Wishfull-star: Cliffhangers are the best.
Crazy long chapter this time! 10,000 words! Enjoy~
He pointed up and everyone started screaming as bits of wood and debris fell before they saw a whole galleon. "Falling from the sky!" Luffy said.
"A huge galleon!" several others shouted. They had no way to sail out of it, just had to hope they'd be okay. But it just barely missed them, slamming into the water with a huge splash. Bits of ship floated in the water while the rest sunk while the waves threw the Merry around violently. All they could do was hang on as more bits of debris fell.
Fighting broke out on what to do, how to get to safety, when there was no real way. Then a skeleton fell and landed in front of Usopp, him, Chopper and Luffy screaming about a dead guy being on their deck! "Ahh! Get it away!" Usopp screamed, crawling away. Luffy kicked it off and into the water.
Maybe not the most respectful way to get rid of it, but he didn't want to touch it with his hands. Once the waves calmed, they all took deep breaths, and wondered how the hell a ship had just fallen out of the sky! "Heh, that was weird!" Luffy said, not hearing or smelling anything more. Sanji said it was more than weird.
"Terrifying!" Usopp offered.
"Man up, it's not here anymore," Zoro said.
"You didn't have a skeleton dropped on you!"
"He's dead, what's so scary about it?"
"You! Shut up!"
"Yeah, shut up!" Chopper agreed. Then Nami screamed, and they jerked around, but saw nothing of danger.
"The log pose is broken! It's stuck pointing up!" Nami shouted. "It's not even wobbling!" Robin calmly reasoned that it was pointing up at another magnetic force.
"It must have locked up on an island in the sky," she said, looking up in wonder.
"Sky Island…" Sanji said, taking a drag of his smoke. The three youngest were the excited ones. But Luffy couldn't smell or hear anything. "Then it must be really high up there, huh?" Zoro said it was all nonsense.
"No, there's an island in the sky! I know it!" Luffy said with conviction. Nami was uncertain. She trusted the log pose, and a ship had fallen from there. Was it so weird to think it had come from somewhere else?
Robin said it probably wasn't an island. "More like a floating sea." That was more confusing.
"Do you think there are sky fish? Oooh, I bet they taste really good," Luffy said, mouth watering at the imagined taste of sky fish. "Sanji, cook them!"
"They might not even exist, idiot," Sanji said lightly.
"Let's go! Let's go to Sky Island! Our next adventure! Nami, Nami, full speed ahead!" Luffy screamed. Usopp agreed loudly.
"We don't have any way to get up, though, even if it doesn't exist," Nami pointed out, though she looked at the log pose with a serious expression. "We need more information about it. Maybe the next island knows about it, how to get up or at least make the log pose point somewhere else."
Luffy shouted, "No way, we're going to Sky Island, not some other island!" Nami demanded if he had any idea of how to get their ship up in the sky. "Well, you're the navigator."
"And you're the captain!" Nami shouted back in irritation. Luffy pouted, and looked directly upwards. He wanted to go into the sky. Who else could have an adventure like that? Well, those on the galleon, probably. But the Straw Hats wouldn't die, so it would be fine. He was so curious and amazed.
Nami asked Robin if she knew anything about it. That's right, Robin brought it up first, she had to know. "To tell you the truth, I've never seen Sky Island. I don't know much about them." Nami was still in denial. The log pose was just broken. "No Navigator-san, what we need to think about is how to get up, not how to fix it."
"See! Robin is cool, too!" Luffy announced. "We're definitely going to Sky Island." Zoro told Robin she would take the blame for Luffy's disappointment if there was no Sky Island. She just chuckled. Luffy liked her a lot, even if her amount of information on him was a bit disappointing.
"So, you know about what I am?" Luffy asked, sitting in the galley at midnight. He didn't want anybody else to hear in case it was bad. Not even Zoro. Robin said she knew a bit. But I wanted to learn more. "What do you mean?"
"Have you ever heard of a poneglyph? There was one in the tomb."
"Ah, the one with weird markings on it?"
"That's right. True history is written on those. There are many in the world. I'm the only one alive who can read them. That's why the World Government is after me, why they were at the start, and why they want me dead so badly. They want to hide whatever is on those stones." Luffy asked if he was on them. "No, but I discovered one of the poneglyphs that briefly spoke of 'the accidental blood drinking humans from beyond, red eyes and spotted hair'. It had no other descriptions, but sometimes poneglyphs come in sets with their information.
"If we're to find anything more out, it'll be on a poneglyph. I only knew about you needing blood because of that. It was enough information for me to figure out easily if you were one of them. It's just lucky I believed in it and brought you blood on a strong hunch. I'm sorry it's not much. If it weren't so mysterious, it could just be a medical disorder of a sort. A rare occurrence. That's the more uninteresting hunch."
Luffy was a bit disappointed, but now he knew something: look for a poneglyph! "Will you read the poneglyphs to me when we find them?" She agreed, and Luffy beamed at the new goal. He wasn't just fishing in the dark anymore! He went to bed with Zoro and fell asleep in a good mood. What he got was better than getting nothing at all.
Luffy and Usopp jumped to the other ship to look for things. Zoro was uneasy about him being near open water like that, but Luffy didn't fall in and they got a lot of stuff from what remained of the ship on the surface and hadn't sunk. Robin was more sure than anyone but Luffy that there was an island in the sky, completely depending on the log pose. Was it really that magical?
Nami wasn't happy, but the log pose continued to point up, no matter what she did with it.
Robin asked for Luffy to get a big, long trunk. He found one, and when they got it back, Luffy wasn't happy that he'd unknowingly brought over a coffin. Nami wondered if that's what she wanted from the start. The oldest nodded, and Nami grinned. "Remember, Nami, Luffy can tell when you are lying. Robin, don't you lie to Luffy or I'll make sure you're kicked off.
"I wasn't lying," Robin pointed out as she pulled out the skull from the coffin. It was gross, but at least it didn't smell bad. Luffy watched, grossed out but interested in what Robin was doing. She found a hole in the skull as she put the pieces of it head back together like a round puzzle. "This hole isn't natural," she said simply.
"Someone bash his head in or something?" Sanji wondered.
"No, it's from a surgery method called trepanation. Isn't that right doctor?"
"Yes, it was used to cure some head diseases in the past, though it's a very old method." Robin then told them all about the dead guy's death. He was 200 years old, in his thirties, and died of a sickness while voyaging. His teeth were intact due to being covered with rubber oil. It was a custom from the South Blue. His ship was for voyaging, probably not pirating based on the time period.
