Chapter 165: Heaven's Gate & Old Lady

At my blatant lie, the knight riding the weird-looking pink pegasus nodded before warily flying over to the Straw hats, causing me to smirk as I glanced back at my crew, who were blankly staring at me.

"What? I didn't feel like dealing with him." Said Diddy defensively as he eyed his crew while they all either sighed, shook their heads, or rolled their eyes.

"Whatever, you three, lower the sails; Fryeja, since we're up in the clouds, that eternal pose should be working now; sail us to Angel Island." Added Diddy with a smirk as he eyed Trenza, Grand, and Scar, who saluted before glancing at Feyja, who was already walking back to the helm.

"What do you think I've been doing? We only stopped because someone wanted to fight." Remarked Freyja lightly as he turned and eyed Diddy, who scoffed and folded his arms.

"Don't try to blame this on me; he attacked first. I was peacefully minding my own business while thinking of drowning one of you guys, and now that you've brought it up, you're going to be my first victim." Stated Diddy, glaring at Freyja, who rolled her eyes and ignored him as she sat down at the helm.

With half of the crew being put to work, I glanced at Mael and Sebas, giving them their duties next.

"Sebas, go inspect the hull; make sure we've got no holes or damages, and if we do, try to repair it. Mael, I don't know, do something productive." Said Diddy as he pointed at Sebas, prompting him to nod and head downstairs before glancing at Mael, who just stood there doing nothing while Diddy followed Sebas to the lower deck.

Now that my crew was given orders, I headed to the kitchen to fix my teeth as they, unfortunately, don't instantly grow again like a Fishman's. It takes a little bit of time, but otherwise, it's still decently fast; I just need the required nutrients, which I believe is calcium, the same mineral in bones. How would I know this? Building muscle doesn't only require you to have knowledge about muscles after all; while that's where I specialize, I still have a basic grasp of the human anatomy.

'I would prefer a basic understanding of the Mink anatomy, but oh well.' Thought Diddy as he opened the cabinet, grabbing numerous bones stored in a box, only to open it and consume them, causing a loud crunching noise to resound throughout the ship.

Once I finished all the bones, I put the box back in the cabinet and looked at my reflection on the water in the sink.

'Heh, it's already growing; you can see the tips.' Mused Diddy as he opened his mouth, the tip of his fang already poking out from his gums along with a few other teeth.

Now that my teeth were fine, I grabbed my nose before realigning it and blowing out some previously stuck blood.

"Ahh, that feels better; I can actually breathe from my nose now. Now I just have to let this stupid bump and my cracked skull heal; given I'd just eaten a bunch of bones, the skull will be healed quiver than usual, and as for the bump, that'll probably take a little bit longer." Muttered Diddy as he looked at himself in the red-tinted water through his one working eye before draining the sink and walking away.

Exiting from the lower deck, I noticed the sails were already lowered, yet there wasn't much wind, a light gust at most, though that was fine for me, more time for my body to heal itself; that attack I took from that impact dial was no joke, I really shouldn't have underestimated myself.

"Heh, I wonder if it could've replicated a haki-infused attack? That really would've hurt. Speaking of this, I should go and retrieve that impact dial." Remarked Diddy quietly while walking past Trenza and Scar before stopping and glancing at where Wyper's body floated in the sea.

When I looked at Wyper, instead of seeing him floating atop the sea of clouds, he was nowhere to be found; I at first thought my theory of someone sinking through the clouds was true, but when I glanced at the knight, I noticed he was carrying Wyper's corpse, causing me to frown before eventually shrugging my arms and ignoring it.

"Eh, I'll get it later. I don't really feel like going all the way over there right now; besides, there are probably more of those impact dials or whatever." Muttered Diddy casually as he walked upstairs, passing Freyja, who was surprisingly not doing anything perverted, and hoped in his hammock, only to drift into a nap shortly after that, though it wasn't a long one.

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"Captain, it's time to wake up; we've arrived at something." Said Trenza as she approached Diddy, yanking the fur cloak off of him and shaking him, causing him to hiss like a snake, freaking her out.

