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Too soon for that joke?
We quickly made our way out of town and back through the docks to where our ship was left, and were surprised to see Usopp, and Chopper, were still trying to fix the Merry while Sanji was leaning on the railing above them. I'd honestly thought they'd be done by now? Was Merry's damage really that severe? Shit, we need an actual fucking shipwright…
Chopper stuttered out, "L...Luf...Luff...Luffy! Zoro! Wisp!"
At the sight of the state I was in, Sanji of course, freaked out.
What I didn't expect was for him to place all the blame for my dishevelment onto Zoro and Luffy.
I tripped him on my way past him up the gangplank and headed towards the shower. I wanted to be in a fresh set of clothes before Will and Neal got back. No need for them to get distressed over my appearance.
Don't let anyone be fooled by his quiet and calm behavior. When Will gets riled up, he's almost as bad as Nami is in the screaming department. He just usually never got to get to that point since Crystal was so hot headed, and I was too, let's say, passionate about things.
I like to think I'd mellowed out since then…
Even if the being nearly mute had leveled my temperament drastically over the years, that doesn't mean that I wasn't a hot head when the right buttons were pushed. Case in point, being called, "little or short" in any form.
Usopp called out, "you guys! What's with those wounds! What happened!?"
Sanji picked himself up to ask, "Nami-san! Wisp-san! Are you two alright?"
Chopper started running around in a circle as he screamed about the two guys needing a doctor, only for Usopp to lightly hit him up the head to remind him that HE is the doctor and as such that Chopper should go check them out.
I came out of the bathroom, (it was a quick wash, not a deep soak, so it didn't take that long) freshly bathed of all food and drink out of my hair, and in fresh clothes, as Usopp was asking Luffy about what kind of monster Luffy and Zoro had to have been fighting to have looked the way they/we did.
Luffy just reassured him that it was only pirates, and that it was all over now anyways, as Chopper disinfected his cuts and scrapes. Placing the appropriate bandages on them.
Nami was still pissed off, and said, "even if all of you want to let go of the past, I am still angry!"
She came up to the railing besides Zoro and screamed out towards the sky, "what kind of response was that! A real man would pulverize any challenger to dust! Argh! This city is pissing me off! Augh! Why didn't you bash it into bits?!"
Zoro scoffed at her hypocrisy as he pointed out, "just a little while ago you were saying not to fight….?"
"That was the past, don't bring it up!" she snarled as her sharp East Blue Shark Teeth came out in a threat display. Of all of us, she still had the largest and most impressive set.
"Hey, why is the only one who didn't get hurt, being so emotional?"
"Dunno why…." I muttered with an eyeroll.
"Oh, did you guys discover any clues about sky island?" Chopper asked innocently with a bright hopeful smile thrown our way as he turned away from Usopp to greet us (and to hopefully change the conversation topic to cool everyone down).
This wasn't the time to be asking Nami about that topic though, as she was more than a little sore over being laughed at mockingly by every person in that bar.
Her glare scared the poor little reindeer so badly that he ran to hide behind Luffy, who he had just finished treating with bandages around the worst of his cuts and scrapes.
Nami sighed at the sight, her anger deflating as she said tiredly, "I don't care anymore, jeez...Sky Island...when I mentioned it, everyone in the store just laughed…"
Usopp and Chopper made some kind of uncomprehending noise at her explanation, which really did explain the source of her ire, in my opinion.
When Nami heard them though it made her tense up again and the banking fire to her wrath surged forth again as her shoulders tensed up and she started shaking her fists from the pent-up emotion.
She tensed up so much that she yelled at Usopp and Chopper, who were left exposed to Nami's wrath while Luffy sprang over to Sanji, demanding to be fed, as Nami screamed out, "is everything that I say always so funny? Is it because I said…!? What did I do that was so funny!? Huh?!"
Usopp fell to the deck face up, splattering a packet of pai-er...ketchup, all over his chest and rolled his eyes to the back of his head as he cried out, "desperation attack: ketchup star!"
Chopper shifted into his EXTREMELY fluffy transformation after taking a rumble ball, calling out, "guard point!"
I sighed as I rubbed my forehead to ward of the impending headache, "finally, someone normal…" I muttered in an undertone as Robin came back to the ship.
Looking around amusedly, she commented softly, "sounds like a big fight started, did something happen?"
Sanji waved to her, his eye having changed back to a pink heart, much to my discomfort, as he called to her, "Ah, (twirl) Ah! You're back Robin-can! Would you like to eat first or take a bath first?"
Luffy turned to Sanji and inquired distractedly, "where did Robin go?"
Robin smiled and held up the paper and plastic bags she was carrying as she explained, "I went to buy some clothes. I also tried to find clues about Sky Island along the way."
Robin boarded the ship and handed Luffy a map to the island of Jaya, as Nami pointed to Robin and then me as she angrily said, "oh yeah, it was all because of you and you, Robin, Wisp! You two and your "sky island talk" with Will! If it doesn't exist, I'll feed you to the sharks!"
I looked at her pointedly, waiting for her to stop raving, "I'd just tell them to take Robin up to the surface and eat YOU instead."
Before Nami could say anything in response, I frowned and said sternly, "Did you forget I'm a MERMAID? And did you seriously just threaten the life of your fellow crewmates? You do realize than any other normal crew would have taken that threat seriously and likely have killed you for such a treasonous action, right?"
Nami's face went scarlet red as she just got angrier from my words, almost going purple.
Chopper shifted to his jumping point and leapt up to the crow's-nest, all in order to get away from Nami's eventual explosive temper.
Usopp tried to warn Robin in a side whisper that really wasn't all that fucking quiet, that she shouldn't bother going anywhere near Nami while she was so pissy.
I rolled my eyes in an exaggerated motion and stood before Nami with my mouth shut and my arms crossed over my chest.
She finally managed to calm down just enough so she could speak again and snarled at me, "WHAT?! You didn't even stop those idiots back there until one tried to get fresh with you!"
Sanji erupted into flames at the news of a man trying to lay hands on me, but Nami and I ignored the chef's outburst calling death to everyone on this 'shit-hole that dared touch a lady'.
Luffy and Zoro stood silent. They'd known this confrontation between Nami, and I had been slowly building ever since the first time I'd given the violently-arrogant girl a dressing down back in East Blue. It was only a matter of time before either my patience was used up, or Nami exploded and mentally said 'fuck it' to fighting me.
I had to wait for her to stop ranting and yelling again so that I could attempt to speak and be heard clearly without straining my newly healed vocal chords.
When she quieted, I raised my eyebrow, and asked flatly, "you done?"
She started to snarl again, but before she could get back up to steam and waste even more of our time, I said, "good. Because if you had listened to me back there at the bar, I said I'd met a man that claimed to be of the ROGER PIRATES, AKA THE PIRATE KING'S CREW," this drew everyone aboard ship's attention to me and all sound stopped so they could hear me better. What little sound had been being made, that is…
Everyone held wide eyed stares and everyone, but Robin's, jaws were dropped. Though, she was close to doing so.
I snorted and leaned to my other hip before continuing.
"He gave me information on how to possibly get up there, but that it would be up to US to actually achieve it. We need to find some dude by the name of Cricket that got chased outta town a while back and ask him for help to retrofit our ship for the Knock Up Stream."
Nami spluttered, "but...that's the sam-"
I nodded, cutting her off again (something I was sure was pissing her off further, but who cares) and said, "yeah, which is why I belittled the bastard right back. Didn't you notice his twitchy hands after every time I opened my mouth? Took me a while to figure out his tell, but once I did, it became pretty obvious." I shrugged my shoulders as I finished, looking away from Nami and checking on everyone else's reactions to the news.
Robin "hmm"ed softly, yet strong enough that the quiet sound carried across the deck as she came over from where she was standing by the bathroom door. She walked over to Luffy, who was still holding the map of this island, and pointed to it, "that means that the information I gathered would be most useful, see here?"
She pointed to two different sections on the map as she said, "this part here on the left, along the west coast is where we are now, called MockTown. While this X on the top right of the east coast is where a man named Montblanc Cricket lives."
She smiled as Luffy cheered over being able to meet the man that should be able to help us all get to sky island.
Robin's calm tone, and instructions helped to calm Nami down enough that we were able to get underway before dark. Nami was still pissed with me, but I knew it would pass for now once she saw for herself that Sky Island was real.
It was only further delaying our inevitable blow-up, but for now, there was a quiet tension between us that we could work around.
Under Nami's swift directions we set off, despite my protests over needing to wait for Will and Neal.
Luffy pointed out that Neal could fly, and that they'd be able to see us if they did that.
I couldn't really argue with that logic, so we headed off to where this Mr. Cricket person lived.
It wasn't until nightfall that everyone remembered Chopper's strict instructions for Neal to NOT fly for the next two days…
An hour later we encountered a strange man in a black deep-sea dive-suit, but without the oxygen tanks... (who goes diving without oxygen tanks yet can't breathe underwater like the Merfolk do?) instead he had what appeared to be a rubber tube that was a part of his dive-suit leading off towards his ship.
He was shouting to his ship which was behind him, "Orangutan Diver #27! A reflecting sound wave confirmed. There is a group of fish at 9 o'clock. Judging from the swimming speed, it's sardines."
"Very good, tonight we'll be eating BBQ!"
"Orangutan Diver #4! Reflecting sound wave confirmed! A small ship located!"'
"What!? A Ship!? Get an accurate direction!"
Um, it's at...12 O'clock sir!"
BONK!
The man threw a barrel onto 'diver #4's' head, as he shouted, "I can see it with my own eyes already! All Orangutan Divers terminate search! Return to the ship!"
Luffy looked over at Sanji and Usopp and said, "we just set sail, and we're already encountering something strange…but it doesn't look like that guy from before, Usopp."
Fearfully hiding behind Sanji was Chopper and Usopp, who replied fearfully, "yeah, but we still can't tell if there will be trouble."
"But we saw him before, right?" Usopp asked while his knees shook.
Chopper questioned timidly, "yeah, that salvage guy. So, he's from this island after all, we saw him come back here."
"Hmm, this guy looks different, but even if we meet him again, it doesn't really matter." Luffy carefully declared, not wanting to upset his crew members.
The leader to the enemy ship shouted over to us, "Hey you! Yeah, you! Stop chatting over there!"
Luffy took a second to really look at the man that was yelling at us, before excitedly crying out loudly, "Whoa!"
Glancing over I saw the reason why Luffy was all, 'whoa' over this guy's appearance.
For the second time that day, we were faced with a man who looked like some kind of primate. The last one was a cross between a gorilla and a regular monkey having a tail like a monkey, yet the body build of a gorilla.
While this one?
This one looked like an orangutan. And not in the colors like Wetton had, no, this guy's face and arms were almost a dead ringer for what an orangutan looked like. Just green instead of orange.
Same small beady eyes, large forwards facing nostrils, WIDE cheek jowls, and don't even get me started on how disproportionately long his arms were compared to the rest of his body! Or how ginormous his torso area was compared to the super skinny size of his arms and legs! Or his hands! They were long and had his knuckles placed all funny, like he'd had them broken and they never healed correctly. His thumbs were much smaller than his fingers, and his lips were puffed out, jutting forwards with a very weak chin.
The only thing separating him from a man-like-orangutan was the color of his hair, which was a light lime green with a glossy shine to it. It also hung down so long that it curled into a coil on the deck while he was standing; along with his perversity for wearing clothing. He even had ridiculously long body hair! Ewww…
Looking over at us, he gave a "tsk!" sound before saying, "Jeez, and I thought it was somebody dangerous. It was making me a little bit edgy."
One of his men accidently gave us his name as Captain of the Shoujou Pirate Crew, "King of Undersea Searching, Shoujou" with a bounty of 36 million Beli...When I heard his name I face palmed, as it literally translated to "orangutan".
"Are you fucking with me right now? He looks like a lime green orangutan and his name MEANS orangutan!?" I thought as I left the foredeck to head for the kitchen where I knew Sanji, and Chopper, had a small stash of regular mild pain reliever for headaches.
(((A/N: think Tylenol/Aspirin type of stuff)))
As I was walking across the deck to head inside, I heard Luffy ask Shoujou, "you have a very strange face, what species are you?"
This offended the man a little, as he said, "I'm a human, you punk."
His men got a lot more offended than he himself did, as he told his men to "forget it, forget it," with a wave of his hand.
To Luffy he said, "it seems like you guys are pirates! Did you know that Crocodile's seat in "the seven warlords" is empty now? If they judge by real strength, that seat should be mine! I am so edgy just waiting."
Sanji asked the man as I went inside, "ah, you want to join the seven warlords?"
I closed the door, so I didn't hear what he said as a response. I really didn't care if the idiot wanted to be a warlord or not, nor his reasons for wanting it.
I'd just swallowed my medicine with some water, when the ship started to shake, and the damn floorboards started ripping themselves up and out!
I dropped to my knees, clutching my head. I could hear a sonic ringing crying out WAY too strong to be safe for others to be nearby! OWWW! FUCK! SHIT! SHITTY TITTY FUCK! WHO EVER IS FUCKING DOING THIS SHIT HAD BETTER FUCKING PRAY THAT LUFFY KICKS HIS ASS! IF IT'S THAT DAMN APE, I'M GONNA SKIN HIS HIDE AND USE IT AS THE PISS MOP RUG IN FRONT OF THE GUYS URINAL! FUCK, FUCKITY FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!
I army crawled my way to the door, keeping my hands firmly planted over my ears to put some kind of barrier between my sensitive eardrums and the sonic waves. I knew it wouldn't do any shit-good to help, but damn it, I had to DO something!
I managed to slightly creak the door open with my elbow as Nami was yelling at the men to not just stand around and get us out of here.
It took a good ten minutes before we were out of range of Shoujou's attack range, with an even longer time for my ears to stop ringing. That entire ten minutes after I had managed to open the door to the deck had left me writhing on the floor, unable to move. I hadn't realized just how much of the soundwaves were being blocked by the walls and door, because it was easily ten times worse outside.
I couldn't even think coherently enough to back up and shut the door.
When I finally was able to stand again, I tried not to whine, really I did, but when you can barely speak on a good day, (only just today gaining the ability to speak after said operation) and then find yourself barely able to hear either, it makes things soooo hard.
At my (not so silent) whine of pain, Chopper immediately started checking on everyone.
