Chapter 11
Skypieans
Pagaya led them to the street and onto a giant staircase. It climbed over a cloud that led into the main city. Maxwell thought the staircase might have been something you'd see outside a hillside cathedral. Only this one was a lot longer. They briefly looked back at the beach to see Nami still riding around on the waver.
Max smiled as he saw the White-White Sea again. It was still amazing that they were in the sky at all. The mage had half expected Pagaya to have beach front manor, but he supposed not every fisherman lived by the sea. Ironic, considering every country was an island in this world. Still, the architecture was amazing.
"How can she navigate it so easily when it shakes to bad?" Luffy complained. He was still jealous how easily Nami could control the waver.
Sanji looked back at their captain, "Luffy, what are you doing? We're—"
"But it looks so fun...! Sink!" Luffy then sticks his tongue out at her. Not that she could see it.
Sanji kicks him in the head, "What are you, 5!?"
"Ow~! Sanji! I bip my tongth!"
"Then bite harder next time!" Sanji retorts.
"Hey, there seems to be some sort of construction site on the other side!" Usopp was further up the stairs and was standing on pure cloud, near a ridge. Chopper ran up to take a look as well.
"Are you talking about the cloud cutting factory?" the middle-aged angel asked.
"Cloud cutting factory? They aren't cutting rocks?" Usopp took another look below. Maxwell had also walked up to take a look as well. Men in white sleeveless robes, and that weird antennae haircut, were working in the quarry. But it was unusual as the treated the cloud more like wood rather than stone. Maxwell turned back to join everyone on the trek up.
"The factory cuts the cloud into blocks for various purposes," Pagaya explained.
"Clouds can be cut into blocks...?" Zoro muttered, "Everything is so illogical."
Pagaya then turned to Zoro, "To get here to the white-white sea, didn't you pass through the Milky Road?"
"Milky...? Do you mean where the shrimp hauled us through the route that looked like a flat noodle?" That was certainly one way to describe it.
"That is an artificial cloud canal. You see, there are two natural cloud types. The kind you sail your ships on is called Sea Cloud. And the fluffy type that you can walk on is Island Cloud."
"But they aren't just normal clouds, right!?" Usopp had decided to run on the island clouds rather than the staircase, "You can swim and sail..."
"That's right. This is because the molecular makeup of each cloud is different. On the Blue Sea, I heard there is a mineral called kairoseki—"
"Kairoseki!?" Robin looked at the angel in surprise, "It's because of that?"
"Kairoseki? Kairoseki..." Maxwell frowned as he pondered, "Why does that sound familiar...?"
"It's also know as sea-prism stone, Mr. Magician," Robin explained.
"Oh~!" Maxwell nodded, understanding. The crew had mentioned sea-prism stone after they left Alabasta. He wasn't with them when the crew got trapped in a cage with sea-prism bars. The mineral apparently suppresses a devil fruit users powers and causes fatigue, similar what water does to them.
"Yes. That mineral contains a special substance... We call it Pyrobloin. It's a molecular substance that get ejected into the air by volcanic eruptions. When it comes in contact with water in the air, sea clouds and island clouds are created."
"Looks like I wasn't to far off after all," Salem sounded from his book, startling Pagaya and Conis.
"I-Is that a talking book...?" Conis looked at the grimoire on Maxwell's hip. She looked up and down his body, "It's just… I don't see a tone dial on your person."
"Er..." The mage wasn't really comfortable with such a young woman checking him out. So Max energized Salem's anchor and brought it floating before him, "This is Salem. A... spirit I contracted with during our travels."
"Greetings," said Salem.
"But Max, didn't you get—Oof!" Maxwell elbowed Luffy in the stomach before he could say more. It easier to believe a half-truth than say, "A coagulated remnant of his formally shattered consciousness, after using dark magic." They didn't need to know the details, yet.
Pagaya nervously just tried to ignore it, "...Nonetheless, the Milky Road I mentioned before, as well as the chairs made of cloud on the beach—"
"Are those two spiral sliders also like that?" Chopper asked pointing at the giant highways, rimmed by double helixes, in the sky.
