A.N I own nothing.
Happy ANZAC Day. For those not living in Australia ANZAC Day is a celbration of the day the ANZACS laded in Gallipoli during WWI. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps that was formed for the porpouse of Capturing Gallipoli . ANZAC Day falls on 25th of April as this was the day the ANZAC soilders set out for Gallipoli, in 1916 the 25th of April was officaly changed to ANZAC Day in memory of those who fought and died.
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Milky Road, Luffys Group
Luffys group continued along the Milky Road, turns out they had not fallen off the Island only down a large Sky Waterfall, though that had not stopped Sanji and Usopp form beating the rubber captain up for putting the idea in their heads.
The Little Crow continued along the Cloud river and after a while the scenery changed, it was still a large forest but large floating white spheres started to fill the area. They were floating above, below and around the track, they were everywhere and spread out into the forest, they seemed to stretch on and on for miles.
"What do you think these are?" Usopp asked.
"Maybe there the balls," Luffy said and he reached for one.
"Whatever they are don't touch them, they could be booby trapped or something," Sanji advised.
But it was too late Luffy and Usopp were already playing with one of the spheres, which Luffy had reeled in. Suddenly the ball pooped like a balloon and a Sky-Shark came out.
"GAH!" Usopp yelled, swiftly dodging the incoming Sky-shark-ball-of-doom.
"WHAT THE HELL!" Sanji shouted in surprise,
Luffy punched the shark away before it could do any damage to the boat or the crew.
"There was a shark inside the ball…" Usopp said in shock and panic.
"How did it get in there?" Sanji asked.
"Maybe someone threw the ball at it and caught it….hey do you think they catch monsters in balls up here?" Luffy asked excitedly.
"And do what with them?" Usopp asked.
"Raise them, battle with them…so on an adventure with a monsters in balls sounds like fun," Luffy said. (1)
"That is the most stupid thing I have ever herd," Sanji claimed.
"It not that stupid," Luffy pouted.
"Speaking of monster balls, there's another one!" Usopp yelled, pointing in front of the waver.
Sanji moved to kick the ball away, but the second his foot made contact, the ball exploded in a fiery blaze.
Amazingly no-one was seriously hurt in the explosion.
"What the hell? There was no monster in this one?" Sanji asked.
Before any one could answer the group heard an odd laugh from their right, they looked and saw an odd man sitting on one of the spheres.
He was a round-shaped man with fair skin and long, dark red hair. He wore a white, full-body jumpsuit, which has a vertical line of golden rings that run from front to back, an orange hat, gloves and shoes. He also had large, yellow sunglasses that completely obscure his eyes and covered most of his face along white wings on his back.
"Silly children! These are surprise clouds, you never know what's going to come out of them!" the man said.
The Straw-Hats could only sit and stare at him for a few moments.
"Wha…" was all Luffy could manage.
"It's a human dumpling…" Sanji elaborated, looking just as confused as the others.
"My Name I Satori, I'm so glad you chose to come into my ordeal," Satori introduced happily.
"Your ordeal…wait your one of the priests?" Usopp asked in surprise.
"Why yes, and this is my ordeal, the Ordeal of Balls, survival rate is 10%," Satori claimed.
"If your one of the priests where is Nami-swan?" Sanji demanded.
"Hmm you mean the other sacrifices? There not in here," Satori claimed.
"But there safe right?" Usopp asked.
"Don't know, but they should be at the Alter…not that it really matters," Satori claimed.
"Why not? Can't we get to the Alter from here?" Luffy asked.
"Oh you can, the Milky Road splits in four and each route leads to a different trail, but no matter what route you take the result will be the same," Satori claimed.
"Meaning what?" Sanji asked.
"Meaning you're going to die here and once you do the scarifies will also die," Satori said seriously.
He never got a response as Satori jumped off the ball and charged towards the pirates, Luffy threw a punch but Satori avoided with ease.
"Predicable," Satori commented.
He then stopped right in front of Luffy and brought his hand up point-blank to Luffy's face.
What happened next, nobody at the time knew. After a quick flash of light and an odd sound, both of which seemed to emanate from Satori's hand and Luffy suddenly went flying straight off the Waver before crashing into a tree, his eyes went white and blood dripped from his mouth as he hit.
"Luffy!" Usopp and Sanji yelled they watched the captain fall to the forest floor.
"Ha ha one down two to go," Satori laughed happily.
Sanji immediately responded by sending a kick to Satori but like with Luffy the round priest avoided it with ease, Usopp started to fire shots form his slingshot but Satori just dodged them skilfully.
"You'll never be able to hit me like that," Satori boasted.
