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Hope you enjoy :)
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"It looks like we lost them"
We all sighed at the hopelessness of our 'Monster Trio' and began searching the dark waters of the Deep Sea for them. We had just been sucked into the current of the Downward Plume and the many presences lurking around the ship didn't go unnoticed by the crew, the more anxious members of the crew watching the creatures with fear and unease. The large, dark sea creatures that now surrounded us were a stark difference to the brightly coloured marine life we'd saw from a few hours before.
My Observation Haki was still limited to a small region, and I silently cursed myself at how useful it would have been in our current situation with dumb, dumber and dumbest missing. In those two years of training, I had mostly focused on progressing my Devils Fruit ability, with little focus to the recently awoken Haki from Thriller Bark, something I was internally kicking myself for.
"It seems Pirate-San has escaped" Brook stated, holding up the loose ropes we'd used to restrain the pirate man for the rest of us to see. Despite how useless my Haki was for finding our missing crewmates, it was still strong enough for me to spot the perverted pirate hiding out in a stray barrel, close to the stairs that lead up to the upper deck.
"Franky, could you come over here for a minute?" I called for the cyborg with a wave of my hand, keeping my tone light as to not arouse suspicion from the pirate. He trudged over to where I was standing, leaning down so he was closer, seeing as his large figure would have made it difficult for us to have a quiet conversation.
"The pirate we'd picked up earlier, he's hiding in that barrel over there," I nodded discreetly in the barrel's general direction, trying to remain inconspicuous, "Could you do something about it?" I asked gently, him agreeing just as quietly to my request. He casually walked by the barrel, the both of us spotting the pirate peeking through the lid. Franky waited until he was noticed by the man, before nailing the lid to the barrel, his loud protests and shouts audible from across the deck. Reinforcing the constraints with hammered metal plates for good measure, we continued to look for the other three idiots, knowing one issue was resolved.
"Hey, what's wrong Chopper?" I asked noticing the uncomfortable expression the reindeer had, quietly whining as he fiddled with his helmet. I bent down to pick up the small reindeer, pulling him into my arms as he flopped heavily against my shoulder.
"It's too hot!" His squeaked complaints were nothing short of cute, causing an endearing smile to pull at my lips. Usopp's was quick to agree with Chopper's sentiments to the change in temperature, which brought our attention to the rising heat, our attention drawn to the dark and heavy clouds we were sailing into.
"Nami, what's going on?" I asked her, slight worriment beginning to spread at the confused look she had. She turned her full attention to the weird sight, regarding the plumes of clouds and small sparks of red magma for a moment before her eyes widened.
"You guys! We're going into a field of underwater volcanoes! If they erupt, we're going to be in big trouble!" Chopper and Usopp began panicking, crying in worry at the erupting natural disaster we were so close to. Franky steered the ship away from the incoming volcanoes, and with my help of manipulating the currents, we manage to move as far away as possible, whilst still staying on course.
Several things seemed to happen all at once after that. A large sea creature was just about to gobble us whole when it was punched away by a sea giant. What was even more fascinating was the sight of the supposed cursed ship from legend, the Flying Dutchman, with its crew attempting to rob us.
The sea giant, apparently under the Flying Dutchman's command, swung its fists at us, ready to burst our coating and smash our boat into pieces. As everyone ducked away to avoid the incoming collision, I forced a large section of seawater to solidify into a huge mass of ice, intercepting the blow that would have completely demolished the Sunny. The giants pained yells could be heard as it hopped around, cradling his hand, which was heavily bruised and bleeding.
"That saved us Lana!" Chopper, Nami and Usopp shouted in relief, and I only nodded, wearily watching the creature to observe its next move. Out of nowhere, the Kraken from earlier literally punched the sea giant in the face with its tentacle, and continued to beat the crap out of him, leaving to watch the ordeal with gapping mouths.
"Surume, that's enough!" A shout ordered, I'm assuming was the name of the Kraken as it heeded to order, slowly moving away from the unconscious giant. Before us, Luffy, Zoro and Sanji appeared, all squashed together in one bubble. Manipulating the currents, I pulled them closer until their bubble merged with our coating, the three tumbling over each other as they were thrown onto the deck.
"You idiots, we wouldn't have lost you if you hadn't taken off the lifelines" I chided the three with crossed arms, which they only waved their hands in half-hearted agreement. Suddenly, a deafening boom resounded across the area, causing us to turn our attention to the large volcanic explosion, a little way away from us. There was an immediate rush to escape from the erupting volcano, with our unwanted company running away just as fast as they appeared.
Luffy ordered the giant octopus to carry us away; but yet again, we were faced with another predicament, the deep dark abyss that lay ahead of us, blocking our escape from the rolling magma that was quickly approaching.
