When I opened my eyes again, the tip of my nose first encountered a light and clean smell of disinfectant.
There were no rusty torture instruments, no cold chains, and not even the expected damp and cold moisture in the cell.
Toki was lying on a flat bed with a plain white ceiling above his head.
The room was not big, with tables, chairs, a washroom, and a row of old books all in place, but there were no real windows.
The seemingly light-transmitting window pane on the wall is just a projection of cloud scenes playing in a loop.
She sat up holding the edge of the bed, and her first reaction was to look inside at Time Fruit.
The ability is still there and has not been sealed.
Only then did she notice that on the other side of the room, separated by a thick layer of special glass, stood a man with an exaggeratedly large head.
Vegapunk.
"Are you awake?" He flipped through the clipboard in his hand without raising his head.
Toki said nothing and tightened his fingertips slightly.
"You saved yourself a huge trouble."
"Rock..." Her voice was very soft.
"Not found." Vegapunk said directly, "The moment Time Fruit was activated, the target separated from the current timeline. With our current technology, we cannot pursue it."
Toki's face turned pale.
Vegapunk raised his eyes and glanced at her, then added, "Don't look like this. He was able to leave instructions in the end, which shows that he is conscious. As for which year he was swept away -" he spread his hands, "I don't know."
The room was silent for a few seconds.
Toki looked down at the back of his hand and asked softly, "What are you going to do with me?"
"Research."
She looked up sharply.
"Don't worry, I'm not cutting you into slices for study." Vegapunk knocked on the glass, "Rock's meaning is very clear. Time Fruit is a rule-based ability. It's too dangerous. You have to understand the basic operating rules."
"In the future, we will draw blood, collect Lineage Factor, and do several safety tests. It will not harm the body."
Toki was silent for a moment. "Can I refuse?"
"Okay."
She was stunned for a moment, not expecting it to be so straightforward.
"Then what?"
"Then I went to tell Marine Headquarters that you refused to cooperate with the research."
Toki:"..."
Vegapunk looked like it was natural.
Only then did she realize that this man's words were actually quite irritating.
He lowered his head and continued taking notes, and suddenly asked casually, "Why?"
"What why?"
"Why did you send Rock away?"
Toki Be quiet.
After a long, long time, she whispered, "If I don't do that, Wano Country will be ruined."
Vegapunk's pen stopped.
"You actually like that kind of country?"
One question made her completely speechless.
Do you like it?
The smoke of Onigashima flashed through her mind, as did the civilians who were squeezed to the bone by the mines;
A series of numb faces flashed through, waiting day after day for "Kozuki returns" and "the arrival of the savior";
I also flashed past those powerful people who are rotten to the core, but are still scheming, striving and pushing each other.
Do you like it? She suddenly couldn't say anything.
In the end, she just said softly, "That... is the place I have always wanted to go to for over eight hundred years."
Vegapunk looked at her. "These are two different things."
"What?"
"You spent eight hundred years trying to get there, and whether that place is worth your entire time are two different things."
Toki was stunned.
Vegapunk didn't push her anymore and closed the record board. "Forget it, my mind will definitely be confused when I wake up. Just think about it slowly."
After saying that, he turned around and left.
She was the only one left in the room, sitting by the bed for a long time.
That night, she repeatedly thought about the last moment she activated the fruit.
The more I think about it, the heavier my heart becomes.
Because she suddenly discovered that she had actually been disappointed for a long time.
Even before taking action, she knew that the country was in ruins.
Even she herself didn't know what it was that she was trying so hard to protect.
Not a specific child, not a dying citizen, or even a living life.
What she protected were the three words "Wano Country".
Just because I traveled eight hundred years to find it, just because I walked too far and took too long.
So when it was about to be destroyed, she took action instinctively.
But if you admit that Wano Country is not important enough to be worthy of making a choice for the entire era, is it equivalent to admitting that your obsession, which has spanned eight hundred years, was not that great from the beginning?
Toki hugged his knees and didn't sleep a wink all night.
After Rock disappeared, the world would not just stop, but it would actually be in chaos for a while.
New World All forces are re-evaluating the situation. The territories occupied by Kaido and Charlotte Linlin are about to move. The major pirate groups have resurfaced. World Government is also frequently testing the navy's bottom line.
Countless eyes that had not dared to move were once again fixed on the sea.
Vegapunk never preached to her, nor did she come over every day and tell her, "Look, it's all your fault."
He just threw a few newspapers into the observation room every few days.
Toki didn't want to look at it at first, but then couldn't help but pick it up.
A conflict broke out in a certain sea area, several trade routes began to shrink, and the pirates who had been suppressed by the navy began to plunder again. World Government pressed forward on various issues...
Looking at each of them alone, the sky was not falling, but when they were put together, she truly realized it for the first time.
When he raised his hand, he never took away more than one person.
It is a force that is pushing the entire era forward.
Rock is not the only pillar of the world. Without him, the world will not collapse immediately.
But his sudden absence really changed the choices of many people.
She used to comfort herself, I just saved Wano Country.
But now she can no longer say these words.
She never saves just "people".
She relied on her own obsession to directly choose a timeline for an entire era without asking anyone.
More than half a year later, Vegapunk came again, holding only one document in his hand.
"One last time."
Toki looked up. "What?"
"Message from Wano Country. You asked before, and I will give it to you this time." He sent the file in from the transmission slot.
Toki Pick it up and turn it page by page.
There are no miracles.
Ordinary people are still being squeezed, and the old order has not automatically changed for the better just because Rock disappeared.
Some people are still waiting for Kaido, some are still waiting for Kozuki, and some still firmly believe that a hero will come from the future.
All the mess is still there, motionless.
She read to the end and didn't turn the page for a long time.
After a few minutes, she closed the file and pushed it back.
"In the future..."
Vegapunk raised his eyes. "Huh?"
"Wano Country's information, there is no need to give it to me anymore."
Vegapunk raised his eyebrows. "Don't read it?"
"Don't watch anymore."
"Angry?"
"No."
Toki shook his head, his voice was very calm. "I just suddenly felt that I have seen enough."
Vegapunk stared at her for a few seconds, took away the document without asking any more questions.
From that day on, Toki never asked Wano Country again.
Not once.
In the first year, she would always wake up in the middle of the night and keep her eyes open until dawn.
The same question kept running through my mind: In which year did Rock go? Can he come back? How much time did he steal by raising his hand?
In the third year, Vegapunk suddenly discovered that this woman who had traveled from eight hundred years ago was more useful than all the archaeologists in the institute put together.
"What does this word mean?" He came over holding a rubbing from an ancient tablet.
"It's not the meaning you understand now." Toki pointed his fingertips on the rubbings, "In my time, this word was mostly used in records of grain sacrifices."
Vegapunk's eyes lit up. "What about the name of this ancient country?"
"It's long gone. Back then in the Western South Blue region, people there loved to eat a very sour wild fruit."
"Wait a minute!" Vegapunk quickly lowered his head and memorized, "Why do you even remember this?"
Toki glanced at him. "Because I lived there."
Vegapunk Suddenly felt that he had picked up a living ancient history book.
In the fifth year, a young researcher in the institute celebrated her birthday and secretly invited her to eat cake with her.
She sat very reservedly at first, but then someone smeared cream on her face as a joke. She was stunned for a long time, but she actually laughed.
In the seventh year, she began to take the initiative to read the daily newspapers in the institute.
She would look at which new ports were opened in the Eastern South Blue region, the excitement when ordinary people boarded the Sea Train for the first time, and the naval rescue team that reduced casualties in shipwrecks to the lowest level in history.
I would also listen to the young people in the laboratory chatting about who was in love and who blew up the experiment. Vegapunk stayed up for three days and three nights and was forced to sleep by his subordinates.
Toki suddenly discovered that there are so many interesting things in this era.
By the tenth year, she had long stopped counting how long Rock had been gone.
She was used to a cup of hot tea every morning, used to helping researchers sort out ancient documents at noon, and used to go for a walk on the plank road outside the research area in the evening.
She would even think that Vegapunk had piled up information in a mess, so she started to say a few words about him.
He looks more and more like a person who truly lives in this era.
One day, Vegapunk suddenly asked her, "Toki."
"Huh?"
"Why don't you run?"
Toki's hand that was sorting the slate paused.
"What?"
"With your ability, it's not difficult to leave here, right?" Vegapunk pointed at her, "Send yourself ten years later, twenty years later, or even further."
Toki looked at his palm.
Time Fruit's power is still flowing quietly in her blood, and she can leave at any time if she wants.
Always possible.
She was quiet for a long time and then said softly, "I probably would have done this in the past."
Vegapunk became interested. "What now?"
Toki lowered his head and looked at the lines on his palm. "I suddenly discovered that I have escaped eight hundred years ago."
Vegapunk said nothing.
"I always felt that if you look a little further forward, you can see the correct future. If you look a little further forward, you can find an era that is truly worth reaching."
She smiled, a little self-deprecating.
"But now think about it, if you don't do anything today, why will you get better in the future?"
The glimmer of time did not light up.
She just put her hand back on the stone.
"So this time, I won't leave."
Some days later, the door of the laboratory suddenly slid open.
Toki was lowering his head to sort out the rubbings. When he heard the sound of footsteps, he subconsciously looked up and the brush in his hand fell to the table with a "pop".
Standing at the door is Rock.
Coat It's still the same one, and there's no change in her facial features, as if she just went out for a walk and came back the next day.
But only she knew that she had been waiting here for ten years.
The two of them were separated by a long laboratory, and neither of them moved first.
Toki has imagined countless times what his first words would be if he came back.
Explain? Defend? Or tell the story of what happened that day again?
But on this day, all the words I had prepared in my mind were gone, and only three words were left.
"I'm sorry."
Rock nodded. "Yeah."
Toki was stunned. "... Huh?"
"I heard it."
"You..." she hesitated, "Won't you scold me?"
Rock thought for a while, "I have thought about it."
"Then why..."
Rock walked in, pulled up a chair and sat down.
"You're not trying to kill me. You just think you know what kind of future is right, and then you choose it for everyone."
Toki's face turned pale a little.
This sentence was more serious than scolding her.
Because in the past ten years, she herself finally figured it out.
Rock's biggest concern was never that she was sent away, but that she decided for everyone how to go in the future with her own obsession.
After a long silence, Toki asked in a low voice, "Do you hate me?"
Rock touched his chin. "It used to be quite annoying."
"What now?"
"Ten years have passed."
Toki's voice was softer. "It's not ten years for you."
Rock paused.
For him, the time jump is just a blink of an eye.
But these ten years have really happened - some people have grown up, some have aged, some have died, and some have made choices that should not have been made so early.
These times do not exist just because he has not experienced them.
After a long while, Rock sighed.
"Don't choose the future for others in the future."
Toki nodded. "No way."
Vegapunk, who was nearby, finally took the opportunity to interject. "Then what should she do?"
Rock turned around. "What should I do?"
"Supervision!"
"Let it go."
Vegapunk's eyes widened. "This is time Devil Fruit User!"
Rock looked at Toki: "I haven't run away in ten years. I really want to run away. Can you lock me up?"
Vegapunk:"..."
It seems like it really can't be shut down.
Moreover, after ten years of getting along with her, he was already quite familiar with her. But if he really put Seastone on her, he would be a bit unable to do it.
Rock stood up. "Let's go."
Toki was startled. "Where to go?"
"Whatever. Go do your own thing."
After saying that, he turned around and walked out.
Toki stood there, suddenly confused.
For the first time, no one told her where to go.
There is no instruction from ancestors, no guidance from prophecy, no destiny of Wano Country, and there is no so-called "correct era twenty years from now".
Instead, she didn't know where to go.
Three days later, Toki appeared in the research area of Vegapunk.
Vegapunk was stunned when he saw her. "Why are you still here?"
"I don't know where to go."
"So?"
"Don't you need an ancient history consultant here?"
Vegapunk blinked. "You want to stay?"
"For now."
"Do you want a salary?"
Toki was also stunned for a moment. "Is there still salary?"
