Chapter 112: The Secret Passage
The Corrida Colosseum — Interior Corridor
Luffy's sandals slapped against the stone floor as he ran, Zoro and Kin'emon flanking him on either side. The colosseum's labyrinthine corridors twisted and branched, but they couldn't afford to stop and navigate. The Marines were behind them. Doflamingo was ahead. And somewhere in this maze of stone and shadow, Law was being dragged toward the palace.
Gotta get out. Gotta find a way out.
His eyes kept drifting to the corner of his vision—to the faint shimmer that only he could see. The Burn-Burn Fruit. Ace's fruit. Resting in the colosseum's prize chamber, waiting for the tournament's victor to claim it.
I can't leave it. Not here. Not for someone else to take.
But how? Break through the Marines? Fight Fujitora again? He had barely escaped the Admiral's gravity once—a second encounter would end differently.
And I can't burn it. Not Ace's fruit. Not his legacy.
His fist clenched.
What do I—
"Hold it right there."
A figure stepped into the corridor ahead, blocking their path.
Luffy skidded to a halt, teeth bared. "WHO ARE YOU?!"
The stranger was tall. Blond. Dressed in a blue coat and goggles that gleamed in the torchlight. A metal pipe rested across his shoulders—casual, confident. And beneath the brim of his top hat, a pair of eyes that Luffy would have recognized anywhere.
"The Burn-Burn Fruit..." The stranger's voice was light, almost teasing. "I'll be taking it."
"I SAID WHO ARE—"
Luffy shoved forward, ready to push past this new obstacle—
And froze.
His outstretched hands hung in the air. His mouth fell open. His eyes—those eyes that had stared down Warlords and Admirals and Emperors without flinching—filled with tears.
"You're..."
The stranger smiled. Not the smirk of an enemy. Not the grin of a challenger.
The smile of a brother.
"You're... YOU'RE...!"
"SABO!!!"
The name tore from Luffy's throat with the force of a decade's worth of grief and hope and impossible longing. He launched himself forward, arms wrapping around Sabo's torso with enough force to stagger a man twice his size.
Sabo caught him. Held him. Let his younger brother's tears soak into his coat.
"You've grown taller, Luffy." His voice was warm. Steady. The voice of someone who had waited years to say these words. "And your reputation's grown even more than your height these last two years."
"Sabo... is it really you?!" Luffy's voice cracked. "You're alive! You're really alive! You didn't die! SABO!"
"Of course I'm alive." Sabo's hand ruffled Luffy's hair with the easy affection of childhood. "Did you really think I'd die that easily?"
He pulled back, keeping his hands on Luffy's shoulders.
"It's a long story. After the ship I set sail on was destroyed by the Celestial Dragons... the Revolutionary Army found me. Pulled me from the water. Gave me a new life."
His chest swelled with pride.
"Now I serve under your father, Monkey D. Dragon. I'm the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army."
"Revolutionary Army?" Luffy tilted his head, the name clearly meaning nothing to him.
Sabo laughed—a bright, open sound. "Still the same as ever, huh?"
He shook his head, still smiling.
"Let me put it in terms you'll understand. I met your new crewmate—Uchiha Itachi—back in Rilke Callander. We fought together against Blackbeard."
Luffy's eyes widened. "Yeah! They told me about that! I couldn't believe it at first!"
"Shishishi." Luffy's signature laugh bubbled up, tears still streaming down his face. "Man, Sabo... I'm just so happy you're alive."
"Yeah." Sabo's voice softened. "Me too."
He squeezed Luffy's shoulders once, then released them.
"So here's the deal, Luffy. Give me your identity as 'Lucy.'"
"HUH?"
Luffy's head tilt returned with a vengeance.
Sabo explained quickly. While Luffy escaped the colosseum to help his crew—to rescue Law, to fight Doflamingo, to do what only Luffy could do—Sabo would take his place in the tournament. He would claim the Burn-Burn Fruit. He would carry Ace's legacy forward.
"So that's it!" Luffy's eyes blazed with excitement. "You can take Ace's fruit! You can keep his power alive!"
