111 – Knock the Giant Jack down! The last hope of escape
"Luffy…" I whispered quietly to the wind.
That was just about the only thing I or any of the people standing next to the giant beanstalk could do.
Wait. Passively witness what would happen next.
Nami just rushed up the beanstalk to rescue Luffy… but Zoro is absolutely sure he's not going to escape before he rings the bell. He absolutely won't escape before he tells Cricket and the monkeys waiting 10 kilometers below us… that the Sky Island and the City of Gold really exist.
Knowing Luffy the way he does… the way we all do, really… that's what he'll do.
The same way Norland condemned his descendants to a miserable life when nobody believed him, maybe we will end up subjecting ourselves to the same destiny if some day we try to prove we actually were at the Sky Island and nobody believes us. And the definitive, irrefutable proof that the Sky Island exists… is the Golden Bell. A bell that's been silenced by war. Silenced by discord. By four centuries of a conflict caused by the forces of nature and sheer coincidence. And taken advantage of by a man without a hint of compunction in his soul.
As much as Nami wants to bring Luffy back so we can all escape safely… however powerless we may be right now… I sincerely hope he reaches the skies and rings the bell. I hope he, by whatever means, defeats that "God" Enel once and for all and purges the evil that has been plaguing this island for so long. I hope he echoes the sound of victory throughout the whole world and tell the four corners of this earth, even if they don't get the message, that there is life up in the sky.
"Get going…" I whispered again, closing my eyes and clenching a fist.
"Guys, over there." Hm? "Something's coming."
Robin's warning took me back to reality.
Turning my head upwards, I saw another object coming down. I prepared for the worst, but I loosened up as soon as I noticed that it fell way more slowly than the giant chunk of beanstalk of earlier. It was a giant leaf, that peacefully landed right amongst the group. It seemed to carry a message.
"What's this all about…" I wondered, walking towards the leaf. "Hmmm… north, south… east… a circle on the west… ah! It's from Luffy and Nami!"
"What does it say?" Zoro asked.
"Knock the beanstalk down… towards the west."
Knock it down? West? What on earth do they mean by that?
"Wait a second…" Zoro stepped in. "Where is west anyway?"
"Good question…" I said, disheartened.
I would love to help, but I'm not that much better than Zoro when it comes to orientation in space…
"It can only be the direction in which Enel's ark is." Gan Fall deduced.
Looking up, at the spot where the ark rested, the gears in my brain finally moved.
Of course! That's bloody obvious! If we find a way to make the beanstalk fall towards the ark, Luffy and Nami can launch themselves in its direction! Which means…
"Wait, so Luffy did convince Nami to take him to Enel! Fantastic!" I said, filled with enthusiasm.
"Hold on a second!" Aisa interrupted. "Knock the beanstalk down? This thing is enormous! How does she think we can do that?"
"I don't know either, but it won't hurt to try―" Zoro would continue, if a blinding light didn't shine right above us all of a sudden… "Now what?"
Turning my eyes back above, I realized it wasn't just a light shining over our heads. Little by little, several bright spots opened across the sky, showing that the clouds were being pushed away. It didn't take long for most of the dark clouds to disappear and give way to a large hole…
"No…"
…from which came another giant ball of charged clouds.
"That bastard…"
And that ball was about ten times as big as the one that vaporized Angel Island.
In a matter of moments, I felt pure terror taking me over again, when it all clicked together. I kneeled again, widening my eyes, and staring the true harbinger of destruction.
"Enel… that demon…!" Gan Fall limited himself to whispering incredulously.
"It can't be… the thing that decimated Angel Island… was just a sample?!" I said, slowly. "He's going to wipe out the whole Skypiea with that one!"
"Maybe that's what he intends…" Robin replied. I stared at her and noticed the sweat running down her face, despite the lack of visible reaction. "Now that the Golden Bell is at his mercy, he's got no more use to this island."
At that moment, I couldn't help but have a question running in my mind: if he got what he wanted, why doesn't he take the damned bell and just… y'know, leave?! Does he really have to go through the trouble of destroying a giant chunk of rock just because it's become useless to him?
Oh, yeah. You can't find the term "mercy" or any of its synonyms in his vocabulary, I guess. He had to treat the islanders as brutally as he did in the past six years for some reason. And he just couldn't leave them alone in the time to say goodbye.