They learned so much just from a head. "Hey, you're pretty smart, aren't you?" Luffy asked, picking his nose.
"Thank you," she said pleasantly. "If that ship was used for exploring, then it must have a router somewhere." Luffy jumped over again to search, but Zoro shouted at him to come back. The ship was nearly sunken. Luffy grabbed what he could before he started to sink, and Zoro jumped in to get him.
He threw him back on the deck. "Look! I got something cool!" Luffy said, showing a map.
"A map of Sky Island! Skypiea…" Nami said.
"Hey, hey, that means there is a Sky Island!" Luffy and Usopp cheered. "Alright, Chopper and Usopp! There is a Sky Island, a dream island! Let's go for it!" Luffy screamed triumphantly. What an adventure they'd go through.
"Hey, this might not be real. It's just a possibility," Nami said cooly.
"No, it is real!"
Nami sighed. Zoro told Luffy to not get his hopes up. The captain swung his hands around Zoro's waist. "But imagine being on the clouds! We could just lay on the clouds!" Zoro smiled, said it sounded nice.
"Clouds are just made of water, you can't lay on them, stupid." Luffy said that a Sky Island shouldn't exist. Maybe it had special clouds. "Luffy's right. We shouldn't rule anything out."
"Robin's awesome."
"Just cause she goes along with you."
"And she's smart, too. And maybe there's a pony up there! And she can learn more." Zoro asked what he meant by a pony. Robin corrected him, it was a poneglyph. "Then I can learn some more about me," Luffy said cheerfully. The ship was quiet now, all waiting for this, too. They knew it bothered and confused him.
Nami sighed, "We'll find out information on it at the next island we find. This map isn't at all helpful right now." Luffy beamed. "Even if it's not a fake map, that is." Luffy pouted, saying the map wasn't fake. "You don't know that! And how do I even know how to get us there?"
"You're the navigator!"
"And again, you're the captain. Ah, I give up. We'll find out what we know, and until then, stop arguing about it!" Zoro smirked.
"Why are you making that decision? You just said Luffy's the captain- oof!" Zoro said when he got punched in the head. "Witch!"
"Watch what you say!" Sanji yelled. Luffy laughed at his lively crew. Robin seemed sort of content while also being uncomfortable. The next step was to get the router of the ship, but it had sunk by then. "Then we'll go salvaging!" Nami said.
"Yay!" Luffy and Usopp cheered. Sounded fun. But how? After all, the ship was sunk. Zoro was leaning against the railing, looking at the bubbles still forming from the sinking ship. It had to be deep by now. At least at the bottom. It had been fifteen minutes since the ship landed in the water, nearly capsizing them.
It only took half an hour for Usopp to throw together diving gear in the shape of barrels with windows in them. "Are you sure this is going to work?" Luffy wondered. This kind of sucked. It was stiff and he couldn't really move much. Nami brushed it off and Usopp claimed it was perfect quality. "Well, if you say so," Luffy said. They had air hoses attached to the top. He did wonder how they had all of these things just laying around. But it didn't matter, they were helpful.
The three dropped into the water, and immediately a sea king that was stalking their ship fled. It had been deep underwater so he hadn't noticed.
The deeper they went the darker it got. When they got to the bottom, they found the ship wasn't that deep. When they got to the bottom, they started to explore the ship.
But as they searched the ship, all they found were sea critters having already taken up residence and damaged or destroyed goods. But they got deep enough and into a secure area of the ship that had air, and they could take off the diving barrel suits. They were really clunky and Luffy was impressed they worked. Usopp sure was good at making things.
They noticed the ship was being moved with them inside, though. "Hear anything from above?" Sanji asked calmly.
"It's hard to hear through water, so not really," Luffy replied. "Shishishi, Zoro has a friend," Luffy laughed, pointing at the octopus clinging to his shoulder. Why had it come out in the air? Weird. Then he looked out the porthole still intact, and squinted his eyes. "Hey, isn't that a whale?" Zoro said it wouldn't be that strange to see one at the bottom of the ocean. "But look at it! Looks so weird!"
Then there was a loud noise as a monkey broke into the room. Luffy looked up before returning back to the porthole. "Zoro, look!" He sighed and came over. "That's a whale, right?"
"Looks like a sea king, not a whale."
"No, the whale is behind it! See, it's eating the sea king!" Sanji and a monkey both ran over now, too. They didn't know him or who he was or what he was doing but he was curious, too. Luffy squinted, and the monkey handed him a flashlight. He pointed it out, and they saw the cloud of blood around the dead sea king.
It swam past them, and Luffy saw it hd black and white spots, red eyes and it was white with black swirls. But it was definitely some type of whale. They all were shocked. It swam away before they could look too closely. "Hey, that was like me!" Luffy exclaimed.
Sanji bit on his cigarette. "Well, now everything is very confusing again," he said with a sigh. "Anyways what do you want?" the cook said, all of them finally addressing the monkey. But then another creature came and chomped down on the ship. The insides crushed in a sickening sound, but it was the ship, not them. But water flooded the area, and Luffy was helpless.
Zoro cut through the damaged wood and dragged Luffy out. Sanji picked up the junk that was treasure to others. After seeing what he saw, Luffy'd much rather have some answers instead some treasure they didn't need. They also hadn't found a map or anything useful.
He was tossed onto deck, the other two climbing on afterwards. "You're alive!?" Luffy hacked up water on the deck. He rushed back to the side of the ship and looked down only to then see the giant turtle that tried swallowing them. He saw the monkey guy having trouble getting out, and Luffy shot his hand out where his crew wouldn't reach their ropes.
Luffy grabbed onto his neck and pulled, his hand snapping back and slamming him into him. "Luffy, why did you help him?" Sanji asked.
"Cause he looks interesting. And he let us use his flashlight. The monkey man coughed up water, and Luffy patted his back. "Hey, are you okay, monkey?" Luffy asked, crouched with his head upside down. Then he looked up. "Is it night already?" he wondered until they all looked up and saw huge shadows in the sky, and all of them screamed.
"MONSTERS!"
They got the paddles and hurried the hell out of there. Once their arms were beat and the oars creaked, they stopped and the ship slowed. They all sat down and breathed deeply. Luffy looked back the way they came, but the monsters were gone. They hadn't chased them or anything. Where the hell did they go?
"That's impossible. Nothing is that big. Today's been a really weird day…" Sanji sighed.
