Summon Imu / Succubus

Ace heard only an earth-shattering explosion behind him. Luffy's shouts reached his ears faintly, only to be drowned out by the deafening roar...

The tremendous impact sent Ace stumbling forward. When he looked back, he saw a massive trench in the ground, twenty meters across and stretching he knew not how far. Even the mountain at the end had been pierced by a huge hole, with light seemingly shining through from the other side.

A flick of a finger had blasted through a mountain?

[Satoru Gojo Mode remaining: 51 seconds]

Smack. Ruidio flicked the bewildered Ace on the forehead.

"Think it over."

With those words, he vanished.

Fourteen years ago, aboard the slave ship—

Ruidio appeared out of thin air, his hair white. This time, he had not randomly landed in the cell with the kidnapped girls, but on the level above, where he had already killed the guards once before.

[Satoru Gojo Mode remaining: 51 seconds]

Ruidio glanced at the system notification and thought, It looks like traveling through time and space takes almost no time at all, but the time I had left before coming in carries over...

The guards raised a clamor when they spotted his sudden appearance, but the next instant, gravity spheres formed beside them and sucked them in. In the blink of an eye, they were compressed into lumps of minced meat that pattered onto the floor like rain.

Boom!!

Cursed Energy surged through Ruidio's body as he blasted upward, smashing through the entire cabin and deck with unstoppable force. He broke open a huge hole and flew straight outside.

Chapter 54: Summon Imu

[Cover serial: Executive Vice President Miss All Sunday 4: "Deciding on three targets"]

[In the first half of the Grand Line, where Marine Headquarters had stronger control, there were only a few unsubstantiated rumors. After discussing them, Robin and Olvia picked out three leads and decided to visit them in order of distance.]

**********

It was the same night sky, with a black sea all around.

On the deck, Saint Shepherd Sommers was still laughing into the Den Den Mushi.

He heard a noise behind him and turned around in confusion. Beneath the night sky, a white-haired, blue-eyed man floated in midair, looking at him impassively.

[Satoru Gojo Mode remaining: 45 seconds]

"You insect from the lower world, who gave you permission to look down on me?"

Sommers shouted in displeasure and swept up a hand. Four thorn-covered vines sprang from the deck on either side of Ruidio, wrapping around him in midair.

Has his Fruit ability awakened?

Ruidio glanced at them. The thorns could not penetrate the Limitless barrier. They kept pushing inward, but could never reach the end and touch his body.

Sommers sensed something was wrong and opened his mouth wide in astonishment.

The mechanics of my Jujutsu are above your Devil Fruit, kid!

Ruidio increased his Cursed Energy output. The Limitless barrier expanded, stretching the thorny ropes around him wider and wider until they snapped one after another.

Before the severed vines had finished falling through the air, Ruidio had already teleported in front of the dumbfounded Sommers. The latter cried out, "Ah!" in fright and hurriedly backed away, repeatedly creating thick, hard vines on the floor to stab at Ruidio.

White-haired Ruidio teleported back and forth through the dense, surging attacks, flickering from place to place without letting a single leaf touch him. His blue eyes remained fixed on Sommers.

[Satoru Gojo Mode remaining: 32 seconds]

Sommers felt a chill under that gaze. He had just reached for his sword when, with a whoosh, the replica Sword of Wrath suddenly flew from its sheath and vanished into the night. At the same time, a pull of gravity came from that direction, dragging his hand after it.

"Ah!" Sommers staggered, but a tremendous pull of gravity abruptly came from the other side of his body too, yanking his arm desperately in that direction.

"Ah!!!"

Sommers stood with his arms and legs spread wide as the powerful gravitational forces on either side pulled at his body, threatening to tear him apart. He screamed in pain.

The white-haired, blue-eyed young man was already standing in front of him, half-crouched with his right fist behind his waist. He seemed... possibly... appeared... to be charging up?

Unable to move, Sommers let a string of snot run down his face and murmured, "Can we talk about this?"

Ruidio said nothing. A massive amount of dark blue Cursed Energy condensed around his fist, and he threw a punch.

[Satoru Gojo Mode remaining: 25 seconds]

Bam!!!!!!

Sommers saw a flash. By the time he came to his senses, he had flown an unknown distance, and the slave ship in the night had become a blurry speck of light.

At the last moment, he had grown a dense mass of the hardest thorns from his body and desperately infused them with Armament Haki to make them even harder!

But it had all been for nothing.

Those black thorns had failed to stop the fist for even half a second...

Sommers flew backward at tremendous speed, his blood tracing a straight line more than ten kilometers long across the sea. His limbs had been torn off, and the punch had blasted a hole through half his torso. They were rapidly regenerating, healing...

Damn it! Who the hell is this guy, appearing out of nowhere?!

