Guys, I screwed up and posted the wrong chapter before! Sorry!
Zoro was growing restless. They had ridden Knock Up Stream some time ago and were now in the middle of a seemingly endless sea of clouds. And, though they had been sailing for a good hour or so, no land had as of yet come into sight. He couldn't really explain why he was so restless. He just felt like there was someplace he needed to be, and wherever that place was, he needed to be there soon.
Nami stepped up to his side where he was standing at the railing of the front most portion of the ship. "Have you seen anything yet?" she asked, apparently having noticed how closely he'd been on the lookout for land.
He spared her a glance and answered, "No."
"Do you smell anything?" she asked, almost too casually.
He contemplated asking her how in the hell she even knew about that before deciding that it just wasn't worth it. Asking such a question would provoke questions from her as well, about when he had started being able to smell so well, why he hadn't said anything and who knew what else. It would take a tiresome number of words to explain, or even to get out of explaining, so he opted to simply answer, "No," again.
She sighed softly and turned around to face the crow's nest where Usopp was currently on watch. "Guess I'll just ask him, then, though I doubt he's seen anything with the way he's been lounging around." With that, she wandered off, leaving him in the silence and solitude he'd found lately that he so preferred.
He watched her go for a moment before turning his attention forward again. It didn't take long for a pressing question to enter his mind. How did she know? He himself had just discovered this apparent ability a few days ago, and it wasn't like he'd told anyone about it. So how did she know?
The clink of glasses by his ear drew his attention away from his thoughts for now, and he cut a sideways glance toward Sanji, who stood by his side with two glasses in hand. "Thirsty, Marimo?"
Zoro's eyes narrowed subtly at the nickname, but he accepted the iced beverage anyway, giving it a brief, curious sniff before taking a small sip. It actually tasted good, whatever it was.
"You've been doing that a lot lately," Sanji observed as he took a sip of his own drink, causing Zoro to glance at him again. "Sniffing," the cook clarified. "Like when you tracked down Usopp and Chopper yesterday when they wandered off and we couldn't find them. I saw you sniffing a lot, breathing in deeply is more like it, as though you were checking the air. He took another drink before turning his head to look at Zoro. "Care to explain?"
Well, at least this answered the question of how Nami knew. Sanji must have said something to her. "No."
Much to his surprise, Sanji didn't argue. Instead, the cook just turned away with a shrug and leaned on his elbows on the railing. "Alright."
Several minutes of quiet passed before the relative tranquility was broken by Luffy's excited shouting. "Ooohhh! Look! A giant Sky Fish!" Then, without any warning, two rubber hands grabbed the railing between Zoro and Sanji, closely followed by a rubber body, which flew out to sea at breakneck speeds, slamming into Zoro and Sanji and taking them with him.
They landed in the cloudy sea with a crash. Zoro, acting more on instinct than anything else, grabbed Luffy under the arm and hauled him up to the surface. Once they were once again able to breathe, he glared at his captain. "Idiot."
Luffy laughed weakly. "Thanks, Zoro. Guess this is the same as regular water, huh? I can't swim."
Sanji broke the surface a second later. "You idiot!" he shouted angrily. "What the hell are you trying to do?! Not only did you get us soaked, but now you've lost two of my best glasses in the water!" Zoro decided to get Luffy back onto the ship before Sanji decided to kick the captain while Zoro was still holding onto him. With a sigh, he helped the rubber man back on board before following him up. Turning, he watched as Sanji pulled himself out of the water, muttering crossly to himself all the while. "Damn… rubber… lunatic… I'm gonna kill…"
Zoro shook his head and turned away from the cook, deciding not to listen anymore, as Nami loudly berated Luffy for his actions. "You idiot!" she cried, unintentionally copying Sanji's earlier statement. Luffy's only response was to laugh, which only served to fuel her anger. "What were you thinking?!"
Zoro turned away from the scene and returned his attention forward once more. Staring at the new thing that had appeared on the horizon he… blinked. He glanced to Nami, but in the end decided that he didn't want to bother raising his voice so that she could hear him over the sound of Luffy's laughter and her own yelling. Instead, he turned to Sanji once more, the only other person on the main deck right now, besides the dosing Usopp in the crow's nest. "Hey."
Sanji, turned to him. "Huh?" Then he blinked in much the same way that Zoro had done, his eyes going a bit wide. Raising his voice a bit, he called, "Hey, you two. Come look at this."
Soon everyone was gathered on the main deck, staring at the vaguely star shaped structure in the clouds that was slowly growing closer. On it was an engraving that read "Heaven's Gate". Below that was tunnel leading to the other side. When they reached the gate, they were all incredibly startled when they were suddenly blinded by a rapid series of camera flashes. After the blindness subsided, they were left staring at a short elderly woman with thin arms, a pink tunic, purple hair held up in dual buns, and, most shocking of all, two small wings on her back. Perhaps that was how she was floating above their deck.
"How many of you are there?" she asked, glancing around. "Let's see… seven. Doesn't matter. You'll need to pay 100,000 Extol each to pass through."
"Um… What are Extol?" Nami asked slowly.
"We don't have any Ex-whatevers," Luffy said with a comical frown.
"I'm not a warrior," the woman shrugged. "If you want to pass without paying, go ahead."
While Nami thanked the old woman sweetly (the navigator was always happy to get put of spending her precious money), Zoro quickly became aware of the fact that he felt like he was being watched. He looked up and quickly saw that that strange old woman was, in fact, watching him. However, he had no idea as to why. But, in the end, he decided that he really didn't care. It didn't matter, anyway.
The old woman watched closely the one who had so completely captured her attention, though her uncaring expression did nothing to hint at her interest. He gazed back with an expression of apparent disinterest even as she floated away from the ship. As the ridiculous looking pile of wood sailed through the gate, one single thought entered her mind. He's back.
Okay, I know this is late, and I know that it's short. I'm sorry! I got caught up in other stories and, more recently, I got swamped with a bunch of schoolwork. Posted 05-06-15.