Chapter 26

While most of the crew were shocked at Robin's theory that there could be an island in the sky, Luffy only thought of the new adventures that are up there as he looks at her with stars in his eyes. "An island can really float?!"

Usopp looks from the sky to the skeleton that's lying dead on the deck in pure astonishment. "You're saying that the shipwreck and skeleton came from up there?!"

When Chopper sees nothing out of the ordinary up there, he looks at Robin in confusion. "That can't be right, there's nothing up there."

Robin shakes her head as she turns to the others. "It's not like a regular island. It's more like it's on a floating ocean."

"That's even more confusing." Zoro says as he looks up at the normal blue sky along with the others.

"There's a floating island on a floating sea?! Well, let's go!" Luffy calls out, but he was only answered with Robin growing arms off his shoulders to cover his mouth and knock him down.

Sanji sighs at his captain's over excitement as he lights his cigarette. "This ship can't go up captain."

Robin keeps her hands on Luffy's mouth as she keeps going. "While I have heard rumors, I've never seen a sky island."

"That's because it's impossible!" Nami says as she looks at her log pose. "The log pose has to be broken. There's no such thing as a sky island."

Rose sighs at Nami's disbelief as she looks to the broken galleon. "I wouldn't be saying that Nami. A sky island can very well be up there for all we know."

Robin nods in agreement as she releases her arms from Luffy. "Wind-chan has a point, we shouldn't be worrying about the log pose but about how we can go up."

Luffy, Usopp and Chopper blink at the conclusion before they turn to the wind girl.

"Not happening." Rose says bluntly without even sparing the three of them a glance.

The trio widen their eyes at the quick refusal before Usopp tries to defend them. "You don't know what we're gonna ask!"

Rose chuckles at the accusation as she crosses her arms over her chest and smirks at him. "Oh yea? I bet you guys are gonna ask me to use my wind to bring the ship up to the sky. If I'm wrong, then go ahead and tell me."

The three of them don't say a thing, so she starts floating away. "I thought so. It's not like I wouldn't, but I can't take things out of the water with my wind. I don't know how long I could keep a ship flying up anyway. I'm gonna go to the shipwreck to see if we can find another way there."

She flies towards the wreck while Luffy stretches his arms to the broken ship to grab onto it. Usopp clings onto the captain before Luffy rockets the two of them onto the boat in order to search through the contents along with Rose.

As the three of them search through the ruins of the slowly sinking ship, Luffy sees a crate floating toward him. He stretches his arm to grab the box and lifts the lid to find stacks of paper. He looks in confusion as he looks through them until he stops at a map that's titled 'Skypiea'.

He grins at the detailed map in pure excitement as he turns to Rose and Usopp. "Guys, look! I found a- AH!"

The hull of the ship, that he was standing on, sinks into the water and takes him down with it. Luffy tries his best to stay afloat but he's quickly sinking. "Help!"

Usopp looks at his captain in shock before he dives into the water to go after him.

Rose quickly grabs a coil of five-foot rope, and flies above the ship just before the rest of the remains sink to the bottom of the ocean. When Usopp swims back to the surface with Luffy in his arms, his eyes were met with an end of the rope dangling in front of him.

He looked up to see Rose flying above them, with the other end of the brown rope looped around her wrist and her fist clenched onto it. "Grab on."

Usopp nods as he grabs the rope with one hand while his other arm stays around the captain's torso to keep his head above water. As Rose drags the two men to the ship, she looks back at them curiously. "What were you calling us about before you sunk Luffy?"

Luffy smiles at Rose as he lifts his right arm up to show them the scrunched-up map. "I got a map of the sky island!"

Usopp widens his eyes at the announcement as he turns to Luffy. "You're serious?!"

He nods with a toothy grin as they reach the ship. Chopper grabs a rope ladder for the boys and set it out for them to climb on.

Usopp releases his end on the rope, so Rose can reel it in and then drops it on the deck, while Usopp and Luffy get on the ship.

Once Luffy shakes himself off, he grins at the crew while he shows them his map of Skypiea. "Look at this, I got a map!"

Nami widens her eyes at the map as she grabs the map and looks it over. "Skypiea?!"

"Since there's a map then that means there really is a sky island!" Luffy says just before he, Usopp and Chopper start dancing to celebrate.

Nami examines the legitimate looking map before she tiredly frowns at the excited trio. "You can't just rely on this. There are a lot of fake maps out there."

