This is the 22nd chapter. I don't own the series of One Piece.
The Sky Knight and the Gates in the Clouds!
Somewhere at sea
While the Straw Hat pirates are continuing to fly up to the sky by a Knock-up Stream, Cricket was still watching them fly with a cigarette next to his mouth. Though, he wishes them luck for finding Sky Island and hoping they made it back alive. But as for the Blackbeard pirates, his crew were furious that the Straw Hats manage to get away thanks to the young Dragoon. Blackbeard is mostly pissed that Ventus destroyed his ship and outsmarted him instead of fighting, which he's impress that the young Dragoon has been improved since the last encounter back at Winter Island.
"Oh well, they got away!" Blackbeard said with a laugh. "And that brat, he sure improved a lot since our last encounter."
"What they got is lucky." Doc Q points out with a wheeze.
"So what?! We're just gonna sit here and let 'em escape?! We just lost a 340 million berry bounty and you're laughing about it?!" Jesus Burgess shouts. "C'mon! We've gotta do something!"
"Easy, Burgess, they haven't left this world. They'll be back." Blackbeard told him with a laugh. "We'll meet them soon enough as long as we stay on the Grand Line."
"This is true." Van Augur agrees. "We are but cogs and the gears of fate. And though, they've managed to escape us today, they cannot outrun destiny."
"You see, Burgess." Blackbeard said with a laugh.
"Whatever." Jesus Burgess scoffs while Doc Q coughs and Blackbeard laughed.
Somewhere in the sky
After the Straw Hat pirates was able to fly way up to the sky and landed on the clouds, the wings broke apart and the ship is in worse for wear because the sail is torn and they won't be able to sail. Also, the Straw Hat crew panted heavily, almost like they're out of breath for some reason. Ventus pants heavily, which it didn't take long for him to figure out, realizing that whenever they're on higher grounds like the sky, the air gets thin and it'll be hard to breathe. Usopp is in teary eyes with fright, but never thought he and his crew are still alive in one piece and not fallen into the ocean. Chopper is dizzy with his eyes swirling.
"What the-What just happened to us?" Zoro questions with a heavily pant, but Robin is wondering the same thing. "Everyone alright!"
"Just peachy." Leon groans. "But I'm feeling weak for some reason."
"Hey! Look guys, out there!" Luffy called them, stood up and looking at the clouds. "What is that?!"
But just as soon as the rest of the Straw Hat stands up after the recovery, they notice they're at the Sky Island.
"What in the world?!" Sanji exclaims.
"It's solid white!" Luffy declared with a grin, crossed his arms.
"They're clouds!" Chopper said excitedly.
"But how?" Nami questions. "Why aren't we falling?"
"Better yet, how are we floating above them?" Caius adds, not expecting to actually be above the clouds.
"Clouds float, boats floats, same thing." Luffy replied, as if it's obvious.
"No, it's not!" Zoro, Leon, Chopper, and Sanji said, air slapped him.
"Logic will never work on the Grand Line." Ventus points out with a sigh when Chopper noticed Usopp is still unconscious.
"Oh no! Usopp's not breathing!" Chopper shouts with panic.
"He's not?!" Luffy exclaims. "Someone do something, mouth-to-mouth!?"
"Right~! I'll do mouth-to-mouth on Nami~!" Sanji swooned, pumping his fists in the air.
"Moron." Zoro muttered while Chopper tried using a CPR.
After a few pumps to his chest, he woke up.
"He's alive!" Chopper and Luffy cheered with relief.
"I am?" Usopp asks when he stood and next thing, he started to panic. "THEN WHERE ARE WE?! WHAT'S WITH ALL THESE CLOUDS?! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!"
"Basically, it's...it's an ocean in the sky." Nami said, scanning the area.
"No way! Seriously?!" Usopp exclaims, looking down at the clouds in disbelief.
"Nami, what's the Log Pose say now?" Ventus asks, turns to her as she looks at the Log Pose.
"The Log Pose is still pointing up." Nami answered, shows the Log Pose to Ventus and Robin.
