A.n I own Nothing.
Hello World, i'm back for another year, I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year. Thanks for being patent with me over the holiday season, I have had a good break and am ready to go. I actually finished writing/editing the Jaya arc so expect a regular weekly update for the next three-four weeks.
As it is a New Year i would very much appreciate any feedback you have on the story so far, if you have any suggestions on how it could be improved, Devil Fruit ideas or even wanting to see a cretin Assassin please let me know. Any and all feed back will be taken seriously and be considered in writing future chapters.
As always please Review.
Enjoy.
It was a sunny day out at sea and the Going Merry sailed through the waters of the Grand Line with ease. The Ship looked a little worse for wear but after being literally blown out of a time altering mist that was to be expected.
The Merry had left Rulkla Island a few days ago, after the Marines had left Henzo had helped repair the ship with Usopp and a local carpenter, it was not the best fix but the Merry would not sink and the carpenter assured the pirates that the repairs would hold until the next Island where the ship could be properly repaired.
Usopp was telling the others what had happened in the mist for the 8th time as Chopper seemed to love the story…Connor also listened in but he did not recall seeing a Sea King or vanquishing an evil robot.
"That mist was fun, I hope we go back sometime," Luffy said.
"Go back; you want to go back to a ships graveyard with no way out?" Nami asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah after all Edward and Adéwalé live there," Luffy grinned.
Nami sighed, Edward did not live in the mist but she knew there was no point on telling Luffy that or trying to explain how the mist bent time.
Robin approached Connor.
"Connor can you help me for a little while?" Robin asked with a smile.
Connor nodded, this was Robin's way of telling him it was time for his reading lesson. Robin had offered to teach Connor how to read not long before the straw hats adventure in the Rainbow mist. At first he was reluctant to accept and fearful of what Luffy would do if he found out, but Robin had assured him that it would be they're secret. So every day Robin would ask Connor for some help and they would go to the cabin to start the lesson.
Luffy was sitting on the Merry's figure head looking eagerly out to sea he glanced at Robin as she and Connor walked towards the cabin. Luffy of course knew exactly what Robin and Connor were doing but he also knew that Connor would be worried about being caught so he and the others agreed to play dumb until Connor was ready to tell them.
Suddenly small amounts of dirt and stones began to rain down on the deck, all the straw hats including Connor and Robin stopped what they were dong to look up at the sky.
"That's odd, it shouldn't be raining," Nami said.
"Maybe it's hail," Usopp suggested.
"No it doesn't look like it," Sanji observed.
He held out his hand and let little bits land in it before looking at what he caught, it looked like small pieces of wood.
"Is this…wood?" Sanji asked a little confused.
"Look out!" Chopper cried.
The straw hats eyes widened as the small splinters turned into huge chunks of what looked like came from a ship, pieces of Mast, a cannon, and debris rained down from the sky…there was even a steering wheel. Nami ordered the Merry to be moved but with the amount of debris falling the waves were becoming rough and the helm unusable.
The straw hats did their best to keep the Merry afloat, Chopper and Usopp panicked. Usopp got into a mediative positon which Chopper copied.
"What are you doing?" Connor asked.
"I'd you meditate all your fears will go away," Usopp answered.
Connor looked at Usopp like the sniper had lost it.
"Now take a deep breath and slowly open your eyes," Usopp instructed.
He followed his own advice but when he opened his eyes an open coffin with a skeleton was in front of him and it landed on him while the coffin landed on top of Chopper.
"AAAGGGGGHHHHHHH SKELITON!" Usopp screamed in pure horror and threw the corpse at Nami.
"DON'T THROW IT OVER HERE!" she cried and threw it back.
As debris continued to fall Usopp and Nami played hot potato with a corpse as nether one of them wanted the bones near them. Finally the debris stopped falling and a huge ship splashed into the sea next to the Merry. Once everyone expect Usopp and Chopper had calmed down the crew gathered together.
"Why did a ship fall out of the sky?" Luffy asked.
"Good question," Zoro answered and looked up "There's nothing but clouds up there,"
"It's a total mystery," Sanji claimed.
"Man the Grand Line sure is scary, first time altering mists and now ships fall from the sky," Usopp said shaking in fear and holing Choppers hybrid form.
"Yeah what's next? Ghost ships with living skeletons?" Chopper agreed, he was also shaking in fear.
"That would so cool," Luffy said excitedly.
"Chopper don't encourage him," Nami scolded.
She then looked down at the Log Pose to get the ship back on course but found that it had changed direction.
"OH NO!" Nami panicked.
"What is it….another ship?" Usopp panicked.
"The Log…it's broken," Nami claimed.
