The City of Water

"Wow!" Luffy gasped, him being the only one to get the word out. The city-island of Water 7 rose out of the sea like a pyramid topped with the largest fountain any of the pirates had ever seen. The water from the fountain flowed downward through the city's canals, leaving very little room for sidewalks compared to other islands. Large, block numbers counting from one were carved into the entrances into the city.

"Hey, you!" a man in a fishing boat yelled as the Merry drew closer. "You pirates can't just sail in or else the Marines will catch you! You gotta take the back entrance! Go down that side street, OK?"

"Thanks!" Nami responded as the crew turned the Merry to follow the man's directions. Sailing around the island gave the pirates several different angles to observe the city, but that made it no less amazing. Finally, they dropped anchor off the shore of what seemed to be the only natural dirt above water. "Alright, let's go get that money!"

"I'll come with you, Nami-swan!" Sanji declared.

"No, you aren't," Luffy protested. "You're going grocery shopping because I need meat and Nami need fertilizer stuff for her trees."

Sanji tried to argue, but in the end, it was decided that Luffy, Nami, Usopp, Amy, and Coby would go get the gold exchanged. The men were there to carry it, Nami went because she was the treasurer, and Amy was going to try to work out how to extend her Devil Fruit power to objects she wasn't touching.

Granny Kokoro had mentioned before they'd left the train station that it would take a week for the Log Pose to lock on to the next island, so Nami took that time to give each person their allowance for the island: 50,001 Beris each. She was feeling generous.

"Alright!" Luffy happily called at the quintet reached the archway into the city. "Let's go get us a shipwright!"

"What's a yagara bull?" Coby questioned, reading the sign for the arch.

"Don't know," the captain shrugged. "Let's find out!" A heavy-set man with brown hair greeted the group as they entered the shop. Behind him were two pools separated by a fence.

"Welcome to Water 7," the businessman, a greasy-looking man with slicked-back hair, greeted. "What can I do for you?"

"What's a yagara?" Luffy asked.

"Yagara bulls, or yagaras, are the main mode of transportation here in Water 7. They are a breed of fish that look like horses and can breathe both above and below the water."

"That's so cool!" Luffy and Usopp yelled, stars in their eyes.

"How much are they?" Nami questioned, holding her own sack of Beris tightly.

"You can rent one for the day for 1,000 Beris, one for the week for 6,500 Beris, or you can buy one for the right price."

"Nami, can we get a yagara?"

"No, Luffy. Where would be put it?"

"I don't know," the captain shrugged, "but it would be a great pet!"

"Anyway," Coby stepped in front of the bickering couple as he remembered the name of the shipbuilding company. "Can you lead us to Galley-La?"

"If you don't know where that is or what yagaras are," the man thought aloud, "then I take it you're not from around here?"

"We aren't," Amy confirmed.

"Hold on," Nami ordered. "We can't go to Galley-La, yet. We need to exchange our gold for Beris first."

"Gold?" the salesman questioned excitedly. "Ahem, well don't let me stand in your way. How many yagaras would you like? Five people with three bags, I'd say four yagaras. They can hold two at a time." Whistling without waiting for confirmation, he opened the gate between the pools to allow four yagaras, colored blue, green, yellow, and red respectively, to swim through and plant saddles on their backs. As the men moved to place the sacks of gold in the saddles, Nami turned back to the salesman.

"How much did you say they were?"

"Hm? Oh, that'll be one million Beris each."

"Don't lie to us!" Usopp yelled.

"My mistake. Five million."

"That's even more!"

"Looks like I can't swindle you, then," the man sighed. "That's 4,000 Beris to rent four bulls for the day."

"That's better," Nami nodded as she handed him the bag of money, deciding to not mention that the stack contained about 550 Beris less than what the man had asked for. In exchange, he handed her a map of the city and pointed out both the shopping district and the Galley-La Company.

Their business done, the pirates moved to the yagaras. Luffy and Nami took the blue one with the captain still grumbling that he wanted one for a pet, Amy all but demanded the yellow bull, Coby took the green, and Usopp was left with the red. Waving at the man, they departed.

