【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

Chapter 480 Communicating with Sea Kings

"what!"

Hearing Luffy's shout, Lucci and Ace turned around at the same time, worried that he was about to burst out of the bubble again. As they descended, Luffy kept trying to reach out and grab the sea monsters and fish swimming around the ship, but this time he didn't reach out. This time he didn't even stand on the edge of the ship.

"Luffy, what's wrong?" Lucci asked.

"It's so cold!" Luffy hugged himself and cried out, shivering.

“I told you to put on your coat a long time ago,” Lucci said, sighing, but his tone was both helpless and indulgent. “Come over here, Ace can radiate heat.”

“…This idiot!” Es shouted speechlessly, “How could you only realize this now? Come here.”

Luffy quickly darted to Ace's side and wrapped his arms and legs around him. In no time, his body warmed up instantly, and Luffy exclaimed exaggeratedly, "Ace, you're so warm!"

Ace shook his head helplessly, increasing the heat emanating from his body to envelop the entire ship in a pleasant, warm atmosphere.

"Something's coming!" Lucci squinted at the sea ahead.

"What is it?" Ace asked in confusion, watching Lucci suddenly widen his eyes and tense up. Before he could ask, the ship suddenly began to shake violently.

"It's a sea monster!" Luffy exclaimed excitedly. He had always wanted to tame a sea monster to pull the ship, but they hadn't encountered any sea monsters that could pull the ship along the way.

"What's going on!?" Feeling the ship rocking violently, the people resting in the cabin rushed out. The next second, they witnessed an extremely terrifying scene: countless enormous shadows surrounded their ship, looking down at the Sunshine, which appeared so small in front of them.

Nami knelt on the ground, covering her mouth in terror. Usopp opened his mouth wide in terror, tears welling in his eyes, his legs trembling uncontrollably. Chopper foamed at the mouth and fainted. Brook covered his face in terror as he stared. Robin, Franky, Zoro, and Sanji stood frozen in place, gazing in horror at the giant sea king emerging from the sea.

"Why are there so many Sea Kings?" Nami asked in a trembling voice.

"Frankie, hurry up and prepare the Wind Cannon!" Frankie was the first to come to his senses and immediately reminded him in a low voice.

"Oh!" Franky realized what was happening and immediately went to prepare.

"Hey!" Luffy's voice suddenly rang out from the chaos, "It's very rude of you to surround other people's ships like that."

The people on the deck stared at Luffy with stiff expressions.

"Luffy!" Lucci saw all the Sea Kings staring at Luffy and hurriedly whispered, "Don't attract attention!"

"You...you idiot!" Ace yelled at Luffy, who was attracting the attention of the Sea Kings, "Shut up!"

Zoro and Sanji charged straight at Luffy, trying to tackle him, but Luffy dodged them both.

Ignoring his brother and crew's voices, Luffy focused on listening to the Sea Kings. When they said they could help guide the ship safely to Fish-Man Island, Luffy grinned and said, "I'm looking for sea monsters. You guys are too big to pull the ship, but thanks anyway! Go back now!"

"Can Luffy communicate with Sea Kings?" Qi looked at Lucci in shock.

"It seems so." Lucci also looked at Luffy and the giant sea king in a daze.

“It’s obvious.” Ace breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the massive sea kings leave one after another after Luffy finished speaking.

"What nonsense are you spouting?!" Nami knelt on the deck and questioned Luffy in an almost pleading tone.

"They said they'd take us to Fishman Island," Luffy replied honestly, turning to face his crew. "But I prefer smaller sea monsters to pull the ship! They're too big."

"Did they...go?" Nami stammered, barely managing to sit up with her trembling legs.

“That’s right!” Luffy replied cheerfully.

Lucci and Ace exchanged a puzzled look. Lucci wanted to ask, but then thought it unnecessary. Given Luffy's personality, he would probably just answer "I don't know".

"You can now communicate with those enormous sea kings!?" Zoro asked in a low voice. "Not just ordinary animals!?"

"I don't know," Luffy replied casually. "I heard it."

The Straw Hat crew was overjoyed to have finally escaped the Sea Kings' pursuit and returned to the safe currents.

"What a huge waterfall!!" Luffy exclaimed excitedly as he looked at the enormous waterfall in front of him.

"The seawater rushed down so fast, it was incredible!"

“That’s a deep-sea current,” Lucci explained.

"Wow, that's amazing! Such a spectacular ocean current, it must be hundreds of meters in diameter!" Robin exclaimed.

"It's so deep, you can't see the bottom! At that speed, we'll crash into the seabed and die!" Usopp exclaimed in horror as he looked down at the dark ocean current.

"Is it really okay to get on this current?!" Nami looked at the huge current with a look of horror.

“Normally there shouldn’t be any problems,” Ace explained. “As long as the hull is intact, there’s no need to worry about it being washed away by the currents.”

"Don't worry about the ship, the Sunny is the strongest ship ever built from the Adam Wood!" Franky laughed confidently.

"Hold on tight, everyone!!" Lucci shouted a warning, and the next second the ship was swept into a huge descent current.

"Hahaha!! So fast!!" Luffy covered his hat with one hand and grabbed the mainmast with the other, excitedly letting his body fly above the ship.

"My eyes are spinning around, even though I don't have eyes..." Brooke floated uncontrollably above the ship.

Lucci pulled Nami back from crashing into the railing, and Ace caught Chopper, who flew past him, mainly because he looked like he was about to faint.

"Keep the sails on and yaw to the left!!" Nami breathed a sigh of relief, regained her balance, and immediately got back into work mode, shouting, "We're going to crash into the continental shelf!"

"Alright, leave it to me!" Franky immediately turned the helm, while Zoro and Sanji rushed to pull up the sails.

"Everyone hold on tight!" Nami shouted a reminder. "If we let our guard down, the whole ship will be smashed to pieces! We must keep the ship in the middle of the current!!"

"learn!!"

After a thrilling descent, the boat stabilized again, but it was pitch black all around.

"It's so dark here!" Brooke exclaimed. "It's a chilling place."

"There aren't many sea creatures here," Lucci said with some doubt. Normally there would be many sea creatures on the seabed, but now all he could see were some giant, glowing jellyfish.

Upon hearing Lucci's words, Ace guessed, "They were probably scared away by those giant sea kings just now."

"I've never seen such huge sea kings before, all gathered together. It's like we've stumbled into their lair," Lucci remarked. "I really don't know how they got attracted here."

After teasing Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp, Franky turned on... his nipple lights. Luffy immediately lowered his head in disappointment; he had thought he would see Franky's eyes glow.