Chapter 225: Arriving at Reverse Mountain

Having just finished checking the Going Merry, and discovering that the ship had no major damage and had been well-maintained, Usopp finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Looks like those two thieves aren't bad; at least they kept it in good condition..."

As he spoke, Usopp glanced casually toward the distant harbor, then was shocked—because he happened to see Uchiha Feiyu and Nami walking toward the Going Merry, bringing Richie the lion with them.

"Oh no... oh no! They're coming over! Why did they bring a lion along?!"

"What do I do, what do I do? What do I do? I feel like I've caught a disease where I'll faint the moment I see a lion..."

"Damn it, Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, when are you guys coming back?! Don't leave me alone in a place like this!"

Back at the Baratie, Usopp had seen Uchiha Feiyu's strength; such a powerhouse was not something his little slingshot could handle.

Never mind Uchiha Feiyu, Usopp felt that even the big lion the other party brought could bite him in two in one go.

"It's over, these people are coming... I don't want to be eaten by a lion!"

Usopp spun around twice, saw a wooden barrel sitting on the Going Merry, gritted his teeth, pried the barrel open, curled himself inside, and finally pulled the lid shut over the barrel.

"Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, hurry back! Otherwise, the Going Merry is going to be sailed away again!!"

Returning to the Going Merry, Nami walked around the deck, a happy expression on her face:

"Looks like that Straw Hat brat and his gang didn't come to our ship, hehe, that's great..."

"Once that Straw Hat brat and his gang are all captured, no one will have designs on our Going Merry anymore!"

Usopp, inside the barrel, was gnashing his teeth in anger—this woman was too shameless! The Going Merry was clearly a ship Kaya had given to him! In this woman's mouth, it had become theirs, and instead, his group had become the thieves!

If he weren't unable to beat them, Usopp would have loved to crawl out and give this pair of scoundrels a good beating to teach them what shame was!

While thinking this, Usopp lowered his breathing inside the barrel to avoid giving himself away.

Uchiha Feiyu also scanned the Going Merry with Observation Haki, then a smile curled at the corner of his mouth as he looked toward the barrel where Usopp was hiding, though he didn't say anything extra, instead speaking up:

"Let's leave here first! Nami, it's about time to head to the Grand Line."

"Are we leaving now?"

Nami asked with some surprise. Uchiha Feiyu turned his head, sensing the rising gale on Loguetown, the dark clouds gathering in the sky, and the brewing Lightning, his expression turning somewhat serious:

"Leaving now! After all... their parent has already arrived!"

Seeing Uchiha Feiyu's serious expression, Nami nodded:

"Alright, I understand! Then let's set off!"

Although Nami didn't know what Uchiha Feiyu was worried about, she knew her captain wouldn't act without reason; if he wanted to leave, there must be a reason.

A moment later, the Going Merry left the harbor. Nami stood on the deck, looking at the receding Loguetown, and complained:

"Captain, what exactly happened? Why leave so suddenly? I was planning to look around Loguetown a bit more! And for our ship to be fully operational, we're still missing a hand."

"Besides, that Straw Hat gang should have been captured by now, right! Why not stay in Loguetown for a while longer?"

"Didn't I say? The parent of that Straw Hat gang has arrived!"

Uchiha Feiyu looked at the thunder-and-lightning-struck Loguetown in the distance and said with a light laugh:

"I told you before, right? The Straw Hat brat's grandfather is the Marine Hero, Vice Admiral Garp, and his father is the most heinous criminal designated by the World Government, the leader of the Revolutionary Army, Dragon!"

"Captain, you mean to say... the Straw Hat brat's father is here!"

Nami's face was full of astonishment, even carrying a hint of terror:

"The world's most heinous criminal... Captain, let's run!"

Uchiha Feiyu shook his head:

"Don't worry. Although the Straw Hat brat's old man is called the world's most heinous criminal by the World Government, well, the World Government... those who know, know. If this World Government did even one decent thing, they wouldn't be so inhumane!"

"Those who can be wanted by this inhumane World Government aren't necessarily bad people, but those who can be treated like a major threat and called the world's most heinous criminal by this World Government are definitely not simple villains!"

