A young swordsman's adventure 20

I was actually able to get a chapter of a commission done this month! A good sign. Next month I'm going to try for two, specifically the 3rd and 4th chapter of Scientific chronicles, which also include heavy edits to the 2nd chapter, and probably some minor ones to the 1st. I skipped over way too much, and need to slow down.

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“That was a productive training session.” Tanya announced as she served dinner to her crew. Even though Cookie was capable of cooking some things on their own, for the most part Tanya had to take charge of the kitchen and let Cookie assist her. 

“What is this?” Ace asked, nose twisted in disgust but without slowing down his pace. “Slimy, salty…” 

“It's fermented soybeans.” Tanya said proudly. “It's been ages since I've had some good natto.” She picked up some at Shimotsuki Island, and had been patiently waiting for it to finish fermenting. “So good…” 

“It's an acquired taste.” Kuina said, unenthusiastically eating her own portion. “Grandpa loved it.” Yes, she last had it back when she was living with them. “It's okay.” 

Deuce seemed unbothered by the flavor, neither disgusted nor excited. “Yeah, reminds me of this thing we had back home, it was also a fermented bean, but it was called a butterbean. Very fatty. The smell of it… I usually spread it over toast.” 

“You're insane, by the way.” Ace added as he finished his bowl of rice. “Who shoots cannons at people and calls it training?” 

“Artillery is essential for the training.” Tanya insisted, “It’s the best way to put steel in your spine.” Specifically, the deceptively safe element of danger will make their haki flourish. “Your progress is insane, by the way.” She added, “Are you sure you're not his grandson? Heritage like that would make that talent sensible.” By all accounts, Monkey D. Dragon was an incredibly talented Marine before he defected and went revolutionary. Tanya would wonder why, but then she remembered everything about the Celestial Dragons and it all made sense. 

Ace flinched at the question. Ah, she should maybe not joke about that. “I'm sure.” He said evenly. 

Deuce quickly changed the subject. “Hey, that reminds me. I heard a rumor recently that Gold Roger has a living son.”

“Impossible.” Tanya said immediately. Grandpa would have mentioned it, for sure. “Do you have any idea how many innocent civilians the World Government murdered to remove that as a possibility?” 

Deuce blinked. “What?”

“Baterilla.” Tanya explained. “They killed every baby born within two years of the man’s death on the rumor that Gol Roger was seen there shortly beforehand.” Oddly, this wasn't even classified. They didn't even bother to hide what they were doing, and people apparently approved, Gol D. Roger was so feared. “I’d have heard if such a kid survived.” 

“Oh?” Ace asked, intrigued. “Why's that?” 

Tanya scoffed. “Because the only surviving member of Roger’s crew I haven’t gotten a chance to speak to over the last decade is in Wano, and I seriously doubt you’d have heard a rumor from there.” Tanya paused. “Actually, now that I think about it… if Toki sent the mother ahead in time… that could work. Wouldn't even need to hide them in Wano, she could hide in plain sight, which would mean…” Tanya nodded to herself. “Okay, I acknowledge that there are ways. But the rumor’s probably fake.”

Ace seemed surprised at the frank answer. “You… know his crew?”

Tanya nodded, swallowing her natto. “Most of them are just old men now, idly enjoying their retirement. Including my grandfather.” She was actually planning on asking Crocus to teach Deuce a thing or two when they go over Reverse Mountain, but she could ask him straight out about it too. “Their doctor’s on our route, we can ask him when we meet. I can never get through a meeting with him without a full checkup anyway.” The aged doctor was more or less Tanya’s general practitioner, given how Father stopped by for said checkup every time they passed Reverse Mountain. She was just grateful he didn’t feel obligated to travel halfway across the world whenever she got sick and was satisfied with local doctors in that case. 

Kuina spoke up, having finished her natto and rice. “Most?” She asked, curious. 

“Well, there’s ‘Red-Haired’ Shanks…” Tanya said idly, trailing off. “He was the cabin boy.” She paused. “Wait… is your grandfather Roger’s Father-in-Law?” She asked Ace seriously. “I always assumed Shanks was so indulgent of Luffy because of Uta, but if he was Roger’s son… No one would ever suspect it.” It was also kind of stupid to conceal Roger’s son as Dragon’s son, but the important part was who his grandfather was, so it did make some amount of sense. Particularly if the plan was hatched before Dragon’s defection… when was that? If she assumes Toki sent Luffy’s mother, who was Garp’s secret daughter (and the man was already established to consider adoption as equal to blood), ahead in time to conceal the birth… “Yes, it all adds up.”