"Of course." Sabo's voice was steady. Certain. "This is Ace's legacy."
The three of us. The sake cups. The oath.
I couldn't save him then. But I can carry him forward now.
"This is perfect!" Luffy was practically vibrating with joy. "And Itachi already has a fruit, so he doesn't need one! This works out great!"
"Itachi has a Devil Fruit?" Sabo's brow furrowed. "Were you planning to give the Burn-Burn Fruit to Uchiha Itachi?"
"Shishishi, Sabo, how'd you know what I was thinking?" Luffy scratched the back of his head. "At first, I thought he might already have the Burn-Burn Fruit. He uses these crazy fire techniques—giant fireballs, black flames that never go out..."
Sabo's mind drifted back to Rilke Callander. To the moment when Itachi had seen through Blackbeard's deception—had identified the Yami-Yami Fruit's weakness and exploited it with surgical precision. To the Susanoo that had beaten the Emperor candidate to the brink of death.
To the crow of black fire that had soared above the fortress town.
He does fight like a Logia user. But...
"Nah, he doesn't have one," Luffy continued, oblivious to Sabo's musing. He jumped to the side, striking an exaggerated pose with his hands contorted into an approximation of a ninja seal. "Itachi's a ninja! NINJA!"
"A ninja?"
"Yeah! A super-powerful ninja who can use all kinds of terrifying abilities!"
"Then is he from Wano Country?" Sabo had heard rumors of the closed nation's warriors—samurai and shinobi who guarded their isolation with lethal efficiency.
"Wano Country?" Luffy pouted, thinking hard. "I can't remember. He said something about where he was from once..."
His face scrunched with the effort of recollection.
"The Land of... something? Land of Fire?"
Sabo waved his hand. "We can discuss this later. I'm on a tight schedule."
He raised his fist.
"Luffy. Let me take the name Lucy. Let me inherit Ace's will."
Luffy's grin stretched from ear to ear.
"Of course, Sabo!"
Their fists met. A promise sealed in brotherhood.
Green Bit — The Secret Passage of the Tontatta Kingdom
The Silver Fox was a marvel of Tontatta engineering.
Carved from the hollowed shell of an enormous nut and fitted with wheels of polished stone, the vehicle could comfortably seat twenty of the tiny warriors—or, in the present circumstances, one full-sized human crammed into a space designed for beings the size of his thumb, surrounded by an ocean of miniature food.
Itachi sat wedged into the rear compartment, his knees drawn up nearly to his chest, his head brushing the tunnel ceiling with every bump. Lan Lan occupied his left palm. Kaka occupied his right. Both of them had refused to sit anywhere else.
"But the Flying Assault Boat would be so much more exciting!" Kaka had protested.
"NO! I want to sit with Itachilando!" Lan Lan had latched onto Itachi's thumb with the force of a barnacle.
"But the FLYING ASSAULT—"
"Itachilando might LEAVE again if we don't stay with him!"
"He wouldn't!"
"HE DID BEFORE!"
"I'M SO SAD!"
And so, after a brief but emotionally devastating argument that had left both Tontatta in tears and Itachi awkwardly patting their tiny heads, the compromise had been reached. Itachi would hold them both. The Flying Assault Boat would remain in the hangar. And every Tontatta within earshot, upon hearing that "Usolando's companion" was joining the mission, had insisted on contributing to his comfort.
Which was how Itachi found himself buried in food.
Tiny pastries the size of crumbs. Thimble-sized cups of honeyed tea. Miniature fruit tarts that could fit on a fingertip. A cake that an entire Tontatta family had clearly spent hours decorating, now balanced precariously on his knee.
Itachi poked his head out from behind the mountain of delicacies, his expression carefully neutral.
"As expected."
I knew something strange would happen here.
He had accepted his fate. Resistance was futile. The Tontatta's enthusiasm was as inexorable as gravity and twice as exhausting.
"Speaking of which..." He looked down at Lan Lan and Kaka, who were already digging into their own tiny portions. "Aren't we heading into battle? It seems... impractical to bring this much food."
