"The surface is already so far up" Robin commented, the Sunny and her crew have been submerging deeper into the blue sea for a while already.

"What a view! Submarines can't have windows this wide!" Franky said.

"It's especially great from here" Nicole said laying down on the lawn and looking up.

"We're sinking and sinking, i can't stop worrying about flooding" Chopper said.

"Feel like we're leaving the inhabited world, it makes me nervous" Nami said.

"C-can we go back to the again for sure? I-it's not like i'm scared but" Usopp trailed off.

"It's beautiful here!" Luffy exclaimed in awe.

"Oh Chopper, now that we have a moment i'd like a word with you" Nicole said as she stood up and walked over to the reindeer "In private" she added grabbing the reindeer and carrying him away like a stuffed toy.

"What's up Nicole?" Chopper asked not bothered by her treatment, he had kinda missed it actually.

Nicole let the reindeer go once they were a bit further away from everyone and she checked if anyone was listening.

She couldn't tell if Robin was using her powers or not but if she was eavesdropping Nicole trusted the archaeologist to keep her secret.

Nicole knelt to Choppers level "So the thing is" she whispered the rest into his ear and prepared to cover his mouth because she knew he'd exclaim in shock.

"EH?! So you were-!" Chopper was cut off by Nicole putting her hand over his mouth "Shush!" she shushed him.

"Yeah, and i'd like for you to keep this secret from the others" she said.

"What? Not even Zoro why?" Chopper asked.

"Well first of all it's none of their business, and second i'll tell him myself ............ eventually" Nicole said, she was clearly nervous about telling it to Zoro.

Chopper sighed "Fine, i won't push the issue and i promise to keep it secret, but you gotta know it'll get revealed eventually" he said.

Nicole sighed too "I know, but i'll deal with that as it comes" she then smiled at the reindeer and hugged him "Thanks, by the way, Chopper" she said.

"Heh, it's not like saying that makes me happy you bastard" Chopper said dancing happily in her arms.

Nicole giggled a bit and carried the happily dancing reindeer meeting with the reindeer again, none of them questioned where she had gone as they were transfixed by the underwater view.

She let go of Chopper and made her way over to Zoro, who did question her.

"What did you want to talk to Chopper about?" he asked, a slight concern swimming in his eye.

Nicole smiled in reassurance "Don't worry about it" she told him.

Though not completely reassured Zoro did believe she'd tell him, whatever it was that bothered her, eventually.

"Look at that!" Brook called, Nami and Luffy ran over to the railing standing next to the skeleton

"Trees, no roots!" Luffy exclaimed

"Oh yeah! Come to think of it, Sabaody Archipelago consists of giant mangroves" Sanji said.

"I'm overwhelmed by the beauty of nature! I'm so surprised my eyes could pop out! I don't have eyes though" Brook laughed at his own joke.

"I've seen this already" Zoro said boredly, Nicole furrowed her brows wondering what he meant by it though she got her answer quickly.

"Yeah because you got on the wrong ship! Shut up! Everybody's having a great time!" Sanji yelled at him.

*So that's what happened* Nicole giggled a bit already concluding what must have happened.

"I can't believe these roots are running down to the sea bottom, they're enormous and magnificent" Robin said looking over the ship railing and down to where the roots were coming from.

Chopper was playing with some puffer fish when Usopp came over, backing up from something.

"Hey Chopper, there's something behind that tree" the long nosed snipper said and the reindeer looked over to see a giant fish lurking behind the mangrove roots.

"Wow, it's huge!" Chopper exclaimed.

"How exciting! An underwater adventure! It's like a dream come true" Luffy said before something else caught his attention "Oh, fish!" of course it was something to eat.

That's what Nicole found so funny earlier, she couldn't imagine Luffy interested in anything other than eating.

"Oh fish!" the rubber man exclaimed jumping over, only to be stopped by the bubble around the ship "I think i can catch them!" he said grabbing onto the bubble.

"The fish here look delicious too" Zoro said from the other side already taking out Shusui from its sheath, before him and Luffy both were hit over the head.

"Stop it you fools!" Usopp yelled at them.

"What if the bubble pops! Don't ever do that again or i kill you!" Chopper yelled.

