The galleon splashed down near the Merry, causing waves to form, that almost capsized the crew. They held on for their lives, as debris kept falling around. Chopper wouldn't stop screaming, until he and Usopp crashed into each other, which somehow made them decide that it was all a dream, and they just gave up and laid down on the deck.
Once Usopp decided to open his eyes, he found himself with a face full of a skeleton that had fallen as well, and he quickly threw it away from himself. Unfortunately, he threw it right at Nami, whose screaming at that slight brought Sanji's wrath upon Usopp. Needless to say, there was quite a ruckus, even after the sea had finally calmed.
Luffy was the first to speak, giving voice to the thought each of us were asking. "All right. Why did a ship just fall out of the sky?" he asked as he stared up at the clouds.
"Uh, Captain error?" Sanji guessed.
"The sky is clear," Zoro stated. "Who knows?"
"Why did I come to the Grand Line?" Usopp muttered as he paced the deck.
"This is scary," Chopper whined in Kia's ear, as he hugged her tightly. The poor guy was shaking, and Kia patted his back.
"Don't think of it like that Chopper," she said. "Think of it as an adventure."
"How?" he asked, and she smiled as his shaking stopped.
"Well, how many people can say that at the start of their adventure, they saw a ship fall from the sky?" she asked.
"Well, not many, that's for sure," he said as he leaned back to look at her face. Then rushed forward again in a hug, "but it's still kinda scary."
"Huh," Nami said to herself, and they all looked over.
"What is it?" Sanji asked. "You okay? Robin?" he asked checking on each of them. Kia pouted slightly, as she realized this sister idea of Luffy's was really taking hold. It made Zoro a lot nicer and more helpful, but it also made Sanji think of Kia almost as an afterthought, after the other two. She didn't mind much, and it was probably a good thing, but it made her a little sad. The attention had made her feel special.
"Uh, I think the log pose is broken," Nami answered. "It's pointing straight into the sky!"
"No Miss Navigator, the log pose is not broken. The log pose registers an island with a strong magnetic pull and the needle is reflecting that. If the needle is pointing up… then it must be pointing toward Sky Island," Robin answered, still looking up.
"Sky Island?" everyone repeated.
"See?" Kia said quietly to Chopper, "Adventure!"
"There's a floating island up there?" Luffy asked, looking excited.
"That's ridiculous," Zoro said with a blank expression, and he looked up again. "I don't see anything but sky."
"That's not exactly how it works," Robin answered. "It's not just an island above us, but an entire ocean."
"No way," Nami muttered.
Sanji looked on, his arms crossed over his chest. "I'm… still confused," he said.
"Yeah!" Luffy shouted. "Raise the sails, and set our course for sky island!"
"Set the rudder and point the bow into the sky!" Usopp chimed in, no longer scared.
Robin took that moment to cover Luffy's mouth with a few extra hands, and Usopp started crying as he realized what he had just been saying.
"Did it finally hit you?" Sanji asked. "You know, how we can't fly and all that?"
"I'm sure we can make it somehow," Kia added, and Luffy's grin was back as he turned to her. "But… we'll need more information so our navigator can set a course."
"Come to think of it," Robin said. "The only thing I know about Sky Island is from word of mouth, rumor. I've never actually seen it."
"Of course not!" Nami looked at both of the women in exasperation. "Because it's a lie! The log pose is simply broken, that's all. Islands don't float in the sky."
"Not exactly-" Robin started just as Kia said, "Nami, look-" they both stopped, and smiled, and Robin gestured for Kia to continue.
"Remember what everyone has told us since we came to the Grand Line? The only thing we can trust is the log pose. This is the sea where anything can happen, right? So instead of trying to fix something that is working fine, we should be focusing on trying to find a way to follow our log pose."
"Yes," Robin agreed and nodded. "That needle is pointing toward an island, I'd bet my life on it."
Kia glanced around, then turned back to Robin. "You want to see what you can find out from our friend here?" she asked pointing to the skeleton. "I'll go with the Captain and see if we can find anything else in the wreckage around us."
"Very well," Robin replied, and headed towards the skeleton as Kia put Chopper down and called for Luffy.
"Adventure time!" she said, and Usopp declared he was coming too. "Okay men, we need to find clues if we're going to get to Sky Island!"
