Itachi was quickly tree hopping through the massive forest of Upper Yard. The size of the trees reminded him of the trees near Konoha: Large and sturdy. He was currently tracking Enel, listening to the Voices of the plant life. It was slow going as he would sometimes move in the wrong direction. The Voices of the trees were slow to recognize Enel's presence. It frustrated Itachi, but he could not do anything about it. The Voices moved at their own pace and told him things only what he wanted to. Interpreting from anything else would just take too much time. He wished he could stretch his senses out, but spacing out like that in the middle of a battlefield was a big no-no that every competent ninja knew. Perhaps he could train himself so that he could increase the radius, but that would have to wait until later.
A Shandian warrior jumped at him off of a Milky Trail, but with a quick flip, Itachi kicked him down to the ground. Righting himself, he continued hopping through the branches before bursting out into a clearing of ruins.
His eyes instantly spotted Chopper, who was laying down exhausted by several clouds. He heard another Voice though, besides Chopper's, sinking into the cloud closest to the little reindeer.
Hopping down next to Chopper, he reached into the cloud, grabbing an errant leg, before pulling out a tired-looking man with some rather interesting hair. The second he pulled the man out, Chopper began to panic.
"No, wait! Itachi, that mans a priest! Gedatsu the master of the Ordeal of Swamp! I just defeated him!"
Itachi only smiled at him, "Don't worry Chopper, if you can defeat him, then he will be no problem for me. Him being a priest is perfect for me though, I'm chasing God right now and he can tell me where he might've gone."
Chopper only gasped in shock when Itachi said he was chasing God.
Itachi smacked the man across the face to wake him up. Gedatsu's eyes opened up slowly, but the instant they were fully open, Itachi pumped some chakra into his body, before using his Sharingan to extract information from his head.
Itachi had learned very early on during his time with Whitebeard that the people of this world did not have chakra. It was that fact that cemented that he was more than likely worlds away from the Nations, and it also, of course, deprived him of his strongest ability: his Sharingan's genjutsu. Genjustsu worked by disrupting the chakra in someone's head, altering their perception, but how were you supposed to do that when there was no chakra to begin with? He had eventually worked around it by figuring out that he could inject his own chakra into an individual. It would reside there until he took it back, although, for some reason, Devil Fruit users were somehow able to purge it from their bodies. With the chakra in their bodies, he could cast a genjutsu on them, although generally if he was close enough to touch them, he was close enough to kill them. The general exception to this were people with exceptional Observation Haki or specific Devil Fruit abilities, such as what had happened with Enel. When he had attacked Enel, he had been able to inject a small amount of his chakra into the man, but it wasn't enough to put the man under a strong enough illusion, the one he had initially placed the man under had been broken almost instantly.
He was trying his best to find Enel so that he could get to him before the rest of his chakra left the man's system, but it looked like it wasn't going to happen. He might be able to surprise him with a clone. Enough so that he can inject enough chakra to potentially trap Enel in Tsukuyomi. It was risky and Enel was already incredibly wary of him, having almost died to him.
It was a tough situation, one completely against Itachi. He had a small window of time that he could potentially kill Enel, but once it closed, he had no chance of doing it. Enel was far too fast with his lightning devil fruit and his Haki. Itachi would never be able to get close to him.
He only found two useful pieces of information from Gedatsu's mind and that was Enel's shrine, which was further inland, and Enel's ship, the Maxim.
He dropped the man back onto the ground and imprisoned him with a quick impromptu Earth Release jutsu. He created a crow clone and sent that off to observe the ship. It was the least likely of the two places that Enel would be at, but it didn't hurt to check.
He patted Chopper on the head before taking off, jumping off the ruins and back into the tree branches, trying to listen to Enel's Voice as he sped to the shrine.
Itachi sighed.
The shrine was empty. Enel's Voice had strong remnants here so he had come straight here after his encounter with Itachi, but had left before he had arrived.
Itachi cursed his weak grasp of Armament Haki. He really wished he could talk to Thatch, the man who had taught it to him in the first place.
