Chapter 44

Black Zetsu looked at Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, his eyes shining with excitement. "You've finally come back to life!"

"I finally get to see you again!"

"I..."

Before Black Zetsu could finish, Ye cut him off. "Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, Black Zetsu violated Foundation regulations!"

"He was born from your will."

"You bear responsibility for his actions. Therefore, the Foundation has released you from the Six Paths-level Planetary Devastation seal."

Ye paused, then continued. "Under our regulations, you will first be taken into custody."

"You will be brought to the base to assist in research on the Flesh Heavenly Principle Orb as a D-Class Researcher."

"You will not be free until that research is complete!"

Kaguya Ōtsutsuki had only just been revived.

Her memories still ended with her two rebellious sons sealing her away using a Six Paths-level Planetary Devastation. Ye's words left her utterly bewildered.

She had indeed been released.

But something born from her own will had broken some rule.

And now an organization called the Foundation was going to arrest her for it.

What was any of this supposed to mean?

She did not understand what was happening, but she grasped one thing: the man called Ye intended to capture her.

He was her enemy!

At that thought, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki drew a deep breath, ready to smash this man, who showed not the slightest trace of Chakra, into a pulp.

But when she tried to summon her Chakra, she made a shocking discovery.

The vast ocean of Chakra within her had vanished without a trace. Even her physical strength had been sealed.

In other words, she was now as helpless as any ordinary woman.

This...

What was going on?

Ye locked Kaguya Ōtsutsuki up near Black Zetsu and Madara Uchiha. Black Zetsu then explained everything to her. "Mother, do you understand now?"

"I understand."

After hearing him out, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki turned to Black Zetsu and said flatly, "So this is your fault."

"That so-called SCP Foundation arrested me because of you!"

"Is that right?"

Black Zetsu nodded. "Mother, you could put it that way."

"But I—"

Kaguya Ōtsutsuki did not let him finish. "Don't call me Mother! I have no son like you!"

"No son of mine would ever do something like this!"

"You..."

At that moment, Madara Uchiha spoke from the side. "Compared to your other two sons, Black Zetsu..."

"He hasn't done too badly!"

"At least he didn't seal you away with a Six Paths-level Planetary Devastation."

Madara Uchiha paused, then added, "I have to ask: are you fated to be ruined by your sons?"

"Otherwise, why does each one cause you more trouble than the last?"

Kaguya Ōtsutsuki was so furious she nearly passed out. She wanted to slap Madara Uchiha dead, but all her power had been sealed.

With no other choice, she turned her head away and ignored Madara Uchiha and Black Zetsu.

Still, she could not help wondering: Am I really destined to suffer because of my sons?

While Kaguya Ōtsutsuki questioned her life, the White Emperor Battleship had already left the Ninja World and was heading straight for the next world whose inhabitants would be held accountable: the Pirate World...

In the Pirate World, at Mary Geoise!

Crack!

Ye, leader of the Special Task Force, crushed a Celestial Dragon's helmet under his foot. "Under the regulations, D-Class personnel are not permitted to wear any other equipment!"

"You may only wear the standard uniform."

In truth, if not for the SCP Foundation's regulations, the Special Task Force members would have gunned down the Celestial Dragons on the spot after learning what they had done in the Pirate World.

They could hardly be blamed.

The crimes of those people were too numerous to list.

Even calling them monsters who committed every evil imaginable would have been an insult to the phrase. The depths of depravity those parasites had reached were beyond anything a normal person could imagine.

Fortunately, from this day onward, those self-proclaimed "descendants of gods" would learn what hell felt like.

D-Class personnel were, to put it nicely, researchers who assisted the Doctors in studying Containment Objects.

To put it bluntly, they were expendable test material.

New Containment Objects were especially nightmarish for D-Class personnel. Ye suspected that the best fate awaiting those Celestial Dragons in the Doctors' hands...

...was death.

In the SCP Foundation, death was often a release.

The Celestial Dragon whose glass helmet Ye had crushed flew into a rage. In all nineteen years of his life, he had never been treated this way.

He instinctively reached for his gun.

But then he saw something that stopped him cold: the Five Elders, before whom he had always been required to kneel, were locked in a cage like dogs alongside a stranger.

