Hi, guys! :D I know it's been a week since I've posted the last chapter in the Thriller Bark arc - called Halloween Isle - and I think it's high time that I started posting the next one! If you guys didn't check the title, this is the arc for the Strong World movie! As a result, this is a short arc - about 10 chapters, considering this is just a movie - but there's a lot that happens. Don't expect Maria to get clean unscathed...
Of course, what worries me more right now is the fact that Sanji's been sucked into some arranged marriage in the manga! What kind of family is it that he's a part of? Why is it that Big Mom is connected to them? And why is it that Sanji wanted to leave his past behind him? Oda is waaaayyy too good with his cliffhangers...
Anyway, here's some reviews from Halloween Isle's last chapter!
CrazyQuilava - Thanks! I'm glad you like how Maria and the others are interacting together. Oh, mayhem will most certainly ensue! *cue evil laughter*
chaosrin - There is a growing disconnect, I'll admit that, but that's only because Maria is really the only link - for now - that connects her and her memories to the world of One Piece. Well, her and Airam. Robin probably knows something about myths. Zoro's comment on the keyblades, on the other hand...well, something's going to happen during the time skip and that's all I'm gonna say on the matter. XD
And now - as this is a new story - I'll give you all a new disclaimer to match! I don't own any of the One Piece characters; just one amnesiac Maria...
And here we go!
Chapter 87 (or 1 in this New Arc) - A Flying Golden Lion?
Maria's POV
"Guys! You might want to see this!"
I looked up from my Berry trees when I heard Nami's concerned, panicked voice. She hadn't sounded that concerned since we had been running around on Thriller Bark about two weeks ago. Since then, the only really exciting thing that had happened was Brook causing havoc all across the deck while he was trying to "find a way to fit in."
I'm glad that Robin and I managed to talk some sense into him before he went completely overboard.
"What is it, Nami?" I jumped down the stairs, getting the others to glance in my direction. I'd been experimenting with my abilities over the last few days and had found out that I could change the color and graphic design of my clothes if I thought about it hard enough. While my jeans were still blue and my shoes were still white with three red stripes on either side, my jacket had turned a bright yellow and I had managed to get our pirate mark on a plain white shirt somehow.
Luffy really liked the changing colors trick - mainly because I was making a habit of wearing our crew's mark every few days or so.
Nami looked over at me as I landed on the lawn of the deck; there was a newspaper in her hands, and she looked kind of worried.
"Have a look at this." Nami handed me the newspaper and pointed me towards the headline on the front.
I looked down, at the newspaper in my hands before frowning and reading the headline aloud. "Danger: The Deadly Mystery of Disintegrating Towns in the East Blue."
"Hold on - what's happening in the East Blue?" Luffy came over, bare-chested wearing a fuzzy orange scarf around his neck. He looked over my shoulder at the newspaper while I looked over at him.
"I'm not sure," I commented. "That's all that the headline says, at least. It doesn't sound good, though."
"Evidently a bunch of places are being wiped out overnight," Nami said worriedly as Luffy took the newspaper from my hands.
"H-hey, let me see!" Usopp motioned for Luffy to come over to where he was sitting on the bench around the mast; our captain moved over and sat down next to the sniper, who leaned over in order to have a better look at what was in Luffy's hands.
"Wiped out overnight?" I repeated, startled.
"Looks like our islands haven't been affected for the time being, but..." Nami trailed off worriedly. "...who knows? It might not stay that way for long."
"Your islands?" I repeated, blinking in confusion.
"Nearly half of our crew are originally from the East Blue," Chopper piped up from where he stood on one of the staircases. He was wearing what looked like a little pink bathrobe with a bear faced-hood, and looked absolutely adorable. "Luffy, Zoro, Nami, and Usopp."
I blinked. I hadn't been told that...oh, boy.
"I can see why they're worried," Brook remarked from where he was standing on the other side of the stair's railing.
"Oh - you too, right, Sanji?" Chopper looked over at our cook, who was sitting at the bottom of the stairs.
Sanji too?
"Well, yeah, more or less," Sanji responded, glancing back at the reindeer. "I was born in the North Blue, but I was raised in the East Blue." He took a drag on his cigarette.
It took me a moment to remember where exactly in the world each of the "Blue Seas" were. They surrounded the Grand Line - taking the four corners of the world...so, Luffy probably met Usopp, Nami, Zoro, and Sanji before he ended up entering the Grand Line. I think that's how it ended up going, what with what they told me of their adventures on the Grand Line...
"Hmm? What is that? A meteorite?"
I turned my head when I heard Usopp's voice, and I moved over and looked over Luffy's shoulder at the picture that was on the front page. There were a bunch of small people in Marine uniforms looking over what looked like a pair of gigantic rocks.
"That's weird," I remarked, frowning.
Something rumbled above us, and the sun suddenly disappeared. I looked up sharply when I heard the noise - as did everyone else - and a simultaneous gasp arose from all of us when we saw what was coming for us.
"Wh-what the-" I stared up in shock as flashes of an island in the sky and a large, emerald jewel appeared at the back of my mind.
"An island?" Nami asked in shock.
I blinked, seeing the golden lion that was stuck to the front of the chunk of rock that was hovering over us. I had thought for a moment that it had been Knuckles the Echidna's Angel Island, but that lion and the oars that were sticking out on either side shot that thought down immediately.
"Yeah, but islands don't fly like that!" Luffy responded to Nami's question. "Do they?"
"Some do," I muttered, Angel Island still on my mind. "Or, did, considering that Angel Island was grounded a long time ago."
As the shadow of the island past over us, Nami turned and ran up the stairs to the front of the ship. Franky - who was wearing a banana on his head for some reason - ran to the helm as the rest of us scrambled up the stairs after our navigator.
"It has sails!" Robin identified, coming to a stop next to Franky.
"Not to mention those oars," I added, coming up to the archeologist. I eyed the yellow-ish sails that were barely visible over the edge of the island, wondering what kind of person added sails to a floating island like that.
"Think it's some kind of ship?" Franky asked, looking up at the floating island above us.
"They've got a Jolly Roger!"
I turned my head and looked over at Usopp, noticing that he had a spyglass in his hands as he looked up at the island above us. I looked back up at the floating island above us. "But...then that means..."
"It's a flying island pirate ship?" Sanji asked.
"But who would be able to make an island into a pirate ship - and a flying one, at that?" I asked. "I've heard of things that are able to do that, but it'd take a lot of power in order for something of that size to work..."
No way was I mentioning the Chaos Emeralds - or going into more information about the Atlantean Crystals - with Nami around. Not until I know for sure she isn't going to try and steal either one of them if we ever did find them.
The Mother Crystal would probably be safe, but the Chaos Emeralds...?
"We've gotta change direction, Luffy!" Nami shouted. "We're headed straight towards a cyclone!"
"A what?" I turned and looked back at Nami in surprise. "How can you tell?"
"The wind feels wrong," Nami replied, sparing a glance in my direction.
"Okay then, but first we gotta warn those guys about it." Luffy turned and started shouting upward. "HEY! YOU'RE HEADING FOR A CYCLONE!"
"W-wait!" Usopp called out in a panic. "Don't yell at those guys!"
"Why not?" I asked, looking over at Usopp.
"Not all pirates are like us," Usopp responded, turning to look at me. "They could end up attacking us because we're trying to get their attention!"
I frowned at that, then remembered that what Usopp said might be right. After all, the citizens of Water 7 were pretty insistent that pirates were villains who only cared about looting and killing. The did tend to cause a lot of trouble in the docks...
"HEEEEYYY! Huh?"
I looked over at where Luffy was standing on the figurehead, blinking in confusion when he stopped yelling. I caught sight some something small and kinda orangish-colored coming down from the sky and towards Luffy.
"Wh-what is it, Luffy?" Usopp asked nervously. It looked like he was ready to get into a karate fight, but I don't think that he's really able to do that kind of thing.
"Hey, Nami!" Luffy turned and tossed the orange thing in the direction of our navigator, and Nami caught it easily.
Usopp and I dashed over to see what Nami was holding.
"Huh, it's a Tone Dial!" Usopp identified in surprise.
"So, I guess this means we aren't the only ones who've taken a trip to Skypiea," Sanji commented.
"That's the Sky Island, right?" When Usopp nodded at my question, I looked up at the floating island again. "I guess that makes sense, since their ship can fly around like that..."
"Don't freak out, you guys," Luffy said, coming back towards us. "Nami?"
"Okay." Nami tightened her grip on the Tone Dial for a moment before pressing down on one end and speaking into it. "There's a cyclone approaching! Turn your ship ninety degrees to port!"
Nami released the button and nodded to Luffy, who took the Tone Dial and ran back to the figurehead, where he threw it back up at the ship.
I blinked in surprise when I saw the Tone Dial suddenly curve and disappear from sight. "You didn't throw it to curve like that, did you, Luffy?"
Luffy didn't answer my question. "All right, you guys! Follow Nami's directions and get us away from that cyclone!"
"Right!" Everyone scattered across the deck while Franky and Nami stayed near the helm. Zoro shimmied up the mast and stayed near the sails while Sanji ran to the back - to the red and black sail that happened to be there. It didn't take us too long before the ship turned in the direction that Nami had directed - 90 degrees to port, or to the left.
We just barely made it in time.
As I looked back and above us, I stared in shock at the black storm clouds that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere as the wind really started to pick up. The floating island was nearly knocked out by it, but just managed to miss the tornado that formed rather abruptly.
We weren't nearly out of the storm yet, though - the black clouds really extended for a long way, and the wind was still pretty strong, despite the fact that we had managed to miss the worst of it. We continued to run across the deck and make sure that everything was all right before we managed to clear the storm clouds.
"Whoo!" I wiped at my forehead with a jacket sleeve as Zoro slid down the mast. "That was a close one. Thanks for the warning, Nami."
"Just doing my job," Nami replied with a smile as she came down onto the main deck.
"Nami-swan is the best when it comes to predicting the weather!" Sanji exclaimed, dancing over to us as the rest of the crew came down onto the main deck.
Luffy laughed. "Yeah! That's why she's our navigator!"
I grinned and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, definitely."
"It seems that the flying island above us is bringing company," Robin remarked, looking upward.
"Huh?" I looked over at the dark-haired woman for a moment, then followed her gaze. My jaw dropped in surprise when I saw what was coming down onto the ship. "What in the name of the Grand Line...?"
A man with half a ship's wheel in his head and swords for legs slowly lowered down from the sky and landed on the bench that went around our mast. And he was wearing some kind of large orange and yellow robe - over a brown, green, and red outfit - that seemed to match his yellow hair pretty well. It almost looked like it was supposed to be a mane of some kind.
"Did he...did he just fly down here?" Luffy asked in shock.
"H-he did," Usopp whimpered in confirmation.
I pulled my jaw up. "That's not normal."
"I am Captain Shiki, the Golden Lion, a fellow pirate!" the man in front of us declared, arms folded across his chest. He started to look around. "Now, who recorded the message on that Tone Dial?"
I didn't like the tone of voice he was using. It sounded like he was trying to threaten us.
Usopp glanced back at Nami, who had a nervous expression as she raised a hand.
"Uh, yeah, that was me," Nami said.
Shiki's eyes drilled in on Nami, and I stiffened, expecting him to try and attack us. Instead, a strange smirk appeared on his face. "So, you're the one, Baby Doll. Well, I thank you."
I stiffened up and let out a spluttering noise when I heard what Shiki called Nami. Baby Doll? Seriously?
"Uh..sure," Nami replied, sounding uncertain. Something told me that she wasn't sure about what she had just been called, either.
"Hey, Flying Guy," Luffy spoke up. He pointed upward. "How'd you get that island to float?"
"Hmm? Ah!" Shiki glanced up. "You mean my ship." He looked back at us. "That's thanks to the power of the Float Float Fruit. I can manipulate the gravity of any object I touch, no matter how large or small. I'll give you an example."
Shiki stepped off the bench and walked over to a small bar of weights that Zoro had been working with earlier. Then he touched it (making some kind of popping noise) before taking a step back, allowing the rest of us to move forward a little in order to get a better look at what he was about to do.
I had to admit, I was a little curious as to what this Devil Fruit user was going to do with Zoro's weights. Just from what I had seen of Zoro working with it earlier, I had to guess that it had to weigh somewhere north of a hundred pounds at least, so there's no way that I'd be able to lift it.
Shiki made a motion with the hand he had touched Zoro's weight with, and it promptly shot up into the air.
"Whoa!" I took a slight step back out of surprise, watching as the weight went high up above our heads - about even with our Jolly Roger, actually - before it suddenly dropped down.
Zoro didn't even move his stance an inch as it came careening towards him. He just raised an arm and caught the weight without an issue. I think the rest of the deck ended up shaking, though.
I whistled. "Wow. That's got to be one handy Devil Fruit."
"Whoa! Awesome!" Luffy turned and looked at Shiki. "Hey, now make me float! I wanna float!"
"Me too, me too!" Chopper piped up in agreement.
Shiki looked over at our captain, amused. "Jihahahaha! No can do. It doesn't work on humans. I can make myself float, but that's about it."
"Well, that's kinda lame," Luffy muttered.
"Boo! Boo!" Usopp and Chopper agreed.
"Sorry to disappoint." Shiki moved and sat down on the bench.
"Well, having gravity removed from a person could make something nasty happen," I remarked, recalling something suddenly. "I think I heard something from somewhere that said that, if we were put in an area that had no gravity, we'd end up exploding because of the pressure from inside our bodies."
"Exploding?!" Usopp looked at me in shock. "O-okay, I guess that it's all right if we can't float."
"I don't wanna explode, either!" Chopper added, shaking his head.
Shiki laughed at my comment. "Hey, you're a pretty smart girl! I think there may be sights in my hideout I think you might enjoy - and that goes for the rest of you, too." He looked around at the rest of the crew. "Why don't you join me there, as a sign of my gratitude?"
"Thanks, but no."
I looked over at Luffy, blinking. Shiki was offering us a chance to explore and Luffy wasn't taking it?
"I'd like to, but we're in a big rush to get to the East Blue right now," Luffy added.
"Huh?" I intoned along with the rest of the crew.
"We what?" Nami asked.
Usopp grabbed the teal whistle hanging around his neck and blew it at Luffy, getting our captain's attention. "Whoa, back up! Did you forget about our adventure?"
"It's not going anywhere," Luffy responded, smiling slightly. "We can start over at any time. Your home town might get destroyed. You don't want to do anything about that?"
Luffy definitely had a good point.
Usopp blinked. "Well, uh...when you put it that way..."
"It's decided, then." Sanji lifted his lighter and lit his cigarette.
"Seriously?" Nami asked.
"Uh...I guess we should," Usopp remarked. He looked around. "And everyone's okay with this?"
"I don't see why not," I remarked, shrugging. "I mean, this is your home that we're talking about." I definitely wouldn't want to see anything that I called home hurt in any way.
That particular thought made my chest ache for some reason, but I didn't get any memories as a result of it.
"Well, good then." Usopp nodded in my direction.
"There you have it." Luffy looked over at Shiki. "Thanks for the offer, though."
Shiki, who had his head bent, looked up slightly. "I like you even more now! So you guys call the East Blue your home, huh? I've heard of what's happening there. I can only imagine how worried you must be. That settles it. I'll use my Float powers, and take you there right away."
I stared at Shiki in surprise. He had only just met us, and he was willing to help us out?
"No way!" Luffy grinned widely. "You mean it? Wow, thanks! You're a really nice guy!"
"It's my pleasure," Shiki replied, grinning around the cigar in his mouth.
"Man, talk about returning a favor," Sanji commented.
"No kidding," I agreed, looking at the cook.
Luffy turned and looked at Usopp and Chopper. "All right! We're heading home, guys! Get ready to fight!"
"Yeah!" the three of them yelled together.
"Can't we talk about this some more?" Nami demanded.
I chuckled. "When the captain sets his mind to something, it's kind of hard for the rest of us to change his mind, right?"
Robin chuckled in agreement.
Shiki seemed amused by our comments, and he reached over and touched the mast, making that popping noise again. It wasn't too long before I felt the Sunny shift under our feet, and we started to rise up into the sky at a pretty decent speed.
Instinctively, I summoned my phoenix staff in order to make sure that I had something to hold onto in order to keep my balance as we rose up to equal height with Shiki's floating island-ship. That action got me a look from Shiki, and he looked almost...interested.
"That's an interesting weapon you have there," Shiki commented as the Sunny leveled off. "Did you eat a Devil Fruit as well?"
I hesitated for a moment, still not exactly liking the tone he was taking and taking a moment to remember what the Marines had thought I'd done. "Yeah. A Staff Staff one - the Magician model."
"Staff Staff? Can't say that I've heard of a Devil Fruit like that before." Shiki moved forward, looking interested.
"I haven't heard of a Float Float one before, either," I responded.
"Jihahahahaha! A good point! Tell me, do you have a name among the Marines?"
"We all do!" Luffy piped up. He paused. "Well, everybody except for Usopp." He grinned widely. "And Maria's got a 25 million bounty!"
Usopp muttered something in the background; I think he was saying something about Sogeking's bounty or something like that. Of course.
"They call me Fire Staff," I added, wondering if that was what Shiki was looking for.
"Fire Staff Maria, eh?" Shiki sounded odd as he spoke. I wasn't exactly sure whether this was how he usually talked or if he had something on his mind.
Either way, I was starting to think that something was...off...about this guy.
Time Break
Luffy laughed as he looked out over the deck railing. "We're flying!"
"The wind feels nice," Chopper agreed from where he stood on the railing.
Usopp just laughed in a giddy fashion.
Shiki ended up going over to his ship for a while, and before he came back, the guys had all taken the chance to change into clothes that were more suitable for the battle in the East Blue that was coming. They even managed to get Robin and I to change our outfits a little. I'd gotten my jacket to change from yellow to orange, and my shirt didn't have the Straw Hat mark on it anymore - instead, it had changed to red and had a blue sawblade-like design on the front - Sonic the Hedgehog's distinctive mark.
"You guys don't look like you're too concerned about getting ready for battle," Nami remarked, frowning at the three of them. She was the only one out of all of us who hadn't changed clothes.
"Indeed," Brook agreed. "Sharpen up, you guys - you're not even wearing proper battle attire."
I raised an eyebrow at Brook's comment and looked over the orange, black, and white outfit that looked like something a hippie might wear. "Are you sure that you're wearing the right kind of outfit?"
"You look more relaxed than anybody!" Nami barked in agreement.
I hummed slightly and looked around at everyone else. Considering that Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, and Luffy were all wearing hats, it made me wish that I had a hat of my own. The last one I had was the red and orange one that Paulie had gotten me in Water 7, and something about this particular day made me wish that I had a hat.
I felt something start to dig into my left hip in one of my jeans pockets, and I reached in and pulled out...a hat. It was red most of the way around - except for the front, where it was a patch of white and Sonic's mark. It was the hat that I had worn on my Pokemon journey.
I jammed it onto my head as Chopper yelled something.
"Hey, there's something up ahead!"
I turned my head when I heard the reindeer's exclamation, then looked over at what was ahead of us. It took us a bit to manage to look around Shiki's island ship, though.
"Ah...that's a lot of floating islands." I rubbed the strap of my orange satchel absently, then gasped in surprise. "Some of them even have water surrounding them! How is that possible?"
"Whoa, this is blowing my mind!" Luffy's jaw was open wide as we flew past the islands.
I came over to the railing myself and looked down at the islands that were passing below us.
"It doesn't look like there's any sense at all to these," I muttered to myself, looking up and back down again. "How did these get into the sky like this? There's no way that-"
"Are you making every single one of these islands float with your powers?!" Usopp interrupted me, looking over at where Shiki was standing a short distance away.
"Uh huh," Shiki replied, sounding proud of himself. "Guilty as charged."
