The First Half of the Grand Line, Gaya Island, here is an island shaped like a skull, but the eye part is visibly missing a large chunk.
And that missing part is the target of Arceus's journey. If there's a place known for its gold, what left a deep impression on him is the Sky Island above Gaya Island.
The ancient city of Shandora, known as the Golden Land, was once here. Shandora, meaning a glorious city, was truly a place that could be described as paved with gold.
However, nearly four hundred years ago, Gaya Island encountered an unexpected event.
A Sky-reaching Sea Flow happened to occur beneath Gaya Island, sending a large part of it up tens of thousands of meters high into the sky, including Shandora.
The part that was shot into the high sky didn't fall back down but landed on an Island Cloud in the sky, thus becoming part of Sky Island.
Sky Islands are scattered all over the world. Previously, Little Sky Island, where the Thousand-Year Dragon lived, decades later in the original timeline, the Sky Island where Kaidou plays jumping is made up of Island Clouds and is scattered in the sky.
However, as the Sea Cloud that allows ship navigation is limited in distribution, Sky Islands may not necessarily be connected, so the relationships between Sky Islands are not very strong.
Small Sky Islands may even be blown away by the wind, while only large Sky Islands can remain in a fixed spot.
There are also some artificially controlled Little Sky Islands, like Vesperia, where a group of meteorologists resides.
Nowadays, there are still many such islands, because the Golden Lion is still active outside. Even though he lost over half of his fleet and got a ship helm stuck in his head, he's still a powerful pirate, enjoying his hegemony in the New World.
Although part of Gaya Island was sent tens of thousands of meters into the sky by the sea flow, the other parts still remain in the Blue Sea and gradually turned into a pirate island.
Because navigating the Grand Line requires relying on Log Poses, which only point to the next island after storing the information of the current island. But the airborne Shandora caused pirates arriving here to have their Log Poses pointing to the sky.
Without an Eternal Pose, they didn't know the route to the Sky Island and were left stuck here, making it hard to advance or retreat.
Eventually, a special town formed on the island, a town composed of pirates - Demon Valley Town.
And here became the marker for Arceus to locate the Sky Island he needed.
Two months later, Gaya Island, nearby sea area, the Origin has appeared here and the Log Pose starts pointing towards the sky.
"Godfather, Godfather, is there really an island in the sky?"
"Of course, whether it's the sky or the deep sea, islands might exist, and even among the stars, it's not an exception. This world is much bigger than you imagine."
She might not have understood the latter part, but Arceus's words made her realize one thing: there truly is an island in the sky.
She hasn't yet seen the Fishman Island in the deep sea. When crossing the Red Earth Continent, Arceus used Electromagnetic Floating to lift the whole ship up and then flew over the high skies.
But after crossing it, they landed back on the sea. He had no intention of always floating the ship in the sky; this voyage carried some educational meaning, too.
"Lord Arceus, we are nearly there, what should we do now?"
"How are the supplies on the ship?"
"We still have enough food, but we need to replenish fresh water."
"Then let's dock at the island ahead and rest. The next stop is the Sky Island." For these past two months, the crew hasn't stopped much to rush onward, even supplementing supplies was just brief docking.
They should rest well before the formal action because it's tens of thousands of meters high, and a group of people collapsing from altitude sickness would be bad.
As for the children on the ship, you could see fatigue on Maria and Jack's faces. The excitement of their first voyage faded considerably after two months, but Yamato still maintained her initial excitement.
Although Demon Valley Town is a town gathered by pirates, it is not yet an outlaw zone. It's quite similar to an ordinary town.
The supplies here rely entirely on passing merchant ships. If it became an outlaw zone, causing other ships to bypass it, the people here wouldn't survive, so there are still some rules in the town.
After the Origin docked, these pirates began refilling the ship's necessary supplies, checking whether the ship's body had any damage, while some others wandered into the town. As Arceus said, this was their rest period.
Rest for pirates is not sleeping in bed. Going for a drink at a tavern on land is the basic way to relax. Nearly every island has its own specialties in alcohol and food, and this is how pirates amuse themselves during voyages.
However, there must always be someone left on the ship, so the crew on the pirate ship took turns. Those who didn't disembark last time now left first.
"Jack, Maria, let's go too. After staying on the ship for so long."
The two seemed tempted, but they didn't respond immediately. Instead, they looked at Arceus, as unlike Yamato, they didn't have as many privileges.
"If you want to go, go ahead. After all, it's just Paradise. Mandfeish, Zeraora, watch over these three, don't let anything happen."
Having brought them out to sea, he didn't intend to treat them as fragile items. However, necessary protection was needed.
Otherwise, like the case with Kuja Pirates, where children of the pirate group get captured by traffickers, would be very absurd.
"As you command, rest assured."
Mandfeish has a trait; even when relaxing, he never drinks nor approaches women. Among those officers, he is the most trustworthy one.
Plus with Zeraora, he didn't think anything on Gaya Island could threaten them.
Therefore, among the crowd of pirates going ashore was an odd combination of three children and four Chanseys. As for Riko, who has never left Wano Kuni and was recently experiencing acclimatization issues, she rested on the ship.
There were also two female pirates staying with her. Although female pirates are relatively few, there are quite a few now under Hundred Beasts Pirates.
.....
Demon Valley Town Tavern, this isn't a prosperous town, so there's only one shop.
It also serves as a restaurant. If you want to drink or find food on the island, this is the only choice.
Those pirates, as well as the former pirates now living in the town, are here. They boast about past events or discuss recent big news every day.
When newcomers arrive, it gives them more new topics to talk about.
And today, a group of oddly styled people walked in...