"Haki is spiritual energy. Your willpower. The stronger your will, the greater you can manifest this energy." Thatch began to lecture.
At the mention of spiritual energy, Itachi instantly thought of chakra. Chakra was a mixture of an individual's physical and spiritual energy. If this "Haki" was just spiritual energy, he should be able to grasp it within a few hours.
"There are three types of Haki. Armament. Observation. Conqueror's. Each one has unique abilities, as well as unique stages that can be achieved. We'll start with Armament..."
The lecture lasted a few hours, with Thatch explaining in-depth the enhancing and destructive uses of Armament Haki, the future-predicting abilities of Observation, and the overwhelming power of Conqueror's. He would follow each one up with a demonstration.
Itachi was quite impressed with Thatch. He might honestly have a stronger grasp of Haki than Whitebeard did. He was even more surprised to hear of the rarity of Conqueror's within the population. Having three people on a ship with it was almost unheard of, especially when two of them, Whitebeard and Thatch, had such masterful control over it.
With the lecture over, Itachi thanked Thatch and ambled over to his favorite spot by the port side rail and began to attempt training his Haki.
"Armament seems like the best one to start with."
Being the genius that he was, Itachi never got it.
It had frustrated him for weeks on end. The problem was that due to his incredible proficiency to mold his physical and spiritual energies into chakra, he had an even more difficult time trying to separate the two. It was something Thatch had pointed out after Itachi had described the properties of chakra to him.
Itachi had been lost. Separating spiritual energy from physical? It was something he had never had to do, seeing as chakra was the basis of life in the Elemental Nations. Itachi had been forced to find a way to teach himself to use just spiritual energy and it had been incredibly slow going.
As of now, he could only muster enough to coat the palm of one hand with Armament: Hardening, or enough to just coat the blade of a kunai.
It frustrated him even more because he knew that his reserve of spiritual energy was immense, seeing as since arriving in this world, his chakra reserves had almost tripled from when he had been at his peak back in the Nations.
If he spent enough time meditating, he could cover his entire body, but that wasn't exactly very useful in a fight now was it? No, he needed to be able to easily separate his spiritual energy from his physical energy at a moment's notice. It had been nearly three years since he had learned it from Thatch, and his progress was incredibly pathetic. He reasoned that 24 years of learning, breathing, and using chakra would be hard to break in just three years, but he still felt pathetic. At least he had Observation Haki even if he didn't use it that often.
He knew he had some skill with the ability, but was able to supplement other aspects of it with his own visual prowess. When Thatch had described intent, presence, and strength sensing, Itachi knew he could already do those. He had been a proficient sensor back in the Nations, and with the large amount of time he spent with Whitebeard and his commanders, he had been able to easily figure out how to sense a person's presence. Strength sensing was one that he didn't even need, his instincts were more than enough to tell him how dangerous a person was, no matter how hard they tried to hide it. Both emotion and intent sensing seemed redundant to Itachi, as his Sharingan was more than enough to help him understand a person's intentions or emotions.
Thatch had even tested it himself, and found that Itachi's proficiency with the Sharingan stumped even his own prowess with Observation Haki. He had literally said, "If someone wanted to beat Itachi, they would either have to look at least a minute into the future or blind him somehow."
He had still learned them either way, as the concept of a "voice" from a person had been interesting to him at the time.
He turned around to look around the shrine, hoping for any other clue that could hint at where Enel was, but he found none. All of a sudden, a huge burst of lightning shot up close to the giant beanstalk. Enel's Voice was the loudest thing he had ever heard.
COME TO ME!
Itachi bolted away from the shrine, speeding to the source of the Voice.
He burst out of the clouds above the city ruins.
The scene before him filled him with absolute fury.
His promise to Merry. He had broken it.
Laying on the ground were the Straw Hats, fried to a crisp and terribly injured. A giant hole in the ground. An unconscious python.
