(A/N: Thank you for your review, OneWhoReadsTooMuch. :) And to everyone who followed and favorited this story as well. Finally reached the Skypiea Arc, yay! Though my memory isn't the best during this arc, I think it's going to be a fun one to cover. Especially considering Enel is the type of person Toffee completely loathes. A tyrant who abuses his power to hurt and take advantage of others, so their confrontation should be fun~)
"Oi! Toffee! Old guy! We caught a bird!"
"You know, having you there to help us catch this irritating bird would have been helpful Toff-EEEK! WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED HERE?!"
"Everyone's injured?!"
"WHO THE HELL HURT YOU, TOFFEE?!"
"WHY DOES MASIRA LOOK LIKE A MUMMY?!"
The numerous cries and questions coming from her friends caused Toffee to rub awkwardly at the back of her neck. She didn't even know where to begin...
"It was the Bellamy pirates," Montblanc spoke up bluntly, sitting on the sandy ground with cigarette in hand.
Nami's eyes grew large at this. "The Bellamy pirates?!"
"There's no telling what would have happened if Toffee hadn't come back here," Shojo admitted. He let out a long, disappointed sigh. "We couldn't do anything to protect the old man...Bellamy was too strong."
Masira's voice came out muffled from all the bandages Toffee and Shojo had wrapped around his numerous injuries to try and stop the bleeding. Even if his major wound had been on his back. "I didn't see it myself, but Toffee took him down and scared away all his crew!"
At the shocked expressions his words garnered, Toffee gave a dismissive wave with her hands. "It wasn't really that big of a deal. Montblanc-san and the others still got hurt...Not to mention poor Merry-chan..." she trailed off, noticing Usopp staring tearfully at their damaged caravel.
"Their alive, aren't they? Who knows what that grinning bastard would have done if you hadn't dealt with him," Zoro muttered with a shake of his head at the female's belittling remark.
Placing her hands on her hips, Nami let out a small huff. "I wish I could have been here to see you kick that creep's butt. Still, I can't believe that guy and his crew caused this much damage..."
"Bellamy had a Devil Fruit that turned his limbs into springs, so he was a tricky opponent," Toffee confessed, though her attention was more on what Zoro held. "Is that the South Bird? How cute! But you shouldn't hold the poor thing upside down like that, Zoro!"
Scoffing, Zoro started to roughly shake the annoyed bird. "If you knew how much trouble this dumb chicken and his buddies caused us, you wouldn't be feeling so sorry for it."
Standing up, Cricket flicked his cigarette to the side. "Now that I know you have the bird, we can begin repairs on your ship,"
"Are you crazy, old timer?! You need to let Chopper tend to your injuries first!" Usopp cried out, peering over at the tiny reindeer who was redoing the bandages on Masira.
"We've rested long enough. If you want that ship of yours repaired before morning, we need to get started now," Cricket brushed off. "We'll send you into the sky without fail!"
Nami frowned at this, blinking when she caught sight of Montblanc's gold. "I'm guessing Bellamy and his crew tried to steal the items you salvaged...But I don't remember there being that many bags?"
Shojo grinned at this. "Your friend made Bellamy leave any gold behind for compensation. I thought the others were going to start crying when they sailed off!"
"So, feel free to take all this gold with you. Toffee said we should keep it for repairs, but it belongs to all of you," Masira chimed in.
Nami's eyes brightened, and she surprised Toffee by wrapping her arms around the shorter girl in an affectionate hug. "You're awesome, Toffee! Just for this, I'll lower the interest rate you owe me down to twenty percent instead of fifty~"
"Th-thank you? I think?" Toffee got out awkwardly. Guess this still meant she owed Nami the money she gave away back in Alabasta either way.
Robin let out a small laugh. "So, things worked out in the end. And it seems our little assassin didn't kill anyone either."
Cricket smirked at this while hauling a stack of boards over to the Going Merry. "If looks could kill, Bellamy and his crew would all be dead. Even my blood ran cold when she unleashed that blood lust of hers,"
"Eh? Toffee was actually scary?!" Chopper gasped out. It was hard for him to picture. She was the least violent of the crew.
"Everyone in my family knows how to release a killing aura," Toffee acknowledged with a small smile. "It made it easier to take down opponents or to just scare off those we didn't want to fight. Of course, not everyone is affected by it...Except when its Altair or Theo. My oldest brother and papa can release a killing intent that has literally knocked people out cold...I was out for five days when Theo emitted bloodlust in front of me for the first time."
