It's been a while guys. I'm sorry for the long wait. I was too busy with exams, but here's another chapter. Hopefully next time it won't be so long :-D
Chapter 22: Welcome to Skypiea
The pirates flew through the clouds, and as they were ascending, it was getting harder to breathe. It felt like they were going through water, but suddenly they flew out of it with a strong force that broke the ship's wings and tail.
The Merry landed on the clouds with a great force. Surprisingly, they didn't sink, and the clouds were holding them up. It had been a wild ride and the crew needed a break to catch their breath.
It didn't help that huge fish jumped out of the ocean of clouds.
Zoro quickly cut the creature before it could eat the ship along with them and Sanji kicked it too but instead of passing out, they exploded into thin air like a balloon. The pirates were all confused about what was happening up here, but that's when Usopp decided to flex in front of them all as a distraction.
He climbed up to the rail and showed off his non-existing muscles before jumping in. The long-nosed man had been in there for a while which made Luffy and Chopper expressed their jealousy.
"Does the have a bottom?" Robin asked and Shayla stood there confused.
Of course, it had a bottom and she realized what the older woman meant a second before the small crew started to panic. Shay was about to jump in after him, but Luffy stretched his arm down, trying to reach him. "Keep stretch as far as you can," the ex-agent said.
"But I can't see down there" he explained, "Leave it to me" she replied and crossing her arms over her chest, closed her eyes before saying something.
It took some time but, "Okay, you can pull him up now" the Robin said more calmly this time, "You got him?!" the young captain asked and stepped onto the rail before she could answer and pulled his arm back up.
It took a while, but Usopp was finally back with them, but sea-sky creatures followed him as if he was bait. Zoro jumped up and cut the giant octopus thingy. It just popped and it was like he just cut a balloon again. When Sanji kicked the other it didn't pop but instead got a big bump on its head.
Maybe he did it more gently this time?
The long-nosed pirate suddenly screamed before removing a fish from his pants, "Sky-island is scary" he repeated in a mantra.
Luffy took the fish and ran over to the cook with it, soon he had made a dish for his captain, "So good" he said and Shayla was starting to drool. She went over, took his hand, and guide the fork to her mouth, "It is amazing" she praised.
Sanji was dancing around her with heart eyes as Nami was telling them that the log pose was still pointing up, however, there was an explosion nearby. Chopper tried to explain what he saw but it was hard to understand his panicky voice.
Shay looked from the rail and a masked man was surfing on the clouds and apparently, he was coming to get rid of them. The man jumped up and kicked Sanji, Zoro, and Luffy away.
Shayla didn't waste any time and quickly ran over to him before she kicked him from the ship with her wind.
He flew back quite a while and when he stopped himself, he pointed his bazooka at them. The girl was ready for it, but before he could shoot an old man came riding on a bird-horse thingy. He attacked the masked man with his spear and slammed him down, "I am the sky knight", he introduced himself and just casually sat down to explained something about the sky island.
Luffy started beating his chest, "I'm starting to get used to it", and Zoro agreed. "How could you kick him like that after coming up here, girl," the old man asked, "I control the air around me" she simply answered.
That confused the sky knight and his face was clearly showing, but instead of asking what she meant, he focused on something else. He told them that he would answer any questions and protect them for 5 million extols.
'What is extols' they all through.
Apparently, it was the currency up here and his way of making money was to save people. He refused to bargain about the prize. Then he told them there was another way to sky island and that the knock upstream was a huge gamble for the brave and skilled.
He threw a whistle to the deck for their courage and told them they could summon him anytime. "I'm Ganfall the sky knight and this is Pierre, my partner," Nami asked for something, but his bird transformed into a horse or a pathetic version of Pegasus and rode away.
They looked at each other and still had no clue how to get higher up. That old man was totally useless. Shayla laughed at the thought of that sky knight 'saving' them again. That was until Luffy wanted to blow the whistle and call that man again. At least him coming this time it wasn't because of weakness but a valid question as to how they could travel more up.