"So, we must still be somewhere in the middle of the Cumuloregalis Cloud." Robin guessed.
"Wait, you mean we have to travel even higher?" Chopper questions.
"That's what the Log Pose says at least." Robin replied.
"It's possible, but we don't know where to go from here." Leon points out, pondering.
"Did I hear you call me a moron?" Sanji asks, getting to Zoro's face.
"I don't know, did you?" Zoro counters with a smirk.
"In the ocean..." Usopp muttered, excitedly and shirtless as he stands at the top of the wooden railing, pose. "Here I go, Cloud-Ocean Swimming Champ, Usopp!"
And with that, both Luffy and Chopper were cheering for him, which it's obvious he's planning something stupid.
"Hey, you can't swim here!" Sanji warned him. "We don't know anything about this place!"
"Watch me!" Usopp remarked, putting his goggles on as he jumps off of the ship and splashed into the clouds as he then swims down. 'It's hard to see anything, but I'm really moving. There's so little resistance. Wow! I'm just going deeper and deeper, it's so easy.'
While Usopp continued to swim deeper into the clouds without realizing what he got himself into, Luffy and Chopper couldn't help but feel jealous while watching him. Though, the reason why is because they're Devil Fruit users and it's to be expected that they can't swim.
"Oh man, it's no fair! I wish I can swim like that!" Luffy complains.
"I bet it's the fun thing ever!" Chopper adds.
Ventus couldn't help but sigh, decided to leave them be for a while.
"But still...how are we going to advance further up?" Leon asked. "It's gonna take a miracle for us to find anything besides clouds up here."
They can only nod with an agreement of Leon's statement, but Ventus, Caius, and Zoro notice something is wrong.
"Hey uh, he's...not coming back up..." Zoro told them when the rest of the crew looks down at the clouds.
"Damn, he's right! That moron must've gone too deep and fell out of the cloud!" Ventus growled in annoyance, caught his scent. "And these clouds don't have a bottom!"
It got them panicked when Ventus mentioned it.
"Idiot! Did that fool just fall out of the clouds?!" Zoro shouts.
"USOPP!?" Luffy yelled as he launched his arm deep into the clouds while try to catch Usopp.
"I just told him not to go in there!" Sanji said in annoyance.
"But he did, without thinking about the consequences." Caius states, sighed while tipping his hat.
"Luffy, stretch out as far as you can!" Robin ordered.
"I am, but I can't see where he is!" Luffy whines, turns to her in teary eyes.
"Leave that part to me." Robin said, crosses her arms. "Ojos Fleur"
While Luffy continued to stretch his arm to try to find Usopp, Robin sprouts eyes from his arm to see if she can find him. However, Robin is right now having a hard time because of Luffy stretching his arm deeper into the clouds which it made her flinch, but kept her composure. Luffy gritted his teeth after launching his arm into the cloud, trying to catch Usopp while stretch as far as he can. But once his arm is out of the clouds, Robin finally saw Usopp who's in teary eyes with his mouth agape and tremble in fear when he learns the hard way that the cloud has no bottom.
"There he is!" Robin informed him.
"What?! Where?!" Luffy demands.
"Veinte Fleur" Robin sprouts twenty arms from Luffy's arm to grab hold of Usopp and pulls him toward the rubber captains hand. "Okay, now pull him up."
"Alright, I got him!" Luffy said with a grin, pulls Usopp with a grunt, but having trouble.
"Is he happy?" Chopper asks, but only got from Luffy is a grunt while trying to pull Usopp.
"He shouldn't be that heavy." Robin states.
"Come on, Luffy!" Chopper cheered.
"Pull harder!" Nami ordered as Luffy finally pulled Usopp out of the clouds. "Yes, he's back!"
But it wasn't long after a large octopus popped out of the cloud along with the sea serpent, much to their shock.
"But he's not alone!" Luffy exclaimed.
"They're trying to eat him!" Sanji and Leon informed them as the sea serpent open its mouth wide for Usopp as Nami and Chopper screamed at the sight of them with shark-like teeth and big buggy eyes.
Zoro then ran towards the giant octopus as he leaps off of the ship, pulls out his katana.
