I ain't Japanese.

Hey guys, sorry this is out so late, I had intended to get this out to my editors on the fourth at the latest but lost two days to RL issues – food poisoning via bad sushi. So I only finished and sent it off on the sixth. That'll teach me not to eat something I normally don't just in an effort to impress a girl LOL (and yes, we were breaking the whole quarantine thing, but since we both wore masks when we weren't eating I think the danger was minimal).

Then of course RL got in the way of both of my editors and it took them both a week to get it back to me. Yet it HAS been edited by me via Grammarly, Hiryo for his Ranma knowledge, and Tomon for small mistakes and One Piece know-how. So with the lateness hopefully comes quality and I hope that everyone enjoys it.


Chapter 20: The Will of Kings and Gods

On reflection, Laki honestly felt it hadn't taken nearly as long as it should have to dig through the layers of Island Cloud. Downright anticlimactic that was, getting down from the edge of the Island Cloud to here took longer she thought, half-dazed as she stood on the streets of her people's ancient home, staring around in slack-jawed wonder.

The makeshift group had tunneled down through the Island Cloud, with Robin doing most of the work at first until the hole had been widened enough for two workers to cut at the bottom of the shaft at the same time. Although looking back on it, Laki had to wonder if maybe they had been getting in the archeologist's way rather than speeding things up. Regardless, they cut down into the top of a giant cavern, the outer layer created by Island Cloud, within which the majority of Shandora, the ancient city had been hidden.

"…By the Ancients and the warrior Kalgara," Kamakiri said gripping his spear so tight his knuckles turned white, as he used it as a walking stick, pushing away the Marines who were trying to help him. He would stand on his own two feet here, in the land of his ancestors, or not at all.

The city was magnificent. The roads they were standing on were lined with rock, not just pounded earth, or Island Cloud. The buildings were made of stone, some of them as many as seven stories high, with a central ziggurat in the distance deeper into the city being at least twice that size or perhaps more. And every rock that made up those buildings was carved to resemble small works of art. Mostly they were just simple designs, trees, whorls of air and water or fire.

Here and there though there were other more serious images, hieroglyphs that Robin was staring at, moving from one to another faster than most of the people around them had yet seen her move. If her gaze had been intent before, when she had worked out the mystery of where the city had gone, it was beyond that right now.

Indeed, Sanji and several of the Marines were staring at her flushed cheeks and her small but extremely bright smile and blushing themselves. "Robin-chwan…" Sanji muttered. "Oh, if you would but stare at me or one of my meals so intently…"

Fullbody and the others nodded in agreement to at least the first part of that statement. Then the second aspect knocked them out of their stupor and they looked away, embarrassed.

"Idiots." Hina wasn't looking at Robin or her band of hormonal idiots. No, she was looking around, her arms crossed as she stood next to Laki. In their brief interactions, she had forged an opinion of the other native girl as being a rock of good sense. Now she waited for the glamor of their discovery to wear off because she had already noticed a problem. A big one.

Eventually, Laki turned from staring all around them, her brow furrowing. "It's wonderful," she whispered, not wanting to bother Kamakiri just yet. "This is Shandora, the city of our ancestors. But in all of our tales, it was called the city of golden light. The buildings and in particular the ziggurat and the bell, the golden bell that was set up in the center of the city was always spoken of in reverence." To say nothing of the tale of Norland and Kalgara. "But there's nothing that I would call golden here."

"I don't know, but you're right. From what little I know of your history that Robin has mentioned Gold should have been used I the buildings at the very least," Hina replied. "Hina befuddled."

"I might've found something!" Fullbody shouted from around the corner of one of the buildings. He and two of the Marines and gone ahead, moving through the city as if they expected to be attacked, their rifles up and ready. Indeed, Hina had to nod in approval at how well the man had reacted. One man was looking ahead, the other one to either side, the third up and backward. "Hina pleased. What have you found?"

All three Marines smiled at that, though Fullbody took it into extremes, almost acting like Sanji for a moment, before shaking his head, hearts dropping from his eyes as he turned away, becoming businesslike once more. "Come and see."

The others all moved after him bar Robin, who was still staring at a few of the hieroglyphs, drawing a map of the city from what she had already learned and the new notes she was taking as well as translating the language itself. However, when Sanji called out to her she broke off, coming after the others only to pause, staring at the clue of what had happened to the gold of Shandora.

Fullbody had found an iron railing like a mine cart would use moving along one of the side streets. "Mining? What were they mining here?" one of the marines muttered.

"I think we already know the answer," Hina said frowning. "My question is, what did they do with it all? I mean, gold isn't that good of metal to make things with, not weapon or armor anything like that, and we haven't seen anything along those lines yet either."

"True enough," one of the Marines muttered, leaning down and looking at the shaft thoughtfully. "My father was a miner," he went on, picking at the top of the nail that was stuck into the ground to keep the rails in place. "And he'd say this was a temp job, I think. This nail would've rattled something nasty, maybe bounce out entirely. It's not permanent. And it's been used heavily too, little to no maintenance, look how rusty it is."

"Which means they didn't have enough iron to cover the whole city with these rail lines. I could've told you that," Laki muttered, looking around her still. "Iron is almost completely unknown here in Sky Island. That's why Genbo always annoyed me with his insistence on using it as simple cannonballs. But the question is, where did they take the gold. And who are 'they' anyway?"

The others looked at her in confusion, but Sanji nodded slowly, staring around them now too. "This is a darn big city. As big as all of Sky Island I'd bet. So taking all that gold, that was the work of a lot of people, regardless of how much time they had. So… where are they now?"

"It's obvious this was Kami Enel. Only he and his people could be here. That's the who, though how many of them were…" Laki trailed off frowning and looking over at Kamakiri.

"The enforcers," Kamakiri replied to that look. "Today's the first time we've seen Kami Enel's Enforcers, and they weren't the same as the Enforcers Kami Gan Fall had to work for him. That could have been our mystery workforce. But where are they now then?"

"And the gold," Hina repeated. The point about the workforce was interesting since it meant there might be enemies somewhere down here. But what the Goro Goro no Mi owner was doing with that much gold was more important to her. "We need to find out. We move forward, ready for anything, see if we can find any of these tracks that go anywhere."

"I will stay here," Robin said. "I am more interested in the history of this place than I am in the whereabouts of the gold." She looked at Laki and shrugged her shoulders. "Sorry." Robin was especially interested in the Golden Bell and would be making for the ziggurat, whereas the others would have to spread out searching for clues. She, on the other hand, had already found a clue: the exact location of the bell. Hmm… from our current position, it should be on the other side of the Ziggurat, I think. But that giant beanstalk is blocking our view.

Laki shook her head. "We hopefully won't need you to tell us where we're going. The mine track will do that for us."

With that, Laki trotted off, only to pause and look back to Kamakiri. He waved his hand airily, staring around them. "Don't worry about me, I'll just stay here. Much as I hate to admit it, but I'd be a liability in a fight with my wounds."

However, the rest of the world chose that moment to interrupt their plans in no uncertain terms as light flared through the Island Cloud above them.

OOOOOOO

Out on the edge of the island, Luffy had barely gotten out of sight of the Resolve when he saw the flash of lightning in the distance. Well, I suppose I don't need my Kenbunshoku any longer to find this Enel asshole. Thank goodness, it was making my head hurt. But before Luffy ended the technique, he sensed something else at the far edge of his ability. A single mind, out to sea at an angle from where he was currently heading. A single mind, full of fear, and for some reason, Luffy could tell that it was a young mind, a child's mind.

He paused, staring out in that direction, then back towards the lightning bolt before growling. "Fucking dammit! Stupid Code!" Still cursing he turned in that direction, flying almost through the air, as he used Geppo to a degree that even most Marine admirals would've been shocked.

He came upon the mind that he had sensed quickly enough, a young girl in a small dinghy, smacking a stick of some kind against a Dial at the end of the ship. Evidently, the Jet Dial had failed, and she was now stuck where she was. A few sky sharks had already begun circling while the girl had instantly stopped what she was doing to stare up at him and gaped in astonishment. "How… I don't see any Jet Dial skates?! Is that some weird power you Blue Sea dwellers have?"

Luffy landed next to her, picking her up, smacking away a sky shark with his free hand. "Questions later kiddo." With that, he jumped back into the sky just as the ship was about to capsize.

Up in the air, Luffy stared down watching two sky sharks work together to tear the tiny dinghy to pieces patting her back. "You okay kid?" Though it would surprise many who knew him as Ranma, Luffy got along okay with kids in this life, so long as they weren't complete brats anyway.

The girl seemed to shiver, then pushed away from Luffy before bonking him on the forehead with her stick, which had a tiny dial of some kind on the end. "Put me down! I am a warrior, and I won't be treated like a child by a Blue Sea dweller. I'll fight you as a proud warrior of Shandia!"

"Really?" Luffy drawled. "I'd look down before saying anything more munchkin."

The girl's eyes flicked to the side and down, then she gulped and clung to Luffy, nearly losing her stick in the process. "O, on second thought, don't put me down. I, um, I'll fight you when we're back on the ground."

Luffy chuckled at her bravado, then turned around and made his way back the way he had come, going a bit slower now so as not to hurt the kid. "What were you doing out here all alone kiddo?"

"My name's Aisa, not kiddo or munchkin!" the girl barked.

"Well Aisa, my name's Luffy, captain of the Straw Hat Pirates. But you didn't answer my question."

Aisa seemed to shrink in on herself, looking away as a tear began to form on her face that had nothing to do with the terror that she'd recently been feeling. No, Luffy realized, this was a terror from a different source. "The voices, the voices in my head…"

Luffy was tempted to interrupt at that point but didn't as Aisa went on. "I hear them crying out, the voices disappearing, one by one. It was so terrible, like, like all the stars in the sky just disappearing one after another. I, I had to come, had to see what was going on. The rest of the tribe, they don't believe me. But I know, I know! There are only seventeen people still active in Upper Yard! But Laki's still there! I have to get to her, convince her to leave. You can't fight God Enel!"

Luffy blinked in astonishment as he stared down at Aisa. "You're using Kenbunshoku!? At your age!?"

"Kenbunshoku?" Aisa stumbled over the unfamiliar word before shaking her head in denial. "No, it's my Mantra. It, it lets me feel out things from a distance. I, I could feel it when you and your crew defeated one of the priests, Shura."

"The bird guy, yeah. Some of my crew defeated some ball-using dude a bit ago. As for the name, that's a potAto/potAHto kind of thing, Aisa. But how the heck did someone your age learn how to use it?"

"I've always had it as far back as I remember. Laki told me I had it from the moment I was born." Aisa shrugged her shoulders, then looked up at him. "You Blue Sea dwellers, I can sense many of you are still alive, all your stronger members and a few of the weaker, even if most of you aren't able to move anymore. Not like my people." Aisa sniffled a little forgetting her earlier animosity and burrowing into Luffy's chest. "A, almost all of our warriors are gone. I can only sense Laki, Wyper, Kamakiri and four of the others. What worth is reclaiming our ancient homeland if there's no one alive to enjoy it!?"

"You, not only sense their position but who they are and how they are doing?" Holy shit, she was born with a natural ability in Kenbunshoku. Luffy suddenly winced in sympathy, and not just for the tale she'd just told. Fuck your toddler years must've been god awful. And her range is insane, too to be able to feel all that from here. Her range is at least several times my own!

"Not many. I don't know even as many people from my tribe that well." She shivered again. "But I can sense most of them are moving towards or already near Kami Enel. I, his Mantra's very distinctive, though I've always been careful to try and stay well away from him or any of his priests. But there are so many voices that have been silenced forever…"

"Well, good. Then I'm going to drop you off with a few of those unconscious people then…"

At those words, the girl's arms went around Luffy's neck like a vice and she shrieked. "Oh no, you don't! I'm going to find Laki! I won't be put aside like some kind of toy!"

"You're a pint-sized menace! Let go!" Luffy growled but decided to take her with him now. He had no time to waste any longer, he had to get to his crew. Then Luffy frowned, remembering the fight against the bird guy as the two of them reached the edge of Upper Yard, where he paused for a moment to look down at Aisa, a plan forming in his head. "Enel's got Mantra too right, just like his priests?"

"Even better than his priests," Laki replied firmly. "Their Mantra fails them occasionally and they can't reach out more than a quarter of the distance Enel can, I think. I don't know about his range really, but I've heard he knows everything that goes on in Sky Island."

"Hmmm… and your people and most of mine are by that giant beanstalk? Where Enel is."

Aisa gulped but nodded. "Erm, I can sense Laki and Kamakiri with them, they aren't fighting one another though. They are all fighting some of Kami's Enforcers and his last priest, Ohm."

"Because of course, they are. But Enel can sense us, right?" Aisa nodded once more, and Luffy went on calmly. "Okay, in that case…" Luffy trailed off as Aisa looked to the side, cocking her head. "What?"

"Two more Skypieans just entered my range. I don't know either of them, but they are heading for Upper Yard."

Luffy blinked, then looked in the same direction, though he didn't start using his own Kenbunshoku. He wanted to wait on that until he could use it against Sparky-the wonder-asshole in person. And Luffy knew he needed a break from it too. "Damn Aisa, that's pretty freaking impressive."

He grinned down at her, and Aisa smiled pride filling her before Luffy went on. "However, what do you think about experimenting a little?"

"Experiment? I don't know that word."

"Means to try something out to see what happens. You can sense me, right?" When Aisa made a scoffing noise Luffy grinned. "I'll take that as a yes. So… what happens if I do this…" With that, Luffy closed his eyes and concentrated.

Although Luffy didn't know it, Aisa's scoff had covered a lot of ground that she really didn't feel like sharing. While before she had been able to sense Luffy and a few of his crew like brighter stars in the sky, right now, this close to him, this close Aisa could sense Luffy's inner rage added to the overall power of his presence, which blazed hotter in her senses than any of her people or the priests.

