Disclaimer: I do not own One-Piece nor any of it's characters. Those belong to Oda Eiichiro.
Nunya Bizniz 2
Chapter Three: Ship Graveyard
Rachel and Bre spent the next several minutes talking about what a typical day on board the ship was like. Ace had grown so frustrated with Zoro's stubbornness that he stopped the argument that was brewing and headed to the deck to train. Zoro went to his own training room, across from his and Rachel's room. The two women stopped talking when they noticed an abundance of silence around them.
"I suppose I should do one of two things right now," Rachel mused.
"You mean to try and get them to make-up and be friends again?" Bre asked.
"Of course not," Rachel dismissed with ease. "I should either call Melissa and tell her we need to start seriously looking for that Poneglyph, call Luffy and tell him we have a new crewmember or start dinner. I'm leaning more towards the dinner. Although, if I don't let Missy know what's going on then I'm certain I'll never hear the end of it." With a sigh Rachel took a Den-Den Mushi off a shelf and started making a call.
She didn't have to wait for very long for the call to be answered. "Who is it?"
Rachel recognized the voice belonging to a member of Law's crew. Which one, she wasn't quite sure. She never really bothered to get to know them. "This is Rachel," she chose to say instead of greeting. "I need to talk to Missy right away."
"Can you say 'please'?"
Rachel pulled 'Bob' out from under the table and slammed him on top of the table, right next to a now sweating snail. "Now," she said sickenly sweet.
Not half a minute later a new voice came on the line. "You really should stop scaring the men of my man's crew," Missy chastised.
"You just want me to let you have all the fun," Rachel rolled her eyes.
"Precisely, now what did you want girl?"
"You're not going to believe the shit that's been going down over here." Rachel then began to explain how the Nunya has a new and unexpected crew member. "Lastly, she says she's from North Carolina. I don't know about you, but I've never mentioned any of the states to anyone from this world. If I did it would have been Michigan or Hawaii, not North Carolina. So if that's not proof enough that Bre hails from the states I don't know what is."
"Is she there with you right now?" Missy asked.
"Of course, she's been listening quite patiently."
"I have a question Bre," Missy addressed.
"Shoot," Bre said as a way to show she was listening.
"Who's the President of the US right now?"
"President Vacation."
Rachel blinked over at Bre. She had a feeling that Missy was doing the same to the snail. Rachel then turned to the snail and resumed her conversation. "She's not wrong," she waved her hand in the air a little.
"Put her name on the point board," Missy announced.
"I'll get right on that after I'm done talking to you," Rachel agreed. "Anyway, with the new arrival of someone from our world I'm now extra curious."
"You want to know exactly what that Poneglyph is about?"
"Got it in one," Rachel smirked. "The catch is that we don't know where it is or even how to read it. So we'll need to recruit Robin for this little venture. At least she'll be able to read it if we manage to find it."
"I'm just as curious as you are about it," Missy agreed. "But Rayleigh wasn't exactly forthcoming with it's location."
"Then bypass the man," Rachel offered. "You need to get in touch with Shakky. Give her some reason as to why you need the info. Say something like a person is sick and while you can't do anything here for them maybe you can figure out a way to get a doctor from our world and their advanced knowledge to help. Or something like that."
"Why don't you call her? It's your idea," Missy challenged. She was met with only silence as her answer. "Fine, I'll do it. But let it show on record that it's under extreme protest."
"First of all I highly doubt that," Rachel rolled her eyes. "You didn't put up much of a fight either."
"Shut up," Missy snapped. "While we're at it, don't you dare."
"So you'll call her as soon as we hang up?"
"Yeah, I'll..."
Ace barged into the kitchen at that moment. In his hand was his baby snail. "Who have you been talking to?" he asked.
"I would think that would be obvious," Missy drolled.
A feminine laugh from Ace's snail sounded. "This is just perfect then."
