The ocean was silent, save for the sloshing of water against the hulls of the Going Merry and the Victory Hunter. The colossal sea turtle, a beast so ancient its shell carried an ecosystem of its own, had just snapped the wreckage of the St. Briss in two like a dry twig. Now, its massive head turned.
The water cascaded off its beak in waterfalls that could have drowned a small boat. Its eyes, milky with age but sharp with hunger, locked onto the two pirate ships floating in its shadow.
"It's looking at us!" Usopp shrieked, clutching the railing so hard his knuckles turned white. "It's deciding which one is the appetizer!"
"Don't move," Sanji hissed, his leg trembling slightly despite his brave stance. "Maybe it's vision is based on movement... like a T-Rex."
"That is a myth, cook-san," Robin noted calmly, though her eyes were narrowed. "I hope we are not eaten alive."
"Don't say scary stuff, Robin," Ussop screams at Robin.
Masira, on his ship, was shaking. "I'm a Monkey! Monkeys don't taste good! Eat the humans on the other ship!"
"HEY!" Nami yelled across the water. "Don't sell us out, you traitor!"
The turtle opened its maw, a cavern of jagged teeth, and prepared to lunge.
But then, the world stopped.
It didn't stop because of time manipulation or magic. It stopped because the very atmosphere seemed to curdle. The bright sunlight that had been bathing the ocean suddenly vanished, not behind a cloud, but behind something far more substantial.
A chill wind swept across the deck, carrying a smell that wasn't salt or sea. It smelled of thin air and ozone.
"Why... why is it getting dark?" Chopper whispered, looking up. "It's noon."
Luffy, who had been ready to punch the turtle, froze.
Slowly, the crew looked up.
Piercing through the dense fog that had rolled in out of nowhere, three silhouettes appeared against the backdrop of the grey sky. They were not ships. They were not islands.
They were people.
But they were wrong. The scale was impossible. The giants, Dory and Brogy, were the largest living things the crew had ever seen, standing at nearly twenty meters tall. But these shadows... these figures loomed over the horizon, their heads piercing the clouds, their torsos obscuring the sun. They were miles high.
They bore massive wings, and in their hands, they held spears that looked long enough to pierce the planet itself.
"What... in the world... is that?" Zoro breathed, his hand gripping Wado Ichimonji but not drawing it. How do you cut a someone that size?
"Monsters..." Brogy rumbled, his axe lowered. "Even in Elbaf, we have no legends of titans this size."
"It's the Umibozu!" Usopp cried, tears streaming down his face as he fell to his knees. "The giant sea monks! We're all going to die! The ocean is cursed!"
Even the giant sea turtle, the apex predator of this region, was not immune. The beast looked up, saw the three winged gods looking down at it, and visibly shuddered. Sweat—thick, oily beads of fear—broke out on its scaly forehead. It whimpered, a sound like grinding rocks, and began to back away.
Everyone was paralyzed. Their hearts hammered against their ribs like trapped birds. The sheer cosmic horror of the sight had stripped away their ability to scream.
Everyone, that is, except Ben.
Ben stood on the quarterdeck, his coat fluttering in the cold wind. He looked up at the shadows with a calm, analytical gaze. He knew what they were—a trick of the light, a projection from the Sky Island above onto the dense 'Imperial Cumulus' clouds below. But knowing the science didn't make the sight any less imposing.
"Merry," Ben said, his voice cutting through the silence of the deck.
"Yes, Ben?" the AI responded, her voice sounding slightly strained, as if even the ship's sensors were overwhelmed by the data.
"Get us out of here."
"Understood. Engaging emergency maneuver: Flank Speed."
The sudden roar of the Merry's engines broke the trance.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" The crew finally found their voices, screaming in unison.
"RUN! RUN AWAY!" Luffy shouted. "THOSE ARE GHOSTS! BIG GHOSTS!"
"MERRY! GO FASTER!" Nami screeched, hugging the mast. "I DON'T CARE WHERE, JUST GO!"
"The turtle is diving!" Sanji yelled.
The sea turtle, terrified out of its mind, scrambled. It dove straight down, creating a whirlpool that threatened to suck the ships in.
Masira didn't even say goodbye. "FULL SAIL! ROW, YOU LAZY MONKEYS! ROW FOR YOUR LIVES!" The Victory Hunter turned tail and fled East, its paddles churning the water into white foam.
"Heading West-North-West!" Ben commanded. "Clear the blast zone!"
