Chapter 139: I Am a Person Prepared to Die at Any Time
The Coast of Dressrosa
The harbor was chaos.
Pirate ships of every size and design crowded the waters off Dressrosa's coast—vessels that had answered the call of the Corrida Colosseum's tournament and now found themselves fleeing the same Navy that had once tolerated their presence. The "Handsome Pirates" under Cavendish's command. The thousand-strong Happo Navy from the Kingdom of Flowers, with their formidable leader Sai and the kidnapped Baby-5 in tow. The Ideo Pirates and their "Destruction Cannon" Eddie. The giant Hajrudin, towering above the crowd like a monument to the bygone age of warriors. And Orlumbus, admiral of the Yonta Maria Grand Fleet, whose pirate warship dominated the harbor like a floating fortress.
Bartolomeo stood at the forefront, his eyes—those devoted, obsessive eyes—fixed on the distant treeline. He had been watching for the Straw Hats since the moment they'd split up. And now, finally—
"THAT'S—!"
His voice cracked with emotion.
"SENIOR LUFFY! SENIOR LUFFY IS COMING!"
Usopp and Zoro spun toward the tree line. But the first thing they saw was not Luffy.
It was a massive sphere of rubble—shattered buildings, broken stone, twisted metal—floating in the sky above the harbor like a second moon. Gravity pulled the debris into a perfect sphere of destruction, and beneath it, wreathed in purple energy, stood Admiral Fujitora.
"HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO SEE LUFFY WITHOUT NOTICING THAT?!" Usopp's voice climbed into a register usually reserved for small, frightened animals.
"Oh, that's because Senior Luffy's radiance shines so brilliantly in my eyes that everything else just fades into the background!" Bartolomeo's hands were clasped together, flowers blooming in his wake.
"THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!"
Zoro vaulted onto the ship's railing, his hand closing around Enma's hilt. He recognized the Admiral—the same "uncle" who had crossed their path at the casino restaurant, the same blind swordsman who had fought Itachi to a standstill twice. His jaw tightened.
Itachi's plan. Fujitora's role. The truth about what happened.
But that truth was not his to share. Itachi had been explicit. Only those who already knew could know. Sabo, who had relayed the information to Dragon, had already apologized—he understood why the secret had to be kept.
"Doesn't matter what the circumstances are," Zoro muttered. "Pirates and the Navy are still enemies."
The massive sphere of rubble began to descend.
A grin spread across Zoro's face.
Luffy burst from the treeline at a dead sprint, his sandals slapping against the packed earth of the coastal road. Behind him, the Tontatta escort was struggling to keep pace—Leo and his warriors, Cyrus and Rebecca, the remnants of the Riku family's loyal guard. But Luffy's eyes were fixed ahead. On the harbor. On the ships. On the Admiral standing between him and freedom.
"That uncle! The gambling uncle!"
Fujitora turned. His blind eyes found Luffy with unerring accuracy.
"Straw Hat."
"What are you trying to do, gambling uncle?!" Luffy's arm was already inflating, Gear Third swelling his fist to enormous proportions. "If you're trying to stop us, I'll beat you up right here and now!"
"Watch! ELEPHANT GUN!"
The massive fist descended toward Fujitora with the force of a falling mountain. Bartolomeo's jaw dropped. Cavendish screamed something about tactical retreat. The assembled pirates scattered.
BOOM.
Dust and debris erupted from the point of impact. When the haze cleared, Fujitora stood unmoved. His staff-sword was raised—a single blade against a fist the size of a warship—and Luffy's Elephant Gun had been stopped cold.
"Run, Straw Hat!" Cavendish shouted from the deck of his ship. "You can't fight an Admiral! That's suicide!"
"Running away from Admirals... is something I'm DONE doing!"
Luffy planted his feet. His fists came up. His grin stretched from ear to ear.
"I don't care if you're an Admiral! I don't care if you're an Emperor! If I can't beat every single one of you... I'll never become the Pirate King!!!"
Bartolomeo collapsed to his knees. Tears streamed down his face. "Senior Luffy... you're so... SO COOL!!"
"That idiot's right," Zoro said, his grip tightening on Enma. "If we're going to reach the top, we have to be ready to take down anyone who stands in our way."
"THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT THE TIME FOR THAT!" Usopp was tearing at his hair. "WE'RE TRYING TO ESCAPE! ESCAPE! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT WORD MEANS?!"
"Ah, forget it." Usopp slumped in defeat. "We're already fighting. Might as well commit."
Luffy had already activated Gear Second. Steam rose from his rubber body as his heartbeat accelerated to superhuman speeds.
"I'm gonna beat you up, uncle! FROM THE LEFT!"
He launched himself to the left, fists blurring—Gomu Gomu no Jet Gatling. A storm of punches descended toward Fujitora from every angle.
Gravity answered.
Luffy slammed into the earth with enough force to crater the stone beneath him. His body felt like it weighed a thousand tons. "Oh right—I forgot! The uncle has a Devil Fruit power!"
"AGAIN! This time a KICK!"
