Brand New World
Ch. 6: Skypiea Saga, START!!
"This ROCKS!!!" I yelled as we shot up into the sky.
"How can you be enjoying this!?!" Nami yelled at me with her angry face. "We could die!"
"Crap," Sanji said as Luffy and I were reveling in the ride, "if we keep going like this, we`ll fall off!" And then we saw a ship and the sea king that got sucked up earlier fall down below us. "We`ll end up like that if we don`t do something."
"Set the sail down! Hurry!" Nami said, now calmed down. "Water vapors are coming from below."
"She`s right," I said. "This is an updraft!"
"If the opponents are the sea and air, we will sail on. In their faces!" Nami said with a smile on her face. "After all, who is this ship`s navigator?"
As Zoro, Robin, and I were standing on the wall, Sanji replied with stars in his eyes, "It`s Nami-san, of course!"
"Let the wind push right, to turn the ship to the left!" Nami ordered staunchly. "Make the body of the ship parallel to the stream! Hurry!"
"Yes, ma`am!" we replied as we started going to work.
"Waaahhh! This is bad!" Chopper exclaimed freaking out. "The ship is starting to slip away from the stream! We`re falling down! Nami come up with a plan, quick!!!"
"No need," Nami said calmly, "we`re all set! The Merry`s flying!"
"So cool! The ship is flying in the sky!" Luffy exclaimed loudly.
"Really?!" Usopp said, shocked.
"I did it," Nami said relieved.
"Of course you did," I said looking at her, "you`re a great navigator."
"Thanks," Nami said, blushing a little.
"Nami-san, you`re awesome!" Sanji said, again with hearts in his eyes.
"If we stay on this wind and stream," Nami said, "no matter where, we can ascend there."
"Hey, Nami," Luffy yelled, "are we going to be at Sky Island soon?"
"If it exists," Nami replied, "it should be behind that piece of cloud."
"Wow," I said, "we`re so close." Then we entered the Eternal Cumulonimbus. Wow, it was hard to breathe. It was like being underwater. That I did not expect. After we got through the clouds, the wings broke off and we landed on top of the clouds. We were all coughing and choking on the fact we couldn`t breathe for like a minute and the air up here was thin. After taking in the spectacular view (which reminded me of looking out a window in an airplane), Usopp decided to go for a swim.
After a few minutes, Usopp hadn`t gotten back and Robin had a thought. "Is there really a sea floor to this?"
"Oh crap!" I said as I dove in after Usopp.
As I was heading in, I heard Sanji say, "I told that idiot not to dive in."
"Kakusei, wait!!" Robin said just after I dived in. I kept rocketing deeper and deeper into the cloud, it hit me. In my haste to save Usopp, I forgot to give myself a way to get back to the ship. Crap. I always was a little impulsive. Then another memory triggered. Flight was possible in another world. It was a ki-based technique from the world of Dragon Ball. I guess that`s where I learned how to control my ki. I guess that`s also how I`m diving so fast. Then I exited the cloud and saw Usopp to the left of me, out cold. I flew over to him and shot back up to the ship. On my way, I could feel something was following me. I shot back into the sky like a rocket, in full view of the crew.
"You did it!" Nami said, as Luffy and Chopper were looking at me again with stars in their eyes.
"I sure did!" I said sarcastically as a squid the size of one of the heads on Mount Rushmore popped up from the cloud.
Chopper and Nami were screaming their heads off as Zoro jumped forward. "Nothing to be scared about." In one stroke he slashed the tentacle of the squid, and it POPPED?!?! Then Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro took care of the creatures. I would have helped, but I felt so tired, like I weighed about ten to twenty times heavier. And I think my ki lessened as well, or is at least harder to control.
Anyway, the animals here were pretty cool. They seemed to have evolved to survive in the clouds. Air-filled squids, flat fish with feather-like scales, man there was nothing like this back home. And Luffy had Sanji cook the fish that was in Usopp`s pants. Only if I was starving would I have eaten that fish. Then Chopper pointed out a ship and a guy near it. Then the ship blew up. And of course, the guy who apparently blew it up came towards us. Luffy, Sanji, Zoro, and I tried to fight him off, but we got our asses handed to us. Then an old man wearing knight`s armor and riding a bird came and scared the other guy off. He asked us if we were alright, and Nami got pissed off that it was four on one and we lost.
