Nexus HWR 6.5 A Promise:
Over a week after Son Goku and Timmy Turner left the group who ventured into Aebrith from Awul, there was still no sign of their most powerful friends returning. Gray had a good idea of where Dressrosa was compared to his old Resistance base, however they only had a general direction, not a decent map. They had been heading southeast for eight days, crossing over dangerous terrain and fighting monsters every step of the way. Gray had them moving slowly at first, but he also said it was thousands of miles until they would reach his base, so after a few days they began running and hitching rides to move farther and faster.
A few people stopped them on their journey and offered to help, selling rides on vehicles a certain distance, or offering to let them sit on the back of a large animal they had tamed. They rode on Icarus' back only to the end of the first canyon, before learning that he had a family of other T-Rexes that the crew did not want to take him away from. A different time, Luffy tamed a huge elephant beast himself that they started riding, but after a hundred miles some sort of worm monster that could feel vibrations on the ground came up and swallowed their ride in a single bite. They beat the worm up, but by the time they got Luffy's pet out of its stomach, it had already been halfway digested.
The group hoped that Goku and Timmy would return soon, especially after a few close calls that the powerful fighters would have been able to sense coming. Killua, Luffy, Sanji, and Kirito all had some sort of perception telling them when an enemy was coming, but only once the enemy was close enough that they were already a threat. All of their injuries so far had been able to be healed by Sora, Riku, or Kairi, who were literally keeping the group alive at this point. Riku spent a lot of time with Ben trying to teach him magic with his Keyblade, but Ben did not catch on quickly, and had barely managed to use Fire, the simplest of magic techniques with the Keyblade. He argued that the training was useless as he could already use many magic techniques like Fire, Blizzard, and even Cure using different alien powers he possessed with his Omnitrix.
Eight days after they departed from the cliffs outside of Dressrosa, the group from Awul came across a battlefield. The landscape changed drastically from the plains they were previously traveling on into a barren landscape without any signs of life. There were scars all over the land showing there had been a battle here: large craters speckled the ground, smoke rose up in the distance to their north, and then there were the bodies. Right as they reached the first crater, they also hit a small decrease in the land's elevation that gave them a good look at the entire battleground. Being able to see the landscape where the battle took place also meant they could see everything left behind when the warring factions eventually left.
There were skeletons all over the place, but the group focused more on the bodies that had not decayed as much yet. Their flesh was rotten, showing they had been left out for some time, but not enough to decompose completely. "Why are some skeletons and others not?" Nami whispered as the group stood in a line on the edge of the northern edge to the former battlefield. Her eyes lingered on weapons still grasped by the fleshy hands of dead warriors, seeing how even in death they never let go.
"The skeletons probably had the flesh melted from their bones," Killua examined. Franky and Robin both looked in, the oldest members there staring at the little boy who had his hands in his pockets, casually examining the field as if looking for something useful. "My guess is there were a few superhumans involved in the fight who decimated their enemies. Or maybe the beasts caused it," he added, and motioned with a nod of his head over at a skeletal body of something much larger than any person.
They looked around at the bodies of people and creatures alike. The animals they figured must have been domesticated and taught to fight with their masters against the enemy. Gray looked out at the battleground and he frowned deeply, "We should go around it. Come on," he motioned for the east so they could walk around the entire decimated landscape before continuing south. Killua looked a little annoyed they were being sidetracked, but most other people nodded their heads in agreement as they did not want to walk through the graveyard. Besides having to walk past all the bodies, they would have also had to get closer to the terrible scents they could faintly smell from even back this far out.
Nami looked down at a little boy on her left side and saw Dash staring over the barren landscape with a trembling expression. "Alright," she said loudly, gaining the attention of the boy next to her along with a few others. She put a hand down on Dash's shoulder and turned him to the side then stepped on the side of him closer to the battlefield to block off his sight of it. "Let's get going," she said, and she kept her hand on Dash's shoulder while starting to walk after Gray.
Ben looked ahead at his friend's back and frowned. Dash, he knew his friend had seen some terrible things during those first few weeks on Nexus when they were together, but since then the kid had had his family with him the entire time. Maybe I should have told him to stay back, Ben thought. He turned right and looked out at the fields of dead bodies, craters, burnt ground, and littered weapons. The sight made him grimace, but he could handle looking at it without feeling afraid. The other pirates, mages, and travelers with them turned and started walking along the edge of the battlefield after Gray, mainly keeping silent out of respect for the dead near them.
The boy with the Omnitrix stayed where he was a little longer than the others though. He stood there staring at the abandoned war zone, wondering how long ago a fight must have taken place for the bodies to decompose to this level. "Looks like they put up quite a fight," a boy stated on Ben's left. He turned and saw Killua was the only other person still back here with him. Kil had his hands in his pockets and he motioned over to the farther west side of the battlefield, closer to a forest that they were purposely avoiding. "Whoever was on that side lost," he continued.
