After making the brown owl adapter and a build driver for gin I spotted reverse mountain ahead.
"Entrance to the grand line ahead!" I called out. And I could feel its carrot was on the other side. My rabbit bottle was glowing as we got ready to head into the grand line each of us putting our legs around the barrel. Declaring our dreams.
"To become pirate king!" Luffy shouted with a grin.
"To become the world's strongest swordsman," Zoro said.
"To map the whole world," said nami.
"To be a brave warrior of the sea," ussop said.
"To be a doctor helping people," Kayla said smiling at ussop.
"To find all blue" Sanji said.
"To be the best defender," gin said finding the dream worthy of his goal.
"To stop Faust" said sento.
"To stop revolt," said ryuga.
"To clear ryuga's name," Kasumi said.
"To save my dad," said misora.
"To save the world and keep it standing!" I said determined to see this through.
Only I heard a slightly feminine voice speak up as my eyes glowed green a bit as I saw a transparent leg place itself next to mine.
"To sail on the seas of adventure!" She said as I got a hint of a familiar grin before she faded away.
"Let's go!" All of us cheered as we got ready to go up reverse mountain. 'don't worry merry I won't let you die if I can help it!' I thought pulling out a full bottle I got made last night. Of a ram full bottle that was of the lost variant. One I tuned to merry.
"Now get ready the current is strong so we need to make sure merry doesn't hit the edges of the stream! And Luffy's fair warning does not beak the mast of merry we want the ship as intact as we can as we go through the grand line sento may have science knowledge but I doubt he knows how to fix a ship like merry!" I shouted to them. I had to fight reverse mountain to get to east blue in the first place so I had experience with the mountain. It was the most difficulty I had from grand line to east blue on my journey to find Luffy.
"Sad to say he's right I don't know how to fix the ship if it gets damaged. Something I'm going to resolve when we get a shipwright" sento admitted as now that merry was the build teams home they needed the skills to keep it together.
Still, I frowned if gin had the owl bottle what about the others from grease's farm, and what was going to be happening to grease here. The third rider was honestly surprising in how his character developed and I'm not sure what changes were going to be made here.
Since the skywall wasn't a thing that meant Pandora's box wasn't found yet. Or it had gotten lost between the journey back to earth from Mars and if anything it might be somehow at one piece in laugh tale.
Still, it took all of us to get the ship past the current safely. The fact it was just five people in the original that managed the feat was impressive since that's a small crew.
"Hey, James why is your rabbit bottle glowing" asked ryuga noticing the red glow in my pocket.
"Let's just say you guys are about to meet my fiancee," I said grinning a bit nervous as my scar twinged a bit. I was definitely at half strength right now.
And as laboon came into view there sitting on the whale's head was carrot the blonde-haired white rabbit was just as I saw her in the show two years younger but it was her. She jumped and knowing her by growing up with her I held out my arms and caught her bridal style with an utter deadpan.
"Hey carrot sorry to get you worried I honestly wasn't expecting evolt to punch a hole in my chest," I told her as I set her on her feet and hugged her. "Luffy don't think about punching the island whale! But we do need to talk to its doctor inside. Hey laboon can we go in and talk to crocus and I might have info on the rumbar pirates! Brook is still alive but because of his devil fruit, he's a skeleton undead in the Florian triangle! Once we get past water seven we'll try and rescue him" I called to laboon making the whale go wide-eyed before sucking us in.
"How did you know about that" asked Luffy and nami looking at me confused.
"Took a slight detour through the Florian triangle on my way to east blue. Met Brook who helped me avoid Gekko moria's word of warning that warlords can steal and manipulate shadows that's why Brook is trapped there. His shadow was stolen and he can't be out in sunlight anymore until he gets his shadow back. Moria also deals with making zombies so Zoro you might get a new blade in the process from a zombie ancestor... You have family in wano cause only other people I know who had your hair color are in wano. Plus you resemble some of the people there. So the sword there is a lost treasure of wano and technically your birthright but it belongs to the clan head and as you are a lost member of the clan you might get a rather powerful sword in exchange for returning the blade to wano. Ussop this is something you need to know about thiller bark... The zombies are weak to sea salt so you need to make special ammo for it. Also when we get to water seven it's tradition to get a new ship merry can only go so far in the grand line but we won't abandon her for just a new ship. Seems I picked up a slight ability to see the soul of the ship and if the ship has a soul I got a plan to let her stay with us when the time comes. Her dream is to keep sailing the seas of adventure with us it doesn't mean she can stop just because her current form gave out halfway" I said patting the sheep figurehead and I could swear the eyes seem to move to look at me with tears forming.
"... Eh!" The crew shouted as they looked at me.
"Yeah don't know how old merry is when we got her but the fact she's already having a soul... She is alive. This is why I told you not to do something stupid like breaking the mast she's our Nakama and we need to keep her intact as much as we can if what I think can keep her around works. If I can get nebula gas from objects chances are I can turn the objects into smash if they got a soul. Not sure how much that will work but it's worth a try right" I said looking to the crew and carrot.
"I don't even know that possible but your abilities are making me wonder more about nebula gas and its applications," said sento.
