Another day passed, and I was starting to get a little bored. After the fight at the Baratie, my thirst for fighting (as much as I'd like to say I don't have any since I'm a Christian, I do) had been quenched, but now I was looking forward to our arrival at Nami's home island, the Conomi Islands. And by the way Lucy was pacing around the ship, I knew that I wasn't the only one who felt that way.
The straw-hatted girl sat at the front of the ship, smiling. She asked, "So will we be there soon? The island where Nami's at?"
Yosaku, who was sitting next to me on the bench around the single cabin, slapped his knee. "You're too naive!" he accused. "Way too naive! We're getting closer and closer to Arlong's base! When we docked at the Baratie, Nami-aneki's eyes were fixed on Arlong's bounty poster. I'm sure of it. Things aren't as simple as they seem," he said darkly, pointing at Lucy for emphasis.
Seagulls called overhead, following our ship as if to guide us to the Conomi Islands. It's kinda weird how similar Nami's homeland and her name sounded... CURSE MY ADHD!
The green-clothed bounty hunter gripped his knees, bending over. "Nami-aneki wants to take that 20 million belli bounty that's on Arlong's head! While we're taking it easy here, she could, for all we know, have already snuck into his base, Arlong Park!"
Everybody except me had been ignoring him. Lucy yawned and asked Sanji when lunch was, and he grinned. "I'll get on it soon."
Yosaku cried anime tears, stood up straight, and spat at us: "HAVEN'T YOU EVER HEARD OF ARLONG!?"
Sanji looked at him confusedly. "Arlong? Who's that?"
"Never heard of him," Lucy agreed.
"Isn't he that fish stick guy?" I piped up.
The poor guy turned blue and yelped, "Don't call Arlong that! You never know when he's listening, or has his subordinates listening!" He shivered, then rounded on Lucy and Sanji and blew a whistle. ...Where'd he get a whistle from? ANYWAY, he continued. "Yosh, guess I'll have to explain Arlong to you idiots!" He started pacing back and forth, copying Lucy from earlier. "Arlong is a merman who has already been to the Grand Line."
Sanji was skeptic. "A merman?"
"A merman, eh..." Lucy repeated.
"An echo?" I remarked blankly. The other two snickered.
"I've never seen one before."
"I haven't, either," I admitted. "At least, not in real life. In my vision they were ugly bastards, though..."
Sanji's eyes—or rather, eye, since his left one was hidden under his blonde hair—suddenly and inexplicably turned heart-shaped and he rubbed a non-existent beard. "Come to think of it, I've heard that there's a merman island somewhere on the Grand Line. And that there are lots of beautiful mermaids there!"
"Never do that heart-eyes thing again," I deadpanned. "And by the way, it's called Fishman Island."
Lucy sketched out a drawing on a pad of paper. I blinked. Where did the paper come from? Was a hammerspace at work here or something? Whatever the case, she showed us the picture and asked, "Those merman, do they look anything like this?"
There was a few seconds of absolute silence, save for the omnipresent rolling of the waves. Then Sanji and I burst into laughter. Lucy had drawn an absolutely abominable fish with padded human feet, and it was hilarious! I nearly choked, I was laughing so hard!
"That's a masterpiece you got there!" our newest cook approved, snickering.
"COULDN'T YOU GUYS BE MORE SERIOUS HERE?!" Yosaku erupted, resembling Nami way too much all of the sudden. He sat back down and lifted a finger while we all looked at him, smothering our laughter. "Fine, I'll start again at the top!" he said. "The reason why the Grand Line is called the Graveyard of Pirates is because there are three superpowers that reign supreme there. One of them is the Shichibukai, otherwise known as the Seven Warlords."
"Shichibukai?" Lucy repeated.
I grinned. "There's a serious echo guys," I said, making Lucy and Sanji snicker again.
"PAY ATTENTION! Anyway, in plain terms, the Shichibukai are seven pirates who have been acknowledged by the World Government."