"Yes Sir!" they said back to her, and the three headed out, jumping from piece of wreckage to piece of wreckage, looking for anything.
Chopper, meanwhile, hid his face behind the mast, not happy about what Robin was doing. Nami kept shaking the log pose, trying to get it to point somewhere else, and Zoro and Sanji watched in varying levels of interest as Robin pieced a skull back together.
"What do you hope to discover from a skeleton?" Zoro asked.
"Don't know," Robin answered without looking up. We'll have to see if he has anything to tell us."
Zoro grumbled, looking around. "I hope Luffy isn't getting into trouble," he said.
"Don't worry," Chopper said. "Kia and Usopp are with him."
"That makes it worse, Kia gets him riled up," Zoro muttered.
"And done," Robin said as she put the skull down. Sanji was quite impressed.
"Hey, looks good as new," he praised. "But what are these holes from? A bullet, or a spear?"
"Not quite, but good guess," she answered. "I believe they are from a medical practice called craterization, right Doctor?" she asked Chopper.
Chopper looked over, and nodded. "An ancient practice where they drilled holes in the skull to remove a foreign mass like a tumor. The resulting crater is where the name came from," he answered.
"Based on that knowledge, I estimate this man to have lived about 200 years ago. I can also tell you that he was in his thirties when he died. It must have been during his voyage on the galleon that he died, however that happened, I cannot say."
The others looked at her, impressed and surprised, but she wasn't finished. "Compared to his bones, his teeth are in surprisingly good condition, because he rubbed tar on them. It was a common practice in the South Blue to keep out bacterial infections, and considering the history of that region, I'd guess he was with an exploratory party." She grabbed a book, flipping through the pages, until she came to a section about a ship called the St. Briss.
"Here it is," she said, and the others crowded closer. "The St. Briss was launched 208 years ago."
"That's it." Nami sounded surprised. "That's the ship that fell on us!"
"Yes," Zoro agreed. "I recognize that figurehead."
"It's amazing what you can tell from old bones!" Nami said, giving Robin a smile.
"Dead men may tell no tales, but everything around them does." Robin said. "If that ship was from an exploratory party, there must be more information on board."
Kia wasn't quite as adept as Luffy and Usopp in jumping from the pieces of the wreck, but she did a much better job of exploring, at least at first. Soon however, Luffy was tossing her to each new piece of wreckage, and most of them couldn't hold up to the extra weight, and sank.
Then she somehow got roped into a game of red light/ green light, which was admittedly, pretty fun. She got Luffy back by staying red light long enough that the piece he was standing on began sinking, and he freaked out and moved, losing the game.
"We'd better check that last piece before it sinks," she said and they all headed to jump over. "Wait, Luffy," she said, before he could jump over. "If it sinks quickly, you could be in trouble, so let me go first."
"Okay, Kia," he said cheerfully, and she jumped over.
"It seems…" she started, and Luffy jumped over to join her, "okay," she finished. "Why do I bother?" she muttered.
"I just don't know," Luffy answered, and she grinned at him.
"You take that side, I'll take this side."
"Got it," he answered and they split up.
A few minutes later Luffy found something, and he gave a whoop and ran back out to where he could see Usopp. "Hey Usopp! Look what I found!" he shouted. Seeing Kia, over with Usopp, he smiled even bigger, excited that he was the one who had found something. He started walking over so that he could jump over to them, and stopped as he tried to understand what they were yelling at him.
He could see them waving their arms frantically, and he quickly looked behind him, but there was nothing there. "What?" he called back, and went to move closer, when he just dropped, no longer strong enough to continue. "AAH! HELP ME!" he yelled, as he found himself in the water. It didn't cover him completely, but the piece of ship he was on was rapidly sinking into the water.
"Usopp, hold my stuff!" Kia yelled, reaching down to pull her shoes off, when she heard the splash. She looked up to see Usopp already in the water and halfway to Luffy. She looked beside her, and there was his bag and shoes. He was much quicker than she had been.
Kia could see him grab Luffy and head towards the Merry, so she picked up his things, and started jumping back. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough to let her return dry, so she had to jump into the water, and swim to the rope ladder.
