Chapter 27

Half an hour before Rose arrived at the coast with the south bird, the Straw Hats were in Cricket's house enjoying Sanji's cooking with the salvage crews before they start preparing Merry for the knock up stream.

Masira and his fellow salvage captain, a man who looks just like an orangutan with long green hair, have a drink while their men enjoy their dinner to the fullest.

Cricket happily shows off some pieces of gold to the Straw Hats to show proof that the Sky Island holds the city of gold.

Usopp tilts his head at the tiny golden bell statue. "I thought Roland's log said that they were gigantic?"

Cricket nods as he pats the artifact. "These are just tokens that we found on the seafloor."

Nami couldn't stop the love in her eyes for the gold bell in front of her. "So there really is a whole city made of gold?!"

Cricket takes a swig from his bottle of liquor before he grins at her. "Not only that, but there are even strange birds on the island." He turns to Masira and points to the bookcase. "Masira, show them."

"Ok." He goes to the bookshelf where a lump that's wrapped in a white cloth is being held.

He takes the lump, and removes the sheet to show them the golden statue of a south bird holding a bell.

Nami's eyes turn into beli signs at the sight of the beautiful treasure. "That's even bigger than the bell!"

"That's so cool!" Usopp says as he looks it over. "What kind of bird is it?"

Sanji looks over the statue curiously. "It must be Jaya's-" He stops himself when he sees his captain about to grab the untouched plate of food on the counter.

He twitches a curly eyebrow at his captain's antics, and kicks him in the face to keep him away from the meal. "That's not for you! That's for Rose!"

Luffy steps back and rubs his aching head before he looks out the window to see no sign of her out there. "Hasn't she been gone for a while?"

Robin shrugs as she looks over Roland's log for more clues on Sky Island. "Wind-chan can find the ship while she's flying, so we shouldn't worry."

Chopper follows his captain's gaze out into the evening sky. "She mentioned finding a pet bird. Maybe she's searching for one right now."

The orangutan man knits his eyebrows at the feeling that he's forgotten something as he looks at the bird statue. However, it only takes a few seconds before it clicks and he drops his jaw in shock. "DAMMIT!"

Masira looks at his brother in confusion. "What's up, Shoujou?"

"We forgot to tell them about the south bird!"

It's now the Straw Hats' turn to be confused as Cricket realizes what he's talking about, and frantically shows them the statue. "He's right! This is what a south bird looks like! You guys need to go to the woods and capture one!"

Zoro finishes his alcohol before he raises an eyebrow at the statue. "What's the big deal about this bird?"

Masira quickly scrambles through the closet to grab seven giant butterfly nets. "The bird's beak can only point south, and the knock up stream is directly south from here! You guys need that bird to guide you on the Grand Line or you won't make it there in time!"

The crew widens their eyes at the announcement when Masira throws the nets at them. They clumsily catch the nets before they start running out of the house.

Luffy stays behind when he reaches the door and turns to Cricket. "If Rose comes here, tell her we'll be right back."

Cricket nods as he watches his guests run off into the woods. Once they're gone, he turns to Masira and Shoujou along with his men with a smirk. "Well, what are you all waiting for? Let's get to work on preparing their ship for Sky Island!"

His men cheer in agreement as they run off to prepare the Going Merry for her upcoming journey, without knowledge that the Bellamy pirates are on their way to their coast.

At the moment, the crew has gotten deep enough into the woods to split into three groups in hope of finding the south bird.

Luffy and Chopper are in their own team, as they search the dark woods for the south bird.

The rubber man continues searching until he sees something shaking in a bush. He blinks in confusion as he looks in the shrub and widens his eyes at what he finds. He picks it up with stars in his eyes before he turns to Chopper. "I found it!"

Chopper turns in excitement at the thought of him catching the bird, but his excitement changes to confusion as he looks to see him holding a bug in his hand.

Luffy doesn't notice his confusion as he shows him the struggling beetle in his hand. "Look, it's an Atalasu!"

The reindeer can only blink at his captain's enthusiasm as he stares at the insect. "Atalasu?"

"Yea, these beetles are awesome!"

Chopper tilts his head in confusion before he asks him a question. "Which would you choose then? The beetle or the One Piece?"

Luffy freezes at the choice before he starts thinking hard on the answer. "Ugh, it's hard to decide…"

"GUYS, COME BACK! I ALREADY GOT US THE FREAKING BIRD!" The boys freeze when they hear Rose's voice in the distance, but they don't see her anywhere.

"ROSE, WHERE ARE YOU?!" Luffy calls out, and fails to notice that his shouting is attracting enemies.

The duo looks around in confusion when they hear the sound of buzzing to their left and see a group of huge pray mantises coming after them.

The pair quickly dodges one of the larger bugs' attacks and looks back to see that he's about to swipe again. However, before he could strike, a freckled girl falls from the sky and stomps on the bug's back.

The pirates and insects stop everything they're doing when Rose gets off the unconscious mantis.

Rose takes a look at the bug and tilts her head when she sees that it's the mantis that she fought with this afternoon. "So that's where you were. Sorry for the rough landing."

She sees Luffy and Chopper staring at her with wide eyes, and waves at them with one hand while her other hand is carrying the sack, that's holding the bird, over her shoulder. "Hey guys."

The boys were about to say something when they heard a deep bird call above them. The pirates look up in shock to see that another south bird is perched up in the tree and is calling out for the bugs to attack.

The mantises and the spiders, that were residing in the trees, respond to the call and charge at the pirates.

