Chapter 215: Chapter 215: Monster
Chapter 215: Monster
"Father, this Ryosuke’s personality seems a bit different from what we expected."
Inside the main hall of the Saki family, Nozomi Saki, head of the household, sat with his son, Saki Yu, awaiting the end of the meeting between Ryosuke and the others.
"I wonder if Shanks will..." Saki Yu muttered, staring anxiously toward the reception room.
"In all this time, have you still not understood what kind of person Shanks is?"
Nozomi Saki shook his head slowly. "Don’t doubt the people you choose to work with. And never employ someone you can’t trust."
"Of course, it’s unwise to place blind faith in anyone. But if you approach everyone with suspicion, you’ll accomplish nothing. Since he agreed to assist us for half a year, he won’t break that promise."
"As for Ryosuke’s personality..."
He paused, then said, "It’s just an act."
"He’s pretending?"
Yu frowned. "But why go to such lengths? Why act so arrogant and leave such a bad impression?"
"Do you honestly think a member of the Hyuga clan needs to care about the opinions of low-tier nobles like us?"
Nozomi cast a disappointed glance at his son. "The Hyuga are a prestigious family, and they’ve grown close with the Tokugawa in recent years. Compared to them, the Saki family is insignificant. Why would he care about our feelings?"
"Militarily, we’re no match. And politically, their ties with Tokugawa far surpass ours. So if he’s not pretending to be polite, it just means he doesn’t need to."
He took a sip of tea and sighed. "I imagine Ryosuke heard from some branch family members about how the Saki family treated them in the past. He probably thinks we’re not worth his time, so he played the part of a brash, overbearing man to address things head-on. Frankly, his attitude shut down every excuse I had prepared. I didn’t even get a chance to speak."
"So then... what do we do now?"
Saki Yu’s voice trembled with anxiety. Had they already lost their chance to rise?
"Calm down. You need to stop panicking."
Nozomi sighed again, more from exhaustion than frustration. "I don’t expect brilliance from you, but at least learn to act shrewd. Even if you have no talent, you should at least appear deep and unfathomable. That alone could fool outsiders."
He leaned back slightly. "The Hyuga aren’t like ordinary ninja. They conceal their true motives very well."
"This time, the fact that they’re revealing certain things and ignoring Konoha entirely to speak with us proves they have much bigger ambitions. And perhaps... they’re no longer afraid of what Konoha might do."
He paused before adding, "Still, the Tokugawa were one of Konoha’s early investors decades ago. If the Hyuga abandon Konoha, the Tokugawa will most likely sever ties with them."
"That might be our window. Maybe the Saki family can ride the Hyuga’s coattails..."
Nozomi’s eyes wavered with hesitation. He couldn’t tell whether this opportunity would be a blessing or a disaster.
If they failed, the Saki family would be finished. The Tokugawa-led nobility and Konoha’s forces would both come crashing down on them.
Unlike the Hyuga, who had the strength and means to relocate to other countries, the Saki family was bound to the Land of Fire. If they left, they’d be nothing more than wealthy commoners.
---
"This is a Paramecia-type fruit."
In the reception room, Shanks picked up the Devil Fruit on the table, instantly recognizing it.
"I’ve seen its illustration in a Devil Fruit compendium before. It grants abilities linked to life force, this one is called the Cooking Fruit."
He smiled and passed the fruit back to Ryosuke. "As the name implies, it allows the user to cook extraordinary food. For a chef, it’s arguably the most tempting fruit out there."
Sitting beside Ryosuke, Hinata seemed intrigued, though she remained silent in Shanks’ presence.
"The Fruit of Life, huh?"
Ryosuke nodded as he accepted it, his expression thoughtful. "Sounds decent. I’ll find a suitable person to inherit it."
With that, he resealed the fruit into a scroll and put it away.
"Well then... now that I’ve shown some sincerity, maybe we can move on to another topic?"
Shanks leaned forward slightly, folding his hands atop the table. "For instance... has anyone in your world traveled to another world? And if so, how did they do it?"
"No."
Ryosuke answered without hesitation, though he eyed Shanks closely.
"I’m not certain if anyone in the ninja world has ever crossed dimensions, but I know that none of the people around me have. As for dimensional travel, I’ve only heard vague descriptions. They speak of a door that appears out of nowhere and pulls in a specific target with immense suction."
"This suction, apparently, is selective. It doesn’t grab bystanders, only specific individuals."
He shared what he’d learned from Gintoki and the others about the so-called Time-Space Gate.
After a pause, Ryosuke tilted his head slightly. "But based on your question... does that mean time travel is common in your world?"
Despite asking calmly, he was nearly certain now: Shanks not only knew about dimensional travel, he had experienced it.
Ryosuke remembered how, during their first meeting, Shanks had immediately asked if anyone from another world had arrived here. That kind of question couldn’t be coincidence.
And now, with this follow-up, he was almost sure that the pirate’s world had encountered interdimensional travel long before the ninja world ever had.
He doubted Shanks had slipped up. Someone like him wouldn’t carelessly reveal a secret unless he intended to.
"It seems your world isn’t well-versed in this," Shanks said quietly, nodding at Ryosuke’s reply. "I had hoped I could find a way back quickly."
Seeing the confused looks on the others’ faces, he elaborated.
"In our world, dimensional travel happens more often than you’d believe."
"At first, people thought it was just a Devil Fruit user pulling pranks; there are many with spatial abilities. But that theory fell apart fast, because many of the missing people were famous pirates..."