Zoro moved Kia out of the way as she got to the top, and climbed halfway down the ladder in order to haul Luffy up, and finally they were all back aboard the Merry, while Nami lectured them.
Luffy stood up, panting, a huge grin on his face as he looked at everyone. "You won't believe it! I did it!" he said. "I found the most incredible thing!" he held out a rolled up paper, and unrolled it for all of them to see.
It was a map of an island, with clouds all around it. "A map of the sky island?" everyone asked.
"Yep!" Luffy answered, pleased.
"It's called, Skypiea?" Nami asked as she took the map to look at it more closely. "It really is true then, there really is an island up there?" she asked, amazed.
"Wahoo!" Luffy shouted, and he and Usopp and Chopper all started dancing and shouting about the sky island.
"Hold on a minute you guys," Nami called out. "We still don't know how to get there, if it even is possible, not to mention that there are a lot of fake treasure maps out there in circulation…"
"Aaah…" the three of them deflated right before her eyes, looking like lost puppies, and Nami sweat-dropped.
"Uh, I mean, sure it's real! Its gotta be! But," her voice became harsh as she chewed Luffy out. "We still have no idea how to get there, and this map isn't going to help with that!"
"You're a navigator, navigate us a way!" he yelled back.
"What?! I can't just make something happen out of thin air!"
Everyone watched, as Nami finally got fed up, and punched Luffy in the head, making him fall. Kia sat down on the stairs with Robin, waiting for them to come to a decision.
"Are you all right?" Robin asked quietly.
"Yes," Kia replied. "Just tired."
"Oh right, you were on watch last night, weren't you?"
"Yes. And it's been a pretty eventful morning so far."
They tuned back in to hear Nami tell everyone that they would need to salvage the ship that had sunk.
"Salvage!" Luffy and Usopp yelled, carrying their fishing gear.
"Not with that!" Zoro yelled at them.
"Salvage?" Chopper asked Robin and Kia.
"Yes," Robin answered. "But we won't be able to pull the ship up. They'll have to come up with a more refined plan."
Kia stood up, and called out. "Usopp? Need some help?"
"We'll need something bigger for Luffy," Kia commented as Usopp finished building a barrel scuba gear. "Just having the air is good enough for Sanji and Zoro, but Luffy can't touch the water, remember?"
"Right, right…" he said, thinking.
"You work on that, I'll do another just like the first," she said, and he nodded as he worked through several ideas in his head. He finally decided to use another barrel to cover Luffy's legs, along with the waterproof material he had used for the arms, for Luffy's feet. Then they worked together to create the air hoses, and just like that, they were done.
Kia was hoping that by helping, the crew would have some extra time before the other salvage crew showed up, Not to mention she really enjoyed spending time with Usopp in his element. He was interested in almost everything, so he could talk about anything.
They brought the scuba gear out to the deck, and helped the guys suit up. Kia explained how it was going to work, and how they would get air. She then stressed how important it was to keep their air hoses free from getting tangled.
Usopp took over, describing how they could talk to the crew still on the ship, and to be sure to let them know how things were going so they didn't worry. At that point, Kia was pretty sure all three of them were no longer listening.
"I've done stuff way more dangerous, but this is still an adventure! And… I can't think of any of them right now." Luffy said.
"Nami!" Sanji sang out. "I swear to find the answers you seek or I will refuse to return!"
"I'll hold you to that," Nami said with a smile.
"You'll be safe!" Usopp said proudly. These barrels are my special design!"
"Good luck!" Kia said and the guys jumped over the side of the ship. Chopper went into his heavy point, and grabbed a hold of the brake lever, while speaking into the communicator hose.
"Can you guys call off?" he asked.
"This is Luffy!" Luffy said happily. "There's a ton of monsters down here."
"Wrong." Zoro said. "They're giant sea snakes."
"This is Sanji. And… they're staring at me," Sanji said.
"Keep going!" Nami called. "Chopper, hold that brake tightly!"
"I'm so glad I didn't have to go," Usopp said quietly.
"I'm going to just sit down for a minute," Kia said, and went over to the side of the ship. If Zoro could sleep there, she was sure she could grab a quick nap too.
The next thing Kia knew, she was jostled awake, as the ship was rocking precariously. "Huh? What's going on?" she asked sleepily.
