Posts made by Kagetaka

@evilvanessafan:

he pretty much says he didn't expect them there and that he wants to fight to see if luffy is as crazy as they say…

something to that extent..

I see, thank you very much.

Could someone do me a favor and tell me was Kid says in english? Before his boss battle, I mean.

Might I ask what sort of pen you use to ink?

Thanks for the raw. >.>

This is one hell of a twist.

Hiya. I need to find a good place in my room to post your Supernova print. ^^ It's really splendid and I hope to see some more awesome stuff on here.

(Lol, I'm the gothic lolita that showed up on Thursday with some other girl while you were setting up and we both got the Supernova print)

Thanks for the scans and stuff…

Well... of course Luffy can't die at the moment... that would just be unsatisfactory... and antidote seems out of the question at the moment (and a bit anti-climatic as well)

...Hmm...

Just have to wait a little longer for English scans then?

Meanwhile- I do find the latest picture with Sanji and Merry on it kinda entertaining.

Well, thanks for the scans. The color spread is also neat as ever.

Darn. So that's the end of the CP9 cover story then?

Sigh… well, one can always hope they randomly pop in and out once more, but not too much...

I have to wonder, has anyone started screaming "Buggy 4 Strawhats" yet?

Anyways, he's not very spectacular- seems the same as the very beginning.

Hancock will be found out and killed-

Well speak of the near blatant obvious…that rids her from being bound to Luffy forever. Oor... we could look at the other alternative and say she lands on the crew.

Thanks for the scans.

How very funny actually, that there are now two women present in the storyline who claim to be the most beautiful.

Makes me wonder actually- if that place Robin landed is for people who didn't accept the World Government, etc, shouldn't the guy in charge at least know whose a world famous criminal and such… and yet it doesn't seem like he recognizes Robin as anything more than extra labor.

Dang- Brook's story's going to be a funny one…But then this also seems apparent that a reunion will not occur any time soon....

Bahaha, lol, Sanji. Fate is cruel.

Meanwhile, Luffy is doing everything Sanji would die to do.

Although it'd also be awesome if they came back into the main storyline. Doing what, I don't know, but a random wtf moment with them in it would be somewhat amusing.

Just got around to reading it at least. Well Boa is pretty unpredictable at the moment, so any interpretations on the tears could be a possibility. But I highly doubt they are tears of joy or such…

Ah, thanks for the scans! Runs off to read

Whew, thanks for the scans.

I have to say that for the moment, Hancock is very disappointing.

So currently, she's labeled as weakest in my opinion- that is, until she feels like getting up and showing off more moves other than a kiss bullet and petrification. I mean, it's deadly- but then again, only against those who lust over her. In short, fodder. Not many main characters would fall for that…

I really don't feel as if there's a candidate for nakama with the characters just introduced…

I mean, Margaret was just taken out and hasn't shown any special skill yet.

Many thanks and off to read!

Haha… that's pretty cool.

And so unusual of Zoro, since he declared, I think on Skypiea, that his swords weren't for cooking purposes or something among those lines...

Bwahaha, just read the scanslation. Naughty naughty girls.

Hn… it also makes me so sad that we don't get to see more supernova action.

Lol, I seriously think Luffy and Sanji should switch places.

Bahaha, now that I've read it, it seems kinda funny, their expressions after that woman announces that Luffy's a guy.

Snigger

Early, yay! Thanks for the chapter.

I think warlord fits Luffy, but more or less, he won't settle for such a flimsy title given to him by the very government he declared war on in Enies Lobby.

I say mayhaps commodore to vice admiral.

I mean, if someone like Garp could still be at vice admiral at such an age, perhaps with his gears, Luffy could probably match.

Well, its probably a logia, deducing from the other two. Another untouchable undefeatable admiral…

Well to be truthful, I highly doubt any of them save possibly Moria have actually revealed their entire strength yet, and yet we know they're really powerful because of their status.

But yeah, I find Crocodile on the low end definetely, and Moria mid to low, and everyone else I'm uncertain on how to rank.

