Hello 'vryone. I've seen some pictures of Strawhats as animals, and I've been humoring myself: what animal would Gen be, if she was one? I initially thought of dolphins, but if they're all land animals, that won't do...
Gloria: Stop rambling and GET BACK TO WRITING YOU SLOUCH!!
Snoara: Hai, hai... *sigh*
Later when Luffy woke up, the first he did was to fuss over the game. When he was reassured that he had won, he sighed in relief and laid back down in the grass. The tattoo was still in its place under the layers of bandage. Greg had come to them after the game, telling sheepishly that he had and still was hiding from the female population of the Foxy pirates. He had asked what happened to the afro, but the way Gen had started chuckling darkly, they assumed that it was never to be seen again.
"Luffy... You really are a good person," Gen sighed, lying right next to him. The rest of the crew was gathered around him as well, all relaxed after the adrenaline of the game had drained.
"I wasn't worried for a second," the sniper chuckled and gave back Luffy's hat.
"Liar."
"Come to think of it, I'd have no reason to be a pirate if I left this ship," Zoro said.
'I could always ask if mom wanted to take me in, but other than that I wouldn't have a place to go...' Gen thought about it.
Foxy came over, to show up his ugly face again. His futile attempt to throw Luffy over his shoulder ended up him getting a big bump on the forehead.
"You know the rules! Hurry up and pick your five hundred crewmen!"
"That's right! It's time for the final exchange!"
"Chopper and Robin!" he called out with a smile. The reindeer ran crying to him and buried his face to his chest. Robin's return was more refined, as she simply returned the mask.
Next he wanted the Jolly Roger.
"WHAAAT!?"
"That's absurd! You demand our pride without a second thought!" Foxy's eyes bulged out.
"Keep the sail. You can't sail without it, right?"
"What a show of mercy!"
"But the sail has the symbol on it too! We're not allowed to use it!" some random pirate reminded them.
"We don't want your pity! If you're taking it, then take it!"
"Well okay... since I only have to take the mark, I'll just draw you a new one. Then I won't have to take the sail."
"Strawhat..." Foxy was moved. "You're... such a-"
"Done!" the boy stood in front of the sail with a giant paintbrush.
"TERRIBLE!" they all were downed by a cloud of depression.
"They're thanking me on their knees~."
"NO WE'RE NOT!!"
"Oi, Gen... You're laughing too hard..." Usopp sweatdropped when the girl started having breathing problems.
Luffy started walking away, but as the rules stated he had to choose more men.
"Luffy, the captain's word is law, right?" Zoro looked at Luffy.
"Yes, and that means..." Robin continued.
"Yups," Gen nodded sagely.
"Oh, I see!" Even Usopp got it. Nami and Chopper didn't.
"Oh! I get it! Okay, here goes!" Luffy grinned. He pointed at the guy standing most to the left. "You!"
"Eh? Me!?"
"Yeah, from you... to you," he stopped his finger at Itomimizu. It only left out Hamburg, Porche and Foxy himself.
"Me?"
"How many is that?" Luffy asked.
"Well, let's see... we started with five hundred and one... then Ã…lbert ran... without Oyabin, Hamburg-san and Porche-chan... That's exactly four hundred and ninety-seven!"
"STOP SPEAKING TO THAT THING ALREADY!!" Gen shouted with a tickmark on her head.
They didn't use much time to dismiss the New Strawhat pirates - which sailed away with the Sexy Foxy - and walk back to the old man's house. They could see Tonjit there with Cherie.
"Y-You guys!"
"Nihihii~! I kicked his ass," Luffy displayed the flag to him.
"You're hurt pretty badly."
"Eh, it happens," he smiled.
His wrinkly, bearded face softened with a smile. "Thank you."
"I see," Nami said. "That's why he accepted. But an idiot like you would've accepted it either way."
"Hey! Respect your captain!" Luffy pouted.
"We do respect you," Gen patted his shoulder. "...Sometimes..."
"What's that supposed to mean!?"
Nami offered to take Tonjit and Cherie to the next island, to where the rest of the village was, but Usopp told her that it wouldn't work since this and the next island were one and the same. Tonjit told them that he wasn't in any hurry and wanted to treat them something nice.
