Voyage Of The Cavalier Chapter 9: A Dreamless Town, an one piece fanfic

Here's the next chapter, I hope you'll enjoy it.

WeAreTheWord - Thank you! I can assure you that if Cavalier's around then there's always going to be some sort of shenanigans going on.

JimmySGO - Thanks so much!

Djinn - Thank you so much! The world of One Piece is so vast and expansive that I just had to include it in the previous chapter. I might do it more often, because it shows how different actions may have consequences across the world..and because it's fun. Skypiea is one of my favourite sagas so I'm looking forward to writing it.

Guest - That's good to hear. It was nice to see Cavalier settling down with his new crew. He may be very innocent, but I'm sure he was soon understand the beauty of women otherwise how will he have the massive family that he wants. Let's say that… a certain event involving Nami on Thriller Bark would clue him in.

I liked the Warlord POV is good as well. It really ties his character into the story and shows how everybody views him. Also Baby 5 is one of my favourite characters so, of course, I have to involve her. Thanks for reading.

wellingtonlucas282 - No problem, here's the next chapter.

Foxfire573 - Sí, estoy de acuerdo. Cavalier es un personaje en el que realmente pensé mucho. One Piece puede ser muy serio a veces y cada personaje tiene un lado despiadado. Algunos más evidentes que otros. Sin embargo, Cavalier es un caso especial porque es una persona genuinamente agradable que, a pesar de su terrible vida hasta que se rompió la máscara, solo quiere ser amigo de todos sin importar quiénes sean. No tiene segundas intenciones y ve lo mejor en las personas y las cosas. Por lo tanto, que todo el mundo lo vea como alguien malicioso es realmente un reflejo de lo inseguros y paranoicos que son. No creen que sea una buena persona, porque no creen que exista tal cosa.

¡Jaja! Sí, el Puño Inverso de la Felicidad de Cavalier será realmente una fuerza a tener en cuenta. Me imagino que es como el Ninjutsu del harén inverso de Naruto.

No te preocupes, Edgar no haría eso... Eso espero. Sigo muy de cerca su interacción.

Gracias por leer.

Eavise - Oh, good question! The ship would get crowded very quickly if they came along so I would think that Cavalier would write a letter to them everyday without fail. He would tell them about his day, what he's done, how much he loves them and maybe even a drawing he made for them or a flower or a seashell he really liked. He would cherish any letters he would receive back.

Guest - Thanks so much. A lot of One Piece characters are unique in their own way so it felt right to do the same for Cavalier. I hope to have more chapters like the previous where he interacts with different people.

Guest - Yeah, I agree. It's sad, really. Usually, I would have ignored what they had to say, but they used really offensive language and I thought it was best to address it.

FanSuperAnime - Thanks so much and I hope you had a nice Christmas as well. Gosh, has it really been that long?

Phoenix Keyblade - Aww, thank you :)

Guest - Thanks. I was originally going to let him be the helmsmen, but I couldn't do that to Jinbei. Yeah, he really doesn't get much sleep. He sleeps five minutes after Zoro goes to sleep and wakes up five minutes before Sanji wakes up. It's almost as if he doesn't want to sleep.

joseskywalker02 - No problem at all. You pretty much hit the nail on the head in terms of Cavalier's personality. His real side has been shut away for sixteen years so it's only natural that he's curious about most things and loves everything from the most mundane things. This is also true in regards to babies; I feel as if that's something Robin and Nami would have to explain to him about someday. Even then, I'm sure he'll do anything to provide for his family no matter what.

Doflamingo's actions are pretty much expected and now with Big Mom and Kaido getting word of him, it will only be a matter of time before things turn from bad to worse. Not only them, but I'm sure Whitebeard and Shanks will be informed as well. I wonder what their reactions will be.

I will think about the sword. It'll be more likely that he'll name it something rather than get a new one.

Thanks for reading.

Ramen Sensei - RS - No problem, I'm glad that you enjoyed it. I hoped you'll enjoy this chapter just as much.

TheGreatBubbaJ - Thank you!

NullSilver2005 - Thank you so much, I'm glad that you enjoy Cavalier. To answer your question, yes he can steal the masks, but if he does that then the wearers would go into shock and die quickly just like what happened to him. Since the wearer's body is so devoted to the mask then it's like switching off a life support machine and Cavalier wants everybody to be free just like him.

I see your point about Raven's abilities, but I like it. A common theme in One Piece are characters who have so much power that they are practically indestructible and so a character who is the personification of time itself is a perfect example. It's quite terrifying if you think about it. Besides, we don't know much about Raven at the moment. Who knows what will happen. Thanks for reading.

ShadowSsP - I can't wait as well. I already have the chapter titles ready all the way to chapter 30! Nami, Robin is already on the list, but they're not the only waifus in One Piece. Cavalier is going to have a massive family at the end of this. Thanks for reading.

Thank you so much for the positive responses. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter :)

Chapter 9: A Dreamless Town

Upper Deck, Going Merry

"Right, let's try this one last time," Usopp said as he picked up an apple off the table and showed it to Cavalier, "What is this?"

"It's an apple," he replied.

"No, try again. What is this?"

"It's…err…it's an apple."

"Close. Come on, you can do this. Say that it's a banana."

"I-I don't think I can, Usopp," he stammered as he began to sweat nervously.

"Yes, you can. I believe in you. Say that it's a banana!"

"But it's not a-"

"I know, but try!"

Cavalier gulped as his breathing became laboured; his face was turning a bright shade of scarlet and he began to tremble, "It's..err…it's…a ba…ba…ba-"

POOF! THUMP!

That was the sound of Cavalier's head bursting bright red and steam poured out of his ears and mouth; his eyes turned into swirls and he fell off his seat and onto the deck; too overwhelmed by the thought of calling an apple a banana.

Usopp tutted as he looked down at the unconscious Cavalier, "Not again," he sighed.

It had been six days since Cavalier had joined the Straw Hats and, so far, it had been smooth sailing…well, most of the time. They did run into a few storms and Sea Kings, but they were dealt with very easily. Other than that, they had stopped at an island completely inhabited by goats, accidentally sailed into a fleet of Marine battleships and visited a festival where Cavalier saw his first firework display. With each passing day, Cavalier thanked fate that he made the right choice and joined the crew; although he hadn't found his home or his family yet, he was still enjoying himself. He had now settled into his new role as a Watchman; every morning he would wake up 4.55 am and climb up the crow's nest (which he called his Watchman spot since he wasn't too fond of crows or nests) study the seascape around him before climbing down in time for breakfast. He would do the same just before and after lunch and then once more as everybody goes to sleep; only climbing down and sleeping once Zoro (who was usally the last to stay awake if Robin's not studying) is asleep. Other then that, he was just having as much fun as possible.

Nami stepped out of fhe cabin and looked over to see Usopp taking a bite out of the apple while Cavalier was still knocked out on the deck and gave a weary sigh.

"Lying practise again?" she questioned as she walked over, "Really Usopp? It's like eighth time this happened. Stop training him to lie."

"Ninth now," Usopp said as he swalloed the chunk of apple, "Thought we had a break through today. He needs to know how to lie, Nami. He's far too innocent and pure hearted for the Grand Line. I've never seen anyone so bad at lying…well, other than Luffy. Except, he makes Luffy look like a professional poker player."

Nami shurgged, "Some people are just not cut out for deceiving others. Unlike yours truly."

"And me."

"Yeah…sure," she snarked, earning an annoyed look from him.

"Trust me, Nami. There's going to be a time when he needs to lie to stop all of us from getting killed. I know it!" he declared, making her roll her eyes at him.

Suddenly Cavalier sat striaght up and smiled cheerily, making Nami and Usopp jump in fright. His face had turned back to its normal colour and his eyes had stopped swirling around in their sockets; a clear sign of his recovery.

"Hello Nami. When did you get here?" he asked happily before he looked down to see he was on he deck, "Oh, I passed out again, huh? That's a shame. Should we start practising again, Usopp?"

"Nah, let's leave if for the day. We'll start again tomorrow."

"Okay," he chirped as he got back onto his feet and brushed himself off, "I think I'm getting better at this lying thing."

"If you say so," Nami sighed as she gently patted him on the back.

Cavalier, not detecting the sarcasm, smiled proudly as he turned back to Usopp, "Can you show me how to do it again?"

"Sure," he said as he showed him the apple, "This is an elephant."

He gave a gentle gasp and held his hands over his mouth, "Amazing. An elephant isn't even a fruit. I would have never have thought of that in a million years," he said as his eyes sparkled in delight.

'He's so sweet,' Nani and Usopp collectively thought.

"Hey Cavvy! Have you seen anything interesting yet?"

They looked around to see Luffy lying lazily on the side of the ship with his arms and legs dangling on either side of it. His bored face was smushed against the wood surface and his straw hat perched on the back of his head to fight off the bright sun rays.

"Yep!" Cavalier chirped, "At 8:32, I saw a school of dolphins. At 8:40, I saw a large fish. At 8:47, I saw five seagulls. At 9:12, I saw a cloud that's shaped like a seagull. At 9:23, I saw a seagull that's shaped like a cloud…"

"I meant, have you seen any islands," Luffy moaned as he stuck his tongue out, "or ships, or things I can eat."

"Oh…no."

Luffy groaned in irritation, "Aw! I'm so bored! It's been two days and there's nothing to do."

"Ah, I'm sorry captain," Cavalier said genuinly before Nami placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Don't be. He gets like this sometimes," she sighed as Usopp nodded in agreement, "Why don't you go fish or something if you're bored. Or sleep somewhere."

Luffy perked up at that, "Hey, great idea! Cavvy, use your power to take fish from the water. I bet we can get a lot."

Cavalier shook his head, "Sorry, I can't steal living things. If they were in a container, maybe I can. But it's a little tricky to pull off."

The captain slumped down again, "Aw, that's sucks. Nami, when do we get to the next island?"

Nami hummed and looked at her Log Post and tapped the glass a couple of times, "The next one should be an Autumn island. But I can't tell how long that will be. The Log Post has been acting strangely today."

"Strangely how, if I may ask?" asked Robin as she sat on her usual deck chair not too far away. This was the first time today she looked away from her book.

Nami raised her wrist up to show that the needle inside the Log Post was wagging left and right, "It's been doing this all morning. It's like it can't make it's mind up where to go," she sighed, "The only option is to continue and hopefully it'll pick a direction."

At that, the cabin door opened up to reveal Sanji and Chopper, in his muscular form, carrying out several dishes of paella and serve it on the table they had on the deck.

"Alright, lunch's ready," Sanji told them.

"Yay!" Luffy cried out his leapt off the side and ran to his meal.

"Looks like he's happy now," Usopp murmmured.

They all sat down to tuck into their meals. Cavalier sat beside Robin and waited pateintly for Sanji to place a small dish, no bigger than a tea saucer, of rice, two prawns and some vegetables in front of him.

"Here you go. Don't eat it all at once like Luffy. Give yourself time to digest," he told him before he looked over his shoulder at the cabin, "Hey, moss head, where are you!?"

"I'm coming," Zoro yawned as he exited the cabin, "Keep you're hair on."

Cavalier hummed contently at the meal before him and grabbed a fork to begin eating when he felt something fell onto his hat.

Tap!

He raised his eyebrows curiously and reached up to pick the thing that was trapped in the brim of his hat and inspected it in his gloved hand. It was a chip of old wood about the size of his fingernail. He blinked at it before looking up to see where it had come from; once he did, he gave a small hum.

"Err…chaps…"

"Hey, can somebody past the mustard."

"Why would I being mustard out? Who eats paella with mustard?"

"…I'm sorry that I have to interupt…"

"Hey, Luffy slow down. You're going to choke."

"No, I'm- ack! Cof! Hack!"

"See."

"Wah! He's choking on the fork!"

Gulp!

"Oh…never mind he ate the fork."

"Yummy!"

"Hey, don't eat my cutlery!"

"…I really think this is important."

Finally, Usopp looked at him and gave him a questioning look, "What's so important, Cav?"