"How do you know?" Ben muttered. He did not even know that there were two sides, but now that he looked over he saw more bodies clustered towards the forest, some of them pointed towards the middle of the battleground, but most of them lying with their heads closer to the forest.
Killua pointed at the ones whose skulls were closer to the forest, "They were retreating. Get hit in the back, and you fall head-first. Those could be the bodies of enemies charging that direction," he added and Ben nodded his head, realizing there was a flaw in the original reasoning. "However," Kil continued, "look around their bodies, what's missing that someone who was attacking would have?"
The younger boy examined the area for a few seconds, then his eyes opened wide, "They don't have weapons."
"Yep," the white haired teen replied. "Looks like they dropped their swords and guns in a hurry, probably running from whatever burnt up the plains so badly. Seeing as there's no flesh left on their bones, it looks like they were too slow."
Ben looked to his right at the taller teen by only a couple of inches. "How'd you know all that?"
"Just kind of seems obvious to me," the former assassin responded. Killua Zoldyck lifted his hands from his pockets and locked them behind his head before starting to walk after the rest of the group.
The younger kid watched him walk away for a few seconds before running after to walk at the older boy's side. "So Kil," Ben began, "you're pretty smart, huh?" Killua looked down but Ben was not looking up at him when he said it. Instead, Ben just kept talking, "So, what do you think the odds are we find Gray's Resistance base, and that it's still functioning?"
"The odds?" Killua repeated and hummed to himself. "I wouldn't bet on it," he started, then continued slowly, "but Gray seems to think his comrades are pretty strong, and he's the only source I have on the matter so I'd have to say there's a good chance they're still alive."
"Makes sense," Ben agreed, as there was no denying Killua's simple reasoning. "But if you had to guess what we're going to find-"
"An empty base," Killua said before Ben was even finished. The younger boy looked in surprisedly but it was Killua's turn to just walk forward without looking at his friend. "Or a building taken over by Gray's enemies. From what we've heard about this King guy, he's the strongest person on this continent. If he decided at any point, over the last few months that Gray was missing, to come in and wipe out the Resistance, I'm sure he could have done so."
"Power doesn't mean everything-" Ben began.
"Tell that to Luthor," Kil retorted. "You may have had the numbers, and the willpower, the heart, the righteous reasons, so many strengths for one side, yet Luthor on his own defeated you all. Let's say the King is not that strong though, and if he tried taking on the Resistance on his own then they would be able to fight him back. Well, he would never have to do that in the first place, since from my knowledge he also has the overwhelming numbers in his armies. So he could have ordered his huge armies to invade, and attacked at the same time, and he could have wiped anyone on the continent out if he wanted to." The older boy looked down at Ben who was frowning up at him. "Sorry Ben, I know it's not what you want to hear, but you shouldn't be too hopeful for a situation that probably won't come to pass."
"If that is your real prediction on what we're going to find, why don't you tell Gray?" Ben Tennyson asked. "After what you just said, he seems unreasonably optimistic."
"Unreasonably optimistic?" Killua repeated and started laughing. Taking down the New Earth Government seemed unreasonably optimistic when Luthor proposed it to me. His laughs died down and he said still with a smug little grin on his face, "Optimism only really matters in tough situations, right? Then there really isn't a time you can be too optimistic," he chuckled, "though I for one am not that optimistic a person, I know my friend would say the same thing."
"Your friend?" Ben asked. "The one you're trying to find here?"
Kil nodded his head and opened his mouth again, but closed it and stopped walking at the same time. Ben looked at him confusedly and then looked forward to see everyone else had stopped too. "What's-" Ben began.
Out of the crowd of travelers, Sora leapt up in the air and did a double frontflip, coming out of it horizontally and flying to the south. "Hey Sora!" Riku called up, "Where are you going?"
Sora ignored the shouts from his friends behind him. He was focused into the battlefield looking much farther than any of them were looking before. He flew over the graveyard below and swooped left and right past some pillars of smoke. He got almost a mile away from his friends who were about to send Kirito and Riku after him, when he suddenly descended from the air and dropped down onto the graveyard of a war zone.
"What is he doing?" Killua muttered. He looked out over the landscape and his eyes narrowed in at Sora, then he gasped. Ben spun to see Killua looking out in shock and the older boy whispered, "I didn't even see it."
"Riku, what's Sora doing?" Kairi asked her silver haired friend as he lost his confused expression.
Sora landed right in the middle of a large scorched area of ground. It looked like a bomb had dropped in this position as the ground was even lower here than the rest of the lower elevated area. The teenager with spiky brown hair landed gently and took a few steps forward after he did. He looked down, and the lump on the floor partially covered in ashes lifted its head towards him. It bared its teeth and tried swiping its right claw at him, but Sora leaned back, then leaned forward again and extended his hand. "It's alright," Sora whispered.