He was going to walk inside his house, but the second he opened the door he walked into someone's chest.
Gen's face turned pale from fear and anger and she felt her heart drop to her feet.
"What... is that?"
"It's a person!?"
"Was he here the whole time?"
Aokiji had a sleep mask on. He seemed to be asleep, but now he was roused and he lifted the mask off his face. "Who the heck are you?"
"THAT'S WHAT WE WERE ASKING YOU!!"
"I thought you were a tree."
Robin's reaction was like hers, only ten times worse. She fell on her butt, paralysed, and eyes wide from fear. She was sweating, too. It got the rest of the Strawhats alert.
"Robin!?"
"What's wrong, Robin-chan!"
"Aaahh, you sure have grown into a fine young woman, Nico Robin," he had a lazy smile on his thick lips. His hair was black and curly and he was twice the height of Luffy. Gloria inched closer to her dear friend though her own hands were shaking.
"Robin! What's wrong? Do you know this guy!?" Luffy asked.
"We met once before," Aokiji replied for her, since she couldn't talk.
"To terrify Robin to this extent... who the hell is he!?" Nami growled.
"Aaahh, chill~ chill~. Little boys shouldn't be so aggressive. It's not like I was ordered to come here. I'm only here for a walk," he said.
"'Ordered'? Who do you work for!?" Zoro demanded.
Finally, Robin found her voice. "The marines. He's a supreme admiral of the marine headquarters."
"SUPREME ADMIRAL!!!???"
Robin told them of the three supreme admirals, Akainu (the hairs in the back of her neck rose), Aokiji and Kizaru, as well as little reference to Sengoku.
"What is someone like him doing here!?" Usopp was hiding behind Zoro. "There are plenty of pirates worth more than 100 million. Go get them!? Just leave us alone!"
"Oooh! What do we have here? Another sexy lady! Are you free tonight?" he was more interested in Nami than Usopp's rambling.
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?" Sanji yelled.
"PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT I SAY! DAMN IT!"
"I hate... them so... so... much...!" Gen was twitching. Robin glanced at her briefly.
"I told you to chill, kids... you are the ones who should learn to listen. I told you I'm here for a walk. No need for so much hostility," Aokiji raised his hands in defending gesture. "What I'm trying to say is that you guys are... Ah, I forgot. Oh well."
"YOU'RE NOT MAKING ANY SENSE!!"
"Are you sure you're not mistaken, Robin?" Usopp asked, pointing at the man. "There's no way that someone like him can be a supreme admiral of the marines!"
"Hey, hey, don't judge people by their cover. I always uphold the model of 'uptight with absolute justice'."
"I CAN SEE THAT!!" Sanji and Usopp yelled.
"Oh well, my legs are tired from standing. Time to rest..."
"Then why were you sleeping while standing?" Usopp sweatdropped.
Aokiji laid down and reassured them that he wasn't there to arrest them, but to confirm the whereabouts of Nico Robin after the happenings in Alabasta. "I'm only going to report the discovery so they can recalculate the bounty for your group... one more person will increase it by... 160 million plus 79 million would be... ...too hard to count. It's roughly the same amount."
"Too lazy to count?" Zoro sweatdropped.
What... would happen if the World Government found about her? A person with the power of the sea, able to fend off any devil's fruit powers, to command the sea (to some extent)... and with knowledge of the future?
Dangerous.
Luffy wanted to smash Aokiji's face in, but Usopp and Sanji were holding him back.
"Let go of me! Let me go!"
"Don't start an unnecessary fight!"
"He's a supreme admiral for God's sake!"
"SO WHAT!? I won't let him take Robin!"
"You're mistaken. I already said that I don't plan to do anything..."
"I'M GOING TO SEND YOU FLYING!!" Once Usopp and Sanji were sure that Luffy wouldn't throttle Aokiji, they let go of him. The boy showed him with his hand to get out of there. "GO TAKE YOUR WALK ELSEWHERE! YOU'RE NOT WELCOME HERE!!"
"You're overreacting..."
"Why does it feel like Luffy's winning the argument?" Nami asked.
