12 Grand Line!

After having eaten their dinner, the three of them went outside to the deck to relax while having the sun shining upon them.

Jiutian, Izan and Nojiko were chatting about casual things as they were drinking refreshments for hours upon hours. The sky darkened, and rain started falling down heavily.

Izan glanced towards where they were headed to and saw a humongous shadow in the horizon.

"That's the Reverse Mountain." Jiutian spoke while walking towards Izan. Even if it was raining, Jiutian didn't seem to mind it that much.

Nojiko was shivering slightly because of the cold, but the excitement was keeping her warm as she was standing beside Izan and Jiutian while staring at the mountain in front of them in awe.

Even Izan was staring at the mountain with awe as he would have never thought that the Reverse Mountain would be that enormous and having a threatening feeling to it.

"Hahaha, this is just perfect." Izan started laughing heartily as he gazed upon the water being pulled up the mountain. "Jiutian, the coordinates are set, right?" Izan asked with a joyful voice as he continued watching the mountain.

"Of course." Jiutian replied and smiled as she could see that Izan was really happy about seeing the Reverse Mountain.

"Do we need to hold onto something…?" Nojiko hesitated slightly but asked in the end. Even if she was awed by the sight, she knew that the Reverse Mountain had wrecked many ships in the process of them being pulled upwards.

Jiutian turned towards Nojiko before gesturing to look behind her.

Nojiko nodded and turned around. What greeted Nojiko was a sunchair with a seat belt and an umbrella over it to shield rain away. Nojiko was dumb-stuck for a moment before not knowing what to do.

"Don't worry, this will protect you and ensure that you will have an amazing sight while we're going upwards this stream." Jiutian laughed in a low voice as she turned towards Izan, watching him with passion filled eyes.

"Izan, don't you want a seat too?" Jiutian asked, yet she knew Izan's answer before she even asked.

Izan shook his head softly while still smiling. "I would like to stand here." That was all Izan was able to say as he was enjoying the rain hitting him and the sight of Reverse Mountain.

Izan felt something welling up inside of him and the ordeal of was beginning to let Izan feel free while wanting to let out everything inside of him out. A peaceful expression appeared on Izan's face as he continued watching the ship nearing the Reverse Mountain. Izan stood there firmly, even the large waves wasn't able to move Izan one inch in any kind of direction.

Nojiko and Jiutian were able to sense that Izan was having a rare change in what he usually shows. None of them spoke for quite a while until Jiutian stepped forward, standing shoulder to shoulder with Izan.

"Izan. As you said to that marine captain, this is only your beginning. The path that you want to reach is still far away, but do not worry. Nojiko and I will stand by your side." Jiutian whispered in a low voice as she watched the ship nearing the Reverse Mountain.

Izan hesitated for a brief moment before nodding and letting out a small smile on his face.

The two of them stayed quiet before sensing someone else nearing them.

"Woah, this is surely a nice view." Nojiko said with a grin as she stood at the opposite side of Jiutian, shoulder to shoulder with Izan. "Surely, this is going to be very scary…" Nojiko raised her eyebrows as she raised her head towards the sky, not even seeing the top of the Reverse Mountain.

Nojiko unconsciously grabbed Izan's hand as she was truly afraid of the Reverse Mountain.

A dazed expression appeared on Izan's face when he felt Nojiko holding his hand.

"Haha, seems like it is time to move upwards…!" Jiutian said loudly as the ship was being dragged by the stream upwards towards the sky.

The ship started shaking, but the deck was firm and didn't move all too much.

With the ship heading upwards in a quick speed, Nojiko, Jiutian and Izan had to stand firmly on the deck to not get pushed back.

"Hahahaha, this is great!" Izan started laughing as he started holding Nojiko's hand a little firmer.

Jiutian started also laughing with Izan as she sneaked her hand towards Izan's free hand. When Jiutian felt that Izan didn't hesitate to hold onto her hand, a bright smile appeared on her face as she started laughing louder.

Time passed by swiftly as they continued holding each other's hand. In silence, they enjoyed the wonderful sight of traveling upwards an enormous mountain with incredible speed.

When the ship finally reached the top, over all the clouds, they were able to see the sun shining down upon them while the clouds below them.

The beautiful sight vanished swiftly as they were being hurled down the mountain with even faster speed.

Izan narrowed his eyes slightly as he could feel Nojiko and Jiutian squeezing his hand slightly harder. Without hesitation, Izan held their hands firmly as he tried watching what was down the stream.

The ship started gaining speed and the trip downwards was much quicker than they reached upwards.

As the three started getting bored, they could see the sea further ahead. A smile appeared on all their faces.

"Grand Line." Izan spoke as he stared at the sea with a grin on his face.

The ship started bumping against the waves, the water went high up in the air before falling onto the ship, drenching the three of them. None of them flinched as they were way too focused on watching as they neared the sea.

As the ship gaining even more speed, it was sent hurling towards the open sea. The ship was sent hundreds of meters away from the Reverse Mountain.

After a long time, Izan, Jiutian and Nojiko sighed in relief as they had finally arrived at their destination – Grand Line!

"Jiutian, how does the ship work here? Because, if I'm not wrong, normal equipment will not work at Grand Line and the New World." Izan raised his eyebrows slightly as he glanced at Jiutian.

Jiutian had her usual smile on her face as she replied to Izan. "Don't worry. The ship will be able to reach anywhere on this world without any problem as long as we have a map covering it."

Nojiko didn't know much about the seas and navigation, therefore she wasn't very surprised that they could travel from one place to another with only a map. But, if she knew that a crew usually needed a skilled navigator and a Log Pose, that would make Nojiko shocked at the very least.

After having descended from the Reverse Mountain, the clouds vanished as the sun shined upon them.

"This is rather nice…" Izan couldn't finish speaking before a loud bang was heard.

Not even a moment later, a cannonball was shot and landed on the sea near their ship. Water splashed upwards before not long after another cannonball was being sent towards Izan's ship.

Izan squinted his eyes as he glared towards where it came from. Anger welled up inside of Izan as he saw another pirate ship firing towards them. Izan's face turned frosty at the sight of that. "Jiutian, get closer to that ship!" Izan's voice was ice-cold as he narrowed his eyes.

At the same time, Izan raised his right hand where a scythe appeared. The pirate ship was still firing towards them, but none of the cannonballs hit them, even if it would, Izan managed to cut them into pieces.

On the pirate ship were over fifty men in all ages, with one of them wearing a red cloak and wielding a scimitar. "Prepare for combat!" The captain; Red Cloak Razen had a bounty of 45 million Berry and he would kill rookies newly arriving in Grand Line and destroy the nearby islands without protection.

When Red Cloak Razen saw the majestic red ship coming down from the Reverse Mountain, he couldn't help but feel happy at the thought of killing everyone on the ship and use it for himself. Of course, Razen wouldn't burn down a ship of that quality.

With the sight of the majestic ship coming nearer, Razen was able to see a man on the ship glaring back at him. Razen's eyes went wide open and he felt that it was getting harder to breathe. The man Razen saw was a handsome man with red hair covering his right eye, wielding an enormous scythe which was giving off an ominous feeling.

Izan glared at the man wearing a red cloak, without doubting himself, Izan knew that he was the captain of that pirate ship. "You messed up big time…!" Izan whispered coldly, the ships were nearing each other.

When the ships were one hundred meters apart, Izan ran along the deck and jumped towards the other ship while raising his scythe high up in the air.