Chapter Text
Things have gone still.
Wado cautiously cracks her eyes open.
Somehow, they have come to a place where there is light again.
There is a bright blue sky with fluffy clouds and seagulls.
She squints up at it in confusion until Usopp points out that the seagulls aren’t moving and she realizes the whole scene is painted on and lit up somehow.
In front of them is an island just big enough to hold a closet sized bungalow and a single palm tree.
Lamar is looking back the way they came from, although all they can see now is a dark tunnel, “Luffy, Boshi, and Gumgum fell off!”
Serena waves a hand dismissively, “I saw him grab a tooth. He’ll be okay.” She almost manages to sound completely certain.
Wado finds herself chuckling, “I had myself convinced that I’d seen enough of this place the first time that it wouldn’t surprise me anymore.” She shakes her head ruefully at her own arrogance, “Obviously, I’ve been away for too long. I’ve already been proven wrong at least three times and we haven’t even crossed the starting line yet.”
Serena gives her a consoling pat on the shoulder, heavy with irony, and Wado realizes she’s getting a little pitchy.
Kitetsu’s claws are twitching and he seems to be about half a second from going on a rampage.
Right. Not the time.
Wado gives the dryad a wry look, takes a deep breath, and pulls herself together.
Kitetsu curls his lip and leans in; ready to call bullshit on the façade of calm she just pulled down.
But then a giant squid pops out of the water.
And a moment later three giant spears come shooting out of the hut skewering and dragging the monster away.
This is how they meet an old man with giant flower petals growing out his head who introduces himself as Crocus.
Wado, focusing on maintaining her calm, just nods her head and scoots closer to Zoro’s shoulder so she’ll be ready if he decides he does, in fact, want to slice something up.
Then Luffy, Gumgum and Boshi on his shoulders, comes bursting through a door in the whale’s side preceded by two screaming strangers.
Their Captain chooses to shout a cheerful greeting at them with a casual request for help thrown in just before he splashes down into the lake of stomach acid surrounding Merry.
At this point, Crocus chooses to jump into the acid himself and swim off toward a ladder built in the whale’s side. They’re too busy to worry about that right now.
There’s some scrambling as Sanji dives in after Luffy and Zoro helps the strangers clamber onto Merry’s deck.
It’s a woman with long blue hair clasped into a ponytail on top of her head and a man wearing a green suit and crown, each carrying a bazooka. Nobody seems concerned about this.
Even as their captain is still shaking off the lethargy caused by being submerged, Boshi jumps up on the railing and excitedly starts pointing at Crocus who has just come back into view on a platform next to the ladder, “Hey! Flower Guy is still here!”
“Who?” Wado asks.
The monkey hat continues to jump and point, “He’s crew!”
“What?!” This is news to her.
Before she can ask anything else, the two strangers stand up and fire the bazookas they were carrying at the inside of the whale.
Crocus runs along the platform and jumps in the front of the cannon ball sized projectiles, which explode when they hit him catching him on fire and knocking him into the acid.
The small monkey goes stiff with outrage, fur standing on end as a growl like an enraged gorilla rips from his throat. All the spirits watch Boshi in alarm, knowing how protective he is of those he considers his own.
Luffy tilts his head, picking up the spike of outrage from Boshi, though he doesn’t know its cause. He looks between the two strangers gloating that they will eventually kill the whale and Crocus glowering at them defiantly from the greenish water.
The Captain’s expression hardens and he nods to himself, deciding something.
The humans on the crew have been watching the exchange, not particularly inclined to get involved. The new strangers are annoying, but the whale did just eat them after nearly wrecking Merry.
Before anybody can notice, let alone think to stop him, Luffy stalks up behind the two newcomers and clobbers them both into the ground with one blow each.
Everyone is fine with tying up the two bazooka wielding weirdos until they can get everything sorted out.
They all gather on the little island boat and Crocus explains why he has chosen to stay here at the entrance to the Grand Line for fifty years keeping the whale, Laboon, company and taking care of him.
As he’s talking, Boshi clambers all over him to trying to determine how he is doing.
Seeing his concern, Lamar asks, “What did you mean he’s crew?”
Boshi wrinkles his nose, not understanding how it’s not clear, “Crew is crew.”
Gumgum says quietly, “Boshi.”
And the capuchin turns toward her and cocks his head waiting.
“He is not on Luffy’s crew,” she points out.
