Yukiko sighed as the Merry was back on course for the Grand Line.
She had permission from Nami the other day to create her own garden along with Nami's tangerine trees.
She had planted various berries: Cheri chesto, pecha, aspear, leppa, lum, oran, persim, rawst, roseli, sitrus, tamato, mago, magost, Golden pinap, silver pinap, starf, watmel, and nanab for early future use. Along with seeds to grow Hearty Grains, Plump beans, springy mushrooms, pokebeans, potatoes, fancy apple seeds, leeks, sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and spicy Herb mystica, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, bell peppers, various fruits, watercress and Basil.
She was checking on her personal garden as she found the veggies and fruits all grown and ripe and the berries were all flowering already.
"Hm. Looks like it was a smart idea to get started earlier before when we met Apis. Glad I used Growth and Damp Mulch to help." She said to herself.
"Whoa! This all grew in a short matter of time!" Usopp exclaimed as he saw Yukiko's mini farm.
"Well I'll need it to make the treats and meals for us and my Pokémon. It will also help ease the pain of spending money on produce and crops for Sanji and Nami." Yukiko said as they gathered the produce and grain to store away.
"What did you do to make them grow so fast though?" Luffy asked.
"Some of my grass Pokémon can use Growth, Sunny Day and Rain Dance to help me out. It works wonders along with my ultra fast mulch. Back home, we get this help to regrow a lot of produce within a few days and not have to expand farmland." She said.
"Wow! Wish we had that here!" Usopp said.
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Yukiko and Usopp had just finished putting away the produce as Yukiko decided to take a breather on the deck.
Looking over her bag, she decided to clean her badges.
"Whatcha doing?" Luffy popped up, thankfully not scaring Yukiko.
"Just cleaning some of my badges. And my Ribbons are next." Yukiko said.
"Badges?" Luffy asked.
"Yeah, a badge or Gym Badge is an item that serves as proof of a Pokémon Trainer's victory in a battle against a Gym Leader.
Trainers need to collect a certain number of Gym Badges in order to qualify for a region's Pokémon League. Every league requires 8 badges to get in. These are from my very first journey in Kanto." Yukiko said showing Luffy.
As she showed the other badges, she then took out her photo album and showed pictures of her and her Pokémon enter the Hall of Fame and winning 4 Ribbon Cups.
"Wow! You really won a lot of trophies in 7 years!" Luffy exclaimed.
"Yeah, it was actually the journey to get there that was the exciting part. I was even offered to Star in movies."
"Movies?"
"You never heard of them? They're like moving pictures, and you can hear people talk. It's mostly pretend and entertainment for people. I starred in 11 films. I was the female star for nine of them, a villain in one, and a co-star in one." Yukiko said as she showed Luffy the movie posters from her scrapbook.
"They all sound cool!" Luffy said.
"Nami-san! I have a report!" Sanji said from the Crow's nest. "I see big rain clouds up ahead! There's a storm under'em!" Sanji finished.
"We are approaching the Red Line?" Yukiko asked walking over to Nami; who kept looking down at the map in her hands.
"We're back on to our original course, so it shouldn't be long. However..." The girls looked up when they caught sight of Luffy's arms stretching up to the crows nest.
He propelled himself up and landed on his feet besides Sanji. "The Grand Line, at last!" Luffy couldn't contain his excitement and began patting Sanji on the back with a little too much force. "Hey, Sanji! I cant believe it! We're finally going! We're finally going!"
Sanji had finally had enough and delivered a roundhouse kick that hit Luffy right in the face. "Quit it!"
"Sowwy!"
Nami frowned, "But is it really like how it's drawn here?" She thought staring intently at the map, if it was really accurate then they still had a pretty big hurdle to climb before they could even take a shot at the Grand Line.
"Guys, get inside! Nami needs to tell us something important!" Yukiko said as Pachi leapt on her shoulder.
