I Can Copy Any Talent in One Piece

"A Waver? What's that?" Robin asked, puzzled.

Before Conis could answer, a lanky old man came flying toward the beach on something that looked like a motorboat, moving as fast as a seaplane.

But the flashier the takeoff, the more miserable the crash.

Pagaya rode the Waver straight into a nearby coconut tree.

Then a coconut fell from the tree. Hard as iron, it struck the old man and knocked him into the clouds.

"Father!" Conis ran over in alarm, and Robin followed to check on him.

The man who repaired Wavers couldn't ride one. That was a joke in itself.

Noil made the observation to himself.

God's Judgment

Conis helped her father up. Rubbing his head, Pagaya laughed. "Ah... Wavers really are hard to turn."

Robin righted the fallen Waver and examined it. "So this is a Waver? I think I read about them in a book. Boats that can sail without wind..."

Noil walked over and said, "Was that book written by someone named Noland?"

Robin's eyes lit up. Her mind immediately found the detail among all the books she had read.

"So Noland the Liar was telling the truth?" Robin folded her arms, deep in thought. "Does that mean the city of gold exists too?"

Noil was startled. You know about that too?

Then again, Robin had probably read far more books than Noil had studied. He couldn't judge her solely by what he knew from the Original Story.

Once his daughter had helped him to his feet, Pagaya noticed Noil. "Oh, we have guests?"

Conis hurried to introduce them. "Father, they're from the Blue Sea. This is Noil and Robin."

The people of Sky Island seemed quite hospitable. Pagaya greeted them warmly. "Since you've come to Sky Island, you should have a good look around. We haven't had visitors in ages."

Pagaya picked up the Waver and led the way. Conis and Robin chatted while Noil idly looked around.

The father and daughter took them along a soft staircase of clouds. Large, solid masses of cloud were piled beside it all the way up.

"That's a cloud-processing factory," Pagaya explained to Noil. "It processes Island Clouds."

"There are three kinds of clouds on Sky Island. Sea Clouds are what your ship sailed on. Island Clouds are what we're standing on."

"Then there are processed clouds, which can be made into furniture or used as building materials."

Noil listened closely. Being here in person was nothing like seeing it in a story, and the place made quite an impression on him.

Seeing how attentively Noil listened, Pagaya grew more enthusiastic. "This part of Sky Island where we live is called Angel Island. Angel Beach, where we just came from, is on its edge."

"As for my home, just keep following Lovely Avenue and you'll find it."

"Go farther along Lovely Avenue and you'll reach Lovely Street, the liveliest street on Angel Island."

At the mention of Lovely Street, Pagaya's aged eyes gleamed. "Lovely Street is wonderful. When it gets busy, there are beauties in miniskirts, beauties in bikinis, sweet young beauties, flirtatious young..."

Noil listened with increasing attention. After a moment's reflection, he was moved. This old man speaks my language...

How could he let the old man's kind intentions go to waste? He had to experience Lovely Street's local color for himself.

Only then would his trip to Sky Island be complete!

Beside them, the two women watched the daydreaming old man and young man in speechless disbelief.

Robin looked thoroughly exasperated. How did he get carried away the moment I stopped watching him?

"Don't mind him," Conis said awkwardly. "My father gets a little carried away sometimes."

Then Conis asked conversationally, "Robin, are you pirates?"

Robin shook her head. "No."

Conis looked puzzled. "Then why did you come to Sky Island? Usually, only pirates come up here looking for gold."

Robin opened her mouth to answer, then thought about it carefully.

She couldn't really say what kind of group the two of them were.

They weren't a pirate crew, since Noil made his living as a Pirate Hunter.

But they weren't exactly a respectable adventuring party either, since she was wanted.

Robin wrestled with the question. Noil, though, didn't concern himself much with bounties or labels while adventuring at sea.

After traveling the seas for so long, he felt he understood one thing.

The farther someone went on these seas, the less likely they were to keep their hands clean. It had nothing to do with whether they were good or evil by nature.

Put another way, how many powerful people at sea were purely good or purely evil?

Knowing Noil, he might end up wanted by the World Government one day, and no one would be surprised.

Oh, right...

Killing Wapol might even earn Noil a bounty.

After thinking it over, Robin said hesitantly, "We're... probably... tourists?"

Conis blinked. "Huh?"

As they chatted, Conis welcomed Noil and Robin into her home.

The hospitable father and daughter busied themselves in the kitchen and brought out several tasty dishes. Noil eyed the food with an odd expression.

Hmm—

The meat was certainly meat, but Noil couldn't tell what animal it came from.

And the vegetables were vegetables, but why were there so many unfamiliar kinds?

Noil took a big mouthful of food, and his eyes lit up.

Hey, this is delicious!

Though he possessed Master-Level Cooking, he had tasted too few dishes and had too little hands-on experience.

Noil was sure he could make something with this flavor himself, but achieving it was impressive all the same.

Shoveling down his food, Noil asked Pagaya, "Sir, this is incredible. Did you cook it?"

