At this moment, inside the airship's cockpit.
"Brother Franky!"
Having received only two weeks of theoretical training, the airship pilot—who had been a Water 7 thug just a month ago and had been forced into the job by Franky—said nervously to him:
"Will we really be safe once we get up there?"
"That's more than 8,000 meters high!"
"Of course we'll be safe!"
Franky patted his chest and assured them, "The parachutes I invented will definitely work!"
"..."
Everyone in the cockpit shot him resentful looks at once.
"Of course, we definitely won't need those parachutes!"
Franky immediately caught himself and reassured everyone again in the proud tone of a master shipwright:
"A ship I built will never sink!"
"If anything goes wrong with this airship, then it'll be because there's a torrential downpour in the desert!"
"Um..."
A local Alabasta crew member raised his head and said leisurely:
"In Alabasta, every so often, we carry out artificial rainfall in cities across the country according to Miss Nami's weather control plan."
"So... there are often torrential downpours in the desert."
Another silence followed.
But that naturally could not stump Franky, a man daring enough to streak. With skin thicker than Armament Haki, he casually changed his wording again:
"If anything goes wrong with this airship, then it'll be because there's a blizzard in the desert!"
The moment he finished speaking—
The blazing sun outside the glass windows suddenly dimmed. Dazzling ice spread across the vast desert, and white frost began to fill the air.
Alabasta's scorching desert instantly became as cold as the polar regions.
The burning sunlight fell upon icebergs as massive as mountain ranges, making the ice layer gleam like translucent crystal.
"Garen?!"
Nami and Vivi both cried out Garen's name.
Robin also fixed her tearful eyes tightly