Just as the trio was sinking down the ocean, a huge ship arrived near them as well.
At the deck, loud voices could be heard.
"Is this the location of the sunken ship!?"
"Aye-aye sir! Boss!"
"..."
Hearing this, Lucas froze.
Right, he forgot that these people would show up here…
Salvaging King Masira. Current bounty: 23 Million Beli.
"Of all times, why must it be now that these weirdos come…"
"Hey, what are you guys doing here? This here is my territory!"
"Territory?"
"That's right, every sunken ship around here is mine. You didn't mess with my stuff right?"
Masira said in a serious tone but for some reason, Nami and the rest can't take him seriously at all.
"Looks like he wants to salvage it too…"
"Hmm, that's what he said."
"So what? This is our chance."
"Stop blabbering! Answer my question now!"
Seeing as they were ignoring him Masira squealed loudly like a monkey.
"Sorry, can I ask you a question?"
Nami didn't care and asked instead.
"You have something to ask!? Alright, go ahead."
"..."
"Where did you come from and are you going to scrape a ship up here?
"ScrAPE!? Hey, do I look like a complete monkey? Like a monkey? Like a real man! Do you really think so?"
Nami was dumbfounded.
"H-huh? But I didn't…"
"Hahaha, thanks for noticing."
"...So, are you guys here to salvage?"
"Of course I'm here to salvage it! I'm a man who will salvage every single ship that sinks! I don't care how wide or long the ship is, there isn't a single ship we can't salvage!"
Masira proudly exclaimed.
"So...can we watch how you do it?"
"Huh? Ah, I see! You guys have never seen it done before! Alright, just watch how we do it!"
Nami and Usopp sighed in relief when they heard that. It seems that this weird guy was reasonable to speak with.
However, before they sighed, something came up.
"Boss! Big trouble! Our crew that went under with the hook…"
"Was it a sea monster?"
"No, it seems he was punched by someone!"
"What!? Is someone else down there!?"
Nami and Usopp both let out a cold sweat. Of course, they know who the culprit was and it was obvious as well.
"Sooo…! Hey you!"
Masira pointed at them immediately, causing the two to jump back half a step.
"Underwater, it looks like there is someone down there! Be careful!"
...Luckily he's an idiot…
"Secure the hook! Begin salvaging!"
Suddenly, Masira started waving at Nami and the rest.
…
As Nami and Usopp didn't want to look suspicious as they pump air to Luffy and them, they could only wave back at Masira awkwardly.
Masira didn't notice at all and turned back to his men.
"Hey, listen up crew...just pretend that those people are pumpkins. Just because there is someone watching don't higigigi…"
His lips started to tremble then turned to a weird grin!
"Don't be so nervous alright!?"
"Yeeeeaah!!!"
"..."
Lucas' face twitched, he didn't want to watch this any longer so he went back to the cabin. Might as well continue to train while these guys goof off.
As Lucas continued to train, he could hear several exclaims from outside and the swaying of the ship.
When he looked out the window, he saw a huge turtle, the size of an island!
After being dumbfounded for a while, he smiled wryly.
"Truly the world of One Piece...seeing it with my own eyes is totally unbelievable…"
There seemed to be some wreckage of a ship in its mouth but Lucas didn't care. He knew that Luffy and the rest are safe anyway.
But what he didn't expect was that his presence in the ship made things different.
He may not care about it, but the others cared about it greatly!
Suddenly, the door was pushed open and Nami jumped to his embrace!
"Waaa! Lucas! Luffy and the others are dead! Save me!!!"
"..."
Right now, Lucas was topless as he was training and Nami sticking so close to him...caused some reactions to his body!
Nami felt it too as she blushed but she was still too scared of the giant turtle to let go!
For a while, they were stuck in awkward silence. Lucas sighed and forced himself to calm down as he placed his hand on Nami's back to soothe her.
