A.N I own Nothing
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When morning came it seemed that everyone had recovered mostly from the night's festivities, there was one exception. Usopp was still freaking out over the ghost he saw on the ship last night, the crew used the little crow to cross the lake and when they got to the top of the Alter they were shocked to find the Merry fully repaired.
"What?...How?" Usopp asked.
The crew quickly bordered the ship and inspected the repairs, all the damage done to the shop in the battle with Shuna had been repaired; even the mast was back.
"See, I told you I saw someone on the ship," Usopp said.
"But who? There's no one out here but us and our enemies," Zoro stated.
"Maybe there's someone else on this island," Luffy suggested.
"Doubt it, even if there was someone nice out here how did they know what the Merry originally looked like?" Usopp asked.
"That's a good point, considering the flight mode is gone," Chopper stated.
"Dose it really matter? The ships repaired. Are we really going to chase down some mystery figure for doing a good deed?" Nami asked.
"Good point," Luffy said "Well whoever it was is a nice guy,"
"Maybe Connor saw who it was, he was on the ship last night," Chopper pointed out.
Suddenly the crew got a terrible thought, if there was someone on the ship last night then they could have easily run off with Connor. Zoro ran to the cabin and threw open the door, Much to his relief Connor was still in the bed, but he was still asleep. Zoro breathed a sigh of relief and left closing the door behind him.
"Well the kids still there…whoever it was left him alone or didn't know he was here," Zoro said.
"Considering a lot of the tools and supplies are kept in the men's quarters and the cabin wasn't damaged. It's safe to assume the latter," Robin reasoned.
"Yeah…but who would repair the Merry and why would they leave Connor alone? Whoever it was could have grabbed him easily," Sanji pointed out "Not to mention they did a pretty poor job on the repairs,"
"They may not be the best repairs but at least the ship will sail now," Nami pointed out.
Usopp walked up to the Merry's figure head and stared at it thoughtfully.
"Merry…just who was here last night?" Usopp asked.
He did not get a response.
"But how do we get it back into the water?" Luffy asked, pulling the sniper from his thoughts.
"I have an idea," Usopp said "But I'll need Choppers help,"
It turns out that Usopp's plan was to Lasso a Sky-Shark by using Choppers hybrid from as bait. It did not take long for a shark to try and eat the tiny doctor. Usopp was successful and it did not take long for the shark to pull the Merry down the stairs and into the lake.
Zoro severed the rope used to pull the Merry so the ship would not be dragged under the water. Once the Merry was back by the shore Chopper and Sanji helped Gan Fall and Pierre onto the ship. Chopper changed their bandages and checked on Connor before he left with the search party.
Sanji and Robin were busy gathering supplies that they would need to locate the city of gold. Once all the supplies had been packed and Chopper was satisfied with the conditions of his patients; Luffy, Robin, Zoro and Chopper all left the ship and started walking into the forest.
"Good luck you guys! Zoro try not to get lost!" Nami shouted after them as they walked into the forest.
"Lost…What's she talking about?" Zoro asked and started heading North.
"Hey Zoro! You're going the wrong way! We're supposed to be going West," Luffy called after the Swordsman while pointing West…or at least what he thought was west.
"Wait. He's going east though…"Chopper stated, immediately noticing Luffy's mistake.
"No you idiot! The City of gold is in the Skulls right eye…that means we have to go Right. Which means west so it's this way!" Zoro argued back and pointed directly to Luffy's right.
It appeared that Zoro did not quite understand that 'Right' and 'West' weren't always the same thing. Robin laughed at the crews antics as they argued over which way was West, none of them were pointing in the right direction.
Once Robin had infromed the group of the correct direction which was actually South they started off with Robin leading them. They were all excited about finding a city made entirely out of gold.
"Hey Robin, that Journal said there was a solid gold bell in the city right?" Luffy asked.
"That's right apparently it's huge and but the sound it makes is the most beautiful sound," Robin answered.
"So if I ring it…do you think those salvage guys will hear it?" Luffy asked.
