A.n I own nothing.

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The Merry approached the Island of Jaya, the Island had a busting town, tall buildings and shops as well as a few fancy hotels that looked like a relaxing resorts. Nami was able to tell from the calm and warm weather that Jaya was a spring Island; she was also able to predict that the weather would remain nice for the next couple of days.

As they pulled into the harbour looking for a place to dock the straw hats noticed an unusual amount of pirate ships anchored in the harbour. Chopper was curious as to why there were so many pirate ships out in the open. Once anchored Nami gathered the crew together to discuss what they were going to do.

"Alright we're here to gather information on three things," Nami started. "First, we need to know how long it takes for the Log to set, second any information on Sky Island and third…"

"Nami, Zoro and Luffy just left," Connor pointed out.

Nami whirled around to see Luffy and Zoro were walking away from the ship.

"I'll kill those idiots," Nami growled and she jumped off the ship and ran to catch up with them.

"Well I guess I'll hang out with Robin-chan," Sanji smiled but noticed Robin was also gone.

"She left before the other two," Usopp stated.

Sanji frowned if the girls were gone then there was no reason for him to stay on the ship.

"I guess I'll go shopping for supplies then," Sanji sighed a bit disappointed.

Usopp and Chopper ran up to him and tackled him to the deck.

"NOOO YOU CAN"T LEAVE" they cried WHAT IF SOMETHING HAPPENS!"

"Okay okay, I won't leave," Sanji promised, he wanted to get the two off him as being held down by a grown man and a human reindeer hybrid was making him unconfutable.

Chopper and Usopp got off the cook and breathed a sigh of relief, Sanji then noticed that Connor was getting of the ship; He ran up to the boy and grabbed him by the back of his white hooded jacket before Connor jumped off the ship.

Sanji held him in mid-air and looked at Connor annoyed.

"Where do you think you're going?" the cook asked.

"To explore," Connor answered.

"Oh no, you're not walking around unsupervised in a town with other pirate crews docked,"

"Aww…. But I want to go too," Connor whinnied "I left the ship on all the other Islands we landed on,"

"You were with other members of the crew,"

"But…"

"No buts, your 13 so that means unless you're with another member of the crew you stay on the ship where it's safe and you don't go wondering off on you own," Sanji scolded.

Connor crossed his arms legs and pouted, but did not talk back; he was not used to people looking out for him. Sanji took it as sign that Connor understood and put him down on the deck before walking off to the kitchen.

Connor looked over towards Usopp and Chopper and wondered if he could convince one of them to take go with him. But that Idea was shot down when some random pass by got beat up another man who declared himself a wrestling champion. Usopp and Chopper both fainted when the man looked in their direction.

'Guess I'm staying on board,' Connor thought and let out a sigh.

Usopp and Chopper eventually got back up and then they started playing on the deck, after a while Usopp decided to do some repairs on the Merry and Chopper agreed to help him. Sanji came out of the kitchen when he heard hammering noises and came over to see what was going on.

"What are you two doing?" Sanji asked from the deck of the ship above the two pirates.

"Repairing the Merry," Chopper answered.

"Make sure you do a good job," Sanji said as he lit a citrate.

"I'm not a shipwright, I can only do patch jobs," Usopp said.

"Maybe we should just get a new stronger ship," Sanji suggested.

"What no, do you know what we had to do to get the Merry," Usopp defended. He was horrified that Sanji would even suggest that.

"Yeah yeah, you told me. It was given to you by some girl in your village…" Sanji said "Though I bet if she ate my cooking she's get better,"

"KEEP YOUR PERVETED THOUGHT AWAY FROM KAYA!" Usopp screamed.

"So that's her name…I wonder if she'd let me call her Kaya-chan or Princess Kaya," Sanji smirked.

"I will kill you, slowly," Usopp warned.

"Relax I'm just messing with you," Sanji assured waving Usopps threat off.

Sanji turned back to the deck and scanned it.

"Hey…is Connor helping you with repairs?" Sanji asked.

"No, he was on the ship last time we saw him," Chopper answered.

"Huh…he better not have left. We really need to set some ground rules for him," Sanji claimed.

"What do you mean?" Usopp asked.

"He tried to leave the ship by himself earlier, I told him off for it," Sanji said.

"Good he shouldn't wander around on his own," Usopp agreed "Who knows what trouble he'll get into,"

"Well we didn't see him leave," Chopper said.

Sanji nodded and checked around the ship, he found Connor on the top deck near the back staring at Namis trees with glowing yellow eyes. Connor looked up at Sanji as he approached.

