Author's Notes: First of all, a head's up; I actually went back and edited the previous chapter, specifically with the encounter between Ranma's crew and Eldrago's goons in the woods. Hopefully it's a much better showing for our heroes now than it was before! Also, obligatory reminder: we have a tropes page, and I'd love to see it expanded.
Negima Uzumaki: Largely because this takes its cue from the anime version of Ranma, who never encountered the 'senkens. Not that it matters much, because manga!Ranma a) never learned the Yamasenken's vacuum blades himself, and b) swore to never, ever use either 'senken style, no matter what.
Chapter 14: Rumble, Thunder, Roar! The Screaming Drake vs. the Heavenly Dragon!
Nabiki Tendo was many things, not all of them complimentary, but she most certainly was not a morning person. She valued her creature comforts highly, and first and foremost amongst them was the ability to spend as long in bed as she could possibly get away with. As such, when she found herself stirring in the darkness just before dawn, it took her a shamefully long time to realize that there was another body lying next to her in the gloom. Fortunately, that same fuzzy-headedness meant that she simply stared at it until her memory coughed up the pertinent details, rather than panicking like her sisters might have.
'Oh, that's right, we did the "sleeping together for warmth" trick...' she blearily mused as her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she realized she was lying next to Ukyo Kuonji.
Whilst the shed that had been turned into their makeshift prison wasn't badly built, the fact of the matter was that Warship Island was not what you would call a tropical paradise. Even with good solid wooden walls to keep the wind out, the fact was that as night had deepened, the island had gotten pretty chilly, and being forced to sit around in damp clothes hadn't exactly helped. So the crew had pulled together, throwing around bags of rice to create a makeshift mattress they could all huddle together on and pulling dry straw down over themselves as a blanket. It was a far cry from the luxuries of even a humble futon, but it was better than nothing, and so the four girls had drifted off to sleep, with their captain and honorary fifth girl sandwiched squarely in the middle of the huddle.
Ryoga and Umok had declined to join the press, and frankly it was uncertain if they would have been invited in the first place. Ryoga had found himself a dry corner and dug out a sort of burrow under a pile of potatoes, and seemed to be content to sit there. Umok, meanwhile, had just perched up in the rafters with the rest of the straw, burrowing into the pile until only his hat remained protruding.
Nabiki sat up, too tired to really consider that at some point in the night she had curled up next to Ukyo - for obvious reasons, she had been happy to let Ranma's right and left sides go to Ukyo and Kodachi - and even gone so far as to drape the former crossdresser's long, flowing mane of hair over herself like an extra blanket. She looked over the three at the center - correction, the four at the center; Shampoo, still in full cabbit form, was nestled very snugly into Ranma's ample cleavage, and seemed quite content to be there.
'Well, aren't they just fine and cozy... even Kodachi is sleeping like a baby! Sheesh, what is it with you martial artists? My whole body's aching from this stupid makeshift mattress!'
Instinctively, Nabiki twisted from side to side until her stiff joints creaked and audibly popped.
'Oh, that hurts... stupid Eldrago... wait... oh, crap!'
"Ranma! Ranma, wake up!" Nabiki hissed, trying to find a point between actually getting through to the legendarily deep-sleeping martial artist and not giving the game away to any guards who might still be on duty outside of the shed.
She honestly wasn't expecting to have much luck. Ranma's ability to sleep through everything shy of a plunge into the koi pond from his second-storey bedroom was almost a family joke in the Tendo dojo, and Nabiki had exploited that deep sleep more than once. She was just starting to wrack her brains for a way to get Ranma to wake up that wouldn't also make the guards come and investigate when, to her surprise, Ranma actually stirred.
"Nnn...M'up, M'up," the genderbender muttered sleepily, before yawning hugely and rubbing one eye with the knuckles of her first.
"Will wonders never cease," Nabiki muttered, the words not quite as sarcastic as they sounded in her head.
Ranma gave her a bleary-eyed but still dirty look. "What're you doing up?"
"Waiting for you to get tired of being a pillow and get things started," Nabiki quipped back. When Ranma just stared blankly at her, she gestured to Ranma's chest, drawing the sleep-dazed martial artist's attention to the zoan comfortably nuzzling into the faux-girl's all-too-real boobs.
Ranma's face flickered through a series of emotions, too fast for Nabiki to make them out, before settling on a surprisingly vulnerable smile. Gently, she reached up and scratched Shampoo behind the ears, twitching at the sleepy purr this elicited. "Tell ya somethin' funny? I always wanted a pet..."
"Well, that would be one benefit of marrying Shampoo," Nabiki quipped, unable to help herself.
Ranma ignored her. "C'mon, Shamps; lemme up."
Shampoo sleepily mumbled something in Chinese that could have easily been either a plea for more sleeping time or a curse on Ranma's ancestry before she buried her head even deeper into Ranma's shirt, wriggling down until her head was completely submerged in Ranma's cleavage and only her oversized ears remained jutting above the impromptu pillows of flesh.
Which, of course, was just when Kodachi sat up with a yawn and a luxuriant stretch, otherwise seeming perfectly well rested, much to Nabiki's disgruntled envy. She turned to Ranma and beamed happily down at the gender-flipping man of her dreams.
"Well, Ranma darling... I can't say that this is precisely how I envisioned our first time sleeping together, but I certainly will not complain about the results," Kodachi purred sensually.
Nabiki rolled her eyes at the saccharine comment. 'Oh, please, as if even Ranma is dumb enough to fall for a corny line like that...'
Aloud, she commented, "I hate to interrupt your little game of pussyfoot, but didn't we have a plan to help Apis and her village? Isn't that why we're up at this ungodly hour?"
She smirked as guilt visibly washed over Ranma's face as the sleep-deprived captain's memory finally kicked into gear. Ranma quickly dug into her cleavage and yanked Shampoo free, the Chinese zoan letting out a startled yowl of protest as she was hoisted into the air by the scruff of her neck. Kodachi and Ukyo both squawked as Ranma unceremoniously dropped Shampoo to the side before springing out of their makeshift bed, kicking straw flying as she stomped into the center of the barn.
"Umok? Umok!"
"About time you woke up; I was starting to wonder if you were going to sleep through your own scheme," the imp drawled, lazily drifting down from the rafters.
"Yeah, yeah, just get into position," Ranma jeered, pausing only to flick the finger at Umok before she stomped over to the door and hammered on it.
"Guard! Guard! I wanna talk to ya!"
"Pipe down in there, or you'll regret it!" came the weary snarl from outside the door.
"I wanna talk to your boss! Captain to Captain!" Ranma cried back.
There was silence for a few moments, before they heard the sound of somebody fumbling with a heavy metal chain and what sounded like a lock. The door swung slightly ajar, revealing the suspicious looking face of the thug on the other side.
"If you wanna talk to Eldrago, why now?" he asked, the skepticism evident in his voice as well as his features.
"Look, last night was his big moment - he had to make sure everybody knew he was the boss. But now things have calmed down, so we can talk business. C'mon, man, we've been good all night, haven't we? And you know we could be making all kinds of trouble if we want to," Ranma cajoled, suppressing the urge to smirk as her conversational partner winced and gently touched a fist-shaped bruise adorning his eye.
"Well..." he trailed off thoughtfully, clearly thinking it over. Finally, he scowled and nodded. "Alright - but just you! An' no funny business, or the villagers get it!"
"Oh, you have my word," Ranma assured through the crack in the door, with a feigned innocence that would have made her companions smirk if they weren't trying to keep from giving the game away.
Above Ranma's head, out of sight of the guard, Umok hastily gestured and muttered in an eldritch tongue before shimmering out of view, leaving in his place a rippling distortion similar to heat haze - it wasn't true invisibility, as he had insisted the previous evening, but in dim light and without close attention, it might as well have been. As the barn door swung open and Ranma stepped out, Umok quickly floated after the genderbending pirate captain; as soon as the open sky was within reach, the illusion-wreathed imp rocketed skyward, under the simple principle that guards rarely look for trouble coming from above.