The Going Merry shot forward, her reinforced hull cutting through the waves. They didn't stop looking back until the fog swallowed the three winged shadows, and the sun began to peek through the clouds again.
Thirty minutes later, the Going Merry was drifting in calm waters, miles away from the incident. The adrenaline crash had hit the crew hard. Usopp was lying flat on the deck, staring at the sky. Chopper was checking everyone's pulse, mostly to distract himself. Zoro was napping (or pretending to) to calm his nerves.
Nami stood near the helm, staring at her wrist. She had been staring at it for five minutes straight.
"Nami-swaaan," Sanji cooed, floating over with a tray of iced tea. "You look tense. Here, have a refreshing drink to soothe your beautiful soul after such a fright."
Nami didn't respond. She just kept staring at the Log Pose.
"Nami?" Luffy poked her cheek. "Are you broken?"
"It's broken," Nami whispered. Her voice trembled.
"You're broken?" Luffy asked, confused.
"THE LOG POSE!" Nami snapped, shoving her wrist in Luffy's face. "Look at it! It's completely broken!"
The crew gathered around. Inside the small glass dome of the Log Pose, the needle—which usually pointed steadily toward the next island's magnetic field—was locked in a position that defied all navigational logic.
It was pointing straight up. Vertical. Toward the sky.
"Maybe we shook it too hard?" Usopp suggested, peering at it. "Did you hit it against the railing when we ran?"
"It's a high-precision instrument, Usopp, not a toy!" Nami argued, panic rising in her voice. "If the Log Pose is broken, we're stranded! We can't navigate the Grand Line without it!"
"We have plenty of food," Luffy said, rubbing his stomach. "Sanji bought lots."
"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" Nami yelled. "The point is we have lost our path!"
"Miss Navigator," Robin's voice came from the library doorway. She walked out, holding a book, her demeanor as unshakeable as ever. "May I see it?"
Nami held out her wrist. Robin examined the needle, tilting Nami's arm this way and that. The needle remained stubbornly fixed, pointing to the zenith.
"It is not broken," Robin stated simply.
"How can you be sure?" Nami asked desperate for reassurance.
"The first rule of the Grand Line," Robin quoted, closing her book. " 'Never doubt the Log Pose.' No matter how impossible the direction seems, the Log Pose is absolute. If it points North, there is an island North. If it points South, there is an island South."
She looked up at the clouds drifting lazily overhead.
"And if it points up... then the destination is in the sky."
Silence reigned on the deck.
" SKY ISLAND!" Luffy shouted, throwing his hands up.
"But... but!" Nami grabbed her hair. "Islands don't float! Gravity is a law, not a suggestion!"
"Gravity is flexible," Ben said, stepping down from the helm. He walked over to the group. "Especially here. The Grand Line is a convergence of magnetic anomalies. Why is it so hard to believe that there's a magnetic field strong enough to suspend landmass, or clouds dense enough to hold it?"
Nami looked at Ben, then at the Log Pose. She sighed, her shoulders slumping. "So... we really have to go up?"
"Unless you want to stay here forever," Ben shrugged. "The Log Pose won't reset until we reach the destination it has locked onto. We are bound for the sky."
"Well," Ben clapped his hands, changing the subject. "Since we are destined for the clouds, let's see what clues we have. Luffy, bring out the salvage."
Luffy, cheered by the prospect of adventure, dragged the wet sacks and the rusted box they had recovered from the St. Briss to the center of the deck.
"Treasure time!" Chopper cheered, hopping onto a barrel.
They spread the items out on a tarp to dry. It wasn't a hoard of gold, but to an archaeologist and a tech-wizard, it was better.
There were cooking utensils—heavy, rusted iron pots and pans. Sanji picked one up, inspecting the craftsmanship. "This alloy... it's lighter than iron but doesn't rust the same way. It's corroded by salt, but the core is intact. Interesting."
There was armor—gauntlets and breastplates that looked ceremonial. Zoro tapped the hilt of a rusted sword. "Too light," he grunted.
Then there were the books. They were waterlogged, swollen with seawater, but the ink was waterproof. Robin carefully peeled the pages apart using a pair of tweezers Ben handed her.
"It's a logbook," Robin read. "From the St. Briss. Dated... two hundred and eight years ago."
"Two hundred years?!" Usopp gaped. "That ship has been floating up there for two centuries?"
