Voyage Of The Cavalier Chapter 10: The Liar, an one piece fanfic

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

WeAreTheWord - Haha, yeah, it seems that way. And he's only been a pirate for about a week!

Guest - It would be nice. We would have to see. It'll be quite amusing to see them finally meet.

wellingtonlucas282 - No problem and I'm so happy that you are enjoying so far. Sorry, I can't update as much as I like to, but I'll try my best. Thanks for reading.

JimmySG0 - Wow! Thanks so much, you're too honestly too kind. I'll be sure to keep it up for future chapters. Thanks for reading.

djinn - Oh definitely and not just Cavendish. There will be many more characters appearing or referenced in this story that wouldn't appear until hundreds of chapters later in the manga. In fact, there is going to be another in this chapter. You'll see what I mean later. Thanks for reading and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter.

phillyitalian - Thank you. My legal team has also got me covered just in case…well, I say legal team, but it's just one lawyer…well, I say lawyer, but it's actually me with a suit, a briefcase and a respectably big moustache…well, I say moustache, but it's just a gang of furry caterpillars who I trained to stay on my upper lip without falling off. But, other than that, I'm okay!

Spedyalarm - Damn, it's been a while hasn't it. Hundreds of different things have happened since then and I don't know where to start. Oda-sensei is really filling this arc with as much lore as possible.

Guestfyre - Thank you so much. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. I hope you don't mind if I answer your reviews together rather than separate.

Hmm… I do hate Absalom for very obvious reasons. Alright, I see what I can do. There are many beautiful women in the One Piece world so it's only a matter of time.

Yeah, looking back on it, I wish I could have Cavalier interact more with Blackbeard, but I was running out of time to publish the chapter. Maybe there will be another time.

I do like the idea of a Marine crew dedicated to the capture of Cavalier run by Hina who, somehow, roped in all the other female marines. Their motivations for capturing Cavalier seem pretty accurate and you are correct about him wanting to return Hibari's teddy bear to her. He'll probably find when she dropped it during a battle and he'll spend the rest of the day tracking her down to give it back to her. That sounds sweet, doesn't it.

I can guarantee that Brook and Cavalier will hit it off almost immediately. He's probably the only person who will laugh at his skeleton jokes.

I was thinking about a Yonko POV, but it won't be until much later. Kaido and Big Mom will be mentioned and maybe some of the subordinates may appear.

Cavalier's eating habits would improve eventually, but, for now, he can only eat a little bit. It will come relevant in a few chapters or so.

Anyway, thank you so much for reviewing and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well.

Phoenix Keyblade - Thanks. You can expect more very similar interactions like that with other One Piece antagonists. Cavalier has plenty to say about how short Doflamingo's trousers are. Cavalier, as his name suggests, is the epitome of swashbuckler archetype with a bit of Captain Jack Sparrow thrown into it. Unfortunately, he does dress like the Toei cat logo which is a total coincidence.

nexusplayer - So you have. Please take a chair, feel welcome to pour yourself a cup of tea and read the latest chapter. I hope you'll enjoy it.

PlayXboxfan - Thanks so much! That's very kind of you to say. Don't tell my other OCs, but Cavalier is one of the best OCs I have ever created. He's just a nice guy in a world with a lot of…very awful people.

David Hayden - Yeah, it's unfortunate for him. But that won't stop his pride or his goal to become the most famous pirate of all time… he just needs to crush Cavalier first that's all.

Firehawk2213 - Thank you so much! I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well.

Bokujj - Aww, thanks so much. You're to kind. Character interactions are really important so I put a lot of effort into it. Thanks for reading.

Foxfire573 - Muchas gracias. Sí, el hecho de que Cavalier conserve algún conocimiento de su vida anterior es una pena. Lo siento mucho por él. Es difícil volver a vivir cuando has pasado la mayor parte de tu vida encerrado en tu propio cuerpo, pero él está mejorando. Fíjate en cómo en lugar de ser una persona melancólica e indiferente como la mayoría de los personajes de historias con una historia de fondo oscura y deprimente, es positivo, cariñoso y una persona muy agradable.

¿Tiene Cavalier un Haki de observación inactivo? Bueno...jaja! Tendrás que descubrirlo más tarde.

No diría vegetariano. Es difícil ser vegetariano considerando que tendría que ver a Luffy comer cientos de trozos de carne todos los días. Cavalier intenta no pensar demasiado en ello.

¡Ah! Muy inteligente. No he pensado en eso. Volveremos a Cavendish de vez en cuando para ver su reacción cada vez que aumenta la recompensa de Cavalier. Probablemente también veremos la reacción de Bartolomeo.

Gracias por leer.

1210justinp - It's not changing. He's actually singing the tune to 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' through laughter. It's his favourite song. Here I written out the first four verses below so you can sing along! :D

Ho Ho Ha Ha He He Ha / Ha Ha Ho Ho He He Ho / Ho He He Ha Ha Ho / He Ho Ho He Ho Ha

Guest - Well…I can't give away too much, because it'll spoil it for later. However, I will say that whatever he takes away, it does appear on his person; it doesn't just disappear. So, if he were to steal friction from an object then it will appear on his hands. And yes, I have given his progress a lot of thought so don't you worry!

Thanks for all the reviews.

Chapter 10: The Liar

Going Merry, Docks of Mock Town

With the last piece of equipment put away carefully with his hoof, Chopper smiled gleefully at his newly packed doctor's bag. He had spent an hour organising it based on size, practicality and the possibility of needing to use it in a quick emergency. He was awfully proud of himself and couldn't help himself but chuckle to himself.

He brushed his hooves together and sighed, "Right, now that's over, I can finally relax. Being here has really made me tense," he told himself as he closed his bag, "But it looks like I had nothing to worry about. Nobody has gotten injured."

"Hi Chopper!"

The doctor's ear flicked at the familiar call and turned around to see Cavalier and Nami, whilst helping the heavily injured forms of Luffy and Zoro up, coming up the gangplank.

"We're back!" Cavalier chirped happily.

Chopper chuckled, "Oh hi, Cav, Nami. How is it-WAH!" he finally noticed his injured crewmates, "WHAT HAPPENED?! DID YOU GET INTO A FIGHT! SOMEBODY CALL FOR A DCOTOR!"

"But Chopper, you are the doctor," Cavalier replied as Sanji and Usopp emerged from the other side of the ship.

"Woah!" Usopp yelled as Luffy and Zoro slumped onto the deck and were quickly tended to Chopper, "What's with the wounds!"

"Nami-san! Are you alright!?" Sanji cried out in alarm as he zipped to her.

"I'm fine," Nami sighed as she pushed Sanji's face away with the palm of her hand, "And don't bother me. I'm not in the mood."

"I feel great now that I'm back with all my friends."

"Yeah...that's great Cav," Usopp said, giving him an odd look, "But serious. What happened to you, guys? You were only gone for just over an hour."

Luffy waved his hand dismissively while his other wrist was being dressed by Chopper, "Meh, we're fine. It was just a bunch of pirates. Don't worry about it. It's all over now."

"That's right," Zoro said as he leaned back on the side of the ship and put his hands over his head casually, "Just some idiots. Nothing to worry about."

Nami, on the other hand, clicked her tongue and crossly looked away, "Well, I'm still mad. Damn it, that was humiliating. I can't believe they all laughed in my face like that. Prepare to set sail, I'm tired of this island."

Chopper looked up at her curiously, "Oh, but did you guys discover any clues about the Sky Island?"

That was the wrong thing to say.

Nami sent a deadly glare at the reindeer and snarled at him, "What was that?"

"Eep!" Chopper squeaked out in horror as Nami stomped over to them.

"No, we didn't find out anything about Sky Islands! We never got the chance to find out anything about Sky Islands! Sky Islands! Sky Islands! Sky Islands! Damn it! I don't care anymore!" she snapped her head around towards them and growled, her body seemed to burst in flames at how angry she was "IS EVERYTHING I SAY ALWAYS SO FUNNY!? DO YOU THINK I'M FUNNY, HUH!?"

Chopper and Usopp squealed in horror and hid behind the closest thing they could find...which happened to be Cavalier. Cavalier looked at them cowering in fear behind him before he reached forwards and patted Nami on the shoulder and offered her a gentle smile. Nami glared at him, but he was not effected by her wrath.

"Don't worry, Nami. We take you very seriously," he said as he seemed to glow in positivity, "Those chaps at the bar clearly don't understand all you're hard work so there's no need to get angry at them. Remember what I said back at the bar," he said, giving her a wink.

Nami gritted her teeth and her eyes blazed in fury...but she then took a deep breath and calmed down gradually.

"Yeah...I suppose," she mumbled reluctantly before she pouted cutely, "I'm still mad, though."

Sanji, Usopp and Chopper gaped in disbelief.

"She's making such a cute face!"

"He calmed her down! Nobody's ever done that!"

"Cav shielded us from her rage!"

They simultaneously nodded in agreement, "Cavalier is useful. We need to use him more often."

"Who? Me?" Cavalier said in amused confusion.

"Sounds like things have gotten pretty rowdy since I left. Anything you want to tell me?" a voice said from the gangplank.

They looked over and saw Robin stepping on board gracefully with a couple of shopping bags in her hands. Her outfit had changed from the clothes that she had borrowed from Nami and she now wore a purple leather jacket and trousers, a short white shirt and a purple Stetson hat. Cavalier (and the author) had to agree that she looked really cool in her new clothes.

"Hi Robin," he called out with a wave, "Love the clothes, especially that hat. You look beautiful."

Robin gave a small chuckle and handed him her bags, "Thank you. Can you be a dear and put the rest of my shopping in my room?"

"Of course, I can-"

However, before he could finish his sentence, Sanji slid in front of him and took the bags instead, "Allow me, Robin, my sweet~" he said before giving Cavalier a competitive smirk, "Nice try, Cav. But your charm is nothing compared to mine. Only I can handle a lady's baggage on this ship," he smirked before he skipped into the cabin with a lovesick look on his face.

"Does he really think he won that?" Usopp murmured with a sweat drop while Cavalier looked on slight bewilderment.

Nami walked up to Robin and raised an eyebrow at her, "You went shopping? That's where you've been all day."

"Of course, I can't keep burrowing your clothes every day," she told her with an elegant smile, "But I haven't just been doing that. I have also been collecting clues about the Sky Island as I did," she said before she pulled out a rolled up from her jacket pocket and gave it to Luffy to inspect, "Here, I obtained this for you."

Luffy made a confused noise as he unrolled the map and looked down at it. The map depicted the island of Jaya in its entirety. Although it was simple with very little detail, it did have a mark on the western cape the settlement of Mock Town where they were currently harboured. However, over on the eastern cape, there was a small black 'X' situated right on the coast of Jaya that looked like it had been drawn on recently.

"What's that 'X'? Is it treasure?"

"Treasure?" Nami squealed.

"Unfortunately not," Robin said, making Nami moan in disappointment, "There mark shows where a very special person from Jaya lives. His name is Montblanc Cricket. He was exiled because he kept talking about his dreams. May I suggest we start there. I'm sure we can talk about similar interests."

Mouth Bay, Jaya

And so, they set sail from Mock Town and crossed the bay towards the place where Montblanc Cricket was said to live.

Everything was going well, but then, while he was in his Watchman's Spot, Cavalier's saw another ship in the distance about two nautical miles away that was in their path. He narrowed his eyes at it and noticed that it look rather familiar. It was a giant ship made from brown planks of wood which had a giant tree planted on the centre of the deck. It two wooden arms sticking out on either side of it which were attached on the end of it by another wooden arms that were carved into ape-like hands holding two cymbals. It had a large figurehead depicting a monkey's face and it had three main sails; the sail on closest to the bow showed the ship's jolly roger which was a grinning orangutang's face flanked by crossbones as well as the word 'MORINOHITO' written underneath it. The ship was coming in quick and so Cavalier wasted no time in calling down to his crew mates.

"Excuse me, chaps! We have a ship coming towards us!" he told them before he leapt down from the Watchman's Spot and landed gracefully on both feet, "It kind of reminds me of Masira's ship from this morning."

"Masira? What that gorilla guy?" Usopp said as they began to gather on the upper deck, "No way, he's back already."

"No, I don't think it's him."

"Still, we don't know if they're here to cause trouble," Sanji said thoughtfully.

"Does it matter? Can't we just punch them out of the way," Luffy said, "How hard can it be?"

Nami sighed, "Let's not start anything with them, okay?" she grumbled, "Let's just see what they want and then can get out of here. Just to be sure, let the negotiator talk to them and we'll hopefully get out of here sooner."

Robin hummed in agreement, "Yes, that is a good idea."

Zoro nodded, "Yeah, the negotiator."

"The negotiator," Chopper agreed.

"The negotiator," Usoop hummed

"Oh yeah, the negotiator," Luffy said.

"The negotiator," Sanji said.

"The negotiator," Cavalier said, "...wait, who is the negotiator?"

"It's you!" they all, apart from Robin, shouted at him.

