Yaaay! Mom gave the computer back! *confetti* And it was a fun trip to the capital. This chapter is a tiny bit longer than my avarage and I put a small extra at the end since it was requested (some time ago). Whee, I'm excited about the sky island!
Gloria: The chapter is so cute I'd like to puke...
They started on the ship's repairs... well, except for Gen. She was standing at the side, where Luffy had disappeared to. She had a small smile on her face.
"What are you doing, Gen? Come on, help us a bit! We have so much to do!" Usopp whined.
"Ehh, you'll be fine," she waved him off before even looking at him.
"COME ON!"
"Hey... Zoro, why didn't you go?" Nami asked him.
"What's your problem? First it's 'don't fight', then it's 'fight!' and then you said that 'don't go' and now just 'why you didn't?'"
"Didn't they beat you the last time?"
"Beat me?" he put down the planks he was carrying. "Actually they just didn't want to be blocking our way? A fight that you feel sorry about afterwards is really painful."
"What? Are you an idiot?"
"You're annoying. Move aside, you'er getting in my way!"
"Hey hey hey! Marimo, how dare you treat Nami-swan like that!"
"Huh!?"
"You two, stop fighting," Gen said tiredly.
"What's gotten into her...?"
"I want to go to sleep."
"Then go."
"Can'. 'Avta wait fer 'im..." she slurred.
"...who? Luffy? He'll be okay."
"I know. I just wonder..." 'if he's captain enough right now...'
Three hours went, and they got the ship ready. Gen was still standing there like a statue, wind swaying her hair gently. Nami paced around and ranted about their captain. "He's already 46 minutes late! If this goes on we won't reach the Knock-Up stream in time!" It must be because he has to carry the heavy load of gold that he's late. With his brain-"
"He's coming," Gen announced. Her throat was a little hoarse.
"Really?" Chopper stood next to her with his hoof behind his ear, and not much later there was an obnoxious yell.
"HEE~~~EEY~~~!"
"It's that kid! Great! He's finally back!" Masira grinned.
"I did it~~!" he waved his hand. What... he had something in it...?
"Look at this! It's a hercules~!"
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING!?" Nami, Usopp and Zoro asked with their jaws dropped. Gen fell comically and didn't move from there.
'I'm... never gonna join, huh...?'
"AMAZING~!" Luffy's eyes sparkled at the Merry. Gen sweatdropped, she hadn't been exactly paying attention when it was fixed and enhanced, and now it looked like a giant chicken.
"I know a saying about chickens and flying..." She muttered and closed her eyes, snuggling the oh so soft earth.
"Everyone! Get redy to go!" Nami ordered.
"Means you too, Slowbrain."
"'Slowbrain'...?" Chopper muttered to himself, as if taking notes.
"Noooo...! I wanna sleep!"
"...hurry up and get on the ship, there's no time," Cricet said gruffly. The gold was laying in it's bag on the table in front of him. "You want to give up your chance to get to sky island for nothing? Fool!"
"Hm, thanks for the ship!" Luffy smiled ('he does that often', Gen thought).
"If you want to thank someone, thank them!" Cricet pointed to the monkey brother's that had boarded their own ships by now.
"Thanks guys! I'll give you the hercules!"
"Really? We can keep it? You're really great guy!"
"Yeah, leave the ugly nightmare behind..." Gen supported the decicion.
"Anyways, we don't have time. Get on the ship!"
"We'll lead you, so just follow us!" Masira and Shoji said.
"Luffy! Hurry!"
"Yeah yeah!" he took two steps towards the ship, stopped and returned to grab Gen from her pantleg, supposedly so he wouldn't turn into gomu gomu jelly.
"Aaaaargh! Luffy you're pulling my pants off!" Gen shrieked.
"Masira! Shojo! Don't mess things up! No matter what happens! Give your all for these guys!" Cricet yelled.
"Okay! Let's go!" Luffy jumped over the railing. Gloria made a painful landing on her butt.
"Ow!"
"Everyone! Set sail!"
"Alright!"
"Hai, Nami-swaaaaan~~! AH! Luffy, you bastard! Don't treat a lady like that!" Sanji added.
"Kid! We'll part here! There's one thing... one thing that is absolutely certain...!" Cricet stood on the shore right next to the ship. "It is that for 'golden city' amd 'sky island' there has never been anyone who could prove that they don't exist!"
