For the next hour, we were their punching bags.
They threw food, drinks, and laughs until they slowly started to run out of food and drink.
Luffy and Zoro were bleeding from multiple scrapes and cuts along their face and arms, yet not a single one of them had more than a soft yellow bruise to show for it beyond that.
The men were starting to get angry with our lack of a violent response.
Nami was starting to get more than a little upset as she yelled to us to fight back. That we could screw the promise, that sending them flying would be enough. She even asked me why I wasn't interfering with the disrespect shown our captain. I glared at her and in doing so, took my eyes off of the perv that was leering at me.
He grabbed me by the ponytail, and licked his tongue up the side of my neck.
I reacted out of instinct by gut checking him so hard that the pissant actually pee'd himself. It made everyone stop what they were doing, and I muttered, "ops. Sorry Captain. I reacted out of instinct. My bad."
Luffy nodded and got up from where they'd thrown him this time, against some table or other that ended up breaking under his weight. Zoro had had a chair broken over the back of his head at the same time that the perv had licked me. He was glaring murder at the downed perv from his new position on the floor where he'd fallen to from the chair strike.
My reaction, however unintended, proved to them that we were capable of fighting back, but were willfully choosing not to.
That seemed to piss off Bellamy, but he laughed it all off when Nami shouted out, asking WHY we were just letting this happen to us.
Sarquiss told Nami it was useless, and that we were being 'clever' for not fighting back since we wouldn't win. Even though it was a 'wimpy' decision."
The guy that had come in with the odd bonnet style had started saying, "ha ha ha...the Captain's Pride is destroyed!"
Coming up beside him to peer at Zoro, Sarquiss said, "the navy is very generous lately. Only need to cut off the heads of these morons, and you get a 30 million berry reward!
Bellamy chugged some beer that seemed to suit his...delicate (horseshit) sense of tastes, and he laughed, "no resistance? Sounds good! Those useless and prideless people...who won't even fight when getting attacked and still daydream are insects!"
His mean cheered, "that's right!"
I grit my teeth as a fucking tomato was thrown my way, and due to Captain's Orders, I had to let it hit me in the side of the face. Its acidic juices made their way down my face and started to stain my blue shirt an ugly purple.
Bellamy got up from the bar finally and approached Luffy and Zoro, saying, "Not fighting, not fighting...a weakling like that actually worth 30 million makes me wonder how strong he would be. Ha Ha….! it is really a disappointment. This is the first time I've met these kinds of chicken shit…"
He took a deep gulp of his beer, draining the glass and sprayed his mouthful upon Zoro and Luffy, before telling his mean, "hey, throw the garbage elsewhere! It's taking up too much space."
He used a high kick that made his knee connect with Zoro's cheek.
It sent him flying towards the door, but he hit a large solid wood table on the way out, causing it to stop his flight and crash into the ground.
This made more of the men laugh out how Zoro looked like an idiot, while a shirtless man in a white baseball cap grabbed Luffy by the back of the head as he was still coughing out the beer that had gotten into his face from Bellamy's spit take.
Baseball hat guy slammed Luffy's face into the window to the bar, where Luffy slumped through, facing the street outside before falling to the floor of the bar.
Nami called out Luffy and Zoro's names as Bellamy made his way over to me.
He laughed as I looked down at me, while I glared at the man, silently saying to do his worst.
At first, he laughed, thinking I was just a guppy against a shark, but as he looked over me, he paled.
Still maintaining my glare, I snarled out in a deadly calm whisper, "what?"
I then noticed, it wasn't my face he was looking at, but rather my...gills?
"You. Girl. Are you a mixed blood?" he asked quietly.
I glared more as I asked, "If I was?"
He sneered as he scoffed out, "che, just get lost, you dreamer trash!"
I made my way over to Nami, who was helping Luffy and Zoro to stand. Sarquiss apparently hadn't had enough "fun" as he yelled out to Nami, "Hey woman! Following that person, will never lead you to the new era! Why not let me buy you?! How much does it cost to satisfy you and come with us?"