"A galleon fell from the sky," Zoro sighed.
"The log pose keeps pointing up," Nami mumbled.
"There was me as a whale!" Luffy said, wrecking the flow. The others looked at him, and then they realized the monkey was there. They'd lost his ship behind when the monsters showed up.
"It sure looked weird!" Luffy said, unbothered that the monkey guy was there. "Oh, yeah, why're you here?" he wondered.
"Ah! My ship got left behind!" he shouted in worry. Luffy cocked his head. "What do I do?!" Zoro and Sanji said he could swim. Luffy didn't think that would be fair since they were the ones that rowed away. So, he said they would take him back to his ship.
"Luffy! The monsters!" Chopper said frantically. Luffy frowned, saying they were the ones to run off from his ship with him on board. "But…"
"Well, we have nowhere to go, right? The log pose is pointing up, where would we go?" Luffy wondered, standing up. "It's not that far," he said lightly. The monkey cried at his kindness, and Luffy grinned. "Cause you look like a monkey and that's my last name! Shishishi! Hey, do you know any nearby island we can get information at?" Luffy asked in a cheerful and friendly voice.
"How does he make friends with everyone?" Nami sighed.
"Or enemies," Usopp added.
"Oh yeah, Jaya's nearby! We have an eternal pose there, we'll lead you!" the monkey said. Luffy beamed, and they talked jovially about diving, wondering about that whale without the monkey knowing it relating to Luffy, and they returned him to their ship, and then followed them on their way to Jaya, the closest island. If they left it in time, the log pose shouldn't be set there, and would still lead them to Sky Island.
Robin asked, "So, what did you see down there?" The salvage monkey was gone on his ship they were trailing after. Making friends really got you far in life, didn't it? Zoro said they saw a spotted whale with black markings and red eyes. Not to mention it was eating a sea king. "Wait, what? Why would a whale have Luffy's characteristics?" Robin asked, truly stumped.
"Well, you said it could be like a disorder-"
"You said what?" Zoro seethed.
"-so maybe other things have it, too!" Luffy finished, unbothered by Zoro's angry interruption. Robin was smiling widely, thinking. She had no idea. So, it was even more of a mystery. "I wish I could have gotten a picture, or interacted with it!"
"So… this just kind of confuses everything, doesn't it?" Usopp mumbled. "Now we don't know if Luffy's some other creature, or a human with some condition!"
Chopper said his blood had been human. He'd needed a transfusion of human blood. Only he had different properties. Like when it burned anyone Luffy thought was an enemy. "Due to the appearance, that could be possible, with some sort of condition that could change appearances, such as albinism. Not having pigment on your skin or hair. It changes your eyes, too. And albinism happens to many species."
"That's not as cool as thinking he came from some other world," Sanji mumbled.
""M not an alien, jerk."
"But it does make the mention in a poneglyph very strange. Why would it be mentioned in something like that, if it's a mutation of some sort?" Robin wondered, looking openly excited, and not so cool and composed. They all gave a collective shrug. Luffy said hopefully they would find out, or maybe find other things like that!
Nami replied, "If none of us has heard or seen anything with your features or traits, then I doubt we'll easily run into another one. This was probably just incredibly lucky to find one."
"Or they all live in the ocean," Sanji mused. "Either way, I doubt finding an answer about it is gonna be quick and easy." They agreed on that, and went to finally inspect the bag of treasure they'd taken from the ship before it was destroyed. Did that turtle eat wood? It couldn't be a good diet.
Nami then yelled at them all they'd brought was trash, and promptly had them throw it over back into the ocean. Luffy thought this weirdly shaped puzzle piece of information was better than any treasure they could have found down there. He stood at the railing, looking down at the water as they sailed through it, coming nearer to the island as they heard just how damn loud the monkey crew was.
Then three seagulls slammed down onto the deck, starling him. They'd been shot down. Luffy could just barely smell the scent of a large amount of people. "There's nobody around, who shot them?!"
"We're near the island. I can smell a lot of people," Luffy said, drinking from a blood bag with a straw. "This island stinks." It did. It smelled like trash and vomit and booze and sweat. Like dirty men. He sat on the Merry's sheep head as they got sight of it, the monkey crew leaving them at the port and going to another part of the island.
"It looks like a resort!" Nami said with sparkling eyes.
"Smells like a dump," Luffy said, finishing his drink and tossing it into the water. Most sanitary thing to do and then washing his hands. "Besides, we can't stay, we gotta go to Sky Island!"
"Don't…. these all look like pirate ships?" Usopp asked, voice shaky as they did indeed pass many pirate ships.
"Idiot, pirates wouldn't dock all in a public place like this," Nami said. Luffy calmly mentioned that he heard and smelled pirates everywhere. Chopper, Nami and Usopp weren't happy with so many pirates. "Why didn't you tell us there were pirates?!" she asked Luffy.
"Not all pirates smell bad," he replied simply. When they docked, Luffy told them he heard all sorts of sounds of people fighting and arguing. "Seems interesting!"
"Yeah, looks fun. Too bad it reeks, though." They barely walked away before Nami deemed them inept to go alone, and insisted she go too. "We've gone places alone before," Zoro snapped.
"Yeah, in Logue Town. And how did that go?! You got apprehended by a bunch of freaks and then marines!"
"And a pervert woman who gets high off of being hit," Zoro grumbled. Luffy laughed obnoxiously.
"Wait! Don't go in just like that!" Zoro asked what she came there for then, if they weren't even entering the place. "I mean, we have to have a plan, right?" She was just scared. "Damn right I am! All of those ships are pirate ships and they're not even trying to hide it. There aren't any authorities here!" She was whisper shouting.
Luffy said, "But we're pirates."
"I mean the bad kind!" Nami said flippantly.
"So what do you want us to do, then?" Zoro snapped. She made them promise not to fight anyone in the city. At all. They couldn't get a lot of attention. She wanted them in and out quickly so they didn't miss the log pose. "And you're just scared."
"Of course I am!" she said. "If you cause any trouble, we have to leave without information on Sky Island. Don't fight."
"We already said we wouldn't!" Zoro shot back in irritation.
The first weird thing they encountered and didn't hear was some guy who'd fallen off his horse. He asked them to help him up. "Why don't you do it yourself?" Luffy asked blankly. This guy smelled bad in a different way. He lied when he said he'd always been weak, but they were told not to cause a scene. He and Zoro tossed him back on his horse.