Luffy nodded.
"Others might laugh at us, but that doesn't matter! THIS IS 'ROMANTIC'!"
Gen snickered. 'Can that be taken as a love confession...?'
"It's 'romantic'?"
"Yup! For the gold... thanks! Don't crash, you guys!"
"Hehehehe!"
"There won't be crashing," Gen waved her hand.
"Really? Ah, relief!" Chopper wiped his brow.
"...yet."
"AAAAAAH! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIEEE!" Usopp and Chopper screamed. Nami bopped her on the head.
"BYE BYE!"
"Thanks for your hospitality, Cricet-san!"
"The city exists, for sure!"
"Boss! Don't fool around with your health again!"
"MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!"
They yelled things back and forth while the three ships sailed away, the big monkey-ships guarding the little chicken... sheep... ah hell, they did awesome job anyways. Gen was napping in the mikan grove, her hair making tendrils that curled around her figure and the trees. With one ear she was listening how Luffy bullied the south bird, trying to make it point other direction than south. Every time it sprang back, and it started chiming (it couldn't be called chirping) angrily. Chopper translated that the bird was going to point somewhere else and make them lost, but that failed when it couldn't hold it's head for more than five seconds. The idiot trio sure had fun... and the sound was pretty and relaxing.
"The way they ignore their surroundings, it makes my heart pitter-patter...!" Shojo shook his head.
"Oh well! You can't help it with this kind of thing!" Luffy waved at the monkey. "Just relax and go forward!"
"Such words from someone who caused the delay in the first place?" Sanji was sitting next to the fuming bird.
"What he said is right. Stressing for hours is pointless," Masira said.
"I see... alright, bastards, relax and full speed ahead!" Shojo ordered his men. Everyone relaxed visibly, and Gen rolled on her back like a cat, stretching her other hand upwards in a strecth.
"'Lax...!"
"Hyah~ the weather is so nice..."
"Wheee..."
"Is this really okay, oi?" Zoro sweatdropped.
"Oh, c'mon, ya green-bean. Yer 'oung! Take all ya ge' from life! 't'll be ov'r soon 'nyways..."
"That's real reassuring..."
They were like that for three whole hours. Gen had her sleep, but she was abruptly jolted awake. It didn't come to her as what it was, but then she realized, the huge cloud was right there in front of them.
No... that wasn't it either. She rubbed her bare arm (she was wearing a black T-shirt for once) that had gone to goosebumps with no apparent reason. The weather was nice and warm, so...
She screamed bloody murder.
"LUUUUUUFFFFFFYYYYYYY YOU GODDAMN SHITTY IMBECILE!" she leaped out of the bush. "EEEWWEWEWEWEWEWEW!" she hugged herself and shook her head vigorously.
"What? You're being so loud," the boy looked at her in confusion.
"THERE WAS THE BIGGEST, UGLIEST, THE MOST DISGUSTING BEETLE I'VE EVER SEEN!!!"
"A BEETLE!?" his eyes shone and he went into the grove.
"Hey hey hey! Luffy, be careful! You break one twig and I'll have your head on a very expensive plate!" the navigator reminded him.
"Wuaaah, Zoro~! There was a yucky beetle~!" Gen bawled childlishly and walked to him.
"Gen-chwan! I shall lend all my strength to protect you from that- gah! Luffy! Throw that away!" the chef startled when the boy held the bug right in his face. "Damn, that is ugly! Almost like Mari-"
"Woah, this looks really rare!"
"I DON'T CARE HOW RARE IT IS!" Gen screetched and hid behind Zoro, who sweatdropped and sighed.
"Luffy, don't be an ass."
"Yeah, Luffs!" she sat next to the mossball on the deck and leaned into his back. "Mnaah... now my napping time is ruined... I don't know how you do it, Marimo."
"Lots and LOTS of practice," he answered.
"You have to practice napping...?"
"On this ship, yes. Ah..."
"What?"
"There's dirt all over you," he picked a lock of her long, white hair and untangled a dry leaf from it. "See?"
"Ah- uh- aaa... yeah..." she turned her burning face away. 'WHYYYY! Why is he such a-!?'
"Captain!" It's not good!" someone yelled from Masira's ship. "Night! Approaching from southwest! It's the cloud!"
"Really! What time is it?"
"Ten! An hour earlier than we expected!"
"This is bad! Shojo! Is everythinig ready!?"
