Just A Wave....

Dumbfounded by her introduction and the odd answer to my question, I smacked my face and pulled my hand downward. 'Not the JoJo pose. That's not good. wait, the home of the trapped?'

"So... You are Xeta...lona?"

"Yes!" She posed differently this time.

"And this.. where we are.. is Eternal Shroud?"

"Uh-huh!" Changing poses again, she was laying down somehow, still with a weird pose.

".... An island of people trapped?"

"Yessir!" She was now doing a handstand on one hand, with her limbs impossibly stretched out to pose upside down. I wondered how she was still balanced, on one hand, in sand.

"So.. did YOU trap us..? Or did someone else...? Or... Is the island a trap itself?"

"Nope! We're just all stuck here!" And now she was floating mid-air, without doing anything.

"Uh..." I pointed at the air below her. "How?"

"Oh?" She looked down, and then dropped to the ground. "Well... I don't know if you know, but there's these things called devil fruits.. apparently? I heard that one might be able to do that, but I don't remember ever eating one. I just float randomly. I call it the power of posing!" And she posed once more, like a superhero.

"Anyways! I can just do it thanks to my posing! Uhm.. any other quee.." she stopped mid sentence, and the cheerful nature of hers slipped away, then becoming serious.

"...We need to get to higher ground."

"""What?""" The three of us answered in unison.

"A wave is coming."

We looked at each other, and then behind us to even attempt to find the wave Xetalona mentioned, but there wasn't even a possibility of seeing the beach.

'Why isn't my observation picking anything up? Wait.. it's the ocean! Does it have ill will or something? I don't think so, my observation isn't ringing any alarms, but what about my normal observation?'

I sensed around, and after going far enough, I found the beach, and then, I went farther, and found the wave. It was giant.

"Uh.. Taki? Rem? We need to get to higher ground."

This caused them both to look at me concerningly, as I had just told them both exactly what the girl we just met had said, and I did it with a much more serious tone.

"You sure?"

"Yes. Let's go. Xetalona? Please.. lead the way."

I motioned for her to start our travel to higher ground, and we went along the coast to a surprisingly tall cliff face, and found a makeshift elevator, ropes hanging down from above the fog. We got to the elevator, and as soon as Xetalona stepped on, she turned around, looked at the three of us, and then pointed at me, asking "You! Can you help me? We need to do this quickly."

I looked and found a crank to spin and pull us up.

"Sure?" I stepped onto the platform and grabbed a hold of one of the sides, and both Taki and Rem stepped on as well before Xetalona and I both started to rotate it and pull us up.

"Good. You know how this works. Anyways, we need to get up pretty high for this one, the wave should hit against the cliff a little lower than us. I'll tell you when to stop."

While we spent the next couple of minutes in silence, Taki and Rem both came to either side and Taki asked me "Are you sure we can trust her?" While whispering.

"Yes. I checked myself. That's why we need to get up farther. We aren't even level with the top of the wave yet, but we are getting closer. For now, we can trust this total stranger, but don't trust her much the rest of the time. Still don't know enough." I whispered back.

Rem was listening in and then asked a question herself, also whispering.

"Why can't we just trust her? I mean, if you can tell she's telling the truth, then why can't you trust her?"

"Well, you see.. wait, can't you tell is she speaks the truth? Rosa could do it, so why can't you?"

Rem shook her head.

"I can't do it because I haven't been around other people. Ro-Ro wanted me to learn it, but I still haven't gotten the part aside from actually being able to see the souls of others down. I can see them, I can't tell you wether or not their lying."

'Of course. A lie detector? Nah. I was hoping she knew how to, but now, I have to just see how she is.'

"Okay then. Rem, we're just gonna have to trust on these things, for the moment at least."

"That's not what I said. I wanted to know why we can't trust her."

"Oh, that. Because all we know is that she poses weird, and a lot at that, and that she knows weather somehow."

"... If you say so.... Bugs."

And so, we continued to go up, and the wave somehow came into view, even with the fog.

"It's coming! We need to go faster!"

So, we just cranked a little bit more, then, I could tell we were higher than the wave, finally.

What I didn't expect was that the wave was actually almost as tall as us. Both Rem and Taki looked, and they were shocked, but I just cranked faster as soon as Xetalona did.

And then, she yelled out "Stop! We're high enough!"

And I stopped, finding we were really high up. I then, immediately layed on the floor, and gripped it.

'Why? Why is my fear of heights still with me? Did I never notice because I haven't been this high?'

I could feel my grip was a bit tight, and the wood of the platform was bending slightly.

"Bugs? You okay?"

"Nope." My voice was higher than I wanted. Clearing my throat, I then continued "I forgot... about a little thing... Ya-you know... A fear of heights?"

I could feel both Rem and Taki's gaze, as if they were drilling into my back.

"So. Out of everything, you, the Great Buggy, my friend, is afraid of heights? Can't you fly?"

Taki had a point. But I had a counter.

"Well, it's less a fear of heights, and more a fear of falling FROM those heights. I don't want to fall into what looks like the abyss."

"But.. you can fly?"

"Ya see.. you have a good point. But! I've never flown this high before. If I have, I never. Looked. Down. I probably could have? But I couldn't tell you, because I'd have been on the ground quicker if I did look down then."

"You're not afraid of fighting off..... Grim... Or cutting a whole p-pillar in half, but you ARE afraid of heights?"

It was a good argument, but someone interrupted.

"People outside can fly? THATS SO COOOOOOOOL!" I barely looked at Xetalona and saw some major excitement on her face while she posed, staring at me with stars in her eyes.

"Mmmm..... Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff-"

And then the wave crashed into the cliff. It shook the cliff, and subsequently the platform we were on. And I then realized the platform was connected to something at the top through four ropes, one at each corner of the square were currently on, the same one I started to death grip when it shook.

Of course, with the platform shaking, some of us dropped to the floor and held on to not fall or lose balance. Taki immediately grabbed onto my leg, which I somehow positioned to grip the platform as well, and Xetalona was holding onto the rope crank, what made the elevator move. I didn't know a better word for it at that point, so that's what it's name was. But, of course, one of us was not as secured as the others.

Rem lost balance and fell backwards, starting to fall directly towards the still crashing wave.

With a split second after realizing she fell, I detached my right arm and immediately grabbed her arm, stopping her from falling any farther.

"Rem! Are you okay?"

She looked down at the slowly receding water level and I saw her shaking before looking up.

"Y-yeah! Im-im good!"

"I don't know what I would've told Rosa if you fell into seawater!" I don't even know what happens IF you DO fall into it! Or even touch it!"

I pulled her up, and she started to shake, realizing what I was implying.

"I was lucky to be in the vault!"

"You very much were!"

And I pulled her onto the platform, then accidentally looking down again, and death gripping once more, attaching my arm, slightly holding Rem.

"That... Was SO COOOOOOOOL!!!!"

Xetalona had even wider eyes with even more stars in them, with a wide smile on her face.

"Oh.. oh no. She knows now." I spoke to the one holding my leg as well as the one holding my arm.

The three of us looked at Xetalona, with a slight hint of wondering what to do now.