Summary:
The Knock Up Stream drives the Going Merry through the Emperonimbus clouds. Luffy finds himself acting like water and tries to hold his breath. Soon the ship breaks the upper surface of the White Sea and its wings break off. Back in the Blue Sea, Cricket is sitting on an island while Knock Up Stream is distracted, lost in thought. Sailing with his crew on the remains of his raft, Teach is amazed that the Straw Hat Pirates have escaped. Burgess is upset that they lost a possible reward, but Teach reasons that they will meet again if they stay on the Great Line.
Everyone on the Going Merry sputters from their unexpected underwater ride – except for Usopp, who drowns. Everyone is amazed at the beauty of the clouds and wonders how a ship can sail on them. Chopper finds Usopp not breathing and has to perform CPR on him. Usopp soon arrives and quickly marvels at the expanse of the White Sea as well. Nami can see that Log Pose is still heading almost straight up. Robin thinks he needs to go even higher, but he’s not sure how yet. Usopp wants to swim. Sanji warns him not to try until they are sure of the properties of the Sea Clouds. Usopp doesn’t listen and jumps in quickly “swimming” deeper and deeper. Luffy and Chopper are jealous at first because they can’t swim as Devil Fruit users. But when he fails to come back up, Robin suggests that the White Sea has no bottom and he is not swimming but falling. Luffy stretches his arm through the White Sea and Robin uses her Hana Hana no Mi, Ojos Fleur power to look at Luffy’s arms looking for Usopp. They find him when they break through the bottom of the Emperonimbus Clouds and Robin uses Veinte Fleur to reach out to grab him.
Pulling Usopp back onto the ship is surprisingly difficult. When he breaks through the surface, he is followed by the Sky Eel and the tentacles of the Sky Octopus. Zoro slashes with his tentacle and to everyone’s surprise it bursts like a balloon. Sanji knocks out the eel and it hangs limp and deflated over the ship’s railing. Zoro comments on how thin the air is while Sanji thinks about the strange creatures. Usopp screams as he feels the Sky Fish wriggling in his suit, then curls up into a fetal position on the deck, muttering “sky island scary” repeatedly after the personal horrors he’s already experienced. Robin and Nami investigate the Sky Fish. Robin thinks about adapting sea creatures to swim in sea clouds. Luffy then catches the fish and Sanji sautes it. Luffy finds it tasty. Nami is at first angry that they cooked her sample until she tasted it too and found it tasty too. While they wonder if they can cook a Sky Eel as well, Chopper looks for Skypiea through the binoculars. Instead, he finds an abandoned ship in the distance and falls aboard in terror.
Chopper warns that something is heading this way. A man with a shield and a bazooka-like weapon attacks the Going Merry and tries to destroy it. The strange person quickly knocks down Zoro, Sanji, and Luffy, then jumps out and heads. However, he is stopped by the other man who tackles him from the bird. The first blocks with a shield, but is knocked into the White Sea. The second man boards the Going Merry and reveals himself to be the Knight of the Sky, an old man in armor along with his riding bird, Pierre. Nami comments that it was shameful that their top three fighters lost so handily. Chopper thanks Sky Knight, who says that this rescue was “on the house”. Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji are all cocky; Robin thinks it’s because of the thin air at their 7,000 meter altitude. Sky Knight quickly recognizes the crew as “People of the Blue Sea”. He says there is no way they can last even higher up in the White White Sea, at 10,000 meters. But Luffy thinks he’s getting used to it.
The Sky Knight says he is a mercenary and offers his help to those who are not used to fighting in the sky. He offers his services for 5,000,000 Extol, but the crew is completely unfamiliar with the Skypiean economy. He is surprised to find that they have arrived in the Knock Up Stream and Nami is upset that they actually came by an unusual route. Sky Knight asks if all their crew arrived alive. He says that usually crews lose a few men on normal routes, but with the Knock Up Stream it’s either they all live or they all die. He sees it as proof that the crew is capable of handling themselves in the sky. For this he gives them a free whistle; they can call for his help one more time for free if needed. He introduces himself as “Gan Fall”. Before saying goodbye, she reveals that Pierre ate the Uma Uma no Mi Devil Fruit, which allowed him to transform into a Pegasus. The crew is disappointed that the mythical Pegasus looks so ordinary.
After the encounter, the crew still doesn’t know how to get up to the White White Sea. Luffy suggests using the Whistle and asking Gano Fallo for directions, but Nami and Usopp stop him. Chopper spots a cloud in the shape of a waterfall and they sail in that direction. On the way, they stop among other different kinds of clouds that float in the White Sea. For a moment they find rubber clouds floating between the ship and Luffy, Usopp and Chopper jump on them for fun. Nami assumes that they will have to find a way around these clouds, so she asks them to find a way. Usopp finds a gate at the base of a waterfall and they float past the clouds until they reach Heaven’s Gate. At this point, Zoro begins to wonder if they are really dead. Someone emerges and takes pictures. Knowing she has wings, she first thinks she is an angel, though Luffy is disappointed that she is so wrinkled.
She reveals herself as an Amazon, a ship inspector at Heaven’s Gate, and demands a toll of 1,000,000,000 Extol per person as dictated by law. He says he doesn’t have to pay because he’s not a vigilante and he’s only asking about their intentions. Luffy says they don’t have money, the crew still doesn’t know what “extols” are, and asks how they get up. At this point, a giant sea lobster, the “Express Lobster”, grabs the stumps of the Going Merry’s broken wings and begins to swim up the waterfall, carrying them to Skypiea. As they travel, the Amazon calls out to “almighty God” that the ship is illegally entering Skypiea with 7 passengers and asks that he bring “heavenly judgment” upon them.