110. Sea of Clouds
"ADD THE OIL! DON'T LET THE AIR COOLED DOWN!" shouts Buggy to his crew.
The Clowns do as he said and add more oil to make the fire bigger. They're not in a good situation right now as rain has poured down.
They can handle the wind with Jude's navigational skills. But the rain is truly a trouble because it makes the hot air inside the balloon get colder.
Luckily, they brought a lot of oil to burn, so they can make a bigger fire. They just need to make sure that the air's temperature doesn't drop because it will make them fall into the sea again.
The Clowns have reached 9 km above sea level when the rain poured down. Just 1 or 2 km again before they reach the Sky Island. It will be very bad if they fail and fall to the sea. They're not Kaido who can survive a fall from such height.
They keep working to make the air stays at the same temperature. However, the rain is very strong and the falling water droplets push the balloon down. If they can't get past the rain fast, then their fuel will run out before they can reach Sky Island.
"Captain, the ship is not moving up," says Jude worriedly.
"Damn, how about the fire?" asks Buggy.
"We can't make it bigger or it will burn the balloon. The strong wind also makes the fire weaker," says Ruff.
"Tsk, it can't go on like this. We need to be fast or we'll run out of fuel," says Buggy.
"We know, but we can't do anything now. No one can stop the rain," says Jude.
"Hmm? Stopping the rain?" asks Buggy like he gets an idea.
Buggy looks at the rain cloud that is rather close to them. They're just some hundred meters away from the clouds now. He calculates the distance before grinning and cracking his neck.
"Palu, prepare a rope! I will go up," says Buggy while checking his swords.
"Huh? What will you do?" asks Palu.
"Stopping the rain," says Buggy while grinning.
The Clowns tilt their heads and look at each other in confusion. They don't know what Buggy will do, but Buggy seems very sure of his plan. No one has any idea, so they do what Buggy asked and Palu prepares a long rope.
Buggy tied the rope on his waist before he jumps to the balloon. He climbs it as his crew holds the rope for safety. No one wants Buggy to fall from this height if he slipped while climbing.
Luckily, Buggy is an experienced climber who has climbed 99 mountains in a few days. Climbing this balloon without any tool is very easy for him. He reaches the top in a few minutes and looks up at the rain cloud.
"Let's test my full power now," says Buggy while unsheathing Pollux and Castor.
Buggy activates his armament haki and coats his swords with it. He gets into a horse stance and prepares his swords on his right side together. Buggy charges the swords with his haki as lightning bolts strike around him.
After a minute, Pollux glows white while Castor glows dark blue. They've been charged fully and ready to release their power. But Buggy suddenly detached his hands and send them 10 meters to the right.
"3 Devils' Rage: Sky Slicer!"
Buggy swings his swords upwards in an arc shape from his right to left. The detached hands make the swings a lot faster and have more power. This is Buggy's current strongest technique.
From the swords' swing, a pair of white and blue giant slashing arcs come out. They move up together and intertwine before combining into one arc that keeps getting bigger. It flies up very fast and then it hit the rain clouds.
*SWISH*
The slashing arc hit the cloud and enter it easily. Buggy sheaths his swords to their scabbards while keep looking at the cloud. Nothing changes for a moment, but then,
*RUMBLE* *BOOM*
A rumbling sound is heard before an explosion happens. The rain cloud suddenly splits into 2 parts with a big slice cut. Sunlight passes through the giant hole and shines on the balloon.
"Is he still a human?" asks Deon with a shocked expression.
"No one here knows that," says Manba with a resigned tone.
"Damn, I thought I've got closer to his power. But he has gone to a whole new level," says Palu.
"Don't worry about that. The most important thing for us is not reaching his level. That will just be a pipe dream. What we need to reach is to not hold him back and be able to support him. Besides, this level of power is something that our Captain needs to have if we want to survive on Grandline," says Cricket.
"Yeah, if he's not this strong, then we will need a new Captain," says Mantis while smiling.
The Clowns smile as they look at the giant hole in the cloud. They're proud of their Captain's strength, but they also know that many people are still stronger than him. It makes them more motivated to get stronger again.
Buggy then returns to the ship by jumping down as he has a rope tied on him. He is bungee jumping at 10 km altitude and it's really fun. But the aftermath isn't that fun as he gets scolded by Mantis because his jump has scared them all.
After that small play, they focus again on their journey. The ship keeps moving up and finally passes the giant hole. They keep going up until they see a wide span of white clouds.
They look around at the white clouds and suddenly see some giant fish jumping around. The Clowns are mesmerized by this sight, even Buggy. It is his first time to really see the lives on Sky Island as the one who saw it was the original Buggy.
"This should be the lowest level, the Sky People live on the top level. We need to get higher," says Buggy.
"I'm sorry Captain, but the fuel isn't enough to pass the next cloud. We've spent all of our fuel in that rain," says Ruff while showing their empty oil barrels.
"Sigh, then let's land on that sea of clouds," says Buggy.
The Clowns then move their ship to the sea of clouds. They get down slowly to make sure that the cloud can hold their ship. It will be very bad if the cloud can't hold their ship because they will fall to the sea.
Luckily, that doesn't happen as their ship can float on the cloud. They immediately turn off the fire to deflate the balloon. It takes them 15 minutes to deflate and fold the balloon.
They don't throw the balloon because they will need it to go down again. Buggy knows that they can use the Sky Octopus, but he still keeps the balloon as a backup. Who knows whether this Sky Island has Octopus like the one that Straw Hats visited.
After packing the balloon, the Clowns sail on the Sea of Clouds. They try to find a way to the upper level while trying to get some Sky Fishes. Buggy has told them that these fishes tasted very good, so they're very eager to try it.
They finally get a big flat fish that looks very strange. But they ignore it and still ask Mantis to cook it. They all are skeptical before eating it, but after they try a bite, they melted.
"SO GOOD~," says everyone with a blissed expression.
They devour the fish completely and try to get another one while still looking for a way up. The Clowns finally find the way up after an hour and they've devoured 5 giant Sky Fishes.
Just like the Angel Island, this Sky Island has an entrance gate and sky road that lead to the upper level. They look at the gate that has the Sky Island's name on it. Buggy widens his eyes and grins when he read the name.
He smirks and says, "Birka, now this will be interesting."
______________________________________________________________
You can read up to 30+ chapters ahead of this fanfic novel & the other one on my Pa_treon page if you are interested.
I've uploaded:
1. Chapter 129 of Fairy Tail: Sun Eater
2. Chapter 140 of Transcended as Lord Buggy
https://www.pa_treon.com/CaptMermain
(the web didn't use _underscore_, it's to avoid censorship)