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The journey of Ace and the Spade Pirates pressed on.
In just two months, Ace was already halfway through his Grand Line voyage.
Island by island, adventure by adventure.
The Spade Pirates now numbered twenty strong, plus a pet lynx named Kotatsu. They had become a respectable crew in their own right.
With Ace at the helm, each member of the Spade Pirates had earned the respect of their peers.
Their captain's bounty had soared to 290 million Berries, placing him firmly on the Marines' radar.
He had planned to charge straight into the New World with all the momentum they had built, but it wasn't going to be that simple.
Skull was quick to bring them back to reality.
"Before we can go to the New World, we need to get the ship coated in Sabaody."
"Coated?" Ace tilted his head at the unfamiliar term.
The captain's quarters were brightly lit.
Ace sat in his chair. At his feet, Kotatsu was curled into a massive ball, purring contentedly. Ace had saved the lynx from a poacher's trap on a previous island, and it had been attached to him ever since.
Skull spread a sea chart across the table.
"That's right. Coated. It's a special natural resin that completely encases the ship. It allows the vessel to travel underwater—the only way to reach the depths of the sea."
He pointed to their Log Pose.
It was pointing straight down.
Toward an island ten thousand meters below the surface—Fish-Man Island.
"A normal ship can't make that journey. It has to be done by a professional coating artisan."
"And the only place to get it done... is the Sabaody Archipelago."
Ace's gaze fell to Skull's chart. It depicted a cluster of islands of various sizes.
"Technically, the Sabaody Archipelago isn't a real island chain," Skull explained. "Each 'island' is actually a single tree called a Yarukiman Mangrove. They're the largest mangroves in the world. The roots form the 'ground' of the islands, and the resin they secrete is what we need for the coating."
"I see," Deuce said, the realization dawning on him. "And since they aren't real islands, the Log Pose won't reset, no matter how long we stay there."
The chart showed seventy-nine numbered groves.
It was staggering to think that this entire place was just a collection of trees, with people living on their roots.
"I already have a master artisan in mind," Skull said. "A guy named Rayleigh."
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Sabaody Archipelago.
Ace and his crew stood on the deck of their ship, staring up at the colossal trees that scraped the sky.
"It's huge..."
"Incredible."
"Amazing."
Pirates weren't exactly known for their eloquence. Simple, forceful words were all they had to convey the sheer awe they felt.
The trees before them were beyond anything they had ever imagined.
A special natural resin was secreted from their massive roots. It was the material used for coating. As the roots "breathed," the resin filled with air and expanded, forming massive soap bubbles that floated up into the sky.
The bubbles danced everywhere, reflecting the sunlight in a shimmering rainbow of colors.
It was like something out of a dream.
At the end of a street filled with floating bubbles, they could see a huge bubble-vehicle. It was like a scene from a fairy tale.
Deuce quickly pulled a notebook from his coat and began to scribble, turning the sight before him into words on a fresh, white page.
Massive roots broke the surface of the water, and the Piece of Spadille navigated through the gaps between them.
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The Sabaody Archipelago had fully equipped ports, but Ace and his crew steered clear of them, anchoring instead in a lawless area outside the World Government's jurisdiction.
To get the ship coated, they would have to stay on the island for at least three days.
If they were spotted by the Marines, bounty hunters, or other, less scrupulous pirates, it would be a huge problem.
Ace's bounty was just too high. A rookie, only two months into the Grand Line, with a bounty of nearly 300 million Berries—it was unheard of.
Everyone was watching him. Some wanted to recruit him; others wanted his head.
If they were recognized, a fight was inevitable.
Ace himself didn't care.
But Skull, Deuce, and the rest of the crew were on edge.
They didn't have Ace's monstrous potential, his incredible rate of growth.
If you rated the crew's total combat power on a scale of one to ten, Ace was a solid nine-and-a-half. The other nineteen guys had to split the remaining half-point.
It wasn't a crew following their captain.
It was Ace, carrying them forward.
And so, as they prepared to enter the New World, the crew, with the exception of Ace, was filled with a mixture of excitement and apprehension.
Were they really ready?
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Skull had contacted Rayleigh. By the time he arrived, Ace and the others had already disembarked to explore the island.
"Thanks for doing this, Mr. Rayleigh."
Rayleigh laughed. "As long as you're paying... Your not stowing away on someone else's ship this time?"
Skull had once traveled the world by stowing away on other people's ships. He'd been to Sabaody before. It had been a close call, but Rayleigh had saved him, and the two had become acquainted.
"I was lucky enough to meet a captain who believed in me," Skull explained. "I joined his crew."
"Is that so?" Rayleigh smiled. "That's great. It's not easy to find comrades you can raise hell with."
Skull nodded. He noticed that Rayleigh was carrying a bag of hot buns wrapped in a newspaper. The headline caught his eye.
"Mr. Rayleigh... can I see that?" he asked, pointing to the paper.
"This?" Rayleigh took a bun from the bag and popped it in his mouth, handing the paper to Skull. "It's three days old."
Skull read the article intently.
"What is it?" Rayleigh asked. "You have a problem with that king?"
"Oh..." Skull snapped back to reality. "No. We just docked on Melcyse Island once. I was just a little curious."
Rayleigh smiled. "To once again become a part of a World Government member nation... I suppose that's a good thing, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Skull agreed. "Even though they'll still face injustice and oppression, it's a lot better than being a non-affiliated country."
He had seen it with his own two eyes. The lives of people in non-affiliated countries were worth far less than those in member nations. They lived in constant uncertainty. Rulers, pirates, Marines, slave traders... anyone could prey on them at will. In the New World, you could choose to align yourself with one of the Four Emperors for protection. But elsewhere, it was a lawless paradise.
It was a miserable existence.
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