Chapter 21: East Blue Arc: Cross the Red Line!

"Nami-san, I have a report of love!" Sanji called out from the crow's nest after the crew left Battleship Island relatively unscathed. "I see big rain cloud ahead! There's a storm under them."

"Looks like we're back on our original course." Nami consulted her map. "We should be seeing the Red Line at anytime now."

"The Grand Line, at last!" Luffy grinned, pulling himself into the crow's nest.

But is it really like how it's drawn here? Nami wondered.

"Look at this!" Nami slammed the map onto the table in the dining hall, having called for a group meeting. "I'd heard rumors about it and it's drawn on this map, too. If it really is true, then the entrance to the Grand Line is a mountain. I didn't believe it myself, but the map has canals that lead to the mountain. That might mean we have to go up it."

"Someone help with the rudder!" Usopp shouted, struggling with the unmoving rudder.

"Sanji, go give Usopp a hand." Sasha instructed.

"Yes, Sasha-hime!" Sanji gushed.

"Doesn't this current seem a bit strong?" Usopp wondered.

"Usopp, what did you say?" Nami looked up.

"Current..." Sasha trailed. "Could it... Nami!" she turned to the navigator.

"That's it!" Nami arrived at the same conclusion. "They really go up the mountain. Look here." she pointed to a spot on the map. "The guiding light was definitely pointing to here on the Red Line, Reverse Mountain. See these canals here? If major currents from the four oceans all flow toward this mountain, then the four currents would go up these canals at the top, and then flow into the Grand Line. Reverse Mountain is a 'winter mountain', so any currents that collide into the Red Line will pummel from the surface into the depths. If we screw up and miss the entrance to the canal, the Going Merry will run smack into the Red Line's rock face and get wrecked. Anyways, now that we're on this current, as long as we don't mess up with the rudder, we should be able to go straight to the summit of Reverse Mountain. Sanji-kun, could you get the sail?" she requested when Going Merry headed into the rainstorm.

"I see the mysterious mountain!" Luffy called out, having been roped into help Sanji.

"The entrance to the Grand Line..." Nami muttered.

"We're getting sucked in!" Luffy shouted. "Hold the rudder good!"

"We're on it!" Usopp and Sanji hurried back to the rudder.

"Nami, where's the entrance?" Sasha yelled over the pouring rain. "We're going to crash into the rocks if we keep going like this!"

"That crack in that cliff..." Nami spotted the crack between the two cliffs. "Keep going straight ahead."

"Nami, is that the canal entrance?" Luffy asked, lowering himself from the crow's nest.

"Most likely." Nami grinned.

"This can't be real!" Zoro gaped, looking through the binoculars. "The damn ocean is really flowing up the mountain."

"We gonna make our way through those water gates just right." Nami instructed. "Otherwise the ship'll be busted into pieces."

"We're getting off course." Luffy interjected. "More to the right! Right!"

"The rudder!" the other four choursed in horror when Usopp and Sanji snapped the rudder.

"Water Formation Wall!" Sasha was already on the move, ex-quipped in her Hydromancer Robe. Making use of the gushing seawater, she raised a wall of water around the ship's hull, enabling the Going Merry to ride through the water gates.

"Now it's just a straight shot to the summit!" Nami cheered.