Cavalier pointed upwards, "Oh, I just wanted to let you chaps know that there's a giant galleon falling from the sky that's about to land on us."

Usopp blinked in confusion before he laughed a little, "Ha! Nice lie. And pretty creative as well," he said as he looked up, "Who would ever believe that there's a- GALLEON FALLING FROM SKY THAT'S ABOUT TO LAND ON US!" he yelled in sheer terror.

At his cry, the rest of the crew finally noticed the rain of debris falling around them before they snapped their heads up. Falling from the sky, even though it seemed impossible, was a galleon at least four times the size of the Going Merry. It fell upside down, with its main mast snapped in half, its sail torn and rotted and its hull full of holes large enough to walk through. It's figurehead, resembling a dragon with sharp teeth, was partially rotted away and its paint had long disappeared

They barely had time to grab onto something as soon as it fell into sea beside them; the shock of it had caused its water to ripple and then burst into a massive wave that flung the Merry as if it was a toy. Cavalier leapt and held onto the railing of the upper deck with one arm before he reached out and grabbed Chopper, who was flying past him, and held onto him tightly. He watched with gritted teeth as the rest of the crew held on to whatever they could while Luffy stretched his arms around the mast and Robin made several arms appear from the deck and grab onto her legs. They did their best to avoid the debris raining on them as they were spun out of control, Cavalier used his power to grab as many as planks of dark, rotton wood from crashing into them, but it was hard to do when he was still holding onto Chopper.

"We need to take control or else we're going to capsize!" Sanji yelled out.

"We can't!" Nami shouted, "There's no way we can get sail out of this now!"

"We just have to hold on for a little while longer!" Cavalier called out, "We need to wait it out."

Luckily, they didn't capsize or get smashed to pieces. The tides calmed down and the Merry quickly levelled out and floated on the water's surface, causing them to sigh in relief. Cavalier unravelled himself from the railing before he gently placed Chopper down on the deck. He noticed how much the reindeer's little legs was shaking and did his best to support him.

"You feeling alright?" he asked.

"N-n-n-n-n-o-o-o," he stammered in horror.

Cavalier hummed in concern before he picked him up again and placed him ontop of his hat safely.

"Rest there for a bit. I'll carry you."

"T-t-t-th-th-th-thanks-s-s-s," he stuttered back as Cavalier joined the others.

"That's so weird," a newly recovered Sanji hummed as he looked up into the sky, "Where did that come from?"

"Why did it fall from the sky?" Luffy said curisoly.

"There isn't anywhere it can fall from," Zoro pointed.

"Oh, is this not a normal thing?"

"What massive ships falling from the sky randomly? Of course, not," Usopp told Cavalier, "It's impossible…although, impossible things do happen in the Grand Line occasionally."

Cavalier looked over to him and was surprised to see that there was a dirty skeleton was on top of him with his bone arms wrapped around his shoulders and its feet dragging against the deck. It had big round hollow eyes, several missing teeth, deep fractures running across its skull and wore ragged and torn clothes that barely held onto the bones.

He blinked at him before he gave a chuckle, "Hey Usopp, who's your new friend?

"Huh?" the teen said before he looked around and stared straight into the skeleton's dark, empty eye sockets.

He blinked once…twice…before he went deathly pale and fainted onto the deck in a heap.

As Chopper tended to a passed out Usopp, they decided to sail closer to the floating wreckage of the fallen galleon to have a closer look. The main body and the hull was completely ripped open and the broken mast was still attached by its rigging; but the contents of the ship was wearing it down, meaning that it was slowly sinking into the cold water. If they weren't quick enough then it will all be lost. However, that wasn't the main concern at the moment.

"My Log Post," Nami uttered in devastation as she looked down at her wrist, "I-It's broken."

They gathered around to have a look and saw that the needle was pointing upwards into the sky and no longer staying horizonal like normal. Nami tapped the glass dome a couple of times with little outcome before she slumped forwards in despair.

"How are we supposed to cross the sea now?"

"Well, maybe it's not broken," Cavalier helpfully told her, "Maybe it's...detecting something in the sky and we can't see it."

Nami gave him a glare, "Why would it do that? The Log Post only points at the closest island."

"Maybe there's an island in the sky."

"That's impossible!"

"Actually," Robin interjected calmly, "I think Cavalier has a point."

"He does?"

"I do?"

Robin turned her attention to the sky above and frowned curiously, "If the legends are true...then I believe that the Log Post has detected the magnetic field of a Sky Island."

The crew looked at her in disbelief.

"Sky?" Nami uttered.

"Island?" Sanji questioned in intrigue.

"An island in the sky!?" Luffy cried out in excitement.

Usopp suddenly sat up, scaring Chopper in the process and gawked at her, "Did she say there's an island in the sky!? Right above our heads!?"

"Well...it's more like a floating sea, technically," Robin nonchalantly said.

The crew stared at her in utter bewilderment. The only islands and seas they have ever come across were the ones underneath their feet; the fact that there was an entire different sea above their heads all this time seemed almost impossible. Nami blinked in astonishment before she glanced around and saw Cavalier giving her a big grin while a golden aura surrounded him.

"Fufufu! And you didn't believe me."

"What's that smug look for!?" she yelled at him, "Take it off before I do it myself!"

"Okay, guys! New plan!" Luffy cried out as he pointed upwards, "We're going to that island floating on a floating sea!? Turn the ship upwards!"

"Full speed ahead!" Usopp chimed in, equally as enthusiastic.

"Right o," Cavalier said as he made his way to the helm...only for Zoro to stop him by grabbing his shoulder.

"And how exactly are you going to that?" he sighed.

"Pull the wheel upwards, of course."

Zoro rolled his eyes and pulled him back with the others.

"To tell you the truth, I've never seen a Sky Island myself," Robin admitted as she used her powers to gag Luffy and Usopp for being too loud, "I don't know about them much."

Nami sighed in relief, "That's right! It's impossible! Floating islands and seas! The Log Post it just broken, that's it."

Robin gave her a serious looked, "No, Miss Navigator, what you should worry about right now is not the Log Post, but how to get up there," she pointed out, making Nami hum in curiosity as she looked down at her Log Post.

Cavalier heard a noise coming from the wreckage and turned to see that Luffy and Usopp had already left to explore it, causing him to sweat drop, "I better keep an eye on them," he murmured to himself.

"No matter how many times this ship is in a strange situation," Robin continued, "Whatever danger we find along the way, the one thing that we can count on is the Log Post, it's a rule. In this sea, we can only blame our narrow-minded way of thinking. No matter where the Log Post points to...there will be an island there," she calmly told Nami before turning to Cavalier, "Now, Cavalier, would you be so kind as to help me."

"No problem! What do you need?"

"I need you to gather every single bone from the skeleton that fell on long nose."

"Got it!"

"You didn't hesitate for a second!" Chopper and Nami yelled.

"There you go," Cavalier chirped as the gave Robin the last piece of bone fragment, "That one was a tricky one. Usopp really did scatter it all over the place when he fell."

"And yet, you managed to find every single one," Zoro sighed.

"Yep. All 2,879 pieces. It was fun," he said as Robin gently took the bone fragment and slotted it into the rest of the completed skull.

She was currently knelt by the skeleton, having laid out every single bone neatly on the deck. Nami and Chopper decided that they wanted to view what was going on from behind the mast while the others were less squeamish and looked at the display in fascination. Robin hummed to herself with a gentle smile as she softly placed the skull down and brushed some debris off of it.

"You see this hole here," she said, pointing to a large hole on the right side of the cranium, "This wasn't natural."

"So, that means this guy died when someone bashed his head in," Sanji hummed thoughtfully.

"No, it was drilled in," Cavalier said, "If somebody smashed his skull with a blunt instrument then the hole would be jagged, but this is a perfect hole," he told them before looking sheepish, "I...I don't know how I know that...but I can probably take a guess."

"Well, in any case, you're correct," Robin told him, "It's was made during a surgery procedure known as trepanation. Isn't that right doctor?"

Chopper nodded nervously, "Yes, it was used to cure some head injuries in the past, but that is a very old method."

"Indeed," Robin said as she observed the skull, "He died around 200 years ago...at the age of 30. He must have died of sickness while voyaging. His teeth are still intact unlike the rest of his skull," she hummed as used her fingernail to scratch at his teeth, "This is because there were covered with rubber oil. This was a custom of a particular area in the South Blue. From that point of history, this ship must have been used for exploring," she said before picked up a book from beside her and began flicking through it, "Found it," she said before she stopped at one particular page, "Saint Breeze from the Kingdom of Breeze in the South Blue. It set sail 208 years ago."

They looked over her shoulder and saw an old drawing of a ship that was the spitting image of the one that fell.

"That's definitely it," Cavalier confirmed before he looked up at the sky, "And it's been up there all this time. I wonder how it got up there in the first place. Maybe it took a wrong turning."

"A wrong turning where?"

Robin closed the book and turned in the direction of the wreckage, "If that ship was used for exploring, there must be a logbook on that ship."

"The ship has almost sunk into the ocean. You think you can retrieve it?" Nami asked Cavalier, although he shook his head.

"Sorry. I'm in range and everything, but I have to at least know approximately where it is," he said, looking at the sinking ship, "I can't even see where the captain's quarters anymore. The only thing I can see is Luffy drowning."

"What?" she said before turning around to see the partially sunk ship and Usopp trying his best to drag Luffy out of the water, "GOD DAMN IT! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING!?"

"HANG ON LUFFY!" Usopp yelled, "I WON'T LET YOU DIE!"

Cavalier's eyes widened as he stepped onto the side of the ship, "I'll help out! Don't worry chaps! I'm coming!"

"Hey, won't you drown as well," Sanji questioned.

"Oh right," he remembered as he stepped back, "Forgot about that. You can do it Usopp! I believe in you!"

"YOU FORGOT YOU CAN'T SWIM!" they yelled at him.

"Look what I found!" a drenched Luffy grinned, seemingly not bothered by his near death experience, "I found something really cool," he told them before he pulled a roll of parchment out of his shorts pocket and unravelled it, "Look at this! It's a treasure map!"

In his hands, sure enough, was a very old map. It depicted two islands, one much larger than the other, surrounded by what looked to be a sea of swirling clouds. The smaller island in the bottom left corner had small houses on it and was connected to the larger island by a bridge. The larger island was shaped like a crescent moon filled with drawings of palm trees, mountains and some sort of stone temple right in the middle of it. In the upper right corner was a compass with a small symbol in its centre. Despite how worn the parchment was, the drawing was still well preserved as well as the name of the island displayed proudly across the the top. A name that will be important in the days to come: Skypiea.

"Skypiea," Namu uttered as she observed the map.

"This means there must be an island up there!" Usopp said, "Let's go there now!"

"Woohoo! Set course to the sky!" Luffy chimed in.

"My first treasure map! I'm so excited!"

Nami shook her head at them, "Don't get so worked up, it's just a possibility. There are too many fake maps out there."

Cavalier looked at her in horror, "T...there are fake maps."

"Ah, sorry Cav. There are plenty of real ones as well," she reassured him, not meaning to trample on his excitement.

"Aww but Nami, you're a navigator. Can't you do something about it," Luffy moaned, "Come on! Do something!"

"I'm not a miracle worker!" she shouted at him, "There are some things that are impossible, Luffy!"

Usopp sighed in defeat as he leaned back against the mast, "If it's possible for such a big ship to get up there, it must be possible for us too," he pointed out, "If only we know how to."

"What about the logbook?" Cavalier suggested, "It must say something about it in there."

"The entire ship is sunk. There's no way of getting to it now."

Nami gave one look at her Log Post before she frowned in determination, "Then we just have to go down there and salvage it. Then we can get to the Sky Island."

"Alright!" Luffy, Chopper, Usopp cheered while Zoro sweat dropped at how ridiculous that sounded.

"Right o," Cavalier said as he took off his hat and cloak and set it neatly down on the side, "I'll just go down and get it. I won't be long."

"You can't swim, Cavalier," Zoro reminded.