"These many islands, with your abilities?" I stared at him in surprise. "Doesn't it wear away at your energy?"
Shiki shook his head. "Once I make something float, it keeps on floating until I change my mind."
"Whoa..." Usopp sounded amazed. I didn't blame him. Something like this normally took a lot of power, and this wasn't draining Shiki at all?
If my Mobian friends were here, they'd probably insist that he's using all seven Chaos Emeralds or something like that.
"Whoa, that island is huge!" Luffy looked up at the island ahead of us, and I followed his gaze. I blinked a couple times when I saw the large piece of rock and the ring of water that went around it.
"Seriously, how in the world did he manage to get an island to float?" I muttered. "Aren't they usually attached to the ocean floor? How in the world did they manage to get detached?"
Shiki muttered something, then turned and walked over to stand in the center of the deck - right next to me and Nami.
I became somewhat wary as he gave the two of us a dark look of some kind.
Shiki stretched his arms to either side of him. "Welcome to Merville! You couldn't find a better home for adventurers such as yourselves! I'm sure you'll all enjoy it once you settle in!"
What the-
Before I could even react to what Shiki had said, he wrapped his arm around Nami and grabbed my shoulder, causing a popping sound -
Wait, what?
"Hey!" Luffy started running towards us.
Before I could process what was happening, Shiki slammed his free hand into the deck and pushed it down, leaving him, Nami, and me floating in the air.
"I thought you couldn't make humans float!" I yelled at Shiki. I tried to move away from him by swimming through the air - again, thank Water 7 for making sure that I could remember how to swim. But...for some reason...I wasn't able to get anywhere! I was being kept in place in the middle of the air!
"Nami! Maria!" Luffy yelled.
"Your navigator and your magician are mine!" Shiki roared down at the falling ship and our crewmates.
"Luffy!" Nami and I yelled down at them.
Our captain brought back a fist and sent a rubbery arm flying towards us - clearly, he was planning on taking Shiki out so that he could release us.
"Jihahahaha!" Shiki started twirling a finger. At the same time, the Sunny started spinning around uncontrollably.
"No! Guys!" I desperately wanted to get down there, stop the ship, do something, but Shiki's powers were keeping me completely immobilized! I tried to point myself downward and start kicking at the air, but I couldn't even point my head downward.
The helpless sensation that I was getting from being trapped in midair didn't exactly help matters, either - especially when the mast of the ship rammed into everybody and sent them flying in all directions!
"No!" I yelled.
"Luffy!" Nami screamed. "You guys!"
Shiki kept right on laughing. I turned sharply to look at him - at least I could control my body that much - and brought out my staff before I started to summon my fire.
"Why you-" I was absolutely seething. "I ought to burn every inch of your hair off you and leave you bald!"
"Ah ah ah." Shiki wagged a finger at me. "You do that, from this height, and I will drop your precious navigator."
"Why you - why are you doing this?!" I motioned to myself, glaring at him while I gritted my teeth. "You said you couldn't lift people!"
"I said I couldn't lift humans." There was a strange glint in Shiki's eye, and he started moving up towards the large island, motioning for me to follow him and the captive Nami.
I felt something pull at my gut, and I let out a gasp as I was pulled after them. It felt like there was some kind of invisible string pulling me along.
"What do you mean by that?" Nami barked in response. "Maria's just as human as the rest of us!"
Shiki laughed again - a taunting laugh, like he knew something that the rest of us didn't. He didn't elaborate on what exactly it was that he knew, though, which caused me to grit my teeth.
My dislike of this guy had shot up to an all-time high. As soon as we hit that island he was taking us to, I was going to try to get away from him as fast as possible.
*does a double-take* Wait, Maria can be affected by the Float Float stuff, but Nami and other humans can't be? Something else is definitely going on here...
Maria's earlier comment is true, by the way. If the only thing that would have caused concern in space was that there wasn't any air, we could go around with helmets and oxygen tanks up there no problem. If the pressure inside and outside of our bodies isn't balanced, though...splat. Another reason why gravity and air pressure are so important.
I just love learning about random facts like that. :)
Well, I'll see you guys next week!