Canon Fodder

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. 

“It’s really here,” Cricket said. “It’s…heaven,” he said. 

“Trust me, this isn’t heaven,” I said. “This place has a lot of problems going on. Now, what did we miss?” 

They caught me up. It was pretty much what happened in the canon. The skiing guy attacked them and they were saved by a sky knight. The sky knight offered to save them one more time with the blow of a special whistle. 

After that things flowed rather quickly. We were in a lower part of the Sky Island. We took a passage up to where Skypiea actually was. We got our photos taken for going through the passage without paying. And I let the canon flow. 

Meeting locals. Their explanations on the area and the cool sky gadgets. I knew it all and decided to take a nap. I forgot how quickly things happened with the Straw Hats. In MHA there were at least a few weeks in between big stuff. 

It wasn’t until way later that I was woken up by Nami. Half awake I pulled her to me, kissing her quickly before she could stop me. 

“Not now,” she whispered. We hadn’t had time to be alone since on the deck after Alabasta. 

“Just a little,” I mumbled. “No one is down here for once.” 

She kissed me quickly then pulled away. “You have work to do. We got kidnapped by a shrimp.” 

“A what?” I asked as I received the quest. 

One Piece Quest 7:

Assist the release of the Skypieans from the clutches of God Enel

Rewards:

Conqueror's Haki

My eyes bulged as I read the reward. Conqueror’s Haki was the rarest of all the Haki’s. I had the potential to buy a book for it, but how I understood it, not everyone had it. Only about 1 in a million people could use it. Maybe more. It allowed the release of spiritual energy, and whoever didn’t have enough was typically knocked out by it. I wondered if having it as a reward meant I could use it like my other skills, or would I still have to learn to control it. 

“A giant shrimp,” Nami said. “It grabbed the ship and took us to this island.” 

“Alright alright, let me see what’s up. I don’t remember this at all,” I mumbled. I needed to stop getting so cocky about the story. We got outside and I found that we were in a large forest. But not the forest I had seen so far on the sky island, they had all had palm trees. These were giant 500 foot tall trees that were at least 20 feet in diameter. Robin and Chopper were on the deck. 

“Weston!” Chopper said in his cute voice. “You were here?”

“I found him napping,” Nami said. “Next time tell people where the hell you are.” 

“Sorry, I thought we were good for a bit,” I said. I was slowly remembering this part as I walked to the ship railing. Around us was a marsh-like area. White murky clouds on top of the water all around us there were about 150 feet between us and the earth. Which was actual earth, not the physical clouds we had been standing on since arriving on sky island. 

“Anyone else here?” I asked. 

“Zoro’s trying to swim to shore,” Robin said, pointing out to him. Just then a giant sea shark shot out of the water going for him. Zoro had his swords out instantly and blocked the snakes mouth, but he was pushed into the water by the momentum of the beast. 

“Weston! Save him!” Chopper yelled as he cried out. 

“He’s fine,” I said. “I thought Cricket was on the ship.” 

“He’s with the others,” Robin said as the snake floated to the top and Zoro surfaced next to it. Breathing heavily the snake did not stir as he sheathed his sword. 

“Swimming is out!” Zoro yelled up as he began to swim back. The ship was on a brickwork temple/altar area at the center of the water. “There are a bunch of these things below.” His words were made clear as more water stirred in the water. Fins of the sea sharks showing over the water. 

“That’s fine, I can get us out in a pinch,” I yelled down to him. 

“Oh Weston, what were you doing here?” Zoro asked. 

“Napping,” I said. “Too much excitement lately for me.” 

“Any idea where we are?” Zoro asked. 

“Looks like a sacrificial altar,” I said looking to the pyramidal templetop under us. “Probably where the Jayan’s used to sacrifice their virgins.”

“Virgins?!” Nami asked. “Jayans? What do you mean?” 

“We are on Jaya,” I said looking around. “But not the part back below. The one that Cricket said was shot into the air.”

“What makes you say that?” Robin asked. 

“The trees, the literal soil, and the fact that it’s what we came here to find,” I said. The girls gave me a confused look as Zoro jumped up. “Remember, it’s where the city of gold is supposed to be.”

“I forgot!” Nami said, her eyes turning into Berrie signs, which were like a $ sign but instead of a S there was a B. “You really think the gold’s here?” 

“I think it was,” I said. 

“Enough with this crap,” Robin said. “You know a whole lot more than you’re telling us.” 

“What?” I asked, hurt by the accusation. But I had already decided on a plan to explain things. 

“You seem to know a lot of things you shouldn’t,” Robin said. “I would like to stop being in the dark.” Zoro and Nami gave me a look that said they agreed. 

“Fine,” I said. Sitting on the railing as I faced them. “You know Haki.” 

“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.