Chapter 24: Chapter 24
On the Merry deck, Seph sat on the railing with a pouting Nami in his arms.
With cheeks pouting, Nami kept harrumphing in dissatisfaction. Seph found it amusing how she seemed resentful.
"Why are you upset? Kaya and Nojiko aren't part of the crew; it's normal for them to leave after having fun..."
Nami's eyes widened in shock at his shamelessness.
"Do you have the nerve to say that? It's because of your mess that they were forced to return to protect both islands."
Recalling the den den mushi expression full of fear and urgency calling for support, Nami was further angered.
Seph pressed his face against her neck, ignoring her murmurs, and continued to caress her neck with his nose, which made her ticklish.
Soon bursts of laughter filled the deck as most of her anger evaporated.
Blushing slightly, Nami playfully hit Seph on the chin with the back of her head as she coyly said, "You have your own ways to pacify young girls' emotions. How many girlfriends did you have before me?"
Seph rolled his eyes. He hadn't expected that even second-dimensional girls could be as annoying as their third-dimensional counterparts. Nevertheless, Seph was quite skilled at diverting attention.
"Nami dear, did you feel it?"
Nami was taken aback. Her brows furrowed as she commented,
"About fifteen nautical miles away, there are abnormal weather fluctuations. Strange, it's not caused by a devil fruit, but why does this abnormal weather feel so natural? Hmm, to the south, the wind seems to vanish completely, there's a total calm, as if there were never any winds blowing. Is this the legendary calm belt?!"
Her eyes shone with curiosity as she glanced at Seph, full of questions.
Seph sighed in relief. Fortunately, she seemed fooled.
"The abnormal weather you're talking about is because of the Reverse Mountain. You could even say that from the moment we reached there, the weather lost all its natural patterns. Only with a powerful navigator such as Nami can we survive this ordeal..." Seph praised her, which made Nami enjoy it quite a lot as he continued.
"And you guessed right. The area to the south, lacking any ocean currents or blowing winds, is indeed the rumored Calm Belt... Have you never seen it?"
Seph was surprised. He never thought that Nami hadn't even seen the Calm Belt before.
Nami looked at him with a strange expression. "Why would I go there? All my journeys to the sea are planned. I rarely navigate by whim..."
Seph nodded as he praised her again. "You are powerful..."
Nami's curiosity didn't seem to die down. "So, is the Grand Line behind this towering red mountain..."
In their conversation, the Reverse Mountain was already in sight.
Seph's expression became very intriguing. Initially, that was indeed what he thought. However, after gaining super vision, he realized that he never truly understood the map of the One Piece world.
Seph shook his head strangely as he explained,
"Actually, with the Merry, we don't even need to take the Reverse Mountain route. Did you see the south area that was blocked by the Calm Belt? That's the Grand Line. It's too small compared to the East Blue."
Nami looked at him in shock.
"Lies!"
"What's behind the red mountain then?!!"
Seph chuckled.
"Behind the Reverse Mountain is actually the last known island that can be reached in the Grand Line, 'LodeStar'."
Nami's mouth opened wide. Who would have thought that the finish line is actually so close...
As her eyes shined with a terrifying light, Seph hit her on the head.
"Don't even think about it!! And also, don't tell Luffy..."
Nami's face turned black as she protested.
"I didn't want to... I just discovered that the rumor that the world is round is actually true..."
Seph was speechless.
"Isn't this a fact?"
Nami shook her head.
"No!! It's a legend. I read about it in one of the books when I was still a little kid. I was always skeptical, but now that the Grand Line is actually in the other direction, then this means that if we continue journeying in that side, there is only one explanation why the final island is behind the mountain."
Seph looked at her with fake amazement.
"Nami, so smart!!!"
After Nami ingested the apex gen serum, her intelligence surpassed her previous self by far. Therefore, such a quick conclusion wasn't unexpected.
Yet, she was annoyed as she hit him with her elbow.
"Jerk!"
Seph sneered as he stood up.
"Okay, let's call those guys. It's been a week since the last time I met them..."
Nami was also carried by him, her legs swinging in the air in protest as she was finally put down.
