Chapter 52: Luffy's Missing?

Chapter 58:

Luffy's Missing? The Battle Continues

"Oooooooh! The islands in the south are warm~! And their heads get really hot~! They grow-a pineapples, they grow-a coconuts! Aaaand theeey're morons~!"

"Luffy," Zoro scowled. "Could you stop with the singing already?"

"Yes, please!" Amy agreed. "It'll attract unwanted attention to us!"

"I don't see a problem with it," Robin chuckled. "I say we led the captain sing all he wants."

"Thanks, Robin!" Taking the woman's opinion over those of Zoro and Amy, Luffy began the next verse. "Ooooooh! The Islands in the north are snowy~! And their heads get really cold~! They're very chilly-chilly, they're very willy-nilly! Aaaand theeey're idiots~! Next verse! Ooooooh! The islands in the east are-"

"What would it take to make him stop?" Coby whined.

Almost immediately, Murphy answered in the form of screaming goat/men/angels.

"Meeeeh!"

"Was that a goat?!" Luffy asked quickly. "Are there goats up here?! I wanna see a giant goat!"

"Run awaaaaay!" several of the guards bleated, their dial shoes sending them flying past the group of pirates too quickly to be seen. One of Luffy's arms stretched out, grabbing the one at the back of the pack. The sudden backwards force drug the guard away from the rest, launching him over the pirates' heads where he crashed headfirst into one of the giant trees.

"Awe," Luffy pouted. "That's not a goat! Dumb guy got my hopes up..."

"It begs a question, though," Robin commented. "What were they running from?"

SHAAAA

"I'm going to guess that," Coby sighed, his head falling into his hand. "Me and my big mouth."

The ground rumbled for a couple seconds before a giant snake burst from the foliage. The snake, whose scales were a striped pattern alternating between light and dark blue and had twin lines of white feelers or some such dangling across its sides, was large enough to rival many of the Sea Kings the crew had encountered in their journey. Four great fangs, two on the top and two on the bottom, stood out from the rest of its pointed teeth, each one more than four times the height of any of the pirates. Small, slitted, yellow eyes glared at the pirates from its massive head and large drops of some purple substance dripped from its fangs, the solution sizzling on contact with the ground.

"SHAAAA!"

"Run?" Amy asked.

"Run," Coby agreed.

The snake lunged. Panicking, Coby grabbed the nearest person and threw himself to the side, the snake's colossal body thundering past with no end in sight.

"This is quite the conundrum," Robin commented beside him. "I'm almost certain that snakes aren't supposed to get that large, but anything is possible in the Grand Line. Should we try to contact the others?"

"We'll in in a moment," the rosette responded, tearing his eyes away from the creature. "I'd rather get away from this thing as fast as possible."

"Where am I?" Luffy questioned, taking in his surroundings. He, Zoro, Amy, Robin, and Coby had been walking through the forest, then that cool giant snake had shown up. Now he was lost in some sort of cave with dilapidated ruins and bones strewn about with no idea about how he got there. The teen reached down as something sparkling caught his eye. A second later, he had a solid gold necklace in his grasp. "Oh! This is shiny. I'm sure Nami would like this." The rubber-man pulled the accessory over his head before seeing a crown which he grabbed as well. Going over his options, the captain took stock.

"Hat? Yep. Bag? Nope. Aww dammit; that had my lunch. Den-den? Yep. Maybe I can call." The boy opened the shell on his little invertebrate which woke and started ringing.

BUDUP-BUDUP-BUDUP... BUDUP-BUDUP-BUDUP...

"No answer," Luffy sighed much too quickly. "Oh well. I know they'll be fine. Now, to find my way out..." picking a direction, Luffy started walking.

"Ooooh! The islands in the west are wild~!"

"What do you mean you don't know where Luffy is?" Nami yelled into the snail. The den-den, whose eyes were slitted to indicate that Coby was on the line, flinched.

"It's like I said," the boy's voice spoke. "We encountered this giant snake and got separated. I'm with Robin right now and Zoro-sensei and Amy checked in, but we haven't gotten word from Captain Luffy at all."

"Shit," Nami swore. "Where is everyone else?"

"Robin and I are headed toward the ruins; she wants to inspect them. Zoro-sensei and Amy are still headed toward Giant Jack like Gan Fall told us to, but with Zoro-sensei's sense of direction, it could take them a while to get there."

"It's literally visible from everywhere on the island."

"Your point?"

"...Alright," Nami conceded with a sigh. "Be careful. Eneru attacked us and hurt the guys, but we found out that he's weak against rubber."

"He is? That's good to know. We'll keep looking for Captain Luffy." The snail clicked before falling asleep.

"We are in quite the predicament," Grace yawned. "I'm going to sleep."

"What?!" Nami and Chopper yelled. "Now isn't the time for that!"

"It's fine," the lazy girl waved off. "I'm sure Chopper and Gan Fall can handle anyone who attacks. Wake me up if something happens" Grace laid down against the railing where Zoro usually napped and was soon snoring softly.

"I hope everyone's fine," Nami worried, heavily sitting next to the mast. Her right hand came up to rest on her tattoo and the personalized jolly roger thereupon. Chopper sighed and joined her.

"Your other right... no, your other right... no, turn around... Yes, that way! How the Hell is your sense of direction so bad?!"

"My sense of direction is fine! It's not my fault everything in this damn jungle looks the same!"

"I told you to turn right and you started moonwalking! That had nothing to do with the jungle! Sanji's right, you are a moronic moss-head!"

"You wanna go right here, right now? We can finish what we started in Whisky Peak!"

"Or I could leave you behind and find God's Shine on my own!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"These ruins are magnificent," Robin awed, "but what are they doing up here? Could it be...?" The two Devil Fruit users trudged along over the Island Clouds that had replaced the soil over a dozen meters back. The ruins of whatever civilization that had lived on the island surrounded them, remaining quiet. If they had come at night, the Zoan Fruit user wasn't sure if he'd have had the courage to continue inside.

"What is it?" Coby asked, eyeing the tilted temples around them. "Do you have a theory?"

"I can't read this writing," Robin answered, running a hand along a wall covered in unknown symbols, "but I recognize them from the altar. I have a feeling that the gold Cricket is looking for isn't at the bottom of the ocean."

"Are you saying that this is the City of Gold that Noland wrote about?"

"I'm almost positive," the woman responded.

"Wouldn't that mean that this island used to be part of Jaya like some of the rumors the Monkey brothers told us about said?"

"Indeed," Robin nodded. "Come along, Little Swordsman."

"I'm not that small!" Coby rebuffed, chasing her up the stairs of a pyramid that was much smaller than Coby had thought is should be. "At least, I'm not that small anymore," he whispered to himself.

"Yes, yes," the woman waved off. "Come look at this. Don't you find it strange that, even though these ruins appear to be from the Blue Sea, we are standing on Island Clouds?"

"Not really," Coby answered with a shrug. "We're on an island in the sky, hunting down God himself and his priests while a group of guerilla warriors are attempting the same thing, while at the same time goat-men with wings and horns are trying to defend the island and/or fleeing from a giant snake that lives on said island. Nothing seems that weird right now."

"I see your point," Robin conceded. "Now cut down as far as you can."

"Alright," the boy sighed, unsheathing his weapons. Working together, the duo make quick work of the fluffy floor before it finally gave way to another room.

"See?" Robin smiled, a ladder of flesh blooming into existence within the hole. "What we saw up there was only the top of the temple. The rest of it has been buried under Island Clouds over the last 400 years."

"You were right," Coby gave in, choosing to jump rather than climb the arm-ladder, "but what are we going to learn from these ruins if you can't read them?"

"I examined Noland's logbook thoroughly before we left," Robin answered as she turned down a long hallway with light at the end. "It mentioned that the Shandorians protected a block of black stone with writing that they couldn't read. I believe it is a Poniglyph."

"That's the thing you wanted back in... Alabasta... Woah," Coby was struck speechless as the duo stepped out to see what the Island Clouds had been hiding. The ground was now soil and tendrils of vines grew over everything, but even so, the craftsmanship of the buildings was astounding. Soft light like one finds on a cloudy day filtered through the Island Cloud above, subtle changes causing the light to flicker beautifully. A staircase of limbs bloomed before the explorers. Robin moved forward without hesitation.

"Come along, Little Swordsman!" Robin called upward, causing Coby to snap his mouth shut. "It wouldn't do to leave you behind!"

"I'm coming!" The boy ran down the fleshy stairs, careful not to put too much weight on any one limb. The stairs dissipated into flower petals just after Coby stepped off and he ran after the woman. They explored the ruins cautiously for several minutes before it became obvious that there were no traps set in place.

"This is it," Robin gasped as she and Coby stepped into one of the final rooms. Against the far wall, a large block half-covered in moss and vines stood proudly. The archeologist inched forward, hope shining in her eyes. Reaching the Poniglyph, she cut the vines away with a knife and studied the symbols.

"...What does it say?"

"The Rio Poniglyph," Robin whispered to herself. "It could be here. I need to find it."

"Robin!"

"Oh, yes," the woman muttered, snapping out of her reverie. "Please call Ms. Navigator. I'm sure she'd love to know that the City of Gold's last known location is on this island."