"Perhaps, I wouldn't be able to tell you until I saw it…the bell would have to be enormous for the sound to carry that far," Robin explained.
"Well when we find it…I want to ring it," Luffy claimed.
"You would have to hit it pretty hard," Zoro stated.
"Then I'll hit it with a an even bigger chunk of gold," Luffy declared "I'll hit it so hard that the gold I'm using will shatter,"
"Really that's so cool," Chopper said admiringly.
"Where will you get such a big piece of gold?" Robin asked.
"Mmm….don't know, I'll figure it out later," Luffy answered, he clearly had not thought this plan through.
They continued to walk through he forest and Luffy picked up to play with, Chopper mimicked him by finding a stick of his own and the two began to have a play sword fight. Zoro was not impressed and kept commenting that if they were real swords they would have lost several limbs.
As they walked Chopper was happy looking at the scenery and he suddenly noticed that the path they had taken was blocked off by a giant blue tree root. He stopped and stared at it.
'That's odd…didn't we just come from there?' Chopper thought.
Chopper walked up to it and poked it with his stick. Much to his surprise the root moved slightly.
'What the hell?! It moved?' Chopper panicked.
"Oi Chopper don't fall behind," Zoro called back.
Chopper looked over at the group and ran to catch up with them, once he caught up he looked back at the suspiciously root only to see it move again.
The group continued to walk through the forest and every now and then Chopper would look over his shoulder and see that the mysterious root was in fact following them. He contemplated telling the others but he did not want to appear scared or crazy.
Chopper was not paying attention and he bumped into the back of Luffy's leg. He looked up and saw that the group had stopped.
"Why have we stopped?" the doctor asked.
"There is as big blue root in our way," Luffy answered.
Chopper froze up.
"A…A…A big blue root?" Chopper studded.
He looked past the others and saw the same root was indeed in front of him; Chopper then looked behind him and saw that the root was behind them as well.
"Oh well nothing to do but slice through," Zoro said as he drew one of his swords and walked towards the root.
"No wait," Chopper tried.
But it was too late Zoro did a few quick slashes but instead of being sliced into several neat part the root remained intact.
"What the…I know I hit it," Zoro said.
Suddenly the rot began to move and the sound of trees falling and something heavy being dragged along the ground was herd.
"Wait is….is this root alive?" Zoro asked taking a step back.
"Well technically all tree roots are alive," Robin commented.
"I know that...hold on…it's moving?" Zoro panicked.
The root was indeed moving and Luffys eyes turned to stars.
"Wow a moving root…does this mean the trees move too?" Luffy asked excitedly.
The pirates watched in shock and aw as the roots moved and slowly got taller, eventually a giant snakes head appeared and it stared down at them.
"Aww….it's only a giant snake, that's a shame," Luffy said disappointingly.
Zoro and Chopper looked at him with fear and shock. It was only now that Luffy realised what he had just said.
"GAINT SNAKE! RUNNNNNN!" Luffy screamed.
The pirates turned and ran and the snake chased after them hissing loudly as it knocked over trees and ploughed through roots as it went.
On the Merry
The Merry slowly made its way along on of the milky roads that ran through the Upper Yard. The ship had sailed from the Alter down the cloud river and eventually came to the road that the super speedy ship had used to bring them to the Alter in the first place.
Because there was no wind on the level of the forest that the Merry was on being pushed along by the Little Crow, it was slow going but at least the ship was no longer trapped on the Alter and there did not seem to be any Sky-Sharks on this route.
Everyone was on deck except for Connor who was still sleeping in the cabin.
"Man this is taking for ever," Usopp moaned.
"Well what did you expect? There's no wind on the forest floor," Nami pointed out "Honestly with that boat we would be rowing our way back,"
"I know…but can't it go any faster?" Usopp responded.
"No we don't know how much the dials can take or if they burn out. It's better to take a steady pace," Sanji answered.
Suddenly loud crashes were herd through the forest.
