55. To the skies!
A/N: Thanks to those who fav/followed the story, and all the anonymous readers ^^!
L: Hi! Sorry for the small delay, coming back to college is a pain T.T!
K: Just be grateful you have the opportunity to study what you want and like instead of what your brother had to.
L: Hm... Well I don't have the brains to study Law. So good for my brother! He may not like it, but he'll succeed. I'm sure of it.
K: Whatever you say.
L: So, about the fic! I see everyone agrees on making Koga's Arc after introducing Brook. Alrighty then! Who am I to deny my faithful readers' wishes~?
K: ... No one likes an ass-kisser.
L: *gasp* That language, Koga-kun! Oh, and I have the impression that some of you... may or may not hate me in this chapter. PLEASE DON'T THROW ME THINGS! Especially pointy or potentially dangerous ones! I wanna live~!
K: ... Could we get on with the story, please? Or else I'm gonna throw dangerous things at you...
Disclaimer: I own nothing of One Piece and Soul Eater but my OC Koga and other OCs that will appear in the future.
Excitement overflowed the Merry as everyone scrambled to follow Nami's instructions of following Masira and Shojo.
Well, at least for a while. The majority of the crew had been standing around a chained South Bird trying to get it to point its head in any other direction... without success so far, much to the amusement of the goofy trio. The others, mainly Zoro and Koga, had been only standing there watching because listening to Masira and Shojo telling them how to determine the Knock-Up Stream had become boring.
That, and watching the South Bird trying to turn its head another way was funny as hell.
"Hey you! You wanna piss off our boss?!" Masira shouted, tired at getting their attention.
"Relax you people!" Luffy exclaimed, grinning heartily. "We can't be nervous all the time, right? Let's just take it easy and get there!"
"Mind I remind you who's the one that delayed us at the shore almost forty-five minutes?" Sanji glared at his captain, who gulped at the intensity of the look.
Koga chuckled before adding his two cents to the matter. "If there is four more hours before the Knock-Up Stream, getting nervous now would do nothing good. Let's go full speed ahead, but nice and easy."
Shojo's crew grunted in agreement before getting to work again, this time more relaxed.
"Guys! Your destination is right there!" Shojo suddenly exclaimed, after three hours of navigating and following the South Bird's indications. "Just get to the whirlpool and don't turn around!"
...
"Wait, WHIRLPOOL?! WE HAVE TO GET INTO A DAMN WHIRLPOOL?!" Nami's screech made Luffy laugh. Or maybe it was the whole situation that amused him.
There was still no sign of said whirlpool, but that didn't matter yet. Above them, the menacing black cloud that covered a huge portion of the sky and didn't let sunlight get through. The ever increasing waves that threatened to capsize their little ship and finish their adventure before it even began. For the moment, instead of wondering the dangers of entering a whirlpool, the Straw Hat crew was more worried about not being thrown overboard.
"Navigator-san!" Robin called out. "Where's the Log Pose pointing to?"
'I wonder how that woman manages to stay so calm at all times?' Koga gritted his teeth as he held Chopper with one arm and grabbed the railing with the other, knees slightly bent.
"Straight to that cloud!" Nami answered, pointing at the cloud directly above them.
"Oi!" Luffy, from his seat on Merry's head, looked everywhere. "You're talking about a whirlpool, but where's the thing?!"
"It's nearby you lot! Looks like we're next to the hot spot, bro!" Masira answered from his ship, trying to be heard about the roaring waves and the growing distance between their ships.
"Yeah, the blast's strength is no problem either!" Shojo nodded.
A grin appeared on their captain's face. "So, we're gonna do it?"
"You bet you are!"
"Wait, what do we do next?!" Nami screamed.
"Just leave it to luck and let the waters lead you to your destination! Get as close to the whirlpool as you can and don't look back!"
'So far our luck only gave us problems...'
Masira even gave them a hand and grappled the front of their ship to drag them to the whirlpool's stream and give them a chance to go to Sky Island.
To be completely honest, Koga didn't feel that eager to go to the skies. They'd be hundreds of thousands of meters above the sea after all; that was absolutely terrifying for any conscious person.
Of course, being the moron he was, Luffy was completely oblivious at that dangerous fact.
His personal 'danger alarm' began tingling as the view of the whirlpool they had to get into appeared before their stupefied eyes. The sea seemed in a disagreement about what to do with their small vessel, the waves pulling and pushing and threatening to drown them while at the same time being sucked into the whirlpool. Nami barked orders of hanging on whatever they could get a hold onto; an order most felt more than happy to oblige. Slowly, but surely, and among the deafening sound of the roaring sea, the Merry got sucked by the whirlpool, and Masira's hooks let go to avoid getting in too.