"We've got no other choice, guys." Zoro said. "We have to cut down the beanstalk."
I swallowed hard. "Y… are you really sure, Zoro? I can't really see how we're ever going to do that!"
"There must be a way!" He insisted. "If they want us to cut it down towards the west, it's because they want to launch themselves to Enel's ark! Crazy or not, this is their only chance!"
Well, Zoro had the same logic as me…
However, before I could throw my arms up in the air and voice my agreement, I spotted Wiper jumping to save Aisa from a giant lightning.
"Aisa-chan!" I screamed.
"Writer-san!" Robin shouted. As I turned, I saw Sanji being hurled at me. By pure reflex, I caught his body and began to run away from the beanstalk, just as everyone else was doing.
Because the sky decided to fall down on us again.
"Seems like he's not going to let us do our things!" I said.
"Thought so! He noticed that we're still here!" Zoro screamed, tossing the unconscious Chopper back to Robin's arms. "If we stay here, we're gonna get thrown down to the ruins! Get away from the stalk and find somewhere with land!"
Running further away from the stalk, we had to weave through a succession of lightning blasts, that pierced holes through the clouds.
"Stay safe, you guys, I'll handle this! Just gotta cut the beanstalk, huh?"
"Zoro!" I turned back to him, still disbelieving. I stared at him, who in turn stared at the sky.
"If there's anyone who can still get to Enel before he drops that thing down on us… in this whole Sky Island…" He turned to face the stalk.
"…are those two!" Then, he began to run back towards it, gripping his swords and mustering up his courage.
"Writer-san!" I heard Robin's shout.
Wasting time would mean wasting my life. Running through the clouds again, I trembled all over with the thundering sound of every lightning blast flashing behind me, until I got to a piece of land where the rest of the group were. Resting Sanji in the ground, I soon turned back to the Giant Jack… and to the dark blue little dot running towards it.
"Be careful, Zoro… you're the only one who can do it!" I shouted to the wind. "I can't see how, though…"
Escaping the death coming from above, Zoro approached the beanstalk. When he was close enough, he leapt in the air and swung his sword as hard as he could. The air blast hit the stalk, apparently to no effect. Only a few moments later would the result manifest, when a huge chunk of the stalk's base began to detach itself out and slowly fall in the ground below.
"Compressed air slash…? Wow, awesome, Zoro!"
The others didn't react as happily, because the joy was short-lived. Soon after Zoro cut the stalk, he was hit by a lightning blast. Enel saw what he did.
"ZORO!" I screamed. "Damn… just when he was vulnerable! But he did cut it! He cut a chunk of it!"
We stared at the beanstalk, hoping it would at least crumble, but…
"No… it's still standing." Robin noticed.
It didn't work. Watching from our spot, only then I noticed that the base had the shape of two wavy and entwined trunks, just like giant hair braids.
"That thing's too tough! Is it really a plant?!" I asked, incredulously.
"Indeed it is, Writer-san…" Robin replied. "A plant several centuries old… it was already this big when this piece of Jaya was tossed up here… it's not going to fall with just a single sword cut."
Zoro… he must've fallen to the ground below too! What, who's going to try and cut the stalk now?!
"He got what he deserved."
Hm?
"Damned foreigners… putting your nose in things that aren't your business!" Wiper grunted as he stood back up.
Seriously, of all times to come with this talk, why now?
"Wiper! You're not in good health yet!" Aisa tried to call him.
"Shut up!" In vain. "That bell carries the spirit of Calgara and we, the Shandians, are the ones who must ring it! What does that Straw Hat know for him to want to ring it?!"
I opened my mouth to reply, but immediately thought twice about it. This is the worst time ever to argue. With the lightning of final judgment floating over our heads, all the rest becomes trivial.
"Robin-san…" I said quietly. She just stared back at me. "Please don't say anything too. Better than talking about the past, we have to talk about surviving."
Closing a fist, I felt a growing certainty of what I needed to do. And the fear of what could happen if I tried.
"Zoro did well in slashing one of those trunks… The stalk must've tumbled just a little!" I said, gripping my pencil.
"Writer-san… is it your turn?"
"I'm gonna do it. I have to try!" I replied, staring at my target. "Compressed air slashes… maybe if I try to imitate what Zoro did, I'll be able to cut the other trunk!"
Just as I was finished, I swallowed hard.