Ha, if that were the case, then the 'ending' we've been given is soooo utterly stupid. If he was going to end it, perhaps he should have extended the Strawhat's disappearances and such.

Maa… I'm not going to buy anything until it's confirmed by other sources.

At first, it was 'NOOOOOOO!' when reading the spoilers.

Then it was like- oh. Okay, well, Rayleigh troubled himself to come and rescue them, so he wouldn't just nod and say okay as the rest of the Strawhats are destroyed or something. Namely, his actions just told me, okay, they'll probably get out of this pretty well…

Nah, no relaxation please!

I mean, okay, I admit its nice to see character backrounds at times, more backstory, etc, etc, but still, I stick to anime for the action, namely.

Meh. I've been following this thing for a while now…

I don't have a Wii, but I suppose it'll be fun when players start posting more videos of gameplay when it comes out...

Too bad I don't believe Skypiea's Priests were added in. Wikipedia obviously has some really inaccurate people edited pages they shouldn't if they don't know full details...

Wow, Kuma's insane. (As in, insanely good?)

So. Cliffy. Please, I'm begging anyone out there that the next chapter not be cut to some other scene.

Well, I guess it was expected. He flattened them all in Thriller Bark, and then now. Well, on both counts, they'd just finished a battle but…

…Nah. A Devil Fruit is unbecomming of Zoro. We've already seen the best swordsmen normally don't have a Devil Fruit weapon.

Mm. This is getting interesting now. Sooo much excitement coming our way.

Mm… mine was probably Lucci actually... I haven't really bothered myself to look at others.

Quick, painless, quietly. Mostly of old age.

Geez, I really wish Cartoon Network hear would get the gist of things and throw it back on. And I had just started to get back into One Piece and all. Well, cross fingers and hope for the best…

…Golden Rifle for me...

I haven't exactly watched too far, so I guess my answers are limited.

Title: Skyrider

Rated: T (For language)
Author: Kagetaka
Fandom: One Piece
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece. If I did… many, many things would be changed….
Summary: How long had it been… days? Weeks? Months? Years, even? No one would come. No one would ever remember. Fate? Was it even his anymore? Was it even possible to reclaim what had been rightfully his?
_______________________________________________________________

When he awoke, it was white. The skies were clear, and the sun shone in all its mocking glory. Clouds surrounded him, but none were the stable kind that would bolster his weight. Feeling? Oh yes, tons of it. Pain in his abdomen, and soreness in his head.

How had he lived, anyways? To be ‘rejected’ was confirmed to be instant death. He didn’t suppose it was possible that the Shandian Wiper had purposely allowed him to live, only to leave him to his fate. Maybe he’d have been better off dead. Maybe he was dead… and just didn’t know it.

A voice. “Awake, now, are we?” A familiar one…

He whipped around, reaching for his weapon… then stopped short. Its weight was no longer present on his back. His hand passed through air, yet nothing happened. “Where is my heat lance, Ohm?” Shura demanded heatedly, glaring at his fellow priest.

“Hmph. Did you actually think they’d let us keep such commodities?” The priest fiddled with his horned sunglasses, staring pointedly at the other man. “Can’t you see where we are?”

Yes. Inside, he already knew, but his mind refused to acknowledge it. There could only be one explanation to why he would be on a cloud, in the middle of nowhere, with Ohm and Satori nearby, sharing the same cloud.

“Exile.” The bald man finished, in that solemn, uncaring manner of his. That Ever. Present. Manner. He knew it pissed him off to no ends.

“Then where is Gedatsu?”

This time, it was Satori who answered. “That moron? That unsightly fool was fortunate enough to have fallen through the White Sea… and down into the Blue Sea.” The dumpling shaped man rolled to his feet. “He’s probably down there somewhere…ha~haha!”

Silence reigned. There was nothing more to say. Everything from the initiation of the trials of the Blue Sea dwellers, who had recently paid a visit to their world in the heavens, to now, could easily be deduced through logic. God Eneru had lost. It was simple as that.