Boshi starts up a big belly laugh at the obviousness of that statement, “Of course not, Gummy. He’s Gol’s.”
The rubber plant spirit’s eyes widen on their stalks and her stem straightens in surprise, “ooOOOooh.”
Everyone, but the two newest, has shared enough stories to understand. They all turn to the aging man, eyes widening.
Kitetsu’s hands make an aborted snatching motion toward Gumgum before he recalls he’s surrounded and stops.
Yubashiri leans toward the little plant spirit and asks in voice leveled with sarcastic amounts of courtesy, “Would you mind explaining?”
Gumgum, still absorbed in the revelation, swivels her eyes toward him, slightly startled, “Oh, Sorry. Um, well Boshi has served two captains before Luffy. The first was Gol D. Roger, the first King of the Pirates.”
Yubashiri blinks, needing a several seconds to process the significance of this information. He turns to inspect Boshi, who is happily flopped over the old man’s head. He seems to struggle to find the right words for a bit before giving up, “Shouldn’t he be more…imposing, if he soaked up the presence of someone that formidable?”
Boshi, who hadn’t seemed to be paying attention, turns his face toward them with toothy smile, not at all offended, “Naw, this is more fun.”
Crocus leads them out of a tunnel he made in Laboon’s side.
Once they’re back in regular water, they toss the two bazooka wielding weirdos overboard. After attempting to make ominous threats the two just swim off out to sea.
Serena and Lamar stay with Merry and the rest disembark and climb up a long metal ladder attached to the cliff face to the lighthouse where Crocus lives. Everyone takes a seat around an outdoor table made of some stumps and a slice out of what must have been a huge tree.
Over tea the doctor tells them about the crew that left Laboon here fifty years ago, promising to come back.
About ten years ago the whale must have decided that his missing friends need some help getting back over the Red Line because he started bashing his head against it in an attempt to break through.
Gumgum looks downcast, “He’s been waiting here for fifty years?”
Yubashiri rubs his chin, “Even if they weren’t killed by the Grand Line, they definitely would have died of something else by now. Adventurers aren’t known for living to old age…Those are some pretty serious scars, he’s going to kill himself keeps it up.” His tone suggests it’s a shame, but he doesn’t think anything can be done about it.
Boshi scowls at the marks on Laboon’s face, “This isn’t determination.”
Wado’s broken out of her contemplation of the scared, sorrowful creature towering over them by Gumgum’s noise of alarm.
“Luffy, where are you going?” the little plant asks with rapidly mounting panic in her voice. The end of the question fading off as Luffy jumps off the cliff to get back down to the ship.
Wado runs to the edge in time to see Luffy jump onto the Merry, run over to the mast, wrap his arms around it a few times, and break it off by leaning backward.
“Merry!” she cries out in alarm.
She can see Serena and Lamar run out onto the deck. Lamar sets his hands on the stump and Serena crouches down and starts running her hands comfortingly over the deck as they try to see how bad the damage is.
She looks behind her. Zoro and the rest of the crew are watching dumbfounded as their Captain runs up Laboon’s side carrying Merry’s mast with him.
She looks back down, but Merry is definitely too far away for her to jump down. Damn it.
They watch as Luffy takes the giant piece of wood, which is no more than a sliver compared to Laboon, and slams it into a wound in the whale’s nose.
The ground shakes as the giant cetacean cries out in pain.
The crew has to scramble to get out of the way as Laboon smashes his face into the ledge trying to get the sliver out.
Luffy hits back and gets squashed flat for his trouble.
Of course, that doesn’t do anything to stop him.
They exchange blows a few more times before their captain is finally sent flying to smash into the side of the light house, only to jump up and declare, “It’s a tie!”
Laboon freezes, nonplussed by this declaration.
Luffy declares, “Your old friends may be dead, but I’m your new rival! And once my crew sails around the Grand Line, we’ll be sure to come back here to see you again.”
They whale pauses, eyes growing watery before they are treated to another earthshaking cry, but this time it’s one of happiness.
Wado can’t help smiling at that, Luffy may have just done something incredibly stupid, but at least his heart was in the right place.
As Luffy finishes painting something vaguely resembling the Strawhat’s mark over Laboon’s scars, telling the whale not to bash his head into the cliff anymore to avoid erasing the sign of their promise, Usopp goes to inspect the broken mast.
