Side: Third-person perspective
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A few minutes earlier—
"Hey, Luffy! Quit playing around on that weird 'cloud' and get back on the ship already. We're moving."
"Ehh—just a little longer…"
Dreamy as ever, the young man in the straw hat answered back to the voice calling from aboard their ship.
His name was Monkey D. Luffy. He and his companions had only just arrived on this Sky Island.
He looked carefree—almost irresponsibly so—and he was the type to move at his own pace, ruled by mood and curiosity. At a glance, you'd never guess it, but he was a pirate through and through.
And not some small-time thief, either.
A bounty of 100,000,000 berries hung around his neck—proof enough that he was already considered a dangerous man.
Right now, though, he was perched on a small patch of Island Cloud, enjoying its fluffy… plump, futon-like warmth and softness. There wasn't a shred of menace or dignity to be found.
Beside him were two crewmates who matched his energy perfectly—Usopp and Chopper—both of them laughing and playing on the clouds with him.
"Hurry up!" Nami barked from the deck. "If you take too long and we get attacked again by another one of those bull-mask guys, what then?!"
"Ugh… y-yeah, I don't want that again…" Usopp winced. "O-Okay, let's go back."
"R-right! Luffy, come on!" Chopper nodded hard.
Nami's scolding did the trick. Usopp and Chopper returned to the ship immediately—fear beating out curiosity by a landslide.
It was still fresh in their minds: right after arriving in the sky, masked attackers—"guerrillas," they'd been called—had assaulted them and nearly sank their ship.
And the conversation afterward too, with that strange, distinctive "Sky Knight" who'd rescued them from the crisis.
Luffy, finally pressured into moving, started heading back toward the Going Merry—
Then paused.
"Hm?"
He tilted his head and stared up into the sky at an angle.
"Hey, look! There's a huge bird flying over there!"
"A bird…? Oh, you're right." Nami squinted. "How the hell did you even spot that?"
Far away, but unmistakable, something bird-like was in the air.
At that distance, it had to be enormous.
Of course, since there were sky fish and sky octopus—and apparently even people living up here—birds existing wasn't exactly impossible.
But Luffy's face brightened with an idea, and he flashed that dangerous, childish grin.
"Hey, I'm hungry. Let's eat it!"
"Huh?" Zoro frowned. "Didn't you just eat that sky fish a minute ago?"
"The fish was good, so the sky bird's gotta be good too!" Luffy insisted. "It might taste different! Hey, Sanji! Cook it for me!"
"You're nothing but a stomach, damn it…" Sanji sighed—then his eyes narrowed with genuine interest. "But… after that sky fish earlier, I am curious about sky ingredients. Catch it, and I'll cook it."
"Yesss!"
Under Zoro's exasperated stare and Sanji's reluctant approval, Luffy stretched his arm forward, grabbed a large Island Cloud ahead, and used it like a slingshot.
"Gomu Gomu noooo…!"
"…Isn't that bird acting weird?" Robin murmured quietly, almost to herself. "It's been hovering in the same spot this whole time. And it's barely flapping its wings… How is it staying up there? Why…?"
Unfortunately, Robin's observation didn't reach Luffy.
His body snapped forward under the recoil.
"ROCKET—!"
---
"DOGYASS?!"
"...Huh?"
The moment Luffy headbutted the "bird"—
A sound rang out that was definitely not a bird call.
It was a human voice.
More than that—it sounded like a scream.
Every crewmember on the Going Merry snapped their attention toward it.
And then, in the next instant, the "bird" vanished as if it had been erased from the sky.
"A person?!"
"What was that? How—?! Wait, they're falling!"
---
SPLASH! ×2
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"Miiisss!!"
"L-Lady?! W-What just happened—?! You three! Emergency! Go save her!"
Zoro's eyes sharpened.
"Oi—look over there. A ship."
"Huh? Oh—!" Nami gasped. "You're right… It was hidden in the clouds' shadow!"
A small ship sat at an angle that the Going Merry couldn't easily see from where it was.
Two women were aboard, panicked, staring straight at the spot where Luffy had crashed—where both he and the other person had fallen.
"Sanji-kun! Go get Luffy!" Nami ordered.
"Yes, Nami-san!" Sanji answered instantly.
"But—didn't someone fall with him? Were they riding that bird…?" Usopp stammered. "And the bird looked like it disappeared!"
"So it was hovering because someone on top was controlling it," Robin said calmly.
"If that person fell too, we should save them together—" Chopper started, then jolted. "Huh?! Something's coming this way—fast! It's swimming!"
"Another sky fish?" Zoro narrowed his eyes. "No… that's not it."
Nami's breath caught.
"That's… a fishman?!"
---
And then—time returned to the present.
---
"What the hell is wrong with you people?!" Lupus snarled, shaking with fury. "How do you meet someone—no, before you even properly meet them—and then shove our Miss into the sea?!"
"Honestly, we hadn't even 'met' yet," Honey said, voice cold. "So what are you? You look like pirates… Should I take this as you picking a fight?"
On the deck of the Going Merry, a tanned maid with brown hair—Lupus—and a blonde beauty—Honey—pressed the Straw Hat crew hard.
Their master, Sue, had been flying peacefully… and then got shot out of the sky and dropped into the sea of clouds.
Anyone would be furious.
"No, really… I'm sorry. Truly. From the bottom of my heart," Nami said, bowing.
"Yeah—our idiot's at fault," Usopp added, bowing too. "We're really sorry."
They couldn't deny it. This one was entirely on their captain.
Sanji, meanwhile, was already delivering justice.
"You piece of trash captain!!" he roared. "What the hell do you think you're doing to a gorgeous lady like this?! If she'd been hurt—! I'll KILL you, you idiot!"
"S—sor—ry… I di—dn't me—an—…" Luffy wheezed.
His face had swollen to nearly triple its usual size from getting kicked and punched into oblivion.
"Sister, are you really okay?" Ruby asked anxiously.
"Cough… I'm fine, I'm fine," Sue said, wiping her mouth. "I swallowed a little water, but I'm not hurt. Thanks, everyone."
"This is the least of it!" Sapphire snapped, still furious. "What were you thinking?!"
"You nearly drowned!" Emerald said. "Honey said it already—are you trying to start a fight with us?!"
"N-no, absolutely not!" Sanji flailed, sweating. "It was a misunderstanding—an accident caused by this idiot!"
"Huh," Zoro said, smiling like trouble. "If they are starting a fight, you gonna buy it?"
"OI, ZORO?!" Usopp yelped. "Why are you making it worse?!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Nami bowed again—then again, desperate. "My crew is, to put it mildly, full of idiots. Please—just forgive us!"
With Nami—and Robin stepping in too—they explained what happened: Luffy's hunger, curiosity, and a catastrophic misunderstanding.
The injured party listened.
They understood.
But understanding didn't mean they were instantly happy about it.
Almost all of Sue's group still looked irritated—except Sue herself, who seemed oddly unbothered.
Because in Sue's head—
(No way… I didn't expect to get involved with the protagonists like this. This timing is ridiculous. There goes my plan to finish the errand and leave before we ever meet…)
Still, she lifted a hand.
"Alright, alright. It doesn't seem like they meant harm. And I'm fine, so let's stop here."
"But Sister!" Ruby protested. "You almost died! You're an Ability User—you can't swim!"
"That's why we brought you three," Sue said gently. "You saved me. It worked exactly as planned. I'm not thrilled, but turning this into a fight is a hassle, right?"
"Give the order," Lupus said brightly, eyes sharp. "I'll knock all of them out myself. Right now. No time wasted."
"Oh?" Zoro's grin widened.
"Stop making that face!" Usopp shouted at Zoro. "What's wrong with you today?!"
"Please don't!" Chopper begged, tearing up. "Fighting is scary!"
Usopp and Chopper threw themselves into the space between escalating egos like their lives depended on it—because it did.
Zoro, for all his grin, was quietly reading the room.
(They're strong. Every one of them… Who the hell are these women? "Miss," "Sister"… Doesn't feel like a rich-girl pleasure cruise.)
In the end, Sue steered things to a fragile truce: sincere apology accepted.
Her companions reluctantly lowered their hostility.
The Straw Hats finally exhaled—relief flooding the deck.
Then—
"…Hm?"
Sue's expression shifted. She looked around, then fixed her gaze outside the ship, slightly downward.
Everyone followed her eyes.
"Lupus," Sue said. "Come here."
"Yes? What is it?"
"Something's coming. Handle it."
"Huh—? …Oh. Yeah, I see it."
A split second later, a massive flat sky fish burst up through the white cloud-sea like it was breaking the surface of water, jaws open wide, teeth bared, charging straight for the Going Merry.
Luffy and Sanji tensed.
Zoro's hand moved toward his swords.
But before any of them acted—
"—Here!"
BOOM!
Lupus shot forward so fast she blurred.
Her flying kick landed squarely on the sky fish's head.
The impact didn't just knock it back—
It launched the entire massive body into the air, higher than the top of the mast.
By the time it peaked, it was already dead.
It crashed back down and floated belly-up in the sea of clouds.
The Straw Hats stood frozen, stunned into silence.
Lupus strutted back like she was begging for praise.
Sue patted her head, indulgent and affectionate.
And in that stunned quiet—
Robin stared at Sue's face, eyes narrowing as something clicked into place.
"…I knew it," she murmured softly. "I thought I recognized you…"
To be continued...