Nami's face went ashen white as she snarled, "You? Buy me off? Sound's good, but I'm sorry, but you just couldn't afford me. For me to join a team filled with small fries like you, would just be a waste of my talents!"
Sarquiss, with his tongue lolling out similar to Bellamy's laughed before saying, "which means you're very expensive, right?!"
All the men started laughing, and I whispered out, "not even those fucktards at the top of Mariejois could all together afford even ONE member of our crew. Why not fuck the fuck off?"
Bellamy, predictably, didn't hear me through all the noise his men and the other pirates were making and instead told Nami, "take those two and disappear! While they're still alive! Humph! Chumps."
Standing Nami started dragging the men as I followed out after here, arms crossed over my chest as I kept an eye on our backs. I made sure to grab my boxes for Usopp before leaving, glaring at Bellamy the whole way.
When Sarquiss made a move to grab me by the waist, likely feeling spurned by Nami's refusal and wanting to prove his manliness to his men under him or something equally as stupid. I sidestepped him, keeping my eyes on Bellamy the whole way, as it finally clicked where I'd seen his Jolly Roger before.
As I bent over to grab my boxes, I whispered so that only Bellamy could hear me, "you asked about my mixed blood because of Dellinger...I'm not related to that little fucker. I'd appreciate it if you make sure not to insinuate such again."
Before he could make a reply, I turned my back on the man, showing how UN-afraid I felt in his presence. He didn't say anything, nor did he do anything about what I'd said. But I didn't doubt that he'd heard me.
After all, he had not been laughing even once as I walked away.
As we made our way outside and further down the walkway, only having gone about twenty to thirty feet away from the bar, we were stopped by the Fat Guy that Luffy had argued with about the Cherry Pies.
"Tsuhahaha! "Sky island" does exist!"
His bold declaration about the very topic that had gotten us laughed at inside the bar caused Nami to suddenly drop the guys and stare at the man.
He was even more ugly now that I could get a better look at the man, I thought as I looked at his face.
His nose was long and skinny, similar to Usopp's but not quite, as his nostrils were much bigger too. Heck, if I hadn't been told point blank that Usopp's dad was Yassop of the Red Hair Pirates, I almost could have believed it if this guy tried to claim some form of kinship with Usopp.
They both had darker skin tone, black eyes, dark black curly hair, and long noses. Usopp was just missing the massive height, weight, and long body hair.
He laughed again and said, "man, these Cherry pies really are the best after all!"
Looking over at Nami, he asked her, "why are you still angry? That battle just now, those three have won it…"
Nami, ever so sophisticated and eloquent Nami, asked, "eh…?"
The way you yelled at them was great, too! You have a lot of guts, woman! Tshaha!"
Luffy and Zoro pushed themselves up, with Luffy securing his hat on his head as he stared the man down. I could feel a sort of uneasy tension in the air between the two men, and I worried that another fight would break out. While I knew none of what those jackasses in the bar had done really inflicted real damage, I also knew that trying to fight a serious fight while not being in tip top shape wasn't ideal.
The hair along my body rose up and I got goosebumps as I felt those same eyes as earlier return. Whoever it was, was watching me from up on high. Probably one of the rooftops.
I really hope that's not the sniper from this morning, I thought as I watched Luffy continue to stare the other man down.
"The "new age" those guys were babbling about, it's all bullshit."
He spread his arms wide as he sat in the middle of the walkway as he shouted, SAYING THAT THE AGE FOR PIRATES WHO DREAM IS OVER? BAH! HEY! TSHAHAHAHAHAH!
The guy was so big that he took up nearly all of the space to walk between the two rows of buildings, and shouting had made others walking by stop and stare as they asked each other what was going on and why that guy was yelling.
But he wasn't done shouting as he raised his voice even louder to scream as he slammed his drink to the ground, proudly declaring, "A MAN'S DREAM...WILL NEVER DIE! RIGHT!?"
Luffy's facial expression never changed, and I never felt the eyes all around us leave. Whoever they were, they were interested in this man and my captain.
One passerby asked the fat guy, "hey, hey, hahaha! What were you suddenly yelling for?"
