Chapter 160: I Think… it’s Sage Mode

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Me and my clones streaked through the sky, as I held Nami and my clones held my crew in their hands.  We made our way toward the old house I woke up in. It took a long minute to reach that, and we landed right in front of the open gate.

“Quick, come inside,” Tsunade said as she hopped off a clone’s arms. The other clones let the girls down to their feet too, and I dropped Nami. Only two clones remained with their hands busy, as they carried the injured Robin and Karoo.

We all followed Tsunade to swarm into the house, and she closed the door by pressing the button in haste. She looked anxious, and hasty, as she looked at the house a bit more, checking the windows. The girls joined her, which gave me the idea that this place might not be very safe.

I averted my focus from them and made the two clones gently lower Robin and Karoo onto the floor. The two of them, as well as the other clones, crouched down beside the two heavily injured individuals and began to use Mystic Palm on them. I stood and supervised them as they sat around Robin and Karoo in a circle and healed their serious injuries.

“S-Shira!” Tsunade ran back to me, pulling me into a hug, and touched my forehead as if to check my temperature. “You seem healthy… How much chakra do you have?”

“About thirty-eight percent, if I count the clones.” I did a quick check and replied. “What’s going on here? How long has it been since I was out?”

Tsunade opened her mouth to reply to that but then closed it. Rather, she looked at Robin and Karoo, who were slowly healing as they winced in their unconscious state. “Let’s deal with them first. Don’t waste your chakra, yours is the most important among us.” She crouched down and gently shoved the clones to the side. “Call back the clones, I’ll heal them instead. Mari, come here, help me with this.”

 Marianne rushed back to us, as did the other girls, Mikita, Vivi, and Nami. The two former marines began to use Mystic Palms of their own on two injured individuals, and I withdrew my clones to merge them into myself.

I stood beside Vivi, Nami, and Mikita, the latter of whom pulled me into a hug to feel me. “It really is you, finally!” she almost teared up, touching me all over and making sure I truly was me and she wasn’t dreaming, and then let go.

“Don’t hold back on chakra output,” said Tsunade to Marianne. “He’s here now, it’s going to be alright.” She said as she increased the chakra that lit out of her palms.

“You’re injured too,” I said as I noticed the injury on her side.

“It’s alright, I’ve had worse. I’ll be fine-”

“Shut up,” I shut her up and crouched down beside her, putting a hand on her wound and using my mystic palm to heal it. She smiled softly, even if she looked like she found it a waste of chakra. “Focus on Karoo, she looks in a serious state.”

The crew spent ten minutes there, till the extremely injured Robin and Karoo looked well. Karoo had regrown her feather neatly and looked almost healthy, and the same was the case with Robin. The situation was dealt with.

“Phew,” Tsunade sighed as she got up.

“Karoo!” Vivi leaned over to hug her duck, her friend, who was still asleep. On the other hand, Mikita gently picked up Robin and took her sleeping self to another room. Vivi soon followed, dropping off Karoo to rest. She and Mikita returned soon, and Vivi finally found enough peace in her mind to pull me into a hug.

“How are you feeling now?” she asked gently as I hugged her back. My hand ruffled her hair gently as I felt a sense of odd guilt in my heart. I felt like I had something to tell her… something about Alabasta?... but I don’t remember, I don’t know, I’m not sure.

“I’m great now. I won’t insult you by asking how you’re doing, I’m sorry for not waking up early.” I said, adding nothing else since I was unsure exactly what I wanted to tell her. From her shoulder, I looked at the other girls with a frown.

“Sis,” I looked at Tsunade. “What the hell is going on? Just… how long has it been?”

* * *

Two years, that’s how long.

After taking the self-destruction damage of the Samurai Robot, where my body was forced to use up all of my chakras to regenerate from the injury, I’ve been asleep for two years. It took me a while to accept that; I couldn’t believe that I’d left these girls alone, to survive in this dangerous place, for two whole years. I felt useless suddenly.

