The next morning, I must've woken up on the wrong side of the bed (er, make that crow's nest) or something, because I was NOT feeling good at all.
I sat down to breakfast in a depressed mood. I was dressed in my usual leather jacket, eye patch, and jeans, but today I had on a shirt that had a purple-yellow scratchy design on it and hugged my figure a little, which was fine by Sanji but not by me. "Dammit," I muttered. "This sucks…" I took a bite of today's breakfast—pancakes made with nutmeg, with some blueberries dotting it here and there—dejectedly. It didn't help that Lucy was stealing everybody's food, as per usual.
Sanji blinked. "What are you talking about, Yuril-chan?"
Usopp facepalmed. "Don't even bother explaining it to that moron... he's just too much of a idiot."
Zoro stepped into the kitchen and plopped down at the table, yawning. He started stuffing his face with pancakes, probably wanting to get back to sleep as soon as possible. I tic-pulsed. Lazy-ass Marimo bastard.
"Oi, Marimo!" I grumbled, my eye twitching. "Fight me!"
Everyone gave me weird looks.
"Why do you want to fight me?" he asked in confusion, a little bit of pancake still hanging out of his mouth.
My eye twitched some more. "I dunno! I just do! Fight me!"
"...Whatever." The idiot swordsman went back to eating.
Nami looked at me worriedly. "Are you feeling alright, Yuril?"
"Not really," I admitted, staring down. "I don't really know. Something's just really bugging me and I REALLY NEED TO FREAKIN' FIGHT SOMEONE RIGHT FREAKIN' NOW!" I pouted and took an angry bite of blueberry-nutmeg pancake.
Usopp gave a frightened squeak and hid behind Carue. Vivi sweatdropped. Sanji swooned and Lucy just sat there laughing like a complete idiot, which of course she was.
After breakfast was over, Lucy and Usopp washed the dishes with the dirty rags, which earned the sniper an angry kick from Sanji, though he just told Lucy lovingly that she didn't have to do any work, to which she readily agreed. Zoro and I started our fight, though the green-haired swordsman was more than annoyed at the fact that he hadn't been allowed his precious nap time. Honestly, what was he? A kindergartener?
The fight was just a practice one and only lasted about five minutes, but it made me feel a lot better. By the time action started up again, I was back to my usual self and keeping lookout. Lucy was sitting cross-legged on the railing of the upper deck, which was an unusual spot for her. Vivi and Zoro were also there, the desert princess leaning back against the railing and the swordsman attempting to actually get some sleep.
"I wonder if it'll snow," I heard Lucy muse.
Zoro snorted. "How the hell can it snow? It has to be 80 degrees out here."
I glared down at him with a tic-pulse. "Yeah, well, while you were sleeping the rest of us experienced the Grand Line's weather firsthand! One moment it was just like this, and the next, the Merry was covered in five inches of SNOW! Not that you'd know, because YOU WERE SLEEPING!"
He sweatdropped. "You're beginning to sound like the Sea Witch now."
"Eh? Did you say something, Zoro?" the ginger-haired navigator in question said in a falsely sweet tone from somewhere else on the ship. The local Marimo wisely shut up.
Lucy laughed us off and grinned at Vivi. "Hey, it'll snow again, won't it?"
The bluenette shrugged. "Well, it's not as if it'll never snow again, but that first stretch of ocean after Reverse Mountain is unique. The seven magnetic fields emanating from Reverse Mountain affect everything in the area." She frowned and looked at the horizon. "Nevertheless, we must stay on our guard. It's quite rare to have such a violent trip as that first one, but this sea is still more difficult to navigate than any other in the world."
"I'd like to see Nami navigate the Bermuda Triangle," I laughed. "Now that would be some real skill!"
Our straw hatted captain blinked up at me. "What? What's the Berma-thingy?"
"The Bermuda Triangle," I explained, "is a triangular stretch of ocean in my world located just off the southeast coast of the continent my home was on. It's a mysterious stretch of ocean that has left scientists and sailors baffled. Nobody has been able to make it out of there alive, even with the much more advanced technology we have there than you do here. I guess you can say it's the Grand Line of my world, though nobody knows what's in it. Some theories say it's a top secret government base. Others say it's a hotspot for aliens. Still others say it's a monster nest."