I was under strict orders by our resident doctor to STAY PUT, while he checked over my ears and everything else. Once that all checked out, Chopper went over to help Usopp and Zoro, who were diligently working on repairing the ship to the best of their abilities. Which is to say, next to none at all.
Other than a few of us having ringing still in our ears, Chopper and I were the only ones with blood trickling out of our ears from the eardrums bursting. Thanks to his expert medical care, we were good as new in no time. (((A/N: I know that's not how medical science works, but this is the world of One Piece where BS happens 6 times before breakfast, so I figure what the fuck, right? Lol…)))
Patting the ship from where I was sitting, I thought, "that's it, ol' girl, just a little while longer. Once we find a place that's got some decent people, we'll get you a proper shipwright that can fix you up as good as new. Just keep holding on till then, okay?"
Usopp was crying as he grumbled about Shoujou's attack making the ship's state even worse now than ever, while Zoro was asking if we needed a new one, to which Usopp reacted verbally violently at.
Luffy tried to offer words of encouragement as he helped fix up the ship, but when he accidently broke the siding with a single mallet swing due to not paying attention to what he was doing, he was demoted from working on ship repairs to lookout from his special seat on the figurehead.
As we pulled up along the east side of the island on our starboard side, Nami double checked the maps multiple times before muttering to herself, "this is the place on the map," she looked up and searched the ship before spotting the woman she was looking for, "What's his name again?" she asked Robin.
Robin gave a soft, "hmm? Montblanc Cricket…"
Nami nodded, and muttered to herself again, "the man who talks of dreams…"
I moved to stand beside her and Robin at the railing, and whispered, "the man recommended to us by a former Roger Pirate."
The first sight before us was rather impressive, a large castle with red and white swirly design to the turrets for the towers and at least eight massive cannons facing the sea.
Usopp screamed in wonder, "is that his house!?"
Nami was practically wiggling in an impressive impersonation of Sanji's lady-noodle dance, as her eyes changed into money symbols and yelled, "he's filthy rich, isn't he!?"
Zoro and Sanji were overly calm as they looked at the "castle" in front of us,, while all I could think about was, "how'd he afford this if he was 'laughed out of town' like the gunsmith said?"
Zoro closed his eyes as he exhaled quietly, "Idiots, look clearly."
I wasn't sure which of us he was speaking to, but before I could ask him, Sanji said, "hmmm, a man who dreams...more like a man who wants attention."
Chopper asked them for clarification, as he didn't understand their hidden meaning, going so far as to spread his eyelids open wider as he gazed at the "castle".
He got his answer as we pulled ashore.
The "castle" was merely just a cut out board propped up against one of the oddest shaped homes I'd ever seen. Luffy and Usopp's jaws dropped in their surprise, with Usopp's East Blue Shark Teeth coming out in display.
I simply face-palmed as I caught on as Zoro came to stand along the rail as well.
Zoro had his Wado Ichimonji leaning against his shoulder as he looked out over the "home" to say, "this guy's house is just half a side, the rest is just plywood."
Sanji was furling the main sail, the one that had our pirate mark painted on it, up as he said in response to Zoro, "seems like a small and cheap house."
At this point, I was standing directly beside Zoro at the rail, so he heard me when I rhetorically inquired, "since he was chased out of the only town on the island, it's not THAT surprising that he could only live here, right?"
Zoro grunted, and that was apparently the end of that.
From behind me, I heard Nami and Robin talking.
Nami concernedly asked Robin, "what dreams did he speak about when he was exiled?"
"I don't know all the details. But he talked about a large amount of gold hidden here on the island of Jaya."
Nearly everyone swung around to stare at Robin's bland monotone explanation in various forms of excitement.
Nami, Usopp and Luffy all shouted, "GOLD!?" at the same time, before Luffy and then joined by Chopper, followed that up by asking, "you mean like pirate's treasure!?"
Robin smiled amusedly, as she admitted, "well, I don't know about that."
Nami immediately badgered Chopper into digging for the 'gold' with his horns, while Sanji was looking around the yard.
Luffy didn't even bother to knock on the door, casually saying as he walked in, "Hello! I'm coming in!"
Usopp shouted at Luffy not to just walk into someone else's home like that, but the etiquette lesson was lost on Luffy, who simply didn't care enough to listen.
I left Zoro on the Merry, who didn't seem inclined to have any sort of conversation and joined the others on Mr. Cricket's yard.
Nami found some kind of picture book that had been left out on the log table. Sanji immediately placed it as a children's story that used to be founded on historical fact about the hazards of lying that was founded in North Blue. Sanji knew it because he used to read it a lot from where he grew up, since he was born in NORTH blue, and not East blue, like we'd all assumed.
I asked him, "how'd you get to East Blue then if you were born in North Blue? You'd have had to cross the Red Line or the Grand Line to get from one of the Blue's to the other...in North and East's Blue's case, it'd have been the Red Line, right?"
Sanji smiled weakly, and I saw his right cheek clench down a little harder onto the butt of his cigarette, one of his more subtle signs of nerves.
Huh, why's he nervous?
Sanji deflected my statement/question as Usopp mentioned how this was the first time Sanji had said anything about it, leading him to also think that Sanji had been from East Blue.
In the background, Nami snapped at Chopper to stop digging, acting as if it had been all Chopper's idea, and not something she'd forced him into doing just three minutes ago.
Sanji smiled at Usopp and said as he pointed to the book in Nami's hands, "I grew up in East Blue, but this story is pretty popular in North Blue. People say it's "just" a kid's story, but I've heard that this Norland guy really existed!"
Nami started to read it aloud for everyone that was interested, while Sanji fell quiet.
The story was basically about this explorer named Montblanc Norland, who used to go on major explorations throughout the world.
Kinda like what we do, only we don't come back and report our findings to a king, I guess...oh, and we're considered outlaws, not 'explorers or adventurers' so there's that too…
When Norland would come back from his adventures, all of his stories sounded too tall of a tale to be 'true' but since all of his men on his ship backed up his stories, no one could tell if he was truly lying or not.
One day, he came back and told his king that he'd found an island with a city made up entirely of gold. So, the greedy king took 2000 of his soldiers, and Norland, and they set sail for the island. However due to the harshness of the Grand Line, only 100 out of the 2000 men made it to the island.
Among those who had survived were the Greedy-King and Norland.
However, when they reached the island, the 'city of gold' was nowhere to be found.
Norland was sentenced to execution (under charges of misleading the nation, attempted regicide, and probably along with anything else the pissed off nobility could think of too) and even up to his dying breath, he continued to "lie" about there being a 'city of gold' upon that island. Claiming that it must have sunk into the sea…
"And the pathetic lair...died...without becoming a true warrior of the seas," Nami finished, closing the book with a solid, "thump" as she said the last bit while pointedly looking at Usopp.
Usopp of course, freaked out, and yelled at her, "don't look at me! And stop making all that stuff up!"
Luffy, who'd been standing over by the edge of where the island and sea began, hit the water with a splash, crying out before doing so, "waaaahhhhhhhh!"
Upon hearing his shout of surprise and the tell-tale sound of his body sinking into the water via the splash, we all as one startled into turning to where Luffy had been previously standing safely.
