Chapter 56

Baten jumped from his small boat and landed on the ground.

Turning his head back on the boat, Baten sighed. Due to his demotion to Ensign, Baten lost accessibility to many. This left him no choice but to travel through the boat. Even his current arrival was two weeks faster than the normal sailing speed by a mere boat, all thanks to his endless rowing.

"Honey Dew Valley, or otherwise known by the marines as the pirate trap. This island has a very unique characteristic. For an unknown reason, this island contains two separate magnetic fields... which will disrupt the Log Pose and make its needle point up. Even worse, the larger magnetic fields take a year to be fully recorded, which renders the sailors trapped." He stood at a gigantic height of around four-meter and muttered to himself while staring at the two peaks on each end of the island. "Marines have used the combination of the marine base G-11 and Honey Dew Valley to completely shut off the 7th route.

Which means, Grimheart still must be here." Baten growled as he took his glasses off.

Immediately after, Baten vanished from his spot.

Unfortunately for him, a week has passed by since Rowan and his crew left.

_____________

In midst of chaotic storms and devastating waves, Prominence was seen sailing through. The ship somehow maintained its straight course even with the environmental disruptions, and the clashes that may damage the ship were unnaturally blasted back.

"Turn right!!" Carina cried with heavy fatigue on her face, as she gazed at the Eternal Pose in her hand. The problem lied in the fact that the direction of the sail kept on changing due to the rough weather, and this has been ongoing for the past week since they have set sail from Honey Dew Valley.

Rowan was seen crouching down, with his palm touching the deck, as he used his bounce to prevent the ship from receiving damage. His other hand was used to occasionally slap himself if he was about to fall asleep. Unlike the experiences in Sixis, Reverse Mountain, and their first sailing in the Grand Line, he felt drained to the core. It has been a week with barely any sleep, and a non-stop usage of his devil fruit ability has been too much.

"On the left of the ship, captain Rowan." Alfred, standing without any exhaustion, calmly informed Rowan from behind, using his Observation Haki to predict and relay whatever may cause damage on the ship. Rowan tiredly shifted his gaze to Alfred in disbelief, before shaking his head and focusing back on his job.

"I, I am the... Carmen..." Carmen walked lifelessly and passed the cooked buns to the crew members. She originally tried to cook a meal with the usual aesthetic aspects included, but the continuous shakes and disruptions caused her to cook the foods that are the most nutritious for them. She eventually became so efficient with the process, by combining her devil fruit ability with the art of cooking.

"Urghhhh!!!" Cavendish shakily held onto the steering wheel and ropes as he struggled to follow Carina's instructions.

Dan was seen running everywhere, constantly checking the crew members' health conditions, although he occasionally stopped to observe the chaotic surroundings with a sparkle in his eyes.

Then, the rough weather abruptly vanished, leaving the whole Grimheart pirates dumbfounded.

"It's... over?" Cavendish said weakly before collapsing with a thud.

Rowan stood up with his body making a cracking sound, due to him staying in a crouched position for a long time. He tiredly shook his head and walked up to where Carina was leaning against the rail in exhaustion, observing the current situation they were in.

"It can't be Calm Belt, right?" Rowan squinted eyes.

Carina weakly laughed, "We literally traveled in a direction opposite from the Calm Belt. Should be okay."

*BAM* Seeing how the commotion stopped, Farul kicked the door open and came out while carrying the unconscious Carmen on his back.

Dan sat on his spot and took out his journal, and Alfred peeked from behind in curiosity.

Rowan looked around the calm sea that Prominence was sailing within, and sighted an island quite huge in terms of size. Pointing in that direction, Rowan asked Carina, "I see an island there. Is that the Alabasta?"

Carina shook her head in the negative, "No, look. The needle points to a direction perpendicular to where you are pointing. We just happen to come across that island by a pure chance."

Rowan sighed in exhaustion, "I can't think properly right now. Let's just anchor the ship there and take some rest."

Dan sluggishly walked over to Cavendish's spot and began to maneuver the steering wheel and ropes in accordance with Carina's guidance.

Prominence made a ninety-degree turn to the left, and as soon enough, the sight of the huge island became apparent to everyone.

The island was vast with tall trees covering the view. All Rowan could see was the fact that the island stretched far long; he wondered how he couldn't have noticed it earlier.

Prominence finally reached the edge of the island. Tiredly, Rowan dropped the anchor while Alfred helped him to tie a rope around a nearby tree.

Letting out a deep breath, Carina sat down on the spot she was standing on, out of pure exhaustion.

"Captain Rowan, my Observation Haki doesn't sense anything in particular. I believe that we are safe to rest here." Alfred reported to Rowan, only to find him already snoring on the deck nearby.

"Well," Alfred muttered to himself as he looked around, finding how everyone, except for him and Farul, was unconscious. "I will keep watch for now."

____________

'Where am I?' Rowan rubbed his head in confusion. Around him was a void space. He didn't even understand how he was standing up. 'Don't tell me a weird voice is going to come out again and start to flame me for no reason.'

At a far distance, a faint gleam of red light was seen, urging Rowan's curiosity.

