Angel's True Face (One Piece)

The Way Up!?

After having reading the logbook and becoming overwhelmed with excitement, the crew had calmed down and were now outside. Luffy, Nami, Usopp and Iris were all sitting at the tree stump that was acting like a table, as Chopper was sitting on ground in front of it. As for Zoro, he was stilling on the ground behind asleep and Sanji had been the only one that stayed inside the hut as he was cooking. Robin on the other hand was still located on the Going Merry. "What did you want to tell us, pops?" Usopp was asking Cricket who was standing a few feet away from them after being the one to call them out.
"Listen ups you guys. First, I'm going to tell you everything I know about Sky Island." He stated this, answering the question that had been given. "I dunno if any of it is true, so it's up to you if you want to believe it or not."
"Yep, I believe you." Luffy didn't even hesitate in say that.
"That's too fast!" Which only had the sniper slap the air between them.
"There's something peculiar that happens in this part of the sea." But Cricket had continued and pointed out to the sea. "Sometimes, even in the middle of the day, an entire portion of the ocean suddenly turns as dark as night."
"That happened! That happened to us!" Which had been something they experienced already. "Right?"
"Yeah! It turned to night, and then a bunch of monsters appeared!" The explanation had been given at what happened to them.
"You mean the giants? There's a story about where they come from, but let's forget them for now." It was hard to do, since they were quite shocking. "The true nature of the sudden nightfall... It is the shadow of a massively dense cloud."
"You mean a cumulonimbus cloud?" Nami looked at him slightly confused. "It was much darker than if there were clouds like that overhead." She then goes onto saying.
"Pops, you're so stupid!" Which had come from Luffy.
"Lu, stop being rude." Only to have been told off by Iris. "Although I don't completely understand weather, is something like that possible?" She asked turning her sights back to Cricket.
"Yeah, on days when there's lots of clouds, it gets cloudy!" Had been the captain shouting.
"Yep, cloudy." Which had the Long nose agreeing with him.
"Cloudy!" And the doctor jumping up and shouting.
"SHUP UP AND LISTEN!" But the three of them had been snapped at by Cricket. "Cumuloregalis. That's the name of this type of cloud. It forms high in the sky, and inside, no air currents form and it never turns into rain." He had continued the explanation. "When one of those is in the sky... not even the sun penetrates it. And on the ground below, day becomes night. Another account states that Cumuloregalis clouds... remain unchanged, floating for thousands or tens of thousands of years. Like a petrified cloud." Something like that just seemed completely impossible.
"That's impossible! No cloud can form without creating air currents!" Which had been why the navigator refused to believe something like that was possible.
"You're free to think it doesn't exist. I never asked you to believe me." Although, the old man didn't seem to care as he stated.
"So it's a Mystery Cloud." Luffy just went along with it, not truly understanding.
"That's about right." Which it appeared Cricket's simple description of was just that. "There's been no explanation for its existence."
"Luffy, that was awesome!" Chopper shouted upon jumping and standing on the table.
"Understand? If Sky Island does in fact exist... That is the only place it could be!" That was what Cricket had come to state to them.
"Oh, okay! Let's get up to that cloud!" And it appeared the captain was getting ahead of himself, like normal. "Zoro, wake up!" Both him and Usopp were jumping around.
"Is it morning?" Causing the swordsman to wake up asking.
"Oi, everyone get ready! Hard turn to the clouds! Pops, thanks for telling us!" They were shouting and Iris come to notice that Nami was shaking, causing the angel to grab ahold of the doctor and slowly back away from her.
"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU WE DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET THERE!?" The navigator had completely snapped before throwing her fists everywhere at them.
"Now the main problem." And Cricket had continued like he didn't see the pairs batted up face. "And I gotta warn you, you'll be fishing your lives!"
"We're half-dead already..."
"The vertically-flowing current, the Knock-up Stream... If you get on that current, you can make it tot Sky Island. That's the theory. Get it?" He turned to them asking if they understood after explaining.