The three of them immediately stop dancing to give Nami a look of utter despair, and makes her to regret her statement. "Uh, I mean… Of course there is…"

She groans in frustration of her captain's refusal to let this matter go. "I'm just saying that I don't know how to get there!"

"You're the navigator, figure it out!" Luffy retorts as the two of them get into an argument.

Zoro raises an eyebrow at the argument before he turns to Rose. "Didn't you steal a bunch of eternal poses a few islands back?"

Rose stiffens up at the reminder before she looks away from him. "Yea, but from a marine base. We could be sailing straight to a prison island if we use one of those."

After Nami whacks Luffy on the head to end their argument, she tiredly sighs as she turns to the others. "Rose is right, and we can't use them anyway since I sold them all at the last island."

Half of the boys sweat drop at their navigator's greediness as she looks down at the log pose that's still pointing up.

Nami quietly sighs as she looks back at the spot where the galleon sunk. "It's like Robin said, we need more information on how to go up. If a ship that large could do it, then there has to be a way for the Merry to get there."

Chopper tilts his head at the statement before he follows her gaze to where the shipwreck was. "But the ship already sunk."

The redhead narrows her eyes at the ship's former spot before she clenches her fists. "In that case, we're gonna salvage it!"

Luffy and Usopp cheer in agreement. "Let's do it!"

Chopper tilts his head in confusion. "What's salvage?"

"It means to pull the sunken ship back to the surface, but it's too big for us." Robin says as she takes a seat to relax.

Rose looks to see Usopp suiting Sanji, Luffy, and Zoro up with barrel suits before she looks down at the doctor. "It looks like they're gonna go scuba diving for the ship's stuff instead."

Chopper looks to see that Zoro and Sanji have been fitted into barrels with their torsos suited into the barrels and their arms covered in scuba gloves.

Luffy grins at the barrel suit he's wearing, that covers both his torso and legs, and moves his gloved arms around to see that he can move them freely. "This is so cool."

He looks up at the air pipes, that are connected to the top of all three of their suits, to see that they're connected to a large fishing reel. "Is this really going to work?"

Usopp nods as he pats the reel and shows them the three funnels on top of the machine. "Of course, this is as close to perfect as you're gonna get. We can even speak to you while you're underwater with this baby."

Zoro stays silent of Usopp's confidence while Sanji swoons to Nami. "Not to worry Nami! I'll be sure to find what you need to bring us to the sky!"

Nami nods with a casual grin. "I'm counting on you guys!"

Chopper goes into heavy point and pulls on the lever to release the air lines just before the boys jump into the unknown depths of the Grand Line.

As the reel keeps feeding the trio more of the line Chopper speaks into the three sound devices at the top of the machine. "Guys, this is Chopper. Can you hear me?"

Luffy's voice begins to ring out through the speaker on the right. "This is Luffy! Whoa, there are a ton of monsters down here!"

Zoro's voice starts speaking up from the middle speaker at he looks around his underwater surroundings. "Is that a sea snakes den?"

Sanji's voice comes out of the last speaker as the surprised chef sees the den. "Sanji here and oh shit, they're coming this way!"

The sounds stop coming out of the three devices with the rest of the crew looking at them blankly.

Nami nods in satisfaction as she turns away from the machine. "Looks like it worked."

"What part of that worked?!" Usopp asks as he looks at his carefree friend in utter shock.

Nami brushes off his worry as she leans on the railing and looks at the reel. "Those three will be fine. Chopper, pull the brake."

"Ok." Chopper complies to the demand as he pulls on the brake to stop any more of the air line from going into the water.

Rose quietly sighs in relief that things seem to be to be going smoothly when she remembers what's to come next. She puts her bag down so that she can get ready to grab her camera when everyone begins to hear singing from the distance.

SALVAGE~

SALVAGE~

SALVAGE~

SALVAGE THE SEA~

The others look out in confusion to see a giant ship, with a monkey and cross bananas painted on the sails, approaching the Merry. Half the crew members stand by the railing to play the cymbals in unison while they continue to chant 'Salvage'.

Robin raises an eyebrow at the upcoming crew when they hear a whistle blow to stop the chant.

"STOP THE SHIP!" The Straw Hats look up in mild shock to see a large man, who looks just like a gorilla in an orange-yellow jumpsuit, approach the railing.

The monkey man doesn't notice the other pirates as he speaks to his crew. "Men, is this where the ship landed?"