"Let me see," Robin said coming over and Robin showed her the compass.
Robin saw the needle was pointing upwards and tapping lightly against the glass that it was kept in. the archaeologist eyes narrowed and she looked up towards the sky in contemplation.
"I don't think the Log is broken," Robin said.
"But it has to be, it was pointing South West about two minutes ago," Nami claimed.
"Nami it is physically impossible for a log pose to break unless it's cursed or the glass get destroyed," Robin stated.
"Why?" Connor asked.
"Because it locks onto an Islands magnetic felid, if the log changes direction in the middle of the ocean it mean it has found a stronger magnetic field then the one it first locked onto," Robin claimed.
"But it's pointing upwards," Nami pointed out.
"Indeed, that means there is an Island in the sky…a Sky Island," Robin said.
"WHAT…A SKY ISLAND?!" the whole crew cried out in surprise.
"So what's a sky Island like?" Luffy asked eagerly with stars in his eyes.
"I've herd legends of them, they say that the sky islands float on their own sea of clouds and are always on the move as the seas and the Island travel on the wind," Robin said.
"REALLY?!" Luffy, Usopp, Chopper and Connor asked at the same time. They were clearly interested and wanted to go to this sky Island.
"Yes, but I've never been to one myself. The truth is I don't know much about them expect what I've read in myths," Robin claimed.
"Robin there can't be a sea or Islands in the sky," Nami said "It's just impossible,"
"There are many strange and impossible things on the Grand Line but there is one thing that has never changed…the Log Pose is never wrong. Wherever it points you will always find an Island," Robin said seriously.
"But a whole ocean in the sky…that sounds like something out of a kids book or a comic," Nami tried.
"Then why is the Log pointing upwards? You should not be asking these questions miss navigator. There is only one question you should be asking.
"And what's that?" Nami asked.
"How do we get to the Sky Island?" Robin answered.
Nami looked at the Log and pondered what Robin was saying, she then noticed that it was quite and looked around to find Luffy was not on deck.
"Where did Luffy go?" Nami asked.
"He's over there," Connor said form the starboard railing and pointed at the ship that fell from the sky.
Luffy was indeed on the wreckage of the ship.
"What's that idiot doing?" Sanji asked annoyed.
"He said he was board so he was going to explore," Connor answered.
"He does know that the ship will sink right?" Zoro asked.
A few seconds later and the ship was beneath the waves, Luffy could be seen struggling in the ocean.
"HHHEEELLLLPPPPP!" Luffy cried out as he sank into the sea.
"Idiot," the whole crew said in unison, Sanji jumped into save Luffy.
Once Luffy was safely back on the Merry's deck and out of the water, he looked up at his crew with a big grin.
"I did it…Look what I found," Luffy declared.
He held up a old map that depicted an Island floating on some clouds, the word Sky Piea was written on the top.
"Is that…" Robin asked in surprise.
"Yep a map if the Sky Island," Luffy said happily.
Nami took the map and examined, Luffy stood next to her very excited.
"See, see it does exist, this map is proof," Luffy bragged.
Nami looked at the map carefully, she was looking for signs that it could be a fake but was having a hard time finding any; she refused to believe that there was a sea in the sky.
Luffy Usopp and Chopper started dancing around on deck.
"We found a sky Island, We found a sky island," the cheered happily.
"The map could be a fake," Nami pointed out.
The three pirates stopped cheering and their faces tuned gloomy as they looked at Nami.
"What?" they asked.
Nami felt bad for ruining their good time.
"I mean…well…it exists, of course the Sky Island exists," Nami said quickly.
"Then let's set sail, Nami take us to the Sky Island," Luffy ordered.
"And how do you propose we do that?" Nami asked.
"I don't know, take us to the sky or something," Luffy answered.
Nami banged her fist against the Merrys mast in irritation.
"Luffy I can't do that I don't know how to get there," Nami said angrily.
"Well figure it out, you the Navigator," Luffy shot back.
"Yes and I can't make the ship fly,"
"I'm the Captain and I say we go to the Sky Island," Luffy declared.
Nami hit Luffy on the head for his stupidity and he was left twitching on the deck, the other members of the crew ignored him as Nami addressed the rest of the crew.
"Look it doesn't matter if the Sky Island exists or not…" Nami started.
"Yes it dose!" Luffy interrupted which earned him another hit on the head from Nami.
"What matters is we can't stay here, the log won't point to a new Island. So if that ship did fall from the sky then there has to be a way for us to get up there," Nami continued.
"But how?" Connor asked.
"Well…Oh I know we need information. That ship is bound to have some record or log of how it got into the sky. We'll salvage it," Nami declared.
