Chapter 37: A Paradox
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"I wanted to say how you have changed," Nico Robin said as she followed behind him. "But then I recall how our first meeting happened. How did you turn out to build such a complicated mixture of personalities?"
"What do you mean by that?" asking that with a shrug, Hashirama turned his head to give her a look. He turned around and continued walking, submerging into the stairs that led under the ground. "You're confusing sometimes, Nico Robin."
"Just Robin should be fine at this point," Robin corrected. "I swear, you're not a bad guy, not evil, but still so mischievous and scheming. It's weird."
As if her words suddenly made sense, Hashirama went 'Aha!' though he didn't turn back this time.
"I see what you mean now," walking down to a stage where the light was barely visible, Hashirama said. "Well, maybe I was a bad man who turned a new leaf."
"You're 19, I met you at 16, and you've always been the same." Robin sighed from behind him and followed. "Anyhow, let's end the conversation here. I think we are close to where you're bringing me."
"Agreed," Hashirama said. A thin wooden log came out of his palm, and he lit a fire on it with a lighter. The dark hallways brightened, and with that in hand the duo took a turn in this intricate Royal Tomb; just then, both their eyes fell on the thing they came here for. "There it is. The blue rock."
In this place, dubbed the Tomb of the Kings where all of Alabasta's former Kings lay in eternal sleep, something extravagant stood in the middle of the building.
The Poneglyph.
Robin's next steps were slow, as she seemingly lagged in her mind, as her hand shakily approached to touch the solid stone tablet.
At the last moment, she pulled her hand back from the stone and turned to look at Hashirama. "Why did you bring me here?"
"I don't want to continue explaining how nice of a person I am. I am just living up to the promise I made, even though you broke it yourself. Don't question it and read it. I bet it will give you a mental orgasm." Hashirama said, with Robin opening her mouth, but she closed it when he said the last line. "Got you."
"..." Robin sighed and turned around to face the poneglyph again.
She squinted her eyes, unable to properly see the text in this dim light, until suddenly the room lit up brightly. Quickly turning around, Robin found a dozen wooden logs turned into flambeaus, sticking out of the ground with clones of Hashirama finishing planting them.
Robin's eyes instinctively moved to look at Hashirama who made a hand gesture and all the clones in the area turned into a ball of wood and rushed back to Hashirama, merging into his body.
"New trick?" Robin asked, and instead of waiting for his answer, she turned back to read the text that was much easier to read now.
"When I dispersed the clones, I could either leave a puppet of wood behind or turn the thing into energy that rushed back into me," Hashirama explained even though she may not be hearing. "The problem with that, it turned out, was the memories were not processed properly. Which caused headaches and other issues. But now, with this, when the wood rushes back to me, no such issue occurs. Though, as you can expect, I can only do this if the clone is close to me."
"Please be quiet."
"Sorry."
Hashirama stood beside her and looked forward at the gibberish that was written on the stone's surface. It truly was gibberish, nothing made sense.
"What does it say?"
"...I can't tell you that." With a deepening frown, Robin said with her eyes flickering across the lines. "Oh god..."
"Can I take a guess?"
"Can you shut up?" Robin turned her neck at him and stated, "This is a seri-"
"Pluton is in Wano," Hashirama looked into her eyes and watched her pupils shrink. "Lucky, isn't it? A weapon of mass destruction hidden inside a sealed country."
Robin closed her mouth. Sparks flared from the flambeaus, the fire shivering even as though there was no wind in this place. Robin's expression was serious, and her eyes reflected the fire. At the end of the abnormal acts of the fire, Robin opened her mouth.
"How can you read the poneglyph? Just who are you?"
"I cannot," Hashirama walked closer to the stone and ran a hand across the text. "This is some gibberish crap to me. Maybe my Master could read this, but I have no idea what this says."
"...If so, how do you know what you just said?" Robin asked slowly, ignoring the part where he talked about his 'Master'. "Just who the hell are you, Hashirama?"
Standing in his spot, gently running a hand across the stone, Hashirama smiled and turned to look at her. "I am from Wano. Well, I have never been there before, but my grandparents lived there. It's my home country. I have heard stories. Pluton and all that."
"I see..." Robin's eyes shone in understatement. "It makes sense now... Many things connect in a single thread now. I see."
"I know you're going to ask me more about this, but I am going to say it now, I won't say anything about it. Not yet, anyway." Hashirama tapped two fingers at the stone. "Now, if you'd read me the whole thing since I know the most important part anyway."