Reactions varied around the crew, of course. Sanji vowed over and over to protect the female members of their crew (one curious about the whole ordeal and the other gritting her teeth at the huge responsibility resting on her shoulders), Zoro and Koga mainly tried to stay onboard and keep up with everyone else's craziness, Usopp prayed to whatever God to keep them safe and alive after all this, Chopper could only stare speechless at everything...
And Luffy...
"WE'RE GOING TO SKY ISLAND! AHAHAHAHAHA~!" That idiot was simply having the time of his damn life, excitedly jumping and laughing at the mess.
"Will you grab a hold onto something before you get flown off you idiot?!" Koga roared growing shark-teeth and grabbing him by the back of his t-shirt.
A golden-purple striped giant Sea King suddenly boomed from underwater and tried to make them its meal, but the stream's power was too much even for it; knocked out by the sheer force of nature, it simply let itself be dragged around and sink back to the whirlpool.
"Bye bye guys!" The Straw Hat crew then heard Masira's voice -surely amp by his megaphone. "Now it's all up to you!"
Though with some difficulty, they could see the strange ships in the safe part of the sea, out of the whirlpool's reach.
Luffy grinned widely and waved with both arms over his head. "NICE! THANKS FOR THE RIDE HERE-!"
"COME ON, YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME! I'M SCARED SHITLESS HERE!"
Of course, Usopp interrupted his captain's goodbyes with a reasonable reaction.
The Merry then veered dangerously, and the crew managed to tighten their grips on the various things around the deck (mainly, the railings and the battered main mast) as they got even further inside the whirlpool. Even though Usopp, Chopper and Nami tried to change Luffy's mind, it went into deaf ears (almost literally). Koga's alarms went crazy as they all saw the incoming darknes waiting for them.
Several things happened at once.
One, the ship suddenly left contact with the sea and stayed mid-air for a few seconds before gravity acted, dragging them all between screams towards the hole.
Two, at the rather shocking and sharp contact with the water, the giant whirlpool suddenly disappeared, the once violent sea calming at once.
Confused, everyone lifted from their crouched positions, looking around with wide eyes.
"That giant hole..." Usopp breathed, his limbs and voice shaky as he partly let go of the main mast he had been hugging all along. "Wha... What the hell happened?"
"Did... Did it fail?" Chopper muttered, still being held by Koga, who looked at the seemingly calm sea before a shudder went down his spine.
"... I doubt it..." He looked over at Nami with wide bicolored eyes, her confusion matching his. "I still feel danger..."
"Hold on..." The red-haired navigator whispered.
Not even a few seconds after she said that, the ship floor began shaking, and a feeling of the ship being pushed from underwater made them yelp and grab again their support. The shaking was getting exponentially stronger by the second too, and Koga had to remember to keep his tongue behind his teeth so as not to bite it. Chopper hugged his waist tightly, burying his furry face into his stomach, and the chronicler tightened his grip too, mostly to reassure both him and the scared reindeer.
"It's beginning..." Nami managed to say among the shaking. He couldn't interpret what emotion coated her voice though. "The ocean floor completely erased that whirlpool!"
'The blast is coming...' Everyone thought.
The tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife.
"WE FOUND YOU! STRAW HAT LUFFY!"
Suddenly, a creepily familiar voice called out from a black-flagged raft rowed by two men. On board, it carried the black-haired, bulky manfrom before, the one eating pie, along with other three (two rowing and the other standing beside the bulky man).
On the far left was a very large man with a nose slightly longer than normal, his face unshaven, and there were straight purple tattoos coming from his hairline to the corners of his eyes. He had long, curly, grey hair, and had a pallid look about him acting as though he was on the verge of death. He wore a black fur coat, a wide-brimmed, black beaten hat, and (even though Koga wasn't sure) what appeared to be a dark white hangman's noose around his neck.
At the bulky black-haired man's other side, a rather thin man of abnormal height, with light brown hair that hanged down to his lower neck. His eyebrows were furrowed in what looks like a saddened expression. The left lens of the black glasses he wore is a normal, rectangular eyepiece, but the right side is circular and holds what appeared to be a cross hair. He sported a large black hat, protruding out to both sides. He also a long black cape, under which he had on a button-up, pale lavender shirt with loose sleeves, and simple black pants, with a maroon belt with an aqua outline that went over a small portion of his shirt. On his feet he wore black shoes. A huge rifle was leaned against his shoulder. Evidently, that man was the sniper of that crew.
