Mini Sky Island

A pirate ship flying a sword-shaped flag sailed across the sea.

"Captain, what are we going to this little island for?" Kid asked curiously, looking at the island Ryan was pointing toward.

"We'll go directly to the sky islands through here." Ryan glanced at the map and continued, "Jaya has news about the sky islands."

Seeing how certain Ryan sounded, Beli cautiously asked, "Ryan, are there really islands in the sky?" Before Ryan could answer, Lory beat him to it.

"There are! Islands that fly in the sky."

Everyone stared at Lory in surprise.

Kid clearly didn't believe her. "You've seen one?"

"Captain Ryan, I've detected a moving island above us!"

"Hm?"

Ryan was baffled. They hadn't even reached Jaya yet, so how could they already be near the sky islands? He vaguely remembered that the sky islands were located just a little way from Jaya.

At their current sailing speed, they still needed another day to reach Jaya. How could they have encountered one now? But Fujitora's Observation Haki sensing ability was truly powerful.

Fujitora was capable of using his Devil Fruit ability to pull meteors down from outer space. A man of his caliber normally wouldn't make a mistake in his judgment. That meant there really was a sky island above Ryan's head.

Realizing this, Ryan hurriedly asked Fujitora, "Are you sure? Don't get it wrong!"

The moment he said that, Fujitora opened his "eyes of death" and stared at Ryan with his pale eyes. "Captain, it seems you don't believe me?"

For some reason, whenever everyone saw Fujitora open his eyes, they felt a chill run through their hearts.

Ryan also felt uncomfortable under Fujitora's stare. He coughed twice and said, "How could I? You're the person I trust most on this ship." As he spoke, he patted Fujitora on the shoulder.

The corners of Fujitora's mouth rose slightly. Where no one else noticed, Beli was drawing little circles to one side.

"Since there really is a sky island above us, how do we get up there?" After calming Fujitora down, Ryan brought up the biggest problem before them: how to get up there.

Ryan knew they could use the Knock Up Stream near Jaya, but looking at the calm sea, he knew there couldn't be one here.

"Th-this..." Ryan's question immediately stumped Fujitora, and everyone furrowed their brows in thought.

"How about you throw me up there, Captain?" Kid suggested.

"Are you stupid? Who could throw you that high?"

Ryan immediately rejected Kid's idea.

Just as everyone was at their wits' end, Beli spoke up. "Ryan, didn't you say before that if the mountain won't come to you, you should go to the mountain? Since we can't go up, we can make it come down. Doesn't Uncle Fujitora have that ability?"

Ryan: "Holy crap!"

Kid: "Holy crap!!!"

That was the highest praise everyone could give Beli. Even Robin stood there with her mouth wide open, looking incredulous.

Ryan exclaimed, "Beli, how did you think of that? That's amazing!"

Beli looked at Ryan strangely. "Isn't that something any normal person could think of?"

Everyone's expressions immediately became as pained as if they had eaten food cooked by Lory. Ryan muttered inwardly, How did we offend Beli? He's never been like this before!

"Fujitora, try to see if you can pull it down."

Everyone looked at Fujitora expectantly. After all, that was a legendary sky island!

"I'll do my best." Fujitora closed his eyes and sensed the sky island's location. A wave of energy spread from his body.

On a small island in the sky, an old man with a long white beard was recording something in his room. Suddenly, the entire island began to shake and sink.

Whitebeard sensed what was happening and hurried outside. He found that the entire island was slowly descending. The island's residents also ran out, and when they saw the clouds rising higher and higher, they realized that the island was falling.

"Go check the engine room! Maybe there's a problem with the power!" the white-bearded old man shouted anxiously.

Someone immediately ran toward the engine room.

"Haredas, what on earth is going on?" an elderly white-haired woman asked.

Whitebeard wore a troubled expression. "I don't know either. This is the first time something like this has happened."

Meanwhile, below...

"Come on! Come on!" Kid and Killer encouraged Fujitora.

Fujitora struggled to control the force, yet still smiled faintly. "Don't worry. Something like this is still very easy for me."

Ryan stared wide-eyed at the beads of sweat on Fujitora's forehead and thought, What happened to Fujitora?

Pulling the sky island down wasn't actually difficult for Fujitora, but controlling the force required extreme care. Otherwise, if it fell straight down, the ship would likely be destroyed and everyone killed.

Under Fujitora's control, after half an hour, everyone could finally see the island's entire outline with their naked eyes. A huge bubble supported the island from below, while clouds surrounded it so densely that they couldn't see what was inside.

Lory suddenly cried out, "Weatheria!"

"You know it?" Ryan asked, looking at Lory in surprise.

"That's my home! Uncle Fujitora, stop pulling it down! If the air pressure gets too low, the bubble beneath Weatheria will burst."

Fujitora also stopped using his ability.

"Ryan, send me up there."

"Okay."

Ryan grabbed Lory by the foot and hurled her toward the island several hundred meters above them like a discus.

Haredas was discussing with the woman beside him what they should do if the sky island fell into the sea. Suddenly, someone flew over and landed directly on Haredas's head.

With a "bang," the two of them were sent flying several meters away.

"Ow, my old back!"

"Lory!"

Lory looked at the two people before her in delight. "Grandpa Haredas, Grandma Lia!" Seeing the two elders she hadn't met in so long, Lory immediately threw herself into Lia's arms.

"Lori, you went to the South Blue. Why were you gone for so long?"

"And how did you get up here?" Haredas asked as well.

Lori hurriedly explained everything that had happened after she left. The two of them were left dumbfounded as they listened.

Haredas stroked Lory's head and sighed. "I never expected you to go through so much on your journey, Lory."

"Your friends are still down there, aren't they? Go bring them up."

Down below, Ryan and the others were still waiting anxiously.

"Lory's been gone so long. I hope nothing happened to her!"

"She should be fine. Didn't Lory say that this is her home?"

Kid suddenly shouted at the sky, "Look! It's Lory!"

Lory was standing on a miniature sky island as it flew toward Ryan and the others. It then stopped in midair, and she shouted down at them, "Come on up!"

Ryan grabbed Kid and Killer and jumped straight onto it. The others followed one after another. Before long, everyone had arrived on the sky island.

"Welcome, Lory's friends!" Haredas greeted Ryan and the others with a smile.

Ryan surveyed the buildings on the sky island and was surprised to discover something. This didn't seem to be a sky island!

"What is this place?"

"Weather Island—Weatheria."

Ryan finally realized where they were. This was the place where Nami had been sent after Bartholomew Kuma knocked her away! Weather Island was also known as Mini Sky Island.

Ryan: "We're screwed. We originally planned to go to the sky islands, but somehow ended up at Mini Sky Island."