As Nami watches Luffy, Usopp, and Sanji reach Conis' house with the two natives, she can't help but worry about the crew's new situation as second class criminals. "They'd better get back quick..."
"Are these priests really that tough?" Zoro asks as he pulls the anchor out of the water.
Rose looks down at the crew from the crow's nest, where she's ready to release the sails at any moment. "From what we heard, these guys took down almost an entire pirate crew without breaking a sweat."
Chopper tenses up at the thought before he looks back at the island. "Really?!"
Before she can answer, the boat begins to shake and starts being slightly lifted.
"What's going on?!" Nami asks as she grabs onto the railing to keep herself from falling.
"The shrimp that brought us here came back for us." Robin says, as if it's a regular thing, while she holds onto the railing beside her.
Rose widens her eyes at the answer and looks down to see that the archaeologist's right, because the white waters under the ship have been replaced by the back of a giant, pink, shrimp. *Here we go...*
She grips onto the edge of the crow's nest to keep her balance when the ship starts moving away from the beach, and to the Upper Yard.
Zoro grits his teeth as he regains his balance and calls up to the wind girl. "ROSE, GET THE OTHERS BACK TO THE ISLAND!"
Nami widens their eyes at the order before she turns to the swordsman. "Wait, what about you?!"
"I'm staying to take on the priests."
"That's crazy!" Chopper says while Rose looks back at the cloud island.
When the brunette sees what's following them close behind, she immediately rejects the idea. "That plan's not gonna work with these guys on our tail!"
The others follow her gaze and share an equally shocked look when they see dozens of green fanged eels, that are larger than the ship, following behind with one jumping as high as twenty feet in air at a time.
Robin blinks at the sea creatures before she looks at the island they left behind. "If she tries to fly us off the ship then I doubt the eels would have a problem with eating us."
"Don't say that! What if we take down the shrimp?!" Chopper asks, but Zoro's already ahead of him as he jumps off the front of the ship and onto the head of the shrimp with two swords out.
Rose goes down to join him as she takes out her sword. Once she lands on the head, she tries to stab the shrimp's head multiple times along with Zoro, but the shell is too hard for either of them to leave a crack in it.
"Damn, this isn't working." Zoro says as he stops to see that they didn't even make a scratch on its head.
Rose looks ahead to the green land that the shrimp's taking them, and brings both her and Zoro back onto the ship. "Looks like we're being sent for heaven's judgement."
"So we're going back to the island after all..." Nami says in defeat as the shrimp reaches the Upper Yard.
The eels stop following them as the boat is dragged through the island's river until they reach a lake, where a sacrificial altar in the middle of the water is waiting for them.
"We're being sacrificed?!" Chopper asks in fright as their kidnapper brings the ship to the top of the altar.
Rose blinks at the gentle drop off as she watches the shrimp leave them alone with nobody to guard them. "It doesn't look like they're worried about us leaving."
"That's because of the sky sharks." Robin says as she points to the rest of the water, where numerous striped sharks' dorsal fins are popping out of the water in preparations of catching their prey.
Nami flinches at the sharks then looks around at the forest that's too far for them to jump from their location. "We could still get out of here with Rose's wind, but the ship..."
Zoro uses a rope ladder to climb off the boat, and sees that the bottom of the ship was damaged from the dangerous trip. "It doesn't look like we can get far with the Merry like this. Chopper, can you see if you can fix it?"
Chopper nods to the request while the navigator looks at him in confusion. "Then what are you going to do?"
Zoro smirks at the question before he looks at the island. "I'm going to the island to look for the fake god."
The redhead looks at the smirking man in utter shock as she runs behind the mast, in case the god heard him. "Don't call him fake! You'll piss him off!"
The swordsman smirks at her worry as he looks to the island. "I don't believe in god so why should I care?"
"Wow." Chopper stares at the arrogant swordsman in awe while Nami silently prays for forgiveness.
Rose chuckles at his confidence before she looks to the island. "Just give me a sec and I'll send you over there with my wind."
Zoro shakes his head at the offer before he points to a vine that on a tree, that's close to the edge of the island. "Thanks, but no thanks. Robin, can you get me that vine?"
Robin nods as she summons up an arm on the tree to lower not just that vine, but two more and pushes it towards the ship. "Mind if I come along too?"
"No problem, just don't get in my way." Zoro says as he catches the vines for them.
"You too Robin?!" Nami asks with Robin nodding.
"This altar is at least a thousand years old. I'm really curious about the history of this place." The archaeologist grins at the navigator as she points to the land. "There could even be hidden treasure and material we can use to fix the ship."
Nami perks up the mention of treasure and grins at the island, that she was afraid of just a moment ago. "In that case I'm in!"
"You're serious?!" Chopper asks when Nami turns to him with beli in her eyes.
"Of course, we need to learn about the history!"
The reindeer sweat drops at her change in attitude, but he doesn't comment on it as he turns to the astronomer. "Are you going too?"
