Skypiea Arc

The Skypiea Arc is the thirteenth story arc in the series, and the second and last of two in the Sky Island Saga of the manga and anime, One Piece. The Straw Hats arrive on the sky island Skypiea in search of gold, only to find out that the island is in danger of being destroyed by the cruel "god", Enel. Having ridden the Knock Up Stream, the Straw Hats find themselves in a sea of clouds (which, as they find out, has the same effect as normal water on a Devil Fruit user), but before they have a chance to relax, they are quickly attacked by a strange man in a mask who is riding on the clouds. The crew are unable to defend themselves, but they are thankfully saved by an old knight named Gan Fall, who rides on a bird with a Devil Fruit ability named Pierre. He points out to them that the reason that they could not fight back against the "Guerrilla" was due to the thin air, though immediately afterwards the crew says that they are starting to get used to it. Gan Fall gives them a whistle to summon him in case they run into more trouble, and the crew continues on. They reach "Heaven's Gate", the entrance to Skypiea where they are told to pay 7 billion extol for the entrance fee, but the crew have no idea what extol is. In response, the gatekeeper, Amazon, basically tells them she does not care what they do, but does not warn them that if they pass without paying they will be marked as criminals, and the crew goes into Skypiea. The ship reaches the shore of Angel Island, the main part of Skypiea, where they meet a girl named Conis and her father, Pagaya. They let the crew come into their house so they can introduce them to Skypiean society, but Nami decides to stay at the ocean and try out Pagaya's Waver, a device similar to a jet-ski that can move under its own power without any wind. While Conis explains the use of Dials, Nami ends up riding the waver to a nearby island with a huge forest.

When Sanji points out that Nami is gone, Conis and Pagaya explain that the nearby island is known as Upper Yard. Upper Yard is a forbidden sacred ground where God Enel and his priests reside, and no one must ever set foot on it. This immediately sparks Luffy's interest, and he commands that they head out to "rescue Nami", but he makes it obvious that he simply wants to go to Upper Yard to explore and have an adventure. At Upper Yard, Nami witnesses Enel's priests chasing a man who was searching for treasure on the island. However, before the priests can finish him off, Enel decides to act on his own and in a show of power, a massive beam of energy fires from the sky and disintegrates the treasure hunter. Gedatsu of the priests explains to the others that their time limit was up—another group of criminals has just appeared, a group of seven. From this, Nami realizes that they are talking about them, and rushes back to Angel Island. Meanwhile, on Angel Island's beach, the crew encounters the White Berets, led by Chief McKinley, who act as Skypiea's lowest level of law enforcement. The White Berets explain that the Straw Hat Pirates are criminals, and that the punishment for illegally entering is to pay 10 times the entrance fee, or 10,000,000,000 Extols. Here, it is explained that there are 10 thousand extols per Belly, making the fee Beli1,000,000. The crew decides to wait for Nami to come back, but even doing minor things like snoring ends up raising the crime level. Nami eventually returns, but when she finds out about the fee, she rams the waver into McKinley while yelling that it is too high. In response, the White Berets launch an attack, only to be easily defeated by Luffy. This ends up raising them to Class 2 criminals that are to be dealt with by the priests. The crew starts packing up to leave with Nami, Chopper, Robin, and Zoro at the ship while Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp get food and supplies from Pagaya's home. Suddenly, the ship is grabbed by a "Super-Express Speed Shrimp" that carries them to Upper Yard. Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp, lead by Conis, go to Lovely Street in order to get a boat to rescue them. Conis lends them her dial-powered ship, the Karasumaru, but before they leave, Luffy notes that she was shaking the entire time she was leading them. Conis reveals that she was the one who called the shrimp to take the ship and is intentionally leading them to Upper Yard—it is God Enel's will that they lead criminals to that island, and not following it will result in death. Upon hearing Conis say this, all of the townspeople run away. True to her word, Enel strikes and fires a massive beam of energy at her from the sky, but she is saved by the knight, Gan Fall. He explains that since both she and her father will be considered criminals, he will take them back to his house, which is out of Enel's range. Despite this show of Enel's power, the three pirates continue on to Upper Yard unhindered.