AN: Thanks for reading. everyone! Blessed to know people are enjoying this fic. This arc isn't skippable unlike Ocean's dream, since I'm using it for some crucial team conflict for Nami and Usopp. It's just a two partner though.
Welcome to the arc where the Strawhats do a lot of fighting and being sad. Buckle in, and enjoy the ride!
The premise of this movie is that due to the Lily Carnation, the Strawhats gradually start acting more and more out of character to 'break up their friendships'. Add that on to the previous crew tensions and we have the inevitable seams bursting open too soon. So fair warning ahead that they might start acting OOC in some parts. I tried my best to make their arguments line up in character, but it's still shaky.
The next morning begins with a surprising amount of cheer.
Nami and Usopp are speaking, but very pointedly of anything but their mistakes. Nami thinks Usopp knows she's told Robin, but he's not saying a thing about it and she sure as hell isn't going to bring it up first.
So they act like nothing's happened, and move on to another bright day on the seas.
And the rest of the crew follow their lead.
"So! Wyper and Conis, this'll be your first time actually properly doing it, so just watch, alright?" Nami says, beaming brightly. "Setting sail on the Blue Sea isn't very different from setting sail on the White White Sea, so it should still be familiar to you."
The crew slowly exit the galley, a yawn Zoro's throat and excitement bubbling in Luffy's. Kinoko flies out before Usopp, and Chopper bounces out, turning big and hopping down to the deck immediately. Anne makes her way down with the railing, running along the bow, reaching one of her tunnel hatches and dropping in, followed by Chopper. Gin is last out, and Sanji is finishing up on the dishes.
Robin's still supposed to rest, so she leans at the ledge, gesturing for Conis to join her. She's holding onto Suu, who's also curious about everything happening.
"Do you all just have your posts memorised?" Wyper asks. This systematic delegation of jobs definitely is the work of a crew that's done this more times than thrice.
"No, we just go with the flow, see who hasn't done what," Gin says.
"Gin, anchor'll be up in five seconds," Nami reports from her spot on the bow, "wind's good, a chill coming in from southwest."
"Then we'll follow it for a bit," Gin confirms as the anchor slowly rises. Anne and Chopper must be in the underdeck, then.
"Sails are ready!" Zoro reports from the yard, and Kinoko echoes him.
Usopp has a hand on the rigging, and Sanji's resting on the rudder, ready to move. Chopper has emerged from below deck, taking the anchor and hooking it where it belongs.
Gin and Nami turn to Luffy. "Captain, we're ready to go."
Luffy beams. "Nami, how's the log?" and when he gets a nod, he rests a hand on his hat, pointing forward. "Alright, SET SAIL!"
"AYE, CAPTAIN!"
The crew moves as one.
Wyper and Conis can only stare in awe as Robin smiles at their reaction.
"It's a superstition down here. If we set off gloomy, the journey won't be any better. So it doesn't matter how bad their argument was, we have to put it behind us before going," Robin says. "That's why we waited before sailing."
Wyper had been curious about that. There was no reason to stop sailing simply because Robin wasn't in good condition. But Robin's cheer was integral to the entire crew picking themselves up again, and that's why they waited.
Relationships weren't fixed. They were just put aside, in favour of setting sail as one crew again.
People put aside their past scars to be on this ship— if they let conflicts build and build on, this ship wouldn't be the fun adventure they wanted it to be. That's why they put it aside, balance on some threshold of forgive and forget, and soldier on.
"Being a pirate is to be unhindered and free from the worries weighing you down," Robin says, looking toward Luffy, standing at the figurehead. "That's why pirates down here always try to face the sun when we set sail."
"If you're a pirate among pirates among pirates among pirates, bring your trusted comrades along to this island. This island is known as…"
Robin reads the flyer and the map with interest. They'd gotten it from the News Coo, who found it in a bottle floating upon the sea so they dropped it off on the first lucky pitstop they could. And while this was suspicious, it's also a fairly common way for islands to spread their name around on the Grand Line.
"Not every island can be advertised legally, so they do stuff like this as well," Nami explains, to the more curious group. "Of course, sometimes they're traps, but more often than not, it's a pirate-friendly vacation space meant to cause chaos outside of the government's eye. I'm thinking this is one of those."
"What're they pitching?" Usopp asks.
