Chapter 109: Characteristics of Fist and Sword
The Queen Mama Chanter — Forward Deck
"What are those bastards doing over there?!"
Pekoms' roar carried across the water, thick with indignation. His clawed hand tightened around the railing, gouging furrows in the animated wood. The ship's figurehead whimpered at the treatment but didn't dare complain.
"Are they just going to ignore us?! Pretend we're not even here?!"
He raised his binoculars again, training them on the Thousand Sunny's bow. The dark-haired figure stood motionless, his tattered coat rippling in the sea breeze. And his eyes—those crimson, spinning eyes—were staring directly back at Pekoms.
Through the lenses. Across the water. As if the distance meant nothing at all.
"KARU!!" Pekoms' fur bristled. "What the hell is this guy doing?! FIRE! FIRE EVERYTHING!"
The Chanter's gunports swung open in unison. A dozen cannon muzzles took aim at the solitary figure on the Sunny's prow. The gunners—a motley collection of Homies and human crew—waited only for Pekoms' claw to drop.
"NOW!"
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The shells screamed through the air, their trajectories converging on a single point—
And detonated prematurely.
Wooden shurikens—three of them, spinning with lethal precision—intercepted the volley mid-flight. Explosions rippled across the sky in a chain of fire and smoke, a barrier of destruction that stopped every shell before it could reach its target.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
Pekoms' instincts screamed. He threw himself sideways—
A fourth shuriken whistled past his ear, so close he felt the wind of its passage ruffle his fur. It carved a path through his mane, skimmed his scalp, and embedded itself deep in the mast behind him with a sickening THUNK.
"GAROO!!" Pekoms clutched his head, feeling the wetness of blood matting his fur. "THAT BASTARD!"
Baron Tamago stared at the severed rigging, at the shuriken still quivering in the wood. His teacup slipped from his fingers and shattered on the deck, black tea spreading like a stain across the planks. His composure—that refined, unshakeable elegance—cracked.
"You DARE?!" His voice rose to a shriek. "You dare provoke the Big Mom Pirates?! You insignificant—"
He stopped.
Because Itachi Uchiha wasn't looking at them anymore.
The crimson eyes had turned away, dismissing the Chanter's entire crew as if they were no more threatening than seabirds circling overhead.
The Thousand Sunny — Main Deck
"Then... I suppose this is farewell for now."
Itachi's voice was quiet. Steady. He accepted the ninja pouch from Chopper's outstretched hoof—the one Usopp had crafted during their journey, filled with basic supplies and emergency tools. He secured it at his waist with practiced efficiency.
"Brother Itachi!" Chopper's human form loomed over the helm, his hooves steady on the wheel. "We'll be waiting for you! I promise!"
Behind him, Sanji finished topping off the Cola reserves, the fizzy liquid bubbling through the Sunny's propulsion system. The ship hummed with renewed energy, ready to fly.
"Yeah." Itachi's lips curved—just slightly. "Goodbye."
The Wood Black Crow materialized beneath his feet, dark flames kindling along its wings. The construct spread its timber feathers wide, ready to launch.
"COME BACK SAFELY, ITACHI!"
Nami's voice cracked on his name. She stood at the railing, her orange hair whipping in the wind, her eyes bright with something she refused to let fall.
Chopper engaged the Coup de Burst.
The Thousand Sunny launched.
A thunderous roar split the air as the ship rocketed forward, hydroplaning across the waves at impossible speed. The sudden acceleration left a white-water wake that stretched for hundreds of meters, the Sunny shrinking to a dot on the horizon within heartbeats.
Aboard the Queen Mama Chanter, Pekoms' jaw hung open. Baron Tamago's spectacles had gone askew. Even Capone Bege—master of the underworld, veteran of a thousand schemes—found himself momentarily struck dumb.
"A ship... can DO that?!"
Bege recovered first. His eyes—cold, calculating, always assessing—fixed on the lone figure left behind.
"So that's their play." He drew on his cigar, the ember flaring bright. "Uchiha Itachi stays behind as a rearguard. One man against an Emperor's ship. Either he's suicidally devoted... or he actually believes he can stop us."
His lips curled.
"Let's test that conviction."
Bege's hand opened. The Castle-Castle Fruit's power activated, his body becoming a living fortress. From within him—from the pocket dimension housed in his very flesh—his crew emerged. Bazookas. Armor-piercing rifles. Heavy weapons that had no place in a naval engagement but every place in a gangland execution.
"Fire."
The barrage that erupted from Bege's body was unlike anything the Chanter's cannons could produce. Armor-piercing rounds—each one capable of punching through Marine battleship hulls—streaked toward Itachi in a concentrated volley. The air itself seemed to scream as the projectiles closed the distance.
BOOOOOOM.
The explosion engulfed the Sunny's former position. Smoke and fire boiled outward, obscuring everything in a cloud of destruction.
