When the Strawhats arrived at Upper Yard, they were taken aback by the size of the wildlife. It seemed that plants and animals alike on the displaced half of Jaya had evolved drastically in the past 400 years.
They didn't have much time to ponder that, though, as their ship was soon deposited on what appeared to be some sort of altar.
"If Heaven's Judgment is just to leave us here with no way to get to land, I'm not impressed," Sanji commented, standing at the edge of the steps and staring out at the sea cloud. "I can already think of five ways to get out of here." Suddenly, an oddly shaped shark surfaced from the depths and lunged at him, forcing him to jump backwards onto higher ground. "Make that four," he corrected.
"The easiest way is probably to use those," Zoro said, pointing to the vines hanging from the trees above the altar.
Nami hummed in thought. "I have a better idea. Luffy, tame those sky sharks with your Haki and have them give us a ride across!" she shouted triumphantly.
"Nami-san's a genius!" Sanji declared.
"You can do that if you want," Luffy said nonchalantly. "I'm gonna swing from the vines."
Nami looked at him quizzically. "Why? You're a Devil Fruit user. I'm not going to help you if you fall in!"
"If I fall I can just use Geppo. Not that I will. And besides, swinging from a vine is also part of a man's romance."
Nami palmed her forehead in frustration as Zoro and Usopp nodded sagely. Not this shit again!
Luffy grabbed onto the vine and cleared his throat, before swinging across and letting out a yell. "Ahhhh - ahhhhhh - ahhhhhh!"
"What was that supposed to be? A call of the wild?" Nami muttered, before walking up to the vine. She stopped in her tracks when she saw how high it was, and how many sky sharks there were below. While she was debating whether or not to make the swing, Zoro spoke up.
"We should probably split up. The ship will be in danger if we leave it unattended. Usopp and the Cook, you guys can stay here in case one of those priests we heard about shows up. The rest of us will go looking for the City of Gold. Usopp, try to repair the Merry as much as you can. She's probably taken some damage on the way here," he said. Usopp saluted, before rushing below deck to get some supplies. Zoro turned to Sanji. "And Cook—"
"Yeah, yeah, kick the crap out of whoever comes. I got it," Sanji said.
"You do that." Finally, he turned to Robin, Nami, and Chopper. "You two should probably come with us. We have enough members here."
"All right! Let's find some gold!" Nami agreed easily.
"That works for me. I'd very much like to see what sort of history this island harbors," Robin said thoughtfully. With that, the three of them swung across the vine one by one, Zoro echoing Luffy's call of the wild in the process.
In God's Shrine, atop Giant Jack, three men were gathered together, in the middle of a heated argument.
"You poor delusional souls. Actually believing that your petty trials can compare to my Ordeal of Iron," Ohm said condescendingly.
"You're the one who's delusional!" Satori exclaimed. "The only reason your ordeal has a higher mortality rate is because it bores your victims to death!"
Gedatsu attempted to provide his own input in the conversation, but no one could understand him because he once again had his mouth closed.
"Open your mouth when you talk, you dimwit!" Satori yelled.
"How careless!" Gedatsu said in shock.
"It's not carelessness! It's stupidity, plain and simple!"
"Enough of this nonsense! Do not forget that this is the place where God resides!" Chief Enforcer Yama scolded. "Stop making fools of yourselves!"
"Where God resides?" Ohm repeated. "So then, where is God exactly?"
"Everywhere," came a voice out of nowhere, startling the priests. They were suddenly shocked by a mild electric current that ran through the air, stopping when it reached the nearby throne and materializing in the form of a man. That man was easily recognizable as God Enel.
"Ahahaha! Your mantras still need work! Unless you can keep them active even in the middle of your petty squabbles, you won't be able to sense my approach."
"Did you call us here just to tell us that?" Ohm asked lazily.
"Actually, the main reason is that I was bored. But there is something I wanted to discuss with you. Are you aware that seven Blue Sea dwellers are on Upper Yard as we speak?"
"Yama told us about it," Ohm answered. "So, I assume you called us here to take care of them?"
"Partially. As of now, they've split up. Their ship is still at the sacrificial altar, so I'm sending one of you to bestow Heaven's Judgment upon the two of them. The remaining five can be dealt with during the survival game I'm planning."
"Survival game?" Satori asked curiously.
