The Straw Hats and everyone else stepped aside, clearing a path to the Golden Bell.
Wyper took his first step forward.
He placed his hands on the bell. "Great Warrior Kalgara... your promise is finally fulfilled. Though your friend can no longer hear this song."
"But his descendant is still waiting below," Vivi said gently. "The sound will reach him."
"Cricket is in Mock Town down below."
Wyper spun around, staring at the Straw Hats in disbelief. "You mean... Noland's bloodline still exists?"
"Yeah! And after four hundred years, the descendants of Noland and Kalgara are about to complete the promise their ancestors made." Bon Kurei flashed a thumbs up. "Isn't that romantic?"
It was only then that Chopper realized, the person who should ring this bell wasn't just anyone, it was someone who'd been waiting their entire life for this moment. And the most suitable person to ring the bell was already here!
The Shandians, who'd fought for four centuries to protect their ancestor's promise. And Cricket, who'd spent his whole life trying to prove his ancestor wasn't a liar.
The "song" that should have been heard four centuries ago now echoed at last.
"What we have held on to… still has meaning."
Wyper gripped his weapon tightly and swung it against the massive golden bell.
GOOOOONNNNNG.
The sound exploded outward, washing over Upper Yard and Angel Island. But it didn't stop there, the resonant tone pushed through the thick cloud cover and descended toward the Blue Sea below.
In Mock Town, countless pirates looked up in confusion as a sound echoed from the sky.
Blackbeard, who'd already gathered a work crew through sheer intimidation to repair his ship, tilted his head upward. His expression flickered.
"Zehahaha…"
Inside a tavern, Bellamy nearly dropped his drink. His eyes went wide as he stared at the ceiling, as if he could see through it to the source of the sound.
The bottle in his raised hand slowly lowered back to the table.
His crew members erupted into excited chatter, convinced that this was the miracle brought about by that man.
At the edge of the island, Cricket had just returned to his shack when the sound hit. He froze mid-step, then slowly turned his face skyward.
He knew immediately what it was. The Straw Hats had told him they'd ring a bell if they found anything. And this... this was the song Noland had once spoken of.
"So it really was on Sky Island all along," he whispered.
His knees gave out and he sat heavily on a wooden stump outside his house.
Shoujou and Masira looked up in shock, then back at Cricket.
"That sound—!"
"The bell we found pieces of... it must have come from—!"
"The City of Gold was real." Cricket couldn't stop the tears streaming down his face. "Noland wasn't lying. He was never lying."
---
Back on Skypiea, in front of the Golden Bell, Wyper collapsed after his swing. Every ounce of strength had gone into that single strike.
He'd grown up hearing the story of Kalgara and Noland, two warriors from different worlds who'd become friends, only to be torn apart by circumstances beyond their control. Kalgara had died protecting his people. Noland had been executed for "lying" about a city of gold that had literally been launched into the sky.
Noland's crew had tried to prove their captain's innocence. They'd been exiled for it, spending the rest of their lives searching for evidence that would never come. Eventually, one of them had managed to reach Skypiea through a Knock-Up Stream, but by then it was too late. Kalgara was long dead, and the survivor was too injured to make it back down to tell anyone the truth.
Four hundred years of misunderstanding, buried by time and distance.
Until now.
Marcus watched the whole scene play out, feeling oddly moved despite knowing how it would end. There was something about the way these people honored their ancestors' promises, even centuries later, that hit different.
A thought occurred to him. Should he let Cricket and Wyper meet? Give them closure for their ancestors' sake?
He considered opening a portal using his abilities. But he'd never set up a gate in Mock Town, the place was a pirate haven with no real resources, and leaving a portal there seemed like asking for trouble.
They could sail back down the normal way, but that would take time. And he wasn't the captain, so it wasn't really his call to make.
The sound of the bell continued to echo across both islands, and he noticed people reacting to it. Both the Shandians and the Skypieans seemed to remember an old legend: when the song of Upper Yard rang again, the four-hundred-year war would finally end.
And apparently... it had.
The whole concept of "God" had been shattered by Usopp's performance and subsequent disappearance. Gan Fall was no longer seen as divine, and surprisingly, he seemed okay with that. He accepted his new role as just another leader trying to help his people.
The Shandian chief priest had a similar reaction. Their ancient goal had been achieved, now they just needed to figure out how to live in peace.
Vivi saw an opportunity and immediately jumped on it, mediating between the two groups and suggesting they work together toward shared development. It was ambitious, trying to merge two cultures that had been killing each other for centuries, but the leaders on both sides were surprisingly receptive.
Maybe it was because Usopp had accidentally reset everyone's expectations about divine authority. The Skypieans' faith had shifted from blind obedience to something more... voluntary. And since they'd all suffered under Enel together, there wasn't much lingering resentment between the two groups.