"Thank you. Here, have an apple," he said, holding up a basket of apples. Luffy stared at them and then declined. They smelled like explosives. "Are you sure? It's for free." But then they heard shouting about somebody eating an explosive apple. They were dead.
"I'm sure," Luffy replied. The guy gave him an annoying smile, calling him lucky. "I only just didn't take it. Hehe, weird." They heard more explosions, and Luffy was glad he smelled it easily. Zoro asked how he knew. "It smelled wrong."
"You weren't going to take it even if it smelled normal, right?"
"It was free food."
"Don't take free food from shady looking strangers!"
"But you like free things."
"Ugh, it's impossible to talk to you sometimes," Nami sighed. Zoro grinned. They walked in further, Luffy hearing all sorts of noises and people. You didn't usually hear death threats coming from every direction. What a weird place. He heard the sounds of fighting from everywhere. If Nami wasn't there and if they hadn't promised to behave, fighting the winners would be fun.
He needed practice against bad guys. They hadn't had time for him to test the blood endurance fighting… thing. Try and make him able to fight longer without blood. Well, they were going to Sky Island, there wouldn't be bad people like Crocodile. Or marines, too, probably. He had drunk a whole bag of blood before docking, so he wasn't worried about the immediate future. Wasn't worried in general.
When it seemed going right would lead to more ruckus and fights, Nami had them go left to the part that was more of a resort. She was much happier there. The water was clear, no trash or cigarette buds littering the ground, not the smell of filth and shit. At least for Luffy. They couldn't smell as well as he could. All they smelled was the smell of tons of booze.
"This place is nice! The rest of the city is so chaotic. I wonder how you build houses on water, this is literally an overseas vacation home."
"I don't want to stay. It's still really noisy here. And smelly, though it's better a bit further away," Luffy said. He crouched over the water.
"What are you doing?" Zoro wondered when he saw Luffy looking intently at nothing. Luffy replied he was looking for fish like him. "Luffy, if it is some sort of disorder, it's not going to be so common. Crocus and Robin, as well as your family, have never seen anything similar, right?"
Luffy stood and pouted. Nami was listening and gave a sad smile. "We'll always be on the lookout, but actively trying to search, I think, will not yield results." He nodded, a soft frown on his face. Luffy took Zoro's hand, and they were approached by a freaked out looking man, begging them to leave. Somebody had already bought the place out.
"Bellamy." He's been hearing that name said by a lot of people, and all not in a happy voice. Best not to get involved when they were looking for answers to questions.
"Please, leave at once!"
"Jeesh, it's just a hotel," Nami said sourly. "It's not like we're snooping in the rooms. We just have questions." She didn't like being denied things dismissively.
"What's going on?" a voice asked behind them. "You, the dirty kids, where'd you come from?" a guy with light blue, long hair and snow goggles asked dismissively. Get outta here. We bought this place out for ourselves. Go home kid!"
Luffy stared at him, annoyed. He didn't seem too strong. He didn't give off a terrile icky scent either. Not like some of the people there. The horse guy with the apples smelled pretty bad, too. "Nami, can I send this guy flying?"
"No!"
Sarquisse, as the hotel guy fearfully named him, looked entertained and skeptical. "Heh, you send me flying? You look like such a poor, pitiful kid. Take this, use it to buy some nice clothing." He dumped some money down.
"Hey, free money! Thanks!" Luffy said, but Zoro pulled him back from picking it up, glaring at the man. "Don't worry so much, Zoro." But he and Nami pulled him out of there, both angrier than he was even though he was the one being insulted.
"Don't act like that with people who treat you that way!" Nami snapped. Luffy pointed that she had said not to get in fights or confrontations. She had no response. Instead of the hotel, they went to a place public and seemingly more secure. So a bar was the best place to get information.
"Mister, your bar stinks," Luffy said casually. Nami bopped his head, telling him to let her do the talking.
"Well, everyone inside is a pirate. Not much I can do about that," the bar man said politely. He asked why there were so many in one place. "Well, Mocktown was pretty much built by and for pirates. The way they spend money is like spilling water. Even though they see killing and fighting as an 'everyday thing', they rarely attack the citizens," he said calmly. After all, what's good for money if you have no place to spend it."
They ordered drinks, and Luffy bought a cherry pie, only to freeze when somebody large, fat and hairy sat next to him. He smelled deeply, and his face went cold. The scent of Ace was on this man. But not directly. The scent was old, but Luffy was so attuned to it that it stunk out as strong as rotten eggs would for somebody else.
This guy had met Ace before, but not in awhile. He watched quietly, returning back to his disgusting cherry pie. Zoro asked what was wrong, both he and Nami noticing the change in him. Luffy had a feeling he knew who this guy was. He was the one Ace was looking for. Blackbeard.
But it was Ace's hunt to avenge his crewmate and friend. Luffy wouldn't interfere. Ace's pride would be hurt. The guy ate the cherry pie enthusiastically. Luffy smiled at Zoro. "I'll tell you guys later. Now we have to ask about the log pose."
"I did, Luffy. Didn't you hear?" Nami asked. "He said it took four days. We should be gone in two days, so we should be fine about the log pose setting." Zoro looked concerned, but Luffy smiled. It was nothing, really. The information would do nothing to change their goal there: information on Sky Island. Not defeating someone Ace had volunteered to take down for his own reasons.
But he sure was a noisy guy. He eventually left and Luffy didn't need to talk to him. Once he was gone, Luffy told them. "Ace told me he was after someone who betrayed his crew, Blackbeard. I'm positive that was him."
"How?"
"That guy was both gross and had Ace's scent. Not so strong that it was recent. More like he was around Ace a lot. I lived with him side by side for seven years, so it's really easy to pick up." When Nami asked why they hadn't done anything, Zoro was the one to answer.
"It's Ace's journey. It's not like it was an order he didn't want to fulfil, he chose this, right? Whitebeard hadn't told him?" Luffy nodded. It had been Ace's choice. "Did the guy feel strong? He was big."
Luffy shrugged. He didn't really get much of an idea of how strong he was. They both turned around when a nasty voice said, "Hey, is there a pirate with a Straw Hat in here?" It was a blonde guy with a small nose and a scar on his forehead. He kind of looked… crazy. Luffy and Zoro knew instantly that this would probably end up in a fight.
He looked to Luffy, as it was quite clear it was him, he had the Straw Hat. "So, you're Straw Hat Luffy. The 30 million bounty boy," Bellamy said. Even Zoro and Nami could tell who it was just based on the mutterings of the people inside. Luffy wasn't offended much by everyone in the room doubting him.
