Chapter 359: Then... Stand Up!
Udon.
Inside the surveillance room.
"Hahahahaha! Another cup!"
"Hey hey, is there any red bean soup? Now that Boss Queen is dead, we can drink some too, right?"
"That stuff doesn't go well with alcohol. If you ask me, we should find a few pretty women..."
Several Beasts Pirates members were originally drinking and making merry.
Although their original duty was to monitor whether there were intruders inside or outside Udon, they didn't really take it to heart.
After all, since the establishment of Udon, whether during Queen's management previously or the 'Ice Disaster's' management now, no one had ever successfully escaped from Udon, let alone infiltrated it from the outside.
In fact, most people didn't even dare to come near here.
But quickly...
"Hm?"
A Beasts member who got up to fetch alcohol casually glanced at the monitor from the corner of his eye, and then rubbed his eyes in disbelief. "Hey, you guys look... what is that?"
He spoke in an astonished tone.
"Hm?"
"What's wrong?"
The other Beasts members asked drunkenly like this, simultaneously looking at the surveillance instinctively.
Then, the bit of drunkenness in their heads collectively receded at this moment.
"!!!"
On the screen, it could be clearly seen—all around the vicinity of Udon, scattered flames resembling starlight had begun to ignite.
The flames continuously gathered, and many of them had even entered Udon.
"What is that!?"
"Is it a fruit ability?"
The Beasts members couldn't quite be sure what that flame was.
But an unprecedented sense of crisis told them they must move now, they had to do something.
"Quickly notify Lord Ice Disaster, martial law immediately... martial..."
Thud!
Their shouts were interrupted before they could finish.
"Thud!" "Thud!" "Thud!"
They could hear a massive, deafening drumbeat coming from all directions.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
They could hear the sound of burning flames coming from inside Udon, as well as...
"Kill!" *N
Fierce cries of battle.
At the same time.
"So hungry..."
Yujiro lay on the cold dirt.
Weakness and hunger followed one after another, his body seemingly devoid of any heat belonging to a living person.
The pain of his stomach cramping from hunger was also exceptionally distinct at this moment.
"Hey, Yujiro, you guy pull yourself together!"
A fellow prisoner locked up together with him also hurriedly leaned close to Yujiro at this moment.
"Damn it, Yujiro's illness from a while ago hadn't recovered yet, and the recent work demands are so high, causing him to not be able to get the distributed food..." This prisoner clearly had a good relationship with Yujiro, his eyes reddening right now.
Exactly as he said.
Udon pursued an extreme rule of "he who does not work, neither shall he eat"—only those who mined and transported enough stones inside Udon every day could obtain a small amount of food.
Recently, after the manager of Udon changed to that newly appointed Three Disaster, the difficulty of obtaining food had massively increased.
On the contrary, the number and intensity of the jailers guarding the prison had become even more exaggerated.
"Those bastards..."
Thinking of this, the prisoner gritted his teeth and shook the head of the almost unconscious Yujiro: "Hey, wake up! Don't fall asleep! Think of your daughter!"
As soon as the word 'daughter' came out, Yujiro seemed stimulated, a slight glint appearing in his eyes.
"Aya..."
He murmured his daughter's name.
But unfortunately, this glint didn't stay on his face for too long. That gradually weakening breath couldn't be faked—willpower might be able to create unbelievable miracles at critical moments, but it couldn't conjure up enough heat out of thin air in a body whose oil had already run dry.
"Take this."
Exactly at this moment, another aged and weak voice came.
The prisoner turned his head, and then saw an old man walking over, short and hunched over, with hair and beard like pale blue flames, wearing a pair of glasses.
In his hands, he held half a bowl of completely cold miso soup.
"Uncle... Uncle Hyo..."
This prisoner recognized this old man. His nickname was 'Uncle Hyo', an old prisoner inside this Udon.
In everyone's impression, he was a weak and timid old man. There were rarely days he could successfully 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.
"Quickly take it and let him drink it. Although it's just soup, it can at least provide a little heat."
