The City Of Gold On The Island In The Sky 2...

Chapter 25.5 - The City Of Gold On The Island In The Sky 2...

The memory appeared again, and the Straw Hats were there with Conis and Pagaya—but the White Berets had cleared the beach, with Luffy glaring at their retreating backs. "What's wrong with those guys?"

"A lot if you ask me," Zoro yawned, wondering when they would get to see more fighting. It was starting to get boring.

"Forget them!" memory Nami yelled, turning them back to the matter at hand. "That old lady ratted us out! She lied to us! She said it was ok for us to pass through! But when we did, they accused us of illegal entry?! That's flat out fraud!"

"But what could be done at this point?" Robin asked.

"We might as well have face their 'punishment' from the start and had gotten it over with," Zoro sighed.

"Easy for you to say, we were almost killed just trying to find you guys!" Usopp snapped.

"Exactly," memory Usopp said, "But then even if we were told we couldn't pass, we would've just forced our way through anyway. I mean, how was that little old lady gonna stop us?"

"She wasn't," Franky said, "I mean, she looked like she faced death in the face just getting out of bed in the morning."

Memory Nami told Usopp to shut up as Pagaya told them regretfully that since they were now second decree criminals, he and Conis couldn't help them anymore and moved back far away, as if afraid of catching something. But past Nami didn't seem upset at them before she turned her anger to Luffy, who still wanted to go to the Upper Yard. She began giving him a pounding, telling him that they didn't know who or what Eneru was, but his powers were deadly and that she wasn't going anywhere near there again.

"I don't see how you're able to hurt him here," Usopp whispered.

"Words speak louder than actions sometimes," she answered with a shrug.

It was here the past Straw Hats realized that they didn't know how to get back down. Usopp turned to Conis and her father, asking if there was any way back to the Blue Sea. Conis told them that there was, but that meant that they had to go to a place called Cloud End. It was far to the east of here and they had to cross the White Sea. Some of them were looking relieved at that, but naturally Luffy was whining that he didn't want to go yet.

"It seems a little discouraging that you had to leave so soon… after all you went through to get up here," Brook said, "But why do I get the feeling that leaving wasn't so simple?"

"You'd be right," Sanji said, "We actually stayed for about almost a week."

"Really? Even with 'god'," Franky made air quotations in the air around that last word, "now angry and wanting to smite you?"

"Please, Luffy kicked that wannabe god's ass," Zoro yawned. "I hope we get to see that… I was so sick of him by the time that we crushed him…"

"I hear ya," Sanji said, remember all too well how he had been burnt crispy the two times that he had been hit by his stupid lightening… and they say that lightening never strikes the same place twice.

"You're only other option is to stay here and get sentenced to death," memory Usopp hissed.

"What's the problem with that?" Zoro asked with a shrug.

"I see that you and Luffy really do have the same mindset," Nami muttered darkly. It was almost scary how alike these two were… if up to them, they'd be fighting monsters and risking their lives every single day.

Memory Nami lost whatever patience she had as she snapped at Luffy that she didn't want him causing Conis and her dad anymore trouble and that even if they left now there was no guarantee that they would make a clean escape.

As the crew starts packing up to leave with Nami, Chopper, Robin, and Zoro at the ship it was decided that Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp would get food and whatever supplies from Pagaya's home. They followed the group up to the house and merely watched as they packed—memory Sanji was mixing box lunches and Usopp was taking some spare tools and parts that Pagaya said that he no longer needed.

"Again, I've never met such kind people," Brook said happily. But he found all this odd… if they really didn't want to cause these two so much trouble, they really were pushing their luck by staying and taking supplies.

"They were really wonderful," Robin smiled as memory Usopp was walking to the window. Conis had walked in at that moment, and memory Sanji was the first to present her a beautiful box lunch made just for her. But as they were getting ready to leave, memory Usopp was yelling from the window, screaming that there was something wrong with the ship.

"Why? What is it?" Brook called as they also went to the window, memory Sanji and Luffy jumped to their feet, asking what was wrong as they stood together, staring out at the sea. Past Usopp just pointed and they could see that the ship was rocking violently back and forth.

"What's going on?" Franky asked, "Were you caught up in some kind of current?"

"Worse," Chopper gulped, remembering how terrifying that was. "We were kidnapped!"

"By what?!" Franky and Brook cried out as memory Sanji had taken a small telescope from Usopp's bag and looked through it, screaming that he could see Nami on deck. When his face suddenly turned blue, some of them had become anxious that something happened. But instead he whispered, "Wait… why in the world is she wearing a t-shirt?"

The current Nami smacked their Sanji just as memory Usopp had done the same thing, screaming out, "I'm pretty sure we've got more pressing concerns right now!"

"Guys look!" Luffy yelled, "The ship started moving!" He jumped up so that he was crouching on the sill, "But why?! They wouldn't just leave us here would they?"

"We were forced to leave against our will!" Chopper cried out as the ship, was not only moving backwards, but a large and dark shadow appeared beneath them.

"You're being hijacked by some kind of monster?!" Franky yelled.

"Whoa… I don't think I've ever seen a ship sailing backwards before!" Luffy yelled.

"But…" memory Usopp gasped, pointing dramatically, "But they haven't even set the sails yet!"

With everyone's attention focused on the ship, most of them didn't notice how Conis sighed miserably behind them. Zoro noticed this however just as Luffy glanced back at her for a moment before past Usopp gasped. It was then that a lobster—at least twice the size of the one that brought them up that Milky Road, had burst out through the sea and beneath the ship. With the Merry on its back, they were carried off at high speeds.

"WHAT'S THAT THING?!" Brook cried out.

"We never did figure that out," Chopper croaked as the ship was now heading out of their sights.

"Why don't you jump in the sea?! You need to abandon the ship!" Brook said anxiously.

"We couldn't do that!" Usopp yelled, furious that he could even suggest such a thing.

"Besides we were being followed by a whole school of Sky Fish," Robin answered, "Even if we were able to kill that thing or escape, it's just be replaced by another. There was nothing we could do."

Before the ship was out of their sights, they could hear Nami's familiar voice screaming out at the top of her lungs before they faded away. "LLLLUUUUFFFFFFFFFFFYYYYYYYY! HELP UP!" her voice echoed, "SANJI! USOPP!"

And then they were out of their sights.

There was stunned silence all around them. No one could think of anything to say before memory Sanji muttered about the t-shirt again.

"YOU'RE STILL THINKING ABOUT THAT?!" past Usopp screamed and current Nami slugged Sanji once again, but despite the blood falling from his face, his eyes were still in the form of little hearts. But then memory Usopp turned to Luffy and began a rant to try and rescue the others.

"I wonder…" Luffy said thoughtfully, "Where are they going?"

"Where are they going…?" Usopp repeated, trying to calm down, "Yes… right…"

"I got nothing…" Luffy said and it truly looked bad until Pagaya had a very odd choke in his throat and they looked to him as he jumped.

"He knows?" Brook asked in surprise.

"Unfortunately," Sanji sighed to them as Pagaya informed them that the others were being taking to the sacrificial altar.

"SACRIFICE?!" Franky screamed in horror.

"YOU MEAN YOU WERE ALL GONNA DIE?!" Brook cried out.

"Well, we're obviously still alive and kicking," Zoro reminded him. "That oversized sea food platter hauled us all the way out to the middle of a forest and dumped us on this altar… just left us there!"

"Say what?!" memory Sanji gasped in horror, "You don't mean that Nami and Robin and the rest…"

"The rest?" past Usopp smacked him before Sanji went on, shaking in rage, "Are gonna be sacrificed to that wanna-be god?! That bastard! He better not touch a hair on my pretty Nami's head!"

"Nice to know you care so much about the rest of us," Franky muttered darkly.

"Asshole," Zoro added.

"Now Moss Head, would it have been so bad if you died?" Sanji asked, "All you did was take a walk through a forest while I was doing some real work!"

"Oh, I'm going to lob off your head one of these days!" Zoro promised, his hands itching to go to his swords. However, Pagaya then went on, telling them the rest that in Heaven's Judgment, there were actually two types of criminal punishments. Being taken to the altar and waiting to die by a priest was the first, but the second was a challenge in which the rest of their crew were now hostages in Eneru's hands and they had to go try to rescue them before they died.

