Chapter 40
[Porche Pov Continue]
It's been a few hours of this Katarina woman asking me detailed questions about Cade-kun and it's become extremely tiring to continue speaking about this in my current position, sitting on the cold stone floor with my hands and feet tightly tied up.
However, after all this time it seems I have finally answered all of this woman's questions, that honestly, like she had previously said, weren't anything important or something Cade-kun doesn't want anyone to know.
"So that's how it is, I see…" she says after I answer the question of how Cade-kun knows about Rokushiki and how I learned it.
"Hmm… If I remember correctly, there weren't any trips planned to cross the Calm Belt from East Blue to West Blue through this whole year. Hmm…got to look into it." She murmurs in a low voice, one that I can't make out in its entirety,
All I got is that she is talking about how Cade-kun arrived in West blue from East blue, that's it…
"Anyways!" she suddenly speaks up, "That's all I wanted to know, by the way…Carina is not here, it was a false claim, meant to motivate you in case things didn't go so smoothly, you understand right?" she states with a shoulder shrug, acting easygoing.
To this my face stiffens and I sigh in resignation, 'Heh, I still have a long way to go, don't I?' I think to myself; as i couldnt tell if she was telling the truth or nor, and not wanting to risk it I continued to explain and answer her more personal questions because I was worried about what this dangerous woman might do to Carina-san if I didn't comply; I mean her torturing me was also a motivating factor, but that was something ive been prepared for this entire time.
"Why did you tell me that? Why now? Are we done?" I ask with the blankest facial expressions I can possibly make, don't want to get my hopes up too soon now do I?
"Hmm… why not? Thank you for your cooperation, unfortunately you will remain tied until your 'Cade-kun' finds you, think of it as a sort of test for him, if he can't find you, then you will die and he will die, see ya." She says before suddenly disappearing into thin air.
"Fuck! You bitch! You fucking lied!" I scream to the woman.
However, just as I wanted to rage further, I suddenly began to feel dizzy and my eyesight started to darken, 'Damn, guess I'm going back to the land of dreams, hope Cade-kun can find me.' I think to myself before the lights turn dark.
[Mc Pov]
[Back to Present]
"we're here now and coming for you Porche-chan, just please be alive."
…
It's been about 10 minutes and we are finally arriving at the island's rocky coast, getting ready for landing.
But just as we are nearing the rocky shore, a few meters away at most, I suddenly turn the rutter 180 degrees and turn the ship away from said shore.
I then walk up onto the railing, jump onto it, and face back around in order to speak to the approaching Carina.
"Carina, you know what to do, the success of this mission depends on you, we can't risk you getting caught or distracted by anything on the island." I say to her with a grave voice.
"Hmm," she nods, "I understand, here take it," she then hands me a small flower, a beautiful yellow flower which I quickly accept and pocket.
"Thanks, and thanks for doing this even though we met only a little over a week ago," I say with sincerity.
"For the last time, don't worry about it, it's not like I'm putting myself in danger or anything…ha-ha…anyways I agreed to join you guys…and it's not a bad thing to have you guys owe me one!" she says to me with a wink at the end.
"Right, we sure will," I nod in agreement, "anyways, if you see any strange movement on the island, make sure to get as far away as possible, and if you don't hear from me for an extended period of time, go towards Lily Island and wait for my return for about a week, if I don't return by then… it was nice to have met you." I saw with a wry somewhat self-deprecating smile.
"Don't say that! Anyways, let's do it! How hard can it be to find Porche in one of the most dangerous islands in West Blue?'' She cheers while pumping her fist in an excited manner, followed by walking back to steer the ship away.
I jump off, jumping a few meters, and land on the rocky, sharp shore of one of the most dangerous islands in West blue.
'Yeah…How hard can it be?' I think to myself as I carefully move forward.
In order to explain why we are so disheartened about Finding Porche-chan on this island you will have to go back to the point where Carina and I were actually looking for information on this island.
And what we found didn't bode too well for us, this island is actually considered to be one of those extremely rare anomalies found in the four seas.
Every single one of the four seas has at least a few of them, islands that are just too dangerous to be fairly considered as part of the rest of the peaceful sea.
They shouldn't be part of such seas, but part of the Grand Line, many have speculated why these islands came to be, but none have found the reason as to why this happens, however these islands are not all the same, just like the Grand line, every island is unique and different; some can be considered as islands commonly found in Paradise according to their danger level, and some more unique ones can be considered to be similar to islands found in the in the New World.
Unfortunately for us, this island is of the latter, it's one of those extremely rare islands that are so deadly and dangerous that almost nothing is known of them and take a battalion of trained soldiers and explorers to actually explore and learn more about.
And this island is unfortunately for us one of the latter, named after its deadly inhabitants, Blood Snake Island.
Chapter 41
As I walk on the sharp rocks, careful not to trip or step onto any overly sharp rocks, I begin to distance myself from the sea, approaching what seems to be a ginormous jungle covered in trees that seem to be the size of large skyscrapers from my previous world.
And as I get closer, it becomes impossible for me to see the end of these trees, even as I crane my neck to the point of being uncomfortable.
