Chapter 26: The knock up stream

Dialogue "sample"

Thoughts 'sample'

Author notes -sample-

Disclaimer: One piece and all of its characters belong to Eiichiro Oda.

Chapter 26: The knock up stream

Sometime later, the Strawhats came back with the south bird and were surprised to see Montblanc covered in bruises.

"What happened to you, old man?." Asked Luffy with concern.

Montblanc stopped working and put the hammer down. "Not much, we had some uninvited guests looking for gold. Your crew mate took care of them."

Luffy was surprised at hearing this. "Eh? She did?."

"Vivi!" They all turned when they heard Sanji scream. They then turned to look in the direction that He was running and spotted Vivi with her clothes covered in blood.

They all approached her with concern.

"Vivi!, what happened to you?!." Sanji was the first one to arrive and started to examine her, looking for wounds.

Vivi raised her hand in a placating manner. "I'm fine, Sanji. This is not my blood."

"Vivi, what happened? who did this?!" Luffy was uncharacteristically serious.

"It was Bellamy and his crew. They came here looking for Mister Montblanc's gold."

Nami opened her eyes in recognition."What? the crazy guy that we meet at the bar?"

"How dare they hurt my friend! Where can I find them?!" Demanded Luffy, looking very angry already.

"You won't find them, Captain. They are all dead already. " Vivi said while trying to keep a collected expression.

"Oh? did you take care of that guy and his crew? not bad." Zoro looked somewhat impressed.

"Then…the blood in your clothes…" Said Nami.

Vivi nodded. "It's theirs. I took a shower, but I didn't have a change of clothes. So I had to put them back on."

Robin took off her backpack and handed it to Vivi.

"I have some extra clothes there. You can go change, and then let the doctor examine you, just in case."

"How thoughtful, thank you, Robin." Said Vivi with a smile.

"Wow, Vivi. I didn't know you were that strong already! That's awesome!." Luffy's anger seemed to have calmed at seeing that she was fine.

"Great!, I have someone else to protect me now." Said Usopp.

Vivi could not help but sigh in relief, she was a bit worried about how they were going to react to the news that she had killed some pirates but doesn't seem like they cared that much.

'Looks like I was concerned for nothing. At the end of the day, they are still pirates, not saints.'

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After changing into some clean clothes and letting Chopper confirm that she was not hurt. Vivi went outside to see her friends helping Montblanc, Masira, and Shoujou finish up the last modifications of the ship.

"Vivi!, look. The Going Merry has wings now!" Exclaimed Luffy.

Vivi observed the finished ship and then looked at the sky. There was still an hour before dawn. Because of her interference, the attack of Bellamy didn't interrupt their work for too long and Luffy didn't need to waste time recovering the stolen gold. So they were able to get ready with plenty of time to spare.

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Once the sun came out, they secured the south bird in the ship and said their goodbyes to Montblanc.

Masira and Shoujou will escort them until they arrived at the location of the knock-up stream.

Three hours later, they spotted a shadow on the horizon.

"Captain!, the millennium cumulonimbus is approaching from the southwest!." Someone from the Masira crew warned.

"This is bad. It's earlier than we expected. Is everything ready?" Masira said.

"Scoopdivers!, get in the water and find the stream!! Hurry!." Ordered Shoujou.

"What's going on?!" Asked Usopp.

"The cumulonimbus has appeared earlier than expected. We still have not funded the knock-up stream!." Said Nami.

The crewmates from Shoujou's ship started to report their findings one after another until one said.

"I found huge waves at ten o'clock! Likely a giant whirlpool!"

"That's it!, turn the ship towards ten o'clock" Ordered Masira.

"They found it! Everyone, get ready." Yelled Nami.

The waters were getting more agitated and big waves started to form.

"There it is! I see a giant whirlpool." Zoro had gotten on top of the mast.

"Come on, we will take you to the track of the whirlpool!" Said Shoujou.

"Wait!, and then what?!." Said Sanji.

"Just follow the current and get to the center!" Yelled Masira.

It was becoming impossible to hear anything else as the wind was getting stronger.

They could all see it now. They were at the border of a colossal whirlpool and the current was taking them directly to the center.

"We need to get sucked in? you guys never said anything about that!" Complained Nami.

Vivi could hear the worried comments of her friends and could not help but get a bit worried herself.

The only one who seem happy and excited was their captain.

"Here I come!, Sky Island!" Screamed Luffy.

They kept moving around in the whirlpool for a while with everyone getting resigned to their fates.

"Hey, while everyone was doing pointless complains….we are about to be swallowed by the giant whirlpool." Zoro pointed out.

Their faces became paler and were about to start screaming when they noticed that everyone had grown quiet all of the sudden. There was no more wind and the waters were becoming very calm.

"What!, it disappeared? why?" Luffy looked very confused and He was not the only one.

No one could understand why the whirlpool had suddenly disappeared.

"No.. that's not it!. It has started." Nami realized.

"Everyone!, grab on to something, and don't let go!" Ordered Vivi.

They only had a short warning when the ship was risen a few dozen feet over the water level by what seemed like a giant bubble of water.

Then…the knock-up stream started…and the Going Merry was propelled into the sky.