Meanwhile, far from the palace, deep within the desert of Alabasta.
The night wind swept across the endless sea of sand.
Fwoosh.
A small flame suddenly appeared in the darkness.
A man wearing an orange hat walked across the sand, one hand holding down the brim against the wind. The beads around his neck swayed lightly with each step, and the tattoo on his back was hidden beneath the shadow of his coat.
Portgas D. Ace.
He had come to Alabasta by following faint traces and scattered rumors of the man who had killed Thatch and fled from the Whitebeard Pirates.
Blackbeard.
Marshall D. Teach.
Ace had chased him across the sea for so long that the name alone was enough to make the fire in his chest burn hotter.
But now, as he stood in the middle of the desert, his steps slowly came to a stop.
In front of him was a thick, ugly face, frozen in its final expression, while the rest of the body was already being devoured by the creatures dwelling here.
Ace's eyes trembled, his brows drawing together into a deep frown. This was the last thing he had expected—to find that the very man he had come here to take revenge on had already met his end.
"Teach…"
...
Several days later.
The Golden Lion Pirates finally reached Jaya.
Unlike the peaceful desert of Alabasta or the solemn air that lingered around the royal palace, this island carried a completely different smell.
It smelled of alcohol, sweat, blood, and trouble.
Before the ship had even fully approached the harbor, loud voices could already be heard drifting from the town beyond the docks.
Mock Town.
A place where pirates gathered, laughed, fought, gambled, drank, and killed without anyone finding it strange.
Nami stood near the railing with the map in her hands, staring toward the island ahead. A small frown appeared on her face as she compared the shape of the coast with the information she had gathered.
"So this is Jaya Island…"
Beside her, Vivi looked toward the lively town with a slightly nervous expression.
"It looks… dangerous."
Robin, who was leaning calmly against the mast, smiled faintly.
"For pirates, that might count as lively."
Nami as if suddenly remembering something, looked back toward Shiki.
"By the way, why did we come here again?"
Shiki stood at the bow of the ship, one hand resting on the railing. His golden eyes swept across the island with faint amusement.
"To find the way to the sky."
Although he could have simply taken them there, he still had to eat first and gather supplies along the way. After all, he had left Alabasta in silence, without much time to prepare beforehand.
Nami and Vivi cried out in surprise at the same time.
"Wah?!"
Robin's eyes narrowed slightly with interest.
"The sky?"
Shiki smiled taking in their reactions.
"That's right."
He raised his head and looked at the vast blue sky above them.
"Sky Island."
This time, the three of them cried out in surprise almost simultaneously.
"Sky Island?!"
...
At the same time.
Inside Mock Town, in a noisy tavern filled with pirates, laughter and the sound of clinking cups echoed without pause.
Several pirates rushed through the door in a hurry.
Their faces were pale, and their breathing was uneven.
"Bellamy!"
One of them shouted before he could even catch his breath.
At the center of the tavern, a tall man with blond hair sat with his legs spread lazily, one arm resting over the back of his chair. He wore a confident grin on his face, and his sharp teeth showed whenever he laughed.
Bellamy the Hyena.
Around him, the Bellamy Pirates were drinking, gambling, and laughing as if the entire town belonged to them.
Bellamy glanced at the pirate who had rushed in, his expression full of impatience.
"What are you making so much noise for?"
The pirate swallowed hard.
"A ship just arrived at the harbor. The flag… it's the Golden Lion Pirates."
The tavern quieted slightly.
Another pirate hurriedly added, "Their captain is Shiki. The one with the four hundred million bounty."
For a brief moment, several pirates exchanged uneasy glances.
Four hundred million berries.
No matter where that name was spoken, it was not a number people could easily ignore.
But Bellamy only stared at them for a second before suddenly throwing his head back and laughing.
"Hyahahahaha!"
The rest of his crew froze for a moment, then quickly began laughing along with him.
Bellamy slapped the table hard, making the cups jump.
"Four hundred million? You idiots actually believe that?"
