In One Piece, as Hashirama Senju

[160] I Think... it's Sage Mode

"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?"

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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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