Chapter 124: More Important Things
The underground chamber had become a gathering point for unlikely allies. As Sabo and Itachi spoke, two figures picked their way through the rubble toward them—a young woman with bright orange hair and a fishman whose powerful frame moved with surprising grace.
"Kerla." Robin's eyes widened with pleasant surprise. "You're here too."
The Revolutionary Army had clearly infiltrated Dressrosa well before the Straw Hats arrived.
"Robin! It's good to see you safe." Kerla clutched a familiar garment in her hands—Sabo's distinctive blue windbreaker, freshly retrieved from wherever he had stashed it before assuming the Lucy disguise. "Sabo, I brought your change of clothes. You can't keep wearing that gladiator getup forever."
"Ah, perfect timing." Sabo accepted the coat with visible relief, already shrugging off the colosseum armor. "Things were getting complicated."
Rebecca stared at the newcomers, her confusion deepening by the second. The man in the cat mask. The revolutionary who had stolen the Mera-Mera Fruit. The fishman and the orange-haired woman who had appeared from nowhere. Her world—already shattered by the day's revelations—kept expanding into stranger and stranger territory.
"Who... who ARE all of you?"
"Us?" Sabo gestured first toward his companions. "We're the Revolutionary Army."
"Revolutionary—?!" Rebecca's eyes went wide. She had only ever heard that name in government propaganda—whispered warnings about dangerous rebels who sought to overthrow the world order. The reality before her bore no resemblance to the monstrous caricatures she had been taught to fear.
"And as for—" Sabo turned toward Itachi, ready to make introductions.
He never got the chance.
"SENIOR UCHIHA ITACHI!"
Bartolomeo came flying toward them with the velocity of a man who had completely abandoned all dignity. Snot streamed from his nose. Tears cascaded down his cheeks. His expression was that of a pilgrim who had finally, after years of searching, laid eyes upon a holy relic.
"SENIOR!"
Itachi's eyebrow twitched behind his mask. "Senior?"
Sabo leaned in close, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial murmur. "Like I told you earlier—he really, REALLY likes Luffy. He seems to worship your entire crew. Honestly, it's a little concerning."
"I see."
Bartolomeo was already dropping to his knees, apparently intending to prostrate himself in a full dogeza. Itachi's arm shot out, catching the man by the shoulders before his forehead could touch the ground.
"Senior Uchiha Itachi! I am UNWORTHY! My earlier behavior was completely, absolutely, inexcusably RUDE! Please accept my most humble—"
"Don't do that."
Itachi's voice was cold enough to freeze the tears on Bartolomeo's face.
Around them, heads were turning. The name "Uchiha Itachi" rippled through the crowd of restored warriors like a stone dropped into still water.
"Uchiha Itachi?!"
"The one with the six hundred million berry bounty! The first bounty issued was THAT high!"
"The 'Hellfire' of the Straw Hat Pirates! He's HERE?!"
"Of course he's here! The great God Usopp is here, so his crewmate would naturally—"
Cavendish, who had been watching the proceedings with the detached ennui of a man who considered himself the protagonist of reality, suddenly stiffened. His eyes locked onto Itachi's figure with an expression that cycled rapidly through disbelief, indignation, and something that looked suspiciously like wounded vanity.
"Six hundred million... I expected some kind of monstrous brute. A demon in human form. But this man is..." His voice dropped to a wounded mutter. "...completely ordinary-looking. How is THAT worth six hundred million when MY bounty is only two hundred eighty million?! I'm objectively more beautiful! More talented! More—"
No one was listening to Cavendish.
Rebecca fixed her gaze on Sabo, her voice trembling with the weight of unasked questions. "But why would the Revolutionary Army come here? Just for the Mera-Mera Fruit?"
Before Sabo could answer, the fishman Haku stepped toward a nondescript crate half-buried in rubble. One powerful fist smashed through the wooden lid. Weapons spilled across the stone floor—rifles, sabers, ammunition, explosives. Military-grade hardware stamped with the markings of a dozen different nations.