"Those are also milky roads," answered Pagaya, "Anyways those clouds were originally produced by cutting the island cloud at the cloud cutting factory. And then, after some density manipulations, these artificial clouds were created."
They eventually came upon a house that was connected to another staircase. "This is my home! Please come in," Pagaya's house was practically a villa! It could only be accessed from the second floor, with the staircase. The house had an archway that had a little courtyard, and was dug into island cloud. It even had a balcony, and had a great view of the sea.
Suffice it to say, the crew was impressed.
They entered the house and made themselves at home. The crew had settled in the living room, which doubled at a dinning area. Conis had set some tea for their guests, while Sanji followed Pagaya into the kitchen. Maxwell himself reclined on a couch beside Robin, sipping on a cup.
Then realized something, putting down his tea, "That's right... Conis, you mentioned 'dials' before. I was wondering if you could explain what you meant by them?"
"Gladly!" Conis walked over to a drawer, "Let's try... this one!" The Skypiean pulls out a shell. It's looked like one a crab would use, but purple. Conis held it for bit, and then walks over to Luffy, "Try saying something into this."
Usopp and Luffy look at each other before thanking the seashell. Luffy holds it up to his mouth, like you would with a transceiver, "Usopp is stupid."
"Ah, why me?" Usopp looks disgruntled at being subject to Luffy's whims.
Conis laughs but continues to instruct, "Now, please press that button on the shell's apex!"
"What's an apex?" "The top of the shell. But pressing it won't do—" "Wah! It caved in! It's soft on this spot!"
When Luffy had pressed the button, sound came out of the shell.
*"Usopp is stupid." "Ah, why me?" "Huhu... Now please press that..."*
Max almost jumped out of his seat, "What in Andraste's—!?"
Luffy looked at the shell amazed "Wow! Even the shell called you stupid!"
"No! That's your voice!" Usopp corrected him.
Even Zoro looked surprised, "It can record sound? That shell is a 'dial?'"
"Yes. That's a Tone Dial," Conis opened the sliding doors to the balcony, "It records sound then replays it later. It's a special shell found only in the White-White Sea. It's mainly used to record music."
Luffy replayed the dial again and Usopp quickly forgot about his insult, "I see. That's really something!"
"There's no bottom to this sea though. How do these things survive?" asked Zoro.
"We get them from the shallows of the beach." Considering there were sky-fish in the cloud seas, it wasn't an impossible idea for there to be other sea life here.
"If this is what a dial is... I don't understand how you can make the water move..." Robin was referring to the waver.
"That's not it," Conis takes out another shel, a snail shell, "This is the waver's power source. Even though it's small, this is called a Breath Dial." Luffy takes this one and hands the tone dial to Usopp, "If you have it face the wind for 30 minutes, it will be able to release 30 minutes worth of wind."
Luffy spins his arm, holding the breath dial's mouth in the same direction. When he stopped spinning, Luffy looked into the mouth of the shell, and pressed the button. He received a face full of wind for it, "Woah!"
"The size of storage is dependent on the size of the dial, but by placing it at the stern, it can easily power a light ship."
"So that's a waver... Ack! Luffy!" Luffy had aimed the breath dial at Usopp.
"I see. So it moves using the wind from this thing?" Luffy continued to blow it at Usopp.
Conis fiddled with her hair a bit, "Although the waver is the only one I can handle, there are actually many types of objects that use them as well, like skates and surfboards."
"That's nice!" Luffy looks out a the sea again. Nami was till riding around on the waver, "I want to ride one too~! She's so lucky... Wait, we have one too!"
Usopp chuckles slightly, "We do, but it's broken. Plus it's been 200 years. There's no way it can still move!"
"Not necessarily," Conis interrupted them, "The dial itself is the remains of a shellfish. As long as the shell isn't broken it will retain it's power."
"Really!? You hear that!?" "You still won't be able to ride it, Luffy." "...So lucky...!"
"Other than those two, there seems to be many types of dials," Robin pointed at the mounted shell on the coffee table.
"Eh?" Chopper jumped out of his seat and leaned into looking at the shell, "Dial! This thing is one too?"
