Chimera Luffy

by mellra

What if Luffy ate a different Devil's Fruit as a child? Not just any fruit, but the most powerful of the Zoan fruits, the Chimera-Chimera Fruit. It is a legendary Zoan fruit that allows the user to take on the forms of any Zoan fruit users, as well a true form as the mythical chimera. How will this change the course of the One Piece world? Pairing most likely Luffy/Boa Hancock, but

16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: Original story belongs to the selfish producers in Japan and big US corporations, as well as RoseDragonWitch. All other content belongs to me.

Chapter 16

They were all on the Merry's deck once again, the ship still bearing the fresh scars of the battle with the Marines and Zoro was leaning over the side of the ship to look behind him.

"Looks like the Marines have stopped following us!" he called, before he heard several loud groans behind them, as if the fact that they were now out of danger was a bad thing.

"That's good news! We shook them off!" he added as he glared at them, but the rest of the crew only groaned a little louder before the swordsman spotted them. All other five members of the crew were all lying down on the upper deck with their heads through the railing, looking close to tears with big, sad puppy dog eyes looking behind them.

"Stop it!" Zoro snapped at them, "What's with the pathetic groans!?"

"I MISS HER!" they all cried out together and it didn't take long at all for him to know who they were talking about. Irritated, Zoro started telling them to stop whining.

"If you wanted her to join that bad, then you shouldn't have let her leave!" he told them and that got them all gasping.

"AH! You savage!" Chopper gasped, as if he couldn't believe he heard Zoro say something like that.

"Blockhead!" Nami agreed as Sanji then added, "Idiot."

Luffy tried his hand at insulting him, but it sounded pathetic, and Usopp began telling him off for that as Zoro turned away from them, as if he couldn't believe he was dealing with this.

"We didn't did we?!" Zoro demanded, already sick of this whole thing, "Now shut up about it!"

The group ignored that and continued with their pouting. Suddenly, Luffy caught a whiff of something, or someone, he'd smelled before, but for the life of him couldn't place the scent as it was all muddled thanks to the craziness that occurred on deck just recently.

Just then the galley door opened up and a familiar voice cooed from inside, "Looks like we finally escaped the firing squad."

Zoro barely registered the voice until Robin stepped out and said, "Excellent work."

She looked greatly different than the Robin they had seen up to that point. She was dressed much more casual and modestly than she had before. A simple light purple shirt with darker pants. She smiled confidently at them as Zoro looked and finally realized who he was talking to. As soon as they saw her, the other five above them got up so fast that they banged their heads on the railing above them.

Zoro's hand went directly to his sword as he yelled out, "Here to avenge your friends!? Just try it!"

"It's an enemy attack!" Usopp screamed out fearfully

"What are you doing here!?" Nami demanded as she held onto the swollen bump on her head before she took her new weapon out, ready to protect herself. It was really quite funny to watch them all freak out at the sight of Robin, who just stood there and watched. Usopp was yelling fearfully over a speaker as Chopper ran around in a panic. It was very tense as they finally calmed down enough to have her surrounded on all sides, looking ready to fight her if she so much as moved wrong. Chopper was asking who she was.

"I don't know!" Sanji gasped happily, his eyes turning into little hearts like how it had been when he first met Nami. "But she's so beautiful!"

Robin, meanwhile, was walking passed them all without even giving them a glance of concern. She went over to a lawn chair that was underneath the stairs before she disarmed Nami and Zoro—surprising them both.

"Didn't I tell you before?" she asked nonchalantly, "Don't point such dangerous objects at me. Are you always so slow?"

Zoro was looking annoyed. That stupid ability of hers made her deadly to swordsman. He looked ready to fight her barehanded when Nami demanded to know how long she had been on the ship.

"Quite a while," she answered as she picked up the lawn chair and added, "These clothes are yours, right? I'm borrowing them."

"JUST A MINUTE LADY! WHO THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!?" Nami screamed at her, outraged that a member of Baroque Works was in her clothes.

But Robin was looking directly at Luffy, her attention solely on him. "Monkey D. Luffy," she said calmly, "It hasn't been so long that you've forgotten what you did to me has it?"

Sanji grab Luffy by his front and started shaking him in anger, demanding to know what he did to her.

"Wait a minute, stop lying!" Luffy then called to Robin as she walked by him and set the chair up. "You know I didn't do anything to you!"

"Wrong," she answered back firmly, with that same smile on her face, as she sat down and started to make herself comfortable. "And what you did to me was unbearable," she added as she leaned back, "Go ahead… admit it."

Sanji was shaking Luffy harder than ever as Usopp was telling Robin to leave from behind the mast and they could hear Chopper asking what it was she was talking about from just above them, out of harm's way.

"You're not making any sense!" Luffy said, now looking really annoyed at everything that was going on. "What do you want me to do!?"

With a smile, she leaned forward in her seat, as if they were discussing business, "I want… to join you."

For a brief moment there was nothing but silence around them—except for the sound of the flag flapping in the wind above them. Each one of the Straw Hats stared at her as if she had suddenly confessed to a murder.

"WWWHHHAAATTT?!" almost everyone yelled, staring at her with a mixture of different expressions. Some angry some shocked, some fear… and—in Sanji's case—bliss.

She only smiled, turning back to Luffy as she explained, "I wanted nothing more than to die at that very moment… but you forced me to live. That's your crime."

Sanji looked startled at that as she rested her chin on her hand, still looking directly at Luffy as she finished, "There's no place for me to go or to return to. So I decided… that I'll join you."

Luffy's face held no expression as he thought it over for a moment. "I see your problem, guess there's no other choice," he finally said calmly. "Welcome."

"Hey!" he called just as the Straw Hats all yelled at their captain furiously. But he just looked back at them with a smile and added, "There's nothing to worry about," he said firmly. "Trust me, she isn't a bad person."

Everyone was staring at him, sure that he lost his mind, but Sanji was looking overjoyed at Luffy's decision and was cheering it on in the background even after the others calmed down.

Later in the crow's nest with Zoro who was training as usual, Luffy's hands suddenly appeared and he rocketed himself up to him.

"Hey! Zoro!" he said happily. "Sanji told me to tell you dinner'll be ready in five minutes! He said he's going to try making some of the yummy food they had at the palace! It's gonna be so good!"

Zoro didn't respond at once as he kept lifting weights silently for a moment, staring out at the sky that was an assortment of different shades of reds, oranges, and pinks. And then, without even looking at him, he asked, "Why did you do it?"

Luffy looked confused. "Why did I tell you? Well, its dinner and we need food!"

"Not that you idiot," Zoro said in annoyance, finally looking at him, his back to the fading sun. "I mean why did you let that woman join us?"

"What do you mean?" Luffy asked him in confusion.

"Did you forget already that woman used to be part of Baroque Works?!" he snapped at Luffy in frustration. "We don't owe her anything! You saved her life and suddenly you owe her a favor?!

"How do we know that we can really trust her?" Zoro finished asking him seriously. "After her part in helping to tear Alabasta apart? You really want someone like that in the crew?"

"But what reason does she have to attack us now?" Luffy asked him calmly. "It's like with Bon Clay… she only wanted to leave Alabasta right? There wasn't any reason for her to want to stick around there anymore."

"Maybe," Zoro said, "But what makes you think that we can let her stay and not worry about her betraying us later?"

"I dunno," he answered and Zoro looked ready to hit him over the head with the weight in his hands at the answer.

"We need more than that!" Zoro yelled.

"I don't know," Luffy repeated, his eyes looking out into the distance. "But something just tells me that we can trust her, Zoro. I mean, we've all done a lot of bad things in the past right?

"Besides, I don't think she ever really liked Crocodile," Luffy said and Zoro looked to him in surprise.

"She was his partner," he reminded her.

"And he tried to kill her," Luffy spoke up, looking back at him, "And she saved me before."

Zoro looked even more startled by this as Luffy explained about how it was Robin who gave him the antidote to the scorpion poison, and had even been the one who helped him out after Crocodile left him at Rainbase.

"And when I finally caught up to them in that tomb, Crocodile stabbed her with his hook," Luffy finished explaining to him. "After she gave Vivi's dad the antidote for me, I could hear what they were saying. Crocodile was looking for something."

"Looking for something?" Zoro asked, "What was it?"

And it was clear from the look on Luffy's face, that he didn't get the fact that it was some kind of weapon that could cause mass destruction that Crocodile was looking for. Only the fact that it was something dangerous that that slimy creep wanted for himself.

"I don't know, but it was something bad," he answered him, "And I overheard Robin say that she decided from the start not to hand it over to him." He was quiet for a moment before he added, "I don't know, but she doesn't seem like a bad person to me." He looked to him and finished, "She sounded more sad than bad to me…"

Zoro just looked at him before he sighed. "Fine," he told him. "I guess we have no choice anyway. But I'll be keeping a close eye on her just so you know. She does anything that seems like a betrayal, I'll be the one to throw her off."

Over time, the whole crew warmed up to her as she got to know them. Every morning Robin was able to wake up to bright faces and good food that Sanji worked so hard for them. Luffy was always the first to wish her a good morning and Nami was more than happy to talk to her and get some relief from the boys. Usopp and Chopper had also gotten used to her and didn't seem as nervous to be around her… even Zoro's cold eyes slowly seemed to warm up and he seemed to be willing to take a nap even when she was around them.

It was a bright sunny day nearly a week later and the crew was all on deck doing random tasks. Zoro, who was lifting weights in the background, looked up and asked if that was rain. They all looked up to see that it was dust and bits of wood that were falling on them.

"No way," Sanji said, holding his arms out to try and catch it, "This ain't rain." He looked up and they all did the same thing in time to see something falling through the clouds just above them. "That's interesting, it looks like a… oh…"

His eyes widen and his voice died in his throat as they all realized what it was. It was a worn-out, rickety old ship falling from the sky.

The Straw Hats were all so stunned that it was as if time had frozen for a second. But that soon faded as they all began to scream out in fear as it hung right above their heads. It ended up missing the Merry, though narrowly, and the ship hit the ocean with such a large crash that it turned the waves around them as fierce as any Grand Line storm.

Unlike with Nami giving them a slight heads up before the weather turned unforgiving, this came without any warning and all they could do was cling onto the Merry desperately as bits of the ship counted to fall from the sky like hail.

It soon turned into insanity as they all struggled to stay upright, the waves pitching the Merry around like a piece of driftwood. They could hear Zoro's voice screaming somewhere to hold on tight and not to let go no matter what.

The Straw Hats—Usopp and Chopper especially—screamed and seemed ready to have a nervous breakdown.

"WHY ARE THERE SHIPS FALLING OUTTA THE SKY?!" Nami screamed as she hung on to the mast as more bits of wood fell around them, the waves rising up above them like some kind of beast trying to swallow them.

"I know!" Usopp cried out, his eyes wide and a mad smile on his face. "This is just an awful dream!"

"Great I love dreams!" Chopper called out, truly believing Usopp for a moment before their heads crashed together, thus ending that theory.

"Hang on! I don't think the party's over yet!" Sanji called over their cries of pain, and when they looked up it was as if they were stuck on a merry-go-round, everything was spinning. "It won't stop falling!"

"THE RUDDER! TURN THE RUDDER!" Nami screamed and Zoro called that they would only flip over in these waves. Sanji yelled to Luffy to help protect the ship, to which the captain asked how.

Luffy then noticed how Usopp seemed to have calmed down suddenly. He was sitting in a meditative state, his eyes closed with a calm smile. "I cast aside my worries and reach deep within to find my happy place!" Usopp declared firmly. "And when I open my eyes, this serene landscape is all that will lay before me…"

He picked the wrong moment to open his eyes…

He screamed at the top of his lungs when his new 'friend' fell out right in front of him, "A SKELETON DEAD GUY!"

