-Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Eight-
"Emergency alert! Emergency alert!" Usopp suddenly cried from the top of the crow's nest. "Unknown ship spotted at twelve o'clock!" he warned as he aggressively pointed off in the direction that he had spotted said incoming ship coming from.
"Are they bad guys?" Luffy questioned.
"They picked a bad time" Chopper frowned from his spot sprawled out on the ground.
"Yeah, no kidding..." I grumbled as I sluggishly pushed myself up into a sitting position.
"Well, they don't have a single flag or sail up—I don't know what kind of ship it is" Usopp admitted.
"It's naked?" Luffy frowned.
"How scandalous" I said.
"Who would do that to their ship? What are they doing out here without sails?" Luffy asked.
"How should I know? What's even weirder, the crew is way too small for a ship that size" Usopp pointed out, taking note of just how small the crew truly was compared to the size of their ship. "Also, they look like they're catatonic or something—they're just sitting around in a daze."
"Full speed, Sea Monkeys!" Luffy suddenly screamed as three Sea Monkeys burst from the sea and stared down at our ship with looks of mischief.
"Not again!" I groaned, barely having the energy to fully stand.
"Again?" Usopp frowned.
"They must have followed us!" Zoro irritably growled.
"Aw crap, there's no wind!" Sanji cursed the second he realized there wasn't a strong enough wind at the moment to help up in sailing away.
"Hurry and draw the sails!" Nami quickly ordered.
"Start rowing!" Usopp fearfully cried as he and the rest of the men did just that, pulling out the ship's paddles as they quickly began to row us as far away from the Sea Monkeys as they could.
"What's wrong with them? They're headed toward the Sea Monkeys?" Sanji frowned when he noticed that the ship we had spotted earlier was currently making its way toward the giant wave that was being kicked up by the Sea Monkeys.
"The wave's going to swallow them whole!" Zoro shouted.
"Perhaps they're tired of living and are ready to embrace death" I suggested.
"Don't say something so morbid!" Nami angrily snapped as she smacked the back of my head.
"Ow! It was just a suggestion, woman!" I snapped right back, rubbing the back of my head.
"Hey, wake up! There's a giant wave filled with Sea Monkeys—turn around!" Luffy shouted in warning to the ship sailing past us.
"Huh?" a rather heavy man on the opposite ship perked up, his head looking left and right as if he was trying to locate whoever it was he had heard call out to him and his fellow crew.
"A ship?" another man questioned the minute he finally spotted our ship.
"It's a pirate ship!" the first man gasped in realization as the men of the opposing ship now gathered around in a circle—a few of them already discussing how they were going to raid us. How they were going to kill and steal our belongings right out from under us as if we weren't even really there to begin with. Not all of them thought like that as some seemed far more content with the idea of wanting to escape from the giant wave that was currently barreling towards us.
"Wow! That's got to be the worst crew ever" Luffy remarked as we now listened to the way the men fought and argued with each other—unable to really come to an agreed-upon decision on what they should do.
"Forget about those idiots—they only want to steal our treasure..." Sanji grumbled, rolling his eyes as any sympathy or worry he may have had for the men disappeared the moment he heard how eager they were to rob us.
"They seem so unorganized" I said, raising an eyebrow as I listened to them bicker—all of them looking and sounding like nothing more than a jumbled-up mess with no real leader there to tell them what to say or do. When they did finally come to an agreement to fire off their cannon, it was already too late as the oncoming wave finally swallowed them whole which was seemingly enough to calm the Sea Monkeys seeing how both them and the wave quickly disappeared as if they were satisfied with the victims they had claimed.
"Man, it's just one terrible thing after another these days" Zoro frowned.
"Seems like we're all out of luck" I shrugged.
"At least it's calm" Sanji sighed in a weak attempt to sound positive.
"Those gargantuan waves earlier were actually caused by the Sea Monkeys" Nami realized once everything finally started to calm down and return to normal. "The humidity and temperatures seem like they're pretty stable now, so we got to be in the next island's climate zone" she noted after taking a moment to assess our surroundings.
"You hear that, Robin? Any islands?" Usopp called up to the older woman who was currently stationed inside the crow's nest—now the one tasked with keeping an eye out for any upcoming islands or dangers that may be heading our way.
"We've been approaching one for a while now" Robin called back, causing Luffy and Usopp to sweat drop as they blankly stared up at the woman.
"Um...Robin, normally you're meant to tell us the minute you spot the island" I reminded her, now wondering if she had just simply forgotten her task or if she just didn't care.
"You are way too secretive!" Usopp huffed. "Look, do as Skylar said and maybe tell us next time, you know? Like this!" he pointed to Luffy.
"Land ahoy! Land—I see land!" Luffy began to shout and loudly cheer, kicking up a fuss that would be sure to catch anyone's attention.
"Now you say it" Usopp said, motioning for the raven-haired woman to repeat what the captain had just done.
"The fog looks pretty thick" Robin remarked, ignoring the sharpshooter as she peered ahead at the fog we were about to pass through.
"Don't ignore me!" Usopp angrily snapped, causing me to snort.
"Heavy fog?" Nami frowned. "That's not good—Chopper, I need you to stand forward watch" she instructed.
"Right" he nodded, quick to scamper off and do as he was told.
