A massive warship plummeted from the sky, crashing into the sea with a thunderous roar. Towering waves surged in its wake, frothing and churning in chaos.
Even the wolf-headed warship bobbing on the waves could only drift helplessly, powerless in the face of the incoming tsunami, bracing to avoid being swallowed whole by the sea.
A blinding slash erupted from the deck of the wolf-headed warship, slicing clean through a falling vessel over eighty meters long. The bisected hulls plummeted into the ocean with a tremendous splash, sending up a wall of seawater that nearly engulfed the ship below.
"So that's a ship falling from the sky?!" Oliver clung to the railing with one hand, gripping Nagamitsu in the other, his voice trembling with disbelief as he stared upwards.
"This is insane! A ship that size falling from the sky could cause a tidal wave on its own!" Arlan, soaked from head to toe, wrapped himself tightly around the mast.
"It really is falling from the sky... Don't tell me Sky Island is real?" Dimitri, holding the helm steady, stared at the heavens in shock and wonder.
It was one thing to hear legends—another to see them crash down on you, quite literally. With ship after ship dropping from the sky, it was hard to deny the possibility of seas and islands floating high above.
"No matter how impossible something seems, in the Grand Line, it's just another day." At the bow, Aeridar spoke with gravity, though even he was unsettled. In the original timeline, the Straw Hats only saw one ship fall. Why are there so many now?
Clinging to the side, Gorbo was drenched in cold sweat. "If this is what 'normal' looks like here, I want out."
"C-Captain! We're gonna die!"
"This is terrifying!"
"Captain, another ship's falling!"
Aboard the Chris, chaos erupted among the 200-plus crew as yet another ship came hurtling from the clouds. Screams filled the air, but there was nowhere to run, only the deck beneath their feet and the stormy sea beyond.
A shockwave burst from the warship's deck, smashing a falling ship to splinters midair, the wreckage scattering across the waves like toothpicks.
And yet, ship after massive ship kept crashing down, four, five in total, each one shaking the Chris to its core as it plowed forward through the turbulent sea. It felt as though the next wave might be their last.
Eventually, the Chris Pirates broke free from the hellish waters.
Once, it was a backwater. But ever since the legend of "Liar" Noland claimed there was gold here, it had become a haven for dreamers, drifters, and cutthroat pirates. Add the whispers of Sky Island, and more and more began to arrive. Over time, Jaya became a den of pirates, a lawless harbor of hope and death.
According to canon, in Sea Circle Calendar 1122, around 400 years ago, Mont Blanc Noland and his crew landed on Jaya to escape a storm. There, they saved the Shandians from the deadly Tree Fever, ending their practice of human sacrifice and forming a fast friendship with the great warrior, Kalgara.
Though Noland saved the Shandians, he felled their sacred trees in the process, unintentionally offending their faith. Kalgara, misled, cast Noland out. Only later, after learning the truth from his daughter, did Kalgara regret missing his chance to say goodbye.
From that day on, the Shandians rang the great golden bell every day, hoping to guide their friend back.
But one fateful day, an enormous Knock-Up Stream tore a chunk of Jaya from the sea and launched it 10,000 meters into the sky. Noland and Kalgara were torn apart—worlds apart.
In 1127, Noland returned at the king's command to search again for the Golden City. But the island he knew had already been blasted into the White Sea. Unable to find it, he was condemned for treason and executed. Branded "Liar Noland," his final words were that the Golden City did exist, words no one believed.
From then on, his story became a North Blue fairy tale. Noland was remembered not as a hero, but a fool who told tall tales to the end.
His descendant, Mont Blanc Cricket, arrived on Jaya ten years before the present day, two years ago in this timeline. Driven to prove Noland's truth, he dove day after day beneath the sea, searching for proof that the Golden City had once been here.
Now, on Jaya's eastern shore, the great wolf-headed warship, the Chris, pulled into harbor. Dozens of pirate ships of varying size were already docked. Some were small, barely fifty meters long, but no less threatening.
From the shore, a hulking pirate with a bottle of rum in hand watched the Chris glide into port.
"Whoa, another big one. That ship's a beast," he muttered, a gleam in his eye. "Maybe the captain's got a bounty over 50 million... Or maybe it's another third-rate crew who just got lucky. Either way, this'll be fun to watch."
He took a hearty swig of rum, grinning with schadenfreude.
Jaya ran on jungle law. Might made right. The strong kept what was theirs; the weak lost everything—ships, treasure, sometimes even their lives. This pirate had been here two years. He'd seen plenty of flashy newcomers sail in from the Blues, only to be stripped, beaten, or buried.
But then he saw him, the man disembarking from the Chris. Black coat with white wave trim. Easy smile. A gold ring hanging from his ear.
"Wait a second... that guy looks familiar..."
He dug into his belt pouch, flipping through a stack of bounty posters.
"Not him... not this one... that guy's way too ugly... oh—"
The pirate's hand trembled. Sweat beaded on his brow as he stared at the wanted poster.
"G-Golden Ring... Aeridar. Three... three hundred million berries..."
His voice dropped to a whisper. "What the hell is a guy like that doing here...?"
Three hundred million. On an island where the highest bounty was barely sixty million. And this wasn't just Aeridar, this was the whole Chris Pirates, with three pirates each boasting nine-figure bounties.
The man's knees almost buckled.
This wasn't just another flashy crew.
This was a monster ship, and Jaya was about to feel the quake.
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