Amid Bulma's excited explanation, Uchiha Hikari took the wristband she handed over and examined it closely.
It looked pretty similar to the previous version, except the buttons on the dial had been replaced with a knob marked with three settings: "10," "100," and "1000."
According to Bulma, twisting the knob to a specific setting would shrink the wearer by that ratio, and another button would revert them to normal size.
For regular people, the "1000" setting was pretty much useless—shrinking to a millimeter size could get you mistaken for a bug and swatted flat.
But for massive creatures, it was a different story.
"With this, Hikari, you can go to the Akame ga Kill world and bring out that East Sea Cloud Dragon!" Bulma said.
"…You're right."
Hikari looked up at the blue-haired girl and gave a nod. "Thanks, Bulma."
"Aw, come on, with how close we are, you don't need to get all formal!" Bulma feigned a pout.
Before Hikari could respond, Bulma's face lit up with a grin again, and she grabbed Hikari's arm. "Alright, enough of that! Come on, let me show you our future pirate ship. Let's see if there's anything we need to tweak! If it's all good, I'll go ahead and put up the 'Dimensional Pirate Crew' flag!"
"Sounds good."
…
The Blue Planet had plenty of space.
From the cockpit to the dining hall, kitchen, bathhouse, laundry room, infirmary, conference room… it had everything. Naturally, it also included Bulma's dream of a small garden for growing veggies and fruits, and Hikari's must-have: a gravity training room.
For a real-world warship, logistics would be a nightmare—fuel, ammo, food, fresh water, all taking up massive space and needing resupply every few weeks, or every few days in high-intensity combat.
But in the Dragon Ball world, Capsule Corp's tech solved the biggest hurdle with their universal capsules. The rest was easy.
In theory, they could even keep a couple of pandas on board, toss in some other critters, and turn the ship into a real-life Noah's Ark.
"Not bad," Hikari said after touring the ship and testing out the gravity training room.
She paused, then thought of something. "By the way, how are you planning to get this thing to the One Piece world?"
"Oh, that's simple," Bulma said, holding up two fingers with a cheeky smile. "Two ways. First, I can upload the ship to the group chat for 1 point, and Yamato can buy it from there. Second… I forgot to mention, the ship can shrink too! Down to a tenth or even a fifth of its size, and then it fits right into a capsule for easy transport."
"?!"
The capsules were a vacuum environment, no good for living things, but for inanimate objects, the storage capacity was insane.
Hikari thought it over and saw no issues.
"Awesome!" Bulma's eyes sparkled. "If you're cool with it, Hikari… when do we set sail?"
"…A few days from now," Hikari said, scratching her head. "I'll head back to Konoha first, fill Shisui and the others in on what needs doing. You check in with Kikyo and the gang, see how their schedules line up. If everything's smooth, we'll pick a good day and head to the One Piece world for some adventure."
As the "vice-captain" of the pirate crew, Hikari's word carried weight.
Though Bulma was itching to get going, she calmed down and started messaging Kikyo and the others to coordinate.
While they sorted that out, Hikari made a quick trip to Dr. Gero's lab. She caught up with the Geros, Tamayo, Yushiro, and Mechanical Maru, who'd recently joined the team, and discussed their research progress.
Then, with Esdeath in tow, she returned to Konoha in the Naruto world.
Back in Konoha, the clinical trials for the Uchiha clan were still ongoing but nearing the end of their first phase.
Hikari listened to Shisui and Orochimaru's reports, flipped through the record book they handed her, and then pulled out the Dragon King blood samples she'd brought back from the Dragon Raja world to show them.
Orochimaru's snake-like eyes lit up instantly.
"…Fascinating. So these mysterious dragon creatures have different elemental attributes?" he said, holding up a vial of dark red blood that bubbled like boiling cola. "The last sample was from an 'earth' dragon, and this one's 'fire'?"
His face was full of curiosity. "It seems the continent you visited, Lady Hikari, is teeming with extraordinary creatures. I wonder if I'll ever get the chance to tag along and see for myself."
"…Maybe someday," Hikari said, tossing him a vague promise.
Later, when Shisui and the others were gone, she pulled Orochimaru aside and brought up the "private chat" matter.
Yup.
After some thought, Hikari had decided to give the Naruto world's private chat slot to Orochimaru.
It was practically a no-brainer.
Excluding Naruto and Karin, who were still kids, her options were Shisui, Fugaku, and Orochimaru. Fugaku was out due to his lackluster abilities. That left Shisui, who was loyal but not always in the loop, and Orochimaru, who was the opposite—less loyal but plugged into everything.
Intel was the priority. You never knew when the Akatsuki or Obito might pull something big, and waiting for Shisui to pass along secondhand info could be too late.
Of course…
Hikari didn't spill the beans about the chat group. She just said the "private chat" was a new "technique" she'd developed for long-distance communication.
—Interworld communication counted as "long-distance," right? No problem there.
Orochimaru seemed a bit skeptical but didn't pry. He just promised to keep an eye on the ninja world and report any developments to her promptly.
As for how well he'd keep that promise…
That remained to be seen.
If Orochimaru proved reliable, maybe she'd consider taking him to another world for a spin, let him broaden his horizons.