So far the sailing to Fishman Island settled as the ship went deeper into the water until light was growing dimmer.
"How deeply are we submerged now?" Luffy asked, looking up at the top of our bubble ceiling.
"It's getting darker and darker," Usopp agreed.
"We went through the euphotic zone, and we're at the bottom of the twilight zone now," Franky said, glancing up. "We must be more than one thousand meters below."
"At this level, we'll probably start seeing angler fish and sea monsters." Yukiko said.
"It's really quiet," Robin commented. "It feels different from submersibles. It's…more like flying through the sky."
"The sky, huh?" Nami repeated. "Hmm. I have to start using what I studied on Weatheria for two years."
"Whale!" Chopper yelled suddenly. "There is a whale!" He pointed somewhere.
"Laboon! Laboon!" Brook scrambled to the side of the ship as a huge, white whale suddenly swam past us.
"No, that's old man Whitebeard!" Luffy countered.
"No, those are whales or different species." Yukiko said.
Other whales started passing by as they were dark blue creatures blending in with the darkening water quite well.
"Amazing," Yukiko said, awed. "Reminds me of seeing that Wailord pod years ago!"
"Hey, hey, there is no time to relax and watch whales," Usopp muttered. "Seventy percent will sink! Seventy percent! We can't just sit around!"
"Usopp, relax. Nami'll let us know when we're in the clear for the current." Yukiko reassured him.
"I just can't believe we have a less than fifty percent chance to get to Fishman Island," Usopp replied, not taking his eyes off the ocean around us. "Well, at least we don't see any creatures or Sea Kings or obstacles that look dangerous yet."
Suddenly......
"There's a creature at six o' clock!" Chopper yelled making Usopp face the back of the ship.
"Is it a creature? No… Hey, guys! There is a ship kind of thing coming from behind at us!" He yelled.
"What?" Zoro and Sanji asked at once.
"A ship?" Luffy repeated.
"Let me see." Nami pushed past Usopp and moved to the back of the ship.
Sure enough, in the distance, there was a ship.
"It's coming towards us!" Usopp added.
"And It looks like there's something in front of it!" Yukiko frowned as the ship started coming up.
They must've found something to pull them in this fast.
In seconds the ship was ramming into us from the side, causing Sunny to rock as a result of the force.
"It's a pirate ship!" Chopper squealed.
"They're pushing against us!" Usopp added.
"I bet they're trying to force the bubble to pop!" Yukiko called as Usopp made his way back to the main deck. "We have to do something about that now before we're done for!"
"They're gonna come through the bubble!" Nami yelled worriedly.
"Who are they?!" Luffy demanded.
"Whoever they are, they look like they want to see our plans sink," Yukiko said with a frown.
"Hard to port!" Franky bellowed.
Sanji quickly turned the helm in order to get Sunny away from the pirate ship that was coming up on us, but it was very hard moving in water as opposed to on top of water.
And then there was the bellowing of some kind of sea monster coming from the water.
"That sounds so familiar," Nami muttered, frowning.
"Huh?" Yukiko said looking over at Nami who was clinging to the railing of the stairs and Brook was hiding behind her. "That bellowing?"
"Yeah…I'm not sure where I've heard it befo—"
The other pirate ship rammed us again, nearly throwing Yukiko onto my back. Thankfully Luffy got her and Pachi in his grasp.
"They're persistent," Zoro commented.
"What do they want from us?!" Luffy demanded.
The bubbles from Sunny and their ship started bumping up against each other.
"The bubble is gonna pop!" Usopp exclaimed in a panic.
"You're doing great, Sea Cow!" Someone call faintly from the other ship.
"Sea Cow?" Nami repeated. A look of realization crossed her face. "Wait a minute! That's—"
Nami ran out from behind the mast and up onto the front of the ship.
"Hey, Momoo!" Nami called. "You're Momoo of the Arlong Pirates, aren't you?!"
The cow monster turned.
"Do you remember me?! It's Nami – I was at Arlong Park!"
Yukiko blinked but she remembered that Nami was part of the Arlong Pirates by force.
