Chapter 2: To the New Adventure
The days passed by while the Thousand Sunny kept on sailing. Luffy had to become accustomed to the new situation, despite the fact that he didn't like it. He had already lived through all this and the apprehension of coming back to this time had a tight hold on him.
Nami had said that they needed to find out how were they supposed to go to Fishman Island and her worries made Luffy want to tell her that the ship needed to be wrapped around that huge bubble he didn't remember the name of. But, if he said that everyone would look at him like he had went nuts.
"Alright," the navigator said as Franky switched channels on the ship to get the shark submarine out. "Who's going to make the trip down there?"
"Me, me, me, me!" Luffy shouted, wailing his arms in excitement.
"Yohohoho! I'm in too," Brook answered.
"I wouldn't mind either," Robin chimed in with a knowing smile.
"Hai, hai…" Nami didn't even know why she'd asked in the first place.
"Hey, Robin, Brook, Luffy!" The red-haired woman sounded bored. Leaving this to Luffy and Brook had been a bad idea.
"It's no good… it's pitch black…" Nami heard Robin say, her tone was slightly amused which pissed the navigator off.
"Pitch black! Whe…!" Luffy cooed in a sing-song tone. "Hey, I just saw something shine!"
"It wasn't the gleam of a monster's eye, was it? We're all done for! But wait, I'm already dead! Yohohoho! Say, Nami-san…"
The mentioned lifted an eyebrow waiting for the bone-man to speak up.
"What kind of panties are you wearing today?"
"Shut the fuck up! Do your goddamn job, damn it!" she shouted in indignation. Seriously! Why do we always end up with people worse than the last one?! She thought.
"Hey, you guys, the Shark Sub #3 has a max depth of five meters, so be careful!" Franky said, seriousness plastered on his tone.
"Hm? The hull of the ship is creaking, isn't it?" Someone said.
"We're under five meters right now…" Robin announced.
"Oh! That's what it is," Luffy mused, giggling.
"That's a little severe! We're going to get crushed by the water pressure!" Brook said slightly hysterical.
"Hey! It's the monster from earlier! It's still here!" Luffy yelled as he looked through the bullseye of the sub.
Robin, looking the way the captain was laughed softly. "My, what a big mouth you have."
"Holy crap!" Luffy exclaimed as the sea monster tried to swallow them whole. "We're going to get eaten!"
"It's no good, this thing is no good," Usopp began chanting as he was looking at the vast sea in front of them.
"I don't want to go… in the shark sub," Chopper added, eyes slightly damp with fresh tears.
"Nami-swan~! I made some delicious tarts from the 'Horror Pears' that were growing on Thriller Bark!"
"Wow! Those look great, Sanji-kun!" the navigator said as the chef put them on the table. "But we're still on a fix." She took a spoonful and almost melted. "Delicious!"
"It's the same as when we were stuck on the "Sky Island" issue, huh?"
"Yeah," Nami sighed, "even if we know what direction to go, we don't know how to get there."
"How we get there, to Fishman Island?" Chopper asked with a depressed tone.
In that moment the submarine emerged from the water and the door busted open letting the insiders come out of it. "Bwa! We're out!"
"That was fun!" Brook announced.
"Welcome back!" Nami greeted. "Good work you guys!"
"It's no good! We couldn't see the ocean floor at all," Luffy said as he stretched. He thought for a second, trying to find something he would probably have said. "Does it really exist? This 'Merman Island' or whatever."
"Yohoho, this was my first time in a submarine."
"The Log Pose says it's gotta be right under us, but…" Nami sighed as her eyes were on the device attached to her wrist. "No good… I should have asked Lola more about it when I had the chance to."
Luffy's eyes drifted to the surface as his haki noticed something wrong in it and a second after the same monster that had chased them underwater came out of it. "It's that thing from before! It found us! It's the Sea Rabbit!"
The monster pounced towards the Sunny and Luffy grinned. "Don't think you can beat me when you're out of the water! Gomu gomu no…" the captain stretched his arm backwards while twisting it and let it go forward, "rifle!" It impacted right on the sea rabbit's sternum.
