"Ding~"
...
The familiar system notification rang in his mind.
Aiden's eyelids twitched before he slowly opened his eyes.
Sunlight hit his face through the gaps in the leaves. He raised a hand against the glare and squinted.
His head felt heavy, like he had been drinking. For a moment, he could not think clearly. Then his memory came back piece by piece.
"I didn't die..."
Aiden moved his fingers, then his arms and legs. Everything was still there. He let out a long sigh of relief.
He pushed himself up from the ground and sat up. He looked down and found himself lying in a round crater more than ten meters wide.
The dirt around him had been torn open, and several massive, broken trees lay across the edge of the crater. He had hit the ground hard enough to carve the crater himself.
"Good thing the system strengthened this body so many times. My body is tougher than Kaido's now. Otherwise, this fall would have turned me into meat paste."
Aiden rubbed the back of his aching head, trying to shake off the dizziness.
As his mind cleared, years of fighting made his hand move before he could think.
His right hand reached for his waist.
When his fingertips touched the cold, textured handle of his black blade, Oto, his tense nerves finally loosened a little.
It was still there.
As long as he had a blade, he still had a way out.
He slowly stood up, patted the dirt off his body, and quickly scanned his surroundings.
"Moria?"
He called out, keeping his voice low, but it did not travel far before the thick trees cut it off.
There was no signature "Kishishishi" laugh from Moria in response. There was no burning smell from the ruins, no gloomy sky typical of Wano Country, and no sign of Kaido's massive body.
No one answered.
Only a warm, humid breeze moved through the trees, carrying the strong smell of dirt and rotting plants.
"Whoosh— Whoosh—"
The wind blew through the treetops, sounding like ocean waves.
Aiden slowly turned, taking in the forest around him.
Where... is this?
He was standing in a vast ancient forest.
The plants here were enormous. An ordinary fern grew as tall as a three or four-story building. The massive leaves blocked the sky, and sunlight could only shine through the gaps, leaving scattered patches of light.
The trees farther away were thick enough to make him think of the Red Line's cliffs. Their canopies shot straight into the clouds, making it impossible to see the top.
"Moria?"
Aiden called out again.
His voice echoed once, then faded between the trees.
Aiden took a deep breath. The air felt thick and clean when it entered his lungs. His head cleared faster than expected.
"Such high oxygen levels..."
Aiden raised an eyebrow, looking around at the giant plants blocking the sky.
"No wonder the plants here grew so huge. It would be hard for creatures in this environment not to be massive."
Aiden picked a patch of moss as thick as a carpet and sat down on it. He called up the system that had just woken him.
[Criminal: Kaido of the Beasts]
...
[Execution Participation Rate: 41%]
...
"He died..."
Aiden muttered to himself.
Kaido dying was a good thing, but this forty-one percent participation rate made him pause.
This was the first time since he got the system that it hadn't crossed fifty percent.
Aiden touched his chin in thought.
Kaido had already been barely alive. One more strike should have been enough for the system to count it as his kill. But the system decided he had contributed less than half.
Was it because Oden's previous injuries on Kaido were too heavy, so the system judged Oden to have done a large portion of the damage?
No, that wasn't right either. Before, as long as an enemy died by his hands, fifty percent was the absolute minimum. It seemed Kaido died by someone else's hands after he disappeared.
Was it Moria? A heavily injured Kaido shouldn't be unbeatable for him.
Aiden shook his head. None of that mattered anymore.
No matter who killed him, Kaido, the Strongest Creature, was dead. Since he couldn't kill him a second time, there was no point dwelling on it.
"I don't know how long I was out for..."
Aiden glanced at the glowing golden [Unclaimed Rewards] list.
It most likely contained the final push his Armament Haki needed to reach the "Transcendent" level, or Kaido's physical talent.
But he wasn't in a rush to open it.
No matter how tempting the rewards were, now wasn't the time to claim them. Figuring out his current situation and why he was here came first.
Aiden remembered the last few minutes before he lost consciousness.
He was about to eat the apple in his hand when golden spiral patterns suddenly appeared on its surface.
Right after that, the world around him warped and flickered, as if reality itself were losing shape.
Aiden clearly remembered how his arm became transparent and twisted in an instant. He could even see the ruins behind it through his skin.
Faced with whatever was happening to him, his first reaction had been fear. He instinctively wanted to throw away the strange fruit in his hand, but it stuck to his palm and would not come off.
