Upward Current

"Old Man!"

Back at KureKke's residence, a large crowd had already gathered, led by a gorilla and an ape.

"Black Winged Great Demon, what do you want with our Old Man?!"

Clearly, as seasoned sailors, the Ape Brothers recognized Cifer at a glance.

"Worry about yourselves instead. Both of you are wanted pirates."

Cifer's cold words tightened KureKke's heart. He spread his arms to shield them:

"Please, Mr. Cifer, spare them! They've never taken a life since they set sail!"

From what Cifer had said earlier in Mock Town, KureKke could roughly guess he liked killing wanted pirates, so he tried to downplay their crimes.

"Yes! At most we steal some loot and salvage wrecks, and only a little—we've never hurt anyone!" the Ape Brothers quickly confessed.

"Since I still need you, I'll let it slide this time. But from now on, no stealing either."

Given that they were greedy but not murderous, Cifer rarely showed leniency.

"Yes!"

Everyone's hearts settled. Then Cifer and the others sat cross-legged to enjoy the feast, while KureKke and the Ape Brothers went aside to discuss the ascent to the sky.

They'd originally planned to modify Cifer's ship so it could ride the wind upward more smoothly, but Cifer refused.

"They're not really bad people, are they?"

Hina nibbled elegantly at her food without looking up.

"If they were, they'd be dead."

Cifer's reply was curt. To him, evil men he didn't need were better off dead.

"Mr. Cifer! The Upward Current will appear at noon today! We're out of time! We need to find the Guide Bird and set off now!"

KureKke ran toward Cifer, his face grim and urgent.

"Guide Bird?"

As Hina looked puzzled, Cifer stood up and vanished from sight.

"The Upward Current will appear in the south. Once you're adrift on the endless sea, no one can navigate accurately, but the Guide Bird can!"

KureKke explained earnestly to Hina.

"Let's go!"

In just a few words, Cifer reappeared with the Guide Bird in hand, though a big lump sat on its head.

Does this mean we're parting ways?

Hina felt a pang of unease. Even if she wasn't his comrade, after traveling this far with him, couldn't he say a word before splitting up?

The Ape Brothers and the gorilla from the Monkey's Union Army were already ready on their ships, tasked with guiding Cifer's vessel to the Upward Current.

"What are you waiting for? Get on board?"

Seeing Hina and Wright frozen in place, Cifer frowned.

"Us? Didn't you promise Admiral Sakazuki to part ways once you reached Jaya?"

Hina was both surprised and delighted, unsure if Cifer had forgotten or simply didn't care.

"The Jaya trip isn't over yet. I meant that Jaya!"

Following his pointed direction, and recalling the Sky Island legend and the tale of the great liar Noland, Hina looked at the half-ruined building and naturally thought—half of Jaya was in the sky!

"Let's go!"

Hina couldn't contain her joy, nor did she question whether Sky Island existed.

If this man said it was there, then it was. She wouldn't dwell on what if it wasn't.

"Old Man! Mr. Cifer! Look at that!"

As time passed, the sky had turned completely overcast. Wind and waves raged across the sea, rocking the Ape Brothers' two ships violently, while Little Ul stood steady as a mountain.

Following their gaze, an enormous whirlpool appeared on the ocean surface, even dragging some Sea Kings in, unable to escape.

"Old Man! We can only take you this far!"

The Monkey's Union Army had no intention of going to the sky, so they dared not get too close. If sucked into the whirlpool, reaching the sky would be the best outcome; the worst was unimaginable.

"Mr. Cifer! What do we do? That whirlpool's huge!"

Wright, at the helm, was panicked. Used to cooking in the kitchen, he'd never seen such a spectacle.

Hina and KureKke stayed silent. Since they'd chosen to follow Cifer, they'd wait for his orders.

"Steer toward it!"

No sooner had he spoken than the massive whirlpool vanished into thin air. Everyone tensed, sensing something was about to happen.

"Find something on the ship to hold onto. We're leaving."

With a surge of heat from the seabed, a column of water shot upward—the Upward Current—and Little Ul rode it as it began to climb.

Suddenly, a Sea King was flung out by the current, tumbling through the air as it fell. Hina recognized it as one of the creatures that had been dragged into the whirlpool earlier.

"This is unbelievable! How is the ship staying so steady?"

Hina looked at Cifer in confusion. The Upward Current, when she thought about it carefully, was probably some kind of natural phenomenon—after all, this sea was full of all sorts of disasters.

But if Little Ul was riding the current straight up, the bow should have lost its balance, or even been thrown off like that Sea King!

And Cifer wasn't holding onto anything either. He just stood there on the deck, completely steady.

"Because the ship is already flying."

Hina immediately leaned over the side and was astonished to find that the ship had lifted off the water and was soaring through the air!

The moment the ship caught the Upward Current, Cifer had wrapped it in his dense Spiritual Pressure, lifting the hull off the current's surface and letting it ride the wind upward.

As for himself, stepping on empty air was hardly a challenge, let alone maintaining balance.

"It's that heat surge!"

Hina understood in an instant. This man had everything under control. But she wondered—was his own future also being controlled by someone else?

"Old Man, they made it!"

The Monkey's Union Army, now far from the whirlpool, watched Cifer's ship soar into the sky on the wind, hugging each other and shouting in excitement.

"Old Man will prove it! His ancestor Noland wasn't a liar—Sky Island really exists!"

Meanwhile, Cifer and the others were weaving through layer after layer of clouds. Finally, they stopped—the entire ship resting on a surface of clouds!

"Incredible! We can actually stop on top of the clouds!"

Wright was ecstatic. Since setting sail with Cifer, he had experienced things he never could have imagined in his life.

"If the ship can stop on clouds, then this must be a Sea of Clouds. Mr. Cifer, you wouldn't mind if I took a swim, would you?"

Wright had already stripped off his coat and put on goggles, looking ready to go.

"Go ahead. Just don't dive too deep, or you'll fall back down below."

Since they were already up here, Cifer didn't mind wasting a little time. Let them have their fun.

KureKke also stripped down without hesitation and followed Wright's lead, diving into the Sea of Clouds.

Everything felt surreal to him—as if proving the Golden City his ancestor spoke of was just one step away.

"You can skip it. A sky sea is still a sea."

Cifer casually sat down against the wall.

"Hina had no intention of going in anyway."

She put on her sunglasses as usual, lounged comfortably in a deck chair, and puffed smoke lazily, clearly in a good mood.

Cifer's Neural Scan spread outward, watching the two men in the sea while searching for the right path.

Two figures entered his detection range, steadily approaching the ship.