Chapter 15: Fish-Man Island — Blackbeard!
Crazy Diamond:
"Okay, I read the whole announcement… so the Dimensional Chat Group connects different worlds? That sounds like something only a god could create."
Having finally read the group announcement — and confirmed he wasn't dreaming, nor under attack by an enemy Stand — Josuke Higashikata had no choice but to accept the Dimensional Chat Group's existence.
The impact on his worldview was, to put it mildly, massive.
This was 1999. Computers were still bulky CRT desktops. Cell phones couldn't browse the internet. A cross-dimensional telepathic chat network was a few orders of magnitude beyond anything his reality could offer.
Luckily, Josuke was the type of person who adapted to new things quickly. He wasn't the kind to reject something just because it defied everything he knew.
So he rolled with it.
Crazy Diamond:
"So you're all from different worlds, then!"
Crazy Diamond:
"I need a minute to process this. Feeling a bit overwhelmed."
Kaguya-sama:
"Totally normal reaction. It took me a good fifteen minutes to accept it when I first joined."
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden:
"The Dimensional Chat Group does sound rather unbelievable, after all~"
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden:
"Oh my~ we've finally arrived at Fish-Man Island! So many fish-men! And mermaids! Wow, is that a Sea King? It's enormous! @Kaguya-sama, hold on, little Kaguya-chan, let me turn on the camera~"
Yukari activated the camera-share feature again. A notification popped up in the group chat.
[Member "The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden" has shared their camera feed. Would you like to watch? YES / NO]
Within seconds of the feed going live, two people had already clicked in. No prizes for guessing who — Kaguya and the Little Wandering Planet, the only members (besides the newcomer Josuke) who hadn't transferred to the One Piece world.
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden:
"Camera's on! @Crazy Diamond — if you're still not convinced the Dimensional Chat Group is real, feel free to tune in and see for yourself."
Crazy Diamond:
"Tune in? You mean… tap on the 'YES' button?"
Crazy Diamond:
"Wait — WHY can I read Chinese? These boxy characters are Chinese, right?! I'm pretty sure I never studied Chinese!!"
Kaguya-sama:
"That's just how the chat group works. I don't know the exact mechanism, but any text that appears in the group is automatically understood by all members — no translation needed."
Edward Newgate:
"Indeed. I once posted a portion of the Poneglyphs into the group, and I could instantly read what they said."
Edward Newgate:
"Of course, you all probably don't know what Poneglyphs are. Hmm… except the Admin, that is."
Josuke tentatively tapped "YES."
The chat interface shifted — or rather, a video window appeared alongside it, displaying footage that was clearer than any movie he'd ever seen.
The first thing Josuke noticed were three figures. One of them — impossibly, absurdly tall — stopped his brain dead in its tracks.
Crazy Diamond:
"That guy is… HUGE! He's got to be at least 6 or 7 meters tall!!"
The towering figure was, of course, Edward Newgate — Whitebeard. At 6.66 meters tall (just shy of 22 feet), he was nearly as tall as a two-story building.
Josuke's shock was understandable. His world had Hamon, Stand users, and ghosts — but he'd never once seen a human being that enormous. Not even on the news.
Crazy Diamond:
"That incredibly tall guy — is he a group member too?!"
Edward Newgate:
"The tall one? That would be me! Gurararara! I suppose I am a bit on the tall side — over six meters, after all!"
Crazy Diamond:
"Over SIX METERS?!! That's insane!!"
RawrSoFierce:
"That's nothing special. @The Little Wandering Planet — this one's a big ball, but its height is approximately 12,742 kilometers."
Crazy Diamond:
"Twelve… twelve THOUSAND kilometers?! How tall is that supposed to be?!"
RawrSoFierce:
"Roughly the diameter of the planet you're standing on."
Crazy Diamond:
"…"
After seeing the golden "Admin" tag next to the username that had just casually dropped that mind-breaking number, Josuke gulped.
He was beginning to realize that his Stand ability might not mean much in this particular company.
No matter how powerful Crazy Diamond was, it couldn't exactly punch something 12,742 kilometers tall. If that thing so much as sneezed, Josuke would be obliterated.
Josuke — brand-new to the Dimensional Chat Group — didn't yet realize that the Little Wandering Planet was, in fact, literally a planet.
He turned his attention to the livestream window, and his jaw dropped further. "So this is another world? It looks like we're… underwater? Incredible!"
"What's that over there? Is that— chotto matte! Is that a MERMAID?! That's definitely a mermaid!! But what are those ugly-looking ones living alongside them? They look like a cross between a fish and a human…"
He'd been in the Dimensional Chat Group for less than twenty minutes, and his capacity for shock was already completely fried.
He felt like he'd experienced more in this single day than in all his previous years combined.
Meanwhile, in the One Piece world, Fish-Man Island served as the critical junction between the New World and Paradise — the first half of the Grand Line. Powerful pirates passed through regularly.
But Fish-Man Island was under the Whitebeard Pirates' protection. Even the most brazen pirates didn't dare cause trouble here.
Which meant that Whitebeard's arrival was met not with hostility, but with the deference owed to a guardian returning to his own territory.
Marco stared at Fish-Man Island through the coated ship's bubble, murmuring half to himself. "The old man trusts that young guy — the one he calls 'Admin-dono' — completely. Or maybe the guy isn't actually young at all. Could be the same age as the old man, just young-looking."
Beside him, Ace frowned with worry. "Marco… do you really think Teach will come through here?"
Marco shook his head with a small smile. "No idea. But if the old man trusts that person, then we trust the old man. His judgment's never been wrong."
What no one on Fish-Man Island knew was that at this very moment, a crude, poorly-coated wooden vessel was descending toward the island from above.
On its deck sat a heavyset man, legs crossed, grinning to reveal a mouthful of broken, missing teeth.
Excitement blazed across his face.
"Zehahahahaha! Never thought I'd get a second shot at life! Last time, I died at that man's hands. This time… I'm going to crush every threat before it even has a chance to sprout!"
"But first things first — I need to collect the Devil Fruits I need. Especially the one in Paradise: the Paramecia-type Munch-Munch Fruit. I let it slip through my fingers last time. Not this time."
"That fruit's potential is right up there with the Tremor-Tremor Fruit. And it will be mine."