"I have a feeling we shouldn't tell her," Coby responded nervously. "At least, not until after we deal with God. Then we can go on a Gold Hunt."

"Good point," Robin nodded. "In that case, shall we head toward God's Shrine and meet up with the others?"

"Sounds good." The duo climbed upwards to reach the place where they had entered the temple and began skirting the ruins to reach the other side.

"Where did they go?!" The pirates heard a voice exclaim much too close for comfort. Ducking behind a bit of rubble to hide, Robin bloomed a single eye to survey the area. A little way ahead, a tan man in purple was wandering around with his eyes rolled back in his head.

"Where did they go?" he asked again, trying to find the Blue Sea people he could have sworn he'd seen a second ago. A goat-man behind him was politely trying to remind him to unroll his eyes.

"Sir Gedetsu, you can't see with your eyes pointed at the back of your head."

"Oh! How careless!"

"This guy doesn't seem very bright," Coby whispered.

"I'll handle it," Robin replied. "Seis Fleur: Clutch." 12 arms, six for each opponent, sprouted around them and bent them backwards. There were two sickening cracks and cries of pain before some sucking sounds. The man in purple screamed, clouds of some sort blasting out of his shoes and launching him into the jungle. "There we go," the woman smiled.

"Robin," Coby shivered, "you scare me sometimes."

"Come along, Little Swordsman!"

"I'm coming, I'm com-" Just as the boy stepped out from around the rubble, he was sucked into a Swamp Cloud trap.

"Coby!"

"That idiot," Amy scoffed, watching as Zoro was dragged into the air by a giant Southbird that wanted whatever was in his backpack. "I'm sure he'll be fine." She floated upward, carefully avoiding the projectiles shot at her from both the Shandorians and God's Warriors fighting below.

Only paying them enough attention to not get hit, Amy focused on getting to God's Shrine at the top of Giant Jack. Up and up she went, the island getting smaller beneath her. She noted the Merry chugging along unimpeded and the snake that had attacked their group earlier slithering around, crying out in pain or laughing randomly. Explosions abounded as the remaining Royal Guards and Shandorian warriors fought in the forest. At one point, a man in purple flew by, strangely-liquid clouds streaming out of his shoes -"How careless!"- until he spiraled into the trees. There was a pair of cries from that area, one male and one female, but the former agent paid it no mind. Finally, Amy reached the third level of the enormous beanstalk and touched down lightly.

"So, this is God's Shrine," Amy said to herself, staring up at the gate whose architecture matched that of the entrance to Skypia: grand and flashy. She stepped forward and pushed on the doors. With a loud crack, the door on the right snapped off its hinges and fell to the cloudy floor. Amy stared at the scene beyond.

The charred corpses of several angels, both male and female, were scattered about the area. The three buildings that had stood were nothing but broken and blackened wood, leaving only the bases together. Taking a couple steps in, the pirate noticed that the backside of the entrance doors were fried to a crisp, that being the reason one of them had given out when she touched it despite the outside being perfectly pristine. Walking forward, Amy inspected each woman's body, hoping that she didn't find Conis among them. Luckily, she didn't, even though one blonde maid looked like her. Amy woke her den-den mushi.

"Hello?" Nami and Robin answered.

"I reached the shrine," Amy told them. "God isn't here. Neither is Conis."

"Damn," Nami cursed.

"Oh dear," Robin muttered. "I wonder if Eneru has already disposed of her."

"Robin!" Coby shouted in the background.

"I'm only joking," the archeologist waved off. "Anyway, Ms. Valentine, you are on the highest level of Giant Jack, are you not?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Would you please float to the top and see if you can spot a golden bell?"

"Golden bell?!" Nami screamed, causing the den-den's eyes to turn into Beri signs. "What's this about a golden bell?"

"Oh dear," Robin giggled. "It seems I've let the cat out of the bag."

"I thought we agreed not to tell Nami until after we beat God," Coby grumbled.

"Just tell me," said girl ordered.

"The Little Swordsman and I found a Poniglyph in the ruins confirming that they were from the lost civilization that Montblanc Noland wrote about in his logbook."

"Does that mean the City of Gold is somewhere up here?!" the navigator yelled excitedly.

"Most likely," Robin answered. Nami's screams of happiness were the only thing to come out of the dancing snails for the next minute. With a sigh, Amy shut off the connection and opened her parasol again.

"Zoro's right about one thing," the blonde muttered. "Nami's a money witch. Goda help the poor soul that gets between her and wealth."

End of Chapter 58

Would y'all believe me if I said that I added almost 800 words to this chapter before posting it?

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-SwordOfTheGods