Chapter 13: Knight of the Sky

“Wow! Amazing!”

Luffy stared at the new appearance of the ship with glittering eyes!

Usopp’s nose seemed to be longer as he introduced the ship.

“This is the ‘S.S. Forward Aero-Mode’!”

“Merry looks like a turkey!”

At the side, Lucas smiled wryly.

That’s what you find interesting!?

After taking another group photo with the Turkey Going Merry behind them, Cricket sat on the table and lit a cigarette.

While everyone was excited to board, Lucas saw Luffy approach Cricket.

“Hurry and get on the ship, there’s no time. Do you want to give up your chance to Sky Island for nothing? Fool!”

Cricket chided Luffy but he didn’t mind it.

“Um, for the ship...thank you.”

“If you want to say thank you, say it to them!”

Cricket pointed at the monkey brothers.

“Yah! Thank you, guys! I’ll give Hercules to you!”

“Really!? We can keep it!? You are a really great guy!”

Lucas heard it as well and nearly stumbled.

When did Luffy find the time to catch a beetle!?

“Anyways, we don’t have time. Get on the ship! Or we wouldn't make it in time!”

“We will lead the way, just follow us!”

Everyone was already on board except for Luffy.

“Luffy! Hurry!”

“Yaah!”

Cricket watched Luffy’s back for a moment before shouting.

“United Primate Armed Forces! Don’t mess this up! No matter what happens, give it your all for these guys!”

“Woooohh!!!”

“Ok! Let’s go!”

“Everyone, set sail!”

“Alright!!!”

As everyone began to prepare and set sail, Cricket approached the ship and spoke to Luffy again.

“Kid! We will part here!”

“Mn!”

“Others might laugh at us for dreaming of the impossible, but that doesn’t matter! This is...ROMANTIC!”

“It’s romantic?”

Luffy asked.

“Yup! Don’t crash, you guys!”

“Shishishishi! Bye mister!”

Luffy grinned and waved goodbye!

Soon, the three ships departed with Going Merry sailing between the two bigger ships of the monkey brothers.

On the way, the monkey brothers tried to explain through the whole process once again but Luffy didn’t mind them and simply played with the South bird by trying to turn its head.

“Look! He turned south again! Hahaha!”

“Choh! Choh! Choh!”

The South bird chirped angrily while Chopper translated.

“It said ‘I’ll turn away from south and give you guys a headache.’”

“Hahaha! Go try it!”

Luffy encouraged the bird so it did turn its head to the north instead.

However, soon, it felt uncomfortable and turned back to south!

“Yahahahaha!”

“He won’t feel right unless he’s facing south!”

Usopp and Luffy laughed at the bird.

Seeing those guys fool around, the monkey brothers could only sigh and let them enjoy their time.

Lucas smiled wryly as well.

“It’s alright guys, just relax and go forward.”

The journey will still take a few hours so Lucas decided to spar with Zoro once again. Naturally, he was blindfolded.

3 hours passed with Luffy and the others goofing off while Lucas and Zoro trained. Sanji was busy cooking and fooling around with Nami and Robin the whole time…

In the distance, they finally saw the huge dense clouds. ‘Night’ is about to approach again and they will be below the Sky Island at that time.

The monkey brothers immediately issued orders to dive and find the stream!

Lucas heard the ruckus as well and closed his eyes as he expanded his Observation Haki, trying to feel the waves beneath.

Suddenly, he felt something odd in one direction.

“10 o’clock direction! Found huge waves! Quite likely a giant whirlpool!”

One of the monkey divers also said the same thing.

“That’s it! Turn the ship to 10 o’clock direction! That thing is the sign for the explosion! Follow the whirlpool closely! Don’t back out!”

The waves suddenly become huge and the ships rocked back and forth!

Everyone quickly held on to the nearest handles but Usopp and Chopper were a bit late so they’ve been flinging around the ship, unable to hold still.

Lucas caught Chopper as soon as he was near him but ignored Usopp. Anyway, this guy would be fine…

“Nami! How is the log pose!?”

Robin asked.

“It keeps pointing at that cloud!”