He coated his leg in Armament Haki and swept it toward Fujitora's head. The Admiral's blade intercepted the strike without effort.
Zoro frowned from the ship's railing. "Luffy... why are you announcing every attack?"
"THIS TIME IT'S A PUNCH!"
Luffy launched himself skyward, fist raised high, descending toward Fujitora like a meteor—
"Oh wait! I messed up! It's a punch after all! Sorry, uncle!"
In the cloud of dust, Fujitora had already sidestepped. "No need to apologize. You didn't hit me."
He raised his blade. The gravity field intensified. Deep craters began to open in the earth around Luffy—trap after trap, each one capable of crushing a lesser fighter to paste. But Luffy's Observation Haki was screaming warnings, and his rubber body twisted and contorted through the barrage with inches to spare.
"I'M GONNA KEEP BEATING YOU UP, UNCLE!"
Jet Gatling resumed. Hundreds of Haki-coated fists rained down.
Fujitora blocked them with one hand, his blade deflecting strike after strike with the mechanical precision of a man who had been fighting longer than Luffy had been alive. His expression shifted—not to anger, not to frustration, but to something that might have been impatience.
"It's far rougher than Itachi-san's attacks."
He thrust.
A series of short, rapid stabs—each one precise, each one aimed at the gaps in Luffy's defense. Luffy's Armament Haki barely managed to deflect the first two. The third clipped his shoulder. The fourth grazed his cheek.
"Eh? What did you say?"
"I asked..." Fujitora's blade carved a crescent of gravitational force through the air. Luffy twisted aside, the slash passing close enough to shear the edge of his vest. "...why you keep announcing your attacks!"
The slash detonated against the cliff face behind him, and Luffy was sent spinning through the air like a leaf in a hurricane.
The Revolutionary Army Submarine
Robin's face had gone pale.
"Commander Dragon... what you just said... is it true?"
The question hung in the cramped war room like smoke. Robin had dedicated her entire life—her childhood of running, her years with Crocodile, her desperate search for the Rio Poneglyph—to uncovering the truth about the Ancient Weapons. She knew their names. She knew their legends. She knew that the World Government had burned entire islands to suppress even the rumor of their existence.
And now Dragon was telling her that Itachi carried the key to one of them.
"Regarding the Spirit of the Tree World being the bloodline factor of the Earth..." Dragon's voice was heavy. "I only recently received confirmation from my old friend in Rilke Callander. The specifics remain unclear. But I am absolutely certain of its most critical function."
He met Robin's eyes.
"The Spirit of the Tree World is the key to awakening the Ancient Weapon... Pluton."
"Pluton." Robin breathed the name like a prayer. Or a curse. "The weapon capable of destroying the entire world."
"That's correct."
Itachi's expression had not changed. His hands remained folded in his lap. His breathing remained steady. But his eyes—those dark, unreadable eyes—had sharpened to a razor's edge.
"Commander Dragon. What exactly do you want from me?"
Dragon noticed the shift. The subtle repositioning of Itachi's weight. The way his hand had moved fractionally closer to the blade at his back. The Revolutionary leader smiled—not with offense, but with something that looked almost like approval.
"Rest assured, Itachi-san. Though the World Government has named me the most dangerous criminal alive... I am not the sort of man who threatens others into service. I did not ask you here to coerce you into anything."
His smile widened.
"Besides. That's no longer necessary."
"What do you mean?"
Dragon rose from his chair. He walked to the porthole and stared out at the endless blue of the New World's waters. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter. More personal.
"I wanted to see, with my own eyes, what kind of person the old man Kozuki Chidō had chosen. For fifty years, he tested every candidate who came to Rilke Callander. Pirate captains. Marine defectors. Revolutionaries. Scholars. Warriors. All of them failed. Until you."
He turned back to face Itachi.
"And now I understand why."
"What conclusion have you reached?"
Dragon looked into Itachi's eyes—those ancient, weary, unflinching eyes—and spoke with absolute certainty.
"You are someone capable of bearing the weight of his fate. You possess eyes that can pierce through the world's illusions and perceive the truth beneath. Whatever burden history places on your shoulders... you will not break under it."
Itachi rose from his chair.
"Commander Dragon."
His voice was calm. Level. The voice of a man stating an unalterable fact.
"After I witnessed those centuries of history—after I learned the truths that this world's rulers have killed to suppress—I came to a decision."
He met Dragon's gaze directly.
"If the world requires something of me... then I can tell you with complete honesty. I am a person who has been prepared to die at any time."
Cold sweat broke out across Dragon's face. The man who had faced the World Government's full might for decades. The man whose name made Celestial Dragons tremble. The man who had never once shown fear in the face of any enemy.
He was not afraid now. But he was something. Humbled, perhaps. Or awed.
"I see," he said quietly. "Then Kozuki Chidō chose even better than he knew."
"Robin." Itachi extended his hand. "We should go. Luffy and the others will be waiting for us."
Robin took his hand and rose. Her expression was complicated—concern and understanding and something deeper that she didn't have words for.
"Itachi..."
"Come." His voice gentled, just slightly. "There's still a battle to finish."
(End of Chapter)
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