Chapter 31 - 31: The Sky Knight and Skypiea!

**Navy HQ**

Fleet Admiral Sengoku was currently sitting behind his desk inside his office with his arms folded. He was looking at his two long-time friends, Garp, and Tsuru who were sitting on couches on the opposite sides of the room. The three of them were discussing what they should do about the open spot at the warlord position. They had just come from the meeting where they were supposed to choose the next person to take the place of Crocodile, but sadly they couldn't choose anyone. The meeting wasn't a total loss however, just as it began, they were interrupted by a man named Laffitte who recommended his captain Blackbeard for the warlord position. No one had ever heard of anyone by the name of Blackbeard before and were extremely puzzled when this man infiltrated the Holy Land to nominate a no named pirate. Sengoku didn't toss out the idea of letting him join the warlords completely, he would just wait and see if this Blackbeard was worth his time.

"Well, that was a waste," Garp said knocking Sengoku out of thought.

"I agree," Tsuru said with a nod as she crossed her legs.

"It's not like we expected to come up with a solution there at the meeting," Sengoku added as he got up from behind his desk and walked to the center of the room. "It was a meeting with pirates, can't really expect them to come up with a logical plan of action," he said.

"Another thing I didn't like was how easily that man Laffitte infiltrated Mariejois," Tsuru said causing Garp and Sengoku to nod their heads in agreement.

"Yeah, the last thing we want is another Fisher Tiger incident," Garp said adding to what Tsuru was talking about.

"We are going to have to increase security around here," Sengoku said before he turned and walked back to this desk. As he reached his desk a knock came on his door. "Enter!" he said loudly in a commanding voice. just he said that the doors to his office pushed open and in walked a female marine officer. She was a slender woman with red lipstick, long curly black hair that is tied back and a mole on the right side of her face below her mouth. She wore her Marine coat on her shoulders like a cape, and her sleeves have pink cuffs and the epaulets are pink. Underneath, she sports a short-sleeved pink shirt, with a frilled collar and an open neckline that exposes her cleavage. She wore dark brown shorts and black heels exposing a black spider tattoo on her left t.h.i.g.h.

"Fleet Admiral Sengoku, Vice-Admiral Tsuru..." she said addressing each of them except Garp. "The scouting division has something to report," she added.

"Hey!" Garb yelled out getting everyone's attention. "How come I don't get a hello!?" Garp asked as he crossed his arms

"Oh, you're here to Vice-Admiral Garb?" she asked with sarcasm present in her voice. "Didn't notice you," she added causing Garp's mouth to hand open.

"Ignore him Gion-chan," Tsuru said with a smirk causing Garp to go sulk in the corner of the room.

"Of course, Ma'am," Gion said before she began telling them about what scouting division has to report. "There isn't anything too major to report just the usual up and coming rookie pirates causing trouble on the Grand Line," she said in a bored tone showing that she was uninterested in the rookie pirates. "However, there was something that caught the attention of the scouting division," she said in a serious tone getting all of their attention including Garp.

"Well, what is it?" Garp asked as he got up from the corner and rejoined the group.

"Recently, there seems to be a certain organization that caught our attention," she said as she passed the reports to each of them. "An organization called Hell's Company first caught our attention in the South Blue, but at the time we didn't think too much of it, we passed it off as some fool trying to get rich. It wasn't until reports of the very same organization appearing in the West Blue and the Grand Line," she said surprisingly them.

"How many people do they have in each ocean?" Tsuru asked as she looked at Gion.

"From what we can tell, there are about 200 members in each ocean however there are some reports that there are much more than that," she said surprising them even more. [Just so we are clear, there are 400 baroque works agents in each ocean.]

"This isn't anything small-time," Sengoku commented as he read through the report. "This seems to be something big in the works," he added while everyone else nodded.

"Judging from where they already have people stationed it is safe to say that they likely have people in the remaining oceans as well," Garp said in a serious. "We're talking about close to 2000 personnel in total," he added in an amazed tone.

