Reborn as a Government Agent (A One Piece Fanfic)

Chapter 5: The Calm Belt

After restocking the ship with food and water and sleeping for the night, we left Shashakima Island as soon as the sun rose, intending to get through the Calm Belt as quickly as possible.

The crew will be rotated between day and night, meaning the ship will be moving for all hours of the day until we finally leave the calm belt.

We will have no wind or water currents to push our ship, so we'll be using a coal engine to power a paddle-wheel that will push us through the water. We'll be slowing down drastically when compared to the speed we sailed in regular waters, but this is still the fastest way of reaching the North Blue.

One week. It will take us a full week before we reach the other side of the Calm Belt.

Someone better design better ship engines in the near future because I will lose my mind if I need to stay on board for a full week any time we need to cross from the Grand Line to one of the Blues.

................................................

"Spandam, do you have any plans for solving this case?"

Walking into their room on the third day over the Calm Belt, Spandine looked down at his son, watching his eyes roam over four different encyclopedias with knowledge on the North Blue.

"Yeah..." Spandam answered tiredly as he turned the page on one of the books.

"...Are you going to tell me what it is?" Spandine asked. He took the time to look outside the window, watching the ripples on the flat surface of the water as the ship moved forward at a turtle's speed.

The Calm Belt was an incredibly thin strip of ocean, if it had currents and waves like a normal sea it would have been crossed long ago. Needing to take only a day at most to cross it. But its lack of winds and currents, while making traversal incredibly risky, aren't the most dangerous part of it.

"Chief! Another one is heading this way!" Spandine turned to the door to his quarters after hearing one of his subordinates yell to him.

"Tell Laskey to take care of it! I'm busy here!" He yelled back before he returned to looking at Spandam go over his books.

Outside the ship, a monstrously large Eel with bull-like horns emerged from the water, towering over the ship like a snake ready to descend upon a small mouse.

Only to crumple back into the water as its neck opened up, the voice of a man blandly yelling "Rankyakyu!" echoing in the distance as the large eel sunk back into the sea.

"...I still don't understand how that works," Spandam said calmly as he turned the page of one of the encyclopedias.

"I'll get one of them to explain it to you late- You're changing the subject!" Spandine pointed out with a proud grin as he smiled at his son, "You still haven't answered my question and you're already trying to get me to think of other things! You're a natural at this!"

"Uh-huh~" Spandam nodded uncaringly, "Kuen Island only has one village, creatively named Kuen Village. The Island itself is sizable in mass, but its population is rather small. Their main export, at least until a few decades ago, was Dance Powder, which kept the island lush and green. Following the outlawing of the powder, the Island has degraded into a wasteland, with the few areas of vegetation on the island being situated high on the mountain at the center of the island, leaving most of the island a bare and empty wasteland."

"Did you get all of that from those books? Impressive~ What else?" Spandine praised.

"According to Chief Bo, His men arrived at Kuen Island in search of a man named Mubiao, a criminal who killed Queen Francesca of the East Blue's Orujo Kingdom. He details how his men complained about the lack of water and food on the island, mentioning that they had to split up, with half of them staying on the island while the other half took their ship to get food and water from the nearby Karakara Marine Base," Spandam clicked his tongue, "Which was stupid by the way, they should have requested the marine base to bring the food and water to them instead of splitting apart," He rolled his eyes.