But now within an instant of her scoff, Aisa's eyes widened as that blazing sun disappeared, like someone had stuffed it inside their pocket. "What did you do!?" She could still feel Luffy holding her, but every time she tried to look at him it was like her mind didn't want to believe that sensation like he had become invisible almost to both her eyes and her Mantra. It was freaky in the extreme.

Luffy smirked and slowly extend his Umi-Sen-Ken over Aisa too, who squawked in terror as she felt her Mantra suddenly being cut off from the rest of the world. Luffy's presence was back, but nothing else. "Calm down Aisa. But it worked right?"

"What are you doing?!" Aisa said, extremely freaked out right now.

"Hiding us. The better to sneak up on Enel."

At that, Aisa grabbed what little remained of her self-control and nodded firmly understanding dawning.

As she did, Luffy allowed a smile of approval to flick across his face. The girl's courage and self-control are impressive. He ruffled her hair with his free hand as he turned his attention back to his Geppo technique, picking up speed as he went.

As he did, he allowed his momentary feelings of amusement to fall away, letting the cold rage flicker back to the surface. I have a wannabe-god to kill.

OOOOOOO

At the same time that Laki and the other had been exploring the ancient city, and Luffy had been leaving the Resolve, near what was thought by most as the base of Giant Jack a battle was ending. There, on the top of one of the bits of rubble that stuck out of the ground sat Ohm. Nearby his faithful dog Holy lay panting slightly from the exertions of a moment ago.

Ohm cleaned the blood off his Eisen Sword, before bowing his head in prayer to the group of Shandians he'd recently killed, as he prayed for their souls. "May they have absolution away from this sinful coil and find truth in Kami-sama's eyes."

He was interrupted at that point by a boisterous laugh, accompanied by a crackle of lightning that always heralded God's descent. Warned by his Mantra, Ohm turned to bow from the waist to his master. "Enel-sama, have you sought me out for a reason? As far as I can tell with my limited Mantra, there are still living people around. Surely the Survival Game isn't over yet?"

"Not quite," Enel said with a chuckle, shaking his head at his most warlike priest's oddities. Why pray over the souls of those who refused to bow their heads to him after all? They were surely dammed in the next life for their hubris in this one for thinking they could fight God.

Behind him the girl, Nami slowly hopped off the floating cloud they had used to arrive here, looking around askance at the debris stick out of the cloud as well as the dead bodies scattered nearby. "Although I have to tell you, there have been some major upset in this Survival Game."

"Upsets?" Ohm asked one eyebrow corking behind his sunglasses. Then he nodded. "Gedatsu, Satori, and the Chief Enforcer, Yama. I sensed they failed your test."

"Yahahahaha," Enel laughed again shaking his head. "Indeed! Yama fell to a few of the Shandians, although he took a toll on them. I can only sense six remaining Enforcers still alive elsewhere and four Shandians beyond those already within Shandora."

For a moment Enel's smile wavered, and he frowned pensively as he sensed that a few of the Shandians elsewhere on the island were still alive. Even a few among the pirate crew he had dealt with personally were still breathing. That was grossly annoying. Perhaps I held back too much of my power or perhaps Blue Sea dwellers develop a resistance to it? More fools they, who think that such puts them beyond my power! For a moment he debated finishing off the ones he could sense in the distance, along with the one who had just appeared on his periphery well out to sea.

That one, he had sensed before. That would be the young Shandian child whose ability with Mantra is so inexplicable. Hmm, and one of the Blue Sea dwellers is moving to aid her, the one that is so fast with their odd air bouncing technique. Strange.

Enel could tell it was the pirate who had led the Lord of the Sky in a merry chase twice with his odd ability to bounce through the air without the use of Jed Dials. As Enel concentrated on the two of them, their lights in his Mantra merged, and then to Enel's mild surprise, disappeared. Hmmm, was he eaten by a sky shark? It would be most amusing if so!

Shaking that thought off, he answered the other man's questions. "The Blue Sea dwellers were the ones who dealt with Satori and his two brothers, rather amusingly in the two brothers' case. Fed them to the Sky Lord they did. I could almost think that there was one among them who knew Mantra, but that is impossible for Blue Sea dwellers."

"And who is this?" Ohm asked pointing to Nami breaking Enel out of his thoughts.

"This is Nami," Enel said with a faint smile over the woman, who shivered and looked down, knowing her place. "She was on the pirate vessel, which was attempting to leave the Survival Game."

Ohm scoffed, shaking his head. "More fools they! Once you are a part of Kami-sama's game, then surely anyone should know that attempting to leave the board will not end well for you."

Enel laughed once more. "Exactly. So I had to bring down divine judgment on them."

From behind Enel, Nami was watching the two men warily as she descended from the Ball Cloud. She was even more freaked out now hearing all of this talk about Enel being God and being around another true believer than she had been we Enel had first begun to speak in that manner on the Resolve. Holy crap, they really do believe he's God! That made this all the more disturbing to her frankly.

But she still had to keep her priorities straight, and that meant staying alive. With that in mind, she smiled tremulously, adding a hint of a quaver to her voice as the two men turned back to her. A rather easy feat really, considering how terrified she was right now. "Er, I, I was the navigator on our ship. I know a lot about weather and um anything that comes with it, along with maps and map-making. So, so I hope to be useful."

"She proved herself rather adept using an odd Blue Sea device that could craft tiny pinpricks of my might and using it to deflect my attacks. With that, and her basic intelligence to know when she was before God, I decided to take her with me to Fairy Vearth," Enel supplied.

"Good," Ohm said. "We have no need of just a pretty face after all."

"'We?'" Enel laughed. "You are counting your eggs before they are hatched, Ohm. You might be the last of my priests, but remember, only the winners of my Survival Game will journey with me to Fairy Vearth."

Ohm nodded thoughtfully at that. "Of course you are correct Enel-sama. But does she count towards the total number of survivors? You decreed there would be but five correct?"

Nami stiffened in terror, as she got ready to run.

Enel laughed. He was in a good mood, no, a terrific mood. Soon I will leave this unholy land behind, after removing it from its corrupt position in the sky, and I will go on to my rightful place, the eternal land, Fairy Vearth. "She is removed from the Survival Game for now. Let us see how many others survive until the end before speaking of numbers. There are only seventeen more survivors, and the majority of them will be arriving here shortly. I wish for there to be only five, but one more who has taken the opportunity to ingratiate herself, as this one has can be easily added to the total."

With that, Enel looked around at the snow-white expanse of the Island Cloud in this area and the few bits and pieces of stone sticking out of it. "On reflection, I believe that for the final stage of my game a change of venue is required."

With that, he raised a hand, and with no more thought than a man would have had about swatting a fly, Enel sent a giant bolt of lightning, several miles across to slam down into the ground all around them. It avoided the four of them but incinerated the bodies of the dead in front of Ohm as he leaped backward onto a bit of stone. Nami followed quickly, while below them a large city was slowly exposed to the open sky of Upper Yard.

OOOOOOO

Robin and the others had barely a second to react as the light appeared. Robin, realizing what it might be, reacted first, creating dozens of mouths in a radius all around her to shout a warning to Hina and the others, who were almost out of sight through the city's buildings. "Get into the buildings, quickly!"

Suiting action to words, Robin then propelled herself towards Kamakiri, grabbing him by his other shoulder and dragging the wounded warrior into an alcove, as he did his best to move with her. He too recognized that loud, humming, crackling noise all too well.

With a thunderous roar of electrical discharge lightning slammed down throughout the city, going through the cloud above them as even with the Seastone that was part of its makeup, it had no substance at all to stop an attack of this nature The lightning then smashed into the ground of the city doing little damage to the solid stone, but it scared Hina and the others something fierce.

Even Sanji, who had flung himself through a second-floor window into a house to get away from the lightning, was staring in shock and horror. "That is… it's even bigger than the lightning blast he sent after Conis-chwan."

"That's the power of a logia type Devil Fruit," Hina growled. Now, do you understand that we should've left as soon as we realized what the opposition was?"

They watched as the top of the city's tallest buildings, including the ziggurat came into view. Two men floated down from the top of a few of the buildings on small Sky Clouds extruded from Dials, followed by a giant dog. Laki and Kamakiri's eyes both widened at the sight of them, as Laki hissed, "Ohm and Kami Enel!"

Then Nami appeared beside them, riding another Ball Cloud, bouncing it this way and that through updrafts she somehow was able to either see or predict. The sight of that caused Hina's eyes to widen, and she shook her head. I knew she was a good navigator, but that is preternaturally skilled!

At that sight, Sanji instantly bolted out towards them, shouting out, "Nami-chwan!?"

Robin too was suddenly on edge. She moved towards the other pirate woman as well, her arms crossed over her chest, as she watched the two men warily. What is going on here? That must be Enel, the God of Sky Island, but why is he here now? That he somehow senses us? And why is Nami with him? What happened to the rest of the escape team?

Before Sanji or any of the others could close the distance to the three individuals by the ziggurat, the situation changed once more.

The pirates and the others who were already within Shandora were not the only ones who saw Enel's massive lightning bolt strike or who had been affected by it. Four Enforcers who had been moving back towards Giant Jack from the west of the pirate's current position also made their presence known now, shouting out their delight at this sign of their God's might as they bounced over the city's rooftops.

Enel laughed as Ohm looked askance around them, surprised at the fact there were so many Blue Sea dwellers still alive and so close, not having sensed those who had been underneath them in Shandora. Enel's attention, however, was centered on one of the Shandians at the edge of the city. He, like the group of three at the far end of the city, had stopped to stare at it in simple shock. Enel didn't care about the three normal Shandians though, only this one.

"Interesting, most interesting!" he laughed. "I have no idea why you are still standing Warrior Wyper, but you are definitely a most stubborn fool to come before God once more."

"Shut up!" the proud Shandian warrior shouted in reply as he hopped forward from one road to another, using a pair of Skate Dials he had taken off the corpse of an enforcer, pushing aside his awe at finally finding his people's home. Luckily the devices were one size fits all, or else he would never have been able to cover as much distance as he had after being left behind by Enel's ambush. "You, who have taken our pride, our lands, and our lives as if they were nothing as if we were toys! I will see you fall before I die! I will relight the Light of Shandora!"

Enel turned away from Wyper as if he was of no consequence, something that seemed to infuriate the wounded warrior even more. "And as for the rest of you hiding amongst the stone, your reaction times are formidable. Of course, I knew you would have saved yourselves thusly, but it is always nice to see people who have the correct understanding of their place. Groveling in the dirt before God."

It was only then that Wyper realized there were other people in the ruins, and he turned away, seeing first Laki then the limping, bleeding Kamakiri appeared, pulling themselves out of their hiding places. "Laki! Kamakiri!" he shouted, racing towards them, showing speed and energy that took everyone but Enel aback, considering how he looked. Wyper's skin was more seared and bleeding ash than undamaged skin. His hair was nearly fried away in its entirety and it was obvious despite his speed that his muscles weren't quite obeying his orders as well as they should. But he still had the Reject Dial tied to one palm and had even dragged his bazooka along.

The weapon, in sharp contrast to its owner, was undamaged bar quite a bit of blood on the end of it. Wyper had used it to pulp an Enforcer's head when the man had attempted to ambush him. Now he pointed at the Blue Sea dwellers around Laki. "Get away from her Blue Sea dwellers!"

"Wyper, stop! They're with us!" Laki shouted even as she dodged away, knowing that Wyper was probably in no mood to listen to anyone. Just like normal then, she thought even as she skated up the side of a building to land on a rooftop so she could both face Wyper on more even footing and look around the city better. Hina followed her, leaping up easily but she only had eyes for Ohm and Enel.

"With us, with us?! Do you hear the words coming out of your mouth Laki! The Blue Sea dwellers will just take, that's all they do, they're just another band of vultures trying to steal what is ours!" Wyper roared, firing his bazooka at the marines and Robin, who had yet to move away far enough for his liking from the wounded Kamakiri. "Burn Bazooka!"

The superheated air blast flashed out and Robin was forced to create a rope of arms to pull herself to safety, while the marines all scrambled out of the way.

Despite the speed of Wyper's attack, they all made it which meant that they were able to shriek and dive out of the way of the giant serpent as it raised itself from the rubble in the southeast portion of the city. It had been caught in the outer edge of Enel's lightning strike and had smashed into the ground hard enough to knock several buildings down.

It reared out of the rubble, hissing angrily, but the anger faded from its eyes quickly as it looked around. It then moved its head this way and that, its hiss changing timbre as it dove down to the ground, staring into several of the buildings.

From where he was resting at the foot of the ziggurat Enel glanced at it curiously, while Ohm asked, "Enel-sama, is the Lord of the Sky sounding happy to you?"

"It certainly seems to be making a lot of noise," Enel drawled, one finger rising from his free hand. In direct contrast to the rising finger, a blast of lightning shot out from the sky above, almost as powerful as the first one, only much more concentrated, straight down into the head of the snake. It shrieked and hissed for several seconds before collapsing unconscious due to the pain.

Enel would have continued the attack if not for Wyper, who had changed direction, twitching back towards them. Now the Burn Bazooka's next blast flashed through, where Enel and Ohm had been standing. "Eat this!"

While Enel simply changed into his lightning form and pretty much ignored the blast, Ohm dodged out of the way, lashing out with a blow from his sword, "Eisen Whip!" The sword in his hand, which was made of Iron Cloud that came out of the dial in its pommel changed shape, enlarging to a tremendous degree as he targeted Wyper. The blade's edge cut through a building as it came toward Wyper.

Wyper might have been able to dodge, but he didn't have to as Sanji reached them. His foot slammed into the side of the Eisen Whip, sending it off-course as he used the momentum of that kick to cross the intervening distance, his next kick lashing out at Ohm directly. "You shitty excuse for a Baldy what've you done to Nami-Chwan!"

