Looking up, wide eyed, Bill joined the rest of the crew as they gaped at the absolute largest living creature they had ever seen.
“This is Zou, the Phantom Island!” exclaimed Ricky loud enough for everyone on the deck to hear and snapping out of his awe, Bill looked at Miyagi and asked quietly: “Is this right?”
Nodding fervently, the Mink answered ‘Absolutely! Absolutely!’ and hearing this answer Bill called out his orders.
He would not allow the Frontier Run near the behemoth’s huge legs, and instead selected ten Marines to go with him and Miyagi on a dinghy while the others maintained the ship at a safe distance.
The people he chose was Ricky, Pearson, Denny, Danny, Donny, Willy, Yoko, Roule, and two of the new recruits from Jail Island. Both of the recruits he chose were standouts, but one in particular was a red-haired young woman named Jill who was incredibly intelligent, though she lacked in terms of physical capabilities.
Sasha, Nelson, and Boss would need to stay with the ship in case of emergency. Until Bill could provide his ships with robots for protection, he wouldn’t have any more of his people in completely hopeless situations again.
He didn’t expect any trouble since they were just here to hand off Miyagi’s Miracle Drug, with that said, Bill figured that the New World was a dangerous place and who knew how an island of talking animals would react to a Marine presence.
Climbing into the dinghy one by one, they loaded up ropes and other gear needed to climb before they cast away and landed on top of a roiling sea.
Looking ahead again, no matter how much he looked, Bill was amazed by the mountain-sized elephant and wondered just how long it’s legs must be to walk across the bottom of the ocean.
‘Unless the water here is just shallow.’ He thought, but then called over to his ships doctor: “Hey Miyagi, how long has Zou been on the back of this giant elephant?”
“I don’t know for exactly how long,” started Miyagi, before he continued to say: “Zunesha is said to have been wandering for a millennia, but I think he’s looking for something...”
With everyone on the little boat hanging on to his every word, Miyagi suddenly stopped talking which forced Ricky to speak up: “Well, what could it be looking for?”
“It’s unknown” replied the Mink and then clarified: “Zunesha doesn’t speak, but it’s alive and thinks. All true Minks know this because Zunesha protects us, and without Zunesha, the Island of Zou wouldn’t have been able to survive until now.”
“Hmph!” echoed Willy, and when everyone in the boat turned to him, he said: “You’re strong! how could your people not survive without help, as the Fish-men do?”
Giving a laughing ‘bleat’ to this, Miyagi just shrugged and said: “All Minks are natural fighters! but asking the Mink homeland to survive without Zunesha is like asking the Fish-men to survive without water!”
As for Bill, who was rowing, he didn’t know if he agreed with that statement.
Not because he thought that the wandering giant elephant didn’t help the Minks survive, but because comparing it with water and fish made it seem a little too ridiculous.
With every slow step the giant elephant took, massive tidal waves shook the ocean. By the time the little boat was within a few kilometers the ocean had become so choppy that forward movement was hard.
It was like trying to swim to the end of a wave pool that created the waves. The closer you got the further you would be pushed back.
Inching closer with each row the Marines quieted down, and when they eventually got close enough to touch the elephants’ giant leg, no one was making a peep.
Putting down the rows quickly, Bill called over to Willy for him to start, and while the Fish-man dove into the water he jumped up to grab a hold of the elephants’ legs.
By the time his hold was secure Willy had netted the bottom of the dinghy in such a way that with one rope Bill was able to lift the small boat out of the water.
Tying the rope around his waist, Bill began to climb one handhold at a time.
The weight itself wasn’t much of a problem for the young Captain, however once he had climbed up a few hundred feet the wind began buffeting the boat until it was swinging dangerously wide.
Digging his hands into rock hard skin, Bill shouted above the wind: “Willy! Pull the boat up closer to me!” Not needing to be told twice, the whale Fish-man complied, and Bill felt the rope around his waist tighten.
After climbing an additional several hundred feet, he began to circulate nutrition around his body to supplement the energy that he was burning faster than his body could naturally recover from.
Throughout the early part of climb, several people in the boat told him to go back down. In fact, the trip could have been completed with Bill, Miyagi, and Boss alone but once he set his mind to something Bill would not turn back.
By the later part of the climb, the small boat could be heard chanting ‘Bill! Bill! Bill!’ as it took over three hours for them to get to the point where the boat was about to crest over the top.
During that time everyone in the boat, besides perhaps Yoko and Ricky, had gone from excitement to concern to sheer amazement by watching Bill make the incredible ascent up Zunesha’s backside.
When he finally reached the top, Bill pulled himself up and rubbed down his arms and legs before turning and heaving once, twice, and finally a third time. With the boat on Zunesha’s back, the people in it hardly had time to notice how emaciated their Captain looked, when spread out before them were massive stone walls and even larger stone monuments in the distance.
While the others were oo’ing and ah’ing, pointing out outcroppings of strange trees, flowers, and generally bombarding Miyagi with questions, Bill closed his eyes and exchanged out his Observation aligned soul with his Armament aligned soul.
The climb had taken a lot out of him, and while he had wanted to keep his Observation Haki active for its obvious benefits, he didn’t want to spoil everyone’s mood.
So not missing a step, he walked behind his crewmates and observed his surrounds.
Not much could be seen besides a large stone wall that seemed to go off and bend into the distance, no doubt lining the elephants back, Bill thought. After all, even if this living island was ginormous, he assumed that the local authorities would want to create a barrier to prevent some random kid from falling to their deaths.
Nearer to the elephant’s rear end, about seven hundred meters from where they were standing, stood a gigantic gate to which Miyagi started motioning everybody to walk. With no dissenters to this command, the small assortment of Marines picked up backpacks of various sizes and followed along.
“This ground feels funny.” Mentioned Yoko, to which Miyagi answered with a laugh: “Of course! The ground here is mostly skin!” This realization hit everyone at the same time, and other round of questions peppered Miyagi until they had crossed the distance.
With Miyagi leading the troop, Bill was in the center of the group with the largest backpack and looked around.
Ricky was walking beside Pearson, Willy was walking beside the two newer crewmates from Jail Island, the three stooge- or rather, the three would-be Captains Danny, Denny, and Donny walked with each other and finally Bill saw Yoko and Roule walking side by side.
Roule was holding a sketch book no shorter than his forearms and was drawing everything from the walls to how the skin on Zunesha’s back folded unevenly across the surface. For a ten-year-old he was fantastically skilled, Bill thought, then considered that the boy really lived up to his name ‘Roule Render’.
It didn’t take long for their motley crew to reach the gate, and seeing it closed, Miyagi told everyone not to worry.
Letting loose a loud bleat, they waited for several moments until the entire wall was filled with archers looking down on them, and the call was answered by a furry head sticking out from above the gate.
“Who goes there-gara?!”
Bleating again, Miyagi laughed and replied: “It’s me-gara, Miyagi! I’m back from my brilliant journey!”
“Doctor Miyagi-gara?! You’re back?! Oh no! you’ve been captured by those hairless monkey Minks! Don’t worry! We’ll save you-gara!”
Thoroughly baffled by this back and forth, Bill watched the Mink who looked like a dog instantly come up with a crazy scenario.
Without his Observation Haki, he couldn’t read the Minks mind but since it looked sincere enough, he was about to call up to the head guard, but Miyagi beat him to it: “No! These hairless monkey-minks are friends!”
“Really?! Then they haven’t captured you-gara?!” the guard called back.
“No!” Miyagi answered, and then in a furl of motion the gate guard barked out: “Open the gates! Open the gates! Ring the Welcoming Bell!”
Not alone among the human Marines, thinking that there was no way this was happening, Bill stood somewhat dumbfounded when all the archers along the wall lowered their bows and started shouting ‘Welcome’ them.
Seeing the iron gateways being lowered Bill looked over and saw Ricky glances at him in wonder.
Shrugging it off, Bill made ready to step forward when he saw the afterimage of a zebra Mink rushing towards them with a drawn rapier. Seeing the swordsmen trajectory, he used Armament Haki ‘properly’ for the first time and with empowered legs he matched the zebra’s speed.
Getting beside Miyagi without a second to spare, Bill threw his doctor back with one hand and met the rapier with his other fist covered in black. With spark flying due to the air compression and battle of Will’s, the two blows never actually touched before the zebra Mink was pushed back several steps.