"Scoopdivers!" Shojo boomed, "Dive, find the stream!"
Nami called out to everyone. She heard Shojo's wail (and this time it didn't hurt), soon a man in a weird blue teletubbie suit popped on the surface.
The stream had been found.
They also found a sea king and a whirlpool.
"That's it! Turn the ship to 10 o'clock!" Masira told the Strawhats. "That's the sign for the explosion! Follow the whirlpool, don't back out!"
'Oh... the water pulls in first, then releases... I should go find Greg-' huge waves rocked the ship violently and she stumbled on Zoro again. The sea had suddenly started boiling.
"Navigator-san! How's the log?" Robin asked Nami.
"It keeps pointing at that cloud!"
"The wind is perfect! The 'millennium cumulonimbus' is heading towards the center of the whirlpool!"
"It seems like we guessed correctly this time, brother!" Masira laughed.
"And the size is perfect, too!" Shojo answered.
"Can we get there!?" Luffy asked. He had to yell over the howling wind.
"Of course!" two ropes were shot to the ship from both of the bigger ships. "We'll take you to the track of the whirlpool!"
"And then? What do we do after that?"
"Follow the current right to the heart of it!"
"Oh my freakin' mom..." Gen gasped as she saw the size of the whirlpool when the waves suddenly all at the same time shifted like a curtain from the view. The two enourmous ships looked tiny compared to it.
"You never said we need to get sucked in!" Nami shouted. Chopper's eyes sparkled, and Sanji promised to keep the girls safe. Robin stated calmly that she had never seen such a huge whirlpool, but Usopp was freaking out big time.
"Forget it Usopp, somebody's already... hyper," Zoro just went with the situation. He was holding onto Gen so she wouldn't fall over (on the deck or over the railing... which was a possibility).
"HERE I COME~~~~! SKY ISLAND~~~~!" Luffy yelled and bounced up and down. His cheers stopped when they all saw it.
"GRYAAAAAAH!" a huge sea king that looked like a water salamander with outer gills got sucked into it's doom.
Luffy watched calmly, Nami, Chopper and Usopp looked horrified. The monkeys let go of the rope so they could get away in time.
"Alright then! From now on, do your best with your own strength!"
"Yah, thanks for escorting us!" Luffy waved goodbye.
The three mentioned...
"AAAGH! Let us go! This is too terrifying! Let us go back, asshole! We'll die for sure!" - Usopp.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" - Chopper (and the south bird looked panicky too).
"YOU NEVER MENTIONED THAT THE WHIRLPOOL WOULD BE THIS BIG! LIAR, LIAR!" - Nami.
And so on.
"That sky island is just a fantasy of a fantasy!" Usopp tried to reason Luffy.
"Fantasy of a fantasy, sounds about right.."
"Yes, Luffy! I think it's probably false, too!" Nami supported the thought of turning back.
"This 'island of the fantasy of a fantasy', if we miss the chance for a grand adventure like this, we will regret it for the rest of our lives for sure!" The boy had a huge grin on his face.
Nami and Usopp looked like they just heard their death sentence.
"Whoo... that's a long distance to fall..." Gen looked over the railing. Zoro's hand clamped on her wrist to pull her back from the edge. She could tell he wasn't scared of any of this, but she wondered if he was afraid for her.
"Hey, while you were doing the fruitless complaint..." he pointed to the whirlpool.
"Huh?"
"We are about to be swallowed by the giant whirlpool."
"Come, Nami-chwan! Lay on my chest!" Sanji suggested.
"Woooh!" Luffy looked excited.
"YAAAH! We're going to faaaallllllllll!" Chopper cried out.
...
...calmness came...
The sea just suddenly turned calm.
And Gen grinned.
"Ah?"
"WHAT!?! Why'd it disappear?"
"Hey! What happened?"
"A whirlpool that huge, where'd it go?" they all asked. Even if it looked calm on the outside, Gen could still hear the sea's restlessness, right beneath the surface. Nami's eyes widened.
"WAAAAIT!" someone yelled. Gen's grin turned into a frown.
"Hey, Zoro..." Luffy called his first mate.
"Yeah?"
"That's..."
"ZEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I finally caught you, Strawhat kiddo Luffy!" Blackbeard's ship looked like a big raft with a sail.
"He's from the Mock town..." Nami said.
"Who's that?" Sanji bit the butt of his cigarette.
