Sky Island

"Bastards, who the hell are you? What do you want with Bellamy?"

Bellamy climbed to his feet, glaring at Yota and the others through gritted teeth. His wary gaze flicked toward Charlotte Pudding.

Bellamy felt he had been thoroughly wronged. He had been eating hot pot and singing songs—no, eating grilled meat and drinking rum—when this pretty young girl walked into the tavern.

Pirates said some crude things after they had too much to drink. Wasn’t that perfectly normal? Then the girl gave a faint smile, and her eyes turned red.

After that? Bellamy shuddered. His companions and all the pirates in the tavern had been controlled by a single glance from that girl. After questioning them, she had drained away all their life force. Every last one of them had turned into an old man in his seventies or eighties. Aside from a few women who escaped disaster, he was the only pirate who had not been aged.

Then the girl grabbed him, transformed into a giant bat, smashed through the tavern, and flew here.

Who was Bellamy? He was a Great Pirate with the title of the Hyena! Of course he had refused to accept it. After struggling desperately, he had finally caught the attention of that three-eyed giant bat.

Then the three-eyed giant bat tilted her head. With a slight squeeze of her claws, she snapped several of his bones. Bellamy immediately behaved himself.

This guy seems familiar. Yota muttered to himself, but did not dwell on it. A sweep of black mist extracted Bellamy’s Devil Fruit.

Then Yota frowned, only remembering that he did not know what Devil Fruit this was. He asked, "What Devil Fruit do you have?"

Bellamy’s eyes went wide, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. "M-My Spring Fruit! Give me back my Devil Fruit!"

"Oh, so it’s the Spring Fruit." Yota nodded, remembering now. This guy seemed to be one of Doflamingo’s crazed admirers, only to be screwed over by Doflamingo in the end.

Seeing Bellamy’s eyes redden as he lunged at him, Yota kicked him straight into the sea. Only then did he suddenly realize something.

"Damn it, I never asked where the Knock-Up Stream is!"

"I know, Captain Yota." Charlotte Pudding smiled faintly and took out a sea chart she had seized from the tavern. She had marked a red circle on it—the location where the Knock-Up Stream appeared.

"It’s pretty close, huh?" Yota looked at the map of Jaya Island, and more memories surfaced in his mind.

Jaya Island was shaped like a skull, and the missing eye was the part that had been blasted into the sky by the Knock-Up Stream. In other words, flying upward from that gap would definitely lead to the Sky Island in the heavens!

Moreover, the Knock-Up Stream appeared right near that missing eye socket, making Yota remember even more clearly.

"Let’s go. We’re setting off." Ignoring Bellamy, who had already fallen into the water, Yota let out a roar and transformed into an eight-headed dragon. Layers upon layers of Flame Cloud swept up the Azure Dragon and carried it straight into the sky.

Bellamy, still in the sea, was struck by a wave. Looking at the sight before him, he was dumbfounded with shock.

Then he suddenly shuddered, remembering that his Devil Fruit had been extracted. "That guy… that guy is the Plunderer! The new generation’s strongest pirate!"

With that thought, Bellamy no longer had any intention of reclaiming his Devil Fruit. He turned and swam toward Jaya Island.

As he swam, he muttered to himself, What is a monster like that doing in the first half of the Grand Line? Forget it, why worry about that? I’d better take my companions and leave.

I wonder whether that aging has a time limit… Damn it!

Naturally, Yota paid no attention to Bellamy’s thoughts. Before long, the entire Azure Dragon had flown above the White Sea.

He ignored the residents of the Sky Island as well, merely looking down from the sky at distant Jaya Island—or, more precisely, the fragment of Jaya Island that had been blasted into the heavens by the Knock-Up Stream.

Just then, the sky boomed, and a bolt of lightning from the clear sky struck him squarely on the head.

Yota had transformed into an eight-headed dragon. Although his strength had increased dramatically, his agility had dropped considerably, so naturally he could not dodge the lightning.

However, his physical body had already become unimaginably powerful. Even without using Armament Haki, that bolt of lightning was little more than a good stretch for him.

"Enel, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit user?" Yota sneered. Even if his memories of One Piece were not particularly deep, he could certainly remember this god of the Sky Island, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit user who would eventually fly straight to the moon.

Especially since this Rumble-Rumble Fruit user had once been countered by Luffy, the Rubber Man, providing a very clear demonstration of so-called Devil Fruit counters!

Well, though Luffy later leveled up and changed Fruits. According to the explanation, that had not been the Rubber Fruit… Yota wondered what Enel would think if he found out.

All that could be said was that no matter how powerful this thunder god was, he was still merely a self-proclaimed deity. He could not compare to the genuine Sun God!

Still, although Luffy’s victory over Enel had relied heavily on Devil Fruit compatibility, making it rather watered down, Enel was only a mid-level boss in the first half of the Grand Line who could not even use Armament Haki. His strength was really nothing special.

If it were Luffy after his two years of training, he could probably beat Enel until he coughed blood even without a Devil Fruit, much less Yota now!

After taking the lightning strike, Yota immediately headed toward the Jaya Island fragment without hesitation. His actions seemed to anger Enel, and lightning began raining down from the sky like it had gone mad.

However, for Yota, who had fused with the power of the Azure Dragon Fruit, commanding thunder and lightning was instinctive. Not only did the lightning fail to harm even a single hair on him, it eventually wrapped around his body like armor forged from lightning, radiating boundless brilliance.

The people of the Sky Island stared blankly up at the enormous dragon in the sky, surrounded by flashing lightning and overwhelming majesty. Some of the more timid ones even fell to their knees and kowtowed, thinking that a god had become enraged.

Well, if Enel counted as a god in their eyes, then a god truly had become enraged.

On the remnant of Jaya Island, Enel’s expression darkened, his face filled with gravity. Through his Heart Web, he could clearly sense that incomprehensibly powerful aura still flying toward this place.

The moment Yota arrived at the Sky Island, the Heart Web formed from the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and Observation Haki had detected that unbelievably terrifying aura.

The sheer strength of that aura had shocked Enel and even filled him with faint fear. That was why Yota had been struck by lightning the instant he arrived.