Author's Note: Okay, I felt bad about posting a rather boring chapter, so I decided to upload this one really quick. Hope you like! If you like it, review!
Disclaimer: 'reads off a notecard' I don't own One Piece
Chapter Six: Where's Nami?
"Alright you all, it's ready!" Sanji called. Two seconds later, a delicious-smelling array of food had been set on the coffe table, complete with a wine bottle and champagne glasses. "Full-Course Sky Island Special Catch with Fruit is now served!" the cook announced proudly.
"Look's great!" Chopper exclaimed.
"Itsatakimasu!" Luffy sang, grabbing half the lobster and biting into it.
The rest of the crew took a little of everything (like regular human beings) and started to eat.
"Delicious!" Usopp said with obvious delight.
"I've never tasted anything like this before!" Hoshi beamed. "What about you Zoro?"
The swordsman didn't answer, but the fact that he was already reaching for a second helping answered her question. She grinned at him.
"This is a superb presentation of the shrimp," Robin commented.
Sanji walked out onto the balcony and lit a cigarette. "Oi… where'd Nami-san go?" he asked.
"She's there in the sea," Luffy said, not looking up.
"Yeah, we just saw her," Hoshi added.
"No, she's not. I don't see her," Sanji said, scanning the ocean.
Usopp looked up and grinned. "You know Nami, she probably just went out exploring. She can handle herself."
Conis looked worried. "Father… will she be alright?"
"Yes, Conis-san, I also feel a bit unsettled," Pagaya said. Hoshi glanced towards the two of them through slightly narrowed eyes as she chewed her food.
"Why?" Luffy asked through a mouthful of food. "Why would she not be alright?"
Conis was silent for a minute before answering. "Here on Skypia… there is a place you must never ever set foot upon, no matter what the circumstances," she said hesitantly. "That place is adjacent to this island, and could easily be reached with the Waver.
"'Must never set foot upon?'" Luffy asked. "What does that mean?"
"Exactly what it says, idiot," Usopp chided.
"It's sacred ground," Conis murmured. She looked very uncomfortable, her hands balled on her knees and she was sweating a little.
Pagaya had put down his plate. "We call that place the Land Where God Resides, Upper Yard."
"GOD lives there?!" Luffy exclaimed, actually putting down unfinished food and standing up. "In the place you must never, ever set foot!?"
"God lives on Sky Island?" Chopper asked, wondering.
Hoshi looked skeptical, but Conis nodded. "Yes. Because Skypia is God's land, ruled by the almighty God, Enel."
Robin blinked.
Hoshi growled a little. Enel… that name just irked her for some reason.
"God Enel knows everything that goes on in this world," Conis continued.
"Everything?!" Chopper exclaimed.
Conis nodded. "He watches over us, always. He knows everything we do."
There was a silence, then it was broken by Hoshi's laughter. She laughed and laughed in front of everyone's stunned faces.
Pagaya stood. "Please! This is not a laughing matter, I'm sorry!" he said firmly.
Hoshi got herself under control and wiped a tear from her eye. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm not laughing at your religion… I'm just thinking what a headache any sort of sane person would get from knowing everything that went on in this world." She chuckled softly. Pagaya and Conis continued to look horrified, though Usopp and Zoro got the joke, and they chuckled a bit.
"Hmph, 'God', right?" Zoro asked no one in particular. He took a gulp of the sky-colored wine.
"Zoro… you don't believe in God?" Chopper asked.
"Don't know… I don't frankly care whether God exists or not," Zoro said nonchalantly, making eye contact with the little reindeer. He took another gulp of wine. "Well, it's not like I have anything against anyone who wants to believe."
"So this God who lives on Upper Yard, have you ever seen him Conis-chan?" Sanji asked.
Conis jumped at the question, and waved her hands in front of her. "No! I've never seen him! We are forbidden to set foot on Upper Yard."
Luffy had stars sparkling in front of his face. "A place we must never, ever set foot, right?" he asked with a big grin.
Usopp grabbed the cuff of Luffy's shirt and started shaking the rubberman. "Oi Luffy! What the hell are you think about right now?! Listen to what she's saying! 'Must never set foot on' means we ABSOLUTELY must not go there! LUFFY! Are you listening to me!?"
Luffy continued to smile dreamily. "Is that right? A place we must never, ever set foot, huh?"
Zoro groaned and put his face into his hands. "Here we go again," he told his palms. Hoshi laughed and patted his back sympathetically. Robin chuckled and took a delicate sip of champagne.
"Even if we DO go there, God's nice right? He'll forgive us if we do!" Luffy said, nonchalantly chomping on a bun.
