Angel's True Face (One Piece)

I'm Weaker!

Before the crew was standing an old man that possessed long white hair, mustache, and beard. "He's retreated." He stood in a suit of metal armor with a dark red shirt, and brown pants. He also had the knight's visor that was pulled up and finally wears a long dark blue cloak that is yellow on the inside and at the back. Then right behind him was is a large pink bird with a red polka dot pattern on his body. He's solid red on the sides of his head, the back of his head, and on his horn-like ears. He also had bandages wrapped around his torso and a tab face, with a yellow beak.
"What's going on here? Just who was that?" Nami was still completely confused and unsure of what happened. "And what's more..." but her sights had turned behind her where she found the four strongest members of the crew all tried out. "What's wrong with you guys? That was pathetic!" She asked them, since they were breathing heavily, much like before as they were either sitting or laying across the deck. "All four of you together couldn't handle him!"
"Thank you for helping us!" Chopper had gone over to the old knight, grateful to him for saving them.
"No need for thanks. This is a service." However, the knight had stated that.
"Dammit... I'm disappointed." Sanji was shaking his head at himself.
"Somehow, my body... won't move that well." While Luffy was laying down.
"It just feels... so heavy." And Iris was pushing herself up off the floor with the help of the wall.
"It must be because the air's so thin." This had been stated by Robin, as it would explain all this.
"Yeah, now that I think about it..." Zoro seemed to be in agreement as he noticed it.
"Are you Blue Sea dwellers?" This question came from the old knight that was climbing the stairs.
"Blue Sea dwellers? What do you mean?" Which only had a question thrown back at him. "Oh yeah, who are you?" But it had changed as the knight had given the crew his name.
"I am the Knight of the Sky." He had repeated what he said before. "'Blue Sea dwellers' is the general term for those who live beneath the clouds." Then he moved onto answering the first question.
"Knight of the Sky?"
"So, I presume that you traveled up from the Blue Sea." The knight came to this conclusion.
"Yeah, that's right." Which had been clarified by Luffy.
"Then this is no surprise. This is the White Sea, 7,000 meters above your Blue Sea. Furthermore, above this sea is the White-White Sea, 10,000 meters above your own." This was explained to the group, but it was amazing that there were this high up but still had a ways to go. "Ordinary Blue Sea dwellers' bodies cannot handle it."
"Yosh, I think I'm getting used to it!" While that was being said, Luffy had sat up and was tapping his chest.
"Yeah, I feel a lot better than before." As Zoro seemed to be back to breathing normally.
"I'm pretty sure I'm all good now." On the other hand, Iris seemed to have been standing on her own and no longer breathing heavily like moments ago.
"No, no, no, no, no, that's not possible." Though, it appeared the old knight was in a disbelief about this.
"I have to know! How was that guy running on top of the clouds?" Chopper came to ask this question, as it didn't make sense that Usopp and Iris would pass through it with ease.
"Yield, yield, yield. I am certain you have many questions for me, but first we must talk of business." The knight had responded with.
"Business?" But no one really know what he meant by that.
"I am a free mercenary. And this is a sea of many dangers. Since you know not the battle of the sky, you will be easy targets for the guerillas or the Skyfish." This was being explained to them. "One whistle and I will rescue you for a price of 5,000,000 extols." Everyone had titled their heads to his deal.
"What're you talking about, old knight guy?" Came out of Luffy as he asked.
"You fool! It is a small price to pay!" But this only caused the Knight to panic. "I will not take one extol less! I have to make a living, you know!"
"We can understand, but what exactly is this extol you are talking about?" Iris asked as this was why everyone had titled their heads earlier. None of them had any idea what the extol was.
"Yeah, and what do you mean by whistle?" Then Sanji brought up the next thing that confused them.
"You mean you did not come by the way of the High West?" The knight almost looked to be in shock as he asked them this. "But you must have at least stopped by one or two islands!"
"C'mon, what're you talking about, Old Knight?" Luffy once again asked, looking a but annoyed.
"Hold on!" But Nami called out after what the old man said sunk in. "You mean there are other ways to get to this sky sea? And one or two islands? You mean there's more than one Sky Island?" She was asking as to make sure she was hearing everything correctly.
"You mean that you-" And it appeared that the Knight began to figure out how they got here.
"We rode the Knock-Up Stream here." Robin spoke up to inform him.
"Riding that monstrous current?" He was in shock upon hearing this. "To think there are still souls brave enough to dare to do that..." He muttered the last part as he was slightly impressed but still shock. On the other hand...
"I knew it wasn't a normal route!" Nami began to cry as she realised they could have found a different and safer way. "I THOUGHT WE WERE GONNA DIE!" And all of that soon turned to anger as she grabbed Luffy by his vest. "IF WE'D GATHERED MORE INFORMATION WE WOULD'VE HAD AN EASIER TRIP!!"
"We're here now! It's all good!" Luffy was trying to stop her from shaking him.
"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!!" While behind them, Usopp was still repeating the same thing.
"Have you lost any of your crew?"
"Nope, we all made it!" The captain had been pulled away from the navigator's anger.
"The other routes would not have been so merciful." It was then when the Knight began to explain how the other routes were. "If you had brought 100 people, it would be a gamble as to how many would survive. But by using the Knock-Up Stream, either you all die or you all survive. There are few left willing to risk losing everything. Especially in recent years. I have a great respect for your brave and trustworthy navigators." Hearing this seemed to have calmed Nami down, as she had released Luffy.
"Well, it was the course I picked, after all!" That's when out of nowhere, Usopp had regained consciousness and taking all the credit. "At the time, these guys were crying and has given up on their lives, but I told them: 'I'm the navigator!'"
