CHAPTER 88 SKYPIEA

CHAPTER 88 SKYPIEA

I woke up on a pile of clouds. But not the ones I expected. Instead they were the dark pillows of Nico Robin's cleavage. I stayed there for a moment. Too comfortable to get up. But as I noticed more actual clouds surrounding us I grumbled awake.

Standing up I was half in water and half off. The water itself was sky blue. The land I was on was made of physical amorphous conglomerations of white fluffy clouds.

Looking around I didn’t see the ship or any other crew members. I vaguely remembered hitting the water of the sea in the sky, but I kept my hold on Robin. I didn’t think I had to worry about the crew, but things were different than canon. So there was always the possibility something happened to them. I pushed that out of my mind. Studying the area was the simple squishy clouds. Bending over I began to shake Robin.

“Wakey Wakey. There’s a poneglyph right here,” I said. Her eyes blinked then she was sitting up.

“What?” She asked.

“Nothing,” I said.

“You said poneglyph,” she said angrily. I cracked a smile. “That’s not funny!” She yelled.

“It kind of is. Don’t worry. There’s one up here,” I said. “Come on. Let’s look around.”

“Where are we?” She asked as she investigated the water and land.

“Skypiea. Not sure where the others are though.” I began taking in deep breaths. Such a high altitude had less oxygen so I was weaker until I got used to it.

“What’s that?” Robin asked. Pointing at the water there appeared to be a man skiing on the sky blue water. He got closer and closer. He had dark skin. A short mohawk on his head and had tattoos on his body. The only clothes I saw was a small loincloth at his waist.

He jumped up to the cloudland and continued skiing on it. Heading away from us after some time he disappeared. Not into the horizon. But somewhere in the clouds.

“Is that a Skypiean?” Robin asked.

“That’s a Jayan,” I said.

“What?” She asked.

“Doesn’t matter right now. Come on. Let’s find the others,” I said. Looking to the water I didn’t see the boat, but it had to be there. “Jump on my back.”

“I’m not doing that,” she said.

“Oh can you swim now?” She frowned. Grumbling under her breath the tall dark haired woman slowly moved to my back. Her arms over my shoulders I grabbed her firm thighs and began running out onto the water. I had to adjust the chakra use on my feet a little but was soon going full speed across the vast light blue sea.

“Thank you for grabbing me,” Robin said. “Back at the Knockup Stream.”

“Of course. I’m probably the only reason you didn’t drown in this sea too,” I said. “Do I get a thanks for that too?”

“No,” she whispered. “One thank you at a time.”

I laughed. “You’re part of the crew Robin. No thanks needed.” She got quiet. “Are you having fun?”

“I’m seeing interesting places. And it’s only been a couple of days,” she said.

“That’ll happen. Never a dull moment.” I couldn’t help but ask something I had been wondering. “Do you hate me?”

“For what?”

“Ruining your plan? Tricking you with that whole Mr. Half thing.”

“Was that a trick?” She asked slowly. “You seemed to fit in as an assassin easily.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I had been working through some things. Things I’m not proud of. I kind of let the character take me...but once I saw the Straw Hats I was reminded how much I preferred being me. Being someone they wanted to be in their crew. Not some psycho killer.”

Robin nodded. Readjusting her grip on me. “I’m not angry. I should thank you for that too. I-I stayed up nights. Thinking about all the death and destruction we would cause with the rebellion. You helped limit it at the last minute.”

“Good. You should thank me,” I said.

“Sorry. At the limit,” she said.

“Damn. True.” She chuckled as I ran. Then I saw the ship as I moved around another large floating cloud. Straight ahead the Going Merry was a little beat up but intact. As we got to it Luffy noticed us.

“Weston!” He yelled. Soon others ran to the railing waving at us.

“Your fan club is calling,” Robin said from my back.

“Robin!” Sanji yelled. “I was so worried!”

“There’s your fan club,” I said. She laughed as we got closer. I jumped up to the deck letting her slide off my back as the others surrounded us.

“Anyone missing?” I asked as I counted heads.

“Nope,” Nami said. “Just you 2.”

