Chapter 85: Nature; Against The Island God
—
“This was it? You lost to these weaklings?”
“In my defense, my crewmates and I were hungry and our bodies were tired.”
Hashirama attacked Beidou’s dignity with words, having defeated the bandits just now; to which she replied sharply, giving him a look with her side eye.
Hashirama chuckled and shook his head. “Sure. I will trust you once. Now where is the weapon? I saw it earlier… Wait here, I will be back.”
The groaning of the enemies sprawled on the floor was ignored by Hashirama as he looked around the camp, rushing about and soon standing before the largest hut in the area. The girls waited for him as he found the weapon.
Right beside the gate, the sword was placed in a holder, resting gently. It was right there.
“Looks slick.”
Hashirama picked it up; recognizing it from the same mid-gacha game that Beidou originated from. The blade was dark like the darkest night, with a mixture of crimson ore that looked like the red moon. It was pitch black like a pool of ink, with flames of red leaping from within.
It felt strangely cold to hold the weapon.
Then, just as Hashirama was about to leave with the sword, a nearby bush trembled. The hut was near another gate within the border, and right outside the gate, the maw of a beast slowly crept out of the bush.
It seemed the commotion of this fight had drawn some sensitive ears.
Hashirama was casual about it as a bear, the size of a one-story building, walked out of the bush, the trees. He grabbed the hilt of the sword tightly, deciding to test out the sharpness of the weapon.
“Hey, Hashirama…”
Before Hashirama could close the distance between him and the overgrown bear, the girls rushed from behind him.
“There is a large pack of hyenas on the other side- eek!”
Vivi was the one speaking before she yelped when she saw the bear on Hashirama’s side. Frowning, Hashirama expanded his Observation Haki in a circular domain as his frown just deepened.
The bear walked out of the bush. From behind it, another bear walked out. Seeing this, the large bear before must be a cub, and this was the parent – the size of a three-story building.
That wasn’t it. Hyenas were on the other entrance, and on both other sides, other less threatening animals were waiting to ambush once the fight broke out. Hashirama and friends were surrounded, and while Hashirama could safely say that nobody would die, these were still beasts – anybody could get seriously injured.
“How problematic… Here’s your weapon.”
Hashirama put the long sword away, handing it over to Beidou, its owner.
“Guys, this will hurt if you don’t shield your mind. Try to clench your spiritual jaws as if you’re expecting to be hit hard; try not to get any permanent damage.”
Hashirama shifted a little, his eyes focusing on the mother bear, who seemed like she would rush forward at any second.
She did just that, and Hashirama’s brows knitted further. As if that was a switch, the air in the forest lost its mind. The ground trembled, and the island quavered.
A wave of green boomed out of Hashirama’s body. His hair tie broke apart, and his hair flared upwards. A domain expanded with him in the center, and despite his tries, he couldn’t hold it back from making the girls drop down to their knees.
The wind moved in a symphony, it wasn’t a mindless storm, as it made a tune of a song going in Hashirama’s head. [Superman – Eminem] ran havoc as the dimension turned green.
For the things he wasn’t trying to protect; the huts unrooted from the ground, the borders went flying about, and trees nearby were hit with a wave of such strong wind that all went flying away, and even the ones in the far had their leaves scattered away.
The bears, the hyenas, and all the other predators in the nearby vicinity dropped to their faces with foams coming out of their mouths. The bodies nearby had their flesh mashed badly and were thrown out of the domain’s range due to the wind.
Hashirama stopped. The world calmed down. Standing at the center of the crater he had created in this land, devoid of any trees or anything at all. Within this deep forest, now this empty spot existed, marking the identity of Hashirama Senju, as the song ended gently.
“Phew,”
Hashirama looked down at the barely awake girls near his feet and smiled.
“Lucky. I managed to keep the size of the dome small. Everything would have been destroyed otherwise.”
Compared to when he saved Nami, he wasn’t a clone right now. He was the guy, he was him – the real deal; equal to those old emperors who could split the sky with their Haki.
“Are you guys all right?”
Except for Karoo who had lost consciousness, the girls stared at Hashirama with shaky bodies, eyes wide, and lips quivering. Amidst them, Beidou had the largest eyes, realizing what sort of feat this was – questioning if even her grandfather was any match for that burst of Conqueror’s Haki.
“Oh,”
Hashirama looked down at the weapon in Beidou’s hand.
“It looks weird. What happened?”