"Yes, we are operating under that assumption," Gion said with a nod.

"What do we know about them?" Sengoku asked.

"Not much," she said with a sigh. "From what we gathered, Hell's Company is a supplier of a variety of goods, both the legal and illegal kind," she said causing Tsuru to chuckle.

"My, my, they sure are a smart one," she said while everyone nodded in agreement. "They are cashing cheques from both markets," she added.

"What are they selling?" Garp asked as he looked at Gion.

"Everything," she replied causing them to raise their eyebrow. "They're selling, weapons, drugs, antiques, medicine, rare collectibles, jewelry, information, and if the rumors are true...devil fruits," she said causing all their eyes to widen in shock.

"Devil fruits?" Sengoku asked causing Gion to nod her head. "But that would mean that they have a lot to be sold," he said.

"We do not know for sure, Sir," Gion replied. "But as of right now we believe the information to be true," he said causing Sengoku to sigh and rub his beard. "From what we gathered; they do not care what it is. As long as it could be sold, they are selling it," she said.

"Do we know who is running this business?" Garp asked causing Gion to let out a frustrated sigh.

"No Sir," she replied causing them to raise an eyebrow. "All we know is that there seems to be one person in charge of the company. We do not know what he or she looks like, where they are from, or even where they're headquarters is located. All we know is that this person goes by the name Asura," she said.

"Asura?" Garp said as he placed his hand to his chin and began to think. "I never heard of anyone with that name before," he said.

"It may not even be their name," Tsuru said getting their attention. "It may be an alias," she said causing them to nod in agreement.

"Let us gather more information about this Asura before we act," Sengoku suggested.

"Yes, Sir," Gion replied. "Cipher Po has already been dispatched every ocean with orders to infiltrate this organization and gain information for us," she said.

"This good work, Captain Momousagi," Sengoku said as he looked at his marine.

"Thank you, Sir!" Gion replied with a small blush.

"Dismissed," Sengoku said causing Gion to nod and began making her way out of the room. "It is always one problem after the next," Sengoku said before letting out a tired sigh.

"I have a bad feeling about this Hell's Company," Tsuru said while looking at Sengoku.

"Me too," Garp said with a nod. "The fact that they are selling devil fruits means that whoever is running this organization is powerful in their own right," he added as he sat back down on the couch.

"I agree," Said Tsuru as she crossed her legs. "Usually people who have more than one devil fruits try to give it to their subordinates to strengthen their forces, but this person is selling them instead," she said as she narrowed her eyes. "Either they are too obsessed with greed or they are someone to be reckoned with," she added in a serious tone.

"Or both," Sengoku added as he sat down behind his desk. "For now, all we can do is wait for Cipher Pol to gather some valuable information," he said while the other two nodded their heads in agreement.

**The Straw Hats**

"Welcome, the White Sea," Luffy said with his arms spread out wide as he looked out at the sea of clouds before him. When he down on the main deck at the crew, he saw all of them laying on their backs coughing up water while their clothes were soaking wet. "What happened to all of you?" he asked as he stared at them strangely.

"That's a good question," Zoro said while coughing. "What happened to us?" he asked as he stared at his fellow crew members who were in no better condition than himself.

"Would all of you pull yourselves together and look at where we are," Luffy said while looking down at his crew. They all got u to their feet and looked out from the ship and had their eyes widen the size of dinner plates at what they saw. There was nothing but fluffy white clouds as far as the eye can see.

"What in the world..." Sanji said as his mouth hung open slightly.

"It's clouds!" Chopper said in an excited voice.

"But how?" Nami asked in a bewildered voice. "Why aren't we falling?" she asked.

"Clouds float, boats float, it's the same thing," Zoro said with a shrug causing Luffy to chuckle.

"It is basically an ocean in the sky," Luffy said as he walked down from the upper rear deck and made his way towards the bow.

"No way, Really?" Usopp asked in an astonished tone.

"Umm, Luffy," Nami said getting Luffy's attention. "The log pose is still pointing up," she said as she held up her wrist and showed him.

