Smooth Sailing Chapter 23: Ocean's Navel 3 (Patreon)

Chapter 23: Ocean’s Navel 3

Shining bats were odd, but ultimately not very important. Once the locals had picked their jaws up off the ground, we continued on our way to the sacred mountain.

God’s Mountain was impressively tall, and almost vertical. Only a long, winding path carved into the stone allowed for people to travel up it. It was wide enough for two people to comfortably travel side by side. Hundreds of stone Torii gate-like structures lined the way up as well, which was interesting.

“Up, up, up!” Joke cackled, his voice still odd to hear coming from a bat. “Within the labyrinth you will find the final guardian! Slay it, and the treasure is yours!”

“There’s a labyrinth?” Buggy asked, ignoring Joke-Bat in favor of finding out if this was true or not.

“There is,” Hamu confirmed. “No traps or anything like that, though.”

“Well, that’s a bit boring,” Buggy complained.

“How long will it take to climb this?” Jango wondered.

“An hour or two, maybe?” Meroie shrugged. “We don’t really go up there.”

“Well, no point in standing around, then,” I said with a huff before taking a step forward.

The walk up was long and boring, as expected. It wasn’t helped by Joke constantly flapping above our heads with his obnoxious laughter, or his constant chatter.

‘I should have kept my gun with me,’ I thought as I cast frustrated looks up at the bat. Flintlocks were terrible weapons, but it was a ranged option that could work to shoot it down.

I wasn’t the only one to be annoyed by our tagalong. Buggy looked seconds away from throwing a knife at Joke-Bat, and Cabaji was fingering his sword.

Finally, though, we reached the top, and let out deep, relieved sighs as we saw the entrance to the labyrinth.

Well, there were actually multiple openings. Several dozen man-sized oval window-like portal lined the top of the staircase, allowing anyone to enter from several different points.

Each ‘door’ also had a round tile embedded in the ground right inside of the entrance, sort of like a welcome mat. Only the tiles had been carved to resemble a maze.

“Is that a map?” Buggy asked incredulously as he inspected one of them. “Who leaves a map to their labyrinth right at the entrance?”

“We should check each one, see if there are differences between them,” I suggested. The layouts recorded in stone could be false leads or traps.

“No, they all look the same,” Medaka reported, walking between a few of them.

“Then what is the point?” Jango wondered.

We all turned to Hamu and Meroie, but they both wore sheepish expressions. Clearly, whatever reason those stone slabs had was lost with the last chief… or maybe even further back.

Maybe they weren’t maps after. Could it be some sort of magic circle or ritual setup? When Imu and the Five Elders summoned their Abyss thing, it conjured up a pentagram which looked extremely magical.

‘So why wouldn’t there be other magical arrays littering the world, hidden away in secret chamber or lost ruins?’ I mused.

The more I thought about it, the more I believed I was on to something. It was definitely strange, but perhaps what I was looking at here was similar. Magic… or perhaps technology, like some sort of stone circuits?

“Well, let’s just see what we can find in here,” I said. “The last Beast of God is inside, and so is the treasure.”

That spurred the rest on, and one after another we all stepped inside the labyrinth, looking around at the surroundings. Aside from the light coming in through the holes, the interior was dark and filled with shadowy gloom.

“Hey, anyone hear that?” Hamu asked, looking around suspiciously, and a moment later we all heard it as well: a scraping sound, repeated over and over in rapid succession. Nails on a chalkboard, but worse.

Then, as our eyes trained on the tunnel the noise was coming from, we began to see flickers of light. The glow was coming from dozens of sparks conjured as countless long and sharp objects scraped against the wall, floor, and ceiling.

“Whatever it is, it’s coming right at us!” Jango exclaimed, and everyone dove out of the way of the oncoming creature. Even Buggy and I weren’t keen to find out what it was up close and personal.

As we threw ourselves into one of the other tunnels, something huge zoomed past, moving fast. It took up the entire

“A giant sea urchin?” Cabaji uttered, staring at the guardian of the maze as it whirled past.

“Certainly keeping to the theme of overgrown sushi,” I muttered as I picked myself up. “We should kill it before we continue on. Damn thing probably knows these tunnels better than we do.”

“Aye, sound plan,” Bugggy nodded. “How, though?”

“Buggy, your Devil Fruit will probably be key to defeating it,” I claimed after thinking it over. “Mine probably won’t hold up to dozens of spikes trying to grind me apart.”

