"Is this the thing?" Luffy asked, stretching his arm behind Nami and grabbing the Log Pose, inspecting it with a curious expression.
"Luffy, be careful! That thing is important! If you…" Nami began to warn him, but before she could finish, Usopp suddenly let out a scream.
"Ahhh!"
"Usopp!" Luffy jerked in surprise, and in the process, his grip tightened.
Crack!
The Log Pose shattered in his hand.
"Luffy!" Nami was furious. "You idiot! Do you always have to be so clumsy? That was the Log Pose! How are we supposed to navigate without it?!"
"What?!" Everyone stared in shock. This was no ordinary item—Luffy had no idea how crucial it was.
"Usopp, what happened?!" Luffy quickly turned his attention to Usopp.
"There's fog coming in!" Usopp yelled, peering through his telescope. A massive wall of fog was rolling toward them across the sea.
"Fog?"
Everyone was startled, but it was already too late. The thick fog enveloped them, shrouding everything in a dense white blanket. They could barely see ten meters ahead.
"What kind of crazy weather is this? First snow, then rain, lightning, and now fog? Is this really the Grand Line?" Nami squinted, trying to see through the haze, but the dense fog obscured everything.
As a top-class navigator, she felt completely lost. The Grand Line had upended everything she thought she knew about the sea.
"Look out! There's an iceberg dead ahead! Sanji, turn the helm 90 degrees left, fast!" Usopp yelled again, his telescope trained on the approaching danger. He was their lookout, and he could see further than anyone else.
Sanji took the wheel, but they were moving too fast. Just as Usopp had said, a massive iceberg loomed in front of them, mere meters away, and the Merry was heading straight for it.
"Iceberg!"
"I see it now! It's huge!"
"Sanji, hurry!" the others shouted in panic. The current was too fast, and the fog had hidden the iceberg from view until the last moment. Now they had little time to react.
Sanji tried to steer the ship away, but it was too late. The Going Merry sped toward the iceberg, and a collision seemed inevitable.
"We're doomed!"
"We're going to crash!" Mr. 9 and Miss Wednesday screamed in terror.
But just as the ship was about to collide with the iceberg, a crescent-shaped sword slash flew from the crow's nest, slicing through the fog.
Boom!
The iceberg shattered into countless pieces, falling harmlessly into the sea as the Merry sailed through the gap.
"Moonlight!" everyone cheered in relief.
The sword slash was unmistakable—Moonlight had come to their rescue once again, slicing through the iceberg just in time. Nami couldn't help but feel overjoyed. They were saved!
"Thank goodness!" Usopp exhaled, wiping the sweat from his brow.
"How did he do that? Even with all this fog, he hit the iceberg dead-on?" Sanji muttered, exhaling a puff of smoke. He couldn't understand how Moonlight had managed to see through the fog and precisely target the iceberg. It was as if the fog hadn't affected him at all.
"He cut through an iceberg?" Mr. 9 and Miss Wednesday gaped in disbelief, staring at the shattered remains of the iceberg. One strike—just one—and the entire iceberg had been obliterated.
"I'll clear the way from here. Sanji, turn the helm 30 degrees to the left," Moonlight said as he leapt down from the crow's nest and took position at the bow of the ship. His Observation Haki spread out, allowing him to sense everything in the fog as if it were laid bare before him.
Sanji nodded and followed Moonlight's instructions. Thanks to Moonlight, they safely sailed through the dense fog and into clear waters once more.
"We're clear!"
Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.
"This Grand Line is insane. First snow, then rain and lightning, then this fog, and we almost crashed into an iceberg. What's next? A hurricane?" Usopp muttered, recalling their harrowing experiences so far. And this was only the beginning. What other dangers lay ahead on the Grand Line?
Almost as if in answer to his words, a fierce wind began to howl, stirring the sea into a frenzy.
The Merry was tossed about by the violent winds, tilting and rocking wildly. Usopp and Nami were suddenly lifted off the deck, hurtling toward the sea.
"Usopp! Nami-swan!" Sanji shouted in alarm.
"Luffy, Zoro, Sanji—hold the ship steady!" Moonlight yelled as he leapt into the sea, unleashing his Dragon Strike technique, merging his body with his sword as he sped through the air to catch them.
In moments, he had both Nami and Usopp safely in his grasp.
"Got it!" Sanji, Luffy, and Zoro stabilized the ship, while Zoro furled the sails to prevent the wind from tossing them into the ocean.
"Thanks, Moonlight! You saved us!" Nami and Usopp clung to him tightly, grateful to be back on solid ground—or rather, back on the ship.
"Hold on tight. The wind is fierce, but we'll push through it." Moonlight didn't return to the ship right away. Instead, he began running on the surface of the sea, moving against the storm's gusts with Nami and Usopp in tow.
"Wait, wait! Moonlight, are you seriously just going to run through the storm? Please, just put me down! I'd rather fall into the ocean!" Usopp wailed, tears streaming down his face. He hadn't expected Moonlight to rescue them like this.
What kind of rescue was this?!
"Moonlight, stop! This is crazy!" Nami screamed, her voice barely audible over the howling wind. Charging straight into the storm? Was Moonlight insane? No human could stand against such a force of nature!
"He's running… on the sea? Is he even human?" Miss Wednesday was once again left speechless. Moonlight's earlier feat of slicing through the iceberg had already astonished her, but now she was completely dumbfounded.
"He's not dodging or evading… he's running straight into the storm! He's going to get blown clear across the ocean!" Mr. 9 sneered, confident that Moonlight's reckless actions would be his undoing.
But Moonlight pressed on, his swordsmanship and Haki allowing him to push through the storm. The fierce winds and churning seas couldn't hinder him in the slightest.
Moments later, the storm vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. The skies cleared, and the sea calmed once more.
Moonlight leapt back onto the Merry, gently setting Nami and Usopp down on the deck.
"It's finally over…"
"If we ever fall into the sea again, don't let Moonlight rescue us!" Nami and Usopp trembled, tears streaming down their faces. They couldn't believe what they had just gone through. Moonlight was crazy—he was absolutely insane.
"Finally… I've reached level three," Moonlight murmured to himself, reflecting on his progress.