Alvida was clearly startled by what was happening to her.
She flailed her arms, feeling like she was about to drown. The sensation was terrifying, she couldn't even float, let alone swim. Her body was sinking like a stone, and in her panic, she forgot two crucial things: deactivating her Devil Fruit ability and actually breathing.
Everything happened too fast. Her heart was pounding wildly.
Am I really going to drown here?
Then a pair of hands caught her. A familiar voice reached her ears even through the water.
"Cancel your ability. That'll fix everything."
Snapping back to her senses, Alvida deactivated her Slip-Slip Fruit power. Immediately, the helpless falling sensation disappeared. Her panic faded as her body remembered how to float.
She took a deep breath, even underwater, the Respiration enchantment meant she didn't choke when she inhaled.
Once she'd calmed down enough to think clearly, she looked at Marcus. Her heart was still pounding, but now for an entirely different reason.
The so-called suspension bridge effect was definitely messing with her head right now. That phenomenon where your brain confuses fear and attraction because they both trigger the same physical responses.
"That feeling just now, when your whole body went slippery, that's what I was talking about with zero friction. Try keeping just your legs in normal state and activate the power on the rest of your body. See how that feels."
Alvida calmed down.
This time, she carefully reactivated her ability while keeping her legs normal. The difference was immediate, she could actually control her movement through the water now, using her legs for propulsion while her upper body slipped through the water with almost no resistance.
Then she looked up at Marcus with a puzzled expression. "How did you manage to grab me when my whole body was slippery? So how could you hold on?"
"Haki."
"Alright, let me go. I want to try moving around properly."
Seeing Alvida's mood suddenly turn gloomy, Marcus was confused. Had he said something wrong?
Women's hearts are deeper than the ocean, he thought to himself with an internal sigh.
The instant he released her, Alvida shot forward through the water like a torpedo. Her sudden burst of speed made Marcus click his tongue.
When someone's physical power grew strong enough, the real limiting factor became air resistance. Or in this case, water resistance. That was one of the reasons the Slip-Slip Fruit felt so incredibly powerful to him. It completely bypassed one of the limitations on speed.
To put it in simple terms: when a fighter jet breaks the sound barrier and goes supersonic, the amount of thrust needed doesn't scale linearly. If breaking Mach 1 requires a power output of "1," then reaching Mach 2 might require a power output of "10." Each additional Mach number demanded exponentially more force to overcome increasing air resistance.
But Alvida's Slip-Slip Fruit was an exception to that rule. She didn't have to worry about friction or resistance at all. She could exert 100% of her physical strength at any speed without losing efficiency. The only real limitation was whether her body could handle the forces involved.
Alvida streaked through the water, her speed actually exceeding what she could achieve on land. The lack of friction meant every ounce of force she generated went directly into forward momentum. In an instant, she'd become the fastest underwater fighter on the entire ship.
Even the strongest fishmen would struggle to react to her movements at this speed.
As she darted around the ocean depths, executing sharp turns and sudden accelerations, her earlier gloomy mood gradually lifted. The sheer joy of movement pushed aside her complicated feelings about still not being able to awaken Haki.
With a leap, she burst out of the water and landed steadily on the deck.
"That felt incredible."
Her body was completely dry, not a single drop of water clung to her skin or clothes. She still looked perfectly put together, like she'd just stepped out of a beauty salon rather than the ocean.
The crew members on deck stared in amazement at the demonstration.
For a moment, several of them looked eager to experiment with their own abilities underwater. But their enthusiasm was quickly cut short by an irritated voice.
"Have you guys played around enough already?! I told you to salvage the wreck, not mess around down there!"
Everyone instinctively shrank their necks at Nami's tone, like students caught goofing off by a strict teacher.
To understand why she was so annoyed, we have to rewind about half an hour.
When the crew had first reached this particular stretch of ocean, the Going Merry had come to a complete stop, not because there was no wind, but because the Log Pose had stopped pointing forward.
The needle was pointing straight up toward the sky instead.
She had been staring at the Log Pose in confusion, wondering if the navigation tool had somehow malfunctioned, when a massive shipwreck had fallen from above, literally dropping out of the clear blue sky, and nearly crashed directly onto their ship.
They'd managed to avoid disaster by mere meters, everyone scrambling to steer the Merry out of the way as tons of waterlogged wood and metal splashed into the ocean beside them.
That's why she had decided they needed to salvage the wreckage and investigate. She needed to figure out why ships were falling from the sky, and whether the Log Pose was broken or if their next destination was located above the clouds somehow.
That had been the perfect opportunity for Marcus to explain and demonstrate the effects of the Luck of the Sea and Respiration enchantments he'd applied to everyone's gear. And since he had the energy to spare, his EMC reserves had been overflowing ever since completing the Void Domain project, he'd thrown in the Riptide enchantment as well for good measure.
