One Piece: The Template System-Chapter 136: On The Seas - 4

The grassy main deck was bustling with activity when the heavy metal doors of the Mega Workshop hissed open.

Franky stepped out onto the lawn.

"Hey, everyone! Check this out!" Franky yelled, a massive grin splitting his face.

The crew turned their attention toward the cyborg.

Franky didn’t run toward the railing. He simply bent his knees and jumped.

As he left the deck, the skin on his calves and palms rippled with a mesmerizing silver sheen. The Vibranium nanites flowed out of his spatial pockets in a fraction of a second, constructing sleek, aerodynamic jet boosters around his lower legs and precision stabilizers in the palms of his hands.

FWOOSH!

Blue Arc Reactor energy flared from the boosters. Franky shot straight up into the sky like a rocket.

"SUUUUUUUPEEEEER!" Franky’s voice echoed from above.

He didn’t just fly in a straight line. Franky banked hard, using the palm stabilizers to execute a perfect barrel roll over the main mast. He dove toward the ocean, skimming the surface of the waves and kicking up a trail of white mist before pulling up sharply into a loop-de-loop.

On the deck, the crew watched with their jaws hanging open.

"Whoa!" Luffy yelled, his eyes turning into massive, sparkling stars. "He’s flying! Just like Iron Pirates!"

"That control is incredible," Usopp adjusted his goggles, watching the fluid shifts in the nanotech.

Franky hovered in the air above the deck, striking a triumphant pose with his metal boots still flaring. "The maneuverability is flawless! I can feel the wind, but the Vibranium absorbs all the G-force! I am the ultimate sky-shipwright!"

Ben stood near the helm, chuckling at the cyborg’s enthusiasm. He reached into his spatial storage pouch.

"Luffy! Usopp! Chopper!" Ben called out over the sound of the thrusters.

The trio instantly snapped their attention to the Magician, running over to him like excited puppies. Whenever Ben called them together like that, it meant one thing: new gear.

"What is it?!" Luffy asked, practically vibrating. "Did you make me a laser sword?! Or a meat-grinder that shoots lasers?!"

"I have a new toy for you," Ben said. He pulled his hand out of the pouch.

Resting in his palm was a small, swirling patch of bright yellow cloud. It looked soft, fluffy, and entirely out of place on a pirate ship.

Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper stared at the tuft of yellow fluff. Their excited grins slowly faded into flat, unimpressed expressions.

"A cloud?" Usopp asked, raising an eyebrow. "Ben, we literally went to Skypiea. We spent weeks walking on clouds, sleeping on clouds, and driving boats on clouds. They aren’t exactly a novelty anymore."

"Yeah," Chopper agreed. "It’s soft, but... where’s the laser?"

"This isn’t a normal island cloud," Ben explained patiently. He tossed the yellow fluff onto the grassy deck.

The cloud didn’t dissipate. It hovered exactly two feet off the ground, expanding slightly until it was about the size of a small rug.

"I call it the Flying Nimbus," Ben said, gesturing to the hovering yellow cloud. "It is a magical construct. It doesn’t run on dials, engines, or fuel. It flies in any direction you want it to, at incredible speeds, entirely based on your mental commands."

Luffy’s eyes immediately turned back into stars. "A mind-reading flying cloud?!"

"However, there is a catch," Ben raised a finger. "The Nimbus is picky. It rejects anyone with dark intentions or a corrupted spirit. Only a person with a genuinely pure heart can ride on it. Anyone else will just fall right through."

Usopp scoffed, stepping forward and puffing out his chest. "A pure heart? Stand aside, boys. You are looking at the bravest, most pure-hearted warrior on the sea! I shall tame this sky-beast!"

Usopp confidently lifted his leg and stepped onto the yellow cloud.

Fwump.

His foot passed straight through the yellow fluff without any resistance whatsoever. Usopp lost his balance and face-planted directly onto the wooden deck beneath the grass.

"Pffft!" Luffy burst out laughing, pointing at the sniper on the floor. "You fell right through! Your heart is dirty, Usopp!"

"I slipped!" Usopp yelled, scrambling to his feet, his face red. "The deck was wet! Let me try again!"

Luffy pushed past him. "My turn!"

Luffy eagerly jumped onto the center of the cloud. He didn’t fall. The yellow Nimbus held his weight perfectly, sinking just an inch like a plush cushion. Luffy bounced up and down, laughing as the cloud bobbed with him.

