The Everlasting One Piece Readalong: Vols. 25-27

Welcome back to the Everlasting One Piece Readalong! We’re reading from the big omnibus versions, which you can grab any time to catch up with our progress. You can find previous installments in the series via the official project tag.

Volumes 25-27 Overview

The Straw Hats strike gold in their search for Sky Island and meet someone who knows how to get them there. Luffy discovers his new bounty, punches a guy, and gets to experience extreme adventure when the Straw Hats successfully find Sky Island, only to discover that their grand adventure has put them smack in the middle of a war and an island under the rule of a tyrannical god.

The Adventure Continues!

The Straw Hats follow the Jaya map to the house of Mont Blanc Cricket. At first, it looks like he lives in a mansion, but when they inspect his house closely they realize it’s an elaborate facade. They can’t ask him about it, because he’s not there. While looking around, Nami finds a children’s book, called Noland the Liar. Sanji recognizes it because he was raised in the North Blue, where the story is very popular.
Parents use Mont Blanc Noland’s story as a teaching tool for children. Noland discovered treasure on an island, and came back and told his king about it. The king, thrilled, set up an expedition to travel back to the place Noland had discovered. But after a hard journey, they arrived and nothing Noland has described was there. Everyone decided Noland had lied and they put him to death. But even as he was executed he was convinced the place he had found existed. He suggested that it had sunk under the ocean. But no one believed him at all anymore. So: don’t lie, and don’t be so dedicated to your lies that it gets you killed. That’s quality life advice.
While the Straw Hats are looking for Cricket, Bellamy is getting more detail about him. Cricket is related to Noland, and he’s trying to discover treasure to clear the family name. Bellamy finds his effort ridiculous; he thinks he’ll need a lot more than a little gold to erase all the humiliation Noland caused for his descendents.

Back at Cricket’s place as Nami reads the book of Noland’s adventures, Luffy is examining the shore when he’s pulled into the water! As Usopp rescues him, a man appears from the water demanding to know why they’re on his land—it’s Mont Blanc Cricket! He fights them for a bit, but he quickly collapses. Chopper discovers he’s been diving pretty often and he’s made himself sick due to pressure changes and not letting his body rest. One Piece public service announcement: always practice safe deep diving habits.

As Chopper cares for Cricket, the Straw Hats are surprised when Masira and another pirate, Shoujou, stumble into Cricket’s house. Instead of attacking, they thank the Straw Hats for helping Cricket because they’re friends. Luffy also quickly becomes friends with them.
When Cricket wakes up, he thanks them and explains that Noland’s antics meant that for his whole life he was ridiculed. He tried to escape the family legacy by becoming a pirate. But then one day he landed on Jaya, and realized he couldn’t outrun the past, so he swore to find the truth. He considers it a fight between himself and Noland; he doesn’t care about the gold or clearing Noland’s name, but instead about discovering the truth of the tale that spoiled his life.
The Straw Hats want to know how Masira and Shoujou are involved, and Cricket shares that they heard the story about Noland and the potential for gold. They showed up one day and starting helping him. He’s very fond of them; Cricket seems gruff, but he talks about Masira and Shoujou with real affection.
Luffy isn’t interested in the history lesson or the context of Cricket’s work. He just wants to go to Sky Island. Cricket shows them one of Noland’s personal logs, that suggests there’s an island in the sky. Now Luffy’s never going to be deterred.
Cricket explains the myth of Sky Island to the Straw Hats, and gives them the choice of believing him or not. He tells them that the darkness they experienced on their passage to Jaya was an imperio-nimbus cloud, which holds no rain and blocks out the sun. If there were going to be an island in the sky, it would definitely be on that specific type of cloud. Further, there are places around Jaya where the water beneath the ocean surface gets heated by thermal vents, creating violent vertical bursts of water for a minute or so. The rumors say the only way to make it to Sky Island is to ride the geyser of ocean water—called Knock Up Stream—up into the air when the imperio-nimbus cloud is directly over the place where the Knock Up Stream happens. And, of course, it just so happens that the next chance of their alignment is in the next day. Cricket tells Masira and Shoujou that the Straw Hats definitely want to go, and they’ll have to help them
Nami and Usopp are dubious, but Luffy’s determined to go once Cricket says Masira and Shinjou can reinforce the Going Merry. It’s settled, and the Straw Hats proceed to have a dinner party at Cricket’s house and discuss Noland’s writings for clues. He writes about bird calls, the tolling of a massive bell, and jewels in the eye of a skull…tantalizing clues…but mysterious.
Cricket interrupts the merry-making in the middle of the night with news that to find the Knock Up Stream they’ll need a South Bird, because their Log Pose only points toward islands. With a South Bird they’ll be able to navigate at sea with the help of the bird’s internal compass. They split into three teams to hunt for the bird in the nearby jungle. The bugs in the forest hamper them from getting even close to the South Bird. Because Chopper can understand animals, he also gets to fill his team in on the bird mocking them. But, luckily, once Robin can see the bird, she can use her Devil Fruit power to capture it, making everything much easier.
After the Straw Hats leave for the bird hunting adventure, Bellamy makes his way toward Cricket’s home determined to take any treasure away from the undeserving Straw Hats. Bellamy doesn’t find them, and he doesn’t get a very warm welcome from Cricket, but he’s still excited to take treasure away from people because he’s a jerk. He attacks them all and he and his crew take all the treasure Cricket and his friends found over the last ten years.

