章節 56: In the White Sea to Skypeia

"EVERYONE HANG ON!" I could feel us reaching the peak of the ark that was jettisoning us into the clouds so I inched over towards the ship wheel to press a button that opened some compartments on the sides of the ship to make some inflatable rubber ballasts to inflate.

These were meant to be used when we try to send our ship under the sea to go through the red line of FishMan island and pull ourselves up should we lose Yuda somehow and need to get to the New World without going through reverse mountain and through the calm belts like we usually do.

I was using it in this way to try and cushion our fall but if we were falling to fast I'd use my flames to rocket myself below the ship faster than it was falling to get under it and use my flames while holding it up to decrease the fall of need be.

But right after I did that it did something….. strange because we didn't keep falling but we started to raise up even more.

"Kid! What the hell is going on?!?! Are we rising even higher now?!" Owen said shocked that we were floating higher up into the sky like a balloon which with our ships weight should be impossible.

"I dunno either! We just got to hang on till this ends!" I say as we keep rising and rising, but not long later I start to see things I thought I'd never see in the clouds, like fish swimming in the clouds as if it's water and sunken wrecks of ships that shouldn't be up here.

"... What the fuck?" (Kuda)

"There are really ships and flying fish up in the sky! Those bedtime stories my mom read to me growing up were true!" (Mikita)

"Bedtime stories?"

"Legend has it that the clouds up above their is actually a sea that if you can reach will lead you to the islands in the sky, and the sea in the sky is called the White Sea, I just can't believe it's actually real either." (Robin)

"Tsk, I dunno what's in these clouds but it feels just the same as seastone touching all over me look." Gem says before firing his BB gun but nothing happens.

"Same here Captain my flower flower Devil power isn't working properly either." She says as her arms that were holding everyone were dematerializing.

"Well no matter you guys will just have to fight the old fashion way, me, Owen, Kuda, Gem and Baby 5 will protect the ship as best as we can."

"Wait! Why me?!?!"(Baby 5)

"…. Because your the only other sharpshooter besides Gem here, what? Are those guns all over you just for decoration? I thought you like to be helpful?"

"Of course! I love helping! Why didn't you say so!" She says with a smile on her face as she pulls out her guns.

*Shes a bit to easy to use isn't she?* (Everyone)

But suddenly as we're still rising a shadow up above covers our ship.

"EEEEEKKKK IS THAT A GIANT LEECH?!?!?!" Both Mikita and Perona scream while holding each other in fear at the sight of that huge slimy wriggling leech that was well larger than our ship.

It doesn't seem to notice us, might be the seastone on the ship make us invisible to it like it would to sea kings, "All non fighters get in my cabin quick! We're gonna have to cut that thing down and this is gonna get messy!" I say as I pull my blade out the ships deck and begin to light it up with my flames, Owen does the same with his blades.

So the girls nod and Mikita, Perona and Robin who can't help in this situation head back inside.

"Take that thing down!" I say as both me and Owen send flame blades towards the giant leech while Kuda uses his long blade to try and cut it up while Gem and Baby 5 use there big guns to shoot it down.

But because of how the clouds are acting somewhat similar to water me and Owens attacks are severely hindered and are only doing about the same amount of damage as Kuda is doing with his blade, Gem and Baby 5 were the ones coming In Clutch doing most of the damage at the time and with one placed rocket from Baby 5 blowing off its head killing it. But before we could celebrate what I thought would happen did happen as the entire deck got covered in blood and slime, me and Owen were fine as our flames surrounding us disintegrated it before touching it but for the rest…. Not so much, so we used our. Flames to evaporate it off there bodies so they can be clean for now before they really clean off later to get the feeling of it still being on.

But not long later we finally reached the surface of this so called White Sea, and now we were traveling on top of a cloud like it is a body of water all on its own.

"Alright! It's safe to come out now!" I say as I sheathe my blade and everyone relaxes, and everyone comes out to see the sights, even Theo and Florence who were below deck the whole time come out to see the sights.