"Listen to this," Robin continued. "Day 4. The currents of the White Sea are treacherous. The fish here are flat and glide like birds. We have made contact with the angels. They are wary of our 'earth' soil. They call it Vearth."
"Angels?" Sanji's eyes turned into hearts. "Lovely angel ladies with wings? OH, THE SKY IS MY PARADISE!"
"Or terrifying bird-men with spears," Usopp muttered, thinking back to the giant shadows.
Finally, Ben picked up the map. He unrolled it carefully on the table. It was a map of an island shaped like a crescent moon, with a massive beanstalk growing through the center. At the top, in elegant, archaic script, was the word:
SKYPIEA
"Skypiea," Luffy tested the word on his tongue. He grinned, a wide, D-clan smile. "Sugeeeee... A whole island in the sky! We have to go see it! I want to see the angels! I want to eat the sky-fish! I want to climb the beanstalk!"
He turned to Nami, eyes sparkling. "Nami! Make the ship go there! Set sail for the sky!"
Nami smacked him on the back of the head. "Idiot! Don't just say 'make the ship go there' like it's a trip to the store! How are we supposed to sail up? We need a ramp? A tornado?"
She looked at the Merry, then at the sky, calculating the logistics. It seemed impossible.
Then, a thought struck her. She turned to Ben.
"Ben," Nami said slowly. "Can you make the ship fly?"
The crew looked at Ben. They remembered the sleek, black vessel Ben had deployed for the Revolutionary Army agents. It had hovered effortlessly, defying gravity.
"Can you do that to the Merry? Like you gave one for the Revolutionary Army," Nami asked.
Ben looked at the Going Merry. He looked at the wooden hull, the sheep figurehead, and the masts.
"I can," Ben said, his voice confident.
"REALLY?!" Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper screamed.
"But," Ben raised a finger, "It's not as simple as slapping a repulsor on the keel. The Merry is wood, held together by nails and tar. If I attach a high-output anti-gravity engine to her right now and turn it on, the engine will fly to the sky, and the ship will stay here in a million pieces. The structural integrity can't handle the G-force."
Luffy frowned. "So... no flying ship?"
"I said I can do it," Ben corrected. "I just need to make preparations. I need to reinforce the keel with an adamant-alloy spine, install inertial dampeners throughout the lower deck to prevent the wood from splintering, and integrate the flight system into the helm so you can actually steer it."
He looked at Nami. "I can retrofit her. But I can't do it in the middle of the ocean. I need a dry dock, or at least a stable harbor where the water is calm and I can work on the hull."
Nami nodded, her navigator brain taking over. "Okay. That makes sense. We need an island."
She turned to the mast. "Merry?"
"Yes, Nami-san?" the ship's voice chimed.
"Is there an island nearby? Somewhere we can dock for a few days while Ben works his magic?"
There was a brief pause as the ship's long-range sensors swept the horizon.
"Scanning..." Merry hummed. "Triangle coordinates locked. Log Pose vector analyzed. There is a large landmass approximately forty nautical miles to the Southwest. It appears to be a chaotic zone, heavily populated by pirates, but it has a harbor."
"What's it called?" Nami asked.
"The charts identify it as Jaya Island," Merry replied. " Specifically, Mock Town."
"Jaya," Nami repeated. She looked at the map. It was off-course from the vertical indication of the Log Pose, but they couldn't go up without the upgrades. "Alright. That's our next stop. We dock at Jaya, get supplies, and let Ben turn the Merry into a spaceship."
"YOSH!" Luffy pumped his fist. "To Jaya! And then... TO THE SKY!"
"SKYPIEA! SKYPIEA! SKYPIEA!"
Luffy grabbed Usopp and Chopper. The three of them linked arms, forming a kick-line. They began to dance around the deck, kicking their legs high in the air.
"Ohhhh, the island is in the sky! (In the sky!)
The meat is flying high! (Flying high!)
We're gonna fly, we're gonna soar!
And knock on God's front door!"
"They are idiots," Zoro muttered, leaning against the railing, but there was a smirk on his face.
"They are our idiots," Robin smiled.
Ben walked over to the helm, taking the wheel. "Merry, set course for Jaya. Flank speed. The sooner we get there, the sooner I can get to work."
"Aye aye, Ben. Course set for Mock Town."
The Going Merry banked sharply, turning away from the open ocean and heading toward the dark silhouette of an island on the horizon. The sun was beginning to set, painting the sky in shades of violent orange and purple—colors that promised adventure, danger, and the unknown.