The waves become even stronger! Soon, signs of a whirlpool had begun to appear and the ships started to circle around a certain point!

“We will take you to the track of the whirlpool!”

“And then!? What do we do after that!?”

“Follow the current! Head to the center!”

Hearing Masira say that, Nami’s face went pale!

“You never said we need to get sucked in!”

“Don’t worry! I will protect miss Nami and Robin-chan!”

“This is my first time seeing such a huge whirlpool.”

“No! No no no! Go back! I want to go back!”

“Forget it, Usopp...it’s too late. Somebody is already...hyper.”

“Hmm...I wonder if I can make such a thing in the future as well?”

“HERE I COME! SKY ISLAND!!!”

“...”

As the crew set off to the middle of the whirlpool while feeling various emotions, the swirling stopped abruptly.

But this was the calm before the storm.

Lucas can feel the waves churning below them, ready to be unleashed!

“EVERYONE HOLD ON!”

“Gyaaa!!! The sea is going to blow upward!”

*BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!*

From a distance, you can see a huge white pillar south of Jaya shoot directly to the sky as if it was struck by a spear!

Nearby, the monkey brothers’ ships were swaying from the blast but they both still looked up with a grin.

“Go, you guys...to Sky Island!”

If one can see the side of the giant water pillar, you could see a small ship with wings sailing on the sides!

Luffy didn’t know why this is happening but he was still excited!

“Alright! If we go like this, we can get to the sky! Forward! S.S. Forward!”

However, just as Luffy is being optimistic, others weren’t!

“The ship’s beginning to leave the stream!

“Eh!?”

“If this goes on much longer, we will get bounced off!”

Everyone’s faces paled as they keep seeing Seakings and other debris fall off from the stream ahead!

Lucas acted quickly and was already on the main mast!

“Set down the sail!”

“! Lucas is right! Quick! We’ll catch the wind coming from below!”

Nami noticed Lucas’ intentions immediately and began issuing orders!

Everyone quickly ran all over the ship to get ready!

Just as the ship was about to leave the stream...it started to fly parallel to the stream!

“IT’S FLYING!!!”

“I wonder what’s on top of there!?”

“Entering the Millennium Cumulonimbus! WOOOOOOOHHH!!!”

………………..

As soon as the crew was out of the cloud, everyone began to gasp for breath.

Not to mention the severe pressure they had to take in for launching themselves way up in the sky, they were also mentally exhausted from such an experience.

After all, not everyone can just ride a huge stream upwards and land on the sky!

Seeing as everything seemed to calm down, the crew looked around their surroundings.

“Damn...what happened?”

“Is everyone alright?”

“Hey! Look you guys! Outside the ship!”

Luffy was still as happy as ever!

Lucas smiled wryly and looked out as well.

As far as the eye can see...were endless whiteness of...clouds!

“What is this place!? It’s so white!”

“Clouds!?”

“On top of the clouds...how are we sailing on clouds!?”

Nami couldn’t believe her eyes! Still, Luffy just laughed at her.

“Of course we can sail on top of it! They’re just clouds/”

No! That’s still impossible!

Though everyone thought that...the truth’s right in front of them!

“In other words...this is the Sea of the Sky!”

Nami looked at the log pose in confusion.

“But look, the log pose is still pointing up!”

“Maybe this is only the middle part…”

“We need to go higher? How?”

“I have no idea…”

Nami felt helpless...after all that trouble with the ‘knock-up stream’ to shoot themselves to the sky...only to end up midway...how can they still go a level higher?

While Nami can be said to be an expert in the sea, this sea in the sky is uncharted territory even for her!

Lucas sighed and just patted Nami.

“Well, we’ll figure a way...for now, we should set sail…”

“That’s all we can do…”

At the side, Usopp finally woke up and started clamoring about swimming in the clouds!

...After he dived in, no matter how everyone waited...Usopp never came back!

“Just a thought...but is there really...a seafloor?”

“! You mean…!?”

Robin asked and everyone let out a cold sweat!

Lucas heard this as well and sweats began to drip down from his face!

Damn, I forgot about this!