“You alright there Cricket?” I asked. The big man was lost looking out onto the sky sea. He turned back to us, tears in his eyes.

“We read the book,” Nami said. Zoro nodded.

“Book?” Robin asked.

“I’ll let you borrow it,” I said. “Basically, everything has spiritual energy, called Haki. When you learn to use this Haki you can use it in fighting. There is a form of it called Observation Haki, it let’s you listen to the Haki of everything around you. Thus you know everything that is going on. A rock at your foot, a bullet flying your way, a punch thrown your way, you sense it all.”

“I have been trying to train it for a while. I haven’t learned to use it in fights yet, or call on it much. But I have somehow attuned myself to the spiritual energy around me. I can listen to it. Allowing me to hear the story of everything around me,” I said. They weren’t buying it.

“This temple for instance,” I said. “Virgins were sacrificed here by the original inhabitants of this land. They sacrificed to a snake god. Trying to appease their god when bad things happened.”

“What else can you hear?” Nami asked.

“I can hear all of your spiritual energy,” I said. “Have been for a while. How do you think I know so much about you?” I asked.

“Prove it,” Zoro said. Not accusatory, more like he wanted to see a party trick.

“What do you want me to tell you?” I asked, ready for a challenge.

“Which one of my swords is cursed?” He asked.

“That one,” I said pointing to the sword he got in Logue Town. The one he threw in the air ready to cut his arm off, but his luck held.

Zoro frowned. “What do you know about me? You and I never talked about it,” he said.

“Did you talk about it with anyone on the ship?” I asked. He shook his head. “You promised your childhood friend to become the strongest swordsman in the world after she died by falling down the stairs.”

Zoro’s eyes bulged. He cursed under his breath. “Proof enough for me,” he said.

“Do me, do me,” Chopper said, raising his cute hooves up.

“You wanted to become a doctor to honor the man that raised you,” I said.

“Magic,” Chopper said, his eyes wide.

“Happy?” I asked the other girls. They already knew I knew their backstories. “It’s kind of useless in a fight, but gives me the general idea about what’s going on.”

“What’s going on here then?” Nami asked. “Why were we taken?”

“A game?” I asked, not quite sure how to explain it. “So Skypiea is run by a man they call god. The lackeys of this god guy take us. Send the others here. They’ll have to fight strong guys to come save us.”

“Great,” Zoro said. “Going to have to save those idiots.”

“Probably. From what I can tell, the people here are a lot stronger than the Baroque Works lackeys...no offense Robin,” I said. She glared at me.

“Can you tell what I’m thinking?” Chopper asked, his eyes wide.

“We are past that,” I told him. “But no, I can tell history, maybe a little of the future, but no thoughts or actions.”

“What number am I thinking of?” Chopper asked.

“Chopper, I have a big book under my bed, would you mind getting it?” I asked. He nodded and was running off.

“Back to the important item,” Nami said. “What do you mean the city of gold was here?”

“I mean that this place isn’t uninhabited. It used to be around here somewhere. Whoever lives here probably took it,” I said. Nami put on a dejected look. “Don’t get sad. We will just have to take it from them. They kidnapped us, remember?” Her face was soon beaming a smile as her eyes turned back into the berrie symbol.

“What should we do?” Robin asked.

“Look around,” I said. “Zoro’s right. It might be best if we try to help the others get here.”

“What about the ship?” Zoro asked.

“I’ll stay and watch it,” I said. “Just in case they get here. Try to plan to be back here by dark?”

“Works for me,” Zoro said.

“I would like to go with you,” Robin said to Zoro. I got a little jealous since I was trying to get back in Robin’s good graces. Then again, Zoro only cared about the sword, I knew nothing would happen between them.

“Should I go?” Nami asked.

“Up to you,” I said. “It would be just me, and you, and Chopper here.” I sent her a wink that the others couldn’t see. She smiled big.

“Yeah, I’ll stay,” she said.

“How are we going to get across?” Zoro asked.

Robin used her power to grow an arm on one of the large trees above. The arm tore a vine off and it was soon swinging down to us. Zoro grabbed it and swung across the water, Tarzan yelling the whole way across. I regretted staying, I wanted to try it.