The trio wastes no time in running away from the swarms, as they jump around to avoid the charging mantises and flying blobs of webs that the spiders are shooting at them.

"What the hell's up with this forest?!" Luffy asks as he jumps to the side to avoid another mantis from attacking him.

"Your guess is as good as mine!" Rose says as she blows wind out of her hand to send them flying back, but they keep coming back.

Chopper goes into walking point to run along with the others when he hears the bird's angry calls. "Huh?"

He listens to the calls to understand what he's saying and drops his jaw when he hears the same kind of sounds from Rose's bag. "You found a south bird Rose?!"

She nods with a grin as she tilts her head towards the sack. "I found this guy when I was training, but when I found the ship the guy with the walnut hat said you were out here searching for him. What are they saying?"

"The one in your blanket's saying that 'this crazy witch kidnapped me and wants to eat me'. The one in the tree got pissed and told us that 'if we don't release his friend then we'll be killed!'"

"No way!" Luffy says as he turns around, stretches his arm back and throws a punch at the bird, but the bird stays in his spot to make another call, so that a flying cricket takes the blow.

Chopper widens his eyes at the block as they keep running. "HE CAN COMMAND THE BUGS?!"

"We'd better get out of here!" Rose says as she creates a gust of wind around their feet and lifts the three of them to the sky.

The free south bird and bugs look at the flying pirates in shock before the crickets and mantises go after them.

Luffy turns around to see the pursuing insects and pulls his arms back. "GUM GUM GATLING!" He punches out every bug that's after them with enough force to knock them out.

Chopper grins in relief, when he sees the unconscious insects falling into the woods, before he looks down at the treetops. "That was close."

"I'll say." Rose says as she lowers them into a different part of the woods, but still keeps them floating a few feet in the air. "You guys know where the others are?"

Luffy shakes his head at the question. "No, we've split up to look for the bird." He looks at the makeshift sack Rose is carrying over her shoulder with curiosity. "Did you really catch one?"

Rose nods when the bird starts thrashing around in the blanket again, so she holds onto the edges tightly to keep him from escaping. "Y-yea, and it wasn't easy either. I had to chase this guy across the sky before I finally got him. Let's go find the others."

The boys silently agree as Rose flies them throughout the forest to resume in their search for their friends.

Nami and Usopp are completely shaken from witnessing at least five bugs that are the same size as them. Every time they spot a giant fly, a swarm of mosquitoes or even a large moth, they scream in fright as they run away with the chef.

Sanji wastes no time in protecting the group whenever a bug approaches, but they haven't seen a single sign of their target all night. "Dammit, where the hell is this stupid bird?!"

"How should I know?!" Usopp says when they reach the bottom of a hill. Once he looks up at the hill, he widens his eyes in horror when he sees no birds, but large pill bugs curled into balls, and rolling towards them.

He and Nami scream in fright of the roly polies their way. Sanji however, wastes no time to pick Nami up bridal style and jump onto the branches to get out of the way.

"WHAT ABOUT ME?!" Usopp yells as he runs up to a tree as fast as he can and climbs up to narrowly avoid the rolling bugs' attack.

"You made it didn't you? What's the big deal?" Sanji asks as he jumps off the tree with the navigator still in his arms. He gently sets the beautiful girl down as he gives her a gentlemanly smile. "Are you alright Nami?"

Nami nods in assurance as she brushes herself off and looks around. "I'm fine, but we haven't found the bird."

They hear a deep bird call and look up to see that a south bird is perched right above them.

Sanji twitches an eyebrow at the bird as he grips the butterfly net in his hands. "There you are, you-"

He stops himself when he hears Nami screaming and looks to see that a huge light brown slug is crawling towards them.

"Throw some salt on it!" Nami says as she rushes in her bag to see if she has any, but she doesn't have a single grain.

Usopp grabs a ball, that's entirely made of salt, from his bag before he loads it into his slingshot. "Sanji, cover me!"

"Alright!" Sanji says as Usopp fires his salt star with Sanji following in to kick the slug into next week.

As the boys are fighting the overgrown slug, Nami runs over to the bird's tree and swings her net towards him. However, before she can catch him, he flew off the tree to the one that was behind her.

The navigator twitches an eyebrow at the bird's taunting as she runs towards the new tree. "Come here, you stupid bird!"

The south bird doesn't show any fear for Nami's fury as he flies up to avoid her net. However, as soon as he goes above the trees, he's met with a strong gust of wind that slams him to the ground.

Sanji, Usopp and the slug stop fighting and join Nami's look of shock when they see Rose, Luffy and Chopper landing in front of them.

The navigator snaps out of it when she gets back to her task, but when she goes to where the bird hit the ground, she sees that he already flew into the trees to escape.

She groans in frustration of losing the bird as she turns to the newly arrived trio. "Why didn't you put him in a hold with your wind Rose?! And where have you been?!"

The wind girl casually shrugs as she turns around to show her the bag on her shoulder. "First, I was training around here and looking for a pet bird. Second, I didn't see a point in catching him since I have a south bird in here."

Sanji, Usopp and Nami freeze at the explanation before Nami walks up to her with a large smile. "In that case, great job!"

Usopp smiles in relief of not having to deal with this scary forest anymore. "Then let's go find Zoro and Robin and-"

He stops himself when an unconscious beetle, that's as tall as he is, soars right past him, crashes head first onto a tree trunk, and slumps onto the ground.

Everyone looks to where he flew from and sees that Zoro's the culprit as he approaches them with Robin following behind.

