Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse Chapter 25, a Ranma + One Piece Crossover fanfic

Author's Notes: A rather disappointing tally of reviews for the last chapter... well, I hope this one will go down better!

Nuclear Death Frog, the existant art for this fic does include two depictions of Shampoo's zoan form by different artists. You can find them on SpaceBattles in this fic's thread there (use the Media threadmark), or my KoFi at Kofi dot com forward slash RewindGoneNuts. I'm always interested in suggestions for art or potential artists who might be open to commissions, but I'm also going to admit I could use some donations to fund it all... there's only so far the dole will stretch!

Liamo000, I'll try to tone down the "funetik aksent" of Penelope's speech starting from this chapter.

Chapter 25: Skyward Ho! The Den of the Golden Lion!

"Marine fortress, dead ahead!"

Ranma stood at the prow of the Stormbringer, eagerly peering out over the waves at their target. It was a tiny thing, comparatively speaking - essentially a conical spire of rock whom the crashing waves had beaten a large sea cave mouth into, which dedicated Navy engineers had used as an opening to tunnel into the sea-mountain and hollow out its interior for use as a base. Various openings scattered around its surface above the tideline housed small cannons; not a particularly huge artillery battery, but enough firepower to dissuade the average pirate crew from coming too close.

Emphasis on average...

"So, you're certain of this?" He asked over his shoulder, not taking his gaze off of the Marine fort looming increasingly large ahead of them.

"Oui, I am certain, mon capitan," Penelope assured him, nodding her veiled head."Ze Void Century is being ze most infamous of ze things that ze World Government forbids ze people from studying, but they are great believers in restricting knowledge. If such a thing as sky islands exist, then ze Marines would be guarding ze secret," she continued.

"Well, I don't really need an excuse to kick Marine butt, so I'm happy either way. But... you don't have to join us, Penelope. You can just hide in your cabin until we get back," Ranma mildly told her, still staring into the distance.

Penelope instinctively shook her head, then remembered that Ranma wasn't looking at her. "Non. I swore to pay for ze passage wit' ze services. If zat means battling ze Navy, then so be it. Besides, I am not being too big of ze fan of ze Navy, myself."

Ranma chuckled softly. "I think you're gonna fit in with us just fine..."

Meanwhile...

"Ridiculous!"

A fist pounded against the table for emphasis as Captain Horatio P. Flammenwerfer, acting commander of the Naval Fort Burnside glowered thunderously at the speakers before him, heavy brows furrowed in discontent.

"Would you care to rephrase that, Captain Flammenwerfer?" Commodore Sukumvit asked, a steely core underlying his silky tones as he raised an introspective eyebrow.

Subtly reminded of the difference between their ranks, the Navy captain coughed deliberately into one fist as he composed himself.

"Forgive me, Commodore Sukumvit. I simply meant that I find it hard to believe that a pirate crew would knowingly attack this base. What evidence do you have for such a claim?" He asked, steepling his fingers and peering over them at the visiting superior officer.

"Firstly, Naval Intelligence has put the Kamikaze Pirates in this vicinity within the last few days," the Commodore explained patiently.

Chaser Kiyoshi was so fixated at the sight of Captain Flammenwerfer's absurdly glorious mustache, a bright red bushy mutton chops style arrangement that linked his equally overgrown sideburns to his mustache whilst keeping the rest of his face shaved painstakingly clean, that she initially didn't realize it was her turn to speak until the Commodore gently nudged her in the ribs with his elbow.

"Secondly, the Kamikaze Pirates have a well-established history of attacking Naval targets above all others," she added quickly, before she reached back without looking and slapped the lighter from her little sister Akasuki's hands.

"That may be, but why would they target us? With all due respect, we are simply a cog in the greater Naval machine - this is no armory, no training ground, no wage-vault... we are simply a small logistics hub, hardly the kind of place to be worth a typical pirate's while," the redheaded Captain replied.

"The Kamikaze Pirates are no ordinary pirates. They seem to have but a single goal; random chaos and destruction. If presented with a choice between a Naval or civilian target, they invariably target the Navy," Commodore Sukumvit patiently explained.

"But even so, they have no reason to attack us!" Captain Flammenwerfer blustered in protest.

A sudden explosion rocked the room, dust falling from the ceiling and the floor trembling beneath their feet. From outside of the commander's office, they could hear clanging bells, panicked shouting, and the sound of weapon's fire as Fort Burnside's resident Marines responded to what was clearly an attack.

"You were saying, Captain?" Commodore Sukumvit asked, before he swept towards the door, the Chaser sisters following him as Captain Flammenwerfer stared and bobbed his mouth like the world's ugliest goldfish behind them.

Back with the pirates...

"Eliminating high priority targets," Dyna droned. The heavy-caliber rifle mounted in her left primary arm socket swiveled as her single remaining optic located the optimal firing solution. The armor-piercing weapon, more a scaled down cannon than a simple rifle, fired with a thunderous crack, discharging a bullet that punched clean through the protective shell of an inward-facing gun bay and slammed into its ammunition store, detonating the defensive gun and reducing it to a useless crater in the internal wall.

Even as it exploded, she was already targeting the next of the interior guns, and then the next, each shot bringing ruin to whatever she targeted and snuffing out any hope the Marines might have of employing their artillery to destroy the Stormbringer or even break up the Kamikazes' assault.

"Seismic Slam!" cried Miriam, before she swung her fists down into a double-fisted slam into the earth. The earth buckled and heaved as a localized earthquake erupted outwards from the crater her fists had dug, knocking Marines from their feet and sending cracks spidering up through the stony walls all across the small port.

"Nice work, you've come a long way with that move!" Ryoga called to her in a congratulatory manner, even as he savaged his way through a squad of marines with almost lazy strokes of his arms. Through sheer blind luck and stupidity, one momentarily out of reach yanked up his rifle and fired it straight at Ryoga. The bullet hit skin hardened by advanced Bakusai Tenketsu training and ricocheted with a high-pitched whine, a scream splitting the air as it punched into some far squishier marine that had the misfortune of being in its way. The unfortunate gunner barely had more than a moment to boggle in disbelief before Ryoga absently reached out and plucked the rifle from his grip, crushed it into slivers with a squeeze of his wrist, and then clubbed its owner unconscious with what was left of it.

"I'm still not sure about that name, though," Miriam confessed, stooping low and spinning in a circle with both arms outstretched, the windmilling blow sending marines flying through the air by the dozens.

"Eh, naming's the hardest part, it'll come to you," Ryoga assured her, even as he backhanded a marine twice his size with enough force that he hit a nearby wall and left a foot-deep crater in it.

Across the port, Ukyo held her battle spatula aloft, its head visibly glowing red hot. She swung it in the direction of the marines that had been charging her way, and the motion produced a sweeping torrent of flames, carried by a veritable cannonball blast of wind, detonating in their ranks and sending them screaming in the other direction.

With uncanny grace, Harumi danced across the battlefield, his twin blades twirling and scything in intricate patterns. Despite his apparent indifference to the bloody melee surrounding him, those who attacked found themselves deftly outmaneuvered and then cut down like grain before a thresher, and even those who thought themselves safely beyond the reach of his swords were disabused as the wind flowed in razored currents around him, seemingly conducted by his deft gestures.

During a brief lull in the fray, the young swordsman's eyes swept across the battlefield, falling upon his newest crewmate - and the three towering marines currently closing in on her, each easily twice her height.

"Watch out!" he called, and began to charge to her aid.

But even as he ran, Penelope punched at the closest and caught him squarely in the stomach, the blow lifting him from his feet and blasting him backwards as if he'd been launched from a catapult, crashing into easily half a dozen regular-sized marines behind him and knocking them sprawling. The second oversized bruiser swung his sword down at her - Harumi couldn't help the twitch at the sloppy, club-like strike - and she dodged it before grabbing the offending arm. She hoisted him clean off of his feet and swung him over her head before slamming him down into the floor opposite, all in a single smooth motion. Then she twirled around and kicked upwards, catching her last opponent squarely in the jaw and felling him like a tree.

Harumi skidded to a halt just short of the former fray, even as the archaeologist turned to him.

"Did you say something?" she asked politely, head tilted in genuine confusion.

"Nothing important, Miss Penelope. My apologies; it seems you can protect yourself," he noted, absently dodging and then cutting down a marine who tried to attack him from behind.

"My father, he was insisting that his little girl should be learning to be protecting herself, no? I studied ze savate as a girl," she explained, proudly placing a hand on her shirt-straining bosom and tilting her veiled face upwards in obvious cheer at her accomplishments. Then a trio of marines attacked her, before she took them out with a jumping spin kick, and then the fight resumed in earnest.

'What am I doing with my life?' Nabiki mused to herself. Even as she contemplated this metaphorical conundrum, she fought off those Marines that dared to make the mistake of thinking her to be an easier target. Her blows might have lacked the supersonic speed and bone-shattering impact of Shampoo's or Ukyo's, but they still came hard and furious, striking marines unconscious to the floor in one or two strikes.

'I was just supposed to get good enough to be able to run away; why am I joining the fray?'