"DON'T THROW THAT NASTY THING AT ME YOU IDIOT!" Nami screamed as he threw the pile of bones off him and near her.

"THEY'RE FALLING EVERYWHERE!" Sanji yelled out, another skeleton falling near his feet.

"I'M SURROUNDED BY DEAD!" Usopp cried out, sounding close to losing his mind as he curled up in a fetal position.

"WHEN IS THIS STUFF GONNA STOP FALLING?!" Nami screamed out.

They could only continue to hold on and hope for the best. Soon however, after several more chaos filled minutes, the sky was clear again, the falling debris had finally stopped, and the Merry was surrounded on all sides by the broken ship that had reminded them of the destroyed galleon back at the Baratie.

But they hardly noticed it as they stared up at the sky, as if expecting another ship to fall. After doing a quick headcount to see that everyone was alright—at least most of them since Usopp and Chopper were now in a corner, hugging the other like how a child would to a teddy bear—Luffy cried out, "Alright… why did a ship just fall out of the sky?!"

"I knew coming to the Grand Line was a mistake, it freaks me out!" Usopp cried out, still hugging Chopper—his eyes twitching so much that it looked as if he was having a seizure. "First we travel over a ship graveyard and now they're falling out of the sky, COMPLETE WITH SKELETONS!"

Nami gasped in horror. She was staring at the Log Pose, telling them that she was sure that it was broken because it was now pointing to the sky.

Robin stepped forward, the only one who hadn't screamed in all that madness, she had returned to her usual calmness. "It's not broken," she answered, as if things fell from the sky all the time on them. "The Log Pose registers an island with a strong magnetic pull and the needle is reflecting that. If the needle's pointing to the sky," they all looked to her as she focused her attention skyward, "Then… it must be pointing to Sky Island."

"SKY ISLAND?!" they all repeated loudly, none of them having ever heard of such a thing. They all talked about it, with Zoro ending the talk as pointing out that there wasn't anything but sky right over their heads.

"Hmm, that's not actually how it works," Robin answered, "It's not an island above us, but an entire ocean."

Usopp, Luffy and Chopper all had their eyes wide and bright at the thought of going to an island floating in the air. They were all cheering and going on about wanting to go to such a place, but Robin used her powers to cover Luffy's mouth and Sanji reminded them they couldn't fly.

Soon though, Robin and Nami were arguing about it, with Nami telling her that there was no such thing as a flying island and insisted that their Log Pose was broken. That was all.

"Not quite Miss Navigator," Robin countered coolly as she pointed to the Log Pose, "You're trying to fix something that's not even broken. We should be trying to find a way to get to Sky Island. You really need to learn to trust your instruments. No matter how crazy things get, or how weird the situation is we find ourselves in, never doubt the Log Pose.

"Out here, on the water, this is one of the most steadfast and unbreakable rules," Robin continued. "What we should be doubting… is the common sense we all that that tells us that an island cannot exist in the sky, on an ocean nothing. That needle is pointing towards an island, I bet my life on it."

Then Robin began looking through the remains of a skeleton they had found. As they looked through it, Luffy and Usopp went jumping over to the bigger parts of the ship to explore it. Luffy didn't pay any attention to the slowly sinking boat as he walked inside, the old ship cracked and creaked under his weight as he went looking through all the rubble.

Luffy, who was looking over some of the papers they found among a desk that was broken right in half.

Back with the crew, Robin told them about how just looking at a skull and a some books, they discovered that the ship's name was the St. Briss, which left the Kingdom of Breeze in the South Blue about 208 years ago… as well as being able to tell how old the man was when he died.

Suddenly, Luffy gasped. They looked up in time to see that he was staring in wonder at one of the rolls of paper in his hands and his eyes were bright. But soon the ship had filled up with water and Luffy was forced to run out of there, having Usopp haul him back to the Merry.

"You won't believe it! I did it!" he held up the roll of paper he found, "I found the most incredible thing!"

When they saw what it was, they gasped at what it was he had.

"A MAP OF THE SKY ISLAND?!" they all cried out.

Nami almost ripped it out of his hands and stared at it. "It's called Skypiea?" she asked, more to herself than to Luffy who was nodding firmly by her side. "Then it's true! There really is an island up there!"

It was great to see everyone looking excited at the thought, even as the last bits of the ship slowly sank beneath the waves. As the 'goofy trio' cheered, doing a dance with their arms linked, Nami pointed out that they didn't know how to get there or if it was even possible… and that there was always a chance that the map was a fake.

The looks on their faces was as if she had just told a bunch of little kids that Santa Claus didn't exist. She saw the hope fading from their faces and quickly tried to reassure them that she was sure it was real. But then she punched the mast angrily and yelled out that if it existed or not wasn't the point, the fact was they didn't know how to get there. Luffy was refusing to listen and began yelling that he wanted to go there no matter what and the fight only ended when she hit him over the head.

"This isn't about me! It's about reality!" she yelled at them angrily, "And the reality is that we know next to nothing! What we do know is that we can't defy gravity and sail upwards! That's impossible! What we need is more information! If a big ship like that made it up there, then odds are we can do the same thing. We just have to find all the records left on that ship!"

Usopp reminded them that the ship was most likely at the bottom of the ocean by now.

Nami cried out confidently, "If it's sunk… THEN WE'LL SALVAGE IT!"

And with a little more thought, Usopp came up with the plan. He quickly built a diving system made up of barrels and long air hoses. And in the end, the 'Monster Trio' had all volunteered to go down and find what was left of the ship. Luffy, however, decided to just swim 'naturally,' turning into a Blacktip Reef Shark before following the other two over the railing. The three jumping head first into the water.

As the three of them went down to salvage what they could of the ship for more information, they come across a group of pirates led by a man who looked like an ape, named Masira, who claimed that he had control over the territory and all ships that sink there belong to him. Masira and his crew begin salvage operation and are in the process of raising the ship when they run into a snag… the 'Monster Trio' were still inside the wreck and beat up his crew. Masira went down to handle things and confronts them when a Giant Sea Turtle appeared out of nowhere and swallowed the ship they were in like how a fish would to bait on a hook. This didn't last long, however, as the overpowered trio were able to upset the turtle's stomach enough with their constant thrashing that all the humans were spat out.

Soon after they headed towards the surface and they were back on the Merry, however now it was pitch dark out. There was another large ship there with them. One that was at least twice as large as the Merry and had rows of palm trees going along the sides of his ship and two banana-shaped poles. Also on the sails was another pirate flag… a monkey's head with two banana's in place of the crossbones.

Luffy was coming too from where he lay on the deck, dripping wet and slowly getting back to his feet, dropping the large sack that was on his back. "Hey!" he called to them all, "When'd night happen?"

Zoro was pulling on a rope, telling them that they were getting out of here now.

Suddenly, there was a cry of anger and they looked in time to see someone jump out of the sea and landed on the side of the ship, screaming back that they hand back the treasure the took. It was Masira… and he truly looked like an ape… more primate than human. He was also in a bright orange-yellow jumpsuit with headphones and goggles—much like the ones that Usopp had—but what made him really interesting was the fact that he looked like he had a tail.

However, his face was full of anger as he glared at them all, threatening to tear their ship apart if they didn't hand the treasure over. Everyone got up, ready to fight Masira off. But then, Masira's crew were all looking ready to cry as they pointed wildly behind them, too frozen to speak about what it was. When they all looked, they all felt close to choking—feeling close to fainting at what they saw…

Giants… at least five of them, so large that blocked out the sun. Black as night, they towered over them as great as the sky—even the giant island turtle was tiny compared to them all. They carried spears and had wings on their backs… like angels of death… looking down at them as if they were prey to them, though there were no eyes. Everyone was frozen in fear… even Robin was turning a shade of blue they had never seen from her before. As the middle one raised his spear above their heads, they all came back to life and screamed out, "SSSEEEAAA MMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEERRRRRRSSSSSSSS!"

The Straw Hats were all in overdrive… together they broke out the paddles and began to paddle as fast as they could go to get away from these things… it was as if they suddenly had a motor on their back and were going as fast as ever before.

Fear was the only thing that kept them going, and they didn't stop until they had reached the end of the dark sky and were safe in the bright sunlight. Once the danger had passed, they all huddled on the deck, shaking and trying to catch their breath.

Suddenly, Zoro spoke up what they were all thinking. "That couldn't have been real!"

They all began to list what happened in the last few hours alone.

"First there was that huge galleon that fell from the clouds on top of us," Zoro started off.

"The Log Pose's needle started pointing to the sky?" Nami added, hugging her knees as she glanced at the needle.

"A psycho make-up wearing monkey shows up and blocks our way," Usopp added, slowly calming down to a normal breath-rate. Chopper then added, "And then a gigantic sea turtle eats our salvage ship…"

"Then darkness fell," Robin sighed, almost grimly.

"Because the biggest monsters I've ever seen in my life blocked out the sun!" Luffy finished for them all.

The crew noticed that they still had Masira still on deck with them and kicked him off. Then the 'Monster Trio' unloading the sacks of stuff they got from the ship before it was eaten. There wasn't anything that told them about Sky Island, and not even a scrap of treasure like Nami had thought there would be… needless to say, Nami wasn't the least bit happy. She began to yell at them about this as they tried to tell her that his was all they found down there. That they picked it clean by the time that Masira appeared.

But she only got angrier as she began to break it all, even crushing the suit of armor that Luffy was walking around in. It wasn't a good thing… she looked ready to start foaming at the mouth with rage until Robin was able to pacify her by showing her the map and Eternal Pose to a place called Jaya that she took from Masira's ship, and they soon decided to go there, in hopes of finding someone who could help them.

Soon they were sailing into a harbor. At first glance, it looked like some kind of resort—full of beautiful buildings with red-pointed roofs and palm trees. Except for the numerous pirate ships docked at said harbor.

Usopp had noticed the ships as well and pointed it out to them, with Nami slapping him playfully that since when can pirates dock their ship without being run outta town. Just as he was starting to calm down, they could hear someone from one of the buildings screaming that he was about to be killed and the 'Weakling Trio' all looked ready to cry in fear.

Nami had decided to go with the boys, and as they walked on, they could hear the sounds of fights and arguments going on everywhere they passed. They couldn't go a few feet without something breaking or hearing death threats—and Nami was giving the boys an earful, making them promise that they wouldn't fight back no matter what. If they got into trouble, they'd be forced to leave and then they'd never be able to find information on Sky Island. They barely acknowledged what she was saying just as a crippled old man fell off his horse right in front of them.

Croaking for help, he asked if they could help him back up onto his horse. He was a very large man, with a slightly longer than normal nose, straight purple tattoos coming from his hairline to the corners of his eyes, and was wearing a thick, black fur coat. After Luffy and Zoro helped him back on his horse, he offered them some apples as a thank you

"Do you take us for idiots?!" Zoro demanded, noticing the sneaky look on his face. "We'd never trust food from someone like you."

But Luffy did take one and took a bite, and as soon as he did, there was an explosion behind them. They then heard some shouting, some men yelling that apparently some men took some apples from that same old man and when they ate them, the apples blew up.

Zoro and Nami had turned almost as blue in the face as they had been when the saw the giants as they realized what was going on. Nami the screamed at Luffy to spit it out, practically strangling him in the process as Zoro had his sword in his hands, looking ready to attack the man, demanding to know what he had done.

The old man smirked. "No worries," he said with a hiccup, "The boy isn't hurt. If he had eaten a 'bad' one, you would've died on the first bite. You're lucky."

The two dragged Luffy away before he could do anything else that might kill him.