"That's right. A survival game. Between my forces, the Shandians, and the Blue Sea dwellers. I myself will be participating. The reason for this is, of course, because the Maxim is almost completed. So, starting tomorrow, your boundaries in Upper Yard are to be abolished. You are free to do as you wish. After that, we'll depart. To the dream world."
"So then, which of us will go to the altar?" Gedatsu asked.
"Decide amongst yourselves," Enel answered. "Play rock-paper-scissors if you have to." The priests looked at each other and shrugged before holding their fists out. "Oh, and one more thing. Be careful not to die while fighting the Blue Sea dwellers. There's something about them that I can't quite place. Two of them have slightly similar voices to one of the other Blue Sea intruders who faced Shura's Ordeal of String not too long ago. Of course, they're no threat to God, but do be careful, won't you?" He took a bite out of his apple.
"After all, it would be most troublesome if we lost another priest."
In a certain village hidden amongst a vast array of island cloud, a little girl scurried through, attempting not to be sighted. It was the hideout of the remaining Shandians, the tribe of people who had been living on Jaya when it was blasted into the sky. The little Shandian girl looked down at the bag in her hands and smiled in satisfaction before starting to run again.
"Where have you been?" a voice spoke out, startling her enough that she tripped and fell over.
"Ka-Kamakiri!"
"You went to Upper Yard to get vearth again, didn't you, Aisa? You're going to wind up dead at this rate."
"So are you!" the girl named Aisa yelled, sticking her tongue out childishly. "Everyone knows you can't beat Enel!"
Kamakiri narrowed his eyes at her, causing her to yelp and run away. "Little punk..." he muttered.
Aisa arrived at the center of the clearing, where there was a war meeting being led by the Shandian chief and the most influential of their warriors. It was the latter of those two that had a tendency to terrify her. The War Demon, Wiper. She focused intently on what they were saying inside.
"As the Knight of the Sky, Gan Fall has never lifted a hand against us," a voice that sounded distinctly like Laki stated. "In fact, as of now, he has been the only one of the Skypieans opposing Enel head-on. You said yourself that he was aiding Blue Sea dwellers, didn't you?"
"Great. If we're lucky, he and the priests will kill each other," Wiper said in disinterest.
"That's not the point! I'm saying that we share a common enemy in this war!" Laki tried to reason.
"So what? Are you saying the enemy of our enemy is our friend? Grow up! The second Enel falls from power, he'll attempt to take back Upper Yard for the Skypieans! Whether it's Gan Fall, Enel's enforcers, or the Blue Sea dwellers, we'll take them all down!"
Aisa gulped when she heard the anger in his voice. He was always angry. Why was he always so angry?
"Aisa."
Aisa tripped and fell over herself again, before turning and glaring at Braham. "Why do you guys always do that!?" she yelled.
"I wouldn't eavesdrop right now," the Shandian gunman advised. "Wiper's in a bad mood."
"Isn't he always?" Aisa muttered.
Braham smiled. "Point taken. But he's especially high-strung about the Blue Sea dwellers that have just arrived."
"Is it that big a deal?" Aisa asked. "They're just Blue Sea dwellers."
Braham raised an eyebrow. "And are you forgetting what happened the last time Blue Sea dwellers set foot on Upper Yard?" he asked rhetorically.
Aisa visibly shivered. "No..." she admitted. She could never forget. It was hard to forget the most terrifying voice she had ever heard.
It was hard to forget a voice more terrifying than God's.
"Hey, Nami!" Luffy called from one of the lower branches of a tree. "Look what I found! It's old man Cricket's house!"
Nami's eyes widened. "What?" With Robin's help, she was able to make it to the same branch Luffy was on to get a better vantage point. She gasped. "You're right! That's the other half of the house we saw. Well, there's our irrefutable proof of your theory. But how did you even know? It doesn't seem like you to think of something like that."
"Maybe I'm just smarter than I let on," Luffy replied.
"Or maybe you're just too lazy to think most of the time," Nami suggested as she surveyed their surroundings from atop the branch.
"Hey, thinking is hard!"
"Case in point," she said, finishing the rough outline of the map she was drawing. "All right guys, take a look." Luffy, Zoro, and Robin looked over her shoulder. They had decided early on that if they wanted to find the City of Gold, they would have to orient themselves. "This is where the Going Merry is," she said, pointing to the altar. "And this is where we are right now. In his logbook, Noland said that he found the City of Gold 'in the skull's right eye. That's here," she said, putting the individual maps of Jaya and Skypiea together to form a skull. "That means that we need to go directly South of here. First, though, let's get back to the Merry. It's getting dark out, so we should wait until tomorrow to make the trip."
