Chapter 18: The Calm Belt

Quick heads up, I'm gonna be gone and unable to update for about a week. I'll do my best to get back on this when I get back, but until then, hopefully this can tide you over.

Once breakfast is cleared up, Apis and I go out to play on the main deck. There's not much to do, but it turns out chasing each other around can be pretty fun if you have enough enthusiasm. Apis leaps and tackles me, "Gotcha!" she exclaims. We both laugh as I lie on her chest.

"You two sure are getting along well." Sanji comments, grinning down at us from the galley door.

Apis sits up, holding me in her lap. "I guess we just kinda connect, you know?" she says a bit uneasily.

'You still don't want to tell them?' I ask.

"Not yet." Apis whispers back.

"Guys! We've got company!" Usopp yells from the crow's nest. "Just our luck; the Marines!" Marines? Oh great, just what we need. Nami comes out and looks out over the railing and we all quickly follow. Oh crap, we're really in trouble; it's not just one measly ship this time, it's a whole fleet!

Apis tenses and her grip around me tightens, causing me to look up at her. 'Apis?'

"Are they here for my bounty?" Luffy asks.

"They wouldn't send this many just for you." Nami retorts.

"Well, maybe they felt like they needed more help." Luffy suggests. "I am pretty amazing!" Geez, I didn't think Luffy was the type of guy who inflates his own ego. I wince as Apis tightens her hold on me more and takes a step back.

"What's wrong?" Sanji asks.

"Th-Those are Marines from Branch 8!" Apis exclaims. "They're the ones I escaped from!" She takes another step back, her breathing becoming frantic and scared. "W-What am I gonna do?"

'Apis, calm down.' I say gently.

"They're firing!" Usopp yells. There's a loud explosion as the water rocks around us. Sanji grabs Apis and I and holds us tightly, keeping us from falling over. Apis squeezes her eyes shut, hugging me close. I grip her dress, hoping it will help keep her calm while Sanji covers us as best he can.

"Attention pirates! You have trespassed onto restricted waters!" The head Marine yells. "We order you to stop your vessel immediately!" Yeah, like pirates would ever follow orders from the Marines!

"What do you wanna do?" Zoro asks Luffy. "I don't know about you, but I want to fight them."

Luffy nods, "Then we fight."

"Say what?" Usopp exclaims. "No way! Why must we always fight impossible odds?!"

"Apis," Sanji says. "Go downstairs and wait in the cabin."

Apis nods. "O-Okay."

Sanji looks at me. "Pika-chan, you stay with her and keep her safe, got it?"

I nod firmly. "Pika." 'You can count on me!' I turn to head towards the cabin when Apis suddenly stops. She glances behind us at a flock of seagulls, staring at them. That's right; the Whisper Whisper Fruit! 'What are they saying?' I ask.

"A wind is coming." Apis says softly. "He says it's a strong one."

Nami hears her and her eyes widen in surprise. "Zoro, lean the sail pointing south!" she says suddenly. "Usopp and Sanji, right rudder full!" The boys spring into action.

"What's happening?" Luffy asks.

"A gust is coming." Nami answers. "We'll ride it out and go from there."

Luffy mutters something about being scared to fight the Marines and Nami glances at Apis before running off to help with the ship.

'I think your secret might be out.' I comment, walking to stand beside her. Apis looks at me. 'These guys are smarter than they look; you can't keep a devil fruit power a secret forever you know.' Apis looks at the ground sadly.

'What are you so afraid of?' I ask. 'If you tell them they won't think any different of you.' Apis picks me up without answering and puts one hand on the railing just as a gust of wind sweeps overhead. The sails billow and the Merry speeds off. Whew! That really was a strong wind!

"It's working! The Marines are falling behind!" Usopp yells before laughing. "I've seen dead snails move faster!"

'Way to go, Apis!' I exclaim. Apis gives me a smile as we all let out a collective sigh of relief. Thank goodness Nami and Apis knew that wind was going to hit. Now it's nothing but peace and quiet once again. ...Actually...it feels a little...too quiet.

I squirm out of Apis' grasp and leap onto the side of the ship. I gaze out to sea and listen. Complete silence. Okay, this is weird; there's literally no noise at all. No wind, no seagulls, nothing! Not even the waves are making any noise! What the heck is this? I look over to see Zoro looking deep in thought. I trot over to him and leap up onto the railing next to him. "Pika pi?"

Zoro glances at me. "You feel it too, huh?" he says. I nod.

"Feel what?" Nami asks.

"This may sound crazy, but it feels like we're not even moving." Zoro answers.

"Pika." I agree with a nod.