Luffy, Usopp, Nami, and Chopper were fighting about who gets to keep the whistle. They kept arguing at they were the weakest and needed the old man's help.
The silly trio focused on something else and jumping around on the cloud-like they were some kind of trampoline. It actually looked like real fun, "There's something over there" Usopp yelled and in the distance was a huge white waterfall.
The crew was trying to navigate their way there, and someone was always changing direction. Shayla sighed before controlling the ship herself over to the fall.
She has a pretty good sense of direction and they arrived at heaven's gate.
"This is a terrible omen. We're going to die" Usopp said crying
"Did you ever think that maybe we're already died" Zoro laughed
"Yeah. That's more likely" Sanji agreed.
"We're all dead?" Chopper asked screaming.
"Heaven? I can't wait! I'm finally going to heaven" Luffy said happily.
Shayla smiled at their stupidity, but "I can't wait to see it either" she laughed with them.
Soon they saw an old lady with wings, and she started taking pictures of them, "Are you tourists or have you come to start a war. It doesn't really matter. If you want to go to the upper stratum, you'll have to pay an entrance fee of one billion extols pr person".
Luffy started talking about angles because she was a small old woman with wings. Usopp asked how much extols was and Nami was also wondering what they could do without money. In which the old lady replied, "You may pass".
The Yonko daughter didn't have time to listen. She quickly went inside and grabbed her book before drawing everything. She even drew the journey up to the spiral cloud.
"Godland Skypiea" they screamed before being thrown out to a whole new set of clouds. There was a beautiful sight was in front of them. They were definitely at the same place as the map they found a couple of days ago. This was sky island and even 10.000 meters up in the sky, there were green trees.
Everything was white and green. It was a new beautiful combination that she really hasn't given a fair chance.
Almost everyone ran toward what she assumed was a beach, but it was hard to figure out what part was supposed to be sand and what part was supposed to be water.
Shayla took her book inside before going to join the others. When she came back out, she saw Zoro had just thrown the anchor into the white sea, "I'm guessing it isn't very deep" she asked him, but instead of answering they just watched Robin jumping down and the 'water' reached a little over her ankles.
Shayla threw her shoes to the side as she jumped down. She looked up before running over to the others.
As soon as she reached the others, the cloud itself changed 'quality'. She has officially touched what she would have imagined clouds would feel like if they were more solid.
The first thing Shayla did was fall face-first into what felt like the softest material ever. It didn't even hurt when she landed in it and Sanji came over to sit down next to her before putting a flower in front of her face, "A lovely flower for my beautiful Blossom" the blond man said.
The pirate girl took the flower and smelled its fragrance, "Thanks Sanji".
Everything was so calm and gentle.
The melody only made it more perfect.
Wait… Melody?
"Do you hear that?" she asked the cook, "It's my heart singing to you" he answered and rocked himself from side to side with a light blush. "No, it's coming from behind you" she pointed. The blond man looked but suddenly got his attention on something new entirely, "It's that an angel" he asked shocked.
On top of one of the clouds, the hill was a beautiful young girl with wings and a small harp in her hands. A small foxlike creature slowly came up to them and the girl stopped playing before looking at them, "Heso" she said.
The pirates all looked confused and then at her with a blank expression, "Heso?" the captain questioned. They found out it was a way to greet people up in the sky and the blond girl's name was Conis.
Suddenly they heard an ugly sound coming from the distance and a man came riding on something Shay didn't recognize. The man was apparently Conis' father.
He lost control over the thing and crashed into a tree, "Is everyone alright?" he asked concerned, but Sanji didn't think he was in a position to ask that. The older man was the one who crashed after all.
Luffy's interest got on the thing the old man was riding and he explained that it was a way of transportation up in the sky. The young captain decided to try it, but he somehow fell off too, "It takes 10 years to learn to control it".
