Lia's POV;

“True Shot Lia, how nice of you to turn yourself in”, he grumbled and tried to grab me by the shoulder. I stepped back and frowned at him.

“True Shot? What do you mean? I am busy buying food”, I questioned him and took some more distance. Did word finally reach the World Government and they put a bounty on us?

“Stealing a ship from the World Government and killing its soldiers is a heavy crime. You can either come willingly or I will have to use force.” His hands were starting to smoke.

“Annoying seems like I won't be able to buy everything”, I muttered in annoyance and evaded the first smoke-punch sent by him. His body now fully turned into smoke and he tried to trap me with it.

Lara said that it would not be in our best interest if we show them that we know how to use Haki and even the Marine skills are risky. Our crew isn't strong enough yet. So basics it is.

Smoker's jute came down at me and I kicked it away. The force steered him of course and I had enough time to put my hands in my pockets to pull two gloves out.

Smoker was by now back on course and flying at me with his jute aimed at my jugular. I reached down into my pouch and pulled five pebbles out, one of them made out of sea stone. The gloves were there to hide my ability to touch sea stone.

With a flick of my hand, one pebble got launched off and pierced Smoker right between the eyes. The pebble flew through him and embedded itself inside a house.

“Your aim is as true as you namesake lets one belief”, he said and turned completely into smoke. He moved the smoke all around me and shot smoke punches at me. I danced through the hits but made sure to not use Kami'e. I also threw, for appearance sake, three more pebbles at him. Each would have hit him between the eyes but passed through harmlessly.

“It's useless, your pebbles won't hurt me”, he declared. I threw the fifth one, this time not between his eyes. Lara likes Smoker, killing him would make her pout for days. No, I aimed for his left shoulder. He didn't bother to evade and got hit.

The sea stone pebble has just enough force to pierce his shoulder. Smoker grunted in pain and lost his ability to turn into smoke. He crashed down and stood up on shaky legs.

If sea stone works the same way as water then he must feel himself to be pretty weak now.

“What have you done? How did you get sea stone pellets?”, he asked and raised his jute with his unwounded arm.

“It was really nice of you to give us the cuffs”, I thanked him with a grin and took another five pebbles out. These were normal hardened stone, not made out of sea stone.

He cursed under his breath, yet he got ready to continue the fight.

“You aren't able to change any longer. Do you want to continue or leave? I've heard that the Straw Hats are also in town.” He looked at the pebbles in my hand and glared at me.

“Captain Smoker!”, shouted suddenly a group of Marines. They came with raised weapons and aimed at me. Both Smoker and I looked at them briefly, before Smoker's eyes shot back to me.

“Shit!”, he cursed. Smoker then rammed his hand inside his wound and pulled the sea stone pebble out. He instantly turned into smoke and pushed his subordinates out of the line of fire. The five pebbles that I had shot off at them crashed into a house, each left a tiny hole in its wall.

I took the chaos to push the bloody sea stone pebble towards me and plucked it out of the air before using a Soru to leave the area. What Smoker has done was badass, I think I understand why Lara likes him. But he worsened his wound to save some no names. If he continues to do that it might cost him his life in the future.

Anyway, I only got 25 kilograms of chicken, should I go and buy the rest? Or does Smoker's activity make an early leave necessary? There are too many people in this city for me to quickly find the others. Well, they will find out what the increased Marine activity is about and then come back to the ship.

Let's go back to the ship, I luckily have bought most of the things I wanted.

Lara's POV;

“Why are there so many Marines on the street?”, wondered Yosaku. He was touching the hilt of his new blade in worry.

True, there were now a lot more Marines rushing through the streets. Holding wanted posters in their hands and stopping people to question them. One of these questioned people turned to us and pointed directly at me.

“Looks like they have found us”, commented Jonny dryly.

“No shit, how did you know? Where it the dozen of Marines running at us or the drawn weapons?”, asked Yosaku sarcastically. He drew his sword and attacked the closest Marine. His new and heavier sword easily pushed the hurriedly raised parry away and cleaved a large wound into the Marine soldier.

Jonny has also quickly drawn his sword and deflected an incoming sword that would have hit Yosaku. “Annoying, I wanted to buy some ice cream before leaving”, I grumbled and started to deflect the bullets that were aimed at us with my own sword.

“I'm sure Sis Lia will be able to create something delicious when we are back”, assured Jonny, he was already drooling. Right, Lia is such a sweety, she might even make me hot crispy chicken strips for dinner.

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“Then let's rush back, there is chicken to be eaten!”, I declared loudly and started to deflect the bullets back to their shooters. It cleared the path for us and we seized the opportunity to run past them.