The creature covered in dust and ash had pieces of it uncovered, and its visible skin was a dark red shade, though that was also because of the blood covering much of its body under the dirt. Its body was curled up mostly, and its legs looked badly injured, but Sora focused mainly on a part of its back that had no dirt on it mainly because the still-bleeding wound washed the dirt away. "That's a bad cut you have there, it looks deep, maybe even infected" Sora whispered, reaching his hand closer to the creature's face as he did.
"Char, Char-meleon," it rasped at Sora. The Pokemon snapped its jaws at the teenager in front of it, but Sora did not move his hand back, and Charmeleon's jaws snapped shut inches before his fingers.
"Was that your Master?" Sora questioned softly, gazing behind Charmeleon's injured body at a skeleton with a caved in skull behind it. Charmeleon's snarl got wiped from his face and his angry attitude became one of pure sadness. "I'm sorry," Sora whispered. He reached his hand forward again and did not stop even as the Pokemon growled at him some more. His hand rested down on top of the beast's head and he patted it a few times, before brushing down its head to its upper back and wiping some dirt off of it. "It's going to be alright," the boy whispered to the injured creature in front of him.
"Char… You, speak my tongue? How?" Charmeleon questioned, or in actuality it said its name a bunch of times but Sora heard it as if it were speaking English to him.
"I'm not," Sora said as he continued brushing off the ashes from the Pokemon. "I can just, understand you, and you can understand me. Right?" The dark red creature nodded its head at him, and Sora flashed it a smile. He looked closer at the wound on Charmeleon's back, and then down under its belly where it had its tail curled in, and its dimly lit flame flickering as if it were about to go out. Sora lost his smile and reached down to his side where his bag was, his bag that was so much bigger on the inside yet let him grab whatever he wanted right when he wanted it. Charmeleon backed away from him, but Sora kept one hand petting the top of the creature's rough-skinned head, up the spike and down the back of its head to its upper back, soothing Charmeleon's nerves while he pulled something out of his bag with his other hand. "See, it's not a weapon," he said, hoping not to scare the Pokemon that was obviously in some sort of battle involving blades before he arrived, the reason he did not just pull out his Keyblade in front of it. "Just a potion, to help you."
As Sora applied the medicine specifically made for Pokemon, his comrades watched as best they could from the edge of the battleground. "Wow, Sora found another Pokemon," Dash whispered. "How did he know it was out there?"
"It's so far I didn't pick it up with Observational Haki," Kirito mentioned. Luffy and Sanji both nodded as neither of them had felt anything either.
The group stared out and watched as a bright red light lit up, and next to Sora's hunched over body formed an orange Pokemon with big wings and a long tail that had a raging flame at the end of it. Charizard roared some flames up in the air, and then next to Sora stood the weaker Charmeleon, looking up at Charizard and opening its mouth like they were having a conversation. Sora was talking to them both too and Natsu scratched the side of his head, "Does he understand what they're saying?"
"Yeah," Riku said while glancing over at the Dragon Slayer. "It's a perk of the Keyblades. It's necessary to be able to understand all languages, so it gives out that power."
"Why is it necessary?" Gray asked the teen only a little to his right. Riku turned to him and Gray looked at him closer, "What's so special about the Keyblade? I'd heard of it before, but since so many of you had it, I assumed the rumors about it being legendary were exaggerated."
"You've heard of the Keyblade before?" Riku asked, and he took a step towards the older man. His green eyes narrowed at the ice mage, "Where did you hear about it?"
Gray lifted up his eyebrows at Riku's strange reaction. His gaze shifted from Riku, to Kairi, then out towards Sora in the battlefield. What if it really is as legendary as they say? Gray opened his mouth to talk, when he heard the others start murmuring and both of them turned to see Sora had returned Charizard to its pokeball. Then, the teen with spiky brown hair held out a new pokeball and tapped Charmeleon on the front of the head with it, before immediately putting it back it his bag since he knew there would be no struggle.
Sora turned and flew back towards his friends and landed at the front of the pack with Gray and Riku. "Sorry for the hold up," Sora apologized. "Let's keep moving," he suggested, turned, and kept walking the way they were heading before.
Kirito stared in awe at his friend's back for a few seconds, then chuckled and started walking after him, moving right between Gray and Riku. Riku saw the black haired teen keep going and he shrugged, motioning with his head for Gray to get a move on before following after Sora himself. "Wait up!" Kairi called out and ran past Gray to catch up with Riku and Sora who were taking up the lead with Kirito.
Natsu and Juvia walked up to Gray's sides and stopped for a minute while the ice mage kept staring after the four teens in the lead. "Juvia thinks Sora-san is a very nice person," she whispered with a small smile on her face.