"You're hungry! Eat this!" Zoro shouts as he slices off the tentacle.
But instead of it being cut with blood splutter, it popped like a balloon, much to their dismay. The sea serpent open its mouth wide when Sanji leaps off of the ship, flipping and delivers the heel of his foot down in the head, knocking the sea serpent.
After a short fight, everything was calm on the Going Merry and Usopp is still unconscious back on the deck.
"This air...it's so thin." Zoro said, trying to catch his breath while Luffy does the same. "It's hard to breathe."
"What do you make of this?" Sanji questions, observing the sea serpent. "It's the strangest creature I've ever seen. I'm not even sure if it's a fish."
And octopus thing was more like a big balloon." Luffy states.
"Yeah, except balloons don't have teeth." Zoro points out.
"But they're definitely animals. We saw them moving, didn't we?" Ventus told them.
"But how can there be fish appear in the clouds?" Nami inquires.
"You said it best yourself, basically it's an ocean in the sky." Robin stated.
"So, what's this big snake thing?" Chopper asks curiously.
"I don't know, a flatfish." Luffy guessed.
"I doubt that's what it called." Caius said, sweat dropped.
"And it wasn't flat until Sanji kicked it." Chopper adds while Usopp is still pale from his experience, regained his senses and lets out a scream.
"Oh, come on, Usopp, what is it this time?" Sanji asks in annoyance when he turns to him.
"There's...something in my pants!" Usopp answered, taking out what seemed to be a blue fish and flinging it away from him, continuing his breakdown.
"Usopp!" Chopper shouts with worry, went to check up on him.
"Not his day." Robin said, feeling pity for him when she notice a flopping fish as she picked it up. "Hold on, do you know what this is?"
"You mean the fish that was mentioned in Noland's logbook?" Leon guessed, earned a nod from her.
"It's one of those skyfish Noland described in his log. It sounded pretty fantastic at the time, but now that I see it, it looks like these creatures have somehow actually evolve to survive up here in the clouds." Robin explains.
"They evolved? You mean they've turned all flat and balloony and stuff?" Zoro guessed, crossed his arms.
"It's more likely reducing the density." Ventus pondered.
"Ventus' right. To make themselves even lighter, the buoyancy up here must be several times weaker than the oceans down below." Robin explains while agreeing with the young Dragoon as Luffy grabs hold of the fish.
"And they grew scales like feathers, and those weird carnivore-like mouths." Nami adds.
They smelled something good and turned to see the fish they were observing had already been cooked.
"I tried sautéing it." Sanji said bluntly.
"Delicious!" Luffy said, took a bite.
"HEY! WE WERE STILL EXAMINING THAT?!" Nami and Leon shouts with white eyes and shark-like teeth.
"What were you guys thinking?!" Nami demands, but changed her demeanor instantly when she took a bite. "Wait, this is good! I've never taste anything like that!"
"That's fast!" Leon and Caius shouts in shock.
"Well, you know me, I aim to please." Sanji said with a smirk.
Ventus look to the side and saw Chopper looking around their surroundings with a pair of binoculars. Though, Luffy suggested they should eat either the sea serpent or the octopus, but Sanji refused.
"See anything?" Ventus asked.
"Not yet, I'm still looking for the Sky Island." Chopper answered, but notice something. "Huh? What's that?"
"What's wrong?" Ventus asks again.
"I think I see a ship." Chopper replied. "Hey guys! There's a..."
Before he could finish his sentence while try to call his crew, he watches when one person blows up the ship with one strike as he let out a shriek.
"Chopper?" Ventus called him.
Chopper handed his brother figure the binoculars. He peered through them and saw why he's distressed. There was a ship a good distance away from them was destroyed. Not only that, but there's a person skating through the clouds, heading their direction.
"Everyone prepare yourselves! We got company!" Ventus shouts with a warning.
Just then, everyone else noticed something off in the distance, coming towards them.
"Damn, he's right." Sanji said with a scowl. "There's a guy running around out here."
