On spotless white cloud, a furtive figure darted between billows. He moved with the ease of a cat-burglar young by his build, but focused, as if hunting a single prize. In his hands gleamed an oversized white saw.
"Where the hell is it? I've nearly turned all of Birka upside down and still nothing." The youth muttered atop the clouds.
"No, it has to be here. I crossed from another Sky Island for this the Rumble–Rumble Fruit. Enel is still a brat, so the fruit should be in Birka." He kept grumbling, eyes combing every drift.
He was called Roy still Roy now. Two-plus years earlier he had appeared on a Sky Island. He wasn't a native of this world. After arriving in this sea of clouds, he met winged islanders; he'd come up with a group of adventurers by another route.
They'd ridden a current like the one to Wano Country. Something went wrong. The ship was wrecked and everyone died everyone except him. He washed onto a Sky Island and the locals dragged him back from the edge.
Seeing the island and the wings on people's backs, Roy guessed he'd landed in a world both alien and familiar. He'd watched One Piece for over a decade; how could he not recognize it?
The unlucky boy whose body he'd woken in hadn't even known his own name. By rotten luck or fate, Roy had crossed into him and into this world.
He was fortunate in one respect: he'd landed on a Sky Island. At first he thought it was the Land of God, but it turned out to be an ordinary chunk of skyborne earth.
Time flowed differently above than in the Blue Sea, so Roy couldn't pin down the year. But if he was here on a Sky Island his very first thought was the Rumble–Rumble Fruit.
In two years he learned of Birka. Over a year of scavenging he stockpiled useful Dials. Once he roughly pegged Birka's location, he set out drifting on the wind and finally reached it three months ago.
Birka still stood. Enel was just a scrawny kid getting bullied daily. That meant the Rumble–Rumble Fruit had not been eaten, and it was here. Roy set his sights on the most terrifying of Logias.
But three months of searching every inch of Birka turned up nothing. Doubt gnawed at him. Had the fruit never been here?
"There's only one place left." Roy sat on the clouds, staring toward Birka's skyline.
At Birka's heart rose a temple the people's holy ground. No one entered except the island's ruler, and no one but him knew what lay within.
That was Roy's last target. He waited for nightfall and slipped back into the city. Outsiders were despised here; they always had been. No wonder Enel would one day hate Birka the years of scorn would do that to anyone.
Roy didn't care whether Enel lived or died. If he stayed aloft, he might live out his days in quiet. But he hadn't crossed worlds to play it safe. To survive here, power was essential, and the Rumble–Rumble Fruit was the shortcut. Without it, he'd be nothing when he dropped to the Blue Sea.
Decision made, he stole into the temple under cover of dark. Inside stood only a clay idol, shaped by hand and left to watch an empty hall.
Despair pricked him. Was this it? Wait decades for Enel to grow up, then steal the fruit from him become another Blackbeard in the process?
"Damn it."
Roy lashed out and kicked the idol.
CRACK! The statue split. Shards skittered across the floor.
"...What's this?"
From the idol's chest peered a golden box. Roy's eyes lit. He tore it free and flipped the lid.
Inside were two things: a blue, swirled fruit and a rolled sheet of paper.
"So it was here all along. Finally!" Roy laughed.
Footsteps sounded behind him.
"You cur how dare you desecrate our ancestors' idol! Drop what you're holding. You deserve death."
Roy turned. A white-bearded elder glared at him the ruler of Birka, a petty tyrant who kept the island in his fist.
"You're a step late." Roy had no fondness for the old man. When Roy first reached Birka, the tyrant had thrown him in a cell for two weeks; he'd escaped on his own. Who knew how long they would've kept him locked away?
He lifted the blue fruit and, right in front of the elder, took a huge bite.
"Kill him!" the elder roared.
Four burly men lunged from behind him, long spears thrusting for Roy's chest.
All four spearheads punched through Roy and he grinned. No blood spilled. Four blue-rimmed holes yawned in his torso, the spear shafts passing clean through and out his back.
"How is that possible?" The elder and his men stared, thunderstruck.
"Just as I thought. Goodbye, old man. I've already got what I came for." Roy tightened his grip on two spears. Blue arcs crackled along his arms.
"Discharge."
KRAK-THOOM! A colossal bolt flooded the temple. With a deafening BOOM!, the hall vanished. In its place gaped a bottomless pit, arcs leaping along its rim. Of the people inside, not one remained.