One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.
-Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Seven-
"Luffy, something's wrong! You have to come down now!" Sanji shouted to the still-bouncing teen. Before any more could be said, the two screamed as they suddenly lost their balance and came tumbling down the side of the octopus' head and if it wasn't for Luffy's Devil Fruit abilities, they most certainly would have fallen all the way down to possibly their deaths. Luffy only laughed, tightly clutching the railing of the ship while Sanji clung to him as they now dangled there.
"That was scary, I wonder why the octopus isn't bouncing anymore" Luffy curiously pondered, quick to realize that their loss of balance had been a result of the octopus losing elasticity.
"I told you! It's shrinking, bonehead!" Sanji snapped as the rest of us sighed in relief upon seeing that they were truly fine. Such relief was short-lived though as we were soon filled with dread the minute the ship started picking up speed in its descent. It felt as if the ship was moving a lot faster than us as we became airborne, our feet lifting off the deck as the ship plummeted further down without us.
"That's weird, how did the ship get below us?" Luffy asked, curiously tilting his head.
"We're falling! We're falling!" Usopp wailed.
"Not again!" I cried, my arms quick in finding themselves wrapped around Zoro's head once more.
"Wait, Skylar—" I pulled him close, cutting him off as I buried his face once more inside my bosom and tightly clung onto him for safety. Wrapping my entire body around his, I screwed my eyes shut as fear took hold and I now told myself that as long as I held him close than everything was going to be just fine. A childish thought, no different from the times I would tightly cling to Cloud in my younger years whenever the nightmares would get too bad or when the fear would get too strong, strong believing that as long as he held me then everything would be alright.
"We're going to hit the sea so hard we'll sink to the bottom!" Nami fearfully cried.
"Only if the ship doesn't shatter first" Robin pointed out.
"Shatter?! No way!" Usopp gasped.
"Usopp, what are you going to do?!" Chopper whimpered as he watched how the sharpshooter suddenly pulled on some shoes that had an octopi design on the bottom of them before he pulled himself up onto the ship's railing.
"What I always do—save our lives, of course!" he boldly proclaimed, puffing out his chest in an attempt to look brave and confident despite the trembling of his body.
"What are you doing?" Nami asked.
"Are you crazy, Usopp?!" Sanji frowned as the sharpshooter attached a hook to the railing.
"Usopp Ahh!" Usopp screamed as he jumped back, quickly disappearing out of sight until he was most likely underneath the ship. I wasn't exactly sure what it was he planned to do, but whatever it was, it seemed to work as the ship started to slow back down into a gentle float.
"We're floating down!" Nami gaped.
"T-thank goodness..." I shivered, slowly removing myself from Zoro whose head tilted back as a small trickle of blood leaked from his nose. There was a blush staining his cheek while the tiniest hints of a blissful smile pulled at his lips as he seemed to almost be in a bit of a daze.
"Alright!" Luffy cheered.
"A-are we safe now?" Chopper shakily asked, still crying as he clung to the ship's railing for safety.
"It sure seems like it" Robin nodded.
"Let's hope it stays that way until we land" I sighed as Usopp swung himself back up to us.
"Just leave it all up to Usopp to save the day!" he boasted, chest puffed out once more as he now wore a prideful grin on his face.
"Usopp, you're so brave!" Chopper cheered in awe.
"I was actually scared there for a second!" Luffy laughed.
"Me too—looks like we're finally safe" Nami smiled as the octopus suddenly returned to its normal size. "Or not..." she paled.
"Usopp!" Luffy shouted, quick to stretch out his arm and grab hold of the sharpshooter's nose when he saw that the other teen had suddenly lost balance and tumbled right over the ship's railing. "Everybody, hold onto something!" we only screamed in response to the captain's orders as our hands were quick to grab at the first thing that was grounded in a desperate attempt for safety, until finally...
The ship finally landed.
Crashing into the ocean, it sent a spray of water flying everywhere as harsh waves crashed into the bottom of the ship—lapping up onto the deck and drenching us all in a sea of salt water.
"Nami? Robin? Skylar? Are you okay?" Sanji asked once things started to settle down and the rush of adrenaline was no more.
"That was really scary..." Nami whimpered.
"You can say that again..." I weakly muttered, rubbing my head as I struggled to stop both the trembling of my body and the thundering of my heart.
"What happened to the octopus?" Nami asked.
"Guess it ran out of air" Robin suggested.
"Ran out of air?" I echoed. "I...I guess that makes sense, it couldn't stay inflated forever..." I slowly nodded, realizing that she had to be right in her assumption.
"Wonder how that could have happened..." Sanji grumbled as the octopus dropped down on top of Luffy's face.
"Hey, come on now" Luffy childishly huffed as he pulled the cephalopod off. "We did make it down here alive" he defended as if that excused him of any blame for the octopus' sudden loss of air.
"Sorry about that, Zoro" I sheepishly smiled as the swordsman wiped his nose clean of any blood, silently huffing as the blush on his cheeks finally started to fade.