"The world's biggest nightmare to come..." Gen said omniously with her eyes blazing like the sea moments ago. This didn't go past the Strawhats.
"We're here to take your 100 millions worth head! Surrender to us now!"
"My head?" Luffy was confused. Blackbeard muttered something to himself before rising up two little specks of paper.
"There's a bounty worth 100 million berri on your head! 60 million on the pirate hunter Zoro!"
"It's true! They have new bounties! Zoro! You've become a wanted pirate!" Usopp looked throught the binoculars. Sanji leaned to the boy.
"What!? Hey, wait! And me? There's a bounty for me, too, right?"
"No."
"Look again! Carefully!"
"Still no."
Luffy cheered and Gen could almost see Zoro's pride swell.
"Heard that? 100 millions!"
"60 millions? I'm not satisfied."
"Liar, liar, pants on fire. You're smug of your first bounty," Gen poked him.
"Ohh? Is that jelousy I hear?"
"No, just wanted ta get ya back on the earth... sea... ship. You get my drift."
"Your accent came up, you are!"
"I'm not. I didn't do a thing, just calmed down a little spirit of rain. And almost got assassinated by a pair of demons..."
"100 millions..." Nami said out loud. "YOU TWO! DON'T BE SO COCKY!"
"STAY FOCUSED! THE KNOCK-UP STREAM IS COMING!" Shojo yelled.
"Prepare to- huh?" Blackbeard was surprised.
"Neehee~! Ya'll~ never~ catch~ uuus~!" Gen stuck out her toung.
"ALL MEMBERS! HOLD ON TO SOMETHING OR GO INSIDE!" Sanji ordered.
"Umm...?" Gen raised her hand.
"You too," a strong arm locked around her waist.
"If I didn't know you better I'd say you are doing this on purpose," Gen said flatly.
"What? I don't know what you're saying," Zoro said indifferently.
"YOU ARE!" Gen's eyes bulged out. "...but I don't mind."
"Oh..."
Those were their last words before the ship was shot up like a bullet. Blackbeard's ship was pushed aside and crushed into bits and pieces.
"WOOOHOOOO!" Gen howled and threw her arms up as the ship's belly touched the waterpillar.
"What's going on?!" Usopp asked in fright.
"The ship's sailing on the water stream!" Sanji complied.
"This is awesome!" Luffy yelled.
"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT!?"
Now that the ship was sideways, they all had to stand or lay on different surfaces and Luffy was hanging on Merry's head even when it had the wattle on it. Gen was with Zoro and Robin.
"FORWARD, MERRY~!"
"Oh... Oh shit!" Sanji said suddenly. "The ship's leaving the stream!"
"EH!"
"Doesn't look too good," Gen said cheerily.
"You're hopeless!" Usopp cried.
"If this goes on much longer we'll fall!"
"Even when you say that, what do you think we can do! Even holding onto the ship is difficult!"
"AH!" Chopper pointed to the huge sea king - that was falling past them. It looked dead already...
"It's that thing that got sucked into the whirlpool!"
"And we'll end up like that too if we won't do something soon!" Sanji said.
"Oi, oi, that might be true, but the thing's got all the force of that explosion behind it!" Zoro said. From their point of view, Sanji was above them. "It's too late for us to do anything!"
"So it's really nothing more than a disaster!" Rubble fell on them that that the stream had taken with it.
"AAAAH! STUFF'S FALLING ON US! IT'S FROM OTHER VICTIMS OF THE KNOCK-UP STREAM!" Chopper yelled.
"We're done for!" Usopp cried.
Gen squeecked when she had to dodge a whole barrel that broke on impact and spilt rum all over her.
"Oh eeew, now I smell like you!" she complained and he shot her a glare. "You know, you're getting very good at tolerating my insanity! Maybe I should pick it up by a notch?"
"Please don't."
"Boo you. But seriously, now I need a bath or som'thin'... I hate this stuff."
"...we're all gonna diiiiieeeee!"
"Usopp stop whining! It's gettin on my nerves!"
"If we do, we will be teared apart and mangled severly."
"GYAAAAAAAH!"
"Robin I personally love your comments but please keep it down for now..."
"LET THE SAILS DOWN!"
"Huh?" "This is sea! It's no mere stream! It's a sea current that is flowing veritaclly up!" Nami explained.