"You almost hit me with that!" Usopp angrily says but Zoro only shrugs in response with a muttered apology.

Robin looks around and stops when she sees the green sack that Rose is carrying. "Is a south bird in there?"

Luffy nods with a large grin. "Yea, Rose caught him before she made it to the ship."

The archaeologist raises an eyebrow at the explanation before she turns to Rose. "How did you know that we needed a south bird?"

The others blink at the question, and realize that none of them mentioned needing a south bird before she left, so they turn their eyes to the brunette who stiffens at the question.

Rose looks around at the eyes that are on her, before she covers her anxiety with a chuckle and a shrug. "Who said I did? I already told the boys I was looking for a pet bird. Guess I was lucky enough to find the one you're looking for."

The crew only sweat drops at the explanation full of half-truths as they watch her turn away from them.

She doesn't give them another word on the subject as she walks off to the direction of the ship. "We should get out of here before another bug tries to free this guy."

The others watch her walk away for a moment before they drop the subject and catch up to her to get out of the forest.

Once they managed to escape the bug filled forest and back to the coastline, the crew was met with the horrific sight of Cricket and his men lying all over the place with cuts and bruises all over their bodies.

"Diamond head!" Luffy says as he and Zoro rush over to him to see that he's unconscious.

Nami and Robin go off to Cricket's house to assess the damage while the others rush to the injured men.

Rose starts going towards Luffy's group, but she stops and pales when she sees that the front half of the Merry was split off the ship and the mast has been bent down near the base. "Oh my god…"

"MERRY!" Usopp yells out as he's ready to cry from the sight of the ship's damage.

"Sorry… We tried to protect it, but we couldn't. There's still time to repair it." Cricket says as he starts regaining consciousness while Luffy sits him up with his back to a tree.

"Tell me who did this!" Luffy says, but the middle-aged man shakes his head at the concern as wipes the blood off his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Don't worry about it. All that matter is that we get you guys ready for the knock up stream."

"Luffy!" The captain turns to Nami's voice to see her running out of the house. "The gold was taken!"

The Straw Hats look at her in shock, but Cricket only shrugs it off as he slowly stands up.

He dusts himself off, as if it's no big thing, before he tries to reassure the kids. "It doesn't matter guys."

"Doesn't matter?!" Usopp asks as he approaches him. "You and your crew spent years to find that gold! You can't just disregard that!"

"Shut up and listen to me!" Cricket says as he looks towards the broken Merry. "Both Masira and Shoujou's crews are more than capable of fixing the ship and having it ready by dawn. No matter what, I need to send you guys to the sky. Therefore, you should-"

"Luffy." Zoro cuts Cricket off and points to a painting of a smiling face with a slash smearing over the face.

Nami widens her eyes at the symbol when she remembers seeing it in Mock Town. "That's Bellamy's symbol!"

Luffy clenches his fists at the symbol as he turns to Robin. "If I run along the beach then I can make it to the town we were in, right?"

Robin nods at the question. "Yes, you should."

Zoro knows exactly what his captain is planning, so he walks up to him. "Want any help?"

Luffy shakes his head as he starts heading to the direction of the town. "I'm fine, I'll be right back."

Cricket widens his eyes at the comment when he sees him walking away. "Hey, mind your own business! I already said-!"

Zoro stops him by showing him his sword. "If you want to stop him, you're gonna need this."

Cricket freezes at the offer, since he knows that he can't use it against him, as Rose goes towards Luffy. "I can get you to the town faster if you want."

He shakes his head at the offer as he cracks his knuckles. "I'm fine, I can make it back before dawn."

The wind girl nods, in understanding of him wanting to take care of it on his own, and stays behind with the rest of the crew while Luffy goes off to kick Bellamy's ass.

"I can't believe he stormed off like that…" Masira says as he gets up.

Cricket snaps out of his daze and turns to his men who are able to get up. "What are you all sitting around for?! Let's get the ship ready!"

The ones who were able to stand, including Masira and Shoujou, cheer in agreement as they get to work.

Chopper gets to work on treating the injuries for those who couldn't work while the Straw Hats help out in any way they can.

When Rose sees Masira speaking to his scuba diving team, she goes over to the gorilla man. "Hey Masira, can I ask you for a favor?"

Masira looks at her in confusion before he nods. "Go right ahead."

"Is it possible to reinforce the keel of the ship with as much support as possible?" Rose asks as she points to the back of the ship where the backbone of the boat starts.

The salvage captain looks at the ship, that's having the front of the boat being pushed back to the rest of the body, in thought before he nods in agreement. "I think I know what you're talking about. I'll get my scuba diving team to do what they can."

Rose smiles at the assurance before she bows her head. "Thank for very much monkey man."

Masira broadly grins at the compliment as he watches her fly over to the ship.

She goes onto the deck and floats to Sanji with the sack. "Do you know where we can secure this guy?"

"I can take care of him for you Rose-chan." Sanji says as he takes the bird and brings him to the upper deck to chain his ankle to the railing.

Rose looks at the front of the ship to see the men still working to push it back in place, so she flies over to the front of the figurehead. She grabs onto the neck of the figurehead, and blasts as much wind as she could out of her feet behind her to help the push the front of the ship back to where it belongs.

As Rose strains herself, she sadly looks up at the figurehead, for she feels responsible for the ship's condition, because she forgot about the extent of the damage Merry would receive from Bellamy's crew. While she knows that this would happen even if she wasn't in this world, the guilt for not stopping this when she had the chance builds up inside her as she whispers to Merry. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have left…"

The wind girl is only answered with silence as she and the dozens of men below her bring the front of the boat close enough to the rest of the body for it to be patched up.