Finally, at the far right, there was an unusually big, tall, broad, broad-chested, broad shouldered, tan-skinned, muscular man, with a broad upper body and a thin lower body in comparison. He had curly violet hair reaching down to his shoulders and wore a dark brown mask with orange decorations on it, which covered the upper part of his face but revealed his eyes and his nose. He wore a sleeveless black shirt and a pair of white pants with ruffles coming from the base then reaching up to his knees; he also sported black bands tied around both elbows. He also appeared to be always wearing a championship belt, a belt which wrestlers only obtain from winning many matches or to show that they are extremely skilled in wrestling.
Now Koga didn't know if the alarms he kept hearing were from the impending geyser coming at them, or that crew. Sure, they looked insignificant (if they didn't take into account the huge-ass rifle or the fact that one of them carried a championship belt), but something about them (about their captain) had awoken some of his most primal instincts and urged him to get away from them immediately.
"That's the guy from Mock Town!" Nami exclaimed, recognizing him with a frown on her face.
"Who?" Sanji looked over at the approaching ship with a raised eyebrow and an unlit cigarette on his lips once more.
Koga's right hand holding the railing let go to grip Sankaoken's hilt, the other still keeping Chopper against his side; he scowled deeply and brought a sneer to his face.
'If only I had a middle-ranged or even a long-ranged weapon to end him...' He grimly thought.
"I came for your head of 100,000,000 Berri! Surrender yourself and no one will get hurt!" Surely the guy didn't feel the ominous aura-
... Wait, 100 million Berri?!
Oblivious, Luffy put a hand over his straw hat. "Wait, my bounty? What do you mean, 100 million?"
"Luffy, you defeated a Goddamn Shichibukai." Koga deadpanned, still eyes locked on the black-haired man. "Obviously, the Government wouldn't stay quiet after this. But still, a hundred million Berri bounty on your head..."
"It's more than yours, no? Yours is fifty million Berri!" Luffy grinned at the blond writer, who sighed at his complete uncaring attitude at the situation.
"It is as the kid says! I see no one told you!" The man chuckled and showed two Wanted Posters of Luffy and Zoro, surprisingly. "Your head's worth a 100,000,000 Berri now! And Pirate Hunter Zoro, you're worth 60,000,000!"
Usopp rummaged through his orange satchel bag and retrieved a pair of binoculars to see the posters.
"It's true, the new Wanted posters are out!" He exclaimed. "Zoro, now you have a bounty!"
Enraged at that, Sanji jumped up the railing to the upper deck where Usopp was and slumped an arm over his shoulders. "What, wait a moment! What about me?! I have one, right?"
"Hm... Nope."
"Look closer!"
"Hm... No, you haven't."
"Of course, those are for what we did in Alabasta." Nami concluded, her face showing worry. "But 100,000,000..."
Meanwhile, Luffy and Zoro cheered for their new bounties.
"Who-hoo~! 100,000,000! Did you hear? I'm 100,000,000 worth!"
The swordsman chuckled. "I'm a bit disappointed at my 60,000,000!"
"STOP ENJOYING THIS YOU TWO!" Nami roared with shark-teeth at the duo, who seemingly ignored her.
Then Usopp made a humming noise of confusion and lowered the binoculars.
"Hey, what about Koga? He has a 50,000,000 Berri bounty on his head! Why isn't his bounty here?"
The black-haired man lost his smile as he focused on the blond chronicler, and then smirked again, with even more maliciousness if possible.
"About that... Van Augur! You know what to do."
"Yes captain." The thin man wielding the rifle answered, swiftly but emotionless.
What happened next, it happened in matter of seconds.
First the man drove a knee to the planks of the raft with a small flourish of his black cape. Then he put ammo in his rifle and cocked it in a swift motion, and held the butt against his shoulder, his arms lifting the heavy-looking weapon seemingly without effort. He then aimed and fired.
BANG!
Straight at Koga's head.
Stunned, the crew watched as Koga fell backwards to the floor, landing in a tight ball position and blood dripping from his blond hair, where the bullet had been directed to. No one moved, or even breathed, as they watched the unmoving figure in the floor, face shadowed by his hair.
