Chapter 36
"He remembered! Full speed ahead to… a mirror in the sea?"
"Enpitsu… Dagger!"… "Enpitsu… Dagger!"…"Huh?"…"Yosh! This time's for sure! Enpitsu… Dagger!"
I was standing in the lower deck, separated from the rest of the group, practicing how to turn my pencil in a new weapon… but I was still struggling. Now I'm trying to convert it in a dagger of sorts. It might look easy, but looks are easy to fool you.
"Enpitsu… Dagger!"…I tried again, but my pencil only emitted a bright blue glow and stopped there, fading out again.
"Oooohh… man!"…I was already training for some time and was getting fed up because I got no progresses!
"Once again, here we go! Enpitsu…"
"Oi, Dan!"…are?
As soon as I turned my head to look who was calling me, I felt an explosion coming out of my hand… I was covered in smoke…
"OI! DON'T MESS MY FOCUS!"…I screamed still without seeing who was talking to me… "Huh?… Ah, sorry… Sanji-san…"
"Hey, Dan, can't you practice silently? I can't cook with all your shouting!"…he said while leaving to stand at the railing of the upper room.
I put a hand on my head and smiled sheepishly… then I said while cleaning the black dust off my body: "I think we hindered each other now… Want my help?"
Sanji: "No, thanks. I've already got help with me."…and he went back in. Whatever he was cooking inside there was already smelling… and it looked like it's yummy…
After we visited that weapons store back in Loguetown, I got some ideas of weapons to transform my pencil into and develop my skills further, but it's kinda hard to do it properly. Although I'm a writer, that doesn't come into play when it's about fighting with my pencil. To transform it, I needed to get an idea of the proper shape of the weapon and I'm not such an artist…
I thought for a while… then I snapped my fingers: "I got it!"
I went running to the men's quarters. I went downstairs and grabbed some blank paper sheets. I went back up and sit leaning against the railing to draw a bit. I took in account that the sea was calm, also to relieve the stress after having such a hassle to transform my pencil.
I drew a dagger whose grip is as long as its blade. As I drew on, I thought to myself: "I have to get stronger… In the Grand Line, apart from having to search the man who killed my father… I will surely find people much stronger than the pirates we defeated so far. If I really want to survive in order to keep writing my Ultimate Adventure and help Luffy become King of the Pirates, I must become stronger!"
And, kinda unknowingly, I finished my drawing sooner than expected.
Then, getting carried away, I started drawing more and more weapons. I drew a bow and arrow, a trident, a katana and a nunchaku as examples. As soon as I was done with it all, I went downstairs to the room once again and put away my drawings in the bookshelf. During these days to come, I decided to train constantly to perfect my weapons.
I went upstairs again to the main room.
"You're kinda lively today, huh, Dan?"
I wasn't really paying attention. I was about to leave the room when I heard Sanji say that. I turned my head to look at him.
"Sanji-san?"
"For you to keep walking from here to there like this.", he said.
"Ah… That's because I discovered new chances to develop my skills. I will need to get stronger in order to help Luffy become the King of Pirates and survive in the Grand Line.", I replied.
"Fool… you speak as if none of us were here to help you!", Sanji said.
Me: "I know you're here to help me! But… I want to help you back with whatever I can!"
"And what are you doing?", he asked.
"There's a place and a time for everything, Sanji-san. With time, you'll find out.", I replied, as if I was a wise man, went outta the room to get to the back of the ship… but not before sniffing a bit more on Sanji's food because it smelled really good.
I leaned against the railing and looked at the sea. The wind was good, the sea was calm with the waves rippling around us. I brushed my hair off my eyes and as I saw the blue endless sea, I stopped to refresh my mind and ward off any bad thoughts… or any thoughts altogether. It's at these times that life's little pleasures help relieve the tension out of my brain.
Moments later, a jumping cluster of fish came past us going on the opposite direction of our ship.
"Look… a cluster! And they're jumping in tandem! How beautiful!", I said.
"Lost Island… eh?", Nami…
"OI! ARE YOU LISTENING?", I said, angry… come on… can't anyone appreciate the small moments of life around here?
Zoro: "We heard you! You don't have to scream!"
