With the Shandians and Skypieans officially agreeing to a ceasefire, the two leaders began the arduous process of ironing out the logistical nightmare of integrating their societies. Since establishing diplomatic relations between two factions that had spent the last four centuries slaughtering each other wasn't going to happen overnight, Bardock decided to step away.
"Let's go," Bardock called out to his crew. "It's time to find the true Golden City. There's a reason the ruins of Shandora haven't been discovered by the Skypieans in 400 years."
He didn't need to babysit Gan Fall and the Chief. As long as the end result was peace and shared access to the island, he didn't care about the minor political details.
Hearing Bardock's words, Perona tilted her head in confusion. "Huh? I thought you said Shandora was on Upper Yard. If it's been sitting here this whole time, how could the Skypieans possibly have missed an entire city made of gold?"
"You'll understand when we get there," Bardock smirked.
The crew ventured deeper into the jungle, heading toward the massive Giant Jack beanstalk. Along the way, they began to spot more and more ancient, crumbling stone ruins overgrown with vines. However, these were merely the outer edges of the ancient civilization.
At this point, Robin took over as the lead navigator. Carefully observing the architectural layout and structural flow of the scattered ruins, she deduced the city's original center. She confidently led the group through the dense foliage until their path was abruptly blocked by a colossal, seemingly solid wall of dense Island Cloud.
"If my archaeological deductions are correct, the true center of Shandora should be hidden directly inside this cloud," Robin announced, pointing at the massive, fluffy white wall.
"Inside a cloud?" Perona floated over and patted the surface. It felt incredibly dense and firm. "No wonder no one ever found it. Are we supposed to dig our way through?"
"Bonez, carve us a path. Try to be gentle; I don't want you accidentally slicing a priceless ancient monument in half," Bardock ordered casually. Such manual labor was beneath him now.
Daz Bonez sighed internally. As a lethal, high-tier bounty hunter and the user of the Dice-Dice Fruit, he had spent the last few major battles relegated to background character duty. Now, he was being utilized as a glorified hedge trimmer. It was a tragedy that would make listeners weep.
"Understood, Boss."
Stepping up to the cloud wall, Bonez shifted his fingers into razor-sharp steel blades. With a swift, casual swing, he launched a flying slash that effortlessly carved a perfect, rectangular tunnel straight through the dense cloud.
The crew walked through the newly carved tunnel single file. As they stepped out the other side, every single one of them froze in absolute awe.
"This... this is the Golden City?" "It actually is made entirely of gold!" "Just how much gold is actually here?!" "It's breathtaking..." "So this is what Mont Blanc Noland saw... No wonder they called him a liar when it vanished."
After the initial shock wore off, they excitedly began exploring the ruins. Upon closer inspection, they realized that the city wasn't actually cast from solid gold all the way down to the bedrock; rather, the ancient stone structures had been meticulously plated in a thick, seemingly endless layer of gold. Even so, the sheer volume of precious metal coating the massive city was staggeringly incomprehensible.
"Alright, everyone, gather around!" Bardock shouted, pulling out a Camera Den Den Mushi. "We need to take a ton of pictures! I'm going to leak these photos to the Blue Sea."
If he was going to officially announce the existence of his 'Dandelion' organization to the global underworld, what better way to make a world-shaking debut than by using the legendary City of Gold as their backdrop?
"Bardock... do I have to show my face?" Robin asked hesitantly, her ingrained survival instincts kicking in. Exposing her face in a globally distributed photograph was incredibly risky.
"Don't worry, we're taking a massive variety of shots," Bardock assured her. "Close-ups, wide shots, silhouettes, backs turned, group shots, solo shots, casual poses, and wildly exaggerated poses! We'll just take a hundred photos now and carefully select which ones to actually publish later."
Bardock set the Camera snail on a sturdy golden pillar and waved everyone over.
A chaotic, incredibly fun photoshoot ensued. Everyone got a chance to pose in front of the legendary ruins. However, the fun briefly derailed when Bardock enthusiastically demanded they all perform the iconic Ginyu Force pose from Dragon Ball.
Robin and Daz Bonez stared at him with absolute, deadpan refusal. They would rather die than strike those embarrassing poses. Realizing that without those two, he only had four normal-sized crew members (since the dwarves were too small to fill out the formation), Bardock tragically abandoned his dream of a perfect five-man sentai pose.
Over the following weeks, Upper Yard transformed completely.
The Shandians eagerly moved back into the ruins of Shandora, painstakingly restoring their ancestral home and officially remounting the Golden Bell in its rightful place. Bardock's crew naturally took the opportunity to snap a few more epic photos with the restored bell in the background.
Meanwhile, the Skypieans established a new settlement on a different sector of Upper Yard. They didn't completely abandon Angel Island; instead, utilizing their advanced cloud-crafting technology, they built numerous high-speed Milky Roads connecting the two islands, allowing for rapid transit while bypassing the dangerous jungle predators.
