We had just about finished up with our lunch, which was growing uncomfortably cold, when the sea bull came up again, this time sporting an extraordinary amount of bruises on its muzzle. I stared in fascination. Had I really done all that? Mohmoo mooed again and I managed to calm it down, give it some of my food without getting eaten, and in the meantime Lucy sneakily put ropes around its horns with her Gum-Gum powers, which were both awesome and kinda freaky.
And that was how we found ourselves heading towards the Conomi Islands at top speed.
Finally, the coastline of my first One Piece island came into existence on the horizon, a massive Japanese-style tower visible even from here. Nami's homeland looked peaceful enough from the sea. Palm trees covered the island, and birds rose up from the forests in flocks.
"Are you sure that's Arlong's base?" I muttered to Yosaku. "Mohmoo didn't take us to the wrong place, did he?"
Mohmoo grumbled in annoyance.
"What's he say?" Sanji asked me.
I blushed and glared at the sea bull. "I AM NOT A GANGSTER, EVEN IF I DO WEAR A LEATHER JACKET! I hate those guys!" My gaze softened a little. "And sorry for doubting you."
Lucy grinned. "Hey guys, I see the island!"
"Good job, Sherlock." I deadpanned. "It's been visible for the past fifteen minutes."
"Lucy-aneki!" Yosaku called from the top of the kitchen, where he was perched. "Arlong Park has been sighted, dead ahead!"
She pumped her fist. "YOSH! Arlong Park, here we come!"
I was starting to grow antsy. If my timing was right, then at about this time, Usopp had been captured and was at Arlong Park, while Zoro was either heading for Cocoyashi Village with Hatchi-Hatchan or was running to the fishman base himself. I frowned and tried to remember how Luffy and his crew had originally ended up on Conomi Island. Something about the ship smashing a boulder on the land? ...But that didn't make sense...
We crept closer and closer to Arlong Park and I tensed up. Something wasn't right. I could feel it. We were off timing.
Then, suddenly, Lucy called out, "Oo! Guys, I can see it! Arlong Park is right there!"
I looked up from my musings in shock. Sure enough, the lair of Arlong sat straight in front us, maybe half a mile ahead. I made out red cobblestone roofs; tan or yellow walls, I couldn't really tell; a brick fence around the place; and two oaken doors leading straight into it. I felt a cold feeling in the back of my neck, and I frowned. It wasn't like the feeling I'd got when we passed the reef Mohmoo had been sleeping next to; it was more like a premonition of danger, a warning of a tough battle to come. I adjusted my leather jacket nervously.
Mohmoo grumbled.
"'I need a rest.' ...He says," I translated.
Lucy pounded her foot on the front of the ship. "Don't get tired, you bull!"
"It has to be that Yuril-aneki's punches affected it too much," Yosaku mused.
I frowned and muttered, "I didn't hit him that hard..."
The sea bull started swimming, dizzy, to the right, and Lucy was unhappy. She ordered it to go left, but the exhausted creature ignored her and continued on its broken course. The poor thing was so tired that it veered completely out of sight of Arlong Park, and then I saw something that made me pale.
"Uh, Mohmoo!" I shouted over the roar of the waves that rushed past him. "You may wanna stop!"
Too late.
—SMASH!
He smacked against a coral reef and with a feeling of sudden weightlessness, we were flung, ship and all, into the air. My body may have traveled with the ship, but my stomach was left with Mohmoo. It was times like this when I hated Newton's Law of Inertia... We were flung out of a huge geyser of water that had resulted from Mohmoo's crashing, and with varied yells of fear (or in Lucy's case, glee), we soared over Conomi Island.
"NOT GOOD!" Yosaku shrieked.
I was crying anime tears and was holding onto the table, which luckily had been screwed into the ship, for dear life. "AGAIN, YOU SAYING THIS ISN'T GOOD IS LIKE SAYING THE SKY IS BLUE OR THAT GRASS IS GREEN! AND IF SOMEONE DOESN'T DO SOMETHING, WE'RE GONNA SMASH INTO FREAKIN' PIECES AND TURN INTO FREAKIN' PANCAKES ON THAT GREEN GRASS!"
"It's just like flying in the sky!" Lucy cheered.
Sanji freaked, "It's not 'like'! It really is flying, yo—"
Whatever Lucy was, we never found out, because just then the local bounty hunter yelped, "NO! WE'RE NOT FLYING, WE'RE FALLING!"
With an almighty crash that could've woken the dead, we smashed into the ground and tore across the landscape of the island. It was so bumpy that if I hadn't had my mouth closed, I'd be missing my tongue. As it was, I felt like I'd broken every bone in my body. How I survived that, I'll never know to this day.
"Landing complete!" Lucy announced. She leaned forward. "Oh? Hey, Zoro! Zoro!"
A horrified yell of disbelief rose up into the air along with a nasty SMACK.
We pushed out of the forest that we'd been tearing apart and shredded a field of marshes. Up ahead, a reddish mound of rock jutted out of the ground like the hand of a giant, though at the time it resembled a death sentence.
—SMASH!
The ship collided with the rock mound, and the result was most definitely not pretty. Sanji's boat was reduced to little more than litter, timber, and nails, and we were thrown in different directions. My body felt like someone had tossed me in a washing machine, thrown me to a pack of blood-thirsty ninjas, and then forced me to walk on hot coals. But I was alive, somehow.
"Luce," I groaned in pain, "if I don't die, I'm gonna kill you. And if I do die, I will haunt you until you're dead."
She ignored me, simply dusting off her hat instead and saying, "We've arrived! We've arrived!"
"You bitch..." a familiar voice hissed. "What do you think you're doing?" A pile of timbers was pushed out of the way and Zoro popped up, giving us a glare so angry I couldn't help but shiver. He was covered in bandages from his fight with Mihawk and he was now wearing a dark blue, flowery Hawaiian shirt that was very un-Zoro.
"What do you mean?" asked Lucy, attending to her trademark red vest and short blue jeans now that her hat was safe. Her long, black hair was messy from the force of the wind we'd encountered while flying. "We've come to get Nami back. Still haven't found her? Oh yeah. And where are Usopp and Johnny?"
"Permission to kill, first mate?" I mumbled.
He smirked dangerously. "Granted." Then he blinked. "Wait, Usopp? Oh yeah, that's right! Guys, this isn't the time! Usopp's been—"
"Captured by Arlong?" I offered. "Yeah, I know, although these idiots don't because I never got a chance to tell them. But don't worry, he'll be fine. If there's one thing that idiot's good at, it's running away."
"He's dead!" a voice said.
I looked down the path we'd carved into the countryside. Standing there was Johnny in his blue jacket, purple undershirt, and jeans. "It's too late. Usopp-aniki is dead!"
My eyes widened. No way could Usopp be dead! As annoying as he was, he was one of us! One of the good guys! One of the members of the crew destined to find the One Piece! Then I remembered the anime and sighed inwardly with relief. Usopp wasn't dead; Nami had just pretended to kill him to save the liar, and to prove to Arlong that she wasn't betraying him.
Still, hearing that one of the people I'd started thinking of as a friend hurt worse than the crash landing Lucy, Yosaku, Sanji, and I had just performed.
"Usopp-aniki was killed," Johnny cried, "by Nami-aneki!"
Everyone's eyes widened except mine, since I remembered what had happened.