"It's alright Nami. Luffy and them are tough. Even Crocodile can't beat them, how can this giant turtle do so?"
"Ah...y-you're right…"
Nami finally let go and looked down.
Seeing her line of sight, Lucas blushed and hurriedly turned around!
"Lucas, that…"
Nami was about to speak when suddenly, the skies darkened and they heard something crash on the deck!
"Hii-!?"
Still a bit afraid of the huge turtle outside, thinking that their ship was also just eaten, Nami shrieked and clung back to Lucas!
What's worse was that she hugged him on the waist this time as her legs gave out in fright! With her face buried on Lucas' stomach, her chest area was naturally touching Lucas' lower area!
"Waa! Lucas! We're going to die! We're going to die!"
"Ah!? N-Nami! Stop that! Quickly get off me!"
Lucas blushed in shame!
"Nami, Luffy and them are probably back already! Stop panicking! Look, aren't we still fine?"
"Uuu…"
Nami finally opened her eyes and looked around curiously.
Sure enough, even though it's dark outside, they were indeed still alive.
"...Did we get eaten by that turtle? Are we in its stomach now!?"
"I say, Nami...your imagination is too much! Why don't we go out and see?"
"Okay...but…"
Lucas sighed when he finally convinced Nami to get out.
Still, Nami looked down again and blushed.
She looked back at Lucas with a teasing look.
"Heh, can you even go out?"
"...This is your fault!"
"F-fine...stay behind me then, I'll cover you…"
Nami wasn't used to this reaction. Though she knows that men would tend to show such reaction in their bodies, her crewmates are all either blockheads, idiots, or an excessive pervert!
She is normally quite bold and would not mind showing off her skin from time to time but Lucas'...normal...reaction had put her in a tough spot.
But she is still Nami after all, so she spoke.
"You still owe me 100 thousand Beli from the bathhouse for peeking. This time too, that will be another 100 thousand!"
"Hey! But I didn't even do anything!? You were the one who approached me!"
Lucas grumbled and remembered a scam from his world where a person would pretend to get hit by a slow-moving car and lie on the ground so that when the driver gets out, he would ask for compensation!
He had seen such videos on the internet and laughed at how stupid those guys are. As if anyone would fall for such a trick!
But here is Nami, attempting the same thing but only with her body! Her very sexy and soft body!
She would really do anything for money huh!?
...Wait, do anything?
Lucas' thoughts kept overflowing with dirty ideas!
No good, I should quickly raise some money! With my knowledge of the other world, I would rake in millions of Beli and then…!
Lucas quickly shook away his impure thoughts!
If he continued to think about it more...he was afraid that he would really tempt himself!
Nami pouted and turned around.
"Hmph, since this is your first time using my services, I will let you go free."
At this point, Lucas wasn't relieved at all! He was frustrated!
Dammit, if it was going to be free then he should've done more!
Nami knew what he was thinking and laughed slyly as she stuck her tongue out.
No doubt, she was thinking...these men are so easy to handle!
Lucas sighed. The feeling of being teased and cheated had already calmed him down. There was no need to hide behind Nami anymore so they left the cabin and came out.
When they came out, they saw Luffy and Masira arguing with each other but then noticed something behind them!
It was...large shadow silhouettes hidden behind the misty clouds!
Everyone froze.
Masira and Luffy no longer dared to fight as they looked at the towering figures in fright!
Only Lucas had a somewhat surprised expression as if he wasn't frightened at all!
Nami, who was standing beside him, froze up and he could see her body shaking!
Lucas thought it was a good opportunity for payback and look cool so he held her hand.
Nami noticed his hand and gripped it tightly! She looked at Lucas with tears appearing at the corner of her eyes and her lips were pursed, as if she was hesitating or deciding on something.
Finally, she opened her mouth to speak but...
"Lucas...I…"
"Nami...whatever happens...remember that I am here."
"W-what? Lucas!?"