"Salvage what's that?" Chopper asked.
"It's a what you do to sunken ships, once salvaged you can examine the ship properly and take any tressure it might have," Robin answered "But that ship is too big for us to salvage,"
"We don't need the whole ship, just a few records like a journal or the ships log," Nami reasoned.
"But it's at the bottom of the Grand Line, how are we going to get down there?" Zoro asked.
"Yeah it's not like we can breathe underwater," Sanji added.
The crew remained silent for a second as they thought about the problem at hand. It was Usopp who broke the silence.
"Actually…I think I know a way we can," Usopp said with a grin.
It did not take long for Usopp to build three diving suits out of some empty barrels and attached t to a homemade air filter. The sniper stood back to admire his work on the three volunteers who would be going down to the ship.
"Done whit this you should be fine," Usopp claimed.
"Ohhh this is exiting," Luffy said.
"Nami-Swan I'll bring back all information on the Sky Island," Sanji said with hearts coming out of his suit.
"Why am I here with these idiots?" Zoro asked from inside his suit.
"Usopp will this really work?" Nami asked.
"Yep, it runs along the same theory as diving bells," Usopp claimed.
"What's a diving bell?" Connor asked.
"It's a big heavy metal bell, you drop it in the water and it sinks. It creates an air pocket underwater that you can use to breathe while under water and in deep pressure," Robin explained.
"So how is this like that?" Chopper asked.
"Well when they go into the water, we pump the air down. The incoming air will keep the water pushed out so even Luffy will be alright, the bottoms are left open so that they can move and swim around underwater," Usopp explained.
Connor and Chopper nodded in understanding.
"It is rather impressive that you know about Diving bells," Robin complemented.
"Well I played Pirate a lot as a kid and I also read a few books on them as well, Pirates diving for treasure was always one of my favourite stories and games to play," Usopp claimed.
"Right Lets go," Luffy said and jumped into the sea; Zoro and Sanji followed him.
"They'll be okay down there right?" Chopper asked concerned.
"Well let's see, we can use the air tubes to communicate with them," Usopp said.
"Really?" Chopper asked.
Usopp nodded and chopper switched to his human form and went over to the air tubes.
"Luffy can you hear me?" Chopper called down the tube.
"Yep, it's really cool down here," Luffys voice responded.
"There's a whole nest of giant sea snakes down here," Zoro's voice came through.
"Oh they noticed us…and are coming right for us," Sanji voice added.
"Okay," Nami nodded satisfied.
"HOW IS THAT OKAY?!" Usopp panicked.
They waited patiently by the air filter and Usopp pumped the air into the make shift diving suits, it wasn't long before the remaining members of the straw hats heard a whistle and some cymbals being hit together. Robin looked over the railing and saw another ship approach it was larger than the Merry it had a monkey striking two cymbals figurehead, rows of palm trees going along the sides of the deck and two banana-shaped poles; Also on the sails was : a monkey's head with two bananas Jolly Roger.
On board the crew could be seen along with the oddest looking man with ape-like features. He wore an orange-yellow jumpsuit over a brown shirt, with headphones and goggles huge on his head, his arms were huge with a few piercings around his wrists and a tail could be seen. He looked like a monkey.
"Alright boys, is this where the ship sank?" the monkey man asked.
"Aye Aye Sir," the crew responded.
"Then let's get to work!" the monkey man shouted enthusiastically.
"Boss look," one of the crew said and pointed at the Merry.
The monkey man turned and saw the straw hats ship with the crew on deck looking at them.
"Hey you lot, you had better not be muscling in on my turf," the monkey man warned.
"Your turf?" Usopp asked.
"That's right. Everything in this area belongs to me, Masira the Salvage King," Masira proclaimed.
"Salvage King?" Chopper asked .
"That's right I salvage all the ships in the area and the one that just fell from the sky is no different," Masira claimed.
"He looks like a monkey," Nami stated.
"Hm-mm," the others nodded in agreement.
Suddenly Nami got an idea.
"Hey are you going to salvage that ship?" Nami asked.
"Of course it's what kind of Salvage king would I be if I left a ship at the bottom of the ocean," Masira said proudly.
"Can we watch?" Nami asked.
"Y…You want to watch?...I see you've never seen a salvage operation before. Okay boys lets be sure to put on a good show," Masira declared.
"YEAH!" the other crew shouted in agreement.
'Idiots,' Nami thought.
The Straw hats watched the other crew get into full metal body suits and jump into the ocean, they were a lot more impressive than the ones that Usopp had made. Usopp was discreetly pumping air to the crew and he hoped that Luffy would have had enough of a head start to get to the bottom and look around the sunken ship.