With the exception of the new recruits, the Marines with Bill were not strangers to combat and had reacted only a moment after the initial clash. Willy held his seastone-spiked club, Ricky one of his katana, Yoko her hammer, and the others had drawn rivet pistols.
“What do you-teia think you’re doing?!” barked a voice coming from behind the zebra. Bill was surprised to see this dog Mink moving nearly as fast as the other and inched to position himself between them and his crewmates.
Standing up straight now, the zebra Mink flipped his blonde hair and spoke in a gallant voice: “I had to see if they really were Dr. Miyagi-gara’s friends.” Then after a dramatic pause, he flipped his hair again and said: “They-gara… passed the test.”
Hearing him talk, Bill noticed that many female Minks amongst the archers started swooning, with some calling out “marry me-teia!”
Letting out a growl, the female dog Mink turned her attention to Bill and the others and said: “I’m sorry this happened to you-teia. Any friend of Doctor Miyagi’s is a friend of ours!”
When that was said and the dog Mink turned around to tell the others to ring the Welcoming Bell, Bill felt a tug on his sleeve and looked down to see Miyagi nibbling on his coat. Apparently feeling Bill’s stare, the good doctor looked up, smiled awkwardly, and stepped away.
Shaking his head, Bill took the lead now as they walked underneath huge carved out letters which spelled “MOKOMO DUKEDOM”.
“Miyagi! Stop biting my cloths, or I’ll bite you back!” hollered Yoko from behind him, and shaking his head again, Bill didn’t turn around.
He walked up to the dog and zebra Minks and introduced himself as ‘Captain Ox, of the Science Division’ to which he got the response that he was not an Ox Mink, but a hairless monkey Mink like the rest of them, save the Fish-man.
By now the initial amazement had somewhat worn off and the rest of the human Marines realized that they were being called hairless monkeys, and one after another they began to dispute the fact.
Out of all the denials about being called a ‘monkey’ Bill noticed that Yoko’s main issue was being called ‘hairless.’
Doing his best to ignore the clammer, he told the two that “Ox” was simply his family name, the Minks seemed to understand and introduced themselves as Wanda and Giovanni.
With that, the Welcoming Bells started chiming and out walked a strange looking crocodile. Turning her head from Bill, Wanda said: “Doctor Miyagi, Duke Dogstorm has been waiting for your-teia’s arrival for a long time! Now that you’re here, we can’t be late!”
Nodding along to this, Miyagi said that he’d go right away, but suggested that the others be allowed to visit around the island.
“I wanted to show you all my homeland personally!” said he, before continuing “but with my Miracle Drug complete, I-gara can’t dally around for a moment longer than necessary! How about the Captain and I go meet the Ruler of Day and then come and join you-gara all after?”
This seemed like a great idea for the others who, besides Willy, all wanted to explore the homeland of the Minks more than they wanted to speak to Duke ‘Dogstorm’.
So, with the plan made, Pearson and the others began putting down their backpacks which held Miyagi’s equipment and following Giovanni the group parted ways.
“Now” said Miyagi, cutting off Wanda as they were stepping up on the crocodile-boar steed and looked at Bill: “You-gara can drop the act, Captain. I’m sorry I didn’t notice sooner, climbing up Zunesha isn’t easy.”
Looking at Bill, albeit slightly differently, Wanda said: “If you’re exhausted then Duke Dogstorm can help you-teia. Dr. Miyagi isn’t the only one whose been working on a Miracle Drug!”
Smiling at this, Bill didn’t accept or refuse the help, but he did slouch down slightly. Heavily breathing one time, he asked: “So, what’s your ruler like?”
Riding through the Deep, Dark Swamp Bill was told a true but partial history of the Mink Tribe.
UberNuber If you enjoy the fanfic hit the heart icon and consider leaving a rating!
The 'gara'/'teia' things that the male/female Minks don't really have hard set rules... even according to Oda it's just something he thought would be funny for them to do. Why didn't Miyagi always do this? well, it was also said that when Minks are away from Zou they will something stop doing 'normal' Mink things.
Zou
Spoiler [collapse]Crocodile-Boar Steed
Spoiler [collapse]And I decided not to add the photos of Wanda/Giovanni since they are really easy to find on any search engine!