"Hey!" But listening to him caused Nami to grab ahold of his cheek and pulled it.
"One whistle means blowing sharply into this." That was then the Knight began to explain the whistle they asked about earlier. He pulled out something from his armour and showed a single whistle in the palm of his open hand. It was then when he tossed it into the air, causing it to fall onto the deck before the crew. "I will descend from Heaven itself to lend you aid." The Knight was getting up, his back turned to them. "I normally ask 5,000,000 extol for future visits, but I shall give you one whistle as a present."
"Wait! We don;t even know your name!" Nami shouted at the man, as he was clearly about to leave without telling them his name.
"I am the Knight of the Sky, Gan Fall!" He turned back around to face them, finally introducing himself. "And this is my partner, Pierre!" And also introduced the large bird by his side. "I should have mentioned that my partner, Pierre..." As he began speaking, the bird had started to change. "... is a bird who has eaten and gained the ability of the Horse Horse Fruit.
"The bird?" The crew was looking on, stunned as they watch the bird transforming.
"Meaning, he can become a winged horse! Namely..."
"Oh my! How wonderful! A Pegasus?" Sparkles were flying off Nami as she was getting excited.
"Yes, a Pegasus!" The Knight, Gan Fall had jumped onto the back of the newly transformed bird that was now horse with wings that maintain the pink body with red polka dot design, but with white feathers. His face also elongates to that of a horse's.
"That's... questionable." But looking at the bird-horse hybrid only caused a little disappointment since it wasn't anything like the Pegasus in stories or paintings.
"Brave souls, may luck be with you!" And with that, they began to gallup and fly away.
"Well that was certainly strange..." No one could deny that as they watch them leaving to the distances.
"And by the way... was there any point to it transforming?"
"Dunno..."
"In the end... he didn't really tell us much." Robin pointed out since they still didn't know how to got up to the White-White Sea he spoke of.
"Yeah! Not a damn thing!" Usopp was saying in agreement, but he had been unconscious almost the entire time, so he didn't have much room to talk.
"We can blow this and he'll come back." Sanji was speaking while looking down at the whistle.
"How are we gonna get higher?" Zoro was turning to the others, seeing if they had any ideas.
"Yosh! I'll call that Old Knight and ask him!" Luffy picked up the whistle and was about to blow it.
"W-W-W-W-W-Whoa, hold it Luffy!" But it had been grabbed by Usopp and Nami, who were trying to stop him. "That's only to ask for help in an emergency!"
"What if that weirdo in the mask shows up again!?" The captain's face began to turn blue.
"I think we should move Merry for the time being." Iris looked to the swordsman, since it wouldn't do them much good just hanging around in the same place.
"Hey, look over there!" Chopper was leaning on the metal side looking out over the clouds.
"I wonder what that is?" Robin come up behind him and was able to see what the doctor was talking about.
"Weird clouds, huh?" Not that this place wasn't weird enough already.
"It looks like a waterfall." When the archaeologist said that, some of the crew went over to have a look. In the far distance there was a gathering of clouds and behind them looked like a pillar or fall.
"Yosh, that's that then. We'll go over there." The Going Merry had began to change direction, heading towards the waterfall they spotted. But there was something left that needed to be said.
"We need to decide on what to do with the whistle." Iris stated looking towards the whistle that was in Nami's hand now.
"Listen up." The navigator had began to speak, with everyone looking to her. "I've decided that I'll hold onto the whistle." She claimed it for herself. "Any objection?" She asked with that threading smile that stated 'I dare you to speak against it' and normally that would be the end of it.
"Yes." But the three children raised their arms in protest.
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" As Chopper was jumping up and down beside the pair.
"How can you say that!?" Which only caused the woman to snap at them. "I'm a delicate little girl!" She ended up proudly saying.
"You are?" But the others didn't see her that way.
"I'm the one on this ship who should have it!"
"I wanna call him..." But the only reason Luffy wanted it was because...
"No way, Luffy! You just wanna blow the damned whistle!" Usopp was shoving his hand into the captain's face. "Stay out of it!"
"I wanna call the Old Knight Guy! He's a cool guy!" But he didn't listen and stretched his arm to grab it.
"Let me have it!" Chopper ran over and began to jump to also grab ahold of it, since he was shorter then the others. "I'm the weakest!"
"Like hell you are! I'm the weakest one of all!" However, the Long nose admitting this loudly.
"Stop playing around! Everyone KNOWS I'm the weakest!"
"NO, I'm the weakest!"
"Haven't you guys seen how fantastically bad I am at fighting!?"
"They fighting over strange things..." Robin watched a bit impressed by the three of them fighting over who was weaker.
"Alright, that's enough." Before any of them knew it, the whistle had been ripped away from the four. All their heads had turned to Iris standing with her fist closed and standing beside them. "Since the four of you can't agree I've decided." She began to speak before walking towards the mast where a little hook was. "The mast will hold onto it." That was being said as the whistle was now hanging from the hook. "This way anyone can blow the whistle if there is danger." It had been explained by the angel as she stood there smiling. "Now its fair."
"Yosh."
"Got it." None of them disagreed with her actions or statement.
"Oh but..." Nami had spoke up and looked over to the other four members. "None of you guys have the right to blow the whistle." She was pointing at them stating, since the four of them were very strong. "Including you, Iris." Then she pointed to the one that had suggested all this.
"Bah, I wanna call the Old Knight Guy..." Luffy, who had no reason to blow it, was all depressed.
"You blow it and I'll kick your ass to the ends of the world."
"Okay, we'll remember."