"The question is..." The man who had so carelessly and effortlessly ended his life then raised to his feet and hoisted his rifle over his shoulder, its mouth letting out smoke from the shot, "that that man's poster indicated 'Only Dead'. So, his bounty was only worth if we gave the Government his head, without anything attached to it."
Luffy's enraged face turned to the man, black eyes promising hell to the one that dared touch his nakama. Around him, Zoro took out his white katana with a sinister expression on his face, and Sanji scowled deeply as he threw the unlit cigarette, and even Usopp took out his slingshot while making sure to be standing behind three out of the Monster Quartet. Meanwhile, Nami and Chopper called out to Koga in anguish, the doctor trying to assess the injury. Robin stood behind them all, but raised her arms crossed to her chest with a slightly more serious expression than usual.
However, a direct shot to the head led to very few conclusions.
"Zehahahahahahaha! What's with that expression, Straw Hat?" The black-haired man laughed at Luffy's enraged expression, almost demonic-looking. "Gives me quite the scare. You can't blame a person for trying to make a living, man. Each and every one of us had done things that now one repents ever doing. But this..." He waved a hand at the expressionless Van Augur at his side, who faced the furious crew stonily, "this was a necessity."
"Necessity?" Sanji snarled out, a vein beginning to pop in his forehead. He didn't get along that well with Koga (certainly better than with the marimo but still...), but the cook wasn't in any way going to tolerate this.
"Oh yeah. See, according to the information I got, that guy right there had a demon inside. A monster. Which, in a way, makes him a monster himself. How much time do you think he had had left before his rampages kill everyone, including all of you? How much time before he loses his humanity and becomes a demon himself? Huh?"
"Th-that's a load of bullcrap!" Nami shouted, eyes wide in both shock and anger as she was kneeling beside Koga's head, a hand over his chest to check on his pulse. "Koga will always be Koga, not a demon or a monster!"
The man's smile turned into a full-fledged grin, sending shudders down the navigator's spine at the evilness it exuded.
"Brave words, Nee-chan. But brave words don't make the message they hold true. I bet you've already seen him berserk in one or two occasions, am I wrong? You've already seen him corrupted, tainted, twisted. For now you've been lucky enough to get out alive and unharmed, but what about next time? Or the next? Because, let me assure you, there would've been a next time. He would run amok, destroying everything in his path, leaving a trail of blood and tears in his wake. He would've ended finishing everything he held dear. Including you."
Usopp's hands trembled as they held the slingshot, remembering that one time in Cocoyashi Island when Koga lost himself in his fury. True, he had recognized everyone, and knew who was enemy and who was an ally or friend, but... What if next time they wouldn't have been so lucky, as the man said? What if, in his blindness, Koga ended covered in a shroud of bloodthirst and fury so thick that would render him unable to recognize friend from foe.
But, even so... Each and every one of the Straw Hat crew trusted each other with their lives. That included Koga, of course. As he thought of that, the long-nosed teen looked up and at the others, finding identical expressions of determination mixed with rage.
They all agreed on Koga not being a monster.
And well, if he did become one, they'd find a way to recover him.
Suddenly, a groan interrupted the tension-filled silence. Startled, and of course pleasantly surprised, the crew turned as one to see Koga clutching his head and incorporating to sit on the deck; blood seeped and soaked his hand and t-shirt, but he was alive. Alive!
"Koga!" Usopp, Nami and Chopper exclaimed, huge grins on their faces as the reindeer hurried to keep him from falling over with his Heavy Point's arm around the chronicler's shoulders. Upon a closer inspection, though he seemed a bit disoriented and losing blood, the doctor observed that the bullet had only grazed the side of his head; narrowly missing, but at least didn't hit directly.
Though still enraged, Luffy allowed himself to relax when he saw Koga groggily waving a hand. Though only slightly. Zoro also retrieved his white katana back to its sheathe and Sanji put his hands back into his pants pockets. Robin uncrossed her arms, letting them rest around her waist in a half self-hug.
"Man, you sure like to talk, huh?" Koga groaned, one eye scrunched closed but smirking cockily at the wide-eyed man and the rest of his crew. Mainly Van Augur. "Usopp wouldn't have failed that one for sure."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" The long-nosed teen protested, albeit weakly as he still showed worry at the foggy eyes of his friend, who blinked trying to focus.
Van Augur narrowed his eyes and went back to one knee, rifle poised to point at him again. At that, the three combatants of the crew sent flaring glares at the sniper, daring him to do that again in front of them and hope to stay alive after.
"Still... We have bigger problems to tend to. So, if you'll excuse us..."