"We have more important things to care about than a jumping cluster!", Nami said.
We, except for Sanji, were all standing at the railing of the back of the ship. Nami's holding a map. Luffy was down in the cart to check on how was the old dragon's doing. I wasn't paying much attention since that cluster of navy-blue jumping fish (I don't know a thing about species names whatsoever) went past us, but I couldn't help but notice that Apis wasn't between us.
Usopp: "Now we have to concentrate in finding the Lost Island, Dan."
Me: "Hmmm… and do you have any idea of where it is?"
Nami: "According to the maps… It seems that there's no islands in the vicinity of Warship Island!"
"Oi, old dragon, just where the heck are we supposed to go?", Usopp shouted.
Me: "Usopp-kun! The little dragon's sleeping… better not to bother him."
Usopp: "But he's our only clue to find this Lost Island… and stop calling him little dragon."
We saw that the dragon opened its eyes… but still kinda sluggishly. Moments later, Luffy went to talk with him, but the dragon refused to reply and went back to sleeping. Luffy then turned to us and said:
"The dragon's napping yet again."
I sighed and said: "Hmmm… looks like it's not gonna be easy to take any hints outta the dragon…"
"Sorry for being late, guys!"…we heard this voice… then we turned our attentions to Apis, that was wearing an apron and cooking gloves… I didn't knew she went to help Sanji… so she was what Sanji meant with "help"…
Zoro: "Did she made the meal again?"
Usopp: "No one could see that coming…"
Nami merely tried to sketch a smile…
Me: "W-Well… this time she wasn't by herself… therefore, the lunch might not be as bad as last time!"
The three of them: "Oi!"
Then Sanji and Apis came. Sanji was without his black suit jacket, only with his blue striped button-up shirt and carrying some ropes and a basket. Apis brought a bowl full with food.
"Ooo! Sanji! Ah, that's a relief! Did you make the food to-"…Usopp was interrupted because when Apis went past us, she stomped his foot… and mine! Giku… I think she also heard what I said a while ago…
Me: "Ittai… why did you do that?"
"Ryuuji!"… Apis said.
"ARE YOU LISTENING?", I said, snapping… she didn't notice at all.
"Ryuuji! It's lunch time!", Apis screamed while lifting the bowl with hot food for the dragon… hmmm… it still smelled yummy! And I got my stomach rumbling with that…
"Oooh! Food!", Luffy said, then, stretched his arms to grab the bowl… "AAAAAAAHHHHH! HOT! HOT!", Luffy let go of the bowl in midair…
"TEMEEEEE!", Sanji shouted… while the bowl fell right in the dragon's head with the food facing downwards… and there goes the poor dragon's lunch.
"Ryuuji!"…Apis jumped the railing and slid the rope all the way down to Ryuuji's cart to clean the food while Luffy used his sandals to take the bowl off the dragon's head… that got bright red with so much hot food spilled.
Me: "Luffy! What a waste… poor little dragon!"
Sanji: "Oh… dammit! All the food I've just done for the dragon was for naught…"
Usopp: "Can't you just make more?"
"What did I tell you about not wasting food back then, huh?", Sanji replied.
Me: "Well… accidents happen!"
Moments later, Apis stood and looked to the distance… Luffy approached her to check on what she was doing. There were silence for some moments… I got near the railing, leaning slowly in order to hear something… I leaned more… and, before I realized, I flipped over myself and was hanging in the railing.
"Ah, Dan, look out!"…Usopp said. Too late.
Me, looking upwards and smiling sheepishly: "Aaah… Sorry there, guys…"
Sanji: "You klutz…"…he said while extending a hand to me. I let one hand loose to grab his, then, he reeled me back in until I could get safe and sit on the railing.
"We did it!"…suddenly we heard Luffy say.
"Huh?"
Luffy: "The location of Lost Island, we now know it! It's east from Warship Island!"
Apis: "Ryuuji remembered and told us!"
"See? Sooner or later, the little dragon would end up remembering.", I said.
Usopp: "Ah… so that anvil wasn't needed after all…"
Me: "Anvil?"
"Usopp! I need some help here!", Nami said while running, leaving where we were.
"Right!", Usopp said, running after her.