Deuce had started wheezing in laughter in the middle of her speculation, while Ace looked absolutely mortified. “Who the hell is Toki?” He eventually asked. 

“The wife of one of the Roger pirates.” Tanya explained, “Well, more of a loan from the Whitebeard pirates, but he was there at Laugh Tale, so he counts.” Oden was rather indispensable to their journey, in fact. “She ate the Time-time fruit, which allowed her to send anything forward in time. Perfect for concealing a pregnancy that ends far too distant from Roger’s death to be his son.” For some reason, Ace seemed absolutely infuriated at that answer. Uh oh, she better elaborate. “The timing seems iffy, but it would really depend on when exactly he learned of the hypothetical pregnancy. If we assume it was indeed Baterilla, it would be difficult for Toki to have been there, as that island’s in the South Blue, not the New World. But it could work if he knew about the pregnancy before he left the New World, from a letter perhaps.” She’d need to ask Grandpa about some small details to confirm her theory, but she felt confident in her deduction. “Or if he asked Whitebeard to fetch Toki for the trip… or Mr. Memora could be a lot better at keeping secrets than I thought and was involved…”

“No, it’s Ace.” Deuce said between laughs. Or that. 

Tanya blinked, surprised at the odd coincidence. “Oh. Garp covered for you. That makes sense. Well, I suppose that makes us cousins, of a sort. It’s nice to know you.” Grandpa did proclaim sworn brotherhood with Roger, after all. “Don’t think this means you can slack off on your duties,” She added, “But I suppose I can add another stop or two to ensure that you can meet the rest of the family.” She was going to say hi to any she found herself near already, she’ll just need to expand her definition of ‘near’. “They’ll be thrilled to meet you.” Well, Mr. Memora would probably be happier not knowing that, as that would be some very Big News indeed, and he hated having juicy gossip he couldn’t tell anyone about. 

For some reason, Ace seemed poleaxed at her response. The rest of the meal went quietly, while Tanya tried to ignore how much he resembled an adorable puppy that had been kicked one too many times... Damn overactive hormones…

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Tanya loved counting her well-earned money. One of her favorite activities, really. Lougetown was a trading hub between the East and South blues, as while the World Government’s control over the area around Reverse Mountain was extremely loose, they did still maintain enough of a presence to keep a trade route going past the Twin Capes, identical to the route over by Sabaody. Theoretically, it was also a good place to get goods from the North and West Blues, as the only thing stopping merchants from using Reverse Mountain to get from one side of the Red Line to the other was sanity, but she would never buy goods at such inflated prices. 

She had just finished trading with South Blue merchants, and with a quick round trip to Frauce and back, she was sitting on a tidy profit, all between training her new crew members. “Tanya!” Kuina shouted from outside. “The Marines are coming!”

Oh? What do they want? Reluctantly, she put her money back in her vault and left the map table to check it out. Indeed, the personal ship of the local Marine Captain was approaching, and Captain Smoker did not look happy. 

Tanya wasn’t terribly surprised that the good Captain wanted to throw his weight around. He had been recently promoted to his post, and already he had done an admirable job capturing pirates that stop by the Polestar islands to resupply before they ventured into the Grand Line, either via Reverse Mountain or by storming the trade lane, going through Vice-Admiral Bluegrass’ sleepy watch with either force or guile. Force rarely worked out, but the old woman’s fortress was known for being something of a dead-end post where malingerers and lazy Marines that weren’t quite bad enough to oust were shoved to. It wasn’t that difficult for pirates to impersonate ordinary merchants and slip by undetected, if they were willing to put their flag away for a day or two. Someone like Uncle Buggy could never do such a thing. He was too flashy. 

The moment Smoker brought a snail’s microphone to his mouth, one of the cannons went off, contributing further to Deuce’s training with the humandrills. A plume of dust came up from the nearby sandbar as the non-explosive round buried itself in the ground. Tanya took a glance at the impact location. Oh, he wasn’t too close that time. That was progress if it wasn’t a fluke. She signed to Kayaku: “Was that on target?”

“Mask dodged.” Kayaku signed silently, his fingers flashing in what would be a clipped tone if he used words. 