Which had led to everyone getting distracted by testing their new underwater capabilities instead of doing the salvage work.
Now, back in the present, the crew was gradually getting back to the task at hand.
Goliath sighed quietly on the deck.
As a construct made entirely of iron, he didn't need to worry about breathing, he didn't even need to breathe at all. But the problem was that once he entered the water, he couldn't float. His body was too dense. If he fell in, he'd have to walk along the ocean floor all the way to the next island, which could take weeks or even months depending on the currents and terrain.
So after thinking it through, he'd decided to stay on deck.
Watching the others having fun below the surface, he couldn't help feeling a little envious of their organic bodies.
With Respiration and Riptide enchantments, the crew didn't even need air tanks or diving equipment. If anyone started feeling suffocated or uncomfortable, they could just use Soru to rocket back to the surface in three or four seconds flat.
The ship they were salvaging turned out to be decorated with expensive noble ornaments and fine craftsmanship. It clearly wasn't a pirate vessel, but rather some kind of aristocratic trading ship, or perhaps a royal escort vessel that had been carrying someone important.
Marcus swam into what appeared to have been the women's quarters, carefully navigating through the corridors.
After a few minutes of searching through debris, he found the photograph that had been circulating wildly in online discussions about the anime, the one that had sparked so many fan theories.
It showed a woman who bore a striking resemblance to Vivi's mother.
But when Marcus picked it up and examined it closely through the murky water, he dismissed that popular theory. The woman in the photo did have the clothing style and jewelry typical of Arabasta nobility, but she clearly wasn't Vivi's mother. More likely, she was some noblewoman from Arabasta's past, perhaps from a generation or two before.
Still, he decided to keep the photo to show Vivi later. Maybe she'd recognize the woman or know something about when and how this ship had disappeared.
Just then, Luffy's excited voice carried through the water from the adjacent room.
"I found it! A Sky Island map! Sky Island really does exist!"
Marcus turned to see Luffy swimming over, holding what looked like an almost unrecognizable piece of parchment. But the excitement on his captain's face said it all.
---
Once everyone had climbed back aboard the Going Merry, they gathered around Nami in a loose semicircle.
"So this is the Sky Island map?"
The parchment was soaking wet, and much of the fine detail had been washed away or smudged beyond recognition. But the basic outline and the distinctive cloud-like drawings were still clearly visible, depicting what looked like islands floating in the sky.
The "Men's Romance Brigade" were huddled together in excitement. But Nami quickly dumped cold water on their enthusiasm.
"The problem is," she said, holding up the soggy map with a skeptical expression, "even if we've proven that Sky Island exists, how exactly do we get up there? Do we just... sprout wings and fly?"
The others fell into silence.
But then the brigade all turned their heads in unison to look at Kira.
She instinctively shook her head before anyone could even ask. "I could carry a few people. But there's no way I can lift Goliath."
Even though her Devil Fruit let her transform into a bird, her carrying capacity had limits. She could manage maybe five normal-sized people for short distances, but for a long-duration flight to reach some island in the sky? Her stamina wouldn't hold up. And trying to carry too much weight would make it impossible to even take off in the first place.
Besides, they couldn't exactly abandon the Going Merry and fly away. The ship was their home.
The previously enthusiastic atmosphere deflated.
Just then, a sound drifted across the water. The banging of drums and gongs were getting louder.
Everyone turned to look. In the distance, a ship was approaching, its figurehead was shaped like a gorilla. The vessel was making quite the racket.
Curious stares followed the strange ship as it passed nearby, though nobody seemed concerned about it.
Marcus noticed it too, but didn't pay much attention. Instead, he walked over to where Vivi was standing near the railing, photograph in hand.
"Do you recognize this person?"
Vivi snapped out of her thoughts at Marcus' voice. She turned to look at the photo he was holding out, and reached for it, studying the image carefully from multiple angles. But nothing about the woman in the picture seemed familiar. If she had to say anything, maybe there was a slight resemblance to her mother. But it was vague at best.
"Where did you find this? On that sunken ship?"
Marcus nodded.
Vivi thought for a moment. "Probably some noblewoman from Arabasta's history. But not anyone famous or important enough to be in the major historical records."
That matched Marcus' own guess from earlier.
"If we could return to Arabasta, I might be able to search through my family's archives. We keep pretty detailed genealogical records going back centuries."
Marcus considered telling her about his ability to create Nether Portals that could be linked to places they'd already been, like Drum Kingdom or Arabasta. But he held back. The fewer people who knew about that particular ability, the better. Besides, it would kind of ruin the whole spirit of adventure if they could just fast-travel everywhere. That sense of journey and discovery was something he wanted to preserve. Call it his one selfish indulgence.
