Nexus HWR 1.9 Midway:
"Look! An island!" Usopp pointed off the crow's nest towards a distant shoreline.
A muscular man in an orange gi stepped out of the training room up on the crow's nest, along with a much smaller boy with spiky white hair. Goku and Killua walked up to Usopp, the younger boy hopping up on the railing and crouching his legs. Killua stood on the wood railing and put his hand up to his forehead to block the sun from his eyes as he looked out.
Killua was looking for a solid ten seconds before he saw the slightest blur in the distance. "Whoa, you must have some pretty good eyes," the fourteen year old complimented. It was the wrong move as Usopp instantly started bragging about how great his eyes were, making the younger boy sweatdrop.
It was a little after midday, and for the second day in a row, lunch was awkward. Goku ate a lot, and talked with his mouth full, but he was the only one acting normal. Everyone else was still edgy from a few days before. Natsu and Luffy kept getting in food-eating contests, which turned into arguments if one of them left scraps or if one of their plates wasn't as big as the other person's. Ever since the two of them got in an unresolved fight during the crazy-sickness that spread around the ship, the tension had been high between them.
Riku was also staying quiet a lot more, as he had heard a lot of things during that time. The people who said them came up to him after and apologized, but he couldn't just forget Usopp's words. "You made me your slave for two years! I killed people for you, you monster!" Usopp came to him after the medicine had fully worked through their systems, and said he was saying that stuff to Ansem. Riku nodded at the time, but it didn't make him feel much better considering he had teamed up with Ansem to stop the madness. He was the only person who actually knew Ansem from all the mental conversations the two of them had, so he knew he was the only one to know the man was changing, if slowly.
Riku stepped out on the deck, and looked off the little balcony outside the kitchen down to the main deck covered in grass. Sora was walking a few steps to the left of Kairi, the two of them walking together, but at the same time apart. It hurt the tall, silver haired teen to see his best friends having troubles, but apparently some weird stuff had gone down between them during the sickness as well. At one point he heard, Kairi almost kissed Gray. When he first heard it he almost laughed, but he saw Gray looking sheepish and Sora glaring in his direction, so he decided not to.
The ship was also really badly damaged, so they had to stop at an island and gather up a lot of supplies. The repairs took an entire day even with Franky's master craftsmanship, as the lower decks, the kitchen, and the crow's nest were all badly damaged in the ordeal.
There seemed to be only one good thing that came out of all of the hassle. That would be Gray and Juvia finally acknowledging they were in a relationship. Back on their own world, they were close, but Gray went missing for two years after showing up on Nexus. In the last two and a half months though, ever since he showed up in Port Royal, the two of them had gotten closer than ever before. Then, during the sickness, something happened that neither of them would talk about, but now they were openly in a relationship, even occasionally holding hands on the deck, (when Gray didn't pull his hand away).
Everyone was gathering up on the bow of the ship after Usopp shouted about the island. Luffy jumped up on the top of the yellow lion-flower figurehead and put his hand up to his forehead to block the bright light from the suns too. "Cool," he exclaimed in a dragged out voice.
"What is it?" Nami asked her captain, a large robot currently in her way blocking her sight. Franky zoomed in with his partly mechanical eyes too, and he smiled at the sight of the small island.
"Looks like there's a little village on the beach," Usopp called down from the crow's nest. "A bunch of houses that look like they're made from palm trees, bamboo, and they're elevated off the ground a little. There're ladders leading up to the doors of the huts."
Again Killua was surprised by how much the man next to him could see while he could still just see the outline of the island. He knew better than to build up Usopp this time though and kept his mouth shut.
"There are people on the beach," Usopp continued. "Some of them are fishing, but most are just swimming around. There's a dock floating out there that people are jumping off of... Oh, they're swimming to shore. Looks like a few are screaming..."
Nami sweatdropped, "I guess they see us."
Goku started laughing. "Well, when we pull in to shore I hope they have some good food on this island!"
Sanji gawked at the spiky haired Saiyan who had walked up on his right side. The chef muttered, "I just fed you."
"And it was delicious," Goku complimented, patting his stomach to show how good it was. "But we may not come back to this island, so I've gotta try the food at least once!"
"If we're going to have dinner on the island," Nami began, "we may as well spend the night here. I'd like to make a map of that island," she smiled as now that they were closer, she could see it was a little bigger than she originally thought.
"Umm, guys," Rin started. The black haired teen wearing a white button down with long sleeves pointed his arm out over the water. They were still a mile from shore, but a large wake was splashing up as something headed straight for them at rapid speeds. "I think something's coming," he mumbled, though it was pretty obvious by now.
The splashing stopped right before the front of the ship, but whatever it was leapt out of the water. Water droplets fell all over the bow of the deck, as the shadow passed over them, making everyone look up in awe as the skinny figure flew over their heads.
She landed behind them, with a three foot tall white blubbery creature landing next to her. It was longer than it was tall, and it had carried her out to the ship pretty fast. "Dew-gong," the Pokemon stated its name in a happy tone.
The teenage girl with long red hair who landed on the deck did not look as happy. She was wearing a pink bikini, and as everyone turned around, half of them jumped at the angry expression she was giving them. "Just what do you think you're doing?" She asked, pointing a finger at the cluster of people in front of her.
They all rose up their hands and pointed to themselves as if she was referring to each of them specifically. The girl shook her head back and forth, splashing some of the water out of her hair and making it so the bottom tips curled up a little. The teenager was no older than sixteen, but she had a nicely curved body that Juvia elbowed Gray in the side for looking at. Then again, everyone was looking at the same spot, so he didn't know what the big deal was.
"What do you pirates want? Why are you sailing right towards our island?" The girl narrowed her eyes at them. "Answer carefully, I may not forgive you if you answer wrong."
"Are you that island's protector?" Goku asked in a surprised, but also impressed voice.
The girl smirked and humphed towards the tall, muscular, handsome man. Her eyes stayed focused on him for a few seconds, then she shook her head and frowned deeper, "Yea, you could call me that. My name's Misty, I'm the lifeguard of the beach on the island. And I run my own Pokemon Gym."