Thanks to his Mantra, Ohm had seen this attack coming and dodged to one side before kicking out in turn, blocking the next blow before his sword returned to its original length and he slashed at Sanji with it quickly, wincing slightly at the pain in his leg. The Blue Sea dweller's kicks were truly formidable. "Eisen Back!"

The next instant Sanji's next kick was blocked by a wall of Iron Cloud, which rapidly thrust outward, smashing him off his feet and away. Sanji rolled with it and out of the away swiftly, but his attack was halted for a moment.

"Interesting, you would defend someone who was just a moment ago threatening your crew?" Ohm asked straightening up from his attack stance.

"Normally no," Sanji replied honestly. "But given that the delectable Laki-chan seems to know him, I decided to save him for the moment." With that, he turned to look over at Nami who was standing on a nearby rooftop. "Nami-chwan!" he shouted, throwing out his arms, his one visible eye becoming a heart as he stared up at her. "Your Knight has arrived! Don't worry, where the Shitty Marimo failed, this Sanji will succeed in protecting you!"

"Sanji no! Zoro, he, he tried, but, but we can't win this!" Nami shouted in reply. "Please, don't…"

"Yahahahaha!" As the attack died out, Enel reappeared looking none the worse for it, hovering on his small Sky Cloud ball. Even his clothing and the weird prayer-wheel thing on his back hadn't taken any damage. "I see that unlike that woman, you have yet to learn your place. Still, at least you did not try to escape my Survival Game, unlike your companions back on your ship."

"What? Game? Wait…" Sanji murmured, staring from Enel to Nami, who flinched, and Sanji twisted back to stare at Enel. "You shitty spark, you attacked our crew?!"

Enel huffed, pulling his pinky out of his ear, flicking away a bit of wax with disdain. "And?"

Hina interrupted whatever reply Sanji might have made, arriving on the rooftop nearby, while in the distance, her marines and a few Enforcers and Shandians climbed up to other rooftops, likewise to see Enel. "That crew, many of those men, they wore uniforms. What did you do to them?" she asked, her teeth clenched around the last cigarette that Laki had shared with her. Sanji had used his own up by this point.

Blinking Enel finally looked up at them, and if his previous disinterest had horrified Sanji and the others, the smirk on his face made their blood boil. "Do you think I stopped to inspect the poor fools I passed judgment on?"

"Damn you!" Hina roared, her mind aflame with rage at his callous words and her guilt for bringing her crew along on this mad trip. Smoker was right, she thought even as she leaped down, using Geppo to close the distance as fast as she could. I should never have chased Luffy here. "Arm Lock!"

Ohm interposed himself quickly, shouting out, "Eisen Fan!"

Hina barely dodged, taking a slash across one of her thighs and at the same time Sanji leaped to the attack, the three of them ducking and dodging this way and that for a second before an indiscriminate blast from Wyper's Burn Bazooka forced them apart. Sanji was huffing and puffing from the exertion, and Hina grimaced at the blood running down her shorts then past her knee.

"Yahahahaha!" By the time the combatants had a second to spare for him, Enel had moved, alighting on the top of the ziggurat as he laughed shouting out his next words. "Excellent, excellent, strive all the more, fight all the more. Only the worthiest will survive to journey with me Fairy Vearth." His tone turned dark as he continued, "The losers will be buried here, along with everything else unnatural in this land."

By this point, the surviving Enforcers and the three Shandians that Wyper had noticed before coming in had reached the battle. Everyone heard Enel's words and while to the Shandians and the combined pirate/marine force they meant nothing, but the Enforcers obviously understood what Enel meant. They began attacking instantly roaring out, "For Kami-sama!" as they went. Two of them attacked the Marines, one of them using an Axe Dial to cut a Marine in half from behind before he could dodge.

That man paid for it an instant later as Fullbody's fist caught him, hurling the man back into the side of the building behind him, with such force that his jaw shattered. The marine lieutenant could hear it shatter under his blow, but the man simply pushed himself off the rock and came in again mumbling something that could not be made out due to his mangled mouth.

But it was his eyes, which caused Fullbody to flinch back almost into another blow from another Enforcer. They were the eyes of a man who had nothing to live for but to kill, one way or the other. "K, Kill them before they kill us!" he shouted, ducking under a blow from the man's outstretched Axe Dial, slamming two hard blows into the man's knee, dumping him on the ground where another marine brought his rifle butt down in a blow that shattered his skull.

Near the outskirts of Shandora the three Shandian Warriors, unlike Wyper did listen to Laki when she shouted, "Leave the Blue Sea dwellers alone you idiots, they're on our side!" they dropped down to one side of the attacking Enforcers, two of them attacking one while the last, a big man wielding a very oddly shaped pole-ax, attacked the last two as they dodged the fire coming from the marines.

"So," he grunted, as he landed next to one of the marines, swinging his polearm sideways, forcing the Enforcer back. "Why are you all here if you're not after our city?"

"Because we're freaking idiots who don't know how to run away?" The marine grunted as he took the shot, firing his last musket ball at the Enforcer to his right, not the one who had dodged away. After fighting a few of the white-clad Enforcers before, he knew that there was no way he could hit one of them if he saw the marine fire in the first place. "One of us, the woman over there dodging around the dog, found the way to this city while the one with the black pants begged for a few cigarettes from Laki. He and our captain Hina would do anything for their fix so that might be why we're still here. That was well before someone collapsed the ceiling though. I think that should change our priorities really."

"…Makes sense," the larger man muttered, not honestly interested in the whole story right now as he swung his poleax again.

Elsewhere, Robin was indeed trying to dodge Holy, who was attacking her almost like a human boxer, but much faster on its feet, her arms stinging from an attempt to bind the creature which had failed the moment it began moving likes a human. So much for trying to go easy on the animal, Robin growled mentally. Robin had a soft spot for animals even more than young children and had attempted to just bind the animal to the ground until someone else could knock it out. Now though, the creature had proven to be a dangerous opponent.

As the dog's front paw smashed into the ground of the road shattering rock, then smashing bits of it towards her, Robin was forced to create hand-shields to protect herself from the rubble. A very dangerous opponent she mused, for anyone but me anyway.

Still leaping away from the dog's attacks, which were smashing the ground as it came towards her, Robin conjured up several hands, which grabbed at its lower legs. The dog had barely a second to look down before she summoned up more arms, which grabbed at his neck and twisted backward hard. Others had been pressing down its back, and in third had wrapped around its neck.

Despite its musculature and skeletal structure not being the same as a human, the clutch still worked, and the dog fell, its neck and spine broken. A pity," Robin mused sadly.

"What did you do to my dog woman!?" Ohm roared, leaping down towards Robin from a ruined rooftop, having just finished smashing Sanji off the other side of it.

Before he could launch his attack, arms appeared all around him. Two hands slammed into his face to wrapped around his neck, and four more grabbed his legs from behind him. but he shrugged them off, breaking her hold on his neck and leg with sheer strength, and Robin gasped, losing control of her technique and falling backward, grabbing at her arms as Ohm thrust his blade forward, somewhat off-balance but too angry to care.

At the same time, Robin twisted around the blow by the barest of margins, grimacing as it sliced across her stomach, cutting her shirt and leaving a small line of red from what would otherwise have disemboweled her. How did he break my Clutch?!

Still, this had bought Hina enough time to create a cage around the man which shot out of the ground all around the man. "Iron cage!"

Ohm turned to glare at the pink-haired Blue Sea dweller, a ferocious scowl on his face. "First you people assault my dog, then you steal one of my traps from me!? Is there no limit to your temerity?"

"I have no idea what you are…" Hina trailed off, watching in shock as Ohm sliced through her cage with his sword.

A second later he flicked it out towards her in turn. "Eisen Fork!" From its edge came three tines that spread out towards her, each tine pointed and sharp enough to skewer.

She dodged, but it flicked backward, following her movements, as Ohm used both the special properties of his sword and his Mantra to track her.

"Eisen Fleuret! Eisen Whip!"

She dodged again, watching as the sword changed from a massively long spear back into a whip form before she launched herself forward.

The next second, Ohm had hopped backward as he intoned "Eisen Back!"

Not expecting it, Hina had no time to change her arm into its lock form and her fist slammed into the wall. Pain rang through her hand and she backed away about to hop over the wall. Then it was shifting into a sword again, trying to cut her in half from a bare few inches away, too close for her to dodge. In desperation, she shouted, "Tekkai!"

The blow landed, and hurled her off her feet, shredding the outer layer of her captain's cloak, but doing no real damage.

"Interesting technique," Ohm mused. "I wonder how long you can keep it up."

Hina was forced to cancel the technique to roll away from the next attack, but again when she tried to close the range, the sword shifted into a wall shape.

Seeing this, Sanji broke off from his fight with Wyper, kicking a piece of the floor up into Wyper's face, blocking his view as he dropped down into an alleyway between two of the rubble-strewn buildings. From there, he used Soru to close with Ohm.

However, Ohm sensed him coming, bringing his sword around, blocking him.

With Mantra Sanji alone was no real threat to Ohm, who kept on dodging ducking and flicking his sword out, waiting for a proper opening as he dodged the attacks of the two Blue Sea dwellers. Then Wyper joined the fray again, blasting at both men with his Burn Bazooka. His foot caught Hina in the side of the face, sending her crashing sideways off her rooftop.

"Dammit Wyper, will you listen! The Blue Sea dwellers, Gah!" Laki grunted dodging a blow from one of the Enforcers. Although it was doubtful even to Laki if she could have convinced Wyper to stop fighting the two Blue Sea Dwellers and join forces against Ohm.

As all this was going on, Enel was watching from on high, smiling. Nami stood nearby watching as well, her heart in her mouth as she watched two members of her crew battle Ohm and the other Enforcers. Eventually, Enel decided that he could predict what was going to happen and soon lost interest. "Come with me," he ordered, looking over at Nami for a second before turning away, walking towards the back of the city from where the battle was going on. There at the edge of her line of sight, Nami could see a cave of quite considerable size.

She blinked then nodded, before asking "Um, where are we going?"

Enel simply looked at her, and she flinched away, causing him to laugh. "We are going to the construction, the means of my ascension to Fairy Vearth! I think it is right and proper that those fighting below, see what they are fighting for."

Elsewhere, Robin had had a spot of bad luck. She had dodged around a small building in order to try to get behind Ohm, in the hopes that perhaps she could use her to powers on him again when he was engaged with Sanji. But Wyper had seen her and was still thoroughly enraged at the idea of Blue Sea dwellers here in his People's ancient city. "Burn Bazooka!"

Robin had dodged, rolling into one of the buildings, the face of which had been slagged somewhat by the burn bazooka, melting the outer edge of the stone. It wasn't hot enough to melt the rest thankfully. "I'm sorry Laki, but that man is most irritating!" she muttered an apology to the absent Laki, who was elsewhere in the city, having stayed in the same area with Kamakiri, in order to protect him.

Closing her eyes, she waited until the man was landing on the ground and about to point is the burn bazooka into the building where she was fighting, before hands appeared all over him.

Wyper grimaced, but then smashed one of them with the back of his bazooka before she could complete the move, causing Robin to wince, and she was forced to leap out of the buildings nearest window again, as that allowed him to turn and fire his bazooka towards her position, making her choose between self-preservation or continuing the technique. "What is up with these people able to break my Clutch!?" Maybe when this is all over, I need to talk to my captain about trying to figure out a new attack, among other things. Though this really wasn't a time for it, she had just raced through an ancient bedroom, and one of her dearest fantasies had been to make love in an ancient ruin.

Then she was too busy dodging to think as Robin found herself almost in the center of the fight between Sanji and Ohm. To one side, she saw Hina moving in the side again, having been smashed away by something that Robin hadn't seen. But her main view was obscured a second later as Sanji too was smashed aside, barely getting his foot up to block a sword flow that sliced into the bottom of his foot and hurled him backward.

"Eisen Fork!"

Sanji smashed back first into a building, which collapsed all around him, allowing Ohm to turn to engage Hina. She dodged and ducked, using light pushes off of the air, to bounce this way and that, then up and down, but she wasn't able to close with the man until Wyper took a shot at him from behind. Ohm then turned, his strange transformative sword changing into a wall in order to block the blast of heat superheated air. Although Hina noticed that he had also dodged, as if leery of the weapon's heat-based power cutting through his sword.

Instantly taking advantage of this, Hina raced forward but found Ohm kicking up off the ground, using his Skate Dials to fly up above her in a roll. The sword came back, twisting into another blade form, a hook almost, that sliced towards Hina. Another shout of, "Tekkai!" saved the Marine Captain, but then she was flung backward toward Robin.

Robin ducked to one side, and Hina slammed, albeit with not as much force as Sanji, into the wall next to her. The pink-haired woman glared at the pirate for not even trying to catch her, but Robin didn't even bother to reply beyond a slight shoulder movement, her main attention on the battle above.

Then Wyper was bouncing up over the wall that had been blocking him, firing again down at Ohm. The bald man twitched to one side letting the beam of hot air pass by his side as he flicked his sword out, which was in turn dodged as the two of them bounced around one another for a few seconds using their Jet Dials.

The two women looked at one another, then Robin crossed her arms as Hina crouched, slamming her hands down to the ground. Those hands became handcuffs, as she created long lines of handcuffs slamming into the ground, then away towards the two combatants. "Ready?"

"Ready," Robin said, as dozens of eyes appeared on the rooftops above them from every angle, allowing her to conjure up hands, which grabbed at both combatants. Hundreds of hands this time, not just the eight that she normally used in her clutch. "Grasping Fleur!"

Once more Ohm sensed the attack coming and his sword moved around him in a tight arc barely an inch away from his body. Its edge intersected many of her hands, slicing them, causing cuts to appear, smaller but still dangerous, on her real forearms. Her attack worked better on Wyper, but he somehow broke out of her grip through sheer strength, an astonishing feat. But Robin's attack had held both men in place for a few seconds, allowing Hina's attack to surprise them.

Both men found themselves in a cage that began shrinking rapidly as Hina pulled her arms up from the ground as if she were pulling on twin rope, the manacles thrust into the ground following the movement. The cage balloon around both men flung them towards the ground.

It wasn't enough to end the fight however as Ohm out of the top of the net, using his skate dials to bounce up out of the hole before he could be smashed into the ground. Wyper had it much worse. He tried to use his burn bazooka at close range to cut through the metal, but he was still borne to the earth at speed, the move not working on Hina's iron cage. One of his legs broke with a resounding crack that was audible to his and Ohm's ears even as the priest hopped clear.

With one enemy dealt with for now, Ohm attacked the two Blue Sea Women once more. "Eisen Fork!" This time his sword came apart still even further forming into a kind of cat-o-nine tails, with each tip barbed further like the end of a flexible mace.

Robin was forced to duck away, while Hina relied on Tekkai again. When the sword flicked up off of her, Hina rushed forwards, kicking up off the ground, trying to getting close. But Ohm's mantra was still active, and he'd simply dodged to one side, the sword in his hand flicking under one arm towards her. This time Hina allowed it to hit, using her ability to change her entire body into a lock, locking the blade down, and then locking her hands on it too, heaving.

Ohm instantly let go of the blade and hurled something small at her, it looked like a dial, which he activated by flicking a rock at the dial's top. Iron barbs shot out in a straight line towards Hina's chest, forcing her to Dodge, and Ohm leaped forward grabbing the hilt of his blade again ripping it out of the remnants she had left behind of her previous grip. As he hopped in the air above her via his skate dials, he gripped the edge of another dial of similar makeup to the one he'd previously thrown in his free hand. Another spear full of iron barbs shot out, as he also shouted "Eisen Whip!" Bringing his sword down at the same time.

And this time Hina couldn't dodge or call upon her Tekkai technique fast enough. She found herself crying out in pain as a cut appeared along her chest opening her shirt and causing a long streak of blood to appear right above one of her breasts, while the sword caught her in her lower leg, nearly dumping her to the ground from the pain of it. "AGGH!"

"I hear the cry of the maiden! And a gentleman must answer!" Sanji shouted, kicking his way out of the rubble one side, where he been hurled moments ago. He hadn't been able to get enough leverage to free himself quickly but now he did so. He stood there in the middle of the rubble for a moment, glaring across at Ohm and Wyper, who was still trying to push himself to his feet despite one leg very obviously sticking out at a horrible angle. "You know, with a captain like mine and a shitty swordsman for a first mate, a man has to really push himself to keep up. But never let it be said that this cook is afraid of fire, especially when it is in service of two beautiful ladies!"

He then began to spin in place, so fast his body became a blur, and actual heat waves began to roll off his legs. When he stopped, his legs from his feet almost up to his knees were blazing red hot, like they had been set on fire almost. "Diable Jambe!"

With that, he launched himself forward. Ohm instantly lashed out with a cut from his Iron Cloud sword, then gasped as Sanji kicked it, his kick bursting through it as the heat of the kick dissipated the Iron Cloud. He desperately twisted aside, using the remnants of the blade to create a shield, but that too failed and a kick caught Ohm right in the chest, with bone-crushing force, hurling him backward.

He didn't have time to even recover from that, as Sanji got underneath him, and then launched himself upwards, shouting out one of his attacks. "Diable Mouton Shot!" The kick caught Ohm right in the back, breaking his spine like a dry twig, and hurling him upwards into the air, to land somewhere else the ruins.

Sanji then hopped to the ground, thrusting out his arms in either direction as he shouted out towards Robin and Hina. "Ladies! Your Knight has arrived! Did you see me Robin-chwan! Hina-san!"

"Thank you for the rescue Sanji," Robin replied, sending him a sweet smile stroking the cook's ego, and chuckling quietly to herself as he twirled in place shouting out how happy he was to have been of service. She exchanged a look with Hina, who also acknowledge the rescue, causing Sanji's eyes to turn hearts, which began to pump out of his head, as he moved towards them bowing gallantly towards them both.

Then Wyper was turning his bazooka on them, and Sanji interposed himself between the Shandian and the two ladies. "Hey, hey, what do you think you're doing? Pointing your shitty weapon at two ladies when the battle is over!"

Elsewhere, the battle had not gone nearly as well for the other marines. Fullbody was the only one of them who could fight an enforcer one on one with any hope of winning, and after his first victory, he had been taken out of the fight by one of them attacking from behind, the Axe Dial slashing into his back in an X-shape. He was still alive, but barely, and was only saved from being crippled entirely thanks to a last-second dodge that meant the hit took him in the side rather than on the back. One of the other marines had been cut in two by a similar strike, and the three warriors and last Marine had all been felled.

Laki thought they were all alive, but they needed a lot more medical attention than she could do. By the time the others were wrapping up the battle with Ohm, she had barely begun to bind their wounds as best she could. While also nursing a nasty gash to her face, which had bled so much into one eye before she could staunch the bleeding she couldn't get her eye open now without something to wipe away the blood.

In the brief secession of the battle that occurred after Ohm had been dealt with she howled out at the top of her lungs, "I need some help here!"

As Sanji and Wyper were locked in a staredown, Robin gestured with one arm in that direction, summoning up a series of eyes going towards Laki's position through the ruins, and when she spotted what was going on there, hundreds of hands appeared all around Laki. Helping to bind the wounded. Laki nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw this, but she took a brief moment out of helping one of the Shandians, who might well lose his leg despite her best efforts, to pat one of the hands. "Thanks, Robin."

From where she was still standing Robin smiled, then looked over at Wyper. "The warriors that appeared shortly after you did, have fallen in battle against the enforcers. The enforcers are also all down, as are our companions," she added, looking over to Hina, not really wanting to get into the whole Marine the pirates divide right now. "They're all badly wounded, but I think they will live if given proper medical care. Which means getting them back to the Resolve to our ship's doctor."

"And why should you care?" Wyper growled. "Why should you care for my people, you could just kill us then go on robbing the graves of our ancestors just like these Skypieans have done for more than a hundred years?!"

"Because we do not seek wealth, or riches nor are we here to conquer. We seek knowledge. Or rather I seek knowledge," Robin corrected herself. "What the others seek is merely the Golden Bell. And not even for its own sake, but rather to ring it, so that a certain man down below on the Grand Line can hear it."

Wyper gaped at that, his eyes narrowed in suspicion, as well as wonder. "What do you mean, why are you so interested in the Golden Bell? And just ringing it?"

"There is a man down on the Blue Sea who my captain has promised to ring the golden bell for." Robin supplied simply. "He resides on what we call Jaya, remnants of this island. He is been there for more than a decade, searching for clues, trying to figure out what happened to the ancient city that his ancestor found."

At those words, Wyper's eyes widened, and he stumbled, his broken leg finally getting to him as he fell onto his rear, or that was what Hina and the others thought caused it anyway. But then she blinked and looked closer, seeing actual tears in the man's eyes. "What the…"

"That man, what is his name?" Wyper asked, staring at Robin like she was a lifeline to a man drowning at sea.

"Montblanc Cricket," Robin answered simply, seeing no reason not to.

At that, all fight to go out of Wyper and he smiled widely through his tears even as he tried to get back to his feet, using his bazooka as a crutch. "All right. I, I won't fight you anymore. You're not my enemies, Laki was right. You never were."

Whatever response the other three might've made was lost, as a deep thrumming noise filled the air. They all turned in that direction of the sound and gaped at what was revealed there.

OOOOOOO

At the outskirts of Upper Yard, Chopper was trying to run around like a mad man, with little results. His own wounds were slowing him down to a bare crawl. Luckily, two pairs of willing, uninjured hands had arrived recently.

Conis and her father had arrived in a blast of horns and noise like a marching band. Since then though, they had worked under Chopper's direction, helping him with the wounded.

By this point, most of the wounded had at least been wrapped up so they weren't losing blood anymore. Makino was still unconscious and the Marines were still's shellshocked, those of them who were conscious at all anyway. Zoro looked like a mummy, wrapped practically from head to toe in bandages, even his mouth after Luffy had left. But he would recover. The swordsman's vitality was... well, Chopper had never seen the like. Not even Doctorine's inhuman vitality at her age was close to Zoro's. Chopper knew his own regeneration abilities was because of his being a Zoan type, but where the swordsman's ability to keep going came from was anyone's guess. Pure will maybe?

There was still a lot to do. Wrapping the wounded had only been the start, now came actual treatment, and Chopper was still barely able to use one hand, let alone trust himself for some of the delicate work he needed to do on Makino. The girl didn't have nearly as much durability as Zoro had, and a lot of her skin had been badly blistered, her nerves damaged by the lightning strikes. But that kind of thing would have to wait until Chopper could do it himself.

Conis and her father were enough to help with the others in the time being.

However, he stopped spouting orders as he noticed that both Skypieans were looking up into the sky to the distance. "What is it?"

Conis picked him up, holding him up above her head to look and Chopper joined them staring. "Is that… Is that a floating ship?"

OOOOOOO

The Ark Maxim slowly rose into the air over the battlefield, causing every man and woman still standing among the combatants to stop and stare at it. It was huge, easily the size of a marine galleon, with six rotors, which stuck out three to a side that could be used to steer it, with a much larger propeller at the back providing propulsion. There were hundreds of slanted opening on the bottom that those below could see but could not guess as to their meaning. There were also oars sticking out of each side, but the purpose of them was unknown. Above that, there was a small deck in front of a massive cabin-like structure, fronted by a wall of gold molded to look like a face. A single smokestack or something similar stuck out of the cabin near the front, with a small pole protruding from the top, which also had three small rotors on it.

A part of Robin's brain was going astonishing, amazing, fantastical, as she stared up at it. The rest of her mind though was saying that is possibly the tackiest thing I've ever seen. The fact that it's flying is amazing, but that much gold, really? Silly. Not to mention that face molded into the front. Good go… no, not going to go there. The irony is too obvious.

At its head, Enel stood, raising his hands as he exclaimed, "Wonderful, excellent. The Survival Game is over, and you are the five winners I decreed. All of you are worthy to join me as I travel to Fairy Vearth on this ship, my Ark Maxim."

For a moment, his listeners just stared up at him. Then around at one another. At this point, the only ones on their feet were Robin, Wyper, Sanji, Hina, and Laki. Of those, both of the locals were wounded, as was Hina. Still, none of them were the kind to give in to fear, even to someone like Enel, who at least Hina and Robin knew was beyond them.

Before anyone else could speak Robin did so, raising an arm into the air. "Before all that, I have a question. There should be a golden bell somewhere. It is the tales of that bell that have brought my crew here. Yet I do not see it. Nor do I think someone as intelligent as you would simply melt it down along with the rest of the city's outer shell. So where is it?"

Enel cocked his head thoughtfully, surprised into a moment of introspection by the question. "A golden bell, interesting. I have never seen it, although it was depicted in a few places I… wait, yes! There was an ancient tale of it being rung here in the sky! It was that bell most of all which captured the attention of the Skypieans. But it stopped ringing soon after the Shandians were forced out of Shandora. Hmmm…. It was placed near the ziggurat, correct, in the open square?"

"… that is what my readings of the hieroglyphs of this city indicate, yes," Robin answered cautiously, while Wyper was gritting his teeth around a cigar to one side. And trying to ignore the looks of longing on Hina and Sanji's face as their eyes strayed to it.

"Ah, then it must be above us somewhere! Giant Jack thrust much of that area up into the air as it grew," Enel theorized. "Excellent! A thing of such beauty should belong to God after all. I will require it before we leave on our journey to Fairy Vearth. After which, I will cleanse this land of its taint."

"Cleanse?" Hina asked abruptly. "What do you mean by that?"

"Yahahahaha! Have you ever considered how purely wrong it is that humans can live here, in God's Realm? The sky? It is unnatural in the extreme, a corruption of the order of the world. It is my duty as God to rid the world of such taint. When we leave, I will do so," Enel finished simply.

Everyone's eyes widened as they realized what that would mean. The Skypieans, Upper Yard, maybe even the hidden grotto which housed the Shandians. Enel meant to wipe them all out. Hina was struck dumb by the callous cruelty of it, while Wyper and Laki were both enraged enough to raise their weapons, pointing them at Enel. So strong was Wyper's anger, that he didn't notice the pain of his leg, as it took his weight.

Robin and Sanji exchanged a glance, then Sanji shook his head, sighing sadly. "There are far too many pretty ladies among the Skypieans for me to allow you to get away with that I'm afraid." He hopped into the air, bouncing up and further up until he was level with Enel. "Therefore I will be declining your generous offer, you Shitty Sparkler."

"Impudence." A single finger sent a bolt of lightning forward, nearly frying Sanji where he bounced in midair, causing him to duck underneath it and back to the others as two more followed, herding him back to them while others crashed down all around them, keeping the other four survivors where they were. They were all helpless in the face of Enel's might, even Sanji, arguably the strongest of them all.

I had thought that my earlier show of strength and this magnificent Ark Maxim would at the least convince you of the futility of standing against me. But it appears none of you have as much intelligence as the orange-haired one." Enel shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose in that case then…"

He trailed off as he frowned, turning this way and then looked around him. An instant later, he dodged backward, too surprised to use his powers as his Mantra suddenly shouted a warning, almost as loud as it had when facing the Blue Sea Swordsman. As he did, it was as if someone had lifted a veil from his eyes and a man with black hair tied into a small pigtail and carrying a small girl on his back appeared in the air to one side of him.

Enel's reaction wasn't enough to get him entirely out of range of Luffy's blow even as Luffy cursed inside his head at the perfect assassination strike failed. On to plan B then, beat the fucking shit out of this asshole! He thought even as his black-clad fist slammed into Enel's lower arm and side. he could feel bones breaking even as Enel attempted to transform into lighting.

But he hadn't done so fast enough: once someone with Busoshoku was in contact with a logia user, they couldn't transform those parts. This happened now, the blow from Luffy smashing into Enel's desperate defense, hurling him backward to slam into the wall of the Ark's main cabin as his forearm fractured, causing Enel more pain than he'd felt since becoming God.

Luffy didn't let up, shouting out, "Sorry," before reaching back with one hand and pulling Aisa off his back, tossing her towards the distance ground. "Robin, catch!" Within a single heartbeat, he launched himself after Enel only to be blasted backward as Enel lashed out at him with a lightning blast the size of the ship, tossing him backward from the momentum of the attack.

Below, Robin and Laki both stared at the child, then as Laki shouted her name, Robin quickly conjured up arms, creating a net underneath the girl.

"Ahhh spider arms! What is it with these Blue Sea dwellers!" Aisa screamed at the sight, then bounced up out of them to be grabbed by several other arms, before she was passed along like a parcel towards where the two women stood. "Gbbuybub…"

"What the hell are you doing here?" Laki growled, grabbing up the girl and shaking her fiercely.

"N, never mind that," Aisa said coming back to herself thanks to the shaking, staring up at the flying ship, her eyes wide at what her Mantra was telling her. "Something is going to happen! Something big. Be ready."

"What's going to happen. You're usually clearer than…"

"Just get ready!" Aisa shouted now at the top of her lungs, causing the others who were still nearby to blink in shock and turn to look at her. Her face though was enough to tell them all that whatever Aisa felt was coming, was very serious indeed.

Above Luffy had rolled to a stop, pushing himself off the railing to stand upright, staring hard at Enel as he too pushed himself to his feet, grimacing at the pain of the hit Luffy had laid out on him. He then used a tiny amount of gold from his staff to create a cast for his broken arm. All the while, he didn't stop glaring at Luffy.

"So, you're the shithead they call Kami?" Luffy asked, deciding to break his silence. "You attacked my crew, nearly sunk our ship. You kidnapped my navigator, my friend."

Enel shrugged, trying to not show how shocked he had been from both Luffy's sudden reveal and his attack. I must be somewhat cautious here, that black substance he can cover his limbs with can hurt me and his ability to somehow hide from my Mantra… I must figure a way around that. Small electrical sparks around me should do. Yes. Regardless of whatever tricks he has up his sleeve I can win defeat him handily. He will soon learn the penalty for believing he can stand on the same level as a God!"

With that thought, Enel smirked cockily, taping his prayer staff down on the deck of the Ark as he looked back at Luffy with seeming disinterest, ignoring the still throbbing pain from his arm. "They wished to leave the Survival Game I proclaimed. Did you honestly expect me to allow that? There's only one way to leave a game decreed by God, that is to either win it or die in it."

"Humans are not your tools," Luffy roared, stamping one foot down on the deck as he reached inside himself and unleashed his inner beast, the Haoshoku roaring free now consciously from his control. "We are not followers and you are no god!"

The feeling exploded off of Luffy like a wave blasting out in every direction, pressure, immense pressure, a massive intent, an authority palpable in the very air. Here, it proclaimed, was a giant among men, a conqueror. Bow or die.

It spread out, far wider than it had ever done before, leaving behind Upper Yard, reaching out to the edge of Angel Island. Dozens of people there collapsed where they stood, foaming at the mouth as the pressure of the Haoshoku pressed down on them, a fear like nothing they had ever felt before invading their minds crushing their wills before they even realized they were under attack.

McKinley and his Green Berets were at a loss to explain it, wondering if this was some new trick of Kami-sama, but unable to figure it out. Nor could they really respond to it right away. The few who rushed to the Skypieans aid were caught in it in turn, collapsing as they passed into the outer edge of Luffy's Haoshoku.

Near the epicenter of the technique, the feeling was much worse even to those with greater willpower. Even though she had felt the back-blast of it before, Robin shuddered and collapsed to her knees, gasping under the pressure. Wyper had to grab at a nearby wall to keep himself on his feet with incredible difficulty. Aisa stiffened and collapsed into Laki's arms, as she too fell into the land of the unconscious. Even the serpent, which had been rousing itself slowly from being knocked out earlier by Enel's lightning, found itself once more unconscious, froth bubbling from his mouth in his eyes rolling back in his head once more.

Sanji withstood it, smirking slightly even as his hands shook. He pointed upward with one finger, his voice shaky but proud although whether or not he was proud of the fact that Luffy was so strong, or the fact that he kept such power leashed most of the time, even Sanji wouldn't have been able to tell at that moment. "That is my captain."

Nearby Hina stared, having dealt with the technique almost as well as Sanji had, her eyes wide as her whole body trembled yet her mind did not succumb. "He really is related to Garp!" The Haoshoku in a pirate with that ambition and that strength. Ranma is a Yonko in the making! Yet why…why can't I convince myself even now that's a bad thing? She thought. "Hina confused. Hina very confused."

Closest of all of them, Nami should've had the worst time of it. But just before Luffy had unleashed the Haoshoku, he had turned slightly to wink at her and she had smiled even as the technique with washed over her. That wink, and the fact that he was so pissed off at her being kidnapped, gave her strength to bear it up. She still was gasping and fighting to stop her mind from shutting down, but that was nothing in comparison to those below.

Even Enel staggered, backing up two steps before he roared, "How dare you!" With that shout, the lightning user's sheer arrogance came to his aid, and he hurled off the impact from the Haoshoku. "Is that it, are tricks all you have? You think some, some powerful gaze will make you able to stand against God!"

"No," Luffy drawled. "Not on its own anyway." With that, he launched himself forward, while Enel launched out lightning bolts. For the moment Enel was concentrating on smaller, but more condensed assaults, each bolt of lightning containing more energy than the wider blast which had launched Luffy away from him a moment ago as well as tiny bits of electrical current through the air around him, worried about Luffy using that concealing ability again. Luffy dodged through them, bouncing through the air, using a combination of Geppo and speed walk that even Garp would've been proud of.

Once he was in range Luffy dodged even more wildly than before, using that and the ongoing pressure of his Haoshoku to throw off Enel's Mantra. But his Mantra still saved Enel, and he became lightning just before the blow flashed through where his head had been, teleporting a short distance away.

"Lightning Web!" and once smaller, more concentrated lightning bolts appeared. But this time they were all around Luffy encapsulating him in a net.

Luffy grunted but concentrated, and Busoshoku armor around his hands grew to cover his entire form. He took the blows, then rode through them, disappearing from Nami's sight in the glare of the sizzling arcing electrical discharges and crossing the intervening distance to lash out with a blow that nearly took Enel in the chest. He was moving almost as fast as Enel could keep up with his Mantra, a fact that seemed to be surprising Enel, and then he flipped through the air his foot catching Enel on the chin nearly breaking his jaw before he dodged a blow from Enel's staff.

The next instant Luffy put a hand down on the outthrust staff and used it as a mount to lash out with both feet. But Enel teleported away again, launching still more lightning assaults at Luffy, who dodged to the right, bouncing off the railing of the Ark before launching a cerulean sphere of energy from both hands.

Enel shifted into lightning form, then grunted in some pain as energy met energy. It didn't disrupt his lightning form, but it did sting something fierce like a dozen bees had stung him all at once.

This disrupted his Mantra enough for Luffy to catch him with a blow to his chest which hurled Enel away again while also breaking a rib. Yet Enel had moved with the blow, rolling, coming up onto his feet, and then gesturing with his staff over his shoulder, tapping two of the drums on his prayer ring, howling out, "El Thor!"

Grimacing, Luffy concentrated, and his Busoshoku flashed across his entire body once more, just as the lightning slammed into them. Unlike Tekkai, Busoshoku did work against element attacks, just as it allowed him to attack Enel. That didn't mean it was easy, and Luffy's ability to use Busoshoku across his entire body was not the best. Regardless, Luffy powered through it, trying to getting close again.

Okay, so my Moko Takabisha didn't work, and I don't want to use my Yama-Sen-Ken with Nami so close. There was always the danger that one of the blades would head in her direction, or she would accidentally get in front of one somehow.

Just then Enel decided to try to take the momentum away from the wildly blitzing Luffy. He teleported away to the other side of the Ark, shouting out, "Gloam Paddling!"

The instant Luffy landed where the other man had been, the gold underneath him began to rise up to encompass his legs. Enel had used his lightning powers to melt the gold underneath him, the now molten gold following the line of the heat created.

But Luffy didn't even stand there for more than a millisecond, using speed walk and Geppo to close again.

"Fast little rabbit!" Enel cursed, and Luffy grinned internally. He's having trouble keeping up with my use of both of those in conjunction. I have to keep doing it. He thought to himself even as he felt his legs beginning to twinge a little. Using both of those techniques in conjunction was a lot harder than using either one alone, one multiplying the needs of the other rather than simply adding.

Enel knew he was having issues predicting Luffy's moves at long-range too, and grimacing decided to close to see if his Mantra could keep up with Luffy better at close range, where he couldn't use that speed technique of his to close the distance so fast and so randomly. It worked a bit, but Enel's ability to teleport short distances around Luffy was tested severely by Luffy's own speed and Kenbunshoku. And there was still the feeling Luffy was putting out. The continued use of Haoshoku drained Luffy somewhat, but not a lot, and it was really having an impact on Enel's ability with Mantra.

But Enel's mind was slowly getting used to the pressure and Luffy's ability to use Busoshoku across his entire body wasn't enough. He kept on letting it fade, keeping his hands and fists covered just as they intersected Enel's body. But that was enough for Enel to dodge most of his blows.

A few got through, and Enel winced, falling back from one that slammed into his chest. The next second, he felt a slight weight on his whole arm, as Luffy used one hand down on the staff to slam a foot into Enel's face, shattering his nose and several teeth.

Enel was sent rocketing backward, but he concentrated on using the gold transfiguring technique on his staff as he flung it to the side. Under the heat created by his lightning passing through it the gold shifting up and grabbing the hand Luffy was using to hold onto the staff.

Luffy grimaced at the heat of it but had been using Busoshoku on his hand, so wasn't all that injured. That did not stop the gold of the staff from merging into the side of the Ark a second later, the gold of the Ark's side also melting down over Luffy, pinning him there for a brief instant. He tore his arm free shattering the gold an instant later and leaped away from more of the gold as it reached for him under Enel's direction of the heat. But in so doing, Luffy walked right into another blast of lightning that hurled him backward.

Rolling, Luffy came to his feet, his hair sizzling, grimacing as he hadn't been able to use Busoshoku there.

"So, even without that odd black ability of yours, you still have an impressive level of endurance. Amusing. What is your name Blue Sea dweller?" Enel asked, walking around Luffy to one side, to put his still injured arm away from Luffy. Luffy had yet to target that wound, but Enel felt it was only a matter of time.

"Monkey D. Luffy, the man who will be the Pirate King," Luffy said simply, crouching down as he spread his arms in preparation to charge.

"And what ocean does the Pirate King rule?"

"The Pirate King Reigns over ever ocean wherever he stands!" Luffy roared, flashing forward.

Enel dodged, then launched several attacks, mostly short bursts of lightning, so short and quick he didn't even bother calling out their names, before lashing out with his staff, which had reformed under his direction. Luffy dove to the side out of the way of most of these attacks before kicking off the edge of the safety railing up into the air flipping through another attack, landing, for a brief instant then using Soru to close.

Once more Enel dodged backward, and Luffy used Geppo to bounce to the side before closing again from a different angle via the Soru. And this time, he was aiming to close on Enel's wounded left arm. Enel snarled but waited for a brief second to let Luffy close before launching another full-bore lightning blast. "Hino!"

Then he dodged to the side and placed both of his hands up around Luffy's head while Luffy was still blinded by the discharge. Luffy flinched backward, having used his own Kenbunshoku to know where Enel would be, his head covered in Busoshoku. Enel twitched aside in turn as Luffy flipped forward, kicking out before twisting like a breakdancer and launching himself at Enel, who had once more been able to avoid his blows.

For a moment, both of them were just dodging one another strikes, moving so fast that Nami couldn't make sense of what was going on. Only the flash of lightning and a series of booms told her they were still there.

"They're both using that that Kenbunshoku thing," Nami muttered, pushing herself to her feet with difficulty as she stared. It was a sign of extreme speed and mastery of aerial combat that would have had anyone from Luffy's old world, or indeed, many a Marine who knew about the Rokushiki, to gasp.

But they were not availing Luffy anything any longer. Enel's Mantra had gotten somewhat used to his Haoshoku pressure, and it was also simply better than Luffy's. For every blow that nearly landed on Enel, Enel landed a lightning strike on Luffy. The big flashy attacks were too big and too obvious, so Enel had switched entirely to smaller attacks, faster to create, and much easier to launch, the difference was one a fighter would equate to a jab in favor of a roundhouse kick. He also teleported short distances now, not letting Luffy use Soru, which had at the start of the battle caused his Mantra trouble.

But the Busoshoku was still a major factor and despite his Mantra, Enel had developed numerous bruises and bangs to go with his broken left forearm. While the two of them were fighting back and forth along the deck Enel was also preparing the ground, eager to trap Luffy with the gold. He'd almost done so once already, but he knew he could do better.

Then Luffy changed up the game once more, his hands flashing forward with the palms open as he shouted, "Kijin Raishu Dan!"

His Mantra screaming at him to dodge, Enel instantly shifted his body into lightning. The attack cut through his body, dissipating a large portion of the lightning his body had become. But that didn't hurt Enel in any way since he could at command make portions of his body disappear himself. When Enel reformed, it was his mental image of himself that allowed him to do so, regardless of what damage the 'lightning image' of his body had taken.

