Serious; Salty's and Johnny's Travels, Chapter 5; Angels, Demons and Gods (Open to me and Shad0w)

It had been around two weeks after Orior Mavult's funeral. The events back at Blue Stripe were truly shocking for Salty Peppery the head of the Photography Department. He got the chance to meet two interesting people, both dead. One of them was none other than Maractus Zack. In order to redeem himself for his past crimes and pay the price of his actions, the pirate stabbed himself with a sword, thus ending his life after an epic struggle in the prison in the Grand Line. On the other hand, Orior was quite different. He instead died in a battle against a man known as the Gouger, the only person back in Blue Stripe who managed to escape during the ruckus. Orior was not an ordinary marine. He was an eccentric personality and even if he was hated by most people at first glance, even Salty, the head of the photography department got to eventually like him.

Nonetheless, those two meetings and deaths shadowed the fact that Salty and Johnny received a promotion. From the rank of Commodore, Salty managed to jump to the rank of Rear Admiral, something he could never achieve without Johnny. Johnny was the man that gave him the courage to face his fears and overcome his physical weaknesses. Johnny was the one protecting him and thus Salty thought it was his responsibility to do the very same thing.

Now, back at the new ship of the Photography Department, as the previous one was destroyed back at Mirage Island, the unit is sailing with a new member. That member happens to be none other than Bobby, the chain guard of Blue Stripe who happened to eat a fruit that turned him into a dwarf. Bobby was stronger than he looked and most importantly he viewed Salty and Johnny as heroes and thus Salty could not resist but invite him at his unit.

"Salty-sama... Where are we going now?" asked Fino while approaching Salty at the deck of the ship.

"I don't know, Fino... I have received some orders about taking pictures of a few rookies who entered the Grand Line but this is not my top priority..." said Salty while taking a deep breath.

"Why's that, sir?"

"That demon, Fino... That demon. I have a feeling that he's stalking us for a while. I want to figure out what his motives are but I simply can't." explained Salty with a disappointed look at his face.

"Relax, Salty-sama..." Fino tried to calm him down, speaking with his always pitched voice. "We don't know whether that demon you are talking about happens to be an enemy or a friend, but even if he proves to be an enemy, we have another demon back at this ship who can deal with him, right?" he continued speaking, making Salty frown.

"Huh? What do you mean?" asked Salty, surprised.

"Johnny-sama has inhuman strength... I doubt it's human! He is a demon!"

"Oh him... Yeah, I guess you are right." said Salty while smiling. "However, I will make sure that if he turns against us, I will stop him with my very own hands."

"Haha! That's great, Salty-sama!" Fino smiled.

---

Meanwhile, somewhere else, at the edge of a weird island, surrounded by clouds... Three men are standing right next to each other with their hands behind their back, looking at a man who is lying on the ground with his hands and feet cuffed. The cuffed man has two white wings on his back. He wears a white kimono with a black feather pattern on it. His eyes are light blue and his skin color is white. Finally, his hair are grey colored.

"Grey... It's a shame you failed to prove your worth again. That was your last chance and you prove to be useless to us." said the man in the middle, probably the boss of the three. He wore a black colored suit with a cape on his back and he had a gold ring at the small finger of his left hand. His hair were dark grey and his slim eyes matched his hair color. He also carried a cane.

"I am sorry... Give me another chance... Please." said the man on the ground, begging for forgiveness.

"If you have doubts regarding destroying this island, then how can we call you be a member of the Godlike Pirates?" asked the second of the three men. He didn't wear anything except from his blue pants with pink hearts printed on them. He had a well-built body. He had short blond hair and dark colored eyes.

"That's right..." the third man spoke. That one had long dark blue hair that reached his butt. He carried a sword with him. He wore a white colored suit and a light blue colored tie. His eyes were covered with his blue colored sunglasses. "That was your test and you failed, Grey. I sincerely apologize." he finished speaking before kicking the man, throwing him at the clouds and making him fall below.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Grey's voice echoed while falling from the skies.

---

Back at the ship, Salty is still chatting with Fino.

"Salty-sama, do you see that above?" asked Fino.

"Hm? What?" Salty raised his head only to notice a cuffed man with wings falling on him. His eyes popped out for a moment as the man crushed on him and landed on his ship!

What was happening?!

"Hey hey, you guys should not talk so much about myself, you might induce a bad cause of hiccups, you know." Johnny appears coming out from the door leading to the ship's interior, without wearing a shirt, and visibly sweaty; probably he was on to some working out in the ship's gym. Yep, this ship had a gym. Also to note was that the man was lacking any sort of injuries, which in their filled with conflict past two weeks, he acquired several. But it seemed that he was a fast healer.