He looked and saw Enel standing over Nami and without a second thought, he threw a flurry of shuriken at the lightning man. The man easily dodged all of them, but it forced him away from Nami, which was all Itachi wanted.
Enel looked annoyed.
"I wondered when you would get here. I heard your voice with my Mantra at my shrine. Who told you about that? Was it Gedatsu? I have somewhere to be with my new subordinate, so leave me be. We both know that'll just drag out to a useless defeat. Unless of course, you would like to join me."
Itachi only stalked towards him, kunai in hand. He wished he could use his sword, but he couldn't use Imbuement along its entire length, so a kunai would have to do for now. If he used any jutsu, they would mostly have to be wind-based.
With a single sign with his left hand, he let fly the first attack, using his kunai to direct its trajectory.
"Wind Release: Beast Tearing Palm!"
A blade of wind sliced through the terrain, Enel jumped over it, but Itachi sent another flying slash. This forced Enel to teleport himself to another location, but Itachi was already there, kunai aimed at his throat.
Enel bent back instantly, kicking his leg up hoping to catch Itachi off guard, but Itachi instantly blocked the kick, before grabbing Enel's ankle with a Haki-coated hand.
This was the opportunity Itachi had been hoping for. He pumped as much chakra as he could into Enel, who was struggling to get away from the iron grip. Realizing that escape was impossible, Enel attempted to strike Itachi with lightning, but before he did, he looked into the entrancing spinning design of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
"Tsukuyomi."
Itachi dropped Enel's unconscious form which had begun to froth at the mouth. He would not be waking up anytime soon, especially with the torture he had but the man through.
He wearily walked over to Nami. He had overpowered the genjutsu as well as pumped an inordinate amount of chakra into Enel's body. He had used a considerable amount of chakra, but it was worth it if he had ended up defeating the man.
"Wait! Itachi, he can revive himself! Don't turn your back on him!"
But it was already too late.
The thing about lightning was that it's electricity. The brain also runs on electricity, and Enel's Devil Fruit allowed him to subconsciously manipulate the electrical impulses throughout his body for its best chance at survival. Due to this, Enel's Rumble-Rumble fruit could essentially cut off the impulses to specific parts of the brain, such as the parietal lobe, which processes pain. Itachi had no way of knowing this, as he hadn't seen the man revive himself after Wyper's brutal attack with the Reject Dial.
Of all the opponents Itachi was to face in this universe, this was the one with a natural way to combat one of Itachi's strongest techniques. By shutting off parts of the brain, Tsukuyomi's perception-altering ability is dulled immensely, and as such, the "spirit" isn't broken nearly as much as it normally would. Itachi had been confident in its ability to render his victims comatose, but it just was not to be with Enel.
Truly, someone out there had a cruel sense of humor.
"200 Million Volt Bari"
Itachi forced as much wind chakra out his back as possible, knowing he wouldn't have time to do anything else.
The chakra was able to mitigate the brunt of the attack, but it sent him flying into the ruins, scorching his back. Nami could only watch in horror as her last hope was also defeated by Enel.
In the span of a few seconds, the predator had become the prey
"Come. I tire of these games. He was able to hurt me more so than any other person, so I will commend him for that. He was a powerful opponent." Enel said, his voice no longer boisterous and arrogant like before. Tsukuyomi had still been somewhat effective, making the man look weary and beaten as well.
Nami could only nod her head and follow him in silence, wheeling her waver along with her.
They would miss Luffy, Aisa, and Pierre finally making their way out of the python's mouth.
"I'VE FINALLY MADE IT OUT!"
Itachi limped back to the plaza.
He couldn't go after Enel anymore.
He cursed himself for his carelessness. He had been arrogant to assume that Tsukuyomi would be enough. It had been back in the Nations, but here, in this world? He needed to be careful. His time with Whitebeard had shown him just how different and chaotic this world was; that not all of his techniques would work as he expected them too. The excitement of finally being able to place Enel under his strongest genjutsu had made him forget to be thorough with his actions.