Looking up, wide eyed, Bill joined the rest of the crew as they gaped at the absolute largest living creature they had ever seen.
“This is Zou, the Phantom Island!” exclaimed Ricky loud enough for everyone on the deck to hear and snapping out of his awe, Bill looked at Miyagi and asked quietly: “Is this right?”
Nodding fervently, the Mink answered ‘Absolutely! Absolutely!’ and hearing this answer Bill called out his orders.
He would not allow the Frontier Run near the behemoth’s huge legs, and instead selected ten Marines to go with him and Miyagi on a dinghy while the others maintained the ship at a safe distance.
The people he chose was Ricky, Pearson, Denny, Danny, Donny, Willy, Yoko, Roule, and two of the new recruits from Jail Island. Both of the recruits he chose were standouts, but one in particular was a red-haired young woman named Jill who was incredibly intelligent, though she lacked in terms of physical capabilities.
Sasha, Nelson, and Boss would need to stay with the ship in case of emergency. Until Bill could provide his ships with robots for protection, he wouldn’t have any more of his people in completely hopeless situations again.
He didn’t expect any trouble since they were just here to hand off Miyagi’s Miracle Drug, with that said, Bill figured that the New World was a dangerous place and who knew how an island of talking animals would react to a Marine presence.
Climbing into the dinghy one by one, they loaded up ropes and other gear needed to climb before they cast away and landed on top of a roiling sea.
Looking ahead again, no matter how much he looked, Bill was amazed by the mountain-sized elephant and wondered just how long it’s legs must be to walk across the bottom of the ocean.
‘Unless the water here is just shallow.’ He thought, but then called over to his ships doctor: “Hey Miyagi, how long has Zou been on the back of this giant elephant?”
“I don’t know for exactly how long,” started Miyagi, before he continued to say: “Zunesha is said to have been wandering for a millennia, but I think he’s looking for something...”
With everyone on the little boat hanging on to his every word, Miyagi suddenly stopped talking which forced Ricky to speak up: “Well, what could it be looking for?”
“It’s unknown” replied the Mink and then clarified: “Zunesha doesn’t speak, but it’s alive and thinks. All true Minks know this because Zunesha protects us, and without Zunesha, the Island of Zou wouldn’t have been able to survive until now.”
“Hmph!” echoed Willy, and when everyone in the boat turned to him, he said: “You’re strong! how could your people not survive without help, as the Fish-men do?”
Giving a laughing ‘bleat’ to this, Miyagi just shrugged and said: “All Minks are natural fighters! but asking the Mink homeland to survive without Zunesha is like asking the Fish-men to survive without water!”
As for Bill, who was rowing, he didn’t know if he agreed with that statement.
Not because he thought that the wandering giant elephant didn’t help the Minks survive, but because comparing it with water and fish made it seem a little too ridiculous.
With every slow step the giant elephant took, massive tidal waves shook the ocean. By the time the little boat was within a few kilometers the ocean had become so choppy that forward movement was hard.
It was like trying to swim to the end of a wave pool that created the waves. The closer you got the further you would be pushed back.
Inching closer with each row the Marines quieted down, and when they eventually got close enough to touch the elephants’ giant leg, no one was making a peep.
Putting down the rows quickly, Bill called over to Willy for him to start, and while the Fish-man dove into the water he jumped up to grab a hold of the elephants’ legs.
By the time his hold was secure Willy had netted the bottom of the dinghy in such a way that with one rope Bill was able to lift the small boat out of the water.
Tying the rope around his waist, Bill began to climb one handhold at a time.
The weight itself wasn’t much of a problem for the young Captain, however once he had climbed up a few hundred feet the wind began buffeting the boat until it was swinging dangerously wide.
Digging his hands into rock hard skin, Bill shouted above the wind: “Willy! Pull the boat up closer to me!” Not needing to be told twice, the whale Fish-man complied, and Bill felt the rope around his waist tighten.
After climbing an additional several hundred feet, he began to circulate nutrition around his body to supplement the energy that he was burning faster than his body could naturally recover from.
Throughout the early part of climb, several people in the boat told him to go back down. In fact, the trip could have been completed with Bill, Miyagi, and Boss alone but once he set his mind to something Bill would not turn back.