The sniper sighs in a mix of relief and consternation. It’s still in one piece despite having been smashed into the ground several times. He turns to the lighthouse keeper and rubs the back of his neck, “Mr. Crocus, do you, um, have anything we could use to repair our ship?”
Crocus raises his eyebrows, “You didn’t bring supplies for repairs?”
When Usopp just becomes even more sheepish the lighthouse keeper sighs, “Well, I have some metal plates left over from the construction work I did on Laboon. You should be able to make something out of that.”
Luffy starts to wrap his arms around the mast, but Nami stops him with a blow to the head, “No more ‘helping’ for you today!”
As Luffy rubs his head pouting, she points at the other two parts of the monster trio, “You two, carry it back down.”
Sanji makes an agreeable cooing noise and starts tidying up lose ropes and tackle to make it easier to carry.
Zoro crosses his arms and scowls, “I don’t need the cook’s help.”
Sanji puffs up in offence at his tone, “Nami-san said –“
He’s interrupted by the clangor of Usopp dropping the huge stack of thick metal plates Crocus had just tried to dump into his arms.
Face red with embarrassment, he starts quickly stacking the plates back together.
Sanji takes a step toward his younger crewmate before seeming to remember the task he was assigned. He turns toward Zoro, clearly about to start arguing again.
Nami rubs the bridge of her nose, “Sanji, help Usopp with the plates…Zoro, you better not break it.”
“Che,” Zoro gives her an indignant look before hoisting the mast up onto his shoulder and striding away
…toward the lighthouse.
Nami groans and calls after him then quickly ducks as Zoro spins around and starts stomping in the other direction.
Sanji and Usopp look up from where they were stacking the plates, startled as the huge piece of wood just barely whiffs over their heads.
Sanji starts to bristle up again, but Nami breaks in, “~Sanji-kun~, isn’t it almost time to get lunch ready?”
Sanji lights up at the reminder of the rare Blue-Finned Elephant Tuna that’s waiting in his galley, “Of course, Nami-san! I have the perfect menu planned!”
Without further delay, he picks up about three-fourths of the plates and brushes past Zoro so he can hurry back to Merry and get started.
Zoro glares after him, but Sanji is daydreaming about the food he’s about to make and doesn’t even notice as he disappears down the ladder, plates under one arm.
Usopp looks in dismay between the ladder and the sheets that are still left.
As Wado follows Zoro to the ladder, she sees the sniper’s eyes light up as he spots some torn sailcloth lying near the lighthouse.
She’s able to slide down to the bottom of the ladder before the distance gets too uncomfortable, but then she has to wait for Zoro.
Sanji gets to the Merry, dumps the plates on the deck, and trots up to the galley, almost dancing he’s so excited.
Zoro follows more slowly having to maneuver the long, awkward load as he climbs down the ladder.
She keeps scooting out as Zoro descends, wanting to get to Merry as soon as she can. She ignores Kitetsu snickering at her from the base of the cliff. Yubashiri is leaning a little distance away from him, watching her. He waits until she actually starts to get close to the ship before he pushes off the wall and comes to stand next to her.
Zoro finally gets close enough that she can scramble up the gang plank to see the damage for herself. She can feel Merry sniffling a little as she tries to be brave. A broken mast is not the worst thing that can happen to a ship, but that still must have stung quite a bit.
Lamar is grimacing as he presses one hand into the stump sticking up from the deck.
Serena has sat down so the branches that make her ‘hair’ can wrap around the wounded spot, there is a haze in the air from her anger on Merry’s behalf, “What was that lunatic doing?”
Wado glances over to where Laboon is now resting calmly on the ocean’s surface letting the freshly painted mark covering his scars dry.
She runs her hands along the rail comfortingly, trying to decide what she should say, “Apparently, he was trying to stop the whale from killing himself. If it’s any consolation, I think it worked.”
Merry calms, taking heart at the knowledge that her Captain had caused the damage for a reason.
Serena crackles with irritation, “He should have more respect. You can’t let humans think they can just do whatever they want.”
There’s a muddled reaction of denial and offered comfort, tinging into frustration as Serena furrows her brow in irritation at Merry forgiving the injury so easily.
Zoro reaches the shore and lays his burden down next to the ship. Usopp is right behind him carrying the plates stashed in a makeshift backpack he’s made out of the canvas he found.
The sniper drops the bag and flops down on the ground melodramatically sprawling out and panting.
Merry reaches out to them in greeting.