"Yep, this is a lamp dial. It's used to store light."
Chopper had pressed the button and the dial lit up, "Ah! The shell is shining!"
"Although dials are not a direct form of resource, sky island culture is one that has evolved to coexist with dial energy. Additional types of dials include the heat storing Flame Dial, the scent storing Flavor Dial, and the image-recording Vision Dial, among others."
"Maker's breath... Just one of these shells be invaluable..." Maxwell stroked his beard, thinking of all the uses a dial could have.
"They are important tools for living in the sky," Conis agreed with the mage.
"Don't keep stuff like that!" Sanji's yell voiced from the kitchen. Along with the sound of breaking glass.
"Sanji sounds happy," said Luffy ignorant of the tone.
Usopp shrugged his shoulders and teased, "He probably fell in love with the sky island's cuisine."
Soon enough, Sanji and Pagaya came out with platters of food, "Okay, finished! This is my Sky Island Full Course Special with Fruit and Sky seafood."
Luffy salivated at the sight, "Looks tasty!" Cracked stuffed lobster, crab cakes, sushi, orange slices, shrimp tails. Sanji really had gone full out with this one. Maxwell was just thankful they had wine.
As the crew dug in, Sanji looked out the balcony, "Hey! Where did Nami go!? She should be on the sea..."
"Yum~! This shrimp! How can I describe how good it is!?" Luffy was just enjoying the food. Max had to agree with him, he had tasted anything like this before.
Sanji kept looking, "No, she's not on the sea..."
"Then she probably went out to explore. Just forget about her!" scoffed Luffy. He was to busy thinking about the food, and didn't want to think about the waver again.
Conis however, looked in concern at her father, "F-Father, will it be alright!?"
Pagaya looked at her just as concerned, "Oh Conis, I have a bad feeling about this too..."
Luffy paused having shoved a crab cake in his mouth, "Whab? Waber you talking abouf?" Maxwell put down his wine glass to listen as well.
Conis began to sweat with nervousness, "In Skypiea, there is one place... where no one should ever enter. That place is very close to this island and can be easily reached with a waver..."
"And this is...?" Maxwell drawled, urging her to continue.
"It's the Holy Land. It's where God lives... Upper Yard."
"Wait," Luffy swallows his food before continuing, "God is there!? In the place that no one should ever set foot on?"
"Yes! This is God's Land, and it is ruled by the almighty God Enel," Conis was clearly afraid of this Enel person. But a god? That seemed a little pretentious to Max.
"Beware the false god..." Maxwell whispered to himself. The warning from that mock horror demon seemed to strike a chord in him, though he tried to ignore it. As far as he was concerned, there was only one god, the Maker. Everything else that was unexplainable, was either spirits, the Fade, or magic.
Usopp however, saw a gleam in their captain's eye, "Hey Luffy! What are you thinking about right now!? You just heard what she said right!? 'No one should ever set foot,' means nobody may enter! Luffy!?"
Luffy began to grin, "Oh really~? There's a place that nobody may enter? I see... A place that nobody may enter..."
Maxwell sweat dropped, Luffy was going for sure... And the guys all shared the same thought.
Luffy then turned back to Conis, "Hey, even though it's forbidden, God will forgive us, right? He's really nice, right?"
Conis was off put by Luffy's attitude, "Er... But breaking the rule set by God is disrespecting God..."
Luffy frowned, "...Really? Oh well, it doesn't matter."
Maxwell facepalmed. Of course he wouldn't care.
"Alright! Let's go find Nami!" Luffy looked down at the food again, "Oh! But first, let me finish eating..."
Sanji looks at his captain in exasperation, "What if something happens to Nami while you're wasting time here? Put that down! We'll be back soon enough!"
"...Actually, we don't know for sure if she really went there, so please don't act recklessly," Conis warned them, "If we anger God Enel, this will become very problematic..."
"Ah, by the way, you said you had a broken waver," Pagaya looked at Luffy, "If it's not to much trouble, please let me look at it. I will repair it if I can."
Conis seemed happy at the change of subject, "Yes, my father is a dial boat engineer."
