Sengoku and the others remained on guard for quite a while before finally confirming that Roger and his men were completely dead.
Three Truth-Seeking Orbs slowly floated back behind Kaito. Gion curiously reached out her hand to touch them, but Kaito quickly grabbed her wrist.
"You mustn't touch those—if you do, they'll vanish!"
Gion froze. Thinking of Roger's fate just moments ago, she hurriedly backed away from the three orbs.
Sengoku stepped forward. His gaze lingered uneasily on the orbs floating behind Kaito as he asked,
"Kaito… Roger and the others, they're really gone this time?"
"Mm. No chance of resurrection."
"And Kong…?"
"He's already dead."
Sengoku lowered his head. He had already known the answer, but accepting it was still difficult.
Roger and the others' souls, like those of the Celestial Dragons, had not returned to the world of Yomi. Even if Kaito wanted to use Yomi Reincarnation, he couldn't.
Garp patted Sengoku heavily on the shoulder. His bond with Kong wasn't as deep as Sengoku's, but seeing Sengoku in pain made him feel the weight as well.
Tsuru gently pulled Sengoku into her embrace, cradling him like a child—though this particular child was rather large.
With that, Kaito suddenly thrust his hand into the air before him. The sound of shattering glass rang out, and a violent shockwave blasted toward the Straw Hat barrier in the distance.
The barrier, already on the brink of collapse from the earlier Almighty Push, didn't last even a second before dissolving into nothing. The palace inside was blasted into ruins.
Then, a pitch-black pillar of light rose from the wreckage, darkening the skies above.
From within the pillar came a chilling voice:
"Uchiha Kaito, you've finally come. I've been waiting for this moment far too long!"
Kaito smiled and replied,
"Imu… at this point, how long do you intend to hide? Come out already."
"Heh… hide? Hardly. I've made plenty of preparations to welcome you."
The black light gradually faded, revealing Imu.
His face appeared youthful, but a pair of black rhinoceros-like horns grew from his forehead. He wore a black robe, his entire appearance the exact opposite in tone to Kaito's Ōtsutsuki form.
A wave of frigid aura spread from his body, frosting the ground in thick layers of ice.
Under this oppressive aura, Sengoku and the others felt their bodies nearly give out. Gion instinctively grasped Kaito's hand, and the weight on her heart lessened at once.
Kaito pulled Gion into his arms and whispered,
"Gion, you all need to go down. This place is too dangerous."
Gion clung tightly to him. She could hear the gravity in his voice like never before.
But she also knew that staying would only drag him down. After gazing at him for a moment, she spoke softly,
"Kaito, you will come back… won't you?"
"Mm. Don't worry."
Kaito lowered his head and kissed her lips. Then, using Substitution, he transferred her, Sengoku, and the others down to the warships below.
When everything was done, he turned to face Imu in the sky.
A twisted grin spread across Imu's face.
"All finished arranging things? You didn't need to trouble yourself so much. Once you're dead, they won't escape anyway."
Kaito's expression remained calm. His staff tapped against the ground, and a milky-white light enveloped his body.
As the glow faded, his form shifted—entering his Ōtsutsuki state.
His white robes fluttered without wind, and his body slowly floated upward until he stood across from Imu.
His gaze lingered briefly on the dense black markings etched across Imu's face before he spoke,
"You're not quite what I imagined. This power… it doesn't belong to you, does it?"
The words struck a nerve. Imu's smile vanished, his features twisting with fury.
"Bastard! What nonsense are you spouting? Of course this power belongs to me alone!"
But to Kaito, his reaction could be summed up in two words: he panicked.
Kaito shook his head with a soft laugh, saying nothing yet saying everything.
Finally, Imu snapped, bellowing,
"You dare court death!!!"
In an instant, he appeared before Kaito, his pitch-black hand thrusting forward, ready to dig straight into Kaito's chest.
Kaito didn't take the blow head-on. He used teleportation, vanishing from Imu's strike.
Just now, he had sensed that the black energy on Imu's hand wasn't Armament Haki at all, but something similar to the power of the Truth-Seeking Orbs.
The attack reminded him of Black Zetsu's ambush on Madara. Even with an almost immortal Ōtsutsuki body, taking that strike head-on would have been disastrous.
After the strike, Imu quickly regained his composure, wearing once more that look of absolute control.
He shot Kaito a sidelong glance and chuckled.
"That was some kind of spatial ability, wasn't it? Let me think… could it be the Teleportation Fruit? No… you wouldn't stoop to that one. Then which Devil Fruit is it?"
Suddenly, he raised his hand in a strange gesture.
"Roo! Hahaha! Could it be the Op-Op Fruit? So you're the one who got it after all!"
Kaito's expression didn't change as he silently watched Imu rant like a madman.
He had leveled Mary Geoise itself—why would he care about keeping the Op-Op Fruit a secret?
After his outburst, Imu's eyes locked onto Kaito's Rinnegan.
Greed blazed openly in his gaze. He licked his lips and hissed,
"What beautiful eyes… soon, they'll be mine too!!!"
Kaito studied Imu's own blood-red eyes, which looked somewhat similar to the Rinnegan, though missing several rings.
He stayed wary of them—unsure if they possessed some unknown dōjutsu.
After all, ocular powers came in endless variety, with bizarre abilities that could trouble even a Six Paths-level powerhouse.
Take Kamui, for example. Though only a Mangekyō Sharingan ability, its power was undeniable to anyone who had seen the anime.
To Kaito, Kamui was the strongest of the Mangekyō techniques.
Just look at Kakashi. In the end, he borrowed Obito's eyes and, with dual Kamui, managed to carve out an unforgettable presence even against Kaguya herself!