At almost the same time.
High above Angel Island, in the sacred land of Upper Yard.
A faint electric crackle passed through the air.
Inside the shrine, a man lay lazily on his side, one hand supporting his cheek. Golden ornaments hung from his ears, and the ring of drums behind his back gave him the appearance of a god carved from lightning itself.
God Enel.
His eyes were half-closed, yet a faint smile slowly appeared on his face.
"Oh?"
The commotion from Heaven's Gate had already reached him and more than that, the presence of four people who had entered his domain without permission.
Enel's smile widened.
"Blue Sea people…"
Beside him, several Divine Soldiers lowered their heads in silence, not daring to disturb him.
Enel tapped one finger lightly against the floor.
"They trespassed into heaven, stole from my gate, and now wander beneath my sky without fear… How amusing."
A soft laugh escaped him.
"Yahahaha…"
The laughter echoed through the shrine like distant thunder.
"How bold."
In the next instant, his smile vanished.
"Inform the priests."
A Divine Soldier immediately knelt.
"Yes, God Enel!"
Enel's gaze drifted toward Angel Island, as though he could see straight through the clouds and watch the newly arrived ship himself.
"Let them play for a while."
Electricity flickered around his body.
"If they are nothing more than insects, the priests will trample them. But if they prove a little more entertaining…"
His eyes narrowed slightly, filled with arrogant amusement.
"Yahahaha… then I, god, shall judge them myself."
…
The ship drifted slowly across the White-White Sea.
After the violent ride up the Milky Road, Nami had finally stopped screaming, though her hands were still locked around the railing with enough force to leave marks.
Her face was deathly pale.
"I-I never want to ride that thing again..."
Vivi tried to calm her down, though her own face was still slightly flushed from excitement.
"But Nami-san, isn't it beautiful?"
Nami looked over.
In the distance, Angel Island floated peacefully above the clouds.
White beaches stretched along the shore. Strange trees rose from the island, their leaves soft and round like cotton. Houses with gentle curves stood beneath the sunlight, and small-winged people walked along the streets as if this unbelievable scenery were perfectly normal.
Even Nami, who had been complaining nonstop, fell silent for a moment.
The island was truly beautiful.
Robin's gaze swept across the island with quiet fascination.
"An entire civilization above the clouds…"
"How wonderful."
Shiki stood at the bow, his golden eyes quietly reflecting the island above the clouds.
He had always known Skypiea existed. But knowledge and reality were not the same.
Even he could not help feeling a trace of fascination.
But a moment later, the faint fascination in Shiki's eyes turned into amusement.
Apparently, he had heard something interesting.
Nami turned around, about to say something to Shiki, but the moment she saw his expression, her instincts as a navigator, thief, and professional trouble-detector all screamed at once.
"Wait. I know that face. You're about to do something insane again, aren't you?"
"What face?"
"That's the face you make right before something gets destroyed! Don't pretend I haven't learned the pattern!"
Vivi, who had been listening from the side, tilted her head curiously.
"There's a face like that?"
"There is," Nami said seriously. "I've seen it many times."
Robin smiled, watching Nami with quiet amusement.
"I believe Nami-chan has developed a survival instinct where our captain is concerned."
"Don't make it sound like I'm some small animal!"
While the three women spoke, the ship slowly approached the shore.
Several residents of Angel Island noticed them and turned to look.
Curiosity flickered across their faces at first, but it soon turned into surprise, and then into unmistakable unease.
After all, not long ago, Heaven's Gate had reported that four illegal entrants had entered Skypiea after robbing the gatekeeper.
Nami, noticing the stares, lowered her voice.
"Shiki… I think they know."
"Know what exactly?"
"That we robbed the old woman!"
Shiki looked at her with complete calm.
"Don't say 'we' you're the one who robbed her."
Nami froze, then slowly turned toward him, her expression screaming disbelief.
"How can you say that, Captain?! You told me to!"
"Did I? Then you could have refused."
"..."
Vivi quickly tried to intervene.
"Maybe we should explain that it was just a misunderstanding…"
Robin tilted her head.
"Would it still count as a misunderstanding if the cash box, drawer contents, shells, pouch, and spare camera roll were all taken?"
Vivi fell silent, clearly unable to defend them.
Then, with a small, helpless smile, she murmured,
"…Let's just call it a very complicated misunderstanding."
The ship finally stopped near the shore.
Before they could properly disembark, a group of white-uniformed men rushed over in formation.
They wore berets, carried strange shell-shaped weapons, and moved with exaggerated seriousness.
At their head was a man with a large mustache and a painfully stiff expression.
"Illegal entrants!"
He pointed toward Shiki and the others.
"I am Captain McKinley of the White Berets! You have entered Skypiea without paying the entrance fee, robbed Heaven's Gate, and violated the laws of God!"
Nami instantly pointed at Shiki.
"He started it."
Shiki pointed at Nami.
"She stole it."
The two spoke almost at the same time.
Vivi looked at them in disbelief.
"Why are you both so calm about this?!"
Robin raised a hand to her cheek and smiled.
"How lively."
McKinley's mustache trembled.
"You dare mock the laws of Skypiea?"