"Five days?!" Usopp gawked, badly shivering. Just the idea made him feel terrified.
"Just what sort of monsters do you have for a family, Toffee?" Sanji muttered with his own disturbed expression.
Luffy let out a puff of air through his nostrils. "I should still go kick Bellamy's ass! He caused trouble for everyone here!"
Nami scowled and gave a sharp poke to the middle of Luffy's forehead. "Don't even think about it! We only have three hours and then we have to depart! Helping Cricket-san and the others with the repairs is more important!"
"Don't wanna!" Luffy shot back childishly, his lips resembling that of a pufferfish.
"What are you? Five!"
Ignoring Nami's growling visage, Luffy peered over at Toffee. She had a frown on her face and looked deep in thought. This made the messy haired teen purse his lips before he grinned.
"All right! I'm going back into the forest! Come on, Toffee!"
"Huh? What do you m-eek!" Toffee let out a startled yelp since Luffy had grabbed her by the back of her collar and had started to drag her off before she could even finish her sentence.
Usopp watched his captain disappear with exasperation. "What the heck is he thinking? We don't have time for something so crazy!"
Relighting a new cigarette, Sanji let out a small chuckle. "For an idiot, Luffy can be pretty well intentioned when the timing calls for it,"
Tossing a large number of logs down in front of Shojo, Zoro wiped at his brow and added, "Those two are better off not being here. They'd just cause trouble for the rest of us anyways,"
"I suppose you have a point there..." Nami murmured, but she shared a confused gaze with Usopp nonetheless.
Pumping a fist in the air while holding a rather large net in his hand, Luffy loudly proclaimed, "You won't escape from me this time, atlas beetle!"
Toffee scratched at her cheek while holding her own net. "Should we have come back in this forest? Minus Robin-san, you and the others all looked pretty scuffed up yourselves,"
"That's because those weird toucan birds got the better of us before! I'll be ready this time!" Luffy claimed with a grin.
Hearing a strange, almost haunting sounding "Jyo!" echoing around them, Toffee peered up at a nearby tree where she saw one of the South Birds sitting upon its gnarled limbs. And she became concerned when noticing the bee hive it held in its beak.
"GYAAAAAAH! Not again!" Luffy shrieked out when the bees from the dropped hive let out angered buzzing, charging straight for him and Toffee.
Her eyes bulging, Toffee didn't get as far as Luffy when a root impeded her path and per usual, her face met with the hard ground. Perhaps by luck, the bees zoomed right past Toffee's downed form, but it sounded like Luffy hadn't been so fortunate for she could hear his screams becoming louder despite the distance he had placed between them.
"I-I think we really should just return to the ship..." Toffee spoke timidly once she had caught up with her captain, poking at Luffy's badly swollen cheek.
"It's fine!" Luffy rebuked, giving a shaky thumbs up despite wincing. His dark eyes lit up when seeing the very bug he was searching for. "Ah! The atlas beetle!" Slamming his net onto the tree where it rested, Luffy had been a few meters off as the horned bug flew away. Instead, something else came falling out of the tree.
"Huh? A spider?" Luffy spoke with more surprise than fear at the tarantula that perched upon his head. Soon enough, more of the creepy crawlies were falling out of the tree, completely covering Luffy. "Eh? Why did it get so dark all of a sudden?"
"Hang on! I'll get them off of you, Luffy!" Toffee exclaimed, despite the fact that Luffy didn't seem too distressed. The spiders seemed to be tickling him more than anything as he started to laugh and squirm about.
From running into other much larger bugs, including praying mantises that tried to slice them in half, a quagmire that Toffee almost sunk into after falling directly into it, along with a large number of pigs that chased them all over the dense forest, both Luffy and Toffee ended up slumped on the ground from exhaustion.
"W-water..." Luffy groaned out, tongue lolling out of his mouth.
"N-no wonder Nami was screaming when you all were here. The animals here are scarily protective of their territory," Toffee wheezed out, her face resting on her knees.
Feeling something nudging against her leg, Toffee looked over at whatever it was curiously where she was surprised to see a smaller pig compared to the others. "Still trying to get us to leave, huh, little guy?" Toffee cooed out, lifting up the angrily huffing piglet. "So cute! Even when you're looking at me with that glare!"
"Shishishishi!"
"Is something funny?" Toffee asked with a smile, her cheek currently rubbing against the pigs.
"You don't look so down anymore, is all," Luffy answered simply with one of his signature grins.