"Robin-san… take care of our friends. Zoro did what he could, I gotta do my part! Wish me luck!"
That was the last I said before I set off back to the beanstalk. I still heard a weak "Good luck" from her before running away from the group.
Running through the island cloud, I took out a page of my pocket sketchbook. I had to stop so I could write on it, only to notice that the God standing above me wouldn't just sit there and watch.
"Bring it on, goddamned Enel!"
Escaping the first blast, I kept on writing.
"Focus, Dan… it's time to use an element you never mastered before!"
Another lightning blast interrupted me, but I escaped with a quick flip to the side, running again as soon as I was finished scribbling.
As I approached the beanstalk, I focused my energy.
"COME FORTH! ENPITSU TSURUGI!" Stretching an arm forward, I turned my pencil in its sword form.
"Thanks for the idea, Zoro… your air attack, I'll try and replicate it!"
I pressed the small sheet against the blade of the sword, stopping just as I arrived near the stalk.
風 "WIND!"
The sheet began to glow, tore itself to pieces, unleashing a furious stream of wind that engulfed my sword. I tried to prepare an attack pose, but even holding my sword with both hands, the stream grew too unstable.
"Control it… control it, control it! The lightning's coming! RAZOR―"
Right before I could finish my call, the lightning did come. It didn't hit, but was strong enough to hurl me several feet backwards.
"Damn… I still have to deal… with that bastard up there!" I grunted to the sky as I slowly stood back up.
Turning my pencil in a sword again, I tore another sheet from my sketchbook and repeated the process.
"ENPITSU TSURUGI!"
風 "WIND!"
Again the sword was enveloped in a stream of compressed wind. Which didn't take long to become unstable.
"RAZOR BREEZE!"i
I was able to swing the wind away, but the stream just spread itself in several directions, not doing any damage or even hitting the uncut trunk of the beanstalk.
"Damn it! I never cared about mastering the wind before... how the hell can Zoro make air have cutting power anyway?!"
I can't even move my sword as fast as he does… much less launch an air slash!
And I had to dodge the lightning coming from above, to top it all off…
Several hops and tumbles back, I recovered and went to try again.
"I'm gonna do it this time!"
If we manage to get out of this alive, I swear I'm going to get training hard. I have to put developing new and powerful attacks back at number 1 on my list of things to do on free time. Plus, master the elements and combine them with my weapons. I might've had the spark to defeat that priest, but I feel my imagination's getting kinda rusty.
"Right when things are really getting dangerous! You are going to fall, you damned stalk!"
Start all over again.
"ENPITSU TSURUGI!"
風 "VENTO!"
Filled with grit, I pressed another sheet against my sword, watching it disintegrate and unleash another wind current.
I can't give up now. Nami and Luffy are counting on us!
Gathering my strength, I gripped my sword and dashed to the beanstalk. Jumping as high as my legs would allow, I faced my target and…
"RAZOR BREEZE!"
I swung my sword as hard as I could, releasing a wild, yet focused stream of air, pointing it at the still-intact trunk. I let myself fall on the soft clouds, hearing a loud noise.
The attack hit!
As soon as I was back up, I stared up ahead to see the damage…
"Hell yeah! Fall, Giant Jack! I command you to―"
…that didn't go beyond a large scratch.
"Shit! Again―"
I would keep trying if a powerful quake didn't come from below. I lost my footing and fell on my butt.
"Whawhawhawhat is happening?!"
I kneeled, feeling everything shaking around me and watching the beanstalk waving from side to side. It swayed for a few seconds, but remained the way it was when the shaking stopped.
"What was that all about?! This kind of shock… it can only mean something below us hit the beanstalk! Whatever it was, I can't believe it didn't work!"
I stood up again, turning my sword back to a pencil.
"I think I'm getting the hang of this attack―"
"Out of my way!"
I felt a hand shoving me aside. Soon I found it belonged to Wiper, the feisty Shandian warrior. Stumbling towards the beanstalk, he approached the gap between the soft clouds and the entwined trunks, hopping on top of one and slowly climbing it.
"What… what is he going to do?"
I could only watch and try to guess. Slowly, in a struggle painful to even watch, Wiper climbed the giant trunk incessantly until he became just a little dot far in the distance. Just moments later, he was completely gone from sight.