"Oh?" Sora asked, lifting up his eyebrows. "I've heard about Gym leaders! Were you from the Pokemon's world?" Sora questioned her.
The girl with long red hair paused as she opened her mouth. She wanted to yell at them again about the whole pirate thing, since they were still heading straight towards her island, but this boy seemed genuinely interested. "Yeah, I am. I was a Gym leader back there too."
"Whoa," Sora said. A smile came to the boy with spiky brown hair's face. "In that case, I challenge you to a battle!"
"Wait a second!" She shouted at him, making everyone lose the excited expressions they were gaining. "Answer my questions first! What are you pirates doing here?!"
"We're on our way to Aebrith," Natsu explained quickly, wanting to watch the Pokemon battle already.
Misty's eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat. "Wh-Why would you want to go there?" She asked, a large hint of fear in her voice.
"Wow, this place just sounds better and better by the minute," Kirito muttered.
"It doesn't really matter," Gray stated, quieting everyone who were about to explain why they were going to help Gray's friends.
Luffy ignored the man anyway and said, "To find the rest of my crew! Since they weren't on Awul, they're probably over there!"
Natsu spun towards Luffy, "No, we're going to go help out Gray's friends."
"And find mine," Luffy stated again, looking Natsu right back in the eyes. Neither of them backed down, and it looked like a fight would break out right there, if Sora didn't start shouting again and regain everyone's attention.
"Point is none of us are planning on hurting anyone on the island. Now can we battle?" Sora sounded really excited, and Misty sighed, before lifting back up her head with a glint in her eyes.
"You're on."
A couple of minutes later, the ship was anchored just off the shore of Misty's island. No one had gotten off yet though, as they were all far too interested in the battle about to go on on the main deck of the Sunny.
A few members of the crew were up on the bow, looking down at the grassy area in the middle. A few more were back near the kitchen door, while there were still a few up on the crow's nest. Goku was watching from the sky above the grass area, and Ben was floating next to the older man, crossing his arms as he hovered up there.
Dash frowned that his older friend had such a better view than him, but he raced up to the top of the crow's nest and was now sitting on the railing, looking down with Killua. "Who do you think's going to win?" Dash asked the other boy.
"I don't know," Killua replied. "I've never seen this Sora guy fight, or the Gym leader. Telling from the rep' though, I'd say she has-"
"Err," Dash cut him off with a buzzer noise. "No chance. Sora's got Legendaries."
Killua lifted his white eyebrows, wondering what the speedster meant by that. He just looked down though, going to find out for himself in a few seconds anyway.
"Alright, do you know the rules?" Misty asked, as Sora stood in front of her with a bag in front of him. He was rummaging around inside it, and finally pulled out what he was looking for. Misty gawked at the boy as he strapped the belt with ten pokeballs to his waist.
Sora looked up at her with a smile and said, "Nope!"
Misty fell over along with most of the spectators. She got back to her feet and rubbed her head that had a headache coming on. "Okay," she muttered, ignoring the tick mark on the side of her head. "Well, I'll go through it quickly then. The two of us will use three Pokemon each. Once a Pokemon is unable to continue, they lose. After all three of one of our teams of Pokemon are unconscious, the match is over, understand?"
"Yea, so after all three of your Pokemon are unconscious, I win right?" Sora asked. He got the exact reaction he was hoping for as the gym leader girl a couple of years younger than him frowned.
"And what makes you so sure you're going to win?" Misty asked, her voice challenging him.
"Oh, you'll see," Sora taunted back playfully.
A girl watching from up near the kitchen found herself clenching her fists. There was an older woman with long black hair standing on her left, and Nico Robin looked down to see the young girl, Kairi. She had a look of jealousy, but it was more than that, it was hurt. Robin looked back to the grass deck where they had declared their battlefield, and she looked straight at Sora. I will have a talk with you later.
"Did you pick your three yet?" Misty asked. She had four of her own Pokemon on her belt. "I'm not going to use Dewgong, so you don't know what any of my other three will be."
"And you don't know what mine are either," Sora replied, making Misty stop with her mouth wide open, realizing he was right. Sora's friends laughed out loud and Misty started fuming, but before she could shout at him, Sora announced, "Alright, I've got my Pokemon ready."
He rearranged his pokeballs so the three he chose were furthest in front of his belt. This was the moment Nami had been waiting for, and the beautiful woman wearing an orange bikini lifted up her right arm, making her boobs bounce as she did. "Ready, set, let the match begin!" Nami exclaimed.
"Starmie! I choose you!" Misty tossed a pokeball up in the air, a red light shining from it that made a purple star shape with ten sharp prongs appear on the deck.
At the same time, Sora's pokeball was flying high up in the air, and he called out, "Come out, Blaziken!"
The tall, fire and fighting type appeared on the deck of the ship. Sora thought Misty would be impressed by his powerful Pokemon, but the girl was just grinning at him.
Everyone watching the battle stared in awe as Misty and her Pokemon worked as a perfect unit. It was almost like the creature knew what it's next command was going to be before it was given. Blaziken and Sora on the other hand, were not as good a match. The two of them were constantly off guard as Starmie leapt off the ship and swam from one side to the other, popping up unannounced and firing jets of water into the Pokemon trying to use fire moves.
It did not take long for Blaziken to fall to his knees. "It's okay, you did great," Sora told the muscular red Pokemon, then called him back into his pokeball.
Misty smiled over at the boy, "You know, you remind me a lot of a boy I used to know."
"Hope that's a good thing," Sora replied, in a great mood despite having lost the first round. Start off simple, then knock her socks off, and then end it with the star.
Misty half-frowned, "Well, he did steal my bike. But, I guess you could take it as a compliment." She called back her Starmie and told the pokeball in her hand that she did great, before placing it back on her belt. "Do you want to know why you lost that round?"