"Oh right, yeah."

"HOW DID YOU FORGET TWICE!?"

Half an hour later and they were just preforming the last few checks.

Using a mixture of Usopp's carpentry skills and Robin's ingenuity, they had reused some old barrels as scuba gear by cutting a hole in the front, replacing it with glass to act as a window, and another hole on the top where the air pipe feeds through and two more as arm holes. Each barrel was connected, by the air pipe, to a winch they happened to find in the Merry's storage room, meaning they wearers could be pulled up and down whenever they wanted to. The three chosen to go down were Luffy, Zoro and Sanji; with Luffy having to wear two barrels to cover his top and bottom so the water doesn't get to him. Cavalier would have gone down too, but Nami didn't allow him for two reasons. The first is that there wasn't enough barrels and the second was because he was given a second job.

"Alright Cav, let's go. Not too fast now," Nami instructed.

"Right o," he said before he began to job quickly inside a large wheel that Usopp had made for him.

The wheel was connected to the pumps that would provide the air for the three as they go down and, since Cavalier had the best stamina out of all of them, they knew that he wouldn't get tired.

"He's like a hamster on a wheel," Usopp murmured as he and Chopper watched him run.

"You were the one who designed it this way," Chopper reminded.

"It's working," Luffy confirmed giving Cavalier a thumbs up before turning to Nami, "Are you sure this is going to work?"

"Who knows. Probably," she replied, "Now get down there. Don't let me down."

"Don't worry, Nami-swan~ I'll retrieve whatever you want~" Sanji declared.

"Hey!" Zoro and Luffy shouted from inside their barrels.

After that, they got onto the side of the ship and leapt into the water, sinking into the cold, dark depths below. Chopper, in his human form, lowered them down using the winch, steadily while Cavalier provided the oxygen needed.

"I wonder what they are seeing now," Cavalier said, "I can only imagine that's it's brilliant."

"There's probably a bunch of Sea Kings down there," Usopp said with a nervous gulp.

"How fun!"

"Not fun!"

Cavalier chuckled at that before he heard a noise coming from the distance. It sounded like chanting followed by the constant clanging of cymbals; it was getting louder and louder.

Sal-vage! Sal-vage! Sal-vage! Sal-vage! Sal-vage!

Whilst still jogging, he looked around and spotted something coming towards them.

"Nami, ship inbound on the starboard side," he told her.

"What!?" Nami and Usopp cried out as they ran to the side of the ship and looked out.

Sure enough, coming towards them was a giant ship that towered over the Going Merry. It had wide banana yellow sails, its hull looked as if it were made wicker and its figure head was a large rosy cheeked monkey holding two cymbals in each paw. On its main mast, displayed proudly, was a jolly roger of a brown furred baboon face with two bananas as crossbones. On the sides of the ship, were hundreds of oddly dressed pirates; dancing, chanting and clanging symbols and playing other instruments as they went. Suddenly, a loud piercing whistle sounded and the ship stopped along side their ship.

"Is this the location of the sunken ship!?" a booming voice roared to the pirates crew.

"Aye, aye, captain!" the pirates chanted back.

"In that case!" the voice roared before a giant, hulking figure stepped onto the side of the ship, "Prepare to salvage! That ship is mine! Oke! Okee! OOOK!"

The was one word to describe the man and that was...ape-like. He was tall with broad shoulders and giant arms which were held over his head. He had short spiky brown hair, slightly tanned skin, a wide toothy mouth, small eyes and large lips that stuck out a little. The man was wearing a pair of bright yellow denim overalls, with the word 'Masira' stitched on over the chest, over a brown and white shirt. On his head were a pair of headphones and round sunglasses perched on his forehead. On his belt hung a bunch of bananas, which they could only assume was for snacking, and there was long brown tail coming from his lower back. The man bellowed a triumphant laugh before he took notice of them and glowered at them.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here? This here is my territory!"

"Territory?" Nami questioned.

"That's right," the simian-looking man bellowed, "Every sunken ship around here belongs to me, Masira the Salvaging King. You don't mess with my stuff so get lost!" he growled.

Usopp gulped, "There's a lot of them."

"What are we going to do?" Chopper whispered in panic.

...

"Hello, Masira! My name is Cavalier," he called out cheerily, "It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Why are you greeting me!? Didn't you hear my threat!?" he yelled in shock.

Cavalier chuckled, "I like that you look like a monkey! Is it genetic or make-up or something!"

Nami and Usopp looked at him in sheer panic.

"Cav, that isn't a compliment," Nami hissed at him.

"Do you want us to get killed," Usopp urgently said.

However, unexpectedly, Masira blushed and grinned happily, "Really? You really think I look like a monkey? A complete monkey?"

"Huh?" Nami and Usopp uttered in confusion.

"Oh absolutely," Cavalier told him cheerfully, "I don't think I ever seen a man look more like a monkey then you do! You look great! It really suits you!"

"Oh stop," he bashfully said, "You're too kind. Thanks for noticing."

"Not a problem," Cavalier said, "We apologies for going into your territory. We didn't know. Would it be alright if we stay here for a while. We just need to do a few things and then we'll be on our way."

Masira scratched his head and shrugged, "Okay, then. That's fine. We can offer you a demonstration on how to do a proper salvaging if you like. Ook Oook!"

"That would be delightful. Thanks so much!"

Nami and Usopp sighed in relief.

"Thank goodness that Cav is so sweet and innocent," Nami sighed, "He could make friends with anyone, I bet."

"I know. Let's keep this up so we sneak away before they know what we done," Usopp whispered back.

Masira gave Cavalier a friendly thumbs up and grin...before he took notice of the hamster wheel device that he was running on, "Wait, why are you doing?"

"Running."

"What for?"

"To provide oxygen for our friends," he replied cheerily.

"Huh?"

"AHHH!" Nami and Usopp shouted with tears in their eyes.

"He's going to blow our cover!" Nami wailed.

"I told you there's going to be a time when his honesty is going to be the death of us!" Usopp cried.

Masira frowned questioningly, "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, you see-"

Nami leapt over and clamped a hand over his mouth while Usopp stood in front of them, "H-he meant that...he's...pumping oxygen into our tank reserves we have down below deck. You never know when you're going to need it...right?" Usopp nervously lied.

Cavalier pulled away from Nami's hand, "We have an oxygen tank below deck? I didn't know-hmmpf!" he said as Nami clasped her hand over his mouth once more.

Masira narrowed eyes at them sceptically, causing them to sweat nervously. After a few seconds, he grinned and nodded his head, "Oh okay. That makes sense."

'Thank goodness,' Nami and Usopp thought in relief.

"Captain Masira!" the large man looked around and saw one of his crew members running up to him, "Some of our divers have come back up! They've beaten up by somebody. I think there are people on the wreckage!"

'Ah! Those idiots!' Nami and Usopp yelled in their heads.

"What!? There's people on my territory and beating up my men!" Masira roared in anger before he turned back to their ship furiously, "Hey you...watch out there are dangerous people down there!"

They sighed in relief.

"Luckily, he's even more idiotic," they whispered to themselves.

However, much to their horror, Cavalier spoke up to them, "Oh, actually those would be our friends down-hmmpf!"

'Never mind, he's the real idiot,' they thought in panic as they both clamped their hands over his mouth once again.

"Huh?" Masira said as he looked over to them, "Sorry, did you say something? I had my back turned."

"No, he's good, hehe," Nami told him with a nervous chuckle, "Aren't you, Cav?"

Cavalier nodded happily.

Masira gave them all a funny look before he shrugged and looked at his injured men sprawled on the deck, "Damn it! That's it! I'm going down and ripping them to pieces! Oook! Oka! Ook!" he roared before he jumped on the side and dived headfirst into the water below. After a few seconds, he disappeared completely underneath the water.

"Well, he seemed nice enough," Cavalier said as he continued to jog on the wheel.

"Yes, but when he discovers Luffy and the others down there then we'll be dead," Usopp gulped in fear, "What are we going to do?"

"I think that's the least of our worries," Robin spoked up as she leaned over the side of the ship, "There's something under the ship."

"What?" Nami said as she too leaned over the side.

Somewhere, in the murky depths of the Grand Line, was a giant silhouette swimming gently underneath the water. It was far bigger than their or Mashira's salvaging boat and it was getting closer and closer to the place where the ship had sunk.

"W-what is that?" Nami uttered in fear.

"I-I don't know. I don't want to know," Usopp whimpered alongside Chopper.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, the ropes connecting the diving suits began to tighten as if something grabbed onto them and pulling them forwards. The ship lurched forwards and started moving, being dragged along helplessly. Cavalier was forced to leap off the wheel by the jolt and noticed that the Masira's ship was also experiencing what they were going through; their entire crew was in a state of panic as they tried to figure out what had grabbed their ropes. Just as they were questioning what to do a loud eruption came up from the water next to them as something gigantic appeared.

BOOOOOOMMMM!

They were almost knocked off their feet as the ship shook; water droplets rain down on them as the waves crashed into the side of the ships. Once they had gained their balance, they quickly realised what the enormous silhouette.

It was a massive, gigantic, huge turtle. As wide as a small island and as tall as a mountain. It's green shell glimmered in the mid-day sun and it's monstrous jaw, filled with teeth the size of skyscrapers munched leisurely on what looked like what remained of the fallen galleon. The ropes that were attached to their crew mates were still in its mouth and were the reason why they were being dragged along.

"No way!" Nami cried.

"I don't see anything!" Usopp screamed as he put his hands over his eyes, "This must be a dream!"

"A dream really!" Chopper yelled.

...

"Phew...it's just a dream," they sighed in relief, wiping their brows.

"Amazing!" Cavalier laughed happily, "That's one giant tortoise!"

"DON'T ACKNOWLEGE IT OR WE HAVE TO AS WELL!"

"It's actually a turtle, Cavalier," Robin corrected calmly as she crossed her arms, "And it has eaten our crewmates."

"DON'T SAY THAT!" Usopp wailed.

"LUFFY AND THE OTHERS WERE EATEN ALIVE!" Chopper screamed in panic as he ran around the place, "WE SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THIS! THIS WAS A BAD IDEA!"

"THIS WAS YOUR FAULT!" Usopp yelled at Nami, "IT WAS YOU WHO TOLD THEM TO GO DOWN THERE!"

Nami took a deep breath and gave a serious nod, "Yes, I know...sorry!"

"HOW'S THAT GOING TO FIX THINGS!"

Robin gave a solemn hum as she looked at the giant creature, "It seems that if we do not cut off the air pipes we will be pulled under as well."

"NOOOOO!"

"ROBIN CAN'T YOU DO SOMETHING!?"

"I can't. It's too big."

"CAVALIER?"

Cavalier thought for a moment before he snapped his fingers, "Aha! I've got it," he said before walked to the side and cupped his hands over his mouth, "Excuse me, Mr turtle! Can you let go of our friends, please!" he called out, making Usopp and Chopper face fault onto the deck. Seeing no response from the turtle, Cavalier sighed and turned around, "I don't think he can speak human. Does anybody here speak turtle?"

"THAT'S NOT A LANGUAGE!"

And just when things couldn't get any worse...it got worse.

What had been a nice, bright cloudless day had suddenly turned dark before their eyes. It was as if they had sailed into a dark, looming shadow out of nowhere. There wasn't even a hint of light coming from everywhere. Everybody was confused, even the giant turtle seemed perplexed about what was happening and stopped eating. A wave of silence fell over the area and the sea, for the first time didn't make a single sound; it was as if a ominous presence had arrived.

"W-why is it night?" Chopper stammered.

"It can't be," Nami said as she looked around in bewilderment, "It was the middle of the day a second ago."

"This is bad! So bad!" Usopp cried.

Cavalier hummed curiously as he looked around. He heard panicked shouts from the other ship and listened in to what they said.

"Day turning into night! That's a bad omen!" one of the pirates shouted.

"This is a sign of monsters!"

"Let's get the captain and get out of here!"

"Monsters," Cavalier murmured thoughtfully, "What do they mean by monsters?"

