89 chapter 89

Third person's point of view:

Elsewhere. In the grand line, on an unnamed island inside a seedy-looking bar.

A man with heavy black clothes can be seen sitting alone on a table, drinking leisurely. The man's head turns as his eyes survey the bar, his gaze stopping on a wooden billboard.

He grins as he spots a new set of wanted posters reaching with his hands into the air, causing a purple rift to open in front of him. The man extends his hand into it, causing another portal to open in front of the billboard.

The man's hand emerges from the second rift, moving to grab the newly posted wanted posters as he draws it back, causing the portals to disappear.

"Johnny silver hand, eh? Interesting!" the man said with a grin on his face, crumpling the wanted posters and throwing them on the floor as he turned his attention to the drinks in front of him.

-0-

Johnny's point of view:

It has been a day since we departed from Kano country after my first concert. The trip has not been uneventful, but it was still peaceful nonetheless.

We, of course, came across one storm and the occasional sea monster, but that much is still peaceful if you look at my crew's strength.

Luckily, Kano country wasn't far from the reverse mountain, so it would only take us another day or so at sea to reach our destination.

Everyone did what they usually did when we were on the sea, and I used my captain's privileges to laze around while leaving, steering the ship to my companions.

The only thing that changed this time around was Kozue occasionally joining me when I did my daily practice swings, which I was doing right now.

"There's something up ahead, captain," came Elly's voice from the crow's nest, causing me to stop swinging my sword as I made my way to black pearl's prow to see what was happening.

Whatever is up ahead, it's enormous as I can't see it from this distance, but I could still see the splashes it's causing in the water.

I use my zooming function and smile at the sight in front of me. Even though I could only see the rough shapes of what was making the splashed up ahead, I still recognized what they were.

It doesn't take the black pearl long to reach the spot where the splashed were coming from, and everyone stops what they were doing to look at the pod of island whales swimming around us.

"What are those things?" Wilson asks while looking at the whales. "Do they taste good?" he adds, earning a whack on the head from yours truly.

"These are island whales," I explain with a smile. "They're mostly harmless, so leave them be," I added as I kept looking at the gigantic whales swimming around and below us.

"Gather up all the of the crew. It's time to ship out Bink's brew," I hum while looking at the whales as I lean on the railings, and it seems that the whales heard me as they began whistling along.

-0-

Another day passes, and I find myself staring at the reverse mountain's waterway with a smile on my face. That smile quickly turns into a frown as a large ship comes through, entering west blue.

The ship was enormous, even broader than my black pearl, and it had red lines decorating the sides of its hull. I also noticed that it was a pirate ship, evidenced by the skull drawn on its sails.

However, I ignore all of that as I find myself focusing on the man standing on the pirate ship's prow with a stoic expression on his face. He was a tall man (just under two meters), well built, and hand tanned complexion.

His hair was red, and he had a triple set of parallel, linear scars that pass vertically at an angle over his left (untouched) eye.

'Red-haired shanks,' I think to myself as I firmly turn my gaze away to the reverse mountain's waterway. 'I want nothing to do with this guy right now,' I conclude, pretending that Shanks, and his ship, the red force, no longer exist.

Our ships pass by each other, and I keep my eyes forward while Shanks merely takes a sideways glance at me and turns around, seemingly uninterested.

'Good riddance,' I think, sardonically, as the black pearl began riding the reverse stream. "Everyone hold on to something," Laffite exclaims from his spot in front of the black pearl's wheel.

I grin as the black pearl begins speeding through the waterway, with Laffite behind the wheel, expertly avoiding any obstacles in its path with a smile on his face.

It doesn't take us long to reach the crossroads at the top or reverse mountain, with five paths surrounding us, the path we came from, which leads back to west blue, the three pathways leading to the other blue, and the path leading towards the grand line.

I was just about to open my mouth to say something with a smile on my face as a ship appeared from the south blue waterway in course to ram the black pearl's side.

"I, Richard the axe, captain of the axe pirates, am finally about to enter the grand-line," exclaimed a man in pirate clothes as he stood on the ship's prow. "Look, we even found a victim before even reaching there," he adds with a loud laugh while pointing his hand at the black pearl.

"Open fire, drown these fools as a celebration to us getting out of south blue," he orders, and his subordinates quickly oblige, firing their cannons at the black pearl.

Looking at this scene, I merely sigh in exasperation as I launch myself into the air, chanting inside my head and deflecting the incoming cannonballs as I do.

"Satori no Kakyoko (song of sudden enlightenment,)" I murmur as I stop myself above the pirate ship, swinging my sword and releasing a giant sword slash that cleaved it cleanly in half.

"Tough luck Richard or whatever your name is," I remark with a smirk while watching the ship sink as pirates begin jumping into the seawater.

Did I doom several dozen people to death by drowning? Yes. Do I care? Not particularly. They were pirates heading into the grand line, so they should have been prepared to face such a fate, not to mention they attacked first, but I digress.

I remove my gaze from the drowning pirates, who were screaming and begging for me to save them, and make my way back to the black pearl, landing with a careless expression on my face.

"Alright, now that's taken care of...," I say, trailing off as the world freezes around me. "The hell?" I remark while looking at a droplet of water floating in the air.

"Are you guys alright?" I ask as I turn to look at my companions, who were motionless on the black pearl's deck with their expressions frozen on their faces.

I Walk towards Wilson, who was the nearest to me, trying to nudge him, but the world suddenly turns dark, and I feel weightless as I find myself floating in a familiar yet unfamiliar darkness.

"CRAP."

(Author's note: discord gg/sEtqmRs5y7 <—- the link to my discord server. It already has a couple of awesome guys with memes and constant discussions about one piece)