Masira and Shoujou's crews work nonstop to patch the ship up with brass plating to keep the ship stable. Once they've repaired the ship, they returned to their duty for preparing the ship for the sky by attaching wings, a chicken's tail, a rooster cowl, and even a broken eggshell around the Merry's neck.

Once they were finished they and the rest of the Straw Hats go back to the coastline to get a good look at the fully equipped ship.

Shoujou widely grins in satisfaction of the new design of the ship. "This will help your ship soar through the air with no problem, once the knock up stream hits!"

Chopper and Usopp look at the bird like boat with stars in their eyes. "This looks so cool!"

Robin sweat drops at the rooster decorations that she stares at from the coastline. "Why model it after a bird that can't fly?"

Rose shrugs as she looks at the south bird she caught, that has his foot chained to the upper rail. "Your guess is as good as mine, but it does look pretty cool."

She takes off her backpack, reaches into it to grab her camera, and takes a few photos of Merry's new look.

The archaeologist raises an eyebrow at the picture taking as she watches Rose place the camera back in her bag, without making the eternal pose visible. "You seem to really enjoy taking photos."

The astronomer hums at the comment as she slings the bag onto her shoulder. "I find that it's better to capture the moment. It helps to remember the adventure."

She freezes when she realizes that she's forgotten something and goes into her jacket pocket. "Speaking of forgetting, I have something for you."

Robin tilts her head at the statement when Rose takes the folded piece of paper, that was used to make the fake note for her, out of her pocket and hands it to her.

The archaeologist blinks at the returned paper as she watches the wind girl walk off to sit cross legged on a tree stump and look up at the fading night sky. She unfolds the paper to see that her note is still placed on it, but there's also another message written at the bottom of the page.

I don't mind harmless pranks, but if you have a problem with me then I'd rather we talk about it face to face.

Rose

Robin widens her blue eyes at the message before she looks to see that the wind girl is relaxing on the stump, as if she didn't just leave her an invitation to talk. She remains silent as she stuffs her paper in her pocket and goes over to Nami to wait for the captain with her.

Rose looks back to see Robin casually chatting with Nami, and starts to relax when she knows that she's not going to talk to her yet. She doesn't want to continue to deal with Robin's questions like in the forest, so she hopes that talking it out in with the archaeologist could ward off her curiosity.

In the meantime, she's going to have to try being more discreet when she's using her knowledge.

The brunette quietly sighs at the plan, as she looks up to see that the sun is starting to rise. When she sees that it's already dawn, she looks over to Sanji in confusion. "Hey Sanji, Luffy had to be back by sunrise, right?"

Sanji nods as he looks to the coastline to see his captain still didn't show up. "Yup, he's late…"

Nami groans in frustration of Luffy's lateness. "Where the hell is he?! We starting to get behind schedule!"

"Do you think he was beaten in town?" Chopper asks.

That question only infuriates Nami more as she remembers how he wouldn't fight back against Bellamy in Mock Town. "If he lost then I won't forgive him!"

Zoro sweat drops at Nami's irritation when a loud voice starts ringing in the air.

"HEY GUYS!" Everyone looks to see the rubber man coming into view as he runs along the beach with a large sack full of gold hanging over his shoulder.

Cricket grins in relief that he made it before it was too late. "About time you made it."

Luffy ignores the comment as he approaches them, and drops his jaw at the ship's new bird like appearance. "Is that the Merry?!"

Usopp nods with a proud smirk as he raises his hand to the ship. "You got that right! Feast your eyes on the Merry's flying mode! With these adjustments she's going to be able to soar in the sky just like a bird!"

"That's awesome!" Luffy says in excitement as he starts having stars in his eyes.

Nami walks over to the ship and calls to the crew. "If we're going to do this then we have to go now! Hurry up!"

The others quickly follow suit and get on board to prepare the ship for departure.

Luffy however, didn't get on yet, but goes over to Cricket to drop the bag of gold in front of his feet. "Thanks for fixing the ship!"

The older man only sighs, as he smokes his cigarette, and points his thumb to Masira and Shojou's ships that are now being boarded by both crews. "If you want to thank someone then thank those guys."

Luffy nods as he waves to the monkey ships. "Right, thanks guys!"

"We don't have time for thanks! Get on your ship!" Masira calls out from his ship.

Shoujou makes it onto his boat that looks similar to an orangutan before he calls out to Luffy. "We'll escort your crew to the knock up stream so hurry up!"

"Right!" Luffy runs off to the Merry and leaves Cricket with the returned treasure.

Cricket looks over the gold, that he spent years collecting with his ape crews in order to prove that Sky Island truly does exist, before he drops his cigarette and steps on it. He turns to the boats that are starting to leave the island before he yells out to them. "APE CREWS!"

Both monkey crews look over to their leader as he shouts his orders to them. "DON'T MESS THIS UP! MAKE SURE THAT THEY GET THERE!"

Both crews chant in agreement as Luffy makes it aboard the ship and begins to follow the monkey crews.

Cricket gives one last call out for the Straw Hats as they start sailing. "THANKS FOR THE GOLD! DON'T GO CRASHING INTO ANYTHING!"

Luffy chuckles at the gratitude as he calls out to him. "SURE! SEE YA!"

The others were eager to wave him off as they sail away from the island with the monkey ships as their escorts.

Once the ship's far away, Rose doesn't waste any time to go into the kitchen. After a moment, she comes out with a box of rice crackers in her hand and goes to the upper deck where the south bird is perched on the upper railing.