"I don't look very tough, I know," Luffy said honestly. He knew he was skinny and short, he wasn't going to deny or get defensive about it. He sat next to Luffy, and ordered the best wine, and anything for Luffy. He already had a juice in front of him. He commented on Luffy's red eyes. He didn't know what to say back.
Bellamy's group came in. It was the guy that had mocked Luffy by offering him some free money. Honestly, free money was welcome. Bellamy brought up his glass to toast Luffy, and he didn't even need to have good hearing to dodge. The hand slammed onto the table, breaking the bar counter. Luffy couldn't help the disapproving expression.
The guy glared at him sourly. Maybe angry he missed. "We're not here for fights," Luffy said blankly.
"So, you're supposed to have a high bounty, but won't fight back?"
"Why would I fight back, nothing happened?" Luffy said. Luffy kept his eyes right on the guy. "Nami, ask your questions." Zoro was watching the others. Nami nodded, and asked the bartender if he knew how to get to Sky Island. The entire room started laughing obnoxiously.
"W-why are you laughing? The log pose is pointing to the sky!" People continued to laugh, and Nami's face turned bright red in humiliation. Luffy turned and asked the bartender the question again. When he shook his head, Luffy grabbed Nami's elbow. Zoro was tense too.
"C'mon, there's no point in sticking around here if there's no information," he said with a smile. Nami was near tears but also really angry.
"Runnin' away, are you?" Bellamy asked with a sneer. Maybe that was his smile, but it wasn't a good one. Zoro responded they were only there for information, not a fight. "So, you're not actually 30 million, huh?"
At the door, Luffy said, "Believe what you want. We're going to Sky Island." He wasn't going to set himself or Nami up to be humiliated. "Even if he attacked, I wouldn't fight back."
"What- why?" Nami asked.
"That's what he wants. Dodging was probably the most humiliating thing Luffy could have done to him. Both not being hurt and refusing to take part in it. We should move the ship. We can look for more information about Sky Island in the morning. After all, we have four days at the most," Zoro explained.
Luffy said, "I wanted to beat that guy up bad, but I just don't want to waste anything right now. I'm not as reckless as I used to be." Zoro put his arm around his shoulder. He knew especially the shame he felt for running out of blood during a fight and having to have somebody else interfere.
"Made the right choice," he said. Luffy knew he did. He also knew that he could have beat that guy. But… he just wasn't in the mood. Meeting Ace's enemy kind of shook him up. Part of him wanted to try and take care of it. Ace said he missed his family and wanted to go home. But he also knew that it was Ace's duty. Not his.
"Any news on Sky Island?" Chopper asked.
"No! Just that the people here are assholes!" Nami shouted and stormed inside in fury. Robin came to the ship, looking like she didn't have a problem. Luffy called her up, asking what she had been doing.
She had multiple bags in her arms. "I went to buy new clothes so I don't wear Navigator-san's anymore. And also some information about Sky Island." Nami came out and angrily told Robin she would pay if Sky Island didn't exist.
"Shishishi, Nami, it does! We'll get there!" Luffy said happily. "It'll be amazing!" Robin smiled and put her clothes away. She handed Luffy the map. A treasure map. "It's a treasure map!"
"It's to this island. At the X is a very special man. Montblanc Cricket. He was exiled for speaking out about his dreams. Figured we'd have something in common," Robin explained smoothly. They left the port and headed to follow the map Robin had. The sailing was smooth until Luffy started hearing an obnoxious buzzing noise.
The closer to their destination they got, the louder it was until it was painful. He was trying to hide the pain and then the source came to sight. It was a salvaging crew like Masira had been. And this was in the direction their ship had left once they were at the port. Luffy's ear drums started to painfully vibrate. And he put his hands over his ears.
"Get them to stop making that noise!" he shouted, for him the noise being very loud, but to them, he just screamed for no reason. He heard shouts from the other ship, and things were getting hostile until they mentioned they'd helped Masira and he helped them. Apparently this monkey (who looked like a different kind of monkey) was his brother.
He stopped the noise, and Luffy had his ears treated by Chopper and then drank a mouthful of blood. When he came out, he found there were small damages to the ship. He'd had his eyes shut from the vibrations that he didn't notice the damage. Usopp was grumbling about it, and Zoro complained about the rapidly declining state of the Merry. "Should we get a new one soon? She keeps getting more and more beat up."
"We're not getting a new one!"
"Usopp, don't worry! The Going Merry is our friend. We'll just take care of her. Until we get a super awesome shipwright," Luffy said cheerily, making Usopp look surprised but satisfied. When they made it to the coast, the house was immediately visible. It was huge! And it looked like a castle. Maybe not a castle, but a mansion!
"Is this guy rich or something?" Usopp asked.
Zoro said, "Stupid, look closer."
"Seems less like a man who dreams than one who wants attention," Sanji added.
"What are you talking about?" Chopper asked in bafflement. They landed, and saw that the fancy, impressive house was just a wooden board painted like one. It was just a small stone house. Nobody was home.
Nami asked what kind of dreams he was exiled about. "I'm not sure. Just something about there being tons of gold on Jaya."
"Gold?!" Nami screamed, eyes sparkling. "Where do you think?" she asked, getting off of the ship.
"I don't smell any treasure nearby," Luffy said, disappointed by the actual house. Nami deflated completely. He went to the house and opened it without even knocking. It was boring and bare. He lived alone. But Luffy didn't know where he was. Did he die? How old was that map, and the information Robin got? "There's nobody here," he complained, arms crossed. "Robin did you trick us?!"
Usopp said, "Just because he isn't here right now doesn't mean he isn't here. Look! There's fresh food and everything. He'd probably just out doing… something."
"I want to look in the forest. There's a lot of weird noises coming from it!" Sanji grabbed the back of his shirt. He was reminded that they had limited time to get to Sky Island. He couldn't wander off and get lost. "I'm not Zoro, I'll find my way back!"
"No. We'll stay and wait."
"Stupid Sanji," Luffy grumbled, stickign his tongue out. Nami looked at a stump that might be used as a table and saw a picture book. A really old one.
"'King of Liars: Noland'," Nami read. Usopp said it sounded interesting.
"I hate liars. Except you Usopp. You're a good one," Luffy said, walking over to see the book. Usopp sighed and thanked him in a flat voice. "What's the book about?" Luffy asked, sitting down on the mossy ground to listen. There was nothing else to do if he couldn't go into the forest.
