C38 : Changes

• [Year : 20.5] •

Ryu frowned after finishing the 'God of Systems'' message. It was at this moment that he also felt something beginning to leave his soul, like unlatching itself away.

[As such, I will be leaving. You no longer will need me since you will soon ascend... I know it.]

The system stated before finally disappearing. Ryu felt that it was a pity because now, everything was needed to be controlled by his will without the system. Even now, the Ten-Level Combat Prowess Seal was slowly dissipating due to the fact that it was the system who provided and managed it. He also needed to find objects on his own too.

"Hmm?" Kan, the sea-based Havoc Bringer, felt a sudden spike of power in the human before him and Elder Scwon, who also felt it. "This is too..."

He was overwhelmed by such power; only having felt it in the far highest and stronger races than his own and others. The sea Havoc Bringer felt cold sweats coming out of his back even though he was in the sea. Elder Scwon didn't move or say anything as it stared at the figure of Ryu.

*WOOSH*

The sea around them suddenly splashed out and caused a huge empty waterbody, surprising Elder Scwon as it nearly fell down to the seabed. Kan shivered before the pure unadulterated power radiating out of Ryu. "Such astonishing power in a mere human!"

"Heh, a mere human?" Ryu chuckled at him, but shook his head. "You mentioned that Wano Country was in danger, what do you mean by that?"

He understood that without the system, any implements by it was now no longer existent and the Wano Country was completely open to everyone. However, that didn't mean that it was defenseless. Wano Country was rapidly increasing in power and intelligence as Ryu made sure; its ranking in independent countries was probably the highest out of all, excluding Elbaf, known for its giants and their strength.

"Ah, right." Kan shook his nervousness out of his body before beginning. "You know that there are far stronger races than mine, as I explained before. They were originally either slumbering for a time to awaken themselves or hiding behind the scenes while secretly controlling huge organizations in the world. Well, the Tremor Tremor Fruit User's world-shaking tremors just signalled the beginning of what was called Void Century long ago, but far stronger and tougher. They are going to awaken to avenge their ancestors or take control of territories."

"..." Elder Scwon opened its mouth as it circled both of them, to which Kan looked back at it.

"Yes, I know all of this but what do you mean by that?"

The large and long shadow shook itself, its shadows unable to leave even as the sun flared upon all of them. "..."

Kan then looked at Ryu strangely. "Young man, Scwon just said that you probably already knew of all this..."

"Only bits of it." The Solitary Pirate nodded while not revealing how much he knew, which was about nearly nothing since this wasn't even mentioned in his home-world. He asked back. "You said that the stronger beings were slumbering before for a time to awaken, what do you mean by that? Was there something like an decree for them to do so?"

"No, it was an prophecy that they had their own opinions on and decided to act on it." The sea-based Havoc Bringer shook his head. He looked around and saw that the water was slowly returning to the empty huge waterbody as they spoke. "I don't know the exact words of the prophecy, only that it meant an beginning of something world-changing. In probably about five to ten years, the stronger beings will probably begin to awaken and reclaim their territories. Anyways, I'm just telling you to keep watch for Wano Country."

Ryu sighed and turned around before he tilted his head at Kan. "If I find out you're one of my enemies, I will not hesitate to kill you and destroy what you were originally protecting since ages ago. I will also eradicate your whole race if there are any surviving ones."

Kan shivered at the overpowered human's chillingly green eyes staring at him. Just as he was about to nod quickly, Ryu disappeared in silence. "...Monster."

"..." Elder Scwon rolled its body before it turned away and moved away.

"Yeah, bye. Hope we aren't on opposite sides again." The Havoc Bringer nodded at it and sighed as it looked at the sky while the water rapidly rose, returning the originally empty hole to filled up. "It's begun, old man."

Kan shook his head, knowing that he would not receive any response from the sky. He then swam to above of the sea and stood onto it.

His hand rose to the front of him and flattened his palm horizontally before saying. "Erupt, Oceanic Slayer!"

