27~ Can't We Sail Without Any Interruptions?!

Mira

I can't believe it! Sicko is back! Of all the places to land, he just had to land somewhere the Lost Island would resurface! He's either really lucky, or that was just by pure, dumb luck!

"Man, you're stubborn!" Luffy called up to him.

"Yeah..." He said rather softly with a smirk in place. "I nearly drowned to death."

"You should have..." I muttered under my breath.

"Just look at this beautiful radiance!" He spoke on, gesturing dramatically with his arms. I'm kinda glad he didn't hear me... "Isn't it marvelous?! This is all Dragonite, the legendary elixir of immortality!"

"But breaking these fossilized Millennial Dragons won't produce anything usable!" Nami tried to reason with him.

"Yes, so I hear..." He said with a bored tone. "But there is more than enough live Dragonite here!"

"You're gonna kill them?!" I growled up at him.

"If that's what it has to come to, then yes." He stared down his nose at me, to which I raised mine higher. "What do you say? A pointless fight would only be tiring. How about we make a deal to split this treasure?"

"I say-"

"Mira," Luffy spoke over me and I shut my mouth. He took a step forward and looked up at Sicko. "No."

"Do you not want eternal life?!" Sicko shouted down at him.

"Not interested." Luffy said simply and I grinned at him. So glad I have him as my captain.

"You lie!" Sicko was starting to turn red in the face from all the shouting he was doing. "There's no one who's not afraid of dying! Both of us may have Devil Fruit powers, but a pirate's life is always inches from death! There's no way you can't be afraid of dying!"

"I'm not afraid." I called up to him, claiming his attention. "I already died and came back to life. It wasn't that scary of an experience."

Luffy simply smiled while Zoro spoke. "I dunno. He's the kind of guy who would probably die smiling doing what he's doing. And she even said dying isn't scary, so why bother being afraid?"

"Oh..." He stood straight and cast his gaze over all of us. "Fine, then! You can sit there and watch as I take all the Dragonite I need and leave!" He lifted his sharpened fingernails, his intent to slice us down.

Apis suddenly raced toward him. "No!"

"Stop right there, girl!" He cut right through the air, the currents right for Apis.

Just as I was about to leap in to save her, a blur darted in front of me. "Apis!" Usopp gathered her in his arms and rolled right under the currents and away from harm. We all stared at him in shock. "D-dont be reckless, Apis!"

She turned from him and glared at Sicko. "Even if it's reckless, I have to protect them! This is a very important place for the Millennial Dragons! I'm going to protect this place forever and ever!"

Sicko's eye twitched. "So you insist in defying me, eh?"

"We always have been." I said as I crossed my arms.

"Quiet, you!" He snapped and I simply shrugged my shoulders, not affected by his rage. "If you all are so intent on defying me, you can all die! Sickle-Sickle..." He waved his first two fingers in front of his face.

I tipped my head. "Is he going to make weird sounds with his lips?" Just in case he wasn't, I readied my katana and stood on my tip toes.

"Whirlwind!" He swiped both arms in front of him, sending a blast of sharp gusts right for us. What I wasn't expecting was Luffy to suddenly jump in front and take most of the hit. He shook on his feet and fell to his knees.

"Luffy!" I cried out as I reached for him. Zoro stepped forward, clicking one of his own katana's out.

Luffy raised his head and stood, silently telling Zoro to back down. "I'll deal with him." With that, Zoro smirked and stepped back, but waited to step in if needed.

"But, Luffy-!"

"I promised him." He spoke over Nami. He gazed back up at Sicko, placed his left arm on his right shoulder, then charged, swinging his arm for a powerful move.

"I don't think so!" Sicko readied his own attack as Luffy got closer. "Sickle-Sickle..."

"Gomu-Gomu no..."

"Whirlwind!"

"Pistol!" They both shouted at the same time as they both released their attacked on one another. Luffy's arm passed right through the winds, getting torn to ribbons. Sicko simply dodged Luffy's attack, jumping back with back flips and hopping off rocks. He landed on one of the fossilized dragons and Luffy's fist connected with it.

"You can't hit me, rubber man!" Sicko taunted with a smirk. He chuckled as Luffy snapped his arm back into place. "Well? Are my wind slashes sharp enough for you?" He readied his attack again. "Run or hide wherever, but there is no escape!"

