Skypiea

It was a vast plain of white.

I wasn't sure where we exactly were, and there weren't any islands that I could spot with my bare naked eye. The winds were slowly picking up, and I could only slowly let the ship follow it as I tried to figure out where we were going to dock the ship. 

The ship had undergone quite a bit of damage as a result of the Knock-Up Stream. The structure hadn't gone through any penetrating damages, but it did have quite a bit of depreciating damage instead. There were some planks that had dissapeared with the ship as a result, however, it wasn't anything that would cause a major leak to happen within the ship.

Anyway, I started to spread my Observation haki as far as I could to find any nearby island that we could settle in. There weren't any so far, but that was always liable to change.

"Commander! What should we do?!" Ken cried as he looked for any islands that was nearby.

"Just shut up and take the steering wheel, I'll be heading out soon to find any islands nearby," I instructed coldly.

However, before I did that, I made sure to dry off Stussy and Pato first so that they could regain their strength. It was Stussy's first time going through sea weakening, so I wasn't surprised when I found her in that state. Pato was no better, he was currently passed out in Stussy's arms, and while he was still breathing; his breathes were ragged and shallow. 

I immediately gave him a brief session of CPR to have him expell any excess water that had happened to enter his lungs. He hurled immediately after a little bit, and he kept coughing severely soon after.

"You *cough* crazy bastard!" Pato wheezed while he kept coughing.

"Save your strength, I'm going to check for any spare islands," I replied to him as I put him back into Stussy's arms. Stussy was still weak, but she was in a far better condition compared to Pato.

I immediately spawned my wings after drying myself, and immediately took to the skies. I didn't transform to my animal form because I didn't want to scare any residents within the island should I find one by accident. 

I looked around to see anything, and in the far distance, I could barely see a proper outline of a possible island far in the distance. I immediately launched myself towards that direction to get a clearer view of it just to make sure. 

The closer I got, the more I was sure that this island might have been the legendary island of Skypiea. It had been a long time since I reincarnated, so I could barely remember most parts of the anime, but the structure of the island had given me a strong sense of familiarity with it. 

After staring at it for a few more minutes to make sure that this was real, I immediately made my way back to the ship, that was sailing to the opposite direction of where we were supposed to be heading.

I promptly landed next to the steering wheel and told Ken to turn around immediately. He didn't even ask any questions, he immediately followed my orders, and soon, we were able to see the vague outline of the legendary island. 

Stussy and Pato were now feeling way better compared to how they were when they had just arrived on the island. That was a good thing, because we were going to need them in shape in case the inhabitants were hostile towards us. I grabbed the dial that Tom had given me earlier and looked at it, Tom had said that we were going to need this if we were going to get the Devil's wood down to the blue. 

"I can't believe it, Skypiea was real?!" Pato exclaimed.

"Well, that's why we don't really question what Boris says, Pato," Stussy replied kindly patting him on the head.

Pato didn't stop her, mostly because he kept gawking at the island in front of him.

"Ken, you're coming with Stussy, Pato and I. Put someone in charge of the ship for a while, when we come back, I'll have the rest of them join us," I instructed, Ken immediately obeyed and appointed the two Navigators, Brok and Kain, to be in charge of the ship while we were gone.

Soon, we landed on the island, and we began walking towards the forest. I had covered the entire island with Observation haki, and I knew where most of the people were staying. However, there were a few presences that had immediately caught my attention as soon as I arrived on the island. 

"So what are we going to do now?" Pato asked curiously.

"We came here to find a tree called 'Devil's Wood' because we need it to build our new ship," Stussy replied calmly.

"Why get a new ship? The one we used to get here seemed good enough," Pato protested.

"Forgive me for asking this, but, who is this Racoon Dog?" Ken immediately interrupted and asked.

"You bastard! I'm not a Racoon Dog, I'm Pato!" Pato yelled.

"Commander, why do we have this thing within our ranks? He doesn't look like he can do much," Ken asked me curiously.

"Ken, I think you shouldn't judge a book by its cover as easily as that. It might be the death of you, you know?" Stussy replied kindly.

"I know, but I'm not seeing anything threatening from him. Are you keeping him as a pet?" Ken asked curiously.

"A PET?! I'LL SHOW YO-" Pato was about to explode, but Stussy immediately picked him up and covered his mouth. She looked at Ken before flashing one of her famous chilling smiles.

"Ken, Pato" Stussy said darkly, "be nice to each other."

A familiar shiver ran down my spine as I kept walking. My back was faced towards them so they couldn't see my face, but I a drop of sweat immediately ran down my back as I kept walking. After eating the Devil fruit, Stussy's methods of intimidation had gotten a bit more alarming. It's almost like she had somehow managed to master bloodlust as soon as she ate the fruit. Moreover, it hadn't even been long since she had it, showing her dangerously high progression with the fruit.

Anyway, the rest of the walk was enjoyed in silence as we all indulged in our own thoughts. I maintained my Observation haki to make sure that I was going towards the right direction. However, something interesting happened while we were walking.

"My Observation haki has been cut," Stussy and Ken simultaneously noted.

"Mine as well," I commented.

If it was who I had thought it was, then it shouldn't have been surprising for him to note our presence here. However, it didn't mean that I was about to let my guard down because of it. I slowly unstrapped Labrys from my back as we continued walking forward. My instincts were telling me someone or something was coming over here. I just didn't know what their intentions were.

"Be ready, something is coming,"

The group immediately took a stance as Stussy kept Pato behind her, I was in the front with my axe resting on my shoulder. It was only then that I began to hear ferocious rustling within the bushes. The rustling got larger and larger as it got closer, and that only made us more weary and weary as a result. 

It was then that something immediately burst through the branches of a large tree and descended upon me. That something took the figure with a man dawning an orange kimono, with long hairy legs. His smile was almost as wide as his face as he raised his twin katanas to attack me.

"It's been a while, Pipsqueck!!"

"Oden," I acknowledged while smiling quietly.