"It works! It’s so soft!" Luffy cheered.

Chopper, his eyes wide with amazement, nervously stepped up to the edge of the cloud. He placed one small hoof on the yellow fluff. It held firm. Chopper smiled brightly and hopped up, sitting right next to Luffy.

"I can ride it too!" Chopper giggled, patting the soft material. "My heart is pure!"

Sanji, watching from the deck, smoothed his lapels. He saw a golden opportunity. "If a moss-headed idiot can’t appreciate romance, maybe a cloud can. I shall use this fluffy chariot to deliver the finest tropical cocktails directly to Nami-swan and Robin-chwan!"

Holding a tray of drinks with perfect balance, Sanji stepped confidently onto the yellow cloud, his mind filled with swirling, heart-shaped thoughts of his beautiful crewmates.

Fwump.

Sanji fell straight through the cloud, crashing face-first into the deck with a loud thud. The tray clattered to the wood, spilling juice everywhere.

Zoro, leaning against the mast, cracked open his lone eye and smirked. "Guess the cloud doesn’t accept nosebleed-inducing, perverted thoughts, curly-brows."

"SHUT UP, MARIMO!" Sanji roared, leaping up, his leg bursting into flames. "MY LOVE IS PURE!"

While Sanji and Zoro immediately devolved into their usual brawl, Usopp glared at the two sitting happily on the cloud. "Okay, clearly I just didn’t approach it with the right angle. Make room!"

Usopp took a running start and leaped directly at the cloud.

Thud.

He phased right through it again, crashing heavily onto his back on the grass while Luffy and Chopper hovered happily just above his nose.

"See?!" Luffy laughed so hard he fell backward onto the cloud. "You can’t ride it! You tell too many lies!"

"Lies are just stories waiting to be true!" Usopp grumbled, rubbing his bruised back.

"Go on, try it out," Ben encouraged the captain and the doctor. "Just think about where you want to go."

Luffy looked up at the sky. "Up!"

WHOOSH.

The Flying Nimbus shot into the air like a yellow bullet, leaving a trail of golden light behind it.

"WAAAAAH!" Chopper screamed, clinging to Luffy’s red jacket as they rapidly gained altitude. "IT’S SO FAST!"

"SHISHISHI! THIS IS AWESOME!" Luffy yelled, steering the cloud with his thoughts. He made the Nimbus bank sharply around the main mast, soaring past the crow’s nest before diving toward the ocean surface.

Ben walked over to the railing, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Don’t go too far away from the ship! And watch out for seagulls!"

Usopp stood up, crossing his arms and pouting as he watched his friends zooming through the clouds above the ship.

"Who wants to ride a stupid yellow sponge anyway," Usopp grumbled under his breath. He tapped his back. "I don’t need a cloud. I have the real deal."

With a swift, practiced motion, Usopp activated his serum trait. Falcon wings burst from his back, their feathers rustling in the sea breeze.

He bent his knees and launched himself into the sky, the powerful downstroke of his wings propelling him upward. "Hey! Wait for me!"

High above the Thousand Sunny, a bizarre aerial game of tag commenced.

"Hey! Magic cloud and bird-man!" Franky challenged, hovering next to them on his Vibranium jet boots, laughing boisterously. "First one to do three laps around the main mast wins! Ready, set, SUPER GO!"

Franky blasted off, banking sharply with his palm stabilizers to take an early lead.

"Hey! No fair! You didn’t say go properly!" Luffy yelled, leaning forward on the Nimbus. "Go, cloud, go!" The Nimbus zipped after him like a golden bullet.

"Out of my way!" Usopp shouted, flapping his falcon wings furiously to catch up. He reached into his tactical pouch. "Take this! Smoke Star!"

Usopp tossed a pellet that exploded into a thick cloud of purple smoke directly in Franky’s flight path.

"Cheater!" Franky yelled, coughing as he flew blindly through the smoke. "Take this! Weapons Left: Paintball Barrage!" He shot a volley of harmless, colorful paintballs at the sniper, leaving bright splatters across Usopp’s wings.

"Ahhh! Watch out!" Chopper screamed as Luffy completely ignored the track parameters and haphazardly zoomed through the ship’s rigging, narrowly dodging ropes and sails, laughing like a maniac.