As for Bardock's crew? They claimed the absolute highest point on the island: the former 'God's Shrine' resting on the upper cloud layers of the Giant Jack beanstalk. Since Gan Fall felt it was inappropriate for him to reside in the divine shrine after acknowledging the sins of his ancestors, Bardock smoothly repurposed the massive estate as his crew's temporary Sky Island headquarters and the official Haki training ground.
Every day, the elite Shandian warriors (including Wiper), the Skypiean Divine Guards, and a select group of highly talented teenagers from both tribes would climb the beanstalk to undergo brutal Haki training under Bardock and his crew.
Time passed peacefully. Bardock was in no rush to return to the Blue Sea. He quickly discovered that the extreme altitude and thin oxygen of the White-White Sea acted as a natural hyperbolic time chamber, significantly accelerating his crew's physical stamina and endurance conditioning. It was the perfect place to train.
DOOOOOONG...
Down below, the Shandians rang the Golden Bell once again, its beautiful chime echoing across the sky.
Far below on the Blue Sea, on the remnant island of Jaya.
Kuzan leaned against his bicycle, looking up at the sky. 'That bell has been ringing quite frequently lately. According to the locals, it's never done that before.'
Considering he had just spent the last few days completely dismantling and freezing every single violent pirate crew in Mock Town, the island was likely going to be very, very peaceful for the foreseeable future.
Buru buru buru...
The Den Den Mushi in his coat pocket began to ring. He lazily pulled it out and clicked the receiver.
"Kuzan. Have you located Nico Robin?" Vice Admiral Tsuru's voice emanated from the snail.
"Ah, about that," Kuzan sighed, rubbing his neck. "According to the terrified locals I interrogated, that crew spent their time here exclusively gathering intel on the Knock Up Stream. It seems they actually intended to ride it up to Sky Island. There's been absolutely no trace of them since."
"The Knock Up Stream?!" Tsuru sounded genuinely shocked. "Those rookies are completely insane! According to Marine records, anyone who attempts to ride that current either makes it to the sky completely unharmed, or they are violently pulverized into splinters. And the fatality rate is astronomically higher than the success rate."
"Well, I have a very strong feeling they made it up there safely," Kuzan replied, glancing up at the sky as another faint chime echoed down. He wasn't just guessing; the sudden, unprecedented ringing of the bell was all the confirmation he needed.
"I see. Well, Naval Intelligence has managed to dig up a bit more background information on the crew traveling with Nico Robin," Tsuru continued. "They claim to be 'adventurers' from the West Blue. Aside from Robin, not a single one of them has an active bounty, and several of the members have absolutely zero recorded background files. I've faxed the detailed report to your battleship."
The Marine intelligence network was vast, but it wasn't omniscient. They had successfully tracked Bardock's early, chaotic movements in the West Blue, but there were massive blind spots. Because the events were highly classified or occurred in absolute secrecy, the World Government was completely unaware that this 'rookie' captain had single-handedly defeated Capone Bege, Gecko Moria, and Don Chinjao.
"I'll linger around Jaya for a few more days," Kuzan offered. "If they don't drop back down from the sky, I'll ride my bike to the next island on their logistical route and intercept them there."
He truly wanted to see Robin face-to-face. He needed to confirm for himself what kind of path she had chosen.
"That likely won't be possible," Tsuru rejected the idea. "Sengoku won't allow an Admiral-candidate to waste weeks waiting around for a single rookie crew. Tensions are escalating rapidly in the New World. Whitebeard and Charlotte Linlin are currently having a massive territorial dispute. Sengoku is officially recalling you to Headquarters. He's deploying you and Garp to the New World immediately."
Before Kuzan could complain, Tsuru added, "Delegate the tracking of Nico Robin to Smoker. That stubborn brat needs a distraction anyway. He's been relentlessly antagonizing his superiors. If he keeps causing political incidents, HQ is going to permanently exile him to some backwater base in the Four Blues."
Kuzan sighed heavily, an even bigger headache forming at the mention of Smoker.
Smoker 'The White Hunter'. The man possessed a fiercer, more uncompromising sense of justice than almost anyone else in the Marines, but his temper was notoriously worse than Sakazuki's—which was deeply ironic for someone who ate the Smoke-Smoke Fruit. He absolutely refused to tolerate corruption or political red tape.
Still, assigning Smoker to track Robin was a smart move. Despite his aggressive attitude, Smoker possessed a strong moral compass. He wouldn't execute a target with the ruthless, indiscriminate cruelty of the Hawk faction.
"Understood," Kuzan agreed. "I'll give him a call and brief him. Then I'll head straight back to Marineford."
At that exact moment, halfway across the Grand Line, Marine Captain Smoker was currently in the middle of furiously cursing out a corrupt World Government official, completely unaware of the massive, headache-inducing assignment that was about to be dropped onto his desk.