Nami was hissing about it to Luffy, who didn't seem bothered by his close escape from death. But then they heard the sounds of insane laughter from one of the roofs right behind him, and when they looked, there was a large man standing there as if he had just been declared the next king. He was a big, muscular man with curly, light violet hair reaching past his shoulders and with a mask covering his upper face.

The others heard some of the citizens talking about how he wanted to be the fighting champion… which got Zoro's and Luffy's attention as they looked back, ready for a fight.

"Don't even think about it you two!" Nami screamed before she dragged them on.

Later, they were all suddenly in a worn-down looking bar. Nami and the boys were at the bar enjoying some drinks and food as they talked about what it was they were supposed to do. Nami slapped her glass down on the bark in front of her.

"Man, that really ticks me off!" she said bitterly as the other two let her let her complain, Zoro downing his drink and Luffy waited impatiently for his food. She began with a long talk with the bartender about this island, and he gave her the same kind of advice that Robin had stated only a little earlier. He set two cherry pies on the bar for Luffy and a large man next to him before he told her that the Log Pose would reset in only a couple more days, but it might be wiser to skip town sooner than that.

Nami had started to ask the bartender something when both Luffy and the man next to him slammed their fists down onto the bark, each with their own opinion about the pies.

Soon he and Luffy had gotten into a fight about the pies being served to them. Noticing that their remarks opposed with each other, they decided not to mind the other at first and drink some soda. But at that, they both made opposing remarks about that. Really getting on each other's nerves this time and they decided to have some food for take-out. Luffy ordered pieces of meat and the man started ordering pies—however upon learning the number of food that the other was ordering, they started competing about who can order more.

The two were now glaring at each other, looking ready to fight.

"DO YOU TWO EVEN HAVE THE SLIGHEST IDEA TO WHAT YOU'RE FIGHTING ABOUT!?" Zoro screamed, as Nami shouted that he promised her not to start a fight. And that they didn't have that kind of money anyway—they weren't here to shop.

Luffy didn't look happy at all, glaring at the man as if daring him to say something wrong.

The man suddenly grinned evilly at Luffy. "So then… are you a pirate?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's right," Luffy answered and then Blackbeard asked how high his bounty was.

"Thirty-million," Luffy answered.

The man however seemed to think that Luffy was making it up, and even telling him that he wouldn't believe it even if he collected it.

"Are you calling me a liar you fat, hairy ape?!" Luffy yelled angrily.

Finally, Zoro was yelling at them both to break it up, as the bartender sent down a package of cherry pies on the bar in front of Blackbeard, telling him that one of the rules in his bar was no fighting and that if they wanted to settle it so bad they could do it outside. Hoping that he would just leave, he gave him the package of fifty pies and asked for him to just go.

The man glared down at Luffy, who glared back harshly before he seemed to decide that it just wasn't worth it. Instead, the man picked up his package and left the building without a glance back.

Someone came bursting through the doors, calling that he was looking for someone with a straw hat. They all looked, to see a tall and darkly tanned man with unkempt blond hair as well as a scar just above his right eye and a mark of a smiley face with a slash through it on his chest. He then saw Luffy at the bar and started walking towards them.

"Who's this guy?" Luffy asked impatiently.

"Looks like he's got a bone to pick with you, Luffy," Zoro muttered as they watched him come nearer.

"He must be that Bellamy guy who rented out that hotel we were act," Nami whispered to them, as they had earlier went to a hotel for info, only to find it booked by a pirate captain named Bellamy the Hyena.

Bellamy was right next to them, towering over Luffy as Luffy commented that everyone they were meeting today was huge. Bellamy ignored that as he ordered a glass from the top shelf and told the bartender to give Luffy anything he wanted.

Soon, the rest of Bellamy's crew came in, talking in loud voices about how disgusting and cheap this bar was. One of them, a guy wearing a long coat made of fur, took out a bent knife that was as big as a sword, and actually slashed one of the other customers so that he could get his seat.

The man with the knife sneered at the dying man on the floor, "You'd be in a lot less pain if you'd offered us your seats already. Pathetic harbor trash."

Several others ran out of the bar in terror, gasping at how it was 'Big Knife Sarquiss'.

Meanwhile, the bartender brought out the drinks that Bellamy asked for and stood back, clearly not wanting any trouble as Bellamy said to Luffy, "Cheers."

"Hey, thanks for the drink pal," Luffy said cheerfully. "You know what, you're alright," Luffy said as he started to tilt his head back to drink when suddenly, Bellamy slammed Luffy's head into the bar table so hard that it shattered.

The whole bar went silent and stared at them as Bellamy smirked.

Zoro had his blade out and was holding it to Bellamy's neck.

"And what are you doing, punk?" Bellamy asked him, as if amused that Zoro turned his blade to him.

"That's the question you should be asking yourself," Zoro sneered, his face dark as night.

Bellamy only sneered at him, as if enjoying the thought of fighting him. Nami was behind him, pleading with Zoro not to fight, that they still needed information, but he interrupted her, telling her to be quiet because if this guy wanted to fight, he was more than happy to give it to him.

Luffy turned to face Bellamy, asking if he was ready to take him on or not. Bellamy only grinned wildly at him as everyone else cheered on, wanting to see a fight.

"You've got it all wrong kid, this isn't a fight, it's a test!" Bellamy laughed. "Now come on, let's see how strong you are!"

Looking worried that a fight would break out, Nami turned to the bartender and asked quickly, "Mister, we're trying to get to the Sky Island do you know anything about that?!"

The bartender stared at her as the bar went silent once again, all of them staring at her. Others began whispering to each other on that subject. Clearly unable to believe they heard right.

Luffy glanced at them all in confusion. Nami looked just as confused, but went on bravely with her question, "Like I was saying, if you knew how to get to Sky Island…?"

But before she could finish, the whole bar burst out laughing, startling them all as everyone around them began to mock them about searching for a place that didn't exist.

Nami held up her wrist so that they could see their Log and she yelled out, "What the… you can look at the Log Pose yourself! It's pointed at the sky plan as day!"

That stopped them all laughing for only a brief moment before they began laughing once again, mocking and taunting Nami who was turning a bright red color. Bellamy sat down sharply, slapping his knee as he also roared with laughter.

"You got me there kid!" he yelled out. "I can't believe you guys are putting hope in such a ridiculous legend like an island in the sky! Especially considering how little you know! Like how out of the thousands of weird currents in the Grand Line one of them is called a Knock-Up Stream." He then stared at Nami. "Looks to me like this is the first time you've ever heard about it.

"Any ship that get caught up in the Knock-Up Stream is catapulted into the sky and later slams back down into the ocean!" Bellamy continued to laugh, "Years ago, a bunch of ignorant sailors saw a bunch of ships falling from of the sky and assumed that there must be an island up there somewhere! In their minds, how else could a ship get up that high?!" He stuck his tongue out with a deranged smile as he finished, "Ha! Ridiculous! Anything that seems supernatural always has a rational explanation! Anything a man can dream can eventually be explained and let me tell you the truth will hurt!"

The bar continued to laugh with Bellamy however as Luffy seemed to grow angrier, his hands now fists, as if he was fighting back the urge to punch this guy. Bellamy sighed again as he looked to them. "What a shame. Look, I was gonna to let you into my crew if you passed the test for the New Era, but it seems like you're a lost cause."

Bellamy glared at Luffy like he thought that he was not worth the trouble anymore. "Thing is… the time of pirates dreams are over!"

"The City of Gold, The Emerald Ruins, and the great One Piece… fools who dream of these fictional treasures don't notice the real treasures all around them!" Bellamy laughed, "In this age of oceans, the very men who are capable of navigating currents end up chasing these ridiculous dreams and die in the process!"

Bellamy's smile got even wilder as he said mockingly, "Whenever these people speak of these dead idiots, they always say 'he was happy because he died living his dreams'! Ha! No! He died because he was a fool!"

Luffy glared at him, his fist slowly loosening up as his anger seemed to vanish so that there was no emotion at all on his face. But then… Bellamy held up his own fist and declared, "So when I see people chasing dreams of One Piece I get disgusted!"

And without raising a hand to defend himself, Luffy just shut his eyes and allowed Bellamy to hit him so that he fell back onto the ground.

Nami cried out in shock—Zoro didn't react at all as he looked at his captain—as if wondering what it was he going to do about it.

Bellamy suddenly went on speaking, laughing as if he knew the answer to the meaning of life. "You're a weak pirate just like they were! And as long as you're hacking around you're making us, the real pirates, look like trash!" And then he threw his glass at the floor, narrowly missing Luffy's head, who was still lying there, staring up at the celling.

Luffy didn't move at all, just laid there with an empty expression, as if he was merely bored as everyone followed Bellamy's example and began to throw food and drinks at them. Sarquiss encouraged Bellamy to beat them up, who was grinning back only too eagerly.

Nami finally couldn't take it anymore. "Luffy, Zoro, forget all about all that pacifist crap earlier!" she screamed. "Take this jerk out!"

Luffy slowly sat up, not even reacting to the food and drink around him as he looked directly at Zoro and gave him one order. What he said, stunned Nami… "Zoro… no matter whatever happens, don't fight back."

Zoro looked just as expressionless as Luffy—though a little cold.

Nami was stunned as she watched as Bellamy and his crew attacked. They began to punch and hit them, like they were practice dummies. She watched as they threw food at them and Bellamy took a long sip of booze before he spit it all into Luffy's face.

But no matter what they did to them, neither one fought back… even as Bellamy slammed Luffy's face right through a window, leaving the steady dripping of blood on the shattered glass.

Nami went running over to them both, still trying to get them to fight back, but what Sarquiss said next, got a chill to go up her spine. Saying that he wanted to 'buy' her.

Nami stared up at him as she hissed, "Excuse me?! Did you just say that you wanted to buy me?!"

"That's right," Sarquiss said with a rather evil grin, "Come on girl… join us."

Nami didn't look angry, but her face had turned to one of a disgusted smirk. "I hate to say it," she said, her face dark, "But I'm too good to be seen with a pirate like you! You're nothing but a small time thug!"

The rest of the bar laughed at them, with Luffy and Zoro lying on the floor, no longer moving. The only other person who wasn't laughing was the bartender, who was cleaning some glasses and just watched—his own expression was empty as Bellamy threw his glass down like a child having a tantrum, and yelled at them to get out of his sight. With as much poise as she could muster, Nami picked up both men by their shirts and dragged them out as they continued to throw bottles at them the whole way out.

As Nami dragged Luffy and Zoro they heard a familiar voice proclaim, "The Sky Island does exist!"

Nami had her head turned right towards the man from before, who was eating his pies, sitting on the ground watching them with a curious expression. After he took a big bite he said with a laugh, "That place really does make a killer cherry pie."

Nami seemed to be expecting trouble. She dropped both the boys and snarled at him, "Got something you wanna say?"

"Now what could you possibly be angry about?" the man asked cheerfully with a wide grin. "Your two friends won that fight without ever throwing a punch!"

The man began to laugh again, but unlike the men back at the bar, it wasn't a mocking or belittling laugh… more like one of respect. And this was proven when he said, "I respected the way you treated them back there. You've got nerves of steel, lady!"

Zoro and Luffy got up and began to dust themselves off. Fixing his hat, Luffy turned his bloody face towards the man, looking at him with that same unreadable look that he had given Bellamy.

The man only grinned a little wider, looking at Luffy with a great deal more respect than he had before. He then said, "This New Era they keep rambling on and on about is a load of crap!"

"The era where pirates dream of treasure will come to an end? Yeah right!" the man laughed again just as he slammed his whisky bottle onto the ground and called out loudly, getting everyone's attention around them, "THE DREAMS OF PIRATES… WILL NEVER END!"

There was silence from everyone as Luffy still didn't react at all, like he could see something in the man that they couldn't. "Am I right?" the man challenged, and soon his shouting had caused the crowd around them to laugh good-naturedly at him, asking what he was talking about.

