The Ship Sails to the Sky

As the crew nears the whirlpool's heart, a Sea King surfaces only to be swallowed by the spinning water, horrifying Nami, Chopper, and Usopp while Luffy stays calm. The pair beg Masira and Shoujou to pull them out, then turn their pleas on Luffy, insisting the whirlpool alone is lethal and Sky Island a fantasy, which only excites him further. Zoro points out the ship has gone fully airborne and is plunging toward the center, and just as it falls the whirlpool vanishes. Nami realizes it has actually sunk into the seabed.

The Blackbeard Pirates close in from behind, and Teach announces he has come to claim Luffy's 100 million bounty, confirming Luffy was unaware of it while also revealing Zoro's new figure. Sanji is crushed to learn he has no poster. As Nami warns them not to get cocky, the water beneath the Merry swells, then erupts in a massive explosion. The Knock Up Stream blasts the Going Merry into the air and obliterates Blackbeard's raft.

Cricket watches with relief as the stream rises past the clouds. The crew struggles to hold on while debris and the earlier Sea King tumble back down, and Sanji warns they will be thrown off as the ship loses contact with the water. Nami orders the sails released, explaining this is the sea itself flowing vertically and that vapor from the explosion forms an updraft they can ride.

Directing the crew to align the ship parallel to the stream, she even has Sanji hurl Luffy onto the deck for momentum. The Merry drifts free of the stream, but with sails open and its new wings, it begins to fly alongside the current. Amazed by Nami's skill, the crew presses on toward the Millennium Cumulonimbus, with Luffy wondering what waits above the clouds.

This is the final chapter of the Jaya Arc. The crew at last learns Luffy's and Zoro's updated bounties, Sanji voices his wish for one of his own, and the Saruyama Alliance's upgrades combined with the stream's vapor let the Going Merry take flight. The cover launches the Wapol's Omnivorous Hurrah series, with Wapol's bite-marks scarring an unfamiliar island.