As we dropped into the water, I couldn't help but look around at the scenery we were getting – the kind that was rarely seen, if at all by the people on the Grand Line.
Large, majestic roots from the mangrove trees descended into the darkness – probably straight down into the ocean floor. Sunlight filtered in through the waves above, and there were crowds of fish of all kinds flitted about all over the place.
"The surface is quite far up already," Robin said in awe from one side of the deck.
"It's amazing. Not even the underwater tunnel has this kind of view." Yukiko said.
"We're sinking and sinking!" Chopper exclaimed. "I can't stop worrying about flooding!"
"Feels like we're leaving the inhabited world," Nami said, looking up at the ceiling. "It makes me nervous!"
"C-c-can we go back on the surface again for sure?" Usopp asked nervously.
"We're gonna be fine, Usopp," Yukiko replied, looking over at him as Luffy looked up in awe. "Ray-san knew what he was doing, and we know where we're going. All we have to do is get through the currents and get down to Fishman Island and we'll be fine!"
"It's beautiful down here!" Luffy exclaimed.
"Look at that!" Brook was over on the other side of the deck, looking at the roots that were extending down from the archipelago we'd just left behind at the surface.
Luffy and Yukiko scrambled over to Brook's side of the deck. "Trees…no, roots!"
"They must go thousands of meters deep!" Yukiko said.
"Oh, yeah!" Sanji recalled. "We forgot, Sabaody Archipelago consists of giant mangroves!"
"So this is the beauty of nature!" Brook called. "I'm so surprised – my eyes could pop out!" He paused. "I don't have eyes, though!"
Yukiko laughed at Brook's exclamation. "Yeah, it really is cool, isn't it? Everywhere we turn, there's another awesome part of nature that's just waiting to be discovered so that we can be surprised and awed by it."
"It's amazing. I can't believe these roots are running down to the ocean floor," Robin commented. "They're enormous and magnificent!"
I hummed and nodded a little in agreement as I pulled myself back out of my memories.
"H-hey, there's something behind that tree!"
I turned my head at Usopp's statement right as Chopper let out a yell in surprise.
"Wow, it's huge!"
My eyebrows shot up when I saw the large, scaly form of a fish swimming past us. "Whoa! He looks like he could rival Kyogre in size!"
"Eeh? Kyogre?" Usopp looked at me in confusion.
"One of my legendary Pokémon he can control how much rain falls," I explained. "But he can also flood the world, but, that's never gonna happen."
"How exciting! An underwater adventure! It's like a dream come true!" Luffy marveled. "Oh, fish! I think I can catch them!"
"Hold it!" Yukiko grabbed him by the cardigan. " I brought lots of food from my homeworld, and I also checked my greenhouse, we actually have lots of crops."
"Oh yeah, thanks Yukiko." He smiled as Yukiko got her stuff ready to serve everyone.
"All right, everyone! Listen—" Nami started to speak......
And Sanji shot up on a nosebleed rocket, screaming about a "real, beautiful woman."
But Yukiko got Tapu Fini to grab him and bring him down.
"Chopper!"
"On it!" Chopper was instantly there with a couple of nose plugs, which he promptly stuck up Sanji's nose and went to work.
"Honestly, if he'd gone shooting off, he probably would have popped the bubble," Yukiko commented, as Tapu Fini nodded.
"Not necessarily," Nami replied. "The bubble is strong enough to stand the pressure down here, so it's thicker than say a soap bubble or even the bubbles that are up on the archipelago's surface. If Sanji had popped the bubble, he would have been sent up into the water and the rest of us would have still been fine."
"Still, a nosebleed shouldn't be able to send someone rocketing up like that!" Usopp ranted. "How the hell can Sanji do that?"
"Maybe it has something to do with where he was training for the last two years?" Robin suggested.
"What kind of place makes someone like him even more susceptible to women than he already is?!" Usopp demanded as Chopper came running out of he medical bay with blood bags. He promptly started sticking IVs in Sanji's arm.
"I feel sorry for him," Brook commented as Zoro stared with a dropped jaw at all the blood bags. "At this rate, he's gonna bleed to death once he meets the mermaids he's longing to see. I can't help worrying."
"We'll have to call for blood donations at Fish-Man Island," Chopper said as he looked Sanji over. Our cook was completely catatonic, with his visible heart as an eye and a rather goofy-looking smile on his face. "I wonder if fishmen and mermaids have the same blood as humans."
"Or even if they'd be willing to donate if they did," Yukiko commented. "I mean, I know thatthings were bad two years ago when Hachi was with us….even though they forbid slavery now, there might still be tensions."
Thankfully......
"The bubble that coats the Sunny has the same quality as the bubbles at Sabaody Archipelago," Robin spoke up, sensing the need for a change in subject.
"Stop analyzing the bubble in such a calm manner!" Usopp exclaimed, pointing at her accusingly.
"Robin's right," Nami spoke up. "Basically, they're the same. It stretches to a certain point, and it allows things to go through when it goes beyond that. Which means if we fire a gun or cannon at a creature that attacks us, the bubble won't break."
"Then, on what occasion will it break instead?" Usopp asked.
"If there are too many holes at once it will," Nami replied. "For example, if we're bitten by a Sea King's fangs, it'll be trouble. Or, if the ship itself breaks up by crashing into a rock or a trench, the broken mast or planking will break the bubble and that also spells danger. So we have to be careful with creatures and obstacles in the sea."
"And them?" Yukiko asked dryly, motioning over to Luffy and Zoro, who were attempting to gear up for another attempt at catching fish.
"Yes, right...."