…
…
A few tense moments later…
…
…
"REJECT!" His scream echoed through the air.
What followed was a very powerful blast and the shock wave pushed a brief, but intense gust of wind. For moments, I covered my eyes with one arm, but soon the force dissipated. The once-intact trunk had now a huge tear, shaped like the bite of a hypothetical giant beast that took a huge chunk out of the stalk just with the power of its teeth.
It didn't take long for what remained of the blasted trunk to begin undoing itself…
Which meant…
"It's falling… IT'S FALLING! THE BEANSTALK IS GOING TO FALL!"
I have no idea what that guy did up there, but… whatever it was, it freaking worked!
Not wasting a moment, I grabbed my things and ran away to the rest of the group. While I sprinted, I looked over my shoulder to the giant stalk slowly tumbling down… and up to the little piece of cloud about halfway to the top.
Nami…
Luffy…
Now's your chance! Dash to the ark!
As I got back to the group, I only watched and hoped for the best. Agony grew as fast as the trunk was falling, brought down by gravity.
"Guys… we're counting on you!" I whispered to myself. "Ring the Golden Bell… Ring it so Cricket can hear down there!"
Wiper… I can't forget to thank him when all this is over… if he's still alive, that is…
"Let's go! GET'EM, NAMI! LUFFY!" Aisa screamed to the heavens.
However, anxiety took over me again when I stared at the sky, switching between the dark of the clouds and the blue sparks of lightning.
Oh yeah… I almost forgot that Enel's still charging a blast dozens of times bigger than the one that vaporized Angel Island…
Again, Enel wouldn't just stand there and watch, so he went right back to shooting his lightnings with a more intense charge, attempting to destroy whatever remained of Skypiea – although there was still quite a lot to go. The ground under us trembled with every lightning hit, which poked holes through the clouds and revealed the destruction going on beneath us.
"The lightning is hitting the ruins…" Robin whispered worriedly, frowning deeply and slightly clenching her teeth.
Her facial expressions are so subtle, yet reveal so much… Maybe her heart is hurting more than ever upon seeing a place so precious being destroyed right before her eyes…
"Damn it… he's not going to leave even the ruins standing!" I said, angrier.
"He wants to destroy the island's soil…" Gan Fall whispered.
"But Wiper's unconscious down there!" Aisa screamed in anguish.
"Zoro…" I hissed, angry at our powerlessness. "We can't do anything for them now, we have to make sure to get ourselves out of this alive―"
My heart skipped a beat when another lightning fell just a few feet away from our position, setting a nearby tree on fire. Looking around, it seemed like the blasts were closer and closer.
He didn't forget we were still here too.
"And if we don't get to a safe place now, even that isn't going to happen!"
"Wiper!" Aisa screamed.
Through the dust, the lightning and the destruction, I managed to spot a little moving brown dot down at the ruins. It turned out that Wiper had regained his consciousness. But what could he do? In his awful condition, he was just as much a hostage to destiny as the rest of us.
"RUN, WIPER! YOU'RE GONNA DIE―"
"Aisa, no!"
The little girl wanted to commit the lunacy of jumping down to the ruins, but Robin stopped her before she did anything reckless.
"Let go of me, you idiot! Let go!"
However, we ended up staring to the sky again, when Enel finally decided to do something about us. And when I say "something", I naturally mean he sent down an especially large divine bolt towards us.
It didn't hit, but the shock wave was powerful enough to hurl us several feet backwards.
"Guys! Are you alright?!" I screamed.
Slowly, everybody recovered from the scare and stood up again. Nobody had been vaporized.
But the grim spectacle continued.
As I recovered, I noticed Gan Fall staying kneeled, bringing his hands to his head and trembling all over, while muttering things to himself. It wouldn't be strange for him to have a full mental breakdown with all the hell going on before him…
Beside me, Chopper still slept peacefully, despite all the noise around him. Honestly, I gladly wanted to be in his spot. Just ignore the pure terror I felt, close my eyes and wait for death to come and take me without pain.
Looking back to the falling beanstalk, I widened my eyes upon spotting a small trail of blue smoke coming out of the top.
"They've… leapt already…" It was hard to make the words come out…
Soon after, the shine of the sky intensified… because the giant ball of doom began to move down. Slowly, the true harbinger of apocalypse moved towards Skypiea.
Only then it hit me. Again, the waterworks were running again on my face.