Usopp continued to fire at Satori who now looked like he was dancing as he dodged the incoming fire, even though it was close range none of Usopp attacks were landing. Suddenly the side of a boot connected with his face, launching the priest off the waver.
Satori recovered quickly landing on one of his cloud spheres.
"Opps I lost focus, for a second" the priest cursed.
"Nice one Sanji," Usopp praised.
Satori decided to change tactic, he began launching dozens of the spheres at Usopp and Sanji who were still on the Waver.
Suddenly Usopp had got a brilliant idea, he reached into his pouch and pulled out a glass bottle and threw it into the incoming spheres.
"Usopp Flaming Star!" Usopp cried out as he shit the bottles with one of his pellets.
Satori stopped throwing spheres and jumped back as a massive explosion engulfed the incoming spears and the contents' fell harmlessly to the ground.
"Whoa…nice, how did you know that would work?" Sanji asked.
"Well everything here is made of clouds right, and Clouds are mostly water vapour so if you apply intense heat they evaporate," Usopp said confidently.
Back on the forest floor, Luffy was slowly recovering; he looked up to see Satori's fearsome attacking strategy being ploughed through simply because of Usopps resourcefulness. Though Luffy new that Usopp would eventually run out of ammo or one of the cloud balls would hit the boat.
Sanji was trying to help but the problem was Satori had enough skill to manoeuvre even while airborne, Sanjis attack never hit and Usopp was busy popping the spheres.
Luffy lunged himself back up at Satori using the trees to propel himself like a rocket, Satori was too focused on Usopp and Sanji that he did not notice Luffy until the Captain crashed into him. Satori was thrown back and crashed into a Surprise Cloud but it was a dud as potted Posies came out and fell to the ground.
Satori looked down at the shattered pot.
"Oh no, not again," He said.
The priests then looked at Luffy who had managed to get back on the Little Crow.
"Hey I'm back," Luffy announced.
"That's gre….LOOK OUT!" Sanji screamed.
Luffy tuned and looked at Satori in horror as he suddenly appeared behind him with his arm raised. The same noise and bright light flashed and Luffy Sanji and Usopp were all sent flying off the small boat and down to the ground where they remained motionless.
Satori landed on the boat and pressed the Accelerator and the Little Crow sped up, he jumped off and looked down to the pirates as they were slowly struggling to get up.
"Now what will you do?" Satori asked "Your boats getting away without it you can never leave this forest or get to the scarifies,"
Satori watched as the pirates struggled to get up they looked up and glared at the priest but they were also looking for their boat, they could not see it from the forest floor.
"Damn this guy's annoying," Sanji commented.
"What's annoying is these Surprise balls," Usopp said.
"You guys focus on finding the boat, I'll handle the ball man," Luffy said.
Sanji and Usopp nodded and they ran off further into the forest, Luffy lunched himself a Satori again and let lose a series of attacks but each time the priest moved away before the attack could land.
"You'll never hit me like that," Satori laughed "I can predict your every move,"
"Predict this," Luffy shot back "Gomu-Gomu Gatling,"
Luffy let his fists fly and they hit every single ball in the area sending them flying in random directions, those balls hit others and the cycle continued until thousands of balls were flying through the forest. It should have been impossible to predict where they would fly but Satori easily dodged them.
The Straw Hats were not so lucky, Sanji got attacked by balls filled with spears, giant crabs a few monsters and spinning blades. Four balls landed near Usopp and a singing quartet of birds came out, after they're performance they beat Usopp up. Luffy however got hit by a ball with fire which ignited his pants and he ran around trying to put it out.
Satori watched the pirates in amusement. His amusement increased when Luffy somehow wound up swinging through the forest and completely forgetting about the battle to have some fun, then Usopp joined in when he attempted to get back to the boat using a grappling hook belt that did not release.
Sanji was getting annoyed; he looked over to Satori and saw that the priest was rolling on his back laughing.
"Hey priest guy," Sanji said.
Satori stopped laughing and looked at Sanji.
"Can you put this trial on hold for a minute? I need a word with my friends," Sanji said darkly.
Satori nodded and Sanji pulled both Usopp and Luffy off their respective vines and beat them up.
"From now on you two do everything I say, got it?" Sanji ordered.
"Ybed bere thorry(Yes we're Sorry)" Luffy and Usopp said through there swollen faces.
"Right here's the plan; forget about the boat for now. We need to take this dumpling out first," Sanji said.
"But how, he can predict our moves," Usopp said.
"We could try to be unpredictable," Luffy offered.
That earned him another hit from Sanji.
"Idiot this is serious," Sanji scolded.
"Now where's the fun in that?" Satori asked as he appeared behind them.
