Lia's POV;

I was watching Lara talking to Fiara. The little Tontatta was strange but also a good example of her race. Life has made it hard for her, yet she still behaves friendly and with a bubbly persona. I'm not quite sure how much of it is an act and what is real. Her aura does not show malice towards us, that's why I didn't dump the barrel into the sea right away.

But how can someone stay this friendly to strangers when there was obviously much in her past that would make any other at least wary.

The guys are all friendly to her and Lara thinks that she will be a great help in building and maintaining our future ship. There are things we want to implement but have not the knowledge, nor the time, to build those.

For now, I will keep an eye on her, her mechanical arms can be dangerous.

Lara and Fiara have just vanished into the ship when I noticed something on the far horizon. A few minutes later I could make out more details and saw that there was some kind of gate in the middle of the sea. A white cloud was almost vertically standing right behind the gate.

“Guys! I think we have reached Heaven's Gate. You'll be able to see it in approximately 15 minutes.” I called down to the rest of the crew that was on deck. Nojiko and Noa looked over to where I was pointing and Nojiko took a binocular to see for herself.

“Thanks, Lia, we will have to change our course slightly”, informed Nojiko us then. Both Noa and I helped and we were quickly on a better course.

Half an hour later we were assembled on the deck and right in front of the Heaven's Gate. We passed the large archway and could see a line of doors to the left and right of the building. Some were open, others closed.

“Shouldn't there be someone to greet us?”, asked Noa while looking for somebody. I knew that there was no one, at least I could not feel anyone. With the exception of the animal that was right under our ship.

The same animal that just now came up and clamped two claws into our ship. “What the fuck?!”, cursed Josef from the sudden shake.

Yet, before anyone could do anything the animal moved forward, with us on its back. “I think attacking it now wouldn't be a good idea”, I warned Yosaku calmly. He was in the middle of preparing a heavy strike against the claw that grabbed our left side.

Yosaku looked over his shoulder back at me in confusion. “Why Sis Lia? This thing is carrying us who knows where.”

“Because it is carrying us upwards, somewhere we want to be. We are also on a slim path and in no position to turn around without falling down. I'm not sure if I am able to stop a fall from this height. Not with our ship fully intact”, I explained while pointing over the railing and down to the rapidly shrinking Heaven's Gate.

None of us heard the gulping sound that Yosaku made, but we could all see his Adam's apple moving. He put his cleaver-like sword back and sat down to wait for the end of the ride.

“Guy's the log pose is starting to show to the left and no longer upwards, let me check something”, informed Nojiko us a few minutes into the ride. She ran inside and came back with her navigation book. She flipped the pages with practised ease and was quickly at the sky island chapter.

“Ah here, the island Skyprie and Skypia are rather close, with Skypia being a thousand metres lower than Spykrie. It's also in the direction of our log pose. I think we missed the coin throw and choose the wrong island.” She then explained and showed us both islands. There was a single large one with the headline Skyprie and two smaller ones on the next page with the headline Skypia.

“Well, we can't change our course now, we will simply have to let our log pose set its target on a different island once we are back in the Grand Line”, muttered Lara, not really concerned. At least now we won't run into the Straw Hats again. Well, we won't after Water 7, which will be our next destination after the sky island.

“Does your book also say how we can get back down?”, asked Jonny with some worry. We, the whole crew, have spoken about the sky sea during dinner and while it is indeed a beautiful and mysterious ocean it is, as the name states, still an ocean and drifting around without a possible food source or water supply will kill us if nothing is done.

For now, there won't be any problems, we have enough fresh food for a month and dried stuff for a year or two. Water and drinkable long shelf live products, in the form of beer or other slightly alcoholic beverages, were also stored in abundance.

It's something we have done since leaving Konomi island. We stripped the brigs and other rooms we didn't need and are using them for more storage room.

Nojiko, in response to his question, flipped through the pages and stopped near the end of the chapter. “Here, we can sail through something that is called Summit of the High West. It's not really said what you have to do there, just where it is. There is also another part that says that there is an animal, a so-called Balloon Octopus. It's again not said where we can get one, just that these creatures can mimic a balloon and slow our fall.”

“So we have to look out for one of these or ask around. Should be easy if they are known enough to be listed in your book”, noted Noa from the side. Neither Lara nor I commented on this. Nojiko has, by now, realised that her book is more than the run of the mill navigation book. But she still has not yet a grasp on how much worth it is.

“Well, yes I think so. If we don't get one then we have a huge problem. The Summit of the High West is placed over the New World. Our ship won't survive there.” Said Nojiko gravely.

“And neither will you”, I pointed out as well. They all looked at me worriedly and I saw that the need for one such octopus was known to all of them.

“I do know about a third possible way to get back down, but it is risky and we would need to leave our ship back.” Said Lara, lessening their worries.

“And that would be?”, asked Fiara in hope of an easy way.

Lara grinned, one of her cute and dangerous grins. “We jump and use sails to slow our own fall. Once we are able to see an island we use the sails to get closer. Lia and I should be able to carry all of you with Geppo for a few dozen kilometre.” The hope was extinguished with Lara's second word and all of them looked sick by the sheer thought.

“I hope it won't come down to that”, prayed Jonny, the rest was quickly falling in line to follow his prayer to whomever god they worship.

“It won't matter for the next days, so stop worrying too much. More important now is that the crab, or whatever is pulling us, seems to slow down”, said Lara with a clap of her hands. I looked down at the cloud river we were riding on and could indeed see how we were getting slower.