Shiki stepped off the ship first.
The moment his feet touched the cloud beach, the White Berets all flinched for some reason.
They did not understand why.
McKinley swallowed, then forced himself to continue.
"Your crimes are serious! However, under Skypiean law, you may accept punishment by paying ten times the entrance fee and returning all stolen goods. Otherwise, you will be taken to Upper Yard for divine judgment!"
Nami's expression twisted the moment she heard "ten times."
"T-Ten billion per person?! Are you insane?!"
McKinley lifted his chin.
"It is the law."
Nami hugged her bag tightly.
"No."
McKinley's face darkened.
"Then you refuse?"
Shiki looked at him calmly and said simply.
"Get lost."
The White Berets immediately raised their weapons.
"Blasphemy!"
"Insulting God's law!"
"Capture them!"
Several White Berets rushed forward at once.
...
"Was that really okay?" Vivi whispered as they continued forward, glancing back at the commotion that had ended almost instantly. "This could cause even more trouble."
This time, Nami actually waved her hand dismissively.
After all, her money was on the line.
"It doesn't matter anymore. Since they already see us as criminals, we might as well go all the way. Stopping now would be an insult."
Robin, meanwhile, looked toward Shiki with quiet curiosity.
"Captain, those guards mentioned a god. Does this island truly have someone like that?"
Nami and Vivi also slowed their steps and looked at Shiki, curiosity mixed with a trace of nervousness in their eyes.
After all, the word "god" carried a certain weight.
Shiki did not answer immediately. Instead, he asked a question of his own.
"If I ruled over a kingdom cut off from the rest of the world, surrounded by people who knew nothing beyond their own sky…"
His golden eyes drifted toward the clouds above.
"Would I deserve to be called a god too?"
Nami and Vivi were slightly confused.
Robin, however, understood almost at once.
A faint smile appeared on her lips.
Shiki continued calmly,
"The god of this island should come down and show us why he deserves that title."
His smile carried a hint of mockery.
"Otherwise, I won't believe it."
Angel Island's streets were far more peaceful than Mock Town.
Children with small wings ran along cloud-paved roads. Vendors sold strange fruit, shell tools, and items Nami could not identify but immediately suspected might be valuable. Soft clouds formed benches, walls, roofs, and even small decorative animals.
Vivi's eyes sparkled as she looked around.
"It's amazing. Everything feels so soft."
Robin gently touched a wall made of processed cloud.
"The material has been shaped and hardened. Fascinating. Their technology developed in a completely different direction from the Blue Sea."
Nami was already staring at a shop display.
"Those shells…"
The shopkeeper smiled nervously.
"Those are Dials. This one stores wind, this one stores sound, and that one can release heat."
Nami's eyes shone.
"Stores wind?"
The shopkeeper nodded.
"Yes. A Breath Dial. Very useful for small boats and Wavers."
"Wavers?"
The shopkeeper pointed toward the beach, where small single-person vehicles skimmed across the cloud sea.
Nami had actually been feeling quite proud of herself.
After robbing that old hag at the gate, she had nearly everything being sold here already sitting in her bag, all without spending a single berry.
So naturally, she had not approached the stall to buy anything.
She only wanted to see how those strange shells were used.
Just then a young woman suddenly approached them.
She had light hair, small wings on her back, and carried herself with a gentle, slightly nervous grace. Beside her was a strange fox-like creature, watching the group with wide eyes.
"Um…"
She hesitated for a moment, then bowed politely.
"Are you Blue Sea people?"
"Yes. And you are?"
"My name is Conis."
The young woman gave a soft smile.
"This is Suu."
The little creature beside her gave a small cry.
Vivi immediately softened.
"How cute…"
Conis looked toward Shiki, then quickly lowered her gaze.
"I heard there was trouble at Heaven's Gate and with the White Berets. If you stay here, more soldiers may come."
The next instant...
Boom!
A pillar of lightning fell from the sky.
The street erupted in screams.
People scattered in every direction. Conis froze, her face draining of color.
The lightning was not aimed at the townspeople.
It fell directly toward Shiki.
Nami and Vivi barely had time to react.
But Shiki simply raised one hand, darkness gathering in his palm as the lightning was swallowed whole before it could even touch him.
Nami slowly lowered the arms she had raised to shield her face.
"W-What was that?!"
Conis trembled, and even her voice began to shake.
"El Thor…"
"God Enel's judgment."
Vivi stared at the sky in disbelief.
"Someone can attack from that far away?"
Robin's expression became serious.
"Lightning from the sky… Wait. Could it be—?"
The thought struck her all at once.
Shiki looked at his palm, then smiled.
"Not bad."
Far above them, inside the shrine, Enel's smile froze.
For the first time since the Blue Sea people had arrived, his eyes opened fully.
"My lightning…"
The Divine Soldiers around him did not dare speak.
Enel slowly sat up.
The relaxed amusement in his expression had not vanished entirely, but beneath it, something dangerous had appeared.
"So that is how it is."
Lightning burst around Enel's body, crackling like a storm given form.
"Blue Sea pirate."
His smile widened.
The next instant, he vanished from his throne in a flash of lightning.