The pirate who had reported the news stiffened.
"But the wanted poster—"
Bellamy's grin widened with open contempt.
"Wanted posters are just paper. The World Government raises bounties whenever it suits them."
He leaned forward, his eyes filled with mockery.
"Think about it. Crocodile was one of the Seven Warlords. If some nobody really took him down and made the Government lose face, what would they do?"
He picked up his cup and drank, then slammed it back down.
"They'd throw some huge bounty on that nobody and make up a story. That way, they can pretend their failure was caused by some monster instead of their own incompetence."
His crew immediately burst into laughter.
"That's right!"
"Bellamy's right!"
"A four hundred million rookie? What a joke!"
"Must be Government propaganda!"
Bellamy laughed even louder.
"To me, that Shiki is nothing but a small-time pirate the Government dragged out to cover up their own embarrassment."
The tavern filled with mocking laughter.
Bellamy stood up slowly, cracking his neck.
"Where is he?"
The reporting pirate hesitated for a second.
"I heard he went into one of the hotels near the main street. They're eating there now."
Bellamy's smile became cruel.
"Eating?"
He turned and walked toward the door.
"Then let's pay him a visit."
The Bellamy Pirates immediately followed behind him with excited grins.
Bellamy's eyes were filled with arrogance.
"I want to see what kind of performance this so-called four hundred million pirate can put on for me."
...
Inside the hotel's dining hall, the atmosphere was much calmer.
At least, it had been.
Shiki sat by the window with a plate of food in front of him. Nami, Vivi, and Robin sat around the same table.
The owner of the hotel stood nearby, sweating slightly.
He had already recognized Shiki's face from the wanted poster.
Four hundred million berries.
Someone like that sitting quietly in his hotel was enough to make his legs feel weak.
But Shiki did not care about the owner's fear.
He simply ate calmly, as if this town of pirates was no different from any ordinary port.
Nami, however, could not stay calm.
She leaned forward, both hands on the table.
"Wait, wait, wait. So you're saying Sky Island is real?"
Her voice rose slightly.
"Not a fairy tale? Not a rumor? Not some drunk pirate's nonsense?"
Shiki glanced at her, gave a faint nod of acknowledgment, and then went back to eating.
"It's real."
Nami's expression changed several times in a row.
"Then there's really an island above the clouds?"
"Yes."
"And people live there?"
"Yes."
"And there's treasure?"
Shiki smiled, already knowing exactly what this thieving cat was hoping for.
"That depends on what you can take."
Nami's eyes instantly shone.
Vivi looked both amazed and confused.
"An island in the sky…"
Robin rested her cheek against one hand, her smile calm but her gaze thoughtful.
"Interesting. There are old records that mention legends of islands above the sea of clouds, but most scholars dismissed them as exaggerations."
"They weren't exaggerations."
Before Robin could ask more, a loud laugh suddenly came from the entrance.
"Hyahahahaha!"
The door of the dining hall was pushed open.
Bellamy walked in with his crew behind him.
The moment he entered, the atmosphere changed.
Several pirates who had been eating nearby immediately looked over with excited expressions, as if they had been waiting for something entertaining to happen.
Bellamy's eyes swept across the room before landing on Shiki.
Then his grin widened.
"So you're the great pirate with a four hundred million bounty?"
He looked Shiki up and down, then laughed.
"Doesn't look like much to me."
The Bellamy Pirates burst into laughter behind him.
Shiki, Nami, and Vivi ignored Bellamy completely, treating him as if he were nothing more than air, while Robin merely cast him a calm glance, her eyes carrying the quiet indifference of someone already looking at a dead man.
Bellamy noticed their reactions and laughed even harder.
"Oh? Not going to say anything?"
He walked closer, dragging a chair out with his foot before sitting down arrogantly near their table.
"I heard you were talking about Sky Island."
The surrounding pirates immediately started laughing.
"Sky Island?"
"Is this guy serious?"
"There are still idiots chasing fairy tales?"
Bellamy leaned forward, his grin turning ugly.
