Angel's True Face (One Piece)

Lobsternap!?

Leaving half the crew behind, Luffy was stuffing his face with some of the food that was left behind. "This is good!"
"Hey, quit eating our lunch!" But Sanji was trying to pack it, which was why he ended up snapping at the rubber head.
"There's plenty to go around!" Although, he continued to stuff his was, not caring what the cook had to say. "You can have some too!"
"You're the one having it all!" This had been pointed out to him. "Conis! Old man! More!" Luffy had lifted up his empty mug wanting more.
"Just do it yourself!" Which caused Sanji to snap at him for his rudeness.
"Conis isn't here." Iris had pointed out as she took the mug.
"She is saying good-bye to everyone." Pagaya entered the room with a tray. "Here is your tea."
"Thank you." The young woman had taken it from him and headed over to the coffee table, where she poured the tea for Luffy.
"Are you the shipwright?" The old man came to ask Usopp who was happily restocking the supplies for Merry's repairs.
"Nah, no way. I'm the snipper." The long nose had answered him honestly as Iris place a cup of tea for him. "Thanks."
"Oh, that is most impressive!" The praise had seemed to causes a smirk to appear across his face.
"Yeah, we don't have a shipwright in the crew yet." He was looking to Suu that was beside him. "But that's no problem! it just means they have to depends on my almighty resourcefulness to fix everything!" Usopp was now laughing as he was clearly thinking he was the greatest. "Man, what a drag. without me, that ship would never hold together. Even as the sniper, half of what I do is stuff the captain should be doing. But then that's why they call me... CAPTAIN... USOPP!"
"Ah, this arrangement is truly the work of an artisan!" However, half way Usopp's bragging Pagaya moved onto Sanji.
"That's right! Creating dishes is an art!" Who seemed proud of his beautifully organised lunches.
"Excuse me, Pagaya." Iris had spoken up, catching the owner's attention to see her standing beside a book shelf. "What are these books?" She came to ask, pulling out on of them from the shelf.
"Those the encyclopaedias, stories and such that have been published in the White White Sea." He explained as he walked over towards her, as she opened up the book in her hand.
"So you can't find them in the Blue Sea." She asked while glancing at the open page. It was that of a picture book for children.
"That's right. I used to read those to Conis as a little girl." She was informed and the man noticed how her eyes light up while reading.
"If you like, you can have them." He offered her to take the books she wanted.
"Is that all right with you, Pagaya?" And it seemed that Iris was excited upon hearing this.
"Yes, they aren't used much anymore and we can aways buy a new one." She had taken his offer as she started to go through the shelf, deciding what to take. She also thought that Robin might like some of them as well since she enjoyed reading.
"Right here... No, that's not right. I'll leave the red there.... And move and emerald green here..." Sanji seemed to be trying to decide where to place things in the lunch box. "Great. This is lookin' good!" And it appeared he finally found the spot. "These will be for Nami, Iris and Robin!" Like always, he was putting extra care into the food just for the females on the crew.
"Ah, they almost don't look like food!" The voice belonging to Conis had sounded delighted. "I've never seen such beautiful lunch boxes!" She was overjoyed upon seeing the boxes that Sanji was arranging after she came back.
"Yeah?" He asked to the stretch across the table to pick of the boxes up. "This one's for you, Conis!"
"You made one for me too?" She looked to be excited at hearing this.
"But of course!" Sanji had gotten up and was really close to her. "The title of this lunch is... 'Love is an Ordeal, the lunch of a Descending Angel'."
"My!" She became embarrassed or uncomfortableness at his closeness.
"Well, it's all the same once you eat it." Luffy stated this as he was eating even more.
"Quit being so rude!" And of course the cook was insulted by his comment. "Listen, food has to look delicious first!" He began going off to him, but it appeared that Luffy didn't understanding as he stuffed more into his mouth saying it's the same. "You ate it without looking at it!" Conis began to chuckle as she listen.
"Is something the matter, Conis?" Iris had spoken up, placing the books she took beside Usopp's stuff while asking this.
"Huh?" The girl seemed a bit taken back by the question, it had caused her to stop and look uncomfortable. "No, everything's fine. Why do you ask?" She was laughing off the question.
"Honestly, I am good at reading people. it's something I developed from my previous occupation." She meant her time as an assassin. She developed the ability to read people from a young age and used it to her advantage when getting her targets to lower their guards. "So you seem a bit down to me." As she was saying this, Luffy and Sanji were still arguing with one another. or more like Sanji was going off at Luffy.
"W-Well..." Conis was about to tell her something.
"Oi!" When suddenly Usopp began shouting and ran to the balcony. "Something's up with the ship!"
"What!?" And hearing this caused Iris and Sanji to run over to him, panicked. "What's wrong, Usopp?" Sanji was right beside him asking.
"Look down there! They look like they're yelling!" The sniper was pointing to the Going Merry, where they could just seeing the others on the ship.
"They're having a party?" Luffy seemed to be the only one that wasn't worried as he came over. "No fair, having it by themselves!"
"Nami!" Sanji was looking through a stethoscope towards the ship. "Why... Why is she wearing a T-shirt!?" His face had turned blue at seeing her.
"What the hell are you looking at, moron!?" In the end Usopp ended up slapping him because this wasn't the time.
"Hey look." Iris called out for their attention as she noticed the ship.