I dashed forwards and dived in, just narrowly missing the man that came jumping out. I hit the water hard and coughed a little as my lungs and gills were forcibly adjusted to the change from air to water.
Once submerged, my tail grew and in just three flicks of my tail I'd caught up to Luffy, who was sinking fast.
He held his hands over his mouth and nose, so as to help hold his breath. Grabbing him from around the middle, I looped one of his arms over my shoulder and pulled a U turn, seeking the surface within seconds of grabbing him
Mermaids weren't known as the fastest swimmers in the world for nothing.
We broke into the air after only four flicks of my tail, Luffy's ass had sank another three feet while I'd been getting his arm over my shoulder, and we were just in time to see the man that had pulled Luffy underwater collapse.
After Luffy had expelled all the water he'd accidently swallowed, he started explaining, "there were bubbles coming up from the water...cough...when I looked in the water, there was this thing, kind of a chestnut….cough...but it was really that old guy and he pulled me in!"
I nodded, trying not to cough as my gills and lungs kept trying to switch on which of them my body was using with each rolling wave that splashed up to our chins.
Every time the water covered them my body tried to switch to them but then had to switch to my lungs instead when the waves retreated. It was very annoying as it left me spluttering almost as badly as Luffy.
Robin helped me get Luffy out of the water, and using her Devil Fruit ability, dragged me out as well.
They left me to dry out on the grass, but when Robin realized how long that might be, she bloomed a couple sets of her feet under me and walked my useless-fish-ass in behind her.
Once inside, I saw that Zoro and Sanji were setting the old guy onto his bed while Chopper was digging out some of his medical supplies.
"Oh, so now we're treating the guy that just tried to drown our captain in an ambush sneak attack? Oh yeah, sure, that's totally not going to backfire on us...riiiiiight.." I said my thoughts aloud sarcastically.
Purposely this time, mind you. I felt like being a little shit for
Zoro and Usopp heard me, but Sanji was helping Chopper lift the guy up a little so he could bandage his torso to hear me.
Zoro picked me up and moved me to the only pile of cushions on the ground near the only table in the house.
Chopper started calling out to us all, "bring some more cold towels, and open all the windows too!"
Once everything could be done, Chopper explained that the man had a syndrome called Dysbarism, or, "decompression sickness", which was something that could commonly be found in chronic divers that wasn't a long term illness and could pass away if the old guy just took some breaks now and again in between his diving.
Chopper went on to explain that typically, it happens on a diver's descent, when excess nitrogen enters the body's blood and tissue. This was harmful because while the body is designed to handle some small amounts of the shit, too much and it causes a whole slew of problems for when the diver ascends to the surface.
I shouldn't have to say it, but naturally Chopper didn't use terms like, "shit" when describing medical jargon…that was my own interpretation of Chopper's explanation.
This change in elevation causes the chemicals to diffuse out in the form of bubbles, and some of the symptoms, if left untreated and the diver continues to exhibit reckless behavior like continuing to dive without rest and therefore not letting the bubbles dissolve properly, it could even cause death.
Upon these revelations, Nami asked, "but why would he…?"
Before any of us could come up with theories on why the old guy would put his health at risk like that, two loud, and unfortunately, familiar, voices shouted out from the doorway, "BOSS! ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?"
It was Shoujou and Mashira.
They were slammed up against the door, each trying to get in through the small doorway at the same time.
Seeing them, Chopper bolted to stand behind Nami, screaming out as he did so, "Ahhhhh! They're here to kill us! Ahhh!"
They obviously recognized us, as they shouted, "what are you doing here!?" (Shoujou) "What did you do to the Boss!?" (Mashira)
In a deadpan, Luffy said, "we are taking care of him, so leave us alone!"
Behind him, Usopp and Chopper cried out fearfully, "they won't listen! They are beasts! Everyone, escape through a window!"
Instead of rushing us, however, they started crying and said between sniffles, "they're such great guys!"
From next to the window, where the three (Nami had been the first to run) cried out in shock, "they listened?!"
Luffy, Zoro and Usopp went outside to sit and chat with the monkey brothers, and through the opened window I was able to see and hear them all talk.
It would still be another hour before I'd be able to be up and walking again, instead of stuck here, useless, while having a fishtail on land.
Luffy wasn't bothered by the fact that Shoujou had been the one responsible for nearly destroying the Merry as he asked, "Do you two live out here too?"
Mashira smiled and rubbed the back of his head to say, "actually, our Boss's home, is also the headquarters of the "United Primate Armed Forces". However, we usually live on our ships."
Shoujou threw out his arms to encompass the tiny home, "yeah, this house is too small for us, whohohohoho!"
Luffy laughed from his tree stump tabletop, elaborating on why he was laughing when the duo sent him confused looks, "you two are big, but compared to the giants, you're like ear wax to them."
From the side, Usopp asked Zoro without drawing the attention of the three 'monkeys', "how can they get along so well?"
Zoro shrugged and said as he closed his eyes, "they're just simple minded, don't mind it too much..."
I chuckled at Luffy telling Shoujou that he was able to send Mashira flying with a kick too if he did so, but then Chopper started calling for Luffy about the old guy being awake.
He sat up as Luffy and them came inside, and I snickered as I saw Shoujou take the opportunity to test his kick out on Mashira's behind when Mashira had turned away from him towards the direction of the house door. The splash he made when he hit the water was priceless.
Luffy came inside with a cheerful, "Oi! Mr. Diamond-Head! I want to ask you something."
Cricket was smoking, even though Chopper was practically begging him not to. At Luffy's statement, he said, "Thanks for your help and sorry for all the trouble. I thought you were like those fools trying to steal the gold."
Nami clasped her hands in front of her and her eyes turned to money symbols as sparkles practically gleamed off of her and 'subtly' inched her way closer to Cricket as she squealed, "Gold?! You have gold?"
Usopp, who was standing beside her with his arms crossed, said to her, "don't act like those fools."
Cricket ignored the duo and continued to speak to Luffy, "you wanted to ask me something, what is it?"
Luffy smiled wide with excitement as he said, "We want to go to 'Sky Island'! Please tell us how to get there!"
With an exhale of smoke, that changed direction with the wind, now going more towards my direction to my disgust, Cricket asked, "Sky Island?"
He threw his head back to laugh out loudly, "Gyahahahahahahaha! You guys actually believe in that?"
Nami lunged for him with her fist raised and a truly terrifying face as she scowled at him for laughing at them, Usopp was left to hold the enraged woman back, shouting at her, "Stop! Stop! He's sick!"
Luffy also ignored the antics of his crew to ask horrified, "Sky Island doesn't exist!?"
Cricket stopped laughing and admitted, "I don't know either...but I knew a man who said it does. He was known as a great liar though, someone who was always being laughed at."
Luffy turned to look at Usopp, who immediately shrieked in defense, "It's not me!"
I laughed at that because it was just…. Oh, so classic.
I dare anyone to not laugh or at least smirk in amusement if they saw it.
Cricket smirked at the two before saying, "Norland, the king of lairs...it's an old story though,"
Again, Luffy looked at Usopp, making Usopp shout while in near tears, "it's not me! The name is different!"
Cricket admitted to Robin, who asked, that yes he was Norland's descendant, and that the island of Jaya was the island mentioned in the storybook. That Norland was his many times great, great, great grandfather.
