By the time Yuta and Maki was done telling their tale, Toki was flabergasted. The story was beyond anything she could think of, coming from future, her adopted grand son.
She just couldn't believe it.
"Do you have any proof ?" She asked, she didn't outright refuse their claim, after all in this sea, almost everything was possible, she herself was somewhat of an anomaly after all.
"Well I do have the same devil fruit as you, but I can't use that of course. However, I do know what you just have done. I know because we have come from 20 years from the future." Yuta said with a smile.
The mention of 20 exact years caugth Toki off guard. She have told no one when she was sending Momonosuke and others. No one knew except her, even the travellers themselves didn't knew.
This means that what this boy was saying had some grounds…
"I…I can't believe it. If you're really from the future, then you must know right. Tell me, what happens to Wano. Does the evil rule of Orochi and Kaido finally comes to an end." She asked, her voice shaky.
Maki and Yuta could see the desperate hope in her questions, unfortunately they didn't had a good answer for her.
"No… Until we were their, things were the same, if anything they get worse as time goes on." Yuta being completely honest replied with a shook of his head, destroying the hope building up inside Toki.
"Oh…" Toki looked down, eyes shadowing.
"However, I will change that. I intent to fight Kaido. And I'm not alone. There is an allaince between Whitebeard Pirates, another new pirate group with immense potential and I am a part of this alliance.
"The pirate I talk about, your son, Momonosuke, is with him, they as we speak is sailing towards Wano. Believe me, sooner or later we will free Wano of the oppressive rule of Orochi and Kaido. I promise." Yuta replied with passion in his voice.
If before he wished to help cause it was System's calling and his work as a Hero then now it was personal. A place which bring so much pain to his grand mother, there is no way he will not move.
Hearing his passonate vioce, Toki was surprised. She couldn't believe that even whitebeard was helping them.
For the first time she felt that beating Kaido was really possible.
She couldn't help but smile, she wasn't sure whether the boy in front of her was telling the truth, whether anything he told her was truth, however, she knew one thing, she could see why she would adopt such a kind child.
However, that still doesn't make sense why this two where here, her own case was nothing but an anomaly, a fruit which let one travel into future was already out of ordinary, but a fruit power which allow someone to go back in time.
'Fruit like that.' her mind went back to what she could do if she can go back in time. Hundereds of years, how far away she was from her own time, a woman way beyond her time.
What would she do if she had a power like that, who wouldn't want to go in past, to fix the regrets of their life. She was no different, the friends and family she left behind, her own dreams with remain unattained, she had a lot of things which she would like to change.
"So you want my help to go back to your time… is that it." She asked, a hint of longing and uncertainity lingering into her voice.
Perhaps this was her convictons wavering seeing there was a chance for her to still see her children one more time, a legit reason for it. Perhaps it was a longing to see her Husbands dream coming true.
Her own dreams died the day she venture for future, a journey which lasted for hundreds of years. But her husbands dream was till alive, even if he himself was not here with them, the two kids in front of him was proof enough that his dream was alive.
"Yes, we have to go back before our friends start the war against Kaido and Orochi. Our coming here was a mistake, and we are stuck here now." Time time around it was Maki who spoke seeing Yuta not answering for a while.
As for Yuta, he was just lost in memories of this woman being his mother, father, grandma and pretty much every other relation he could call family. He didn't realise just how much he missed his grand mother.
Big part of the reason he didn't wished to meet his young self was to avoid this.
Toki also saw the boy look at her with those eyes which remind her of her own children.
"The castle won't last for long, we should go if we don't wish to be 2 feet under burning castle rubble." Maki jolted both of them up.
"Ah yes, we should." Yuta nodded.
However, it wasn't onto him to leave, it was onto Toki and whether she believe in them.
Both stared at Toki, clearly expected her to act. Toki pondered over her choice.
Whether to believe them or not, the fact that they knew about her plan who even no one else should tells that she weren't lying.
So, whether she wishes to go along with them or not.
For a while a long silence was streached until Toki finally let out a long sigh.
"I still have one last duty to full fill. I intent to die after that but perhaps my life still has meaning."
…
Toki ran out of the burning castle, her long robes fluttering behind her as the sound of chaos filled the air. The cries of battle echoed through the night, and flames lit up the dark sky. Behind her, Orochi's soldiers shouted, chasing her down the path, their footsteps growing louder. But Toki did not stop. She knew she had no time left to waste.
Her voice rang out strong and clear, cutting through the noise around her. "Hear me, people of Wano! Twenty years from now, the moon will shine upon the land once more. Nine Shadow will cast woven together through twenty years of moonlit nights which will then allow people to understand the radiance of dawn."
The crowd listened in awe, the hope in her words piercing through their despair. Even as the soldiers surrounded her, Toki did not stop speaking. "Do not give up. Endure until that day comes. The dawn will rise again!"
The moment she finished, Orochi's men raised their guns, aiming straight at her. Toki closed her eyes, calm and ready to accept her fate. But just before the shots were fired, two figures dashed in from the shadows.
A flash of movement—then, in the blink of an eye, they were gone, taking Toki with them. The soldiers fired at empty air, shouting in confusion as the wind carried away her last words—words that would echo for twenty long years in the hearts of Wano's people.
xxx
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