Angel's True Face (One Piece)

Let the Hunt Begin!

Night had fallen and the once serious discussion no longer existed as music was playing over laughter and cheers. "Damn, the rum tastes great today!" Cricket was shouting after drinking another bottle of alcohol, the man was completely red in the face from it all.
"Hey, eat up! Eat up! There's a whole course of pike and more still to come!" Sanji was dancing around with more plates of food in hand as everyone were epithet eating, dancing or drinking. But there were having the time of their lives.
"Here." Something had been thrown into Masira's mouth by Usopp, the next moment her was spewing out fire. "You feel for it, you salvaging nut! That was my Tabasco Bomber!" Causing the long nose to burst into laugher.
"GET BACK HERE, LONG-NOSE!" Needless to say that the large monkey man began chasing after him in annoyance.
"Oi, Miss', come sit by me!" Both Nami and Iris was getting hit on by the drunk Cricket.
"Bastar! You're 100 years too early to be hitting on Nami and Iris!" Which had Sanji slamming his foot down on his forehead, pushing the old man away from the two young woman.
"Eat this." Iris turned away from that scene by Zoro who was holding up a plate to her. "You need to eat more." He stated, but he just wanted her to pay attention to him due to feeling annoyed at Cricket hitting on her. The party was in full swing, however, there was all but one that wasn't involved as she was sitting off to the side reading Norland's Logbook.
"The skull's right eye..." but then Cricket had appeared before her, speaking strangely. Robin was a bit startled by his sudden appearance. "...is where I saw the gold."
"Gold?" But suddenly everyone froze, turning their attention to Cricket after hearing his words. The once lively room had done a 180, and gone completely silence.
"Blotted with tears, those were the last words of Norland wrote." The man suddenly appeared to be sobered. "'The skull's right eye is where I saw the gold.' That same day, Norland was executed." Everyone was sitting once again listening to him speaking. "Even after coming here to Jaya, I still don't understand what he meant by that. The skull's right eye... Maybe it's the name of a city that used to be here. Or maybe it was a metaphor for his own inevitable death. The black pages that follow tell us nothing. That's why we dive! We see a dream! There on the ocean floor!" Cricket began to drink once again.
"That's right!" Masira shouted in agreement, with Usopp on his shoulder.
"We're gonna fly!" Luffy shoved more food into his mouth.
"We'll never fly if you keep eating so much!" Causing the snipper to shout that and everyone bursting into laugher.
"'Today I arrived at Jaya. May 12, 1122.'" Cricket began reading the Log entry from Jaya, however, he was not reading it from the logbook but his own memory. The man had read it so many times he knew it off by heart.
"Norland! Norland!" As the guys continued singing.
"'Upon landing on the island, we heard a most peculiar bird call coming from the forest and the sound of a large, very large, bell striking. The sound of that great, golden bell was carried far and wide as if it was signaling the prosperity of a great city of the past.'" As he spoken, everyone listened while drinking and eating. "'The fleeting sound that, upon this cast sea for a great many years, a prosperous civilisation bloomed.'"
"Norland! Norland!"
"'For us, who have lived but mere decades, there were no words fit to describe it!'" Cricket came to stand up. "'We were spellbound by the ringing of that bell!'" He bursted into a battle cry of excitement and Luffy had joined him.
"Greatly told, Norland!" The monkey duet shouted.
"How wonderful! A golden bell!" Of course Nami was in love with the thought of gold.
"Pops, what's the deal? So you do like Norland!" Usopp come to the conclusion as the man couldn't stop the excitement he felt reading the book.
"Look at this!" Cricket soon pulled something out that was covered in cloth before it was removed.
"Wow! A golden bell!" What was under it was a bell made of gold, just like in the book, however...
"So, what's 'very large' about it?" Was the only question the sniped could ask looking at it.
"This isn't the bell he wrote about." Had been the answer to the question. "They're just bell-shaped ingots. I found these three on the ocean floor." Cricket gone into more details.
"Ingots?" But Chopper didn't seem to understand.
"Oh, so the City of Gold does exist!" Had come from Luffy, as he saw this as proof of it.
