Hidden within the depths

[Chapter 55: Hidden within the depths]

...

In another part of the sea, a little ship could be seen navigating calmly while its crew members moved around and did their own thing with a calm demeanor and relaxed expressions.

Well, there might have been some of them that weren't exactly that calm...

*Stare...*

Usopp was currently staring from afar at their seemingly new crew member, Nico Robin. And although they had technically accepted her a few days ago into their crew, they couldn't be so stupid to let their guard down around an ex-enemy like her.

Well, at least Usopp, Nami, and Zoro weren't. Luffy might be an exception though...

As Usopp kept observing her for a while, he soon noticed a small dot in the sky approaching their ship at an incredibly fast speed.

"Seems like the newspaper is here... I wonder if they will mention of because of what we did at Arabasta...?" Nami, who also noticed the dot approaching them, managed to recognize it as a News coo, and soon looked in wonder at the small newspaper that it was carrying around on its beak.

*Bap!*

As the newspaper fell in front of them, Nami walked over and picked it up while looking at it with a raised eyebrow. Most of the straw-hats, who also seemed to have noticed the arrival of the news looked at her with a curious and expectant look in their eyes, as if telling her to read the news out loud.

"What is it? What is it? Did they raise my bounty?" Luffy, who looked incredibly more hyped up than most of his crew, jumped up to the floor where Nami was sitting and started jumping around with a wide smile on his face.

"Let me see... Oh, here it is!"

"What is it Nami-san? Did they raise our bounties?" Sanji, who had just come out of the Kitchen, looked at her expression with obvious curiosity on his face.

"Ahem... It's like this..."

...

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[Marine hero! The Shichibukai Crocodile a traitor?]

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A few days ago our investigators managed to discover that the Shichibukai Crocodile, who during these years has established himself inside the country of Arabasta to protect it from external attacks, had been imprisoned and sent to the most secure prison in the world, Impel down!

After investigating a bit deeper into the truth of this matter, we managed to discover that the responsible for the apprehension of Crocodile was none other than the Marine, Captain Smoker. It is to be known that Crocodile has actually been trying to take over the Kingdom by provoking an internal strife in order to weaken the Kingdom bit by bit until he could finally attack and gain control of the entire Kingdom. However, when Captain Smoker discovered such an abominable act, he and his subordinates immediately went to the capital of Arabasta, Alubarna, and confronted Crocodile into an epic-battle that was said to last three days and three nights.

Finally, after many sacrifices and hardships, Captain Smoker finally managed to defeat him and freed the Kingdom of Arabasta from Crocodile's evil reign!

Is this the rise of a new hero within the ranks of the marines? Maybe a new legend will rise and show itself to the world? Continue reading us if you want to know what happens in the future!

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...

"Eeeeeeh...? Then they didn't raise my bounty?" Luffy, who heard Nami's speech while wearing an upset expression, sat on the ground helplessly as he waited for Nami to reply.

"You're not even mentioned in the newspaper... it seems like the news doesn't want to let the public know that a pirate saved the kingdom instead of a marine..." Nami muttered with an annoyed look on her face. However, she soon noticed a certain part of the newspaper that she hadn't noticed before and started reading it with interest.

"Hmm... whatever, Sanjiiii~ I'm hungryyy~" Luffy, who heard that he did not get his bounty risen even after beating a Shichibukai, just shrugged the matter off and started nagging Sanji for him to prepare something delicious to eat.

"You just ate our whole reserves for a week a few hours ago... Should I just kick you again until you understand?" However, Sanji was not in a good mood right now, and just raised his leg ready to kick his Captain away.

Right when Sanji was about to kick Luffy in the face, he suddenly turned to look at Nami who was looking at the Newspaper with an astonished expression on her face, and walked towards her to look at what she was reading.

"... What's wrong Nami-sa- Huh?! What's wrong with those numbers?!"

Sanji, who until now looked completely calm, widened his eyes as he started reading a special page about new bounties with his mouth trembling in shock.

"What's wrong with you guys? Did you find my bounty?" Luffy, who approached them from behind, turned to look at the newspaper with a frown on his face.

