Sky Country

"Something seems to be coming!"

Hina also heard a strange sound not far away.

A man wearing a bull-horned mask, with small wings on his back, galloped across the clouds with a spear in hand.

"I'll take you out!"

He leaped up, spear thrusting straight at Cifer.

"The Sky Knight has arrived!"

Just as another voice rang out, Cifer grabbed the spearhead and hurled the masked man into the Sea of Clouds, where he vanished without a trace.

"Huh, this... this isn't right, is it?"

An old man, fully armed and riding a flying bird, froze mid-air. Weren't Blue Sea people supposed to lose their strength when they reached the White Sea?

Still, they landed on the ship.

"You're from the Blue Sea, aren't you?"

"Blue Sea?"

As the old man spoke, a curious Hina kept pestering him with questions about Sky Island.

The old man's name was Gan Fall, an amateur mercenary who roamed the White Sea, making a living by rescuing Blue Sea people who ended up there and collecting fees.

The bird he rode was a Pegasus Bird that had eaten the Heavenly Horse Fruit!

The Blue Sea was a general term for the Grand Line and other oceans below. This place was the White Sea, 7,000 meters above sea level!

And above that was the Upper Yard, where the "Sky Island" they were looking for truly lay!

After giving Hina a rundown on the White Sea and Upper Yard, Gan Fall took his leave to wander elsewhere.

After all, Cifer didn't look like someone who needed his help, so he didn't even bother pulling out his whistle.

"Little Hina, look! It's a legendary Sky Fish!"

Uncle Wright climbed aboard, holding two flat-bodied creatures with feather-like scales.

"I'm going to try cooking them and see if they're good!"

"Uncle Wright! We don't even know if these fish are poisonous!"

Uncle Wright didn't hear a word she said and walked straight into the kitchen to start preparing this new ingredient.

"I hear they're delicious. You can give them a try."

Cifer chimed in out of nowhere.

"Who told you that?" Hina couldn't hold back her curiosity. "You're the one who wanted to come to Sky Island, but ever since we got up here, you've been acting so uninterested."

"Have you been to Sky Island before? You seem to know a lot about it, yet you don't really care."

"I heard it from a friend I've never met. And like I said, I'm here to find a companion."

Cifer pointed his index finger upward, indicating that the person he was looking for was on the Sky Island in the Upper Yard.

Cifer didn't have much interest in Sky Island. Golden City? He'd rather kill pirates on the Blue Sea for bounties. Sky Island? Aside from floating in the air, it had nothing special to him.

"Really, Hina is not happy!"

What "friend I've never met"—he clearly just didn't want to tell her. Hina plopped down in a chair and sulked.

"Ta-da~"

Uncle Wright came out with a plate of pan-fried fish and a plate of grilled fish, letting Hina and Cifer taste them.

"So good!"

Hina's taste buds were instantly conquered! It was a brand-new experience she'd never had on the Grand Line!

"Indeed."

Such a small amount wasn't even enough to fill Cifer's teeth; it was gone in the blink of an eye.

"This is amazing. Sky Fish don't even have bones—they're the perfect ingredient for cooking. I'd love to stay here!"

For a chef like Uncle Wright, easy-to-handle ingredients were a dream.

"Run! Something big is coming!"

KureKke leaped onto the ship from the White Sea, shouting in panic.

Hot on his heels was a monstrous creature, shaped like an octopus but with mouth-like growths on its tentacles, reaching out toward the crew.

Cifer just gave it a single glare, and the monster shrank back in fright.

"Since we're all up here, let's head out. To the Upper Yard."

"Got it!"

Following Cifer's direction, the ship soon arrived at a massive gate-shaped structure, with the words "Gate of Heaven" written on it.

Behind the building was a waterfall made of clouds and a ribbon-like Cloud River.

From a side door in the building, an old woman holding a camera came out and took pictures of Cifer and the others.

"Are you here to sightsee or to fight?"

"Fight? What do you mean?"

Hina fired off a soul-searching question, but the old woman didn't answer.

"Whatever you're here for, if you want to enter the upper layer, each person needs to pay 1 billion Extol. That's the law of this land."

"1 billion?!"

Though they had no idea what Extol was, KureKke and Wright were already floored in shock.

Hina looked over at Cifer. After Gan Fall's explanation earlier, she naturally knew what Extol was, but this ship belonged to Cifer—whether to pay or not was his call.

"We're here to fight. And I don't plan on paying."

Cifer answered with a cocky look.

"If you don't pay... you can still go in. I'm not a gatekeeper or a guard—I'm just here to ask your intentions."

"Then how do we get up?"

As Hina wondered, two giant claws suddenly emerged from the Sea of Clouds, clamping onto both sides of the ship.

"What the hell?!"

Wright and KureKke screamed in panic.

"Those are the 'Express Shrimp' unique to the White Sea..."

Before the old woman could finish, the claws had already dragged Little Ul away at breakneck speed, climbing up against a waterfall of clouds.

"Ahhh!!!"

Wright and KureKke clung to the mast, wailing like ghosts.

In just a few dozen seconds, they saw the end of the Cloud River, marked at the entrance to Sky Island—God's Land SKYPEIA.

Little Ul passed smoothly through the entrance and came to a stop on the sea of clouds in Upper Yard.

As far as the eye could see, beyond the endless white, there was an island covered in all kinds of buildings.

"This is Sky Island!"

Unlike Hina and Wright's astonishment, KureKke's eyes were already brimming with tears. The existence of Sky Island had been proven—proven by his own eyes!

All that remained now was the Golden City!

If he could just find the Golden City, it would prove that was the other half of Jaya, the place his ancestor Noland had once visited!

"You're crying too early. Jaya isn't here."

The ship docked, and Cifer and the others stepped onto the soft, cloud-like ground.

"How amazing—is the ground all made of clouds?!"

Wright, already middle-aged, rolled around on the ground like a child, while KureKke looked and touched everything like someone who'd never seen the world.

"Hina can't believe it."

She hadn't even lit the cigarette in her mouth, taking in everything on the island, stepping on this cotton-candy-like land, her gaze inevitably drifting to Cifer.

Cifer, however, looked higher and farther across the island, his vision seeming to pierce through countless buildings and obstructions.

At that moment, on God's Island within God's Land, a man with a bare upper body, gold ornaments hanging from his ears—lobes reaching his chest—a white turban on his head, and four three-tomoe Thunder Drums strapped to his back, opened his eyes.

"Looks like a few uninvited guests have arrived~"

"Yeah~hahahaha~"