-Chapter Ninety-Three-
"Tell me, what happened? Are you dead? Where are the others?" Nami frantically asked as she started to repeatedly smack the soaking-wet captain around.
"Zoro, Sanji" Usopp said as the two climbed aboard, both holding bags full of their findings from the sunken ship.
"Glad to see you're all alright" I sighed in relief, resting a hand on my chest.
"Set sail, now! We got to get out of here!" Zoro quickly ordered.
"Yeah, that guy was crazy" Sanji panted in agreement.
"I'm so glad you're okay" Usopp smiled as Nami continued to smack Luffy around in the background.
"Nami, I don't think that's going to work" I said, walking over to her.
"It's going to work!" she growled as she continued to try and smack our captain awake.
"You're going to give him brain damage before he ever wakes up" I sweat dropped.
"Now let's get away from this turtle as fast as we can" Usopp said.
"No, it wasn't a turtle—it was a monkey" Zoro corrected, causing me to stop in my attempt to restrain Nami and look back over at the swordsman with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, a bona-fide sea monkey" Sanji nodded.
"Can't say I'm too surprised he and Luffy got along as well as they did."
"Well, they're both monkeys."
"But when it caught a glimpse of all the stuff we had taken from the ship, he totally flipped out and went on a rampage" Zoro explained.
"I've never seen a primate act like that before" Sanji said.
"What? Like a primate?" I asked.
"Yeah, that's Masira, the King of all Salvagers" Usopp told them. "But never mind him, how did the three of you escape from the giant Sea Turtle?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm kind of curious about that as well" I said, walking away from Nami—who was still beating up on Luffy's unconscious body—and towards the three. "From how it looked, you all should have been chewed up and swallowed."
"Why do you keep talking about a turtle?" Zoro frowned.
"Hm, that's weird—now he's just floating there like a statue with his mouth gaping open" Usopp remarked. "Oh! I get it, of course, that's how you guys escaped" he realized.
"You guys must have tasted real bad if he didn't want to finish chewing" I hummed upon realizing that the turtle had stopped chewing as well and now sat there with his mouth agape as if he no longer wished to eat what he had found.
"We were in that thing's mouth!" Sanji and Zoro gaped when they finally noticed the turtle.
"Nothing gets past you guys, does it?" Usopp sweat dropped. "That's the turtle that ate the ship you were inside."
"Exactly how could you not know that?" I questioned. "He's massive! Kind of hard to miss that" I said.
"Hey, when did night happen?" Luffy curiously asked upon finally waking up.
"Attention all hands! We're getting out of here now!" Zoro shouted as we finally started to get everything ready to set sail.
"Not so fast!" Masira shouted as he jumped aboard. "Hand over the treasure you stole or I'll tear your ship apart and find all of it anyway!" he demanded.
"Is he right? You guys found some treasure?" Nami brightened.
"We sure did, tons of it!" Luffy grinned as Zoro was already getting into an offensive stance.
"H-hey, captain—behind you!" one of Masira's men suddenly cried out as he and the rest started to tremble in fear.
"Hm? What's behind me?" Masira asked as we turned our heads in the direction the shivering man was pointing.
"Wha..." my eyes widened along with the rest as our jaws became slack upon spying the giant silhouettes that towered before us.
"Sea Monsters!" Luffy and Masira cried in fear as we hastily started to row away as fast as we could—only coming to a halt once the sky finally cleared and we could no longer see the giants that had towered over us.
"That couldn't have been real" Zoro said as I plopped down beside him.
"Those things were taller than the sky" Usopp whimpered.
"The Grand Line is an endless parade of mystery and annoyance—I mean, just look at the nightmare of just making it through today" Robin said.
"You're telling me, today has just been one hell of a ride from start to finish and it's not even nighttime" I sighed, leaning against the swordsman in exhaustion as I rested my head atop his shoulder.
"First it was that huge galleon that fell from the clouds on top of us" Zoro listed as he wrapped an arm around my waist.
"The Log Pose started pointing to the sky" Nami added.
"A psycho make-up-wearing monkey shows up and blocks our way" Usopp continued.
"And then a gigantic Sea Turtle came and ate our salvage ship" Chopper said.
"Then darkness fell" Robin added.
"Because the biggest monsters I've ever seen in my life blocked out the sun" Luffy finished.
"I must admit, even I was intimidated by those things" Masira nodded.
"When did you get here?" I sweat dropped.
"Beat it!" Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji growled as they harshly kicked the monkey right off our ship.
-Later-
"Those monsters were too big for any of us to take them on" Usopp remarked after a while of sailing.
"Yeah...if I ever see that again, it would be a blessing" Chopper sighed.