"What was that?" Usopp asked fearfully.
"If I had to guess…it's probably Luffy," Sanji sighed.
"How do you know that?" Usopp asked.
"Because it's always him," Sanji answered.
"Yeah…that's a fair point," Usopp agreed.
The stood there listing to the sounds of crashing and wondered just what kind of trouble their captain had gotten into this time.
"He better not be destroying the city of gold," Nami said.
Usopp sighed; he should have known that that was what Nami was worried about.
With Zoro
Zoro finally stopped running, the giant snake had chased him and the rest of the crew that had been with him but he finally got away from it. Once he caught his breath Zoro looked around, he did not see his friends anywhere.
"Damn where the hell did they go?" Zoro asked.
"They probably got lost again…what a pain in the ass," Zoro sighed "Oh well I suppose if head to the golden city I'll meet up with them there,"
Zoro looked around trying to determine which way the city of gold was, he had no idea where he was or which way to go.
"Let's see… the city was in a Westley direction. If I recall correctly," Zoro said "Now west is left,"
Zoro started to walk through the forest heading in the direction that he believed to be west. The fact was that he headed right instead of left and was heading in a northern direction. It was not long until he came to the cloud lake and in the centre of the lake was the Alter.
"What the hell….how did I get back here?" Zoro asked.
He headed back into the forest and after a bout ten minutes of walking he was back at the same spot on the river with a clear view of the Alter.
"What the hell…don't tell me this whole Island moves," Zoro said.
Suddenly Zoro heard a flapping of wings behind him, he turned to see a giant South Bird had landed behind him and his head was pointing ti the right. The bird looked at him with interested eyes, though they were mainly focused on his backpack where Zoro's lunch was.
Zoro looked at the bird.
"What the hell…what's up with this birds head?" Zoro asked not recognising it as a south bird.
With Chopper
Chopper poked his head out of his hiding spot; he looked around for the snake but could not see it or his friends. Like the others he too had run away from the giant reptile. However he had separated from the others and had managed to find a hiding spot under a real tree root and had hid until the beast had passed by and he could no longer here it crashing through the trees.
Chopper slowly came out of his hiding spot and looked at the destruction that the snake had left behind.
"Wo would have thought that something like that lived up here," Chopper said "Oh well better find the others.
It was only now that he realised that he was all alone and had no idea where he was.
"OH NO…I'M LOST!" Chopper yelled.
He suddenly heard the sound of a bazooka nearby and darted back into his hiding spot. A Shandorian warrior appeared in the clearing and scanned the area.
"That's odd…I thought I heard someone yelling," the warrior said.
"Hey what the hell are you doing?" Wiper asked harshly as he landed on a tree branch above the warrior.
"I thought I heard someone yell," the warrior answered.
Wiper scanned the area but did not see anyone here.
"Your imaging things get back to finding those dammed priests," Wiper ordered and he sped off into the forest.
The warrior sighed.
"I was sure I heard something though," He said, he took one last look at the area before following Wiper into the forest.
Chopper was shaking in fear in his hiding spot, once he herd the Shandorians leave he breathed a sigh of relief and slumped down to the ground.
"There gone….good," Chopper said.
He looked down sadly.
"I'm weak…why am I so weak? I only came because I thought I would be safe with Luffy," Chopper said "How can I be a brave pirate if I'm always afraid?"
Chopper sat there for a bit thinking on how he could be a better pirate and more useful to Luffy. He did not want to rely on the others but they were just so strong and he wasn't, he also wanted to be more dependable but he did not know how to go about it; then he got an Idea.
"Oh I know, I'll find the city of gold first….then when they see that I found it'll prove I can be dependable," Chopper said.
Chopper stood up and ran out into the forest, determined to find the city of gold first.
With Luffy
Luffy walked through the forest alone carefree and happy. After having outrun the giant snake he had no idea which direction to go, thankfully he remembered a song from his youth that he had herd sailors sing whenever they came into town.