"Umm, because you're a great trainer?" Sora asked, making Misty giggle and his own girlfriend watching clench her fists even more. It wouldn't be so bad if Misty was at least wearing a little more clothes. At the moment, her skimpy pink bikini was all that covered the lifeguard, gym leader, 10/10 bombshell. Kairi started wondering if the girl just had a young looking face, and was actually closer to her and Sora's age.
"Well, yes," Misty agreed with him, accepting the compliment. "But also, you have to understand that Pokemon each have types. Fire is weak against water, just like in nature, but grass is weak against fire. Natural weaknesses are important to Pokemon battles."
"Wow," Sora whispered. "Guess I shouldn't use another fire type then. You're only using water types."
"That's kind of my thing," Misty replied with a grin. "And it only gets better from here." She pulled off her second pokeball and tossed it behind her off the ship's deck. Everyone ran over to the port side and looked off as the ball bounced back towards Misty in the air, while a giant red light formed on the surface of the water.
"Lapras!" Misty shouted, seeing her large blue Pokemon inside a spiky shell appear on the waves of the shallow area around the beach. "You ready?!"
"Lapras!" The Pokemon yelled in agreement.
"Never seen that one before," Sora said with a smile. "Though, I bet you've never seen mine either." Sora lifted up his pokeball. "Come on out-" he pointed the ball up in the air over the port side, and a red light appeared well over three times the size of the already huge Lapras. The red light was longer than the Thousand Sunny, and about half the members on the crew went wide-eyed as they had never seen this before.
Misty went wide-eyed too and Sora grinned at her shocked reaction. "L-Lugia?!" Misty exclaimed in shock, seeing the enormous Legendary Pokemon appear in the air above Lapras. Lapras' eyes were wide as it looked up at the Guardian of the Sea in the Pokemon World.
The giant beast looked down at the red head down below, a hint of recognition in his eyes. The huge Pokemon tried to place where he knew her from, but the curvy teenager before him was no one he remembered meeting before.
"Lugia!" Sora shouted up at the creature under his command. "Body Slam!"
Lugia looked down at its opponent, and the Lapras below braced for impact. Bracing did nothing, fighting back would have done nothing too. Misty yelped and then sighed as Lapras was down in seconds.
Killua thought he was right originally when he picked Misty to win, especially after that first fight. Now Dash was laughing though as the little boy with blond hair remembered watching Lugia destroy armies of Heartless outside of Castle Oblivion.
"Nice job Lugia!" Sora called to his friend. The huge sea creature flapped its wings and lifted up in the sky. "You can fly around a little if you want. I was about to let everyone out of their balls anyway once the battle's over!"
"Thank you," Lugia's voice echoed through all of their minds telepathically.
"Wow," Misty laughed, "you know, you really are just like him." She said, referring back to her friend again. "He was friends with Lugia too."
Kairi unclenched her fists. The girl with auburn hair gasped, taking a step back towards the door to the kitchen. Robin and Sanji both looked in to see the teenage girl's eyes watering up. "What is it Kairi-san?" Robin asked the girl.
Everyone watching the battle instantly noticed the mood shift too as Sora's lower lip dropped a couple of inches. "Oh," he mumbled, having already lifted up the third pokeball, but now hesitating before calling out the creature's name.
"Well, are you ready?" Misty called over, lifting her final pokeball too. "Because with this I'm going to finish-"
"Misty," Sora started, his voice losing all of its joking tone from before. Misty started to sweat as the boy in front of her just gained a serious tone she hadn't heard him use before.
Riku looked down with surprised eyes too, wondering what had Sora all choked up right now. The others all saw him being serious and cold, but Rike could see the sadness he was trying to hold back right now.
Natsu leaned over the railing, totally confused at what was going on, while the others around him stared down quietly. Nami was down on the grass deck with them, officiating the matches, even though she didn't know what was going on most of the time. She backed up though as Sora took that tone.
"Wh-What?" Misty replied.
Sora stayed silent for a few seconds, and then he released the red light from the pokeball in his hand. A small red light appeared on the floor in front of her, and out of it appeared a yellow mouse. It was a foot tall, a foot wide, with little pink cheeks, whiskers, and a tail that looked like a lightning bolt. Sora didn't call out its name, but the mouse that appeared called out, "Pi-kaa!"
Misty stared at the Pikachu with wide-eyes. It could be any old Pikachu, she thought. When it looked at her, in her eyes, she knew it wasn't. Its eyes showed instant recognition, which meant this was the only Pikachu she knew.
"But, but that doesn't make any sense," Misty mumbled out loud. "Pikachu, what are you doing inside a pokeball? I, thought you hated going inside your ball. I, I mean, where's Ash? Wh-Why are you with this guy?"
The ship was silent as everyone stared down at the shaking girl. Pikachu's head bowed down, his eyes closing halfway, "Pika pii," the electric mouse Pokemon whimpered. Sora had just as sad a look on his face.
Kirito turned around from the back of the bow where he was looking down. "Where are you going?" The ice wizard next to him muttered.
Kirito looked back at Gray, "I'm going to the island. I don't want to watch this."
A few others walked away too, with Ben flying towards the island and Dash sprinting after him.
"I don't- did you-" Misty shook her head several times and finally stopped with a smile on her face. "Oh I see," she started laughing, "you must be with him because you got separated from Ash. He's helping you look for him. And for a second there... I actually thought..." Misty's eyes started watering as from the looks on Pikachu and Sora's faces, she was wrong. "Then, Ash is..."
"Yeah," Sora replied. "I'm, sorry," he said, pausing only for a second, before steadying his voice. "I was right there, but I couldn't save him." He stared straight at her as he said this, not trying to look away or shift the blame.
"Sora," Kairi whispered, her heart hurting. She remembered how sad he was when Ash died, how devastated he was about it. She did all she could to raise his spirits, but after so much had happened, that moment was the breaking point for a few months to follow.
Misty started walking towards Sora. He continued speaking, "He was a close friend. And I should have saved him." Sora had never had to do this. He met Giovanni, but he was mad enough at the man that he didn't need to try and explain it, or sugarcoat it, but here, Misty was a nice girl. He felt horrible telling her all of this, wishing he could have just left her to believe that Ash was alive. "I was too- he ran ahead," Sora closed his eyes, thinking to how he ran out of the woods, how the sword was already sticking through Ash's back.