"That doesn't prove it, though." However, Shojo stated that to him, sitting back up. "You could find something like that lying in any old ruin." That had been explained.
"But, it does prove that there was a civilisation here." Robin come to point that out. "Ingots were designed to divide up gold into gram masses. Meaning there was also trade and commerce here."
"Right, and the call of that strange bird... Oi, Masira." That was when nothing object, wrapped in cloth had been pulled out.
"Whoa, there's more!" What was inside was even more gold, but this time it was shaped like a strange bird.
"This one's big too!" And was twice as large.
"That's all of them." And it had been the last of Cricket's finding.
"Ah, it beautiful." Needless to say that Nami was drooling over the sight of it.
"So golden bells and golden birds would be the symbols of Jaya? Back in ancient times." Iris came to the conclusion, since they wouldn't just make statues for meaningless reasons.
"I'm not sure, but this might have been part of an ancient moulding." Cricket explained what he had thought. "This is a Southbird, and it lives right here on this island." He dragged the golden bird over to him, explaining.
"And it sounds weird when it calls?" Luffy seemed interested in it.
"Yeah, just like it says in the logbook." That was the answer given.
"Southbird s have been used on ships since ancient times to..." Masira stop mid sentence for some reason and turned to Shojo, who was also looking at him. Both of them seemed to be shocked as if they remembered something important.
"OH DAMN!!" Out of nowhere, the two of them screamed along with Cricket.
"W-What!? What's wrong!?" Which caught everyone else by surprise.
"This is bad! You guys have to get to the forest! The forest to the south!" But they had just gotten confused after Cricket shouted that at them.
"What're you talking about, Diamond pops? You lost it?" Luffy was honestly asking, but it was the question going through the crew's minds.
"You need to capture one of these birds! Right now!" And he was sounding less and less sane by the minute.
"How come? What's up?"
"This bird? Why?" They wanted to know why he was suddenly acting like this.
"Listen carefully. Tomorrow you were going to sail to the Knock-Up Stream! It's directly south of the cape. How are you going to get there!?" He came to ask them.
"We'll just sail our ship straight there." Though, it appeared that someone didn't remember it.
"This is the Grand Line! The moment you straight from your course, you have no idea which direction is which!" Having shouted this, it was then that Nami remember the main thing in the Grand Line.
"I see, since we're going to be sailing towards an area of water instead of an island, we won't have anything to tell us the right way." Compasses do not work in the Grand Line due to the magnetic fields within it. "Then how do we tell which direction to sail in?" This had been asked to the man.
"You have to make use of this bird's special trait." Cricket began to explain the answer to her question. "Certain species of animals have an accurate internal sense of direction. You can use that to determine you own position." Hearing this caused Luffy to bursted into laughter.
"So that would make Zoro less evolved than an animal!" He soon come to shout.
"You're the last one who can tell me that!" Needless to say that Zoro snapped back at him. Which caused Iris to shake her head, sighing, at the two of them.
"The Southbird is the most extreme example of this." But the explanation continued despite interruption. "No matter how large a stretch of land is or how much the sea tosses and turns, it's body will remain pointed in a single direction." It appeared to be slightly heard to picture such a thing. "Anyway, without that bird, you'll never be able to set out from here. And as for Sky Island, you'll miss your only chance to get there!" Hearing this shocked the childish trio, causing them to scream in response.
"WHY ARE YOU ONLY TELLING US THIS NOW!?"
"Don'T stand around griping!" Before long the crew began running out of the door, in the direction of the forest. "There;s no time! You have to go!" But they came to a stop before the entrance.
"It's the middle of the night and you want us to go trampling around in the woods!?" Usopp was shouting this back at Cricket who had practically threw them out.
"You forgot these!" But it had been heard as three nets had been thrown at them, one wrapping around sniper's head. "We're gonna get to work on your beat-up ship. In hindsight, we really shouldn't have had that party!"
"How can you say that now!?" This had been Usopp screaming, as her was being dragged into the forest by Sanji and Zoro, followed closely by the others.
"Now listen. You have until morning to catch a Southbird and bring it back here!"