I am SUPER not doing the dumb Apis filler arc. It's boring. Stupid bald dragon, stupid sad ending, no THANKS.
Also finally reached the point where I can't write this from memory, so I actually had to consult the manga and wiki to write this chapter lol.
Nami told Luffy to put Sunny in the cabin after the shower debacle. Luffy took his smallest crewmember downstairs and fluffed up some blankets for him, wrapping the now calm, but tired pokemon like a burrito and setting him down in his usual spot. Luffy sat next to him against the wall and gave his head a pet. Sunny looked up at him, sensing the unusual mood of his captain.
"Thanks for watching out for Nami and Usopp, Sunny. I heard you defeated Undies," Luffy grinned. "That was a cool island! I want to go back someday when I'm King of the Pirates!"
Somehow, Sunny didn't think that was a good idea, so he just added a hesitant "Quilll…"
They both heard the door to the bunk open again and Zoro climbed down the steps. Zoro gave them a grim smile.
"Luffy," he began, standing in the middle of the dim room.
Luffy gave him a smile and his attention from where he was sitting. "Yes, Zoro?"
Zoro exhaled. "Back in Loguetown, when you were up on the scaffolding. You didn't know you would be saved."
"Nope. That was pretty lucky though!"
"Luffy, you almost died," Zoro said. Luffy frowned slightly but didn't interrupt his friend. "You have five people who depend on you now. So I'm sorry that I wasn't there to protect you like I should have. But I don't want to see you resign yourself to something like that ever again. Is that something the freest man alive would do?"
Luffy smiled softly and stood up, dusting off his shorts while he moved his straw hat to shade over his eyes. He stood there quietly for a moment, Sunny and Zoro's eyes glued to him.
When he looked up, he had a small, confident grin on his face. "You're right, Zoro. I won't give up, because all of us are going to reach the end of the Grand Line together."
Zoro's grim look crept into a genuine smile, it was the most pleased Sunny had ever seen Zoro. "That's all I needed to hear, Captain." And Zoro headed back up to the deck.
Nami pulled the book he had been carrying and put it on the table. "I got this on my island. It's a book of animals all over the world. I thought if it was anywhere, we'd find what Sunny is in here." She started flipping through pages, passing creatures like the hooooooorse, lapahns, giant tigers, bananagators, and the kung fu dugongs. "But there's nothing like him in here. No fire quills or anything. The closest thing I could find is this—an echidna." She pointed to the illustration of the mundane animal, a small animal related to the hedgehog that did, in fact, resemble Sunny. "But it doesn't have any strange abilities and it's small and not blue."
"If he's not a devil fruit user and he's not an animal from the Grand Line, what is he?" Sanji looked at her.
Nami walked over to Usopp after breakfast the next morning, giving him a little wave in greeting.
Usopp was tinkering with a few gears and bands that Nami didn't have a clue about.
"Morning, Nami," he greeted chipperly.
"Good morning, Usopp. I was hoping I could ask you something."
Usopp looked up in surprise. "Sure, what's up?"
Nami pulled out her bo staff, the thin wooden pole had been handy but with what they were up against now, well it wasn't enough. She wasn't enough. "I was hoping you'd help me with an upgrade."
The Strawhat pirates had been on the water for three days when Nami declared that they were approaching their target. Sunny didn't quite understand what this mountain rising from the sea was, or why they needed to cross it to get to the Grand Line but he didn't exactly have the option to get clarification. They were all in the kitchen eating breakfast, Sunny in a yellow raincoat Nami had bought him in Loguetown, while she led the discussion on plans and defended her food from Luffy simultaneously.
Sunny had figured out that his food was more or less safe from the greedy rubber arms. Sanji had surprised him with an even hotter hot sauce and his meals were almost always had some. While Luffy could tolerate the heat, there were certainly easier plates to prey on without the pain. And if he tried anyway, Sunny would send his hand back with a nip.