"Hey what are you doing?"

"Practising," Connor answered.

"Practising what?" Sanji asked.

"My sight,"

"I thought you could control that already," Sanji pointed out.

"I can but…I recently learned that there is more to it then I first thought," Connor said.

"Oh, do tell," Sanji said.

Connor then explained everything Edward had told him in the Rainbow Mist, how his sight was still growing and how it could evolve. He explained that Edward also had the same gift; there were others who possessed it too and the law on how if anyone was caught with it they were to be killed on sight.

"I see…that's really interesting, so you're trying to make your sight stronger," Sanji said.

"Edward said I just had to keep using it to make it stronger and that it would grow with me," Connor answered.

"So why are you using it on Nami-swans trees?" Sanji asked.

"I can see peoples aruras, Edward said the next step was the environment will glow. I'm practicing on Nami trees but it's not working," Connor said disappointingly.

"Well, you know what they say. Practice makes perfect," Sanji said.

"I guess," Connor said a little disappointed.

Sanji picked up on his disappointment and quickly thought of a way to cheer him up.

"Hey maybe these trees are too small," Sanji said.

Connor looked up at the cook in confusion.

"Maybe you need to practice on a bigger environment…like a forest or jungle," Sanji suggested.

"You think so?" Connor asked.

"Yeah, hey why don't we see if there's something like that on the Island. If there is…I'll take you there for a few hours and we can see if that makes a difference," Sanji offered.

"But you said I wasn't allowed to leave the ship," Connor reminded.

"Only without supervision, if someone goes with you its fine," Sanji clarified "It really is for your own safety,"

Connor was about to respond when he suddenly felt his brand pulse twice in succession, he instantly gripped his arm.

"Oh no," Connor whispered.

"What's wrong…dose your brand hurt?" Sanji asked in concern wondering if he had done something that would cause the boys brad to activate.

Connor stood up and looked at Sanji worriedly.

"No…Luffy and Zoro were just beaten," Connor answered.

"WHAT?!" Sanji yelled "Are they dead or just unconscious or…"

"I don't know…all I know is they were defeated in some way," Connor claimed.

"So…does this mean you change masters?" Sanji asked fearfully "Are you leaving?"

"What no I can't leave, it will only come to that if the whole crew gets defeated," Connor assured "I have changed masters but it's still within the crew,"

"So who is it now?" Sanji asked.

"Nami…I think, it might also be Chopper"

"You think?"

"Well if I belong to a group of people like a pirate crew ownership is transferred from one member to the next by order of importance. So when Luffy got beaten by Crocodile I went to Zoro because he is the first mate," Connor explained.

"So if both Luffy and Zoro get beaten…you go to the next person of the highest rank," Sanji said in understanding.

"Right and because this crew does not have much in a ranking system past Luffy and Zoro it's hard to determine who is next after them," Connor claimed.

"So why Nami-swan or Chopper? I'm one of the best fighters on the crew. Why not me?"

"Well at the risked of being punished for this…compared to Nami and Chopper you're kind of beneath them," Connor said.

"What's that mean?" Sanji said a little offended.

"It means that a Navigator and a Doctor out rank a chef…at least as far as my brand is concerned…come to think of it I'd probably go to Usopp before you," Connor said.

"Usopp out ranks me!" Sanji yelled in shock "I'll kick his ass,"

"Won't work, your part of the crew if you do that you and either Nami or Chopper get beaten I will still go to him before you," Connor stated.

"That thing on your arm is evil and I hate it," Sanji huffed.

"Try living with it," Connor responded.

Suddenly Chopper screamed loudly, Sanji and Connor ran to the side of the ship both ready for a fight, when they got there they saw Nami dragging a heavily beaten up Luffy and Zoro. Nami looked upset.

Nami dragged her two crewmates on board and dropped them on the deck, Usopp and Chopper ran onto the ship while Connor and Sanji calmly walked over to them.

"Well…looks like you were right," Sanji said to Connor.

"Oh no Luffy, Zoro!" Chopper panicked "Quick get a doctor,"

"Chopper that's you," Usopp pointed out.

"Oh yeah," Chopper realised and he quickly got to work.

Thankfully the injuries looked worse than they were and both Zoro and Luffy were fine, Luffy had a few deep cuts on his arm but nothing too serious whereas Zoro only had light bruising. Both pirates also had some red liquid on them but most of it was red wine and only Luffy was actually bleeding.

Luffy and Zoro explained what happened to them and Nami was really angry at them.

"So you got into a bar fight, were there any monsters or supernatural creatures?" Usopp asked.

"Nah just a single pirate," Luffy answered.

"He was all talk," Zoro claimed.

"So if it was just one guy, why did you come back looking like this?" Sanji asked.

"And can we expect a visit from him?" Usopp added.

"Nope it's finished, he wasn't really worth the fighting," Luffy said.

The rest of the crew sighed in relief.

"Luffy don't make a habit of doing that okay," Sanji warned.

"Why not?"

"Because it counts as a defeat," Connor answered.

Luffy and the others stared at Connor realising what he was saying.

"Does this mean Luffy and I have lost claim over you?" Zoro asked.

"Yes," Connor answered.

"But we'll get it back right?"

Connor nodded.

"In 24 hours, as long as the crew still has ownership over me my brand will re-recognise you tow as my masters. You can also go back and defeat the person who beat you as well and that will restore your claim over me too," Connor explained.

"Oh…sorry to make you worry," Luffy apologised.

"Oh yeah did you guys find anything out about Sky Island?" Chopper asked.

"What was that?" Nami asked dangerously, she had a mudras aura surrounding her.

Chopper quickly swallowed a rumball and activated his Guard point, Usopp pretended to be dead by splashing tomato sauce over his chest.

"I don't want to go there anymore," Nami declared "We'll wait for the log to set and then head off,"

"But Nami I want to go to Sky Island," Luffy whined, this earned him a massive bump on his head.

"We will wait for the Log to set," Nami said in a no nonsense tone.

Just then Robin boarded the ship she was carrying several shopping bags and wore a new purple outfit with a matching cowboy style hat.

"My it certainly is lively here what all the excitement for?" Robin asked as she came on deck.

"Welcome back Robin-chwan, are you hungry? Do you want something to drink?" Sanji asked happily with harts in his eyes.

Zoro rolled his eyes at the cook.

"What's up Robin did you go shopping?" Luffy asked.

"Yes, I don't have any clothes of my own on board so I went and bought some along with other previsions that might come in handy for Sky Island," Robin said.

At the mention of Sky Island Nami snapped.

"OI ROBIN IT'S YOUR FAULT, YOU WERE THE ONE WHO PUT SKY ISLAND INTO LUFFYS HEAD SO EVRYTHING WE WENT THROUGH IS YOUR DOING!" Nami yelled.

"Oh does this mean we're not going?" Robin asked sounding disappointed.

"Of course we're still going," Luffy said.

Nami kicked Luffy in the back of the head with such force that it sent him flying into the mast. Chopper panicked and shifted to his jumping point and jumped overboard into the sea to avoid Namis wrath.

Zoro jumped in after him.

"WE'RE WAITING FOR THE LOG TO SET!" Nami yelled.

"Oh that is a shame, and after I found a clue on how to get there," Robin said.

"YOU FOUND SOMETHING….REALLY?!" Luffy asked excitedly, he jumped up completely recovered from Nami's attack.

"Yes apparently there is a man who lives on the other side of the Island; he was chased out of town for speaking about his dreams. Apparently he is looking for El Dorado, the lost city of gold," Robin claimed.

At the mention of gold Namis eyes turned Beli signs and she ran up to robin.

"City of gold? Forget Sky Island we're going there. Where is this man?" Nami demanded.

"But Nami, I want to go to the sky," Luffy whined.

"I managed to procure a map of the Island and a very nice gentlemen marked exactly where this man lives," Robin said and handed the map to Luffy who stared at it.

It was a map of the island.

"But what about the sky?" Luffy asked.

"The man searching for El Dorado knows all the legends of the area, if there is a way to get to Sky Island he would be the person to ask," Robin reasoned.

"Besides if he doesn't we can always go find El Dorado," Nami insisted.

'She just wants the gold,' Zoro, Usopp, Chopper and Connor all thought at the same time.

The Merry set off with Nami guiding it to the other side of the Island; they kept in sight of the Jaya because the Log Pose was still pointing towards the sky. Sanji told Luffy about Connors attempt to leave the ship by himself and Luffy agreed with the cook that they needed some rules for Connors own safety.

After a bit of a discussion the crew came up with two, Connor was not allowed to leave the ship by himself and he was not allowed to leave the ship or go wandering around at night. Luffy told Connor that these rules were his orders and Connor knew he would have no choice but to obey.

Along the way they met another crew who reminded them Musina, they were captained by a man named Shoujou who claimed to be the Sonar king.

