Chapter 42
"We're sailing on the clouds!" Usopp gasped, his earlier terror forgotten as he leaned over the railing, staring at the endless white expanse beneath the ship.
"Of course we're sailing on clouds," Luffy said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Despite the proof right under their feet, Nami felt the instinct to shoot a comment, "You can't sail on clouds!"
She examined the Log Pose. The needle still pointed stubbornly up, but how much further could they still have to go? Because this was as far as the knock up stream took them and now that they were there, it dawned on Nami that this wasn't the conclusion of their book and they had to turn the page to the next chapter.
Craning her neck to the sky, Robin said, "This must be the middle layer of the Emperor Cloud. We have to go even higher."
The air was thin, but the excitement and adrenaline were still running high in everyone's veins, except for Sakura, who was trying to pull in a normal breath. She took a few more, slowly adjusting her body to the altitude. She was ready to ask everyone else how they were faring when she saw Usopp jump off the edge of the railing and dive straight into the clouds.
"ARE YOU INSANE!?" Sakura lunged for him, but it was too late. Usopp leapt overboard before she could even suggest tying a rope around him. The one time Usopp had a bite of courage, and it sent him into a sea of vapour!
"That moron," Sakura growled, gripping the railing so hard the wood groaned.
"Usopp said the ocean is the ocean, it'll be fine," Luffy yelped when Sakura smacked him over the head.
"This isn't just any sea!" She enunciated with frustration. The one time Usopp forgets about his fear and common sense, it had to be for one of the most dangerous endeavors thus far.
Zoro raised an eyebrow. "You're gonna break it if you hold on any tighter."
"Shut up!" she snapped. "Why doesn't anyone think?! We're still on a cloud; there is a bottom, and ships have fallen through before!"
The memory of the galleon raining down finally had panic set in as realization hit like a tidal wave. Luffy jumped on the railing and shot his arm out, stretching into the mist, but the clouds were thick, and he felt like he was being wrapped in water. Unfortunately, he couldn't see anything either, as the clouds also created a cover.
"Just stretch as far as you can," Robin instructed calmly. She crossed her arms, activating her devil fruit. Eyes bloomed along Luffy's arm, giving her sight where there was none. More arms sprouted from his, reaching deeper into the abyss, and grabbed Usopp.
"Pull him up!" Robin ordered.
Luffy yanked hard, but what came flying back through the clouds wasn't just Usopp. Accompanying him was a gigantic octopus, but there was more to add life to this sea in the sky. On the other side of the ship, coming out while the crew was distracted, another creature emerged that looked like a fish, but it was stretched strangely, unlike anything they had seen before. And it appeared to be carnivorous.
Zoro moved before anyone could blink. His blades flashed, severing one of the octopus's tentacles before it could smash into the Merry because even one hit would have shattered their fragile ship.
Sanji was already in the air, his leg a blur as he kicked the second beast straight back into the sea. It was only after expelling that little bit of energy that they realized that it was harder for them to catch their breath.
Usopp landed on the deck in a heap, coughing up water and then, to everyone's disbelief, a fish flopped out of his pants. Which they barely had a moment to examine it before Luffy requested Sanji to cook it up, giving everyone their first taste of Sky fish.
The ever rolling insanity of events that had taken place in the span of three minutes had the kunoichi trying to keep from exhaling her temper.
Cutting off her scream in her hands, Sakura ran her fingers over her face, trying to iron out her frown before the crevices became permanent. "An octopus that pops like it's full of air and a giant fish…covered in fur."
Then she noticed Chopper standing on the railing, looking out into the sea with binoculars. His nose was twitching beneath the pair.
"Chopper, is something wrong?" She poked him gently to get his attention, but the reindeer stayed fixated on whatever was out there. Sakura squinted into the distance and noticed the clouds kicking up in a pattern. Similar to how small waves would form and foam on the sea as slight disturbances on them.
"No way."
