Uchiha Puppet Master, Starting from One Piece

Chapter 239 A Flower in a Mirror, a Moon in the Water

Then, after a while, the whole world suddenly became quiet.

It's not that there's no sound; the wind is still there, the sound of waves crashing against the cliffs is still there, and the sound of giant birds flapping their wings as they take flight in the distant forest is still there.

But all these sounds, upon reaching the area where the void-colored light lingered, seemed to be swallowed up by something, unable to reach anyone's ears.

Im came out.

The five elders followed behind him, their steps perfectly synchronized.

The twelve members of the Knights of God walked at the very back.

Garin walked at the very front of the twelve, his right hand casually resting on the hilt of his sword at his waist. That casualness was not laxity, but an extreme relaxation, a complete contempt for all potential threats that one is only entitled to after one's strength has reached a certain threshold.

Shanks' pupils contracted sharply the moment Garin appeared.

His Observation Haki finally caught the aura that he had been unable to locate.

It's not Garin Sei.

It's the person behind Garin Sei.

"Is that the man they're talking about, Lord Im? —"

Shanks frowned and spoke in a low voice, so low that only Hawkeye and Shiraha, who were standing next to him, could hear him.

Loki didn't look at Shanks; his eyes were fixed on Im, on the figure who was walking towards them, barely ten meters tall, and who looked like a child in front of the giants.

His father, the king of the giants who had lived for over a hundred years, possessed the most domineering aura in the world. He was a warrior who could make tsunamis retreat, sea monsters bow down, and volcanoes extinguish with a mere gesture. Yet, he was manipulated like a puppet and watched as he walked toward his death.

And that person is standing right there now.

Loki reverted to his normal form and stood in front of Bai Yu and the others.

Loki.

Bai Yu's voice came from the side, as calm as a stagnant pool.

"Wait a moment."

Loki's teeth were grinding, but he didn't move. He acknowledged this person who could withstand his attacks, and this guy seemed to be on his side.

Bai Yu's eyes never left Im.

His eyes were capturing every detail of Im.

Im's gait frequency, stride length, angle of weight shift, amplitude of arm swing, breathing rhythm, heart rate, pattern of body surface temperature distribution, sequence of muscle fiber contraction, and blood flow speed —

His eyes saw it all.

His brain processed all of this in an instant.

The strength Im is displaying now is probably less than half of his peak strength, because Bai Yu senses that it is a transformation technique similar to the Rinnegan.

Bai Yu's eyes narrowed slightly.

Im stopped less than 100 meters away from Bai Yu and the others.

For an ordinary person, 100 meters takes ten seconds, but for the people present, 100 meters is a distance that can be covered in the blink of an eye.

But Im chose to stop here not out of caution, not because of a safe distance, but for some other reason.

100 meters.

This is the distance at which he is willing to show a stranger his full face.

A little closer, and it's a blessing.

Im's gaze swept over Bai Yu, over Loki, over Shanks, over Jabba, over Hawkeye, and over everyone present.

His self-illumination did not linger on any one person for more than half a second.

Until his gaze fell on a certain direction behind Bai Yu.

There was nothing in that direction.

At least physically speaking, there was nothing there.

But Im's gaze lingered there.

It paused for a full three seconds.

Im's gaze finally settled on Bai Yu.

This time, his self-illumination lingered for a long time.

"interesting."

Im spoke.

His voice wasn't loud, but each syllable felt like a vibration directly inside your skull, not needing to travel through the air or pass through your eardrums, but emerging directly from some area of ​​your brain that you were never aware of.

"Your eyes."

Im's lips curled up slightly.

The curve is so small that you wouldn't notice it if you didn't look closely.

But if you notice it, you'll find that curve more terrifying than any smile you've ever seen, because there's no warmth, no emotion, nothing that a human being should have in that curve; there's only a pure, absolute observation of the world from a being that has never considered itself human.

"These seem to be very special eyes, and I can't even sense that you ate a Devil Fruit. You're even able to handle the soul residing in them."

Im shook his head, dismissing his own guess.

"It's not symbiosis, it's disappearance. How did you manage that?"

He tilted his head, a gesture that carried the elegance and cruelty of a feline surveying its prey, making you feel its beauty while simultaneously sensing its deadly aura.

"Is it because of your eyes?"

Bai Yu did not answer. His eyes remained fixed on Im, constantly capturing every subtle change in Im's body.

Im shifted his gaze from Bai Yu and swept it over the others present.

When his gaze fell on Shanks, he paused for a moment, then turned his head away as if he didn't recognize him.

Im shifted his gaze from Shanks to Loki.

His gaze lingered on Loki longer than it lingered on Shanks.

"You are the son of that giant."

It's not a question, it's a statement.

Loki's body trembled violently for a moment, as if struck by lightning.

But his feet didn't move.

The anger in his eyes ignited in that instant, not extinguished, but burned to something purer and closer to the essence than the concept of fire.

"I'm going to kill you."

Loki's voice was calm.

It was eerily calm.

That calm was not the calm that comes from suppressing anger, but rather the calm that comes from anger that has become so intense that no form of expression can adequately contain it.

Im looked at Loki.

He stared at it for a long time.

Then he laughed.

That smile was different from before. The previous smile was the elegance and cruelty of a feline surveying its prey, but this smile was that of a king surveying an ant, a smile of pity, condescension, and a smile that made you feel more uncomfortable being laughed at than being beaten.

