Above the clouds, it was a clean and empty world.
Sunlight poured down with nothing holding it back, a feeling that made you happy.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a small black dot broke through the clouds and reached this spotless place.
It was a paper airplane, with useless notes left by the person in charge of sailing after doing calculations.
Its wings were a little wet from water drops, making it seem a bit heavy, but it didn't stop it from riding the strong blast of air, soaring and flying far away.
A few seconds later, a huge rumble came from the thick clouds again.
It sounded like thunder, or like a train speeding over the tracks.
Rumble, rumble...
Swoosh!
A huge black shadow, much bigger than the paper airplane, broke through the clouds, blocking the sunlight.
It was a ship.
A huge ship covered in sand feathers, with "wings" spread out!
It looked like a gold eagle, piercing the sky.
Following the ship was the blast of air that had pushed it all the way up here.
With the help of the wings and feathers on both sides, the ship stayed close to the blast, going up so fast that it even outran the blast itself, and finally reached the top of the blast!
Rowan's voice boomed across the deck.
"Open the sails, everyone get ready for impact!"
Dalton and the fish-man Hocka heard this, each grabbing a rope. With two low grunts, the slightly loose sails were pulled tight again.
Boom!
Once the sails were fully open, the whole ship suddenly jerked to a stop.
Two doctors couldn't hold on because they weren't strong enough. They crashed through the windows and fell out of the ship.
Right now the whole ship was standing straight up, and the two doctors fell straight down.
Rowan was about to help, but saw a big hand made of sand stop one of them, while Bell, who turned into a giant hawk-bird, caught the other one.
Crocodile threw the doctor he caught back into the ship, biting down on his cigar, and growled, "Don't cause me any trouble, you... you guys!"
He wanted to say "bastards," but he remembered he was trying to act like a "national hero," so he forced the curse back down.
Crocodile's eyes moved, staring at the sand feathers around the ship.
Something this heavy, even if it looks like feathers, can it really fly in the sky?
Boom!
A loud rumble cut off Crocodile's thoughts, followed by a strong feeling of weightlessness.
Right now, the huge power inside the blast of air was used up creating a flat area of blast made of air above the clouds.
But the huge ship, using the power it got from the blast, flew even higher.
The ship changed from standing straight up to lying flat.
After a short pause, the ship started to fall.
Below them weren't the thick sky-island clouds that can hold ships, but ordinary clouds made of water.
So, in other words, they were falling towards the sea, thousands of feet below!
Whoosh!
The wind howled in the sky.
Just as everyone was feeling sick from weightlessness, Rowan stood tall on the deck.
His left hand held his staff, planted on the deck. His right hand was held level with his chest, fingers spread.
Sand slowly flowed around Rowan's fingertips, like many strings connecting to the feathers around the ship.
Nearby, the paper airplane also lost its power to fly higher, but it floated with the air currents far away.
Rowan stared at the paper airplane and said in a deep voice, "Report the location of the sky-island clouds!"
"Yes!"
A sailor struggled to climb onto the deck, and with Dalton guarding him, picked up a telescope and shouted,
"The sky-island clouds are at five o'clock, about four sea miles away!"
Rowan nodded slightly and roared softly, closing his right hand into a fist.
Then, the sound of things rubbing together came from around the ship.
The wing-like feathers stretched out even further under Rowan's control, even further than the ship itself, many times over.
Right now, the Four Seas Alliance ship was like a huge flying bird, soaring through the sky.
When Rowan moved his fingers, the feathers would change to different angles.
The air flowing over the feathers made the air pressure above and below them different, creating power to lift the ship.
The ship stopped falling, and the sickening feeling of weightlessness finally disappeared.
Then, the ship began to turn, carrying everyone towards the sky-island clouds.
Rowan's right hand shook slightly, adjusting each feather's angle a tiny bit.
Seeing this, Dalton scratched his head and said, "I didn't know Mr. Rowan could fly!"
But Bell shook his head, not agreeing with that idea.
As someone who ate a devil fruit that turns him into a bird-like animal, Bell knew all about "flying."
"The ancestor's power isn't 'flying'."
Bell pointed to the wings on both sides.
Dalton then noticed that the wings around them weren't flapping up and down like a normal bird.
At first glance, the feathers seemed to be still, but they were actually adjusting very slightly all the time.
"It's 'gliding'."
Bell explained, "Using the blast of air's starting power to fly high, and then using the feathers made of sand to keep the power going."
"If I had to give an example, it's like a glider, but to make a big ship glide in the sky, thousands of feet up, it would be much harder than controlling a glider!"
Bell knew everything about the "sky," but he knew he could not do this.
Nearby, Crocodile also heard Bell's explanation.
Not long ago, he might have been amazed, but now he was used to it.
That man can cut an island in half with sand as thin as a grain of sand, so naturally he can use sand feathers to make a large ship glide in the sky.
...
Ahead was an ordinary cloud.
Beyond that was the sky-island cloud.
As long as they broke through this cloud, they could reach the "white sea" that could hold ships!
For Dalton, Bell, and the others, it was something that only existed in legends, so they were looking forward to it.
Rowan moved his fingers again, steering the ship into the clouds.
A few seconds later, they broke through the clouds, and dazzling light shone into everyone's eyes.
It was too bright.
Sky island… is it such a dazzling place?
It was too bright, so bright that it hurt their eyes!
It's so bright!
My eyes hurt!
It's a little hot...
Crack!
Why is there a rumble?
It wasn't until Crocodile frowned, jumped to the front of the ship, and turned his right hand into a sand shield that everyone realized.
It wasn't dazzling sunlight.
But a huge blue pillar of lightning, falling from the sky!
Crack!!
Deafening thunder echoed through the white sea!
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