"Lis'n up, Popsicle!" Gen was giving him a heavy glare. "I don' care if ye'r one o' th' marines who actually do yer jobs an' defend th' civils, but ye'r still a MARINE. O' course we 'ate ya an' want ya th' netherworld out o' 'ere! Ppl bcome pirates bcos o' you an' th' evil ye do!"
"Wow... I didn't understand a word from that," Aokiji blinked.
"Neither did we..."
"Okay, okay. I'll leave. But I overheard something while I was napping." Aokiji said. He told the old man and his horse to pack up.
"No! Don't listen to him! He's from the marines! The marines!" Luffy yelled.
...
...
"Why not?"
"Oh! Right, you can listen to him. Normally the marines are the good guys and we're the bad guys," Luffy realized.
"This is no time for a joke!" Usopp hit him with the side of his hand.
"He sounds like he wants to help the old man!" Luffy grinned.
"That's impossible to do," Usopp said. After Aokiji scanned out the whole situation, he got up and they started putting up Tonjit's stuff into a carriage. Gen sat to the side. It wasn't that she didn't want to help the man, but the option of being any closer to the supreme admiral outweighed it.
When everything was ready, they pushed/pulled Tonjit's belongings to the place where the road ducked into the sea. The feel of sea and the small waves' lapping was comforting to her and she inhaled deep the air, letting it go through her mouth.
"It sure feels good to work out once in a while," Aokiji chuckled.
"It sure is! So you're a nice person after all!" Luffy was crouched on the old man's mound of stuff.
"Now they're acting like friends..." Nami muttered.
"Thank you for helping me. Here... have some cheese."
"Are you trying to poison us!"
"Hmm, can I have a slice of that?" Gen asked, to Usopp's horror.
"Sure, young lady."
"DON'T!"
Luffy jumped down. "So... what now? Are you going to pull everything along while you swim across?"
"Now that's impossible," Aokiji said and walked to the edge of the water. "Move away for a bit please."
As he dipped his hand into the sea, a gigantic (kinda pretty) sea king popped out with its maw open. Everyone freaked out, except Aokiji, who muttered the words 'Ice Age'.
The sea froze, covering the sea king and stilling the waves.
"DEVIL'S FRUIT!!!"
"The sea...!"
"Elemental class... the freezing power of the hie hie no mi," Robin explained. "This is the extend of the power of an admiral of the marine headquar-!"
"GEN!!"
"What happened!"
A moment after the sea had been frozen the girl had felt cold and her veins had been laced with thousands of icy needles. She couldn't utter a word when she fell down in the indescribable pain, but she could still let out a blood-curling scream.
Her mind decided it was best to shut off.
Aokiji's little visit had been disastrous. After spouting warnings about Robin he threatened their lives and gave the archaeologist a deep freeze. Usopp and Chopper had to bring her back to the ship for thawing and Luffy had ushered everyone off to fight alone with the supreme admiral.
Still, what happened to Gen was a mystery.
Even when Robin and Luffy were finally okay and their hearts beating again, the demigoddess was still unconscious. Why Aokiji had let them live was also a question, but the man had disappeared on them after leaving their captain frozen on the field.
Now, in the dark, Robin was the only one awake. Her calm state of mind had been shattered so easily.
The ship stayed in Long Ring Long Land for 4 days to let everyone rest and they all spent the night in the galley, glad that they all were together. Luffy wasn't as bouncy as usually for the first day, but that was fixed by the afternoon of the second.
Gen still slept when the third day awoke.
"Her skin isn't as cold as it was," Chopper sighed. "But her body temperature is still lower than it should be."
"Can't we warm her up or something?" Luffy asked. He was leafing through a sketchbook he'd found from the kitchen that he hadn't seen before.
"I tried, but rather than the hot water bottle warming her, she cooled down the bottle." The reindeer fiddled with the blanket resting on her form. There were many on her, but none of them seemed to be enough.
Sanji was cleaning the tabletops after the breakfast frenzy. He was muttering while doing so. "That shitty marine freezing the shitty ocean, making her feel shitty..."
"It really sounded painful," Luffy said with a frown.
"Oh, M'Lady..." Greg (the bag) was sitting on the futon next to her. "I never thought that would happen..."
"What really happened?" Chopper asked, looking at the possessed piece of fabric.
