Author's Note: Thank you for the reviews! Here's chapter two for all of ya!
Disclaimer: One Piece is not mine, don't own it, how many times do I have to say it?!
Chapter Two: Knight of the Sky
Hoshi continued to cough.
"AH! YOUR ARMS ARE BURNED!" Chopper yelled. "Doctor! Doc- oh, that's me."
Chopper bandaged up Hoshi's arms as Zoro watched with impassive eyes. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. Hoshi grinned at him, though she kept coughing, seeing he was wet. "You cough saved me again, didn't you? cough Thanks!"
Zoro felt heat rising in his cheeks. "No problem," he muttered, looking away.
Hoshi noticed the man in armor standing on the balcony. She narrowed her eyes and spat out bit of water. "Who the hell are you?" she asked dangerously, suppressing her coughs for a minute.
"I am the Knight of the Sky," the old man in armor answered, unfazed by Hoshi's glare.
"He saved all our lives!" Chopper said. Usopp was recovering from his shock (falling out of the cloud, see chapter one), and was sitting up and mumbling incoherent words to himself.
Hoshi looked at the Knight of the Sky again. He wore a full suit of armor. His face was wrinkled and his cheeks were sunken in, but he had a long pointy beard and a matching mustache that reached a several inches past his chin. A black cape hung loosely over his shoulders. A jousting post was held over one shoulder, and in his eyes was the look of a man who had seen things he hadn't wanted to see. She nodded slowly, still a little suspicious.
"Just what is going on!? What's happening!? And what's more… what's wrong with you four?" Nami asked the ship's fighters, who were all gasping on the deck. "That was totally pathetic! All four of you at once couldn't take on that masked dude!"
Chopper bowed to the old man. "Thank you for saving us," he said on behalf of the whole crew.
"No need for thanks. This is a service," the Knight of the Sky said gruffly.
"Damn, this is such a disappointment…" Sanji gasped, sweating.
Hoshi coughed again. She shook the water out of her hair and coughed some more.
"You okay?" Zoro asked. Hoshi nodded and stood up.
"It must be because the air's so thin," Robin stated.
"Now that I think about it… that makes sense…" Luffy said from where he lay, gasping on the floor. Everyone sweatdropped. Since when does Luffy ever think? Hoshi walked over and kicked him affectionately on the head.
"Moron," she said, her eyes teasing.
"Are you all Blue Sea dwellers?" asked the Knight of the Sky
"Blue Sea Dwellers? What's that? And exactly WHO are you?" Nami asked.
The man tsked. "You're so full of questions, aren't you? Blue Sea Dwellers are what we call those who live below the clouds. I presume you all traveled up from the Blue Sea?"
"Yeah, that's right," Luffy answered.
"Then this is no surprise. You all are on the White Sea, about 7,000 meters above the Blue Sea. Farther up is the White-White Sea, another 3,000 meters up. Ordinarily Blue Sea Dwellers' bodies cannot handle the change in pressure."
Luffy sat up and thumped his chest. "Yosh, I think I'm getting used to it."
"Yeah, I feel a lot better than before," Zoro said.
The Knight of the Sky sweatdropped. "No, no, no, it doesn't work like that," the old man told them.
"I'm actually surprised you guys can move at all. I'm more used to pressure changes since I can- since my body is specially built for pressure change," Hoshi said, changing what she was about to say with a quick glance at the old man. She wasn't sure if she could trust him yet.
"I have to know!" Nami burst. "How was that guy riding on top of the clouds? Who was he? Why'd he att-"
"Yield, yield, yield, I am certain you all have many questions for me," the old man said, holding up one hand to cut off the flow of questions. "But first we must talk of business."
"Business?" Nami asked.
"I am a free mercenary, and this is a sea of many dangers," he explained. "Since you do not know the battle of the sky, you all will be easy targets for the guerillas and the Skyfish. One whistle, and I will rescue you for a price of 5,000,000 Extols."
Zoro, Hoshi, Sanji, and Luffy all turned their heads to one side. "What're you talking about Ossan?" Luffy asked.
The Knight of the Sky threw up his hands. "You fool! It's a small price to pay for your life! I will not take one Extol less! I have to make a living you know!"
"But what is this Extol thing you're talking about?" Hoshi asked, feeling the first pinpricks of irritation.
"And what do you mean by 'whistle'?" Zoro asked.
The old man looked stunned. "You mean you all did not come here by the way of High West? But you must have stopped by at least one or two islands on the way!"
"C'mon, what are you talking about Ossan?" Luffy said, starting to look annoyed.
"Hang on, you say that there are other ways to get to this cloud sea?!" Nami asked. Hoshi took one look at her face and then quickly grabbed a confused Zoro to hide behind the mast.
"You mean that you all-"
"We rode the Knock-Up Stream here," Hoshi called from behind the mast.
