Chapter 94

The night has passed, and by the early morning when the sun has risen, Prominence was idly sitting by the dock. On top of the deck, Robin, who was reading a book, was the only one seen.

*Creak* The door to the downstairs opened, revealing Carina, who was rubbing her eyes as she made an exit.

"Oh, good morning Robin." Upon sighting Robin, Carina greeted her with a friendly attitude.

Robin gave a light smile, "Good morning to you as well."

Making her way to the rail, Carina squinted her eyes and placed her right hand above her eyes, "Huh, what are they doing over there?"

On the platform just ahead of Prominence, five men and horse from the Grimheart pirates: Rowan, Dan, Cavendish, Alfred, and Farul, were facing the five members of the Straw Hat pirates with a serious demeanour. Each one of them had their arms crossed and stood proudly, while glaring at one another.

"Ufufu, boys just being boys." Robin placed her hand above her mouth and lightly chuckled.

"Uhh..." Carina sweatdropped, "Those Straw Hat pirates are screwed."

As Carina began to spectate the display, Rowan pointed his finger at Luffy and raised his chin up—which is something he learnt from Carmen and Cavendish.

"A mere pirate crew with a total bounty of 18 million?! Please, you won't be able to land a single strike against us!" Rowan's voice boomed across the whole field, earning annoyed growls from Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji.

As of the current moment, Luffy was the only one issued with the bounty, 18 million Beli, within his crew.

"I'll give A- on that one, captain." Cavendish stated as he nodded with his eyes closed, "You definitely improved."

"So why are we here again?" Dan spoke up and scratched the back of his head in annoyance, "To beat up our juniors?"

"Precisely, monsieur Dan." Alfred nodded as he raised up his monocle, before he broke into an evil smile, "Haha... another test subject."

On the other side, Luffy declared, "Rowan is mine!!"

Sanji clicked his tongue upon hearing Luffy's words, but complied, "Fine, I get the black mask dude."

Zoro's eyes flashed dangerously, "Rematch with that sword guy for me."

Bartolomeo and Borodo stared at one another, before Bartolomeo suddenly spoke up, "I get that monocle suit dude!!"

Borodo froze in realization, "Wait... that means..." He slowly turned his head, and was met with Farul, whose nostrils were steaming and leg muscles were tightly clenched. "What the hell, I fight the horse?!!"

"Just two rules to keep." Getting rid of the faked haughtiness, Rowan lifted his hand up with two fingers extended, "One, the spar ends right at the moment someone falls into the water. Two, don't break the platform. That's going to be a pain in the ass."

"Break the platform?" Borodo raised his eyebrow and tapped his foot against the platform underneath, "How though? This thing is really really thick."

"Okay, let's start! Shishishi!!!" Unable to wait any longer, Luffy began to dash towards Rowan, before stretching his arm to the back.

"Rubber, huh?" Rowan remarked as he casually stood on his spot, observing Luffy's abnormally stretched arm through the use of his Observation Haki, "May sound underwhelming initially, but I see the potential. A very unique ability with high utility."

"Gomu Gomu no..." Luffy's stretched arm flew at Rowan at a rapid pace, "Pistol!!"

(Author's Note: Yeah, not going with 'Rubber Rubber Pistol!' That sounds horrible.)

At the next moment, with Rowan not even moving a step, Luffy's fist crashed onto Rowan's abdomen.

"Uh," Rowan chuckled as he rubbed his abdomen, "that kind of tickles."

For Rowan, who trained his physical prowess and endurance by masochistic means, Luffy's punch felt like getting hit by a rubber band.

Luffy's gritted his teeth, before he retracted his arm and stretched both of his arms backward, "How about this one then?!!

Gomu Gomu no, Bazooka!!" Luffy's stretched arms blasted toward Rowan with open palms, attempting to hit him.

Yet, right before his attack could reach Rowan, the latter suddenly vanished, and Luffy's arms went through his afterimage, completely missing his attack.

"Well..."

Luffy turned in surprise as a voice was heard from his back, and found Rowan staring at Luffy smugly.

"I guess it's my turn, huh?" Rowan said as he cracked his neck. Subsequently, Rowan once again vanished under Luffy's watch.

"Shishishi, you are really strong, Rowan!!" Luffy made a wide grin, as he looked to his left and right with a challenging gleam in his eyes.

"Where are you looking?" Rowan spoke up from Luffy's behind with his hands joined together and index and middle fingers extended.

Luffy's eyes widened in horror, but it was too late for him to react.