She walks up next to the toucan like bird and dangles a cracker right in front of his beak. "Here you go."

The south bird twitches an eye at being treated like a pet before a sinister idea comes to mind. He smirks at the cracker before he opens his beak as wide as possible.

Before the wind girl can react, he chomps down on both the rice cracker along with her gloved hand. The joke is on him though, because the only thing he could taste in his mouth was the snack.

"Oh my god, look what you did?!"

He hums in confusion at the terror in the girl's voice as he finishes the cracker before she holds her arm in front of him without a hand in sight.

His eyes bug out in horror of the girl's missing hand, as he screams in fright, and almost jumps off the railing, but the chain wouldn't let him.

Rose couldn't contain her laughter as she turns her airy hand back to normal. The bird looks at the hand in utter shock as she cheekily grins at him while she wiggles her fingers in front of him. "I hope you learned a lesson in trying to bite me."

The bird slowly nods as he catches his breath from the fright. She offers another cracker as a peace offering which he quickly takes while he's careful of her long fingers.

Chopper, Usopp, and Luffy run over to the railing, after they heard the bird's screams, to see him eating while Rose is relaxing by the railing.

"What happened with the bird?!" Chopper asks as they approach them.

Rose chuckles at the prank she made on the bird, before she gives the doctor a reassuring smile. "No worries, we just had a falling out. It's alright now. You guys want some crackers?"

Luffy happily smiles at the offer as he takes a cracker from the box. "Thanks!"

She nods to his gratitude as she offers Usopp and Chopper a piece.

Meanwhile, Luffy goes over to the bird and turns his head to the right. However, once he releases the head, it immediately turns back to its original position.

Luffy chuckles at how the beak immediately pointed south. "He really does stay south."

Usopp looks at the multi-colored bird curiously as he finishes his snack. "I can't believe birds like this exist."

The south bird starts speaking in irritation while Chopper listens carefully.

"What's he saying?" Rose asks when the bird finishes ranting.

"He says 'I'm going to turn away from south to get you guys lost!'"

"Go ahead and try!" Luffy says as he's interested to see if he can do it.

The bird takes on the challenge as he turns his head in the opposite direction of where he was before.

"He pointed north!" Chopper says with interest as they all curiously stare to see how long he can last.

The bird works hard to keep his head from pointing south as long as possible, but after a minute his head snaps back to south.

The boys laugh in amusement of the attempt while the bird gets pissed at all their laughing.

Rose quietly sighs as she offers him the last cracker as an apology, which he takes, before she heads to the front deck.

"Wind-chan."

The wind girl freezes at the nickname, and looks to the right see Robin casually grinning at her as she holds the piece of paper holding the note up to show that she wants to talk. Rose nods in agreement as she follows the archaeologist below deck, so that they can speak alone in the girls' room.

Once they've shut the door behind them, Rose quietly sighs as she scratches the back of her head. "Sorry if the note sounded rude. You just don't seem like the type to play tricks on people, so I was wondering if something was wrong."

Robin keeps a calm grin on her face as she takes a seat on the bed. "Not at all, I was just curious to see how you'd act."

Rose raises an eyebrow at the explanation. "How I'd act?"

Robin nods as she explains further. "When I join a new crew, I prefer to get to know my crew mates. From what I've seen so far, I've come to believe that out of everyone in the crew, you and I are the most alike."

The astronomer stiffens up at the comment, but she hides her tension in an indifferent poker face. "You think so?"

The archaeologist keeps an amused look on her face as she rests her head on the palm of her hand. "I do. While you do enjoy fighting out in the open, I see you're the type that would handle problems from behind the scenes. Just as how I normally work, at least that's what I've come to believe."

Rose slightly widens her eyes at the analysis, for she knows that she's entirely right about her, but keeps appearing indifferent to it as she keeps listening. "When I played that trick, I just wanted to see how you'd act if you thought you were alone on the ship. Nothing more and nothing less."

She giggles at the memory of expecting her to steal the ship, but instead gives Merry her own private show. "I didn't expect you to perform for the ship though. You were pretty entertaining."

Rose grins at the compliment and hides her relief in that it doesn't look like her secret was figured out yet. "Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed the show. I'm not sure if I'm like you in the whole handling things behind the scenes part, but you're right about me enjoying a good fight."

Robin chuckles at her intent to keep a few sides of her personality covered, just as how she always does with others. "If you say so. By the way, I appreciate that you didn't tell the others about this, and I'm sorry if I worried you."

Rose shakes her head before she gives her a reassuring smile. "Not at all, I'm just happy this wasn't anything serious."

She looks out the window to see that a storm is starting to approach them. "I think we're getting closer to the knock up stream."

Robin follows her gaze out the window and then starts heading out the door. "In that case, we should go join the others."

"Right." Rose follows her out of the room while she keeps on a small grin from knowing that Robin hasn't revealed her secret. However, because of her accurate findings on her personality, she knows for certain that she can't tell her a single piece of her research or else it'll be practically telling her the truth.

Once they reach the deck, they were met with the whole crew looking at the giant storm cloud that's approaching them.

"What kind of storm cloud is that?" Sanji asks Nami who's staring at the storm in horror.

"That's a millennium cumulonimbus…" Nami says when Masira calls out to them.

"GUYS, TURN THE SHIP TO TEN O'CLOCK! YOU'RE GONNA GO WITH THE FLOW OF THE WAVES!"

The crew works to move to the instructed direction just when the storm begins to hit.