"I doubt I even have a drop of his blood left in my veins, but the legacy goes so far back that our family was laughed out of our home in North Blue and exiled to a life of shame. Even now, we are still badmouthed. However," he smiled as he said softly, "nobody hates him for it."
Nami asked, "why not? I would."
He smiled as he said, pulling out his smoke, "Because Norland, out of all things, was a very HONEST man."
Luffy asked, "huh?"
"When Norland was defending his claims he said, "I know! The city of gold sank into the sea!""
Cricket drew out a drag of his smoke before finishing, "in the picture book, it shows him having this dumb grin, but he was actually shedding tears of hate and injustice when he died."
Chopper froze at the bedside, no longer nagging Cricket about not smoking as we all listened to the heavy topic.
Norland claimed that the golden city had fallen undersea because of shifting of the landscape from earthquakes. However, everyone thought he was just making false claims, anything to get out of the deadly situation he was in and so nobody believed his golden city story. His death penalty was carried out surrounded by witnesses' sarcastic laughter."
Usopp asked hotly, "then you're attempting to prove Norland is innocent, by trying to find the golden city!?"
Cricket pulled a gun and shot at the wall behind Usopp, who would have been hit if he hadn't ducked so fast. I grabbed my sword at my waist but was unable to do anything due to my fucking useless, tail!
I grunted in frustration, but Zoro placed his hand on my shoulder to calm me down.
Usopp had tears in his eyes as he mumbled, "shit!" while shivering in fear.
Chopper shouted Usopp's name and Luffy turned back to Cricket with an angry face after he'd checked that Usopp was okay, but Cricket spoke up as if he hadn't just shot at one of us.
"Whether or not my ancestor was an honest person, or a great adventurer, HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ME!"
Cricket's face was enraged, and he was starting to go red in the face as he yelled at us all, "just for being his descendant...one gets teased by strangers! Could you understand how a kid in that situation feels!? My entire childhood was like that!"
He turned his face away to look out the window and spoke more calmly, "you're right, during the past 400 years, countless members of the family came here trying to correct the family name, but none of them returned. I felt ashamed for being in a family like that, so I ran away and became a pirate."
Luffy interrupted Cricket as he asked distracted by the P-word, "Ehhh? Mister, you're a pirate too?"
Cricket looked back over to Luffy for a second before looking back out the window to continue, "I didn't really want to be one. I just wanted to escape Norland's curse. But 10 years went by and after a series of events, my ship reached this island accidentally. It's ironic that I, the one who hated Norland the most, was the only one to reach this place. When I was standing in front of the cliff where the gold was supposed to be in the story, I thought this was my fate, that there was no escaping it. So, I decided."
He looked up to the ceiling as he proclaimed proudly, "I would battle against fate! I didn't care if it was true or false. I didn't really want to find the gold, or to prove his innocence. This is between me and the man who ruined my life, this is a duel! Before I die, I will settle this and tell the truth to everyone. Even if I had to do it alone."
Nami, gob smacked, asked him, "what about your crew?"
He shook his head and admitted that they'd left, which he didn't blame them for doing so.
I couldn't blame his crew either. I'd have done the same thing.
Cricket finally fell silent, and Usopp was attempting to keep his tears to himself as he said, "the power of a real man!"
Luffy asked, "what about those two? Why are those monkeys here?"
Usopp tearfully asked, "that's another emotional story told with fists, right?!"
I snorted as I rolled my eyes, when Cricket said, "No, they're just fans of the story."
This threw Usopp off his tear fest as he cried out incredulously, "just fans!?"
Nami chuckled out, "that is a rather simple relationship!"
Cricket smiled as he looked over to a picture that was framed up on the wall, which had him standing in between the two monkey brothers as they all smiled, "it was roughly four to five years after I started searching. They came here after hearing about me and said, "Norland's gold exists for sure!" ... the sea goes very deep here...I felt especially lonely being under the dark cold sea. But I had lived a lifestyle of day after day, nonstop underwater searching. Then they just suddenly entered my life, insisting on being my followers and fought every day to get to that point. Those stubborn dumbasses saved my life...understand?"
I whispered, "they saved you from your loneliness and became your family."
Usopp was crying again, and said, "yes! True comrades always stick together like that!"
Luffy wasn't interested in the tale and said, "yeah...enough about the monkeys."
Usopp smacked him upside the head while yelling at him to not listen to it then and to just keep quiet. I glared at Usopp for that but Luffy ignored it as he roughly shoved him aside and said to Cricket, "as I was saying!"
Lunging forwards, I was just able to snag Usopp by the strap on his brown ammo satchel and dragged him over to me.
"What!" he snapped at the rough treatment before quailing under the force of my glare.
I hissed quietly while Luffy told Cricket of our desire to go to Sky Island, "seriously Usopp? You heard everything that's been said! Cricket is the head to a rival pirate group! (weather he disbanded his original crew or not is irrelevant as he is considered the head of the monkey brothers who both run their own individual crews and refer to Cricket as "boss". Therefore, effectively keeping Cricket in the pirate game) Luffy is our Captain! This is a talk between the heads of each group! You DONT go smacking or punching your captain! ESPESSIALLY in front of another group's leader! That kind of shit can kill the respect that flows between them in such situations!"
Usopp sighs and said defeatedly, "I didn't realize."
I shook my head and said quietly, "it's not me your gonna need to apologize too. Didn't you see how annoyed Luffy was when he had to shove you out of his face so he could talk to Cricket? Its things like this that Will and I have been trying to tell you about."
Usopp nodded his head, and looked to the side as he said, "okay. I'll talk to Luffy later." I nodded and said, "okay then," as I sat back and let go of him by the back of his overalls that I'd been holding onto since I snatched him aside.
I exhaled to further calm myself and said, "look, I'm not trying to be a bitch or something, I don't LIKE having to harp on you about this a lot, and I know it feels that way, but...it's just…"
"I know. We're not kids anymore, and this isn't a game of pretend. I'm working on it, it's just… so easy to forget, in the heat of the moment, you know?" he explained, looking back at me from the side of one eye so he too could keep an eye on the conversation between Luffy and Cricket.
I nodded as I relented, "I do understand that."
I knew that not everyone had had the severity of how a situation can play out be beaten into their heads. Sometimes literally, in my case.
Smoker had been a very thorough task master in making sure I was well educated in my future desire of 'bounty-hunting' and all that that would imply. Weather that was dealing with rival bounty hunting gangs, or infiltrating pirate groups to take them on from the inside… he made sure I knew how to comport myself. Hell, he'd even made sure I had all the fancy etiquette lessons in case I was ever hired by nobility, especially when he discovered my mother was/is technically a duchess herself.
Something I was eternally grateful for as I returned my full attention to the task at hand.
In the background Cricket was showing Luffy, and everyone else that was paying attention, the logbook of his ancestor Norland, who claimed inside of it to have gone to Sky Island.
Usopp and I tuned back into the conversation together when Nami started to read aloud from the Logbook about the entry describing their journey to Sky Island. We all marveled over the idea of a boat that didn't need the wind to power it, called a waver, and the sky fish it mentioned.