"Salty-san, how do you feel today?" he adds, obviously concerned about his subordinate, he assumed that for Salty the events not too long ago must have had some impact to him. Also, he didn't bothered to comment on the marine's statements about him ever turning against them, a sigh that he wasn't really thinking ill of Salty even if he was blurting out such information.

And then, while he was distracted looking over at the sea, a sound of someone screaming caught his attention. Looking towards the source of the ruckus, even his eyes end up opening up widely from the sheer surprise. Someone was falling off the sky. Well, he already fell, really, and on top of Salty. "Gaaaah, Salty-san!"

"Salty-hero-sama!!!" Bobby, who also had just gotten out just in time to witness someone fall off the sky, and was watching over the event with eyes popped out and a rolling tongue, now yells, raising his arms in utter shock. "SALTY!" Another voice is heard, and from a jar, Douche popped out.

"WHY ARE YOU HERE?!" Both Fino and Johnny then yell at the man. Apparently, it was originally decided that Douche would actually stay at Blue Stripe, yet, seems that he once again had snick himself in. But more importantly, what was that about, and was Salty even alive after this?!

"OUCH!!!" Salty screamed in pain and got up, throwing the man who just landed on him at the ship's floor before getting up for good. "Who are you and why did you fall on me?!" he yelled at him, hoping to receive some answers.

"Huh? Am I alive?!" the cuffed man was surprised and he got up as well. "Thanks for saving me, young lord." he thanked the marine, happy as he happened to be alive thanks to landing on Salty.

"I didn't save you, you just fell on me!" Salty complained. "And more importantly... Where did you come from?" he asked while looking around. Apparently, there were no islands around so it was natural for Salty to wonder what actually took place and the mysterious man with the white kimono ended up on the ship.

"I'll explain... To all of you." said the man while sitting on a barrel. "My name is Grey and I am a Skypiean. I come from an island above the clouds called Skypiea." he said while looking at his cuffs. "Now, could you please release me?" he asked politely.

"Skypiea? I've read about it in books. I thought it was a legend!" said Salty with his eyes turning into stars out of awe. " That explains a lot. Sure, then." Salty immediately agreed.

"Wait, Salty-sama!" Fino spoke with his pitched voice once again. "We don't know whether that man means good or evil. He might be that demon who is stalking us!" he said while scratching his almost bald head.

"Huh? A demon is stalking you?" the cuffed man was surprised. "If you take off those cuffs for me, I would give you a few information about that demon you are talking about." he said.

"That's great." said Salty, while smiling.

"You will?" Fino kept scratching his head.

"I see no bad in releasing him..." Salty decided to release him. "However there is one thing..." he continued speaking. "We don't have the keys for those cuffs. That's going to make things difficult." he finished while looking at the sky and then turning his head to Johnny. "It looks like we have a trip to do if we want to find out who that demon is." he spoke to him, hoping Johnny would agree.

"You people really do talk a lot about demons .. but, Salty-san, you are not hurt, that is fortunate. Perhaps your body grew strong enough to survive catastrophic man falling from the skies on you." Johnny jokes at Salty, and then tilts his head lightly, while crossing his arms, investigating the newcomer. Skypeia, huh? Quite a place, not too many people knew about this place; and even fewer were aware that it actually exists.

"I suppose that it wouldn't hurt, at the end of the day, we are marines, and we just witnessed someone fall off while handcuffed like this .. obviously this is the product of a murder attempt. Therefore, we are obliged to investigate; that is what us Marines do." He responds to his comrade, making his intention to actually assist, clear.

"That's great!" Salty was glad to find out that Johnny also agreed to follow to the sky island. The truth was that Salty did not only want to get to the sky island in order to investigate. Those islands were actually myths. Except from finding out whether they were really existing, he also desired to see how those islands looked like. With the man falling from the sky all of a sudden, Salty was pretty sure they were real... He just had to see how they looked like.

"We have to be quick, though." said Grey with a worried look on his face. "Those people who kicked me down here... They are not only powerful, but they are also planning to destroy my home village up there. If we are not quick, we might arrive too late and not only allow them to escape, but my home will also be ruined."

"Hm? The people who kicked you down here?" Fino frowned while looking at the skypiean.