"That's a sick thing to do," Nami hissed, but also slightly grateful that she had been carried off like that. At least she didn't have to run into any of those priests.

"Hostages?!" memory Usopp gasped, getting what Pagaya was trying to say.

"I'm afraid I must tell you," Pagaya said grimly, "That the ones who are to receive the punishment… are the three of you standing before me."

"Wait, what are you trying to say?" Sanji asked, but it was clear from his tone that he did understand, though he didn't want to admit it.

"If we only had a map," Pagaya said and Usopp quickly turned to the old one that he had in his bag and showed it to them. Pagaya showed them where the altar was, and how to get there. They were to head to the Upper Yard where the priests were waiting for them. There were four of them in all, and they had to get through them to get their friends back.

"So what he's saying is that all you had to do was beat up some priests and that's it?" Franky asked, "That doesn't sound so bad."

"Yeah, but this was before we knew anything about Haki," Sanji informed him, "We had no idea to how they were able to predict our moves before we even made them. That was so annoying…"

But Luffy was smirking, "Finally… a little action."

"Of course he'd be happy," Nami sighed.

"We got to the altar at the end of the day didn't we?" Usopp reminded her, "And let me tell you that it was far from fun!"

The memory faded around them once again. After a few tense minutes, it was back and they saw the three of them all had large bags on their back with Conis was leading them through a crowded street… at least it was crowded before they arrived. The angels on either side, shied away from them as if they were all carrying something contagious, their faces held fear and anxiety.

"What's with these guys?" Zoro asked.

"Well, word traveled fast about us being criminals, so can you blame them?" Sanji asked, still sighing miserably at the thought of so many beautiful girls avoiding him like this. Meanwhile, Conis was telling them that this was called Lovely Street, and she started to go into some real details about it.

"She's like a tour guide here," Franky said with a little laugh.

Like his current self, the memory Sanji was especially depressed that the girls were shunning him and was softly groaning about it. As they followed them, some of them noticed out of the corners of their eyes, several of the White Berets always following them—as if making sure that they were heading to the right place.

Robin frowned at that, not liking what this must have meant. But the others didn't noticed it… Luffy was fascinated by everything he saw, stopping to look at everything until Sanji snapped at them, "Hey Luffy! When you're done fooling around there's still the matter of rescuing Nami and the others! If you don't get serious, and soon, they're gonna be sacrificed you know that?"

But Luffy didn't seemed concerned at all. "You worry too much," he said, "They're fine. Don't forget, Zoro's with them."

Zoro smirked proudly at that. Most people say that you gotta earn trust, that it's not something you give to anybody. As for him, he had always been careful about the few people who he gave his trust, and was always wary of people he met. At least until he met this goofball rubber kid… always grinning like an idiot, who busted into the marine base he was detained in, just to ask him to join his crew and took the bullets for them by using his own body as a shield. This guy's nuts…

"Yeah, like we can really count on that guy," memory Sanji said doubtfully.

"At least I'm more useful than you, Mr. Nosebleed," Zoro answered smugly, which led to another set of glares and growling before Nami yelled at them to snap out of it or else.

"I just hope the ship hasn't sustain any more damage," memory Usopp muttered worried, "I mean, she's had more than her fair share of abuse lately."

"You can say that again," Chopper said quietly, "But you mean you weren't worried about us at all, Usopp?"

"Hey, I know you can fight when it really counts, Great Doctor Chopper," he said with a smile and Chopper turned a bright red, spinning a little and telling him to shut up.

But Luffy suddenly ran right through them, his eyes set on something a little ways ahead. It appeared to have been some kind of statue made up of mud, encased behind glass.

"What is it? Art or something?" Franky asked, looking over it in a interested way.

But Conis answered for him, "This is vearth. You might say… it represents the eternal yearnings of the people of the sky."

"Eternal yearnings?" Brook repeated.

"Earth, or vearth as they call it up here, is something considered a treasure to the people up here," Robin answered. "Because though clouds can support life up here, you can't grow anything on them. Everything that we need to survive all comes from the ground."

"I see," Brook said in slow understanding as Luffy said that it sounded crazy that they worshiped this mud statue.

Conis laughed a little. "Well, I guess it would be difficult for someone from the Blue Sea to understand." She then looked up, realizing where they were "Oh, we're almost to the docks, right this way."

They followed her past all sorts of ships, of different sizes and colors. Of course Luffy wanted the biggest gondola that he could find, but instead she led them to a tiny ship with the figurehead of a crow and a bright umbrella above their heads.

"Presenting the crow," Conis said cheerfully.

"That thing looks like it barely floats!" Franky yelled, feeling really let down after seeing some of the other beautiful ships.

"I think it's kinda cute," Robin said with a smile.

"Oh, Robin dear, you always did have wonderful taste!" Sanji swooned.

"You're kidding me right?" Luffy asked her.

"Wait ah… crows don't even swim," memory Sanji said slowly.

"They should've made it a duck or something," Zoro added.

"What difference does that make?!" Nami snapped in annoyance.

"We seemed to be having a lot of irony concerning birds and ships," Usopp sighed.

They watched as Conis explained that she used this to get around until she learned to drive the waver. So she had no problems lending it to them now. She then led them a little further ahead, telling them to take gate number 2… that would lead them to the Upper Yard. That was when they noticed that she seemed to have a lot on her mind. Luffy seemed to have noticed it as well as he frowned in concern and asked, "Hey, Conis?"

"Yes?" she asked nervously.

"You've been trembling ever since we left," Luffy said, his tone now serious, "Is everything ok?"

"She is?" Chopper asked in surprise, looking up and realized that he was right. Her whole body was trembling slightly, and she was suddenly unable to look at them as her eyes widen at Luffy's words. "Is it that noticeable?" she asked.

"Yeah," Luffy said, surprisingly soft, "It's like you're scared or something."

"Probably about what might happen to her if this 'god' finds out that she helped you guys," Franky said, feeling real worry for the girl.

"Not quite," Usopp disagreed softly.

Memory Sanji at once started to say how sweet it was of her to worry about them. But then Usopp brought up another good question. "Speaking of being worried…" he said, "Are you and Pagaya gonna be alright? I mean, everyone in town is avoiding us like the plague, but you're leading us around, lending us your boat, giving us directions… is helping us gonna get you in trouble? Doesn't that make you like… our accomplishes?"

"Hey yeah, what is with that?" Zoro asked in surprise.

Luffy noticed how pale she had become. "Conis," he said gently, "Don't cry. You're gonna be fine, ok? You should've told us you were scared. Really, we could've just come here on our own."

"But with their sense of direction it could've taken them a week to find us," Nami said, but she said it without any scorn. What was wrong with Conis here?

"No," she said, unable to look at them. "It's… it's not…"

"Huh?" Brook asked, "If it's not that then…?"

Sweat was falling from her face and she was shaking worse than ever. "It's not what you think," she whispered. "Don't you get it? Even after I told you how terrifying Upper Yard is, I still lead you here. I even got you a boat and told you which route to take. Don't you find that odd? It's it obvious what's going on here?"

"She led you all here on purpose?" Robin asked in surprise.

"Now, don't be harsh on her," Sanji said grimly, "Poor girl had no choice in the matter. And anyone who can force her to do anything like this doesn't have a heart!"

They suddenly spotted McKinley yelling at Conis not to say anything foolish, before hid as their past selves looked around for the source of his voice. The others in town slowly began to back even farther away, as if there was a bomb about to go off.

"I don't get it! What's going on here?!" Chopper asked startled, and liking this less with every second. All of them but Sanji and Usopp were startled to see that Conis was looking close to having a nervous breakdown.

Suddenly she fell to her knees, "Just run away, please," she begged. She started crying as she apologized over and over again. The citizens were all freaking out at her tears, yelling at her, demanding to know what she was doing.

"Would someone just tell me what the hell is going on here?!" Zoro yelled. But Conis was already confessing everything. She revealed to them that she was the one who called the sky fish to take the Merry and the crew away.