*boom*

A small deafening sound exploded under him and Kan nodded in satisfaction. With a step, he also disappeared into nothing.

*rumble*

When the sea-based Havoc Bringer disappeared, the ocean suddenly clashed against itself literally. Countless waves were spawned and even heightened itself into several tsunamis before they went their way randomly, few failing to get farther and sometimes few became smaller as it distanced from the source.

But all of that was simply an beginning to an far larger ocean-wise destruction.

…

In Wano Country...

Clamoring was heard in the officials' government building. They found out that for some reason, the Wano Country suddenly lost its main and extremely powerful defense mechanism against outsiders. They also lost control of several prisons around the Wano Country, but they were already planning several raids to retrieve them back from rebellious prisoners who didn't know of any news nor did they even know that Wano Country's civilians abilities grew as they stayed weak within their cells.

"Do you know what is going on, O-Tsuru?!" An young man in his samurai outfit shouted at the calm-looking and middle-aged woman who gracefully sat on her chosen chair as the civilians' representative. "We're going to be besieged by those white-clothes fools who has been hiding around our country! Our land!"

The other representatives of their respective household and/or land quietly watched, unsure of what to do or simply curious how the skillful and intelligent civilians' representative would respond.

"...Those 'white-clothes fools', as you called them, are Marines, please do call them as such. There are people wearing white clothes in our land as well... you may have offended them if we were in the Public Relations management." O-Tsuru smiled at the young samurai-wearing man, who looked flustered when he noticed that few of higher-up representatives were also wearing white clothes. Just as he was about to retort, O-Tsuru opened her mouth. "You are also insulting our abilities."

"W-what?!" The young man stuttered in confusion.

O-Tsuru, the civilians' representative, explained. "By assuming that they would attempt to attack our land... You are also insulting our abilities to defend ourselves. Did you think that without Shogun Ryu we would fail to protect ourselves with what we've learned over the times?"

The young man in his samurai outfit frowned and shook his head. "No... But what of the Marines if they were to attack us?"

O-Tsuru continued to smile. "We will decide then, but they have yet to, correct? This shows that the Marines are not ignorant and unintelligent as you expected them to be."

The young man sighed and bowed. "Yes. I apologize for my outburst."

"It is alright, you were worried about our people's safety." The civilians' representative shook her head and smiled.

Relieved that she didn't hold it against him for shouting at the start of the meeting, the young man quietly turned away and stood behind one of the Household Chairs.

"Now, shall we begin?" An graying-hair official said as he heaved a sigh in middle of the room. He walked to the middle and stood in the podium. "As you all noticed, we have, for some reason, lost the defensive mechanism against the outlanders. But we should not worry about this because, as what the civilians' representative said, we have the ability to protect ourselves from them. In fact, we should see this as a chance."

"Oh?" The representatives were interest and curious in this official's explanation.

"A chance to see how we should act and the creation of new security for our land as well as the sea." The graying-hair official smiled at them and said. "After all, we cannot depend on Shogun Ryu forever."

"Indeed...", "Yes, that is right.", "I agree.", "My household also agrees!", "I shall send several of my men to assist in this new endeavor.", "Mine as well.", "I do not like the idea but I agree that we must do this for the sake of our future." The representatives of their household murmured in agreement and they nodded, while very few looked as if they didn't really want to participate but forced to. They liked mooching off Shogun-in-name Ryu but they understood that they would have to force themselves to act when needed.

"And what of your opinion, Civilians' Representative O-Tsuru?" The graying-hair official waved his hand horizontally to O-Tsuru.

"I am in agreement of this. Even though we are capable, we all have our favorable skills as well as our own dreams. I would not like for them to be forced to always defend themselves from the foreign people, so I am supportive of creating new security teams set for land and sea." O-Tsuru nodded slightly before adding. "There are also few civilians who would like to join this project."

"Then we are all in agreement?" The graying-hair official looked around before looking at the other end of the podium he was standing within, an middle-aged and muscular man in a official clothes.