"I thought it would be bigger…" Usopp commented, folding his arms onto his chest.
"In comparison to Oz… We're good for now," Chopper added looking at the monster with awe.
"He spit something up." Sanji said furrowing his brows as he looked as something came flying out of the sea rabbit's mouth while it was falling back to the ocean.
"Cai-" Luffy put his hands on his mouth as the name was about to spill out of it unintentionally. He now was the only one knowing the mermaid's name.
"A person? No, wait…" Nami added with her jaw agape.
"It can't be!" Franky shouted.
"It… it can't be!" Sanji's mood changing immediately to one of absolute love.
The mermaid landed on Sanji as the others looked at her with awe and surprise. All, except the Straw Hat captain. As much as he was trying to act as if he had never seen a mermaid, he couldn't. Looking at Caimie now made him remember everything they had lived in Fishman Island. Even though, in this time, they hadn't gone there yet.
"Wah! I've crushed a human person!" the mermaid yelled in alarm. "I'm so sorry! Are you alright?"
"Oh. Oh, I'm perfectly fine. What about you?" Sanji said in his most serious, sweet tone of voice. Becoming the damn love-annoying-cook that came to the surface each time he met a beautiful lady for the very first time. And not for the first time…
"She has…" Franky began and Nami interrupted him.
"No way, is it really…?!"
"A mermaid!?" the rest finished for her as everyone watched the fish-girl on the deck of their ship.
"Wah! Lots of human people!" Caimie yelled alarmed.
As everyone looked Sanji doing his silly dance over meeting Caimie, the girl could only giggle at his display.
"I've never seen a real mermaid before in my life! Did you say your name was Caimie-chan?"
"And what happened to Kokoro-baasan, huh?" Usopp interrupted him while crossing his arms on his chest and looking at him with skepticism.
Suddenly, all the excitement of the moment dropped for the ship's cook as he sunk down on the deck's floor.
"Thriller Bark? No… that was not true fear. What was it that struck true fear into my heart, you ask…?" he began mumbling.
"Okay, okay, Sanji! We'll pretend it never happened!" Usopp rushed to apologize.
"You guys are just rude…" Nami said slightly annoyed.
Luffy, being himself and forgetting these kind of things added: "Huh? Kokoro-baasan was a mermaid? But she walked around and stuff!"
"Oh, right… you never had a chance to find out, huh? A matter of timing if I remember correctly," Franky said thoughtfully.
dude
"Kokoro-baasan a mermaid? That's gross!"
"Don't say things like these!" Nami scolded him while punching his face. "Honestly… what do these men think mermaids are…" the navigator sighed.
"This mermaid is cute enough, though," Robin added with a smile on her face. One of those smiles she put on when something seemed interesting on his point of view.
After Caimie's call to her friend, Luffy decided to go help her out. Well, he had thought about it and remembering the shock of the crew as they found out who Hachi was when twelve years ago they got to where that Duval dude was… It couldn't be helped, besides he was hungry and the thought of takoyaki was making his mouth water.
The mermaid called the fishes to give them directions and everyone, even Luffy after so many years, was amazed. The Straw Hat captain heard footsteps approaching and as he turned around he was glad to see Zoro.
"Ah, Zoro!" he exclaimed excitedly.
"Are we setting off? You guys found a way to Fishman Island already?" he asked as he got rid of the sweat with a towel.
"Something like that," the raven-haired boy said pointing at Caimie. "Check it out, Zoro! It's a mermaid, her name's Caimie! It's a real one! Cool, huh?"
Oh, a mermaid, huh?" the green-haired man said as he began to remember that baasan from Water Seven and made that image disappear from his memories. "I guess, there's a first time for everything."
"It vanished! The memory just went poof!" Chopper yelled alarmed.
"I'm so worried about Hacchin…" Caimie sighed. "His voice sounded so weak… they must be doing horrible things to him."
"He's tough. He'll be alright," Pappagg comforted her. "But, you guys have been pretty fast on offering your help. Are you confident on your fighting abilities?"
