Chapter 98: Moving On
Chapter 98: Moving On
Luffy was feeling pleasantly piratey as he surveyed the haul Nami, Robin, and Vivi had pulled off. Wanting to get away from the island fairly quickly, now that their presence was known to the powers that be, he’d set the trio to the task of ‘liberating’ the Drakestone supply that the Marines had collected. The supply wasn’t massive, as they apparently shipped it out fairly regularly. Yet it was significant, enough so that he would likely have Vivi move the majority of it back to Sixius once they had more time. The Discovery was an amazing ship, but the one area she gave up for all her other advantages was cargo stowage. Even in that respect, her sheer size versus relatively small crew meant she had plenty of cargo space…
Or, at least, she would have. If they hadn’t carved up a fair bit of extra space for various workrooms over time.
Pagaya’s workshop took up the biggest chunk of space. Though, to be fair to the man, Nojiko, Usopp, and Luffy all had small sections of the same space dedicated to their work with crystals for weapons and ammo. The second largest carve out from their cargo area was a recent addition, an indoor garden where Dis was making plants of various types grow for the benefit of Chopper, Kaya, and Sanji. Both medicinal herbs and things for cooking were growing in that garden, making it an incredibly useful addition. Yet it was still something that took a bite out of what would have otherwise been cargo storage space. They still had plenty of capacity for ship’s sundries and supply, some trade goods, and a fair bit of space left over for loot. Unfortunately at the moment, the multiple tons of drakestone they’d liberated was filling most of their ‘loot’ section. Which wasn’t a good idea in the long-term, no matter how useful the stuff ended up being, assuming it proved useful at all.
Thankfully, with the base they’d set up on Sixius, they had a place to transfer the bulk of it until it was needed. Needing a secure place to store such extras was one of several reasons why Luffy had wanted that base to begin with.
Regardless, now that they’d committed one of their only proper acts of piracy to date, it was time to be moving on. The last thing that any of them wanted was for the World Government to be able to properly predict their location and concentrate regular forces to fight them. Garp’s agreement with the WG might have prevented this ‘Gods Knights’ group from coming after them, but regular forces were still fair game. With the death of the Celestial Dragons, an Elder, and the damage they’d taken that Kizaru’s presence might have alleviated at Marineford? The WG wanted them dead badly enough they might be willing to risk the losses trying would entail. Even right now, with the Marines in general so weakened. After all, the longer they left them the more concentration of force they’d need to take on him and his crew. Given the full two years of Garp’s deal, even their special group that Garp was wary of might not be enough.
Which is why, with the ship still underwater and now heading away from the island, Luffy put off moving the drakestone for now. Vivi needed a break, and they needed to keep moving. Clapping both Vivi and Nami on the shoulders, he addressed all three of the ‘raid team.’
“Good works, girls! Excellent, even. I’m pleased you were able to get so much! We can move most of it to Sixius in the next few days. For now, though, we need to get moving on a path that’s more than ‘away from Drakestone.’ Robin, you recovered those Eternal Poses from your cache. So we’ll use one of them to get off this particular route of the Grand Line. No point making it easy for the powers that be to follow us!”
Robin, playing along, nodded and produced two Eternal Poses from a hip-pouch. She hadn’t actually gotten them from her cache, of course. They’d been provided by Luffy’s System Store. That was one secret that was still largely secret from most of the crew though. Mostly because they still weren’t completely sure of Brook and Perona yet. They just hadn’t been part of the crew long enough to be sure they wouldn’t spill, even accidentally, to someone about it.
For that matter, Chopper and Usopp were entirely too likely to spill the truth accidentally, so Luffy still felt it was the right choice to keep the full extent of his abilities in that regard to himself. Or, more accurately, to himself, Nami, Robin, and Kuina. Just his ability to store things in his inventory, which was known to the rest of the crew, was a big enough secret all on its own.
“Indeed. I believe one of the two, in particular, would be a good direction to head. Weatheria is a Sky Island, a mobile one at that, so the World Government will have no presence there. Since they are the foremost masters of weather science in the world, they’ll be a fantastic stop for out adorable navigator, too~.”
Nami perked up, not having been aware of which Eternal Poses that the pair were going to ‘retrieve.’ When Luffy had explained what little he knew about that particular island, Nami had obviously been very interested. Even more than her original self might have been, Luffy thought, as her Pegasus form could theoretically manipulate weather. Though they hadn’t quite figured out how, or if it would be required for her to Awaken the Fruit first.
