10 Chapter 10

A/N: Here's the next chapter. Expect another one sometime next week. If you have any suggestions please, let me know!

Third Person's PoV:

In the middle of the wet blue ocean, standing on top of what seems like a moving black mass were three people..

One was a straw hat wearing boy with a sleeveless red vest, blue short jeans, and sandals. Strapped on his shoulder is an impressive looking captain's coat. This 17 year old boy had a cut mark on the left side of his cheek, right under his eye. He is also sporting a wide grin right now.

Another was a man with unique green hair, which he would be constantly made fun of for in the future by a certain swirly browed man. He had on a simple white T-shirt, dark green pants with similarly themed boots. He had a green bandana tied to an arm. This man also has 3 impressive looking katanas strapped to the side of his hips.

The last person has on the outfit of a certain fire breathing wizard from a world of magic, minus the scarf. (I honestly don't know how to describe Natsu's outfit.) Also strapped on his shoulder is a long black coat that fluttered with the wind.

Luffy, Zoro, and Josh were currently standing on top of Manni's shell. They had just left Shells Town which is oddly ironic and are now drifting at one random direction.

Zoro's first reaction to Manni poking his head out of the ocean was to freak out and draw his Wado Ichimonji but the other two assured him that they were safe.

"So captain, we're heading to Paradise right?" The only blond in the group spoke up. He was trying to get his captain to head towards Orange Town where they would meet Nami.

"What's a Paradise?", Luffy just cocked his head to the side and questioned.

"The first half of the Grandline is called Paradise.", Josh elaborated. Truly, is the weakest Blue also the most ignorant? Zoro didn't look like he knew either. Josh thought that Luffy might of heard about the Grandline from Shanks but guess he was wrong.

"Really? Then yes.. we're going to Paradise! Set sail!" The raven haired captain commanded. Josh promptly bonked him over the head, without haki of course.

"We can't just sail to the Grandline like this... we don't even have a ship. Not to mention the way to get there. There are still much that we need to do here in the East Blue." Josh reminded him. They couldn't exactly keep riding on Manni the whole time..

Josh just wanted to hurry over to Syrup Island so that he wouldn't have to keep carrying them on and off of an island whenever they get near one.

"Josh's right Luffy. None of us knows how to navigate. We don't even have enough supplies to last the journey."Zoro finally let his thoughts known to the other two. "We need more booze." He finished with such finality that it sounded like alcohol was all they needed.

'Sigh.. taking care of these two for not even a week is getting to me! I need you Nami... so you can help me keep them in check!', The 20 year old thought regretfully.

In his opinion, Nami was the most important part of the straw hat pirates. One could say that she's what keeps the whole group together. Without her, they wouldn't even be able to go from one island to the next even here in the East Blue.. which is exactly their predicament right now.

"I've heard that the map to reach Paradise is in the hands of Buggy the Clown from the Buggy Pirates.", Joshua advised him. Knowing Luffy, he would surely want to go there as well but they simply did not know where it is located.

"I've also heard that Buggy and Red-Haired Shanks used to be on the same pirate crew when they were still cabin boys." Josh revealed with a smirk. He got the desired effect as Luffy's eyes were wide with shock while Zoro just looked confused.

"The best part in all of this is that they were on the Pirate King's crew!" He finished. This time, even Zoro dropped his jaw.

"That's so coool... Shanks never told me he was on the ship of the Pirate King!" Luffy almost squealed out loud. The strawhats just laughed at his antics.

"You seem awfully knowledgeable.." Zoro turned towards me. Those words sounded like he was simply stating a fact but the former Earth resident knew that he wanted to ask how.

"I was originally from the Grandline. I know quite a lot about the things that go on in there." The Haki user replied. That answer seemsto satisfy Zoro as he simply nodded after a quiet "makes sense". Josh had thought that he would be a little bit more surprise than that but merely shrugged.

"I have to warn you though, Buggy is nothing like Shanks so don't be expecting anything." Luffy seemed to be a bit down after hearing that, barely noticeable though. Maybe he wanted to ask him about shanks.

