High in the Sky

Thin air greets the crew the moment they clear the towering cloud and settle onto a strange white ocean made of vapor. Down on the wreckage of their shattered raft, the Blackbeard Pirates argue over whether to give chase; Burgess wants blood, but Teach is content to let the Straw Hats go, certain their paths will cross once more while neither crew leaves the Grand Line.

Breathing steadies, and wonder sets in. Chopper notices Usopp has stopped breathing and revives him through CPR. Nami points out that the log pose still tilts skyward, and Robin guesses they may have stopped only halfway up the great cloud. Against Sanji's warning, Usopp plunges into the vapor sea, marvels at how little it resists him, and keeps swimming downward until he is gone from sight.

When Usopp does not resurface, the crew works out that he must have slipped clean off the cloud. Luffy thrusts an arm down into the murk by feel alone, and Robin makes eyes blossom across the whole limb so the two of them can spot and grab him, dragging him back up. Trailing behind him come a huge octopus and a sea beast, both swiftly carved apart by Zoro and Sanji. A creature that flops onto the deck draws Robin's eye: a sky fish recorded in Noland's journal, which she reasons grew flat or balloon-shaped to stay afloat in an ocean with no bottom. Luffy snatches it for Sanji to fry.

In the distance Chopper sees a vessel ripped apart by a human shape that then sprints across the clouds toward the ship. The trio of Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro are all swiftly overpowered, and as the masked figure aims a cannon, an elderly armored man astride an enormous bird hurls a lance that knocks the raider into the vapor below. He names himself the Knight of the Sky, Gan Fall. The Skypiea Arc begins here. On the cover, Wapol roams an island devouring all in sight and shapes himself into a tree to pass the time.