Skypiea dropped them to the winds Kael had warned Nami about a few days ago, and they came on schedule.
This part was easier than the ascent.
Pagaya and a horde of Skypiean engineers had built a Breath Dial system designed specifically for the Going Merry, which took them to a western boundary of the cloud-sea and dropped them into a gentle descent ten thousand feet into the lower layers of atmosphere.
The clouds that carried them thinned out at a specific hour and released the Going Merry.
Conis was at the dock to say goodbye to them.
She bid farewell to everyone who was leaving Skypiea that morning and by the time the ship was loaded, she could barely maintain composure.
She tried, though.
She gave all of them Dials.
To Kael she gifted an Impact Dial that used to belong to her grandfather; she had never considered presenting it to anyone else.
“For—if the time comes.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“It was his.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
She stood there watching as they lifted the lines.
They waved.
She waved back.
She kept waving until the cloud parted and the ship started its descent.
The descent turned out to be—besides the hold of the sky, the morning on the cloud, and the third Poneglyph—the most unusual experience his Sage Mode had ever experienced.
The layers of the atmosphere, changing in sequence, seemed like a series of pitch changes in reverse order: the thinning air became thick, and the violin strings were replaced with the cello strings.
The orbs around him rotated outwards.
The markings on his temples, fixed in the upper field, adjusted to surface field.
He accepted the change.
They were released from the cloud-sea.
They descended to the blue sea—that is, the surface of the Grand Line—and landed with a little splash.
They splashed through it and found themselves on salty water again.
Rich with chakra Grand Line water.
He leaned over the rail and filled his lungs.
He didn’t realize he had missed it that badly.
Robin was right behind him at the rail.
Ever since they had left Skypiea she was in a contemplative mood.
Her inner changes usually preceded the conversation, and her stay on Skypiea had changed her considerably.
He let her alone. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
He waited.
In a while she said without looking at him, “I read something at the Skypiean library.”
“Hm.”
“There was a record.
From the time before Skypiea was a Skypiea, when the Shandian people belonged to the surface Ancient Kingdom.
The record mentioned a category of a person.”
“Understood.”
“They referred to them as those who walk between.
I never heard of such an expression.
I had to read three commentaries to understand what it meant.”
“Tell me.”
“It meant—and as the commentaries differed from one another, I give you my version—it meant the people who have come to this world from somewhere else.
The ancient world regarded them as rare and mysterious, although not unknown.
In records, they mentioned six of them, and they were all special.
None of them lacked unusual abilities.
Each of them became important, and each left some sort of mark on the world, which never forgot them.”
“What happened to them.”
“The records do not say.
The records are incomplete, apparently torn apart at the end of the Void Century.
The phrase disappeared completely from any source after that time.”
He was silent for a bit.
“You believe I’m one of them.”
“I do believe the category exists and I do think you fit into it.”
“Do you have a question?”
“A few.
The first one is whether you knew.”
“No, I had no explanation why I was here.
Only the awareness of the fact that I was.”
“The second one is whether it rings a bell to you.”
“Not the phrase, but the definition in a way.
I can say that I have felt that I am here for a specific reason and it has nothing to do with randomness, that there must be a connection between my world and the world I came to which I have not managed to recognize yet.”
“What do you mean?”
“That I am here for a purpose I haven’t realized yet, and that the world I came from and the world I came to are somehow related and I will be able to comprehend this relation one day.” This chapter was copied from novelping(.)com without permission.
She nodded thoughtfully.
“The third question is what do the deep things tell you when they recognize you.”
“You think they’re related?”
“I find it very unlikely if they’re not.”
He leaned on the rail and watched the surface water in front of them.
The Grand Line, his new long sea, his new country and workplace.
The chakra of the deep was the same chakra, patient and articulate, as it was before Skypiea and as far down as he was able to sense.
He couldn’t sense whatever it was, but he felt that it would come up sooner or later.
“I have no answers, Robin.”
“No, I wasn’t asking for that.
I was asking if you knew the questions.”
“I do now.”
“Good.”
She placed her palm on the rail next to his.
She didn’t hold his hand.
She left it there.
He left his there.
They looked at water.
After a while Sanji called them to dinner.
They went.
Their crew was sitting around their table: Luffy stealing food from Usopp’s plate, Chopper telling Zoro a story he was unable to follow, Nami at the helm with her log lying next to her, and all of them laughing and talking animatedly—this was the mood after winning something and not being sure what to do next.
Kael sat at the table between Nami and Robin.
He ate.
He ate for once.
The Going Merry headed east.
Wind was good.
The Skypiean Dials wrapped under the deck hummed faintly in his Sage Mode.
The orbs around him were quiet.
That night was clear with stars everywhere in the sky.
He slept.