Chapter 147: New Destination — Zou
Aboard Bartolomeo's ship, the Straw Hats' next destination had been decided: Zou. The Thousand Sunny had already sailed there with Nami and the others, and Kin'emon and Kanjuro were adamant about reuniting with Momonosuke as quickly as possible.
"It works out perfectly," Law said. "All three of our groups will converge at Zou."
His Heart Pirates had been there for weeks. Before infiltrating Punk Hazard, Law had ordered Bepo to take the crew to Zou—the mink's homeland, a place where they could lie low and wait for his signal.
"Then it's settled!" Bartolomeo raised his fist. "Following the will of the Seniors—and that bastard Trafalgar Law—our next heading is ZOU!"
He spun toward the helm. "Set course for—"
CRACK.
The sky shattered.
Hailstones. Massive ones. The kind that the New World's unpredictable weather systems spawned without warning—chunks of ice the size of cannonballs plummeting from clouds that had been clear blue seconds before. A single stone, no larger than a fist, punched straight through the deck.
"SENIOR LUFFY! GET TO THE CABIN!"
"Forget that! We're helping!" Luffy's rubber arms stretched wide, batting hailstones away like the world's deadliest tennis match.
Kanjuro and Kin'emon danced across the deck, their sandals slapping against the wet wood as they weaved through the barrage. Below, Zoro and Itachi had drawn their blades almost in the same instant, deflecting smaller stones with precise, economical movements. Their rhythm was eerily synchronized—block, pivot, slash, pivot—as if they had been training together for years instead of weeks.
Inside the cabin, Robin and Law were hunched over a navigation chart, plotting Zou's position relative to the shifting magnetic fields. They looked up only when a particularly large hailstone rattled the windows.
Franky's iron fist crushed an incoming chunk of ice. "Who's the navigator on this tub?! Where are we headed?! SOMEONE GIVE ORDERS!"
Bartolomeo scratched his head and giggled. "We don't actually... have a navigator. We're more of a land-based gangster operation."
Usopp's eyes nearly ejected from their sockets. "YOU'RE IN THE NEW WORLD! THE GRAND LINE! HOW DID YOU EVEN GET HERE WITHOUT A NAVIGATOR?!"
"Gambia!" Bartolomeo shouted. "Do the thing!"
Gambia, Bartolomeo's towering first mate, already had a Den Den Mushi pressed to his ear. "Moshi moshi? Grandma? It's Gambia. There's a... situation. Hailstones. Very large. Falling from the sky."
Bartolomeo leaned toward Usopp with a reassuring smile. "Whenever we run into trouble, Gambia calls his grandmother back home. She's very wise about these things."
"Oh!" Usopp's panic subsided fractionally. "So there's an expert consultant who knows the sea—"
"Grandma says to check if there's chewing gum on the deck."
Usopp's eye twitched.
Itachi glanced down. Sure enough, the deck was littered with discarded gum—the aftermath of the Barto Club's post-banquet celebrations. "There is. Significant amounts."
"Wrap the hailstones in cloth with the frozen gum," Gambia relayed. "It'll neutralize the impact."
The crew scrambled to comply. Incredibly, it worked. The gum absorbed the shock, the cloth held the ice in place, and several hailstones were neutralized before they could cause further damage.
"IT ACTUALLY WORKED?!" Usopp's worldview was visibly cracking.
"Oh, and if the sail's torn, sprinkle a little sugar on it. Heals faster."
"THAT'S HOUSEHOLD ADVICE! THIS IS A LIFE-OR-DEATH NAVAL CRISIS!"
"No good! This ship's going down!" Luffy wailed. "NAMI! WHERE ARE YOU?! HELP!"
"Damn it, if only we had the Sunny's equipment!" Franky was still swinging.
Robin emerged from the cabin, took in the chaos with a serene smile, and observed: "It's gotten rather lively out here."
"ZORO!" Usopp shrieked. "Bartolomeo has a barrier ability! WHY ISN'T HE USING IT?!"