“Use a live round next.” Tanya instructed, “We will pretend it was an accident.” She added. Eventually, her crew will learn HSL and thus be able to tell when she was plotting with the monkeys. But not today. 

“Yes Princess.” Kayaku hooted, grinning evilly. 

Smoker finally managed to recover his composure as he actually used the snail loudspeaker instead of just swearing up a storm without transmitting. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, pirate?”

Tanya frowned. “On what grounds do you accuse me of Piracy?” She shouted, using her conqueror’s haki to project her words to the marine ship. She wasn’t feeling polite enough to use semaphore. “Answer carefully, Captain.”

“You sail under the aegis of a Royal Warlord.” Smoker spat, “You’re a pirate.” Behind him, his troops quailed at the feeling of overwhelming might, although as Tanya was not flexing her conqueror’s with the intention of subduing them they remained conscious. 

Well, that was fair enough. “As long as we have an understanding that I am outside your authority, Captain.” Tanya said more calmly. “What brings you to my little resting spot? I was going to do a bit of careening when the tide got a little lower, the graving dock was full when I last checked.” While no barnacle from the East Blue could dare to root in Adam wood, the Taolf wood was another matter entirely. It was important to stay on top of that kind of thing. Ace was practicing selective burning in the forge room for precisely that task. Also because ‘not burning something’ is pretty much the most obvious thing a person with conceptual fire powers could train to refine their mastery. 

“You’ve been terrorizing people for too long. I’m not going to allow it.” Smoker said evenly, gripping the hilt of his weapon. …what? 

The cannon went off again. Immediately, Deuce abandoned his combat stance and leapt out of the blast radius into one of the craters previously opened up by the battle. Swabbie copied him, using his giant mop as a polevault to increase the speed of his movement. The explosive round detonated on impact with the sand, sending smoke and sand up. 

Both Deuce and Swabbie bolted back upwards, enraged. “THAT ONE WAS REAL!” He shouted angrily at Kayaku. Swabbie howled in anger while using sign language to say the same thing at the same time. 

Kayaku merely grinned and signed ‘oops’, a touch of the lips with three fingers, palm facing inward. “YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE!” Deuce shouted, Swabbie imitating his body language exactly while howling the same sentiment. 

Ah, it was good to see her crew acclimate to each other. Even if they sucked at lying. “Alright, take a break!” Tanya shouted, “Go have some booze as a reward for unlocking your Observation.” He would be the last of the three to do so, but better late than never. Grandpa said that it usually took six to eight months of dedicated training to get someone to consciously use Observation, but clearly he didn’t have access to artillery, which is the best training tool. Even Princess Vivi could manage Observation after a month of her training, although admittedly she didn’t have the time to manage Armament with her. Tanya always thought that Observation was more important anyway. 

Deuce blinked. “What?”

“You sensed the explosive before it went off.” Tanya explained, “We’ll do another blindfolded session later to be sure, but you shouldn’t have been able to get away in time if you didn’t see the explosion coming.”

After a moment of processing the explanation, Deuce grinned. “I did!” He realized. “C’mon Swabbie, let’s get some wine.” He used the sign for ‘wine’, one of the few he’d picked up over the last month. Swabbie signed it back, cheering. Kayaku joined them, although it immediately provoked a slap fight as there was a dominance contest on who could go through the door below decks first. 

The Marine ship continually came closer as they talked, and Smoker did not appreciate cannons going off during the conversation. Smoker leapt onto the Argent, a trail of smoke replacing his legs as he used his Smoke-Smoke fruit as rocket propulsion. “Stop bombarding the islands.” He said dangerously. 

Tanya scoffed. “How exactly am I supposed to train my crew without artillery?” She asked rhetorically. “I’m well away from any settlement, and I’ve only struck the coastline.” Any form of training can be improved by a sufficiently deft deployment of artillery. The 203rd were living proof… Although admittedly she wouldn’t be surprised if most of them died to some foolhardy stratagem that expected miracles of them soon after her own death. 

“...You’re joking.” Smoker deadpanned. “Training.”

“Of course.” Tanya replied, “I’ve heard the kinds of things the Marines consider good training, this shouldn’t be much of a stretch.” Well, she’s heard via Ace what kind of training Garp put Luffy through. Artillery barrages were downright precise in comparison to some of that stuff. Expensive, though. Gunpowder was cheap, but in those quantities? Fortunately, she was rich.  

