At the Shandian chieftain's invitation, Charles and Stella took up lodging in the Cloud-Hidden Village.
It took only a single banquet for the villagers to change their attitude toward Charles.
Though stubborn to the point of seeming a few screws loose, they were also exceptionally simple and sincere. The goodwill Charles and Stella showed was quickly returned in kind.
After they got closer, Charles also approached Aisa, the little girl born with awakened Observation Haki.
In the pirate world, while anyone can learn Observation Haki through training, those born with it are one in a million—far rarer even than Conqueror's Haki.
Only four such people are known: Otohime of Fish-Man Island and her daughter—Ancient Weapon Poseidon, Princess Shirahoshi; from the previous era, the solitary red Baloric Ledfield, a great pirate who alone stood on par with Roger and the rest; and Aisa.
And the Observation Haki of these four is especially unusual. Queen Otohime could not only hear others' hearts, but also transmit her emotions to others through resonance.
Princess Shirahoshi could perceive the precise actions of people beyond her line of sight; as for communicating with Sea Kings, it's unclear whether that's her power as Poseidon or the strength of Observation Haki.
The Solitary Red could read not just emotions, but memories as well.
Aisa's Observation Haki likewise focuses on sensing the mind, only her range is staggeringly vast.
As Charles expected, this power stems from a special soul—it can't be learned. Even so, it gave him a reference for integrating Observation Haki's abilities into his own sensing.
Charles puts great stock in target-acquisition. There's no way he'd pass up Observation Haki, which can be trained to glimpse the future. Combined with qi reading and mana perception, his senses would be even more comprehensive.
In the last world, however, Charles had learned to adjust his mindset and, while steadily growing stronger, didn't neglect enjoying the journey with Stella.
Cloud-Hidden Village is just a Shandian refuge, not a large sky island. In less than half a day, Charles and Stella had seen it all.
Over the next few days, the two began exploring farther afield.
Seven thousand meters above the sea is called the White Sea, while the layer at ten thousand meters is called the White-White Sea.
Cloud-Hidden Village lies on the White-White Sea, which truly is like the ocean: sea clouds form the seawater, and the dense island clouds form islands within it.
Cloud-Hidden Village sits on a small sky island, and Angel Island, where the sky islanders gather, is the largest nearby.
Charles and Stella didn't explore toward Angel Island, but moved toward the edge of the White-White Sea.
Angel Island has a punishment in which criminals, along with their boats, are set adrift on island cloud, called "Cloud Drifting."
With luck, such criminals reach another sky island and survive. With bad luck, they die of hunger and thirst; by comparison, falling from the cloud sea's edge is a merciful end.
But even after Charles and Stella searched all the way to the cloud's edge, they found few sky islands, and most were small and barren.
One island, however, had a few plants and animals, along with fragments that were clearly man-made structures.
It looked like a fragment of a once-inhabited sky island, which made Charles think of the background note about Birka, the sky island destroyed by Enel.
There, Stella even found an intact sky-island vehicle, a Waver— a special skiff powered by a Wind Dial.
Charles wanted nothing to do with such transportation, but Stella tried a bit of cloud-surfing.
Piloting a Waver wasn't hard for Stella—about like learning to ride a bike.
Charles actually wanted to see the other route to the sky island known as the Summit of High West, which only one in a hundred can pass.
But it seemed he'd searched in the wrong direction, and he never found the place said to be two or three sky islands from Angel Island.
After a circuit, Charles and Stella returned to Cloud-Hidden Village—only to find the Shandians readying their gear like they could deploy at any moment.
They sought out the chieftain, the only one still calm, and learned what had happened.
Aisa heard something wrong on Angel Island. The "voices" of swathes of God's Army vanished, and Enel had unleashed his so-called God's Sanction—thunderbolts—at someone unknown.
Wyper and the others realized this might be their chance to reclaim their ancestral land, so every member of the guerrillas began preparing for battle, ready to move the moment the situation changed.
Of course, Charles knew what was happening. The Straw Hat Pirates had likely reached the sky island by riding the Knock Up Stream.
Angel Island lay under Enel's rule, and free-spirited Luffy and company clashing with him was inevitable.
The entry fee alone—one hundred thousand beli per head—was enough to make them Enel's enemies… given that the one who holds the money on the ship is Nami the moneygrubber.
According to the chieftain, the Straw Hats should have just clashed with Enel.
Aside from arrogance, Enel also had a bizarrely perverse streak.
The only way in which he resembled a god, as he styled himself, was in his indifference to everything but himself. That's why, after destroying his homeland, he still wanted to destroy Angel Island.
Everything on the sky island was, to him, merely a game to pass the time before he departed for "Endless Vearth."
The pirates from the Blue Sea, the Shandians, even his own priests and God's Army existed simply for his amusement.
Those who fought putting everything on the line were, to him, nothing but pieces in a game he controlled completely.
And then he ran into Luffy, who lay beyond his control—and got thoroughly thrashed by a perfect counter to his ability.
Which meant Enel was still in "spectator mode" now. There was still time to watch his worldview shatter into pieces.
Thinking that, Charles reminded himself not to become a mere rubbernecker—and then set off with Stella for Angel Island to see the spectacle.
Angel Island is the story's main stage; many of the sky island's unique things and culture can only be seen there. Not to mention the Shandora ruins in Upper Yard; the Golden Bell and the Poneglyph are there too.
How could you skip that on a sky island trip? Charles certainly wasn't going just to watch the show.
But no sooner had Charles and Stella stepped onto Angel Island than a streak of lightning coalesced into human form in front of them, coconuts from the sky-island palms in their hands.
White turban, long earlobes, bare torso with a ring of taiko drums across his back—this was the "god" who ruled Angel Island, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit user, Enel.
"More Blue Sea people. Are you here to take part in this game as well?"
That "I'm so high and mighty" look made the coconut juice in Charles's hand taste worse. He gave him a look of benevolent concern for the dim-witted.
If you're going to drag others onto your chessboard, maybe first make sure they don't have the power to flip the board.
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