"...."
"Perhaps I should use my 'property owner' card already?" Hashirama asked with a smile, seeing her hesitant expression.
Sighing, Robin turned to look at the text, "You are very annoying."
"It says that? A prophecy?"
"...."
* * *
"Heaven Circle Calendar, year 239, Kahira conquers Alabasta. Year 260, the Bitein Dynasty of Taymar began its rule. Year 306, Great Taph Temple completed in Erumalu. Year 325, The Hero of Oltea, Mamudin, defeats Taymar and ends his tyranny."
"Sea Circle Calendar, Year 202...."
"General Information: The country of Alabasta existed for 500 more years before the Sea Circle Year 622. The royal Palace of Alubarna, however, predates the kingdom itself, having existed for around 4000 years. It suggests that another Kingdom with a different name existed on this land."
"Sea Circle Year 622, the Nefertari royal family was one of the twenty royal families who founded the World Government. However, the King promised Him not to move to Mary Geoise, and rather to remain under the rule of his own country. The reason behind the promise between King Ra and Joy Boy remains unknown."
"Sea Circle Year 622, the war has concluded with the loss of the Great Kingdom. The weapon that was arguably the most important in this war, Pluton, has been hidden under the city of Wano. The Wano Shogun promises to never let it out until the second coming of dawn."
The lines Robin recited were nothing extraordinary. Though Hashirama did find the name of Void Century's Alabasta's King interesting. Ra. Back in his old world, Ra was the Egyptian Sun God. It suited the theme since Alabasta was this world's Egypt. But on the contrary, in this world, Ra seemed to have had a friendship with Joy Boy, the Sun God of this world.
'I didn't get to finish One Piece, never saw Luffy bring out a sun, so maybe there is a Paramecia fruit that allows the user to make Suns in their palms,' Hashirama thought. 'Ace could do almost just that, so it may not be a surprise. Maybe this Ra had that sort of power, and therefore the friendship between him and Joy Boy.'
Realizing he was just running wild with baseless theories, Hashirama stopped. With a confused frown, he suddenly realized Robin had frozen while looking at the last few paragraphs of the stone.
"Hey, what now? You've been standing like that for a minute now." Hashirama asked. "You act as if there is something more shocking than Pluton?"
"Because there is," Robin released a breath and looked at him. "It talks about... you."
"What?"
"Hashirama Senju," Robin said. "The last line... It mentions you by name."
"...Read me aloud." Confused as he was, Hashirama ordered right away.
''Hashirama Senju.'' Robin gulped and recited, ''I know it's surprising, but these Devil Fruit things have weird powers and this one, in particular, allows me to view the future. I can see it, the climax, the result of the second war. All ends in a disaster more chaotic than this one. The planet... ends.''
''The next Nika can't do it, either. Joy Boy's legacy will fail. He will be this close, but he will still fail. I don't know just what you are, your mere existence is confusing, and most of your futures don't make sense, Hashirama Senju. But I can see one thing, you may not be the nicest person, but you wouldn't want the world to end. We need you, and you need yourself.''
''My country will try to give birth to you across the centuries; the two clans will work hard so that one day you are indeed born—I promise that. And if you're reading this, consider that promise fulfilled. Now I have a small request to ask of you, my future descendant. ''
''Please, come to Wano soon, and get these scrolls that I have written based on Jutsus that you yourself will one day create. I have written them all down, correctly, just as you will one day use them. Come get these soon, please, so that you can get strong enough to stand against the Hand That Brings Ruin before it's too late.''
"...That's... it." Robin finished and turned to look at him.
Silence washed over the room and the two of them stared at each other. Robin's eyes narrowed in unrestrained curiosity, trying to unwrap the secrets that Hashirama hid, while Hashirama just wore a frown.
Neither of them expected to come across a text of this manner. Was Hashirama's birth a Paradox? Would he not have been born if whoever wrote this didn't see the Future?
Robin didn't understand what the 'Jutsu' thing was, but Hashirama did and that made him question more. Was the 'legend' of a Wood Release user in Wano that his sister talked about, just a fake tale fabricated by the writer of this message? So that the Uzumaki and Senju would fuck and one day, in the future, give birth to him?
Did he cause his own birth?
"Fuck this, man."
Why must he be entangled in meaningless paradoxical mysteries? Hashirama didn't like this one bit.
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Master4thWall: Maybe the Ereh-nic appearance of Hashirama has more behind it than what you initially thought.
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