After intercepting Rouge from Baterilla Island, Makoto lost interest in staying out.
He activated his Complete Body Susanoo again, enveloping the Otherworlder-Go and shooting into the sky.
Clouds whizzed past beneath them. In just over half a day, the outline of the New Amazon Lily appeared on the horizon.
The Otherworlder-Go landed steadily in Flower Capital.
Makoto thought for a moment. Soon, his group would use the Time Fruit's ability to jump to the world twenty years later.
Rouge's mental state was currently unstable. He wouldn't feel comfortable leaving her nearby.
So, he decided to leave Rouge on Onigashima for now, having Kaido assign several female pirates to watch her constantly, to prevent her from attempting suicide again.
On Onigashima.
Kaido stood in front of his castle, looking at Rouge being brought over, studying this orange-haired woman with interest.
"So this is Roger's woman?"
Kaido circled Rouge, his gaze lingering on her face for a moment, then made his assessment.
"She's not that good-looking. What did Roger see in her?"
Clearly, Kaido was qualified to say this. After all, he had found himself a beautiful wife herself.
This could be seen from Yamato's appearance.
Excluding the possibility of Kaido being cuckolded, Yamato had half of Kaido's ugly genes, yet she was still so beautiful. That meant his wife's looks definitely added a huge bonus.
Rouge lowered her head and remained silent.
Kaido didn't care. He waved his hand and had the female pirates take Rouge away to settle her in.
"Watch her well. Don't let her commit suicide. If anything goes wrong, you know the consequences."
The female pirates' expressions tightened. They quickly nodded and carefully helped Rouge away.
Makoto stood on the coast of Onigashima, watching the surging waves in the distance, and instructed Kaido, "After the child is born, if he wants to go to sea, try to make him join the Whitebeard Pirates."
Kaido was stunned for a moment, feeling a bit regretful.
He had kind of wanted Roger's brat to join his own pirate crew. It would be best if the kid called him daddy.
Although Kaido had never beaten Roger before, if he could recruit his son, it would be a kind of spiritual victory.
But Kaido still couldn't understand why Makoto wanted to send Roger's kid to Whitebeard.
Back at the Shogun's mansion in Flower Capital, Makoto sat on the balcony, enjoying the beautiful scenery of Flower Capital while planning his next moves.
He thought for a moment and felt that Rouge probably wouldn't die after giving birth like in the original work.
After all, now that she was here, she didn't need to deliberately delay Ace's birth like in the original.
In the original work, she had most likely used drugs or similar methods. Under normal childbirth circumstances, she should be able to live for many years.
He didn't know if this would affect Ace's life trajectory.
However, because of the butterfly effect that was him, the original plot had already gone completely berserk.
Fortunately, the mission requirement for this Reincarnation Game was relatively simple, just 'participate in the Battle of Marineford'.
Otherwise, they might really not be able to go back.
Having been busy until now, there was nothing left to do.
Makoto considered whether to jump through time early.
Although jumping to the current timeline would still leave two years until the Battle of Marineford, that period should be more interesting than the present.
By then, Ace would be setting out to sea, and it would be less than two years until Luffy set sail. There should be plenty of fresh developments.
As he thought, he picked up his teacup and took a sip.
Just then, the door behind him opened by itself.
Makoto raised an eyebrow slightly.
It should be known that even among his women, not many dared to enter without knocking.
Nayuta was one.
Chika did sometimes. But they both made a lot of noise when entering... they wouldn't be this quiet.
He turned his head to look.
The person entering this time was somewhat unexpected.
It was Kozuki Toki.
She was wearing an extremely gorgeous junihitoe kimono… layers upon layers of silk, from deep red to light pink, from jet black to golden yellow, one layer stacked on another, a full twelve layers.
Her hair was styled into an elegant bun, adorned with delicate hairpins. She wore light makeup, looking like an empress dowager stepping out of an ancient painting.
Makoto looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
"What is it?"
Toki bowed slightly.
"I recently learned a new dance and wanted to perform it for Nishikawa-sama."
Makoto was a bit puzzled.
He certainly knew that Toki could dance.
It should be noted that in the original work, before she died, she danced while perishing in a sea of flames, and left behind the prophecy of 'nine shadows falling from the sky'.
The meaning was that nine heroes would appear twenty years later to save Wano Country.
When this plot came out, all the readers speculated that these nine people were the Straw Hat Pirates.
Although the Straw Hat Pirates had ten people at the time, which didn't quite match in number, readers also speculated that perhaps one of the characters at the time was injured and not counted.
Then, no one fucking expected it… it turned out to be the Nine Red Scabbards.
And, perhaps to include Momonosuke, they deliberately killed off Ashura Doji, the strongest of the Nine Red Scabbards.
Damn, the hand of divine will strikes again, right?
Although in 2D works, stealing the protagonist's credit is commonplace, like Mr. Satan stealing Kakarot's credit, King stealing Saitama's credit…
This was absolutely the most disgusting.
Makoto watched with interest as Toki, dressed in her finest, walked in.
He certainly knew she couldn't really want to dance for him. There was definitely an ulterior motive.
But Makoto pretended to be oblivious, leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs, and smiled at her.
"Dance."
Toki nodded slightly and took out a folding fan from her sleeve.
The fan opened, revealing a painting of cherry blossoms and flowing water.
She began to dance gracefully.
The junihitoe kimono shimmered with a beautiful luster under the candlelight, swaying gently with her movements.
Her dance was elegant and graceful. Every turn, every lift of her hand was just right, like a flower swaying in the wind.
Makoto kept smiling as he watched her.
He wondered what Toki was up to.
Was this going to be a 'spear in the dark' situation?
But he didn't think she would do that.
With her level of strength, if she wanted to assassinate him, she wouldn't use such a stupid method.
Toki's dance continued.
The folding fan in her hand sometimes opened, sometimes closed, in coordination with her twisting waist and moving feet, like a moving painting.
Then—
She began to remove her clothes.
The first kimono slipped off, revealing the slightly lighter second one underneath.
The third.
The fourth.
One after another, with her dance steps, the twelve layers of the junihitoe peeled away, like the petals of a blooming flower withering.
When she reached the final moment—
Only a final thin layer of silk kimono remained on her body.
That silk was almost transparent, vaguely outlining her slender figure.
Candlelight shone through the silk, casting hazy light and shadow on her skin.
She stopped dancing and put away her fan.
Then, she slumped into Makoto's arms.
Makoto looked at her face, identical to that of Hiyori, one of the future three great beauties of the One Piece World, and chuckled lightly.
"Are you using a honey trap to get me to release your husband?"
Toki didn't answer.
She just lowered her head, her fingers trembling as she untied the last layer of thin silk.
The silk slipped away, revealing her fair skin.
She looked up again at Makoto, her lips moving but no sound coming out.
But her expression clearly said… 'Take me as you will.'
Makoto and Toki began to get intimate in the room.
He was quite excited about attacking Momonosuke's 'birthplace'.
However, about half an hour into the act, Makoto suddenly felt a strange sensation in his body.
He raised his hand and saw dark, mushroom-like spots beginning to appear on the back of his hand.
Not only the back of his hand, but also Toki's smooth back beneath him was developing the same dark spots.
Makoto stopped moving.
Toki, panting, half-turned her head, her eyes carrying a look of resignation, a bitter smile on her lips.
"Let's... die together."
Her voice was complex, but her tone held no hesitation.
"I coated myself with a poison from a deadly mushroom called Amiudake. No antidote has been discovered for this mushroom to date."
"Even you... won't be able to cure it."