The red ores on the long sword had a red crystal oozing out of it, coating the edge of the blade and making the entire thing look quite menacing.
Beidou looked down at the sword and was equally surprised. She was about to say that she had no idea what was going on – before she recalled that this weapon was supposed to react in a special way when in the presence of a Supreme King.
“I don’t think that’s important right now.”
However, before Beidou could explain the situation, Robin spoke softly and pointed at the sky. Everyone raised their head to look up, and goosebumps went about over their body.
“I think the island is trying to kill us.”
This archipelago had 12 islands attached to it. All 12 islands were in the form of a flower petal, in the shape of a starfish. Currently, six of those petals were rising in the sky, predictably descending towards Hashirama and friends soon.
The conscious island felt threatened by whatever being was near its mouth, as it was his core, its heart.
The Will of the Island – the God of this place – felt it was in danger.
The flower was trying to crush him, and the girls just happened to be caught in the process. The flower-shaped archipelago was sacrificing half of its petals, which probably took decades to form, just to kill Hashirama at any cost.
“Holy shit.”
Noting Vivi’s curse in his head, Hashirama didn’t see a way out. The six petals were closing in, coming together to form an enclosed dome, and that meant he couldn’t just fly away from its way. It was pure luck that the clones had already evacuated people from those six islands, putting them in large boats.
The islands came together and turned into a cage. It blocked the sun, and night descended, while imminent death came down towards the group.
“Goddammit. Hey, any tricks up your sleeves?”
“Cutie, I ain’t Buddha, you guys are probably dead.”
Beidou looked quite panicked, as she should, while Hashirama shook his head gently. Peebles and unattached things on the islands above fell toward them and made the scene look like a crumbling world.
“Wait, what do you mean ‘you guys’?”
“C-can’t I create a hole in the land by exploding?”
Mikita asked first, and Nami followed, both making Hashirama shake his head. It was Robin who answered Nami, her voice dry.
“Your firepower isn’t enough to destroy a mountain yet, I am certain. That thing is basically a mountain.”
The six petals were getting closer as they chatted. It was like how a human interlocked the fingers of their two hands, and that interlocking of the islands was causing it to crumble and plummet more of its smaller parts. It’s trees, it’s hills, and everything else it held within itself.
Anybody would die if a big piece fell on them.
“If only I had time to make a big wooden construct…. Or if I had sage mode. I think Wooden Buddha would have sufficed.”
Hashirama stroked his chin and looked at the incoming death. He didn’t look like the world was ending though, unlike the girls.
“Girls, I will miss you.”
Sighing, Hashirama looked at them and said.
“It was a good time, traveling with you all. I will be lonely without you.”
“This guy! You talk as if you’re going to survive?”
“Huh?”
Hashirama looked concerned, frowning.
“Of course. I am immortal, did I never tell anyone? Of course, I will survive.”
“….”
While the girls stared at him, not appreciating his “joke” due to the situation they were in, Hashirama chuckled a little and dropped his act.
“I am joking. Before you misunderstand, be assured that my reaction will be louder than this if you guys actually were in deadly danger.”
Hashirama approached Beidou suddenly, crouching down and casually picking up the crystalline sword.
“Hey, can I have this sword if we survive? I should be pretty useful until I can figure out Advanced Conqueror’s Haki.”
“Uh…”
“I will take that as a yes.”
Hashirama got up and turned to the sky. He wasn’t really a sword guy, but oh well, as he had said before, the only thing his Master had him master was all kinds of weapons. If he wasn’t wrong, this sword could save them right now.
“Clench your spiritual jaws again, girls. This will be loud.”
Hashirama raised the long sword behind his back and stopped his breathing.
As he was hoping for, Hashirama felt a tingle in the tips of the sword, before he released another dome of green will. The green turned red, and Hashirama’s green pupils did the same; the dome compressed into the sword, as it was sucked by it, and the red color expanded into a blade arc when Hashirama swung it by force.
It was like swinging an island over his shoulder, the weight caused his shoulder bones to shatter but he didn’t stop. He whammed the long sword in a circle on his shoulder, as it broke and healed, until the swinging finished with a sharp yell.
“Let’s call it…”
– Ssss…
– Dddurrrrh…
[Conqueror’s Haki: Tectonic Cleaver]
With a sharp rumble of the air, the swirling tornado of a sword arc rushed through the air and spread wider in the sky.
The sound of planets colliding against one another resonated in the air, as the swirling arc reached the crashing islands and clashed against them all.