"Coming from below, there are water vapours from the explosion, it's an up drift! If our opponents are the wind and sea, we will sail on in their faces! After all, who's the navigator on this ship?"
"NAAAMIIIII-SWAAAAAAAN~! OF COOOOURSE~! Hey bastards! Do what she just told us to do!"
The sails fluttered open, and just before the ship lost all contact with the water wind picked them up and the fabrick tightened with a crack.
"WE'RE FLYING!"
Gen was stumped silent. Sanji praised Nami who was just happy that she'd done a good job. Zoro chuckled and in the spur of a moment Gen gave him a quick tight hug.
"Woaaa, to be really able to... to live! Oh NETHERWORLD YEAH, this is life!" she grinned.
"If we stay on this wind and stream, we'll definitely make it!"
"Hey, Nami! Are we going to be there soon? Sky island?" Luffy asked.
"If it exists, it should be behind that piece of cloud," she pointed onwards.
"On top of the cloud? I wonder what is up there...!" the boy said with a grin. He 'whoo'ed once more, before they entered the clouds.
They were suddenly surrounded by water. When they finally pierced the clouds and met again with air, the weird wings on the sides of the ship broke off. They all spluttered and coughed on the deck, Usopp unconsious, Nami and Chopper very disoriented.
"Damn... what the hell happened? Everyone okay?" Zoro asked, looking around. 'Ah, the good shephard of this motley crew...'
"Oi, everyone! Take a look around!" Luffy said.
Clouds. And lots of them, all around.
"That's so... white."
"Ah, so this is how your head looks like inside..."
WHACK
"What is this place? It's soooo white!"
"Clouds?" Chopper leaned over the rail with huge eyes.
"We're... on top of the clouds? But how is that even possible?"
"Of course we can sail! It's just clouds," Luffy said like it was a well known fact.
"No, that shouldn't be possible!" Zoro, Sanji and Chopper denied it.
"Actually... what I think is that the thick clouds make a bowl of some kind and that the water just gathers on it. How though the cloud keeps it's form is a mystery."
At the backrounds Chopper was reviving Usopp, who wasn't breathing.
"I'll do CPR for Nami-swaaan!"
"Dumbass..."
"This is the 'sky ocean'!" Nami said. "But... the needle's still pointing up."
Usopp woke up and noticed where they were.
"Whoah! Where are we?"
"Usopp-kun!" Gen said with 'almighty voice'. "Your mortal time on earth has been come to an end!"
"I'M DEAD!?" his eyes bulged out.
"Of course!"
"No you're not. She's just screwing with you again."
"That wasn't funny!"
"But it's so funny to see what you do in these situations! It's psychedelic psychology!" Gen giggled.
"...what?"
"Now you're just being weird again," Zoro sighed.
"Maybe this is only the middle part of the cloud..." Robin said to Nami, who was still tapping the log pose.
"We need to go higher...? How...?" the reindeer wondered.
"Hmm... so it's not a bowl but a layered cream cake. Hm, Sanji! I'm hungry!"
"Hai, Gen-chwan! What would it be?"
"Cream cake! NO! Chocolate cake! 'Cos I don' think that cream would whip properly in this altitude," she rambled on. "'N' strawberries... hehehe..."
The sniper suddenly shed the upper half of his overalls and posed on the rail. "Lesson one~! Captain Usopp will swim~!"
"Oh! Go, Go!"
"Oi, oi, oi, don't fool around. We know nothing about this sea yet!" Sanji reminded the idiots.
Gen remembered why it was unwise to jump in this sea one second after Usopp jumped off the side of the Merry. "NO! DON'T! THIS SEA...!"
"Huh? Is something wrong, Gen?" Luffy asked.
"Hey... even though we think of this as a 'sea'... will there really be a sea floor?" Robin asked. She sounded nervous.
"YOU MEAN-!?"
"It doesn't have one!" Gen said.
"Did that idiot fall off the cloud!?" Zoro asked. Luffy yelled his nakama's name and plunged his hand into the clouds.
"That's why I told him not to fool around!" Sanji groaned.
"Extend as far as you can!" Robin said urgently.
"But I can't see the bottom..." he cried.
"Don't worry, I'll handle that," she crossed her arms over her chest. "Ojos Fleur!"
They all stood in agitation and the two devil's fruit users were strained to find Usopp.
"I see him!" Robin said suddenly.
"Where?"
"Veinte Fleur!"