"One upping your peers isn't easy!" was his only answer before he calmed down enough to look directly at Luffy, answering, "They can laugh at us all they want because when you aim high, you often come across fights that just aren't worth fighting! Right?"

Zoro told the other two that they should just go. Nami had no problems with that and was about to follow him until she noticed that Luffy still hadn't moved.

"Luffy?" she asked softly, but he was still giving the man that long and hard look… and they knew him well enough to tell that he wasn't happy with what he saw, but didn't say anything else as the man stood up, his bottle and sack of pies back in his hands.

"Oh, it looks like I interrupted you," he said as if he just realized that he was being rude to a group of shoppers, "Are you in a hurry kid?"

Luffy didn't answer, however he didn't seem to be expecting one as he turned and raised his drink, "One more thing…" he added, "I hope you find your way to Sky Island." He turned and laughed as Luffy also left, leaving him behind.

Nami was now pressing the boys, suggesting that they should go back and talk to that guy and that he might know something about Sky Island. Nami was then asking if they had any idea who he was.

"I dunno," Luffy confessed softly, in serious voice that was almost unheard of from him, "But it's not he."

Nami looked at him in confusion and asked, "If it's not he then… what is it?"

"Probably they," Zoro answered, who seemed to know what Luffy was taking about as his captain rubbed some blood off near his mouth before the two headed onwards, not bothering to answer any of Nami's questions as she asked what they were talking about.

Later they were back on the Merry with Zoro and Luffy both cleaned up and Chopper treating their many cuts and bruises.

"So… what happened to you guys?" Usopp asked in concern, leaning against the railing and watched as Chopper dabbed disinfectant on a deep cut on Luffy's arm. "It looks like you were mauled by a pack of rabid wolves."

"It was pirates," Luffy admitted before he assured him, "But we're ok. Just some scratches."

"Yeah," Zoro added, looking as if they had just got into a simple misunderstanding—but Nami was looking put out as she sat on the stairs, her back to them all.

"You guys seemed to be ok with everything, but I certainly am not!" she said as the boys looked at her. She seemed to be trying to hold her rage back before she lost it and began yelling out, "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU TWO?! YOU ARE MEN RIGHT?! WHEN SOMEONE PROVOKES YOU, THE ONLY LOGICAL RESPONSE WOULD BE TO PUMMEL THEIR FACES AND THEN WIPE UP THE BLOOD WITH THEIR FRIEND'S FACES! OR BETTER YET YOU SHOULD'VE JUST BLOWN UP THE ENTIRE ANNOYING TOWN!"

Zoro asked what happened to all her pacifist talk, but shut up at once when she turned the evil eye at him.

"SHUT UP ZORO! WHAT'S PAST IS PAST! WE'RE NOT TALKING ABOUT ANCIENT HISTORY HERE!" she shrieked at him, shaking with anger.

Usopp was asking Luffy why she was in such a bad mood since she didn't get a scratch on her.

Luffy answered he had no idea. Chopper then bravely asked if they found any information on Sky Island… which seemed to bring up those bad memories from Nami as she slowly turned her wrath onto him, who was crying in fear.

Chopper and Usopp, who were scared so badly, that they were guarding themselves and pretending to be dead. But Nami didn't seem to notice as she screamed out that she honestly couldn't care less about Sky Island anymore. That all she had to do was say the name and they laughed at her. She then screamed out, demanding to know what was so funny about saying it.

Thankfully, Robin returned at that moment and Nami turned her wrath onto her. Yelling that if it turned out that Sky Island didn't exist, she was going to throw her overboard with rocks in her pockets for good measure.

Usopp warned Robin to keep her distance for a while until she calmed down. Robin only smiled as she gave Luffy a map of this island, telling him that she got some information on it. As they looked over it, they saw that they were at the point labeled 'Mock Town' but on the other side of the island was a large X. And Robin told them that apparently a man was banished there because he didn't blend in with the town here.

"Didn't blend in?" Usopp and Luffy repeated in surprise.

"His name is Montblanc Cricket," Robin explained as she headed to the door to the galley, "Apparently Mr. Cricket talked about his dreams too much. Sounds like you have something in common." She smiled brightly as she closed the door and Luffy beamed at the map, loudly proclaiming that they needed to go pay this guy a visit.

They were back out at sea on the Merry, with a large ship right in front of them. It looked a great deal like Masira's ship, with the giant trees that served as masts, the sides of the ship were covered in little doors and ladders where some men, dressed in wetsuits, were climbing up, and a large orangutan skull and crossbones for the Jolly Roger.

Luffy asked the others if this was the same salvage ship from before, with the others dismissing that, saying that it though it looked the same, it wasn't Masira's crew. Usopp and Chopper both nodded in firm agreement behind them, saying that they saw those guys and it turns out that they docked at Mock Town just like most ships in these waters. And they reasoned they must be all the same as the guys who fought them.

A large man who looked like an orangutan with long green hair and wearing a black button up shirt that is too small for his body showing off his hairy torso. "Can you believe I got all worked up, wondering who you people are?" he asked them all.

"Your face looks weird," Luffy called bluntly, "What species are you?"

"I'm human, moron!" the now identified human named Shoujou yelled angrily as his crew all yelled in outrage as well. That there was no one out there who knew more about underwater search than their captain. But Shoujou calmed them down, going on to admit that his temper was short these days because he wanted to be named as the next Warlord since Crocodile was defeated, but he hadn't gotten the news yet.

Luffy asked Shoujou, "So your goal is to become one of the seven Warlords of the Sea?!"

"Didn't I just say that?" Shoujou called in annoyance. But then he went on to introduce himself, bragging about how he never cut his hair once in his whole life. But when Luffy said that was lame that got Shoujou angry.

However, when Luffy told Shoujou to move, the ape seemed to lose it as he screamed out, "YOU JUST DON'T GET IT DO YOU?! THIS IS MY TURF! IF YOU WANT TO PASS YOU EITHER PAY THE TOLL OR BE SUNK! GOT IT?!"

Usopp, who was crouching low behind Chopper, began asking what he was talking about 'his turf?'. "He's starting to sound like our old friend Masira…?" he ended.

"Huh?" Luffy asked, looking at him in surprise, "Masira said stuff like that?"

That also got Shoujou's attention. "Masira?" he asked at once, "What about Masira?!"

"If you must know," Luffy said, looking back up at him, "We kicked his butt off our boat! But we didn't think…?"

But Shoujou screamed in outrage as he yelled at him to how dare he kicked his own brother.

"Wait, hold on!" Luffy yelled, trying to make himself heard, "Listen to me! Sure we threw him off our boat, but I bet he's alive!"

Shoujou was far from listening as he pulled out his microphone and began to scream into it. No one could tell what he was doing at first, but the sound waves from his voice was actually causing pain to his crew and destroy his ship. The Straw Hats didn't seem to think it was anything to worry about until the Merry was also being torn apart. The planking was coming up, the patches that Usopp worked so hard to fix were falling apart and looked close to being blown away…

The Straw Hats realized what was going on and knew that if they stayed for too much longer, they were sure to sink. Nami calmed down from her experience in Mock Town enough to give them all orders, and soon they were able to sail away from the range of Shoujou's voice, though the damage had been done—the Merry was in such bad shape that they were actually leaving a trail of debris behind them and Usopp was now pulling planks of wood and his tool set out as they quickly began patching it up as best as they could.

As the boys patched up the ship as best as they could, Nami and Robin were looking over the map.

"We left Mock Town and headed east by circling around the northern shore of the island. Our destination… is here," Nami said as she traced the path with her finger before she looked to Robin and asked, "We're supposed to meet that man here. What's that name?"

"His name is Montblanc Cricket," she answered calmly as they turned the bend.

"And you're sure he'll be able to help us out right?" Nami asked. But her voice was drowned out by Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper when they spotted a beautiful palace right on the edge of the water.

The 'Goofy Trio' were gapping at it, but the others all sighed at it, having already figured out what it was. It wasn't until Luffy jumped off to get a closer look, and yell in shock did they all find out that it was just a paper covering part of a house that looked like it had been carved right in half.

Nami asked Robin why Cricket decided to live here.

"I don't know all the details," she admitted leaning against the rails, "But I think it has something to do with his belief that a large amount of gold rests somewhere in the hills of Jaya.

"GOLD?!" Usopp cried in excitement.

"Do you think he's here looking for some kind of buried treasure?!" Nami asked at once, her eyes lighting up. But even when Robin admitted that she didn't know, Nami didn't care as she began chanting about gold and beri marks in her eyes. In fact, as soon as they landed, she was having Chopper digging up places around the house. But Luffy didn't really mind as he stuck his head into the house, looking for anyone who lived there. After he confirmed that no one was home, Usopp snapped at him to get out of there in case this guy was dangerous. But as they started making themselves comfortable, on a large tree stump, Nami found a book and started to read it out loud for them all. Noland the Liar.

Nami began reading it out. About how an explorer named Montblanc Noland who always told amazing stories about his adventures. But they sounded so far-fetched, no one was sure if they were to believe him or not. One day, when he returned from one expedition, he reported back to his king that on an island he found a city built out of solid gold. To see if tor himself, the king took two thousand of his own soldiers and set out with Noland to find this city for himself, fighting off powerful storms and sea monsters. By the time they finally found the island that Noland talked about, there were only a hundred of his soldiers left. But all they found was deserted island with an ordinary jungle. Because of this, the outraged king sentenced Noland to death for his lies. His final words before he was executed were the followed:

"I can only assume that the City of Gold sunk into the sea!"

But no one believed him anymore, even though he never swayed from his story until he died.

Luffy, who was kneeling near the water's edge was looking down to see bubbles coming up and bursting at the surface. As he looked a little closer, something was swimming up towards him.

"A… chestnut?" Luffy asked in wonder as he saw the strange object.

Suddenly a large hand shot out of the water and grabbed Luffy by the front of his vest. With a startled scream Luffy was pulled right into the sea and that's when he blacked out until it came back with Usopp pulling Luffy back out of the water. Usopp snarled at Luffy to be more careful.

Luffy coughed up seawater and tried to explain what happened. Once he had coughed the water all up, he asked who that man was. They looked to see a rather muscular, middle-age man with blond hair, and a large chestnut on his head; he was also bare-chested and barefooted and had a strange tattoo of a chestnut with the word 'Maroon' on his arm… but he was laying on the ground and struggling for air, as if in terrible pain.

As they pulled Luffy out of the sea and Chopper was carefully approaching the man to get a good look at him for any injuries.

Once the reindeer doctor was sure that he was out cold, he ordered for the others to bring him inside the house so that he could see what was wrong with him.

Chopper told them the whole story. He explained that he was actually really sick and suffering from a serious disease known as Caisson Disease, or Decompression Sickness. Apparently a condition arising from dissolved gases coming out as bubbles inside the body on depressurization. Since bubbles can form in or migrate to any part of the body, DCS can produce many symptoms, and its effects may vary from joint pain and rashes to paralysis and death and it happens with divers.

Luffy naturally called it a 'Mystery Disease' even Chopper explained it in full detail.

Chopper gave them all orders on how to help this man—knowing just what to do to make him comfortable and ease up some of Cricket's suffering. But Chopper confessed to them all that he wasn't sure if he could help him here, guessing that he must've been diving every day for years without letting his body fully rest and it finally caught up to him… that was why he collapsed during the fight.

As they watched the scene, no one really bothering to talk, two more guests showed up—both Masira and Shoujou appeared, so big that they couldn't fight through the doorway together and had to settle by sticking their large heads in. "HEY OLD TIMER!" they cried together, "ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"

As they looked up and saw who it was, Usopp and Chopper screamed, as they started to run around in fear as Usopp cried out, sounding close to tears, "THEY'VE COME TO KILL US!"