"Conis? You mean…?" Chopper gasped as the others stared, unable to believe what they were hearing.

"You mean that thing that took Nami and the others away?!" memory Sanji yelled out, "You called it Conis?!"

Conis continued to cry, telling them that while they were inside talking to her dad, she went aboard and lied to the others about a current that leads to Cloud End. And she had them raised anchor, which was the signal for that lobster and took them away.

"So that's what happened," Nami whispered, tears in her own eyes as she understood. But the tears fell when Conis finally cried out the reason that she did it, "Once we know someone's a criminal, we must lead them to Upper Yard! If we don't… then the penalty is death!"

Their past selves faces were frozen, darkened as she sobbed openly. "It's our duty…" she croaked out, "It's the duty of every citizen!"

"You mean they were going to kill her if she didn't lead you to the docks?!" Brook gasped.

"As cruel as it is, it's the truth," Sanji said firmly. "I can never blame Conis for this… it's that bastard Eneru who forced her to make such a terrible choice." His hands curled into fists as he finished, "And even if she did have a choice here, I can't bring myself to ever hate her!"

"Knowing it now, I don't blame her either," Nami said, her heart truly aching for Conis. This must've been so difficult for her, but here she chose to tell them, willingly accepting the punishment rather than do something like this.

"But there was no need to!" Brooks stated, "You all were heading for the Upper Yard! There was no need for her to guide you all there!"

"They thought that we were going to run away and abandon our friends," Sanji said in disgust, "Apparently it had happened before."

"That's crazy!" past Usopp gasped out.

"I know," Conis confessed, tears falling fast, "I'm sorry… I should've told you sooner!"

"Wait a second!" Luffy said, his voice full of anger, and now he was trembling like Conis had been—only out of fury. "You're saying… that they forced you to lead us all here?"

Too choked up to speak, she merely nodded. The three of their faces still dark, Luffy started, "If that's true…" and suddenly all three of them were yelling, "THEN WHY EVEN TELL US AT ALL?!"

"We were going no matter what, but when she tried to warn us, it was like she signed her own death warrant!" Sanji said bitterly.

"Why? What happened?" Chopper asked fearfully.

Conis, stunned by their words, stopped crying and stared up at them, clearly not understanding. "Are you nuts?!" Luffy asked, grabbing her shoulder, "Now you're life's in danger!"

"But she led you here! There's no reason to kill her!" Nami gasped before she remembered the kind of monster that Eneru was… which means she knew what was coming… she stared up at the sky in terror as all the townspeople were all running now, looking just as terrified as they cried out that the judgment was coming.

"Judgment?" Franky repeated, sounding angry and lost once again, now gripping his big afro in frustration. Suddenly the skies above them opened up and there was a bright light above them. They looked up and there was a pillar of light flying down towards them.

"WHAT THE HELLLLLL?!" Franky screamed as they all moved back, though this thing couldn't really harm them. But the power that it had was so strong that they could feel the electricity in the air. Luffy saw it coming and his face turned deadly white as he grabbed hold of Conis as they ran for it. But it was too big… they would never hope to avoid it.

"LUFFY! CONIS! GET AWAY FROM THERE!" Nami screamed, but it was too late. The force of the impact was so great that it seemed to shake the whole island, blinding them all as they covered their faces from the brilliance of them all. But as soon as it had come, it disappeared. Shaking at the display of power they just saw, they all stood there, staring at the damage that had been caused. There was so much smoke that they couldn't see anything in front of them for a moment. Memory Sanji and Usopp were both alive and untouched, but they were screaming in horror, calling for Luffy and Conis where there was an enormous crater there…

"That… that couldn't have been real!" Brook gasped as Franky's jaw fell open. Even those who had seen Eneru's power before were still as horrified and amazed at the raw power here.

"The Rumble Rumble Fruit…" Robin answered. "The power of lightening… that was the fruit that Eneru had eaten. And it's this power that let him rule over them all unchallenged for six years."

"That's one of the most powerful fruits of them all," Sanji stated, thinking back to when he read about it. "And a Logia type on top of all that."

"I can see why they thought that he was a real god…" Brook gulped.

"Maybe, but please…" Zoro hissed, "He was nothing without that fruit, and as soon as he ate it, he started calling himself a god. Pathetic…"

But for a horrible second, they truly thought the worse for Luffy and Conis until they heard another voice from above them call, "Do not fear! They are both safe!"

They looked up and there was Gan Fall, on the back of Pierre, with the two safely on his back.

"Oh, thank goodness," Brook sighed in relief.

"That's twice he helped us out here," Zoro said firmly. The citizen around were staring at him as past Usopp said, "The weird old man?"

"When do you guys start using his name?" Franky asked half-heartedly at the joke.

"Me? Weird?" Gan Fall asked humorously, "No, I am the Sky Knight friend. And this one's on the house." He tossed Luffy down to them, but promised that he would keep Conis safe with him, that he gave them his word. Luffy stood up and gave him his thanks, and after he helped them like this, they truly believed that she would be safe for now.

But as Gan Fall looked down at them, his expression was unusually stony as he asked them, "Now that you have seen the scope of Eneru's power… and anger… what are you going to do next?"

"I thought that was obvious," Sanji stated. "Like we were going to let that bastard Eneru get away with everything he did."

"The same thing we were going to do from the start," Luffy called, voicing what the current Sanji just said, "Go to Upper Yard and rescue our friends."

Gan Fall was looking at him with new respect as he said, "I see… may luck be with you!"

And with that, he took Conis and they headed off across the city.

"That's one less thing to worry about," present-day Usopp sighed, glad for some small miracles. The three waited until they watched them fly off into the distance before they headed back over to the Crow and threw their bags into it. Past Usopp was already starting to give them words of farewell before Sanji pulled him into the boat and he looked ready to cry. Luffy got behind the wheel and said eagerly as he started it up, "Alright… Upper Yard here we come!"

"Even with all of us in danger, he's still thinking about the adventure," Robin commented in amusement.

"That moron won't ever change," Sanji stated, but he smirked at that. The citizens behind them were all gapping at the three of them in amazement—as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing—as they pushed off and headed off towards the gate and down the Milky Road… towards their friends… and the closer to danger.

As the memory faded, Brook croaked out, "Such power…"

"Yeah, and they were really trying to kill her," Sanji snarled, furious that anyone would do something like that.

"Was Conis and her old man alright?" Franky asked worriedly. "I mean… nothing happened to them here right?"

"The weird old man was true to his word," Nami said gratefully. "They were both safe."

"That's a weight of my chest," Brook stated. Just then the memory came back, and they were still in the Crow… the three of them heading along—the rest of them were following on top of the Milky Road like a sidewalk.

"I'm never gonna get used to this," Usopp whispered, hating feeling like some kind of ghost here.

"I really hope Conis is alright," his past self said worriedly, looking behind them at the ever shrinking Angel Island. "You know she's going to have hell to pay when the White Berets catch up with her, and it's our own stupid fault. She'd be ok if she hadn't helped us. And I'm not sure we can trust that Sky Knight. He pretty much gives me the creeps."

"But he helped you out twice!" Brook reminded him.

"Yeah, but we hardly knew anything about this guy," Usopp reminded him, "How did we know that we could trust someone like that?"

"I see your point," Franky nodded.

"But he was a good guy!" Chopper said without a doubt in his mind.

"I'm glad to know that now," Usopp admitted, "I'm saying that here…"

"He's kinda old and weird, but he doesn't seem like that bad of a guy," Luffy said.

"He always did have good instincts about someone," Robin smiled.

"There was no other choice," memory Sanji said regretfully, "I wanna protect her but it's not like we could've brought her along with us."

"Well, then she probably is in less danger without us," past Usopp admitted, not able to think of anything to disagree with that.

"That's usually how it works with us," Zoro shrugged as he watched.

Memory Usopp than counted off, "Sacrificial altars, ordeals… from the sound of it I wish I was the one flying off with the old geezer."

"Big baby," Zoro whispered as the boat continued down a little slope and they could just make out the Upper Yard. As they drew nearer, some of them gasped when they saw it.

"Hey guys?" past Usopp cried out in shock, "Where did that huge forest come from?!"

