Chapter 106: Mystery
"Well, we know where we're going next. The question is how do we get to an island that is high up in the sky? " Luffy wondered.
" We can figure that out later! Let's search through the ship! " Usopp shouted. Luffy grinned and got up.
" Alright! Usopp! Zoro! Let's go! Don't make sudden movements though because it might sink!"
" Got it captain!! "
While the three were searching through the ship for evidence of a sky island. Robin managed to figure out what the ship's name was and where it was originally from with some skull fixing and looking through some books.
It is a ship called St. Briss from the Briss Kingdom in the South Blue that set sailed 208 years ago.
The trio who explored the ship arrived back after a couple of minutes of searching through it. Luffy grinned excitedly as he was holding up a piece of old paper.
"Look at this Nami! A map of a sky island called Skypiea!!!" Luffy declared. Everyone gathered around him and studied the map. They noticed that Skypiea in general is located on an absolutely gigantic mass of fossilized clouds.
"I've actually heard some rumors about it from the black market in Alabasta." Kaya revealed, making everybody look at her.
"Rumors say that this cloud is called an Imperial Cumulus. It is a mass of clouds so dense and ancient that it could be described as 'petrified'. Because of this density, the Imperial Cumulus does not have an atmospheric current and can never condense into rain, but it still manages to float on the sky somehow. " Kaya explained.
"Also, due to it being so dense, sunlight cannot penetrate it, meaning that any region in the Blue Sea caught below the Imperial Cumulus's range will darken nearly instantly, almost as if nighttime had suddenly come. " Kaya added.
"Did you get the location of where it usually moves around? " Nami asked. Kaya nodded.
" It's around the region of Jaya." Kaya replied. Nami hummed.
"Nami, you did ask Cobra to give you a box full of Eternal Poses and navigation books as a gift right? Maybe there's an Eternal Pose to Jaya." Luffy asked her. Nami brightened up.
" I did ask him that! Let me go check!" Nami ran back to the women's room. The Straw Hat Pirates were lucky, as Nami did have an Eternal Pose to Jaya.
So their next destination was to Jaya. However, they couldn't stay there for long as the Log Pose could get locked into Jaya's magnetic field and they didn't want that.
"Should we salvage the ship?" Usopp asked. Nami shook her head.
"No. Although I would love to find some treasure for myself, Most of it must've rusted away by now and our time would be wasted. Let's focus on our main mission." Nami replied.
" Alright crew!! Set sail to Jaya!!!!"
Chopper quickly went to the helm and started controlling where the ship was heading, Nami was doing her navigator duties.
Kaya, being the geographer of the crew, started explaining the layout and notable locations of Jaya.
Jaya is a spring island in Paradise and consists mostly of tropical rainforests inhabited by gigantic insects and the elusive South Birds. The island itself has the shape of a jagged 'U'.
She also explained to Nami that The Log Pose will change after four days staying there. The magnetic field of Skypiea will still lock into their Log Pose if they don't stay there for long.
Continuing her explanation about Jaya, Kaya explained that there was a town called Mock Town which is a port town of Jaya. It is inhabited mostly by pirates, despite it looking like a resort.
Mock Town is the only urban area in the whole of Jaya.
Despite its resort-like appearance, it is considered a lawless town where all sorts of pirates gather, away from the Marines or the World Government's reach.
"So there will definitely be trouble when we go there." Usopp muttered.
" Let's just hope that our wanted posters intimidate them enough to stay away from us. I like fighting and all, but the adventure comes first. " Luffy added. And so, the Straw Hat Pirates started sailing towards the lawless island, Jaya.
While sailing there, the sky suddenly turned dark, covering even the sun. Everyone faced the sudden change in weather bravely because they were armed with Kaya's explanation about what happens around the region of Jaya.
Everything was going well until something impossible happened. Everyone was looking at something in front of them with fear in their eyes.
Usopp started stuttering out of pure fear. Even the stoic Robin stepped back a couple of times out of fear before tripping and landing on the ground on her butt.
Zoro who was usually stoic was full of fear too. Luffy who was more fearless than the most fearless man in the world, was scared at what he and his crew were seeing.
What was blocking the way of the Straw Hat Pirates were five giant shadow humanoid behemoths, each having a pair of giant wings and wielding spears that were taller than their gigantic body.
It was impossibly taller than the tallest building in the real world. Luffy raised his shaking hand and gritted his teeth.
"NO FEAR!!!!! CHARGE FORWARD!!!!" He shouted loudly to everyone's shock. Luffy unsheathed his cutlass and imbued it with his Armament Haki, causing the cutlass to be clad in black coating.
