Stillreach did not welcome them.
It did not repel them either, it simply observed.
Kaizen led the unit inland, away from the shoreline and deeper into the island's interior. The terrain shifted gradually, the pale stone giving way to soil that looked fertile but felt wrong beneath the boots—too soft in places, too firm in others, as if the ground couldn't decide what it was supposed to be. It was a frightening sensation.
The forest appeared larger than it had been moments ago as they ventured into it. They couldn't help but notice its strangeness. One moment, open land, the next, towering shapes loomed ahead.
The trees were massive, their trunks twisting upward in impossible spirals, bark layered in uneven plates like fossilized armor. Some leaned toward one another, branches interlocking overhead to form a canopy so dense it swallowed light, despite the star-lit sky above. Snow clung to their limbs yet never fell. It simply hung, frozen in the act of descent.
Kaizen slowed.
His instincts screamed—not danger but rather, a violation of common nature. This forest did not grow like this because it was meant to, no. It grew like this because it had been persistent against the world's forceful phenomena. It persisted to survive despite it not having any place in the world outside Stillreach.
Kaizen felt strange coming to this realization. "Stay sharp," he said, voice calm, authoritative.
It reached them late however. Though, they had gotten used to this by now.
The moment they crossed a certain tree line, the temperature dropped sharply. Frost formed instantly on metal and cloth. Breath came out white and heavy. The silence deepened, thick enough to feel against the skin.
The sound delay worsened.
Footsteps echoed seconds late, sometimes overlapping with steps that hadn't happened yet. Leaves crunched before boots touched them. One CP agent swore he heard his own breathing behind him.
Kaizen felt none of that fear. He simply observed them. He saw how they reacted to the happenings of this world and understood why the minority that manage to leave Stillreach, are never healthy psychologically after.
Though he did not feel what his teammates did, he did feel something else.
A pressure behind his eyes. It wasn't pain, no that did not feel like this. It felt different. A sensation almost like—recognition.
He paused, eyes lifting slightly, gaze unfocused as his Observation Haki stretched outward. The feedback was distorted at the moment—paths folded into themselves, distances warped. Things were there, but refused to resolve clearly.
This place resisted being understood.
"Kaizen," one of the CP operatives, Nyx, whispered. "There's… something moving."
Kaizen followed her gaze. Between the trees, shapes shifted. Figures dark and unhinged melted into one another. It simply looked—confusing.
At first glance, they looked like animals. At second glance, they looked like mistakes.
A thing crawled along a tree trunk on too many limbs, its joints bending backward, its head rotating independently of its body. Its face—if it could be called that—was a stretched parody of a human expression, frozen mid-scream, eyes fused shut.
Another stood upright in the distance, tall and thin, its torso split vertically down the middle, organs exposed yet functioning, ribs opening and closing like a breathing cage.
They stood there, observing. They did not flee nor did they attack. They simply watched—observing Kaizen and the others.
Kaizen's hand drifted toward his sword—but stopped.
"No," he said quietly. His hands raised to stop those behind him that suddenly flared their intentions to harm. "Lower your auras—they are not our enemies." He whispered with authority.
The creatures flinched at the sudden, silent increase in tension. They weren't frightened of the Cipher Pol units though. Oh no—rather, they were focused on the man that realized they were nothing more than lurking eyes.
Kaizen realized then that they were not predators in this jungle. They were simply residents. He sighed. They were strangely afraid of him.
The forest thickened as they moved deeper. The trees grew closer together, their branches scraping against one another with a dry, hollow sound that came far too late. Symbols were carved into some of the trunks—runes that did not match any known script, lines intersecting in ways that made the eyes ache if stared at too long.
One CP agent gagged suddenly, dropping to a knee.
Kaizen was beside him instantly.
"What did you see?" he asked.
The agent trembled. "I—I looked at the carving too long. It felt like… like my thoughts were unraveling. Like something was rewriting the idea of me. That's fucking terrifying man, even for me!"
Kaizen straightened slowly. His throat was a bit dry from the response he got from him.
'So that was the forest's function in a nutshell. Not killing but rather, editing. Insanity. It forces self rewriting onto those weak willed."
"Eyes forward," Kaizen commanded, this time his tone far stronger than usual. "Do not study. Do not question. All of you simply move forward. Any that fall or succumbs to the illusions here shall be left behind."
His words were ruthless, but they understood why. They obeyed. Not like they had a choice in the first place. After what felt like hours—but could have been minutes—the forest thinned.
Light returned.
And then—they saw it.
A town.
Nestled within a shallow basin, surrounded by dead trees that curved inward like rib bones, stood a settlement that should not have existed.
Buildings made of mismatched materials—stone fused with wood, metal growing out of brick, roofs slanted at impossible angles yet standing firm. Windows glowed faintly, though no light source could be seen inside. Streets were laid out in a way that defied logic, curving back into themselves, intersections repeating.
A bell tower stood at the center. Its bell was cracked, literally frozen mid-swing.
No sound.
The CP units froze.
"This place…" one whispered. "It feels…like a damn fever dream."
Kaizen stared at the town and couldn't help but agree. But then—suddenly he felt something far too familiar to him. It rubbed him strangely.
For the first time since entering Stillreach—he felt it clearly. The pull. The thing that had been calling him since the Margin.
Since before that in fact. Since he could remember those dreams.
A low, constant presence at the edge of his perception finally sharpened, aligning itself with this place.
'You're close.' His jaw tightened.