"Huh? Me?" Cavalier uttered in surprise before a massive grin spread across his face, "I get to be the one to greet somebody new! Brilliant! Best job ever!" he cried out as he ran to the front of the ship and waved to them. As soon as the ship, which loomed over the Merry greatly, was close enough, Cavalier cupped his hands over his mouth and called up to them, "Hello! My name is Cavalier! It's a pleasure to meet you! I like your monkey figurehead!"

From the deck of the opposing ship, a tall, round figure appeared over the side and looked down at them with a glare. The man looked, strangely enough, had orangutan like features like a wide with large teeth, a round, flat face with small eyes, a turned-up nose and long hands. He had tanned skin with long green hair and a beard beneath his chin. He wore black buttoned up shirt that was far too small for him so it revealed his hairy chest, a long green captain's coat, dark red trousers, black shoes and a tricorn hat with his jolly roger stitched onto the front. The fact that his appearance resembled an orangutan once again reminded him of Masira, but he didn't think too much on it.

"Hey you!" the large man called down to him, "Who are you calling a monkey, huh?"

"He has a weird face," Luffy muttered before Usopp slapped him on the back of his head to shut him up.

Cavalier waved to him and offered him a friendly smile, "Sorry, I was talking about your figurehead. It looks great, by the way."

The man sighed, "Well, of course it is. I designed it myself. Now stop flattering me and get to the point. You are pirates, are you not? You should know better than to trespass on these parts. Don't you know this territory is owned by me, Shoujou the king of underwater searching?"

"Oh, we're not trespassing," Cavalier replied, "We're just sailing through your territory without your permission, that's all."

"That is the literal definition of trespassing!" Shoujou shouted before he calmed down, "You shouldn't anger me, you know. Did you know that Crocodile's seat in the seven Warlords is empty now. If they judge by real strength that seat would be mine now. I am so edgy just waiting."

"You're...edgy...then maybe you should stay away from the sides if you're feeling unwell."

"That's not what edgy means!"

"But a Wardlord. Wow! That must mean your very strong."

Shoujou grinned and closed his eyes, "Well...naturally. I know you're wondering why me? I'll tell you something special about me. Ever since I was born, I have never had a hair cut. That's twenty five years without a haircut! Impressive?"

"Very. I mean, I only managed sixteen years. Twenty five years is incredible. You must take care of your hair very well."

"Why, thank you."

"Wait," Usopp whispered, "That guy is only twenty five years old?"

"Maybe, twenty five is old for an orangutan man," Luffy said.

"Well, I wish you all the best. I'm sure you'll get the position," Cavalier told him before he innocently rubbed the back of his head and gave him a honest look, "We're sorry for trespassing onto your territory. We honestly didn't know. We're new to the area, you see? I promise you we won't do it again."

Shoujou blinked his beady eyes down at him before he shrugged, "Alright fine. I forgive you. Now don't do it again."

"Thanks," Cavalier chirped, "Now if you excuse us. We need to get through."

"Huh?" Shoujou uttered in disbelief, "Did you not hear me? I told you not to trespass again!?"

"We won't" Cavalier replied cheerily, "Doesn't trespassing mean entering your territory without your permission? Well, we've already entered your territory. If we were to trespass then we would need to sail out and then back in again. However, since we're already here, we might as well sail to the other side of your territory and leave that way. I promise that we won't enter it again as soon as we leave. I would feel bad it if we were to continue to bother you anymore then we already have. Especially since you seem like a busy and important man. Is that alright with you?"

Shoujou blinked down at him before he hesitantly, nodded, "Well, I suppose that's fine. But don't do it again."

"Thanks, we won't," he cheerily said, "Bye, it was nice meeting you."

"And you," Shoujou replied with a small wave.

They sailed around his ship and continued their journey across the bay, heading straight for where Montblanc Cricket's house should be. Shoujou hummed contently to himself as he and his crew watched the Merry sail away into the distance; he then gave a nod and reclined back on his captain's chair.

"Good. That should teach then not to mess with me," he said with a massive grin on his flat face.

...

"WAIT A MINUTE! THAT'S NOT HOW THAT WORKS!"

Bar, Mock Town

"…I'm telling you it happened. I saw it with my own two eyes."

"What do you mean that she made arms appear out of nowhere? I just don't get it."

The first pirate growned in frustration as he took another swig of beer stein and then set it down on the table that they were sat at, "There's no better way of explaining it. She came in, started asking about Sky Islands and all that and, when we laughed in her face, several arms came out of nowhere and started to strangle us. She must be one of thise Devil Fruit users."

"What did you tell her?" the second pirate question.

"What could I say? I couldn't just tell her she was crazy, because she had me by the throat. My back still hurts because of her," he complained as he rubbed his back where the spine was, "I told her about the Montblanc Cricket guy across the island and she left. He believes in stupid stuff like Sky Islands."

"Cricket? That insane guy?"

"Yeah," the first pirate said as he finished his drink, "I heard he's got some gold stored somewhere on the island, but nobody can get close to him. The Saruyama is too strong."

"Hey, what was that?"

Both pirates jumped in surprise as a rough voice interupted their talk and turned towards the bar. Bellamy, who was sat on one of the barstools, glared back at them with a sinister smirk on his face which made them both shiver in fear.

"What was that about gold?" Bellamy questioned again as he turned his attention away from his drink and focused on what they were saying.

East Coast Of Jaya

It didn't take them very long to get to the other side of Jaya.

The waters were calm and the wind was strong and they, fortunately, they didn't run into anymore pirates on the way there. This side of the island was populated by tall trees as far as Cavalier's eye can see and nothing much else, but that's when they spotted it.

On the coast, right at the point that was marked on the map was a giant castle made of white bricks and blue and green striped spires and a large green and yellow striped dome on top of it. It had hundreds of windows, a row of battlements, eight canons pointed out to see and a wooden door that was its entrance. It looked something from a fairy tale and most of the crew stood in shock as they sailed closer to it.

"That's so cool!" Luffy cried.

"That Cricket guy has an entire castle!" Usopp yelled.

"He must be rich to have something like that," Chopper cheered.

Cavalier nodded, "I know, it must have taken him ages to paint."

"Eh!?" Luffy, Usopp and Chopper cried out in shock.

Zoro rolled his eyes at them, "You idiots. You really can't see it."

"A man who dreams, huh?" Sanji said, "More like a man who wants attention."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

As soon as they got close enough to the coast so they could harbour themselves, Luffy jumped off the Merry and looked at the castle from a different angle. His jaw dropped in shock as did Usopp's and Chopper's.

The castle was in fact...not a castle. What they saw was a giant board made of plywood which was only shaped and painted to look like a castle. Behind it was just a normal looking house that was built into the side of the board, making it appear that one half of it was sticking out of it. It had a circular and made of white brick and it had a small thatched roof with some windows dotted around the side. There was some barrels, some chairs and a wooden stump outside of it, but nothing really much else. Their disappointment was immeasurable.

"What! It's just a board!"

"Aww! No way!"

Zoro clicked his tongue and tightened the mooring lines onto the coast, "This guy's house is just half a side, the rest is just plywood."

"Must be some sort of cheapskate," Sanji said as he furled up the sails.

"I still think it's impressive," Cavalier said, "Maybe we can do something similar to the Merry?"

"Let's not. It's already damaged enough."

Nami leapt onto dry land and observed the house with some interest, "So, this is it, huh?" she mumbled before she looked over to Robin, "While was this guy exiled again? Something about having a dream?"

"I don't know all the details," Robin told her, "But apparently he did talk about a large amount of gold hidden here on Jaya."

Nami's eyes lit up, "Gold! Here!" she cried before she pointed at Chopper, "You start digging!"

"What!? Me!?"

Luffy casually pushed open the door to the house and poked his head in, "Nobody's here. Guess he's gone somewhere."

"Hey, don't just walk into other people's homes!"

Cavalier admired the smaller building contently before his eyes spotted sitting on the stump not too far away. He walked over to it and saw that it was a picture book; the front cover depicted a simple drawing of a grinning bald man with an odd-looking crown on his head standing on the bow of a ship. The book seemed old; the edges of the book were worn and the pages were starting to turn brown on the sides, but it was still readable. There was a title above the image and he tried to read them. However, he only recognised two of the words; the other three had not been taught to him by Robin yet. Despite this, he make an effort by using his finger to slide underneath each word and try to sound them out.

"The...st...o...re...re..re...um...the sto...ri?" he frowned slightly and turned to Nami, "Do you mind helping me? These words are hard."

Nami accepted the book and looked over it, "The Story Of Noland: King Of The Liars," she read for him, "Sounds like an interesting book."

"King Of Liars, Noland?" Sanji said as he walked over, "That takes me back. I used to read that a lot."

"You know it?"

"Of course, I do. It's pretty popular back where I grew up."

"Really?" Usopp said, "I never heard of it."

Nami looked at the inside cover of the book, "But it says that it was published in the North Blue."

"Yeah," Sanji said with a small smile, "I was born in the North Blue, didn't I tell you?"

"No, this is probably the first time you've mentioned it," Usopp commented as Cavalier turned to Sanji.

"You were born in the North Blue? Wow, that's amazing," he said, "What's it like? I bet it's brilliant, right? You have to tell me all about it."

Sanji hesitated slightly as he looked away from Cavalier's inquisitive gaze. Cavalier was worried that he had said something wrong, but then the cook gave him a small smile and nodded to the book.

"I mean I could...or you can hear about Noland the Liar," he suggested, "It may be a children's story, but I heard it was real."

"R-right," Cavalier said, taking it as a sign to inquire no more, before he turned to Nami, "Can you read it to me? I would love to hear it."

Nami chuckled and took a seat on the stump, "Alright fine."

"Great," Cavalier said as he sat cross-legged in front of her on the ground, "Can you also do the voices as well?"

"I'm only going to use one voice and it will be mine," she told him sternly before she opened the book and began to read.

'The Story Of Noland The Liar'

In a country somewhere in the North Blue, there was a man named Mont Blanc Noland.

He was an explorer who always spoke of past adventures, but the people of the village didn't know if these tales were true or not.

One day, Noland came back from one expedition and went to report to the king.

'I discovered an island across the mighty seas that has a mountain of gold,' he told the king, 'and if you follow me the you can have all the riches in the world.'

The king, wanting to see this himself, commanded 2000 soldiers to come with him.

The king and the soldiers then set sail to cross the mighty seas. They braved huge waves and many giant sea monsters..

After going through many hardships, the king, Noland and 100 soldiers who had survived, arrived on the island. But the only thing they saw on the island was an ordinary jungle.

Noland was blamed for this and sentences to death for his lies. His last words were:

'I know' he he gleefully proclaimed, 'The mountain of gold sunk into the sea!'

The king and the villagers couldn't believe it.

No one believed Noland anymore, but he continued to lie till his death.

(North Blue Fairy Tale, 'King of the Liars, Noland')

...

"That wasn't as fun as I thought it was going to be," Cavalier admitted.

"It's a moral story," Nami kindly said as she closed the book, "It teaches children to not do bad things, like lie, or something bad will happen."

Cavalier blinked up at her before he turned to Usopp with a distressed look on his face, "Wait, does that mean Usopp is going to die because of the lying lessons he's been giving me. No, I don't want him to die!"

"I'm not dying," Usopp reassured him, "It's just a fictional story. It has nothing to do with me."

"I don't know," Nami slyly hummed as she opened the last page in the book, "It does say Noland died before he can live his dream of being a great warrior of the seas."

"No it doesn't! Stop that! You're upsetting, Cav!"

SPLASH!

Alarmed, they turned to the coast in time to see water flying into the air. They were fairly sure that Luffy had been in that place at the time which meant...

"Wha! Luffy fell in!" Usopp cried out as he ran to the spot he had been.

However, before he could reach him, a figure jumped out of the sea and landed on the land into a fighting stance. He was a tall muscular, middle aged man with blond hair spiky hair that poked out from under the large chestnut that grew out of the top of his head. He had a narrow face, a strong jaw, small shrewd eyes and, in his mouth, had a lit cigarette. He wore dark-purple tracksuit trousers with a white stripe running along each leg, and a rope around his waist. He was shirtless and shoeless and on his left arm, he had a tattoo of a chestnut with the word "Maroon" written across it.

"Who the hell are you people?" he demanded, "You punks got a lot of nerve to enter a man's house without permission. This is my territory."

Sanji snarled a ran towards him, "Usopp, go save Luffy," he ordered as he prepared to battle him.

As Usopp did just that, Sanji swung his leg at his head, but the man dodged expertly before he sent his own kick at him. Sanji dodged and then dodged again as the man kept throwing kicks and punches at him before the cook caught a karate chop from him using his foot. However, the man twisted around, pulled out a pistol from his trousers and aimed it at Sanji's unprotected head. He would have fired the pistol, but it suddenly disappeared from his hand, much to his confusion.

"Phew! That was close," Cavalier said as he tossed the man's pistol to the side.

Zoro charged towards him with his hands on his swords, ready to back up Sanji, but he stopped when the man stumbled backwards on his feet. His eyes rolled up in their sockets and his breathing became ragged; very soon the man collapsed onto the ground, leaving them all confused and concerned.

