OPSR Chapter 20

An older man stared up at the sky, squinting while his hand blocked the sun as he asked the nearby monkey brothers. “Hey, do either of you see that thing up there?” One of the brothers put his hand over his eye in the same way, while the other just stared blankly at the sun before screaming out in pain once it burned his eyes. Masira spoke. “Yeah, boss, looks like a big bird. What a weird noise it’s making.”

Cricket could only sigh as it flew into the cloud line. “Well, no big deal. Let's get back to salvaging this ship.” 

…

My plane slammed through the cloud layer that separated the ground world from the sky world. My body quickly acclimated itself to the thinner air, Kaya and her mother's Skypeian DNA helping with the process, but not all that much. It was just that my body was so robust, it needed less food, water, and air compared to others; the fishmen lineage factor might have also helped.

My plane landed on the cloud as I thought of how it worked; the only explanation that could explain it was ‘Devil Fruit’. Someone with the awakened cloud fruit must have spent their entire life making this area up here, because these clouds made no sense. Semi-permeable, they allowed for solids to go through, but only if they were going at a fast enough speed; once they slowed down, they would no longer allow the objects through.

At the same time, I could see fish and other creatures living in these sea clouds. I wasn’t sure how it worked, but that was the beauty of this world. It didn’t need to make absolute sense; all I knew was that I needed to find the thunder fruit before Enel ate it, or this trip would be wasted at best, and I could die at worst.

Enel was incredibly unstable after all. The thing was, I knew he wasn’t from the place I came up in, so I’d have to find him first. I paid to go up to the second layer of clouds as I looked for the houses that the strawhats went to first. Conis was the same age as most of the One Piece cast; the only reason she wasn’t included in the team was that she was too weak and didn’t provide any help; she didn’t fill a role, and Luffy didn’t really mesh with her. For me, however… A cute girl that I could guide to being good at something, what wasn’t there not to like?

A shell dial specialist wasn’t a position most ships had, but I planned on bringing plenty back down with me, and it might be good to have an expert on hand in case they malfunctioned. Also, even if she wasn’t good at anything, I could always slap a devil fruit on her and she’d become a combatant or support. As luck would have it, she was outside as I approached.

Conis looked very similar to Kaya; they could easily pass as sisters. She looked similar but different at the same time. For one, the little balls she had on her head weren’t her hair, but a hairpin. Perhaps she’d lose it or grow out of it, but with her hair down, the resemblance to Kaya was even more uncanny. The only difference was their eye color; perhaps Kaya had a more pointed chin, but I couldn’t stop comparing the two.

“Hello there. Is there anywhere around here I can sell this vearth I brought with me, and perhaps a place to find information about this upper world?”

Now wasn’t the time to get to know Canis; I needed to make sure I got the devil fruit before Enel did. After talking and trading my dirt for some shells, I got a map with all the nearby Skypean masses. I’d collect as much of their lineage factor, but that was after I finished my original goal. My idea was that Enel most likely came from the nearby Skypean city.

I wasn’t sure if I was right, but Birka was a good place to start. Flying away, I could see the interest in Conis’s eyes as I did so. I could possibly use her interest in the plane in the future to bring her onto my ship. I’d need to train an engineer, because if things went the same way, Franky would be a woman in this timeline, but I wouldn’t take her onto my ship if she weren’t beautiful enough.

I originally thought that the devil fruit would be on a tree. But it only took a cursory conversation with the first passerby I came across to figure out it was probably stored in the temple, guarded by the divine soldiers as a holy artifact there. The goal switched from finding trees that bore fruit to a heist in an instant. I could just break in, fight my way through, and hope there was no one strong enough to fight me, but I had another problem.

The Birkans were a different race from the Skypeans. If the Skypeans' focus was on the sight aspect of observation haki, the Birkans' main focus would be the hearing aspect. They didn’t truly unlock perfect observation haki, but they were born with a singular focus toward a single aspect of it, unlocking it through their mantra, and it appeared to be hurting their ability to learn true observation haki.

That would explain Enel’s incredible ability with the thunder fruit; tapping into the electric waves to wiretap those around him would have been impossible for him to do if he weren’t a Birkan. It got me thinking, though. If Skypean was sight, and Birkan was hearing, what were the Shandians good with? None of them were really known for their mantra… Well, except for a single standout.

Aisa had possibly the strongest observation haki in the entire show. I think her focus was more toward the sixth sense gained from observation haki, though. The ability to feel the aura of others and hear the ‘voices’ of others is snuffed out. The chances were, they had a higher chance of awakening true observation haki, but it didn’t really matter. I would get as many of the three lineage factors as I could, after I got the devil fruits.

Once again, I began to plan. If an idiot like Enel could figure out how to steal the devil fruit, someone as intelligent as me wouldn’t have a problem… Or they could just have tours of the entire temple that let people inside and see everything going on. As I joined the group, I immediately recognized someone; Enel was part of the group.

A few children walked up and greeted him as he sneered and motioned to kick one before the father of the group stepped in and stopped Enel. In the original story, we find out that Enel is mistreated on the island… But who did we hear that from? We heard it from Enel, of course, someone as full of themselves as he would assume everyone is mistreating him if they’re not treating him as a god.

I followed along with the rest of the crowd as one of the priestesses of the temple guided us, mentioning many things until we got to the main temple, and my eyes widened in shock. Standing near the center of the room were three devil fruits. That would be shocking enough, but as I looked more closely, the thunder fruit wasn’t in the prominent spot of the room.

On the lower pedestal stood two separate fruits, both delicately placed on a red velvet pillow, one a deep yellow, almost spherical design to it (the thunder fruit), while on the other was a bunch of gray grapes, making it resemble a cumulonimbus cloud. In the center of the room, not only higher up and separated from the rest, but also behind glass and even more elaborately designed, stood a third devil fruit.

I  gulped at the implication of what it meant. Enel ate the weaker devil fruit, and because he was by himself, he either hid or destroyed these two, one of whom was most likely more powerful than the thunder fruit. The fruit was elaborately colored to the point I wasn’t sure if that was actually how it looked, or if someone painted it to look that way. It had a hard, wood-like texture for the skin. Two white circles with black circles in the middle, resembling eyes at the top, it also had decorative wings behind it, making it resemble a bird even more.

As I was pondering what the fruit might have been, Enel took action. He jumped the rope separating us from the actual room and started to run toward the thunder fruit.