She fell back as a marine tried to cleave her head from her shoulders, falling shoulders-first to the ground and using the momentum from the motion to drive her foot squarely into his crotch. As he instinctively sank into a crouch, clutching his abused privates, she drove a second kick into his face, sending him tumbling backwards in a spray of blood. With a roll of her hips that would have been unthinkable a month ago, she flipped herself nimbly back to her feet.

'Though, I have to admit, there's something weirdly satisfying about all this...' she conceded.

And that was when something in the back of Nabiki's brain suddenly began screaming at her to move right goddamned now. Instincts trained into her over weeks under Ranma's tutelage (and that of the other female martial artists on the ship, let's be fair) snapped into life and Nabiki flung herself backwards as fast as she possibly could, abandoning all other priorities in favor of moving as fast as she possibly could.

Which was why, when Commodore Sukumvit's fist struck her, it merely hurled her to the ground and left her dazed and blinded with pain as opposed to knocking her head clean from her shoulders. The world swirled around her like something from a Western cartoon, the handsome face above her with its cruel sneer doubling and tripling before Nabiki's unfocused eyes.

"Huh. A bug that actually requires some effort to squash..."

Through bleary eyes, limbs refusing to move despite every instinct she had shrieking at her to get moving, Nabiki watched as Sukumvit lazily strutted towards her. He raised his foot high over her head, clearly about to bring it down with decisively final force...

"Keep your hands off her!"

And that was when Ranma came flying through the air like a human bullet, slamming right into the startled Commodore and carrying him backwards until they hit the distant wall hard enough to leave a crater in it. Crushed between the stone and the even less yielding frame of Ranma, Sukumvit swayed, momentarily stunned. That was all the distraction Ranma needed to launch into a full-fledged barrage of fists, hammering faster-than-sight punches into his opponent's face, digging a crater within a crater as Sukumvit's skull bounced off of the stone behind it like a jackhammer's chiseling tooth.

Then, as suddenly as he started, Ranma stopped, hopping several body-lengths back and snapping into a defensive position. His caution proved warranted when the Marine Commodore took first one step forward from the crater, and then a second, wobbling slightly before straightening and standing tall. Without taking his eyes off of Ranma, Commodore Sukumvit reached up to his nose, which had broken under the onslaught and was now drooling blood across his mouth and chin, and snapped it back into place with an audible crackling crunch, before spitting blood and what Ranma dearly hoped was a tooth to the side.

"You've gotten stronger, pirate," he noted, smiling through crimson stained teeth, sincere joy in his voice as he made the observation. "...This'll be fun...!"

Meanwhile... Across the field of battle, the rest of the Kamikaze Pirates were having their own unwanted reunions...

"It's time you paid for your perversions, you miserable wretch!" Kiyoshi snarled, her warfans flashing and sending cannonball-esque blasts of wind hurtling towards Ryoga.

Whilst it did her mood no good to see him dodge both attacks, which gouged furrows in the stone of the port's floor and walls, there was at least some small comfort in that he felt the need to do so rather than simply let them bounce off of his armor-like hide. Skin that proved its durability by causing razor-sharp rocky shrapnel that would have reduced an ordinary man to so much shredded meat to patter harmlessly away like a spring shower.

"That wasn't my fault! There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for what happened there!" Ryoga protested... and he would have objected vehemently to said protestation being described as resembling an infant's whining.

"I almost want to hear you try and explain that!" The Marine Captain spat. She casually stepped to the side as one of Miriam's anchors came sailing through the space she had just occupied like an oversized dart. Her hand flicked out and the touch of her warfan severed the chain binding the anchor to its wielder's wrist, causing it to continue its flight and slam straight into Ryoga, carrying him across the port to crash into a small storage building on the far side.

"Do you know how much work I put into fixing that?!" The wotan complained, before twisting her wrist in the manner she had practiced under Kodachi's strict guidance. The chain quivered like a living thing before curling around and scything towards Captain Kiyoshi. If the captain had been any lesser marine, it would undoubtedly have ensnared her in its steel coils and left her helpless in the face of the wotan's wrath.

But since Kiyoshi was a Captain, and moreover a Captain who had been throwing herself into her training since her humiliating defeat in Loguetown, instead she struck like lightning with both hands, her warfans guiding the wind into several cutting blades that sheared through the chain in multiple spots and reduced it to harmless lengths of links that tinkled almost musically to the floor.

Kiyoshi permitted herself a smug smile as Miriam's profanities filled the air. Then she glanced over in the direction of her little sister and her blood ran cold. The young redhead was backing cautiously away as two of the pirate women cornered her; the zoan and the false noblewoman, both of whom bore sadistic-looking grins as they closed in on her.

"Akasuki!" the older of the Chaser sisters cried, even as she charged into the fray to even the odds.

She had to give the false noblewoman some credit; she spun to face Kiyoshi with admirable speed. Her strange weapon lashed out, its ability to change from solid shaft of steel to bladed whip allowing for unpredictable strikes from a myriad of angles. It was no wonder she had been able to take down so many of the rank and file. But Kiyoshi was of higher rank, and thusly of sterner stuff. She deflected the snaking blade with a deft flick and twirl of her warfan, before powering through to deliver a crushing kick to Kodachi's stomach.

The blow blew Kodachi off of her feet and hurled her into the wall behind her with a pained grunt, her skull smacking sickeningly against the stone as the impact pulverized a six inch crater into the stone. The Kamikaze helmsman's eyes slipped shut and she sank bonelessly to the ground with an agonized moan, clearly stunned.

"You try that with Shampoo!" the zoan snarled, only to let out a pained screech as Akasuki seized the advantage and struck, raking her fiery blade across Shampoo's side.

The young marine prodigy nearly paid dearly for her boldness as Shampoo instinctively kicked at Akasuki, rabbit-like leg with its wickedly oversized claws snapping at the redheaded young marine's face, a blow that probably would have crushed her skull, if not torn her head from her shoulders. Fortunately for Akasuki, her big sister was there to look after her, one of her trademark wind bullets literally blowing Shampoo off of her feet.

Unlike Kodachi, Shampoo rolled with the impact, flipping with feline agility to land squarely on her feet and one hand, claws gouging the stone like it was sand as she skidded to a halt. She glared up at the sisters, pupils dilated to slits, murder in her gaze and fangs bared defiantly.

"Bad kitties need a spanking..." Giggled Akasuki, brandishing her flaming sword with obvious delight.

"So do bad little girls!" came a livid voice from behind them, forcing the Chaser sisters to separate as a red-hot giant spatula blade whirled through the air where they had been standing. They spun to keep both foes in sight, Shampoo rising from her crouch with only a slight hiss of pain. Adding to their worries, Kodachi was also climbing to her feet, a hand instinctively going to the back of her aching skull. She glanced at the smear of red on her palm, and then turned a gaze burning with the promise of pain on her assailants.

'Get up-get up-get up!' Nabiki screamed at herself, drawing on her lessons to fight her way through the pain and shakily clambering to her knees. A small step, almost literally, but better than lying flat on her back like an insensate hog waiting for the butcher's knife! Her head throbbed with near-blinding pain, and she choked down the urge to vomit, closing her eyes to the nauseating blur of her assailant and her savior doing battle mere feet away.

'Okay, good news is; I'm doing better than when I crashed his birthday party,' the small part of Ranma's mind that was constantly active on its own thing, even in the thick of battle, threw out.

'...Bad news is, this bastard is still one tough pain in the ass!'

It was, at least, a more even match than it had been the first time they had dueled, when Ranma's absolute best was doing nothing more than delay his inevitable defeat. But it was still a formidable battle; Ranma found himself pushing his body as hard and fast as it would go, with the slightest mistake mercilessly seized upon and punished. But he gave as good as he got, delivering blows that would have split open the armored hull of a battleship, but did little more than elicit pained grunts from his opponent.

The two were a blur as they zipped across the battlefield, Ranma exploiting every acrobatic trick he knew, but the commodore doggedly pressing after him, his face fixed in a manic grin of delight. It was like fighting Happosai, but with the bloodlust of Mousse thrown in, and honestly it was a fight that could have gone in any direction...

Suddenly, darkness swallowed the battlefield, the sun completely blotted from view.

"What trickery is this?!" Commodore Sukumvit demanded, actually pausing his assault to thrust an accusatory finger in Ranma's direction.

"Why d'ya think it's my fault?! It's just the Grand Line... weather..." Ranma trailed off as he instinctively glanced skywards, and what he saw there shocked him to the core.

All across the port, the fighting ground to a stop. After all, even in the chaos and madness of the Grand Line, it wasn't every day one saw an upside-down mountain floating overhead!

Seconds seemed to stretch into minutes as marines and pirates alike stared at the sheer impossibility floating overhead. And then that surreal moment of respite came to a crashing end as hatches popped open from the upside-down crags and peaks to reveal downwards-angled cannons that literally rained shot down upon the port!

The cascade of plummeting cannonballs was brief, but merciless. Explosives were precisely aimed at whatever bastions of strength were left to the marines; regrouping knots of warriors were blasted without pity, the two battleships in the bay were sunk, and any defensive cannons that had yet to feel Dyna's deadly shots were bombarded into ruin. Kiyoshi grabbed her little sister and ran for the nearest cavern-like doorway into the fortress's interior, which cannonballs brought crashing down behind them, as soon happened to every other major doorway.

As the barrage finished as suddenly as it began, Commodore Sukumvit fixed a baleful glare on Ranma, who immediately snapped into a defensive posture. Just as the marine leader was about to launch his attack, however, he suddenly leapt back as one final projectile came hurtling down and impacted into the ground where he'd been standing hard enough to leave a foot-deep crater in the stone. But this projectile wasn't a cannonball... it was a man.

Ranma found himself staring up at a figure he would have called a giant if he hadn't met actual giants in his travels thus far. Nine feet tall if he was an inch, clad in an orange-trimmed, red and black kimono tied with a dark green sash, over which he wore a tattered haori coat in vertical-stripes of two tones of yellow. Weathered, but still handsome, leonine features with a few purple blotches around his left eye grinned hugely around a thick cigar, similar to the ones Umok was forever smoking. The top of his head was bald, save for a crest that looked disturbingly like a quarter of a ship's steering wheel set mohawk-style down the center of his skull. To make up for this, from his temples flowed a veritable cascade of golden blonde hair that flowed down his shoulders into a ground-brushing cape of locks. Most of his face was clean-shaven, save for a thin strip of golden fuzz that stretched from under either nostril down around his mouth to unite at his chin, where it was allowed to bloom into a small puffball of golden facial hair.

"Jihahaha... what have we here? You're a bold little fish, aren't you?" Chuckled the man, stroking his goatee with obvious amusement.

"Pirate scum! You will - ARGH!"

In a move that was so swift that it was a barely followable blur even to Ranma, the stranger spun around in a full circle, catching the attacking Commodore with a kick and launching him through the air. Sukumvit hit a stone wall and created a two-foot deep crater of pulverized rock that held him upright, eyes rolled back in his head and mouth hanging open as blood flowed from a massive gash now stretching from his hip to his shoulder - no, two such gashes, forming a mocking X shape on his torso.

A faint chime of metal on stone drew Ranma's gaze downwards, which was when he finally took note of the strangest thing about the newcomer: his legs were missing, and he had somehow adapted a pair of matching, triangular-bladed swords into a set of peg-legs. He quickly snapped his eyes back to the stranger's face, not wanting to be rude to a guy who just took down Commodore Sukumvit with one shot.

"Sorry about him - some people just have no manners," Ranma said.

The golden-haired warrior laughed again, hands tucked lazily into his kimono sash. "Jihahaha! You are a bold little fish! But I should have expected that from a fellow brother of the sea! It's not every pirate who has the guts to attack a marine fort, you know."

"You're a pirate too?" Nabiki asked woozily, stumbling over to Ranma.

"Hey, hey, take it easy, Nabs!" Ranma gently chided her, turning to her and swiftly draping one of her arms over his shoulders so he could support her weight.

"I told you I hate that name," she mumbled weakly, gratefully leaning against him all the same, even as the rest of the crew converged on their position and Shampoo hopped over to take a look at her.

"I most certainly am! I'm Shiki, the Golden Lion!" boasted the newcomer.

"And I'm Ranma Saotome, Captain of the Kamikaze Pirates," Ranma replied, nodding his head in the direction of the assembled boys and girls.

"Such a small crew, and you did all this? You're a true pirate, Ranma Saotome!" Shiki announced proudly, grinning with evident delight at the carnage.

"Those cannonballs of yours didn't hurt either," Ryoga pointed out, watching Shiki suspiciously.

"Bah! A trifle assistance from a fellow pirate; you had them on the ropes! But I am curious... What are you doing here? This isn't exactly a rich site for plunder," Shiki observed, delicately plucking the cigar from his mouth and shaking off some excess ash.

"Well, firstly, they're marines, so they always need a good kicking," Ranma stated confidently.

"JIHAHAHA! Oh, I like you, Ranma Saotome!" guffawed Shiki.

"And secondly, we were looking for information," the Kamikaze captain continued.

"Oh? Information?" Shiki looked intrigued, rolling his cigar from one side of his mouth to the other.

"Yeah... long story short, our crewmate Dyna thinks she came from some kind of floating island, so we figured the marines are probably the people most likely to know how to get there, if it exists," Ranma explained, gesturing with his free hand to Dyna.

Shiki followed the gesture and his jaw dropped in shock. "A giant crab?!"

The Kamikaze Pirates stared at him in confusion, before Dyna slowly shook her head.

"Negative crustacean identity," she stated dryly.

"Oh. Excuse me; sometimes, I get these little moments of confusion. Old head wound, you see," Shiki explained, chuckling softly and gently rubbing his bald pate to one side of the strange crest.

"I must confess, I was curious about your... unusual choice of headwear," Kodachi politely interjected.

"Head...? Oh, this! No, this is a piece of my old ship's steering wheel. Got wedged in there during a fight," Shiki explained nonchalantly.

As one, the Kamikaze Pirates eyes went wide in shock, several of them going pale as the realization sank in. Fortunately, Shiki seemed amused by their reactions rather than insulted.

"Jihahaha! Yes, I'm a lucky son of a bitch - damn near killed me! But that was twenty three years ago, and I'm still kicking! In a manner of speaking, anyway, jihahahaha!"

He deliberately "kicked" with first one bladed peg-leg and then the other for emphasis, before he continued, "As for sky-islands... they do exist! In fact, I'd be honored to help you reach them!"

"They exist?!" cried the startled teenagers (as well as Miriam and Penelope).

"I can go home...?" Dyna asked, a rare moment of emotion breaking through in her voice and even on her face.

"Jihahaha, but this is no place for pirates to be sitting around and talking! Come, let us go to my home, and we can discuss things there, hm?" Shiki suggested, smiling warmly.

Ranma looked to his crewmates, who all nodded back at him, before he turned his attention back to Shiki. "We'd be honored to see your home, Mr. Shiki."

"Jihahaha! Just call me Shiki - 'Mr' makes me feel so old! With your permission, Captain Saotome, I just need to come aboard your ship before we can depart," the Golden Lion explained, grinning broadly.

Ranma could practically feel the confused glances his crewmates were exchanging, and he'd be doing it himself if he wasn't the one speaking directly to Shiki. "Permission granted; welcome aboard, Captain Shiki!"

Minutes later...

"We're flying! Whoo-hoo-hoo!"

"So this is what it's like to look down on people?! I like it!"

"Zis is being ze most stupendous thing I am being seeing since I am coming to ze Grand Line!"

Ranma watched his native-born crewmembers freaking out with amusement, grinning hugely as he did.

'But then, ain't like I ever went on a plane myself back home, an' this has gotta beat that by a mile!'

Turning to Shiki, still smiling hugely, he proclaimed, "That's sure one handy Devil Fruit you have, Shiki!"

"Jihahaha! Oh, it has its perks alright! The Float-Float Fruit! I've had this beauty for decades, and it never ceases to amaze me with its potential! Why, it's with this Devil Fruit's power that I became the only man to ever escape from Impel Down, you know?" Shiki grinned smugly, a knowing glint in his eyes.

"How does it work?" Nabiki asked, slightly muffled through the bandages that Shampoo had insisted upon wrapping her head in.

"I too would love to know, Captain Shiki," Kodachi politely interjected, a sentiment echoed by the rest of the crew as they wandered over to listen.

"Well, if you insist... I've never been one to turn down some lovely ladies," Shiki chuckled. "The Float-Float Fruit is a Paramecia that allows me to manipulate the gravity of anything I have touched, causing it to fly in whatever direction I wish, or even simply hover where I wish, all without changing any of its intrinsic properties."

"Great-Grandmother know trick where she can lift things with power of her will... is no draining for you to lift our ship and your island?" Shampoo asked, nodding towards the massive chunk of earth and stone being propelled in front of them. What they had initially mistaken for an upside-down mountain were in fact the "roots" of a former island, which had been torn completely from the earth. Its prow bore an enormous sculpture of a regal lion's head, oars rhythmically rose and fell along its flanks, and an enormous tree at its center bore sails and a fluttering Jolly Roger.

"Well, I don't know how your great-granny does it, cutie, but with the Float-Float Fruit, there's no stamina drain whatsoever. Once I make something float, it stays floating until I tell it otherwise!" Shiki explained patiently.

"Now that's a handy power," Nabiki observed, a hint of jealousy in her voice.

"No offense, but how come we've never heard of you? You'd think that a flying pirate crew would be all over the news," Ryoga asked, visibly suspicious.

Ukyo promptly struck him over the head with her spatula, the Eternally Lost Boy hunkering forward from the impact as she hissed, "Don't insult our guest!"

"No, no, the boy is right to be curious. For starters, my crew can't fly. Only me. The Float-Float Fruit doesn't work on any living thing except the one who ate it - I can't make people or creatures fly, which can be annoying. For another thing... I've been out of the game a long time now. This was actually one of my first voyages back down to the Grand Line when I encountered you," Shiki explained, shrugging nonchalantly.

"Why?" Ranma asked impulsively, unable to stop himself.

