[84] The Blackcliff Slasher (3)

Chapter 83: The Blackcliff Slasher (3)

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"Hey, so about that book. You don't happen to have the next par-"

"Can you not talk to me? I feel weary."

"Oh."

Robin was apparently quite salty after waking up and seeing him kissing Vivi first thing in the morning. It was less of a case of jealousy, and more a case of realization, as she had come to re-realize what sort of whore-like man Hashirama was.

So she decided to lower interaction with him for the sake of her mental health and physical safety.

"How rude…"

Hashirama shook his head and muttered under his breath. Robin quickly walked to increase the distance between him and her, and before he knew it he was a few meters behind everyone.

Not even Karoo was with him. That duck was acting weird around him since this morning, and only let Vivi ride her back. Karoo carried Vivi and was at the front of the group, walking by the side of Nami, Mikita, and Robin.

The one closest to Hashirama was the allied pirate, Captain Beidou. She was a few steps behind the others, and a few steps ahead of him; when she noticed he was walking alone, she slowed down and let him catch up to her.

"Oh hey, Mid Mom."

"The first thing you do is call me names even though I just decided to walk with you?"

"My bad."

Hashirama didn't look troubled by the whole situation. He casually strolled the forest as if nothing was wrong, with his hands behind his head and eyes sharp.

Beidou sighed and shook her head, coming to accept that he couldn't be helped.

"How old are you?"

He suddenly asked, his eyes that were previously moving now focused on her face. That made her frown a little.

Beidou wasn't the typical girl who hated being asked her age, that always seemed stupid to her, but it still felt weird when a weirdo like him was asking her about it. So she decided to not mention the exact number of 25.

"I'm in my mid-twenties."

"Ah, mid-twenties? That makes sense."

"..."

Beidou held back the urge to smack him and tried to change the subject.

"Anyhow, I have a question. Yesterday, you created a clone. Can't you do that more than once? I am sure numbers will help with the search if you send them in different directions."

"Hm? Life is not a race, sweetie. Take it slow, enjoy the scenery. Make the most out of every moment along the way. Why rush it?"

Beidou paused, nearly captivated by his words, before she shook herself out of it. While he kind of had a point, this was a desperate situation.

"Because something important was lost. If those bandits died to some monster, then who knows if we'd ever find that thing on our own."

"Oh."

Hashirama stopped walking, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Why not mention important things from the beginning? How careless."

Beidou blinked after hearing that. So he was going to listen?

"Ah, I…"

"Never mind that. Describe something for me to recognize the bandits by. This place has quite a lot of humans, actually, whom all got stuck over the years. So tell me something that'd help me recognize the bandits."

Beidou was taken aback by the quick turn of events, but she quickly regained her composure and started listing the physical characteristics of the bandits. Namely, they wore black armor, which seemed to be made from the shell of the beetles that inhabited this island. They didn't seem to have helmets with them, so recognizing them should be easy since Beidou explained their faces to him.

"Lastly, if it was hard to find them even with that, then you should look out for a large blade of black and red color."

Beidou added, at last, watching him nod. Hashirama turned to the other girls, who were far away, and yelled.

"All right guys, we are ending this thing early."

The girls turned around and walked towards him, gathering around and listening to his words.

"I was thinking of looking around at a slow pace for a bit longer, but our miss here needs immediate support. So since I will be creating clones anyway, I'll also scan the trees with their help."

While scanning the entire forest at once by himself would kill his head, this was a safer option. It may still cause a little bit of a headache, but that's all right.

While Beidou began apologizing to the girls for ruining their picnic, Hashirama clasped his hands and let his chakra loose.

[Multi Wood Clone Jutsu]

The living island shook gently and countless threads of plants came rushing out of it; those vines wrapped in and into themselves to form a total of 64 clones.

Emerald green wings littered their backs as they slowly stood up, the forest shaking due to their presence alone. All of the Hashiramas took off in the air, except for the Main, and filled the sky with leaves, scattering like a school of fish.

Hashirama the Main turned to the group of girls and smiled.

"Give me five minutes."

* * *

As it was located very close to the Calm Belts, people didn't usually come to this place. Given information about this place was scarce too since nobody managed to leave once they ended up here, the Boin Archipelago was indeed hell on the face of the earth for those who were unfortunate to get stranded.

This archipelago has been roaming the sea for a long time. Over the years, countless pirates, adventures, and marines alike have become stranded within its dangers. While most died within it, a small portion of survivors existed.

In total, there were a few hundred survivors in this archipelago. Given the size of the island, which was bigger than a medium-sized city, that was a low number.

Each of the survivors had lost their delusion of escaping the island by now. Everyone who lived here had lost their friends or family, or whomever they had come here with. Their delusion that somebody would one day come to rescue them didn't exist at this point.

However, the sight right now caused something to stir deep inside a lot of the survivors.

The sky was usually quiet. There had never been a rain of leaves while a humanoid flew in the sky, like right now. With long hair fluttering against the wind, his wings also fluttered like leaves as he flew at a low altitude and observed the people with squinting eyes. It was almost as if he was searching for somebody.

Honestly, thinking that it was a rescue attempt may seem weird to some, but it made sense to them. Because it wasn't just one single person flying, it was multiple, who looked the same. The refugees hoped that this was some sort of govt. agenda, some sort of super-soldier program, like the infamous Germa Clones, and that they had come here to rescue them by the sky.

"H-Here! I am a Marine Captain, here!"

"I-I have a 30 Million Bounty! Just take me in, I just want to leave this place!"

Hashirama was ignoring them throughout the process of the search, but over time he grew annoyed. He still ignored them though. He pretended that he couldn't hear that.

Four minutes into the search, one of the clones found the culprits. They were in a camp of some sort, enjoying a meal. Hashirama recognized that they matched the description that Beidou gave, but more than that, he noticed the weapon was just there too.

"H-hey, please! My wife is pregnant, the last thing I want is for my children to be born in this hell-hole! Please, she needs immediate medical attention!"

Another yell resonated through the air. Hashirama, who was about to cancel all the wood clones, minding his own business since he wasn't here to play hero, paused in his spot.

After a momentary hesitation, Hashirama still canceled the Jutsu. However, only the clone that saw the culprit bandits was the one who vanished. All the other clones stayed in the air before they landed near their respective group of refugees.

He was no hero, true. But he wasn't pure evil either. Hashirama was a changed man, and he noted – since he was here anyway, why not help out a few people?

While the Main received the location of the bandits, leading his group to that location, the clones decided to tend to the refugees, planning to make a huge ship for them to escape on at last.

In the end, it was nice to be nice.

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[0] - As it is the start of a new week, don't forget to shower Hashirama with power stones!!

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