"Nami-san, give us some dos and don'ts on the coated ship before they do something stupid" Sanji said turning to the navigator.

"Okay Sanji-kun, Rayleigh-san gave me a note, alright everyone listen" Nami said turning to the others, but to Sanji she was radiating light and shot off with another nosebleed fountain.

"She's moving! A real beautiful woman!" he exclaimed as he shot off, he too was caught by the bubble but as it stretched further and further the cook eventually popped out of the bubble.

"Sanji flew out into the water!" Luffy, Chopper and Usopp all yelled in shock.

"It's amazing, the bubble doesn't break even under tremendous pressure in this deep water but things can pass through it like that" Robin said, more to herself even though Franky was standing next to her.

"Sanji! Come back!" Luffy called stretching his arm out forgetting that he gets weaker in sea water but with Chopper and Usopp's help he was able to reel Sanji back onto the Sunny.

Chopper hooked up NINE whole bags of blood onto Sanji before starting on chest compressions to make him spit up the sea water he had inhaled.

"What happened to you Sanji? You've become even more susceptible to women" Usopp asked as everyone had gathered around the cook.

"I feel sorry for him, what happened to this ladies' man, Sanji-san in the past two years?" Brook wondered outloud.

"Who knows, but whatever it was had clearly deprived him of women, let's hope he get over this soon" Nicole said.

"At this rate he's going to bleed to death once he meets the mermaids that he'd longing to see" Brook pointed out "I can't help worrying" he added.

"We'll have to call for blood donations at Fish-Man island, i wonder if Fishmen and Mermaids have the same blood as humans" Chopper said wondering outloud.

"The bubble that coats the Sunny has the same quality as the bubbles at Sabaody Archipelago as we just saw" Robin pointed out.

"Stop analyzing the bubble in such a calm manner!" Usopp called pointing at her.

"Yes, Robin's right, basically they're the same" Nami said bringing the attention to her "It stretches to a certain point and beyond that, it allows things to get through, which means if we fire a gun or a cannon at a creature that attacks us the bubble won't break" she explained.

"Huh? Then, on what occasion will it break instead?" Usopp asked.

"As you can imagine when there are too many holes at once it'll break, for example if we're bitten by a Sea Kings' fangs it'll be trouble" Nami said horrifying Usopp and Chopper.

Just then a giant fish with huge sharp teeth came up from behind "It's coming from behind!" Usopp and Chopper exclaimed.

But then another bigger fish ate that one "They're fighting we're safe" Chopper sighed in relief.

"Or if the ship itself brakes up by crashing into a rock or a trench, a broken mast or planking will break the bubble and that also spells danger, so we have to be careful with creatures and obstacles in the sea, as long as we don't do anything foolish from inside it'll be fine" Nami added to her explanation.

"I see, it's tougher than i thought" Usopp said laughing in relief.

"But 70% of ships that head for Fish-Man island end up sinking so be cautious" Nami added more ominously.

"But that also means a whopping 30% of ships make it, i honestly thought it'd be way less than that" Nicole said with a positive smile.

"Nicole!" Usopp and Chopper sobbed grabbing onto her legs praising her like some goddess.

Nicole sweatdropped at them as she just stood there.

"With my Gatling i can catch a whole school of fish" Luffy said pointing to a school of tuna swimming by.

"Then let's see which of us can catch more fish" Zoro said Shusui at the ready.

Then both of them were hit over the head, again by Usopp and Chopper.

"Weren't you guys listening to what Nami said?! "Too many holes" is no good!" Usopp yelled at them.

"Don't ever try it again or i'll kill you!" Chopped also yelled.

Then the two burst into tears "Damn! Hachi said he'd show us the way to Fish-Man island so i thought it was gonna be a safe trip!" Usopp cried.

"Oh yeah! They gave me a lot of lunches, since Sanji is sick let's eat these everybody" Luffy said dragging the huge pack the Kuja pirates had given him over to Nami.

"I'm so starved!" Chopper said popping out of the depressed thoughts of sinking, though Usopp was still sulking.

"My bones are starved!" Brook chimed in with a laugh.

"Nami, the ship is gonna be stable for a while? Don't we have to do anything?" Franky asked.

