Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 220 UNDER THE DEEP BLUE SEA

“Why did we do something so stupid!?” Nami yelled as we got back to the ship. “We barely escaped those stupid marines!” 

“Come on, it was great,” I said as I dropped Sanji on the deck. I had woken him up for the concert, but it wasn’t long until he was bleeding again. He was better, but he needed more time in the Makuramoto. “We got to announce to the world that we were back for real.”

“You think those other Straw Hats were arrested?” Robin asked. 

“For sure, and their transformation jutsus will have ended about 10 minutes ago. I’m sure the marines are having a field day,” I laughed. 

“Well it’s good to be back on the Sunny,” Luffy said. “I know we have been through a lot, but I think it’s time we head out. I was getting bored on this island.”

“Here, here,” Zoro said. “Now how do we sink?” He bounced on the plastic-like coating at our feet. The Thousand Sunny was currently coated in a shiny bubble. About an inch thick, the deck was spongy as we walked around it. 

“That is done from here,” A voice said from the upper deck. We all turned to see Silvers Rayleigh looking down at us from the railing. The old man still looked like a beggar, but he had completed the coating of our ship to reach Fishman Island. His hand moved to a valve that was sticking out of the plastic coating on the ship. 

“Old man!” Luffy yelled jumping up to him. The first-mate of the Jolly Rogers accepted the hug, giving me a nod as I waved up to him. “Where have you been?” 

“Final touches on your ship,” Rayleigh said. “So you may have noticed the bubble coating everything on the ship? You will be going 30,000 feet under the sea. Normally pressures that deep would kill you. But the special coating on your ship allows that pressure to be negated. Simply open this valve, allowing air into the bubble…” He continued on. Talking about how the bubble made our ship lose it’s buoyancy, I chocked it up to more Oda magic. Nami was wide eyed as she learned. Most everyone else had a lost look, nodding along absently. 

It wasn’t long until we were saying our goodbyes. “Sorry I didn’t make it for your training,” I said, shaking the old man’s hand. 

“No problem. You feel stronger, that’s for sure,” he said. “I’m sure you’ll do fine in the New World.”

“Hope so. Any advice?” I asked. 

“Have fun,” he said. “The New World is tough, and ruthless. Make sure to stop and have fun when it gets to be too much.”

“Will do,” I said. Luffy and he were soon saying goodbye again and we were off. Nami opened the valve, allowing the air into the bubble. The thick soap bubble expanded out, creating a barrier around us. 

“Air bladder is now off,” Franky said as he came out from under the ship. The man was a giant robot now. Huge box shaped shoulders, giant golem like hands. He was nice enough to still wear a Hawaiian shirt and speedo though. I hoped to see all the cool stuff he could do later.

“Time to go,” Nami said as we began to sink. I couldn’t help but hold my breath as the ship went lower and lower. Watching the water rise up the bubble around us was the creepiest sight I had seen in a long time. It wasn’t natural to go under the water. I spent a lot of time scared what the hell was under us, and now I would know.

The ocean swallowed us and the sails immediately caught onto a current. Propelling us away from the Archipelago way faster than we normally sailed. 

“Holy shit,” I said as the first giant whale appeared in the distance. The crew and I marveled at the view as the top of the water got further away. Light streaming in we could see everything around us. The water was crystal clear. Behind us was the roots of the trees that made up the Archipelago, they went down far further than we could see. Ahead were pods of huge whales and other sea kings as they swam all around us. 

“This is not what I expected,” I admitted. The air getting colder as we went further down. 

“It’s amazing,” Luffy said, sitting on the railing he touched the bubble that surrounded us. 

“This current should take us to where we need to go,” Nami said. The water moved around us, pushing us on as we went deeper down into the depths. 

“I want to catch one of those guys,” Luffy said as he pointed at a sea king as big as an island. He wiped his mouth, salivating at the sight of another meal.  

“How about we see all the cool stuff Franky added to his body?” I offered instead. Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp were soon crowding around as the cyborg showed all the weird stuff he had changed about himself. Way taller now, his wave of blue hair was shaved, but as Usopp pushed his nose it shot out to be the normal blue wave again. Though he was a cyborg I could feel that he was strong through his Haki. 

“Where did you get sent to Franky?” I asked. 

“I went to an island where it was always snowing,” the big man admitted in a scratchy voice. “But it was the home of the great Vegapunk.”

“Vegapunk?” Chopper asked. 

“Yes, he is one of the greatest scientists in the world,” Franky said. “I didn’t meet him though. His lab had been long abandoned. But I learned a lot.”

“I’ve heard of him,” I admitted. “He was the guy who made Bartholomew Kuma into an android and made the Pacifistas.” 

“Those guys that were attacking the fake us?” Zoro asked. 

“Yeah.”

“About Kuma,” Franky said. “...I arrived on the Archipelago a few weeks ago. When I did, I found him guarding the Thousand Sunny.”

“What?! Why would he do that?!” Luffy yelled. 

“I don’t know. He was beat up when I arrived. The only thing he said was, ‘Straw Hats have arrived. Mission complete.’ Apparently he kept our ship safe all these years,” Franky said. 