Devil Fruit Alert!
Bellamy ate the Boing Boing Fruit, which allows him to turn parts of his body into springs. Using this power, he can launch himself at his opponents and turn his own body weight into a vicious weapon.
Back to the Action!
When the Straw Hats return to Cricket’s house, they find his treasure gone and he and his friends beaten down, and worst of all: the Going Merry has been vandalized so the Straw Hats can’t sail. Cricket tells them not to worry: they still have time to get Luffy’s ship ready to take on the Knock Up Stream so they can leave by dawn. Zoro notices the emblem of Bellamy’s crew and Luffy takes off for Mock Town, promising to be back by dawn.
While Luffy is on his way, Bellamy’s crew is mocking Cricket and his team over beer when someone rushes in with news. He’s received the most recent wanted posters, and Luffy is worth one hundred million berries and Zoro is worth sixty million. Alone and combined, it’s more than Bellamy. Bellamy laughs it off, because he’s already fought them and he considers them a joke because they took everything he dished out. He convinces everyone that they were planted by the Straw Hats, because there’s no way they could be real.
When Luffy arrives and demands that the stolen gold be returned, Bellamy is just as dismissive. He springs around outside using his powers, mocking Luffy, his friends, and his ridiculous belief in Cricket’s statements about Sky Island. Luffy waits while Bellamy brags and insults him. Bellamy is extremely full of himself, so of course, when he finally attacks Luffy straight on, Luffy punches him—once. That’s the power of a pirate with a hundred million berry bounty. Bye bye, Bellamy.
As Luffy collects the treasure and heads back to Cricket’s house where he and his friends are rebuilding the Going Merry, things are afoot elsewhere in the Grand Line. Buggy the Clown is still plotting to find and take down Luffy when Ace shows up in his crew. Buggy won’t let anyone hurt Ace, because he’s one of Whitebeard’s pirates. Whitebeard is the only pirate to ever win a battle against Gol D. Roger, the last Pirate King. Ace’s position allows him to hang out with Buggy’s crew and eat their food—smart. Buggy reveals to Ace and his crew that he knows all about Whitebeard, because he met him years before.

Far away from Buggy’s bragging about his future defeat of Luffy and his knowledge of stronger pirates, in the Sacred Land, Marijoa, the supreme leaders of the World Government, the Five Elders, are musing over the upheaval in the Grand Line. Shanks is on the move to parlay with Whitebeard, which makes them nervous. Crocodile got himself beat up by someone new leaving his place vacant. They call for a meeting of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, now Six Warlords.
Two Warlords arrive first, followed later by Mihawk, who makes a last minute, dramatic entrance. There’s an interloper, too, who is interested in recommending someone to take Crocodile’s place. He recommends Blackbeard, although it’s not a name anyone has heard of, but he assures them that they’re working on his notoriety.
Elsewhere on the Grand Line, Shanks sent one his his crew to deliver a letter to Whitebeard, who is insulted by the fact Shanks only sent a letter. He sends a message back: he wants Shanks to deliver his message personally with some quality alcohol. Turns out, the Five Elders were right to be worried about a meeting, because once Shanks hears about Whitebeard’s request, he sets sail, risking government intervention to prevent them for reaching each other.