'This is a dream, right?' Rowan clearly remembered that he was in Prominence prior to reaching this strange place. 'Lucid dream? What's going on?'

The red light continued to shine faintly. Rowan felt as if it was calling for him to come.

'There is nothing I can do anyway, except for to approach that thing.' Rowan began to walk towards the red light.

It did not take long, and Rowan eventually reached in front of the source of the red light. It was an orb, around the size of a basketball, floating in the middle of the void.

'What is this?' Rowan carefully examined the orb.

<A memory.> A voice boomed out all of a sudden, causing Rowan to turn around in caution, only to sight nothing but the void.

'Haa, you again?' Rowan frowned while continuously looking left and right.

<Foolish as always.> The voice remarked. <You still don't get it, do you?>

Rowan held out his arms wide in frustration, as he shouted back, 'What do you expect me to know?! Oh yeah, are you a tailed beast like the ones in Naruto? As if!!'

The silence enveloped the void momentarily, and the red orb slowly began to disintegrate from its spot.

<...Reincarnation.> The voice resounded once more. <You should think about it.>

Then the void was gone once more, and Rowan's eyes opened—only to sight Carina staring at him closely, with a curiosity.

"Huh? What are you doing?" Rowan said in confusion, while slowly sitting up.

"Ehe," Carina rubbed back of her head and slowly retreated, while turning her face sideways to avoid Rowan, "Nothing."

"Ah, captain! You are awake!" Cavendish waved his hand while munching a rose and sitting on the rail.

Looking around, Rowan noticed that everyone seemed to be awake.

'I was sleeping on the middle of the deck, and everyone was watching me?!' Rowan felt a slight embarrassment as he imagined the scene. Looking down at his pants, Rowan sighed in relief, 'Good good, my junior seems to have maintained himself calm.'

"Oh, yes! Captain, you had this big ere-" Cavendish began to blabber, only to be stopped by Carina, who blocked his mouth with her hand while blushing.

'F***.' Rowan inwardly swore but maintained a stoic expression outwardly, acting as if he heard nothing. 'I bounced off the noise that came out from Cavendish's mouth. Yes, I didn't hear anything.'

"Where are Carmen and Dan?" Rowan asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Mademoiselle Carmen-" Alfred began to spoke to answer Rowan, but was quickly interrupted by the attention-craving Cavendish.

"The fire witch is in the kitchen, creating the evil potions, while masked Dan locked himself in his room!! Only the brave being such as myself remained on the deck, fending off the danger away from his captain!!" Cavendish twirled while holding a rose with his hand.

"-is in the kitchen, creating delicacies that she so craved to cook after cooking buns for a week. On the other hand, monsieur Dan is in his room, recording the journal." Nonetheless, Alfred completed his words calmly, ignoring Cavendish's interruption.

Rowan nodded, having gotten used to their antics. He turned to Carina afterward, "Any idea where we are?"

Carina shook her head, "We don't have any map or information for that. The only way for us to find out is to explore on feet." Subsequently, she held out the Eternal Pose for Alabasta. "But we can leave whenever we want. We got enough supplies for at least three more weeks."

After thinking for a bit, Rowan raised his head back up. "We will explore first. If this island turns out to be vacated or safe from any threats, it may serve well as our training ground."

_____________

"GRIMHEART ROWAN!!!!!" Baten roared in fury with his eyes reddened, as he stood atop one of the two mountain peaks of Honey Dew Valley.

Breathing deeply to calm himself down, Baten raised the Den Den Mushi with a shaky hand, before pressing buttons for a call.

"Purururu, pururu-" The default sound of Den Den Mushi halted as someone picked up the call from the other side.

"En...sign Baten reporting here... Rear Admiral Velvet." Baten said with a dark expression on his face.

"Hahaha, to think I would hear this from you!!" The voice from Den Den Mushi boomed in a roar of laughter, causing Baten to grit his teeth. "Do speak, 'Ensign.'"

Baten glared at the Den Den Mushi with blazing fury, before opening his mouth, "...Grimheart pirates not sighted in Honey Dew Valley. I suspect that they somehow managed to find an alternate path using an Eternal Pose. However, the direction and destination are unclear."

"Unclear? Ensign," The voice snorted, "There are only two possibilities. One, they are dead. Two, they escaped towards the Calm Belt, which means they would die or luckily escape into South Blue. No big deal. Forget the Grimheart pirates and focus on your arrival to the Marineford."

"Rear Admiral-"

"Are we clear?" The voice growled.

Baten bit on his lips and weakly muttered, "Yes sir."

The call ended, and Baten placed the dial back onto the Den Den Mushi, which closed its eyes.

"Ha...haha...hahahahaHAHAHA!!!!!" Baten began to laugh uncontrollably with his eyes spilling tears. "Useless, truly useless after all!!"

Baten reached the marine justice coat with his shaky hand, before taking it off from his back.

"Don't worry, my comrades..." Baten whisper with a crazed look in his eyes, "no matter what, I will make sure to avenge your deaths."

Baten vanished from the spot, and the only thing that remained in his place was the marine justice coat.