Buggy's command left Mohji and Cabaji stunned.
Seeing them frozen in place, Buggy shouted angrily, "If you don't want to die, hurry up and do what I said!"
"Y-Yes, Captain!" Mohji and Cabaji immediately scrambled to follow Buggy's instructions, operating the ship as if they were sailing through regular waters.
To their surprise, the ship began to stabilize. Riding the upward flow of the ocean current, it was as if the ship had sprouted wings and started to 'fly' toward the sky.
"This can't be real… the ship is actually flying up into the sky…" Cabaji muttered, astonished.
Mohji, equally shocked, stammered, "Y-Yeah… It's really not falling…"
Buggy, looking as if he'd just been resuscitated from a heart attack, wiped the sweat from his forehead, his face full of despair. "Good thing I've been through this once before, or we'd all be dead…"
Takumi stood on the vertical door of the ship's cabin, gazing upward at the rapidly approaching Emperor Cloud. A faint smile curled at the corner of his mouth.
It seems hitching a ride on Buggy's ship was indeed the right decision.
The updraft only lasted about a minute.
Soon enough, the ship broke through the Emperor Cloud with a soft "poof" and landed on a white, glowing sea of clouds.
This was the sky sea above the Emperor Cloud, known as the White Sea.
And above it, there was yet another sea called the White White Sea.
"My god… The ship is really floating on clouds! We're not falling!"
"Could it be… Sky Island really exists?"
Mohji and Cabaji exchanged incredulous looks.
Buggy, however, smacked both of them on the head. "Of course Sky Island exists, you fools! If it weren't for me, you'd all be dead by now!"
"W-Wait a minute, Captain Buggy… have you been to Sky Island before?" Mohji asked, remembering how Buggy had expertly commanded them during the ascent.
With a smug grin, Buggy replied, "Of course. I came here over a decade ago."
Mohji looked skeptical. "Really? But didn't you say before that Sky Island doesn't exist…"
Buggy's expression soured as he tilted his head. "You just don't get it. Sky Island isn't a place anyone can come to whenever they want. Most who try end up dead, their ships destroyed. You should count yourselves lucky I'm here, or all of you would be done for."
Suddenly, Buggy's face twisted into a greedy smile. "Now that we're here, I might as well grab all the gold in Shandora! Haha! All that gold will be mine!"
The Golden City of Shandora was part of the island that was once the Blue Sea's Jaya Island before being blasted into the sky. It was the legendary city of gold that Cricket's ancestor, Montblanc Noland, had spoken of.
Buggy glanced over at Takumi, who was standing at the bow of the ship, and asked suspiciously, "You didn't come to Sky Island for Shandora's gold, did you?"
"No," Takumi replied calmly.
Buggy stroked his chin, unconvinced. "Are you sure?"
Just as he finished speaking, a massive octopus emerged from the cloud sea beside the ship.
"Aaaaah! A giant octopus! Why is there an octopus in the sky?!" Mohji screamed, hiding behind Richie the lion.
Buggy and Cabaji, in perfect sync, raised their hands in terror and screamed, "Aaaaah!"
Takumi, however, remained calm. As the octopus swung one of its tentacles toward the ship, he quickly gathered chakra in his throat and unleashed a blazing fire dragon that tore through the octopus's body, leaving a massive charred hole. The octopus deflated like a balloon and sank back into the cloud sea.
"Huh? It… deflated? What kind of octopus was that?" Mohji exclaimed. "Captain Buggy, this place is way too dangerous. We should find a way back. I don't want to die here!"
"Idiot!" Buggy punched Mohji in the head. "We didn't come all this way to turn back! Besides, we can't leave without help from the people here. Trying to get down on our own would be suicide."
Mohji, his eyes brimming with tears, asked, "Then what do we do? Should we find the people who live here? But all we see are clouds—there's no sign of any islands…"
"For now, keep going forward. I remember there should be a waterfall-like cloud ahead, and under that cloud is a gate. It's the only way to get to the upper White White Sea," Buggy said, rubbing his chin as he recalled his last visit.
Mohji's eyes widened in admiration. "Wow, Captain Buggy, you really have been here before! Got it, I'll steer us that way!"
Excited, Mohji rushed back to the helm, while Cabaji climbed to the crow's nest to keep watch.
Buggy then sidled up next to Takumi, eyeing him suspiciously. "Hey, kid… Are you a Devil Fruit user?"
Takumi took a swig of his drink and shook his head.
"Ha! You're trying to trick me!" Buggy didn't buy it. "If you're not a Devil Fruit user, how'd you breathe fire? You think you can fool me with some circus act? There's no way a trick like that has so much power! I'm not some gullible three-year-old, you know!"
Takumi wasn't bothered whether Buggy believed him or not. He didn't bother explaining further, his gaze now fixed on the distant, towering waterfall-like cloud.
"Hey! Answer me, brat!" Buggy growled, annoyed by Takumi's silence.
Without a word, Takumi simply pointed ahead, toward the waterfall cloud.
Buggy followed his finger, his expression instantly changing. His face lit up with a grin, and he burst into laughter. "Hahaha! There it is! The Heaven's Gate! All that gold in Shandora is as good as mine! Hahaha!"
The ship slowly drifted closer to a large, arch-shaped gate.
As the ship passed through the arch, a short, elderly woman with white wings, dressed in a light pink dress and sporting two small buns on her head, emerged from a small building beside the gate. Her face was lined with wrinkles, and she carried a camera, snapping several photos of everyone aboard Buggy's ship.
"Captain Buggy, is that… an angel?" Mohji asked as he stepped out of the helm. His face twisted in confusion as he rubbed his eyes, unsure if he was seeing things.
Buggy promptly smacked Mohji on the head again. "You idiot! That's no angel—that's the gatekeeper! To get to the upper White White Sea, we need to go through her."
The elderly woman, who had been taking photos, lowered her camera and stared at the group with a blank expression. "I am Amazon, the gatekeeper of Heaven's Gate. Are you here as tourists, or do you intend to fight?"
******
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