"Spas and aesthetic salons," Robin says.
Conis swoons, "blue sea luxuries!"
Nami joins her, "relaxation! Vacation!"
Robin reads on. "Cuisines of many ages, gorgeous women of the centuries, and a land of blossoming dreams."
Kinoko, Sanji, and Chopper were beside her instantly. Suu and Anne follow along, mildly curious as well. Anne's never been on a purely vacation-based trip before.
Gin sighs. "Absolutely no sense of awareness at all, these kids."
Wyper hums. "What is the island getting from our visit?"
"Profit, usually," Usopp says, "prestige, visitation, fun, and uh… I ran out of vocabulary. There's usually a catch, but as long as we're careful, it'll be fine."
"You've got nothing?" Zoro asks, skeptical. About the future. No information at all? That was a red flag, and Zoro isn't sure anymore if it's more of a red flag the other way around or otherwise.
"Everything's dangerous," Nami says. "But there's fun in it! That's why we call it Paradise!"
"Paradise?" Chopped asks, enthused.
"But really, I've got nothing on this island," Usopp says. "For real. But that's a good thing. Since we don't remember it, maybe it was just so mundane we didn't have to?"
"Yeah, I've got nothing too," Nami admits, "maybe they went bankrupt in the future? Then we better go enjoy it while we can!"
Gin groans. Zoro echoes him.
"So? What'll it be, Luffy?"
Of course, they went.
"We're here, we're here!" Luffy cheers, running around frantically. Anne is right behind him, scampering meaninglessly in circles for no reason. "We're here, we're here!"
They're all dressed for vacation.
Nami finds a shawl to tactically cover her metal limb, and Robin dons a sunhat with a brim wide enough to hide her face in case of unwanted attention. Anne's in a comfortable jumper, and Conis has a draped dress, to easily go between her wings.
"When on a vacation, maximize comfort!" Nami says.
"Even so, he can't just be in a—" Sanji gestures wildly at Wyper for a long moment before he finds the word, "whatever this toga-looking thing is!" (Wyper bristles at him for the attention.) "And why does he match with Conis-chan anyways?!"
"Because they both have wings and Conis just went with the easiest thing to design that Wyper wouldn't eviscerate on sight," Nami says. "Also, fanservice."
"I'm already tired," Gin mutters. He pushes his bandanna up so it's pulling his bangs up and away, and then he puts on sunglasses that hide his glare and his dark circles all at once. He is not fully equipped to be miserable in peace.
"Wow, what a festive island," Usopp says, into the silence. He's not being sarcastic, since he can actually hear people on the other side, but in the deserted island corner, no one can tell for sure.
Kinoko perches on his walking stick, and Suu enjoys the view from Luffy's head.
"Are we just shoring our boat that far out?" Anne asks. The Merry was far away in the middle of the sea, where the tide was too low for her to come any closer.
"She'll be fine," Zoro says. "We shored on an isolated part of the island for a reason."
Conis wanders, looking around in fascination. "How curious. There's so much greenery, further than the eye can see! It's like Upper Yard!"
"Most islands down here are like this," Chopper says. "Long Ring Long Land was the weird one since it was a prairie."
"Really? What do you do with so many trees?"
"We don't! That's why there's so many of them."
"Oh, is that how it works?"
"Hey guys, is it just me or is it very noisy over there?" Luffy calls everyone's attention. Nami is already at the spot he's talking to, looking toward the forage.
"I found the festival, guys. Let's go--"
Conis immediately sneezes, and all eyes turn on her. She blinks at herself, surprised. And then she sneezes again, coughs, and sniffles. Confused, she covers her face, sniveling into herself. She whines loudly, miserable.
"Wait, don't rub your eyes!" Chopper warns.
"But it itches!" she sobs.
"Sorry, just bear with it a while."
"What's wrong?"
"What's up, Conis?"
"I don't know!" she whines between a hasty cough, clearly suffering. Her eyes were tearing up terribly. Anne stands beside her, Suu on her head holding a box of tissues.
"You okay, Conis?" Luffy leans over. "You're like Makino when Tiger Lord came by."
"When what?!" Gin balks.
"But that makes sense!" Chopper pipes in, taking down his bag to reach inside. "Must be allergies, then! What could've triggered it?"