Usopp turns his head toward the ship. When he sees Zoro leaning against the mast watching him with bored patience, he pulls himself together and stands up to check things over.
As the swordsman yawns and start to slide down, the sniper calls out urgently, “Zoro, don’t fall asleep! I need your help! I’m just going to grab some nails real quick.”
Usopp runs into the storeroom, Zoro yawns and blinks a few times, stretching and rolling his shoulders to stay awake. Usopp comes back a minute later with a mallet and a bucket of nails.
“Okay, I need to you to lift this and line it up so it’s facing the right way.”
Zoro crouches down to heave the fifty foot piece of wood upright, but Usopp stops him by adding nervously, “Oh but before you do that, bend these plates so they fit. Then you can hold it while I nail them on.”
Zoro straightens back up, brow furrowed, “Is that all?”
Usopp stammers, “Uh, Please?”
Zoro lets a long breath out through his nose, crouches down and starts bending the thick metal plates around the mast.
Usopp inspects the fit of the plates and fusses over them a little, “Could you twist this one a bit more like this.” He gestures with his hands to indicate what he means. “And you bent this one so it’s going to be all sideways.”
Zoro give him a tired look, “Does it matter?”
Usopp’s eyes drop to his shoes as they scuff at the dirt, “…I guess not…Not like I really know what I’m doing.”
Zoro attempts to be encouraging, “Most of the stuff you make works…eventually.”
“Right,” Usopp rocks back and forth on his feet as he scans the area as if hoping someone more qualified will appear.
He sighs and then straightens up, claps his hands together, and injects some confidence into his voice, “Okay! Let’s get Merry back in shape to sail.”
Zoro heaves the mast upright. Usopp spends several minutes trying to get him to orient it correctly, but he keeps moving it the wrong way compared to the directions he’s given.
Usopp finally just nudges his shoulder in the direction he wants him to move.
Zoro glares at him.
“Do you want to be doing this all day? We’re almost there, just move a bit more this way.” The sniper pushes the swordsman a bit more to the side and despite the scowl on his face the larger man shuffles sideways.
“Okay, set it down, carefully.”
“I know.”
Besides a little crunching the splintered ends seem to fit together pretty well. Usopp sighs in relief, “Okay, now just hold it like that.”
A couple plates in Usopp wipes his brow and comments, “It’s a good thing we have you freakishly strong people to help out. Can you imagine what it would be like trying to fix this otherwise?”
Zoro gives a noncommittal grunt and tries to shift into a more comfortable position.
Usopp finishes the first layer and shakes his arms out. They’re getting tired from holding up the large plates with one hand while pounding the nails through the rivet holes with the other.
As the sniper starts on a second layer, Zoro lets go of the mast and, when it doesn’t show any sign of shifting, he rolls his shoulders again and wanders over to the railing unnoticed by Usopp.
By the time he’s almost done with the second layer, Usopp’s arms are shaking from the strain and he’s obviously feeling even more cross about the whole thing, “Of course, if Luffy weren’t so strong this wouldn’t have happened in the first place. How could that idiot just destroy our ship!?”
He’s answered with a loud snore and finally notices Zoro is no longer helping.
“Hey, I could use a little help over here, Zoro!”
*Snore*
“I’m not a shipwright, you know!”
*Snore*
Usopp continues to pound nails in, the ring of metal on metal filling the air, “How are you even sleeping through this?!”
About an hour later, Usopp finally nails down the last plate. He lets the mallet hang loosely in his fingers as he walks around the mast inspecting his work before collapsing backward in a sprawl on the deck with a groan, “My arms are killing me.”
Merry sends out a wave of gratitude toward him.
Usopp smiles up at the Straw Hat Jolly Roger once more flying over their ship, letting out a small “heh” of satisfaction.
Zoro is still asleep when Sanji comes out of the kitchen humming happily to himself with the freshly prepared Blue-finned Elephant Tuna laid out on several trays.
Just as he’s reaches the main deck a shriek echoes from the top of the cliff, causing the whale to dive for cover and the smile to drop off the cook’s face.
As Sanji quickly heads up the ladder to check on Nami, Usopp levers himself up and follow behind not wanting to miss out on food.
All is quiet for a little while, until another shriek of outrage from the navigator precedes Sanji and Luffy flying off the cliff into the water.
