Mindscape

Enel didn't have a good feeling about Cherry's "solution", even if it wasn't handing him over to that lunatic Gan Fall.

"It's simply really. Gan Fall's primary concern is that Enel would use Birka's Treasure to do all the terrible things. So I'll just take the treasure for myself. Even if Enel has some ambitions to usurp Gan Fall, he won't have the ability to destroy any islands at least." Cherry spoke simply. She smiled as if proud of coming up with such an amazing solution.

"B-but how can I know that you won't destroy us all as he would have?!" Gan Fall shouted hysterically.

"Could you stop me even if I planned to do so?" Cherry asked.

Gan Fall went silent.

Enel had a rather ugly look on his face. Birka's Treasure was a vital part of his plans. Without it, he would not possess the invincible power of the Thunder God necessary to maintain absolute supremacy over the sky.

"After that, you need to pay reparations to Birka for the conflict, as well as possibly stepping down from your position as Skypeia's God once things have stabilized. That's the bare minimum you can do for the sake of righting your wrongs against Birka." Cherry said.

Cherry clapped her hand once. "Well, I'd say this has been quite the fruitful discussion. I'm not going to stick around for too long, so I recommend sorting things out in a timely fashion."

Cherry went around to release the tied individuals at the table, as well as their subordinates behind them.

Wyper left immediately to go discuss things with his village chief. Enel slunk away despondently, or at appeared to do so, but in reality was trying to sneak up to God's Shrine. Likely he wanted to find Birka's Treasure, but Cherry had already looted it.

Gan Fall lingered around awkwardly, so Cherry decided to ask him something.

"By the way, how did you go nuts? From the information I've gathered it happened during your grave robbing incident." She asked.

"The Thunder God must have laid a trap for whomever tried to enter his tomb. All I remember is a bright flash and waking up on the ground. My beard and hair was singed, so I think I was struck with some sort of lightning attack. Afterwards, my thoughts have been steered towards obsession. Even now I can feel the pull, telling me to chase after Enel." Gan Fall spoke solemnly.

"Well, maybe there's something I can do about that. Let me have a peek at your mindscape, that's the manifestation of the connection between the physical mind and the soul. I'm not at the level that I can be certain nothing will go wrong, but you're already crazy so what's the worst that can happen?" Cherry smiled, cracking her fingers.

Gan Fall wasn't sure about that last part, but if it meant ridding himself of these intrusive thoughts, he was willing to try it.

Cherry approached him and latched her palm onto the old man's forehead and shut her eyes. She focused her on searching for Gan Fall's mindscape, which was only barely possible due to her spiritualizing her nervous system.

After a moment or two, both of them sank deep into his mind.

The first thing she saw was a chaotic vision of Enel destroying Birka with lightning, then invading God's Shrine and usurping the throne. Cherry pushed passed the images, as they weren't important.

She caught sight of something, like the tail of some creature. She followed after with haste.

It was quick, it fled deeper into Gan Fall's mindscape with Cherry barely able to keep up.

Finally she caught it's tail and it revealed itself as a snake made of lightning. It struck out at her, but it was no match for Cherry. This thing did not possess any intelligence, only the imprint of a will that was long dead.

She strangled the snake before ripping it apart, collecting its energy and leaving nothing behind.

Cherry withdrew from Gan Fall's mind. The old man was in rather rough shape and passed out immediately, but Cherry believed he would be alright in the end.

'Just how frightening was this Thunder God that he could do something that subtle with such an overbearing power? I hope I don't meet any monsters like him before I stand at the top of the world.' Cherry thought.

Some of Gan Fall's men took him away with some trepidation, casting glances at Cherry to make sure she wasn't going to move against them.

Cherry just walked away to go find the others.

Coincidentally, she happened to run into the Straw Hats. "Well well well, took you long enough. I was beginning to think you wouldn't show up."

"I cannot believe you just went off to Sky Island without us!" Nami exclaimed, hands disapprovingly upon her hips.

"Oh, well since you're so upset, I guess I won't show you where the golden city is." Cherry teased.

"I was just joking, Cherry! You're the best big sis I could ever hope to have! Now where's that city?" Nami fluttered her eye lashes at Cherry cutely, linking arms with her.

"Yeah, where's the golden city?! And where's the golden bell?! I've got to ring that bell to let Cricket know where the golden city went!" Luffy was especially gung ho.

"Hehehe, follow me then. We'll have to be quick, the owners are likely to show up soon." Cherry said, and led them to her tunnel through the island cloud.

"""So awesome!""" Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp shouted in unison, after first laying eyes upon the glittering city of gold.

Nami was stunned silent and started to drool at the sight.

While they explored the city, Cherry met back up with Robin, Cabernet, and Serene. Robin had found another poneglyph that mentioned the bell Luffy spoke of.

"I suspect the belfry was knocked into a higher part of the sky by the giant beanstalk that now pierces through where it once stood." Robin explained.

"We'll look for it once we're done here then. Now you can start telling me about the city, I can tell you're itching to share." Cherry smiled wryly. Robin was more than happy to enlighten her about her findings.

The history of Shandora was fascinating, to say the least. Especially it's role in this ancient war during the void century. Cherry was quite curious about what was so important or dangerous that the world government felt the need to censor the void century.

Genocide and general mass murder certainly fit the bill, but perhaps there was more to it than that.

By the time Robin finished elaborating upon the history of Shandora, the Straw Hats were carrying as much gold as they were able to in large sacks on their backs. Somehow even Nami was carrying far more gold than Cherry thought was possible for her. 'That woman really loves her gold, huh?'

"The bell should be somewhere above us, Cabernet will help us to search." Cherry stated, earning nods from the rest.

The search took a little while, but they eventually found their goal. A beautiful and enormous golden bell rested upon a cloud high above Upper Yard.

Robin was excited to read the poneglyph imbedded into it, while Luffy and the other men prepared to ring it.

"Poseidon..." Robin sighed with disappointment. "Another ancient weapon..."

"Hey, Robin, there some more of those funny words on the side of the bell here." Usopp pointed out.

Robin read them and was shocked. She told the crew what the words said, and whom had let them here. Gol D. Roger.

With this message she also understood she had misunderstood her quest. No single poneglyph would tell the true history of the void century. The poneglyphs had to be compiled together in a particular place. Laugh Tale.

She looked over at Luffy, the young man who proclaimed himself the future King of the Pirates. 'I wonder if he can make it there?'

The bell echoed out across the sky. All the people on the many sky islands, as well as the people on Jaya below them, heard the great golden bell ring.

"Truly marvelous..." Cherry admired. It had been many years since she heard a sound that rivaled the music from the famous song immortals.

She savored the sound and smiled. 'These mortals never cease to amaze me with their wonders...'