As a detour, the Going Merry was on course to Warship Island to help Apis.
Yukiko was on lookout from the crow's nest when she spotted something.
"Hey! I see a Fleet of Ships at 6 o'clock! They're Marines!" She Shouted.
"What?!"
"N-navy Ships?!" Usopp yelled.
"What's an Entire fleet doing here?" Sanji asked.
"What? What? What's going on?"Luffy asked the captain oblivious to their dire situation.
Apis flinched.
"Are they after my head?" Luffy wondered.
"Huh? What do you mean Luffy? Are you a wanted man?" Yukiko asked as she got to deck.
"Luffy's got a 30 million Berri bounty on his head." Nami explained.
"30 MILLION!- wait how much Is 30 million, what's the exchange rate of this world?" Yukiko asked.
"30 million is alot especially for a rookie from the East Blue and it's his first so that makes it even more of a big deal- Oh~why couldn't my captain of been weak and had no presence about him?~" Usopp whined.
"Too late now. There's too many!" Nami said utterly shocked.
"It means that they need that many to capture me, right? I'm amazing aren't I?" Luffy gloated.
"What? Why do you look so happy?!" Nami snarled.
Sanji watched as Apis inched further and further backwards. "Hm...? What's wrong?"
"Those ships belong to Branch 8! I escaped from them! What am I going to do?" Apis fretted.
Yukiko gripped a Pokeball on her belt.
"Ugh! They're firing at us!" The newly revived Usopp bellowed half way up the railers.
A voice came from the Navy ships. Attention pirate ship! Stop the ship immediately! Those were warning shots. The next shots will hit your ship!"
"Like we will! Come out, Blaise!" Yukiko got her Flame Pokémon out.
"Roar!" He said ready to fight.
"Whoa! Go get em Blaise!" Luffy gushed as Apis watched in amazement.
"Alright, Blaise, use Air Slash to destroy their sails then reverse them with Hurricane!" Yukiko yelled.
Blaise flew into the air and knocked out the sails while avoiding the shot from the Marines.
"Wow!"
"Not bad."
"Go Blaise!"
"Alright then, Blaise return. Alright then, now is our chance. We gotta shake them off." Yukiko said.
And then Apis spoke up.
"A huge wind is coming!"
Yukiko was surprised at that as Nami noticed a shift in the air.
"Zoro, Luffy lean the sail towards the south! Usopp, Sanji-kun, right rudder full!" Nami ordered.
"What?" Usopp asked confused by her urgency.
"Hurry up!" She snapped.
"O-okay."
"Yes Nami-san!"
"Nami what's going on?" Yukiko asked her.
"A strong gust is coming. We'll ride it out of here. If we fight them head on, we'll lose no matter how good we are." Nami explained.
"We could've taken them though..." Luffy muttered from behind Nami.
Just like Nami said a huge gust of wind blew through all the ships causing Yukiko's hair to whip out behind her in the breeze.
The wing caught in the sails and the ship was thrust forward zooming right away from the Navy ships and leaving them in the sea foam. "Whoa! This is fast! This is a good wind." Luffy hollered from where he was leaning over the railing.
"Look at that Luffy! The Navy's falling behind!" Usopp happily exclaimed.
"Whoa!"
"Ha! You guys're slow turtles!" Usopp mocked.
"Hahhaha! The Navy isn't following us!" Usopp laughed dancing around the main deck. "Did captain Usopp scare the pants off of them?"
"Amazing, amazing just what you would expect from our navigator." Praised Luffy.
However, Yukiko began to notice something. The wind had gone away and nothing was moving.
The ship started to bob up and down even though there were no waves.
"Guys, the wind is gone. And we aren't moving." Yukiko said as Pachi got on her shoulder.
"I noticed it too." Zoro agreed.
Realization dawned upon Nami. ".AHHH! !" She screamed.
"Nami what's wrong...?" Yukiko panicked.
"Nami...?"
"Nami-san...?"
"Dammit!... we've accidently entered the calm belt!" Nami screeched.
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Luffy eyecatch
Yukiko eyecatch: Poster has her smiling face and petting Pachi who is on her shoulder. Music is Pokemon Anime BGM Eyecatch A Diamond and Pearl.
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".........we've accidently entered the calm belt!" Nami screeched.
"What's that?" Luffy asked.
"Calm belt! It's an area of the sea where nothing moves a muscle!" Nami cried.
"Nami grew her muscles?" Luffy said.
"No you-!" But the ship began rocking hard.
"What was that?!" Usopp asked.
"Earthquake? On the sea?" Sanji said.
"You guys enough chit chat!" Nami snapped. "Fold the sails and start paddling! Put the ship back on to its earlier path!" She ordered.
"Yes, Nami-san~!" Sanji swooned.
"What're you panicking about? Paddling? This is a sailboat." Zoro asked confused.
Nami didn't answer his questions just snapped at them again. "Just to do what I say! We're in big trouble!"
"Well, the sea is quiet." Luffy said.
"But we need the wind to get us back on course." Yukiko told him.
"Yeah. At least that we're in trouble." He replied. "All right! Fine I'll explain it for you all! Listen up! Since we rushed and ran away we came further south than we planned!"