He blasted the group with his light attack and the pirated were blown away.
"Weather your serious or not the result will be the same. You won't be leaving this forest alive," Satori claimed
Satori looked down at the injured pirates, he could tell that they were running out of energy and the injuries were taking starting to take their toll on they're bodies.
"This has been fun but it's time for you to die, but since I'm in a generous mood I'll send you out with a bang," Satori said.
He jumped onto a surprise ball and pulled out a long candy cane, he waved it around and around Chinese dragon head flew appeared from the ball and it attracted other balls forming a body.
"I should warn you that all the balls in this dragon are filled with Gunpowder and highly flammable substances," Satori claimed.
"Wait we can still make it out," Usopp said.
"No you can't, your boat is nearing the end of the forest and unless you can fly you will never get out," Satori claimed. He then waved the candy cane and the surprise dragon flew towards the pirets.
Usopp and Luffy ran as they were chased down by the cloud dragon, they had to jump out of the way but they landed on a cloud ball that blew up. Satori continued to chase Luffy and Usopp until the two went off in separate directions.
Usopp took the opportunity to leave and find the boat while the dragon chased Luffy and the rubber captain headed for a tree.
"Planning to escape by climbing a tree…it won't work," Satori said.
Luffy ignored him and stretched up the tree anyway, but the dragon followed, as it got closer Luffy was forced to let go but Satori maneuvererd the dragon underneath him
"Boom," Satori grinned.
Luffy panicked as he had no desire to be blown up but before he landed on the exploding surprise balls he grabbed onto something that left him hanging just above it.
"Huh…what's this?" Luffy asked.
He looked up and saw that he was hanging from a very thin but strong rope, he could not see it from before but now it was clear as day. Luffy traced the rope back to Satori's cane.
"Oh so this is how you're controlling the dragon," Luffy smiled.
"Get off…Let go this instant," Satori demanded.
"So if I do this…" Luffy said and he snapped the rope holding one side in each hand "You can't control it anymore,"
"Why you…COME HERE! I'LL TEACH YOU NOT TO BEARK MY TOYS!" Satori yelled.
He pulled the cane back and Luffy was pulled up to Satori, however he was still holding onto the rope that had the dragons head. Satori realised this too late and Luffy brought the exploding Dragon straight to the priest.
"NNNOOOOOO!" Satori screamed.
BOOM!
A loud explosion covered the area, when the smoke and dust cleared Satori was on another surprise ball panting. He was injured and his clothes were dirty from the explosion.
"That was close…almost unavoidable," Satori said.
"I know, good thing your fast," a familiar voice said.
Satori looked behind him to see that Luffy was on his back and holding onto the priests wings.
"You're still alive?!" Satori panicked.
Luffy grinned and he used his Rubber limbs to restrain Satori.
"Let me go…let me go right now," Satori cried.
"Luffy don't let him go, I need to tenderize the meat," Sanji said, he was sitting on another surprise ball that was floating not far from Satori.
"Hey Sanji, your still alive," Luffy said happily.
"SHUT UP, I ALMOST DIED IN THAT EXPLOSION!" Sanji yelled angrily.
He then turned his attention to Satori.
"You know you've got some nerve, kidnapping our friends and making that sweet little angel cry," Sanji said seriously as he lit his cigarette.
Satori started to panic and he tried to get out of Luffys grip but the rubber captain just held on.
"You keep going on about your ordeals and quite frankly I don't give a crap. However there are two very delicate ladies waiting for me to save them so since you like ordeals so much I'm going to put you through my ordeal…the Ordeal of Love," Sanji said dangerously.
He stood up and jumped into the air.
"No…Noo stop that will hurt…" Satori begged an e watched Sanji summersault through the air gaining momentum.
"You it's really cool how you can predict our moves," Luffy said "But that means nothing if you can't doge,"
"NOOOOOOO!" Satori cried as Sanji brought his foot down on Satori's head, taking the priest out once and for all.
Satori fell to the forest floor and the force of impact left him in a rather large creator.
"Now…let's get out of here," Sanji said as he took a puff from his cigarette.
Sacrificial Alter, Going Merry
Chopper and Connor stared at Shuna in terror, Chopper still had the whistle in his mouth and every breath he realised made caused it to make a noise; though it was not as loud or as strong as the one before.
Shuna however seemed disappointed that there were only two of them on the Alter. Connor got over his initial shock.
"W…Who are you?" Connor asked.
"I'm Shuna, a priest of Enel…and it is time to offer your lives to Enel," Shuna introduced.