They’d lost. And now they were doomed to drift in clouds until their dying day.

There had never been anything more than a common gain between the four priests. No companionship, no alliances, merely a relation through one man, their God. It was so blatantly obvious now, that three of the four sat on one cloud. Alone, yet not.

He knew this form of punishment all too well, having at times, been the condemner for so many others who were set adrift to their fate in exile. Food was plentiful in the White Sea, anyone could easily pull the fish right out from the foamy clouds, and it was a requirement to give the criminals a fighting chance, a mockery of a chance, at fighting for their lives. A single Heat Dial had been left at the center of the cloud, of no use for escaping or altering their entombed fates. Taunting.

First, the three of them pointedly ignored one another. No one questioned how the other had been defeated, or how they’d lived past their life-threatening injuries, that should have, by all rights, ended their lives the moment they were dealt. Aside from the occasional skirmishes, scapegoating, and animosity, they’d never talked to each other much during their reign as Skypiea’s priests. There was no reason to begin now.

Easily, and predictably enough, it was Satori who first tried to get some form of communication across to the other two. Or maybe he had been trying to purposely annoy Ohm.

“Watch it, fatass.” The priest snarled, ducking under a spray of cloud as Satori plunged his hands into the cloudy sea, digging for his next meal.

“Ha~haa…” The other retorted. “Looks like someone’s out of shape.”

“Shut up, idiots.” Shura replied irritably from his corner. Ohm could later be heard muttering about regretting how Satori practically had no neck of which he could wring.

That was the end of that. There was no point in drawing out a fight and wasting precious energy. Unsurprisingly, it happened again the next day. Shura suddenly found himself being assaulted by fish and clouds from out of nowhere. He turned and glared at Satori, getting nothing but chuckles from the other man.

“You’re asking for it, bastard!” But nothing happened afterwards. Maybe he just didn’t care enough anymore.

Wiping the fishy slime off of his jumpsuit, and disdainfully wiping himself off with cloud, he found himself too proud to hurl the fish back into the water. Food was food. Still, he threw Satori another poisonous glare. Very well, he’d return the favor tomorrow.

And he did just that. It was Satori the next day who found himself drenched head to toe in random objects and animals Shura had pulled from the White Sea. In the following hours, they found themselves angrily hurling anchors and fishing hooks back and forth at each other, secretly hoping to gouge the other’s eyes out. Ohm continued to gaze out into sea, so statue-like, Shura had to wonder if the man had simply died in his sleep without their notice.

It was not to be so. The following morning was punctuated with Ohm’s infuriated yells and Satori’s laughter as the third priest was seen trying to pull Cloud Crabs from his shirt, glasses, pants, you name it. Courtesy of Satori, once again.

Nights were often punctuated with heavy silence. Insanity. A void without light, a never-ending peril. Noise aside, the only comfort they had, was the knowledge that the other two would be suffering as much as the other.

There came a time when they no longer cared. The past was but a blur of colors, a mesh of confusion and mishaps. The world… life was forever. Days trickled by, flowing into months, perhaps and possibly, without their notice, years. This cloud was their home, and they were one, hell of a dysfunctional family. Boredom was often prevalent, but hope was always present.

“Stop hogging the dial, Shura!” Ohm snapped, out of the blue one day.

Shura paused for an instant, before turning a deaf ear to his fellow ex-priest and continued to scorch the crustacean he had captured that morning. “Put a sock in it.” He returned sourly, making sure both sides of the lobster had been heated.

“Hurry it up then, before we starve!” This time, it was Satori. Without hesitation, Shura flung the damn lobster at him. The unfortunate animal landed smack in the middle of Satori’s face. “Ha~haahaa???”

“Then you keep that. Fish cooks faster anyways.” He snapped. It was probably the closest he would ever come to implying any form of kinship towards the other two.

Unfortunately, Satori did not view the gesture in the same manner. Angrily, the priest stormed over to Shura, making a huge point to cross the invisible barriers they had drawn across the cloud separating them from one another. “Listen here, you insolent-“

“Pipe down already. You have your lunch. So shut up so we can get ours.” Ohm interrupted, suddenly reaching over and pulling Satori back.