Koga's smirk turned into a full-fledged grin as the tremors suddenly were felt even more intensely than before, momentarily forgotten in the whole ordeal. The water under the ship began rising and kept doing it steadily.
"The Knock-Up Stream is almost here!" They faintly heard Masira (or was it Shojo?) shout at them.
"Everyone brace yourselves on the ship or get into the cabin!" Sanji screamed, making sure his dears Nami-swan and Robin-chwan were safely secured.
As one, the Straw Hat crew put their asses on move, Chopper keeping his Heavy Point to support both himself and an obviously disoriented Koga; he still tried to protest, but the wobbly legs and spinning head didn't exactly help support his argument against a dead-set doctor.
But...
"You! Pie-ossan!"
Luffy was the only one who still hadn't grabbed a hold onto something. Instead, he was still standing in the upper deck near the Merry's figurehead, glaring down at the black-haired man with an expression that didn't promise just pain and hell.
It directly sent a death warrant.
"You're now my enemy!"
Just like that, Monkey D Luffy made himself enemy of one of his soon-to-be archenemies. He wouldn't forgive anyone who dared lay a hand on his nakama. Ever.
The black-haired man looked surprised for a moment, but then let out a booming laugh, not answering to the threat.
The rumbling and the shaking increased in intensity, until...
BOOOOOOM!
A massive tower of water that connected sky and sea literally exploded. It detonated with an incredible force, the discharged energy of that massive force managing to make the Merry stick to the waters and allow them to sail vertically. Less luck had the black-haired man and his companions, as his wooden raft was literally shredded by the sheer force, unprepared of what had been about to come.
But no one in the Straw Hat crew gave a damn for them, as they were too preoccupied in holding onto the handrails or leaning back against the walls. Well, everyone except Usopp and Koga; the former was literally holding for dear life to the railing with all his strength, and the latter being supported by Chopper, who in turn held onto the main mast with his free muscular arm. All the while, Luffy had forgotten everything about the man and was excitedly flailing his arms around and screaming, cheering on the Merry to keep them flying up to the skies.
Suddenly, Nami's head snapped up.
"The wind..." She murmured, grabbing Sanji's attention of course.
"Nami-san?"
"GO MERRY!"
Their problems didn't end yet. With the impulse, the hull started to lift and threatened to turn the ship upside-down, much to everyone's panic. After all, if it did turn, they would literally find the Knock-Up Stream in their faces. However, the Sea King that had been dragged into the whirlpool before falling back down into the sea at a frightening speed.
"It's not long before we end up like that thing!" Sanji warned everyone.
As if they needed another pessimist voice in the crew.
"Butwe got all the thrust from that blast! I don't see what we can do now!" Zoro argued.
Admittedly, he was right? What could they do, except hoping the Knock-Up Stream had enough power to send them up there instead of plummeting them down to the abyss below? It didn't help that previous ships that attempted to go up the stream (and failed) started falling on them. Whether it was the hull betraying them and turning the ship around or the wrecked ships that fell on them, Koga wasn't sure which one would be the cause of their fall.
He certainly hoped neither.
"RELEASE THE SAILS! NOW!"
Nami, with her characteristic navigator voice, suddenly put a stop to the wave of despair that had begun to dominate them. Shocked at her sudden confidence, they turned to see her with a grim expression on her face.
"I know what I'm going to say will sound absurd, but we're still in the sea! It's a water current! Plus, the wind blowing upwards is here thanks to that geothermal explosion and the vapor! So, as long as we have wind and sea, we can sail!"
"Nami..." Usopp muttered, blinking at her.
"Who's the navigator around here?!"
Silence. Then, smiles and grins crept everyone else's faces. She had efficiently put a stop to their doubts and desperation by assuming control of the ship. That was what they needed the most right now.
"That's what I call dynamism. You heard her boys!" Koga exclaimed, though winced a bit at his own loud voice (not to mention the overall loud roar of the Knock-Up Stream). "Get ready to burst or get into Sky Island!"
"YEAH!"
"Koga, if you're okay enough, get to the helm and keep us on course!" Nami ordered, and Chopper took the duty to take the writer to the helm. "There's wind coming from starboard! Put the hull straight with the stream!"
"Alright!"
With the crew thus occupied, the sails unfurled and kept the ship on course. But instead of making back contact with the water of the Knock-Up Stream, the ship kept hovering over it, and not quite throwing them to the sea below to certain death.
They were flying! Right above the vertical stream!