This seemed to excite Luffy, "Really!? Thank you!"
O O O
Maxwell stood beside Luffy as they presented the ancient waver to Pagaya. They were back at Angel Beach and were getting ready to find Nami. Realistically, they just needed Maxwell to power energize the ship but the crew needed something to do.
"This is really old!" Pagaya inspected the little dial boat.
"Can you fix it?" asked Luffy.
"Hey, Luffy! Max! Let's go already!" Usopp called to them from the ship.
"That suspicious looking ship! Stop right there!" Everyone looked up and noticed a group of people coming down the grand staircase.
"Who are those guys?" asked Luffy. The men and women were in uniform. White berets, t-shirts, and puffed out pants with boots. They were Skypians and they crawling on their arms and legs. For what reason? Maxwell didn't know.
Captain. McKinley called out, "Squad, HALT!" The squadron stopped crawling and then stood up as one. They then saluted by making bunny ear behind their head with their index and pinky fingers.
"HESO!" "Heso!" "Hello, Heso!"
Luffy was still confused about the greeting, especially when Conis and Pagaya replied back, "Uh, what are you talking about!?"
"Hey, Luffy, Max, ignore them! Let's go get Nami!" Maxwell looked back as Sanji called out to them from the ship.
"You!" McKinley shouted, "You are those citizens of the Blue Sea! The eight illegal trespassers!" Maxwell frowned, now these people made sense to him. They were the city guard.
"Eh!? Illegal trespassers!?" Both Pagaya and Conis stepped back away from the pirates.
"Maker damn it..." Luff just looked at Maxwell confused.
"There's no point denying it," the squad captain brought out a photo depicting Luffy and the crew, "We already received this from the Watcher of Heaven's Gate, Amazon. This is a picture taken with a vision dial!"
Pagaya looked at the policeman shocked, "...This can't be! It's not possible! There must be a mistake, Captain McKinley! They're not bad guys..."
The crew was evidently listening in, as Usopp cried out, "But that old lady said we could pass!"
"Please stop making excuses. Just admit your guilt!" demanded the officer, "...There's no need to panic though. According Heaven's Judgement, illegal trespassing is only a Class-11 crime. After serving punishment, you will immediately become regular tourists."
"You should have said that earlier!" yelled Sanji, "I don't like it, but what's the punishment?"
"It's very simple. Just pay a fine that is ten times the entry fee." Maxwell had to blink at that statement. Ten times!? The police captain continued, "Each person is now 10 billion extol... Which means 80 billion extol for eight people. Pay now, and your criminal status will be erase immediately!"
"W-What!? 80 billion extol...!? How much is that in beli?" Usopp asked the policeman.
"Beli... That's the currency of the Blue Sea, isn't it?" McKinley though about it for a moment, "In beli... 10,000 extol is 1 beli."
So 1 is 10,000... Maxwell blinked realizing the amount.
Sanji was the one to actually yell at the captain though, "8 million!? That is too much! With that much money I could buy tons of rice! We risked our lives to get here. Why do we have to pay that much money!?"
"If you had paid the entrance fee in the beginning, it would have only been 800,000 beli." "THAT'S STILL A LOT!"
"Sigh..." Maxwell pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew that optional entrance fee was a trap.
"This is only a warning, but we are the White Berets, the direct servants of the High Priests. And if you continue to deny your guilt, your criminal status will become worse!" McKinley then saw the ancient waver, "Also, that waver looks broken! If you broke it, then it's a Class-10 crime. The one about citizens of the Blue Sea breaking sky island property..."
"No, no, no, I'm sorry. This was there's to begin with..." "Yeah it's mine!" "Theirs? That's strange. There shouldn't be any wavers on the Blue Sea. If this was stolen from a sky island, it's a Class-9 crime."
Maxwell grunted, he was familiar with these types of guards. Sticklers for the rules and knows the code of law by heart. Looking for every discrepancy, even if it didn't mean anything. They had a few Templars like that back in Faxhold, Ostwick's mage tower. They were harmless enough, but a pain in the butt to deal with.
"Please wait~!" Maxwell looked up to see Nami riding back on the sea clouds.