"Wow! It's so pretty up here!" (Nami)

"I can't believe we're flying up on clouds like this, it's like I'm dreaming… Ouch why'd you pinch me Nami!" (Nojiko)

"To see if I'm not dreaming."

"…. Don't you pinch yourself when you check? Here let me show you!" Nojiko says as she begins to mess around and chase her sister.

I just shake my head and then look down at my compass which now is working properly and is pointing due west from here so I look to Owen, "Take the wheel, looks like what we're searching for might actually be up here on this sky island or something because the compass is working again so we need to head due west."

"Aye aye Captain." Owen says as he takes the wheel and turns are ship westward letting the winds propel us in that direction.

A few hours later we finally came upon something new up here in the sky, it appeared to be a gate of some kind manned by a very old lady with a camera, who waved at us.

"Welcome to Heavens Gate Travelers enjoy your stay in Skypeia." She says with a grandmotherly look on her face.

"Thanks granny!" Nami, Nojiko and Baby 5 wave goodbye to the old lady as we pass by the gate.

"Such nice kids, they remind me of my granddaughters.... Wait was I supposed to do something?" (Amazon)

And not long after we pass through that gate a giant speedy looking ship came at us and grabbed our ship, the others were about to attack it but I stopped them as it seemed to be helping us get even higher up into the cloud seas up above.

"There's an even higher cloud sea above this one? Just how high up does this all go?" (Gem)

"Well this big shrimp must be leading us to this Skypeia which is probably the name for this cloud island after all." (Mikita)

"And let's just hope this place has more info on the void century since the compass is pointing the way to here."

After roughly 20 minutes of being pulled upwards we finally surface once again and reach an even higher sea of clouds.

In the distance we see a massive island up here in the clouds that should honestly be impossible for it to be this high up in the sky

"Wow, it's so pretty…" (Nami)

As we got close we saw a small area of the over all island that looked like an island completely made out of clouds instead of what the main island was made of, but it did have a ship dock that we went too and ultimately docked at.

"Angel Island Huh? Well I guess it fits we are up in the clouds... wait for those people actually have wings?" Mikita say as she points towards the inhabitants of this island and they in fact do have wings, though not the same as angels but very small wings that don't look like can help them fly with there size.

But then suddenly men in some type of military uniform wearing white berets and stopped us from going any further.

"Welcome to Angel Island, I would like to ask for your papers please, you should have received some papers after you paid the toll fee at heavens gate." (McKinley) He says while holding out his hand, luckily after being told the name of this island by the old lady at heavens gate I purchased some basic info on the island, also why I wasn't surprised like everyone else when I saw the people up here had wings, and I know a bit more information such as they use a different kind of currency up here, though I haven't been able to read up that much in this short of time, so I have to use one of my favorite skills, lying through my teeth.

"Oh but of course sir I would hand you the papers but the old lady at the gate seems to be the forgetful sort, she asked us for Extols but unfortunately we're from the Blue Sea so we only have the currency from down below, so we had only Berries on us so we could only give it to her, we gave her 5 large chests full of Berries in exchange for letting us pass through the gate, last I saw her she was counting up the money but she kept losing her place and starting all over again."

Negation/ Persuasion lvl. Up!

"Hmmmmm….. that does sound like her to do that…. But still we can't let you in without confirmation from her saying you paid the fee…" he said being firm in his decision.

"Of course officer, but with how things are going, tell you what let's wait an hour, if you get no message from her at all then that means she's busy with the money still and in the mean time you'll let us explore around the island."

Persuasion lvl. Up!

"Hmmmm…. Fine if we hear nothing from her I'll take your word for it that you paid the toll to let you and your crew in, but if we here something otherwise we're gonna have to take you in for questioning."

"Understood will wait on our ship in the mean time." I say as I brought everyone else back onto the ship.

