with obstacles

“Listen up, guys”, Nami had displayed the map she had taken from Buggy on the table next to the rudder. The map that was supposed to lead to the Grand Line.

“If this map is accurate, we are headed straight for the entrance of the Grand Line: Reverse Mountain. A peak in the Red Line, that has a channel from each Blue running up its sides and one down.”

“Running up?”, Zoro questioned.

“Don't you dare doubt Nami! She would never be wrong!”

“How sure can we be, the map is accurate? It's not like you drew it, you got it from Buggy”, you reasoned.

“I'm guessing it at the very least must be looking right. I don't know the specifics, but I heard Buggy's been to the Grand Line before. He'd hardly care about me stealing it, if it was wrong.”

“So...?”

“I've set the course. We're aiming for the exact spot, where the Calm Belt of the East Blue meets the Red Line. Now we go with the wind, until we can see the stream up the Red Line.”

“I'm not much of an expert, but it looked, like we're heading for a storm...”, Usopp brought up.

“Yes, that's inevitable. The Red Line is higher than the clouds. Streams from all over the East Blue are pushing clouds there and with the spray that has to be going on there, the air must be moist as anything. We'll have to pull in the sails, when we get there.”

“So it's the perfect time for a toast!”, Luffy said with a grin.

He had, somehow without any of us noticing brought a barrel from below deck and now the six of you were standing around it.

“We're going to the Grand Line!...”, Luffy started raising his leg ready to place it on the barrel.

“... to become the greatest swordsman in the world!”, Zoro placed his leg on the barrel.

“... to make an accurate sea-chart!”, Nami followed suit.

“... to become a brave warrior of the sea!”, Usopp joined them.

“... to find the All Blue!”, Sanji said with a grin.

“... to find family!”, you said. Sure it sounded odd. But it was the most succinct way of putting, what you hoped to do. You wanted to be there with your friends, when they achieved their goals. But you also thought to get closer not only to them, but also to new friends you'd find on the world's biggest ocean.

“... to become Pirate King!”, Luffy closed, placing his foot between yours and Zoro's.

All of you together brought your feet up and than kicked the barrel to pieces (though you suspected that two people in particular made the barrel break). And than you headed back into the kitchen to raise some glasses.

Zoro had a sadistic grin on his face, as you approached the Grand Line. Dark clouds were overhead, pouring down astonishing amounts of rain back into the sea and onto the Merry and met the distinct wall of the Red Line. “Go up the mast and help striking the sail. What a great way to start your work out!”

You quickly found, that the simple act of striking the sail, was hard work under these conditions. Wind and rain were already picking up, while you climbed up the rigging and you were already winded, when you reached the top.

To your dismay Zoro actually stopped Luffy from helping you, as Usopp and you pulled up the wet and therefor heavy sail. Looking up, you saw your destination: behind the perpetual black clouds and the equally dark water was the looming wall of the Red Line.

And close to the corner, where you could see the Calm Belt due to the lack of spray and the clouds above it being stationary, instead of roiling over themselves, there was a crevice. You made your way down to the deck as quickly as you could to report to Nami.

“Fuck!”, she went over to the helm, which didn't react at all to her attempts to readjust the rudder. You tried to help her, but found, that you couldn't make a difference and got Sanji instead.

Sanji did get the helm to budge, for a split second before it broke and the stump snapped into to the **** position.

Nami stormed to the deck while explaining: “We couldn't move the rudder, because the current is pushing us. I should have realized this. We can't steer with the rudder at all. We have to trust, that the current will bend in time because at best we can try steering with the sails.”

“How?”

“Ideally not. With these winds opening the sails might break the mast. For now it looks like we did enough. Usopp and I will see if we can fix the helm. You and the others go on look-out to make sure, we don't hit the wall.”

Nami, of course, had been right. The ship was rapidly approaching the “crack” which by now looked like a canyon. In its middle was the stream, wide enough that even beasts like marine battleships or Don Krieg's flagship could fit with ample room on either side.

Of course the good mood didn't last long: “Shit! Paddling will do nothing at best and cause us to capsize at worst, if we attempted to use the rudder, the helm would just break again and if we try to use the sail, we'll die even quicker.”

Nami estimated, that we we're off course. Not by much only three meters at most, but at the speed we we're going, that was more than enough.

Zoro, as so often, was scarily calm: “That problem can't be solved with cutting, so nothing I can help you with. If that cook could get his head out off his ass, he'd realize, he can't kick our course either and leave Nami some room to come up with a solution.”

“Zoro, you're a genius!”

“What are you talking about, Yuri?”

But you were already off, to explain your plan to Sanji and Luffy: “My dad told me the story, about how he could walk on air. Back then I thought it was just that, a story. But after traveling with you guys, I have to believe it's possible!”

“So what? Even if you could teach us how to walk on air before we crash, we'd be stranded on the Red Line”, Sanji objected.

“No, you idiot! Thanks to Nami we have enough time, to push the ship! If you can walk on air, you can brace against air. At this distance even a few weak pushes could make enough of a difference.”

And so Sanji, Luffy and you got to work, attempting to kick the air ten times in a second until it gave resistance. You quickly learned, that the ten times per second were hardly the whole trick as both Sanji and Luffy were that fast barely trying and even you could see yourself getting there after only a few months of training.

And none of you figured out the rest of the secret. Luffy single-handedly, or rather single-bodily saved the day, by blowing himself up to a cushion and let the merry bounce off of himself up into the stream.

Going up the Red Line was an experience that could not be put into words properly:

The feeling of getting pushed up.

The weightlessness at the summit and the view of the clouds from above.

The incredible rush on the way down.

Nami and you were holding each other at the mast, while the stream pressed you down the mountain faster than gravity would. You were not sure where Sanji and Zoro were, but you could hear Usopp screaming behind you and could see Luffy sitting on the figurehead at the front of the Merry.

“Hey Nami, what's up with that dark cloud down at the bottom?”

“Dark cloud? We've already gone back below cloud level... There should be fog at the bottom, but no clouds...”

Nami's musing was interrupted by Zoro's voice coming from the crows nest: “It looks like there's a big mountain in our way.”

“What? That can't be right. If there was a mountain right at the exit, the map would've said so.”

Mountain or not, there definitely was something at the bottom. It was so big, it almost blocked the exit, despite it being quite a bit away.

There was again panic on deck.

“We won't learn air-walk in time. We have to slow the ship down”, Sanji exclaimed.

“How about we open the sail?”, Zoro suggested.

“It would slow us, but it would also either capsice the Merry or snap the mast”, Nami answered.

“What about paddling?”, you brought up.

“It won't kill us, but I doubt it'll be enough.”

And so Usopp and Sanji and you and Zoro got to paddling while Nami manned the helm.

And again Luffy single-handedly saved our asses.