Chapter 4: The Great Monster—The Kraken
"This is... INCREDIBLE!"
Luffy pressed his entire face against the bubble, distorting his rubber features as he stared at the massive waterfall plunging into the abyss.
Franky gripped the helm, having removed his sunglasses to better take in the sight. "Nature really is something else, isn't she?"
"The bottom—it's bottomless!" Usopp's eyes threatened to pop from their sockets as he peered into the darkness below. "If we fall at this speed, we'll be smashed to pieces!"
"Franky, is it really safe to ride this current?" Nami asked, her navigator's instincts warring with the sheer impossibility of their situation.
Franky grinned, confidence radiating from his metal-enhanced frame. "SUUUUPER safe! The Sunny's made from Adam Wood—the strongest timber in the world! She can handle anything!"
"Yosh! Full speed ahead!!"
Luffy's cheer echoed across the deck as the ship plunged deeper into the current.
In the corner of the deck, Caribou remained exactly where he had fallen. Itachi's Tsukuyomi had lasted only a quarter of an hour in the real world, but for the pirate captain, it had felt like an eternity of torment.
Itachi sensed the exact moment the illusion's grip loosened. "The one who attacked us earlier is waking up."
The crew turned as Caribou struggled upright, trembling violently.
"What... what happened to me..."
He patted his body frantically, searching for the massive iron spikes that had pierced him, the wounds that had bled so freely. There was nothing. No wounds, no blood. But the weakness remained—a deep, soul-deep exhaustion that made his limbs feel like lead.
Itachi observed this with mild interest. An ordinary person would need months to recover from the psychological trauma of Tsukuyomi. This man's constitution was surprisingly robust.
Before Caribou could fully regain his senses, Franky had already bound him tightly with chains. "There! Now we can relax!" He kicked the rope's knot to cinch it tighter.
"Ah—this—this—" Caribou stammered, looking at the Straw Hats with terror. When his gaze landed on Itachi, his entire body went limp.
One look. One single look, and he had been trapped in that nightmare world.
Is this man's power? Caribou thought wildly. But I've never heard of anyone like this on Straw Hat's crew!
His panicked thoughts scattered as something in the waterfall caught his eye. Through the rushing current, two enormous eyes stared back at him.
"This... this can't be..."
Caribou struggled toward the railing, peering into the depths.
"I've never heard of THAT THING living here!"
"Oi, bastard! Who said you could move?!" Sanji raised a leg threateningly.
But Caribou's voice rose to a scream: "Turn around! Straw Hats! Turn the ship around NOW!"
"What are you babbling about?" Zoro approached with folded arms. "Be grateful you're still alive."
"I'm saying this BECAUSE I want to stay alive! Turn around! There's a monster! A HUGE monster!"
Caribou's terror was absolute.
"MONSTER?!" Chopper shrieked, immediately joining the coward trio.
"Stop lying," Usopp scoffed, still watching the waterfall. "There's no such thing as—"
But even as he spoke, every member of the Straw Hat crew saw it: an enormous tentacle sliding past the bubble, so massive that its passage seemed to take forever. As it moved, drowned corpses tumbled from its suction cups, their lifeless bodies drifting upward.
"There ARE... there really ARE monsters." Chopper and Brook huddled together, tears streaming from the former's eyes and the latter's empty sockets.
"I'm not scared! I'm not part of the coward trio anymore!" Usopp declared, thumb pointing at his nose proudly.
Then he felt the shadow fall over him from behind.
"Behind... behind you," Nami whispered, pointing with a shaking hand.
Usopp turned. Slowly. A tentacle covered in enormous suction cups pressed against the bubble directly behind him.
"THERE IS A MONSTER!!!"
Usopp leaped three meters into the air.
"It's a giant octopus," Itachi said calmly, pointing toward the center of the waterfall. His Sharingan had already activated, piercing the darkness to reveal the creature in its entirety.
The octopus was enormous—larger than the Eight-Tails that resided within Killer B. It was a creature of legend, a sea monster straight from nightmare.
"Octopus! Sea monster! THE KRAKEN!!!"
Usopp's screams joined Chopper's as the two cowards huddled together.
Luffy, Zoro, and the others rose to face the threat. As the Thousand Sunny drew closer to the waterfall, the sea monster's features became unmistakable.
A genuine giant octopus—the legendary Kraken!
"IT'S THE KRAKEN!!!" Usopp screamed again.
"It's crushed multiple ships!" Franky shouted, pointing at the tentacles. Wreckage of several vessels was tangled among them, their crews long since joining the corpses floating in the depths.
"Please! I don't want to die yet! Turn around, Straw Hats!" Caribou staggered to the bow, chains rattling.
Unknown to anyone on the Sunny, Caribou's ship, the Reindeer, had finally convinced Momoo the manatee to turn back. Coribou stood at the bow, shouting: "Everyone! We must rescue Big Brother!"
"FULL SPEED AHEAD!"
The crew responded with determined shouts as Momoo dragged the ship toward the Thousand Sunny.
But they never reached it.
A tentacle lashed out from the waterfall, wrapping around the Reindeer and squeezing. The ship crumpled like paper, debris scattering as Coribou and the crew drifted upward, unconscious or dead.
"LITTLE BROTHER!! MY CREW!!"
Caribou watched his family float away like so much flotsam.
"They look like jellyfish," Zoro observed without much interest.
"SHUT UP, RORONOA ZORO!"
Before Caribou's scream could fade, Chopper's joined it: "THE KRAKEN IS COMING!!"
Zoro's hand moved to his swords. Luffy's arm began to swell as he prepared Gear Third.
"STOP!" Usopp threw himself between them and the edge. "If you fight now, the bubble will burst!"
"The enemy's too big! We can't win like this!"
The Kraken surged forward, tentacles reaching for the Sunny.
Franky leaped to the helm, hand reaching for the button that would activate the Lion Wheel Cannon—but before he could press it, Itachi moved.
He simply walked through the bubble and into the sea.
"TEAR-STRIPE GUY?! What's he doing?!" Luffy shouted, momentarily forgetting the approaching monster.
"He must have a Devil Fruit ability—how can he go into the ocean?!" Zoro was equally stunned. He had seen Itachi transform into crows; that was clearly a Devil Fruit power. Devil Fruit users couldn't swim. Everyone knew that.
But Itachi stood on the ocean floor as easily as he stood on solid ground, chakra concentrating beneath his feet to anchor him in the current.
I observed earlier, Itachi thought calmly, when the two ships' bubbles merged, they didn't burst. But when the Kraken crushed that vessel, the bubble failed. So... as long as pressure isn't applied to a concentrated area, the coating holds.
He had all the confirmation he needed.
His hands moved through hand signs with practiced speed.
Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!
Itachi expelled a stream of water that swelled instantly in the ocean, drawing surrounding seawater into its form. A massive water dragon erupted from his position, surging toward the Kraken with the force of a tidal wave.
The dragon struck the sea monster square in its enormous face, driving it backward with tremendous force. The Kraken crashed into the waterfall wall with enough impact to shake the entire underwater canyon.
On the Thousand Sunny, the crew stared in disbelief.
Luffy's jaw dropped. "THAT WAS SO COOL!"
Zoro's eye narrowed, reassessing the stranger for perhaps the tenth time since they'd met.
Nami simply whispered, "What kind of monster DID we pick up?"
And in the depths, the Kraken shook its massive head, rage kindling in its ancient eyes.
(End of Chapter)
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