"Say, why are you two here, anyway?" asked Zoro, raising an eyebrow and pointing at Mr. 9 and Vivi.
"SO SLOW!" they gasped, looking awed at just how slow he could be. I mean, seriously, they'd been here for three days at least!
"We're taking them to their hometown," Lucy replied casually, reclining on her special seat. "The place is called Whiskey Peak."
"You mean we're giving them a lift? It's not like we owe them anything. They didn't even help fix the ship."
"Neither did we," I pointed out. "We let that carpenter dude do it himself."
"Yeah," Miss Moron agreed. "We owe 'em nothing."
He shrugged. "Well, not like I care." Then why did you ask...? He knelt down and sneered at the two in question, who were sitting side-by-side. They scooted away nervously. "Those look like faces that have nasty ideas..." he mused, smirking. "What were your names again?"
They leaned back. Mr. 9's face twitched... I really have to get a cure for Tourette's Syndrome. "Please call me Mr. 9, baby," he mumbled with a fixed smile.
Vivi sweated bullets. "I'm Miss Wednesday."
"Really." The swordsman put a finger to his chin. "I've been thinking about those names since I first heard them. Maybe I've heard them before, maybe I haven't... well, either way—" He was suddenly cut off by a sharp punch on the back of the head from me, making him bend forward and smash his face against the deck. He glared at me, a fiery green aura flowing out from him. "Eh? You think you can hurt me, Miss Demigoddess?"
My eye twitched, a blue fiery aura erupted around me. "Shut up! Stop picking on them, we're just returning them to their hometown and nothing else! Even if they were planning something, it wouldn't matter 'cuz we could just stop them, right?"
A few hours later, Nami called a meeting on the upper deck, gathering all us Straw Hats together, as well as the Baroque Works agents. She had a serious look on her face that drew the attention of everyone on board. When Nami was serious, either someone was about to get beaten up big-time, or she had something important to say.
"Okay, listen up," she said sternly, making us all sit straight. She clenched her short shorts tightly. "We all have to stay on our toes. That storm we all experienced—" she glared at Zoro and planted three firm punches on his head, making him gasp in pain and confusion before falling to the floor, "except for someone, who kept sleeping no matter how many times we tried to wake him up, was crazy. But I want you all to know that I won't be surprised by something like that again! I can finally grasp the fearsomeness of this ocean, and I won't let this sea defeat me again! I will navigate us through the Grand Line!"
Usopp was still uncertain and shivered, remembering that violent hurricane/blizzard/every other storm you could imagine. "Are we really... gonna be okay?"
She smirked. "We'll be fine! Something good'll come our way." She looked out to sea and grinned, pointing. "For instance, look! The first leg of our journey is complete! We're finally at Whiskey Peak!"
We all looked at the area she was highlighting, then gasped. Shrouded in fog, we could just see what looked like cacti the size of Laboon poking out through thin, cloudy tendrils. Lucy giggled, Sanji whooped, Usopp gasped, Zoro blinked, and I put my hands on my hips, sighing in relief. We were here! Speaking of which, we'd been seriously late because of our accident. I hoped the events in Alabasta would adjust to the change.
"Land ho!" announced Lucy.
Sanji lit a cigarette. "So, this is Whiskey Peak. Sure is a weird-looking island."
"This is the Grand Line," I said, though I was a bit awed by the sheer size of the cacti myself. "Get used to strange islands from now on."
"Check out the huge cacti!" Lucy pointed out.
As the Going Merry entered the fog surrounding the island, Mr. 9 and Vivi jumped and smoothly perched themselves on the railing. We all blinked and looked at them.
"This is our stop," the wannabe king declared.
Vivi grinned like a fake. "Thanks for the ride, baby!"
"We'll meet again, if it is destined to be!"
In unison, they said, "Bye bye, baby!"
Then they back flipped off of the ship and swam off to the shore.
Nami, Usopp, and I sweatdropped.