Both Masira and Shoujou's ships were hit by a few waves, but they were able to handle to storm. However, because of the direction that the Straw Hats took, they were dragged through the waves until they find themselves following the current to a giant whirlpool.

"YOU NEED TO FOLLOW THE CURRENT TO THE CENTER OF THE WHIRLPOOL!" Shoujou yells out.

Almost all of the Straw Hats freeze at the command before yell out in shock."WHAT?!"

"WE CAN'T DO THAT!" Nami yells out, but she knows that it's far too late for them to turn back now as the whirlpool begins to swallow them.

Rose hangs onto the railing while carrying a large smile from the excitement. "This is awesome!"

"NO, IT'S NOT!" Usopp yells before he turns to Luffy. "Luffy, we gotta turn back! This whirlpool is too deadly!"

Luffy looks away from the whirlpool with a toothy grin on his face. "Sorry, did you say something?"

Usopp tears up at his oblivious captain along with Nami as they share the same thought. *We're gonna die here…*

Zoro turns to Usopp before he points ahead. "Hey, look what happened while you were complaining."

He looks at the swordsman in confusion before they look out to see that the ship managed to fly over the edge of the whirlpool towards the center.

Half of them scream in fright, but before the boat could fall, the whirlpool immediately fades off and leaves the ship floating on the calm ocean.

Rose blinks at the anticlimactic development before she lets go of the railing, and looks at the water. "What just happened?"

Sanji looks up confusion to see that the dark clouds are still high above them, but with no other signs of the dangerous storm that they dealt with. "Did that whirlpool just disappear?"

Nami rushes over to the railing and looks down at the sea in horror to see that the whirlpool truly did disappear, but something else is starting to stir below them.

"HOLD IT, YOU BRATS!" The crew freezes at the masculine voice from the distance and turns to see a large raft, that consists of four gigantic trees tied together, sailing towards them.

What really caught their attention though, were the three black sails vertically aligned with the middle one holding three skulls with the same amount of bones crossing over them.

"Who the hell are these guys?" Sanji asks as he narrows his eyes at them.

Nami looks over the crew and immediately recognizes the burly man with thick black hair falling to his neck. "We met that guy in Mock Town yesterday."

Rose freezes at the sight of the fat, dark skinned man with his big mouth showing off his broken and missing teeth in his mouth, before fury begins to well up inside her. *Blackbeard…*

She tightens her fists as tightly as possible, as she glares at the enemy crew, while hot air begins to flow out of her. With the Straw Hats around she knows that she can't openly do anything to the traitor without raising questions, even though she really wants to. However, a good indirect attack can't hurt her.

She looks up at the crow's nest and sees a good opportunity to make her move up there. She grabs a bucket of paint and starts flying up to the crow's nest while the others are distracted.

"WE'RE HERE FOR THE HUNDRED MILLION BOUNTY'S HEAD!" Blackbeard calls out, but the Straw Hats only look at the man in confusion.

"What do you mean 100 million bounty?" Luffy asks as he approaches the railing.

Blackbeard raises an eyebrow at the captain's question. "You guys don't know?" He goes into his pockets, and takes out two bounty posters with a picture of Zoro and Luffy respectively. "Straw Hat has a bounty of 100 million beli and Pirate Hunter Zoro has a 60 million bounty too!"

Usopp grabs his binoculars from his bag, and gets a better look at the posters he's holding to see that he's telling the truth. "He's right! You're a wanted pirate now Zoro!"

Luffy immediately brightens up at the announcement. "Are you serious?! That's awesome!"

Zoro smirks at his new bounty with pride. "60 million's not a bad start either."

"Will you guys be serious?!" Nami says but they don't listen to her as they enjoy the news of their bounties.

Sanji goes up to Usopp with a nervous smirk of being outdone by the swordsman. "I have a bounty too, right?"

"Nope." Usopp says as he keeps looking to see that only Zoro and Luffy have high bounties.

As Sanji keeps trying to get Usopp to mention a bounty for him, Chopper looks around to see that the wind girl is missing. He keeps looking until he spots the brunette in the crow's nest above them. *What's she-?*

His thoughts are interrupted when both crews start hearing a strange rumbling noise from below. The sound continues to grow louder as the water begins to rise under the Merry, but not on the other raft.

Robin calmly grabs onto the railing, as if it's something normal, while the others on the deck start freaking out.

Chopper and Usopp scream in fright as they grab onto the mast while the others rush to hold onto something sturdy just before the knock up stream shoots the ship straight up into the sky.

Blackbeard and his crew yell out in shock, as the waves from the crash hit their boat. What the dark dark fruit user didn't expect though, was a bucket of paint to fly straight towards him until the can hits his head, and splashes the blue goo that was inside, all over his head and shoulders.

Blackbeard yelps at the paint job as he catches the dented bucket to see that a poorly drawn face with its tongue sticking out is drawn on the container. "What the hell?"

As soon as the water begins to settle, the blue headed man looks up to see that he's lost sight of his target on the knock up stream, and only received the color coating on this trip.

Meanwhile, the Straw Hats are holding on for dear life as the ship starts sailing vertically on the surface of the knock up stream.

Rose laughs in excitement as she hangs onto the crow's nest. She looks down to see her captain giving off a bright smile as he sits on the figurehead and looks at the rising water that they're sailing on.

Luffy can't stop smiling from the experience of sailing on the side of the geyser. "This is awesome!"

"Why are we sailing up like this?!" Chopper asks as he keeps his hold on the mast.