Another asked, "what man's dream…!?"
The fat guy laughed, "to be patient is not very enjoyable!"
A guy on the left of the "street" asked his buddy while pointing at the fat man, "yayahahaha! Is there something wrong with his brain?"
The fat guy didn't let their words stop him from saying to Luffy, "let them laugh! Anyone who wants to be a first-rate man, will encounter a time when there is no reason to fight back! Tshahahahahah!"
Zoro turned away and said to Nami as he grabbed the crook of my elbow, "let's go."
Nami nodded shakily, "okay…. Luffy?" she stopped to ask Luffy why he hadn't followed, and I glanced behind me to our captain, to see what he wanted to do.
Still, he froze as Zoro continued to pull me away, and the fat guy just laughed, as Luffy stared. Nami called sharply, "Luffy!"
The fat guy said, "oh, looks like I'm in your way. Are you in a hurry?"
There was something about Luffy's demeanor that was bothering me. I tugged on Zoro's arm, as I realized what it made me think of.
He looks like he's staring down a powerful wild animal. One that you don't dare turn your back on, lest it attacks while you're not looking…. FUCK! Is this guy going to be an actual problem for us? Shit...and I don't even know his name….
The fat guy got up to leave the other way, and said before taking a drink, "it would be great if you can get there….to sky island!"
He left then while laughing, and it was only after he'd turned away that Luffy strode past Nami to catch up with Zoro and me.
Coming up besides Luffy, she said, "hey...he probably knows something...about sky island. Who is he?" as if Luffy is supposed to know…
Luffy said quietly, "dunno, but...it's not "he" ..."
"Huh? Not "he"? Then...what?" Nami demanded confusedly as she started to follow slowly alongside Luffy after she had paused in walking.
Zoro glanced discreetly around us along the rooftops, as he explained for Nami, "it's 'they'..."
Closing my eyes, I felt for the strange sensation that told me there were people looking at me with intent to kill, a skill that had saved my life more than once while living in LogueTown, and said calmly, "I'd estimate about three to four others."
Zoro and Luffy glanced at me sharply, and I shrugged, as I said, "you get used to what the sensation of people wanting to kill you is like when you're a girl that's allowed to stay overnight at the house of THE most sought-after bachelor in all the island."
That and other obvious reasons, like how much a fucking female mermaid with an unsplit tail would cost at a slave auction house. Let alone one with my unique circumstances. I didn't dare even think of how much I could potentially rake in on my lonesome.
Zoro raised an eyebrow at that but didn't say anything else.
Nami was asking if they were that guy's companions, and Luffy nodded as he said in a quiet tone, "probably."
Nami seemed a little taken aback by Luffy being smart about this, but since this had to do with danger and possible fighting, I wasn't surprised even a little.
Nami asked where they could be hiding, and I dropped back to walk besides her, having finally gotten Zoro to let go of my elbow, and said to her, "who knows? My bet was the rooftop, and about five stores down to the left, but the other kept moving about so it was hard to pinpoint where I felt the staring coming from."
Nami side glanced at me in horror and fear, but I just smiled a soft smile and whispered for her, "don't worry, they've moved on for now, I think. Hard to tell what with the sniper from this morning, but we should be okay if they haven't shot us down so far. Try to relax."
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, trying to fix the merry while Sanji was leaning on the railing above them.
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.
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.
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, 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 be fighting to have looked the way they 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 to the sky, "what kind of response was that! A real man would pulverize any challenger to dust! Argh! This city is pissing me off, an why didn't you bash it into bits?!"
Zoro scoffed at her hypocrisy as he said while walking past her and onto the ship, "just a little while ago you were saying not to fight….?"
"That was the past, don't bring it up!"
"Hey, why is the only one who didn't get hurt, being so emotional?" Luffy questioned rhetorically.
I shrugged and muttered, "Dunno why…."
"Oh, did you guys discover any clues about sky island?" Chopper asked innocently, trying to change the subject.
This wasn't the time to be asking Nami about that topic 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 hid behind Luffy, who he had just finished treating.