There was not enough time to kill them all, so I had to make do with the few idiots that came too close to us. Jonny and Yosaku tried to not kill, this left more openings I had to take care of.

“Left side, your shoulder would have been pierced just now.” Openings I loudly pointed out to them. They will have to overcome this stupid mentality. Training and real fights will make sure of that. “They are shooting and hacking at you with the intention to kill, return it with equal conviction.”

There was no storm yet, so Dragon has not yet started with his part. There might be enough time to set sail and reach the Grand Line before the Straw Hats do.

Our group of three turned around the corner that would lead us to the harbour and found ourselves face to face with two dozen Marines.

“Stay behind me and try not to get wounded!”, I commanded. Both fell a step back. I got mid sprint into position and then sliced with my sword in a diagonal arc. A force blade shot off of my blade and mowed anyone down that was in its path.

I was nice enough to aim it high enough so that the Marines could duck under it, but not without losing the possibility of attacking us. Some were not fast enough and got decapitated, but most let themselves fall down. We passed them and reached the harbour.

The Shadow was already set to go with Lia waving down at us. Nojiko stood behind her and aimed her rifle above our heads. She shot trice and I could hear how three people were falling down behind us. She is getting better with her aim and willingness to shoot people.

“Hold tight”, I declared and grabbed both Jonny and Yosaku before jumping upwards and on the deck of our ship. Lia then blew at our sail and increased the pressure of her produced air stream. With a bug, our ship began to move out of the harbour.

“We're not yet out of danger. They are aiming their cannons at us”, warned Nojiko, who has had seen said canons through her scope. Lia turned around and spotted each canon with a single glance. She then pulled her trusted pebbles out and flicked one at a time at each cannon. Half a dozen explosions shook the harbour walls and each cannon was destroyed.

“I just hit their cannonballs”, explained Lia to the shocked looks of our crew.

“One day I will be able to do that as well”, declared Nojiko silently before addressing all of us “There is a storm coming up, we will have to be fast if we want to reach Rivers Mountain in time to evade the storm. Yosaku, Jonny, prepare the main sail. Josef, you're responsible for the secondary sail. Lia, I need you with me at the oar. Your Devil Fruit will be necessary to manoeuvre through the currents. And Lara..., you can help where you want to”. Her orders were swiftly carried out and we were approaching the growing mountain with quite some speed.

The Red Line was gigantic. It stretched from one horizon to the other and was high enough to vanish behind the clouds. Strong currents were brandishing against the massive wall and stones were jutting out of the sea here and there. It was easy to see how most died only by attempting to get on the Grand Line.

“More to the left Lia!”, urged Nojiko frantically. The ship jumped out of the water and made a lurch to the left, just like Nojiko wanted. I looked back and up to our oar and saw how Lia was soaked with sweat. Using her Devil Fruit and over such a long time and with such strength is extremely taxing. Especially if she's doing it without touching the influenced object. Which were, in this case, the waves.

Seems like there won't be any hot crispy chicken for me.

“Good, we are on course, now we only need hit the tiny hole inside this freaking huge mountain. Easy isn't it?”, rambled Nojiko almost hysterically.

“I can see the entrance. My god, the water is flowing upwards!”, cried Yosaku in awe from his position up on the sail.

“I can see it too. We need to hold course Lia, any change will let us crash into the wall and we will drown.” Nojiko herself was sweating a lot and looked to be more than a little pale.

“Relax Nojiko, what could possibly happen. I mean worth than death?”, I laughed and evaded a shot from one of her pistols.

“Shut up! I don't have time for your jokes, I want to survive this shit!”, she shouted at me. Still, it eased the situation somewhat up and both Jonny and Yosaku were grinning. Jo was hiding his grin back, but badly.

The next ten minutes were spent in relative silence. Only the loud currents, the occasional grunt when Lia forced our ship in another direction, and the storm that was creeping up on us was making any noises.

And then we passed the wall and were inside the upper stream that leads us past the Rivers Mountain. It looked as awesome as in the anime, just that the stream was way wider than what was shown in the show. Really, how else was Don Krieg able to enter the Grand Line with his massive ship?

The ship increased its speed massively and shot upwards. “This is awesome”, laughed Jonny alongside Yosaku.

“Please let us survive this”, prayed Nojiko. She was sitting down now and looked exhausted. But not as exhausted as Lia. She was wet from the sweat and even slightly swaying from the prolonged use of her Devil Fruit with such intensity.

