Interlude: Outer Realm
"He broke into here, get him!", a Marine soldier shouts.
The man rushes between away towards the exit of the facility. He wears a long black coat with red and golden accents and black trousers with white cuffs reaching to his lower calf. His clothing also consists of sandals and a yellow sash tied around his waist as well as an open red shirt. Furthermore, he has a short-trimmed beard. However, the most remarkable thing about his appearance is his straw hat.
"You'll never get me; always a pleasure to deal with you Marines!"
He runs towards the closing exit, but is too late. The gate has already closed.
"Give up, you're surrounded by us and the Fleet Admiral will soon arrive. Even for you, this is an inevitable end!"
The man does not pay attention to that what the soldier says and scans the wall with his hands.
"Ah, I'm so hungry. I hope he prepared some good delicious food like in the past"
"Hey, we're talking with you!"
The man turns around and views the other rather surprised.
"Oh yeah, I forgot"
Suddenly, he bows down and takes off his Straw Hat.
"Sorry for my interruption"
"You can't just excuse breaking into the Headquarters, devastating the whole place and then casually leaving!", another Marine soldier shouts at him.
"You Neo-Marines sure are something! Well, bye! I've got a meeting with my friends, so see ya!"
Then he breaks open the door with his right fist and flees through the hole.
"He's fleeing, we must stop him! Come on, let's chase him!", a Captain of the Marines says.
"Let him go, it's already too late. I guess, you won't even catch him"
"Fleet Admiral Coby!"
A tall man enters the stage. He wears a Marine uniform like the others, whereas he additionally wears a jacket with pure gold epaulettes. The jacket is tied around his neck and the sleeves dangle at his sides. On his back is the logo of a symbol resembling a seagull, although the two halves are divided by a happy looking skull. Beneath is written: "Neo Marine". Moreover, a set of goggles peaks outside his chest pocket and a green bandana with flower patterns which decorates his pink hair. Fleet Admiral Coby sighs and takes out a snail that has a face.
"He escaped us and hereby I order every troop to stop tracking him down! We will let him go!", he speaks towards the snail. He puts back the snail while the other soldiers return to their respective places as another person approaches the Admiral.
"What are you doing here, Second Fleet Admiral Kukriller? I thought, I clearly stated that we won't chase him-"
"Why the formalities, Coby? I just heard that something interesting is happening here, so I thought I'd pay a visit to check it out"
The Fleet Admiral turns to the other one. He wears a white hat resembling a Cowboy hat which covers his blonde shoulder-long hair. A white trenchcoat hides his green sleeveless vest and a purple turtleneck. It is paired with purple slacks and black boots. He also sports an odd-looking black colored visor over his eyes.
"Are you bored, Helmeppo?"
"No, this isn't the exact term for it. I was just… looking forward to meet him again after a long time…"
Coby shakes his head and looks back at the gigantic hole in the wall.
"Yeah, I wanted to see you too, Straw Hat"
Straw Hat jumps down from into the sea, although a large boat emerges from the water beneath him.
"I knew I can rely on you guys", Straw Hat says while smiling.
He perfectly lands on the deck and looks up to see the persons he has not seen since a long time, which causes him extreme joy.
"You guys!"
"Hey, what do you think of the new function of the Sunny? I installed a new mode for this occasion", a large man says who comes out of the interior of the ship.
He looks like a huge Cyborg and where his shoulders should be are two giant balls and his arms are boulders. He also has a quite long beard.
"Franky", Straw Hat says to him.
"Did you at least get your hands on some cash?", a woman mentions. She is lying on a sun lounger. After she sits up, the woman takes off her sunglasses. She has long wavy orange hair as well as a black tattoo on her left arm. The woman displays a green tank top and blue trousers.
"Nami", Straw Hat says to her.
"I've prepared a lot of meat for you. For you others, I've made your favorite food, too", another one points out. He has blonde shoulder-long hair, while a strand of it covers his left eye- the one visible eyebrow seems curled and intertwined. His attire remembers of a ship cook.
"Sanji", Straw Hat says to him.
"Heh, I missed you, we have not seen us for a long time, but don't worry if you're going to get ill, because I can now heal everything!", a tall… reindeer says. He has a hat with an X icon on it, although the antlers look out of the hat. Overall, his attire is very casual.
"Chopper", Straw Hat says to him.
"Ah, this is makes me so happy that I'd like to cry out my eyes, but wait! I don't have any eyes, yohohohohohoohoh!", a… skeleton states. Besides his nature, he wears very exotic clothes such as heart-shaped sunglasses, a yellow feather boa, a top hat with a big crown and several jewelry ad red trousers with a milk bottles pattern.
"Brook", Straw Hat says to him.
"Indeed, we have not seen each other for a long time now. I am eager to know why you actually broke into the Headquarters", another woman exclaims. She has long wavy black hair and a purple hat. The woman sports a fur-lined coat over a deep blue T-shirt as well as long purple trousers.