Yes, Sunny was getting quite used to this strange life at sea. He'd been with the Strawhat pirates for two weeks now and he had lots of fun every day and he cared for his strange, two-legged friends too. The kitchen was full of laughter or hijinks and always plenty of delicious food and the two bounty posters were hanging up on the wall. Nami and Sanji didn't love it, but Sunny had to admit, seeing them there took away the fear of them.
Nami stabbed down at Luffy's hand with a fork and Luffy stopped and sweated slightly as he looked a the utensil buried firmly in the wood between two of his fingers. His arm retracted with a snap.
"According to Buggy's map, we're about a day from Reverse Mountain now, but even I am not sure what to expect, or how the Merry is supposed to go over a mountain. So we need to be careful and work together for whatever comes. Zoro, I want you on the rigging, Usopp man the rudder, Sunny, you'll be look out on the sides and let me know if there are any rocks or obstacles. Sanji and Luffy will be doing whatever I need you to do."
"It would be my honor, Nami-swannn!"
"Couldn't we just come from the south and not have to go up the mountain?" Zoro pointed out.
"No, we need to sail across the mystery mountain, it's the coolest thing to do!" Luffy insisted.
"Coolest? You want to do this dangerous thing because it's the coolest option?"
"No, it's the coolest thing because it's the dangerous option," Sanji sighed an exhale of smoke.
Nami almost started into Luffy before she abruptly stopped, blinking slightly and getting out of her seat. "It should be storming now."
"Nami-swan, remember, Sunny sent the storm away half an hour ago," Sanji said sweetly.
Nami opened the door, peering out at the peaceful, sunny weather. "No, Sunny's ability seems only to divert the weather a little bit. We should still be hearing the thunder if we're getting close to Reverse Mountain. So it should be—oh no!" Nami ran outside, followed shortly by the rest of the crew.
"Oh no, oh no," she cried, looking out at the still waters, and the storm still raging in the distant horizon. Her blood ran cold. "We're on the Calm Belt!"
Suddenly, the water started to ripple and the boat began to shake.
"Eh? A waterquake?" Luffy exclaimed.
"No—it's—" Nami's words cut off as the crew felt the sensation of rising, and rising into the air as water fell in heavy sheets off of a black and white mountain rising out of the water, until two green eyes the size of the ship facing them as their caravel found herself beached on the nose of a giant sea king hundreds of feet in the air. A dozen other sea kings raised their monstrous heads out of the water, not even regarding them.
The crew was absolutely petrified in shock, even Luffy looked like he had just shit bricks. Sunny eyed the monstrous beings, then looked over toward the vivid blue expanse of the ocean, where he could see the curve of the world, and keeled over in a dead faint.
Sunny came to a minute later to the aftermath. Everyone lay astrew on the deck, Usopp foaming from the mouth and everyone heaped on top of each other. He was tucked under Sanji's arm and they were back in the storm.
Usopp popped up from his prone position, eyes wild, getting out the words he hadn't been able to get out earlier. "M-M-MONSTER!" He screeched, then looked around, where the rain and wind were buffeting them again, and Zoro, Sanji, and Luffy were picking themselves up, and Nami was crying holding onto the mast, but the waters around them were decidedly sea king-less.
"I knew they would run away after, after all, the giant goldfish I slew must have told tales to them about my great prow—prow—WHAT IS THAT?"
Ussop's eyes bulged out as he pointed a shaking figure into the fog in front of them. Nami squinted and held a hand up to see through the driving rain.
Sunny looked around from his position under Sanji's arm from the shelter of his little yellow raincoat. Nami's eyes had gone wide and he felt Sanji stiffen like a board.
"That…can't be…" Sanji breathed.
"We're headed straight towards it!" Usopp wailed.
"That means we're going the right way, Nami, what are we doing?" Zoro came up to the group and firmly pulled Nami out of her shock.
Sunny leaped out of Sanji's grip and bounded toward the bow of the ship when he saw it, larger than anything he'd ever seen. Larger, even, than this world's sea kings he'd just seen, rising from the water, a giant rock wall not fifty feet ahead of them.