Since Ryosuke and the others had a certain level of understanding about their own world, it was easy for Shanks to explain.
Abilities like the Door-Door Fruit and the Meat-Glob Fruit could move people from one side of the world to the other, so at first, this matter didn’t attract much attention in the world of One Piece. Everyone simply assumed it was a case of revenge or retaliation.
It wasn’t until later, when more and more victims began to appear, including some powerful individuals, that the situation began to be taken seriously.
The missing person never showed up again, as if they had vanished from the face of the earth. If the person was weak, they were like a tiny firecracker or worse, a dud unable to make any noise at all. Naturally, no one paid much attention.
But if the missing person was someone as strong as a Vice Admiral, then that firecracker became heavy artillery.
To erase a Vice Admiral from the world without a trace meant that once someone was dragged in by that door, they were utterly annihilated without the slightest chance to resist.
But could such a thing really happen? It would require an incredibly powerful Devil Fruit ability to do that.
Whether pirate, marine, or government official, all the top forces began speculating.
However, at the time, none of them realized that the door in question could travel through time and space. Because no one ever returned after passing through it, no information could be retrieved.
They had no idea what existed on the other side of the door.
Until...
"Have you discovered someone from another world?" Ryosuke asked in a low, steady voice.
In the world of Naruto, ninjas were the mainstream power.
Once forces outside of the shinobi system emerged, they became conspicuous very quickly. It was nearly impossible for them to hide, unless they refrained from fighting or used some of the older systems the ninja world once had, such as samurai.
Otherwise, they would be exposed instantly, just like what happened when Shanks arrived. The moment he acted, the surrounding villagers noticed something was off.
The world of One Piece was different. It contained a variety of power systems. So even if someone displayed supernatural abilities, others simply assumed it was the power of a Devil Fruit. That made it harder to detect outsiders.
But if the top forces across the seas all focused their attention on the gate of time and space, there was a high chance they’d uncover intel on people from other worlds.
"Unfortunately, we didn’t discover time travel through this incident," Shanks said, shaking his head. "In our world, it was only after we learned the secret of time travel that we began thoroughly investigating people from other worlds who had slipped into ours."
"As for how we discovered it..."
He paused. His face grew solemn.
"...It’s because we left the door behind."
He spoke slowly, emphasizing each word.
But those words struck Ryosuke and the others like thunder.
Even with Ryosuke’s years of disciplined training and strong spiritual control, his expression visibly shifted. Beside him, Hinata clenched her fists tightly.
They left the door open!
The Hyuga clan’s previous speculation had been right all along.
If they had truly left behind a door that allowed travel through time and space, then the fate of the Hyuga clan would no longer be bound to this small ninja world!
Ryosuke took a deep breath, suppressing the excitement and distractions swirling in his mind. He asked calmly, "...How did you do it? If Captain Shanks is willing to share this information, you’ll have the eternal friendship of the Hyuga clan. That’s my promise."
"As long as you don’t act against us, we will become your strongest allies."
This was what Ryosuke cared about most. For this information, he was willing to make such an oath.
"I’d also love to be Hyuga’s friend," Shanks said with a grin, breaking the tension for a moment.
Then he continued without hesitation, "The gate was left behind by accident. I wasn’t there when it happened, I was nearby. By the time I arrived, it was already over."
"I only learned what happened afterward from others who were at the scene."
"During a major battle, the door suddenly appeared in front of one of the strongest people in our world and tried to drag him away."
"But since they were in the middle of a war, he couldn’t abandon his crew. So out of desperation... he punched the door."
"And that punch left the door open."
He went on to explain the speculation from their side.
"Maybe the burst of combat power from that strike met some kind of hidden requirement. From that moment on, the door stopped absorbing anything, it stopped vanishing. It just stood there, floating in front of everyone."
"Did the door... recognize its master?" Ryosuke asked, remembering a concept from some old cultivation novels, blood recognition to bind a weapon or treasure.
Perhaps the condition to "bind" this space-time gate was to reach a certain level of combat power.
"Recognize the master?" Shanks looked puzzled for a second, but quickly understood. "No, the door doesn’t belong to that warrior. It’s just that his power happened to meet the door’s mysterious requirement—
so it stayed."
"It just hovers there in the air. No matter what the top powers of our world try moving it, sealing it, destroying it—they can’t do anything."
"And the moment you touch it, you’re instantly pulled into another world."
Ryosuke narrowed his eyes. "Another world? It can’t be ours, can it?"
If it had been the ninja world, then perhaps pirates, the Navy, or other powerful forces would’ve already invaded.
Shanks nodded. "No, it wasn’t your world. It was a world full of towering buildings."
"Humans in that world are physically weak, but their technology is unimaginably advanced."
"But... that world also has monsters. Creatures even more terrifying than Sea Kings."
"Monsters?" Ryosuke’s face stiffened.
"Yes. That’s what the humans in that world call monsters. Beasts with hard shells that even laser weapons can’t penetrate. They have overwhelming strength, and some even possess long-range attacks, similar to laser beams."
"They are terrifying war beasts. Even for someone on the level of an admiral, it’s nearly impossible to bring one down."
Shanks had explained clearly, how the door of time and space was mastered, and how they first explored the new world.
However, because the gate was located at Marine Headquarters, he didn’t experience the incident firsthand. Everything he knew came through special internal sources.
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