"I guess I missed my chance," Chopper whined, leaning on the railing of the ship. He stared longingly at the city.

"Don't fret, Doctor," Robin commented. "You can go with me."

"Really? Can we go to a bookstore?!"

"Of course," the archaeologist smiled.

"Yay!" In his excitement, the reindeer began running around the deck in his Walk Point.

"Keep it down over there, Chopper!" Zoro yelled. "I'm trying to sleep!"

"Me too!" Grace agreed.

"Sorry," Chopper whispered. Robin just giggled.

"What's that crowd about?" Luffy asked as their rented yagaras approached the first shipyard of the Galley-La Company.

"We don't know," Usopp answered. "Why would we know?"

"He wasn't talking to us, Long-Nose," Amy admonished as the yagaras pulled up to the sidewalk and the pirates disembarked with their treasure. Even if they were only a few feet away, they weren't going to take any chances. Luckily, Amy had had some success and managed to lighten Usopp's load with her powers; she was still being passive-aggressive against Coby and Luffy was more than strong enough to carry his without trouble.

"Excuse me," Nami said, tapping on the shoulder of a man near the back of the crowd while trying to look cute. She was more likely to get answers that way. "Why is there a crowd?"

"You all must be tourists," the man deduced. "Some pirates were causing a ruckus in the shipyard, but the men of Galley-La were able to handle it. The people here, I guess you can call us their fan club. The shipwrights are the pride and joy of Water 7, after all."

"So the shipwrights are strong enough to take down Grand Line pirates?" Coby questioned. "That's amazing."

"That's nothing for the Galley-La Company; the best shipwrights in the world!"

"As great as they may be," Amy pointed out, "we can't buy anything without actual Beris."

"Right," Nami agreed. "Thank you, sir. Could you direct us toward the bank?"

A small group of men crept toward the Merry, climbing over the ridge quietly. Zoro, sleeping on the deck, was the only crewmember in sight. Grace and Gin were both in the ship, the former because she couldn't sleep with Zoro's snoring. Merry, knowing she couldn't reveal herself, stayed quiet. Still, she loosened the boards around the swordsman so they would squeak. The man in the lead of the invading group unsheathed a sword and slunk forward with weapon raised to kill the green-haired man.

His sword, however, never struck. Instead, it was blocked by a pair of tonfa glittering gold in the sunlight. Zoro barely opened his eyes, alerted to the danger by the squeak of the boards, the smell of ozone, and the clang of the weapons meeting.

"They're all yours, Gin," the lazy swordsman yawned. "They'll be good practice."

"Alright," the lightning-man nodded as sparks began to fall from his skin. Still lacking full control of his powers, some of the man's hair seemed to float in response to the charge dancing over his skin. "Who are you and what are you doing on the ship of the Straw Hat Pirates?"

"You haven't heard of us?" the man in the lead chuckled. "That's fine since we've heard of you, Man-Demon Gin and Pirate Hunter Zoro. We're the Franky Family, a notorious group of ship dismantlers and bounty hunters, and we're here to claim your bounties. Nothing personal."

"Sure," Gin nodded, spinning his weapons. "Nothing personal. 3000 Watt Slam!"

"CP9."

The pirates had found the bank and exchanged their gold, and Nami couldn't be happier. Point in fact, she was hugging Luffy tightly to her chest and screaming without a care in the world. Luffy didn't seem to mind at all.

"One billion Beris!"

Indeed, the total worth of all the treasure the Straw Hats had accumulated from Skypia as well as what remained from both Gasparde's plunder and the lost treasure of the Rainbow Mist was one billion Beris, the money now split between ten suitcases of 100 million each. Considering the fact that every time, every member of the crew had been expected to carry as much as they could and then some, Nami's forceful greed had finally yielded an amazing crop. That and her bargaining might have raised the overall value of some of the items.

"Be quiet," Usopp warned. "If you shout like that, someone will come to steal it all!"

"Ha!" the woman laughed, still riding her money high. "As if anyone could get past Luffy, Coby, or Amy!"

