Summary:
The Straw Hat crew find themselves breathing heavily as they reach what appears to be a sea of clouds in the sky. Meanwhile, the Blackbeard Pirates discuss how the Straw Hats got onto the rest of their raft that destroyed the Knock Up Stream. Burgess insists that they pursue the Straw Hats, but their captain assures them that they will meet again if they both stay in the Great Line.
Once they get used to the atmosphere, the Straw Hats are amazed by the scenery on the sea of clouds. Chopper interrupts the crew to tell them that Usopp isn’t breathing and then performs CPR on him. Meanwhile, Nami notes that the log’s pose is still pointing up, to which Robin replies that maybe they’re just the middle part of the millennium cumulonimbus. Usopp decides to go for a swim, which Sanji doesn’t recommend since they still don’t know anything about the Sky Sea, but he ignores him and dives in anyway. During the dive, Usopp is surprised by the little resistance of the sky sea and comments on how very blurry it is. He then decides to dive even deeper.
Back on the ship, the crew notices that Usopp hasn’t returned yet. Robin expresses concern and questions whether there really is a seabed in the Sea of Heaven. This leads them to conclude that Usopp fell from the cloud. Luffy reaches into the clouds to save Usopp, but says he can only rely on his sense of touch as he can’t see through the clouds, which Robin assures him he can do. She uses her devil fruit ability to sprout eyes all over Luffy’s hand as well as the rest of his arm. Combining their devil fruit powers, they manage to grab Usopp and pull him back to the ship. However, a giant octopus and a sea monster come behind Usopp and try to attack the ship, but Zoro immediately cuts down one of the octopuses before Sanji joins in and defeats them. Robin is interested in the fish that ended up on Merry. He states that the fish is actually a skyfish, a strange creature described in Noland’s journal, and assumes that since there is no seabed in the ocean, the skyfish had to evolve into different forms in order to survive. As a result, some of the sky fish flattened and some became like balloons to become lighter, because the buoyancy force in the sky ocean is much weaker than in sea water. Nami also adds that the skyfish’s scales look like feathers and that its carnivorous mouth is weird. While they were still talking, Luffy catches a sky fish and has Sanji fry it. Luffy takes a bite, exclaiming that it was delicious, but Nami yells at him that they’re not done yet. Nami then takes the food and tries it herself.
While most of the crew concentrate on the celestial fishbowl, Chopper notices another human-looking ship in the distance and attacks and destroys it. Before the panicked helicopter can explain the situation to its crewmates, a masked man arrives, seemingly running through the clouds, and attempts to attack Merry. Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji try to fight the attacker, but are quickly overpowered. Nami calls out to the three and asks what’s going on with them while Usopp keeps muttering that Sky Island is scary. Just as the attacker is about to finish off the crew with his cannon, another mysterious individual appears. He spears the attacker, sending him into the sea of heaven. Nami cries and asks who it is now. The mysterious savior reveals himself. An old man in armor and riding a huge bird. He introduces himself to the Straw Hats as “The Knight of Heaven”.