[152] Season 2 || The Emerald City
Chapter 152: Season 2 || The Emerald City
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The calm sea mirrored the structures that towered over them. Dawn's light unveiled the artificial island better than the moon had last night; the crew aboard their small boat found a new perspective of beauty in this mystical presence.
The gentle lap of water against the hull and the distant cries of seabirds had woven themselves into the fabric of the morning, no longer novel but comfortably routine.
The vibrant blue sky was a breathtaking contrast to the skyscrapers of green within the glass dome city. The very artificial-looking dome island, as well as its black stone base, had lost the initial sense of horror it had on the crew during the nighttime. Now it was simply beautiful for the mortal sight.
“Look, there are barely noticeable holes in the black base, aligned and positioned at a calculated distance from one another.”
“Looks like hidden canons to me.”
The members of the crew proficient in Observation Haki noticed. Thanks to their sudden departure, they hadn't managed to grab binoculars.
The Senju Pirates' now occupied a larger boat than what Hashirama had created at first. Across the night, he made it large enough so that it wasn't too cramped for their large number. Although it wasn't as big as their true ship, it was good enough.
This boat allowed them to encircle this island and its seemingly endless radius. Even after an entire night's watch, they had not encircled it once. They were searching for a gate to enter, but their prolonged observation had bore no fruit as of yet.
“Tsunade, be ready to punch cannonballs if they do fire,” Vivi said to Tsunade and looked behind. “Is Shirara up yet?”
“Not yet,” Robin whispered back, shaking her head. She was sitting on the floor, with his head resting on her lap. Her devil fruit multiplied her arms over her head to make an umbrella to block the sun.
It seemed his chakra was low from both the fight with the God's Knights, as well as his injury. His hands that were sliced down to his wrists were yet to regenerate, but his chakra was continuing to heal it constantly every second, even now, growing in output use the more it failed to accomplish. So even he had run out of chakra.
A part of Robin blamed herself for this. Whenever she got too close to something, bad luck struck it. Wasn’t this the same? Was she really a demon child? But it was his words exactly that made her calm; even if she was cursed, his presence nullified that. Otherwise, how were they fine even after encountering such a tragedy?
“Looks like he has a weakness after all,” Marianne said, though she didn't mean it in a bad way. She looked at him with pity. “I see that power of his in a double-edged sword if he can't heal. It will keep trying to heal him until it runs out and kills him.”
Tsunade had to put him down to sleep with a karate chop on his neck. Of course, he had asked for it.
The girls stared at him for a minute, until two figures in the sky caused them to turn toward them. Mikita and Nami flew to the boat with annoyed looks on their faces.
“No way in?” Tsunade asked, judging by their expression.
“None at all,” Mikita shook her head.
“It's weird. We don't think there are even any people living there.” Nami added.
“Huh,” Tsunade frowned. “This isn't nice. What if the gate is something that can be opened only from the inside? But since the people in there are… gone, could it be that the city is impossible to enter?”
The girls' expression darkened. They were in the middle of nowhere, accompanied by an uncountable number of Sea Kings in the sea. Just in the last hour, Tsunade killed three dozen of them. They ought to tire out sooner or later, and they didn't have any ration to relieve that tiredness.
“Hey, Mari,” Mikita turned to Marianne. “Couldn't you use Flying Thunder God or something to get us in?”
“Unfortunately, no,” she shook her head. She was undoubtedly their savior in this confrontation. She had just as much credit for their survival as Hashirama had, perhaps more. “As I said before, it's unpredictable. I didn't even have enough chakra before to perform the Jutsu, so I didn't get to test it ever before. I can't predict nor choose where the teleportation will take us, so it's pretty dangerous.”
“So breaking the glass it is,” Tsunade said as she took off her overcoat and dropped it. She cracked her knuckles. “If no people are living in there, it should offend nobody if we break the dome. I'll be right back.”
The other girls exchanged glances, and Robin looked very reluctant. This was a historic, legendary place, could she just have it like this?
Still, looking down at her lap where her… good luck charm rested peacefully, Robin understood he needed immediate medical attention. Even if nobody lived inside the city, the technology seemed immensely advanced. There might be medical equipment that could help him.
Tsunade turned toward the massive island ahead of them and leaped forward. The wind carried her forward, she approached the glass dome that started above the black stone base, reflecting sunlight. The stone base wasn't small, it was a hundred meters tall like a titanic wall, and the glass dome was even taller.
Tsunade flew above it in no time, her flight speed was nothing to laugh at and approached the glass. The air around her focused on her fist as she pulled it back and clenched hard. She called forth her willpower, chakra, and Jutsu, and slammed it forward.
[Galaxy Impact]!
The sky let out a scream as her hand tore through the fabrics of air. Dark lightning crackled around her fist as she slammed it against the glass; the invisible force of the pseudo-conqueror’s Coating slammed into it before her fist could.
A small thud sound resounded.
Everyone waited for a couple of seconds and watched… but nothing changed.
The glass was indestructible. It had zero cracks in it. A punch that could take out whole mountains had failed to put a dent in the glass. This place… it was a stronghold.
* * *
I woke up by the sound of loud drums in the distance, yawning as I rubbed my eyes.
“What the fuck-?!”
Well, I tried to rub my eyes, but a cleanly cut stump was the only thing that caught my gaze. I was startled and almost jumped into the sea, looking around in shock.