As the two of them dueled, I turned back to the rest of the group. "Okay, knowing these guys and how Luffy loves to move around while he fights, I say we back up to a safe distance so we don't get caught in the crossfire. Sound like a plan?"

"I'm all for it!" Usopp raised his hand as he took off to duck behind another dragon fossil.

"Alright, let's follow Usopp." I nodded to the others. "It's far enough away, but we can still see what's going on. Zoro, Sanji, we're going to stand in front and guard everyone in case those winds get out of hand. Sound good?"

"Yes, Mira!" With that, Sanji began ushering Nami and Apis out of the open.

"Mira," I focused on Zoro as we ducked and followed the others. "I think you should stay with the others as well. It's a bit dangerous out here."

I rolled my eyes. "Zoro, I know what I'm doing. Trust me."

We got over to the rock and the three of us took a protective stance in front of the others. "That guy is pretty tough." Zoro commented.

"Is Luffy in trouble?" Usopp asked as he peeked his head up from behind the fossil.

"I'm sure he's fine." I said reassuringly to him.

Sicko launched another series of attacks, all in rapid fire. Luffy lifted his head and charged. "I won't run or hide!" He ran straight through Sicko's attacks, getting even more shredded up and bloodied.

"Gomu-Gomu no..." He threw his arms down and grasped Sicko tightly by his upper arms, all while throwing his head back at the same time. "BELL!" Luffy's head connected square with Sicko's and I swear you could actually hear the sound of a bell ringing.

"And..." He has more? Wait, Luffy always has more. He swung his arms back for this next attack. "BAZOOKA!" And there goes Sicko... Luffy hit him square in the middle of his back. In a matter of a few seconds, Sicko was no where to be seen.

Luffy clenched his fists and turned back to us, a huge grin in place. "I win!"

"You did it!" Apis cried happily as she raced from behind the fossil and tackled him in a hug. "You did it! Luffy, you actually did it! I can't believe it!"

"Believe it." He patted her head. "I made a promise, and I always keep my promises." While the two of them were celebrating the victory, I looked up and found that the villagers had come down to see what had happened. They marveled at the magnificent dragons, wondering how such creatures could exist.

As Luffy and Apis began to settle down, we joined the villagers on a step above them, our group let our gazes wander. Nami sighed softly after a while. "Do you suppose this place'll sink again after a while?"

"When it does, do you think the Millennial Dragons will leave, too?" Usopp asked.

I shrugged lightly. "It kinda makes me sad knowing that this place will sink once more and won't resurface for another thousand years..."

"And I guess that baby Millennial Dragon will fly off too..." Apis said sadly as she stared at one being looked after by three dragons. Bokuden placed a hand on her shoulder and turned her around to face us.

"What do you say, everyone?" He addressed us. "Won't you have some of my special pork buns before you go?"

"Finally!" I cried as I stood from the ground.

"Oh!" Nami suddenly spoke for all of us. "Thank you, but that's okay! We gotta get back on our journey right away! Right?!" She looked over to Luffy hopefully.

"We do?" He questioned her. "But I want some pork-" He shut up when she conked him upside his head.

"We have to go." She said firmly. "Sorry Bokuden."

"We'll just take the recipe." Sanji smiled lightly at the old man.

"I see." He grinned back. "That's too bad. I'd only take three days to prepare them, too. I could tell you about the royal family of Lost Island in the mean-"

"We've already heard about it!" Nami stated in a near panicked voice.

"Oh?" His eyes scrunched together a bit. "You have? But did you hear about the great king who-"

"We did!" She spoke over him again. "We know that he first discovered the dragons and-"

"No, you're thinking about someone else." He ran her over with his words as we began walking over to the ship to get it back in the water. "The king I'm talking about is-"

"Please, we've heard it!" It was like this the entire trip, those two going back and forth on what we heard and didn't hear.

Finally, after a long while of listening to those two banter on, we were ready to sail. "Alright! Set sail for the Grande Line!" Luffy called out as he raced over to sit on his perch.

"Apis," He called down to her after we were all on the boat. "Want to come with us?"

She smiled up at him. "I've made friends with all of you. I would like to go, but I would like to stay on this island. I'm going to learn all sorts of customs from Grandpa Bokuden and protect the Dragon's Nest like my ancestors before me! I'm going to wait here for the baby dragons to come back some day."