Back in Mock Town, Blackbeard is waiting on the crew member he sent to the World Government, but has grown restless. He wants to find someone with a high bounty to take on to build his reputation. We’ve met Blackbeard before, through reference and face to face. Ace was chasing him because he killed one of his crewmates and fled, making him a former Whitebeard pirate gone on to form his own crew. And we met him before and after Luffy’s first encounter with Bellamy, where he congratulated Luffy and Zoro on winning the fight and refusing to fight back against someone so petty and weak. But now he’s on the hunt for Luffy. He knows Luffy’s plan to get to Sky Island and is going to try to settle his business before they leave. Now that he knows how much Luffy is worth, he wants to take him down.
When Luffy arrives back at Cricket’s house, he discovers that they’ve repaired the Going Merry and given the ship wings to help it fly up to Sky Island. Since Luffy was late getting back, they’re on a tight schedule, and they set sail so Masira and Shoujou can lead them to where the Knock Up Stream is going to be. But it turns out Cricket’s timing on the alignment of the Knock up Stream and imperio-nimbus was a little off, so they have to race the clock to make it in time, as the huge cloud approaches. A small detail Cricket left out of his explanation: they have to sail into a giant whirlpool that precedes the Knock Up Stream.
Side Story Alert!
Our next side story features Wapol, the former king of Drum Island with the power to consume anything who Luffy sent flying. He’s wandering around the wilderness eating trees…what adventures will he get up to?
Back to the Action!
The Straw Hats reach the center of the whirlpool just in time, but Blackbeard has also reached it, too. He calls out to Luffy, telling him that he’s taking him down because of his high bounty, which is the first time Luffy and Zoro learn that their bounties have gone up. They’re thrilled (of course they would be). Too bad for Blackbeard, though, because the Knock Up Stream arrives and shoots the Going Merry straight up into the air, while destroying Blackbeard’s ship.
As the Straw Hats fly on the surface of the huge plume of water, Nami figures out that they can sail on it due to the wind and temperature, and up they go into the sky. They reach a pure, white sea. Usopp tries to swim in it, but goes too far down and has to be rescued by Luffy and Robin combining their powers, so we learn Robin can copy any part of herself anywhere else, including her eyes (Robin is so cool). The Log Pose is still telling them to go up, though, so they’re not yet to their goal. They explore the wildlife, until they’re attacked by a masked figure who manages to knock Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro out!

Before he can do any more damage, though, an old man descends from the sky on a bird and saves them. He introduces himself as Ganfor the Sky Knight, and his bird/pegasus as Pierre. He tries to charge them for his protection services, but they don’t have a clue why he’s bothering. When he learns how they arrived, he’s impressed, because it turns out there other other ways than the Knock Up Stream to get to Skypiea. He gives them a whistle so they can call him for free to help them because he’s so impressed with their abilities.

Once he leaves, they make their way to a huge cloud waterfall in the distance, where a gate attendant asks them for money to enter the next level. Because they don’t have the money Sky Island uses, they can’t pay, but she lets them pass, anyway. Of course, she also reports to someone mysterious that they entered illegally…watch out, Straw Hats.
Unaware of the potential danger, the Straw Hats make it to Skypiea and come across an island in the clouds, Angel Island. As they explore, they meet Conis and her father, Pagaya. He invites them to dinner.