Nami sighed at the sight, and said, "I don't care anymore, jeez...Sky Island...when I mentioned it, everyone in the store just laughed…"
She tensed up so much that she yelled at Usopp and Chopper, who was left exposed to Nami's wrath as 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!?"
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 out, "finally, someone normal…" as Robin came back to the ship, saying amusedly, "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, Ah! You're back Robin-can! Would you like to eat first or take a bath first?"
Luffy asked Sanji, "where did Robin go?"
Robin smiled and held up the plastic bag 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 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, and asked, "I'd just tell them to take Robin up to the surface and eat YOU instead. 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?""
Chopper shifted to his jumping point and leapt up to the crow's nest, all in order to get away from Nami. Usopp tried to warn Robin that she shouldn't bother going anywhere near Nami while she was so pissy, and I rolled my eyes and stood before Nami with my mouth shut and my arms crossed over my chest.
She 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, as I waited for her to stop ranting and yelling so that I could attempt to speak.
When she quieted, I raised my eyebrow, and asked, "you done?"
She started to snarl again, but before she could get back up to steam, 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.
"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 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."
Robin "hmm"ed 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 why 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.
Under Nami's 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.
An hour later and we encountered a strange man in a black deep sea dive suit, but without the oxygen tanks...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 is sardine."
"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 said, "we just set sail, and we're already encountering something strange…but it doesn't look like that guy Usopp."
Fearfully hiding behind Sanji was Chopper and Usopp, who replied, "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 asked, "yeah, that salvage guy. So, he's from this island after all, we saw him come back here."
"Hmm, even if we meet him again, it doesn't really matter." Luffy said carefully, not wanting to upset his crew members.
The leader to the enemy ship called 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 calling out, "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, 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.
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, and his propensity for wearing clothing. He even had ridiculously long body hair!
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 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. (((think Tylenol stuff)))
As I was walking across the deck, 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'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!
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 good, but damn it, I had to DO something!
I managed to slightly creak the door open 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.
I tried not to wine, really I did, but when you can barely speak on a good day, and then find yourself barely able to hear either, it makes things soooo hard.
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.
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.
Luffy tried to offer words of encouragement, but when he accidently broke the siding with a single mallet swing, he was demoted from working on ship repairs.
As we pulled up along the east side of the ship facing the island, Nami double checked the maps multiple times before saying, "this is the place on the map. What's his name again?" she asked Robin.
Robin gave a soft, "hmm? Montblanc Cricket…"
Nami nodded, and muttered to herself, "the man who talks of dreams…"
I moved to stand beside her, 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 and said under his breath, "stupid, 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.
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 beside Zoro at the rail, so he heard me when I said, "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 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 in various forms of excitement.
Nami, Usopp and Luffy all shouted, "GOLD!?" at the same time, before Luffy and then joined by Chopper, to say, "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 for preventing 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 but of his cigarette, one of his more subtle signs of nerves. Huh, why's he nervous?
Sanji deflected it 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 this was 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…
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 were the king and Norland.
However, when they reached the island, the 'city of gold' was nowhere to be found.
Norland was sentenced to execution, and even up to his dying breath, he continued to "lie" about there being a 'city of gold'. 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 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 hit the water with a splash, crying out before doing so, "waaaahhhhhhhh!"
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.
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 under 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 our chins.
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 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 sarcastically.
Zoro and Usopp heard me, but Sanji was helping Chopper lift the guy up a little so he could bandage his torso and thus too busy to have heard me.
Zoro picked me up and moved me to the only pile of cushions on the ground near the only table in the house. I tried not to blush at the sensation of his hands on my scales again. Thankfully, there were many people present to help distract me from that feeling.
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.
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, 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, to say, "you two are big, but compared to the giants, you're like ear wax to them."
From the side, Usopp asked Zoro, "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.
Luffy came in with a cheerful, "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 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, 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, "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 instantly turned to look at Usopp, who shrieked on instinct, "It's not me!"
I laughed at that because it was just so…. classic.
I dare anyone to not laugh 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, and nobody believed his golden city story. His death penalty was carried out surrounded by witnesses' sarcastic laughter."