Pikachu stopped whimpering as much and looked up towards Sora. The little Pokemon heard his voice, and even after a year and a half, Sora was still this torn up about what had happened. Pikachu noticed something else though and watched as Misty stormed right by and marched towards its new Master. "Pika," the mouse started, trying to reason with the teenage girl.
Sora clenched his eyes shut as she reached him, not going to move his hands when she tried hitting him. He and Pikachu were wrong about what was coming though, as the shorter, younger teenage girl slammed her head into Sora's chest, and put her arms around his back. Just from the tone of his voice, she could tell how much he cared about Ash.
"Thank you, for watching over his Pokemon," Misty whispered into his chest, which he was feeling get wetter by the second, but didn't say anything about.
Now everyone who was still watching left. All but for Riku and Kairi, watching from opposite sides of the grass area. Kairi couldn't help but feel that pang of hurt again as she watched Sora lift up his arms, and put them around the younger girl with brighter red hair than her. She just learned she lost a friend. Gain a heart Kairi, she thought to herself. It wasn't that she disliked the girl though, which was the reason why she was scolding herself. She thought she didn't like the girl because of Sora hugging her, but she had nothing against the girl. She was, and always would be, one of the Seven Princesses of Heart. There wasn't a part of her who could just dislike a person for something like that.
Still, Kairi felt a pain in her chest that made her lift up her right hand and clench hard. It was real, tangible pain that did not go away after a few seconds. The older woman who started walking away saw her grabbing the left side of her chest, and Robin felt even worse for the young girl. Now there were two red heads on the ship who were crying.
The crew of the Thousand Sunny disembarked on the island, and Nami found out there was an inn on the island. Apparently, passing ships were rare, but not unheard of. Most, almost all, were heading the opposite direction though. No one wanted to go to Aebrith these days, only leave it. The innkeeper was fine with them staying too, though the amount of rooms in the longhouse were limited. Nami told the nice innkeeper that was fine though, as some people would be fine sleeping in the ship or out on the beach under the stars.
She returned to the ship to tell everyone, but the whole crew had scattered in the wind. Goku was in a red bathing suit swimming around with Natsu, Gray, and Juvia. Luffy was swinging from trees in the forest with Usopp, while some others just went exploring. The orange haired navigator sighed as no one could hear her announcement, but she assumed they would all be together for the big dinner that was being set up on the beach for them tonight. In the meantime, Time to make a map!
As Nami went off to go make a map, Okumura Rin walked by himself through the forest on the island. The further inland the denser the trees and everything got. At one point on his walk, Timmy appeared next to him. The younger boy showed up so fast that Rin fell over, and the kid in the pink hat laughed at him.
"There's supposedly a monster in these woods," Timmy told the older teen who had rolled up the sleeves to his white button down as to keep them from getting dirty. "I heard some of the locals talking about it."
"Can't you feel it?" Rin asked.
"Yeah I could," Timmy replied, "but I stopped using my ki sense."
"Why would you do that?" The older boy asked in a deadpan voice.
"Makes it more of a challenge, more fun this way!"
"If you're looking for a challenge," Rin began, grinning at the younger kid. "Then how about whoever finds the monster first, wins?"
"Sounds good," Timmy replied with a smirk, about to shoot off to go looking some more.
"And no supersonic speed," Rin complained, as the small boy in the pink hat would scan this island in under a minute even without his ki sensing abilities. "Stay my speed," he argued.
"Heh," Timmy chuckled, "makes it more of a challenge this way I guess."
The two of them separated and searched through the jungle. Timmy bumped into some of their other friends at one point and told them about the challenge, getting Killua, Usopp, Sanji, Ben, Dash, and Luffy all into the contest.
While Timmy explained it, Rin was in the deepest area of the jungle. The island was only about five miles wide, and three long, but there were some nice trails in the woods. The black haired half-demon teen made a wrong turn at one intersection though, and he slipped off the edge.
He did not even know there was a ledge coming, as the trees were still in front of him. He slipped on the dirt and tumbled down the hill, bouncing and rolling and then coming to a stop at the very bottom with his face full of dirt. "Peh, peewy, spleh speh," Rin spat and wiped his tongue and face of dirt.
He got back up to his feet and looked down at the shirt that used to be white. He started wiping it down, when he heard a low growl right in front of him. As he heard it, he felt the heat of the creature's breath on him. "Easy there," he whispered, slowly lifting up his head. "No, sudden movements," he was talking mainly to himself.
His eyes looked up into the eyes of a ten foot tall, twenty foot long, furry creature. It was jet black, darker than night, and its eyes looked right back into his own. The creature growled at him, and then stopped growling after a few seconds as Okumura stared at it with a lowering jaw. "KURO!" Rin yelled at the cat in front of him.
The boy jumped forward and wrapped his arms around the shocked cat's face. "R-Rin!" The giant cat exclaimed, and then poof, it turned into the size of a normal kitty cat. Tears flowed freely from the cat's eyes, "It was so scary. Everyone on this island thought I was a monster, even though they couldn't always see me. They would run away! I'm so happy!"
"Me too!" Rin exclaimed, then lifted his demonic shape-shifting familiar up above his head. "I win!" He shouted, trying to make his voice loud enough to carry through the jungle.
Later on in the same day the pirates and friends landed on this island, appropriately named Midway Island, a feast was set up. Everyone who lived there went all out as they only had visitors once a month at most.
The second sun was setting in the distance, the largest, the red sun, dropping below the horizon. The sky was tinted a great pinkish orange color that mixed in with the scattered clouds. The water reflected some of the colors and everything looked even better.
"Hahaha!"
"No way! A Saiyan?!"
Goku's hair flashed gold for some people, who all started smiling and clapping.
"I've never seen one before. They are amazing!"
"You've got a nice body!"
"Are you single?"