Satisfied that there were no marines in the distance waiting to ambush them. They all conveyed inside. "Look at this!"
Nami said slapping the map down on to the table in front of everyone. Who all stuffed closer to see what the navigator found so interesting. "I'd heard the rumors about it, and it's drawn on the map, too! If it really is true then the entrance to the Grand Line Is a mountain!" The reaction was as expected.
"-We'll gotta crash into a mountain?" Zoro deadpanned.
"You can't be serious." Usopp exclaimed from his post on the rudder. "How is a ship supposed to travel over a mountain?!"
"I didn't believe it myself, but the map has canals that lead to the mountain." Nami traced her finger tips over the drawings of the canal that lead up from the sea of East Blue to the summit. "That might mean we have to go up it!"
"Even if there are canals. The ship can't climb up a mountain!" Zoro pointed out.
"But that's what the map says!" Nami argued back.
"Yeah, Nami-san would never say anything that's wrong!" Sanji jumped to Nami's defence.
"Anyway, You stole that map from Buggy, right? Can we really trust it?" Asked Zoro and it was a good point.
"I dont know. If huge sea monsters and dragons are real in this world. Why can't there be a canal that flows in reverse?" Yukiko countered as she's seen unnatural things in her world too.
". . ." No one could argue with her logic.
"What's the matter Usopp?" Yukiko asked, the sniper. He'd been making strange noises and moving about all around rudder.
"The rudder the rudders not working!" Usopp shouted.
""I'll help." Yukiko said as she pulled but she realized it was stuck, which meant something is wrong. "Nami, the rudder is not moving, I think we caught a current."
"Eh?! Yukiko what did you just say?" Nami said finally paying attention to the struggle behind her.
"She.grr....She said 'I think we caught a current'?!" Usopp grunted in a strained voice.
"Current. . ." Nami trailed off. "That's it!" Nami exclaimed suddenly. Kicking herself for not seeing it sooner.
"That's what?" Luffy echoed.
"They really do go up the mountain!"
"Are you still saying that stuff?!" Zoro said.
"Look here!" Nami said pointing at Reverse Mountain. "See? The guiding light was defiantly pointing to here on the Red Line. . . Reverse Mountain!"
"See these canals here?" Nami pointed to the five canals. "If the major currents from the four oceans all flow toward this mountain. . ." Nami dragged her finger up the drawing of the canal came from East Blue until to the center.
"Then the four currents would go up these canals, collide at the top, and then flow into the Grand Line!" Nami put her hands and her hips and stood up straight. "Reverse mountain is a 'winter Island', so any currents that collide into the Red Line will plummet from the surface into the depths. If we screw up and miss the entrance to the canal. . . "
"We're sunk." Yukiko finished, "I'll get my muscle Pokémon for this!" She said getting her PC out and swapping out her Pokeballs.
She decided on Rea the Dragonite, Bruno the Stoutland, Neptune the Wailord, Achilles the Buzzwole, and Galapagos the Torterra.
"Oh, interesting!" Luffy hummed. "So basically, it's a mystery mountain! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha~!"
Everyone sweatdropped.
Nami sighed, "Well, maybe you don't get it. . ." She sighed again as Luffy continued his laughter. "Anyways, now that we're on this current. As long as we don't mess up with the rudder, we should be able to go straight to the summit of Reverse Mountain!"
"Nami-san! You're so amazing!" Sanji swooned.
"I've never heard of ships going over mountains before." Zoro said he still didn't belive that it was possible for water to travel upward and defy gravity.
"I've heard some stuff before!" Sanji smiled.
"Really?" Yukiko asked.
"Stories about the mystery mountain?" Luffy said.
"No." Sanji told them, "I heard from the old man that half of everyone who heads to the Grand Line dies before entering it. . .I knew getting in wouldn't be easy."
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"-Sanji-kun! Could you get the sail?" Nami shouted over the pelting rain. They needed to act quickly and furl in the sails before the storm knocked them out if the current or it the wind tore a hole into it.