"Everyone, stations!" Nami shouted. Sanji and Usopp struggled with the rudder as it bucked underneath them. They threw more force into it.
Craaaack. Sanji and Usopp looked at each other as the rudder snapped in their hands. Sunny clung onto the railing with all his might, shielding himself from getting hit with the roaring water that was sweeping across the deck in waves.
"Everyone, stations!" He heard Nami cry out. "Luffy, the side!"
Luffy charged off the deck, holding his hat, and inflated like a balloon just before Merry's bow hit the side of the upwards raging river. Sanji and Usopp manned the rudder and Mery shot upwards through the water, clear of the sides of the mountain.
Luffy jumped to the other side and corrected their course again, huffing for breath as they finally reached the peak.
They felt like they could see the whole world from where they were, on their sides, the unsurmountable sides for the Red Line. Behind them the raging storms of the East Blue guarding Reverse Mountain. Even a thick spotted tail of a sea king slipping into the water. Before them was crystal clear water, sparkling in the noonday sun, not a cloud in sight, and clear fresh air.
It lasted only a moment before the bow dipped down again, and they were flying down the mountain with more speed than a caravel should ever achieve. Nami ran over and grabbed Sunny as the speed became too much for him to hold onto the slippery railing and braced them the best she could and the wind raced past them. She managed to open her eyes against the wind pressure and nearly screamed again. At the mouth of the river feeding into the Grand Line, was a large, dark shadow a hundred feet long.
"SEA KING!" She shouted as everyone rushed over again. "Stop the ship!"
"We can't!" Usopp and Sanji wailed.
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIII
Everyone froze as the ship continued to careen downward. "What was that?" Zoro said in an unusually small voice.
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
They turned to the dark shadow, emerging from the water as Merry made her way off the mountain, straight towards the shadow.
"SOMEONE GET THE CANNON!"
Sunny suddenly felt waves of discontent, pain, and most of all loneliness as the great being showed it's small eyes, blue back, and ribbed white stomach. The mouth opened to show its teeth as it's giant mouth opened up, fifty feet wider than the Merry Merry had skimmed between the massive creature's jaws and now all it had to do was bite down and crush them unless they continued their descent into its stomach. Sunny ran and jumped on the figurehead, heart racing.
"IT HAS TEETH!"
"GET IT BEFORE IT SHUTS IT'S MOUTH!"
"I'LL PUNCH IT!"
WHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—
"Great Wailord—please stop!" Sunny called out as loud as he could. The loud wailing stopped. The Merry stopped, as the water in the Wailord's mouth stilled. Usopp, who had rolled the cannon out, stopped as the voice cut out. "We didn't mean to disturb you. Please." Sunny continued from where he stood on Merry's figurehead, shaking as he spoke to the cavernous throat of a wailord many times larger than normal.
Slowly, the mouth withdrew from them, the suffocating hot air of the wailord's mouth gave way to fresh air as the pokemon submerged itself carefully removing itself from the ship. Only the tip of the crows nest was brushed by it's teeth.
Nami collapsed to the floor, as Luffy looked around in confusion. "Where'd he go? I wanted to fight him?"
Zoro looked at Sunny, who was still looking out to the water, suspiciously. "Sunny, did you do something?"
Sunny didn't have a chance to attempt to give a response when the shadow reappeared again and slowly, carefully, a blue, shiny back started to grow in the water, until it was two hundred feet long and over a hundred feet wide, and rose up and up until small eyes the size of a dinner table appeared and fixed themselves on Sunny.
"How do you know my name?" The wailord asked, then inched closer, until his flat head was nearly within reach of Sunny and he finally noticed the gnarled scars across the front of his head, each one several times larger than his own body. He heard gasps from behind him as well. The wailord didn't seem to need his answer. As he rumbled in shock, "Cyndaquil? I haven't seen one of our kind in so long."
Sunny felt almost a strange urge to reach out and touch the scarred, enormous pokemon. His mind was moving faster than the wind on Reverse Mountain "I—I haven't seen anyone—I, did you get moved in the Big Displacement? Are there others?"