"Haha, no, I'm married," Goku looked up at the sky. One of these days I'll be joining you in Otherworld, ChiChi.
Natsu was up getting more food, when Gray walked up next to him. The two of them started a small argument, but wound up breaking it up as the smell of another dish coming out stole their attention. "So Gray," Natsu began as they walked back over and sat down at a table with Ben and Ben's old friend Dash.
Dash was starting to get to know Ben's friend Natsu more, while Ben was still getting to know Gray himself. Natsu took a bite of his food and continued while chewing, "What are your friends on Aebrith like?"
Gray was surprised that Natsu would ask that, but the pink haired Dragon Slayer seemed genuinely interested. "Hmm," Gray finished chewing a bite himself and took a long sip of the blue alcoholic beverage they were serving at the tiki bar. "Well, there's a real hothead, he's kind of like you. Name's Axel. He's got red hair, and he was the leader of my team when, when I left them."
"Still wasn't your fault," Natsu groaned, having told him it over a dozen times. "Who else?" Natsu asked.
Gray thought about Gon, and Soul, Black Star, Tsubaki, Cloud, and then his mind wandered to his other comrades who weren't in his scavenging team that day. "I ever tell you there are Fairy Tail members there?"
Natsu was taking a sip of his drink, and he spat it all out across the table at that. Dash moved his head out of the way in a blur, dodging all of the individual drops of water in the spray of liquid. "What?!" Natsu shouted. "No you haven't told me that! Why didn't you?!"
"Well," Gray began, scratching his chin that had a little black stubble on it. "It never came up in conversation. We were fighting almost nonstop for two months, wasn't like we had a lot of time to talk about much else besides where we would be fighting next." He paused, "Also, you never asked."
"Grr," Natsu growled, "alright then, who?!" Natsu wanted to know who it was that weren't at the Fairy Tail on Awul.
"Umm..." Gray chuckled a little and Natsu's excited look dropped a little.
2 Months Ago
Somewhere in Southern Aebrith
"Someone's coming towards the gates," a voice shouted over the loudspeakers. Everyone got ready to charge to battle stations, but they heard a sigh of relief coming over the speakers a few seconds later. "Friendly. Whoa, it's Cloud!"
A man with long spiky black hair was sitting down in the cafeteria, when he heard this announcement. He snapped up out of his seat fast, "Gajeel!" The girl who was sitting next to him with short blue hair called out.
The Iron Dragon Slayer marched away though, ignoring Levy's shouts. He had a snarl on his face and growled under his breath. The mage with piercings all over his face charged down a hallway, people moving out of his way as he stormed past.
Gajeel ran all the way down to the outside door, right as it was opening up. He stomped outside and saw two guards standing on the outside of the steels doors opening outwards. They were looking at Cloud who had bandages covering more than just his wide sword now. His shirt was missing, a few pieces of it wrapped around his upper right arm, and around both hands. They were soaked through with blood, though long dry.
"Where have you been?" One of the guards asked the spiky haired swordsman in front of him.
"It's been weeks," the other said.
Cloud opened his mouth, but before the battered twenty year old could speak, Gajeel was inches in front of his face. He wanted to lift up the young man by his shirt, but he was shirtless so he couldn't make such a threatening action at the moment. Instead he could just glare with cold eyes and growl out, "Where is Gray?"
As soon as Gajeel got out there, he was surprised by Cloud's appearance. He got over it quickest though, and looked around for the rest of Cloud's squad. Cloud didn't say a word, but he looked to his right with a look of regret on his face. "Where is he?!" Gajeel shouted.
"I don't know!" Cloud yelled back. Gajeel leaned back with widened eyes at the response. He expected some horrible news, but that was a strange answer. "One second he was there, the next he was gone, the shirt he was taking off was all that remained of him."
"That doesn't make any sense-" Gajeel began.
"Well I don't know," Cloud growled at the black haired man, making Gajeel lose the angry expression on his face. "At least he escaped, hopefully." Cloud shook his head, then started walking forward and stumbled past Gajeel. "He got away just in time too, we were ambushed. Completely surrounded."
Cloud just kept walking, talking out loud but not checking to see if Gajeel followed him back in. He hadn't talked about it for over two weeks, as he had been clawing his way back to base as best he could, on his own. "In front of us were Chimeras, damn Ants wouldn't let up. There were so many of them. Behind us were the Mutants, and they fucking brought her." Gajeel's eyes went wide at that, but Cloud shook his head, "And that's not even the worst part."
Cloud continued as he rubbed the side of his head. "Haha, Axel was actually doing decent against her for a little, but, but then this guy in a black appeared who Axel knew. The two of them started shouting at each other, and then Axel got beaten and pulled through one of those portals. I tried to get to him, but she came up in front of me. I could feel my skin ripping off my body as she looked at me. God, what the fuck happened to us?"
"How did you escape?" Gajeel asked, and Cloud jumped a little, totally forgetting there was someone he was talking to. "Sounds like you were screwed," he commented, still wondering what could have happened to his ice mage friend who vanished.
"We were, but, one of the High Lords showed up. He rode in on a dragon," Cloud looked to Gajeel, "the guy from your world. Zeref." Gajeel froze in place, but Cloud turned and kept walking. "It looked like he was going to capture everyone..."
"They're alive?" Gajeel asked in surprise, expecting when Cloud returned on his own that most of his team was killed.
Cloud nodded his head, then hesitated, "Well, most of us. John," Cloud whispered, "well, that fucker didn't seem to think Rambo was worth bringing back with him. It, it looked quick," he continued softer.
The young Dragon Slayer talking to him snarled as he heard about Rambo's death. "Again, how did you escape?" Gajeel questioned.
"I, I got in a different fight away from everyone." He shook his head, clenching his chest that did not look injured to Gajeel, but it burst out screaming in pain for Cloud suddenly. "Just, I need to get some rest. I'll, I'll get some rest."
Gajeel shivered. He had never seen Cloud so shaken up. "Damn it," Gajeel punched his fist into the wall on his right. He did not even dent the white wall he hit, the base much too strong for a rage punch like that. "Gray, where the fuck are you?"