"What are we going to do?! We're either going to fall to our deaths, or get burned to a crisp by the magma!" Usopp screamed, and I had to slap him away as he chose to yell his worries right in my ear.
"You screaming like a weakling isn't helping!" I shouted at his slumped figure, having been knocked out by my hit. Surume at that moment decided to jump, leaping head first into the abyss, with us along with it. Due to our accelerating decent, the speed we were falling at caused us to rise from the grass-covered deck, our bodies hovering in space as we plummeted into the darkness, our screams echoing around us.
An arm was quick to wrap around my waist, pulling me towards the person, as they gripped onto the railing for leverage. The harsh landing at the bottom of the trench jostled us in our dishevelled state, leaving us in the dark not being able to see anything. Reaching up, I gripped onto the person holding me by the shoulders with a groan, trying to lift myself from the ground as my back ached from the fall. My attempt at an escape only caused the person's arms to tighten around my body, their weight to press down onto me.
"Zoro?" I whispered, trying to identify the person hovering over me. The short muffled groan beside my ear only confirmed it to be him, and I nudged him in an effort to stand. He hauled himself up, pulling me with him as the dull light around us began to get brighter, allowing our eyes to adjust to the darkness.
There before us, where the light happened to be emanating from, in all its glory, was our destination, Fishman Island. With all the crews' fascination fixated on the glowing island, knowing our luck, I knew our momentary happiness wasn't going to last long. Low and behold, not a moment later, we were approached by a group of pirate fishmen, who were trying to recruit us into their crew. With Luffy's downright refusal, the Sunny's Coup de Burst shot us right at the island, the quickly approaching island throwing into a panic as it seemed we would be smashing straight through the borders of the island.
"You guys! I'm sure we're entering the island illegally!" I screamed as we were blasted through the first layer of bubble surrounding the island. Of course, not having calculated anything correctly, the collision caused our coating to explode, leaving us to drown in the water, as the deep currents sucked the Sunny further down into its depths. The speed at which everything unfolded left the crew unprepared; the corners of my vision fading as I was left with the image of the others unconscious states being the last thing I see.
Damn it.
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Coughing up the remaining water from my lungs, I flopped down onto the outcropped coral reefs in exhaustion. I was lucky enough to be washed ashore before I'd drowned, but the absence of the crew festered worries as to how they were faring. I turned on my side in exhaustion, the events leading up to me collapsing on the shore draining any energy I'd had. I looked above to be met with an incredible sight, something no sane person would have expected to see in the middle of the ocean.
White clouds and a blue sky.
I gazed upon the sky from my sprawled position, marvelling at the realistic scene before me. The low buzz of a bustling city in the far distance could be barely heard, and as I stood, I began approaching the distant buildings, hoping the rest of the crew had the sense to head towards civilisation.
Once I reached the outskirts of the city, the ambience quickly shifted from a lively chatter to deathly silence. As I walked through the streets minding my own business, all I received were hostile glares from the Fishmen and mermaids, all watching my movement with disgust and anger. I was puzzled by the stares, not knowing what had brought on the behaviour, but I tried to keep to the shadows, my head faced down, hoping to avoid the looks thrown my way.
Do they know I'm a pirate?
"You filthy human. You all have nothing better to do but terrorise us in our own homeland" The hateful words bringing me to stand still in shock. Did I hear that right?
"Yeah, get lost! No one wants a human here!" Another merman shouted, throwing a pointed rock in my direction. It managed to graze my forehead, leaving a small gash that was quick to bleed, but I was too surprised to feel the small burn the scratch left. The rest of the residents took that as the signal to throw all sorts of objects at me, ranging from rotten fruit to sharp rocks. Not knowing how to deal with the situation, I moved to run past everyone and into a hidden alley, hoping to avoid the aggressive crowd. The outright violent behaviour left me reeling with shock, I had expected small amounts of animosity to still linger from the strife that occurred between Humans and Fishmen in the past, but I didn't expect it to still be so strong.
From the corner of my eye, I spotted a mass of blonde hair and a small fur ball next to his feet further down the alleyway, sending me stumbling towards them with relief and joy.
"Sanji! Chopper!" I whisper yelled at the oblivious two, both turning with surprise which gave me a view of a heavily injured Hatchi, who'd been placed on the ground between the two.
"Lana! Thank god you're okay! No one had seen you when we'd crashed and we were all so worried!" Chopper whined as my walk shifted into a jog, crouching onto the ground besides Hatchi, who was having difficulty breathing with the extent of his injuries.
"What happened?" I asked warily, wondering what had caused the Fishman to turn up in such bad shape. Sanji began to explain the situation, but his words were abruptly cut off, making me glance up at him in question. He leaned down with a worried look, brushing a strand of hair away from my forehead.