"Maybe the wind?" Zoro asks, but Sanji's not convinced as he looks to the geyser.

"I think it's more than that. I think we're starting to fall off the stream."

Nami widens her eyes to this and looks up to see Rose sitting on the side of the crow's nest. "ROSE, OPEN UP THE SAILS!"

"Got it!" She flies over to the sails and releases them while the others look at the navigator, that gave the order, in confusion.

Nami sees everyone's concern, so she starts explaining what her plans are. "This isn't a normal stream. It's like it has its own ocean current flowing up. These currents are creating an updrift of wind that we're going to use to sail the skies."

"The sails are set!" Rose says as she flies towards the group just when the ship begins to peel off the knock up stream.

"Oh crap, we're falling!" Usopp cries out as he and Chopper scream, but they quickly quiet down when they and the others see that instead of falling the wind currents are making the ship fly up.

Robin quietly grins at the flight while the others marvel at the amazing experience of the Merry taking flight.

"Your plan is brilliant Nami!" Sanji says as they look around their surroundings.

Luffy looks at the huge cloud that the ship is sailing towards. "I can't wait to see what's up there!"

"You and me both." Rose says as they begin to enter the giant cloud at the top of the geyser.

The water in the cloud engulfs the crew, as the ship keeps rising up with the wings of the boat breaking in half from the impact. They had to hold their breath, because of the increased water pressure as they collapse on the deck, just when the Merry flies out of the cloud and lands on top of the sea of white.

The crew coughs out the water that they accidentally swallowed as they catch their breaths on the deck.

Rose stays on her knees with her hand on the railing as her body feels like it's made of iron instead of air. *Crap, this air pressure's nuts…*

"Everyone alright?" Zoro asks as he catches his breath, and the others nod in agreement that they're unharmed.

Luffy stands up and looks around at the cloudy landscape that's surrounding the ship. "Whoa guys! Check this out!"

Once everyone catches their breath, they look around to see that the Merry is literally floating on top of the clouds.

"We're on clouds?!" Chopper asks with stars in his eyes.

"How is this even possible?" Nami asks as she looks at her surroundings in disbelief, but stops when she looks at the log pose on her wrist to see that it hasn't changed. "Why is it still pointing up?"

Robin takes a look at the pose and casually grins at the navigator. "Looks like we need to go further up."

Rose looks down at the clouds and wonders if she could use her wind to take the clouds below them up, but she shakes her head to the idea when she remembers Eneru's observation haki. She stops her mind in its tracks when she realizes that observation haki is going to be used up on the island. *Wait, is my aura the same as everyone else's or will it stand out to haki users?!*

She rakes a hand through her, straight, brown bangs at the thought while Chopper uses a pair of binoculars to look around the ship's surroundings.

He looks at the right of the ship, and pauses when he sees another boat in the distance. "Hey guys, I think I see a boat."

When the reindeer begins to look through the binoculars in horror, Sanji's the one to speak up. "What's the matter Chopper?"

"T-the ship was just destroyed!"

"What do you mean destroyed?!" Usopp asks as he takes the binoculars but he can't find anything in Chopper's direction.

Rose immediately twists her head to the reindeer before she looks out in the direction to see a shirtless man in a grass skirt, with a mask behind his face and a bazooka in hand, practically running on the cloud to get to them. "Shit!"

The others look at her in confusion, and then they follow her gaze to see the man heading towards them.

"What the-?!" Luffy cuts himself off when the stranger jumps onto the railing.

Sanji narrows his eyes at the intruder as he, Luffy, and Zoro approach him. "What's your problem?"

"Eliminate." Is the only thing that the enemy says before he jumps into the air right above them.

"The man's got guts." Zoro says as he and the others of the monster trio go to attack, but they weren't quick enough as he jumps from railing to railing to kick them down.

"What the hell?!" Nami asks as she, Usopp and Chopper jump in fright when he lands on the railing right next to them, but before he can do anything Rose blasts a gust of wind at him to send him flying off the ship.

Rose glares at the man as she rushes to the railing, while she pants from the air pressure, and starts turning her arm into air.

The intruder widens his eyes at the logia user from behind the mask, but it doesn't stop him from aiming his bazooka at the ship. *Die monsters!*

"That's enough!" The invader turns to his right to see an old knight with a lance in his hand, and riding a pink bird with red polka dots all over its body. Before he could react, the knight attacks him with his lance and sends him falling into the cloud.

Rose holds back a chuckle at Nami, Usopp, and Chopper's shocked faces as they watch the old man who saved them gracefully land on the railing.

"Who's this guy now?!" Usopp asks as the knight turns around to face the crew.

"You wish to know who I am? Well I'm a sky knight."

Rose grins at the introduction while she bows her head. "Thanks for the help."

"Yea, thank you." Chopper says before he goes to make sure that Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji aren't injured.

"What the hell was with you guys?! You should've beaten him easily." Nami says as she narrows her eyes on the guys.

"Shut up, I don't know what happened. It's like my body won't move like I wanted." Zoro says as he catches his breath.

Robin raises an eyebrow at the complaint before she realizes that it's the same for all of them. "That's because the oxygen is scarce here. Our bodies aren't used to this kind of air pressure."

The knight widens his eyes at the analysis before he looks over the crew. "So, you're all from the Blue Sea then?"

"The blue sea?" Usopp asks in confusion.

"That's what we call those who live below the clouds. You all don't live on a sky island?"

Luffy nods to the question as he gets up. "Yea, we're from the blue sea."

"I see, you're all 7000 meters above the blue sea, normal citizens won't handle it."