"Is that the Upper Yard?!" memory Sanji yelled as Usopp went to the map, trying to make sense of this.

"IT'S HUGE!" Franky yelled, "And I thought the tress back in Goa were big! They're like toothpicks to these guys!"

He was right, though the Upper Yard reminded them a great deal of the Middle Forest in Goa, only the trees were easily at least twice as big. Onwards they went, Luffy admiring the foliage—and talking about how much he wanted to climb them. A little further ahead, they spotted the statues up ahead, similar to the one they saw on Lovely Street, only these seemed to be much older and made of solid stone rather than mud. There were also several torches that marked the entry. "Look! The entrance!" Luffy yelled excitedly.

"Oh, this'll be good," Franky said, looking forward to this. "We get to see you guys beat the crap outta some priest!"

"Well, this is it, Usopp," memory Sanji said, "If you're gonna chicken out, now's the time."

"Actually, if you don't mind," past Usopp said, "I was kinda thinking I'd like to go back…"

"You were willing to leave us?" Chopper asked, feeling a little numb.

"No!" Usopp said quickly, "I… I was just kidding here! Yeah, that's it! I was trying to lighten the mood! We all needed it! Besides, I'm sure that you were all safe with you there."

"You really mean that?!" Chopper asked, his eyes bright.

"Hey! You're the doctor of the Straw Hat Pirates! If you can't do it, who can?" he asked and that cheered Chopper up greatly, blushing, and slapping Usopp's knee as he told him to shut up.

The others smiled at that as Luffy laughed to memory Usopp, "Too late!"

"THEN WHY DID YOU ASK ME?!" he screamed at the two as they laughed at how freaked out he was. They soon passed the statues, Usopp's face was contorted with fear as they sailed on—the faces looking like they were leering at them the whole way. As they went further on they saw the remains of ships scattered on either side of them—each of them run aground and sliced right in half as if a giant knife had cut them… like Zoro when he was done with a ship. Just then they heard the sounds of a large bird somewhere in the distance that startled Usopp so much that he shrieked.

"Would you calm down?" Luffy asked him, turning the wheel a little to avoid a broken mast sticking up through the clouds.

"Yeah, take it easy," memory Sanji agreed.

"Don't see why you're so freaked out," Zoro stated in his bored voice, "Nothing's happened yet. If you can't stand this, then I'm worried about how you'll take it when something dangerous does show up."

"Hey! I didn't do so bad against that fat freak!" Usopp yelled.

"What fat freak?" Nami asked. But memory Usopp was yelling at the other two to notice the ship wreaks and that they all looked like they had been sliced up.

"Wow… what happened?" Chopper asked.

"You're about to find out," Sanji whispered to him. They heard a slight rustle through the trees and Usopp began twitching at that, asking if they heard it. "The woods are full of noises! Just relax," Luffy told him calmly.

"I heard that!" past Sanji yelled. That was finally too much for Usopp, he started screaming and broke out the two paddles that were attacked to the ship and tried to go faster. It was a good thing because, out of nowhere, there was a large scythe came flying from behind the trees, its blade large and sharp.

Chopper and Brook both screamed in shock as it came barreling towards them—though the three in the boat were able to miss it by the skin of their teeth, it turned out that wasn't the only one… dozens of them started to appear and Luffy screamed out orders to start paddling like crazy, which the other two had no complaints to following. It was all they could do to keep avoiding being sliced in half… it was a good thing that they didn't take the gondola that Luffy had wanted before, because the Crow was small and nimble enough to avoid the blades… though they were still narrow misses each time.

Memory Usopp was yelling out confusing orders, and Luffy finally yelled at him to take the wheel as he turned to the back and launched them into the air, sending them flying right passed the scythes. With Usopp at the wheel, the other two began to paddle like mad… going much faster than before. But then large wooden spears came flying at them from above.

"WHAT'S WITH THIS FOREST?!" Chopper cried out.

"We were lucky we made it thought that mess alive," Usopp cried out.

"You think that a so-called god would try something a little flashier than this though," Franky stated, watching as the three in the boat did everything they could to keep the Crow from being hit. In the end, Luffy was able to use his Gum Gum Pinwheel to hit them and bat them away until they were safely out of the way.

"This is just his sick way of toying with us," Sanji sighed, who remembered feeling a little bit of letdown after seeing this. He had expected to have to fight the one who created that major blast of lightening like back at the docks. Instead they got spears and giant lamprey. "And can you believe that he didn't even make to the actual ordeal yet?" Sanji asked them, "This was like a little introduction…"

"Oh, this is gonna be a rough ride I can tell," Brook said anxiously as the three were breathing hard, glad to have escaped that obstacle. But their bad luck didn't end there… they looked on to see something was glinting ahead of them through the trees… they found out what it was when as a large spinning buzz saw came flying right towards them.

"I FORGOT ABOUT THAT STUPID THING!" Usopp yelled, hating seeing all this and opening up all those old fears.

"Please, I could've taken that thing on!" Zoro yelled out, wishing that it was the stupid cook who got carried off instead of him. But no… instead of facing something interesting, he was stuck taking a stupid walk around a forest. Damn, why couldn't the cook be the one who was stuck at the altar?

The buzz saw narrowly avoided them.

"It's god!" Luffy cried as it fly past them.

"Not yet!" past Sanji yelled, now breathing hard as Usopp screamed that it was coming right back at them and they were now struggling to stay afloat.

"This is madness," Brook cried out as the blade spun in the air and like it was being drawn to them like a magnetic, it hurtled back towards them.

"Wow, and I thought that I had it bad waiting at the altar by myself," Chopper whispered.

"What?" Franky asked. Chopper told them that after the lobster dumped them off at the altar, they were surrounded by shark-infest clouds. But by using a vine, Zoro and the girls swung over to land and he was stuck guarding the ship when a priest arrived to attack him.

"And you had to fight him off on your own, Chopper-san?" Brook asked, "That's very brave."

Chopper blushed once again before he confessed that he used the whistle that the Sky Knight gave him and he came to save him. Meanwhile, again and again the buzz saw kept flying at them, trying to cut them to pieces. Usopp was freaking out, wanting to go back… but there was no point right now… there was no guarantee that they would survive it. Luckily they ended up outrunning it when it slammed into one of the trees cutting it in half.

"I think we finally outran it," memory Usopp sighed in relief before he looked behind them and groaned out miserably, "Oh, but this is bad… now it's too late to go back! I can't even see the entrance anymore!"

"Then stay here," Luffy offered.

"Good Luffy… nice and direct," Zoro said in amusement.

"I'D DIE YOU IDIOT!" memory Usopp screamed back at him as the others all chuckled.

"You two really do fight like brothers," Robin chuckled and Usopp shrugged, unable to fight the smile coming to his own face.

"When it gets right down to it, you two were practically separated at birth," Nami laughed.

Memory Sanji agreed with what Usopp stated and pointed as a giant snake-like creature with row after row of razor sharp teeth burst through the Milky Road and attacked.

"A LAMPREY?!" Chopper cried out as the large, round mouth headed straight for them. But Sanji was more than ready for it. He jumped up and with a single kick, it was sent flying from them. As he looked back at it anxiously, Luffy commented on that this was the neatest forest he'd ever been in.

"Neat forest my butt!" memory Usopp snapped, "If this is our so-called ordeal, then I quit!"

"You can't quit yet, we just got here!" Luffy laughed.

"Besides, we haven't even reached the fun part yet," Sanji muttered darkly as his past self muttered anxiously, "We've got to keep moving. We can't spend more time than necessary on this Milky Road… otherwise we're asking for certain death."

"But you're taking the idea of certain death very well," Brook said in an upbeat voice.

"Well, what can you do?" Sanji asked as their past selves began to talk about how they were sure that the priests were all waiting for them on the island. Memory Usopp realized what Luffy was saying and cried out in horror, "So you're telling me that nothing that we've gone through doesn't have anything to do with our actual ordeal?"

"I don't know, I kinda doubt it," past Sanji said, "Especially considering the magnitude of that attack back at the docks. I couldn't tell you how it all works, but its serious power… take even one hit and you're a goner. This Eneru shouldn't be taken lightly… and I have the feeling that he's watching us even now."