Shoujou was a large man who looks like an orangutan with long green hair. He wore a black button up shirt that is too small for his body showing off his hairy torso, a green captain's coat with his arms in the sleeves, and a green captain's hat with his personal jolly roger on the front.

After Luffy revealed that he kicked the salvager Shoujou attacked but wound up tearing his own ship apart much the annoyance of his crew and the confusion of the straw hats. The sound waves that Shoujou was using to attack eventually reached the Merry and it began to fall apart, Choppers overly sensitive ears did not react well to the noise.

"MAKE IT STOPPP!" the doctor yelled.

Nami ordered the ship to retreat and Usopp suddenly got an Idea; he pulled out his slingshot and one his Tabasco sauce filled ammunition and fired it directly into Shoujou 's open mouth. The Sonar king swallows it only to start running around on his hips deck breathing a constant stream of fire.

"Well that takes care of that," Usopp said and the Merry continued on its way.

After a bit over an hour of sailing the Merry came to the location marked on the map that Robin provided and much to their surprise was a huge white Castle.

"WWWOOOWWWW!" Luffy, Usopp and Chopper cried admiringly.

"This guy must be loaded," Nami said happily.

Once the Merry was anchored Luffy jumped off the ship and ran to the castle only to find it a thin panted piece of wood attached to half the house.

"Awww, it's fake," Luffy said disappointingly.

The rest of the crew disembarked and looked around to see if the man who was supposed to live here was home.

"I guess he dreams big," Sanji said looking at the fake Castle.

Luffy went up to the house and opened the door.

"Hello anyone home?" Luffy asked as he walked inside.

"DON'T JUST ENTER PEOPLES HOUSES!" Usopp and Zoro yelled.

Luffy came back out a few seconds later.

"No one's home," he stated.

Connor looked around and pies a table made out of a tree stump and went over to it, on it was a book Connor picked it up; he recognised a couple of letters from his lessons with Robin but could not read the title.

"Nami what's this?" Connor called out.

Nami came over and took the book from him, she looked at it.

"Noland the Lair…It's a kids book," Nami claimed.

Sanji perked up at hearing the name.

"Did you just say Noland the Lair?" the cook asked as he walked over.

"That's what the title says," Nami claimed "But it looks pretty old,"

Sanji came over an took the book from Nami, he looked at it an flipped through it.

"Huh…wonder what this is doing out here?" Sanji said to himself.

"Have you herd of Noland?" Connor asked.

"Yeah Noland the Liar is a famous fairy tale in the Nroth blue, I was told it as a kid for as a bedtime story," Sanji said.

"Wait…you're from the North Blue?" Usopp asked.

"Yeah, didn't I tell you that?" Sanji responded.

"I thought you were from the East Blue like the rest of us," Zoro said.

"Nah I was born in the North, but I was raised in the East. To be honest I spent most of my life in the East blue,"

"How did you get from North to East?" Chopper asked.

"Oh my family liked to travel and once I wound up in the East I stayed because I met Zeff," Sanji said vaguely.

The crew accepted this answer but robin found it a bit vague, but she did not pry.

"So what's the story about?" Connor asked.

"An Explorer named Nolan; he was part of a kingdom in the North Blue. He sailed the Grand line regularly looking for new islands and resources for his kingdom," Sanji said.

"Wow he went in and out of the grand Line regularly, he must have been one hell of a sailor," Usopp praised.

"He was, the story goes that whenever he got back Noland would tell his adventures to the kingdom, but they were so farfetched no one could tell if they were true or not,"

"Makes sense, the grand line is full of weird and impossible things," Robin agreed.

"Anyway, after one exibiton Naoland reported to the his king that he had found a city made of pure gold. The King naturally wanted to see it for himself so he commissioned Noland to take him and 2,000 solders to the city of gold,"

"Did they get there?" Connor asked.

"Well…sort of, Noland led the king to the Isalnd he claimed had the gold on it but when they arrived there was nothing but empty jungle,"

"So Noland was lying the whole time then," Zoro stated.

"I guess, the king had him executed and Nolands last words were the City of gold must've sunk beneath the sea," Sanji finished.

"So he lied till the very end," Usopp claimed.

"Yes he was a pitiful liar and he perished in disgrace," Sanji said, he then looked over at Usopp "Without ever becoming a brave warrior of the sea,"

"WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT?!" Usopp yelled.

"So…where's the city of gold?" Luffy asked.

"Luffy it's a fairy tale, the city most likely never existed," Sanji said.

Luffy frowned and then went back to look at the fake castle, he then noticed some bubbles on the surface of the water and bent down to get a closer look at them.

