13 Chapter 13: Secrets Of The World

Third Person's PoV:

The tension was quickly cut as Nami spoke up, "what's going on? Did they refuse our request?" She innocently asked. Zoro just scowled even more and Usopp looked like he wanted to bolt out of there.

"That bastard... he..h-he killed.. Luffy! He's going after Kaya, I have to warn everyone!" The sniper breathed out hysterically. Not making much coherent sentences.

"What!? Who killed Luffy!?" Zoro was surprised and anger immediately rose in his heart. He had just miraculously came back by himself from the mansion after they had been rudely kicked out, hence his foul mood. Now, Usopp was telling them that their captain was dead!?

After calming both of the people who were about to go critical, Usopp explained to them that Klahadore, who is actually captain Kuro of a 'Thousand Plans', plotted to steal Kaya's inheritance and kill everyone in the village.

When he got to the part about how Luffy was hypnotized by a strange man named Jango and fell down to the rocky ground and his subsequent death, everyone else in the room just breathed out a sigh of relief, except for Josh who already knew what happened.

"You don't need to worry about Luffy, Usopp. He ate the Gomu-Gomu no mi, so he's a rubber man. He can't get hurt from blunt force trauma." To ease the boy's guilt of letting a friend die, Josh explained to him about Luffy's devil fruit.

As soon as he heard that Luffy was actually fine and he had nothing to worry about, the long nosed teenager quickly dashed away from the restaurant, leaving a trail of dust but not before shouting that he would warn everyone. Josh just let him go because... everyone had to learn to pay for their actions at some point of their lives.

With that settled, the trio of swordsman, thief, and lightning man went to the location that Usopp told them was where their captain had fallen. Sure enough, Luffy was safe and sound... a bit too sound as he was snoring loudly. Josh had a devious smile on his face as he just came up with an idea.

"GET UP YOU BRAT!!" He shouted in the grumpiest and deepest voice he could muster, trying his best to sound like Garp and hit Luffy over the head with an imitation of the famed 'Fist of Love'.

Luffy jumped up while clutching his head. "It hurtsss... Gramps!" He frantically looked around, eyes darting left and right. "Huh...where's gramps?", after not seeing a gorilla sized old man, he questioned. The whole time, the perpetrator was just cackling away.

"Hehehe... sorry. Your grandpa isn't here, Luffy." The culprit apologized. Luffy visibly looked relieved as he let out a long sigh.

"As curious as we are about who your grandfather is, we have a situation, Luffy." Zoro finally decided that they had been playing around enough. His voice was serious as he explained everything that Usopp had told them to the previously unconscious man.

They decided to help Usopp after finding him in a miserable condition. Snot, tears, and dirt stained his clothing and face, and a gunshot wound on his shoulder. Usopp was very grateful for having met the kind people who were willing to help him out when everyone he knew had shunned him away, calling him a liar.

It hurt him the most when Kaya of all people did not even try to believe him, but he knew that he only had himself to blame.

They went to the south entrance to the island as that was near the area where Usopp and Luffy had spotted Jango and Kuro discussing their plans but the blonde insisted that they split up and cover the north entrance as well.

His logic seemed legitimate so Josh took Nami with him to the North entrance. There, they waited for the invading pirates to arrive. Nami was nervous and scared because if the pirates really came their way, it would only be her and Josh against tens of brutes and she wasn't confident in her combat skills.

"Don't worry Nami. I promise I won't let anyone even put a finger on you." He comforted her with a smile and a pat on her shoulders, "I told you didn't I? That I'd show you what I can do..?"

His words had an effect as Nami visibly relaxed a little. She figured the rest of them would run over when they hear the sound of fighting if the pirates really came and vice versa.

Josh was having an internal dilemma of his own as well. While he could always take care of all of the pirates in a single move, that wouldn't really satisfy Nami enough to completely trust him just yet.

"Would you like to hear some things I know about the Grandline?" To pass the time, as it was still in the dead of night and the pirates weren't due until morning, the bored man proposed a topic of conversation to the navigator. Nami nodded as she was genuinely curious about what someone who was from the place had to say about it.