That was the final moment. Either the Captain saves us all or we all die.
"Writer-san!" Robin screamed. "Get away from there! Giant Jack is about to fall!"
Her shout jolted me back to reality, as well as the sight of the giant stalk uncomfortably close to us. We ran away as far as we could, watching the beanstalk, that once stood tall in the dead center of the island, finishing its permanent fall, raising up humongous clouds of dust and forcing us to retreat in the forest until they were gone.
A long while later, the landscape cleared again. As soon as we could come back out, a resounding scream echoed throughout the whole island…
"GOMU GOMU NO… HA… NA… BI!" (Gum-Gum Fireworks)
Luffy…
"OUGON BOTAN!" (Golden Button)
Completely out of nowhere, the giant ball of dark cloud hanging in the sky began to shoot lightning wildly in all directions.
"What on earth is happening?" Gan Fall wondered aloud.
"Hell if I know…" I replied, just as confused. "Is that supposed to happen anyway?"
Curiously, the bolts of lightning didn't actually hit the ground. It was like they were being released…
Wait a tick.
"Luffy… no, I can't believe it!" The thought was too shocking to understand.
No pun intended.
"What's wrong, Writer-san?" Robin asked.
"Luffy! Huh! That's it! Maybe!" I smiled a shaky grin. "It's just an educated guess, but, I think that instead of the ark, Luffy hurled himself from the beanstalk to the clouds! And he must be doing something to release the bolts stored up in that ball! He's immune to electricity!"
"I know he's immune, but… how?"
"I wish I knew too, Robin-san, but… whatever he's doing up there… it's working!"
The discharges continued, however, the ball began to move down faster. Fear hit me once again as I watched it get distressingly close to us.
At that time, I closed my eyes and left it all in the hands of fate. Again.
I kneeled and clasped my hands really tight.
Come on Luffy… unload it all! Fire the bolts before the ball touches the ground and everything explodes!
Let's go! MAKE THE MIRACLE HAPPEN!
…
…
…
…
A little while later, I felt a strong, blinding light, despite having stayed with my eyes closed. I covered them until the light was gone, slowly opening them back to see a surreal sight.
"Wh… w… w… where is it?"
What I saw was absolutely unreal. Too good to be true.
The giant ball of lightning and destruction… was gone.
Instead of complete darkness and doom coming down on us, the sunlight bathed us in all its splendor. The clouds too, became all white and puffy, like they were purified.
An outright divine miracle had just happened.
The entirety of my vocabulary disappeared in that single moment. The only thing I could do was stare in complete shock at the sky, slack-jawed, with tears running down my cheeks. Everybody around me just stared above, not a word coming out of anyone.
"Ring it…" Until Gan Fall broke the silence. "Make it be heard! The song of our island!"
"200 million…"
Huh?
"…volts! AMARU!"
I noticed a growing spot of blue light, standing on top of the ark.
Enel… he's absolutely not going to give up…
"You will not ring this bell! I AM THE LIGHTNING!"
And then, a gigantic blue beam of lightning crossed the sky.
"THAT WON'T WORK ON ME!"
Up until now, I never thought how awesome it is to be absolutely immune to electric shocks of any sort…
As I spotted Luffy flying in the sky, I clenched my teeth, took a deep breath before belting out a loud scream…
"GO~~~~~~! LUFFY! TEAR HIM APART!"
I don't know if my scream reached him or not, but regardless, it was time! Finally, the time to unleash the finishing attack!
…
"Gomu Gomu no… OUGON… RIFLE!" (Gum-Gum Golden Rifle)
…
All we heard was a powerful, loud rifle shot noise and a scream of pain echoing through the sky.
And then…
The sound everybody wanted to listen. The sound that signaled the end of six years of utter hell in heaven, nay, of four centuries of war and suffering. And, most importantly, the definitive proof… that the Sky Island does exist!
The sound of the Golden Bell!
After a grueling fight... after so much suffering... it's all over.
The Straw Hats triumph in their battle to the death with God Enel and his followers! Plus, they are able to fulfill the wish of all citizens of Skypiea! The song of the Golden Bell is the symbol of peace returning to the celestial kingdom!
Will the hostilities between Skypiea and Shandia finally cease? It's still unknown, but... now it's time to see the Straw Hats celebrate their victory!
See you in the next chapter!