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Steve's POV
We got back to the Merry and followed Conis and her father to get back to our sea. Everyone had ideas about what they wanted to buy with the gold. Usopp wanted cannons, Chopper wanted books, and Luffy wanted to buy a statue.
"None of you will be spending my money on trash," Nami told them.
"What do you mean 'your' money?" I said.
"If anything, it's my money," Wyper told her. "It belonged to my ancestors after all."
"Everyone, we're almost there!" Conis yelled, pointing toward a large gate. "This is Cloud End."
Luffy was upset we had to leave, but when I told him we had to get back down if he wanted to become King of the Pirates, he quickly changed his tune. A few of Wyper's friends had come to see him off as well—the little girl and the woman.
"You better make it back someday!" Aisa yelled.
"You think I'd die that easy!" Wyper replied with a laugh.
"Good luck!" Raki added.
"This is as far as we can take you," Conis explained.
"Put your sail away," Pagaya instructed, and we followed suit.
Nami told us the Log Pose was set to the next island, so nothing was holding us back. Conis told us to hold on as the fall was coming.
"Did she say 'fall'?" Chopper asked, his eyes wide.
"Did you not know?" Wyper told us. "They call this Cloud End for a reason." We drove over the edge and began falling toward the Blue Sea. "It's where the cloud 'ends.' Did you people think it was just a smooth path to the bottom?"
"Good luck!" "You better come back someday!"
We mostly screamed our lungs out as we plummeted toward our inevitable deaths. An octopus jumped out of the cloud as we fell past.
"Holy crap, it's a giant octopus!" Rose yelled, falling flat on her face.
The monster latched onto the ship and filled with air. It turned into a balloon, and we began to gently float instead of freefalling. On the way down, we heard the Golden Bell ring.
It sounds perfect.
I looked over at Wyper, and he looked sad. "Don't tell me you changed your mind."
"No, I'm just… that bell," he said. He turned and looked at the others. "This is a sign that they want us all to come back again someday."
Nami said it would take us a while to float down at the speed we were going. I wandered around the ship to make sure everyone was getting along. Rose was keeping her distance from Zoro; she was throwing darts in the kitchen while Sanji made lunch.
Wyper and Usopp were rummaging through their bags, talking about Dials. Wyper appeared to be giving Usopp an in-depth course on the objects. Luffy, as usual, was sitting on the figurehead, and Zoro was training on the back half. I found Robin reading alone like usual.
"Hey," I said, taking a seat in the chair next to her.
"Hello. How are you?" she asked.
"I'm alright. I'm gonna miss it up here; it was interesting," I told her.
"Yes, quite fascinating."
"It was a cool place, a great place to hide from the Marines, too. There were a lot of ruins up there; it seemed like you were having a great time," I laughed, but strangely, Robin stayed quiet. "You feeling alright?"
"Hmm… Oh, yes, I'm fine, don't worry about me," she said, her voice a little too quick.
"Okay, you just seemed distracted, was all," I said.
There was a sharp popping noise, and we suddenly picked up speed. The octopus shrank, and the ship started plummeting toward the water.
"That's not good," Robin observed calmly.
Everyone started screaming and running around hysterically. The ship slammed into the water, and everyone got thrown around. Robin slammed into me, and we both got thrown to the ground. When I looked up, she was on top of me in a very awkward position.
"Robin, you alright? Would you mind getting off me," I said.
Robin just sat there panting. "Sea water… can't move."
I looked and saw that she was soaked; all the water that had crashed into the ship had drenched her, Luffy, and Chopper, draining the life from them.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sanji yelled.
"This isn't what it looks like," I tried to explain.
"It sure looks like you're violating Robin to me!" he yelled.
"What are you doing to my brother?" Rose said. "Trying to take advantage of him like that?"
"She's just tired!" I yelled. "Look!" I pointed out the half-asleep Chopper on Zoro's head and Luffy, who Wyper was attempting to help off the ground.
"Still looks like you two are doing dirty things to me," Rose and Sanji mumbled in unison.
I picked Robin up and carried her inside the kitchen so she could dry off in peace. I slammed the door behind me, put Robin at the table, and went to the coffee machine.
Maybe this can wake her up a little faster.
I made two cups, one for me and one for her, and placed them on the table. Robin perked up a little and started to drink the coffee and wake up.
"Thank you, it's delicious," she said.
"No problem," I told her with a smile. "Please tell me you know that was an accident, right?"
"Yes. If anything, I'm the one who caused it," she said, looking away.
