"What did I mean?"
"That's what I meant."
Luffy raised his eyebrows triumphantly, as if he'd just won a great battle.
The best defense is a good offense!
Grandpa didn't lie to me.
In high spirits, he turned away, no longer looking at the petrified Robin, and refocused his attention on the Poneglyph to find the "other person's message" she had mentioned.
"Alright, let's see who left words here."
Luffy quickly found a line of inscription at the bottom of the stele, its style completely different from the ancient historical text.
Robin finally snapped out of her daze from that sudden counterattack. She took a deep breath, suppressing the unfamiliar emotions surging in her heart, and walked to Luffy's side. Her voice regained its usual calm, though a careful listener might detect a barely perceptible tremor. "I have come here and guided this text to its final destination. The one who left this message is... Gol D. Roger!"
"The Pirate King was here?!" Luffy's eyes widened, his face full of disbelief.
And the fact that the Pirate King left this message meant he could read the Poneglyphs, just like Luffy could?!
Hadn't Robin said there were only two people in the world who could master the ancient script?
Well.
Luffy thought about it. The Pirate King was dead, so didn't that mean only the two of them were left who knew it?
He found this whole situation getting more and more interesting.
Skypiea, the Golden Bell, the Poneglyph, the Pirate King's footprints... it all felt like connected clues in an adventure.
"Luffy, you will become the Pirate King too." Robin's voice came from behind him.
She stepped forward, wrapping her arms gently around Luffy from behind with a soft smile. "I believe in that."
"Of course," Luffy puffed out his chest.
But then he felt a heavy pressure on his head and couldn't help but protest. "But Robin, could you not press down on my head?"
Because Robin was quite a bit taller than Luffy, and with her hugging him from behind like this, a certain soft weight was almost entirely pressed onto the top of his head.
Robin, however, wore a sly, innocent look as she retorted, "After what you just did to me, can't I offer a little resistance?"
"Huh? I was the one resisting just now."
"And who lost out in that exchange?"
...Didn't I lose out too?
Women are so unreasonable!
You were the one who started it!
Luffy loudly complained in his mind.
Just then, Luffy's keen Observation Haki sensed a vaguely clashing aura erupting from down below.
"What's wrong?" Robin asked, sensing his shift.
"It seems like they're about to fight down there. We need to go check." Luffy decided to bring the Golden Bell down with him. He stretched out his arm and wrapped it around the bell.
Robin smiled, quite consciously extending her arms to wrap around Luffy's neck, snuggling against his side. Her tone carried a hint of coquettish teasing. "Then please take me down, Captain."
"I could carry you on my back."
"I prefer being in front."
Luffy: "..."
What kind of shameless words are these?
Robin's way of addressing Luffy was always changing.
From the distant "Captain" at their first meeting, to the somewhat more familiar "Luffy-san" as they got to know each other, and then to simply "Luffy"—these reflected the progression from distance to closeness.
And now, from "Luffy" to various affectionate and teasing forms of address, it was undoubtedly proof of an even more intimate, inseparable bond.
God's Country, also known as Upper Yard.
This place had a historical problem. It was half of the original Jaya Island, yet its area was more than three times larger than Angel Island, where the Skypieans lived.
Originally the land of the Shandia ancestors, it was occupied by the ancestors of the Skypieans, who drove the Shandia away.
The environment here was originally the same as Jaya in the Blue Sea. But after spending four hundred years in Skypiea, influenced by the special environmental substances of the sky islands, it had undergone a dramatic transformation. The most obvious signs were the gigantification of various animals and plants. There were behemoths like the Lord of the Sky, as large as Sea Kings, and an ordinary beanstalk had grown to an unknown height of thousands of meters, reaching up into the clouds above Skypiea.
On this land with a long, troubled history, two factions now stood facing off.
On one side were the Shandia warriors, led by Wiper "The Warrior". Their eyes were sharp, their weapons held tight, their bodies bearing the wounds from the battle with the Divine Soldiers. The longing for their homeland burned in their eyes.
On the other side were the Skypiean residents, led by Gan Fall, equally vigilant.
Although Gan Fall longed for peace, the estrangement and conflict of centuries could not be resolved overnight.
Defeating Enel was something to be happy about, but the struggle over God's Country would not simply stop because Enel was defeated.
After learning the details from Gan Fall, Nami and the others didn't know what to say or how to get involved. This seemed like a historical issue belonging solely to the Skypieans and the Shandia.
Gan Fall continued to advocate for peace, especially after experiencing Enel's brutal rule. He hoped even more for true reconciliation.
But the Shandia side had strong objections.
Back then, the Skypieans, relying on all sorts of strange Dial weapons, had caught their ancestor Calgara off guard. The Shandia were disgracefully driven from their own land.
What followed was a war lasting hundreds of years. The Shandia, with inferior weapons and fewer numbers, had struggled to win. This was their ancestral land.
Enel was an enemy, but in the eyes of the Shandia, the Skypieans were no different from Enel.
At this moment, Wiper was somewhat silent, but his gaze, which occasionally shifted towards the Blue Sea dwellers, was filled with wariness and scrutiny.
According to Gan Fall, it was this group of Blue Sea dwellers who had defeated Enel.
If they sided with Gan Fall, the Shandia likely stood no chance.
A great battle was on the verge of breaking out.
Vivi watched this scene, her delicate brows tightly knit, anxiety written all over her face.
This was almost exactly like the situation she had witnessed in Alabasta—civil war about to erupt, bloodshed imminent.
She didn't like seeing war, and she didn't like seeing sacrifices.
And this was a situation that could be completely avoided, if only they could talk properly.
"Hey! What are you all doing?"
Accompanied by a clear, sharp question and the heavy thud of the Golden Bell being set on the ground, Luffy descended steadily from the sky with Robin.
The entire battlefield seemed to hit a pause button. Everyone's movements were forced to stop, their gazes swiveling in unison to focus on the straw-hat-wearing boy who had just landed carrying the enormous Golden Bell.
"That's... the Golden Bell!"
"Why is it in that man's hands?"
"Is he the one who defeated Enel?"
***
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