"Much like the rest of the world, the Grandline mostly consists of various islands. But it is divided into two parts by the one and only continent in the world, the Redline." Joshua started his rant, "both parts have specific names. The first half of the Grandline is called Paradise and the second half is called the New World."

"Wait. Why is the first part called Paradise? If other people call it the "Pirate's Graveyard"?" The interested girl asked. She could not understand why a place compared to hell by so many was called such a pleasant sounding name.

"That's simple. It is called that because that's what it is when compared to the horrors of the New World." The girl audibly gasped. If such a place was as comfortable as a Paradise, she couldn't even begin to imagine the kind of dangers that lurk in the second half.

"Anyway, the normal maps and compasses are about as useful as a rock in that place. This is due to the special minerals that can be found in each island." Nami was now down right horrified. If a map and compass did not work in the East Blue, even sailing out to sea would be impossible.

Did this mean that her navigational skills would be useless there? Now she was really glad she hadn't impulsively went to such a dangerous sea by herself. She would surely die there.

"Each island emit their own special electromagnetic wavelengths so a compass there would just be spinning around and round. A map alone would also never get you anywhere either." The information that was being carelessly given by the blonde man before her was breaking her common sense more and more.

"The weather there can change at the drop of a hat and the sea currents make no sense. You could be heading straight the whole time but with the interference of the currents, you could be sailing the exact opposite direction without even noticing." The poor girl was now scratching her head in utter disbelieve, however, the blonde continued as if he didn't noticed her expressions of horror.

"As I mentioned, the weather can change really fast. When I say change, I mean really change. Once second it could be raining, the next, your fending yourself from falling icebergs. Then it would move on to something like acid and then all of a sudden everything is calm." The Haki User carried on without a care. "That is just the hell called Paradise. The New World is much much worse. Those are just the environments there. I'm not even gonna mention the other rival pirate crews and marines."

By now, Nami was hugging her knees and softly whispering incoherent words. Seeing her actions, Josh let out a hearty laugh because that was something Usopp would do.

"You can relax, Nami. I was "born" in that kind of environment. There aren't much I don't know about my "home"." He lied to her through his teeth just to comfort the girl. He really felt bad about lying to all of them when they placed so much trust in him... maybe he should tell all of them when they reach Paradise. Josh mulled the thought over in his mind.

"H-How is it possible that such a dangerous sea can even exist!?" Nami asked after calming down somewhat. "That's something only Oda knows..." he simply replied.

"I almost forgot to tell you 2 more crucial information. The first is that each and every island on the Grandline has its own constant season. It never changes. The last and most important information is the one and only way to traverse those deadly seas." He let that last statement hang in the air to peak Nami's interests.

"And what would that be?" She finally took the bait as she asked the question.

"The only way to go from island to island on the Grandline is..." he paused a bit to build up even more tension. Nami sent the man an annoyed glare so he continued, "is something called a Log Pose."

"A Log.. Pose?" The navigator turned her head to the side. Trying her hardest to see if she had ever heard of such an item as it was related to navigation.

"Yep. A Log Pose. These poses are able to lock on to the individual electromagnetic wavelengths of an island and point towards it. Once you arrive there, you'd have to wait for some time for the Log Pose to record the wavelengths and find the next island." He finished. This got the navigator's attention as she was silently thinking about such an item.

"Most people on the Grandline would tell you that the Log Pose is the only thing you can trust in there." He added as a side note to which Nami just nodded to, "I can see why..."

"Those are very...interesting. Do you happen to know the specifics on how they work?" She queried, if she was able to find out how they work, maybe she might be able to figure out more secrets of the Grandline.

"Sadly, I don't but I'm sure there's someone out there that knows..." The man replied to her in a somewhat apologetic tone. Nami felt a bit down but was still interested. "When we go there, you'll learn a lot more and improve your navigational skills." Chided the blonde.