"What in the world are you people doing there?!" Shoujou demanded angrily.

"And what do you think you're doing to our friend?!" Masira added just as angry.

Luffy answered, "We're trying to help. So I suggest that you either lend us a hand or find somebody else to bother."

Usopp was screaming at him not to antagonize them, reminding them what they were capable of, and was even suggesting that they just jump outside the window and run away. But then the two over-sized monkeys surprised them all by thanking them and practically crying—startling over Usopp and Chopper.

The Straw Hats explained what was going on. Luffy went outside so that they could really talk to them—already getting along great with them like old friends. As they listened in, the two admitted that they did live here as well, but spent most of their time on their ships since this place was too small for them. It turns out that this little house was the headquarters for what they called the Saruyama Alliance. Shoujou was talking to Luffy, saying how impressed he was that he got Masira off his ship like that, which Luffy responded that he was sure that even he could kick his ass if he tried.

Chopper came running out of the house, calling Luffy that Cricket was awake. As he went in to see him, Shoujou had kicked Masira and seemed surprised that he was able to do so as he went flying off into the distance.

Cricket was sitting up, a great deal calmer than before, and smoking a cigarette like how Sanji did before he spoke. "I'm sorry I attacked you," he said sincerely. "I thought that you were nothing more than another group of bandits who had come to steal my gold."

Nami's eyes turned to beri symbols. "Did somebody say something about gold?!"

"Just calm down Nami," Usopp hissed as Cricket asked, "What exactly was it you wanted to ask me?"

Luffy walked over to him and said eagerly, "We're searching for Sky Island! And we were told you might be able to tell us how to get there!"

"Are you serious?" Cricket asked before he burst out laughing, "DON'T TELL ME YOU BELIEVE THAT PLACE ACTUALLY EXISTS?!"

The laughing ticked Nami off, looking ready to slug Cricket. With Usopp desperately trying to hold her back as Luffy cried out, "YOU MEAN THERE'S NO SKY ISLAND?! ARE YOU SURE?!"

Though he had calmed down greatly, Cricket was still chuckling as he admitted, "I don't know," he breathed a little more on his cigarette before he finished, "See… nobody really knows if the Sky Island exists or not. I know only one man who claims to have seen the island himself but he's considered a liar of epic proportions."

Luffy turned to look at Usopp and Usopp asked what they were looking at.

"There's an old fairytale that the people in the North Blue know very well," Cricket went on. "It's called Noland the Liar."

Again, Luffy looked to Usopp. "Quit looking at me Luffy!" he yelled, "My name's not Noland!"

Sanji spoke from a chair near the window, "Now that I think about it… Noland's family name… was also Montblanc. Does that make you related to him somehow?"

Nami gasped if that was true as well. Cricket looked out one of the windows and admitted it all without any shame. Noland was his distant ancestor. However, he also added that they were so far removed, he doubted that he had any of Noland's blood in his veins. He acknowledged that his family was driven out of the North Blue a long time ago. And though his family may deny the name, they have never hated Noland for it because contrary to what everyone else believed, Noland had been a very honest man.

Cricket went on to state that he knew that Noland was far from stupid. That he truly believed what he saw and stuck to this story even though he was put to death for it. Usopp got excited, thinking he had it all figured it out, that Cricket came here to prove Noland right and clear the family name. However, Cricket lost it, "DON'T BE RIDICULOUS!"

And to their surprise, he fired at him, freezing them all as they stared at him. Though it was clear that he never intended to hit him, missing him clear by a mile, it was enough to get his point across. "I DON'T EVEN CARE IF THE CITY OF GOLD EXISTS OR NOT! THE ACTIONS OF MY ANCESTOR HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ME AND MY LIFE!" Cricket screamed out, "YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY BEGIN TO IMAGINE WHAT IT'S LIKE! AS A KID FOR EVERYONE TO LAUGH AT YOU AND RIDDICULE YOU CAUSE YOU'RE A DESCENDANT OF THAT IDIOT NOLAND? THAT'S WHAT I DEALT WITH MY WHOLE LIFE!"

Cricket took several calming breaths, putting the gun back down. Cricket declared that many members of his family tried to do the same thing, to find the city and clear the family name. But in the end each one of them died in the attempt—long before they even reached the island. Ashamed of his family, Cricket ran away from home and became the captain of a crew of pirates. He did not necessarily wanted to become a pirate then, he just wanted to escape the curse of carrying the Montblanc family name.

However, ten years ago, Cricket and his crew accidentally came across Jaya, the island that Noland supposedly found the city and the island that so many of Cricket's family members failed to find their way to. Standing upon the cape where the City of Gold was supposed to be, Cricket decided to accept his fate and find out once and for all if there was the legendary city that Noland found or not. His crew however, did not agree with his decision and left him alone on the island. Cricket finished his story by telling them that he began diving all alone in these waters every day in search of any clue of the City of Gold.

"I don't care if I find the city or not!" Cricket finished with a sigh, "I'm not here to prove Noland right or wrong. I have no interest in rewriting history. All I'm doing is following what I believe to be my destiny. This is between me and Noland. I am facing what I fear. And whatever the outcome, the act is all that matters."

His words moved Usopp to tears.

"But what about the monkeys?" Luffy suddenly asked. "How did they come to be on this island with you anyway?"

"I'm sure that's another story of bravery in the face of incredible odds!" Usopp said tearfully, "Your life reads like a great book, you know Cricket?"

"They're just fans of the fairytale," Cricket answered and that ticked Usopp off.

"How did they find you?" Nami asked with a few sweatdrops around her head.

"I think it was about five or six years ago," Cricket said, thinking back. "They heard a rumor and set out to find me. Those two truly believe that the City of Gold exists somewhere and they're me find it."

It was truly touching to hear Cricket admit that they showed up out of the blue one day, proclaiming themselves as his followers without his permission, and became part of his crew without asking. Though they were loud and did nothing but fight all the time, Cricket allowed them to help him in his search and accepted them as his surrogate sons.

To Cricket, their barging into his life out of the blue saved his life from the constant loneliness he felt before they came. With this, Cricket became the leader of the Saruyama Alliance. Together with the two brothers and their pirate crews, they had been searching all around Jaya for the lost city. Once he told him how much he had grown to enjoy their company and put him at ease, Usopp cried again. But Luffy said bluntly, "Are you just about finished telling us your life story?"

"Shut your mouth you ungrateful brat!" Usopp yelled, punching him, which Luffy responded by throwing him off him and saying loudly that all he wanted to know about was Sky Island.

Cricket chuckled again. "You're a pushy guy aren't ya?" he asked in amusement, "But like I told you before earlier, the only person who's claimed to see Sky Island is Noland. And nobody knows if it's the truth or just another tall tale." He then reached to the bookshelf next to him and pulled off a very old and worn-out book as he flicked through it.

"Is there any record of his trip to the island?" Luffy asked hurriedly.

"Officially? No," Cricket admitted, "But he does mention it in here."

Nami then gasped, asking if that was Noland's logbook and Cricket threw it roughly at her, telling her to read there. She looked at it in amazement, and read out things that Noland had claimed to have seen such as Sky Fish, and the Sky Waver that was said to be created in the Sky Island along with many other strange and fabulous objects. As she read on, everyone's eyes grew wider and wider with every word like a fascinating story that they wanted to know the ending to.

"Do you know what this means?!" Nami cried out excitedly.

"Sky Island must really exist!" Luffy cried out and seeing that, the Straw Hats all knew that Luffy was now determined to head to the floating island no matter what it took.

Cricket was in front of a tree stump that served as a table as Luffy, Usopp, Nami, and Chopper sat down, listening to him talk.

"Listen up and listen good," Cricket said, "I decided to tell you guys everything I know about the Sky Island. Most of this is rumor and hear-say so you'll have to make up your own minds whether you believe it or not. There's something very strange that happens in this part of the ocean." He pointed out to the sea, "Everything will suddenly turn dark as night, right in the middle of the brightest day."

Luffy held up his hand as if he were in class and exclaimed that happened to them as well.

"Yeah," Usopp agreed at once, "It was like the sun vanished! And then these enormous monsters showed up!"

"You've seen the giants," Cricket said, not sounding the least bit surprised at that, "There's a tale on where those things come from but forget about it for now, we can go into it later. Now about this sudden nightfall… it's caused by the shadow of an incredibly dense cloud."

But Nami was lost, telling him that it was too dark for clouds, it was as if the sun went out. He then explained that this cloud is special from every other cloud in that it forms high in the sky, has no internal air currents and never turns to rain. No light can reach the ground and it turns even the brightest day dark. These clouds, called the Cumuloregalis cloud, never changed at all… and some people actually believe that these clouds are like fossils. Petrified clouds that drift around for centuries unchanged. Nami doubted all that before Cricket added that this was all rumors that he heard and what she believes is up to her.

"So it's… a 'Mystery Cloud'," Luffy decided upon.

Instead of telling him he was stupid, Cricket agreed with that statement, but also said that there was only one place that Sky Island could be and it's on top of one of those clouds. Luffy and Usopp were both cheering, getting ready to go, but Nami hit them both, screaming at them that they still didn't know how to get there.

"Yeah, that's gonna be the hard part," Cricket agreed, "Because you'll be risking your life every minute."

"You mean like now?" the boys whimpered behind him, Chopper looking at their beaten and swollen faces.

"There's only one way to get there, the Knock-Up Stream," Cricket answered for them, "It shoots straight up in the air, so theoretically, it can take you into the sky if you're lucky."

Luffy was looking thrilled at this idea and said that all they had to do was hitch a ride when it next went off, but Nami countered by asking if they would end up falling back to the ocean and get smashed to pieces.

"Usually, that's true," Cricket stated, "Unless you can get the timing just right. It's one thing to sit here all comfy and talk about riding the Knock-Up Stream. But if you think this trip is gonna be some kind of pleasure cruise you're in for a very rude awaken."

Luffy had wide eyes as Usopp and Chopper both looked freaked out. Cricket said that he heard many theories about it, but only one has ever made any real sense to him however no one's ever been stupid enough to confirm it. The Knock-Up Stream is apparently created by giant underwater pockets below the ocean floor. Water seeps in, and is heated by geothermal energy until it turns to steam. At some point the pressure becomes too great and explodes, sending a giant stream upwards. The strength of each particular event varies dramatically but they all last for about a minute each time.

"One full minute?!" Nami cried out in shock, getting up, "Do you realize how enormous an explosion like that would have to be?!"

Cricket turned his back on them as they tried to digest this thought as he finished, "Anyway, you can't really explain something like this with words and theories. It's one of the great mysteries of creation."

"So…" Usopp said, summing it all up, "So then… we gotta ride this current that shows up five times a month into to reach some island in the sky… and just hope it's waiting for us?!"

"I'd say that sums it up pretty well," Cricket said. "And if you miss, you fall back down, slam into the ocean, and get blown into fish food. Just like you said."

Usopp, pale and sweating, turned to Luffy's smiling face. "Ok, so we're gonna forget about Sky Island right?" The two laughed, though Usopp a little forced before he said seriously, that this was nuts. That they would have to be beyond lucky to be able to pull off a stunt like this. But Luffy's eyes were shining at the thought and said that they will go anyway.

Usopp reminded the captain about the Merry's condition, that she'll never be able to withstand something like that in her condition. Cricket agreed, saying that she was worthless… even brand new she would never have been able survive it. Usopp frowned at him for that, as if almost tempted to do it just to prove that the Merry could, but let the insult slide before he thought that it would settle the matter. But then Cricket surprised them by offering to fix and reinforce the ship. Which Masira and Shoujou happily agreed to from inside the house.