She snatched the binoculars from his trembling grip and scanned the horizon. At first, there was nothing but the swirling mist of the cloud-sea. Then she caught it. Something-no, someone hovering above the clouds, basically gliding through them, a masked figure with wild, unkempt hair jutting from beneath his helmet. Heading straight for them.
"WE'VE GOT COMPANY INCOMING!"
In seconds, the man was on them. Landing on the Going Merry's deck after knocking Sanji down, who acted as the first line of defense. He moved lightly despite carrying a shield and a heavy-looking gun.
"What do you want?"
"To eliminate you,"
Zoro and Luffy lunged without hesitating, but they also fell in single strikes. It was a blur of motion that brought the three strongest fighters on the ship crumpled on the deck, gasping for air. Sakura already recognized the symptoms. Altitude sickness had gotten them, and in turn, their combat skills had taken a toll.
"Hey!" The masked warrior turned as Sakura called to him, charging. He took the first swing, but Sakura pivoted on her heel, avoiding it. She knocked the bazooka out of her way before throwing a fist into his shield. The impact echoed and felt like a cannon shot, sending the masked attacker off the ship and skidding across the cloud-sea.
He then aimed his weapon directly towards the Going Merry.
"He's gonna blow us up!" Chopper's hooves were trembling with panic, and Usopp was crying about how terrifying the sky was.
"That is far enough!" Just then, someone else appeared from the sky. Literally. Flying down on the back of some creature. An old man, clad in armor, holding a spear, he knocked back the masked man deep into the clouds, sending up a plume of white vapor.
Then, with a flourish, he landed on the Merry's deck.
Sakura kept her guard up and fists raised. "Who are you?"
The old man held her glare, his mouth moving beneath his beard, his eyes crinkling behind his visor. "I am the Sky Knight."
Again, there was the familiar throb of a headache about to come on. Sakura rubbed her temples, exhaling sharply. "This is a lot of crazy for ten in the morning."
Even while grumbling she hadn't forgotten her job, moving to check in on Luffy, Sanji and Zoro, who were picking themselves despite still stewing over the thin air and their unexpected loss in battle.
"How the hell did we lose like that?!" Zoro growled, clutching his ribs.
Sakura flicked his forehead, putting more power than necessary but just enough to satisfy her lingering bitterness. "Because the air up here is thinner, genius. Your lungs aren't getting enough oxygen." She demonstrated, taking slow, controlled breaths.
"No wonder you got in that lucky shot,"
"Lucky?" Sakura raised her fist, but Sanji beat her to it, kicking Zoro's head.
Despite his dizziness, he glared at Zoro, "Buzz off, moss-head. Leave Sakura-chan alone!"
Sakura ignored them, turning to the self-proclaimed Sky Knight, who stood proudly on deck, as Nami bombarded him with questions and Chopper expressed his gratitude to him for his help. He addressed them as Blue Sea people, apparently a common term for those who lived up here. And now they knew there were inhabitants in the sky. However, they were still about another3000meters off from that destination.
"Why was that guy speeding on top of the clouds?" asked Chopper.
"No doubt you have many questions. But let's talk business first." The man had walked onto the top deck and settled on the railing overlooking the crew. "I'm a freelance soldier for hire. These seas are fraught with danger. and those unfamiliar with the sky often become prey to guerrillas or worse, sky fish. But I can save you! For the modest fee of five million extols."
The crew looked at him with confusion and asked, "What the hell is an extol?"
The Sky Knight blinked. "You… don't know what an extol is? Didn't you come by way of the Peak of High West? Or perhaps island-hopping?"
Nami's eyes sharpened. "Hold on. You mean there's another way up here? And there's more than one island in the sky?!"
The old man's jaw dropped. "Don't tell me you rode the monstrous current?!"
Now her hands were trembling as tears welled in her eyes from the dawning, "WE DIDN'T HAVE TO RIDE THE CURRENT!"
Luffy grinned. "What's the big deal? We made it!"