"Does anyone else see the monster the size of an island in front of us?" Nami screeched.
"It… it's… a GIANT TURTLE!" Kia yelled, suddenly very awake.
"There's no monster!" Usopp told himself, as he covered his eyes. "This is all a very stupid dream that we're all having together for some reason."
"A dream, right! Phew!"
"You know, our boys just got eaten," Robin informed them, and they all looked at the mouth of the turtle, to see the lines from the salvaging crew, as well as the air hose lines from the Merry. "Yep, most definitely eaten."
Chopper started running and crying. "A sea monster is eating my friends! What am I going to do! Aaah!"
"This is your fault!" Usopp pointed at Nami. "You said it would be safe! Do you think this is safe?!"
"You're right…" Nami was crestfallen, before looking up defiantly. "Sorry!" she shouted out towards the guys, and Usopp backed away.
The turtle began moving, dragging the two ships behind it, and they all panicked, though some more than others.
"We'll have to cut the air hoses," Robin said. "Or the turtle will drag us underwater."
She looked over, to see the crew of the Masira pirates were pumping themselves up to go and save their captain.
"They're right!" Usopp said in agreement with the other crew. "It's challenging times like these that prove what we're made of!"
"Usopp!" Nami called. "Cut the air hoses, and get us out of here!"
"This is what we're made of?" Kia asked as she glared at Nami, and she smiled sheepishly back at Kia, as Chopper called out, "Coward!"
They started thinking of another plan, when the entire sky suddenly went dark as night. They all looked up and around, wondering how it could have happened.
"That's the craziest cloud cover I've ever seen," Kia stated, just as Nami pulled out a watch.
"It's impossible. No cloud can do that, and it's too early to be this dark."
"Remember, nothing is impossible," Kia said, and Nami glared at her.
Before she could say anything however, Luffy was thrown up onto the deck, followed by Zoro and Sanji climbing aboard.
"Set sail, now!" Zoro said, panting.
"Yeah, that guy is crazy!" Sanji added.
"I'm so glad you guys are okay!" Usopp said, weeping happily. "Let's hurry and get away from this turtle before anything else happens."
"No," Zoro said, pointing at us. "It wasn't a turtle, it was a monkey! A crazy sea monkey, though I shouldn't be surprised that he and Luffy got along as well as they did."
"Well, they're both monkeys," Sanji added.
"When he saw that we had taken stuff from the ship, he flipped out and went on a rampage!"
"I've never seen a primate act that way!" Sanji said incredulously.
"Yeah, that's the captain of the salvage ship, Masira. But how did you escape form the giant sea turtle?" Usopp asked. "He was really mad… though now he's just sitting there like a statue…"
Zoro and Sanji finally turned around, and saw the giant turtle. "We were inside that thing's mouth?" they yelled together.
"Nothing gets past you guys," Kia said sardonically, and they each gave her an angry look. Luffy finally recuperated, and stood up.
"Hey guys? When did night happen?"
"Attention all hands!" Zoro yelled. "We're getting out of here now! Stations!"
"Not so fast!" Masira jumped aboard the Merry. "Give me back what you stole!"
"Captain!" someone from his ship yelled. "Behind you!"
Everyone turned, looking behind Masira, and Kia could admit, it was really frightening even knowing what the huge shadows were. But, knowing what they were, she didn't freak out, thinking she could help explain it to the others.
But, she didn't get the chance, as everyone screamed and jumped into action, rowing harder and faster than she thought possible. She was thrown off her feet, and rolled over, hitting the stairs with her head.
"Ow! Guys! Stop!"
But nothing would stop them, as they rowed faster, until they finally passed out of the cloud cover, and the sunshine's brightness stopped the rowing. Everyone fell over, exhausted and panting, as the ship slowly came to a stop on its own.
"It couldn't have been real…" she heard Zoro mutter.
"The Grand Line, is an endless parade of mystery and annoyance," Sanji stated after he lit a new cigarette. "Just look at the nightmare of getting through today."
"First there was that galleon that fell on us," Zoro started.
"the log pose's needle started pointing to the sky," Nami added.
"A psycho makeup-wearing gorilla showed up and blocks our way," Usopp said.
"A giant sea turtle came and ate our salvage ship," Chopper said.