Inside the House

"Dysbarism."

"Bless you."

"No, he is suffering from dysbarism," Chopper repeated as he placed a cold towel over the man's head, "It's various symptoms divers experience sometimes. But it's not a long time illness and it should pass."

After carrying the unknown man inside the house and laying flat on a bed they found, Chopper got to work in treating him. They were very shocked by his appearance, but now they can't help but feel concerned for him. After all, they were the ones that broke into his house.

The house was as small as they expected from the outside; it was only suitable for one person to live in comfortably. On the walls hung several ornaments, maps and even a rifle over the doorway while, on the other side of the room, there was a bookcase with several leather backed journals packed onto it. Other than that there was very little else other than the chairs, a table and a liquor cabinet full of alcohol.

"What a cosy little place," Cavalier hummed as he studied one of the maps hanging on the walls, "I wonder if they other half of it was just as great."

His eyes wondered over to a picture hanging on the wall and he leaned in closer to inspect it. It showed the man that was unconscious on the bed with two other very familiar figures grinning at the camera. On the left was Shoujou and on the right was Masira, much to his surprise.

"Diving, salvaging and underwater searching," he muttered to himself, "Are they all looking for something?"

SLAM!

"BOSS! ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?"

Suddenly, the door to the house slammed open. Poking their heads through the narrow doorway, Masira and Shoujou cried out in worry as they looked at the man laying on the bed, but then they saw the other intruders and were stunned silent.

...

"Oh, hiya chaps," Cavalier greeted, "So, this is your friend's house, right?" he said before he looked around, "Usopp, why are you climbing out of the window?"

"Why do you think!?" Usopp shouted back from halway out the window.

The two simian-like men snarled in anger as they turned to them, raising their large fists and baring their their teeth at them.

"What are you doing here!?"

"What did you do to boss!?"

"Cavvy," Luffy prompted.

"On it," Cavalier said as he gave them a reassuring smile, "Don't worry you two. He's just fallen ill and so we're taking care of him."

...

"They're such great guys!" they declared with tears in their eyes, their mood turning 180 degrees in a single second, "Thank you!"

"Aww, chaps don't cry," Cavalier said as he held out his arms, "Come here. Let's hug it out."

Masira and Shoujou sniffed and accepted the hug as the wailed dramatically, Cavalier ever so often patting their sides comfortingly and whispering to them words of encouragement.

"They listened to reasoning!" Usopp yelled, still stuck inside the window.

Not too long after that, the man had woken up and recovered from his symptoms much to everyone's relief. After a few seconds of explaining what happened, the man finally introduced himself as Montblanc Cricket, the person who they had been looking for. With Shoujou and Masira outside doing their duties, the Straw Hats gathered inside the house and listened in on what the man had to say.

"Thanks for your help," he grumbled as he took a drag off his cigarette as he sat on his bed, "Sorry for all the trouble. I thought you were like those fools trying to steal the gold."

"Gold? You have gold?" Nami questioned.

"Hey, didn't you hear what he said?" Usopp said.

"Should you be smoking so soon after recovering?" Cavalier questioned.

"It's fine," Cricket grumbled as he took another drag, "Now, you wanted to ask me something."

"We want to got the Sky Island," Luffy immediately blurted out, "Tell us how to get there!"

"Sky Island," Cricket repeated before he laughed in their faces, "You guys actually believe in that?"

Cavalier gently grabbed onto Nami's arm before she could unleash her fury on him, "Nami, beating somebody up after they recovered is also not a good idea."

Luffy frowned angrily at him, "Wait, are you telling me that they don't exist!?"

Cricket merely chuckled before he gave a deep sigh, "I don't know...but I knew a man who said it does. He was known as a great liar though, someone who was always being laughed at. They called him Noland the King of Liars...it's an old story though. It's something my ancestors had resented ever since he died."

"Ancestors," Nami uttered, "Wait, are you related to him?"

Cricket leaned back against the wall and blew a plume of smoke into the air, "Yeah, he was my great, great, great grandfather. It's annoying legacy that goes so far back...but there isn't a trace of his lineage in me. The whole Montblanc family was exiled to a life of shame, even now we are badmouthed. However, nobody hates him for it."

"Why not?"

"Because Noland, out of all things, was a very honest man," he seriously told them, much to their shock, "When Noland was defending his claims, he said, 'I know the mountain of gold sunk into the sea'. The storybooks showed him with a grinning face, but he was actually shedding tears of hate and injustice when he did. The island that the people went to was really the place where Noland himself found the Golden City. It was definitely not just his imagination. Noland claimed that the Golden City had fallen undersea because of the shifting landscape from earthquakes. However, everyone thought he was just making false claims and nobody believed his gold city story. His death penalty was carried out surrounded by witnesses sarcastic laughter."

"How horrible," Cavalier sadly said, "Why would they do something like that to him?"

Usopp stood up and pumped his fists in the air, "Then you're attempting to prove Noland was innocent by trying to find the Golden City, right?"

"QUIT TALKING SHIT!" Cricket roared at him, making Usopp cower back into his chair, "Whether or not my ancestor was a honest person or a great adventurer...it has nothing to do with me! Just for being his descendent I was mocked by strangers! Could you imagine how a kid in that situation feels!? My entire childhood was like that!" he yelled at him before he took a deep breath and calmed down, "You're right. During the past four hundred years, countless members of my family came here trying to correct the family name. But none of them returned. I felt ashamed being in a family like that, so I ran away from home and became a pirate."

"Wow, you're a pirate as well. We have so much in common," Cavalier gushed, making Cricket roll his eyes.

"I didn't want to be one. I just wanted to escape Noland's curse. But ten years ago…after a series of events, my ship reached this island accidentally. It's ironic that I, the one who hated Noland the most, was the one to reach this place," he mused in some amusement, "When I was standing in the cliff where the gold was suppose to be in the story…I thought this was my fate. There is no escape. I didn't care if it was true or false. I didn't really want to finds the gold or to prove his innocence. This is between me and the man who ruined my life. This is a duel. Before I die, I will settle this and tell the truth to everyone."

Everybody remained silent as Cricket finished his story and let him continue to stare out the window and smoke his cigarette. Usopp sniffed as he wiped his tears away, ruining the tone of the room a little bit, but they couldn't blame him.

"The power of a real man," he mumbled through tears.

"What about those two?" Luffy suddenly asked, "Why are those monkeys here?"

Cavalier nodded in agreement, "Oh, yes. They must have also had some sort of emotional past that inspired them to look for Noland's treasure and made you all join together."

"What? Masira and Shoujou?" Cricket said, "No, they're just fans of the book."

"…oh."

Luffy groaned in annoyance, "Enough about the monkeys…"

"You were the one who brought it up!"

"…you still haven't answered my question. Do Sky Islands exist or don't they?"

Cricket cocked a single eyebrow and gave a small chuckle, "Alright fine," he said as he reached for his bookshelf beside his bed and pulled out one leather bound book off of it, "You're too impatient, you know that. The one who claimed the Sky Islands existed was Noland as well. If you have anything to with him, you will be nothing more than a joke."

"Huh? He went to a Sky Island!?"

"Doesn't say," Cricket muttered as he flicked through the book before tossing it to Nami, "Here, have a read of this."

Nami caught the book in both hands and then inspected the pages that were open up in front of her. Her eyes lit up in joy as she read it.

"No way, it's a captain's log written by Noland himself," Nami said in fascination as she felt the old and slightly torn pages, "A four hundred year old log book."

"Are you going to do the voices now?"

"This isn't a storybook Cav. There's no dialogue to do voices to," she sighed before she began to read aloud, "'Year of the sea. 1120. June 1st. Clear weather. I set sail from the lively city of Villa. Following the directions from the Log Post, we went northeast-east, straight out of the dock. In the afternoon, I met a merchant ship and bought a unique object. It's a small snowboard-like object called a 'Waver'. It is a strange boat that will move even when there is no wind. There seems to be a secret method needed to use it as I could not control it well. Now it has become a popular toy among the crew.' Wow, that sounds cool. I want one."

"Hey Nami, keep reading!" Usopp, Luffy and Chopper yelled in excitement.

"I'm enjoy this story much more than the last one," Cavalier said.

Nami cleared her throat and continued reading, "'The waver's source of energy seems to exist only on a Sky Island. It is said that there a lot of special items found in the sky. Speaking of Sky Islands, a fellow adventurer once showed me a living sky fish. I was surprised seeing such a strange creature. With out ship, it is impossible to get there, but, being a sailor, I really wish I could go to the sea of the sky someday,' This is it," Nami said as she closed the book, "The sky of the sea."

"Just like Robin said!"

"That must mean that Sky Islands do exists!" Usopp cheered much to everyone's experiment.

"Wooohooo! Sky Islands Exists!" the cheered happily.

…

"…but we still have no idea how to get there," Nami sadly pointed out.

"Oh yeah," they all sighed in disappointment.

Cricket gave a chuckle as he got off his bed and stretched his arms, "No, you don't," he said before he gave them a toothy grin, "But I know a way," he told them.

To explain more, Cricket took them outside so they could see the clouds that gently passed over them. The night was quickly approaching and so the sun had lit the sky in a orange hue that was beautiful to see. Luffy, Nami and Cavalier were the only ones who wanted to listen to explanation; the others, except for Zoro who decided to take a nap, were assisting Masira and Shoujou who were kindly repairing the Merry for them.

Cricket grunted as he lit up yet another cigarette and stuck in between his jaws. Cavalier honestly had no idea where he got them, but they always seemed to be about his person. Not only that, but he was a little concerned about his health; chain smoking can't be good for the lungs.

"Alright listen up," Cricket grumbled, "I'll tell you all I know about Sky Islands. However, not everything I know can be proven true. It's up to you to decided whether to believe me or not."

"This is jolly exciting," Cavalier whispered to Nami happily, "Do you think I should be taking notes?"

"You can't write, Cav."

"Quiet up front," Cricket snapped before he pointed towards the coast and the sea beyond it, "In some parts of the sea, during the day, it would suddenly become dark as if it was night."

"Oh! Oh! I've seen it!" Luffy cried as he raised his hand, "We seen it happen, didn't we?"

"Yeah, this morning," Nami mumbled before she shivered in fear, "And then those behemoths appeared."

Cricket raised an eyebrow at them, "Huh? You've seen them, have you? Well, I have a few theories about where they came from, but I won't mention them now. In regards to the sudden arrival of 'night', it is called by shadows cast by a very dense cloud called an Imperial Cumulus."

"Imperial cunulanous?" Cavalier repeated confidently.

"…yeah, close enough."

"It's just nimbostratus?" Nami asked with a small frown, "Sure, they block out sunlight, but not that much."

"Are you sure you're confusing it for a just a cloudy day?" Luffy questioned.

"Be quiet and listen!" Cricket shouted at them before he sighed, "These Imperial Cumulus are different from your regular clouds. They don't ascend nor rain, but when it appears in the sky it completely blocks out the sun like an eclipse. It won't change form and it continues to float around the sky like like a big floating fossil."

"It won't produce precipitation even at such a great density?" Nami questioned doubtedly, "That's impossible."

"That's why I said it was up to you guys if you want to believe me or not," Cricket said with a shrug, "However, from what I can tell, if a Sky Island does exist then it would inside that cloud."

Luffy jumped onto his feet and whooped for joy, "Alright! Thanks old man! Let's get to the Sky Island now!"

THWACK!

"We still don't know how to get up there!" Nami shouted at him as he groaned and held his aching jaw.

Cricket shook his head, "The real deal is just starting now. I'll warn you first…" he said cautiously, "You going to have to risk your life."

"We do that everyday with Nami around," Luffy grumbled.

THWACK! THWACK! BASH!

And, just like that, Luffy was on the ground with several sore swellings on his head. Cavalier gave him a sympathetic pat on the back before he stepped over him.

"So, there is a way then?" he asked.

"There is," Cricket muttered, "Ever heard of the Knock Up Stream? In order to get up that high then you need to sail up that current."

Cavalier hummed before he looked over at Nami, "I'm fairly sure Bellamy said something about that."

"You're right," Nami realised, "A giant current that rockets out of the sea. But something throws ships into the air and make them crash down again."

"That's the case normally, but the key here is all about timing and if you get it wrong…well, it ain't a risk for nothing. Nobody's stupid enough to get close enough to investigate Knock Up Streams before, but there's a theory that they are caused by large caves in the sea bed."

"Huh?" Luffy uttered, "What do you mean?"

Cavalier turned to him, "Well, you see, when cold water enter these caves they undergo a tremendous amount of pressure on all sides. Pressure from the water tension generates heat: add the heat from the earth and it creates a lot of water vapour inside these caves. This builds up more and more over time until the pressure become too much and it erupts upwards into the Knock Up Stream that Cricket is talking about."

….

Cavalier sweat dropped at the strange looks Nami and Luffy were giving him.

"…what's wrong, chaps?"

"…err…" Nami hesitated, "… we just wasn't expecting you to say something so…so…"

"Smart," Luffy finished, earning an annoyed look from Nami.