"You’re going the wrong way, Luffy!" Usopp yelled, doing a barrel roll to avoid another paintball. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

They wove through the passing clouds, diving and climbing in the endless blue expanse, turning a simple flight test into an absolute, chaotic demolition derby of speed.

After twenty minutes of high-speed, cheating-filled acrobatics, the four of them descended back to the ship, landing gently on the grassy deck.

"That was the best!" Luffy cheered, hopping off the Nimbus.

"I want to go again!" Chopper smiled, though his fur was blown completely backward by the wind.

Ben reached into his spatial pouch again and pulled out a second tuft of yellow cloud, tossing it onto the deck where it expanded.

"Here you go, Chopper," Ben said. "You get your own."

"Really?!" Chopper’s eyes lit up. "Thank you, Ben!"

"And one more thing," Ben added, looking at both Luffy and Chopper. "You don’t need to carry them around. If you ever get separated from them, or if you fall out of the sky, just whistle as loud as you can. The Nimbus will hear you and come flying to catch you."

"Just a whistle?" Luffy put two fingers in his mouth and blew a sharp, piercing whistle.

The yellow cloud resting on the deck instantly zipped upward, bumping playfully against Luffy’s chest like an eager dog.

"Shishishi! Good cloud!" Luffy patted it.

"DINNER IS SERVED!" Sanji’s voice called out from the kitchen doors, cutting through the excitement.

"MEAT!" Luffy instantly abandoned the cloud, sprinting toward the dining hall.

---

The following days settled into a comfortable, rhythmic routine. The Thousand Sunny proved to be everything they had dreamed of and more.

Training remained a daily priority. The Heavy Hitters spent hours in the Gravity Chamber, pushing their physical limits under crushing pressure, while Zoro and Sanji regularly engaged in destructive sparring matches inside the Time Chamber, safely contained within the white void where their awakened Haki couldn’t damage the real world.

When he wasn’t training, Ben spent his time in the Mega Workshop. He had placed the original caravel body of the Going Merry in the center of the massive room. Using his engineering templates and spatial runes, he was carefully modifying and transforming it something new.

But it wasn’t all work.

The ship was vast enough that everyone had their own space, yet cozy enough that they naturally congregated on the main deck.

One particular evening, as the sun began to set, the sky turned a brilliant, fiery orange, casting long, golden reflections across the calm ocean.

The atmosphere on the deck was picture-perfect.

At the port side railing, Luffy, Ace, Usopp, Chopper, and Caroo had set up a line of fishing poles. They were sitting on wooden barrels, laughing and competing over who could catch the biggest fish.

"I feel a bite!" Chopper squeaked, struggling to reel in his line.

"It’s probably just seaweed again," Usopp teased, adjusting his line.

Near the main mast, Dory, Brogy, Oimo, and Kashii were sitting in a circle with Zoro. They were surrounded by empty wooden kegs, trading boisterous hunting stories from Elbaf while Zoro quietly out-drank them all without breaking a sweat.

On the starboard patio area, a completely different battle was taking place.

Nami, Vivi, Mini Merry, and Sunny, were sitting around a white table playing UNO.

"Draw four, green," Nami smirked, dropping the dreaded card onto the pile with the ruthlessness of a seasoned pirate.

"Auntie Nami, that is savage, "My algorithms did not predict that level of betrayal."

"In this game, there are no friends, little bro," Merry stated flatly, adjusting her sunglasses and dropping a Reverse card.

Sanji floated gracefully between the groups, carrying a silver tray loaded with fresh fruit tarts and perfectly mixed cocktails, completely ignoring Zoro’s group to serve the ladies.

Ben sat on a plush lounge chair near the back of the deck, a glass of iced tea resting on the small table beside him. Robin sat in the chair next to him, an ancient, leather-bound book open in her hand.

It was a perfectly peaceful evening.

"I GOT SOMETHING!"

Usopp’s sudden shout shattered the quiet. He was leaning back, his fishing rod bent nearly in half.

"It’s heavy!" Usopp strained, digging his heels into the grass. "Help me pull it up! It might be a sea monster!"

Luffy, Ace, and Chopper immediately dropped their rods and rushed over, grabbing Usopp’s line and hauling it backward.

"Heave! Ho!" they chanted.

With a loud splash, the object broke the surface of the water and swung over the railing, crashing onto the grassy deck.

Everyone turned to look.

It wasn’t a sea monster. It wasn’t a chest full of gold.

