Once the battle at Baratie had concluded, the sea became an almost deafeningly silent affair as the trio sailed off towards the Conomi islands, with Sanji and Morgan watching the waves and Yosaku looking tense from the prospect of all of this before finally breaking the silence; "L-Look, we don't have to stop off there…Don't you even realise what waits for us at Arlong Park? FISHMEN! Fishmen that are 10 times stronger than a human!"
"Yeah, but Nami's there too…If she can handle them then there's no problem." Morgan assured the not quite so convinced Yosaku; "Besides, I'm not leaving this sea and go to the Grand Line without Merry."
"Ah, Nami~ Once I show up to meet you, I'll be able to rescue you from all the troubles that ail you!" Sanji proclaimed to the open sea; "Plus if that beautiful angel's not on the ship with us then my motivation's going to drop by about 98.5%…" He added with an oddly sharp change in demeanour from love struck baboon to his usual chef manner.
"But you're forgetting…That girl ditched the lot of you, sorry if I have to be the one to say it but I hardly think she cares about any of you." Yosaku stated bluntly even though he looked saddened by Nami's betrayal.
"Until she looks me in the eye and tells me that she doesn't want to come back…I'm gonna look for her and bring her back, she is our navigator after all. Plus I'm not gonna be a captain that gives up on a crew that easy." Morgan retorted obstinately and then looked to Yosaku; "If she wanted to leave or say that she wanted to then she had every opportunity to do so before all of this."
"I guess so…Plus Zoro bro, Johnny and Usopp should be able to get there before we do…they did have a head start after all. Yosaku mentioned as Sanji clapped his hands together and got up.
"There's no point worrying on an empty stomach…I'll make us some food to keep going for our next stop, Any requests?" Sanji offered as he headed for the small kitchen on the boat.
"I'll take some meat!" Morgan called out to Sanji.
"Beansprouts, sautéed if at all possible!" Yosaku jumped in as well as the smell of food started to emanate.
—Meanwhile—
"Welcome back home, Nami~" A large sharptoothed Fishman crooned from his deck chair as he saw the gates open to the park and Nami step in with a bag slung over her shoulder; "I see you've been awfully busy this time, most of us here were starting to miss you." He remarked as he waved her over with a webbed hand.
"I got a little sidetracked but I was able to make up for it, Arlong." Nami replied as she held up the sack of money; "I managed to get some more plus something special…A Map to the Grand Line!" She elaborated while brandishing the rolled up parchment.
"Shaaahahahahaha! That IS good time spent, BROTHERS! Grab some food and drink, our dear cartographer has returned with some goodies!" Arlong yelled out to the seemingly empty park which quickly filled out with all manner of Fishmen as they cheered for Nami's return, spilling out of the tower and out of the pool.
"I'll store away what I've got and you can get the party started for when I come back." Nami mentioned as she pocketed the map down her shirt, "I'll need to count it up after all."
"I see, well leave the festivities to us, sister and do what you need to but while you're…doing whatever it is you do, I'll need you to stop in Cocoyasi Village…It's that time again and tribute needs to be taken." Arlong requested as he got up from his chair, now towering over Nami; "I'd go myself but I think with you here, a more…Human touch would work better~"
Nodding silently, Nami turned tail and walked out of the Park and down towards the village, the hand clasping onto the bag clenched ever tighter as she made the long walk towards a tangerine grove, "By this time tomorrow, I'll be able to free everyone…And Arlong can leave us alone for good!" Nami mused to herself and took a brief glance towards the worn down village.
Arlong meanwhile looked to his lieutenant; a tall and slender looking Fishman called Choo; "See if you can get Nezumi on the line…I want the rat to make good on his promise to be useful." He remarked with a sneer as Choo headed off; "And where is Hatchan?"
"Sir, he's gone to go feed Momoo, it is that time after all." A smaller fishman who looked like a clownfish would point out as he carried a crate full of alcohol.
—Meanwhile, Out at Sea—
The smell of food kept getting stronger, the smokey aroma of the meat and the spice coming from the beansprouts made for a very pleasant combination as the trio began to eat. Morgan was chewing on a steak while Yosaku sucked down beansprouts, Sanji in the meanwhile was savouring the taste of a wine he brought along; "Hey Yosaku, you sounded like you know a lot about Fishmen…Anything else that you wanna tell us about them?" Sanji asked curiously while sipping the wine.
"Granted I don't know all that much but what I do know is that they're dangerous…REAL dangerous, even one Fishman is stronger and faster then a regular human but they also have the ability to breathe and move underwater as easily as they can on land…" Yosaku explained as Sanji listened and Morgan began to pay attention as well, "Some of them have some weird abilities when it comes to water…They can blast people with water using a punch or a kick…"
Morgan's eyebrow raised in recognition; "You mean Fishman Karate, right?" He would ask with another chomp down on his steak, earning him a look of surprise from Sanji and a nod from Yosaku; "It's a martial art that Fishmen can use while in and out of the water; supposedly they can manipulate the water to hit people for an extra amount of power behind their movements." Morgan explained with an odd amount of wonder in his eyes.
"Morgan…How in the hell do you know something like that?" Sanji asked as out of all the things that he heard him say; THIS was the one thing he spoke about with more thought than anything else.
"I read about it in a book back in my village; Grandpa pushed my head in a book to learn about fighting techniques and martial arts when he didn't train me into the ground, I wanted to learn it once I decided to become the world's greatest martial artist…But I think that you have to be a Fishman to do it, that and I don't think that there's any dojo on land that could teach it." Morgan explained wistfully before sighing as he finished off his food.
Before anything else could be said, there was a deep rumbling from under the boat as the water started to get choppy and what looked like a giant pillar of water raising into the air; "Uh…Morgan….There wasn't any Fishmen out here, was there?" Yosaku asked as he hid behind both Morgan and Sanji though that quickly got debunked as out of the foamy water came a giant sea creature that almost looked like a giant cow.
"MOO!" The monster bellowed itself as it found itself looking down at the three or more specifically the food that was set on the boat with the smell of food in it's nostrils further enticing it more.
"Hey, hey hey! Get your own food, this is our's!" Morgan yelled up at it once he saw what was going on in the monster's head and raised his arm up to try hitting it but was stopped by Sanji.
"Come on now, it's just hungry…You don't need to worry, it might just be too injured to hunt and eat for itself…If someone's hungry then I'll feed them." Sanji said before grabbing the platter of meat on the table and holding it up for Momoo to eat, after some hesitation; it's giant head leaned down to try taking a bite but Sanji almost instantly kicked it under the chin; "DON'T GO THAT FAR, SEA HIPPO!" Sanji yelled as Momoo reeled back with a roar in pain.
"What happened to all that talk about feeding someone who's hungry?!" Yosaku asked with an astonished look on his face as he saw Momoo growing angry and ready to bite back.
"He tried to eat me." Sanji said plainly as he looked back up at Momoo.
The giant sea cow was livid at this point and for any other ship or boat that passed; he would have smashed them apart but right now he was staring down Morgan with a facial expression that warned danger all around and Sanji who shared that look but with the added extra of knowing that the cook would kick him again.
"Back. Off." Morgan growled as he tried to emulate Shanks through his intensive stare down with Momoo who was midway through his attempt to bite again before wilting under the combined stares and became docile again.
"Wait…Morgan, I have an idea…" Sanji remarked with a grin as he picked up some rope from one of the storage boxes.
—A few minutes and some struggling later—
Morgan and the others were zooming along the water as they had roped Momoo up to the front of the ship like a horse and had him swim ever closer to the island. "Gotta hand it to you Sanji, this was a pretty fun idea." Morgan yelled back excitedly to them as he sat at the front of the ship while he held on to his hat.
"I'm a cook, it pays to be creative…Now we can waste no time with getting to the island and save Nami~" Sanji grinned as he held on to the side of the ship and Yosaku was clinging on to the other side for dear life.
"Uh, guys?! The island's getting really big, really, really fast! Think we can pump the brakes on the cow?!" Yosaku yelled over the waves as he could see the rocky side of the island growing.