An assailant is a tall muscular Shandia, and as such, he sports a pair of little wings on his back. He covers a various tribal tattoos across his left shoulder and left side of his face. He has very long dark brown hair is arranged in a mohawk that follows into a segmented braid that goes slightly past his waist, and he has little spherical earrings. He always goes shirtless and shoeless beyond using Skate-type Wavers. He wears a gras skirt with a rope belt decorated by three small ornaments that look like fangs or claws around his waist. He also wears an intimidating tribal mask.
"Hey, stop! What do you want?" Sanji asks.
"To destroy you!" The attacker responded bluntly.
"Oh, is that all?" Sanji asks sarcastically.
"He's mine." Zoro growled, ready to draw his sword.
"Who is? What's going on?" Luffy asks in confusion.
And just as the attacker was about to make his move, Ventus takes flight and charges after him with his lance. Ventus blocks his kick and pushes him away from the ship, making the attacker landed on the clouds.
"If you want them, you'll have to get through me first!" Ventus snarled with his dragonic tone, turning himself into a humanoid dragon.
The attacker decided to do just that as he aims his bazooka at the young Dragoon, who flies up into the sky at high speed. The Straw Hat pirates and the attacker notice Ventus is flying higher in the sky close to the sun that's shown behind him.
"Dragoon's Pride" Ventus reaches the peak and quickly descends, driving his lance through the attacker, leaving a beam of light explodes.
The attacker shouts in pain as he was sent flying right through the clouds while Ventus flew next to the Going Merry. Nami then remembered that attack, which it happened back at her homeland when the young Dragoon killed the entire Arlong Pirates, except Hachi, during his transformation and destroyed the structure with only one strike.
"You guys okay?" Ventus asks without looking at his crew.
"We should be asking you that!" Leon retorted. "I mean, you just took him down with one hit!"
"So that's the power of a Dragoon. He's able to take him down with one blow." Robin muttered in shock.
"That move he use, it's the same move that destroyed the building back in Cocoyasi Village." Nami said in shock. "I didn't think he uses that, but against the attacker."
"Yeah, but it looks like he's not finished." Sanji said when they notice the attacker is getting up.
Even though, Ventus did take him down with one strike, which the attacker somehow recovers from the attack. However, he's still heavily wounded from the attack that almost kill him, aiming the bazooka at the young Dragoon. The attacker barely holds the bazooka, but he's not backing down as he was about to fire his weapon until...
"THAT'S ENOUGH, VILLAIN!" The voice roared form above, descends down after the attacker.
The attacker looked up in time to raise his shield to defend himself from the lance of what obviously looked like an old man.
The knight is an old man of average height with long white hair, mustache, and beard. He wears a metal armor with dark red shirt, and brown pants. He also has the knight's visor always pulled up. He wears a long dark blue cloak that's yellow on the inside and at the back.
His pet bird is a large pink bird with a red polka pattern on his body. He's solid red on the side of his head, the back of his head, and on his horn-like ears. He has a tab face, with yellow beak.
He shoved the masked man away from the pirates, causing them to rise and cover him like sea water. The knight landed on the edge of the ship.
"Oh, great! Now who's this guy?!" Nami exclaimed in teary eyes when the knight rose up and turned to the Straw Hats, walked onto the deck.
"Miss, you may call me the Sky Knight." The knight told her as the bird landed behind him, crying out something like, 'pierre'.
Ventus uses his Dragon Sight to find the assailant while flying around the clouds, but there's no sign of him or any movement in the sea of clouds. He then lands on the Going Merry next to his crew.
"Anything?" Zoro asked.
"No sign of him, he's gone for now." Ventus answered, turning back into his human form.
"What's going on here? Who the heck was that guy?" Nami questioned, then turned to Ventus. "And Ventus, how come you're fine and not weak like those three?"
"Watch it!" Zoro snarled in annoyance, turns to her.
"I've done some training by jumping to higher places during my time in Burmecia and in the mountains." Ventus answered. "So, I'm use to altitude changes."
"You and Ventus saved us! Thanks a lot!" Chopper said, bowed to the knight.
"This young man is the one you should be thanked, but I'm just doing my duty." The knight points out, turns to him. "This ones on the house."
"But what we don't understand is why are we feeling so weak?" Sanji asks.
"Yeah, I had a hard time pulling Usopp." Luffy adds.
"It must be because of the thin air and why Ventus felt fine." Robin points out.
"What? Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that." Zoro said.
"You must be Blue Sea people." The knight assumed, walking the stairs to the front of the ship.
"Blue Sea people? What's that?" Nami asked. "And who are you?"
"As I said, I am the Sky Knight. And Blue Sea people is what we call those who live beneath the clouds." The knight points out.
"The Sky Knight." Chopper quietly muttered.
"I'm assuming that you've traveled from the Blue Sea?" The knight questions.
"Yeah, that's right." Luffy answered.
"Then, that explains it." The knight said as the bird walk next him, sat on the railing over them. "You've reached the White Sea, 7,000 meters in the air. The White-White Sea is where I assume you're heading is still further up above about 10,000 meters. Ordinary Blue Sea people can possibly endure it here."
"We're not exactly normal." Ventus told him when his crew are starting to get use to the air and relaxing a bit.
The Sky Knight was startled at this, then looked at Ventus which it got his eyes widen.
'Oh dear, it looks as if I've seen the Grand Dutchess of Dravania. I even remembered meeting her at first during my younger days, she's scary when she's angry and yet, calm and rather stern. I wonder?' The Sky Knight mentally thought, observing the young Dragoon. 'Hmm, I thought as much. He does have that expression like the Grand Dutchess, but he's a lot like Starblaze and his wife.'
"So Mr. Knight, why was that guy running around in the clouds attacking people?" Chopper questions.
"Yeah, and how was he able to move without moving his feet?" Leon adds.
"Now, now, not so fast. No doubt you have many questions, but first, we have matters of business to discuss." The Sky Knight told them.
"Business?" Nami repeats.
"You see, I am a soldier for hire. The White Seas can be quite dangerous. There are guerillas lurking about, like the one you've just face who would like nothing more than to turn you into food for the skyfish." The Sky Knight explains. "But if you purchase a 5 million extol one whistle, I'll protect you."
Unfortunately, none of the Straw Hats have no idea what 'extol' is, which it confuses them.
"What are you talking about?" Luffy asks when he, Zoro, and Sanji tilted their heads.
"It must be a currency we don't know about." Caius assumed.
"Now listen, that price is quite reasonable!" The Sky Knight protests. "I can't afford to lower it a single extol more. I have to earn a living, too."
"We get that, but we don't even know what 'extol' is." Leon points out.
"And what the heck is an extol?" Sanji added. "And what's this whistle thing or whatever?"
"You mean you don't know? I don't understand, you came from the submit of high west, didn't you?" The Sky Knight questioned, became startled. "Surely, you must have passed an island or two."
"I still don't know what you're talking about." Luffy grumbled.
"Let me get this straight, you're saying there's another way we could've gotten up here where we would've passed an island or two?" Nami asks surprisingly. "As in there's more than one Sky Island?"
The Sky Knight was now starting to realize they hadn't taken the path he thought and that the only other way they could've gotten here.
"What? Don't tell me you've traveled by way of-"
"We rode up on the Knock-up Stream." Robin informed him.
"My word! That monstrous current?" The Sky Knight exclaims. "So, there are still souls in the world brave enough to make the attempt."
Nami wept in realization, while Ventus face palmed his forehead. Neither of them ever think about there's another route to get to Sky Island, nor there's a safer way to get to the island because only a certain rubber captain was very eager to get here. Then again, they hadn't thought of getting the information before finding the route, either. Nami yelled something similar to her captain while shook him vigorously, Usopp was still on his back, still muttering how scary the Sky Islands were.
"Did you lose any of your crew?" The Sky Knight questions.
"No, we all made it." Luffy answered, recovering the shaking fit instantly.
"Then you can consider yourselves fortunate." The Sky Knight points out. "Had you taken a different route, one or two of you would've survived the journey, but the rest of you would've perished, that's the gamble. By way of the Knock-up Stream, either everyone dies or everyone survives, those are the only two possible outcomes. Not many are willing to accept that sort of all or nothing risk, especially these days. If nothing else, I see now that you are navigators of exceptional bravery and skill."