Nami frowns slightly and looks around. "Now that you mention it…" she says slowly. "We're not catching any wind at all." She's silent again as she seems to be contemplating something.

I walk over to her and reach out to tap her arm. "Pika?" 'Nami?' The minute my paw brushes her arm she lets out a shriek. I jump and nearly topple off the railing but Zoro grabs my tail at the last second, pulling me back up.

"Nami, what's wrong?" Luffy asks.

"Are you hurt?" Sanji asks.

Nami simply stares ahead, her eyes wide with terror. "We're screwed!" she cries. "We've entered the Calm Belt!"

I tilt my head along with everyone else; Calm Belt?

"The Clam Belt?" Usopp asks.

"The Calm Belt!" Nami repeats. "The part of the sea where nothing moves a muscle!"

"So there's mussels and clams?" Luffy asks.

"NO!"

The boat suddenly starts to shake slightly as the still waters become restless. My ears twitch and I glance around; I feel like something just moved but I can't tell, it's too big! I glance at Apis who looks uneasy as well. Does she feel it too? 'Can you feel anything Apis?' I ask. She gives me a look and a subtle shrug; so she doesn't know what it is either.

Nami looks like she's about to pull her hair out as Luffy and the others don't see the reason for her panic. She grumbles and rolls out a map. I leap onto Luffy's hat as she explains that the Grand Line is surrounded by the Calm Belt, where we are. Apparently in this place, wind doesn't blow and nothing moves, like a weird void of nothing. I can definitely see the issue here now; without wind, we're pretty much stuck until we can paddle out of here.

"So this is what the geezer meant when he said it was dangerous." Sanji mutters.

"Pika…" I agree. He did say that nothing expected happens on the ocean, especially near the Grand Line. I swear, sometimes I feel like this world intentionally creates places like this just to thin the world's population.

"Well, how can we get out if our ship can't move?" Usopp asks.

"Maybe the wind will start blowing again?" Luffy suggests.

Nami and I roll our eyes. "Wind never blows here!"

"Pika pikachu!"

"But that's not the only danger here!" Nami says just when the ship starts to rock.

"What's going on?!" Luffy yells.

"Oh no; they're coming!" Nami screams. I topple off Luffy as the ship raises into the air. We all gape in horror as hundreds of sea serpents rise out of the water, one them balancing our ship on his snout. "The Calm Belt is where the Sea Kings live and breed." Nami finishes weakly.

There's that name again, Seaking. I seriously feel like that's not the right name for them! I swear to Arceus, Seakings do not look like this or are even this big! Screw it, I'm still calling them sea serpents. We all freeze as the sea serpents apparently haven't noticed us yet.

"Any ideas for how to get out of this?" Sanji asks softly.

"Yeah, don't move a muscle." Zoro answers. "Once they go away, we'll get out of here."

"You call that a plan!" Usopp yells.

"Shut up!" Nami hissed, covering his mouth. One of the creatures' eyes, a giant yellow frog looks up at us. Well, guess Zoro's plan has gone down the drain. The frog leaps up, making the serpent we're sitting on move and tilting the ship dangerously.

My eyes widen as Apis loses her footing and starts to fall. 'Apis!' I sprint towards her and grab the back of her dress. I try to hinge my tail onto the Merry's head, but we're falling too fast. My tail slips off and we both fall towards the frog.

"Apis!"

"Pika-chan!"

"Hold on!" Luffy yells and I hear his arm stretch. I feel his hand grab my tail and I tighten my grip on Apis. I grit my teeth as Luffy yanks us away from the frog and into the air, still holding us. I would probably be screaming in pain from my tail being yanked with the full weight of a child if I wasn't too scared to care!

"You're arm is stretching!" Apis exclaims. I grin and she looks up at me. "Does he have Devil Fruit Powers?"

'Yep; he ate the Gum Gum Fruit!' I answer. 'He's made of rubber!'

"What?" Apis exclaims. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

'You never asked.'

Apis suddenly looks down at the serpent holding our boat. "I have an idea; can you keep holding me?" she asks.

'I'll do my best.' I answer, tightening my grip on her dress. My tail is gonna be sore for a week after this...

"Hey! Swing your arm down again!" Apis yells to Luffy.

"Kay." Luffy answers and complies making us both shriek from the sudden change in direction.

"Luffy!" Usopp exclaims.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Sanji demands.

"No idea." Luffy answers.

"Get ready!" Apis calls to me. I nod and keep holding on as tightly as I can as we swing towards the sea serpent's nose. "One...two…" We sail inside his nose and Apis grabs a large nose hair. "Now!" I squeeze my eyes shut and grit my teeth as Luffy yanks us back up, taking the nose hair Apis is holding with it.