"The era of dreamers is over."
His voice carried through the dining hall.
"Pirates who chase dreams, legends, and stupid fairy tales are nothing but trash clinging to the past."
The room filled with jeering laughter.
One pirate pointed at Shiki.
"Maybe his four hundred million bounty came from telling bedtime stories!"
Another laughed.
"Sky Island? Why not say there's a kingdom on the moon too?"
Several more voices joined in.
The mockery quickly grew louder.
And then their gazes shifted toward Nami, Vivi, and Robin.
Their words became even more unpleasant.
Some commented on Nami's and Vivi's figure with filthy smiles.
A few stared at Robin with crude amusement, openly wondering what a woman like her was doing around a man who believed in children's tales.
Nami, who had been pretending not to see them at all, frowned as displeasure began to well up inside her. Vivi felt the same. An emotion she could not quite explain stirred in her chest, making her clench her fists beneath the table, while Robin's smile slowly faded, though her expression remained perfectly composed.
If those pirates had only mocked them, perhaps they could have endured it for the moment.
But they were not only mocking them.
They were laughing at Shiki.
At last, Shiki slowly placed down his cup and leaned back in his chair.
"As I thought… treating you like thin air was already more mercy than you deserved. So let me teach you something."
His golden eyes swept across Bellamy, his crew, and every pirate in the hall who had laughed along with them.
"When you meet a real pirate…"
The air suddenly grew heavy.
Bellamy's expression changed.
"…you don't get to choose how the lesson ends."
The next instant...
Boom!
An invisible force crashed down.
The entire dining hall shook violently.
Every pirate who had been laughing a moment ago was crushed flat against the floor, bodies rendered motionless as bones began to creak beneath the unbearable pressure.
Bellamy's eyes bulged.
"What…?!"
He tried to raise his head, but the pressure forced him down again.
His spring-like legs trembled, but no matter how much strength he poured into them, he could not move an inch.
After Shiki had fused the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi with the Yami Yami no Mi, his control over attraction, repulsion, weight, and floating had changed completely.
The power that once allowed him to make islands float in the sky had now gained the terrifying pull of darkness.
At this moment, Shiki's command over gravity was almost like that of a certain Admiral who could drag the meteors down.
Bellamy stared up at him with bloodshot eyes, still trying to force his body to rise.
"I'm… Bellamy…"
Even now, he tried to speak through clenched teeth.
"I'm under Doflamingo's flag…"
Shiki glanced down at him.
"Is that supposed to mean something?"
Bellamy's pupils shrank.
The next instant, the pressure became heavier.
Crack!
The floor beneath Bellamy sank.
His face twisted along with his pride, his arrogance, his confidence, everything was crushed.
Shiki looked down at him indifferently.
"A small-time pirate who borrows another man's name has no right to laugh at anyone's dream."
Bellamy's mouth opened, but no sound came out.
Shiki raised one hand slightly.
Darkness spread beneath the crushed pirates.
In a single breath, Bellamy, his crew, and every pirate who had laughed with them were dragged down into the abyss.
Their voices vanished almost instantly.
It was as if the floor had opened into hell itself, and Shiki had simply thrown them into it.
The only one alive was the owner still crouched behind the counter, his face drenched in sweat.
He stared at Shiki as if he were looking at a natural disaster wearing human skin.
Shiki glanced at him and said calmly.
"Boss."
The owner flinched so hard he almost hit his head on the counter.
"Y-Yes?!"
"More food."
The owner's soul nearly left his body but he still nodded desperately.
"R-Right away!"
As the trembling owner hurried into the kitchen, Nami sighed and rubbed her forehead.
"We just arrived and already destroyed a hotel…"
"But good job, Shiki. That was refreshing."
"Yes, Nami-san is right. If I weren't so weak, I would have taught them a lesson myself."
Vivi raised her arm as if to show off her strength, but instead of a firm bicep, there was only a slender, delicate arm. Even so, her voice carried clear frustration.
Robin regarded everything that had happened as calmly as she would a stone lying by the roadside. In her eyes, they had brought it upon themselves. And just as Shiki had said, they were pirates; they should have known better than anyone that every action came with consequences.
"Then, Captain, after this meal, shall we go looking for information about the route to the sky?"
Shiki looked out the window.
Above Mock Town, the blue sky stretched endlessly.
Somewhere beyond it, a lost city waited among the clouds.
"No… There's no need to make it complicated. Once we finish packing, we can head straight there."
...
"W-Wait, wait, wait! This is too high! This is definitely too high!"
Nami clung to the railing with both hands, her face pale as she looked down.
Beside her, Vivi held onto the railing as well, but unlike Nami, her eyes were wide with wonder.
The desert princess stared at the world below as though she had stepped into a dream.
Her blue hair fluttered wildly in the wind.
Robin stood calmly near the mast, one hand resting against her cheek as she watched the clouds part around the ship.
"I must admit, Captain," she said with a faint smile, "when you said we would go straight there, I didn't expect you to mean quite this literally."
Shiki sat lazily on the lion figurehead at the bow, one leg crossed over the other.
"Isn't this faster?"
"It is," Robin replied pleasantly. "Though I was wondering… if someone slipped from the deck at this height, would they drown in the sea first, be swallowed by a sky fish, or have the honor of becoming a tiny stain somewhere far below?"
Nami's face turned even whiter.
She immediately spun around and lightly smacked Robin on the head.
"Stop saying scary things so casually, Robin!"
Robin blinked once, then smiled as if she had said nothing strange at all.
"My apologies, Nami-chan. I was merely considering the possibilities."
"Please DON'T consider them!"
Vivi covered her mouth, unable to stop a small laugh from escaping.
For most of her life, Vivi had looked up at the sky from the desert, thinking of it as something distant and unreachable. But now, the sky surrounded her. Clouds brushed past the ship like white waves, and sunlight scattered across them like countless fragments of gold.
A soft warmth rose in her chest.
Leaving Alabasta had been painful.
She had wondered, again and again, whether it was selfish to choose the sea over the palace.
But at this moment, standing on a pirate ship flying toward a legendary island above the clouds, Vivi felt her heart beat faster with a feeling she had almost forgotten.
Excitement.
Freedom.
Adventure.
Maybe…
Maybe this really was the best decision she had ever made.
She was glad.
Glad that she had found the courage to take that step.
Glad that she had chased after them with her suitcase in hand.
Glad that she had set sail.
"Shiki-san…"
Her voice was almost swallowed by the wind.
Shiki glanced back at her.
Vivi smiled, her eyes shining like stars.
"This is amazing."
Shiki looked at her for a moment, then smiled faintly.
"Then keep your eyes open. We haven't even arrived yet."
As if answering him, the ship suddenly broke through a thick layer of clouds.
For an instant, everything turned white.
Then...
Splash!
The ship plunged into a sea of clouds.
Nami slowly opened one eye.
"We're… floating?"
Robin crouched near the edge of the deck and reached out. Her fingers brushed against the cloud surface, and a faint ripple spread from her touch.
"A sea of clouds…"
Her expression turned thoughtful.
But suddenly ahead of them, something else was approaching at high speed.
A white bird-horse flew through the sky with a strange old man riding on its back. The old man wore armor, held a spear, and had a serious expression that looked rather impressive for someone who had clearly appeared out of nowhere.
"Halt, Blue Sea people!"
The old man pointed his spear toward the ship.
"I am the Sky Knight! If you are in danger, blow this whistle and I shall—"
Before he could finish, Shiki's eyes shifted toward him.
"You're in the way."
He waved his hand lightly.
Bang!
The old knight and his strange bird-horse were sent spinning through the air together, disappearing into a distant cloud bank like a pair of tossed pebbles.
A long silence followed.
Nami stared at the place where the old man had vanished.
"Who was that old man? And he's alive, right?"
Shiki looked completely uninterested.
"Probably."
"Probably?!"