Of course, actually implementing Vivi's plan would be a nightmare. Figuring out power distribution, cultural integration, resource management, that was the kind of stuff that started wars. But at least both sides were willing to try. And naturally, because this was the Straw Hat crew, there was a celebration. Though this time, it was a much smaller affair, just the crew, Gan Fall, the Shandia Chief, and a few other important figures from both sides.
Which brought them to Usopp's current problem.
While everyone else was at the main party, he sat alone at his own private table, staring at an elaborate spread of Skypiean delicacies.
The food looked and smelled incredible. Top-tier presentation, exotic ingredients, probably the best meal he'd had in months.
But there was nobody to share it with.
Every time someone from Skypiea or the Shandians tried to approach him, they'd get nervous and start acting weird, like they were in the presence of actual divinity. Some would tremble. Others would avert their eyes. A few looked like they wanted to prostrate themselves.
It was deeply uncomfortable.
"I'm supposed to be a god, but somehow my life got worse," he muttered, picking at his food.
He took a bite of the roasted meat in front of him. The texture was amazing, tender but with just enough resistance, seasoned perfectly with local spices he'd never tasted before.
Under normal circumstances, he'd be calling Luffy over to try it. Hell, he'd probably be fighting Luffy off to keep the rubber idiot from stealing his entire plate.
But now? Nothing. Just him and his fancy god-food, eating alone while everyone else partied fifty meters away.
"Never again," he said to himself, putting down his fork. "I am never, ever showing off like that again."
Because no matter how good the food was, eating alone just made it taste like ash.
The Straw Hats weren't the type to forget their crew members, even when those crew members were sitting alone at god-tier banquet tables.
Naturally, Luffy was the first to arrive, not completely out of concern, but because Usopp still had a whole table loaded with untouched food. Back at the main feast, he had already demolished everything edible within arm's reach, and his rubber stomach was demanding more.
"Usopp, you feeling sick or something?" He walked up, still gnawing on a piece of meat with the bone sticking out of his mouth. He stared at the barely touched feast spread before his friend.
The moment Usopp saw Luffy approaching, he shoved down his gloomy thoughts and grinned. "How about we see who can eat faster?"
"You're on!"
The two immediately began their competition, shoveling food into their mouths at an alarming pace.
Then Luffy just inhaled like a vacuum cleaner and swallowed half the table's food in one impossible gulp.
"Hey! That's cheating!"
The commotion quickly attracted the rest of the Straw Hat crew, and soon the entire battlefield had shifted to Usopp's lonely god-table. Nami, Zoro, Sanji, and the others pulled up seats, grabbed plates, and turned the isolated meal into another rowdy crew gathering.
Back at the main celebration, the Shandia Chief and Gan Fall watched the Straw Hats laughing and bickering among themselves.
"God's companions certainly love their chaos," the Shandia Chief said.
Gan Fall watched the crew playfully fighting over food and smiled. "In the Blue Sea, they call this friendship. It reminds me of that crew from over twenty years ago."
"You mean Roger's group?"
"You met them too?"
"If I hadn't, why would I have agreed to work with you?"
Gan Fall was surprised. "What did his crew do that changed your mind?"
The Shandia Chief's expression grew thoughtful as he reached back through two decades of fading memories. But one moment stood out crystal clear. "His crewmate broke down crying after hearing about our tribe's four-hundred-year burden. Want to guess what they said?"
Gan Fall looked confused, baffled by the sudden riddle.
"How am I supposed to guess?"
"He said that if you weren't such a decent guy, he would've punched you in the face just to vent his frustration."
"What?" Gan Fall blinked in confusion. "What did that have to do with me?"
"That was your crime, apparently."
Gan Fall felt completely baffled. "So... violence would've solved everything? And they didn't even hit anyone in the end, did they?"
The Shandia Chief smiled, his gaze drifting toward the Straw Hats, specifically toward the straw hat on Luffy's head. "He said that will and dreams burn like flames, passed down from person to person. But if there are no people left alive, who inherits those flames?"
His voice softened. "Back then, the Shandian population was collapsing. We were dying out. If that had continued, we might've missed this reunion four hundred years later."
Gan Fall thought back to those days and shook his head with a rueful laugh. The Shandians had been on the brink of extinction.
The entire tribe had numbered less than a hundred people. One more bad decade and they would've been gone entirely.
"So you were planning this from the start," Gan Fall said, finally understanding why the Shandia Chief had agreed so easily to the merger conditions all those years ago.
Without new generations being born, without intermarriage with the Skypieans, the Shandians would've simply faded away within a generation or two. Their women were heartbreakingly scarce, the ratio had reached an extreme ten men to every one woman.