"Hi Robin," Rachel and Missy said in unison.
"Hello Rachel, Missy. I'm glad that Missy is on the line as well. This saves me from having to explain things twice. We've stumbled across something strange. While we haven't been able to keep Luffy from exploring one of them, we have managed to keep him in sight."
"What are you talking about?" Rachel asked.
"We've stumbled across what appears to be a ship-graveyard," Robin announced. "It is odd though. None of the ships have a mast or sails. Most of them have that propeller you talk about the Nunya having. There are even some that have two propellers jutting out of what can only be described as fins."
"That shouldn't be possible," Bre spoke up.
"Who was that?" Robin asked.
"That was Bre," Rachel answered. "She just showed up from mine and Missy's world today."
"That's very interesting," Robin murmered. "That might explain what we saw earlier."
"What you saw?" Missy asked.
"It would be easier to show you. Do either of you still have a vivre card for Nami or myself?"
"I've got them both," Rachel announced. "I ripped each in two have gave the other halves to Missy, so we should both have them."
"Excellent, the two of you should get here as soon as possible. Oh and Rachel, Luffy has a surprise for you when you get here."
"Oh joy," Rachel said sarcastically. "I can hardly wait." Ace's baby snail went to sleep, indicating that Robin had hung up. "I guess that's your cue Ace." Rachel handed him one of the vivre cards. "Get the Nunya moving towards the direction the card shows. I'll get started on dinner while we're moving."
Ace took the card and looked at Bre. "She prefers an empty kitchen while she works," he said. "How about I show you to the bridge and how the ship works?"
"Sounds like a plan to me," Bre agreed. She followed Ace out of the room.
Ace stopped at a door along the way. He knocked on it and called. "Zoro, we're going to start heading out. I need your help untying the port lines." A thud was heard, as if Zoro was putting down a heavy piece of equipment. The door opened to reveal Zoro wiping sweat from his forehead with a towel. He followed Ace up the stairs. When Ace and Bre climbed the ladder to the bridge Zoro split off and went on deck. It wasn't long before the Nunya was moving.
When the two had left the kitchen Rachel kept talking to the snail. "There's one other thing girl," she said.
"I figured as much," Missy answered. "What's up?"
"I asked Bre if there had been news about two cruise passengers from a Hawaii cruise that had gone missing."
"And?"
"There were two passengers that went missing, presumably drowned, along with the entire ship. All other passengers were rescued from the water. I can only guess that somehow the storm caused the ship to capsize and all the passengers were rescued. A search had been conducted, but no debris or bodies were found."
"Are you suggesting...?"
"That ship followed us here," Rachel answered. "I intend to find it. I miss my laptop, damnit."
"What are the chances of it being at that graveyard Robin called about?"
"Are we ever that lucky?"
"I married Law and you married Zoro."
"Okay, there's a possibility it's there. I'll make sure to have BB and LB charged up so we can go sploinking around."
"Sploinking is good." Missy paused for a moment. "Law just came back from his trip to town. I'll let you go for now."
"Talk to you later."
It took the Nunya two days to reach the Sunny. Luffy was waving his arms around like a crazy person when he was told they were in sight. The two ships anchored next to each other. Rachel had to admit, Robin was pretty accurate to call it a ships grave-yard. The area was covered in a dark fog. It wasn't so dark that you couldn't see through, it just had that creepy factor you get when watching B rated horror flicks.
Bre was on the deck with her. "Those look a lot like WWII vessels," she mused. "Especially that bomber over there." She was pointing towards the fog. Rachel squinted her eyes to see through. Sure enough there was a plane that looked like it came straight out of the 1940s.
"So that's what Robin meant when she said a ship had fins," Rachel said. "It's not surprising she choose that wording. She wouldn't know what a plane was or what to reference it by."
"Do you really think that cruise ship could be in there?" Bre asked.
