Author's Note: This is the third story in a series I'm writing. First one's "Feathered Nakama", second one is "To the Sky!" If you haven't read them, go read and review!
Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece, how many times do I have to say it?
Chapter One: A Sea of Clouds
The sun shone on a white sea of clouds. Nothing moved, as though all of nature was holding its breath. There was a low rumble in the air, then suddenly…!
A familiar ship, though now modified and looking like a poor representation of a chicken, sped into the air, its occupants screaming.
It fell with a spectacular crash onto the sea, rocked dangerously several times, then steadied.
On board, the crew was gasping, taking in air after a terrifying minute of not being able to breathe in the thick sea of clouds below them.
Nami lay on the deck, chest rising and falling as she gulped in air. Poor Chopper had spirals in his eyes. Sanji coughed, his cigarette gone and soaking wet. Usopp just lay there, motionless and unconscious. Zoro, gulping in air, held a choking Hoshi around her shoulders. She would have fallen off the ship had Zoro not grabbed her around the waist. Now that the ship had stopped its mad rush, the raven-haired girl shook as the water in her lungs fought to get out. Even Robin looked severely shaken up by their journey. Everyone was soaking wet from flying though a cloud.
"Damn, we do some crazy things," Hoshi laughed, once she got her breathing reasonably under control. Her aqua eyes sparked with the thrill of the journey, and the phoenix in her mind chimed Fun!!
"Everyone still here?" Zoro called.
"I… I think so," Robin said.
There was one person who was not coughing or gasping in the slightest though… "OI! EVERYONE!" Luffy yelled with glee. "Check it out!"
The ship was, unbelievably, floating on top of the clouds.
"What is this place!?" Nami exclaimed.
"It's SOOOO white!" Luffy yelled in glee.
"How can we float here?" Hoshi wondered.
"Sure we can float on them! They're clouds!" Luffy said reasonably.
"No we can't," the rest of the crew told their captain.
"But we're floating on them right now!" Luffy argued. Hoshi groaned and shook the water out of her hair.
"AHH! USOPP'S NOT BREATHING!" Chopper yelled.
"WHAT!? Try CPR!" Luffy demanded.
"Yosh, I'll give Hoshi-chan CPR!" Sanji sang. Zoro hit him on the head… hard.
"She doesn't need it, you moron," he said grumpily… very grumpily.
"Stand back," Hoshi warned, going up to Usopp. Luffy and Chopper hurriedly moved back to watch.
Hoshi jumped into the air, did a flip, and stomped on Usopp's stomach, her aqua eyes sparking with suppressed laughter. A fountain of water blasted out of Usopp's mouth, then he opened his eyes and sat up, clutching his belly and coughing.
"Usopp!" Chopper and Luffy yelled. "You're alright!"
"No I'm NOT!" Usopp gasped. "My ribs hurt like hell…"
"Don't worry!" Hoshi assured him cheerfully. "You don't have any broken bones. I made sure of that."
"YOU did this to me?!"
"You weren't breathing!"
"But you sti- AHH! SO MANY CLOUDS!!! TOO MANY CLOUDS!!"
Hoshi sweatdropped. "A little slow there, aren't you?"
As Usopp continued his freakout-fest, Nami looked out over the ocean. "This is like the sea of the sky," she murmured. The carrot-head glanced at her Log Post, and gasped. "But… the Log Post is still pointing up!" She started panicking. "Ah! What're we going to do!? The Log Post really is broken! We're all go-"
Hoshi bopped Nami on the head. "Don't panic, it means we have to go higher up."
"I believe Hoshi is right," Robin commented. "We seem to be in the middle layer of the Cumlorgalis cloud. We need to go higher up to reach Sky Island."
"So how do we do that?" Chopper asked.
"That I don't know."
Sanji and Zoro were arguing… again. "Who're you calling a moron, you shitty Marimo-head?" Sanji asked, one foot on Zoro's head.
"I forget," Zoro replied, unfazed.
Hoshi laughed. "Knock it off you two," she scolded teasingly. "Ah, that's right! Zoro, can I talk to you for a second?"
Zoro wondered about what she would have to talk to him about, but he followed her into Nami's mikan grove anyways. Sanji glowered at their backs.
Hoshi coughed, her back to him, unsure about how to start. Her crystal sparkled as it caught a ray of sun, and her black hair blew with a slight wind.
"Um… I just wanted to say… thanks for looking out for me." She turned and grinned uncertainly.
Zoro wasn't quite sure what to say to this. "I… well… um… It's fine."
Neither of them was aware of a pair of eyes watching them intently from the deck, belonging to a certain rubberman.
Zoro patted Hoshi's shoulder a little awkwardly. "I've got your back," he promised. Hoshi grinned for real and met his gaze with her aqua eyes. He blushed a little and looked away.
There was an awkward silence, and they both just stood there for a second, not saying anything…
"YOSH! Everyone gather round and watch as the great Usopp-sama takes a swim in the clouds!!" Usopp yelled, shattering the moment. Zoro quickly walked out of the mikan grove, and Hoshi followed right on his heels.
"Yay! Let's see it!" Luffy cheered.
"Usopp is so brave!!" Chopper yelled, stars in his eyes.
"Oi, don't do anything stupid," Sanji yelled. "We still don't know the nature of this sea!"
"Not to worry!" Usopp called back, then without another word, he dived off the ship.
"Oh damn," Hoshi muttered. The phoenix let off a scornful tremolo. Nagahana stupid.
Yeah, Hoshi replied. He's going to get himself into trouble, can you just feel it?
The phoenix agreed.
Everyone waited in silence for a couple minutes.
"Usopp's so lucky… I wish I could swim too…" Luffy moaned, hanging over the railing.
"But then you wouldn't be a rubber-man, would you?" Hoshi asked. "Wasn't that the price of eating a Devil's Fruit?"
Luffy glanced over his shoulder at her and chuckled. "Yeah, that's true!" His stomach did a strange flip when he glanced at Hoshi watching him.
"Oi," Zoro said. "He's… not coming up."
Robin looked over to the spot where Usopp had disappeared. "Just a thought… is there a bottom to this sea?"
"There must be," Nami mused. "We came up through it…"
Dead silence.
"AH! That idiot!" Hoshi yelled. "Did he fall out of the cloud?!"
"Usopp!" Luffy shouted, stretching his arm.
"Stretch your arm as far as it will go," Robin instructed.
"But I can't see the bottom," Luffy argued.
"Leave it to me," Robin said. She crossed her arms across her chest and closed her eyes. "Ojos Fleurs!"
The crew waited, holding their breaths. Robin started to sweat, and she even shook a little. Everyone jumped when she suddenly said, "I see him!"
"Where!?" Luffy yelled, still stretching his arm.
"Veinte Fluers!" After a moment, Robin relaxed. "I've got him! You can pull him up now."
"Yosh!" Luffy pulled. He seemed to be straining a lot.
"… Is Usopp really that heavy?" Nami asked.
Hoshi felt a chill run down her back. She instinctively drew her whip from the air at the same moment Zoro placed a hand on his katana. Their eyes met for a second in complete understanding. Something was wrong…
And that SOMETHING showed itself as Usopp flew out of the water… um, cloud. With a tremendous roar, the cloud exploded as a giant octopus, misshapen-shark, and purple barracuda came out of the water, following the flying figure.
Chopper and Nami screamed. "THEY WANT TO EAT USOPP!"
"You don't have to be scared by these!" Zoro yelled as the fighters went into action.
The octopus, one leg sliced up by Zoro, deflated back into the cloud. The misshapen shark had its dorsal fin broken and its head caved in by Sanji, and it fell against the ship, a bump on its head. Hoshi pulled out her wings and flew thirty meters above the ship. When she reached that height, she pulled in her wings and dropped, and cracked her whip around the barracuda. She landed on it, then yanked. She yanked the whip so strongly that the barracuda's body was severed in two. It popped.
"Man…" said Hoshi, gasping and sweating. "This place… really takes… the breath out of you."
"Yeah…" Zoro panted. "What the hell… is going on?"
"But man, this is one strange fish," Sanji said, inspecting the misshapen shark. "I can't even tell if it's an animal or not."
"Yeah, that octopus was almost like a balloon," Luffy said.
"But they were moving, they have to be animals," Zoro pointed out.
"Animals in the sky?" Nami asked, disbelieving.
"So we really should think of this more as a sea rather than the sky," Robin said.
"AAAAAHHHHH!" Usopp yelled, from where he lay twitching on the floor. He reached crazily into his pants. "Something's in my overalls!" A flat blue fish flopped on the deck as Usopp fell back onto the deck himself, only half-conscious. "Sky Island scary… Sky Island scary…"
"Poor guy, he's had a rough day," Robin murmured, making Hoshi laugh.
Robin picked up the fish and smiled. "Do you think that this would be a Skyfish? Since this sea has no bottom, the animals here must have adapted to their environment," she said. Luffy yelled with excitement and came in for a closer look.
"Like becoming balloons or flattening out their bodies?" Hoshi asked.
"To reduce their density," Robin explained.
Luffy took the fish, laughing. "Sanji, look! Skyfish!"
"Its scales were like feathers, and it's unusual for a fish like that to be a carnivore," Nami said.
Everyone heard a noise and looked around. Sanji leaned against the wall, and Luffy was digging into a plate of fish.
"I sautéed it," Sanji said.
"IT'S SO GOOD!" Luffy yelled, eyes bugging out. Hoshi laughed.
"WE'RE NOT DONE LOOKING AT IT YET!!" Nami roared. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOI-" Luffy stuffed a bite into her mouth. Surprised, she chewed it. "Oh, you're right! It's delicious! What is it? I've never tasted a texture like this before!"
"I'm glad you like it, Nami-san!" Sanji laughed.