She shakes her head as she digs into her bag for her camera. "No, I'm gonna stay here and help with repairs."
Nami nods to the plan as she points to the whistle for the sky knight, that's hanging onto the mast. "Alright, you can use the sky knight whistle if you need it."
Rose gives her a thumbs up as she grabs her camera while the three explorers take a vine.
Chopper tilts his head at the wind girl, who's getting ready to take a picture, while the others don't notice.
Zoro grip on his vine as his clear his throat. Once he's ready, he pulls back and swings on the vine while he yells out as if he's Tarzan.
The wind girl bites the inside of her cheek, to hold back from laughing, as she takes a picture while Nami and Robin follow him until they land on the island.
Once the three of them are safely on land, they look back to the ship.
"Take care, don't let the priests kill you." Robin says as if what she said wasn't scary.
"Don't say that Robin!" Nami says before she waves Rose and Chopper off. "We'll be back soon!"
"Don't worry about us! Be careful!" Chopper says as he waves them off with Rose as she remains quiet.
Once the three of them are out of their sight, Chopper grabs a hammer along with some nails. "Where should we start first?"
"The outside of the ship could use some work. You can go ahead, I need to get another hammer." Rose says as she leaves her bag by the railing and goes inside while Chopper heads down the rope ladder, so he can assess the damage.
He knits his eyebrows at the sight of the damage of not only the bottom of the ship, but also a few holes on the outside of the boat. He grabs some lumber to patch one of the holes when he drops the hammer.
He tried to catch it, but even when he changed into heavy point it was out of his reach. The tool quickly falls down the stairs, but instead of hitting the water, it stops at the final step. He gulps when he sees the sharks that are close to the bottom step.
He looks up to see if Rose is outside yet, but he doesn't see her. He doesn't want to risk a shark trying to eat it, so he cautiously steps down the stairs. When he's close enough to reach for it, he struggles to grab it while keeping his eyes on the waters for the sky sharks.
Just when his fingers touch the tool, he widens his eyes when a sky shark jumps out of the water for him. "AAAH!"
He keeps screaming as he grabs the hammer, and makes a run for it to narrowly dodge the fish. Another one jumps out high enough to catch the reindeer as he opens his jaws for his prey, but instead of receiving a meal, he got a flying side kick to the nose from a wind girl.
Chopper stops running when he reaches the top of the stairs, and turns around in shock to see Rose laughing in triumph, as the scared sky shark swims for its life. "It really is true!"
The reindeer blinks at the statement as he tilts his head in confusion. "What's true?"
Rose grins back at the reindeer as she lands next to him, and points to her freckled nose. "If you hit a shark in the nose, they go running no matter how big they are."
"R-really?!"
She nods as she looks over the doctor. "Are you hurt anywhere doc?"
Chopper shake his head before he turns to the ship. "I'm ok, but we should get started."
"Ok, which part needs-?!" She cuts herself off when a shadow overcasts the two of them.
"You two are the only sacrifices?"
The two of them turn around, and look up to see Shura smirking at them from the back of his bird.
Rose slowly steps in front of scared doctor, as she clenches her fists, and quietly speaks. "Doc, get on the ship and make sure the whistle's close..."
The reindeer perks up at the reminder of the sky knight's whistle, that's still hanging on the mast, and rushes to climb on the rope ladder.
"And what do you think you're doing?" Shura asks his bird's mouth begins to heat up, but before he can scorch anything, the bird gags from a strong gust of wind hitting him straight in the stomach, and sends both him and his master flying up.
Shura looks down to see that the freckled girl is doing it by turning her right arm into a gust of air. She stops when they're above the ship, and flies to their level with a smirk. "As much as I find a fire breathing bird badass, I won't hold back in a sky battle, so choose your next moves very carefully."
He blinks at the confident wind girl in front of him when he feels the same unique aura that he sensed earlier coming from his opponent. His shock changes to sadistic delight as he grips his javelin. "So you're the mantra holder. Fuza!"
The bird knew exactly what his rider wanted, so he activated the heat dial in his mouth and breathed fire directly at her. However, Rose pulls her arms in front of her, and pushes out a strong enough gust of wind to put out the flames.
*Compared to Ace's fire, this is nothing!* She keeps her confidence up from the thought as she turns her arms into air and shoots it at him, but he easily dodges.
Shura starts heating his javelin up with his dial while Fuza charges towards her. "Even if your mantra's weird, I can still predict your moves!"
He jabs his red tipped weapon up just as Rose is about to fly over him, and would've got a hit in if his javelin didn't go through her stomach.
"What?!" He couldn't recover to the shock in time, before Rose blasts her wind to slam both the priest and the bird to a tree.
Fuza stumbles down for a moment before he shakes his head, and flies off just in time to dodge the wind girl's kick.
The pirate barely had enough time to turn her arm into air once more, as she had to move away to dodge the javelin.