Cavalier gave a small chuckle, "Well, I mean it's the same principals to how a kettle works so I just applied it to here."

"Ah, that explains it."

"The Knock Up Stream lasts for one minute and it's in different locations every time. But it usually happens five times a month," Cricket told them, "So, you have two factors to worry about. The first is that your ship as it currently is won't survive the journey. Sorry, but with a ship like that, it's honestly a miracle it still floats this far inside the Grand Line."

"Nah, the Merry can take it. I'm sure it'll be fine," Luffy said as he waved his hand dismissively.

"Be that as it may, Masira and Shoujou are adapting your ship to be more robust for the journey," Cricket told him, "It's better to be safe than sorry."

"Oh really?" Cavalier said as he waved towards the brothers who were nearby, "Thanks chaps for all your hard work!"

They grinned and gave them a thumbs up.

"You got it, brother Cav!," Masira said.

"We'll sort everything out," Shoujou called back.

"Nice chaps," he said before he focused back on Cricket, "So, what's the second factor?"

"Timing," he answered gruffly, "The Imperial Cumulus would have to be directly under the Knock Up Stream. If there is nothing on top, you fall back down and everyone will be fish food. Or, even if you successfully enter the Imperial Cumulus and the Sky Island doesn't exist then you'll be dead."

Nami hummed thoughtfully and clapped her hands, "Well, that settles in then. We won't do it," she nervously chirped, "Right Luffy…please."

"Nah, let's still do it," he said, making Nami slump over in depression, "Come on, we've gone this far. We can't stop now. Cavvy, you agree with me, right?"

Cavalier hummed and rubbed his chin, "Well, it really depends on how long we have to wait. Nami's Log Post will reset itself if we stay here for too long."

"Exactly, thanks Cav."

Luffy turned to Cricket, "Hey, when is that cloud thingy going to go over the other thingy next?"

"Probably days or months or years, right?" Nami asked hopefully.

"It'll probably be tomorrow at noon," Cricket replied, much to Nami's shock.

"What!? That soon!?"

"Ah well, that's great then," Cavalier chirped, "Tomorrow, we'll sail up the Knock Up Stream and land, hopefully on the Sky Island. That doesn't seem too hard," he said without a hint of sarcasm in his voice, "We should probably prepare for it then. There's a lot to do."

"Yay!" Luffy called out, "We're going to the Sky Island!"

"Sky Island! Yay!" he joined in.

"Yay," Nami moaned as tears streamed down her face, "So, how are we going to break the news to the crew? Usopp is really not going to like this plan."

"Oh yeah," Luffy uttered as he scratched his head, "Cavvy, do something."

"Sure thing."

"Honestly, you guys!" Nami shouted at them while Cricket grinned contently.

Bar, Mock Town

"Ha! He really believes in that stupid story?" Sarquiss chuckled as the rest of the crew howled in laughter, "That's hilarious, Bellamy! What a total idiot!"

Bellamy smirked viciously as he looked over his crew sat around the same table. When he had overheard those two pirates mentioned that there was gold on this island which didn't belong to him, he grew very irritated. But, at the same time, he began to plot a dark scheme that would, hopefully, help remedy his irritation. And why not? It's not as if this Montblanc Cricket was important. He was some moron who still believed in a fairy tale; gold was far too good for the likes of him. That's why he had called his entire crew over.

There was Eddy: a blond haired man with shrewd eyes, a square jaw and wore thick square framed glasses. He was the crew's navigator. Muret; a pretty woman with long pink hair tied into a bun, oval shaped eyes and a beauty spot on her left cheek; she was the ship's doctor. Rivers: a tall man with greyish skin, wide black eyes and often wore a white cap with long ear flaps; he was the marksmen of the Bellamy pirates. Hewitt; a muscular man with black hair, tanned skin and a permanent frown on his face which made him look constantly angry: he was the ship's chef. Mani; a pretty woman with black curly hair, dark skin and black eyes; she was one of the combatant on board the ship. Ross; a muscular man with the upper half of his face hidden behind a light blue baseball cap with the letters 'ALLR' stitched onto it; he was another combatant. Mido; a man with long dark green hair, slightly tanned skin and wore sunglasses that concealed his eyes; he played the role of the shipwright. Henge; a large, muscular man with dark skin, a bald head and large lips; he was the Watchman. And finally, there was Percy; a skinny man with long black hair, greyish skin and wore round sunglasses; he was the last combatant of the crew.

They were the strongest pirate crew currently on Jaya, nobody could oppose them.

"Even so," Bellamy said as the laughter quieted down, "He might be an idiot, but he's still a rich idiot."

Rivers perked up at that, "Huh? How rich?"

"Not sure, but who cares. What's important is this punk thinks he could stay on our island and hoard all that wealth to himself."

"Pathetic," Ross grunted as he sipped his beer, "There's not enough room on this island for dreamers like him."

"We'll make better use of it, for sure," Mani drawled as the other female members of the crew nodded in agreement, "I've been thinking of buying more jewellery."

"You're going to waste it on jewellery," Mido sniffed, "I'm going to use my share to build my own personal brothel."

"You perv."

"Meh, I'm tired of those ones already on this island. Come on, someone has to agree with me."

"Why do you need a brothel when you can buy a handful of slaves," Percy said as he licked his lips disgustingly, "They're like a portable brothel."

"You're revolting," Lily said as the others laughed.

"Hey, who's the pervert now," Mido chuckled.

Once the horrible laughter died down, Sarquiss leaned back on his chair and turned towards Bellamy, "So, what's the plan, captain? When are we going out?"

"Tonight. No time like the present, I say," he said as he stuck his tongue out of his mouth, "We'll go other there, raise hell and come back as much as gold as we can hold. Who's with me!?" he yelled, earning cheers from the pirates.

However, before they could finish their drinks and sail away, the doors to the bar opened suddenly and the resort owner ran in whilst still rocking left and right like he always did. He head straight for their table and Bellamy wouldn't have much about it if he didn't see a familiar transponder snail in hands

"Sorry, sorry for the disturbance, sirs and madams," he nervously said.

"Hey, aren't you supposed to be at the resort," Henge grumbled in annoyance, "Why the hell are you bothering us for?"

"Sorry, sorry, but I received word that there's a call for Mister Bellamy. They seem pretty urgent. They told me to tell you to expect one tonight."

Bellamy grinned and his eyes lit up excitedly. He snatched the snail from his hands, "Perfect, a call from the boss. It's been too long," he said before shooting a glare at the resort owner, "You're still here! Get lost!"

"R-right…s-sorry," he mumbled as he scurried away.

Bellamy laughed as he placed the snail down on the table, "Change of plans. You lot ho ahead and get that treasure. I'll be waiting here for when the boss calls. Don't take too long, you hear?"

"But Bellamy," Hewitt said, "Why do you think he wants to call us?"

"Maybe he's got another job for us."

"Or maybe a promotion in the ranks."

Bellamy grinned widened at the last suggestion and patted the yellow shell of the snail, "Whatever it is, it'll be important. Otherwise why wouldn't he call me. We just have to make sure we don't let him down."

Cricket's House

That night, as the moon glowed prettily and the stars spread out across the dark skies, the Straw Hats and the Saruyama Alliance decided to throw a Bon Voyage party before the day that will set out to ride on the Knock Up Stream. Everybody were in good spirits, Cavalier was able to explain the situation to the more…nervous crew members about what they were about to do and was able to calm them down. He had no problems at all with Sanji, Robin or Zoro who seemed pretty up for it despite the danger of dying.

Food was prepared, drinks were brought out and everyone was having a great time. Zoro and Shoujou had entered a drinking contest, Chopper and Luffy were singing their heads of, Sanji was trying to impress Nami with some food he just made, Usopp and Masira were play fighting each other while Cricket guzzled some booze he had stashed away for special occasions. The house was alive with noise, singing and laughter; not one person paid mind to what was about to happen tomorrow and just enjoyed the party.

Over in the far side of the room, Robin was reading from some of the journals that Noland had written about his voyages while Cavalier sat beside her and listened to her read.

"Now this part is interesting," she said as she glided her finger along one passage from the journal, "Can you read this sentence?"

He frowned in concentration, "…in…the…sk…sk…ull…sk…ull…skull?"

"Yes, well done," she said warmly, "But remember what I told you about words the end with 's. It means that something belongs to them so it's actually skull's."

"Oh right."

"Now try again. What belongs to the skull?"

"In the skull's right eye, gold is seen," Cricket recited as sudden appeared in front of them, making them both sweat drop.

"Hmm? Gold? Did somebody say gold?" Nami questioned as she pushed away the tray of canopies that Sanji was handing out to her.

Cricket stood up, took a swig from his bottle before he sighed, "The page that has the tear drop on it, this were Nolan's last words. He was sentenced on that same day. Still don't know what it means," Cricket muttered as the room fell silent. He took another swig before he stumbled drunkly around, "The skull's right eye!? Is that a city that was before here? Or is it hinting his death? Bah! I don't know. All the pages are blank after that! That's why we need to go underwater!"

"You said it boss!"

"We're the kings of salvaging!"

"That we are," Cricket said drunkenly as he spun around, "The diary entry on 5/21/1122, Jaya," he announced before he cleared his throat, "When we reached that island, we heard…a unique chirping sound from a mysterious bird in the forest," he recited after years of practise, "and it was followed by the loud ringing sound of bells. The sound from the gigantic, beautiful bells made of gold can be heard from all corners of the sea like a message delivering the city's glory in the old days. The change in civilisations throughout the ages in the endless ocean, is for us, who have lived but a few dozen years. A grand matter that leave us speechless! After that, we always felt uneasy when we heard bells!"

They all cheered enthusiastically as he finished with a low bow to his audience, before tipping what remained in the bottle up into his mouth in one gulp. He wiped his lips with his arm before he stumbled over to the a closet and pulled out three objects covered in a greyish cloth. He carried them over to the centre of the room, sat cross legged on the floor before he unveiled them for them to gaze upon.

"Take a look at this!" he declared as he presented to the room.

Everyone gasped in surprise while Nami squealed in delight as her eyes became heart shaped like. Inside the cloths were three golden bells that glittered in the candlelit room prettily. They were no bigger than the size of somebody's hand and were etched with square like patterns all around it.

"Wow! A golden bell like from the book!" Usopp cried out, "I thought they would be a little bigger."

"This is not the ones mentioned in Noland's log," Cricket said, casting a weary look at Nami as she rubbed one of the golden bells onto her face, "These are bell-shaped tokens. We found three on the sea bed a few years back."

"My precious," Nami whispered as she hugged the golden possessively.

"We have to make sure she doesn't steal any of them," Zoro muttered.

Luffy grinned and looked up at Cricket, "So, the golden city did exist after all, right?"

"Not necessarily," Shoujou said as he reclined against the wall, "Small amounts of gold like this is common in ruins."

"What's a token?" Chopper asked.

Robin gently closed the book ash was reading and placed it on her lap, "Tokens were a way of standardising value by organising gold pieces into milligram units. This is evidence of sophisticated trading practices taking place and proof that there has been an ancient civilisation in the area."

Cricket hummed, "You're right. Also that mysterious birds that make strange sounds…Masira."

"You got it boss," Masira said before he went off to retrieve something else covered in cloth from another shelf.

He brought it over and unveiled it to them. Once again, the gold sparkled in the flickering candlelight, but it wasn't a golden bell, but a large golden statue of a bird. It had a long thick bill similar to that of a toucan's, a round body, two round protrusions on the top of its head and sturdy claws. Its wings were outstretched in front of it and were wrapped around yet another golden bell.

"Wow! There's more!" Luffy said gleefully.

"There's more!" Nami cried.

"Calm down, would you."

"This is the last of them," Cricket grumbled with a sigh, "Ten years I've been doing this and this is what I got to show for it."

"I wouldn't say that. I think they're lovely," Cavalier said as he got up to inspect it more closely, "What an adorable statue of a penguin."

"It's not a penguin. It's a south bird," Cricket corrected, "They still exist here on the island and make a strange noise like they did in Noland's logs. Back in the day, they were used by sailors to…"

He trailed off suddenly.

Cricket's red, drunken face became paler and his eyes widened as he remembered something very, very important.

"DAMN IT!"

He roared, shaking the whole house to its core and shocking everybody inside.

"Hey what's wrong?" Sanji questioned as they all recovered, "Why did you shout like that?"

Cricket slammed his fist on the ground and gave an annoyed grunt, "This is bad. You all need to go to the forest quickly and capture one of these birds right away!" he demanded as he pointed to the statue.

"Huh?" Luffy uttered in confusion, "What are you saying? Are you stupid?"

"It's the middle of the night!"

"I haven't had my fourteenth drink yet!"

"Look," Cricket growled, "The Knock Up Stream exists directly south of here. How do you think you will get there!?"

Cavalier raised his hand, "By sailing south."

"No!" Cricket snapped, shocking him by his harsh tone, "This is the Grand Line. Once you set sail, you lose all sense of direction."