"Ah?" Luffy looked at Robin. Gen stifled a giggle at her thoughts that had landed in the very famous 'gutter'.
"Okay, pull him up!" she released her ability and relaxed.
"You got him? Yosh!" and Luffy started pulling the boy out.
"Is he heavy?" Chopper asked, when he looked like he was trying to fish out an elephant.
"I don't think so..." Robin said. The rest of the crew cheered for Luffy. His face was red from the effort, but then his hand came out of the white sea with Usopp in tow...
"Hey look! It's Zoro's mother in-law!" the white haired girl mused when a big, purple animal surfaced, bringing along a long fish with feathers as scales. Nami and Chopper screamed, but Zoro stepped up and cut the tentackle that tried to sink them. Sanji took care of the fishie with one hefty kick.
"Man... this place... sure takes the breath out of you..." Zoro and Luffy were both breathing heavily.
"Well isn't this a funky looking fish," Sanji commented with one of his feet on the fish's upper jaw. The teeth were lodged on the ship's edge.
"The octopus was like a balloon," Luffy commented.
"Yeah, but they were still animals. They were moving."
"Zoro, many things are able to move yet not all of them are animals," Gen sweatdropped. "Are you an idiot?"
"There are actually living things in the clouds," Nami mused.
"Looks like it's better to think of this place as a 'sea' rather than 'cloud'," Robin said.
"What is this flat snake?" Chopper asked.
"It's a flatfish, because it's flat."
"So this is a flatfish?"
Usopp's pants... wriggled. She REEEEALLY didn't want to think about it. He screamed and jumped up.
"For the love of... Usopp, what are you doing now...?"
"My overalls...! There's something in them!" he pulled out a blue fish and promptly fell on his side, muttering something about scary sky islands.
"Poor thing, this has been a long day for him," Gen said. "But I think the fish was even more traumatized than him..."
"Indeed," Robin nodded. She looked at the fish desperately flopping on the deck and picked it up. "Would you say this is a skyfish? The strange fish Norland mentioned in his Logbook. Since this sea has no bottom, they have evolved into various forms in order to survive." She didn't resist when Luffy grabbed it from her with excited face, but knowing the previous encounters with the seagulls and the octopus... 'If ships were compared to cars here, would that make the random animals roadkills?'
"So some become flat, some become like balloons?" Zoro summed it up.
"Yes, all to make themselves lighter because the buoyant force here is much weaker than sea water," Robin explained. "Physics."
"Bleh, I hate physics... when my teacher was young the first fish crawled from the sea," she muttered.
"Teacher?" Robin asked.
"Yeah, I went to school. Really, where I come from we aren't given much choises on it. Do it or be left out of the society."
"Knowledge is true gold," she stated.
"I say, let the life educate us!"
Nami looked at Luffy carrying the fish away. "Their scales become like feathers, but the carnivore-is mouth is weird."
"I fried it..." Sanji lit a new cig.
"THIS IS YUMMY!" Luffy's eyes widened.
'I thought so...' she sweatdropped.
"WE WEREN'T READY WITH IT YET!"
"Come on, Nami, have a taste," he gave the plate to her. 'Whoa, Luffy sharing food!'
"Ah! It tastes really nice~!" She admitted.
"That's it! Sanji! Cook the big guy too!" Luffy said.
Gen's gears were moving fast: this was a sea... yet it really wasn't one. Would her powers work at all here?
She raised her hand above the clouds and concentrated.
...
...
...hnnn!
"OH CRAAAAAAAP!"
"What?"
"My-! My-! I can't! Noooo!" she fell dramatically on her knees. (A spotlight was directed at her mysteriously from somewhere...)
"My cute Gen-chwan! What is it?" Sanji kneeled next to her. The two suddenly held each other in an embrace, his one hand on her lower back and other holding her hands between them.
("...")
Gen's hand flew on her forehead and she leaned back a little. "I'm... I'm...! I'm doomed! My heart says 'yes!' yet I cannot do it! Surely, I will die! Fade, until only a shadow is left of me!"
"No! My delicate flower! I will not allow this! Stay beside me, for I cannot live without. My heart... my soul... beats only-!"
"What the HELL are you two doing?" Nami asked flatlyly. Her eyebrow was twitching in annoyance, and Zoro...
"WHY YOU LITTLE-!"
The girl flopped on the ground with her eyes closed.