"Huh? Allergies? But I've had no problems so far in life…"
"And you were fine in Upper Yard, so it's probably not the forest," Nami deems.
"There were lots of animals up there too, so probably nothing about fur and feathers, either," Sanji says. "There was sand on Long Ring Long land, so not that."
"Pollen, perhaps?" Robin says, perusing the map, "I don't see any around at the moment, but there are flowers pictured prominently. I suspect this island has a large flower population."
"It's okay, Conis! I've got allergy medicine!" Chopper assures.
Honestly, they dealt with Foxy just recently, so they're not at all fazed by the apparent 'Trial of Hell' that comes at them once they step foot onto the island. It's par for the course, honestly.
Not, actually.
"Are you ready to face the Trial of Hell?" Baron Omatsuri asks, loud and booming.
Usopp holds a hand over Luffy's mouth before he can say anything. Behind him, Nami and Zoro's eyes widen in horror as Wyper immediately whips out the Eagle Launcher.
"ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOT!" he yells.
The entire crew watches in muted horror as he fires, and Baron Omatsuri (and his crew) scramble the absolute fuck away before the projectile lands and erupts and sets the festival platform on fire.
"ARE YOU INSANE?!" Baron Omatsuri screeches.
"...I think it's obvious, but yes," Gin says.
"Are you sure there's no superlative for 'insane' that's more appropriate?" Sanji wonders out loud. "Like— 'batshit fucked in the head', or something."
They end up having to play the Trial of Hell, but under the pretense of needing to compensate for the damages, instead. They may be pirates, but Luffy had standards.
"Hey, haven't you heard? If you break it, you fix it!" Luffy confidently says, as if that's ever a philosophy he's lived by in any universe, "or you know, we play the game! If we win, we don't gotta fix it!"
"Yeah, none of that bull," Sanji says. "You just want an excuse to play."
"YEAH!" Luffy says, brightly. He was so endearingly honest about it that no one could say no to him after that.
"Where did you learn how to make reasonable excuses like that?" Nami asks.
"From Sabo!"
"Ah," Nami says, upsettingly enlightened.
"Plus, I know we'll be fine!" Luffy beams. "I've got you guys with me, after all!"
The crew tries their best to not smother him with charmed looks. They settle on head pats and hugs instead. Conis is holding back happy tears. Gin is expressionless behind the huge sunglasses but he bites his lip, trying hard not to say anything.
"You really know how to flatter us, huh?" Nami says, trying to suppress the flush on her cheeks.
"You spoil us!" Chopper whines.
But alright. Their awesome captain said so, so of course the awesome crew have got to deliver from there. So they all obeyed, and played the damn game.Usopp stands aside when the first event is announced, and Wyper, noticing his offishness, heads over to investigate.
"Something's weird about this place," Usopp says. "I don't hear as many voices as I think I should. Maybe we're the only guests."
"I agree," Anne says, coming over. She's seated on the ground, touching the paved land curiously. "Also, I can't find Suu and Kinoko."
"Little Miss Bird went sightseeing," Robin offers. "I don't know where Miss Fox has gone, though."
Huh. Weird.
"What even is a goldfish?!" Wyper shouts in the distance.
"So many tiny fish…" Conis says in awe, when the decently-sized tank emerges from the ground. "And they're all so beautiful!"
"Oh, Conis-chan, you want some? I'm sure we can raise a few goldfish on the ship," Sanji says. "I'm pretty sure goldfish scooping usually involves us taking home the prize."
"I can?" Conis says, in awe.
"Wait, stop it!" Gin whirls around, coming at them. "Do you have ANY idea how expensive it actually is to set up appropriate goldfish care? THINK OF THE EXPENSES!"
"You cheapskate, it's just a couple fishes," Sanji says. "What's wrong with a bit of expense? Tell'im, Wyper."
"Miser," Wyper says, not really understanding but willing to participate in Gin slander. "Give the girl the stupid fish she wants."
"Yeah, stingy!" Chopper adds.
"Stingy," Luffy brightly adds.
Gin considers the pros and cons of raising his rank on the mutiny board.
He doesn't get far, because a humongous, oversized, and comically armoured goldfish of some sort leaps out of the water, soaring high over the air, roaring. Zoro and Gin's jaws drop straight down in horror. Luffy's eyes twinkle with excitement. Robin and Nami stare, flabbergasted, while Usopp looks around, wondering what the silence is about.