"Ah! That's right," Nami said in realisation, "Since our destination is not an island, but part of the sea, the Log Pose won't work! What are we're going to do?"

"That's why you need the bird," Cricket said, "South birds have the best sense of direction in the world. No matter how far away you move the bird it'll always point to the right direction. In other words, you can't do anything without that bird. You won't be able to get the Sky Island!"

"YOU'RE TELLING US THIS NOW!"

"Thinking about it, maybe it wasn't a good idea to throw this part."

"YEAH! NO KIDDING!"

"Just get out of here and bring back that bird!" Cricket yelled as he pushed all the Straw Hats out of the door, "And make sure to be back before daybreak!" he told them before he slammed the door behind them.

Cricket gave a satisfied huff as he watched them grudgingly leave for the forest through the window. He nodded, patted his hands and turned around…only to yelp in surprise when he saw Cavalier standing right in front of him.

"Hello," he chirped happily.

Cricket gave him a strange look before glancing at the door behind him and then back at him, "How did you get back…you know what, forget it. What do you want?"

"I was wondering if I can do the washing up," Cavalier told him brightly, pointing to the sink and the dirty dishes next to it on the far side of the room, "Would that be okay?"

"…knock yourself out," Cricket told him.

"Yay!" Cavalier cheered as he skipped over to the sink, much to Cricket's confusion.

"Weird guy," he muttered.

Little did all of them know, but a ship had docked not too far down the coastline from where they were and their crew disembarked it. The swords, rifles and pistols gleaming dangerously in the moonlight as they headed straight for Cricket's house.

"I love washing plates~ I love washing cups~ I love doing chores while all my friends have fun~" Cavalier sung to himself as he did the washing up in the basin that he found.

Either Cricket hated cleaning or he wasn't used to having guests around, but in either case there were a lot of dirty dishes and glasses hanging around that were in need of a good clean. Cavalier was happy to do; with his hands in the soapy water, he would steal a piece of crockery or cutlery from the pile next to him, wash it, picked off any flecks of food off, dried it and placed it on the neat and tidy pile on his left which sparkled in the candlelight. Something like this would take all night, but he used his speed to practically zip through it all in no time flat.

He hummed happily to himself before he looked up as he heard screams from the nearby forest.

"EEEEK! GIANT BUGS! GIANT BUGS!"

"AHH! THEY'RE SO GROSS!"

"WAAAAH! THEY'RE STRONG! THEY TOOK DOWN AN ENTIRE TREE!"

"QUICK! LET'S RUN BEFORE WE GET STUNG!"

Cavalier listened to the yells and cries of his crew mates as they tried to hunt down the south bird for their departure tomorrow and gave a small chuckle.

"Well, they sound like they're having fun out there," he said out loud.

"If you say so," Cricket grumbled as he lit another cigarette from his place on the floor mat, "Didn't you want to join them?"

He cleaned the last glass, placed it on the cleaned stack and took off his rubber gloves, "Oh no, for some reason I felt like staying here," he answered, "Besides somebody has to be here to welcome them back with a celebratory cup of tea. You don't mind me being here, do you?"

"You're kidding me? Of course not," Masira said with a grin, giving him a large thumbs up as he reclined on his mat, "You're welcome to stay. Ook! Ook!"

His brother nodded in agreement from next to him, "I agree. Anybody who is willing to do chores for us is always welcome. Would you mind making us another cup of banana tea, please?"

"No problem!"

"Idiots, don't make him do that. He's our guest," Cricket snapped at him, "Take a seat and relax. Your friends won't be back for a while."

"Okay!" Cavalier chirped as he sat down on a spare mat.

As he sat down, he felt something tap his thigh and found the pouch that Raven had gave him still attached to him. He stared down at it for a few seconds as he carefully considered what to do with it.

'I might as well open it now,' he thought as he cautiously opened it up and reached a hand inside, 'I wouldn't want to open it up in front of my friends otherwise they'll ask where I got it. It's not as if I can lie to them.'

His fingers entered the pouch…and then his hand…and then half of his arm…

Cuckoo's Space Space Fruit was useful for various things, especially for packing, and so, as he put his entire arm in the small pouch, his gloves managed to touch the cold cast iron on the hand canon hidden inside. He body seemed to remember how to use it despite him never being able to recall how. It was a devastating weapon, something that could destroy an entire building if that was what you want…but, in the end, it was just an object.

And just like what he had said to Vivi, it was what he did with it that's important. Just because he had a weapon, doesn't mean he has to use it. It was for him to decided and nobody else.

That fact cheered him up a little.

"Hey…" Masira said as he pointed towards him, "How are you doing that?"

Cavalier looked up at him before down at his arm still submerged inside the pouch. He coughed awkwardly as he retracted his arm.

"Well…you see.."

BANG!

A shot rang out from outside.

They turned towards the door of the half-house in shock before the turned to each other. It was definitely a gun shot, nothing else could make a make a sound like that.

"Was that one of your crew mates?" Cricket whispered in a low.

Cavalier shook his head, "Nobody, but me uses firearms," he whispered back.

He zipped towards the front in a blink of an eye and hid right next to the one of the widows. He used his power to steal one of the spoons from the washing pile and used it as a mirror to peek through the window.

There were ten of them and all of them were standing outside the house with their weapons drawn. Cavalier frowned slightly; he recognised them from the bar and, of course, the man who shot into the air with a pistol.

"Sarquiss," he muttered in confusion, "And the Bellamy Pirates. I wonder what they're doing?"

"Hey Cricket!" Sarquiss yelled, "I know you're in there! Come on out, we just want to talk to you!"

"Who the hell are they?" Cricket snarled as he looked out the window, "Great, just a bunch of punks after our gold. Just what we needed. Come on Masira, Shoujou. Let's teach these pricks as lesson."

"You got it boss!" the brothers cheered as all three headed to the door.

However, Cavalier stepped in front of them and held up his hands.

"Wait, wait," he desperately cried, "You can't just fight them."

Cricket snorted and rolled his eyes, "Look kid, I know what sort of pirates they are and I've beaten all of them all to a pulp. I don't care who they are or how high their bounties are. It's my territory and I'm going to kick their asses out of here."

"I'm sure you can, but Chopper says your not fully rested yet," Cavalier told him, "Your health might take a turn for the worst."

Masira frowned slightly, "Err…he's got a point, boss. You're still recovering."

"Maybe you should sit this one out," Shoujou said in worry.

Cricket gave them both a scathing look before he gently pushed Cavalier's out of the way, "Thanks for the concern, but even if I'm not well enough to fight, this is still my home. And I'll protect it with all the strength I have left in me," he told him as he opened the door and walked out, "And if you know what's good for you, then you'll stay out of it. I don't want you guys fighting my battles. Come on you two."

Masira and Shoujou shared an unsure look before they walked out of the door after him, making sure to give Cavalier an apologetic look.

"Sorry about this," Shoujou whispered.

"Hunker down for a while. It'll be over in a second, Ook! Ook!" Masira told him as they closed the door behind them.

Cavalier sighed in concern, but he jumped in suprise as several gun shoots boomed outside followed closely by cries of pain. The Bellamy pirates had barely given them a second before they started attacking them, something that Cavalier thought was terrible. They didn't even give them time to say hello.

He began to pace nervously inside the house as the battle outside continued to rage on. He had no idea what to do.

"Oh, this is so hard," he moaned, "I don't want to ignore Cricket's warning, but I don't want to stay in here. Why can't they be nice? Those pirates are just…so…so rude," he said as he crossed his arms over his chest and pouted crossly. His eyes landed down at his belt where his rapier was sheathed, causing him to sigh, "I…could take them all down before while they are distracted…but why do I feel like that would be exactly what Magpie would do," he muttered drearily.

He looked around the room, hoping to find an answer inside, when he spotted the cleaned dishes on the side of the room, especially the teacup he had used that night. He hummed thoughtfully before a small smile appeared on his face.

"I suppose that could work."

Outside

Cricket grunted in pain as he fell to his knees and held a hand over the deep cut in his shoulder. He looked around and saw Masira and Shoujou had already fallen from the bullets and sword stabs they had endured, leaving them in a bloody state.

It was a pathetic attempt. Ten vs three. Sure they had more fighting experience, but they had weapons and numbers on their side. He would say that it was unfair…but then again there's no such thing as fair fight. You're either part of the strong or part of the weak.

Sarquiss laughed as he twirled his machete in hand before he grinned down at Cricket confidently, "What's wrong, old man? Tired already?" he mocked, much to the crew's amusement, "Just give us the gold and we'll be on our way. It's not that hard," he said as he raised his machete, which had his blood splattered in the cold steel, and pointed at him, "We can do this all night if we have to."

Cricket gritted his teeth in pain and took one last drag of cigarette before tossing it down on the ground and putting it out with his heel. He clenched his hands into tights fists and got into a fighting stance, prepared to take the Bellamy Pirates with every ounce of his strength he had left. The other pirates merely laughed mockingly at him while Sarquiss readied his machete at his side.

"You really can't take a hint can you, old man," he sneered as Cricket narrowed his eyes, "This is what you get for having those stupid ass dreams of yours! You're an insult to every pirate everywhere!"

He was about to attack…when the door to Cricket's house opened up, making everybody stop and turn.

"Hiya chaps!" Cavalier greeted as he strolled casually as if they hadn't been a bloody battle taken place.

They blinked in astonishment. Cavalier had left his cape and his hat inside the house and now wore a pink apron with white daisies print on them. In his left hand, he carried a small table and in his right hand he balanced a tray with an entire tea set on it; a kettle, tea cups, sugar bowl with tongues to go with it, a little milk jug; everything that was needed for an evening tea party. He stepped in between the members of the Saruyama Alliance and the Bellamy Pirates and placed the table down on the grassy ground and then the tray before turning to the pirates.

"You're just in time and we have enough cups for everybody," he told them cheerfully, "Come on in. Take a seat everybody."

The Bellamy Pirates shared confused looks before they laughed at him.

"What the hell is this?" Hewitt laughed, pointing at Cavalier as if he was some sort of freak.

"Has he lost his mind or is he that stupid?" Mani questioned, earning more laughter from the group.

Cavalier chuckled as well before he turned back to Cricket with a positive smile, "How you doing, Cricket? I hope you don't mind me borrowing this," he said, pointing at the apron.

"I don't own anything like that. Where the hell did you get it?" he muttered before he shook his head, "You know what, never mind. I thought I told you to stay indoors. This is our fight."

"I know," he chirped, "That's why I thought it would be nice to stop for tea. If they want to attack me also…well, that's their decision. Look, I even found tea cakes," he said, pulling out a plate of the little cakes from seemingly nowhere.

"Again. Where did you find those?"

"Hey!"

His attention returned to the pirates behind him, mainly towards Sarquiss who was the one called out to him.

"What the hell happened to you? You gave up on being a pirate and decided to come a tea maid? Ha! Did we really scare you that bad back in Mock Town?"

"No to both of your questions, really," he replied with a small chuckle, "I'm still the Watchman for the Straw Hat Pirates. I just also happen to enjoy making tea for my friends."

"You? The watchman? Geez, are you delusional or something?" Sarquiss snickered before he pointed to Henge behind him with his machete, "That's what a Watchman is supposed to look like."

Cavalier tilted his head to the side, "What? Bald?"

Henge snarled at what he said and reached for the pistol in his belt, but Sarquiss waved at him to stop.

"You know what your problem is," the blue haired man snarled as he twirled the machete around his fingers, "You're a complete and utter idiot. You dress like an idiot. You speak like an idiot. Hell, I bet you're so stupid that don't even know I'm insulting you, do you? I mean, come on, who dresses like to a fight, huh?"

"I don't know. Armour comes in all shapes and sizes," Cavalier said as he gestured to his apron, "For all you know, I'm armed to the teeth."

Sarquiss grit his teeth together and gave a menacing growl, "You know what, you're really pissing me off," he spat angrily as he tightened his grip on his machete, "The first time I laid eyes on you, I knew I was going to rip your guts out. I've killed hundreds of confident pricks like you! You're got nothing on me!"

"Yeah, you show him," Mido cried out.

"Kick his ass, Sarquiss," Lily jeered from the side.

Cavalier merely gave him a friendly smile before he took a cup from the tray and began to pour some tea into it, "Are you sure you don't want that tea?" he questioned simply, "I'm sure we can still be friends despite our differences. That's all I want, really. People to love and who can love me back."

Sarquiss eyes lit up with burning rage. His knife gleaming dangerously from the light of the silver moon above.

"I'm going to scatter your remains across the seas, you bastard!" he roared as he charged towards him with the tip of his weapon pointed at his throat, "AND TURN THE SEA RED WITH YOUR BLOOD!"

Cavalier saw him run towards him with his machete raised above his head with murderous intent, but, instead of being frightened, he hummed as if he was disappointed.

"What a shame."

He dropped the tea cup from his hand and caught it, with the liquid still in it, on the toe of his boot. He then kicked upwards swiftly and flung the cup forwards as quick as a whip. The cup sailed through the air towards Sarquiss and smashed into him square in the face, flinging porcelain and hot tea all over his face and into his eyes. Sarquiss yelled in pain and was knocked back a few steps, holding his soaking and cut face with his hands.

