One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.
-Chapter Ninety-Nine-
"Just calm down, Nami" Usopp said, already attempting to calm the ginger down before she got too excited over the prospect of gold.
"I don't think that's even physically possible for her, especially not after the mention of gold" I said.
"What exactly is it that you wanted to ask me?" Cricket asked, looking toward Luffy.
"We're searching for Sky Island and we were told that you would be able to tell us how to get there" the captain answered.
"Are you serious?!" the man barked out laughing. "Don't tell me you really believe that place exists?!" he bellowed.
"Stop it, Nami! You can't attack a sick man!" Usopp cried out the minute he saw the enraged look in our navigator's eyes.
"Yeah, no need to be so harsh" I chuckled as we both attempted to hold her back. Angrily clenching her jaw, steam practically blew out of her ears as her reddened face twisted up into a hateful sneer while her arms were outstretched and violently jerking around in an attempt to grab at and strangle the man.
"You mean there's no Sky Island? Are you sure?" Luffy frowned.
"I don't know—see nobody knows if Sky Island really exists or not" Cricket confessed. "I know only of one man who has claimed to have seen the island himself, but he's considered a liar of epic proportions" he said, causing the captain to turn to Usopp.
"What are you looking at?!" the sharpshooter snapped.
"There's an old fairytale that the people of the North Blue know very well, it's called Noland the Liar" Cricket explained, causing Luffy to once again look at the long-nosed pirate.
"Stop looking at me, Luffy! My name's not Noland!" Usopp snapped.
"Yeah, but you're both liars" I snorted
"What was that?!" he glared.
"Nothing" I innocently chirped, causing him to irritably grumble.
"Now that I think about it, Noland's family name was also Montblanc—does that mean that you two are related somehow?" Sanji curiously asked.
"Is he right? And is this island the one mentioned in the fairytale?" Nami asked.
"Yeah, Noland's my grandfather's, grandfather's, grandfather" Cricket nodded. "He's a distant ancestor of mine—I am his descendent, but we're so far removed that I doubt there's even a single drop of his blood in my veins" he said. "The Montblanc family was driven out of the North Blue country a long time ago and we've managed to keep a very low profile ever since" he explained, removing the cigarette from his mouth and tapping some of its ashes onto the floor. "People still denounce the family name, but we've never despised it for this."
"But why?" Chopper asked.
"Because no one, contrary to popular belief, was a very honest person" Cricket answered.
"Ain't that the truth" I softly scoffed, rolling my eyes.
"That's not what the fairytale said" Nami pointed out.
"As the story goes, Noland's last words were as followed, "I can only assume that the City of Gold sunk into the sea," this line is accompanied by an idiotic face in the illustration—but Noland was no idiot, he knew what he saw and I believe he wasn't lying about it" Cricket said. "Noland was sure the island he stumbled upon where he found the ruins of the City of Gold was the island of Jaya, but when he returned with the king, there was no gold—unsuccessful, he insisted that the ancient city had submerged due to shifts in the Earth's crust" he said, retelling the same tale as the book. "But everyone dismissed this as the very last bit excuse of a doomed man. Noland was given a public execution, and when he died, so did his discoveries...only the legend of the liar remained..." he sighed.
"I get it, you're trying to find the ancient City of Gold at the bottom of the sea to finally clear the Montblanc family name and prove Noland right" Usopp concluded.
"Don't be ridiculous!" the man snapped, angrily firing his gun at Usopp's feet, just barely missing the sharpshooter.
"Usopp!" Chopper worriedly cried, quick to rush over to the sniveling sniper that was now shaking in his boots.
"A bit excessive there for a reaction, don't you think?" I muttered, crossing my arms as I uncomfortably shifted.
"I don't really care if the ancient City of Gold exists or not, the actions of my ancestors have nothing to do with me and my life!" Cricket glowered. "You can't possibly begin to imagine what it's like as a kid for everyone to laugh at you and ridicule you cause you're a descendant of that idiot Noland!" he sneered. "That's what I've dealt with my whole life..." it fell silent saved for his heavy breathing as he took a moment to calm himself. "Anyway, over the past four hundred years, a great many of my family have set sail to find the City of Gold, prove Noland right, and restore the Montblanc name. But each one of them went missing...I was ashamed to be a member of such a pathetic family, so I decided to leave home and become a pirate" he confessed.