"Yeah, yeah..." he grumbled, looking off to the side before carefully taking my hand. "Are you alright?" he asked, giving my hand a gentle squeeze as if trying to be comforting as he carefully eyed me from the corner of his eye.
"I'm still alive, so I guess" I answered, not knowing what else to say after such a terrifying experience as I only returned the squeeze he gave my hand with one of my own. Perhaps if the circumstances had been different, I wouldn't have been so frightened...but that was simply a thought for another day and one that was probably best left unsaid and unnoticed.
"You're right, and we got to see an incredible place" Sanji sighed after thinking over what Luffy had said, deciding to let the rubber man off the hook this time.
"Now that we're down here, it looks so far away" Robin remarked.
"Like something out of a dream" Nami blissfully sighed.
"Except it wasn't a dream" I smiled.
"But it is a dreamland, think we'll see it again?" Chopper curiously asked.
"Well, you might see someplace similar when you die" Zoro shrugged.
"Not you, I doubt you're going anyplace good" Usopp deadpanned.
"He's got you there" I snorted.
"You jerks!" Zoro irritably growled.
"You guys keep discussing the afterlife—me, I'm going to go put on a pot of coffee" Sanji said.
"Make dinner instead, Sanji!" Luffy quickly called out before the blond could completely disappear into the kitchen.
"Are you ever not hungry? Have some coffee first and be patient, will you" Sanji grunted.
"Okay" Luffy nodded before standing as he curiously looked around. "Hey, by the way, does anybody know just where the heck we are?" he asked before squinting when a bunch of floodlights suddenly flickered on and an alarm began to blare. Startled and not really knowing what else to do...
We jumped ship.
Little words were exchanged as we scattered off in different directions the moment we spotted the Marine ship now nearing our own. I opted to keep close to Zoro as we swam away and toward the nearby shore, using the water as cover so as not to be spotted by any of the Marines aboard the ship that was now docked beside Merry.
"Holy crap!" Zoro gasped, quickly pushing me down without real warning before disappearing underneath the water's surface as well when a rather large Navy ship suddenly came sailing by, nearly hitting the both of us if we hadn't disappeared underneath the water and swam away. Resurfacing once we thought it safe, we climbed ashore—the both of us now nothing more than a tangled pair of panting limbs that harshly began to cough and gasp as we flopped down and attempted to catch our breaths before slowly standing back up. Removing his shirt, Zoro started to ring it out while I grabbed handfuls of my hair and started twisting it around—draining the heavy strands of all of the seawater they had absorbed.
"Just our luck to end up in a Marine base..." I bitterly grumbled, shaking my head like that of a wet dog trying to shake itself dry. Zoro only grunted in response as he slipped his shirt back on and started looking around. I barely did the same, flinging my hair back as I ran my fingers through the curly strands of wet hair in some vague attempt to untangle them so as to prevent any heavy knotting later when they finally dried.
"Alright, where to next?" Zoro pondered, not really giving me time to answer before he suddenly snatched up my wrist and started to drag me away into an unknown direction that he had randomly decided to go in. I kept my lips sealed, eyebrows knitting together into an irritated frown as it wasn't long before our mindless walking led us into a nearby building where we then proceeded to walk through an area that was filled to the brim with nothing but Marines. "This base is huge—anyways, where the hell are we?" he asked, coming to a halt as he looked around at the Marines that scurried about—none of them really taking any notice of us in their frantic state. "We're lost" he eventually admitted after a moment or two of silence.
"Geez, I wonder whose fault that is" I said, finally slipping my wrist out of his grasp and crossing my arms as I glared.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" he frowned.
"Oh come on, we both know that your sense of—" I stopped, face bursting with color when he suddenly leaned in close which in return caused me to lean back.
"We both know what?" he asked, a sly grin now tugging at his lips as he continued to lean toward me. "What's the matter? You're looking a little red there" he teased, causing my blush to only darken as I continued to shrink back.
"Back up! You're too damn close!" I embarrassingly snapped, finally shoving him away as he burst out into laughter.
"You really are fun to tease, you know that?" he playfully grinned, causing me to roll my eyes before puffing my cheeks out in an annoyed huff. "Come on, I'm only playing with you" he chuckled, ruffling the top of my head before taking my hand as he once again started to drag me alongside him.
"It's not that funny..." I childishly grumbled as I walked beside him.
"It kind of is though" he grinned, lightly bumping me with his shoulder and causing my expression to lighten up a bit.
"You're such an ass, you know that?" I muttered, bumping him back as he softly snorted. It grew silent after that as we started to wander the halls of the facility until our ears eventually perked up and caught the tail end of a conversation between two Marines disappearing around the corner just as we entered the area.
"You're going to make me regret what?" Zoro asked, looking around in an attempt to find the men who had just been talking about him. "We're defiantly going in circles" he stated after a moment of thought, causing me to huff a deep sigh through my nose. Opening my mouth, I was ready to snarkily respond before stopping when I suddenly spotted something fluttering around on one of the bulletin boards nearby.