Oblivious to the imp now hovering high overhead, the guard locked the barn door closed once more before gesturing to Ranma with the hand holding a pistol that he had been aiming at Ranma since she stepped through the gate.
"Alright, get moving!"
As she was marched through the dark streets of the pre-dawn village, Ranma permitted herself a small smirk.
'So far, so good...'
Meanwhile, in Apis' home...
'Stupid stinky shiny ship-wrecking screaming pirate!'
Apis quietly fumed to herself as she bustled around her grandfather's small kitchen, casting the occasional baleful look over her shoulder at the monster who had captured her village and squashed her hopes, and now had the audacity to be sitting in *her* living room shoveling down handfuls of Grandpa Bokuden's delicious pork buns.
Either oblivious or indifferent to Apis' rage, Eldragon chomped and gulped through meaty mouthfuls of steamed buns.
"*Scromf!* You know, old man, *munch*, you may be a lousy storyteller, *gulp*, but you're a pretty good cook. Maybe I should *gulluck* keep you as my personal *nyowmf* chef!"
"Please, sir, I have family and a village to care for! Don't take me from them!" Bokuden pleaded plaintively, to which Eldrago rolled his eyes.
"Try to pay a landlubber a compliment..." he muttered, before stuffing another half-dozen buns into his mouth in one bite. Then his eyes popped out of his head in shock and he began audibly choking, pounding desperately on his chest with one hand as the oversized mouthful clogged his throat.
Apis held her own breath, watching eagerly from the kitchen and daring herself to hope... only to slump in disappointment as Eldrago finally managed to swallow the whole mouthful at once and began panting for air.
'I knew it couldn't be that easy...'
"Whoo! Almost bit off more than I could chew there!" Eldragon muttered to himself. He reached for another bun, only to be interrupted by a knocking at the door.
"What is it?!" he growled, scowling at the door, one golden-clawed hand still hovering over the next delicious pork bun.
The door cracked open and one of his hired mercenaries poked his head out. "Forgive me, Captain Eldragon, but Captain Saotome-"
He got no further as a feminine hand suddenly latched onto his face and then bounced his head off of the door jamb with an audible crack, dropping him into an insensate heap on the ground. A foot swiftly applied to the base of the door thrust it open, revealing the indifferent face of the one responsible.
"Is perfectly capable of speaking for himself," the redheaded girl declared, before giving the startled pirate sitting at Apis' table a winning smile. "Captain Eldrago; good morning! I - ooh, are those pork buns?!"
The three residents blinked, and in that time, Ranma was across the floor and kneeling seiza style at the table, stuffing a bun into her mouth and muttering delightedly. "Oooh, these are good!"
Eldrago gawked for a moment, before he thrust himself upright with a roar, slamming his great paws down on the table hard enough to make the buns dance. "If you think this sneak attack will work!"
"Sneak attack? I'm not here for a sneak attack!" Ranma shot back, cheeks bulging with pork and pastry. "I'm here to ask for a place on your crew!"
The house went silent, save for the gentle creaking of the door as the wind blew it back and forth. Slowly, Eldrago lifted one hand to the side of his head before methodically cleaning out his ear with the tip of his pinky's golden claw. Finally, he spoke a single word.
"What."
Ranma hastily swallowed the latest pork bun she had snaffled whilst Eldrago was busy making such a show of things, and grinned up at him. "Well, you and I, we don't really have a grievance. I was hired to fight you, but it was just a job, and you already won, so no harm, no foul, right? But now I don't have a ship of my own... and you're clearly a very strong pirate, with very big dreams. So I want in!"
"You dirty, traitorous, backstabbing, bastard!" Apis hissed as quietly as she could, then froze in borderline bowel-voiding terror as Ranma's eyes suddenly stabbed into her like daggers of frozen seawater. She trembled on the spot as Ranma glared at her, only to find herself blinking in surprise as Ranma suddenly smiled and winked at her, before hastily schooling her features and looking back at Eldrago.
'...What the hell?!'
"...And just why would I let you join my crew?" Eldrago slowly asked, arms folded across his chest and one finger tapping on the opposing bicep.
"Well, if you're going to conquer the Grand Line, you need a strong crew, right? Well, no offense, but you're not exactly employing the best of the best right now, are you?" Ranma drawled, jerking a thumb at the unconscious mercenary still in the doorway.
Eldrago said nothing, but the way he followed Ranma's gesture and his lip curled disdainfully spoke volumes.
"I understand you need me to prove you can trust me, so why not let me come with you on the journey to Dragon's Nest? I'll show you my worth, and once we return, the rest of my crew will join up too! I'll even bring Shampoo with me, as a show of good faith - she is my strongest warrior, after all," Ranma declared.
Meanwhile, back in the barn, Ryoga felt a sudden, inexplicable surge of rage wash over him.
"...Shampoo?" Eldragon asked, unable to resist the curiosity.
"The Zoan. It's a custom where she's from," Ranma explained.
Eldrago rumbled in his throat, visibly thinking it over. A tusky scowl settled over his face as he leaned forward, looming over the smaller pirate captain. "Betray me, and I'll have my men stationed here execute your crew and these worthless villagers, am I clear?"
"As crystal, Captain," Ranma replied smoothly, showing no fear at all.
"Then I accept your offer, shipman Ranma!" Eldragon thundered, seating himself back at the table with a thump before slamming his hands on the table. "More pork buns!" he roared, sending Apis and her grandfather scurrying back into the kitchen.
Once safely inside, Bokuden turned to his granddaughter with a defeated look. "How could you ally yourself with such a fickle pirate, granddaughter?"
"I don't know, grandpa! I swear, he seemed so nice before now - I don't know what's going on!" Apis sniffled in defense.
"Well, if he fooled the two of you, then that big lug must obviously have bought it hook, line and sinker."
Grandfather and granddaughter looked up to see Umok hovering at their kitchen window. Bokuden recoiled in shock, whilst Apis ran towards the window and threw it open.
"What are you talking about, Umok?!" Apis demanded.
"The captain has a cunning plan to set you free. But he's going to need your help to pull off this little scheme... can we rely on you, old man?" the imp asked.
Bokuden drew himself up as straight as he possibly could, looking the strange floating creature squarely in its three eyes. "What do you need?"
Soon afterwards...
As the dawning sun rose high over the shining sea and the ominous form of Eldrago's personal vessel, the Cuélebre, sailed away from Warship Island, Bokuden strode purposefully along the dirt road to the barn where the village's would-be saviors were being held. The two guards posted outside of the barn immediately pointed their rifles at him, bringing him to a halt just shy of the door.
"Whaddya want, old fart?" jeered the larger of the two.
"I bring food and drink for the prisoners - Captain Eldrago's orders," Bokuden replied, indicating the tray heaped with pork buns he held in one hand and a steaming hot kettle he held in the other.
The guards sneered at him, but nodded and opened the door, allowing him to pass. As they shut the door behind him, one guard frowned before looking at the other.
"Was his hunchback normally that pronounced?" he asked his counterpart, who merely shrugged indifferently.
Inside, Bokuden found the remaining members of the Kamikaze Pirates eagerly waiting for him. Ukyo took the plate of pork buns from him, whilst Kodachi stepped forward and claimed the kettle.
"Did you bring the spare clothing?" Nabiki asked, before she snatched a bun from the plate and took a bite, surprise and then delight blooming on her face as the taste washed over her famished tongue.
"I certainly did... I still can't believe that such curses could exist," Bokuden replied, before reaching down the neck of his shirt and retrieving the bundle of neatly folded clothes he had hidden underneath his own clothing.