"We're strong!" Luffy argued. They were. Even though they weren't as strong as in the time he came from… those Flying Riders or whatever they were called were like flies to them.
"Anyways, I warn you that this gang of kidnappers aren't the only ones in this archipelago. There are several others, too," the star said. "It's of common knowledge that human trafficking is a good business, even if it's not totally legal. There's a lot of involvement in it and the prices are high too, especially on mermaids. There's a group of three fishmen who've been trying to capture Caimie."
"Buying and selling people?! That's not right," Sanji said with a serious look, obviously upset about this fact.
"Yeah. As for Hachi of the takoyaki shop… I'm sure that since we were eaten by that sea monster he thought that the Makuro crew had finally set their hands on her. We didn't show up for a while so he probably went to find out by himself and that's why he got caught."
"Yes… that's probably what happened. Hacchin is such a good person… he's nice and honest," Caimie added, sighing.
"You say he's an octopus and called Hachi? It kind of reminds me of an octopus-like with that same name we met a while back," Zoro mentioned.
"Yeah, it that's him I wouldn't want to rescue him…" Sanji added, letting the smoke out of his mouth. "But it couldn't be, would it?"
Luffy said nothing and went ahead to the figurehead. He already knew what his crew was thinking and what would come up ahead of them. And despite all of it, twelve years ago they ended up helping the octopus and Nami had been fine with it so there was nothing to worry about. Not yet, anyways…
A/N: Well, I know this is progressing slowly and I'm sorry but you know, Luffy can't change much at this point, yet. Besides, what would've been the point of this time-skip if he began to change everything? He knows that what has to happen in Sabaondy is for the better for the crew and even though he really wants to not let the crew be separated a second time, he can't help it if he really wants his nakama to get stronger for the New World.
Changes will come at Impel Down and Marineford, because yes, the War of the Best has to happen. But, who knows what will happen there with this change of events? Anyways, we're still a bit far behind those events. I'll really try to make things progress to a faster pace but I can't guarantee it.
Now to respond to my lovelies who've left their thoughts on chapter one!
Redery: Aw, thank you! Yes, he definitely will and man, were you kind of reading my thoughts? Even though I had thought of Sabo showing up a bit later, like when they're trying to escape ID. And of course Luffy will unleash himself with Magellan, after all he will be "alone" there and nothing much will change. But there's something bothering me. So, I'd appreciate if we could, I don't know, have a small talk via PM?
LostFairyMantic: I know right?! Lol. That was the point on this time-skip fic, after all. He has to be a bit smarter and mature-like. Twelve years have enough room for it to happen.
Dator Mortis: Thank you! I am, too. It was such a rushed story that came to my mind on a whim, but it seems people are liking it! I'm glad you finally found something to read that interests you!
DoubleM7: I know right? That's why it's kinda interesting, don't you agree? Um… I don't think he would team up with Kuro or Arlong. But he will definitely meet up with Bon-chan, Buggy, Crocodile and Daz Bones in Impel Down. Not to mention Iva-chan and Jimbei.
general yumi: Thank you! Well, something big will happen once Ace meets up with Sabo, that's for sure. Look forward to it! Well, the only person who'd be calm and understanding enough to put the worries Luffy's carrying into words would be her. She wouldn't judge him as crazy or anything of the likes.
Ang3l S0ng: Thank you! Here's the new update, hope you enjoy it!
MonkDdrgn: Thanks for reading and reviewing! I hope you keep on enjoying it!
Water-Fox-Raine: Thanks for reading and reviewing!
Nurofen: I know! And his problems have just begun! Thanks for reading and reviewing!
Lightningblade49: Robin hasn't been someone to react strongly to things. She's a calm, rational and thoughtful person so is normal for her to be like that. Well, at least, that's how I see and perceive her, anyways.
FindingThatDamnedOnePiece: Well, as I've said in the author notes of this update, things are gonna be a bit slow for now. Hope you can bear with me for a while. Thanks for trying it out, though!
That's it for now, see you on the next update!