Placing the much calmer pig down on her lap, Toffee's expression grew embarrassed when she stared down at the animal. "Eh heh...You could tell? It's just...I know it's stupid, but I couldn't help but start to wonder if letting the Bellamy pirates escape was the right decision..."
"You're right. That does sound stupid,"
"I mean, what if I made a mistake by not killing Bellamy? It's possible he might be allied with someone far more dangerous. And by letting him go, I might have put us all at risk. That's why my family always made sure to take out anyone associated with their targets..." Toffee voiced, her thumb moving close to her mouth where she bit down on it.
Not sure if it was a trick of the rising sun, but Toffee swore Luffy's hand had grown larger. She wondered if that was why the hit, he placed upon the back of her head, hurt enough to make it feel like he had knocked her brain loose for a moment.
"Ow! Wh-what was that for?!"
"What you're saying is dumb. One of the reasons you left was because you didn't wanna kill like your family anymore, right? So why are you talking like you still have to? Just fight the way you wanna fight!" Luffy stated, his tone serious. "If that happens, it happens. We'll just deal with it when it does." A grin returned to Luffy's face while he cracked his knuckles. "I'll just kick Bellamy's ass myself, next time, if he didn't learn his lesson!"
Toffee's eyes were completely wide. For someone who was considered an idiot, Luffy had his own unique way with words that certainly left an impact on the person he was directing them toward. The lessons of never leaving a target alive had been drilled into her head, so it was almost surreal hearing someone informing her she didn't have to follow that code any longer.
"I see...Thank you, Luff-eep!"
"Ah! It's the atlas beetle!" Luffy shouted when the bug had flown directly into Toffee's face, and he slammed his net down on top of it along with the woman. "I caught it!"
"I-I'm glad for you, Luffy...Did you have to capture me along with it?" Toffee inquired meekly. She felt confused to why Luffy's laughter turned to a gag of pain instead, not realizing the baby pig had just head-butted the teen for nearly capturing it in the net as well.
"Where the heck are they! It's already morning!" Nami fumed. She didn't understand how they could be gone for three hours just running around in those crazy woods?! "It's 46 minutes over the agreed time! We're going to miss the current! Just what are they doing?!"
"You don't suppose they got hurt, do you?" Chopper mentioned with concern. "I didn't get the chance to look over Toffee's injuries..."
"Knowing those two they just lost track of time," Usopp sighed out, rubbing at the top of his bandanna.
"Or Toffee tripped and ended up knocking them both out somehow," Zoro grumbled, pinching at his temple.
"Oi!"
"Sorry, that took so long!"
"Just hurry, you two! We're already behind schedule!" Sanji called out with a grin when seeing the two emerging from behind Cricket's house.
"Look, look! This flew right on Toffee's face, and I managed to catch it!" Luffy chirped out, happily displaying the large bug.
"YOU TWO RAN OFF TO LOOK FOR BUGS?!" Usopp and Nami shrieked out together.
Panting lightly after stopping in front of their angered crewmates, Toffee tilted her head seeing the newly repaired Merry. "I'm glad you were able to repair Merry-chan, but why does she look like a rooster?"
Zoro nodded his head in agreement. "Right? A pigeon would have been better,"
Nami groaned at this. "I don't think that's the point..."
"It's the Going Merry Flying Model!" Usopp added in proudly, his words causing stars to form in Luffy's eyes. "Alright! Let's set sail! Ready, men?!"
"Aye, aye! Sir!"
While Masira, Shojo, and their crews boarded their own vessels after giving the long-nosed male the okay, Luffy walked over to Cricket who was seated at a tree stump he had turned into a makeshift table.
"Thanks for the ship, old man!"
"Don't bother. You're already cutting it close. Or are you plannin' to waste your chance to go into the sky, you fool?" Cricket said despondently while releasing a breath of smoke. "Besides, it's them you should thank."
Grinning at Shojo and Masira, Luffy waved over at them. "Yeah! Thanks, you guys! You can have my atlas beetle!"
Hearing Masira and Shojo's crew saying how nice Luffy was, Cricket glanced over at his bag of gold that Bellamy had been unable to steal.
"Saruyama Alliance! Don't screw up, now! No matter what happens, give everything you got for them!"
At the resounding yells of "yeah!" to Cricket's small speech, Nami smiled and turned to the others to proclaim, "It's time to set sail, guys!"
Watching the newly refurbished Going Merry set off, Cricket walked up to the edge of the island before it was out of sight. "Kid! This is where we part ways! There's one thing that's a definite fact. No one in history's ever disproved the city of gold or the sky island. People might laugh and call it foolish logic, but it's enough for me. That's what romanticism is all about!"