“Good point. Mine’s better at handling slashing attacks, but I can also handle spikes,” he replied. “If I can get close, I can ram my gauntlets and knives into its body and kill it that way.”

“Alright, then! Everyone else, out of the tunnels!” I ordered, and we retreated back into the sunlight, leaving Buggy standing alone in the middle of the passageway.

Soon, we could hear the urchin rolling back towards him, and he tensed up. When the final Beast of God appeared, I could see it better. It was a dark purple, turning utterly black in the shadows of the labyrinth. Its spikes were long and sharp, creating that droning scratching that was also responsible for kicking up sparks.

When it rammed into Buggy, the sharp points tried to pierce him, but his body Chopped itself up and caused the spikes to pass through without harming him. He then latched on, his different parts grabbing ahold of it and causing it to slow down in surprise.

The red-nosed pirate then took his armored gauntlets and drove them deep into the flesh of the urchin. This was easier than it seemed, since his Chopped up fingers were able to slip past the spikes and stab into the monster.

Blue blood spurted from the wounds and the urchin somehow managed to roar without a visible mouth, its spines wiggling about in pain.

“RRRAAAGGGHHH!” Buggy roared, and with a burst of strength I didn’t think he had in him, he literally tore apart the massive urchin, his gauntlets acting like wedges that helped split it into two pieces.

Chunks of sea urchin meat rained down upon my co-captain, and he reformed a moment later covered in blue gore.

“Ugh, this stuff stinks,” he groaned in disgust.

“Hopefully there’ll be a river or something we can push you into later,” I said, holding my nose, and he glared at me before shaking what he could off. Buggy then looked into the darkness, ignoring the fact that Joke-Bat glowed. Again.

“Well, that’s the third one dead and done with,” my co-captain commented. “Now we just have to find a way through the labyrinth.”

“How hard can it be?” Medaka wondered.

“Considering the size of the mountain?” Cabaji mused. “We could wander for days if we aren’t careful.”

“Yar-har-har! It’s dead, it’s dead! Serves it right! Now the treasure is mine!” Joke-Bat exclaimed, and it suddenly took off down a tunnel.

“Follow that bat!” I shouted after I recovered a moment later, and we all began to run after the flying mammal.

“Knew he was gonna betray us,” Buggy huffed as we all chased the talking bat.

“It’s not really Joke!” Hamu shouted, though I could tell from the tremor in his voice he wasn’t as sure as he had once been.

Tracking the bat wasn’t easy, but his laughter allowed us to follow along as Joke flew through the labyrinth that spoke of long-time familiarity.

We soon reached the what I assumed was the center of the mountain itself. Across a narrow stone bridge was a large, circular gate. It currently lay in pieces on the ground, shattered by a battering ram that lay discarded by the entrance, along with plenty of corpses.

Illuminating the area was an eerie red glow spilling out from the chamber beyond the broken gate, and from below the bridge, the rushing of water could be heard, and there was some sort of underground river.

“Ah, so that’s how the other two Beasts of God escaped the mountain,” I mused, cautiously peering over the edge. “That river down there must connect to the Ships’ Graveyard.”

“Hey, there’s that damned bat!” Medaka shouted, pointing at the small black shape desperately flapping his ways as he flew over the gap towards what could only be the treasure chamber.

“Fast for a little guy,” Cabaji commented, impressed.

“Come on! I’m not letting my treasure get stolen by a damned rat with wings!” Buggy spat out, and he raced across the bridge without hesitation.

We followed him, not wanting to be left behind, and reached the smashed apart gate. The red glow was rather eerie, and I found myself feeling an odd itch I couldn’t pinpoint as it washed over me. Like it was in my brain and my heart at the same time.

I looked around, trying to find something to distract me from the ominous sense of dread, and ended up laying eyes on a sword buried beneath some rubble – and a couple skeletons.

It was a nice blade, sort of like a Chinese straight sword, or jian, and had a gold and jade hilt. Curiously, the metal did not look to be rusted or tarnished at all, even after years of neglect.

“A Meito?” Cabaji uttered, having noticed the weapon as well. Hearing this, Hamu followed our gazes, and when he saw the sword, tears suddenly sprang up in his eyes.

“M-mom?” Hamu whispered, staring at the sword.

“That’s the chief’s sword!” Meroie gasped.

