Hey everyone!

Sorry this one is gonna be a liiiittle shorter than my usual ones…would have posted it as part of the last chapter, but I felt that it had been running on a little tooooo long if you know what I mean…so for now this one's a shorter chapter, but the next one will be a bit longer!

I hope you are all staying safe, healthy and whatnot…can't believe the year is almost done…feels like just yesterday it was the beginning of September and I'd started staying home with the kiddo for her to do school…yesh…and now it's December 20th?!

Anywho…..

Just wanted to say "hello! Thanks for following this story!" to all those who've done so…and to those who've stayed while I figure this junk out, "THANK YOU!"

To those who've left a review, "OMG THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!" :D

Hope you enjoy the chapter!


The next day was pretty boring for me…..

We ended up sailing through a cloud of dense fog for most of the day; the only noteworthy thing that happened was discovering that inside the fog was dozens of Navy ships.

Oh joy…

However, because the fog was so thick, Nami had ensured that it would be almost impossible to see us unless we made too much noise, or just happened to be in the right place to see us as we sailed directly under their nose. Moving silently in between the ships would mean that we'd get away without being seen.

Which was exactly the second that some kid saw us...

Just our luck, right?

He ended up falling onto our deck and passed out when he realized we were pirates.

Sanji and the kid bonded over cooking and the idea of the All Blue, which I'd learned was Sanji's dream back during out crew's campfire stories in Alabastra.

Turns out, the kid had joined the Navy just so he could sail around the world in order to search for All Blue. He figured that with a worldwide fleet, he'd have better chances of finding it if he joined the good ole white and blue bastards.

The "bastards" part was my input. Most of the men in charge were all assholes from my personal experience. Aside from those like Smoker and Tashigi that knew right from wrong.

Maybe they were dropped on their heads as infants and that's why they have common sense?

Sanji and Luffy went to the Marine ship to help the boy make some special Curry to save his "Ships Cooks Honor" in regard to the other ship's captains all getting together for some fancy lunch. The chefs of each ship competed for the best dish or something inconsequential.

Luffy only went along so Sanji would have a way back once done with helping Tobi, the boys name, with cooking their ships signature dish.

Woo...pirates making the Navy bigwigs lunch...sounds like the punchline of a bad joke.

Taking the quiet day, I pulled out my notebook and started working on my only hobby outside of my sword.

One that I'd worked hard to keep to myself.

I liked to compose songs.

Poetry too, but the songs made up the vast majority of my time, I only had a handful of poems in this current notebook.

I climbed onto the couch opposite of where Chopper was taking a nap and drew my knees up to begin writing lyric lines that had started to form inside my head over the last couple of weeks.

Composing songs was one of my favorite ways to expel stress and all the feelings I'd locked inside my heart from being separated from my family and being all alone.

Tashigi was the only one who knew that I loved to write songs, despite my lack of ability to sing their lyrics myself.

It's not like I was purposely trying to hide it from everyone, I just...didn't feel like sharing my notebook. Plus, when one uses pranks as a means of revenge, it's best to keep any and all embarrassing hobbies or weaknesses far away from your victim's knowledge.

Of course, Will knew my love of music, so it's not like it was a terrible secret that I was actively trying to hide…I'd had to switch notebooks several times, but I'd had this one for the last five years and had written a lot of my deeper feelings into song...I found it embarrassing if anyone were to find out about them and actually read or try to sing them.

Just another reason to keep them far, far away from everyone's sight.

I had a good hour of quiet before Sanji and Luffy rocketed back to the ship and we had to scramble to get the Going Merry to sail as fast as we could away from the fog covered Marines.

We were in such a rush that I'd forgotten I'd left my song book on the couch and never got around to putting it away later.

(((sooooo just to let you all know, because I think I might have said something before but honestly I forget easily lol...I fell in LOVE with a new artist (new for me at least...) after I found a couple of her music videos on Youtube and just yea….her voice is about what I pictured Wisp's voice sounding like once she gets her voice back…(maybe a bit more solum and obviously quieter lol) and a pitch or two deeper for her normal speaking voice, but yeah… I really really really really recommend you check her out! Her name's Beth Crowley and so I'll be using a lot of her songs for wisp to write unless I find different songs that fits her better lol…

The song that gets found and read is called 2007 by Beth Crowley and its awesome to listen to!))))