It was a pity that Lucas didn't notice her intentions at all!
Lucas let go of her hand and sprinted to the deck just as the colossal shadow figure raised his spear to strike!
With Nami's shout, the others also snapped out of it and quickly tried to stop Lucas from charging but they are a step too late!
Lucas ran and jumped off the ship, seemingly facing the colossal figure on his own!
He controlled the water to push himself upwards even further!
"Lucas!"
Luffy and the rest shouted as Lucas was about to be struck by the spear!
With a punch, Lucas...secretly manipulated the water molecules in the cloud to...tear a hole in the sky!
Heaven Piercer!!!
...Lucas only thought of the name and didn't shout it as he felt it would be too much...Also, this move had no practical use at all!
Other than clearing the weather for sunbathing...there was no use to it in a fight!
On the ship, Luffy and the rest watched on as the huge towering figure's chest suddenly gained a hole and dissipated!
Their jaws dropped to the ground!
Robin was the first to snap out of it and once she saw Lucas fall from the sky, she swung her hands and summoned a line of hands that stretched all the way to Lucas, pulling him to the ship.
She made more hands to catch his fall and after seeing him safe, she sighed.
As everyone looked down at him with dumbfounded faces, Lucas noticed something and grinned.
He raised his hand up to the sky and pointed!
"Luffy! There it is! The island in the sky!"
Only now did they all look back up again and saw...an island!
It was faint, and the sun behind it was slightly making it unrecognizable but...the silhouette is certainly like...an island!
Usopp used his goggles and zoomed in.
Though it can't zoom so far up, he was still able to see more than the others!
"I-it's true! There's...trees! And buildings! We're too far away but...it's there! It's really there!"
Everyone was even more shocked! They looked back at Lucas curiously.
Knowing their thoughts, Lucas smiled as he explained.
"Well, when I was a kid, there's this show that I would watch often. It was just a simple shadow puppet show where they hide behind a thin fabric and shine a light behind them, showing their shadows on the fabric. This incident reminded me of that so I wanted to take a closer look...sure enough, when I got close, I found that these giants aren't really giants. Just shadows."
Lucas continued to explain.
"I wondered why it suddenly got dark...and then there's these shadows...So I thought...maybe, just maybe…"
"The sky island…! We must be under the sky island now! And those giant shadows…"
"They're...residents of the sky island which just happen to be in front of the sun's light!"
Robin and Nami exclaimed!
With this, the others naturally understood as well!
Seeing as everyone started to get it, Lucas nodded.
"Right. Unfortunately, my powers don't work so far away so I had to shorten the distance."
As they showed an understanding look, they all sighed, thinking it's good that such huge creatures doesn't exist, even in the Grand Line.
At the side, Nami was silent. Her fist was trembling slightly.
She walked towards Lucas and swung her fist to his head!
"Ah!?"
Lucas saw it coming and didn't understand why she was angry but knew that it would be bad if he didn't solidify to let her hit him so he can only grit his teeth and accept getting hit!
"You...idiot! I thought I...we had lost you again! You keep pulling off stunts like this and you'd really end up dead!"
"I...uhh…"
"Hmph! Don't bother me! Now I have to figure out how to get us up there!"
After saying that, she angrily slammed the door to her room with a bang!
Lucas blinked dumbfoundedly...not knowing what just happened.
Only after a while did he seem to understand something and broke into a cold sweat.
Damn! Did I...overdo it?
Looking at the closed door, he sighed and decided to let matters take its course.
Inwardly, he couldn't help but curse.
First it was Vivi, then Nami...what am I going to do? Sigh, it's too hard being handsome. This must be what Hancock feels like.
The Author, reading this, felt like punching his own main character! This damn narcissist! Dare to compare yourself to Hancock!
The Author also stared at this line for over an hour before deciding to leave it here and was too lazy to remove it!
Anyway, back to the story, when Luffy learned that the sky island was real, his eyes started to shine even brighter!
