"Probably not."
Just as the situation seemed to hang by a thread, the island's ascent began to slow. A dazzling white light pierced through the cloud layer, bleaching everyone's vision.
"Hahaha! Skypiea, here we come!!!"
Luffy's ecstatic shout cut through the roaring wind. He gripped his straw hat tightly, his rubber body flapping like a banner in the gale, yet his face was alight with pure, unadulterated joy.
Bellamy and his crew sat paralyzed on the ground, utterly dumbstruck.
"Sk... Skypiea?"
Bellamy's golden hair was a wild mess, his expression that of a man who'd been clubbed over the head. "That legend... it's real?!"
His subordinates were in worse shape; some frantically slapped their own faces. "It hurts! This isn't a dream! We're really going to heaven!" Others dropped to their knees in prayer. "Gods above, spare us! Don't let us fall!"
Nami and Robin held onto each other for stability as the island continued its climb. Nami's eyes were wide with disbelief.
"Is the Treasure-Digging System... this terrifying?" Nami's voice quivered. "I just wanted to dig up some gold!"
Robin, however, smiled reassuringly. "It's quite alright. And think—this might be the first time in four hundred years anyone has reached the White-White Sea in this manner!" Her fingertips trembled with scholarly excitement. "We are witnessing history, Nami-san~"
Zoro and Sanji stood braced back-to-back, Zoro's swords and Sanji's toes dug deep into the earth for anchorage.
"Marimo, looks like we're part of something big," Sanji muttered, his cigarette long since torn away by the wind, his blond hair plastered messily to his forehead.
Zoro's gaze was locked on the rapidly approaching cloud layer. "Hmph. Good. Let's see if the swordsmen up there are worth a damn."
Usopp and Chopper were a sobbing, snotty heap of terror. "We're gonna die, we're gonna die! A fall from this height will turn us into chunky salsa!"
Ron stood at the forefront, his robes whipping violently in the wind, a faint smile touching his lips as he watched the sky draw near. "Everyone, brace yourselves! We're about to breach the cloud layer!"
The island's ascent decelerated, but the upward momentum was still immense. The sea of white clouds was now right before them, shimmering with a pearlescent glow in the sunlight.
THUMP!
With a colossal, muffled impact, the mass of Jaya Island burst through the dense cloud cover like a giant whale breaching!
Instantly—
Blinding sunlight flooded over them. In the crystal-clear blue sky, islands fashioned from white clouds drifted serenely. In the distance, the main body of Skypiea itself glittered under the sun, encircled by meandering rivers of cloud.
"That's..." Golden light reflected in Nami's pupils.
"SKYPIEA!!!" Luffy's triumphant roar echoed across the heavens.
Bellamy's crew was completely stupefied; some fainted dead away. "We... we really made it to the sky..."
He stared, dumbstruck, his pupils trembling violently, reflecting the miracle suspended in the firmament: the pure white cloud islands, the elegant cloud-built structures, the winding cloud rivers. He could even see the winged Skypieans looking around in a panic.
"Skypiea..." His voice was as dry as sandpaper, his legs turning to jelly. "It truly exists..."
His subordinates were a complete wreck behind him. Some knelt, digging their fingers into the soil. "All this time... we were the ones laughing at other people's dreams..."
Bellamy was suddenly assailed by the memory of his own words in the tavern: "Skypiea doesn't exist," "You're daydreaming," "You should follow me." Each word was a stinging slap across his own face.
His gaze drifted, against his will, toward the Straw Hats.
Luffy was excitedly pointing and shouting, Usopp had puffed out his chest with pride, Nami and Robin were sharing a knowing smile, and even the little reindeer was cheering through its tears.
These "fools" and "dreamers" they had mocked were now standing before a miracle he had never dared to believe in.
"Boss..." a subordinate choked out, tugging at Bellamy's sleeve, "Were we... were we wrong?"
Bellamy's fists clenched, his nails biting deep into his palms.
He remembered, suddenly and vividly, a time years ago when he, too, was a young man who had set sail with a dream. When had he started only mocking the dreams of others? When had he become content to be a mere bully in a backwater town like Mock Town?
"Hey! Straw Hat!"
Bellamy suddenly shouted. Under the astonished gazes of everyone present, the once-arrogant pirate bowed deeply at the waist. "I'm sorry! I was wrong!"
His voice carried across the sea of clouds. "Dreams... dreams should never be mocked!"
Luffy was taken aback for a second, then broke into his signature, sun-bright grin. "Shishishi! Now you've seen it too! Skypiea!"
Bellamy straightened up, a new fire kindling in his eyes. He turned and roared at his crew, "Men! From this day forward, we set sail to chase our own dreams!"
"A man's dream... NEVER ENDS!"
His crew was stunned for a moment, then erupted into fervent cheers.
"???" A strange look crossed Blackbeard Teach's face upon hearing Bellamy's final declaration. He scratched his head, his gap-toothed mouth hanging slightly open, a flicker of confusion in his eyes.
"Zehahaha..." He ruffled his own shaggy hair. "Why does that sound so familiar..."
Van Auger adjusted his sniper scope. "Captain, you say that all the time."
Doc Q coughed from his perch on the sickly Stronger. "Cough, cough... It seems he's stolen your line, Captain..."
Teach's expression darkened, a swirl of black mist beginning to coalesce around him. "ZEHAHAHA! I won't let a single one of these high-bounty heads escape!" He suddenly raised a hand, darkness swirling ominously in his palm. "Dark Vortex!"
Just as the situation reached its most critical point—
"HEY! LOOK!" Usopp shrieked, pointing a trembling finger toward Skypiea in horror.
Everyone looked up, their blood running cold. The magnificent Skypiea was rapidly shrinking in their field of view!
The mass of Jaya Island was still climbing, having already soared past the altitude of the sky islands!
"No, this isn't right..." Nami's face went pale. "We've flown too high!"
Usopp wailed in terror. "Oh no! We're gonna start falling!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the immense upward force propelling the island vanished entirely. Jaya Island hung motionless in the sky for a single, breathless moment, and then—
WHOOOOOSH—!!!
The entire landmass began to plummet.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!!"
A chorus of thousands of screams tore through the sky.
Pirates tumbled and rolled like scattered dumplings, desperately clawing at rocks, tree roots, and their fellow crewmates.
Bellamy clung white-knuckled to a broken tree stump, his golden hair streaming straight upward in the wind; his men were in even more dire straits, some resorting to biting onto their comrades' belt loops with their teeth.
The Straw Hats were thrown into similar disarray.
Luffy stretched his arms, wrapping them multiple times around the trunk of a large tree. "Now this is an adventure! To Skypiea, let's GOOOO!"
....
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