The coater Roger found was a stubbled, booze-reeking uncle who had chosen the carousel in an amusement park as his napping throne. No matter how Roger threatened or coaxed, the man only rolled over and mumbled, "Five more minutes."
Rayleigh arrived at last, said something Kael Grylls could not quite catch, and the uncle sprang up bright-eyed, thumping his chest and promising the job done.
Soon the Oro Jackson lay under the roots of a towering mangrove on Sabaody. The craftsman lived up to his reputation. A vast, elastic film of tree resin enveloped the hull, shimmering with prismatic halos in the sun.
"Sugoi. We are sailing inside a bubble," Shanks and Buggy cried, faces smooshed against the coating as they poked and prodded it.
"Hold tight," Roger barked. The ship sank slowly, waving goodbye to the sunlit surface and slipping into a deep, dusk-blue world.
Light vanished quickly. Outside the bubble there was only the dead hush of the depths and the tight breaths of men inside the film. Now and then a colossal Sea King coasted past in the middle distance, its vast shadow enough to rattle even the bravest hearts.
"Something is not going to slam into us, right," Buggy quavered.
A lantern-sized eye slapped against the bubble, peering in.
"Waaah," Buggy went cross-eyed and dropped in a faint.
"Ku-hahaha. Big fella, care to come up for a drink," Roger waved, fearless as ever.
Kael shook his head, palmed the inside of the coating, and let a ripple of electromagnetic whisper spread outward. The curious giant blinked, swished its mighty tail, and drifted off as if obeying an unheard suggestion.
Yes, tune the frequency and you can nudge brainwaves enough to talk upstairs. In this Ganges indeed.
"Not bad," Rayleigh said with a lifting brow.
Kael: not bad yourself, Rayleigh the Charmer of Sabaody.
They dropped farther. At last a glow appeared, impossible and soft, at the end of darkness.
When the Oro Jackson pushed through the final veil of water, the sight stole every voice on deck.
Cities of coral rose from the seafloor. Luminous jellyfish drifted like floating lanterns. Rivers of fish braided the sky in bands of color. A great bubble wrapped the island. Sunlight, fractured by leagues of sea, fell as a gentle curtain over a dream.
Ten thousand meters below the surface lay a paradise. Fish-Man Island.
A pirate ship flying skulls was no welcome guest. The instant they steadied, a detachment of armored guards ringed them in. At their head was a massive merman with a mane and beard of orange, a trident in his hands and authority in his eyes.
It was King Neptune.
"Human pirates. State your purpose," Neptune's voice rolled through the water, brooking no argument.
Spears gleamed. The soldiers sealed every gap around the Oro Jackson. Civilians ducked behind coral houses and watched the omen-ship from afar.
The air on deck went brittle. Buggy hid behind the mast with only his eyes showing. Shanks' hand tightened on his sword.
Roger, as captain, seemed blind to all the points of tridents.
He planted a boot on the rail, grinned, and waved as if greeting a neighbor. "Yo. Neptune. Long time no see. Looking hale as ever."
Every merman froze.
Neptune frowned and studied the smiling human. The tone was too familiar. But the hat and the pirate rig, the skull flag on that hull…
"Do not think banter will pass you through. Name yourself," Neptune leveled the trident, aura crackling.
"Ku-hahaha," Roger's laugh boomed even underwater. "Memory that bad. Last time that tiger puffer-shark chased you all over the sea, I was the one who bailed you out."
"Tiger puffer-shark."
Neptune's face jerked. The unspeakable memory surged up. He stared at that grin, then at the hat.
That laugh. That face. That reckless fool.
"You. Roger," Neptune blurted, shocked, surprised, and with a faint, embarrassed edge he could not hide.
The guards traded looks. Their king knew this pirate.
"Remember now," Roger hopped off the rail. "We came for something, will not trouble your people."
Neptune's expression twisted through several tides. He lowered the trident and waved the soldiers back. The taut air thinned at once.
He sighed. "Come along. Do not frighten my subjects."
With the royal guard as their escort, the Roger Pirates entered Ryugu Palace.
In a hall of shell and gold, Neptune dismissed everyone, leaving only Roger, Rayleigh, Oden, and Kael.
"Every time you show up, it means trouble," Neptune kneaded his brow while Roger sprawled like a farmer in a teahouse and inhaled palace sweets.
"Do not say that," Roger mumbled around a pastry. "We are chasing history. Big business."
Kozuki Oden nodded vigorously.
"History," Neptune's gaze deepened. "You are headed for the Sea Forest."
"Oh. You know it," Roger paused.
"The Sea Forest is Fish-Man Island's most sacred ground. Fragments of the past sleep there," Neptune said, rising. "I can take you. Call it paying back that favor."
The Sea Forest lay in a quiet basin beyond the city. It was a cemetery of ships. Hulks lay on the floor, softened by coral and weed, telling old stories in silence. Sunlight broke into wavering pillars that made the graveyard solemn and beautiful.
The moment they entered, Oden's eyes changed. Drawn by something, he strode straight for the heart of the grove.
There a great stone cube stood, its faces carved with ancient script.
"Found it," Oden cried.
They gathered close. Oden laid a hand on the cold surface and began to read.
"I was to keep a promise here. I failed to guide Noah toward the sun. I am truly most sorry…"
His voice carried through the forest's hush. It was an apology written eight centuries ago by one called Joy Boy to a mermaid princess for a promise he could not fulfill.
The crew listened without a word. Even without grasping every thread, they felt the weight, the regret that had crossed eight hundred years to settle on their shoulders.
"Joy Boy," Roger murmured, tasting the name.
"Captain, another one," Gaban called from nearby.
They hurried over to a second stone, this one deep red and tinged with a sense of omen.
"This is," Oden's breath hitched, "a Road Poneglyph. One of the four that point to the final island."
"Ku-hahahaha," Roger's roar shattered the stillness and sent a cloud of fish scattering. "Perfect. That makes three."
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