"Hmm... thanks for sharing your knowledge with me. With what everything you've told me so far, I can confidently say that my skills as a navigator have gone up another level... so thank you." The words of gratitude was dismissed quickly because Josh knew that she would eventually know all of those things when they get to the Grandline. It just happened a little bit earlier, so he really felt he hadn't done much.

"There's another subject I'm curious about..." Nami started another conversation. "Can you tell me about devil fruits? Not much is known about them here in the East Blue and most even consider them a myth."

"Ahh.. devil fruits. That's another interesting and extensive topic. I do know a lot about them but not everything." And so another long rant was about to start.

"For starters, their origin still remains a mystery as far as I know. They can be easily identified by the swirly patterns that appear on the fruits. Most of the time, they take on the shape of normal fruits but with a different color." The girl nodded, some of the things that Josh said matched with what she's heard before.

"Devil fruits are divided into 3 categories and some categories have subcategories as well." Thoroughly explaining the whole thing was going to take a while but Joshua didn't care. If anyone else asks him in the future, he'd just point at Nami to get their answers.

"The first category is called Logia. This type of devil fruits are generally the rarest and most powerful among all of them. The reason for this is that a Logia fruit allows the consumer to possess the powers of an entire element." With all of his knowledge about the One Piece world, explaining these things were very easy for Josh. "What do you mean by element?" The girl couldn't understand. She knew what an element was but doesn't know the exact implications.

"They are able to control, create, and manipulate a literal force of nature. Elements such as fire, lava, ice, wind, sand, or even lightning. The kicker here is that the fruit users affectively becomes one with their element so they are able to turn untouchable. Trying to harm them might even hurt the person if it's elements like fire, lava, or lightning."

Nami's mouth was wide open. She couldn't believe it! First the Grandline and now all of these frightening powers out in the world. She learn that she had been a very tiny fish in an even tinier ocean when compared to the things she learned today.

"The next category is called Zoan. Zoan type devil fruits are able to give you the ability to transform into some type of animal. There are usually 3 transformations. Normal, hybrid, and full animal. The basic advantages of Zoan type devil fruits are enhanced strength and enhanced senses or additional senses depending on the animal." Nami nodded. This time, the abilities were much more bearable. She motioned for Josh to continue.

"Zoans have the most sub-categories but you don't really need to worry about them. A mythical Zoan is even rarer than a Logia and to my knowledge, only two people have it."

"That's a lot to take in. Every time you tell me something new, I gain more and more realization of how small my world had been." Nami admitted with a small grimace. She wasn't saying that she hasn't had her fair share of unbelievable things but the scale was just too different.

"The last is the Paramecia. People usually consider this type of devil fruit as not necessarily the weakest but definitely the most versatile. As long as you couldn't control an element or become an animal, it is considered a paramecia. Our captain and Buggy fall under this category as well." Josh finally finished his explanations about all the different kinds of devil fruits and he felt a little mentally drained from talking so much... but that was nowhere near Nami's level so he couldn't even complain.

"Oh right.. their weaknesses. Almost forgot that. All Devil fruit users are "hated" by the sea so to say. None of them can swim and they would become a rock and sink if they fall into a deep enough body of water. There are also these minerals calls Kairoseki (Seastones) which gives off the same effect as the ocean so they lose all strength if they touch it." There is also haki but that was for another time.

Nami just nodded dumbly. Even to her, this motion was getting redundant but that was the only way she could react. She was tired of constantly being surprise. As an after thought, Josh said, "usually only the marines have access to them." And thus finishing his very long conversation with her.

They had gotten so into their conversation that the duo did not notice the passing of time until the first light of day can be seen from the beautiful horizon but this tranquil moment was about to be ruined by the approaching ship full of bloodthirsty pirates.

A/N: Damn... I did not mean for the chapter to turn out like this. Instead of an actual chapter this is more of an info dump and I'm truly sorry about that. This is also for those who aren't extensively knowledgeable about the subject matters that were "discussed" as well as a refresher for some of those who forgot.

Again, sorry for the info dump. I had to do it one way or another, but this was not how I expected it to turn out.