One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.

-Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Two-

"Hm? This seems to be some sort of altar for sacrifices" Robin suddenly pointed out after a moment or two of closely examining our nearest surroundings.

"Altar? Wait...sacrifices?!" Nami cried out.

"Nami, what's a sacrifice?" Chopper innocently asked.

"You know, like an offering to the Gods" Nami answered with a shrug as she gave the reindeer the most basic answer she could think of.

"Oh, is that all? I thought it meant being boiled alive in a big stew or something" Chopper sighed in relief.

"That's an interesting way to look at it" I raised an eyebrow.

"Actually, that's about right" Robin nodded. "But regardless of the method, the thing being offered is generally someone's life" she said.

"That's not technically true, perhaps for a long time there they would offer up humans as sacrifices before it was eventually switched over to animals, usually a goat" I corrected her. "Sacrifices were mainly performed to please the Gods in hopes of a better year, whether the people were suffering from a natural disaster—like a drought—or because they just wished for a better harvest that year" I explained.

"You didn't have to go into so much detail!" Nami snapped. "Why would anyone need to even know all that creepy junk?!"

"Are you both trying to tell me we're all going to die here!" Chopper fearfully cried as he shakily stumbled back before accidentally tumbling down the stairs of the altar.

"Chopper?!" Nami gasped.

"H-hey!" I flinched.

"Dammit!" Zoro hissed as he was the first to react, quickly racing down the stairs and going after the tumbling reindeer. Just before Chopper had the chance to fall right into the water, Robin quickly stopped him with the help of her Devil Fruit powers.

"I advise we bring him back up here quickly" I worriedly frowned, quick to notice that something was lurking down there in the water—most likely a Sky Fish of some sort—and was already starting to advance toward the reindeer.

"Oh no! What is that?!" Nami fearfully asked just as giant Sky Fish burst out of the clouds and dived straight toward Chopper, but it was quickly blocked by Zoro which gave the reindeer enough time to scamper back up the stairs and away from danger.

"A shark in the sky" Robin answered.

"So basically a Sky Shark" I clarified.

"Zoro! Zoro!" Chopper cried just as the swordsman tumbled into the water along with the shark that was quick to follow after him. "What happened to him?! No!" he whimpered when the swordsman didn't resurface immediately.

"Roronoa, you better resurface right now or I'm going to kick your ass!" I worriedly shouted, my mind already working a million miles a minute as I tried to think of what to do. Diving straight in after him would just be plain stupid—I've never really fought underwater before nor fought something as big as a Sky Shark meaning that I had more of a chance of just being a hindrance to him if I went straight in. I'd have more of a chance of making a bigger problem for him and everyone else by just recklessly diving right in after him...especially considering that he's currently the strongest person out of all of us here right now...

There really wasn't much any of us onshore could do seeing how none of us had any long-ranged attacks on us and I had an inkling that even if we tried to distract the Sky Shark, all that would do in return is cause it to just repeatedly hit itself against the altar until one of us went tumbling down again toward it. We were clearly in something akin to a lose-lose situation. A situation where we couldn't exactly help Zoro in any way, but at the same time knew that any attempts we could have made had a high chance of just making things worse for him or all of us in return. It didn't help that most of us were stricken by fear which in return made our limbs feel like lead and made thinking nothing more than a muddled mess of jumbled up words and ideas that didn't make sense or sound logical as I'm sure that just like me, the others were attempting to think of something we could do.

"There he is!" Chopper cried out the minute the Sky Shark popped back up, its mouth twitching as it tried to clamp down and swallow the swordsman that was shakily holding its jaws open.

"Zoro!" Nami gasped.

"You better not get eaten!" I worriedly shouted, swallowing the lump in my throat. I could already feel my nerves getting worked up and I'm sure it was the same for the others—two of them couldn't swim and it was clear to both Nami and me that we really wouldn't be of any help to the swordsman and would instead hinder him with our attempts at help. Even if one of us dived in, that Sky Shark would just easily chase us down just like it was doing with him—neither of us was on his level of strength and I had doubts he'd be all too pleased if he had to deal with the added stress of fighting to keep us alive just as much as he's fighting to keep himself alive.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?!" he snapped back.