"But those baby dragons won't be back for another... uh..." Usopp had to stop and think about what he was going to say next, counting on his fingers. I rolled my eyes. "Another thousand years!"

"Hey now... Don't be so cynical." Sanji told him and I chuckled at the two.

"It's okay." Apis assured Usopp. "I may not be able to see them grown up, but I'm sure my kid's kids will get to! So I'm going to get to protect this place forever and ever!"

"That's crazy talk!" Usopp called down to her.

"Hey," Apis looked up to me. I winked and smiled. "Good luck kid."

"Mira, you know this is crazy talk!" Usopp tried to reason. "A thousand years is a long time! People are going to forget again and-"

"Not of they keep believing." I spoke over him as I poked his forehead. "Trust me; the dragon's will be remembered."

"Besides," He looked over to Apis again. "You guys do crazy stuff all the time!"

"We did?" Why do I even call Luffy my captain....

"Let's just go..." I sighed and held my head. "Luffy's stupidity is hurting my brain..." Soon, the main sail was unfurled and we began heading to our destination: The Grande Line.

"See ya, Apis!" Luffy called to her as we sailed away, waving and saying goodbyes.

"Apis! Never forget about Usopp-sama, the brave warrior of the sea!" That Usopp...

"Bye!" Apis shouted back to us, waving both her arms in the air. "Take care, everyone!"

As the rest of the crew dispersed to do whatever they were going to do, I stayed at the back of the ship and watched as Warship Island got smaller and smaller. As I stared, my mind was focused on what Nelson had said.

It was hard to believe that my father was once proud to call me his daughter. I couldn't believe that he actually loved me at one point! What happened in those four years to make him change his mind? Why did he suddenly start hating me? Was it because I'm a Neko and both my parents are humans? Was the island I grew up on hateful towards my family and my parents couldn't take it anymore?

I have so many questions with no way to answer them...

"Hey," I looked up to see Zoro standing beside me. He blinked and ran his thumb across my cheek. I closed the eye he rubbed under and watched with the other one as he came away with water- no, tears. "Care to explain what's on your mind?"

I opened my shut eye and stared back out to the open waters, a soft sigh escaping past my lips. "While we were separated on Lost Island, I met up with Nelson... The guy who wanted the dragons."

"What did he want?"

I swallowed hard. "He... called me by my mother's name... He knew my parents, just like Buggy, Krieg, and Kuro. Why do all these people know my parents?"

"I don't know." We sat down and clung on to the railing next to each other. "But I can tell that's not the only thing on your mind."

I chuckled to myself and gave a half smile. "You know, for someone who is directionally challenged and a bit oblivious, you sure do know how to read me."

"I'm not directionally challenged!" He huffed. "Nor am I oblivious."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "Whatever you say... Anyway, after talking with Nelson for a while, I found out that he and my father used to be childhood friends. They did everything together. My father didn't want to join Nelson when he wanted to join the Navy, so that was the first time they parted. When they met back up, my father had met my mother was talking about how proud he was to have the two of us. Zoro, he loved me. But... after four years... that love vanished. He and my mom left me to fend for myself. How could he be so proud of me and then suddenly leave me as if I was nothing to him?"

Zoro pulled me close to him as I sniffed and fought back the tears. He remained silent, not once saying a word. What could he say to that? That my father really does love me? That he's actually searching for me? It's a bunch of bull.

So, instead of saying anything more, we sat in silence as we let the gentle waves of the ocean rock the ship. We watched the sun glint off the surface of the waters, his arm around me and my head on his shoulder. It was very calm and soothing.

"Nami-san! I have a report of love!" Calm and soothing gone... "I see big rain clouds up ahead!" Sanji called down from the crow's nest.

I sighed and stood. "You better go make sure he's actually seeing what he's seeing."

"Yeah..." He stood and the two of us went in separate directions.

"There's a storm under them!" Sanji called down after a while. I looked up to the crow's nest to see Zoro up there beside Sanji, looking stoic and unaffected by the storm ahead of us.

I walked over to Nami to see she had a map in her hands. "Looks like we're back on our original course."

"Where are we?" I asked as I looked over her shoulder.

"We're here." She pointed to the spot. "We need to get here, so we're not that far. We should be seeing the Red Line at any time now."