"To me it looked like it had something to do with the sea freezing over," Usopp rubbed his chin in thought.
"Could be. Since she is the very first halfling in the whole history of the godworld, the extend of her powers is still unknown. They are divine but she has mortal weaknesses," the bag spoke.
"Like ice?" Sanji asked.
"Like ice."
"Aokiji never touched Gen," Chopper pointed out.
"Doesn't have to. She has a certain connection with the sea, wherever she went or however far she was from the shore that connection would be there. But... by suddenly freezing the sea, that connection had no time to adapt and it, for a brief moment," he made the darkly familiar gesture, "was cut."
Sanji, Chopper and Usopp seemed to have a minor freak-out. Nami came in to tell that Zoro had left to wander around and to get Robin her coffee. She had retreated to her own room.
"She still out of it?" she asked.
"Namiii! Her connection was cut!" Chopper blubbered.
"Uhh... what?" she sweatdropped as the rest of his words were slurred together.
"To be cut from the sea means that she was cut from her life."
"AAAAHH!!"
"Whoah...! Here's a picture of Zoro and Sanji!" Luffy started snickering and he turned the book horizontal. "They sure look all buddy-buddy!"
"Luffy, don't you care at all that she was dead for a moment!?" Sanji screeched and throttled the captain.
"SHE WAS DEAD!?"
"THE BAG JUST SAID THAT!!"
There was a rustle from the bed where Gloria was laying and the girl groaned. They stopped everything they were doing and looked towards her, ears perked.
"...Dancing ...hamsters..."
Smiles bloomed on each face and some even chuckled in relief.
"Shishishi! She's okay!" Luffy laughed. He walked up to her and leaned against the bed to hover over her face. "Hey Gen! When are you going to wake up and play with me?"
"Luffy! She'll wake when she'll wake!" Chopper hurried to her side to shoo him away.
She finally woke up in the evening, when Zoro was leaning against the galley wall, seemingly asleep. The sun shone low and a pleasant hue of orange and gold flooded the room.
"Marimo?" Gen asked quietly, uncertain that her voice would hold. "Marimooo?"
His head rose up and he grunted sleepily before realizing who had called his name. She could faintly see his smile when he got up, stretched and walked to her with no hurry.
"Mornin'."
"Stupid, even I can tell it's sunset."
They were silent for a moment, Zoro looking out the window. "That guy... I'm glad you're okay now. They said that you died."
"I did?" 'Again...' she didn't sound like it was a big deal. "What about the others? Aokiji did attack and talk trash about Robin?"
"He sure did. That ass... And you knew that all would happen?"
"Yeah. At least we're all okay." Gen's eyes travelled to a bandage on Zoro's arm. "What happened?"
"Hm? Oh, a nasty frostbite. Not as bad as Robin or Luffy though," he rubbed the injury. the girl slipped a hand under her shirt and felt around her own bandages. They weren't as thick as she'd remembered, so she assumed Chopper had changed them. ...at least she hoped it was him.
She sighed and slowly got up. Besides being a bit stiff, she felt fine. Zoro handed her a glass of water that she downed greedily. She hadn't even realized how thirsty she had been and asked for another one.
"You really are a magnet for trouble."
"I believe you've said that before. Hey, where are the others?"
"Dunno. But I think Nami's still out with that crap-cook."
"Mapping?"
"Yup."
They stayed the next day too, giving Gen the time to draw the weird animals. Luffy gave her the forgotten sketchbook and complimented on the picture where Sanji and Zoro were snuggling. It gave the two of them a reason to beat each other up until they both had Angry-Navigator-related bruises. Zoro's leftover fumes were directed at Gen and Sanji said that whatever she made was always beautiful, regardless what the picture was about.
This time Gen broke their quarrel.
"So, we're looking for a carpenter?" the girl sat down and accepted a plate of potato paille.
"Yeah! And he'll be the best one ever!"
"How will you know that?" Chopper asked.
"And are you sure it's a he?" Gen raised an eyebrow.
"A girl!?" the three pairs of eyes bulged out of their individual sockets.
"Hahaha, I'm just kidding! It's a man."
"Gen." Luffy looked serious. "You know who our carpenter is." It wasn't a question.