"Hm." The middle-aged and muscular man in a official clothes brushed through his goatee before nodding. "Very well, I approve!"

"Yes, Head Official." The graying-hair official smiled and bowed his head before excusing himself to his seat.

The Head Official looked at the section of Household Representatives. "I have heard from my unit that a few of you also wanted to participate in the Prison Retrieval?"

"Yes." An representative of Kozuki Family stood up, his odd appearance not causing any eyes to bat in the room. His bright red and long hair to the floor with its front hairs sticking outward at his chest, big lips and blush marks on his cheek, and tall figure made him an easily recognizable man among the retainers of Kozuki Family. "I am Kanjuro, a representative of Kozuki Family. I request that I and a few of my fellow retainers to participate in the Prison Retrieval."

"Why is that? I am sure we have enough strong samurai warriors to retrieve the prisons. There is also the Polices who are currently still fighting against the prisoners." The middle-aged and muscular Head Official brushed his goatee once again. Anyone who knew him in the months of working together knew that was a habit of his whenever he was taking the current situation matter seriously.

Kanjuro slightly sweated at his innermost forehead, signaling that he was nervous but did not show it. Truthfully, the current Family Head of Kozuki Household didn't make the request, but he did. It was his secret personal request. "The reason why we have made this request is to save our fellow retainers working as the Polices in the few taken prisons. Although we know that they are strong enough to deal themselves, we are still Kozuki Family. We will always support and be there for each others."

The Head Official squinted his eyes at him. Although he didn't know what Kanjuro was planning, he felt that his words were quite convincing. Kozuki Family had been truly progressive in nourishing strong samurai warriors and was successful in ensuring their reputation. "Very well, I shall approve of Kozuki Family's selected retainers enlistment."

The other representatives of their respective household heard this and became active in requesting to enlist themselves as well for their reasons. While they conversed and discussed, Kanjuro turned away and walked to the exit in preparation.

As he left, the 'representative' of Kozuki Family thought to himself. 'I'll get my revenge on you all for taking away my family...'

…

Ryu looked over the Wano Country from the sky. It still looked peaceful with the exception of confusion in why the defense mechanism already disappeared when the so-called future Shogun had yet to appear. He tilted his head and sighed. "Let's see how Kaido is doing."

He used a movement technique that made him nearly invisible to ordinary people's eyes due to his speed and appeared at the Onigashima of Wano Country.

However, when he reached there, he didn't expect an complete change to the small island. It was completely different from the battle he had with Kaido before, it looked clean and better with trees sprouted out tall.

"Oh?" Ryu was surprised at this and realized that he didn't see Kaido anywhere. He slightly panicked at this, not knowing of this information.

Several towns were already established on Onigashima and had civilians living there, even though the fact that Kaido used to be here made them afraid of remnants of Beast Pirates, they were strong enough to fight back united. Ryu landed onto the shore of Onigashima.

Beautiful trees and nature stood in his way. No one would have guessed that Onigashima used to be an winter-seasoned island with Beast Pirates' residency here. However, there was one landmark that remained the same yet slightly different, the Skull-Shaped Land Mass. It was very noticeable from afar, but unlike before when it had an dreary feeling to it, it didn't feel anything except that it looked weird. That didn't deter the civilians to take Onigashima back as theirs and take residency there.

No one noticed the Shogun-in-name as he walked to the nature from the beach sand. Ryu frowned at the presence of Kaido's inhumanly soul; it wasn't anywhere near Wano Country anymore. He guessed that the proclaimed Strongest Beast in World moved away in his dragon form.

"Kaido..."

Although there was an tingling feeling that he should have killed the beast ago, Ryu shook it away because what didn't happen, did not happen. He was also confident in his strength and power to deal with Kaido if it was needed. There were sounds of small animals around him as he paved through the unexpectedly large forest of beautiful trees.