The priest smirks at the enjoyable battle he's having, as the two enemies continuously dodge each other's moves. "So you're the same as Eneru."
The wind girl scoffs at the comparison as she narrows her eyes at him, and she blasts her wind at him but he easily avoids it. "Don't compare me to that almighty bastard!"
Shura widens his eyes at the insult before anger begins to take over him. "What did you say?!"
She blocks Fuza's flames with the wind coming out of one hand, while the bird charges at her. Just when Shura's about to try stabbing her again, his weapon failed because of Rose's sword blocking him.
The wind girl pushes him off and grits her teeth as she charges at him with her sword in hand. "You heard me! I've seen what Eneru does to this island and it disgusts me! He's nothing but a fucking tyrant with a god complex!"
Shura blocks her barrage of sword attacks on him, and slightly widens his eyes when he sees that she's using the back end of the blade instead of the sharp edge. *What the-?! Has she not been trained properly?!*
He snaps out of it when Rose axe kicks Fuza on top of the head. The furious bird stumbles down from the blow, but he quickly regains altitude as he shoots flames at her, but she easily blocks them.
The priest glares at the girl as both sides go back into a battle of dodging the others moves. While Shura and Fuza dodge the blunt side of the pirate's katana, the priest thinks back on when they were attacked by a tornado. When he remembers how it was another twister that destroyed the one they were trapped in, he realizes that this girl has compassion for others.
He smirks at the weakness he discovered as he glances down at the ship where her crew mate is nervously watching the fight with the whistle in hand. "You know, I think it's time to finish the trial of string."
Rose raises an eyebrow at the announcement as she pulls her arms back for another swing, but before she can strike, her body completely stiffens up. She widens her eyes in shock as she tries to move her body, but it's as if it's frozen in midair with her wind holding her up. *Crap, he must've set the cloud strings up when we were fighting!*
The priest chuckles at her predicament as he starts heading towards the ship. "I'm sure Eneru would love to hear your opinion of him when I hand you over to him. Still, I'm kind of disappointed. Even with your power, you can't hold a candle to Eneru. At least he has the sense to ally with the strong."
The wind girl widens her eyes at their move towards the ship, before she frantically blows wind out of her body to slowly expand the cloud strings far enough to free herself. "Doc, get out of there!"
The reindeer, who was watching the fight the whole time, flinches as he watches the priests descending to the same level as the ship and quickly blows the whistle for the sky knight.
Shura and Fuza ignore the whistle as the bird's mouth begins to heats up. Fuza didn't hesitate to breathe his flames towards the Merry, but what neither enemy was expecting was the wind girl to escape the cloud strings, and fly in front of the incoming fire.
Rose holds both of her arms out in front of her, but isn't quick enough to stop the flames to strike her arms for a moment, before her wind repels the flames and sends Fuza flying up with his rider.
"Rose!" Chopper worriedly calls out to his crew mate, who received various first degree burns from her fingertips to her elbows from taking the blow, just before he sees some embers flying onto the deck.
The reindeer rushes to put out the flames while the wind girl furiously flies after the priest.
"Big mistake, you son of a bitch!" Without even thinking, Rose turns both of her burnt arms into strong gusts of wind and sends them after the priest from various directions.
Shura widens his eyes at the gusts, that he can barely see, as they fly all over the place, so he can't predict where they'll strike from.
Fuza can barely dodge half of the heated wind blasts, while the rest of the aerial attacks manage to hit both him and Shura.
The pilot almost fell off his saddle from an air attack to the side before Fuza had to fly up in an attempt to escape. Shura looks back to see the wind girl coming after them with a menacing look in her eyes that almost made him shiver. *Is this really the same girl that we've been fighting?! She looks like she won't hesitate to kill-*
He snaps out of his thoughts when he senses another presence and moves his javelin to his left, just in time to block the javelin that was about to stab him courtesy of the sky knight.
"I think you had enough fun." Gan Fall says as he pulls back, but stops when he sees the furious girl flying at their level, high above the island, with airy arms.
He doesn't say anything about the seemingly arm-less girl as he points his javelin at the priest while Rose glares at the enemy.
Shura clicks his tongue at the disadvantage, when he senses a large number of mantras in the distance. *Even the Shandorians are running amok here. Dammit, I have no choice. I need to protect god's land above all else...*
He digs his heels into Fuza's sides as a sign to make a retreat. The bird gets the message as he charges at the duo, but before they could react he breathes fire at Rose to keep her distracted while Shura jabs his weapon at the knight.
Gan Fall quickly blocks the blow, but he failed to notice that during the strike Shura managed to sneakily loop his invisible cloud string around his ankle. Once Fuza flew past the knight, the string around his ankle pulled him off his bird and starts getting dragged mid air by the priest.
Rose blocks off the last of the flames, and widen her eyes to see Gan Fall dragged by Fuza with his own bird flying after them.