"Why would someone stay here in the East Blue if they were a great pirate? The Marines would be all over him, making it impossible." Zoro chimed in from the side. The captain nodded at that. It would seem that he finally understood.

After an hour of hopelessly heading towards a single direction, Josh felt something with his Kenbunshoku Haki. It was about a few miles away from them.

Although he did not recognize the aura, the lightning man had a good feeling about it so he stomped on Manni's shell with his foot to signal him to rise.

"I want you to go left." Josh commanded the turtle.

With a low grunt, the seaking slowly sank his head back down and changed direction. Luffy and Zoro seems to have noticed this as they eyed him curiously.

"I found someone." The logia user simply stated. Thinking that they should just leave it to Josh, Luffy went over to a big sack that they had gotten from Ririka back on Shells town. This bag contained a huge amount of food and much to Luffy's joy, it's all meat! He sat there, just munching away.

Zoro on the other hand already had his fill as they left the island not too long ago. Instead of eating or sitting there idly, the green haired swordsman opted to lay down and take a nap.. typical Zoro.

About 5 minutes later, a small dingy can be spotted slowly making its way forward. This lone dingy hosts a single person.

As they approach closer, Josh could make out the silhouette of a young female on the boat. He made eye contact with her, smiled, and waved in a gesture that he hoped would convey that they weren't hostile.

On the boat was a beautiful young girl with prominently bright orange hair that reached down to her back. Her body was in good shape and she had the right curves in the right places, to say the least. She had slim arms and legs but she was not to be trifled with.

Nami was eyeing the three people that were approaching her cautiously and a little curiously at the same time. They seem to be riding on a...rock? She really had no clue. It was just black and looked like it had patterns on it. She guessed that it was some sort of submarine.

'Weird, why don't they just go inside their submarine? Maybe the telescope (forgive me cuz I don't wanna search for the word) on it is broken so they are on look out?', She silently thought to herself before waving back.

"Hey there. My name is Joshua, you can call me Josh. What's your name?" When the strawhats got about 20 feet away from Nami, Josh jumped off of Manni's shell and landed on her boat, startling her.

The blonde held his hands out to her. After finally getting out of her daze, the orange haired girl hesitantly took it and the man gave her a firm shake with a smile that Nami could've sworn was one of relief.

"I'm Nami. Nice to meet you Josh." After sizing up the person before her, she deemed that he had no malicious intent towards her so the thief felt a little bit more relaxed.

"Do you happen to know which way Orange Town is? None of us can navigate so we're kinda lost at sea." The lightning man asked her and then gestured towards his two other companions, letting her know who he meant by 'we'.

"What a coincidence, I'm headed towards Orange Town myself. Wait... did you say that you had no navigator? Why did you even sail out to sea, are you idiots!?" The orange head berated the man before her. What kind of idiots go out to sea without at least knowing the basics of sea navigation. She couldn't believe it.

"We're... not really the type to plan out our journeys... ahahaha.." Josh laughed awkwardly while scratching the back of his head. Eyes darting from left to right like he was just caught committing a crime.

"I didn't think I'd run into idiots like this.. I'll make you a deal, I'll travel with you to Orange Town if you would partner up with me since you seem strong." The girl suggested. She guessed that he was fairly strong just from the chest and abdominal muscles that she could see, which made her blush a little.

Nami hadn't seen a man who showed their muscles openly like that before, except for some pirates who she robbed in the past but those guys were no where near as good looking as the man before her. "I'm the best damn navigator you'll find in all of East Blue." She proclaimed confidently.

"Deal, but what do you want me to do since we're going to be partners?", Josh already knew what she would say but asked anyway. He had to keep the fact that he was a pirate a secret a little bit longer or he will just be turned away.

"I'm a thief that only steals from pirates. I might need protection from certain pirate groups should I get spotted. We can share the loot 9 to 1." Raising her hand for another handshake to solidify the deal which Josh took after saying "deal".In her opinion, that was a very 'generous' deal.

Josh abruptly grabbed on to Nami and a bag of treasures lying in the dingy and then jumped back on to Manni. Ignoring her screams of protest all the while.

