Hunt
Fox was pinning the last of her hair ornaments in place when the crew returned to the ship, and was straightening her belt and making sure her skirt swirled properly when Zoro pushed open the door of her cabin.
Fox..?" The swordsman's voice trailed off and his eyes widened as he took in her appearance. "You…"
Fox smiled, doing a slow twirl so he could appreciate the full experience. "It was a present," she said simply, "and I don't get many opportunities to wear it unless I'm visiting the people who gave it to me."
Zoro swallowed hard. "It looks good on you?" he offered hesitantly.
Fox smiled radiantly; she always felt a bit strange in this outfit, like she was becoming someone else. To have a third party who was not totally biased tell her she looked good was reassuring. "Thank-you. Oh, and thank-you for earlier as well."
Zoro flushed. "You remember that?"
Fox stepped forwards and slumped slightly so she could rest her head on his shoulder, bracing one hand against his chest. "Mm-hm. I hate to think what would have happened if Sanji had been the one to find me in that condition."
"Dumbass cook," the green-haired swordsman growled into her hair, one hand wrapping around her waist protectively.
Loud voices filtered down from the deck: it seemed that they were in trouble. Again. "Stay out of sight," Zoro told her gruffly: "They don't know you're here yet so you aren't in trouble unless they see you."
"That's very sweet of you," Fox told him, smiling warmly up at him as he let go of her.
"Oh, and Zoro?" Fox called after the flustered swordsman headed out the door. "I wouldn't mind being kissed by you again."
Zoro shut the door of her cabin with a little more force than was strictly necessary. Fox giggled; he was cute when he was confused.
Defeating the White Berets was easy; however deciding what to do when the Going Merry was abducted by a giant shrimp with Zoro, Robin, Nami, Chopper and Fox on board was not. The swordsman suggested the others on deck abandon ship –he and Fox could deal with the situation just fine– but the giant, hungry fish behind them were another matter. Robin deduced that this was the beginning of the 'Heaven's Judgement' they had been threatened with.
"What about Fox?" Chopper fretted. "She's sick!"
"She isn't, actually," Zoro said shortly. "I told her to remain hidden as they haven't noticed she's here yet."
"Of course;" Robin mused. "She wasn't on the photograph, nor did she disembark with us. They only mentioned seven fines so they clearly don't know about her."
"What I can't believe is that Luffy didn't correct them when those White Berets said there were seven of us," Nami muttered. "He's been really insistent about Fox being part of his crew since we bumped into Ace."
"Well, she is our master of disguise," Chopper pointed out. "Perhaps he thought they hadn't recognised her?"
Zoro felt that was depressingly likely, considering Luffy's rather idiosyncratic thought processes.
Upon learning that the people on the ship were going to be sacrificed to the god on Upper Yard, Sanji lost it.
"Sacrifices! Nami-san and Robin-chan and Fo-" he was abruptly cut off as Luffy punched him across the room. "Why you–!"
"Shh!" Luffy hissed loudly in the chef's ear. "They don't know about my master of disguise!"
Sanji quickly thought back and realised Luffy was right: she hadn't been on deck when the wrinkled angel had taken their picture, hadn't explored the cloud beach with them and the White Berets had only mentioned seven criminals. Fox was safe!
"She's probably looking around the island right now, disguised as an angel," Luffy went on seriously, "so don't worry about her!"
Sanji was instantly felled by the mental picture of Fox, her white hair hanging loose to her knees with little pom-pom antenna on her head and white wings emerging from the back of a skimpy dress. Then he remembered that there were two other women to worry about. Their host Pagaya quickly explained about the punishments for criminals: the Sacrifices would be taken to the altar and held hostage until those criminals going through the Trial were judged.
With this in mind, it wasn't too hard for Sanji, Luffy and Usopp to come up with a plan to rescue the lovely ladies. Oh, and Chopper and the marimo.
Conis-chan the lovely angel escorted them up to Angel Island's port and showed them a suitable boat, but then Luffy noticed the girl's nervousness and it was revealed that she had been the one to report them as being criminals; she was then almost struck down from on high by a massive lightning bolt. Conis-chan and Luffy were saved through the surprise intervention of Gan Fall, the 'Knight of the Sky' they had met down on the White Sea, who promised to protect the angel from harm while the three pirates went looking for their friends in Upper Yard.
Sanji hoped the ladies were alright; the shitty swordsman and Chopper could look after themselves.