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Dead or Alive

}-Shadow Raven-{

Bounty: 1,940,000,000

(Illustration here)----->

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"I-it's the guy from a few days ago!! What's with that enormous Bounty?!!" Luffy, who looked at the photo of the mysterious Shadow Raven, had his mouth hang wide open at seeing such an enormous bounty for the first time in his life.

"You met him a few days ago?! Why did we not hear about this at all?!" Nami yelled in surprise after hearing her captain mention that he actually met such a character without them even knowing.

"Oi oi, don't tell me you tried fighting him?!" Sanji looked at his captain with a frown on his face, after all, his captain was very well-known for not thinking things carefully, and actually fighting such a strong man just because of a whim seemed to be something Luffy could do.

Luffy looked at his companions with a silly smile on his face, before he tried remembering what happened at that time.

"Well... When I was looking for Crocodile in the middle of the war, I involuntarily ended up falling asleep in the middle of some sort of graveyard, even though I had eaten meat just a few hours before and I should have been completely recovered from my wounds..."

"Meat does not cure wounds!" Nami, who heard his Captain stupid remark about having eaten meat in order to heal his injures and recover enough energy to have a re-match against Crocodile (Which for some reason really worked), yelled at him angrily before marking her fist right into his head, which Luffy pretty much ignored before he continued telling his story.

"After that I woke up after I started feeling a lot of heat that was burning me, then some random old man with a marine coat behind him appeared and tried to kill me... That's when that Raven guy appeared in front of me and blocked that old man's attack. He said the old man was some Admiral of the sorts, not sure what does that mean though... but both of them were craaaaaaaazy strong! And that Raven guy suddenly took out a giant gun from within his coat that was soooo co-"

"You met an Admiral?!" Sanji, who heard Luffy's story, exclaimed in astonishment as he knew somewhat the incredible strength that the Admirals of the marine had. Though most of what he knew came from stories he heard from the cooks when he was still a kid.

In the lower floor, Robin who heard Sanji's shout, turned to look at them with wide-open eyes as she closed the book in her hand abruptly.

"Is he someone dangerous?" Nami asked with curiosity as she was completely oblivious to the ranks within the marine, and how they worked.

"As far as I know, they hold the highest position within the marines, leaving the fleet Admiral aside, and are extremely terrifying people who have unbelievable strength that surpasses common sense, they are said to be on equal terms of power with the Shichibukai, though I might be wrong..." Sanji explained while trying to remember everything he was told when he was still just a cook apprentice.

Suddenly, from behind them appeared Robin with a serious and somewhat angry expression on her usually calm face.

"They are monsters who could destroy an entire island easily where they told to do so... I know to some extent the strength of one of them, and Crocodile was nowhere near him, I don't know about which Admiral you met but they are not to be underestimated under any circumstances"

"Then why did that Raven guy save Luffy?" Sanji asked as he turned to look at Luffy with a baffled expression on his face.

"Who knows... But if they raised his bounty so much, then he must have done some serious damage to the Admiral he met. And probably he defeated or killed him, which could explain why they don't mention anything about the reasons for the increase in his bounty, to avoid such information from spreading..." Nami, who finally tossed the newspaper aside, sighed in exhaustion after seeing how powerful their foes could be in the future.

"Woaaah! There's a fish there!! And it's giiiiiiiaaaaant!!"

Suddenly from the side of the ship, they all started hearing their captain's excited shouts.

As they walked over to see what was making Luffy so excited, they saw a gigantic shadow traveling at an enormous speed right below their ship.

However, right before they could even say anything about it, or take any action. The mysterious shadow suddenly accelerated and disappeared into the distance, leaving all the Straw-hats completely dumbfounded.

"What the hell was that thing...?" Zoro, who was silent until now, asked completely bewildered by the sudden encounter.

"Who knows..." Nami answered with a blank look on her face, as she started imagining giant serpents or monsters lurking beneath them, ready to eat them in just one bite...

...

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Inside a gigantic ship/submarine traveling below the ocean.

"How is this thing not sinking, even when it's so darn heavy?" Kuina asked with an incredibly astonished expression at her companion, who only looked at the radar in front of him with a completely relaxed look in his eyes.

"The magic of the script my dear Kuina, the magic of the script"

...