Nami, however, was already doing math in her head, and it wasn't adding up. "Hold on, Luffy! Wait just a second! That's a Millennium Dragon! It's the size of a battleship! We're in a cave! How, exactly, do you plan on getting him from here," she jabbed a finger at the dragon, "to there," she jabbed a finger at the cave's tiny, waterfall-covered entrance, "and onto the Going Merry?!"
The entire crew froze. They turned and looked at Ryu. Then they looked at the hole. Then back at Ryu.
"Oh," Luffy said, blinking. "I didn't think of that."
"I have a plan!" Usopp announced, puffing his chest. "The Great Captain Usopp's 'Ultra-Dragon-Moving-System'!" He unrolled a blueprint he'd clearly drawn in thirty seconds. "We get... a thousand logs... and roll him! It's foolproof!"
Zoro, who had been leaning against a stalagmite, opened one eye. "Idiot. I'll just cut a bigger hole in the island."
"YOU'LL SINK US ALL, YOU MARIMO-FOR-BRAINS!" Sanji roared, his leg already raised for a kick.
"WHAT'D YOU SAY, DART-BROW?!"
As the two squared off, Luffy stretched his cheek. "No, no, I got it! I'll just wrap my arms around him... Gomu Gomu no... Dragon... Pull!" He stretched his arms, wrapping them around Ryu's massive neck, and pulled.
Luffy's body stretched... and stretched... and stretched. He became a long, rubbery rope, his face getting smaller and smaller in the distance. He pulled so hard that his sandals smoked, his face turning a deep purple.
"IT'S... NOT... BUDGING!" he wheezed. Then, his grip slipped.
TWAAAAAAAAANG!
Luffy's arms snapped back like a broken guitar string. He rocketed backward, screaming, and slammed into the far wall of the cave with a THWACK that sounded like a cannonball hitting a pillow. He peeled off the wall, a small puff of steam rising from his head.
"...See? Almost had him," he mumbled, his voice wobbly.
Ben, who had been watching this display of catastrophic incompetence with a look of cosmic weariness, finally pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Enough."
The single word cut through the chaos. He stepped forward, the Elder Wand appearing in his hand as if from nowhere. The ambient magical energy in the cave, thick with Ryu's ancient life force, made the wand hum audibly.
"You," he pointed at Luffy, "are an imbecile. You," he pointed at Zoro, "will not cut the island. You," he pointed at Sanji, "will stop trying to kick the swordsman."
He turned to the massive dragon. "Alright, Apis, tell Ryu this might feel... strange."
"What are you doing?" Nami asked, her eyes wide.
"I am a wizard," Ben muttered, his white hair seeming to lift in an unfelt breeze. "And I have been reduced to a magical tow-truck for a crew of hyperactive, rubber-brained lunatics. Stand back. All of you."
Ben raised the Elder Wand. He wasn't just casting a spell; he was commanding reality. He focused his mind, his magic, and the very essence of his will onto the multi-ton creature.
"WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!"
He didn't just whisper it; he roared it.
A wave of visible, blue-white energy exploded from the wand, enveloping the dragon. Nothing happened.
Ryu remained on the sand, unmoving.
"Hah! Even the magic-man can't do it!" Usopp whispered.
Ben's jaw tightened. "Oh, no you don't..." The dragon wasn't just heavy in body; it was heavy in age, in time. He needed more.
"EVERYONE!" Ben shouted, his arms shaking from the strain. "I can't lift him, but I can make him weightless! I NEED YOU TO PUSH! NOW!"
A faint, silver aura surrounded Ryu. The great beast groaned, but this time, when Luffy pushed him, he slid.
"IT'S WORKING!" Luffy yelled. "PUSH, GUYS! PUSH!"
What followed was the most ridiculous, pathetic, and heroic evacuation in pirate history. Luffy was in front, his feet planted, pulling. Sanji and Zoro, for once not fighting, were on one side, their shoulders braced against the scaly hide, muscles straining. Usopp was "directing" from the back, which mostly involved screaming and pushing a tail feather. Nami and Apis were clearing rocks from the path.
And Ben... Ben was walking backward, his wand held high, sweat beading on his forehead, his face a mask of pure concentration, muttering, "Don't... drop... the... dragon. Don't... drop... the... dragon..."
They slid Ryu out of the cave, through the waterfall (which resulted in a lot of sputtering), and onto the hidden beach.
"Okay," Nami panted, soaked. "He's on the beach. The Merry is in the cove. How do we get him... into the water?"
Luffy's eyes lit up. "I have an idea!"
"NO!" everyone shouted at once.
"Ben," Nami said, turning to the wizard. "Can you... keep levitating?"
Ben looked at the ocean. He looked at the Merry. He looked at the sky. He let out a sigh that seemed to carry the weight of all his reincarnated knowledge.
