Kaguya-sama:
"I can see it! The picture quality is incredible… it's a thousand tis clearer than watching a movie in ultra-HD. So this is the dinsional corridor?"
Kaguya-sama:
"It's pretty dark all around, but there's a point of light up ahead."
Kaguya-sama:
"If I had to guess… that's the exit, right?"
RawrSoFierce:
"Yeah, that pinpoint of light is the way out."
RawrSoFierce:
"Finally here. The corridor was probably 100 to 150 ters long."
After posting that ssage, Ryū pulled his consciousness out of the chat group. He'd reached the end of the corridor — that small point of light was now a white, swirling vortex right in front of him.
One step through, and he'd be in the One Piece world.
Honestly, the whole dinsional-transfer experience was kind of underwhelming. Ryū had been expecting so grand, awe-inspiring visual spectacle.
Instead, it was just… walking through a hundred-ter tunnel.
Walk to the end, and you're in another dinsion. No fanfare. No danger.
Not that he wanted danger, mind you.
Ryū stepped into the white vortex. A bizarre sensation of spinning hit him — like the world had flipped upside down for a split second — but it vanished in less than a heartbeat.
A gentle sea breeze brushed against his face.
He turned his head just in ti to see another white vortex materialize beside him. Out of it stepped a figure carrying an ornate, almost otherworldly parasol — a certain Gap Yōkai, walking with the unhurried grace of soone strolling through a garden.
Yukari Yakumo's gaze shifted, settling directly on Ryū.
The sudden appearance of two strangers on the Moby Dick instantly snapped every mber of the Whitebeard Pirates out of their grief. Alert gazes locked onto Ryū and Yukari from all directions — sharp, wary, ready for a fight.
Nearly a quarter of the Whitebeard Pirates were proficient in Observation Haki. The mont two unknown presences appeared on deck, dozens of crew mbers detected them simultaneously.
The division commanders, in particular, radiated open hostility.
Marco fixed the newcors with a hard stare — one man, one woman — his brow creasing deeper by the second.
Every instinct was screaming caution.
Anyone who could appear on the Moby Dick without making a sound was no ordinary person.
Were these enemies?
The atmosphere on deck turned razor-sharp in an instant.
"Ufufu~ what a unique welcoming party. It's been ages since this one has experienced sothing like this. The last ti was during the Lunar War, if mory serves."
Yukari covered her mouth with a delicate laugh, parasol resting against her shoulder.
She turned her attention from Ryū to Whitebeard — but if anyone had been watching her face closely, they would have noticed a flicker of genuine surprise.
Because when Yukari had just been observing the Admin, she'd discovered sothing unsettling.
She couldn't read him at all.
He appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary human.
So this was the man who held the title of Admin… clearly not soone to be underestimated. She couldn't see through him whatsoever.
(In reality, there was nothing to see through. He genuinely was just an ordinary human.)
Ryū, anwhile, had been studying Yukari just as intently. It was his first ti seeing a living, breathing Yukari Yakumo in person. The closest he'd co before was spotting cosplayers at ani conventions back in his previous life.
The Gap Yōkai looked genuinely young. If you didn't know better, you'd swear she was actually around seventeen years old.
"Marco, Ace — stand down. These aren't enemies. They're the two old friends I ntioned earlier."
Sensing the situation escalating, Whitebeard quickly defused his sons' hostility. Then he turned to Yukari and Ryū with an apologetic expression.
"I didn't expect you both to arrive so quickly, Admin-dono, Yukari-senpai."
Saying "Yukari-senpai" stirred up complicated feelings inside Whitebeard. Because standing before him, Yukari Yakumo looked younger than Ace.
But she was, in fact, a yōkai who'd been alive for millennia.
The Admin had no reason to lie about that, right?
Speaking of which… the Admin looked awfully young too.
Whitebeard was starting to wonder: did extrely powerful, long-lived beings just… stop aging? Did their appearance freeze sowhere between sixteen and twenty?
Because both Yukari and the Admin looked like they were squarely in that range.
Yukari regarded Whitebeard with visible amusent. "'Senpai' is certainly more polite than 'old granny.' Worlds more courteous than a certain Admin who had the audacity to call this seventeen-year-old maiden such a dreadful thing."
She didn't reject the title. To a being as ancient as Yukari Yakumo, a seventy-year-old Whitebeard was barely a blink of an eye. He probably didn't even register as a child in her perception.
More like an infant.
Even if he looked incredibly old.
Ryū ignored Yukari's pointed jab. He turned his attention to Whitebeard.
Compared to the Touhou series — which he only knew secondhand — One Piece was deeply familiar territory. He'd been following the manga right up until the day he transmigrated.
And sure enough, the real Whitebeard looked almost exactly like his manga counterpart. Ninety-nine point nine percent accurate.
Practically identical.
The man's fra was staggering — like a small giant.
And that iconic crescent-shaped white mustache was even more striking in person.
Ryū skipped the pleasantries and cut straight to business.
"When did Blackbeard Teach leave?"
Whitebeard considered for a mont. "Soti last night."
Ryū glanced up at the sky. It was around midday now.
If Teach had fled during the night, he'd had less than twenty hours' head start.
Factor in the New World's notoriously hostile weather, and he couldn't have gotten far. Plus, knowing Teach's paranoid nature, he'd almost certainly eaten the Dark-Dark Fruit imdiately after killing Thatch — just to be safe.
Which ant he couldn't swim. He'd have to escape by boat.
Of course, with Teach's raw physical strength, he could probably row a boat at terrifying speed. If he was faster than a modern speedboat, things would get complicated.
Wait.
Ryū frowned, dredging up everything he could rember about Blackbeard's storyline from the original manga. After obtaining the Dark-Dark Fruit, Teach had traveled to a certain kingdom in the first half of the Grand Line — Paradise — to try to acquire the Paracia-type Munch-Munch Fruit.
If Teach needed to get from the New World to Paradise, he had two options. He could dive down through Fish-Man Island — passing through the underwater route and then surfacing near the Sabaody Archipelago. An incredibly complex journey.
Or he could try crossing the Red Line on foot via the surface — Mary Geoise. But as a pirate, setting foot on the holy land of the World Governnt was a death wish.
After a mont's calculation, Ryū spoke.
"We should head for Fish-Man Island — or set up an ambush along the route from the New World to Fish-Man Island. There's roughly an eighty percent chance we can intercept Blackbeard Teach there."
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