Chapter 55: The Sound of Peace

Chapter 61:

The Sound of Peace

"Eneru's dead?" Usopp's question voiced the thoughts of the rest of the crew as they stared at their captain. It was about six o'clock and the battle had been over for nearly an hour. Gin, after having changed out of his blood-soaked clothing, was resting in the medical cabin while Chopper treated the survivors of Eneru's Survival Game, which turned out to be many more than Eneru would have expected including all of Wiper's lieutenents, Satori, Gedatsu, Olm and Holy (though they did not really compete), the Lord of the Sky, about a sixth of the guards, and about a fifth of the Shandorian attack force. Stories had been swapped by the victorious forces and everyone was now in the loop about what had happened with the exception of Gin's demon-like state. Luffy had chosen to omit that part of the story since it was Gin's decision to tell or not. Now, the group was situated on the east shore with the Merry docked next to the island. If one were to look very closely, they would see that the Merry's smile was just a little wider than usual.

The Shandorian warriors who had not been part of the battle and the White Berets had both made their way to Upper Yard after seeing the lights from the fight with Eneru. While they had wanted to fight each other originally, the Shandorians had stood down after finding Wiper being treated by Chopper and the WBs stepped back on order of Gan Fall. Instead, he ordered them to search the island for Conis, whom they found chained to a giant ark in a cave on the back side of the island, before leaving for his homestead. Conis had been entrusted to the care of Laki to help her recuperate from the terrifying ordeal. Luckily, the Straw Hats had beaten the false God before anything too serious could happen to her.

"Hey, Robin?" Luffy asked just as tempers were rising between the two groups of old enemies. "You know where that golden bell is, right?"

"Golden bell?" Wiper demanded. "What do you know of the Golden bell?"

"Yes, I do," Robin told her captain. "The golden bellfree of Shandora is on one of the clouds floating around the top of Giant Jack."

"What are we waiting for? I'm gonna go ring it!"

"What right do you have to ring the Golden Bellfree of Shandora?" Wiper growled.

"It's no use arguing with him," Grace muttered.

"If he says he's going to do something, he does it," Usopp agreed.

"Besides," Coby butted in. "We met a man in the Blue Sea before we got here whose ancestor discovered Shandora before it was flung into the sky. He and the rest of his family have been trying to prove that he wasn't a liar over 400 years later. Captain Luffy wants to ring the bell to prove that the City of Gold he's looking for is in the sky."

Wiper paled. "What is the name of this man you met?"

"Montblanc Cricket," Robin answered. Tears rose in Wiper's eyes and he turned away to hide them.

"We," Wiper got out. "We know of this adventurer whom you speak of. Montblanc Noland was a friend of our greatest warrior, Kalgara."

"What a scene," Gan Fall chuckled as he and Pierre landed. With them was a bandaged Pagaya who ran to hug his daughter.

"Old Knight Guy!" Luffy shouted. "Take me to the top of the beanstalk!" As the captain talked with the former-now-once-again God, Pagaya and Conis approached Nami and the others.

"Oh, miss," Pagaya called. "Miss Nami? I brought you something." From behind his back, the Skypian produced a new, rebuilt waver. It was smaller than it had been, probably so he could carry it on the flight, and the handle now folded down over the base "While I was injured, I needed something to occupy my time. This was the result."

"Thank you, Pagaya." Nami accepted the gift with happy eyes.

"Be careful, though," the man warned. "Jet dials went extinct just over 200 years ago, yet there was one on this waver, so it is much more powerful than average."

"I'm going to ring that bell!" Luffy yelled happily, having apparently convinced Gan Fall to give him a ride up. "Who's coming with me?"

"I will go," Robin said. "It would be an archeologist's dream to see something like the bell."

"I will, too," Coby added.

"I must go," Wiper grunted. "As the descendent of the great warrior Kalgara, it is my duty to be there when the bell in rung once more."

"And I'm going to go get all that gold on the ark." Nami's eyes lit up as she said that. "Zoro, you're coming with me! I need a gold-cutting mule!"

"Damn witch..."

Just as they were leaving, Wiper ordered the other Shandorians to round up the living priests and to banish them to a drifting cloud. The White Berets made no argument.

"So this is it," Robin marveled. She, Luffy, Coby, Gan Fall and Pierre, Wiper, and the Shandorian chief stood before the Golden Bellfree of Shandora. In the center of the base was a Poniglyph, two of its corners overgrown with moss and vines. Robin stepped forward, her eyes greedily drinking in and deciphering the symbols engraved upon it, only for her smile to slowly slip away.