Then, with a sharp snap, he found himself inside a warped tunnel of space and time.
There was no gravity and no direction. He was surrounded by chaotic, twisted lights and shadows.
His body felt weightless one moment, and as heavy as a mountain the next. Something dragged him in every direction, stretching his body until his bones felt like they would split, then crushing him inward again.
In that place, the burning fruit in his hand became the only solid thing he had.
Aiden stopped trying to throw it away.
In that strange space, if he lost the only real object in his hand, he had no idea what would happen. Would he get lost there and never find a way out?
Therefore, Aiden didn't dare let go.
Not only did he hold on, but he gripped it until his fingers hurt.
He didn't know how much time had passed. He could no longer tell if it had been a few seconds, or several centuries. In that tunnel, Aiden completely lost his sense of time.
Just when he thought this drifting would never end, the fruit in his hand suddenly changed.
"Buzz—!!"
The fruit started shaking and pushed against his hand with a force he could not stop.
It definitely wasn't physical repulsion. After all, Aiden had strength enough to wrestle down a giant, but it was useless against that force.
The fruit slipped out of his grip, flying off into the dark depths of the time tunnel on its own until it vanished completely.
"Hey!! Wait!!"
Aiden watched the flying golden light, suddenly growing anxious.
"Where are you going?! You're the one who brought me here! Don't leave me alone in this damn place!!"
"Come back!!!"
In that silent space, that fruit was his only connection to the real world. Once it left, it meant his last way back had disappeared.
However, no answer came.
Then his vision went black.
He lost all feeling and fell into a deep coma.
...
By the time he regained consciousness, it was the moment the system notification woke him up.
"Haa..."
Aiden let out a heavy breath. He rubbed his aching temples, pulling himself back to the present.
He was alive. That meant he could still move. There were a million things to figure out, so he had to take them one step at a time.
Aiden stood up slowly and stretched his stiff joints. His bones cracked.
He looked around, frowning slightly.
The giant trees acted like high walls and blocked most of his vision. Standing among them, he felt like an ant dropped into tall grass, completely unable to tell north from south.
Not knowing where he was felt terrible for someone used to controlling the situation like Aiden.
"I need to confirm my location first," Aiden thought to himself.
Since his ground vision was blocked, he could only look from the sky.
Bzzzt—
Fine blue lightning arcs started jumping across his skin. The surrounding air let out soft pops.
Aiden's body broke into lightning.
A second later.
Boom!!
A pillar of lightning shot through the dim ancient forest.
The lightning tore through the thick, overlapping tree canopies, startling countless strange birds resting at the top.
One thousand meters.
Three thousand meters.
Five thousand meters.
Aiden shot higher and higher until the forest fell away beneath him.
As he climbed higher, his vision finally opened up.
The fierce wind howled in his ears. Aiden reformed his body, floating above the clouds.
However.
When he saw the full view of the land beneath him, his confusion only grew.
"How... is this possible?"
Aiden stared at the endless stretch of emerald green below.
Looking east, there was a massive, rolling mountain range. Every peak reached into the clouds. It was even grander than his memory of the Red Line.
Looking west, there was a vast forest. The green waves stretched all the way to the horizon without an end in sight.
Looking south, looking north... it was all land!
"Where is the sea?"
Aiden furrowed his brows. His chest tightened.
In the world of One Piece, the ocean covered most of the world.
Even for Alabasta, the largest island in the first half of the Grand Line, flying to this height would definitely reveal the coastline.
But this land was too large. From this height, he still could not see the sea.
"Did I fall onto some undiscovered giant island?"
Aiden didn't want to believe it.
Simple visual observation had its limits, so he closed his eyes and spread his senses.
Aiden activated his Observation Haki alongside the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
He mixed Observation Haki with the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and spread it outward like a pulse.
In previous uses, his vision would instantly shift to a wide view from above.
His senses would spread upward until he could read the land below. The entire area would become a map of shapes, movement, and living signals. Every living thing would stand out through its electric signal.
However.
This time was different from the past.
"Bzz... Bzzzt..."
The moment he tried to spread his senses, the familiar blue energy grid didn't appear in his mind.
Instead, it was replaced by chaotic static and harsh noise.
The magnetic field in the air was completely different from before. The strange magnetic field broke up his signal before it could spread.
"Ugh!!"
Seeing that it wouldn't work, Aiden cut the connection and opened his eyes.
"Damn it... Even my radar is useless now."
