Chapter 18: Changing Course! Another Stop at the Baratie!

About three months had now passed since I left my brothers to go sailing. During this time, I may have caused some mischief here and there. Occasionally, as we sailed, a squad of Marine vessels would try to stop us by blocking our way. Never wanting to really deal with them, I would simply flip the ships over if they weren't too large. If they were, I'd just use strong currents of air to push them away. While I was at it, I might have even slapped a few officials here and there on different islands for sexist and rude remarks while helping the Revolutionary Army. The strangest part was that, wherever we went, Marines would already be there looking for me and my crew. I started wondering if I was getting too predictable in my route.

As we were sailing one calm, sunny day, I was holding a meeting with Felix and River about our course of action, when Wynter and Lyric joined us on deck. "So, we've been sailing the East Blue for a few months now, and we'll be approaching the Red Line soon," Lyric stated, joining the conversation. "Does that mean we'll be using the Twin Cape to get onto the Grand Line?"

"Yes, and no," I told her as I laid our map of the East Blue down on the table in front of us. "I've been giving this a bit of thought recently. Surely, I'm not the only one who has noticed an odd increase in the number of Marines we have been running into wherever we go. I'm not entirely sure why, but they seem to be predicting our sailing route. Kai, in particular, seems to meet us at every corner."

"Well, Kai always was the analytical type," Felix brought up, leaning to one side. "Not to mention, we did spend a good amount of time together back in the Marines. It wouldn't surprise me if we was the one leading the charge against us."

"Yeah, and right before I left to follow you two, he had joined some kind of division, specializing in tracking and strategy," River added.

"You're thinking he knows our course then," Lyric asked with a pondering expression.

"So what if he's able to tell where we're going," Wynter cockily said as he hit a fist against the palm of his other hand. "We'll just beat them all up, just like how we've been doing so far! Don't worry, Anne. I'll make sure nothing gets in your way!"

Felix rolled his eyes and muttered between fake coughs, "*cough* *cough* Simp *cough*. Man, I think I'm coming down with something, *cough*."

Wynter gave Felix a glare as I gave an exasperated sigh. Even after months of sailing together, these two were butting heads most of the time. Wynter would always glare at people who got too close to me, especially at Felix. Felix found his behavior rather odd and annoying, so he'd purposefully mess with Wynter to rub him the wrong way.

"I would like to avoid unnecessary conflict, whenever possible," I said, getting back to the topic at hand. "We had originally planned on stopping by the Basatie, and from there, we would have used the Twin Cape to gain access to the Grand Line, just as Lyric had mentioned earlier, but... we're scrapping that idea and heading back east after Basatie."

Lyric and River went wide-eyed. "But we spent so much time fixing and correcting our route," River stated, somewhat deflated that our hard work seemed to be getting thrown out right at the end.

"So, what's the new plan then," Lyric asked, looking down at the map. "Since the Grand Line flows from west to east, and you're wanting to sail back east, are you giving up on the Grand Line?"

"Of course not, it's more of a detour," I corrected her. "To throw off the Marines, we'll delay our arrival to the Grand Line by taking a quick trip back to somewhere special. We'll throw off the Marines time table on us."

"Somewhere special," Lyric repeated as a question.

"I get it," Felix said with a smirk. "I'm sure they'll be ecstatic to see you, as much as you are to see them."

"They," Lyric repeated as a question again, visibly lost in the conversation.

"You'll see," Felix said with a snicker, most likely thinking of the last time he met my spunky brothers.

As I was about to continue explaining what the plan was, we heard some of the supplies below deck clang around, probably due to not being put up correctly. 

I gave a sigh and looked to Wynter and Lyric. "Could you two go and make sure everything is put up correctly. I'm pretty sure I put you two in charge of unloading at the last island."

They both gave a nod and went to go fix their mistakes. I cleared my throat to bring the attention back to the map. Pointing to where the Baratie was, I dragged my finger south and across the Calm Belt as I explained, "After the visit, we'll sail full speed back for the Baratie. From there, we'll enter the Grand Line via the Calm Belt."

"How'll we do that," River asked. "Unless you have paddles or water wheels, Sea King repellant, and a log post, I don't see how it's possible without using the Twin Cape? There's no wind to-."

River caught himself as Felix and I stared at him, remembering how I can use my powers in the sails. Felix then pointed to a spot a little west of the Baratie on the Calm Belt and said, "I know a spot around here we can enter with little to no Sea Kings. It's a little family secret, I'll tell you about it once we get there."

"Sounds like a plan," I said gleefully as I rolled up the map. "We should be arriving to the restaurant shortly. There, we will have a meal and gather some information."

Everyone agreed and went back to what they were doing before our little huddle. I decided to grab a mop and start mopping the water off of the deck. As I was, Wynter made his way over and started insisting, "Let me do the laborious work! You shouldn't need to dirty your hands with such a task."

Before he could grab the mop from my hands, I swiftly slapped his hand away. "I don't think so," I scolded. "A captain needs to work just as hard, if not harder, as their crew."

Right after I said that, a decently sized wave hit the side of the boat the two of us were standing near. "Look out," Wynter snapped. Right as water was about to splash onto me, Wynter pushed me out of the way, causing him to get drenched in sea water as I fell backwards. Soaked to the bone, he rushed over to me as I picked myself up as he asked, "Are you alright?!"

I gave him an unamused look as he dripped water further onto the deck where I had just mopped. "Chill out," I scolded him as I pinched the bridge of my nose in irritation. "I'm not some delicate flower that needs protection, especially from a little bit of water..."

"B-But the sea water," Wynter worriedly stuttered. "What about your Devil Fruit?!"

"I can get wet, moron," I sighed with an eyeroll. "My body needs to be submerged more than halfway in standing water for me to lose ALL energy. Meaning if it's moving like rain, a shower, or a single wave won't kill me. I can literally stand in water up to my ankles or knees before I start feeling like I'm losing energy. You worry too much, Wynter."

"Well, you make me worry as much as I do," Wynter told me as he flipped his dripping, white hair out of his face. "Trust me when I say that I would do anything for you. I would even-."

Before he could finished that sentence, a coil of rope dropped from above onto Wynter's head. Looking up, we both saw it had been Felix, who had been tying up sails with River as the ship approached the Baratie. "Oops," Felix feigned ignorance, "my bad. My hands slipped."

After about half an hour of listening to Felix and Wynter bicker back and forth while mopping the rest of the water off of the deck, we finally docked at the Baratie.

The crew and I made our way into the restaurant and took a table that I had reserved two weeks ago. As soon as we sat in our chairs, a familiar voice shouted, "My aaaaaaangel! You have returned!!!"

Turning around in my seat, I saw the 14 year-old blond with swirly eyebrows bounding his way towards me with hearts in his eyes. "Ey, San-," I started to greet him, before Wynter stood between Sanji and me. I facepalmed and asked, "What in the world are you doing?"

Wynter crossed his arms and said, "I don't like the look in this guy's eyes..."

Sanji attempted to size Wynter up, but Wynter easily stood a foot taller and had pounds of muscle over him. "Anne, is this guy bothering you," Sanji asked as he tapped the toe of his shoe against the ground with his hands in his pockets. "Just say the word."

Standing up, I hit Wynter in the arm and instructed him to sit down. One "yes, mami" and glare at Sanji later, Wynter went back to his seat. Following him, I sat back down as Sanji came over to our table. "Well, I see that you've started building up your crew," Sanji praised, then laid eyes on Lyric. "Myyy, you even have another beauty in your crew!"

A blush painted over Lyric's face as she shyly shuffled in her seat. "Please refrain from harassing my crew," I teased. "So, anything of note happening around these parts recently?"

Sanji took a hold of his barely hairy chin in though. "Well, I've heard two things recently," Sanji explained. "The first is that there seems to be a LARGE fleet stationed at the Twin Cape. Larger than usual."

"So they probably DID anticipate us heading there," River said in awe. "It's a good thing we changed our course."

I nodded in agreement, and asked Sanji, "What about the second bit of information?"

"Well, there's a bit of trouble going down on a small habited island an hour's sail north of here," Sanji informed. "Supposedly, an ex-Marine Devil Fruit user has been going rampant. At least, according to some Marine grunts that stopped by here earlier today. Said the user's probably still causing a bunch of trouble."

"Are we going to go help," River asked without hesitation. "He did say that the island was habited."

"What do we look like, the Marines," Wynter mocked.

"Look," Felix began to explain to River, "normal Marines are one thing. They can easily be pushed aside by a breeze from Anne. But another Devil Fruit user? We've been fortunate enough so far NOT to run into one, and you want to go FIND one?"

"But he did say EX-Marine," River protested. "It couldn't hurt to go see and possibly have another Fruit user."

"Still sounds pretty dangerous, especially if they are 'rampant' like the Marines said," I said as I crossed my arms in thought. "But we could always go check it out from a distance, just to be safe. After all, we're ex-Marines as well."

The crew and I quickly had a light meal while looking over the map. Once the plan was laid out, we paid for our meal and started to head out for the rampant user's location.

"Stay safe, my lovely angels," Sanji yelled to Lyric and me as we set sail with the usual hearts in his eyes. "Come back any time!"

I rolled my eyes but gave a slight wave of acknowledgement as we sailed off for the mysterious Devil Fruit user.