"So, basically, we took a better route than the one we could've taken." Leon states, then turns to Nami. "And instead of complaining about it, we should be grateful we all survived the trip up here, thanks to you."
Nami doesn't want to admit, but she knows that Leon and the Sky Knight were right.
"Yeah, well, I hate to take all the credit, but see, when things got scary and these guys were screaming and cry for their mommies." Usopp lied, getting glares from Nami and Ventus. "I was the one who stood and said-"
Nami grabbed the side of his mouth while Ventus growls with steam coming out of his mouth and his nose. Nami grabbing his face wasn't a threat, but Ventus growling like a dragon on the other hand...
"-Nothing at all!" Usopp finished his sentence.
"Thought so." Nami and Ventus said in unison.
The Sky Knight looked to the young Dragoon in complete surprise. Again, he was reminded of the Grand Dutchess of Dravania who had the same scary expression, and it got him wondering if Ventus is related to her. However, the dragon he knew can be very calm, but had a short fuse when someone made her mad. Plus, he can tell the young Dragoon had similar traits like his late parents. He decided not to question him as he dug into his pocket, pulls out the whistle.
"This is the one whistle." The Sky Knight informed them as he tossed it to the crew. "It is yours to use as you see fit. Should you find yourselves in danger, you have but to blow it and I will come to your aid. As I said, normally, I would charge you 5 million extol, but for today, please accept this as my gift to you."
"But wait, we still don't know your name!" Nami called out.
"I am Gan Fall." Gan Fall introduces himself, turns to the pirates. "And this is my partner, Pierre."
Pierre greets them with the sound of 'pierre'.
"Despite appearances, Pierre is no ordinary bird." Gan Fall points out, and proven his point as Pierre began his transformation. "Long ago, he ate of a Horse-Horse fruit and gained its powers."
It got the Straw Hats widen their eyes, watching Pierre transform.
"What? What powers?" Sanji questions.
"He's able to transform into a horse with wings." Gan Fall answered. "Namely..."
"Wow, a Pegasus!" Nami exclaims with sparkles around her.
"Yes, a Pegasus." Gan Fall replied, saddling himself on top of Pierre, who looked like a ridiculous-looking Pegasus anyone could've imagined, but still has wings on his back, tail feathers, and an ugly horse face to boot.
"Wow, that's...something." The Straw Hats muttered, feeling letdown.
"May luck be with you, brave warriors!" Gan Fall shouts as Pierre galloped away to the sky, flapping his wings as he did.
"Am I the only one who finds that bizarre?" Sanji asks in confusion, he and his crew sweat dropped.
"I don't get it, was there even a reason for it to transform?" Nami adds.
"Good question." The Straw Hats, except Robin, Ventus, Leon, and Caius answered.
"In the end, he really didn't tell us anything, did he?" Robin inquires.
"No, nothing actually." Usopp answered.
"Well, back to square one I guess." Sanji stated.
"Maybe, but the question, where do we supposed to go from here?" Leon questions, picks up the whistle.
"I know, lets call the old man back and ask him!" Luffy suggests, snatched the whistle from Leon's hand and made a motion to blow it, when Nami and Usopp stops him.
"Don't even think about it, Luffy!" Nami shouts, strangling him while grabbing his wrist. "You don't blow that whistle to ask for directions, it's supposed to be emergencies only!"
"Yeah! What if that guerilla guy who attacked us comes back again?! You want us to get blown up?!" Usopp adds, pulling his face.
"Anyway, we should get sailing." Leon suggests, crossed his arms.
"Agreed." Zoro agrees. "Let's just keep moving."
"Hey, look over there you guys!" Chopper called them when Robin looked where he was looking and saw something peculiar.
"What is that?" Robin asks.
"Some kinda cloud!" Chopper answered.
"It looks more like a waterfall." Robin states.
"Well, sounds like a start, we're going that direction." Ventus said.