“From now on I'm gonna train to use my power with more strength”, she told me while I hugged her. Up until now she mostly trained to use her power for detailed use, on small things and with precision. The diamond production and her pebble throwing were two good examples. Both needed the exact amount of pressure on the correct side and time to get the desired result.

“Do that, we both should train our Devil Fruits more seriously from now on”, I agreed. I was the opposite. I could freeze or instant boil almost anything by massively increasing or decreasing the vibrations of an object. I'm reasonably sure that I could produce a small earthquake by now. But manipulating sound waves is really hard and light impossible for me, yet.

“Soon we will see the Grand Line and I'm gonna become a strong and proud warrior”, declared Yosaku suddenly in full seriousness.

“As will I”, agreed Jonny.

“I will see many wondrous things and travel the world”, came from Nojiko, who smiled in anticipation. This trip alone is worthy of a good story.

“I will help the people in need”, announced Jo.

“And we will just have lots of fun”, joined Lia and me at the same time. All six of us made suddenly a lurch forward when the ship shot over the top of the mountain. On each side of us, we could see other rivers that streamed together in one large one.

There even was another ship that came directly at us. It came directly at us!

“They will crash into us!”, shouted Nojiko in horror. No one ever mentioned that there will also be other ships that might cross our paths. Such a thing wasn't even hinted at in the anime.

“I got that!”, I reassured and jumped up on the railing. The other ship was only two hundred meters away from us now and I could see that it was a pirate ship. It had a Jolly Roger. Suddenly it's cannons fired at us and six cannonballs were flying directly at us.

They have had the same idea as I. Just that my approach is better. I drew Lunare, yes, I think I'll keep that name, and sent a force blade at the incoming attack. The force blade cut the cannonballs in half and they exploded harmlessly in the air.

I repositioned myself and added my vibrations to the next swing. I sent another, this time many times more powerful, force blade off. The target was the other ship. Within seconds it hit the ship and the vibration enhanced force blade cut it cleanly in two halves. The still really strong current broke both halves down within seconds and the people on it drowned or were crushed against the rock walls.

“That was a close call”, breathed Jo out in relieve. “Good to have you with us”, he added and kept a look out for any more unwanted guests. It took us a minute or so to start our descent. This time we were even faster than before and I have no doubt that this will harm the underside of our ship if we crash into the still water on the other side.

“Sorry Lia, but we need your strength one more time to slow us down to reasonable speeds”, I requested and grabbed her hand. She nodded and closed her eyes. Only moments later we started to slow down. It wasn't an instant stop, that would be way harder for her and possibly dangerous for us.

On the half way mark, we were now slow enough to manage the stop without any serious harm and only a short time before we would reach the exit we were slow enough to sail smoothly out of Rivers Mountain.

Lia's knees gave in and I helped her to sit down. “I hate it to be this weak, from tomorrow onwards I'm gonna push this ship every day, for as long as I can”, she said in self-loathing.

“You can do that, but now you have to sleep. This was too much for you.” She nodded weakly and leaned on me. Soon her breathing got more even and she was sleeping.

“Nojiko, steer us next to this lighthouse. I'll bring Lia to bed. I'll be back in a moment, we will also have to speak about our future course.” Nojiko nodded and gestured to the other three to do what I have said.

I walked inside the ship and laid Lia carefully on our bed before going back on deck. Jo, Jonny, Yosaku, and Nojiko were waiting for me.

“So back on the Grand Line? Sure isn't how I have imagined it to come back”, joked Jo.

“What is going to happen now?”, asked Yosaku with clear eagerness to move forward.

The Straw Hats will be here soon, it might be good to wait for them. “We should rest, for now, this was exhausting for all of us, especially Lia and Nojiko”, I suggested.

“That would be good, I need to reread some parts of your navigation book anyway. If what happened just now is any indicator for what will happen from now on, then I want to be prepared as best as I can”, agreed the navigator. She then excused herself and left for her room to read.

“Yosaku and I will start with our training”, said Jonny. Both walked over to our training area and started to do push ups.

Oh right, we also have the book for medicine. Jo will surely like it. “Jo, Lia and I found a book that is about medicine and treatment techniques, do you want to read it?”

“Sure, it might be interesting”, he answered with a shrug. I told him to wait for a moment and walked back inside. There I took the copy of the book out of my inventory and walked back to Jo.

He took the book and fast read over a few pages before looking at me with a glint in his eyes.

“It looks to be very detailed, thanks. This is sure to be interesting”, he then said and sat down near the railing to read.

With nothing else do to I walked back to my quarters and joined Lia. I spent my time with stroking her hair and thinking about possible training methods for our Devil Fruits and the others.