By the later part of the climb, the small boat could be heard chanting ‘Bill! Bill! Bill!’ as it took over three hours for them to get to the point where the boat was about to crest over the top.
During that time everyone in the boat, besides perhaps Yoko and Ricky, had gone from excitement to concern to sheer amazement by watching Bill make the incredible ascent up Zunesha’s backside.
When he finally reached the top, Bill pulled himself up and rubbed down his arms and legs before turning and heaving once, twice, and finally a third time. With the boat on Zunesha’s back, the people in it hardly had time to notice how emaciated their Captain looked, when spread out before them were massive stone walls and even larger stone monuments in the distance.
While the others were oo’ing and ah’ing, pointing out outcroppings of strange trees, flowers, and generally bombarding Miyagi with questions, Bill closed his eyes and exchanged out his Observation aligned soul with his Armament aligned soul.
The climb had taken a lot out of him, and while he had wanted to keep his Observation Haki active for its obvious benefits, he didn’t want to spoil everyone’s mood.
So not missing a step, he walked behind his crewmates and observed his surrounds.
Not much could be seen besides a large stone wall that seemed to go off and bend into the distance, no doubt lining the elephants back, Bill thought. After all, even if this living island was ginormous, he assumed that the local authorities would want to create a barrier to prevent some random kid from falling to their deaths.
Nearer to the elephant’s rear end, about seven hundred meters from where they were standing, stood a gigantic gate to which Miyagi started motioning everybody to walk. With no dissenters to this command, the small assortment of Marines picked up backpacks of various sizes and followed along.
“This ground feels funny.” Mentioned Yoko, to which Miyagi answered with a laugh: “Of course! The ground here is mostly skin!” This realization hit everyone at the same time, and other round of questions peppered Miyagi until they had crossed the distance.
With Miyagi leading the troop, Bill was in the center of the group with the largest backpack and looked around.
Ricky was walking beside Pearson, Willy was walking beside the two newer crewmates from Jail Island, the three stooge- or rather, the three would-be Captains Danny, Denny, and Donny walked with each other and finally Bill saw Yoko and Roule walking side by side.
Roule was holding a sketch book no shorter than his forearms and was drawing everything from the walls to how the skin on Zunesha’s back folded unevenly across the surface. For a ten-year-old he was fantastically skilled, Bill thought, then considered that the boy really lived up to his name ‘Roule Render’.
It didn’t take long for their motley crew to reach the gate, and seeing it closed, Miyagi told everyone not to worry.
Letting loose a loud bleat, they waited for several moments until the entire wall was filled with archers looking down on them, and the call was answered by a furry head sticking out from above the gate.
“Who goes there-gara?!”
Bleating again, Miyagi laughed and replied: “It’s me-gara, Miyagi! I’m back from my brilliant journey!”
“Doctor Miyagi-gara?! You’re back?! Oh no! you’ve been captured by those hairless monkey Minks! Don’t worry! We’ll save you-gara!”
Thoroughly baffled by this back and forth, Bill watched the Mink who looked like a dog instantly come up with a crazy scenario.
Without his Observation Haki, he couldn’t read the Minks mind but since it looked sincere enough, he was about to call up to the head guard, but Miyagi beat him to it: “No! These hairless monkey-minks are friends!”
“Really?! Then they haven’t captured you-gara?!” the guard called back.
“No!” Miyagi answered, and then in a furl of motion the gate guard barked out: “Open the gates! Open the gates! Ring the Welcoming Bell!”
Not alone among the human Marines, thinking that there was no way this was happening, Bill stood somewhat dumbfounded when all the archers along the wall lowered their bows and started shouting ‘Welcome’ them.
Seeing the iron gateways being lowered Bill looked over and saw Ricky glances at him in wonder.
Shrugging it off, Bill made ready to step forward when he saw the afterimage of a zebra Mink rushing towards them with a drawn rapier. Seeing the swordsmen trajectory, he used Armament Haki ‘properly’ for the first time and with empowered legs he matched the zebra’s speed.
Getting beside Miyagi without a second to spare, Bill threw his doctor back with one hand and met the rapier with his other fist covered in black. With spark flying due to the air compression and battle of Will’s, the two blows never actually touched before the zebra Mink was pushed back several steps.