Yes… it had started roughly, with much anger, hatred, and fuel on all three sides. They were unwilling to accept each other, their predicament, and their fates. It was unacceptable. Unacceptable and unchangeable. In fact, it was surprising they hadn’t killed each other, strangled each other in the middle of the night yet. Maybe, at the moment, each simply valued the other’s presence.

Maybe, someday, someone out there would have mercy on them. Or maybe he could simply take his fate into his own hands, instead of continually letting the Shandian’s decision condemn him to a life of drifting. The Blue Sea still lay below, and as long as the blue remained, there was still the chance that jumping would lead to salvation. He could tell that the thought was on everyone’s mind every now and then. But would life truly be assured after they leapt from the safety of their cloud? Would survival below the White Sea be anything similar to the lives they had formerly led?

Men only had once chance at living per lifetime. Life was as fragile as a flickering candle, constantly battling the winds and rain. Oh, how many choices there were to make, and yet so little. He could stay on the cloud, waiting day by day in hopes of rescue or escape from this miserable prison. In this manner, his life was secured; he would be in no danger of dying. On the other hand, he could easily grip fate by the hand, and jump. Even the wings of a Bilkan would not be enough to slow his descent towards the Blue Sea, despite their larger than average build. In such a manner, he would be the master of himself, in full control of his choices and thriving off the last moments of his life in freedom, free from the choices of others.

Days kept passing. Life continued on. And he was still trapped upon this small cloud island. Drifting. By day, he was plagued by the animosity of his two companions. By night, his thoughts allowed him no rest. Jump, escape, and possibly die. Or stay, and live. Freedom led to death, and imprisonment ensured life. What miserable choices they were! And to be presented with no other alternative but these…

That flickering hope, that barest sliver of chance that rescue would arrive, would always keep him enslaved to this drifting cloud. Wind blew past, and the cloud picked up speed. Soon, the cloud would undoubtedly approach the land and shores, and all hopes of escape by jumping would be thrashed to pieces. But still… wasn’t there still that chance… anyone… someone out there…

“Have you taken an interest in the Blue Sea now?” Ohm asked in an unusually casual manner, watching his companion’s reaction in a studied fashion. “You’ve been staring at it non-stop for the last hour… or for the last couple days.”

He wanted to make a snappy retort, a biting, harsh remark, just as he would have done so, so long ago. A remark that would have caused another four-way fight between them, if only Gedatsu were present. Shockingly, none came to mind. Finally, he decided against the effort and merely nodded. “Have you ever wondered about life down there?”

“You’d die.” Came the nonplussed answer.

“If Gedatsu could live, then so could I.” Shura responded, daring the other to challenge the truth in his words.

Ohm scoffed. “You don’t even know if Gedatsu is still alive. For all we know, he could have died the moment he landed in who-knows-where.”

“Ho~ho~ho…! Knowing the man, he probably ‘accidentally lived’.” Satori finally pitched in. An undeniable truth. Comical, but knowing their final companion, probably true.

Ohm stared at him through those pitch-black sunglasses. “What’s on your mind, Shura?” He asked quietly, with that indiscernible gaze boring into his own eyes.

“Nothing.”

The madness of it all was his inability to decide for himself. That paralysis, which had stiffened his arms and legs, had gradually numbed his mind, and he wanted nothing more than to shatter those bonds and spring free. To fly once more as a part of the sky, and not as its eternal prisoner. If only, if only.

“Do you want to be saved?”

Shura blinked. Ohm was being unusually talkative today. “Depends on what you mean by ‘saved’. Don’t think I don’t know about your little ‘saving’ fetish.”

It was commonly known among the priests that Ohm had always believed in saving others… from the misery of living, that is. In short, to be saved from suffering, one had to simply fade from existence. To die.

“Would you like me to end your life?” There. There it was, out there in the plain.