"Yes... They are a very powerful pirate crew. They are raiding all the islands of the White Sea. Some of them refer to them as the "Almighty Gods". Some others again call them as the "Devils from Paradise". However, nobody can doubt their godlike strength. They are the Godlike Pirates, the strongest pirate crew that ever appeared at the Sky Islands!" Grey explained with a trembling voice, shocking Fino, Douche, Bobby and even Salty, while Johnny seemed to be quite cool.

"WHAT!? THIS IS GOING TO MAKE OUR JOB MORE DIFFICULT!" yelled Salty while slightly trembling because of his fear. Apparently, the description the skypiean gave him was more than enough to make him afraid of those three mysterious pirates with that great myth behind their names.

"We will have to be careful, Salty-sama!" said Fino who had already calmed down. "This is going to be dangerous." he continued speaking.

"Forget that for now." said Grey. "Now we have to figure out how we are going to go up. If I was free, I would be able to get us up there, but in my current state I am afraid I can't do so!" he said with an angry voice, angry because of his inability to help the marines to get to the Sky Island.

"And the ship can't fly..." commented Salty disappointed.

The crew had to figure out a way about how they'd get to the Sky Island!

"Dear dear, so you have pirate problems even up in the skies? These are really hard years .. but, more directly .. would you like some coconut juice?" Johnny laments to himself about piracy's growth, only to fall back into his typical juice-offering habits. Indeed he was moving around a large wine glass filled with the transparent, fragrant liquid.

While his actions were largely ignored, due to the conversation reaching a more important, and puzzling, point of how would they actually achieve traveling up into the clouds, he gulps down the material inside the glass, before he looks up, and then points towards a direction to the left. "There's actually a place .. how far away are we from the island of Jaya?" he asks, seemingly not too aware of their location, but still just aware enough to point at what was the direction of the still unseen island. What was there, however, that Johnny dubbed it as a place they could successfully "fly"?

"Kinda..." Grey said, obviously avoiding to give an exact answer about the pirate problems Johnny talked about. It was clear that there were pirates at those "Sky Islands" but Grey did not really want to speak any words about it. Instead, he decided to change the subject by accepting the coconut juice, raising his hand and taking the juice the marine offered.

"Jaya is too far away from this place, apparently. Blue Stripe is at the exactly opposite direction from Jaya, you see. If we want to get there, it will take us too many days." Fino remarked, giving an answer to Johnny's question.

"Well, we could try going there, I guess." Salty said.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!! We need to hurry! We have to get up there immediately!" Grey interfered. "You just want to visit the Sky Islands but that place is my home! If I get there too late, the sky island above us is going to be destroyed!" he fell on his knees and he started crying. "Figure out something to get me up... Please!" he kept begging.

"Fine, fine..." Salty tried to comfort Grey. "However, you will have to help me when I try to kick the asses of those pirates you are talking about!" Salty spoke with a smile on his face.

"Salty-sama? I thought this wasn't the reason we were getting to the Sky Islands..." Fino commented.

"I am sorry, Fino... But I can't see this guy crying for his home. No matter what his island is, we are marines. We have to protect the place and the citizens from pirates at any cost. That is our duty as marines, after all." Salty replied to the swordsman.

"..." Fino was silent for a moment.

"You want to say something, don't you?" Salty asked with a serious tone in his voice.

"But this isn't our job as the Photography Department!" Fino explained. "We just have to take pictures of pirates and only fight in case something bad happens!"

"You are right. But when I took over the department, I promised myself I would help the world... And this is the best way I can do it."

"Salty-sama..." Fino didn't know what to say.

"Now... Listen." Salty was serious. "Johnny, I want you and Fino to figure out a way to move us up. I will contact the headquarters to tell them that we ended up in a storm. Bobby, I want you to watch over Grey... And Douche... Just hide somewhere for the whole time we are up." the marine gave orders to his subordinates before he moved to his cabin.

Salty was trying to organize things!

"Is that so? Well .. my navigating knowledge and capabilities are rather limited, after all." Johnny remarks to himself, again, he was basically just left at the background, nonchalantly rubbing his chin, while the rest of the people on board were actually discussing the matter. He was the powerhouse of this group, indeed, but, as far as miscellaneous, non-fight related stuff were concerned, he wasn't exactly useful.

Bobby was, meanwhile, fanboying about Salty's decision to assist the unknown sky man. To him such acts were a proof to him that Salty was indeed a hero! "Salty-senpai! I will do my best to help you fly up into the clouds!" Realization then struck everyone. How could they get up there? Fino was skeptical, Johnny was rubbing his chin still, but reality was, Salty's request was no simple feat. How could they go up there?

