Chapter 50: The Survival Game Begins!

Chapter 56:

The Survival Game Begins!

The sunset shone brightly over the land of Skypia, coloring the clouds a brilliant red. God's Shrine held the perfect angle to observe the daily phenomena, but none upon its cloud were watching as the sun fell over the horizon. The remaining three priests, Satori, Gedetsu, and Shura, had been called to God's Shrine for the second time in as many days, an almost palpable curiosity hanging in the air around them. Eneru lounged on his throne before them, his left hand holding the end of a chain. The other end of the chain was connected to a collar around the throat of a young girl, a Skypian if the wings were of any indication, who was kneeling beside the throne. She had blonde hair and a pink dress, but her face was hidden from view because she was looking downward as if in shame. Her usual hairstyle had come undone due to the ambient static electricity in the air, so her bangs covered part of her face. A pair of metal bindings held her wrists together, small tears dripping down from her hidden eyes to roll off the cuffs.

Gedetsu was a man with black hair stylized into eleven rounded protrusions all sticking out from his head and pointed up. He wore a loose purple suit that contrasted well with his deeply tanned skin, and, currently, he was trying to cross his arms, but he couldn't seem to get it quite right. He also couldn't ask how since he was trying to talk while chewing on his bottom lip.

Shura ignored his fellow priest, almost as if he wished to not be associated with such a man. Shura was lightly tanned and dressed in the clothing of an airplane pilot, even though airplanes probably did not exist in that universe (save for a single, large man with buck teeth somewhere in the New World). Sitting atop his head was a brown helmet with wing decorations and goggles that matched his leather vest and pants. His black mustache was shaped into two sharp points shooting out parallel to his lips. His weapon, a spear as long as he was tall, sat in a holster on his back.

"My God," Satori bowed as well as his girth would allow. "Our God. Why have you called us here again?"

"Up until now," Eneru began, "you have each been assigned your own areas, however, tomorrow that rule will be no more." The priests moved to object, but Eneru held up a hand to stop them. "Starting tomorrow will be a game that I have been looking forward to for a long time. As you should know, the Ark Maxum is nearly complete. Once it is done, I will have no more use of Upper Yard or Skypia, so I am hosting a Survival Game."

"A survival game, my lord?" Satori questioned.

"Yes. By the next setting of the sun, I will begin my assent into the Home of God within the night sky, and the strongest will accompany me. The four who live through this game will have the honor of coming with me."

"You make it sound like there are many who will be part of this game," Shura observed.

"Indeed. I, myself, will be participating, but so will you three, the guard, the Blue Sea Dwellers, and the Shandorians. That is about 85 participants in total."

"You still have not told us who this girl is," Gedetsu gasped after a servant reminded him how to both cross his arms and speak. "Does she have some importance in this game?"

"A Skypian girl who was getting friendly with the Blue Sea Dwellers," Eneru waved off. "She will not be a contender in the game. I have decided that, rather than killing her, I'll take her as my first wife after my assent." The prisoner jerked at that, choking herself from the sudden pressure on her throat.

"I'll never marry you," the girl coughed. "The Blue Sea Dwellers are coming for you. And so is God. You won't win."

"Silly girl," Eneru chuckled, sending just enough electricity through the chains to shock the blonde. "I am God. Gan Fall is far too past his prime to have any prayer of defeating me. And the mortals from the Blue Sea? They'll join me if they survive."

"No," Conis cried in a voice that was at once full of both certainty and despair. "They won't." Eneru and his priests ignored her. Instead, they laughed at her foolish belief that anyone could stand against Eneru and his Godly power.

The sound of snoring filled the clearing, the smoldering remains of a giant bonfire sitting in the middle of a group of pirates and wolves. Trying to keep their captain's, and their own, minds off the prisoner Eneru had for the night, the Straw Hats had decided to throw a party. The noise, however, attracted a pack of cloud-wolves that had claimed the territory. With Chopper as the translator and a plethora of cloud-shark meat as incentive, the pirates made peace with the beasts who joined them in the festivities. The wolves had even brought their own booze, a type of fermented berry juice that ended up getting Chopper drunk to the point where he tried to dissect a tree. Now, several hours later, only one lifeform was stirring.

"Luffy," Usopp begged. "Please."

"Come back here, meat monster," Luffy grumbled, hugging a giant rock and proving that the festive air they'd put on for show had eventually become real. Nami was snuggled on top of the captain's food-filled form, using him as a bed, but Usopp dared not to wake her even by accident. She would charge him!