Natsu shrugged his shoulders and yawned. "Yeah, I guess he's pretty cool," the Dragon Slayer said while smirking.
A blur raced by the mages and when it stopped they saw it was Dash who ran to catch up to Sora and excitedly start talking to the older teen. Dash asked all about Sora's new Pokemon, and the kid smiled up at the brown haired teen with sparkling eyes. He talked about how he wanted some Pokemon of his own, and Sora said he could teach Dash how to catch one sometime, to which the boy started jumping up and down in excitement.
Dash slowed down when Kairi went up to talk to her fiancé, and he kept smiling at Sora's back while the Keybearer walked away. He thought about the first time he saw Sora, riding in on a lion's back to save him and the rest of the Anti-NEG league in Port Royal. When his entire family was gone, Sora reached down and told him that he would save them all. Dash remembered how great he felt after Sora told him that, and how it got him back on his feet to keep fighting.
He was not the only one who almost lost hope in Port Royal only for Sora to bring them back. Luffy walked forward with five of his crew members who were all talking about Sora while he just smiled ahead at the spiky-haired teen's back. He had lost his entire crew by the time he reached the top of Castle Oblivion, but throughout his entire time on Nexus, whenever he lost a crew member, Sora was there. He was there for Usopp and Brook, and then as Sanji and Robin were taken away, he returned to make sure Luffy never lost hope. "I really wish Sora would reconsider joining my crew," Luffy mumbled aloud, trying to pout but failing to frown while in such a good mood.
Sanji and Nami turned in to their captain walking between them in surprise. Usopp, Robin, and Franky all looked at his back in surprise as well, but it was Ben walking behind them all who spoke up, "You invited Sora to join your crew?" The other Straw Hats were just as surprised, but Ben sounded a little bit jealous even.
"When did that happen?" Usopp asked his rubbery captain.
Luffy tilted his head to the side and scratched the back of his head, "I don't know, a few years ago?"
"Years ago?!" Usopp exclaimed.
"Uh huh," Luffy nodded.
"Wait," Sanji began, his eyes widening. "I think I remember that."
"You're right, Luffy did mention Sora-san's name that day," Robin agreed, having already remembered it.
The Fairy Tail wizards weren't too far in front of the group of pirates that they did not hear the conversation, and Juvia turned around and smiled back, "Juvia remembers as well!"
"Haha, yeah you were still on the crew back then," Franky laughed.
Gray looked from his girlfriend back to the group behind him and to her again. "Well I wasn't there, what are you all talking about?"
Luffy did not look interested in retelling the story, but Usopp started begging behind him, "Come on, let me know what you're all talking about. It's not fair, I was a Heartless back then!"
"Oh alright," Nami snapped at the long-nosed man behind her who actually made her feel a little guilty with that last remark. "It was the day Luffy finally returned to our ship, for the first time since we got to Nexus."
Sanji lit a cigarette and took a puff of it before adding on, "Those were a rough few months without our idiot captain to guide us."
"And losing Chopper, Brook, and Zoro-san did not help either," Robin added, making most of the crew grimace at the thought.
Franky shed a tear and wiped it with his huge metal forearm, "But we made it by! Day by day! Week by week!"
"Get to it already!" Usopp snapped at his friends, and Gray, Rin, Killua, Ben, and Natsu were glad someone said it since they were all listening in as well.
Nami smiled nostalgically and she could feel her eyes getting a little wet at the thought of that day. "Alright, so we were under attack…"
FD + 168
"Come on Luffy, we're almost at the top of the cliff!" Sora called over his shoulder. The sixteen year old with spiky brown hair had on a blue jacket and heavy pants too as it was cold enough out for there to be an inch layer of snow on the ground. "You okay Kairi?" He questioned the auburn haired teenage girl climbing up the steep cliff side with him.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Kairi said, though she was panting pretty heavily. She had to wipe some sweat from her forehead after saying so, as despite it being cold, with all the layers she was wearing and their nonstop hiking she was getting pretty hot. She had her auburn hair tied back into a ponytail to make it easier to climb and wore a lighter blue jacket than Sora with a pair of matching mittens. She looked behind her and saw Luffy trudging up the cliff in a slower, lazier fashion. "We're almost there Luffy! I can already smell the ocean!"
Sora chuckled, then stopped and opened his eyes wide, "Wow, you really can!" He took a deep sniff in and looked back at Luffy, "You're taking too long, hurry it up slowpoke!"
Luffy lifted up his gaze and frowned at the spiky haired teen and his girlfriend near the top of the cliff. It was a few weeks after Brook had been brutally blown apart by the crazy kid with a red cape, and he was still depressed over it, no matter how cheerful his two companions were. His black pupils looked into Sora's dark blue eyes and the younger boy sighed before turning to Kairi and telling her to go ahead. He jogged down the cliff to Luffy's side who grunted in annoyance that Sora was doing this again. "Are you okay?" Sora asked his friend.
