Plans For The Heavens

"Yeah, that's what I was calling you about," I replied patiently, "I need some of the Heavenly Gold and Seastone sent over to Water 7 to make the ship."

"Oh?! That's gonna be one hell of a ship that your going to be making!" Atmost exclaimed, "But you know the rules about getting this, right? You gotta ask permission from Pops."

"Oh, I know," I remarked, "I'm just giving you the heads up, so you can start organizing for the transport. I'll have Vista and that kid Izou go over and help with the transport."

"Okay! No problem! I'll get them ready, how much do you want sent over?" Atmos asked.

I looked at the paper to get a rough quantity required from Tom. 

"I'm going to need two tons of Heavenly Gold, and one ton of Seastone," I replied.

"Alright, just make sure you call Pops for permission, otherwise; I won't be able to send them over," Atmos commented.

I hung up after a couple of remarks, and immediately made a call to Whitebeard.

"Brat! What do you want? Did you pick another fight with the World Government again?" Whitebeard snapped at me as soon as he picked up.

"The hell do you take me for, Old Man? A battle-hungry maniac like you?" I snapped back at him, "I need your permission so I can take some Seastone and Heavenly Gold for my ship."

"Gurararara! What kinda ship are you planning on building, you brat?!" Whitebeard laughed at the request, "Very well, anything for my sons, but make sure you come back to visit. You hear?! Ship building can take a long time!"

"Fine, I will," I promised Whitebeard, "Also, could you send Izou and Vista to oversee the transportation?"

"I'll let them know, and don't cause trouble over there you brat!" Whitebeard left a scathing remark before hanging up.

I clicked my tounge before putting away my transponder snail, that Old man always seemed to have jokes for whenever I called him. Not that there was anything wrong with it.

"So, where are we going now?" Stussy asked curiously.

"Get the navigators to meet me at that bar over there, I need some alone time to think of how we're going to get through this," I told her. 

Instead of instantly making herself scarce to find them, she immediately looked at Ken, who bowed his head and headed straight for the docks. I could only look on indifferently before making my way towards the said bar. It wasn't the normal rundown shack that most pirates had a habit of going to in volume, but it wasn't so prestigous either. It gave off the scent of quietude, and because of its emptiness, I only assumed that business was slow on a regular basis. 

Entering the bar, I found some men and women quietly enjoying their meals and drinks while the bartender stood alone behind the booth; wiping down a clean cup dry.

I instantly took a seat in the furthest corner of the shack, somewhere that had been left empty by the patrons who ate there. Stussy immediately followed and sat on the opposite side as she signaled for the waiter to come and take our orders.

The waiter was a young man with a gentle expression, he didn't look like he had the gall to have a pirate, but I was never one to make assumptions based on appearances.

"What can I get for you both?" The waiter asked kindly.

"Can we get some tea for me, a bottle of your finest wine, and some snacks that we can munch on?" Stussy requested with an equal tone of kindness, "Also, we're going to have three more people join us soon, could we get some chairs for them as well?"

"Surely, give me a couple of minutes to get your orders, and I'll set up the chairs right away," the waiter remarked as he immediately began to set up our tables for the three incoming costumers.

As he left, Stussy immediately turned to look at me with a curious expression.

"Tell me, what's on your mind?" Stussy asked gently.

"We're going somewhere people claim myth, and I need to plan out that journey," I replied.

"Where, exactly, are we going?" Stussy inquired.

"Skypiea,"

"The land above the clouds? You're meaning to tell me that its real?" Stussy was shocked at learning the name. 

"We'll be finding out soon enough, and that's not the only place we'll be visiting," I added.

"Where else are we going?"

"Did you know of any abandoned mines that the World Government had abandoned before you left them?" I asked.

"Well, I do, but I'm not sure whether there are any valuables left on the island. The World Government is normally really thorough with their mining. They make sure to strip bare every mine that they manage to get their hands on," Stussy remarked, "Moreover, since its been so long, pirates and other explorer's have probably paid a visit to those mines; they probably took the minuscule left-overs that the World Government left behind."

"Do you remember any in Paradise?" I inquired.

"Well, I do, matter of fact: there is one abandoned mine that isn't too far from Water 7," Stussy verified.

"That's good, make sure to tell the navigators that we'll be stopping there first," I calmly stared at the list of materials needed to make the ship. The quantity needed from Tom was about five hundred kilograms of the copper, it wasn't too much for us. However, it wasn't a little amount either.

Stussy took the list from me to peer over what we needed for the production of the ship. Her eyes immediately stopped at what I had assumed was where the Devil's wood was at.

"What the hell is Devil's Wood?" Stussy asked, handing the list back to me.

"I'll tell you when we get back on the ship, it isn't something that I want to talk about in public," I replied.

Soon, the waiter came back with a tray holding an old, but classy tea set. Along with a bottle of wine that hailed from a good brand. He held that one tray with his right hand, while he held another tray of snacks with the other.

He immediately set them down, and organized them according to what we had requested earlier.

"That'll be 300 Berries," the waiter commented.

I gave the man what was owed and added a little tip on top. He smiled before thanking us and leaving to tend to some other guests. 

We immediately began to enjoy our drinks in silence as we waited for Ken to bring over our two navigators. 

Soon, Ken appeared with the two navigators and we invited them to sit down. Stussy had called the same waiter who served us earlier, and requested some more drinks and snacks for them as I promptly began to address what we would be doing from there on out. Stussy paid the waiter, and as soon as the waiter was out of eaves-dropping range, Stussy began.

"We need some materials to build the ship, so we're going to be stopping by some islands," Stussy said.

"Where do we stop by first?" One navigator, Kane, asked.

Stussy slowly pulled out a rolled map and pen out of her bossom, and immediately unrolled it and traced out our location before making a circle towards a certain area near Water 7.

"Long ago, the World Government had mined this island clean, there is something that we need to get from there. So we're going to go there first, before setting a course towards Jaya island, right here," Stussy calmly instructed as she circled another island.

"What are we going to need there? Isn't that some upstart island that most pirates decided to take refuge in? I heard that the Marines wanted to perform a purge there," the other navigator, Brok, commented.

Stussy looked at me expectantly, I sighed quietly as the rest of the group immediately turned to look at me as well.

"We need to stop there for a bit so we can get a little bit more information, I'll be letting you know exactly where we're going to be going when we get there," I informed them calmly, "So tell the rest of the crew to immediately get ready. We'll be using the two ships to get to the first stop, but from there on out, we'll be using only one ship from there on out."