With that, the Straw Hats continued their path to go higher up in the sky, starting with the cloud waterfall. As they sailed, Nami looks at the Log Pose that still points up, but notice something up ahead.
"Hey, hold up! Stop the boat here!" Nami ordered as they stop the ship.
"Hm, looks like the way is blocked." Robin pondered.
"What do we do?" Chopper asks with worry.
"Those big clouds look like they're floating on top of the ocean, sort of like icebergs." Sanji points out.
"So what? They're cloud-bergs?" Usopp inquires, crossed his arms with a serious look.
"Well, there's obviously something different about them." Nami points out with a shrug.
"And we need to find a way to get to those falls." Caius adds.
"Maybe I can grab a piece! Gum-Gum: Pistol" Luffy then stretches his arm back and throws a punch, which his attack was bounced right off. "It bounced off!"
Once his arm is back in its place, Luffy just laughed excitedly as he jumps out of the ship which Chopper grins with sparkles around him, also excitedly. Luffy lands on the top of the cloud, but bounces.
"Hey look! I'm not sinking! It's all fluffy and bouncy! It's great!" Luffy shouts with a laugh. "You guys had to try this! C'mon, it's fun!"
Though, most of the Straw Hats, except Chopper who wanted to try on bouncing the cloud, weren't amused of Luffy's childish antics.
"How does this work?" Nami asks.
"It's a mystery." Robin said bluntly as Usopp and Chopper joins in by bouncing on the cloud, causing the two and Luffy to laugh.
"Idiots." Ventus muttered in annoyance.
"Well, we can't go through those clouds and brute force won't work, either. We'll just have to find a way to get around them." Leon said.
Nami agreed to the mercenary's suggestion, which she was thinking the same thing as she turns to her crew.
"Hey, you guys see if you can spot a path a ship can take!" Nami shouts which it got Luffy's attention.
"Yeah, right!" Luffy complied.
"Luffy come check this out!" Usopp shouts as Luffy ran to him.
"Where do you think you're going?! Get back here! Quit playing around!" Nami yelled.
However, Usopp notice something at the falls as he goes through his goggles while Luffy was next him, which he also found something.
"What in the world is that?" Luffy asks when he and Usopp lands onto the ship, informing the navigator.
"A gate?" Nami asks.
"Yeah, a big one! It's up ahead underneath that waterfall thingy!" Luffy answered when Chopper accidentally falls onto Usopp, then they sail around the clouds.
"So, there's man-made structure in the middle of the clouds?" Sanji asks surprisingly.
"At this point, I'm not sure anything we'd find appear would surprise me." Robin said.
"Well, we'll see soon enough!" Luffy told her.
Chopper and Usopp are now arguing to take either left or right, but Luffy made suggestion to call Gan Fall which they stopped him by strangling him.
"Hey, we're here!" Nami called them.
While sailing, they saw a gate that says 'Heaven's Gate' which it got them shocked and surprised.
"Yep, that's a gate alright." Sanji states.
"But look, that weird cloud we saw really is some kind of waterfall." Nami points out. "It's coming down on top of those cloud-bergs."
"Hold on, am I reading this right?" Usopp asks, looking at the sign. "'Heaven's Gate', what's that all about? Sounds like a place you go when you die!?"
"If it's some kinda sick joke, this isn't funny!" Leon said with a scowl on his face.
"Yeah? Well now that you mentioned it, maybe we are dead." Zoro states with a smirk, crossed his arms. "Did you ever think about that?"
"Huh, you know, that would actually go a long way towards explaining this weird place." Sanji pondered.
"But I don't wanna be dead!?" Chopper protested with budging eyes and shark-like teeth when Luffy chuckled.
"Who cares? We're here, right?" Luffy said with a goofy grin. "Wherever this gate goes, I'm going."
"WILL YOU GET SERIOUS!?" Nami and Ventus shouts in annoyance, bonked Zoro, Sanji, Chopper, and Luffy in the head.
"What was that for?" Zoro demands with a grunt.
"If you're making a joke, it's not funny!" Nami scolds.
"So, why'd you hit me too?" Chopper questions.
