Ascent

Luffy and his nakama returned a few hours before dawn, dirty and tired but without a South Bird. Their ill-temper however turned to concern when they found their hosts bruised and bleeding and the clearing looking rather bashed about.

"Don't worry about the South Bird," the diamond-head guy told them, "one took a shine to your other crewmate and is sleeping in her cabin."

"What happened?" Luffy asked.

Cricket grimaced. "It's nothing; don't worry about it."

"The gold was taken!" Nami shouted, rushing out of the house.

"It isn't really important," diamond-head insisted. "Miss Fox drove them off before they could do any real damage."

"Fox? Where is she? Is she alright?" Luffy asked.

Diamond-head wavered. "She's fine: didn't get a scratch. And she's gone back to sleep now."

"Back to sleep? Ah. They woke her up then," Chopper deduced. As one, the crew winced in sympathy.

"Look, it doesn't matter: the ship's almost finished now and I will send you to the sky no matter what!" Diamond-head declared.

Zoro looked at his captain, who wasn't smiling right now. "Want my help?"

Luffy waved a hand. "I can do it alone." He ignored the outburst from diamond-head; this was important. "I will be back before dawn."

Back in a tavern in Mock Town, Bellamy and his crew were rather subdued. They hadn't managed to find a single bounty poster that resembled the white-haired woman who'd destroyed them so effortlessly, so the Hyena had decided she had likely been a lower-ranking member of one of the Yonko's crews whom their fight had disturbed: very strong but not bounty-worthy. With this in mind they were drinking hard to forget the embarrassment and celebrating the theft of the gold.

At least, they were until a drunk staggered in claiming the dumb kid in a straw hat from the day before was worth one hundred million and the green-haired punk sixty million. Suddenly the idea of the bitch from earlier being on the kid's crew seemed a lot more plausible.

Especially when that same 'dumb kid in a straw hat' arrived in town looking for the gold and defeated Bellamy with a single punch.

By the time the kid had found the gold, Bellamy's first mate 'Big Knife' Sarkies had recovered a bit and thought to ask, "That white-haired woman, is she on your crew?"

Luffy grinned. "Yep!"

"Why doesn't she have a bounty?"

Luffy paused, then repeated what Fox had told him when he had asked her that same question: "It's hard to get a bounty when there's nobody left to report you to the marines."

Sarkies swallowed hard; they'd clearly gotten off easy with this monster crew. "Where are you going?"

"Where?" Luffy repeated, flexing his fingers before pointing upwards, "the sky!"

When they arrived on what Nami called 'the sea of the sky' Zoro's first action was to check on Fox. The white-haired woman was slumped quietly by the railings with her arms tangled in the rigging.

"Fox?"

"Hmm? Hn?" Fox hummed absently, then giggled. The sound was extremely disconcerting.

"Chopper?" the swordsman asked, raising his voice a little, "Can you come and check on Fox, please?"

The little reindeer hurried over from where Luffy and Robin were trying to fish Usopp out of the cloud sea and examined the woman, who was now humming a rambling little ditty. The pupils of her eyes were fully dilated and she seemed drunk.

"I think she has altitude sickness," the reindeer said as Fox wrapped her arms around Zoro's waist, buried her face in his harimaki and went to sleep. "It should pass in a few days."

After quickly dispatching the cloud monster that had followed Usopp up from the depths –not easy with Fox cuddling him– Zoro carried her into her cabin, tidied up the mess made by sailing up the knock-up stream and laid her on her futon. Getting her to let go was the hardest bit, but fortunately the altitude sickness had cancelled out her irritability. Possibly by destroying her ability to focus.

"Sailing high, high, high in the sky," she sing-songed lightly as she woke up, grip around his waist unrelenting while her face remained buried in his stomach. "Up to islands that can fly, hmmm, hm hm, Pretty trees!"

"Can you let me go, please?" Zoro asked patiently, trying not to think about how utterly adorable she was being now and how ridiculous the very concept of 'adorable' should have been to him.

She cocked her head on one side, revealing a single dark, gold-rimmed eye. "Do I get a kiss?"