“Yes! We should definitely go there! At least, assuming it won’t drag us into the New World?”
Luffy shrugged at that.
“In my admittedly limited understanding, Weatheria moves. We’ll need to get multiple headings from a wide enough area to triangulate roughly where it is right now. Assuming it’s not in the New World at the moment, I’d say it’s a great place to hit next. But that will be up to you to determine. You are the navigator, after all. If it currently is in the New World, then we can use the other Eternal Pose. It’s for Rusukaina island. Rayleigh wanted to meet us there at some point to give us a proper crash course in advanced Haki.”
Vivi looked confused for a moment and Luffy realized he’d slipped, since Robin had only shown the name of the one Eternal Pose. Thankfully, there was an easy way to correct.
“At least, that’s what I saw when we pulled it out of the cache. I did get that right?”
Robin, thankfully, was a much better actor than Luffy, and didn’t hesitate to nod and show the other Pose, which had ‘Rusukaina’ clearly marked on it. She then went a step farther to cover up any discrepancies.
“You were quite correct. I stored these two poses away precisely because they went to locations I couldn’t reach at the time. Rusukaina is somewhere in the calm belt. Supposedly near Amazon Lily, in fact. Weatheria of course, eventually pointed up when I tried to follow it. Something I didn’t know the meaning of in full until we first visited Skypiea.”
The delivery was so seamless and smooth and Vivi instantly nodded along, making Luffy feel a bit guilty about the secret. He’d have to bring up the possibility of letting her in on things. Along with Yamato, possibly, given the whole dating thing with the later and Vivi clearly being…interested, as well. It would come out eventually, and the longer those closest to him went without being told, the more potential there was for hurt feelings. Later, though, after he could talk it over with those in the know first. For now, it was time to set sail with an actual direction, instead of just ‘away.’
“Right! Well, we can use one of our small collection of other Eternal Poses to do the triangulation. Nami, pick one that won’t head us back toward Drakestone out and get us on a heading, then take initial readings. After that, get some sleep, all three of you. We can pick up in the morning, after we’ve gotten far enough away from Drakestone to risk surfacing.”
The girls all nodded, Vivi covering a yawn at the mention of sleep. Their raid had run late, to the point it was now early morning, just a few hours before dawn. Only the night watch was up, aside from the four of them. That watch consisting of Brook and Pagaya today. The later had volunteered tonight as he hadn’t done anything other than shop the market on Drakestone. The former had done the same because he didn’t need much sleep. Physically Brook didn’t need any at all, as a matter of fact. Mentally, he needed at least some, but not nearly as much as a regular person. As a result, it wasn’t too much of a surprise that he’d spoken up readily when Luffy had asked for volunteers to run the night watch tonight. Normally, it was a duty that handled on rotation, but Nojiko and Hina had been scheduled for the shift tonight, and both of them had participated in the fighting.
Strictly speaking, with Dis being able to manage herself, they probably didn’t need a night watch any longer, but Luffy considered it good practice anyway. Doubly so since they still had only vague ideas of what Dis’s limits might be. They knew she could effectively sail herself, but had already proven with previous testing that she wasn’t really capable of navigating on her own. Not beyond sticking to a log pose, at least. Nor did her dryad form have much combat ability, as it wasn’t really Dis, so much as it was a puppet being piloted via the Mori Mori no Mi. Dis was the ship, not the puppet she controlled to interact with them more easily. Overall, he felt it was still better to have someone else awake to work with her.
Luffy’s drifting thoughts on the subject, a sign he himself was a bit mentally tired, were interrupted as Nami glared at Vivi. She’d ‘caught’ Vivi’s yawn and yawned herself, abruptly seeming to realize she was tired.
“Stop that! You’re making me sleepy! Come on Luffy, help me take the readings, then we can get some bunk time.”
Grinning as his girlfriend imperiously turned about the march off, Luffy stayed long enough to collect the Eternal Pose from a smirking Robin, then trailed after their navigator…
… … …
It was much later in the morning, in truth bordering on the afternoon, by the time Luffy, Nami, Vivi and Robin had slept off their late night adventure. After eating a late brunch provided by Sanji, Nami had taken another reading from the Eternal Pose and attempted a rough calculation of where Weatheria might be at the moment. As she’d been doing that, Luffy had explained their preferred option and what Nami was doing. No one had protested, generally agreeing that heading to another Sky Island, and one that moved at that, would be a good way to throw off any attempt at following them.
