One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.
-Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Seven-
"Is our navigator having another meltdown?" Robin asked as she came back to camp, now carrying a large salt rock with her.
"Hm, seems she's quite the picky eater" I hummed as I sat down my basket before curiously wandering over toward the ginger so I could see what it was she was doing seeing how, instead of helping us gather supplies, she had been sitting here this entire time working on something she claimed was important.
"Now that's what I call a gem—it's huge!" Nami gaped, eyes now sparkling at the sight of the salt rock in Robin's hands.
"Big? Yes" Robin nodded. "But it's not a gemstone" she corrected.
"Hey, that's a big salt crystal" Sanji grinned. "Nice find, Robin dear" he praised.
"I found it on the shore and I figured we'd find a use for it" Robin said as Nami started to eagerly examine the salt crystal.
"Not only is salt vital for survival, but without it, my food would taste awful" Sanji admitted as he put his focus back on his cooking.
"If I take half of the garlic and barley, I can make an antiseptic inferno ointment to heal the Sky Knight..." Chopper mumbled to himself as he thought over what ingredients he'd need in order to make the ointment he was talking about.
"Yeah, you need any frog?" Zoro asked.
"Why would he need a dead frog to make medicine?" I asked, raising an eyebrow as the swordsman only shrugged in response while still holding the dead amphibians out toward the reindeer as if expecting the doctor to take them.
"No, no frog" Chopper shook his head, making it clear he didn't need them.
"Zoro, you're not doing anything—I got a little job for you" Sanji suddenly said as he motioned for the swordsman to come over.
"Oi, Sanji, my swords were not meant to be used like this" Zoro frowned, eye twitching as he carefully balanced a burning stone atop two of his swords.
"Yeah, but disobey the chef and you probably won't eat, so it's your call" Sanji mindlessly shrugged as he ordered the swordsman to finally drop the burning stone right into the pot. As soon as the stone made contact with the stew, it started to boil just as Sanji put the lid right over it to keep the heat trapped inside and to prevent the boiling stew from spilling right over the edges of the pot.
"Ah! You just dropped a rock in the stew—is it good?" Luffy curiously asked.
"We don't eat it, it helps the pot cook" Sanji said. "The stone's heat helps cook the stew from the inside and out" he explained.
"Ah" Chopper nodded in understanding.
"That's interesting, I didn't know that" I said, barely flickering my gaze over toward the men as I continued to boredly hover over near Nami. Occasionally sneaking quick peeks down at whatever it was she was working on. I was pretty good at making basic stews and soups, but even I hadn't been aware of such a trick.
"Trust me on this one, you'll need all the nutrients in this dish to survive this place" Sanji assured us.
"Perfect then!" Chopper brightened.
"Smells like we got a winner" Luffy hungrily licked his lips as he tried to lift the lid to the stew, only to cry out in pain as Sanji kicked him in the head.
"Keep your hands off!" the blond snapped.
"Sanji, I'm hungry!" Luffy loudly whined.
"When are you ever not hungry?" I mindlessly mumbled.
"Tell me about it..." Nami muttered as she softly huffed in agreement.
"Well, it's not ready yet" Sanji scolded. "Weren't you just cramming Sky Fish down your gullet not ten minutes ago?" he asked.
"Yeah, but that was just an appetizer—I figured you knew that!" Luffy argued.
"Yeah, didn't you know that, Sanji?" I chuckled. "I mean, how could you expect such a measly little Sky Fish to sate our captain's appetite?"
"Yeah, Skylar understands" Luffy nodded with a huff, pleased to know someone was on his size as Sanji rolled his eyes.
"He must have a rubber stomach too..." Nami grumbled to herself as her temper slowly started to rise the longer she listened to the captain complain about his hunger.
"Yeah, tell me about it" Robin agreed as she crossed her arms.
"The day he's ever full will be the day the world ends" I hummed as my gaze now drifted around our small campsite, looking and watching everyone as they busied themselves while waiting for the food to get done.
"Yes, finished!" Nami excitedly cheered which caused me to curiously look her way once more.
"Soups on, but it's ladies first—got it?" Sanji instructed as he handed three bowls over to Chopper, making sure that the reindeer understood that he needed to give these first three bowls to us ladies first and not any of the men.
"Sure" the reindeer nodded in understanding.
"If you all would please take your seat, I'll be around with your meals shortly, and eat up—I don't want it getting cold" Sanji told us all.
"Now, if you will all listen up while we eat, I'll explain how we're going to handle this tomorrow" Nami said as Chopper handed her, Robin, and me our bowls of stew.
"Thank you" I gently smiled, patting the top of the reindeer's head as he brightly beamed before heading off to finish distributing the rest of the stew.