Shayla blinked a couple of times, "10 years, really? It must really take a genius to learned on the first try" she smirked and motioned for him to look at a certain someone, "It's impossible to-" he started but quickly got quiet.
Because Nami was riding the entire thing with little to no trouble, and she was doing it beautifully. Luffy was watching her with envy and started complaining, but the navigator didn't listen and instead drove further away.
Shayla smirked before running over to the "sea" and surfed over to the orange-haired girl, "Mind if I join you" she asked, "No, not at all" Nami smiled back.
The two females went further and further away from the other, "
They soon arrived at what looked like land, "What's this place. It's huge" the navigator started, "If I didn't know any better, I would say it's an island" the Whitebeard pirate answered.
They admired the landscape when noise could be heard in the distance. The man that attacked them when they first came to Sky-island came up from behind them. There was a scream from the island as well, it sounded like someone being chased.
Shayla pushed Nami closer to the island's side. She touched the solid ground and closed her eyes to concentrate, "A guy is running away from four men, a giant dog, and a bird". The other girl looked shocked at her, "How do you know that".
Before she could answer the masked man shot his bazooka, but surprisingly not that the two girls instead at the four men. The guy being chased jumped down to avoid being hit and that's when he saw them, "Help me, please. Get me out of here. I'll pay you whatever you want" he begged.
He looked to the side and saw the one with the mask, "Guerrilla…" he said. Shay noticed a bright light descended from the sky above the man and she jumped up to Nami's waver thing and just at the last seconds she pushed them further away from the man that it was about to hit.
The blast was very strong, Shayla stretched her hand out and she could feel it wasn't light but lighting. She couldn't help but smirk, 'What an interesting way of using lighting' she thought. The man with the masked jumped back and ran away.
She wanted to get closer, but Nami held her back and whispered for her to be quiet because the haunters were still there. "I don't get Eneru-sama sometimes. What are we supposed to do if he's just going it himself?" one of them started.
"To save time because more illegal trespassers have arrived. Old lady Amazon said that a ship with 8 people on board came from the blue sea," another one said. "Eight people? That's good. You can divide eight heads among four people" someone laughed and they left.
Shayla looked at the other girl and could clearly see her worried look, "Oh no. We have to tell the others right away" the navigator said. Shay was still onboard when she drove the weaver back to the previous place.
She grabbed her shoulders and leaned closer to her, "Relax, Nami. I'm confident we can beat them if they dare to come after us" she assured, but somehow it only comforted her a little.
They arrived at the beach, but the small crew wasn't alone. Some people looked like soldiers with them, "Oh rats. Somebody's already there. It's probably the people from the island" Nami started, "It's not" Shay responded.
"Please don't do anything rash, you guys".
They were coming in fast, "Wait. Luffy, don't argue with them" the orang-haired girl yelled from the distance. "Don't argue with them? But Nami are you saying we should pay the 70 million berries fee for trespassing?" Usopp asked shocked.
"Thank goodness. We can get off with just a fine. Seventy million is… too much" she said and drove faster towards them. When they reached the beached Shayla jumped off and did a backflip before landing on the sand cloud.
But Nami didn't slow down and instead hit what she assumed was the leader in the face with the waver, "Are you crazy?" she asked, and as soon as she realized what she'd done she panicked, "Darn it. That outrageous fine made me lose it".
She gave the thing back to the old man before grabbing Luffy's wrist and told him to run.
The daughter of Whitebeard stood there very amused at the entire situation. They haven't been there for that long yet and they were already exiled to the clouds. Her crew was going to have a good laugh about this, and she couldn't wait to rub t in their faces that she wasn't the one starting this.
"Arrest them"
The soldiers pointed their arrows at Luffy and Shayla. It wasn't hard to dodge but cloud roads appeared from them and with their shoes they were surfing on them. The young captain jumped up to dodge but his sister moved her arms in front of her and used their own weapon against them.
