Italics indicate thinking

Bold is for attacks

Steve's POV

Chopper had us bring the man inside and lay him down, he explained that the man had decompression sickness from surfacing too quickly after diving deep. Chopper told us he'd be okay but he would need to be more careful in his diving. We were taking care of the sick man when two familiar faces burst in.

"Boss! Are you okay?!" the two monkey men yelled bursting in.

"Ahh! They're here to kill us!" Chopper and Usopp started running around screaming.

"What are you doing here!" the men asked.

"Taking care of him." Luffy explained

They won't believe that.

"You're such great guys." they said crying.

Holy crap they brought it.

We went outside to talk and the men explained that they were part of an alliance with the man in the house. Chopper called us in to tell us the diver had awoken.

"Hey Mr. Chesnutt-Head I wanna ask you something." Luffy said walking inside.

"Thank you for saving me. Sorry I thought you were trying to steal the gold." He explained.

Nami got all excited over the mention of gold, but Luffy kept to the task at hand.

"We wanna go to Sky Island. Tell us how to get there."

"Sky Island doesn't exist. There was a man who claimed it did but he was ridiculed and called a liar. His name was Noland." The man who had introduced himself as Cricket said.

Cricket explained that he was a descendent of the Noland from the story. His family still believed that Noland was telling the truth. He told us the story of how Noland died believing in what he saw. Usopp asked if he was trying to find the city of gold to prove Noland innocent. Cricket pointed the pistol from before at Usopp.

"Whether or not my ancestor was a liar or not doesn't matter. You don't have any idea what it's like, to be ridiculed by strangers just because of who your ancestors are."

Cricket explained he had no interest in clearing Noland's name, but one day he ended up on Jaya looking for the city of gold.

"This is a duel. Between me and the man who ruined my life." He explained.

He told us that the monkey men had joined up with him out of belief in the story.

"I was saying… How do we get to Sky Island?!" Luffy yelled.

"Yeah that is the reason we came here." I added.

Cricket handed Nami a book and told her to read a passage. Most of the passage was about something called a 'waver' after that was when the book got interesting.

"When speaking about the Sky Island, another adventurer showed me a sky fish. It's impossible to get there with my ship, but as an adventurer I hope to see it one day." Nami recited from the book.

"It's just like Robin said!" Luffy yelled.

"If that book's true there's no doubt." I said high fiving Luffy.

We went outside to get some fresh air while Cricket explained what he knew about the Sky Island.

"Most of this is speculation, so it's up to you whether or not to believe me." Cricket told us.

"I believe you." Luffy said.

He started by talking about why the sea grows very dark. There are apparently very dark clouds in the sky that the sun doesn't pass through, Cumuloregalis. These clouds are like fossilized clouds that never ascend or rain.

"If the Sky Island does exist it must be on that cloud." Cricket said.

Luffy was ready to go right then but Nami remained him that we still didn't know how to get up there. Cricket told us we'd need to ride a current called the 'Knock-up Stream'. Cricket was betting on the current and the clouds lining up so that we could get up to the sky.

"You'd be taking a huge risk; if there's nothing up there you'll fall back down and die." Cricket told us.

This of course terrified Usopp, who was now against going to the island. Then Cricket hit us with an ever more painful revelation.

"The current is too strong, even a new ship would be blown to pieces. There's no way a scrap heap like that can make it, but I can solve that problem by reinforcing the ship."

Cricket invited us inside to eat and relax since we'd be going up to the sky tomorrow. We had our usual Strawhat party inside Cricket's home. The rest of us were having fun but Robin was off on her own reading in the corner.

"Hey." I said walking over and taking a seat next to her.

"Hello." She greeted.

"What'cha reading?"

"This Logbook, about Noland's journey and the city of gold. It's quite interesting."

"I saw the gold in the skull's right eye." Cricket said popping up out of nowhere.

"Holy Crap!" I yelled surprised.

"That's what it says on the page with the tear stains. I still don't understand what that passage means." Cricket explained.

Cricket went back to the party and talking about random birds. I sat with Robin reading over her shoulder.

She looks so peaceful when she's reading.

"You should go back to the party. You can read anytime." I told her pulling her up off her seat.

"Wait…"

I ignored her protest and pulled her back toward the others. When we got to the others they were looking Cricket's gold. He had golden bells and birds.

"See had you kept reading you would have missed seeing this." I said.

"I guess so. These objects prove that and ancient civilization did exist here." She said in wonder.