"Wouldn't surprise me," Zoro agreed darkly. "In fact I'd bet my swords on it."

Luffy then asked Sanji in surprise if he thought that this Eneru was hiding somewhere in time, to which Sanji agreed, stating that he had to have been close by to have been able to attack as accurately as he did. But memory Usopp then pointed out that didn't have to be the case… if this really was a god, he could probably be watching them right now.

"You didn't actually believe this guy was a real god did you?" Franky asked Usopp.

"What was I supposed to think after seeing that attack?!" Usopp demanded hotly.

Memory Sanji rolled his eyes at Usopp's words as he asked, "Yeah? And since when did you become such a devoted follower? You're not even from around here."

"You're missing the point completely," Usopp hissed back at him, "Everyone says that god is great right? I was taught to respect those with power. You don't have to mean it… its self-preservation."

Past Sanji shrugged in a bored way, letting him believe what he wanted, but also reminding him that not everything considered a god is 'good'. But he added that they could talk more about it later when another lamprey appeared, its rows of teeth bearing at them. Usopp screamed as Luffy took care of it, punching it so hard that it was slammed into a tree branch from above and it fell back behind them with a splash.

"I hate Sky Islands…" past Usopp whispered, "They're scary…"

"I can't argue with you there, Usopp-san," Brook said softly.

"Wanna get out here?" memory Sanji asked almost teasingly.

"WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT?!" Usopp screamed, actually standing up and spinning around to glare at him, "YOU WANT ME TO DIE?! I'M ALLOWED TO BE SCARED! CUT ME SOME SLACK!"

"The important thing is that you're still going even though you're scared of out your mind! Yohohoho," Brook added cheerfully.

Zoro didn't point out that it if was up to him, Usopp would've turned back long before now and only came with them because they forced him to. But he didn't say anything as he watched Luffy pointing ahead of them, yelling that a giant head was blocking their way.

"A HEAD?!" Chopper cried in shock.

"It's alright, it's just a statue," Sanji told him as they all looked ahead to see the giant stone face, with its hand held up to its mouth as if keeping a secret.

"What is that?" Franky asked as Sanji told Luffy that it was just a sculpture, to which Luffy responded that either way it was still a dead end.

"No! Look!" memory Usopp yelled, "There are four entrances!"

And he was right… the river branching off into four paths going through each finger, each labeled with a different ordeal: "Ordeal of Swamp", "Ordeal of Iron", "Ordeal of String", and "Ordeal of Balls".

"What is all this?" Franky asked slowly.

"Isn't it obvious?" Robin asked seriously. "Each one of these doorways leads to one of the four priests. This was set up to make you decide your 'own poison' so to speak…"

"So if you get killed, you have no one but yourself to blame for the choice you make," Zoro nodded in understanding.

"Which did you all chose?" Brook asked Sanji and Usopp.

"Hey! I remember one of them!" Chopper said, looking to the first finger. And he also thought of the priest who attacked him when he stood guard at the Merry. "The Ordeal of Swamp! I was almost killed there!"

"And I remember the second one," Zoro stated, looking to the next one. "The Ordeal of Iron almost did kill you there… I thought for sure you were dead, Chopper."

"Really?" Chopper asked in surprise, "I really don't remember that so well…?"

"I'm not surprised," Zoro answered, remembering the horror of seeing Chopper laying there covered in blood. He thought for sure that he was…?

"But what about the last two?" Robin suddenly asked.

"I didn't really understand it," Chopper went on, "But the priest who attacked me had to be the one in charge of the Ordeal of String."

"So you all took…?" Brook began as Sanji nodded.

"The Ordeal of Spheres," he nodded. Memory Usopp looked back to them, asking which one they should take, with Luffy pointing to the last one, saying that spheres sounded like fun. "That's your only reason?!" memory Usopp yelled, "They're ordeals! They're not supposed to be fun!" He then looked back to their choices and added, "Not that I'm disagreeing with you… spheres is definitely the one that doesn't sound to violent."

He then started to imagine what the other ordeals would be like, with each one and in the end, his active imagination got the better of him and he didn't know which one to take.

"I never knew you had such an active imagination, Usopp-san…" Brook said.

"Some of the people back in my home village used to say that it was a curse," Usopp gulped, thinking back. He could see what they meant.

"We don't have time for a debate here," memory Sanji stated in annoyance. They had to make a choice now. "We're right on top of it!"

"Alright! Spheres it is!" Luffy decided. Looking like he was doing this against his better judgment, Usopp turned the wheel hard and they headed to the doorway in the pinky, shutting his eyes as he did so—as if hoping that he could somehow protect himself from whatever was coming. When they entered the long tunnel and found that they were in the pitch darkness, they couldn't see anything in front of them.

"How bad were these Ordeals?" Franky asked suddenly.

"It was a nightmare," Usopp hissed, "The Ordeal of Spheres had a ten percent survival rate."

"Only ten percent?!" Brook cried in shock.

"What did you have to do here?" Nami asked, not sure she'd like the answer.

"I'm sure you'll see," Sanji sighed to them, "But in case you don't, let's just say that not all surprises are good."

Memory Sanji then poked fun at Usopp, asking him not to shut his eyes since he was the one driving. Not that this made any difference, it was just as dark either way. Luffy suddenly had a very interesting idea and they heard his voice call out, "Hey guys… what if this is like one of those games?"

"He just had to scare us here didn't he?" Usopp whispered bitterly as his past self asked what he was talking about.

"You know… if you pick the right door then you get a prize?" Luffy asked, "But if you pick the wrong one…?"

"Huh… not a bad idea," Robin said thinking it all over.

"Yeah, but in this case, no matter what you chose, it was a wrong door," Zoro yawned.

"What are you talking about?! What if we picked wrong? Why couldn't you mention this before Luffy?!" memory Usopp yelled at him.

"Well, let's see here…" Luffy's voice said, sounding thoughtful as he thought it all over. "If you pick the wrong one… then you fall off the island?!"

Usopp lost it. "HOW CAN YOU SAY SOMETHING SO STUPID?!" he screamed out. "WE'RE THOUSANDS OF METERS IN THE AIR! I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY TIMES YOU'RE LIFE CAN FLASH BEFORE YOUR EYES DURING A FALL LIKE THAT, AND I DON'T WANNA KNOW!"

"Well, that would be one way to know if you picked the wrong door," Zoro said calmly as Usopp sighed, wishing that he had switched places with Zoro here… Light suddenly appeared in front of them and they spotted the exit. "You both are being idiots," past Sanji said as they headed through, "Nothing like that is gonna…"

But then as they went out, they went right over the edge of a cliff…

Some of the present-day Straw Hats all screamed in shock at what they were seeing. The Crow hung in the air almost comically for several seconds before they fell, looking down to see nothing but clouds below them. The three in the boat screamed wildly as they did so with memory Usopp screaming at the top of his lungs, "YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!"

Some of the other Straw Hats screamed in shock as well as they started to fall. But when they went through one cloud and, to everyone's relief, they landed on another Milky Road that had been directly beneath them, but they hadn't been able to see it with all the clouds.

Chopper was shaking horribly as he clung tightly onto Zoro's leg, Nami and Brook were both trying to remember how to breath after seeing something like that.

"I think my heart really did stop at that," Usopp muttered as the three looked around, shaking. Sanji was asking, as if making sure that they weren't dead, "We're alive?!"

Past Usopp was twitched horribly. "I seriously thought we were falling all the way back to the Blue Sea…"

"I'm still going to kill Luffy for doing that," Sanji muttered as his past self was now kicking Luffy hard in the head. "THAT'S BECAUSE SOMEONE HAD TO MAKE UP A LAME STORY TO SCARE US!"

"I was scared!" Luffy laughed, "I thought I was a goner too!"

"Dumbass," Sanji hissed to himself.

Once he finished laughing and everything calmed down, memory Sanji pulled the traumatized Usopp from his seat at the Crow and took over at the controls this time. Here, they looked around cautiously, trying to get their bearings right. They were still in a large forest, not unlike the road they took to get here, but the Milky Roads were all crossing and overlapping with each other, even sometimes going up high in the trees and under branches. But what was really different was that this forest was filled with hundreds of large white balls. They seemed to have been made of Island Cloud, and they were simply floating… not moving, but hanging in the air, drifting around innocently.