Sanji said he read that book a lot. "When you lived in the North Blue? With the mean people?" He was surprised Luffy remembered it. "Yeah! I mean, that was important right? Why wouldn't I remember it." Sanji looked a bit bothered and Zoro laughed at him. They got into a fight.
"Read it," Luffy said happily.
"A story over four hundred years ago… In a certain country in the northern seas, there was a man named Montblanc Noland. Noland the Explorer's stories were always grand adventures that sounded like lies.
"But the people of the village could never tell if they were true or not. One time, Noland went on an expedition, and came back to report to the king.
"I saw a mountain of gold on an island across the great seas."
"To see for himself, the brave king took two thousand warriors and crossed the great seas in his ship. He fought powerful storms and huge sea monsters. Finally, the king, Noland, and one hundred soldiers landed on the island. But what they found there was nothing but jungle. Noland was sentenced to death for his lies.
"These were his last words."That's it! The mountain of gold sank into the ocean!" The king and the others were shocked. Nobody believed Noland anymore, but he never stopped lying until he was dead."
She closed the book. "Well, that was not a happy book," Usopp said. Zoro said that could happen to him. "I'd never make up a lie that would get me sentenced to death!"
Chopper said he'd done it in their battle in Alabasta. Luffy didn't like the end of the story, and was sitting at the shore. "He died… that's stupid," he mumlbed to himself. He heard a bubbling noise and was unable to do anything before he was grabbed by a hand out of the water and yanked into it. He immediately went immobile as he heard fighting out of the water. Muddled, of course.
Usopp was the one to save him this time, and he took in a deep breath. "What the hell were you doing?!" Usopp demanded.
"It's not my fault! There were bubbles, and then an arm came and pulled me in!" Luffy said, and Usopp swam the few feet to the shore, helping pull Luffy up and out of the water. Zoro was furious, and hurried to Luffy asking if he was okay.
"I'm okay. But that surprised me!" Luffy said, and then they all saw the attacker collapse with a heavy thud. Chopper, of course, went inside to treat him for decompression sickness. Going up or down deep water too fast can be bad for you, make you very ill with air bubbles in your blood or something. Luffy wasn't paying attention anymore. Stuff like that wasn't as interesting.
He was more focused on the sounds of the forest. Interesting animals awaited him in there. He heard people talking, very definable voices. The monkeys. They were on relatively good terms with them due to Luffy's act of kindness, but the crew was still angry Luffy's eardrums were burst by the sonic waves by Shoujou.
"What do you want?" Sanji asked.
"We're treating him, go away." They were really mad at him for that. They were overprotective sometimes, but they could say the same for him. But the two monkeys believed them, and thanked them immediately. Luffy wondered if they both lived out there, calling the guy boss and all.
"Actually, our boss' home is actually the base of operations of the 'United Primate Armed Forces'!" Though they lived on their ships since the house was too small for both of them, who were larger than an average person. Bigger than Cricket. He was still resting while everyone else but Chopper were outside.
Then he came out and said the guy woke up. Luffy hurried inside. The man thanked them for the help, but apologized for attacking them, sounding gruff but sincere. "I thought you were after the gold."
"Luffy said there was no gold around here," Nami said in an accusatory voice. But Cricket moved on, and asked what they wanted.
"We want information on how to go to Sky Island! Please tell us how to get there!" Luffy said excitedly, beaming with wide eyes. Zoro looked at him fondly from the corner. He couldn't help but walk up behind him and wrap his arms around Luffy's waist. Luffy wasn't bothered by PDA, so he wasn't upset with this at all. He liked when Zoro touched him in public.
Cricket looked unimpressed. Then he laughed at them, pissing Nami off, who wanted to punch him even though he was injured, Usopp holding her back. "Sky Island does exist!" Luffy insisted irritably. Why was everyone laughing?!
The diver said, "I don't know either. But I knew a man who said it does. He was known as a great liar, though." Luffy looked at Usopp accusingly, but he snapped he wasn't talking about him. "Noland, king of the liars. It's an old story, though," Cricket said, voice sounding more like he was musing to himself. Apparently that story happened at Jaya, and Cricket was a descendant of him.
His family name was still mocked and exiled, even though Noland was actually a very honest man. "So why did he lie? Or why did he get accused of lying? Noland was telling the truth, the evidence just left before he could show it off. He knew the gold sunk into the sea, but still nobody believed him, and he was executed, even telling the truth.
"The story book showed him smiling, but at his death he was crying. Nobody believed him up until the end, and the crowd that watched his execution laughed until he was no more."
Usopp assumed what Luffy had. That Cricket was looking for the gold to clear his ancestor's name, but that definitely wasn't it, as he pulled a gun on Usopp angrily. "Hey!" Luffy shouted angrily. Cricket was extremely hateful towards Noland. He hated him for what his name had done to him even as a child, even this long afterwards.
"You're right. Through my family, countless members have attempted to clear his name, but nothing ever comes of it! They waste their lives trying to clear the name of a man that they never met and who ruined their lives. They all die. That's why I ran away from home. I didn't want to join them in that pointless journey."
He had become a pirate after running away from home. But when he got to Jaya, his crew left since he just wanted to find the gold himself. So, he was left alone for his task that he shrugged off for so long. He wasn't doing it for Noland, he wanted to find it when he couldn't, a sort of duel.
"Before I die, I will settle this, and tell everyone the truth." Luffy wondered about the monkeys outside. How they fit into this. "They're just fans of the story. Five year after I started this, they came to see the city of gold." But they saved him from loneliness. Usopp was emotional from it, and Luffy was touched too. The monkeys were kind of annoying in their own ways, but nice guys!
"Yeah, enough about the monkeys. Mister! I want to go to Sky Island!" Luffy said, getting back to the whole point of coming here.
"You sure are impatient. There's only one person who's gone there. Noland the liar. There's no proof but the log book." Nami read it aloud, talking about objects they'd never heard or or imagined. Sky fish, a sea of clouds. It sounded amazing! Luffy and Usopp cheered about seeing it themselves. They had to go, now! There was no other option, no other choice! They would go there, no matter what. Nami was excited, too, about a sea in the sky.
Cricket left to talk to the monkeys, and they all decided to help them up. Without their help, the bunch of them would die on the only way to get there. It sounded so exciting!