Usopp excitedly ran over to join Luffy and Chopper to follow along with Nami's reading in the book, hearing that the energy source for the waver was found only on the sky islands, I tried not to blurt out my pessimistic thoughts, we probably shouldn't look into getting one of these then if it's energy source is only accessible on Sky Island...it's not like we could refuel whenever we want or need, if that's the case.
"Speaking of sky island, a fellow adventurer once showed me a living sky fish, I was surprised, seeing such a strange creature." Nami continued to read, and I accidently blurted, "sky fish? Wonder if I can communicate with them like I can with the ones in the blue sea water…?"
I didn't notice the sharply odd look thrown my way from Cricket at my admission.
When Nami was done reading the last of the logbook had to say about the Sky Island, she turned to Luffy and Usopp in excitement, "sea of the sky!?"
Luffy turned to Usopp with wide eyes and an even wider smile as he said, "just like what Robin said!"
"And judging from the text, it is without a doubt that sky island still exists!" Usopp finished their thoughts as Chopper raised his hands/hoofs into the air in a soundless shout of joy and excitement.
I smirked as I watched Cricket slip out of the house while everyone else started cheering over how it had to exist and their enthusiasm in going to sky island. Sanji had slipped inside at some point, but I had missed when.
Even Zoro was smiling along with everyone else's cheering and dancing joyously over the confirmation of Sky Island's existence.
Everything came to a screeching halt when My legs decided that THAT moment was when they were dry and able to shift back into my fucking naked legs!
I squealed, almost loud enough to constitute as semi loudly, and in the back of my head I was sooooooooo happy that doing so didn't make my throat burn in pain anymore, but I was too focused on pulling my legs up and hiding my privates from the men in the room's view.
Mostly I was worried about the monkey brothers getting flashed. Along with Sanji, and Usopp taking a peek, as Luffy had shown that he didn't care about the opposite sex, and I didn't care if Zoro got more than just a peek. Just, maybe not in these exact circumstances...
Luffy snagged the blanket off of the bed, thus drawing everyone's attention that Cricket was no longer in the room and tossed it to me. Wrapping it up over my waist, I blushed so hard that I felt a little dizzy when I tried to stand up with the blanket on.
I couldn't even talk right I was so embarrassed, as I stared at Nami with a look of utter mortification, an she smirked before yelling loud enough to nearly shake the building down around us, "Alright! Everyone get out of here so Wisp can get dressed! Oh, and every man that got a peek of her is now charged 100,000 belly!"
I didn't bother asking if that money would have been paid to me or not. This was Nami, after all.
Robin chuckled as Sanji started gushing blood from his nose, the pervert!, and Usopp groaned quietly to himself, "that's two hundred thousand belly that I owe her!"
Zoro grunted to Usopp, "be grateful you still know the amount! The witch has raised my interest so damn high; I don't even know if I can pay her off should I work for the rest of my life!"
They exited the building with Luffy's laughter being the last thing I heard from them. Zoro had to literally drag Sanji's semi unconscious body out of the building.
By his foot.
His head made an oddly satisfying 'thump-clunk' sound as it connected with the lip of the floor by the door as Zoro dragged him outside. Sanji was too much into his pervert induced love-dazed-coma to care, let alone acknowledge the injury.
"Maybe that's why he's so brain dead over women?" I thought morbidly fascinated as I watched Zoro manhandle the chef.
Nami laughed as she and Robin went outside with the others and I was quick to change into a pair of olive-green cargo style capris that were baggy on my lean frame. Nothing a little extra wound around my waist of my orange sash couldn't fix. Over top of my now typical blue tank, I threw on a lightweight mud-brown leather jacket that matched my boots. I'd picked these ones up back at Luluka specifically for the fact that they zipped up the sides instead of laces for situations such as earlier where I'd need to remove them fast.
I couldn't help but think, eternally gratefully, Thank god Robin went and fetched some of my clothes before Cricket had started reminiscing over his past!
Taking a quick peek in Cricket's mirror, I was shocked by the sight that my normally prominent orange streaks throughout my hair had thinned out, leaving my hair to mostly look black with an orange sheen to it instead of the thick and clearly defined streaks of orange I was used to seeing.
"What the actual fuck? What happened to my damn hair?!" I thought to myself as I ran my hand through my long ponytail, pulling it forwards so that I could look at it better. I didn't consider myself to be an overly vain person, or someone who obsessed over their looks too much, but anyone would be shocked when or if their hair had drastically changed like this.
I couldn't inspect my hair and appearance for too long, as I heard Nami say loudly, "Hold on! We should wait for Wisp to get out here before we talk more!"
I rushed out the door and smiled apologetically at everyone with a deep blush and sat down on the only available space, directly on top of the damn table stump between Nami and Luffy.
Chopper, I noticed, had decided to sit in front of the table stump and had to look upwards to look Cricket in the face.
Zoro was sleeping up against the front door while Sanji was standing beside Robin.
Judging by the fact that Sanji was standing there calmly besides Robin and not in some form of pervert-love-induced shenanigans, I could only conclude that this conversation was serious and turned to pay attention when Cricket made to start speaking again.
Cricket cleared his throat and nodded at us all, and I instinctively knew this was going to be relevant for our trip into the sky.
"Alright, listen carefully, I'll tell you all I know about Sky Island. However, not everything I know can be proven true, so it's up to you to decide whether to believe me or not."
"Yes I believe you." Luffy immediately stated. Not a hint of distrust, or hesitance to be found in his firm tone.
"Oi! Luffy, you shouldn't make the decision yet until we've heard everything!" Usopp stage whispered, but he didn't hit him, so I counted that as a step-in towards progress.
Cricket waved his hand out to the sea and said, "in some parts of the sea, during the day, it would suddenly become dark as if it was "nighttime"
Luffy raised his hand and called out, as if it were a classroom for children, "Oh! I've seen it! I've seen that happen!" he turned to Usopp for confirmation, "Right?!"
Usopp sweated a little as he remembered it all, "Yes! It suddenly became nighttime and monsters appeared."
Cricket's mouth thinned out as he said, "for those giants, I have a few theories about where they came from, but I won't mention that now. In regard to the sudden arrival of "night", it is caused by shadows cast by a very dense cloud."
Nami seemed to understand what Cricket was saying, and I had a vague idea that he was talking about some form of cumulus cloud that was so high up in the sky that we were unable to actually see it with our physical eyes. But still…
Nami asked Cricket, "nimbostratus? Clouds like that don't cause the sky to turn completely black though."
Luffy and Usopp didn't help Cricket's temper when they called him stupid for not knowing that days with clouds are just 'cloudy'.
I rolled my eyes but was caught by surprise when Cricket displayed the sharp pointy teeth I'd come to associate with the East Blue members of our crew as he told them to shut the hell up. Huh… I wonder if he's got any Eastern Blue bloodlines in his family? Or maybe a more direct line to fishmen?
After telling us all to be quiet, Cricket told us, "millennium cumulonimbus is the name for that piece of cloud. It does not ascend nor rain. But when it appears in the sky, the sun light gets blocked completely. The "daytime" on the grounds becomes "nighttime." Some say that the millennium cumulonimbus has been in existence for millions of years, it won't change form, and it continues to float around in the sky as if a "cloud fossil…"
Nami started to stutter as she assimilated the information that Cricket was helpfully providing for us, "it won't produce precipitation even at great density? It's not possible…"
I leaned around and poked Nami in the forehead to get her attention, once she looked at me, I said, "Nami, this is the Grand Line, NOTHING makes sense here. Just dub it "Grand Line Bullshit" and move on from it so that we all don't die when your brain tries to make sense of something that wasn't ever meant to make sense. We need you at full strength, not doubting everything. Okay?"