“Well, train your gun crews somewhere else.” Smoker insisted, apparently deciding that was what she was doing despite how she wasn’t using nearly enough shells for that to be what she was doing. 

Well, admittedly it was also okay precision training for Kayaku, Kiyou, and Cookie’s skills with the Artillery, but that wasn’t what she was doing. “On one condition.” Tanya said anyway. Given the levels of frustration he was showing… Smoker was probably only here because he’s had other people bother him about her activities. 

“I’m listening.” Smoker growled. 

“Nothing serious, just help me test my crew’s improvement. Do you have someone who pursues the art of the sword? Your own logia would compare against Ace’s strength well.” Tanya said calmly. 

“Just some rookie.” Smoker deadpanned, “Just joined up, absolutely obsessed with swords.” He gestured to his ship. “The one with blue hair.”

Tanya looked towards the Marine vessel and took a double take. “...Kuina, does Wano’s culture have anything against identical twins? You know, the kind where you pick one and send the other off to certain death?” She asked. 

Kuina looked at her, confused. “What are you talking about? No, no they don’t. My mother had an identical twin.”

“Looks like we just found your cousin-slash-half-sister, then.” Tanya announced. 

Smoker scratched his chin as he looked over Kuina’s appearance. “Huh… the face is identical. It’s uncanny.” He turned to his much closer ship, which had anchored close enough for even East Blue marines to be able to jump the gap. “Petty Officer Tashigi.” He grumbled. “Get over here.” 

Tanya frowned. Their best swordsman was just a petty officer? It was the rank where the Marines started to allow deviations from the dress code, so the girl was wearing a floral shirt underneath a jacket. Well, at least her sword was Graded, from the looks of it. 

Petty Officer Tashigi was a much more svelte girl than Kuina was, and she appeared to be about the same age as Kuina, eighteen or nineteen. A glance at her own swordsmith showed how Kuina practically burned with jealousy about her cousin’s more feminine build. Well, everyone wanted what they didn’t have. Tanya’d trade with her in a heartbeat if it was an option. 

The Marine also had glasses on her forehead, and she slipped them down over her eyes after she landed on the deck. “Is that… Shodai Kitetsu!?” She exclaimed, immediately recognizing the guard of the legendary blade, despite the gold-plated, gem-encrusted sheathe. “One of the twelve Supreme-Grade swords!?”

“Yes.” Tanya said calmly. “Is she really the best you have?” She asked Smoker. 

“Then-Captain Gage got to pick some subordinates to take with him when he got promoted out of this dump to headquarters. He took all of the Marines that knew anything about swordwork.” Smoker explained. Ah. Politics. He turned to Tashigi. “This is the World’s Strongest Princess. She wants you to fight your twin over there. Don’t embarrass us.”

“Eh?” Tashigi asked, confused. “Princess?” She looked Tanya up and down, adjusted her glasses. “You sure?” Tanya cracked a smile at her disappointment. 

“Try not to lose.” Smoker corrected. 

In short order, Kuina and Tashigi were on the sandbar, picked to be the most inconvenient for Kuina’s leg, ready to fight. Tanya sat on the railing of her ship, petting Saifu next to Smoker. 

“That’s a good blade you have there.” Kuina said to start their pre-battle banter. “Looks like Shigure, forged twenty-eight years ago by the swordsmith Ao Tenki of Shimotsuki Island.”

Tashigi smiled. “It is! I’m sorry but I don’t recognize your blades.” She bowed in apology. 

“You shouldn’t.” Tashigi said, proud. “This is one of many nameless failures to craft a Graded blade…” She said, gesturing to the sword in her hand. “While this is Chigiri Kakudo, forged by me. Thirty-four days ago.” She added, gesturing to her leg. 

“You’re a smith?” Tashigi asked, shocked. “Then you must feel it too!” She declared. “When swords are used by evil, selfish men, they cry out in pain!”

Kuina’s train of thought visibly derailed at Tashigi’s words. She took a moment to process them, trying to figure out if Tashigi was serious. “...That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard!” She shouted angrily. “A sword is like a kitchen knife, but for murder!” She added, echoing her grandfather. “A smith toils hard to make sure their blades are better at killing than any other! It is a sword that’s used for anything but killing that cries out in indignation!”

