One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter One Hundred and Forty Seven [Rewritten]

-Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Seven-

"Luffy, something's wrong! You have to come down now!" Sanji shouted to the still-bouncing teen. Before any more could be said, the two screamed as they suddenly lost their balance and came tumbling down the side of the octopus' head and if it wasn't for Luffy's Devil Fruit abilities, they most certainly would have fallen all the way down to possibly their deaths. Luffy only laughed, tightly clutching the railing of the ship while Sanji clung to him as they now dangled there.

"That was scary, I wonder why the octopus isn't bouncing anymore" Luffy curiously pondered, quick to realize that their loss of balance had been a result of the octopus losing elasticity.

"I told you! It's shrinking, bonehead!" Sanji snapped as the rest of us sighed in relief upon seeing that they were truly fine. Such relief was short-lived though as we were soon filled with dread the minute the ship started picking up speed in its descent. It felt as if the ship was moving a lot faster than us as we became airborne, our feet lifting off the deck as the ship plummeted further down without us.

"That's weird, how did the ship get below us?" Luffy asked, curiously tilting his head.

"We're falling! We're falling!" Usopp wailed.

"Not again!" I cried, my arms quick in finding themselves wrapped around Zoro's head once more.

"Wait, Skylar—" I pulled him close, cutting him off as I buried his face once more inside my bosom and tightly clung onto him for safety. Wrapping my entire body around his, I screwed my eyes shut as fear took hold and I now told myself that as long as I held him close than everything was going to be just fine. A childish thought, no different from the times I would tightly cling to Cloud in my younger years whenever the nightmares would get too bad or when the fear would get too strong, strong believing that as long as he held me then everything would be alright.

"We're going to hit the sea so hard we'll sink to the bottom!" Nami fearfully cried.

"Only if the ship doesn't shatter first" Robin pointed out.

"Shatter?! No way!" Usopp gasped.

"Usopp, what are you going to do?!" Chopper whimpered as he watched how the sharpshooter suddenly pulled on some shoes that had an octopi design on the bottom of them before he pulled himself up onto the ship's railing.

"What I always do—save our lives, of course!" he boldly proclaimed, puffing out his chest in an attempt to look brave and confident despite the trembling of his body.

"What are you doing?" Nami asked.

"Are you crazy, Usopp?!" Sanji frowned as the sharpshooter attached a hook to the railing.

"Usopp Ahh!" Usopp screamed as he jumped back, quickly disappearing out of sight until he was most likely underneath the ship. I wasn't exactly sure what it was he planned to do, but whatever it was, it seemed to work as the ship started to slow back down into a gentle float.

"We're floating down!" Nami gaped.

"T-thank goodness..." I shivered, slowly removing myself from Zoro whose head tilted back as a small trickle of blood leaked from his nose. There was a blush staining his cheek while the tiniest hints of a blissful smile pulled at his lips as he seemed to almost be in a bit of a daze.

"Alright!" Luffy cheered.

"A-are we safe now?" Chopper shakily asked, still crying as he clung to the ship's railing for safety.

"It sure seems like it" Robin nodded.

"Let's hope it stays that way until we land" I sighed as Usopp swung himself back up to us.