Most of the present-day Straw Hats couldn't figure out what was so dangerous about this Ordeal, but they didn't say anything as they watched. The three in the Crow sailed around for some time, just looking around at all the balls that resembled giant flakes of snow, their eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. After a while though, Luffy and Usopp dropped their guards and began poking their heads into the bags for a snack. Only Sanji remained fully aware, looking around watchfully as if expecting someone to jump out and attack at any moment. Soon their captain and sniper had gotten bored, and the two of them were playing with one of the balls, passing it back and forth like a beach ball.

Sanji looked back to them and began to tell them off before a snake burst out and went for Usopp, bearing its fangs.

"Whoa, where did that thing come from?!" Franky yelled out.

"Didn't see that coming," Zoro said in mild surprise.

"A SNAKE?!" memory Sanji screamed out in shock as Luffy kicked at it, sending it flying away. But then Usopp pointed out another 'snake ball' in front of them, and when Sanji tried to kick it… this time, it ended up exploding, burning them all.

"It blew up?!" Chopper gasped in horror.

"FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, WHAT'S WITH THESE THINGS?!" memory Usopp screamed out in fear before he broke down crying—it was obvious to them all that he had finally reached his breaking point.

They then heard someone laughing. "Oh, silly children! These are Surprise Clouds! You never know what's going to come out of them!"

"Who's speaking?!" Nami called worriedly, staring around, but not seeing anyone.

Luffy and the other boys were also all looking around, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from when they heard that childish laugh once again. "Heso!" they all looked back and they saw him. A man, who hardly looked any different from the round cloud that he was floating on, with long, dark red hair and little wings… dressed in a white jumpsuit with a vertical line of golden rings that ran from front to back… and bright yellow sunglasses as he gave them all a stupid grin.

"I'm so glad you picked my challenge, the Ordeal of Spheres!" he said, bursting out laughing.

"His… ordeal?" Franky repeated, and all the Straw Hats, memory and present, all had sweat-drop falling as they looked at this guy.

"Yeah… is that a talking dumpling?" memory Sanji asked.

"I thought that he was a cream puff," Chopper whispered.

"You mean to tell me that this guy is seriously one of Eneru's priests?" Zoro asked, his eye twitching in annoyance. "How can you take a guy seriously when he looks like that?!"

The talking dumpling suddenly got up and began dancing and spinning around happily on the cloud as they all stared at him.

"Ok, this is just sad," Nami whispered, looking ready to fall over. But Robin was frowning a little. Though this guy was clearly an idiot, they should never underestimate their opponents. That often leads to disaster.

"That's the ordeal?!" Luffy yelled out, now sounding furiously disappointed, "Ball guy?!"

"Stop with the dancing! And tell us who you are!" memory Sanji yelled. The dumpling didn't answer at first, still doing his dance as Usopp and Luffy whispered to each other, not really seeing him as much of a threat…

"You honestly had trouble with this guy? And I thought you couldn't get any more pathetic crap-cook," Zoro said.

"Be careful not to get over-confident, Zoro," Robin said softly as Sanji was now practically burning up at the insult. Zoro glanced at her, and remembered everything they had seen up till now. He shut his one good eye and nodded slowly in understanding.

"Sorry," he whispered back as Nami told Sanji to calm down, which he did only to happily, "It's just hard to take someone seriously when they look like that."

Robin nodded at that, but she had a bad feeling that because of this priest's carefree attitude and idiotic dancing, they might have underestimated his ability and had to pay for it. She seemed to have been proven right when memory Sanji lost his temper and yelled up, "HEY! DUMPLING! NAMI AND THE OTHERS BETTER BE SAFE!"

"The sacrifices?" he asked happily as he continued to dance and spin around, "They'll escape, or they won't… doesn't really matter which. If they escape they'll die! If they're sacrificed… well they'll die then to!"

"He sure doesn't beat around the bush does he?" Franky asked lightly.

"What's that mean?!" past Sanji demanded, sounding angry.

"What do you think?" Zoro asked him in annoyance. "He thinks that you're all gonna die."

"But I would be more worried about yourselves!" the dumpling went on, "You'll have to beat me if you plan on going any further! And I really don't see that happening!" he laughed that annoying laugh once more as he jumped, heading right for them. Luffy was in front, looking ready to throw a punch.

"Oooooooh!" the dumpling said interested, "You're gonna stretch?"

"Wait, he's using it isn't he?" Nami asked knowingly.

"Yeah," Sanji said sourly. Luffy looked startled that the dumpling had said that, but went for the punch anyway. The dumpling danced out of the way, missing it completely before he held his hand up to Luffy's face… and with some kind of shockwave from his hand, Luffy was sent flying. His hat was blown off like a kite before he was slammed right into the tree, crashing into it and for a moment the memory faded around them… turned dark before they came back and Luffy was on his face… leaving a deep crater in the tree behind him. A trail of blood was dripping from his mouth as Usopp and Sanji yelled at him, trying to know if he was alright.

"How'd he do that?!" Brook cried out, "He didn't even touch him!"

"That was an Impact Dial!" Usopp gulped, knowing the pain of one of those things all too well.

"A what?" Brook cried, turning to stare at him.

"It can absorb any attack, like an explosive, and store it," Usopp said, "and you can use it later to fire it back! He used that to store Luffy's Pistol attack and threw it back at him!"

"LUFFY!" memory Usopp called in terror, "YOU'RE OK AREN'T YOU?! A HIT LIKE THAT COULDN'T HAVE HURT YOU THAT MUCH!"

"Well, his own attack would…" Sanji said, wincing at their stupidity here. The dumpling laughed as he held up his slightly smoking hand, "Well, you see… it's not what you call… a normal hit!"

Enraged, memory Sanji charged at him, but once again the dumpling was able to dodge it by merely stepping to the side, almost twirling around… "Only the most well trained are granted the power of… Mantra…"

"Mantra…?" Franky repeated sounding confused.

"That's what they call Observation Haki up here," Robin answered.

"I never really understood how that works," Chopper gulped, wishing that he could do something that cool.

"We'll talk more about that later," Zoro promised. But meanwhile, memory Sanji was staring at the dumpling in shock, unable to believe that he was able to predict his attack, before the fat freak held up his hand and sent him crashing to the ground as well. Past Usopp screamed out Sanji's name, not noticing the dumpling right behind him before he was also sent flying down to join them. All three of them were bleeding and hurt, but they didn't seem to be too badly hurt because they were already starting to get back up. Luffy looked to the others, and Sanji confirmed that they were alright as he reached for his hat.

"Looks like it didn't hurt you guys as much as we thought," Franky pointed out.

"It was mostly shock than them actually hurting us," Sanji muttered, his face turning a little red at how lame he looked here. His past self was then demanding to know what that bastard did.

"I've got no idea," Luffy confessed, wiping some of the blood from his mouth, "Who is this guy anyway?"

"Wish we never found out," Usopp whispered to himself.

Resuming his dance on the Crow, the dumpling answered, "My name is Satori! I am one of the four priests of the almighty Eneru who watch over the Upper Yard and see to it the judgment of criminals such as yourselves! I own the vearth in this Lost Forest!"

"The Lost Forest?" Luffy repeated, sounding just as lost.

"Why yes," Satori smiled evilly, "My forest and all its glory! Ho, ho-hooo!"

"What makes it his forest?" Franky whispered skeptically as Satori stepped on the accelerator and caused the Crow to start moving once again.

"Wait! You need that don't you?!" Brook called anxiously.

"That's the point of the Ordeal," Sanji muttered with a sight twitch in his eye. Satori went on speaking, telling them that the boat will continue going along without them until it reached the exit. If they were unable to find the boat before then, they would lose their only way to the sacrificial altar and be lost in this forest forever. That was what this trial was… to try and find the boat once again while avoiding him and his 'Surprise Clouds' which could be holding anything.

"So that's what you meant when you said that not all surprises were good," Nami whispered. "Just what kind of things were in there?"