"Alright. Sanji seemed to think I was taking advantage of you. Rose thought you were doing the same to me," I said, shaking my head and chuckling.
"No, I wasn't trying to do that," she said, finishing her coffee. "I should get out of these wet clothes."
"See ya."
I took the cups to the sink to wash them out when Wyper came in and threw a bunch of Dials in his bag. He explained that while the Waver and his skates still worked on the water, the Dials that made clouds didn't work down here.
"Too bad," I told him.
"Yeah. You should probably get out there. That woman with the red hair—what's her name? Nami—she's adding up the gold."
When I got back out to the deck, everyone was gathered around Nami as she moved the gold around, counting it.
"First, my 80%—"
"NOPE!" we all yelled.
"I was kidding."
When Nami was done, we had to decide what to spend the money on. Luffy insisted on a statue, and Chopper wanted more books. Zoro just wanted booze, and Sanji wanted a fridge.
"May I make a suggestion?" Wyper said. We all turned to the man. "I'm not a professional, but this ship looks like it could use some help. What about using the money to get it repaired?"
"Fix the Merry?" Luffy wondered out loud.
"He's right. Usopp does what he can, but he's not a professional," I added.
"This ship hasn't had any significant repairs since we got it back in my village," Usopp said.
"I've decided," Luffy spoke up. "Our next crew member will be a shipwright. We need someone to keep the Merry in good shape. She's our home."
Where did that come from?
"Oh, and we need a musician, too."
Back to normal. Still, our crew is growing fast.
A rumble was heard next to the ship, and when we looked, there was a pack of sea monkeys next to the ship.
"It's the sea monkeys! Run!" Rose yelled as she shivered behind the cabin door.
We grabbed the paddles and rowed away because there was no wind. Along the way, we passed by a ship with no sails or flags and a crew who looked completely lost.
"Don't worry about that; we gotta save ourselves first," I told them.
Eventually, things calmed down, and Robin spotted an island off in the distance. It was foggy, so we sent Chopper to the front of the ship to be the lookout. When we got to the island, it was just a big empty plain, with no sign of people, only trees and grass. Luffy ran off with Usopp, Chopper, and Rose, leaving the rest of us on the ship.
"They ran off without knowing anything about this place," Nami said, all annoyed.
"Just leave them be, Nami," I said. "Let's just get the ship anchored and secure, and we can go find them."
While we were getting the ship ready, two giant claws shot past and anchored into the ground around our ship, preventing any potential escape.
"What the hell!"
We got onto land to see the problem and found a giant ship blocking our escape.
"Who are you?" Zoro asked them.
"You looking for a fight?" Sanji said.
"Should I sink them?" Wyper said, pointing his bazooka at them.
"You wouldn't even scratch something that big. Who are you? Get out here and answer me!" I yelled.
"We are the Foxy Pirates! Just relax; our duel shall begin shortly," someone from the ship said.
What the hell do they want?
Rose's POV
That old man we met on the island offered us some disgusting cheese and then got a case of food poisoning. After that, he explained that this island we were on was really a group of multiple islands with a high-tide cycle.
Apparently, this guy had gotten left behind and was now going to try and catch up to his family during the next few years. Also, it turns out that horse we found earlier was his. The old man took the oversized thing out for a ride while the rest of us took a seat and watched.
"She's quite graceful for having such an odd body," I said.
Click.
Someone's there.
I jumped up and threw a knife into a nearby bush, but I was too slow. The horse got shot because I wasn't fast enough.
"The horse!" Chopper and Usopp ran off to help the man and the animal, and Luffy and I tried to find the culprit.
"You heard it, right?" Luffy asked as we stood back to back.
"Yeah, it came from over there," I said, pointing to the bush.
A group of three people came out—one with a weird head and funny nose, a girl with a pointy nose, and a big fat guy.
"That horse is mine. Don't touch it," the funny-nosed guy said.
"Who the hell are you?" Luffy yelled.
"I'm the great Foxy, and I always get what's mine."
"Get 'em, Luffy!" I yelled as he ran forward.
"Hold it, Strawhat!"
"He knows my name," Luffy said, surprised.
"Of course. I always do my homework," the man said as his female companion read off the list of our crew bounties.
"Despite only having nine members…"
We have ten, which means this stuff is dated.
"…you have a combined bounty of over 250 million. That's quite impressive."
"That's why we challenge you to a Davy Back Fight!"
"If you want a fight, I'll gladly take you on!" Luffy told him.