The ship continued forward through the White Sea.
Soon, an enormous gate appeared in front of them.
It rose from the cloud sea like the entrance to another world. Two great pillars stood on both sides, and above them were the words:
Heaven's Gate.
A narrow cloud path stretched beyond it, leading upward into a higher layer of sky.
At the side of the gate sat an old woman with small wings on her back. She had a camera in her hands and a face so expressionless that she looked half-asleep.
She slowly lifted her head as the ship approached.
"Welcome to Heaven's Gate," the old woman said flatly. "Are you sightseeing?"
Robin looked at the wings on the woman's back with interest.
Vivi whispered, "She has wings…"
The old woman raised her camera and took a picture.
Click.
Nami flinched, her guard rising at once as she eyed the woman suspiciously.
"Hey! Why did you take our picture?!"
"For registration."
The old woman did not even blink.
"To enter Skypiea, the fee is one billion extol per person."
The one who reacted the most was Nami, who nearly fainted from those words alone.
"One… billion?"
The old woman remained expressionless.
"Payment is optional."
"…Optional?"
"Yes. You may enter whether you pay or not."
Nami's eyes narrowed.
"That sounds suspicious."
"It is your choice."
Shiki looked at the old woman for a moment, then turned to Nami.
"Nami."
"What?"
"Steal everything this old bag has."
The old woman's deadpan expression finally cracked.
"Excuse me?"
For a moment, even Nami was stunned. Then, little by little, a radiant smile began to bloom across her face.
"With pleasure."
"Wait, Nami-san—" Vivi started instinctively.
But Nami had already moved.
In the next instant, she was behind the old woman's small station. Her hands moved so quickly that they almost became a blur.
The cash box disappeared.
The drawer was emptied.
Several strange shells vanished into her bag.
A small pouch hidden beneath the chair disappeared.
Even the old woman's spare camera roll was taken before she could react.
The old woman stared in disbelief.
"You Blue Sea people—!"
Nami jumped back onto the ship and landed lightly beside the railing, hugging her newly stolen goods with a satisfied grin.
Shiki nodded as if Nami had done a proper job.
"Good."
Nami proudly lifted her chin.
"Of course."
The old woman's face twisted with anger.
"You refuse to pay, rob the gatekeeper, and enter Heaven's Gate by force. Very well."
She slowly reached for a communication device beside her.
"Please proceed."
Nami looked at her even more suspiciously.
"You're just letting us go?"
The old woman's expression returned to its original blankness.
"That is your choice."
Before anyone could ask what she meant, the cloud sea beneath the ship suddenly bulged.
Something huge rose from below.
A giant white shrimp burst out of the clouds, grabbed the ship from underneath, and began rushing forward at an absurd speed.
"KYAAAAA!"
Nami screamed as the ship shot into the Milky Road like an arrow.
Vivi grabbed the railing, her hair flying wildly behind her.
Robin held onto the mast with several sprouted arms, still smiling despite the violent speed.
"Oh my. So this is the welcoming service."
Shiki stood at the bow, coat fluttering fiercely in the wind.
He made no move to stop it.
After all, the shrimp was taking them in the right direction.
The Milky Road curved upward, carrying the ship through a tunnel of clouds. The world around them became a blur of white and blue. Wind roared in their ears. The ship tilted, climbed, and rushed higher.
Then, at last, the cloud tunnel opened.
Light flooded their vision.
The ship burst into a new sea.
This one was even higher than the last.
Angel Island.
"So that is Skypiea."
For a moment, even Shiki fell silent, his golden eyes filled with the reflection of the island above the clouds, as though he too had been drawn in by its wonder.
Behind them, at Heaven's Gate, the old woman raised the communication device with shaking hands.
"This is Heaven's Gate."
Her voice was flat, but the corner of her eye twitched.
"Four illegal entrants have entered Skypiea. They refused payment…"
She glanced at the empty cash box, the open drawer, and the missing shells.
Then her voice became colder.
"…and robbed the gate."
"Please inform the priests."
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