The island admittedly didn’t promise to have a lot to offer most of them, but their ability to return to Sixius or other islands for training whenever they wanted made the entire crew fairly sanguine about that. So long as an island promised a good chance to make any member of the crew stronger, it was worth pursuing, as Vivi and Sixius meant it wouldn’t come at any real cost to the rest of the crew’s efforts. Admittedly, Zoro did point out that more people would benefit from additional Haki training, yet he’d also immediately followed that up my admitting that only Luffy and Yamato were truly stalled out in the area. The two of them could still teach the rest of the crew advanced tricks, which still had the rest of them advancing with Haki, so the need for a more experienced teacher wasn’t exactly critical yet.
In truth, Luffy knew that more Haki studies would bring a broader benefit, but was honestly a little leery of being so close to Hancock’s territory. Unlike the ridiculous Luffy he’d once seen on a screen, he had no belief he’d be immune to the woman’s Devil Fruit. He could likely resist it with Haki…but Hancock herself was a known user of all three types of Haki. An exceptionally strong, and equally skilled, user. Which made painful amounts of sense, given that some level of Haki used was normal for virtually the entire population of Amazon Lily. He hoped that, given his actions against the slave trade and the deaths of Celestial Dragons attributed to him, the ‘Pirate Empress’ would be positively inclined toward him. He feared that she might be too self-centered for that, though. Her depiction on the series he’d watched in his old life was all over the place, making her hard to get a proper read on. Nor was it an infallible guide to how people would act, as he’d observed many people, including both Usopp and Sanji on his own crew, to be far more nuanced than they’d been depicted.
Bluntly put and all things considered, he wasn’t eager to put himself or his crew anywhere near one of the last remaining Warlords.
He would, eventually, since he did want to know how Rayleigh had done that bit extra with his Haki that had allowed him to threaten the Elder somewhat. He simply wasn’t eager for it, and was more than happy to put risk of running into her off for a bit longer. At least if he had legitimate reason to do so. Of course, if Weatheria wasn’t currently in Paradise, it wouldn’t matter. So he waited patiently for a verdict.
Eventually, Nami smiled and looked up from where she’d been frowning over the math.
“I need a better set of readings to be sure, but I think it’s southwest of us and within Paradise. Best guess is somewhere between Skypiea and Water 7, but I need at least a day of additional sailing on our current line for that to be more than a guess. I’m virtually certain that it is somewhere over Paradise right now, though. Which makes this the perfect time to visit~!”
Luffy smirked at Nami’s enthusiasm for the idea, but nodded along. Entirely aside from his previous thoughts, the fact Weatheria was in Paradise at all made that statement true. So far as he knew, the island was largely allowed to drift as it pleased, even if the scientists there were technically capable of steering it. Which meant there was absolutely no way to be certain it would be over Paradise again any time in the next two years. Well, year and ten months, really. It had already been a bit over two since the events of Marineford, with their stop at Sixius having eaten up the largest chunk of that time.
“We have our heading then. More or less. We’ll surface and sail for another day, with everyone being allowed to take some R&R via Vivi Express if they want it. After getting another heading at the end of that so we have a better idea where we are going than just ‘follow the compass,’ we’ll do just that and steer for Weatheria. Dis’s ability to fly means we don’t need to worry about how to get up to a Sky Island when we find it, after all…”
Dis, who had gathered up with most of the crew for the announcement, beamed in pride as everyone nodded at that. Luffy’s lips quirked as he reached over to pat her on the head.
“Right. You work with Nami, Dis. This will be a good chance to see how well you can sustain sailing without the crew helping very much. Better we find out if you have a stamina limit, or anything similar, for sailing without help.”
Dis deflated a bit at that, looking sheepish.
“Ah…I’m pretty sure I do? Brook and Pagaya don’t have any special ability to navigate underwater, so I let them mostly work on projects while sailing myself for most of the morning. After a few hours I was exhausted and had to retreat entirely into the hull to recover for a bit. After a couple of hours, I was fine again, though.”
Luffy frowned at that and rapped her gently on the head with the same hand that had been patting her a few moments earlier.
“That was good to find out, Dis. But warn someone first before you try something like that. We would have been worried if it took days for you to recover instead of hours.”
Sheepishly, the ship’s spirit snapped a salute and acknowledged the order.
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
A/N 1: Honestly, aside from pointing out the ridiculousness of how easy it actually SHOULD be to navigate the Grand Line, if Oda didn't ignore all logic, not a lot to say about this chapter :-p. It's really just cleanup of the Drakestone adventure and setup for the next arc.