Pop quiz.
In the world of One Piece—especially on Luffy's side—what always comes after a huge battle finally ends?
…The answer is…
"A FEEEAAAST~~~!!"
Yep.
That.
On God's Island, gathered around a massive bonfire… with "God" Enel and his forces beaten, and Skypiea saved from total destruction… the Sky People, the Shandia, and us Blue Sea outsiders were all mixed together in one enormous, shameless, no-brakes celebration.
Man… I've watched this scene in the Original Work more times than I can count, but experiencing it for real is something else entirely.
The heat. The noise. The sheer life of it.
Everywhere I look, people are laughing like their lungs might burst—so hard you'd never believe they were trying to kill each other not long ago.
Just watching them makes my mood lift. Seriously.
They're laughing through tears, singing, dancing, eating, drinking…
Ahh—this is fun.
So this is what it feels like to throw your brain in the trash, empty your head completely, and just become part of the chaos.
I haven't really lived a life that includes this kind of "idiot revelry," so it's… absurdly refreshing.
I've been to plenty of banquets. Lavish ones at Merveille. Glamorous parties at Gran Tesoro. All sorts of formal gatherings beyond that.
But this?
This has a different kind of charm.
It's free. It's easy. Nobody cares about etiquette. Nobody cares who's important. Nobody cares how you look or what you're "supposed" to do.
It's common-folk energy, in the best possible way.
And more than anything—this is the first party I've ever been to where it feels like one hundred percent of the people here are genuinely happy. Not polite-happy. Not "smile because you're being watched" happy.
Actually happy.
Honestly, just getting to be here might've made sticking my nose into the Sky Island Arc worth it all on its own.
The banquet at Merveille was fun, and the food was great, but… I'm always "Miss." Shiki the Golden Lion's daughter.
People under Papa's banner respect me. They come greet me. They line up to pay their respects.
Which means the atmosphere never really relaxes.
It's… kind of like a company drinking party you can't escape from.
Gran Tesoro was similar. The shows were incredible, the cuisine was flawless—but the VIP air makes everything feel a little tight around the throat.
Fun, sure, but not the kind of fun where you can truly let loose.
Unless you count the private after-parties where you're only drinking with close friends. Those are different.
…And then there was that "tea party" I was invited to.
Or rather—summoned to.
Everyone smiled. Everything served was delicious.
But the guest list was the guest list, and every smile felt like it had something dark behind it. I stayed tense the whole time. It was fun in a way, but I couldn't relax. Not even a little.
I'm still glad I went with Morgans—he'd attended those things before, and he saved me more than once that day.
I owe him big time.
And after all that, the host called me in afterward and nearly forced me into a marriage arrangement.
Ugh. Stop. Stop thinking about it.
I'm ruining my own mood.
It's a banquet, for crying out loud.
Right now, I'm just going to enjoy the moment.
Over there, Lupus and the three fish-man girls are dancing like they've forgotten the concept of fatigue, and Honey's downing drinks like tomorrow isn't real. She can really hold her liquor, too.
Shizu still has her usual poker face, but she's clearly enjoying herself—quietly chewing through the feast like a disciplined little machine.
Leona is singing and dancing with Aisa, and the two of them look like they're glowing. It's their first time being together as sisters in ages—
Well… "alone" is a stretch, considering the entire island is currently screaming and partying around them.
But it doesn't matter.
They look so happy that the crowd might as well not exist.
As for me, I joined in too—moderately, because I still have a sense of self-preservation—and ate and drank my fill.
And what really made my night was this:
Some people from Angel Island actually remembered that I'm obsessed with Cloud Cheese sweets.
They brought me a ridiculous amount.
Cheesecake, tarts, soufflés… the works.
I ate enough that I briefly considered whether I was going to have to invent a Paper Stomach Expansion Technique.
The energy kept building and building… and by the end, we weren't even sure what was so funny anymore.
Everything was just funny.
We laughed until our sides hurt.
☆☆☆
That kind of feast continued for days.
But in between, we slipped away now and then to explore the island.
Our reason?
To take what was rightfully ours.
Aside from my involvement, the battle ended mostly like the original story… but there was one pretty big difference.
After Luffy defeated Enel, the Ark Maxim lost its power and fell—same as the original.
But instead of crashing into the sea…
It crashed onto God's Island itself.
Worse, because it fell straight down from directly above the Giant Jack, it slammed into the Island Cloud section where the God's Shrine had been.