"The Islands in the north are cold," Luffy remembered "So If I go where to where it's warm then that means I'm going south,"
Luffy picked a random direction and started walking; he sang his song while he walked. As he walked he heard sounds of fighting but he ignored them, suddenly he saw something in the corner if his eye fly past.
"Huh…was that a goat?" Luffy asked looking around for it.
"Why would a goat be in the forest…they live in mountains," Luffy wondered
Luffy was to distracted by the mystery goat to notice that he was being watched, the person watching hem leaped out and attacked him but Luffys reflexes were to quick. The pirate whirled around and took out his attacker with one punch.
The attacker fell to the ground; Luffy got a good look at him. The man looked like part man part goat, and he was wearing a white toga.
"Aww….it's just some jerk. I was hoping it would be a goat," Luffy said disappointingly.
He sighed before continuing on, Luffy had not walked far when he heard a voice call out to him.
"Hey," the called.
Luffy stopped and looked up to see Wiper was on a tree root above him.
"What the hell are you doing here? Didn't you find the Alter?" Wiper asked.
"Oh yeah I found it yesterday," Luffy answered.
"Then get off this Island," Wiper demanded
"Shut up, don't tell me what to do. I can do what I want and go where I want,"
"No you can't, this Island belongs to my people so that means you're trespassing," Wiper said.
"Huh….but I thought it belonged to god," Luffy responded confused.
"It doesn't,"
"Oh….Sorry for intruding then," Luffy said with an apolitically bow.
Wiper raised his eyebrow at this. Luffy then started to walk away.
"Wait," Called out.
"What? I already apologised," Luffy whined.
"Are you planning on leaving this island?" Wiper asked.
"Nope," Luffy answered.
"I see….then I will just have to eliminate you," Wiper said and he raised his bazooka at Luffy.
"If that's all you wanted you should have said that in the first place," Luffy said with a grin and he got into a fighting stance.
With Robin
After having been separated from the rest of the group by the giant Snake Robin had contuied south in search of the city of gold, she had the sneaking suspicion that she would be the first and only one to reach the lost city because of the very poor sense of directions that the Luffy, Zoro and Chopper had displayed.
She walked for a about twenty minutes and she came across some very old ruins. Robin knew that this was not the city as there was not enough remains to even consider it a small town. However her thirst for knowledge and her curiosity got the better of her and she began to study the left over writing on the ruins.
Robin had been busy examining the structures she had found, there was no material wealth to be found here but the buildings were still historically fascinating.
Suddenly three men who appeared to resemblance to goats, leapt out from the tall trees. Without warning they raised their hands and prepared to kill the intruder.
"Die intruder!" The men cried.
"Cien Fleur," Robin said.
Hands suddenly appeared on the goat men's shoulders, the enforcers did not have time to react as the hands snapped all three of their necks and they fell to the ground. Robin never broke eye contact with the ancient structure in front of her.
She continued to study the ruins that she had found and went from one structure to the next until she found a huge wall with ancient writing on it. Robin began to read it and wrote down notes.
After reading most of the writing Robin made a remarkable discovery.
"Interesting…according to this the city of Shandora was built around 800 years ago. Too replace a destroyed civilization that had existed years before it," Robin concluded "Does this mean…these ruins could hold the key to the void century,"
Suddenly a massive object flew at her, just about visible from the corner of her eye. She able to dodge in time but the plaque she was reading had been completely destroyed. Robin stood back up and glared at the person who would dare destroy such a valuable piece of history, as she had not finished documenting it yet and now it was lost forever.
The object it turned out, was a person, he stood up and dusted the debris off him.
He was an obese man with a triple chin. He had a round body shape with wavy black hair and tanned skin. He has bags under his eyes and thick lips. He wore a white toga with black vertical stripes, three on each side, an orange sash, connected by strings some gold bracelets and a pair of wings on his back.
A sneer was clearly visible on his face, in spite of the best efforts made by his several chins to obscure it.
Robin could only stare, shocked at the man's callous disregard for priceless history, she would not forgive him for this.