“Hell no.” He snapped, scooting away from Ohm quickly. “And even if I did want to be ‘saved’, I’m fully capable of doing it myself!”

Imperceptibly, Ohm’s eyes widened as he interpreted that hidden message, the yearning. So there it was. “Aa. I’ll leave you up to it, then.” Maybe that was the other’s priest’s way of telling him that something had changed between the three of them.

That very same night, he dreamed of flying. There was no giant; purple feathered raptor-like avian doing the gliding for him. The cold night sky embraced him, made him apart of itself, carrying him through the currents and gently toying with his wings. There were no limits to how far, how long he could fly. It was, ironically, in that instant, in a dream, when he realized the true potential of his own, self-made title. Skyrider. No, beforehand, that would have been inaccurate. He had ridden a giant bird to experience the exhilarating sky; he had not ridden the sky itself.

And so he opened his eyes. Tonight, he would fly. And it would seem terribly lonely, leaving his two, irritable and annoying companions behind. No more fighting over the usage of the Heat Dial or bickering over boundaries. No more threats, anger, humiliation. Somehow, it would… be missed.

Tomorrow, when they opened their eyes, he would be long gone. Perhaps he would be free, seeking shelter somewhere safe, and going on to live a ‘normal’ life once more. Like it had been before Eneru. Maybe he could live in the Blue Sea world, gazing up in the heavens with awe, dreaming of flight once more. Or maybe, he’d be liberated, in spirit instead. Perhaps he would not be as fortunate as his other fellow ex-priest Gedatsu, and die anyways. Ohm would have said it the best. Between the life they were living on the cloud, between a slow, drawn out death and a quick, imperceptible one, which would he rather prefer? Some unfortunate fools once stated that it was better to cling to life as long as a shred of hope remained in the distance; that there was always a light at the end of a tunnel.

His light, his hope was not here, not on this prison. It was out there, somewhere down below. It would take one plunge to find it, whether it was found in life or in death. And slowly, he stood, making his way to the edge of the cloud, glancing down at the dark, black sea below. Night. A vast, inky black world lay sprawled out beneath his feet. His new world. His new life. Once he stepped from the cloud, safety would no longer hail to him. It would be a constant fight to live, to merely adapt to the new life. Maybe he wouldn’t even have to fight in this new world, perhaps he’d simply pass through to the next. Maybe, maybe, maybe. So many uncertainties, and yet one certain choice.

There was no time for hesitation. There could not be any time to regret, to fear, and to blanch. There could only be choices, decisions, and consequences.

He was going to fly. No, he would ride the skies tonight. Skyrider.

And so his feet left the cloud.

At first, there was only silence. Then farewell. “…May God be with you all the way… Shura.”

---

And this is written assuming that the priests did not die from their injuries. Cause it'd be pretty pointless setting corpses out to cloud drifting. And my definition of cloud drifting is kinda inaccurate, I know. They're simply supposed to be set adrift, not in the White Sea, I think. But nevertheless, it is now up to the reader to decide who lives and who died. No, I won't say who said the last line either. That's soley up to readers now

My… it's kinda awkwards that my third post in these forums would be a one-shot... Meh, I know, I haven't watched or read through the entire Skypiea arc, so if something other than the priests not being dead and the cloud drifting thing is inaccurate, feel free to point it out, and I'll see what I can do about it.

It's alright right now. Vacation and all, but still alot of homework, my gums are killing me since I just got some teeth yanked out… My foot is fractured from a sparring event in martial arts class, but that was weeks ago...

It's all good.

Still, you could say I'm mostly a lurker, maybe I'll pop in here or there to voice a compliment or opinion… and maybe throw in a fanfiction or two, but not much...

So, I’ve watched up to the beginning of the Alabasta arc, then lost interest because 4kids was doing a pathetic job, and I couldn’t take it anymore really… (Robin’s voice was the last straw, I just upped and left). And so I returned to the One Piece fold when I heard Funimations was going to be dubbing it, and I haven’t been disappointed.

Yeah… and so, here I am… introductions are always so awkward…