Out at sea once more, the Straw Hats roped in the sea creatures that Cherry stunned with her lightning attacks to fill their food stores.
"This sure is handy, why didn't you do this before? It would have saved us a lot of trouble." Usopp said.
"You're just saying that because you don't want to work! Leave Cherry-chan~ alone!" Sanji reprimanded him.
"I didn't do it before because I didn't want to work." Cherry said.
Cherry returned to Robin's side to learn about the poneglyph language. She found it fascinating how complex it was and how much information they could fit in a small area.
"You're doing well. Keep it up and I might reward you later." Robin encouraged.
"COO!" The call of a news coo was heard close by and it approached the ship.
Nami beckoned it over and paid for the newspaper, complaining about the cost as she always did.
As she read the newspaper her expression turned serious and increasingly concerned.
"Nami? What's wrong?" Sanji asked.
Nami handed the newspaper to him and looked to the others who were wondering what was on it.
"It's a warning that several towns in East Blue have been suddenly destroyed. All the marines have found were giant rocks amongst the rubble of the buildings..." Nami explained as Sanji passed the newspaper to Luffy.
"Is that like a meteor or something?" Usopp wondered looking at the photos of the rocks.
The shadow of a large object passed over the ship. Looking up they all saw what looked like a small flying island with oars and sails.
"What the hell is that?!" Usopp pointed and shouted.
"Looks like a flying ship, SUPER!" Franky said.
"It's flying a pirate flag too." Zoro observed.
They watched as it passed them by in the same direction they were headed.
"Guys, Luffy! We need to change course, 90 degrees to port! A cyclone is forming ahead of us!" Nami shouted.
(A/N: Port is to the left of a ship.)
Luffy started shouting and waving his arms in an attempt to get the attention of the island ship, as the others went about the business of changing directions.
In less than a minute, a tone dial floated down from the island ship, presumably to pass on a message to them as they would not be able to hear Luffy's shouted from up there.
Luffy passed the tone dial to Nami who recorded her warning onto it then held it aloft, at which point it floated back to the flying island ship.
Cherry wasn't interested in the cyclone. She had been engrossed in observing the power that moved the tone dial and the flying island ship.
'This is clearly the work of a devil fruit, but why does it seem... more, somehow.' Cherry thought to herself. She wanted to study this in greater detail, but she wasn't sure she'd have the opportunity.
The Thousand Sunny had already finished changing its heading as the cyclone began to appear in the distance. The flying island ship was late in changing direction, likely bec ause they did not take Nami seriously.
It was an understandable doubt to have, after all the cyclones in the Grand Line were said to be unpredictable. Yet here some random stranger was telling them that she could do just that?
Ultimately they managed to get out of the cyclone in time, but only by a thin margin.
Cherry's keen hearing picked up the faintest sound of a gun shot.
'Bad luck, who ever you are. I can only say you should be more careful on who you choose to follow in your next life.' Cherry wished whichever unfortunate bastard that ate that bullet the best.
The flying island ship caught up with them again, then they saw the figure of a person fly down and approach the Thousand Sunny.
He was an eccentric looking fellow with long yellow hair down to where his ankles would be, if he did not have swords where his legs would be. The top of his head was bald with part of a ship's wheel seemingly imbedded into it like a mohawk. His sideburns went down to his waist and he had a fluffy goatee on his chin. His wrinkles and liver spots betrayed his advanced age.
He landed on the deck with a clang as the sword prodded the wood, which Franky was rather annoyed by though he did not say it.
"I am Shiki the Golden Lion. A pirate! Who's voice was it on the tone dial?" Shiki announced confidently.
'This guy is shady as hell.' Cherry instantly didn't trust him. He reminded her too much of sect elders who had reached the end of their potential but refused to accept the reality of it.
"Um, that was me..." Nami raised her hand hesitantly.
Shiki's expression shifted almost imperceptibly, but Cherry caught it. 'Ah, so you're after Nami's talent, are you? Oh, and he's a pervert too, of course.'
"Ohh! You have my thanks, baby-cakes!" Shiki thanked her without a shred of sincerity.
"Hey, old man, how is that floating?" Luffy asked, pointing at the island ship above them.
"That? It's the power of my Float Float Fruit. Let me demonstrate." Shiki wlaked over to a barbell on the ground and tapped it. Then he motioned with his hand sending the barbell flying into the air before dropping it where Zoro caught it.
Cherry was lost in her thoughts as she examined the power to the best of her ability.
'Why is that part of the inscription different? It was universal in all the devil fruit I've seen before now.' Cherry pondered.
"Amazing! Make me fly too!" Luffy rudely demanded.
"Jihaha, unfortunately it doesn't work on other living beings. Only myself and inanimate objects." Shiki explained, not seeming to mind Luffy's rudeness.
Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp were disappointed at this answer.
"As a token of appreciation, I'd like to invite you to come to my hideout." Shiki offered.
"No, but thanks. We're going to East Blue." Luffy said, completely out of nowhere.
"W-what about our adventure?!" Usopp asked.
"We can always continue later. We can't just leave our hometowns in danger, can we?" Luffy said.
The others accepted that pretty easily.
"Well, in that case let me take you to East Blue to repay my debt to you!" Shiki announced.
'He definitely not going to take us to East Blue.' Cherry thought, but she also wanted to keep studying his devil fruit. So she just let it happen without protest.
Luffy agreed with enthusiasm, undoubtedly just excited for the ship to fly. Cabernet took them on ride alongs occasionally for fun, but Luffy liked the novelty of Shiki's way.
A couple hours later they saw several much larger floating islands in the distance, some of which even had bodies of water wrapped around thing with seemingly nothing to hold it in.
Even Cherry was awestruck at the sight of them.
'How does he keep all that matter floating at once?!' Cherry was almost certain that the difference she isolated in Shiki's devil fruit inscription was responsible somehow for the scale of it.
"How are you able to effect so much at once?" Cherry asked.
"Hm?" Shiki considered the question. He decided to keep it simple as it was pointless to go into a long explanation with these people. "Ah, well, I've awakened my devil fruit. You'll learn all about that when you reach the New World eventually."
"Awakened?" Cherry muttered. She'd never heard of that before, but she instantly began to think of ways such a thing might be accomplished. She didn't discount the possibility that Shiki was just lying either, though.
"Now then." Shiki said, suddenly rushing to Nami's side and grabbing her.
"Hey?!" Luffy exclaimed.
"Down you go!" Shiki motioned downward with his hand and the Thousand Sunny dropped out beneath their feet.
'That's what I get for getting lost in thought around a creep like that I guess.' Cherry lamented.
Cherry ordered Cabernet to grab as many of the others as she could whilst she did the same. She didn't bother with Nami as she knew Shiki wanted her navigational skill, so he wouldn't harm her.
Robin was able to bloom makeshift wings made of arms, so unfortunately Cherry didn't get to play hero and rescue her.
Robin grabbed Serene and Brook. Cabernet saved Zoro and Sanji. Cherry rescued Franky and Usopp. Luffy caught Chopper and Merry, expanding into a balloon before hitting the ground.
They gathered together once they all landed. "Now what?"