It was not long before they found the ship that had crashed years ago. Strangely enough though it had crashed into a very large cliff where it was nearly split in two. Upon arriving Natsu and his crew climbed up the cliff using a harpoon and slipped into the ship.
"Now remember boys." Erza told them. "This ship is slowly but surely falling apart so no running, no rough housing, and touch nothing but the coins."
They searched around the ship with great care, knowing full well that one slip up could lead to this ship crumbling to pieces with them crumbling along with it.
At first all they could find was useless junk. Rusty swords, used pistols, floors and walls stained with old beer and rum. But at long last they found the skeletal corpses of the former crew that boarded this ship.
"Any of them have coins where their eyes should be?" Natsu asked his crew.
"None that we can find." Laxus said.
"Okay let's split up. Erza, Laxus, and I will look in the West wing of the ship. Gray, you and Gajeel check the East wing."
"Aye-aye!" His crew replied.
In the East wing Gray and Gajeel didn't have much luck. They didn't even find a body in that area.
"I thought you said we would find coins wherever dead sailors were?" Gray asked him.
"We should have at least found two already." Gajeel answered.
"Hey while we're alone would you mind if I asked you what pissed you off the other night?"
"What part of the phrase none of your business did you not understand last night?"
"Sorry it's just that the only time I ever see you get that angry is when Natsu snoops around in the kitchen. Did you hate her singing or something?"
"Look it's not that I hate her singing it's just that song she sang reminded me of something. Something that makes me really angry whenever I think about it."
"What is it?"
"As I said before it's none of your business." He opened his mouth to say something but hesitated before speaking again. "A word of advice, don't get too close to that mermaid or any other creature like her because if you do she might steal your heart."
"Steal my heart? Is that a joke? Fins and scales aren't exactly what I look for in a woman." Gray chuckled. "You don't have to worry about me. I keep my heart locked up real tight, nobody's going to steal it."
"Aye, I thought the same thing a long time ago." Gajeel mumbled quietly to himself.
In the West wing Natsu found one corpse that had two coins covering where it's eyes once where but it was high up, so high that he couldn't reach.
"Gajeel come here." Natsu called.
"What is it?"
"I need you to lift me on to your shoulders."
"Why?"
"Because that skeleton up there has coins but I can't reach."
"We're going to have to be careful while we're doing this."
Gajeel lifted Natsu on to his shoulders and moved him toward where the skeleton was. Natsu reached for as far as he could go.
"Hurry up! You weigh a ton!" Gajeel complained.
"Oh don't be a baby!" Natsu told him.
Eventually Natsu managed to grab the two coins.
"I got em." He said.
Unfortunately as soon as Gajeel put Natsu down the ship started to tip and shake. All the movement they were making had caused the ship to start falling from the cliff.
"Run for it!" Natsu shouted. "That's an order!"
"Aye-aye captain!" His crew shouted in fear and they all quickly ran from the falling ship and jumped off, landing safely on a nearby ledge.
"Is everyone alright?" Natsu asked.
"I think so." Erza said.
"I think there's a spike in my back." Gajeel said."But other than that I'll live."
"Let's get back to the ship before something worse happens." Gray said.
Now that they had dead man's coins the next item they had to find was ink from a kraken. The kraken lived in a shadowy domain that was located somewhere between the land and the sea. The way there was very rough though, with waves crashing against and knocking about the ship.
"Hold the wheel firmly Gajeel!" Natsu said.
"You think I don't know that?!" His strongest crew member retorted.
"Everybody hold on!" Gray said.
"To what?!" Laxus shouted.
"We can't keep sailing in weather like this!" Gajeel shouted. "We need to drop anchor!"
"No we can't!" Natsu argued. "We're almost there!"
"The storm is too strong Natsu!" Erza said. "If we continue further we'll crash or sink! We'll have to try again in the morning."
Natsu saw how rough the waves were getting. Erza and Gajeel were right, if they continued further it would most likely spell their doom.
"Alright drop anchor!"
Hearing this the ship was steered into calmer waters and they dropped the anchor. It took awhile but eventually things calmed down. Natsu and his crew went below deck to see if Lucy and Juvia were alright.
"You okay?" Natsu asked her.
"Yeah I just fell down. But why is there water on the floor?"
They noticed that some water had spilled on to the floor. It was coming from the room where Juvia was being held. When they went inside they found that the tank she was in had been turned over, breaking and spilling out both her and the water.
She flopped around the hard wood floor as she felt a sensation run through her like a sharp knife. They watched as her fish tail change into the loveliest pair of white legs any young maid could hope to have. But she had no clothes, feeling ashamed she crouched up her body together and wrapped herself in her long, thick hair.
"Stop looking at her you perverts!" Erza scolded as she tried to cover the men's eyes.
Gray quickly took off his shirt and covered Juvia with it while trying not to look at areas he was not allowed to see. His shirt was very big compared to her so it hid her body well.
"I didn't know mermaids could grow legs." Lucy said.
"Can you walk?" Laxus asked her.
She stood up but when she took a step she felt a sharp pain and fell back down.
"I can't." She replied.
Laxus pulled out a pistol and pointed it at her.
"Walk or die." He said.
"Laxus what the hell do you think you're doing?" Natsu asked.
"She has legs now! Which means we don't have to worry about lugging her around and slowing us down!"
"But sir I can't walk." Juvia said.
"Yes you can because if you really can't then I'll just have to shoot you."
"That's uncalled for!" Gray said pushing the pistol away from her.
"Out of my way holy boy! That creature needs to know it's place!"
"She has a name! It's Juvia and if you pull that trigger on her and the next bullet goes through your brain!"
Gray kneeled down toward Juvia.
"Put your arms around me." He told her.
"Why?"
"Just trust me."
She hesitated for a moment but put her arms around his neck, he then carefully scooped her up into his arms.
"If she can't walk then I'll carry her. Erza you think that you can make a cot for her to sleep on?" He asked the red head.
"Of course."
"Natsu we can't continue to look for that kraken tomorrow."
"What? Why not?" Natsu asked.
"We need to go to a town and get her something to wear."
"What's wrong with her wearing your shirt?"
Gray and everyone else gave him a look that said: "Are you serious?"
"Fine." Natsu said reluctantly. "First thing in the morning we'll sail to the nearest town. But after that we head straight for the kraken. Understand?"
"Aye sir!" The crew said.
"Good. Now everyone get back to work except for you Laxus. I'd like to have a word with you."
Natsu and Laxus went into his quarters to have a private conversation.
"Are you an idiot?!" Natsu asked him angrily. "Walk or die! What were you thinking?!"
"That beast needs to understand that it needs to follow what we sat no matter what?!"
"Are you forgetting that we need her ALIVE?!"
"I wasn't going to shoot her dead, just shoot her in the arm!"
"I will not tolerate harming the innocent!"
"Innocent? That monster tried to kill us!"
"She didn't do anything! As far as I'm concerned she's perfectly harmless and judging by the intense fear in her eyes I believe she's too scared to even think about trying to kill us! You will never pull a stunt like that again! Got that?!"
"You're too soft! How do you expect to lead us if you won't raise an iron fist once in awhile?"
"I'm still the captain of this ship and we still do things my way. Now get out."
Laxus gave him a dirty look but did as he said.