Soon they all sat outside, Zoro sleeping. "Listen, I'll tell you what I know about Sky Island. However, not everything I say can be proven. You decide to believe me or not."
"Yes, I believe you!" Luffy said. The others looked at him in annoyance. He ignored this and explained about the cloud that had turned the day into night. A strange type of cloud that could not be explained. It was so dense that it blocked out the sun completely when it was overhead. It never dissipated, and just floated around leisurely.
Nami didn't believe him because it wasn't scientifically possible. "Magic, huh?" Luffy asked.
"Really, it's magic?!" Chopper asked.
"Shut up and listen!" Cricket shouted in irritation. "It's called millennium cumulonimbus. Some say the cloud has been in existence for millions of years. It won't change form, and is like a cloud fossil. If Sky Island does exist, it has to be inside that cloud!" he finished.
Luffy jumped up. "Yay! Time to go to the magic cloud! Sky Island here we come! Zoro wake up! An adventure is ready for us! Everyone get your things! Time to send the ship into the clouds!" Usopp and Chopper cheered as well. The others just listened quietly.
"We don't know how to get there!" Nami said.
Cricket said, "The real deal starts here. I'll warn you first. You'll need to risk your lives." Luffy told him they were pirates and did that every day. He kept speaking. "The current that shoots upwards. If you can get on that current, you can get to Sky Island." Nami was amazed at hearing a current that would shoot them upwards. It was the Grand Line after all.
"We just gotta get on a current that blows up upwards? Hahaha!" Luffy said jovially, extremely excited for what was to come next. But Nami pointed out they'd heard it in Sky Island, that the current would shoot them up only to drop them back down. They'd heard a lot in passing.
"Normally that's the case. The key here is timing. It's not easy to get blown up into the sky. 'Knock-up-stream' is a disaster. It's something people normally avoid. The reason behind the current is just a theory because nobody is dumb enough to investigate further." Luffy didn't really understand the science of caves underwater and air and stuff, but the thing would last one full minute.
That should be enough! He was sure. Because that was what he wanted to happen, so it would! Definitely. But the current only happened 5 times a month. And the conditions needed to be perfect. "Don't worry! It'll work!" Luffy said.
"We still need more information about how to do it," Nami said, for once not snapping as she was fascinated with this whole thing. Usopp was looking hesitant to ride the knock-up-stream, now. It didn't help when Cricket said there was a good chance they'd not make it and fall back down to be fish food.
And he was now against it. Well, Luffy wasn't, and he was the captain! Hahaha! "We're definitely going, don't worry! It'll all work out." Usopp sighed. He pointed out the condition to the Merry, and Cricket agreed that the ship would be blown to pieces if experiencing the current. Unless they helped the ship get prepared to take the force of it all. They were offering help for free!
"Oooh, you can count on us!" the monkey brothers said.
"Yay, thank you!" Luffy cheered. Usopp and Nami weren't so into it anymore. And they were upset when it wouldn't take over four days to get there, for the disaster to occur and take them to their next adventure. It would happen noon the next day. So they didn't need to worry about the log pose setting before then.
Everything would work out, Luffy was sure of it. Usopp didn't believe the convenience of it all, and called Cricket a liar. "Usopp!" Luffy scolded.
"Be quiet! What kind of plan is this? We met you today and now you're offering to help us when the thing we need to do will conveniently happen tomorrow? Everything is too perfect! Nothing is ever this perfect for us!"
Cricket was unbothered, and just enforced the fact that they did indeed know when the stream would happen based on an accurate and detailed calendar. He finally smiled, saying he liked reckless idiots like them. "Just take some hospitality from my home for just one day, compadre." They then went to have dinner cooked by Sanji. So that's where he went! Zoro had fallen back to sleep.
The meal was rambunctious and enjoyable. They were excited for what was to come. Even Usopp and Nami now accepted this would happen. At least, for the time being. As they ate, they were told about golden bells, and of a lost civilization on the island. Something Robin was very interested in, no doubt.
"Hey, hey! Were there any weird things here? Like, spotted and with markings on them and red eyes?" Luffy asked, derailing the topic. Cricket calmly said he hadn't ever heard of anything like that. "Oh, okay."
Then they went back to the topic. Luffy hadn't really expected anything, but why not ask? Cricket found the golden bell during one of his dives, as well as a gold object shaped as some weird animal. It was also holding a bell. The talk was leisurely about the strange south birds before Cricket shouted at them to go find that bird to be able to lead them south. After all, normal compasses didn't work, so finding south would be impossible.
They had a weird call, so that would be easy enough to find, but catch? Hopefully that would be easy. They were ordered to get one or they couldn't get to Sky Island, even though it was midnight. The three would start working on equipping the Going Merry to be ready for the rough journey.
They ran into the black forest, aiming to get the bird before day break. "Actually, Luffy, why don't you stay here?" Nami said nicely.
"What, why?!" Luffy asked angrily.
"You'll just scare it away," Sanji said, and they left without him. He pouted and kicked a tree with the toe of his sandals. What was he supposed to do now? He went back to watch them work on the ship, interested but rather be searching for a bird with everyone. It sounded so exciting, he could hear them all screaming and running around.
He looked up when he smelled and heard the stinky scent of Mocktown. He stood up and watched as Bellamy walked over with two others, looking haughty. Luffy didn't like him at all. "Oh, Straw Hat is here, huh? You here for the gold, too?"
"No, I'm here to go to Sky Island," Luffy replied in a flat voice. He moved in front of the ship and the three working on it. "Why are you here?"
"For the gold, of course." Cricket turned around angrily, but Luffy told them to keep working, he'd take care of this. "You? You wouldn't even fight in town! What can you do?!" Bellamy mocked. Luffy didn't get angry easily, so he just stood there. He didn't take the bait. Bellamy seemed to take his silence as him not knowing what to say.
He grinned, and crouched. Luffy smelled metal and could tell he had some sort of devil fruit easily. But shot at him at a fast speed, shouting, "Spring hopper!" Luffy could sense him just fine. He couldn't turn in midair or anything, so he was in a straight line. Luffy didn't want to deal with this, he wanted to watch the ship be modified. Or just enjoy the nighttime breeze and maybe get on the ship for a bite of blood cake Sanji had made.
Luffy slammed his fist down in the direction he knew Bellamy was heading, and hit him in the face, forcing him to the ground in one punch. He was out like a light. The other two with them, the guy with the snow goggles on before and a woman looked shocked and horrified. "You should take him back to town. My friends won't be happy when they see him here."