"It's all my fault! What if he gets swallowed?!" Chopper wailed just as the two disappeared back into the water and out of sight once again. "Wait! Why isn't he coming back up? Zoro please be okay!" he sobbed.

"You don't think he got eaten...do you?" Nami hesitantly asked, causing me to tense as I snapped my head in her direction.

"Ah! Zoro's fish food!" Chopper cried, quick to jump to the worst possible outcome.

"Don't say that!" I snapped. "You're both wrong—he's the strongest one out of all of us here, so I just know he's alright! I just know it!" I huffed and puffed, tears welling up in my eyes as I smacked away Nami's hand when she attempted to rest it against my shoulder in what I assumed was meant to be a comforting manner. Even afraid I knew and understood just how strong he was—I knew and understood just how determined he was to keep on living because he had a promise to fulfill for Kuina and I knew he wasn't going to let some overgrown fish stop him from fulfilling that promise of his. Despite having such complete and utter faith in him...there was still a nagging voice there in the back of my mind that taunted me with the possibility that they were right and he had lost.

A voice that mocked and belittled me for not being strong enough—for not recklessly rushing right in and helping him despite knowing in reality that would have only made things worse. I wasn't a superhuman freak nor a monster in human form, I was just...

Me.

That's all I was, just simple me and I knew my limits because, at the end of the day, I was only human. I was no different from Nami and Usopp despite being just a little bit stronger and perhaps even braver, but I still had my limits and I was still just as prone to fear and stress as the both of them when it came to such terrifying situations like this one. All I could rely on was my hope—no matter how little of it I actually had left inside me—and my knowledge. I knew what the smart decision was in the end even if the voices which cruelly whispered in my ears continued to berate and mock me for it.

"If he had been eaten, the clouds would have turned red by now" Robin calmly pointed out.

"Shut up!" I hissed out, not really in the mood to listen to one of her morbid remarks.

"How can you stay so calm in a time like this?!" Nami frowned before flinching as the shark suddenly came bursting out of the water along with Zoro who held a position that insinuated that he had just punched the fish—that out of all the things he could have done, he simply just punched it as if it was that easy.

"I can tell you one thing...we are not going to make it across swimming..." he panted, sucking in large gulps of air to replenish his lungs as he climbed his way back up the stairs.

"What kind of swordsman punches a shark instead of using his blade?" Nami scowled, all her worry now melting away and turning into irritation as she placed her hands on her hips and glared down at the swordsman. It was as if she was thinking the same thing as the rest of us—that all our worry and fears were for nothing if all it took at the end of the day for him to beat some carnivorous fish was his fist.

"I'm glad you're okay" Chopper sighed in relief as the swordsman stripped off his wet shirt and started to wring it out.

"Whatever happened to your precious swordsman pride?" Nami mockingly asked before raising an eyebrow the minute she looked my way as I tightly clutched the railing and started to climb it, venomously glaring down at the swordsman...

He made us all so worried this entire time—he made me so worried this entire time, and yet...and yet all it took was a measly little punch for him to get the thing down like it was never really a problem for him in the first place?

"Would you give it a rest for once!" Zoro frowned, clearly not in the mood to listen to the navigator before grunting at the sudden weight of my body being thrown right on top of his as I threw myself over the railing of the ship and straight toward him without a second thought.

"Skylar?!" Nami gaped in surprise as both the swordsman and I tumbled to the ground, but instead of hitting or screaming at him, I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face in his chest.

"Skylar?" Zoro softly questioned, hesitantly resting his hand on my back as if unsure of whether I was mad at him or not.

"You're an asshole and I don't know why I even bother worrying about you..." was my muffled response. Quietly did we lay there for a minute or two before suddenly, I heard him snort as his chest now rumbled with soft laughter. Blushing, I carefully lifted my head and looked up at him with a pout. "Don't laugh, you really scared me—I thought you'd died" I huffed the minute I saw the amused look in his eyes as he gently looked down at me.