Suddenly, they heard something crash down onto the deck beside them. They turned in fright and saw Luffy slumped onto the floor with a large bag wrapped tightly around his neck. He looked as if he has been drowned again and, without hesitation, Chopper made his way to his side.

"Luffy! What happened to you! Are you alright!" he asked as two more familiar figures climbed over the side.

"Zoro!? Sanji!?" Usopp explained as they jumped down on to the deck and threw the bags of loot on to the deck.

"Let's get out of here!" Zoro ordered as he flicked water droplets off of him, "That gorilla guy is not far behind."

"He was annoying," Sanji muttered.

"Oh, you met Masira then," Cavalier said.

"You know that guy?"

"Forget it!" Nami shouted at them, "Cav cut the ropes and let's get out of here!"

"Right!" he called back before he swiftly cut through the air pipes with one flick of his blade.

As they were trying to turn the ship around, Luffy gasped and shot straight up, "Wah! I'm alive!" he gasped before he looked around in confusion, "How long were we down there for? It's dark now."

"Help out, Luffy! Don't just lie there!"

"O-okay."

Suddenly, bursting out of the water like a missile, Masira flew up into the air with a tremendous roar and landed on the side of the ship. He glared at all of them furiously and tightened his giant fists in anger.

"What!? You think you can just leave!?" he bellowed, "You dare enter my territory and steal my treasure! I have to teach you punks a lesson!"

"Great. He followed us," Zoro muttered as he placed a hand on the hilt of his sword.

Cavalier, however, greeted him with a friendly wave, "Oh hi, welcome abord," he greeted, "Do you want a cup of tea or..."

He trailed off when he saw it up ahead. The others took notice and looked around as well, making their eyes widen in disbelief. The crew on the other ship trembled and gasped in fear and even the turtle looked terrified. Their blood ran cold, their faces turned pale, their jaws dropped and sweat began to form over their faces.

What they saw...was something they never would have expected.

They were huge. Gigantic. Colossal, even. Far bigger than a mountain and wider than any country on this planet. Their shadowy bodies seemed to shimmer in the hazy mist before them, the wings on their backs seemed to spread out forever and the spears in the hands could destroy entire fleets of ships with one stroke. The mere presence of these five titans, that stood upon the water, seemed to emit an aura of sheer dread that stunned them into silence.

Nobody moved. Nobody talked. Nobody did anything. The only thing they could was stop and stare at the behemoths in terror.

...

Everybody...except for one person.

"HELLO!" Cavalier shouted up at them, "MY NAME IS CAVALIER! IT'S A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU! I LIKE YOUR WINGS!"

"DON'T GREET THEM, YOU MORON! RUN AWAY!" everybody shouted at him.

Open Sea

They quickly made their escape.

Instead of relying on wind power, they stuck oars into the water and rowed back away from the Sea Behemoths as fast as they could. They didn't stop until they were out of the darkness and back under the midday sun. The crew were trying to recover from their ordeal by sitting on the deck and taking deep breaths. The arms were sore, the palms of the hands were starting to form blisters and they faces were drenched in sweat. The only one who wasn't exhausted was Cavalier who broke the silence by coming out of the cabin with a tray full of cups of tea for everybody.

"Well, that was certainly terrifying," he said as he started to hand a cup out for everybody, "Still, what an adventure, eh?"

Sanji groaned as he accepted his cup whilst lighting a cigarette, "That's putting it lightly, Cav. Today has really been weird."

"A galleon fell from the sky," Zoro muttered,

"The Log Post keeps pointing up," Nami sighed.

"The strange monkey appeared to recover a sunken ship," Usopp gasped through deep breaths.

"A giant sea turtle ate the ship," Chopper hummed.

"The sky went black," Robin calmly said.

"Finally, giant monsters a hundred times bigger than regular giants showed up!" Luffy said.

"Yup," Masira said with a shake of his head, "That last part really scared me," he admitted as he accepted the cup from Cavalier, "Thanks. Do you have any banana flavouring I can add to this?"

"Hmm…no, I don't think so. We do have regular bananas though."

"That'll do," he said as he sipped his tea.

….

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE!?" Sanji, Zoro and Luffy yelled as they kicked Masira off the ship, sending flying before crashing into the water.

"Aww, chaps. You could have at least waited until I took the cup back," Cavalier scolded lightly, "Now we're down one."

"Sorry," they earnestly apologised.

"By the way," Cavalier said as he pointed towards the three sacks they had brought up from the wreckage, "What would you like me to do with the treasure you brought back?"

Nami's eyes lit up at the sound of that before she zoomed over to the sacks, "Treasure? You brought treasure?"

Luffy grinned as tipped the sacks on the deck, "We sure did. Check it out."

Her grin grew wider as she saw objects began to fall out of the sacks and pile up in front of her…before her face fell into despair at what the collection was actually composed of.

"What the hell is all this junk!" she snapped at them, looking over the pile of rusted metal objects from swords to candelabras, pots, pans, some sort of weird bicycle thing and a single octopus, "Did you forget what you went down for!?"

"There was nothing else on it," Zoro told her with a shrug,

"Yeah, that's true,," Sanji agreed with a frown, "That ship had obviously been attacked. Either that or there was some sort of disagreement that caused them to turn on each other."

"If that's so, then information is even more crucial," Nami angrily said, "Don't you get it!? If we went into the sky right now, whatever happened on that sunken ship could happen to us too. The info we have can mean life and death! Look at this stuff!" she snapped as she kicked the pile, much to their shock, "Rusted swords! Crockery! An octopus! What I need are things like a diary of a sea chart. Not this junk!"

"Aww, how cute," Cavalier said as picked up the octopus and began petting him, much to the sea creatures delight, "Welcome to the crew. Have you come up with a name for it?"

"Yeah, he's called lunch," Sanji replied as he scooped up the octopus from his arms.

"Oh, what an odd name…" he said before he noticed him taking the creature to the kitchen, "…oh…I see now."

"Wow! That's cool Luffy!" Usopp gushed as he and Chopper admired the rusty suit of armour he was wearing.

"I want one!" Chopper chimed in.

"Yep! Picked it up on the ship," he said before he turned to an annoyed Nami and raised the visor, "This'll protect me from harm. You like it?"

SMASH! CLATTER!

Instantly, Luffy was knocked out on the deck with a black eye and covered in pieces of what used to be his armour; Nami stormed away while Usopp and Chopper looked down at him with sympathy.

"Never mind."

"That didn't protect anything."

Nami growled in frustration and leaned her back against the ship's side, "Now I really don't know where to go," she sighed before she turned to Robin who was perched on the upper deck railing with her head in her hand casually, "Do you know what we should do?"

"Hmm, I have a few suggestions," Robin hummed before she glanced over at Cavalier who was inspecting something in his hands, "Would you like to propose a place we can go, Cavalier?"

He perked up at that, "Oh, I don't know really," he said before he lifted up the object in his hands, "We can follow this Eternal Pose, if you like."

"What!?" Nami yelled before she zipped towards him and snatched the Eternal Pose from his hands, "Where…where did you get this?"

"From Masira," he explained, "I found on the deck where he was. Must have fell out of his pocket when the chaps sent him flying," he told her before her eyes sparkle in delight, "Oh, you're happy! That's great!"

"Oh, I'm more than happy, Cav," Nami said, "We finally have a lead!" she said before she read the letters etched into the wood frame, "Jaya. I see, it must be their headquarters."

"Jaya?" Luffy questioned, appearing from nowhere with a tray of takoyaki in his hands, "Is that where we're going?"

"Shouldn't that be for you to decided!" Nami yelled at him.

Luffy swallowed a takoyaki before he threw his hands into the air, "Okay! Turn towards Jaya! Full speed!"

"Ah! Wait a second," Usopp said with a mouth fall of takoyaki, "If we go to Jaya then the Log Pose would get over written when we're there! In other words we won't get to the Sky Island!"

"Cancel that!" Luffy ordered crossing his arms in front of him, "Stop moving towards Jaya!"

"I don't think that would be problem," Robin coolly told them, "The Log Pose wouldn't be reset so fast. All we have to do is leave Jaya before it has recorded the next island."

"Wouldn't that be a risk?" Nami questioned.

"Of course, but if want any information any the Sky Island, then we will need to take that risk. What do you say, captain?"

"Cancel that last cancelled order! We're sailing to Jaya!" he declared boldly before Usopp slapped him on the back of the head.

"Make up your mind, would you!"

"Brilliant! A new island," Cavalier chirped happily, "I can't wait to see what's there!"

Luffy turned to him and held out his tray of takoyaki out to him, "Hey, you want one? Sanji just made them from the octopus from earlier."

Cavalier looked down at the balls of battered octopus and turned a little pale, "No, thank you. I don't like eating food before they've been turned into food."

Watchman Spot

The chill breeze fluttered through his long hair as he stood inside his Watchman Spot. He breathed in the salty sea air and sighed as he watched the Going Merry cut through the water elegantly.

'This is nice,' he thought to himself, 'It's so relaxing.'

He leaned forwards against the edge of the basket, but he happened to brush his hand against the pouch that Raven had given him the other day. He looked down at it and frowned as he remembered that night. He happened open it. How could he? He didn't want anything to do with her or the Secret Empire anymore. But, at the same time, he knew there was no way of getting rid of it. He was free…but as long as they existed, he could never rest.

"Hey, Cavalier!" he jumped in surprise and looked down to see Nami waving up at him from the deck below, "Do you see land yet?"

He shook his head of his previous thoughts and turned his attention to out in front of him, "Not yet!" he called down to her, "But I can feel the temperature rising. I think we might be approaching a spring island."

"Great! It should be easy sailing from here! If you spot land then tell me!"

"Right o!" he called down as Nami returned to one of the lower decks. He hummed happily as he looked back up and spotted three seagulls flying alongside the ship, "Perfect. Seagulls must mean we're getting closer to land. Thank you!" he said, waving towards the birds.

Suddenly, he sensed something which made their hairs on the back of his neck stand up. His hand went to one of his pistols, but it was too late. One by one, the seagulls fell from the sky and crash onto the deck below; his eyes widened in shock and he looked down to see them laying lifeless down below. He leapt over the side of the basket, jumped down several feet before landing elegantly onto the deck before he picked up one of the seagulls.

But it was too late. All three were dead.

"What!? No!?" he uttered in despair, "But…w-what happened?" he stammered before he noticed a small hole in the seagulls chest.

He frowned at it before he used his power to steal what was still imbedded in its heart.

"A bullet," he murmured as he rolled the metal pellet around in his gloved hand, "It's not like the ones I use. It's…unique," he said before looking up over the bow of the ship and towards the island that we're heading towards, "Surely, it couldn't have been shot from all the way from land. That's miles away. Then again, I never heard the shot…just sensed they were coming," he said before he noticed that the other two seagulls also had the same bullet holes in their chest, "Three direct shots from over three miles away. That's extraordinary," he muttered before looking down at the three seagulls sadly, "I'm sorry, I couldn't save. I'll make sure you will have the proper funeral arrangements."

"Ah! Nice catch, Cavvy!"

"Huh?"

He was stunned when Luffy's arm extended in front of him, grabbed the seagulls and pulled them back to him. The captain chuckled as he held up the birds in hands before he leaned over the railing to the lower deck.

"Hey Sanji! How about fried seagull for seconds!?"

"Can you please not keep eating the animals I have been acquainted to," Cavalier sighed with a sweat drop.

Mock Town, Jaya

Jaya, a tropical island located somewhere in the Grand Line.

It was shaped like a jagged 'U' covered in rich, vibrant grass and thick rainforest filled with giant insects and other creatures. Two large pools of water take up most of the land on the ends of each arm of the island, making it look like he island had, from seen from above, two large eyes. The main and only settlement was Mock Town, located on the western edge of the Mouth Bay. It inhabits a large dockyard that is capable holding vast galleons and ships and a collection of white buildings with roofs. Despite looking like a resort town, Mock Town is somewhat lawless with its mainly pirate residents who take shelter from the Marine ships.