Something critical must've snapped, because the thing didn't just "crash."
It punched through cloud-ground, exploded midair, and rained wreckage and debris across the surrounding area.
At my age, nonstop chaos starts to wear on you.
So I decided to take a break—and while I was at it, do a little scavenging.
Shizu and Honey, who were about to take a breather anyway, came with me.
The haul?
A masterpiece.
"Jet Dials. Axe Dials. Frozen Dials. Thunder Dials… and a bunch of other stuff. Rare ones, extinct ones—take your pick."
"Most of these I've never even seen," Honey muttered, turning one over in her hand. "I don't know where they got them, but they've been hoarding for years. The quantity alone is insane."
"The Jet Dials were the most common," Shizu reported flatly. "We identified at least one hundred and nineteen. There are dozens of others scattered around."
If we bring this back, Papa will be thrilled. And Dr. Indigo will be drooling.
With samples like these, he can absolutely succeed in cultivating them.
Of course, falling from that height meant a lot of them shattered beyond repair… but we collected even the broken fragments. You never know what research can be done with pieces.
And yes—we were finding Dial types we'd never even heard of, but we still knew their names.
Why?
Because we also found documents.
A list. Notes. Research materials.
And—best of all—
What looked like blueprints for the Maxim.
That alone is worth a small country.
We grabbed one random God's Guard member, interrogated him until he told us where the underground shipyard was—the place they'd been forced to work.
Then we searched it thoroughly.
Since they were planning to destroy Skypiea anyway, they'd left important papers lying around like trash.
So we took everything.
Every last page.
This is especially valuable because Papa's territory is in the sky, and "flying ships" are the kind of words that make him smile like a kid.
Also—one of Papa's warships' weaknesses is that they don't really move well on their own unless he's personally piloting and manipulating them.
If we can fix that?
Oh, he's going to love it.
We also found a design for a thundercloud generator called "Deathpiea."
Whether it's actually usable is questionable—the whole thing seems to assume Enel's absurd electrical output as the power source.
But if we could find an alternate energy supply…
Combine that with floating warships…
Yeah.
That would be terrifying.
I'll toss that to Dr. Indigo too.
Honestly, even "happy screams" have a limit.
There are too many research topics here.
Our research team might actually work themselves to death.
If that happens, I guess I'll have to help out a little.
Thanks to reading through all those files about Mama—Sou—I actually have enough knowledge now to assist in a real way.
Life is weird.
By the way… we weren't the only ones sneaking away from the feast.
"Hey, Robin—doesn't this look like another one? Ancient writing, maybe?"
"Hm… yes," Robin said softly, studying it. "This might be… a council chamber. Judging by the structure, size, and its location in the city, it seems like a place where the people of Shandora held meetings."
Right.
She's the Straw Hats' archaeologist.
Robin often wandered into the ruins of Shandora during breaks, so we ran into each other constantly while hunting for Dials.
She'd already deciphered the ancient script on the Golden Bell—both the one mentioning Poseidon and the one that looked like it was left by the Pirate King.
And just like Enel's Ark, the bell also fell to the island.
Thankfully, it landed on an Island Cloud section, so it didn't take much damage.
One of the side pillars broke off—same as the original—but the bell itself survived.
If things follow the Original Work exactly, Luffy and the others will leave that one Dial behind—more like, they won't even notice it's there—and later that Spring Brat will snatch it up and offer it to that pink-shaded bird.
Ugh.
Boring.
Maybe I should interfere a little more.
Somewhere along the way, our "taking breaks" turned into me strolling with Robin and having her read any ancient script I happened to find.
And somehow…
I got genuinely interested.
"Hey, Robin… those ancient scripts. Are they really that hard to learn?"
"…They're complicated," she admitted. "If you truly want to learn them, it takes time. It took me a while too. Are you… interested?"
"If you're asking whether I'm interested, then yeah," I said. "Reading them sounds cool. I even tried searching for a guidebook once."
We stole that Poneglyph from Alabasta, but we can't read it at all. Right now it's basically a giant decorative rock stored on Merveille.
From the Original Work, I know it mentions Pluton, but I don't know what it says specifically—where it's hidden, the exact details, anything.
And wait…
Now that I think about it… the Poneglyph only said "the location was recorded," right?
It doesn't necessarily mean it's in Alabasta.