"Yeah, we are only about 7 thousand meters up. All-sky islands are 10 thousand meters up," he said surprising them.

"So that means we have to travel even higher?' Chopper asked cutely.

"Yeah," Luffy said before something at the corner of his eye caught his attention. When he looked over, he saw Usopp standing on the side of the ship getting ready to dive into the clouds.

"Cloud swimming champion Usopp!" he yelled before he jumped off the side of the ship in a diving position. Just as his skin was about to touch the clouds, a rope of lightning wrapped around his torso and pulled him back onto the ship.

"What the hell do you think you are doing, idiot!" Luffy yelled as the rope of lightning dissipated.

"I just wanted to see how far the bottom was," Usopp said while looking at Luffy wondering what he did wrong.

"The bottom is 7000 meters back down where we came from!" Luffy yelled causing his long-nosed sniper to go pale. Before anyone could say anything else, three giant sea kings came up from under the clouds getting ready to attack the ship Zoro, Sanji, and Nojiko sprang into action easily defeating the three monsters.

"I don't understand," Nami said as she stared at the now-dead sea creatures. "How can there be fish up here in the clouds?" she asked.

"As I said earlier," Luffy said as he walked down to the main deck. "It is basically a big ocean in the sky and those creatures are sky fish. They are fishes that evolved in order to live up here," he said amazing them.

"That could explain why they are so thin and balloon-like," Robin commented as she stared at the fishes.

"Guys, there is a ship out there!" Chopper said in an excited tone as he looked through a pair of binoculars. "AHHHH!" Chopper yelled getting everyone's attention.

"Chopper what's wrong?" Asked Nojiko.

"There was a ship and then it split in two!" Chopper said in a panicked voice. "And there was a man and he is coming to kill us!" he said dramatically causing everyone to sweat drop as they stare at the little reindeer.

"I think the thin air up here is getting to him," Nojiko said while everyone else nodded in agreement.

"No, I think he is right," Luffy said getting everyone's attention. When they looked over at him, they saw staring off the side of the boat. "There is a man out there and he is headed our way," he said while pointing off the starboard side of the ship. When everyone looked over, they saw a man wearing a mask with a rocket launcher in one hand and a shield in the other racing towards them. The man then leaped into the air and poised himself to attack the straw hats.

"Hey, Stop!" Sanji said. "What do you want?" he asked.

"To destroy you!" the man said causing everyone to raise their eyebrow at him.

"Oh, is that all," Sanji asked sarcastically as he prepared to defend an attack.

"He's all yours," Luffy said Sanji, Zoro, and Nojiko as he turned and made his way to the rear deck. As the man entered the vicinity of the ship, all three of them predicted the man's attack with observation haki and acted. Zoro pulled out two of his swords and blocked the kick from the man while Sanji did a handstand and kicked the man in the air where Nojiko pulled out her three-section staff and coated it with Haki as she spun it around her body before delivering a major blow to the man's torso knocking the air out of him and sending him flying off in the direction he came from. "Nice job you three," Luffy said as he sat down on his throne. "But he is coming back," he said as he poured himself a glass of whiskey. The three of them turned around they saw the man once again speeding towards them. The three of them prepared to defend the ship but instead of the man attacking them like he previously did. When he was just in front of the ship he leaped into the air and jumped right over the trio and made his way towards the rear deck where Luffy was.

"How foolish," Luffy said as he shook his head and sipped his whiskey paying his attacker no mind. Just before the man could hit Luffy, another man wearing a knight's outfit and wielding a lance. The knight struck his lance onto the attacker's shield and pushed him off of the ship.

"Cease your attack!" the knight yelled as he pushed the other man away. The man did a flip in the air before he landed on the sea of clouds and stared at the knight in surprise.

"You're..." he said in shock before he trailed off.

"You will cease this attack!" the knight said strongly, and he landed on a large pink bird with a red polka dot pattern on his body. The crew was completely dumbfounded at what they were seeing. It was hard enough to wrap their heads around the fact that their ship was floating on clouds, but now there were knights in the sky and rode on some strange bird.