"Yeah, and don' worry. I'm not telling."
"Whaaat? Why not?" Usopp whined. "Come on, give us something to chew on."
"No," the girl and the captain said at the same time, though his answer was more prominent. To avoid more questions she got on her feet and went to the front of the ship.
Zoro, who was munching on his own food, caught movement at the side of the ship and saw... a frog.
"A giant frog! And it's swimming free style! I wonder where he's going in such a hurry!" Luffy asked.
Gen instinctively turned her head towards the animal. The slick, brown skin was full of scars and it had a thick, black mantle of hair in a warrior-ponytail.
"Dude... Luffy, frogs don't swim in free style."
"Actually, Usopp... that thing kinda is," Gen pointed out. The sniper finally looked over his shoulder and spat the food out.
"IT DOES!? Everyone! Let's catch him!"
Gen sipped her drink quietly, watching in amusement from her perch how Usopp, Luffy, Chopper and Zoro took out the paddles. The change in the course made Nami come out of her hole to nag.
"What the hell are you doing!?"
"Um... Nami, we found a huge frog with scars all over! We have to catch him for BBQ no matter what!"
"YOU'RE GOING TO EAT IT!?" Chopper and Zoro asked.
"Ahh~, what a nice breeze... before the storm..." Gen sighed and relaxed.
"Huh? What storm? It's such a fine weather." Chopper blinked in confusion.
"A storm..." an eerie cloud cast a shadow over the girl.
...
...
Sluurrrrppp...
"DON'T LEAVE IT AT THAT!!"
Nami was looking at their new destination with the pair of binoculars. "Why is there a light tower in the middle of nowhere... I wonder who lives there..." she muttered.
"Did you see an island?!" Luffy asked.
"No, just a light tower! But the log isn't pointing to it."
"What about the frog? Tell me where it is!!"
"NO WAY!"
"The frog is going in the direction of the tower as well," Robin informed them.
"First you wash the frog with white wine. Then you coat it with flour and fry it."
"Wait, Robin!! Sanji!!"
"Full speed ahead!"
"Ay!"
"What's wrong with all of you!?"
"I blame my parents!" Gen raised her hand. She realized suddenly that she could hear voices... no, not people, but something that sounded familiarly like-
"BACK! BACK! TURN 180 DEGREE!!!" Nami was yelling, and she had a good reason too. The Merry was laying on train tracks and there was an old fashioned train with a steam engine coming right at them. The frog had stopped to sit on the opposite side of the ship, right in front of the said train.
"YAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
"IT'S COMING RIGHT AT US!!"
In the end, they still got away. Gen's face was pale and her eyes were wide, but hey, they did just dodge a train with an effin' ship no less. Her hand was squeezing the rail and she faintly noticed that she'd broken her glass and she now had a piece of glass in her palm.
"Ouch," she said and jumped down.
Luffy had realized that the frog was still in the train's path. "Hey! Get out of there! What are you doing!?"
"What's that big metallic thing!? A ship!?" Usopp had to yell over the deafening racket.
"No... with it's shape... It shouldn't be able to sail on the sea!" Nami gasped.
'Oh yeah, they don't know what a train is...' Gen sweatdropped.
"GEROH!!!"
And the frog was promptly hit by the train and flung up in the air.
"Ooh, a flying frog..." Gen simply stared.
"Waah! He got hit!" Luffy yelled as the train passed them.
They continued on to the lighthouse and saw a girl with two blonde, thick braids sticking horizontal and an old, drunk, drunk woman with a small hat and a jacket on her shoulders. Names were changed (Kokoro and Chimeny) and Luffy with Usopp and Nami stepped to the small dock.
"Hey... is it just me or- AAAH! YOU'RE BLEEDING! DOCTOR! WE NEED A-!"
"Oh yeah," Gen raised her hand, the piece of glass still stuck in it. "Sorry Sanji, I broke it."
As Chopper fixed her hand (purple blood everywhere by now) Usopp asked about the sea train. Chimney told him about the underwater railroads. Luffy mentioned the frog.
"Ah... his name is Yokozuna. He's been a nuisance for a long time! He likes to compete his strength with others, and he has been trying to beat the train... he won't die from a crash like that. He'll come back again!"