As Wado walks over to the railing to try to see what’s going on there is an explosion just a few hundred feet away out toward the ocean. Some kind of bird is circling away, “Was that vulture carrying explosives?” she asks no one in particular.
Pretty soon Sanji hauls Luffy onto the ledge just as the weirdos from before swim to shore, singed from the recent explosion.
Sanji immediately abandons his captain to recover on the ledge so he can help the blue haired woman out of the water and up the ladder to where Usopp and Nami are waiting.
Wado jumps down to where Luffy flopped on the shore, “Gumgum, what’s going on? What has Nami so worked up?”
“Well, apparently there’s this really important compass we need to sail on the Grand Line and Nami had one, but then Sanji threw Luffy and broke it…” As she’s saying this Luffy stands up and starts to run after the others, Wado follows a little ways, but the plant spirit’s ramble is cut off by Luffy extending his arm and sling shotting himself back to the top.
Wado sighs in exasperation and jumps back up onto Merry’s deck.
Yubashiri is scrutinizing Zoro, who hasn’t stirred through any of this, “Is something wrong with him?”
She walks over to the Swordsman and crouches down touching his shoulder, “Sometimes he pushes himself and then he does this. I think it’s his body’s way of defending itself from his stubbornness.”
In his sleep Zoro’s hand shifts to the hilt of her blade.
Yubashiri eyes the motion, “How long have you worked with him?”
Wado thinks back, “About nine years now, but I knew him before that.”
“Do you belong to his family?” Yubashiri asks, sorrow and jealousy tinting his voice.
Wado stands and leans on the railing next to Zoro, giving herself some time to think of what to say, “My previous master ran a school on a small island tucked in a remote corner of the East Blue. He gave me to his daughter when she turned twelve. I watched her grow up. She was shaping up to be a brilliant swordsman.”
She swallows down, I was there when she died.
She keeps her eyes on the swordsman as she continues, “When she died in an accident, this one, the only one with the determination to match her, asked to take me out into the world, to fulfill a promise they made to each other.”
She meets the other spirit’s eyes trying to convey the depth of their conviction, “He is going to be the greatest Swordsman in the World.”
Yubashiri studies her intently, digesting what she’s said, “I can understand why you’re so determined. You knew the girl personally…but even so I don’t think a memory will be enough to carry him all the way.”
Wado sucks in a breath, the words jamming in her throat, there’s so much more to it than that. How could he not understand?
“HA!” Kitetsu scoffs in contempt as he straightens up from where he was leaning against the wall by the stairs, mostly unnoticed until now, “So that’s it, the memory of a girl long dead, will justify slashing your way through anyone you come across to try and grant meaning to a meaningless death. That’s not noble, it’s delusional.”
Wado sees red.
The next thing she knows, she feels Serena’s long pointed fingers digging into her shoulders as the dryad pulls her off Kitetsu.
It’s probably only been a few seconds, but Kitetsu’s nose is bleeding where she punched him and she can feel the wet sting of claw marks on her arm.
Serena keeps a hand on Wado’s shoulder as she glares down at Kitetsu, still laying on the ground, teeth bared up at them. “It hasn’t even been a whole day yet and this is already getting old. You’re not stupid. You’ve already seen enough to know that’s not true.”
Yubashiri sneers, “Kitetsu is like a dog that barks at everything. His contempt is meaningless.”
The dryad turns her scowl on the self-righteous spirit, “You were fighting with him just a few hours ago.”
She turns back to the red-maned spirt who is just pulling himself to his feet still glaring at everyone, “You’ve obviously been through a lot, but we aren’t your enemies. Stop picking fights with everyone.”
Kitetsu hackles rise, “Don’t lecture me, fruit tree!”
She straightens up fully, watching him impassively.
He seems a bit thrown off by her lack of reaction, but rallies to snarl, “Don’t give me that look like you’re better than me.”
The dryad continues to watch him intently, “I’m just waiting to see if I will have to act.”
Lamar comes out of the galley holding some damp cloths, he tosses one to Wado and then to Kitetsu. The aggravated spirit automatically snatches the cloth out of the air then seems irritated that he accidently accepted it.
He glares at everyone then, smirking at the brownie says, “Thank You.”
And turns and stalks off toward Merry’s stern.
They all stare after him as he leaves.
Lamar huffs, as if to say ‘what should I have expected’ and turns to Wado, “Well, how’s your shoulder doing?”
“It’s fine, it’s mostly stopped bleeding already,” she grimaces, “I shouldn’t have punched him.”