"interesting."

"Oh, it was you."

Standing behind Im, Garin Saint smiled and said to Jaba.

Jabba's pupils contracted sharply for a split second.

Valley of the Gods.

That event, erased from all history books by the World Government, wiped from the memories of everyone in the world, that only a very few survivors are still alive, and that none of the survivors are willing to mention, that happened on that island, something more like hell than hell itself.

"You're with that Rayleigh."

"You took some things."

Jabba's lips moved slightly.

He wanted to say, "We didn't take anything; it originally belonged to '7'."

But he didn't say it.

Im spoke.

"I'm not here to kill you."

His voice wasn't loud, but every word was as clear, heavy, and unalterable as an inscription carved in stone.

"I came because I saw your potential."

His gaze swept over Shiraha, Loki, Shanks, Jabba, Hawkeye, and in the distance Nico Robin, Artoria, Yachiru Unohana, Kanna, Mirajane, and Rangiku Matsumoto.

"You have a place under the World Government."

"It is not the place of a slave, not the place of a tool, not the place of a lackey."

When he used the word "lackey," there was not a trace of derogatory meaning in his voice, because in Im's mind, the word "lackey" was a compliment to the vast majority of creatures, who did not even deserve to be called "lackeys" by him.

"It is the soldier's place."

"It is the position of the guardian."

"Yes—the position where we stand together at the top of the world, overlooking all living beings."

He paused.

His gaze finally settled on Bai Yu.

"you."

"Your strength reminds me of someone from a long time ago."

"That person refused."

For the first time, something that wasn't an "emotion" but resembled one appeared in Im's voice: regret.

A regret that comes from one of the few things in his long, almost eternal life, and that he still cannot let go of to this day.

That person is no longer here.

"And you."

"You are very similar to him."

""

Im looked at Bai Yu.

Bai Yu looked at Im.

Their gazes met in the air, without any change in fire, light, or dramatic visual effects.

But Loki's hair stood on end.

Shanks' Observation Haki saw a scene in that instant—not a scene of the future, not a scene of the past, but a scene of the present, a scene that he should have been able to see but had not.

In that scene, the air between Shiraha and Im was distorted.

It wasn't distorted by heat, nor by domineering aura, but by the collision of pure will between two people that transcended physics, energy, and all known laws of this world.

The domineering blue color exudes power.

Before the two people's domineering auras could be released to the outside world, they collided in the tiny, narrow space between their two consciousnesses, a space that existed only between the two of them.

That space was so vast that no one outside could perceive it.

However, the intensity of the collision was so great that the space itself instantly produced an extremely subtle crack, invisible to the naked eye but detected by Shanks' Observation Haki.

A crack in space.

Im's lips finally twitched.

It's not an upward curve, nor a downward curve, but a slight, almost invisible arc that deviates to one side by a millimeter.

That curve would just be an ordinary expression on any average person's face.

But on Im's face, that curve represented something more terrifying than any roar, any howl, any outburst of rage.

His previous politeness and gentleness vanished in an instant, as if he had never existed, as if a layer of skin had been torn away, revealing what lay beneath.

"But you chose a path—"

Im slowly raised his right hand.

"—Then I will personally see you off on your journey."

The air seemed to freeze in that instant.

It's not a metaphor.

It is solidification in a physical sense.

Everyone present felt a tremendous, invisible force pressing down from all directions in that instant. This force was not domineering, nor the power of the Demon Fruit, nor any kind of force that could be categorized. Rather, it was Im's will itself. His will was so powerful that it did not need any medium, any ability, or any method to be "released." His will itself was a physical phenomenon.

Bai Yu's eyes lit up in that instant.

"Let's do it."

Bai Yu's voice came from Im's left, but Im's Observation Haki told him that Bai Yu's voice came from directly in front, while his eyes told him that Bai Yu's voice came from the right. Three directions, three different pieces of information, three different bases of judgment.

Im's brain made a choice in that instant.

He chose to believe in Observation Haki.

Because he had lived for eight hundred years, the Palace of Observation and Color had never deceived him.

But his eyes will deceive him every second in the future.

The moment Im chose to believe in Observation Haki, Bai Yu's figure moved from Im's left side to Im's front.

Im's Observation Haki detected the movement.

But his eyes were missing.

The white feather he saw was still on the left, still standing there, still looking at him with that familiar yet unfamiliar gaze.

The truly drunkard, whose eyes were drooping, moved towards the white feathers in front of him, and his right hand rose up.

Bai Yu's fist slammed into Im's chest.

Im's body slid back three meters in that instant.

His feet carved two deep furrows in the ground.

His expression remained unchanged.

But a trace of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Im looked down at the marks on his chest.

Then he looked up at Bai Yu.

For the first time, something that could be called serious appeared in his eyes.

"I see."

For the first time, something that could be described as "solemn" appeared in his voice.

"You are indeed very similar to him when you're drunk."

"But you are different from him in one way."

Im's body vanished in that instant.

It wasn't a movement, it wasn't an instant, it wasn't any form of position; rather, it vanished, as if it had never existed, as if it had been removed from the causal chain of its world, as if all its information, quality, energy, and existence itself had been deleted from that world in that instant.

"I don't think your intoxication power can compare to that guy's. After all, that guy's intoxication is the Sun God's. You guys simply can't understand how powerful he was when I faced him back then."