She flies after the chase just when Shura cuts the string that's holding Gan Fall. He smirks at the falling knight, that's heading to the ocean twenty feet below them, before he lifts his head to the logia user. "Don't think you've won! I promise Eneru will want to take care of you personally!"
Rose clenches her teeth at the threat as she fires a wind blast at them, but he avoids it by ducking into the woods.
While Gan Fall's bird rushes to catch his master, the wind girl goes into the woods to fly after the priest. However, when she makes it into the forest, she finds that there's not a trace of her enemy anywhere. She growls at his retreat as she lands on her feet, leans against a tree, and starts panting from exhaustion while her burnt arms return to normal. "Damn, I've always hated those bastards..."
"Hated who?" Rose flinches at Robin's voice behind her and turns around to see her, Nami, and Zoro approaching her.
She nervously looks back and points to a random direction. "Priests, one of them tried attacking the ship, but the sky knight and I fought him off. He got away before we could catch him."
She flinches at the searing pain in her arms from pointing, and looks at her hands and forearms to see that half of the skin is bright red from the burns.
Nami widens her eyes at the marks that look painful to even look at. "What happened?"
Rose shrugs off her worries and gives them a small grin. "The bird that we saw with the priests earlier can shoot flames out of his beak. He thought he could get away with scorching the ship, but I managed to stop him. These burns aren't as bad as they look."
Robin giggles at her carefree attitude for her injuries. "You should still get them looked at unless you want them to get infected and amputated."
"Don't go saying stuff like that that." Zoro says while Nami grimaces at the thought.
Rose however, tilts her head at the thought and looks down at her arms curiously. "Can wind arms even get amputated?"
"DON'T ASK THAT! JUST GO SEE CHOPPER!" Nami yells as she grabs the wind girl by the shoulder, and drags her to the shoreline with Zoro and Robin following.
The brunette wasted no time in flying the group back to the ship, and see that Gan Fall's bird managed to catch the knight, then brought him onto the ship for Chopper to treat his ankle.
As Chopper finishes bandaging the knight's sprained ankle, he notices the group flying towards them, and points to an empty spot next to Gan Fall. "Take a seat right there Rose. I need to bandage your arms."
She silently nods as she grins in relief of how both Chopper, Gan Fall, and the ship's damages were minimal from the fight.
Once Rose's feet touch the floor, she allows her exhaustion to take over as she falls on her butt and leans her back onto the railing for support.
The others blink at the girl's collapse while the doctor rushes to her with a bottle of burn lotion and a roll of white bandages.
Zoro looks around, and sees that even the deck has a few burnt marks. "What kind of a priest uses fire as a weapon?"
"The asshole kind." Rose says as she gives Chopper her hand.
He gently holds her wrist and narrows his eyes on the burns on her thin forearms. "The burns aren't as bad as I thought they'd be. Good thing you pushed the flames off your hands right away or the damage would've been a lot worse."
Gan Fall blinks at the analysis as he turns to the exhausted girl. "What kind of power do you have?"
Rose quietly sighs as she allows Chopper to apply the ointment on her burns and bandage them up. "I ate a devil fruit that turned my body into air. Sorry if I scared you when my limbs were wind."
He shakes his head as he grins at the two pirates. "Don't be, I should be thanking your friend for treating my injury. If I'm being honest, we're lucky to just receive these kinds of injuries. The priests are really strong."
The wind girl chuckles at the comment as she watches Chopper bandage each of her fingers separately so that she can still use her hands. "I agree with you there."
"HEY GUYS, IT'S THE MERRY!" The group freezes at Luffy's voice while Nami, Zoro and Robin look to see Luffy, Sanji and Usopp sailing to the lake on a tiny crow raft.
Sanji looks at the ship with hearts in his eyes as he waves for the girls. "Nami-swaan~! Robin-chwaan~! Rose-chwaan~! No need to fear, I passed the trial of love for you all!"
Nami sighs in relief that they made it, and throws down a rope ladder for them. "Guys, come up!"
The bruised-up trio wastes no time in getting on board, but once they were on the ship they were surprised to see the burnt patches on the deck.
"What happened to the ship now?!" Usopp asks as he cautiously steps onto the fragile floor.
"A crazy priest tried attacking the ship." Zoro says.
"A priest did this to Rose-chan?!" Sanji asks as he looks at her arms in sorrow.
Rose twitches an eyebrow at his worry when she looks at the boys' bruises and burns that are all over their bodies. "Forget about me, you guys look like you went through a minefield!"
"She's right, sit down and let me heal you!" Chopper commands as he grabs his bag and starts working on Usopp's injuries.
"What kind of trial did you guys go through anyway?" Nami asks as she looks down at the crow boat that they sailed on.
Luffy chuckles at the adventure they had, as he sits cross legged next to the wind girl, while the doctor gets to work on his injuries. "We went through a trial with this weird ball guy. It was nuts, he could predict what moves we were going to pull on him."
