Everyone in the ship stopped their fun and stared at Tashigi.
Zoro sneakily crawled back to the cabin along with Yosaku and Johnny. They don't want to face this headstrong lady at all.
Tashigi felt intimidated when everyone was focusing on her.
Vivi recalled the cloud back. She let the cloud wrapped on her wrist like a bracelet.
Luke also covered back the ship with cloud umbrella since he found the high temperature of the desert very distasteful.
"You are a marine, right? Do you know what happened to those we captured?" Luke smirked at Tashigi.
"You filthy criminals! I expect no less from all of you!" Tashigi seemed to know her fate as she cursed everyone.
"I don't blame you for viewing us like that. I don't view all of marines as good people either." Luke replied.
"What do you mean!? We, the marines are the symbol of justice! We hunt evil people like you, pirates!" Tashigi was firm of her belief that all of the marines are good people and pirates are not.
"You based your vision by passing words. We based ours with experience." Luke patiently conversed with Tashigi while the rest of the Strawhats did their thing like changing new clothes.
"Don't make me laugh. You can't convince me with your words no matter what you say!" Tashigi huffed.
"I'm not. But don't think you can leave here either." Luke didn't want to argue with her. It will only waste his time. This woman looked like a rookie marine for him.
"Anyway, do you recognize those three?" He pointed at the door where Zoro, Yosaku and Johnny peeked.
"I know them. They were bounty hunters from the East Blue and became pirates." Tashigi paused before she continued, "Zoro said I looked like his childhood friend."
"Oh?" Luke rubbed his beardless chin as he squinted at Zoro. He called out, "Yo Zoro! Why are you shying away with your old girlfriend!"
"You damn moss head! You left a girl alone while running away!?" Sanji seemed furious as he can't stand it when a lady is having injustice.
"No! No! No! It's not like that, big bro Sanji! That childhood friend of ours was long been dead by an accident. This woman just happened to be looked like her!" Yosaku and Johnny went on to defend Zoro.
"Hm?" Sanji finally calmed down and somehow understood the situation. If it were to happen on him, he'd be surprised either.
"So that's how it is when they acted so strange towards you. Anyway, you are still our enemy and hostage." Luke walked inside the cabin to take a good bath.
"So you're a sword fanatic too just like Zoro? What a perfect coincidence." Nami commented on the side.
"I actually am. I know everything about swords." Tashigi proudly said.
"Oh? Tell me more about it!" Nami and others became interested as they gathered around Tashigi.
...
When Luke returned back after a nice bath, he then found out that Tashigi wasn't tied up anymore.
The young lady kept on browsing her notes about some swords while lecturing the Strawhats. Even Yosaku and Johnny were hooked by her vast knowledge about swords.
Tashigi pointed out that Zoro's sword, Wado Ichimonji are worth hundreds of millions of berries in value.
Nami creepily smiled at Zoro while eyeing at his white sword.
Zoro on training visibly flinched from the stare of Nami. To think about it, if he can't pay Nami with his debt, she will definitely take his sword as compensation.
Tashigi seems unaware that Vivi is the princess of Alabasta, yet. She keeps on blabbering how good she is at identifying swords as if she immersed in her own world.
Nami accompanied Vivi after memorizing those valuable swords in Tashigi's note. She's already plotting on her mind by stealing those treasured swords if she happens to find one in the future.
Luke find it boring if the speed of their ship is so slow. He then commanded the Float Float ring to accelerate the ship's speed like a car with 40 km/h ride. It's even faster than sailing in the sea.
Everyone was pleasantly surprised by this outcome. They now felt like sailing without bumps in the water, a very smooth ride.
Vivi expressed her gratitude at Luke once again. This way, they will arrive at Erumalu within 2 hours at most instead of 7 hours estimation.
Luke waved her off. It is a small thing for him. However, he will visit every little places in this desert for the Strawhats to broaden their horizons, even him wasn't the exception.
"Trainees, listen up. Danger lurks under the sand. Protect Merry at all cost for any unwanted harm." Luke calmly announced.
"There is?!" Luffy and others went on full alert.
"Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you all about this." Vivi coughed in embarrassment.
"Figures." The Strawhats rolled their eyes as they began to went on each corner to utilize their Observation Haki.
Tashigi watched the scene unfold. She came to understand how the Strawhats work as one.
Nami failed to detect any dangers under the sand with her Devil Fruit ability so she let the rest do the monitoring.
