Chapter 191

"It's about time we set off, Cricket," I said as I stood in front of the blonde man, smiling. "What are you going to do about the city of gold? Will you go yourself or wait for us?" I asked as I turned to look at the sky.

"I already told you but as much, but you'll probably die before even reaching the upper yard where the city of gold ended up," I added with a sigh, scratching my head.

I'm not gonna lie. Cricket was a very likable guy once you got to know him, despite his mean mug and the near-constant scowl he wore. Get past those, and you'll find a very warmhearted fellow, making the best of the shitty situation life dealt him.

Cricket and the two monkeys brothers, Masira and Shoujou, have also been very hospitable and friendly to my crew and me and great company for the past month, so I wanted to help him, assuming he'd let me, of course.

"I've waited too long to settle this farce..." Cricket said as he too turned to look at the sky, the eagerness and impatience in his tone making me sigh in disappointment.

"I suppose waiting for a while longer wouldn't hurt..." Cricket added, his tone resolute as he shook his head.

"That's right. It's like not the city of gold is gonna fly away, not again anyway," I replied with a chuckle, shaking my head, much to Cricket's amusement.

"In any case, I've wasted enough time away from the sea," I remarked, extending my hand towards Cricket. "And I have several promises to keep," I added as Cricket gripped my hand in a firm handshake.

"So I'll be seeing you later, friend," I concluded as I let go of Cricket's hand and made my way towards the ship, my crewmates acquainted with Cricket and the two monkey brothers making their way say their own goodbyes.

...

"Storm incoming!" Laffite exclaimed from his spot at the Black Pearl's wheen, and everyone went to work to secure the ship by unfurling the sails and taking positions to protect the Black Pearl.

Back in my homeworld, sailors were helpless in the face of mother nature's wrath, unable to do anything but pray the steel of their ships would shield them from any catastrophic weather.

However, in this world, things were different. Humans were capable of reaching levels of strength that people in my old world could only dream of to the point that staving off mother nature's wrath was nothing but a daily routine for us at this point.

Gigantic waves, capable of toppling seaside towns, were cut in half, tornados, capable of swallowing entire fleets, were dissipated, and storms, capable of sinking the most advanced of hulking destroyer warships, were weathered.

And the current storm was no different, even as a gigantic, serpentine sea king, thrice the size of the black pearl, with the head of a cobra suddenly emerges from beneath the sea, intending to sink the ship.

Wilson quickly jumped and crushed the sea king's head, sending it back to the bottom of the ocean, the only people phased by its presence being Iago and Bepo.

In any case, we have been sailing for approximately 16 days now since we departed Jaya, and if Laffite's calculations are correct, which they always are, we'll be able to reach Water Seven in only three more days.

I spent the first week of the trip working on mastering my solidification technique to great success, as I can now create and control at least three constructs of any element of my choosing at a decent range.

I stopped working on solidification after that, despite knowing there was still room to improve the technique. I wanted to increase my arsenal and learn new moves to surprise my opponents and take them by surprise instead of relying on one or two abilities and becoming predictable.

I started working on something I've been itching to try since I ate my devil fruit but lacked the experience to try until now; phasing through light.

If I can phase through fire, water, and lighting (which Laffite helped me experiment with), then who is to say I can't phase through light as well?

But what good is phasing through light, you might ask? The answer is simple; Invisibility, by decreasing my density enough to phase through light, which the human eye relies on to see, rendering me invisible as my body would let the light pass through it instead of reflecting it.

However, training this ability was troublesome, and I had little in the way of results from my past nine days, only getting proof that partial invisibility by phasing through light was possible and nothing else.

I couldn't even apply that to my entire body yet, and I'm only able to turn my arms partially invisible as there would remain a slight rippling effect that anyone with a sharp enough eye would notice.

But that was enough for me since it's proof that the theory was possible, at least. Now I only have to work for it and learn the ability at my own pace.

It will be difficult sure, but I was nothing if not a hard worker, and merely thinking about the results makes it worth it.

It will help me take people by surprise, even if briefly, as I can't imagine anyone with observation Haki falling for it more than once, but a momentary distraction is more than enough to turn the tide of a battle if you use it correctly.

But that's for the future.

...

"Everyone, look! There is a lighthouse in the middle of the sea!" I heard Elly exclamation as I was sparring against Kozue and Domino to help them improve their techniques with the sword and spear, respectively.

"Good work, but let's stop here and see what this lighthouse is about," I said with a smile as I caught Kozue's sword with my left hand and pushed Domino away with a swing of Triton, and they both nodded with audible sighs.

"Looks! There's even a frog doing a front crawl stroke swim!" Elly exclaimed again, astonishment in her tone as I turned to look at her and saw she was pointing towards the said frog.

"Oh, it looks we got here precisely the same time Laffite predicted we would..." I said with a smile as I looked at the giant frog with yellow-brown skin and black hair worn in a chonmage with numerous scars on his body.

As strange as watching a giant frog swimming like that, the weirdness didn't end there ringing noise came from the lighthouse as the frog stopped, floating in the water while staring at the horizon with a determined expression.

As the ringing grew more intense, the sound of a train approaching from the horizon sounded, much to the astonishment of everyone who recognized the sound from back in Ballywood.

And sure enough, we could see a column of smoke in the distance, the figure of a train revealing itself as the smoke approached until it was right in front of the frog floating next to the lighthouse.

The frog croaked, its expression one of focus as the sea train approached, and suddenly lunged at the train only for the train to send it flying back into the sea.

"What the hell is going on?" Byron asked with a wide-eyed expression as he observed these happenings, an expression the others shared as they turned to look at me, expecting an answer.

"Why don't we head into that lighthouse and find out...?"