"In fact, Monkey D. Dragon is not only not a simple villain, but to this world, he could even be called a pretty good person... so there's no need to worry too much; at most, this guy will just make us return the ship to Luffy's group."

"Return the ship? That's already bad enough!"

Nami muttered. Uchiha Feiyu didn't really care; he estimated that Dragon wouldn't do something like that—this Revolutionary Army leader would save his son and his companions' lives, but he wouldn't act as his son's babysitter.

If a ship is stolen, you just go and take it back; what's the point of going to your old man? This is the logic popular on the sea nowadays; all powerhouses have made their way up like this.

Sure enough, until Loguetown finally became a small dot on the distant sea, no one had chased after them, and the weather in the sky remained quite normal. Clearly, that world's most heinous criminal didn't take the theft of his son's ship to heart.

"Alright, we've finally left Loguetown... but Feiyu, a small sailing ship like the Going Merry requires three people to be fully operated. Usually, one person is fine, but soon we'll be heading to the Grand Line. If we want to cross the Reverse Mountain, we won't be able to do it while short-handed."

"Steering the helm, controlling the sails, keeping watch and observing—we need at least three people to have enough confidence when crossing the Reverse Mountain!"

"Don't worry, I've already found a candidate."

Uchiha Feiyu laughed lightly. The blade of the Sandai Kitetsu flashed, and with a crisp 'Crack!', the wooden barrel on the deck was split in two, revealing the long-nosed Usopp hiding inside.

"Ahhhhhhh!!! I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead!!"

Usopp wailed for a moment, only to realize he hadn't been split in two; only the barrel had been cut open.

Before Usopp could even figure out what was going on—why the barrel was split but he himself was unharmed—the shadow of a sharp long sword was already slowly blocking his head.

"This long-nosed young man, you should have heard everything we just said, right!"

"No, no, no, I didn't hear anything. I just caught a disease where I forget everything I hear!"

"Oh!? Then it seems you're useless. In that case, Nami, what should we do when we encounter a lone Pirate on the sea?"

"Blindfold them and make them walk the plank? Or put them in a cannon and fire them off? Or maybe cut them into seven or eight pieces to use as fishing bait..."

Nami understood Uchiha Feiyu's meaning almost instantly and appeared in front of Usopp with a similarly sinister and terrifying look, her gaze scanning up and down Usopp's body as if checking which part would be easiest to cut off.

"Useful, useful, useful!! I'm very useful, my disease is completely cured, I actually heard everything just now!!"

"Very good. From now on, you are the handyman of the Going Merry. Handyman Number One, get to work!"

"Um... actually, my name is Usopp..."

Usopp started to say, but seeing Uchiha Feiyu's half-smiling expression, his voice grew smaller and smaller:

"Handyman Number One is fine too... Hahaha, I'm going to work!"

After saying this, Usopp took a large rag from who knows where and began scrubbing the deck diligently.

Seeing Usopp run off to work, Nami finally put away the expression on her face, frowned, and asked Uchiha Feiyu:

"This guy is also from the Straw Hat Pirates, right! Is he really trustworthy?"

"Don't worry, this long-nosed fellow is relatively easy to handle; at the very least, there's no problem having him do some odd jobs."

"Moreover, he is basically a jack-of-all-trades; whether it's ship repairs, small inventions, cannonball maintenance, or firing cannons in naval battles, long-range sniping, or keeping watch at sea, he is capable of it all."

The facts were indeed so; although Usopp was most famous for his luck, which was on the level of a gag character, in terms of pure ability, he could definitely not be called poor.

His direct Power Level might be a bit weak, but aside from his primary duty of sniping, Usopp took on the majority of other odd jobs, and even Nami's Clima-Tact was an invention of Usopp's.

Of course, the most important thing that led Uchiha Feiyu to make the decision to keep him was that this guy Usopp was easy to handle; if it were anyone else from the Straw Hat Pirates, it would not be easy at all to get them to do things.

With Uchiha Feiyu's introduction, Nami quickly discovered Usopp's abilities, and so poor Usopp directly became the ship's manual laborer, being ordered around in circles by Nami.