"That's my Rosalia," says Muchigoro, the guy they're up against in this round. He's a very pleasant guy. "She's super well behaved! And lovely! Goldfish are great!"
Anne and Conis' eyes are sparkling with interest. "Goldfish can get that big?" they ask, in sheer awe. "That is amazing! Captain, can we get one? Please?"
Wyper slowly raises his Eagle Launcher.
Gin closes his eyes behind his sunglasses and takes three grounding breaths. "I'm going back to the ship," he reports.
Sanji hums, "going to prepare a goldfish tank for us ahead?"
Gin considers murder for a long second. Finally, he throws his hands into the air in exasperation. "Just one. But not that one, since it won't fit on the damn ship."
The entire crew, including Robin, for some reason, replies to him as one. Most are sarcastic, others are pleasant, and the children are enthused. But they all say the same thing.
"Okay, dad."
Gin commits mutiny.
Kinoko surveys the island from the sky, soaring through, enjoying the view. There's jungle as far as the eye can see, and a mountain gorging in the center, encased by fog at its peak.
How curious. For a festival island, the festival's pretty constrained to just one area.
She spots Merry in the distance, undisturbed, and she dismisses it. She soars closer toward the volcano, eyes narrowing as she finds a strange growth at its peak.It almost looks like a tube. What is that? She dives down, closer, to find it winding around the crest of the mountain like a vine. It's segmented, like a slowly growing, gradually extending sprout.
A sprout.
A flower?
A sharp pain rips through her side, and Kinoko shrieks , vision going red as an arrow plunges through her abdomen.
She knows nothing else.
Everyone continues the trial with a big angry bump on their heads. Gin leaves.
The net gets passed from one person to the other. Wyper tries to shoot before he's told the bazooka's off-limits. He tries to fistfight the fish before Anne steals the net, taking over with a large metal paintbrush, insisting she's got an idea.
"Colours Trap: Betrayal Bla—" Anne voice falls short as she's interrupted by a tidal wave. "—nevermind." She lifts her waterlogged beret off her head. "Next."
"Can't use paints here, huh? Alright, I'll go," Sanji takes the net, saunters into the air— and jets out a flying roundhouse kick. The goldfish gets whacked harshly sideways. "See that, my gorgeous ladies? I am the coolest man in the wwoooOOOAUUUHH!"
The tail comes and Sanji gets punted into the waters, never to be seen again.
The little paper net falls dreadfully onto the ground. Chopper and Conis cry out a devastated wail. "NOooo! Sanjiiiii!"
"If we're facing a fish, it's gotta be me!" Nami laughs, tossing aside her shawl, getting a running start to pick up the net, and skidding upon the water like a water spider. She gets enough momentum to churn up a wave, spin it between her arms, and let it spin into a whirlpool.
The giant goldfish is caught in the currents, and it goes churning right back into the air. She poses dramatically.
The crew cheers.
Zoro is starting to feel very bad for the fish. Well, he's not going to care. He's supervising Usopp, who's supervising Conis and Wyper as they crouch over the decorative goldfish aquarium, actually trying to scoop goldfish from it to take home.
"This is ridiculous. Why make such an inefficient net?" Wyper says, exasperated.
"It's the challenge that's the charm," Usopp says, blindly attempting, and not really succeeding. "See? Conis is starting to get a hang of it."
Conis has caught her second one, and she cheerfully deposits it in a little fish bowl Baron Omatsuri gave her when she asked. She's ecstatic. Anne wants to try.
"I don't get it. Why make your job harder?" Wyper grumbles.
"It's a test of patience and dexterity, pu," says a little kappa boy that has shown up who knows when, holding his own fish bowl and net. "It is fun, pu."
"Who are you again?"
"DJ Gappa, pu. I want to scoop goldfish too, pu."
"Okay, that's fine."
"Thank you, pu."
"You're very polite."
"I am a good boy, pu."
Around them, the Trial of Hell continues.
Luffy takes the net. "Alright, my turn!" He leaps, intending to send the fish on the right course. "Gomu-Gomu noooooo… BAZOOKA!"
"NOT SO FAST!" Muchigoro declares, stepping on a button on the ground.