"It's easier to show than explain," Ukyo replied, even as Kodachi took the clothes from the elderly man and strode purposefully over to the corner of the barn.
Dropping the clothes in front of the grumpy piglet, Kodachi averted her eyes and poured the kettle over the top, allowing Ryoga to regain his human form and some semblance of dignity.
"That's better! Now, time to even the score with these jerks," Ryoga declared, literally baring his fangs in anticipation of sweet, sweet revenge.
"You sure you can handle the guards?" Nabiki asked, her sneer at odds with the feigned sweetness of her tone.
Ryoga unironically snorted in disdain, even as he marched over to the door. He stood there a moment, listening to the sounds of the guards moving on the other sides, before his fists launched themselves straight out, punching twin holes clean through the door as if it were made of plywood before latching onto the collars of the startled guards and bodily dragging them through the door, sending them flying to the ground in a shower of splinters.
They hit the ground with an audible thud and pained groans, already half-unconscious before a swift blow to the head from a pair of rice sacks wielded by Kodachi and Ukyo left them firmly unconscious. As Kodachi hastily stole the pistols from both pirates before looting them of their spare bullets, Ryoga triumphantly dusted off his hands.
"Nothing to it!"
"Two down... dozens more to go..." Nabiki observed calmly.
"Fear not, Nabiki Tendo; the three of us will be more than a match for this rabble. You stay here with Apis' grandfather where it's safe; we shall attend to the real work," Kodachi proudly proclaimed, spinning the pistols in her hand so fast that they were a blur before snapping them into a firing position, madness gleaming in her eye and lips curled in a smile to chill the blood.
Before Nabiki, Ukyo or Ryoga could even think of commenting on Kodachi's declaration, Umok suddenly came sailing in through the hole where the door had once been.
"The pirates are all gathering in the town square! I don't know why, but it looks serious - Mr. 6 and Miss Mother's Day called them all to order!" the impl quickly explained.
"Then we better get there - this is our chance to get 'em all in one shot!" Ukyo cried, before the three martial artists took off running, Umok sailing after them and leaving Nabiki and Bokuden alone in the hut together.
Nabiki shook her head softly. "And now we wait..."
"Do you really believe they can do it?" Bokuden asked, hope flickering like a candle in the wind.
"Oh, certainly! I'm just a little worried what kind of condition the village will be in afterwards," Nabiki confessed.
Bokuden's weathered features grew noticeably more wrinkled at that declaration, the worry almost visibly etching itself into his face.
Meanwhile...
"You weren't kidding, Umok - that looks like the whole crew," Ukyo muttered from where she was peering around the corner of a house.
"I wonder what brought them together," Kodachi murmured.
"Immaterial. The issue is defeating them before they can inflict casualties on the villagers," Umok declared.
Ryoga simply grunted and clenched his fists. "If I could just get in amongst them, I could take them all out with one Perfect Shishi Hokodan!"
"You can't just blast them from here?" A confused Ukyo asked.
"The Perfect version goes up, then it drops like a bomb. Means I have to be right up next to whoever I want to hit, but they stay hit," Ryoga explained.
"Hmm... a distraction, then? Very well; you better make this count," Umok declared, before rising and shooting off over the rooftops.
"Where are you go - hey, come back here!" Ryoga hissed, but the imp was already well out of their reach. The Eternally Lost Boy's eyes bulged out in shocked disbelief as Umok sat down on one of the stylized dragon's head roof ornaments that marked the houses thronging the village square, in plain sight of the gathered pirates.
"Gentlemen! ...And I use the term loosely! Allow me to entertain you all with a song of my people!" Umok proclaimed, spreading his arms wide and drawing all eyes to him.
"...What the hell?!" Ukyo blurted.
"I suppose that's one way to distract people," Kodachi giggled.
Without further preamble, Umok suddenly launched into a full-throated song, his surprisingly melodious voice ringing out across the village like a bell, deep enough that the words seemed to reverberate in his audience's bones.
"There once was an island dead west of the sunset...A place where the sun's rays danced carefree and bright."
"What kind of plan is this?!" Ryoga snapped.
"One that's working - get in there!" Ukyo barked, slapping Ryoga in the back of the head for emphasis.
Startled into action, Ryogoa jogged forward as Umok launched into the second verse
"Its shores all a'sparkle with white shining beaches... And jungles aplenty with game day and night."
Whether it was magic or simply incredulity at the imp's sheer audacity, the pirates were spellbound, allowing Ryoga to weave and nudge his way through the ranks into the thick of their midst.
"They say that the people who dwelt there were happy...They say that they lived their lives simple and fair...Yet one day a bitter wind rose from the ocean...And took the poor folk by surprise unaware..."
A part of Ryoga almost wanted to listen to the song, but he squashed it and focused on dredging up the darkest, most painful memories he could... which were easy enough to come by. Being stuck on this miserable ocean world without Akane was torment enough, after all!
"For ruin had risen in thunderous fury...A ravenous shadow fell over the shore...And when Father Dagon's black gullet gaped open..."
Umok's three eyes burned with malicious glee as he grinned, a too-wide sprawl of fangs that glimmered with witchlight in the unnatural shadow of his face, twinkling as he thundered the final verse.
"The waves ran with blood, and the isle was no more!""
"Perfect Shishi Hokodan!"
The earth split and buckled as Ryoga's roiling aura tore skyward, a sickly pillar of shadow-darkened green flames that stretched from its owner and coalesced into a swirling, pulsing orb of destruction hovering overhead like a cloud of doom. Panic and confusion reigned as pirates tried to react to the sudden attack, but it was to no avail as the misery-fueled sphere of heavy ki gave in to its fundamental nature and dropped like a hundred ton stone, crushing everything beneath it into a meters-deep crater in the earth.
Silence fell over the village once more as the residents cautiously peeked out of doors and windows, Kodachi and Ukyo striding quickly up to the rim of the body-littered crater.
"...You weren't kidding," Ukyo admitted, whistling at the scene of devastation.
"A shame about the unsightly hole, but one cannot make an omelet without breaking a few eggs," Kodachi declared, poking one pirate in the head with her purloined pistol to ascertain that he was truly unconscious.
It took Ryoga a few moments to respond; getting out of the mindset needed to use the Perfect Shishi Hokodan wasn't something that came quickly to him. But the rare ego boost helped chase the fog of misery away, and he puffed out his chest in a rare outburst of pride. "I told you! Thirty pirates in one shot! Beat that, Ranma!"
"Ranchan's plan worked... I just hope he'll be okay all alone on that ship," Ukyo nervously observed, ignoring the way Ryoga wilted at her indifference to his triumph.
"Have no fear, Ukyo Kuonji; my darling Ranma is too mighty to fall for a lowly ruffian like Eldrago! Besides, he took that Chinese barbarian with him; she should suffice as cannon fodder to cover his escape at the very least," Kodachi proclaimed.
"Ranchan would never treat a girl like that," Ukyo muttered angrily, before she turned to the villagers.
"Are you lot going to just stand there and stare? Or are you going to help us tie these idiots up before they regain consciousness?" she demanded, her words sparking a flurry of activity as the bolder villagers began to swarm out of hiding, the prospect of vengeance drawing them out of their shelters.
"Whilst you attend to that, I will go and fetch Nabiki and the village elder," Umok announced, slowly levitating off of his perch.
"How did you know that plan would work?" Ryoga asked the imp before he could take off.
"People across the multiverse tend to stop and stare at unprecedented sights, and I gambled that such behavior would come as a complete shock to pirates such as these," Umok replied flippantly.
"And that song?" Ukyo added.
"I... may have spent a century or two trying to make it as a folk singer. It's none of your business!" Umok defensively declared, before shooting off like a humanoid bullet.
