On deck, the scholars watched the crates of supplies being carried aboard and hurried over to help count and move them.
Smoker didn't step in. He walked up beside Rain and asked, "Hey—so how are we actually getting to Sky Island? We need a direction, don't we?"
"Oh, right." Rain acted like he'd just remembered. He lifted his wrist, pulled back his sleeve, and revealed an ordinary Log Pose he'd casually "picked up" from the Great Bull crew.
Both of them looked down.
The next second, Smoker's expression froze.
The needle—which should've pointed toward the next island on the Grand Line—was doing something that violated every rule of navigation.
It was pointing straight upward.
"W-what…?!" Smoker stared, then tapped the glass cover instinctively. "Why is it pointing at the sky?!"
"It's not broken," Rain said calmly. "That's our destination."
He pulled his sleeve down again, covering the Log Pose, and didn't explain further—only looked toward the unknown sea ahead.
After sailing for most of the day, the ship reached the exact waters the Log Pose indicated.
There, the needle on Rain's Log Pose pointed perfectly vertical, straight into the sky.
The sea around them was unnaturally still—no wind, no waves—like a giant mirror.
"Mr. Rain… there's nothing here," Dr. Clover came onto the deck, looking around in confusion.
Smoker frowned too. This kind of unnatural calm was more unsettling than a storm.
Rain walked to the bow and stood against the air, speaking evenly so the whole ship could hear.
"Hold on tight."
"Saul—stabilize the helm. Whatever happens, don't let go!"
"Smoker—use your ability to secure all scholars on the deck!"
"Olvia-sama—take Robin into the cabin and lock the door!"
The orders were clear and fast. Robin was curious, but she obediently let her mother pull her below deck. Saul pinned the wheel with his massive body. Smoker released smoke like seatbelts, wrapping and anchoring the scholars in place.
Under everyone's uncertain stares, Rain pulled out the antique-looking [Mini Weather Kettle].
"Island clouds and the Knock Up Stream… are still weather, I guess," he murmured to himself.
Then he lifted the lid.
"Whooo—!!"
A powerful spiral of wind burst from the spout and shot straight into the sky.
The calm heavens seemed angered.
In just seconds, the weather flipped.
Black clouds surged in from every direction, blotting out the sky. Day turned into night.
"RUMMMM—!!"
The sea beneath them began to quake violently. A massive ocean vortex hundreds of meters wide formed directly under the ship.
It looked like it wanted to swallow the entire sea—towering water walls, air shaking, a roar like some ancient beast.
"WAAAAH—!!"
"We're going to get sucked in!!"
The scholars screamed in terror.
"Hold steady!!" Saul roared, using his giant strength to keep the wheel locked against the terrifying pull that threatened to tear the ship apart.
The ship was dragged into the vortex's center. The hull shook violently, groaning under the strain.
Just when everyone thought the ship would break apart—
The world went silent.
All wind, waves, vortex, roaring—gone in an instant. The sea turned mirror-flat again, eerily smooth.
The whiplash from extreme motion to extreme stillness left people briefly dizzy and half-deaf.
"—Is it over?" Smoker started to breathe again.
"No." Rain's voice was calm but heavy. "Hold tight. Now it really begins."
BOOOOM—!!!!!!
Before the words even finished, an unimaginable column of water erupted from beneath the ship—like tectonic plates snapping.
A white pillar hundreds of meters wide surged upward, as if connecting sea and sky.
The ship was lifted by that world-ending force and launched straight upward.
"WAAAAAAH—!!!"
The ship clung almost vertically to the water column, rocketing into the clouds faster than a cannon shot. The scream of rushing air pierced the eardrums, and the crushing overload nearly made the scholars pass out.
Inside the cabin, Robin pressed her pale face to the window, watching clouds streak past faster than anything in her mother's adventure diary had ever described.
In a violent shudder, the ship punched through a thick, heavy cloud curtain.
Suddenly—white.
The hull dipped, as if entering a different "sea."
Cold, damp cloud-mist filled everything. The deck was flooded with white fog and wet cloud-water.
"Cough…" Smoker wiped water from his face, staring around in shock.
As the ship's momentum slowed, the mist cleared, revealing the full expanse of what lay before them.
A vast, endless white plain.
As far as the eye could see, frozen wave-like cloud layers rolled to the horizon.
Sunlight poured through breaks in the clouds, reflecting like pearl sheen and painting the world in a holy, dreamlike glow. A few strange-shaped sky fish drifted curiously past the rail.
"This… this is…" Dr. Clover trembled as he removed his glasses. "The sky… really has a sea."
Olvia and Robin came out from below deck too. Robin leaned over the rail, awestruck, using her fruit power to reach out and touch the soft "cloud-sea," her face full of wonder.
"Heso!"
A somewhat ridiculous voice called down from above.
Everyone snapped their heads up.
A knight in medieval armor, holding a lance, descended from the clouds—riding a winged bird that looked like a pegasus.
"A pegasus?!" Saul pointed, astonished.
"Ara ara," the knight said as he landed on deck, staring at the massive Blue Sea ship, the giant, and the strangely dressed people. "How rude of me… it's been many years since we've had visitors from the Blue Sea."
He removed his helmet, revealing the kind face of an elderly man.
"I am the Sky Knight, Gan Fall. Welcome to… the White-White Sea."
Dr. Clover stepped forward as the representative and explained that they were scholar refugees seeking shelter.
Gan Fall was kind-hearted. After hearing Ohara's tragedy, he immediately expressed sympathy.
"I see… you have suffered misfortune…" he sighed, then looked troubled. "But the land I govern, God's country—Skypiea—is only a small island in the cloud sea. I'm afraid… it cannot accommodate so many people."
"We aren't going to Skypiea," Rain said calmly, cutting him off.
Rain's eyes had already pierced past the cloud sea to the vast land wrapped in mist not far away—Upper Yard. He knew it was the ruins of Shandora, and the place that truly could hold the scholars.
"We're going to that land," Rain said, pointing.
Gan Fall's face changed instantly.
"No!!" he shouted, more serious than before. "That is Upper Yard—Apayado! The sacred land guarded by the Shandians for generations!"
"They're extremely hostile to outsiders—see us as invaders! Even I cannot approach! If a ship like yours lands there, it will absolutely spark a war!"
Rain ignored the warning. Facing Gan Fall's anxious gaze, he calmly gave an order over his shoulder:
"Saul, take the helm. Full speed ahead—land on that continent."
"Hey! Stop!" Gan Fall circled overhead on Pierre, shouting desperately. "You'll die!"
~~~
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