The white rabbit became somewhat withdrawn after returning to the camp. The immense pressure made it hard for him to breathe.
He recalled Sakura's attitude at the Savage Terminal and the words she had said.
"Resisting the world... can we... really do it?"
The white rabbit boy questioned himself in a hoarse voice, his eyes filled with confusion.
After all, bearing the future of a kingdom was far too heavy a burden for a child not yet thirteen.
Finding a high shack to sit on, the white rabbit gazed at the settlement before him.
Various people transformed into animals moved among the stalls. There were even stall owners, though their stalls only had leftovers salvaged from the garbage dump.
There were probably a few thousand citizens who still retained their sanity. Trapped in the dream, they couldn't die, but they still felt hunger and pain.
They experienced everything a human did, yet they were imprisoned in animal bodies.
"Mom!"
A child's voice rang out. Two small, pure white squirrels ran on all fours, eagerly pouncing on an upright-walking squirrel.
The two little squirrels chased and played around their mother. It should have been a warm, harmonious scene.
But to the white rabbit, Hermod, this sight sent a chill down his spine.
"Those two children... they entered the dream not long after they were born, right? They should be almost forgetting what it's like to be human by now."
The white cat, leaning on a cane, climbed onto the roof of the shack and slowly walked to the white rabbit's side.
"Yes, Sensei, yes..."
The white rabbit's eyes were half-closed, glistening tears welling up in them.
"Ah, it's all my uselessness. I promised your father I would protect you and this country, but I haven't accomplished either!"
The white cat leaned heavily on its cane, trembling as it sat down next to the white rabbit, covering its mouth with its other hand and coughing twice.
"It's not your fault, Sensei. It's... their fault!"
The white rabbit hugged his legs, resting his rabbit head on his knees, his emerald eyes revealing sadness.
"That pirate, Haruno Sakura, she's strong. Do you have thoughts of betting on her?"
The aged face still held an unyielding fighting spirit. The fire in the white cat's opened eyes had not yet been extinguished.
"She's a pirate, Sensei!"
The white rabbit frowned, implying that pirates couldn't be trusted.
"But she also liberated slaves. With that kind of heroic Haki, she absolutely cannot be some vile scum from the gutters!" The white cat sighed softly.
How could it not know that pirates were untrustworthy? But the enemy they were facing now was the World Government!
So, the potential allies available to them were few. Pirates, being natural enemies of the World Government by identity, barely counted as one.
Politics wasn't a game of good friends and bad friends, it was the art of interest and compromise.
"Let me think about it a little more, Sensei!"
The white rabbit let out a deep sigh, his voice so faint it was almost inaudible.
Below, a commotion caught their attention, making both pairs of eyes look down at the ground.
"Hey, uncle, the quality of this hemostatic agent is pretty good! How did you make this kind of medicine with scarce resources?"
Sakura's eyes shone brightly as she held a white bear's paw with both hands, shaking it vigorously.
"First, I'm female. Second, this isn't a hemostatic agent, it's an anesthetic made from toxic substances. The hemostatic effect is just a side effect of the toxins stimulating muscle contraction!"
The white bear, insulted twice by Sakura's one sentence, roared at her, its eyes bloodshot.
"Ah! Sorry."
Scratching her head, Sakura bowed apologetically to the white bear.
On the shack above, the white rabbit stared at Sakura's silly smiling face, took a deep breath, jumped down from the shack, and walked towards her.
"Hey, pirate!"
The white rabbit tapped Sakura on the shoulder from behind.
"What is it, kid?"
The girl's utterly lawless attitude made veins bulge on the white rabbit's forehead: "You really are rude, you know."
Sakura put her hands on her hips, tilting her head back proudly. "Hehe, pirate business is none of your concern."
The white rabbit didn't say anything. He just raised a hand and drew a circle on the ground beside them.
When the lines at both ends of the circle connected, forming a closed shape, the ground inside slowly sank, eventually becoming a hole large enough for one person to pass through.
"Follow me!"
The white rabbit tilted his head at Sakura, then ducked into the rabbit hole he had dug.
Curious, Sakura followed. The moment she entered the hole, gravity suddenly inverted. The hole, which should have been a straight drop down, now required Sakura to climb upward.
"Hmm, so this is your ability?"
Sakura, who is following behind the white rabbit, didn't get a response for a long time. Mischief taking over, she reached out and pinched the rabbit's tail.
"Wah! You-!"
The angry white rabbit covered his bottom, really wanting to punch the person behind him, but had to give up due to the difference in their strength.
"I ate the Paramecia-type, Ana Ana no Mi. I'm a Hole Human! It allows me to dig holes in any object, dreams included!" (T/N: Hole-Hole Fruit.)
Afraid the pirate behind him would cause more trouble, the white rabbit patiently explained.
"Woah, that amazing? So, where are we going now?"
As they climbed further, Sakura felt like she was passing through a filmy layer again, similar to the feeling of being coated in a bubble on the Leviathan.
"Hmph, didn't someone boast arrogantly about wanting to oppose the world? I'm taking you to see the horror of those beings. And remember, in the Colorless Realm, you absolutely must not speak!"
Worried Sakura might do something like when she first landed on the island, the white rabbit drilled it into her.
"Yes, yes, yes, Mother Rabbit!"
The girl's eyes turned playful, and she pouted, humming.
"You..."
The rabbit, about to speak, abruptly shut his mouth.
Light gradually came from the hole ahead. Taking one more step out of the rabbit hole, Sakura found herself standing on the giant wall at the island's center.
The entire island was pure white. Only the giant beasts moving through the forest created some commotion while hunting.
Looking down, Sakura saw the dwelling of the gods within the walls, or perhaps the heaven on earth?
In a world of pure white, marble spires shimmered with crystalline ripples in the flowing light.
One magnificent church after another stood in rows upon the land. Numerous extravagant, lavish decorations gave the churches a solemn, austere beauty.
Around the hundreds of giant churches, groups of unfinished buildings were under construction. Some people were even wiping the bricks and foundations spotless...
'This was truly... filthy!'
Sakura narrowed her eyes. Her Observation Haki spread, revealing the truth beneath this beauty.
Countless animals with chains around their necks, dressed in tattered clothes, moved with vacant eyes like puppets, carrying construction materials back and forth-
wiping every speck of dust from the pure white tiles, diligently devoting themselves and their souls to this flawless beauty.
When a small white animal burned out, lost its strength, and fell to the ground, a mass of flame clouds would float out from the central church-
envelop it, fly beyond the city walls, pass through a black hole, transform into a giant beast, and join the slaughter outside the city.
The malice that turned the citizens of Elshakh into puppets, and the immense combat power formed from their fallen remnants… everything combined to form the Celestial Dragons' rule over this island from the top layer.
A glamorous, beautiful nation built upon hell.