“Eh,” the brownie wrinkles his nose weighing that assertion. “He was clearly picking a fight.”
Wado pulls the cloth away and inspects her shoulder, “But I acted without thinking. It’s a weakness letting someone push my buttons like that.”
She turns to Yubashiri, “I guess there’s a reason we don’t often try to convince people with words. We’re really no good at it.”
Yubashiri grimaces at accidently grouping himself with Kitetsu, “Let me explain what I meant.” He takes a moment to gather his thoughts, “I once belonged to a proud and accomplished military family. I served them for generations and saw warriors of all kinds on the battlefield. Idealists are often brave, but also reckless; they throw themselves on the pyre of a cause and burn out.”
“Hmm,” Serena seems to consider his words, “The swordsman does love to find hills to try and die on.”
Betrayal! “Hey!”
The dryad smiles at her, “But usually when he gets hurt, it’s because he was trying to protect someone else.”
Yubashiri looks thoughtful.
Eventually, everyone comes back down, including the two weirdos. As they start to get ready to head out, Wado asks Gumgum, “They’re coming with us?”
Boshi breaks in with enthusiasm, “We’re giving them a ride back to their base!”
Wado is confused, “Why? Who are they?”
“Uh,” Boshi scratches his head, “Mr. 9 and Miss Wednesday.”
Wado’s eyes widen and snap toward Zoro, who is still sound asleep. Her ears droop, “Well, I’m sure he’ll be awake by then.”
Boshi’s not listening, “It’s only a few hours to Whiskey Peak! Our first island on the Grand Line! This is going to be awesome!”
She heads toward where Serena is leaning on the front railing examining the water, intending to discuss what they can do to prepare for the ambush they are probably headed into.
However, as she nears, the dryad distracts her by commenting, “This may be a problem.”
Serena’s voice is as level as ever, but her eyes are intent on the water. Wado rushes over to see what new trouble has shown up.
Swarming alongside Merry is a school of large fish sporting fangs as long as her hand, their bodies nothing more than spiny skeletons covered in blue and red mottled skin. When her shadow falls on the water the fish start jumping and snapping at the air trying to reach them.
Boshi is suddenly beside her leaning out between the railings, “Cool!”
Alarmed, Wado yanks him back as one of the fish jumps high out of the water and tries to swallow him whole.
…She probably just unintentionally saved the fish.
Looking around she realizes the water around them is still teaming with spirits from all four blues. Spirits from climates that normally would never encounter each other are suddenly in close proximity.
Now that they are a little ways out, whatever had drawn them up the mountain seems to be wearing off.
A little distance away a herd of deer-fish cross-breeds flee from something that resembles a giant lynx with antlers and spines along its back.
A trio of long-haired sleek humanoids colored in varying shades of blue and trailing wisps of frost glide close to the ship. They give her and Serena wide, sharp toothed smiles.
A little too wide to be truly friendly.
Wado returns the grin in kind, showing her fangs a little. Fight or no fight, she’s happy either way.
Below them, the skeleton fish turn almost as one and leap at them, jaws snapping in the air.
Wado jerks, wondering if she’s about to see a massacre, only to freeze when the humanoid water spirits suddenly elongate into serpentine creatures with horns and fangs of their own and start snapping the fanged fish out of the water, swallowing them whole while making pleased grumbles.
They must be elementals of some kind because as they linger near Merry, the temperature starts to drop and snow starts to condense out of the air.
Luffy is thrilled, he starts sweeping the stuff into a pile with elongated arms yelling, “Snowman!”
Usopp cheers and starts gathering up a base for his own masterpiece, “Let me show you how champion sculpts snow!”
Serena crosses her arms and narrows her eyes at the creatures, irritated at the cold.
Done with their snacks the horned serpents turn their attention back to the ship. The hunger on their faces clearly apparent now.
Wado shows her teeth again in warning.
One of them unhinges their jaw and lunges at her.
She springs back, giving them a swat across the nose for the attempt.
Another one tries to snap at Serena, she puts her fingers together and drives her hand into their gaping mouth, effectively spearing them through the roof of their mouth and causing them to rear back with a choked growl, blood leaking from between their serrated teeth.
The serpents recoil into a knot to regroup. The one Wado scratched gives them a sly glance, before gesturing with their head in the direction of Merry’s stern.
