One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter One Hundred and Ten [Rewritten]

"We want to go to the Sky Islands!" Luffy grinned. "They're past this gate, right?" he asked.

"Can we say all of the above?" Zoro asked.

"It makes little difference" Amazon admitted. "But if you wish to proceed, you must first pay the fee of 1,000,000,000 extols per person—that is the law" she explained.

"What? 1,000,000,000?!" Usopp gaped.

"They're big on these extols around here..." Sanji muttered.

"It's almost like that's their form of currency up here or something" I deadpanned.

"I can't even count that high—I wonder how much that would be in belis" Usopp pondered.

"It's got to be a lot, I mean a billion of anything sounds expensive" Chopper said.

"A billion per person, which makes 8,000,000,000 total" Robin counted.

"Something's fishy here, 8,000,000,000 just to go through a stupid gate? I think the old hag is trying to scam us" Usopp bitterly spat.

"You mean extortion us" I corrected.

"Listen, about the money" Nami piped up. "What if, you know, we don't have it?" she asked, quick to cover Usopp's mouth before he could really make another bitter remark.

"You may still pass" Amazon responded.

"What? Seriously?" Usopp owlishly blinked.

"What happened to saying that it was the law that we must pay the fee? Isn't much of a law if you don't enforce it" I frowned, before grunting as Nami smacked the back of my head.

"Shut up," she glared, "we get to pass by freely—just go with it!" she hissed as I only gave another grunt before nodding as I rubbed the back of my head.

"The choice is yours, I certainly won't try to stop you" Amazon said. "My job description does not require me to actually guard the gate, I'm merely here to ask your intentions" she confessed.

"So that settles it, we want to go to the Sky Islands!" Luffy grinned.

"But we don't have any money so we can't pay you" Usopp added.

"Very well, the eight of you then?" the old woman asked.

"Yeah, except we still need you to tell us how to get there" Luffy said before flinching when something suddenly burst out from underneath the clouds. "What the heck is that?" he asked, looking down in awe at the giant lobster claws that came up on either side of the ship before clamping down tightly on the broken wings that had been destroyed by the Knock Up Stream.

"The White Sea's famous Express Lobster" Amazon answered as our ship was lifted onto the giant crustacean's back.

"Ah! We're moving!" Usopp cried as the lobster began to swim up the waterfall, taking us with it.

"It's a giant monster!" Chopper screamed.

"Seems it's taking us up the waterfall" Zoro remarked, leaning back against the ship's railing as he wrapped an arm around my waist.

"Yep, guess this is one way to get to the top" I said, grabbing hold of the railing behind me while leaning in close to him.

"Everybody, hang on tight!" Nami ordered as she and the rest found something to grab hold of.

"Gotcha" Zoro nodded, tightening his grip around me.

"I can't really stop you from falling off the ship, I'm not bolted down" I told him.

"I know" he grinned. "But at least if I fall, I won't be alone."

"Ah, I see" I snorted. "Good to know that if you're going down, I'm going with you—what a good crewmate you are" I teasingly grinned while bumping my hip against his which only caused his own grin to grow.

"It's so fast" Sanji remarked as Usopp started to cry and fearfully babble out utter nonsense that I couldn't quite make out. "My money says we live through this" he suddenly betted.

"A cloud road that goes straight up, you might want to reconsider that bet" Zoro said.

"Oh! Are we doing bets?" I perked up. "Dibs on the possibility that we die a horribly, painful death!" I chirped before snickering when I saw just how pale Usopp became upon hearing such words leave my mouth.

"I hope you lose that bet!" he screamed.

"I wonder if this cloud is a natural formation of the clouds" Nami curiously pondered, ignoring us all as she clung to Sanji who was practically swooning at the ability to hold her so close to his person.

"There's nothing natural about this at all!" Usopp cried as he was now being held down by Zoro's foot so he wouldn't go flying off the ship.

"Having fun?" I asked, peering down at him from my spot next to the swordsman.

"You know damn well I'm not!" he snapped up at me.

"Look! The exit!" Chopper pointed. "They put up a big sign showing us" he noted while directing everyone's attention toward the brightly lit sign up ahead.