"Come on now, that's ridiculous" he scoffed with the roll of his eyes. "You know me—a wimpy little fish like that wasn't going to kill me that easily. Besides, I know if you really thought I was going to die, you would have jumped in no matter what—consequences be damned" he softly chuckled, causing my blush to darken as I realized he was right. Whether I realized it or not, I subconsciously knew he wasn't in any real danger despite what my shot nerves and overanxious brain wanted to think during that whole ordeal. My impulsive ass would have jumped right in without a second thought if I truly thought his life was in danger. Instead of admitting this, I only buried my face in his chest once more and grumbled, causing him to chuckle.

"You two having fun down there?" Nami teasingly asked once her shock at what I had just done wore off.

"Shut up!" Zoro and I embarrassingly snapped as we swirled our heads around to glare up at her.

"So cute" she playfully cooed, giggling as our embarrassment only grew.

"Ah! There's an entire school of them—what are we going to do?!" Chopper suddenly squealed the second he saw that even more Sky Sharks had shown up and were now swimming around the altar like a pack of hungry wolves.

"I'm not sure, but if that first shark was any indication, we're not going to have much luck fighting them off" Zoro said as I stood up and held my hand out, helping him up off the ground.

"We got to do something, we can't stay here forever" Robin said.

"If leaving us here was that lobster's idea of a joke, it's not very funny..." Zoro grumbled.

"Perhaps this is the "Heaven's Judgement" we've been hearing so much about" Robin suggested.

"Kind of a boring punishment if I'm being honest" I admitted as I looked around us—other than the Sky Shark, there wasn't really much danger here to really threaten our lives and make us regret our decisions for committing our crimes.

"Yeah, you'd think this God would try something a little flashier, you know?" Zoro agreed just as Nami threw a blue tank top down at him so that he could replace the wet shirt he had removed just a few minutes ago.

"Couldn't say, never met the guy" Robin shrugged.

"I'm not sure what the solution is, but we defiantly can't set sail with the haul looking like this" Zoro remarked as he motioned towards the damage that had been done to the bottom of the ship. "Hey, Chopper! Try to figure out a way to fix the ship" he suddenly called up to the reindeer.

"Me?" Chopper questioned, curiously tilting his head. "Okay..." he nodded despite how unsure he looked. I didn't blame him since the only one in the crew that had some basic idea on fixing the ship was Usopp, and even then, he wasn't that great at it to begin with.

"Why should he fix it? Are you going somewhere?" Nami asked.

"I'm going to find a way into that forest" Zoro pointed, motioning toward the thick forest that surrounded the altar. "We should probably make this our base of operations—you guys can keep a lookout, I'm sure Luffy and the others are headed this way" he suggested. "Like they say, if you get lost then you should stay where you are, right?" he asked

"You actually know that saying?" I asked in complete surprise.

"Why are you so surprised?!" he snapped.

"Who knew you actually had a brain under all the moss" I dramatically wept in relief before laughing as he growled in annoyance.

"Zoro, if you want to go into the forest, I guess that's okay with me; but you haven't really told us what for" Chopper piped up as he seemed curious to know why the swordsman wanted to so badly head into the forest instead of staying here with us.

"There's supposed to be God on this island, I want to meet him" Zoro grinned.

"You sound just like Luffy, this isn't going to end well..." I groaned as I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Wait—that's a terrible idea! I mean, what are you going to do if you actually find him?!" Nami frowned.

"I don't know, depends on if he behaves himself" Zoro shrugged as his grin grew cocky.

"Zoro, you're the bravest person I know!" Chopper cheered in complete awe.

"Don't encourage him!" I scolded.

"And what about his Priest? You gonna beat them up too?" Nami frowned. "Hello, the last thing we need is you pissing off a God—it's kind of not smart" she huffed as she angrily crossed her arms.

"By the time I'm done with him, this God's going to bow before me" Zoro boasted.

"Really? Just...just really?" I deadpanned as Chopper started to shine bright with admiration for the swordsman.

"Go Zoro!" he happily cheered as Nami turned her back on the moss-haired man.

"I don't believe in God anyway, what do I care about pissing him off?" Zoro scoffed, rolling his eyes over how dramatic the ginger was being.

"Oh powerful one, I just wanted you to know that I don't agree with my idiot shipmate—I don't even like him that much, okay, bye" she prayed while on her hands and knees, hands clasped together as she silently cried.

A/N: Enjoy

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