The encounter with Umibōzu

*Umibōzu is a yōkai from Japanese folklore that appears in front of sailors on calm seas, which quickly turn tumultuous. It either breaks the ship on emergence or demands a bucket or barrel from the sailors and proceeds to drown them. The only safe way to escape an umibōzu is to give it a bottomless barrel and sail away while it is confused.-Wiki.*

"Did I stutter?"Asked Lucci prompting, to them shake their heads immediately refusing.

"Don't get us wrong, our main goal is not saving him but getting to the place he is currently held in and take some things from there." Then Lucci took the actual time to explain what happen to Ace from his fight against Blackbeard, to him being traded for the Warlord position, and even about his eventual imprisonment inside Impale Down where he is currently in still waiting the date of the execution.

"Then what are we waiting for!? Let's go and save Ace!" Said Luffy as he was about to rush to Sunny.

"We are waiting for the right time to go there, If you go to Impale Down now you two will never be able to come out alive as more than half of the marine personal will rush from Marineford to stop you, among which there will be one or two admirals for sure." Said Lucci calmly.

Luffy stopped before he even got to make two steps as he remembered their fight against Aokiji which even brought a cold sensation all over his body.

"Then how are we going to get to Ace?" Asked Nami.

"The date for the execution is set two weeks from now, so our goal is to go in the last few days as the marines will not be able to move just as freely during that time as Whitebeard pirates might attack them at any time during that period, so Impale Down will be isolated. Till then, we'll go to Sabaody Archipelago and wait for things to fall into place. After that, we'll handle the way into the prison then we'll work together to get to the lowest level of the prison where he is also most likely imprisoned after which we each are free to go after our separate goals as for the way out that's your problem, not ours." Said Lucci indifferently as the rest of the Blood Moons boarded the ship.

Lucci then walked all the way in front of Robin, looking straight at her, and with a hand she lifted her chin up, forcing her to do the same which made her crew to grow quite defensive, especially Luffy and a certain white knight.

"Ah, Robin! Let go of her!" Said Luffy.

"Robin!!!! You..." Said Sanji but was interrupted by Lucci.

"Nico Robin, I want you to know that I'm not sorry for what we did to you, it was our job after all, but thanks to you, we were able to release ourselves from the chains they put on, chains we did not even know they exist... So I personally want to thank you for that, especially after I got to learn more about your story. You are an incredibly sad woman, Nico Robin, you wasted so many years running not even once living your life the way you wanted. In a sense, we are similar in that regard. So here, I'll offer you a gift to maybe make up for some of what you lost!" As Lucci said, the last part of the hand holding her chin turned red as he used his power.

~~ Life Transfer~~ Said Lucci, as some of the life force absorbed by him got transferred to her, making her body younger till her appearance returned to the one she had more than a decade ago.

Without waiting for anyone to speak, he disappeared from their view, leaving one last sentence.

"Meet us in Sabaody Archipelago on Grove 12 as soon as you get there!"

Leaving the Straw Hats still on the Thriller Bark to prepare their ship for departing, they headed straight to their destination, soon after managing to get out of the dense fog that surrounds everything in the Florian Triangle.

"Hey, Lucci, now that I think about it didn't you said that Moria was not to blame for the mysterious disappearances in here, what was that all about?" Asked Jabra.

"Shut up, Jabra don't talk about that!" Ordered Lucci, but it was too late as a big shadow became visible in the fog they have just exited from.

The shadow was so tall that it made even the tallest giants look like babies, and it had very few visible characteristics outside its big red eyes staring down on their ship as a human does to an ant. The crew was petrified at the sight, all but Lucci as he already knew about the presence of this thing since the moment they left Thriller Bark, that being the very reason he didn't wait to go together with the Straw Hats. Luckily all it did till now was to watch them silently from the fog far away, but the moment it realizes that they knew about its existence thanks to Jabra ranting, it becomes aggressive and decided to kill them all.

As the island size hand come downward towards them, the crew could do nothing but scream in fright but Lucci moved fast transforming in to his giant bat form which is not even as big as that thing nails, but it was still big enough to carry the ship and fly away from the fog forcing it to stop its pursuit. But Lucci decided to not stop just yet and kept flying for a good while util Florian Triangle was no longer in sight.

"Scary, Scary, Scary.... Florian Triangle is scary!" Said a clearly traumatized Jabra.

"Chapapa... Jabra wet himself!...Chapapa" Said Fukuro trying to ease the atmosphere.

"Captain, let's stay away from this place, please!" Said Blueno.

Lucci was also very afraid as his senses were going crazy thanks to the strange creature that was probably even taller than Zunesha he even assumed that thing knew some form of basic haki due to the level of danger he felt from it, if not haki then there has to be something else dangerous about them.

They took some time to get themselves back together after the dangerous encounter, but they eventually did as the ship again continued its course with a slightly shaken crew on board.

Just like that, a few days have passed, and the crew has now resumed their usual daily activities some training some practicing their hobbies some relaxing even the new addition to their crew was now beside Lucci and Kalifa at a table having some short of tea party with her favorite doll Kumashi which was still alive and well thanks to Lucci who remade it for her using his powers of Life Manipulation even if it was just a strangely shaped Blood Knight with a plush bear outside he did put in a lot of life force to make it as alive as possible. All the hard work put into making it did not go unnoticed as Perona was there to watch him making it at every step of the way, one might say that watching him was now one of her latest hobbies, she acquired since joining them, and she is engaging in it every time she's bored or Lucci is training even asking for her to join him.

This made Kalifa also want to join them as well, not wanting to be left behind and also maintaining her personal secretary image in front of Lucci. All this was witness by other single dogs on the ship who were distancing themselves from them is such moments not to be tempted to punch Lucci in his handsome face.

As they were relaxing, a News Coo landed on the deck trying to sell his newspapers to them which Kalifa as a good secretary that know that information is very valuable especially on this sea, immediately buys. Some of the news include the arrival of the supernovas on Sabaody Archipelago, the arrest of Portgas D. Ace and some other pirate related news but suddenly from the newspaper fell a stack of new bounties which apparently include their own.

Kalifa immediately asked everyone to gather together as she displayed their wanted posters one by one, starting with the biggest reward, which belongs to their captain.

The Blood Moon Pirates Captain: Rob Lucci, Nickname: Blood Demon

Wanted: Only Alive

Bounty: 378.000.000 Berries

Fallowed by the rest...

Kaku with 133.000.000 Berries

Jabra with 101.000.000 Berries

Kumadori with 54.000.000 Berries

Blueno with 65.000.000 Berries

Kalifa with 20.000.000 Berries

Perona with 77.000.000 Berries

Fukuro with 40.000.000 Berries

The strange thing was all of them except Perona were listed as `Wanted: Only Alive` but Lucci has already deducted that is only the case because the W. G. either want to still use them as their dogs after the reconditioning or because they want to deliver the punishment themselves.