Chapter 35: The Sovereign's Intervention
The moment the gold coin snapped between Rimon's fingers, the System's internal gears groaned under the weight of a "Multiversal Breach."
Rimon's vision didn't just blur; it fractured. He saw a data-stream of golden numbers cascading over the North Flats. The System's voice, usually cold and mechanical, surged with a sudden, overwhelming resonance.
[Sovereign Protocol Activated: The King's Call]
[Contractor identified: Monkey D. Luffy]
[Timeframe Sync: Post-Dressrosa / Pre-Whole Cake Island]
[Coordinate Lock: South Harbor, Uzushiogakure]
On the Thousand Sunny: The Great Displacement
Seconds earlier, in the New World of the Grand Line, the Thousand Sunny had been sailing through a peaceful afternoon. Luffy was sitting on his favorite spot—the Lion's head—while Sanji prepared a light snack and Zoro napped against the mast.
Suddenly, the ocean beneath them stopped moving. The blue water turned into a shimmering, golden mirror.
"Oi! What happened to the waves?" Luffy blinked, looking down. "Nami! Did we hit a weird island?"
Nami ran to the railing, her Clima-Tact already out. She looked at her Log Pose; the needle was spinning so fast it looked like a blur. "The magnetic field is gone! No... it's being rewritten! Everyone, hold onto something!"
A massive, golden pillar of light erupted from the sea, swallowing the ship whole. To the crew, it felt like the Sunny was being lifted by a giant, invisible hand. The sky above them didn't just change; it folded.
"What is this?" Franky shouted, rushing to the helm. "The Coup de Burst is priming itself! I'm not even touching the levers! The ship is reacting to a massive external chakra... no, a soul-signature!"
In that golden void, a voice echoed through the ship—the voice of the System, translating Rimon's desperation into a language the Captain understood.
"Captain Monkey D. Luffy. A friend of the 'Red Hair' is falling. The Vortex is screaming. Will you answer?"
Luffy's expression shifted. The goofiness vanished, replaced by the sharp, intuitive focus of a Conqueror. He felt a faint, distant pulse—Rimon's soul, flickering like a dying candle miles away. He didn't know Rimon, but he knew the "flavor" of the call. It tasted like blood, salt, and the refusal to give up.
"I don't know who's calling," Luffy said, his voice dropping an octave as his Conqueror's Haki flared instinctively, stabilizing the ship's deck. "But they sounds like they're in trouble. Franky! Whatever is pulling us... give it everything we've got!"
"You got it, Captain! SUPER-Trans-Dimensional Coup de Burst!"
The Descent: Breaking the Sound Barrier
Back in the world of Shinobi, the sky had been open for nearly ten seconds. To Ashina and the invaders, it was a terrifying omen. To the Straw Hats, it was a high-speed transit through the "Gap."
As the Sunny breached the rift over Uzushiogakure, the change in atmosphere was violent. The freezing, salt-heavy rain of the Whirlpool slammed into the grassy deck.
"Ugh! It's cold!" Chopper shrieked, hiding behind Usopp's legs. "Where are we? Is this a Sky Island?"
Robin walked to the edge, her eyes narrowing as she looked down at the burning village, the two massive Tailed Beasts, and the crumbling harbor. Her eyes widened as she saw the dome of wood—the Mokuton—that had just saved the elders.
"This isn't the Grand Line," Robin whispered, her hand over her heart. "The energy here... it's jagged. It's dense. This is a world of war."
Luffy stood up on the Lion's head, his straw hat pulled low over his eyes. He saw the "Red-Hair" (Rimon) down on the docks, bloodied and broken, yet standing defiantly against the giants. He saw the children's heartbeats through his Observation Haki.
"Everyone," Luffy said, his voice carrying over the roar of the wind as the ship plummeted toward the bay. "The people down there are crying. That guy with the red hair... he used everything he had to bring us here."
He cracked his knuckles, the sound echoing like a gunshot.
"Let's show them how we say hello."
The Landing: The Sovereigns Meet
The Sunny smashed into the water with a localized shockwave that sent a fifty-foot wall of white spray into the air, drenching the Mist and Cloud shinobi.
Rimon, using the very last of his chakra, performed a final Flying Thunder God jump from the North Flats. He appeared on the broken pier, right next to the unconscious Nawaki, just as the mist from the ship's landing began to settle.
Rimon coughed, his knees buckling, but he stayed upright. He looked up at the Thousand Sunny. He saw the Straw Hat. He saw the crew.
The System's screen flashed one last time before going dark:
[Summoning Complete]
[Current Objective: Survival]
Luffy leaped from the figurehead, stretching his arm to catch the railing before landing softly on the broken stone pier in front of Rimon. The two "Sovereigns" stood face to face—the boy who had built a village with science and seals, and the man who would become the King of the Pirates.
The Three Nations' shinobi watched, paralyzed. They had been prepared to kill a legend. Now, they were staring at a miracle.