Serious : Red Heart Pirates [pt.2] : To the Grand Line and Onto Jellyfish Island

The three had been sailing for a couple of days toward the Grand Line. Nabie had been hoping that they would find a navigator before they reached the Grand Line, but it didn't seem as though it was happening. Although she knew some basics, but she wasn't an expert. Far in the distance, she could spot the lighthouse that showed the way to her destination.

Suddenly, a gust of wind shook the sails and dark clouds covered the sky like blankets.

Ajax, who had given up searching the ship a day after they had left the last island (it was a marine ship, anyway...), had been occupied reading the newspaper. He needed to know what was going on in the world, especially now that communicwting with the marine was getting hard.
He looked up to the clouds that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere and threw it away without finishing the article.
"Captain! Storm!"

"Let's pull down the sail so they don't get ripped and steer our way through," Nabie yelled, already getting ready to pull up the sails. The reverse moutain that she had heard about could be seen far away.

"Yes maam!"
Ajax helped her pulling up the sails. Damn storms! Interfering with his reading!
Cutting his free time!
"Where are we heading, anyway?"

Van rushed out.

"Whats going on? A storm?" He asked

"We're heading towards Grand Line. Then, we can rest on an island and get supplies." The reverse mountain was coming up fast.

Nabie noticed Van behind her. "Yes, a storm."

"We should proceed cautiosly." said Van,

He grabbed the helm, keeping it on track.

"It's pretty tough" he thought.

"Woah! Huge mountain coming up!"
Of course he had seen it before. Of course he knew how it worked. He had been here with other crews before.
But what bad could it do to show a little surprise here?
It'd only proof how "little he knew about the grand line"...

Van kept turning the helm. Seeing the mountain up ahead and the small entrance.

"We're gonna make it." he said,

"Once were done here, I should ask where we're heading." He thought to himself.

The ship managed to safely enter the small entrace. "Alright, it seems like we'll be okay," Nabie grinned. "After this, we'll stop by a nearby island if there is any."

This was kind of nostalgic for him...
Oh god, to think some of his former crews hadn't even made it this far...
He looked at Nabie under his sunglasses. This wasn't enough to make him have more respect of her, but it made him think... If they hadn't made it, if the boat would have been crushed and he would have landed in the water... Would she have saved him?
Van Slycer most likely wouldn't have. But her?
He stared at her for a while. Then he shook his head violently. Such thoughts were highly unnecessary. If he imagined her saving him, that'd only make him like her a little. Maybe feel indebted with her a little. He wouldn't have that.
He put his fake smile back on his face. It looked truly relieved.
"We made it! Grand line, here we come!"

(I know she can't swim, but he doesn't, right? Let the guy dream Yeah, totally didn't say that...)

The ship traveled up the mountain at high speed. Van was having trouble keeping it from crashing. He put on his goggles to see if the summit was geting any closer. The upwards current spraying water in his face caused sight difficulties.

"Do you see anything?" he asked.

They were literally in between the clouds now. "I don't see anything," she yelled back. Then suddenly, it was as if the sky opened up and everything was calm for almost three seconds. From the ship, it looked as if they were in a sea of clouds. Then quickly, the three seconds passed and Nabie found herself float a little off the ship before it dived back down.

Now this was the fun part!
This shocking, close to death experience was exactly his kind of amusement and he intended to enjoy it while it lasted.
Still, he found his eyes darting to the other members of his crew to see their reactions.
How one reacted in such a situation was a large part of who he was.
Especially Nabie. Would she be scared? Part of him hoped she'd be scared.
He held on to the mast and stared at her. He was thankful for his sunglasses, for anyone else it could as well look like he was staring at the sea.

The force knocked Van off his feet, his hands on the wheel were the only things from flying away.

"We're almost there." he kept repeating in his mind.

"But will the ship survive the impact? I'm sure it will." he also thought

Although she was surprised at first, Nabie managed to calm herself down. She had heard of this before but had never experienced it. It was a little addicting... the thrill. Almost like a rollercoaster-- Nabie frowned. 'A rollercoaster? Why do I feel like I've ridden rollercoasters before,' she thought to herself, wondering if maybe sometime in her past she had ridden a rollercoaster. She shook her head. This was not the time to be thinking about such things.

Van tried looking ahead, he saw the path of the mountain and the ocean at the bottom.

"There it is. The grand line. We made it." He shouted,

Van hasn't felt this excited in a long time, and he knew he'd be feeling lie this more often as of now.

She wasn't afraid...
A little shocked, yes. But she was enjoying herself like he was.
he was a little disappointed, and relieved at the same time, and he didn't even know why.
Ajax looked away from her, and towards the grand line. An ocean that had a certain thrill to it. Only once had he been to an ocean that was more exciting.
"Here we go..."
In tought, he added "again".
This time, his smile was genuine. He had missed the grand line.

The hit the bottom with a splash. The ship shook for a good half a minute before calmly moving on as if nothing had happened. The weather on the other side was surprisingly calm compared to the place they entered through.

Nabie had heard that there was an island nearby and so she looked. She pulled out a set of binoculars and looked through it. Nothing yet.

Suddenly the ship made noises that were similar to rocks hitting the hull. The girl checked the sides of the boat to see if they had any leaks or if there were rocks in the ocean. Surprisingly, it seemed as though there wasn't anything in the water, but with a closer look, she spotted small jellyfishes floating just at the water line.

Ajax stepped beside her and stared at the creatures in the water.
"Jellyfishes? What the..."
He didn't remember this. Most likely hadn't taken this route yet.
Well, the unknown was always exciting.
For the first time on this ship, he took his sunglasses off to get a better look at the creatures, his almost yellow eyes full of genuine surprise.

"Jellyfishes that small?" Van was surprised,

He heard that creatures on the grand line weren't normal, but even small jellyfish were tough.

As the ship moved on, the number of jellyfish in the sea grew until a large island could be seen in the distance. Nabie looked through her binoculars and found that there were no jellyfish near the island and there was a small town. "I see an island. Let's go and rest there," she announced, ignoring the jellyfish as just sea creatures that happened to be there.

"Yeah. Right."
Seriously, why jellyfishes?
Ajax hated jellyfishes! His sister had hated jellyfishes, so all jellyfishes should burn in hell in his mind!
They made him mad. He put his sunglasses back on and lit a cigarette before looking at the town.
Good. He'd need to report soon, a town was just the right place to do so.

Van saw the town,

"I guess we can pick up som extra supplies." he said,

"And these Jellyfish, what do they mean?"

"I'm not sure. We can probably ask around in the town," Nabie replied. They finally reached shore and let down the anchor. "Let's meet back in twenty minutes or you can come with me," she said, jumping off the ship. From the shore, they could easily see the marketplace and it became obvious that the jellyfish were originally there. There were dried jellyfish, jellyfish sushi, etc. "They even have candied jellyfish," Nabie laughed.