"Yeesh, touchy," Ryoga muttered.
"...I feel I should be more surprised than I actually am," Ukyo observed.
Out to sea, aboard the Cuélebre...
"I'm sorry, Grandpa Ryu; this isn't how I wanted to help you get back to your nest," Apis sighed, gently stroking the bald dome atop the elderly dragon's head.
Heavy footsteps resounded as a shadow loomed ominously over her. Apis looked up into the disgruntled sneer of Eldrago as he impatiently scratched his chin. "Has the beast figured out where we're going, yet?"
Apis sullenly glowered up at the hulking brute, refusing to let him stand over her... well, /metaphorically/, anyway - there wasn't much she could do about him being nearly four times taller than her. "Grandpa Ryu's old, he's a little senile, he can't help it! But he's positive that this is the right way - we just need to keep going!"
Eldrago grunted disdainfully, but seemed to accept Apis' answer, as he turned and lumbered away. Apis watched him go, then turned back to her friend, stroking the ancient dragon once more.
"Don't you worry, Granpa; we'll get out of this! ...Somehow..."
Meanwhile, Ranma and Shampoo were slouching over the gunwale just behind the ship's figurehead, staring out into the open sea together.
"Sailing the seas in search of a missing island, a lost civilization, and the legendary nesting grounds of dragons... if it weren't for the unwanted company, this'd actually be a pretty awesome adventure," Ranma observed flippantly.
"Shampoo know what you mean. Sound like something out of children's tales from back in village... you really think old dragon will lead us there?" Shampoo asked, the zoan currently in her hybrid form and idly tracing lines in the wood with the tip of one claw.
"Well, Ryu's real enough, and where there are old dragons, there have to be baby dragons, right? Besides, it's not the first time I've run across a baby dragon," Ranma noted.
Shampoo blinked in surprise. "You have, airen? When?"
"Do you remember that big storm we had back in Nerima, not too long before we ended up here? Well, right before the storm started to really pick up steam, I found this weird little creature in a deep rainwater puddle - like a bright red seahorse. I brought it home and tried to care for it. Turned out it was a baby dragon - I ended up having to protect it from that creepy frog-catcher, who wanted to eat it for immortality."
Shampoo shuddered in disgust as she remembered the little frog-tamer who had fallen into Jusenkyo's Spring of Drowned Frog. "Nasty little man gives Shampoo the creeps! Whatever happen to dragon, airen?"
"Well, at the peak of the storm, it grew into an adult and flew away."
Shampoo stared at Ranma slowly. "That sound... kind of anticlimactic."
"Eh, you had to be there," Ranma said with a shrug. "Man, we've been sailing a long time now... the sun's way up, and yet we haven't seen so much as an atoll at out here... wonder how much further it is to Lost Island?"
"Shampoo not know... wish we get there soon - huh? Airen, look at that! You see what Shampoo see?" the zoan asked, pointing one paw-like hand out towards the horizon.
Ranma followed the gesture, squinting against the glare of sunlight off of water, and then looked confused. "Yeah, I see it - looks like smoke, but... where's it coming from?"
"What are you two women muttering about?" came a bark from behind the two Kamikaze Pirates.
They twisted about face and were confronted with the sneering visage of Eldrago, who was capable of moving with surprising stealth for so large and brutish a man.
"Ah, Captain Eldrago, good timing! We just spotted something strange on the horizon," Ranma replied, putting on her best diplomatic face.
"It's not another damn waterspout, is it? This stupid ocean loves to throw those at us," Eldrago growled, lumbering over to stand behind them. He cocked his head at the sight, reaching up to scratch his meager beard. "...Smoke? No, almost looks like a ship..."
Indeed, the vague darkness on the horizon had grown increasingly distinct as the Cuélebre had grown closer, to the point it now looked extraordinarily like a ship made of pure shadow-stuff on a direct collision course with the Cuélebre... An impression that only strengthened when the shadowy shape suddenly snapped into being as a full color replica of the Cuélebre, their figureheads just moments away from slamming into each other!
"Brace for impact!" Ranma cried out instinctively, reaching out and wrapping an arm around Shampoo's waist without even thinking about it, the hybrid-form zoan pulling her smaller captain close with an arm over her shoulders.
But instead of the mighty crash of wood on wood, the Cuélebre plunged right into its doppelganger, which promptly rippled and flickered, like a reflection in water disrupted by a stone. Carried by a swift wind, the great pirate ship plunged into the visual distortion, and to the outside world, seemed to fade away into nothing.
To the ship's crew, however, they suddenly found themselves enveloped in a thick blanket of fog, the once-brilliant sun now a dull yellow smear through the swirling mist.
"...Okay, what the hell just happened?! Where are we?!" Ranma demanded, once it sank in that she wasn't dead.
"We teleported again?" Shampoo murmured, directing a confused look at Ranma.
"A sea mirage! I've only ever heard of them in books and old sea dog stories," Eldrago marveled.
"Wait, you know what's going on?" a surprised Ranma blurted out.
"Yes, though I've never seen one this scale before... warm air heated by the sun collides with the colder air near the ocean's surface and produces visual distortions... no wonder the Lost Island is lost! If this mirage is permanent, then nobody would ever see the island unless they passed through the veil first... hmm..." Eldrago trailed off, stroking his chin, which would have been more impressive if he'd had a bigger beard.
"What's wrong, Captain Eldrago?" Ranma asked, her instincts screaming at her.
"Sea mirages usually don't form over clear water... they tend to show up as a prelude to more violent conditions," Eldrago explained.
The fog suddenly lifted, but if anything the sea grew darker. Thunder cracked overhead and the three pirates looked out over the gunwale to see thick stormclouds blanketing the sky... right before they opened up, drenching them all from head to toe.
'So glad I didn't bother turning back into a guy...'
"All hands to stations! It's gonna get rough!" Eldrago roared, his Devil Fruit-augmented voice ringing out even above the crashing thunder, the lightning bolts slashing into the sea, and the churning waves that were even now reaching up to pound against the Cuélebre's hull.
Activity exploded as Eldrago's men ran to handle the sail and rigging, with even Ranma and Shampoo pitching in - for all their plans, simple survival dictated that now was not the time to stage a mutiny! At the center of the deck, Apis clung to Grandpa Ryu's long neck with all her might, burying herself in the dragon's feathers and trying not to whimper in fear as the ship rocked back and forth under the assault of the weather.
"Hey! Shampoo see light ahead!" the zoan cried out from where she was busily hoisting the sails into the rigging.
"What?" Eldrago bellowed up at her.
"She's right - and I can see an island underneath it!"
"Must be the eye of the storm - and the Lost Island! All hands, steer for that light! Move, you dogs, or we'll go down to Davy Jones' Locker!"
The activity aboard the Cuélebre somehow grew even more frenetic as pirates and planned saboteurs united to aim the ship to its destination. Lightning struck the ocean in sizzling explosions of glowing froth, and the wind tore at their clothes like ethereal claws anxious to rip them from the safety of the Cuélebre and into the cruel embrace of the hungry sea.
But, despite everything, the elements fought in vain, and finally the Cuélebre emerged into a wide expanse of clear blue sky and gentle waters. The storm they had fought their way through lingered on the horizon in all directions, visibly encircling this little patch of paradise, and the crew of the Cuélebre fell about in heaps, grateful to be alive.
"An eternal mirage to make it invisible to the outside world... and behind that, an eternal storm to wreck any unprepared vessel that stumbles across it... they weren't kidding when they named this place the Lost Island!" Ranma declared from where she and Shampoo were sitting against the comfortable bulk of Grandpa Ryu.
"Bwah-hahaha! What more fitting place for the Millennial Dragons to have their nest?! Up, you dogs, up and earn your pay - my dragons lie just ahead!" Roared Eldrago, before he stomped off, dragging his men upright with curses and cuffs, leaving the Kamikazes to their own discretion.
