Chapter 123: All-Out Battle, Start!
The Underground Chamber
The cheers showed no sign of fading.
Hardened pirates from the worst seas. Warriors who had survived decades of bloodshed. Criminals whose bounties could have purchased small kingdoms. They knelt in the rubble-strewn chamber with tears streaming down their scarred faces, their voices raised in a chorus of desperate, reverent gratitude.
Even Cavendish—the "White Horse," the supernova whose narcissism was legendary, whose hatred of the Straw Hats had burned with the white-hot intensity of a man who could not tolerate being upstaged—stood among the crowd with an expression of grudging awe. The Straw Hats had stolen his spotlight. Humiliated him. Made him look foolish on the world stage.
But this man—this "God Usopp"—had done something Cavendish could not deny.
He had broken a curse that had held an entire nation in chains.
Usopp, still raised high on the giant's shoulders, was covered in blood. His nose was bent at an angle that suggested it had been broken at least once. His left eye was swollen nearly shut. His hands trembled with exhaustion and adrenaline in equal measure.
His lips moved.
"Hey, hey! The great God Usopp is going to speak!"
A pirate near the front of the crowd pointed upward with a finger that shook with emotion. The chamber fell instantly silent. Hundreds of faces turned toward their savior, their expressions wide with anticipation.
"The Giant leaned in close, straining to catch every syllable from Usopp's bloodied lips. "What did you say?! You came to guide us?!"
The crowd pressed forward, desperate to hear.
Itachi, watching from the shadows at the chamber's edge, observed Usopp's mouth movements with the precision of his Sharingan. He had spent years reading lips—in ANBU, in Akatsuki, in every mission where silence meant survival.
Usopp's lips formed the words:
"Put me down, you idiots... the more you do this stupid stuff, the worse it gets... can't you see my face is covered in blood... you bastards..."
The giant's eyes welled with tears of profound emotion.
"'Guide us'... he said... 'Guide us'!"
"HE TRULY IS A SAVIOR SENT FROM THE HEAVENS!"
"HIS WORDS CUT STRAIGHT TO THE SOUL!"
"HE'S COME TO LEAD US OUT OF DARKNESS! TO SHOW US THE PATH!"
A fresh wave of cheering shook the chamber walls.
"GOD USOPP! GOD USOPP! GOD USOPP!"
"USOLANDO! USOLANDO!"
Itachi closed his eyes. Opened them. The scene remained unchanged.
How did every single word get misinterpreted so completely?
Is this some kind of ability I'm not aware of?
A familiar voice cut through his contemplation.
"AH! ITACHILANDO!"
Two tiny blurs launched themselves at his legs. Lan Lan and Kaka attached themselves to his shins with the full force of Tontatta enthusiasm, their enormous eyes glistening with joy.
"Itachilando came back! You really came back!"
"Waaaaah! I'm not sad anymore! Our battle was SUCCESSFUL! Everything worked out!"
Lan Lan and Kaka bounced in circles around Itachi's feet, their earlier grief over his abrupt departure completely forgotten in the euphoria of victory.
Itachi knelt down, bringing himself closer to their eye level. "Tell me what happened here."
The two Tontatta looked at each other. Then, in overlapping bursts of emotion, they told him everything.
How the Dongdong Tower Battle Squad had infiltrated the SMILE Factory. How the enemy's defenses had proven too strong—Trebol's sticky powers, Sugar's unstoppable touch, the endless waves of Donquixote soldiers. How their comrades had fallen one by one, transformed into toys, their memories erased from everyone who had ever loved them.
How, in the darkest moment, when all hope seemed lost, Usolando had stood before them and declared that everything he had ever told them was a lie.
"He said he was a coward! He said he wasn't a hero! He said he was going to run away!" Kaka's tiny fists trembled. "But he was LYING!"
Lan Lan nodded so vigorously her entire body shook. "Usolando wasn't abandoning us! He was protecting us! He wanted us to stop fighting so we wouldn't get turned into toys! He was ready to shoulder all the shame himself just to keep us safe!"
"And then—and THEN—"
Kaka could barely contain herself.
"Usolando figured out that he couldn't get close to Sugar through normal combat! So he deliberately let himself get captured! He was beaten almost to death! And then he ate the poisonous grape that was meant for Sugar!"
"He ate it ON PURPOSE! To save us!"
"And when he ate it—his face turned all red and he made this TERRIBLE SCARY EXPRESSION and he BREATHED FIRE and—"
"—and Sugar FAINTED! She was so scared of Usolando's face that she passed out cold!"
"And when Sugar fainted, EVERYONE turned back! All the toys! All the slaves! EVERYONE!"
The two Tontatta hugged each other, weeping with joy.
"Itachilando... Usolando is the bravest hero in the whole world!"
Itachi was silent for a long moment.
He thought about Usopp—the trembling legs, the panicked screams, the desperate excuses. He thought about the man who had hidden behind him on Green Bit, who had nearly fainted at the mention of decapitation, whose primary combat doctrine appeared to be "run and hope for the best."
And then he thought about what Lan Lan and Kaka had just told him.
He deliberately made himself the target. He provoked an enemy he couldn't defeat. He ate poison to protect people he barely knew. Not because he believed he would survive—but because he believed they would.
Without him, this entire operation would have failed.
"Well done."
The words were quiet. Simple. Utterly sincere.
"It's good that you succeeded."
I misjudged you, Usopp.
Perhaps more than once.
He straightened, turning his attention to the larger situation. The Wood Black Crow materialized at his feet, ready to carry him wherever the next phase of the battle required.
"All things considered... you should trust Usolando. He will come through when it matters."