"Yes sir, Captain Masira!" His crew mates called out in unison, so the ape man happily cheers while he raises his massive arms into the air.

"THEN PREPARE TO SALVAGE THE SHIP! OOK! OOK!"

The crew members chant out monkey sounds back to their captain as they ready their large hooks to send them to the ocean floor.

The Straw Hats just sweat drop at the scene in front of them as they blankly watch them get ready to salvage.

"Just when I thought this day couldn't be any weirder…" Nami says as she watches the monkey man order his men around.

When the large man finally notices that his ship's not the only one afloat, he looks at the other crew in confusion. "What are you guys doing in my territory?"

Rose feigns confusion as she tilts her head. "Territory?"

Masira nods as he scowls at the intruders. "That's right, every sunken ship around these parts belongs to me. None of you messed with my stuff, right?"

Robin raises an eyebrow at the question before she silently speaks to Nami and Usopp. "Looks like he wants to salvage the ship too."

Nami nods with a mischievous grin as she whispers back. "So what? This is our chance!"

"OI, STOP BLABBERING AND ANSWER MY QUESTION!" Masira yells out as his patience starts to shrink.

The navigator gives him a friendly smile as she raises her hand. "Sorry, but can I ask you a question?"

The monkey man looks at them in shock before he nods with a grin. "You wanna ask me something?! Go ahead!"

"Where did you come from? Are you planning to scrape the sunken ship?"

The monkey man completely ignores the question as soon as he mistook the word scrape for ape. "Do you think I look like a monkey?"

Chopper sweat drops at the off-topic question. "She didn't say anything like that…"

Masira just ignores him as he chuckles from the compliment he thought he received. "Hahaha, thanks for noticing!"

Usopp raises an eyebrow at the odd man before he puts on a nervous smile. "S-so are you going to salvage the ship?"

Masira smirks with pride as he gives him a thumbs up. "Of course I am! No matter how large the sunken ship is, there's not a single boat that I can't salvage!"

"Then can we watch?" Nami asks with an innocent smile, so he looks at them in shock.

"You guys never saw a salvage before?!" He immediately beams with excitement as he points to his crew. "Alright, just watch us and you'll see how it's done!"

Rose goes to grab her camera with an excited grin while the rest of the group begins to calm down.

"Boss!" Everyone turns their attention of one of Masira's crew members who is slumping down over one of his knocked-out scuba divers. "The crew that went down below to hook the ship has been knocked out cold!"

Masira narrows his eyes at the news as he goes over to his knocked-out men. "Was it a sea monster?"

"No sir, it looks like they were punched! Someone might be down there!"

Fury begins to well up in the monkey man from the possibility before he turns to the Merry. "Hey you!"

Nami, Usopp and Chopper tense up under his glare as the other two girls remain calm under his anger.

"There's something going on down there so be careful!"

The scared trio calms down, when they realize that he didn't figure out that it was Luffy, and nod with a nervous grin.

Masira casually waves at them before he turns to his crew with excitement in his eyes. "Alright men, just ignore the audience and salvage the ship! Don't be nervous!"

The men nervously chant before they get to work in getting a second team of men into scuba suits. As they work on setting up their next team, they make an extra effort to make their work shown to the Straw Hats.

Usopp sweat drops at the extra effort as he stares at their work. "It looks like they're really proud of salvaging…"

"Probably just want to show off." Nami says when she hears a camera going off and turns to see Rose taking pictures of their process. "What are you doing?"

Rose casually grins as she takes a picture of their scuba suits. "I've never seen a proper salvage before. Besides, doesn't taking pictures make us look more innocent?"

Nami blinks at the explanation before she nods. "Good idea."

Robin raises an eyebrow at the plan as she watches Rose take a break from her photography to sling her backpack back on.

Rose looks from the corner of her eye to see Robin's eyes on her before she looks back to the monkey ship. The brunette shakes her head to snap out of it before she gets back to photographing the scuba divers about to jump into the water.

"Be careful of the mysterious enemy guys!" Masira says as he watches his three scuba divers dive into the depths of the Grand Line.

Just a few moments later Usopp's communication devices on his barrel suits start acting up from Luffy's voice. "Whoa, what's with the-?!"

Usopp and Nami quickly block all three communication devices with their hands, but that didn't stop Luffy's outburst from being heard by Masira. "What was that?"

Usopp scrambles to find an excuse for the outburst when he points to the other ship's monkey figurehead. "W-whoa, what's with the figurehead?!"