Shuna grabbed his lance and jabbed at the spot where Chopper was standing, the frightened doctor jumped back as the lace embedded itself in the ground. Shuna moved the lance towards them and once he removed it the trail he had left caught on fire.
"Wha….the stone is burning?" Connor asked in surprise, stone was supposed not burn.
Shuna looked even more disappointed.
"Why did you doge? Nothing can save you?" He asked "Fuza….incinerate him,"
Before either Connor or Chopper aske who Fuza was the bird opened it mouth and breathed a stream of fire at them. Chopper panicked and was frozen in place; The heat of the flames could be felt on the ship as the ropes caught fire.
"Oh no!" Connor yelled and he started to attempt to put the fire out.
Chopper who had managed to avoid the fire stream by diving onto the stone stairs saw the Merry on fire; he ran across in front of the priest forgetting about him as his only concern was the Merry.
"Oh…you're going to grow," Shuna stated.
Chopper hesitated for a brief second wondering how Shuna knew about his transforming ability and how the priest knew what he was thinking. Chopper shifted into his human form and climbed on the Merry; he tore the ropes off and stamped out the fire.
Connor looked up at the mast worryingly as it tilted sightly when chopper ripped the robes off.
"Oi why are you worrying about your ship? It's not like it'll be carrying anyone anymore," Shauna said coldly.
"What the hell do you know?!" Connor demanded angrily.
"You and your Nakama can not be saved," Shauna claimed "You will all die,"
"Stop it! Don't say such things," Chopper cried.
Shuna responded by jumping off Fuza and launching himself at Chopper, Chopper dogged the lance strike by tuning back into his hybrid form and Shuna kicked him; sending him bouncing across the deck.
"Chopper!" Connor cried out in worry.
Chopper crashed into the mast and Shuna sent a stream of fire at it, thankfully Chopper was able to get out of the way but the mast burst into flames.
"Stop attacking the ship…anything but the ship," Chopper begged.
Chopper and Connor quickly tried to put the fire out bit it was too difficult and it was clear that if the fire spread the entire ship would burn. Chopper grabbed the mast and in an impressive display of strength he ripped it off and threw it into the lake.
Shuna decided to grant the request; instead of targeting the ship again he lunged at Connor with his lance. Connor saw him coming and drew his sword, he parried the strike. Shunas eyes went wide as he had not foreseen Connors sudden defence.
'What?' Shuna thought 'how did he do that?'
Shuna recovered from his confusion and punched Connor sending him fling into the base of the Merry's figure head.
"Connor!" Chopper cried.
Shuna lunged at Connor again and the boy managed to get out of the way of the lance but the wood on the railing started to burn.
"No don't hurt him," Chopper said as Shuna withdrew his lance and another section of the ship caught on fire.
Chopper and Connor scrambled to put it out and Luffys special seat was saved.
"Stop it…Stop destroying our home!" Connor cried.
"Home?" Shuna asked.
"They left me in charge of the ship…I'm supposed to look after it," Chopper claimed.
"Is that so…what annoying little children you are," Shuna mocked "don't bun my ship…doesn't hurt my friends, I don't want to die. Such selfish brats,"
Shuna continued to attack both Chopper and Connor, however every strike they avoided the Merry caught on fire. A few times Connor was able to parry the blows but that resulted in Shuna either punching him or kicking him away.
The priest was dumbfounded that he could not predict the boy's movements; in fact he couldn't sense him at all. Thankfully for the priest he was far more experienced in battle than Connor so not being able to predict his movements was not that great of a loss.
Connor attempted to stab the priest but Shuna jumped backwards and landed on the top deck railing, he looked down at the two.
"Did you two know that this was a Sacrificial Alter?" the priest suddenly asked.
The question caught the two pirates by surprise.
"Y…Yes," Chopper answered.
"Hmm…interesting, you knew and yet your Nakama still left," Shuna mused.
"What do you mean by that?" Connor asked.
"There are four areas governed by us four priests, when someone enters one of these areas the other three priests cannot get involved with them…however this part of the forest is a Free Area and any priest can come and go and do as they like," Shuna explained.
"However these rules run under the assumption that those in the Ordeals die. Once your Nakama die those at the Sacrificial Alter become free targets for the priest who gets here first,"
Connor and Chopper stared at Shuna in shock; they both knew that Luffy and the others were still alive as Connor would have told Chopper if anything had happened to Luffy and the others as he was connected to them.
"Luffys not dead," Connor declared.
"You are correct; none of your Nakama have died. Right now they are fighting to get here," Shuna agreed.
"If they're still alive and they get here…can we leave?" Chopper asked.
"If you can escape yes," Shuna answered.
"Wait…so why did you come here if you're not allowed to kill us until our Nakama are dead? Connor asked.