Pagaya shook his head proudly. "My dear daughter Conis made it. She's the loveliest girl on Angel Island!"

Conis smiled shyly, and a calculating gleam suddenly appeared in Noil's eyes.

Going by the Original Story, she might have been a supporting character, but she really was a gentle, pretty girl.

And what was more!

A Musician who could play an instrument and a cook who could make delicious food. She was a petite girl who probably ate little, too. Where else could he find such cheap, versatile labor...

No, where else could he find such a great crewmate?

As Noil plotted how to invite her aboard, Robin asked another question. "Conis, does Sky Island have no ruler?"

At that, Conis seemed frightened. Even Pagaya, usually so cheerful, grew timid.

"The one who rules Sky Island is Enel, the 'God' with unmatched power," Conis said quietly.

"God can hear what people on Sky Island say about him. He can even call down divine punishment whenever he wants, no matter where someone hides."

"He's that powerful?" Robin replied calmly.

Conis nodded emphatically. "God also has four priests under him. They're all powerful men who carry out Sky Island's judgments."

Robin looked at Noil. He swallowed his food and said, "Observation Haki and a Devil Fruit. It's nothing to worry about."

Robin nodded. She had complete faith in Noil's strength.

Noil could even overpower Crocodile, one of the Blue Sea's Shichibukai. Surely he could beat a ruler on Sky Island?

Noil fixed his bright eyes on Conis. "Where can I find this God? I'd like to see which of us really has divine powers!"

White Berets

Conis stared at Noil in terror and hurriedly covered his mouth. "God can hear you! Stop talking!"

Unable to speak with her hand over his mouth, Noil pulled it away helplessly. "I was only asking."

"God lives on God's Island, the sacred Upper Yard," Conis whispered. "There's Vearth everywhere, and enormous trees grow there."

"Vearth? What's that?" Robin asked, puzzled.

Conis's eyes filled with longing. "It's the most precious thing on Sky Island. Upper Yard is the only place that has it."

Noil and Robin exchanged a glance.

A thought suddenly struck Noil. He activated the power of the Sand-Sand Fruit, and a handful of yellow earth appeared in his palm.

Holding it out, Noil asked, "Is it this?"

Conis gaped at the sand he had produced from nowhere and gently picked up a pinch.

"This is Vearth?!" Pagaya and Conis cried in shock.

Pagaya rubbed the grains between his fingers several times, then asked in confusion, "It doesn't feel quite like the Vearth in Upper Yard. It's softer and finer."

Noil asked Conis for a bottle and filled it with sand. "This is sandy soil. Upper Yard has earth with moisture and nutrients. There's a bit of a difference."

"I see," Robin said thoughtfully. "Sky Island has all kinds of clouds, but no earth. That's why it's so precious."

Pagaya accepted the sand-filled bottle as though it were a treasure. Unable to contain her curiosity, Conis asked, "Noil, who are you, exactly?"

"How can you create Vearth out of thin air?"

Noil looked at the endlessly curious Conis. "It's the power of a Devil Fruit. Your God is just someone who ate one too."

"A Devil Fruit?" Conis had never heard the term.

Noil smiled. "They're rarer on Sky Island, but plenty of people in the Blue Sea have eaten Devil Fruits and gained these so-called divine powers."

Noil's few words seemed to shake Conis's belief in God. "Really?"

"Of course."

Noil shot Robin a look. "Robin, show them."

Robin tapped her slender fingers on the table. Amid a flutter of pink petals, another pale hand sprouted there like a flower.

She had shown them a hand, literally!

Pagaya was so frightened he collapsed to the floor. Conis held up better, staring at Robin's hand with equal parts fear and curiosity.

Conis tentatively touched Robin's hand. Noil said, "That's the power of a Devil Fruit too. These abilities fall into roughly three types."

"One lets you turn into an animal. One grants powers like Robin's. And one lets you turn into an element, like me."

Noil pointed at himself, and Robin obligingly slapped him across the face.

His handsome face burst apart, revealing a body made of sand beneath. The scattered grains then flowed back into place, making him whole again.

Robin's slap startled Conis, but when she saw what had happened to Noil's body, she slowly began to understand.

Pagaya considered Noil's words.

He remembered that the horse belonging to the previous God's companion could turn into a bird...

In a short time, Conis absorbed this new knowledge from the Blue Sea, and understanding dawned on her.

So that unbeatable God had grown powerful because he had eaten a Devil Fruit.

Was that how he controlled lightning?

But another question soon occurred to Conis. "But..."

Seeing her hesitation, Noil knew at once what she wanted to ask. He answered:

"The ability to sense people across Sky Island is called Observation Haki. Train it far enough and you can even see a little way into the future."

Noil paused. "Ordinarily, it lets you sense things beyond the reach of your eyes and ears."

"For example, there's a group outside your house right now, crawling along the ground in berets."

Conis jolted and hurried outside to look. Pagaya followed her.