'The Grand Line never seems to disappoint' Luffy thought as he stared at the knight on the strange bird. The attacker then ceased his attack and growled before he sped off on the clouds in the same direction which he came from.

"Who the hell are you?" Nami asked bluntly.

"Miss, you may call me the Sky Knight," the old man in a knight's armor said confidently to the crew.

"Who the hell was that guy anyway?" Nami asked. Before the knight could reply to her question the sound of something hitting the deck got everyone's attention. When everyone looked over in the direction of where the sound came from, they say Sanji, Zoro, and Nojiko laying on their back breathing heavily.

"AHHH! what happened to you guys!?" Chopper yelled/asked in a panic.

"Relax Chopper," Luffy said calmly from his throne getting all of their attention. "The air is pretty thin up here. It is why they feel so tired," he said causing them to understand.

"Oh yeah," Nojiko said between breaths. "I forgot about that," she added as she tried to get her breathing under control.

"You all must be Blue Sea people," the sky knight said getting all of their attention as he walked up the stairs towards the upper deck.

"Blue Sea people?" Robin asked in a curious voice. "What's that?" she asked as she tilted her head to the side.

"Blue Sea people are what we call those who live beneath the clouds," the knight replied. "You are currently 7000 meters up on the White Sea. The White-White Sea where I assume you are heading is still further up, about 10,000 meters," the knight said as he hopped up and sat down on the rails of the second decking and looked down at the crew.

"Yeah, we are heading to Skypiea," Chopper said happily causing the knight to flinch slightly at the mention of the island in the sky. He tried to hide his reaction as soon as it happened, but Luffy, Zoro and, Robin caught it.

"That's all fun and whatnot, but we have some business to discuss," the knight said changing the subject.

"Business?" Sanji asked in a confused voice.

"Ordinary Blue Sea people like yourself cannot survive up here where there are gorillas like the one you just encountered around every corner," he said scaring Chopper and Usopp while causing Luffy's eyebrow to raise. "I am a soldier for hire, I can protect you from these attackers for just a small price of 5 million extols," he said proudly causing Luffy to chuckle while the rest of the crew looked onto the man with a confused look on their faces.

"Huh?" they all said out loud as they tiled their heads to the side.

"Now, now, I can assure you that it is a reasonable price," The knight said as he waved his arms around. "I have to make a living too you know; I cannot lower the price even a single extol," he said to them confusing them further.

"What the hell is an extol?" Zoro asked as he stared up at the man. When the knight heard the question, a surprising look crept up onto his face.

"You don't know?" the man asked in a surprised tone of voice. "You came here from the Summit of High West, didn't you?" he asked. "Surely you must have passed an island or two," he added as he looked down at them.

"Oh yeah, Luffy told us about that summit them back on Jaya," Usopp said causing the rest of them to nod their heads.

"We came up via the Knock-up-Stream," Luffy said from behind the man on his throne, speaking for the first time since the knight appeared.

"That monstrous current!?" the asked in a surprised voice. "So, there are souls still brave enough to ride upon them thing," he said in an astonished tone of voice.

"Did you lose any of your crew along the way?" the knight suddenly asked.

"No, we all made it," Nojiko replied.

"Then you can consider yourself fortunate," he said as he looked down at them. "If you had taken a different route only a few of you would have survived while the other would have surely perished," he added causing them to nod their heads remembering Luffy telling them the same thing. "By way of the knock-up stream either everyone survives, or everyone dies. Those are the only two outcomes," he said grimly. "Not many are willing to accept these odds, especially these days. If nothing else, I can see now that you are navigators of exceptional bravery and skill," he said causing Nami to blush.

"Ohhh stop!" Nami said with a blush on her face. The knight then stood up and took out a whistle before he spoke. "This is the one whistle, you are free to use it as you see fit," he said as he dropped the whistle down onto the main deck where the crew was standing. "Should you find yourself in danger you just have to blow it and I will come to your aid," he said before he turned around preparing to hop onto his strange bird to depart.

