Toki sat on the bed, hugging her knees, occasionally looking up to confirm if Kenji was still obediently sitting in the chair.
Because there were other people in the room, Toki was filled with vigilance at the moment. After all, for her, this era, this world, was full of strangers.
Especially since she had just time travelled and was immediately defrauded by human traffickers, almost being sold as a slave.
Toki had to be extremely vigilant, maintaining suspicion towards everything around her, so that when she felt something was wrong, she could immediately use the Time-Time Fruit to escape.
However, the person in front of her was someone she couldn't deal with at all, she couldn't even use her Time-Time Fruit ability.
'Hmm, right, why is his Conqueror's Haki so strong?' Toki stared at Kenji, who was resting in the chair, suddenly realizing this question.
'I've never seen such terrifying Conqueror's Haki before... The Three Kings probably possess such power?!'
The young girl thought for a while, then couldn't hold on any longer. With one eye fixed on Kenji and the other closed, she actually fell asleep.
On the other side, Kenji closed his eyes and entered a mystical state. His Observation Haki was fully activated, and his powerful perception took in everything within a vast range.
At this moment, through his Observation Haki, he seemed to be able to see the strange and bizarre creatures deep within the boundless ocean.
He could also spot the Sky Island floating ten thousand meters high, where residents gathered around bonfires, singing and dancing, seemingly holding a party.
He even faintly felt the flow of seawater, though he wasn't sure if it was his imagination.
He felt as if his perception was subtly connected to this world. When he woke up, he realized this was clearly an illusion.
'Is she asleep?' Kenji looked at the bed and saw the young girl staring at him with one eye wide open.
But her other eye was tightly closed, and a faint snore came from her nose, clearly indicating she was fast asleep.
She sleeps with one eye open?
Kenji didn't expect to witness such an astonishing scene in real life.
'Heh, I didn't think you had such an ability?!'
He chuckled, and with a brief thought, he understood the young girl's intentions. Indeed, for a young girl who time traveled, and immediately encountered fraud and abduction upon arriving in this era, it was normal for her vigilance to increase after learning a lesson.
Conversely, if she suffered a loss but didn't learn from it, remaining unwary, she likely wouldn't live long.
However, from Kenji's perspective, he couldn't just let the young girl act freely.
During the day, it was fine, but at night, when she was asleep, what if she suddenly got an idea in a dream and used her Time-Time Fruit ability to escape?
Then Kenji would be speechless, staring at an empty room. And then, he would have to rack his brains to modify, or simply abandon, a long-considered plan. At that point, he would have nowhere to cry.
'Trust between people is truly difficult to build.' Kenji stood up, preparing to go to the deck for some fresh air.
Before leaving the room, he took one last look at the young girl on the bed, hugging her knees, smiled, and shook his head, then closed the door.
Inside the room, after Kenji left, Toki suddenly opened her other closed eye, rubbed her eyes somewhat bewilderedly, and then buried her head again to sleep.
On the other side, Kenji, who had left the room, walked and pondered how to handle the current situation.
In reality, he just wanted Toki's help and would not threaten her life safety. But it wasn't enough for him to know this. The other party also needed to understand and believe it, and achieving that was very difficult.
Kenji had been a Marine for many years and had a very mature set of procedures for dealing with heinous criminals. But when faced with such a naive and bewildered young girl who had become extremely vigilant after suffering a loss, he didn't know how to handle her.
Even if he were to learn on the spot... well, there was no need for that.
Kenji arrived on the deck, and after feeling the sea breeze for a while, he suddenly had an idea, thinking of a better solution.
'Later, I'll go to Vegapunk's Egghead Island and draw some blood from her...' Kenji's mind stirred, and his plan gradually became clear.
'In the future, I can clone a Toki, and then use the green blood to reproduce the Time-Time Fruit ability.'
The more Kenji thought about it, the more feasible the method seemed.
After silently refining the plan in his mind, he couldn't help but feel in a good mood.
This is the charm of technology! Even if human relationships can't be handled well, the goal can still be achieved using technology.
Of course, using cloning technology to get things done would naturally be very costly. Otherwise, those human traffickers wouldn't need to abduct and sell people everywhere.
For human traffickers, cloning people required considerable cost, while the cost of human trafficking...
Weren't those abducted people just freebies waiting to be picked everywhere on the road?
What cost was there for such things?
Whoever caught them, weren't they theirs?
Based on Kenji's many years of experience in apprehending and interrogating human traffickers, these people involved in human trafficking purely regarded the entire world as a breeding ground.
'However, doing human trafficking business... selling Elbaph's Giant children also counts as a form of human trafficking.'
'This world is truly a huge enclosure...'
Kenji expressionlessly gazed at the distant sea horizon under the moonlight, his attention gradually returning to the upcoming itinerary.
'Hmm, first return to Marineford, and after completing the mission, go directly to Egghead Island...' Kenji calculated silently in his mind.
'All the trips combined, it will take at most a week. Seven days, that's fine, not too tiring.'
All calculations completed, Kenji breathed a slight sigh of relief.
In fact, just watching Toki and preventing her from running around already made Kenji feel very troubled. This required him to frequently use his Future Vision ability, which was very physically demanding. Fortunately, such a situation wouldn't last much longer.
The subsequent journey unfolded as Kenji had anticipated. The warship first sailed for two or three days, successfully returning to Marineford.
After the prisoners, including Golden Lion Shiki and his pirate subordinates, were handed over and once the warship was resupplied, Kenji immediately ordered it to sail again, heading towards Egghead in the New World sea area.
Vegapunk and his scientific team had always been under the surveillance of the World Government and the Marine, and the Marine needed to dispatch high-ranking officers to the island periodically to confirm the status of those scientists.
In essence, it was to check if those scientists were running around and if they were still on the island.
Kenji personally led the team to Egghead. With an Admiral willing to mobilize, naturally no one would raise objections.
However, the grand welcoming ceremony prepared by Kong to receive Kenji's warship was somewhat wasteful.