"Shampoo hate to be downer... but how we get out through big storm?" the Chinese Amazon cabbit whispered to her genderbent and reluctant-to-commit spouse.
"Trust me, I'll think of something," Ranma hissed back.
"You better," Apis muttered, but the two teenagers ignored her as they stood up and started helping to sail the ship towards the Lost Island.
"...Huh. Looks almost more like a half-sunken castle than an island," Ranma observed absently.
It was an impression easily justified; as the Cuélebre approached the island and the water grew shallower, the usual array of sandbars, rocky outcrops and coral reefs was absent, replaced by tumbled statues, collapsed houses, and scattered blocks of clearly once-worked stone that had been swallowed by the ocean. It made for a certain amount of work for the ship to reach the shore without damaging the hull on the abundance of ruins and wreckage.
"From what the old fool on Warship Island said, his ancestors lived here and worshiped the Millennial Dragons until the sea turned against it and it began to sink, forcing them to flee and settle on Warship Island. But the dragons must still be here - and I, Captain Eldrago, will find and tame them!"
The pirate captain flung both fists skyward and roared like a beast, striking what he obviously thought to be a ferocious pose, whilst his men whooped and cheered him on. The Kamikaze Pirates exchanged glances and rolled their eyes, but only quickly, so that it wouldn't be spotted.
Finally, the Cuélebre anchored just off the shore and the ship's occupants - the whole crew, Eldrago, Ranma, Shampoo, Apis and Grandpa Ryu - disembarked to the last. Eldrago rubbed his hands together greedily, grinning a toothy leer of anticipation.
"Oh, those dragons... I can almost smell them! Where is the nest, girl?!" Eldrago barked at the young girl.
Apis yelped softly, looking in a panic from Eldrago to Ranma to Ryu and then back around the circuit. "I - uh - ah..."
"Well...?" Eldrago asked darkly, walking towards Apis and looming over her.
The young Whisper-Human stammered, then swallowed hard and visibly steeled herself. "G-Grandpa Ryu says that the dragons nested in a palace built at the highest peak of the island."
She pointed at the far-off mountain that dominated the island, causing all to follow her gesturing hand. Sure enough, a large, dome-shaped structure was visible, clinging to its peak. It was a sight that elicited a groan from all of Eldrago's crew, except the hulking giant with the huge sword and the feather-trailing bonnet.
"Captain, do we really have to push this heavy dragon and cart all the way up there?" Whined one of the pirates.
Eldrago scowled thunderously for a moment, stroking his chin, only to then brighten. "No, *you* don't have to push the dragon up the mountain... our new crewmates do!"
"What!" Ranma squawked indignantly.
"Shampoo is cabbit zoan, not packmule zoan!" the Chinese Amazon added.
"Are you questioning your captain's orders?" Eldrago purred darkly.
Ranma and Shampoo exchanged sullen glances, then shook their heads. "...No, Captain..." they chorused in unison flatness.
"Then get to work!"
One arduous hike up the mountain later...
"How much further do we have to push this damn cart?" Ranma growled, shoving against the unyielding bulk of Grandpa Ryu's personal cart and fighting the slope to push it upright.
"Shampoo getting sick of this!" growled the Chinese zoan.
"Aw, is it too much work for you two little girls?" jeered one of Eldrago's minions.
"Those two little girls are doing a task that took all eight of you idiots to accomplish! I suggest you keep that in mind when they join me properly," came the growling response of Eldrago himself.
The lesser pirate paled and quickly scrambled to catch up with the rest of his crewmates, leaving the Kamikazes alone in their task of pushing the cart. At least the ground was leveling out underneath their feet, making the going somewhat easier.
Minutes later...
"We're here!" Eldrago cried, and both Ranma and Shampoo stopped pushing, collapsing against the cart and panting hugely for breath. Even with their power, pushing a few tons of dragon uphill in a circuitous path over uneven terrain was no picnic.
They were so caught up with enjoying the reprieve from their labors that they paid no attention to their supposed ally as he strutted and posed, showing off for his cheering men. They only dragged themselves back to reality when Apis scrambled over Grandpa Ryu's bulk to address them, a nervous look on her face.
"Uh, not to be the bearer of bad news, but Grandpa Ryu just remembered that this actually isn't the Dragon's Nest - it's the wrong island entirely!" she hissed nervously.
"What?!" Shampoo clapped her hands over her mouth, but fortunately it seemed that she had gone unnoticed.
"Well, that scuttles a damn fine plan to have the Millennial Dragons take care of Eldrago for us... time to switch to plan B... give them the slip and run for the ship!" Ranma muttered furiously.
"Hey! You two get over here!" Eldrago suddenly bellowed.
The three girls (well, two plus an honorary one, anyway) grimaced collectively, but made their way to the front of the dragon's cart, taking in the form of the building they had spent so long working their way towards. In its heyday, it must have been a magnificent site, and even with the roof partially collapsed and sprouting trees, it still carried a faded grandeur. The front of it was dominated by two huge stone doors, etched with a design of an abstractified dragon - the same design they'd seen in whole and in part throughout their trek through the ruins.
Standing in front of this door was Eldrago, who sneered mockingly at the pair of them. "Since you're so eager to prove you belong on my crew, I'll allow you the honor of making the first attempt to open these doors."
Ranma nodded absently, mind racing with plans on how to escape from Eldrago, and was so distracted that she failed to notice the way Shampoo's ears pricked up, the Chinese Amazon turned zoan adopting first a confused expression, and then an intrigued one. She definitely noticed when Shampoo nudged her in the ribs with an elbow though, cocking a quizzical eye at her would-be fiancee before Shampoo leaned in and whispered in Ranma's ear.
"Well?!" Eldrago thundered, face growing increasingly ugly as his mood soured at the delay.
"I'm sorry, Captain Eldrago, but I'm afraid we're going to have to refuse - in fact, we'll be taking Apis and her grandfather and leaving now," Ranma cheerfully announced.
"...If this is supposed to be mutiny, it's a pretty piss-poor job of it! Have you forgotten my men are still stationed on Warship Island, ready to kill every man, woman and child there?!" Eldrago bellowed.
"Go ahead. Give the order... if you dare," Ranma jeered.
"I will not tolerate mutiny!" the hulking pirate screamed, before yanking the transponder snail from his pocket and jabbing a protrusion on its shell.
The sleepy-looking snail suddenly bolted upright, letting out a strange, "puru-puru-puru" noise. It continued to puru-puru-puru for a good minute, leaving the two pirate captains to stand around somewhat awkwardly, before it let out a "ka-lick" noise.
"What took you so long?!" Eldrago howled into the phone-like receiver.
"I'm sorry, the number you are dialing is now out of service. Because we just kicked the ass of all its owners and locked them all up! This is Ukyo Kuonji, of the Kamikaze Pirates, calling you back to let you know that you are screwed! Kick his ass, Ranma honey!" Ukyo's voice echoed from the snail, before it let out another "ka-lick" and fell asleep.
"...Oh, for a camera," Ranma snickered, whilst Shampoo fought to hold back her own giggles at the incredulous shock plastered over Eldrago's face, whose jaw had fallen open so far that it nearly touched his chest.
Eldrago suddenly threw back his head and roared like a lion. "You traitorous bitch! I'll-! I'll-!"
"Oh, Shampoo?" Ranma playfully asked whilst her counterpart was stuck in a mental loop of pure rage.
"Have nice trip!" Shampoo cried, before she raised her foot and slammed it into the ground.
To an untrained eye, it looked like a singular stomp. But what Shampoo actually did was use her zoan-augmented muscles to stamp her foot into the ground with stone-cracking force dozens of times, faster than the eye could see and all aimed at the exact same spot. It was a variation of a technique her great-grandmother had informed her that Ranma had spontaneously come up with to counteract the superhuman damage resistance granted to Ryoga Hibiki by the Bakusai Tenketsu training, oh so long ago.
