The muddy walk back to the Going Merry was heavy with an oppressive, stifling silence. The rain had picked up, washing the dirt and blood from Luffy and Zoro's bruised faces. Nami sniffled quietly, still clutching Luffy's torn red vest, her navigator's pride deeply wounded by the sheer humiliation they had just endured.
Kai walked beside them, his hands stuffed deep into his pockets, the rain plastering his messy black hair to his forehead. He kept his eyes perfectly trained on the shadows of the alleyways, making sure none of Bellamy's thugs had decided to follow them.
When the familiar wooden hull of the Going Merry finally came into view, the silence was instantly shattered by a high-pitched, panicked scream.
"GAAAAAH! LUFFY! ZORO!"
Chopper dropped the medical books he was reading on the deck, his jaw hitting the floorboards. The little reindeer instantly transformed into his Heavy Point, sprinting down the gangplank and scooping both the captain and the swordsman into his massive, furry arms.
"What happened to you?!" Chopper wept, shifting back into his small form and frantically pulling bandages and antiseptic from his blue backpack. "Did you get attacked by a Sea King?! A Warlord?! An army?!"
Sanji stepped out of the galley, a tray of hot sandwiches balanced on his hand. The moment his visible eye landed on his battered crewmates, the tray dropped. Sandwiches scattered across the deck.
"Who did this?" Sanji growled, his voice dropping to a lethal, terrifying pitch. He didn't look at Luffy; he looked directly at Kai. "You went with them. Who did this, Kai?"
Kai met the cook's furious gaze without flinching. He tapped the orange face of his Power Watch. "A guy named Bellamy. But we didn't fight back, Sanji. It was Captain's orders."
Sanji's eye widened slightly. He looked at Luffy, who was currently giggling as Chopper aggressively wrapped a massive, comical bandage around his entire head. The cook exhaled a long, heavy cloud of smoke, crushing his cigarette under his black shoe. He understood immediately. It was the same kind of fight Red-Leg Zeff had always told him to avoid—a fight with no meaning.
"Fine," Sanji grunted, turning back to the galley. "But you're all cleaning up these sandwiches."
Nami climbed aboard, wiping her eyes and pulling out her map of Jaya. "Kai, you mentioned you knew who we needed to talk to?"
"Bot ran a scan on the local legends," Kai explained, stepping onto the grassy deck. "There's an outcast living on the opposite side of the island. His name is Mont Blanc Cricket. The town hates him because he claims a City of Gold exists. If anyone is crazy enough to know about a Sky Island, it's him."
"The other side of the island?" Nami frowned, tracing a wide blue line on her map. "We can't sail around the coast, the reefs are too dangerous. But it looks like there's a wide river that cuts directly through the center of the jungle. Weigh anchor! We're taking the river!"
Sailing the Going Merry down the jungle river of Jaya was like entering a completely different world. The towering, ancient trees blocked out the sun, casting the dark, murky water in a deep, eerie twilight. Giant, exotic insects buzzed loudly in the humid air, and the roots of the massive trees twisted along the riverbanks like sleeping serpents.
"I don't like this," Usopp whimpered, hiding behind the mainmast with his slingshot drawn tight. "It's too quiet. I bet there are giant, ship-eating monsters in this water."
"Stop being a coward," Zoro grunted, leaning against the railing with his newly bandaged head resting on his arms.
Suddenly, the water ahead of them began to bubble violently.
"Warning," Bot buzzed sharply in Kai's ear. "Massive biological entity approaching from beneath the surface. And… it's singing?"
Before Kai could warn the crew, the river erupted.
A colossal ship burst from the water, its hull shaped like an enormous, screaming monkey head. But the ship wasn't the strangest part. Standing on the bow was a man so incredibly hairy and massive that he looked exactly like an overgrown orangutan. He wore a loud, tropical shirt and had hair that dragged all the way to the wooden deck.
"WHO ARE YOU TRASH?!" the man bellowed, his voice carrying an insane, booming echo. "I am Shoujou, the Sonar King! You're trespassing in the territory of the Saruyama Alliance!"