Nami grabbed him by the collar, shaking him violently. "WE WERE ALMOST KILLED! WE SHOULD'VE GOTTEN MORE INFORMATION!"
The Sky Knight sighed. "The other routes have their perils, but the Knock-Up Stream is a gamble where everyone makes it… or no one does. Few dare take that risk these days."
Sakura groaned, rubbing her forehead. "I can't believe this."
The Sky Knight tossed a whistle onto the deck. "Blow this once, and I shall descend from the heavens to save you! By rights, it should cost five million extols, but for you… consider it a token of honor for your courage."
"You seem very certain we're going to need the help," Sakura picked up the whistle to examine.
"As I said, you only need to blow this whistle, and I shall come to your aid." He looked ready to leave, but Nami called out to him, demanding to know his name.
"I am Gan Fall, the Sky Knight. And this is my partner, Pierre." He gestured to the creature beside him. An oddity of a bird, with feathers bright pink with red polka dots, with an almost human face. It had also eaten a devil fruit, Gan Fall explained as it demonstrated a transformation. Its talons shifted into hooves, and its body grew in length while the wings remained and stretched on its now horse-like body, giving it the appearance of a peagasus.
"Wow….that's something…" They trailed with a glazed expression. As if that was the strangest thing they had seen today. Gan Fall bid them farewell and took off.
The skies were silent again, but no one could fall into the calm like before after being attacked and knowing there were creatures lurking under these cloudy seas. They were left with even more questions now, but before Luffy had the idea to use the whistle to call back Gan Fall to answer Nami snatched it from him and pinned it to the mast.
"Nobody touches this except for emergencies." She then pointed to Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Robin, and Sakura. "None of you is allowed to use it!"
No one argued with her. Chopper's attention was drawn out to the clouds once again, and he had noticed something else in the distance, and it wasn't a person this time. He called out to spot a strange cloud, and Robin noted it as well. Far out into the distance, it stood with a more solid appearance, completely stationary.
"It looks like a waterfall."
"Let's head towards that," Zoro said, eager to just get moving.
..
..
..
They made some new discoveries with their decision to sail towards the waterfall of clouds. They were able to confirm that it was, in fact, a waterfall, running down into the whiteness of everything, but they were blocked by a wall of clouds. The issue was that these clouds were solid, which Luffy confirmed with his curiosity and his fists. He had even jumped on the clouds with Usopp and Chopper, and was able to see over them, in which they were able to confirm there was something on the other side. A gate. It was a difficult revelation, but knowing there were man-made structures confirmed that there might be residents in these skies; hopefully, they weren't all eager to give the same greeting.
They sailed around, having to be cautious of the solid clouds that stood around them in various spaces of this sea. The Going Merry moved at a steady pace. Despite being as high as they were, there was little wind to push them along faster, and no current in these waters to help. But Nami preferred the cautious pace, cautioning everyone to watch the clouds so they wouldn't crash.
Finally, they arrived at the gate, and some wickedly intrusive thoughts slipped in. The gate itself wasn't a problem. With a magestic sense to it, the waterfall flowing in the background, designed as half a star painted in gold patterns, the archway entrance was wide enough for larger ships to enter through, and visible doors on each side behind pillars that held it up. The only issue was the large sign plastered in the center.
'Heavens Gate,'
"Anyone else thinking we maybe didn't make it in the knock-up stream?"
Usopp's knees knocked together, "Don't say that!"
Zoro leaned back on the railing, "Maybe we really are dead."
Luffy jumped in with a dopey grin, "Heaven, huh? This is gonna be great! I finally get to go there!"
Chopper burst out. "I DON'T WANNA BE DEAD!"
Sakura patted his head. "We're not dead. It was just a joke."
"How can you be sure?!" Usopp wailed.
Sakura gave him a deadpan stare. "Do you really think all of us would get into heaven?"
Zoro's eye twitched. "What does that mean?"
Sanji, seizing the opportunity, blew smoke rings. "Oh yeah, there's no way you're getting into heaven, moss-head."