"It's a distinct possibility," Rachel whispered. "Now that I'm getting a close up view of what they were talking about, I would put money on it. I can't wait to get out there and start exploring."
"You really should tell Zoro and Ace what you plan," Bre said.
"Not on your life," Rachel admonished. "Ever since that whole Akainu incident they haven't let me out of their sight when we go somewhere new. The only time they left me was back on Wado. They knew I had no desire what-so-ever to step on that island for the rest of my life."
"Point made," Bre nodded. "So they won't let you go, what did you call it 'sploinking'?"
"They would tie me to the ship just to make sure that I didn't take off. If they knew that I was planning to, at any rate."
"Which they don't know so long as we don't tell them."
"The more we talk about it the more chances they have of learning the truth."
"Right, right," Bre nodded her head vigourously. "No more talking."
Rachel shut the engine down and went down to the deck. Bre followed quickly after her. They weren't through the door all the way when Luffy was upon them. "Robin says we have new nakama," he cheered. "Are you our nakama?"
"Um," Bre looked to the side hoping for help. She was disappointed when Rachel smirked at her and backed away. "I guess so?"
Luffy threw his hands into the air and cheered. "Whoohoo! Now we have two new nakama for the Nunya!"
"Whatch 'ya talkin bout Willace?" Rachel snapped.
"Who's Willace?" Luffy cocked his head to the side.
"Don't worry about it," Rachel said. "Tell me exactly what you meant by there being 'two' new crewmembers for my ship."
"Zoro asked me to find a cook for you," Luffy pouted. "I found a great one. Not as good as Sanji, but her food is okay."
"'Her'?"
A high pitched laugh broke through the silence. Just coming onto the Nunya was a woman with flaming red hair in a bright red dress. "So this is the second ship of the Straw Hat Pirates," she stated. "My name is Carmen and I'll be using this ship to surpass Sanji and become the best cook in the world." She pointed a finger at Bre. "You there, show me the way to the kitchen."
Zoro came up and put an arm around Rachel's shoulders. "Go ahead Bre," he said. "We'll worry about sleeping arrangements in a little while. I need to talk to Rachel about a few things." The two other women disappeared below deck.
"I thought I told you we didn't need a cook," Rachel seethed.
"Yes you do," Luffy pointed out. "Zoro told me everything that you do on the ship. It's not right that you have to do so much. We'll make sure that you get a crewmember for every position."
"So what about a captain's position?" Rachel challenged. "Shouldn't a captain decide who comes and goes from a ship?"
"I thought you knew already," Robin came up. "By sending his co-captain permanetly to the Nunya and declaring it the second ship, plus you never denied it, Zoro has become the captain of the Nunya."
Rachel whipped her neck around to glare at Zoro. "When were you planning on telling me this?" she demanded.
"It was never really an issue," Zoro shrugged. "So far I've only had to use my right to find more crew members of the ship. I'm thinking that maybe Bre can be the navigator. She's shown that she's capable of it. We already have a sniper on this ship." He was looking at Rachel pointed.
Rachel was going to open her mouth to argue more when a new arrival broke in. "So who died to piss her off?" All looked to see Missy and Law on the deck of the sub as it slowly came up on the other side of the Sunny.
Rachel ignored her and pointed her finger in Zoro's chest. "I'm going to be mad at you for a little while," she said. "Missy, I need to talk to you in my study." Without waiting for some kind of acknowledgement Rachel disappeared below deck.
After her ranting over the situation to Missy it was well passed midnight. Bre had entered the room a few minutes earlier. "They're all over on the Sunny," she announced. "I made my escape by telling them I was coming to get you two."
Missy and Rachel stood to their feet. "Time to go sploinking," Missy grinned. "We'll have to switch the docking door to manuel if we want to lower it without being heard."
"Naturally," Rachel had a smile. The switch in mood had Bre looking at her funny. "Don't look so surprised. All I needed was a good ranting session. Missy is good for that. I'm not mad at them anymore. In fact, I can see their reason behind it. In all honesty it will be nice to not have to worry about all the different chores I have to do."