"Ah! Nami~ you're safe!" Sanji instantly became heart struck again.
"Luffy! Don't oppose those men!" Nami shouted.
"But these guys..." Luffy trailed off, not happy with either person.
"Don't oppose them...? Hey Nami! Can we afford to pay an entry fee of 8 million beli!?" Usopp asked their navigator.
She was getting close to the shore, "...That's good! So we can still just pay the fee... 8 million beli... THAT'S TOO DAMN EXPENSIVE!" and she decided to drive the waver jumping, and colliding, right into McKinley's face.
Maxwell went back to holding his nose. He should have expected something like this. When it comes to money, Nami was worse than a Dalish with a territory dispute.
The man collided with the gazebo and then Nami blinked realizing what she had done, "Crap! Because of their ridiculously high fine, I lost it...!"
"Jee, ya think...!?" Maxwell glared at their resident cheapskate.
Nami then sees Pagaya, "Oh, mister, thanks for letting me use the waver. It was very fun!"
"No, no. Don't mention it... However, you are in big trouble..." Pagaya amended.
Nami then quickly turned back and ran, grabbing both Maxwell and Luffy's arms, "We gotta run! If we mess with 'God,' it'll be a real pain! Besides, that was just an accident!"
"Whoa! NAMI!" "What, why!? Didn't you already attack them!?"
"HOLD IT!" Luffy was the only one that stopped, so his arm stretched instead. Captain McKinley was alright, but his nose was bleeding, "There is no escape...! Not only were you impolite to us, her action hindered a public official, which is a Class-5 crime...! With the power invested to me by God Enel, I sentence you to Cloud Drifting!"
"Nami! Get off!" Maxwell pried his arm out of Nami's grip so she would stop dragging him. He didn't appreciate being manhandled, even by a woman.
Luffy had turned to Conis, smiling, "What's that? Cloud Drifting sounds comfortable!"
"It's not good at all! It means putting you and your ship on a piece of cloud so you'll drift in the sky until you die. It's the death penalty!"
"I see... No wonder ships would fall from the empty sky..." Maxwell heard Robin say, "The galleon that fell from the sky. It probably received the same sentence 200 years ago."
Well, that's not good...
"GET THEM!" The White Berets drew bows on them and Luffy and Maxwell got ready to fight.
"Run! You guys can't beat them!" Conis yelled.
"Don't say that, Miss. You sound like you're trying to help the criminals!" McKinley turned to his troop, "Milky Arrrow! FIRE!"
"Nami! You're in the way. Get back to the ship! Max!" "I gotcha." "OK!"
"ENERGY BOMBARDMENT!" Maxwell had drawn Mordred and sent barrage of purple flames at the milky arrows. They met the projectiles head on and stopped them in their tracks. The arrows had actually left a solid trail of cloud behind them, and the Berets were somehow skating on them.
Luffy smiled seeing what they were doing, "Oh~ I see!" He jumped up as too officers tried to slash him with dual-bladed daggers. The guards realized they had missed, "You guys have some cool stuff!"
They realized that Luffy could stretch, "How did that guy—?"
Both Pagaya and Conis looked up is surprise, "Eh!? His arm stretched!" "What!?"
"Gomu-Gomu no..." Luffy started twisting in the air.
"Could it be...!? Devil Fruit—!" McKinley was cut off before he could finish his sentence.
"HANABI!" Luffy stretched his limbs like a ring of arrows, punching and kicking all the guards bellow him. Most were knocked out by the rubber bullets he calls punches.
Maxwell noticed a group up and try to get their bows ready. The mage snaps his fingers and a purple glyph appears beneath the policemen. Arcing Surge struck the officers and they fell down paralyzed from the electricity.
...
...
...
"What?" Maxwell looking around, frowning. The Skypians were all frozen and looking at him in horror..
"D... D... DEVIL!" McKinley screamed at the mage, "THE PRIESTS OF UPPER YARD WILL DEFINITELY JUDGE YOU! HESO!"
"Shit..." Maxwell grimaced.
Great, just what this world needed; Another witch hunt...