area51novel Chapter 360 Then... get up!
Chapter 360 Then... get up!
Rabbit bowl.
Inside the monitoring room.
"Hahaha! Another one!"
"Hey, do you have any red bean rice cake soup? Now that Boss Quinn is dead, can we have some too?"
"That stuff doesn't go well with alcohol either. If you ask me, we should bring some pretty women."
Several members of the Beasts Pirates were drinking and having fun.
Although their original duty was to monitor whether there were any intruders inside or outside the Udon, they didn't seem to care much about it.
After all, since the establishment of Udon, whether it was under Quinn's management or under "Ice Disaster's" management, no one has ever been able to successfully escape from Udon, let alone be invaded from the outside.
In fact, most people don't even dare to get close to this place.
But very soon.
"Um?"
One of the Beasts members, who had gotten up to get some drinks, glanced casually at the monitor out of the corner of his eye, then rubbed his eyes incredulously. "Hey, look... what's that?"
He spoke with a surprised tone.
"Um?"
"What's wrong?"
The other members of the Beasts asked this question while drunk, and subconsciously glanced at the monitor.
Then, the slight intoxication in their minds vanished at that moment.
"ⅠⅠ"
On the screen, one could clearly see that flames, like starlight, had begun to ignite around the entire rabbit bowl.
The flames continued to gather, and many of them even entered the rabbit bowl.
"What is that!?"
"Is it a Devil Fruit ability?"
The members of the Beasts were not quite sure what the flames were.
But an unprecedented sense of crisis told them that they had to take action and do something.
"Quickly inform Lord Ice Disaster to immediately declare martial law!"
"Thump!"
Their shouts were interrupted before they could finish.
"Thump!" "Thump!" "Thump!"
They could hear the enormous, deafening drumbeats coming from all directions.
"Bake!" "Bake!" "Bake!"
They could hear the sound of flames burning coming from inside the rabbit bowl.
"Kill!" *N
Intense shouts of battle.
At the same time.
"I'm so hungry"
Yujiro lay on the cold earth.
Weakness and hunger followed one after another; his body seemed to have no warmth whatsoever that belonged to a living person.
The pain of stomach cramps caused by hunger was also exceptionally pronounced at this moment.
"Hey, Yujiro, wake up!"
One of the prisoners locked up nearby also quickly approached Yujiro.
"Damn it, Yujiro's illness from a while ago hasn't gotten better yet, and the demands of his work lately have been so high that he hasn't been able to get his food." This prisoner clearly had a good relationship with Yujiro, and his eyes were red at this moment.
As he said.
Rabbit Bowl adheres to an extreme "no work, no food" rule—only those who quarry and move enough stones within Rabbit Bowl each day can receive a small amount of food.
Since the new Three Disasters took over as the manager of Udon, obtaining food has become much more difficult.
On the contrary, the number of prison guards and the intensity of their duties have become even more outrageous.
"Those bastards."
Thinking of this, the prisoner gritted his teeth and shook the nearly unconscious Yujiro's head: "Hey, wake up! Don't fall asleep! Think of your daughter!"
Upon hearing the word "daughter," Yujiro seemed to be stimulated, and his eyes lit up slightly.
"Aya."
He murmured his daughter's name.
Unfortunately, the light didn't linger on his face for long. His gradually weakening aura couldn't be faked—willpower might create incredible miracles at crucial moments, but it couldn't conjure up enough heat out of his already exhausted body.
"Take it."
At that very moment, another old and weak voice came.
The prisoner turned his head and saw a short, hunched old man with hair and beard like pale blue flames, wearing glasses, walking towards him.
In his hand was a half-bowl of miso soup that had gone cold.
"Uncle Leopard"
The prisoner recognized the old man, nicknamed "Uncle Leopard," who was the old prisoner inside the rabbit bowl.
In everyone's impression, he was a weak and timid old man who rarely managed to complete his work goals. So most of the time he couldn't eat staple food and could only drink miso soup to barely fill his stomach.
"Take it and give it to him to drink. Even though it's just soup, it can at least provide some calories."
Uncle Leopard said in a deep voice, "Young people just lack experience—when there's no food, you can't drink the soup all at once; you have to save it to last until night."
"But in that case, you..."
The prisoner was somewhat uneasy—he could see that Uncle Leopard was visibly weak and trembling.
"Don't worry, I'm not that easy to die... Besides, I'm old and don't have much of an appetite to begin with!"
As Uncle Leopard spoke, he handed over the miso soup.
The prisoner gritted his teeth and took the miso soup, then tried to feed it to Yujiro: "Hey, open your mouth... Damn it, this guy has lost consciousness."
Before he could even feed this hard-won treat to Yujiro, he discovered that the man, who had completely lost consciousness, seemed unable to even swallow on his own.
"Aya."
At this moment, a gentle smile appeared on his face.
His thoughts seemed to drift into a beautiful dream.
He dreamed of his hometown again, a village in the Suzugo region—a place that was once beautiful with clear waters and lush mountains.
He dreamed of his wife, his daughter, and the villagers who were working hard and striving to live their lives.
But then, some ominous noises seemed to begin to appear in his beautiful dream.
"roar!"
He seemed to see a huge, evil dragon descending from the sky above the bell, accompanied by a tremendous rumble of thunder.
The samurai rose up, weapons in hand, and charged toward the dragon—Rin was a descendant of "Shimotsuki," who never feared dragons. After all, their ancestor, "Shimotsuki Ryuma," was a swordsman who had slain a flying dragon.
Yujiro was also one of the warriors who resisted the evil dragon.
"Lord Shigetsuki Gyumaru"
He murmured the name of the deceased Suzuhime Daimyo.
"So"
But it is precisely at this moment.
In Yujiro's heart, however, he seemed to hear a voice.
"Are you still willing to wield your sword?"
That's what the voice asked.
"Swing...the sword"
Yujiro's chaotic consciousness seemed somewhat unable to comprehend the meaning behind it all.
"Yes, swing your sword."
His dream continued, accompanied by the voice's words.
He saw the beautiful village and lit a fire.
He saw his wife perish in the flames, and he saw his daughter, amidst her cries, barely managed to be rescued by a surviving villager. He saw the flames that engulfed the entire Bell Tower, illuminating the sky above Wano Country.
The cries of the people—their wails, roars, and sobs—were deafening.
"You understand, right?"
That's what the voice said.
"If you don't fight, your daughter will live in a desolate and miserable country, a place that will forever remain hell."
"Knowing your resolve, your wife sewed armor for you and sent her husband to slay the dragon, ultimately perishing in the flames."
"Knowing your sacrifices, the villager you entrusted your daughter to made sure she was fed, even if it meant going hungry himself." "Now, do you still remember that resolve? Do you still remember that promise? Are you still willing to wield your sword?"
"The bell queen's samurai, Yujiro."
There seemed to be some kind of power in that voice.
That power brought Yujiro's thoughts back to clarity and made his body feel as if it were heating up.
No, it's not just about the body.
His heart also warmed up.
Some memories, long buried deep within her heart during the torment of the rabbit bowl, seemed to be activated at this moment. The image of her daughter, the remnants of the village, all seemed incredibly clear at this moment.
He even remembered the promise he had made to his daughter.
"I will come back, Aya—wait for me to come back."
"We will surely take the dragon's head and bring peace to this country!"
"Yes, Daddy can't lie!"
"A man's promise doesn't lie!"
The embers that had long been extinguished were rekindled at this moment by some force.
"I can still wield a sword."
He clenched his fist—even though his sword was already broken.
"I made a promise, so... I must go back!"
He answered the voice within him in this way.
then
"it is good."
He seemed to hear the voice chuckle softly.
"Then...get up!"
"Join me in igniting the flames of this nation!"
In the end, those two words seemed to no longer be sounds that humans could make.
"Thump!" "Thump!" "Thump!"
He also heard the sound of drums—or rather, it wasn't just the sound of drums.
That was the sound of bugles, that was the sound of thunder, that was... the sound that inspired all fighting spirit.
[Nika Fruit LV5]
[Drum of Liberation - Grants all friendly units the freedom to move and a significant power boost]
[Encouragement Fruit LV5]
[Fruit Awakening - Hear My Roar - The fruit awakening effect can affect all non-enemy units within a nearby area. It can directly inspire their hearts through inner communication, allowing them to unleash unprecedented fighting spirit and gain power equal to their physical limits.] Yujiro opened his eyes again.
He felt his heart was filled with fighting spirit.
Correspondingly, his body also seemed to begin to be filled with unprecedented power.
That's not all.
"bake!"
At that moment, he also saw the firelight.
Like starlight, the flames burned fiercely.
The flames surged from beneath the ground, and the dark, desolate earth seemed to transform into a gentle, peaceful night.
Flames enveloped Yujiro's body.
He felt his hunger disappear, his vitality return to its peak, all his injuries were rapidly healing, and the power within him was stronger than ever before.
"boom!"
He stood up, his exaggerated speed even creating a whooshing sound in the air.
Yujiro stared at his hands in disbelief, then subconsciously looked around.
Then he saw—it wasn't just him.
At this moment, all the prisoners in this prison are also wrapped in that strange flame.
Various changes also began to appear on their bodies.
For example, the "Uncle Leopard" had his thin, hunched body begin to swell rapidly.
His body, which had been weakened by long-term torment and hunger, was transformed in an instant—a robust, muscular, and heroic man appeared before everyone.
Without a doubt, that was his former demeanor.
Uncle Leopard, whose real name is the head of the Wano Country yakuza, is a powerful figure known as the "Hero" Hana no Hyogoro.
"This voice, this power."
At this moment, he too felt the almost inexhaustible life force within him, and the endless fighting spirit and power surging from within. He clenched his fist: "Is someone helping us fight the evil dragon?"
He looked outside the prison—flames were rising everywhere, and some samurai were even using the power to break out of their cells. "Whoever it is, I will fight!"
"I possess this power too, and I'm going to teach those beasts a lesson!"
"I feel incredibly strong right now... The only downside is that I don't have a suitable weapon!"
The prisoners in the cell all spoke up.
Yujiro did feel it was a bit of a pity—he was a samurai, and his most suitable weapon was of course a sword, and it would be best to also have a set of light armor so that he could easily kill more enemies.
It was precisely at the moment this thought crossed his mind...
"Um?"
Yujiro was surprised to find that the starlight-like flame in his hand began to change continuously.
Clumps of metal began to emerge from the flames.
The metal formed from the flames kept changing, eventually transforming into something he knew best—a burning "Nodachi" wreathed in starlight and fire.
The flames on his body, just as he had thought, transformed into a suit of fiery armor.
Upon seeing this, Yujiro was so shocked that he couldn't even close his mouth.
Both the armor and the flames were almost identical to those used by Yujiro in the past, giving him a sense of "familiarity" from the bottom of his heart.
[Rat-Rat Fruit - Ratatosk Form LV5]
[LV5: Fruit Awakening - Messenger of All Things]
[With the awakening of the Devil Fruit, Ratatoskr can materialize all non-physical things, including "strength," "speed," "energy," "matter," and "natural forces," and send them as "letters" into other things. He can also shape special items such as "weapons" and "armor" to suit the user's needs.]
However, after a brief moment of shock...
Yujiro gripped his katana tightly.
"call"
As I said before, he didn't know who was helping them at that moment.
But just like back in Ringo.
He at least knew who he should be wielding his sword against.
"You minions of the evil dragon... today we will surely punish you here!"
"Abandon fame and wisdom!"