Masira looks to his figurehead before he smiles at his guests. "Oh, so you noticed huh? This figurehead isn't just here for decoration!"

The crew looks at him in confusion as he calls out to his men. "Barco Hunter forward!"

"Yes sir!" The salvagers rush to the front of the ship to get to work on attaching a hook to the metal loop on the monkey's head.

Once done, they got to work on cranking the giant fishing line to push the line along with the hook and figurehead off the ship. Once it's a few feet from the ship, the crew releases the line to drop the statue into the water.

The Straw Hats look in shock to see that instead of the statue floating, it dove into the water.

"Whoa, that's so cool!" Chopper says as he and Usopp stare at the working crew in awe.

Nami and Robin watch the crew curiously as Rose takes photos of them lowering the line deeper into the ocean.

Masira turns to his guests with a grin before he explains the process. "My men are bringing the hunter towards the sunken ship. Then when it gets into position we're going to blow air into it to hook it into the sunken ship, so it'll float it back up."

Nami widens her eyes at the explanation when she sees the monkey man grabbing the end of a giant air hose that's connected to the monkey statue. "That's crazy!"

Masira ignores her shock when he sees his crew ready to pull the line, so he blows air into the hose repeatedly as his men struggle to push the crane to pull the line.

He takes short breaks in between blows to catch his breath before he blows again. He continues to repeat the process until his men are able to start pushing the crane. "Boss, it's working!"

Masira smirks in satisfaction as he catches his breath. "Good, don't let up until the ship surfaces!"

"Yes sir!" The men wholeheartedly get to work on reeling it in when the crew member who's in charge of keeping an eye on the scuba diving team runs up to him with a tiny den den mushi. "Captain, something's wrong with the underwater crew!"

Masira raises an eyebrow at his distress when he takes the snail from his hands. "What's going on?!"

The small red snail looks up at his captain fearfully as he shouts out the problem. "SIR, THERE'S SOMEONE DOWN HERE! AAAH!"

Masira widens his eyes at the screams. Fury begins to well up in him as he stands up and gives the Straw Hats a triumphant pose while he roars. "RRAAAH! HOW DARE THEY ATTACK MY CREW?! WHEN I FIND THEM, I'LL KILL THEM!"

Most of the Straw Hats sweat drop at his dramatics as he stays in his pose, except for Rose who is taking a picture.

Once the wind girl has a good shot, she gives the monkey man a thumbs up. "Thanks for the great shot!"

The rest of the crew deadpans at her nonchalant attitude, so she looks at them in confusion. "What? He was posing."

Before they can say anything, more screams can be heard from the snail, and only works to fuel Masira's fury.

"That's it, I'm going down there and killing the bastard!" He jumps into the ocean to face Luffy and the others while both crews can only wait.

"What now?" Usopp whispers to Nami as he sees that Masira's men have stopped reeling in the ship to go to the railing and wait for their captain.

Nami looks down at the ocean worriedly before she turns to him. "We can-"

"Uh guys..." The pair stops talking to see Chopper trembling as he looks down at the ocean below them.

The crew follows his stare and they widen their eyes at a giant shadow appearing.

"W-what's that?" Usopp nervously asks as he joins Chopper in his trembling.

"Probably a hungry sea king." Robin morbidly says with a calm smile.

"Don't say that Robin!" Nami says when she sees Rose casually looking at the giant shadow with her camera in her hands. "And you, enough with the pictures!"

Rose quietly sighs in disappointment as she puts the camera back in her backpack just when the shadow surfaces beside the two ships to reveal a giant turtle.

Mostly everyone drops their jaws at the sight of the turtle, that's the size of an island, right next to them with bits of the sunken ship stuck in its teeth.

Robin only stares at the reptile for a moment before she sees that the three lines that connected the trio's barrel suits to their air machine are going into his mouth. "It looks like they were eaten."

"AAH! WHAT DO WE DO?!" Chopper yells as he runs around in a panic just before both ships start being pulled by the turtle.

"We're being pulled along with the air pipes!" Nami says as she hangs onto the railing so that she doesn't fall.

Usopp trembles at the sight of them getting closer to the turtle before he turns to Robin and Rose. "You guys are strong, do something!"

"It's too big." Robin casually says as she acts like they're not face to face with a sea monster.

Rose narrows her eyes at the turtle then looks down at her sword, that's hooked to her jacket's waist belt. "Maybe if I stab it in the face I can get it to open up."