With trembling hands, Hamu pulled the weapon from the rubble, cradling it closely and holding back a sniffle.

“Stow those tears,” Buggy ordered. “You’re finally here. Don’t insult your mother with ‘em.”

Hamu sniffed again, but wiped his eyes and nodded, determined to see this through.

Together, we walked into the treasure chamber, confronting the bat as it circled yet another skeleton that lay at the base of some stairs that led up to a shrine hidden by cascading water. The red light illuminating the room came from the shrine, reflecting grimly off the dozen or so rusted cutlasses that had been stabbed into the skeleton from behind, making it seem like they were drenched in blood.

“Th-that’s Joke!” Meroie gasped, pointing a shaking finger at the impaled corpse.

“Well… I guess you were right, he is dead,” Jango muttered. “No way he could have survived that much trauma.”

“Told you!” the bluenette huffed, sticking her tongue out at us.

However, Buggy and I remained tense, as did Hamu, all three of us eyeing the shrine.

“I don’t like it,” the clown-themed captain grunted. “Something is wrong.”

“Agreed. I don’t trust that bat,” I said, watching as it laughed maniacally about taking the treasure for itself.

A moment later my unease was vindicated as the bat landed on the skull with a “Yar-har-har!” before starting to glow.

When it faded, nothing seemed to have visibly changed. Even the bat remained the same, and it took flight with a squeak.

Yet a moment later, the bones began to rattle, and something seemed to animate the lifeless remains, the corpse rising to its feet with jerky, shaky motions. The sight was unnatural, and as the skull emitted an all too familiar “Yar-har-har!” and began to pull the swords from its body and picked up some sort of revolver-pistol, it was clear that Joke had not fully died.

“What the hell?!” Buggy exclaimed, while Jango and Cabaji cried out “ZOMBIE!” in unison. Hamu’s grip tightened around his mother’s sword, and Meroie swooned, and I caught her before she fell and hit the ground.

“That’s sick!” Medaka declared, looking far more excited at the sight of the living dead than afraid.

“This is not what I expected,” I admitted as I helped Meroie stand. “What sort of Devil Fruit did you eat to allow you to do all of this?”

“Heh, surprised?” the skeleton laughed, the voice the same as the bat’s. “I ate the Swap-Swap Fruit back when I was alive! It let me Swap things around! But when my crew betrayed me, I Swapped my soul into that of a bat at the last minute.”

He stomped one of the skulls littering the area to pieces. “Of course, getting close to the treasure triggered some sort of trap, and those giant creatures were released. My crew stood no chance and was slaughtered! Serves them right after they stabbed me in the back!”

“I see… but why didn’t you Swap back into your body afterwards?” I asked. “I mean, besides the fact that it was full of holes.”

“The so-called Beasts of God ate parts of me, and other parts got torn off in the struggle!” Joke declared. “I couldn’t Swap back into my old body, not while it was in so many pieces! So, for the last ten years I’ve been looking for ‘em, gathering up the bits and putting ‘em back together!”

He then scowled. “Do you have any idea how hard it was to carry all this stuff with such a tiny body?!”

“Okay… but what about another body?” Medaka wondered. “Why not Swap into something with actual hands, or, I dunno, something better than your old one? Heck, why not take over one of the monsters all this time?”

“…” Joke stared at her, and she stared innocently back. After a moment he facepalmed, muttering under his breath about being an idiot.

“Yup. Classic case of Devil Fruit Blindness,” I declared with a nod. “You got so used to using it one way, you never experimented with your powers. Though I have to imagine only having the brain of a bat to work with probably didn’t help, either.”

Suddenly, an idea struck me, and I frowned.

“Ah, now I see,” I muttered. “Because Captain Joke wasn’t technically dead, the Beasts of God never stopped trying to hunt him down… but they couldn’t find the pirate inside, so they escaped the mountain to track find him.”

“And that’s why they’ve been rampaging for all this time!” Jango realized.

“All this time… all this time, it’s your fault the Ocean’s Navel has been suffering?!” Hamu roared, fury burning in his eyes. “I’ll kill you!”

“Yar-har-har! Just try it, brat!” Joke laughed mockingly.

He raised his gun and pointed it at Hamu, pulling the trigger with a skeletal finger and sending a large bullet at the teen.

Hamu yelped and jumped out of the way, and it was a good thing he did, too, because the bullet exploded!