Uncle Hyo said in a deep voice: "Young people just have no experience—when there's no meal to eat, soup can't be drunk in one gulp, it must be saved to endure until night."
"But if you do this, you..."
The prisoner, however, was somewhat uneasy—he could see that Uncle Hyo's body was also clearly trembling from weakness right now.
"Rest assured, this old man won't die that easily... Besides, I'm old, I can't really eat much anyway!"
While saying this, Uncle Hyo handed over the miso soup.
Only then did this prisoner grit his teeth and take the miso soup, and then tried to feed it to Yujiro: "Hey, open your mouth... Damn it, this guy has already lost consciousness..."
Before he had time to feed this hard-won food into his mouth, he discovered that Yujiro, who had completely lost consciousness, seemed to be unable to even swallow actively.
"Aya..."
At this time, a gentle smile appeared on his face.
His thoughts seemed to also sink into a beautiful dream.
He dreamed of his homeland again, the village in the Ringo region—that place with once beautiful mountains and clear waters.
He dreamed of his wife, and daughter, as well as the villagers working hard and striving to live.
But then, ominous noises seemed to begin adding to his beautiful dream.
"Roar!"
He seemed to see a massive evil dragon descending from the sky above Ringo, accompanied by a huge thunderclap.
The samurai rose up, holding weapons and charging towards the evil dragon—Ringo are the descendants of "Shimotsuki", and "Shimotsuki" never fear evil dragons. After all, their ancestor "Shimotsuki Ryuma" was a swordsman who had beheaded a flying dragon.
And Yujiro, was also a member of the samurai resisting the evil dragon.
"Lord Shimotsuki Ushimaru..."
He murmured the name of the dead Daimyo of Ringo.
"Then..."
But exactly at this moment.
In Yujiro's heart, a voice seemed to be heard.
"Are you still willing to swing your sword?"
That voice asked like this.
"Swing... sword..."
Yujiro's chaotic consciousness seemed somewhat unable to understand the meaning within.
"Yes, swing your sword."
Accompanied by the words of that voice, his dream continued.
He saw firelight ignite in that beautiful village.
He saw his wife perish in the flames, saw his daughter being barely rescued by a surviving villager amidst cries. He saw the flames igniting all of Ringo, illuminating the sky of Wano Country.
The wails, angry roars, and cries of the commoners were deafening.
"You understand, right?"
That voice said like this.
"If you don't fight, your daughter will live in a barren and painful country, and this place will forever only be hell."
"Precisely because she knew your resolve, your wife sewed armor for you, sending her husband to subjugate the evil dragon, and finally perished in the fire."
"Precisely because he knew your sacrifice, that villager you entrusted your daughter to, even if he went hungry himself, had to let your daughter eat her fill." "Now, do you still remember that resolve? Do you still remember that promise? Are you still willing to swing your sword?"
"Samurai of Ringo, Yujiro."
That voice seemed to contain a certain power.
That power made Yujiro's thoughts return to clarity, making his body feel as if it had heated up.
No, not just his body.
What heated up, was also his heart.
Certain memories that had long been hidden deep in his heart during the long torment in Udon seemed to be activated at this moment. The figure of his daughter, the afterimage of the village, seemed to become incomparably clear at this moment.
He even remembered the promise he made to his daughter back then.
"I will come back, Aya—wait for my return."
"We will definitely take the head of the evil dragon and bring peace to this country!"
"Mm, Papa can't lie!"
"A man's promise does not lie!"
That long-extinguished spark, under the effect of some power at this moment... was re-ignited.
"I... can still swing my sword."
He clenched his fists—even though his sword had long broken.
"I made a promise, so... I must definitely return!"
He answered the voice in his heart like this.
Then...
"Good."
He seemed to hear that voice chuckle softly.
"Then... stand up!"
"Come with me—ignite the firelight of this country!"
By the very end, those two words seemed no longer like sounds a human could emit.
"Thud!" "Thud!" "Thud!"