"Zoro. Sanji. Get in the water. Nami, you're at the helm of the Merry. Usopp, get the ropes. Luffy... for the love of magic, just stay still."
He raised his wand again. "AQUA-ERUCTO!"
A controlled, powerful geyser of water erupted behind Ryu, and with the Wingardium Leviosa still active, the Sennenryu was launched into the cove like a giant, scaly, and deeply confused torpedo.
He landed with a SPLASH that sent a wave over the Merry's deck, drenching Usopp.
"He's in!" Apis cheered, crying with joy.
"He's in," Ben panted, slumping against a palm tree, his magic reserves dangerously low. "Now... someone... carry me to the ship."
"This is the stupidest, most impossible, most irresponsible thing we have ever done!" Nami raged, stomping on the deck. The Going Merry, with a very large, very old dragon being towed behind it by enchanted ropes, was now sailing into open, unknown waters.
"Where are we even going?!" Nami demanded.
Apis, who was sitting on Ryu's head (who was now happily floating), relayed the information. "Ryu says we have to go... west."
"West! Good! Finally!" Nami spun the helm. "West it is!"
"...west," Apis continued, "of the feeling of... home."
Nami's hands froze on the wheel. "...What?"
"He says you have to sail toward the sunset, but only on a Tuesday, and think of... pickles?"
"PICKLES?!" Nami screamed, her eye twitching. "HE WANTS ME TO NAVIGATE BASED ON A FEELING AND A CONDIMENT?! I CAN'T PLOT A COURSE ON POETRY, YOU STUPID LIZARD!"
Ryu, hearing the commotion, let out a sad, low-pitched moan.
"Nami! You made him sad!" Luffy pouted. "Apologize to the dragon!"
"I WILL NOT! HE'S GIVING ME NONSENSE!"
"Perhaps I can assist," Ben said, emerging from the galley with a cup of tea, having mostly recovered. He walked to the bow, the sea breeze catching his white hair.
"My knowledge is vast, but this world's geography is... chaotic. Let's try a classic." He raised the Elder Wand. "Point me... to the Dragon's Nest."
The wand trembled in his hand. It spun, slowly at first, then faster and faster, a blur of elder wood. It spun so fast it made a high-pitched whirring sound.
Then it stopped, pointing...
Straight.
Down.
The crew stared at the wand.
"Well," Ben said, tapping the wand against his chin. "That's... problematic."
Usopp's face went a pale, sickly green. "DOWN?! AS IN... UNDER US?! WE'RE SAILING ON TOP OF THE DRAGON'S NEST?! ARE WE GOING TO HELL?! I'm too young and handsome to go to hell! My 'I'm-allergic-to-Hell' disease is acting up!"
Apis, listening intently to Ryu, suddenly perked up. "No, no! Ryu says the wizard is right! The memory of the nest is beneath the world... but the path... the path is above the... rainbow!"
Nami buried her face in her hands. "I quit. I'm done. I'm retiring. I'm going back to Cocoyasi to grow tangerines. I'm surrounded by morons, metaphors, and a wizard whose compass points to hell."
"A rainbow!" Luffy cheered. "A rainbow adventure! I bet it tastes like candy! Shishishi!"
And so, for three days, they sailed, following Apis's vague, feeling-based directions and looking for a rainbow. Luffy tried to "help" navigate, which resulted in him trying to steer them toward a pod of brightly colored dolphins ("They look like a rainbow, Nami!"). Zoro got lost, again, and was found by Sanji taking a nap in the Merry's (now magically expanded) anchor locker.
"MOSS-HEAD! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE ON LOOKOUT, NOT IMITATING A PILE OF RUSTY CHAINS!"
"I was... training my senses... shut up, ero-cook..."
On the third day, a storm hit. A bad one. But as the black clouds parted, a massive, shimmering, double rainbow tore across the sky. It was so bright, so vibrant, it looked painted on the world.
"That's it!" Apis shrieked, pointing. "Ryu says that's the gate!"
"It's just light, Apis," Nami sighed, her voice weary. "You can't sail into a rainbow."
"Ben! Can we?" Luffy asked, his eyes sparkling.
Ben was at the bow, his wand out, a strange, analytical smile on his face. "It's... not just light, Nami. Look." He held up a magically conjured prism. "The light... it's bending wrong. It's not refracting; it's projecting. It's not a rainbow. It's an illusion. A barrier. Full speed ahead!"
"YOU'RE ALL INSANE!" Nami screamed, but she held the course.
The Going Merry sailed toward the rainbow. As they got closer, it didn't fade. It got brighter, more solid, until it looked like a wall of pulsating, liquid color.
"BRACE YOURSELVES!" Ben yelled.
They hit the barrier.
For a second, there was no sound. All color, light, and sensation vanished, replaced by a thick, velvety blackness. Then, with a pop like a cork leaving a bottle, they burst through.