Present
Midway Island
"Levy, and... Gajeel," Gray answered Natsu. The ice mage expected to see a hear a groan from Natsu, but he just smiled with a few teeth sticking out over his bottom lip
"Huh," Natsu muttered, keeping the wide grin on his face. "Can't wait to go kick Gajeel's ass. Show him he's not even in the same league anymore," Natsu gripped his right bicep and started laughing. Gray stared at him for a few seconds, then joined in the laughter along with Natsu's long-time friend Ben.
Dash shrugged and just started laughing with the rest of them.
Meanwhile, Sora had gotten some of his food, and he smiled at the girl next to him after she got hers. "Well, I'll see you later Misty."
The younger girl with long red hair smiled at him and nodded. "Mm," she hummed positively.
Sora watched as she walked over towards some of her friends from the island, then turned himself and walked over towards a table. He looked around but didn't see Kairi anywhere, so he walked over to Riku's table and took a seat next to the older boy who had just turned nineteen.
The silver haired teen turned his head to Sora and kept his fork raised partly as he stared at him. A bead of sweat rolled down the left side of Riku's face, and then he frowned at his best friend. "What are you doing here?" Riku asked.
Sora took a bite out of his food, then smiled up at Riku. He tilted his head to the side at the sight of Riku's glare. "What?" He asked, rubbing his lips to make sure he didn't have some food on his face. "I'm just eating with you, what's wrong with that?"
Riku opened his mouth, then closed it, and he sighed deeply. Looks like Sora's completely oblivious to Kairi's feelings from earlier. The young man with long silver hair wearing a yellow t-shirt did not say anything though. He wondered if he should help out his best friends, as he had finally accepted the two of them being a couple. He still loved Kairi, but he loved Sora too, and the two people he cared about most wanted to be with each other, so he had nothing against it.
Riku opened his mouth, ready to give Sora a little speech, when Sora started speaking again. "Actually, since Kairi isn't here right now," Sora began, still oblivious to the reason the girl wasn't eating with them. "I need to ask you something Riku."
The older boy nodded his head, and then nodded again as Sora spoke to him. His eyes popped open huge, his jaw dropped, and he almost fell backwards off his chair. "So, what do you think?" Sora asked, smiling at his best friend.
"Uh," Riku mumbled. "I mean," he stammered and looked around, but no one else had heard what Sora just told him. "You know, I think you should go ask someone else. Nami, or Robin. Even Juvia," Riku stood up with his half-empty tray, and got away as fast as he could.
"Haa, ahhh," Sora opened his mouth to call after him, but then just sighed in exhaustion. The eighteen year old boy with spiky brown hair stood up himself. He looked around him, but still didn't see Kairi anywhere. "Wonder where she is?" He mumbled.
"Hey Riku," Ben called out as the older boy walked right past his table, Riku looked his way with a look of utter shock still on his face, surprising Ben who had no idea what could have caused that. "Well that's weird," the younger boy mumbled.
Sora got up from his seat and turned around, and almost jumped out of his shoes as he came face to face with a tall woman with long black hair. Robin was looking down at him, and Sora smiled up at her. "Hi Robin."
"Come here Sora-san," the woman told him. The two of them walked over to the edge of the house-line, just outside of the forest. All of the people who lived in these houses were at the beach for the feast, so no one could hear them as Robin started talking to the boy.
Nico Robin got a few sentences into her speech, when Sora's jaw dropped, and he started laughing. "Me and Misty? There's no way Kairi would have thought," he stopped talking as he remembered how Kairi was nowhere to be found. "Did she really look hurt?" Sora asked, his tone now hurting the woman who was telling him this. "But, but I was..."
Sora finished his sentence and Robin lowered her jaw. She stared at Sora as he continued speaking. "That's why I wanted to talk to you actually. I figured you would have a better idea on what to do for..." Robin listened to the boy, and a smile stretched across her face wider and wider as she watched him.
Riku sat on the edge of the Thousand Sunny, looking towards shore where Sora was making large hand gestures at the woman in front of him. "Just one surprise after another here isn't it," he mumbled to himself. He waited for a few seconds, "Quiet recently, huh?"
He waited, and waited, but no voice came to him from inside his head. "Whatever, stay quiet, I don't care," Riku muttered. It had gotten useful, as well as second nature to Riku, having another mind inside his head. This silence was pretty weird. Ansem's a monster anyway. Usopp was right. Keeping slaves, murder, stealing my body, you really were a fucker weren't you?
Riku really thought he would reply there, but nothing. He leaned back on the deck of the ship, sighing loudly at the silence. He closed his eyes, and a smile came to his face. Good luck Sora.
Kairi sat on the opposite side of the island as the party. It took her a little while to get over here, and she was just sitting on the sand, her knees curled up to her chest. The girl with dark red hair watched the final sun set in the distance, leaving the sky a dark shade of darkening orange as it transitioned to black.
The girl had both arms wrapped around her legs, pulling them in towards herself. She was whimpering, having tried holding back the tears, but finding no reason to do so now that she was all alone for the first time in weeks.
"Kairi?" A voice she recognized very well questioned from behind her. She jumped up to her feet fast and spun to see her boyfriend standing there a little up the beach, just out of the tree line. "Are you okay?" He asked her.
"Y-yeah," she said, frowning as she stuttered her words, making it more noticeable that she was not okay. "I'm fine, okay? Just go back to the party, hang out with Misty. It's what you want to do right?"
Sora's eyes widened as Robin turned out to be right. "I don't like Misty!" He exclaimed.
"You were flirting with her all day!"
"I was being friendly," Sora replied. "And then, I hugged her because," he broke off, and now it was Kairi's turn to look hurt.
"I, I know," she whispered. "I know why you did, but, but that doesn't mean... God I'm such a bad person," Kairi took a step back, but Sora took two steps forward before they stopped again. "I'm sorry," she whispered, but he could hear the tears as she spoke.