At that moment, Robin emerged from below deck where she'd been examining her findings. She'd gone down into the shipwreck earlier while everyone else had been testing their underwater abilities. After all, history and ancient ruins were what truly fascinated her, and a two-hundred-year-old sunken ship was essentially a floating archaeological site.
She was carrying a skull in her hands as she approached Marcus and Vivi.
"This should be from a royal escort vessel from the South Blue, dating back to around the year 208 in the Sea Circle Calendar."
"What?" Both Marcus and Vivi looked surprised.
Robin pulled a water-damaged book from inside her coat.
"Two hundred years ago, maritime technology wasn't as advanced as it is today. Member nations of the World Government who wanted to reach Mary Geoise had two main options. The first was to cross Reverse Mountain, sail through the Grand Line, and eventually reach Sabaody Archipelago before proceeding to the Holy Land. The second method involved coating technology to pass through the Calm Belt directly, but the South Blue clearly didn't have access to that technology at the time."
"The South Blue..." Vivi murmured, looking down at the photograph in her hands with a strange expression.
"If I'm not mistaken," Robin continued with a faint smile, "the ship's captain married a woman from Arabasta. This logbook contains autobiographical entries from him. And look here..." she pointed to a passage in the deteriorating book. "There's mention of a craniotomy performed in Drum Kingdom, where medical science was already quite advanced for that era. Unfortunately, it seems they encountered some catastrophic event. The entries mention reaching Sky Island and living there for a period of time, but... whatever happened after that isn't recorded. The journal ends abruptly."
She summarized the contents she'd been able to decipher from the damaged logbook.
Marcus fell into thought. Over two hundred years ago, this ship had somehow reached Sky Island. But clearly it wasn't thrown up there by one of those knock-up streams, it must have reached Sky Island through some established, proper route.
He found himself curious about what that "proper route" actually was. Could it have involved some early form of bubble technology? Maybe there were sky currents that people used to know about but had been forgotten over time?
Unfortunately, even though he'd watched the anime and knew the general plot, he hadn't discovered any additional clues since arriving in this world. The One Piece world had terrible information flow, though that might just be because pirates lived such isolated lives, cut off from regular news except for what they could read in newspapers.
The storyline seemed to be unfolding almost exactly like it had in the original series, with only minor variations.
However, because he had the Luck of the Sea and Respiration enchantments, anything valuable from the shipwreck had already been salvaged, and they'd completely missed encountering the Saruyama Alliance. Yet as if guided by fate itself, or perhaps because certain individuals were fixed points in the story's narrative, someone very similar to those characters had still managed to cross paths with Luffy.
He couldn't help but marvel at the mysterious way the story seemed to correct itself.
But soon enough, he stopped overthinking it. If the story continued to follow the original path, that was actually what he wanted. It meant predictability.
More importantly, it meant meeting Blackbeard.
If they really clashed here, could they win?
And if they did win, what would happen then? Would the Summit War change because of his interference? Blackbeard was meant to be one of the final villains. If he altered Blackbeard's destiny here, how much experience would he gain from changing the story?
Of course, there was also a part of him that simply wanted to test himself. To see how far he'd come.
With the Shichiseiken in his possession and his enhancements, his power level was approaching that of the World's Strongest Swordsman, at least when using his strength-boosting potions.
Simply put, he had grown confident. Maybe even a little cocky.
As if sensing his rising battle intent, the Shichiseiken began emitting a faint ghostly aura. The cursed blade was eager for combat.
---
Jaya, Mock Town.
The port town was a pirate haven if there ever was one. Naturally, a place like this existed under someone's protection, and that someone was none other than Donquixote Doflamingo, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
Because of that connection, while pirates often caused trouble and brawled in the streets, the town maintained a peculiar balance. Nobody would attack the local shopkeepers who provided essential services, and when things got broken during fights, the pirates would pay for damages.
The moment they docked at the port, Marcus could feel it, countless hostile gazes locked onto him and the crew. On his minimap, numerous red dots flickered into existence.
Clearly, this island was packed with villains and ne'er-do-wells.
His lips curled into a slight smile. One of the ways he gained experience in this world was simple: defeat enemies. And there were so many potential sources of experience points surrounding him right now.
However, he wouldn't attack random people unless they struck first, no matter how hostile their intentions.
But that didn't mean he had to look weak or vulnerable.
He deliberately adopted an arrogant posture, his eyes scanning the crowd with a challenging expression. His body language screamed: "I'm here. If you want trouble, come and get it."
Ironically, his brazen attitude discouraged most of the pirates from picking a fight. Anyone who could stand so fearlessly before this many dangerous criminals, looking like he didn't have a care in the world, clearly had real strength backing up that confidence. The small-fry pirates naturally backed down, turning their attention elsewhere.
Watching the hostile intent actually decrease as people assessed him and decided he wasn't worth the risk, he could only sigh.
Here he was, begging for a fight, and everyone was too smart to take the bait.