CHAPTER 8

L: We're so sorry for the delay! We had our lives to worry about, and exams are about to kill us!

AN: Me and Lara only own our respective OC's, although I might not own the weapon design of some of them, or the specific version I'm using (This will make sense later, trust me).

As we arrived at Warship Island, all of the people that lived theret were wary of us, but Apis vouched for us and they welcomed us with open arms. Then an old man stepped from the crowd. Of course, it was Apis' grandfather, but only I knew that at least until-

"Grandpa Bokuden!" She exclaimed, running into his outstretched arms.

Well, that.

"I'm glad you're safe, precious!" He said to her happily before glancing at us. "Thank you for saving my granddaughter. I'm in your debt."

Luffy smiled goofily as his only answer, with everyone else but Koga, who only showed a small smile, imitating him.

"Would you like to stay at my house and have something to eat?"

"Grandpa's pork buns are the best on the whole island!" Apis added cheerily.

"I don't think our captain needs any more convincing..." Koga grinned and I laughed as the crew watched the raven-haired boy jump up and down in excitement, already unable to wait to grub.

And like that, we all were invited to eat something. Once at the old man's house, the delicious smell floating in the air was making Luffy drool more than usual, which led to Sanji to observe Bokuden's recipe in order to reproduce it at the Merry next time. Not that anyone of the crew was complaining; in fact, they were very eager to try them...

Sherarara! I snickered inwardly. Poor them, I knew more than I ever let on.

Bokuden put the buns in a heated basket and closed the lid with a proud smile.

"Just a little longer now." The old man commented.

"Oh boy can't wait!" Luffy was by far the most excited of them all.

"How long will we have to wait?" Sanji asked, the chef inside him taking the lead.

"Well, if I had to guess, I'd say no more than four or five hours."

"WHAT?!" Usopp and Luffy yelled in unison with shocked expressions.

I couldn't help it, I burst into laughter. "Sherararara!"

But from the corner of my eye, I noticed our chronicler shaking his head forcefully and then frown apparently annoyed by something. I stopped laughing and observed him quizzically; what had all that been about?

Seemingly ignoring their shell-shocked faces, Bokuden gestured for us to get inside the house and wait.

"They'll be ready before you know it." He added, smiling softly.

Luffy's groan was barely audible as he walked inside, all of us following suit. Once comfortable, Nami briefly explained how we met Apis and the fact that the Marines were after her.

"Bokuden, do you know why they are after Apis?" She asked, straight to the point.

"Hmmm..." The old man looked at his granddaughter. "Do you know why, Apis?"

"No sir." She shook her head. Of course I knew that was a lie, but it was useless in my opinion to let Bokuden know about that.

At that, Nami subtly looked at me in a glare that promised pain if I lied about the treasure. I only raised an eyebrow and mouthed "I'll explain later, play along." She obviously didn't trust me about that, but complied nevertheless:

"Wait a minute, earlier you said you knew but didn't tell us!" The navigator quickly improvised, her glare shifting over to Apis, an eyebrow raised in disapproval.

"Oh, uh, I lied!" Apis sweated, her face giving away her lie, but Bokuden didn't seem to notice.

I saw, once more fron the corner of my eye, Koga glare at her, arms crossed over his chest, but he kept quiet. Could it be... He caught something?

"You're kidding me!" Usopp exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing significant about this island." Bokuden explained, shrugging helplessly. "Nothing except an old legend."

Koga's head perked up in curiosity, something I noticed with interest. 'Huh, so he likes stories... The myths from my world could interest him...'

"Some say that our ancestors are descendants of people from Lost Island which sank into the sea years ago. Lost Island is the home of the Sennenryu, and their bones are called Dragonite."

Already knowing this was gonna be a long wait, I chose to just flop down and cross my hands behind my head, ready to take a small nap.