The sea shook, and the skies turned ablaze, as red of rage clashed with the green of nature while everything else broke havoc.
The [Tectonic Cleaver] that had enlarged greatly, destroyed nature for all its worth and left the incoming islands wrecked and open on its peak.
In a moment’s notice, the clash ended, and the bright sun peeked from the other side of the wreck, as the winner was decided right then.
“Great, now let’s flee.”
However, only the top center of the interlocked islands was destroyed. The root of them was intact, and therefore they were still rushing down. At this rate even if they fell on the ground, they won’t fall on Hashirama and their friends since only the top part should have reached this far into the center, but that didn’t remove the damage that the impact would cause.
With a motion of Hashirama’s hand, multiple Clone-ramas suddenly popped up from under his feet and moved to the girls.
The clones took the girls in their arms, their leafy wings coming about, as they all took in the air. They ignored the debris that fell from the sky, skillfully moving past them, nearly getting hit a few times, until all of the group passed through the gap in the petals.
“Phew.”
When they were safe, they stopped in the air and looked down to observe the immediate destruction.
The islands fell towards the center of the archipelago, as an earthquake greeted the entire mass. The sea waves lost their rhythm due to the impact, and the clouds around the area shot away far. Dust rose, and the island went blurry, easily killing a lot of the beasts living within it, but it still stood in the end.
Hashirama stood amidst the white clouds, looking down on the island that had just exploded. A peaceful smile was etched on his face as he watched the smoke and debris spread, revealing the devastation below. Standing within the sky that was a riot of colors, he couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the sight beneath him.
The girls looked horrified, where he looked bewitched. Destruction was often so beautiful to his eyes, more so when he was the cause.
“What a sight.”
Hashirama said, his eyes soon focusing on the boats around the island. People were filling them to the brink, counting all the humans who were stranded on the island, excluding the last bandits Hashirama and group had fought.
“What a sight, indeed.”
**
**
**
Author’s Note: With the recent revelation of Divine Departure and also Galaxy Impact, our Shira would need something overwhelming as well. It’s not at its peak yet, but Tectonic Cleaver might be able to give the other two techniques a run for their money.
Do you want to read the next 20 chapters right away? Visit my Patreon.
Link: Patreon.com/Master4thWall
Chapter 85: Nature; Against The Island God
—
“This was it? You lost to these weaklings?”
“In my defense, my crewmates and I were hungry and our bodies were tired.”
Hashirama attacked Beidou’s dignity with words, having defeated the bandits just now; to which she replied sharply, giving him a look with her side eye.
Hashirama chuckled and shook his head. “Sure. I will trust you once. Now where is the weapon? I saw it earlier… Wait here, I will be back.”
The groaning of the enemies sprawled on the floor was ignored by Hashirama as he looked around the camp, rushing about and soon standing before the largest hut in the area. The girls waited for him as he found the weapon.
Right beside the gate, the sword was placed in a holder, resting gently. It was right there.
“Looks slick.”
Hashirama picked it up; recognizing it from the same mid-gacha game that Beidou originated from. The blade was dark like the darkest night, with a mixture of crimson ore that looked like the red moon. It was pitch black like a pool of ink, with flames of red leaping from within.
It felt strangely cold to hold the weapon.
Then, just as Hashirama was about to leave with the sword, a nearby bush trembled. The hut was near another gate within the border, and right outside the gate, the maw of a beast slowly crept out of the bush.
It seemed the commotion of this fight had drawn some sensitive ears.
Hashirama was casual about it as a bear, the size of a one-story building, walked out of the bush, the trees. He grabbed the hilt of the sword tightly, deciding to test out the sharpness of the weapon.
“Hey, Hashirama…”
Before Hashirama could close the distance between him and the overgrown bear, the girls rushed from behind him.
“There is a large pack of hyenas on the other side- eek!”
Vivi was the one speaking before she yelped when she saw the bear on Hashirama’s side. Frowning, Hashirama expanded his Observation Haki in a circular domain as his frown just deepened.
The bear walked out of the bush. From behind it, another bear walked out. Seeing this, the large bear before must be a cub, and this was the parent – the size of a three-story building.
That wasn’t it. Hyenas were on the other entrance, and on both other sides, other less threatening animals were waiting to ambush once the fight broke out. Hashirama and friends were surrounded, and while Hashirama could safely say that nobody would die, these were still beasts – anybody could get seriously injured.
“How problematic… Here’s your weapon.”