Nami then reminded them that they could only stay on this island for one more day before the Log Pose reset and they'd be forced to move on. Usopp beamed at that thought and asked Cricket when he thought that the next time the Knock-Up Stream would line up with those clouds—clearly sounding like he believed that they would be long gone by the time that it did line up perfectly. But that didn't last when Cricket stated that it would be at around noon tomorrow.

"WAIT A MINUTE! YOU MEAN WE CAN MAKE IT?!" Usopp screamed.

"'Fraid so," Cricket said, back still to him. "If you're scared then don't go."

Usopp's eyes turned angry and he began to shout, pointing an accusing finger at him. "You're lying!" Cricket turned to look back at him as he went on yelling, "There's something's fishy about this! We've known you less than 24 hours why are you being so helpful? And what's more…?"

Luffy then stepped up, looking angry as he tried to tell him off, but Usopp snapped at him to shut up before he turned back to Cricket, yelling, "This Sky Island… this legendary place, that we don't even know the location of is just gonna show up outta the blue? At noon tomorrow? And to help us get there you're gonna rebuild and reinforce our ship… for nothing?!

"When something looks too good to be true, it probably is!" Usopp yelled, "The infamous liar Noland was your great-great grand whatever right? So how do we know we can trust you?!"

Cricket didn't seemed fazed at all by this as he pulled out his cigarette and looked at him, Usopp tense up as if expecting a fight. The two monkeys were calling from inside the house that dinner was ready and Sanji came stumbling out and noticed the tense atmosphere.

Untroubled Cricked said as he slowly walked to him, "Masira said, whenever the midday night happens in this area, the Cumuloregalis cloud appears in the southern sky the next day. Based on its usual cycle of five appearances a month, I'm guessing the Knock-Up Stream will also erupt tomorrow at midday. That will probably also be to the south. I can't be 100% certain but there's a good chance the two events will coincide."

Cricket walked passed Usopp, whose anger faded to a look of nervousness and confusion. "I'm proud to have met a bunch of brave fools like you," he said warmly, "You're true pirates."

Meanwhile, shame came over Usopp's face at those words as Cricket finished, "Now then, let's go inside and eat. Tonight I want you to call my home your home… my friends."

Those words were enough to cause Usopp to fall to his knees and Luffy smiled happily at that. Usopp, feeling down for his behavior, apologized to Cricket. Cricket however, was a bit disgusted by Usopp as he was rubbing his running nose on Cricket's pants while apologizing on his knees.

Soon they back inside Cricket's house, with all the Straw Hats, Cricket, and the monkeys laughing and enjoying a good party. Masira was chasing Usopp around for tricking him to eat hot sauce, Cricket was drinking so much that his face was red, and Luffy and Shoujou were dancing together.

Nami was sitting in the background, reading Noland's logbook. Cricket noticed it as well and when he went over to her, he quoted from a passage, "The Skull's right eye. That's where I saw the gold."

And they all fell silent as they looked to him, waiting for him to speak as if he was giving a speech.

"Those words, smeared with tears, were the last words Noland wrote in his logbook," Cricket answered as he stood up. "'The skull's right eye, that's where I saw the gold.' That very same day, Noland was executed. I still don't know what he meant by that… it doesn't refer to the name of a city or some landmark that used to be on the island. Or is it just a poetic illusion to his own impeding death?

"The blank pages the follow give us no clue," Cricket sighed, his face still red as he tilted his head back and drank deeply, "And that's why we continue to dive to the bottom of the sea… we dream."

The Straw Hats all raised their glasses high to that as they went on to enjoy the party. It was fun to watch, even as Cricket took the logbook and began to read out a particular entry. It was when Noland first arrived on Jaya. They heard the peculiar cries of a strange bird and the ringing of a grand bell. "'In our pride and arrogance we thought we've seen and heard everything in our short lives," Cricket recited, obviously knowing this part by heart, "'But the sound of that bell tolling left us all speechless! It was as if the clang of that bell all struck us dumb with wonder!'"

Cricket let out a loud cry which Luffy and the monkeys echoed happily.

"Hey old timer, it sounds like you just might be a little fond of Noland after all," Usopp teased and they all laughed. Smiling, Cricket pulled out a few bags from a trunk. He passed one of them to Masira before he sat back down and opened up the one he still had and revealed three miniature golden bells.

Usopp stated that they didn't seem so impressive to him, sounding a little let down.

"None of these is the bell that Noland was writing about in his logbook," Cricket informed him as Nami picked up one and ran her hands over it lovingly. "These are bell shaped golden ingots we found on the ocean floor during a dive."

"Golden ingots?" Chopper repeated in surprise as Luffy cried out happily that the City of Gold was real.

"It's still not proof though," Shoujou said sadly as he sat up from where he fell over from drinking too much. "You can find golden relics like that lying around any old ruin in this part of the world."

"Maybe so," Robin agreed, "But that does suggest there was some civilization here sometime in the past. Ingots are made to divide gold into standard unit of weight… and that would indicate an advantage trading society."

"Right," Cricket spoke up to what Robin had said, "And you remember that peculiar bird call he said they heard when they arrived?" he looked to Masira and told them to show it to them. He opened the bag and revealed the enormous chunk of gold that was carved into the shape of a strange looking bird holding a bell.

As they all gasped in wonder at it, Cricket told them that was the last of it as Nami swooned over it, reminding them all of how Sanji did the same whenever he saw a cute girl.

"Golden bells and birds, huh?" Sanji smiled, "Do you think that these are symbols of some ancient, giant civilization?"

Cricket shrugged at Sanji's question, but said that he was sure they had all come from the same casting. He then began to talk about the golden statue being a South Bird and that they could still find some on the island today. Masira began to talk more about them about how sailors had used them on their ships, but before he even finished, he and his brother both stared at each other and Cricket gasped.

"OH NO!" they yelled out so suddenly that it startled them all.

"What's wrong?" they cried out in surprise.

"This is really bad!" Cricket said, his face no longer holding any trace of the party and was deadly serious, "You guys gotta get to the forest on the south side of the island quick!" when Luffy tried to ask what was going on, Cricket pointed to the gold bird and added that they had to go and catch one of the South Birds and fast.

The crew asked why they needed the bird.

"Now listen carefully," Cricket said crossly, "Tomorrow you're gonna sail for the Knock-Up Stream. It lies directly south of here… how are you gonna get there?"

"We just sail the ship due south of course," Luffy said obviously.

"Have you forgotten this is the Grand Line?!" Cricket yelled at him. "You're heading for open sea! You won't be able to get your bearings!"

Nami gasped at that, realizing that he was right. That since they were in the Grand Line, the Straw Hats would not know where to go south since normal compasses would not work. Also since the place that they were headed to was a location in the sea and not an island, the Log Pose would not help either.

Cricket told them that they could still make it if they could capture a South Bird and follow its direction. These strange looking birds have an odd habit of always pointing their head south, no matter where they are. Because of this, they were used in ancient times to navigate. With it, they could get the direction and just follow it…

"You see?" Cricket finished explaining, "If you don't get going to that forest and catch one of those birds right now, you'll have to kiss your only chance of going to Sky Island goodbye!"

"AND YOU'RE JUST TELLING US THIS NOW?!" they yelled at him, looking panic-stricken as they all jumped up and ran to the door, bursting outside and headed for the trees as Cricket threw them several nets, letting them know that they would get started on the repairs to their ship in the meantime before he reminded them that they had until morning to find one of those birds or to forget about the whole thing.

Luffy took several steps forward before he halted mid-stride and you could practically hear the cogs turning in his head. Then, it was like a lightbulb went off in his mind. Turning to his still running crew, the chimera captain called out, "Hey, hold up guys!"

The Straw Hats stopped, if somewhat reluctantly, before turning back towards Luffy. "What is it now Luffy?! In case you didn't get it, we're kinda on a timeframe here!" Nami snapped out, silently swearing she'd kill the kid if it was some sort of stupid question or other pointless distraction her captain wanted to mention.

With a quickly forming smile, Luffy declared, "I just realized…we don't need to find a Southern Bird, cause we already have one!" With that, Luffy changed his shape. When he was done, the straw hat wearing pirate was a large, rather chubby looking bird with a body of purple and bright green feathers. He had a large toucan-like beak that was an assortment of colors, while his head looked a bit like a fish. Grinning at the gob smacked looks on both the crew's and the Alliance's face, Southern Bird Luffy let off a cry:

"Jyooooooh…"

While the Alliance members continued to gawk, having no previous knowledge on Luffy's powers, some of the other Straw Hats face palmed. "I don't know what's worse," Zoro muttered with his face still in his hand, "That we missed such an obvious solution to the problem, or that it was Luffy of all people who figured it out first!"

"To be fair," Usopp pointed out while trying to find the silver lining, "we just found out about the Southern Birds, and that we had to find them ASAP made us all act before thinking. Now though, we don't have to go through a creepy looking forest for a bird." He seemed cheerful about this at first, before his face fell as he realized that now there was nothing holding the crew back form the possible suicide adventure.

After explaining Luffy's powers to the Alliance, Cricket coughed into his fist and said, "While that's impressive, do you still possess the Southern Bird's directional ability? Are you sure your facing south at all times?"

Luffy cocked his avian head for a moment while contemplating Cricket's question. He then turned his head to the right and held it there for a little bit before a look of extreme discomfort came over him and his head snapped back into its previous position. "Huh, that felt weird. It was like, no matter what position my head was in, it only felt like it was supposed to be facing that direction," Luffy commented as he went back to his human form, giving his neck a crack for good measure.

"Hmm, looks like Luffy's sense of direction is spot on," Robin commented in amusement as the rest of the crew agreed. Then, the senior members of the crew all looked over to Zoro, who looked confused at the stares he was getting.

"What?" he asked irritably.

"Maybe you should keep Luffy with you at all times. Maybe then you'd know which way south is at the least," Sanji suggested with a barely contained smirk. The rest of the crew snickered at that as a vein pulsed on Zoro's forehead.

"Oh screw you guys!" he shot out before walking away in a huff.

Cricket cleared his throat and said, "Now that that's all settled, you all should probably head in for the night while me and the brothers get to work on your ship. After all, you'll need your wits about you tomorrow to make sure everything goes according to plan. You should probably set up camp a little ways away from here so the sounds of us working on your ship don't disturb you. We'll come to get you at first light."

The crew agreed, knowing the former pirate had a point. After saying their goodnights, the Straw Hats went a short distance down the beach and set up some of the tents Nami had brought from Alabasta. One by one, they fell asleep to the sounds of hammers pounding and other sounds of construction echoing down the beach. A few hours later though, they were awakened by the sound of an almighty CRASH that was followed by cries of pain and, curiously enough, cheering.

Going to maximum awareness in a split-second, the crew barged out of their tents and ran down the beach towards Cricket's house to find out what was going on, and what they saw enraged them. Parts of the house and the ground around them was torn up, the house itself had two giant holes as if someone had shot a cannonball through them… but the three were in worse shape. Masira was lying on his face with a deep bleeding gash down his back, Shoujou was floating unconscious in the sea… and Cricket was dripping blood all over as he lay there. Usopp gasped when he saw the Merry, the front half almost broken in half, now lying sadly on the ground and the mast snapped off like a twig.

And there, standing over Cricket's form was the same man from earlier that day, Bellamy the Hyena. Standing a short ways from him was 'Big Knife' Sarquiss, wiping blood from one of his oversized knives. Standing around them was Bellamy's crew from earlier, cheering and laughing at the display of brutality. No longer thinking about not fighting back, the Straw Hats leapt into action.

As the other members of the Straw Hats went to both make sure the brothers and the Merry were okay, Luffy, with a burst of speed that momentarily surprised the enemy pirates, was now looking over Cricket, who had woken up. "Sorry kid…" he gasped, when he saw him.