"Tch, dammit, I was in the middle of a good dream, too, stupid Trenza." Said Diddy with a scowl as he glared at Trenza, who cautiously handed him his fur coat back before backing away.

Snatching the fur coat out of Trenza's hand, I wore it, stood up, and was about to ask what we'd arrived at, only to stop when I saw a massive, wonky star-shaped gate, though that wasn't even the most surprising thing, since directly behind that, was an even larger waterfall of clouds that could easily be mistaken for a massive tree if not for the whiteness of the clouds.

"Heavens Gate? Is this the entrance or what?" Questioned Diddy curiously as he walked forward, leaning against the rail beside Trenza, who shrugged her arms.

"Don't know, it just looked like it was something important." Replied Trenza lightly as he eyed the massive structure, watching as they entered underneath it.

Looking around, to the left of me, I spotted a very old, small-looking woman holding a camera and a sign with a currency I'd never seen before, and it looked like I wasn't the only one who noticed her.

"What's up with that woman?" Remarked Scar with a raised eyebrow as he glanced at the old woman, who stared blankly at them as they continued sailing through the stargate.

"Eh, I don't know, why don't we ask her? Old lady, what are you doing!?" Said Grand as he tilted his head only to cup his mouth and yell loudly, prompting the woman to glance at them.

"To enter, you must pay the toll, 1,000,000,000 Extols per person." Said the old lady quietly as she looked at Grand, who didn't hear a single word.

"What did she say? I couldn't hear her." Asked Scar with a slight frown as he glanced at Grand, who cluelessly shrugged his arms.

"She said we must pay a toll of 1,000,000,000 Extols to enter." Declared Freyja lightly as she glanced at the old lady before ignoring her entirely, while Diddy didn't even bother to register her existence except for the first initial look.

"Hoho, yes, but knowing Captain, we're not doing that; besides, we don't even have a single extol, let alone 7,000,000,000 of them." Remarked Sebas with a chuckle as he sat down at a make-shit table while sipping some tea.

"Eh, Father's not wrong; even if it were the opposite, Captain still wouldn't pay." Commented Trenza with a nod as she looked at Diddy, who had healed a substantial amount of the short nap.

"Yeah, I'll tell her that. We're not paying the fee, old lady!" Said Grand with a thumbs up before cupping his mouth once more and yelling, though surprisingly, she hardly reacted.

"Hmm, did she hear you?" Asked Scar with a raised eyebrow as he skeptically glanced at Grand, who was rubbing his head in confusion.

"She must've, I yelled with all of my might, and you know how loud I can get when I do; no way she didn't hear me." Remarked Grand as he looked at Scar in uncertainty.

"Stop fretting over such a boring woman; she heard you. Now pay attention; we're about to arrive at the cloud waterfall." Said Diddy as he dismissively waved his hand at Grand and Scar, who shrugged their shoulders before looking at the nearing waterfall.

"So, do we enter it or what?" Asked Freyja as she steered the ship while glancing at Diddy, who nodded without hesitation.

With Freyja steering the ship right toward the waterfall, our ship slowly started to enter, and despite the clouds behaving nearly identically to water, it wasn't water, so they didn't sink the ship or whatnot. However, the supposed waterfall was actually merely a thin curtain since, not even two seconds after entering it, we exited and emerged within the middle of it like it were a tornado.

"Well, I wasn't expecting that; also, what's up with those weird spiraling clouds? They look weird." Said Diddy lightly, raising his eyebrow as he and everyone else looked up, noticing something similar to a spiraling tube of clouds.

"I do not know, Captain." Remarked Sebas as he curiously looked at the spiraling clouds in the air while sipping tea.

Since the spiraling clouds weren't just floating in the air and were instead connected right to the middle of the waterfall, Freyja, without even needing to be given orders, sailed right to it, and when we arrived, we started sailing across the spiraling clouds, only for a pair of crab or lobster hands to emerge from nowhere and grab the sides of our ship.