"Wait," Nami said stopping him. "We still don't know your name," she said causing the old man to turn around and spoke.

"My name is...Gan Fall," he said as the weird bird/horse landed next to him. "And this is my partner, Pierre," he said causing the bird/horse to screech. Gan Fall then hopped onto Pierre and rode off into the clouds. "May luck be with you, brave warriors!" he yelled as he rode off.

"That was...interesting," Luffy commented while the rest of his crew nodded their head in agreement.

"In the end, he really didn't tell us anything, did he?" Robin said with a sigh.

"No, he didn't," Usopp replied with a sigh.

"Which way do we go from here?" Zoro asked as they looked around.

"Hey, look over there!" Chopper called out as he pointed to off the port side of the ship. "Is it a cloud?" he asked

"It kind of looks like a waterfall," Nojiko said as he stood next to Chopper.

"That settles it then," Zoro said. "We go that way," he said while pointing towards the waterfall. They all then looked to Luffy for the okay. Luffy turned and looked at the waterfall before looking back at his crew and nodding his head. Once they got the okay from their captain the crew adjusted the sails to catch the wind before the ship began to sail in the direction of the waterfall. Luffy and the rest of the crew then moved to the front of the ship to take in the beautiful scenery of the ship sailing across the clouds. It was quite the sight to behold for the rest of the crew. Never in their wildest imagination could any of them had ever dreamed up that they will be on a ship sailing on a sea of clouds in the sky.

"Wow, it is absolutely beautiful," Nojiko said as she looked down at the white clouds hitting against the ship.

"Yeah," Chopper said in agreement. While everyone was taking in the scenery, Nami had a worried look on her face as she kept taking glances at the log pose.

"Stop the ship!" she suddenly yelled out causing Zoro to drop the anchor. The ship slowly came to a halt some distance away from the waterfall. "Those clouds are blocking our path," she said as she pointed forward.

"Those big clouds look like they are floating on top of the ocean, sort of like icebergs," Sanji said as he placed his hands in his pocket.

"I wonder if I can grab a piece," Luffy said before his hand turned to lightning and stretched forward. As his hand was about to reach the cloud, the tip of the lightning bolt transformed back into Luffy's palm before he tried to grab a piece of the cloud only to have his hand bounce right off. "Well that's new," he said before he turned to Usopp and spoke. "Come here Usopp," he confusing his sniper. When Usopp arrived before he could ask what Luffy wanted with him. Luffy grabbed his shirt and threw him off the ship in the direction of the cloud.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Usopp yelled as he sailed through the air. The rest of the crew had their eyes widen in shock at Luffy's action. Much to their surprise, Usopp didn't fall through the cloud, instead, he landed on top of it. "I'm alive?" Usopp asked himself before he stood up on the cloud and started bouncing up and down like he was on a trampoline. "You guys have to try this!" Usopp yelled out happily as he bounced around the giant cloud.

"How does this work?" Nami asked as she stood between Robin and Nojiko staring at Usopp in disbelief.

"It's a mystery," Robin replied.

"We obviously can't sail through those clouds," Nami said as she began to think. "Usopp, try and look around and see if there is a route the ship can take," she suddenly shouted to Usopp.

"Right!" Usopp replied before he began looking around as he jumped. "I see a giant gate!" he shouted back after looking around for a bit.

"A gate?" Nojiko questioned.

"Yeah, it is up ahead just under that waterfall," Usopp replied before jumping back onto the ship. The ship then began sailing in between the giant clouds with Usopp giving directions to Nojiko, was manning the rudder. After weaving between the clouds for about five minutes, the gate that Usopp spotted came into view.

"We're here," Nami said as the ship sailed towards a giant gate with a sign above it which reads 'Heaven's Gate.'

"Heaven's gate?" Usopp asked in a scared voice. "that sounds like a place you go to when you're dead," he said in a scared voice.

"Maybe we are dead, ever thought about that," Zoro suggested.