"Wait, over there! There's somebody coming out!" Usopp called them, points at the figure coming out of the gate, taking pictures with a camera.
She's a short very elderly woman with an extensively wrinkled face. She has purple hair, put into two buns. She has thin arms, and wears a pink tunic, and has small white wings on her back.
"Look! She-She's got wings!" Chopper exclaims.
"Wow, that's what Sky people look like?! She's so wrinkly!" Luffy states carelessly.
"Have you heard of 'respect your elders', you dumbass?!" Leon and Caius yelled in annoyance with white eyes and shark-like teeth, bonked him in the head hard.
Though the atmosphere was silent for a few seconds when Nami breaks it.
"Um, hello..."
"I am Amazon, the Heaven's Gate Inspector." Amazon introduces herself. "State your business: Sightseeing, Warmongering, Other?"
"I, uh, I guess kinda like sightseeing." Nami replied.
"We want to go to Sky Island!" Luffy told her. "They're passed this gate, right?"
"Can we say all of the above?" Zoro suggests, bit suspicious of Amazon's question.
"It makes a little difference." Amazon answered, avoiding the question. "But if you wish to proceed, you must first pay the entrance fee of 1 billion extol per person. That is the law."
Despite the fact that the currency isn't the same, just hearing the amount made the pirates jumped.
"What?! 1 billion?!" Usopp exclaims with a gasp.
"They're really big in these extol things around here." Sanji states.
"I can't even count that high. I wonder how much that would be in berries?" Usopp questions, try to count.
"By the price, I can only take a guess that much is expensive." Leon guessed.
"And it's got to be a lot, I mean 1 billion anything!" Chopper adds. "Like Leon said, it sounds expensive."
"1 billion per person, which make 10 billion total." Robin calculated.
"Something's fishy here, 10 billion just to go through a stupid gate. I think the old bag is trying to scam us." Usopp states suspiciously when Nami covers his mouth.
"Listen, about the money, what if you know...we don't have it?" Nami asks nervously.
"You may still pass." Amazon answered.
"What?! Seriously!?" Usopp exclaims, air slapped.
'I got a feeling that something's off about that woman. It can't be good.' Caius mentally thought, feeling suspicious of her while Ventus and Leon thinks the same.
"The choice is yours, I certainly won't try to stop you." Amazon told them, leaving the Straw Hats confused. "My job description does not require me to actually guard the gate, I'm merely here to ask your intentions."
Sanji was wondering what she means, but Zoro, Ventus, Leon, and Caius can tell she still avoids the subject.
"So that settles it, we wanna go to Sky Island!" Luffy shouts.
"But we don't have the money to pay you!" Usopp adds.
"Very well, the 10 of you then?" Amazon asks.
"Yeah, except, we still need you to tell us how to get there." Luffy answered.
Though, Ventus still wanted to know about the currency which he doubts that he'll get any answers from Amazon since she'll avoid the question. Suddenly, a pair of red claws came out of the clouds and grabbed onto the Going Merry by what was left of the makeshift wings.
"What the heck is that?!" Luffy shouts.
"The White Sea's famous Express Lobster." Amazon answered.
With that, the Straw Hats suddenly zoomed higher up the cloud from the lobsters back as they grab on to something to prevent themselves from falling off the ship.
"We're moving!" Usopp shouts.
"IT'S A GIANT LOBSTER!?" Chopper yelled in panic.
"It's taking us up to the waterfall!" Zoro points out.
"Everyone, hang on tight!" Nami ordered.
"It's so fast!" Sanji said as they're now heading towards the spiral clouds that will lead them to Sky Island, but Ventus use his dragon hearing when he heard Amazon's voice.
'This is Heaven's Gate Inspector Amazon, hear me now, to the all mighty God above and his Holy Priests I bearing tidings! 10 illegal immigrants have passed into Gods land, Skypiea! Bestow upon them a Heaven's Judgment! Bestow upon them Heaven's Judgment!'
Ventus knew there's something off about Amazon, which it would explain why she avoids the question. Now, there will be new danger once they made it to Skypiea.
That's it for the 22nd chapter.