"Sounds like a plan," Luffy said. "And if God tries to stop us, we'll just kick his ass along the way!"
"I am Satori! I am here to judge you, oh despicable sinners!"
Sanji stared at the round man in disinterest. "No," he said blandly.
Satori looked taken aback. "No?" he repeated, never having gotten a response like that before. "What do you mean—?"
But Sanji had already turned around and started walking away. "Hey, where do you think you're going?" Satori asked, jumping off the orb of cloud he was sitting on and landing in front of the chef, who grunted in annoyance.
"Listen, I'm gonna be honest with you. I may not look it, but I am rightfully pissed right now. After being separated from Nami-san and Robin-chan, I am by no means in the mood for this shit today. So, why don't you just do everyone, including yourself, a favor, and get off our ship?"
Satori stared at him open mouthed. "Why the hell would I do that!?" he exclaimed. "It is my divine duty as a Priest to bestow judgment upon you!"
Sanji raised an eyebrow. "Wait, you're one of those priest guys?"
"Hoho! That is correct, Blue Sea trash!"
Sanji sighed. "I guess there's no avoiding it then." Before the priest could ask what he meant, Usopp came out onto the deck of the Going Merry.
"Hey Sanji, what's the commotion? Who's this guy?" Usopp asked.
"It's one of those shitty priests," Sanji said.
"What? Him?" Usopp asked, having pictured a priest to look differently.
"Who are you calling a shitty priest!?" Satori raged, charging at Sanji with an open palm thrust. Sanji ducked out of the way and narrowed his eyes. He could tell there was something weird about this guy's attacks. Usopp readied his slingshot, but Sanji waved him off.
"Stay out of it. I can take this guy no problem." Usopp shrugged and lowered the weapon.
Sanji leapt at Satori with a kick at the ready, but the priest just smiled. "A kick with your right leg," he said, before dodging out of the way. Sanji grunted again.
"So, that's your game," he said.
Satori came forward with another palm thrust, and Sanji smirked. "A shock wave...from the device on your hand." Satori was completely caught off guard by this, and Sanji weaved out of the way of his attack, aiming another kick at him. Satori predicted his movements with mantra and dodged accordingly again, but was surprised when the move ended up being a feint, and was unable to dodge the next kick aimed at his face. He was sent careening off of the ship, only to be caught by his orb of cloud.
"What...it can't be. A mantra user!?" Satori asked in bewilderment, clutching at his bloodied face.
"Mantra...that's what Conis' father said too. Is that what it's called here?" Sanji wondered aloud, before charging forward with another kick at the ready. Satori was able to dodge this one by jumping back onto the ship, and when Sanji turned to face him, he wore a sinister grin. He pulled on a thread, and the orb he'd been sitting on came rushing toward Sanji. The chef, deeming it little thread, kicked it into the air, which turned out to be a mistake when he was caught in the resulting explosion. Caught off guard, he was unable to regain his bearings before Satori rushed him again.
"Impact!" he shouted, as the dial connected with the chef's torso. Sanji coughed a wad of blood and fell back onto the deck.
"Sanji!" Usopp shouted in worry, as Satori laughed victoriously.
"Hoho! That's what you get when you underestimate the Ordeal of Balls!" he said with glee, but was promptly silenced when Sanji got up again, looking thoroughly pissed. "You're still conscious!?"
Sanji ignored his shock as he glared at him. "Time to fry the dough," he muttered.
When Luffy and company arrived back at the Going Merry, they were only slightly surprised to see the bloody beaten form of what they assumed to be an enemy lying on the deck of the ship.
"Who's this guy?" Chopper asked him.
"One of the priests. He was annoying to deal with," Sanji answered. Indeed, he was covered in bruises, which only became more obvious once he removed his shirt as Chopper instructed. As the doctor tended to his wounds, Zoro yawned before leaning against the wall.
"So, how was the fight cook?" he asked lazily. The chef understood what he was being asked though.
"He could use Observation Haki. That was really the only thing he had going for him. He was better at using it than I was at first, but once I got a couple kicks in he freaked out and lost control of it. It ended quickly after that. Still, what an annoying bastard."