The storm this time wasn't too terrible.

Sure, it lasted for a couple hours, but it leveled off into just heavy rain after an hour.

Which meant that we were all crammed inside to wait out the storm.

Sanji was taking the time to clean dishes, (he refused to let me help since I was 'still recovering from my surgery' and Robin was sitting at the dinner table reading from a thick red tome. She too had offered help with the dishes, but as expected, Sanji refused to let "such an exotic beauty such as herself to wrinkle her delicate flesh with the soapy water" and she dropped it.

Nami didn't even bother to offer helping, she was too used to Sanji's ways by now. That, or she just didn't want to ruin her manicure that she'd just finished.

It could have been either or to be fair.

Usopp was working on some of his ammo and other gadgets for his satchel in the corner. I had to give the guy props, he was smart and was able to create some pretty cool stuff when he put his mind to task.

Chopper was prepping some stuff for his blue backpack that served as his field bag. It was all delicate work, he claimed, thus turning down my offer to help. Despite the fact that I was the only one on board with any medical training besides himself. He did say that he'd make me my own first aid kit with his remedies, so I didn't allow myself to be offended by his refusal for my help. There'd been several doctors at LogueTown's base that refused outside help when sanitizing and organizing their shit too.

Will was over in the opposite corner of Usopp, tucked up against Neals large furry and feathery side, taking a nap of all things. While Neal was engrossed in reading some history book that had been recommended by Robin.

I was sorting through my black duffle bag, after the extended trip in Alabastra, it needed a deep cleaning. I was still cleaning out sand from the damn thing.

If I weren't careful it would grow mold or something equaling as damning due to the various dunking in all the various waters. While waterproof, that didn't mean shit after being submerged so much in a single day. First the underwater secret evil base with the Bananadiles, and then the river itself...oh and the light rain shower at the end of the fight...yeah...for a country undergoing a massive drought, they still had a shit ton of water at their disposal.

Thank god I kept my pictures and paper shit inside of clear plastic wrapping, just in case.

After I was done with my bag, it was on to sword maintenance.

That took a good four hours, due to my utter meticulousness.

Zoro managed to do all three of his in that same time span, (not that he was any less meticulous than me, no way in hell…if anything he was even worse) before heading out for his watch up in the crow's nest.

I didn't envy him for that duty.

I only took so long was just because I'm a perfectionist. This had me going over my blade two extra times than I probably needed. This quirk was part of the reason I never got along with other roommates when I'd tried to switch things up back when I was still living in LogueTown.

The chicks I'd been paired with the first three times were all idiots that couldn't draw a straight line between the two of them. I may be a shit artist, but thanks to Will's influence, I could tell you when someone else's shit was in fact, SHIT…

They didn't take such criticism well…

Tashi never cared about that. She was ALL about the swords….so we got along just fine. In fact, she was often times MORE meticulous than I was when it came to cleaning her sword. Part of the reason she had to take it in to get professionally cleaned and sharpened so damn much. If left to her own devices, she'd use a whetstone so much on it that it would end up ruining a blade, all in her efforts to remove some slight that only she swore to see…

Luffy wasn't one to just...sit inside and do something quietly, however.

He was thus, sitting at the table rolling his head around in an effort to keep himself entertained. Complaining loudly about how bored he was.

Usopp tried to offer him a reprieve to his boredom, by offering to set off his freshly made firework, but Nami was the epic kill joy by pointing out the rain.

With a sigh, Usopp put the firework back in his bag.

Luffy, to the amazement of everyone else, asked Robin what she was reading at the other end of the bench seat that Luffy was sitting on. Going so far as to stretch his head impossibly down the entire length of the table first before moving his body to follow.

She quietly explained that it was an adventure novel, about some place known as "The Rainbow Mist."

Luffy had just expressed interest in the book when Zoro banged open the door, revealing to us that the storm was officially over.

Zoro was completely drenched, the poor guy, and announced that he saw an island off in the distance with a sizable port town. With a yelled cheer from Luffy, he was out the door and on deck to see this island faster than we could blink. Nami, Usopp, Chopper, and Sanji all sagged in disbelief, muttering out their amazement to Luffy's short lived amazement at a book.