A beam of white light drew the cage up toward the silver-white battleship hovering in the sky.

He stood there, stunned.

Only when someone shoved him did he come to his senses. A beam of white light then swept him into the battleship used to transport pirates.

The battleship holding ordinary Celestial Dragons also held pirates, mobsters, and members of underground organizations who had been brought to account. When they saw the once-untouchable Celestial Dragons...

They froze for a moment, then took out their anger on them.

After all, the Mobile Task Force had said they were forbidden to kill one another. Anything short of that was fair game.

People liked to make gods.

They liked watching gods fall even more. Best of all, they liked trampling those fallen gods to prove their own worth.

The same held true for the "descendants of gods"!

When the viewers in the livestream saw what was happening to the Celestial Dragons, they marveled at just how many ways people had found to torment someone!

How did they even come up with all that?

They'd really gone to some trouble!

[Empress: Thank you, Foundation. I, Hancock, will never forget what you've done for me. I've also applied to join the Foundation. Could you approve my application?]

[Vegapunk: I applied too, but I haven't received a reply. It seems the Foundation isn't interested in us.]

[Sengoku: The Celestial Dragons have been rounded up, the CP Intelligence Organization's members have been captured, and half the royal families are implicated. Add more than two thousand pirate crews and other organizations... More than half the powerful fighters in our Pirate World have been taken.]

[More importantly, the Devil Fruits they ate have been taken away with them.]

[The world is about to change.]

[Whitebeard: @Sengoku, release my son Ace. Otherwise, don't blame me for starting a war against Marine Headquarters.]

[Sakazuki: @Whitebeard, come and die!]

[Monkey D. Dragon: It's time to overthrow the old order and build a new one. Revolutionary Army, move out. Fight for a new order.]

[Kaido: That brat Doflamingo got caught too? Who's going to make Devil Fruits for me now?!]

[Luffy: Vivi, what were you thinking? Shirahoshi, you were involved too? Don't worry. I'll come save—ow!]

[Nami: Luffy's drunk. He doesn't know what he's saying!]

[Red-Haired Shanks: Everyone, do me a favor. Don't start anything right now.]

[...]

The Monster World!

"Genos, according to our Foundation's assessment!"

Clad in silver-white armor, Ye addressed Genos. "Your teacher, Saitama, does not fall under the category of Containment Objects."

"He will not be contained."

Genos finally breathed a sigh of relief. His greatest fear had been that the SCP Foundation would classify Saitama as a Containment Object like SCP-343, God.

If it had tried to contain him by force, Saitama and the SCP Foundation would inevitably have gone to war.

Genos had faith in his teacher's strength.

But the SCP Foundation's power was even more unfathomable, and it possessed numerous Containment Objects.

There was no telling which side would win.

Avoiding that battle was the best possible outcome.

Just as Genos relaxed, enormous monsters began rising into the sky, drawn toward the silver-white battleship by beams of white light...

They fought with all their might.

Yet no matter what they did, they could not break free of the white light.

That was hardly surprising. The light was the Eclipse Obelisk's sealing light.

It came from only a projection, but even that was beyond the monsters' ability to resist.

Once fully activated, the real Eclipse Obelisk could forcibly stabilize reality and temporarily nullify most Containment Objects.

It was one of the Foundation's trump cards.

To hold every world accountable this time, Ye had been authorized to use a projection of the Eclipse Obelisk and its sealing light.

The goal was to make the greatest possible show of force across the worlds.

When the viewers in the livestream saw one gigantic monster after another, they could no longer keep their composure.

They knew the Monster World was home to powerful beings.

But they had never imagined there would be so many monsters of such immense size.

If those monsters appeared in their worlds, it would not take many.

Three or four would be enough to cause a catastrophe!

What frightened them even more was that all those monsters were helpless as children before the white light. Resistance was out of the question...

They could not even struggle free.

The SCP Foundation's power was once again seared into their minds in the most unmistakable way.

After Ye had finished holding the Monster World's factions accountable and departed...

Tatsumaki flew over to Genos and spoke with rare seriousness. "Genos, I want to meet your teacher!"

"To invite him to join the Hero Association?"