"Gen-chwan!" Sanji's and Zoro's eyes bulged out.
"Not really," she opened her eyes and sat up. "But I think my powers won't work here. I'll be even more useless than usually, so please take care of me~!" she gave the victory sign.
"STOP FOOLING AROUND!"
"Where's sky island?" Chopper was looking at the horizon with the binoculars. "Oh! A ship... Hey everyone! There's a ship and... a person?" he grew very silent and yelped, dropping the item in his hands.
"What is it, Chopper?" Sanji asked.
"A ship? A ship is over there!"
"No...! Um, there WAS a ship, but... it's not there anymore!" he fretted.
"What do you mean?"
"There's a bull charging right at us on a square cloud!" he squeecked.
"Calm it, we can't understand what you're saying."
"Somethin' jus' 'ploded," Gen was shading her eyes and looking at the direction she saw the black smoke rising from the otherwise white world.
"The hell..? Huh?" They saw something come their way. "Someone's coming!" Sanji warned them.
"And he's riding on the clouds!"
The person had a weird mask on. They all could see him better when he jumped on the deck, announcing that they all had to die.
"Oh goody, I didn't like my life after all," hail to sarcasm.
"He want's a fight..." Sanji growled.
"He's got guts," Zoro took out his sword.
"Huh? What?"
The guy took the three of them out in mere seconds before jumping high in the air and... aiming a bazooka or something at them.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" another weird guy appeared, riding a PINK bird and holding a lance. The two met in the air, and the guy who wanted to blow them apart was blown away himself.
"What! Who is it this time?" Nami asked.
"Ooh, I am-" "Pi!" "-the knight of the sky!" He sure filled the role, with an armor and all. "Is he gone now...?" he wondered out loud, looking back at the clouds. Gen walked up to him with narrowed eyes. Shudders ran down her back.
"The knight of the sky, eh? Nice to meet you," she stuck her hand to him with a small smile tugging on her lips. "I'm the daughter of the ocean."
He grabbed her hand and looked at her searchingly. "Nice to meet you too, daughter of the ocean. Your guard sent a message to you," he found a sealed envelope somewhere from his armor and handed it to her. "But how did you...?"
"Dunno. Th' name picked a nerve," she shrugged.
"What is going on, who was that guy?" Nami asked. "Also, you three are so useless! Three on one and you still lost!"
They didn't say anything to defend themselves.
"Thank you for saving us," Chopper bowed.
"Don't mention it, it couldn't be helped. This is a service.
"Tsk. This is so frustrating," Sanji huffed.
"It's like my body... won't move as I command!" Luffy was laying on the deck, panting.
"That's becuase the oxygen is scarce here," Robin told.
"Ahh, you are after all from the blue sea," the knight said.
"What's that? ...and who are you?" Nami asked.
"I would be the 'knight of the sky'. All living under the cloud are citizens of the blue seas. You do come from the blue sea?"
"Yeah yeah..." Gen muttered halfheartedly, sitting down and looking at the letter finally. It had a wax seal with a picture of a hawk on it, but no names. She cracked it open and pulled out a crispy white paper:
Fair Young Lady
You may not remember me, the last I saw You
was so long ago (in Human Years). His Highness
has from Her Holiness' request assigned me as
Your guard, and I am honored to meet You, and
we shall, at the Angel Beach.
Take care until then.
-Sir. Altur Terentun
''His highness'? 'Her holiness'? Does that mean Herka and... whatever his name is -god of sky?'
She yelped when the paper randomly combusted and turned into ashes before her eyes. "Okay...?"
The knight continued on telling them how the air was thinner this up in the sky, and that average blue sea people wouldn't be able to stand it. Of course, Luffy and Zoro had to fake it that they were already better.
"Hey, how'd that guy from earlier walked on the sea?" Chopper asked.
"This level... wait a minute, you probably have a lot questions right now, but first things first, I need to talk business with you. I would be a freelance mercenary. This is a very dangerous part of the sea."
"...and why is he staring at me again?" Gen asked with a tickmark.
"Those who do know not the battle of the sky, you will be easy targets for the guerillas or the Skyfish. Each whistle will cost you 50 million in extol, then I will save you!"
"..." there was an awkward silence.
"What is he talking about?" Luffy asked.
"Oh! Quite acting like a fool... the price is very cheap already! If I keep lowering, I won't be able to earn even 1 extol! I would need living expenses too!"