It was a standard, wooden barrel. It looked slightly waterlogged, with a large, crude symbol painted on the front.

"A barrel?" Chopper tilted his head, his excitement instantly deflating.

Usopp sighed, dropping the fishing rod. "I fought a life-or-death battle with the ocean for a piece of garbage."

Robin looked up from her book, her blue eyes narrowing slightly as she studied the markings on the wood.

"I would advise caution," Robin warned, her calm voice carrying across the deck. "In these specific waters, a floating barrel is rarely just garbage. It is often a trap set by pirates or bounty hunters. The moment you break the seal, it triggers an internal mechanism that launches a signal flare, broadcasting your exact location to anyone watching."

Usopp went completely pale. He immediately took three large steps backward.

"A trap?!" Usopp panicked, waving his hands. "Nobody touch it! We need to throw it back! Ben, use your magic to teleport it away!"

But Luffy casually reached out and popped the wooden lid off the barrel.

Fweeeee...

A sharp, whistling sound erupted from the inside of the barrel.

BANG!

A bright red signal flare shot vertically out of the barrel, launching hundreds of feet into the evening sky before exploding with a loud crack. A brilliant crimson light washed over the deck of the Sunny, illuminating the shocked faces of the crew.

A heavy, dead silence followed the explosion.

Every single person on the deck slowly turned their heads to glare at Luffy.

"You idiot," Nami groaned, rubbing her temples. "She literally just said it was a trap."

Luffy didn’t seem to notice the collective anger of his crew. He was entirely unfazed by the red light raining down on them. He was leaning over the barrel, peering deep inside.

"Ooooh!" Luffy’s eyes widened. "There really is treasure in here!"

Nami’s irritation vanished instantly. The Belli symbols practically materialized in her eyes. "Gold?!" Nami shoved Usopp out of the way and sprinted toward the barrel. "Let me see! How much is it?!"

Luffy pulled out a massive, slightly preserved hunk of roast pork wrapped in wax paper.

"Better than gold!" Luffy cheered, drool already forming at the corner of his mouth. "It’s meat!"

Nami skids to a complete halt on the grass. Her shoulders slumped, her expression shifting to absolute, profound dejection. "Meat is not treasure, you rubber moron."

"And there’s sake too!" Luffy added, pulling out a large, sealed ceramic jug.

On the other side of the deck, Zoro’s eyes snapped open. He immediately left the circle of giants, stood up, and walked purposefully toward Luffy. He hadn’t cared about the trap, the flare, or the gold, but his priorities were clear.

"You should have led with that," Zoro grunted, taking the jug from Luffy’s hand and popping the cork with his thumb.

Robin stood up from her lounge chair, walking over to inspect the barrel with a mild, scholarly smile.

"It appears to be an offering," Robin noted, looking at the food. "Sailors in these regions sometimes set barrels of high-quality food and drink adrift as a tribute to the Sea God, praying for safe passage through treacherous waters."

Zoro took a long, deep swig of the sake, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "I don’t pray to any god. If he wants a drink, he can buy his own."

Luffy was already chewing on the roast pork, completely ignoring the historical context of his stolen meal.

Ben watched the scene from his lounge chair, swirling the ice in his tea. He looked up at Robin as she walked back over to her seat.

"A Sea God, huh?" Ben mused quietly. "We already beat one god back in Skypiea. Knowing this crew’s luck, I’m sure we’ll end up fighting another on our path."

Robin sat down, a faint smile touching her lips. She rested her chin on her hand, looking at him with mild amusement.

"So," Robin asked softly. "You do believe in God, Magician-san?"

Ben didn’t miss a beat. He took a slow sip of his tea, his expression calm and effortlessly confident as he met her gaze.

"I’ve seen enough false gods to know they usually just have a superiority complex," Ben replied. A small, charming smirk touched his lips. "But I’d have to be a blind fool to deny the divine completely... especially when there’s a goddess sitting right across from me."

Robin blinked. For a rare moment, the famously composed archaeologist was caught off guard by the smooth, direct compliment.

Then, a soft laugh escaped her lips. She shook her head and picked her book back up, a warm smile lingering on her face as she returned to reading.

Ben took a sip of his tea, perfectly content.

Above them, the red flare faded into the twilight, signaling to whatever lurked in the dark waters ahead that the Straw Hat Pirates were coming.