"WE'RE FLYING! AWESOME! INCREDIBLE!" Luffy exclaimed, a wide grin threatening to split his face in two.
Relegated from his duties at the helm by Chopper, Koga smirked as the wind blew behind them and shook his blue scarf.
'So this is what a bird feels when flying...' He opened his arms wide to either side of him, enjoying the wind billowing and shaking his clothes and hair. 'Ah, I feel good... I love this! I want to experience this again soon!'
With the whole excitement and runs, the Cumuloregalis went by faster than expected. As the Merry and the crew onboard pierced right into the cloud, an amorphous white mass surrounding them everywhere in the process, zipping past them at a high speed. Everyone held onto the railings the tightest they could, hoping it would be over soon.
Koga had his back against the wall, but soon felt, as they got closer to the final stretch of the cloud, that he felt a sudden lack of air and he couldn't say anything. He gasped and grabbed his own throat, trying to draw breath, but couldn't. Soon his own vision darkened, and the altitude plus the head injury effectively knocked him out.
He was already unconscious by the moment they finally got out from the cloud into the unknown.
Admittedly, he had better ways of waking up. It certainly didn't include a massive headache and an overexcited Luffy who just couldn't shut up for a minute.
"Urgh... Keep it down, Luffy, please..." He groaned, a hand going to his head, immediately letting go when his fingers grazed his injury. "Ow..."
"Don't move, Koga." Chopper's voice came from his right, the same side his head injury was. "I have to stitch this and then wrap a bandage around your head."
Even lying on the infirmary bed (most likely the good reindeer brought him here once everyone got here safe), the chronicler felt his body tense up.
"... Stitches?"
"Of course! I need to close your injury before it gets infected! Plus it's a head injury, and it's very dangerous leaving it unattended." From the corner of his eye, the writer saw Chopper sterilizing a needle and getting ready to sew him up. "Okay, now don't move a muscle."
Stiff as a board, the chronicler clenched his teeth each time he felt the small prickle of the needle entering his skin and slowly closing the wound. At one time Chopper protested about him clenching his jaw too hard, but eventually gave up as it didn't hinder his job much.
Eventually he finished, and after cleaning the wound once more, he wrapped a bandage around his head.
"Done. How are you feeling?"
"Ugh... I'm okay." The blond writer sat up and gingerly touched the bandage.
"Koga..." The reindeer directed a harsh glare at him, and he sighed.
"Dizzy. And my head hurts a little. But I'm alright, really."
Now it was Chopper's turn to sigh as he took an aspirin and gave it to him with a glass of water. After making a quick check-up on him, the doctor finally rendered him good to go, but advised him to take it easy for a few hours at least.
'Around this crew, unlikely.'
The rest of the crew looked happy once they looked and saw him up and unharmed (apart from the bandage around his head). He smirked and raised a hand in greeting.
"How did you do that?" Sanji asked after they all calmed down and crowded around him. "Back then, we thought you..."
Remembering what happened, his expression went deadly serious as the others glanced at him.
"... At the moment I thought I was a goner too." He admitted, a hand lifting to touch the bandage again. "If I was able to survive that, it was merely thanks to my reflexes. That, and my intuition warning me in the nick of time."
"Good thing it did then!" Usopp breathed in relief.
"The shot did manage to knock me out momentarily though. I couldn't wake up until a good moment later. I'm really ashamed of that."
"What's important is that you're okay!" Luffy grinned.
"Yeah, though you gave us quite a scare here!" Usopp clapped Koga's back with a huge smile, earning an insecure smirk in return. "Look at this! Look at the Sea of Clouds!"
As the sniper and the captain took him away (followed by Chopper), the rest of the crew locked gazes and unanimously agreed on keeping what the black-haired man said after Koga's knockout between them. No need to put yet another burden on their friend's shoulders, they thought.
The landscape they were on could be summarized with a simple word: white. Everywhere they looked, they only saw an indescribably beautiful white. Merry, more or less intact (it had lost its wings) found itself resting about the clouds, as if it were a regular sea. They could even feel a small rocking beneath their feet similar to the waves of the regular sea.
"So this is the celestial sea, right?" Koga breathed, taking in the vast whiteness.
"But the Log Pose's still pointing up." Nami held up her arm, showing the Log Pose with its needle still pointing up. Robin thinks we're at a middle section of the Cumuloregalis."
"Hm." The chronicler held a hand to his chin, looking at the needle.
"By the way, you may want to change clothes, Koga." Zoro pointed at his shoulder when he glanced at the swordsman in question. "Your t-shirt is a bit soaked in blood."