"You rode that monstrous current here?! To think that there are souls still brave enough to do that…"
Everyone else shivered, took look one look at Nami's face and moved like lightening to hide behind the mast with Hoshi, along with the rest of the crew… except for Luffy, who didn't notice what was going on until Nami had him by the throat.
"I KNEW THAT WASN'T A NORMAL WAY UP HERE!" she roared. "I THOUGHT WE WERE GONNA DIE! IF WE HAD GATHERED MORE INFORMATION WE COULD HAVE HAD AN EASIER TRIP!!! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT FOR BEING SO IMPATIENT!!"
"B-but we're h-here now, s-so it's all g-good!" Luffy choked.
"NO IT ISN'T YOU MORON!! IDIOT! WE ALL ALMOST DIED DAMMIT!!"
Usopp quietly lay down in a funeral position and started to mutter, "Sky Island scary, Nami scary, Sky Island scary, Nami sca-"
"WHO'S SCARY!?"
Everyone shouted and ran away as Nami threw Luffy onto the ground and started chasing after all the rest of them. They ran around in crazy patterns around the deck.
"Outta my WAY! Outta my WAY!!" Hoshi screamed.
"AAAAHHHH!" was the monotonous yell emitting from Chopper and Usopp.
"Damn, she's like a demon," Zoro muttered.
"Ah! Nami-san's so cute when she's mad!" Sanji sang, floating on his little pink cloud.
"Where the hell did that cloud come from?" Zoro asked. Hoshi laughed at that, and Zoro felt his stomach do another flip. He growled. What was with him lately?!
Robin was the only one who hadn't started running. She looked up as the old man said something. "What did you say again?" she called over the shouting.
"Did you loose any of your crew on your way here?" the old man shouted.
"Nope! We all made it!" Luffy called as he ran past. Hoshi got tired of running and stopped. She stood in Nami's path and doinked the side of her hand onto Nami's forehead.
"That's enough," she said. "Let's listen to what the walking tin can has to say."
The Knight of the Sky sweatdropped and the uncalled-for nickname, but he continued. "The other routes would not have been so merciful. If you bring one hundred people, it's just a gamble to how many will survive. Coming up the Knock-Up Stream, you either all live or you all die." He looked at the bunch of kids in front of him with new eyes. "There are few like you who are willing to risk loosing everything in one shot… especially in recent years. I have great respect for you brave navigators!"
Nami looked stunned, but someone took the compliment into full stride.
"Well," said the miraculously recovered Usopp, "It was the course I picked after all. At the time, all these guys were crying and afraid for their lives, but I said, 'The great Captain Usopp-sama is the navigator, so you all- owww…" Hoshi had reached over and pulled his cheek before Nami could kill him.
"WHO was crying and afraid for his life again?" she asked pleasantly enough, aqua eyes teasing. Nami was twitching, stress marks appearing all over her face.
The 'walking tin can' threw a small silver whistle into the air. "One whistle means blowing sharply into this. I will descend from heaven itself to lend you aid," he said gallantly, dramatically turning his back to the crew to look out over the sea, his black cape snapping in the non-existent wind.
Hoshi sweatdropped. "That is so cheesy…"
"I normally ask 5,000,000 Extols for future visits, but for you guys… I will give you one whistle as a present," he said, preparing to leave.
"Wait! We don't even know your name!" Nami said urgently.
He turned. "I am the Knight of the Sky, Gan Fall!"
"Whatever, he's still walking tin can Ossan to me…" Hoshi mumbled, inspecting the whistle.
"This is my partner, Pierre!" A pink bird with black spots and an obnoxiously long yellow beak squawked as it heard its name.
"I should have mentioned that my partner is a bird who has eaten and gain the ability of the Uma Uma (horse) fruit…"
The bird began to transform before everyone's stunned eyes.
"Meaning he can become a winged horse!!" Gan Fall roared triumphantly.
"How beautiful, a Pegasus!" Nami exclaimed, seeing the bird's outline in the FX transformation light.
"Yes, a Pegasus!" The 'Pegasus' came into full view… it was still pink with black spots, was bucktoothed, and its wings were also pink with black spots… it wasn't that much different actually, except the shape of its body had changed into a lanky horse.
"That's… questionable," everyone on the crew said simultaneously.
"Brave souls! May luck be with you!" Gan Fall cried as he rode off on the back of the bird-horse… thingamabober.
"Was there any real point in it changing?" Zoro asked, his eyebrow twitching.
"Who knows…" Hoshi answered, sweatdropping.
"In the end, he didn't really tell us much," Robin said as she held out her hand for the silver whistle. Hoshi dropped it into her hand. "We still don't know which direction to go from here."
"Well, if we blow the whistle, he'll come back," Sanji commented.
"More importantly, how are we going to get higher?" Zoro asked irritably. Hoshi nodded in agreement. If it was only her, she could just fly higher… but then again, she probably wouldn't be doing this to begin with.