Zoro and others indeed found some lurkers. However, with Going Merry's silent travel, these lurkers failed to perform an ambush.
"I found a shrimp!"
Luffy grinned as he streched his hand and grabbed a giant scorpion out of the sand which scared Vivi and others who knew what it was.
Tashigi's eyes shone with mysterious light by how lively the Strawhats.
"Hey, samurai lady. Do you know who's Vice Admiral was situated in this country?" Luke called out Tashigi in a low voice while watching the Strawhats enjoying themselves fishing out some sand monsters.
He actually benefitted and silently gathered the souls of these dead lurkers, filling bits of his own lifespan.
"Why do you ask? Also, my name is Tashigi, not samurai lady." Tashigi frowned as she turned to Luke.
"Nothing much, really. All marines are weak in my opinion, just like your leader, Smoker was it?" Luke smirked.
"Hmp! Don't think you can get information from me." Tashigi rolled her eyes as she ignored Luke.
Luke shrugged. There's still a few days left before he can change Tashigi's impression about pirates like Strawhats.
In fact, he wanted her to join their crew. Her character value is not too bad. It would be a shame if she's stuck being a marine with little to no future on improving her sword skills.
Zoro executed more than three signature skills which were unusual for some Strawhats. It was as if he's showing off to Tashigi. If not for his dead serious face, they might already teased him to death.
Tashigi started to stick with Zoro. She wanted to know more about the latter's overall character. She heard his famous name before and have little encounter in Logue Town. This time, she will observe his every action if he truly deserves to be feared by pirates in the East Blue.
...
An hour later...
The Strawhats arrived at Erumalu. It was a deserted place with buildings in ruins.
Vivi explained that the town of Erumalu was used to be a prosperous place within Alabasta Kingdom. However, due to the existence of Dance Powder, this never experienced rain for three years, leaving it's own destruction.
She explained that Dance Powder science-made green powder which can miraculously summon rain by burning in all down. However, theres a consequences for that. It will rob the nearby places of it's water source. This powder then became illegal in every places for it's terrible side effect.
In the kingdom's case, the capital of Alubarna, the Baroque Work agents secretly used this powder for three years right in the area of main castle, resulting on places like Erumalu to experience intense drought which led to it's inevitable downfall.
Then, these Baroque Work Agents slowly smeared the reputation of the king by accidentally revealing that the latter uses Dance Powder for his own benefits which caused rumors to spread all over the kingdom.
Three years later, at current time, more than half of the citizens wanted to take down the throne by creating a rebel army.
Meanwhile, Crocodile publicly appeared from time to time to wipe out some pirates, ensuring the safety of the kingdom.
Crocodile's scheme is to overthrow the so called 'corrupt king' and he will become the new ruler by the help of the people.
He called this plan as 'Project Utopia'.
...
The Strawhats continued their travel when Luke recognized a rock formation. He then shifted the ship's tragectory towards that place.
Everyone stared at Luke weirdly. They didn't know what's he up to now.
Luke halted the ship as he stared down. He could detect some underground tunnels in the area.
He then blasted a hole in the underground using his Special Gun Homie. After that, he floated down which further baffled the Strawhats.
Luffy and others were curious about it as they jumped towards the underground tunnel, leaving the women and non-Strawhats.
In the underground, Luke stared at the giant cubic stone with symbols written on it in a uniform manner.
"What is this thing? How can we read this carved symbols?" Luffy had a puzzled face.
"This is ancient language. I've read it from a reference, but I can't read it's words." Chopper wiped the symbol's clean from dusts as he examined it further.
"This is a poneglyph. There are at least more than twenty of these all over the world." Luke slowly stated which caught the attention of the group.
He added, "The purpose of these poneglyphs is to record each historic events in the past. It's importance is very high for those who seek knowledge about the happenings of this world."
"Woah! Pretty amazing.." Usopp marveled this kind of thing. If only he can also carve his own adventure to these thing, he will become the legend in the future as well.
"Pity that I can't read the writings of this thing. However... there's one. Her name is Ms. All Sunday." Luke nodded.
Everyone got surprised recalling that mysterious woman who appeared to their ship at Whisky Peak. She actually knows how to read poneglyphs.
"It'd be more interesting if this is a food." Luffy picked his nose and flicked the booger to the nearby Usopp.
"Right. However, there are certain poneglyphs that we are currently looking for." Luke chuckled. He continued,
"It is the poneglyph pertaining to the location of.."
" The One Piece."
"...!!" Everyone held their breath in sheer surprise.