The skies over the Whirl Islands had not known a moment of peace. Countless cyclones of varying sizes circled and raged at low altitude, some as slender as sharp funnels, others a hundred meters wide, blotting out the sky and sun. Sea winds and island winds tore at one another and collided fiercely, churning the air into ever greater chaos and shredding the clouds and mist around the island into wisps that danced wildly in the wind. A ring-shaped current encircled the island itself, its seawater turning slowly in concert with the cyclones above, together forming a natural, three-dimensional weather maze, treacherous and unpredictable.
Nami stood on a reef at the island's edge, her short orange hair tossed wildly by the turbulent air, fine droplets of mist clinging to its tips. She gripped her Perfect Clima-Tact tightly-the magical Clima-Tact Usopp had custom-made for her. Faint tremors ran through its shaft as Zeus, the thundercloud hidden inside, huddled near its opening and whispered in her ear, "Nami-san! That guy's presence is so strange! I can barely tell the difference between him and the wind around him! He's scary!"
Nami did not turn around. She merely tapped the shaft lightly with her fingertips, signaling him to be quiet. Her deep blue eyes were filled with vigilance as she surveyed her surroundings. The island's weather was more complex than she could have imagined: at least seven wind belts moving in different directions converged here, three low-pressure centers held one another in check, cloud heights fluctuated between fifty and three thousand meters, and the humidity changed from one instant to the next. Even a seasoned navigator who had sailed the seas for decades would probably lose their way amid this chaotic weather.
Yet the corners of Nami's mouth quietly curved upward with eagerness. "Interesting,"