Queen of the Pirates

Criminals in Skypiea

+~*~*~*~*~*~+

"You're telling me that dials are these seashells that have special abilities depending on what kind of dial they are?" I turn a conch shell lookalike over in my hands. I'm sitting on a cloud couch next to Chopper, across from Robin on another cloud couch, and Zoro in a chair adjacent to us. "This one records voices and plays them back?"

"That's correct," Conis nods.

"Let me try," Luffy's arm reaches in from the opened-wall-balcony to snatch the shell out of my hand.

"Hey!" I pout.

"Usopp, you idiot!"

"What did I do!?" Usopp cries.

Conis giggles as she walks up to Luffy and Usopp, "Now you press the shell's apex."

"The apex?" Luffy asks.

"The top part of the shell, but pressing it shouldn't do anything," Usopp says.

"Whoa, you can press it! It is soft!"

"Usopp, you idiot!" the dial exclaims Luffy's comment from earlier. "What did I do!?" Conis' giggle in real life and on the dial mingle. "Now press..."

"The shell made fun of Usopp!" Luffy shouts.

"That was your voice!" Usopp screams.

"It was clearly a recording that the shell was able to do," I say.

"So that is a dial?" Zoro asks.

"Yes, that is a tone dial," Conis says. "It is a shellfish that resides in the White-White Sea, and it can record and reproduce sounds. We use them to record music to listen to later."

Luffy presses the dial top again, and the recording plays once again, causing both of the boys to chuckle.

"How are the shellfish supposed to live if that sea out there has to bottom?" I ask.

"We collect them from sandbars around the reefs," Conis steps into the living room.

"I still am unclear on how a waver moves," Robin says.

Conis walks over to pick up a different dial, holding it up for all to see. "We use this dial to propel our wavers. Well, a bigger version of this one, that is. We call this a wind dial."

Luffy tosses the tone dial to Usopp before rushing over to grab the wind dial from Conis. Then he starts windmilling his arm to collect air within it, and then blow air out right into his face.

"If you force air into it for thirty minutes, it will blow air out on command for thirty minutes. The amount that they can absorb depends on their size, so that one Luffy has could propel a smaller lightweight craft."

"Like a waver!" Chopper flops across my lap as he reaches out for the dial.

"So, what you're saying is that a waver is propelled by a wind blast," Robin clarifies.

"Yes, that is correct," Conis nods. "I can barely handle a waver, but wind dials can also propel skates, boards, all kinds of things."

"Skates? Now that sounds like a lot of fun," I smile.

Luffy tosses the wind dial back to Conis, rushing back out to the balcony to look out at the sea where Nami is still riding around on the waver. "That's awesome! I want to ride a waver. Ugh, Nami is lucky," he grumbles. "We even have one."