Wado narrows her eyes a growl building in her chest, “Don’t you dare.”
The serpent flicks their tongue out mockingly at them and the trio dives and starts to circle Merry.
The Strawhat spirits watch tensely, trying to figure out what the serpents are up to.
They feel Merry becoming alarmed.
Yubashiri catches on first, “They’re messing with the current. We’re turning.”
Boshi jumps up on the railing and shouts down at the serpents, “Hey! Cut it out! You’re upsetting Merry!”
When they ignore him, he growls and leaps off the railing.
Wado lunges for him, but misses.
Just before he hits the water the one with claw marks on their muzzle arcs out of the water just far enough to swallow the capuchin whole.
With cries of alarm, Lamar and Wado lunge forward about to follow him into the water.
Serena grabs them both by the backs of their shirts before they can dive in, “How will that help?”
Just as Wado pulls loose and is about to demand what she thinks they should do, the serpent rears back up out of the water beside the ship, eyes wide with alarm.
They start to shake their head back and forth, still not making any noise as they start to fall behind the ship.
They all move toward Merry’s stern to keep water spirit in sight. The problem is the attacker is starting to sink as well as falling behind…
They have to do something, “If Boshi gets too far away, while still in the throat of that thing, it’s going to take him forever to recover!”
Lamar glances at her in confusion, before deciding, “Serena, if you give me a tether then Wado can toss me out there. I’ll get him out and you can reel us back in.”
Serena nods her head and produces a coil of vine. Yubashiri goes stiff like he just remembered they’re all crazy, “Just let him sleep it off!”
Wado shakes her head, “It would be safer for me to go.”
Lamar gives them a severe look, opening his mouth to retort, but before he can say anything a bolt of lightning streaks out of the sky and strikes the serpent.
As the thunder rattles Merry’s planks, a formidable storm spirit drops out of the clouds.
They have the appearance of a giant bird of prey, with a wingspan as long as Merry and a formidable beak like a sea eagle.
They fold their wings and dive for the water spirit they just roasted as the body starts to sink.
Just before the body goes under the eagle grasps onto their prey and starts hauling upward.
But before the giant bird can lift the serpent fully out of the water, the other two water spirits pop out of the water and sink their teeth into sky spirit’s legs trying to pull them under.
The bird screeches in anger and pain, but they can’t defend themselves while putting all their effort into flapping hard enough to avoid being dragged under.
Wado jumps up on the railing and leaps as hard as she can just managing to land on the back of the closer serpent. She wraps her legs around their neck and sinks her claws into its muzzle pulling backward.
She feels something tug on her mane. Lamar gripes at her “Hey! Don’t just go running off on your own!”
The brownie jumps off her back and wraps his legs around the bird’s other leg.
“There wasn’t time to discuss it!” she responds through gritted teeth, most of her attention on getting the sea monster to let go.
“You shouldn’t jump without a tether, idiot!” Lamar insists while leaning down toward the other water spirit with his hand starting to emit a menacing dark glow.
The jaws of sea snake in the bird’s grasp lever open with an unsettling ‘pleh’ and Boshi pops out covered in saliva, but still grinning. He climbs along the limp body until he gets in range of where Wado is still fighting.
“Don’t jump on me, you’re-!”
Boshi lands on her shoulder, splattering snake spit all over her shirt and mane, “-disgusting.”
The one Lamar is threatening has gone cross eyed trying to keep his hands in sight, just before he touches them, they decide they’ve had enough and let go to dive under water.
A moment later the one Wado is attacking follows and she has to quickly let go so she can grab the eagle’s other leg.
Boshi addresses the eagle cheerfully, “Hey, thanks for the help, those snakes were a pain! Could you drop us back on our ship?”
The massive spirit gazes intently at them in either curiosity or irritation. It’s difficult to tell with the beak. Boshi just continues to grin up at the bird expectantly.
They come to a conclusion and release a sigh as they let go of the serpent they roasted so they can gain some altitude.
It only takes a few flaps for them catch up to Merry and land on the back railing so everyone can get off.
“Hey, wait here just a moment.” Lamar runs through the wall of the galley.
Boshi starts to asks, “Hey do you –“
Serena crouches down so she can bop the capuchin on the head, “Bad monkey, getting yourself eaten.”
He pouts rubbing his head, “It was only for a minute.”
Lamar comes trotting back out with the misty essence of something he’s pulled out of the pantry cupped in his hands.