"Compete!? Oh... so that's why he didn't run away! That's some very cool fighting spirit!!" Luffy was impressed.
Gen couldn't help the little sad sigh. "For a friend long gone... to challenge the Puffing Tom. They got it all wrong."
"What...?" Zoro raised an eyebrow at her, but the girl didn't answer.
Kokoro told them about the different stops that the train was going to stop and Luffy was particularly interested in 'the city of cuisine'.
"Don't even think about it," Nami slapped him in the head. "We have a ship so we can't take a train. We have to follow the log pose."
"Oh? Where is your log pointing?" Kokoro asked. For a drunk, she had pretty good conversational skills.
"To the west."
"Oh, then you're going to Water 7. The train you saw actually came from the Blue station there! It's true to its nickname, the city of water. It's a city with the world's best ship factories!"
Gen felt like someone'd poured liquid ice into her spine when the old woman mentioned the city's name. The city in itself had always been one of her own personal favourites, but the things happening around this arc were cruel and depressing. She gave a long look at the figurehead and stroke absentmindedly the closest surface of the ship.
After some more advertising from Kokoro, Luffy announced that they were going to find their carpenter from that place.
Chimney ran around with Bonbe, the rabbit (which she called a cat -_-') and the three Strawhats climbed back onboard. Before, though, Kokoro handed them a simple map and a letter of recommendation. "Also, Water 7 is a big place, so be careful not to get lost."
Gen laughed. "'Ey Marimo-kun, I think she's talking to you!"
"You little-!"
"Yikes!" she ran with the man on her heels. Well, it had been long since the last game of tag.
"We plan on going back to Water 7 soon. If we meet again, I'll definitely take you to a nice bar for a few drinks," Kokoro promised.
"Really? I hope we meet you again!"
"It takes about a week for the log to record Water 7, so you'll have plenty of time to play around," the woman laughed. Gen loved that sound instantly, it was warm and... it brought her a sense of secure. That was probably why she stopped and yelped when she was hauled over the swordsman's shoulder.
"Let me down, jackass!"
"Hmmm... No. This way you won't cause more troub- OW! Did you just bite my...!"
"As a matter of fact, yes, I did."
"Let's go! Thanks for the info, Kokoro and Chimney!" Nami waved at the two.
"Get ready to set sail!" Luffy pumped his fist in the air.
"Oi! Marimo! What the hell do you think you're doing!" Sanji yelled. The swordsman was hanging the girl from her ankles over the railing. Fortunately her shirt was tight enough not to flash everyone.
"Getting rid of her...?"
Once the ship was sailing again and towards Water 7, Greg made an appearance. He popped out of his vessel and stretched his arms up above his head. It was such an everyday gesture that it was funny on him.
"Hnnngh! All healed up, finally! You know, Gloria-sama, that I've never been so close to death and so often than within this one month with you and these people."
"Hey, don't be a stranger! They're your friends too, y'know," she put her hands on her hips but had to sweep her hair off her face when a small gust of random wind blew it in her face. 'I'll definitely cut this thing some day!'
Greg remained silent for a moment. "I guess. My primary mission is to take care of you until the day you won't need me anymore. It's a task I do with pleasure," he gave her a rather handsome smile.
"Greg... you realize you have flowers and sparkles around your head when you smile like that?" Gen sweatdropped.
"Really?"
"Yes."
They looked at the rest of the crew. They were currently talking about the new carpenter. Sanji wanted a hot babe and Luffy a 5 meter tall giant. Gen raised an eyebrow at that, he had a good intuition.
"None of that matters, as long as he/she is a good carpenter," Zoro said. "Rather than that, our problem is to find a person who's willing to become a pirate."
"It's so exciting! We're going to meet new friends?" Chopper's eyes shined.
Nami chuckled. "Yup. We were lucky, we got a map to start us off. She said to go to the marked location to find someone called Iceberg," she rolled the paper open and looked at it for a moment. "Oh, I see... IT'S A COMPLETELY USELESS SKETCH!!"
Luffy and the others were still talking about who Luffy wanted as his carpenter, and Gen nearly chocked on her spit when she saw a very poorly done picture of... Franky. It even had the hair and the shirt, and it seemingly lacked any kind of pants.
