One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.
-Chapter One Hundred and Eight-
"But he's not alone!" Luffy was quick to point out as two giant sea creatures emerged from the ocean of clouds as well, one akin to that of an octopus and the other similar to a Sea Snake with its serpent-like appearance.
"It's trying to eat him!" Sanji clenched his jaw as Nami and Chopper began to scream in fear.
"Must have assumed he was bait" I said.
"You hungry—eat this!" Zoro rushed forward, slashing at one of the octopus' tentacles that were closest to the ship and causing it to pop.
"Huh?" Sanji questioned, confused as he watched how the octopus instantly deflated instead of bleeding or even crying in distress. He didn't have much time to process what he had witnessed before noticing the Sea Snake lunging for the ship—jumping in the air, he ruthlessly smashed his foot down atop the monstrous serpent's head which deflated its body in an instant as it crashed back down into the water.
"It deflated like a balloon" I owlishly blinked as I stared at the now deflated octopus.
"Was it a fake?" Nami questioned.
"I don't know" I frowned. "It moved as if it were alive, surely it couldn't have been a puppet" I said.
"This air is so thin..." Zoro panted as he landed back on the deck. "It's hard to breathe..." he thickly swallowed.
"What do you make of this?" Sanji asked. "It's the strangest creature I've ever seen—I'm not even sure it's a fish" he confessed as he rested his foot atop the head of the serpent-like fish.
"It's like Skylar said, that octopus thing was more like a balloon" Luffy said.
"I didn't say it was a balloon, I said it deflated like one" I corrected.
"Yeah, except balloons don't have teeth" Zoro pointed out to the rubber man.
"But how can there be fish up here on the clouds?" Nami curiously asked.
"You said it best yourself—basically, it's an ocean in the sky" Robin answered.
"So what's this big snake thing?" Chopper curiously asked, motioning towards the Sea Snake that Sanji was resting his foot on top of.
"I don't know, a flatfish?" Luffy shrugged.
"But it wasn't flat until Sanji kicked it" Chopper pointed out.
"Perhaps it was a Sea Snake—it does look pretty serpent-like and it did live in the water" I suggested.
"Wow, such great detective skills—pointing out two obvious things to prove your point, you're such a great detective" Nami deadpanned, smiling as I swatted at her before childishly sticking my tongue out.
"Oh, come on, Usopp—what is it this time?" Sanji frowned when the sharpshooter suddenly sat up screaming.
"Nightmare?" I asked, tilting my head.
"There's something in my pants" Usopp shivered before hastily reaching down into his pants with one hand and pulling out a fish that was still very much alive. Looking down at it, he immediately passed out.
"Usopp!" Chopper worriedly cried out as he rushed to the sharpshooter's side.
"Poor thing" I said, peering down at the flopping fish on the deck.
"Not his day" Robin hummed, looking at the passed-out sharpshooter with some pity before turning her gaze to the fish. "Hold on" she said, bending down and scooping the animal into her hands.
"That was in his pants just a second ago, you sure you want to go picking it up?" I asked, scrunching my nose up.
"Do you know what this is? I think it's one of those Sky Fish Noland described in his Log" Robin said. "It sounded fantastic at the time, but now that I see it, it looks more like these creatures somehow actually evolved to survive up here in the clouds" she noted.
"They evolved? You mean they turned all flat and ballooned up and stuff?" Zoro raised an eyebrow.
"To make themselves even lighter—the buoyancy up here must be several times weaker than it is in the ocean down below" Robin nodded.
"So, basically, they changed their appearance in ordered to survive the minute they got up here" I said, watching as she nodded again.
"And they grew scales like feathers and those weird carnivore mouths?" Nami raised an eyebrow.
"I tried sautéing it" Sanji suddenly said, lighting up a cigarette as he handed Luffy a plate of freshly cooked fish—making it quite clear that during the time it took us all to talk, he had taken the fish and cooked it without any of us realizing it.
"Delicious!" the rubber man grinned.
"Hey! We were still examining that!" Nami snapped as she stormed over to the two and snatched up the plate. "What were you thinking?" she scolded before curiously trying some of the fish herself. "Wait—this is good, I've never tasted anything like it!" she praised.
"Well, you know, I aim to please" Sanji proudly boasted.
"Oh, let's eat the big one too!" Luffy excitedly grinned.
"Forget it, I don't aim to please that much" Sanji frowned.
"So, where's this Sky Island?" Chopper asked as he now peered through a pair of binoculars and out towards the vast sea of clouds in search of land. "Huh? What's that?" he tilted his head as he suddenly spotted something off in the distance.
"What do you see?" I asked, making my way over to him and leaning up against the railing of the ship.
"A ship" he answered, adjusting the binoculars. "Hey, guys, there's a…" he trailed off as his jaw suddenly became slack with shock.
"Say, what's wrong, Chopper?" Sanji asked once he noticed the distressed look on the reindeer's face.
"You say you saw a ship, what happened?" I worriedly frowned as the doctor fell back, clearly horrified by whatever he had seen as the binoculars clattered to the floor.
"What's wrong? You see something out there?" Sanji questioned.
"Ah! A ship—it was there and then it split!" Chopper suddenly cried out, snapping out of his horrified daze in mere seconds once he processed what he had seen.
"Say what?" Zoro asked.
"It split?" I blinked. "What do you mean it split?" I asked.
"Ah! And there's a bull with wings and he's running around in the clouds and he's coming straight for us!" the reindeer babbled as I scooped up the binoculars and lifted them. Staring out into the vast open clouds, I was quick to find the sunken ship he had spoken about as smoke was still rising from its sinking remains.