Seeing no hope of waking his captain for protection, Usopp tried Zoro, Sanji, Coby, and Gin without success. Grumbling in a mixture of fear and irritation, the sniper set out toward the lake to relieve himself (which was why he'd only tried to wake up the males). As he drew closer, stumbling over the giant roots of the trees that called this island in the sky home, the sound of a hammer started making itself known. The sniper was certain it was a hammer, he'd had to repair the Merry from both attacks and stupidity a lot after all. Becoming even more cautious than before, Usopp slunk forward as his mind switched from using the restroom to protecting the ship.

The lake was foggy when he arrived, the white haze hiding all but the vaguest of silhouettes. The rhythmic thump, thump, thump became louder and louder as the pirate drew close. Standing on the ground next to the Merry was a humanoid shape that turned to Usopp and grinned.

"Have you come to inspect my work?" it asked in a slightly higher-pitched voice tinted with amusement. The words were the last straw for the cowardly "warrior of the sea" who fled only 25 yards before tripping over a root and passing out. His last memory before hitting his head was the thing's bleating laughter.

"Baahahaha!"

"Wait, wait, wait," Gin muttered, holding up a hand to stop the stream of words coming from Usopp's mouth while his other tried to rub the last vestiges of sleep from his eyes. Thank Goda Chopper had learned an anti-handover serum from Kureha or else several of the guys would be too out of it to fight. "Let me get this straight. You went to use the restroom, saw someone, or something, hammering on the Merry, and rather than attack, you ran away and knocked yourself out?"

"Accidentally," Usopp gulped as he nodded. He'd been prepared to face animals when he left last night, not ghosts.

"I bet he just had too much booze," Zoro laughed. "He was telling the wolves about how he and Kaya had gone on a date through the wilderness of Little Garden last night. There's no way a story like that comes to someone who's sober."

"Guys, I'm serious," Usopp insisted.

"Hi, Serious," Amy teased. "I'm Amy."

"You all suck," the sniper pouted. "If you don't believe me, them go check the Merry!"

"Fine," Sanji waved off. "I still don't think you saw anything last night.

Sanji was wrong. When the crew arrived back at their ship, they found that all its flight features had been removed and that the holes from their journey through the cumuloregalis cloud and the sky islands had been patched. She looked far from new, but the ship was repaired.

"Who could have done this?" Nami questioned, running her hand over the metal used to fill in for the railing on the port side that Wapol had eaten so long ago.

"Does it matter?" Zoro grunted. "Even if we found out, are you going to go track them down just to thank them?"

"Well, no..." the navigator answered.

"Mr. Swordsman is correct," Robin interjected. "We have more pressing matters at the moment."

"Yeah!" Luffy agreed. "Like kicking that bastard God's ass!"

"No, no, no!" Usopp yelled, waving his hands wildly. "I, for one, do not want to fight God!"

"You did stay behind earlier, didn't you?" Amy nodded. "I guess we could split up. The three of you who don't want to be here can take the Merry and sail around the island to pick us up after we kill God."

"Without protection?!" Chopper wailed.

"Calm down," Sanji placated. "How about this? Robin, Amy, Grace, and I will stay behind to protect you."

"Pass," the three females denied, breaking Sanji's heart.

"I've decided," Luffy nodded sagely. "Each of you three will pick one of us to protect you, but I'm not a choice."

"I'm not either," Zoro commented before his name could be called. Nami, Usopp, and Chopper visibly deflated.

"I want Sanji!" Usopp yelled.

"Gin," Nami picked. The Man-Demon sighed; he'd wanted to challenge God.

"I'll take Grace," Chopper chose. He'd put more thought into his choice. That or his decision had been influenced by Amy's evil aura as she indicated for him to pick her younger sister or face her sadistic wrath. Even after their argument on Angel Beach, the blonde was still against the girl challenging the inhabitants of Upper Yard.

"Then it's settled," Luffy announced before the younger girl could argue. "Nami, Usopp, Chopper, Sanji, Gin, and Grace will take the Merry to pick us up... somewhere, and Me, Zoro, Robin, Amy, and Coby will track down God, kick his ass, and rescue Conis."

"Sounds like a plan," Zoro nodded. "I've got the map memorized, so follow me."

"Yeah, right!" Amy laughed. "You couldn't find your way out of a bucket and you expect us to follow you? I'd be more likely to follow Usopp into battle!"

"My sense of direction isn't that bad!" the swordsman shot back. "Tell her, Shrimp."

"..."