"So where to now?" Coby asked. "Are we heading back to the Merry or going on to Galley-La?"

"We can head to Galley-La and settle everything there," Nami decided, releasing Luffy from the pillow-like hug. The rubber-man staggered away, mumbling something with swirls in his eyes and a thin trail of blood dripping from his nose. "We'll take the money that's left back to the Merry."

"Sounds like a plan," Amy agreed. Hopping back on their yagaras, the group soon made their way back to the pride of Water 7. The crowds from before had dispersed, leaving the view of the short, rope fence around Dock 1 open. A large door with a one engraved on it stood out, its top far over the small fence.

"So now we just have to find this Ice-guy that woman mentioned," Luffy commented. "That shouldn't be too hard."

"But we don't even know what he looks like," Nami pointed out. "And we don't know procedure for this place. Can we just walk in?"

"One way to find out!" Luffy answered as he walked over to jump the fence.

"Woah there, Big Shot," a worker said, stopping the captain's attempted entrance. He was a taller man with ginger hair wearing a blue-and-orange jumpsuit and a white hat that read Galley. Under his big, black eyes sat a long, square nose like Usopp's, but square. A tool belt was hooked around his waist. "Can't let you in here, Partner. Workers only, you know? What can I help you with?"

"We're here to do business," Nami answered before Luffy could say anything stupid. "We aren't from around here, so we don't know where to go, but we have a reference letter from Granny Kokoro to Iceberg."

"A reference letter from Granny Kokoro?" Square Usopp questioned as Coby passed the letter to him. "Don't see that every day, no siree. Well, in that case, why don't you let me scedadle on down to check out your ship? Then you can start talking about cost right away."

"Sure," Luffy nodded. "We're anchored on that small island outside of town."

"Sweet." Dropping his belt, Square Usopp began stretching before getting into a sprinter position. Without warning, he took off, jumping over the water gate and onto the rooftops of the buildings below.

"Holy shit!" Coby cursed. "He's going to get himself killed!"

"Well, no he won't," someone drawled. Turning back to see the source of the voice, the group saw a man with short blue hair in a striped, button-up shirt and dress pants. Next to him was a honey-blonde woman in business attire with a note book. In the pocket of the man's shirt was a white mouse he was petting with a single finger. "They call him Kaku of the Spring Wind. Well, he does that a lot."

"Who are you?" Amy questioned, tossing aside the stray though that they'd been asking that a lot lately.

"The real question is, who are you? Khalifa?"

"I've already done a thorough background check," the woman answered. "The one in the middle is 'Straw Hat' Luffy and to his left is 'Tri-Horn' Coby. Other wanted members of their crew are 'Pirate Hunter' Zoro, 'Man-Demon' Gin, and 'Devil Child' Nico Robin. He also has six other crewmembers without bounties. Originating from the East Blue, the crew are named after their captain and are known as the Straw Hat Pirates. Their number of Devil Fruit users in unconfirmed, but reports have put the number between five and six. They have a collective bounty of 279 million Beris."

"You've got a lot of information on us," Coby blinked, ignoring Usopp's panicking.

"Of course," the man responded. "Khalifa is the best assistant I've ever had."

"That's sexual harassment," the woman interrupted.

"Anyway, welcome to Water 7. I'm Iceberg. Well, since we're waiting for Kaku to return, how would you feel about a tour of the company?"

"That sounds great, Ice-Pops!" Without warning, the man's secretary lashed out with a series of kicks that left Usopp on the ground and the suitcases he had been carrying behind him. Amy had also dropped a suitcase, but she was more focused on the woman who had attacked.

"I will not permit you to talk to one of the world's leading engineers in that manner," Khalifa explained.

"Yes, please try not to provoke her," Iceberg begged, the right half of his face swollen. "When she kicks out in anger, her aim sucks."

"Oh, Ice-Pops," Luffy added, handing the man their reference letter. "We have a letter for you from this old woman at a train station."

"Well, it's from Kokoro," the man nodded before he began tearing up the letter. "Anyway, shall we get started?"

"Wait, where's the money?!" Usopp screamed.