He also heard the drumbeats—or rather, it wasn't just drumbeats.
That was the sound of horns, that was the sound of thunder, that was... a sound inspiring all fighting spirit.
[Nika Fruit LV5]
[Drums of Liberation - Grants a body of freedom and massive physical enhancement to all allied units]
[Pump-Pump Fruit LV5]
[Fruit Awakening; Hear My Roar - Fruit awakening effect, can affect all non-enemy units within a certain area, can directly inspire their hearts through inner communication, making them erupt with unprecedented fighting spirit, and obtain power equal to their physical limits] Yujiro opened his eyes again.
He felt that his heart was already full of fighting spirit.
Correspondingly—his body also seemed to begin filling with unprecedented power.
This was not all.
Whoosh!
At this moment, he also saw firelight.
Blazing firelight, like starlight.
That flame surged up from beneath the ground, so that pitch-black barren ground also seemed to turn into a gentle good night.
Firelight lingered around Yujiro's body.
He felt his hunger disappear, his vitality return to its peak, all the injuries on his body rapidly heal, and the power within his body was stronger than ever before.
BOOM!
He stood up, that exaggerated speed even kicking up the sound of breaking wind in the air.
Yujiro looked at his hands in disbelief, instinctively observing his surroundings.
Then he saw—it wasn't just him.
Right now inside this prison, all the prisoners were similarly wrapped in that bizarre flame.
Various different changes also began to appear on their bodies.
For example, that 'Uncle Hyo', right now his thin and hunched body began to rapidly expand.
His body, incomparably weak from long-term torment and hunger, was renewed in an instant—a robust, muscular, and heroic man appeared in front of everyone.
Without a doubt, that was exactly his former posture.
Uncle Hyo, whose true name was—the head boss of the Wano Country yakuza, the powerhouse known as a 'Chivalrous Man', Hyogoro of the Flower.
"This voice, this power..."
Right now, he was also feeling that almost endless vitality within his body, as well as the continuous fighting spirit and power surging from within. He clenched his fists: "Is someone helping us to fight against the evil dragon?"
He looked outside the prison—flames had risen everywhere, and there were even samurai who had already charged out of their cells relying on this power. "No matter who it is, I will join the battle!"
"Me too. With this power, I must teach those guys from the Beasts a lesson!"
"I feel terrifyingly strong right now... The only pity is not having a handy weapon!"
The prisoners in the cells spoke up one after another.
Yujiro also indeed felt it was somewhat a pity—he was a samurai, his most handy weapon was of course a sword. It would be best to also have a set of light armor, so as to conveniently hack and slash more enemies.
Exactly at the same moment he thought of this...
"Hm?"
Yujiro was surprised to find—from his hands, that starlight-like flame actually began to continuously change.
From within the flames, clumps of metal began to surface out of thin air.
And the metal converged by the flames continuously changed, ultimately turning into his most familiar object—that was a 'nodachi' wreathed in starlight and firelight, burning brightly.
The flames on his body also turned into a set of flame armor, just as he thought in his heart.
Seeing this scene, Yujiro was so shocked he didn't even have time to close his mouth.
Whether it was the armor or the flame sword, they were almost identical to what Yujiro used in the past, even giving him a sense of 'familiarity' from the bottom of his heart.
[Mouse-Mouse Fruit; Ratatoskr Model LV5]
[LV5: Fruit Awakening; Messenger of All Things]
[Fruit awakening, Ratatoskr can materialize all non-physical things including "power", "speed", "energy", "matter", and "natural forces", and deliver them into other things as "letters". It can also mold special items like "weapons" and "armor" suitable for their use according to the user's will]
However, after a brief moment of astonishment.
Yujiro gripped the nodachi in his hand tightly.
"Phew..."
Still the same old saying—he didn't know who was helping them right now.
But, just like back in Ringo.
He at least knew who he should swing his sword at now.
"Minions of the evil dragon... today I will definitely subjugate you right here!"
"Sunacchi!"
☆☆☆
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