Instantly, a huge contraption shoots out of the ground. It takes them all a long moment to realize that's a bridle, and Muchigoro runs rapidly to take in the reins. The fish is headed right into it, caught— and Muchigoro tugs on it like a horse on a leash. It's hooked to the ground, so he doesn't even need much strength to stop the sea king.
Luffy's attack misses completely, and he's whacked into the water by a giant fish body.
"That's his own fault," Zoro says, defensively. Everyone speaks up to enthusiastically agree. Luffy's the only one going up the mutiny ranking for that one.
"Come back, Rosario-chan!" Muchigoro calls.
Rosario obeys, bracing for a backflip, somersaulting right back toward the other bucket.
"...yeah," Nami sighs. "Forget it. Big sis, if you would?" she asks, handing her the little paper netting.
Robin takes it in one hand, smiling. She doesn't use it, instead forming a net of arms upon the opening of the bucket, bouncing the fish right off.
"Alright!" Chopper cheers, "I'll take the last hit, then!" he beams. He crunches a rumble ball in his mouth, and inflates into the biggest mound of fur anyone's ever seen.
They win. Of course.
Gin grumbles moodily, stomping his way through the forests, upset.
These fucking brats on the ship never know when to take things seriously. This is obviously a trap, a Grand Line trap, and heck, they have more people than Foxy on theirs. And this isn't even an honourable Davy Back. If they get into a fight, there'll be war!
He kicks a tree, fuming. Sometimes, he hates that he's the oldest one on the ship.
"They fucking never listen to me!"
With a deep sigh, he looks around the jungle he's found himself in, glaring at the eerie silence. This is weird. Very weird.He can't hear any of the festival noise anymore. Sure he's far, but the goldfish arena can't be the only place on the island with noise, can there? This is a festival island— it's weird enough that there are any parts of it filled with such ominous silence.
He groans, frustrated. He doesn't like it here. He doesn't like it here at all.
This island may just be a tricky vacation to them, but Gin hates it. He doesn't understand why they can't sympathize with him— with this horror he feels deep in his chest.This island is bad news. Even if it isn't, Gin doesn't want to be here.
He wants to go back to the ship. If they're not coming with him, so be it. He'll go alone. And if they get in trouble and get hurt, it'll be their own fucking fault. He can laugh at them and say I told you so , because they're morons.
(...huh?)
Gin's anger makes his head hurt. He leans against the tree beside him, taking a liberating breath that makes him realize something is wrong.
He's not usually this angry.
Why did he say that? Why did he say he didn't care if any of them got hurt? That's the mindset he had when he was on Don Krieg's ship. It's the mindset he consciously decided to discard after joining the Strawhats, and so far, he's been succeeding.
He isn't one to cross his own lines, even when he's being temperamental.
Something's wrong.
He turns around sharply to the whip of an arrow.
He can't see it fast enough, but the pain that blows through his chest makes his vision go black.
This is strange, too.It's an arrow, impaled in his lower ribcage. He knows it doesn't hit anything important. It's caught in there, he knows how that feels. It's not lethal.He's made to deal with worse things. So why can't he get up? It's just one hit. It's just one hit, but it hurts so bad he could throw up. His entire being shivers, and in every edge of the metal scraping through his ribs, he thinks he's losing his mind.
Oh, poison? No. Not poison. He knows poison. This isn't a normal arrow, but it's not poison. What could it be—
"Well, this was an easy one to get," Baron Omatsuri huffs. "Don't worry. Your nakama will be joining you soon."
A flower smiles down at him. "One down! One down!' it cheers, in its shrill tone.
Whatever it was, it's not letting him think straight. And if he gets so frazzled by it, he fears what will happen to the rest. But he can't speak. And he can't stay awake.
He can only curse himself for not realizing this sooner.
"Look! I caught eight!" Conis says, bright and proud, showing off her little goldfish bowl.
Anne pouts. "I didn't catch any."
"It's a stupid game," Wyper agrees.
"That's cause you sucked," Zoro says.
"What was that?!"
"You sucked."
"Come at me, Roronoa, I'm gonna blow your brains ou—"
They were lost. The crew gets fed up when a next trial is proposed via sore loser rules, so they try to leave— only for both Nami and Usopp to get completely stumped.
"I can't feel the Merry. It's always in the wrong direction when I turn," Usopp says.