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, "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."
I he looked up to the ceiling as he proclaimed, "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 asked him, "what about your crew?"
He shook his head and admitted that they left, which he didn't blame them for doing so.
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, "just fans!?"
Nami chuckled, "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 everyday to get to that point. Those stubborn dumbasses saved my life...understand?"
I whispered, "they saved you from your loneliness and you gave them a reason for living and thus they 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. Luffy 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 before he could reach for Luffy again.
"What!" He snapped at me due to the hard yank I'd had to do on his overalls.
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! Luffy is our Captain! This is a talk between the heads of each group! You DON'T go smacking or punching your captain! ESPESSIALLY in front of another group's leader! Thant kind of shit can kill the respect that flows between them in such situations!"
Usopp sighed as he sagged in realization, and admitted to me, "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."
I exhaled and said as I let go of his overalls, "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?"
I nodded as I said, "I do understand that. It's easy to do when our Captain prefers to be our Friend before being our Boss in attitude. But it's important to remember that despite his carefree attitude, Luffy IS our Captain first and therefore is due our respect."
Usopp nodded that he understood, and I left it at that.
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 when Nami started to read 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 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…?"
Nami ignored my outburst and continued to read as if I hadn't said anything. Cricket had given me a confused one eyebrow raised look but ignored it as Luffy, Chopper and everyone else's faces grew more and more enraptured by the words written roughly four hundred years ago.
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, 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 Sanji, and Usopp taking a peek, as Luffy didn't care, and I didn't care if Zoro got a peek.
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, as I stared at Nami with a look of utter mortification, and she smirked before yelling loud enough to nearly shake the building down around us, "Alright! Everyone gets out of here so Wisp can get dressed! Oh, and every man that got a peek of her is now charged 100,000 belly!"
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.
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.
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.
"What the actual fuck? What happened to my fucking 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 couldn't inspect my hair and appearance for too long, as I heard Nami say loudly, her voice easily carrying into the building for me to hear, "wait! 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.
Cricket cleared his throat and nodded at us all, and I knew this was going to be important 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."
"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 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 regards 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.
Nami asked Cricket, "nimbostratus? Clouds like that don't cause the sky to turn completely black."
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. 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 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 taking a cleansing inhale and exhale to finish with that last word, 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!"
This statement from Chopper made Nami and I quietly groan, because while I knew he wasn't completely stupid, sure...it was still true that Luffy wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, if you know what I mean.
Pointing to us in general, Cricket said firmly, "listen! If Sky Island does exist, it must be inside that cloud."
Luffy cheered as he stood up in excitement and began to bounce around, "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."
Luffy shouted more 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, "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, (Usopp had jumped up and started dancing and bouncing around erratically with Luffy in all the excitement) and I scowled as that included Luffy, and she flinched when she saw my scowl, but scoffed immediately afterwards as she muttered, "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 not-so-quiet muttering, "we do that everyday 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, "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.
Nami said, "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 a 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 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 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 in the dirt with a stick to help some of our, shall we say, less than genius level intellectuals of our group 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."
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 she 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 and far more deadly 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.
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 Mori 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. Almost went up to his neck, if I hadn't stepped in. Who's to know?
"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, "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, 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-damned-motherfucking-shit-assed brain, Usopp."
It was in the following second of silence as everyone processed what I'd just said 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 Dear! Miss Wisp~! The Meal is served!"
It was then that they all noticed the tense atmosphere, I glared down at Usopp and said into the quiet night air, "be a man, and apologize for your dumbassery. I'm going to go eat."
With that, I walked away.
As I walked away, 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 might have thought Usopp was sexist.
Asshole...
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!"
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. Or if this self depreciative line of thought was something he dealt with often.
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.
Sanji's cooking was, of course, perfection incarnate.
Ohhhhh my goodness everyone, I am so sorry for how long it took me to update this chapter!
Hope this nineteen paged chapter appeases you guys didn't do my absolute best work but I got it done and all the miss spelled words fixed, thank you autocorrect lol…