"Onwards! To Sky Island!"
"Uhh, Luffy. We still don't know how to get there. I can probably shoot us up with the water but something that far and this big would probably kill me before we would end up in the sky."
"Don't worry, no matter what happens, remember that I am here."
"Fuck! Zoro!? You were listening!?"
Lucas blushed furiously! Such a cheesy line, Zoro unexpectedly heard it as well! Behind the scenes, the Author cheered for Zoro as well! Yeah! Roast that bastard! He dares to take Nami from me!
…
"Sky island!"
Suddenly, Masira shouted. Lucas and the rest looked at him oddly.
Did he just snap out of it just now!?
He's too slow in the head!
Masira didn't mind our looks and quickly jumped back to his own ship.
"Men! Head back to the island quick!"
It seems as if he's in a hurry. Lucas knows that he wanted to inform Cricket immediately and sighed, wondering if this would also affect the future greatly.
Still, it shouldn't be too big of a change.
Lucas looked back at Luffy.
"So, anything you found under there?"
"Lots!"
"Well...I'll go get Nami then."
Scratching his head, Lucas walked towards Nami's room and knocked.
"Nami?"
"What!?"
...She's still mad.
"Erm...Luffy and the rest are about to show the things they got from the ship. There may be some clues there to get to the sky island or treasures-"
*BAM!*
Lucas had just completed the word treasure and the door had completely swung open!
Caught unawares, his head was hurting from the impact but Nami didn't care about him anymore as she made a beeline to the pile of 'treasures' that Luffy brought!
Lucas cursed again in his mind.
This money-loving woman!
Though Lucas knew that he can get her out of the room by saying the word treasure...he still underestimated Nami and didn't think she would immediately open the door like that!
Lucas swore in his heart. Next time...next time I am activating my Logia powers!
By the time Lucas came back to the deck, he could see Nami scolding Luffy and the other two.
"Where's the treasure!? All you brought back was trash! And there's not even anything about how we can get to the sky!"
Luffy ignored Nami and simply played with wearing the rusty armor he found.
Zoro shrugged.
"There was nothing else in it!"
"Yeah, that's true Nami-san."
Sanji puffed out a smoke with a sigh as he remembered the scattered weapons and skeletons in the ship.
"That ship had obviously been attacked. Either that or there was some sort of disagreement that caused them to turn on each other."
"If that's so, then information is even more crucial. Don't you get it!? If we went into the sky right now, whatever happened on that sunken ship could happen to us too!"
Nami is still being as cautious as ever.
Frustrated, she stomped on the pile of 'treasures'!
"Ahh!"
"The info we have can mean life and death! Look at this stuff! Rusted swords, foodware, octopus! What I need are things like a diary or sea charters, not this junk!"
Nami ignored Zoro and Sanji and turned to Luffy.
"...And what's that, Luffy?"
"Armor, to protect me from harm."
!!!
"Ahh! The armor is smashed to bits!"
Angered, Nami had actually destroyed Luffy with a single punch! How was that supposed to protect him from harm!?
...Too scary, this Nami…
However, it seems that Sanji didn't care at all and presented a shell to Nami.
"Nami-san, I brought back a beautiful shell for you!"
"I don't want it, you idiot!"
Nami sighed as she walked back up to the helm.
Robin, who was sitting at the side, handed something to Nami.
"For you."
"Wha? This is an Eternal Log Pose! How did you…?"
"I stole it from that monkey's ship."
Nami was in tears as she held onto the lock post.
"Uuuu...The only one who understands me is you!"
"...Seems like you've been putting in a lot of effort…"
Even Robin pitied her!
Lucas smiled wryly and walked over to look at the Eternal Log Pose.
Sure enough, the next island they will visit is written on it.
His eyes gleamed as he thought of a certain man who they will find on that island.
Jaya...will I finally be able to see Blackbeard next?
Lucas couldn't wait...