"Just what happened in those few months?" Ryu was confused and curious. However, imagine his surprise when he found out which household was managing the whole Onigashima alone - Kyoshiro Family. It was widely known in Wano Country that Kyoshiro Family was an yakuza group controlled by Kyoshiro, which was an disguise by Denjiro who was an retainer of Kozuki Family. It also known that Denjiro used the disguise as an yakuza boss to take care of Kozuki Hiyori, who disguised as the most beautiful woman in Wano Country as an oiran, Komurasaki. "Well, I hope it was them who decided this otherwise..."

The Solitary Pirate shook his head. If the officials was the one who decided this, he would do nothing against them then. However, he was curious to why Kyoshiro Family was the one controlling it and not Kozuki Family since Denjiro was technically an retainer of Kozuki Family, as far as he knew.

"Maybe it seperated because of its success?" Ryu took a guess and shrugged, putting it back of his mind. What needed his attention was the disappearance of Kaido. He blinked and had his Observation Haki surrounding the Onigashima of Wano Country. "There really isn't any presence of Kaido..."

After finding that Kaido didn't hide in the island but truly left it, Ryu took back his Observation Haki. It was also with that single Observation Haki that he got the gist of what was going on in Onigashima. The Shogun-in-name sighed and took a step to walk a wide distance.

*woosh*

Although the scene would blur for any other people who did this, Ryu could perfectly see everything clearly. Beautiful sceneries that would be very rarely seen in his homeworld were all over as he glanced. A town built with woods that were strong and durable, a commodity only in Wano Country, appeared before him when he stopped.

Taking a large land around, there were over twenty buildings in the town. Most of them was houses and the rest were either family-oriented restaurants and shops. Children's laughter, parents' scoldings, aged people's reminiscing, and animals' sounds were heard all over the town. Around the town was farm crops, one of reasons why the town was flourishing well. The town was called Faamu Town, known for its farms.

His presence completely hidden and looked over, Ryu walked into it. He smiled at the sight of its flourishment. It all wouldn't have happened now, but later, if not for him. He was glad to have done this. It gave him a sense of fulfillment.

"Hmm?" A short, elderly man with tanned skin, dark gray hair and a stoic look on his face suddenly stopped, looking at Ryu's form from a distance. Ryu wore an casual clothes of a gray short shirt and long pants. The short and elderly man smirked and walked to the Shogun-in-name.

"You've noticed me." Ryu suddenly said when the short and elderly man was close to him. He turned to the elderly man and tilted his head. "Oh, you're him."

"Hey! What's with your irresponsible way of speaking to your elderlies?!" The short and elderly man scrunched his eyebrows, looking angry. "Geez! This is why children these days are so disrespectful!"

"Why are you complaining to me, Minatomo?" The Shogun-in-name shook his head and took care to cover the short and elderly man's presence from others so that no one else would see him talking to air. "Shouldn't you be in Flower Capital, taking care of your Legendary Carpenters?"

"Nah, my excuse of son took over. I don't think he'll be able to handle it, though! Haha!" Minatomo grinned as he rudely insulted his son's ability of leading. The short and elderly man suddenly took on a serious look. "Shogun Ryu, if I may, I'd like to know why the defense mechanism disappeared when the future Shogun has yet to appear."

"...Let's just say that something happened and I came here because of it."

"Something happened...?" Minatomo frowned and looked up at Ryu's chilly green eyes, instinctively shivering. Something dangerous definitely happened if he looked like that. But Ryu's chillingly green eyes took on a casual and lazy feeling when he looked back at Minatomo, smiling.

"Don't worry, Wano Country is in safe hands."

The former leader of Legendary Carpenters simply nodded but internally thought. 'Wano Country is in safe hands, huh? It must be extremely dangerous, for him to personally protect it...'

"Tell me, why has Kyoshiro Family split from Kozuki Family? I am sure that Denjiro was an retainer of the latter..." The Shogun-in-name asked Minatomo.

The elderly and short man sighed and began explaining. "Denjiro decided that Kyoshiro Family has become too large to suddenly dissolve or become an branch family to Kozuki Family, so he became its family head."

Ryu didn't say anything, silently telling him to continue.