"It's a current that will knock our ship up into the air, right?" Nami appeared to get what he was saying.
"Oh! So we just have to get blown up to the clouds!" Luffy seemed to have understood it... slightly.
"On an ocean current?" Usopp couldn't help but question it slightly.
"But don't ships normal fall right back down to the ocean?" Iris brought this up looking towards the old man.
"Usually, yes. You have to get the timing right." And the answer was being given to them. "First of all, it's easy to talk about being blasted up by a se3a current, but it ain't some nice, relaxing rise up there like you might be thinking." The only one that had thought this was Chopper. "Meeting the Knock-Up Stream is a disaster. By its nature, it should be avoided at all costs." Hearing this caused Usopp to begin shaking, while Luffy seemed even more excited then before.
"But what kind of principle allows it to reach up the sky?" And oddly enough, Nami wanted to understand it. "We've never heard of anything like that before."
"Yeah." The guys were nodding in agreement with her.
"The principle behind that monster current isn't beyond reasoning. But no one's even been stupid enough to dive deep enough to investigate it." This soon came to be explained and stated. "The theory goes like this: Below the ocean floor, there are large cave-like air pockets. The geothermal energy from below heats it into high pressure steam... which creates an explosion underwater. The explosion upheaves the ocean water and forms a current into the sky." Hearing this seemed to have caused the faces of all but one to look on in shock, and some even fear. "For approximately one minute, the sea is connected to the sky."
"One minute!?" It didn't appeared to be a lot of time. "What kind of insane explosion can make the water shoot up like that!?" Which was why Nami had to question it.
"The location of the explosion is different every time, and it happens about five times a month." Cricket continued with the explanation.
"We'd be blown to smithereens..." Usopp was in complete shock upon speaking that.
"Well, anyway, it's a magnificent natural phenomenon. Trying to reason it out with theories and talk is senseless." Once again, the man had turned his back to the crew listening.
"S-So then... This ocean current that only pops up five times a month is... the only way to get to Sky Island?" The snipper was hoping this wasn't the case.
"Yeah, and you're the ones at a disadvantage." However, his hopes were crushed. "If there's nothing to land on, you'll come crashing down to the ocean's surface... and become bits of seaweed." He became even more terrified hearing this.
"Y-Yosh! Let's give up on Sky Island!" Usopp began laughing after saying this all the Luffy, who was also laughing but not in the nervous way that his snipper was. "This is crazy! Listen here!" Until the long nose had stopped and began speaking once again. "We'd have to be the luckiest of the luckiest of the luckiest of the luckiest of the luckiest to make it!" He wasn't complete wrong about such a thing before he began laughing once again.
"It'll be okay! Let's go!" That was then said by Luffy who didn't didn't seem to care and was more excited.
"I knew it." Which only caused tears to run down Usopp's face. "It'll be okay? How can you keep saying such groundless things? I mean, just look at the Going Merry!" Now their attentions were on the Merry, who had seen far better days. "Look at how much pain she's in! She won't stand up to a disaster like that in this state!"
"He's right. Even if that ship was brand new, it could never make it!" Cricket was in a complete agreement with that statement.
"WHAT!?" But hearing this only caused Usopp to become upset.
"Speed, weight, strength... That ship would be blown up right along with the explosion." But the man continued speaking about the reasons why.
"B... But... See? It's crazy, like I said." In the end the snipper couldn't deny it.
"But, you don't have to worry about that. I'll have Masira and Shojo refit you ship. Of course, they'll strengthen the ship's frame as well." This had been explained to them.
"Yeah! Leave it to us, you guys!" The two of them had stuck themselves out the windows of the hut to shout.
"Thanks for that!" Which had Luffy shouting to them grateful, while there were some that didn't want that.
"Do you know what you're doing?" Nami came up to the rubber head boy to ask him.
"What?"
