Chapter 55: Reconnaissance
"Well, that's it for my questions. We will leave you to your drinking and sulking, McKinley. Goodbye." Cherry said, standing up to leave.
They left McKinley's home and Robin released the hands binding McKinley after they had moved a fair distance away.
They find a quiet spot to talk where people wouldn't overhear their conversation. It would be troublesome if they were overheard and God Gan Fall was warned about them.
"Is it okay not to silence McKinley? Won't he go tell Gan Fall everything?" Serene expressed her doubts.
"Stop saying such blood thirsty stuff, you are just a masseuse now, not a member of a brutal criminal organization." Cherry reprimanded.
"Oh? I was also a member of Baroque Works. So what does that make me, then?" Robin asked with a grin.
"Eye candy." Cherry replied without hesitation.
"..." Robin was stunned silent, a light blush coming to her cheeks.
"I'm just messing with you, Robin. You're an archaeologist, are you not?" Cherry said.
"Anyways..." Cherry changed the subject. "I need to do some reconnaissance of God Gan Fall's shrine. However, I don't know how good his Mantra, or Observation Haki, is. So, I'll be going alone and hope not to get caught."
Robin also wanted to explore Upper Yard, but she could always do so later, so she let Cherry go alone as she asked this time.
Cherry parted ways with the group and made her way to the docks.
She stowed away onto one of the boats going across the milky road bridge into Upper Yard. It was quite easy to do so as these soldiers didn't have Mantra to detect her with.
'Now comes the tricky part. I have no idea what the range and sensitivity of Gan Fall's mantra is. There is a way I should be able to avoid his detection, but it's very risky and pretty stupid too.' Cherry thought.
The method Cherry was thinking to use was to enter a meditative state of selflessness. This should enable her to go unnoticed by Observation Haki as she would have no will to sense, no intent to read. The problem lay in the fact that she would have to give up conscious control over her body to maintain this state.
She waited, hidden amongst the cargo of the boat, for them to arrive in Upper Yard. Once they were over the bridge, she stealthily disembarked.
Now on solid land, she started to enter in her meditative state of selflessness. It did not take too long.
Cherry started to walk unconsciously, similar to the way one might sleep walk. Unlike sleep walking, she would remember the events that occur in perfect detail and can snap out of the trance at will.
With some luck, she managed to avoid anything that would force her to take action, such as coming across a predator.
She stumbled through the jungle in this way for an hour or so before she clambered up some island clouds. When she reached the top she could see the base of a giant stalk of twisted vines that extended high into the sky.
Cherry continued forward, step by step, towards the stalk. Then she accidentally slipped into a space between island clouds and fell.
Cherry was forced to end her meditative state of selflessness here, lest she might get injured. She wouldn't have much hope of getting back out without a conscious effort in any case.
What she saw before her eyes as she landed was quite shocking however.
A city that looked to be made of gold.
'Well, I bet Robin would love to see this. Nami would probably die on the spot seeing this much gold.' Cherry observed.
Cherry quickly stripped a bunch of gold off of some of the buildings and compressed it down to a manageable volume. She wouldn't leave empty handed, that was for sure.
With a quick scan of her Life Sense, she confirmed she was the only one here, aside from a gigantic snake within the central building.
She made her way to the edge of the city of gold and dug her way through the wall of island cloud.
Once outside, she sealed the way she made back up and went to do the same with the small crevasse she fell through.
She didn't want anyone else stumbling upon the city before she could loot it properly.
Looting it was only natural, after all. She was a cultivator, there was no grave or ruin too sacred to rob.
Looking up, she saw what she presumed to be God's Shrine on a cloud a ways up above attached to the beanstalk.
'No real way to sneak up onto that except to climb, huh? Well, barging in is always an option too.' Cherry thought.
She turned around and left towards Angel Island to meet back up with her companions and tell them what she found.
...
God Gan Fall suddenly opened his eyes.
"An intruder in Upper Yard? How did they get so close without me sensing them? Is it the Shandians? Or maybe Enel?! No, it shouldn't be Enel and there is only one so it shouldn't be Shandians." He thought out loud.
God Gan Fall approached the window of his study and opened it. He looked down at a cluster of soldiers that were always on standby to carry out any of his sudden orders.
"Go and capture the intruder and bring them here. Failure will not be tolerated!" He commanded.
The soldiers saluted and immediately went to climb down the beanstalk.
...
Enel and his men lying in wait, hidden not too far away from Upper Yard so they could observe most of it with Mantra. They also detected Cherry's sudden appearance at the base of the giant beanstalk.
"Is it starting?" Asked a rotund fellow with long red hair.
"Not yet, Gan Fall just sent some soldiers to deal with the intruder." Enel said, focusing on his mantra.
He was surprised by how quickly Cherry was moving away from the beanstalk, he thought perhaps he had slightly underestimated her ability.
...
Cherry noticed the soldiers climb down the beanstalk and head in the direction she had gone.
'Should I just evade or take them out now? If I evade they'll end up searching Angel Island for me, and likely hear about the strangers in town, meaning us. Alright, I'll deal with them now.' Cherry thought.
She went a little further, then found a place to lie in ambush.
The contingent of soldiers caught up to her location and she leapt out at them.
It was not so much a fight than a one sided beat down.
Once they were dealt with, Cherry quickly made her way back to Angel Island. They would need to act quickly now.
Back on Angel Island, Cherry found the others enjoying some deserts in a nice restaurant.
"Hey, time to get moving gals. We're going to be late." Cherry said. The group understood what she really meant, except Cabernet who thought they were really late for something.
"By the way, Robin. I found some nifty ruins you'd be interested in. A whole city plated in gold." Cherry said as they moved.
"Really? I am rather interested." Robin said.
Reaching the edge of town, Cabernet directly flew the three other women over to Upper Yard.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone