Beta-read by MasterQwertster. Go check her stuff out, you'll like it. Any remaining errors are my own.
Chapter Summary: Some of them have been to the Grand Line before, so they're totally prepared.
Luffy insists on staying outside on figurehead to watch the storm. They leave him out there with Serena leaning on the railing near him, face turned happily into the rain.
As the rest of the crew heads to the galley, Nami splits off to retrieve the map of the Grand Line she had stolen from Buggy.
They get into the warm little gathering space and Sanji starts doing some prep work in the kitchen area along one wall.
Zoro gets out his blade maintenance kit and sits down at the table.
Usopp looks between Zoro and Sanji a few times as he dries himself off with a towel Sanji tosses to him. When they both continue to behave as if nothing at all alarming is going on, he sighs and slouches over to other side of the table.
The Sniper rests his chin on his crossed his arms, quietly watching Zoro and looking pensive as he's torn between complaining about their stoicism and imitating it.
The spirits of the three weapons gather around the table to watch. Wado sits to Zoro's left and Yubashiri and Kitetsu position themselves across from the swordsman on either side of Usopp, watching the swordsman work with a critical eye.
Lamar watches them for a few moments, noting the slight tension around the table. He seems to decide it's best to leave it alone for now and goes to get some work done in the pantry.
The blades of both the new swords have been coated in an extra thick layer of oil for storage. He cleans them each off and checks their edges.
Yubashiri is fairly straight forward. The shop keeper had at least known what he was doing when it came to blade maintenance. It doesn't take long for Zoro to prepare the blade to be used and put it back in its scabbard.
Kitetsu, on the other hand, had been sharpened to a razor thin edge by whoever had last done the job. Not good if one is going to be cutting into things like metal and bone.
"Surprised it's not chipped. Moron," Zoro murmurs to himself, referring to the sword's last owner.
Kitetsu looks smug, like he is remembering a particularly funny prank, "Fortunately, he got killed before he could swing me at anything."
Wado knows he's just trying to get a reaction, but something must still show on her face because Kitetsu chuckles, "Idiot took me on a dare. Went running ahead of everyone else and got an arrow through the neck. Of course it was still somehow my fault."
In response to his fake indignation Yubashiri points at Zoro and guesses, "You egged him on like you tried to do to this one at the shop."
Kitetsu gives a distracted shrug as he leans over the table, keeping his eyes Zoro as the swordsman fixes the edge of his blade.
It has just occurred to Wado that he is up to something when he lets out a "HA!" and lunges, clawing his long, pointed nails through the same space as the swordsman's hand.
He had been waiting for the right moment to make Zoro flinch and cut his fingers open.
Wado hisses in offence, but swordsman simply stills the motion of the whetstone. He sternly addresses the blade in his hand, "Cut it out."
He starts to move his hand again, "I've almost fixed it."
Usopp lifts his head off his arms and furrows his brow on the verge of asking a question, but seems to change his mind in the face of Zoro's intent focus on his swords.
The Sniper props his head on his hand and curls his fingers around his chin, watching more intently, as if he might be able to figure out the reason for Zoro talking to himself through observation.
Zoro spares him a faintly amused glance before silently continuing with his work, noticing his crewmate's confusion and silently daring him to try and figure it out on his own.
Wado narrows her eyes at the cursed blade, "If you wanted to be left behind in the shop you could have just stayed quiet."
Kitetsu slouches back onto the bench, "I wanted to cut his arm off."
She can't help but feel smug about that, "And instead he passed your little test."
She finds herself leaning forward trying to convince him, "You should be glad. He admires your strength despite the fact that you tried to turn it on him."
Kitetsu stares at her, seemingly struck speechless and Wado almost starts to hope she may have gotten through to him.
Then the red maned blade flicks a finger at Zoro, "Where are the other blades he was using before he came practically begging at the door of the Arms Shop? How many did he go through before that?"
She can feel her hackles rising again in indignation, "He takes excellent care of—"
Kitetsu growls, "You are special to him. We are just more fodder for his ambition."
She makes the mistake of letting herself be put on the defensive, "It's not the same! Those blades didn't even have names!"
…Still they had broken, "…He expects no more of us then he expects of himself."
Kitetsu scoffs, "From the scars on his hide, that doesn't mean much."
She clenches her teeth on a growl and reminds herself that the person most likely to suffer if they can't get along is Zoro, "He's going to be the strongest swordsman in the world. The blades he carries to that title will have that to their name forever."
Kitetsu rolls his eyes.
She can't help but insist one more time, "To climb to the top requires risk. But if we shatter, it won't be because of carelessness or foolishness on his part."
The cursed blade flares up with contempt and anger, "If we shatter, it won't matter why."
Yubashiri, who has been watching this exchange as if it were a tennis match, clears his throat, "Maybe not to you, but some of us still have some self-respect."
Kitetsu bares his teeth, but Yubashiri pushes on, "You should at least give him a chance to show what he can do. You're only more likely to end up at the bottom of the ocean if you get him killed."
The cursed blade sneers, "If I can get him killed, he never would have made it to the top anyway."
That sounds like a threat.
A moment later she is startled to feel Zoro's hand resting on the hilt of her blade. She realizes she had started leaning over the table toward obnoxious spirit with a growl building in her chest.
Kitetsu has laid his ears back and braced himself defensively as if preparing for an attack.
There is defiance on his face and, worse yet, a look of vindication. As if by becoming angry she had proven something in his eyes.
She tries to smooth her hackles down. Zoro has picked, or at least accepted, Kitetsu.
She also notes with some guilt that she can feel Merry's growing unease. The ship doesn't like it when crewmembers fight.
And however she feels about it, the other two blades are crew now.
She can fight with Kitetsu, but there is nothing that will convince him to cooperate right now. He is determined to strike out at everything.
She forces herself to lean back and take deep breaths, resting her hands on the table.
Zoro finishes putting a proper edge on Kitetsu so the blade can cut without nicking.
The Swordsman inspects the sword, grinning evilly as he imagines fighting with his new weapons, "Much better."
She knows Kitetsu wouldn't admit it, but she can see some of the strain around his eyes and in his posture has smoothed out now that the metal of the blade is no longer stressed.
After sitting for a couple minutes in silence she thinks maybe they can just leave the bickering behind for now.
Just as Kitetsu makes a face indicating he's just thought of something really infuriating to say, Boshi comes galloping through the door, "Nami's gonna tell us something cool!"
The hat spirit jumps up on Wado's shoulder as Luffy slams the galley door open and starts to shake the water off himself like a dog.
Gumgum shakes her leaves out and tries to smooth them down, muttering to herself, "Does he always have to hang off the figurehead?"
The cook growls and tosses a towel at their captain's face.
Luffy pulls the towel off his head, laughing as he demands, "Sanji, I want juice."
Sanji seems to ignore him, instead twirling the short distance to where Nami has entered just behind Luffy. He offers her a neatly folded towel with a flourish and gives a small swoon when she offers a brief "thanks."
The Navigator pulls down the hood of her raincoat and starts dry off her face and hands.
As Sanji turns back to the galley and starts pulling out glasses, Nami grabs her captain's ear. It stretches a little before he starts to follow, calmly accepting her manhandling.
She drags him around and pushes him down onto the bench at Zoro's side. Wado scoots over a bit so they aren't overlapping.
Lamar comes out of the pantry slapping his hands together to dispel the black dust of the rot spirits he's just captured.
The brownie sees the group gathered in the galley and perks up seeing an opportunity. He springs up onto the counter where Sanji has just finished pouring glasses of orange juice.
He stands over the pitcher and makes a habitual motion of pushing his rolled sleeves up. Wado licks her lips in anticipation when he starts waving his hands over the juice in a precise set of gestures.
Something resembling steam separates from the pitcher and gathers between brownie's hands. Finished with that, he casually leaps from the counter to the tabletop and starts flicking his wrist like he's dealing cards.
Glasses of juice appear in front of the spirits sitting around the table. Boshi gives a small cheer, jumps down from Wado's shoulder, and happily sticks his whole face in the top of the glass and starts drinking.
For a few moments there is silence except for the sound of the monkey's slurping as the two new spirits stare at the little spirit actually consuming the contents of the glass.
Yubashiri reaches out slowly, uncertain he will make contact, and picks up the glass in front of him. He lifts it up to the light, inspecting it as if trying to discern the method of its creation.
Wado lifts her glass in a small salute, "Try it."
She drinks but keeps her eyes on the other spirit. He's obviously never gotten to try something like this before.
The dark haired spirit curiously lifts the glass to his lips. The moment the liquid touches his mouth, he freezes and his eyes widen.
It's several seconds before he realizes Lamar, Boshi, and Wado are all grinning at his reaction and makes himself swallow, "…Amazing… I've never actually gotten to taste food before…Than-."
"We're lucky to have you with us," Wado quickly breaks in, making a nixing gesture across her throat.
Yubashiri's brow scrunches in confusion, "I was just going to say –" he stops again when Wado widens her eyes in warning, but gives her an irritated expression that demands an explanation.
Wado tries to frame it in a way a sword spirit might understand, "Brownies consider it rude to repay a favor with nothing more than thoughtless words."
Yubashiri's brow scrunches, like he doesn't believe what Wado is telling him.
Lamar who is still standing between on the table, rolls his eyes at her, "So melodramatic."
He turns to Yubashiri, "Your reaction was compliment enough."
Wado leans back and crosses her arms in annoyance. She hadn't gotten off so easy, "I was just trying to save him from getting clawed."
Lamar gives her a look like she's the one being unreasonable, "That was weeks ago."
And more importantly, just after he'd left his clan. Her reaction had been similar to Yubashiri's, but at the time the brownie had thought she was being flippant.
This had quickly devolved into the humbling experience of having to struggle to hold her own against a spirit less than half her height that wasn't even specialized in fighting.
It had ended with Boshi sitting on Lamar and Wado's arms pinned to her sides by Serena's vines until they'd finally straightened the misunderstanding out.
She had been watching her words since then. It was nice to know she wasn't the only one who had learned something from the experience.
Amidst all this, Kitetsu has disappeared from the table with his glass.
Their attention is brought back to what the humans are doing when Nami walks around to the end of the table and slaps the still damp waterproofed map down on the table, "The entrance to the Grand Line is a mountain."
They sit listening to the humans trying to figure out how that could be possible until Serena drops through the ceiling and simply states, "Something's wrong," before turning and walking through the door.
The spirits all quickly follow her outside.
The ocean ahead of them is so flat it is reflecting the bright sunlight like a mirror even though just behind them the rain continues to pour down.
They all look back and forth repeatedly in growing confusion and panic. There should at least be waves from the storm behind them.
Wado can feel her mane fluffing up in alarm despite her efforts to retain some calm. The spirits that control storms, wind, and currents are powerful and rarely show any concern for the desires of others.
Something in these waters is strong enough to scare them off.
Eventually, the humans on the crew come streaming out onto the deck, having also realized something strange is going on.
Nami is the only one who immediately understands how dire the situation is. She starts demanding they paddle out of the area, called the Calm Belt, immediately.
Sanji, as always, is ready to obey, but everyone else wants explanations first despite the panic in her voice.
All the spirts shift uneasily as they feel a sudden spike of alarm from Merry.
There's an awed, "Whoa" from Boshi.
Wado turns to see he is gazing through the railings down at the water. Serena and Lamar are standing next to him, both frozen with their eyes wide in terror and amazement.
Wado runs to railing and looks down.
Just beside the ship Merry's shadow blocks the glare. Underneath the water is remarkably clear.
A horde of serpentine creatures weave slowly through the water below them.
Assuming visibility of a couple hundred feet, the monsters below them are big enough to dwarf a whale.
The bottom of the sea looks odd, a series flat sections that taper off into ridges all pointing the same way. It reminds her of something…
Wado shudders as a pulse vibrates through the spirit realm. It is idle but powerful, like a horse twitching its skin to rid itself of flies.
Some of the creatures below turn and start to swim toward the surface.
They just keep approaching… and approaching
…growing and growing in size.
Through her mounting terror she realizes that they must be seeing not hundreds, but thousands of feet down.
There is one with broad black and white stripes coming up directly below them.
Soon its head fills her entire field of vision.
When the water all around them turns black from the blotch on the massive sea king's nose Lamar calls out, "Hold on, Merry!"
The brownie and the dryad both grip the railings of the ship tightly.
Neither of their powers is completely suited to it, but Lamar can use his powers of preservation and Serena her connection to wood to lend Merry strength.
Merry groans as the beast surfaces, forcing her to bear most of her weight on her keel.
Wado distantly notes that up here, balanced neatly between the creature's eyes, she can clearly see ruler straight division between the East Blue and the Calm Belt.
After standing frozen for a few seconds, they all venture to breathe again. The sea king doesn't even seem to realize they are there.
Lamar says quietly, trying to hide the stain in his voice with gritted teeth, "OK, if we're lucky it will just dive back down and we can get the hell out of here."
Merry shudders as the beast wrinkles its muzzle and gasps in air creating a brief, deafening gale.
Everyone screams, humans and spirits alike, as the giant tilts its head back and sideways and the whole ship starts to slide.
Merry is halfway up the slippery hill of the beast's forehead when the creature sneezes with a roar like an avalanche, ducking its head and neatly ramping them all high into the air.
"Usopp!" Boshi cries in panic.
From where she is still clinging to the railing, disoriented from being almost upside down as they fall back toward the sea, she tries to look around.
Finally, she spots the sniper in the distance. He's several hundred feet away, about to fall into the gaping mouth of a giant frog.
Luffy notices a few moments later and also cries out their crewmates name as he grits his teeth and throws his fist forward from his position clinging to Merry's mast.
Gumgum screams in determination, leaves ridged and eye stalks scrunched down, as she strains to push enough power into her roots to let Luffy's arm stretch far enough.
Wado cheers as Luffy snatches Usopp out of the air and ungracefully reels him back into a crash landing on the deck.
Rain starts to pelt them again.
A few moments later they are all slammed into the deck as Merry hits the water like a landing duck, throwing up a wide wake of water.
"Oh Thank God, we're back in the storm now…" Luffy groans.
Everyone lays sprawled flat on the deck for a couple minutes, just appreciating not being dead.
Eventually, they pull themselves together and get Merry headed in the direction Nami points them.
Usopp is still looking as green as the frog that almost ate him, but he drags himself below deck to check as much of Merry's hull as he can access.
Lacking anything better to do at the moment, Wado follows Serena to the stern deck where she is watching over the railing.
She can occasionally see the long, almost ribbon like bodies of storm dragons wrestling and playing roughly in the clouds, their clashing marked by lightning and thunder.
Serena nudges her and points to a school of water spirits that look like horses with fish tails heading in the same direction as Merry.
The spirits follow Merry for a while playing in the ships wake. She smiles at a couple of younger ones tackling and chasing each other through the spray, occasionally getting nipped at by the adults for bumping into them.
Suddenly, the leader of the heard whinnies in warning and the whole group darts away staying low in the water.
They are being chased by creatures that look like long, sleek crocodiles.
As they get closer to the mountain the sightings of various water spirits becomes more and more common. They see creatures that resemble deer, lion, elephants, and even some that resemble birds.
Serena half scoffs, "Is there a fish version of everything?"
The ship starts to turn and they look up, eyes widening at the sheer craggy red rock cliff that has appeared out of the rain. The definitive edge of the East Blue.
Nami directs the crew to turn Merry to run parallel to the cliff, toward where the lighthouse had been spotted.
Wado notices something strange, "They are heading the same direction we are."
Serena looks around and nods in agreement. More and more sea spirits of every description surround the ship. Predators swim alongside prey all strangely intent in the direction they are heading.
The current is reacting. They can feel Merry picking up speed as they pass by a slanted outcropping of rock that hems them in toward the vast cliff of the Red Line, funneling them toward what looks like a dead end.
Squawking, barking, whinnying, hissing, and roaring combine into a cacophony of noise as the sea spirits converge together.
Yubashiri joins them at the stern and looks out over the stampede, clearly torn between sticking with his earlier bravado and questioning how they are going to manage to cross a mountain in ship.
Wado nudges him with her shoulder and asserts with all the confidence she can muster, "Nami knows what she is doing."
Still, she has to concentrate to keep her breathing even because it looks like they are about to be smashed into the cliff face by the rapidly accelerating current.
It isn't until the cliff blocks out the sky and surrounds them on all sides that the answer finally comes into view.
There is a river running up the side of the mountain through a channel so straight and narrow that it must have been carved.
The entrance is lined with red spirit gates carved with Makara depicted as horse headed fish, though not as graceful as the real ones they saw earlier.
It is packed so tightly with water spirits that it's almost impossible to see the water they are swimming through as the struggle single mindedly up to heights lost in the clouds.
There is a sudden spike of alarm from Merry as she starts to list to one side. The accelerating current just barely allows them to sweep past the first pillar.
As Usopp and Sanji run to the rudder pole try to wretch the ship back on course, the crew's spirits look over the railings, trying to see what could be causing the Merry so much distress.
They hear a crack and Merry cries out in pain as her rudder pole snaps, throwing Usopp and Sanji to the deck.
Finally, Wado spots the problem below them, mixed in with all the other creatures now crowding the ship, "There's something wrapped around the rudder!"
Something slimy and mostly made of tentacles has wrapped itself around the main means of steering the ship.
Wado growls in protective fury as Boshi shrieks a challenge and leaps past her to start clawing and biting at the creature hurting Merry, "Let go, stupid tentacles!"
Wado calls out over her shoulder, "Help if you don't want to sink!" just before she leaps over the rail.
She doesn't look back to see if who follows as she drops onto the knot of tentacles and starts to claw at anything that comes in reach.
It starts thrashing harder letting out screech that resonates through her bones. Her muscles try to freeze up at the earsplitting sound and she starts to slide.
Just before she loses her grip, she feels the weight of pair of small feet land with cat like precision on her head, startling her out of her freeze.
She resets her claws and starts pulling herself back up as Lamar leaps off her head and starts to spring from one coil of tentacle to another, reaching out with quick sweeps of his fingers to touch slimy skin wherever he can reach.
They get another earsplitting shriek as wounds start to open up wherever he touches using his powers of preservation in reverse to inflict wounds. Wado is ready this time and manages to brace against it.
A moment later, Yubashiri drops down and starts tearing into the creature too. He has vines wrapped around his waist and a quick glance up shows Serena bracing herself on the railing as she holds onto the other end of the safety line she has created.
The dryad gives Wado a reprimanding look even as she casts another vine out to wrap roughly around her as well.
Under the combined assault the creature starts to loosen its grip.
But they are already about to strike of one of the massive gates!
There's a cry of "Balloon!" from their captain as he inflates his body and uses it to protect Merry from impacting the pillar.
Merry lurches to the side. Wado quickly snatches Lamar out of the air when his landing spot suddenly disappears. Boshi secures himself by jumping up to cling Yubashiri's head, startling a yelp from the sword.
At the same time Zoro hits the back rail, throwing his arm forward to grab Luffy's reaching hand before he falls into the churning water.
"Leap!" Serena calls and heaves at the vines, hauling them all back onto the deck where they fall in a pile.
Wado disentangles herself and scrambles toward Merry's prow to see where they are headed. She breathes a sigh of relief to see they are in the middle of the current now.
The swarming spirits seem to carry Merry on their backs as they continue to rush up the mountainside.
They are traveling at breath taking speed, yet the clouds that obscure the peak seem to approach slowly.
The Red Line had dwarfed Merry in its shadow and yet this mountain must dwarf the Red Line in turn in order to join the four blues together by spanning the entirety of both that great cliff and the width of the Grand Line.
When they finally enter the clammy mist of the clouds, they are rushing forward blindly for several heart stopping breathes as a roar starts to build in the air.
They come out of the fog suddenly like passing through a curtain.
Straight ahead the water of the four oceans is mixing and rising in a waterspout twice the height of Merry's mast.
In the spirit realm the pool glows with a vibrant azure energy, while underneath the water itself spirals in ocean shades from artic black to tropical cerulean.
The cacophony grows even louder as spirits from all four seas throw themselves forward.
The water spirits seem to be drunk, leaping and looping through the water before ramping through the plume and diving down the outlet with hoots and howls of excitement.
They have only a few moments to marvel at the sight, before Merry hits the geyser and is thrown spinning high into the air.
For a moment they are weightless and everything but the peak of Reverse Mountain is lost in the fog below them.
The landing is surprisingly soft. The rushing water seems to rise to catch Merry as she comes down, sweeping her cleanly into the roaring water of the downhill slide into the Grand Line.
Around them the water spirits continue to call out in excitement as they leap out of the water in great flying arcs.
Wado is drawn out of watching the spirits in fascination by Zoro casually commenting, "Did you hear something just now?"
Everyone starts look around, but no one seems particularly worried until the Cook calls from the yardarm, "Nami! There's a mountain up ahead!"
The clouds seem to be following them down the mountain obscuring their view and it's difficult to hear anything over the rushing water and the noise of the water spirits.
However, the humans who can't hear the extra racket of all the spirits surrounding them start peering through the fog in growing alarm.
Finally, they drop low enough to see what is blocking the fast approaching entrance to the Grand Line.
…The sea king that tossed the Merry into the air without even realizing she was there would be outweighed several times over by the whale rearing out of the water ahead of them.
Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp run to try and turn Merry using the broken rudder pole. Luffy runs off below deck almost unnoticed.
Boshi perks up and jumps onto the railing, "Laboon's gotten even bigger since last time!"
Kitetsu lunges at the monkey spirit screeching, "You knew that would be here?!"
He takes a swipe at Boshi, but the smaller spirit almost doesn't seem to notice as he jumps over the sword's claws and scrambles up his arm only to jump off his shoulder and over to Wado.
He continues to watch massive whale, an uncharacteristic look of concern slowly forming on his face, "He'd already been waiting a long time last time I was here …and that was a long time ago."
There's a lot to question in that statement, but, as often the case when Boshi says things like this, there isn't time right now to pry out of him what the hell he's talking about.
Kitetsu glares at them seething, "Well right now, it's about to kill us!"
They can all feel Merry's growing panic as the ship tries to slow down or turn.
Despite the steep downhill slope, she manages to kill her breakneck speed somewhat with the help of the crew. Serena and Lamar grab onto the rails again.
"We better not be making a habit of this!" Serena grits her teeth as they pour energy into the ship.
They can all see it's not going to be enough.
They are a moment away from a collision that will stave in Merry's prow when the forward cannon goes off.
It kills their speed enough that Merry bumps into the whale rather than slamming into it. Unfortunately, the last of their momentum is entirely soaked up by the thin neck of Merry's figurehead.
Even as she whimpers at yet another injury, she manages to twist just enough that the heavy wooden figure doesn't fall on top of the Navigator.
They all hold their breath, but the great mountain of a creature doesn't even seem to notice it's been shot.
Wado strokes the ships railing, trying to offer comfort, as the crew starts frantically rowing trying to get around the whale before something else happens.
Just as it looks like they are going to avoid the behemoth's notice and she starts to relax, Gumgum cries, "Luffy, No!"
The Captain has just done what he always does when something hurts his friends.
She can feel her face turning as pale as her hair as a pupil bigger than the ship turns its full focus on them due to Luffy's fist hitting it.
"Ya know, I think that's the first time I've seen Zoro and Usopp in complete agreement about something when it comes to fighting," Lamar jokes weakly as the two humans kick their captain to the ground in a belated attempt to stop him from making things any worse.
Of course, Luffy just jumps right back up like nothing happened, still ready to take on a beast a million times his size.
"Why did you let him do that!?" Kitetsu snarls, leaping at Gumgum and wrapping his hand around her stalk like he's going to try and rip her off Luffy's shoulder.
The smaller spirit that has scrunched itself up till it looks like a bent, collapsed umbrella. She lets out a squeak that might be an apology.
When Kitetsu doesn't let go, Boshi, who had ignored the larger sprit's earlier attempt to attack him, leaps onto blade spirit's head, grabs hold of his ears and pulls back hard.
Kitetsu yowls and releases Gumgum in order to swipe at the monkey, but of course, the other spirit is too fast for him, "Dummy, you know it doesn't work that way. Leave Gummy alone."
It's the same for them after all. They can refuse to help, but they can't actually stop their physical component from being used unless they are willing to shatter.
Kitetsu gives them all a wild eyed look. Just as he heaves in a breath to start yelling again, they are all nearly knocked off their feet by the reverberating cry of offense from the massive creature still looming over them.
The whale opens its jaws and the towering grey cliff of its side turns into an unfathomable black cavern filled with teeth that loom over the ship.
The ocean starts to roar in and they are quickly swept into darkness where all they can do cling to the deck blind and deaf as the Merry rushes headlong down the whale's throat.
I hope everyone is doing okay. I work at a clinic with a lot of immunocompromised patients, so we're doing our best to keep the virus out of the clinic despite being short on PPE and medical grade cleaning supplies. It's a bit stressful knowing a little carelessness on my part could potentially bring the disease into a place where it could very well kill people.
Despite that, I actually have more free time than usual as I stay indoors, so I've been practicing drawing. I always knew drawing wasn't easy, but I was unprepared for the level of concentration required. It's actually a good thing, because after spending a couple hours drawing I'm able to fall right to sleep at night. If you're interested in the illustrations I've made for this story, go to DeviantArt and search 'One Piece Anycents' and they should pop up.
The next chapter should be ready to post within a couple weeks. If you let me know what you found interesting or confusing, I can make it better.