For two populations that had spent centuries at war, having so few women was bizarre and catastrophic. After all, men were the ones charging into battle, dying by the hundreds. Theoretically, women should have vastly outnumbered men. Ten women to one man wouldn't have been surprising at all in normal circumstances.
But four hundred years of brutal warfare had twisted those numbers into something unsustainable.
The two old men continued chatting, revealing countless calculations and long-buried plans from their decades of leadership. Then they smiled at each other, raised their cups, and drank to bury it all.
Wyper had been listening to the entire conversation. His expression had been growing increasingly strange.
In his mind, the Shandia Chief had always been a kind, wise elder who guided the tribe with compassion and clever strategy. A man of wisdom and honor. But now... apparently he'd been playing political chess this whole time.
The two old men noticed his disturbed expression and chuckled.
"Everyone in power plays these games, Wyper," the Shandia Chief said gently. "Now that the war's over, you should work on that rigid personality of yours."
"..."
"You're not getting any younger. Time to settle down and start a family. Speaking of which, how are things going with Raki?"
Wyper looked confused. "What does she have to do with anything?"
The Shandia Chief looked at him with exasperation. "That girl's feelings are written all over her face, and you still don't see it?"
Gan Fall leaned in. "What's happening here? Tell me everything."
The Shandia Chief proceeded to publicly dissect every interaction between Wyper and Raki, making Gan Fall gasp and exclaim at each revelation.
"Wow, that's pretty dense of you, Wyper~"
Watching the two old men treat his love life like entertainment made Wyper's face burn red. He couldn't take it anymore. He stood abruptly and walked out.
Seeing him flee, the two old men exchanged satisfied grins, clinked their cups, and continued gossiping about the younger generation.
At that moment, they weren't tribal leaders or former enemies. Just two old men worrying about kids these days.
The moment Wyper stepped outside the banquet hall, he nearly collided with Raki. He immediately panicked and slammed himself against the wall like she was radioactive.
"Wyper, what are you doing?"
Raki stared at him. His behavior was bizarre.
Wyper forced his expression to stay neutral. "Nothing. I just needed some air."
He walked over to the edge of the cloud sea and splashed water on his burning face, trying to cool down his embarrassment.
That's when he felt it, a presence behind him.
He spun around, instantly alert.
Marcus stood there, hands in his pockets, watching him calmly.
Purple light flickered in Wyper's eyes for a split second before he suppressed it.
"Want me to remove it?"
Wyper understood exactly what Marcus meant. Ever since their fight, something had been influencing his thoughts and emotions. But weirdly, he'd never felt like it was a problem. Even now, knowing his mind was being tampered with, he felt no anger or resentment about it.
Before he could respond, faint purple ghostly energy rose from his body like smoke. It drifted through the air and vanished into the Shichiseiken at Marcus' waist.
Wyper stared at his hands. He hadn't felt anything leave his body. But suddenly he felt... hollow. Like something had been filling a space inside him, and now that space was empty.
"You... I... what..."
He didn't know what to say or how to process this.
Marcus just waved dismissively and turned to leave. "Take care of that girl."
"What?!"
Wyper felt completely lost.
But even as he watched Marcus walk away, he still felt no hostility toward him. The curse was gone, but apparently it hadn't manufactured his lack of hatred. That part was real.
He lifted his hands and examined them. "Was I being controlled this whole time?"
He searched his memories, his feelings, and thoughts. Everything seemed intact. He was still himself. Nothing felt wrong or missing, except for that strange emptiness.
Raki walked over and handed him a towel. "Did you drink too much?"
Facing Raki, Wyper suddenly found he couldn't look her in the eye.
"No..."
"The chief asked me to check on you. He said you seemed off."
"That meddling old man..." Wyper muttered helplessly. Then he forced himself to look directly at her. "Do you think it's possible for someone to not be themselves anymore?"
"What kind of question is that? Did you hit your head?" Raki frowned at him. But seeing how serious he looked, she paused thoughtfully. "You are still you. Same rough idiot as always."
"..."
"Haha! Look at you scowling. Yep, definitely still the same."
Marcus watched the scene unfold from a distance, shaking his head.
The Shichiseiken at his waist pulsed, but he'd learned to tune out its whispers. Wyper would be fine. The curse had been influencing him, sure, but it hadn't changed who he was. Just... smoothed over some rough edges, and made him slightly less likely to pick fights.
Honestly, Wyper might've been better off keeping it. But he figured people had the right to their own flaws.
Just then, Alvida poked her head out from behind a nearby cloud-house, looking around suspiciously. The moment she spotted him, she grabbed him by the collar and yanked him out of sight.
"What are you—" Marcus started to protest.
"I need your help," Alvida said, dragging him toward one of the abandoned structures on the outskirts of the celebration.