In the span of a few days, Usopp was not only forced by Nami to refurbish the entire ship, with the deck even being waxed, but he also manufactured weapons like the Clima-Tact for Nami, completely turning into the ship's odd-job and logistics fellow.

This early morning, on the azure sea, the Going Merry sailed slowly forward, arriving before a strange, towering mountain.

"This is the legendary Reverse Mountain! The seawater from the Four Seas gathers here into an Upward Ocean Current, and due to the pressure of the ocean, it actually flows against the Reverse Mountain up to the summit; it sounds strangely consistent with scientific principles—as if!"

This so-called scientific principle was probably similar to the "Conan-science" of the Detective Conan world, belonging to the unique oceanography of the Pirate world; in any case, Uchiha Feiyu could not understand it.

Fortunately, it didn't matter that he couldn't understand it, as long as Nami, this Navigator, could understand it; in fact, Usopp also understood some meteorology and hydrology, and on the entire ship, only Uchiha Feiyu was completely ignorant in this regard.

"What a spectacular ocean current! Once we cross the Reverse Mountain, it should be the Grand Line, right!"

Nami looked toward the distant Reverse Mountain, a look of longing appearing on her face; as a girl whose goal was to map the world and become the top Navigator, the Grand Line was undoubtedly the most important part of realizing her dream.

"I-I-I-I-I... are we really going to charge through this Reverse Mountain? Actually, I have always had a disease where I die if I go up the Reverse Mountain..."

Usopp's face was pale, his whole body trembling, his legs weak, and looking at the towering mountain and the rushing ocean current before him, he looked as if he had been washed in water.

"What kind of stupid things are you saying? If you don't want the ship to be destroyed and everyone to die, if you really don't want to die on the Reverse Mountain, then hurry up and adjust the ship; we are about to charge up!"

"I don't mind; even if the Going Merry crashes into the mountain peak, with my strength, the only thing that will shatter is the rock, not me. Nami has the power of the Slippery-Slippery Fruit, so this level of physical attack cannot hurt her, and even if she falls into the sea, she can rely on the power of the Devil Fruit to surf right back up. By then, the only one who will die is you!"

Usopp's eyes widened instantly, his face full of disbelief; so on this ship, he was the only one in mortal danger!

"Why aren't you hurrying to sail the ship! What are you standing there blankly for?"

Nami said to Usopp with no good grace; at this moment, Usopp's body stopped trembling, and he ran straight to the helm to begin controlling the entire ship.

Although Usopp's steering level could not be called very brilliant, in reality, in the entire East Blue, this level could already be called first-class, and with Nami's guidance, there was actually a seventy or eighty percent chance of passing through the Reverse Mountain.

As for the remaining twenty or thirty percent, that could only depend on luck; if they happened to collide with a ship coming from another sea area, or that large island whale Laboon who had something wrong with its brain, then that would not be a problem that navigation skills could solve.

Well, navigation skills couldn't solve it, but Uchiha Feiyu's Flying Slash could certainly solve it; at worst, he would just swing his blade and split the other party's ship in two.

To a certain extent, when sailing on the Grand Line, while navigation skills certainly count as one aspect, strength is actually an even more important aspect.

If navigation skills are insufficient, one can use strength to compensate; Dracule Mihawk, Silvers Rayleigh, and Kaido are the best examples of this. Their navigation skills are clearly not very brilliant, but relying on their own strength, they can still travel through the Grand Line without obstruction.

And if one's strength is insufficient, no matter how brilliant one's navigation skills are, one will always encounter situations that are beyond one's control; after all, the weather in the Grand Line is not a place where normal humans can sail.

The first half of the Grand Line is merely erratic weather, but once you reach the second half, it's simply meteorites and icebergs falling from the sky, lightning storms, and flames; it is simply not a place that a normal ship can pass through.

Even if you brought an aircraft carrier from the real world, if your strength isn't enough, it's still a dead end. It's only because the monsters in the second half of the Grand Line all have astonishing strength that they didn't die there.

(End of this chapter)