"YES! Trust Usolando! Trust Itachilando! Trust EVERYONE!"
"Oh!" Lan Lan suddenly tilted her head. "Itachilando, didn't you go to the colosseum? Why are you down here? And where's Princess Rebecca?"
"That..."
Itachi pointed upward.
"You're currently beneath the colosseum. The arena is directly above us."
"EEEEEH?! THIS IS UNDER THE COLOSSEUM?!"
The Center of the Chamber
Usopp stared out at the sea of adoring faces and felt his soul briefly leave his body.
What is happening.
What is ANY of this.
I just wanted to run away. I really, truly, genuinely just wanted to run away and never look back and maybe hide under my bed for the rest of my life. How did THIS happen?!
"God! Please! Guide us!" The pirates knelt in unison, their weapons raised like offerings. "What should we do next?! Where should we go?!"
"Do...?"
Usopp's eyes snapped back into focus. The pain. The blood loss. The sheer surreal absurdity of his situation. It all crystallized into a single, desperate instinct: lean into it.
"Oh—oh, right!" He raised a trembling finger toward the factory looming in the distance. "You lot! Go destroy that factory over there!"
"YOSH! YOU HEARD THE GREAT GOD USOPP!"
"DESTROY THE FACTORY!"
"FOR GOD USOPP!"
"WAHAHAHA! LET'S GO!"
The mob of newly restored warriors snatched up their weapons and charged toward the SMILE Factory with the fervent enthusiasm of crusaders answering a holy call. Within seconds, the chamber was half-empty, the sounds of destruction already echoing from the factory's outer walls.
Usopp stared after them.
...That actually worked?
The Falling Debris
The ceiling collapsed.
Not the controlled collapse of Sabo's Dragon Breath—this was structural failure on a massive scale, the entire arena floor giving way as the shockwaves from the finals battle finally overwhelmed the colosseum's ancient foundations. Stone, sand, and broken timber rained down into the underground chamber in a cascade of destruction.
Diamanti fell among the rubble, his fluttering cape tangled around him like a burial shroud. He stared at the chaos surrounding him—the restored humans, the destroyed transformation equipment, the complete collapse of the operation he had spent years maintaining.
"The toys... all of them... returned to human form."
"How am I supposed to explain this to Doffy?!"
Nearby, Burgess had landed in a crouch, his ruined gauntlet still sparking from Sabo's earlier attack. His eyes swept the chamber with predatory calculation, searching for an exit, for an advantage, for anything that could salvage this disaster.
Sabo landed on a tilting slab of stone with Rebecca cradled in one arm. Below him, Bartolomeo was clinging to a broken pillar, his nose ring still throbbing from Rebecca's earlier grip. Sabo glanced down at him.
"A man must learn to protect himself."
"OLD MAN! YOU CAN'T JUST—!"
Sabo was already in motion, leaping from stone to stone, his newly acquired flame abilities flickering at his heels. His Observation Haki swept the chamber—mapping escape routes, identifying threats, cataloguing—
There.
A familiar presence. Calm. Controlled. Utterly unmistakable.
"Itachi!"
Sabo adjusted his trajectory mid-leap, his foot coming down on the giant's shoulder—then the giant's head—then, with a muttered apology, directly on Usopp's face.
"Sorry! Just passing through!"
Usopp's nose, already broken at least once, made a sound that no nose should ever make.
Sabo landed in front of Itachi, flames sputtering from his fingertips as he extended his hand. "We meet again! I got the fruit! I—"
Fire erupted from his palm.
"—AH. Sorry. Sorry. Still not used to this."
He shook out his hand, extinguishing the flames with visible embarrassment.
"You obtained it. That's what matters." Itachi's voice was calm, but the ghost of approval touched his features. "The legacy is in worthy hands."
Sabo's expression flickered—grief and pride and something deeper, something that had been buried for a very long time. But he pushed it aside with practiced ease. "Right. Here."
He gently pushed Rebecca forward.
"The girl you asked me to look after. Safe and mostly unharmed."
"Help a girl...?" Rebecca's eyes darted between Sabo and Itachi. The cat-faced masked man who had appeared from nowhere. The stranger who had fought in Lucy's place. She had no context for any of this. "I don't understand. Why would you—who asked you to—"
"A toy soldier." Itachi's voice was quiet. "He asked me to bring you out of the arena safely."
Rebecca's composure shattered.
"Soldier-san...?"
Tears welled in her eyes—tears she had been holding back through the entire tournament, through every boo, every jeer, every death threat screamed from the stands. Her voice cracked on the name.
"Is he... is he alright? Did he make it? Please—please tell me he's alive—"
"The toy soldier has likely reached the palace by now." Robin's voice drifted across the chamber as she picked her way through the rubble, her expression serene despite the chaos surrounding her. "The curse is broken. He should have returned to his human form."
"Robin." Itachi turned to face her. "You're unharmed?"
"More or less." She smiled, extending her hand toward him—fingers spread, palm open. "I was briefly a toy myself. It was... an educational experience."
Itachi paused. Looked at her hand.
Then, with the careful deliberation of someone who was still learning the customs of this strange new world, he raised his own hand and returned the gesture. A high-five. Gentle. Precise. Fingertips brushing fingertips.
"That's good. Once the factory is destroyed, we move to the next phase."
"Indeed." Robin's smile sharpened with anticipation. "Everything is proceeding according to plan."
Above them, the colosseum's final walls began to crumble. Marines shouted orders in the distance. The Donquixote Family's surviving officers scrambled to regroup.
And in the underground chamber, surrounded by rubble and revolution, the forces that would decide Dressrosa's fate began to coalesce.
The all-out battle had begun.
(End of Chapter)
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