Chapter 287: The Cloud-Borne Kingdom
Since there was nothing else to do anyway, Ian decided to act on the spot. He grabbed Baby-5 and prepared to ascend into the sky!
Taking a larger group along was probably out of the question, so Ian only planned for the two of them to go and check out what this Sky Island was really like.
Ian and Baby-5 stood together, waiting for Fujitora to apply the weightlessness effect on them. Although Baby-5 was a tough girl herself, when the moment actually came, she suddenly felt a bit nervous. Her voice trembling slightly, she asked Ian, "Can we not go? I heard there are monsters on Sky Islands!"
"Relax, what monsters do you have to fear when you're with me?" Ian lowered his head and smiled at her. "Get ready now!"
Ian reached out and wrapped his arm tightly around Baby-5's waist. Fujitora's ability activated, and the two of them floated up lightly, rising slowly into the air.
Generally speaking, near the ground, there are usually updrafts caused by the heat from the earth's surface. So under weightlessness, slowly rising wasn't strange. However, as mentioned before, once they reached a certain height where the updrafts stopped, they would just float in place. Fujitora's ability only removed gravity from objects; it couldn't make them negatively buoyant.
The moment they started floating, Ian noticed Baby-5 was still very tense. A mischievous idea popped into his head, and he gave her butt a pinch, saying, "Hey, I didn't expect you to have quite a bit going on back there!"
Caught off guard by Ian's wandering hand, Baby-5 forgot her nervousness. Her face flushed bright red as she looked up at Ian, indignantly saying, "You... how dare you!"
But before Baby-5 could finish her sentence, Yardie below suddenly let out a loud roar and punched upward toward Ian's feet. Ian bent his knees and, using the immense force from Yardie's fist, launched himself upward with Baby-5 in his arms!
Yardie's fist strength was indeed enormous—conservatively estimated to be on par with Sardine's. Although this young man didn't have a Devil Fruit ability, he possessed innate divine strength. Using the force from Yardie's punch, Ian and Baby-5 shot upward at incredible speed. The howling wind rushed past, and Baby-5, with a breath caught in her mouth, couldn't make a sound anymore.
As they ascended, Baby-5 clung tightly to Ian, terrified of accidentally falling. In truth, she had no need to worry. Fujitora was below, sensing them with his powerful Observation Haki to track them. As long as Fujitora didn't cancel his ability, even if they were high in the sky, they wouldn't fall.
During the ascent, Ian felt the temperature dropping rapidly. He had no idea how high they had flown. The acceleration from Yardie's punch was gradually fading. Looking up at the clouds above, they seemed a bit closer, but the distance was still vast.
When their speed finally slowed to a halt, Ian could feel cold winds blowing at this altitude. To keep himself and Baby-5 from being blown away, he quickly shook Baby-5 twice to get her to open her eyes.
Fortunately, after getting past her initial nervousness, Baby-5 gradually calmed down. She looked down at the ground, then up at the clouds above, and said to Ian, "Hold on tight! I'm going to transform!"
She didn't need to say it; Ian was already planning to do that. He wrapped his arms around Baby-5's waist.
"Weapon Transformation: Missile Girl!"
Being this close and held this tightly by a man other than the big buffalo Buffalo, Baby-5 was experiencing it for the first time. Her face reddened, and to cover it up, she quickly transformed into a strange missile.
The top of this missile had a pair of eyes with an eye patch, just like Baby-5's. And the most bizarre part was that the missile was even smoking a cigarette! Ian watched in amazement but still held on tightly with both arms and legs around the middle of the missile.
Normally, when Baby-5 transformed into Missile Girl, Buffalo would throw her toward the target. But this time, there was no choice; she had to rely on her own power to fly. The tail of the missile ignited with a whoosh, spewing out a long flame, carrying the two of them rapidly toward the clouds above.
Ian had no idea where the missile's flames came from. He just thought that Devil Fruit abilities were sometimes really unscientific. If he tried to think too deeply about it, he'd lose a ton of brain cells.
Since Baby-5 had mentioned earlier that flying on her own power consumed a lot of stamina, her missile sprint didn't last long before she ran out of steam.
But by then, Ian and Baby-5 had gotten much closer to the clouds.
The missile that Baby-5 had transformed into sputtered a few times, its tail flame coughing like a choking fire, and then shut down. Baby-5 couldn't maintain her transformation and reverted back.
As a result, Ian, who had been clinging to the missile body like a koala, suddenly found his hands grabbing her chest. And being the sly guy he was, since it felt good, he gave it a couple more squeezes!
Baby-5 let out a scream and, mustering her last bit of strength, shoved Ian away.
Ian didn't mind. He had been planning to separate for a moment anyway. After being pushed away, he quickly unwrapped the cursed bandage on his right wrist, tossed the Black Dragon Wave upward, and then caught it with his entire body as it came down!