"You're telling me!" Usopp shouted. "That guy had no regard for ship maintenance! What was he thinking, lighting an explosion above the deck of the Merry! How am I supposed to repair this!?"
"No use worrying about it," Sanji replied. "At least he's quiet now."
"The question is, what do we do with him?" Nami said. "We can hardly just leave him on the ship."
Luffy walked up to the priest and hoisted him up. The crew watched blankly as he threw him off the ship, past the altar, and into the forest. "That takes care of that," Luffy said. "So, guess what we found out!"
After Luffy explained their findings on the City of Gold, the Strawhats were surprised by the sight of Gan Fall flying toward their ship. When asked what he was doing on Upper Yard, where he apparently hadn't set foot in years, he explained that he heard from an Angel Island citizen that they had come to God's land, and wanted to make sure they came out of it all right.
"That must have been Conis," Nami reasoned. "To be honest, I'm a bit worried about her. Couldn't her regard for our wellbeing mark her as an accomplice?" she asked anxiously.
"Not to worry," Gan Fall replied. "I've moved her to a safe location, where even Enel's mantra does not reach. Still, I was surprised to hear that you all came to Upper Yard willingly. Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
"Don't worry about us, weird knight. We've been in worse situations than this," Luffy replied. "Thanks for everything you've done, though. Wanna join us for the night? We were going to set up camp."
"I'm afraid I cannot. There is a matter that has come to my attention, and while I appreciate the offer, I must attend to it."
Luffy shrugged. "Suit yourself. Good luck, then." As he flew off, Nami turned to him.
"Are you sure we should set up camp? We're in enemy territory; it might be better just to stay on the Merry."
Luffy stared at her as if she had said something absurd. "Huh? That's stupid, Nami. How can we light a bonfire on the Merry? Are you trying to burn down our ship?"
It took a moment for Nami's mind to register that. "Wait, we're gonna do what?"
Robin couldn't help but feel a little disconcerted at the moment. While it was practical to light a fire to cook their food, one this big was completely unnecessary, and it was even less prudent to keep it going through the night. But apparently, that was their plan, if it could be called such a thing. To throw a party around a bonfire in the middle of enemy territory. Strategically, there was no advantage to such an endeavor at all, but she had already learned that her little crew didn't always think rationally. Even Nami had ultimately just let out a resigned sigh and smiled tiredly before joining in on the fun, while Robin was content to sit back and watch.
Would she too settle into this carefree mindset one day? It was a daunting thought, yet an appealing one. Being able to let down her guard, relax and enjoy life...she didn't think about it often, but that was something she had desired for 20 years now. And now that she finally got the chance, she still couldn't help but feel paranoid. Supposedly some habits were too deeply ingrained.
So, here she was, sitting on the sidelines as her crew danced with wolves (were those wolves? Yes, those were wolves) around a bonfire. She couldn't help but smile fondly.
Absently, she became aware of Luffy walking toward her. She watched him as he sat down on the log next to her and sighed contently, patting his stomach.
"So," he began, "Not much of a dancer?"
Robin leaned back and closed her eyes, feeling the nightly breeze blow against her. "I guess not," she replied. "I never really learned."
"Neither did I, to be honest. But hey, what's to learn? Just keep moving."
Robin raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Are you asking me to dance, Captain-san?"
Luffy pouted. "I'm asking you to have fun. What are you doing here by yourself, anyway?"
"Someone has to keep watch," she defended.
"Keep watch for what?" Luffy asked, grinning. "Wolves? Good job."
Robin giggled. "Enforcers. Priests. Self-proclaimed deities, perhaps?"
"Robin, you know I'm like, really strong, right?"
Yes, she knew that. In fact, she couldn't stop thinking about the fact ever since he took down Crocodile with barely a scratch to show for it. She hummed in response, silently asking what his point was.
"And you know I can sense any enemies coming with Observation Haki, right?"
Yes, she knew that as well. She closed her eyes again and smiled, suddenly feeling slightly ridiculous. "I guess old habits die hard," she admitted, voicing her thoughts from earlier.
Luffy grinned again. "Well, come on then! If you don't want to dance, Zoro could use a drinking buddy."
Robin allowed herself to be led closer to the campsite, where she was greeted warmly, and for the first time, partied the night away as a Strawhat pirate.
A/N: Well, soon is a relative term anyway. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.