"Secret Finger Technique: One Thousand Years of Death!!"

Rowan blasted his fingers into Luffy's butt crack, causing the latter's face to morph into that of extreme pain.

"AHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Luffy screamed with his hands on his steaming buttocks, as he was sent flying across the platform, before landing face-first.

Cavendish's eyes sparkled in interest upon witnessing Rowan's technique, "Ho, that's a very effective move!"

*Clang* *Clang*

"Tch, another annoying blond hair." Zoro remarked his technique was lazily blocked by Cavendish yet again, before breaking out into a grin, "But you are definitely a foe worthy of fighting."

Cavendish nibbled onto a rose as he stared at Zoro, who began to tie a green bandana around his head, before unsheathing his third sword and clenching it between his teeth.

"You may be strong..." Zoro stated with a ferocious grin, "But not as strong as Mihawk."

Casually gulping down the rose, Cavendish placed his hand under his chin, "How are you able to speak while biting onto a sword? And how are you not drooling? Hmm, if I could learn that as well..."

Zoro grew a tick mark on his forehead, but nonetheless, lowered his posture, and crossed his arms, getting himself ready for his technique.

Immediately after, Zoro launched himself from his position, approaching Cavendish at a rapid speed.

"Three Sword Style: Oni Giri (Demon Slash)!!"

*Clang* *Clang* *Clang* *Bonk*

In an instant moment, Cavendish parried all three of Zoro's strikes at a blinding pace, before hitting Zoro's head with the hilt of his sword, causing the latter to fall face-first onto the platform.

"Onigiri?" Cavendish squinted his eyes, "You named your move after a food? Weird naming sense. If I were to be you, I would call it 'Three Sword Style: Demon Slash!' Sounds much cooler, right?"

Zoro remained stationary with his face still kissing the floor, although the light shakes of his body and a comical tick mark on his head indicated his annoyance.

Nearby, Sanji was throwing kick after kick at Dan, who stared at Sanji blankly with Sanji's attacks having no damage on him.

"Collier! Épaule! Côtelette! Selle! Poltrine! Gigot-"

*BOOM*

Annoyed by Sanji's non-ending attacks, Dan simply punched Sanji right on the stomach, causing the latter to be blasted back.

Subsequently, Dan jumped towards Sanji with his right fist cocked back, and spun in mid-air before his fist slammed into Sanji, who was still flying, and caused him to crash onto the platform.

*BOOOM* A cloud of dust arose with Sanji's crash, and Dan easily landed back on the platform.

"I didn't break it, did I?" Dan squinted his eyes, trying to see if he accidentally broke the platform.

As the dust cleared, Sanji was seen to be standing on wobbly feet, with a slight crack on the platform he was standing onto.

"Tch," Sanji clicked his tongue as he sighted how Dan received no injury at all. Taking out a cigarette and placing it between his lips, Sanji was about to light it up, until,

*Slap*

"Smoking is bad for your health. As a doctor, I recommend you to get rid of such habit." Dan suddenly appeared in front of Sanji and knocked the cigarette out of his mouth, leaving Sanji dumbfounded.

Right after, Dan broke out into a mocking grin as he took out a cigarette of his own, before lighting it up with his lighter.

Upon sighting Dan's intended hypocrisy, Sanji came very close to puking blood out of pure anger.

"S-Sanji..." Suddenly, Bartolomeo's plead was heard on Sanji's right, "*Sniff* H-help me..."

Sanji slowly turned his head to the source of voice, and was met with Bartolomeo, whose face was stained in brown-colour. He was crying miserably, with a hand outstretched to Sanji in helplessness.

Alfred, with his monocle flashing menacingly, was standing in front of Bartolomeo with a brown-coloured glove on his left hand, which instantly earned Sanji's fright.

"Ahhhhhh!!!" On Sanji's left, Borodo was screaming in misery and pain as Farul smashed onto him repeatedly at a blinding speed, causing the poor man to bounce back and forth without a chance to lie down in peace.

Behind him, Luffy was rolling on the ground as he held onto his smoking buttocks, and ahead of him, Cavendish was cackling madly while stepping on Zoro's head.

Carina witnessed all these scenes in amusement, as she leaned into her hands and chased Rowan with her eyes, who seemed to be enjoying himself by beating up Luffy.

Noticing Carina's behaviour, Robin's eyes gained a mischievous gleam, "Why, are you enjoying the sight of your boyfriend?"

Carina immediately jolted up with an obvious blush, "W-what?!"