'I could tell them, but I don't think it's a good idea to reveal much in front of people outside our crew-' My thoughts cut off, as I suddenly felt something. A presence... Old. Wait. Was I sensing Ryuuji? Did all Reapers have a sensor for that kinda thing?

creak*

I looked up, jerked out of my thoughts again. I noticed that the crew (minus Koga) was already falling asleep at Bokuden's story, and Apis getting up and sneaking to the door leading to the kitchen.

'Ah, Apis is bringing food to Ryuuji.' I thought with a smirk, then raised an eyebrow at one little detail. 'And Koga is following. Well, I do want to see the Sennenryu. Dragons!'

As I got up and followed, Koga looked at me and narrowed his eyes, a bit of mistrust evident on them. I looked at him calmly, but with a bit of sadness at his mistrust mixed in. After a while, Koga sighed and then gestured for me to come along, after which I smiled gratefully at him.

Apis didn't seem to notice us at all. She went first to the kitchen, grabbing some pork buns and putting them inside a large bag. As she stood up with the bag and a huge grin on her face, she froze as she noticed a sleepy Luffy dragging his feet towards the kitchen, not noticing me and the chronicler hiding behind the door. Luffy entered the kitchen and collapsed mid-step, fast asleep.

We saw Apis deflating in relief upon being undiscovered (or so she thought) and she exited the house, dragging the sack of food behind her. Outside the house, she crawled through some bushes and began climbing a hidden trail up the mountain, Koga and I always following her a few steps behind and making sure she didn't see us when she looked back to check.

'Must have gone up here a lot, right Blue?' Ember said in my head.

'Well duh.' I thought back. 'She has to hide Ryuuji from the Marines.'

I once again "felt" Ryuuji's presence, stronger as we got near him. I saw Koga refrain himself once or twice from stopping the girl, seeing as she was obviously familiar with that pressure Ryuuji created; she showed no fear or hesitation even as she swung across a small cliff, risking breaking her neck.

'Damn, that really is brave of her. Then again, she befriended a Dragon.'

At last, we reached the top of the mountain, revealing a huge cave, dark and seemingly depthless. Koga and I hid behind one of the large rocks at the entrance and peered inside, but couldn't see a thing. Of course I already knew what dwelt inside, but it wasn't fun to spoil the surprise for Koga, was it?

"Ryuuji?" Apis called, the bag full of food being carried behind her as she entered the cave.

Ryuuji's presence drew closer. And as the creature I expected stepped out into the light...

HOLY. SHIT.

'HE'S HUGE!'

'Is that what I think it is?' Ember's tone was incredibly surprised.

I could only see part of him, but it was enough to make him look gigantic. Oda just couldn't portray the sheer size of that beast, but the fact that he tried was enough for me to bow my head in respect for that genius of an author.

'A dragon you mean? Then yes.'

Apis' sudden yell snapped me from my inner talk. She was glaring right at Koga, whom had come out of his hideout to see the dragon better, gaping and apparently in a captivated daze. Said dragon was glaring at him with a warning in his huge old-looking eyes, the already empty bag on the ground at the side of its head.

"Well, there goes our state as Hidden." I deadpanned as I got out from behind my hidding place, Apis also glaring at me then.

"You two followed me here?" The little girl asked, once recovered from the shock of seeing us here.

Koga nodded, wordlessly, wonder and surprise in his eyes.

"Yeah, Apis, we did. Sorry, I guess?" I rubbed the back of my head, acting sheepish to keep the act up.

"Oh, you've both seen him too." Apis looked at a slightly calmer Ryuuji. "Well, this is Ryuuji. And he's... well, he's a dragon. But it's okay!" She quickly added flailing her arms. "He may be big and a bit senile, but he's really nice."

"I know." Koga's calm voice finally left his throat. That surprised me, but I already knew he was right. "Nice to meet you, Ryuu. I'm Koga."

I bowed, my manners taking over. "A pleasure, Ryuuji-san. I'm Espectro."

Apis looked at me weirdly, and I realised I hadn't had the chance to tell her my name until then. Oops?

"..." The dragon observed us with his depthless dark eyes, both of us ignoring the girl's surprised expression at seeing us greet the dragon so formally.