Nami suddenly slammed her fists into Luffy's and Zoro's heads. "You idiots! Don't break the bubble with your attacks!"
"So it's tougher than I thought it was." Usopp let out a sigh of relief. "That's good! I was worried for a minute there!"
"Anyway, let's eat!" Yukiko brought her meals out for everyone.
Chopper perked up instantly. "I'm so starved!"
"Yohohoho! My bones are starved!"
"Thank you, Yukiko." Robin nodded
"Nami, is the ship gonna be stable for a while?" Franky asked. "Don't we have to do anything?"
"Nope. We just have to ride this big sea current for now. So we can continue on like this for a while, since we don't have much to do until later."
"Then we have a little time, huh? Then there's something I have to tell you all about." Franky said In a serious manner .
"Could it be about…." Yukiko asked but...
Luffy suddenly led Usopp and Chopper in a loud declaration. "The robot's secrets?!"
"No, not that." Franky sat back on the bench around the mast as the rest of the crew raided Luffy's gigantic lunch bag for food and drink. Apparently, Hancock wanted to make sure that he was going to do okay.
However Luffy ate Yukiko's food instead. He really did miss her cooking. She even made his favorite Bocadillo Sandwiches and Spicy Sausage Curry!
"Hachi told us that he would show us the way to Fishman Island, but he got severely injured at Sabaody and he's under medical care at Fishman Island," Franky explained grimly. "He got injured for the same reason that Duval did – he'd been protecting the Thousand Sunny."
"That would explain how Sunny remained unscathed." Robin said
Franky nodded. "Around a year ago, the Navy found out about Sunny, and those two faced fierce battles and were eventually taken out of commission."
"Then, how did the ship remain undamaged after that?" Usopp asked.
"There was someone else who fought for it," Franky replied.
"Is it someone we know?" Yukiko asked.
"You could put it that way, since he's the guy who separated us two years ago."
A pause fell upon the crew.
"No way….Kuma? Really?" Nami asked surprised.
"I couldn't believe my eyes when I got to the Sunny a few days ago. I saw him sitting there, parts exposed and clothes slashed to pieces, and I thought he was gonna attack me." Franky gained an uneasy expression at the memory, but he relaxed out of it. "I couldn't believe my eyes, there wasn't even a scratch on the Sunny."
Yukiko then spoke. "And the day we were separated. He came to me to tell me about Ace's Execution. That he didn't have much time left, but he didn't say why."
"Well Rayleigh told me when I came back." Franky said.
"It turns out Kuma......he was a member of the Revolutionary Army."
"What?!" Chopper said.
"If so, why would he be the Government's lapdog?" Yukiko asked.
"Honestly, I do not know what made him obey the Marines, but he agreed to be a guinea pig and let his body be modified piece by piece, and he somehow lost his personality before the War of the Best.” Franky said
“But I don’t think he could guess what each of us would do after we got separated! Even so, he waited for us at the ship without his personality?” Chopper states.
Franky continues, “Apparantly before the War, he made Dr. Vegapunk, who modified him, agree to program a mission into his mind after the war was over. ‘Defend the Sunny until the day that one of the Straw Hats comes back for it’. That is why for the past two years, even without his own memory, he had been carrying out his own orders, as a human weapon, waiting for us.”
“That is insane. Why did he do such a thing for us?” Zoro asks.
“If you think about it, reminds me about Luffy’s father, the leader of the Revolutionary Army,” Usopp adds in.
Luffy says, “I don’t know my dad , but that bear-like guy was a good guy after all, huh?”
“There is no mistake that he is the one who gave us the past two worthwhile. We can’t even ask him why he did it, but just remember that. Bartholomew Kuma turned out to be one of our greatest allies. But even if we meet him again, Kuma is now reduced to a weapon. That is all I had to say,” Franky ends.
"But one other thing. This Vegapunk character. Why would he agree to put that mission into Kuma's mind? He's the top scientist for the Marines and the Government. If his superiors found out, he would be in trouble. If Kuma made a deal with him, it's probably not forced. From what I know from an old colleague of his, he's more moral than other scientists. And he was originally reluctant on the Pacifista Project, but he did want to create a replacement for the Warlord system." Yukiko said.
"The way you said it, it is strange. Why would someone like Vegapunk do such a thing for Kuma?" Robin asked.
"If we do meet this Vegapunk, we'll ask him ourselves. We'll worry about it, then." Luffy reassured his girlfriend.
Yukiko smiled and nodded.
Sanji had woken up and asked, “Ally?”
“Oh, you're up. Eat up, Sanji. It is from Maiden Island, Amazon Lily,” Luffy says now eating an Alcrieme cupcake.
“Maiden Island? Is that Kuma guy really an ally? Don’t you realize where I was for the past two years!? What kind of training were you doing at the dream island full of women, Luffy!? Not to mention the exotic ladies fighting with Yukiko at Marineford!!!” Sanji asks getting angry.
"You mean Yukiko's friends?" Luffy asked.
"Well, there was Cynthia, Dianthia, Clair, Misty, Flannery, Sabrina, Elesa, Skyla, Whitney, Roxie, Nessa, Gardenia, Valerie, Olympia, Erika, Janine, Jasmine, Roxanne, Winona, Maylene, Fantina, Candice, Viola, Korrina, Bea, Melony, Katy, Iono, and Tulip. The others couldn't come as they had business." Yukiko said listing them off. It made Sanji cry a river a tears.
"........so many........." He cried.
Brook speaks up, “Whoa, whoa, Sanji, I don’t know what you’ve been through, but let’s enjoy the voyage now! Do you wanna sing with me?”
“Stop trying to cheer me up! I feel pathetic!” He shouts.
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