He should've instantly stabbed the man in the chest when he had the chance. It's like they say, hindsight was twenty-twenty.
He made it back to the plaza.
"More than likely he's going to head back to his ship. My crow clone is still there, so it might be able to do something, although it won't be much. I can't do much about it though. I need to conserve my chakra to heal the others, so I can't send another clone out."
He spotted Robin's sprawled form. He knelt down next to her and tenderly rolled her onto her back. He checked her pulse as well as her breathing. Finding that both were fine with no erratic tempo, he began to focus chakra into his hands, starting the Mystical Palm Technique that medic-nins used. He had seen Senju Tsunade as well as her apprentice Haruno Sakura use it, so he was fairly confident in his ability to use it properly, just not nearly as proficient as them.
After a few minutes, Robin was doing much better waking up just as Itachi lifted his hands.
"Oh my, taking advantage of an unconscious woman are we, Itachi? How beastly of you." Her voice was weak, but it dripped with sarcasm.
He replied in kind, "Oh no, I wouldn't dare lay my hands on an individual such as yourself with intentions like that. A goddess would descend from the heavens to chop them off before they could reach you."
She laughed weakly at the comment, "So I'm worthy of divine intervention? Perhaps you should be worshipping my body?"
Her tone had taken on a rather sultry tone, one that immediately made Itachi feel uncomfortable, his thoughts drifting back to Keoni. Robin noticed the change in his demeanor and quickly changed the subject.
"Come. Let's get the others. I'm sure they would appreciate you healing them as well." She got up. "I'm surprised that you didn't heal Chopper first, he is our doctor you know."
Itachi only rubbed his shoulder sheepishly. "Ah yes, I remember. I was just too tired to try and find him through all this rubble and you were the closest person to me."
She nodded in understanding.
The two of them worked together, grabbing everyone together, laying them next to each other so that Itachi could heal them. He had already finished with Chopper and was working on Zoro when a loud rumbling came from above them.
"That looks like Enel's doing," Robin commented, looking at the massive ship flying in the air.
Itachi nodded, affirming her statement, "That's his Ark, the Maxim. It's powered solely by his Devil Fruit powers."
He picked up Zoro and Sanji, slinging them over his shoulders. "Let's move everyone to somewhere safer, Robin. I've got these two, you deal with Chopper, Gan Fall and the Shandian."
Crossing her arms, a row of arms picked up the two and began to move them in a chain of arms towards the base of the giant beanstalk. Following her lead, Itachi also began to head to the base of the giant stalk, the sky darkening above them.
The crow clone watched from the shadows of the massive Ark. Enel hadn't done anything to attack it yet, so either he didn't care or he couldn't tell the difference between Itachi's Voice and the clone's. The clone didn't care though as it allowed it to watch the events unfolding between Enel and Luffy. Lightning and Rubber. How interesting that Devil Fruit could have their own natural counters somewhere out there in the world. It was truly a vast and chaotic world that he had come into. Enel had told how he was going to destroy the island of Skypiea to Luffy and Nami, describing how the black clouds his Ark generated would conduct his lighting, allowing him to rain Heaven's Judgment on the island below. Luffy had declared that he wouldn't let Enel do that and they had begun to fight, leading them to the situation he saw before him.
"Despite your weird resistance to my lightning, this ends here. Goodbye Monkey D. Luffy."
Enel shattered the wooden ship wall that Luffy was holding onto, sending him plummeting to the ground below. The little girl and Pierre cried in terror before diving after him.
"Oh? So they were two voices that I was hearing. How droll." Enel sent a massive bolt of lightning at all three, causing Nami to scream.
Tears dripped down her face.
"See how weak you all are before the might of God? Nothing is beneath me for I am almighty. I will destroy Skypiea and then I will fly off to claim what is rightfully mine: Fairy Vearth. What will you do now little girl? What do you desire? You've survived this long, so I, as God, will grant you any desire."
Nami mumbled something.
"Oh? No desire? Why is that?"