Haku picked up a rifle, his fishman features twisting with disgust. "We traced the supply lines. Every weapon flowing into the war zones—every conflict that's tearing smaller nations apart—a significant portion of the arms originate from this single source."
Kerla snapped her fingers, producing a Den Den Mushi from her satchel. The snail's face shifted into an expression of grim satisfaction. "We came to shut down Doflamingo's black market operations. Permanently."
Sabo's grin was sharp with anticipation. "Consider it a gift to the boss before he arrives. One less weapons pipeline feeding the world's wars."
He turned back to Itachi, something shifting in his expression—an eagerness that hadn't been there before. "Speaking of which, Itachi. There's one more piece of business I need to discuss with you. Someone who's been wanting to—"
Itachi moved.
Sabo's Observation Haki screamed a warning a split-second too late. The ground erupted where Burgess had been crouching—the Blackbeard captain launching himself from the rubble with the force of a cannonball, his remaining gauntlet aimed directly at Sabo's exposed back.
"THE MERA-MERA FRUIT IS MINE!"
Burgess never reached his target.
Steel met flesh. The Wind-Forest Fire carved an arc through the dim underground light, its edge singing with the resonance of a masterwork blade. Burgess's armored fist crashed against Itachi's guard—and stopped. The impact sent shockwaves rippling through the chamber floor, cracks spiderwebbing outward from the point of collision.
Burgess's eyes bulged as he finally registered the face behind the blade.
"YOU—!"
He hurled himself backward, putting distance between himself and the masked figure with the urgent desperation of a man who had been thoroughly briefed on exactly what this particular opponent could do.
"Uchiha Itachi! I've heard the reports!" Burgess's grin was all teeth and hostility. "Weh-hah! The crew told me about you! The one who nearly killed the captain!"
Itachi held the Wind-Forest Fire in a neutral guard, his Sharingan tracking Burgess's every micromovement. "Blackbeard Pirates. You were at Rilke Callander."
"I wasn't! But I've been fully informed!" Burgess was already moving—not attacking, but bouncing from foot to foot in constant, erratic motion. Never staying still. Never presenting a stable target. "Can't look at your eyes! Can't stop moving! Can't let those black flames touch me! Weh-hah! I know ALL your tricks!"
His S-shaped approach was unpredictable—designed to defeat pattern-reading Observation Haki through sheer chaotic randomness. He lunged.
"ONCE I KILL YOU, I'LL TAKE BACK THE MERA-MERA FRUIT!"
"WEH-HAH!"
Steel rang against steel as Itachi parried the first strike. The second. The third. Each impact drove him back a half-step—Burgess's raw physical strength was formidable, easily exceeding Itachi's own. But the Sharingan tracked every feint, every angle, every possible trajectory before the attacks even fully formed.
At the same time, Diamanti had regained his footing. His fluttering blade reshaped itself, the steel flowing like liquid silk before hardening to razor sharpness. "If this factory is destroyed, Doffy will have my head! TREBOL! WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"Right here, right here~!"
Trebol oozed from the shadows, his mucus-coated body leaving glistening trails across the rubble. His eyes—what was visible of them beneath the hanging strands of his unwashed hair—were fixed on Robin with venomous intent. "You Straw Hats... scaring Sugar like that... making her faint... you've ruined EVERYTHING! I'll make you PAY! I'll—"
Robin turned.
Sabo's dragon claw drove Trebol into the ground with enough force to crater the stone. The Donquixote officer's mucus coating splattered outward, his body crumpling into the impact crater with a wet, unpleasant sound. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
"Things are getting chaotic down here." Sabo adjusted his gentleman's hat with the practiced calm of a man who had just swatted a particularly annoying fly. He raised his voice toward the ongoing clash between Itachi and Burgess. "Hey, Itachi! Do you need our help here?!"
Itachi deflected another of Burgess's strikes. His head turned—just slightly, just enough—and his crimson eyes met Sabo's across the chaos of the underground chamber. The Mangekyō Sharingan spun slowly in the dim light, its pattern at once hypnotic and deeply unsettling.