Sanji raised an eyebrow. "Eh? What does that mean?"
"They're given immunity from arrest," I put in, "and in return, the World Government can order them to do stuff like take down pirates and Revolutionary ships and stuff. Also, they're forbidden from searching for the One Piece. It works for the World Government, too, because they get a fixed percentage of all other treasure found or stolen by the Shichibukai."
Sanji nodded. "Ah. That makes sense. But it's kinda stupid that pirates would be government dogs."
"Not really." I shook my head. "They can't get arrested and thrown in jail, or get killed by the World Government. They can sail the seas and sow fear into people's hearts without getting arrested, so to them, it's just fine."
"To other pirates," Yosaku agreed, "they're just bastard government dogs, but they're really powerful! The man who defeated Zoro, Hawk-Eyes Mihawk, is one of them."
Lucy clapped her feet together excitedly. "WHOA, really?! I can't wait to meet these guys! There are really seven with his power? The Shichibukai are really something!"
"Among the Shichibukai is a merman, Jinbei, who's the captain of a merman crew. And the guy who fought alongside Jinbei in the Grand Line, is the most wicked, devastating pirate... Arlong!"
Lucy pulled out her pad of paper again and her pencil danced across a new page. "You mean, kinda like this?" Now it was the same fish, just standing on two of the legs and using the other two as arms.
Sanji and I busted up. Yosaku was unamused and fumed, "JUST TAKE IT SERIOUSLY! PLEASE! As I was saying, Ever since Arlong came to the East Blue years ago, he's caused mass mayhem and chaos. He's literally overturned 20 villages! His power is far beyond that of Don Krieg, who compared to him is nothing but a kid!"
The cook frowned. "So then why would Nami-san run off to battle someone like that alone?"
"As I said, she's after the bounty on Arlong's head," the bounty hunter said.
"Or she could have other business with him that she didn't want us knowing about," I pointed out. "Like maybe one of the villages that got destroyed was hers."
"True..."
Sanji's face lit up. "Or maybe she's actually a mermaid! I mean, she's totally cute and gorgeous..."
Lucy flipped to another page and sketched out a third drawing, a copy of the previous one except with long eyelashes and hair. "Then she'd look like this."
"LUCY-CHAN WHY YOU SO CRUEL TO ME!?"
"DON'T YOU GUYS UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY HERE?" Yosaku exploded.
"Yeah, that they're really strong mermen, right?" Lucy summed up. "I get the picture."
"But the ones you draw are terrible," I snickered.
"No, you don't understand!" Yosaku moaned. "You have no idea how powerful these mermen really are, not even you, Yuril, and you should since you're a psychic!"
Lucy shrugged, unmoved. "We'll find out when we get there, so don't worry."
Sanji stretched, got up, straightened his tie, and announced, "Yosh! It's time for lunch."
"Right on!" the captain of the Straw Hats cheered. "Lunchtime!"
"Better have lemonade," I said pointedly.
Even Yosaku was brought out of his funk. "Lunch?!"
"Whaddya guys want?"
"MEAT! LOTS AND LOTS OF MEAT! On the bone, preferably."
Yosaku jumped up. "I want fried beans!"
"Stuffed peppers with sea king meat!" I ordered.
"Yosh... leave it to me." The cleanly dressed cook on our crew got up and headed for the kitchen, muttering recipes to himself. "I'll make it in a jiffy!"
"Having a chef onboard sure is great!" Lucy giggled, licking her lips in anticipation.
I nodded eagerly. "You're telling me!"
Yosaku poked around and peered inside the kitchen to watch Sanji make the meal. "Yeah!"
"Meat! I want a big chunk of it!"
"Give me the biggest pepper you can find!"
"Yes, Lucy-CHAWN! Yuril-Cwhaan!"
"I want a big bowl of mine, too!" Yosaku added.
"SHUT IT, YOU BASTARD!"