The other two were shaking, so Luffy left them to go back to watch the ship being made. "Who was that?"
"An annoying guy from town. Neh, why a chicken?" he asked curiously.
When they came back with the south bird, Bellamy had been dragged away. "Anything fun happen while we were gone?" Zoro wondered, looking at him in slight pity. He'd really wanted to go with them and have fun but had been denied.
Luffy nodded. "That Bellamy guy came for the gold so I beat him up," he said simply. They were surprised, and Zoro snorted.
"That Bellamy really was trash," Nami spat. "I'm glad we left the bar before he could start spewing garbage." Luffy nodded. He'd taken him out in one punch. He had a devil fruit that made his legs into springs so he could jump around a lot. "Sounds pretty useless. Could he move in midair?" Luffy shook his head. "Useless," she repeated.
The ship was ready to go, and hadn't taken too long at all. Only a few hours. His crew looked a little roughed up by the forest, but they had been screaming about it after all. They got onto the ship, thanking Cricket and the scavenging monkeys for all they'd done for them. They had the south bird contained, an annoying sounding creature, but the one he'd been hearing from the forest for a while.
Cricket shouted, "United Primate Armed Forces! Don't screw this up, give it your all to get them there!" Luffy beamed, and they set sail in a hurry to make it on time. Better early than late. They had some time, but not much since the southbird had taken a bit of time. And the party they had was a time waster as well.
At least it was fun, though!
"Kid! We will part here! But there is one thing that is absolutely certain! It is that for gold city and Sky Island, there has never been anyone, that can prove it exists! Others may laugh at us, but that doesn't matter. This is adventure!"
The Straw Hats cheered, and happily said goodbye to the guy helping them on their next journey, one in the sky! One their way, Luffy had fun messing with the south bird. Its head only pointed south. That seemed inconvenient, but interesting! Even when he turned its head, it kept being forced back to point south.
It didn't like this, but there wasn't much it could do. "Luffy, you should get a refill before we go. Don't know what'll happen," Robin said from her lawn chair.
"Oh, good idea!" he said, and darted inside to get a full blood bag, and slurp it down in preparation for anything crazy. He put it in the biohazard box in case any of the other helper crews saw it. They might think it was weird or suspect something. He wondered if there would be things like him in the sky. People or animals.
It was an hour early that the millennium cumulonimbus appeared! It was like there was a patch of night time under only that cloud. The monkeys were worried they hadn't found the knock-up-stream's next location until the waves got violent and choppy, throwing all three ships around. They could barely hear one another but Luffy, even though the waves were noisy, too.
He slammed his hands over his ears when Shoujou used his sonar, and found that they were right in the perfect place! Lucky! Luffy knew everything would work out after all! They were led to the whirlpool, a huge one! Spinning rapidly! Only the scared three were the most worried and wanting to go back, while Luffy screamed, "Sky Island, here I come! Woooo!"
Sea king got caught in the whirlpool and was spinning around in there with them. It wouldn't attack them, but Luffy couldn't help pity the thing thrashing around and unable to move, victim to the powerful swirling water. Then it got even bigger! The Going Merry was tiny in it! They were getting closer to the center, faster and faster, tilting downwards.
"Be careful and have fun, everyone!" Masira said. He and Shoujou's ships were safely outside of the whirlpool of adventure. Or death, either one.
"Wait, you never told us the whirlpool would be this huge!" Nami screeched.
"Let us go back! Help us!" Usopp cried.
"No going back now! Neehee!" Luffy said happily, holding onto the railing hard as the ship spinned. His navigator and sniper were begging him to go back. They wouldn't be able to anyways, as they insisted Sky Island didn't exist. There was no point in killing themselves over it! It was just a fantasy! "Yeah! But it's an adventure we'll regret not doing for the rest of our lives!" he shouted over the roaring of the storm and water. It had turned into nighttime by now. At least under the cloud.
"Hey, while you were freaking out, you missed that we're entering the middle of the whirlpool," Zoro said simply.
"AHHH! No, we're gonna die!"
"Nami-san, come lay on my chest, I'll protect you!" But suddenly the whirlpool disappeared. Luffy whined, demanding to know if it didn't work. Nami's eyes widened, and explained that the whirlpool went to the bottom of the sea, not the surface. Knock-up-stream was beginning! Not much longer now.
Luffy was bouncing on his toes before he noticed the ship outside of the area they were in. He smelled it was Blackbeard. Just barely able to with all of the other sensory overloads. "Zehahahaha! I finally caught you, Straw Hat kiddo!"
Nami said, "He's the guy we saw at Mocktown. The one Ace is after." They all glared at him. He wasn't there for anything good, obviously.
"We're here to take that 100 million berries head of yours!" Luffy cocked his head in confusion.
"Me?" he wondered.
"Surrender to us now!"
"No way, we're going on an adventure!" Luffy shouted back. "And what are you talking about, 100 million?!"
"So you didn't know after all! There's a bounty on your head with 100 million! Pirate Hunter Zoro also has 60 million!" he shouted, holding up two pages that Luffy assumed were bounty posters. Usopp confirmed this. Luffy laughed proudly, he and Zoro grinning. He was worth that much?!
"It's probably from what happened in Alabasta," Nami said, while Sanji complained about not having his own wanted poster. "Don't get so full of yourselves!" she shouted at the celebrating couple. They were brought back to the present when Masira told them the knock-up-stream was starting. "Everyone grab onto something or go inside!" Luffy grabbed onto the mast, and his eyes widened along with his smile as they were shot into the sky by the current forced out of the ocean violently.
The ship sailed vertically along the water, when Luffy thought they'd be on the top of it. But the ship would fall off at this rate. Sea kings and sharks fell from the sky, other victims of the knock-up-stream. They were going to fall at this rate and join them in death, though.
"Wait, pull down the sails now! It's an updraft! We'll ride the current!" They clumsily lowered the sails and the Merry was flying, despite being dressed like a chicken. Luffy cheered, pressed up against the wall of the cabin. The others were as well, or wrapped around the railing, screaming for dear life.
But everyone, scared as they were, were excited and amazed about their ship flying up into the sky, into the clouds that were always too far to reach. It was an experience none of them would ever forget. "If we keep ascending with the wind, we'll go anywhere! After this cloud, we should be on top of it!" Nami called.
Don't expect Skypeia to be the same as it is in canon! I changed that up drastically. But some very important things in the story happen in Sky Island!