Grand Voyage- Log 47

Log 47: Race to Reverse Mountain Part 1
“Allright!” Knave cried, standing up and holding up his mug, “let’s celebrate the addition of our new cook!”

“KANPAI!!!” the other Marimos cried happily, raising their own mugs.

The door to the Shooting Star’s kitchen burst open and a massive buffet of food was wheeled out. There were massive piles of chicken legs, small mountains of large breadsticks, huge tubs of exquisitely cooked ramen, you name it. And, pushing the cart, was their new chef, the Shroomian known as Gopher.

“Screw the toast!” Knave said, before even taking a sip from his mug, “let’s just eat!” He promptly lunged at the food, seizing a small pile and quickly shoveling it in his mouth. His crew followed at a much more leisurely pace.

The weather was exceptionally good today, with the storm that had driven them to the Isle of Flowers having vanished completely. The skies were clear, the waves were gentle, and they were right on course to Nexxas, the South Blue’s equivalent to Loguetown. With these conditions, the crew unanimously agreed that it would be a crime to eat in the kitchen. So, they had salvaged some blankets from the storage room and Gopher had whipped up a small fist.

The Marimos dug in, Gopher alternating between gulping down mouthfuls and running into the kitchen to quickly produce more grub. Anyone who had been watching or listening from another ship would probably have heard something like this...

“Oi, Knave, don’t take my portion!”

“C’mon, Gopher can make some more, right?!”

“Doesn’t matter, I wanted THAT PARTICULAR meatball!”

“Don’t be so stingy, I wanted it too!”

“Isn’t that you being stingy then?!”

“Well when you put it like... WOAH! Gopher, what’s this drink?!”

“Gao, gao gao!”

“Blue fruit juice-?! Make this my official drink. Somebody get that down!”

“...Why do we need to get it down?”

“Because we just have too!”

“Hey, you just took my portion as well!”

“All’s fair in-”

“The hell it is! Eat this!”

“Dammit, asshole! I’ll kill you!”

“Food fight!”

“Can we all just calm dow- WHO THE HELL THREW THAT?!”

“AH, SH*T, RUN!!!”

Marine Commander Mothma, a rather thin man with ape-like features, sat down the newspaper from a few weeks ago. On the front was a rather large headline, accompanied by the mugshots of Knave, D’Artagnan, and even Sid.

HARBINGER ISLAND BASE DESTROYED: MARINE RECRUITED TO PIRATE CREW

“And you say they’re coming here?” Mothma asked, narrowing his eyes at his ‘guests’.

“Yes,” Don Cazzuto replied, as he stood near Mothma’s desk, several compatriots standing in the shadows behind him, “at least, that’s what I think, judging from the course they’ve been taking. They can only be heading towards the Grand Line. And if they want to restock, they’ll stop here.”

“What if they don’t need to restock?”

“That’s what our second item of discussion is for.”

“You want me to sabotage a competition that the people of this island hold very dear to their hearts?”

“Of course not,” the Don purred, “you can hold a makeup tournament later, if you like.”

“I’m not so sure about this...”

“It’s very simple, Commander. We are joining forces against a common enemy. We get our respective revenge on the certain individuals in his crew, and you get a criminal who has alluded you for 14 years.”

Mothma thought for a moment, then sighed, standing up and turning to face the large window behind him. “Fine, but on one condition.”

“And that is?”

“Don’t kill him. We..... have a certain condition to fulfill when it comes to that boy. Admiral Aokiji’s orders.”

“Ah, excellent,” the Don decided, turning around as well and walking towards the door, his associates starting to follow, “do not worry, he shall be alive when we hand him over to you.”

As they made their way towards the exist to the Marine compound, the Don whispered under his breath to his comrades.

“He’ll only be MOSTLY dead.”

“SUGOIIIII!!!!!”

Art and Sid burst out of the lounge, quickly searching the deck. They found their Captain sitting cross-legged in the middle of it, his eyes shining like stars, staring at a couple of papers in front of him. “What’s up?” Art asked, walking over. He stopped dead in his tracks, an expression of shock on his face.

“What the-?!” Sid followed, then froze similarly.

“Ciaosusususu!” Knave laughed, “we’ve got bounties, guys!”

"Me and Sid got 1,000,000," Art gaped, "and on our first try! And Knave.... holy sh*t, 20,000,000?!"

“Well, it isn’t THAT much,” Sid reasoned, “and at least Stormy-chawn and Gopher didn’t get any.”

“Yeah, but now we’re gonna be hunted down by bounty hunters or something,” Art groaned.

“Ciaosusususu! Maybe we’ll face the strong guys early!” Knave said happily, “so we’ll get loads stronger!”

“Wish I had that optimism,” Art said, leaning backwards and placing his hand over his eyes.

“Gah!” Sid cried, having taken a look at the Log Pose. He rushed to Starry’s helm, quickly peering over the horizon, then took a deep breath, exhaling. “Whew, okay, we’re fine. Thought we had gotten off course for a second.”

“How long till Nexwus?” Knave asked.

“Nexxas,” Art corrected.

“Yeah, that,” Knave amended.

“3 days and 2 hours, I think,” Sid informed them.

“Allright!” Knave said, throwing his hands into the air, “let’s head to Nexxan!”

“Nexxas.”

“Yeah, that!”

“Hmm....” Gerard leaned down, inspecting the body of yet another Vice Admiral. Like the others, there were no signs of any murder weapon, in fact, there was no sign at all of what killed him. He just seemed to have been impaled from the inside, spikes cleaving through his flesh.

“Devil Fruit ability, most likely,” the Rear Admiral said, standing up to face his fellow Marines.

“Hm?” Sieghart asked, putting down the small emerald action figure he had made and walking over to Gerard, Kinan swooping down behind him and retrieving the item before joining them as well, “Devil Fruit?”

“Probably,” Gerard replied, gesturing towards the body, “there’s no signs of any conventional weapon, no traces of seastone, not a drop of poison, nothing.”

“And this is the same as the other Vice Admirals?” Kinan asked.

“Correct,” Gerard confirmed, “so we can assume that it’s the same killer.”

“Any idea of where he’s going to strike next?” Sieghart asked.

“Judging by the trail of these murders...” Gerard turned around, squinting slightly, staring into the sun in the distance. “He MIGHT be headed for South Blue, but...”

“But?”

“We can’t be sure. He could easy change course.”

“Are there any Vice Admirals nearby?” Kinan asked.

“We’ll need to check, but there might be...”

“Then we follow him,” Sieghart concluded with a grin, “we’re playing bait, remember? We come after him, and he comes after us.”

~End of Log~

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter