Please don't hate me, please don't hate me, please don't hate me... please...? I'm trying to barrel through to the good stuff...? -grins- I do not own One Piece. Reviewer thanks go out to wiexuan-san, Ryo-kun (your fanart's a comin'!), Sakura-chan and Butterfly-san. One hundred reviews! Huzzah! That's an average of four a chapter! You people rock out loud.
Illicit Memories
Jaya Arc: South Bird
"This is stupid," Zoro muttered to himself as he hammered in a board onto the outside of the Merry Go, following the direction of Shoujou.
"It may sound stupid now Zoro, but think about how much this will make sense as we fly through the sky!" Maon said excitedly as he too nailed a new board into place.
"Actually, I don't want to think about it," Zoro cringed.
'Oh, come on,' Kuina giggled inside his head. 'Don't you think that flying will be awesome?'
"Ah, no," Zoro answered flatly. Maon looked at him and stared in wonder.
"You alright Zoro?" he asked.
'You are so grumpy,' Kuina sighed. 'I would had never imagined that you would grow up to be such a grump.'
"Ah, shut up, why don't you?" Zoro muttered, ignoring Maon and talking aloud to Kuina. The redheaded man tried to listen as Zoro as he muttered some more, but the swordsman was talking to himself in such a low tone that Maon just shrugged it off as a simple self-argument and nothing more.
"Come on! Break time!" Cricket shouted. The various pirates stopped their hammering and sawing and such and all took the old man's words to heart.
"This is hard work!" Nami sighed, sitting down on the grass from her job of distributing nails. She had just sat down when Luffy and Usopp plopped down on the ground on either side of her, sweaty and smelly from lifting all of the wooden boards and the tools that accompanied them.
"That's easy for you to say!" the sniper whined. Nami just scrunched her nose and tried not to breathe through it.
"Don't complain too much," Gormal said. "This work is nothing. Just think about what it would be like to build this thing back up from scratch!" The white-haired man chuckled, seemingly unfazed by the amount of lifting he had just endured, being that he had been assigned the job of hauling planks of wood to various spots around the ship.
"I need to explain something to you guys," Cricket admitted. "It's about how you're going to get up to Sky Island."
"Does it have something to do with the wings we are nailing onto the Merry Go?" Robin asked.
"Yes," Cricket said. "Those wings aren't going to take you up there all by themselves. That's why you're going to take Knock-Up Stream."
"I keep on hearing people talk about that," Nami said. "What exactly is 'Knock-Up Stream' anyways?"
"A disaster," Cricket sighed. The Mugiwara Kaizokudan blanched. "At least, that's what it is to most people. It's a special current that shoots straight up into the sky for an entire minute, most often either destroying or blasting upwards everything in its path."
"Sounds awful," Chopper squeaked.
"Only if you have no idea as to what you're getting in to," Cricket scoffed. "If you guys go into this prepared, you guys could be the first to make it up there. I think the whole lot of you are all lucky that Knock-Up Stream and the Millennium Cumulonimbus are going to be in synch tomorrow."
"The what…?" Maon questioned.
"It is a very large and dense cloud that is rumored to have existed longer than the islands of the Grand Line," Cricket explained. "Whenever it passes over anything, the underlying area becomes as dark as night. The cloud is supposed to be so dense, that it is possible for an island to be up there."
"We saw that!" Luffy, Usopp, Chopper and Maon sang in chorus. "It was so dark and it was so scary!"
"So then, you think that Sky Island's up there?" Zoro asked.
"Of course. It is the only logical conclusion I can make out of this entire situation. I also have a theory as to why Knock-Up Stream is the way it is, but most of it is more of an elaborate guess than realistic fact and not exactly something you want in your brains."
"…but then why go out of your way to help us?" Gormal asked.
"The dream of Sky Island might as well be as big as One Piece in the eyes of some," Cricket said. "If it is in your dream to go to Sky Island, then I should not let you guys go in there like idiots and get yourselves killed like so many before you have done. If anyone should die pursuing dreams it would have to be those fools on the other side of the island, considering they have none at all."
"Cricket-san," Masira piped up, raising his hand. "Shoujou and I are going to get everything ready!"