With the Merry docked, Cavalier observed the main road that went though the wooden clapboard buildings and stone towers with glee. There were hundreds of pirates drinking, fighting, stealing and doing whatever they felt like. Some had missing limbs or eyes, others had scantily dressed women under their arms, while others were passed out drunk in the gutter covered in beer and other bodily fluids.

"Wow, this place looks great," Cavalier brightly said, "Everyone looks like they're having fun."

"Really?" Zoro muttered as he crossed his arms over his chest, "Just like a normal crappy town to me. Once you've seen one, you've seen them all."

"I'm sure Mock Town has its unique perks," he said.

Suddenly, from the tavern building next to them, they heard a crash and then a scream of fear above their heads. They looked up and saw unfortunate pirate thrown through the window, fall several meters and land near them in a heap. The pirate groaned in pain before he slumped lifelessly in a pile of glass and blood.

"Bet no other town has that," Cavalier said, pointing at the unconscious man.

"You've got me there," Zoro mused.

"Come on let's go," Luffy chuckled as they made their way through the crowds.

Meanwhile, aboard the ship, Nami, Chopper and Usopp kept a keen eye on the trio as they headed into Mock Town. They thought it would be best to stay behind where it's safe rather than risk their lives going in.

"You think they're going to be alright?" Chopper asked as he peered through wooden railing of the ship.

"I'm sure they can protect themselves?" Nami told them

"I'm more worried about them getting into a fight," Usopp uttered with a gulp, "Maybe it wasn't a good idea to let them go on their own."

"Don't worry. Zoro and Luffy might do something like that, but Cavalier is much more sensible," Nami reassured him, "He won't let them get into any trouble."

Meanwhile, over with Cavalier, he heard somebody call out to him and saw a pretty woman who wore a lot of make up and a very revealing dress.

"Hey handsome," she said, batting her eyes at him, "Want to have a good time?"

'A good time? Oh, she must want to play a board game with me,' he thought cheerfully before he made a beeline for her, "Sure, just to warn you, I've had a lot of practise and I'm pretty much an expert now. Not to brag or anything."

"Oh, I like where this is going~"

Nami's eyes widened when she noticed him going over to the woman, "Oh god," she muttered as she leapt over the side of the ship and onto the dock before she ran over to him, "No! Cavalier! Get away from her!"

"Whelp, looks like she's going with them," Usopp sighed, earning a solemn nod from Chopper.

"Alright," Nami said sternly before she pointed at Luffy, "What are you not going to do?"

"Start any fights," he replied with a nod.

She was using the voice she uses when she was deadly serious. Meaning if he didn't listen then he was going to be on the receiving end of a painful punch,

"And you?" she questioned turning to Zoro.

"Don't wonder off," the swordsman sighed.

"And you?" she finally questioned, turning to Cavalier.

"Don't follow random women down alleyways," he replied happily.

"Good, now all of you behave yourselves and don't cause any trouble."

Zoro tsked in disapproval, "You're acting as if we're children."

"I wouldn't have to treat you like children if you behaved yourselves!" she snapped at him before she gave a sigh as they headed further into town, "Let's go and gather up any information on how to get to the sky island. Then we can leave this bad place."

"Aww, it's not that bad," Cavalier cheerily said, "this is first proper town I ever been to and I'm doing it with my three best friends. I couldn't be more happier."

"That's good to hear, but there are much nicer places in the world," Nami told him, "Don't use up all your excitement."

"No can do. I'm always excited. I mean, if it's such a bad place then would that chap over there be sleeping in the middle of the road…face down…in a pool of blood….I don't think he's sleeping."

"Don't look at him," Nami whispered at him as she pushed his head forwards.

As they walked through the streets of Mock Town, avoiding the brawls and the drunk pirates, Cavalier happened to look up as they passed a stone tower and stopped beside it when he spotted a loose tile hanging dangerously over the street about five meters up.

'That looks like it's going to fall at any moment. It'll be terrible if it falls on somebody's head. It could really hurt them,' he thought in concern before he used his power to take out the tile, "There you go. All better now, mr. tower," he said as he patted the cold stone wall.

He was unaware that, when he removed the tile, several more bricks were shifted inside the tower and more cracks began to appear on the surface.

He leaned the tile against the wall and turned around to continue walking with his friends…only to find they weren't there. He frowned puzzlingly, looking left and right across the crowds in search for them, but they were gone.

"They must have walked on ahead of me," he hummed to himself as he began to walk forwards, "I better catch up to them."

However, he didn't get very far before he heard a something fall heavy onto the ground followed by a pained cry. He looked to his left and saw a strange looking man standing victoriously over his unconscious and bloody opponent at his feet. The man must have been twice the size of him with long purple hair that flowed down his back, small black eyes and tanned skin. He was very muscular and had broad shoulders and arms like oak trees although his lower body was much skinnier. Over his head he wore dark brown wrestler's mask with orange pattens on it as well as a simple black shirt, white trousers that were held up by a large golden belt with an eagle engraving on the giant buckle. A large crowed of onlookers had gathered around him to witness the fight; all of them had a look of horror on their faces. The strange man raised his muscular arms over his head and bellowed a hearty cry.

"Wee-ha-ha-ha! Is that all you got, weakling! Pathetic!" he declared as he kicked the injured man to the side, "Is there anyone in this town that can topple the champion!? Wee-ha-ha-ha!" he declared before he looked over at a onlooker, "What about you!? You think you can take me on!?"

The pirate gulped and backed away, "N-no, please don't!"

The muscular man gave him a sinister smirk, "Hey! Don't back out of a fight now!" he snarled as he loomed over him.

Now anybody in the right mind would just walk away and avoid the man before he spots them. But Cavalier isn't simple anybody. His mind was too full of fluff, optimism and everything happy. In fact, if you listened closely, you could probably hear the music they play when TV channels run into technical difficulties.

(A.N: It's called 'Spanish Flea by Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass Band' if you're wondering what I mean.)

That's why Cavalier tilted his head slightly before he gave a bright smile, "I wonder if he has seen them," he said to himself before he called out to him with a friendly wave, "Excuse me! Man with the skinny legs!"

"Huh?" the large man said before he looked back at him with a growl, "What was that punk?"

"You're legs," he said, pointing at him, "They've very skinny. It's quite funny really. It must feel like you're walking on two toothpicks," he said waggling his fingers to imitate legs, much to the horror of the onlookers "Anyway. Hello, my name is Cavalier. It's a pleasu-"

"Oh I see," the giant of a man snarled, "You think you can defeat the champion by taking tough, huh? Well, that's not going to work with me, Jesus Burgess, champion fighter of the Grand Line! We-ha-ha-ha!" the man known known as Burgess laughed, "Go on then, let's fight!"

"No, thank you," Cavalier said with a wave of his hand, "I've been told not to fight."

"Oh! Who by? You're mommy?"

"No, I'm still looking for her."

Burgess gave sinister smirk and clenched his large hands into fists, "Are you making fun of me, you weakling? I guess I have to teach you a lesson! Come on and fight me!"

Cavalier hummed slightly before he glanced at the onlookers who were shaking their heads at him as if to say no. He then shrugged and smiled happily.

"Okay. But only for a small one," he said.

'He's dead,' the onlookers collectively thought.

"We-Ha-Ha-Ha! I'm going to tear you limb from limb!" Burgess roared as he ran to him.

He raised his giant arm up and tightened his fist; as soon as he got close enough, he reared his arm back and threw a punch right at his face…

"Oh, hold on," Cavalier said as he bent down, "My shoelace is untied."

"Wha?" Burgess uttered as his punch swung over him.

The force of the missed punch made him lose his balance; he tripped over his feet and fell forwards and flipped over Cavalier before he slammed headfirst into stone tower behind Cavalier, forming a large indent in the structure.

"WHAAAAAAA!?" the crowd of onlookers yelled in utter disbelief.

Burgess gave a pained groan as he fell to the floor, his eyes swirling in their eye sockets. He shook his head to relieve himself of this dizziness before he looked back and released a furious growl. He was about to get up when he heard a loud crack from above. He turned his eyes up and saw several cracks appear in the wall of the tower, getting larger and larger as they went upwards. Suddenly, he walls of the tower burst and the entire building collapsed on itself, the debris falling right on to Burgess below.

"Oh wait, my boots don't have laces," Cavalier said as he straightened back up, "Right, let's start the fight," he said before he looked around in confusion, "Where did he go?"

CRASH!

Cavalier jumped in surprise suddenly as the loud noise behind him and turned around to see a pile of rubble where the stone tower had stood.

"Strange. What happened here?"

"YOU DIDN'T NOTICE!?" the crowd shouted at him.

He looked down and spotted familiar pair of skinny legs coming from underneath the rubble and tapped the heel of his boot with his finger.

"That doesn't look comfortable. Are you alright under there?" he asked, only to hear a pained groan come from the pile, "Oh good, you're still alive. Anyway, I must get going. It's nice meeting you," he said before he turned on his heel and walked away in search for his friends, leaving behind a stunned audience and a very stunned Burgess behind, "Curious chap. What a weird laugh he has."

Resort

"What did I say about getting lost?" Nami sternly questioned as she glared up a sheepish Cavalier.

"Err…well, I didn't get lost. I just got left behind that's all," he told her before he rubbed the back of his head shyly, "I'm sorry Nami. I won't do it again."

She sighed and softened her expression, "Alright. I forgive you. Sorry for leaving you behind. We should have probably noticed."

"What!? No way! Why does he get off easily!?" Luffy cried out from behind her while Zoro nodded in agreement.

"Because, unlike you two idiots, he actually means it!"

"By the way," Cavalier said, perking up instantly, "Where are we now?"

Cavalier managed to find them in a quieter part of Mock Town, where the hubbub and the din of various broken laws were heard only in the distance. They stood on a wooden pier that led to a large building built on stilts over the water. The colourful building and the swaying palm trees dotted around the place was calming to look at. Cavalier took it all in with delight and, judging by Nami's expression, she thought it looked spectacular as well.

"It's so pretty here," she said, "It must be a hotel resort. I wish we had the money to stay here."

Zoro hummed curiously as he observed the place, "Can't see anybody here. It's probably closed."

"Nah, can't be. I can smell food cooking," Luffy said as he sniffed the air.

"Why don't we ask that chap over there?" Cavalier asked, drawing their attention to a man hurriedly making his way towards them, "He's so excited to see us that he's dancing."

"Yeah, I don't think he's dancing, Cav."

"A customer! This is such a bad time," the man said as he quickly made his way over. He was a short with a small pointed moustache, round eyes and wore a head scarf over his head. For some reason, he seemed to be constantly rocking his upper body and head left and right rapidly whilst rubbing his hands together, "We 'Tropical Hotel' is currently brought out by Master Bellamy. Please leave at once."

"Leave? But we were only looking around," Luffy told him.

"Please leave hotel now!" the man said, "Master Bellamy won't like you here?"

"What is that?" Cavalier asked.

"Master Bellamy is a powerful pirate captain. If he spots you then there will be trouble," he said as he kept rocking left and right, "That's why."

"No, I meant what's a hotel?"

"Hey, what the hell is this?" a new voice grunted in annoyance from behind them, "This ain't a tourist attraction. Go scram!"

They turned around to see a tall, muscular man with long light blue hair, fair skin and small, eyes hidden behind a large purple tinted visor. He wore a white-furred long coat and red and white stripped trousers; around his neck was a gold chain and a pair of gloves. He was bare chested, displaying a large tattoo of a circular skull with a diagonal line crossing over it. At his wrist was a sharp and dangerous-looking machete which looked as if he had seen a lot of action. He had his arm wrapped around a young woman with long blond hair, fair skin and arrogant smirk on her face. She wore a red bandana around her head, a pair of purple tinted sunglasses that concealed her eyes, a white shirt and a very short skirt.

They stalked towards them, glaring at the four of them as if they were some sort of scum that dared made themselves known. Their reaction to them was mixed; Nami looked concerned, Luffy was curious, Zoro seemed bored while Cavalier…well, he was happy to meet new people.