"The Grande Line at last!" I glanced up to see Luffy launch himself up into the crow's nest on the other side of Sanji. "Hey Sanji, we're finally going! We're finally going!" He began slapping Sanji on his back, and from what I could see, he wasn't liking that.

"That hurts!" Whoa, he's real flexible. He used the foot that was on the opposite side of Luffy and kicked him in the face.

"Sowwy..." Luffy mumbled around Sanji's foot.

I tried to hold back my laughter as Luffy moved over to Zoro and began doing what he did to Sanji.

"Stop that!" Zoro shouted over Luffy, but he continued to do it.

"To the kitchen!" Nami suddenly said over their bickering. Sanji wasted no time getting there.

Once we were all in the kitchen, she slapped the map on the table. "Look at this." We did. "I've heard rumors about this, and the map shows it too. If it really is true, then the entrance to the Grande Line is a mountain."

"A mountain?" Luffy questioned.

"But we can't go through a mountain." I stated as I stared at where she was pointing at.

"We gotta crash into a mountain?" Zoro asked from beside me.

"You can't be serious." Sanji muttered to himself.

Nami looked at all of us in turn. "I didn't believe it myself, but the map has canals that lead into the mountain. That might mean we have to go up it!"

"So.... we won't crash?" I asked to make sure.

"Hopefully, yes." She responded with.

"Neat!" Luffy leaned in closer to get a better look at the map.

"Wait, you said up." She looked back to me. "Water doesn't travel up."

"I'm at a loss for that, too..." She scratched her head as she stared at the map.

"Even if there are canals, ships can't climb mountains!" Zoro crossed his arms and shook his head at the map.

"But that's what the map says!" Nami snapped at him.

"Yeah!" Sanji cut in. "Nami would never say anything that isn't right!"

"But water doesn't travel up!" I clutched at my hair. "That defies the laws of gravity!"

"Mira does have a point..." Sanji agreed with me.

"But the map is never wrong!" Nami rounded on me. "We have to follow the map!"

"Yeah!"

"News flash!" I stood and got in her face. "The map we have is a bit outdated! It could be wrong! New maps might show that there is a different way!"

"There is no other way!" She tapped her finger repeatedly on the map. "This is the only way in and the only way out! Our map is perfectly fine and well dated!"

"Everything changes!" I reasoned. "Even the land! Nothing is ever constant!"

Sanji suddenly cried out and curled up into a ball, clutching at his head. "I don't know who to side with! Both are right, but they're making this so hard for me!"

"Get over it..." Nami and I said at the same time.

"H-hey!" Usopp suddenly called to us, huffing and puffing hard. "Somebody help with the rudder! I've only been trying to call for your attention for the past five minutes!"

"Why didn't you say anything?" I asked as I went to help him.

"I was!" I gripped the rudder with him and pulled.

"What the...?" I pulled harder and grunted a bit. "That's odd..." Together, the both of us pulled on it. "It's stuck."

"Stuck?" Nami questioned. "Sanji-kun, why don't you help them with the rudder? I can't think with all this shouting."

He leaped up from the floor. "On it." He pulled with us at the same time. Still, it didn't move.

"D-doesn't the current seem a bit strong?" Usopp asked as we all tugged hard at the same time.

"Y-yeah!" I grunted as we all fought harder to get the ship to move in the direction we wanted it to go in.

"What?" Nami faced us. "Usopp, say that again?"

"Doesn't this... current seem strong?" He managed to groan out, still not able to get the rudder to move.

"Current..." Nami whispered to herself as she looked back to the map. "That's it!"

"That's what?" Luffy asked.

"It really does go up the mountain!" She exclaimed as I rolled my eyes.

"It's not possible!" I stated.

"Are you still going on about that?" Zoro sighed.

"Look here," She said.

"I wish I could!" I bit down on my lip hard as the three of us struggled to get the rudder to turn the right way.

"See, the guiding light was really pointing to here." She spoke to Luffy and Zoro. "Right here on the Red Line. Reverse Mountain!"

Sanji suddenly left us and Usopp blew his top. "Hey! A little help over here!"

"I'm trying, Usopp!" I shoved harder. "Ah! I think it moved a bit!"

"No, I shifted my position..." Usopp said to me in a low voice.