She trapped their fancy shoes in the clouds and Luffy kicked and punched them along with Zoro and Sanji. "By the way, how much money do we have," the cook asked, "50,000 in petty cash" Nami answered.
"50,000? That's all? We in bad shape" Zoro said in disbelieve. "Why are we so poor? As your captain I have to say this – You guys spend too much money" Luffy scolded. "Most of it goes to feeding you" the crew complained.
The leader of the soldiers was still conscious and warned them that the vassals of the upper yard were going to deal with them.
"Bring it on," Shayla said before kicking the man unconscious again.
"Oh well. We're just to being hunted" Luffy laughed carefree before looking at her and Nami, "By the way, why did you come back," he asked them, "Huh?" the two asked in unison. "We were about to go to that place we're absolutely never supposed to go to have a great adventure… - I mean look for you guys".
"I see right through you. What do you mean a great adventure" Nami said before hitting him, "Didn't you hear what I said? There are scary people o that island. If you'd seen what I saw, you wouldn't go there. I don't know if they were gods or whatever, but they were definitely very strong. I'm never going back there to that island" she said and hit him again with every sentence.
Luffy just looked at her blankly, "Then you can stay here while we go", but she won't have it, "No way. They'll come after us. We got to get out of here" Nami yelled. "You mean leave? Don't talk crazy! What's more important; your life or adventure" he asked.
"My life and then money," she said without hesitation, "Do I come after that?" Sanji asked like a lovesick fool, "Shut up" she punched him. Shayla blinked a couple of times, "Is this normal?" she asked Usopp, "Sadly, yes".
The pirates started to question how they would get down to the blue sea. Conis told them that it was possible, but it was a very dangerous road. They would have to sail to a place called 'clouds end' to get down.
The crew was getting ready to leave but before that, "Oi, Old man, do you still have the food from before?" Luffy asked, "Certainly" he answered. Shayla, who was also hungry, followed them back to the house, along with Sanji and Usopp.
As soon as they were inside the blond pirate rushed to the kitchen and came out with a big plate of a different kind of food, "Sanji, I love it. Thank you" she smiled, and he fell to the floor dramatically with heart eyes. "Anything you want, Shayla-san"
She kept eating and only noticed that they were yelling from the balcony now, "What's wrong" she asked confused, "The ship is sailing away" Usopp panicked.
Shayla ran over to them and look out before stretching her arms to try to wield it back in, but it was too late and the ship said away.
The old man started to explain that their friends were being sacrificed at the upper yard and to save them they would have to go there and fight the vassals of this Eneru. But they would have to take a long way there to avoid the man-eating fish.
If they defeat the vassals, this god Eneru was waiting for them above it all.
The four remaining packed their backs and went into town. Everyone was avoiding them, and Shayla didn't mind at all. It kept them out of their way. They looked at different kinds of stuff and soon arrived at a statue.
"What a funny face. It looks like a seal" Luffy started, "What's the big deal? It's probably some pagan idol" Sanji continued, "Fool, it's a work of art I can tell" Usopp said. "It's not only creepy but ugly too" Shayla responded.
"That's Varse. To the inhabitants of the sky, it's an object of eternal admiration" Conis explained, "Huh? Do you guys worship that thing? It's nuts" Luffy said, "Hahaha, I suppose blue sea people wouldn't understand" she laughed nervously.
Conis continued guiding them towards the cloud boats. Shayla noticed that the leader that they defeated before was still after them. He was lurking around the city and followed them with a smirk. She wanted to do something to scare him off but stopped when, "Ever since we left the house you've been shaking, how come?" Luffy suddenly asked.
She was denying everything, but the pirates kept insisting that she was. That's when she broke down in tears and told them that; she called the lobster express and that it's the duty of the citizens of Skypiea to summon it or else they would be killed.
"Dummy. You have no choice, right?" Luffy said and was waiting for an answer. When she nodded, "Why did you just tell us that?" the pirates all yelled. She stood there confused, clearly not expecting them to say that.