As for what they’ve been up to for the last two years, it was a story of struggle. Right after I lost consciousness, Tsunade tried to wake me up a few times, trying to heal me with her Mystic Palm, but I didn’t have any injuries left to heal. The reason I wasn’t waking up was due to the lack of chakra.

Marianne tried to transfer some of her Tailed-Beast-Chakra into me, but my body rejected it. Nothing worked, and so the only solution they could think of was to feed me food. But they didn’t have any food there without me, so their hope was in the underground city that opened up its gate after the Mecha Samurai’s defeat. They came to the underground city with the hope of finding people, finding food—but the city was barren, there was not even a single tree there, let alone humans.

They finally managed to find food after days of searching, in the form of canned preserved food from malls, but that’s when the robots attacked. The city had a robotic defense system and when they broke into an abandoned mall to steal food, the city registered them as thieves. So since then, they were attacked by robots everywhere they went in the city.

Only this house was safe, as it was built at the edge of the city, where the city defense’s cameras didn’t reach. Even so, some robots would sometimes wander off here and the crew had to fight them off.

They fed the food to me, but it didn’t work—my chakra didn’t rise. It was odd, it should be rising since I was being provided with nutrients, with energy, but it was as if my body was connected to a black hole and all the energy was sent somewhere else.

Still, to this day, the girls fed my unconscious body food in the hope I’d wake up, but I never did. So with no other choice, they had to return to the city now and then to find food for me as well as themselves. Over time, they grew stronger as they fought the robots for food, and often their lives would nearly end, but they’d never be able to overpower the robots due to their endless numbers.

Tsunade had tried going [Galaxy Impact] against the ceiling of the city, the only thing that kept it separated from the main city above, which had sunlight, but her punches always fell short. They had no choice but to fight the robots for the last two years for the tiniest bit of food, which left them always tired and their tummies churning for more.

It was only a few days ago that they came out for food again, this time trying to scavenge more food than usual, but the city’s defense reacted accordingly and sent more robots than usual. That’s why they were nearly dying just earlier, till I came to save them.

That was how it went for the last two years, where we were stuck in this hellhole.

“But now that you’re finally here,” Tsunade said with a relieved expression, “We can try challenging the city’s main defense, and if we break it, we’ll be able to get to the city above. We first need to recover all of our strengths first, we need to be quick about it before your chakra runs out.” Then she frowned, “Which brings us back to the question… how did you regain that much chakra? I checked on you just a few days ago, before we left, and you were almost empty as always. Then how?”

Usually, this is where I would say that I had no idea, and actually, I didn’t—until I had this conversation with her.

I looked up at the ceiling, preparing my words for a moment before I looked at Tsunade. “Remember the clone that I sent with Hancock?”

“…Yes?”

“I think that's the ‘black hole’ who's been receiving all my chakra that I got from the food you fed me,” I said. “I also think… it recently attained Sage Mode.”

I had a blurry set of memories that must be from the clone, it hadn’t been able to maintain the Sage Mode for long otherwise both our minds would have connected and become one. Despite the blurry memories, I was sure about this much – that for the last two years, to not dissipate after its months’ worth of chakra ran out, the clone had been trying to reach Sage Mode—and finally it succeeded.

The girls stared at me in silence, waiting for a better explanation, but I moved toward the door instead, “We need to be quick. Since our minds haven’t connected and become one, that means the Sage Mode didn’t last long. In that case, he must be trying to connect to it again. I think for it to succeed, I, as the main body, have to try to connect to it at the same time. Like two devices matching at the same wavelength.”

“Okay, but where are you going?” Tsunade walked over to me as I opened the door.

I looked back at her from over my shoulder, “The closest I’ve reached to Sage Mode was when you and I fought and I was near death. So as you said, let’s go attack the central city defense—if we win, we win, and if we don’t… then it’d at least push me near death.”

My wings unfurled behind me as all eyes looked at me in stunned silence.

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