"We're with you!" The crew looks to see that Masira's men are getting ready to fight the turtle.

"Give us the opening and we'll rescue the captain!"

"We'll teach them to mess with us!"

Rose nods as she starts flying when the sky suddenly becomes dark. Everyone stops and looks up in confusion to see that the sun is completely blocked off.

"What the hell?!" Nami asks as she goes in her pocket to grab her pocket watch. "It's nowhere near night time!"

"Then what's happening?!" Usopp asks as he looks at the turtle to see that it hasn't moved an inch.

When the crew hears various kinds of screams and nervous chatter from the monkey ship, they look in confusion to see that the salvage crew's in a panic.

"This is a bad omen!"

"We gotta get the captain and get out of here as soon as possible!"

Before any of the Straw Hats can react, something gets thrown out of the water. Everyone looks in shock to see an unconscious Luffy flying towards his ship with a giant, full sack on his back.

Just before he could hit the deck, Rose creates a gust of wind for him to float on.

She lands on the deck first before she gently lays his body down.

Chopper widens his eyes at this unconscious captain while he panicks. "Aah! Call a doctor!"

"You're the doctor!" Usopp says as he whacks him on the head.

"Oh yea." Chopper rushes over to him and places two fingers on his neck to find a pulse, and sees his chest rising and falling. He sighs in relief as he goes into brain point. "Looks like he's just unconscious."

The others sigh in relief when Zoro and Sanji climb onto the deck with their own large bags, full of the shipwreck's contents, tied to their backs.

Usopp smiles in relief as he goes up to them. "You guys are alright!"

Nami looks at the turtle, who's busy eating the shipwreck, before she turns to the others. "We should get out of here before the turtle wants seconds."

Zoro raises an eyebrow at her worries as he doesn't notice the turtle behind him. "What are you talking about? We should be getting out of here because of the monkey."

Sanji nods as he joins the conversation. "Yea, he was like a sea monster. He was really friendly with Luffy at first since we're both monkeys."

As Zoro and Sanji put their soaked bags down, the swordsman points to them. "Then when the monkey saw these sacks full of stuff, he went berserk."

Robin giggles at the story. "The monkey was Masira, he's the captain of the ship behind you. Was he eaten by the turtle?"

"I doubt it." Rose says as she cuts the air lines that the turtle is eating, and looks at the ocean to see the unconscious scuba divers that the boys knocked out, are floating in the ocean with their crew reeling them in.

"What's this turtle you're all talking about?" Sanji asks as he and Zoro turn around.

Once they see that giant turtle they both drop their jaws in shock. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"

"You just noticed?!" Usopp and Chopper cry out in disbelief.

"Never mind that, we gotta go!" Nami says causing the crew to get ready to move the ship just when Luffy wakes up.

Luffy takes in his surroundings and looks up in shock to see that the sky's dark. "Whoa, is it night time already?!"

"We don't know what it is! Come help us move the ship!" Usopp says as he and Zoro release the sails.

Just when they're ready to leave, Masira practically flies out of the water with his fists in the air. "I WON'T LET YOU LEAVE HERE ALIVE!"

He lands on the Merry's railing with intent to kill every human on board. "You think you can just steal my treasure and sail away?!"

Nami brightens up at the mention of treasure before she turns to Luffy. "You guys got treasure?!"

"Yup, a whole bunch." Luffy says with a toothy smile when Zoro, Sanji, and Rose surround the ape.

However, before a fight could start, Masira's crew start screaming in fright as they look ahead. "BOSS, WE GOTTA RUN!"

Masira and the Straw Hats look at the trembling men in confusion before they follow their stares. Once they look ahead, they all widen their eyes in horror to see three shadow figures as tall as the sky before them with spears in their hands.

Even the turtle was terrified of the giants when they start moving, and they all scream in fright. "MONSTERS!"

Masira looks down in shock to see that he's starting to float on a gust of air and looks to see Rose grinning as she focuses her wind.

"Thanks for the pictures monkey man." She tosses him to his crew just when her crew mates rush to sail away before the monsters could touch them.

Once the crew finds that they're safe from harm under the clear blue sky, everyone except for Robin, lie down on the deck from pure exhaustion.

"That was nuts. What the hell was that thing?" Luffy asks, but no one's able to give her an answer.

Sanji sits up with his back to the railing, and grabs a lighter and cigarette from his pocket to start smoking. "This whole day has been insane."