"They're not in any bad terms of relationship or anything, it's just that both families were formerly known negatively, so the civilians already began speculating ever since you left Wano Country." Minatomo then spoke in an 'wise-old-man-knows-everything' tone. "You know that speculation leads to assumptions, which other people may take advantage for their gains. Although we are united as a single community, there are still people whom has greed and people whom cares for only their future."

"There are already people taking advantage of others' assumptions?" Ryu rolled his eyes. As expected, eternal peace didn't exist.

"Yes, so Denjiro decided that Kyoshiro Family and Kozuki Family would be two seperate families, yet in an cooperating alliance for the sake of Wano Country's future." Minatomo chuckled. "Kozuki Hiyori, the current Family Head of Kozuki Family as whole, also agreed but did not want her retainers to think that Denjiro was betraying them and so, announced publicly about their relations."

The community of Wano Country was surprised but understood their reasons and decided to abide by it because they did change after the reign of Kurozumi Orochi and Beast Pirates. Kyoshiro Family continued to grow in quality and quantity while Kozuki Family grew with better views upon them.

"Anyways, the Kyoshiro Family decided that they would take Onigashima when, for unknown reasons, that b*stard Kaido left it. At that time, Onigashima was completely destroyed and ravaged by Kaido's rampage but through some means, it turned like this." Minatomo stated while looking at the beautiful scenery of nature and civilians together. He never knew how this came to be, since Onigashima was formerly winter-seasoned island, but was quite happy to see it. "You know those Devil Fruits we thought as Magic? I think Kyoshiro Family has an Devil Fruit User who caused this. A plant-like man was sometimes heard of and seen from one of Kyoshiro Family's businesses."

'A plant-like man, huh?' Ryu thought to himself. The fact that Minatomo said the man was plant-like instead of controlling plants meant that it was possible that the man ate an plant-based Devil Fruit and awakened it.

The fact that there was an Devil Fruit User in Wano Country didn't really surprise Ryu because he already knew of several people possessing them back then. It was the fact that there was an user who awakened the Devil Fruit that surprised him. Let alone any of the Devil Fruit Users in Wano Country, there were very few users who awakened it in the whole world.

"I'll be checking it out." Ryu told Minatomo as he left him, the short and elderly man's presence revealed while the Shogun-in-name remained invisible to the civilians. "Just don't tell anyone about me."

Minatomo just nodded and turned away to return to his path. Hot springs in Onigashima was better than Flower Capital after all.

Ryu neared a large building with the sign called 'Blooming Flower'. It was an branch of a larger business in Flower Capital of Wano Country. The moment he entered its door, several people's chattering was heard, showing how busy it was.

Famous for its delicious and cheap meals, Blooming Flower rapidly gained a lot of attention from gourmets of the community and also gathered far a lot of reputation. Blooming Flower was one of most flourishing businesses in Wano Country, so its founder was also famous and rich.

*shin~*

A abrupt sharp sound of a katana being unsheathed appeared when Ryu took another step into the Blooming Flower's branch restaurant in Onigashima. Ryu, however, did not appear startled at all and merely looked at its holder.

"Whoever you are, show yourself." A young man in his kimono outfit seriously said. "I have attained the Observation Haki and my mastery in it is at expert level, I could sense your presence but it was barely there that I thought I failed in my training."

Ryu secretly nodded, satisfied that Wano Country had a man like him. In the whole world, Observation Haki holders was extremely rare, let alone Observation Haki experts. "You're good."

The whole restaurant had tensed at the young man's sudden movement of unsheathing his katana and hovered it mid-air, but understood when he explained that someone was here but they couldn't see them. The current customers in Blooming Flower trusted this particular young man because of his position in Wano Country.

"Huh?" The young man in kimono outfit looked confused when Ryu spoke. He felt that this voice was familiar. "Show yourself now!"

The Shogun-in-name simply chuckled and rose a index finger. No one knew his movements because the young man could only sense his presence but not any body shape. "You are good, but..."