"Romanticism..." Luffy mused, his eyes seeming to shine.
"That's right! Thanks for the everything. Don't be fallin' from the sky now, y'hear?!" The grin on Cricket's face grew. "Keep an extra eye on the clumsy girl!"
"Eh? I don't think I'm that bad where I'd fall out of the sky!" Toffee gasped out, pouting when her shadow gave Cricket his own version of a thumbs up. Though Toffee smiled faintly as everyone said their goodbyes to Cricket, giving her own wave to the stubborn old man.
For what had started out at first being a rather relaxing voyage-except for the South Bird that Luffy and Usopp had taken to teasing-the sudden darkening of the sky caused both the Masira and Shojo pirates to panic.
The clouds had appeared sooner than they had anticipated, and now they had to race to find a current; this in turn was a giant whirlpool that the Straw Hats were instructed to sail directly into with the Saruyama Alliance's assistance.
"W-we're being sucked in!" Usopp whined out, tears trailing down his face.
"Nobody said anything about being sucked in!" Nami shrieked out, her hands pressed against her ears to drown out the roaring of the waves.
"It's alright! I'll protect you, Robin-chan, and Toffee-chan!" Sanji proclaimed while struggling to move closer to where Nami was.
"I've never seen such a large whirlpool before..." Robin murmured, her own usually calm features displaying unease.
"This does seem more like a death trap, doesn't it?" Toffee spoke up troubled. They were being pulled closer and closer into what looked like an endless void.
Usopp unleashed a louder wail. "This is bad! Let's turn back! Let me go back!"
"Just accept it, Usopp! It's too late! Someone else is already excited!" Zoro lightly scolded, peering over at Luffy who was throwing his arms excitedly up into the air and cheering about sky island.
Seeing one of the sea kings getting carried away by the raging waves after it tried to attack them was disconcerting, but hearing Masira and Shojo saying their goodbyes, Toffee joined Luffy in waving cheerfully to them despite the dire situation they appeared to be in.
When her shadow abruptly pulled her down to sit on the deck, Toffee understood why when they were being fully sucked into the whirlpool. She might have went flying upwards like some of the others of her screaming crew, yet thankfully, their landing was surprisingly gentle.
"What?! It disappeared?! How come?!" Sanji exclaimed, his head moving rapidly from side to side for the waters were eerily calm.
"T-that whirlpool was huge, too! What's going on?!" Usopp agreed with a gulp.
Nami's eyes had dimmed when her attention turned to the floorboards. "No! It's already started! The whirlpool only disappeared from the surface!"
Toffee was about to ask Nami what she meant, only to hear a gruff male voice bellow, "Hold it!", that startled all of them. None of the Straw Hats expected to run into anyone else all the way out here in such a dangerous part of the sea.
Everyone turned to see what resembled more of a massive raft than ship making its way for them. There were four figures standing on each of the logs, and two of them were using large oars to paddle the ship with. Toffee figured they must have had amazing stamina to make it here sailing in such an old-fashioned way.
"I caught up to ya, Straw Hat Luffy!"
"That's the guy from Mock Town...!" Nami gasped out.
"Have you met him before?" Toffee asked, not certain why the massively built male with relatively thin limbs made her feel uncomfortable.
Nami nodded and gave a small frown. "Yeah...We ran into him after our confrontation with the Bellamy pirates. He was going on about a lot of bizarre stuff...I just don't understand why he's here...
As if to answer Nami, the woolly dark-haired male declared, "I'm here to collect on your 100 million bounty! Prepare yourself!"
"My bounty? What do you mean, 100 million?" Luffy asked with a confused tilt of his head.
"So you don't know!" the tan skinned pirate laughed out, displaying a wanted poster with Luffy's grinning face printed onto it. "There's a 100 million beli bounty on your head! And Pirate Hunter Zoro! You're worth 60 million!"
Gazing through a pair of binoculars, Usopp voiced in awe, "It's true! He has new wanted posters! Zoro! You have a bounty now!"
Jumping up to where Usopp stood on the upper deck, Sanji tried to pry the binoculars out of his hold. "What?! Hold on! What about me?! There's one for me, too, right?!"
"Nope."
"Look closer!"
"I see! Your bounties went way up after the Albasta incident!" Nami murmured, a small bead of sweat trailing down the left side of her head. "But 100 million...!"