I smiled to soften my words and after closing her eyes and taking a cleansing inhale and exhale, Nami smiled at me too with a nod to show she was good to go.
Cricket exhaled his smoke and said, "it's up to you to believe me. I didn't say you have to believe."
Luffy smiled and asked, "so it's a mystery cloud?"
Cricket smirked and said, "more or less. It's something that still can't be explained."
Chopper turned to Luffy and said with amazement, "Luffy 's so smart!"
Pointing to us in general, Cricket said firmly, "listen! If Sky Island does exist, it must be inside that cloud."
I nodded along, thinking, makes as much sense as anything else, I suppose.
Luffy cheered, "Alright! I got it! Let's get onto that cloud! Zoro wake up!"
Zoro snorted awake and asked as he rubbed his eyes, "huh? Is it morning?"
I laughed at that and told him, "no, you've only been asleep for like ten minutes. Still need another like ten or twelve hours before it's morning."
He scowled but was prevented from making a comeback by Luffy.
Luffy shouted more loudly now that Zoro was awake, "everyone, man your positions! Turn the ship toward the cloud in the sky!" he turned to Cricket, "thanks for telling us those things, mister."
Nami screamed out in anger with her E.B Shark Teeth out in a full threat display, "we don't know how to get there! How many times do I need to tell you that!?"
She then proceeded to wail on the two most rambunctious members, and I scowled as that included Luffy, and she flinched when she saw my scowl, but scoffed immediately afterwards as she muttered to me defiantly, "What? Those idiots deserved that, and you know it! How else is the idiot going to stop and think?!"
My scowl grew into a light glare and she turned away to listen to Cricket's warning about us needing to risk our life. Nami seemed to ignore Luffy and Usopp's muttering that caused my glower to darken further, "we do that every day with her around…"
Cricket looked out to the sea and said while looking over his shoulder, "the current that shoots upwards, the knock up stream, if you can get on this current, you can get to the sky, understand?"
Nami asked, mostly sarcastically as she tried to wrap her brain around the idea, "you mean, that current will blow the ship upwards? Really? We just need to get blown to the sky, on the top of the cloud… hahahah…"
Usopp asked confusedly, "using the sea current?" while I could see Chopper trying to picture how that would work without killing us all in the process.
Probably something adorably cute and naïve, like the Merry sitting atop a water spray spout as it's lifted up into the clouds…
Nami said both aggressive yet hesitantly defensive, "I'd heard that the ships that gets blown into the sky will crash back down into the sea...back in Mock Town."
Cricket nodded as Chopper and Usopp's faces grew pale, having not been at the bar when Nami and the rest of us had heard of that fact.
"Normally, that is the case. The key here, is the timing."
Cricket held up his fingers as he listed the things we needed to be in alignment for this to work for us.
"Firstly, you get blown into the sky, which sounds easy, but it's not as easy as one may think. The Knock Up Stream is actually a natural disaster. It's something people normally avoid."
Nami asked him, "why does the sea current blow upward? I've never heard of that before…"
Cricket was an animate guy with using his hands to wave about as he explained, "the reason behind that monstrous current is just a theory because no one is dumb enough to rush into one to investigate!"
I nodded along with everyone, sans Luffy, as that made sense.
It'd be similar to how no one's gone into the heart of a tornado or an active volcano and lived to tell their discoveries. Until we could create a robot or something to go and investigate for us, this would just be another mystery in the world for fellow dreamers and adventurers like us.
Cricket drew out what he was talking about in the dirt with a stick to help some of our, shall we say, less than genius level intellectuals of our group to follow along.
"The theory is like this: in the bottom of the sea, there are some big caves where cold water flows into the caves and then is heated up by the earth, creating a lot of water vapor that causes a very powerful pressure to build up. The pressure creates an explosion at some point. For whatever reason, this kind of explosion shoots sea water straight up into the sky...for about a minute..."
I looked over at Luffy, Nami, Usopp, and Chopper's faces at this piece of news, and groaned, "Of course. We've got the cowardly trio, the childishly excited leader, and the realist. Why does that NOT surprise me."
Nami stood up with sweat starting to glisten her skin as she asked in surprise, "to be able to shoot water upward for one minute...what kind of explosion is that!?"
"The location of the explosions are different each time, but the frequency of appearance is five times a month." Cricket continued as if he wasn't interrupted.
Usopp seemed to be having trouble picking his jaw up off the ground and was so terrified by what Cricket was describing that he was literally dripping in sweat as he trembled violently.
I figured out what part of all that had him so freaked out when he mumbled, "we may crash down into a million pieces…"
Cricket either didn't hear Usopp, or was straight up ignoring the guy, as he continued to answer Nami's question, "Furthermore...no, never mind, trying to use logic and words to describe such a grand natural event is just foolish."
He turned away from us to look out at the sea with his arms crossed over his bare chest, why he never grabbed a shirt, I had no idea, but his turning away from us had Chopper asking, "then...in other words, the Sky Island needs to coincidently be there…?"
Usopp finished for him, "even though these currents only happen five times a month!?"
Cricket didn't even turn around as he confirmed, "yes. It's a big chance to take. If there is nothing on top...you will fall back down, and everyone will become fish food."
I shuddered at his terminology...being part fish while in an ocean of extremely larger marine life, makes the concept of that possibility actually a genuine risk I have to face each time I go into the ocean.
"Even if you successfully enter the "millennium cumulonimbus", if Sky Island does not exist, you will still crash down," Cricket continued grimly.
Usopp smiled nervously and said to Cricket as if he had any actual say in the decision making of this crew, "in... that case, we'll forget about Sky Island! Hahaha! Ah~~~!" turning to Luffy and started waving his hands as he tried to get Luffy to change his mind, "so unfortunate, Luffy. This can't be helped! Only the luckiest among the luckiest among the luckiest person can get up there!"
Luffy just smiled wide and said, "Don't worry! Let's just go!"
Waving his hand over to encompass the Going Merry, Usopp said, "wha? 'Don't worry'...? You mean you trust that kind of thing without proof…? Just look at our ship's current condition! It's impossible to withstand such a giant disaster!"
Cricket had turned to look at our ship along with Luffy, and said around a puff of smoke, "True. But even if that ship was new, it still couldn't withstand the current!"
Usopp took that as an insult to our ship and yelled out, "What!?" while I just raised an eyebrow, waiting for the old man to compound on his statement.
Cricket ignored us as he turned back to looking out over the ocean but explained, "speed, weight, force...judging from those points, the ship will be blown into pieces by the current."
At first Usopp was mad, but then turned to Luffy and said, "but...Ah!? Yeah! So, it just can't be done!" as if this would change our Captain's mind...not likely, I thought with an eye roll.
Cricket again ignored Usopp's ravings, "however, I can have Mashira, and Shoujou help you to solve this problem. But we need to reinforce that ship first, of course."
From Cricket's house, the two aforementioned monkey brothers shouted, "Ooh! You can count on us!"