"You do that," Cricket grinned. The two brothers ran off and somehow squeezed themselves into Cricket's house.
"Get ready?" Luffy asked innocently. "What are they getting ready for?"
"This break is also for eating!" Cricket smiled. Luffy's face lit up with excitement and the boy-captain rushed for the house, losing all form of childish innocence he could have had and replacing it with savage hunger. He charged in through the front door and there was a yelp of surprise out of each Masira and Shoujou.
"Your captain sure does love to eat, doesn't he?" Cricket laughed.
"Of course he does," Sanji sighed. "I really want a lock on our refrigerator, since both him and the musician seem to team up on me."
"I can't help it!" Maon snapped in defense. Sanji looked over to see that Zoro was holding the redheaded man back by the collar as he tried to run towards the small house as well. The swordsman let go and with the lack of restraint, Maon fell flat on his face.
"Well, then let's go inside!" Cricket smiled.
"Why though?" Usopp asked. "Why are you accepting us so quickly?"
"I can never turn down nakama in search of their dreams," Cricket said, not even looking back at the sniper. "Now get in the house and let's eat." He never saw the shocked expression on Usopp's face, or the smile that replaced it.
80808080808080808
"This is great!" Luffy laughed. He bit into a rack of meat and grinned broadly. Everyone was partying. Cricket had broken out the good sake and all of the pirates were having a grand old time. Even Robin, who was reading one of the old journals that the Saruyama Alliance had salvaged, was having fun. She smiled as she turned a page and looked over the information again and stored the knowledge in her memory. Looking up, she saw Cricket peering over the edge of the book, a rather grumpy look on his face.
"Norland was a great explorer you know," the older man said. "Many of his actual accomplishments were overshadowed by the fact that he was branded as a liar."
"It seems like it from here," Robin said. Cricket smiled with the aid of his grog and walked over to the shelf where he had gotten the cloth bundle with the bell tokens. He took the remaining cloth bundle and placed it on the table. Everyone gathered around as Cricket pulled back the cloth to reveal a golden bird statue that was roughly the size of a large kitten. Robin and Nami's eyes lit up. The guys marveled at the polished statuette and its shiny condition.
"This is the rest of the gold that I found, save for a few coins here and there," Cricket explained. "I won't show this stuff to just anyone, you know. This one's special."
"How is it special?" Usopp asked as he watched Maon's pointer finger close in on the idol. An arm sprouted from the table and smacked the musician's grubby hand away.
"This is even more solid evidence that there was some sort of culture here outside of Mock Town," Gormal explained before Robin could even open her mouth. He picked up the idol gingerly with two hands and examined it carefully. "This cannot possibly be something you cooked up yesterday. This is a very old statue, created using a very old smelting process. This thing probably predates that Norland guy by a hundred years or so."
"Very well said Deck Hand-san," Robin smiled. Hands sprouted from Gormal's wrists and seized control of the statue, setting it back down on the table. "Cricket-san, what kind of animal is this? I have never seen one like it before."
"That would be a South Bird," Cricket laughed. "They're all over in the forest just north of here. Peculiar creatures, they are… AH SHIT!" Everyone seemed fairly taken aback by Cricket's outburst, even Masira and Shoujou.
"What's the matter?" Sanji asked.
"I completely forgot! We need one of those South Birds!" Cricket panicked. "You need to go out into the forest and find one, quickly!"
"Why?" Zoro asked, raising his eyebrow deftly.
"We need one of 'em to get to Knock-Up Stream!" Cricket said, opening the door and looking outside. "Their beaks always point south, which will come in handy once we get into open water. The Log Poses will say that we've got to go to Jaya, so we need the South Bird's permanent direction!"
"Then what are we waiting for?!" Luffy smiled. He rushed out the door, dragging the loudly protesting pair of Chopper and Maon close behind him.
"Wait, does he even know what he's doing?" Cricket asked.
"No," the remaining Mugiwara crewmen sighed.
"Come on Sanji-kun," Nami growled as she stomped towards the door. "Let's go, before Luffy kills himself or the others."
"Hai Nami-swan!" Sanji cooed. He glared over at Usopp and jerked his head over towards the door. "You comin' or what?"
"Coming!" the sniper squeaked, clambering to stand up. He followed out Sanji and Nami, leaving Gormal, Robin and Zoro to silently walk out together.