"Another dead end," she sighed. "This Poniglyph speaks of the Ancient Weapon Poseidon, not how to reach the Rio Poniglyph."

"What about this part?" Coby asked, pointing to the right of the stone where more symbols were engraved into the gold itself. Robin studied it, her eyes widening as she read it aloud.

"I made it here and I will guide this passage all the way to the farthest ends of the earth. The stormiest seas will not stop me. Pirate Gol D. Roger."

"Oooh," Luffy awed. "Gold Roger was here! That's so cool!"

"Could it be?" Robin gasped. Everything had fallen into place. "Could it be that the previous Pirate King found the Rio Poniglyph and hid it with the One Piece?"

"Anyway," the young rubber-man waved off, not hearing Robin's mutterings, "I'm gonna go ring that bell!" He jumped up onto the bellfree and threw his arms backward. "Gum-Gum Singing Bazooka!" His hands collided with the side of the bell, shoving it away. Reaching the end of its upward movement, the relic let out a deep, reverberating chime that echoed throughout the sky and below. The bell swung back down, hitting Luffy on the way, and continued to ring.

"It's over," the Shandorian chieftain cried happily as Luffy crashed behind him. "We don't have to fight anymore."

"No! Impossible! Those stupid dreamers can't have been right!"

"Stop moving, Captain Bellamy! Your cuts from those giant praying manti were infected with some kind of bacteria! If you keep moving, I'll be forced to sedate you!"

"That stupid Straw Hat! It has to be a Lie! The Sky Islands don't exist!"

"Bellamy. We've been had. We gotta move on."

"No! Not until I'm certain! We're going to find that Sky Island as soon as I'm healed!"

The partying began that night, booze passing between the hands of Shandorians, Skypians, and pirates alike. Usopp and Chopper danced like no one was watching as Zoro chugged mug after mug. Grace dragged Coby onto the dance floor while her sister was distracted by flirting with all the warriors, though Amy only really got into the flirting after almost three-fourths of a casket of Skypian beer. (It had a lower alcohol content than its Blue Seas counterparts.). Luffy had stopped inhaling food for the moment since he had eaten everything available and Sanji was in the process of making more. Nami snuck over behind him and swiped his hat.

"Hey!" he called, chasing the girl as the others laughed before they returned to their own activities. Few of them noticed that the girl led her captain away from the festivities.

"Nami!" Luffy yelled as the Merry came within sight. "Give me back my hat!" The girl waved his treasure tauntingly as she jumped onto the deck of the ship. She wasn't worried about waking Gin since Chopper had said he wouldn't wake up for four days. Even by the Straw Hat standard, he still had a day and a half at least.

"You have to catch me first!" The navigator darted into the girls' bedroom as Luffy landed on the ship. He chased after his thieving girlfriend, throwing the door between them open.

The only lighting in the room was from a flickering candle acting as a substitute for the dying evening light. Nami was facing away from Luffy with his beloved hat on her head, the image causing Luffy to freeze as he started to hear his own heartbeat. She undid the last button on her beach shirt and tossed it aside, leaving her in her pants and bikini top.

"Nami-?"

"Shhhh," the girl whispered, suddenly in front of him. With her right hand pressing its pointer finger over the rubber-man's lips, her left shut the door to the outside world. "You were amazing out there, Luffy. You know that?"

"I'm not sure it was that amazing," Luffy responded bashfully, his face coloring as their close proximity drug up the memory of Usopp being forced to give him The Talk back in Alabasta.

"I think it was," Nami whispered huskily, rising onto her toes to be eye-to-eye with the Devil Fruit user. "I think you deserve a reward."

"Nami, are you sure about this?" The captain's heart was doing flips inside his chest, and his voice showed it.

"As sure as I'll ever be," Nami smiled. She closed the distance between them, catching Luffy in a passionate kiss as she dragged him further into the room. They didn't return to the party that night.

…Or that morning.

The party lasted four days and nights. Nami had been walking bowlegged on the second day, but she waved it off as twisting her ankle on a rock. Even with her lie, Robin's eyes told her that she knew what had happened. Amy also seemed to know, and she decided to keep the information as blackmail. Luffy remained unchanged save for the fact that he more-freely flirted with Nami in public and showed more displays of affection. This was, of course, after an extremely pissed-off Sanji kicked him for no reason and only "I felt like it," as an excuse.

Gin woke up on the second day and, though he was severely weakened from the fight, he refused to miss the fun and made due with a cane and a promise to Chopper to rest after they left. That day was actually interesting in more ways than one since Nami discovered a strange fruit in her tangerine trees. It was grey in color and shaped like a rain cloud with a yellow stem that zigzagged upward: The Rumble-Rumble Fruit. It was agreed that, though no one wanted to eat it, that they were not going to throw it out or sell it.