"Don't sweat it, they're nothing!" Usopp suddenly proclaimed, a smug grin making its way onto his face as Chopper curiously peered up at him. "If I really cut loose, I could have taught those Sea Monsters a thing or two!" he proudly stated, puffing out his chest.
"Really?" Chopper asked in awe.
"Sure, I fought ten of those things a while back!" Usopp boasted.
"You fought ten of them?!" Chopper gasped.
"That so?" I hummed as I wandered over to the two of them, arms crossed behind my back. "Then I guess if we do run into them again, you can handle them all by yourself without any help" I smiled, causing that smug look on Usopp's face to fall.
"Uh...yeah..." he nervously smiled upon noticing that Chopper was still looking up at him in utter awe.
"Good, then I'll be sure to tell the others" I nodded, quietly giggling when I felt him suddenly grab hold of my arm before I could walk away.
"T-there's no need for that—if t-they want to help then l-let them help!" he stuttered, nervously sweating as he quickly averted his gaze the second I looked back at him with an innocent smile. His sweating only seemed to get worse the longer I stayed quiet before eventually, he relaxed with a heavy sigh as I gave the top of his head a gentle pat.
"Okay then" and with that, I slipped my arm out of his grasp and wandered over toward Nami and the men.
"Come on, you guys, tell me that you at least tried to find something down there that we could actually use" Nami scolded as I came to a stop beside her and stooped down to look at the guys' findings.
"I don't know, this octopus looks very useful" I deadpanned before laughing as the back of my head was hit.
"I don't need that attitude of yours right now" she huffed before looking back at the guys. "All you brought back was a bunch of scattered junk—there's not a single clue here about how to get to Sky Island!" she snapped.
"Nice armor" I complimented as I watched Luffy march around in a rusted suit of armor.
"Thanks" his voice echoed around inside the metal suit as he stopped for a few minutes to look at me before continuing to march on. Shaking my head with a chuckle, I leaned forward toward the octopus that was lazily climbing over the junk that had been brought back.
"There wasn't anything there—believe me, we looked" Zoro defended as I curiously poked at the cephalopod, giggling when it raised one of its tentacles as if trying to fight me off.
"Yep, if there was something else down there, we would have found it" Sanji nodded. "The ship was in terrible shape—all jacked up like it had been attacked and raided or perhaps mutiny had broken out and they all killed each other in a violent struggle of power and survival" he assumed.
"Look around, boys, this is exactly why we need more information—intelligence means the difference between life and death for this whole crew, and if we're going to sail to Sky Island, then we need more information to stay alive or whatever happened to that ship could happen to us too" Nami frowned. "We didn't brave giant monsters so you could bring back that creepy octopus, some rusty swords, and a broken dish" she huffed. "This is all junk!" she sneered, angrily stomping on everything. I only ignored her and continued to poke at the octopus that was now climbing up one of the rusty swords. It looked irritated as it glared at me and before I knew it...
It lunged at me and attached itself to my face.
I quickly shot straight up from the ground with a scream as I grabbed at the octopus and tried prying it off my face. This did nothing more than make it tighten its grip.
"Wha—you idiot! What are you doing?!" I heard Nami snap before heaving a tired sigh as I continued to stumble all over the place, trying my best to yank the sea critter off my face.
"Get it off! Get it off!" I muffledly screamed.
"Zoro, help her" Nami sighed as I suddenly felt a strong pair of arms wrap around me and hold me in place. Loudly did I gasp, wincing as the octopus was forcefully removed from my face and carelessly tossed back into the pile of junk. Owlishly blinking, I looked up at Zoro who stared down at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh thank you, my knight in shining armor" I giggled, causing him to softly huff in amusement.
"You look ridiculous" he chuckled, staring at the red marks that had been left behind after forcefully ripping the octopus' tentacles from my face.
"Says the man with seaweed for hair" I snorted before laughing when he suddenly let me go, causing me to harshly fall on my bottom.
"You're all idiots!" Nami irritably growled, kicking at the junk on the floor once more in frustration before stopping when Luffy suddenly walked over to her. "What is that, Luffy?" she frowned.
"Armor" he answered, raising the mouth guard so he could properly look at the angry woman.
"Damn" I winced before whistling in amazement as Nami struck the captain, knocking him to the ground and shattering the rusted armor in the process.
"Whoa! She crushed the armor!" Zoro gaped.
"Nami, you didn't even notice the pretty shells I brought you" Sanji said, hearts flying all around him as he held out an assortment of seashells in his hands.
"Cram your shells in your shorts!" Nami sneered as she walked right past the love cook.
"I'll take them if she doesn't want them" I offered.
"She's so beautiful when she's angry!" Sanji swooned, already lost in his own world as he lovingly stared after the enraged ginger.
"You should still try to keep your distance" Usopp told him.