I covered my mouth to keep myself from laughing at them all. They wouldn't have liked that.

Luffy's shout had woken up Will from his nap, and with a yawn and a knuckle rub to his eyes, he asked what he'd missed. Neal's dry amusement and deliverance of Luffy's interest in books nearly made Will pass out from laughing so hard.

After another hour we pulled into the port of the small island that Zoro had spotted.

This island was peaceful, didn't have any damsel in distress princesses in need of rescuing, and other than the firework festival, nothing of note ever really happened here.

In other words?

It was utterly boring for our fun-loving, adventure seeking, childish Captain, until he found out that the "festival" was being held today.

He was quick to run off after that.

Nami took to the festivities as a means for some quality shopping time. Something I was sadly dragged along for. Will "offered" to join us, and Nami's eyes had turned into the money symbol. Not to be out done, Sanji fell into a dramatic prose for Nami and myself, offering to be our 'slaves of love' or some such.

Zoro opted to just stay on the ship as a guard. No need to draw lots on this island. Nami tried to weasel him into coming and carrying more of her bags, her eyes still managing to stay in the shape of money symbols as she spoke.

I tried not to let that creep me out...something I'm still working on, to be honest.

Zoro ignored her by simply jumping back on deck before she could pull out the big guns in referencing his massive debt to her and she had to give in with a huff.

Chopper was excited for the fireworks, having never seen much of them on his home island. It being a winter island year-round, meant that not a lot of people wanted to sit outdoors freezing their asses off watching fireworks.

Go figure, right?


As we went from door to door, I soon discovered just how far Nami was willing to take her haggling and bargain deals.

Yet another thing to have nightmares over...yay!

By the end of the day, Nami had managed to almost overfill Will's Storage Boxes, yeah he said he had two that could be used, while his third was completely filled up to max capacity already, pretty scary to think of huh? Which left Sanji carrying six of her smaller bags.

We still had about another hour before the fireworks part of the festival would start and I managed to find a great discount clothing store where I score ten pairs of pants for a near steal.

Nami almost had a conniption fit when she saw the price, and the fact that I was okay with secondhand goods. But when I helpfully pointed out that I lost my pants each time I changed into my tail and unless she wanted to chip in to help me afford pants that were brand-spanking-new and brand-named at "new & brand name" prices….

She shut up fairly quickly.

We'd gotten some rather…. intensely odd looks from the shopkeeper when I'd said I lost my pants frequently to growing a tail...but this was the Grand Line, weirder shit happens here on the daily. So, the old biddy gave a quizzical look, which screamed all kinds of judgmental crap that I soundly ignored, before she went back to ringing up my order.

While I was finishing up with my purchases, Nami ended up wandering out to check in with the rest of the crew for a short while. By the time I was finally finished getting all the clothes I would need to last me another year, everything from underclothes to heavy winter shit, she'd made it back to me and my brother/&/Neal.

Neal wisely chose to remain a silent, unspeaking, NORMAL-ish parrot (his head still swiveled north facing but that wasn't too crazy for the Grand Line) for the entirety of our time on this idyllic island. Last thing we needed was to draw too much undue attention to ourselves and have the marines called down upon us again.

Usopp, like I'd mentioned earlier, had run off separately from the rest of us in order to find the firework makers.

All in hopes of procuring some gunpowder.

After his spectacular performance against the marines back in our escape from Alabastra, I opted to just smile and wave him off with silent well wishes of luck in that endeavor.

Luffy had run off to try out all the food stalls he could squeeze in for a single day. Which, knowing his appetite, would include ALL of the food stalls on this island. I only hopped there'd be some kind of 'eating contest' that could distract him for a while. The prize money could cover his ass from Nami's wrath. She'd likely get pissy when she saw any of the bills from said food stalls.

We broke for Lunch at about one thirty, finding some adorable little bistro cafe that sold one of the best damn Caesar chicken salads with fruit smoothies I'd ever tasted. Naturally I wasn't including anything that I'd eaten made by Sanji's talented hands of course. I wasn't surprised by Sanji's attentiveness in my appreciation over the dish and his vow of creating a masterpiece for me to try later.

Nami chose some kind of tropical fruit parfait with a glass of orange and pineapple mixed juice. One would think that with all the tangerines she ate that she'd have grown tired of the heavily citrus flavored things right? WRONG!