"Cool!" cried Lucy. "And you said your world was boring!"
"Well, it is."
"Oh."
"Oi, you louts!" Sanji called from the kitchen, coming out with a platter of teal-colored iced drinks. He smirked. "How about a round of my Special Drink?"
Carue dashed down the stairs from the back of the ship, and Usopp, Lucy, Zoro and I grinned at each other before following suit. The drink was really good. I couldn't say for sure what exactly was in it, but it was nice and cold, a great contrast to the warm day. Though to be honest, the day wasn't all that hot at all. I mean, there I was in a leather jacket and jeans, and it was supposedly 80 degrees, and I wasn't even breaking a sweat.
"Hey, Usopp, make some fishing gear for us!" Lucy ordered, her straw hanging out of her mouth.
Zoro grinned. "Fishing gear? Great idea!"
Usopp nodded. "Alright! I'll make some really artistic lures!"
"You may be a wimp and a liar," I told him, grinning, "but you sure are artsy! But, aren't you guys forgetting something? We don't have any bait because some people—" I glared at Lucy pointedly, who pouted at me "ate it all."
"Hey, that's right," the sniper grumbled. "I almost forgot."
"Ah, Yuril-chan! You're so beautiful when you're angry!"
"I DON'T WANNA HEAR THAT FROM YOU ANYMORE!" I roared, punching the love cook in the face, though that was about as pointless as trying to outrun a buffalo.
Carue was attempting to put his straw in his drink in vain. Sanji, luckily, forgot about me and turned his attention on Duckzilla, correcting the animal's drinking process. Once his straw had been successfully placed in his cup, Carue gave a quack of accomplishment (though he hadn't really done anything) and started sipping up Sanji's Special Drink faster than Usian Bolt could run a race.
"You like that, eh?" the cook said, swapping out the now-empty glass for a refill. The huge duck inhaled that one, too, and barely stopped to take a breath as more and more were placed in reach of his bill. "Tasty, ain't it?"
"Whoa, look at him go!" I gasped.
"Cool!" giggled Lucy.
Usopp stared at Carue in shocked amusement. "He must be really thirsty."
Zoro raised an eyebrow and had a somewhat impressed look on his face.
We grinned at Duckzilla as he downed drink after drink, goading him on and laughing. I wondered how many he could drink. Just as I was thinking this, Carue's eyes turned swirly and he collapsed backwards, his feet sticking up in the air as Sanji's Special Drink guzzled out of his bill like a mini fountain. I burst into laughter at the sight, though by the tone of her shout, Vivi was not amused.
"Idiot Carue!" teased Usopp, doubling up on the deck.
My neck tingled all of a sudden, signaling something disturbing the sea at the starboard side. I told the guys about this and we all immediately ran to the right edge of the ship. A medium-sized bottle-nosed dolphin, sleek and gray, was leaping out of the ocean a little ways away. I broke out in a big smile. What an amazing sight! The dolphin's skin was shiny and it threw sparkling water into the air, creating a rainbow over the ocean.
I laughed. "Amazing! A dolphin!"
Nami giggled in delight. "Aw, it's cute!"
It dived back down beneath the waves, and there was a few minutes of silence. Then the dolphin leaped again, this time on a path perpendicular to the Going Merry. As it got closer, our good spirits slowly changed to horror. At this distance, the dolphin obviously wasn't medium-sized at all! In fact, it was at least three times as large as the Merry!
Usopp let out a strangled scream of terror and turned blue. My jaw dropped to the deck in shock. Lucy gasped in awe and Nami started shouting orders. We complied to her dictations as a huge wave was thrown up as a result of its landing.
"Why is everything on this ocean so freakin' big?" I shouted.
"Stop complaining and secure the sails!" Nami snapped.
We leapt to action, turning the ship in the same direction the wave was rising in. I tried calming the sea, but it was too rowdy and I was still not powerful enough. The wave picked up our boat and, yelling in varied emotions, we were carried with it for miles until it finally crested. The ride down was so bumpy I was tossed around the deck, getting bruised all over and barely managing to stay on board, but somehow I managed it.