"Fine," Luffy muttered. "Let's just get to the top of the cliff."
"You know Luffy," Sora said, smiling at the pirate next to him. "If we really are close to the water, then I bet we'll find your ship and the rest of your friends soon!"
Luffy smiled slightly, imagining his friends' faces all in front of him. Then, Usopp and Brook's faces flashed before his eyes and his smile was gone. Sora put a hand on his older friend's back though and he started walking up the cliff again while helping Luffy with him. They trudged through the short grass under the light snow coating together and Sora kept smiling the whole time, talking about how they could search the entire coast for Luffy's friends. "Or maybe they're all dead," Luffy interrupted quietly.
"Oh don't talk like that," Sora said, patting his friend in a red jacket on his back harder than before. "Listen to me Luffy, you might feel like there is no hope. Your heart is in the darkness right now, I can see it," he turned and smiled at the skinny man next to him, "but in that darkness there is a light, a light that will never go out."
"What if," Luffy saw the top of the cliff where Kairi stopped and was looking over the other side. "What, if I never find my crew?" Sora's eyes widened as this was more than Luffy had opened up since the day Brook died. "What if they're all gone already?" This was less like a pessimistic mutter like he did before, and more of an actual question he wanted an answer to.
"I promised you Luffy," Sora said, squeezing the pirate captain's back tighter with his hand. "We will find your crew."
"You don't know that," the man whose straw hat lay limp over his back whispered. They kept walking towards the top of the grassy cliff, and Sora saw Kairi turn back and look at him with eyes that sparkled because they were brimming with water. Her mouth was curved up into such a wide smile that he knew the tears about to spill out of her eyes were not tears of sadness, but of joy. Luffy's head was bowed and he felt Sora's hand leave his back, "They could all be-"
"Luffy." The pirate heard his name called out by Sora but the boy was no longer at his side. He lifted his gaze and saw Sora standing ten feet in front of him, just up the top of the cliff looking down at him with Kairi at his side. "I made you a promise," he said it while curving his lips up and Luffy saw Kairi's tears start spilling out the bottoms of her eyelids. Luffy stared at them confusedly for a few seconds, then saw Sora and Kairi each turn and stare the other direction.
The rubberman slowly walked up those last few feet of the cliff, his heartbeat speeding up faster than he knew was possible. His clouded eyes and grim expression were rising into a look of more and more disbelief each second. He gulped at least three times in the next five seconds as he reached up in between Sora and Kairi. Before he even stopped moving, his eyes were already spilling tears and he trembled at the sight of what he expected but could not believe was actually there.
The other side of the steep cliff was a much gentler slope, but halfway down that grassy slope the ground turned into sand that was also lightly coated in snow. That sand went on for another few hundred feet until it reached the water, where only a hundred feet off shore there was a ship anchored. "What are the odds?" Kairi asked with a bright smile on her face. "I guess you are lucky," she said, turning and giving Luffy a toothy smile while starting to laugh through her tears. "I'm so happy for you."
"Th-That's, the Sunny," Luffy whispered, barely able to make out the words because his face was covered in so many tears. He rubbed his eyes, not to get rid of the tears, but because he had to wonder if he was imagining things. It was so unlikely, even for a man who lived an unpredictable life such as his, it seemed impossible. "But, then, my nakama?" He turned to Sora who gave him a single nod in response.
"I bet they're on the ship right now, waiting for you," Sora said confidently. He watched as Luffy finally absorbed all this information and he spun to his ship again. "Go on Luffy," Sora said, and this time his eyes started to glisten as they got a little wet. Luffy started walking down the cliff still with a look of disbelief in his eyes, and he heard Sora behind him, "It's been fun."
Luffy took another step onto the other side of the cliff, but froze and turned around as those words registered in his mind. "Sora?" he questioned.
The spiky haired boy had a huge smile on his face, but he stepped closer to Kairi who had her hand interlocked with his now. "Luffy, we have to find Riku."
"Wait, Sora," Luffy took another step up the cliff, then spun and stared out at the Thousand Sunny not a half mile away from him. "Come with me!" Luffy smiled and he wiped his face of his tears. "Join my crew," he turned to Kairi, "both of you," he added.
Kairi tilted her head and grabbed her heart with the hand Sora was not holding, "Thank you Luffy," she said, genuinely touched as she had seen how much Luffy cared for his crew.
"But we can't," Sora continued.
"We can search for Riku together!" Luffy exclaimed.