-Everybody's P.O.V-
"How could you just stroll around a hostile fortress?!" Nami snapped the second she spotted Zoro and Skylar, angrily bringing the broom in her hands down over her head and against the back of Zoro's head. Grunting at the sudden attack, the swordsman swiveled around with a frustrated snarl, ready to beat the shit out of whoever thought it wise to suddenly attack him like that without warning.
"I'm going to kick your—" he stopped once he recognized the woman behind him, taking a second to eye the Marine uniform she wore before flickering his gaze back up to that familiar scowl of hers. "Oh...hey, Nami" he casually greeted. Huffing, she looked just about ready to snap again before stopping and raising a questioning brow the second she caught sight of Skylar mindlessly wandering over toward one of the bulletin boards that decorated the halls of the Marine base. Most of the boards around the base had your standard schedules and notices pinned to them—there were even whole boards dedicated to just wanted posters. But the one that the brunette was staring at in particular was different—it was a special board meant to hold posters for missing children.
They were posters made for important children who had either run away or been kidnapped or were just lost and possibly afraid—children who came from wealthy backgrounds and whose families held great importance in the eyes of the government for one reason or another. Looking at the brunette, Nami couldn't help but not just how tense she looked as her fingers slowly started to twitch every now and again the longer she stared at the board and the innocent faces that peered back at her...
Before either Nami or Zoro could react, they watched as their friend suddenly reached up and harshly ripped off a poster. Violently tearing it from the pins that held it up without care until it was clutched within her grasp and hidden from view.
"Skylar...?" Nami quietly questioned.
"Hey, Skylar, you alright?" Zoro frowned, already starting to worry when the brunette didn't respond right away, but instead kept standing there and blankly staring at the poster in her hand. "Skylar?" he quietly murmured, watching as her body twitched as if she had come back to her senses. She turned her head to look back at the two for but a moment before facing the bulletin board once more and in one quick motion, she ripped another poster off the board and then another. With three sheets now in the grasp of her hands, she quickly started to ball them up until they were all smushed together in a large wad—curled up into one another with no way of seeing any hints of the pictures or words that were printed on them.
-Skylar's P.O.V-
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be fine?" I curiously asked, silently listening to the sound of paper crunching as I continued to scrunch up those wretched posters before finally tossing the wad into a nearby trashcan. There was something insulting about seeing them here, pinned up amongst a sea of faces of children who I could only pray were genuinely missed.
"What was it you just pulled off that bulletin board?" Nami curiously asked.
"What are you talking about? I didn't pull anything off it" I raised an eyebrow, feigning innocence as I walked back toward her and Zoro—making sure to be mindful not to show any strong emotions despite my desire to just scream right about now.
"But... never mind—I'll ask later" Nami shook her head, quick in waving me off as if she didn't have time to try and force the truth out of me and just found it easier to accept my lie like so many others usually did. "Anyways, you both will be caught in no time if you keep walking around—especially wearing those swords" she scowled as she quickly snatched up both mine and Zoro's swords, struggling for just a moment in trying to get a good grasp on all five of them.
"Hey!" Zoro snapped.
"Don't hurt yourself" I hummed, not really all that torn up about the sudden loss of my swords. No surprise considering who they were a gift from.
"I'm not going to hurt myself!" Nami huffed, not liking how I made it sound like I was speaking to a child and not a full-grown adult. "Besides, you both will probably get me caught too!" she frowned before suddenly freaking out the minute we heard a pair of approaching footsteps. "Come on, Zoro! Skylar! You got to hide now!" she frantically demanded as she hastily ushered us to follow her out onto a nearby balcony.
"Hey, wait! Our swords!" Zoro frowned, quick to follow after just as two Marine soldiers walked right on by the open doorway, neither of them poking their head out onto the balcony or giving any signs that they had seen the three of us.
"Alright, they're gone" Nami sighed in relief as I curiously poked my head out into the empty hall, watching as the men disappeared round the corner.
"Argh! I'm tired of all this sneaking around!" Zoro irritably groaned. "Tell me again why we can't fight them?!" he scowled.
"That's not the best plan you could come up with" I sweat dropped. "This place is just crawling with Marines left and right, this isn't the right place to be picking a fight" I reasoned.
"You idiot! We don't know where the others are—if we did something like—"
"Then they show up, right?" Zoro asked, cutting the ginger off.
"Hey now, there's an idea—no! No! The Merry's missing too!" Nami snapped, quick to shake her head before she could further agree with the swordsman's idiotic plan.
"Calm down, would you..." Zoro grumbled. "Whoa! Would you check out that view, we landed in the dark so I didn't get to see much" he suddenly remarked once he noticed how breathtaking of a view the base had now that the sun was starting to rise. "Nice—hey, I bet if we wait here, the others would show up eventually."
A/N: Enjoy
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