"Hm? Hey, Luffy, doesn't he look familiar?" Sanji called from the helm behind Nami.
Luffy popped up. "Yeah?"
Momoo instantly looked downright terrified seeing Sanji and Luffy.
A crazed laugh came from the pirate ship, and a creepy guy with a long tongue had stuck his head through the bubble – he was coming through from his ship to ours.
"Whoa! He's coming through the bubble!" Luffy exclaimed as the others braced themselves. Yukiko didn't want to risk the bubble yet so she's using Tapu Fini.
"Guys! Are you ready?" the creep declared to his pale-skinned crew who were all carrying spears.
"Yes!" his crew announced at once.
"While they're dumbfounded, kill them all!"
"Let's go!" He jumped onto our deck. "Guys, follow my lead!"
But before any of them could move, the Momoo took off towards the surface at a breakneck, panicked pace.
Yukiko blinked at this.
But The dark-skinned creep didn't notice. His tongue curled around as he laughed; his grin was a bit too wide. "All right. By way of greeting, fire the gattling gun! Kill all the Straw Hats and…" He threw his arms back dramatically, as though expecting a show.
"Huh?" He turned and looked back, and completely lost all his composure as soon as he saw that his ship wasn't there – and neither was his backup.
"Now that is just sad." Yukiko said.
"Pachi...."
Franky grabbed the guy while he was standing in shock, then turned and started walking towards the deck of the ship.
The creep started struggling instantly. "No! Don't throw me out into the water! That's something you shouldn't do! You have to value people's life!"
"Oh, yeah, like you were valuing ours a minute ago?" Yukiko snapped.
The creep kept screaming - something about the gods and how they were watching over us.
"Which gods are you mentioning?" Yukiko asked as her Tapu Fini appeared ticked off at him.
Franky dropped him headfirst onto the deck right in front of the railing. "You're being inconsistent! You were gonna fire a gattling gun and kill us all!"
"No, that was just…that was just a play on words," the freak said weakly.
"Like I'm gonna believe that for a second," Nami muttered.
"That wasn't playing," Sanji said, coming over and frowning at the creep.
"Who are you?" Zoro joined Sanji. "You must be the captain of the ship."
The creep definitely recognized Zoro, because he quickly moved onto his hands and knees. "No way! I'm not a captain! I'm just, uh, I was forced to be a slave for them!" He said as he made all kinds of excuses.
"He's making ridiculous excuses," Usopp muttered.
"Oh yeah! This is great! Can I stay on this ship for a while?" While the creep's voice sounded cheerful, his face was clearly malicious. "Please?" He bowed, hiding his face.
"Well, he is kind of pathetic," Chopper commented.
"No, Chopper, he's a creep who wants to do something on this ship that'll probably end with all of us drowning," Yukiko said flatly.
"Hey, where did you find the Sea Cow who was drawing your ship?" Nami asked, coming down from the helm.
"Oh?" The creep raised his head and that tongue made an appearance again as he licked his lips. That thing basically looked like a tail he'd had put in his mouth. Disgusting. "Here is…mmm…Cutie-san! You're the cat burglar."
"Stop looking at our navigator like that!" Sanji snapped, knocking the guy in the head with a foot. He gave Nami a thumbs-up and a smile. "Nami-san! You're safe—"
Tapu Fini quickly moved to grab Sanji again as the nosebleed rocket went off.
"That's getting to be a pain!" Usopp yelled.
"Chopper!" Yukiko barked.
"On it!" Chopper dragged Sanji back a short distance and started plugging his nose again.
"I just caught that sea monster somewhere," the creep said, not having yet recovered from Sanji's kick. "Experienced people have those animals pull their ship to get to Fishman Island faster."
"What?!" Luffy said in surprise. "Is that so?" He grinned.
Yukiko got a bad feeling about this guy and an even worse feeling about his suggestion.
------------
Next part we will finally get to Fishman Island!
How should the resident Fish-Man react to Yukiko as she effectively ended slavery of their people?
Plz comment!