Luffy was overjoyed, as he yelled, "Thanks for your help!"
Nami burst in, "did you forget?! We can't stay any longer than a day! After that, the Log Pose will start pointing to the next island!"
Usopp was quick to jump on this bandwagon, and I realized all of his behavior so far was simply due to his fear and not a genuine desire of not wanting to go explore.
Unfortunately, this was where Usopp put his foot into his mouth along with his entire damn leg too.
"Hey, Cricket! You can't predict the future so you won't know when the Millennium cumulonimbus will happen to be on top of the knock up stream, right? It'll probably be a few days, months or even years, right?"
Cricket shook his head, "it'll probably be tomorrow at noon! We need to start preparing if you want to go!"
Usopp's shock had his eyes practically bugging out of his head and his E.B. Shark Teeth emerged as he yelled, "what?! It's not too late? Damn!"
Cricket huffed out with an exhale of smoke, "if you don't really want to go, then don't go."
I'm pretty sure that the only reason Usopp reacted the way he did was due to feeling like his pride was being attacked. With such a large lack of self-confidence and self-esteem, he only had his so called 'pride' to fall back on in these situations. So, it's no wonder that Usopp resorted to verbally accusing Cricket of lying.
Luffy, Chopper and Nami all asked, "huh?" as Cricket just stood there waiting.
But Usopp was on a roll and wouldn't be deterred by the sounds of his friend's voices, "come to think of it...we only met you today! Yet, you're being so nice to us, suspicious isn't it? Furthermore…"
Luffy tried to stop him but Usopp was so worked up that he forgot all of our talks and pushed Luffy aside with a "shut up, Luffy!" before turning back to Cricket and continuing his line of thought, "you say that the best opportunity to reach an uncertain location like Sky Island just happens to be...TOMORROW!? YOU EVEN WANT TO REMODEL OUR SHIP AND HELP US SAIL THERE!? THESE THINGS ARE TOO "PERFECT"! WHAT KIND OF SINISTER PLAN DO YOU HAVE HIDDEN!? YOU'RE THE DESCENDANT OF THAT "NORLAND, THE KING OF LIARS"! YOU CAN'T BE TRUSTED!"
I walked up behind him and doped slapped him on the back of the head so hard that he fell forwards onto his knees. He twisted around and when he saw my thunderous expression, he paled.
Everyone was silent.
This meant that everyone heard me as I said to Usopp, "you fucking idiot! I get that you're afraid, and paranoid of suspicious things. Caution can be a healthy thing, fuck, I'm sure Robin, Nami and Zoro could give you hundreds of examples where it's saved their lives. But sometimes? Sometimes people are just good people. We helped him, and now he's helping us. Simple as that. Grow the FUCK up and use your god-damn-motherfucking brain, Usopp."
It was in the following second of silence that Sanji burst from Cricket's house with the monkey brothers to shout, "Boss! The meal is ready! Today's food is really special!" (Mashira) "this guy is a really good cook! I'm so edgy!" (Shoujou) "I told you I'm a first-rated cook! Miss Nami! Robin-Chan! Miss Wisp~! The Meal is served!"
It was then that they all noticed the tense atmosphere, I glared down at Usopp and said, "be a man, and apologize for your dumbassery. I'm going to eat."
With that I walked away.
As I headed towards Sanji and the food, I heard Cricket tell Usopp, "In Mashira's territory, two days after the "nightfall" incident happens, the millennium cumulonimbus will appear in the sky to the south. (exhale of his smoke) Judging from the calendar, the special current will also happen tomorrow, and this time it shall take place to the south of here. Even though I can't give a 100% guarantee. Tomorrow will very likely be a perfect chance. I'm very happy to have met fearless idiots like you. Come! Let's eat! Just enjoy my hospitality in my home for today...Comrade!"
With my back turned on them, I didn't notice that Cricket had walked past Usopp and smiled at the rest of us, as if nothing were the matter, nor did I notice how it was Cricket's words, and not so much mine, that impacted Usopp the most.
If I had, I'd be going on another internal rant over the sexism of it all. So, in a way… thank god I didn't notice, as then that'd get me on another rant and Usopp might never learn his fucking lesson.
Sanji made sure to politely usher me inside first, asking Chopper as he did so, "Hey, Chopper, go and tell Little Robin-Chwan to come too! I don't think she heard me."
"Okay!" he said with a smile as he shifted into his full reindeer form, or as he called it, his walk point. With a deer-like leap, he was off, calling for Robin as he did so.
Luffy yelled as he ran after us, "Let's eat! Usopp, hurry up!"
I refused to let myself scowl, but I did think to myself, ugh...Luffy…He needs to learn to apologize for when he's been a dumbass idiot! He can eat after!
Just as I was about to enter through the doorway, I heard Nami say to Usopp gently, "it seems this is the best opportunity to try our best to reach the sky. It'll end up depending on luck!"
Usopp's quiet mutter of, "Nami...tell me the truth, am I a coward?" was almost too quiet for me to hear, but I did. I felt bad, as I thought back to my thoughts of him over the last couple weeks and wondered if it was something I'd accidently thought aloud to make him think that way.
Even if I still thought it was a true enough descriptive for the long-nosed sniper wannabe.
Nami harshly said, "Not just that, you're also an idiot…" before her voice softened again, "but I understand your feelings. Listen to Wisp and go apologize."
With the sound of sniffing, telling me that Usopp was crying, he shouted loudly for Cricket, "Wait for me! I'm so sorry! Yaaah!"
Cricket yelled out annoyed, "Wait! Don't wipe your nose on my pants!"
I finally smiled.
From the table besides me, Zoro smirked, but didn't say anything as we ate our meal in silence… at least until everyone else joined. Then it was pandemonium.
Sanji's cooking was, of course, perfection incarnate.
So…
this message down here was written the day of chapter release while the one on top was written when I was halfway through with the editing because I usually post within the day of being half done…obviously this was not the case for this chapter…
I'm not one who likes to make excuses, but I feel like I owe an explanation anyways…
So, yeah…here's what happened…
I originally had started this to be prepped and done & ready for posting like a week, maybe two depending on editing/length of chapter, after my last chapter released….BUT…
We got an emergency call just five days after being declared safe and done with covid…the patriarch of my family, my grandfather who was the backbone to our family, was diagnosed with stage 4 blood cancer (his second round with cancer sadly) and had already entered stage 5 renal failure and was only given 1-2 weeks left to live… Just one day after a major back surgery…
I know, right?! Like, HOW? How did NO ONE catch this issue?!
It was already too late for any form of treatment to be even possible too. Doctors could do literally NOTHING…
My husband 'lovingly' pointed out that at least it happened "now" and not half a month ago where I was in forced quarantine due to having covid…so at least my family was able to go and say our goodbyes before he passed…
And due to all this stress my mom has just had a heart attack herself! Aghh!
We only just got her home from that a couple days ago…
( ToT )
Anywho… So, Yeah…that's why there was the delay in this…
Thank you all for being so understanding and not bombarding the reviews with demands for updates…I've read a lot of stories where that's happened to authors and I can honestly say that those wouldn't have helped…I'm trying to not let depression overwhelm me, and keep writing, but it's been….difficult…
Stay Safe/Healthy everyone…