"That's why I'm asking you what extols are and what is the whistling thing?" Sanji asked.
"No way... you guys..." the knight was stupified. "Didn't come here throught the top of high waist? Then you must've been to one or two islands, right?"
"I told you I don't know what you're-"
"Hold it Luffs," Gen interrupted. "Mr. Steelpants, we came directly throught the bottom of this cloud. They know nothing about this place."
"Wait! There are other ways to get to this sky ocean?" Nami asked. "Also you said 'one or two islands', isn't there only one sky island?"
"What! So you guys actually came via that monstrous stream! ...I never thought there would still be people this brave..." he marvelled.
"...so it wasn't... the normal way to get..." Nami weeped into her hands.
"We're here anyway, right?" Luffy asked, while she shook him from his shoulders so his head bobbed back and forth.
"WE ALMOST DIED! If we patiently collected more information, we could've used a safer method!" Nami hissed.
"You. Did you lose any crewmembers?" The knight asked.
"Nope, we're all here."
"Other routes are not like this... if 100 people want to go to sky island through the other routes, it would be a gamble with no way to predict how many will live and reach the destination. However, the 'Knock-Up stream' is either everyone die, or everyone get there together. Either 0 or 100, not many dare to take this gamble, especially people these years. Those who dare, I see them as great sailors who have both courage and real strength."
"Yeah~ But it's all because of me!" Usopp was up and smug about nothing he did. "When there guys were crying and giving up, I said, 'I will show you my navigation skills!'"
"Hey...!" Nami pinched his cheek.
The knight dropped a whistle on the deck. "Blow this once, and I will come to save you! Using the currency of the sky, each whistle would cost 50 million extol, but your first whistle will be free as my gift for you." He got up and started walking away. "Use the whistle to call me at any time!"
Gen coughed. 'The king of the Skypiea...' "What a lousy try of being mysterious."
"Wait! We don't even know your name!" Nami hurried.
"I would be Gan Fall, the knight of the sky! And this is my partner, Pierre." The bird 'piee!'hed. "I should also mention that my partner, Pierre..." there was a sickening crunching voice as it's bones rearranged themselves. "...is a bird who has eaten and gained the ability of the uma uma no mi."
"The bird?"
"Which means he can become a winged horse! In other words...!"
"No way! So beautiful! It's a pegasus!" Nami glimmered.
"That's right! A pegasus!"
"Bih~~!"
"A little bit off..." they all sweatdropped. Gen broke off to a hyena-like laughter. Because of the thin air she was soon gasping for oxygen and crying. "My stomach...! Hurts...! Hehaahahahaha...!"
"I wish you luck, Heroes!"
"It turned into a strange animal!" Sanji commented.
"In the end, he didn't really tell us anything useful..." Robin didn't visibly sweatdrop but Gen could her it in her voice.
"Yeah... nothing at all..." Usopp agreed. There was a moment of silence.
"Back to the starting point," Nami sighed.
"Then how do we get higher?"
"Okay, let's call mister and ask him," Luffy grabbed the whistle, but Usopp and Nami were on him in an instant. Chopper spotted a waterfall and they started sailing towards it.
'Damn, I really only remember the big lines of the story and some funny little details, but all the important stuff is buried in my memory... frustrating.' "Gah! So annoying!" She yanked her hair.
Don't leave yet! There's still the extra coming. I was suggested that maybe I should get a beta to tackle all those errors I tend to do... that would be wise, but because I'm so horribly lazy (and selectively people-shy o/o) that might take some time. I tell you, one day this whole story will be corrected and cleaned! But, for now, bare with me.
ExtRRRRRa:
-What if Greg was with the others at the spa in Alabasta palace...?
"Yoohoo~!" she waved from the wall. "Having fun?"
"GYAA! A PERVERT!" -Usopp.
"GEN-CHWAAAAN~~!" -Sanji.
"WOAH! Greg, you're ripped!" the space around her face glittered. She also gave him a thumbs up. The demon was in the pool why was he still wearing his shoulderpads? and washing his hair. It was open~ and it reached his muscled shoulders. He had his back towards her and so he glanced over his shoulder to see who was calling him.
"You are not bad yourself, M'Lady!" he answered with a stunning smile.
"Kyaaa~!" she fell from the wall with a nosebleed, so she didn't notice the collective growls, dirty glares and the attempts to suffocate the demon with sheer willpower.