Whoosh. In an instant, Ruidio caught up as if teleporting and suddenly appeared in front of him.

[Satoru Gojo Mode remaining: 22 seconds]

"Wait! I'm—mmph mmph mmph—"

Sommers cried out in panic, but Ruidio's hand clamped unceremoniously over his face. Then he heard the person behind the hand say coldly, "Call your 'master' here!"

This guy knows about Lord Imu?!

Sommers was horrified. With a splash, his back jolted, and cold seawater rushed in from all directions, swallowing him in an instant.

"Glug glug glug..."

As a Devil Fruit User, Sommers immediately lost all strength to resist. Ruidio pressed down on his head and took him beneath the sea.

[Satoru Gojo Mode remaining: 20 seconds]

Ruidio held Sommers by the neck and waited ten or twenty meters underwater.

Sommers's eyes rolled back, and his mouth hung wide open as seawater poured painfully into it.

Can Imu directly possess the Holy Knights?

Ruidio's azure eyes carefully studied Sommers's expression. Satoru Gojo's Six Eyes were especially adept at discerning details on the level of energy.

If Imu uses the devil contract on Sommers to possess him remotely, I absolutely won't miss any disturbance in energy at this distance...

[Satoru Gojo Mode remaining: 10 seconds]

[Satoru Gojo Mode remaining: 7 seconds]

[Satoru Gojo Mode remaining: 3 seconds]

Ruidio waited patiently, but nothing unusual happened to Sommers.

With three seconds left on his transformation, he punched into the unconscious Sommers's chest and pulled out a heart that looked as though it had been forged from steel, still beating with life.

The Cursed Energy under the Six Eyes' precise control erupted at full force in Ruidio's palm!

The immense dark blue Cursed Energy reinforced the Limitless barrier covering his hand, continuously squeezing the steel heart he suspected was the source of a member of the God's Knights' immortality...

The heart beat madly, like a steel jumping ■, but in the end he could not crush it.

Sommers's unconscious body did twitch involuntarily a few times, though.

Hope that hurts.

[Satoru Gojo Mode has ended]

Ruidio's white hair disappeared, and there was still no sign of Imu appearing.

Does he not want to? Or can't he?

Does the Deep Sea Contract of the God's Knights give Imu too little control to possess them from afar?

It seems Imu has only possessed Saturn and Gunko... And Gunko's appearance hasn't aged in sixty years, so her contract is obviously very likely on the same level as the Five Elders'...

Thinking this, Ruidio casually tossed the steel heart into the ocean current.

A few more seconds passed, and the system displayed the full notification—

[Name: Shepherd Sommers]

[Overall strength: ★★★★★]

[Mastered: devil contract (deep sea), Thorn-Thorn Fruit (utmost), Armament Haki (proficient), Observation Haki (beginner), Wrath Swordsmanship (skilled), Basic Physical Techniques (beginner)]

Looks like the utmost rating for a Devil Fruit means it has reached Awakening...

That was no surprise. Doflamingo had awakened his too. There were differences even between Awakenings.

Ruidio's figure vanished underwater.

Mount Colubo, East Blue—

The Counterclockwise-Rotating Transparent Prism vanished, and Ruidio suddenly appeared.

"Whoa!"

Luffy had been about to pick up the food left after it had been battered by attraction and repulsion, but he jumped in fright. Seeing Ruidio return a few seconds after disappearing, now soaking wet, he could not help but have a question mark pop up over his head.

"Where's Ace?" Ruidio asked, though he had already spotted him.

Ahead, Ace was walking along the vast trench Ruidio had blasted out with Hollow Purple, seemingly intending to go all the way to the end and see what was there.

He smiled, then pondered to himself.

For the empress's special mission, if Sommers is the only one, it won't be difficult to get the three of them off the slave ship.

The hard part is the mission's requirement to "return to the Kuja Pirates or Amazon Lily immediately"...

I don't even know where Amazon Lily is!

I'd better find my way there first.

With that thought, Ruidio vanished from the spot once more, leaving behind Luffy, who was already used to it, and a transparent prism turning slowly clockwise...

Chapter 55: Succubus

[Cover serial: Executive Vice President Miss All Sunday 5: "Target 1"]

[A giant turtle wearing a cowboy hat pulled up to shore. The mother and daughter, wearing black and white coats respectively and cowboy hats of their own, set foot on an island where the Revolutionary Army had reportedly been sighted.]

**********

Ruidio's vision blurred, and he found himself in a palace dominated by red. The columns he saw had a vaguely familiar style and supported a red latticework ceiling.

Ornately patterned pink drapes hung straight down. There was not a breath of wind here.

Women's voices came from the other side of the drapes...

Ruidio followed the sound.