"Convalescing, basically. First I took this head-wound twenty three years ago. Then, three years later, they captured me whilst I was weak and sickly from it and threw me into Impel Down. I only escaped because I was lucky enough to snatch back my swords and use them first to chop off my legs to escape the sea prism stone shackles they were in and then to stop the bleeding, allowing me to fly away to freedom. I've spent the last twenty years recovering from my ordeal - healing from the injury, training myself to fight with my new legs, and so on," Shiki elaborated, rising several inches off of the deck and spinning in place.

"Any more questions?" He asked pleasantly, grinning at the queasy expressions now surrounding him. Even Dyna looked somewhat perturbed as she mentally pictured the trauma he had described.

"N-Nah, we're good," Ranma weakly answered on behalf of his crew.

"Well, I suggest you get comfortable; it'll be a while before we reach our destination," Shiki proclaimed, lazily drifting up into the air and stretching out as if he were reclining in an invisible hammock.

Ranma glanced at his crewmate, who simply shrugged. Being completely at the mercy of Shiki's Devil Fruit powers to reach their destination, they proceeded to do as the Golden Lion had suggested. Some drifted back to their rooms, others simply sprawled out on the deck, ready to pass the time.

An hour or so later...

"There she is! Home sweet home! Jiiihahahaha!" Shiki bellowed with laughter, rousing the Kamikazes to crowd onto the deck to see what the commotion was all about.

And what they saw brought every single one of them to a screeching halt.

"Oh... my... word..." Penelope sighed rapturously.

"Shampoo see a lot of crazy shit since we set sail. This top everything," the zoan Amazon breathed, as if afraid that speaking too loud would cause the fantastical, impossible vista before them to vanish like a dream at dawn.

"Well, Umok? You seen anything like this before?" Ranma muttered to their impish tag-along, who had drifted down from his perch in the crow's nest to see what everyone was gawking at.

"You wouldn't believe some of the things I've seen, Captain. But this is still an incredible sight," the depowered wizard proclaimed.

Before them was a floating archipelago; a series of islands that had been arranged into a three-dimensional tapestry, many of them surrounded by their own mini-seas, tens of thousands of tons of stone and water and ice and rock and vegetation defying gravity.

"Welcome to Merville! Home of adventurers!" Shiki triumphantly boasted, flinging his arms wide to encompass the entirety of the Devil Fruit-wrought landscape.

Guided by Shiki's will, both the Stormbringer and his personal island-ship sailed upwards to the highest point of the archipelago, a cold and snowy island dominated at its heart by an enormous sprawling fortress with aesthetics that reminded the Japanese members of the crew of something out of history class.

Soon afterwards...

"And this is my meeting hall!" Shiki explained proudly as he led them into the room. Much like the rest of the fortress, it essentially looked like something from a dramatization of Feudal Era Japan, built to a massive scale.

"It is quite grandiose, Captain Shiki!" Kodachi observed approvingly. Indeed, the vertical room that stretched before them, ending in a raised throne set against a wall decorated with a sun, dragon and a guardian beast, could have easily seated hundreds of guests.

"Oh, go big or go home, that's what I always say! Jihahaha! But come, sit; my right hand, Dr. Indigo, will be with us shortly," the older pirate explained, drifting lazily down the room's length to seat himself upon the throne at its far end.

The Kamikaze Pirates, even Umok, politely followed him to the far end, sitting themselves on the floor in two roughly equal rows facing each other to wait for the arrival of Shiki's mysterious second in command.

They didn't have long to wait as a series of rubbery farts echoed from behind a closed door. As the source came closer and closer, each step causing another burst of artificial flatulence, Shiki's grin faded into a furious scowl, visibly wincing with each discharge. By the time that the door slid open and the man responsible hurried into the room, Shiki looked fit to beat somebody savagely.

"Are those really the only pair of shoes that you own, Dr. Indigo?! You sound like a clown!"

"He looks like one too!" Ranma unthinkingly blurted out.

In his defense... it wasn't as if the statement was untrue. Dr. Indigo was a tall man, whose narrow shoulders and thin limbs contrasted his rounded belly, giving him the silhouette of a volumetric flask. His indigo hair was styled into two exaggerated puffballs, one on either side of his head, and his face was caked in thick white makeup, save for red starbursts around his eyes. He wore a set of purple overalls with two vertical rows of buttons, paired with slightly oversized shoes, brown leather gloves, a doctor's white coat and a yellow-spotted blue scarf. The overall impression was of a clown playing dress up as a doctor.

The figure was so bizarre, that they actually didn't realize at first that he wasn't alone, instead being accompanied by...

"That guy really looks like a gorilla wearing people clothes," Ranma muttered.

"I think he is a gorilla wearing people clothes," Nabiki asserted.

"Anyone else ever notice we seem to run into a lot of really weird-looking people on this voyage?" Ukyo wondered aloud.

Dr. Indigo didn't seem to take offense to the blatant way they were staring at him, however. Instead, he marched up to Shiki's throne and began to wave his arms around, making strange gestures, hopping from foot to foot, and emitting sporadic grunts and whimpers.

"...Zat is no form of sign language I recognize," Penelope admitted, drawing a thick pocketbook from one of her many pockets and flipping hurriedly through its pages.

Shiki growled like his namesake, fingers drumming on the arm of his throne.

"Will you stop acting like a fool?! We have guests!" he roared.

"Welcome back, sire, how was your trip?" the doctor replied, never losing his ever-present toothy grin.

"Huh?! You really can talk!?" Shiki gasped in amazement, eliciting hoots of laughter and appreciative claps from the pink jacket-wearing gorilla.

"And who are these people, Captain Shiki?" Dr. Indigo asked in the same pleasant tone, ignoring Shiki's question as he turned to face the Kamikaze Pirates.

"An intriguingly bold crew of pirates I found on my little expedition; they were attacking a Marine wayfort singlehandedly! I dropped in for a little chat and decided to bring them here," Shiki replied, all smiles once again.

"Uh, hi? I'm Captain Ranma Saotome, of the Kamikaze Pirates," Ranma introduced himself, a little uncertain of the etiquette but feeling it was the right thing to do.

"Welcome to Merville, Captain Saotome! I am Dr. Indigo; Captain Shiki's personal doctor and right-hand man! I have been caring for him for the last twenty years," Indigo replied pleasantly.

"The reason I brought our guests here was because they were in need of some help. We were going to discuss sky-islands, correct?" Shiki smoothly turned his attention from his doctor to Ranma.

"That's right. So... are these the sky-islands? Are you Dyna's creator?" Ranma asked, eyes going from the elderly pirate captain to the fembot.

Shiki threw back his head and laughed loudly. "Jihahaha! I'm flattered you think me capable of such a feat, but no, sadly, I have no connection with your mechanical lady friend! And though Merville does float, it is not a proper sky-island! Let me explain..."

"That would be optimal for proceedings," Dyna bluntly declared.

Unphased by the robot girl's quip, Shiki templed his hands over his stomach and began his lecture. "The sky-islands are one of the marvels of the Grand Line; thousands of meters above the surface of the world floats a literal sea of clouds - two of them, in fact - made up of special clouds that have density similar to water and even to solid land. The first of these seas, the White Sea, floats seven thousand meters above the surface; natural currents and causeways link the White Sea to a higher strata of ocean clouds and island clouds, known as the White-White Sea, a further three thousand meters over it. I don't know where your mechanical friend comes from, but if she says she was built on a sky-island, then that is where you must go!"

Ranma grinned hugely, turning to face the fembot. "Didya hear that, Dyna?! We just found our first real step to helping ya get home!"

"Congratulations!" Ukyo cheered her, a sentiment echoed by the other women of the crew.

"I always knew that the captain would find you the way," Harumi asserted proudly.

"I can't believe it; Ranma actually pulled through on that crazy promise," Ryoga declared, visibly amazed.

"I...Data overload..." Dyna said quietly, sole eye flickering and steam whistling from her vents.

"I hate to be the party pooper, but there's still one big issue we need to address," Nabiki suddenly interjected. "How are we supposed to get from here to the White Sea? I mean, the view was spectacular, but I didn't see any kind of cloud-ocean out there on our way in."

"Jihahah, of course you didn't! We're only five thousands meters above sea level - you still have to fly up another two thousand before you'll reach the sky-seas!" Shiki explained.

"Well, that's no problem, is it? I mean, we can just fly the Stormbringer up now that Shiki used his powers on it, can't we?" Ranma asked.

"Sorry kid, but no can do; things I make float only move where I will them to. You can't sail that ship of yours higher unless I'm there controlling the flight, and whilst I like you, I have things of my own to do - I can't just drop everything to go running all over the sky-sea with you," Shiki rebutted, wagging a finger as he did.

"So close..." Ranma groaned, slumping in disappointment.

"That's perfectly fine, Captain Shiki - you've provided us with vital information. Perhaps we can trouble you for just one little favor?" Kodachi suddenly interjected, looking at the older pirate with her softest, most doe-eyed, innocent expression.

"A favor? What favor?" Shiki asked, visibly confused, and the Kamikaze Pirates were no less puzzled by Kodachi's sudden interjection.