The scorching Black Dragon Wave disappeared into Ian's body. Then, with a sudden burst, a pair of massive black flame wings appeared on his back!
He flew over, scooped Baby-5 up in a princess carry, and then controlled his flight direction, charging rapidly toward the top of the clouds.
At that moment, Ian's body temperature was extremely high. If Baby-5 were held like this, she might get burned. But fortunately, the high altitude and low temperature made her instinctively snuggle closer into Ian's embrace.
She was instinctively seeking warmth. Ian's arms felt comfortable and reassuring to her.
"Maybe... joining the Dragon Hunter Pirates wouldn't be so bad..." This thought suddenly crossed Baby-5's mind. For some reason, she was gradually starting to miss her young master Doflamingo less and less...
The shape of the clouds was becoming clearer and clearer. Ian's flight speed was very fast. Although his Psychic Power consumption was high, his recovery rate was also quite fast now. Balancing the two, he could maintain his flight state for much longer than he had initially estimated!
After about a minute and a half, Ian reached the bottom of the clouds. It was only then that both Ian and Baby-5 got a clear look at what was underneath the clouds. They were shocked to find that beneath the clouds floated countless colorful, densely packed balloons!
That's right, balloons! The kind of hydrogen balloons you often hear about. The tops of these balloons were pressed tightly against the bottom of the clouds, making it look as if the entire cloud mass was being held up by them.
This Sky Island was very different from what Ian had imagined. He had thought the bottom of the clouds would be made of accumulated volcanic ash or something!
"Still have any energy left?" Ian looked down at Baby-5 in his arms and asked.
"A little!" Baby-5 had recovered somewhat by then and nodded.
"Good! Fire a shot at the clouds!" Ian said. "Let's see if we can break through!"
Without another word, Baby-5 transformed into a mortar in Ian's arms. Ian carried her and fired a shell upward at the clouds.
The shell flew out, first hitting some of the balloons at the bottom of the clouds. But strangely, these balloons didn't explode as expected. Instead, they were just pushed aside by the shell. The shell continued forward, pushing through the densely stacked layers of balloons, and drilled into the clouds.
"Doesn't seem like much resistance!" Ian said. Seeing the shell go in, he no longer hesitated. Holding the now-reverted Baby-5, he accelerated upward, stretching his right hand forward like a spear, and plunged headfirst into the clouds!
As they passed through the clouds, Ian felt a soft, thick texture all around. These clouds were indeed solidified, not just water vapor as he had imagined.
Just as his Psychic Power was about to run out, Ian suddenly saw light ahead. With a pop, they finally broke through the clouds and saw the sunlight again.
Floating in midair, Ian and Baby-5 suddenly felt a heaviness under their feet and began to fall from the sky. Ian knew this meant Fujitora had sensed they had arrived and had canceled the weightlessness effect.
Worried they might fall, Ian was relieved when his toes touched the clouds. The surface of the clouds was indeed solid enough to stand on.
After setting Baby-5 down, Ian stood at the edge of the clouds, looking down. Everything below had become so tiny. The ocean below was still blue, but the islands they were on had turned into small black dots.
"Whoa—!!!" Ian couldn't help but let out an excited yell! His voice echoed through the high sky.
How amazing! This feeling was truly incredible! No wonder so many people dreamed of visiting a Sky Island. Standing on such clouds felt like being in a heavenly kingdom above the clouds!
What excited Ian the most was that he had actually made it up here, and in such an unbelievable way—by flying straight up!
"Captain, look!" Baby-5's voice came from behind. Lately, she had gotten used to calling him "Captain," just like the other members of the Dragon Hunter Pirates.
Ian turned around and followed the direction Baby-5 was pointing. In the distance ahead, there was actually a massive cluster of buildings!
There were really people on these clouds!? So this was indeed a Sky Island!
Ian fumbled around in his hat and pulled out a Video Den Den Mushi. Konenai had given it to him before they came up. Although only Ian and Baby-5 had ascended, they could transmit the images back down for everyone to watch via this Video Den Den Mushi.
When Ian held up the Video Den Den Mushi, and its two big eyes transmitted the image of the building cluster on the Sky Island below, the members of the Dragon Hunter Pirates also let out huge gasps of surprise.
"Let's go check it out!" Ian said to Baby-5. "Let's see if we can meet any Sky Islanders!"
Baby-5 nodded excitedly. Adventures like this were truly captivating.
However, what Ian didn't expect was that before they even reached the building cluster ahead, they first spotted a broken wooden sign.
The sign was badly damaged, but the writing on it could still be vaguely made out. Ian squinted to read it and muttered the name: "Barron Gray Terminal!"
Boom! A thunderbolt seemed to strike Ian's mind, and he was instantly stunned!
Barron Gray Terminal!? Wasn't this the Sky Island where Kaido of the Beasts jumped from when he tried to commit suicide from high altitude!?
Cold sweat immediately broke out on Ian's forehead. Could it be that they might run into that guy Kaido here!?