"See the canals here?"

"No!" I shouted to Nami.

"If major currents from the four oceans all flow to this mountain," She paused for a second. "Then the four currents would go up these canals, collide at the top, then flow into the Grande Line!"

I tuned Nami out after that. I need to focus on trying to get the rudder to turn. It's almost as if it was glued in place. Why are the currents suddenly so strong in this area? Maybe the force of the current will send us up the mountain?

But water doesn't flow up! This is so frustrating...

"... the Going Merry will run smack into the Red Line's rock face and get wrecked."

"Wait a minute, whoa, whoa, whoa!" My head snapped over in Nami's direction. "Did I hear that right? If we miss, we'll hit the mountain?!"

"Yup..." She confirmed.

"Aw, man!" I cried out. "I seriously hope we're on the right track now!"

"So... It's a mystery mountain!" Luffy let out three short chuckled.

"Well, maybe you don't get it..." She said in a defeated tone. "Anyway, now that we're on the current, as long as we don't mess up with the rudder, we should be able to head straight to the summit of Reverse Mountain!"

"I've never heard of ships going up mountains before." Zoro said stubbornly.

"I've heard some stuff before." Sanji told him, and soon launched into some of the tales he's heard, Luffy listening intently.

Just then, it began to rain. "Sanji-kun! Can you get the sail up?"

"Yes, Nami-san!" He raced off to get that done. "Luffy! Help out!" They raced off to get that done.

"We'll just stay here and get the rudder to move..." I said to no one in particular. My ear suddenly twitched. "Hey... Usopp? Did you hear that?"

"Hm?" He met my gaze as we still tried to get the rudder to move. "Hear what?"

"Never mind..." I could have sworn I heard wood cracking...

"Hey! I see the mystery mountain!" Luffy suddenly cried. Usopp and I rushed out to see what he was seeing.

My eyes bugged wide at the sheer size of it. It rose high into the clouds and seemed to keep going. Is there even a top to this thing?!

"That's insanely huge!" Usopp voiced my thoughts in not so many words.

"The entrance to the Grande Line..." Nami said loud enough to hear over the pounding rain.

"So that's the Red Line, huh?" Luffy seemed giddy with excitement.

"I-I-I can't see the top through the clouds!" Usopp stuttered terribly.

"Wait," I squinted my eyes. "Guys, where's the opening?! I don't see the opening!" But my question wasn't answered, for right then, the current grew stronger and swept us away, bringing us ever closer to the seemingly nonexistent entrance to the Grande Line.

"We're getting sucked in!" Luffy cried as he slipped from the mast and dangled in mid air. "Hold the rudder!"

"We're on it!" Usopp, Sanji, and I raced back to the rudder. My foot slipped on the slick deck and I fell as the ship rocked and bounced violently.

"Zoro!" He quickly grabbed my hand and righted me, pinning me between the railing and his body.

"Nami?!" Luffy called down worriedly. "Where's the entrance?! At this rate, if we keep going this way, we'll crash!"

"Nami! What do we do?!" Usopp shouted over to her as she just stared intently at the wall.

"Keep going straight!" She suddenly ordered.

"Are you serious?!" Usopp snapped back.

"Just do it!" Luffy came down beside her.

"Nami, there's no entrance!" I whimpered loudly.

"Trust me!" She tried to reassure me.

"Nami, is that the canal entrance?" Luffy asked.

"Most likely!" She responded.

"Nami, I'd like a definite answer, please!" I begged as we got closer to the wall.

"Mira, you have better sight than I do!" I looked over to her. "Look out there and tell me what you see!"

I followed her finger and squinted against the pounding rain. Then I saw what she was seeing. "There's a crack in the wall! That's where we need to go!"

"Right!" She grinned. "Is that definite enough for you?" I nodded back to her and stared at the rather large crack in the wall.

As I was watching it get closer, I noticed that Zoro's hands gripped the railing tighter. To kind of comfort him, I placed my hands over his. They relaxed, but just slightly.

One of his arms suddenly wrapped securely around me as he pulled a pair of binoculars out. "This can't be for real!"

"What?" He gave them to me and I gasped. "The water is flowing up! As in, straight up!"

"I know!" He took them back. "The damn ocean is really climbing up the mountain!"