"Enough of this silly chatter," Missy walked pass. "I have a cruise ship to find and I'm going to find it." She grabbed a bag full of flashlights from one of Rachel's cupboards in the room.
It took a little while to get the ramp lowered and BB out without being noticed. Bre had gone to the Sunny and given the excuse that Rachel was still mad and not quite ready to join the party. She was going to go back over and help Missy get Rachel to agree to coming over. Once she had returned to the others Bre helped Rachel turn the manuel crank to raise the door for the dock once again. The two then headed to the deck.
Instead of barging out into the open, the two stopped and looked to see if anyone was in the area. With no sign of anyone, they crept to the side ladder. Missy had used an oar and paddled to the ladder. She was now holding onto one of the steps to keep BB in place. Bre was the first one to board and then Rachel. Knowing a little reckless driving was called for, Missy and Bre sat as passengers as Rachel took position in front of the wheel. Contrary to what they expected, Rachel grabbed an oar and started paddling away from the Nunya. She looked at the two of them pointedly. Taking the hint, the other two took the second oar and worked together to get moving.
Once she deemed it a safe distance Rachel pulled her oar in. The others followed suit and then held onto their seats for dear life. Rachel turned the key in the ignition of BB. No sooner had the engine of BB roared to life than she was pushing the throttle all the way down. BB took off with a lurch in the water. Both Missy and Bre were grateful that they had grabbed a hold of something or they would surely have been in the water. Shouts from the ship indicated that their excursion was now noticed.
Rachel turned on the light on the hood of BB. It wasn't enough light to pierce through the fog, but it was enough not to hit something. Missy took the hint and shined one of the brighter flashlights in the direction they were moving. With the extra light Rachel felt more confident as she weaved BB through the different grounded ships.
"How are they not sinking?" Bre asked.
"Most likely a sand bar," Missy explained. "While BB is light enough to zip through, Nunya and the other ships are not so fortunate. Or they're stuck on a reef."
"I'm praying it's a sandbar," Rachel put in. "It's a bit more stable than a reef. If we find what we're looking for and want to go exploring we can't if it's a reef. The extra weight and movement could break whatever fragile hold there is on the ship."
"Hoping for sandbar," Bre agreed.
The three weaved through the ships for ten minutes. "Now isn't that something," Rachel suddenly slowed down, bringing BB to a stop. In front of them was a small island coming out of the water. Just large enough for a few trees and a Poneglyph.
"I guess it's safe to say that this is a sandbar," Bre smiled. "But what's a Poneglyph doing in the middle of nowhere?"
"A good question," Missy stated. She shined the light around the area. "Now here is a better one. What's five stories tall, has a pool and named the Tropical Princess?"
Rachel turned to the direction Missy's light stopped. "Bingo," she grinned. She urged BB into action once again. Not going quite as fast this time. They started circling the ship, looking for a way on board. They finally found it close to the back. "Looks like the dock for the recreational watercraft was left open. They may have had it open during the storm so that we could make it back."
"That's convenient for us," Missy said. "It's easy to get in that way. The worst thing we have to worry about is light."
"This reminds me of one of my dad's favorite movies," Rachel smirked. "A cruise ship ends up stranded in the middle of the ocean. The lights and noise draws the attention of a strange sea creature that can only be described as a large sea serpeant. It uses noise and light to hunt it's prey. It starts eating the passengers of the cruise ship."
"Thanks for that," Bre snapped. "That's going to be in my head all night."
"Didn't you know?" Missy asked. "Rachel's good at freaking people out for no reason."
"That's not exactly true," Rachel corrected. "I'm only saying something because I'm betting something is going to jump out at us at any time."
"Shut up!"
The three made it up to the main deck of the ship. "So what's the plan?" Bre asked.
