Charles and Stella's battle with the Blackbeard Pirates left barely one building in ten standing in Mock Town.
Some thugs even tried to make Charles pay for the damages, and of course he simply booted them all flying one by one.
He had worried earlier about hurting innocents, but later realized he still lacked a proper grasp of what a lawless zone was like. Here, each and every person was scum whose death would draw cheers.
Two days later, when the Straw Hat Pirates reached Mock Town, all they saw was rubble. Charles and Stella had already set off for the sky island.
Back in Alabasta, for reasons unknown, Robin had asked Charles for advice on where she should go.
Charles's suggestion was that she join the Straw Hat Pirates. In his view, only the atmosphere on that crew could let Robin break free of her nightmares.
As for Luffy, Charles simply told him that becoming Pirate King would be impossible without Robin's help, and Luffy practically got down on his knees to beg her to join.
After leaving Alabasta, they ran into two odd phenomena: shipwrecks falling from the sky, and the Log Pose pointing sharply upward.
Having already heard from Charles of the sky island's existence, Luffy couldn't possibly pass up the chance for an adventure.
But not even Robin had a clue how to get there, so they could only come to Jaya Island to look for leads.
Once they landed, however, what they saw was the shattered Mock Town.
When Charles fought Blackbeard, he hadn't spared a thought for the scum in the town. Anyone caught up in the fight was either dead or injured, and most of the rest had left.
Thus no one was there to cause trouble for Luffy's group in Mock Town this time. At the same time, there was nowhere to search for clues to reach the sky island.
After some wandering, the Straw Hats eventually found the Saruyama Alliance, an organization formed by the descendants of "Noland the Liar."
They had never stopped believing the City of Gold wasn't their ancestor's fabrication, and had kept searching near Jaya for proof of its existence.
From them, the Straw Hat Pirates finally obtained a method of reaching the sky island by riding the Knock Up Stream.
It's worth mentioning that because he feared Charles, Bellamy stayed far away, only to wind up, by bad luck, in the Saruyama Alliance's territory, which led naturally to a clash with the Straw Hats and the Saruyama Alliance.
This time, Bellamy not only mocked Luffy's dream, he also interfered with his goal of reaching the sky island, and Luffy floored him with a single punch.
While the Straw Hats were refitting the Going Merry and waiting for the massive Knock Up Stream, Charles and Stella were already guests in the Cloud-Hidden Village where the Shandians lived in seclusion.
Charles and Stella hardly needed to go to so much trouble to reach the sky island. A mere ten thousand meters—two flaps of Zhongming's wings and they were there.
But just after entering the White Sea at seven thousand meters, they were attacked.
Sky islands exist thanks to a special keratin particle called pyrobloin.
These particles are blasted into the air by volcanic eruptions and combine with moisture to form special cloud layers.
Though these clouds look like normal ones from the outside, their unique composition provides buoyancy sufficient to support ships and even buildings.
This sea of clouds is made of sea clouds identical to seawater, while another type—island cloud—is sturdy enough for people to walk on.
Phenomena like this, which physics cannot explain at all, can only be chalked up to the wonders of creation.
Zhongming hovered over a literal "sea of clouds," letting the two on its back drink in the dreamlike scenery.
At seven thousand meters above the sea, the air was already quite thin. An ordinary person would inevitably succumb to extreme altitude sickness here.
But given Charles and Stella's constitutions, they completely ignored the environment's effects—only for the peace to be broken not long after.
Charles's brow twitched. Just now he had sensed a faint aura brushing past. To be precise, someone was probing his aura with Observation Haki that was still rather immature.
He called it immature because the user had no control over their Observation Haki at all and was using it purely by instinct.
Ordinarily, unlike Conqueror's Haki, both Armament and Observation must be awakened after grueling training by the vast majority of people, as in Luffy's case, which makes lack of control unlikely.
Cases like Koby's sudden awakening of Observation Haki at Marineford are quite rare, which is why he suffered under the sudden flood of information he perceived.
The person peeking at the two of them with Observation Haki clearly wasn't a sudden awakener, and even less someone who had mastered it through training.
On the sky island, Observation Haki is called "Heart Net," regarded as a special ability, and at present only two people possess it.
One is Aisa, a Shandian girl born with the Heart Net, and the other is Enel, user of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
The latter uses his fruit power not only to eavesdrop on all of Angel Island, but even to read brainwaves and thereby people's thoughts.
Charles figured it had to be the former—this aura was simply too faint.
Stella looked at Charles. "Charles, was that…?"
Smiling, he answered, "Probably just a curious little one. But the troublesome ones have shown up too!"
As they spoke, a series of sharp whooshes sounded.
Out here over the empty White Sea, even a weak aura stood out too obviously.
They saw three oddly outfitted people skimming over the cloud sea toward them.
The White Sea's cloud layer is much like seawater and shouldn't be walkable in theory. These three were moving across it entirely thanks to special tools on their feet.
They looked much like skis or skates at a glance, with a rear jet structure providing powerful thrust and letting them move freely over the White Sea.
Their bodies wore only simple feather or fur clothing, leaving large expanses of skin exposed and covered with multicolored tattoos. Their faces, however, were sealed behind huge masks that showed not a bit of face.
Most striking, each had a pair of small white wings on their back, which seemed purely decorative and incapable of flight.
Their weapons were stranger still: of the two on the flanks, one carried a cylindrical rocket launcher, the other a shield and spear.
The one in the lead had a shield strapped to his back, a short blade in one hand, and a rocket launcher hoisted in the other—which he fired at Charles and Stella.
Charles didn't know how a rocket launcher fired a spherical shell, but that wasn't the point.
"Still barbaric—attacking without any attempt at communication! At least size up your opponent first!"
From start to finish, the three didn't say a word, and when they moved, there was not a hint of hesitation. Even knowing what kind of people they were, such barbarity was hard to accept!
The eye slits of the wooden masks narrowed to needle points as the attackers watched their shell get caught barehanded and hurled back.
It flew faster on the return than it had leaving the launcher—by more than a factor of two.
"Dodge!"
He had time only to shout to his companions as he dove aside. The shell grazed him, detonated between the three, and blew their formation apart.
The leader barely kept his footing by sheer skill in handling the board beneath him, but when he looked up he saw Charles, flame wings spread behind him, slam his two companions' heads together.
Masks shattered and blood sprayed, revealing two faces with rolled-back eyes.
"You bastard—what did you do!"
The leader bellowed and raised the rocket launcher, only to see Charles toss the two men at him.
Instinctively, he dropped his weapon to catch them—and saw Charles come straight over the top of their flying bodies to appear in front of him.
"Why the anger? We're the ones who got ambushed."
A minute later, the leader glanced toward his companions, gripped in Zhongming's claws, then glared in frustrated resentment at Charles's hand on his throat.
At last, in a very amiable tone, Charles said, "As compensation for your attack, you won't mind taking us for a little sightseeing in your Shandians' village, right?"
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