"Yeah, she is." Another voice was heard. Turning around, Carina found Carmen, who somehow came into the scene during who-knows-when, sitting down on the chair with her legs crossed and staring at her with an amusement of her own. "Geez, she's the same as all the others, going all lovey-dovy at that blond duck Cavendish."

Robin shifted her eyes to Carmen in a questioning gaze, unable to comprehend how unaware the latter can be.

"Huh?" Carina spoke in a faked confusion, "Are you talking about yourself?"

"You got to be kidding me. Me, with that fem-boy?!!" Carmen growled and stood up from her spot.

Robin watched the whole scene with a sweatdrop, wondering how a simple conversation instantly grew into a chaotic dispute.

________________

"Ow ow ow, my bum..." Luffy moaned in pain as he held onto his buttocks, where two bandages were slapped on top of his pants, with one crossing on top of the other. "I'm a rubber man, but this hurts so much!"

On Luffy's right, four of his crew members had their heads lowered in depression in a comical way.

They were currently seen to be sitting on the deck of their own ship, 'Burning Skull,' with lied next to Prominence.

Meanwhile, many coating mechanics were seen to be applying the bubble-coats around Prominence skillfully, as the Great Sprout race was now about to happen the day after.

"Hey," Borodo spoke up with an interest upon witnessing the peculiar scene, having recovered from his depressed state, "what are they doing on the ship?"

"Shishishi, Rowan told me that it's something that allows them to go underwater!" Luffy replied with a smile, before it turned into a pout, "I wanted to do that too for Burning Skull, but you need money for that."

Sanji pointed at the gigantic Sprout on their right, "That's the reason. From what I heard around, something called 'the Great Sprout race' is happening tomorrow. Not sure how it works, but I heard that you need that bubble coat to participate."

Borodo scratched his head before raising up his wrist to see the Log Pose, "Our stay here is going to be quite long. This island takes three months for us to fully record."

Zoro grinned hearing that, "Nothing but more time to train."

"Alright, guys!! Within those three months," Luffy shouted as he clenched his fist excitedly, "I want to do that race as well!!"

"Y-yes... *Sniff* captain Luffy..." Bartolomeo replied with a sadness intact on him, as he furiously rubbed a piece of cloth over his face.

Meanwhile, on Prominence,

"Sir, we finished the coating just now." One coating mechanic stated in front of Rowan, who was sitting on the chair calmly.

Rowan simply nodded and turned to Carina, who took out 70 thousand Beli from her pouch—which was an amount they settled upon after a bargain that originated from 400 thousand—and passed the stack to the coating mechanic, who hurriedly bowed and left the ship.

"Nice." Rowan stated while tapping his fingers on the table, "So as of the current moment, Prominence is able to float due to the airbags that support from the underneath. Right before the race, when we open this valve over there,"

Carina nodded with a smile, "Which will transfer the air into our bubble over here, and cover the whole ship! Hehe, free 10 million Beli!!"

Rowan smiled back, as he lifted up his head to the sky above.

There was a large volume of clouds that the Sprout directly connected to, and the rays of sunlight that shone through the occasional gaps between the clouds, would create scenery to behold.

"According to the information I gathered," Robin, who was silently sitting by on the chair nearby Rowan, spoke up calmly, "The cloud above is named 'the Summit of the High West.' Even in the sky, it is known to be the highest peak, and the sea clouds nearby the peak is uni-directional."

Rowan nodded, although some inquiries remained, "And where will that uni-directional current lead to?"

Robin shook her head, "No idea. All the informants merely stated that none of the adventurers ever made back alive."

Dan crossed his arms with a serious expression, "Spriggins is a recently-built port town, but Sprout is a plant that is known to have existed for many years. There isn't much information that we can garner in this place." Dan momentarily paused as he broke out into a sudden grin, "But that's the beauty of an adventure—exploring the novel features for you to discover."

"And from what I have learnt," Alfred carried on, "The altitude of the sky above is very high, amounting up to approximately 15 thousand meters above this sea. The oxygen supply is quite scarce in high altitude, which may explain why no one was able to make back alive."

"Judging by the high-pressure current of the Sprout and sudden change in the environmental pressure, perhaps." Robin nodded in an agreement.

"Which doesn't apply to us." Rowan stated firmly, "Our plan is simple: win the race, get the money, go to the sky, and follow the current mentioned by Robin."

Carina winked and gave a thumbs up to Rowan, "Sounds good to me!"