Hashirama put the long sword away, handing it over to Beidou, its owner.
“Guys, this will hurt if you don’t shield your mind. Try to clench your spiritual jaws as if you’re expecting to be hit hard; try not to get any permanent damage.”
Hashirama shifted a little, his eyes focusing on the mother bear, who seemed like she would rush forward at any second.
She did just that, and Hashirama’s brows knitted further. As if that was a switch, the air in the forest lost its mind. The ground trembled, and the island quavered.
A wave of green boomed out of Hashirama’s body. His hair tie broke apart, and his hair flared upwards. A domain expanded with him in the center, and despite his tries, he couldn’t hold it back from making the girls drop down to their knees.
The wind moved in a symphony, it wasn’t a mindless storm, as it made a tune of a song going in Hashirama’s head. [Superman – Eminem] ran havoc as the dimension turned green.
For the things he wasn’t trying to protect; the huts unrooted from the ground, the borders went flying about, and trees nearby were hit with a wave of such strong wind that all went flying away, and even the ones in the far had their leaves scattered away.
The bears, the hyenas, and all the other predators in the nearby vicinity dropped to their faces with foams coming out of their mouths. The bodies nearby had their flesh mashed badly and were thrown out of the domain’s range due to the wind.
Hashirama stopped. The world calmed down. Standing at the center of the crater he had created in this land, devoid of any trees or anything at all. Within this deep forest, now this empty spot existed, marking the identity of Hashirama Senju, as the song ended gently.
“Phew,”
Hashirama looked down at the barely awake girls near his feet and smiled.
“Lucky. I managed to keep the size of the dome small. Everything would have been destroyed otherwise.”
Compared to when he saved Nami, he wasn’t a clone right now. He was the guy, he was him – the real deal; equal to those old emperors who could split the sky with their Haki.
“Are you guys all right?”
Except for Karoo who had lost consciousness, the girls stared at Hashirama with shaky bodies, eyes wide, and lips quivering. Amidst them, Beidou had the largest eyes, realizing what sort of feat this was – questioning if even her grandfather was any match for that burst of Conqueror’s Haki.
“Oh,”
Hashirama looked down at the weapon in Beidou’s hand.
“It looks weird. What happened?”
The red ores on the long sword had a red crystal oozing out of it, coating the edge of the blade and making the entire thing look quite menacing.
Beidou looked down at the sword and was equally surprised. She was about to say that she had no idea what was going on – before she recalled that this weapon was supposed to react in a special way when in the presence of a Supreme King.
“I don’t think that’s important right now.”
However, before Beidou could explain the situation, Robin spoke softly and pointed at the sky. Everyone raised their head to look up, and goosebumps went about over their body.
“I think the island is trying to kill us.”
This archipelago had 12 islands attached to it. All 12 islands were in the form of a flower petal, in the shape of a starfish. Currently, six of those petals were rising in the sky, predictably descending towards Hashirama and friends soon.
The conscious island felt threatened by whatever being was near its mouth, as it was his core, its heart.
The Will of the Island – the God of this place – felt it was in danger.
The flower was trying to crush him, and the girls just happened to be caught in the process. The flower-shaped archipelago was sacrificing half of its petals, which probably took decades to form, just to kill Hashirama at any cost.
“Holy shit.”
Noting Vivi’s curse in his head, Hashirama didn’t see a way out. The six petals were closing in, coming together to form an enclosed dome, and that meant he couldn’t just fly away from its way. It was pure luck that the clones had already evacuated people from those six islands, putting them in large boats.
The islands came together and turned into a cage. It blocked the sun, and night descended, while imminent death came down towards the group.
“Goddammit. Hey, any tricks up your sleeves?”
“Cutie, I ain’t Buddha, you guys are probably dead.”
Beidou looked quite panicked, as she should, while Hashirama shook his head gently. Peebles and unattached things on the islands above fell toward them and made the scene look like a crumbling world.
“Wait, what do you mean ‘you guys’?”
“C-can’t I create a hole in the land by exploding?”
Mikita asked first, and Nami followed, both making Hashirama shake his head. It was Robin who answered Nami, her voice dry.
“Your firepower isn’t enough to destroy a mountain yet, I am certain. That thing is basically a mountain.”
The six petals were getting closer as they chatted. It was like how a human interlocked the fingers of their two hands, and that interlocking of the islands was causing it to crumble and plummet more of its smaller parts. It’s trees, it’s hills, and everything else it held within itself.
Anybody would die if a big piece fell on them.