"Luffy," Sora started, blinking a few times and allowing a single tear to streak down the left side of his face. "Your adventure is out there at sea, with your nakama. Riku could be anywhere on Awul, and we plan on finding him. We never wanted to tell you, but we always knew we would be going separate ways once we found your crew."
Luffy sniffled and it was hard for him to hold back his tears. "Because, you always knew we would find my crew," he whispered, blinking out tears of his own. "Even though I, had given up-"
"You never gave up," Kairi scolded him and the rubberman snapped his attention back to her. "Even in your darkest moments, you always knew your crew could still be alive. There was always a light inside you Luffy."
"Now," Sora said, getting Luffy to turn back to him, "go to your nakama. I'm sure they miss you as much as you miss them. Don't leave them waiting any longer."
"But Sora," Luffy said, taking another step back towards the teen, "you're my nakama too."
Sora opened his mouth to respond, but his gaze suddenly lifted above Luffy's head and out into the distance in shock. Kairi covered her mouth as she gasped and Luffy spun around in panic, thinking something had happened to his crew. Out in the water about a hundred yards from the Thousand Sunny was another pirate ship, and it was firing at Luffy's. Since there were a few trees on the grassy area at the top of the hill, parts of the water were not visible from their angle, and they did not see the ship until it was already firing upon the ship with the smiling lion figurehead.
"Sunny!" Luffy exclaimed as he saw planks of wood from the bow fly up and then two more splashes in the water right next to the ship.
"Go Luffy," Sora said, and the kid sounded closer than when Luffy was previously looking behind him. Sora got right up next to Luffy and he put a hand on the pirate's shoulder, "Head to your friends. I'll give you one last parting gift. Don't worry about that ship."
Luffy looked at Sora in shock for a moment, and Sora gave him one more squeeze on that shoulder. "I'm going to miss you, friend." With that, Sora turned and ran down the side of the cliff, into some trees, and out of Luffy's sight.
The pirate looked behind him one last time and Kairi wiped her tears and said, "Goodbye Luffy. I hope we meet again." Then, she ran after Sora down the hill and to the right towards the direction the enemy pirate ship was coming from.
"Kai- Sor-" Luffy couldn't finish shouting their names, he just stood there with his bottom lip dropped for a few seconds. Then, he heard Sora's voice in his mind, "Usopp will always be with you Luffy, just like all of your friends. Friends are in your heart, if you remember to keep them there, you'll never truly be apart from each other." Luffy never really thought of it much before, but he lifted his hand now and put it in front of his chest, Sora, Kairi. Thank you.
The pirate shook around his head clearing his thoughts and a huge smile spread across his face instead. He started running down the side of the gentle hill and the entire time he stared as far out as he could, watching the Thousand Sunny as someone pulled up the anchor. Franky! His smile grew, and he saw someone jump up over the top of the ship, kicking away cannonballs as they flew at them to protect the ship. Sanji!
Luffy stretched his arms out in front of him as he reached the final tree before the sand, and he grabbed onto a tree branch. "Gum Gum, ROCKET!" He pulled himself up and released the branch, throwing himself high into the air. He spread out his arms and legs and looked down at the Sunny as he flew towards it, and he saw a web of arms spread out in front of the sail and stop a bunch of cannonballs from hitting it. Robin! Someone was yelling on the grassy deck of the ship as others ran by her tying down sails and getting the ship ready to move, and he recognized her angry shouts anywhere. Nami!
"Keep them off us until Franky's ready with more ammo, Sanji!" Nami shouted. "Juvia, keep their ship far enough that they can't board! Robin, pull in the sails! Get ready! They're getting close now! They're going to board us any second-" CRASH Something slammed on the ground right in front of Nami and she screamed, "AHHH!"
Everyone on the ship heard Nami's shout and they spun around, dropping whatever they were doing. Sanji kicked the air under him and flew over to the main deck, right as Franky and Robin sprinted over from closer to the bow, and a girl with blue hair who was with Nami opened her eyes huge. "Nami-san what's-" Sanji stopped shouting as he saw the person standing in front of Nami with his back to him. The man reached up a hand slowly and he grabbed the straw hat hanging on his back, the hat that matched the ship's sail, and he put that hat on top of his head.
Franky, Sanji, Nami, and Robin all opened their eyes wide in unison and shouted together, "LUFFY!"
"Shishishi, I'm back!"
Juvia, startled as she was, started smiling as she saw recognized the hat Luffy was wearing as the one on the sail. Her smile rose even more as three of the crew, leaving out Robin, sprinting towards Luffy to embrace him.
"How- when-" Nami kept sputtering out words and she gasped as she was running low on air. "I thought I would never see you again," she whispered, and her tears kept flowing down her face.
"Wait a second," Sanji muttered, stepping back from Luffy and losing his excited, happy look for a few seconds. He turned around, "Why did they stop attacking?"