Okay...I guess I've seen stranger plans.

Apis drops the hair and we sail back up towards the ship. I hear loud snuffles coming from the sea serpent. "It sounds like it's gonna…" Nami trails off.

"It sounds like it's gonna sneeze!" Sanji finishes. Oh, I get it now! Apis gives me a knowing grin. Luffy lets go of my tail once we're near the deck and I let go of Apis, my paws completely cramped. Apis flies into Zoro and I fly into Sanji who barely catches me. Apis gives me and Luffy a thumbs up and Luffy grins.

"Get ready! We're going for a ride!" Luffy warns. The serpent gives a loud sneeze and we all go flying. It's actually pretty fun, and after a few moments, we land back on regular ocean.

"Looks like we're back where we started." Nami says.

"Yeah, and no Marines either." Zoro adds.

'Good call Apis!' I comment, hanging on Sanji's arm.

"Thanks Pika-chan!" Apis says, giving me a thumbs up. I return it and grin before I realize that Sanji is glancing between me and Apis. Everyone else seems to have some kind of intrigue in their eyes as they all look at Apis. Apis realizes what she's done and her eyes widen, "Uh...um…" she stammers.

I sigh, 'Looks like the secret's out.' Apis rings her hands and I slip off Sanji to go towards her. 'Hey, it's okay you know.' I say, tugging on the end of her dress.

Apis stares at me and finally deflates in defeat. "You're right Pika-chan…"

"Whoa, how'd you do that?" Luffy asks. "You talked to Pika-chan; that's so cool!"

Apis looks at Luffy in astonishment and I smirk, 'Told you they wouldn't think any different of you.'

"Could it be a Devil Fruit?" Nami asks, kneeling in front of Apis.

"Um, yeah…" Apis says shyly. "I ate the Whisper Whisper Fruit; I can read the minds of any animal or creature."

Nami nods, "So that's how you knew about that wind."

"That also explains how you got so close to Pika-chan after just a day." Sanji adds.

Apis nods and smiles as she picks me up. "Pika-chan was really kind to me; it said it would be okay to tell you about my powers, I guess I should've listened."

I wave my paw. 'Hey, no need to worry.' I reassure her.

"Don't worry." Nami says, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's totally normal to not tell anyone if you have Devil Fruit powers."

Apis lights up, "So...you're still gonna take me home?" she asks.

'Do you even need to ask?' I comment.

"Of course!" Luffy exclaims.

'Hopefully, we won't run into anymore sea serpents.' I say and Apis laughs.

"What did it say?" Luffy asks.

"It hopes that we won't run into anymore sea serpents." Apis translates. Oh man, does it feel good to not have to do charades!

"Oh, you mean Sea Kings." Nami says.

"Yeah, I could do without anymore monster encounters...forever." Usopp adds.

I roll my eyes. 'They're not called Seakings...' I mutter.

"Hm? What do you mean?" Apis asks.

'I swear, those serpents are not Seakings! Seakings don't look like that!'

Apis tilts her head and looks thoughtful. "Well, I've never seen one up close until now so I'm not sure…"

"What is it?" Sanji asks.

"Pika-chan's annoyed that you keep calling those monsters Sea Kings." Apis says.

"Why's that? It's their official species." Nami says.

"Pika!" I shake my head firmly.

"It says that Sea Kings look nothing like those serpents." Apis translates. "They're not even that big." Arceus does this feel good!

"Are we seriously having an argument with a rodent about sea monsters?" Zoro sighs.

I growl at him, and Apis translates in kind. "It says watch it or I'll fry you like the bacon we made this morning."

Sanji snickers and Zoro glares at me. "Looking for a fight, pipsqueak?"

"Pikachu!"

"Bring it on you lazy Snorlax!" Apis translates and Zoro has nothing more to say. Wait a minute, a Snorlax? Where on earth did that word come from?

Sanji starts laughing as Zoro turns red with rage; looks like he's gonna hold that over Zoro's head for a good long while. "If only we could understand you more often!" he says, giving me a pat riddled with praise. I guess I should be proud of myself for schooling Zoro so fluently!

"Uh guys, may I remind you that those Marines could still come back and attack us?" Usopp asks.

Nami sighs, "He's right, we should get moving."

"Alright, finally!" Luffy cheers. "Set sail, for Warship Island!"

"Aye!" Everyone cheers. I smile up at Apis and climb onto her shoulder. We were gonna make it Warship Island in no time.

Oh Pokémon metaphors, you will never grow old! X3

Sanji and Pika-chan are gonna have a blast in the future, bonding over their love of insulting Zoro XD