"EVERYBODY, HOLD ON!" Morgan warned them as they braced for impact; Momoo collided headfirst into the rocky wall and catapulted the entire ship out of the water and into the forest, the ship was practically flying through the air before landing on the ground but not slowing down; "HA HA! THIS IS AMAZING!" Morgan whooped as he was stuck on an adrenaline rush but narrowed his eyes when he saw a familiar green head and a swathe of bandages: "HEY ZORO, GRAB ON!" He yelled without warning and grabbed Zoro by the collar and yanked him up onto the boat before it finally settled in small pond…Shy of hitting a wall.
"Morgan?! What're you doing out here?" Zoro asked as the group climbed off the boat and started walking to avoid getting caught by fishmen; "And who's the blond?" He would point his thumb at Sanji.
"Okay, there's a lot to catch up on…But first off, why not tell me about what happened when you got here?" Morgan asked as he noticed Sanji was about to get abrasive with Zoro.
Zoro nodded and began to explain everything to Morgan; starting with getting locked up in prison at Arlong Park, his escape and him trying to find Usopp who got caught by Fishman.
"And you don't know where he is at all?" Yosaku asked as Zoro shrugged; "If Zoro bro was able to escape then Usopp-Bro should be able to as we-"
"He's not coming back…" A familiar voice came up as the four of them turned and saw Johnny standing there looking forlorn like he had seen a ghost. "I saw what happened at Arlong Park…Nami was there too as one of their leaders, She killed Usopp-Bro and dumped him in the water!" Johnny spat it out with an emotion waver in his voice but quickly found himself getting grabbed by the collar and jerked to a nearby tree.
"SHUT UP! There's no way Nami would kill him!" Morgan yelled, losing his cool and gripped tighter; "She might be a thief and she might've run away but I refuse to believe that she'd kill Usopp, not after everything!" He said staunchly while Sanji grabbed his shoulder.
"Losing your cool here isn't going to help!" Sanji tried to defuse him and looked to Johnny; "Now are you sure it was Nami? slender girl, redhead and a beautiful face worth more than any amount of Berri?" Sanji asked Johnny as he sweat buckets.
"You could always just ask me yourself?" Nami would say calmly as she leered at the group and walked over with staff in hand; "What are you doing here, Ford? I thought I made it clear I want nothing more to do with you or your misfits." She said bluntly as Morgan turned to face her.
"I heard...But I wanted to hear you say it face to face, so look me in the eye and tell me that you don't want to be on this crew with me and the others." Morgan said with a serious note in his voice, keeping his eyes trained on her's
Nami tried to keep her gaze on him to take his goad to look him in the eye but found it almost difficult but defied her compulsion to look away; she had been so used to seeing those blue eyes shimmer like the warm waves of the ocean but this time they were cold like ice. "And you sure that you want to keep trying to win back a girl who kills a crewmate of your's?" She said with a chilling tone of voice that barely denied what she did. "What he said was true and you should listen…The only reason that I humoured you and partnered up was so that I could take whatever treasure you came across for myself."
Morgan didn't look convinced, he wasn't leaving without a definite answer. "And you think that I wouldn't come looking for my crew mate? My Frie-"
"Don't! I am not your crewmate, I am not your friend…You were a means to an end, that's all there is to it. You want your ship back? It's in the harbour, so go find some other navigator that will put up with you." Nami offered her ultimatum to him as she glared at him; "This is goodbye, Ford…so leave if you know what's good for you."
"Hmm…Nope, I think I'll stay here. We came all this way out here so I think I'll do a little sightseeing." Morgan remarked as his demeanour changed to a more jovial one as he turned around and started walking towards Cocoyashi Village; serving to only anger Nami more…for more personal reasons.
"FINE, IF YOU WANT TO DIE HERE SO BADLY, THEN GO AHEAD!" Nami yelled at him as she ran off, barely hiding the pricked tears in her eyes as she ran off, not towards Arlong Park but for the Tangerine Grove.
The remaining members simply stood around, taking in everything that Nami said and questioning why Morgan simply let her run off after putting so much effort in to try and find Nami. "So we're just going to stay here?" Sanji asked in confusion, he was always happy to see Nami but the fact that Morgan said one thing and was now doing something else threw him off.
"If the Captain's staying here…then we stay until he says otherwise." Zoro pointed out as he watched Morgan walk off. Taking a seat in a meditative position by the road and Sanji took his spot under a tree to smoke…This was going to be a long wait if he knew Morgan like a First Mate knows his Captain.