Nami is enchanted by a machine that Pagaya was riding, called a waver. When Luffy tries to ride it, he sinks and has to be rescued, and Pagaya says it takes about ten years to master the use of them. But of course, Nami proves him wrong by taking to it instantly. As Nami rides around on the waver, Conis and Pagaya take the Straw Hats home and tell them about Sky Island, and also about dial power. Dial power is a form of energy stored in the discarded shells of Skypiea animals that all the people use for energy, for light, for recording, and more. Conis explains that a wind dial powers the waver: blow air into a dial for thirty minutes and after, the dial will blow air back out for the same amount of time, allowing wavers to glide across the sea cloud. Dial power is about to become very relevant.

Pagaya and Sanji prepare dinner, but when Nami hasn’t returned, they get worried that she’s gone to Upper Yard, which is forbidden even though it’s close by, because it’s the home of the gods. Conis tells Luffy no one is allowed to go to what she calls Upper Yard, because it’s the home of Eneru, one of Skypiea’s rulers. Of course, Luffy doesn’t like hearing anything is off limits.
Indeed, Nami has reached Upper Yard, which contains an actual landmass made of soil, and a giant, dense jungle. As she looks around, she realizes there’s someone else, a lone masked soldier who’s seen her and comes up alongside her, but doesn’t attack. But there is a fight in the jungle, as several people chase a man running away. Although he makes it to the coast and begs Nami to save him, a giant bolt of energy comes down from the sky—he’s toast.
The mysterious soldier leaves as quickly as he came, and Nami has to hide from the people in the island. They complain about Eneru, and the fact that there’s seven trespassers, but it’s not enough for everyone to have enough people to kill evenly—what a cheery conversation! Nami realizes they’re probably talking about the Straw Hats, and escapes on the waver back to Angel Island.
It’s not only the people on the island that know about the Straw Hats—it’s also the Skypiea police force, who attempt to detain Luffy from going after Nami. But Nami has returned, in the nick of time to violently refuse to pay the exorbitant fee the police want to charge the Straw Hats to remain on the island. After that, it’s just a list of long charges against them, branding them as criminals. Luffy doesn’t make it any better by taking down several members of the force with his powers. Very quickly, the lead officer tells them he’ll let Eneru’s vassals handle them. Given what we’ve seen of Eneru’s home base that can’t be good.
While Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp are getting supplies for their escape from Angel Island, their ship is stolen by a giant lobster that carries it away. Pagaya tells them they’ve been taken to the sacrificial altar in Upper Yard to face the vassals. The vassals are incredibly strong, but Luffy doesn’t seem worried about taking them on (but then again, when is Luffy ever worried?).
Conis leads Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp to the port, where there’s a gondola waiting to take them on the cloud river to Upper Yard, so they can rescue the rest of their crew. Around them, people whisper and stare, and the police force hides in the shadows. But Conis is acting suspiciously, and Luffy notices, so he asks her about it. Conis collapses and cries, and admits to being the one that called the sky lobster to take the others away, because if she didn’t, and if she didn’t help Luffy get to Upper Yard for his judgment, she’ll be killed. She’s convinced they’ll be mad at her, but instead they’re just upset she didn’t tell them about those extreme consequences—the Straw Hats wouldn’t have hung around Conis and her father if they had known they were putting them at risk.
From the sky, there’s a burst of light, and Luffy barely grabs Conis and gets out of the way in time. When the smoke clears, it turns out Ganfor returned to help them, scooping Luffy and Conis out of the way. He returns Luffy to the ground and keeps Conis in his protection. Strangely enough, Conis knows who Ganfor is…and as Luffy and the remainder of his crew head toward Upper Yard via the cloud river, she addresses Ganfor like she would a god…who is he?
The gondola takes Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp into the jungle, but the river is mined with deadly traps and filled with giant, vicious animals. They survive the beginning, but end up at a giant tunnel with four different options to choose from. As they decide which way to go, the other Straw Hats are forming a plan of action to explore where the sky lobster left them and their ship, atop a giant altar in Upper Yard. Zoro, Nami, and Robin go into the jungle, letting Chopper stay behind to guard and repair the ship alone…which he only realizes once they’re gone.