The other pirates, as well as Cricket, Masira and Shoujou, gaped in disbelief at what just happened. It happened so quickly that hadn't had time to process it yet.

Sarquiss roared in anger and, whilst partially blinded, charged at him again with his knife. Cavalier waited for the last moment before he whipped off his apron, stepped to the side so the knife missed him by inches and then wrapped the apron around his wrist. He tightened the apron until it was painful and used kicked up with his knee to break his hand, forcing him to drop the machete. He then pulled on the apron, twisted around and snapped his humerus bone in half. Sarquiss gave a gargled scream from the pain of his arm breaking into two places, but before he could actually process it, Cavalier spun him around and kicked him away. Sarquiss stumbled back before he caught his balance and looked down at his arm. His eyes widened in disbelief when he saw that, in the split second that it happened, Cavalier had used the two ends of the apron and tied it around his neck to form a make-shift sling for his broken arm.

"Sorry, I felt bad about hurting you," Cavalier said as he scratched the back of his hand sheepishly, "But, on the up side, pink and floral patterns really suits you."

"KILL HIM!" Sarquiss roared to the rest of the crew, "KILL HIM NOW!"

The Bellamy Pirates snapped out of their stupor and his shout and readied to attack. It was Eddy and Ross who was first.

Eddy charged at him with his sword and swung it down towards his neck, but Cavalier whipped the tray from off the table, swiftly leaned back from the attack and hit his sword hand with the side of the tray; he then twirled around and slammed the tray on the back of his head, knocking him forwards off his feet.

"Sorry about that," Cavalier said honestly as he turned around to meet Ross.

Ross ran and threw a punch at his face, but he deflected it with the tray and then slammed the side of it into his nose, breaking it and knocking him back a few feet. Eddy got up, jumped up and swung his sword down on top of his head. As quick as a whip, Cavalier struck his throat with the tray, making him wheeze and sputter as he stumbled back before Cavalier spun around and kicked him right in the stomach. It was so fast and powerful that it made him vomit up bile as he fell to the ground.

"Please do say if I'm being too hard on you chaps," Cavalier said as he spun the tray on the tip of his index finger, "I'm still learning, you see, and I would hate myself for injuring you chaps too much."

Ross came up from behind him and aimed a right hook at the back of his head, but Cavalier rose the tray up and blocked the hard punch. Ross yelled as his fingers snapped instantly and clutched his injured and bloody hand, allowing Cavalier enough time to slam the tray against the side of his head, knocking him out cold in an instant.

"Oh dear, is your hand alright? That looked like it hurt."

Cavalier's ears picked up the sharp click of a hammer being pulled back on a pistol and glanced back to see Henge loading his gun. He swung around and threw the tray at him; hitting him precisely in the mouth and breaking his front teeth and jaw. He yelled out and clutched his mouth in pain while Cavalier winced.

"Oof! Okay, now I know that was a bit too much."

Mido and and Percy charged at him with swords in rage. Before they could get to him, Cavalier gave a boisterous laugh and swiped the kettle off the table and intercepted the swords with it. Percy cried out as he swiped left and right with his blade, but Cavalier simply blocked all of them with the kettle as if it was nothing.

"You're a little heavy with your attacks," Cavalier kindly said as he blocked a stab casually, "Try for lighter and more precise jabs and you'll see the results. I thought I would point that out before you leave."

Percy snarled fiercely and swung his sword down at him. However, Cavalier used his power to steal his belt from his trousers, making them fall at his ankles. Percy yelped as he stumbled forwards like a newborn deer. Cavalier merely stepped to the side, stuck out his foot and tripped him over onto his front.

While he was down, Mido roared as he unleashed a flurry of attacks at him; hitting left, right and centre and not once letting Cavalier rest…well, that was the plan, but Cavalier was just too fast and blocked every attack with his kettle. Mido speared forwards and aimed for his chest, but Cavalier hooked the sword blade through the handle of the kettle and pulled it away to the side. The pirate retaliated by pulling back and lifting the sword over his head which pulled Cavalier's arm up as well, giving him an opportunity to grab his dagger to stab him in his unprotected stomach.

"Sorry about this," Cavalier earnestly said before he flicked the top of the kettle open and allowed the boiled water to fall right on top of his head.

Mido screamed in pain, dropped everything and staggered back as his head was scolded. Cavalier threw the kettle away, picked the distracted Mido by the scruff of his shirt and tossed him as like he was was baseball at right into Rivers who was in the middle of loading his rifle. Mido slammed into him at a force that Rivers was knocked over onto his back and his rifle accidentally snapped in half.

It was by that time that Percy had got up, with his trousers safely secure and charged at his back with his sword. He was only a few feet away when Cavalier suddenly turned around and caught his swing blade with…a pair of sugar tongs from the tea set.

Percy looked at the sugar tongs and then up at him in confusion.

Cavalier replied with a good natured shrug and used the tongs to twist the sword out of his hand and disarming him in a second. Before Percy could react, he then used the tongs to latch onto his nose, making cry out in pain. Whilst still restraining Percy by his nose, he turned around and ducked before the butt of a broken rifle could hit him. Rivers had given up on using firearms and now resulted to just battering Cavalier with attacks in the hope he could finish the fight quickly. Cavalier moved away from one swing, then the other before he caught the broken rifle wit one hand and twisted it out of his hands and throwing it straight up into the air. Rivers, furious by being disarmed so easily, raised his fist and swung it at his face. However, Cavalier stepped back, pulled Percy by his nose forwards with the tongs and was punched hard instead of him. Rivers stepped back in shock at having slugged his crew mate accidentally in the face (who had now fallen to the ground with a broken jaw) and glared at Cavalier with murderous intent.

Before he could attack, Cavalier pointed upwards warningly, making him from in confusion…before the broken rifle fell from the sky and landed onto his head.

Rivers cried out from the unexpected attack; his eyes rolled around in his sockets, he stumbled backwards and collapsed onto his back, completely knocked out.

Cavalier sighed and tutted to himself, "So, much violence," he said before he turned to the last three remaining crew members.

Lily, Muret, and Mani looked around the area in silent shock. Usually, they weren't the fighters of the crew; they let the men deal with it while they stood and watched and possibly stabbed a few dead enemies to check if they are actually dead. But now all of them had been defeated, leaving them alone with a rather happy Cavalier. They gulped nervously as he offered a friendly wave and huddled together just in case.

"Are you three going to attack as well?" he asked.

They shared a look to confirm that they had the same answer before they shook their head.

"Ah! Brilliant," he chirped, "Good thing too. I've run out of tea set related attacks anyway," he told them before he twirled around and inspected what remained on the table, "Hmm…I should have saved some of the water."

While he was distracted, Lily smirked sinisterly, gripped her dagger tightly in her hand and crept forwards.

"Wait," Mani whispered urgently, "Don't."

Lily waved at her to tell her to be quiet and crept forwards towards Cavalier. When she was close enough, she raised her dagger above her head so she can plunge it into his back…

"Oh, I thought of a new attack," Cavalier suddenly said as he grabbed the sugar bowl and tossed the contents of it over his shoulder.

Lily was surprised and then found that her sunglasses had suddenly vanished, meaning she was hit right in the eyes. She shrieked in pain, staggered back and fell onto he knees as she clutched her eyes. She dropped the dagger in her hand and swore loudly at how her eyes felt like they were burning.

Mani and Muret ran to her and crouched down to aid her.

"Lily, hold still."

"We need to get water to wash it out."

"AHHH! IT BURNS! GET IT OUT! GET IT OUT!" Lily yelled before she heard somebody crouch down in front of her.

Cavalier offered an apologetic smile and held out his hand, "Sorry about that. That was terrible of me," he softly said before he managed to steal all the sugar in her eyes and tossed the pile to the side, "There all better now."

Lily blinked as the pain suddenly stopped. Her eyes still felt itchy, but the worst of it was gone. She and the other two crew members looked up at him in disbelief and fear at the man kneeling in front of them. Cavalier then proceeded to gently place the sunglasses he stole back over her eyes before he wiggled his fingers in front of her face.

"Pain, pain go away!" he chanted, "That was a spell to get rid of the pain. Chopper taught me that," he told her before he closed his eyes and softly smiled, "And I was right. Your eyes are dazzling."

All three women nodded lamely in response since they had no idea what else to do.

Cavalier chuckled before he sensed something coming towards him from his right. He reached up and caught Sarauiss' foot before he could kick him and held him back with his strength. Sarquiss, despite his injuries, growled in annoyance as his attack was easily stopped while Cavalier sighed wearily.

"You little-ah!" Sarquiss cried out as Cavalier twisted his leg and pushed him over onto his back.

The taller man grunted in pain and tried to get up again, but found that there was a pistol aimed right at his face. He was stunned how quickly Cavalier moved; he didn't even see him take a single step and yet he was already standing over him with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"So…since you can't use your knife for a while, does that just make you just Sarquiss without the 'Big Knife' part? Must be a bother to redo all the wanted posters."

"Are you making fun of me!"

"Oh no, I'm genuinely curious," he insisted, "But you can answer that another time. Right now, can you please apologise to my friends please," he said, nodding towards Cricket, Masira and Shoujou, "You've been quite rude to them."

"Go to hell!" Sarquiss spat, "I ain't doing that!"

"But if you apologise, you might become friends after this."

"Why the hell do you think I care!"

"Please apologise. I'll stop pointing this pistol at you if you do."

Sarquiss snarled up at him, "Go on then shoot me! You ain't getting nothing from me! You really think your scaring me with that, huh!?"

Cavalier blinked in confusion before he shrugged, "Oh okay," he said as he put the pistol away. Sarquiss grinned at that, but then, as soon as he saw a large hand canon suddenly appear in his arms out of nowhere, his face turned deathly pale, "Is this one better?"

"W-wait!" Sarquiss uttered as he held up his uninjured hand, "What the hell! Are you kidding! Is that thing loaded! That's going to take my entire head of!"

"It probably would. It's very powerful," Cavalier said as he pointed the hand canon at him, "Now apologise to my friends. This is my final warning."

Sarquiss' eyes grew wide and he began to shake like a leaf, "No way! There's no way you're going to fire that thing!"

"Maybe" he hummed before he gave him a sharp look, "But then again, since I'm so stupid to not know when I'm being insulted, maybe I'll be stupid enough to fire it. You have three seconds."

"You're dead! You hear me! You're dead as soon as Bellamy hears about this!"

"Three…" Cavalier continued to count down.

"…W-wait, do you want money!? We can give you money!"

"…two…"

"You want the girls instead," Sarquiss offered desperately, much to the women's shock, "Have them! Take them! I don't care! J-just don't-"

"…one…"

"W-wait! Please! I'm sorry! Okay!? I'm sorry for attacking them!" Sarquiss begged as he closed his eyes, "Just don't shoot!"

….

Nothing happened for a few seconds as Sarquiss waited with his eyes firmly shut. Eventually, he felt two fingers gently pinch his nose, making him slowly open his eyes.

"Honk, honk," Cavalier playfully said as he pinched his nose, the hand canon now had disappeared from his arms as he crouched down in front of him, "See, that wasn't too hard, was it?" he chirped happily before he stood up straight, "Alright, you can leave if you like. Have a safe trip back to Mock Town. Bye!"

Sarquiss stayed still in astonishment. His mouth slightly agape, snot running from his nose and there were tears in his eyes. He couldn't move at all; his muscles won't responding to him at all.

However, Lily, Mani and Muret didn't hesitated for a second and scampered onto the feet and retrieved their fallen comrades to bring them back to their ship. Sarquiss attempted to ask for their help as well, but they gave him a deadly glare and ignored him. He decided that he could move again and stumbled back to the ship on his own.

Cavalier tutted and shook his head in disappointment, "Honestly, can you believe them," he said as Cricket stepped up beside them, "We could have a nice little tea party, but all they wanted was to fight."

"Yeah," Crocket grunted, "That's just the way of the world, unfortunately."

He hummed sadly in reply before he suddenly remembered something, "Oh right. One last thing."

Meanwhile, Mani was nearing their ship as she dragged Henge and Rivers under either arm, desperately retreating as fast as she could. However, she stopped in her tracks in shock when Cavalier suddenly appear in front of her, towering over her with his height. She gulped in fear as she wondered what he was going to do to her, but was thrown for a loop when he held out a plate for her.

"Here, take some teacakes," he kindly told her, "Thought you chaps might get hungry on the journey back."

"W-what?" she stammered with a sweat drop.

By the time that the Bellamy sailed away across the bay, the Straw Hats finally returned from their hunt for the south bird. The colourful bird, that looked like the statue that Cricket owned, was tied up with rope around its middle and around its bill whilst being carried by an irritated Zoro; it struggled and wiggled in its bindings, clearly infuriated by having been caught.

"Man, that took ages!" Luffy cried out in frustration.

"I'm exhausted," Chopper groaned as his hooves shook with every step.

