-Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-One-
"Really?" Nami brightened as her sour mood instantly lifted upon hearing this news.
"As long as you ride the current, nobody will be able to catch you" Conis assured us.
"I got it! We won't tell Luffy, we'll just sail the Going Merry into the current!" Nami grinned, eyes sparkling at this ingenious plan of hers.
"And what? We just hope that he doesn't notice until it's too late?" Chopper questioned.
"I mean, Luffy's not always the brightest tool in the toolshed, but I doubt he'd be too stupid to realize what we're doing" I said.
"Even so, I seriously doubt he'll give up on his quest" Robin remarked, causing a low growl of annoyance to leave the back of Nami's throat.
"If you like, I'll be happy to guide you to the entrance of the current to make sure you set off for home safely" Conis offered.
"That's kind of you" I smiled.
"Great! Now we just have to make sure Luffy doesn't catch wind of what's going on!" Nami clapped, deadset on following through with this plan of hers no matter what. "But don't worry, we'll take care of that" she assured the young woman.
"Then ready your ship and I'll be back with the others as soon as I can" Conis smiled.
"You got it" Nami nodded. "We really appreciate it, Conis" she softly smiled in return as she expressed her gratitude toward the blonde.
"You're welcome" Conis nodded as her smile suddenly became strained and a nervous sweat began to build itself upon her brow. No longer did she look relaxed—instead, she looked anxious, yet she still attempted to keep the appearance of someone that was calm. It was a stance that I knew all too well and one that made my brows furrow in confusion.
"Bye, Conis—see you in a bit!" Nami waved as the angel left to go and retrieve the others for us.
"Be right back!" she called back with her own wave.
"Finally, a light at the end of the tunnel!" Nami grinned as she turned toward Robin and me. "For a while there, I was really getting worried" she sighed in contentment as if this new plan of ours seemed to just instantly put her at ease.
"I'm still a bit skeptical that the current will actually take us home" Robin suddenly admitted.
"I see no reason why Conis would lie to us, but it does seem a bit fishy" I nodded, scratching at my cheek. I didn't want to think poorly of the blonde due to how nice she and her father have been to us since we arrived...but it was hard to trust what she had said after seeing how nervous she became right there at the end as if she had something eating away at her from the inside that she couldn't tell us.
"Why's that?" Nami questioned, curiously tilting her head.
"If what she said is true and this current really exists, wouldn't it stand to reason we would hear more stories of people returning safely from Sky Island?" Robin inquired.
"But you must remember, very few people ever managed to find their way up here in the first place" Nami quickly counteracted. "So, of course, you're not going to hear many stories of people coming back" she pointed out.
"She's got a point" I couldn't help but agree.
"And even if they did find the current, there's no guarantee their ship could withstand the height which it requires" Chopper piped up.
"Good point, a lot of captains don't know when to call it quits" Nami nodded in agreement.
"Like our captain?" I asked.
"Don't remind me..." she groaned before shaking her head. "Now, let's hurry and weigh anchor—get ready to sail! Chopper, use your weight bonus and help us out with the heavy lifting!" she ordered.
"I keep telling you it's called Heavy Point" the reindeer pouted.
"What?" Nami questioned, not really bothering to listen to the doctor's complaint.
"Nothing, never mind" he sighed, shaking his head as he set off to work.
"Now, wake up Zoro" Nami instructed.
"But how?" Robin asked.
"I got this" I smiled as I cracked my fingers.
"Don't worry, I don't need his help" Chopper piped up, quick in wanting to dissuade us from waking the still-sleeping swordsman.
"You sure? Cause I don't mind waking him up if you want me to" I said as the reindeer nodded, making it clear that he could handle the work all on his own without the moss-haired man's help. "Alright, tough guy, we'll leave it to you then" I smiled, giggling at the way he blush and bashfully grumbled to himself at the compliment.
"We better hurry, Conis gave us this chance and we can't waste it" Nami said as Chopper began pulling up the anchor.
-Later-
"Now we wait for Luffy and the others to get back" Nami smiled once she saw that everything had been prepared for us to take off immediately once the others returned. "All set?" she asked, pulling on a shirt over her bikini top as I straightened out my own clothing that I had recently changed into—a red one-sleeved shirt with a black tank top underneath and black jeans.
"All set" Chopper firmly nodded.
"We're ready to leave whenever" I said before stumbling back until I fell right on my ass as something suddenly shot out from underneath the water which created large and violent waves that shook the ship. "What?" I owlishly blinked.
"Chopper! Skylar!" Nami yelped. "What's going on?!" she frantically asked, gaze quickly darting towards the now still water as the once harsh waves settled back down.