Vegapunk rolled his eyes. "Do you think all researchers drink northwest wind?"
"What about my previous salary?"
Vegapunk was choked for a moment and changed the topic to discuss research. Toki laughed.
From that day on, Toki had his first job that truly belonged to him.
She is no longer Amatsuki Family's person, no longer Wano Country's guardian, no one's wife, nor is she an alien who traveled through time eight hundred years ago.
She is just an ordinary ancient history consultant·Toki.
After some time, Vegapunk came over with a new report.
"Wano Country over there--"
"No need to tell me." Toki didn't even raise his head.
Vegapunk stopped and said, "The changes are quite big this time. Are you sure you don't want to take a look?"
"Hmm."
"Not curious?"
"Not curious."
Vegapunk glanced at the document in his hand.
It reads: The liquidation of the old samurai group has been completed, the old noble list has been processed, the navy has taken over the ports, mines and weapons factories, and the reconstruction of the Seastone production system has been completed.
He raised his head again. "You really don't want to see it?"
Toki paused with the pen in his hand, and then continued to sort out the documents on the table.
"Don't look."
"Don't want to know at all?"
She raised her head this time, thought for a moment, and then smiled.
"That's their current Wano Country, and it has nothing to do with me anymore."
Vegapunk looked at her for a few seconds and finally closed the report.
"Okay."
Later, a new label was added next to "Wano Country" on World Map: [Seastone core production area].
Toki occasionally scans it, and the gaze will only stay for a second, and then the page will be turned.
It turns out that when you really let go of a place, it's never about hating it, but because it can no longer influence the direction of your steps.
Time is still moving forward.
The world is getting faster and faster.
The Adventure Group system gradually matured, one Sea Gate was opened one after another, Fish-Man began to travel freely to and from the sea, the Sea Train route became longer and longer, and the Sky Island route also entered the lives of ordinary people.
The era in which one had to raise the skull and crossbones flag in order to freely go to sea has retreated into history little by little.
Until one day, a newspaper was delivered to the institute.
Toki Pick it up, there are only five big words on the front page: [The Age of Adventure]
Below is a picture of the latest World Map, with large areas marked blank again.
Toki stood there and looked at it for a long time.
Vegapunk came over from behind and asked casually, "What? You want to see the future again?"
Toki shook his head. "No."
"Then you have been looking at it for so long?"
She stared at the blank space on the map and suddenly smiled.
"I want to go out and have a look."
Vegapunk was stunned. "Where to go?"
"I don't know."
When Toki said these three words, he was startled.
In the past, "not knowing the destination" meant uneasiness and the need to continue escaping into the future.
Ten years after escaping, twenty years later, a hundred years later, I always feel that there will be an era that will give me the answer.
But now, the word "I don't know" doesn't seem so scary.
Because she finally understood that the future was never an answer lying far away, waiting for people to step over and pick it up.
First Sea Gate was built brick by brick, Adventure Guild was built noisily, the new route was built by a ship, and even this sea that can accommodate everyone to go out to sea freely was built by countless people gritting their teeth.
This new era was not predicted by anyone, nor did she wait eight hundred years to arrive.
It is the people who are alive today who have come out step by step.
Toki looked down at his palms.
The self that used to think about jumping into the future whenever I reached a desperate situation suddenly became a little distant.
At this moment, a Heaven-Shaking Strike sound suddenly came from outside the research port.
"Aunt Shi--!!"
The bright voice blasted all the way from the port into the research area.
Toki was stunned.
The next second--
"Boom!"
A figure jumped directly from the bow of the ship in the distance and hit the ground hard, even the floor shook.
Toki Before he could see the person clearly, he was already being hugged.
"You are really alive!!"
"Wait, Yamato... be gentle..." Toki's face was almost squeezed into the other person's arms.
Yamato quickly let go, but still held her shoulders, looking left and right. "It's really you!"
"Hmm."
"Why are you getting older?"
Toki:"..."
This kid's first words are always so heartbreaking.
She touched her cheek, which was no longer young, and smiled, "Time Fruit can't make people stay young forever."