"As it so happens, I believe that we can...upgrade... our ship to the point where we can fly it from this launching point to the sky-sea. But I suspect it will take time - a week, at the very least. Is there anything we can do to persuade you to allow us to use an out-of-the-way corner of your little island paradise as a place to work from?" Kodachi continued, still giving Shiki her puppy-dog eyes.

Ranma actually slapped a hand over his mouth to keep from blurting out his question, whilst the rest of his crew stared in shock at Kodachi.

Shiki suddenly burst out laughing, grinning hugely at Kodachi's words. "That's your favor? Why, baby doll, I would be delighted to have you as my guests! Take as long as you need! And if you need some supplies for your little remodeling, then don't hesitate to ask!"

"Thank you for your generosity, lord Shiki. You are truly a prince amongst pirates," Kodachi said, performing the kneeling bow, or zarei, with the kind of refinement that highlight her noble birth.

"With your permission, may we leave to begin assessing what needs to be done?" she asked, still in her zarei position.

"Of course, of course," Shiki declared magnanimously, waving his hand in a gesture of polite dismissal.

As one, the Kamikaze Pirates bowed to Shiki, with varying degrees of skill, before they stood and walked out of the meeting room.

T-Minus 168 Hours...

"You really think we can make this ship fly on its own, without Shiki's Devil Fruit?" Ranma asked, the Kamikaze Pirates now having returned to the small dock where Shiki had deposited the Stormbringer.

"I believe so. It will require a combination of Miriam's shipwright skills, Dyna's knowledge of steam technology, and my own familiarity with the principles of ballooning and aeronautics, but... yes, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to retrofit our ship into an airship," Kodachi confidently asserted.

"Alright, nice going, rich girl!" Ukyo cheered.

"Shampoo admit it, Shampoo impressed!" The zoan proclaimed.

"Well, aren't you the girl of many talents," Nabiki teasingly noted.

"Ahhh-hahaha! You're too kind, dearies! That said... am I the only one who noted something... off... about our generous host?" Kodachi asked, switching from her joyful laughter to a solemn expression.

It was as if a wave of ice-water had washed over the Kamikaze Pirates, who all adopted grim expressions and nodded as one.

"Yeah, I don't know why, but the guy's been giving me serious Ratchet vibes, at least since we got here," Ranma admitted.

"Difference is, Ratchet was a wuss. This guy beat down a Navy Commodore like he was swatting a fly. If he turns on us, it's gonna get ugly," was Ryoga's grim assessment.

"Is it at all possible we're just being paranoid?" Harumi softly suggested.

"I concur; Monsieur Shiki 'as been nothing but welcoming and polite to us since we met him," Penelope pointed out.

"Even so, the power disparity suggests that caution is advisable," Dyna pointed out.

"Agreed. I was right there - I had the front row seat when he kicked Baron Circlejerk's ass. I do not wanna fight him if I can avoid it," Ranma declared darkly. "So here's what we're gonna do; we're gonna keep our heads down, be the best damn guests we can be, and focus on getting the Stormbringer rigged to fly away from here without pissing off the super-strong ex-pirate who probably is a lot crazier than he seems, given he's got a freaking wheel impaling his brain. Agreed?"

"Agreed," came the immediate and unanimous response.

T-Minus 144 Hours...

Ranma looked over the edge of the glorified boulder that he, Nabiki and Ryoga were riding through the air as Shiki flew alongside them, the vast sprawling landscape of Shiki's palace swiftly passing below them.

"What'cha want us out here for?" He asked their host, trying not to sound too rude.

"If you're going to be staying at Merville, whilst I trust you can figure out for yourselves where you can and can't go in my castle, there is one thing you need to know before you step foot onto the castle grounds," Shiki calmly replied, taking a drag from his cigar.

"Okay, what's that?" Ranma replied.

Shiki came to a sudden stop, as did the chunk of earth he had ripped out of the ground to carry them along with him. He pointed down towards the ground. "See those trees down there?"

The three teens looked, and sure enough, they were now able to see that the entirety of Shiki's estate was encircled by strange trees that resembled pale white baobab trees with green leaves and branches.

"Those are called Daft Greens. If you chose to go out onto the castle grounds, stay away from those trees. They give off a constant cloud of lethally poisonous pollen," Shiki continued, his tone as matter of fact as if he were discussing the weather.

"Why would you grow those things around your house?!" Ryoga impulsively demanded, voicing the question on his companions' minds.

"Because of them," Shiki continued in the same level tone of voice, pointing out into the snowy plains beyond the poisoned trees.

The three teens instinctively followed his gesture, and gaped at what they saw. A monstrous saurian beast, like a blue-and-white Tyrannosaurus Rex with deer-like antlers and a mane of thick white fur, was battling fiercely with a creature that resembled a gigantic, shaggy-furred wolf with rabbit-like ears.

"You see, part of the reason I chose Merville as my home after escaping Impel Down was its unique array of aggressively deadly animals, a kind of natural barrier against any Marines who might be tempted to follow me. You're quite safe behind the Daft Greens, they emit a smell that all the animals on Merville find absolutely disgusting, but if you step outside..." Shiki shrugged, never losing his grin as he did.

"...We'll keep that in mind," Ranma assured him, somewhat feebly.

T-Minus 142 Hours...

"Here's that stuff you guys ordered - should all be here, but give us a call if you need any more," the grunt explained, gesturing to the mass of sailcloth, ropes, needles, thread, wood and other miscellaneous that he and his team had brought into the dock where the Stormbringer waited.

"Thanks - hey, is that the latest paper?" Ranma asked, interrupting Shiki's underlings before they could leave, pointing to the rolled up paper stuffed in the head grunt's back pocket.

"This? Oh, yeah, it's today's copy of the World Economy News. You want it?" he replied, handing it to Ranma.

"Thanks, buddy - we appreciate it! Huh... what's Enies Lobby?" Ranma asked, glancing at the headline.

"Enies Lobby? It's the World Government's primary court - one of the three big strongholds the Navy has in Paradise! It's where all the pirates go for trial before they get deported to either Marineford or Impel Down," explained the patient commentator.

"Well, it was the primary court of Paradise - says here that a crew called the Straw Hat Pirates just destroyed it! Man, they must be really something!" Ranma marveled.

"Wait, aren't the Straw Hat Pirates led by that kid captain you met? Monkey-somebody?" Nabiki asked, looking up from where she was already taking stock of the delivery.

"Huh, yeah, that is him! Wow, he's come a long way from the berie-less kid I ran into," Ranma commented.

"Sounds like he's gonna go far. Think we'll run into him?" Ukyo wondered, already starting to shift some of the sailcloth.

"Eh, I wouldn't bet on it. The Grand Line's a big place," Ranma scoffed, rolling the paper back up and giving it back to the guy who had loaned it to him.

T-Minus 121 Hours...

Ranma let out an appreciative whistle as he took in the massive, sprawling array of gravity-defying boulders, trees, and even bubbles of water big enough to fill a good-sized bathtub.

"I really appreciate you doing this, Captain Shiki, this is awesome!"

"Jihahaha! Don't worry about it, kid; this is child's play for me! And speaking of child's play, what are you and your crew monkeying around with all of this for?" Shiki asked, idly gesturing to adjust the position of some of the floating objects.

"Training; agility, acrobatics, leaping, battlefield perception, all that good stuff. But I'm kind of hoping we can use it to work on this move we've been trying out, called Moonwalk," Ranma explained casually.

"Moonwalk? Now, how'd a stripling like you learn about one of the World Government's so-called Six Powers?" Shiki asked, turning partially to stare down at the younger pirate captain.

"Stole a manual from the Navy Commodore you saw when we first met... wait, Six Powers? You know about this thing? There's more to it?" Ranma asked, now looking up to meet Shiki's gaze.

"Well, I never really learned Moonwalk myself - a little pointless, you see," Shiki began, adjusting his levitation so he was now floating upside down with his head remaining at the same point where he had started.

"But, yes, it's one of six martial arts techniques that the World Government reserves for their upper-ranked agents. Aside from Moonwalk, there's Shave - which is about moving at super speed, Iron Body - where you harden your body to nullify damage, Tempest Kick - kicking so hard as to create a wind blade, Finger Pistol - where you can thrust your hand so quickly and fiercely you can stab someone with your finger, and Paper Arts - heightening your flexibility to enhance your dodging," Shiki continued casually, still floating upside down as he did so.

"Issat so? Huh..." Ranma trailed off, scratching his chin contemplatively as he stared off into the distance.

T-Minus 100 Hours...

"Watch out, he's ready to charge!"

"Round the sides, round the sides!"

The wind howled like an angry beast, only to be drowned out by the deafening trumpeting of the enraged mutant mammoth. It reared back on its four hind legs, flailing its two forelegs before slamming them back to earth in a shower of snow and crushed stone. Saliva frothed around its fangs and its beady eyes glowed a bloody red before it charged forward, its six legs powdering the snow and churning it out in a spray behind its accelerating bulk.

Standing across the field where they'd cornered the beast, Miriam hunkered down, spread her arms wide, and roared her defiance, teeth bared in a huge and terrifying grin.