Nami nods in agreement, as she sits up, and looks at the three large sacks that the trio brought up with them from the shipwreck. "At least something came out of it. What kind of treasure did you guys get?"

Luffy eagerly grins at the memory of what they got as he and Zoro pull out the contents to reveal rusted armor, swords, old dishes, and various other ancient items.

Rose looks over the goods when she sees an octopus clinging to a sheathed, sword full of rust. She takes the sword along with the octopus, so that she can work to pull it from the weapon with Usopp and Chopper.

As Luffy grabs the old suit of armor to put it on, Nami looks through the antiques to see that there's not a single navigation tool here that she can use.

The redhead twitches an eyebrow at all junk in front of her before her anger is turned towards the men who brought it. "This isn't treasure at all! There's not even a single clue on how we can get to Sky Island!"

"This was all that was in the wreck." Zoro says while Luffy walks around in the suit of armor as if he's a knight.

Sanji sighs in disappointment of not bringing anything useful to Nami. "It looked like the place was attacked. By what I'm not sure."

"If that was the case then we needed information. Whatever happened to them could happen to us!" Nami says as she glares down at the junk. "We need things like charters, diaries, compasses, not this trash!"

She stomps on the stuff angrily when she sees Luffy still playing around in the armor. She quickly turns to him while she gives him the calmest look she can make. "And what's that Luffy?"

"A suit of armor." Luffy says as if he's not in danger at the moment.

Nami slowly nods while she keeps a calm smile on her face as she reaches behind her to grab a dull, rusted, sword.

Luffy widens his eyes when he sees her about to swing at him, but before contact can be made, a gust of wind pushes him out of the way of the hit.

Nami however, couldn't pull back from her missed swing in time, and falls flat on her face. She twitches an eyebrow in irritation as she gets up. She looks to see Rose looking away from the group innocently as she holds onto the sword while Chopper and Usopp are trying to pull the octopus free from it.

She groans in frustration when Sanji goes up to her with a smile and a cute little seashell in his hands. "I still brought a shell for you."

"I don't want it!" Nami says as she walks away and goes up to the upper deck where Robin has been watching the scene this whole time.

"Having trouble?" Robin casually asks as she holds onto something behind her back.

The navigator can only sigh in frustration as she sits down next to the railing. "You don't know the half of it. I don't know where we can go next."

The archaeologist looks over to the astronomer, who overheard, to see that she shows no sign of suggesting her eternal pose. So to help, Robin takes an eternal pose, with the word 'Jaya' engraved at the top of it, from behind her back and shows it to Nami. "Maybe this will help."

Nami widens her eyes at the eternal pose as she examines it, to see that it's not pointing up. "How'd you get this?!"

"I stole it from the monkey's ship." Robin says before she raises an eyebrow at the trembling navigator who has her head down.

When Nami lifts her face, she shows the helpful woman the tears of joy that are streaming down her face. "You're the only one who understands me!"

Robin sweat drops at her overjoyed attitude as she sees that she's serious. "You've been through a lot, haven't you?"

The redhead nods as she looks at the eternal pose to see that it's meant for Jaya. "Jaya?"

"It must be where Masira's headquarters is."

Luffy, who overheard the conversation, takes off the armor as he looks up at them. "So we're heading to Jaya?"

"That's for you to decide! We need to get answers on how to go to Sky Island!" Nami says in agitation.

Luffy nods in agreement as he turns to the others. "Alright, we're heading to Jaya then Sky Island!"

Chopper, Rose and Usopp cheer in agreement as Sanji and Zoro get to work on sailing the ship.

Nami goes off to direct the ship to where they need to go to while Rose, Usopp, and Chopper finally manage to pry the octopus from the weapon.

"Go home now." Chopper says as he tosses the pink octopus over the railing and back into the ocean.

Rose looks down at the rusted sword in her hands, that Zoro took from the wreck, before she goes over to the swordsman who's working on the sails. "What were you planning on doing with this?"

"Keep it as a backup." Zoro says as he finishes his work and takes the weapon. Once he takes the sword out of the sheath, he flinches when he sees the blade shatter as soon as it's out in the air.

Rose snorts at the fail as she holds back from laughing. "S-sorry, maybe the others could work."

Zoro goes off to the pile of antiques to see if any swords can be used, while Rose goes to the front of the ship to see if the island's anywhere close.

Luffy takes his seat on the figurehead while he enjoys the warm breeze. "You guys think Jaya's a spring island?"

