Imu Opens His Eyes for the First Time in the Flower Room

Only after Windmill Village vanished beyond the horizon did Su Hang sit up from the deck.

The wound on his right arm had split open again, his shoulder was so swollen he could not lift it, and every breath still sent a burning pain through his lungs.

That staged death had fooled most of the Marines, but not the person on the other end of the Den Den Mushi.

The system display slowly unfolded.

[Interception of a highest-weight opportunity complete.]

[The predetermined destiny loop has been severed.]

[Worldline alteration: Nika host displaced.]

[The original recipient, Monkey D. Luffy, will enter an unknown path of growth.]

[First round of worldline rewards issued.]

Su Hang stared at the final line.

"I ate a fruit, nearly drowned twice, and got wanted across the East Blue. If this reward isn't enough, I'll suspect you of tricking your host into dying."

[Base physique adjustment commencing.]

A current of warmth spread from his chest through his limbs.

His dislocated shoulder joint tightened back into place, the torn muscles swiftly stopped bleeding, and the lingering pain in his lungs eased somewhat.

His injuries had not healed completely, but his physical foundation had become noticeably stronger than before he ate the fruit.

[Physique adjustment only raises the carrying limit. It cannot replace recovery.]

"At least you didn't make me immortal."

The second reward appeared in the system interface.

It was a broken stone fragment, its surface carved with several lines of ancient text resembling the Poneglyphs. Most of it was covered by black markings.

[Historical fragment acquired.]

[Current knowledge insufficient for full interpretation.]

[Warning: some records bear signs of overwriting.]

Su Hang reached out and touched the fragment.

Shattered images flooded his vision in an instant.

An enormous drum.

A city sunk beneath the sea.

A sun bound in iron chains.

And countless people standing at the edge of a fractured continent, sending something glowing into the darkness.

The images lasted only a moment before a line of cold text cut them off.

[The one who bears the sun must become the only--]

The rest was gone.

Su Hang frowned.

The carving marks in the upper and lower sections of the stone were not the same. The latter sentence was deeper and newer, as though someone had forcibly engraved it over the original text.

"Historical fragments can be altered too?"

[The system is only responsible for recording. It cannot guarantee that information has not been tampered with.]

"You can't even guarantee your own rewards are genuine?"

[Before the destruction of civilization, records may have been transferred multiple times.]

Su Hang rubbed the knuckle of his index finger and put the fragment away in the interface.

"Who added the line that Nika can only have one bearer?"

The system did not answer.

A new red prompt immediately covered the display.

[High-weight destiny altered.]

[Cause-and-Effect Lighthouse formed.]

[False death records cannot erase the Cause-and-Effect Lighthouse.]

[An unknown observation source exists in the current world.]

Su Hang recalled the unfamiliar voice from the Den Den Mushi.

That person knew he had taken the fruit with his left hand, knew his fingers had trembled when he swallowed, and even knew Benns could not fully repeat the code phrase.

That eye had been watching Windmill Village from the very beginning.

Lorne came up from the cabin and tossed him a roll of bandages.

"You look worse than when you were hiding in that water barrel."

"The system gave me something. It also brought bigger trouble."

Lorne leaned against the wooden ladder.

"I won't ask what you saw."

"Grey Stone Island is ahead. We can reach it before nightfall. Once we land, go your own way. Don't let the wanted ships target the Morning Bell Caravan."

Su Hang wrapped his shoulder with one hand.

"I won't go back on my word."

"Until we arrive, I'll deal with the trouble along the route for you."

"You know what's on this route?"

"When we left port, there were two fast boats without flags to the northeast. We changed course, and they changed course too. The distance never changed."

Lorne's expression darkened slightly.

"The Black Sail Raiders. They specialize in stealing disaster relief grain."

"How many?"

"Thirty to fifty. They have light cannons aboard."

"What do you plan to do?"

"Hand over thirty percent of the grain so everyone else stays safe."

Su Hang looked up at him.

"This grain is for disaster relief. If thirty percent is gone, people will go hungry."

"That's better than having the whole ship taken."

"Then they don't get a single sack."

"What are you going to use to defend this ship in your condition?"

Su Hang grabbed the overhead beam with his right hand, and his arm abruptly stretched out.

His body was pulled into the air. The next instant, he used the recoil to shoot toward the cabin door and punched through an empty wooden crate tied outside it.

Splinters flew several meters away.

His shoulder also trembled faintly in pain.

Lorne saw it clearly.

"You can only throw one punch."

Su Hang landed on the ground and hid his trembling hand in his sleeve.

"They don't know that."

"People who rob others at sea are best at picking on the weak. As long as they believe the second punch will punch through their ship, that's enough."

Lorne fell silent for a moment, then turned toward the deck.

"If you protect the grain ship, someone on Grey Stone Island can find you a ship."

"What kind of ship?"

"One that won't turn around the moment it sees a Marine flag."

The black sails in the distance were drawing closer.

Yet Su Hang did not immediately head up to the deck.

He looked toward the ceiling of the cabin. The pressure brought by that unknown observation source had still not faded.

Across the entire sea, a pair of eyes from a higher place had already turned toward the East Blue.

At the peak of the Red Line, Mary Geoise.

There was no wind in the Flower Room.

Imu sat at the end of the steps, a white butterfly perched on Imu's fingertip.

In the waterlike display before Imu, seven-year-old Luffy had originally reached for a wooden chest, but a vast shadow appeared before the lid opened.

A hand from outside the image reached inside first.

The predetermined scene was cut off.

The shadow swallowed the fruit, and the future immediately fractured into countless chaotic fragments.

Windmill Village, Sky Island, the burning Marine Headquarters, and the collapsing Red Line flashed past in succession. Not a single image could remain whole.

Imu opened Imu's eyes.

The butterfly fluttered between Imu's fingers.

The Five Elders stood beneath the steps. Two conflicting reports lay on the table before them.

One confirmed that the Nika host had drowned at sea, while the other came from Thorne, requesting a wanted notice for an unidentified rubber ability user.

"The East Blue report cannot be confirmed."

"The Red-Haired Pirates intervened, and the body was never found."

"To eliminate the risk, Windmill Village should be purged immediately. All witnesses should be dealt with as well."

"Thorne retained a skin sample from the ability user. Once it is handed to the Science Corps, his identity can be confirmed sooner or later."

Imu did not look at the reports.

"Whom did he save?"

The Five Elders fell briefly silent.

"A village child caught in the blast from the explosives."

"And?"

"He forced aside the cannon barrel and stopped the bombardment of the village. After falling into the sea, he also risked himself to save the original host."

Imu's fingertips slowly closed.

One piece of the white wing snapped off and fell among the flower petals.

"He seized the highest-weight fruit, yet protected unrelated people when his strength was insufficient. The death report was fake as well. He was deliberately drawing away the pursuit."

"This proves that the variable is extremely dangerous."

"Danger can be observed."

A blank list slowly unfurled beside the throne.

Imu picked up a pen and wrote two characters on the first line.

Su Hang.

For eight hundred years, countless names had been erased from history.

This was the first time someone's name had been personally written onto the list by Imu before that person appeared in the future.

One of the Five Elders asked in a low voice.

"Should we activate Uranus observation?"

"No need."

"Then how should Windmill Village be handled?"

"Suspend the purge. Release several things tempting enough to lure him in. Observe what he takes, whom he saves, and what he refuses power for."

"What if he continues changing the future?"

Imu raised Imu's eyes. In the shattered image, the shadow was leaving the East Blue port with the grain ship.

"Do not kill him. I want to know where this person who does not exist in the future will go."