But his concentration on that had allowed Luffy to get close again, and instead of going for a punch, Luffy grabbed at Enel's arm, grinning as his Busoshoku covered hand clamped down on Enel's upper left arm.

Enel tried to transform himself, but the part of his body connected to Luffy's black-clad hand was refusing to cooperate.

Before he could compensate, Luffy's other hand came up in an uppercut that rocked Enel's head back.

Six more punches landed, breaking ribs and shattering Enel's teeth, but Enel had reacted just as quickly to this change of state as he could. Even as his head rang and he tried desperately, the gold underneath Luffy's feet rose, forcing Luffy to leap upwards, which allowed Enel to send a lightning blast point-blank right into his face.

In response, Luffy's entire body had turned black for a few seconds, but the lightning had blocked his vision, and the gold reached for him again, searing into his body from different angles. holding him still and rising up to encompass him.

This made Luffy release Enel in order to get away from the gold. When he did so, Enel instantly went on the attack, lashing out with lightning blasts from all around Luffy trying to pin him in place via this near-to three-hundred-and-sixty-degree assault.

Luffy came out of the assault rolling backward, kicking up into the air and bouncing there via Geppo, as his Busoshoku faded, leaving him gasping and shaking. Using Busoshoku around his entire body was just really debilitating, and Luffy snarled, clenching his feet fists.

I can't keep up the entire body technique, I'm going to have to start taking more shots from the bastard, dammit! I can't believe his Kenbunshoku's so good!

Enel chuckled, wiping at the blood liberally coating his face, as lightning arced between some of his missing teeth. "You see!" he shouted, his voice still powerful and arrogant despite the pounding of a moment ago. "I AM GOD! Your tricks, your odd skills, they can avail you naught in the end against my power!"

Luffy snarled angrily at that, not intimidated in the least by Enel's bluster. He knew he could hurt the bastard, and that was enough.

But Nami, who was looking at Luffy's shuddering body, was affected far more. To her eyes, Luffy looked as if he had been electrocuted several times over. Parts of his skin were red and smoking, some seared away to disgusting black pustules. Parts of his hair had been set on fire momentarily, and his body was twitching as she stared at him, obviously from residual discharge.

To her mind, all this meant Luffy was coming off the loser in this fight, despite his strong start. "Luffy! You can't, we can't win this! You have to get out of here, just, just run! Take the others and…"

"S, shut up," Luffy rasped out, moving slowly towards Enel, who watched him come, confidence completely restored, now that Luffy's full body Busoshoku seemed to be a thing of the past. "You are the navigator of the future Pirate King. Do you think some jumped-up frog in a well is going to stop me!? Do you think for one moment I would sacrifice any of my crew, let alone let you sacrifice yourself?"

While Nami gaped at him, Enel simply guffawed. "Yahahahaha! "Hubris! Arrogance! Just because you have come from the Blue Sea does not mean that you should be blind to the power of God."

"You're no God. You're just an arrogant crap-stick with delusions of grandeur. I know at least a dozen people down on the Blue Sea off the top of my head that could kick your ass." Luffy smirked. "Excluding me."

Enel smile vanished as if it had never been and he shook his head. "Watch how to speak, cur." With that, he lashed out with lightning again in the form of a swarm of wolf-shaped lightning beasts. "Kiten!"

But Luffy dodged, bouncing literally out of sight for a second, using the Umi-Sen-Ken to close, something that seemed to throw Enel off momentarily, letting Luffy close once more.

He still dodged Luffy's punches when he came out of the technique, somehow able to sense the air movement around Luffy if not the man himself. But Enel was once more on the backfoot and he dodged backward dancing down the length of the deck.

Nami stared after Luffy, still shocked at both his confidence and his words, blushing hotly as her heart started going a mile a minute. That feeling and Luffy's confidence jumpstarted her brain. Right girl, about time you start thinking. Luffy might be able to handle Enel, but that doesn't mean, that I shouldn't do what I can do to help. With that, Nami waited, until she was certain the two combatants were fully involved with one another in another close-quarters contest before turning and racing into the Ark's interior. Even with Enel so engaged with Luffy, this thing is still in the air, which means that it's floating under its own power. And that means there's got to be some way to mess it up!

Moments later the two of them were still slamming into one another, with lightning arcing everywhere, and Luffy trying desperately to get in a few hits. Then the Ark lurched underneath them.

Enel blinked, staring down at his feet for a moment, just a single second. Then his eyes widened and he twitched backward, nearly dodging a fist that would've taken him in the eye but he was unable to dodge the Busoshoku clad knee that came up slamming into his chest with enough force to shatter ribs. Luffy then grabbed his head, intent on ending this fight by smashing the other man's head into a bloody paste.

However, it didn't work. Enel broke his grip with another bolt of lightning to his chest, using his broken arm to launch it forward, something Luffy couldn't block in time. Then the gold underneath him rose up stabbing this time for his legs and above rather than trying to grasp, forcing Luffy to loosen his grip and leap away.

Even so, Luffy took several long gashes on his legs. His ki instantly started to heal the damage, but Luffy's ki reserves had already been pushed hard by this fight, healing his body after every lightning blast he couldn't dodge or tank via Busoshoku. It was a slow process and caused a single instant of weakness just as short as Enel's previous one.

Having seen his death coming all too closely, Enel didn't hesitate to follow up on his momentary advantage. "Sixty Million Volt, Julungul!" he howled, launching one of his deadliest attacks at Luffy as all of the drums on his back turned into lightning and flashed forward.

Though he tried, Luffy couldn't dodge in time and cried out in agony as the attack hit him.

But he was still there when the attack dissipated, his charred, fried body knitting itself together with his inner energy, not having taken nearly as much damage as Enel had anticipated something that concerned Enel even more than the fact that the Ark was now losing altitude quickly. I put enough energy into that to fry him to a crisp! How is he still standing without using that hellish black stuff?!

Seeing that Enel did not relent. Instead, he charged forward his staff appearing in one hand again, molded out of the cast on his broken arm, as it dropped into his other hand. If I cannot overcome whatever is healing him even as I watch, then I will simply remove him from my Ark! Let him die among the rest as I remove this stain from the sky!

Luffy barely had a moment to look up before Enel was on him, the blunt end of his staff slipped stabbing into Luffy's chest with enough force to hurled him backward off his feet, crashing into the railing of the Ark, and over the side. He tried desperately to get his feet under him in order to use Geppo but lightning crashed down on top of him and Luffy couldn't get his arms up in time to protect himself with his armor technique. He cried out in agony again, unable to concentrate on the Geppo technique due to the pain. He couldn't regain control of himself before he crashed through the trees and into the ground below, although he did have enough presence of mind to use Tekkai just before he hit the trees in order to stop himself from taking still more damage.

By that point, Enel's attack on him had stopped, Enel's confidence in his power restored entirely by seeing his nemesis falling to the ground far below. "Yahahahaha, you see, you see! Even someone of his ambition, of his will, is nothing before the power of God!"

A rumbling underneath his feet, and's seeing smoke rising from the interior of the Ark caused him to remember what else was going on and he broke off his diatribe quickly. He quickly used his Gloam Paddling to re-create his cast on his arm, then moved into the Ark, down to its engineering room. There he found Nami had pushed with several of the gears out of alignment with one another and also smashed some of the giant electrical arc intake devices, which would have looked like lightbulbs almost to Luffy if he was there to see.

Seeing this, Enel scowled, but Nami herself was not inside. He could sense her, moving away, heading back up to the deck from the other direction. Still, she cannot get off the Ark, not quickly enough to escape me. She will pay for this effrontery! He thought, as he pushed one of the gears back into its position then used his gloom paddling once more, to shape the glass back into its original shape unbroken.

The next second, he appeared on the main deck, in front of where Nami had been racing towards the railing. "And where do you think you are going? I thought I was being quite generous, offering you a chance to live, to go on to Fairy Vearth with me, rather than die here."

Nami gulped, remembering Enel's earlier declaration of wanting to wipe the sky clean of what he saw as the taint of people living in the sky as they were here. She trembled, but she did not back down. Instead, she stared back at him hard-eyed, gathering her courage and thrusting out one hand, on which was the same device that she had used to parry his earlier attacks. "If the choice is between living with someone like you, leaving my dream, my crew, my captain behind, or dying with them, I'll choose the latter!"

Enel simply shrugged, then gestured with one finger forward. "If you think that your little trick will be able to save you now that I know of it, I am afraid you will not live to find out how wrong you are."

From all around Nami bolts of lightning flashed towards her causing her to scream, flailing about with gauntlet on her arm intersecting two of the attacks. The dodging practice she had been doing as part of her training with Luffy and the others also came into play now, coupled with her ability to read the flow of the lightning through the air.

She dodged almost all of them, but one still managed to hit her, and she screamed. Yet even as the attack hit, Nami still had the presence of mind to toss herself off the side of the Ark, tumbling through the air and away from the lightning blast.

Luffy had found himself slamming into the outer edge of the city right next to the snake, who was slowly reviving itself from having its will crushed by Luffy's Haoshoku. It turned to look at Luffy as he pushed himself out of the crater his fall had caused, but Luffy just glared at it, flickers of his Haoshoku visible in his eyes. "You do not want a piece of this," he growled.

The snake looked as if it was about to argue, but something in it those eyes caused it to calm down, bowing his head docilely.

Luffy blinked, then shrugged it off remembering some of the things he been told about the Conqueror's Haki. "Come on then," he said, moving forward and pushing himself on the snake's head, gesturing up with one finger that the snake could see in one eyeball. "I think I'll need your help to get back up there." At the same time, he pulled out from his ki space several emergency rations, little food packets that Sanji had made early on in their time in the Grand Line. Even Sanji couldn't make emergency rations tasty, but Luffy needed the instant boost, his ki reserves having taken one hell of a hit dealing with all of the damage he was taking.

The snake rose up into the air towards the Ark, as it righted itself and moved climbed upwards again, faster than the snake could move. But they were in time to see Nami be thrown off the Ark's side, and Luffy ordered the snake, "To the left! Get underneath her!"

Once they were in position, Luffy leaped up off the snake's head, using air walk for another hundred feet, before catching Nami in his arms cradling her like a baby for a moment. She had obviously taken a shot of lightning herself but was still conscious enough to look up at him, while her body twitched spasmed in his arms. But her skin was not fried or blackened as Luffy's had been. "Just dropping in?" he quipped, smiling down at her.

"G, g, goof," Nami mumbled, her teeth chattering as her body spasmed in his arms from aftershocks. They landed back on the snake's head, something Nami was no mind to comment on at the moment, as the snake lowered itself down towards the ground.

Luffy directed it towards the others, who he could see were still congregated around the center of the city, having watched what they could of the battle above them. Sanji was the first to notice their arrival, having situated himself on the tallest building around, and he waved frantically shouting out, "Nami-chwan! I'm sorry your Knight couldn't get to you fast enough to help! Don't tell me that out of control lightbulb hurt you! I swear I will find a way to cut his heart out and feed it to you!"

"Fine gift for names Sanji has and his own heart's at least in the right place even if heart doesn't really sound appetizing," Luffy muttered, causing Nami to chuckle weakly in his arms even as he hopped down towards Sanji. By the time he touched down on the roof, Hina, and the others were also there, with the still unconscious Aisa being looked after by Laki nearby. Like Wyper, Laki had been able to stand up Luffy's earlier use of Haoshoku, but she had not dealt with it as well, having fallen to her rear, and even now her legs refused to obey her. For a moment, they all stared upwards, as the Ark slowly rose into the air.

Then Luffy turned to Sanji, handing Nami over to him. "Watch her, will you? I think she's had a very tough day."

"You think any of us haven't," Robin quipped, looking at him worryingly. "What are you going to do?"

Luffy looked over at Wyper, one eyebrow cocked, all their earlier animosity forgotten for a moment as he gestured upwards. "Aisa and I arrived on the heels of his speech, but you've been dealing with him for a while. Is he really going to wipe out Sky Island and everything else up here he can?"

The Shandian war leader didn't answer for a moment staring up at the Ark, his hands clenching and unclenching. It was only long training that kept his fingers from activating the reject in his palm such was his anger. "I don't know if he has the power to do anything to upper Yard itself," the other man eventually growled out. "But we've seen what his lightning ability can do to Island Cloud, and he's certainly callous enough to try. Which doesn't even mention the idea that this one put into his head," he added pointing to Robin.

"What idea?"

"The idea that the Golden Bell might be somewhere up there," Robin explained, gesturing to the clouds that she could see were being pierced by Giant Beanstalk higher in the sky. It's only a theory, but if that beast of a beanstalk grew underneath the bell, it could've carried give up there. Or perhaps it was simply stored up there sometime, then the Kami of the time was slain in battle and no one else knew it was there. We might never understand how it got there, but I am positive that the Golden Bell should be up there if it is anywhere on this island. I found evidence to explain where…"

"I'm certain how you figured it out is amazing Robin, and I know that you love all this archaeology stuff, but at the moment, I just have to know where he's going," Luffy said as he finished off the ration bars he'd been eating.

"You don't think he'll see you coming?"

"I think he's only able to sense me using my Umi-Sen-Ken when I'm close. it should at least get me back up there at least," Luffy said, stretching his shoulders and cracking neck explosively.

Robin stepped in close, her voice low but intense. "And are you certain that is the best course of action?" What she was really asking was can you beat him, and her eyes showed her concern.

Luffy looked much worse than Sanji or Nami at the moment. Indeed, even after his ki had finished healing a lot of the damage he'd taken Luffy looked almost as bad as Wyper sans the broken leg.

Before Luffy could reply, Wyper howled out, finally losing his control. "Dammit! Dammit! I am the descendent of the great warrior Kalgara, and here I stand, my people once more defeated, and my leg broken and I, helpless to change anything! Helpless to fulfill his dream, helpless to defend what remains of his will and that of our ancestors!"