"Oh!" Yamato accepted it immediately, and then asked, "Where have you been these years?"
"If I hadn't met Rock Fleet Admiral, I wouldn't have known you were here!!"
Toki thought for a while, "I didn't go anywhere."
Yamato was stunned. "Huh?"
"This is the first time," Toki looked back at the research institute behind him, "I have stayed there for so long in one era."
Yamato didn't quite understand those twists and turns, and she didn't need to understand either.
"Then where do you want to go now?"
Toki said nothing, looking past Yamato towards the port.
A ship was parked there, with a flag White Wolf Flag hung on the bow. The wolf head on the flag grinned and looked lively.
There was a group of noisy crew members standing on the deck. Some were repairing sails, some were moving supplies, and some were shouting from a distance, "Captain! Can we leave yet?!"
Yamato turned around and yelled, "What's the rush! Now!"
Then she turned back and stretched out her hand to Toki.
"If you have nowhere to go, just come with me."
Toki looked at that hand.
"Yamato."
"Huh?"
"Where to go?"
Yamato immediately pulled out a map from his waist and unfolded it with a bang. A large area on it was blank.
She raised her hand and poked it in the middle. "Here!"
Toki lowered his head and glanced. "What's there?"
Yamato grinned brightly and simply. "I don't know!"
Toki was suddenly stunned.
Eight hundred years ago, she jumped to the future again and again because she couldn't see the way forward clearly, as if the further she hid, the closer she would get to the correct answer.
But the girl in front of her clearly knew nothing about what was ahead, yet her smile was brighter than the sea breeze.
Toki looked at her and then at the blank sea chart.
Then, she stretched out her hand and gently placed it on Yamato's palm.
"Okay. Let's go then."
Yamato grabbed her, pulled her and ran towards the port.
Vegapunk looked dumbfounded from behind and quickly shouted, "Wait a minute!"
Toki stopped and looked back at him.
This time, what she was looking at was not Wano Country, not the past, but this research institute.
This was the place where she stopped for the first time and stayed there for ten years.
Vegapunk waved a stack of information in his hand. "If you encounter ruins from eight hundred years ago in the future! Remember to send the information back!"
Toki smiled.
"Got it."
The White Wolf adventure ship slowly left the port.
The wind was strong and the sails were soon full.
Yamato had already run to the front, waving his arms and shouting, "Raise the sails! Go to the northeast! Go to the nameless sea first!"
The crew members responded in unison, "Got it--!"
At the stern of the ship, Toki stood alone.
The research port became farther and farther away, gradually shrinking into a small dot.
She raised her hand, and a faint glimmer of time shone on her palm.
A very familiar force.
As long as she has a thought, one year later, ten years later, twenty years later... she can still jump directly to it.
Go and see what the era of adventure was like at that time, see how many seats Sea Gate opened, and see what New World eventually became.
The pale golden light beats quietly in the palm of my hand.
Toki looked at it for a long time, and then slowly closed his fingers.
Snap.
The light went out.
She turned around, no longer looking at the distant coast, and walked towards the bow of the ship step by step.
"Aunt Shi!" Yamato turned around and shouted.
"Huh?"
"Let's walk around the empty White Sea area first!"
Toki walked to her side and nodded. "Okay."
"Then what?"
Yamato was stunned for a moment. "Then?" She scratched her head, as if she had never considered this issue before, and finally waved her hand. "We'll talk about it then!"
Toki was stunned for two seconds and suddenly smiled.
Yes.
White Wolf Flag fully unfolded in the wind, the bow broke through the waves, and sailed steadily towards the unmarked sea in the distance.
Toki came from eight hundred years ago and has been looking for a "correct future" his whole life.
She once thought that the future was a place that had already been written. As long as she kept moving forward and crossing time, she would eventually be able to reach it.
But it wasn't until the ship, loaded with unknowns, truly sailed into the void, that she finally understood: the future is never an end point waiting for someone to reach it.
There is no fixed pattern, and there is no answer written in advance by anyone.
The ship is still moving forward.
Toki stood on the bow and did not start Time Fruit.
This time, she didn't jump to the future.
She is just walking towards the future with everyone.