"Robin, do you have any idea how long we've been waiting to see another island?" Luffy scolded.
"Sorry, won't happen again" Robin apologized.
"As long as you mean it, okay" Luffy happily smiled, quick to forgive the woman for not doing her job at the moment correctly like how he and the others wanted.
"You know, I can't stop thinking about that ship" Usopp suddenly said as he started to think back to that strange ship we had encountered earlier. "They didn't have a captain or navigator or even sails! It was like they had no idea what they were doing!" he frowned. "Now what kind of self-respecting pirates would head out to sea like that?" he questioned, not understanding how a ship could be so underprepared for the vast sea like that.
"I'm guessing they got in a battle and lost—captain probably got killed then their ship got plunder" Zoro guessed.
"I mean, that's a reasonable assumption" I nodded.
"But that can't be it" Usopp shook his head. "I got a look at their ship, it was in perfect condition—no signs of battle, but still completely stripped of anything a pirate would need to survive" he pointed out.
"That's strange" I frowned, tilting my head. "Maybe they were rookies, got lucky in getting a big ship but weren't so lucky in knowing how to properly survive and maintain said ship while out here at sea" I suggested.
"They probably weren't even pirates then" Sanji cut in. "Forget it" he dismissively waved, seeing no reason for any of us to keep talking about the strange ship we had encountered.
"They looked like pirates to me—crummy pirates, but still" Usopp argued. "I don't know, I got a bad feeling about this somehow" he frowned.
"Have you ever had a good one?" Sanji asked.
"He's got a point there, Usopp" I agreed. "You do tend to look on the negative side of things a lot" I said, causing the sharpshooter to grumble as he crossed his arms and looked away with a small pout at having been called out for his lack of a positive outlook. It's not that I could blame him though, I had trouble most days keeping a positive outlook on life sometimes.
"Anyway, I hope there's a town—hope they got food" Luffy grinned, already starting to bounce with eager excitement as if he couldn't wait for us to reach land.
"I would hope the town would have food if there was one" I chuckled. "Be kind of bad if they didn't."
"Luffy, don't jump off right away" Nami scowled as the fog Robin had mentioned earlier finally started to settle around the ship.
"I hope we can find a knowledgeable shipwright to join us" Chopper sighed.
"That would be nice" I said.
"Get the anchor ready! We're near the shore!" Luffy eagerly demanded.
"That feeling just got worse..." Usopp mumbled, suddenly dropping to his hands and knees as if he could no longer hold himself up.
"Hey, Chopper, Usopp's came down with another bad case of scaredy-cat-itis" Sanji called out to the doctor.
"Good one" I giggled, causing the blonde's chest to puff out a little with pride at having made someone laugh with his jab at the sharpshooter.
"Well, there's no cure for that" Chopper said, not even bothering to check up on the sharpshooter.
"How tragic—looks like you're just going to have to power through it, Usopp" I grinned.
"Alright, let's go! Let's go!" Luffy excitedly shouted as he continued to impatiently bounce around, clearly wanting to get off the ship now and start exploring.
"You're kidding" Sanji's face fell the second we docked and saw just how bare the land was—how it had nothing more than a few scattered trees while the land itself seemed to just endlessly stretch on for miles
"There's nothing at all!" Luffy angrily shouted. "Ah! It's like a blank slate—cool, all I can see is grass and trees!" his frustration was quick to turn into excitement within a few seconds as if he no longer cared that there wasn't anything really to the island at hand.
"Man, this place is kind of depressing" Sanji remarked.
"I mean, it's rather nice if you're the kind of person who wants to be isolated from everyone" I said, peering around in search of anything that wasn't a tree.
"I wonder if anyone actually lives here" Robin pondered as she started to peer around as well, searching for any form of life that wasn't our own.
"Hey!" Nami snapped the second Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper jumped ship and ran off before she or anyone could say anything.
"They're having fun" I chuckled, watching how the three started to childishly roll around in the grass—all of them quick to start playing around like a bunch of children.
"Geez! It's like they have no concept of unknown danger..." Nami irritably grumbled as Zoro dropped anchor.
"Is danger even a word in Luffy's dictionary? Because I'm pretty sure he associates it more with adventure than anything else" I smiled as I looked over at the ginger who only huffed and crossed her arms in response. "You think I should go and join them?" I asked, giggling at the pointed look she gave as I raised my hands in defense.
"I can see clear across the island and there's no threat in sight" Zoro said.
"You see something, Chopper?" Luffy suddenly asked, catching my attention as I turned to the three and watched as they soon started to panic when they finally spotted the tall, long bear that was walking past them on its hind legs. "Have you ever seen a human this furry and enormous? It's got to be some kind of bear!" the captain laughed as he quickly started to climb up onto the animal's back without a second thought.
"Luffy, that's rude!" I called out to him. "At least ask him first if it's alright" I softly scolded, smiling just a little as he called back with a half-sincere apology before laughing as he continued to climb further up the bear's back.
"Whoa! It's so long—it's a Long Bear!" Usopp gaped as he and Chopper followed the captain's lead and began climbing the bear as well.
"I'm getting dizzy up here" Chopper giggled as Luffy snatched up a long-looking apple from one of the nearby trees.
"Hey, check out how long this apple is" he grinned as he showed off the weird-looking fruit to the other two before biting into it.