Bartolomeo's face went pale. "Grandma says... those who defy nature's wrath will be punished by the heavens."
"I'M GOING TO CUT HIM." Zoro's hand moved toward Enma.
"Are these people serious?" Law had just stepped out to assess the situation.
Itachi patted his shoulder. Then his hands moved through seals.
"Law. Room."
Law's fingers twitched. A blue sphere expanded across the ship. "Room. Shambles."
Itachi vanished from the deck and reappeared at the highest point of the force field—directly in the path of the largest hailstone cluster. His hands were already in motion.
"Fire Release: Great Fire Chain!"
A spiraling serpent of flame erupted from his lips, carving through the dark clouds above. The fire didn't aim at the hailstones individually—it struck at the source. The sudden intersection of cold and warm air currents that had birthed the storm. The flames disrupted the thermal balance. The cold air lost its grip on the moisture. What had been freezing into hailstones began to condense into raindrops instead. Within seconds, the barrage of ice had transformed into a torrential downpour.
The ship was drenched. But it was intact.
"The danger... is gone?"
"RAIN! It's just RAIN now!"
The crew cheered, soaked to the bone and utterly elated.
Bartolomeo and his men collapsed to their knees, tears mingling with the rainwater. "THIS... THIS IS THE POWER OF SENIOR UCHIHA ITACHI! HE CHALLENGED THE VERY HEAVENS AND WON! IT'S TOO BEAUTIFUL! IT'S TOO—"
"Stop babbling and STEER THE SHIP!" Zoro's kick connected with Bartolomeo's posterior.
New World — Revolutionary Army Headquarters
Burgess had been dying.
The wounds Itachi had inflicted during their battle beneath the colosseum had been catastrophic. The wooden thorns that had pierced his body from every angle had shredded muscle, punctured organs, and left him bleeding into the dark for hours before he'd managed to crawl free. He'd dragged himself aboard the first ship he could find—a transport vessel whose markings he'd been too delirious to read.
Only after the ship had sailed, after the dressings had been applied and the pain had dulled to something manageable, had Burgess realized where he was.
Revolutionary Army. The ship belonged to the Revolutionary Army.
He'd hidden. Waited. Watched. And now, weeks later, he'd finally managed to get his hands on a Den Den Mushi. His fingers trembled as he dialed Lafitte's frequency. The snail rang once. Twice.
"Zehahaha... Burgess? That you?"
"CAPTAIN?!" Burgess nearly dropped the receiver. "Why are YOU answering?! This is Lafitte's snail!"
"Lafitte's been unconscious for a month." Blackbeard's voice was rough—weaker than Burgess had ever heard it. "Poison Q's keeping him alive with life-extension treatments, but... zehahaha... that bastard Itachi really did a number on all of us."
"Then the rumors are true? You really were injured at Rilke Callander?"
"INJURED?!" The snail's face contorted. "That DAMN Revolutionary Army! That DAMN Trafalgar Law! And those DAMN Straw Hats! I nearly DIED, Burgess! ME! BLACKBEARD!"
Burgess's mind raced. Revolutionary Army. Rilke Callander. The pieces clicked together. "So the Revolutionaries... they attacked you directly?"
"Without them, we would've taken Rilke Callander! The entire underground trading kingdom would be MINE right now!"
A slow, savage grin spread across Burgess's ruined face.
"Captain. You're not going to believe where I am."
"Where?"
"The Revolutionary Army's main headquarters. I snuck in on one of their supply ships. And I can give you the EXACT coordinates."
Silence. Then—
"...Zehahaha."
The laugh was weak. Wet with blood. But it carried the same bottomless hunger that had made Marshall D. Teach the most dangerous man in the New World.
"Burgess. You keep watching. Keep listening. And when the time comes..."
"Zehahahaha. We'll show those revolutionaries what happens when they meddle in a Yonko's business!"
(End of Chapter)
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