Pekoms leaned over the railing, squinting through the haze. Baron Tamago did the same, his long neck craning downward.
"Direct hit."
Bege exhaled a stream of smoke, satisfaction curling at the edges of his voice.
"Armor-piercing rounds from my personal arsenal. Even Armament Haki can't fully defend against them. That 'Hellfire' Uchiha Itachi..."
He tapped ash over the railing.
"All reputation. No substance. Six hundred million berries for—"
"WAIT!"
Baron Tamago's shriek cut through Bege's dismissal.
"LOOK! WHAT IS THAT?!"
The smoke cleared.
And something else emerged from within.
A skeletal structure. Massive. Ethereal. Burning with an inner light that was neither flame nor chakra but something between. Ribs of pure energy curved upward, encasing Itachi in a protective cage that had stopped every single armor-piercing round cold.
The projectiles that should have shredded battleship armor lay scattered at the construct's base like discarded toys.
"Is that... a Devil Fruit ability?!" Pekoms' tiny eyes strained to their limits. "Or something else entirely?!"
He didn't get an answer.
Because the skeleton was growing.
Flesh of chakra wove itself across the bones. Muscle and sinew formed from nothing. Armor plates materialized, ancient and ornate, covering the giant's form in protective layers. A tengu mask—fierce and inhuman—settled over the construct's face. In one hand, a massive gourd-shaped sword took shape. In the other, a mirror-like shield reflected the afternoon light.
Susanoo. Full form. The Warrior Tengu.
Throughout the Chanter, every Homie—every soul-animated object that gave the ship its terrible life—began to wail.
"He's not dead~! He's not dead~!"
"Why didn't he die?! Kekeke~! Why is he still alive?!"
The figurehead sobbed in confusion, its painted eyes spinning.
Itachi stood within Susanoo's crystalline core, his Mangekyō Sharingan fixed on the Chanter. His breath came in measured intervals. Controlled. Deliberate. He could feel his physical limits approaching—the battle with Fujitora had carved deep into his reserves. His eyes throbbed with every heartbeat.
A ship with a soul.
The concept was absurd. And yet, undeniably true. The Chanter lived. Its timbers hummed with stolen vitality, its fixtures possessed by fragments of... something. Souls, if Brook's earlier assessment was accurate.
What can such a thing do against this?
He had already decided. Before heading to Dressrosa, he would return to Green Bit—to the uninhabited island where the Tontatta cultivated their forests. The Spirit of the Tree World could replenish his energy there. But first...
First, he needed to ensure the Sunny's escape.
The Queen Mama Chanter — Command Deck
Pekoms had produced Itachi's bounty poster from somewhere, his clawed hands trembling as he held it up to the light.
The poster showed a figure wreathed in shadow and flame. A crimson skull blazed in the background—the same fiery visage that now loomed before them in the form of Susanoo's tengu mask.
"This... this is his real power?!"
HELLFIRE UCHIHA ITACHI
BOUNTY: 600,000,000 BERRIES
The poster had seemed excessive when first issued. Six hundred million for a rookie? For someone who had only just appeared on the world's radar? Preposterous.
Looking at the armored giant before him, Pekoms revised that assessment.
"FIRE! ALL CANNONS! FIRE EVERYTHING WE HAVE!"
The Chanter's full arsenal swung toward Susanoo. Every gunport. Every deck cannon. Every weapon that could be brought to bear on the giant construct.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The sustained barrage was deafening. Shell after shell impacted against Susanoo's armored form, explosions rippling across its surface in waves of fire and shrapnel. The sea around the construct churned with the fury of the assault.
And when the smoke cleared...
Susanoo stood untouched.
Not a scratch. Not a crack. The armor that had weathered Admiral Kizaru's light-speed assault didn't even register the Chanter's conventional weaponry.
"It's not working!" Pekoms' voice cracked. "Nothing's working!"
"Information!" Baron Tamago whirled on a subordinate. "Get me the intelligence reports from Rilke Callander! NOW! I need to know what we're dealing with!"
But it was already too late.
The Wood Black Crow launched from Susanoo's shoulder, carrying Itachi forward. The construct dissolved behind him, its purpose served—but the crow itself was enough. It closed the distance to the Chanter in seconds, black flames trailing behind like a comet's tail.
Itachi landed on the Chanter's bow.
The Ten-Fist Sword materialized in his grip—the legendary blade that had sealed Orochimaru, that had cut through Nagato's summons, that carried within it the power of eternal imprisonment. Its edge burned with the same otherworldly light as Susanoo's armor.
The Chanter's figurehead—the Homie that gave the ship its soul—screamed.
"HELP~! HELP~! SOMEBODY HELP ME~!"
Itachi's crimson eyes met the Homie's painted gaze.
"Let's test something."
The Ten-Fist Sword plunged into the figurehead's center.
For a moment, nothing happened. The Homie continued to wail, its painted features twisted in terror. The ship rocked gently on the waves.
Then—
The soul stripped.