"Think they can do it?" Masira asked as the nine pirates vanished into the dark forest.
"We've been trying to catch one of them for ages," Shoujou added. "They always seem to get away at the last second."
"Of course," Cricket chuckled, lighting another cigarette. "These punks are special. Trust me, they'll go places and do things we've never even dreamed of."
80808080808080808
It was silent as Zoro walked through the dense, dark woods with Robin and Gormal on either side of him, the three being far away from Cricket's house on the shore of the island. None of the three wanted, or cared, to say anything to the others, which of course gave way for Kuina to start chattering up a storm.
'I wonder what Sky Island's going to be like!' she wondered excitedly.
I don't know, Zoro thought. I don't know and none of us will know until we get a South Bird and get up there, so shut up already.
'Well, then at least be a little more enthusiastic about this,' Kuina scolded.
How…?
'Maybe try not to be yourself.'
"I can't help being myself, bitch," Zoro snarled out loud, making both Robin and Gormal look over at him. The two saw that the swordsman's eyes were closed and his eyebrow was twitching.
"What in the seas are you talking about you ruddy idiot?" Gormal hissed, nudging Zoro with his elbow. Zoro snapped out of his conversation with Kuina and shot a glare over at the deck hand.
"Another word out of you and I'll slice your throat."
"Heh, try me, poofter-marimo."
Robin then witnessed something similar to one of Zoro's fights with Sanji, with the exception of Sanji being replaced with Gormal of course. She sighed and looked around, trying to find a clue to where a bird could be. Sure enough, the moment she looked up into the treetops, she saw one sitting there.
"It seems as if we did not have to go very far to find what we needed, did we?" she said to herself, looking up at the bird. She prepared to use her Hana Hana no Mi to capture the creature, when it let out a chilling squawk. Zoro actually stopped mid-sword swing at the noise, holding his head in pain.
We should leave here! Kuina screamed frantically, as if she were in a chased panic. I can sense its spirit! The bird is telling us to leave! Zoro dropped his swords and fell to his knees, tearing at his hair while Kuina kept on screaming.
"Shut up!" Zoro bellowed. "I don't care what the bird says! The old man said that we needed it! You wanna go to Sky Island, right!?"
"Zoro! Snap out of it, mate!" Gormal ordered. The swordsman still clutched his head in mental pain, completely ignoring his crewmate.
There are some seriously bad emotions running through these woods! Kuina panicked. We have to get back to Cricket's house, now!
"Don't you realize that you're making my head hurt!?"
I can't help it! We need to go back! Forget the bird! We're in danger! Something murderous is in the air!
"Woman, you're crazy if you want me to leave the bird!"
"Poofter-marimo, you better explain yourself, this instant!" Gormal snarled, kicking Zoro in the side. Zoro snapped his gaze upward in order to look up at the deck hand, breathing heavily and appearing to be highly cross.
"You do not want to know what's going on right now," he snapped, his upper lip curling into a sneer.
"I do too know! You're being a bloody arse and are screaming at the top of your lungs to positively no one!"
"Please, if we can leave now," Robin asked, interrupting the argument. Zoro and Gormal looked at her and found that she was clutching the bird from its feet, having used her Devil Fruit power to secure and acquire it.
"Aw, nice," Gormal sighed, throwing up his arms in frustration. "What good were we?"
"Get down!" Zoro ordered, picking up his swords and charging at Robin. The woman did not move, which forced the swordsman to jump up in order to get the overgrown centipede that was ready to rip into Robin with relish.
"You sure do have some intuition, Swordsman-san," Robin said, smiling at Zoro as he sheathed his swords.
"Just move," he growled in return. He followed the other two as they took off towards what Zoro assumed to be Cricket's place. They tried not to stop, until a set of piercing screams cut through the air.
Author's Notes
A: Since I have an idea about people's view on Gormal, how does everyone think Maon's coming along?
B: Is Kuina's Spirit Power spiffy? I know I'm really messing with Zoro by doing this.
C: I have one chapter left in this arc. -grin- Skypiea ho!
D: Have a Happy Easter. If you are one of those people that don't celebrate Easter... then I just wish you well anyways.