"You're talking crazy, calm down" Zoro frowned, staring down at the rambling reindeer as I continued to scan the clouds.
"What's gotten into him? Skylar, you see anything?" Sanji asked as I furrowed my brows, not spotting anything at first until I looked forward.
"Uh...yeah" I nodded.
"What is it?" he asked, owlishly blinking when I suddenly thrust the binoculars toward him.
"See for yourself" I said, not really knowing how to describe what I was seeing without sounding just as crazy as Chopper.
"Check it out, Chopper's right" Sanji said as he looked through the binoculars and towards the area I had pointed him in. His gaze now focused on the strangely dressed man that was shooting across the clouds with ease as if he were skating on them. "There's a guy running around out there—hey, stop! What do you want?!" he called out to the man when he saw he was drawing closer.
"To destroy you!" was his only response.
"Oh, he seems rather lovely" I smiled.
"No, he doesn't!" Nami snapped.
"Oh, is that all?" Sanji asked.
"He's mine" Zoro grinned, already eager for a fight as he drew his swords.
"Who is? What's going on?" Luffy asked, confusedly looking around as the strange man arrived and effortlessly took both Sanji and Zoro down within the blink of an eye as if they weren't even that much of a challenge.
"Hey!" I scowled as I drew my sword and rushed the man now intruding on our ship. In under mere seconds upon drawing my sword and charging the man, my chest grew tight as the air heavily pushed its way in and out of my lungs, making it difficult to breathe. It felt as if I had already run a mile with the way my lungs struggled to take in the air around me, painfully aching in protest to my movements. My slash was nothing short of messy—my mind too focused on regulating my breathing to really notice that the man had sidestepped my attack. I only groaned when he suddenly jabbed his elbow into my side, causing me to stumble into the mast. "What...what just happened?" I panted as I leaned against the mast in an effort to catch my breath while the man quickly took down Luffy the second the captain lunged for him.
"Hey, don't let that guy walk all over you—get him!" Nami snapped as the stranger jumped into the air, taking a wispy trail of clouds with him as he twisted his body around and took aim with his weapon.
"Ah! He's going to blow us up!" Chopper fearfully cried out.
"Sky Island's scary!" Usopp whimpered.
"That's enough, Guerrilla!" a loud, authoritative voice called out, distracting the stranger that was attacking us and causing him to hold up his shield to protect himself from an attack that was suddenly thrust his way. A new person entered the picture, one that was quick to attack the man. The impact of the attack had sent the Guerrilla flying back, his body disappearing into the clouds for a moment as the new stranger landed himself on our ship's deck. Upon closer look, he was clad head to toe in metal armor that you would expect a knight to wear.
"Oh great, now who's this guy?" Nami frowned as I sucked in a large gulp of air and sat up. My body felt as if it had just finished running a mile with the way my heart now thundered and my lungs ached, even my limbs felt heavy and strained as if I had just pushed them past their limits and made them go through something vigorous.
Zoro's right, the air was thin.
"Miss, you may call me the Sky Knight" the armored-clad man introduced as the strange-looking bird he had rode in on cawed in greeting. "He's gone" the man assured us as he looked out toward the sea of clouds and found that the Guerrilla was nowhere to be seen.
"What's going on here? Who the heck was that guy?" Nami asked before suddenly reeling around. "And you! Could you be any more worthless and pathetic? You had him outnumbered four to one!" she glared, her words causing my heart to suddenly tightened.
"You're all pathetic! Worthless brats that don't deserve this family name—if I had a choice, I would have ridden myself of your incompetence years ago!"
Shaking my head, I forced my lips up into a crooked smile and laughed.
"Sorry, Nami, seems the air pressure here is a bit too much for us worthless and pathetic losers" I didn't even realize I had venomously spat out those words until I saw the way that she flinched and drew back.
"You saved us, thanks a lot!" it was Chopper's chipper voice that cut through the tense air that had settled between the navigator and me as we instantly turned our heads toward the reindeer and watched how he bowed in appreciation to the stranger.
"I'm just doing my duty, this one's on the house" Sky Knight said.
"What gives? I feel so weak..." Sanji weakly complained.
"Yeah, I could barely move..." Luffy groaned.
"It must be the thin air" Robin suggested as Nami carefully made her way over to me and offered her hand. She looked worried as she pulled me close the minute I grabbed her hand and allowed her to pull me up.
"Sorry..." I blinked at the quiet apology before snorting.
"What's there to be sorry about? You were frustrated" I scoffed. "Geez, if anyone should be sorry it should be me—I was the one that got prissy over the comment" I quietly huffed a smile as I gave her back a reassuring pat. Slowly nodding, I watched as she opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something before quickly shutting it as she returned my smile with one of her own.
"What? Oh yeah, almost forgot about that..." Zoro mumbled after processing what Robin had said.
"You must be Blue Sea people" Sky Knight said.
"Blue Sea people? What's that and who are you?" Nami asked as she turned her attention back toward the strange man.
"As I said, I am the Sky Knight, and Blue Sea people are what we call those who live beneath the clouds" Sky Knight explained.
"The Sky Knight?" Chopper echoed.
"I assume that you've come here from the Blue Sea?" the old man questioned.
"Yeah, that's right" Luffy nodded.
"Then that explains it" Sky Knight hummed after a moment's thought. "You've reached the White Sea—7,000 meters in the air" he told us. "The White White Sea, where I assume you're heading, is still further up—about 10,000 meters. Ordinarily, Blue Sea people can't possibly endure it here" he explained.
A/N: Enjoy
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