I assumed Pluton was there because Crocodile was obsessed with taking over the country.
But the Poseidon mentioned on the Shandora Poneglyph turned out to be on Fish-Man Island, not in Shandora.
So maybe Pluton could be somewhere completely ridiculous too.
My curiosity just grew sharper.
"A guidebook…" Robin's lips curved faintly. "Highly unlikely. If something like that existed, the World Government would erase it immediately."
Yeah.
They'd burn an island to the ground—residents and all.
Research itself is forbidden, but even "trying to search," "being able to read" (regardless of intent), and eventually even "the mere possibility" of it is enough for them to criminalize you and fabricate charges.
Honestly, that kind of pathological suppression almost feels like the Government is screaming, Please notice what we're hiding.
"…Right," I said. "By the way… if I asked, would you teach me?"
"Are you sure?" Robin's voice stayed gentle, but her eyes were serious. "The World Government will target you."
"They already put a bounty on my head," I replied. "So worrying now feels kind of pointless. Luckily it's only seventy-six million at the moment. But if I learn ancient script, it'll probably jump. What a pain."
She laughed quietly.
"It's not something you learn overnight. Hm… if you joined our ship, and the Captain invited you… I might have time to teach you."
"That's… awkward," I said. "I've got my own circumstances and commitments, you know? Wait—hold on. Is Luffy trying to recruit me?"
"That's what he said," Robin answered. "He's still caught up in the feast now, but… I wouldn't be surprised if he asks once things settle down."
So that's how it is.
Being invited—maybe—to join the original protagonist's crew…
It's an honor.
But I can't accept.
And refusing is going to be a nightmare.
Once Luffy decides something, he's relentless.
If I give a vague excuse, he'll probably shout something like, "No way! I refuse to accept your refusal!" or "Shut up! Let's go!" and just bulldoze right over me.
I need to plan this.
Come on, creative brain.
Work.
Give me the perfect line.
Oh—and one more thing I overheard.
Some of the Shandia and the remaining God's Guard were talking about trying to use Cloud Drifting on Enel and the Priests… but they couldn't find a single one of them.
Not one.
They sounded nervous about it.
Apparently, during those six years of forced labor, the God's Guard had been made to build several small ships as prototypes for the Maxim.
They didn't have Deathpiea, but they did have flight capability.
And some of those prototypes weren't dismantled or discarded—they were kept in storage.
Except now… they were gone.
A few people thought the God's Guard might've used them to escape Skypiea entirely.
At this point, there's no way to confirm it.
Much later, Aisa—who can survey the entire island with her natural Mantra, or Observation Haki—insisted she couldn't sense any signs of them at all.
With no proof either way, it became an unsolved mystery and stayed that way.
☆☆☆
"Let's be honest… Blue Sea pirates. I was still immature. Utterly lacking in so many ways. There are still beings in this world far stronger than me, with unfathomable power."
"Indeed… you're right, Paper Woman. Before I knew it, I'd deluded myself into thinking I knew everything… rejecting anything beyond that, refusing to learn more. How foolish I was. How terrifying and sinful ignorance truly is. This body, this power… they are neither invincible nor absolute. Ah—I've learned that lesson all too well."
"But… if we understand that now, we're already halfway there. We simply need to learn. To study. Just like Mantra… train, master it, and make it our own. I've lost my divine throne, my place, everything… but that's precisely why I now have time. And freedom."
"Gold, Dials, Vearth, cities… the Golden Bell… even the Endless Vearth itself… take it all. None of it matters to me anymore. At least, not now. I have no desire for it."
"Instead, I will seek… power, skill, knowledge. Everything we lack."
"For starters, that thing the Lion girl muttered about… 'Haki,' I believe it was. It seemed to be the mechanism behind the Paper Woman's attacks against me. Neither lightning nor Mantra worked on her… it's shrouded in mystery, but even I can tell it's no ordinary power…"
"When I've transformed ignorance into knowledge—when I've grasped everything I need to master with my own hands—then I will throw myself back into battle, fighting for what I seek."
"Though by then… I can't yet say what new desires will drive me, nor who my enemies will be. After all, I don't even know what I'm still ignorant of, or what I lack… I understand nothing of that yet."
"Perhaps then I'll fight you all again… or perhaps our paths won't cross at all. Who knows? We might even end up fighting side-by-side one day…? Now that would be interesting…"
"Yahahahahahahahaha!"
To be continued...