“If only I had time to make a big wooden construct…. Or if I had sage mode. I think Wooden Buddha would have sufficed.”
Hashirama stroked his chin and looked at the incoming death. He didn’t look like the world was ending though, unlike the girls.
“Girls, I will miss you.”
Sighing, Hashirama looked at them and said.
“It was a good time, traveling with you all. I will be lonely without you.”
“This guy! You talk as if you’re going to survive?”
“Huh?”
Hashirama looked concerned, frowning.
“Of course. I am immortal, did I never tell anyone? Of course, I will survive.”
“….”
While the girls stared at him, not appreciating his “joke” due to the situation they were in, Hashirama chuckled a little and dropped his act.
“I am joking. Before you misunderstand, be assured that my reaction will be louder than this if you guys actually were in deadly danger.”
Hashirama approached Beidou suddenly, crouching down and casually picking up the crystalline sword.
“Hey, can I have this sword if we survive? I should be pretty useful until I can figure out Advanced Conqueror’s Haki.”
“Uh…”
“I will take that as a yes.”
Hashirama got up and turned to the sky. He wasn’t really a sword guy, but oh well, as he had said before, the only thing his Master had him master was all kinds of weapons. If he wasn’t wrong, this sword could save them right now.
“Clench your spiritual jaws again, girls. This will be loud.”
Hashirama raised the long sword behind his back and stopped his breathing.
As he was hoping for, Hashirama felt a tingle in the tips of the sword, before he released another dome of green will. The green turned red, and Hashirama’s green pupils did the same; the dome compressed into the sword, as it was sucked by it, and the red color expanded into a blade arc when Hashirama swung it by force.
It was like swinging an island over his shoulder, the weight caused his shoulder bones to shatter but he didn’t stop. He whammed the long sword in a circle on his shoulder, as it broke and healed, until the swinging finished with a sharp yell.
“Let’s call it…”
– Ssss…
– Dddurrrrh…
[Conqueror’s Haki: Tectonic Cleaver]
With a sharp rumble of the air, the swirling tornado of a sword arc rushed through the air and spread wider in the sky.
The sound of planets colliding against one another resonated in the air, as the swirling arc reached the crashing islands and clashed against them all.
The sea shook, and the skies turned ablaze, as red of rage clashed with the green of nature while everything else broke havoc.
The [Tectonic Cleaver] that had enlarged greatly, destroyed nature for all its worth and left the incoming islands wrecked and open on its peak.
In a moment’s notice, the clash ended, and the bright sun peeked from the other side of the wreck, as the winner was decided right then.
“Great, now let’s flee.”
However, only the top center of the interlocked islands was destroyed. The root of them was intact, and therefore they were still rushing down. At this rate even if they fell on the ground, they won’t fall on Hashirama and their friends since only the top part should have reached this far into the center, but that didn’t remove the damage that the impact would cause.
With a motion of Hashirama’s hand, multiple Clone-ramas suddenly popped up from under his feet and moved to the girls.
The clones took the girls in their arms, their leafy wings coming about, as they all took in the air. They ignored the debris that fell from the sky, skillfully moving past them, nearly getting hit a few times, until all of the group passed through the gap in the petals.
“Phew.”
When they were safe, they stopped in the air and looked down to observe the immediate destruction.
The islands fell towards the center of the archipelago, as an earthquake greeted the entire mass. The sea waves lost their rhythm due to the impact, and the clouds around the area shot away far. Dust rose, and the island went blurry, easily killing a lot of the beasts living within it, but it still stood in the end.
Hashirama stood amidst the white clouds, looking down on the island that had just exploded. A peaceful smile was etched on his face as he watched the smoke and debris spread, revealing the devastation below. Standing within the sky that was a riot of colors, he couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the sight beneath him.
The girls looked horrified, where he looked bewitched. Destruction was often so beautiful to his eyes, more so when he was the cause.
“What a sight.”
Hashirama said, his eyes soon focusing on the boats around the island. People were filling them to the brink, counting all the humans who were stranded on the island, excluding the last bandits Hashirama and group had fought.
“What a sight, indeed.”
**
**
**
Author’s Note: With the recent revelation of Divine Departure and also Galaxy Impact, our Shira would need something overwhelming as well. It’s not at its peak yet, but Tectonic Cleaver might be able to give the other two techniques a run for their money.
Do you want to read the next 20 chapters right away? Visit my Patreon.
Link: Patreon.com/Master4thWall
