Chapter 429: Aboard the Polar Tang

Chapter 429: Aboard the Polar Tang



The next day, in a part of the New World about halfway between Whole Cake Island and Wano, a submarine bearing the mark of the Heart Pirates rested on the surface of the sea.

The currents, winds, and the weather in general had been unusually calm in the past twenty four hours. Not Calm Belt calm, but enough so that they suspected there was an island nearby, but no island has shown itself thus far.

The crew took advantage of this lull in the chaos that was sailing the Grand Line regardless of the strange circumstances, though, taking turns soaking up some sun on the top deck.

"Oil? You run this submarine on oil?!" A shrill shout was heard below the deck.

"What else should it run on?!" The heart pirates' shipwright shot back.

"How about something that won't catch fire and kill everyone on board?! Like cola!" Franky argued.

"Cola?! There's no way you could run a sophisticated machine like our engine on a sugary fizzy drink! That's absurd!" The other shipwright was reasonably skeptical.

"Hmph! Works wonders in my Thousand Sunny," Franky huffed and opened up his chest cavity. "And in myself, I might add!"

The shipwright was struck dumb at the sight of cola bottles hooked up to what he vaguely recognized as an engine inside of Franky.

"What the fuck?" were the only words he could voice in response.

Nearby, the polar bear mink, Bepo, could be seen playing chess against Robin.

Bepo had his face scrunched up in deep concentration and only after a full minute of this did he finally light up and make a move.

Robin instantly made a move of her own. "Checkmate."

"Wha-? How-? When-?" Bepo glared at the board as Robin watched him go through the five stages of grief, before finally giving in and surrendering.

'So cute...' Robin thought as she gazed upon Bepo's devastated expression.

"Why do you keep playing against her, Bepo? You've played like a hundred times and haven't won even once," a man named penguin asked as he leaned in his chair, balancing on the back legs precariously.

"I was so close this time, though!" Bepo argued.

"That's just what she wants you to think, bro," Penguin said. "Nico Robin has spent her whole life fooling people when her own life was at stake. Chess is just a game to her."

Penguin nearly toppled over when Robin smiled 'sweetly' in his direction.

"Huh? What for?" Usopp hadn't been listening to them talk as he was distracted by a

particularly prickly pruning procedure.

"Just do it, or we'll leave her behind!" Law stormed back below deck, his crewmates rushing

to furl the sails and bring them inside.

Usopp could sense the urgency in the man, so he quickly climbed up the main mast and

shouted up at Cabernet. "Cabernet! We need to go inside now!"

The winged woman swooped down, picked Usopp up, and brought him down to the deck (he only screamed a little bit). "What's up?"

"I don't know! We're submerging apparently," Usopp threw up his hands in an exaggerated shrug. "We'll have to ask Law about what's got him so flustered."

Cabernet nodded. She was used to other people knowing more about things than she did. Instead of getting worked up about it, she went over to Zoro and gave him a loud slap to the

back of the head.

"W-what the hell?!" Zoro awoke with a start. "What'd you do that for?!"

"You're too hard to wake up, this way's easier," Cabernet explained simply, with an innocent look on her face that Zoro couldn't tell the authenticity of. "Law wants us back inside for

some reason."

Merry hopped out of Zoro's lap and gave a big stretch with her little sheep legs, before

seeming to shake the drowsiness off of herself.

"Hey, hurry your asses up!" Shachi rudely shouted towards them as his group finished rolling

up the mainsail.

"We're going, we're going! Goodness, so bossy..." Usopp complained.

"Hey, could we go check out the shipwreck I saw before we go back under?" Cabernet asked

Shachi.

Shachi looked at her. "Shipwreck?"