"Okay, roll call!" Nami announced. "Lucy?"
"Here?" she reported happily.
"Usopp?"
"Yes!"
"Yuril?"
"Right here."
"Sanji-kun?"
"Present, my darling Nami-swan!"
"Zoro?"
*Snoooooooooooooooore*
"Vivi?"
"I'm still here."
"Carue?"
The duck quacked its presence.
Lucy, who was standing by the main mast, turned to the navigator. "Oi, Nami! How's our course?"
"Hold on, give me a minute to check." The navigator took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself after that crazy wave, and then looked at the Log Pose, which was attached to her wrist as always. She grinned and said, "Turn us hard to port!"
"Aye-aye!"
Just a few minutes later, I was back in the crow's nest, scanning the horizon through a spyglass. Suddenly I caught sight of something and grinned. "Oi, everyone! Land ho! Island dead ahead!" It was shrouded in mist, but I could make out trees. Lots of 'em. The temperature was rising, too, even hotter than the 80 degrees it already was at, though it still didn't bother me.
"Did you have to say 'dead?'" Usopp moaned.
"Is it Little Garden?" Lucy asked, racing to the figurehead and peering forward. "Is it? Is it!?"
Nami checked the Log Pose and gave a thumbs up. "The needle's pointing to it, so I'd say that's a yes! That island is our next destination!"
As we got closer, the fog lifted, allowing us to see more of the landscape. There were two huge, gray rocks (or strangely shaped mountains) that were covered in moss and two brown-colored mountains with flat tops, which could've been either plateaus or volcanoes. Seeing as how I'd watched the arc before, I knew they were volcanoes, which was kinda cool. I'd never seen a volcano in real life before.
"So that's it!" our captain said, grinning. "The second island of the Grand Line!"
I nodded. "On our path, yep! Little Garden, eh..."
Elsewhere on the Grand Line, about 15 miles away. A nameless island.
The town was quiet and peaceful. For a criminal like her, too peaceful. As the woman eyed the villagers, she thought of ways she could liven things up around here. Maybe releasing a bull into the town hall? Maybe stealing that precious jewel they were so proud of?
"I know what you're thinking," her partner, a man who called himself Mr. 6, told her. "Don't do it. We're trying to keep a low profile, here. The Boss demoted us because we got too cocky, remember? Those Marines almost caught us and it was all your fault!"
"Shut up!" she barked. If looks could kill, the smoothly dressed criminal would be deader than a doorknob. "It was most certainly not! You were the one who insisted on stopping at that takoyaki stand."
He grunted, adjusting his black suit. "Pheh. Takoyaki is heaven on a plate. Not that you'd understand. Anyway, you've been staring at that piece of paper for two days now. What's it say?"
"It's a notification from the boss," she reported. "Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine have been defeated, but we're still not getting a promotion."
"Eh?" His eye twitched. "Why not? Who defeated those idiots? We'll just defeat them to prove our worth."
The woman glanced at the paper, then smirked. "Apparently it was that new rookie pirate, Straw Hat Lucy, and her crew. Straw Hat has a bounty of thirty million. And by the drawings Mr. 13 and Miss Friday gave us, it would appear as though a certain Artwaltz D. Yuril is with them."
Mr. 6's eyes widened. "What was that, Miss Holy Saturday? Did you say Yuril ? Wasn't she your..."
"Shut up!"
"Sorry." At least the moron had the decency to apologize.
She clenched her fists, which were shaking in anger. How had Yuril managed to find a way into this world? Had she come via the Rift? No, she was too much of an idiot. So that meant she had to have had help... perhaps by that god. She must've come to take revenge on her, or perhaps to stop the pair from achieving their true purpose.
She made up her mind. "I'm going by myself." Mr. 6 shot her a look of surprise, which she scoffed at. "Honestly, you idiot! I have unfinished business to attend to with her. Personal business."
He narrowed his green eyes. "Ah, yes. Miril, wasn't it?"
Any bystander would've thought she was an insane person... which, of course, she most undoubtedly was. "Yes. The look of horror on her mother's face as her blood seeped onto her bed... I want to see it on her."