Over the following days, Bardock and his crew toured various cities across the Alabasta Kingdom. Truthfully, they probably knew the desert nation better than many of the locals by the time they were done.
On their way back to the ship, they ran into the Kung-Fu Dugongs again. The adorable manatees were already diligently practicing the martial arts techniques Sai had taught them. With the dugongs tearfully waving goodbye from the riverbank, the White Dragon sailed out of the Sandora River and back into the open ocean.
Far away from Sandy Island, the galleon sailed peacefully.
"It looks like a perfect match. This is the Animal-type Dog-Dog Fruit, Regular Model: Greyhound," Robin said with absolute certainty, comparing the Devil Fruit Bardock had looted from Little Garden with the newly purchased Devil Fruit Encyclopedia.
"What? A Greyhound? Let me see..." Bardock leaned over to look at the page. "Wow, it really is just a normal Greyhound. What a shame it isn't a Mythical Zoan! If it was, we could have had our very own Xiaotian Hound!"
Bardock was genuinely disappointed. The Monkey King casually walking around with Erlang Shen's divine hound as a pet would have been incredibly weird, but undeniably badass! Now, it was just a regular, skinny dog. Oh well, it was better than nothing. After all, he had literally found it in a random drawer for free.
"Xiaotian Hound?" Robin blinked. She knew of the Mythical Zoan Cerberus, but she had never heard of a 'Xiaotian Hound' in any historical text.
"Yeah, an incredibly powerful and loyal divine dog! But never mind, it's just a fantasy," Bardock waved it off, pulling out a Log Pose. "We managed to buy quite a few Eternal Poses in Alabasta, including one for Jaya. Conveniently enough, the standard Log Pose on my wrist is also pointing directly at Jaya. The City of Gold is getting closer by the minute."
"The City of Gold... You mentioned there's an Ancient Poneglyph hidden there as well," Robin murmured, her thoughts already drifting into the clouds. During her twenty years hiding in the West Blue, Poneglyphs were an untouchable, impossible myth. Now that she was sailing with Bardock in the Grand Line, Poneglyphs were just popping up one after another. It felt completely surreal, like she was living in a dream.
"Spoken like a true scholar. We're talking about a legendary city made entirely of solid gold! Doesn't the treasure tempt you even a little bit?" Bardock teased her with a grin.
Robin gently covered her mouth. "My, my. Isn't the gold already basically sitting in your pocket?"
"It's not just the gold," Bardock chuckled. "Everything else in the City of Gold will be ours as well! Honestly, the gold is probably the least valuable thing up there."
Bardock had already decided to follow in the footsteps of many great pirate fanfiction protagonists: he was going to conquer Sky Island and establish a permanent, untouchable base of operations. It would be incredibly convenient to have a safe, sovereign haven hovering thousands of meters above the first half of the Grand Line.
The voyage over the next few days was smooth sailing. The Grand Line was mostly lethal to arrogant rookies; once a crew grew accustomed to the bizarre, unpredictable weather patterns, navigating it wasn't actually that bad.
"The Log Pose is literally pointing straight up into the sky... The legends of Sky Island are actually real," Perona marveled, staring at the compass resting on the table. When Bardock first claimed the City of Gold was in the sky, she thought he was telling a fairytale. Now, she had no choice but to believe it.
Leo, standing on the table next to the compass, looked up at the ceiling. "Captain Bardock, if the City of Gold is up in the sky, are we just going to fly up there on your cloud?"
"Don't rush, Leo. We need to make a few specific preparations before we head up into the clouds. For now, we're making a pit stop at Jaya," Bardock replied.
Sky Island was composed of two types of clouds: Island Clouds and Sea Clouds. The Sea Clouds functioned exactly like the regular ocean; they stretched as far as the eye could see and possessed the exact same energy-draining properties that paralyzed Devil Fruit users. Since almost everyone on Bardock's crew (except Sai) was a Devil Fruit user, accidentally flying the Nimbus straight into a Sea Cloud would be a disastrous wipeout.
He decided to follow the canonical Straw Hat route: riding the Knock Up Stream directly into the sky. With the Flying Nimbus as a safety net, they didn't have to worry about falling to their deaths if the ship slipped off the massive water current.
Furthermore, he planned to dig up a massive amount of ordinary dirt to bring with them. Compared to gold, dirt (known up there as 'Vearth') was actually the most priceless treasure in the sky.
Anywhere else in the Blue Sea, claiming that dirt was more valuable than gold would get you laughed into an asylum. But on Sky Island, it was a universally accepted fact.