"What's going on?" Zoro yawned as he was slowly awoken by the harsh movements of the ship once it started to violently shake again.
"I'm not sure, I think something's underneath the ship" I guessed while trying to push myself back up into a standing position—tightly gripping the ship's railing to balance myself as it continued rocking back and forth. "Shit..." I lowly cursed, grip tightened when I was nearly knocked back down.
"I think we might already be caught in the current" Chopper suggested as I finally stood up...only to immediately stumble back again and trip over my own two feet once I let go of the railing after feeling assured that I wouldn't lose my balance—boy, was I wrong. This time though, I didn't feel myself hit the ground as it seems Zoro was quick to catch me.
"Careful" he softly frowned as he peered down at me.
"I'll think about it" I responded, smiling up at him as he snorted.
"I think we're being dragged away, but by what?" Nami worriedly asked as the ship suddenly started to move forward all on its own. I felt my heart immediately twist when Chopper suddenly gave a loud fearful wail, already on the verge of tears.
"You sure we're not stuck in that current Conis told us about?" Zoro asked as he straightened me out on my own two feet, revealing that he had somewhat been listening in on the conversation between us all and Conis despite having looked to be asleep the entire time. I felt him rest a hand on my lower back as if to prevent me from intentionally losing my balance again.
"No, I think we have a bigger issue here" Robin shook her head.
"The fuck is that thing?" I questioned as I peered out into the water, quickly spotting something just barely poking itself out of the water's surface underneath us. It was difficult to make out its shape at first as I squinted my eyes in an attempt to see through the raging waves.
"A giant lobster? Just like the one that brought us up here!" Nami gasped, shocked to see the giant sea crustacean that was currently carrying us on its back.
"Oh, you're right" I nodded once I saw she was right.
"Guys, we're being hijacked—we're going have to abandon ship!" Zoro frowned. "Come on, we have to move right now while we still have time!" he ordered, grabbing my hand as he motioned for everyone to quickly get off the ship as fast as they could.
"We can't leave the ship!" Chopper cried. "Without it, we won't be able to get back home!" he argued, not wanting to just willingly go and leave the ship behind.
"And Usopp wouldn't be too please if we just up and abandoned the Merry—you know how much he cares for her!" I frowned, my heart aching just a little at the thought of how distraught the sharpshooter would be if we all just upped and left the Merry like this.
"Then I'll stay behind" Zoro offered.
"You will not! You don't even know where this lobster is exactly taking us!" I argued, quick to shoot down that offer of his without a second thought.
"Forget it, you can't defend the whole ship by yourself!" Nami frowned.
"I'll manage" and with that, he let go of my hand and hopped down on top of the lobster beneath us.
"It's not going to work! The shell of a lobster, especially this big, should be as hard as steel!" I called down to him, watching in slight annoyance as he ignored me and continued to slash at the sea crustacean only for his swords to clash and bounce right off the shell with no effect. It took a few minutes before it even started to eventually show cracks and even then, they didn't look that big or life-threatening.
"I don't think that that will get you anywhere" Robin said as she lowered the ship's ladder and motioned for the swordsman to climb back aboard the ship. "Come back onboard" she said.
"Why should I?" Zoro huffed in defiance.
"You'll never be able to damage that creature—besides, we've got bigger problems now, look" she motioned.
"What?" Zoro asked, turning his head as he now spotted the school of Sky Fish swimming after us.
"A school of vicious Sky Fish are now following us, ready to attack—we can't jump ship and escape now" Robin explained. "Even if we managed to defeat the Sky Fish, I'm sure that more will arrive to take their place—our punishment has already begun and there's no way to stop it."
"Heaven's Judgment, they must be taking us to the Forbidden Island" Zoro said once he realized what the older woman meant. "Guess they got tired of waiting, Heaven's really got it in for us..." he grumbled.
"I guess it makes sense that we'd be taken straight to God for our Divine Punishment" I sighed.
"Oh no! Please, I can't go back there!" Nami wailed, already dropping to her knees and clasping her hands together in prayer once she also realized where we were going. "Luffy, help us! Sanji! Usopp!" she cried as if the three would magically hear her and come straight to our rescue.
Sadly, that didn't happen as the lobster all too soon arrived at the Upper Yard where it then got on a current that immediately started to sail us right through the island.
-Later-
"I can't believe that overgrown crustacean just dropped us out in the middle of nowhere" Zoro huffed as we took in our new surroundings the lobster had abandoned us in.
"Does anyone know where we are?" Chopper worriedly asked.
"Wherever it is, it doesn't seem that bad" I remarked as I looked around.
"One thing's for certain, we're defiantly somewhere in the middle of the Upper Yard..." Nami bitterly muttered with a harsh glare.