SailorStar9: With Chapter 150 uploaded, I present Chapter 151 this fic. For everyone who put this fic on your favorited and followed lists and/or story alerts, thank you, but remember everyone, a lot of authors (myself included) sustain on readers' reviews.
Pairings: Ace/Sasha, sibling Luffy/Sasha and Sabo/Sasha, Background Protector!Law/Sasha
Disclaimers: One Piece belongs to Oda EiichirÅ-sensei. Me, on the other hand, own absolutely nothing, except my OC, the pairing and the fic idea.
Chapter 151: Arc 12: A Surprising Fact! The Man Who Guarded the Sunny!
"The surface is already so far away." Robin glanced up at the disappearing sunlight.
"What a sight." Franky agreed. "We don't get a view this wide in a submarine."
"We're sinking faster and faster." Chopper looked down at the ground. "Is the water really not gonna come in? I'm worried."
"It feels like we're drifting away from the human world." Nami remarked. "I'm tense."
"Are we gonna be able to return to the surface?" Usopp wondered.
"The ocean sure is beautiful." Luffy gushed.
"Look at this side." Brook leaned over the deck railing.
"Trees." Luffy gawked at the giant roots. "No, roots."
"Now that I think about it, the Sabaody Archipelago is one giant mangrove, after all." Sanji recalled.
"The splendor of nature." Brook gushed. "It feels like my eyeballs will pop up in surprise; though I don't have eyeballs."
"I've already seen it." Zoro stated.
"Yeah, cause you got on the wrong ship!" Sanji snapped. "Shut up! Let us be in awe here!"
"I can't hardly believe that the roots stretch all the way to the ocean floor." Robin blinked. "They're enormous and magnificent."
"Hey, Chopper." Usopp backed off. "There's something behind that tree."
"It's huge!" Chopper exclaimed, seeing the giant fish come into view.
"How exciting!" Luffy beamed. "An underwater adventure. It's like a dream come true. Fish!" he jumped onto the resin bubble. "I think I can catch them."
"The fish here look delicious, too." Zoro noted.
"Stop it, you fools!" Usopp slammed a fist on the two men's heads.
"What if the bubble pops?" Chopper snapped. "Don't ever do that again or I'll kill you."
"Nami-san, give us some dos and don'ts on the coated ship before they do something stupid." Sanji requested.
"Okay, Sanji-kun." Nami agreed. "Rayleigh-san gave me a note." "Alright everyone, listen."
"She's moving!' Sanji instantly broke out into a nosebleed. "A real, beautiful woman!"
Sasha just sighed and focused on her sapphire orb, the dragon wings on its sides were gone, replaced by a entwined metal dragon which coiled around the crystal sphere. "Water Lock!" she stopped Sanji from being propelled out into the water. "Chopper, please take care of this idiot."
"What happened to you, Sanji?" Usopp panicked. "You've become more susceptible to women."
"This isn't like you." Chopper agreed, hooking Sanji up with blood bags.
"I feel bad for him." Brook mused. "What happened to this ladies man, Sanji-san, in the past two years? At this rate, he's gonna bleed to death once he meets the mermaids that's he's been longing to see. I can't help worrying."
"We'll have to call for blood donations at the Fish-Man Island." Chopper reasoned. "I wonder if fish-men and mermaids have the same blood as humans."
"The bubble that coats the Sunny has the same quality as the soap bubbles at Sabaody Archipelago." Robin stated.
"Robin is right." Nami agreed. "Basically, they're the same. It stretches to a certain point and beyond that, it allows things to get through. Which means if we fire a gun or a cannon at a creature that attacks us, the bubble won't break."
"Then, on what occasion will it break instead?" Usopp asked.
"As you can imagine, if there are too many holes, it will break." Nami explained. "For example, if we are bitten by a Sea King's fangs, it'll be trouble."
"It's coming from behind!" Usopp and Chopper exclaimed on horror as a large eel closed in from the back, it's mouth wide open.
"They're fighting." Chopper sighed in relief with an even large fish grabbed the eel in its jaws and swam away. "We're safe."