Chopper nods in agreement as he enjoys the warmth. "I think so." He looks up at the lovely sky to see three seagulls happily flying above them. "Even the birds are-"

He stops himself when all three birds were shot at and started free falling towards them.

"Oh shit!" Rose says as she blows wind from her hands to catch the birds and gently set them down.

The others look at the birds in shock as Chopper rushes below deck and comes back out with a first aid kit in hand.

Usopp looks around nervously to see that there's not a single ship around them. "Where did those shots come from?!"

Chopper takes a bullet out one of the dead birds and examines it. "It looks like it came from the front of the ship!"

Nami looks ahead to see an island that's so far ahead that it looks tiny to them. "Are you sure? Because there's no way that the shots could come from there."

"It's the truth!" Chopper says as he takes the rest of the bullets out of the dead birds.

"I believe him." Rose says with her bangs covering her anger filled eyes as she remembers who exactly made those shots in the manga. *Blackbeard's crew is on the island…*

She takes in a slow breath from her nose to keep herself calm enough to go below deck without any mood breezes coming out.

Robin raises an eyebrow at the retreat as she watches Rose speed walk inside without looking back. She sits down on the lounge chair and closes her eyes to create a pair of eyes on the wall of the girls' room. Once Robin can see the room, she nearly cancels the eyes when they start feeling dry from the hot wind that's blowing around from Rose's anger.

She could only see Rose taking her astronomy books out of her bag, before she had to cancel it out to rub her eyes.

Nami looks to see Robin rubbing her eyes, to get rid of the irritation, and goes up to her. "Are you ok Robin?"

Robin grins as she blinks a few times, to help them recover, before she turns to Nami. "I'm fine, I just had something in my eyes."

Nami blinks at the excuse, but she doesn't press on it as she gets back to leading the ship to Jaya.

Meanwhile, Rose finishes putting the books back in the bookshelf before she starts sweating. She looks around to see her mood breeze lightly moving some things around the room, but not strong enough to cause any damage. She takes a deep breath to calm herself down to stop the mood breeze then sighs. *If I even catch a glimpse of Blackbeard and his fucking men, I don't know what I'd do...*

She shakes her head of the thought as she decides that the best course of action would be to avoid Mock Town completely. She goes back outside to see that the ship has docked just outside the town, along with a bunch of other pirate ships.

She looks to see Sanji trying to go after Nami after she left with Zoro and Luffy, but Usopp and Chopper are clinging to his leg.

"Don't go, the ship could get attacked!" Usopp says as he and Chopper beg him to stay.

"Alright, alright, I'll stay. Now let go." Sanji says as the two of them do as they're told.

Sanji sighs as he dusts himself off and goes in his pocket for a cigarette when he sees Rose flying off the deck. "Where are you going?"

Rose grins back at them as she points to the woods that's past the town. "I saw a forest at the other side of the island. I'm gonna go train there and maybe find a pet bird."

The three of them just stare at her in disbelief, which causes her to look at them in confusion. "What? Birds are cool."

She doesn't give them a chance to argue as she flies off the ship, ignores the stares she's receiving from civilians, and heads to the uninhabited part of the island.

Hours have passed since Rose has reached the forest, and she's flying around every tree to see if she can find the bird that can only point south.

She continues to fly through the woods until she starts hearing a loud buzzing sound. She stops moving forward, but stays floating when she hears the sound getting louder. She looks around to see what it is and widens her eyes when she sees a praying mantis, that's just as big as she is, flying towards her.

"Whoa!" She lands on the ground to dodge the attack, but the bug joins her as he lands in front of her while he swipes his forelegs as a taunt.

Rose blinks at the challenge before she unsheathes her sword with a smirk. "If you want a go at me, then let's play."

The mantis doesn't hesitate as he takes a swing at her, but she jumps backwards and strikes back.

The bug smirks as he dodges the blow with two of them exchanging blows. The bug doesn't give in as he goes for the limbs with half of them shallowly landing on her arms and legs, and the rest going through her.

When Rose manages to land some hits on the mantis with her sword, she sees the blade just barely cutting into his forelegs. When their strikes collide at full force, they push each other a few feet back.

Even though Rose is lightly panting from exhaustion, she can't suppress the chuckle that erupted from the fun she's having. "You're like a bug version of a martial artist."

The mantis only smirks at the compliment as he swipes at her, but she blocks the blow with the sword and goes back at him. As the two of them continue fighting in the lush forest, they disregard the bushes and trees that they're hitting, which causes the pollen to scatter out into the air.