There were no more words. Kuina staggered towards Tashigi, her pegleg doing a terrible job on the wet, sandy terrain. Tashigi used a soft sword style, which Tanya recognized as one of the eight or so styles endorsed by the Marines, the Gentle Blade style. Unless she trained in a feeder dojo, she probably only started learning how to actually use a sword within the last three or four years. While the Marines accepted applications at age 13 theoretically, they only actually accepted kids that young if they were desperate to fill their quota, had a large training program going that wasn’t full yet, or if the kid was talented enough to not need much training. Under normal circumstances, the general age of acceptance was 16, although the official age being 13 meant that they were fairly loose with that requirement. 

Kuina’s hybrid soft/hard style against Tashigi’s soft style made their fight something like a dance, with Tashigi trying her best to exploit Kuina’s frequent openings from her missing leg and Kuina successfully deflecting each strike. 

“Hm. Tashigi’s from a rich background, isn’t she?” Tanya asked Smoker, rubbing Saifu’s belly. Her skin and hair were very well-tended to. To Tanya’s high-definition vision, the minor scars and burns that Kuina accumulated over her lifetime was a stark contrast, and while her hair was reasonably well-tended to, Tashigi’s made it look atrocious in comparison. “I wonder what she uses on her hair…” It may be a bit girly, but she still needed, as a princess, to be able to dress up when needed, so even though she kept it boyishly short for ease of maintenance she always made sure to take care of the hair she kept. Also, anyone who says taking care of their skin is unmanly gets to debate the point with Shodai Kitetsu. 

“Never asked.” Smoker admitted, “But that would make sense. She’s touchy about men thinking she's helpless.”

After enough exchanges that Kuina was satisfied that her opponent wasn’t holding back anything, she stepped up her speed, forcing Tashigi’s guard upwards while unsheathing her leg with a twist of her knee, following through by falling backwards into a handstand and lashing out with Chigiri Kakudo. “Two-Sword style: Rising Crane Slash!” Kuina declared in Wanogo. To Tashigi’s credit, she managed to barely scramble backwards just enough to avoid the tip of the blade… but the flying slash that Kuina launched with that kick opened up a deep cut on her stomach, with the crashing of the slash on Tashigi’s pectorals tearing up her shirt. Unfortunately, it only destroyed the lower half. 

“That’s the match!” Tanya announced, “Go get that cut treated, Petty Officer.” She commanded. 

Tashigi scowled at Tanya. “Captain!” She began, indignant. 

“Listen to the princess.” Smoker drawled, “I have a match of my own.”

“Kuina.” Tanya said. The smith stood at attention, having just finished sheathing her leg again. She’s gotten better at it… “While this time it was unnecessary, and you should have known it was so from her rank and my own assessment, I’m not going to say that taking the time to get your enemy’s measure was the wrong decision. Just keep in mind you won’t always have that luxury.” After a beat, she added: “Good work on that flying slash.”

Ace, shirtless as was his habit, walked onto the deck, following the monkey that Tanya sent to fetch him. “What’s up?” As he was immune to fire, the sweat that studded his chest was purely from the exertion and concentration of his training, proof of his diligence. “Tanya? Why’d you ask for me?”

…Damnit. Not again. “Ah, we’re going to see if you’re ready for the Grand Line.” Tanya said, as if his devil fruit alone wasn’t sufficient to put him in the top one percent of fighters in Paradise. “This is Marine Captain Smoker. Fight him. Win.” Was she going to warn him about that seastone tip she spotted on his jutte? No. No she was not. 

Ace exceeded expectations, as usual. It took him a while to actually use armament to overcome Smoker’s defenses, but he handled the seastone weapon with aplomb. Also, the fire and smoke probably did more to terrorize the populace than her occasional artillery shot ever did. 

“As promised, Captain Smoker,” Tanya said once the chain-smoking marine was back on his ship, conscious, and with a fresh pair of cigars. “I’ll be taking my crew to the Grand Line now. They’re ready.”

Smoker exhaled, letting his cigar smoke obscure his entire body. “I’ll give the Vice-Admiral a heads up.” He grumbled. 

“Oh, that won’t be necessary.” Tanya said, grinning in anticipation. “What kind of self-respecting pirate would I be if I went through the trade lane? Oh no.” She backflipped to the front of the Argent, and the humandrills all got up and went to their stations without her needing to tell them. “Weigh anchor! Tack the sails! Our heading: Reverse Mountain!” She shouted dramatically, pointing towards the landmark in question. 