"But don't stories always have some truth behind them?" Connor asked.

"They do, there are records of an explorer called Nolan and he did explore the Grand Line about four hundred years ago, but the records say he died at sea," Sanji claimed.

"How do you know this?" Robin asked.

"Its common knowledge in the North Blue, a lot of kids hear this story so they go looking for information on Noland and his fabled city of gold. He was a real person but there is nothing recorded about him finding a city of gold," Sanji claimed "His expeditions and this story have been a debate for scholars for over two hundred years,"

"So did you do some research on Noland as child?" Luffy asked.

"Yeah, when I first heard the story I thought about finding the lost city of gold but once I looked into it I realised that it was just a story," Sanji shrugged.

Suddenly a loud splash was herd and the straw hats looked over towards the cape and found that Luffy was missing.

"Did Luffy fall into the ocean again?" Nami asked irritably.

"I'll go get him," Sanji said and headed towards the ocean.

However before Sanji reached the shore someone climbed out of the ocean and on to the cape. He was a muscular, middle aged man with blond hair with a large chestnut on his head. He wore dark purple tracksuit-pants with a white stripe running along each leg and a rope tied around his waist. He did not have a shirt or shoes on and his left arm had a tattoo of a chestnut with the word "Maroon" written across it.

"Hey, who the hell are you people?" the man demanded and he got into a fighting stance.

"Usopp get Luffy I'll handle this guy," Sanji said as he ran towards the man.

The unknown man aimed a kick at Sanji but the cook skilfully dodged it, Sanji attempted to strike the man but his leg was blocked by the other man's leg. The two continued to trade blows but neither one was hitting the other. Suddenly the man was able to push Sanji back and he pulled out a gun and shot at Sanji.

Sanji was able to doge the bullets as the man continued to fire. Zoro had had enough and ran in ready to finish the other man off with his sword when the man suddenly collapsed on the ground.

Zoro stopped right before him and looked at him in confusion.

"I thought he blocked your strikes," Zoro said.

"He did, I didn't get one decent hit on him," Sanji claimed.

Chopper ran over to examine the man and Usopp burst out of the ocean holding Luffy and the rubber captain was pulled out of the ocean and Luffy was finally brought back onto dry land.

The straw hats moved the man into the house which was fairly small, Chopper treated him and diagnosed him with Decompression sickness and summarised that the man was a diver as diving was the only way to develop it.

While the straw hats were taking care of the man Masira and Shoujou burst in surprising the crew. Usoop and Chopper ran round in panic.

"What the hell are you lot doing here?!" Masira demanded.

"What have you done to our boss?!" Shoujou added.

"He's sick so we're taking care of him," Luffy said like it was obvious "Get Lost,"

"THEY'LL NEVER BEILIVE THAT!" Usopp yelled.

"Boss is sick…really?" Masira asked.

"And you're taking care of him?" Shoujou added.

"Yep," Luffy answered.

Masira and Shoujou started to tar up.

"YOUR SO KIND!" they cried together.

"HOW DO THEY BELIEVE THAT?!" Usopp yelled.

While Chopper was treating the injured man Luffy, Masira and Shoujou sat outside and became fast friends much to the annoyance of Usopp the sniper was sitting against the house with Zoro and Connor.

"How is it that they became friends so fast?" Connor asked.

"Those three are all monkeys," Zoro stated. He looked over and Luffy was going into the finer points on how to properly kick someone off a ship.

"It's all in the swing, if you want to send someone flying you have to get the swing right," Luffy said.

Zoro just shook his head as it was clear that Masira and Shoujou believed him. The door to the house burst open and Chopper ran out.

"Luffy, he's awake," Chopper declared.

Luffy looked over at the doctor and smiled, he got up and walked into the house; Zoro, Usopp and Connor followed him. The injured man was sitting cross legged on his bed smoking a cigarette, he looked over at Luffy as the captain approached.

"The name is Montblanc Cricket," Cricket introduced himself "Sorry about earlier, I thought you were here to steal my gold,".

"GOLD!" Nami screamed in delight and her eyes turned to Beli signs.

"Stop it," Usopp warned.

"We're not here for your gold," Luffy said.

"Speak for yourself," Nami interrupted.

"We just wanted to ask you something," Luffy finished.

"Oh…what did you want to ask me?" Cricket asked curiously.

"We want to know how to get to the Sky Island," Luffy said.

Cricket blinked and stared at Luffy in shock for a second, he was not expecting that. He then burst out laughing.