"He... He said 'Nice to meet you too.'" She translated what Ryuu said in her head. "He said you're a good soul, despite it being so dark, Koga. And he asks if you're here for him, Espectro. What does he mean?" She looked at me with renewed suspicion.

Koga flinched, but either way he smirked afterwards and walked to the great figure lying on the ground.

After seeing my crewmate walk up to the dragon, I answered her, but as I did I never took my gaze away from Ryuu's. "He can see what I am, apparently. No, Ryuuji-san, you still have a ways to go, remember?"

She looked at me, but this time not with suspicion, but with confusion. The dragon seemed to relax slightly at my statement, but still, his depthless eyes still bore into mine with an intensity that made me fidget uncomfortably.

"Why are you looking so lonely?" The blond asked, with an uncharacteristic soft voice. That averted the old dragon's attention away from me, thankfully.

Ryuu blinked slowly as he glanced down at the writer. Apis looked at the ground when Koga and I turned to her.

"Ryuuji just wants to go home, to Lost Island." She simply answered, in a low voice. Us pirates shared a look, knowing that Lost Island sank a long time ago. "He's certain that Lost Island will reappear any day now. He just... doesn't remember where it is. I've been looking through all kinds of old texts and ancient records, but I can't find anything. The legend itself has no clues." The girl put a small hand on Ryuu's snout, caressing it gently. "So, I decided to ask the Marines for help, but all they cared about was finding Dragonite. That's why they took me away."

As she said that, I frowned. If I wasn't mistaken, there was a Marine that ate an Akuma No Mi that allowed him to create what was essentially Rankyaku with his damn nails. If everything went as planned, then we were bound to encounter him sooner or later.

"... Now I understand." Koga sighed while lifting his scarf up to his nose, covering half his face in the process. "What a pain in the ass. Now we'll have to deal with some crazy power-thirsty Marines. Just great."

"Please don't tell the others!" Apis suddenly exclaimed, joining her hands.

"Huh?" Koga and I looked at her, confused.

"It's bad enough that you know my secret, but I don't want the others to get involved in all this too. Please promise me that you'll keep this a secret!"

I snickered, attracting both their attention as I pointed with my thumb to the entrance of the cave: "Too bad, I think our captain and navigator both followed us."

Just then Apis turned around and spread her arms, back towards Ryuu, as if her small figure could hide its massive size, just when Luffy and Nami appeared at the entrance. Already knowing how our dumb captain would react to the dragon's presence, Koga and I put our hands over our ears and enjoyed the silence as Luffy freaked out over Ryuu and Nami froze at the cave's entrance– likely in fear.

"Where on earth did you come from?" Luffy asked, after calming down. A full second of silence passed as the two of them glared at each other, unmoving. "Sure, I think I understand... You want to go home, right?"

'Ah, The Voice of All Things.'

Apis gasped in surprise. "How did you do that? How did you read Ryuuji's mind like I did?"

"I think he didn't read Ryuu's mind." Koga answered, and the girl looked up at him, even more confused than before. "He's only using his empathy to communicate with the dragon. In a way, it's like me using my intuition, but I can't use it the way Luffy does. Or the way you do." He smiled down at her.

I just let him give the explanation, knowing the truth but also feeling that was a pretty accurate definition of what the Voice of All Things was.

"... It was because of my powers that I met Ryuuji."

Then Apis, with a bit of the blond's help, summarized what they both knew about the Sennenryu and the Dragonite. Meanwhile, I kept silent.

"The elixir of immortality?" Nami asked, wide-eyed. "Then I can definitely understand. Though it's pretty dangerous for a girl, you know."

"I know." Apis nodded, looking at the ground in sadness. "That's why I've kept it a secret. But I have to get Ryuuji back home, no matter what. It's the only way he'll get his strength back."

I frowned, but still kept quiet. I couldn't tell her about why Ryuu wanted to get to Lost Island. It would devastate her, and would even dissuade her from bringing him to Lost Island. And as painful as it was, Ryuu needed to go there.