It peeled away from the wood like skin from a wound, a luminous essence that had been bound to the vessel through Big Mom's terrible power. The Ten-Fist Sword drank it in, pulling the soul from its housing and sealing it within the gourd at the blade's base.
The figurehead went silent.
The Chanter went silent.
All across the ship, Homies were screaming. Doors wrenched themselves from hinges, their souls torn free. Windows shattered as the spirits animating them were ripped away. Flagpoles, railings, cannons—every object that had been granted false life by the Soru Soru no Mi's power—convulsed as their souls were drawn inexorably toward the Ten-Fist Sword's gourd.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Pekoms' roar was pure anguish. "Those Homies were created by Mama herself! How can he just—TAKE THEM?!"
Within seconds, the Queen Mama Chanter had been reduced to an ordinary ship. A massive vessel, yes. Intimidating in scale. But no longer alive. No longer singing. No longer anything but wood and iron and terrified crew.
Itachi stood amid the chaos, his expression unchanged.
So the Ten-Fist Sword's sealing ability still functions in this world.
He had wondered. Back in the ninja world, the Totsuka Blade—as it was known there—possessed two legendary properties. The Yata Mirror could deflect any attack. The Ten-Fist Sword could seal anything it pierced into an eternal drunken dream, imprisoning the victim forever within its gourd.
Against Kizaru, Itachi had tried to land a sealing blow. The Admiral's light-speed movement had made it impossible to connect.
Against Fujitora, he had made contact—had clashed blade against blade. But the Ten-Fist Sword's sealing had failed to activate. The Admiral's Haki had shielded him, preventing the sword's true nature from taking hold.
Haki interferes with the sealing effect.
Just as it interferes with genjutsu. Even Tsukuyomi was broken by Law's Haki, and Fujitora's defenses were stronger still.
The pattern was emerging. In this world, willpower made manifest—Haki—served as a barrier against abilities that targeted the mind or soul. Illusions. Sealing. Anything that bypassed physical defense to strike at something deeper.
So the solution...
Break their Haki first. Overwhelm their defenses. And then—
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
Baron Tamago's voice shattered Itachi's concentration. The long-limbed fighter had closed the distance, a blade gleaming in his grip. He lunged, stabbing toward Susanoo's armored form with all his might.
CRACK.
The blade shattered.
Baron Tamago stared at the broken hilt in his hands, his refined composure finally crumbling into naked terror. The weapon—forged by the finest smiths in Whole Cake Island, reinforced by his own Haki—had broken against Susanoo's armor like glass against steel.
Itachi's gaze slowly turned toward him.
A cold sweat broke out across Baron Tamago's egg-shaped head.
"W-what... what ARE you?!"
Itachi raised the Ten-Fist Sword high.
The blade descended.
Not toward Baron Tamago. Not toward any individual crew member. The sword's edge carved a horizontal arc through the air—and the sword energy that erupted from it was unlike anything the Big Mom Pirates had ever witnessed.
A crescent of pure destructive force swept across the Chanter's deck. Sails shredded. Masts cracked. Rigging parted like cobwebs before a hurricane. The sword energy continued past the ship, racing across the sea's surface, carving a trench through the water itself.
And then it detonated.
The explosion was cataclysmic. A wall of crimson light erupted from the sea, rising toward the heavens like the birth of a new sun. The water within the blast radius boiled. Steam and fire merged into a hellscape of red and orange that stretched as far as the eye could see.
For a single, terrible moment, the ocean looked like molten magma.
The Chanter rocked violently, thrown about by the shockwave. Crew members clung to whatever remained of the rigging. Pekoms clutched the railing with both claws, his tiny eyes reflecting the inferno.
Baron Tamago had collapsed to his knees, his long legs folded beneath him, his face pale as moonlight.
Capone Bege's cigar had fallen from his lips. He didn't pick it up.
The flames slowly died. The sea settled. And Itachi Uchiha stood at the bow of the now-silent Queen Mama Chanter, his crimson eyes sweeping across the terrified crew.
That should be enough.
The Wood Black Crow materialized beneath him once more. Its wings spread wide, black flames kindling along their edges.
"Your ship can no longer pursue my crew." His voice was calm. Factual. Utterly without malice. "And you lack the means to stop me from leaving."
The crow rose into the sky.
"Consider this a warning. The next time the Big Mom Pirates cross paths with the Straw Hats..."
His Mangekyō Sharingan spun slowly, tiredly.
"...I won't stop at the ship."
The crow banked toward Green Bit's distant silhouette and shot across the sea, leaving the Queen Mama Chanter adrift in its wake—silent, broken, and stripped of its soul.
End of Chapter
✨If you're enjoying this story, consider supporting me on Patreon —
Patreon.com/TofuChan
Where you can read Extra Advance Chapters
Bonus Chapter For Every 100 Power Stones
Lets hit the goal of 300 Patreon Members now for 5 Extra Chapters 💕