"These jokes are not funny!" Nami marched up to everyone who had made or given in to that train of thought and knocked them off their tracks.
As they passed through the archway, the doors beneath them creaked open, and an old woman emerged, her back adorned with what appeared to be wings. She snapped photos of the ship and crew without explanation.
Usopp's voice cracked. "I know we said it as a joke, but, uh… heaven has angels, right?"
The old woman introduced herself as Amazon, the Heaven's Gate inspector. "Are you here for sightseeing or perhaps war?"
There was an exchange of uncertain glances, because the nature of the options was just off-putting almost as much as the women's detachment to the question, as if she was performing a survey.
Nami forced a polite smile. "I guess it's kind of… sightseeing?"
"We wanna go to the sky island!" Luffy expressed.
"Can we say all of the above?" Zoro offered.
The woman didn't blink, her wrinkled expression unchanged and unpressed. "If you wish to proceed, you must pay one billion extol per person."
Sakura ran her tongue along the bridge of her mouth, she tapped on Nami's shoulder. "Something tells me we don't even have one million extol."
Usopp leaned in, whispering loudly. "This sounds like a scam-
Nami's hand slapped over his mouth before he could finish.
"About the money," she said sweetly, "we kind of… don't have it."
As the self-proclaimed treasurer of the crew, Nami's job description included managing money and expenses for their necessities. As someone who lived for ten years as a pirate, Nami knew how they operated and how they made a living, and honestly, her crew hasn't been meeting all the criteria thus far. They received some rewards for their efforts in Alabasta and the jewels Robin came on board with but beyond that they were financially wrecked. In fact, the only one who had been performing those plundering duties was Nami herself.
Amazon nodded. "You may pass."
"Seriously?!" Sakura's eye twitched. "Was this just an extortion attempt?"
The inspector's wings didn't give so much as a twitch. "I am neither a gatekeeper nor a guard. I simply ask your intentions."
Sakura inhaled deeply, counting backward from ten in her head. So far, she'd done a great job keeping her temper in check. But the longer this absurdity went on, the more her facade cracked.
"Then let's go to the sky islands!" Luffy said, already waving off any suspicion like a speck of dust on his shoulder.
"Very well, the eight of you then,"
"Yeah, but how do we get there?"
A massive lobster burst from the clouds below, its armored claws clamping onto the Merry's broken wings. Before anyone could react, it began towing them forward, its segmented tail whipping through the mist.
"WHAT THE-!" Usopp yelped, clinging to the mast.
The lobster hauled them toward a swirling vortex of clouds, a spiraling passageway that coiled upward like a celestial serpent. The ship lurched, and suddenly, they were ascending, the white sea churning beneath them as they climbed higher into the sky.
Nami's nails dug into the railing. "Is this normal?!"
Luffy laughed, his hat nearly flying off. "WHO CARES? THIS IS AWESOME!"
The lobster began to take them towards a swirling loop of clouds that climbed together, creating a passageway into the skies. Unaware of what would be lurking beyond that point.
That's all for now Folks. I hope this read gives you a breather from any tough times, and that 2026 will be your new best year! I've been working on new and old stories, and I'll be sharing them very very soon, so keep an eye out.
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EARLY CHAPTERS FOR MEMBERS NOW: BUYMEACOFFEE
-Kunoichi amongst Heroes chapter (96, 97, 98, 99)
-Kunoichi amongst Pirates chapter (43, 44, 45)
-Crossroads of Fate chapter (34, 34, 35, 36, 37)
-Through the Looking Glass chapter (44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49)
- (Bleach crossover) Kunoichi amongst Reapers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
-Commission: Demon slayer x My hero academia (PART 1 & 2)
- Kunoichi amongst Benders (Avatar x Naruto crossover) (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
-Kunoichi amongst Heroes WHAT IF SPIN OFF: Dorms and Exams
-(SEQUEL) Through the Spyglass chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,6
-SPECIAL HALLOWEEN CHAPTER: Shinigami amongst Shinobi