"A talking monkey!" Luffy cheered, completely ignoring the hostility. "So cool!"
"I'm a human, you brat!" Shoujou roared, deeply offended. He puffed out his massive chest, taking a deep, exaggerated breath. "Prepare to have your ship shattered to splinters! HAVOC SONAR!"
Shoujou let out a high-pitched, screeching vocal cry.
It wasn't a normal sound. It was a physical, destructive shockwave. The surface of the river instantly shattered, sending massive geysers of water shooting into the air. The soundwaves hit the Going Merry like a physical hammer. The wooden hull groaned in agony, and the glass windows of the galley completely blew out.
"Ahhhh! My ears!" Chopper shrieked, clamping his hooves over his head and rolling on the deck.
"He's destroying the ship with his voice!" Nami panicked, dropping to her knees.
Kai didn't waste a second. He slammed his hand onto his wrist.
"Bot! I need acoustic dampening!" Kai yelled over the deafening screech.
"Understood! Routing maximum power to the Earth Core to increase material density!"
"Elemental Power: Earth!"
The watch flared with a brilliant, blinding amber light. Kai threw his hands forward, aiming his palms not at Shoujou, but at the riverbanks on either side of the Merry.
"Earth Dome!"
The ground shuddered violently. Two massive, thick walls of dense sandstone erupted from the muddy riverbanks, curving upward and crashing together directly over the Going Merry. The thick stone formed a perfect, sound-proof bunker around the ship.
The destructive sonar waves slammed into the outside of the rock, cracking the sandstone, but the interior of the dome remained perfectly safe and quiet.
"Thanks, Kai," Zoro grunted, pulling the white-handled Wado Ichimonji from his waist. The swordsman stepped up to the edge of the ship, looking through the narrow gap Kai had left at the front of the dome. "My turn. Keep it quiet, you overgrown ape!"
Zoro swung his sword with terrifying speed.
"Thirty-Six Pound Phoenix!"
A compressed blade of wind shot out of the stone dome, slicing perfectly across the river and completely cleaving the mainmast of Shoujou's monkey-ship in two. The heavy mast crashed down onto the deck, crushing Shoujou's sound-amplifying equipment and sending the crew into total panic.
"Let's get out of here before he catches his breath!" Nami ordered.
Kai dropped his hands, letting the Earth Dome crumble back into the muddy river as the Going Merry sailed swiftly past the disabled monkey-ship, leaving a furious, shouting Shoujou behind.
An hour later, they broke through the dense canopy, arriving at a pristine, hidden cove on the eastern shore of the island.
Sitting on the edge of the sandy beach was one of the most bizarre structures they had ever seen. It was a grand, majestic stone castle, complete with high turrets and arched windows—but it was only half a castle. The structure looked as though a giant sword had sliced it perfectly down the middle, leaving a flat, painted wooden facade supported by wooden beams on the back.
"It's a painted wooden cutout," Nico Robin observed calmly, adjusting her wide-brimmed cowboy hat. "An elaborate illusion to make a simple wooden shack appear grander from the sea."
Before anyone could marvel further, the front door of the half-castle kicked open.
"More scavengers?!" a booming, furious voice roared.
A man stormed out onto the sand. He was shirtless, displaying a heavily scarred, muscular torso, and had a bizarre, chestnut-shaped block of blonde hair resting on his head. He brandished a heavy flintlock pistol in his right hand. He didn't look like a welcoming host; he looked like a man pushed to the absolute breaking point.
"I told you leeches before! There is no gold here! I haven't found it yet!" Mont Blanc Cricket bellowed, raising his pistol and aiming it directly at Luffy's chest. "Get off my property before I blow you back to Mock Town!"
"Wait! We're not here for gold!" Nami yelled, holding up the yellowed map. "We want to talk about Skypiea!"
Cricket's eyes widened for a fraction of a second at the mention of the Sky Island, but his intense paranoia quickly overrode his curiosity. "Lies! You're just Bellamy's hounds! Die!"