Luffy's excited smile for being back on his ship got even wider and he ran around to the steps on the side of the main deck. "Hold on, Luffy!" Nami called after him, then chased the rubberman around the side of the ship with everyone else chasing after her. "Where are you going? How did you get here? Why-" Nami's words caught in her throat and she froze as she reached the stern of the ship. "Whoa," she whispered.
"What the Hell?" Sanji gasped.
"Holy," Franky began, and never finished as a dozen bolts of lightning dropping out of the sky took his breath away. Those lightning bolts dropped right on top of the ship that was attacking them a minute ago. The ship was over four times as big as the Sunny, covered in cannons with a mega-super-cannon in the front that looked like it could blow away the Thousand Sunny along with a square mile of the water in every direction with only one shot. That cannon was now frozen solid, while the sail of the ship and its black flag were both on fire.
An enormous ball of black formed above the top of the ship around its mast and upper cabin decks. The ball was translucent, and inside it looked like the gravity must have increased a hundred-fold, because the mast cracked and fell, the cabin crumpled floor by floor, and screams rang out from the ship. More lightning dropped from the sky, and flashes of white light erupted all over the ship while balls of fire shot out the sides of the hull.
"What is happening?" Nami whispered in amazement.
"It's Sora's parting gift," Luffy replied.
"Who?" Robin asked, but Luffy just kept smiling and shook his head a few times.
They watched in more or less silence as the ship started to sink, and the crew of said ship grabbed onto chunks of driftwood or lay unconscious on top of them. One figure stood on the largest chunk of hull remaining once the ship was in pieces, and he looked across the water at the Sunny. He rose up the weapon in his hands and pointed it in the sky, firing one ball of red light up into the sky.
Everyone looked up and watched as the light exploded into a giant firework display. The display spread out and they dropped their jaws in awe as the red lights shifted into the shape of a straw hat in the sky. Luffy looked back down at the ship's debris and saw the teen looking back his way, and the boy rose his hand and waved at the Straw Hat ship. Luffy waved back at him, then the figure leapt up in the air and glided over the water all the way to shore where someone else was waiting for him. They looked back at Luffy's ship again, then turned and headed back towards the cliff they just came down.
Before his crew could ask him any questions, Luffy threw his hands up in the air, "Yosh!" He spun around, "Robin, Franky, Sanji, Nami, let's go find the others!" He tilted his head after looking at each of his friends, and shifted his attention back to Robin all the way on his left, as she had someone standing behind her. "Who are you?"
"Luffy, this is Juvia," Nami said, still in partial disbelief that Luffy was here, and trying to act like everything was normal. "She's been on our crew since we got to this world."
"I didn't say you could be here," Luffy said harshly and looked at the blue haired woman as he narrowed his eyebrows. Everyone felt nervous for a second, then Luffy shrugged and smiled, "But if you've been on the crew for a while, I won't make you leave. Nice to meet you Juvia."
"Wh-What?" Nami stuttered, wondering if she heard Luffy correctly.
Luffy turned his head and looked back towards shore, but he could no longer see the two who disappeared up the cliff. He turned back to Juvia, "I'm Monkey D. Luffy, I'm going to be the King of the Pirates!"
"N-Nice to meet you Luffy-san," Juvia started, still totally confused just like the rest of her friends on the crew. She bowed deeply to him, "Thank you for letting Juvia stay!"
"Yeah, don't mention it," Luffy said, and looked back at Nami next. "Set a course Nami! We have to find Zoro and Chopper…"
Present
"Haha, for a second there, I really thought you were going to kick Juvia off the crew," Franky laughed.
"Juvia thought so too," Juvia said with a slightly pale look as she remembered how scared she was in that moment.
"Speaking of which Luffy," Nami began, turning to the captain who stayed quiet through her recollection of Luffy landing on the Sunny. "Why did you let Juvia stay? That wasn't like you at all."
The pirate captain looked up past the Fairy Tail mages, and all the way up to Sora. He shrugged, but everyone followed his gaze and looked ahead at Sora as well. "So the one who destroyed that ship attacking you guys," Natsu started, having only heard Nami's recollection of the events and remembering that she said Luffy mentioned Sora's name back then. "That was him."
"It was amazing," Nami whispered. "The ship was enormous, but in a minute it was nothing but rubble."
"Heh, I could've done it faster," Natsu bragged, though he kept grinning up ahead at Sora. Man, he sounds strong! I never knew that, I thought he just had really strong Pokemon... I want to fight him even more now! The Dragon Slayer grinned a toothy smile and pounded his fists together.
"Hey you guys!" someone shouted from way up in the front of the group. Sora had turned around and was facing them all, "You're all so slow! A turtle could keep up with me better!"
