ACT ELEVEN
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Franky clapped his hands together to get rid of the dust on his hands. Then he walked out of the engine room and headed to the upper deck, where everyone was anticipating the entry to Fishman Island. Again. Their eyes diverted towards him when he came. Franky cleared his throat, "We have enough air for us to Coup De Burst our way in."

They grinned at him, excitedly. "Alright, let's do it."

Franky had connected the engines from the engine room below, to the upper decking so that he could control everything from the top. Usopp headed to the control table, where Franky adjusted a few things in preparation, and pointed at the buttons. "Which one should I press? It's probably this one, right?" Usopp asked. The huge red button tempted him.

Franky nodded. "Press it."

With a big grin, Usopp slammed the button with his finger and the ship lurched a couple of times before it accelerated, cutting the sea. Their hands looked for anything stable to hold on to as the ship broke free of the bubble and entered Fishman Island with a powerful burst of energy. Zoro choked on a mouthful of seawater, but held on tight to the mast. There was no way he was about to fly off the ship. As he struggled to look around, Zoro realised that everyone else was doing the same.

Despite their strong will, the ship crashed on to the island's surface and they lost their consciousness.

Usopp opened one eye. Then he tried to open the other but yelped when something hard dug deep into his eyeballs. Usopp scrambled to get up, his hands finding the object that was hurting his eye and pulling it away. He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes open as he sat up. The thing that had been poking his eye was now in his hands; it was brown and looked like an antler.

"What the heck?" he yelped and let go of the antler. "Is that yours, Chopper?!"

The reindeer's eyes popped open and he glared at Usopp, "Yes! Let go of it, you long-nose!"

"Monster!" Usopp spat. Chopper's joints ached as he struggled to get up and face Chopper. Then the reindeer blinked into realisation and his mouth dropped open. "Usopp..."

Usopp finally took in his surroundings. The ship had crashed and now all that was left were merely broken wooden planks, rubble, burnt and ripped pieces of metal. Ashes filled their nose, the scent stinging and lingering in their nostrils. The rest of the crew were just starting to wake again, rubbing their sore limbs as they stood up.

But the place didn't just look dead because of their crash landing. The ground was burnt black and the buildings around them were crush. The marks of fire, dried blood and claw scratches decorated the buildings that were left and there was no one around. There were a few bodies laying around, but death had got them a long time ago. Pools of blood could be seen and the remnant of few weapons littered the ground.

It was exactly like what Shakky had described it - a warzone. A massive fight had happened here ages ago and left no witnesses.

Sanji's bones creaked a little, but worked. He lit a cigarette and puffed out smoke as his eyebrows knitted together at the sight of the place around him. His crewmates did the same, with much of the same silence. Then his eyes caught something moving from behind a ruined building. He walked over and peered over the walls. Sanji's eyeballs nearly popped out of its sockets.

"Sanji?" Nami called, nearing towards him with the rest following behind. "Did you find something?"

The young mermaid had been kneeling down by another dead mermaid, before she realised Sanji peering down from above her. The mermaid's eyes grew big and horrified, something dark flickered between them. She screamed fearfully and pulled out a knife, holding it out in front of Sanji. "Go away!" she shouted. Frightened tears streamed down her face as the knife shook in front of her face. "I'll kill you with the knife! I will!"

Sanji took the cigarette from his mouth and straightened up. The crew gathered and stared, trying not to be too intimidating. Sanji nearly cried at the sight of the poor girl. He sniffed, "She's... so cute!" He turned away, trying not to cry as he sniffed angrily. "Who did this?"

Nami approached the girl with a smile. It was shocking to see such a young girl hold a knife so willingly, and with heart to kill. Nami remembered when she felt like that. It had to be hurting for the young girl. "Hey, now," she touched the knife gently, "Let's put down the knife. Look, that old man is crying because of it!"

"I am not crying!"

The girl's hands quivered and hesitated, but she kept the knife in front of her. "No. You'll kill me!" the girl replied indignantly, "My mummy told me to live! I'll be the one to do what she's told! Even if all my siblings die! I'll live!" She sobbed and used one hand to push her tears back. "I will live!"

Brook suddenly drew closer to the girl. Even if she cut him, he would be fine. But that wasn't what made him want to look at the girl. Her huge brown eyes glimmered with tears and her unevenly cut green hair stopped abruptly at the middle of her back caused old memories to tickle the back of his mind. The shirt she wore was pink and yellow, with a single starfish in the middle. It reminded him of someone. Brook looked at the girl. "Did Cammie give this to you?"

Her eyebrows suddenly jumped up and her eyes widened with realisation. "You killed her? You killed her!" she started to scream and waved the knife wildly around. Brook held her back, dodging all her attacks. "I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I WILL ALWAYS HATE YOU! WHY?! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO KILL HER?!"

He couldn't believe what was happening. Brook pinned her to the nearest wall and she stopped flailing her arms. The girl let herself be stopped and the tears flowed down continuously. Her eyes and face were wet. "Why did you have to kill my mummy?"

Nami tried not to cry herself. She reached out a hand and brushed the girl's tears away, taking the knife away from her hands. The girl let go willingly, letting herself be comforted. "Don't cry," Nami said softly, "We didn't kill your mummy. We were her friends."

The girl sniffed loudly, hiccuping as she continued to sob. "Were you really? You were her friends? Are you the Straw Hats Pirates then?"

Brook nodded. "That's us!" he sang. The girl laughed a little at Brook and then rubbed all her tears away.

"What?" Usopp drew closer to her with a large grin, "You think Brook is funny? Look at me! I have a long nose!" The girl poked his nose and laughed harder, all her tears drying away.

Chopper jumped up, "I'm a reindeer! I'm also a doctor! I'm a pirate too! Cool, right?" The girl bent down and hugged the reindeer happily, chuckling as his fur tickled her gently.

"Mummy said your name is Chopper!" she laughed, hugging him tighter. "You're so soft! I love you!" Chopper shifted himself and the girl so that she was sitting on him. He liked children, and he liked it when it made them happy. Adults didn't get it. They only called him a monster.

Usopp shot Chopper a dirty look, "Monster. Trying to outdo me? Well, it's working! Too well!" He huffed but let it go.

Robin took a look at the child. She really was an exact replica of Cammie, their mermaid friend. The green hair, the same eyes and face. It was like looking at a child version of Cammie. She wasn't surprised that Cammie had grown up to have a family - she was an amazing person. But remembering what the young girl had said, it seemed like she'd had several children and she died along with them. Leaving the last one behind. Robin felt heartbroken for the young child.

"What happened here, seriously?" Zoro muttered.

Franky gave a scan of their surroundings and gritted his teeth. "I can't exactly say. But there was a huge fight, obviously. We should see whether this is the only place that looks like this. If it were the whole of Fishman Island..." he stopped midsentence. There could be no way.

Sanji shook his head and said to them in a low voice, so that the other distracted group couldn't hear. "Don't go yet. I agree with you. But this is Cammie's daughter. We can't leave her. And she might know something we don't."

Another chapter for possibly hungry readers! I know I haven't been updating in a while but I'm really excited for this arc because it's one of the third biggest thing that will happen before the fanfiction ends! Thinking about the end makes me sad... I have loved writing this, but it doesn't matter because the ending will be good, I promise!

Reviewer of the Day goes to...Eirist!: I'm not sure if you still read my fanfiction but your review was one of the very first ones I received! You were so encouraging and I still remember your review to this day! Thank you for being such an amazing supporter for this series.

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