"We should split up," Rachel suggested. "We'll get more ground covered that way. Who knows when the wardens, I mean, our husbands will show up. Each of us have things that we want to grab. Personally, I'd like to look for my luggage in my room. Then I'd like to go to the kitchen and sploink around a while."
"You realize that food is like..." Bre let the suggestion hang in the air.
"I'm not looking for food," Rachel shook her head. "I'm looking for toys in the kitchen. An industrial grade kitchen aid or even a roller would be great."
"Who do you expect to help you carry it?" Missy asked. Rachel widened her eyes, jutted out her lip and forced tears to roll down. "Oh no you don't. The puppy dog eyes don't work on me. There's no way I'm helping you carry that shit. Besides, it's likely bolted to the flooring. It is a moving sea vessel after all. Well, used to be."
"Okay, I'll stick to the small stuff." Rachel slumped her shoulders and sighed. "So what are you looking for?"
"I want to go to the bridge," Bre announced. "Do you know all the technical dodads I could find up there? If I'm really lucky then there's some that still work."
"Okay so let's see," Missy tapped her chin. "You two have a set goal?"
"Room then kitchen," Rachel nodded.
"The bridge," Bre put in.
"Open bar," Missy announced.
"Are you kidding me?" Rachel snapped.
"You can't tell me it's not a good idea," Missy argued. "They have things there a thousand times better than ale or sake."
Rachel stared at Missy for a long moment. "You'll split right?"
"Would I leave you hanging?"
"Yes."
"Okay, I would. But not this time. I'll let you have some of the stuff you like and I'll take the stuff that I like. I'm sure that we can come to an agreement."
"Can I have some too?" Bre asked.
"How old are you?" the two asked.
"Well, back home I was thirty. Now though, I seem to be nineteen or twenty."
"Fine with me," both said at once. It wasn't a stretch to believe. They had been reduced in age as well.
"Okay then," Rachel clapped her hands. "No more dilly-dallying. The longer we stand around doing nothing the sooner we'll be apprehended and not able to come up with a forgiveness gift."
"Forgiveness gift?" Bre asked.
"You've never heard the saying?" Missy asked. "'It's better to ask for forgiveness then it is to ask permission'. Thus we need something to appease the husbands so that we're not in the fire too long."
"I see," Bre nodded her head. "So glad I don't have to worry about that."
The Mini-Merry was crowded with a lot of people. Law and Zoro claimed it was their right since it involved their wives, Luffy said it was his right as captain, Ace wanted to go and see what mischief was happening and then laugh when they got caught, Robin said she needed to go from a historical point of view, Usopp was being dragged along because he used his goggles to see which direction the girls went, Sanji came to make sure that the lovely women weren't harmed by their barbarian husbands and Brook was forced to come by Usopp because he thought the chances of him being able to scare away other ghosts was high.
"I had a feeling we would find one," Robin pointed. The object she noticed was a Poneglyph. "It must be what caused the glowing that drew your attention Luffy."
"It's a mystery stone," Luffy nodded. "I'm glad I made us follow it here."
"Well I'm not," Usopp snapped. "If that thing hadn't glowed a few days ago then we wouldn't be here right now!"
"What are you all talking about Straw Hat-ya?" Law asked.
"It was the strangest thing," Brook spoke softly. "We were sailing past this area. Nami noticed it was shallow and tried to avoid it. The fog was thick so we didn't notice how close to a ship grave-yard we were."
"Then a green light glowed," Luffy laughed. "I wanted to see what it was."
"Once Franky pointed out the type of ships we knew it couldn't be a coincidence," Robin continued. "The actions of our resident outworlders further proves this. Hopefully they'll have answers once we find them."
Bre was puttering around the bridge, her flashlight focused on the controls. "I'm not really expecting a whole lot," she muttered. "Ah, there's the power control. Let's see if this bad boy has any juice left." She hit the breakers and then flipped the power switch. Lights started turning on all over the ship. "Well, I'll be damned."
