"Senju Hashirama ended up in the underworld of your 'Titan World'?!"
On the couch in the living room—
Imu looked quite surprised upon hearing the news brought by Enma.
"He said it might be because Edo Tensei doesn't work in other worlds, so the technique was forcefully undone." Enma explained with a smile.
"That does make sense."
Imu nodded in agreement.
"Lord Imu, could I possibly ask you for a favor?"
Enma cautiously spoke up at that moment.
A faint smirk curved Imu's lips. "You want to keep Senju Hashirama in your underworld, don't you?"
Just by her expression and the look in her eyes, he didn't even need to use any mind-reading abilities.
"Mm-hmm! Lord Imu, you're amazing!"
Enma nodded without a hint of embarrassment and spread her arms excitedly. "That Senju Hashirama is really incredible!"
"Even all the past generations of intelligent titans under my command couldn't match him. Not even Byrnndi World, my 'Underworld General,' could stand against him—he was effortlessly subdued by that wooden construct Hashirama summoned!"
"And he's got such a bold, straightforward personality. By now, he's already gotten along famously with the other generals and officers of the underworld. But... he keeps wanting to return to the Pure Land of the ninja world. That part's tricky to deal with."
As she reached the end of her words, a look of genuine distress appeared on Enma's face.
Imu patiently listened to this long-winded report from his 'daughter'.
But in the end, he shook his head and gave an unyielding response.
"No. You can't have Senju Hashirama."
"Once the situation in the Ninja World stabilizes, I'll arrange for someone to begin preparations for his reincarnation. Keeping someone like him in the underworld would be a complete waste of potential."
Upon hearing this, Enma's face drooped, but she didn't dare to question Imu's decision. She could only look at him with pitiful eyes.
"As for Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara—forget about it."
Imu's stance didn't waver in the slightest.
"Alright..."
Seeing there was no room for persuasion, Enma reluctantly gave up her plan.
But she quickly recovered and smiled again.
"By the way, Lord Imu, I also have some great news—"
But before she could finish her sentence,
the golden Den-Den Mushi sitting on the coffee table suddenly let out a sound.
With a simple thought, the receiver on the back of the Den-Den Mushi floated into the air on its own.
"Lord Imu."
The voice that came through immediately identified the speaker—it was Nusjuro.
"There's an urgent report from the moon. Two space telescopes placed there by the Academy of Sciences have detected a fleet of space pirates from Saturn. They've suddenly dispatched over forty warships heading straight for our planet!"
"General Kizaru and General Kaido from the Air Force have already mobilized two entire aerial squadrons and are on full alert. Zephyr, as Air Force Marshal, has departed for the moon!"
"The Navy Headquarters is also preparing for the possibility of a renewed invasion of the homeland. Sengoku requests that Aokiji be recalled immediately to return."
Imu's expression grew solemn upon hearing this.
Right in front of Enma, he summoned a Starmap and projected a real-time visual of the star system Starfish belonged to.
He focused the image on Saturn's position and began zooming in—
Sure enough, one after another, elongated black warships could be seen launching from Saturn's orbital zone.
Based on the velocity readings displayed by the Starmap, these black warships were already traveling at sub-light speed.
The lead ship was estimated to reach the outer perimeter of Starfish in about 94 minutes.
"Tell Sengoku—Aokiji won't make it back in time. Inform all forces that the first space pirate warship will arrive at Starfish's outer orbit in 90 minutes. They must intercept all enemy ships before they breach the atmosphere."
Imu issued the command coldly, his tone heavy with authority.
Meanwhile, Enma sat to the side, curiously observing the floating starmap projection and the visuals of the enemy fleet—
a fleet whose speed had clearly been 'slowed down' to make the movement visible in real-time.
"Yes, your will shall be obeyed!"
Nusjuro responded with utmost respect from the other end of the Den-Den Mushi.
Then he added, "Shall we postpone the conquest of that other technological world in the Zero Magic World sector?"
"As for Shiki's front…"
Imu paused for a brief moment of thought.
"Put it on hold for now. Let's see what these space pirates are really made of."
His thinking was simple—if the space pirates turned out to be overwhelmingly strong, so much so that even with three top-tier combatants it would be difficult to hold them off, then it would naturally be unwise to open up new battlefronts.
Even though Hiraga Saito's world, from the perspective of the 'original work', was just an ordinary modern technological world with no supernatural forces to speak of…
Given Shiki's power and capabilities, even if the nations of that world used nuclear weapons, they would likely be ineffective.
Still, with Starfish itself under threat, it was better to avoid any unnecessary complications.
"Yes, your will shall be obeyed!"
This time, Nusjuro immediately hung up the call—
fully aware of just how precious time had become.
At that same moment, the atmosphere in the living room turned heavy.
After a brief pause, Imu looked at Enma.
"You mentioned earlier that you had some good news?"
"Yes, yes! It's truly wonderful news!" she chirped. "As you know, I carry a portion of the King of the Dead's power within me. So, as long as I'm in the underworld, I can faintly sense his condition..."
But before she could finish, the golden Den-Den Mushi rang out again.