Zoro was deeply unimpressed. He had been trying to see if they could swim across the sea cloud to reach the massive forest surrounding the pool the altar was located in and a flat shark-thing had tried to eat him: its mouth was almost big enough to swallow him whole, swords and all. Thankfully he had a pair of goggles that made it possible for him to see even when the shark dropped back into the sea cloud around the altar; more importantly, they made it easier for him to punch the dumb fish unconscious for attempting to eat him.
"So we can't swim out," Zoro grumbled as he climbed the steps back up to the ship. "So where are we? Other than somewhere in Upper Yard." He wrung the water out of his shirt thoughtfully. "It seems like we've been taken to a dangerous place."
"I wonder if Heaven's Judgement is to let us starve in this place," Robin mused.
"Would something that normal really be done by god?" Zoro asked as Chopper threw him a dry tank top.
"I don't know," Robin said candidly. "I've never met him."
"Well we can't put the ship back in the water in this state," Zoro reasoned, "So if you would help repair it Chopper, that would be great!" he said 'help' because Fox was already doing her best to mend what could be mended, though she had warned him that, as the Going Merry was not a living being, there was a limit to how much damage she could fix.
Zoro then expressed his intent to go looking for the so-called 'god' of the island, and suggested the rest stay where they were and wait for Luffy. Zoro didn't actually believe the guy was a god; Fox had mentioned there being a strong Devil Fruit User up here and it seemed likely that that guy was passing himself off as a deity. Besides, Zoro didn't believe in gods.
Robin wanted to join the expedition to look for ancient ruins to go with the altar and the archaeologist's mention of gems tempted Nami into coming along too. Zoro just let them; he wasn't the captain and he was more worried about Fox, who was napping in her cabin again. He'd finally spotted the correlation between how damaged the Merry was and how long Fox spent sleeping deeply and didn't like it at all; she was keeping their ship together almost singlehandedly and it was wearing on her. Hopefully they'd be able to join up with the rest of the crew and get of this island before things got too bad for Fox. Oh, and find a decent shipwright as well.
"Chopper?"
The reindeer turned. "Oh, you woke up Fox. Are you-" he blinked. "Wow! You look lovely!"
Fox smiled. "You really think so?" she asked, smoothing down the calf-length skirt. "I don't wear it much but it just seems appropriate today."
Chopper had to agree that the swishy skirt, strings of multicoloured pearls and heavy, jewel-encrusted gold ornamants did seem very appropriate considering the massive stone altar they were on and the thick jungle surrounding them.
"Where did you get it?" he asked, sitting down on the steps to the top deck.
"Well, that's some story," Fox mused, "but I think you'd like it. It was given to me as a gift by a very sweet young man whose island I inadvertantly rescued from a famine."
"Wow!" Chopper was very impressed. "With your Devil Fruit Ability, right?"
"Yes. The islanders proclaimed me their patron goddess of crops and healing and insisted I dress the part," she smiled fondly, "hence the getup."
"It looks very, er, godly," the reindeer offered.
"I know; I almost refused it but the charming man who made it for me insisted it was really a gift to the islanders, so they could feel proud of me and my accomplishments by proxy," Fox explained. "He told me that while physical things make good tokens, true appreciation comes from the heart. Then he kissed me."
"He what!" Chopper couldn't believe it.
Fox giggled. "My father tried to kill him for his audacity; he now has a scar all along the top of his chest where he nearly lost his head."
"How is that funny!"
"He spent all of that day running away from my father despite being a very strong warrior in his own right, claiming that he could not raise a hand to a parent of his goddess as it would be blasphemous to do so. He also proclaimed that it was the duty of all men to worship the divine, which I clearly was, and he had merely been expressing his gratitude for my largesse. Eventually my father decided to let him live, possibly out of sheer contrariness."
Chopper chuckled. "Actually that is kind of funny. I can see Usopp doing that."
Fox sighed. "My title on that island is: The Mighty and Benevolent Daughter of the Blue-Tressed Storm and the Hawk Warlord of the Sea, the Bountiful Lady of Life and Hope, Rokuseizon the Beautiful'. How's that for a mouthful?"
"Wow!" Chopper breathed, starry-eyed. "That's amazing!"
"Thank-you," Fox smiled. "Now do you mind if I wander off? I'd like to explore too."
The 'goddess incident' mentioned by Ace explained.