The owner of the hotel turned a pale at the sight of them and bowed rapidly, "Pardon me, Master Saquiss! I was telling them to leave."

"Well, kick them out already," the woman next to him sneered, "We paid a lot to buy this place out."

"You said it, Lilly."

Cavalier smiled politely and stuck out his hand for him to shake, "Hello, my name is Cavalier. It's a pleasure to meet you. I like your coat. It looks very warm."

Sarquiss gave him an odd look, "What the hell are you dressed as?"

"Err…" he hummed before turning to the woman, "…Hello, my name is Cavalier. It's a pleasure to meet you. I like your sunglasses. They must be to shield your beautiful eyes from dazzling us all, right?"

Lilly sneered in disgust, "What the hell? Are you stupid or something?"

Sarquiss grabbed grabbed the front of his cloak and glowered down at him, "Hey, you think you can flirt with my girl in front of me, you little shit," he snarled while Cavalier frowned in confusion.

"You're the second person who mention this flirting thing. What is that?" he asked as he tilted his head to the side.

Before the taller man could bark at him, Luffy stormed forwards and growled up at him, "Hey, let go of him! He was only saying hello!"

"You guys are starting to piss me off," he snarled down at him, "Want to take this outside?"

"Aren't we already outside?"

"No! No! Luffy stop!" Nami yelled as she tugged him and Cavalier away from them, "We're really sorry for the disturbance. We're going now."

"But he was rude to Cavvy!" Luffy complained as she dragged them both of them away from the resort.

"Shut up," she hissed, "Zoro! Come on let's go!"

The swordsmen clicked his tongue and followed after them, making sure to keep one hand on the hilt of one of of his swords just in case. As Nami continued to drag them away, Cavalier turned around and waved to them good bye.

"It was nice meeting you, good bye!" he called out before the disappeared down the streets.

Sarquiss watched them leave with an irritated snarl and clicked his knuckles, "Who the hell does he think he is? Coming in here and disrespecting me and my girl. Let's see what Bellamy has to make of them. Right, Lilly?" he questioned, only to see her looking away with a deep frown on her face, "What's wrong?"

"You've never complimented my eyes before," she snapped at him.

"Huh? What's that got to do with anything?"

"Whatever," she muttered as she strutted away back to the resort.

Sarquiss watched her walk away in confusion before he muttered something under his breath and followed after her.

Tavern

The bar was packed by the time they arrived. Dozens of rowdy, inebriated pirates drinking as much cheep beer as they could afford. Most of them were sat around the wooden tables playing cards or guzzling their drinks and plates of food in vast amounts. They decided to sit at the bar and ordered drinks; while Zoro and Luffy got steins of beer, Nami ordered a simple cider with ice.

Nami sighed as she twiddled her straw in her drink as she stared across the bar in tired misery. Cavalier, who was tapping the bar with his hands to feel how sticky it was, noticed this and smiled at her reassuringly.

"I'm sorry we haven't found out anything about the sky island, Nami," he softly told her.

"It's fine," she told him, "It's this town that's all. I just don't like it."

"I admit, looking at it now, it does seem a little rough around the edges," he said, observing a drunk man stumble his way across the bar before falling flat on his face, "But it's not anything we can face. We're pirates as well. We're just as tough and intimidating like them."

That was when the barkeep walked up and set a large glass in front of him, "You're chocolate milkshake, sir," he grumbled.

"Thanks!" he chirped before he took a sip through the straw, "Wow! This is lovely," he laughed, making Nami sweat drop, "How long are we going to stay here?"

"Well, the Log Pose will reset in four days here. So, as long as we leave before then, we still locked on course to the sky island," she told him, looking down at her log pose with a hum, "You know what I wonder-"

"Hey mister! This cherry pie tastes so bad that I'm going to die!"

"Oi old man! This cherry pie tastes so good that I'm going to die!"

Nami was suddenly interrupted by two loud proclamations speaking at the same time. Cavalier looked over and saw that one of them was Luffy with a half eaten pie in front of him and the other was a giant man sitting next to him.

He must have been over ten feet tall with a round body and skinny limbs. He had dark skin, a crooked nose and long, thick black hair that falls down the back of his neck. His mouth was fall of broken teeth and he had a small, scruffy black beard on his chin. He wore an unbuttoned white shirt which showed of his hairy chest, green trousers, a yellow sash around his waist and a black bandana covering his head.

The two glance at each other challengingly after hearing the conflicting opinions before they reach for their drinks and took a swig from their glasses. As soon as they finished they, once again, made another proclamation.

"This beer tastes so good!"

"This beer tastes so bad!"

This time they glared at each other fiercely.

"Something wrong with your tongue," the larger man grumbled.

"Something wrong with your brain," Luffy retorted.

The barkeep rolled his eyes as he continued to clean his glass, "I don't care," he grumbled, "I ain't the cook. You want something else or-"

"Yeah," Luffy said eagerly, "I'll take fifty pieces of meat on the go."

The giant man gave an ugly smiled, "And I take fifty one cherry pies."

Luffy snarled at that, "Actually make it fifty two."

"My mistake, makes that fifty three cherry pies."

"Wait! Change it to fifty four!"

"Fifty five cherry pies."

"Sixty!"

"Seventy!"

"Eighty!"

"One hundred!"

"So, much food," Cavalier moaned sickly as he held a hand over his mouth.

The thought of eating that much made his tiny stomach churn.

Luffy growled and climbed onto the barstall to get into the other man's face, "What's your problem, bastard!?"

"My problem!? What's your problem!?" the larger man roared back before he glowered menacingly at him, "What are you anyway?"

"I'm a pirate!" Luffy snarled.

"Bounty?"

"30,000,000."

"What!?" the larger man growled before he slammed his fist onto the bar, "Impossible! You're lying!"

"Am not!"

"Stop it, you two," the barkeep sighed tiredly as he placed a large box wrapped up in a cloth on the bar, "Take your fifty pies and get out of here. I don't want any fighting."

The larger man grunted and picked up his pies. He glared darkly at Luffy one more time before he took his leave through the swinging doors. Luffy huffed crossly as he turned back around and began tearing into a chunk of meat set before him.

"Who the hell was that guy?" Zoro muttered with a piercing glare.

"He was…certainly interesting," Cavalier hesitantly said, "I can't help but sense there's something off about him," he said before he sipped his milkshake.

"You're one to talk!"

Suddenly, silence fell across the bar, much to their surprise; laughter died down into hushed whispers, card games stopped and the music they had been playing became non-existent. Even the stone-faced barkeep stopped what he was doing and shivered as if a cold breeze washed over him. Cavalier looked around and saw the reason behind the sudden turn; there was a tall, muscular, intimidating man standing at the bar doors, licking his lips with his long tongue. He had short unkempt blond hair, tanned skin and sharp black eyes. A simple sleeveless pink shirt and white trousers tied up by a green sash. Over his shoulders was a navy blue long coat which looked like the sort worn by captains. The man glared around the room with a piercing glare; once he knew that he had everyone's attention, he called out in a raspy, deep growl.

"Hey! I'm looking for guy with a straw hat!" he asked, making Luffy and the others turn around towards him.

"Oh god, it's Bellamy the Hyena," a patron uttered under his breath, "What's he doing here?"

"I heard he's got a bounty of 55,000.000," somebody else whispered.

"Did you hear about that other pirate he killed this morning?"

"Yeah, Roshuro the Executioner. I heard there's nothing left of him after Bellamy got to him."

Nami went very pale as she heard the whispers and gulped nervously, "Oh no. What does he want from us," she whispered as she stared down at the bar, "Maybe he won't notice us. And he'll leave us alone."

"Hmm? Straw hat?" Cavalier said, "Oh! Luffy, he must be talking about you."

"ACK!" Nami cried out in shock.

"Huh? Really?" Luffy said as he turned around as tears began to form in Nami's eyes, "Yeah! Who's asking?"

The large man, now known as Bellamy, turned his dark eyes towards them and casually stalked over to them, "Straw Hat Luffy. So, you're the 30,000,000 bounty boy, hmm?"

"30,000,000? That kid?" one of the patrons muttered.

"But he's tiny."

Bellamy glared down at all of them with a dangerous look in his eyes, grinning from ear to ear maliciously like an animal about to eat its prey, "Heard you were sneaking around our private resort earlier. Isn't that right Sarquiss?"

"That's right, boss. That's definitely them."

Cavalier looked around and saw Sarquiss, Lilly and few more pirates displaying the same Jolly Roger as tattoos or on their clothing, clearly a sign that they were all part of the same crew. They were seated at the tables near the door with the chairs' former occupants lying bleeding on the floor with deep cut marks in their backs. Sarquiss grinned as he twirled his machete in his hands before pocketing, grinning eerily as the other pirates chuckled.

"I see," Bellamy hummed, "So, we've got a captain, the swordsman, an orange-haired girlie and a…" his eyes turned to Cavalier, "…whatever the hell you are."

"Hello, I'm Cavalier," he cheerily greeted, "It's a pleasure to-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," he interrupted uncaringly, "I'm sure you guys know who I am. I am no other than Bellamy, captain of the Bellamy pirates," he grinned as he stuck his tongue out and grinned wickedly.

"Bellamy…" Cavalier repeated before he gave a short laugh, "Ha! What an adorable name, you have."

….

A shocked silence fell over the tavern as the patrons gaped in astonishment at what he said. He said it so simply and without a hint of fear in his voice. A pulsating vain bulged on Bellamy's forehead, his crew snarled furiously and the barkeep stepped into the back rooms to see if there were any doctors or undertakers available at short notice. Nami's jaw dropped as she made a strange sound between a scream and a choking noise; terrified tears still forming in her eyes. Luffy, however, was laughing his head off.

"Shishishi! Good one, Cavvy!" Luffy cried out as he slapped his hand on the bar top, "He really does have an adorable name! Shishishi!"

Zoro grinned as he took another swig of his drink, "Damn, you really are fearless, aren't you?"

Cavalier looked around in confusion at everybody's reaction, 'Was it something I said?' he thought cluelessly.

Bellamy clicked his knuckles and glowered down at him, "What was that?"

"You have an adorable name," he repeated, "Robin taught me that 'Bella' means 'beautiful' and 'ami' means friend. Bell ami. Bellamy. That's sound too sweet for a pirate captain name. It's better suited for a dog or a guinea pig or a-"

Nami clasped a hand over his mouth and gave a nervous smile to the pirate, "One moment, please," she said before she hissed at Cavalier, "Stop saying that. You're making him angry."

"Angry? But being adorable is a good thing."

"Not for a pirate that's worth over 50 Million."

"So…he would prefer the opposite of being adorable?"

"Yes," she said, "Now apologise now."

"Oh okay," he said before he smiled up at Bellamy once more, "I'm sorry that you have an adorable sounding name. If it makes you feel any better, then you have a really ugly face, so it all balances out in the end."

Nami slammed her face down on the bar top and gave a mournful groan while Luffy burst out laughing again.

Some of the patrons started to slowly and sneakily leave the tavern while Bellemy's crew had their hands on their weapons in preparation. The barkeep had given up on finding the doctor and was now checking if his insurance covered the damage that was inevitable going to happen to his bar.

Bellamy gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes at the innocent face of Cavalier before he did something unexpected…

…he laughed.

He threw back his head and roared with laughter.

"Ge-HA-Ha-Ha! Ge-Ha-Ha-Ha!" he laughed before he looked down and smiled menacingly at him, "You're funny. Really funny. You must be Straw Hat's jester or something…"

"Actually-"

"…I don't recognise your face. So, I'm guessing that you don't have a bounty from the Marines," he grasped his hand on his shoulder, "Beating a nobody like you to a bloody pulp would just be unfair for me. How would that be satisfying, huh? So, next time you decide to talk tough…" he dug his fingertips into his shoulder hard, but Cavalier didn't feel it at all, "…be sure you have the guts to back up those words. Not many people out there who's a nice as me. You better watch your back," he hissed.

