As they locked eyes, a giant shadowy figure emerged from beneath them, its massive jaws chomping down on the ship. The Merry shook violently as the sea creature rose from the depths, dwarfing their vessel.
"T-t-giant turtle!" Usopp stammered, his voice shaking with fear. The turtle groaned, letting out a deafening roar. But as if that wasn't enough, the sky suddenly turned dark. The turtle froze in fear, its eyes wide with terror. The Straw Hats, confused, turned to see what had frightened the beast. Three colossal shadowy figures towered above them, reaching up to the skies. Everyone quivered in fear.
"Let's get out of here!!" The Straw Hats screamed in unison, rushing to the oars and rowing the Merry with all their might. They rowed and rowed until they were under the clear sky again, finally allowing themselves to rest once they felt safe.
"Man, that was scary," Usopp said, his voice trembling with relief.
"Yeah, today is filled with crazy events," Sanji added, shaking his head.
"The log pose pointing up," Nami said, her eyes wide with bewilderment.
"And a large ship fell from the sky," Zoro noted, his voice calm but curious.
"With a weird monkey claiming this is his sea," Usopp continued, still in disbelief.
"And a giant turtle too," Chopper added, his tiny voice trembling.
"Then the day turned into night," Robin said, her eyes thoughtful.
"And giants way bigger than normal giants appeared," Luffy finished, his voice filled with awe.
"But we made it through it all, eh?" Lucas remarked with a smile.
"Yeah, well, we were lucky," Usopp replied, sighing.
The Straw Hats took a moment to catch their breath and reflect on the day's events.
"Come on, guys. We got all the useful stuff, didn't we? Just throw away the useless stuff already," Nami said, referring to the junk they salvaged from the galleon.
'Clank,' Luffy clanked around in a piece of armor from the junk, ticking off Nami. She punched Luffy so hard that his already deteriorated armor crumbled.
"Why do I have to deal with this every time? I mean, how are we even supposed to get to this supposed Sky Island?" she fumed, storming off to the upper deck.
"Here, take this," Robin said, handing Nami an Eternal Pose.
"Huh?" Nami wondered as she received it. "Jaya," she read on the pose.
"I snagged it from those monkey guys," Robin explained.
"Haaa! Jaya? What's that? Is that where we're going?" Luffy asked, curious.
"I don't know. Isn't that for you, 'Captain,' to decide?" Nami replied, her tone challenging.
Luffy swallowed what he was eating. "We're setting sail to Jaya!" he declared.
"Yeah!" Usopp and Chopper chanted while Lucas dumped all the junk into his dimension pocket, figuring he'd use alchemy on it when he needed extra material. "There," he muttered after finishing.
He was then drawn by the bickering of Nami and Luffy, with Luffy refusing to go to Jaya because he wanted to go to Skypiea. It didn't take long for Nami to persuade him.
"Alright folks, we're heading to Jaya!" Luffy declared once more as they set sail.
"Ahhh! The weather is pretty nice here," Luffy remarked, lying on his special seat.
"Yeah, even those seagulls look happy," Chopper said, looking up. Suddenly, the birds fell from the sky, landing on their deck next to Chopper.
"W-ahhhhh!" he screamed in shock.
"Ok cool, let's grill 'em," Luffy said, getting up.
"Look, this wound—they've been shot!" Chopper exclaimed as he examined them.
"Come on, that'd be silly. How can they be shot down from an island we can't even see yet?" Nami said, skeptical.
"Well actually..." Lucas began, but Nami hushed him.
"Zip it," she said, not wanting to hear anything that might worry her more.
"Sanji, meat!" Luffy called in the background.
"That has to be one hell of a sniper to be able to pull off something like that," Usopp remarked, his eyes wide.
"Say, Lucas," Zoro said.
"Huh?" Lucas replied.
"That samurai guy you once turned into," Zoro continued.
"Yeah," Lucas responded slowly, seeing where this was going.
"How about a little spar?" Zoro suggested. "I'm a little curious..."
"Nope," Lucas replied before Zoro could finish.
"Come on, just a little spar, nothing much," Zoro persisted.
"Nah, I'm good," Lucas rejected firmly.
"Murder!" someone cried as the Merry docked at the coast of Jaya. With so many pirates around, hearing something like this shouldn't have been a shocker.
"What were we thinking? This place is full of pirates! There's no way it's safe!" Nami and Usopp cried in a panic.
"Alright, let's go check out this pirate island," Luffy said, hopping off the ship with Zoro.
"I'll also stretch my legs," Lucas said, joining them. Nami and Usopp clung to the Merry, their eyes filled with worry.
"I don't think it's a good idea letting those two go alone together," Usopp said, his voice trembling.
"But they have Lucas with them, right?" Nami said, trying to reassure herself. On second thought, she hurried after them. She didn't trust Lucas to keep those two at bay.
"What! Nami's gone too?" Sanji said, emerging from the kitchen. Seeing Nami was gone, he decided to follow her. But Chopper and Usopp, the cowardly duo, clung to Sanji, begging him to stay.
"I thought you said you'd not step a foot on this island," Zoro said as Nami caught up with them.
"It's all your fault for being untrustworthy!" Nami replied angrily. If they weren't so reckless, she could've just stayed on the Merry. "I'm here to make sure you three don't go around getting into fights," she said firmly.
"You have such little faith in us, Nami," Lucas said, shaking his head.
"Can you blame me? Now, I want you all to promise me you won't jump into fights," Nami demanded.
"Pssh, fine. We promise," the three replied as they walked.
"Huh, what's with that guy?" Luffy wondered aloud. "That weak-looking guy just fell off his horse," he said. The sickly man saw that he had caught the attention of the Straw Hats and begged to be helped back up onto his horse. Luffy and Zoro went to help him.
The man then offered some apples as a reward. "Thanks," Luffy said, taking an apple and eating it.
"Don't eat it, you idiot!" the other three yelled as Zoro smacked the apple out of Luffy's hand. Not long after, an explosion sounded behind them, followed by someone crying about a person eating an apple offered by a strange, sickly person and exploding after taking a bite. The sickly man laughed, mentioning how Luffy had taken a good apple or else he would have met the same fate.
On the other hand, a person was challenging people, calling himself a champion. "Don't even think about it," Nami said, pulling Luffy and Zoro along. Lucas was busy with his Omnitrix, muttering to himself as he followed along.
"It's been a while since I checked the Omni-Armor to see if it gathered enough map data of the Grand Line," he said, pulling up a hologram and fiddling with it. "It's got enough data to fully navigate through the Grand Line, but it seems it'll need more time to create a comprehensive map of this sea. Well, it does gather a small amount of data while I'm not using the Omni-Armor, and I haven't flown to a high altitude for the scan to cover a wider range. But it's fine; it's not like I'll use it a lot right now though," he muttered.
"Would you keep it down?" Lucas yelled as Luffy was arguing with another pirate at a bar.
"Huh, since when did we get here?" he wondered, looking around in confusion. "Did I somehow get lost? Am I like Zoro now?" he muttered, his eyes wide in shock.
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