"-Yes, Nami-san! Luffy help out!"
"-Eh?!" Luffy moaned.
"Come out, Achilles! Help Luffy and Sanji!" Yukiko said as the muscular bug appeared to help and gathered the ropes.
"Ah! Giant bug!" Sanji said almost falling off.
"Whoa! A Giant Bug! And it's muscled!" Luffy exclaimed.
Cue Sparks.
"Buzzwole the Swollen Pokémon
One of the Ultra Beasts, It shows off its body, but whether that display is a boast or a threat remains unclear. Witnesses saw it pulverize a dump truck with a single punch."
But this was no time to be amazed.
Yukiko strained her eyes as she tried to get a better look at the stop of red that she could see between the ocean and the Storm clouds.
"I think I see it!" She yelled to everyone who halted what they were doing to look.
"What?!" They all gaped.
"Hey! I see the mystery mountain too!" Luffy shouted getting everyone's attention.
"T-thats insanely huge!" Usopp stuttered in awe, he couldn't see the top. "I-I-I can't see the top because of the clouds!"
"So that's the Red Line, huh?!" Luffy said the excitement easy to hear.
The ship suddenly lurched to the side when it was snagged in an even stronger current than the one they were in before.
Yukiko got all her Pokémon except Neptune out. As he would serve as a backup in case something goes wrong.
Luffy lost his grip on the main mast and fell sid wards off the wooden pole but Rea caught him. "Hey thanks. Hold the rudder good!" He shouted.
"-We're on it!" Sanji and Usopp shouted.
"Nami! Where's the entrance?!" Yukiko squeaked when she was jerked again by the ships ridged rocking.
"Is that it?!" Luffy said pointing to a crack in the side of the mountain.
Nami followed where he was pointing with her eyes. "Yeah! Your right that's it!" She clapped her hands in triumph.
"What where!" Usopp yelled, trying to keep as firm a grip on the rudder as it shifted from one side to the other with the changing currents.
"Doesn't matter just keep going straight!" Nami said not taking her eyes off the entrance for a second. They only had one shot do she had to watch closely, if she was off in lining them up to the entrance by even a few centimetres. The ship would crash and they'd all be sucked into the whirlpools that were dotted all along the side of the Red Line and drown.
"Your kidding!" Usopp cried.
"Just do it!" Nami snapped.
"Nami is that the canal entrance?" Luffy asked jumping down next to her and Tsuna, he hadn't heard what she said before over the wind.
"Yeah it is! Look!" She pointed.
"This can't think be for real!" Zoro gasped staring intently through a pair of binoculars. The water really was going up the mountain!
"We gotta make our way through to see water gates just right!" Nami said, large stone pillars that had tribal drawing carved in to the rock lined the sides of the canal up the mountain, there were at least thirty of them all climbing the mountain with the ocean.
Nami continued. "Otherwise the ship'll be busted into prices!"
"W-we're getting off course!" Yukiko shouted when the front of the ship started to drift away from the entrance. " Usopp! Sanji! More to the right! Right! Right!" She she exclaimed frantically. They were too close to making it in to the Grand Line for them to fail now.
"Okay Yuki-chan!" Sanji said as he pushed the uncooperative rudder with all his strength along with the other two!
"Come on, now!" Usopp strained. But the rudder buckled and snapped off, sending the two crashing into the kitchen table.
Everyone's jaws hit the floor in terror. "THE RUDDER!" They all screamed.
But Luffy took the initiative, threw his hat at Yukiko and dived over the side of the ship. "Gum-Gum: . . Balloon!"
Luffy took a deep breath and inflated using his body to cushion and protect the ship from the stone pillars it almost crashed into, he thrust out his chest and pushed the ship away and realigned it with the climbing current.
The ship now in the current sailed right passed it's captain leaving him in the sea spray.
"Rea!" Yukiko yelled as her Dragonite quickly got Luffy back safely.