"Will you stop that," Zoro snapped as the south bird continued to struggle in his bindings, "We caught you now take it like a man…or bird."

"At least hold him up the right way," Sanji snapped at him.

Nami gave a sigh in defeat, "I can't believe we were almost defeated by a dumb bird."

"Really says a lot," Usopp complained as he walked beside her, "Especially since we just defeated those Baroque Work weirdos…ah! Sorry Robin!"

"It's fine, long nose," Robin said before she stopped suddenly as she looked up ahead, "Oh, what happened here?"

The Straw Hats looked up and stopped as well in shock. Cricket, Masira and Shoujou were all sat outside the house and their bodies were littered with deep cuts, bloody bullet holes and gashes that were partially and haphazardly wrapped up with bandages. The area around then was a mess of broken porcelain, a rifle that was snapped in half, a few scatterings of blood and, strangely enough, small white pieces that looked like human teeth. In the centre of it all, Cavalier was tending to Masira's wounds…the best he can.

"Are you sure it's supposed to be like this- Ow!" the larger man asked as Cavalier tied the bandages on his arm up into a neat bow.

"I think so. It looks right…sort of" Cavalier said unsurely.

"Cavvy?" Luffy questioned, catching their attention, "What's going on?"

Cavalier turned around and gave them a joyful wave, "Hi chaps. Welcome back. Would you like a cup of tea?"

"Forget that! What happened!?"

"Oh, right," he said as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "We just had a bit of bother with those pirates that we met at the bar. I just had a word with them and they've just left, that's all?"

Sanji raised an eyebrow, "When you say…had a word with them…"

"He beat them up!" Masira cheered as he shook his fists in the air victoriously, "It was awesome! Brother Cav completely kicked their asses!"

"Such ruthlessness," his brother chimed in, "It was so edgy how you broke their bones and smashed their faces in. I was impressed."

Cavalier slumped forwards as tears rolled down his cheeks, "You make me sound so violent."

"I think your actions do that, Cav, not what they said," Usopp pointed out

"Why did they attack you?" Chopper asked as he got to work re-dressing their bandages, "Why would they even bother coming all the way here?"

"Why do you think?" Cricket spat as he lit up a cigarette and took a drag of it, "It's always the same with pirates. They must have heard about the gold and tried to take it from us."

"The gold," Nami gasped.

Everybody looked at him in concern. They knew how much that gold meant to them and it was terrible to think that it was almost stolen. Even Luffy had grown tensely quiet as he narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists. After a few seconds, Cavalier gave a small chuckle and broke the dense silence.

"Good thing they didn't do that, right? You're gold is safe," he told them, before flinching at the look Cricket gave him.

"Oh really? For how long, huh?" he muttered, "Pirates like them won't give up. They only become more determined. They'll be back soon enough with more man power and you guys won't be here to help out this time. Why do you think I told you not to get involved. I would have preferred that they taken the gold and left us alone. That gold doesn't matter" he snapped.

Cavalier's eyes widened in shock before he looked down at his feet in shame. He didn't think it through at all. But before he could apologise, Usopp stepped up and glared down at him.

"How can you say that? You spent ten years and your own health looking for them! You can't just admit to giving them up!"

"I told you it doesn't matter," Cricket grumbled, "Anyway, forget about it. Let's focus on the Knock Up Stream. I see you guys got the south bird-"

"Hey Nami," Luffy interrupted, "How long do we have?"

All eyes turned to the captain. His straw hat was pulled down over his eyes, his hands were clenched into tight fists and his tone was cold and sincere. Those who knew him well knew that this was him being deadly serious. Nami shook her head at him.

"Wait, Luffy, don't you even think about it. We're already on a tight schedule."

"Them I'll run to Mock Town," Luffy said, "Robin, if I run along the coast will I get there?"

Robin hesitated slightly before she nodded, "Yes, you will."

"Hey!" Cricket yelled at him, "Didn't you hear what I said? Mind your own damn busine-"

He felt then felt the blade of a sword at his neck and looked up to see Zoro giving him a warning look.

"Too late," he said, "He's already committed."

Cavalier cleared his throat and raised his hand, "Umm…if you ride on my back, we can get to Mock Town and back in no time."

"Thanks Cavvy," Luffy said appreciatively as he cracked his knuckles and stretched his neck "Alright, guys, we'll be back before dawn."

Bar, Mock Town

"Hey, get me another one," Bellamy rudely ordered after he finished his third tankard of beer and slammed it on the wooden bar, "And get me something that actually tastes good this time. Not any of that piss water you usually sell."

The barman gave him a nervous look before he hastily prepared his order. He placed the tankard before him for taking a step back at a respectable distance. Bellamy was about to glug it all down when the barman cleared his throat.

"Ahem…Captain Bellamy," he started, "You and your crew have been here for…quite a while now and you have visited my bar very frequently…so, I was wondering about payment-"

"Payment?" Bellamy interupted, licking his lips and standing up so he could tower over the barman, "I don't think you understand. My crew and I have been paying you all this time," he said with a smirk. He reached for the transponder snail sat on the bar in front of him and turned its shell towards him, "You see this symbol?"

The barman looked down and saw the yellow and black jolly roger painted on the snail's shell. It consisted of a round grinning face with a diagonal line crossing over it. You would have to be living under a rock if you didn't recognise that symbol.

"Yes…" the barman answered hesitantly.

"You know what it means?" Bellamy snarled, "What it entails? What it's consequences are? I'm expecting a call from them, do you want me to talk to them about what you said to me?"

"N-no…"

"Well then, consider the fact your still alive payment enough," Bellamy chuckled as he sat back down, "Now get out of my sight," he demanded with a threatening growl.

The barman was about to scurry away with his tail between his legs…when he caught sight of the people who entered the bar on the far side of the room and frowned in confusion. It seemed like the other patrons also caught notice and turned to the door in shock. Bellamy was the last person to notice as he was too busy drinking to care. It was only when his name was called out to him that he bothered to stop drinking.

"B-Bellamy!"

The captain looked around at the sound of the voice and grinned, "Ah! Sarquiss! Back alrea-"

He scowled when he took in the state that his crew was in. They were all injured or beaten up in some way. Eddy was slightly hunched over as held his stomach, Ross' nose and hand were broken, Henge's teeth were broken, Mido's head was bright red as if it had been burned, Percy's eye was swollen, Rivers could barely stand up as if he was concussed and Lily's eyes were red and irritable. Last but not least, Sarquiss, his right hand man and second strongest of the crew, had his arm in a sling, his face was cut and his clothes were dirty. Bellamy smashed the tankard onto the ground and got onto his feet with a snarl.

"Is this some kind of joke?" he snapped at them, "What the hell happened to you guys? I gave you one simple order-"

"Bellamy, please, we tried," Sarquiss said in exhaustion. It looked as if they ran all the way here without catching their breath, "I was about to kill that Cricket and his two apes when the silver haired bastard from before showed up."

"Silver haired bastard?" Bellamy growled.

"Cavalier, I think that's his name," Lily said as she took off her sunglasses to rub her sore eyes, "That idiot from the bar."

The patrons in the bar murmured to one another when she say that, but a sharp look from the captain silenced them in a second.

"That guy?" Bellamy said, "You were beaten by that guy in the stupid hat from earlier!?"

"He's much stronger than we thought he was," Sarquiss said as she gestured to his arm, "Look, he broke my arm."

"And my nose."

"An' mah teef!"

"And then gave us teacakes," Mani said as she miserably munched on said teacake from the plate Cavalier gave her, "They…are really good."

Sarquiss limped over towards Bellamy and looked up at him pleadingly, "Bellamy, you have to kill him. He's still over on the other side of the bay so you can catch up to him."

The captain gritted his teeth in seething rage; his eyes bursting with flames of anger and his hands were clenched tightly into fists.

"Fine," Bellamy snarled as he marched to the door, "I guess I'll have to make that bastard will never see another sun rise again," he muttered menacingly, much to his crew's happiness.

Suddenly, the bar's door burst open as a raggedy old man came running in clutching a stack of papers in his grubby hands. His bloodshot eyes looked around the bar in fear before he caught sight of Bellamy and stumbled his way towards him.

"Bellamy! You have to get out of here!" he frantically said, "You got get off this island now!"

"Not you again," a patron cried out from the other side of the bar.

"Go back to the gutter you live in! You're drunk!"

"When isn't that old fart drunk," another patron joked, earning chuckles from the others.

The man ignored them and held up the stacks of papers in his hands to show Bellamy, "Look! The News Coos just dropped this off now. They're new wanted posters," he held up the first bounty poster which had a picture of Zoro back in Alubarna, "This is that swordsman. He's got a bounty of 60,000,000 Berries," he then held up a wanted poster which showed Cavalier, "This guy, the one with the feather in his hat, he's actually worth 50,000,000," finally he brought out the wanted poster which showed a picture of a grinning Luffy, "and he's worth 100,000,000 Berries! That's more money than I have ever seen in my life!"

That got the entire bar's attention. Some of the patrons that were they're earlier looked over and saw that he was right; they were the same people that they had mocked.

"Are you kidding me!? That kid was worth 100,000,000!"

"That can't be right! There must be a mistake!"

"This is an official wanted poster from the Marines. They don't make those kinds of mistakes."

"Wait a minute," a patron nervously gulped, "That means that those three are worth over 200,000,000 Berries!"

"Don't forget about that lady from earlier. She's also strong."

"How powerful is this crew!?"

Bellamy snatched the wanted posters and inspected them thoroughly. There was no doubt; it was them. All three of them had very high bounties on their heads.

"B-Bellamy?"

The captain snarled and looked back at Sarquiss who flinched at the look he was giving him.

"Their bounties are higher than yours expect for Cavalier…even then, it's almost on the same level as yours," he nervously pointed out, "What do we do? Are you still going to kill them?"

Bellamy gave the wanted posters one last look before he crumbled them up in his hand, "You bet I will. You think I care about what's written on these crappy posters? I'll show them what real strength is!" he growled, "If those shits want to pick a fight with us, then I'll just have to kill of them and turn them into an example!"

"BELLAMY!"

A furious roar rang out from outside.

The patrons in the bar stiffened in fear while the members of the Bellamy pirates shudder in terror. Bellamy was taken aback slightly, but he growled and stomped out of the bar and into the night. His eyes searched the area in search for where it had come from when he suddenly spotted a figure on top of a nearby stone tower.

There an unreadable expression on Luffy's face as he glared down at the pirate captain from the top of the tower; his eyes were stern and cold and his mouth was tightly closed. There was something different about him that Bellamy couldn't pin down; it seemed as if his foolishness and idocy had disappeared and replaced with something more…serious.

The bar patrons and his crew followed him outside and looked up as well; some were fearful, some were confused while some were eager to see what will happen.

"Well, well, look who it is!" Bellamy barked confidently, "It's Mr 100,000,000 himself! Damn, who did you pay off to get a bounty that high, huh!?"

Luffy's eyes narrowed at him, "Shut it! Why did you attack my friends!?"

Bellamy gave a small growl, "I should be asking you the same thing. I don't how that asshole in your crew managed to fend of my crew, but it must be some sort of trick! Now where is he!? You better not be hiding him!"

Luffy merely pointed behind him towards his crew, "No, he's right there."

The Bellamy pirates frowned in confusion before they looked to their right…and froze in fear when they saw Cavalier standing right beside them.

"Hello," he greeted happily.

"WAAAHH!" they screamed as the pirates backed away from him in terror.

"Haha! Whoops! Didn't mean to scare you like that," he told him before he looked towards Mani "How were the teacakes?"

"G-good, thank you," she stammered.

"Hey! You!" Bellamy shouted in anger as he pointed his finger at him.

Cavalier blinked puzzlingly, he looked around before he pointed at himself.

"Yes, you! Who else would I be referring to!?"

"Well, that's quite a few people around-"

"Shut up! You're dead, you piece of shit! How the hell did you defeat my crew!? Did you cheat or have a devil fruit power or something, because no way would a shrimp like you can actually do any damage."

"Well, I mainly used a tea kettle."

"Bellamy!" Luffy shouted from the tower, "You're fight is with me!"

The captain snarled as he turned back to Luffy. He crouched down slightly and, before everyone's eyes, his lower legs to his ankles morphed into large spiral metal springs. Cavalier was pleasantly surprised by this when Bellamy compressed his spring legs and leapt up into the air and landed on the same roof as Luffy with one single bound.

"Ah, the Spring Spring Fruit," Cavalier chirped, "What a cool power to have. I bet he can reach to very high places easily…although he's already pretty tall so they would make it rather redundant," he hummed.

From behind him, Percy crept up across the bar's porch behind him with a dagger in his hand, ready to plunge it in into his back as a way of getting revenge. He got closer and closer and rose the dagger up and ready to strike…

…when suddenly Cavalier, without looking back, stamped his foot on the end of a loose plank on the porch. The other end of the plank shot up and struck Percy right between his legs, causing him to seize up, give a squeaky cry and fell onto the porch with both hands covering his groin. As he rolled around on the ground pathetically with tears in his eyes, Cavalier tossed the nails he taken from the plank to the side and gave a simple hum.