"Yeah, because we were totally relying on the blind man to lead the way," Sanji says. "It's okay Usopp. This is strange territory. We'll deal with it."
Usopp falls silent. "Sanji. I know we usually joke about it but that was a little mean, I'm genuinely trying—"
"Hey, look guys!" Chopper calls out, "there's a picnic mat."
"Sandwiches!" Luffy says. "It's half-eaten."
"No, the bread's dried out and the tea's cold," Sanji says. "It's been a while since whoever was here left. Definitely a sudden escape, but from who?" And there aren't any bugs crowding toward it. Actually, there aren't any bugs at all. Or wild animals, or other wanderers, or…
"How curious. I wonder if they were carried off by a ghost," Robin says. "There aren't any animal tracks, or signs of struggle, so it's the only conclusion I can figure."
"I'm gonna go investigate that way," Anne says, pointing in a seemingly random direction. "I'm the Scout. I'm good at surveying. I'll come back in ten minutes."
It's better for them to stick together, but there wasn't a real reason to stop her. If there's anyone that's best to take a quick look around, it would be Anne. She has the best grasp on their current location, and she's nimble. And Luffy would get lost first.
"Go on then I guess," Luffy says.
Luffy scales the tree beside them, but he doesn't find Kinoko. Conis blows a fox whistle, but nothing comes, definitely not Suu.
Anne doesn't return before the stage appears beyond them, Baron Omatsuri showing himself once more.
"So," Baron Omatsuri says, "ready for the second trial?"
Anne doesn't follow them to the venue of the second round. She simply lets them leave her behind, frowning as she sets a hand on the ground.
Something's down there.
A tunnel.
A hatch she doesn't notice before opens, and A man with a toothbrush moustache meets her right in the eyes. Suu is beside him.
"I believe this is yours," he says, gesturing toward Suu, who hurries up to her, crawling up her body to her shoulder. "On this island, children and animals are usually taken first. Then, the ones that wander off alone. You must be careful."
Anne mirthfully realizes why they haven't heard from Kinoko in a long, long while.
Since when? They'll never know now.
"What's going on?" she demands.
The man looks around, wary. Then, "come in. We'll talk below."
Anne follows.
Ring Toss was a bit of a mess.
Usopp and Sanji, and Zoro and Nami, were taking part.
The teamings were as such because an Usopp-Zoro combination would crash, and a Sanji-Zoro combination would… also crash. Four boats skid forth, into the waterways that cut through the cityscape. Nami watches in awe, distinctly reminded of Water Seven.
"Nami! Eyes on the road!"
"Are you seriously telling me that, Zoro?"
She laughs. Zoro grimaces.
Beyond them, Sanji steers while Usopp waits. "Something's weighing on my mind, Usopp. Something dreadfully heavy, it's like a raincloud, hanging over my head."
"Oh, really?" Usopp says. "Do not elaborate."
"No, I will speak about it. You cannot stop me," Sanji immediately says. "I'm wondering. I really am. Genuinely, I do not understand—"
"That rhymes."
"LISTEN TO ME YOU SHITHEAD," he roars. "Why the fuck am I on this boat instead of the other one? Why am I always saddled with you instead of my lovely queen Nami? Why is it always Zoro that gets to spend time with her?!"
Usopp stares in the distance blankly, contemplative. "Worries in the wind. Sanji and love that can't be. I could not care less."
"Did you just fucking haiku me?!"
"Indeed that is true. Imitating Kerojii. I have indeed done."
"Oh that one was awful. Stop."
"It's fun."
"Get serious, already."
All the idiocy aside, the race went on. They pursued, skidding past the waterways. Sanji and Usopp are assaulted by a cloud of smoke from a shichirin.
"All due damn respect but you're overcooking the meat, Keroko-san!" Sanji snaps. "Let me do it! I promise it'll be much more delicious!"
"It smells so good! I'm hungry!" Usopp whines.
"Pay attention!" Sanji huffs. "Dammit, I can't see shit in all this smoke!"
"Ah, how terrifying, what an inconvenience!" Usopp retorts loudly, raising his slingshot. "Go, Explosive Star!"
His shot misses Kerojii by a coincidental lift of the arm, but it takes out the shichirin grill instead, overturning the lightweight machine, flipping it over with a yelp from all parties as it spins in the wind, bringing itself, the plate of cooked meat, and the still undercooked meat on the grill, all into the river.