"Take what you came for and leave."
Sabo's brow furrowed. "What?"
"It's best if the Revolutionary Army is not seen here. There are reasons you cannot afford to be present."
"Hey, what does that mean?" Sabo's voice sharpened with confusion. "We came to help. The weapons pipeline, the factory—"
"Sorry, Sabo." Itachi parried another blow, his feet skidding across the rubble. "If we meet again after this is over, we can talk properly. But right now—"
Burgess's fist caught him mid-sentence, the sheer physical force driving him backward across the chamber floor. His heels carved furrows in the stone.
"ITACHI!"
The ground erupted. A massive tree—summoned by Robin's Hana-Hana powers, its roots tearing through the stone floor like grasping fingers—surged upward directly in Burgess's path. The Blackbeard captain was forced to break off his assault, leaping from stone to stone to avoid being crushed.
"Weh-hah! Running away?! FIGHT ME DIRECTLY!"
"Itachi..."
Sabo stared at the man who had, moments ago, been casually discussing alliances—and who was now telling him, in no uncertain terms, to leave. Something about Itachi's tone brooked no argument. This wasn't a suggestion. It was a tactical necessity.
Slowly, Sabo nodded.
"Alright. We'll cooperate as much as possible. The Revolutionary Army won't appear in the Navy's line of sight."
Itachi's slight nod of acknowledgment was almost imperceptible.
"I'll explain everything when Dressrosa is settled."
"It seems you have your reasons." Sabo's fists clenched—and immediately ignited. Orange flames licked between his fingers, the newly acquired power responding to his emotions with eager volatility. "I wanted to help you all here. I still haven't caught up with Luffy, and there's someone in the Revolutionary Army who's been wanting to meet you."
"After everything is finished. We'll talk then."
Robin's voice cut across the battlefield. "Sabo! If Itachi says to go, please do as he asks." Another tree erupted from the ground, forming a barrier between Itachi and Burgess. "He always has his reasons. We trust him completely."
"Then I'll leave this mess in your capable hands." Sabo surveyed the chamber one final time—the restored warriors already swarming toward the SMILE Factory, the Donquixote officers on the back foot, Burgess being held at bay by Itachi's blade. It was, he concluded, a situation well in hand.
"Besides, I truly do have something more important to deal with right now."
He turned to Kerla.
She nodded, raising the Den Den Mushi. The snail's features shifted—and the face it displayed made Sabo's expression tighten with purpose.
"Time to go."
"Right behind you." Kerla tucked the snail into her satchel. "Robin—stay safe."
"Always."
Haku paused beside Rebecca, his deep voice surprisingly gentle. "Young lady. Whatever happens next... know that you are not alone. Your country's suffering has not gone unnoticed."
Before Rebecca could respond, the three revolutionaries were already moving—slipping through the chaos toward a secondary exit, their departure as swift and coordinated as their arrival.
Bartolomeo, who had been frozen in place since Itachi's cold dismissal, suddenly realized his seniors were leaving. "OLD MAN! WAIT FOR ME! I STILL HAVEN'T—"
"Stay here." Sabo's voice drifted back. "Help them destroy the factory. Consider it a personal request from Luffy's brother."
Bartolomeo's eyes blazed with renewed purpose. "A PERSONAL REQUEST FROM SENIOR LUFFY'S BROTHER?! I WON'T LET YOU DOWN!"
He spun toward the nearest Donquixote soldier and threw himself into battle with the fervor of a man who had been blessed with divine purpose.
Itachi, still locked in combat with Burgess, allowed himself a single moment of relief.
Good. The Revolutionary Army is clear. Whatever happens now... they won't be implicated.
And Fujitora's plan can proceed.
Burgess lunged again. "STOP IGNORING ME!"
Itachi turned back to the fight, shifting smoothly into a counter-stance.
"Apologies. I was attending to more important matters."
(End of Chapter)
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