Chapter 158: History And The Future Part 2
“Are you really planning to reconcile with them?”
After returning to the chieftain’s stone house and dismissing all the followers, Zannick asked impatiently.
“Mm.”
“I do have that idea.”
The chieftain nodded, unhurriedly taking cups from the cabinet and pouring a cup of pumpkin juice for Zannick and himself.
Ever since reclaiming the land, he had cleared a large plot around his assigned stone house to grow pumpkins.
“The tribespeople won’t agree, nor will the ancestors who died to reclaim our hometown.”
Taking a shallow sip of the pumpkin juice, that sweet taste gradually calmed the warrior captain’s turbulent heart.
He found that he seemed to have grown somewhat fond of this drink.
“Perhaps… That’s why I said we need time.”
Mentioning the ancestors, the chieftain’s tone became somewhat solemn, no longer his usual cheerful intonation.
But after just a moment, he suddenly changed the subject and started talking about something else.
“Zannick, do you remember when Shandora fell?”
“Three hundred and seventy-two years ago, the year my ancestor—the great warrior Kargra—died in battle.”
The warrior captain’s tone was low, as if crossing time to witness that brutal campaign.
“Yeah~ It’s already been over three hundred years.”
The chieftain looked out the window, where the majestic golden temple stood just a mile away.
“We’ve been living in the clouds for over three hundred years.”
“And those sky people have been living on Shandora for over three hundred years too.”
Seeming to realize what the chieftain meant, Zannick immediately retorted loudly:
“But they are invaders! Shandora never belonged to them!”
“I know, I know… We all know.”
“Calm down, old fellow.”
The chieftain waved his hand, pacifying Zannick’s emotions before continuing:
“What I mean is, no matter how heroic the campaigns of the distant past were, for us now, the sky is our hometown.”
Three hundred years, over a dozen generations.
For the Shandia people now, the meaning of “hometown” had long shifted from the complete Gaya Island on the Grand Line to the large bast called 【Shandora】 standing on the sky island.
They had long grown accustomed, like those sky people, to calling the “hometown” of their hometown the Blue Sea.
“Zannick, no matter what we think, the earth won’t reject anyone.”
“Sky folk and earth folk—in these hundreds of years, the boundaries have long blurred…”
“We, originally earth folk, have learned to use all sorts of clouds and shells that only exist in the skies.”
“While they, originally sky folk, have like us, established faith in the bast…”
This was inevitable in the process of two peoples making contact.
In Kargra’s era, the Shandia people’s main weapons were still spears and bows and arrows; now they had been replaced with far more powerful shell weapons.
Traditional spears had become secondary weapons and ceremonial ritual implements.
“Zannick.”
The chieftain finished the pumpkin juice in his cup and said in an absolute tone:
“At least, no one now wants to fight a war lasting hundreds of years…”
“…”
The warrior captain fell silent.
It wasn’t that he was persuaded by the chieftain; he had always been on the same side as him.
Gan Foll, Zannick, and the Shandia chieftain had long reached a mutual understanding.
They just all needed to be accountable to those behind them who trusted them, just as the warrior captain, even if he deeply agreed with the chieftain, had to speak up for the warriors under his command.
…
After thinking carefully for a long time, Zannick finally spoke.
“Actually, I thought carefully about what that blue little girl said back then—the time she said Roronoa and the ancestor’s regret weren’t bad things.”
“I was thinking, if we hadn’t been brought here by that coincidental skyward sea current… would our hometown, our race have headed toward an even darker, crueler future?”
“Perhaps our encounter with those sky people really was silently arranged by god?”
At this point, he suddenly laughed.
“You know? I heard them say that the Blue Sea people below originally had no wings.”
Yet sky people and Shandia people both coincidentally had a nearly identical pair of wings.
Was this really a malicious joke by god?
“Eh!”
Slapping his thigh, Zannick stood up.
“You’re right! The hatred and conflict between the two tribes can’t be passed on to the next generation!”
“The earth won’t reject anyone!”
With that, he prepared to go outside and tell the warriors in the tribe his decision.
“Hey hey hey~”
“What’s the rush~”
The chieftain hurriedly stopped him.
“I said, this needs time.”
“And what does it mean for us to take the initiative?!”
The Shandia people were never the ones at fault; they had always been the victims. Since when did victims propose reconciliation first?
“Wait. Once those sky people truly recognize their mistakes, apologize sincerely from the heart, and take action… that will be the start of a new future for our two tribes.”
…
“Yo~ Long time no see, you two.”
“Miss me?”
The chieftain and warrior captain, having reached an agreement, had just stepped out the door when they saw Aoxi’s smiling little face, and both were greatly surprised.
“Miss Aoxi? Didn’t you go back?”
“Did you get lost and not find the cloud river?”
Seeing this familiar figure, the chieftain asked curiously.
“Yeah, we did go back already.”
“This time we’re here to take away that gold.”
Aoxi pointed toward the temple.
“But it’s only been a few days… Didn’t you say it takes nearly a month by ship to get here?”
“So we just flew directly~ It only took a little over an hour…”
“…”
A month by ship, one hour by flight—very reasonable.
The Shandia chieftain, having no concept of supersonic speed, nodded and wisely didn’t dwell on the topic.
“The gold is in the temple’s main hall; we’ve collected it.”
“But you don’t even have a ship this time—how exactly are you going to transport it?”
“Don’t worry about that; my big sister has her ways. Right, Sister La…”
“Eh? Sister La?”
Aoxi turned her head and found that La, who had just been behind her, was gone.
Where did she go?
Where did such a small sister go?
“Quick, help me look for her!”
…
La actually hadn’t gone far; the three found her after a few steps, in front of the golden bell tower in the plaza.
She was quietly standing before the Poneglyph on the bell tower’s base, gently brushing away some moss that even the Shandia people couldn’t fully clean.
The golden girl stood beneath the golden civilization, appearing so harmonious and sacred.
Thinking about it, there really needed to be a resolution to the conflict between the sky people and Shandia people.
I actually didn’t like the answer Oda gave to this issue in the original work.
Two peoples with deep historical conflicts seamlessly harmonized after merely facing a powerful enemy together. Though this ending is beautiful, it is extremely unfair to the Shandia people. Throughout the story, only Gan Foll deeply reflected and sincerely begged for forgiveness from the heart. Yet those sky people didn’t even offer a single apology in the end, directly leaping over history to reconciliation.
I’ve always believed that pursuing peace and the future is not wrong, but only after facing history squarely and taking responsibility for it does one qualify to talk about the future.
