Rei Ao stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the Shibuya apartment.
A faint, lingering heat still clung to his fingertips—the afterburn of weaving timelines together.
He'd just finished an operation as precise as surgery: safely stitching three girls from different spacetime threads into the same "present."
Hina, Mitsuha, and Miki were resting in the next room right now.
They needed time to adjust—to new bodily sensations, and to the unfamiliar way their connections across time now felt.
"Finally," he murmured to himself, lifting the glass of iced water on the table and taking a sip.
Outside, Tokyo's night view glittered like a river of stars, traffic flowing below in bright streams of light.
[Ding! Uzumaki Kushina has joined the chat group!]
[Ding! Boa Hancock has joined the chat group!]
Two crisp notifications chimed in his mind.
Rei Ao's brows rose slightly.
New people again.
And this time, he knew both names very well.
"Uzumaki Kushina… Boa Hancock."
He repeated them under his breath, a thoughtful glint passing through his eyes.
One was from the shinobi world—the future wife of the Fourth Hokage, and Naruto's mother.
The other was from the pirate world—the future empress of Amazon Lily, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
Interesting.
In the shinobi world—Konohagakure
The forest at night was terrifyingly silent.
Uzumaki Kushina sat alone on the training ground swing, her red hair under the moonlight like a dim, dying flame.
Her head was lowered, fingers clenched tight around the swing's ropes.
Her grandmother had passed away.
This afternoon.
The old woman who always stroked her hair gently and told her, "You're a good kid."
Now her eyes were closed forever.
Even knowing it was a peaceful passing, even understanding that birth, aging, illness, and death were simply how life worked…
It still hurt like a kunai had been driven straight through her chest.
And what made it worse was—
In Konoha, she'd always been an "outsider."
The eye-catching red hair. The identity of being from Uzushio. And that thing sealed inside her.
The Nine-Tails.
A jinchūriki.
Kids whispered behind her back, calling her "Red Hot-Blooded Habanero." Adults watched her with guarded, distant eyes.
"Where do I… even belong?"
She asked the question softly, her voice breaking apart in the night wind.
No answer came.
Only the creak of rope against wood—like a lonely sigh.
And then—
A light screen unfurled out of nowhere in front of her.
Half-transparent, faintly blue, with neat text boxes floating across it.
[Welcome to the Chat Group!]
Kushina's whole body tensed. She sprang off the swing.
Her right hand was already reaching for her ninja pouch, eyes sharp as blades.
A genjutsu?
Some kind of spy technique from another village?
As the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, she'd long since gotten used to the idea that an attack could come at any moment.
"Release!"
She formed hand seals, trying to break the illusion.
But the screen stayed steady in the air, not flickering even once.
Not a genjutsu.
Then what was it?
She stared at it warily—only to see text begin scrolling across it.
In the pirate world.
Mary Geoise, atop the Red Line
The air reeked of iron, blood, and despair.
Boa Hancock curled into the corner of a freezing stone cell, arms wrapped around her knees.
Beside her trembled her two younger sisters—Sandersonia and Marigold.
The three of them had just lived through a nightmare.
They'd been captured and dragged here as slaves.
A Celestial Dragon in a bubble helmet had tossed three strange fruits at them.
"Eat it! Let me see what fun thing you turn into!"
Devil Fruits.
They were forced to swallow the foul, disgusting things.
And then—
Her sisters' bodies twisted and warped. Scales bloomed across their skin. Their lower bodies became serpent tails.
Sandersonia became a constrictor. Marigold became a cobra.
"Monsters! What monsters!"
The Celestial Dragon clapped in delight—then wrinkled his nose in disgust.
"Tch. Too ugly. Drag them away and lock them up!"
And so they were thrown into this pitch-black prison.
Hancock bit down hard on her lip, so tight she almost drew blood.
Why…
Why did they have to suffer like this?
Just because those so-called "world nobles" could trample other people's lives whenever they pleased?
Rage and fear tangled together, making her whole body shake.
And then—
A light screen lit up in the darkness.
Soft glow washed over her dust-streaked face.
[Welcome to the Chat Group!]
Hancock froze.
She blinked. The screen didn't disappear.
She pinched her arm—pain, sharp and real.
Not a hallucination.
Inside the chat group
Text on the screen began to scroll.
First came the system's welcome message, then one ID after another lit up as members appeared.
Rei Ao didn't speak immediately.
He simply watched—curious how these two newcomers would react.
And curious how the "old members" would behave.
Sure enough, a few seconds later—
Misaka Mikoto: "Oh? New people again? Welcome, welcome!"
Her messages always had that bright, youthful confidence—like an energetic upperclassman.
Tohru: "Newcomer-chan~ are you a girl? I'm Tohru! A dragon girl from another world!"
She even added a little doodled dragon emoji she'd drawn herself.
Mabel: "Another 'cutie' person."
Yukinoshita Yukino: "Before asking for identities, shouldn't we first confirm their condition?"
Rational and cool—perfectly in character.
Kato Megumi: "Everyone, slow down a bit… the newcomers probably still don't understand what's happening."
A flat tone, but somehow calming anyway.
The chat grew lively.
But the two newcomers still didn't respond.
Rei Ao could guess why—they were wary, observing, judging whether this was a trap.
After all, neither of their situations allowed them to trust strangers easily.
Another dozen seconds passed.
Hancock: "Who are you? C-can you… can you save us?"
The words carried a suppressed tremble and desperate urgency.
Almost at the same time—
Heavy footsteps and harsh shouting came from outside the cell.
"Open the door! Saint Charlos wants to see his new pets!"
The guard's voice scraped like a dull knife against stone.
Hancock's breathing stopped cold.
In Konoha's forest
Kushina saw Hancock's message too.
"Save us?"
Those words snagged something in her chest.
She hesitated, then lifted a finger and tapped the light screen in the air.
She realized that as long as she focused her thoughts, she could type.
A bizarre kind of technology—no chakra required at all.
Uzumaki Kushina: "What is this place? What are you people?"
Her question was more cautious, laced with a shinobi's instinctive vigilance.
But she didn't bother hiding her unease, either.
~~~
Thank you!