Tanya then laughed as the humandrills followed her commands swiftly, the ship starting to move in mere seconds. She laid her hand on the front of the ship and started to focus her haki on the keel. “Yes, now you will get to see the Grand Line’s introductory wonder! Throw aside reason and embrace your ambition!” The ship lurched forward as it started to cut through the water at a faster rate. 

Deuce gripped the mast as they picked up speed. “Already?”

Kuina whooped in joy as she swung on a rope, tightly gripping it with her thighs. “Finally!” She shouted. 

Ace launched himself onto the contraption that they set up behind the ship and set off some fire, giving them some additional thrust. “I’ve been hearing about this mountain for weeks! I can’t wait any longer!”

Moving at speeds that the ship was not remotely designed to go, the tallest mountain in the world came closer and closer, a gate built to welcome you to the river that flows upwards. “You know…” Tanya shouted, grinning. “This is the first time I’ve ever brought a ship this big up Reverse Mountain!” Tanya let that sink in to her crew before adding: “Actually, I’ve never done it at all! Father always took care of it!” 

All three of them, plus the humandrills, suddenly started asking questions in a panicked manner. To further terrorize them for her own amusement, Tanya added: “But how hard can it be?” That did not make them feel better. It was important that they not feel too safe, if they’re to get stronger. 

They crashed into the upward slope so hard their ship actually impacted the bottom of the river, jolting the whole crew. Tanya’s right hand stayed on the railing, focused on the keel. Her left flashed out instructions for the humandrills, making subtle adjustments to their heading to account for the numerous disruptions in the water. Some of them, they compensated for. Others, they just cut through. .

Some foolish people may assume that there was something stopping the forces of erosion, for surely if it wasn’t, Reverse Mountain would be less, right? Not so. She had it on good authority that this exotic landscape was less than one thousand years old, and that was plenty of time for there to be the high walls of the channels without making anywhere near deep enough chasms to disrupt anything. 

Thus, every time one passes, there is always the risk that any impact, tremor, or just plain bad luck could cause an eroding cliff face to finally give way to the forces of entropy. Like now. A chunk of rock the same size as the ship broke free from the wall of the channel, poised to stop their adventure before it could truly begin. 

“Fire fist!” Ace shouted as he launched a massive gout of flame that, from experience, Tanya knew carried an impressive concussive force as the magic of devil fruits scaled up the strength of his punch to match the size of the compressed flame. 

It bought them a second. 

“Kokuto Issen!” Tanya shouted, slicing the massive chunk of rock in half. With a flourish, the two pieces impacted both sides of the chasm, missing their ship completely… while also provoking every single unstable rock along the entire waterway into collapsing as well. 

Tanya laughed again, sending out flying slashes to deflect the rocks in front of them. Ace continued to run interference on the ones that came from above, while Kuina intercepted whatever Ace missed, or didn’t deflect far enough. Deuce pulled out one of the humandrill’s shoulder-mounted cannons and used it to intercept at least one rock, the desperation of the situation giving him the strength to handle one of the portable mortars. 

“Is everyone having fun?” Tanya shouted back at her crew. 

“HOW IS THIS FUN!?” Kuina and Deuce shouted, while Ace just laughed while nodding. A man after her own heart… urk. No, wait. 

Tanya distracted herself from her traitorous thoughts by laughing. “This is why we call this place a Pirate’s Paradise! Welcome to the Grand Line!” On cue, they crested the mountain, their momentum enough to gain several seconds of air time. 

The sudden peace of the apex of their flight stunned her crew as they looked ahead at the curve of the world, each of the seven starting islands clearly visible. Well, maybe they were too far away for her crew to notice, but that wasn’t important. 

As always, the magic of weightlessness vanished all too soon. Gravity reasserted itself, and Tanya instructed the helmsmonkey, Kaiten, to adjust the heading the appropriate amount to not crash into the side of the downwards channel, the last real obstacle for this part of their journey. 

Already, she could see the lighthouse that Crocus maintained, with the Island Whale, Laboon, floating nearby in the drugged up state that Crocus kept it in whenever its suicide attempts got too close to succeeding. The whale’s story was tragic, but it refused to listen to reason, so there wasn’t much to do. 

Tanya sighed. “Okay, that’s the last fun we’re getting for a while, as there’s one more thing we need to do before we set out on this journey.”

Her crew looked at her confusedly. “What?” Ace asked, breathing deeply after the exertion on the way up. 

“We need… to get a medical checkup.” Tanya announced. 

“EHHH?”