With the exception of the new recruits, the Marines with Bill were not strangers to combat and had reacted only a moment after the initial clash. Willy held his seastone-spiked club, Ricky one of his katana, Yoko her hammer, and the others had drawn rivet pistols.
“What do you-teia think you’re doing?!” barked a voice coming from behind the zebra. Bill was surprised to see this dog Mink moving nearly as fast as the other and inched to position himself between them and his crewmates.
Standing up straight now, the zebra Mink flipped his blonde hair and spoke in a gallant voice: “I had to see if they really were Dr. Miyagi-gara’s friends.” Then after a dramatic pause, he flipped his hair again and said: “They-gara… passed the test.”
Hearing him talk, Bill noticed that many female Minks amongst the archers started swooning, with some calling out “marry me-teia!”
Letting out a growl, the female dog Mink turned her attention to Bill and the others and said: “I’m sorry this happened to you-teia. Any friend of Doctor Miyagi’s is a friend of ours!”
When that was said and the dog Mink turned around to tell the others to ring the Welcoming Bell, Bill felt a tug on his sleeve and looked down to see Miyagi nibbling on his coat. Apparently feeling Bill’s stare, the good doctor looked up, smiled awkwardly, and stepped away.
Shaking his head, Bill took the lead now as they walked underneath huge carved out letters which spelled “MOKOMO DUKEDOM”.
“Miyagi! Stop biting my cloths, or I’ll bite you back!” hollered Yoko from behind him, and shaking his head again, Bill didn’t turn around.
He walked up to the dog and zebra Minks and introduced himself as ‘Captain Ox, of the Science Division’ to which he got the response that he was not an Ox Mink, but a hairless monkey Mink like the rest of them, save the Fish-man.
By now the initial amazement had somewhat worn off and the rest of the human Marines realized that they were being called hairless monkeys, and one after another they began to dispute the fact.
Out of all the denials about being called a ‘monkey’ Bill noticed that Yoko’s main issue was being called ‘hairless.’
Doing his best to ignore the clammer, he told the two that “Ox” was simply his family name, the Minks seemed to understand and introduced themselves as Wanda and Giovanni.
With that, the Welcoming Bells started chiming and out walked a strange looking crocodile. Turning her head from Bill, Wanda said: “Doctor Miyagi, Duke Dogstorm has been waiting for your-teia’s arrival for a long time! Now that you’re here, we can’t be late!”
Nodding along to this, Miyagi said that he’d go right away, but suggested that the others be allowed to visit around the island.
“I wanted to show you all my homeland personally!” said he, before continuing “but with my Miracle Drug complete, I-gara can’t dally around for a moment longer than necessary! How about the Captain and I go meet the Ruler of Day and then come and join you-gara all after?”
This seemed like a great idea for the others who, besides Willy, all wanted to explore the homeland of the Minks more than they wanted to speak to Duke ‘Dogstorm’.
So, with the plan made, Pearson and the others began putting down their backpacks which held Miyagi’s equipment and following Giovanni the group parted ways.
“Now” said Miyagi, cutting off Wanda as they were stepping up on the crocodile-boar steed and looked at Bill: “You-gara can drop the act, Captain. I’m sorry I didn’t notice sooner, climbing up Zunesha isn’t easy.”
Looking at Bill, albeit slightly differently, Wanda said: “If you’re exhausted then Duke Dogstorm can help you-teia. Dr. Miyagi isn’t the only one whose been working on a Miracle Drug!”
Smiling at this, Bill didn’t accept or refuse the help, but he did slouch down slightly. Heavily breathing one time, he asked: “So, what’s your ruler like?”
Riding through the Deep, Dark Swamp Bill was told a true but partial history of the Mink Tribe.
UberNuber If you enjoy the fanfic hit the heart icon and consider leaving a rating!
The 'gara'/'teia' things that the male/female Minks don't really have hard set rules... even according to Oda it's just something he thought would be funny for them to do. Why didn't Miyagi always do this? well, it was also said that when Minks are away from Zou they will something stop doing 'normal' Mink things.
Zou
Spoiler [collapse]Crocodile-Boar Steed
Spoiler [collapse]And I decided not to add the photos of Wanda/Giovanni since they are really easy to find on any search engine!
