Everyone stood on deck as they approached Reverse Mountain. Despite having experienced it before Cliff and Cassy were still in awe of the towering mountain in front of them. The others too were no better as they too were speechless and slack jawed.
May didn't believe it when Cliff and Cassy explained that Reverse Mountain had water flowing up to its tip from where they could enter all 4 blues and the grandline. Now she looked upon the scene in front of her with disbelief as water flowed upwards.
Taiga and Mio had very similar expressions that basically conveyed that they thought they were prepared to witness the absurdity that Cliff and Cassy had explained but were actually not and were now in utter disbelief.
None of the 3 could form a single thought as they laid sight upon the majesty of Reverse Mountain.
"May, you may wanna close your mouth before you swallow some unfortunate bug." Cliff joked upon seeing a slack jawed May. But when she gave no response to him, he looked at her with concern especially as the ship drifted closer to the mountain, "Also please get back to the helm, we don't wanna crash into the mountain!"
That snapped May out of her trance as she ran back to the helm and took charge. This line snapped Taiga and Mio out of their trance too as they looked around.
They very quickly started ascending the mountain and it took no time for them to pierce the clouds and reach the tip of the mountain. Cliff had begun laughing as they ascended and by the time they reached the tip the entire crew had joined him,
"Rahahahahahahahaha…"
"Hehehehehehehehehe…"
"Trarararararararararara…"
"Hahahehehahahehehaha…"
"Mioioioioioioioioioioioio…"
They took in the scenery at the top of the world, looking around curiously especially the 3 who had not been here before.
Then Cliff's voice boomed, "May turn the ship portside, only one waterway that way that comes from West Blue!"
May reacted fast and did as instructed and within minutes, the ship was descending into West Blue.
The moment it did, they were greeted by the sea spraying in their faces and on the deck as the crew laughed once again.
The exhilarating experience had been burned deep into the minds of the crew, especially first timers, just as the first experience of Reverse Mountain for Cliff and Cassy had been burned deep into their memories.
This was a moment they were unlikely to forget anytime soon, if ever. And it would be the same for all future crewmates as well.
…
…
…
"We're coming up on Las Camp now!" May informed the crew.
Cliff stood up, a bottle of booze still in hand to look at the incoming land, "The first island in West Blue that will also be the last."
"Heh!" Taiga said, still busy chugging booze.
"Wanna explore it now or later?" Mio asked carrying her on bottle.
"Hey Cassy! What say you? Now or later?" Cliff asked.
"Logically we should-" Cassy started.
"Let's do it now!" May exclaimed.
"Yeah!" echoed Taiga & Mio.
"It's decided then. We'll do it now!" Cliff exclaimed.
"-do it now so we can possibly escape the navy later on!" Cassy ended her sentence with a pulsing vein visible above her right eye.
"STOP-"
BAM
"-IGNORING-"
BAM
"-ME!"
BAM
BAM
Cassy was now drinking booze from Cliff's bottle as her 4 crewmates collapsed on the deck, holding their heads as lumps grew on them. She ignored their whining, instead focusing on the land that came ever closer.
…
…
…
"How come they were not hostile to us?" May asked as the crew sat in a bar cum restaurant eating lunch.
"Probably because plenty of pirates pass through here on there way to the Grandline." Mio said, "They're probably used to pirates."
"They're leaving us alone and I'm willing to bet my booze, as long as we do nothing to cause problems for them, that'll continue." Taiga said between forkfuls of steak, "By the way Captain, we really need to get a cook for our crew! This is really delicious, perhaps we should get a cook from here itself!"
"You don't say! The food is delicious!" Cliff spoke as he savoured the Deer Meat he had ordered, "We really need a chef if it means we can get this quality food every day! I'm pretty sure everybody is sick of the slightly burnt food we make."
"Well, I don't know about the other's but I am sick of the charcoal Taiga makes us eat whenever he cooks!" Cassy quipped.
"ME TOO!" Mio and May added.
"Rahahahahaha…" Cliff burst out laughing, while the girls began giggling as Taiga turned red and began sputtering.
"Shut up! I don't know how to cook because I've never needed to. I can eat raw meat just fine!" Taiga spoke once he was done sputtering but he was still quite embarrassed.
The rest just laughed.
…
…
…
"It's been 3 days Taiga. I really don't think you can learn much of cooking in a few days." Cassy said as she saw Taiga return to the ship from the restaurant they ate at the first day.
"You don't know that!" Taiga countered, "The Chef's been teaching me as good as he can."
"He's teaching you as good as he can, but are you learning just as good?" Cassy questioned.
"That doesn't matter, I'll learn all he teaches me, that's that." Taiga said, "Anyway, where's Cliff?"
"In his room, writing in the logbook." Cassy returned.
"Logbook? Don't we like need a Chronicler for that?"
"As long as we don't have one or assign one, it's his job."
"That's up to him." Taiga shrugs, "Anyway wanna train?"
"Sure, lets get to a clearing near the forest."
"Lead the way."
…
…
…
"It's been 2 weeks! When are we sailing again?" May asked Cliff as he and Mio trained (exercising and lifting weights) alongside her on the deck.
"When Taiga either learns cooking or manages to get the cook to agree to join us." Cliff answered.
"Why can't we just sail all over the West Blue before coming back here and trying again?" May asked exasperated upon getting the same answer to her question for the 100th time.
"Why don't you convince Taiga of that?" Mio said.
"Good idea! Convince Taiga and I give you my word, we will set sail as soon as possible." Cliff said.
"Okay!" May cheered before disappearing to find Taiga.
"Find anything good on this island?" Cliff asked Mio as they continued with push-ups.
"This is an okay island but they don't have much on it except the black market." Mio answered.
"Oh! This is the first time I heard of the black market. We didn't really find many black markets on South Blue."
"That's because of the bear zoan that the marines sent to South Blue. He scared the black markets enough for them to close shop." Mio said, "West Blue has a strong underworld presence because of the 5 Great Families. These 5 mafia families have a really good hold on the underworld here."
"Hmm… think we can get some good stuff from the black market?" Cliff asked.
"You can get anything from devil fruits to graded swords in their auctions. But their last auction was a few weeks ago. The next one should be atleast a year away. We should be done with West Blue by then." Mio answered.
"What about other islands?"
"You'll find black markets there too. But this one would be the best by far because-"
"-this is the island closest to Reverse Mountain." Cassy cut Mio off and finished her sentence.
"GAAH!" Mio jumped in fright.
Cliff just looked on amused.
"Atleast give a warning before speaking up Cassy!"
Cassy looked at her amused, "That just means my training in stealth is going well."
…
Some time later, May was seen running towards the ship as Cliff and Cassy got back on it with supplies. She was dragging Taiga by the arm behind her.
"GET READY TO SAIL!" She yelled out.
Cliff, Cassy and Mio watched her drag Taiga and became concerned. Taiga seemed out of it and his head was dragging on the road and seemed to flop around.
Upon reaching near, May first threw Taiga on board before jumping up herself and began preparations for sailing.
The 3 watched her move around like nothing happened before asking,
"May, what…" "…did you…" "…do to him?"
She looked at them and beamed, "Well, I couldn't convince him, so when he turned his back on me, I chopped his neck and knocked him out, and dragged him here!" she replied happily.
All 3 sweatdropped and moved to help her.
It took a few minutes for them to be out on the sea.
"MAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"
Looks like Taiga has awoken.