"How did you get that?" He asked, a dark look twisting his normally gentle features. The small sting as where Sanji was touching reminded me of the slight mob that I had faced earlier on.
"Ah, don't worry about it. Some of the Fishmen were angry about something, and I guess I wasn't being careful enough" I waved it off, but he didn't look convinced. "Don't worry about it, really. There are more important things to be concerned about." I patted his forearm, showing his worry was gratefully received, before turning my attention to Hatchi.
"Chopper, let me try something" I stated, and as Chopper moves aside, I'd condensed some of the water vapour from the air into a small mass of water, allowing it to hover over Hatchi's injuries. The mass of water began to glow as I controlled it to continuously move back and forth over his wounds. Hatchi's sigh of relief brought a small smile to my face, and I looked up to see Sanji and Chopper's jaws practically on the ground, both watching the scene with utter shock and awe.
"You didn't think I didn't improve over the last two years, did you?" I chuckled with a small smirk, slightly chuffed at their looks of amazement, their eyes moving back and forth between the glowing water and myself.
"Y-Your e-eyes! Your eyes, they're glowing!" Chopper babbled, his hand frantically pointing at my eyes, I only nodded in agreement, already knowing the affect this ability had on my body. For some reason, when I'd tapped into this ability, its effects seemed to manifest into my physical appearance, though it was quick to dull down when I'd stop using it. I returned my focus to the healing water that continuously moved over Hatchi's wounds, the corners of the open stabs and scratches pulling together as they healed with the water's movements.
"They tend to do that when I'm using this particular ability" I stated nonchalantly, which seemed to blow a fuse in their brains, not being able to comprehend what was going on before them. With a short giggle at their gapping jaws, I managed to control the water to reconnect the internal tendons that had been torn from the arrows, before slowly removing the water away from the fresh scabs that had formed over.
"I've only tried that on humans, but it's good to see it still works on Fishman. How do you feel Hatchan?" I asked gently, helping the fallen Fishman to sit up. He threw me a grateful smile, patting the back of my hands in thanks.
"Much better, thank you Lana-Chan" He stated weakly, and I nodded before advising him against moving too much, seeing as the wounds hadn't healed completely but I had managed to speed along the natural healing process. I turned to Sanji and Chopper, who were still trying to wrap their heads around what I had just done.
"Come on guys. We need to find the others" I stated rather smugly, revelling in the impressed glances the two were giving me. Sanji lightly nudging my head with his fist, a small smile pulling at his lips.
"Don't let it get to your head" He huffed, but I only continued to smile gleefully. It was certainly gratifying knowing I had done something that greatly impressed them, especially since it was something that helped me in saving and taking care of my friends.
As we pulled together our things to begin finding the rest of our missing nakama, Luffy had spotted us and joined us with a giant shark as company. He'd apparently saved it from Surume, the giant octopus, which he was keen on explaining to us.
What happened next, frankly, I couldn't describe with words. The shark looked like he was choking, and after a moment, basically barfed up the Mermaid Princess, which caused Sanji to turn into stone at the sight of her. I hadn't believed Nami earlier about the extent of Sanji's depraved behaviour when it came to women, but I was now witnessing it first hand, causing me to look away in embarrassment, hoping to try and distance myself from the humiliation of knowing the man.
A group of citizens pounced on us at that moment, who had seen the whole situation. They claimed we were kidnapping their Princess, and proceeded to tie us up as prisoners. I turned to Luffy with a raised eyebrow, realising the extent of the mess he'd managed to get us into.
"Do we do anything?" I asked, waiting for captain's orders, despite how moronic the fellow was. He only smiled with that stupid grin, responding with a 'Nah'.
In the distance, a small speck seemed to be approaching at high speeds, with it turning out to be the same scumbag from the Flying Duchman, who was in the middle of passionately proposing to the Princess. I turned to the huge pinkette who seemed to be close to tears with a horror-stricken face, watching the approaching Fishman with obvious fear.
"Do you know this creep?" I asked, and she looked down at me with tears, shaking her head.
"He's been proposing to me for 10 years, but he's not my type and he won't leave me alone" She began crying and Luffy scolded her for being a cry baby. Luffy tells Shirahoshi, the Mermaid Princess, to untie us, and much to the disbelief of the citizens, actually listens. With our freed hands, I slammed a large wave of water down onto Vander Decken IX, the weird paedophile that was intent on marrying the pink-haired princess, causing him to lose consciousness.
"Nice" Sanji stated appreciatively, which I shrugged away with a smile. We climbed onto the now conscious shark that Luffy had slapped awake, and headed towards the Sea Forest upon Luffy's orders.
Little did we know, that we would once again be in the company of an old friend, and realise that we were way in over our heads with the situation we were being thrown in, courtesy of Luffy.
Again.