Toffee let out a small laugh considering Luffy and Zoro seemed more pleased than worried about the fact that they would be seen as more of a threat now. "Luffy did take down a Warlord. I'm not surprised the World Government is worried,"
"Come to think of it, why hasn't your bounty increased, Toffee?" Usopp wondered out loud. They all knew the girl had earned one herself when she was a kid. If they had seen her as a threat then, shouldn't she pose one more now as an adult?
Toffee blinked at this, letting out a small hum while she looked upwards. "Maybe the World Government doesn't believe I'm that strong? I mean, Heartless always did more of the fighting...He should actually have a bounty of his own, now that I think about it!"
Or someone in the World Government is looking out for Toffee-chan Sanji pondered considering what a threat her family seemed to be to the marines.
"Hey, you guys! Don't get distracted!" Shojo loudly warned. "Here it comes! The knock up stream! Get ready!"
Feeling the water starting to rise upwards, Sanji yelled out, "Everyone! Hold on tight to the ship or get inside!"
Peeking through the railing that she gripped onto, Toffee's eyes grew wide in wonder seeing the water lifting them up higher and higher. For a moment, everything was calm, until a breathtaking torrent launched the Going Merry upwards; completely destroying those odd pirates raft in the process, yet something told Toffee they weren't killed.
"What the heck is going on?!" Usopp screeched, his chest heaving while he pressed against the door where he stood.
"The ship's going straight up a pillar of water!" Sanji shouted, gawking at the shocking display.
"This is neat!" Luffy laughed out, hanging onto the figurehead of the ship. "Alright! Now we can go into the sky! Go, Merry!"
Sanji looked down nervously. "Hold on! I don't think it's gonna be that easy!"
"Why do you say that?" Toffee asked, her hands gripping more tightly onto to the railing. Her shadow was holding onto her protectively from behind just in case.
"The hull's starting to float! If this keeps up, we're gonna get sent flying to our doom!"
Billowing in the wind as he clung to the ship's upper railing, Usopp stuttered, "But what do you want us to do?! We can barely even hold on!"
"What's that?!" Chopper exclaimed, noticing something falling from above.
"That looks like the sea king from before!" Toffee gasped out, wincing as it caused up a further harsher gust as the eel-like beast fell into the waters below. Not even a monstrous creature like that would be able to survive the impact.
"See! It's only a matter of time until that happens to us!" Sanji said through gritted teeth.
"Hey, now! We're riding up a powerful explosion!" Zoro rebuked, not even bothering to cling onto anything like the others. "What can we possibly do?!"
"I guess it's just a natural disaster!" Sanji snapped back, moving his body before some falling pieces of what more than likely came from some long sunken ship collided with him.
"Lots of stuff is falling!" Chopper shrieked out. "Victims of the Knock-Up Stream!"
"We're goners, too! We're gonna fall and slam into the ocean and die!" Usopp bawled, his tears dripping downwards onto an annoyed Zoro.
Nami furrowed her brows. "Spread the sails! Right away! This is the sea! Not just a pillar of water! It's a rising current! And the wind blowing from below is a rising air current produced by the geothermal heat and steam explosion! If we're dealing with wind and sea, I can navigate it!"
"That's incredible, Nami!" Toffee gushed with a large smile.
Nami grinned back. "Who's this ship's navigator?!"
"You are, Nami-san!" Sanji admired, staring at the confident female with love-stuck eyes. "Alright, men! Do what Nami-san says!"
"Right!"
Doing exactly as Nami instructed, Chopper still couldn't help but cry out with fright, "Oh, no! The ship is about to leave the water!"
"We're gonna fall! We're gonna fall, Nami! Do something, Nami!" Luffy squawked, swinging like their flag from the mast.
"No! We can make it!" Nami stated, her brown eyes not showing an ounce of fear.
The makeshift wings the Saruyama Alliance had attached to Merry caught the wind, causing the ship to miraculously fly instead of crashing once the caravel completely distanced from the stream. Thanks to Nami's navigation, and Cricket's help, they were going to make it!
"Hey, Nami! Are we almost at the sky island?!" Luffy questioned excitedly.
Nami's mouth broke out into a grin as she pointed upwards. "If it exists, it's on the other side of those clouds!"
"Above the clouds, huh?!" Luffy said, feeling his exhilaration increasing. "What could be up there?! Let's plunge through the cumuloregalis clouds!"
Still, the pressure is difficult to deal with. It almost makes it hard to breathe Toffee thought, one eye closed as they broke through the darkened sky, the surrounding's around them becoming almost heavenly. I can't wait, to see what lies before us!