“Sending us away helped us out too,” I said. “Not sure of his motive. But he helped us a lot. We should thank him if we ever get the chance.” The Straw Hats were silent. Then Sanji woke up. 

“Ah!” He yelled as he sat up. “Weston! Send me back,” he pleaded as he jumped up. “I am still feeling the after effects.”

I frowned, studying him. “I don’t know. You look better now,” I said. “Look at Nami and Robin.” He turned to them, his eyes turning to hearts, but his nose didn’t bleed. “You’re cured.”

“No! I’m not,” he said, punching his nose. I grabbed his arm. 

“Tell us about what hell you went through,” I said. 

He shivered visibly, uncaring that we were already deep under the ocean. “I can’t talk about it,” he said.

“It’s okay, you’re among friends,” I assured. 

“I-I-It was awful,” he said crying. “There were nothing but men. They dressed up like women, but it was a trap. All a trap. I can’t remember much, but I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”

“Ha!” I said. “Luffy went to an island of women.” 

“What?!” He roared, his eyes almost catching fire with the hate he felt for the captain.  

“It wasn’t all that great,” Luffy said, annoyed. 

“Don’t say that! Don’t ever say that!” Sanji yelled. 

“Quit overreacting,” Luffy said as he stared out at the ocean. 

“I went to an island with nothing but food,” Usopp said. 

“What?!” Luffy roared as he turned to Usopp. The long nosed man was far more muscular than he was before. 

“Oh yeah, I gained a lot of weight too. Took a lot of work to get muscles back,” Usopp said. 

“Forget Fishman Island,” Luffy said. “We need to go to that island.”

“It’s too far away,” Usopp assured. “What about you, Weston?” 

“Isle of the Sea Kings,” I said. “I learned how to fight from a merfolk lady. She looked like an orca.”

“A what?” Usopp asked. I wasn’t sure if killer whales were a thing in One Piece. 

“An orca is like a deadly whale…a killer whale,” I ended up saying. “Sea Kings would come to her island when they were wounded. She would take care of them. I learned quite a bit.”

And the conversation continued on as we talked about our own little adventures. Brook talked about being summoned by a cult, and dealing with the double jointed people. Chopper talked about the advanced technology of the cavemen. Nami spoke of the friends she made on Weatherpiea. Only Robin was silent about what she did. I was sure it was all top secret anyway. Working with the Revolutionary Army she probably helped them take down some governments or something. 

We laughed and talked for a while. Simply staring out into the ocean as it passed us by. I considered awakening Nen in all of them. It could help them, but it was probably too much to ask. Only Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and I had learned Haki. I wasn’t sure how much they actually understood it. I kind of thought it might affect their fighting styles to learn a whole new power system. 

But I should probably awaken it in Nami and Robin. They would probably be pissed if they learned I helped Hancock learn a method to slow down aging, but left them high and dry. Since they didn’t know Haki, it wouldn’t be too much information for them. I was thinking when best to do it when Nami got everyone’s attention. 

“The Downward Plume is coming up!” She yelled. 

We all ran to the fore, watching the giant rock wall approach. Rayleigh had mentioned that the currents around the Archipelago all led to the Downward Plume. The Plume was a high powered current that shot the boats down to the 20,000 feet mark. And was a must for anyone that wanted to make it to Fishman Island in one piece. 

We stood staring at the powerful current in awe of it. Huge amounts of water could be seen to converge there and be pulled down where a large wall of rock was. 

“What the hell is that?!” Usopp yelled, pointing ahead. 

At first we didn’t see it. The giant octopus thing had blended in well with the surroundings. So far down there was hardly any light anyway. The giant sea king had about 40 tentacle arms, a small face, and a huge head behind the face that made him resemble an octopus. 

“It’s a Kraken!” Nami yelled. 

“Oh, guess it’s time to fight,” Luffy said. “How do we get out of this thing?” 

“Hold it, let’s not jump to conclusions,” I said as I moved forward. “It doesn’t seem to have any inter-” I stopped talking as the giant sea monster broke apart a ship with a single blow as it moved toward the Plume. “And…nevermind,” I added as people started to freak out. 

“What are we going to do?” “Luffy, save us” “I don’t want to die!” The cowards yelled. I stepped up, jumping to the lion head ornament at the front. 

“Keep us steady, I’ll deal with this guy,” I said as we picked up speed. 

“I want to fight it!” Luffy yelled.

“Later, just want to get it out of our way,” I said as I did the hand seals. Pouring chakra into the water ahead of us a massive dragon far exceeding the height of our ship was made from the water. It roared as it moved forward, straight for the kraken. The Kraken met it head on, but I continued pouring in chakra as we got closer and closer. For a moment I thought my strength would fail, but then the kraken slipped and lost it’s grip on the rocks. It was pulled into the Downward Plume as my chakra-dragon dissipated. 

“Here we go!” I yelled as the plume came forward. The kraken was already long gone by the time we got to it. The speed of the boat increased exponentially and we were all thrown to the deck. Laughing as we went far into the depths of the ocean.