"Won't try it until we get to water seven and get her looked at when we get there. But in the meantime let's keep her safe she's our Nakama and that means it's our responsibility to take proper care of her" I said giving Luffy a look.
"She's our first proper ship and like hell is I going to abandon her when we got so many memories to make," I said smiling at the figurehead.
"After all as her crew, we shape her as much as she shapes us as our home for now. But our next ship... She will have fun teaching the new one as an elder sister or senpai when the time comes" I said before noting crocus was heading our way.
"What's this visitors? Hope your better than the last ones" said the old man.
"Kinda I got news about the rumbar pirates and we got an aspiring medical doctor here who needs the basics as our nurse," I said before narrowing my eyes as I suddenly leaped up and grabbed an explosive and put it out before grabbing the nebula gas from it and creating a dynamite full bottle with the cap having an E/U emblem.
Zoro and Sanji reacted and stopped more explosives before we located Vivi and her partner here and frankly captured them.
With that done I told the old man brooks situation and why he hasn't come back.
"So Brook is in the Florian triangle stuck by moria's powers and because of a devil fruit, Brook ate he's now basically an undead skeleton? That's troubling news" the old man said frowning.
"I promised Brook that once I joined a pirate crew I would go back and help him reunite with laboon. Laboon is old enough now to travel the grand line and reunite with his friend might take a bit until we get a new ship though after all Brook was part of a pirate crew of musicians and Luffy you said you wanted a musician on the crew. And as laboon's doctor I'm asking if it's okay to bring laboon with us to rescue Brook" I said and the old man laughed.
"Might finally get him to stop ramming the mountain" said crocus as he opened the way out and I let Merry sail out before looking laboon in the eye.
"Laboon Brook is in the Florian triangle trapped because moria stole his shadow I promised I would go back with a crew to help him get free so I'm asking you to come with us to help Brook. He still has a promise to fulfill and I think it's time you show Brook how strong you got in all this time! Might have some detours on the way but since my captain values freedom the most I know we will go help Brook when we can" I said as Luffy nodded.
"Got me there anyone who tries to take my Nakama's freedom is an enemy of mine and if Brook is James Nakama and yours then I'm willing to help free him once we find the Florian triangle" Luffy agreed.
"Arlong found that out the hard way," I said looking at nami.
"... That was the reason he fought arlong! To free me and my town because he was making our freedom nonexistent" asked nami wide-eyed in shock.
"To him, king of the pirates means being the freest man in the world seriously after the tales I heard of gol the previous king of the pirates he seems to be quite a bit like Luffy... It would be odd if Luffy turns out to be gol's reincarnation the personality I heard is uncanny in resemblance" I said pointing at Luffy.
"I thought his name is gold Roger" asked ussop as everyone gave me an odd look except crocus.
"No his name is Gol D. Roger. He is like Luffy in having his name being monkey D. Luffy. his epitaph in his old wanted posters was a deliberate typo by the world government because anyone with the initial D In their names has unreal wills enough that it's simply called the will of D. The government hates anyone with that as they can't be controlled by them and like it or not always bring change to the world. That and oddly shows the Marines had a sense of humor with making the king of the pirates being known as gold Roger. Buggy can confirm it with shanks as they were part of Roger's crew" I said amused as everyone went wide-eyed.
"If shanks ever told you Luffy but I heard faint rumors that your hat was originally owned by Roger who passed it to shanks and then passed to you. So you have something from the original king of the pirates on you" I said as Luffy touched his hat shocked.
"No wonder shanks called it his treasure it's the only thing he has to remember his captain left. And he gave it to me seeing how similar I am to the old king of the pirates... I'm carrying the will of the king of the pirates. part of that legacy" said Luffy in realization as he gave it a more fond look knowing the history of the hat.
"Guess it was his lucky charm if the hat is that old," said Sanji as the crew gave the hat a look.
Even Vivi and the baroque works member with her gave pause hearing that.
" Still carrot you might want to call Wanda... You scared her when you left without warning" I said turning to my rabbit fiancee.
She stiffened up and looked nervous.
"Oh my, I just left with no experience or knowledge of the world and barely made it here how did I manage to do so without freezing up from the shock," asked carrot realizing just what she did now.
"You were too worried about me to focus on what you were doing. You must have followed our connection to get here. My full bottle from you has been glowing since I realized you were nearby." I said showing her the red bottle which was shining with light.
Next stop a certain place with cactus-shaped rocks and the start of alabasta. Yeah, time to get new bottles. Speaking of I grabbed the whale full bottle from laboon. Now how was I going to get whale's best match... I was going to get a sub from the war of the best when law debuts. Heck, Luffy might have a bounty increase when we are done with crocodile. And his starting bounty when he became king of east blue and his surprising skill at running a kingdom made me wonder if some of Garp's lessons on how the Marines are run stuck and Luffy was using them to properly run the kingdom while on his journey. With how bad corruption ran in the east blue Marines well the kingdom and decent Marines like helmepo and Coby might turn things around. ... Though what was with the startling changes to Coby and helmepo when they joined garp after we will meet Franky. Did time pass that quickly? Luckily I'm only known in my armor as a member of the straw hats. So I can walk around if I need to.