"Hmph... What the hell did you tell Sanji? He looked like an obsessed demon. Even Zoro and Luffy were affected by his craziness..."
Seph snorted.
"Men's talk... You're a woman, what do you care about it?"
He left the enraged Nami behind as he disappeared into the portal.
Boom...
A big hole crater suddenly appeared on the ship, but it was soon repaired.
"Seph, you asshole!!!"
.....
The crew that was recalled by Seph soon appeared on the deck, and sure enough, as soon as they saw the towering mountain that pierced the sky, all showed varying expressions of astonishment and bewilderment.
"Sugoi!!! Such a big mountain!!! Never seen it before!!!"
Luffy jumped gleefully, with a hand on his straw hat and a big infectious smile. He inspected the wonder of nature in amazement.
Nami stood there in surprise.
"The ocean is really flowing up the mountain. What's the reason? Also such a maelstroms weather seems to be due the abnormal flowing current." she asked, her curiosity piqued.
Seph was even more surprised by the grey fish-dragon murals on the doors that led to the top.
It reminded him of a very interesting Chinese quote: "Carp jumping over the dragon gate."Zoro put his hand on his waist-sword as he muttered, "Can I cut such a mountain in the future?"
Sanji, standing beside him, rarely bothered to refute him. After reading Toriko, he felt that such a thing was simply pathetic. He only looked down on Zoro for having such a narrow vision and perspective.
He chuckled in a mocking tone, and Zoro, sensitive to all malice towards him, felt his face darken. His perky ears already sensed Sanji's mocking smirk.
"Perverted chef, do you want to die?" Zoro retorted, his frustration evident.
Sanji sipped on his cigarette as he marveled at the force of nature, with a tsk.
"You can't even cut through my exoskeleton. How can you kill me?"
Zoro's face turned red.
This week, Sanji had gone crazy. His training and diligence made even Zoro sigh in admiration. In a 'friendly' competition, Zoro failed to cut Sanji, which made him lose all his face. His resentment towards Sanji reached another height.
Usopp hurriedly tried to calm the atmosphere as he separated the duo.
"Uff... Still, this mountain is so tall!! Even the clouds are pierced!!! Merry, can you do it?!!" he exclaimed, trying to divert the attention.
Merry looked at the pretending Usopp with disgust.
"Hmph, Merry can even sail in space!!" she retorted, her voice full of pride.
Seph chuckled. He carried Merry high and put her on his shoulders.
Merry blushed as she enjoyed Seph's care.
"Merry, everything depends on you!!" Seph said earnestly.
Merry nodded solemnly. "Leave everything to me!!" she declared with determination.
---
Around the wine barrel, the crew was gathered, all resting their legs on it. It was such a ritual that even the coolheaded couldn't resist.
Luffy: "To become the Pirate King God..."
Zoro: "To become The Sword God..."
Sanji: "To become The Chef God..."
Seph, Usopp, and Nami looked at the three speechlessly. Everyone wanted to become a god... However, it was understandable; after all, "god" seemed like quite a striking title.
Ussop: "To become the Brave Warrior God..."
Nami: "To draw the World Map..."
Merry: "To sail with you to the end..."
Seph: "To transcend the world..."
With a loud shout, the barrel was soon destroyed under their feet, bearing witness to their promises.
[A large cumulative sign-in detected....]
[First Half of the Grand Line...]
As Seph finished the ritual, a prompt appeared on his retina. Seph laughed happily. A cumulative sign-in that spanned the whole Alabasta, Skypea, Water 7, Thriller Bark, Paramount War...
Such a reward was extraordinary no matter how you looked at it. He was already strong enough, and single rewards were really not enough to catch his eye.
He accepted the sign-in with pleasure.
As the Merry rode over the floating currents along with the clouds, the Straw Hat crew were amazed once again by the wonders of nature.
"We're riding the clouds!!"
Luffy and Usopp hugged each other, dancing in delight.
Nami smiled happily.
"We reached the summit!!!"
Zoro and Sanji also laughed happily.
Seph also hugged the duo as the Merry finally reached the peak of the mountain.
East Blue - Arc/ End...
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone