Uchiha Puppet Master, Starting from One Piece.

His gaze 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 gaze 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 within them."

Im shook his head, dismissing his own guess.

"It's not symbiosis, it's disappearance. How did you do 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's 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—"

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 position of a servant, not the position of a tool, not the position 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's the soldier's position."

"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 and he are very similar."

Im looked at Bai Yu.

Bai Yu looked at Im.

Their gazes met in mid-air, without sparks, without light, without any dramatic visual effect.

But Loki's fur stood on end.

Shanks' Observation Haki captured 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 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.

Conqueror's Haki.

Before the two people's Conqueror's Haki was released into the outside world, it had already collided in the tiny, narrow space between their consciousnesses, which existed only between the two of them.

The space was so small that no one outside could feel 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 imperceptible arc that shifts 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 that instant, as if they had never existed, as if a layer of skin had been torn away, revealing what lay beneath.

"Since you have chosen a path..."

Im slowly raised his right hand.

"...Then I will personally see you off."

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 in from all directions in that instant. This force was not Haki, not Devil Fruit power, not any kind of power that could be categorized, but Im's will itself. His will was so powerful that it did not need to be "released" through any medium, any ability, or any means. 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, and his eyes told him that Bai Yu's voice came from the right. Three directions, three different pieces of information, three different criteria for 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, his Observation Haki had never deceived him.