Before his last moments.

"Alright then!" Luffy then exclaimed, bringing me out of my somber thoughts. "We'll take him home!"

Koga smirked and I nodded in agreement, but Nami had another opinion.

"Idiot, we can't take him home! Lost Island sank!"

I looked at her, smiling knowing Luffy's answer.

"But this is a Sennenryu! If he exists, then Lost Island exists too!"

At this, I put my arm around her shoulder.

"Well, he IS right, you know?" She looked at me in surprise, and Luffy grinned at me, seemingly okay with me confirming that.

"Wow, you used your brain to find it out." The chronicler looked at Luffy, apparently impressed by his display. "It's true; we can assume Lost Island exists with Ryuu standing here right in front of our noses."

Nami looked between us, flabbergasted, then she sighed at our unwavering expressions, seeing that she was unable to change her idiot captain's mind. "Well, once the captain makes up his mind, there's not stopping him. I'm in."

"Really?" Apis' big brown eyes glared at the four of us in wonder and hope. "You'll take him?"

"Of course we will!" Luffy nodded, a huge grin on his face.

"Yeah, Apis, we promise." I nodded with a grin on my own.

"You'll need strong people to move this mole." The blond smirked to clarify he was only joking. "And besides, I'm pretty interested in writing about this. Not everyday can someone declare he had seen a living legend."

"Thank you!" The little girl hugged every one of us, beaming all the way. She barely could reach my waist, but I happily helped her in hugging me. Koga seemed slightly uncomfortable, but accepted the hug nonetheless.

A few hours later, when the rest of the crew finally arrived, we presented Ryuu to them –and getting the expected reactions. Luffy and Nami both explained his relationship with Apis, her Devil Fruit powers and the Marines' involvement in all that mess. Zoro and Sanji agreed with the plan of bringing Ryuu home fully –the former because of the perspective of a good fight and the latter to protect Apis– whereas Usopp took a bit more of convincing; I solved by telling him that a true adventurer helping a dragon would give him a great tale to tell.

After getting Usopp's head out of Ryuu's mouth –apparently, the dragon had mistaken his head for food– I started explained that, even having a good plan, the Marines wouldn't make things easy. They had been setting out a blockade and were searching for all of us, specially Apis. It was going to be difficult getting out of the island, let alone with a giant dragon that could barely move at all.

"But how are we supposed to get a giant dragon onto the Going Merry?" Usopp asked with a huge question mark over his head.

"We don't need to get it onto the ship." Koga intervened, scratching his stubble in what assumed was his thinking gesture.

"We can just carry it in a cart." I said, smiling at our resident tinkerer. "Mr Handyman over here definitely can do it."

"Exactly!" Nami agreed, nodding at me. "We'll build a cart, one big enough for Ryuuji. So everyone, let's get to work!"

"AYE!"

Making the cart went rather quickly, considering how skillful Usopp was in creating a blueprint for the cart. Zoro and Koga were put to cut logs and Sanji, Luffy and I to carry and put them according to Nami's and Usopp's directions. We all worked swiftly and without a rest, until an hour later we finished building the cart.

Apis' eyes shone in admiration at our masterwork.

"It's so sturdy!" She exclaimed. "Not even Ryuuji could break it!"

Usopp smiled with pride evident on his features, although he was left wheezing after I patted him on the back with a bit too much strength.

"This is only the easiest part." Koga said, wiping the sweat off his forehead with his arm. "Now, how are we gonna get this cart with Ryuu on it to the Merry without the Marines noticing us?"

"I suggest attacking them." Zoro raised a hand, but Nami bonked his head.

"That won't work with a giant dragon with us you idiot!" She screeched, before clearing her throat and looking at the rest of the crew. "Stealth's gonna be important here, so one of us will have to get the harbor, sneak aboard the Merry and sail it to the rear of the island."

"Well, since my good friend Kaya gave us the ship, I should be the one to go." Usopp, puffing out his chest, stepped forward. "Buuuut..." He suddenly pointed at Koga and me with a jamming finger. "Koga and Espectro are going with me!"