Wailord rumbled. "Slow down. I haven't spoken to any of our kind since I arrived…fifty years ago."
"Fifty years—?" Sunny couldn't believe it. The event in the forest in Johto that had transported everyone in a mile radius to this strange world had been just over four months ago. "What—"
"Sunny, are you talking to that whale?" Sanji's voice came from behind him and Sunny jumped, realizing this friends had gathered themselves and were standing behind him, watching the whale with cautious curiosity (except Luffy, who immediately jumped onto the figurehead with Sunny and introduced himself.)
"Sunny! Ask the whale what happened to his head," Luffy demanded.
Sunny looked at his captain, then back at the wailord. "Great Wailord, what happened? It looks like a horrible injury."
"Not Wailord, I was given a name by my family, just like you did, my name is Laboon.
"Your family? There's more of you?" Sunny asked with equal parts excitement and dread. He couldn't imagine a pod of wailord this large.
"They are not like me, they're humans, not trainers, but pirates, like you have. They left a long time ago…and I'm waiting for my family to return," Laboon answered.
Laboon's been here all this time waiting for his crew to return, Sunny finally understood. He shivered at the sheer magnitude of Laboon's faithfulness as well as the tragedy. Part of him wanted to ask the great whale where he thought they had gone, but he knew he shouldn't.
Instead, he said in a quiet voice, "I'm not sure I would do the same."
"You're young, you won't know what you are capable of doing until it comes to it," Laboon told him, eyes roving over to the Red Line with sorrow and frustration.
Sunny turned back to his friends, completely stumped on how to reiterate any information back to them. If he were back in his world, sometimes trainers who were in sync enough with their pokemon could understand them. This did not seem to be the case in this world, as no one on the crew could tell the difference between when he said "cyn" and "cyn" which was the simplest of distinctions for pokemon kind.
How could he possibly explain that he and the giant wailord behind him were from another world, sent here half a century apart?
Before he had a chance at explaining, Sunny heard a whoosh to his right. He spun around, eyes opening in surprise.
WHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Sunny watched as a large, barbed metal spike impacted into Laboon's side, catching three feet into his thick blue hide as a thick metal rope pulled taught. The Straw Hats, braced themselves against the guardrail as Laboon's four flippers impacted in the water, as he tried to pull away.
Another harpoon sailed through the air and impacted into Laboon's side a distance away.
"It's coming from that ship! Luffy!" Nami cried out, pointing to an approaching tug boat previously hidden by Laboon's body.
"Yosh!" Luffy secured his hat to his head and shot out an arm towards it, grabbing Sanji and Zoro as he went. "How dare they attack the mystery whale!" Even though he had wanted to punch the whale only minutes before.
The three were flung toward the tug boat, where three figures were aiming a third harpoon, stopping them in their tracks.
"Wail—Laboon! Stop, let me help!" Sunny shouted desperately as Laboon continued to bellow in pain and his flippers thrashed in the water. "Laboon!"
I felt Nami come up to my side, hands up placatingly. "We want to help! We won't let them hurt you!"
Finally, Laboon stopped thrashing, sunk a dozen feet farther into the water, so his eyes were just above the surface and bumped his head against the figurehead of the Merry in compliance. Before Sunny could rethink his decision, he climbed onto the dense creature's nose, running up to the top of his head easily enough with the large scars. Nami followed behind him, bo staff held in one hand as Usopp put a foot up on the guard rail, leveling his slingshot toward the tug boat.
As Sunny reached the crest of Laboon's head, he saw a woman with a long teal ponytail skating across the harpoon line with a bladed fan and chain and spiked poles strapped to her back. Sunny immediately bristled fire when he saw her.
She was hunting Laboon.
Please review! It inspires me to continue this frankly unprecedented rate of updating! Thanks for the 100 follows!
Also, WhiteyWolf26, as always, very perceptive. CrazyLittleTiger, I believe this chapter answers your question ;)