33: new ship?

Nami directed them into a water elevator to bring them to the shipbuilding part of the city, where they enter a tower with flowing a]water and a gate. Nami explains how after they enter the gate closes blocking the flowing water and make the water level rise, after they reach a certain level another gate opens letting them out of the elevator and into the shipbuilding area. Leaving the elevator nami directs the bulls towards shipyard #1 where they were told to meet iceburg, when they arrived they were greeted by a crowd of people and had an old man explain that pirates were causing trouble inside. He explained how this is common as the shipyard builds for pirates as well and most time they don't want to owe for it afterwards causing the shipwrights to beat the shit out of them before selling the ship they either repaired or built to others.

They made their way to the miney exchange building where they exchanged all their gold for cash for a total of 700 million beri but when nami heard this she knew they were being scammed as the gold they brought was worth way more than states and she threatens him about luffys bounty and if he lies during the appraisal again he will die. This causes him to bring out the actual worth of the gold which is 1.3 billion beri not the 700 they tried to give as a scam, this amount shocked the crew as they have never seen so much in one place before. Alex had to sirorise them again as

"Thats only for the gold from skypiea right i still have gold from all the other places we stopped st so should we ex=xchamge that as well or keep if just in case we need it in the future?"-alex

Nami thinks about it and decided that alex should hold onto the gold for now snd that they would exchange it for money another time, so they leave for their meeting with iceberg after alex out the money in her shadow. Usopp and luffy wanted to know what it felt like carrying so much money so alex left them with a briefcase each full of cash with a threat of castration should they lose the money, and nami couldn't help but ask

"Why do you always threaten with castration rather than death?"-nami

"Its because it more terrifying for them, it like me threatening to remove your boobs rather than kill you. We both know your probably rather death than that, its the same for men."-alex

This leave nami in a contemplative silence as she thinks that over. Luffy ends up losing his money holding privileges instantly as he almost fling the suitcase into the water causing usopp, nami, and alex to beat the shit out of him till his face was swollen and purple and alex put the money back into her shadow. Arriving at the shipyard they are greeted by a guy who has a nose similar to usopp but square, and he explains that iceberg is the mayor of water 7 and is hard to meet. He then starts stretching saying he is able to look at their ship for them so they know what they would need from iceberg when they meet before running and jumping over the edge of the precipice towards the city below, leaving the crew shocked as they thought he would die due to the fall.

Watching him fall the crew hears someone explain about how he would be fine as he does it all the time, so they turn and are greeted by a middle age guy with blue hair and stripped suit as well as a women in a black suit with blonde hair and glasses. The women then goes on read out of a binder the name of the crew members with bounties, the total bounty, the number of members and where they formed as well as the accomplishments they have, leaving them stunned. Alex walks next to the women and leans over her shoulder to see what else she has written in her binder but she yells

"That sexual Harassment!"-khalifa

Leaving alex stunned as she didn't think the woman would yell that. Luffy then points at iceberg and asks

"But isn't this the guy the one that granny was talking about?"-luffy

Which nami agreed to. The secretary khalifa then goes to start kicking them while yelling

"How insolent!"-khalifa

But alex quickly blocks the kicks aimed for her and nami leaving usopp and luffy the only ones kicked. She then turns to khalifa

"That was sexual harassment you know! You can't just start kicking girl like that while flashing your panties!"-alex

This shocks khalifa as she didn't know high kicks in skirts flashed her panties apparently. She them yells at them for calling iceberg 'this guy''that guy' as it is an insult to him, but iceburg calms the situation. Nami then hands him the letter from the granny they met at the train station, he then rips the note apart making the crew think he wont do it. They ask him if he would as they have money and he agreed causeing usopp to ask why he ripped the letter

"Her lipstick mark was unpleasant"-iceberg

He then explains how he and the granny have been drinking buddies for awhile and that kaku was already going to make an assessment of their ship so they don't have to worry, before showing the, around the factory. Usopp then screams out as when he was kicked he lost the money, he spots,it with a group of people rushing away on a pair of bulls, before they could chase they saw a guy jump off the bridge above them knock them off the bulls and heard iceberg say he was one of his workers named paulie.

Usopp hearing this yells out saying the money is his causing paulie to look at the suit cases with glee before running away on the bulls, as luffy was about to stretch after him a guy with a pigeon arrived and stopped him with the pigeons saying for the guy that

"Ill go"-lucci pigeon

Before going after paulie and dragging him and the money back by the ear. Alex then puts the money in her shadow not wanting to tale any more chances of them losing the money, what she didn't notice is that when she did this both khalifa and rob lucci had a certain look pass by their eyes before disappearing again. Usopp upset about losing his chance to hold the money complains to alex until she gives him the two cases back but take all but 200 million out.

Paulie them attacks lucci for hitting him with a hammer after he asked for 10% of the money as finders fee, and uses a rope to throw lucci into the air and back to the ground head first where lucci stopped himself from hitting his head with one hand leaving his fingers sunk in the street. This shocks the crew as it requires insane arm and finger strength for them not to break in impact but to instead get buried into the ground, Alex when seeing this starts to get slightly suspicious about his origins as no even monster type of shipwright would be able to to that as it meeds intense trainer for that level of strength. Khalifa who was watching alex at the time saw the suspicion flash across her face before she managed to mask if with a smile like the rest had.

Paulie then yells at nami for showing to much leg causing alex to laugh at her until she turns to alex

"At least he knows I'm a girl!!"-nami

She yells with shark teeth making alex to crouch in the corner drawing circles on the ground with a cloud over her. Iceberg then takes them for a tour around the shipyard after paulie and lucci open the giant towering gate for them, and khalifa introduces icebergs past to them and luffy runs up to him and asks for him to introduce him to a shipwright willing to join his crew. The crew then splits up to look around the shipyard while waiting for kaku to return and tell them about the repairs needed for their ship, as usopp was still carrying around the suitcases the guys who ran with the money earlier jumped him and ram away with the money again leaving behind a beaten up usopp.

As alex was exploring she heard nami calling for her and the rest so they went to where she was and saw the guy who left to check in their ship, when they arrived he explained the damages done to their ship to them, but they noticed usopp hasn't shown up yet. As they were wondering where he went anither worker came ti them and handed them the bags usopp had causing nami to get mad as he left the money alone and they guy laughed when she said they had 200 million in the cases. Kaku them sat down amd said to them

"You've been having some tremendous journeys, haven't you?" -Kaku

"Oh yeah! We flew in the sky, amd fell as well. We climbed a mountain and got skewered. We've gone through quite a bit! So we'd like to have her fixed good! Im not lying you know" -luffy

" i believe it. Her scares from battle are too deep. Frankly speaking your ship..... can no longer be fixed, even with our skills." -Kaku

"Is her keel damaged or something?"-paulie

"Yeah, it's taken a lot of damage."-kaku

"But we've been traveling just fine up until today!"-nami

"Let's suppose that we did what we could anyway. The probability of her reaching the next island is....zero"-kaku

"You can't fix the merry?! Why not?! Aren't you guys amazing shipwrights?! If you're worried about money, look! We've got tones!"-luffy

"It has nothing to do with money. No matter how much you pay, that ship can't be restored to how she used to be. I'm rather impressed that you guys made it this far in the state she's in."-kaku

"What do you mean?! What's going in with the merry?!"-nami

"Do you know what a keel is, shameless girl?"-paulie

"Shamele... The one at the bottom of the ship?"-nami

"That's right. It's the most important wood beam on a ship. It crosses from stem to stern and supports the ship. When you build a ship, you start off by placing the keel. Then, the stem wood, stern wood, frame wood... frame brackets and deck beams...We accurately place all those pieces of wood around the keel. That's how a ship is built. The keel is the very foundation of a ship's framework. Its the essence of the ship. Its not something you can just replace if it takes on a lot of damage... Replacing the keel is the same as rebuilding a ship from scratch. So no one can fix her anymore. Your ship is just a collection of wood that can only await her end."-paulie

"Hey! Don't say it like that!"-nami

" not my problem. That's the truth."-paulie