The chronicler deadpanned at him -"What?"- while I nodded, grinning. "Sure, why not?"

"Well, that's fine by me." Nami shrugged, being imitated by everyone else in the crew...

"What the hell guys...?" The young man groaned in defeat, ruffling his blond hair with a hand.

"Alright, we leave by nightfall!" Said Ussop, obviously glad he wouldn't be going alone.

"No, now! We're running out of time!" Nami screamed at him, making him take cover behind me with a yelp. "Bring the ship to the edge of that cape, the one that looks like your nose."

Luffy and I burst out in laughter while the others smirked, as Usopp sweatdropped at the comparison. To be honest, it did look like his nose alright.

"Alright... But how are you gonna–?"

"Leave that to me. In the meantime, you three get moving!" Nami interrupted him, shoving us all towards the position of the ship.

"You know, for a navigator you sure give a lot of orders!" Usopp complained while beginning to run to the harbor.

"Don't screw it up while we're gone." Koga nodded at the rest of the crew as he followed the sharpshooter, with me hot on his heels.

"We're not like you, you shitty eye-freak!" We barely heard Sanji's response.

The chronicler quickly surpassed me and Ussop in running, risking our necks but more worried about getting to the harbor before the Marines –and without being noticed by them too.

In the end we reached the harbor safely and without any incidents or witnesses, but our luck disappeared when we noticed the Merry in the harbor, guarded by four Marines. Actually, it was Koga who noticed them first, so he had to grab Usopp by the back of his overall and drag him backwards, the three of us hiding behind some barrels.

"This is why I wanted to go at nightfall!" Usopp moaned as he peeked out from behind the barrel.

Quick as lightning, Koga put a hand over the long-nosed teen's mouth, eyes narrowed as he observed the Marines. I already knew that those Marines were posted here by orders of some commodore named Nelson Royale, but it still confused me why no one wanted to ask me questions.

"Okay, here's the plan." He murmured, dropping his hand off Usopp's mouth and turning towards both of us. This was the first time I ever saw him so serious, and I somehow felt a bit intimidated by how his strange eyes shone. "I'll take those four down."

"Okay!" The long-nosed teen nodded enthusiastically, relieved that he wasn't going to fight. But the chronicler hadn't finished speaking just yet.

"You twocover my back in case there are more Marines in the area." And ignoring Usopp's wailings, he drew out Sankaoken out of his hilt. Before he engaged them however, I grabbed his arm and stopped him; the writer swirled to glare at me, and I quickly let go of him. He already didn't trust me enough as it was.

"I'll help you out. Haven't been able to do much so far." I prepared myself besides him, getting ready to go. His eyes narrowed, but there wasn't any time to waste, and we both knew it. He nodded curtly, counting with his fingers down from three, and we dashed towards the four unsuspecting Marines.

As we ran, I swear I heard him mutter something under his breath, and suddenly I saw him blur and quickly reach the Marines, taking them down swiftly with the flat of his blade. I stopped on my tracks, thinking he didn't need my help, but then I saw him stagger... before suddenly cutting of the head of one of them with a savage swing of his rusty blade.

"HEY!" I shoved him back as soon as Koga stopped being a blur, anger making my blood boil; as if in a daze, he let me push him enough to make him sit on the ground. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, KO-?!"

I suddenly went quiet, my sight snapping instantly to the decapitated Marine, a feeling of wrongness washing over me.

A spectral figure was standing over the corpse, looking down at Koga with rage in his eyes, as a dark sustance started covering him. I felt cold inside, as the ghost became almost unrecognizable with all the black goo covering it.

"YOU! YOU KILLED ME!" It lunged at Koga, who seemingly didn't notice it, still sitting on the ground. Acting faster than I thought possible, I stepped between them and punched at the figure, who didn't have time to block or avoid an earsplitting screech, itt blasted into chunks, which melted in flames... before disappearing completely.

I let out a breath, horrified and scared in equal measures. What the fucking hell had been that?! Was that what I was supposed to fight here? That kind of... gooey ghosts?