Usopp and Sanji had both blue faces. "If I see someone who looks like that, I'll just turn around and run."
"I would, too. I'd jump into the sea if I had to, although this guy looks like he's a part octopus, so he would probably still come after me," Sanji leaned away from the piece of nightmare.
"...I'm not going to say a word..." Gen decided wisely and sweatdropped.
The crew was talking about the ship's repairs, Usopp getting all nostalgic, when Water 7 finally came to view. Gen weighted a small pouch in her hand that contained all her money and the money Nami had given for her to spend on the island. She needed more clothes and wanted to find something interesting for a souvenir. Greg mentioned that there was something on the island he wanted to show her when they had the time and that he wanted to get something for himself as well. It made the girl curious, but all he gave her was a mysterious smile before fading back in the bunny.
Water 7 was incredible. It looked like a huge fountain, water sprouting out from the top of the structure. There were several gates on the side, probably to let the water flow back into the ocean. From the direction they were approaching she could spot gates 1 to 4.
Gloria hadn't forgotten what Altur had told her about Water 7 and her mother. If it was really true, she wanted to have a word with the goddess of the sea.
They glid closer to the Blue Station, but someone on a fishing boat told them that pirates can't just waltz right in from the front. They got a great tour while making a round around.
"Wow! Water 7 is so cool! This city is the best!" Luffy laughed in excitement.
"Everything's floating! Even the houses," Usopp pointed out in wonder.
"That's not it," Robin chuckled. "This city is just built on a sunken island. Look closely at the base of the buildings."
"Wow! Pillars!"
Gen frowned and called the demon's name in a low whisper. "Is this... really mom's fault?"
He sighed. "Don't think about it too much. Yes, this island is sinking because the ocean bottom is caving in due a magma core emptying somewhere near."
"So it's not her fault?"
"Well... not directly. She doesn't hate land, only the one in charge of it."
"Ava... something," Gen tried to remember.
"It's Ava... nirte..." he said the name reluctantly and looked as sheepish as a bag can. "Sorry, demons never call the gods/goddesses by their given names, though everyone knows them. It's a taboo."
"Hey! You can't anchor your ship there! What are you here for? Robbery?" some random guy yelled from a balcony.
"No, we just want to fix our ship!" Nami answered.
"Did he just ask if we want to rob him...?" Usopp sweatdropped.
"Head that way until you see a small peninsula. You can anchor there!" the man pointed a direction.
"Ok, thanks!"
Their tour continued and they came to a small patch of dry land that had either been put there or it hadn't sunk in time with the rest of the city. Gen suspected that the city itself on the island was weighting it down as well.
"I think this is it... Okay, pull up the sail!" Nami gave an order, but the second Zoro pulled on the rope there was a loud 'CRACK' and the sail snapped in two from the middle of its length.
"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING, IDIOT!?"
"Uh... I just tugged on it a little bit..."
"Damn," Gen hissed in sympathy for the ship.
"...I didn't think the Merry is in such a bad shape..." Zoro grit his teeth. While the sniper kept nagging at him, he tried to keep the mast from falling down further.
"Why aren't the people here afraid of pirates?" Nami wondered.
"For the repairs, I guess," Gen crossed her arms.
"Maybe they have very strong guys to fight any pirates if necessary..." Robin said.
"No doubt about that. There must be strong guys everywhere in a big city like this," Sanji puffed on the cigarette.
"FOR REAL!?" Usopp's eyes almost popped out of his head. "Then isn't it dangerous here!?"
"It should be fine since we're all customers."
"R-Really?"
"Okay! Let's go!" Luffy dashed off with the sniper.
"Hold it, Luffy! Usopp! You're going to follow me!" Nami stopped them.
"Where to?" Usopp asked.
Nami's plan was to go first to find Iceburg and ask him to fix the ship while they looked for a place to change the crapload of gold into cash.
"Okay! Enough talking, off to Water 7!" Luffy announced.
I feel like my writing pace is slowing down -_-' My shortest update-time is two days...
Gloria: No one's interested.
Snoara: So? I can speak whatever the hell I want to!
Gloria: You can, but no one's interested in it.
Snoara: ...screw you.