"Or if the ship itself breaks up by crashing into a trench or rock, the mast or planking will break the bubble and that also spells danger." Nami continued. "So, we have to be careful of creatures and obstacles in the sea. As long we don't do anything foolish inside, it'll be fine. But 70% of the ships that head for the Fish-Men Island end up sinking. So, be cautious."
"Oh yeah." Luffy remembered. "They gave me a lot of lunches." he pulled out the large bag he was carrying. "Since Sanji is sick, let's eat these, everyone."
"Nami, is the ship going to be stable for a while?" Franky asked. "Don't we have to do anything?"
"Nope, we'll just have to ride this big sea current for now." Nami replied. "So yeah, we can continue on like this for a while. We don't have much to do until later."
"But just to be on the safe side," Sasha drew out four runestones and attached them on the four directions of the Thousand Sunny. "A shield rune formation." with the fourth rune in place, an energy barrier was erected within the resin bubble.
"Good." Franky lifted his sunglasses. "There's something I have to tell you all about. Go ahead and eat while you're listening. Hachi told us he would show us the way to the Fish-Man Island but he got severely injured in Sabaody and he's under medical care of Fish-Man Island. He got injured for the same reason as Duval. He's been protecting the Thousand Sunny. Around a year ago, the Navy found out about the Sunny and those two both faced fierce battles and were taken out of commission."
"Then how did the ship remain undamaged after that?" Usopp asked.
"There was someone else who fought for it." Franky replied. "He's the one who separated us 2 years ago. The big Warlord: Bartholomew Kuma. I couldn't believe my eyes when I got to the Sunny a few days ago. There isn't even a scratch on the Sunny. And Rayleigh told me later... he saved our lives. And after we vanished from the island, Kuma-san visited Rayleigh. I don't know what made him obey the Navy but he agreed to be a guinea pig and let his body be modified into a cyborg piece by piece and he somehow lost hi personality shortly after that."
"But I don't think he would guess what each of us would do after we get separated." Chopper pointed out. "Even so, he waited for us at the ship without his personality?"
"He made Dr. Vegapunk, who modified him, agree to program a mission in his mind." Franky explained. "'Defend the pirate ship until the day that one of the Straw Hats come back to the ship.' That's why, for the last 2 years, without his own memory, he has been carrying out his own orders, as a human weapon, waiting for us."
"That's insane." Zoro remarked. "Why did he do such a thing for us?"
"Terms like 'connection', 'Revolutionary Army'," Usopp mused. "Remind me about Luffy's father, the leader of the Revolutionary Army."
"I don't know my father that well." Luffy defended.
"Last I heard, Sabo-nii became the Revolutionary Army second-in-command." Sasha interjected.
"There is no mistake that he's the one who gave us the past 2 worthwhile years." Franky cut in. "We can't even ask him why he did it, but just remember that: Bartholomew Kuma turned out to be one of our greatest allies. But even if we meet him again, Kuma is now a heartless human weapon. That's all I have to say."
"I appreciate what he did, but there are still some mysteries." Zoro stated. "I hope we can find out his motive one day."
"Ally?" Sanji echoed. "Is that Kuma guy really an ally? Don't you realize where I was for the past 2 years?"
"How deeply are we submerged now?" Luffy wondered.
"It's getting darker and darker." Usopp agreed.
"We went through the euphoric zone and we're at the bottom of the twilight zone." Franky replied. "It must be more than 1000 meters below."
"It's really quiet." Robin noted. "It feels different from submersibles. It feels like flying in the sky."
"The sky?" Nami mused. "I have to start using what I studied on Weatheria for two years."
"There's something at 6 o'clock." Usopp reported, peering through his binoculars. "Is that a creature? No... Hey guys." he warned. "There is a ship kind of thing coming from behind. It's coming towards us."
"It's a pirate ship!" Chopper shouted as Caribou's ship rammed into them.
"They're pushing against us." Usopp winced. "Go away! The bubble is gonna pop!"
"No, they're coming through the bubble." Nami corrected.
"Who are they?" Luffy demanded.
SailorStar9: Any OOC-nes is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Reviews are much appreciated.