"Now, you in trouble" as soon as the captain said that. Shay saw a familiar light covering the sky and was about to hit Luffy and Conis. She jumped up and kicked them out of the way and into Sanji's arms.
Shayla took a deep breath ready to test her limits by taking the full force of this lightning head-on, but it never came. Instead, she was in the sky because the sky knight had saved her, and she rolled her eyes, "What was that old man?".
"SHAY/SHAYLA-SAN!" The guys yelled before running over to them and she jumped down from the bird-horse thing. Luffy grabbed her arms and yelled, "What was that Shay?!" his anger surprised her, "You could have died. I promised Ace to take care of you!".
Shayla smiled softly before hugging him, "I wouldn't have died, sunshine. I'm sorry I worried you, but I can take care of myself." It calmed him down and he hugged her back, "Don't do anything reckless" he said. "Dummy, I don't want to hear that from you" she laughed and looked at him only to see he was laughing too.
"You guys are very similar on some points," Usopp said in the background, but she heard him clearly, "I guess we are," she said before taking Usopp and Sanji's arms to lead them toward the boat they would be using.
The sky knight took Conis and promised to protect her before flying away. The pirates boarded the boat and were ready to sail towards the upper yard.
Soon the entrance to the forest was covered with bones, the statue, and spears by the sides. It was getting a little bit creepy. They arrived at a place and saw shipwrecks around them.
A bird crowed in the distance when suddenly a huge ax came down swinging at them.
Shayla took control and used her powers to move the boat out of the way, but soon another one came along with another one. She kept avoiding them and it came to an end or that's what she thought when a big eel came out of the clouds, but Sanji kicked it away.
They came to a place with 4 gates and each one had a title with a challenge. There was the ball, string, iron, and swamp. She didn't really know which one to choose and let the others decide. They all agreed the ball gate sounded most harmless and entered into a dark tunnel.
Luffy started joking that they might have taken the wrong entrance and that they might fall off sky island. The girl didn't like the thought of falling 10,000 meters from the sky, but what were the chances of it actually happening right now.
When pirates reached the end of the tunnel, there was a free fall that shocking them all. The guys screamed while Shay looked down and saw they were close to another cloud road. She didn't have time to do anything and just prepared themselves for the impact.
"Are you alright, Shayla-san?" Sanji asked and offering her a hand, "Yeah, thanks" she said and took it. They looked around and saw a lot of balls floating around. Usopp and Luffy tried to play with one of them, but a snake suddenly jumped out and Luffy kicked it away.
They expected another snake to pop out of the balls. So, before that could happen Sanji kicked it away, but this time it wasn't a snake but rather an explosion that hit them all. "These balls are booby-trapped," Sanji said annoyed.
"We got company guys," Shayla said calmly "Hohoho you never know what's inside them. They're surprise balls" a ball-man thingy with wings sat on one of the balls. They started arguing with him and Shayla just stood there watching the whole thing.
She wasn't much of talking to the enemy and when Luffy attacked him she was all for it. That's when she saw him dodge every attack of the straw hat crew made before throwing them off the boat. He tried to attack her too, but Shayla was different from them.
The ball man stretched his hand at her, but she dodged easily, "You got mantra as well?" he asked her, "Where I'm from it's called Haki" she smirked and grabbing his arm before kicking him in the face and into a tree.
She jumped off the boat and went after him, but he kept dodging back for some reason. "I thought that you were going to be our challenge," she asked, "Hoho without your boat there's no way you can survive out here" he laughed.
Shayla looked back after finally realizing his plan, but that's when he took the chance to hit her with whatever he got inside his gloves. She landed on the hard ground, yet still jumped to her legs. She charged at him but Luffy stretched his arm to punched him.
The man introduced himself as Satori grabbed his arm and swung him into a tree.
The girl stretched her arms out before falling back to the ground and quickly turned herself to create a stone armor, "I'm ready for another round, bally".