"Ahhhhhhh! It's a ghost!!!" Usopp, Nami, and Chopper screamed as they panicked.
"Come on, seriously. It's me! Lucas," Lucas said, floating in his Ghostfreak form. The panic of the three alarmed the others, who rushed out and screamed as they saw a literal ghost in front of them.
"Come on, guys, seriously, it's me, Lucas. Why do y'all gotta act like you've seen a ghost?" he said. "Get it, 'cause I'm a literal ghost... Guys, get it... No! Yeah, well, I guess that was kinda lame of me," Lucas said, scratching his head.
"If you really are Lucas, how did you end up like that?" Sanji asked, while Luffy tried to touch him. Lucas made himself intangible so Luffy's arm passed through him as he floated there. Usopp and Chopper joined in as Lucas and the other Straw Hats solved this matter.
"Gotta say, Kiji was a tough one. I guess that's an Admiral for ya'. After you guys left, I barely hung in there, and when I saw he was about to kill me, I simply blew myself up. Figured I'd take both of us down," Lucas explained.
"And the ghost thing?" Zoro asked.
"Yeah, well, I kinda had a spell etched in my heart that if I died, my soul would manifest in the form of, well, this," he said.
"Phew, now that that's over, let's get out of here. Don't wanna run into that guy again," Lucas said as he floated.
"I don't buy it," Sanji said. Lucas stopped mid-air as he was headed to the upper deck.
"Sure, Lucas has a bunch of tricks we don't know about, but there's no way he'd go out like that," Sanji continued.
"Aw shucks, you're making me blush," Lucas said.
"I wasn't talking to you!" Sanji yelled. "Who are you really, and what do you want from us?" he demanded, all seriously.
"Wait, you mean this is really not Lucas's ghost?" Luffy exclaimed.
"Yare yare... It seems my little prank went too far," Lucas said, floating downwards to the main deck to face Sanji and the Straw Hats. He reached his arm out, and immediately, the Straw Hats stood alert, thinking he was about to attack. But he reached for his chest, where, with a simple wave, the Omnitrix symbol appeared, and he turned back to normal.
"Yo!" he said with a smile, but Sanji and Nami immediately punched his head because of the worry he had caused everyone.
"I'm sorry, okay?" Lucas said after a while, with his face all bruised up.
"Seriously, that's the last time we'll ever wait for you again," Nami said furiously.
"I thought I'd pull a prank on you guys, although the execution was poor, and now it'll be harder for me to use the same trick again," Lucas admitted.
"What was that?" Sanji and Nami looked at him with full-on anger, their faces kind of resembling an Oni with the fury on their faces.
"Uhhh, n-nothing," Lucas said. Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper laughed seeing him like that.
"Seriously, what were you thinking doing that?" Usopp remarked. "Anyway, what really happened to you back there?" he asked, and the others listened intently.
"Yeah, we heard a huge explosion, and then shortly after, it became silent," Chopper said.
"You mean the fight with Kiji? Nah, it wasn't much of a sweat. At first, I tested out the new guy's strength, and then I turned into that ghost form and used telekinesis to throw him to the horizon," Lucas said. The anticipation that had built up among the Straw Hats was well not what they expected, but also something that could happen, so they left it at that as they readied the Merry for sail.
"Haaa. That's the last time I get my hopes up about this guy," Sanji said as he went to the kitchen.
"Didn't even break a sweat, huh?" Chopper muttered.
"Huh? Well, of course, seeing how Lucas was taught everything he knew by me and all. Back in my day, forget about one Marine Admiral, I used to face ten Admirals at the same time," Usopp said, with Chopper's eyes sparkling.
"So, umm, that ghost you turned into—does that mean you're half ghost now?" Luffy asked.
"I never said anything of the sort," Lucas replied deadpan. The Merry took off with the preparations complete.
"Hey Lucas, can you open up a portal? It seems we're short on some food and spices," Sanji called out from the kitchen. Lucas went up to the kitchen and left the others there.
"Hey, I thought we agreed to spar after this island," Zoro said.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I can't spar while I'm starving, can I now?" Lucas replied.
"Hmpf," Zoro remarked.
"Oh yeah, I still have that Iron Cloud or whatever it was. Maybe I can make some defensive clothes for the non-combatants in this crew," Lucas muttered as he and Sanji teleported to Green Haven where they regularly stock up on supplies. The day ended at that.
The next day started with a smooth sail and nice weather. Nami basked in the sun on the upper deck with Sanji fawning over her, while Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper played around on the lower deck. Inside a small bubble on the lower deck, Zoro was sparring with Lucas. Everyone was having a blast, but Robin seemed a bit off, though she managed to pull off a smile when the others approached her.
"Hey Chopper, can you call those two inside that bubble and tell 'em the snacks are ready?" Sanji asked, referring to Zoro and Lucas.
"Sure!" Chopper replied with a smile.
With the gang sitting and eating, the Merry was silent for the most part.
"Huh! Is... Is that a frog?" Zoro wondered as he ate, spotting a frog swimming in the ocean. The others couldn't believe their eyes as they saw it with their own.
"Huh! Hey! Why are we changing direction all of a sudden?" Nami remarked, noticing the others suddenly using the oars to steer the Merry in a different direction.
"Nami! We've found a huge frog with scars all over its body! We have to catch it for BBQ no matter what!" Luffy replied.
"Wait, you're gonna eat it?" Chopper exclaimed, thinking they just wanted to check it out or something.
Nami took out her binoculars to see it for herself. As she looked up ahead, she indeed saw a frog doing the freestyle, and more so, up ahead, she saw a lighthouse. "Why would there be a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere?" she wondered.
"Umm, guys, did you see an island up ahead?" Nami asked.
"No, why?" they answered.
"Well, that's strange. I see a lighthouse up ahead," Nami said.
"Huh, what about the frog!" Luffy said.
"Wha... Uh... Forget about the frog for a minute, would ya?" she said.
"Frog, eh? Good thing we've stocked up. I can wash it with white wine first, then coat it with flour and fry it," Sanji said.
"Wait a minute," he added. "You guys hear that?"
Suddenly, Lucas hurriedly used telekinesis to stop the Merry before it got close to the frog.
"Hey, what gives, Lucas?" Luffy yelled.
"Hey, look, the frog stopped," Chopper noted.
"Haa, fine. Let's get him," Luffy said, dismissing Lucas's action and focusing on the frog.
"Wait, don't go near the tracks," Lucas warned.
"Huh? What tracks?" the others remarked. Just then, a train came as if it rode on water.
"Huuuuuuuhhhhh!!! Was that just a train?!" the others exclaimed.
"How is it even sailing on the sea?" Nami asked in disbelief.
"Huh! The frog! Hey, get out of there!" Luffy yelled, warning the frog. But the train ran through the frog, knocking it into the sea.
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