Soon, the opening was becoming clear enough to see without the binoculars. "We gotta make it through those water gates just right!" Nami called out to Usopp. "Otherwise the ship'll be busted to pieces!"

"That's real comforting!" I snorted. The opening is rather narrow; just wide enough to let one ship in at a time. Can we really make it? Is the opening wide enough to let us in?

That's when I noticed that we were starting to get off course. "Oh my God!"

"We're getting off course!" Luffy cried out with a bit of panic in his voice. "More to the right! Right! Right!"

"Go starboard!" Usopp instructed to Sanji and they tried to get the ship to move. The two of them let out a startled cry just as the sound of wood breaking sounded over the rain.

"Please tell me that wasn't the rudder!" I begged.

"The rudder broke!" Nami, Luffy, and Zoro freaked out at the same time.

"We're gonna die!!" I sobbed as I clung on to Zoro tightly.

"Gomu-Gomu no BALLOON!" Luffy suddenly launched himself off the ship and right between it and one of the gates. We bounced right off him and miraculously got right on track smack in between the gates.

I looked around Zoro to see Luffy falling towards the water. "Luffy!" Zoro and I shouted for him.

"Zoro, let me go!" I fought to get out of his hold. "I can freeze time and-" He let me go, but grabbed my hand, pulling us towards the back of the ship.

"Grab on!" We stuck our hands out to him. Luffy deflated and stretched both of his hands out to us, grasping them tightly. Simultaneously, Zoro and I tugged and were able to bring him back onto the deck, for once not getting flown into. Luffy instead landed with a crash on the main deck, leaving a dent.

We all glanced to each other then, huge smiles spreading across our faces. "We made it!" We cried out triumphantly as our ship soared up the mountain. We had a mini celebration, but quickly focused again on the path ahead of us.

"Now it's just a straight shot to the summit!" Nami shut her eyes as the wind ruffled her clothes and played with her hair. My own clothes and hair will billowing out behind me.

"Zoro, we actually did it!" I clung on tightly to him with an embrace. "For a second there, I thought we were goners!"

"Yeah!" We released, then noticed how close we were to each other. We cleared our throats and took a step away from each other. "Shall we, uh, head to the front?" He suggested, a light tint of pink on his cheeks.

"Y-yeah..." I followed him up to the front of the ship and we leaned against the railing.

Luffy soon joined us. "Awesome!"

We all watched in awe as the summit grew closer, but we knew we still had quite a ways to go.

"Curse you all!" We all snapped our gaze over to see Sicko standing on the ledge.

I groaned. "Oh, come on! Can't we sail without any interruptions?!"

"Shut up, you!" He snapped at me.

"What?"

"It's the Sicko Fruit guy."

"You're still alive?!"

"You have tiny eyes..." Okay, I have to chuckle at that one. Good one, Usopp.

"Shut up!" He shouted at all of us. "Curse you all! Thanks to you, my dream of Dragonite has been crushed!" He held his fingers up in front of him. "I just can't leave things the way they are! At the very least, I'll have your 30 million berry head!" He jabbed one of his other fingers right at Luffy.

I rolled my eyes, getting sick of him and his yelling and cursing us. I froze time, walked right over to Sicko, then promptly shoved. "Push!" Just as I touched him, time resumed and Sicko fell backwards into the water, not even having enough time to scream and register what happened.

"There." I dusted off my hands. "Now he can't bother us." I turned around and saw the crew was staring at me in shock. "What? You all were thinking the same thing. I just acted upon it."

Nami crossed her arms. "I had a plan to get rid of him!"

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah!" She shifted her weight to one foot. "I was gonna distract him by shouting Dragonite and then kick him off!"

I blinked. "Would you like to?"

"Eh?" I didn't say anything more. Instead, I leaped over the edge. "Mira!" I froze time just before I hit the water and landed right on top of it. I don't have much time!

I raced across the water and found Sicko's hand sticking up out of the water just before he went under. I grabbed it and quickly froze time once more before I lost everything.

Sicko began coughing and sputtering as I raced along the water with him. "Wh-what the hell are you doing?!"

"Sorta kinda saving you." I said as I reached the ship once more and began climbing it.

"Why?!" He demanded. "And why is nothing moving?!"

"You'll see." I got back to the main group and stuck Sicko back up on the ledge. "Now, stay there. We want to fight you." Before he spoke, I resumed time and everyone gasped and stepped back.