He pulled the trigger. BANG!
Kai moved entirely on instinct. "Earth Wall!"
A jagged, dense slab of compacted sandstone erupted from the beach directly in front of Luffy, intercepting the lead bullet with a dull thud. The stone crumbled back into the sand instantly.
Zoro drew his swords, ready to counterattack, but a sickening sound echoed across the beach.
Cricket didn't fire again. Instead, his flintlock dropped from his trembling hand. The man's eyes rolled back in his head, and he began to violently cough up a massive amount of blood. His knees buckled, and he collapsed face-first into the sand, his body seizing uncontrollably.
"Hey!" Luffy yelled, the tension instantly vanishing as he ran toward the fallen man.
"Stand back!" Chopper shrieked, sprinting across the sand and pressing a hoof to the man's chest. "It's decompression sickness! The bends! He's been diving too deep into the ocean without resting! The nitrogen bubbles in his blood are literally tearing his internal organs apart! Help me get him inside!"
Two hours later, the atmosphere inside the cramped, wooden shack behind the castle facade was quiet.
Mont Blanc Cricket lay heavily bandaged on a simple cot, an IV drip hooked into his arm courtesy of Chopper. Kai leaned against the wooden wall, the amber light of his watch fully extinguished, his black hair casting a shadow over his thoughtful expression.
Cricket slowly opened his eyes, groaning as he pushed himself up. He looked at the pirates gathered around his small living room.
"You saved my life," Cricket muttered, his voice raspy. "Why? I shot at your captain."
"Because you know how to get to the sky," Luffy said simply, sitting on a wooden barrel and grinning widely.
Cricket stared at the boy in the straw hat. He looked for any sign of mockery, but Luffy's eyes were entirely sincere. Cricket let out a long, heavy sigh, reaching for a pack of cigarettes. Sanji stepped forward, offering a light.
"You kids are crazy," Cricket chuckled bitterly, blowing a cloud of smoke. "I'm the descendant of Mont Blanc Noland. 'Noland the Liar.' Four hundred years ago, my ancestor told the King of Lvneel that he found a glorious City of Gold right here on Jaya. But when the King came to see it, there was nothing but empty jungle. Noland was executed as the greatest liar in history."
"So you're diving into the ocean to find the gold?" Nami asked softly. "To clear his name?"
"Every single day," Cricket nodded, clutching his chest. "For years, I've scoured the bottom of the sea around this island. But I've found nothing. Which leaves only one impossible conclusion."
Cricket pointed a trembling finger straight up at the wooden ceiling.
"If the City of Gold didn't sink... it went up."
The room fell completely silent. The sheer scale of the mystery was intoxicating.
"So Skypiea is real!" Luffy cheered. "How do we get there, chestnut-guy?!"
"You ride the Knock-Up Stream," Cricket said, his expression turning deadly serious. "It's a localized, explosive geyser that erupts from the ocean floor. It shoots water so forcefully it reaches the stratosphere. If a ship catches the current perfectly, it will be carried into the clouds. If you miss the center by even a single degree... your ship will be torn to splinters."
"I'm in," Zoro smirked.
"We're all going to die!" Usopp wept, hugging his knees in the corner.
"The problem isn't riding it, it's finding it," Cricket interrupted. "The Stream only erupts in a specific location south of here, but the magnetic field on these waters is completely chaotic. Your Log Pose won't help you navigate horizontally."
"Then how do we know which way is south?" Nami asked.
Cricket pointed out the window, into the pitch-black, noisy jungle of Jaya.
"You need a South Bird," Cricket explained. "It's a bizarre local creature with an infallible internal compass. No matter where it is, its head always faces perfectly south. If you catch one and bring it on your ship, it will guide you to the exact eruption point."
"The stream erupts tomorrow at high noon," Cricket added. "Which means you kids have to go into that jungle right now, in the dead of night, and catch a South Bird before morning. If you fail, you miss the stream, and you'll have to wait another month."
Luffy slammed his fists together, a massive grin splitting his face.
"Alright! Let's go bird hunting!"