"Nice try. You almost got me there," he said as he continued to watch his captain face off against Bellamy.

On top of the tower, Bellamy sneered down at the shorter young man as if he was a bit of dirt on his shoe and gripped his hands into fists.

"What the hell does that mean? You already lost that fight back at the bar with your tail between your legs."

"I'm not talking about that," Luffy calmly said, "I'm talking about you trying to steal the gold from my friends," he narrowed his eyes at him, "Don't you even think of bothering them again or I'll kick your ass."

Bellamy reared back his head and laughed, "HaHaHaHuHaHaHa! You're kidding? You're risking your life over those pathetic fools who hold onto the shitty dream of theirs? You think you can stroll into my town and say stuff like that to me!"

"Yes, I do," Luffy said without a single hesitation, "Don't mess with them again. They're my friend."

Bellamy snarled as he crouched down again; his legs, once again, turning into large springs which were ready to be unleashed.

"I'm going to enjoy seeing your blood," Bellamy growled,

From down below, the doors to the bar opened up and the bar tender that was inside ran hurriedly out. He looked around frantically before setting his sights on Sarquiss.

"Excuse me, mister Sarquiss. The transponder snail that Bellamy brought is ringing. I remember him saying something about an important message. Is there-"

"Shut up, would you," Sarquiss snapped at him before he looked back up to the tower, "Bellamy is in the middle of something. Now go away."

"Err…but…"

"Can I help?" Cavalier asked him, surprising him by suddenly appearing next to the bar tender, "Did you say something about an important message? I can take it if you want."

The bar tender gave him an unsure look before he sighed, "Alright, it's in here."

He followed the barman inside and saw him point to the bar.

PeruPeruPeru! PeruPeruPeru! PeruPeruPeru!

Sat on the wooden bar, the transponder rang monotonously over and over again as it waited patiently for someone to answer its call.

"Err…are you sure you want to take it?" the barman told him cautiously, "These are people you shouldn't be messing with you."

"Yep, it'll be okay," Cavalier chirped as he made his way over to it, "What's the worst that could happen," he proceeded to turn the snail around to face him and leaned down to its height, "Right, I'm here. What's the message?"

…

The barman frowned slightly, "No, the snail isn't the one giving you the message. You have to accept the call."

"Oh right," Cavalier said, earning a weird look from both the barman and the snail. He picked hp the receiver and brought to his mouth, "Hello? Sorry for being late," he sang happily.

There was silence on the other end of the line.

"Hello?"

Once again, only silence.

"Hello? Is anybody there?"

"Who the hell is this?" came a stern voice from the snail's mouth.

Cavalier instantly recognised that it was a female voice and she sounded young; really young. There was a cold, steely tone woven into her voice which, mixed with how young she sounded, made it rather peculiar to listen to.

"Aww, you sound sweet. What's your name?" Cavalier cheerfully asked, completely oblivious to her irritation.

"Where the hell is Bellamy? I'm supposed to talk to that idiot and only him," inquired the girl on the other end of the call.

"Unfortunately, Bellamy is rather busy at the moment. Can I take a message and tell him as soon as his…less busy."

The voice sighed, "Idiot. Let me guess, he got drunk and he's in the middle of a bar fight."

There was sound of clashing and the snapping of wood from outside the bar; a clear indication that Luffy's and Bellamy's fight was already underway.

"…Something like that, yes."

The girl groaned in anger, "So annoying. Who the hell does he think he is? Getting one of his lackeys to play secretary for him. That disrespectful brat! I hate doing this!"

"Oh…sorry to hear that," Cavalier sheepishly chuckled.

"Sugar, please. We need to get this done before Doffy arrives at Marine HQ," urged a new voice from the other end of the call, "Just give him the orders and he will pass it on."

The new voice made Cavalier's heart skip a beat. She sounded older and more mature than the first woman and spoke with a sultry, husky accent that made him blush. He couldn't help it and blurted the first thing that came to his head.

"Wow!" Cavalier gasped, "Who are you!? Your accent is so beautiful! I've never heard anything like it before," he questioned as he began to wiggle in excitement, "Aw! I wish I could see who you are. I can listen to you speak all day!"

The second woman was taken back slightly, "Err…well…thank you…"

"Butt out of this Violet," the first girl, now known as Sugar, snapped at her, "And you can shut up as well. You're starting to get on my nerves! Fine, tell that idiot that he should look for a pirate that Doffy wants to capture. A recent business deal had been successful so he's looking to expand on it. Especially, after what happened on Piccolo Island in the New World. You know the one I'm talking about? It was big news three days ago."

"I can't read, sorry."

"I didn't ask if you could," she grumbled, "Anyway, he's a newbie pirate called Cavalier. Silver hair, purple eyes, weird hat; the Marines should have released his wanted poster by now. Track him down, but don't let the Marines notice you. You understand?"

Cavalier's eyes widened in surprise, 'Wait a minute…' he thought in disbelief, '…there's another pirate called Cavalier who just started. Wow! What a coincidence! I wish him good luck!' he thought before realisation finally settled in, '…oh…they're looking for me, aren't they. That sounds more likely. Well, that's jolly interesting. I wonder why? Hmm,' he hummed.

"Hey!" Sugar's annoyed voice sounded from the transponder snail, "I said do you understand?"

"Loud and clear," Cavalier chirped in reply, "I'll be sure to tell Bellamy as soon as he-"

BANG!

CRASH!

Cavalier looked over his shoulder and heard silence from outside. The fighting had stopped and the rowdy crowds of spectators became eerily quiet other than the shocked whispered that echoed though the bar doors. He smiled and chuckled before he turned back to the transponder snail.

"Sounds like he's done now."

"Great, bye," Sugar sighed.

"Oh wait, I just realised I haven't introduced myself," Cavalier said.

"If you can do it within the five seconds between now and me hanging up then go crazy," Sugar muttered, irritation clear in her tone.

"Ah I see, well, hello my name is Cavalier. It's a pleasure to meet you. I like the sound of your-"

Click!

"…voice," he finished before he put the receiver back, "Well, that was certainly interesting."

King's Plateau, Dressrossa

Meanwhile, in the royal palace of Dressrossa, a young girl of ten years slammed the receiver down on the transponder snail and muttered something under her breath.

She had short light green hair, fair skin, dark blue eyes and, due to her height, had to sit on several pillows on her chair in order to reach the table properly. She wore a knee-length yellow dress and a magenta hooded cape which had small bear ears on the top of it. Over her left eye was an monocle shaped like an eyepatch and a small crown on top of her head.

To the Donquixote family, she was an important component to the ruling of Dressrossa. She was many things; a maintainer of stability, keeper of the peace, a pillar of Doflamingo's reign; but now…she was mostly just annoyed at having do paperwork and having to contact every associate, pirate crew and businesses that the family had under their thumb. This was a task that the young master had placed on those he trusted the most; his family. And everybody else was pulling their weight in order to get it done before he arrives at his meeting…

…but that doesn't mean she wouldn't rather spend her time eating grapes on the side of the pool whilst reading a good book.

'It was all that stupid Cavalier's fault. Now I have more work to do,' she thought as she crossed another name off the list in front of her and grabbed a handful of grapes from the bowl sat on table in front of her, 'He's been nothing, but trouble. So annoying! I hope he dies.'

She popped a grape in her mouth…and then another one…and another one… before she stopped herself. She frowned slightly, hummed inquisitively before she glanced at the transponder snail in disbelief.

"Wait…what did he say?"

Mock Town, Jaya

Cavalier stepped out of the bar and looked over the stunned audience standing in the street. Locals, drunks, pirates and the Bellamy Crew did nothing but stare towards the middle of street where and ignored the broken buildings and the shattered wood plank roads left behind from Bellamy's attacks.

The pirate himself was half buried into the ground as if a giant had squashed him with the palm of his hand; the right side of his face had a deep fist-shaped indent, his eyes were rolled back to the back of his skull, some teeth were missing and he was bleeding alarming from his cracked skull. Bellamy had been undeniable beaten. The fact that he remained morionless laying on the ground proved this. Standing over him with a calm look on his face, Luffy lowered the fist that he had used to struck him and gave a deep sigh at his victory.

And so the crowd gawked in disbelief at the small boy who had just won and the circumstances in which he achieved it. Bellamy the Hyena; captain of the Bellamy Pirates, Mock Town's most notorious and most violent resident, and a man with 55,000,000 Berries on his head; was defeated with just one punch.

"Hey! Bellamy!" Sarquiss choked out from the front steps of the bar, "What are you doing!? Get up!" he yelled as tears appeared in his eyes, "This can't be happening! This can't be the end! You just have to get up!"

Cavalier sighed sadly as he saw the look of utter defeat on the faces of the pirates. He may have defeated all of them, but it was only when they're captain fell did they lose all hope. It was rather upsetting to see. Still, he knew that they didn't have enough time before the Knock Up Stream and so he cleared his throat to catch the people's attention.

"Pardon me, I just need to get through," he politly said.

The crowd parted away in front of him, allowing him to walk through and access the street.

"Thank you," he chirped as he skipped down he wooden steps, across the street and stood beside Luffy with a content smile on his face, "well, did you win?"

"Yep," Luffy said with a nod before he turned and began to walk way , "Let's go back to the Merry, Cavvy."

"Right o. Just one more thing," he said as he kneeled down beside the passed out Bellamy and poked his forhead, "Excuse me, can you hear me? I just wanted to let you know that somebody called Sugar just called to tell you that she wanted you to look out for me, Cavalier, and for you to track me down. There was also something about a business deal, but I didn't really ask what that meant. Anyway, can you thank her for all her work for me the next time she calls. Thank you, have a lovely sleep," he told him before he stood up and nodded at Luffy, "All done. Do you want to hop onto my back again?"

"Yeah! Can you go really, really fast this time."

"You got it."

"Hey! Stop!"

They turned around to see Sarquiss limping his way towards them. Tears flowed down his eyes and his teeth were gritted in agony from jostling his broken bones. Luffy hummed and scracthed the side of his head as he looked him over.

"Wow, Cavvy. You really did a number on them," he said, making Cavalier sheepishly sweat drop.

"Yeah…b-but I gave them teacakes to say sorry."

"Huh? Really? Well, I guess it's fine then."

Sarquiss snarled as his eyes blazed in fury, "I'm still standing! I can take both of you bastards on! Now get back here!"

"Hey, Sarquiss!" Percy cried out to him in concern, "Don't do this!"

"Shut up!" he roared back at him as he limped towards them, "You think you can just leave just like that! Where the hell do you think you're going!? You're all dead! you hear me! You're all-"

Cavalier sent him a sharp look that made him stop in tracks and flinch in fear. However, that was all Cavalier did before he turned around and began to walk away back into the forest. Luffy, however, hung back for a few seconds and looked over his shoulder at him.

"Where?" he repeated before he pointed upwards, "To the sky."

And with that, he simply turned around and left Mock Town and all its dreamless residents behind for the very last time.

It was a place that neither of them belonged to, so it was not a sad parting for either of them.

They had dreams they needed to pursue.

That's all for now.

Sorry that this took so long, but there's a lot to cover like Noland and how the Knock Up Stream works and all that. It was three chapters of dialogue alone. Still, we're on the last leg of the Jaya arc before we head up, up, and up to Skypiea! Finally!

Ah, but the next chapter is going to be interesting with much more canon characters to be introduced. And what happened on Piccolo Island that Sugar mentioned earlier all about? I see you all in...

Chapter 11: 'What Goes Up...'

Thanks for reading :)

Omake - On The Way Back

Luffy and Cavalier had just left Mock Town and began their long trek back to the Cricket's house on the other side of Jaya. However, Cavalier turned to Luffy with a grin and chuckled slightly.

"Guess what?"

"Huh? What?" Luffy asked in confusion.

He responded by lifting his trouser legs up slightly and revealed that his feet had turned into silver springs just like Bellamy's power allowed him to do.

"I took Bellamy's power back there," he told him gleefully as he began to spring up and down, "You want to see how far I can get by hopping back?"

Luffy's eyes sparked in excitement, "Yeah, I do!" he cried out as he leapt onto his back and wrapped his legs around his waist, "Let's go!"

"Right o!" Cavalier said as he tighened the springs that were his feet, "Ready? Three…two…one…now!" he cried out as he released the tension and sprang upwards…

SprOING!

…into the wrong direction.

"Waah! Cavvy! Watch out! We're going the wrong way!"

"Right, sorry!"

SprOING!

"The tree! We're going to hit it!"

"Sorry, it takes a while to get used to it!

SprOING! SprOING! SprOING!

"We're upside-down now!"

"Hmm…Bellamy made this look much easier."

SprOING! SprOING! SprOING! SprOING!

"LAKE! CAVVY LAKE! WE'RE GOING TO FALL IN!"

"Ah! Right! One moment! I'll fix this!"

They continued to hop and spring all over Jaya recklessly and couldn't stop until it wore off, making them land somewhere in the forest.

They were late getting back and were severally scolded by Nami.