"Well, let's see- what is going on with the compass?!" Nami asked. Her compass needle was spinning wildly, as if it was placed near a magnet.
Ogsa chuckled, "did you think it would be that easy? This is the grand line after all. I thought that surely you would've bought a log pose at louguetown… this-", he pulled out the bounty hunters' log pose which he had snatched, "-is how you navigate through the first half of the grandline. You see, unlike the four blues, where the strongest magnetic pull comes from the North Pole, on the grandline, every island has a magnetic pull. These things can track those polarities. Stay on an island long enough and it recalibrates to the next island on the path. If you were to set out using a regular compass, you would be lost indefinitely. The weather is treacherous and with nothing but the sea in every direction, you could spend days moving in circles without ever noticing. The paths convene at one point and the last island of every path if raftel. In all of history only one group of pirates has ever reached raftel, the pirate kings crew, it is the stuff of legends"
"That is where it is, the legendary one piece, right?" Usopp's eyes lit with wonder.
"Soon enough there will be a second crew that has reached that island, us, the strawhat pirates. We will achieve all our dreams and claim the one piece!" Luffy jumped up, "now it is time for dinner, right? I'm starving"
"Yeah, I'm feeling a bit peckish too" Ogsa chuckled, handing the log pose to Nami, their orange haired navigator.
Mr nine and ms Wednesday swam over to them as they were eating, "I know we haven't been on best terms but we can't exactly leave here without our log pose. If you let us tag along to whisky peak, we can separate there…"
"Whisky peak? What's that?"
"It is the name of our town"
"Like you said, we aren't exactly on the best terms, why should we help you, you tried to kill Laboon not even two hours ago!"
"We just want to go home… we promise to repay you!" The two grovelled at their feet, "it's not our fault! We can't tell you much. Our work requires us to be secretive! Our company motto is 'mystery' so that is all we can reveal. We appeal to your kindness. You clearly aren't evil, so please let us tag along!"
"I wouldn't trust em, they are up to no good!" Crocus crossed his arms, the old man glaring daggers at the two mercenaries.
"It's okay, you can come with us" Luffy said as he bit off another chunk of meat which Sanji had prepared.
"Are you serious?" Sanji asked him, "I mean i understand the beauty that is miss Wednesday but that guy? Do we really have to take him?"
"What the captain says goes and even if they were planning to cross us, do you really think they could beat us? You, the captain, Zoro and I are all monsters compared to these fools. They probably couldn't even scratch Luffy's rubber body"
"I am powerful too! I command a thousand pirates back in the east blue!" Usopp lied but mr nine was completely fooled, "really? Why isn't he the captain then? That long nose would be a way better identifier than that boring strawhat!"
"He is lying you dunce", miss Wednesday punched mr nine over the head.
"Well we should depart now, the sea doesn't wait for anyone" Ogsa jumped onto the ship.
'Did he really just clear that distance in one leap? Forget the long nosed liar, why isn't this guy the captain? He looks way tougher than the captain and he is almost as tall as mr 0… and those common clothes don't leave much to the imagination…' Miss Wednesday or Neferati Vivi blushed slightly but dismissed those thoughts.
On the ship, as they were sailing, the crew took terns being blindfolded and trying to evade attacks. After a full day of training, they retired to their quarters and when they woke up next, it was snowing. The two goofballs, Luffy and Usopp were building snowmen, bonding over it whilst Zoro was helping Ogsa trying to awaken his observation Haki.
Chaos broke out once Nami noticed their ship had turned around, "I only looked away from the log pose for a few minutes and we have already shifted 180 degrees! These waters truly are treacherous!"
They tried correcting their course but were caught in a stormy current. Before long, the snow clouds and the stormy currents were gone, replaced by a warm spring like climate.
"My normal navigation is useless in these waters, I need to stay vigilant and improve if I want to stay a good navigator even under these conditions", Nami nodded, "but it doesn't look like we have much longer till we reach the island, that one with the giant cacti, that's whisky peak, right?"
"Thank goodness we have arrived safely"
"Yeah", Ogsa removed his blindfold and looked towards the island. The cacti were enormous, as big as mountais.
"We will be taking our leave now" mr nine said.
"Thanks for the ride, darlings. We will see you again if fate wills it"
""Bye bye baby""
The two mercenaries jumped off the boat and disappeared from sight.
"There is a river up ahead, looks like we need to sail inland… I hope there aren't monsters around, this is the grand line after all", Usopp shivered.
"If that's the way things are, we can just run away, right?"
"We can't leave right away", Ogsa snorted, "we will be stuck here for a while"
"Why is that?"
"Haven't you listened?" Asked Nami, "we have to record the island's magnetic field with the log pose before we can move onto the next island. The time it takes to 'log' an island varies, a few hours? Days?"
"Weeks or even months, stuck until the damn thing recalibrates" Ogsa nodded.
"We will worry about that when the time comes", Luffy was as carefree as ever.