"C'mon, big boy! Let's dance!" she howled, the mammoth trumpeting again as it barreled towards her.

The two massive bodies collided with a shockwave that sent snow and soil flying. Miriam's feet skidded through the slush as the mammoth forced her back, her hands latched around the bases of the beast's massive tusks, before she caught a firm foothold and managed to push back, grinding it to a halt. The beast roared, its trunk curling into a mock fist before it began to lash out at incredible speeds, pounding brutally into the wotan's face and torso.

It managed to land a good dozen strikes before it suddenly reared back, emitting a brain-rattling scream of rage and pain. Bright crimson blood gushed from its now-shortened trunk like water from a firehose, painting the wotan's face and breasts with gore. Miriam's throat bulged as she gulped down a good meter or so of gristle and cartilage.

Harumi charged in from the left like a grim grinning angel of blood. His blades flashed silver in the weak sunlight, slicing deep into the vulnerable tendons behind the hindmost knee. Shampoo was at his side, the cabbit-woman hybrid twisting around in a massive spin-kick that brutally dislocated the mammoth's middle knee. At the same time, Ranma and Ryoga attacked from the right, shattering its other hindlegs with mercilessly powerful blows.

The mammoth screamed in defiant disbelief, spittle flying from its fangs, bleeding trunk writhing like a decapitated serpent. Ignoring the gore caking her features, Miriam powered forward, twisting with all her might.

The CRACK of the mammoth's neck breaking rang out like a gunshot, the mad light finally dimming in its eyes as it collapsed to the churned ground, shaking the earth as its massive bulk settled sharply into place.

Five pirates gathered around the corpse, chests heaving from exertion, breath and bodies steaming in the chill wind. Only when they were certain the beast was dead did they relax.

"Phew. That was a mean one," Ranma noted, wiping sweat from his brow.

"How can ya tell? They're all mean ones," Ryoga pointed out dryly yet sincerely.

"It was nice of Captain Shiki to give us permission to hunt the local monsters to hone our combat skills," Harumi commented, wiping blood from his blades.

"Well, that's Miriam's lunch acquired; catch your breath, then we'll go looking for ours," Ranma quipped.

"I'm not gonna eat the whole thing!" Miriam protested,, blushing beneath the blood splashed on her face.

"You're going to give it a damn good try though, aren't you?" Ranma teasingly asked her.

Miriam folded her arms, turned away from him and pouted, the sight incongruously cute given that she looked like an escapee from the final rampage of a horror movie. Harumi, who had walked over to his girlfriend, gently petted her thigh in a conciliatory manner.

"Not before Shampoo skin it! This pelt make wonderful coat!" The Joketsuzoku asserted.

T-Minus 96 Hours...

"Dr Indigo, wait up! Shampoo have request for you!" The Joketsuzoku zoan called, hurrying to catch up with Merville's resident doctor as he walked through the halls of Shiki's palace, artificial flatulence echoing with each step.

The clown doctor blinked, and shuffled around to face her. He began to gesticulate expectantly at her, a curious expression around his typical toothy grin.

"Shampoo sorry to bother you, but Shampoo need ask you something; will you teach Shampoo?"

"Huh?! What?! Why would you ask me that?" Dr. Indigo blurted out, so surprised he forgot his clowning routine.

"Shampoo is medic for her crew, but Shampoo never formally trained - just know few tricks. Shampoo's crew good, but bad luck always around corner. Shampoo need more, for their sakes. You Shiki's doctor - you obviously skilled!"

"PIROpiropiro! Well, I don 't like to brag, but I am quite the skilled biochemist - you would not believe how many infections and medicinal regimes I had to nurse Captain Shiki through after he pulled his little 'jam sword hilts into his leg stumps to stop the bleeding' trick, to say nothing of the head injury," Indigo shook his head.

"That what Shampoo mean - if you can keep Shiki alive through that, then that kind of medicine Shampoo need to learn!" the zoan insisted passionately.

"Well, I must credit part of my success to the sheer stubborn constitution of my patient, but... you're right," Indigo proudly proclaimed, before he rubbed his chin with one gloved hand.

"Hmm...I do have a rather busy schedule, but... I do also remember the rough and tumble life of a pirate doctor. Tell you what; I have a few spare moments in my schedule here and there - I'll show you some of my studies, you like that?" He asked her.

"Nothing please Shampoo more!" she assured him.

"PIROpiropiro! You flatter me - come, then; let me show you some of my Chemical Juggling technique..."

T-Minus 88 Hours...

"And... done! That should be the balloon fully fitted into place!" Miriam announced proudly, wiping the back of her brow with her hand.

"Excellent, excellent! Between the three of us, we'll soon have this vessel ready to conquer the skies as well as the seas!" Kodachi proclaimed, laughing in glee as she did so.

"You know, I've been wondering... just how is all this supposed to work, anyway?" The wotan asked, directing her curious look at Kodachi.

"The principles are quite simple; the balloon traps air heated by a burning oven, which lifts the Stormbringer up. The enlarged propellers at the back provide thrust to send us forward; by angling the ship's prow with the modifications we're making to the wheel, we can steer it in different directions and even angle it to climb higher or sink lower, in conjunction with releasing or adding air to the balloon. The tricky part is providing hot enough air and a reliable supply of energy to turn the propellers, without overburdening ourselves with fuel; that's where Dyna and her ability to construct disproportionately small but powerful steam engines comes in," Kodachi patiently explained.

"I see... how the heck did you dream up a crazy concept like this, anyway?" Miriam wondered.

"Oh, I can't take the credit there, I have... let us say a broader set of references than you do," Kodachi demurred.

T-Minus 66 Hours...

The ominous sound of metal buckling cut through the hissing of steam and the crackling of fire like a knife. Rivets popped from their seams, launching across the room like tiny bullets. Entirely unplanned jets of boiling steam vapor erupted from rents and cracks opening in the metal, their high-pitched wailing making the engine seem to almost scream...

"Hit the deck!"

Nobody was sure who said it, but the entirety of the Kamikaze Pirates instantly obeyed, diving into shelters or simply hunkering down and trusting to unnaturally durable hides to protect them, depending on the individuals.

Caution well-justified when the prototype boiler simply up and exploded into a shower of metal scrap and boiling water. Pistons went sailing like jet-powered spears to embed themselves in the ceiling, and shards of metal went flying in all directions.

When it was all over, they cautiously stood up and looked at the sad ruin of what had been the core of their first steam-powered engine.

"Back to the drawing board, huh, Kodachi?" Ranma asked, not unsympathetically.

"How come it failed in the first place? I mean, aren't you powered by steam, Dyna - shouldn't building a new steam engine be easy for you?" Ukyo asked.

"You are a human, Ukyo; can you build me a small intestine from scratch?" Came the dry and toneless reply.

T-Minus 24 Hours...

"Cannonball! Whoohoo!"

Water sprayed high into the air as Ranma, now in his female form, crashed into the massive pool in Shiki's hothouse cum bathing area.

And then, with almost maliciously deliberate purpose, the splashed water came crashing down right on top of Ryoga's head where he had been sitting a presumably safe distance away.

"Aww! Damn you, Ranma! You'll pay for this!" The now-blonde screamed, stomping on the floor and pointing an angry finger at Ranma. Fortunately, he had conceded to the realities of his new curse to wear a one-piece bathing suit like Ranma had done, which now hugged his new bosom like a second skin.

Ranma responded with the traditional "red eye" gesture. "C'mon in here and make me!"

"Damn you, I will!" Ryoga roared, sprinting to the side and diving in with a mighty splash of her own. Ranma took off swimming hastily away, cackling all the while, whilst her fellow gender-bender powered after her.

"They are such little boys," Nabiki drawled, watching from the deckchair that she was reclining in as Ranma and Ryoga tried their damndest to wrestle and/or drown each other whilst also staying on the surface. Despite her words, she was smiling fondly.

"You and your sisters never playfought when you were little?" Kodachi asked from where she was applying lotion to Shampoos's back, sounding genuinely surprised by the idea.

"Whoohoo, save some for me, Ranchan!"

A second mighty splash erupted from the pool as Ukyo cannonballed in and swam furiously over to join the two technically-boys in their wrestling.

"Look like Ukyo making up for lost time," Shampoo noted, then purred loudly as Kodachi massaged a knot in her shoulders.

"Quite ze rambunctious little group you are, non? Although they are certainly relaxed..." Penelope commented, nodding to the far end of the pool, where Miriam was floating blissfully on her back, with Harumi laying on her stomach, seemingly fast asleep.

Their new archaeologist let out a soft sigh as Miriam sleepily lifted a hand and brushed Harumi's long, flowing hair with her fingertips.

"Don't you think that they are being just too cute?" she asked cheerfully, then managed to flounder at the looks the three were giving her, even through her ever-present veil.

"I am being something of a romantic type, no?" she confessed sheepishly, before picking up her large drink of something multi-colored and sweet smelling, slipping the funny curly straw under her veil and noisily suckling on it.

"Actually, we were just wondering... aren't you hot in that get up?" Nabiki bluntly asked her.

"Shampoo agree!"

