One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty Seven [Rewritten]

"Tell me about it..." Nami muttered as she softly huffed in agreement.

"Well, it's not ready yet" Sanji scolded. "Weren't you just cramming Sky Fish down your gullet not ten minutes ago?" he asked.

"Yeah, but that was just an appetizer—I figured you knew that!" Luffy argued.

"Yeah, didn't you know that, Sanji?" I chuckled. "I mean, how could you expect such a measly little Sky Fish to sate our captain's appetite?"

"Yeah, Skylar understands" Luffy nodded with a huff, pleased to know someone was on his size as Sanji rolled his eyes.

"He must have a rubber stomach too..." Nami grumbled to herself as her temper slowly started to rise the longer she listened to the captain complain about his hunger.

"Yeah, tell me about it" Robin agreed as she crossed her arms.

"The day he's ever full will be the day the world ends" I hummed as my gaze now drifted around our small campsite, looking and watching everyone as they busied themselves while waiting for the food to get done.

"Yes, finished!" Nami excitedly cheered which caused me to curiously look her way once more.

"Soups on, but it's ladies first—got it?" Sanji instructed as he handed three bowls over to Chopper, making sure that the reindeer understood that he needed to give these first three bowls to us ladies first and not any of the men.

"Sure" the reindeer nodded in understanding.

"If you all would please take your seat, I'll be around with your meals shortly, and eat up—I don't want it getting cold" Sanji told us all.

"Now, if you will all listen up while we eat, I'll explain how we're going to handle this tomorrow" Nami said as Chopper handed her, Robin, and me our bowls of stew.

"Thank you" I gently smiled, patting the top of the reindeer's head as he brightly beamed before heading off to finish distributing the rest of the stew.

"Oh! This looks tasty!" Usopp complimented.

"You said it" Nami smiled as she mindlessly handed her bowl over to the sharpshooter without a second thought. Looking around camp, I was quick in making my way over toward Zoro when I spotted him laying a little ways away from the rest of the group. He must have taken refuge over there to nap in peace.

"Wake up, sleepyhead, food's ready" I grinned as I plopped down next to the resting swordsman who only grumbled as he tiredly peeked an eye open.

"Hey, this is important you guys!" Nami frowned when she saw that not many of us were actually listening to her.

"Then I'm all ears, Nami sweet!" Sanji cooed as he filled up more bowls with stew.

"Me too!" Luffy eagerly nodded.

"Wow! Check out the heart-shaped carrots!" Usopp suddenly exclaimed as I swirled my stew around with my spoon. Watching as the steam rose off of it in waves only to quickly disappear into the air. "You really go the extra mile, Sanji" he praised. Sparing a glance, I chuckled the minute I saw the irritated expression on the blonde's face as he harshly glared down at the obvious sharpshooter.

"Perhaps you should have kept your mouth shut, Usopp" I softly laughed.

"Huh?" Usopp blinked.

"You're welcome" Sanji grounded out. "Yes, I did all that just to impress you, Usopp" he seethed as he tightly he clutched his ladle.

"Um...alright...?" Usopp hesitantly nodded, sounding rather confused as he warily looked at the blond with a raised brow, not quite understanding why he looked and sounded so annoyed at the moment.

"Anyways, let's review Noland's book first" Nami cleared her throat in an attempt to grab everyone's attention once more. "He discovered the City of Gold four hundred years ago. However, after leaving the island and returning with his kind, he found that the gold ruins had vanished—luckily, we know what happened to these ruins" she grinned.

"Keep the ladle handy" Luffy said, cutting the ginger off before she could say any more as he grabbed his bowl of stew. "I'll be back for more after I—" he was cut off by the pot's lid suddenly and harshly being smashed down on top of his head.

"Sanji, pay attention!" Nami snapped.

"I was, but he was interrupting you!" Sanji defended as he quickly put all the blame on Luffy.

"Now, now, Sanji" I chastised with the wave of my spoon. "It's not nice to point fingers."

"Hey, I complimented his food and this is the thanks I get? Sheesh!" Luffy pouted as he rubbed the top of his head.

"The point I was getting at was that the gold didn't sink in the ocean, but was shot into the sky by the Knock Up Stream, just like we were" Nami huffed as she quickly finished saying what she had been attempting to say this entire time.

"Do you really think a whole island could have done that?" Chopper asked, tilting his head.

"Yeah, it just doesn't seem possible for a whole island to be shot up into the sky and stay there" I agreed, still finding it a bit difficult to wrap my head around the fact that the island was able to be carried all the way up here and not fall back down to the ground below thanks to gravity.

"Well, it's the only thing that could make sense" Nami argued. "Remember? Cricket said that every time this phenomenon occurs, it's in a different location" she pointed out.

"Yeah, that explosion was enormous, so I'm not surprised it lifted an island" Usopp said.

"It's just hard to believe that the forest we're sitting in is the same as the one we saw back on Jaya" Zoro admitted as he looked around and took note of just how much different this island was compared to the one on the ground.

"I believe that has something to do with the odd composition that the island clouds appear to have" Robin said. "Look at all the trees, fish, and wildlife—something about this environment dramatically increases growth rates, which explains how a society here could have been swallowed up by these enforces."

"Huh? So tragic" Sanji hummed.

"That also explains why the South Birds that saved us were so huge, I couldn't believe it" Chopper said, giving mention to the giant South Birds that had come to his and the Sky Knight's rescue.

"Four hundred years of growing would do that to a bird" Zoro nodded.

"Some breeds are known to live long lives, plus breeding would have also played a huge part—no doubt with each new generation, they only got bigger in an attempt to adapt and thrive in their new environment" I hummed.

"Then why here?" Sanji questioned as he tossed the swordsman his bowl of stew before taking a seat beside me. "Why'd the South Birds go to such lengths to save you guys?" he asked.

"Um...I don't know" Chopper shrugged. "But when they saw him, they referred to the Sky Knight as God" he revealed.

"He's God? So if we beat the crap out of this guy, our job here is done?" Luffy questioned.

"Luffy, no" I said, quick in wanting to dissuade him from attempting to beat up the old man that had just saved our friend.

"No, genius! How did you get that out of what he was saying?!" Usopp frowned.

"Will both you loudmouths just pipe down!" Nami snapped.

"Yeah, shut up" Usopp echoed right at Luffy.

"Yeah—wait, who's the loudmouth?" Luffy asked.