"Stay behind me," Kaizen said as they entered the town that read at the top of its entrance—City Of Sin. A rather disturbing name.
The moment his boot crossed the threshold of the first street, sound returned—wrongly.
Murmurs echoed from nowhere. Footsteps that weren't theirs followed in uneven rhythm. Doors creaked open and shut without movement.
Then—
They appeared.
Figures stepped out from alleys and doorways.
"People?" A CP member asked suspiciously.
"No—but they probably were once people." Kaizen answered back.
One had three faces stacked vertically along his head, each at a different stage of decay. Another walked on legs that ended in hands instead of feet, fingers splayed across the stone street.
A woman—or something resembling one—carried her own head under her arm, its mouth moving independently as it whispered to her.
They were dressed in simple clothes.
Aprons. Cloaks. Scarves.
They lived here.
Kaizen felt no revulsion.
Only understanding.
These were not monsters born of malice. They were the aftermath of a fucked up cause.
One of them stepped forward. It was—strange.
It looked almost normal—until it smiled, revealing a jaw that opened far too wide, teeth spiraling inward like a drill.
"Witness," it said in a voice that echoed too many times for one being.
The word arrived late and so did its echoes. It arrived like a cacophony of sounds that tore at the very core of those who listened too well. The ears of those around rang all except—one man. Kaizen.
Kaizen's eyes narrowed. He glimpsed at the CP members that clutched their ears, looking on at the entity with a mixture of concern and worry. He looked back at it.
"…You know me." His voice, oddly calm yet still suspicious in intent carried over a second or two later.
The creature bowed, and then, all of them did. The entire street lowered their heads in unison.
"You have walked the scar," the creature continued in that eerie voice. "You have crossed the thinning. You carry the weight."
At that moment—
Kaizen felt something beneath his pupil-less eyes stir violently for a moment. He couldn't help but clutch his face with his thick hands. His body doubled over, vision spinning.
Then—it simply stopped.
The town blurred for a fraction of a second then. The members subconsciously shift closer to one another, preparing their battle stances.
"Who are you?" Kaizen asked, his voice and tone seeking no more than the truth.
The creature hesitated, but then—chuckled bitterly.
"We were answers," it said softly. "Then the world stopped asking the right questions. We were the beginning of an era—now? We are living proof of one that should not exist. Or so those fools that rule this world have declared us to be."
Kaizen's eyes widened for a moment. His tall and muscular frame trembled in shock. His entire knowledge of this world—the remaining hope he had for it—was now shattered.
Yet before he could spiral into deeper thoughts, a child stepped forward. Or something shaped like one.
Its shadow lagged behind its movements, stretching and twisting independently.
He looked down as it spoke.
"You hear it too," the child said. "The call."
Kaizen's breath caught. All previous thoughts on knowledge shifting into a remembrance of dreams. The callings of that ancient, heavy voice. A voice that trembled with power.
"…You hear it?"
The child nodded.
"It calls those who do not belong to endings."
The pressure surged.
Suddenly, the air split.
Not physically—but conceptually.
A voice filled the space, bypassing ears, vibrating directly through Kaizen's bones, his will, his existence.
Not loud.
Not commanding.
Ancient.
'Kaizen..!'
The world froze.
The creatures dropped to their knees.
The CP agents collapsed, unconscious, overwhelmed.
Kaizen stood alone.
His Conqueror's Haki flared instinctively, lightning threading through the air as his will pushed back—not in defiance, but in self-assertion.
Kaizen didn't answer, leaving the voice in silence. But then, he made his decision. He casted out his hesitance.
"I'm here," he said.
The voice answered.
'You have always been moving toward this place. Your soul, it resonates with me. You do not belong to this world, yet you stand here before me. Kaizen, we are to be.'
The bell tower cracked further at those words. The sky above the town darkened, stars burning brighter before shifting even closer.
He ignored those words momentarily however, another question tugged at his curious mind. "W-What is Stillreach..?"
'Stillreach is where what should not exist is allowed to continue.' It answered immediately.
Kaizen clenched his fist. He then trailed back to the voice's earlier words.
"…Why me?"
Silence.
Then—
'Because you can end things. It is written in that bright soul of yours, my child. You belong to annihilation.'
The words settled like a verdict and the ground trembled at them.
From beneath the town, something vast shifted—something old, unfinished, waiting.
The creatures looked at Kaizen with reverence.
With fear.
With hope.
And Kaizen realized something terrifying.
This place was not a dungeon.
Not a battlefield.
It was a testimony. A testimony that had been waiting for someone like him.
He realized something then—he had finally reached the moment the world had been preparing him for. He turned to the unconscious CP members. Staring at them for a moment as if contemplating if he should leave them alone like this.
Those kneeling saw his emotions through his expression despite his lack of pupils. One offered, "Go on, we shall cover their bodies in the clothes of Stillreach. It will guard them until your business is finished."
Kaizen looked back towards the delayed voice. Staring into its many, blackened eyes. He simply nodded before marching towards one of the trail roads of the village that folded into itself. Though its path looked strange, Kaizen knew to walk straight. How? He did not know. His body simply knew.
And so he didn't. He began his journey towards that voice of power. The voice that spoke to him for years. The voice that declared he and it was to be.
TO BE CONTINUED— ALSO GUYS I MADE A MISTAKE WITH HIS HEIGHT! At the moment it's 6'7 inches. He'll grow taller soon enough!!! Not a giant yet. After his power up however he will!