Jaya was originally a massive island shaped exactly like a human skull. However, four hundred years ago, a catastrophic eruption of the Knock Up Stream launched half of the island—including the Golden City of Shandora—directly into the sky. The island that remained below was merely the jawbone of the original skull.
Mock Town was a notorious pirate haven located on the remnant of Jaya. It was swarming with outlaws. Although bloody brawls broke out constantly, the town actually maintained a strange semblance of order—a dynamic equilibrium born of pure, lawless chaos.
Bardock casually led his crew through the streets of Mock Town. After violently dispatching a few waves of greedy pirates who tried to kidnap Leo and Mansherry for the slave trade, the rest of the scum in town quickly realized this crew was absolutely not to be messed with.
While the sea was full of brain-dead idiots, any pirate who managed to survive long enough to reach Mock Town and stay alive knew exactly when to back down.
"Bonez, Sai. You two are in charge of purchasing supplies," Bardock instructed as they sat in a rowdy tavern. "Buy plenty of food, booze, and local specialties. We might be staying up on Sky Island for quite a while. Oh, and buy some more fruit and vegetable seeds for Leo's garden."
Surprisingly, the mere mention of the words 'Sky Island' caused the entire tavern to erupt into uproarious laughter.
"Sky Island?! Hah! He actually said Sky Island!" "Sky Island? Just another delusional rookie!" "Hey kid, someone scammed you! There's no such thing as an island in the sky!" "Hahahaha! I thought you guys were some tough big shots, but you're just a bunch of daydreamers!" "Sky Islands, Cities of Gold... it's all fake! Fairy tales for idiots! Hahahaha!"
Bardock slowly scanned the room. The pirates were still wary of his strength, so they didn't dare say anything explicitly threatening, but the grating, mocking laughter still deeply annoyed him. He shouldn't be surprised; even over a decade before the canonical storyline, the pirates in Mock Town were still the exact same brand of cynical, dreamless scum.
Daz Bonez silently activated his Devil Fruit, his forearms seamlessly shifting into razor-sharp steel blades. He just needed a single nod from Bardock, and he would butcher the entire room.
Bardock raised a hand, stopping the bounty hunter. He took a bite of the tavern's famous cherry pie, chewed once, and spat it aggressively back onto his plate. "Pah! What is this garbage?!"
Instantly, an invisible, suffocating wave of pure, concentrated pressure swept through the tavern.
The mocking laughter died in their throats. The pirates gasped for air like fish suddenly yanked out of water, their eyes bulging as cold sweat poured down their faces like miniature rivers. They didn't dare utter a single sound.
If Bardock truly wanted to, he could have knocked out almost every single person in the entire town with his Conqueror's Haki. But instead, he deliberately throttled the intensity, keeping it just low enough to leave them conscious so these idiots could fully marinate in sheer, paralyzing terror.
It wasn't until Bardock's crew finished their meal and strolled out the door that the terrified pirates finally regained control of their trembling limbs and frantically scrambled out of the tavern.
"Conqueror's Haki...? A rookie I've never seen before," the tavern owner muttered from behind the bar. Trembling slightly, he pulled out a hidden Camera Den Den Mushi and printed a picture he had discreetly snapped of Bardock's crew.
Deep in the forest on the southeastern side of Jaya.
Aside from Bonez and Sai, who were out buying supplies, the rest of the crew was busy hunting for a South Bird. To accurately locate the Knock Up Stream south of the island, they absolutely needed a bird whose head naturally functioned as a compass, always pointing dead south.
With Robin's sprouting hands and Perona's ghosts acting as scouts, capturing two South Birds—one male and one female—was ridiculously easy. With Chopper acting as a translator and Bardock casually flexing his terrifying aura, the two bizarre birds quickly surrendered to their new fate.
Next, the crew literally started shoveling dirt into massive bags. Bardock took the opportunity to explain the extreme scarcity and astronomical value of dirt to the sky inhabitants.
"It's the classic 'carrot and stick' method," Bardock explained as he dug. "If we want to completely subjugate both the Skypieans and the Shandians, overwhelming military strength isn't enough; we need to offer them an irresistible benefit. Otherwise, we'd just end up ruling through pure tyranny and fear, exactly like the current "God" of Sky Island. Since I'm not planning on permanently living in the sky—I have an ocean to conquer—I need to rule with both absolute power and unprecedented benevolence."
Ultimately, the White Dragon was fully loaded not only with essential supplies but also with massive, sealed crates of ordinary dirt.
Now, all they had to do was gather intel on the exact eruption schedule of the Knock Up Stream. Once they had the timing down, they would sail out, catch a ride on the catastrophic water geyser, and shoot straight up to the White Sea, 7,000 meters in the sky.
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