"The ship's moving!" Luffy ended up shouting as he was seeing the Merry began moving backwards. "But why!? What're they doing!? Where are they going!? It's sailing backwards! That's cool!" He came to jump onto the railing.
"No, there is something underneath." This had been pointed out to him by Iris, as there was a large shadow in the clouds under the ship. It was then she glanced behind her and saw that Conis was not surprised and looked slightly guilty.
"W-What's that!?" The guys questioned as they were looking at the shadow.
"It's..." Pagaya seemed to have realised what the creature was when it emerged from the clouds. "A special species of the White-White Sea! The Super-Express Speed Lobster!"
"What!?"
"Why? Why a T-shirt?" Sanji appeared to be still in shock about this fact.
"Are you still talking about that!?" Which caused Usopp to slap him once again, since it wasn't the time for this. "Oi, Luffy, this is bad? What now!? What do we do?" He turned to the captain, shaking him.
"Where did they go?" However, it appeared to be thinking of something else.
"Where!? Is that really—" Usopp was about to snap at him, but realise that they would need to find out where they went before anything else.
"Where'd..."
"...they..."
"...go?" The guys had all turned around to fact Pagaya, looking for clues.
"I am go after them." Just as Iris was about to take off after them. He seemed frightened for a second as all eyes were on him.
"The Super-Express Speed Lobster is a servant of God. whatever it transport an offering. If that is the case.... It can only be headed to the north east of Upper Yard... To the Sacrificial Altar." This shocking news were given to them.
"Sacrificial? Nami and Robin and those other guys!?" Sanji was completely overwhelmed by this information.
"You really shouldn't say other guys like they're not important." Iris glanced over to him in disbelief.
"They're gonna be sacrificed!?" It seemed that he then began overcome with rage. "That dirty God... That bastard... You wanna mess with me!? You son of a..." Suu had gotten to frighten by how angry he was that she took off to the corner to hide. "Iris! Let's go after them!" He turn turned to the woman he was speaking too. "We'll fly after them!" She was about to agree with him.
"Please wait!" Until Pagaya raised his voice. "I'm sorry! It is not what you think!" It seemed that he was trying to clear something up to him.
"What?" And for a second Sanji stopped.
"I have heard that those who are to become sacrifices..." he began to explain something to them. "Receive one of two forms of Heaven's Judgement. Sacrifice, or the Ordeals. They are now in God's hands, so to speak. Prisoners destined for the Sacrificial Altar!"
"Hostages!" And hearing this didn't make the situation any better.
"Consequently, The ones being judged at this moment... Are you four right here."
"Eh? What's that mean?" However, none of them seemed to understand what he meant by that.
"If I had a map with me..." Pagaya was rubbing hie head as he was trying to think of something.
"If you need a map of Skypiea, I have one." It was then when Usopp pulled out the map they found from his satchel.
"This is also quite old. But the topology of the islands appears to be correct." This had been stated by the man as they were now around the coffee table, looking down at the map.
"You okay, Conis?" Sanji noticed that the girl had been silent this entire time.
"Yes. But..." she was smiling weakly upon answering.
"Don't worry!" She came to turn to Luffy that had spoken. "I know those guys! They'll be fine!" He had not hint of doubt behind his words as she smiled at her like normal.
"Groundless statement." Usopp stated to him.
"True, however, Zoro and Robin are there so they should be fine for the time being." Iris spoke up, placing her hand onto the cheek of hers. She was worried but knew that Zoro and Robin were strong enough on their own, while Nami and Chopper would run the moment they knew their lives were in danger. So everything should be fine.
"This is where we are." Pagaya began explaining while pointing to the bottom corner of the map. "The Sacrificial Altar is in the top-left, to the northeast." He pointed to the place on the map he spoke of. "And there is only one way to reach it. You must take the Milky Road from this island... and use a Dial ship to traverse the forest where the Priests reside."
"No, wait, Pagaya." Usopp had spoken up, pointing to the map. "Can't we just take a ship and skirt around the outer edge of the island instead?" He came to ask this.
"That's how that lobster got to Upper Yard, right?" Luffy was looking to him asking.
"No, even if you landed in the facility, you could not reach the Altar by walking." His faced looked grim upon stating this. "Something very different between this old map and Upper Yard as it is today....is the Milky Road which winds through the entire islands."
"That river of cloud, eh?" Sanji was speaking of the clouds that were created from the White Beret's arrows from the battle.
"Yes. I have heard the Milky Road is the breadth of several hundred rivers." Luffy began picking his nose, which meant that he was starting to get bored. "And so, the only way to get there is to take a ship inland and traverse the Milky Road."
"I get it. no matter where we try to land, we'd be blocked by the river." Sanji seemed to have understood the situation.
"Yes... and inhabiting the river are man-eating fish."
"Man-eating fish!?" Usopp turned pale upon hearing this.
"Oh, my. Is that not interesting." Iris didn't seem all that worried. "It does not matter, since we want to get our friends and the Going Merry back we have to just go in." There was no avoiding this.
"So that's the Ordeal we have to endure... Heaven's Judgement?" Usopp seemed to be frightened but he didn't seem to be running away like normal.
"Yes, you must face the unimaginable power of the five Priests of Upper Yard." Pagaya was even grim then before.
"What? Then it's settled." Luffy, who had been silent till now spoken up. "So to make a long story short... we have to kick these Priest guys'd asses, right?" He repeated the basic of the situation. He began laughing. "Things are getting interesting."