"Even so… breaking a law that God has created is sacrilege," Conis exclaimed.
"Is that so?" Luffy sang, stuffing the rest of the lobster into his mouth.
Everyone except Conis and Pagaya sweatdropped. "He definitely wants to go there," Hoshi muttered, voicing everyone's thoughts.
"Does he even know what 'sacrilege' means?" Zoro muttered.
"So what are the consequences for entering this forbidden Upper Yard?" Robin asked.
Conis hesitated. "W-well… it is said that you will not return alive from there."
Hoshi froze, and her fist clenched her fork. "N-not return alive?"
Sanji's cigarette fell out of his mouth. Pagaya turned his gaze on Sanji and Hoshi. "You're worried about Nami-san, aren't you? It will be best if she doesn't get too close to Upper Yard."
Sanji immediately ran to the balcony and bellowed, "NAMI-SAN!! WHERE'D YOU GO? DON'T MOVE A MUSCLE, WE'RE COMING TO GET YOU!!!"
Hoshi put down her metal fork and plate onto the coffee table and stood up. The fork was dented. Conis noticed this, and shuddered a little. The fork had been perfectly straight before.
Luffy was happy. "Yosh, let's go there then! We'll go find Nami on the place we must never, ever set foot upon!"
Usopp grabbed Luffy and started shaking him. "Is Nami really part of your plan?" he demanded. "You just want to enter that forbidden place, don't you? Don't you!?" Dropping Luffy, he turned to look at Hoshi. "Hoshi, couldn't you go and find Nami?" he asked.
Hoshi just gave the long nosed sharpshooter a cold look. Usopp melted under the gaze. "Okay, okay, I get it," he mumbled.
Sanji was already at the door. "Oi, guys, let's go."
Luffy was stuffing his face with the last of the food. "Wait a sec, got to eat this first."
"What if something happens to Nami-san while you're worrying about that?! Forget the food! We'll be back soon anyways!"
"Hang on a sec! This food is way too good to pass up like that!!"
Sanji growled. "Conis-chan! We could be here all day waiting for him! Can you tell us how to get to Upper Yard?"
Conis was even more unsettled. She clenched her fists in her lap as Hoshi watched through narrowed eyes. Conis said, "Incurring the wrath of God is a… terrible thing."
Chopper swallowed. "God Enel sounds really scary…"
It took the crew a while to get Luffy away from the food. He just kept stretching and grabbing the table to get some more food. Eventually though, everyone, including Conis, was on board Merry.
"YOSH! LET'S GO! TO THE PLACE WE MUST NEVER EVER SET FOOT!!" Luffy yelled, punching the air with both fists as he sat on his special seat.
Pagaya tested the wind from the beach. "I'm sorry! There's a headwind right now! With this wind, it would take a considerable amount of time to reach Upper Yard!" he called to everyone on deck. This was met by outcries of dismay.
"It wouldn't take as long if your ship was one powered by Dial energy," Pagaya cut through.
"Just how long would 'considerable' be?" Sanji asked.
Pagaya looked at his sandals. "I don't know… unless the wind changes…"
"Is that so? 'Considerable' huh?" Usopp nonchalantly replied, casually leaning on the banister. "Nami would certainly be in peril without the great Usopp-sama to protect her-"
"Couldn't you make the wind blow the way we want it to?" Luffy asked Hoshi.
Hoshi shrugged. "I could… if I wanted to get a life-threatening fever for the next three days. The amount of energy I would need to move that much air would come close to killing me."
"Ossan, isn't there any other faster way?" Luffy called. "If we don't hurry up, Nami might get back!!"
Everyone sweatdropped. "Oi…"
"We finally found a dangerous place to go!" Luffy retorted. "Like hell I'm going to wait for the wind to change!" He jumped into the belly of the ship and started rampaging around a bit.
"Luffy, you'd better not be damaging Merry!" Usopp shouted into the hold.
"Don't worry, I'm not," Luffy said, coming up with a bunch of wood on his head.
Hoshi blinked. "Oi, Luffy! Don't tell me that's-"
"Yup! It's the old beat-up Waver we found!" Luffy threw it into the ocean and hopped on. It didn't move an inch, but it did flip over due to the considerable amount of damage it had suffered.
"That idiot," Usopp muttered.
"S-SABE BEE!!" Luffy gargled.
Chopper's eyes were wide. "He's… sinking again. What do we do?"
"Leave him," Usopp, Sanji, Zoro, and Hoshi all automatically replied.