"Yahahaha… you have amused me enough. Now receive judgment from god himself."
…
On Angel Island, Conis looked at Shiki as though she had just witnessed something impossible.
"No one… survives God's judgment…"
But the surprises were not over.
The sky above Angel Island suddenly darkened.
Pale flashes of electricity crawled through the air, splitting apart with sharp cracks of thunder.
The people nearby froze and everyone looked at the sky in despair.
Then, in a blinding flash of light—
A figure appeared above them.
Golden ornaments hung from his ears. The ring of drums behind his back gleamed beneath the lightning. Floating in midair, he looked down upon the street with a gaze filled with arrogance and cold amusement.
God Enel.
His eyes swept over Nami, Vivi, Robin, Conis, and finally settled on Shiki.
"Yahahaha…"
Enel's laughter rolled across the street like distant thunder.
"So you are the Blue Sea rat who swallowed my judgment."
Nami's face stiffened.
"So that's the 'god'? He came here himself?!"
Robin narrowed her eyes.
"His body turned into lightning… So it really is a Logia. The legendary Goro Goro no Mi—a Devil Fruit that hasn't appeared on the Sea in years."
Enel did not even glance at her.
His gaze remained fixed on Shiki.
"You should be honored, Blue Sea pirate. To make god descend from the heavens himself…"
Lightning crackled around his body.
"…is the greatest mercy you will ever receive."
Shiki looked up at Enel's figure hanging high in the sky.
"You picked a fine place to stand."
His right hand slowly rose.
Darkness gathered in his palm, deep and bottomless, as though the night itself had been compressed into his hand.
"But I don't like looking up at anyone. Come down."
Enel's expression changed slightly.
"Black Vortex."
The darkness surged.
A terrifying pull erupted from Shiki's palm.
Enel's body jolted in midair, his arrogant smile freezing for the first time.
"What—?"
His body instantly turned into lightning, trying to vanish in a flash—only for Enel's eyes to widen as the transformation failed halfway, his half-lightning form dragged downward without mercy.
"My body…!"
Electricity burst violently from him.
"Twenty Million Volts—Discharge!"
A storm of lightning exploded toward Shiki.
But the moment the lightning touched Shiki's darkness, it vanished.
Enel's face twisted in anger and disbelief at the sight.
"Impossible!"
Shiki remained standing in place, one hand extended, his expression cold.
"You call yourself god because you stand above ordinary people?"
"How shallow and pathetic."
Enel's pride cracked at last, and his face twisted with fury.
"Do not speak to god as though you stand above him!"
He grabbed the golden staff at his side and pointed it straight at Shiki while being dragged toward him.
"Yahahaha! Very well, Blue Sea worm!"
Lightning coiled around the staff.
"If you desire death so badly…"
His eyes burned with murderous arrogance.
"…then god shall grant your wish with his own hands!"
Enel thrust the staff forward.
At the same time, Shiki's hand closed around Enel's neck.
The golden staff struck Shiki's chest.
Clank.
A clear metallic sound rang out.
The staff failed to pierce Shiki's skin or leave even a single scratch, and Enel's pupils shrank in disbelief.
"What…? How can this be…? I am god…"
Shiki looked at him without the slightest change in expression.
"Did you come all the way down here just to tickle me?"
Before Enel could even speak, Shiki's grip closed like iron, crushing his throat and snapping his neck with a single violent twist.
At the same time, darkness poured from Shiki's palm and wrapped around Enel's body like black smoke.
A single apple floated up from Shiki's coat, suspended in the air by his power.
Then, before the eyes of everyone present, the apple began to change.
Its skin curled into strange spiral patterns. Its color shifted. Lightning-like markings spread across its surface until the ordinary fruit had become something entirely different.
The Goro Goro no Mi.
Shiki caught it casually.
Then he released Enel's corpse.
The body fell from the air and slammed into the cloud street below.
Thud.
Deathly Silence covered Angel Island.
Everything had happened too quickly.
The people nearby had not even managed to scream.
The priests who had been hiding in the distance stood frozen, their mouths hanging open.
The residents stared blankly at the fallen body.
Conis's legs gave out beneath her.
"God… Enel…"
Nami, Vivi, and Robin stared at Shiki in stunned silence.
Most of the time, Shiki appeared calm, even surprisingly gentle toward those he considered his own.
But whenever he stood before an enemy, that impression shattered completely.
At times like this, they could only feel relieved that they were standing behind him, not in front of him.
Robin's eyes snapped from the daze first and remained fixed on the fruit in Shiki's hand.
"A Devil Fruit reborn immediately after death…"
Her voice was calm, but the look in her eyes was anything but.
"So that was how you took Crocodile's power."
Vivi swallowed softly.
"Then that fruit is…"
Shiki tossed the Goro Goro no Mi lightly once and caught it again.
"The power of lightning."
A sweet smile slowly bloomed across Nami's face, and her eyes seemed to sparkle with the light of countless Berries.
She clasped her hands together and leaned toward Shiki with a voice so soft it was almost frightening.
"Neee, Shiki…"
"That fruit… must be worth an unbelievable amount of money, right?"
"..."
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