When I asked her, she went into great detail over two of the biggest reasons she consumes so much. One, was the fact that earlier on in the crew's adventures, they came across an old pal of Zoro's who'd unknowingly developed Scurvy. (And YES I know what Scurvy is, thanks!)

Second, and perhaps the most important reason, was that she grew up on a tangerine farm with her adoptive mother and sister. I'd smiled and she threw out with a smile around her straw, that the small grove of tangerine trees on the ship came from her home's grove.

I pulled out my small notepad to write,

SO THAT"S why they're so important to you! I knew there had to be some reason Sanji was so devoted to protecting them from Luffy's stomach/pit!

I'm glad you were able to bring a piece of home with you Nami.

She smiled after reading my note and nodded.

God, was I looking forward to being done with Chopper's medicine…

He'd given me a set of pills to take that, coupled with not speaking for the next week after the surgery in Alabastra, should enable my throat to heal a little more naturally from the previous damage to it.

Not enough to fully heal me, mind you, that would require another surgery with tools that Chopper didn't have access to at the moment. But at least this should allow me to talk almost to a normal tone when I want to without feeling like I was ripping my vocal chords up and out of my throat with rusty pliers.

That mental image is the more, "mild" sensation I got whenever I tried speaking too loudly in the past.

It was around this point that Nami started complaining of her feet hurting.

When it was pointed out that maaaaybe she should avoid wearing fucking heels all damn day if she were planning on standing/walking the entire time, she'd blown us off.

I was not going to be saying who'd thrown that opinion in...nope! The note that the suggestion was written on having been thrown into some fire pit to burn into ciders leaving zero evidence to my sarcasm by Nami's wrathful irritation. It left us all a little wary of the orange haired navigator.

Sanji willingly submitted himself to wearing some ridiculous Pandaman mask in an effort to make Nami smile again. While a sweet gesture, Nami was too agitated to find the humor in it that she usually would.

This extreme irritation with us as a whole (everyone had chuckled at my note being read aloud, opps?) only lasted for the next thirty minutes before she found something else to take her mind off of all of us.


It wasn't until we were leaving the next morning that I learned how MUCH Usopp had had a hand in the fireworks festival.

It was thanks to his ingenious mind that they discovered how to launch this, apparently (if Usopp is to be believed, can't be too sure with his tales after all…) special shell for that last epic firework which was so large that it was taller than Usopp was tall, thus requiring some special cannon to shoot it up into the sky.

He claimed to have been the sole person to discover how to launch it in the last four hundred years, and considering he'd been brave enough to shoot his own homemade firework just before it, I was inclined to actually believe his wild story.

He did amend that he'd had the help of the patriarch for the firework maker's help him launch it, since the thing was so damn big. I took that to mean that Usopp had discovered the cannon, or how to operate the canon and then together they set the epic last firework off. It made his story much more believable.

First time for everything right?

Overall, it was a nice break for us.

Nami and Will did eventually go about sketching out some of the maps that they weren't able to make on the way here with that special "millennial paper" or whatever, so that was nice. Nami was practically a new woman after they were done, in regard to her previous attitude.

Although, that may have had something to do with the fact that she hadn't needed to "babysit" our captain and/or pay for any of his meals the entire time we were on the island. Luffy had found an eating contest and had won by a landslide. No surprise there.

The prize money had been more than enough, but we found out that Luffy, when left to his own devices, participates in a "dine-an-dash" for all restaurants. He ended up giving Nami all of the money to go towards the crew's funds. As soon as that had happened, Nami's mood had flipped.

My money was on that last one.

No one else felt like taking on that sucker's bet either.


So, if you followed the anime you'll see we're doing a few of their fillers but not all of them. Personally I was never a fan of the Zenny Pirates…so I'm skipping that one. although, I am soooo excited to know what some of ya'll reactions are gonna be to Luluka and the Rainbow Mist...hehehe

I'm still slightly stuck on where I left off two weeks ago for where I'm at in typing new content, but at least now I've got an idea for what to do next. It was a part that I wanted to add in but I was having trouble making it flow right with Cannon, but I think I got a way to make it work finally! Lol…

See ya'll with a new update next weekend!