When Rose accidentally breathes in some of the pollen, her nose starts to twitch. She tries to fight the upcoming sneeze that's coming as she continues her battle. However, she could only hold on for a few minutes before her sneeze sends both her and the mantis flying in opposite directions.

The bug manages to use his legs to ricochet himself off the tree and catch himself while Rose hits her back against the tree. Rose quickly gets back on her feet while she ignores the pain in her back, but what neither warriors knew was that they both hit trees that held giant beehives.

Rose and the mantis look behind each other in horror to see swarms of angry bees, half the size of them, coming out of both hives. The warriors look back at each other and nod to continue their battle for another time before they run for their lives in different directions.

Rose sheathes her sword and uses her wind to start flying, but the bees are hot on her trail. She looks back to see the swarm not giving in, so she starts turning her right arm into wind. "Taste this, you damn beedrills!"

The bees widen their eyes, when they see Rose turn around with her arm as a strong gust of wind that sends them flying into the trees. Rose smirks in victory of losing the monster bugs as she's flying backwards, but once she turns around she's met with branches as she crashes into a treetop. She grunts at the crash as she staggers out of the tree and lands on the ground.

She leans against a tree to catch her breath when she suddenly hears a deep bird call from above. She quickly looks up to see a toucan-like bird, with two knobs on top of his head, perched on one of the treetops with his long beak pointing south.

She uses her wind to pick the bird up, and makes it look down at her in shock as she brings it towards her. In order to escape, the bird flaps his wings to fly out of the hold and takes to the sun-setting sky.

Rose widens her eyes at the escape before she goes inside her backpack to grab her blanket and goes after the bird. "Come back!"

The toucan doesn't listen to her as he makes a call for the bugs to come swarming towards them. Rose uses her wind to send them flying back into the woods and looks to see the bird gaining some distance.

She twitches an eyebrow as she flies faster to catch up to the bird as she starts unfolding the blanket. Once she's just a few feet away, she puts another wind hold on the bird to slow it down long enough to throw an edge of the blanket over it.

The bird has no idea on what is happening as he tries to descend to get away, but the wind under him keeps him in place as Rose pulls the edges to trap the bird inside.

Rose keeps a hold of the makeshift sack, that's holding the thrashing bird, with both hands as she flies above the trees. She starts looking for the Merry from above when the bird starts pecking its dull beak for freedom, but the sheet's too thick. The bird still refuses to give up as he pushes in every direction for a chance to escape, so Rose flies down to a tree.

When she reaches a thick tree, lightly swings the sack to whack the tree with it. "Knock it off! I promise you'll be free soon! We just need your help for a bit!"

The bird groans from the hit, but he doesn't thrash as hard as he used to as Rose flies towards the orange sky. Rose looks towards the horizon where the sun is setting and sees a tiny ship by the coastline near the woods. *Good, they made it past the bar fight with Bellamy.*

She grins at how things are running smoothly as she goes off in the direction of the ship.

Just when the sun has finished setting Rose manages to reach the coast where the Merry is docked.

She scans the area for her crew, but she only sees Masira, another monkey man, and their workers doing construction on the Merry. She keeps looking, but stops when she sees a house with a cardboard cutout of a large castle blocking it from the ocean view.

She flies over the building and blinks when she sees the there's only half a building there with the cutout covering the hole up. *Wow, the knock up stream really did a number on this place.*

"Hey, who are you?" Rose snaps out of it to see a muscular, shirtless, man with his short blond hair covered by a large chestnut on his head looking up at her in confusion.

Rose descends to the middle-aged man and bows her head. "Sorry for the intrusion, my name's Rose."

The big man widens his eyes at the introduction before he chuckles. "So you're the wind girl. The name's Cricket, your crew mates told me about you. We're helping your ship get ready for Sky Island."

Rose grins at the introduction as she straightens up, but looks around to see that her crew's nowhere to be found. "And where's the crew?"

Cricket points to the forest that she just came from. "Sorry, but you just missed them. They went off into the woods to catch a south bird."

Rose drops her jaw at the man before she shows him her makeshift sack. "Are you serious?! I have one in here!"

Cricket can only gape in shock as he watches her fly back into the woods with her captured bird still in her arms. "GUYS, COME BACK! I ALREADY GOT US THE FREAKING BIRD!"

TO BE CONTINUED