"Tsk, that was embarrassing," Sanji said, catching his breath.
"For some reason," Zoro commented, "my body can`t move very well."
"That`s because the oxygen is scarce here," Robin revealed.
"Are you citizens of the Blue Sea?" the knight asked us.
"What do you mean?" I asked breathing heavily.
"Who are you?" Nami asked.
"I would be the 'knight of the sky'," the knight replied. "All living things under the clouds are citizens of the Blue Sea. In other words, you came up from where the sea is blue?"
"Yeah," Luffy replied while lying on the deck, "that`s right."
"It can`t be helped then," the knight said. "This place is 7000 meters above the blue seas is called the White Sea. And 10000 meters above is called the White-White Sea. The bodies of average citizens from the Blue Seas cannot handle it." The others got used to it a few seconds after that, while it took me about a minute. Why did I suddenly slow down?
Turns out this knight was a mercenary-for-hire, and wanted to charge us five million Extol for a whistle to call him. It also turns out there are other Sky Islands and there are other ways to get to the Sky Sea. So we took the almost-always-fatal road. Lucky us. He handed us a whistle which would call him, and he told us, for our bravery, the first whistle using the whistle was free. After that five million Extol per use.
"Wait we don`t even know your name!" Nami said as the knight began to leave.
"I am Gan Fall, the knight of the sky!" he replied "This is my partner, Pierre!" Then his bird squawked. "And before I forget, Pierre even though he`s a bird, the has the power of the Uma Uma no Mi, which means he can become a winged horse!"
"A Pegasus!?!" I said in disbelief.
"That`s right," Gan fall replied, "a Pegasus!" Yeah, a retarded-looking Pegasus.
"In the end," Robin replied, "he didn`t tell us anything useful."
"Not at all," I said. "So how do we get higher?"
"Let`s call Ossan and ask him," Luffy said as he grabbed the whistle.
"Wa-wa-wa-wait! Wait a minute, Luffy!" Nami said while holding Luffy`s throat in a death grip. "This is only for an emergency."
"If that weird mask guy comes again, what will we do without the whistle?" Usopp said while stretching out Luffy`s cheek.
"Let`s get the ship moving," Zoro said.
"Hey, look over there," Chopper said.
"What`s that?" Robin said looking in the direction Chopper indicated. "It looks like a waterfall, but…"
"That cloud is weird, right?" Chopper commented.
"At least it`s something," I said. "We should probably head over that way."
"Then it`s decided," Luffy said. "Let`s go over and check it out!!" When we got there, there was a huge cloud in the way. However, this cloud was solid and soft too. Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp were bouncing on it. While up there, they found a path through the clouds to a gate. It was really fancy and in giant letters were the words "Heaven`s Gate". The gatekeeper was an old woman with a camera who said that we had to pay one billion Extol per person to get through the gate. She said we could still go up even if we didn`t pay. And since we didn`t have any Extol, that was pretty convenient. Then after Luffy told her our intentions, a giant shrimp-like creature grabbed our ship and took us up the spiraling cloud path. The exit was the entrance to Skypiea. We made it!
Now that was a sight. An entire city built on clouds. We landed and walked on the beach, which was made of cloud as well. Now that was cool, walking on clouds. After exploring around for a few minutes, we saw a fox and heard a harp playing.
"Hey," Sanji said, "there`s someone over there."
"Is it another guerilla?" Usopp said as we all turned to look.
"Wait, that`s not it," Sanji said, "it`s an angel!!"
"An angel?" I said, surprised a little. Well, today was certainly a plethora of surprises. Her name was Conis, and Sanji was more infatuated with her than any other girl I`ve seen him fall for. Then her father, Pagaya, came in on a waver, crashed right into a tree, and asked US if anyone was hurt. Then we remembered that Luffy pilled a waver out of the ship that crashed back near Jaya. We asked how it ran and they asked us if we knew about dials. Then Luffy got to test drive Pagaya`s waver, and quickly crashed it and sank into the clouds like a rock. And even though it takes a good deal of practice to control a waver, from what Pagaya and Conis told us, Nami drove the waver like she had been doing it all her life. Nami stayed out and rode the waver a bit more, and the rest of us headed back to Pagaya`s house for some Skypiea cuisine. On the way, Pagaya explained how the cloud islands are formed and at their house, Conis explained how many dials work and are created. Then when the food was served, Sanji was wondering where Nami was, and Conis thought that she might have gone to the forbidden land, Upper Yard. Apparently their god, Enel lives there, and no one should set foot there. Then Luffy`s eyes lit up. Here we go, now Luffy wants to go there.