"You're alive!" Luffy said in surprise, trying to help him, "Don't try to move around…"

The whole time, Cricket was mumbling an apology about letting this happen even as he tried to push himself up.

Sarquiss suddenly let out a laugh, causing the crew to look at him. "Heh, if it isn't the pathetic rabble from earlier! And look, they even brought along more of their trashy friends. Why'd you come, hoping to steal the gold from this old coot too? Well forget it! We were here first, and if you want it back you'd best be ready to receive worse than you did earlier."

It was then they noticed that by some of the gathered pirates the wrapped gold Cricket had shown them earlier lay at their feet, further enraging the Straw Hats as what happened all came together. Bellamy and his crew must have heard of Cricket's gold and decided to come and steal it for themselves. The Alliance had obviously tried to fight back, but had fallen to their assault. And from the look of the damaged area, the fight hadn't been pretty.

With a hard look on his face, Luffy called out, "EVERYONE!" The rest of the crew looked at him and he said in a dead serious voice few have heard him use, "Keep the old man and the monkeys safe, I'll take care of these creeps."

Zoro looked at him calmly, already knowing what he was going to do and asked, in a tone that clearly said that he already knew the answer to, "You want any help?"

"I'll handle this one alone," he said firmly, moving his hat back to hide his eyes. This was answered by the others with mixed expressions. Most of the crew didn't say anything, already knowing what he was doing as well and fully supported his decision on it. Nami was telling him that they only had three hours left before they had to set sail. But he didn't answer her, merely turning to face his opponent, who grinned at him cockily.

"BELLAMY!" he shouted, "I'M GONNA TAKE YOU DOWN!"

"HA! You're going to take me out? You've gotta be joking!" Bellamy called, sounding just as conceited as he did from before, "You've got something to say to me kid?"

"I do!" Luffy yelled back. "Gives back pops' gold! Every bit of it, right now!"

"What gold?" Bellamy asked, though he clearly knew what he was talking about before he burst out laughing. "You mean the junk we got from old man Cricket?" Rather than answer, he hunched over, crouching low before he was able to jump, almost fly, though the air before he was able to spin around and landed gracefully behind Luffy. Bellamy's legs had changed, becoming all twisted around to show he ate a spring based Devil's Fruit.

"Maybe it's news to you, but that's what pirates do. Ever heard of looting?" Bellamy taunted him. "But what am I saying? You're just a pathetic dreamer who can't open his eyes long enough to get a good look at the real world."

Luffy glared at him, speaking in such a way that Bellamy looked taken aback by his tone, "Well, then. If stealing is what we pirates do, I guess I should just steal the gold back then."

Bellamy roared with laughter at what Luffy said.

"That's cute, but be serious!" he yelled, "Can you really fight? I mean, do you even know how to throw a punch? I saw you're fighting skills earlier," Bellamy sneered at him when Luffy didn't say anything, "You're very good at just standing there."

Luffy's eyes narrowed dangerous as Bellamy mocked him, telling him that standing still wasn't going to get the gold back. "What, you're freezing up like this afternoon? Admit it, you're too scared to fight me!"

"This afternoon was different. I'm not scared," Luffy said neutrally, the moon at his back making him look like some kind of demon of the night. But Bellamy just laughed, saying that was a good bluff, but he was now sick of listening to him, and decided to shut him up for good.

The spectators watched as Bellamy's spring-like legs kicked off, destroying the ground right under his feet as he shrieked out with laughter, "Don't worry, this won't take long!" and when he landed on one of the trees in the area that cracked under the pressure he finished his attack, "Spring SNIPER!"

He shot towards Luffy like a torpedo, who didn't look impressed as Bellamy came flying at him. At the last second he jumped off the destroyed roof of Cricket's house, soaring through the sky just as gracefully as Bellamy had, and some of the people on the ground started talking about it—some impressed—others not so much. The Straw Hats, meanwhile, watched in silence as they all knew there was really only one outcome for this match.

Luffy landed awkwardly on another tree before he got back up and glared around at Bellamy, who was still undergoing his relentless attack. Once, he almost ended up falling right over the edge to the ground below, and was forced to grab onto a branch to keep himself from dropping. The whole time Bellamy bragged and laughed at Luffy, taunting him at how weak he was and that he was never going to get the gold back. He darted from tree to tree in the clearing, each one cracking like a toothpick when he jumped off, looking like a demented pinball.

The fight went on, Bellamy making them all angry as he kept yelling things out like he was pathetic for believing in dreams or that he was a disgrace to 'real' pirates. Finally, Luffy was knocked from the trees and landed on the ground, and Bellamy continued to jump around him, laughing insanely that he couldn't beat him no matter what thanks to his Devil Fruit.

'Big Knife' Sarquiss laughed, egging his captain on as the other crew members mocked Luffy as well. The Straw Hats, meanwhile, resisted rolling their eyes as they could feel this sham of a fight was ending soon.

Luffy stood up from where he fell to the ground, completely unharmed, his expression cold as the rest of Bellamy's crew seemed shocked that he was getting up. But Bellamy's face was smiling at the thought of crushing Luffy as he then launched himself at Cricket's house again. Using the building and the trees in the area, he bounced from one spot to the next, increasing in speed with each successive spring.

Luffy just stared ahead of him as Bellamy continued to rant on. "So, you want the gold back, huh!?" he yelled, his voice seemed to come from all around them. "Because Old Man Cricket is you're friend!? Wake up! He's nothing but a decrepit fool who spends all his time chasing after a four-hundred year old lie!

"But that's probably what you like about him, right!?" Bellamy went on as Luffy's eyes turned into slits, filled with anger and his face darkened even more so that he looked like some kind of beast ready to kill. "You like to call yourselves pirates, but you know nothing! There's no City of Gold! No island in the sky! Just oceans and ships and the men who sail them!"

Meanwhile, Luffy's anger had grown to such a point that they could almost feel it radiating in the air around them.

He held his fist up, they could hear the cracking of his knuckles even through the noise that Bellamy was making. "You asked if I know how to throw a punch," he called out even as Sarquiss laughed, asking that he hurry up and beat him so that he could go back to town for a drink.

Bellamy was finally tired of playing around, screaming out, "So long, Straw-Hat!"

It all happened so quickly that most of them missed it. With a single punch, Luffy slammed Bellamy right into the ground, his head breaking through the wooden walkway, leaving a large crater all around them. Bellamy's eyes rolled into the back of his head, blood spurting from his mouth and the imprint of Luffy's fist embedded into his face.

Bellamy was out cold before his head cracked the wood beneath him.

Luffy's knuckles were covered in blood. He didn't respond at all however as he slowly put his hat back on his head, his eyes still darkened so that they couldn't see anything. He hadn't even needed to use his powers to defeat the man.

No one said anything as they heard Bellamy croak a little from where he lay, showing that he was still alive, but the crowd around them were suddenly as silent as the grave.

Sarquiss stepped forward, stuttering out in a shocked tone, but sure that this had to be some kind of bad joke, "Hey… quit messing around, Bellamy and get up, the jokes over. We know that runt couldn't beat you. Come on, get up!"

Most of them looked ready to turn tail and run when Bellamy just continued to lay there.

Sarquiss seemed to grow angrier with ever second that his captain remained on the ground and soon he was shouting, "This really isn't funny anymore, now snap out of it! You have to get up and show that kid who you are! You're a real pirate, not like him!" Sarquiss continued to scream out that his bounty was up to fifty-five million and that he couldn't lose.

Luffy turned towards Bellamy's crew and gave them a cold glare. "And now, Cricket's gold. Give it back!" he demanded, in a tone that showed that he wasn't kidding around here anymore. Almost everyone turned and ran away, scattering around them into the forest as if hoping that it would protect them from Luffy's wrath. But Luffy no longer had any reason to go after them as he stood there, waiting for an answer.

The main part of Bellamy's crew, the ones who had been there that afternoon, were so startled, that some of them pointed fearfully to the bag behind them and Luffy marched over. As he went inside, they went over to Bellamy, trying to get him up and on his feet again.

Luffy came back, the large sack on his back, smiling as he calmly went towards a stunned Cricket as if he had just done some grocery shopping. He was even chuckling a little to himself as he walked. "That wasn't too hard to find," he said as the remaining Bellamy Pirates were with Bellamy, who only continued to lay there helpless. Sarquiss was on his knees, shaking as he looked after him. Suddenly he got to his feet and began to yell, "HEY YOU COME BACK HERE! YOU HEAR ME? YOU STUPID RUNT? I'M TALKING TO YOU! I'LL GET HIM! WE WON'T BE BEATEN BY SOME PRETEND PIRATE!

"I'LL SHOW YOU A REAL PUNCH!" Sarquiss continued to yell after Luffy, "WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!"

When Luffy did stop, his words died on his tongue and they froze, looking ready to run back if they had to. Luffy merely held up the bloody fist as he asked, "Where am I going?"

Sarquiss fell back, looking ready to wet his pants. Luffy didn't threaten him, or say anything else to show that he won, it was as if the fight never happened… but instead, he slowly looked back before he held up his finger to the sky. "Up there! Now…" Luffy's face took on a bestial quality and you could swear that the entire animal kingdom was now glaring at the rapidly sweating pirates. "GET LOST!" he roared and in a puff of dust, the enemy crew had fled at near supersonic speeds, taking their out cold captain with them (1). He then turned back to the crew and the Alliance, the former who were all warmly congratulating him or asking why he took so long while the later could only stare with their jaws hitting the sand.

The next day with the sun already high in the sky, Luffy was there with the rest of the crew and staring at the Merry—though the ship looked to have proper patches and work done to her, she still looked a bit worse for the wear. But also, she was now looking more like a rooster than a sheep.

The Merry was now sporting wings attached to her sides, and a curved tail at the back, as well as even sporting a wattle and a comb.

Luffy however was looking at it with glowing eyes as Usopp walked proudly over to it. "Introducing the Going Merry, Flying addition!" he cried out.

"It can fly?!" he cried out.

Usopp pointed happily to the Saruyama Alliance and told him that they built it just for them and Nami was whispering that she had a bad feeling about it. Zoro seemed to be thinking along the same thing as he agreed, stating that chickens couldn't fly and that a pigeon would've been a better choice.

"What's that got to do with anything? You dope?!" Nami snapped at him.

"It's time to set sail!" Usopp cried out, "Come on, if you're with me let me hear it!"

They all cheered and were all quickly getting on their ships and raising anchor with Luffy being last on board, giving a final look to the Alliance. Though heavily bandaged and bruised, the Alliance looked a hundred times better than they had last night. Cricket didn't say anything, didn't say thank you or asked if he was alright, he didn't even acknowledge what he did after the fight last night. But Luffy didn't seem to have been looking for a thank you.

After breathing out the smoke from his cigarette, Cricket said, "Well? What are you waiting for? Get on board. Unless you wanna miss your chance at the sky? Like a fool."

Luffy just smiled. That was probably the closest he was going to get to a thank you from the old man. "Thanks for the ship," he said gratefully. Cricket just put out his cigarette and jerked his thumb at the Saruyama Alliance, telling him that he should be thanking them for doing all the work. Luffy did just that, and even gave them a Hercules beetle he found last night when going back to the camp as a way to say thanks. Shoujou looked thrilled at the gift and ordered his crew to get a cage for their new pet.

Shoujou and Masira were both calling out that they would lead the way to where the Knock-Up Stream was going to erupt. And as they followed Luffy, they heard Cricket's voice calling out behind them, calling to the Saruyama crews.

When they all glanced back at him, he was standing tall as he gave them his orders. "I'm counting on you men!" he called. "I don't care what happens! You give our friends everything you've got!"

