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We slowly sailed towards the forest in the Upper Yard. It took a while, but we finally made it to the entrance.
"Ready, everybody?" I asked. "Last chance to turn back."
Luffy's eyes were sparkling with excitement. "Let's go!"
As we proceeded, the atmosphere grew eerily quiet. Skulls and blades littered the river, and we had to dodge swinging axes and saw blades.
"Paddle faster!" Usopp yelled, panicked.
"What the hell is this place?!" Sanji exclaimed.
A short distance past the axes, we were attacked by a giant lamprey. Eventually, we reached the end of the path and had to choose from one of four entrances.
"Ordeal of String, Ordeal of Iron, Ordeal of Swamp, and Ordeal of Spheres," Sanji said, reading the signs. "I guess we have to pick one."
"It probably doesn't matter," I told him. "I'm guessing we'll end up having to do all of them in the end anyway."
"Let's go to Spheres!" Luffy announced. "That one sounds the most fun."
"Fine, Spheres it is," I agreed. "At least that one sounds remotely tame."
We sailed into our chosen tunnel, and it got very dark. When we came out, we immediately fell off a cliff, splashing down at the bottom into a forest full of floating balls.
"What kind of trial is this?" Luffy wondered aloud. "If I had known it would be this boring, I'd have chosen a different route."
We calmly sailed through the forest, waiting to see if there was some kind of trial here. Luffy and Usopp started playing with the clouds, much to my frustration. Suddenly, the one they were bouncing popped open and a snake jumped out. Sanji tried to kick another one that was coming towards the boat, but when his foot touched it, the cloud exploded.
"What's with these things?!" Usopp yelled out.
"They're called Surprise Clouds," a voice said from above.
We looked up and saw a very round man dancing around on the floating spheres.
"Who are you?" Sanji demanded. "Are Nami and the other girls okay?"
"You shouldn't worry about them," the man told us. "Worry about yourselves. If you can't get past me, you can't save them anyway."
Luffy went to attack the man, but his punch was easily dodged. The man put his palm near Luffy's face and blew him back.
"What the hell was that?" I asked, confused. "A normal punch shouldn't affect Luffy."
"It wasn't a normal punch," the man explained calmly.
Sanji ran at the man, but his attack was avoided as well.
"I saw that, with the power all God's priests have—Mantra," the man explained as he blew Sanji away just like he had Luffy.
What's with this guy?
"Whip Crush!" I swung my whip at him.
"You are going to swing vertically right for my chest," the man said, spinning to dodge my attack. "Impact."
"Gah!" I was sent flying back into a tree with a powerful pressure attack. It feels like I exploded from the inside.
"My name is Satori, one of God Enel's Priests," the man said, introducing himself. "And this is my Forest of Illusion. Oh, look, there's your boat. You'd better catch it, or you'll never get out."
The boat was floating towards the exit on its own.
"This is my Ordeal of Spheres," Satori taunted. "The survival rate is 10%."
Usopp ran off to try and stop the boat while Luffy, Sanji, and I stayed behind to deal with the fat man.
"Gum-Gum Pistol!" Luffy shouted.
"Whip Lash!" I added.
Satori avoided the attacks, grabbing Luffy's arm and my whip and pulling us together. Luffy and I collided, banging our heads into each other.
"Now where did those other two go?" he said before flying off after them.
I collected myself and Luffy from the floor. "Get up, you lazy moron!"
"YAAA!…Where'd he go?"
Luffy and I ran after the priest and found him attacking Usopp. Luffy ran up and used a Gum-Gum Gatling, which sent most of the orbs flying and knocking into each other.
Crap. It's like we're stuck on a pool table.
One orb flew at me, and I tried to whip it away. When I hit it, a shock came through the whip and burned my hand. "It's full of electricity," I said, trying to cool my hand.
Luffy fell through the river and grabbed a vine to fly away from the priest. Idiot. Now Usopp and Luffy were both swinging around the forest on vines and ropes. Sanji and I pulled the two down and beat some sense into them.
"Stop screwing around. You listen to me, got it?" I told them.
"Yes, sir."
"Now let's forget about the boat for the time being," I said. "We'll catch up to it later…!"
Something's coming!
I ducked and saw a hand appear above my head.
"I missed?"
"Crush Elbow!" I slammed my elbow into the man's face, knocking him over. "Don't sneak up on me."
The man got up and collected a large group of spheres, assembling them in a line. "Sphere Dragon!"
"Your boat is getting farther and farther away. You're all finished," Satori taunted.
Luffy tried to attack, but he missed again. The priest explained that if we hit the wrong sphere, the whole dragon would explode.
How is he moving that thing?
I looked closer and saw that the dragon was being led around by the rope on its head.
"Luffy, cut the rope so he can't control the dragon!" I yelled out.
Luffy did as he was told, but the priest pulled the other side of the rope and Luffy dragged the spheres toward him. The resulting explosion shook the forest, but somehow, Satori was still standing.
"That was dangerous," Luffy told the man, holding onto his back.
"You're not dead! Let go of me!"
"Don't let him go!" Sanji said, floating over on a ball. He then gave some dumbass speech that ended with him saying he was starting the 'Ordeal of Love.'
"That foresight of yours is useless if you can't move to dodge," I told the man.
"Concasse!" Sanji's foot slammed into the top of the man's head, finishing him off.
"Hey, I found the boat! Let's go!" Usopp yelled.
We used Usopp's dumb hook-shot weapon to catch up to the boat. We got bounced around a lot, but we did end up back in the boat.
"OWW!" Luffy shouted.
"Next time I'll use my arms," he said.
We escaped the forest and exited into what looked like a mass grave. Inside that graveyard, we were passed by a group of warriors on those sky skates. One of the men fired a bazooka at us, but Luffy launched it back.
"That was the guy who attacked us when we got up here," I pointed out.
"If you don't want to die, go back to your Blue Sea," the man shouted. "Otherwise, I'll end you like I'm going to end Enel. You don't belong here!" He then skated off into the forest, following his allies.
What's with him?
"Get back here, you bastard!" Luffy yelled.
"Let him go, Luffy," I said, settling him down. "We have more important things to worry about." I have to find Ikki and Robin. Maybe if I save her, she'll give me a thank-you kiss.
"What's with that look on your face?" Luffy said, staring at me.
"Shut up, rubber boy."
We spent the rest of the day following the Milky Way, hoping to get to the end and find our friends and our ship still intact. We hit one last drop and arrived at a lake with a large altar at the center.
"There it is!" Luffy yelled.
We sailed up to the altar and found the others had just arrived back at the ship. The ship was in bad shape; the mast was missing, and there were burn marks all over. Apparently, the ship was attacked by one of the priests, and Chopper had to call the Sky Knight to come help him. Both the ship and Gan Fall were hurt in the fight.
"We can stay on the land tonight," Sanji suggested. "It'll be easier to fight there if something happens."
"Yay, camping!" Luffy yelled, hopping off the ship.
We set up camp along the shore and each recounted the day we had. Usopp compiled all the information and wrote it down. We had learned that the priests had the ability of Mantra, so they could predict our moves. Nami said that this island used to be part of Jaya, and the lost city of gold was up here in the sky.
"An island of gold, huh?" I said.
"Sounds like an adventure," Luffy said with a huge grin.
We looked at each other and smiled, the message understood.
"It's decided! We're gonna steal that gold!" we yelled in unison.