"Oh! This looks tasty!" Usopp complimented.
"You said it" Nami smiled as she mindlessly handed her bowl over to the sharpshooter without a second thought. Looking around camp, I was quick in making my way over toward Zoro when I spotted him laying a little ways away from the rest of the group. He must have taken refuge over there to nap in peace.
"Wake up, sleepyhead, food's ready" I grinned as I plopped down next to the resting swordsman who only grumbled as he tiredly peeked an eye open.
"Hey, this is important you guys!" Nami frowned when she saw that not many of us were actually listening to her.
"Then I'm all ears, Nami sweet!" Sanji cooed as he filled up more bowls with stew.
"Me too!" Luffy eagerly nodded.
"Wow! Check out the heart-shaped carrots!" Usopp suddenly exclaimed as I swirled my stew around with my spoon. Watching as the steam rose off of it in waves only to quickly disappear into the air. "You really go the extra mile, Sanji" he praised. Sparing a glance, I chuckled the minute I saw the irritated expression on the blonde's face as he harshly glared down at the obvious sharpshooter.
"Perhaps you should have kept your mouth shut, Usopp" I softly laughed.
"Huh?" Usopp blinked.
"You're welcome" Sanji grounded out. "Yes, I did all that just to impress you, Usopp" he seethed as he tightly he clutched his ladle.
"Um…alright...?" Usopp hesitantly nodded, sounding rather confused as he warily looked at the blond with a raised brow, not quite understanding why he looked and sounded so annoyed at the moment.
"Anyways, let's review Noland's book first" Nami cleared her throat in an attempt to grab everyone's attention once more. "He discovered the City of Gold four hundred years ago. However, after leaving the island and returning with his kind, he found that the gold ruins had vanished—luckily, we know what happened to these ruins" she grinned.
"Keep the ladle handy" Luffy said, cutting the ginger off before she could say any more as he grabbed his bowl of stew. "I'll be back for more after I—" he was cut off by the pot's lid suddenly and harshly being smashed down on top of his head.
"Sanji, pay attention!" Nami snapped.
"I was, but he was interrupting you!" Sanji defended as he quickly put all the blame on Luffy.
"Now, now, Sanji" I chastised with the wave of my spoon. "It's not nice to point fingers."
"Hey, I complimented his food and this is the thanks I get? Sheesh!" Luffy pouted as he rubbed the top of his head.
"The point I was getting at was that the gold didn't sink in the ocean, but was shot into the sky by the Knock Up Stream, just like we were" Nami huffed as she quickly finished saying what she had been attempting to say this entire time.
"Do you really think a whole island could have done that?" Chopper asked, tilting his head.
"Yeah, it just doesn't seem possible for a whole island to be shot up into the sky and stay there" I agreed, still finding it a bit difficult to wrap my head around the fact that the island was able to be carried all the way up here and not fall back down to the ground below thanks to gravity.
"Well, it's the only thing that could make sense" Nami argued. "Remember? Cricket said that every time this phenomenon occurs, it's in a different location" she pointed out.
"Yeah, that explosion was enormous, so I'm not surprised it lifted an island" Usopp said.
"It's just hard to believe that the forest we're sitting in is the same as the one we saw back on Jaya" Zoro admitted as he looked around and took note of just how much different this island was compared to the one on the ground.
"I believe that has something to do with the odd composition that the island clouds appear to have" Robin said. "Look at all the trees, fish, and wildlife—something about this environment dramatically increases growth rates, which explains how a society here could have been swallowed up by these enforces."
"Huh? So tragic" Sanji hummed.
"That also explains why the South Birds that saved us were so huge, I couldn't believe it" Chopper said, giving mention to the giant South Birds that had come to his and the Sky Knight's rescue.
"Four hundred years of growing would do that to a bird" Zoro nodded.
"Some breeds are known to live long lives, plus breeding would have also played a huge part—no doubt with each new generation, they only got bigger in an attempt to adapt and thrive in their new environment" I hummed.
"Then why here?" Sanji questioned as he tossed the swordsman his bowl of stew before taking a seat beside me. "Why'd the South Birds go to such lengths to save you guys?" he asked.
"Um...I don't know" Chopper shrugged. "But when they saw him, they referred to the Sky Knight as God" he revealed.
"He's God? So if we beat the crap out of this guy, our job here is done?" Luffy questioned.
"Luffy, no" I said, quick in wanting to dissuade him from attempting to beat up the old man that had just saved our friend.
"No, genius! How did you get that out of what he was saying?!" Usopp frowned.
"Will both you loudmouths just pipe down!" Nami snapped.
"Yeah, shut up" Usopp echoed right at Luffy.
"Yeah—wait, who's the loudmouth?" Luffy asked.
A/N: Enjoy
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