Suddenly the men who went down in the metal suits flew out of the water and landed on the deck of their ship, Masira ran over and helped them out of their suits.
"Hey are you guys okay?" Masira asked urgently.
"T…T…There's something down there…" one of the men answered.
"What? Sea Kings…monsters, a Kraken?" Marsia asked.
Marsia did not get an answer because the men all passed out. The Captain stood up and turned to face the straw hats, he had a dark look on his face.
"Hey you guys," Marsia stared.
The straw hats all froze in fear that the Salvage king had figured out they were salvaging.
"There's some kind of monster down there, be careful and keep an eye out," Marsia warned.
The straw hats let out a sigh of relief.
"We will thanks for the warning," Nami responded.
They watched as the other crew continued their work and Marsia ordered something called the Cradle to be dropped before sending more men down with a warning to look out for whatever monster was down there. The side of the ship unfolded and tow very large racks with crescent shape spikes splashed into the water.
Connor wondered what it was for, but didn't ask; if the other crew was focused on salvaging the ship then the less chance of Luffy was of being discovered
"HEY WHAT THE HE…" Luffy's voice suddenly screamed through the air pipe, it was quickly covered by Nami, Chopper and Usopp.
The straw hats froze as Marsia looked at them in suspension.
"W…What the heck was that thing you dropped?" Connor asked quickly.
Marsia looked at him and Connor started to get nervous but Marsia just smiled.
"It's called a cradle; we'll use it to bring up the sunken ship," Marsia answered.
The straw hats breathed a sigh of relief and Nami made a gesture with her head for Connor to keep the other Captin distracted. Connor caught on.
"How will you bring the ship back up?" Connor asked.
Marsia grinned.
"That's a trade secret but if you hang around you'll get to see it," Marsia claimed.
'So it's not that big of a secret,' Connor, Usopp, Chopper, Robin and Nami all thought at the same time.
The straw hats continued to watch the other crew work and eventually Marsia ordered the monkey to be launched and the figure head of the ship extended out wards as a crane lifted it up and dropped it into the sea. Marsia looked at the pirates again.
"Your probably wondering what that was for?" Marsia asked.
'Not really,' the pirates thought.
"Yes why did you just drop your figure head?" Usopp asked.
"Well the Cradle we dropped earlier are like claws and once they embedded onto the ship we drop the monky to secuer them in place and help bring the ship up to the surface," Marsia explained.
"But that ship was fairly large, won't your ship be pulled under if you try and reel it up?" Robin asked.
"That's the beauty of it, the ship will come to us," Marsia answered confidently.
"Hey bring me the hose," Marsia ordered.
Marsia brought him a long yellow hose; Marsia took a deep breath and then breathed down the hose. A huge clump of air went down the hose into the ocean and Marsia handed it off to his crew who attached to a large air blower. They were jumping up and down on it.
"I see they're blowing air into the ship and to push the water out. The ship would rise back to the surface naturally," Usopp observed.
"Salvaging is cool." Connor smiled.
"Yea it is, and if you put your heart into it the reward will be all the greater," Marsia agreed.
"BOSS HELP!" One of Marsia's men cried out. it came from the air pipes so it was one of the men underwater.
"What's wrong, is it the monster?" Marsia asked.
"NO…THERES SOMEONE IN THE SHIP!" the voice screamed.
"Hang on, I'm coming," Marsia declared and struck a pose…he did not move afterwards.
The straw hats were confused as to why his men put a fire backdrop behind him.
"Ummm…aren't you going to save your crew?" Usopp asked.
"Yeah it's not like we're going to take a picture or anything," Nami added.
Marsia looked at them in shock.
"Y…Y…YOUR NOT?!" he asked in surprise.
"Your men are probably drowning or dying from decompression," Robin stated.
"Oi that's too morbid," Usopp said.
"Oh you're right," Marsia said "HANG ON BOYS I'M COMING!"
Marsia jumped into the sea.
"Nami why are there so many idiots on the Grand Line?" Connor asked looking at the navigator.
"I have no idea Connor," Nami responded.
The two crews waited to get a response from there friends who were on the ship and Marsia continued to pump air down into the sea. A big dark shadow appeared underneath both ships.
"What's that?" Chopper asked pointing at the shadow.
"Maybe it's the monster that has been attacking us?" one of Marsia men suggested.
"Yes that has to it," another agreed.
Nami rested the urge to face palm, she could not believe how stupid this salvaging crew was. Suddenly the giant Creature burst out of the ocean; it was a massive giant Sea Turtle that was the size of a small island. Hanging out of its mouth was several planks of wood and three familiar yellow hoses that were connected to the Merry.