"Koga, Espectro!" I swirled around in a panic to see Usopp run over to us. He bent down to Koga's side and eyed him in concern. "Are you two alright?"

"Y-yeah... I..." Koga, his tan face pale as a sheet, looked over at the decapitated Marine before looking aside. "I'll be."

"And you, Espectro?" He looked up at me... or rather at my back. I couldn't bring myself to turn around and keep my cool without snapping at Koga. "Why did you punch the air?"

"I didn't punch the- You know what, nevermind." I snapped, angrily shaking my fists. "Let's just... meet with the others."

And with that, I got aboard the Merry, not waiting for the other two. I intended to have a really serious conversation with Koga about what happened today, I promised myself grimly... but I did feel a pang of guilt when I saw the writer being supported by Usopp. He soon let go, but I did see him with what seemed doubt and anger at himself.

Working quickly, we raised the anchor and released the sails, the Merry quickly leaving harbor thanks to a sudden gust of wind that we could catch in time. But we were a bit too fast, and I suddenly a large Marine ship heading towards them from the blockade, ready to cut our path!

"No, we're gonna crash!" Usopp yelled in fright from the helm.

"I'll get the tiller! Espectro, help me!" Koga exclaimed, rushing towards it and forcefully pulling on it. All I could do was grit my teeth as I ran over to him and helped him with the tiller. We all got knocked to the ground when we collided with the Marine ship on the side, but sprung back up and recovering our grip on the tiller, pulling as hard as our arms could.

The Merry's side scraped against the side of the Marine ship, before another gust of wind let us take off around the island. Behind us, loud alarms blasted as the Marine ships hurried to follow after our tails, with little success; against those giant ships, our own little caravel was way faster than theirs, and the wind were on our side.

Usopp looked out from the railing as the blockade began vanishing from their sights and sighed in relief, before laughing triumphantly. "We did it! We made it through alive!"

The blond young man also let out a sigh, but his eyebrows were still furrowed. I glared at him, still pissed at what transpired earlier, but we had some things on our hands before talking about that.

"There's a Marine ship behind us!"

Usopp's sudden yell brought us back to the present as we were reminded that we weren't safe yet.

"Usopp, man the rudder! Espectro, help me again with the sails!"

"Uh, yeah!"

Leaving the sharpshooter with the rudder, he jumped over the railing and rushed towards the sails, catching a rope and pulled it left as hard as he could. I did the same with another of the ropes, yanking at hard as I could. We felt a sudden yank in response as the sails suddenly inflated even more, Merry gaining speed quickly; however, even being as enormous as a whale, the Marine ship was catching up on us at an alarming speed. I looked back in frustration; it wasn't like this in the anime! We had to get out somehow-!

"That's the cape!" Koga exclaimed suddenly.

Both Usopp and my heads whipped around to see the rendezvous point just a few minutes away from us. I breathed in relief and Usopp got a hopeful expression on his face as he found the cape but then frowned in confusion.

"But how the hell are they going to bring that giant cart down here with a dragon on it?" He wondered almost to himself.

Koga also frowned, apparently having the same thoughts. I just smiled to myself, knowing what was to come.

Rumble rumble rumble

'And there they are...'

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE

I looked up at the cape, the thunderous noise getting closer by the second. Until...

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!

"YAHOOOO!"

I laughed with all my might, Usopp's jaw dropped to the ground and Koga's eyes widened until they seemed dinner plates when we saw the gigantic cart they built for Ryuu zooming down towards the cape at an enormous speed; the dragon was on the cart, and five other people were on top of its body, holding for dear life with the rubbery idiot laughing. The cart flew over the Marine ship behind the Merry, snapping its mast in half in the process before skidding to a halt in the middle of the ocean.

The sharpshooter sighed in relief upon seeing the cart survived that fall.

"... Better get over there." Koga commented, also recovered from the surprise.

"Yeah." Usopp and I agreed, me with a smile and still trying to keep my laughter in.