"The sky became dark as night," Robin added, deep in thought.
"Because the biggest monsters I've ever seen blocked out the sun!" Luffy finished.
"Oh please!" Kia yelled, and everyone looked to her in surprise.
"Even I was intimidated by them," Masira said, and Kia turned to glare at him.
"Get. Off. Our. Ship... Now." Kia said slowly, with menace.
"Uh, yes Ma'am," he said, and he ran and jumped off the side of the ship.
"Whoa, Kia…" Luffy started, and she whirled around on him.
"I'll say it again. There is always an explanation." Everyone looked at her in surprise, and she tried to calm her anger, because she wasn't really mad at them, she was tired and now hurt, and was taking it out on them.
"What are you saying Kia?" Nami asked, and Kia just sat down where she was.
"Chopper? Can you check my head please? I hit it really hard on the stairs when I fell."
"Oh! I am sorry Kia! I'll check it out right now!" He ran and got his bag and came back to help her.
"I mean," she said to Nami in answer to her question, "you have to look at it as finding the solution, not just thinking it is impossible. For example… I agree with Luffy."
"What?" several of the crew asked in shock, and Luffy grinned.
"Yes, I agree that the sun was blocked, and that's why it was so dark. But," she said with a look at Luffy, "I don't think it was people that blocked it."
Luffy pouted. "Then what was it?"
"Well, my guess would be something closer to the sun than us, maybe something up in the sky? Weren't we trying to find information about a sky island? Couldn't it be that there are people there?"
"Hmm, an interesting theory," Robin remarked, thinking it through. "It is possible, that the clouds such a place would be on, would be dense enough to block the light from the sun."
"But then why were they so huge?" Sanji asked.
"Look behind me," Kia said, and several of them leaned over to see behind her.
"All I see is your shadow," Luffy said.
"Oh, I get it. The people on sky island aren't that big, but being so far away, it made their shadows look gigantic," Sanji deduced with a smile.
"Obviously it's just a guess, but it does make sense," Robin added. "What we saw didn't have any features, like a giant would. It definitely could have been a shadow."
"Wow, Kia, I'm surprised you were able to stay calm enough to figure it out," Chopper said, as he put a salve on her head. "It will be sore, but nothing is broken," he added.
"Thanks Chopper," she said, and changed the subject. "Well guys, should we look at your treasure?" she asked, wanting to get the focus off herself.
She watched happily as Nami declared all of their findings as junk, even going so far as to crush the armor that Luffy brought back.
"But Nami! If you find armor, you have to put it on! It's the rule!" Luffy called after her retreating body.
Kia closed her eyes, knowing that Robin had taken the eternal pose to Jaya from Masira, and that they would soon be heading there. Now she just wanted a nap before they got there.
"ALL HANDS ON DECK!" Luffy yelled out, and Kia slowly blinked her eyes open. It couldn't have been more than a minute, but she felt as if she had almost been asleep. "SET OUR COURSE TO JAYA!"
"Wait a second," Usopp said as he munched on a snack. "When we go to this Jaya place, won't our log pose reset? Then we won't be able to find our way to Skypiea."
"ALL HANDS FULL STOP!" Luffy shouted, and he ran over to get in Nami's face. "Wanna tell me why your messing with my head, Nami?" he demanded.
"I'm not. You're the genius that set our course for Jaya."
"Oh yeah, that's right. Well I didn't know it would ruin our plan to get to Skypiea!"
"It's not my fault you have the memory of a goldfish," Nami retorted. "The log pose has always worked that way."
"Yeah, guess so. Okay then, on to Skypiea!"
"How are we going to get there, Captain?" Nami asked.
"We'll probably have to ask for directions," Kia added.
"Maybe someone in Jaya would know," Luffy suggested.
"Very well, Jaya it is," Nami said.
"Our log pose shouldn't change if we only stay a very short time," Robin suggested. Perhaps we pull into port and leave again before the log pose adjusts?"
"That sounds like a good plan," Chopper and Usopp agreed with their mouths full.
"All right, full sail to Jaya people, and this time, it's for real!"
Kia smiled and closed her eyes again. She quickly fell asleep, and didn't stir as Sanji brought out another tray of food for the women.