Elsewhere, Usopp steers the boat into the Challenge of the Ball. After surviving a steep drop, their cloud river enters a forest filled with huge balls made of island cloud. They sail along until Sanji tries to knock a cloud out of the way, and it explodes! The ball challenge has begun, and Satori appears to heckle them. He’s the vassal in charge of the challenge, and has spread dangerous balls of island cloud throughout the route to the exit. When they try to fight Satori, all of them are taken down with one hit! What massive powers does Satori have? Their gondola sails on without them, their only way out of the forest, but Satori isn’t going to make it easy for them to leave—not with those abilities.
The balls fly fast and furious as they try to keep an eye on the gondola and avoid Satori’s attacks. Although the fight is serious, Satori mostly seems to be playing with them, enjoying watching them squirm. Finally, Sanji advises them to forget the gondola, because they need to focus on Satori. But he doesn’t get to finish his plan, because Satori comes up and takes him down with one solid hit to the chest.
Chopper is still alone, fixing the Going Merry. When Ganfor gave the Straw Hats the whistle, they hung it on the mast so anyone could find it if they needed it, and Chopper decides to wear it since he’s alone. That was strategic thinking, because a mysterious person appears, disappointed there’s only one person to kill! Chopper, of course, blows the whistle (smart move, Chopper).
Ganfor has taken Conis and Pagaya to his own house so they’ll be protected. Ganfor tries to cheer Conis up by telling her that what she did might not be wrong, depending on the perspective of looking. We get a little history from Ganfor, too, as he explains that long ago, when Upper Yard was born, there was a loud song across the island, at which point war with the Shandians began. Ganfor tried to make peace with them over the years, but right when he was about to achievehis goal, Eneru and his vassals arrived and took Ganfor’s power away.

As Ganfor shares with them that he believes when the bell rings again there will finally be peace, Chopper’s call for help reaches him and he takes off with Pierre. It’s right in time, too, because Shura, another vassal, is lighting the Going Merry on fire. Chopper’s not strong enough to stop him by himself. But then Ganfor swoops in and Shura is knocked back. It’s not enough to take him out, though. And unfortunately for Ganfor, Shura makes a dramatic comeback and is able to paralyze Ganfor’s body so he can’t fight back. Then Shura stabs him through the chest with a spear, letting him fall into the river. Chopper, horrified, jumps after him even though he’s a devil fruit user, and Shura quickly sends Pierre in after them both.

As Shura and Ganfor battle ends, a little girl, Aisa, sneaks home from Upper Yard to the Shandian’s hidden village. This is the first proper glimpse we get of the Shandians, who we’ve only seen as masked individuals so far. The leader of the Shandians, Wyper, is obsessed in carrying out the order of his ancestor Kalgara, to “bring back the light of Shandora”, which sounds appropriately uplifting even if it’s a little vague. He doesn’t care for Ganfor or Eneru; both are his enemies, and no one can talk him down.