"Yosh! I'll call the Ossan and ask him!" Luffy grinned. He opened his mouth and took a deep breath, but was attacked by a long-nosed teen and a carrot-headed navigator.
"H-h-h-hang on Luffy! We're only gonna use that in an emergency!" Nami yelled in his ear as she stretched it as far as she could.
"What if the weirdo in the mast shows up again?!" Usopp demanded, squeezing Luffy's neck.
Hoshi sweatdropped. "Um… is he alright…?"
"Anyway, let's get this ship higher," Zoro said, bonking Usopp and Luffy on the head.
"Hey, look over there," Chopper said, pointing towards starboard. There was a cylindral column leading towards the layer of clouds above.
Everyone looked. "There's like a waterfall thingummy over there," Hoshi said, squinting.
"Clouds won't naturally make that sort of shape…" Nami mused.
"Yosh! Then let's go over there!" Luffy yelled. "To the weird lookin' cloud!!"
"Aye…" everyone said uncertainly.
Everyone helped turn the ship to starboard and they started sailing, but they hadn't sailed for long when a huge cloud that was sticking out of the ocean blocked their way.
"It's a cloud…" Chopper said.
"Several large clouds seem to be blocking our way," Robin commented.
"It's sticking out of the ocean though, so it's probably not part of it," Hoshi pointed out.
"What kind of clouds would they be then?" Sanji mused. Zoro leaned on the banister and said nothing.
"Well if they're ordinary clouds, we can sail right through them," Nami said, shrugging.
"Yosh! I'll punch one and find out!" Luffy said as he stretched his arm back. He punched the cloud, and his arm bounced right off with a springy sound. There was silence… then…
Luffy's eyes got big. "It bounced off!" he yelled, jumping onto the cloud. Everyone stared in astonishment as the captain started bouncing around on the cloud. "Look! I'm bouncing!" he called. "I'm not sinking! It's so soft! Just like cotton! What is it? What is it? What is it? It's almost TOO fun!"
"AWESOME!" Chopper yelled, hearts in his eyes.
"What a strange phenomenon," Nami mused.
"Quite mysterious," Robin agreed.
"I want to get on it! Wait for me Luffy!" Hoshi yelled, leaping over the banister.
"Me too!" Usopp called, following Hoshi off the ship. Chopper quickly followed Usopp, screaming with anticipation.
Luffy had stopped bouncing and was reclining on the cloud. "Ahh… this feels nice. It's so warm, I think I might fall asleep… it's more comfortable than a thousand futons. WOAH!!" This last part was caused as he was unexpectedly bounced into the air by three laughing figures. They all started bouncing around like crazy, laughing and screaming. Hoshi wasn't even trying to bounce… rather, it was more like she was trying to breathe from laughing so hard. Zoro felt something warm flash across his chest as he watched.
"But… this means we can't get through wherever these clouds are," Nami muttered. "Hey!" she yelled. "Look for a route that the ship can use while you're up there!"
"Yosh!" Luffy called down. "I'll lo-"
"Oi! Luffy!" Hoshi yelled. "There's something over here!"
"Really!? I'm coming!" He started running along the edge of the cloud to reach her stark black figure among the white clouds.
"OI!! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME!?" Nami screamed in frustration.
Hoshi was lying down, but when she stood up, she realized too late that the captain was running with his eyes closed, again… after a spectacular crash, they both fell into the cloud ocean.
I'm gonna kill him later for this, Hoshi thought as she grabbed Luffy under his shoulders and dragged him to the surface. But right now, there was something she needed to tell Nami…
"A gate?" Nami asked a couple minutes later, after she had stomped on Luffy's chest to bring him back to life. Usopp had come down to listen, though Chopper was still enjoying the cloud-trampoline thing.
"Yeah… there's like this huge gate under the waterfall-looking thing," Hoshi said.
Usopp choked as Chopper fell on his head. He stumbled and ran into Hoshi, causing her to fall onto Luffy's chest and pin him against the banister. There was an uncomfortable second when their faces were about two inches away from each other, then they both blushed.
"Sorry," Hoshi mumbled. Luffy looked away and didn't say anything about the warm spots on his chest where Hoshi's hands had been. Desperate for something to do, she whacked Usopp on the head. "Damn Usopp, watch where you're falling!"
Zoro watched with an impassive face as Usopp apologized. Something peculiar was moving around inside of him…
Taking no notice of this, Nami looked in the direction of the waterfall cloud. "So there's something man-made here?"
"Nothing is out of the question on this sea," Robin replied.
"Well whatever! We'll find out when we get there!" Luffy said, jumping up and pointing in the general direction of the waterfall. "LET'S GO!"
I still want to know who wants LuffyxHoshi, or ZoroxHoshi. 'Kay, you all know the drill! I don't submit the next chapter till three of you press the little button, so clicky!!