Aiden rubbed the space between his eyebrows as he slowly descended.
He had no map, no direction, and no way to sense the area.
Aiden hated it.
"Roar—!!!"
Right then, the forest below shook.
Giant trees, thick enough for several people to circle, snapped apart like weeds. Each step shook the ground as a massive beast charged into Aiden's view.
It was a creature covered in thick bone armor with three sharp horns on its head. It looked exactly like a Triceratops. But its size was larger than any land beast Aiden had ever seen. It looked like a moving hill.
"A Triceratops?"
Aiden didn't rush to attack. He watched it instead.
The beast's breathing was rough, and its body shook with strength. It carried more raw power than most pirates with bounties over ten million.
"What a strong body."
"Grumble..."
Right on cue, Aiden's stomach let out an embarrassing growl.
His fight with Kaido ended quickly, but it still drained some stamina. Plus, he had no idea how long he was unconscious for.
Aiden was hungry.
The beast seemed to notice the man in the sky. It raised its head, fixed its eyes on Aiden, and let out a challenging roar.
"Roar!!!"
"You've got quite the temper."
Aiden shook his head.
"I don't know where I am, but since you offered yourself up so eagerly..."
Aiden slowly raised his right hand and pointed his index finger at the beast.
"I'll use your meat to fill my stomach."
A blue-white bolt shot from his fingertip and pierced the beast's chest.
The beast never reached him.
The giant beast didn't even have time to scream. Its massive body went stiff instantly, and then it crashed to the ground.
Aiden held back just enough. He didn't turn it to charcoal. Instead, he sent the bolt through its heart and let the heat cook the meat without burning it.
A faint roasted scent immediately filled the air.
...
Half an hour later.
Next to a giant tree hundreds of meters tall.
Aiden sat cross-legged in front of a campfire. He held a sharpened branch skewered with a large, sizzling piece of dinosaur meat.
Aiden liked good food, and he knew how to cook. He was not going to eat badly if he could help it.
Fine sea salt, ground black pepper, special cumin powder... he had plenty of these spices ready in the system's storage space.
As he sprinkled the seasoning evenly over the golden roasted meat, the smell of roasted meat spread through the air.
"Perfect heat."
Aiden nodded in satisfaction. He tore off a piece of meat and stuffed it into his mouth.
He chewed twice.
"Damn, this is good."
Aiden kept chewing and judged the taste.
"The texture is somewhere between beef and chicken, but chewier. The fat in the muscle fibers is rich and softens as I chew. There's no gamey taste at all. It even has a faint, fresh plant scent."
"With these spices, it tastes even better."
Aiden swallowed the meat. This was definitely one of the best ingredients he had ever eaten.
However.
When he got ready to take a second bite, his movements slowly stopped.
At this moment.
There was only the howling wind and the roars of unknown beasts around him.
He held good meat in his hands, seasoned well and cooked just right.
But as Aiden looked at his empty surroundings, the food suddenly tasted a little bland.
"It would be nice if Gion was here."
Aiden looked at the empty space beside him.
If she smelled this tempting aroma of meat, that proud, stubborn Vice Admiral would have followed the scent over long ago.
She would probably say something she didn't mean, complaining about "why did you make such greasy food again," while naturally opening her mouth, waiting for Aiden to feed her the best, tenderest roasted piece.
If Gion knew he was missing right now, she would probably be tearing the sea apart looking for him.
"And Smoker..."
Aiden gave a bitter smile.
That guy would definitely scold him for "eating alone" while shamelessly reaching out to snatch a piece. Then he would jump around from the heat, almost dropping the two cigars in his mouth.
And Issho, he would definitely chuckle and pull out a jug of sake from who knows where, saying, "How can we lack wine with such fine food?"
Jinbe and Kane, who had only recently started following him, would probably...
And Hancock, who was still waiting on Amazon Lily for him to bring back a gift, and Robin, the little bookworm in Ohara.
None of them were here.
He was the only one here.
"So... I really do have people waiting for me now."
"Wait..."
Aiden suddenly remembered something.
He realized he was overthinking it. Even though his Observation Haki was useless, he still had that thing on him!
A Transponder Snail!
A Transponder Snail could usually connect across impossible distances as long as the frequency matched. Whether in the New World, the Four Blues, ten thousand meters up in Skypiea, or ten thousand meters down at Fish-Man Island, as long as the frequency matched, he could connect.
