Ch-34

The match with Tashigi benefited Zoro a lot as thanks to those thirteen matches he became familiar with switching on and off the special mental state that he was in. Now that he was walking back towards Merry he realized how mentally exhausted he had become after those thirteen rounds, he blamed this on his over usage of his newly unlocked haki powers.

"Hopefully, a few hours of sleep would solve this," Zoro said to himself as he rubbed his throbbing head.

The next morning, Smoker and Tashigi left Logue town after a suitable ship capable of passing through the calm belt was arranged.

"Don't slack off during this time, you might end up learning a lot in the Grand Line if you keep your eyes and mind open to possibilities." Smoker said as he puffed out some smoke.

"Yes sir," Tashigi replied in a serious manner which had no sign of her previously clumsy self.

Hearing her spirit-filled words Smoker nodded as he focused his gaze towards the horizon thinking of those rascals in the upper brass who were making things difficult for him.

When Usopp heard about Smoker leaving Loguetown he couldn't help but finally take a sigh of relief. He had been constantly worrying about that guy and regularly had been keeping tabs on his activities while at the same time checking the new bounty posters.

With one worry removed from his mind, Usopp returned only to see Zoro easily blocking the combined attacks from Luffy and Sanji who were trying to attack him mercilessly.

Yesterday night when Zoro told everyone about how he used his observation Haki in his spar with Tashigi he naturally invited the jealousy of the duo who had been practising with him during these days. Their frustration could clearly be seen by the vicious manner in which they were currently attacking Zoro who was dodging it all as if he had a 360-degree vision.

Usopp too was greatly impressed by Zoro learning Haki so quickly but after giving it a second thought it was not so surprising as during his fight with Mr. 1 in the anime he had also grasped some part of Haki. If he had the knowledge of the existence of something like Haki at that time then he too would have learnt it quite early in the anime rather than during the two-year break.

A few moments later Luffy and Sanji were fallen to the ground gasping for air as they have exhausted all of their energy in an attempt to lay even a finger on Zoro. Seeing this Usopp came forward and told the two to focus on their own learning of Haki and ask Zoro for doubts if they found any during their training.

A week later,

During these days Usopp and Nami got plenty of time to spend time together as the two explored all sorts of places meant for couples in Loguetown and created a plethora of memories together. Thus it could be said that their time together in Loguetown helped them in cementing their earlier wavy relationship.

The bullets that Usopp had been waiting for all this while were finally delivered to him in a crate of suitable size by the old man as the crew finally became ready to set sail once again. The weather seemed to be in their favour as there were no signs of any storm and after stockpiling all the food items, they needed the Going Merry started moving.

An hour later a lighthouse appeared right in front of them and Nami explained to the crew that it was known as the 'Light of Guidance' and the entrance of the guideline is just ahead of it.

Hearing Nami's words Sanji immediately brought an empty barrel from the lower deck and placed it in front of them as he said "Before setting sail into the Grand Line, let us all once again remind ourselves of our goals."

Sanji continued as he slammed his right leg on the top of the barrel with a smirk on his face "To find All Blue!"

Seeing Sanji the rest also followed his footsteps and slammed their legs on top of the barrel one by one.

"To become the Pirate King!"

"To become the Greatest Swordsman!"

"To draw the Map of the World!"

"To become the Greatest Sharpshooter!"

Looking deep into each other's eyes with conviction the five of them smiled brightly as they all held each other and lifted their feet over the barrel slightly before slamming it down with great intensity.

"CRUNCH!"

With the breaking of the barrel, their journey officially began as everyone waited with excitement for the reverse mountain to appear.

Nami had already explained to them earlier that according to the map they had they would be going upstream on a mountain which took the three of them quite some time to digest.

Fifteen minutes later when they saw the reverse mountain right in front of their eyes all the doubts that they had in their minds quickly disappeared and excitement took over.

Usopp had taken the responsibility for handling the rudder this time as he believed that with his strength, he would have no trouble manoeuvring the ship towards that small channel upstream. Usopp's strength didn't disappoint him as the ship was soon guided towards the entrance to the reverse mountain relieving Nami of one of her worries.

"WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO" Luffy's cheerful voice entered Usopp's ears as he felt his centre of gravity shifting. Not wanting to miss out on the fun Usopp struggled his way to the neck as strong winds almost slapped his nose on his forehead.

The long upstream view soon entered Usopp's eyes as he couldn't help but gulp in amazement. The height of the reverse mountain was said to be quite huge but this was beyond what he had ever imagined as even after going upstream with such velocity for quite some time the top was not visible to him.

The strong fresh winds made this roller coaster-like journey even more fun for him. Everyone in the crew enjoyed this heart palpitating journey to the summit of the reverse mountain to the fullest ingraining this memory deep in their minds.

But as the saying goes, 'what goes up must come down'. After reaching the summit they were soon on their way down with a velocity that was double that of earlier making all of them cheer out in anticipation about what was to come as the cold wind and water slammed their faces and their hearts almost came out of their chest.

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