They all looked around at each other, and it was like a switch was turned on. Ben lit up in a flash of green light and sprinted forward as XLR8, while Killua sprinted forward and passed Okumura Rin who clenched his teeth and dug his feet down even harder to speed up more. Usopp sprinted ahead and tried keeping up with his captain who was toe to toe with Natsu as they sprinted after Rin and Killua. Sora started laughing and turned back forward, running ahead again with a huge smile on his face. "Now that's better!"
A/N Thanks for reading! Earlier in Nexus HWR there was a flashback that Franky had of the Thousand Sunny under attack by Coribou and Caribou when Luffy showed up, and then the ship stopped attacking them for some strange reason. So here's the second part of that flashback which explains it a little better! Sora and Kairi traveled with Luffy until the day he returned to his ship, and Sora gave him a goodbye gift too. Sora gets another Pokemon, adding to his already huge arsenal considering he has most of Giovanni's and all of Professor Oak's too, (not to mention Ash ;( ). Anyway, hope you enjoyed!
joebob323 chapter 30 . 21h ago
ARGGGGG I got a B on my Test! Oh well, it could have been worse... But i'm still blaming you! XD Also, Sorry about not commenting on that last chapter, I didn't get to read it til ten at night. I like this chapter, good job man! One of the only questions I have is, when will we see the "Other sayians" goku talked about? I'm excited to see them! Last question, how the heck is Aragog so strong all of a sudden?
I feel your pain, just got back a Japanese test that I got a 79 on, mainly because I missed the easiest section, just skimmed right over it, and got 10 points off that I would have gotten X(((! Haha, must have been too distracted thinking about my next chapter of this. The Other Saiyans will return someday soon, but the chapters will mainly follow the bigger group for now... though No spoilers actually! And for Aragog, I decided to take a little liberty with his character since he's never seen fighting, only commanding an army of giant spiders, and when he died of a disease. At his strongest though, I bet he could withstand a Conqueror's Haki wave from Luffy, (or at least I wrote it that way). Plus Luffy may have just wanted to show off to him after Aragog mentioned how he couldn't be the Pirate King cuz someone else already was. Thanks for the review!
Espada-001 chapter 30 . 20h ago
Well I mention to comment on your chapter from yesterday but I was sidetracked. Anyway I do think it's pretty cool that Zoro became a shinigami although I do find it sad that he died for that power and if it weren't for Espada 7's ability I'm pretty sure Zoro outclassed him everywhere else. Maybe he would have been a bit slower but doubt the gap would be so great that he would be able to track it completely. Anyway it was nice to see another KH character even if it was breef and he didn't get to do much. Also I'm pretty sure that Luffy's going to take it pretty hard when he finds out what happened to Zoro especially since he wasn't able to actually protect one of his crew. I'm also kinda curious how Heartless and Grimm would interact with each other in the wild given their similarities. The same question could also be asked about how Grimm would react to Riku. It's also sad to see Haku fall so soon after finding Zaduza. Also I'm not entirely sure if you have any set time for how long it takes for people to adapt to seeing supernatural beings but they been in close proximity to Rins cat for nearly 3 weeks plus every time Rin uses his powers around them his energy isn't exactly subtle. Anyway I'm also curious about how Aragog met Gol D. Roger, and for some reason I keep imagining rediculus settings for their encounter. Well that's all I have right now aside from being glad about the upcoming chapters. So until next time I bid you adu and I hope you have a good day.
Zoro dying is def sad, wonder if Luffy will learn about that first or him being a shinigami first... both of which situations would probs be tough for him. Zommari's ability really is annoying, but Zoro got a solid amount of work in before he was taken out of commission! So, I don't actually remember putting in another KH character, I tried re-reading and could not figure it out who else I put in. Please lmk. Grimm and Heartless are both dark creatures, and both can be controlled by the villains of their respective series, I wonder if they would attack each other or just let each other be though if neither of them have light inside them? Riku and the Grimm could be cool, sad to see Haku gone, and for how long it takes... no real set time just like in Bleach. It seemed like while I watched, every saga a new side character could suddenly see shinigamis and the likes, so sooner or later I'm sure everyone will be able to. But yeah, "sooner or later" is as good as I've got for you :P. And just like how other people can see Mephisto, but like not his demon form, I'm thinking maybe the whole crew can see Kuro, maybe they don't notice he has 2 tails yet? Don't really know. Doubt Aragog and Roger will get that flashback to confirm your suspicions, so I'd say whatever ridiculous setting you imagined is def what really happened! Haha thanks for another review!
qwerty chapter 30 . 20h ago
I wonder whether Goku will recognize Icarus.
Icarus was not actually the Icarus from DBZ. It was just a dinosaur that Sora named after another Icarus he knew from the past... which might have been that Icarus you're thinking of. (At least that's what I wanted it to seem like). Thanks for the review! Thanks again everyone for reading! 'Till next time!