Satori has been giving Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp a pretty good challenge, but he overplays his hand when Luffy figures out how he’s controlling a huge dragon made out of island cloud balls. Luffy gets close enough to cling to Satori’s back, avoiding a giant explosion. Usopp recovers enough to scout ahead and find where the river exits the jungle, and Satori realizes that Sanji isn’t dead, either. Luffy clings to Satori, wrapping him up tight so he can’t escape Sanji’s brutal attack. Satori: 0, Straw Hats: 1.
Because of their win against Satori, Upper Yard is a little shaken up, and Wyper decides that the instability means it’s a good time to attack. He leads the Shandians on the offensive to Upper Yard.
Robin, Nami, and Zoro are scouting the jungle, looking for historical artifacts, treasure, or a fight, specifically. But Zoro has given up on finding any of the vassals and wants to head back, so calls for Nami’s update about what she sees from her perch in a giant tree. Whatever it is…Nami can’t believe it. They travel to the location and they’re all amazed, because Upper Yard, made of soil and not island cloud, is special. The object Nami saw is half of a small building—the matches the half house Cricket lives in and covers with fake plywood. Upper Yard is actually the part of Jaya! While they’re making that discovery, Chopper wakes up on the altar with Ganfor and Pierre. He’s not sure who saved them until the South Birds of the island, way bigger than the bird they found on Jaya below, calls to him. Remember, Chopper can understand other animals, so their calls to him would be language!
The Shandians cross into Upper Yard as Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp are sailing past on their way to the altar. Wyper is more focused on the vassals and they don’t bother each other much. The Shandians rush to battle as Luffy, Usopp , and Sanji and arrive at the altar at the same time as Nami, Robin, and Zoro get back from their search of the jungle. Chopper is glad to see everyone, but worried what they’ll think since the Going Merry’s mast is gone. In one of the great, quiet moments of friendship, Usopp reminds him that masts are replaceable, but he’s not. Luffy is thrilled to learn the truth about Upper Yard and the treasure when they fill him in. But as they celebrate their adventure, the Shandians are taking a beating from the vassals and have to retreat.
The Straw Hats set up camp and review what they learned about Upper Yard. Nami, using her excellent mapmaking skills, figures out the mystery of Noland’s last claim. He said that he saw gold in the skulls eyes, but he visited Jaya before the Knock Up Stream sent half the island into the sky. When Upper Yard and Jaya are combined, the island itself forms a skull—Noland was giving directions to a specific place on the island. Of course, they couldn’t be confirmed without the rest of the island, so Noland’s reputation was ruined.
They also discover that the nature of Skypiea means that the flora and fauna on the island gets a boost in development, making it grow super large. It explains why the South Birds above and below were so different—they evolved in different environments. The Straw Hats make plans to visit that part of Upper Yard the next day, and have a big party before sleeping.

During the night, Usopp gets up, and thinks he sees someone on the Going Merry, even though no one should be…but then Zoro finds him the next morning, sleeping in the dirt. Was Usopp sleepwalking? If he was, that was some dream! Because in the morning, the Going Merry is repaired…badly, but still, some repairs are better than none. Usopp swears he saw someone the night before, but he doesn’t understand how whoever fixed the ship knew to fix the Going Merry to look like it did before they came to Skypiea, without wings. As they puzzle over the mystery, Eneru has finally called his remaining vassals in for a meeting. He advises them that they have free reign to take care of the Straw Hats and the Shandians, because they needed to focus on Maxim. Once Maxim, whatever is it, is complete, the island won’t matter anymore.
Nami, Sanji, and Usopp stay with the Going Merry, using the gondola to steer themselves out of the jungle via the cloud river. They also care for Ganfor while the others go to hunt for treasure. Ganfor tells them that when Upper Yard came to Skypiea, the natives fought with the people already on the island and stole the island from them, leading to war. This makes the Ganfor of the past not a great guy, and he agrees: it was wrong to kick the Shandians off their land. But Eneru came and removed everyone but himself and his people, enslaving some of Ganfor’s people as well, so Ganfor could never make things right.
On their search for treasure, the other Straw Hats encounter giant snakes, and in the scramble to avoid them, all get separated. Of course, Zoro has a terrible sense of direction and Luffy likes to wander directly into danger. Robin and Chopper are also alone, but probably less likely to end up somewhere awful. What enemies will they face next by themselves?

Takeaways

The Straw Hats made it to Sky Island, but at what cost? They’re facing down a brutal set of rulers and a dystopia in the sky. Plus, their ship is busted, even with the mysterious repair help. But Nami discovering that Upper Yard was actually a piece of Jaya was great luck, so it’s not all bad. And while they’re up in the sky, it seems like a lot of political cogs in the Grand Line are starting to turn…
Nami and Robin both have the skills to put their knowledge to work in Skypiea, and none of the battles have been too much to handle—yet. We got a lot of interesting clues this time around about pirates who had been to Skypiea before, and more and more evidence that Noland was right about everything. But who is Eneru? If he’s the one sending bolts of lightning everywhere to fry criminals, how is he doing it? Why did he take over Upper Yard? What is Maxim? And, mostly importantly, how will Eneru inevitably make Luffy mad enough to get punched? More answers in the next installment!

Next Time

We’re on to Volumes 28, 29, and 30. Come read along with us to discover more of the mysterious of the long lost piece of Jaya!