They all cheered on in agreement, soon pushing off from the shore and giving Cricket their goodbyes. With both ships on either side of the Merry like guards, taking them out to sea, Cricket appeared at the shoreline, calling to the Straw Hats, "Well, kid… looks like this is where we part ways!" Luffy looked over the tail end as he went on, "There's only one thing you gotta remember, above everything else!

"Not one person, in history, has ever disproved the existence of Sky Island!" Cricket declared with a smile and they all nodded in understanding. "People may say I'm crazy and even laugh at me, but I don't care!" Cricket declared to them all, "I'm a romantic! Like you!"

As they drew further away from shore, they heard Cricket's voice calling out, "Oh yeah… thanks for the gold! And hey, don't be falling from the sky you hear?!"

As they left Jaya behind them, Luffy returned to his Southern Bird form and the ships followed the direction his head was pointing. Soon they could see dark clouds in the distance and Nami was calling for everyone to come out at once.

Nami screamed to the others, "The Cumuloregalis cloud appeared a lot sooner than expected and now everyone's scrambling to find a current!" Shoujou let out another loud wailing with his voice to use for sonar and after a few minutes, the divers came up, finding the place where the whirlpool was sure to form. Masira then called that they were to head right for that spot. The waves around them were growing higher and more violent as they struggled to get through.

Robin called to Nami as to where the Log Pose was pointing.

Nami did a quick check and answered, "It's pointing right at those clouds!" she was staring above them at it as Usopp gasped, "The Sky Island is right above that?!"

Just then, Masira's ship threw a few hooks behind them and hooked onto the Merry as they began towing it.

"What's this?!" Luffy asked while trying to turn his head to get a better look, only for Usopp to bonk him on the head saying he was their compass and compasses don't look around for the fun of it.

"We'll lead you to the inner edge!" he answered as Nami asked what they were supposed to do once they got there. "Position yourself on the flow and head to the center! Then you'll be fine!"

But that was when they spotted the whirlpool, and several of the crew screamed at that. To say it was huge would be the usual understatement. It looked like a large, dark drain… one large enough to have easily swallowed a fleet of Marine ships.

"HE WANTS US TO GO TO THE CENTER?!" Nami screamed as they headed straight for it, the ships sticking just on the outer rim, just far enough away to avoid the current and getting sucked into the dark pit.

"But I don't want to get sucked in!" Usopp screamed in fear, all of them clinging to the ship as the ropes connecting them to Masira's ship let go and they were set adrift.

"I don't remember signing up for all this!" Nami screamed out, looking like she was about to have a heart attack.

Sanji proclaimed that he'll make sure nothing happened to her.

The Straw Hats were all staring at the whirlpool, and even Robin sounded uneasy as she commented on how she had never seen a whirlpool as big as this one before. Chopper however had his face shining with excitement at the thought of flying while Usopp screamed, tears falling from his eyes, that he changed his mind and wanted to go back.

"Sorry, Usopp, too late for that," Zoro told him in his usual bored tones as he jerked his thumb to Luffy, who was already looking like he was about to fall over from happiness. "You know who is already excited."

Luffy screamed out that they were going to the sky. But just then, something burst out through the water in front of them. It was a Sea King, a large and bright yellow one that looked like a giant, fat salamander. It apparently got to close to the whirlpool's edge and was now being pulled in, down into the darkness until it disappeared.

The Straw Hats all froze at that, staring at it with a mixture of expressions from calm all the way to freaking out.

The Merry was now drifting on the current, slowly being pulled to the center. "It's time for us to go!" Masira called to them. "The rest is up to you now! Good luck!"

"Bye guys!" Luffy called, as he transformed back waving happily, "And thanks a lot for everything!"

But not everyone agreed with that. Three members broke down completely and began to scream at them. Usopp especially freaked out. "Don't go! Don't go I don't wanna die! Please take me with you! Give me a break I'm scared! Oh, please don't make me…" and he ended by breaking down with Chopper wailing by his side.

Nami was just as freaked out as she finished for Usopp, "No one said anything about diving head first into a giant whirlpool!"

"Plus it's getting dark…" Usopp said tearfully.

"Oh, cry us a river," Zoro yawned out. "Just hang on and hope for the best."

"WELL EXCUSE US FOR BEING SCARED!" the 'Weakling Trio screamed at him as Chopper screamed that they were being sucked in.

"Don't be so unreasonable, Luffy! Let's go back while we still have time!" Usopp hollered at him, now looking close to passing out. "Don't you understand that this Sky Island stuff is just a bunch of make believe? It's not worth getting us killed!"

"It's all make-believe? Is that what you think?" Luffy asked him, his voice almost annoyed, and he didn't bother looking at him. But Nami was on Usopp's side, also crying and looked ready to start begging if she had to as she cried out, "Usopp's right! I think this is a really bad idea!"

"It may be a stupid dream, but I have to try," Luffy said, still staring ahead before he looked back at them all with his eyes glowing with excitement. "It could be our greatest adventure."

Chopper seemed to have been put at ease at his words, but Usopp and Nami were both still crying as they realized that it was too late. Meanwhile, the Merry was continuing to get pulled closer to the center, something that Zoro seemed to have noticed as well. "Instead of wasting your time bickering, you all may want to take a look," he said, not even looking at Usopp, who was asking what he was talking about.

Zoro merely pointed and told them that they were now being sucked in. That was all it took for them all to start screaming as the Merry suddenly took off and fell towards the darkness below them, it seemed to fly for just a moment above the hole and began to fall.

Straw Hats screamed out in shock just as the Merry fell, but as quickly as the whirlpool appeared… it was gone.

For the moment, where the whirlpool had been, it was now calm and smooth as glass. They were directly underneath the Cumuloregalis cloud… waiting…

Nami gasped as she cried out that it was starting. When they looked to her she cried out in fear that the Whirlpool had sunk beneath the surface.

"Hold it right there!"

All the Straw Hats turned to look behind them at once to see, what could be described more as a giant raft than an actual ship, coming towards them. It looked as if someone had just stuck several large tree trunks together with some rope—the only signs of it being a pirate ship was the black sail which bore three sinister looking skulls on it.

On the crudely made ship was the man from yesterday and there were others with him. The old man and his horse with the exploding apples, the large man who wanted to be the fighting champion from earlier, and another man who they hadn't seen before. A rather tall, and thin guy with a very sad/calm expression. He wore glasses, but one of the lenses looked to be some kind of cross hair. Over his shoulder, he was carrying a large rifle, and he seemed to be sighing forlornly, as if thinking of something sad.

The man, who seemed to be the group's captain, was laughing, looking at Luffy with a great deal more interest than he had when they first met him. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Straw-Hat Luffy."

Nami recognized him at once, telling the others that it was that 'Mock Town' guy from before. As Sanji asked what she was talking about, the man declared that he had come all this way to collect Luffy's one-hundred million bounty.

"Hundred million!?" Luffy shouted back in confusion. "What are you talking about!?"

"Don't play dumb with me, kid!" he called as he held up two bounty posters. Luffy's bounty had gone up more than three times… now up to the one-hundred million that he had said. He also held up another poster that showed Zoro with his starting bounty of sixty-million.

"It's true!" Usopp called, looking at the posters through binoculars at them. "He's got a different poster for each of you! Hey, Zoro congratulations on your new bounty!"

Sanji went running over to Usopp and asked if he could see one for him as well, which Usopp denied, causing an aura of despair to cover the cook. Luffy and Zoro however were celebrating the news of their bounties. "This is great!" Luffy yelled out practically jumping for joy, "Hear that?! My bounty went up big time!"

"Sixty million's not too bad either!" Zoro laughed proudly.

"It's not a good thing!" Nami snapped at them.

It was here that they all finally noticed that the water around them was slowly bubbling and rising up. The Merry was sitting right on top as the water was continuing to go up like how a cake would start to rise…

Usopp screamed out, "OH NO! THE SHIP! IT'S BEING LIFTED UP!"

Everything seemed to freeze in time for just a brief moment… and then… with an almighty explosion beneath them… with the force of an exploding volcano, they were sent flying as a great canal of water suddenly rose up into the air. It was a giant pillar of water that shook them all, almost shattering the ship on impact as they were sent flying up, sailing right up its side…

They were now standing on the wall of the cabin as the Straw Hats hung on for dear life as they were shot up.

Chopper was crying as he hung to the mast.

Luffy was ecstatic as he hung onto the Merry's new comb, screaming out to make his voice heard over the noise, "ALRIGHT! I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING! LET'S GO TO SKYPIEA!"

Sanji pointed it out. The hull was starting to float, in other words, it was slowly tipping back away from the stream of water. And unless they did something about it, they were going to fall back to the ocean below them.

"WELL WHAT DO YOU EXPECT US TO DO ABOUT IT?!" Usopp screamed, hanging on to the railing like a flag flapping in the wind, "WE'RE HAVING A HARD ENOUGH TIME HOLDING ON AS IT IS! OR HAVEN'T YOU NOTICED?!"

Bits of old ships and even the Sea King from before fell from the sky and past them all—the crew yelling in shock at what they were seeing.

"SEE?" Sanji screamed as they watched the monster fall to the ocean below them, "IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME UNTIL THE SAME THING HAPPENS TO THE MERRY!"

"I KNOW! BUT WHAT CAN WE DO?!" Zoro called. He and Robin were standing quite calmly on the wall of the cabin with them, "WE DON'T HAVE A LOT OF OPTIONS WHEN IT COMES TO MOTHER NATURE! WE'RE AT HER MERCY!"

Usopp lost it completely and began to yell, "WE'RE GONNA TAKE A NOSE DIVE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN ALL BECAUSE LUFFY HAD TO FOLLOW SOME STUPID DREAM!"

But Nami seemed to pull herself together, suddenly yelling at them to spread the sail. When they looked to her, she called what they had to do. Though a pillar of water, it was still part of the sea, and they could ride it. Since the wind from below was created from geothermal heat… though packaged differently it was still wind and water.

Everyone suddenly broke into smiles—knowing that their navigator had never led them astray before when it came to where to go.

"ALRIGHT GANG! NAMI'S LEADING THE WAY!" Sanji called and they were able to spread the sail and thanks to Nami's orders, they were able to align the ship with its current. The haul continued to rise higher and higher… and finally, the back end lifted up… that was when something miraculous happened…

They were flying…

"WE'RE FLYING!" Luffy screamed joyfully, punching the air, "YEAH! WE'RE HEADING TO THE SKY!"

"We made it," Usopp croaked out, his eyes almost bulging out of his head.

Everyone was cheering, they had actually conquered the Knock-Up Stream and the terror around them had turned into excitement, everyone was laughing and enjoying the ride—as if they had left behind all their fear.

"IF THIS KEEPS UP WE CAN SAIL AS HIGH AS WE WANT!" Nami called over the noise.

"Hey Nami, are we almost to Skypiea!?" Luffy yelled back, and they shared a grin as she pointed up to the black clouds above them.

"If it exists, it's past those clouds!" she called as Luffy turned his full attention back above them.

"Past those clouds!" he repeated in joy. "I can't wait to find out what's up in the sky! Let's punch through them and find out!"

1. I hope this changed things up a bit more for everyone. The way I see it, Luffy being able to transform into a Southern Bird eliminates that depraved scavenger hunt the crew had to undergo in canon. This in turn means the crew could get to Cricket in time to prevent Bellamy (who I have close to zero respect for) from stealing the gold while also giving a reasonable explanation on why they didn't stop the fight before it began. I mean, without the Alliance getting hurt and the Straw Hats just curb-stomping Bellamy's crew before they could do anything, that would make for an even more boring chapter and does little to show Luffy's maturation like canon did. Hope you all enjoyed, as soon we'll be in the Skypeia arc and some real action should start soon!