Luffy finally realized the situation and quickly stretched his hand downwards while Robin made her eyes appear on his hand to look for Usopp!

It took a while but Robin finally found Usopp and pulled him up!

However, as Luffy pulled Usopp up, sea creatures followed Usopp like bait!

“Something followed him!”

“They want to eat Usopp!”

It was a huge octopus and eel!

Zoro acted quickly and cut one of the tentacles nearby! But as soon as he did, there wasn’t any blood that spilled...rather...the tentacle...popped! Like a balloon!

“Huh!?”

Though everyone was shocked, Sanji, Luffy, and Lucas still moved in for the kill! Anyway, sea creatures of this size can still bring down their ship!

It would be bad if their ship sunk in the sky!

“Oh, this is a weird-looking animal...I wonder if this is considered a fish…”

“That octopus was like a balloon…”

“So there are animals in the clouds…”

“What’s this flat snake?”

“It’s a flatfish because it’s flat.”

“So this is a flatfish?”

The crew began their idle chatter as soon as they were safe…

Suddenly, Usopp shouted!

“So noisy! What is it this time, Usopp!?”

“My pants...this was in my pants!”

Usopp pulled out a weird flat looking fish from his pants…

Seeing where the fish was located, Robin looked at Usopp in pity.

“Such a tough day for him.”

“Sky island so scary...Sky island so scary…”

Robin picked up the fish and studied it.

She came to the conclusion that the fish looked differently due to evolving or surviving in this sort of environment…

Well, soon after, Luffy brought the fish to Sanji who cooked it.

“This is yummy!”

“Luffy, that’s dirty…”

“Ah…”

Nami was also about to take a bite when Lucas suddenly said that. She remembered where they found the fish and looked at Usopp who was still in pain in his lower body…

Instantly, Nami threw the food away!

“Ah! My fish!”

“Why did you cook this!?”

“...”

At the side, Chopper was looking for the Sky Island with a pair of binoculars when he noticed a ship.

“Hey everyone! There’s a ship and...a person?...EH!?”

“What is it, Chopper?”

Luffy asked when he saw Chopper panic and drop the binoculars.

“Chopper, a ship? A ship is over there?”

“No, um...there was a ship...but the ship isn’t there anymore!”

“What do you mean?”

Chopper tried to explain but he was panicking too much for anyone to understand.

Lucas didn’t mind him and was looking at that direction as well with a serious expression.

“Someone’s coming.”

Sanji noticed as well when he saw a person wearing a bull-like mask seemingly...ride the clouds!

“A human!? He’s running on the cloud!”

Lucas controlled the water vapors in the cloud to attack the man.

The man jumped and easily dodged it as he came on board the ship.

“Eliminate.”

“...He wants to fight.”

“He’s got guts.”

Sanji and Zoro were ready for battle but were easily brought down by the bull masked man!

Luffy tried to help as well but was also beaten!

“Eh!? What’s wrong with you three!?”

Nami was surprised at how fast Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji were beaten!

Just as the bull masked man was about to attack Lucas from the back, Lucas tilted his body sideways to dodge it in time!

Lucas’ face was pale. He knew that fighting here would feel different from the change in pressure and such but he didn’t think it would be this difficult to move!

Thankfully, he had the Observation Haki and was able to dodge better!

The bull masked man was surprised that he missed but didn’t pay it too much attention. He jumped up and aimed the huge canon he was holding towards the ship!

“That’s enough!”

Suddenly, from the sky...a person wearing armor dove in from the skies and attacked the bull masked man with his lance!

Nami was even more afraid of all these weird people popping up!

“What!? Who is it this time!?”

“Ooh, I am...the Knight of the Sky!”

Chapter is late, I know...and I also know that not much happened here but...what can I do? This is already about 2-3 chapters in the manga and I can't not include it...anyway, I'm all caught up with my chapters in my gdrive so chapters would be slower...I will still try to post at least 2-3 times a week...

A lot of people mentioned the issue with the phone. I know all these already and there will be some sort of explanation in the future. For now...just think of it as an artifact or something.

Next chapter should officially be the start of Skypea island...see ya next chap!