Every Tontatta in the Silver Fox stopped moving.
Every eye turned toward Itachi.
Every eye began to glisten.
"Itachilando..." Lan Lan's lower lip trembled. "Do you... do you not like our cooking?"
"That's not—"
"We worked so hard!" Kaka's voice cracked. "The fermented mushroom paste took THREE DAYS to prepare! And you didn't even try it last time!"
"I didn't have time—"
"WAAAAAAH! ITACHILANDO DOESN'T LIKE OUR FOOD!"
"THAT MEANS HE DOESN'T LIKE US!"
"SO SAD! SO SAD! SO SAD!"
The entire Silver Fox erupted in weeping. Tiny tears flooded the floorboards. Several Tontatta collapsed against each other, clinging together in shared grief.
Itachi closed his eyes.
"I like the food."
The weeping continued.
"I like it very much."
A few sniffles.
"I like all of you the most."
Dead silence.
Then—
"EEEEEEH?! REALLY?!"
"You mean it?!"
"Itachilando LIKES us?!"
"Yes." Itachi's voice was very, very tired. "Truly."
"YAAAAAY!"
"HE LIKES US!"
"LET'S GO! TO BATTLE! FOR ITACHILANDO!"
"FOR USOLANDO!"
"FOR ROBINLANDO!"
"FOR EVERYONE!"
The Silver Fox howled—the vehicle itself was apparently also a Homie, or something close to it—and surged forward through the tunnel, carrying its cargo of enthusiastic warriors and one deeply exasperated former ANBU captain toward Dressrosa.
Dressrosa — The Flower Field Underground
The war council had concluded.
Toy soldiers and Tontatta warriors gathered around a makeshift table—a discarded spool with a map unfurled across its surface. The plan of attack had been drawn, revised, and finalized.
First Phase: The Dongdong Tower Battle Squad, accompanied by Leo and Franky, would infiltrate the underground factory. Their objectives were threefold—rescue the enslaved Tontatta workers, destroy the SMILE production line, and ensure that not a single artificial Devil Fruit ever reached Kaido's hands again.
Second Phase: Robin and Usopp, with Tontatta support, would execute the most critical mission of all. The elimination of Sugar—the officer of the Donquixote Family whose Hobi-Hobi Fruit had transformed countless Dressrosa citizens into living toys, erasing them from the memories of everyone who had ever loved them.
"Alright." The toy soldier commander raised his blade. "The plan is set! We move together!"
A chorus of determined cries answered him.
Usopp swallowed hard, adjusting his goggles with trembling fingers. "We're really doing this. We're really going to—"
"Shh!"
Leo's tiny hand shot up.
Everyone froze.
From the mouth of the secret passage—the same tunnel that led back to Green Bit, the same tunnel through which Usopp and Robin had first arrived—came the unmistakable sound of movement.
Voices. Footsteps. The rumble of approaching wheels.
Usopp's face went pale. "They—they found us?! Did the Donquixote Family discover the passage?!"
"Perhaps they've been waiting for us," Robin murmured, her voice cool but her eyes sharp. "Ready to ambush us the moment we began to move."
"ROBIN! PLEASE! STOP TALKING!"
Usopp's knees knocked together. His hands scrambled for his slingshot. "This is bad, this is really bad, I didn't sign up for—we're going to die before we even START—"
"Quiet." Leo's voice was barely a whisper. "Whatever comes through that tunnel, we face it together."
The rumble grew louder.
The Silver Fox burst into the chamber.
And the first figure to emerge from the vehicle—moving with the fluid caution of a seasoned infiltrator, crimson eyes scanning the room for threats—was Itachi Uchiha.
His gaze swept across the assembled forces.
Toy soldiers with weapons raised. Tontatta warriors frozen mid-charge. Franky's massive arms half-extended in battle-ready position. Robin, her hands already crossed at the wrists, a dozen phantom limbs prepared to bloom.
And Usopp, trembling like a leaf in a hurricane, his slingshot aimed vaguely in Itachi's direction.
Itachi raised an eyebrow.
"...Did I miss something?"
End of Chapter
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