80 I have a smart idea to go through the calm belt!

A cold wind passed the bellowing sails as the ship raced towards the calm belt. The sky had long been covered with black clouds signifying the coming of a storm.

A faint whistle sounded from the ship's wooden mast as the wood creaked and whined. The ship had been through so much of the world at this point that its surface had seemingly begun to suck in all the water from the surroundings.

A dull crackle of thunder sounded out from the oncoming storm as a gut wrenching smell of ozone hit our nose.

"Strange, I thought storms like this only turned up in the new world.." Fawkes commented as he took a few minutes off ensuring the tightness of the fastens to thoughtfully caress his chin. His actions were immediately quelled however by a stare from me.

As the ebony black clouds neared us, the boat began to twist. The water had become much tougher to negotiate with and resorted to tossing around the ship to quell its apparent rage at the continuous flashes of light that shot towards its surface.

The wind had picked up bellowing against the sails with all the force of an enraged and charging rhino.

"Man the sails! We don't want that cloth to get ruined even before we trudge into the grand line!" I called out with what seemed to be carelessness. My crew however treated the command as seriously as ever and immediately sent along Scipio tied to a harness to pull in the spear eagled cloth.

"All of you get yourself tied down! I don't want anyone to fall off at this point! Fishing you out will be a right pain" I called out as I smartly tied a tough rope to my torso and walked over to the middle of the deck to take my position.

With a dull hum my 'will' flowed out from me and began to seep into the crevices of the wood. Every inch of wood had been saturated and even the sails that were bullying our young cabin boy had begun to settle down.

At this point I felt one with the ship, the ship had become me, and its wood transformed from a rotting carcass to an elegant and sturdy trunk of pure force.

All the creaking ceased as the storm raging outside was tuned out. A marvelous and gut wrenching aura had begun to effuse my person though no one on the crew could feel it.

As the ship cruised through the sea what seemed to be a clear line could be seen on the edge of our vision. That was the demarcation for the beginning of the calm belt. The waves that belted against the ship's base seemingly refused to exist within the confines of that scarily calm belt of sea.

"Guys buckle up we're about to hit the belt!" I called out towards the crew before I redoubled the effort of the aura to brace for the jolt that would hit us as we jumped off a high tide into the calm beast that was the calm belt.

"Umm captain can we not..?" Angella asked piteously. Her downcast expression caused to crack up as I nodded my head in refusal.

"….Nothing to see here.. We all knew he was crazy…" Fawkes said simply as he walked into our stores and brought out a big and wide drum. "I'm guessing that you brought this huge thing for the occasion..?" He paled in anger at my smug look before face-palming.

The crew all sighed in acceptance before they each began to slowly grin in the same way that I was. The amount that it would strengthen us was the only motivator that we all had.

" We'll be taking up the drum in a cycle! Angella shall start and I shall be the one ending the day's shifts! All those who have awakened Armament Haki shall use this for fine control!

Those that haven't must use this time to awaken the Haki! We'll be dumped straight into the new world we need some measure of protection against all the other crews!" I called out and smiled gratified at the chorus of 'ayes' that I received.

With a huge lunge the ship rocketed off a particularly big wave into the welcoming embrace of the calm belt. As much as I hoped that we would have a safe journey however, a part of me could not help but look at a brown dot that floated idly on the surface of the calm belt with an amount of suspicion. As I caught sight of the one on top of the just identified boat I could not help but sigh …'Here we go again…'

**************

As Rein came to he could not help but gawk at the gritty texture of wood. As soon as he got off his ship it had been a line of disasters one after another. First he had been chased by a few pirates that had taken notice of his escape and wanted a piece of him all by their lonesome. He had only been able to outrun them because of the brewing storm that they had become frightened by.

Much to his sadness however there had been nothing to scare away the storm. He only had enough time to curse his father one last time before he had been embroiled in the ensuing chaos that the storm had been.

After what seemed like an eternity of tussling with the damn thing he had fallen asleep to the clearing of the storm and the benevolent rays of the sun, yet when he woke up he found himself in a hammock that could not possibly be pitched in his boat and the unmistakable hum of the beats of the drum.

Each beat seemed to resonate within him as he felt the minute sway of the ship. He walked slowly out of what seemed like a barrack into a set of rooms. Each had been labeled something or the other and only a few were open.

As he walked further away from the room that he had woken up in he felt the sound of the beat intensify.

At the end of the long hall of rooms he came to a staircase that led downward. He felt that the sound originated from the bottom of the stair case and so made his way downward. At the very least he hoped to thank the people that had saved him.

At the end of the somewhat short staircase he came to a wide opening at the very base of the ship. The cannons of the ship were usually kept here but at this point Rein could see a huge pile of cannons lined together and tied in a heap.

Already he felt his sanity lag and whine but that was not the end for in the very middle of the ship sat four people each with a huge oar in their hand. At their back stood a majestic drum from which the booming sounds originated.

A purple vested women stood on the drum with two makeshift drumsticks ramming it into the membrane of the drum at routine intervals that governed the rhythm that the oarsmen followed.

"Glad that you could join us!" One of the topless man called out from the lot. His grey hair stood neatly slicked back and his operation of the oar seemed the most leisurely. If Rein had not seen the effort that the other three put in he would have assumed that he was witnessing a skit in the making.

"Ai Fawkes don't steal my lines!" the one sitting opposite to him called out before turning to Rein and smartly repeating the same greeting.

"Ummm…..Hello my name is Rein.." He replied as he tried to get his wits about him. What he had seen was in fact very surprising and someone from his background had never seen something like it.

"Lorean." the man nonchalantly replied before going back to rowing. His hands seemed to jet into a deep black every time he pulled the oar back before returning to its earthly complexion.

"Where am I ..?" he asked as he frantically tried to collect all the information he could. He had just been kick started and a primal urge seemed to frantically warn him to get away from these weirdoes.

"On our ship!" A young chubby boy quipped aloud as he rowed frantically to keep up with his three older counterparts.

"He didn't mean that obviously!" the women called out before turning to him and smiling. Rein being a hot blooded teenager could not help but blush as he looked at her. He had no clue where to look as he beheld the form of the black haired women.

"Names Angella, and were on a training regime on the calm belt." she deadpanned before shooting an annoyed look at the lagging chubby boy and increasing the pace of her beating.

The child shot her an annoyed look as he immediately altered his pace to adjust to her pace before re-taking his struggling countenance.

"Angella let the poor boy contemplate in piece." The black haired man identified as Lorean commanded as he lazily looked at Rein.

As he observed all that took place in front of his eyes his brain ran a marathon in on itself as it tried to make sense of the insane implications of the women's statement.

"You're telling me.." he began. "Yup, stop right there! We don't have enough time for you to go through a realization, pick up an oar and row, you know we don't take kindly to freeloaders!" the captain called out.

Rein could only comply, subverting all questions for a time when his brain was willing to put up with the level of bullshit that the world was chucking at him. Now he just rowed…

Lore on the other hand merely shot a challenging look at his first mate who rolled his eyes before accepting the challenge.

The game was on...…