She said louder than before, "Without my friends, I will be alone. If I'm all alone, then I have no desires. There will be nothing that I want."
"So then you if you want nothing and desire nothing, that means you do not desire to keep your life."
Ah, this seems like the right time for him to step in. The clone had noticed Nami wheeling a Waver when she had gotten on board. It could distract Enel enough for her to get off before he activated all of the paper bombs that it had placed in the engine room.
"I don't think that I can let you do that." The clone said as he stepped out from the shadows.
"Itachi?!" Nami gasped.
"What are you doing here? I thought I blasted you with my strongest attack back at the ruins!" Enel yelled, anger and fear in his eyes.
"Nami, get off this ship. I will deal with him for as long as I can." clone Itachi said, not taking its eyes off of Enel. He could take some hits before it would be forced to disperse. It would be able to buy enough time for her to get off safely.
Enel still had some chakra in his body, although it was being purged quite rapidly. It could probably trap the man in a low-level genjutsu. It would be broken in an instant, but the clone just needed to get close. The man was already incredibly wary of Itachi, so he would do his best to distance himself from the clone before trying to attack. Clone Itachi planned to not give him any room to do that, keeping him on the defensive would give Nami the best chance to escape.
The clone's Sharingan swirled.
"Go."
Enel was caught. The clone lunged at the man, kunai in hand.
Nami bolted to where she had parked the Waver.
The genjutsu broke as the clone began to stab at Enel's neck. He instantly leaned back, fear in his eyes, before teleporting away. He didn't even attempt a counterattack, fearing that what happened last time would happen again. The clone was instantly on him though. Through the use of his Sharingan and the Voice of All Things, Itachi was able to reliably track Enel's location. Enel teleported again, placing himself on top of his Ark. The clone was there too, kunai once again reaching for his throat. Enel began to panic.
He teleported away. The clone was there. He teleported again. And again. And again. Each time, the clone was there, the prospect of death so close with that stupid knife.
He had completely forgotten about Nami, his safety from this… this monster, far more important than some little girl who couldn't really do anything.
He teleported once more before screaming, "ENOUGH!"
He sent lighting in literally every direction around him, using every inch of his body to fire off the bolts of electricity, turning his body into pure lightning.
"MAX 200 MILLION VOLT AMARU!"
The clone realized that it would not survive this onslaught and instantly activated all of the seals it had placed earlier. It then disappeared with a puff of smoke and a flock of crows, all the memories of the clone instantly being transferred back to Itachi.
The engine room exploded.
The rush of memories in Itachi's head told him that his clone had been dispelled. The man's plans to destroy Skypiea angered him greatly, but he took solace in the fact that the man was in complete and utter fear of Itachi.
KABOOM
Overhead, the giant Ark was rocked with a gigantic explosion, smoke and flames replacing the black thunderclouds it had been producing. Itachi smiled knowing that the ship wouldn't be able to fly for very long.
He continued to watch it, expecting it to go down soon, but after a few minutes, it was still rising. Itachi cursed. Enel was a more thorough man than he had thought. It looked like that in the event of the main propulsion system being unusable, the ship would switch to a back-up system. At least the black thunder clouds couldn't be produced anymore, which would help prevent more damage from befalling the island.
He and Robin had arrived at the base of the giant stalk, laying everyone down on the soft cloud that surrounded it. He was currently working on healing Zoro, finishing what he hadn't been able to complete.
"OOOOIIII! ROOOOOOOBIN! ITAAAAAACHI!"
They both looked up at the sound of the familiar voice and sure enough, there was Luffy with the same little girl and Pierre on his back, the giant ball of gold still encasing his right arm.
"CATCH!" He yelled before throwing the little girl and Pierre at them.
Robin instantly made a net out of her arms, easily catching the girl, while Itachi caught Pierre.
"Robin, the golden bell is at the top of the beanstalk, right?"
She nodded, "If it were to exist, the Belfry that Enel seeks can only be there. Ah, Luffy, about the gol-"
She stopped when he didn't listen to her and instead took off, climbing up the beanstalk.
