'What happened to me?'
Just waking up, Karin felt a bit disoriented.
But soon, memories from before her unconsciousness resurfaced.
She remembered.
She had broken free from the nightmare created by Jashin, wresting back control of her body from that guy Momoshiki.
Then, she instinctively amplified that ray of light within her will, successfully cleansing the fragments of Jashin that had been torn into thousands of pieces.
To prevent the possibility of a fragment still hiding in some forgotten corner, she later, with the [Divine Light] activated, thoroughly swept the entire coastline.
Finally, after flying several circles, Karin only felt her vision suddenly go dark, and her entire being suddenly lost consciousness.
This wasn't strange, though.
Originally, she was already exhausted. Add to that the psychic attack from Jashin and pushing her potential to awaken Conqueror's Haki, her spirit had reached the limit of fatigue.
If it weren't for the Pure Gold frantically restoring her, she would have fallen asleep the moment she first woke up, with no time to destroy Jashin's fragments.
"Mmm..."
With her consciousness returning, Karin instinctively let out a soft moan, and the surrounding noisy sounds suddenly quieted down.
"I am..."
Karin subconsciously tried to sit up but found many 'little beans' in front of her, looking at her with very admiring, even reverent, gazes.
"Wow!! Birdland is awake!"
"Great! Birdland!"
"Thank you for saving us! Birdland!"
When her eyes met those of the little ones, the noisy cheers erupted again.
"Wait, wait, hold on, stop for a moment, all of you stop!"
Seeing the little ones around her about to start making noise again, Karin immediately stopped them and asked about what had happened while she was unconscious.
Amidst the chaotic explanations from the little ones, Karin finally understood the whole story.
These little ones came from an island called [Green Bit], calling themselves the Tontatta Tribe.
Originally, to save their princess, they voluntarily worked under the Donquixote Family on Dressrosa, nurturing fruit trees.
However, later, for some unknown reason, one group of the Tontatta Tribe was taken to Punk Hazard.
After being transported here, even the Tontatta Tribe, simple and trusting as they were, finally realized they had been deceived.
Not to mention those guys didn't even try to hide it.
So they tried to resist, but before Caesar, the controller of this base, their resistance didn't even make a splash.
Afterward, they could only stay here, nurturing the materials Caesar needed for his research potions.
Later, Caesar suddenly wanted to take them and leave this island, immediately followed by the outbreak of the previous battle.
During the battle, both Caesar and Orochimaru died, the children were taken away, and the base's guards all turned into meat paste and fell.
With the guards' obstruction gone, the Tontatta finally caught a glimpse of Jashin.
Just that fleeting glance made the little ones feel madness erupting in their minds.
Fortunately, compared to humans with their heavy thoughts, the simple Tontatta Tribe seemed more resistant to Jashin's whispers, not going insane immediately.
Later, Karin destroyed Jashin and, with the golden divine light, swept back and forth across this large area, incidentally 'purifying' the abnormalities on them as well.
What the awakened little ones saw was the great bird soaring in the sky like a golden deity.
They called Karin [Birdland] because, in Tontatta Tribe's legends, a great hero named [Montblanc Noland] had helped them regain peace.
This Montblanc Noland was also the first person to discover the [City of Gold].
Unfortunately, later, due to an upward current, the City of Gold was washed up to the [White White Sea] 10,000 meters above.
From then on, it was a physical 'separation of sky and earth'.
Noland's words could not be verified… he committed the crime of deceiving the king and was eventually executed by the king he served.
And he was called the [Liar Noland]. To this day, his descendants still firmly believe their ancestor did not lie.
The name Noland is synonymous with 'hero' among the Tontatta Tribe. Calling Karin [Birdland] was also to express gratitude for saving them.
"Wait, wait... First, I have a name, just call me Karin."
Karin rubbed her head, dizzy from the noise, with her wing, then explained.
"Second, I only turned into a bird because of my Devil Fruit ability. I'm actually human."
"A human, just like those guys over there—"
At this point, Karin suddenly reacted and quickly looked toward the sea.
Sure enough, the entire sea was now eerily quiet, ships drifting randomly about.
Karin immediately got up, spread her wings, and flew into the air, simultaneously releasing Observation Haki from her body, sweeping it around the area.
Perhaps because of the transformation she had undergone, the range of Observation Haki Karin could now use was much larger, and it wasn't as strenuous.
However, the further Karin flew, the worse her mood became.
Dead people.
All dead people.
Those crew members Caesar turned into snake-men, and the protective suit guards defeated earlier, all now had no signs of life.
They either died under Jashin's whispers or at the hands of their insane comrades.
The already chaotic, disordered thoughts of the snake-men became even more frenzied after directly witnessing Jashin.
They attacked everything around them indiscriminately.
Until they themselves bled their last drop of blood.
"Naomi!"
"Naomi!"
Karin's voice, amplified by the Garuda's innate ability, transformed into a massive sound field covering a kilometer.
But even shouting like this, she still got no response.
'Where was Naomi?'
Suppressing her nausea, Karin scanned every corpse on the Shark Emeralda.
But among those mangled remains, there wasn't a single fragment belonging to Naomi.
"How could this be... Naomi..."
Dejected, Karin flew back to the shore, then looked at the sea surface in silence.
The noisy little ones nearby seemed to empathize and all walked over to Karin's side.
"Kariland..."
They wanted to comfort her but didn't know where to start.
But at that moment, a faint trace of golden light flickered in the sea.
It was truly extremely faint, completely undetectable to the naked eye.
But Karin could distinctly sense the aura of [Pure Gold].
Her gaze instantly locked onto that area of the sea surface.
Under the seabed!
The next moment, a fierce gale arose, the sea water was split apart by a great force, and the seabed was revealed once more.
As Karin's power spread, the seawater continued to be parted.
Finally, a familiar figure... serpentine figure... snake-human figure came into Karin's view.
Without hesitation, Karin manipulated chains to gently lift the unconscious Naomi and carefully examined her condition.
"Great, she's still breathing!"
The surrounding Tontatta Tribe's members also came to help. Upon discovering Naomi was still alive, they all cheered happily.
And the stone in Karin's heart slowly settled.
Not only because Naomi was alive, but also because she didn't have that disgusting stench of Jashin on her.
—As for having turned into a human from the waist up, snake from the waist down form, that was inconsequential.
She could just ask Naruto to 'reshape' her too later.
Although unable to form hand seals, Karin could still perform the most basic healing Ninjutsu.
But this most basic healing Ninjutsu, when Karin drew upon the Chakra within her body that had subtly mutated and performed it, completely changed.
A soft golden light slowly spilled from Karin's wings, illuminating Naomi.
And the injuries on Naomi's body healed at an extremely rapid pace.
'What is this?'
Before Karin could think more, something else suddenly intruded into her perception.
A ship, the large ship that had taken the children away earlier.