It took me a second to register everything.
No fucking way, fucking Celestial Dragon bastards had not disrespected me and my entire crew like this. Revenge, revenge has to be inflicted upon them. Otherwise-
“You're finally up, Hashirama,” I blinked as my thoughts were interrupted by Robin, who I faced up.
Her head was looming down at me. I was in her lap. Whoa.
She looked at the stumps where my hands were supposed to be with a sad look. She had missed when I almost rubbed my eyes with them, otherwise she would have been more sad. As for why she had missed it, she was looking at the distance, at the odd sound of drums that flowed in the air.
I stood up with her help, feeling a little weak in my knees. My chakra was low even after a good rest.
We both walked to the edge of the boat, joining the other three girls, and Karoo. Vivi had messy hair, she seemed to have been asleep too until not long ago; she ought to, she had been more mentally tired than me.
Vivi must have been so shocked and nervous when she was the only one able to function in the sea, while all around her, her friends were dying. She did her best to try to save us before I regained my senses. So she needed to sleep more than me.
“Sup,” I greeted them and looked at the scene ahead. Responding to their greetings on autopilot, I whistled at the spectacle.
No way, what is that glass made of?
“Goddamn.”
Galaxy Impacts slammed against the glass like sticks against a drum, and Tsunade was not holding back. Yet it remained just as unscratched as it had probably been on the first day of its creation.
After watching for a few more minutes, I laughed and shouted, “It's okay, no need to prove yourself! We know it's the glass that's strong, not your punches that are weak!”
“You shut up!” Tsunade yelled back and continued punching for one more minute.
Finally, she growled and flew back to the ship. She was sweating and fuming, her face red from anger and embarrassment.
Really, how could she not break a stupid glass? So embarrassing.
She landed on the ship and began to walk away from us, to sulk in a corner. There was no point in sulking, the glass really must be something, it was obvious.
To break her grumpy mood, I gestured to the other girls to let me handle this and followed behind her. “Hey sis, where is my sword? Blackcliff Slasher.”
She was annoyed, but how could she be mad at me? She grumbled a little and her head snapped back and forth to search for the sword. When she found it in a corner. She hesitated, seeing the state it was in.
My heart ached seeing it.
“My poor baby…”
My wrists weren't the only thing that met the slash of Divine Departure directly. The hilt of my lovely sword was cut by that Garling bastard. Since we fell to the sea, I wasn't able to retrieve the hilt of the sword. Only the blade remained. But how could I use it without a hilt?
I sighed. I did have an idea, but that'd just be putting bandages over a scar. For now, I need my hands back.
“Here,” she said, raising it to me. She had her hand coated in armament, so holding the sword without a hilt didn't cut her.
She probably expected I'd grow two more arms like last night and hold it, but I just raised my two stumps toward her.
“Can you cut my arms real quick? Down to the elbow should work.”
“What?”
“What do you mean ‘what’? As a doctor, you should be able to guess by now.” I said with a shake of my head. “The cells of my hand were cut and stunned by the coating of Conqueror's Haki, that's why my hands didn't heal. So if I cut my forearms off, it'd grow back from the early spot.”
Unless Advanced Conqueror’s Haki damages something deeper than cells… such as the soul. It might just be true since the basic version of this Haki hurt the spirit of others and sent them unconscious. So I wouldn’t be particularly surprised if my arms didn’t grow back even after this.
“Alright,” a short silence later, Tsunade nodded. We were all so shocked due to our situation that we didn’t think of this simple solution. She raised the blade up and then brought it down upon my hands. But then she stopped.
She hesitated, there was great reluctance in her eyes. After what I told her during our fight when she said it didn’t matter for me to get a little hit since I’d heal anyway, this situation must be so accursed for her. She might even be thinking of this as her own fault, her karma.
“Lady Tsunade, if you’re uncomfortable…” Marianne started, about to volunteer herself, but Tsunade shook her head.
“I’ll do it. Just… give me a second.” she closed her eyes and murmured a prayer. She sighed and opened her eyes again. Tsunade brought her sword down at my elbows as my forearms gently fell to the deck.
A short silence spread as blood gushed out of my arms. Everyone stared, as did I. Although everyone was nervous, I wasn’t. I could always get used to four arms, but yes I’d rather prefer my real hands.
Everyone watched as the blood slowed down, and in real-time, flesh began to pour out of the cut. Tsunade gulped, watching my arms heal till the part where it was cut by Garling.
It paused there for a bit more. I didn’t mistake it, it did pause, but then it pushed through whatever blockage met it and grew past it. My wrists grew back, as did my hands, and then fingers. Though now they were baby hands since I didn’t have much chakra.
“Yes!” Tsunade cheered and hugged me, and I hissed in pain as my new sensitive baby hands were crushed against her chest. What an insensitive woman.
I laughed and hugged her back. She held me tight for a whole minute, and I noticed all the girls looking relieved now too. Thankfully nobody else other than me was hurt in this incident, healing them would have been harder than healing me.
All their worries were gone too. Rations? I could make all that with a thought. Ship? I am a literal tree, I can make that too. Tiredness from fighting sea-kings? I could pop out a hundred clones to take care of that too.
I could also make a hundred clones do scouting, looking for a proper entry rather than breaking the glass dome. Although it took time, three days to be precise, I did just that.
We found the gate to the Emerald City.
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