"Kairi," he whispered, taking another step forward.
"Just, she's a redhead too right?!" Kairi yelled at him, her chest hurting as she said it. "I, don't want to-"
"Kairi," Sora said louder, taking another step towards her.
She trembled, her body urging to take another step back, but ignoring it as the boy stared straight into her eyes. "I, I, I didn't realize how much it, would hurt," Kairi whispered, while Sora closed the gap to ten feet between them. "I don't know what it is. I have never, felt something like this before."
Sora closed the gap to five feet, "Kairi."
"Stop saying my name Sora. I'm glad you came all he way out here for me, but I don't need any help." She looked away from his eyes, "Just, I wish you would leave me alone."
"Kairi," Sora whispered, directly in front of the girl now, only a foot away. She was looking down in front of her, but her eyes widened huge at the sight appearing on the ground. He was there, a serious look on his face as he lifted up his hands.
"What is this?" Kairi whispered, her face covering in sweat.
"Well, I," Sora began, kneeling in front of her with a smile on his face. He took a deep breath and ignored the sweat on his own face as he looked up at Kairi. "I don't ever want to be without you again. When I lost you, it was like a piece of me was missing. I had to spend years looking for you, and I traveled all over the multiverse doing so."
Sora shook his head as he knelt in front of Kairi. He had his right hand held up above him, so it was clenched in front of the girl's chest. Kairi was in a white skirt with a pink tee on, while Sora had on his usual black and red outfit. She looked down at him, and past the hand he had clenched in front of her. "I don't ever want you to think you are second to anyone ever again. But I've also been thinking about this for a long time. After we found Riku, and then again after Metropolis, I really wanted to ask... But I won't wait anymore."
Kairi had a small idea of what was going on. There were a few problems with it, like how Sora was down on both knees, or how he had a clenched fist in front of her. When he slowly unclenched his fist though, Kairi gasped at the sight of what was inside. "H-H-How did you-" she started, staring at the ring in his palm in awe.
"Kairi," he whispered. He looked up into her blue eyes, the sky dimming now that the suns were all past the horizon. Kairi's blue eyes looked back into Sora's as he whispered, "Will you marry me?"
The waves splashed down a line along the entire beach. They could hear forest noises behind them, but Kairi was quiet. "Yes," she said after a few seconds of holding a hand over her mouth. "Yes Sora, yes!"
Sora's mouth curled up into a huge smile and he jumped up on his feet. "You mean it? Yes?!"
"YES!" Kairi exclaimed, diving forward into Sora's arms. He spun around while holding her and the two of them spun and spun, laughing loudly as they did. Sora put her down and she closed the few inch gap to wrap both of her arms around the back of his neck, pulling him down to her face.
The two of them kissed, a very long and passionate kiss. They were on the dark side of the island, no torches lighting up this are like on the other. The two of them broke off in the darkness, panting heavily, with something hovering in the air between them as they looked into each other's eyes. Sora gulped as he saw the look on Kairi's face, but he knew he himself was feeling the same way.
"Oh, the ring!" He exclaimed and lifted it back up. "You asked how. I got Genie to come and help," Kairi leaned up and put her lips over Sora's again. He moaned and kissed her back, putting both arms around her back this time. After a few seconds, he moved his lips back a few inches, "And, I asked Robin what she thought you would like..." Kairi kissed him again, and Sora forgot all about the ring.
Sora pushed farther into the kiss, and Kairi moaned this time. He ran his hands up and down her back, and one found its way under her white tee, rubbing the skin beneath with his hand. She shivered at his touch on her, but smiled and continued the passionate kiss with her boyfriend.
The two in their late teens made out for a few minutes before Sora started lifting up the white t-shirt his girlfriend had on. Kairi pulled back from the kiss a little and stared into Sora's eyes. He stopped moving and stared back hesitantly, and then watched as Kairi reached down to the hem of her own shirt and lifted it up above her own head.
The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds, and then Sora closed the gap and put his strong right arm behind her back. The two of them lowered down to the sand as complete darkness fell over the island, not even a moon out tonight.
"So, who gets to stay in the inn, and who has to sleep on the ship?" Dash asked the orange haired woman between him and the other twelve year old boy on the shore.
Timmy looked up at Nami and said, "I think it should be a random picking. We'll choose lots out of a hat..."
"I'm going to pick," Nami said with a grin. "And you two can stay outside," Nami grinned at the younger boys who groaned. She looked around at the other people gathered around the beach, and picked out a few who could get rooms at the longhouse.
While she was looking around, her eyes stopped on a couple walking down from far down the beach. She looked closer, and would recognize those spikes in his hair anywhere. She watched as they came into the light, and Kairi had her hand interlocked with the boy next to her. The spiky haired boy and Kairi had smiles that stretched from ear to ear.
Nami walked over towards them, smiling herself as she did. "Would you two like a room in the cabin tonight?" She smirked deviously, "Get a little privacy," she offered.
Both Sora and Kairi looked like they'd seen a ghost. "You saw?!" Sora asked with wide-eyes, confusing Nami for a few seconds, before her own jaw lowered a little, wondering what these two were just doing.
"Nami," Kairi started, making the taller girl with orange hair look her way. Kairi smiled at her, and then lifted up her right hand.
Nami stared at the huge diamond on the ring and her first thought was about how much she could make off something like that. The next thing she thought was what she said out loud, "Oh my God." She looked at the girl, then to Sora, then back again. "Eeeeee," Nami exclaimed and wrapped both of them in a big hug, pulling them together.
"Haha," Sora chuckled and Nami finally released them.
Kairi smiled even more and turned to Sora, "Can we go tell more people?"
"Sure!" Sora replied excitedly.
The two of them ran off still hand in hand. Nami watched after them with a huge smile on her face as she did. Those two are just amazing.
"So who already knows?" Kairi asked as they practically skipped towards a table of Fairy Tail wizards.
"Well, Robin," Sora said, "and probably Riku."
"Aww, I really wanted to see the look on his face," Kairi complained. Though she was groaning, she still looked so happy that it was difficult to imagine her actually being annoyed.