Yet even as this becomes an annoyance for me, I don't stop focusing on the tree canopy far above, not even for a second, the reason is for the exact reason the island is named Blood Snake Island, blood snakes.
These are tiny, crimson-colored snakes the size of a human fingernail that make their home on top of the tree canopy and like to hunt any creature that sets foot on the island.
They do this by launching themselves down from said canopy at the speed of sound and entering the body of their victims, or more specifically the bloodstream.
Once inside the victim's bloodstream they then excrete their special venom from their pores which covers their bodies, this then leads to said victim being melted from the inside and becoming nothing more than bloody, gory mush on the jungle floor within a couple of minutes. A mush just the right consistency for said tiny snakes to then swarm and feast upon to their heart's content.
This is the reason why this island is so dangerous, these snakes are so fast and dangerous that 9 out of 10 exploration parties end up annihilated, being left as no more than puddles of blood soaking into the damp jungle soil.
However, even though the major danger in this island are the blood snakes, they are not the only dangers found on this island, this island wasn't solely named after these tiny snakes, it was named after snakes themselves.
That's right, this is a snake island, as in hundreds of thousands of different types of snakes live on this very island, ranging from foot long boas to 300-foot anacondas, and many many more.
…
And just as predicted, as I'm about to set foot into the jungle itself, I suddenly hear a loud gunshot firing from above the canopy, closely followed by a nearly invisible tiny red snake.
I react instantaneously, dodging the tiny snake, and just as it bounces off the ground, I quickly stomp on it, killing it.
However, this is not the end of the ordeal, not even seconds later, I once again hear 5 more separate gunshots going off, followed by once again 5 more tiny snakes, making me repeat the process all over again.
'Man! That's like dodging bullets, thank God for my superhuman physique, or I would have been toast; wish I could just use Limitless on myself, but I can't go wasting my energy on something like this when I'll likely be meeting that redhead soon,' I think to myself exasperatedly.
Thankfully after that no more snakes seem to want to attack me for the moment, letting me finally sigh and step forward into the damp green jungle, and just as I do, I get to finally hear the infamous sound that this island is known to produce, hissing, a loud, confusing, cacophony of hissing, sounding as if thousands upon thousands of snakes are constantly targeting you every step you take.
And just as the sound implies, immediately a large 8-foot yellow spotted snake strikes at me from a bush near my position, attempting to make me its meal for the day.
However, unfortunately for it, I've been on constant high alert ever since I stepped foot on this island, so seeing this I simply dodge and bisect it with a large razor-sharp machete that I bought back in Bollywood's marketplace, just for this very task.
*HISS*
*Shing*
…
And after that I simply continue on my way, not minding the blood on the machete.
…
It's been a few minutes and I've finally found what I've been looking for this entire time: a dead tree, something hard to find within a lively green jungle, and by this point in time I'm nearly completely covered in red and yellow snake blood from the thousands of snakes I've had to kill, covering me all the way from my head to my toes, yet contrary to expectations, I don't bother to wash it off, I did the first few times It happened, but at this point it's getting repetitive and very time consuming.
What I do bother to do however is approach this dead tree and quickly get to digging out one of its roots, and once that's completed, I then rummage through my pocket and locate the yellow flower Carina gave to me.
I then carefully grab it and smoothly insert it right into the network of roots, letting it be covered by the bunched-up roots.
I then quickly stand back up and proceed to fill the hole back up with dirt, followed by standing back and waiting.
Waiting for the dead tree to suddenly come back to life, becoming lively and tinted yellow.
"Haya Cade, nice seeing ya."
The voice of Carina comes through the tree, "Right…well I've done my part of the plan Carina, it's your turn now miss nature's guardian." I quip back to her.
"Right! Leave it to me!" she enthusiastically replies back.
And after she says this, a few minutes later the yellow tree begins sprouting thousands of bushy yellow dandelions from its body, causing it to look like some sort of fuzzy creature.
And right as a small gust of wind blows by, thousands of these dandelions each separate from the tree and blow with the wind, following it and spreading throughout the area.
This repeats itself a few times until the tree is left bare, once again looking dead and sickly, no longer a lustrous yellow, except for one small yellow flower on its trunk.
"It's starting, you should still go deeper into the jungle though and try to find a larger tree, it would speed up the process greatly." Comes Carina's voice from the flower on the trunk.
I nod and pluck the flower from the tree, turning towards the direction I know leads deeper into the jungle, and march forward.
Looking as determined as ever, even as I have to immediately bring up my blood-soaked machete and swing it down once again, covering it in a new layer of blood.
"Don't worry Porche-chan, I'm coming," I say with determination.
Chapter 42
"Hooh, still nothing huh?" I ask the beautiful yellow flower in my left hand.
"Unfortunately, no, I've asked the plants about her, but they didn't find anything yet, she's doesn't seem to be in clear view of any of them or they just can't clearly distinguish a small figure from millions of constantly moving snakes, no idea, but with this method I myself have covered 10% of the jungle so far but still haven't found a clue, sorry Cade" comes Carina's voice.