"Dream?" Luffy asked looking over at him quizzically holding up a hand to Robin, while above them the Ark continued to ascend. Nami had done quite a lot of damage to its engines though, so was only barely up to where it had been initially when Luffy had begun his attack.

Wyper snorted, "… You Blue Sea dwellers, you should know! Or do you think that only that man down below, the descendent of Cricket, remembered a friendship between Montblanc and my people? We have fought to reclaim our lands, to reclaim our history yes. But we have also fought to relight the light of Shandora, to let it ring once more the lands."

Wyper growled, looking down at his reject. It should by all rights be me, or one of my people doing. But if the alternative to that is letting that bastards walk away with our Bell, our ancient heritage, then I would rather you ring at the very least."

While her archaeologist and historian's senses were tingling at the way Wyper was emphasizing the words ancient heritage, Robin was still extremely concerned about the idea of Luffy taking Enel on again. She reached out to grab his arm, but Luffy gently caught her hand before she could touch him, squeezing her hand before nodding to Wyper. "You said you had a reject Dial? Let me guess, that was a trump card or something."

Wyper nodded, then with a trembling hand, his body still dealing with the effects of having been electrocuted earlier that day unwrapped the cloth holding the dial to his palm.

Luffy picked it up, holding it up in his hand. "Mind if I borrow this?" If I have to destroy the Ark, it might come in handy.

"So long as it helps you bring that bastard down."

"If you were able to hurt him with Busoshoku, Enel will be feeling it. While all Devil fruit users have more vitality than normal people, logia users don't heal as quickly as Zoan types. Especially if they're not used to taking punishment in the first place," Hina volunteered, scowling as she stared up at the Ark. "But if you're going to go, I suggest you get going now. That thing's moving over to Giant Jack, and it's doing something in the air as well."

All of them twisted their necks upwards to stare watching as clouds began to gather, forming into a single massive black ball that began to darken further as they watched.

Nami stared up at it from Sanji's arms, too weak and in too much pain to even complain about being in his arms rather than Luffy's, her eyes wide with horror. "That's…I can't even begin to imagine how much energy discharge that thing could do! So much lightning so much electrical potential all in one place, that would incinerate anything in its path."

All of them were silent for a moment, then Luffy nodded, looking around, and smiled suddenly, hopping into the air and away to something that glinted in the distance of the city. He returned carrying Enel's original staff out to Hina. "That lock power of yours, can it attract lightning?"

The others looked at him in confusion, but Luffy simply shrugged. "I think I've got enough left in me to protect myself with Busoshoku. And better that I try, then that thing land and kill everyone. If I can use Geppo to get into the thing, then I can hold a lightning rod within, and you can create a chain connecting me to here on Upper Yard, grounding the potential."

"It pains me to say it, Hina reluctant, but he's right. It's the only way to save Sky Island," Hina grumbled. And it also shows more of Luffy's character, while also showing me what I have to do to if it comes to it. Upper Yard can survive dozens of blows like that, so long as we bring the lightning to it.

With that, Hine the end of the staff with several bands of handcuffs, then Luffy's arms. Finally, she clamped both hands around one of Luffy's ankles, nodding up at him as her hands passed through his ankle creating the first link of the chain. "Hina ready."

Robin once more made to reach out for Luffy, only to pause, letting her hand fall back to the side as the black mass above them began to move. But it wasn't aiming down towards them, Enel apparently having no longer any concern about any of them. Instead, it was moving to Sky Island.

She had many things she wanted to say to Luffy, telling him this was a fool scheme, a fanciful idea, that he was in no condition to try and take on Enel again let alone try to deal with the power of that thing. That they should instead try to run. But that sight and the determined, unbroken glare, will and fury in Luffy's eyes caused her to stop. Instead, she simply said, "Good luck."

It sounded utterly lame the moment the words left her mouth, but Luffy just nodded and then winked at her, saying cryptically, "I prefer to plan for the best you know? So just remember what we did after Crocodile was dealt with, okay?"

Robin's eyes widened while the comment went over everyone else's head, and most particularly Hina's. She hadn't been with Smoker in Alabasta, and even Smoker had only the vague worry that the Straw Hat Pirates had taken Crocodile's Devil Fruit.

The sheer confidence of that statement and what it implied made Robin smile. "You just fulfill your end of that arrangement, and I'll see what I can do," she said with a saucy smirk.

Luffy laughed, hopping into the air without another word moving towards the massive shadowy sphere the Ark Maxim was creating. As he did, a chain slowly appearing between the rapidly ascending Ranma and Hina, who began to grimace.

While Nami and Wyper followed his progress, Sanji moved over to Robin, collapsing next to her and leaning back against a bit of rock sticking out from the top of the ziggurat they were all on at the moment. Getting off his legs was a fantastic feeling, even if he was still cradling a now mildly protesting Nami in his arms. "Did he just say…"

"Yes, I believe he implied it. If you could make certain that Hina doesn't notice what I'm doing, that would be magnificent Cook-san." With that, Robin closed her eyes, and leaned back, forgetting entirely her physical body for a moment. The rooftop fell silent, all of them absorbed with what they were doing or the drama above.

OOOOOOO

Luffy had injured Enel quite madly in their fight, so much so that Enel was wondering if he was dealing with a concussion given his dizziness, a desire to throw up, and practically seeing double when he moved his eyes too quickly. He was having more trouble than he should be to use the Ark's machinery in order to create the Raigo, a combined attack between himself and the Ark Maxim. His broken ribs, arm, and missing teeth were aching abominably, cutting further into his ability to use his powers.

He had never, ever had to deal with pain at all since becoming a god, not even the equivalent of stubbing his toe or biting his tongue and the amount of pain he had taken was greatly hampering his abilities. Thus the Raigo was forming much more slowly and was lacking in power from what it should have been. Still, Enel thought it would still be enough to begin his task of wiping the heavens clean of human filth.

His thoughts broke off as he sensed Luffy hopping up towards him via his Mantra and snarled angrily. He was about to lash out at the man when Luffy moved away. Instead, Luffy made his way over to the Raigo where it had taken up position over Sky Island.

The self-proclaimed God blinked at that, and through his woozy haze, he couldn't understand why. "Still, if that fool is willing to throw his life away like that, who am I to argue?"

He was still sensing what was going on at a distance when Luffy intercepted the black ball. But almost immediately after that, Enel realized that he had miscalculated, as he saw a rope or something similar connecting Luffy to Upper Yard. He must have found some kind of metal in order to attract the lightning to him he thought angrily, as he sensed the black ball beginning to dissipate. But I didn't think he had enough energy or whatever it is that powers that black substance he was able to use anymore.

He concentrated hard on his mantra, moving towards the front of the Ark. Once there he began to hear Luffy screaming in agony, through his mantra, and laughed wickedly.

OOOOOOO

This was not one of my smarter moments Luffy thought with a grimace, just as the metal-clad golden tip of the staff he had taken from the ruins stabbed into the side of the black ball of electrical potential, pulling out his Busoshoku. It covered him from fingers on up, protecting him for nearly a minute while his body conducted the electrical potential of the black orb down into the ground of Upper Yard. But after his earlier exertions, Luffy couldn't sustain it, the technique failing slowly while the black ball was drained equally slowly of its lightning down into the ground of Upper Yard far below.

When it began to fail utterly, Luffy couldn't help himself and started to scream, as the lightning played through his body, frying him despite his body's immense durability even without the Busoshoku. Luffy could even feel his eyes start to steam, and clamped them closed, but kept pushing himself deeper into the lightning ball until he could no longer concentrate on his Geppo technique. When that happened, he fell away, releasing his grip on the staff, his entire body shuddering, as his ki went to work on trying to repair the damage as the diffuse ball of lightning dissipated above him.

Luffy knew that even with the earlier emergency rations he'd eaten, there was no way his body had enough energy remaining within his body to repair the damage just taken. Yet Luffy himself was still conscious still able to direct his ki to heal what he wanted it too, rather than trying to concentrate on everything all at once. His eyes, muscles, and tendons were first, then the rest.

This was not a fast process, and Luffy found himself once more in danger of slamming into Upper Yard and this time without having the wherewithal to use Tekkai.

But right before he could hit the upper foliage of the forest, Sanji was there, catching the other man easily. "Hey Luffy, haven't you ever heard it's dangerous to play outdoors when it's lightning outside?" Sanji quipped weakly. That had been one hell of a brave thing Luffy had just done, and Sanji didn't even want to think of the amount of damage he'd done to himself. Just touching Luffy right now made him flinch in sympathy.

Luffy looked up at him blearily, then smirked, and asked: "Y, you g, got any more emergency rat, r, rations o, o, on you?" After the earlier fight and after this last round of conscious healing, Luffy was running on fumes. But he still had a job to do and refused to yield to his body's demands for rest and healing just yet.

When Sanji handed him the lunch he'd prepared for himself earlier that day before leaving the Resolve, and which he hadn't eaten yet from his small backpack, Luffy began to eat quickly. Despite the fact the whole thing had been squashed flat during the earlier fighting with Ohm and he had to pick bits of the bento box out of the food. As he did, he looked up in the sky and his eyes widened. "Shit! He's c, c, creating an, a. another one!"

The cook did not look. Instead, he was looking straight ahead, to where he could see the distant Sky Island. "Actually, I think you did enough already captain," he said using his title for the second time without any irony apparent in his tone. "I can't make out any details from here…"

At that, Luffy weakly reached into his ki pocket and held out his spyglass.

After a bit of shifting around Sanji held the spyglass up to one eye while holding Luffy in his other arm, as Luffy continued to munch on the bento that Sanji had handed him. "I was right," Sanji breathed in relief. "The people out there are evacuating. I can even see the Resolve. It looks as if Shitty Marimo, or more likely Makino-chwan, thought to head back there. Nami-chan told us while you were doing your live wire impersonation that Enel had a set-to with them and basically spilled all his plans, including wiping our Sky Island. It looks as if they were believed too."

"Good," Luffy muttered, "So I'm not even going to try to intercept that one." To his mind, if the word had been brought to Sky Island and they had seen that first thing in the sky descending towards them, and people still hadn't evacuated by this point, they were too stupid to be his problem. Even his previous Code as a martial artist could be assuaged by that level of gross stupidity.

Luffy then pushed out of Sanji's arms, hopping on his own two feet in the air next for a moment, before nearly falling, shaking his head. "No, nope, going to c, c, conserve a bit more energy I think." He looked over at Sanji and sighed. It was kind of humiliating, but Luffy consoled himself with the fact that he wasn't in his female form at the moment. "Get m, m me back to Giant Jack. A, and sh, shat, shatter that chain for me."

Destroying Hina's chain was but a work of a single moment after they landed, then they were on their way again. They were nearly back to Shandora, Sanji not being nearly as fast in the air as Luffy was at his best, when the second ball of lightning struck Sky Island. There was a booming flash of light and thunder accompanied by a roiling blast of air pressure, felt even this far away through the air.

When they turned to look, they saw that nothing of Sky Island remained, nothing but a giant crater showing where it had once been, into which the water of the White-White Sea fell.

"What do you think he's going to do next?" Sanji asked as they reached Giant Jack.

"You c, c can let me d, d, down now you k, k, know," Luffy muttered, trying to push away from Sanji's back.

Sanji didn't let them though, shaking his head grimly. "Conserve your strength and answer my question, you shitty captain."

Chuckling quietly, Luffy gestured around them with one hand, forcing the words out this time without stuttering from residual electrical damage to his system. "He said he'll wipe out all life up here, right? That means he's going to have to attack Upper Yard too."

Behind them, a giant cage began to form, reaching to the sky above, catching Sanji's attention. Turning back, Sanji could see the other side of the cage there too, a vast circle of ever-rising steel bars made of handcuffs. "And it looks as if Hina-swan realized that too. Hmmm, smart and beautiful, what a combination! I tell you if the marines had more like her, I don't know if I'd have joined up with you in the first place, curse or no."

Luffy though was also looking up, and suddenly shouted, "D, d, dodge!"

Enel had felt the two of them moving around, and had decided to nip this attack in the bud, just to make certain that Luffy could not "Once more ascend to the heavens to challenge God," in his words. Even as he spoke those words aloud though, Enel knew the real reason. Fear. Luffy had come within a hair's breadth of killing him earlier not just once, but at least twice. And Enel refused to allow that to happen once more.

Desperately Sanji began to dance around in the air, dodging this way and that, randomly, but with Luffy on his back and his own earlier wounds, he wasn't moving nearly as quickly as he should have.

"Kick me," Luffy ordered, pushing out of Sanji's grip, and leaping to the side, tossing him the Reject dial. "J, j, just aim upwards, and th, th, then get down underneath the cage! A, after that, try to de, de, destroy the Ark a, at least!"

"Roger that!" he shouted, aiming a kick to intersect Luffy's downward fall. Luffy touched down on his cooks' foot gently, then as he wrapped himself within the Umi-Sen-Ken he found himself hurled like a missile through the air, making Luffy once more realize just how strong Sanji's legs really were. Then Sanji cried out in pain as a bolt of lightning slammed into him, causing him to fall back to the ground far below.

But even as Luffy watched, Sanji slowly started to right himself, getting his legs underneath him again and using Geppo to slow his descent. While all around them, the cage slowly began to grow. Sanji stopped right underneath it, bouncing there, and staring upward, not where he thought Luffy could be, but at the Ark, as he thought about how to accomplish his captain's order.

As Luffy had been flung through the air, the Silent Thief technique surrounded him, once more hiding him from everyone's senses, both most normal senses and also Kenbunshoku as he had proven earlier that day. Not that Ranma thought he would be able to ambush Enel again, he just literally could not afford the energy it would take to dodge attacks while trying to close with Enel again. He could feel his body giving out on him, but he powered through it in a way that even in his past life as Ranma he could never have done, flickers of Haoshoku pulsing out from him as he did so. I can rest when I'm dead, but I'm not going to do that before Enel is.