A sudden surge of light drew the attention of the 'rescue party'. "How much you want to bet that's where Missy and Rachel are?" Ace asked.
"It's soooooo biiiiig!" Luffy had stars in his eyes.
"Be impressed later," Usopp snapped. "That thing looks really scary. Besides, what kind of place needs that many lights on at once?"
Rachel was walking down the cabin hallway. "Room 425," she muttered. "I hope that it's not locked." She stopped when the lights in the hall came on. "Oh, looks like the power is back on." She walked down the hall a little further and finally found what she was looking for. She tried opening the door at first. "It's locked," she sighed. "Good thing I have the key right here." Rachel pulled out her handgun and shot the lock. Both it and the knob blasted free of the door.
As the door slowly swung open Rachel put the gun away. "Gotta love a skeleton key," she smirked.
Missy was in the main dining area when the lights came on. "Well that makes things a lot easier," she said. "Still not the bar I'm looking for. Next floor."
Rachel searched a few more rooms. It's not exactly stealing when the people lost it, right? She came across a room that had her grinning from ear to ear. "I think I just found my forgiveness gift," she laughed. She stepped further into what appeared to be the room of one of the bridge officers.
Missy found a two story clubing area. "Now this shows promise," she said. Missy's gaze roamed over the room. She found a bar at the far end. "Bingo." She rushed over and jumped over the bar. She started reading bottle labels and pulling out select names.
Luffy stretched his arms to grab the rails of the lighted ship. Everyone else on the Mini-Merry used him as a ladder. Except for Usopp and Brook. "I think I caught the 'can't board the haunted ship' disease," Usopp fake coughed.
"It's highly contagious," Brook coughed as well.
Robin looked down from her spot on the ship. "That's fine," she smiled at them. "You can just protect the Mini-Merry from the ghosts out here." The two men then raced up Luffy's arms and on board the ship. Luffy laughed as he pulled himself up and after them. The group then made their way into the ship.
Missy was reading off the names of bottles she was pulling off of the shelves. "Triple Seq," she started to read off. "Grenadine, Light and Dark Rum, Creme de Menthe, Creme de Cocoa, Apple Pucker, Absolute, Kalua and so many others. You could have one helluva party with this stuff."
"There you are," Rachel's voice sounded from the other side of the club. "I've been looking for you. I thought you would have been raiding the bridge with Bre by now."
Without looking at her, Missy answered. "That's my next stop after I load a cart with the good stuff."
"So all of it."
"You're damn right," Missy started pulling out more bottles. "What are you waiting for? Get over here and help me."
"I will in a minute," Rachel answered. "First, you have to tell me what you think."
"What I think about wha..." Missy turned around to see what Rachel was talking about only to freeze at the sight. She blinked a few times, blinked some more and then shook her head. "Wh..Why are you dressed like a US Naval Officer? In a short skirt no less?"
"It's a present," Rachel answered. She put a hand on her hip and gave Missy the 'duh' look.
"I know I'm going to regret this," Missy muttered. "It's a present for 'what' exactly?"
"It's the forgiveness gift so it's a present for Zoro."
Missy blinked at Rachel and then smirked. "I don't think it's his size. Not to mention I wasn't aware that he swung that way."
"Not like that you dork," Rachel rolled her eyes. "I'll be the one wearing it."
"Then how is it a present for him?"
On the second floor ledge of the club, just out of sight, the 'rescue team' finally caught up to the two. They were following the sound of voices and could hear the two women's conversation.
"You've never heard of role playing?" Rachel asked. "What could be better than playing 'Pirate swordsman corrupts innocent marine recruit'?"
Sanji's nose started to bleed from what he just heard. He slapped a hand to his nose and snapped to face Zoro. He and Brooke shouted to the swordsman at the same time. "YOU LUCKY BASTARD!"