"What—" Sanji balks, reaching over to grab him by the collar. "What a waste! Usopp, you ass! You couldn't have aimed anywhere else?"
"Uhm, excuse me," Usopp says, "I'm blind. How am I supposed to help that?"
"Blind people can't aim, Usopp! But you can, and you have done better! Do you have any idea how many people that meat could've fed?"
Usopp's face scrunches up with annoyance. "Dude, I got rid of the smoke for you ! If you have any problems with my regard for priorities , do it yourself!"
"Ah of course. Let's bring personal skill into this," Sanji says, sarcastic. "I'm totally not allowed to judge sloppy work unless I'm a genius in every field known to man. Of course."
"You know that's not what I'm saying!"
"When you say shit like 'if you don't like it do it yourself' to someone who obviously doesn't have your skillset, that is literally what you are saying!"
"That's not what I—"
"HEY NOW, young'uns!" Keroko laughs, "pay attention to your elders! Have some respect!" she chides, though she's snickering hysterically.
"No no, let them fight," Kerojii says, giggling. "Young people are just like this, yeah? It's what youth entails."
Sanji and Usopp aren't hearing either of them.
"You're saying you didn't mean to hit the damn grill? Is that it?" Sanji snarks. "You're saying you're such a shit sharpshooter you couldn't have fucking avoided the one thing you know I'd hate for you to hit?"
"I'm NOT a shit sharpshooter! You're just shit at organising your priorities!" Usopp yells back. "You're always like this! We're in a battle, Sanji! We don't care about the wasted food or your chivalry or whatever, we just need to survive!"
Sanji's cigarette folds between his fingers.
"You take that the fuck back."
"You insulted me," Usopp says. His eyes are firm. "So no, I will not."
Of course, Sanji's chivalry and the surrounding food is never the main concern in a warzone. But those were still things that were important to Sanji, and Usopp, who hails from the future, who knows exactly why Sanji values his personal flaws — he should already know how important they were to him, ridiculous as they were.
But Usopp did not have the heart to give a shit about that at the moment. Sanji should also know Usopp's inferiority complex regarding his sharpshooting skills as a blind man.
Zoro and Nami hear the argument in the distance and they frown.
"Hey hey, that's not good," Zoro says. "Shit-cook's picking a fight now, of all times?"
"For all we know, it's Usopp going too far with his jokes again," Nami says. "Zoro, they've got machine guns. You can deflect those?"
"Absolutely not, what the fuck."
Nami laughs. "Don't get us lost, then!"
"You stop doing things alone, Nami, wait—!"
She leaps into the water, her foot popping into water-striding contraptions. She gets a bit of water time, and she uses it to slide a wave of water right over the frogship's heads.She grabs their machine guns by the searing nozzle, and with an effortful twist, she wrenches it out of their arms and right into her own.
"I've never used one of these before," she inspects it, landing on the edge of their boat as they squawk. "But it can't be more different than a marine rifle, right?"
She gets it to work. She's seen Usopp use something like this before, and she'll gather the rest of its workings with context clues.
But when she fires it, the problem starts.The recoil is ten times stronger than she expects it to be. Machine guns like these are bolted down for a reason, and Nami had shorn it off its hinges, and naively held it without any preparation for that kind of force.
She's taken so off guard, she barely registers herself flinching, stepping back, falling.
Her shoulder creaks dangerously by the tenths consecutive shot, and she hisses, dropping it abruptly. The trigger is still pressed, and it flies in all direction, barely missing herself when it rolls.
Zoro curses, leaping off his boat, kicking off one of the frog geezers as a launchpad before lunging for Nami.
"Oh you think we'll just let you?" Keroshot laughs, and he slams his hand on the underside of the boat, and the boat slots aside to reveal wings. They spread out sharply, knocking Zoro right out of the air.
He doesn't catch Nami before she falls.He clings onto the wing, barely, and flips right back around with his swords. "Oh, you geezers are annoying!" he yells, swords out. He slices the ship to bits.
"Oop, there goes the ship," Kerodeek says. "Okay, I'll fix it."
And he does , working at the speed of light, spindling forth an upgraded ship in mere instants. Zoro's already leaping into the river, taking a rapidly sinking Nami back to the surface.