The end result of this jackhammer kick (or should it be jackrabbit kick)? The earth beneath the feet of Eldrago and his men suddenly cracked open, Shampoo's enhanced hearing having detected that they were standing above a deep cave of some kind. Before the Scream-Human and his men could react, they were plunging down into the newly-opened pit, plunging into the darkness in a shower of dust and stone.
Shampoo smirked and dusted off her hands. "And that take care of that."
"Wow, you got them all in one shot!" Apis cheered.
"Toldja, squirt; we came to save your island, and now we've done it!" Ranma gloated.
"You think they survived that?" the young Whisper-Human asked.
With perfect ironic timing, a blast of energy erupted from the depths of the pit, the two Kamikaze Pirates leaping clear over Grandpa Ryu to avoid being hit by the familiar ring-shaped blast as it scythed through the earth where they had been standing. Apis screamed in fear, even as Ranma and Shampoo landed on the ground behind the cart.
"That answers that question!" Shampoo yelled.
"Yeah - time to go!" Ranma declared.
The two martial artists grabbed the end of Grandpa Ryu's cart and pulled with all their might, dragging it back down the slope. Of course, gravity immediately began to lend a helping hand and within moments the two went from pulling it to sitting atop the cart as it hurtled downhill at literally breakneck speed, crashing and bashing off of the curves and pinballing through the ruins until it finally hit the beach and skidded through the sand and out into the water, which finally bled off its momentum in a spray of foam.
Once it was all over with, Ranma threw back her head and laughed uproariously. "We did it! We'll be long gone by the time those idiots climb out of that hole!"
"Uh... one small problem, Captain Ranma..." Apis ventured.
"What problem?! We made a clean getaway!" Ranma protested.
"That true, airen, but... dragon is floating on sea. Not on boat," Shampoo replied.
"So we'll push it back onto the beach and then onto the ship!" Ranma shot back.
Apis sighed a long-suffering sigh that was far too cynical to come from such a little girl. Pointing first to herself and then to Shampoo, she simply stated, "Devil Fruit. Devil Fruit."
Ranma blinked in confusion for a moment, looking between the two girls. Then understanding dawned and the genderbender's face fell, with Ranma cursing her luck.
Soon afterwards...
The Cuélebre sped merrily through the calm, sunny waters ringing the Lost Island towards the dark ring of storm clouds that lay beyond. On its deck, Ranma stretched exuberantly, working the kinks from her limbs.
"Mmm... we beat up the guys holding Apis' village hostage, marooned the jerks who were leading them on a lost island, and now we're taking Apis and her fluffy dragon grandpa home. I love it when a plan comes together," she chuckled.
"Shampoo love a happy ending," the zoan sighed gleefully.
"Yeah, I can't believe how much you guys did to help my village - I was so lucky to run into you! ...There's just two things bugging me," Apis confessed, stroking Grandpa Ryu's head.
"What matter?" Shampoo asked, with Ranma nodding in equal curiosity.
"Well... first, it's kind of a pity that we didn't find Grandpa Ryu's nest. I wonder where it is? Granpa knows it's on an island somewhere between here and Warship Island, but he can't remember where... and I didn't spot any other islands while we were sailing, did you?"
The two teenagers shook their heads, before Ranma spoke up. "Well, in the Grand Line, that's not really so surprising. I mean, look at how hard it was to find this place! I'm sure Ryu's nest is out there somewhere, an' I know you'll find it!"
Apis beamed happily at Ranma's encouraging words. "Thanks, Ranma!"
"What is second thing?" Shampoo asked, looking quizzically down at the young girl.
"Oh, that! Well, I'm worried how we're going to get this ship through that storm!" Apis explained, pointing at the looming ring of stormclouds.
"Well, I'm not promising smooth sailing... but there's a little trick I cooked up when we first started sailing. C'mon, Shampoo, let's get the sails tied up; we're gonna want as little resistance as we can get..."
Apis watched in confusion as the two pirates sprang into the rigging and began to furl the sails, absently patting Grandpa Ryu's head in an instinctive comforting gesture. "I don't know what they're up to, Grandpa, but they've helped us so far; let's trust them."
That didn't stop her from making sure that the dragon's cart was firmly strapped down, of course.
Finally, the waves carried the Cuélebre into the storm ring, where at once the rain came pouring down, soaking them all to the skin. Apis watched in confusion as Ranma bounced around like a giant grasshopper, leaping to the ship's stern and scrambling over the edge.
"Alright, you girls, hang on tight; this is gonna be a bumpy ride!" Ranma cried out above the wind and the waves, clinging to the ship with one hand and both feet whilst aiming at the water with her free hand.
"Moko Takabisha!"
Fueled by her boosted ego from her recent victories, the ki blast exploded from her hand in a blazing column of spiritual fire, gouging at the thrashing waves like a godly claw. The timbers under Ranma's anchoring appendages creaked and groaned as the backlash washed through Ranma like a wave and slammed into the ship, but they held and, just like that first ship so many weeks before, the surge of kinetic energy propelled the Cuélebre forward like a rocket. Lightning crashed into the sea around it and the waves beat furiously against the Cuélebre's hull, but the power of Ranma's ki blast thrust the ship onward, eating up the nautical miles like Nabiki at a packet of pocky (which as Neriman paces went was impressive, but not so much so as Genma at a buffet).
Determined to fight the storm, Ranma launched Moko Takabisha after Moko Tabisha, firing each ki blast before the ship could lose momentum from the last. It was flashy as all hell, and exhausting to boot, but it did the job; the improvised engine propelled the almost crewless Cuélebre through the storm belt like a dart launched from a giant's hand, until finally it burst free into the bright, gentle waters of the Grand Line beyond the mirage ring, restoring the ship to normality.
...Well, as normal as things got on the Grand Line, anyway.
Apis whooped and cheered, literally jumping for joy at the sight of the sun shining down brightly once more. "They did it! Can you believe it, Grandpa Ryu? They actually did it!"
As the young Whisper-Human threw her arms around the thick, serpentine neck of her draconic friend, Shampoo smiled like the cat that ate the canary and drew herself up proudly. "You see? Should have trusted airen! He always surprise those who doubt him!"
That was when Ranma came hopping down from the stern to join them on the deck. The genderbender was unusually pale, eyes shadowed and wavering a little on her feet, but she was smiling hugely, radiating pride even through her obvious tiredness. "See? I told you I'd get us out of there! Now we just need to drop the sails and it's smooth sailing back to Warship Island. Shampoo, you take care of that... I'm gonna raid the galley. Never done so many Moko Takabishas back to back before..."
"Shampoo do, airen! You get rest, eat up, change back to self - you feel much better!" The zoan chirped, before rocketing up the mainmast. Rabbit leaping, cat's claws and Chinese Amazon agility all made for a surprisingly arboreal individual, as it transpired.
Several hours later...
Fortunately, the Grand Line had been merciful to the undercrewed Cuélebre, granting them smooth sailing all the way back from Lost Island. As Warship Island visibly loomed ahead, Ranma luxuriated in the sunlight.
"Mmm... a decent meal, an easy trip, and finally I'm back in my own skin. Doesn't get much better than this," he sighed, stretching like a languid cat.
"I really can't thank you enough for freeing my village and saving Grandpa Ryu!" Apis declared from where she was brushing the dragon's feathers.
"Was our pleasure; Shampoo like being hero!" giggled the Amazon zoan from where she was adjusting their position at the ship's wheel.
"I almost kind of wish we'd found Grandpa Ryu's nest, though... before that stupid Eldrago showed up, I promised him I'd help him look for it, so he can get better," Apis sighed. She failed to spot the nervous glances that the more worldly teenagers exchanged first with the elderly dragon and then with each other.