There was a pause.
"So does that mean where in the Grand Line?" Luffy asked.
"Yahoo!" Usopp celebrated dancing around the deck.
Nami screamed. " If it was that easy, anyone could enter!"
Nami brought the map out that they were looking at earlier in the day everyone huddled around. "Look. The Grand Line Is running between two sea areas!~" She pointed out a blue stipe of the map labeled 'Grand Line' it was flanked by two greenish stripes labeled 'Calm Belt' on either side..
"The reason is unknown but in these areas, there's no wind and no current. They're in an area of the sea with complete calm." Nami paused and took a breath, "sailboats run by catching winds, so it's an extremely dangerous area, indeed, a fatal area, for them!" She exclaimed.
The gravity of the situation dawned on them all. They'd stranded themselves on a sea that doesn't move. "Luffy do you get it!?" Nami asked.
"Just that we are in trouble." Luffy said.
"No wonder there hasn't been any wind." Zoro said in realisation.
"We can just wait until the winds come again." Luffy stupidly said not understanding a word of what Nami just explained.
"Luffy. It won't come. At all. Nothing moves in the Calm Belt. Nami said so." Yukiko explained before Nami could yell at him.
"But that's not all." Nami said to the crew, "There's another reason that people call this area dangerous! In this area..." The once calm sea started to erupt it was line dozens of underwater volcanos were going off at the same time.
"What another earthquake!?" Zoro exclaimed.
"What's going on!" Usopp cried.
"Something is coming this way!" Apis exclaimed.
"Here they are!" Nami screamed.
The sea under the boat and the surrounding area bloated and we're like mountain's made of water before the beasts beneath the broke through the surface. Everyone's jaws hit the floor.
"Oh my.....!" Yukiko said her face almost as white as her hair.
"Pachiiiiiiii!" Pachi panicked.
"The calm belt is the nest of the sea kings. More over the ones here are super huge!" Nami muttered crying. "They're another reason why people can't cross the calm belt." Nami was clutching at the mast for dear life.
"What're we going to do now?" Sanji said standing completely still.
"F-for the time being, no one move, after a while they'll go back into the sea and we'll paddle the hell out if here!" Zoro ordered in a strained voice.
"AHHHHHHHH! A FROG! A FROG IS COMING!" Luffy screamed. The yellow frog lept out of the water and at the black and white sea king that the ship was on. Said sea king on reflex moved backwards.
Apis lost her footing and tripped she rolled over the deck and off the ship. Beore anyone could react, plummeting downwards by the force of gravity towards the frog sea kings open mouth.
"APIS!" Yukiko screamed.
"Oh no!" Luffy exclaimed stretching out his arm after the falling girl. He caught her just as the frog snapped it's jaws shut and it fell back into the water.
Apis swung in the air just like when Luffy had first caught her. "Y-your arm is stretching!" Apis gasped. "Luffy have you eaten a devils fruit!?"
"Yeah that's right!" He shouted back.
Then Apis had an idea. "Luffy! Stretch your arm downwards again!" Apis called to him.
"Hey, hey Luffy what are you doing!?" Usopp exclaimed.
"I don't know?" He replied.
"Bring her back up Luffy it's dangerous!" Yukiko yelled at him.
"Apis watch out!" Nami shouted as Apis came upon the snout of the sea kings they were on, Apis disappeared within its nostril.
And sprung back out again holding what looked like a nose hair. "What did she just do?" Zoro asked afraid to know the answer.
"She pulled his nose hair." Luffy said calmly.
"Wait..." Yukiko said.
"Hold on a sec...!" Usopp whined.
"If you do that..." Nami started to say.
Sanji finished off her sentence. "He's going to sneeze!" He exclaimed.
Luffy's arm contracted and Apis swung back to the ship. Zoro caught her, falling down from the impact.
"Why did she bring back the nose hair!?" Usopp exclaimed watching it land on the deck, bounce and fall overboard.
"That's a huge nose hair!" Luffy muttered. "All right we're going back!" Luffy cheered. The sea king sneezed and the ship rocketed forward, back the direction they came.
"What~!?" Everyone screamed when they were thrown into the air.
The ship skipped across the water like and pebble over the surface of a lake. "Do it some other way!" Everyone exclaimed. Except for Yukiko who found herself laughing at the whole thing.
"Amazing! I feel like where flying!" Luffy shouted.
"Idiot! We are flying!" Usopp gasped in terror as they made their decent.
Yukiko and Pachi shielded their faces from the sea water that drenched them when they landed. "Looks like where back into the windy sea." Yukiko said.
"Ahhh...I thought I was a goner." Usopp moaned. Yukiko patted his back in comfort.
"Be lucky." She told him, "if the sea king had sneezed and shot us the other way we'd be dead."
"Pachi-pa..." Pachi agreed.
"Good job." Luffy praised Apis.
"Yep!" She said proudly giving him the thumbs up.
"Just wash your hands first before touching anything else." Yukiko smiled making Apis embarrassed.
"Okay unfurl the sails!" Luffy shouted merrily.
"Our next stop, Warship Island!"
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Another chapter done!