"... Oh."
In fact, it was. Even his scarf had a bit of blood too, much to his disgust. He agreed on changing, and looked at the three goofy boys (Usopp had decided to take a swim) before going to the men's quarters to get changed.
He had a bit of a hard time deciding what to wear, but in the end he chose a sleeveless black shirt with a funnel-like collar, with white trousers that are black from the knee down and just a little short of being full length jeans. On the front of his collar, two short strips of grey material adorned with rivets stretch down fro, the top of the collar to the breast of his shirt. Of course, his trusty black combat boots and his light blue scarf were still on his person.
At Usopp's panicked scream, he hurried back on board... to find a soaking sniper throwing away a fish and curling into a ball in the deck, muttering incoherent mumbles under his breath in a frenzy.
"... Do I dare ask?" He sighed looking at the others. Luffy was, of course, laughing his ass off at his friend's predicament.
"Apparently, this sea doesn't have a floor, and we had to fish him out." Nami sighed too.
"So, this is a celestial fish..." Robin commented, crouching and grabbing the madly wiggling fish trying to get undersea once more. "That exquisite fish Norland wrote about in his diary... Since this sea has no bottom, it must've adapted to it in order to survive."
"Like turning into a balloon or having a flat body?" Zoro suggested.
"Yes, to be lighter. Looks like it's easier to sink in this sea than in ours." The archaeologist noticed then something on the fish. "Its scales look like feathers... Doesn't seem edible to me."
Koga smirked as Luffy snatched the fish out of her hands and passed it to Sanji. "With Sanji around, there's no food that's not edible."
"You'll get nothing with compliments, shitty bleached head."
"What'd you call me?" He growled, but at his headache decided to let it be (for now). As they enjoyed the fish, Koga noticed Chopper with Usopp's binoculars looking around. "Found something, Chopper?"
"Not yet... Hold on!" He stopped somewhere to their right. "I found a ship and... a person...?"
Face scrunched in confusion and worry, the writer saw him go pale and stutter. Sensing problems, he got up from the seat and approached him, putting a hand over his shoulder.
"You okay?"
He still stuttered, before letting out a scream.
"What what? What's the problem?" Sanji and Zoro went to check on him, alerted by his screams.
"Guys! There's a ship nearby! Well, there was, but it's not there anymore! And then there's a bull coming here in a squared cloud and-!"
"Chopper, you're not making any sense." Koga tried to calm him down as the rest approached. "Breathe."
Just then, they heard a strange noise (like a buzzing, but stronger) rapidly approaching them. Koga was the first to turn to see whatever was coming, and saw what looked like a man with a tribal mask resembling a bull sliding through the clouds in their direction.
It didn't take long for the unknown person (a man or a woman?) to reach them. Koga then noticed that they were carrying a huge bazooka, making him and everyone else to be on guard. Well, except Usopp of course.
"What do you want?" Sanji drawled, poised for an attack.
"I shall reject you!" The now confirmed man yelled.
The Monster Quartet acted as fast as ever, but their plans turned ineffective that time. The bullmasked man quickly dispatched Sanji with a powerful kick that sent him slamming into the storage room's walls; same went for Zoro, who was also sent crashing to the main mast, that dangerously bent at the force of the kick. Koga didn't have any chance too as a massive blow to the side of the head almost knocked him out (fortunately it wasn't the same side of the bullet wound) but left him out of the battle temporarily.
The guy jumped high into the air to avoid Luffy's enraged punches and cocked his bazooka to shoot at them.
"That's enough!" An unknown, elderly man's voice boomed then.
A lance appeared then to pierce the masked man, but it was blocked by the orange shield he was carrying. Seeing his mission turned to be troublesome, the masked man clicked his tongue and pummeled into the water, soon skiing off into the distance.
Their savior grunted as he incorporated. Once the crew looked at him, they noticed he was an old man of average height with long white hair, mustache, and beard. He was wearing a metal armor with a dark red shirt, and brown pants. The knight's visor was pulled up. He wore a long dark blue cloak that was yellow on the inside and at the back. A cawing noise let them know the presence of a a large pink bird with a red polka dot pattern on his body. He was solid red on the sides of his head, the back of his head, and on his horn-like ears. He also had bandages wrapped around his torso. He had a tab face, with a yellow beak.
"W-w-w-w-who are you?" Usopp asked, terrified, at the newcomer.
