Mission Scroll

Dark white Reverse Cursed Technique energy poured from Ruidio's bleeding, severed wrist. Amid scalding steam, a brand-new left hand quickly grew back.

Ruidio clenched his fist and threw a punch into the air, producing an explosive crack.

It was as good as new.

He smiled.

Although the transformation lasted only one minute a day, even setting its combat power aside, it at least gave him one free full-health respawn at the fountain each day.

It was basically a budget version of the God's Knights' immortality.

Besides...

[Name: Ruidio (Satoru Gojo Mode)]

[Overall strength: ★★★★★★]

[Mastered: Cursed Energy application (ultimate), overall physical combat (ultimate), Domain Expansion (mastered), Reverse Cursed Technique (proficient), Limitless (mastered), Barrier Technique (mastered), Running (ultimate), Swimming (ultimate), Playful Cloud Staff Technique (beginner), Six Powers: Soru (beginner), Shimotsuki Swordsmanship (rudimentary)]

[Hired: Nami (approximately 26 days remaining), Nico Robin (approximately 10 days remaining)]

With stats and combat power like these... I should be pretty decent, right?

Crocodile, where are you? Someone bring him over!

On the shore a short distance to the west, a long-nosed boy who had been sea fishing in the evening stared at him, dumbstruck and tongue-tied, as though he had seen a ghost.

It's Usopp.

Ruidio had not paid him any mind, but when he glanced over, he let out a surprised "Huh?"

"Ruidio?"

Kaya's voice came from behind him, full of shock and confusion.

Ruidio turned around just as the one-minute Satoru Gojo transformation ended, and his white hair quietly turned black again... But before the gemlike blue vanished from his eyes, he clearly saw the same peculiar phenomenon on Kaya that he had seen on Usopp.

Wait, why are both of you glowing green??

On the way back, a suspicious Kaya kept hold of Ruidio's left hand, examining it.

Had she seen it wrong? That made no sense.

She had distinctly seen Ruidio cut off his left hand with a single stroke, yet the hand was now clearly unharmed, and they had found no severed hand by the sea, either.

Ruidio was staring at her, too.

Satoru Gojo's blue eyes were special organs called the "Six Eyes."

They were not an ocular technique, but the Six Eyes did indeed possess special abilities.

Simply put:

1. Other people needed training, accumulated experience, and concentration to see Cursed Energy, but the Six Eyes could see it directly with the naked eye and at a level of detail that other Jujutsu Sorcerers would struggle to match after a lifetime of cultivation.

2. The Six Eyes gave Satoru Gojo atomic-level precision in the use of Cursed Energy, making his energy consumption nearly zero when fighting with it or using skills as he pleased.

Leaving the second point aside for now, the first convinced Ruidio that the green light he had seen around Usopp and Kaya through the Six Eyes before his transformation ended was definitely not an illusion.

Did people in the pirate world have Cursed Energy too?

But Cursed Energy wasn't that color. What was that sparkling green light supposed to mean?

But the transformation lasted only one minute, and he had used up today's allotment. Even if Ruidio wanted another look, he would have to wait until the transformation's cooldown ended tomorrow.

That night, Ruidio lay in bed in the guest bedroom and retrieved the other item reward from the Ohara mission. It was a large, ordinary-looking piece of stiff paper.

Two item rewards from a single mission. Was that what you'd expect from five-star difficulty?

[Intermediate Synthesis Blueprint]

[Description: This is a blank Intermediate Synthesis Blueprint. You can consume this item when using the system's Three-in-One function, and the synthesis result will follow the requirements you have written on the blueprint.]

[Note 1: If the design requirements written on the blueprint cannot be fulfilled or conflict with one another, choices will be made automatically.]

[Note 2: These choices will be optimized based on the ideas and tendencies provided by the blueprint.]

[Note 3: This item cannot be copied.]

Chapter 41: Mission Scroll

The next day, in the guest bedroom—

A scroll floated in midair, slowly opening to reveal a blank surface.

Ruidio leaned against the headboard and watched quietly.

As for the equally blank Synthesis Blueprint, he had already made plans for it as soon as he read the item description. To put those plans into action, though, he would have to wait until he returned to Shimotsuki Village.

What requirements should I write?

Ruidio pondered.

If the requirements were too difficult or demanding, the scroll probably would not find anything even if it smoked from the effort. And even if it succeeded, who knew how long the search would take? By then, he might not even want it anymore.

It would be best if I could test Satoru Gojo Mode's combat power...

He considered it for a moment and made his decision:

[Requirement 1: The mission's difficulty must be based on my current three-star overall strength.]

[Requirement 2: Marine Admiral Kizaru must be involved.]

[Requirement 3: Kizaru must not be directly hostile to me, nor be an unavoidable obstacle to my completing the mission.]

The words appeared in a rush on the previously blank scroll.

"Hmm... that should do it!"

Ruidio checked everything, then decisively selected the latter of the Mission Scroll's two options: [Fuzzy Search] and [Precise Search].

[Precise search in progress...]

The new notification appeared on the scroll, its ellipsis flashing continuously.

Ruidio was bored enough to watch the ellipsis cycle for several minutes. Only when someone knocked on the door did he wave his hand, sending the floating Mission Scroll flying toward him as a streak of light before it disappeared.

An icon for the Mission Scroll appeared in the upper-left corner of the system radar interface, accompanied by an indicator resembling a Wi-Fi signal. Its bars continued to rise and fall, showing that the search was still in progress...

Ruidio got up and opened the door to find Merry, the butler, holding a medical kit.

He had come to change Ruidio's dressings, only to find that there were no wounds to treat.

Yesterday, when Ruidio tested the Reverse Cursed Technique by cutting off and regenerating his hand, he had also healed the wounds Kalifa's father had left on his body with Rankyaku and Shigan.

Merry exclaimed, "Incredible... it's as though you were never injured!"

"Don't run! Wait for me... Ah! You behave yourself too!"

Kaya's shouts came from the hallway outside.

Ruidio and Merry poked their heads out and saw Kaya surrounded by a group of cats. One lay on her head, two were in her arms, and two clung to her shoulders and back. At her feet, which hesitated for fear of stepping on a cat's tail, and between her legs, three more cats chased one another, leaping left and right.

Merry smiled. "After you mentioned it yesterday, Mr. Ruidio, Miss Kaya bought nearly all the cats from the nearby villages."

Sweat covered Kaya's face as she made her way over with difficulty amid a chorus of meows.

"The Black Cat's ship has been moved over, right?"

Ruidio asked Merry. The butler nodded. "It's anchored at the nearest shore now. We also removed the pirate flag and the skull designs on the sails, as you requested."

Kaya said in surprise, "Ruidio, are you leaving?"

Ruidio took a calico cat from her arms and stroked it, smiling. "I'll probably stay another two or three days. Sorry for the trouble, but could you take these cats to the ship and have them catch all the rats aboard?"

"No problem," Merry said with a smile.

Ruidio reminded him, "Count how many cats you take aboard, and bring every one of them back out afterward. I don't really like having animals on the ship."

"All right." The butler took the cats to help Ruidio clear out Kuro's pirate ship.

"Come on."

Ruidio beckoned to Kaya. "Show me around the area and introduce me to that long-nosed kid from yesterday."

Kaya, who had been feeling a little down, followed him with a spring in her step. With her hands behind her back, she smiled and said, "You mean Usopp? What do you mean, 'kid'? He's only a year younger than you."

"Hey, Miss Kaya, what's wrong with him?"

By the roadside in Syrup Village, Usopp, whose nose was as long as Pinocchio's, nervously asked the blond young lady beside him.

Kaya was startled too, staring blankly at Ruidio's current appearance.

His black hair and eyes had turned into beautiful white hair and blue eyes. Those eyes in particular were clear, brilliant, and radiant, like a pair of priceless sapphires.

After looking at her and Usopp for a few seconds, those deep blue eyes swept over the villagers going about their business: walking along the little village's streets, chatting with people by windows, and coming back from the docks with fish baskets on their backs...

Every one of them had a layer of green light glowing around their bodies, just like Kaya and Usopp.

More precisely, it was a faint green energy.

Could this be Haki?

After all, a certain mediocre teacher had once said that everyone in the world had the potential for Haki; most people simply did not know how to use it.

But was Haki this color? So green?

Do I have it too?

Ruidio wondered.

Both yesterday and now, the moment he activated the Satoru Gojo transformation, Cursed Energy had instinctively emerged from his body, using Limitless to form a protective barrier over his skin that blocked everything. As a result, he had never paid attention to whether he had the same green energy around his own body.

He raised both hands...

Forget it. There's no need to dispel the Cursed Energy around my body to check. Why would I be glowing green all over?

Impossible. Absolutely impossible.

Using the Six Eyes, Ruidio studied Kaya in front of him, examining the peculiar green energy throughout her body in minute detail...

One thing was certain: it was indeed similar to Cursed Energy, but not quite the same.

Maybe the different energies of different worlds were fundamentally much the same?

Ruidio speculated.

If that was the case, it was undoubtedly the best news for him.

The Six Eyes could control his own Cursed Energy at the atomic level, reducing its consumption in actual combat to almost zero. It made the meter run backward, giving him unlimited stamina.

Then what if I learned Haki?

Could I use it perfectly, with unlimited stamina, too?

Wait, the transformation only lasts one minute in total. What's the point of unlimited stamina or not...