrupted. "He's a bit of an ass- left me to more or less raise the midgets, since Gramps was shit at it- but he's the only father I'll acknowledge, whatever you think of my blood."

"I see." Crocus looked sad. "My mistake. Well, you look enough like Dragon that no one will question it, I suppose. It's too bad though; I would've liked to meet the captain's son."

A confused look came over Ace as we sailed away. He leaned against the rail in a daze. I went and asked Sabo about it. Apparently it was the first time Ace-nii had met an adult with a positive response to Gol D Roger having a son.