On a side note, Amy was able to acquire a new umbrella, this one a little larger than her previous one had been but still a lemon-yellow color. She had Usopp replicate the upgrades he had done on the other, but this time a more-efficient breath dial was set into the joint where the pole met the cover.

The Straw Hats, Conis, and Sou snuck away on the fourth night with all the treasure they could find from the ruins, the Ark Maxim, and the belly of Nola the giant snake. Nami wanted to take the broken golden pillar from the bellfree, but even she couldn't will the Merry to bare tht much extra weight. Silently, they boarded the Merry, stashed the gold with their remaining loot from Gasparde and the Rainbow Mist, and sailed toward Cloud End with the Skypian girl following on her father's waver. Nami was still excited about their new treasure trove while Usopp had been able to acquire a large number of dials by trading his rubber bands to the awestruck Skypians. Not only did they think the rubber bands were extremely cool, but the Skypians all wanted an "artifact that helped destroy the evil God". The Southbird joined them at the last minute, crying about not leaving it behind by Chopper's translation.

"Be careful!" Conis called as the Merry began to tilt. "I'll call you a ride real quick!"

"Sou! Sou!"

"W-What is she talking about?" Usopp muttered, the Merry tilting that much more.

"I don't like this," Gin commented uneasily. "Do... Do we know what's below us?"

"Nope!" Luffy cheered. "Old Armor Guy said it was a mystery cliff!"

"That's not what he said at all!" Coby yelled. A shrill whistle echoed through the surrounding air as the Merry finished her tilting and began to slide down a steep cloud ramp. "Captain Luffy, I don't want to go down the mystery cliff!"

"Woooohooooo!" Luffy cheered over the sound of his crew's panicked screams. The Merry flew off the end of the ramp, staying airborne for several seconds, enough time for the entire crew to float away from the deck. Just as they began to fall, a giant octopus exploded from the side of the cumulorigalis cloud to catch the ship, its tentacles straining as its head filled with air to act like a parachute/balloon. The crew tumbled to the deck.

"Is everyone ok?" Zoro moaned, shoving Usopp off of his back. Everyone save for Gin gave an positive answer. Chopper answered for the injured man.

"Gin's knocked out!" the doctor called. "I think he hit his head on the fall! Luckily, it doesn't look too bad and he needed to sleep anyway. Help me move him into the medical bed." Lifting up the unconscious man, Zoro followed Chopper into the recovery room. Everyone else shrugged and settled in for the long haul, the beautiful ringing of the Golden Bellfree reverberated around them.

The journey downward, however, took longer than they thought it would. Night fell even before they could see the ocean. Luckily, everyone managed find something to do.

Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp played tag on the deck while Zoro and Coby went inside to train. Usopp had agreed to give up some dials that would be useful for cooking, so Sanji and Amy were in the kitchen getting acquainted with those. Grace was on her third painting of the Sky Islands; having already finished Angel Island and the Upper Yard forest, she was working on the Ruins of Shandora. Nami sat next to her, writing in the logbook before getting started a map of the islands. Robin was reading several books she received from some of the Skypians on the histories of the islands. Gin was still sleeping, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit on his bedside so he could be a last line of defense if someone attacked them.

The octopus slowly deflated as the Blue Sea drew closer, finally losing the last of its air about 300 meters up. It probably would have deflated faster if Luffy had jumped on it like a trampoline like he had wanted to, but Nami had reeled him in with the argument the Merry probably wouldn't be able to handle that much speed if it popped. Either way, their landing was still sudden as they splashed down in the center of an extinct volcano.

"Ow," Usopp whined, holding his head from where he'd crashed into the mast upon landing. Chopper's fall was cushioned by the sniper's body.

"Amy-Chan!" Sanji called from the kitchen. It seemed that she'd fallen through the floor again like she had during the Dead End Race, having increased her mass to keep her feet on the floor. She was only a little bruised. Her sister, however, was disappointed as the fall had caused her to spill red paint on her painting of the ruins, the paint appearing to look like fresh blood.

"Is everyone alright?" Coby asked as he and his master stepped out from below deck. Everyone, save for Gin, called an affirmative to show that they were all more-or-less unharmed.

That was before the spotlights began to center on the Merry.

End of Chapter 61

IMPORTANT NOTICE!

Yes, this next arc will be a short filler arc from the anime: G-8. DO NOT SKIP IT. Important things will happen, and by important, I mean Important with a capital I. So for those of you who don't like the fillers, sorry but you gotta. That is all.

Read and Review!

-SwordOfTheGods