ONE PIECE : Lighthouse Empire Arc

Lighthouse Empire Arc, Episode 2

"You do know the rest of us exist, don't you?!" Usopp protests fiercely. 

"Let me show you the helm!" Aiku says, walking toward the front of the atrium.

As they come to the forward section of the helm, they can see a dome-shaped section jutting outward from the glass. In the center is a large, silver wheel with a few levers sticking out of the ground on either side. There is also a strange object set into the middle of the wheel: A blue orb that seems to be faintly glowing.

Luffy releases a huge smile and runs to the front of the dome window, pressing his face against the glass. "Whoa! Now this is a captain's seat!" He turns to Franky. "Hey, Franky can you build me one of these?"

Franky scratches his head. "Well I can try, but I'll need a heck of a lot of glass!"

"No--I mean the whole ship."

"Are you serious?!"

Aiku laughs. "Lunya designed the entire thing herself. Each captain likes to have their helm a specific way. Whatever pleases their aesthetic."

Chopper steps forward and looks to Aiku. "That sure is a lot of work for you!"

Aiku smiles at him. "I'm glad to do it! Happy captains make happy crews, after all. And that makes us stronger!" She pumps her first. 

 Usopp comes to the front of the helm and overlooks the landscape. "So each of these arms are ships, right? And they dock directly into the city?"

Franky steps beside him. "I'd say the bow of the ship must fit perfectly. Kind of like a big puzzle piece, right?"

"Exactly!" Aiku confirms. "The bow of the ships all have the same interlocking shape. They connect to the open section. Then, the tip of the bow unfolds into a staircase."

Luffy grins and throws his arms in the air. "Such a cool design!"

Aiku blushes. "Thank you!"

Brook then notices the blue orb attached to the wheel. "Hey Aiku, what's this thing set into the wheel?"

Aiku perks up. "Oh! I almost forgot the most important part. I suppose I should have started with that." She bends down and runs her finger along the orb. "This little thing gives us the ability to portal our ships!"

Nami is shocked. "You can portal ships?"

Zoro looks to her. "Yeah, don't you remember how they almost crushed us when we arrived?" 

"Oh, right..." Nami recalls the frightening event.

"How fascinating!" Robin chimes in. "But how in the world is that even possible?" 

Aiku falls into thought. "Well, it's a bit of a strange circumstance, I'll admit. But years ago, we discovered that extracting some of Sky's blood and infusing it with objects could actually give them the abilities." The crew is bewildered. "We started testing different things, but all we could come up with was weather patterns at first. However, when Sky mastered his portal abilities, we experimented with that next, and sure enough we could portal objects!" 

Usopp rubs his chin. "I see! So that's how your ship was able to appear out of nowhere."

Chopper and Brook jump in the air with ghostly expressions. "Blood!? So scary!"

"How did you even imagine something so extraordinary?" Robin wonders.

Aiku turns to her. "It was Lunya's idea, actually."

Sanji begins to sway around the room with heart eyes, wiggling his body with the spirit of love. "Of course she did! My angel Lunya is as beautiful and amazing as I knew she was was!"