"There they go," said Nami monotonously.
Usopp blinked and tilted his head. "Who were those guys anyway? We never did find out."
I sighed. "Usopp, Usopp, Usopp," I chided, "we already know who they are. They're Mr. 9 and Miss Wednesday. What you wanna know is what their occupation is, what they do."
"Who cares?" Lucy cut in, giggling and leaning forward on the figurehead. "We're here!"
We turned to the island. Sure enough, the Merry had sailed close enough that we would've been shipwrecked again if it wasn't for the fact that the ocean current was taking us directly through a river that divided the island in two. Nami gasped.
"There's a river through the island!" she noted. "Looks like we can dock there." The ginger navigator motioned toward an area off to the left. I squinted through the fog.
"Geez, this fog is so thick it makes the island kinda creepy," I said.
Usopp shivered. "You don't think there'll be monsters and stuff here, do you?"
Sanji looked bored. "Could be. This is the Grand Line."
Lucy grinned and looked at us. "If there are monsters, we'll just leave!"
"No we can't!" Nami shot back sternly. "Don't forget there's a certain amount of time we need to stay at this island."
"Why?"
I sighed. "Do you ever listen to anything, idiot? The Log Pose has to take time to adapt itself to the island's magnetic field so it can take us to the next island on our path. If we try to set sail without letting it reset, we'll have no idea where we're going and could end up lost for days. We might encounter another one of those weird-ass storms like before, except this time the consequences might be that we die. Lucy, if you die that means you don't get to be Pirate Queen. If we set out before the Log Pose can reset, you don't get to be Pirate Queen. Do you understand?"
"Ah, I see."
"Good."
"One more thing," Nami added. "The time it takes the Log Pose to reset itself is different for each island, for some islands, it might take only a few seconds, or even a few months."
I nodded. "Some island's fields can't be recorded for years."
"Years!?" the others gasped.
"What!?" Usopp complained. "So even if we want to get off of this monster island, we might not be able to leave for DAYS because of the Log!?"
"That's right," Nami and I said in unison.
Lucy giggled. "Well, if that happens, we'll worry about it then. Let's just go!"
"Lucy's right," Zoro agreed. "Let's go. Just thinking about it isn't gonna get us anywhere."
"And no matter what happens, I'll protect Nami-san, Lucy-chan, and Yuril-chan!" Sanji added.
I glared at him, "Shut , ero-cook! I don't need your dumbass protection! I can take care of myself just fine, thank you very much! But yeah, we just gotta go. Haven't you ever heard the saying, 'No pain, no gain', Usopp?"
The sniper cried anime tears. "The pain part is what's got me worried..." He clutched his throat and made annoying, high-pitched retching sounds. "Hey, everyone, listen, I think I've contracted a serious case of I-can't-get-on-this-island disease..."
"Alright!" Nami said. "I've already decided. We're going! But remember, be prepared to run or fight at any time."
"S-So that means you haven't heard of my terrible disease, have you...?"
"Nope," I confirmed through half-lidded eyes. "Never heard of it and don't care about it, so don't bother explaining."
"I wonder what we'll encounter here..." Sanji mused.
I smirked mysteriously as Usopp's bemoaning continued. "You know," I said slowly, "I've heard discomforting stories about islands close to Reverse Mountain. They tend to have natives that are hostile to everyone with unnaturally large noses. The islanders also usually hate people who wear overalls..."
The cowardly liar shivered in fear and sank to the floor.
Sanji's eyes turned to hearts. "Ah, Yuril-chan is so beautiful when she's purposefully scaring people!"
I punched him hard in the eye as a reward, drawing a snicker from Zoro.
The river carried us further inland and we all peered through the fog, trying to see what was waiting for us through the slightly moist curtain. I could just make out some shadowy shapes that could've been people, but what Usopp declared were most certainly hordes of monsters that were good at disguising themselves. I hit him over the head to shut him up, because I was getting ticked off at his cowardliness.