“Oh, shit!” I hissed. Explosions! My one weakness! Well, besides water, Seastone, fire, adhesives and nets…

The point was this bastard had a nasty weapon that somehow was still working even after a decade, and I couldn’t hope it'd jam at a lucky moment.

“Come on!” I shouted, charging forward at the skeleton.

“Oi, don’t think you can get ahead!” Buggy shouted, running after me.

Joke saw us coming and fired his hand cannon, though I was able to block the shots by raising my mace in front of me. The explosion were strong and sent me staggering, bringing my charge to a halt, but Buggy had used my body as a shield and Chopped his clawed hands off and sent them at Joke.

“Take this!” Buggy shouted, his razor-sharp gauntlets lashing out, only to go through his ribs without doing a damn thing.

“Oh, right, skeleton,” the red-nosed guy muttered. “Should have aimed for the head.”

“You think?” I huffed. “Jango! Get him!”

“Aye-aye, captain!” the hypnotist replied, getting out his ring on a string.

Trying to buy him time, Medaka and I rushed towards Joke, who hopped backwards onto the stairs leading up to the shrine. It gave him the high ground and a better view of the chamber. I parried one of his explosive bullets, and Medaka managed to duck and roll under another one.

“OI! Over here!” Jango called out, and Joke looked over at him, confused.

The sunglasses wearing hypnotist – who still hadn’t taken them off after entering the mountain for some reason – had gotten his coin out, and was swinging it back and forth.

“When you hear my name, you will stop moving!” Jango shouted out as his pendulum swung back and forth. “One! Two! JANGO!”

Unfortunately, the hypnosis did not affect Joke, and he burst into laughter. “HA! Was that supposed to do something?!”

“Ah, crap,” I muttered, realizing the problem. “He’s a damned skeleton! He doesn’t have eyes or a brain to be hypnotized!”

“Did you really that would work?!” Buggy shouted at me as he split his body apart to dodge another explosive bullet.

“In my defense, I’ve never fought the living dead with pseudo-science!” I shot back, before blocking another shot from Joke with my mace.

Taking a moment, I glanced over my shoulder at Jango, who’d gotten hit by his own technique, and was currently standing like a statue in the middle of the room where I’d left him.

“Moron!” I groaned as I threw a sandal at him. It smacked into the side of Jango’s head, knocking him out of the stunned state he’d been in, and he staggered, looking confused.

“Didn’t work!” I told him. “No eyes!”

“Well, crap,” Jango muttered, quickly scurrying out of the way as Joke fired at him.

Those turned out to be the last bullets in the undead captain’s hand cannon, and I took advantage of this by rushing at him, getting in close while he reloaded.

“Eat mace!” I shouted, aiming to crush Joke’s skull with my weapon, yet my mace swished through empty air where previously there had been the skeleton.

“Nice try!” Joke sneered, appearing behind me.

The vicious pirate finished reloading by Swapping the empty magazine with a fresh one, and then shot me in the back. I couldn’t help but cry out as my coat was torn apart with a flash of fire, the explosion knocking me down onto my knees.

“Right, Devil Fruit,” I grunted, glaring over my shoulder at him. He’d Swapped places with the air and avoided my attack, getting a prime spot to fire upon me in exchange.

“Yah!” Medaka cried out, swinging her naginata at Joke as she rushed in from the side. Hamu also charged in, wildly swinging his mother’s sword.

Joke laughed and Swapped places with Buggy, who yelped as he was bisected twice over by the youngsters.

“Watch it!” he shouted at the duo, shaking a fist at them, before shooting them at Joke. “Flashy Fists!”

He tried to unleash a barrage of punches onto the skeleton, but Joke merely laughed and popped away, Swapping himself with me.

“Oi!” I hissed, annoyed. His fists didn’t hurt, they just Slipped off, but it was still unpleasant to feel the strikes.

I grabbed a skull off the ground as Buggy shouted a “Sorry!” at me, and chucked the piece of one of Joke’s dead companions at him, shouting, “Smoothbore!” as I did so.

As expected, Joke vanished, Swapping himself with Cabaji, who barely managed to cut the projectile before it hit him. While that was happening, I watched carefully for where Joke reappeared. When he popped back in, I made a mental note of it, then charged forward.

“Come now!” Joke scoffed as he shot at me. “This the best you can do?!”

“AH!” Meroie shouted, suddenly appearing in front of me.