Aiden's hand went to his pocket at once. He hurriedly took out the Transponder Snail he always carried with him.
"Hey, wake up. Time to work."
Aiden tapped the snail's shell and dialed the number he knew by heart.
However.
The Transponder Snail, which usually woke up and went "Puru Puru" with just a light poke, now showed no reaction at all.
No signal.
No response.
"So even this won't work...?"
Aiden stared at the unresponsive Transponder Snail in his hand. He stayed silent for a long time before finally putting it back in his pocket.
Smack.
Aiden casually tossed the roasted meat aside.
Even good food completely lost its appeal in this moment.
"What exactly is going on..."
To find answers and distract himself from the worry building in his chest, Aiden forced himself to focus. With a thought, he took out the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia from the system's storage space.
The main reason he was here was because of that fruit suddenly appearing in his hand. If it changed so abruptly from an ordinary fruit, it was most likely a Devil Fruit.
The book in his hands was an item redeemed from the system. It should record all Devil Fruits known to the system.
By the faint light of the campfire, Aiden quickly flipped through it. Soon, his finger stopped on a page.
The illustration on it showed a golden fruit with spiral patterns, looking exactly like the one he saw on Onigashima.
[Time-Time Fruit]
[Ability: Can send people to the future.]
Looking at the fruit in the encyclopedia, Aiden's fingers trembled slightly.
The fruit that brought him here was the legendary Time-Time Fruit.
But...
For a Devil Fruit to reappear, its user had to die.
The owner of the Time-Time Fruit was Kozuki Toki.
From what Aiden remembered, after Oden died, Toki should have used her power to send Momonosuke and the others twenty years into the future. Then, she either died in the burning Oden Castle or her fate was unknown.
"So that means, Kozuki Toki died?"
Aiden knew nothing about Imu's involvement. From his point of view, he just felt confused and furious.
"I clearly lured the entire Beasts Pirates to my side and wiped them out before they could regroup. I even beat Kaido into the ground. I had almost settled all that crap in Wano Country."
"Why the hell did you have to go and die, Toki?!"
The more Aiden thought about it, the angrier he got. He gritted his teeth.
"Did you kill yourself for love just because Oden died?"
"If you wanted to die after Oden, fine, but don't drag me into it!!"
"The fruit respawned in my hand and dragged me through time by force..."
He cursed, but Aiden actually felt even more unsettled inside.
Because he suddenly realized a worse problem.
The Time-Time Fruit could only go to the future, not back to the past.
Since he was taken away by this fruit, it meant this place was most likely the "future."
"How far into the future?"
Aiden's fingers trembled slightly.
Ten years? A hundred years? Or thousands of years later, when the world had completely changed?
If that was the case, didn't that mean everyone he cared about was already gone?
In that instant, Aiden's chest tightened.
He had finally built something in this world. He had a lover, brothers, comrades, friends, people to protect, and a force of his own.
But now, all of it seemed to have vanished just like that.
Aiden sat silently on the log, staring at the dying campfire in front of him without moving for a long time.
Aiden was not soft, but this was too much to take in at once. Even after everything he had lived through, he could not stay calm.
He didn't know how long had passed.
Eventually, the campfire burned out, leaving only glowing red embers. The surrounding forest was swallowed by darkness.
Night fell.
"Haa..."
Aiden let out a long breath, forcing himself to move.
No matter what, these were still just his guesses. Maybe he had only been sent twenty years forward, which meant there was still hope.
Thinking of this, Aiden looked up at the night sky, trying to steady himself.
Because the giant beast had rampaged through earlier, many large trees nearby had been broken, revealing the starry sky.
However.
The moment Aiden clearly saw the sight above him, his face changed again.
"That's..."
Aiden froze. He jumped to his feet and stared at the night sky.
Up in the sky.
A full moon hung right in the center. It was bigger than any moon Aiden had ever seen. The craters on it were clearly visible, and it gave off a bright, almost eerie light.
But that was not what stopped him.
Next to the main moon, there were actually several small glowing spheres floating there.
One, two, three...
There were a total of six "small moons" of different sizes. They revolved around the main moon like stars surrounding it, giving off faint lights of different colors.
"Several... moons?"
Aiden stared at the strange sky. He went cold.
He hadn't studied much astronomy, but he knew for a fact that in the era he knew, he had only ever seen one moon in the sky.
"Did I travel through more than just time?"
Aiden looked up at the unfamiliar night sky and stood there without speaking.
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