Rose nods to the explanation as she looks at her hands. "Our priest had the same ability too."
"That's called mantra." Gan Fall says which makes every pirate turn their attention to him. "It's a special ability that both the priests and their god have. As you've witnessed, it predicts a person's moves and it can also sense someone's location even if they're hidden from plain sight."
Usopp, Nami and Chopper shiver from the thought while Robin looks at him in confusion. "Do you have this kind of ability?"
He shakes his head before he looks up to the evening sky, that's getting darker by the minute from the sun setting. "Sadly, I don't have this ability. With it getting dark I'm also afraid it would be too dangerous for me to head home or for you all to sail out of here."
Sanji puffs a smoke from his cigarette before he looks to the shoreline. "I think you're right. How about we go to the shore and camp out there? If another priest shows up, it would be easier to fight there."
"Yea, let's do it!" Luffy says as he eagerly jumps off the boat to get on his raft with the excited reindeer following him.
"Quit being so casual!" Usopp says as he follows them onto the boat.
Rose chuckles at their excitement as she straps on her bag, and brings herself and the rest of the group to the shore.
As the wind girl gently sets down the elder knight, the rest of the crew gets to work on setting up the campsite.
Zoro quickly sets up a campfire that can last for hours, and Sanji begins to cook up a stew, while Nami explains to the others what she, Robin, and Zoro found out about the Upper Yard from their travels.
"So you're saying that this place was a piece of Jaya?!" Chopper asks in shock with Nami nodding.
"That means the golden city really is here!" Usopp says before he covers his mouth to stop Luffy from hearing, but with one look at the captain, he already knows that it's too late because he's beaming with enthusiasm.
"This is the kind of adventure I was looking for!" Luffy says while he's grinning from ear to ear in excitement.
Nami grins at his eagerness when she thinks about all the treasure they can get. "If you want to stay, then I have no problems with it."
"But what about the angry god?!" Usopp asks with Chopper nodding, but none of them are worried about the god.
"What kind of pirates would we be if we didn't look for treasure?" Zoro asks as he relaxes.
Gan Fall widens his eyes at their attitude. "You all can't be serious! This island is-"
He stops himself when Rose pats him on the shoulder, so he turns to see her giving him a relaxed grin. "Even if you mention how dangerous it is, they won't quit."
She looks at her excited friends with a soft smile as she leans back against a tree. "We may not look it, but we're tough. Eneru won't know what hit him."
He blinks at the young girl's confidence in her crew before he sighs in defeat. "I see."
Before he could say anything else, Sanji hands him two bowls of stew. "I made enough for both you and your bird. By the way, do you know if Conis is alright?"
Gan Fall nods at the question, about the girl he had to save from Eneru's wrath for being friends with the crew, as he places a bowl right in front of his pet. "Both Conis and her father are safe. Eneru can't go after them."
Sanji grins at the reassurance before he grabs another bowl of stew goes over to Rose. "If your hands hurt too much, I can feed it to you."
Rose doesn't hesitate to shake her head at the offer, with a blank look on her face, as she takes the bowl and ignores the mild pain in her hands. "Thanks, but I'm fine."
The chef sighs in disappointment as he goes back to his pot to distribute the meal to the rest of the crew.
As the wind girl goes through her meal, she can't help but stare up at the starry sky with worry in her eyes. With Shura escaping before she can capture him, Eneru now knows a good extent of her powers and is a threat to him. If her situation is as bad as she fears, then tomorrow is going to be a nightmare. *Since my aura is so noticeable, I should split up from the others in the morning. If the big shots come after me then the others can get through the Hunger Games easier.*
She chuckles at her silent joke as she sets the bowl on her lap, so that she can gently caresses her necklace with one hand, while the other is grabbing spoonfuls of stew for her. *If anything, I can make a good guideline out of this experience for other outsiders.*
She continues to silently eat as Robin finishes her meal, and looks up at the fire that's the stands out on the dark island. "Shouldn't we be putting the flames out? It can expose our position to the enemy."
Usopp and Luffy widen their eyes at the suggestion before the rubber man sighs in disappointment. "Did you hear that Usopp? I can't believe she wants to put out the fire."
Robin tilts her head at his disappointment when Usopp comes to her defense. "Don't be so hard on her Luffy. She's been living her life as an assassin, so she couldn't have known."
"What are you guys talking about?" The archaeologist asks while the two boys point to the bright campfire.
"When you're out camping, you need to keep the fire on all night!" Luffy says.
"Really?!" Chopper says with stars in his eyes.
Usopp nods as he smirks in pride. "Even if we die, the campfire needs to burn bright to have a perfect camping night!"
"Don't be stupid!" Nami says as she approaches them. "This forest is dangerous enough as it is! Or did you forget the priests and crazy raiders out there?!"
"I didn't forget, but we can't waste a perfect camping night either!" Luffy says.
"Even if it's dark out, they would sense us with their mantra." Rose chimes in with Gan Fall nodding in agreement.