Using Meroie as a hostage, Joke laughed uproariously, and I skidded to a halt, aborting my attack at the last second. I then grabbed her by the waist, dragging the blue-haired woman to the side away from Joke who’d opened fire on the both of us.

“Bastard!” Hamu roared, his sword flashing through the air towards Joke, but he found himself Swapped with Jango, the hypnotist unprepared to suddenly be face to skeletal face with the enemy.

Jango panicked and tried to reach for his chakram, but when he slashed them at Joke, the skeleton backhanded him aside, and the Swapped out of the way of another one of Buggy’s barrage of punches.

‘There’s got to be a weakness to his power!’ I thought, watching the undead pirate with narrowed eyes. But what?

As I observed him, I noticed the way his head would occasionally tilt and turn. After a moment, it hit me!

“Stay down,” I urged Meroie, and I pushed her behind a stalagmite for her own safety.

Then, I grabbed a stalactite, ripping it from the ceiling and hurling the jagged stone like a javelin. Obviously, Joke saw it coming, and he Swapped with Medaka, the stalactite hitting the armor-clad girl and knocking her over with a cry of surprise and pain.

I winced at that, mentally apologizing to Medaka. Even so, I was ready for Joke’s evasion and was already in the process of swinging my mace with one hand towards the spot I guessed he’d end up.

When Joke reappeared nearby, he was not expecting my weapon to already be there, and he let out a cry of pain as I broke a few bones and sent him flying.

“He needs line of sight!” I shouted at the others. “He can only Swap things if he can see them, or they are in his line of sight!”

Joke let out a growl as he pushed himself back up, and raised his free hand at me. I suddenly found myself in the air, and plunged down towards a stalagmite as punishment for revealing the mechanisms of his trick.

“Ow!” I shouted as I hit the sharp tip of the stone spire. It Slipped off of me instead of impaling me, but I was going to have a bruise on my spine after hitting it.

“Good job figuring it out, Alvida!” Buggy shouted. “Take this! Smokey Flash!”

The clown tossed a smoke bomb onto the ground, thick white smog flooding the chamber.

“Damn you, you red-nosed bastard!” Joke roared, shooting blindly into the smoke.

“DON’T TALK SHIT ABOUT MY NOSE!” Buggy roared, one of his fists rushing out of the smoke towards Joke.

The undead pirate Swapped himself with the fist, causing the Chopped off limb to fly off into the smoke nearby, but when Joke had done so, he hadn’t expected Cabaji to come leaping out.

“Feel the burn!” the swordsman shouted, and breathed out a gout of flames in Joke’s face.

“AHHH! MY BEARD!” Joke shouted as his goatee caught fire. He tried to pat it out, but this left him distracted, and open to be hit again by my mace.

More bones broke, but not nearly enough, as he managed to Swap himself away at the last minute with Cabaji and bought himself some distance.

“Sorry!” I called out as Cabaji was sent tumbling by my mace.

“Urgh,” he groaned, quickly showing off his acrobatic skills by jumping back to his feet.

“This bastard is slippery,” Buggy growled.

“Yeah, how dare he steal my schtick!” I huffed.

“How do we stop him from moving?” Cabaji wondered.

“No idea, but since he has to see his target, we should try and blind him again,” I suggested.

“That didn’t work,” Buggy pointed out, the cover from his smoke bomb fading from the chamber.

“Well, then we’ll have to do it physically,” I retorted.

“We’ll have to lure him into a trap, then,” Cabaji said.

“I think somehow is ahead of us on that,” Buggy announced.

One of his eyes was currently detached from the socket, and whatever he’d seen had prompted this comment. Curious, I began to look around. Joke was currently toying with Medaka and Jango while Meroie continued to hide behind a stoney outcropping. Yet Hamu was missing.

Now intrigued, I continued scanning the area, until I finally found him. Using the distraction caused by the smoke bomb, Hamu had charged up the stairs and was heading for the waterfall-shrine.

‘What is he planning?’ I wondered.

I’d find out soon enough, as once the smoke was completely gone, some of it having been Swapped out of the chamber by Joke, the undead gunman spotted the teenager.

“HEY!” Joke roared angrily. “Back off! That treasure is mine! I plundered it fair and square!”

“Our mountain’s treasure is so important to you, huh?!” Hamu shouted. “Then I’ll destroy it!”

The teen kept running up the stairs towards the shrine, desperate to utterly ruin all of Joke’s dreams by destroying the treasure he’d literally died for.

“You little brat!” Joke roared, and he fired at Hamu. Why he didn’t just Swap places with Hamu confused me, but I guess even anger can blind somebody.

The shot missed, thankfully, but it hit the stairs in front of Hamu, and hurled the teen backwards with a violent explosion that had him tumble down with a cry of pain.

“Die, just like your mother!” Joke sneered, aiming his hand cannon up at Hamu, intent on finishing the job while he was a prone and unable to dodge.

“NO!” Medaka shouted, tackling Joke and wrapping her arms around his spine from behind like violent hug. This attack caused the skeleton’s aim to veer of course and the bullet to explode against the ceiling.

“WHAT?!” Joke exclaimed. He tried to shake her off, but he couldn’t, the red-head clinging to his bones like a barnacle.

Now, it was hard to tell what emotions he was currently feeling, because of the skull and lack of flesh, but from the way the glowing flames that replaced his eyes seemed to shrink, he’d just tried to escape the only way he knew how, and failed.

“He can’t see her! And now he can’t Swap while he’s being pinned down!” I realized, and jumped towards Joke to help Medaka.

I grabbed his arm that was holding onto the hand cannon, and Buggy’s hands latched onto Joke’s ankles. Meroie also charged out of hiding and grabbed Joke’s other arm. Jango helped as well by grabbing onto Joke’s torso, while Cabaji used his scarf to wrap up Joke’s head, the fabric obscuring his eye sockets and keeping him completely unable to use his Devil Fruit.

Seeing us stop Joke from Swapping himself away, Hamu pushed himself to his feet, eyes flashing with determination.

He raised his mother’s sword, and the red light filling the treasure chamber seemed to grow brighter as it reflected off of the blade.

“THIS IS FOR EVERYONE YOU’VE HURT!” Hamu shouted, and jumped off the shrine’s stairs, sword raised over his head.

The Meito plunged into Joke’s skull, biting deep, and a gasp of shock escaped from the pirate captain’s non-existent throat.

“I… how?” Joke demanded as cracks spread across his skull. “Why couldn’t… my crew… have been like yours…?”

Upon uttering his final words, Joke’s head shattered, destroyed by Hamu’s desperate sword strike. And with its destruction, whatever unholy force was animating him was dispelled. The rest of the body collapsed into a pile of dusty bones, and even the red light in the room dimmed.

“He… he’s dead, right?” Meroie gasped out, staring at the remains still clutched in her hands before dropping them in disgust.

“Seems like it,” I muttered.

After a moment I pried Joke’s hand cannon from his cold, dead fingers, deciding to claim it as a prize. I wanted to reverse engineer it. This was the first example of a revolver-like firearm I’d seen in this world (aside from the ones I’d made for Pep), and wanted to see if I could combine this hand cannon with Pep’s revolvers, creating even better guns for him. The explosive bullet recipe would also be useful.

“We… we did it,” Meroie whispered.

Hamu teared up, but wiped them away with the back of his hand. He was sad, but overjoyed by his victory.

“Good job, kid,” Buggy said gruffly, slapping Hamu on the back in a manner that was practically warmhearted for the clown.

“Yeah! That was so cool!” Medaka declared, joining in and slapping the teenager’s back.

“I-I guess it was,” he agreed, and he stood up straighter, a bit more confidence.

“Well! This is lovely and all, but I kinda want to see what it was we just risked out necks for,” Jango claimed, and while Medaka, Hamu, and Meroie glared at him for ruining the moment, Buggy just laughed.

“Good point, good point!” he chuckled. “Come on, let’s see what this so-called ‘treasure’ actually is.”

“According to legends, it’s in the shrine at the top,” Hamu said, turning to Buggy.

“Are you seriously going to take it after all this?” Meroie asked incredulously.

“We’re pirates,” I said in place of Buggy, shrugging. “Also, Jango is kinda right. We risked our necks for it.”

“…Fine!” Hamu said, folding his arms. “Not like the treasure ever did anything for us. If you take it, maybe pirates will leave us alone.”

“Glad to be of service,” I said, winking at him. That left his flustered, my beauty quite effective on a poor little teen.

Seeing this, Meroie rolled her eyes before nodding. “I think Hamu has the right idea. Take the treasure. Consider it payment for eliminating the Beasts of God.”

