【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

"Then please take in the sails immediately and hold on to the boat tightly!"

"Hey! Do as the uncle says! We may have to move at high speed!!" Usopp shouted.

"That's right, after all, it's 700 meters high!" Luffy shouted excitedly, and then he and Sanji jumped onto the mainmast to reef the sails.

"Hurry up, move all the gold into the cabin!" Nami announced loudly.

"Chirp!" A southern bird flew towards them quickly.

"It said don't forget me!" Chopper translated.

"I almost forgot it came with us." Nami said helplessly, then looked at the record pointer on her wrist, turned to look at Luffy and said with a smile, "Then Captain, the record of the next island can also be seen clearly!"

"Very good, next, we are going to start a new adventure!!" Luffy grinned and said, "Brothers...we are going back to Qinghai!!"

"Whoa whoa!!"

"We are about to land, be careful everyone!" Conis warned loudly.

"Landing?" everyone repeated in confusion. The next second, the ship suddenly fell down, successfully making them understand what Connis meant. "Wow!!!"

"Go! Sky Island specialty!" Conis said as he pulled out a silver whistle from his pocket and blew into it. "Octopus balloon!"

At the same time, as Merry was falling, a huge inflated octopus appeared in the sky above her. It held Merry steadily, slowing down her falling speed and making her float slowly downwards.

"Wow, it's a balloon!!" Luffy shouted excitedly.

"This is awesome!" Chopper exclaimed.

"I... I thought I was dead this time..." Usopp said with tears streaming down his face while lying on the deck.

"Boom...boom..."

Suddenly the sound of the golden bell rang again, loud, clear and majestic. They all knew the reason for the bell ringing this time. It was saying goodbye to them and hoping they would come again.

……

Gaya Island

An unusual silence shrouded the tavern, which was quite unsettling. It was already noon and normally the place would be filled with hungry pirates dining, but it was now almost empty.

Only a few brave pirates hid themselves in the darkest corners of the tavern, but they still tried their best to avoid being noticed by the man sitting at the bar.

He arrived early, and as soon as he arrived at the tavern, he ordered a lot of food, and ate it all quickly and furiously. This continued twice, until at the end of the second time, his desire for food seemed to finally subside, and he slowly ate the remaining food on the bar, then sat down at his seat holding a weathered map, muttering to himself.

As a town full of pirates, they were used to all kinds of unusual visitors and had experienced all kinds of things, but it was the first time they saw two Whitebeard pirates within a few days, not to mention that this one was Whitebeard's second team captain, 'Fire Fist' Ace!

Ace noticed that everyone was avoiding him, it was actually quite frustrating, he needed to find out, talk to them, but he did forget to bring his shirt this time.

Since he entered the tavern, almost no one had come in, and he guessed that his identity as a whitebeard had kept them all in hiding, because even the few who remained steadfastly ignored his attempts to talk to them.

What a pity, Ace thought as he scratched his black hair. When Lucci was about to go to Jaya alone, he felt inexplicably uneasy and anxious, especially that night two days ago when Lucci's life paper suddenly began to burn at an alarming speed. At that moment, a feeling of fear and anger filled his entire body.

He knew that Lucci would not listen to him and wait for him there, but he didn't expect it to happen so soon. The burning life paper confirmed the fact that he fought with Blackbeard on the night he landed on the island. At that moment, his desire to kill that bastard Teach reached its peak. Fortunately, before he made an uncontrollable move, the life paper began to recover.

He had been going at top speed all week, except for a few times when his narcolepsy attacked him, luckily he didn't fall into the sea, but the whole narcolepsy was really torturous.

Ace sighed heavily. It had been four days since Lucci's life paper suddenly burned. He dialed Lucci's Den Den Mushi's number as soon as he landed on the island yesterday, but he didn't expect to hear it in a small boat docked at the port, and found Lucci's bag and his Den Den Mushi there.

When he realized that Lucci had not left here, he was eager to confirm this. Although the life paper felt like it was floating upwards, he ignored it.

Although he really wanted to know what happened to Lucci on this island, no one in this town spoke, Ace's eyes kept moving between the map in front of him and the life paper in his hand. This morning he discovered that Lucci's life paper was no longer just pointing upwards, but in another direction, although it still pointed to the sky.

"I...can I give you something?" Ace raised his head and raised his eyebrows to look at the tavern owner. Since he came in, this man had been silent and was almost afraid of him like everyone else.

Ace put on a pleasant smile, trying to make the man in front of him relax. "Have you seen this man in the past two days?" Ace said as he rummaged through his pocket for Lucci's bounty poster. Without even looking at it, he raised his hand and unfolded the poster in his hand to show it to the tavern owner.

The tavern owner gasped as he looked at the poster Ace had unfolded, "Are you looking for Straw Hat Luffy? He did cause quite a scene in this town the other day."

"What? No...huh?" Ace turned the poster around in shock, realizing that he had taken the wrong one, and quickly put the poster away. Suddenly he realized something and exclaimed, "Are you saying that Luffy has appeared here recently?!"

The tavern owner nodded. "He was here two days ago arguing with a big bearded man about whether the cherry pie was delicious or not." The owner continued, "Because that night he beat Bellamy, who has the highest bounty here, with one punch, so I was deeply impressed."

"Where did he go after that? Has he left?" Ace was excited to hear the news about Luffy unexpectedly.

"He went to Sky Island." The boss said seriously. Although they didn't believe that Sky Island really existed at first, the beautiful bell sound coming from the sky three days ago and the same bell sound faintly heard this morning told them that Sky Island really existed. Even Bellamy, who had always denied the existence of Sky Island, was preparing to set off today.

"So Lucci is also on Sky Island? That's why his life paper is always pointing to the sky?" Ace breathed a sigh of relief. He finally understood why the life paper was pointing to the sky. He also knew Lucci's location. However, what puzzled him was why Lucci wanted to go to Sky Island?

Suddenly realizing that Luffy was also on Sky Island, a guess emerged in his mind that this was something Luffy might do. Ace groaned and sighed, and he thought he knew the reason.