Soon after we could see another stone archway and our transport loosened its claws on our ship before sinking back down into the white sea. The building was almost the exact replica of the Heaven's Gate. There was just a tiny little difference. Namely the hanged humans on the top of the entrance. A sign was towed to the ankle of one of them.

“Beware sinners and heretics for His blinding wrath will find you and smite you”, I read out loud. Of course Jonny, Yosaku and Noa have had to gulp in fear.

“A homely greeting”, said Josef sarcastically. Lara snickered, she was always a fan of dark humour.

“I want to take the jump option, please”, squeaked Fiara, her lone eye was opened wide and fixed on the rotting corpses.

“Nope”, sung Lara cheerfully, before almost lazily dodging a thrown axe. My retaliation pebble hit it's target between the eyes and the sky island dweller fell backwards. His brain splattered on the closing door behind him.

“What the fuck?!”, shouted Yosaku before using his large sword to block three spears from impaling Nojiko. The blue haired girl has already pulled her pistols and was shooting back at her attackers.

Two men and a woman were forced behind a low wall, but one of them got hit in the shoulder before they were out of sight.

“Lia, how many are there?”, asked Josef, he has grabbed Fiara and put himself and her out of the fire by ducking behind the railing. Noa slid right next to him a moment later. None of the three had any long-range attacks.

“Only five”, I answered calmly and shot another pebble off. This one was slightly enhanced and pieced the cover of our attackers, before hitting one of them. I made the pebble explode right before it impacted its target. Dozens of razor sharp and fast pieces must have shredded her body when it hit.

Her screams of pain were certainly speaking a tale of it.

“And here I thought heaven would be a nice place”, grumbled Nojiko from my side. She had switched from her pistols to her rifle and was aiming at the two hidden remaining enemies. One of them peaked up for a moment and got rewarded with a steel-cloud bullet.

He too was dead moments later. It made the last of the three panic. He tried to flee, yet was shot down before he could make his third step. “At least they have wings,” I joked back but got a glare and no laughter.

It got silent, yet all of us stayed guarded. “Where is Lara?”, asked Jonny suddenly. Oh yes, she wasn't on board any longer. During our short fight, she jumped off and went inside the building towards the remaining two signatures.

“She's inside the building, taking care of the remaining two”, I informed them. “There should be no one else here. Let's dock our ship and take a look at the building”, I then said.

Not even a minute later, Jonny, Yosaku and Josef jumped down on the pathway, I followed right after. We stopped at the four dead people. They all had downwards pointed wings and were clothed in togas. They also had some tattoos, showing three commas in a circle and a lot of scars.

The whole front of my target was shredded and it was hard to discern anything, other than it was once humanoid. “These guys don't look too different from us, except for their wings”, said Jonny. He was nudging one of them with his foot and turned the man on his back. The face of the dead man was partly shot off but what was left didn't look too different from a normal human.

“Let's go inside”, suggested Josef. We left the four dead behind and stepped into the corridor that led us into the building. We easily found Lara, only had to follow the screams of pain.

We stepped into a room with ten beds and found Lara standing over a writhing and screaming man. He too had the same wings as the other four.

“Not nice to not be in control isn't it? Too bad that pleading for help won't save you”, snarled Lara angrily. I was just about to ask why she was clearly torturing this one when I saw the reason lying on one of the beds.

It was a single lone bed in a corner, with a woman on it. The young woman, who couldn't be older than maybe 22, was staring at Lara in fear. She has large bruises all over her body, was naked and chained to the bed. There were also bloody gashes along her stomach and dried blood between her legs.

Jonny had seen her as well and has tapped Josef on the shoulder to show him, without interrupting Lara. His eyes held no mercy for the soon to be dead man. Yosaku saw the gesture and followed Josef's sight, his expression turned stony as well. Josef himself has silently walked over to the girl and tried to calm her down, with little success.

“Lara, would you mind finishing him, I think helping her has a higher priority”, I asked while watching the man. His leg was a bloody mess with pieces of bones sticking out of it. They were all slightly cracked. She must have put them under a high frequency of vibration. The rigid bones couldn't hold the movement and must have broken at some point.

“Sure”, agreed Lara after a moment. She stepped on the chest of the man and his whole body began to shudder. Bone pieces began to pierce through his hands, arms, legs and torso before his whole head caved in like a smashed melon. The bloody mess was no longer identifiable as human.

She turned around, cut the chain off and gestured for us to follow her back. Yosaku was carrying the deadly terrified woman out. Her whole body was shaking like a leaf and she was trying to make herself as tiny as possible in his arms.

Back on board, he carried her swiftly inside Josef's office, where our doctor began his treatment.

“Was she?”, asked Nojiko silently. She knows the signs of abuse. She has told us how Arlong has ruled during a quiet night filled with alcohol. Only Lara and I were told, probably because we are both women as well.

“Yes, You might want to talk to her. Neither Lia nor I am very good at such delicate matters. And the boys won't be able to help”, confirmed Lara.

“Poor girl,” sighed Nojiko “I'll go inside. Maybe a friendly smile of the same gender will alleviate some of her fears.” She left us and walked inside.

Noa, Jonny, Yosaku and Fiara were watching us, waiting for orders. “Let's search the building. Lia will stay guard”, ordered Lara after a moment of thought. All four nodded and they left me alone on the deck.

Well, this island certainly turns out to be interesting.