A rumbling sound made everyone escape from their thoughts, to notice a figure walk on the deck, and towards them. It was that marine that, on Blue Stripe, begged Salty to let them join them. He approaches them, before he lets out a cough, meant to clear his throat, and speaks to them; voice quite deep, fitting his wolverine-like theme. "I may know of a way to get up there .. !!"

[which marine begged us to join? cause I forgot xD]

(OOC: Bahahaha, it's alright. This marine that was also influenced by Maractus, he fought against the unknown Devil-like entity, then fought with the Jelly-like power user while Salty and co headed upwards to handle the real Maractus.)

"WHAT?! ANOTHER ONE?" Salty's jaw dropped on the floor as soon as he noticed the man appearing. Well, that was natural. It was the obvious reaction. People kept appearing on the ship of the photography department and Salty didn't really know how many more were about to appear out of nowhere. First, that guy with the wings who fell from the sky islands... Secondly, Douche, as always. And now the marine back from Blue Stripe... "Do you know that I am going to have trouble with your boss?!" Salty yelled at him. "I already got Bobby and a prisoner! Damn it!" he kept yelling until he just realized what the marine said. "Wait, did you say you have an idea about getting us up?" he asked. Things were getting interesting and the marine's unexpected arrival at the scene would proove to be useful!

Seemingly unfazed and/or uninterested about Salty's surprise and dismay, the figure continues to speak. "There exists an area nearby, an apparently deserted island. However, appearances can deceive the eye. It is an area brimmed with outlaws and illegal activities. And I know that there's a method practiced, amongst other things people may want to sell to the black market, that supposedly grants a ship the ability to float. It is by no means a sure-fire information, but that will do for now."

This man apparently knew of some really dirty, underground businesses going on. And while knowing of such things was quite suspicious, it was apparent that this man would prove to be useful to them.

"How come you know all that?!" Salty raised his voice at the marine, without expecting an answer. "Whatever, you are going to be useful. Okay... All of you, stay here. Bobby, as I already said, watch over Grey. The rest of you just steer the ship to that island. We need to get there as soon as possible so that we can get up to the skies... I am going to stick to the original plan and contact the headquarters." Salty continued speaking while running to his cabin. The photography department had just begun its very new adventure, the adventure of getting to the sky island!

"But seriously, how do you know about that?" Fino was curious, asking the marine while playing with his moustache. "I've never heard about an island like that here." he explained.

"...." The marine looked away, while letting out a grunt of remorse and irritation. "Let's just say that everyone's got their own reasons to be ashamed of something in their past." he cryptically responds to Fino, clearly whatever this reason the marine spoke of was something he wanted to leave in the past. "My name is Furo, by the way." he then adds, before he walks towards the ship's prow.

"That is correct, Furo-san. However, once's past means nothing if he has come to serve the justice. No one will judge or bother you with that on this ship." Johnny adds to the conversation, which was rather indiscreet, shown from Furo's reaction to just turn away, letting out a huff. "Thanks."

"..." Fino looked at Johnny as he walked away towards the steering wheel so that he could move the ship towards the direction of the deserted island Furo was talking about. While walking away, he raised his pitched voice, speaking to Furo. "Furo-san, could you come with me? I need your assistance. I want you to tell me where the island is so that I can steer the ship and get us there." were the marine's words.

Meanwhile, at Salty's cabin...

Salty was turning off the communication after he reported to the headquarters the lie that the weather was bad so they couldn't move fast. "Phew..." he relaxed a little bit and took a deep breath, thinking about the trouble they just got into. Getting to the sky island was something he wanted, but he knew that the dangers were greater than they seemed to be... The problem was that he couldn't avoid them. He was a marine. He had to stop the pirates at the sky island as long as Grey was speaking out the truth... And most importantly, he had to finally find out the identity of the mysterious demon who was stalking him and his unit the whole time. Salty had to kick the demon's ass and avenge Zack, who was ultimately forced to commit suicide by the demon. Salty had to avenge the pirate!

"Very well." Furo replies to Fino, and follows him into the steering wheel. The sky was starting to feel heavy; clouds, who were initially sparse and cotton-white, were starting to be replaced by larger, darker, ominous-looking ones.

"We should brace ourselves; this sea appears to be a bad host." Johnny claims, while the ship is nearing towards what appears to be the island, which did indeed looked like a barrel wasteland from over this distance. Was there really all those things Furo said, here?