"Nothing good," Usopp moaned out, the pain still sharp in his mind.

"The Ordeal of Spheres!" Satori yelled joyfully, "There's a ten percent survival rate! So good luck!" He laughed a little more, "You boys better catch up to her real soon! She's getting away!"

Luffy offered to stay behind and deal with Satori while Sanji and Usopp went looking for the boat. Memory Sanji hesitated for only a moment before he nodded in understanding, but before he left, he warned him to be careful. Luffy jumped up and began swinging around fighting with Satori… however with his Haki—or Mantra—it was impossible for Luffy to be able to make a move without him already knowing it. In the end, the fight ended quickly and Luffy's head was slammed right through a thick tree.

"That didn't last long…" Franky said, feeling a bit disappointed at that.

"Haki users can be a pain in the ass to fight," Zoro stated with a smirk. "But they're far from invincible."

Luffy tried desperately to pull his head out of the tree trunk as Satori continued to laugh. "Aren't you stubborn?" he asked sweetly before he went floating away on his sphere, clearly going after the others. After several tense minutes, Luffy was able to pull his head back out—luckily, after a little running, they found that he hadn't gone far. They spotted him tormented the other boys and Luffy went running along the tree branches to reach him, sending a Gatling Gun right at him…

"No!" Nami called, "If you do that, Luffy…?!"

"Too late," Robin answered. That attack only made things worse.

"LUFFY STOP!" past Sanji screamed, "USE YOUR HEAD! YOU'RE ONLY MAKING THINGS WORSE!"

Luffy realized this as well, but it was too late. The onslaught of the attack had caused all the Surprise Clouds around them to start flying every which way. They would then hit other Surprise Clouds and then they would go flying in all directions as well so that it was alike a snowstorm. They were soon forced to run around, avoiding them at all costs… a variety of things emerged from them. Things like spears, giant crabs, fire, Usopp even had four giant singing birds appear out of some and start punching him like a boxing match… Luffy, through a series of acrobatics while trying to avoid drowning and being eaten by Sky Fish, was forced to start swinging around on vines, his fear turned to laughter as he let out a loud jungle call.

"WILL YOU GET SERIOUS?!" memory Sanji roared at him.

"That's what you did," Nami hissed to Zoro, remembering how he had cried out just like that as he swung away from the altar.

"What?" he asked, "If you do the call, you can swing a lot easier."

"How the hell does that make sense?!" she yelled at him as he shrugged unconcerned.

After seeing Luffy swinging around on vines, memory Usopp got an idea and went to his newest invention that he called the Usopp AAaaaAAAaaaAA! A special belt that he made that could fire a grappling hook for him to swing from tree to tree with. And the present-day Straw Hats watched as he was able to hook onto a tree and went swinging over to the Crow… everyone thought for sure he was going to make it—even Satori was looking surprised by this… at least until they found out that Usopp forgot to put in a way to detach the rope and missed the boat.

"That's lame man," Franky said in disillusionment, "You really got our hopes up."

Usopp turned red once again at how stupid he had been. "I forgot about that… it wasn't completely ready when I built it… it still had a few bugs to work out but I thought that it would've worked."

"And it would've if you had unbuckled it," Robin offered. "You're inventions are useful."

"Of course! And they only got even better over these two years!" Usopp beamed proudly. "I'm sure that the next thing I come up with will really amaze you!"

Finally losing his temper, past Sanji got them both down in front of him and beat them both black and blue.

"You didn't have to go that far did you Sanji?" Chopper shrieked in shock.

"Of course I did!" Sanji said angrily. "Someone had to slap them awake and start acting serious!"

"Here's the deal," his past self said once he had cooled off and took several deep breaths on his cigarette. "I'm gonna forget what just happened… now you do what I say."

Both boys nodded, having no problems with that, and clearly not wanting to get beaten up again. "Ok then…" he said as he went on. "First thing we forget about the boat for now. Then we're all gonna charge that fat freak at once!"

"Is that really your best idea?" Zoro asked him in amusement.

"SHUT UP! I DON'T SEE YOU THERE WILLING TO HELP! AND IF I WAS HAVING SO MUCH TROUBLE, YOU WOULDN'T HAVE STOOD A CHANCE!" Sanji yelled at him. The amused look on Zoro's face was replaced with anger and soon the two of them were fighting in the background. The Straw Hats all ignored them as they turned back to the matter at hand.

"I don't care what kind of powers he's got…" memory Sanji said, "With all three of us attack at the same time, if there's a way to beat him we'll find it."

"That rarely ever works though," Brook said anxiously.

"Oh…?" Satori's voice called from somewhere above them, obviously having heard everything they said, "Don't be so sure…"

They all jumped up, staring around to try and find him… when memory Sanji turned his back to keep looking, Satori fell from the branches above and jumped behind him, hitting him with another Impact Dial and sending him crashing to the ground.

Luffy and Usopp both tried to fight, but soon they joined Sanji as well—all three of them were lying bruised, bloody, and burned on the ground as Satori continued to jump around happily on the Surprise Clouds. By this point, Luffy was struggling to push himself back up as Satori laughed again. "You're still alive! I'm impressed! And… as a reward for good behavior… we're gonna finish off our fun today with a move I've received several awards for! Ho, ho-hooo!" He then pulled out a stripped cane like a giant candy cane… "My Super Secret Surprise… Sphere Dragon!"

"I'm almost afraid to see this," Nami whispered with a tremble in her voice.

And then, Satori connects several surprise balls together with a dragon head on top so that it looked like some strange kind of caterpillar. "Introducing the Sphere Dragon!" he called happily.

"That's it?" Franky yelled.

"That doesn't look so bad…?" Chopper said nervously, but Usopp shook his head.

"It's bad…" he said firmly.

But Luffy looked far from impressed as he got back to his feet, now panting hard, he yelled up, "It looks like all you did was string a bunch of Surprise Clouds together! Is that the best you can do? I have to say I'm disappointed!"

"Oh, you won't be for long!" Satori promised, "You see my friend, the dragon is loaded with explosive surprises and all sorts of delightful shrapnel."

"Hell…" Sanji muttered, stopping his fight with Zoro to look up at the talking dumpling again.

Memory Usopp paled before he squeaked out, "But… that means…?"

"If you even touch the fireball sphere somewhere on its body it'll be over for you and your friends!" Satori said happily. "You'll be blown to bits in the incinerating inferno! Hope you like fireworks!" he then held the cane high and the dragon went straight for them.

"And the worst part is if you touch it you'll end up going down in flames," Robin said causally, as if dragons exploded everyday.

"THAT'S EASY FOR YOU TO SAY!" Usopp yelled.

Luffy clearly didn't care if the dragon exploded or not, he was going to attack anyway but just as the dragon went straight for him, Usopp charged in, tackling him out of the way just in time. "You idiot!" he yelled, holding Luffy down to keep him from attacking the dragon again, "That freak just told us if we touched that thing it'll explode! Do you want to die a fiery death!?"

"He never was good at listening," Nami stated, "Which is why we have to do all the work."

But Luffy practically threw Usopp off him, demanding, "Well how are we gonna fight it if we can't touch it?!"

"I think that's the point," Brook said worriedly.

"Come on you guys!" Chopper cheered, "You can take him!"

"That's just it!" past Usopp yelled at him in frustration, "We can't fight it! I think now is the time to run."

Satori sent the dragon after them again, and they were forced to run. "What do we do?!" Luffy yelled, jumping around wildly, the dragon head quickly catching up.

"I don't know, you're the captain!" past Usopp yelled before he had an idea. "On three, we jump! THREE!"

"That's it?!" Zoro yelled exasperatedly. But the two did jump out of the way, missing the dragon completely, but they ended up landing onto another Surprise Cloud. They didn't realize it at once but once the dragon missed them they turned blue in the face before it exploded once again.

"That had to hurt," Franky winced.