"Yeah, well, now that Eldrago's going to be stuck on that miserable island for the rest of his life, you'll have plenty of time to look for it. He won't be bothering anyone ever again... not unless he can fly, anyway!" Ranma chuckled.
Shampoo suddenly blinked, her cabbit ears swiveling in a distinctly rabbit-like manner. "What that sound?"
And that was when Eldrago dropped out of the sky, screaming like a banshee, and hit the deck of the Cuélebre with enough force to make the whole ship shake, sending Ranma, Shampoo and Apis scrambling to keep their footing.
"Ranma Saotome, you miserable bitch! Come out and face me!" Eldrago bellowed, rising from his three-point landing stance to shake his fists at the sky, throwing back his head and roaring like an animal.
"Where the fuck did you come from?!" Ranma demanded, snapping into a defensive posture and waiting for the rival pirate captain to make the first move.
Eldrago glowered at him, a hint of confusion working its way around his bestial sneer. "She may have stolen my ship, but my Devil Fruit powers work fine! I flew here to take back what is rightfully mine - now where is she?!"
"You flew?! I thought your Devil Fruit was the Scream-Scream Fruit!" Apis shrieked, only to hide behind Grandpa Ryu when Eldrago glared in her direction.
"The Scream-Scream Fruit can do more than just blow things up, girl! Now, I won't tell you again - where. Is. Ranma Saotome?!"
Eldrago's voice rose to a thunderous bellow that made the whole ship tremble, sails visibly fluttering in the wind from his Devil Fruit-empowered voice.
"Ranma Saotome is right here!" Ranma shouted back, launching himself at the larger pirate captain at full speed whilst Eldrago was distracted, springing into the air and delivering an aerial snap-kick straight to the brute's jaw that sent him stumbling backwards, clutching his face and cursing.
"Miserable little! What the hell do you mean?!" Eldrago demanded, one hand still clamped over one of his eyes.
"Think of it as a Zoan Devil Fruit... not that it matters much to you!" Ranma spat, before surging back into the fray.
He charged into close quarters and launched an Amaguriken-inspired volley of punches into Eldrago's torso. The hulking pirate grunted and snarled in pain, then retaliated with open-fingered jabs and raking swipes that attempted to employ the golden talons capping Eldrago's fingers like makeshift claws. Ranma wove around the blows, fluid as water, and drove blows of his own into Eldrago's solar plexus and kidneys, eliciting little more than snarls for his efforts.
'Sheesh, this jerk's almost as tough as Ryoga!' Ranma observed, swaying like a bamboo reed in the wind to dodge three rapid-fire jabs from his opponent. He was caught off-guard when Eldrago suddenly snapped his head down in what almost seemed like a headbutt strike... except that he stopped before impact, opened his mouth, and blasted Ranma right in the chest with a bolt of energy that launched the captain of the Kamikaze Pirates across the deck and through the door into the ship's interior. A pity that said door was still closed at the time.
'Crap, forgot about that trick!' Ranma growled? to himself. Then his instincts screamed at him and he leapt out of the rubble, just as another of Eldrago's sonic blasts tore through the cabin and punched clean out the other side.
A second blast followed, and then a third; Ranma dodged both attacks, but the chunks they tore out of the supporting walls brought the roof crashing down, burying Ranma alive as the cabin caved in too fast for him to hope to leap to safety.
"Airen!" Shampoo yelled in dismay.
"Bwaahahaha! You were just another insect in my path to power!" Eldrago guffawed.
The shattered planks and wooden debris groaned and trembled, before a roaring Ranma exploded out of the wreckage like a vengeful angel, shirt ripped to pieces as jagged wooden shrapnel fountained into the air, but visibly unharmed.
"Bah! It takes more than that to squash me!" Ranma thundered back in defiance, before rocketing forward again to close quarters with Eldrago.
Once more, they exchanged blows; Ranma's punches and kicks battering Eldrago's torso, whilst Eldrago's raking claw swipes, jabs and low kicks forced Ranma to focus on dodging rather than putting as much force into his blows as he could.
They had just sprung apart, ready to renew their clash, when suddenly the Cuélebre began to rock and shake, bouncing from side to side like a toy in a tub being churned by a giant child.
"Seaquake!" Apis cried, clinging to Ryu's neck for equal parts comfort and support.
"What trickery is this?!" Eldrago roared at Ranma.
"Me?! I thought this was you!" Ranma spat back.
Whilst all this had been going on, the rest of the Kamikazes had gathered on the bay of Warship Island, waiting for the Cuélebre to land. They'd seen the flashes of light as Eldrago's sonic blasts ripped the cabin apart, but even the best martial artists there couldn't make out what was going on aboard the ship. But they could certainly feel the powerful vibrations rolling through the earth under their feet, and it was proving a challenge even for them to stay upright as the whole island shook and heaved.
"Is this normal?!" Kodachi cried out, gymnast's agility allowing her to roll with the tremors rather than let them sweep her off of her feet.
"In my entire lifetime, I've never known the island to shake like this!" Bokuden replied, shouting to be heard over the rumbling of the earth and the churning of the sea.
"Hey, look!" Umok suddenly barked, and the assembled people looked back out over the bay, where their jaws collectively dropped.
"The sea! What's happening to the sea?!" Ukyo shrieked.
As well she might; the waters of the bay were visibly draining away as if a plug had been removed from a giant's bathtub, falling away from Warship Island's shores and exposing what had previously been buried beneath the waves.
Out in the middle of what had been open ocean previously, sudden jets violently thrust themselves out of the swirling surf, the apparent waterspouts dwindling to reveal cores of solid stone - underwater rock spars now exposed by the rapidly receding water level. The Cuélebre swayed back and forth, rolling from port to starboard and tipping from stern to port as the water spun it around like a top in defiance of the still eerily calm winds, leaving its occupants with no choice but to hang on for dear life, lest they be pitched overboard.
Between the turbulent departure of the waters, the sudden eruption of long-hidden stone outcroppings, and the lack of a capable helmsman, the end result was inevitable and disastrous; the Cuélebre was speared straight through the heart by a spar of rock, breaking its keel like a twig and splitting the ship in half, sending its two halves collapsing onto the now-bared seafloor.
Unfortunately, a sail dropped right over Ranma, pinning him to the damp - but fortunately not wet enough to trigger his curse - sand. He cursed and swore, fighting with the canvas until finally he was able to pierce it with his fingers and bodily rip it open, tearing his way into the open.
A strange and alien vista met his eyes; a great plateau of sand and rock that radiated for miles from the high, rounded mesa that had once been Warship Island, the expanse of exposed land dotted with mountainous spurs, growths of coral and shallow pools of saltwater, and liberally strewn with bizarre, coral-encrusted outcroppings. There was something weirdly familiar about their collective shapes, but Ranma pushed the matter aside, his attention focused on far more important matters.
"Shampoo! Apis! Where are you!" he cried, before springing onto a nearby rock spar to aid his search. Faint cries started to draw his attention, before his instincts screamed at him. Answering their clarion cry, he threw himself backwards from his perch mere inches before a sonic blast pulverized the spot he had been occupying.
"My ship! Ruined! You will pay for this!" Eldrago screamed, before launching another sonic blast right at Ranma, who backflipped neatly away from the detonation point.
"First I'll smash you, and then that worthless zoan, and then that miserable little brat and her good-for-nothing dragon!" Eldrago shrieked, a third beam of sonic energy underlying his words that once more failed to connect with Ranma.
Whilst the two pirate captains dueled, Shampoo watched from afar, heart in her throat.