Zoro sweatdropped. Hoshi laughed, and he felt his stomach do a flip. He growled, and mentally told his stomach to stop doing that… but it didn't listen.
Chopper suddenly started freaking out. He had been sitting on the banister, looking through a pair of binoculars, but they dropped onto the deck with a thunk, and he started yelling. "S-ship…"
"What is it Chopper?" Sanji asked. "Is there a ship?"
"NO! I mean, yes there was, but it wasn't there anymore an-"
"What're you talking about?" Zoro asked, annoyed.
"There's a bull charging at us on a square cloud!" Chopper yelled hysterically.
"I don't get it, just calm down!" Zoro said sharply.
"The hell…" Sanji muttered. Hoshi started laughing again, but suddenly stopped as a chill raced down her back. The phoenix let loose an urgent note of warning. She whirled around, and spotted something…
"There's a person riding on top of the clouds!" she called. She drew her whip out of the air.
The person had on a huge square mask, making it impossible to see his face except for a pair of ruthless eyes.
"What do you want?" Luffy called.
"I SHALL REJECT YOU!" the person roared.
"He wants a fight!" Sanji growled as the strange person leaped onto the ship.
"Fine by me!" Hoshi grinned.
Sanji darted to attack, but the person kicked him against the wall… hard. Sanji didn't get up.
Zoro flew in with his swords unsheathed, but the man evaded them easily, and that ended with the man slamming his foot into Zoro's neck.
"Zoro!" Hoshi yelled as he slammed into the side of the ship. Unfurling her wings, she flew in for the attack. "Damn you!" she roared.
The man, seeing Hoshi, went for her next. She cracked her whip around his ankle and hurled him into the mast, but the guy twisted and jumped off the mast… to come straight for her again. Caught unprepared, Hoshi yelped as she was knocked into the air. The man aimed a lethal-looking gun towards her…
"HOSHI!" Zoro yelled. The man fired, and Hoshi disappeared with a boom in a cloud of smoke. Her body fell and landed into the cloud ocean.
"Bastard!" Luffy yelled. "Hurting my nakama… you'll pay! GOMU GOMU NO PIS- argh!!" The man kicked Luffy viciously in the face, not allowing Luffy to finish his attack. He jumped off of Luffy's face high into the air and aimed his gun at the ship…
"THAT'S ENOUGH!!" a voice boomed. Another man came flying down on top of the masked man with a jousting pole. The masked man's shield shattered, and he fell into the cloud ocean.
Zoro didn't see it happen… he had jumped overboard the second he got up. Hoshi was in here somewhere… but visibility in this water was so damn low. He needed to find Hoshi quickly before she fell out of the bottom of the cloud.
After a couple minutes, a little air bubble unexpectedly hit his face. He realized instantly what it meant, and dove straight down. Squinting through the water… er, cloud… he saw a faint shadow below. He increased his speed. He saw that the shadow was Hoshi. She was floating down through the cloud, and her eyes were half open. Is it possible to drown in a cloud? Zoro thought with a flare of fear.
He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her upwards. He prayed he wasn't going to be too late… Hoshi, don't die here, damn you. If you die, I will kill you.
He reached the surface. Pulling Hoshi's head above the cloud, he shook her shoulders. "Oi! Hoshi! Snap out of it!" he ordered. Hoshi didn't obey. Her eyes were closed, and she was completely limp, water streaming out of her hair.
"Oh damn…" Zoro muttered. He got her back onto the ship as the man with the jousting pole was telling the crew that he was the Knight of the Sky. He paid no attention, concentrating his efforts on reviving Hoshi.
"Hoshi! Snap out of it!" he said, slapping her face a couple times.
"Hoshi! Is she alright!?" Luffy shouted.
"Ah! Hoshi-chan needs CPR!" Sanji yelled, a heart in his eye. "I'll give it to her!"
"You stay right there," Zoro growled. Sanji was about to argue, but he stopped when Zoro gave him a death glare… one that was completely different from the usual death glares that he normally gave. Luffy noticed the quality of the glare, but didn't say anything. Sanji fell silent.
Hoshi still wasn't breathing. Zoro felt panic starting to eat a corner of his mind, but he impatiently squashed it under a mental thumb.
"Oi, Hoshi, don't die on me dammit," he muttered. He dug the bases of his hands into her stomach and pushed upwards. Water flowed out of Hoshi's mouth, but she still didn't move…
"Don't die…"
Hoshi suddenly sat up and began coughing madly. She alternated between choking and coughing, taking breaks in between to breathe. Zoro just watched her as the spasms died down, his face expressionless.
"Ah shit, my arms hurt like hell," were Hoshi's first words.
Who is this 'Knight of the Sky'? Who was the masked man, and why did he attack the ship? And where exactly IS Sky Island, 'cause it's sure not here!
So that's it for this chapter! I am debating whether to put Hoshi with Zoro or Luffy, so I want your opinions! I'm not posting the next chapter till I get at least three reviews on this one, so click the nice button!