"Ho, ho-hooo! Well, you are quite the little survivors aren't you?" Satori asked, still as gleeful as he had been before—and they were all growing sick of listening to this guy. The two rolled over, with Usopp yelling at him that he was just toying with them. "Correct! It wouldn't be as much fun if you didn't experience the full power of the Sphere Dragon!" Satori asked, as if they were two naughty boys who were being punished for doing something stupid. "Shall we continue? There's no way you can win!" he bragged, "After all… I'm a priest! And you all look so tired! Why don't you just end this now and die?"

"Come on! There must be something you guys can do!" Nami said in frustration.

"Don't worry my dear, that fatso go what was coming to him in the end," Sanji said firmly.

"My heart can't take any more of this," memory Usopp gasped, now looking like he was fighting to breathe, "Too many surprises… how… it… hurts…"

"And it did," Usopp whimpered as he watched.

"You'll be out of options quite soon," Satori said, looking back up, "It's sad really… your little boat has almost reached the exit. And when that happens, it's all over for you! Ho, ho-hooo!"

"NO! You have to hurry!" Brook cried out anxiously.

"You'll have nowhere to go unless you suddenly learn to fly!" Satori went on just as Luffy was sitting up, "You'll wander around their terribly confusing forest until you die of exhaustion!"

But they all knew that the boys were far from beaten. Luffy was up again, trying to attack, but he might as well have just told Satori what he was going to do. He dodged it and had the dragon going after him once again. As Luffy ran, they noticed memory Usopp slipping off into the forest.

"Where were you going, Usopp?" Chopper asked at once.

"With Luffy distracting that fat freak, this was my only chance to go find the boat," Usopp said.

"Or were you just running out on us?" Sanji asked teasingly.

"Hey! I may be a coward, but I'm not traitor!" he said angrily. As Luffy continued to run, he finally caught a break when he ran up a tree, and almost ended up falling back on the dragon. But something caught him before he did and he discovered the wire that was connected to Satori's cane—and what caused him to control the dragon like a puppet. It only took him a few seconds to realize what it was and then he snapped the wire in half.

"Yeah! That's how you do it!" Nami cheered.

Robin chuckled as she nodded. "Yes, he was close to blowing up there… if he missed that wire he'd be dead."

"Would it kill you to think positive for once?!" Nami said, frowning heavily at her friend.

Seeing the wire break, Satori gasped in horror. "You ruined my Sphere Dragon you impudent little brat!" he yelled, and for the first time he sounded angry. "Now you die! Get over here this instant!"

But as he pulled the cane, he pulled Luffy with him—who hadn't let go of the other half the rope and was pulling the dragon with him.

"Oh, this is gonna be one heck of a boom," Franky said, pulling his sunglasses back down to cover his eyes.

Satori realized to late what was happening. "LET GO OF THE DRAGON FOOL!" he screamed, but Luffy was still hurtling towards him, still pulling the dragon behind him—perhaps having instincts holding onto the other rope. Satori screamed out just as they crashed into him and the explosion after that was enormous—a giant fireball went up around them, burning the trees as shrapnel went flying in all directions.

"WOW!" Franky yelled in amazement as some of the others had to duck and yell from the impact of the explosion. But the blow was quick… filled with smoke, they looked up to see the giant mushroom shaped cloud above them and in front of them, some of them gasped.

There was a giant black crater in the ground, blowing parts of trees away, the ground completely burnt to a crisp. It was smoking and filled with things like swords, arrows, spears…

"It's like a freaking battle happened here!" Usopp yelled out. He remembered hearing the boom as he looked from the trees to try and get a view of the land around them.

"Cool…" Franky whispered.

"IT WAS NOT!" Usopp yelled.

"Where's Luffy?" Chopper cried worriedly, staring around him, but not finding any trace of Luffy or that priest.

"I don't know, but he's still around," Robin answered, pointing up to see Satori was there on another Surprise Cloud as he gasped for breath and severely burned.

"I guess all that blubber protected him," Zoro stated, sounding disappointed.

"That was close," Satori wheezed, "That maniac must've had a death wish! This isn't good…" he looked at the damage and added to himself, "I've got to intensify my training! I can't let a weakling like him… get the upper hand in a fight! Not even for a second! That might block me from using my Mantra."

"Block it…?" Nami whispered, not understanding for a moment.

"You got to hand it to Luffy, though it was an accident, it really did a lot of damage," Franky said with a little laugh.

"Well, you're going to love this next part then," Sanji stated with a smirk.

"You're right…" Luffy's voice said and Satori was looking around anxiously, "That was close…"

"Where is he?!" Chopper said, glad to hear his captain's voice again, but unsure to where he is.

"Right there," Robin smiled. She was right, Luffy was clinging to Satori's back—also burnt and injured.

"It's you?! How are you still alive?!" Satori said, finally noticing where he was, and seemed stunned that he hadn't noticed it before.

Zoro nodded, getting what happened in the battle. Due to the explosion Satori temporarily lost control of his Haki, and failed to see Luffy clinging to his back until right now. He had been taught by Mihawk to never drop your guard or lose your concentration no matter what or that can happen. He made a mental note to learn from this guy's mistakes.

Then suddenly Satori was trying to throw Luffy off desperately, trying to get rid of him and screaming out, "GET OFF ME! YOU HORRIBLE LITTLE MAN! I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS! LET GO OF ME RIGHT NOW! I SAID LET GO!"

"After all the trouble that we had to go through to catch him? I don't think so," Sanji said firmly.

"Do not let him go Luffy!" called a familiar voice and memory Sanji was sitting on top of a dud of a Surprise Cloud that had a flower sticking out of it. Satori looked up in horror, "YOU TOO?!"

"Hey Sanji!" Luffy said, pushing Satori's head down so that he could see him. "Where have you been?"

"Once again, useless…" Zoro stated.

"What was that Moss Head?!" Sanji growled at him.

"Come on," he said, "After this you were out cold when Eneru attacked you. What good were you then?"

"Eneru attacked you, Sanji-san?" Brook asked at once.

"Oh, like you were any good yourself!" Sanji snapped.

"More useful than you were," Zoro said firmly. Thankfully memory Sanji was screaming at Luffy, and it distracted them from another fight.

"I WAS OUT COLD ON THE FOREST FLOOR!" he screamed, "WHERE ELSE WOULD I HAVE BEEN YOU IDIOT?!"

"You didn't have to yell like that," Chopper pointed out.

"I had a lot of stress here," Sanji answered as his past self calmed down almost at once as he said, "But that's beside the point…" he lit a cigarette and turned his attention back to Satori, "The point is you keep saying challenge this… and challenge that, which normally wouldn't interest me. However there are two helpless ladies who are waiting for me to come to their rescue… and I refuse to let them down. So I'm proposing this… and I think you'll like it," past Sanji said as he looked up, his face dark as finished, "Ordeal… of Love."

"That sounds so lame," Zoro said. But Satori freaked out and tried to escape, but Luffy stretched out his arms and legs and wrapped them around him to keep him from moving anywhere. Satori realized that he was trapped and began to scream out that they had no honor gaining up two against one.

"Funny, he didn't seem to have any problems with them before…" Franky pointed out.

"That was before he realized that he was screwed," Sanji smirked.

"We have no honor?" memory Sanji repeated in disgust. "You creeps kidnapped our friends and tried to murder a beautiful young angel! And you accuse us of not having any honor!"

"Yes! Now hurry and take him out!" Brook said, though he sounded a little cold, he couldn't forget what they tried to do to his crew and to Conis for trying to protect them.

Luffy smirked as he added to Satori, "I've been thinking… it's pretty amazing you're able to predict our movements…. But what good is that…? When you can't do anything to avoid them?"

"Nothing at all," Zoro smirked. He was going to enjoy this. Satori turned blue in the face and began to thrash around more desperately than ever… he screamed out that they release him at once. That he was a priest and not being judged by him was a first degree crime in Skypiea—that attacking him meant declaring war on Eneru.

"Yeah, but being judged by him means death…" Franky pointed out, "So I think that you should take your chances."

"And that's what we did," Sanji nodded. His past self and Luffy couldn't have cared less what Satori said anymore. Sanji then leaped high into the air and starts flipping over rapidly to gain speed, when he fell down, he brought the heel of his foot down on Satori's head, shattering his glasses and causing a few teeth to pop out of his head as he screamed and that was the end of the fight and the memory.