Luffy, then, screamed: "Yosh! Let's go! Adjust the course to Lost Island at full speed!"
Sanji: "Hey, you! You better eat it all, right?"
"Ou! Leave it to me!", Luffy said.
After lunch, everything was peaceful again, now that our ship was with its course set to Lost Island. I admit I was veeeeery lazy to bring myself to write today… Frankly, I'm with no strength to pass my time writing anything today, I don't know why. Maybe it's better that I get a book to read… or that I do something else.
And I did so. I rushed to the room and grabbed a book to read while sitting in the railing of the ship's front deck. Meanwhile, I saw Luffy coming, sitting in his favorite seat and stretching. I stopped reading and tried to strike a conversation with him.
"Hehehe… Looks like we're finally going to return this dragon to where he belongs, right?", I said.
Luffy: "Yeah. We found out that the Lost Island is true… but what kind of place it is, huh?"
Me: "Beats me. This question will only get its answers when we get there and see it with our own eyes."
"That's for sure, right?", Luffy replied and chuckled a bit… to lie down and look upwards: "Oi! Usopp! Can you already see something?"…to talk to Usopp who were at the crow's nest.
Usopp: "Nope! I can't see any island nearby!"
"Yet?", Luffy asked.
I sighed and told him: "Luffy, you asked that ten minutes ago!"…and I looked afar, getting even more worried and disappointed at every minute we proceeded without finding any signal of land nearby. "Though… we went for so much in this direction and we found nothing more than sea so far… are you really sure it's around here?"
Luffy: "Dunno… But Ryuuji's the one who said it. He remembered, after all."
And I got back to looking to the ocean, my eyes were getting heavy, since I was getting even more distrustful that there's an island nearby. And suddenly, without acknowledging it, I stared at one point… and this point was getting darker… and darker… then I widened my eyes, rubbed them and saw that it wasn't my imagination.
Luffy: "What's that? Smoke?"
Me, already awake and looking at the strange gray smoke ahead of us: "Hmmm… dunno… is it? Smoke? In the middle of the ocean?"
Luffy: "Beats me… Well… Let's get close to it so we can find out."
I nodded to him and we kept staring at the smoke… and as we progressed, the "smoke" got bigger… and bigger… and took the shape of a ship.
Luffy: "Huh? A ship? But there's something weird about it…"
Me: "It has? Or is it… a ghost ship?"
Luffy then extended his foot forward… and I gasped when he did so because the air around his foot started rippling… and all of a sudden… I was looking at my reflex! The smoky ship soon turned in the reflex of our ship!
It was just like we were in front of a huge mirror!
And I saw that this mirror was gradually sucking Luffy inside! I was gawking and fell back-first in the front deck floor… I quickly sat down, trying to move away and understand what I was seeing.
Luffy: "Look at this! Nami, this is cool! Come here and see!"
And the ship, gradually was passing through the mirror, as if the reflex of the ship and the ship itself met each other and were cancelling each other out… I kept sitting down and gaping as the ship goes through and my body was disappearing, passing through the invisible "portal".
"Oooh! Where I'm going? Where I'm going?", Luffy said, laughing while he disappeared. I could still hear Nami and Usopp screaming before my body completely went through the "mirror".
And on the other side, we found a very dense fog…
"Oi! Any problems here?", I turned my head to see Sanji talking from the upper room railing while Zoro was still leaving and put himself at the room door.
"Sanji-san! Zoro-san! There's such a dense fog out here!", I said, while going to the upper floor. I also saw Apis leaving the back of the ship and putting herself between the room and the stairs.
"Yeah… but I thought that, due to Nami-san's screaming, it was something important…", he said while I went upstairs. I went down to the bedroom, put my book back in the shelf and got up back to the room. When I was leaving… I saw that the fog was already gone… the sky was cloudy… suddenly a downpour started… and the ship started rocking violently!
Dan: "Hey, hey! Am I gonna gain a new weapon? Huh? Am I?"
Don't ask me! You're the one who's gonna make it. I only write what you do.
Let's go to the preview of the next chapter:
They are going to make an important discovery that will lead them to the true whereabouts of Lost Island. But... a known enemy of theirs will put himself in the way of the pirates! What will happen? Find out in Chapter 37!