'Oh, my darling Ranma... please, stay safe! I have every confidence in your skills, but I still worry for you; I would be there in a heartbeat, but I will not shame you by going to your aid without instruction! I will keep Apis safe, have faith in me...'
"Grandpa Ryu! Hold on, I'll get this stupid wood off of you!" Apis cried, drawing Shampoo's attention away from the duel and back to the young Devil Fruit-holder.
The Amazon zoan quickly rushed to Apis' side, and with her superior strength, lifted the broken portion of the mast from where it had pinned the dragon's head to the ground. Fortunately, it was one of the relatively small lengths of timber that ran horizontal to the vertical body of the mast and from which the sails proper were hung - Shampoo couldn't remember what Kodachi had said they were called - and not a piece of the mast proper, so Ryu was merely uncomfortable, not dead. No sooner had Shampoo thrown the wood aside than Apis threw her arms around Ryu's neck, tenderly stroking his balding skull.
"Ohhh, poor Grandpa Ryu! Does it hurt bad? Are you okay?" she sobbed.
The dragon, surprisingly, seemed unharmed. If anything, he seemed sharper-witted and more focused than Shampoo had ever seen him before; his great yellow eyes clear and bright as he drank in the weird vista that had been exposed. Suddenly, he spread his wings, Shampoo yelping and flattening her bestial ears against her skull as one wing nearly clipped her head. Ignoring the angry Chinese Amazon, Grandpa Ryu beat his wings several times, using them to help him propel himself upright onto his massive, bird-like feet. His long, serpentine neck arched skyward as he opened his mighty jaws and let out a great howl that echoed far and wide. Deep and low, the cry spilled out of his maw, a ghostly sound that radiated from the very rocks underfoot, loud enough that even Ranma and Eldrago stopped their dueling to stare in wonder at the ancient dragon.
Once, twice, three times the elderly dragon cried out, and as he did, Apis' eyes grew wide with hope and wonder.
"Y-you mean it, Grandpa Ryu?! They're really coming?!" Apis shrieked with glee.
"Who coming?" Shampoo demanded, but before Apis could explain, a sudden shadow fell over the zoan, who looked up and then shrieked in shock.
High above, the once-clear sky was now growing dark as great bodies filled the air; the half-bird, half-serpent shapes of Millenial Dragons by the hundreds flocking to the newly exposed island, wheeling and circling and crying out.
"The Lost Island may have been my ancestors' home, but *this* is the Dragon's Nest! It only emerges for a short period of time, once every thousand years - the dragons let my ancestors settle on the tallest peak, the only part of the island to remain above water during its sunken centuries; now it's time for the Millenial Dragons to return to the Nest!" Apis cheered, clapping her hands and whooping with glee at seeing her faith vindicated.
Meanwhile, Eldrago watched the arrival of the dragons, and suddenly he burst out laughing! "I was right! All this time! I knew that there was a real Dragon's Nest - and I found it! My dream! I will have my dream!"
As the hulking pirate captain burst out laughing, Ranma shook his head, forcing himself back to reality and away from the sight he was beholding. Even to Ranma, the sight of the great flock of dragons was truly something spectacular.
"Your dream? Don't make me laugh!"
"What!?" Eldrago roared, rounding on Ranma in a fury.
"Your crew is gone; you left them stranded on Lost Island! Your mercenaries have been rounded up, and your ship is so much garbage! You've lost control of Apis, so you don't have a chance in hell of making these dragons obey you - you couldn't even hope to snatch some eggs and get away before the island sinks again, especially because my crew will be here any minute! Not that I need their help to stomp you into the sand!" Ranma jeered.
His words drew a scream of outrage that nearly blew his head off, before Eldrago charged him like an enraged beast, fingers curled into makeshift talons.
"I'll rip you limb from limb!"
Ranma just sneered back and dodged, making sure that each strike came tantalizingly near to his precious flesh in order to further goad his hulking foe into such a frenzy that he failed to realize he was being led down a very distinct path... a spiralling path...
"You should be honored; I don't break this move out for any ordinary mook! Hiryu Shoten Ha!"
Eldrago didn't even have the time to be confused as the gale force wind slammed into him, ripping him from the ground as if he were nothing more than a mere leaf and casting him high into the sky. He found himself spinning around and around, tumbling and whirling through the air as dragons danced all around him, issuing mocking calls that rang in his ears even over the sound of the wind dying down and gravity reasserting its cruel grip. The once-proud pirate captain plunged back to earth and hit hard enough to carve a crater in the soft, wet sand, the impact bouncing his organs off of his cracking bones and knocking all sense from him.
The last thing Eldrago saw before he lost consciousness was Ranma's mocking grin, leering down at him...
Not long afterwards...
"Thank you for all you have done for us, we are eternally grateful to you," Elder Bokuden declared humbly.
"We're just happy we could help," Ranma replied simply. He looked over at the Dragon's Nest, now covered in dragons, and shook his head, smiling faintly. "Besides, it'll be one hell of a story to tell later... assuming there is a later."
"Ah, yes; the matter of your ship. As it so happens, we may be able to help you there," Bokuden proclaimed.
Ranma turned his attention back to the village elder, watching him closely. "Oh?"
"There is an island not far from here, but not on the conventional Log Pose route, either. It is called Shay-Lot, and it is a ship-building island. They are not as legendary as Water 7, but their skills are quite advanced, and they are capable of producing new ships at great speed. One of the young men of the village recently acquired an Eternal Pose to Shay-Lot from a seafaring merchant; take it with our blessings."
Even as he said this, Bokuden fished around in one of his pockets and withdrew a strange object; a glass sphere suspended in between two wooden disks connected by carved wooden shafts - very similar to an hourglass Ranma had once seen. Hanging inside of the glass sphere was a white-and-red needle hanging from a wire, and etched onto both of the wooden disks was a name; "Shay-Lot".
Ranma reached out and gently took the apparent Eternal Pose from Bokuden, holding it up for a closer look. "I... wow, thanks, I really don't know what to say!"
"After all you have done for us, this is the least we can do! We can also lend you the use of one of our deep-sea fishing boats and skilled fishermen to take you to Shay-Lot, if you desire," Bokuden replied.
Seized by a very rare feeling of gratitude, Ranma bowed to the village elder in his best keirei stance. "That would help a lot! ...We just need to wait for Nabiki to finish scouring the wrecks of the Cuélebre and our own ship for anything valuable first..."
"A formidable young woman, she is... although her companions are certainly no less fearsome. There must be quite a tale behind your journeys together," Bokuden observed, smiling at some private joke of his own.
"It is, an' a long one at that..." Ranma sighed. Glancing back over at Apis, he added, "So, what are you going to do with Eldrago and his goons, anyway?"
"Apis intends to fly back to Lost Island with some of the Millenium Dragons and bring Eldrago's crew back here with her; whatever their crimes, none deserve the cruel death of marooning! There is a Navy ship that is scheduled to arrive soon; the dragons will keep them all under control until that happens, and then we will turn them over to the authorities."
"And pocket the bounties for yourselves," Ranma added, before grinning at Bokuden's feeble protests. "Relax, I don't blame you; between Eldrago's own golden hoard and whatever wasn't washed away when our ship ended up in the Dragon's Nest, we'll have plenty of spare cash."
He glanced at the Eternal Pose again, tilting it this way and that to watch as the needle adjusted itself to point straight and true. His fingers tightened in their grip as he stared into its depths.
"Next stop...Shay-Lot!"
Chapter End & Closing Notes
And we have finally reached the end of the first proper arc of the Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse! Thank you so much for sticking with us, and I hope you're enjoying the trip so far! Now, poor Ranma needs a new ship if he's going to continue his search for the One Piece, so it's off to Shay-Lot we go. And a new ship requires new crew to command... join us next time, as the Kamikazes take one small step towards the One Piece, and one giant leap forward in becoming a Supernova-ranked crew!