"Robin", Straw Hat says to her.
He grabs his hat and stands up. Straw Hat looks around. He is irritated about something.
"But where… is Zoro?"
"The last time I saw him, he was sitting in the lookout", Franky answers.
Therefore, Straw Hat turns his attention towards the mast in the middle, specifically to the top.
"Oi, Zoro! Zorooo!", he shouts.
Nothing happens.
"Guess, I have to wake him up"
Straw Hat swings his arms back, but suddenly something moves in the lookout. A head looks out of the lookout, although the head looks really tired. As soon as the person spots Straw Hat, he is very happy.
"Y-you!"
"Hey, Zoro!"
The person leans forward too far and falls down, but he lands on Straw Hat.
"Ah, sorry", the man apologizes.
"N-no problem, I gotcha"
The man stands up and helps up Straw Hat. He has slicked back green hair and a scar over his left eye, thus the eye is closed. He sports a dark green coat, although his chest is not covered by it, thus revealing the long scarf reaching from his left shoulder to his right hip. The coat is tied together by a red sash around his waist and on his left bicep is a black bandana. Three identical golden earrings hang down from his earlobe.
"So, did you succeed?", Sanji asks.
"Mmm, it was hard, but finally I got my hands on it"
Straw Hat pulls out a shiny golden object.
"You made a great catch; this can be surely sold for maybe five hundred, no seven hundred million berry!", Nami states looking at the object with greedy eyes.
"No, we won't sell it! We must immediately set course for Foosha Village!"
"No worry, leave it to me. With the upgrade of the Sunny, we can easily get there", Franky claims.
Straw Hat nods to him and the ship begins moving downwards.
"Great, on the way back we could maybe visit Laboon. I haven't seen him since a year. Did you know he now has a family?"
The skeleton seems to be in a good mood and sits down.
"Really? I really want to see them; I can still remember when we first met him after we entered the Grand Line. He wanted to ram us and Laboon waited all these years for you to return…", Nami wallows in her memories.
"If we head there, then let's eat something together at least", Sanji says.
He has set the table while the others talked. Straw Hat, who had concentrated on the object a few seconds ago, instantly turns around like a target-seeking projectile. He is obviously keen on eating what Sanji has prepared.
"Ahh, food from Sanji! I haven't eaten it for five years!", Straw Hat says and runs to the table.
"I made the favorite dish for everyone of the finest resources from the All Blue. It will melt away your tongues, it is absolutely delicious"
"Wait, what is this green thing?", Zoro asks the cook as he sees his own plate.
Sanji does not even bother turning around to look at Zoro and slowly goes away.
"Isn't that obvious? Some seaweed with spinach and broccoli for a mosshead like you"
In a blink of an eye, a sword rushes towards Sanji who quickly turns around and raises his left leg to block it. Both, the sword and the leg are black.
"I awaited nothing less from a third rate cook like you", Zoro says to Sanji.
"You're still as dumb as always, mosshead"
Consequently, the two exchange some clashes; Zoro skillfully blocking off Sanji's fierce attacks with his legs and bashing his swords at him with enormous strength and precision, while Sanji dodges the swords perfectly and moves his legs at an incredible speed. It is a battle that can only be won by strong determination and will; it almost seems like they could fight for weeks. The two fighters move now so fast that it looks like a tornado of movements for a bystander. However, they stop and while Sanji's leg is starts glowing red, Zoro puts on his bandana. Ready to deal a fatal blow, they charge at each other, sure to win- suddenly, they both get punched by Nami on the head and fall down, thus ending the squabbling.
"And after twenty years, you still are absolute idiots. Now get back to your places!"
With severe damage, Sanji and Zoro barely stand up.
"Y-yes", they both mutter.
Straw Hat takes his place at the front of the sunny, staring at the endless horizon which is slowly raising as they begin to sink.
"The Thousand Sunny can be used underwater now. Isn't it SUPER?"
Franky leans to one side and bends the knee on the same side. The other leg is straight and going the opposite direction. He throws his head back while his arms go over his head at lock together wrist-to-wrist. The two separate star tattoos on his boulder-like arms push together to make one star. Behind him emerges a huge wave, enhancing his pose.
"Yes, it was so cool seeing the ocean without coating. Franky is truly a genius when it comes to being a shipwright"
"Thanks, Chopper. Okay, get all below deck! Especially you"
Franky points at Straw Hat while a little hand extends from his giant hand. Straw Hat turns his head holding his Hat very tight.
"Oh, yeah. I just haven't seen the ocean from the Sunny for years. Really missed the old days…"
Straw Hat stands up and follows the others to the door that leads below the ship's deck. The ship transforms while sinking into the deep ocean, into the abyss… the vision gets blurry as several layers of the ocean pile up and allow no sunlight to reach the ground… deeper and deeper until my vision completely blackens…