"Hey look Kairi's back," Gray pointed over at the two teenagers standing near the party. He saw Nami's gleeful look and got a little confused at what was going on. Sora and Kairi looked his way and they walked over towards the table that Gray and Juvia were sharing. "What's up you guys?" Gray asked, wondering why they approached and were just standing there.
"I get to say this time right?" Sora asked.
"Hmm, you let Robin and Riku know, and I only got Nami soooo..." Kairi blinked her eyes at him hopefully and Sora sighed.
"Alright alright," he accepted. "Go ahead," he said.
"Thank you," she said, leaning up and kissing him on the cheek. The auburn haired girl looked back at the two confused mages sitting there. "We're getting married," she said, lifting up her hand and showing her ring off.
Gray's mouth dropped and Juvia shot up out of her seat. "You're getting WHAT?!" She exclaimed at the top of her lungs.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and spun to look over towards the source of the voice. Sora scratched the back of his head sheepishly and Kairi blushed at all the attention, but she just held up her hand and showed off the ring to everyone looking over at her now. At first most people just stared in shock, and then all at once the beach erupted with noise.
"What?!"
"No way!"
"Go Sora!"
"I don't get it," Goku began as he looked at Kairi's ring. "What is that?"
Robin turned to the man next to her and said in a confused voice, "Did you not get your wife a wedding ring?"
"Wedding ring?" Goku mumbled. He scratched his chin and then shrugged, "I don't know what that is."
Robin chuckled, "You are a strange one, even for your world I presume."
"Hehe, guess I've heard that one before," Goku admitted while rubbing the back of his head and smiling wide.
Kirito walked over to Sora and Kairi and he smiled at the two of them. They were the first people he became friends with after Goku brought him back to Pao, and some of his closest friends on the ship. "Congratulations," he told them.
"Thanks Kirito," Sora replied.
"This is great you two," Misty exclaimed. She came running over with a few others behind her from the island. Sora nervously glanced at Kairi but she was smiling and looked like she did not care at all about what she was talking about before. "I'm so happy for you Sora," Misty told her new friend.
"Thanks Misty, I'm pretty happy myself," Sora said back to her.
The soon-to-be-married teens looked in at each other and smiled from ear to ear. Everyone was cheering, laughing, and partying around them. At the island of Midway, things were starting to look up for the heroes heading to Aebrith. They all had confidence in their own abilities, faith in their friends, and hope that things would continue to stay this good forever. Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever. The crew heading to Aebrith would one day return on their journey home, but not all of them would make that return voyage.
A/N Oooh, an emotional roller coaster this chapter huh? Bringing up Ash, then Rin reuniting with his cat Kuro, and Kairi getting hurt when she thinks Sora likes another girl, the two of them getting engaged, and then that final line... Not everyone's making it back this time... XD anyway- hope you liked the chapter! Finally we get another glimpse at Aebrith for the first time since Nexus chapter 6 when we saw Gray's team getting ambushed by an army of Chimera Ants. Gajeel and Levy are there! And according to Cloud, most of Gray's team is still alive, (sorry Rambo), but that team has been captured by the enemy. What is happening to Gon, Axel, Black Star, and the others? How much longer will it take our heroes to make it to Aebrith? What other dangers and adventures await the crew on their long voyage across the Great Ocean? Find out next chapter on NEXUS: Heroes Will Rise!
Espada-001 chapter 6 . Jan 5
Well my first guess is that a kishin is just wandering a bit to close for comfort and started making everyone lose their shit. Other than that glad to see Gray and Juvia finally take it to the next level so good for them. And for crying out loud Sora up your relationship the woman needs you bad! lol ;) Any way all I can say is job well done although I can still never see Sanji getting violent with a woman, the reason for that was that at one point in one of the One Piece games he was consumed in darkness and forced to attack his allies and even then his morals wouldn't allow him to even touch Robin. Although I'm drawing that information from a game so I'll understand if you don't really take that into consideration for your story. Also I have no real evidence for this and these are personal thoughts but I think that Luffy should've had a stronger resistance to mental illnesses/attacks givens that conqueror haki revalves around mental fortitude and two years ago he was strong enough to knock out 50,000 enemies with mental might alone. Anyway, now for the listing on strongest to weakest...
So the sickness really was just the crew getting sick, no higher poower or anything which is why I put in Ansem talking about the medicine and how even Gohan was able to make his own. Plus, I think a kishin would affect the Saiyans' minds too. Sora definitely upped the relationship this chapter XD! Sanji hitting a woman, the sickness is rough ya feel? Lol, if Kairi a Princess of Heart was about to cheat on Sora, and Timmy almost killed all his friends, I think Sanji and Luffy going a little nanners too isn't too hard to believe. Also, I liked your rankings, not gonna say much except I think Ben is higher (which you touched on anyway, I just think that him with almost any of his aliens could beat Usopp/Nami) Also, def wondering about how Usopp got higher than Robin on that list, but besides that I thought it was great, and about Ben's watch- I'm not gonna put every Pokemon or beast in it, mainly because he seemed to only get the DNA of intelligent life from other planets. Like, he couldn't just turn into a dog or a cat from a different planet, he turned into their most human-ish species, or a species that was smartest or something. Anyway, thanks again for the review!
joebob323 chapter 6 . 3h ago
This chapter was quite something! Though the lack of Rin or dash or even Kirito talking at the end is a bit suspicious to me, either their unconscious, or Goku forgot to bring them in. If so, they have a wild half demon, a gamer, and a speedster on their handsXD! Again, great job!
Thanks! The lack of those three talking was mainly just because writing out lines for all 19 of them just for the purpose of mentioning that they were there gets tedious. There are some chapters where a few characters are not all that important, or even just certain scenes where they're there, but they're not really pertinent to what's happening. Rin's not as close of friends to the rest of them so he did not have much to say, same with Kirito, and maybe Dash was just in too much pain. No hidden conspiracies here, XD. Anyway, thanks again for the review. Well, 'till next time!