"Actually, I'm getting used to it." Luffy says as he, Zoro and Sanji start feeling normal again.

"That's impossible." The sky knight says as he sweat drops at the recovery.

Rose chuckles at his surprise as she turns her arms into a light breeze again, and turns it back to normal without any problems. *Guess I'm feeling better too.*

The lanky, old, man shakes his head at the odd group before he strokes his long white beard. "In any case, I didn't help you out of charity. I do this as a business. Here."

He tosses Nami a golden whistle before he points to it. "This time will be free, but when you blow that whistle you will need to pay a 50 million aigusu fee for me to save you."

Robin raises an eyebrow at the currency. "What's aigusu?"

The elderly man widens his eyes at the question. "What?! Surely, you've been to a sky island before!"

"We came here through the knock up stream." Rose says which makes the knight gape at the crew in shock.

"You can't be serious!"

"Wait, you mean there's more than one way to get here?!" Nami asks, but his face is the only confirmation she needs to know that it's true, so she whacks Luffy on the head. "If you didn't rush us then we could've tried to find a safer way to get here!"

"My bad." Luffy says as he rubs his head.

The knight continues to gape at them as he asks Luffy a question. "Did you lose anyone on the way up here?"

The captain shakes his head at the question. "Nope, we're all here."

The elder blinks at the answer before he looks around the crew once more to, and sees that there's more to them than they appear. He points to the whistle that he gave Nami. "I'll only give you one free pass for going through something so crazy. When you need help, blow that whistle and I'll come to your aid. Any time after that, I will charge you the 50 million aigusu, which is this ocean's currency."

"Wait, we don't even know your name!" Nami says when she sees him about to get on his bird.

The man stops to turn to the crew. "My name's Gan Fall, as I said before I'm a sky knight. This is Pierre, he ate the horse horse fruit."

Usopp widens his eyes at the news before he, Chopper, Luffy and Rose eagerly grin at the bird, that's starting to transform. "You mean he's a-"

The boys stop their excitement to see that he transformed into a pink horse with red polka dots and large with wings on his back.

"That's right, he's a Pegasus. Best of luck friends!" Gan Fall says as he flies off to his home and leaves a pack of confused pirates behind.

"What a weird animal." Luffy says, with the boys agreeing.

Rose however, is still marveling at the flying animal that's disappearing from view. "That Pegasus is beautiful."

The boys sweat drop at her admiration for the strange creature while Robin looks around and sees a cloudy waterfall. "What's that?"

The crew follows her eyes to the waterfall before Luffy grins at the potential adventure. "Let's go check it out."

The others silently agree as they sail the clouds towards the waterfall. Once they make it, they widen their eyes to see a large gate up ahead.

Usopp looks at the gate that's titled 'Heaven's Gate' and begins to shiver. "T-this has to be a bad omen…"

Zoro chuckles at his fright as he relaxes by the railing. "Who knows? Maybe we're already dead."

Sanji hums in thought as he lights his cigarette. "This cloudy ocean could make sense then."

"WHAT?!" Chopper asks in fear before Rose chuckles.

"Relax doc, they're just teasing." She looks around and freezes when she sees an old lady, with twin buns in her white hair, and wings on her back.

The crew stops at the gatekeeper when the elderly woman takes pictures of the crew, with a camera that quickly prints the pictures, before she speaks up. "If you kids want to pass this gate then you need to pay 1 billion aigusu for each person."

Most of the pirates look at her in shock, but Rose stays calm as she walks up to the railing. "How much is aigusu in blue sea beli?"

The crew can only stare at Rose for the smart question before the elder answers her. "10 thousand aigusu is 1 beli."

Nami blinks at the answer before she calculates the numbers. "So, a billion aigusu is a hundred thousand beli then…"

She looks around the crew to see that she would need 800 thousand beli in order to pass, which she doesn't have that much to give. She nervously smiles at the gatekeeper in hopes of lowering the price. "Umm, we don't have that kind of money…"

"Then you can still go up." The old lady says which makes them pretty surprised.

"Seriously?!" Usopp says but the gatekeeper just raises her hand to the waterfall with a grin.

"Go right ahead, whether or not you want to go up is your decision." She keeps a calm smile on her face before she puts the camera in the pocket of her dress. "I'm not the guard. I'm just here to tell you the fee and to know of your intentions."

Luffy blinks at the explanation before he grins at her. "Ok, we want to go up to sky island even though we don't have any money.

"That's fine, there's eight of you right?"

Luffy nods before he looks at the waterfall. "So how do we get up there?"

Before he could get an answer, a giant red shrimp, with purple dots on its back, surfaces right below the ship and grabs the boat.

"What the hell?" Zoro asks as the crew grabs onto the railing to keep their balance.

The native giggles at their surprise before she explains what the fish is. "This is the white sea's speedy shrimp. This will take you up the waterfall and to the island."

The crew widens their eyes at the explanation before they scream in shock and excitement as the shrimp takes them up the waterfall, that leads to a winding cloud road, and takes them upwards regardless.

The old woman only smirks at their departure before she grabs a seashell and pushes the top button to begin speaking to it. "This is Heaven's Gate watcher Yamashiun reporting. We have eight intruders who entered into god's country illegally. I leave their judgement into your capable hands oh mighty god."

She finishes the recording before she places the photos she made into an envelope, hands both the shell and photos to a smaller speedy white shrimp, that's just as big as she is, and watches her report go up to Sky Island's leaders to pass judgement on the new intruders.

TO BE CONTINUED