"Wow! So you're a pirate just like us?" Luffy questioned in awe
"I didn't even really want to become a pirate, I just wanted out of Noland's shadow—to be my own man" Cricket admitted. "But over time, I came to assemble my own pirate crew—finally I was a leader, not a laughingstock, and I spanned the world looking for adventure. Then ten years ago as my crew and I sailed the calm seas, we discovered this island purely by chance and ironically by all my family members that sat out to this place and who lost their lives in doing so, it was I who found it...I who despised the Montblanc name" he scoffed. "We came ashore but found no trace of the City of Gold, I stood on a cape of the island and felt like I was destined to be there...
"I don't care if I find the city or not, I'm not here to prove Noland right or wrong—I have no interest in rewriting history, all I'm doing is following what I believe is my destiny" he sighed as he lowered his head. "This is between me and Noland, I'm facing what I fear, and whatever the outcome...the act is all that matters."
"Wow, what a sad story" Usopp sniffled.
"Seems fitting" I softly smiled.
"But what about the monkeys? How did they come to be on this island with you anyways?" Luffy questioned.
"I would assume they would have to have stopped by here by chance as well" I assumed.
"Well, I'm sure that's another story of bravery and the face of incredible odds—your life reads like a great book, you know that, Cricket?" Usopp sniffed with a smile as tears continued to stream down his cheeks.
"They were just fans of the fairytale" Cricket bluntly answered.
"They're fans?" Usopp sweat dropped.
"Yeah, I can see that" I nodded after thinking it over for a minute.
"How did they find you?" Nami asked.
"I think it was five or six years ago, they heard a rumor and set out to find me—those two truly believe the City of Gold exists somewhere and they're helping me find it" Cricket explained. "The sea surrounding this island is very deep and in those dark, cold depths you're surrounded by a soul sense of solitude" he said. "When I first arrived here, I spent my time searching the seabed alone," he sighed, "they entered my life without permission and find themselves as my crew without asking and they do nothing but fight all the time...but having these idiots around puts me at ease and, truthfully, I enjoy their company—you understand?" he smiled.
"I understand completely, true friends lift each other up and give each other strength in times of need" Usopp nodded, already on the verge of crying again.
"Are you about finished telling us your life story?" Luffy boredly asked.
"Shut your mouth, you ungrateful brat!" Usopp snapped, hitting the back of the captain's head.
"Stop it!" Luffy frowned, irritably tossing the sharpshooter off to the side. "Look, all I really want to know about is Sky Island" he childishly huffed, causing me to chuckle.
"You're a pushy guy, aren't you? But, as I told you earlier, the only person who's ever seen Sky Island is Noland and nobody knows if he was telling the truth or if it was another tall tale" Cricket shrugged, leaning back and pulling a book from the bookcase by his bedside.
"Is there any record of his trip to the island?" Luffy asked.
"If he was an adventurer, he would have kept a Log Book, correct?" I questioned.
"Officially no, but he does mention it in here" Cricket first answered Luffy before nodding his head toward me as he started to flip through the book in his hands.
"What do you have there? This isn't Noland's Log Book, is it?" Nami asked
"Yeah, it is" Cricket nodded, stopping on the page he was looking for before handing the book over to her.
"Amazing, this Log Book is over four hundred years old!" Nami gasped. "July 21st, 1120," she began to read, "a sunny day on the sea—upon departing the Jolly Villa, we left the harbor and sailed into the rising sun and headed east by northeast with the wind at our backs. At midday, we happened to come across a bumboat carrying a rare item, a single-person contraption called a Sky Waver" she continued as Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper excitedly scampered over to her with wide smiles on their face, all three eager to hear more about Noland's findings. "This small, mysterious vessel can generate its own wind and sail at great speeds even on a still day, but the still-like ship was not easily maneuvered—I couldn't even control it! Well, my crew has taken a liking to it" she grinned. "I got to get one of those things."
"Keeping going! Don't stop reading!" the three that surrounded her eagerly pleaded.
"Uh...we were told the vessel was manufactured on the Sky Island and that many more interesting devices could be found there" she continued. "It brought to mind an explorer friend of mine who once showed me the most unusual specimen—a living Sky Fish. I've never seen such a bizarre appearance in all my years" she read.
"Sky Fish?" Sanji questioned, his interest now piqued.
A/N: Enjoy
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