"Oh okay," he replied casually, "Thanks for the advice."

Bellamy snorted before he let go of his shoulder and stepped away. He gave a subtle nod towards Sarquiss, making his First Mate grin murderously. The blue haired man ran his finger across his machete's blade and stared straight at Cavalier's neck, wanting nothing more then to plunge into him.

"Now back to why I came here for," Bellamy said as he got behind Luffy and sat on the barstool to the right of him, "Hey, barkeep, get me a glass of your best wine and whatever the kid wants."

The barkeep gave him a nervous look before he poured their drinks. Throughout the entire exchange, not a single word was said across the bar. Everybody was keeping watch; waiting for what is going to inevitable happen.

Soon, the barkeep placed their orders on the bar in front of them and wordlessly stepped away. While Bellamy simply sipped his wine, Luffy picked up his stein and licked his lips eagerly.

"Thanks," he said as he brung the glass to his mouth, "You're actually not too bad of a guy," as he tipped the drink into his mouth.

They sensed it before it happened.

They saw Bellamy's giant hand reach up and behind Luffy's head and grabbed the back of it. Cavalier felt his instinct yell at him to act; Zoro instantly reached for his weapons; and Nami's eyes widened in horror as Bellamy slammed Luffy's face through the bar in front of him, smashing it to pieces in one go.

SMASH!

Bits of vanished wood and glass flew through the air and rained down over the tavern as if it had exploded suddenly. The patrons onlooking what was happened jumped in shock before they cringed as they saw the massive hole in the bar with Luffy, lying face down on the ground, right in front of the impact zone. The Bellamy crew laughed as their captain lifted his arm up and smiled cruelly…but it stopped when they saw Zoro and Cavalier holding up weapons on either side of Bellamy.

Bellamy cast his eyes to the left and saw Zoro with his katana pointed at his neck. He looked right and saw Cavalier pointing his pistol at his forehead with the hammer pulled back, an unreadable expression on his usually smiling face. The captain grinned at both of them challengingly.

"Huh? You want to fight as well," he spat before looking towards Cavalier, "Weren't you on the other side of me? Seems like you got some bite afterall."

"Cavalier! Zoro! Wait!" Nami cried as she stood up, "You promised no-"

"Shut up!" Zoro snapped, not taking his eyes off the grinning man for a second, "He attacked us. We're defending ourselves."

"And I was having such a nice day as well," Cavalier slowly said as he frowned deeply, "You ruined it by being rude."

They heard a noise from below and saw that Luffy was slowly and steadily climbing back onto his feet. He wiped the blood on his brow before he turned and glared at Bellamy.

"Oh? So, you can still stand, huh?" the larger man snickered as he clicked his neck to the side.

"Tsch!" Luffy spat, "Fine. It looks like you're ready for a fight."

The entire bar erupted in cheers and cries. Everybody began to shout at the incoming brawl that was about break out in front of them. Bellamy stepped back as Luffy, Zoro and Cavalier faced of against him and got into a battle stance.

"Hah! They're actually going to fight Bellamy!"

"Haha! Do it, Bellamy! Kick their asses!"

"They've done it now!"

"Go on then, you small fries!" Bellamy roared as his wild eyes glared at them, "Show me what you got against me!"

The only person who didn't seem eager about the fight was Nami. This was not what she wanted to do. They needed information on how to get up the Sky Island and they had found nothing; not a single fragment of knowledge; and now they were getting into a battle. They had only been here less than two hours. She needed to take action. That's why she turned to the barkeep and slammed her hands down on the bar top.

"Hey mister! We want to go to the Sky Island! Do you know anything about it!?"

She didn't mean to shout it. She guessed it was because of the atmosphere effecting her urgency. But she didn't expect for the entire bar to fall silent once again and for dozens of eyes to turn towards her. The patrons, Bellamy's crew, Bellamy himself and her friends looked around in a mixture of surprise and astonishment.

"Is she serious?" Lilly muttered from seat across the bar.

"What did she say?" another pirate questioned.

"Sky Island? Did she really say Sky Island?"

Cavalier looked around the bar and wondered why they were so shocked by what she said. It was almost as if she had requested something taboo.

Suddenly, without warning, the entire bar erupted into fits of laughter. Some held their hands over their mouths, some reared back their heads and cackled into the air, some fell out of their seats and rolled on the fall, while some began to cry because how hard they were laughing. Bellamy and his crew were cackling away as if it was the funniest thing they ever heard. The only people not laughing were the Straw Hat crew who stood there in confusion.

Cavalier lowed his pistol to the floor, "What's going on?"

"They're laughing at us as if we're idiots," Zoro grumbled.

Nami, her cheeks slightly red, turn to crowd in anger, "W-what are you laughing at!? The Log Post is pointing to the sky."

"So what?" one of the pirates said, through fits of laughter, "You're Log Post broke and you automatically think you found an island in the sky! How stupid can you get!?"

Nami blushed even harder and stepped away in embarrassment.

Finally, Bellamy, whilst still chuckling, waved at the crowd to quiet it down, "Okay, okay. That's enough now," he said as the laughter began to die down. The large man snickered one more time before he sat on his stool and leaned against the bar, "I don't know which backwater country you kids are from, but you actually believe the myth of the Sky Island? Haha! What age are you people from?" he sighed with a vicious grin, "The mysterious currents of the Grand Line are now being solved one by one. Knock Up Streams is just one of them," he noticed their confusion and cackled, "Let me guess, you've never heard of it? It's when victims of this current are shot up into the sky and then free fall back into the ocean. A long time ago, when sailors saw the phenomenon of ships falling from the sky, they imagined there was an island in the sky. Saying things like, 'There must be another world up in the sky'. Bullcrap! All phenomenon have an an explanation. All dreams can be explained," he leaned forwards and towered over them, "I can't believe this…I was gonna test you to see if I'd let you join my crew of the 'New Era'…but you're just a bunch of crazy dreamers," he snarled, "Listen up! The pirate's dream era is over! The lost city of gold!? The emerald city!? The great treasure One Piece!? The fools that go after their 'dream treasure' can not notice what's in front of them! In this era of the sea, the ones that do not have real strength are killed are the ones that are killed by their imaginations! In the end, this is how the people will judge the idiots that died. A guy living his dream? Hah! What a joke!" he declared as he reached for a bottle behind the bar and threw it straight at Luffy's head.

The bottle smashed against his cheek and made him fall to the ground surrounded by broken glass and alcohol, much to Cavalier's and Nami's horror.

"Whenever I see those idiots who chase their dream, it really makes my stomach churn," Bellamy snarled as he stood over Luffy, "It's all because there are wimps like you, that we pirates get such a bad rep!"

A beer glass was thrown at Luffy's face, narrowing missing and hitting the ground. More and more bottles and glasses were thrown at them as the rest of the tavern joined in mocking them. One even chucked a barrel at them which only missed Cavalier by a few centimetres. As they pelted them with anything they can get their hands on, they began to jeer insults at them.

"Get out of here!"

"Leave this town already, you losers!"

"You're making the beer taste bad!"

Zoro stood still and took the hits with an annoyed look on his face while Cavalier stood in front of Nami protectively and swatted the items with the back of his hand casually as if they were mere flys. He still wore an unreadable expression on his face; the brim of his hat tilted forwards to conceal his frown. Not bearing it anymore, Nami turned to them angrily.

"Fine, forget about the no fighting rule," she told them, "Kick his ass and let's get out of here."

Zoro and Cavalier gripped their weapons in preparation, but, before they could do anything, Luffy sat up. He was covered glass and bloody cuts; his clothes were soaked with alcohol; he was on the floor and being mocked by an entire group of pirates and the scum of the earth…and yet he wasn't angry.

In fact, he looked serious. It remind Cavalier of how he was when he was taking to Magpie to convince him to take him to Alubarna all those days ago. It was unnerving, but it was calming in a strange sort of way.

"Zoro…Cavalier…" he slowly said, "Whatever you do…don't fight them."

They looked towards him questioningly, but it didn't take them long for them to understand why and nodded in agreement.

"You've got it," Zoro said before he crossed his arms and took everything the pirates threw at him.

"Aye, aye captain," Cavalier added.

"What are you doing!?" Nami yelled at them in disbelief, "You can take on all of them! Why won't you fight!?"

Luffy slowly got onto his feet and took a deep breath, "Cavalier…you mind taking Nami out of here."

"Of course," he said as he gently took Nami by the wrist and led her through the mob of insults and taunts thrown at them.

"Hey! What are you-"

She stopped when he wrapped his left arm around her shoulders and held up his cape to protect her from the beer and glasses thrown at them. They left behind Luffy and Zoro behind to deal with Bellamy and the rest of the crowd.

"Where do you think you're going!" Sarquiss jeered as tossed a tankard at Cavalier's head, "you coward!"

Cavalier took of his hat, because he didn't want it getting ruined, and took the hit to the side of his head. It hit him hard, but he didn't show a single ounce of pain on his face, because he didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

They finally left through the doors and stepped outside into the bright sun, the sounds of laughter and insults still echoing from inside. Nami immediately pulled away from him turned to him with a furious look on her face.

"What are you doing? We can't just-"

"Wow!" Cavalier interrupted with a laugh, his mood changing instantly, "That escalated quickly. My first bar fight. It was very exciting," he said as he began using his powers to remove the beer from his cape, "Better give this a proper wash later."

"Cavalier!" she snapped as she stamped her foot, "You guys could have beaten all of them up."

"We know," he simply said as he picked a shard of glass out of his hair.

"W-well…why didn't you?"

"Because Luffy didn't want us to," he told her with a small smile as he leaned against the wall of the tavern, "I mean, I would prefer not to harm people as well, so that worked out well enough. But…well, there's also another reason. You heard what he said. He doesn't like people who follow their dreams. He think they're worthless in this 'New Age of Piracy'. Well, the reason why I joined your crew is because of my dream. The reason why I'm with you guys and have any sort of purpose in this world is because of my dream. That's why we're all here, isn't it? I can't imagine not having a dream…I guess that's why I kind of feel bad for them and so does Luffy," he told her with a sigh, "It'll be cruel of us to fight them, right?"

Nami looked at him in surprise before she glanced back at the bar doors. Luffy and Zoro will still inside, no doubt being beaten up by Bellamy and his crew and mocked for having the crime of dreaming. She frowned sadly and leaned against the wall beside him and looked down at her feet.

"I hate this place," she muttered.

"I'm sorry. But I'll bet the Sky Island will be much better."

Nami gave a small chuckle, "I'm sure it would. I know this might sound rude…but you're actually pretty wise, Cav. I guess you're not just naive and innocent, huh?"

She looked over and saw him staring up at the sky, his eyes filled with fascination.

"Look," he said, "Another cloud shaped like a seagull…oh, no wait that is a seagull," he said before turning down to her, "Sorry, what were you saying?"

"Never mind," she sighed.

Suddenly, the doors to the bar swung open and the bloodied and bruised bodies of Luffy and Zoro were tossed out into the street. They instantly went to them and made sure they were alright. They were covered in cuts, shards of glass and alcohol, but they were still alive and the look of steely determination was still clear in their eyes.

"Oh god, what did they do to you," Nami said as she swiped some glass off their faces, "This is bad. I never seen them like this before."

Cavalier sadly look down at them as tendered to their injuries as best he could. He was no Chopper, but he did learn some stuff from the doctor.

"Let's take them back to the Merry," he said as picked a dazed Zoro up and wrapped his arm around his shoulder to support him, "Chopper can fix them up good as new."

Nami nodded and helped Luffy to his feet. They were about to leave when a familiar voice called out to them from the tavern doors.

"What? Leaving already?" Sarquiss said as he leaned against the door frame. He looked towards Nami and looked her up and down with a lick of his lips, "You know, you're not too bad, little lady. Why not let me buy you. It's gotta be better than hanging around that freak," he said, sending a smirk at Cavalier.

'Buy? How can you buy a person? How weird of him to suggest that,' he thought in confusion before he noticed the dark glare Nami was sending him.