A vein throbbed on Enma's forehead as she glared at it with open frustration.
Imu had no choice but to use Haki to lift the receiver from afar once more.
"Lord Imu, something's happened in the Ninja World!"
This time, it was Ju Peter.
What was unusual was the urgency in his voice.
"Go ahead."
"Yes, sir. In the Land of Swamps, Shukaku was forced back into its jinchūriki Bunpuku by Hiruko. Bunpuku, now unconscious, was taken alive. Elder Chiyo of Sunagakure was about to be killed by Hiruko, but was unexpectedly saved by the Third Kazekage—who was under the control of Sasori. Chiyo and Pakura managed to escape, but all other Sunagakure shinobi were wiped out."
As Imu listened, his expression showed mild confusion.
Was this really something so urgent?
"Lord Imu, the key point is this: from the 'Demon Temple Volcano' in the Land of Swamps, an unending horde of monsters suddenly erupted forth!"
"Please review the footage immediately. Akainu is already leading Army Headquarters to respond, and the Other Worlds Strategic Committee has informed Aokiji in the Land of Water as well!"
Imu resisted the urge to complain—Why not start with the main point?
Without saying another word to Enma,
he teleported straight to his study and activated the Star Den-Den Mushi.
A moment later, the holographic projection lit up once more.
And there, right before Imu's eyes, appeared a live feed from the Ninja World.
"What is this…"
Sure enough, beneath a smoking volcano, countless bizarre black creatures—large and small—were pouring out of a massive crater in swarms.
And as soon as they appeared,
they launched indiscriminate attacks—
not only on the Chinoike Clan shinobi, but also the fanatics of the Cult of the Evil God, the White Zetsu, and even Hiruko and Sasori themselves.
Imu's gaze sharpened.
Each creature bore a pair of horns upon its head.
And suddenly, a thought surfaced—
one so startling he could barely believe it himself: "Demons?"
Why have demons appeared in the Shinobi World?
Imu stood amidst a panoramic, fully immersive virtual projection.
He stood within the desert previously created by Crocodile.
He gazed in astonishment at the massive tide of demons pouring forth from the volcano in the distance.
What he was seeing now was actually footage secretly recorded by members of Cipher Pol—meaning that, in reality, most of the Land of Swamps had already fallen.
According to the intel—
The Suna forces, currently led by the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, were struggling to fend off the large-scale demonic invasion.
As for Crocodile, he was still in the sky, locked in fierce battle against Shinnō, who had transformed into the Jinchūriki of the Void Demon.
"It's all because of that Satori!"
Imu ignored the demon horde closing in on him.
He suddenly looked up toward the turbulent sky filled with rumbling thunder and swirling sand.
Satori must have come from another world. It was he who taught Mōryō how to summon these demons!
But if that's the case—why didn't Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo destroy him outright back then? Why did he go through the trouble of sealing him inside something like the 'Box of Ultimate Bliss'?
Was it truly because Hagoromo couldn't defeat him? Or was it because, for some reason, he didn't want to?
At that moment, a strange thought suddenly crossed Imu's mind.
Could these demons also come from some kind of fictional world?
After all, every world that the Dimensional Gate had opened so far originated from a Japanese anime.
Following that logic, these demons were probably from an anime too.
"If that's the case, which series would they be from…"
Imu carefully observed the swarm of demons rapidly closing in on him—black as a flood.
"Anime with demons… Off the top of my head, there's D.Gray-man, Blue Exorcist, Black Clover, Fairy Tail, and maybe even the Demon Clan from The Seven Deadly Sins, although I'm not sure if they count."
As he spoke, Imu let the dense swarm of demons rush past and around him, even brushing against him, while he lowered his head slightly, lost in thought.
"So then, could they be the devils from the underworld in Black Clover?"
However, Imu wasn't entirely certain. After all, among the countless anime worlds out there, there were surely many with massive demon armies.
And it wasn't like he could have watched them all—he could only speculate based on the information he already had.
"But regardless, with the current strength of the Shinobi World, it's clearly incapable of dealing with this demon army."
Imu turned coldly to face the distance, where the demons had already clashed with the shinobi forces from Sunagakure.
But just as Cipher Pol's reports had described—
The ninja's standard jutsu were essentially ineffective against the demons.
In other words, Rasa, Chiyo, and Pakura might be able to slow the demon army's advance, but they couldn't actually kill a single one of them.
This outcome only deepened Imu's suspicion that these demons came from the underworld of Black Clover.
Because in that world, the devils could only be harmed by 'anti-magic', 'devil power', or within the 'demon realm' itself.
Still, he needed more confirmation.
Imu thought to himself, 'Since Akainu, Aokiji, and Crocodile are over in the Shinobi World, let them gather more intel. If they can confirm the demons' origin, I'll be able to provide more relevant information.'
What he needed to consider now was whether to upgrade the Dimensional Gate leading to the Ninja World to a Medium Gate, to facilitate reinforcements from the Titan World.
He had also decided it was time to call Esdeath back. No matter what world these demons came from, judging by their numbers alone, they weren't weak—and surely even more powerful demons were yet to come.
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I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
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