Ahead
Fox slept through the boarding of the Merry by the crew of the submersible pirate ship due to having been up half the night painstakingly coaxing the herbs into growing large enough to harvest. Zoro was silently thankful that she had not woken up, if only so as to spare those members of his crew not yet in the know the traumatic bloodbath that would have ensured had Fox arrived on deck to find legitimate targets on board. She roused herself around noon, ate a truly massive lunch then stumbled out on deck to mend the places where the submersible's captain, Walpol, had taken a bite out of the ship. Sanji had been concerned she might exhaust herself but Fox had waved off the dumbass chef's concerns.
"The plants were difficult because I was growing them for their chemical properties, so I had to monitor them closely and ensure the levels of antipyretic in their leaves were at the appropriate level," she explained as the Going Merry's rail regenerated before their eyes. ""The railing just has to be strong and isn't even properly alive, so it's almost as easy as growing hair."
She had then prepared another dose of fever reducer for Nami, tipped it down the unresponsive navigator's throat and fallen back into bed, grumbling all the while about the cold.
The next morning however she had been back to normal, if very warmly dressed, and had taken over watching the Log Pose when Sanji sighted land. However as they approached the island Fox took Vivi to one side for a talk. Zoro shamelessly eavesdropped, as did Luffy.
"I was wondering if you had any messages you would like me to carry to Alabasta, princess Vivi," Fox said. "I was thinking of travelling on ahead to scout out the lay of the land and purchase supplies, to prevent any more time being lost. I'm sure Luffy wouldn't mind, would you captain?" she finished, looking up at where Luffy was hanging over the rail.
"I don't mind a bit!" Luffy agreed. "In fact, as my master of disguise, going on ahead is part of your job!"
"So I'm part of your crew now, am I?" Fox inquired, raising an eyebrow.
"Yep! Shishishishi!" Luffy laughed.
Fox sighed. "Well, I suppose resistance is useless. Any letters you'd like me to deliver princess? And I'd better get a shopping list from Sanji so we end up with the right supplies."
"How're you going to navigate, Fox?" Vivi asked. "We only have one Alabasta Eternal Pose. We don't even have another boat."
Fox smirked. "I have all the Eternal Poses I'll ever need on board my ship, Vivi-chan, and my ship is very close by. Would you like to see it?"
"I would!" Luffy said brightly.
Look over the starboard rail then. That's the right side, Luffy," Fox added when the teen in the straw hat looked left. "It will surface in 3, 2, 1…"
Under the clear, cold sky, a massive head, twice as long as the Going Merry, emerged from the sea.
"Aaaah! Sea King!" Usopp shrieked.
"Actually, that's my boat," Fox said, voice cutting through the sudden panic. "It's in stealth mode."
The head, clearly attached to a very long body, swam closer until it was alongside the ship then sank a little into the water. Rough green and grey skin melted away like mist to reveal a deck Zoro recognised from when Fox had retrieved her medicine chest.
"It doesn't have a mast," Luffy pointed out, "or a flag."
"She doesn't have a flag because I wasn't a pirate until I was added to your crew," Fox said patiently, "and she doesn't have a mast because she swims rather than sails."
"She?" Sanji asked, climbing down the rigging.
"Her name is Swift Hunter," Fox said proudly, "and she's been from Reverse Mountain to Raftel twice."
Zoro whistled. "Some ship."
"Your ship can turn into a Sea King!" Luffy enthused. That's so cool! Can you make the Merry be able to do that?"
"The Going Merry isn't built to withstand the pressures found on the sea bed, Luffy," Fox said. "It would break up. Merry was made to sail; Swift Hunter was built to float. Besides, none of Nami's navigational skills would work under the sea."
"Oh. Okay then," Luffy said. "Are you going now?"
"If Sanji gives me a shopping list and some funds and Vivi has decided whether to give me any letters, then yes," Fox said. "I'll wait for you in Nanohana."
Most people learnt to recognise their friends by their faces and voices. Since eating Devil Fruit, Dracule Lisska had memorised the life-force signal of every last one of her friends and acquaintances. It had been a training exercise initially, as in the beginning it had been very difficult to pick out human signals from the sheer mass of life-energy given off by plants, animals and other, more basic life-forms. As a result she could now pick a friend out of a crowd from five miles away. Devil Fruit users were also distinct, as their life-force signature was, well, swirly somehow. Give her a line-up of total strangers and she could pick out the Devil Fruit User with her eyes closed. Similarly, she could find actual Devil Fruit with ease, not that she ever cared to.
This was why, when she was still four miles away from Nanohana, she smiled. An old friend was in town.
A short chapter, but it's more of an interlude than anything else.