In the end, they ended up saving Luffy anyways. He was all bloated from the water he had taken in. Hoshi helped Zoro squish all the water out of Luffy by stomping on Luffy's belly. She had a grin on her face. "This guy's a complete nut!" she laughed.
Zoro grimaced. "If he's such a nut, why do we bother to save him every time?"
Pagaya inspected the Waver, talking with Usopp. Hoshi didn't pay much attention until Usopp yelled, "You can fix it?!"
Luffy miraculously recovered, spraying Zoro and Hoshi with a blast of water from his mouth. "You can fix it Ossan?!" he asked, looking excited.
Unfortunatly, he didn't hear the answer due to his first mate and his musician punching him into the sand and standing on his head. "YOU ARE SUCH AN IDIOT!!" they roared at him.
"Well, I'm a Dial ship engineer, so there's no reason why I shouldn't," Pagaya smiled.
"Hurrah! I'm counting on you Ossan!" Luffy said, punching both fists into the air. He and Usopp started square dancing. "He's going to fix the Wa-ver, he's going to fix the Wa-ver…"
Hoshi suddenly shivered as a cold wave bolted down her spine. She looked over the ocean's surface with narrowed eyes. A wave of enormous power had been unleashed somewhere close by just now…
"You alright?" Zoro asked, noticing this change in behavior.
Hoshi didn't hear him. What the hell… was that just now? she wondered. The phoenix hit a high pitched tremolo, making her mind throb. She winced.
"Oi, Hoshi, you alright?" Zoro asked, a little more loudly. Hoshi blinked and looked at him with a shaky smile.
"I'm fine," was her answer. Zoro looked at her through narrowed eyes. She was sweating a little, and she was really tense. Something was definitely wrong.
Everyone busied themselves doing random things while they waited for Pagaya. Chopper made a replica of himself with the island cloud. "Hey, Usopp, how's this?" he asked. It was a cute effort, but it looked more like a blob with hoof-shaped eyes, wearing a cylinder more than anything.
Usopp had a characteristically smug look on his face. "I'm done with mine too!" he said, gallantly showing off his piece. He had molded himself, with a crown and cape, laughing courageously, and the rest of the crew behind him looking up at him in awe. "Mine's the spitting image!!"
"AMAZING!!" Chopper yelled, stars in his eyes.
Sanji's eyebrow twitched. "The spitting image of WHAT exactly?" he asked in a dangerously polite voice.
"The crew!" Usopp announced proudly.
Sanji snapped. He kicked Usopp in the head, then set about stomping on all the statues. "IT'S NOT THE SPITTING IMAGE OF ANYTHING, YOU STUPID NAGAHANA!!"
A dagger sliced off the cloud-Usopp's head, coming dangerously close to Sanji's nose before disappearing. Hoshi glanced at Usopp's crestfallen face before facing the sea again. Zoro turned his head away to hide his suppressed laughter.
"Hoshi! Sanji!! What the hell are you doing?! It took me forever to get the face right!" Usopp moaned.
"Who, me?" Hoshi asked innocently, smiling sweetly.
"Who else has weapons that'll disappear into thin air?" Usopp demanded.
Hoshi made a scary face, still smiling, but shadows as if she was holding a light under her chin. "WHO, I wonder," she intoned.
Usopp went stiff, then started crying. "S-s-scary…"
Hoshi and Zoro started cracking up at the sight of his face.
"Usopp… your face…!" Hoshi gasped between bouts of laughter.
Zoro just laughed until tears formed at the corners of his eyes.
"IT'S NOT FUNNY!" Usopp roared.
Hoshi and Zoro stopped laughing for one second. They looked at Usopp, then they looked at each other and began right back where they started.
Robin chuckled, watching this scene.
"Why me?" Usopp moaned.
Hoshi suddenly stopped laughing as the uniform click of boots met her ears. She whirled around to see strange men with purple shirts, blue pants patterned with clouds, and black boots coming down the stairs. They all were marching in uniform rows, and had white berets tilted over their left eyes. Something in their manner told Hoshi that there were some sort of military force, and she immediately stiffened. Her experiences with governments in the past had not been pleasant.
Everyone looked in the direction Hoshi was staring in. "Oi, who are those guys?" Luffy asked Conis and Pagaya. They didn't have time to answer as a voice boomed out over the beach. "SUSPICIOUS LOOKING SHIP! STOP RIGHT THERE!!"
Hoshi had blue lines over one eye. "What the hell… we weren't moving," she muttered. She started to subtly loosen her combat muscles, ready for action.
Here we are, at the end of the chapter. TT I hope you enjoyed! If you liked it, please clicky the nice button!