"My religion demands it, alas. Besides, I am an archaeologist, no? I must be having ze good 'eat tolerance for to be doing my job, yes?" Penelope calmly replied, before taking another sip of her drink.

T-Minus 6 Hours...

"Ohhh, my stomach... that was a close call with that storm. Stupid Grand Line weather," Ryoga grumbled to himself as he walked through the halls of Shiki's palace. "Now, where's that stupid dock...?"

Sharp and sudden, the crack of a gunshot tore Ryoga from his familiar musings over the unforgiving vagaries of pathfinding. Instinctively, impulsively, he pursued the sound, and found himself peeking around the corner into a room bristling with strange machinery that he couldn't identify.

There, at the center of the room, Shiki stood over a lifeless body, smoke wafting gently from the barrel of his pistol and merging with the smoke of his own cigar, his usual smile replaced with a terrible scowl.

"I give you one simple job. Keep Merville clear of storms. Failure will not be tolerated. Understand?!" On this final word, he went from calm, level, almost indifferent to roaring angrily, the wrathful expression on his face making the various men manning the machinery cower back with a chorus of whimpers and shouts of dismay, pleading for Shiki's forgiveness.

Ryoga swallowed nervously as he watched the elderly pirate captain berate his underlings, punctuating his bellowed complaints with alternating threatening gestures from his bladed legs and his still-smoking pistol.

'This guy's even crazier than we thought! Better warn the others...'

He hurried away as quickly and as silently as he could, speeding down the corridors, turning at random in his desire to simply get away from the sight he had seen.

T-Minus 4 Hours...

"For a pirate, zis Capitan Shiki is keeping ze most magnifique library! I have only seen some of zese tomes in ze great library of Frauce - and others, not even there!" Penelope gushed as she practically buried her face in a massive tome, whose hard silk-bounded wooden covers parted around aged, yellowing paper.

"We aren't all barbarians, Miss laFloo," Harumi playfully quipped back. Even so, he couldn't help but admire Shiki's personal library; he'd never seen so many books gathered in one place before! The walls were lined with groaning shelves, and veritable towers of books had been placed all around; atlases, historical records, and others he couldn't even identify, all jumbled together into a bibliophile's paradise.

If not the most well-organized of ones. Probably because the main user of this library was used to treating gravity as purely optional, allowing stacks to grow impossibly high. Like the one right next to Penelope, which was made of foot-high, thick books that had to be easily three or four times the archaeologist's height. The one that was tilting rather precariously... which she'd just nudged with her elbow!

"Look out!"

The cry slipped instinctively from Harumi's lips, but he was moving even before he spoke. Whilst he knew that he was no Ranma or Shampoo, he was still fast enough and strong enough to hurl himself through the air and tackle the startled Penelope out of the way as the tower of books finally lost its battle with gravity and came crashing down right on top of where she had been sitting.

The two young pirates hit the floor and rolled, a tangle of limbs and clothing that thumped gracelessly across the ground, at least managing to fall beyond where the books had come crashing down.

'The captain probably would have landed perfectly on his feet...'

The thought, crazy as it was, flashed unprompted through Harumi's forebrain. Then he found other things to think about as his forehead smacked painfully into Penelope's.

His vision momentarily blurred, and several curses that would have gotten his mother to order him beaten even harder than usual nearly sprang to his lips, but with the ease of long practice he swallowed them down and hid them behind a smile, teeth clenching in a psychosomatic barrier against expressing... unfortunate thoughts. Snapping back to his senses, he opened his eyes and found himself staring into a shocked, confused and surprisingly pretty pair of blue eyes. As he mentally adjusted his focus, he realized two facts, roughly concurrently.

The first was that Penelope's hat and its accompanying veil had come loose in their tumble across the floor, exposing her face.

The second was that said face was very much not human. Pretty, yes, but nonhuman. It was surprisingly similar to Miriam's, in its merging of human and bestial aspects, but whereas Miriam was clearly sharkish, Harumi couldn't quite put the pieces together in his head beyond taking note of the black and white fur adorning the short, anthropomorphic snout, and the two rounded, beast-like ears poking out from short but well-kept blonde hair.

Belatedly, the third fact of the situation, that he was effectively straddling Penelope, kicked in and he propelled himself off of her as if she had burst into flames.

"I'm so sorry, Miss laFloo!" he stammered, feeling his cheeks grow hot.

"I-It is quite alright... oh, non! My veil!" she cried suddenly, twisting around and scrabbling to grab her hat and cram it back over her head, disguising herself once more.

Harumi simply sat and let her do so, waiting for her to sigh in relief at being fully covered up once more before he asked the obvious question. "Miss laFloo? You are a zoan?"

He saw her visibly droop at the question, and could hear her mutter to herself in her native tongue before she turned to face him. Even through her veil, he could tell she was giving him a serious look.

"Non, I am not a zoan. I am... something rarer. A mink. It is like a fishman, but being a mammal instead of a fish, understand? And very valuable in the eyes of some... people."

"Slavers," Harumi nearly spat the word, tasting it like something spoiled on his tongue.

"You are understanding?" Penelope asked, sounding genuinely curious and even a little surprised.

"My home is an Amazon island. Slavers like to target us as well. Our womenfolk are seen as... exotic novelties," Harumi explained.

"Then you understand my need to keep my secret! Please, please don't tell anyone!" she begged him.

"Captain Saotome wouldn't betray you! But... if you want to keep it secret, then I will too," Harumi assured her.

T-Minus 0 Hours...

One week had passed since the Kamikazes had started work on their project to retrofit the Stormbringer for flight capability, and despite assorted setbacks involving everything from exploding boilers to unstitched seams in their balloon, it was finally ready and functioning. They would have gladly taken off as soon as it was prepared, with Ryoga having just warned them of just how unstable their 'host' truly was, but Shiki had insisted on throwing them a farewell party before they left.

Not wanting to risk angering the powerful and ruthless pirate if they could avoid it, they had chosen to accept the invitation. And so they found themselves back in Shiki's meeting room once again, where a table had been laid out covered in food and drink.

In fairness, if they hadn't known that Shiki would kill a man for something so petty as failing to predict a storm, they probably would have enjoyed themselves. It was a small and fairly intimate gathering; just themselves, Shiki, Dr. Indigo and Scarlet. Strange shell-like devices were playing music, and their three hosts were performing a pretty well-coordinated dance that spoke of a lot of effort practicing the moves. The food was plentiful and excellent, encouraging them to eat their fill, and there was even plenty of drink for those of them who enjoyed liquor. Mostly Shiki, which neatly explained why the powerful veteran pirate captain was dancing around like an idiot.

Finally, the dancing trio completed their routine, striking up a triumphant pose and earning a chorus of almost genteel applause - hey, murderous psycho or not, the guy could dance! ...Except from Penelope, who was wildly clapping and cheering.

"Bravo! Bravo! C'est magnifique! Encore! Encore!" She giggled in delight.

"Jihahaha, you flatter me," Shiki chuckled, actually putting a hand behind his head and blushing as he spoke, a stupid grin spreading across his face.

Dr. Indigo bent over to Shampoo. "How much did she drink?!"

"Only two, three glasses of wine," Shampoo quietly responded.

Before their conversation could go any further, Penelope suddenly stood up, nearly knocking her glass over in her haste.

"If we are having ze talent show, allow moi to go next! I will be to sing for you ze anthem of Frauce!" She chipperly cried, before taking in a deep breath (that did interesting things to her shirt-top).

"Frauce? I don't believe I've heard of Frauce," Shiki interjected, before starting to chug down a huge tankard of dark ale.

"It is being my motherland, in ze East Blue!" came the eager reply.

Shiki promptly spat out his drink, spraying froth, liquor and spittle across the table and eliciting cries of shock and disgust.

"The East Blue?! You come from the sea of schemers?!" he roared, an already drink-reddened face blotching in his sheer fury.

Before anyone could say anything, the drunken captain suddenly launched himself over the table, so amped up on a mixture of rage and drunkenness that he didn't even use his Devil Fruit powers as he lunged for Penelope's throat.

"Vermin! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, literally grabbing for the startled archaeologist with every evident intent of carrying out his promise. Penelope screamed and tried to backpedal out of reach, but Shiki grabbed her shirt and pulled her onto the table, knocking food and bottles flying as they grappled.

"Let her go, Shiki!" Ranma cried as he sprang onto the table.

"To attack one of us is to attack us all!" Kodachi added, reaching for her sword only to curse as she remembered that they had all left their weapons on the ship as a show of good faith.

Shiki ignored them all, intent on trying to wrap his fingers around Penelope's throat. She elbowed him in the stomach, and whilst Shiki was a far cry from the Marines she had defeated back at Fort Burnside, the blow was still enough to make him reel back and loosen his grip. She twisted around and tried to leap to safety, but he recovered faster than she had anticipated and grabbed for her. This time, his hands fastened around her belt, and with him hauling backwards and her trying to claw her way forwards, the inevitable happened and her trousers came loose, falling down around her knees.