Even with the danger passed, the others were still on guard. The old man, standing on the handrail and his gaze into the distance, suddenly turned at the sound of Usopp's voice.
"I am the Knight of the Sky."
A/N
L: Hope you liked it! And now, review answers~!
-Zelga Lim Li: Okay! I'll do it after Brook's then. I think first is Sabaody, and then Impel Down. Sorry, can't reveal anything~! Though I think Ace's death was a huge boost to Luffy's confidence and also the incentive to become even stronger (plus it's one of the few times I saw Luffy really seeing himself as weak) I will try to save Ace. Emphasis on try.
-Stargaze Valintime: Hehe, babysitters!
K: I don't need babysitters, dammit!
L: Yes you do. Sometimes you forget about yourself. Well, Koga and Yuuto remember, but their memories are clouded (Koga doesn't remember who's the one that shot him, for example), whereas Angela was too young to really remember, and the shock made the brain erase the memory on its own volition. Thanks! I got them good ^^! Not great, but at least good hehe!
-King0fp0wers: Hey King, welcome back! Ikr, a comfy couch, a good book and sweets. Yummy.
K: Technically, they couldn't, because they would be in a dimension they're not familiar with. What they could do, is live inside a host for several years (normally until the host died from old age or other circumstances) until they can break free and roam the world.
L: *sweatdrops a bit* However, they couldn't live on their own for long here before having to inhabit another body. Plus their powers are minimized once in the human world in comparison with the demonic world. Think about it this way: demons are essentially souls coming from another world into one ruled by 'physical' entities (humans, animals and plants). It's like trying to combine death and life in a single world. It would cause a catastrophe. And although he's been living as a soul for fifty years and roaming the world in search of his body, Brook was originally human, and that's why his soul wasn't affected by this.
K: What a long explanation.
L: Yeah, I guess... Yep, I did! Everyone in the Grand Line had at least heard about Enies Lobby ^^! Sorry, but it had to be done! You're right, I still have to introduce five Demon Princes' people... Ugh, what a pain...
K: You're sounding like that kid from that anime you liked so much before it ended...
L: Yeah, he's losing it... Let's hope everyone can save him before that. Yeah, nicely handled Luffy! You didn't have to knock Koga out! And yes they do! Though you'll see that Koga's not very good at remembering faces xD
K: *hides blush behind the scarf* Shut up already.
L: Well, there is gonna be danger of course, but I wanted everyone to be more or less at their best form before going to Koga's storyline. That's why I posted the question. Huh, you have pretty good ideas! We'll see soon what to do.
K: A thing you should already know about Author: they LOVE to make me suffer. So, at least a couple arcs I'll be suffering.
L: I'm not THAT bad! ... Though I won't discard that thought. Don't worry, Mifune and Angela will appear again! Well I'll be reading you soon! Peace!
-Tengu Brunch: Hey Tengu!
K: Angela's a strong kid. Plus she has Mifune with her.
L: Haha, you're right! Dr. Sanji's so unique xD We'll see about him fighting the dog or not...
K: Just so you know, I'm not really comfortable with that idea.
L: Hm, Akim Papladon... Yeah I know of him. You know, I might do something even better than just giving him a fleeting role in Thriller Bark, but you'll have to wait and see~!
-Boopadoop: Hey Boop! Thanks so much! Did I ever tell you that I get super happy whenever I see one of your reviews? Well, now you know xD Ikr, Koga-kun's creating a small family wherever he goes xD
K: Leave me alone, both of you. The only thing Author thinks about is in new ways of torturing me. With time, I get so disgusted by what I see that I practically don't have anything else to do...
L: Hahahaha, I always loved that anime! Though I quickly lost interest in the fic, as you can see (only published two chaps before quitting). I am lazy.
K: Yes you are.
L: *sobs a bit* You're not helping with my self-esteem...
-seblackburn4: Hi, welcome! Thank you very much! You'll see. After Brook huh. Roger! And you're right he can be helpful. So I'll be seeing you soon, hope you continue liking my fic~!
-Guest-san: Ikr, it was like 'wait, that's it? You caught it?' It was hilarious. Thank you! Yeah, Mifune keeps a lot of secrets... Alright, after Brook then. Yeeeeaaah, another Oc... Okay, I'll figure something out.
K: 100 Year Form? What kind of beast is that?
L: ... Nothing you should be concerned with. For the moment.
K: ... Great. Just, great.
L: Well guys, hope you liked it, stay beautiful, and please feed the hungry beast!
K: See ya guys next time.