Luffy started running, he jumped onto the figurehead of the Going Merry and leaped towards the giant silhouettes.
"Luffy no!!!" Everyone screamed out in horror. Robin looked on with a horrified expression.
The center of the five shadow behemoths raised his spear with the rest following his lead. Everyone thought they were about to attack Luffy.
"DIVINE DEPARTURE!!!!!!"
Luffy who had his Haki imbued cutlass in his right hand, swung his sword horizontally, sending a massive red colored slash attack towards the humanoid behemoths.
The attack literally phased through them and went somewhere. Luffy widened his eyes in shock.
"I didn't know this is what happens when we're caught below it." Kaya whispered while trembling uncontrollably. Usopp hugged her and tried to calm her down.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!*
Suddenly, a giant explosion rang out of nowhere. It was caused by Luffy's Divine Departure attack which landed on the sea.
The shockwave of the explosion spread throughout the sea created violent waves that shook the Going Merry violently.
Luffy landed back on the deck of the ship and started ordering his crew to their positions.
He, Zoro, Sanji, Usopp and Chopper in his Heavy Point form started rowing the Going Merry away from the humanoid behemoths. Nami started guiding them on where to row towards, which was away from the behemoths and towards Jaya.
After a while of escaping the behemoths, they were finally back on calm waters again. The ones who rowed the Going Merry breathed out a sigh of relief and laid on the deck of the ship.
"Today has been a very weird and scary day. Definitely number 1 in my list of top 10 most scariest days of my life." Sanji muttered while lighting up a cigarette.
"First of all, a 200 year old ship fell out of the sky." Zoro whispered.
"The Log Pose keeps pointing up and a sky island possibly exists." Nami whispered while leaning against Luffy.
"Then we were covered by a cloud whose existence is logically impossible." Robin whispered.
"And lastly, giant monsters a hundred times bigger than Dorry and Brogy showed up when everything was going smoothly. What a day indeed. " Luffy muttered while shaking his head. He then started laughing loudly.
" SHISHISHISHISHI!!!!! That was fun wasn't it?! You should've seen you guys' faces! Usopp was definitely about to shit his pants back there!! " Luffy laughed hysterically, shocking everyone.
"Oi! That was you, Luffy! Don't think I didn't see your hand shaking back there!!!" Usopp argued back, making Luffy laugh harder. Zoro started laughing with him.
"I've never been this scared in my entire life. That was a fun experience indeed." Zoro agreed with Luffy. Sanji laughed while blowing out smoke from his cigarette.
"Now I really want to see our faces when we see those guys. Shame the ship doesn't have a camera. " Sanji muttered while smiling a little. The crew started talking about the experience. They all had smiles on their faces while talking about the subject, which made Robin confused.
'Why would they be so happy about experiencing a near death situation?' She asked herself and looked at Luffy who was laughing and grinning throughout the whole conversation.
Luffy then suddenly looked at her, making Robin quickly look away from him. "Hey, Robin! What about you? What did you feel when you saw them?" Luffy asked him. Robin laughed nervously.
"I had the same reaction as all of you. Now if you will excuse me—
" Hey, don't just walk away from us like that, Robin!" Luffy stretched out his right arm and grabbed Robin's arm gently. Robin widened her eyes in shock as Luffy yanked her towards him.
Luffy wrapped his rubbery arm around her waist and put her down so that she was sitting beside him. He didn't let go of his grip on her.
"Oi! Luffy! You're gonna break her back with how strong you are!" Sanji scolded but was ignored by his captain.
"Now you're can't escape! Now Robin, describe what your reaction was. I want you to make it as long as possible, mostly because I wanna hear your voice but also I want you to stop being so shy." Luffy grinned at her.
" You can count on us! When you join my crew, that automatically makes you my friend, which would mean it automatically makes you my crew's friends too. So you don't have to worry about betrayals and distrust and all that crap. I promise you. " Luffy looked at her cerulean blue eyes with a serious gaze. Robin gulped under his gaze.
"You know what? Let's change subjects. Robin, can you tell us what your favorite egg dish is? Everyone knows each other's favorite egg dishes, now it's only you left. " Luffy suggested. Robin was taken aback in her mind while she still maintained her calm front. It was because she thought Luffy would ask her about something serious, not something as mundane and random as this.
"A-are you sure, captain?"
"Yes, Robin! I'm 1000% sure about my question!"
"A-alright then...."
To be continued...
(Fun fact: Robin likes fried egg, sunny side up, steamed with black pepper.)
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