He tips his hand and the mist solidifies into a chunk of Sea King meat large enough to make lunch for their Captain, “It would have been much more difficult to get Boshi back without your help.”
The eagle stares down at him intently for a few breaths, before arcing their neck down to pick the chunk of meat up in their beak.
The thunder spirit leaps throwing up a whirlwind as they take off.
As the bird drops behind the ship they toss the offering high into the air. With a flick of their wings another bolt of lightning comes down and the eagle catches the now charred meat and quickly bolts it down whole.
Boshi is impressed, “Lucky! I wish I could eat like that!”
Lamar rolls his eyes, “You do.”
“But you always get mad.”
“It’s not like that stops you.”
They are interrupted from watching the huge sea eagle fly off by Gumgum calling urgently from near the front of the ship, “This is really bad!”
Wado tries to mentally prepare herself as she chases after Boshi who is grinning with excitement as he runs through the galley so he can see what’s ahead of them.
Wado runs through the front wall of the galley and freezes at the daunting sight ahead of them.
Somehow, despite the sea being fairly calm right where they are, they are only seconds away from sailing into a hurricane filled with lighting and icebergs.
She can just glimpse the bodies of various elemental spirits tumbling through the water fleeing and fighting.
After that one frozen moment of terror burns itself into her mind, the next couple of hours are a blur of one emergency after another.
The humans are sent scrambling around the deck, constantly adjusting the sails and rudder to keep moving in the right direction. The log pose may point unerringly to their destination, but currents and wind both seem to be intent on doing everything they can to turn them away.
The whole time the weather shifts so quickly there’s no chance to adjust. They just have to endure being soaked, frozen and then boiled as they struggle to keep the ship on course. The waves lift higher as they clash, fog swirls into existence as cold air hits warm, snow and ice condenses as humid air hits freezing, lightning strikes through a continuous rumbling out of clouds rolling like a pot boiling.
Things aren’t much better in the spirit realm. Aggressive spirits are all around them. They close in on Merry, thinking it will be easy to intimidate and tear down the will of a small ship forcing her to give up her charges.
The little ship sails on, peaking over mountainous waves that give a view of the roiling storm on all sides, then sliding down into valleys where it appears that those same mountains are about to fall on top of them.
Merry’s boards shift under their feet as she twists under the pressure of the waves.
Nami is shouting directions as everyone else scrambles to make adjustments and repairs. They are pouring their determination and faith into the ship and she in turn has put her faith in them.
The energy circling back and forth builds into a resonance. Merry seems to take on a glow in the darkness of the storm. A visible sign of the strength of Luffy’s crew.
The monsters surrounding them hesitate; some go to find easier prey. Those that still venture forward are struck with claws, teeth, thorns, and pure destructive energy.
Wado just happens to be looking in the right direction when a long-necked creature with a blunt muzzle full of teeth rears up just above the railing.
Almost before she knows what’s going on, its head snakes low across the deck as it lunges toward Kitetsu, who is currently confronting some spear wielding creatures that resemble giant frogs.
The others have tended to stick close together to better guard each other’s backs, but the red-maned spirit keeps getting separated from everyone else as if it doesn’t even occur to him to trust others to help him fight.
Wado lunges and anchors her fore claws into the creature’s long neck so she can start tearing at it with her back legs.
With a shriek the monster flings its long neck back with a snap. Wado’s claws score long marks along the beast’s thick, slimy hide as she slides, but manages to hold on.
However, as it continues to snap its head back and forth, her claws keep slipping backwards.
She can see Lamar and Serena running toward them.
“I’ll be fine!” she yells as loud as she can, hoping they can hear her. She doesn’t want them to do anything unnecessarily risky to help her.
They pause for a moment in uncertainty, just as her claws finally slip free. She has just a moment to contemplate how awful things are about to get before she hits the water.
The water is freezing, then hot, then freezing again. The monster’s tail and bulbous body pass by. It seems to be above her or maybe beside her as she’s lifted by one of the huge waves.
She can feel her connection to her blade rapidly attenuating as she falls behind Merry.
She can’t breathe or tell which way the surface is. The feeling of being deprived of the energy she needs to hold together has her trying vainly to paddle in the direction of the ship despite being too slow and completely turned around as well.
As her energy runs out and she starts to dissolve into unconsciousness, she hopes Yubashiri explains things to Serena and Lamar before they do something foolish trying to reach her.