Anyway, Pagaya offered to fix the waver Luffy found, and then some weird guys that looked like they were in the military crawled up to Luffy, Conis, and Pagaya on the ground in plain sight. They are not being stealthy in the least. And then their leader called us a bunch of illegal trespassers. How rude! As a punishment, we had to pay ten times the entry fee. Luckily, 10000 Extol equals 1 beri so that wouldn`t be as much. Then Nami pulled up, and after Usopp told her we had to pay the 7 million beri, she nailed the leader in the face with the waiver. Oh, we`re screwed now. Then the squad fired arrows at us which made clouds in their wake. Luffy pushed Nami out of the way and dodged the clouds. Then the squad skated along the clouds to attack Luffy, but he grabbed a tree and slingshot himself above them.
Luffy began to rotate 360 degrees and said, "Gomu Gomu no Hanabi!" Arms and legs shot out in all directions, nailing all the squad members at once. And then the leader said the priests of Upper Yard would personally judge us. Well, we`re pirates, we`re supposed to be chased by the authorities. And then it hit us.
"Hey, Conis," I asked, "how do we get down from the White-White Sea?"
"You must first get back down to the White Sea, and then head far east to a place called "Cloud End," Conis replied. Then I went with Sanji, Usopp, and Luffy to get the food from the meal together to take with us. A few minutes later, we heard Nami screaming. Another, faster giant shrimp was hauling the rest of our crew and the Going Merry away!
"Why did Nami put her t-shirt on?" Sanji said sadly.
"Get over it!" Usopp yelled at him. "Hey, Luffy! This is bad! What do we do now?"
"Where are they going?" Luffy asked.
"Good question," I retorted.
"They are going to the northeast portion of Upper Yard," Pagaya said slowly, "to the sacrificial altar. They will be sacrifices."
"Sacrifices!?!?!" I yelled.
"Nami-san and Robin-chan and the others will become sacrifices!!?" Sanji exclaimed. "Sacrifices for the god!!?" Then we pulled out the map we found, and Pagaya showed us how to get to the altar in Upper Yard, which was our trial. As we walked down main street to the docks, everyone avoided us, most likely due to the fact we were criminals. I could tell that military leader and his squad were following us, but I ignored them for now. We got to the docks and Conis showed us our vessel, Karasu-maru. Luffy wanted a cooler-looking one, but Sanji beat him for making Conis upset.
Before we left, Luffy asked, "Hey Conis, why have you been shaking since we left?" She broke down and said she called for the express shrimp which took our friends. She told us if she hadn`t turned us in, everyone would be killed.
"You`re really stupid," Luffy began, "You did it because you had no other choice, right!!? So why…"
"WHY DID YOU TELL US!!!?" we all said in unison.
"Now you`re gonna be targeted!!" Luffy said, grabbing Conis. Then light shone down on them, and the locals were saying the "Judgment" was beginning. Luffy tried to get Conis out of the way, but the range of the judgment was too big. Gan fall saved them both, and decided to watch over Conis for a while. He asked us if we still wanted to go forward. "This country`s business had nothing to do with us," Luffy replied. "But we have Nakama on God`s island." He wished us luck and left. "Alright let`s go to Upper Yard!"
"Hold on," I said. "Before we go I want to do one thing real quick."
"Okay, what?" Sanji asked.
"This," I said charging ki into my fingertip and pointing it at the White Beret leader.
"Hey, wait a minute," he said, seeing I was ready to fire.
"REIGUN!!!" I shouted as I shot the ki from my fingertip like a bullet right at the back of his head as he crawled away. It knocked him out cold, and I was satisfied. "Hey, the way I figure it, we`re wanted for attacking them anyway, so why not?"
"Good enough for me," Luffy said smiling. "Now, we go on to Upper Yard!!!"
A distance away, a figure in a black cloak and a steel mask shaped like a wolf`s face looked at the Karasu-maru and it`s small group of riders. "It seems those limiters are doing their job well," he said. "Kakusei shouldn`t be too powerful with those gravity bracers and Ki restraints on his body. Hopefully, he`ll adapt to his new limits. This should be good." Then he disappeared into the sky as if he faded away.