"Hmm, don't worry what your attempting is hard enough, I don't expect miracles, and it's only been an hour so far anyways, by the rate we're going, it shouldn't take us too much longer to find something that leads us to her." I confidently reply back, as I once again swing at the head of a large 20-foot brown colored snake, followed by dodging and stepping on a blood snake that targeted me.
…
"20 % of the jungle covered"
…
"30 % of the jungle covered
…
"60% of the jungle covered"
…
"70% of the jungle covered!"
"Finally! I've got something Cade! I finally found a clue to where she could be." Comes Carina's excited voice over the yellow flower that I'm once again holding in my hand.
"About time! It's been almost 9 hours since we got here!" I reply back tiredly but happily, knowing that Carina has finally found a clue leading to Porche-chan.
"A few meters to your right you can find a waterfall- '' Comes Carina's voice, "WAIT! Don't tell me it's behind a waterfall!" I cut her off, "NO! Just listen to me, the waterfall isn't hiding anything, it's just a normal waterfall… anyways there's a small river there, a few miles down that river it suddenly splits into two, following the stream on the left it will lead you to what seems to be an underground area," comes Carina's voice in response to my outburst.
"Right! Okay … would you mind giving me some of that juice again?" I ask the yellow flower in my hand.
"Ugh…you do realize that you will become resistant at this point, right?" she questions back with a bit of snark.
"Don't worry about it, I won't rely on it too much, I just need it to move forward, that's all..." I reply back.
That's right, the juice that I'm talking about is the medical spheres that Carina can produce through plants. That is what has kept me going in this dangerous jungle.
The reason is not only all of the physical exertion I've had to do to kill thousands of snakes tirelessly, but also the fact that I'm not omniscient, nor am I a master of Haki, and due to this I've been getting bitten and poisoned by a few sneaky or hard to dodge snakes throughout the journey.
I've even had to fire off slow-slow beams at myself in order to stop a few blood snakes that I couldn't dodge, followed by getting them out the hard way, which was basically digging into the injury that is basically a bullet hole and pulling them out, causing a lot of bleeding once the slowing effects ran out.
Considering all of this I fully believe that I would either be forced to use Limitless to survive or be dead if I didn't have Carina's healing capabilities by my side…seriously I'm beginning to think I just can't go into a situation where I don't need Carina's help.
'Well, that's what teammates are for…' I try to console myself, knowing that I'm simply being stupid and reckless because of her presence and my hurry to find Porche-chan and not unnecessarily waste energy.
Anyways, Carina acquiesces and once again provides me with some of those lovely medical spheres of hers.
And once they hit my skin, I'm once again enveloped by a sense of peace and tranquility, making all of my exhaustion disappear and healing me of any wounds and lingering effects of poison I suffered from.
"Right, thanks, time to follow the river, will you still be able to monitor the situation so deep underground?" I ask Carina after thanking her for her graciousness.
"Unfortunately, no, the air down there seems to be stale, and I don't sense any plants down there, and I'm too far out at sea to really do anything substantial - like grow a network of plants- so deep underground." She replies back.
That's right…she is too far, due to the fact that Carina is a novice Spriggan, she has trouble using her powers on plants too far away without something like a direct link to connect her to the surrounding plants (yellow flower), and at this very moment she isn't able to drift back, this is the moment that's most important after all; can't have her become a target for the redhead Cp agent now, can we?
"Right, well you will still be able to see and communicate through the yellow flower, make sure to keep an eye out for anything strange up here and warn me through the flower if anything happens." I say this while following Carina's instructions.
I run for a few miles following the river, find where the river separates and follow the left stream; a few minutes later finally coming across what she was talking about. A deep and narrow ravine can be seen, looking as if some god just drew a knife and split the land in half.
I move near its edge and look down, seeing nothing but darkness and slippery jagged rocks covering the walls.
…
"Huff"
"Huff"
It's been about an hour that I've been carefully climbing down these slippery and sharp rocks, and finally I arrive at the bottom, having to jump over the pooling water and land on a slippery rock, being careful to not fall into the water, don't want to die just because of a slip now do I?
"Oof! Finally! My muscles are basically numb at this point! Carina, why didn't you mention something about this cavern being so deep underground?"
"Sorry Cade, I'm not used to perceiving distances through water with my plants just yet, and the water reached down here in seconds, sorry about that," comes Carina's remorseful voice.
"Hooh… it's fine, I had to do it anyways, and It would have taken me months to even find this place without you, so I'm thankful." I reply while massaging my sore arms and looking around the dark open space, squinting slightly to try and find anything of note.
My eyes have already been gradually adjusting to the darkness as I moved down so it doesn't take me too long to find something out of place; something that immediately amazes me.
It's an entrance to what appears to be some sort of hidden temple marked by a stone archway that's beautifully decorated in images of snakes and what seem to be monstrous creatures.
As I walk in, I'm greeted with a scratched and eroded message on the right wall which seems to be written in a different language, yet for some reason I can still clearly understand: "Deeper thy travels, Deeper thy burden, Deeper thy danger."
When I read this, I tiredly sigh, "Well, out of the frying pan and into the fire neh?"
I simply ignore the ominous warning and continue to walk forward, deeper and deeper into the depths of the unknown.