"Well, to start with..." she began try to think of something to prevent them from going. "Oh yeah! We can only stay on this island for at most another day." She was holding up her wrist with the Log Pose on it. "After that, the Log Pose will read apt to the next island's magnetic field." It was being stated that by the time they get ready there wouldn't be any point as they wouldn't be able to follow the direction to the island.
"Right! Right! We won't make it in time!" Hearing this had caused delight to Usopp as he was shouting this. "Hey, old man! I know you're not a psychic, and you probably don't know, but... How may days will it be before the next Knock-Up Stream? Or, or, or, or, or, or how many months? No, how many years?" He came to ask, thinking it would be far away.
"Tomorrow afternoon. If you're going, you'd better get ready." However, in complete shock, it was only in a few hours.
"YOU MEAN WE'LL MAKE IT!?" With was obviously a giant shock to Usopp.
"What? If you don't want to go, then don't." Cricket didn't care one way or the other.
"You're lying!" Usopp had shouted at Cricket calling him a liar...
"Usopp!" Which caused Iris to stood up from her seat, as he was being rude to someone that was trying to help them.
"There's something fishy about this!" But he had continued regardless of her shouting at him. "We just meet you today! Aren't you being a little too nice!? A-And besides..."
"Oi, Usopp!" This time Luffy tried to stop him, feeling that what the sniper was going to say isn't all that great.
"You shut up!" But he was shut down. "This Sky Island... Our best chance of getting to a legendary Island we don't even know the location of... is tomorrow!?" It wasn't like Iris didn't see why the young man was upset. The chances of this happening seemed almost zero. "And to help us get there, you're gonna refit and strength out ship!? That's just too good to be true! Just what the hell are you plotting!? You're the descendant of Liar Norland, right!? We can't trust you!" He had crossed the line.
"That is enough, Usopp!" This time Iris completely lost it at him, which seemed to have surprised Zoro and came to frighten Nami, Chopper, Usopp and even Luffy. There appeared to have caused a silence over the group. 
"POPS! The food's ready!" At least until Masira and Shojo both tried to burst through the door shouting.
"Move it." Sanji end up pushing through them to get outside himself. "Nami, Swan~! Iris, my Angel~! Lunch is ready-!" He soon notice the tension and came to a stop confused.
"W-What is it!?" Usopp began getting nervous as Cricket had turned around and was looking at him. "Y-You wanna fight?"
"Masira recorded... that when night suddenly falls in his territory... the day after, he always sees a Cumuloregalis cloud in the sky to the south." The old man began to speaking while walking towards the sniper. "Also, based on its cycle of five times a month, I'm guessing the Knock-Up Stream will most likely occur tomorrow. That is also south of here. I'm not 100% sure, but there is a high probability those two events will coincide." This had all be the reason why Cricket stated the Knock-Up Stream was to appear tomorrow and there was no denying that the man wasn't just saying all that before without a reason. The atmosphere seemed to have relaxed upon this as the others were smiling or the same expression. "I'm happy to have met a bunch of idiots like you." It appeared that Usopp was trying to hold back his tears. "Now, let's eat. I want you to enjoy yourselves at my house... My comrades."
"Food! Hurry up, Usopp!" Luffy called out to him as everyone was beginning to head towards the door.
"Yeah, c'mon!"
"Chopper, call Robin!" The cook told this to the little guy.
"Right!" Who had taken off happily, heading towards the Merry.
"Even though he told us the way to get to Sky Island..." The only person that didn't head towards either was Iris, as she walked over to Usopp who was know crouching on the ground. "... we can't do much but pray are luck is greater then natural."
"Iris... Am I a miserable coward?" This had been asked as he felt terrible.
"That is very true." She didn't even try to deny it. "It's understandable you felt the way you did." As she spoke, the woman looked up at the sky. "However, you understand you were wrong, so shouldn't you go apologise now?" Iris asked this now looking back down to him smiling gently, once again.
"POPS, I'M SORRY~!" Usopp took off running, grabbing onto Cricket with tears and snot running down his face.
"W-W-What the hell are you talk about? Ah, gross! You're getting snot on me! Dumbass!"