"The gold ball was from Enel. He used his lightning to heat the gold on his ship into a ball-shape around Luffy's arm."
She turned back to Itachi with a warm smile, "Thank you."
They then both turned to the sound of a motor out of sight close by the beanstalk. Nami rounded the corner on her Waver, crying out in joy at seeing them.
"Robin! Itachi! Aisa!"
"NAMI!" The newly identified Aisa cried back, running to meet her.
Stopping her Waver, she jumped out and pulled Aisa into a big hug.
Where's Luffy?" She asked Aisa. "Wasn't he with you?"
"He's climbing up the beanstalk right now, rather intent on reaching Enel before he reaches the Belfry," Robin replied.
Lightning began to rain down onto them, the dark clouds produced from Enel's Ark enough to cover a significant portion of the sky above them.
"I'll follow Luffy on the Waver, the rest of you head to the meeting spot. Usopp and Conis should be there with the Going Merry." Nami said looking up at the giant stalk, straining to see if she could spot Luffy.
She revved the engine, "Hurry! I'm going to grab Luffy and then I'll be right behind you!"
She turned and began to head straight up the beanstalk. The lightning began to strike the island even harder and faster now. Itachi could hear Enel's Voice within some of them. What a heartless and delusional man.
Zoro woke up beneath him, as did the Shandian further down. He immediately ended the healing jutsu, letting Zoro sit up on his own. Gan Fall woke up as well, instantly sitting up, groaning. Sanji and Chopper were the only ones still unconscious.
"Come," Itachi said, "We need to get out of this lightning storm and back to your ship."
"No." The Shandian said. "I will not leave. You, woman. I heard you say that the Golden Bell is at the top of the Giant Jack. Is this true?"
The question was directed at Robin, who only nodded her head.
"Wyper,-" Aisa started, but he cut her off.
"NO! I have to ring that bell. The Fire of Shandora. It is my duty, to carry out the will of the Great Warrior Kalgara!" He attempted to stand but keeled over coughing up blood.
"Your body is in no condition to climb that stalk," Itachi said. "You will just have to trust in Luffy to ring it for you."
"He's doing it for the ancestor of Mont Blanc Noland, Mont Blanc Cricket," Robin added.
Wyper lifted his head at the mention of the name Mont Blanc. "Seriously? There still lives an ancestor of Mont Blanc Noland? Also waiting for the sound of the Golden Bell?
She nodded her head. "He dives every day in the Blue Sea, risking illness to search for the Bell much like you, who have battled long and hard to also find the Bell. You both search and fight, to honor the memory of your ancestors. Quite romantic isn't it?"
Wyper sat back down, contemplating, his will to fight extinguished.
"What is that?!" Gan Fall pointed to a giant mass of dark thunderclouds in the form of a ball that was lowering right above Angel Island. Itachi could hear Enel's Voice through the entirety of the sphere. It didn't sound good.
"He's going to destroy the island with that. Completely obliterate it. He's doing it as a show of power. To show the inevitability of it all. That he is God and that he can't be challenged." Itachi said simply.
Enel's intentions were loud and clear in his Voice, but even then, Itachi didn't need to listen to that to understand what he was doing. He had spent more than enough time with "all-powerful" beings to know what they were like.
Gan Fall fell to his knees, his face white and taunt, rage and fear in his eyes. "Curse you, ENEL!"
He pounded the ground beneath them.
Zoro and Wyper both gazed at the ball, an unreadable expression upon their face.
The ball lit up, a blinding flash of lightning filling their vision, followed by a massive explosion.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
When the light cleared, Angel Island was no more, reduced to nothing. Not even dust was left behind.
Gan Fall looked at the destroyed area with horror. He began to cry.
Itachi closed his eyes. The senseless destruction and death of Skypiea filled him with rage, but he had already attempted to kill Enel. His arrogance and negligence had cost the Skypieans and the Shandia their home.