"Because those rules only apply if the scarifies stay put…the rules change under certain circumstances," Shauna claimed.
"Like what?" Chopper asked.
"Like if any of the sacrifices uses a vine to swing over the lake and escape into the forest," Shuna claimed.
Chopper and Connors jaws dropped, Zoro had broken the rules.
"S…S…So what are the new rules?" Connor asked nervously.
"There fairly simple…all criminals weather they be sacrifices or those facing the Ordeals must be hunted down and killed without mercy," Shuna said "Now…offer me your lives so I may find and kill the others,"
Chopper and Connor stared at the priest in fear as he got ready to strike again, however something caught the priest's attention as Gan Fall's finally arrived and engaged the priest in battle.
"My apologises for the wait," Gan Fall said.
"K…K…Knight of the Sky!" Chopper yelled out happily.
"He actually came," Connor said with relief.
Chopper shifted back into his hybrid form and jumped off the ship to watch the fight, Connor climbed onto the ships railing and watched as well. Gan Fall and Shuna both had winged mounts so the battle was an Ariel one.
They clashed a few times in the sky and each pulled off some very tricky flying maneuverers to avoid the others strikes. Gan Fall got the upper hand when He and Pierre did a loop de loop over Shuna and Fuza and Gan Fall landed on the other birds back.
Shunas eyes went wide as his mantra was showed him what was about to happen and a second later both fighters were blasted of Fuza, Pierre caught Gan Fall but Shuna fell towards the lake and was saved by Fuza at the last second.
Both birds regained their flight momentum and the fight started again. On the Altair Chopper was cheering loudly for Gan Fall and Connor was left speechless by the sheer skill of each combatant and the strength of their flying mounts.
"We need one more run Pierre…go and don't hold back," Gan Fall told his friend.
Shuna having recovered somewhat from the last attack was pissed.
"You fool," He growled "You came here…knowing that you were a criminal and that us priests would be on alert,"
"Of course, this is a service after all," Gan Fall responded.
"Hph you're a bigger fool then Enel thought, we don't need to Gods. You will feel my anger towards irritating and selfish fools…I DECLARE THE ORDEL OF STRING!" Shuna yelled out.
The fight resumed and both Shuna and Gan Fall fought harder and faster than before, Connor and Chopper could not keep up with their movements they continued to watch for a few more minutes and Gan Fall started to get the upper hand but suddenly he and Pierre stopped in mid-air in front of the Alter.
"What?" Gan Fall gasped.
"Got you know," Shuna grinned.
"What's going on…how can they just be stuck in bid mid-air?" Connor asked.
Connor switched to his second sight and he saw that Pierre and Gan Fall were tangled up in what looked like very very thin yet strong invisible sting. He looked around the lake and saw that the entire sky above the lake was covered in it.
"W…W…Where did that come from?" Connor gasped.
"What?" Chopper asked looking up at Connor.
"There's these thin web like strings all around the area…Gan Falls caught in it!" Connor yelled.
"WHAT!?"Chopper panicked, he scanned the sky but did not see anything.
Gan Fall had also herd this and started to struggle to get out of the trap but it seemed to make it worse. He had herd of the Ordeal of String and it was invisible to the naked eye. He would have been fascinated and impressed that Connor could see the ordeal if Shuna was no heading his direction in an attack run.
Chopper and Connor watched in horror as Shuna ran Gan Fall through with his flaming lace, Connor saw the string around Gan Fall burn away as the knight fell into the lake. Shuna then hovered behind Pierre and he struck the bird and Pierre fell into the lake as well.
'So that's why he has a fiery weapon…he uses it keep himself from being entangled,' Connor realised and his eyes went back to their normal colour.
"Now where were we…what the?" Shuna asked tuning his attention back to the Atler. He was surprised to see Chopper diving into the lake.
"CHOPPER DON'T!" Connor cried out.
"Fool, he's a Zoan type he can't swim," Shuna stated.
Chopper landed in the lake with a splash and did not resurface again. Shuna looked at Connor.
"What will you do? Will you take your own life too?" Shuna asked.
Connor looked at the priest and then down at the lake, he made his decision.
"This is going to hurt so much," Connor said to himself and he jumped of the Merry and dived into the lake.
Shuna hovered there for a moment and then sighed.
"This is why I hate weaklings…Well it doesn't really matter to me weather I kill them or they get eaten, ether way their dead. Come Fuza, let's go see if the others fugitives have been hunted down yet," Shuna said.
Fuza squawked and then flew off into the forest.
(1) Luffy just described the whole concept of Pokemon. If you did not get the Pokemon refrence than you had a very sad childhood.