Cricket started showing a large golden South-bird. They exist on Jaya and have extremely peculiar calls and can be used for navigation.

"OH CRAP!" Cricket and the monkey men yelled.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked.

"You need to get to the forest and find a South-bird now!" Cricket said "You'll need it to direct you to the Knock-Up Stream."

Nami realized what he was talking about. We'd be unable to navigate on the Grande Line and find our way south. Since South-birds always point south one could show us the way to go.

"Quit talking and go. The three of us will get to work on the ship. You just find a South-Bird." Cricket said pushing us out of the house.

Usopp ran to the ship and grabbed some nets and then we ventured into the forest to find a South-Bird. We decided to split up into groups and look for the bird. Sanji went with Nami and Usopp. Luffy, Chopper and Rose went together. And Zoro was a third wheel in my group with Robin.

"I hear screaming." Robin said.

"Ignore it." Zoro said killing a giant centipede.

"There was really no need to kill that creature." Robin told him.

"It attacked me first." Zoro defended himself "Besides don't tell me what to do. I still think your hiding your intentions so I don't trust you."

"Zoro! Be quiet, and you're going back the way we came." I yelled.

Just then we heard a deep bird call and began heading towards it. Along the way we kept coming across bugs that wanted to fight us. We tried but we didn't have any luck catching a South-Bird. We regrouped with the others hoping they had managed to find one but they also had no luck. We heard the laughing and saw a South-Bird which Chopper said was gloating about how we didn't catch him. Arms sprouted from the bird and he fell to the ground.

"It's much easier to catch it if I can see it." Robin explained.

We made our way back to Cricket's house and when we got there the place looked like a warzone. The house was trashed and the front half of our ship was torn off.

"Luffy! The gold is gone!" Nami yelled out.

"Doesn't matter. With the help of the alliance we can fix your ship before dawn. I will send you to the sky." Cricket told us.

"Hey…Luffy." Zoro pulled him aside and showed him a mark painted on the house "You want help?"

"No. I'll take care of it." Luffy told him.

"We can get back to town if we follow the shore right?" I asked Robin who told me I was correct.

"Stop fooling around there's only a few hours till dawn. We don't have time for this." Nami yelled.

"We'll be back by dawn." Luffy told them as we made our way towards town.

"If you're late our only chance at Sky Island will be lost, understand." Nami told us before we left.

LATER

"This is the bar." Luffy said stopping in front of a building.

"Well then let's get started."

"Bellamy! Where are you?!" Luffy yelled from atop a nearby building.

A man walked out of the bar and looked up towards where he was.

"You Bellamy?" I asked the man when he walked out.

"What's it to you?"

"My friend wants to talk to you." I told him.

"Give back the gold." Luffy said.

Bellamy's legs turned into springs and he jumped up to where Luffy was.

Devil Fruit.

The two had a small conversation I couldn't hear from down on the ground but I did catch one line when Bellamy started screaming.

"DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO THROW A PUNCH?!"

The crowd around us was talking about Luffy and his bounty.

"The legitimacy of the 30 million Beli bounty is doubtful to." A man in a large fur coat said.

I walked over and looked at this man "I assure you it is real. Luffy is worth 30 million."

"Look his face is on this poster, it says he's worth 80 Million." I heard a man mumble.

I thought I was worth 20. Did it go up?

There was a loud bang and the tower Luffy was on collapsed. Luffy landed but Bellamy started jumping all over the place.

"Spring Hopper!"

Bellamy jumped all over the place yelling about how the age of dreams was over. Luffy was keeping up with the man's jumps and saw when he moved to come at him.

"What a fool." I said.

"What did you say?" The fur coat guy asked.

"I said your friend's a fool. Not only does he not believe in dreaming but he underestimated Luffy and now he'll pay for it."

"You shut up!" the man yelled.

I saw that the man was swinging at me with a large oversized knife. I pulled out my whip and broke the blade in two with one swing. The other collided with his back knocking him to the ground.

"Just sit and watch." I told him.

In one move Luffy slammed his fist into the airborne Bellamy knocking him out cold with one punch.

"Hey Bellamy get up. You gotta teach these punks a lesson."

"Where is the gold?" I said glaring at the man in the coat.

They quickly ran inside and threw the bags of gold to Luffy and I.

"Let's go Luffy." I said as we ran out of the destroyed town.

We better get back in time.

AN

Thank you for reading. Feedback is appreciated. Feel free to message me any questions or concerns.

Till Next Time!