"If the priests were to attack again they would've done so by now, so we're all safe for the time being."
Nami however, still isn't convinced that it would be safe to keep the fire going. "We could still attract wild beasts with the fire!"
"Oi Luffy, is this enough?" The group stops at Zoro's voice to see him patting a pile of lumber that's taller than him.
Luffy happily smiles at the pile of wood that can give them a fire that lasts through the entire night. "Yea, that's more than enough!"
"Not you too!" Nami says, but Sanji tries to reassure her by grabbing a branch that's on fire.
"It will be alright Nami. Wild animals are naturally afraid of fire." What the chef wasn't aware of though, was that in the darkness behind him began to glow with dozens of bright golden eyes.
Nami notices the eyes and begins to shake in fright. "You did attract a beast!"
Usopp and Chopper yelp in fright when one of the beasts come out of the shadows, to reveal a large white wolf with a scar going across his right eye.
Gan Fall widens his eyes at the creature before he tries to warn the others. "Everyone, be careful! That's a cloud wolf, these creatures are dangerous!"
The crew, except for Robin and Rose, start getting their guard up, when the wolf narrows his eyes at the group of humans as he begins growling in irritation.
Robin blinks at the growling animal before she turns to Chopper. "What's he saying Doctor-kun?"
Chopper listens closely to the angry wolf before he copies his scowl and his tone of voice in the translation. "You damn humans are keeping us up with your shouting! Shut the hell up already!"
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Luffy and Sanji ask but Chopper flinches.
"It's not me, it's the wolf!" Chopper stops when he hears him growling again and translates. "'If you humans want to live then get out of our territory! Everything from the grass to the trees on this island belongs to-'"
The wolf's rant was cut short, when Nami's fist crash landed on his head to knock him out.
All the boys were speechless at Nami's punch as she glares at the animal she attacked. "You're not stopping me from getting the treasure!"
Rose begins to tremble as she clamps a bandaged hand over her mouth, to stop herself from laughing at the display, and avoid Nami's wrath being directed to her.
Robin sweat drops at the wind girl's urge to laugh when she hears growling all over the place and sees that the rest of the pack, that consists of dozens of wolves, starts approaching the crew.
Usopp and Chopper hug each other in fear before the sniper glares at Nami. "Why did you have to piss them off?!"
"Forget that, just think of something!"
"What do you think I can do here?!"
Before the pack can pounce on the campers, the leader wakes up and raises a paw in the air to stop them.
Chopper blinks at the growling leader before he translates for him again. "Don't bother, even if you attack all at once you're no match for her."
Nami freezes at the compliment, as she and the others see the wolf wiping his mouth with the back of his paw and a smug look on his face. "'You got a great punch babe. I like you."
Nami mirrors his smirk as they clasp hand and paw together to show the new bond they formed.
Usopp sweat drops at the new friendship before he turns to Zoro. "So they're friends now?"
"I guess so."
Luffy grins at the wolves before he throws a log into the fire. "Then let's have our campfire now!"
Most of the crew along with the entire pack howl in agreement as they join the fray, and begin to party like there's no tomorrow.
Gan Fall blinks at the new development as he watches Usopp strap on a bongo drum and starts pounding it for the music. "I can't believe they just tamed cloud wolves..."
Robin giggles at his surprise as she sits beside him and watches the party with a soft grin. "As you've seen, we're not your average pirate crew."
"I agree, you all might make it to the golden city after all." He sighs in relief, of the situation not getting worse, as he relaxes and enjoys his evening.
"Let's get this pre-gold hunting dance festival started!" Usopp says as he happily dances around the fire with the rest of the crew, except Robin and Zoro, and a line of wolves following behind as he bangs on the bongos.
Zoro chuckles at the party as he sits it out and grabs a bottle of booze, but stops when he sees the pack leader sitting next to him with a cup of wine. The two warriors stare each other down for a moment before they grin at each other, clank their drinks together, and chug it down as a sign of friendship.
Luffy copies the wolves' howling as he dances along with them, while Sanji and Chopper dance to Usopp's song about getting the gold.
Nami happily drinks a mug of liquor before she follows the party animals in the fire dance.
Rose chuckles at the fun as she dances on her own with a few wolves. She spins to the music of the howls and drums, like it's nobody's business, when she accidentally bumps into Nami.
Rose regains her balance as she catches the navigator before she could fall over. "You ok Nami?"
Nami drunkenly laughs with joy before she slings an arm around the brunette's shoulders. "Of course I am! We're gonna be rich!"
She spins around with her, with them both to laughing at the fun, before they dance along with the wolves. The navigator continues to lead them along, when she looks from the corner of her eye to see that they're getting close to where the captain's dancing.
With a mischievous glint in her brown eyes, Nami spins her and Rose again, and sneakily pushes the wind girl into Luffy's direction.
Rose yelps at the shove as she fails to regain her balance before she bumps into Luffy, and pushes them out of the dancing line.
