Second Wind

42

"Amazing! It's like a tropical paradise!" Nami shouted in glee.

This caused Robin to frown. "Tropical?" she thought aloud.

"Something wrong, Robin-chan?" Sanji asked.

"I just thought of it now, but how can it be so warm up here?" Robin asked. "We are, after all, 10,000 meters above sea level. This place should by all rights be colder than the peaks of the highest mountains, and yet it is not only able to support entire civilizations of life, but actually has a tropical climate. How is that possible?"

"The same way the knock up stream forms underneath an island," Luffy said sagely. Robin turned to him curiously.

"I was wondering about that as well," she admitted. "It's not as if islands float on the sea after all."

Luffy desperately wanted to exclaim that it was a mystery island, but knew that while he was content in just enjoying the ride, Robin actually showed genuine interest in knowing and understanding these types of things. He rubbed his head sheepishly.

"Sorry Robin. I don't actually know. I was just saying that neither of them really make sense."

Robin blinked and smiled lightly. "Oh, I suppose I should have gathered that. I guess I'm just too curious."

Nami was giving serious thought to the question, but was broken out of her theorizing when Luffy shouted. "We've reached land!"

"It's...an angel!" Sanji shouted. Normally Nami would facepalm upon hearing this, but she had to admit that the exclamation had merit. The girl had wings, much like the old woman who had allowed them to enter. The fact that they were currently on a sky island made the concept of an angel almost credible.

Said girl turned to them in surprise, but soon smiled. "Heso!" she greeted, confusing the Strawhats with the unfamiliar speech.

As it turned out, the girl, who introduced herself as Conis, and her father, who arrived shortly afterwards, were both inhabitants of Angel Island, which was the part of Skypeia they were currently in. Looking closely, they could see that the entire island was made of the same solid cloudy material that they had come across in the White Sea below, which Robin claimed must have been how Jaya would be able to float on it. It was supported by what Conis confirmed was called island cloud, while the island cloud floated on the White White Sea.

"I'm sorry," Conis' father, who had introduced himself as Pagaya interrupted, "But where is Jaya? I've never heard of such a place."

"Oh, sorry!" Nami said, realizing they were excluding Conis and her father from the conversation. Jaya is an island on the Blue Sea, where we came from."

Suddenly Conis turned pale and fell backwards onto the beach, causing many of the Strawhats to frown. Pagaya had a grave expression on his face.

"Conis-chan," Sanji said worriedly, "Are you alright?"

"You all," she gasped, "You're from the Blue Sea...?"

"That's right," Luffy said blankly, but inwardly he was wondering what was wrong. Conis hadn't reacted this way last time. Was it because of...oh.

Zoro turned toward Luffy. "The old lady did say we would be criminals from the get go," he reminded everyone. "Maybe we shouldn't be staying here. We might get Conis involved."

"You...entered illegally?" Pagaya asked. "But how...the milky road can't be traversed without the-"

"That old lady let us in," Usopp interrupted. "She said we could come, but we'd be treated as criminals. Maybe this was a bad idea in retrospect..."