He hated himself. This was his fault, but it made him hate Enel even more. Luffy was everyone's last hope.
"Please Luffy. Stop him and seize this mindless destruction Stop that mad man and his grand delusions!"
He could only hope and pray.
A giant leaf fell down towards him.
He snatched it out of the air. There was a note written on it.
Cut the beanstalk from the west!
"Oi, did that say something?" Zoro asked.
Itachi passed him the note, before heading to the west side of the stalk. Lightning began to rain down heavily close to him, but he paid it no heed. He unsealed the greatsword Fuyukokyu from his scroll. A sword that he had made and named himself. He took a stance at the base of the stalk, channeling wind chakra through the blade. The lightning strikes intensified, forcing everyone else back. Zoro had tried to run back to help cut the beanstalk but had instantly been struck by a stray bolt, sending him flying back to the others.
"Two clean cuts. Cut two of the three vines with a large notch in the third that will cause it to tip west."
Itachi readied his sword.
One particularly large bolt of lightning landed close to him. Looks like Enel was actively trying to hit him.
He leaped forward, swinging Fuyukokyu with graceful ferocity and in an instant, struck the giant beanstalk twice. He landed back on the ground, instantly jumping back to avoid the flurry of lightning bolts that converged on that spot. He continued to hop back as more and more bolts tried to hit him.
An especially large one came down on him, one he couldn't dodge, so he stood there and slashed at it with unrelenting fury, completely dispelling the strike.
No more came down after that.
He walked back to where the others were, shock on their faces from the display of strength and swordsmanship he had just shown.
Zoro was eyeing the greatsword in his hand, while Robin only smiled at him.
The three Skypieans' jaws were dropped. Enel's power had been all-powerful to them, and to see someone completely take it head-on and come out unscathed was mind-boggling to them.
The giant stalk began to tip west. Itachi turned to watch his work. His eyes instantly landed on the tiny forms of Luffy and Nami, speeding up the length of the beanstalk
Another giant ball descended from above, this one was even larger than the one that had destroyed Angel Island and right over Upper Yard.
Itachi looked up at it in concern, everyone looking up at the thunderball in absolute horror.
"Seems like we'll die here if he unleashes that on us," Robin commented lightly. "I wonder if it'll be a painful or instantaneous death?"
Aisa screamed in terror, while Gan Fall, Wyper, and Zoro yelled at her, "You're not helping!"
It was a morbid thought, but a valid one in Itachi's opinion. He had done his bit, it was all up to Luffy and Nami to finish it.
The sound of thunder and lightning increased tenfold. He couldn't see Nami or Luffy anymore.
The ball was dropping.
"Everyone, stand by me. I believe I might be able to protect us if that thing explodes," Itachi called.
They all stepped close to him just as a voice called out from the distance, "OOOOOIIIIII, WHY AREN'T YOU GUYS AT THE BOAT!"
It was Usopp.
Running towards them, tears streaming down his face in fear.
Itachi quickly Body Flickered towards the boy, grabbed him and Body Flickered back to the others.
His Mangekyo spun inside his eye, and a Full-Armored Susanoo sprouted around him and all the others around him, holding an enlarged Yata Mirror. Everyone cried out in shock when the giant red construct surrounded them.
"Wha-Wha-What is this Itachi?" Usopp stuttered out. Gan Fall, Wyper, and Zoro asked a similar question.
He only shushed them.
He watched the thunder cloud intently before Luffy's yell broke through the raging thunder.
"CLEAR THE SKY!"
It cracked, and in a small explosion, the thundercloud dissipated wiping out all the thunderclouds, letting in the sunlight.
It was beautiful.
And in that beautiful light, Itachi saw the giant gold ball of Luffy's first slam into Enel's giant form.
And at that moment, in that beautiful light, shining down upon them after the darkness and terror.
A single rich note of the Great Golden Belfry rang through the sky.
And it rang and rang and rang.
"It's beautiful, is it not Itachi? Be sure to remember this. Immortalize this moment."