Luffy quickly catches himself while Rose finally steadies herself. "Sorry about that Luffy."
The rubber man shrugs it off when he looks at Usopp's drum. "No worries. Hey, can you use your guitar for the party?"
She quietly sighs as she waves her bandaged hands. "Sorry, I don't think doc would want me to try with these burns. After we get the treasure, I think I can do it."
Luffy grins at the answer as he nods and motions his hand for her to follow him. "Alright, then let's party!"
Rose shyly nods as she joins him in the fire dance.
As Nami watches the two of them dancing together in the line, she grins in victory as she takes another swig of her liquor. As she keeps dancing around, she accidentally trips on her feet, but before she can fall a pair of pale arms catch her.
"Are you alright Nami-san?" The navigator looks up to see Sanji gently smiling at her as he steadies her back on her feet.
Nami blinks at the lovely, visible, blue eye staring at her before she happily smiles and wraps an arm around his shoulders. "You bet I am Sanji-kun~! Let's keep this party going~!"
"Absolutely!" Hearts swell up in the chef's eyes as he gleefully allows the redhead to bring him back into the dance.
Robin chuckles at her dancing crew mates as she, Zoro, and Gan Fall watch the party last on until every last one of them passes out.
************************************************************
On a Wednesday night, in the study of her family's study, nine year old Rose is sitting in her blue pajamas next to her mother at her desk. While her father is having a lecture, the mother-daughter pair spend the evening looking through the computer on various astronomy topics and other world theories.
Nights like this are one of the most treasured moments for the freckled child, for it's the only time she feels that she's learning something fun and useful, compared to what she has to sit through in school. Because of this, she's practically bouncing in her seat with her notebook in hand. "What are we going to look through this time mom?!"
Her mother, Teresa, chuckles at her daughter's bubbly excitement as she tucks a strand of her straight, black, hair behind her ears and goes through the internet. "We're going to look into doppelgangers now."
Rose blinks at the new word as she stares up at her pale mother. "What's a doppelganger?"
"It's basically a clone of yourself. They're people who look just like you, even though they're not family." She shows her a web page of the definition of a doppelganger and pictures of look alikes as she keeps explaining. "Because of this, it could be possible that we have doppelgangers living in other worlds. This can be a way to see what your life would be like if you were born in that world."
The child brightens up at the theory as she looks to Teresa with stars in her purple eyes. "You mean there's a me in the Pokémon world?!"
Teresa chuckles at the question, before she ruffles her daughter's brown hair. "It's possible, but they might not look exactly like us."
She points to her own purple eyes as an example. "For instance, they could have different color eyes, hair, skin color or even have scars on their body."
Rose blinks at the explanation as she scratches her head to try to understand. "So, they look like us, but they're not an exact copy?"
"Exactly, and since they lived different lives from us, their personalities could be different too."
The little girl hums at the idea before she looks down at her notebook. "What should we do if we meet them in another world?"
Teresa knits her eyebrows at the thought as she strokes her chin. "As long as we're keeping where we're from a secret then the best bet is to play it as a coincidence. I don't see any problem with making friends with them. Who knows, we could wind up becoming buddies with a ninja version of all three of us in the Naruto world."
Rose chuckles at the idea as she writes down her mom's suggestion in the notebook while questions begin to swarm her mind. However, before her questions could be spoken the cuckoo clock, that's hanging on the red wall, starts chiming to tell them that it's 9:00.
"Bed time." Teresa says as she starts getting off the internet while her daughter childishly pouts at the clock.
"Oh come on, five more minutes!"
Teresa chuckles at the pout as she takes her notebook and puts it in a drawer. "Sorry, but you have school tomorrow."
"Can't you just home school me?! You guys teach me better stuff!"
Teresa bites the inside of her cheek, to hold back from laughing at the childish outburst, as she shakes her head. "You know we can't. Tell you what though, get ready for bed now and I'll tell you a constellation story."
The brunette mulls over the deal before she nods. "Ok, but can you tell me why you and dad study the comet again instead?"
Her mother blinks at the compromise, for this is at least the tenth time that she asked for this story, but nonetheless she's more than happy to tell her. "Alright, get going then and I'll meet you in your room."
The little girl doesn't waste any time going into the bathroom to brush her teeth, before she runs to her bedroom to see her mom seated in a chair that's next to her bed.
Rose practically hops onto the bed and gets in the covers, before she stares at her beautiful mother with stars in her purple eyes. "So how did it happen?"
Teresa grins at her excitement as she crosses a leg over the other to get comfortable, before she thinks back to the beginning of the tale. "It all started years ago in another world. In the middle of the night, while her parents were working with a bunch of adults, a five year old girl was playing hide and seek with a group of kids all over the building. An older boy took her to an empty office and they hid behind the desk. As they sat down in their hiding spot, he showed her this crystal that he swiped from their parents. As the little girl held the gem and began to admire its beauty, a blue light began to shine into the room. Both of the children look outside saw the most amazing thing ever!"