"Nope, we just have to ride this big sea current for now, so yeah we can continue on like this for a while, we don't have much to do until later" Nami said.

"Then we have a little time huh? There's something i have to tell you all about" Franky said creating a tense atmosphere as each crewmember wondered what it could be about.

"Could it be about" Luffy started off "The robot's secrets?!" he, Chopper and Usopp finished off as their eyes sparkled, instantly braking the tension.

"You have more secrets?!" Luffy asked.

"What can you transform into? Or you have a secret weapon?" Usopp asked.

"Tell us robot brother!" Chopper said climbing up to Franky's head.

"Super Armored Me!" Franky said pressing his nose making two spikes of hair pop out.

"No i'm afraid" Franky then switched his tone "I'm afraid it's not about that -robo" he said in robot speak.

"Wow cool! He speaks Robotese!" Luffy, Chopper and Usopp exclaimed in awe.

Franky's hair went back down as he grew more serious again "This is what i wanna tell you about, go ahead and eat while you're listening" he said taking a seat on the seats around the mast.

The others dug into Luffy's huge bag and got out lunches, Zoro and Nicole were sharing theirs with each other, as couples do.

"Hachi told us that he would show us the way to Fish-Man island but he got severely injured at Sabaody and he's under medical care at Fish-Man island, he got injured for the same reason as Duval, he had been protecting the Thousand Sunny, around a year ago, the navy found out about the Sunny and those two both faced fierce battles and were taken out of commission" Franky explained.

"Huh? Then how did the ship remain undamaged after that?" Usopp asked.

"There was someone else who fought for it" Franky said.

"There was someone else?" Nami echoed questionably.

"He's the one who separated us two years ago, the warlord Bartholomew Kuma! I couldn't believe my eyes when i got to the Sunny a few days ago" Franky then told the others how Kuma had been waiting for him, or any straw hat, while protecting the Sunny.

"There isn't even a scratch on the Sunny and Rayleigh told me later that Kuma had told him he worked for the Revolutionary Army and since he had a connection with them, he wanted to help us get away, i think you guys half expected that, he saved our lives. And after we vanished from the island Kuma-san visited Rayleigh and told him "I don't have much time left" I don't know what made him obey the navy but he agreed to be a guinea pig and let his body be modified into a cyborg piece by piece and he somehow lost his personality before the War of the Best" Franky told the others.

"But i don't think he could guess what each of us would do after we got separated, even so he waited for us at the ship without his personality?" Chopper asked.

"He made Dr. Vegapunk, who modified him, agree to program a mission into his mind "Defend the pirate ship until the day one of the Straw Hats come back to the ship." That's why, for the past two years, without his own memory he had been carrying out his own orders as a human weapon waiting for us" Franky said.

"That's insane" Zoro commented "Why did he do such a thing for us?" he asked, exactly what Nicole had been thinking.

Though she was also thinking *What reason would Vegapunk have to agree to Kuma's request?* although she figured it could just be a dying mans last wish sort of thing, although she doubted it was just something so simple.

"Terms like "connection", "Revolutionary army", remind me about Luffy's father, the leader of the Revolutionary army" Usopp pointed out.

"I don't know my father that well but that bear-like guy was a good guy huh?" Luffy said his mouth stuffed with food.

"There is no mistake that he's the one who gave us the past two worthwhile years, we can't even ask him why he did it but just remember that Bartholomew Kuma turned out to be one of our greatest allies but even if meet him again Kuma is now a heartless human weapon, that's all i have to say" Franky said.

"I appreciate what he did but there are still some mysteries, i hope we can find out his motive one day" Zoro said.

Nicole nodded in agreement, she hoped so too because she just had this feeling there was more to this than meets the eye.

"Ally?" Sanji asked waking up.

"Oh, you woke up Sanji" Chopper said going to check on him.

"Eat lunch! It's from Maiden island" Luffy grinned.

"Maiden island? Is that Kuma guy really an ally? Don't you realize where i was for the past two years? What kind of training were you doing at the dream island full of women Luffy?" Sanji asked growing angrier.

"Whoa whoa Sanji-san, i don't know what you've been through but let's enjoy the voyage now, would you like to sing with me?" Brook asked.

"Stop trying to cheer me up! I feel pathetic!" Sanji yelled.