"For fuck's sake, I told you not to go alone!" Zoro grumbles.
"I had a plan!"
"And that failed, because you didn't think it through!" Zoro says. "Just get back up on the damn boat and stop getting in my way. And don't move that arm!"
Nami does a double take at that. "Wha— oh, just because I messed up once, I'm now incapable of helping?"
"That screw in your arm looks off! You sit the fuck still or it's only going to get worse. I don't need to jump around trying to save you, I'm trying to focus here."
"It's just a screw, it can be fixed! Why are you treating me like an invalid?!"
"I am not!"
"Yes you are!"
Nami roughly shoves him aside, sinking briefly only for the waves to catch her, bringing her back up in a mild wave. She throws herself back onto the boat, scooping up the rings in one move.
Zoro curses. He dives back down when the frogs fire off another rally of gunfire, and he draws his swords.
"Three-sword style: Tatsumaki!"
The water tornado engulfs their ship, shattering it once more.
Nami has affixed the lifesaver rings to her Clima Tact, and the Eisen Dial pops it into the shape of nunchucks. Kerodeek and Keroshot flail, trying to get their boat back in order, but Nami doesn't miss this time when she spins it into the air.
They're wound up by the constricting rings, and it's over.
"I caught them!" She declares, like a statement. She points at her achievement, catching her Tact as it comes back. The frog elders drop into the water miserably, bound up by the lifesavers.
"Only because I stopped them from fighting back," Zoro grounds out.
Nami's face tightens with irritation.
"Oh, okay, strong independent man that is so fucking capable," she says, sitting down. "Oops! My fragile arm, which is out of its socket and thus I can't control it, slipped!" And then, she turns on the engine, skidding away, leaving Zoro far behind her in the water.
Zoro's jaw drops.
"Nami, you bitch!"
While the Ring Toss occurs, the rest of the crew settle in the resort. Conis and Robin enjoy the pleasantries, getting massages and enjoying the spa, before sitting down to enjoy a drink with Muchigoro.
Conis stays silent as Robin hounds him about flowers.
Conis' allergies have mellowed after the medicine took effect, but they couldn't help but wonder where it came from. They didn't find any in the jungle, and the only one around seemed to be the comical one by the Baron's shoulder. It just wasn't making sense.
"Lily Carnation…" Conis repeats. "Is that a species of flower down here?"
"I'm… not sure," Robin says. "Lilies and carnations differ, but a 'lily carnation' may be a separate genus I've not learned of yet. That is troubling. I'm meant to be the scholar, it isn't a good sign when there are things I do not know of."
Conis' caught goldfish have been kept in an aquarium display for now, for her to take once they're ready to leave. She sips on the non-alcoholic cocktail, contemplative.
Muchigoro runs away to throw up, having taken in too much alcohol for the midday.
"He spoke of a storm, didn't he?" Conis asks. "Storms… they are when the sky turns dark, the winds surge, and the waves turn violent… right?"
Sky Island is above the clouds— other than Weather Ball creations, they've never experienced any weather conditions. At least, outside of Enel's Raigou.
"They usually aren't as bad as the one we went through up there. Lightning down here will have a hard time destroying great land masses like an island. Vearth is strong," Robin assures her. "But… we don't fear the lightning here. We fear the sea."
Conis shivers.
"Even though the sea brings great bounty and freedom?"
"The sea takes as much as it gives," Robin says. "Just like how fire brings life, but can also end it. Everything's a coin, Miss Seamstress. There are two sides, and people are capable of living never knowing which side is which."
She doesn't elaborate further.
Anne lifts herself up from the hatch.
Brief, of the Chobihige Pirates, has told her as much as possible— she's gotten enough information that she can't delay the reporting back any longer, and thus, she runs from the underground passages, eager to get back to her crew.
She has to tell them as soon as possible. She left Suu down there, though.
"Hey, you."
She jumps in fright.She'd made her way up a tree, and she'd been leaping around frantically, trying to find the right path back to the resort— so she doesn't expect to be called out.No one else should have been around, this far away.
And yet, DJ Gappa stands in the foliage, staring straight at her with eyes burning red and smile brimmed unnaturally wide.
"Your hat is cool, pu. Give it to me, pu."