"Shrimp?"

"Sorry, Zoro-sensei, but she's right." The older man moved to argue, but before he could, the trees next to them caught fire.

"Finally, I've found you!" a man declared from atop a giant bird, flying out from the burning foliage. Eneru had announced the start of the Survival Game that morning, so Shura had spent that whole time looking for the Blue Sea Dwellers just to challenge them himself. He got his wish, but rather than fearing him like he had expected, most of the mortals seemed bored.

"Who's this clown?" Gin questioned, gesturing to the man on the bird and ignoring the shaking sniper cowering behind him.

"That's Bobby, isn't it?" Luffy asked with a tilt of his head. "Bobby the Clown?"

"No, Captain," Coby corrected. "You're thinking of Buggy."

"I am Shura!" the priest growled, annoyed by the pirates' lack of fear. "It is time for you intruders to receive the judgement of God! Prepare to die!"

"Kyahahaha!" Amy laughed. "Do you really thing you can take on all of us at the same time?"

"I am the strongest priest of God Eneru! I cannot be bested by mere humans." Shura's bird dove, putting itself on a collision course with the girl who had laughed at him. The humans readied their weapons, fully intending on using their numerical advantage.

Diving toward Amy, Shura pulled out his lance and twisted it forward. The blonde did not seem phased by his attack since she only went so far as to open her parasol. Jumping in front of their comrade, Gin batted the lance aside with inches to spare and Sanji jumped in to try to drop the priest with an ax kick. The priest and his bird spiraled away, narrowly avoiding the chef's leg, while the lance stabbed into the ground with a blast of fire before being yanked out as he flew by.

Amy had dropped her mass, intending on making either Sanji or Gin launch her into the air, but the blast from where the end of the lance exploded caught her off guard, sending her over the lake with several burns on her left side.

"You bastard!" Sanji yelled. "How dare you damage a beautiful woman's precious skin!" Shura chose not to answer the irate cook as he flew around for another pass.

"Gum-Gum Pistol!"

"32 Caliber Phoenix!"

"Firebird Star!"

"Cien Fleur: Seis Manos!"

"Stretchy punch," Shura mumbled to himself, bending back to avoid Luffy's attack. "Flying slash. That's interesting." His bird flipped, narrowly missing the attack Zoro sent their way. "Fire pellet." The bird literally ate Usopp's attack. "Sprouting arms. Six of them." The priest jump away from his pet, getting out of the range of two of them. The other four appeared on his body, grabbing at his arms and legs. It seemed that the Straw Hats had won.

Unfortunately for them, Shura's lance was entirely heated from the inside. He pulled his weapon back, brushing against Robin's sprouted arms. The heat from the lance burned her hand.

"Damn," the woman grunted, gripping her hand as her sprouted arms dissipated into flower petals and the burn transferred to the Devil Fruit user. The bird swooped in to scoop its master out of the air before turning toward Amy who was still floating above the lake.

"Big Sister!" Grace yelled as the priest soared toward her adoptive sibling. Amy panicked as the giant avian opened its beak, an orange glow coming from the back of its throat. She slammed the button Usopp had installed on her parasol back in Alabasta, praying that it was enough.

It was. The fire from the bird missed the Devil Fruit user who had, in her time of panic, managed to drop her mass to 0.5 kilograms. With the realization that she was out of the woods for the moment, Amy increased her mass to land within the group, leaving Shura as the only one in the air.

"You little brats don't deserve the honor of joining God on his journey," Shura growled. "I'll make sure you don't win it by chance!"

"We don't want to travel with God!" Luffy shouted back. "Now where is Conis?!"

"Who?"

"Yeah! Where's Conis, you bastard!" Chopper yelled.

"I know not of this Conis," Shura grunted. "Nor do I care."

"Then we don't need you!" Sanji shouted. He jumped into the air before coming to a sudden stop, hanging as if by magic. "What? I can't move!"

"Sanji!" Luffy yelled. "Gum-Gum..." He froze as well. "Crap!" The rest of the Straw Hats were in similar states, unable to move.

"You have fallen into my trap," Shura gloated, laughing at the pirates as they struggled to free themselves from his String Cloud. "Welcome to the Ordeal of String!"

End of Chapter 56

Who likes cliffhangers? Anyone? Come on, raise your hands! ...Nobody? I guess it's less fun on the receiving end. How will the Straw Hats get out of this predicament? Find out next wee- er, this Friday on Dragon Ba- er, Coby's Choice!

Read and Review!

-SwordOfTheGods