Meanwhile, heavens gate.

"...…. What was I thinking about again?..... oh well I'm gonna take a nap…." (Amazon) she says before she goes over to her cot and takes a nap. "...…Zzzzzzz..."

An hour later, "Alright it seems your telling the truth then, so we the White Berets welcome you to Angel Island." He says with a genuine smile on his face.

"Thank you for letting us see your lands." I say as I motion for everyone, besides Florence who decided to stay behind as she thinks she might scare the people since she's a zombie and all that, to come after me.

The leader of the White Berets just nods at us and promptly leaves with his men, Robin and Theo went towards a Library to learn more about this island and the peoples physiology, Owen, Kuda and Gem went to look for a place to go get a drink and like every else exchange there berries for Extols if need be, Mikita along with Nami and Nojiko went around to shop for things and get souvenirs and food to eat as well leaving me with Zala, Perona and Baby 5 to just go around and see the sights.

"….. You lied straight through your teeth about paying the toll fee didn't you?" (Zala)

"But of course luckily for me after that old lady told me the name of the island I was able to buy a book from the system shop to learns about the culture, currency and what people need to do when they come here such as the toll fee, so yes I did lie through my teeth, and it paid off now we got in for free."

"You don't need to read the book physically if you buy it from the shop?" (Perona)

"Nope but I still have to read it like normal it's not like I let it pump the info straight into my head, I could but it gives me a major migraine whenever I do so I just read it like normal, but I've only read a little bit of it so far."

"Though it's kind of strange that a lot of people live on this small island and don't live on the big island." (Baby 5) she says that as we pass a man and a little girl, and the man hears that and stops.

"Ahh you guys must be travelers from the blue sea! So you must not know about our sacred lands." (Pagaya 44)

"No sir we just got here, what's this about sacred lands?"

"That big island is called the Upper Yard, only the god and his followers can go there, the rest of us live here on Angel Island instead, but it's still nice here though!" (Conis 11)

"There's a god living up here?" (Perona)

"Well maybe but it could just be a guy calling himself a god, if he's a god then with my powers I'd be a god as well."

…

"…. If he's a god then with my powers I'd be a god as well." Those words reached the ears of a rather long eared man.

He is a pale-skinned man with a well-toned yet somewhat wiry build, standing very tall at 8'9". He has a slim face, usually seen with a relaxed, half-lidded expression accentuated by a calm, confident smile. He has Blond hair with it tucked under his white bandanna. His eyebrows, contrastively, are black, rather thick, and top grayish-blue eyes with prominent bottom lashes. His nose is slim with a marked, flat bridge that has several lines run horizontally across it. He has extremely long earlobes that reached all the way down to his chest. Upon his back, stuck centrally into his shoulder blades, is a large, gray ring with 4 drums attached to his back.

He wears a green skirt over his pants that had three black, horizontal lines with several thin spikes jutting up and down from each and on his arms and ankles were wrapped with several gold bangles on each wrist and ankle.

".... I just took this island as my playground where I'm god to these people from that old man Gan Fall a few months back, and now these travelers from down below the blue sea are questioning my godhood! And even one of them is claiming to be a god as well!? Well then let's see if this traveler is a god or not?" (Enel 23) he says as he uses his Mantra (observation haki) to see who these travelers are.

As he lets his Mantra spread it reaches over to Angel Island where he sees a man with fiery red hair having a very large aura surrounding his body that look similar to flames.

But as he went in for a closer look this 'Fire Man' Turned and stared straight at him and started to use his Mantra to track back towards him.

But before the Fire Man could get the exact location of him he promptly cut his Mantra off from looking at the Fire Man before opening his eyes.

Both of them at the same time grinned and stroke their chins.

"How very interesting." (Enel & Vargas)

"I think I'm gonna actually have fun on this island." I say with a grin as I look back towards the upper yard straight in the direction of where Enel was looking back at me as well with a big smile on his face.