Zoro choked. Fox didn't seem to notice, as she continued: "I like kisses. And hugs. They show people care. I don't get many of them."

Zoro struggled with himself for a moment then gave up. "Let go of me and I'll kiss you," he bargained.

Wide suspicious eyes peered up at him from his waistline. "Promise?"

"Promise." Zoro resigned himself to the inevitable slow death Mihawk was bound to bring down on him for this.

Fox let go. Zoro tucked her in properly, then bent over her and gently pressed his lips to hers. "Sleep well, Snowball-chan. Get well soon."

"See you, Green-kun," she mumbled, breathing evening out as she dropped off again. Zoro almost tripped over thin air at the nickname, then hurried outside to see what Chopper was panicking about now. He wasn't sure whether he was hoping or dreading Fox remembered this when she woke up sober.

She'd tasted like sake and Sea King.

Fox' giddiness was partly due to the height, but most of it was from her abruptly heightened awareness of the beings living in the cloud. From sea level she'd known they were there, but now she was in the cloud and far away from the faintly deadening presence of the sea they clamoured against her senses, making her feel giddy and warm. Everything was so different, so big, so vibrant it felt like that time she'd drunk a whole bottle of champagne on a dare when she was sixteen. The dare had been Shanks' doing and her father had almost killed the redhead when Fox had gone through with it. Her hiccups had made the Yonko's crew roar with laughter, but they'd laughed even more when she'd kissed their captain while under the influence and Mihawk had drawn his sword. It had taken several hours for her father to calm down but Shanks had still been chuckling when the dark-haired swordsman stalked off.

By the time she'd adjusted to the different feel of the life up in the clouds they were even higher up and she had to breathe deeply and slowly to help her body adapt quickly. She was tempted to rejoin the rest of the crew outside as they sounded like they were having fun, but now her senses had settled she could sense a malevolent presence above them: the Devil Fruit User who'd pinged her radar earlier. He was using the Colour of Observation, which she instinctively hid herself from even while asleep by making herself 'look' like a plant to Haki users. It was a surprisingly effective trick and one that had enabled her to take by surprise even the strongest of pirates. When among friendly Haki users like Whitebeard or Shanks' crews she turned the camouflage off so as not to startle them into attacking her; she had another version she used in crowded places that made her indistinguishable from the people around her.

Fox liked messing about with Haki. The possibilities were far greater than just the three Colours most people thought it was limited to. A sword had more uses than just for stabbing people, so why not refine your Haki use to see what else it was good for? The Colour of Observation was just as good for hiding yourself as it was for reading others' moves and the Colour of Armament could be used to make a normal person's body as insubstantial as a Logia User rather than for making oneself so solid you could hit Logia Users. The Colour of Armament was essentially about self-perception, so Fox had found a way to make herself invisible. She couldn't understand why nobody else had ever tried it.

The Colour of the Conquering King was the hardest one to play around with, mostly because while Fox had the genetic propensity for it she didn't have the right attitude to use it properly. She had been trained between the ages of nine and fifteen to both be demure, accepting and obedient and to kill ruthlessly. As a result of this schizoid conditioning she wasn't interested in crushing other people's wills: she either put up with them or she killed them. Her own twist on the Colour of the Conquering King was what her father had termed 'the Colour of the Ruling Queen' and it actually killed weak-willed people by scaring them to death. She could use the Colour of the Conquering King, but only when in the mood to make people suffer such as when they interrupted her nap. As such, it wasn't very potent.

She was also working on something she called 'the Colour of Strife' which rather than crushing people's wills buoyed them up so they started questioning authority and the status quo. She had big plans for that, most of them involving marines or Donflamingo. She owed that bastard way more trouble than she'd caused him so far.

Sighing, Fox opened her bag and removed the outfit she'd brought along specially. It would take a while to put on and she wanted it to look perfect; it had been a very special gift for all the embarrassment that had accompanied it. She hadn't packed her killing suit, so she would have to settle for looking like a goddess while investigating the rather insane-feeling Devil Fruit User.

The nicknames are 'Yukidama' and 'Midori'; the latter is according to Wictionary acceptable for both boys and girls. Fox means it as a reference to fresh growing things rather than just the colour.