"What the hell was that for!?" After safely landing back on Manni, Nami shouted at the blond teen while comically growing fangs.

"Sorry.. all of us weren't gonna fit on your small dingy, so I thought we would use my ride instead." The Strawhat pirate said, not looking apologetic in the least.

"You could've told me first..." the 18 year old grumbled, still a little dizzy from the sudden movement. "What is this thing anyway?" Nami asked, trying to confirm her earlier guess.

Before Joshua could answer, she stomped her leg down, expecting to hear the sound of some sort of metal being hit but when she heard none, she looked back at Josh in confusion.

"Oh boy... Nami, listen to me.. whatever you do, Don't. Freak. Out." Josh worded the last part of his sentence purposefully. The cat burglar did not know why he sounded worried.

Josh had created signals with Manni for communication, which is one stomp for raising his head out of the water, two for stopping, and three times to move.

Feeling a small tremor underneath her feet and the restless sea water around her, Nami crouched down in fear of falling off the "submarine".She was about to complain about their rough handling of passenger when it happened.

A dark shadow a bit a head of them could be seen moving closer to the surface of the water.

When Manni's head was out of the water completely and looking their way, it saw a trio of nonchalant humans, albeit one was a little bit more worried than the rest and a human girl with no expression on her face.

Nami couldn't have guessed that the assumed "submarine" would actually turn out to be the biggest sea turtle she would ever see in her life. Her face slowly morphed from unable to understand what's happening to a grimace to outright horrified.

She did not feel this much terror or dread when she first saw the "giant" sea cow Mohmoo which the Arlong Pirates kept as a pet.

Now, her definition of big had been readjusted and tears of fear were falling down her cheeks. Her mouth wide open in utter astonishment and incredulity. She felt the touch of death literally looming over her head as the giant seaking before her blocked the sun from their view.

"I tried to warn you... sigh.. This is Manni. My pet turtle and our current ride." The exasperated voice of the man responsible for her distress can be heard with a hint of smugness. She paid no mind as everything she was holding was about to...

"AAAHHHH.....!!!!" Nami let it all out. If anyone asked in the future, she would confidently proclaim that she saw the biggest seaking in her life but for now, she just let out all her feelings of fear with that one long screech.

Josh signaled for Manni to go back down and turned to face Nami who was still staring at the same spot with an out of focus gaze.

"Hey... Nami, are you alright? Don't worry, Manni wouldn't hurt anyone." A hand can be seen waving back and forth in front of a shellshocked woman's face, trying to ease her loss of common sense.

It took a while for Nami to come back to her senses from her stare down with death itself. When she did, the first thing Nami did was hit the person responsible for this on the head over and over again.

"YOU NEARLY KILLED ME FROM A HEART ATTACK! AND THAT WAS YOU BACK ON ALVIDA'S SHIP!??" The feisty girl immediately ranted her troubles at the blonde.

After finally calming down and getting used to the idea that they were now riding on a giant seaking which in her opinion could kill them anytime it wished, she collapsed on her butt and sank on the hard shell of said monster.

'Who would've thought I'd run into three idiotic monsters with a literal monster at their beck and call.' She just sighed in obvious mental exhaustion.

Josh introduced the other two with them and Luffy promptly cheered for gaining a new Nakama.

[Ding! Host has unlocked a mission!

Mission: Get Nami to tell you her secret about Arlong before she leaves the crew!

Reward: 500,000 System Points and Ring of Protection x 1!]

Josh was surprised by the sudden communication from the system and the mission since it's his very first one. But there was one thing that confused him...,

'Wait... System, didn't you say that I couldn't get anything with some kind of power if it wasn't from the world I'm in or have been to? I've never heard of this 'Ring of Protection' ever being mentioned in One Piece.'

[Ding! Affirmative Host. System said that Host could not buy them from Store. However, it is possible with Mission Rewards.]

'Ahh... that's good to know. I guess I'll find out what it does when I complete the mission.' The young man ended his inner conversation as Luffy jumped off Manni's back to catch a bird only to get stuck between it's beak and fly off to the now visible island.