OOOOOOO

Given his mildly concussed and wounded state, Enel hadn't sensed the fact that Luffy and Sanji had separated, or that Luffy had once again disappeared from his Mantra. He sensed instead what he thought were both of them falling back towards the ground, with one of them unconscious. "Finally that irritant is dealt with, he muttered, then suddenly smiled as the Ark ascended to the highest point on Giant Jack. "And there it is! The Golden Bell!"

The Golden Bell was magnificent, both in size and in artistry. The bell itself was large, larger than Enel stood tall, scintillating in the sunlight with its golden hues, each angle perfectly formed, magnificently plane in comparison to the artwork that covered the arches and base which held it in place. The base was also covered in marks, although for some reason, one segment of it was made of something like iron and had a much greater amount of lettering written on it.

Strange Enel thought, staring at it quizzically. It's a pity that one woman, the one who was interested in this bell, didn't agree to the natural order of things and come with me. She might've been able to tell me what it says.

Regardless, Enel smiled as he stared at it, while behind him, the Ark continued to work on creating the next attack, which would be launched down towards Upper Yard. When that attack finishes the job of wiping out that horrid blasphemy, I will ring this bell. And then, I will destroy it as well. A pity, but I would have to do so anyway even if I attempted to transport it onto the Ark.

While Enel could easily melt the bell and then transport the gold via heating a path to the Maxim in the air with his lightning, he couldn't pick it up as is. And as good as my memory is, it certainly isn't up to recreating this, he thought, staring at the bell in delight. A pity that I did not realize this was still around sooner or else I would have had it installed on the Maxim as well. But such is life.

But even in his near-to concussed state, Enel still remembered how he had nearly died almost the moment Luffy appeared on the scene, flashing out of nowhere from that strange ability of his to hide from Enel's mantra. And he refused to be caught out like that again. With that in mind, he was continually creating small bits of electrical current through the air all around him covering the area around the Golden Bell as he had done during the fight earlier.

That was why he turned suddenly, shouting out, "So you have come again to challenge God!" As he launched a lightning blast towards the area of the sky which to most people would seem as empty as everything else around it.

Then Luffy appeared, dodging to one side, being forced to drop his Umi-Sen-Ken instantly, grateful that this fight was going to happen over Island Cloud at the very least as his legs nearly gave out on him before he was out of range of the attack.

Enel cut out his attack, staring at Luffy, then began to laugh, deep, booming, mirthful and sardonic as well as impossibly arrogant. "Yahahahaha, amusing! Most amusing! You think in your state that you are a match for God! When you could not match me at the height of your power?"

Luffy was indeed a sight, even in comparison to Enel. A lot of his hair had literally been fried off of his head, leaving a patchwork on his head. His body was trembling and as he pushed himself to his feet, spasming almost out of his control. But he was still pushing himself to his feet. His visible skin was fried, seeming to be more blackened and fried scar tissue than anything else. It looked as if even someone touched him should cause Luffy to collapse with the pain of it. But he was still standing. His body still obeyed him. And there was nothing weak about his eyes as he glared at Enel.

"I don't like those eyes," Enel growled as he gathered his power, wincing as he did so. For all his confidence, there was no way Enel could forget that Luffy had truly hurt him severely earlier. And seeing the man standing in front of him, especially with that look in his eyes, was making Enel feel something he had never felt before. He didn't like the feeling at all. This feeling that he instilled in others. The emotion called fear.

But that fear only made Enel more eager to wipe Luffy out, and so he performed his greatest attack, gathering lightning to him transforming himself into the form of a giant, heavily muscled if a somewhat overweight man who resembled a giant Buddha, as he held his wounded arm near his body and thrust the other outward holding his new staff – molded out of the gold aboard the Ark Maxim after Luffy had disarmed him earlier - while the end of it shifted into a trident, the points wickedly barbed. "Max Two Hundred Million Volt, Amaru!"

When the transformation was over, he decided to get one last dig in before attacking, "Do you not realize that while you are up here attempting to once more face God, that I can wipe out your friends behind you!?" With those words, he sent out the mental command to his latest Raigo.

But Luffy didn't look away, even as the black ball of lightning descended towards Upper Yard. He simply stood there, gathering his strength, and smiling like a shark at Enel, a shark who had smelled blood.

That caused Enel to grit his teeth, but when the ball hit the ground below, he began to laugh shouting, "You see! You see how easily I can take away everything you fight for, everything you could ever think of going back to if you survived! Not that you will, of course, but what else do you have to fight for but your own stubborn pride now?"

"Honor would've been enough, the fact your hurt my crew, my family would've been enough," Luffy growled before his shark grin shifted into something more sardonic. "But you are severely underestimating my friends."

Enel scowled, then concentrated on his Mantra for a moment only to feel the ball begin to dissipate, and discover that no one new had died. The five people who had originally challenged him before Luffy had appeared, the little girl Luffy had brought, even Nami. All of them still lived. And beyond the limits of Upper Yard, he felt everyone else. Everyone else was watching this, everyone else, all the Skypieans, even the Shandians from their hidden village, was praying he could hear their words on his senses. And he didn't like it. He didn't like the fact this man somehow gave them hope.

"I should've wiped out your entire crew when I had the chance," he snarled.

"Yeah," Luffy said with a sage nod. "You probably should have. Although I doubt it would've been as easy for you as you think. Or didn't that little cut my first mate give you warn you about that. Or the ass-kicking I was giving you earlier."

With an effort of will, Enel gathered his self-control clenching his hands into fists. "You will not get a second chance."

Luffy smirked, cocking his own hands as he faced the Goro Goro no Mi user. But Enel noticed that he didn't seem to be able to cover himself with that black armor from before and smiled evilly. I can win this, I can kill him! And then everyone else, only God will be left here in the sky, before I go on to my true land.

Then Luffy was moving forward, flashing forward with that speed technique of his, as he once more released his Haoshoku to its full extent.

Despite his bravado, Enel was of course still dealing with the injuries that Luffy had caused him in their earlier clash and the added sudden impact of the Haoshoku wiped out Enel's ability to use Mantra at all. He still could use electrical impulses through the air near him to sense movement though, which was what he did now.

He turned, twisting his giant body around, and thrusting his palm outwards

Luffy came out of the Umi-Sen-Ken again, trying to roll to the side as well as hop forward and was able to dodge the first strike, but his legs went out on him and Enel instantly attempted to follow up. But a new wrinkle was added just then.

The instant the Raigo had failed against Hina's Large Electric Trapping Cage (a name no one had the energy to comment on at the time,) Sanji had been hopping upwards. He moved as fast as he could carrying a makeshift hammer in one hand, and the Reject dial in the other. As Luffy had attacked, letting slip his Haoshoku once more, Sanji arrived, his legs nearly too exhausted to keep using Geppo. But he was still able to place the Reject Dial on the keel of the Ark near the back, where the engines were.

Instantly after Sanji smashed the top of the Reject dial with a hammer, there was a great booming flash, which smashed upwards into the Ark with all the multiplied impact energy within it. The hammer shattered of course, and Sanji was flung away with a grunt of pain, but the damage was done.

Enel turned quickly, watching in shock with a gaping mouth and popped out eyes as the Ark exploded, although he couldn't decide if he was more shocked about the fact his Mantra hadn't warned him, or the damage that his Ark had taken. Then his shock was overtaken by grief and a towering rage as it became clear the explosion had destroyed a goodly chunk of the Ark Maxim's keel sending the entire ship spiraling downwards almost instantly. Not just the gold had been destroyed, but a large portion of the wooden framework had been ruptured along with a portion of the keel itself being blasted into smithereens. There was no saving the ship, and it spiraled downwards quickly, acting very much like a fat whale in midair now, to crash into Upper Yard far below.

And then he heard Luffy laughing, howling in delight. "Hahahahah! How's it feels fucker, how's it feel, oh so great 'god', now that you're stuck here with the rest of us?!"

"Damn you!" Enel raged, the concussion and his new state of mind cutting further into his ability to concentrate, almost enough to cause him to lose control of his Amaru form. But not quite. "Damn you all for trapping me here for even longer! For denying my birthplace as God!"

So enraged was Enel that he didn't even try to retreat, to open the range and just murder Luffy with long-range lightning blasts as he should have. He was just too furious to think clearly and attacked, his one working hand thrusting forward with his transformed spear.

Ranma dodged, one leg smashing out in such a hard kick the gold staff broke on the point of impact, flipping himself into a spiraling roundhouse kick aimed at Enel's transformed head, his shoe turning black with Busoshoku. Enel though raised his already broken arm, blocking the blow then, dropping the useless portion of his staff to thrust out with a palm.

The near physical form of the Buddha intersected Luffy, and he howled in agony. His skin began to flake off now revealing the flesh beneath, which was scorched in turn, his durability, his ki, everything within him pushed beyond their limits and failing now. But Luffy still had his will, and he kicked off the air one last time, flashing towards where Enel hovered in the center of the giant body of the lightning Buddha.

Even as Enel clasped Luffy to him with one giant lightning arm, Luffy thrust forward with his own hand. He couldn't concentrate enough of his Haki to cover even a single hand in the Busoshoku. But he didn't have to. Just his fingers, and his palm. "Shigan Go Tanketsu Tsuki (Finger Gun Five Deadly Thrust)!"

The attack struck like a serpent, slamming into Enel's chest and causing him such agony that his ability to use his powers faded instantly, both of them falling to slam into the golden bell with enough force to cause it to ring. The sound was deep thrumming through the air, causing Luffy to grin even as they bounced away rolling on the steps leading up to the bell.

As they rolled, Luffy's fingers kept digging into Enel with all the power of his arm and will behind them. Until, as they finished rolling out onto the Island Cloud around the bell with Ranma on top, those fingers grasped Enel's heart.

Beneath him, Enel gasped, grabbing at Luffy's arm weakly with both his own including the broken one as the two of them slammed into the Island Cloud, blood pouring from his mouth, fear, true, honest and complete fear filling his mind at that moment. "W, w, wait, wait! I…"

But Luffy didn't listen. Instead, he roared and clenched his fingers together, crushing Enel's heart within his hand. Luffy then twisted, falling to one side of Enel's body, pulling his fingers and the viscera contained in his hand back out.

Enel's brain kept working for a little while longer despite being deprived of his heart, and he tried desperately to think of some way to use his powers, some way to stave off death, but he couldn't. He literally couldn't, the pain was too much, the lack of oxygen was too much. And… suddenly… everything… was… going… black…

Luffy lay there on his back for a moment, then twisted around, staring at the unseeing eyes of Enel, before he heard someone landing nearby, and twisted his head to look up at his cook through bleary, pain-filled eyes. "Hey, Sanji."

"Hey captain," Sanji said, shaking his head as he knelt down next to his captain and friend. "You look like shit." Hell, that's understating it. How can he even be alive!? Luffy looked more like a mass of mysteriously moving seared meat than a human being right now, the only thing standing out being his blue eyes staring out of that fried face.

Luffy's broken, blackened lips cracked into a grin, and he nodded at him. Before gesturing weakly with one finger - it was the only thing he could move at the moment - towards Enel. "S, s, should… s, s, see… the o, o, other g, g, guy."

"Heh, I can already, thanks. Not a pretty sight, even in comparison to you." Sanji laughed, shaking his head and looking between his captain, the logia user he'd beaten, and the giant bell.

"Hey Sanji," Luffy managed to continue weakly after visibly gathering himself, "y, ,y you think he h, h, heard it? O, o, our fellow dreamer do, d, down bel, bel, below?"

Once more, Sanji laughed shaking his head. "I'm certain of it, Luffy." Then he smirked. "But if you want to make sure…" with that he began to kick the bell, belting out a joyful tune over the islands.

Listening, Luffy smiled widely. He then closed his eyes, finally allowing darkness to claim him.

As the new jubilant tune was heard below, Wyper was whooping, throwing his arms out and then crying in pain from his leg. In Laki's arms Aisa was awakened from their Haoshoku induced sleep, smiling blearily at this new yet happy sound before her eyes widened at the wide, beaming grin and the tears of joy that adorned her surrogate big sister's face. All over the islands, and indeed well below it, the sound was heard, causing jubilation, shock and laughing relief in equal measure to all who heard it. Even Hina whooped in delight, throwing her arms around a still-recovering Nami who was crying in joy both at Luffy's victory and their own survival.

All the while Robin was still concentrating. Despite wearing a smile that was fit to break her face, she was still creating eyes all over the island. As the men and women of Sky Island, of even the Shandians, who had also been evacuated at Chopper and Conis's insistence, as the rest of the Straw Hat crew heard it, as Hina and Nami began to dance around and Aisa and Laki shouted out questions, still Robin was concentrating on the task given by her captain.

And then her smile slowly shifted into a triumphant smirk as she witnessed a pineapple begin to change shape...

End Chapter


Woo. So as you can see, the crew took quite a lot more damage in this version without the original's rubber-based powers. Raffy, in particular, is going to be laid up for a while. But that could be a good thing in the long run. And as you can also see, Haki levels the playing field against logia types here just as it does in canon, although Raffy will need to prioritize Busoshoku training more, and he in no way walked away unscathed. He's going to bear the scars of this fight, lots of them, especially on his arms and legs.

Anyway, this won't be on the poll for April for obvious reasons at this point LOL. The May small story poll will be posted here on fanfic as soon as Semblance of Hope, the winner for April's small story poll thanks to my patty ons, is updated. I will also update my profile page later tonight in order to show the winner of the Large Story Poll for this month. Technically that poll's been over for a few days, but I wanted to finish Semblance before changing gears.