"Mira!!"

I turned to face them. "What?"

"You fool!" Sicko coughed up water. "Why did you do that?"

I shrugged. "We wanted to fight."

"Mira, we can't fight him!" Zoro gripped my shoulders and spun me around to face him. "If he attacks us with those wind currents, who knows what'll happen?!"

"Just wait..." I mouthed to him, making him blink in confusion.

"Why would you bring me back if you can't fight me?!" Sicko growled. "Do you see the situation you're in right now? One move, and this ship is toast! You stupid Neko! You just helped me win this!" He let out a crazed laugh.

I nudged Nami with my elbow. She kicked into action. "Oh! Dragonite!"

Sicko stopped cackling and looked down. "Huh?! Where?!" Nami then took a giant step in his direction and swept him off his feet with a solid kick, sending him back into the raging waters.

"I'm glad that he's gone, but that was a bit cruel..." Usopp commented.

I looked over the railing and saw Sicko make one final splash, not being able to resurface. "Yeah, I guess it was... I probably should have just left him alone instead of letting Nami have her fun..."

"At least the rest of our climb will go without issue." Zoro pointed out. "You both did okay."

"If you say so..." I felt guilt wash inside me for what I did. I get that he wasn't on our side, but I basically gave him false hope by bringing him from the brink of death, only to be put back in the water to drown.

"Mira," I looked up to Nami as she put a hand on my shoulder. "It's fine. Really. Now, come on. I think I can see the top." I let out a heavy sigh then followed her back to join up with the group.

"Whoa!" Luffy cried out once we reached the group. "We're in the clouds!" He's right. The clouds suddenly surrounded the ship, making it a bit hard to see. We were only in the clouds for a short time before we saw the sun and bright sky, as well as the top of the mountain.

"We're above the clouds!" A huge grin was plastered on Luffy's face as the summit grew ever closer. I looked over the edge of the mountain and saw that where the water sloshed over a bit, it would turn to ice almost instantly.

The water at the top had a rainbow effect going on as the sun hit the water as it reached the top. It was a beautiful sight, and quite romantic.

I hadn't noticed I had leaned into Zoro until I felt him wrap an arm lightly over me.

"It's the summit!" Nami's voice sounded giddy. "We're almost to the summit!" Our ship made it right to the top, sending water spraying up and around us. As we were suspended in place for the time being, the water splashed around us, freezing into icicles then bursting, sending mini rainbows in the sky.

I turned to face Zoro, my eyes partly shut as I stared up at him. He gazed back down at me, a soft, genuine smile in place. This moment is beautiful and perfect. The rainbows from the ice enhanced his eyes in the most glorious way. It felt like it was just the two of us at this very point in time. Nothing could ruin this. Slowly, we leaned closer to each other, our lips puckered a bit. I could feel his breath brushing against my lips as we got closer.

Yes... I thought to myself. This is how our first kiss should have gone...

Our lips were just mere inches from each other. So close... This is our time.

We were suddenly jerked back to reality as the ship landed back in the water and we started sailing at top speed back down the other side of the mountain. We grinned sheepishly at each other and stepped away from each other.

"AH! They were so close!" I jumped and cast my gaze back to the crew. They were tense with nerves and excitement. "Had we not landed at that exact moment, you two would have kissed!" Usopp exclaimed.

My face heated up and I grimaced. They were watching us the whole time! "If you'll excuse me, I gotta go hide!" I took off like a shot, embarrassment filling me. I completely forgot they were even there!

To help calm myself, I began thinking about why I was on this ship. All my life, I was seen as nothing. No one paid any attention to me. They ignored me, beat me, and treated me like trash. Since I met Luffy, I've gotten to know what true friendship is like. I got to see so many new sights and meet new people.

I set out on this ship with Luffy and Zoro to prove I was not what everyone thought I was. I came out here to prove that I am not a disgrace, that I'm not a wasted space, and to prove that I am needed somewhere, just like everyone else in the world. I came out here on this big ocean blue to find my place in the world.

Feeling more confident with myself and less embarrassed, I joined everyone else back up near the front.

My eyes widened at what I saw waiting for us at the bottom of the mountain. It looked like a whole other mountain! "What the hell is that?!"