"Buy me off?" she repeated.

"Yeah," Sarquiss said with an arrogant smirk, "You'll have a great time with us. Promise."

Nami maintained her glare for a few more seconds before she smiled confidently, "No thanks. For me to join a team of small fries like you, will be a waste of my talents," she said before he turned and helped Luffy to walk away.

Cavalier watched her leave before he smiled at his bemused expression, "Yeah…what she said," he told him before he followed after her with Zoro.

Sarquiss snorted and walked back inside, "Stuck up, bitch," he muttered under his breath.

Cavalier stopped when he heard what he said and frowned in anger. He looked back, waited for a few seconds to be sure before he held out his hand.

CRASH!

"AH!"

A loud noise sound came from inside the tavern followed by several people laughing.

"Oi! Barkeep! What's the deal with your chairs, you cheap bastard!" Sarquiss yelled from inside.

Cavalier smiled in satisfaction as he threw the chair leg up in the in his spare hand before catching it again. He then tossed the chair leg to the side of the street and followed after Nami. They walked through the crowded streets of Mock Town, supporting their friends all the way back to the docks. They were silent throughout the journey back and, just when Cavalier was beginning to think he should say something, a strange laugh caught their attention.

"Zehahahaha! Zehahahaha! Well, fancy meeting you lot out here."

They stopped as they saw the giant man from before sitting cross-legged in the middle of the street with a cherry pie in one hand and a bootle of booze in the other to which he took a swig of. Once he gulped the last drop of beer, he lowered it to his side and gave them an eery toothless grin.

"Heard you got into a fight. I was listening in," he said before he snorted humorously, "It really made chuckle what he said. What a bunch of bullshit he was sprouting."

Cavalier frowned slightly, "I don't believe we got your name."

"It's Marshall D. Teach," he told them, "Nice hat you got there, boy. I should get myself one of them."

"Thanks," he said unsurely, "Sorry, what were you saying before? About Bellamy?"

"Zehahahaha!" he laughed, "Surely you must know. That crap about the 'New Age' that they were babbling about. What a joke. I can't help, but laugh."

Suddenly, much to their surprise, Luffy and Zoro stumbled forwards out of their arms and stood up as straight as they can. They were still injured and it was clear that they were using all their remaining strength, but it seemed like they didn't care. Luffy glared up at Teach's face with an unreadable expression on his face and Cavalier knew why.

Have you ever met a person and just knew that you were not getting along?

It's not because of their appearance, what they do or what they say. It's something more vague. A feeling in your gut that makes you feel repulsed by the individual. It was a strange, but it was not something that Cavalier could ignore. He was willing to make friends with everybody and loves to be helpful and cheerful over everything…but there was something about Marshall D. Teach that made his stomach feel heavy. It was as if he should not trust this person no matter what.

Teach laughed again before he raised his arms into the air, "Saying that the age for pirates to dream is over!? What rubbish!" he proclaimed as he slammed the bottle down on the ground in front of him, "A man's dream…WILL NEVER DIE!" he roared, "DO YOU THINK SO TOO, STRAW HAT!?"

His yelling caught the attention of the people around them. They gave him strange looks, some even laughed and mocked him. But Teach didn't care. He continued to make his little speech.

"Being patient ain't fun!" he proclaimed as they shot them a dark, grin that was filled with malice, "Let them laugh! Anyone who wants to be a first rate man will encounter a time when there's no reason to fight back, isn't that right?"

Luffy glared at him for a few seconds before he began to walk forwards, "Let's go," he told them.

"O-okay, Luffy," Nami uttered in confusion as they began to walk towards the port.

Teach grinned as he stood up and stepped to his left, "Looks like I'm in your way. Are you in a hurry?" he questioned as he took another swig of his bottle, "It would be great if you can get there…to the Sky Island," he said before he began to walk past them in the opposite direction, "Nice meeting you all," he said before he wandered into the crowded high street.

Luffy sighed as soon as he left before he began to walk on his own, followed closely by Zoro. Nami frowned slightly before she glanced back at where Teach had gone.

"Wait, he sounded like he knew about Sky Islands. Shouldn't we-"

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Cavalier said, "But I don't think they're in the talking mood," he said as he watched them walk away, "Let's go back to Merry and we'll think of our next move."

Nami hummed to herself before she nodded, "Fine. Good idea," she said before she followed after the other two.

Cavalier was about to leave…but he glanced back at where Teach was. He towered over everybody in the street so it easy for him to spot. He stared at him for a few seconds, feeling the dread in his body return, before he turned and walked away,

"Strange," he murmured out loud, "Very strange."

Island, Somewhere In The Grand Line

As soon as her replacement ship docked at the rickety wooden pier, Hina stepped off the gangplank and marched along the dock, followed closely behind an entire squadron of Marine sailors with loaded rifles at their sides. She glared straight ahead in determination; her fists clenched together; she wore a rare smirk on her lips as she took a drag of her cigarette.

This was it. This was the day she's been waiting for.

As the Marines marched into the sleepy port town, the citizens quickly got out of their way. Some moved to the other side of the main road while others ran into their houses; one pirate hastily stuffed himself into a barrel out of panic. Hina, however, cared very little about them at the moment. She had a bigger goal ahead of her.

As they squadron approached the middle of the town, one man in his forties with a scraggly grey beard, a bald head and clothes that are in dire need of washing nervously ran up to the captain and stuck out his hand to shake.

"Captain Hina, right? You got my-"

"You're the informant?" she sharply questioned.

"Y-yes, the name's Bussel. Are-"

"Good, then lead Hina to him."

"R-right, he's this way," Bussel hastily said as he began to lead her and the Marines through the town, "About my bounty. Am I really getting the entire 50,000,000?"

"Yes," Hina muttered, "As soon as Hina identifies the pirate then you'll get your reward."

Bussel nodded eagerly and licked his lips, "Great. He's in the tavern. Just over there," he told her, pointing at a wooden, rickety building across the town square, "He has a crew. Just to warn you."

"Hina knows," she said before she snapped her fingers.

At her command, the sailors began to take position. Half of them went to the back of the tavern while the half of them formed a semi-circle around the entrance. They held their rifles up and had them all trained on the door, their fingers poised and ready to pull the trigger as soon as Hina gave the order. Once everything was set, Hina accepted a transponder snail megaphone from a Marine and held the speaker to her mouth.

"Attention all in the tavern! This is the Marines!" she announced as a crowd of curious people began to gather around "We have the entire place surrounded! Come out and place your sword on the ground and hold your hands up!" she commanded before she narrowed her eyes, "Hina knows you're in the demon! Your time is up! Now surrender to Hina with some dignity!"

A few quiet seconds past as everybody waited for something to happen. Eventually, the door opened and a person stepped out in the middle of it all, presenting himself arrogantly as if he was king welcoming him adoring subjects.

He was a tall, lean man who looked to be in his mid-twenties. He had beautiful long blond hair that fell in curling locks over his shoulders, fair skin, bright blue eyes and a handsome face. He wore a white chemise that was opened to reveal his muscular chest, dark purple trousers, brown high-heeled boots and a white flowing cape with purple lining. On his head he wore a wide brimmed Stetson hat that had a large blue feather sprouting from it and at his hip was a long blade sword. He smirked as he held a rose to his face, sparkles seemed to shimmer around him with every movement he made.

"Oh my, what an audience. All for moi?" he chuckled as he flicked his hair, "I have to say, I would have preferred to have my stand-off with the Marines to be in a more glamorous location, but it would have to do," he turned his full attention to the captain and gave a beautiful smile, "Hina, was it? Enchanté. Let's not waste time and get straight to the part where I cut your savage men into ribbons. Let this be the day where I, Cavedish, captain of the Beautiful Pirates, shall triumph over the Marines. This will be quiet a momentous occasion."

….

Hina turned to Bussel questioningly, "Who the hell is this?"

"Erk!" Cavendish uttered as if what she said pained him physically.

Bussel looked at her in confusion, "Is…isn't this the pirate you were looking for? Cavalier, right?"

"That isn't Cavalier!" Hina yelled at him, "That's some random pirate!"

"Random? Pirate?" Cavendish whispered as his prideful expression melted away into despair. "Random…pirate?"

Bussel took out a wanted poster from his back pocket and looked at it again, "Are you sure? He kind of looks like the one in the poster. His hair, his clothes, his name…"

"Are you blind?" Hina snapped at him, "Cavalier has silver hair while his is clearly blond. His face is much more chiselled and his eyes are purple. He wears a side cloak and a wears a larger hat with a golden feather. And the only thing both of their names have in common are the first three letters," she shouted at him before she turned away and snapped her fingers, "This has been a waste of time. Everyone get back onto the ship now!"

"Yes, captain!" the Marines said as they lowered their guns and began to march back to the port.

Cavendish's jaw dropped in sheer shock as he watched them leave. His right eye twitched in anger and his hands were clenched into tight fists. He had never felt more insulted in his entire life. He immediately stormed over to Hina and got in front of her, stopping her from going with her troops.

"Wait a minute! Where the hell are you going!? Don't you know who I am!?" he yelled at her, making her arch a single eyebrow at him, "I'm Cavendish! Captain of the Beautiful Pirates! I've killed several Marines in the Rommel Kingdom, raided several towns because they couldn't accommodate my beloved horse, I stole the hearts of queens and princesses of eleven kingdoms and had the kings sent assassin's to kill me! Why are you not acknowledging me!?" he bellowed furiously, "I demand recognition and I demand that you arrest me for being a pirate!"

Hina gave him a bored look before she pointed lazily to the right, "There's a Marine Base fifty miles in that direction. Tell them what you told Hina and they'll arrest you. There, Hina recognised you," she sighed before she pushed a stunned Cavendish out of the way and marched after her troops, "What a waste of time," she muttered.

Cavendish made a noise between a cry and strangled scream before he fell to his knees in despair, "This…this can't be happening. They can't just ignore me like this!" he cried.

That was when he noticed Bussel looking at him curiously before he looked down at the wanted poster in his hands. He kept on doing it; looking at him and then at the poster over and over, making Cavendish growl in anger.

"Strange," Bussel mumbled, "It's uncanny."

"What is?" Cavendish snapped.

The bald man looked up at him, "Do you have brother or something? Because you two look really alike."

"What!?" Cavendish snarled as he got up and snatched the poster from his hands, "How dare you! There is not a single person on this entire planet that is as gorgeous, as handsome, as beautiful as I-ack!" he suddenly cried when he looked at the wanted poster.

The long silver hair, the handsome face, the sparkling eyes, the clothes, the weapon on his shoulder; even the feather in his hat. He looked almost like him in every aspect. Not only that, but their name was almost similar. Cavendish couldn't believe it; his eyes were wide in shock and his jaw dropped to the ground. He was gripping the poster so hard that it was starting to rip in half.

"That…that imposter!" he exclaimed, "He's copied me and is passing it off as his own! That scoundrel! That bastard! How dare he!"

"Well, you know what they say," Bussel said nervously, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…right? Right?"

He gulped when Cavendish whipped out his sword and stabbed the wanted poster all the way through.

"Mark my words, Cavalier!" he growled, "If we ever cross paths, I will strike you down and scatter your remains across the sea! You will pay for this insult! There can only be one to be in the spotlight and that will be me!" he declared boldly as he shook his fist in the air.

Bussel sighed and walked away, "50,000,000 Berrys. That could have been all mine," he grumbled to himself, leaving Cavendish to his plotting.

That's it for now. I hope you enjoyed it.

There we are the Skypiea arc. I think I said it before, but this is one of my favourite arcs along with Whole Cake Island, Marineford and now Egghead Island. Honestly, I'm reading every new chapter and having my mind blown. The last chapter, especially, made me pull a face like Enel when he discovered he couldn't shock Luffy.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

Bye for now :)

Omake

"Wait, am I really based off Cavendish?" Cavalier asked Victor curiously, "I always thought you based me off the Toei cat mascot."

"I based you on neither of them," Victor told him, "It's just a coincidence."