She points to the window at the other side of the room, as if the comet is actually there. "They saw an enormous blue comet, known as the Timore comet, flying across the sky! It was so bright that for a moment, the kids thought a blue sun came out!"
Rose chuckles at her mom's enthusiasm as she hangs onto every word she says and keeps listening. "Both children couldn't take their eyes off the beautiful sight, as it flew across the night sky until it vanished as quickly as it came. But something strange happened after the comet left. The girl's body began to glow and then the next thing she knew, she was alone in a back alley in this very city..."
Teresa's smile falls from her freckle-less face, as she looks at Rose downcast for a moment, before she puts back on a small grin. "Lucky for this child, the police found her before anything could happen. When she told them where she came from though, they had no idea where her home was. And everything from the cars to the phones were completely different from what she saw her parents using daily. That's when she realized that after seeing the Timore comet, she got sent into another world without a second thought."
The adult quietly sighs at the experience before she pats her child on the head. "What your father and I want to do, is figure out the comet's power and find out where she came from. Also, we want find a way to make sure that it doesn't break up any more families."
Rose blinks at the look on her mother's face, that even though holds a smile, also has a hint of sadness in her amethyst eyes. The freckled kid could do nothing more than stand up on the bed, and pull her into a hug to comfort her. "Let's do it together then."
The thin woman blinks at the kid's embrace, before she chuckles and hugs her back. "Yea."
She picks her up and lays her down on the bed before she tucks her in. "But until then, we have to try blending into this world. Which means you gotta go to bed."
Rose sighs in disappointment of not getting any more time before she curls herself up in the blanket. "Ok, good night."
"Good night love." Teresa kisses her daughter on top of her head, before she gets up and starts leaving.
Rose furrows her eyebrows in thought, as she remembers what she learned tonight, before she speaks up. "Hey mom, do you think doppelgangers are in every world?"
Teresa freezes at the doorway from the question, and turns back to her with a curious look on her face. "Maybe, why?"
"If we can't find a doppelganger in another world, then maybe that's how we can find out where she came from."
Teresa slightly widens her eyes at the idea for how they can figure out where the child came from, and realizes that it could work. She gives her daughter a soft grin before she turns off the lights, to reveal the glow in the dark star stickers that are on the ceiling. "You're getting better at coming up with theories. We can test it out when we leave this world."
Rose brightly grins at her theory being added to the list of things to test when they use the comet's power, before she allows herself to fall asleep under the fake stars.
************************************************
In the middle of the night, with the fire finally died out, every animal, knight, and pirate are sleeping all over the ground.
Rose stays warmly bundled in her blanket as she slowly wakes up from her dream. She sits up and softly grins at how the wolves are sleeping with the humans as if they're all in the same pack, before she gets out of her blanket into her bag.
She quietly exchanges the sheet for her journal and pen. Seeing that she's the only one awake, she sees this as a good chance to update her work without any prying eyes on her. She swipes the pages until she reaches the section where she's listed the rules on what to do in another world. *World travelling rule #5: If you meet your doppelganger or a doppelganger of someone you know, don't act like you know them. They're not the same person.*
She quietly sighs as she finishes writing down the new guideline and chuckles at the possibility of meeting her own doppelganger. *I wonder what kind of person my One Piece version is. Maybe she's a revolutionary or another pirate. I really hope she's not a civilian or a noble...*
She cringes at the chance that her being in this world is ruining an innocent person's life, because they share the same face. However, until she knows who her doppelganger is she won't waste her time worrying about it.
Instead, she's going to worry about her current situation with Eneru. She gently caresses her necklace as she looks up to see that she still has a few hours before the sun rises. If Eneru is so curious about her, then she's going to have keep the fight as far away from the others as possible.
She looks to the ship to see that there's not a soul in sight, so she gets on board to go inside to drop off her journal in her room. While inside, she also changes her clothes to her black jeans, her blue jacket over her tank top, grey gloves to cover her bandages, and puts back on her dark blue sneakers.
After she puts her long, brown, hair in a ponytail, she looks in the mirror, and grins in satisfaction before she grabs a piece of paper and writes down a note. *I'll drop this off to the crew and then head out to be the bait.*
She nods to the plan as she slings her bag over her shoulder. When she walks out of the room, she stops in her tracks when she suddenly hears the sound of a hammer hitting something outside. "This means..."
She runs outside to confirm her suspicions and freezes in shock when she sees a small spirit at work to fix the ship.
The little, blue, ghost girl that's dressed in a raincoat, uses her wooden hammer to fix the deck of the ship before she looks at the wind girl. The spirit floats up in the air to Rose's height as she waves at the pirate with an innocent smile. "Hi Rose."
Rose snaps out of her daze and sadly smiles at her before she slowly waves back. "Hi there Merry. It's good to see you."
TO BE CONTINUED