"That would go a long way in explaining this strange place," Sanji added only to have Nami smack both of them in the head.

"Would both of you shut up!" she yelled as she hit them.

"Hey, look!" Nojiko said getting their attention. "There is someone coming out over there," she while pointing over to the platform of the gate. When they all looked over, they saw a little old lady with wings on her back taking pictures of them.

"L-look, she's got wings!" Chopper said in a disbelieving tone.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the sky races all have angel wings on their backs," Luffy said with a nod. The ship then came to a halt by the platform in front of the only lady. No one said anything for a few seconds, they just stared at each other until Nami decided to break the silence.

"Umm, hello," she called out.

"I am Amazon, heaven's gate inspector," she said introducing herself. "Please state your business, sightseeing, warmongering, or other," she said.

"Sightseeing," Luffy said choosing the peaceful option. "We need to get to Skypiea," he added.

"It makes little difference," she said as she stared at them. "However, if you wish to proceed you must pay the entrance fee of 1 billion extols per person. It is the law," she added surprising them.

"1 billion!" Usopp and Chopper yelled out in surprise.

"What is the exchange rate to beli?" Luffy asked the old woman.

"1 beli is equivalent to 10,000 extols," she said surprising them.

"Hmm, if I did the math right then it should be 100,000 beli per person," Luffy suddenly said. "And they are 8 of us for 800,000 beli," he added with a nod before he walked over to his throne and reached in and pulled out the large bag that housed all of their cash. He then took out an empty bag and began putting stacks of money inside of it. When he had the amount he needed, he placed the large bag back into the cloud and took the smaller one back with him to the front of the ship. "Here, that should cover it for the eight of us," he said before he tossed the bag to the old lady. The bag landed in front of her on the platform.

"Very well," she said. "You may enter," she added. As she finished speaking two large claws rose up from under the ship grabbed onto the side of the Going Merry.

"AHHHH! What is going on!?" Chopper yelled/asked.

"It is the White Sea's famous express lobster," the old lady said. The lobster then raised up and placed the Merry on its back before it took off through the gate and began climbing up the waterfall.

"Everyone! Hang on tight!" Nojiko yelled out as she held onto the rails. As the giant lobster began climbing what turns out to be some sort of road that went further up into the clouds Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji just leaned against the rails staring up at tunnel of clouds they were speeding through. After about ten minutes of a terrifying ride, the crew could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

"Look, it's the exit!" Nami yelled out as they got closer to the light. As they got closer, they saw a sign on the side of one of the clouds that read 'Godland Skypiea.'

"What is Godland Skypiea?" Robin asked as she read the sign.

"It's not an exit," Luffy said with a smirk. "It's the entrance," he said causing them to grin in excitement. The Going Merry and the giant lobster then went airborne as they exited the road of clouds before the Going Merry landed on the White-White Sea and the lobster landing back on the road.

"Well, there it is," Luffy said as he walked forward and stared at the beautiful sight that was in front of him. "Sky Island," he said with a smile as his crew walked forward and stood behind him taking in the sight that was before them as well.

"It's beautiful," Robin commented as she stared at the magnificent island in front of her.

"I think it would better to admire from the shore rather than the ship," Luffy said before he turned to his crew. "Take us to the shore," he ordered causing them to angle the sails to catch wind one more before the ship began sailing forward.

"Luffy," Zoro said getting his captain's attention. "There is no seabed, how are we going to drop anchor?" he asked as he walked over to the anchor.

"Just drop it, the clouds should be able to hold it in place," he said causing Zoro to drop the anchor into the clouds only for part of it to sink down.

"It's pretty shallow down there," Zoro warned causing them to nod. As the ship came to a stop Luffy hopped onto the rails and spoke to his crew.

"Well, what are you waiting for, let's go!" he said before hopping off the ship and began making his way to shore.

**Chapter End**

WELL, THAT'S ANOTHER CHAPTER FOR YOU GUYS! SORRY, IT'S BEEN SO LONG.

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