𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙡 𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 (A One Piece Fanfic)

Chapter 23- Juli vs. Paulie and Meet the Rocketman!

Luffy and Zoro breathed heavily as they sat on the bridge.

Juli, Nami and Chopper smiled in relief and high-fived each other.

"We did it!" Chopper cheered happily.

Juli and Nami giggled cheerfully.

Luffy looked up and his eyes widened utterly shocked as he looked at the gigantic wave towering dangerously above them.

Juli could only watch in shock as they were being swallowed by the wave.

"Oh no! It's higher than we thought!" The shipwrights shouted in panic.

"Where are the Strawhats!? Did Aqua Laguna drag them under?!"

"No, look!" One shipwright shouted as he noticed Paulie, who had his ropes attached to each one of the Strawhats, who were currently underwater.

Paulie gritted his teeth as he slowly was being dragged towards the wave, while he tried to pull them out of the Aqua Laguna. "Shit!" He cursed as a part of the bridge began to collapse. The ropes in his hands slid more and more out of his grip. Paulie gritted his teeth in pain, as he grabbed more tightly on the ropes and his hands began to bleed from the effort. With a yell, he pulled Luffy, Nami, Chopper, Zoro and Juli out of the Aqua Laguna.

They landed on the collapsing part of the bridge. Luffy coughed out water. Juli breathed heavily and her eyes widened in surprise as she saw how another wave built up before them.

Paulie's eyes widened in shock. "It's not over yet! Run!"

Luffy grabbed onto Nami, Zoro grabbed Chopper and Paulie picked Juli up and they began to storm towards the Shipbuilding island ahead of the bridge.

"Paulie-san! The bridge is crumbling!" The shipwrights shouted in warning.

And at the last moment, before the wave could reach them and the bridge collapsed, Luffy with an arm around Nami, Zoro with Chopper clinging to his face and Paulie with Juli in his arms jumped all onto the Shipbuilding island.

"What a wave..." A shipwright said and shivered slightly. "I don't even feel safe here on Shipbuilding island..."

"And it's not over, yet. The second and third waves are still coming..."

Luffy laid on the ground in exhaustion. Nami breathed heavily while she tried to shake off her shock. Zoro tried intensively to get Chopper off his face because he is nearly suffocating.

Paulie sighed and tried to lighten his cigar, but it didn't work because his lighter got wet. He sighed again, gave up on it and looked at Juli, who sat next to him. "Damn you guys sure are reckless. Are you okay Juli?"

Juli took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes... But I think I can add 'Nearly drowned' and 'Almost fallen to death' to the list of dangerous things I have done."

Paulie just shook his head at that.

Luffy coughed up water. "Thanks, rope guy. You saved our lives. Man, we really nearly drowned. Shishishi." He laughed cheerfully.

Juli giggled amused as she helped Luffy sitting up.

"I-I can't believe it... So, that is the Aqua Laguna." Nami shivered. "I can't stop trembling..."

Paulie looked at them seriously. "If the waves were this high every year, this island would have perished long ago. This year is an expectation."

"You guys sure impressed me." Kokoro laughed as she walked towards them. "I can't believe you survived that."

"Oh, Monster granny! You are here too?" Luffy greeted her.

Juli looked scolding at Luffy. "Lu, this isn't a nice thing to say, you know."