Which was a great fluffy mass of black-and-white two-toned fur struck Shiki squarely in the chin, shock achieving what struggling had failed. Even in the face of drunken fury, the sheer incongruity of what he was seeing left him stunned, as it did Penelope's crewmates.

"...A tail?!" he stammered in disbelief.

And that was when a squirt of ichorous green greasy slime hit Shiki squarely in the face. Nobody would later be able to confidently say where said slime came from, because things were rather confusing, and they only got worse once Shiki had been squirted.

No combination of letters and vowels could do credit to the noise that Shiki made as he fell back, clawing at his face. And little wonder, considering that even from across the table, the sheer unholy stink caught the Kamikaze Pirates and left them coughing and spluttering in disgust. Miriam and Shampoo nearly fainted dead away as their heightened sense of smell was brutally bludgeoned into submission, and their purely human companions were only marginally better off. The acrid, cloying, clinging stink of rot and putrescence was thick enough to peel paint, clawing its way into each nostril and savaging their tongue with its ungodly fumes.

"Run away!" Ranma howled, clutching his nose desperately between his fingers, the ridiculously nasal tone this added to his voice in no way obfuscating his command nor impeding the eagerness of his crewmates to follow it.

As one, they bolted from Shiki's room, knocking over any of Shiki's staff who happened to get in their way. Miriam snatched up Ryoga and slung him over her shoulder to prevent him from getting lost. They didn't stop until they reached the Stormbringer, where Dyna had remained to tend to the engine.

"Status compromised?" she asked, raising her single eyebrow.

"Get us outta here! Full speed!" Ranma cried.

"Acknowledged."

The engine roared into life, the propellers now mounted on the Stormbringer's stern whirling frantically and sending the ship charging forward. With its mooring ropes severed, the newly minted airship powered forward, sailing across the lake and up into the air, flying away from Shiki's palace.

As the mad captain's floating island home began to shrink in their wake, Ranma sighed hugely in exhaustion. "Well, that could have gone better. Still, nice work, girls; you really pulled this off."

"Thank you, Captain Darling," Kodachi chimed happily.

"Happy to be of service, Captain," Miriam added, finally dropping Ryoga onto the deck. It wasn't her fault he failed to swing around in time and so ended up landing flat on his face.

"Now that we left Shiki in the dust... you got some explaining to do, missy!"

As one, the Kamikaze Pirates turned to Penelope, her tail still jutting out from above her shorts despite her having pulled them up so that she could flee. She tilted her veiled head from one side to the other, taking in the flat looks they were collectively giving her, save for the mildly apologetic look from Harumi, and then sighed, her tail wrapping itself around her torso.

"Yes, an explanation is only fair," she admitted, before reaching up to remove her hat, exposing her bestial face with its anthropomorphic features and coating of black-and-white fur.

"...I didn't know there was a Skunk-Skunk Fruit. That never showed up in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia," Nabiki observed.

"How did you tell I am being ze skunk?" Penelope asked, looking at Nabiki curiously.

"Black and white fur, big fluffy tail, stink that could come straight out of one of the deeper hells? Doesn't take a genius to add two and two," Nabiki dryly retorted.

"Ah-heh... of course. Well, you are being partially right. I am ze skunk, yes... but not ze zoan. I am a mink," Penelope explained.

"I thought you just said you were a skunk?" Ranma joked.

"Ze Minks are a little known people whose features combine human with mammalian animals. Think of us as like a... a land counterpart to ze fishmen, non? And like ze fishmen, we are being very highly prized in ze slave markets. That is why I am disguising myself," Penelope elaborated.

"So, the East Blue has a hidden community of animal-people living in it?" Ranma asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

Penelope shook her head before she answered, "Non. It is being a long story, but... my father - my adoptive father - is a Frauce merchant captain named Pierre laFloo. He found me as a newborn baby on a sinking ship in ze remote reaches of ze East Blue; I was ze sole survivor of a slave ship zat had been blown clear over ze Calm Belt by a Grand Line Hypercane, literally born in captivity before ze storm struck. He took me in, and raised me as his own..."

"That's a sad story and all, but we got incoming!" Ryoga suddenly yelled, panic in his voice.

The crew turned as one, and the reason for Ryoga's reaction became clear. Hurling towards them like a golden meteorite was Shiki, and even though he was only a relative speck on the horizon, his fury was palpable even at this distance.

"...into my house, into my home, and this is how you repay me?!"

The fact he wasn't even trying to address them, that he was simply ranting so loud as to be audible already, told them more than enough. As did the fact that they could smell him even from where they were.

"Dyna, crank up the speed! Kodachi, get us out of here! Ryoga, Shishi Hokodan the bastard! The rest of you, battle stations - we won't let him get us without a fight!" Ranma barked, jolting them into action and sending them hurrying to do as he ordered.

"...What about me, Captain Saotome?" Penelope asked hesitantly.

"If you want to quit, this really ain't the best time," Ranma shot back.

"N-No, that's not..." the newly-outed mink stammered, clearly flustered by Ranma's response.

"Then get ready to defend yerself! So what if you need to shave more than the usual girl? You're one of us until you call it quits," Ranma shot back over his shoulder, already moving to support Ryoga.

"...Oui, mon capitan!" Penelope cried, then quickly hurried to take up a defensive post, leaving her helmet and its now-pointless veil behind her as she did.

Fiery blasts of green and yellow ki erupted from the Stormbringer as Ranma and Ryoga launched Shishi Hokodans and Moko Takabishas at their flying pursuer. But Shiki twirled and spun with the agility of an aerial ace, easily dodging the energy attacks.

"Dyna!? I hope you got something up your tin sleeve, because this guy's gaining on us!" Ranma called, even as he continued launching his attacks.

"Taking what steps are available! This first model was not built for extreme speed!" came the answering call.

"I'll try to lose him amongst the islands!" Kodachi called, twisting and pushing the wheel hard, causing the Stormbringer to swerve sharply as it angled downwards.

"This process is suboptimal. Miriam, take over," Dyna briskly ordered the wotan, who was clutching her anchors by their shafts and holding them defensively.

"Huh? Me?!" Miriam yelped, looking at Dyna as if she'd lost her mind.

But Dyna was already on the move, clanking across the deck to a spot where she had a clearer view of their pursuer. She raised her left arm, which now ended in a massive multi-barreled rotary rifle, eye glowing as she targeted Shiki.

"Target acquired. Firing solution... implement!"

A deep mechanical clicking began to emanate from her weapon as it spun, swinging its many barrels around, before the ammo feed properly began discharging. The result was a rolling cascade of shots that split the air, a platoon's worth of bullets erupting from the single weapon and forcing Shiki on the defensive when combined with Ranma and Ryoga's attacks.

"Nice work, Dyna!" Ranma cried over his shoulder.

"Firestorm Cannon preferrable! Ammunition supplies limited! Kodachi, status update?" the fembot tersely responded.

"Coming up on the closest island!" the helmswoman called back.

Despite the barrage of bullets and blasts, Shiki was still closing in on them... but then, suddenly, he glanced in the direction they were heading, and he came to a screeching halt. In fact, only a sudden last-moment dodge kept him from being hit by Ranma and Ryoga's next attack, and this time he didn't try to resume hurtling towards them.

"What's he doing? Why's he stopped?" Ryoga wondered aloud, panting softly as the multiple ki blasts in short succession began to take its toll even on his spectacular stamina.

"Who cares? Just keep blasting!" Ranma protested, chest heaving as he dredged up yet more raw spiritual force to hurl in the Golden Lion's direction.

"He's got a point, Ranma! Why would he back off now? It's almost like he knows something!" Nabiki called out from her hiding place.

"And I think I know what - look at that!" Screamed Ukyo.

Ranma, Ryoga and Dyna turned towards the Stormbringer's prow. Their airship was currently flying over the center of a small island, shaped like a many-flanged star. Except... the different protruding portions of the island were bending upwards, curling in towards the center like a set of monstrous, many-faceted jaws.

"That no island!" screeched Shampoo, fur bristling.

"It's a giant plant!" Harumi wailed.

"And it looks like it's hungry! Kodachi, get us out of here!" Ranma bellowed.

"I-I'm trying, Ranma darling! But it's coming too fast!" keened Kodachi, spinning her steering wheel frantically.

"JIIIHAHAHAHA! That's a Stomach Baron I collected from the Boin Archipelago! So long, Kamikaze Pirates - you came so far, only to end up as plant food! JIIIHAHAHAHA!" Roared Shiki, slapping his thigh in delight as he laughed at their apparent impending doom.

Trapped aboard the Stormbringer, the Kamikaze Pirates could only watch as the vegetative jaws closed in all around them, sealing them inside the central cavern in a floral maw with a deep, reverberating impact that echoed through their very bones...

Chapter End & Closing Notes

And thus begins the Sky Sea Saga! We've got a lot of things to cover in this arc, so I hope you will be entertained! The fate of Dyna's homeland, Nabiki's entry into the ranks of the Zoans, the addition of a new crewmate, and a true rematch with Shiki all await. As for what else? Well, we'll see... maybe an homage to Giants: Citizen Kabuto?

I'm also surprised how so many people were convinced that Penelope had to be tied to the Kamabakka Kingdom somehow...