บท 76: Heaven's Gate
Fortunately for Thirteen, it wasn't too much longer as the Merry smashed through a layer of cloud. It flew into the air before landing in the clouds and bobbing back up, sailing on the clouds.
It seemed that the Merry was flapping the wooden wings.
The crew stabilized themselves and looked around at the cloud sea. Awed by the fact they were sailing on clouds.
Thirteen looked at the clouds, his tail waving in the suit.
Zoro woke up and mumbled "Are we there?" Nami kicked him and shouted "You slept through that?!" Zoro yawned and grumbled something as Usopp jumped off the Merry, shouting "I'll be the first warrior to swim in clouds!"
Arms grabbed him and held him in the air as Robin said "Maybe use a rope, Long Nose-kun." Usopp slapped his forehead and tied a rope to his waist and the Merry before the arms disappeared.
Usopp disappeared into the clouds and was never seen again.
The crew waited and Usopp wasn't coming back.
Luffy scratched his head and stretched his arm into the clouds before falling to the ground weakly as his arm snapped back to his body. He groaned "Water…" Robin hummed and Nami said with interest "It's like the sea?"
Zoro walked over and pulled on the rope.
Usopp shot out of the clouds and screamed "SAVE ME!" he flew back to the Merry as a giant octopus with a massive head appeared, trying to grab Usopp. Thirteen whipped his chain at the octopus and it literally popped like a balloon, falling back into the sea.
The crew was confused and looked at the cloud sea.
Chopper muttered "Strange." Usopp sat on the ground and took in breaths of air, saying quickly "You can't swim in there!" the crew looked at him and he explained "When I went in, I couldn't swim and I was just falling down the entire time! What's more, there isn't a bottom to the cloud sea exactly, so if you fall into the clouds, you'll just fall all the way back down to the sea!"
He held his heart and tried to calm down.
The crew was stunned and looked at the Clouds in shock.
Chopper patted his hoof with his other hoof, saying "I see!" Usopp looked at him and Chopper added "No wonder! The sea life must've adapted to the Cloud sea! That's why that Octopus popped instead of getting injured! They must be full of air so that they can swim in the Cloud sea without falling through! I suspect that the anatomy of the sea life in the Cloud sea is extremely light."
Usopp reached into his pants and pulled out a flat fish, Sanji took it from him and looked it over, saying "Oh wow. It really is light!" Chopper smiled and grabbed the fish, poking at it.
As the crew investigated the fish, Thirteen was looking around and Luffy pointed in the distance, saying "There's someone flying over there." Chopper ran over and said "Looks like he's coming this way." Luffy nodded and the man appeared on the deck of the Merry.
He was wearing a mask and strange shoes. He was also holding a rocket launcher.
Luffy said "Hey!" before he could do anything the man punched him and said angrily "Damn Blue Sea people! Go back to where you came from!" as he pointed his rocket launcher at them.
Thirteen appeared in front of the man and grabbed the rocket launcher, punching at the man's head.
The man let go of his weapon and backflipped, dodging the punch as he kicked at Thirteen's head.
Thirteen dodged and whipped his leg at the man's stomach. The man twisted and landed on the deck, looking at Thirteen with a hostile gaze.
Thirteen threw the rocket launcher behind him as he prepared to fight, when suddenly! Another man in armor appeared with a bird, shouting "Wyper! Leave these people alone!"
The man, also known as Wyper, clicked his tongue and jumped off the ship, running on the clouds and disappearing.
Thirteen looked at the armored man, who smiled and said "Hello, Blue Sea people!" Luffy looked at him and said "Woah! Who are you! Cool armor!"
Thirteen went back to the railing where he liked to sit and listened to the man speak as Usopp inspected the rocket launcher. The man introduced himself as Gan Fall and his bird-horse thing as Pierre.
He explained that they were in the Cloud Sea, also known as the White sea. The reason they were having trouble fighting and breathing in general was because of the thin air in the sky which they were not used to.
He looked at Thirteen and scratched his head as he could not understand how Thirteen got used to it so quickly.
Zoro, Luffy, and Sanji finally found out why they were unable to go help Thirteen. No wonder, it was because they couldn't breathe!
Thirteen obviously wasn't used to thin air but his torment as a slave pretty much made him numb to any sort of pain and adaptable to any situation. Though the thin air bothered him, it wasn't that bad in reality. He was just a little bit slower than normal.
Luckily for Wyper, or perhaps he would've died.
Though he'll never know, because they didn't actually fight. Wyper may have some tricks or special abilities.
Thirteen thought to himself, maybe Wyper could actually match him? Anything was possible in the Sky Islands, after all they had Bunnies with wings up here.
Gan Fall ended his speech and gave Luffy a whistle, saying "If you need me, just blow on that whistle and I will come help! The first time is free but after that it'll cost you 5 Billion Extol." he chuckled and added "A man has to make a living!" before jumping on Pierre and flying away, waving goodbye.
The crew had no idea what Extol was and Nami snatched the whistle from Luffy.
The Merry sailed on coming to a gate of sorts. The gate read 'Heaven's Gate' and the crew stopped there.
An old woman hobbled out of a door and said "What's your purpose coming to Skypiea? Warmongering, Tyranny, Vacation, Mass Murder, Asylum, Refugees, Establishing an oposing kingdom and throwing over the current regime?"
Nami's lip twitched and she said "Vacation?" the old woman nodded and replied "1 Billion Extol each." The crew was confused and Sanji said "What's Extol." The old woman replied "I don't really care if you don't pay, I'm not gonna stop you."
The crew blinked and Nami asked "So we can just go?" the old woman nodded and Nami asked again "Without paying?" The old woman nodded again and Nami said "Then… Uhhh… Bye?" the old woman waved her hand and the Merry suddenly flew past the gates.
The old woman mumbled "I forgot to tell them, they'll be labeled as criminals… Oh well, they'll figure it out…" before sighing and rubbing her back as she hobbled back into the building next to the gate.
Meanwhile~
The crew reached an island and the Merry stopped at the shore.
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