Yukiko giggled as she returned the hat to the top of Luffy's head.
Luffy gave her a toothy grin and grabbed her hand. "Come on Yukiko let's go!" He yelled excitedly tugging on her hand and dragging her up to the front of the ship.
"Whoa! Yukiko look isn't it awesome!" Luffy shouted still clutching her hand.
"Yeah! It's beautiful!" She said amazed.
But then.......
"Curse you all!"
That came from a certain man they thought was long gone.
"The Sicko!" Usopp exclaimed.
"My names Eric!"
"Your still alive!" Zoro muttered.
"What tiny eyes!" Luffy pointed out.
Eric must have lost the thin sunglasses he was wearing when Yukiko and Blaise kicked his ass as he didn't have them on. "Shut up!" Eric bellowed over everyone's muttering.
"Curse the whole lost of you, you especially girl!" Eric said pointing at Yukiko. "Thanks to you my dream of dragonite has been crushed! I can't just leave things as they are now!"
"You reap what you sow!" Yukiko snapped.
"I don't want to hear a word from you!" Eric shouted. "At the very least, I'll have your 30 million Berry head!" He pointed at Luffy and once again at Yukiko. "And you, with the strange creatures you have. The money I'll make from selling them to the marines along with his bounty will set me up for life! Just surrender to your fates! hahaha!"
But then Achilles popped from behind him with deadly intent.
"Eh.....?" Eric said weakly.
"Achilles?" Yukiko smirked.
The massive bug moved his fist so fast that Eric didn't see it coming and he was punched off the boat. He fell backwards and skipped on the water down the canal like a stone been thrown across a river surface.
"Well, so much for that." Yukiko giggled.
"We don't have to worry about him, he can't swim so he won't be following!" Nami laughed.
"Given this current, being able to swim wouldn't matter anyways!" Usopp said gleefully.
"Way to go, Yuki-chan!" Sanji swooned.
"Whoa! We're in the clouds! Yukiko come see!" Luffy shouted stretching behind him to pick her up and seat her in front of him between his legs so that she was leaning into his chest up on the figure head. And Pachi was in her arms.
"Oi!" Sanji growled.
Yukiko didn't have the time to be embarrassed as Luffy pointed over her shoulder out in front of them. "Awesome Look it's the summit!" He shouted right in her ear. When the ship got to the top of the mountain it's lost its connection with the water and went flying into the air. "We're above the clouds now!" Luffy pointed out.
"Amazing!" Yukiko said.
The ship plummeted back down into the downward flowing canal. The crew screamed when they were no longer on the ship but in the air for a split second before falling back down on to the ship with a loud crash.
"We did it! We are in the Grand Line!" Luffy said.
Yukiko was also amazed as were her Pokémon on the deck.
And everyone looked on the current with smiles and anticipation
"To do what Mihawk said. . ."
"To find the All Blue there. . ."
"To draw my perfect sea charts. . ."
"To prove I'm a brave warrior of the sea. . ."
"To a brand new adventure. . ."
"I see it!" Luffy gasped. "This is the greatest sea in the world! The Grand Line! The One Piece is up ahead, somewhere! ! GO!"
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Meanwhile.....
"Hello!" A random marine soldier said on a Transmitter Snail hoping to get someone.
"What is it?" A gruff voice said.
"This is Nabokov of Nelson's Command do you read?"
"Marine Captain Smoker, get to the point." A gruff man on the other line said.
"Listen, Strawhat has gained a new crewmember! Her name is Yukiko! She's was able to wipe out Commodore Nelson's forces and Eric the Mercenary with strange creatures, she's some kind of beast master! You need to be on the lookout for her! She has white hair and purple blue eyes. You can't miss her! If possible, get her picture and those of her beasts too! We need it to place a bounty on her head!" The other man said.
"Quit your whining. I'll watch for this girl. If Strawhat is there she will be too." Smoker hung up.
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