“Can do,” I replied, flashing her a thumbs up.

“Come on!” Buggy called out, already in the process of walking up the stairs.

We quickly followed him and soon, there we were, standing in front of the shrine. It was rather beautiful, and resembled a fountain, water flowing out of it from the top and cascading down to the bottom and into channels that ran into the depths, likely connected to the river outside the chamber.

The curious thing though was that the shrine glowed rather beautifully. The harsh red light that emanated from it had dimmed, interestingly around the same time Joke had died. Now it was almost pink, and much nicer.

“There,” Hamu said, pointing to a part of the shrine obscured by a curtain of water. “The treasure sits inside an indentation within.”

Eagerly, Buggy reached into the water, but frowned in confusion a moment later. “Eh?”

Confused, Buggy raised his hands to the top and parted the screen of water by blocking the flow, and revealing the interior of the shrine.

“It’s empty!” Medaka gasped, saying what we were all thinking.

Where a treasure should have been, nothing could be seen. There was an indentation where Hamu said one would be, but nothing was within it.

“Did it ever really exist?” Meroie muttered to herself. “Or was it taken long ago?”

“Who knows,” I murmured. “How very strange.”

“No treasure?” Buggy uttered, his voice utterly despondent.

“No treasure,” I replied, and he slumped.

I patted him on the back comfortingly. “There, there, buddy. Maybe we can go digging around in the Ships’ Graveyard later. I bet there’s all sorts of stuff that hasn’t been found. After all, there’s ten decades of backlog and build up thanks to those monsters keeping everyone indoors.”

Buggy still looked pissed, but he nodded at my idea all the same. Some plundering would do him good, and the wrecks weren’t going anywhere, either.

“Ugh, what a waste,” Buggy grumbled as we left the treasure chamber.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“Suppose the whole thing about treasure and magic was just a legend,” Jango hummed.

“At least we tied up loose ends,” I mused, and glanced at Hamu.

He was still clutching his mother’s sword close to his chest, and I could see a new glint of determination in his eyes. All in all, despite no immediately payout, we’d done some good, here, and that was important.

‘He’ll grow up to be a good leader,’ I thought.

I didn’t know how Ocean’s Naval handled choosing a new leader, or even what their style of government was. It was probably hereditary. Most societies on this world tended to be. Whatever the case, Hamu was going to become a strong, good man in time. He’d banished his demons, and now it was time to return to the city to tell everyone the good news.

Yet as we stepped away from the torn down gate, there was a rumble as the light radiating from the shrine flashed brightly.

We all spun around, expecting some sort of trap or trick, but what we found was the gate slowly repairing itself, piecing itself together as if it had never been broken. Within seconds the entrance to the treasure chamber was completely sealed off once more as if Joke and his crew had never succeeded in smashing their way in.

“Magic isn’t real, huh?” I muttered under my breath, recalling what Jango had said earlier, and the hypnotist paled a little.

“I-I’m sure there is an explanation!” he replied weakly.

“Y-yeah!” Medaka said nervously.

We all shared looks with each other before turning away from the mysteriously restored gate and heading back into the labyrinth. A labyrinth that, interesting, had all of the scratches and damage from the sea urchin removed. Skeletons still remained, though, though the urchin's body was mysteriously missing.

It took a while to find our way out without a guide, but when we did, we all breathed in the fresh air with relief.

“Meroie! Hamu!” some townsfolk called out to us after we descended the mountain stairs.

“Gabe! Silva!” Meroie called out in relief. “You’re all safe!”

“I can’t believe it!” one of them gasped out. “You did it! You stopped the Beasts of God!”

“Hey, uh, wasn’t there supposed to be a charred lobster over here?” I asked, looking around at where the super-sized crustacean had been earlier. The blackened dirt and grass on the hill was still there, but our lunch was missing! And, looking towards the Ships’ Graveyard, so too were the octopus giblets!

“It was so strange!” a child from the town exclaimed. “The bodies of the guardians began to glow, and then vanished with a flash of light!”

At that, Jango began to shake in his boots, and Buggy frowned, while Medaka whispered, “Magic is real!” under her breath in awe.

‘I guess there are things in this world that can’t be explained,’ I thought, casting a nervous glance over my shoulder at the Mountain of God.

The ominous shrine, the self-repairing gate, and the vanishing monster corpses… Seems like there were some mysteries left unsolved within the Ocean’s Navel!