Nami smiled warmly and waved them over. "Come on! This is premium Sea King meat!"
Wiper was taken aback for a moment, then a genuine, relieved smile spread across his face. "Excellent! The Shandians are masters of the barbecue!"
Once everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, the bonfire began to die down to embers, though the rich, savory aroma of roasted meat still hung heavily in the air.
Nami stood up, brushing a bit of dust from her shorts, her eyes already sparkling with the unmistakable glint of Beri signs. "Alright, everyone's full and happy, right? Time to go treasure hunting!"
Her voice was bright and cheerful, but it was met with a deafening, almost deliberate silence.
Only Ron responded with a calm nod. "Alright."
As for the rest of the crew—
Zoro was hugging his sake barrel, pretending to be deeply engrossed in gnawing on a particularly stubborn, charred bone;
Luffy was frantically shoveling meat into his mouth, his cheeks stretched to comical proportions; Usopp was meticulously counting pellets in his slingshot pouch, muttering, "Need to replenish the standard shots, adjust the gunpowder mix for the explosives..."
Even Robin, who had shown such keen interest in the last treasure hunt, was now elegantly slicing a piece of grilled meat, offering a serene smile. "The local seasoning is quite exquisite. I believe I'll have a little more."
Chopper was the most blatant, clutching a huge hunk of meat to his chest like a security blanket, his big, watery eyes blinking pleadingly. "I... I haven't had meat this good in so long..."
A prominent, throbbing vein slowly appeared on Nami's forehead. Her orange hair seemed to crackle with static.
"HMPH!"
A dismissive snort was her only warning before—*KRAKOOM!*—a shattering peal of thunder exploded directly overhead!
*CRACK—!*
A bolt of lightning tore through the twilight sky, illuminating the instantly petrified faces of the crew.
Zoro's sake barrel clattered to the ground. Luffy's half-chewed meat fell from his gaping mouth. Usopp immediately dropped into a defensive crouch, hands over his head. Even Robin's knife stilled mid-slice.
"S-s-scary...!" Chopper trembled, hiding behind Zoro's leg. "Nami's getting scarier and scarier..."
The Shandian warriors, who had been relaxing, also jumped at the sudden thunderclap.
Wiper set down his own piece of meat, looking over with newfound curiosity. "Treasure hunting? What could be more precious than the land we've reclaimed?"
"Of course there is!" Nami's eyes instantly morphed into giant, spinning Beri signs. She clasped her hands to her heart and declared to the heavens, "GOLD! Gold is the most beautiful, most wonderful thing in the entire world!"
She latched onto Ron's arm, giving no one else a chance to voice an objection. "Let's go! The treasure map says it's at the very top of the beanstalk!"
"Hey! Wait a—"
Before any protests could form, Nami was already dragging Ron towards the massive, towering vine in the distance, her orange hair flying behind her, her steps so light she seemed to be floating on a cloud of imagined bullion.
Wiper stared for a second, then surged to his feet. "Wait! Honored guests!" He turned to his warriors, his voice firm. "We cannot let our saviors venture into the unknown alone! We are the guides of this land!"
"But, Chief..." one warrior mumbled, his eyes lingering on the sizzling meat still on the grill.
Wiper cuffed him gently on the back of the head. "What's more important? Gold or your stomach?! Move out!"
With great reluctance, the Shandian warriors snatched up their weapons, casting longing looks back at the feast, and hurried after them.
The remaining Straw Hats looked at each other.
"Should... should we go too?" Chopper whispered, still clutching his half-eaten meat.
Zoro shoved another large piece into his mouth, speaking around it. "You go if you want. I don't feel like digging up another world-ending problem." He gestured with his chin towards the still-unconscious forms of Enel and Blackbeard. "What if we dig up something even worse next time? We might not even get to finish our meal."
Luffy nodded vigorously, a grilled drumstick in each hand. "Yeah, yeah! I wanna eat meat!"
Usopp was torn. "But... Nami has the Goro Goro no Mi now. Who could possibly threaten her? And the Captain is with her... It'll probably be fine..."
"Don't worry, Chopper," Sanji said, exhaling a calm plume of smoke as he turned the grill. "With Nami-san's personality, if she actually finds gold, the whole sky island will hear her scream. We can go running then."
Meanwhile, Nami and Ron reached the summit of the giant beanstalk. The sight that greeted them stole the breath from everyone present—
A colossal golden bell stood in silent majesty at the vine's peak. Its surface was carved with intricate, ancient patterns, glowing with a soft, noble radiance in the sunlight. Thick vines coiled around its clapper, as if it had been waiting in this solitary vigil for centuries.
"I-It's really real... The City of Gold!" Nami's voice was a tremulous whisper of pure ecstasy. Her hands reached out, almost reverently, to touch the cool, solid metal. "The purity... it's so high... and the size... it's priceless!"
Just then, the treasure map in her hand began to glow with a brilliant golden light. To the astonishment of all, it slowly morphed and reshaped itself into a magnificent, gleaming golden shovel.
"A Golden Shovel!" Nami's eyes shone with fervent light. "A professional tool for a professional treasure hunter!"
Wiper and his warriors watched in a daze. It truly was the legendary treasure of Shandora!
But seeing that golden shovel in her hands... was she actually going to *dig*?
Could they at least ring the bell once before she started?
Before a single word could leave their mouths, Nami had already clasped her hands together in devout prayer. "Oh, Great God of Gold! Please bestow upon your humble servant even more treasure!"
With that, she drove the golden shovel into the cloud-earth beneath the bell without a moment's hesitation.
*CLANG—*
The moment the shovel struck, a dazzling pillar of golden light erupted, shooting straight up into the sky!
"Wah!" Nami cried out—not in fear, but in rapturous joy. "This light! This color! It's gold! It's really, truly gold! I'm going to be rich! RICH!"
A golden vortex swirled open at their feet, the clouds churning like a boiling pot. To the absolute shock of everyone present, a magnificent city wrought entirely of gold began to rise from the vortex. Buildings cast from bullion, streets paved with gold bricks, fountains sculpted from the precious metal... every single inch of the city gleamed with an almost blinding, divine radiance.
"Th-the City of Gold..." Wiper fell to his knees, his voice choked with emotion. "The legendary Shandora... it was real all along...!"
"The city Great Warrior Kalgara spoke of!"
"After four hundred years... we finally see it!"
Nami, meanwhile, was on the verge of fainting from happiness. She stumbled toward the nearest golden building, her hands trembling as they caressed the doorframe. "It's all real gold... not just plating... solid, through and through..."
Suddenly, she spun around, her eyes blazing with a terrifying, golden avarice. "Ron! Hurry! We have to move it! The whole city! We're taking it all!"
"...."
She threw her arms around the golden wall, pressing her cheek against the cool, metallic surface, her eyes glazing over as she murmured, "It's all mine... all mine..."
Witnessing this spectacle, Ron couldn't help but clear his throat. "*Ahem*. Nami, perhaps a little decorum?" He gestured discreetly to the utterly dumbfounded Shandians behind them. "I don't think anyone here is going to fight you for it."
....
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