Chapter 32: The Chase Through the Tempest
The escape from Whole Cake Island was a symphony of chaos conducted by a mad emperor and countered by a furious god. The Thousand Sunny, with the Vinsmoke family in tow, shot out into the chaotic seas of Totto Land, pursued by the entire, enraged Big Mom Pirate armada. Giant Homies, warships, and enraged children—the sea was a solid wall of malice chasing them.
Arata stood on the deck of the Raiju, which now flew low over the water, a spectral escort to the Sunny. His face was a mask of concentration. He was no longer just a fighter; he was the crew's personal weather system and naval artillery.
"Jinbe! Hard to starboard! A tidal wave from the left, homie-infused!" Arata's voice, clear and calm, echoed directly onto the Sunny's deck.
Jinbe, trusting implicitly, wrenched the wheel. The Sunny veered as a massive wave, with the face of a angry storm cloud, crashed harmlessly where they had just been.
"Franky! Coup de Burst, now! You have a three-second window before their sniper's volley!"
"SUPER! COUP DE BURST!" The Sunny launched into the air, a spread of seastone-tipped cannonballs whistling through the space it had just occupied.
Arata was playing a grand, deadly game of chess on a watery board, using his future sight and omnipresent awareness to predict and counter every move the pursuing fleet made. He was their living, breathing, clairvoyant navigational computer.
But Big Mom was not to be outdone. Her rage gave her a terrible, unpredictable power. She summoned a storm of her own, a tempest of screaming homie-clouds and torrential rain that sought to swallow the Sunny whole.
The two weather systems collided. The sky became a battleground. Big Mom's chaotic, soul-fueled squalls met Arata's controlled, divine storm. Lightning of pink and black clashed with bolts of gold and purple. The sound was a continuous, world-ending roar.
Arata stood firm, his hands raised, his will a bastion against the Emperor's fury. He wasn't just defending; he was actively reshaping the environment to aid their escape. He solidified the water behind them into a massive, temporary wall of ice using rapid super-cooling. He redirected the enemy's own cannon fire back at their ships with precise electromagnetic nudges.
He was a one-man fleet, a one-man navy, a one-man force of nature.
Below, on the Sunny, the crew watched in a mixture of terror and awe. They were spectators to a duel of gods.
"He's... he's fighting Big Mom's weather," Nami whispered, her knuckles white on her Clima-Tact. Her own newfound power felt like a child's toy in comparison.
"Faster, Jinbe!" Luffy yelled, his eyes glued to the Raiju. "We can't let him fight alone!"
But they were not alone. As the pursuit reached its peak, the Sanji Retrieval Team became the Sanji Reinforcement Team. Sanji, using his newfound Divine Heat, became a blue-white comet, flashing from the Sunny's deck to the masts of the lead pursuing ships, delivering plasma-hot kicks that disabled their rigging. Brook, infused with the Soul of the Storm, played a concussive riff that shattered the hull of a smaller warship. Chopper, in his Storm's Vitality Monster Point, stood as a massive, electrically-wreathed guardian at the Sunny's stern, swatting away incoming cannonballs.
Arata's power bestowal was paying dividends. They were no longer just fleeing; they were a coordinated, devastatingly powerful unit, their enhanced abilities perfectly synchronized with their guardian's overarching strategy.
The climax came when Big Mom, in a final, desperate act, summoned a colossal wave, a fusion of sea and homie spirit, intending to crush the Sunny utterly.
Arata saw it coming. He took a deep breath, drawing upon the full might of his Awakening. The Raiju glowed brighter than the sun.
"Ocean's Quell," he commanded.
The energy from his ship didn't strike the wave. It enveloped it. The massive, roaring wall of water simply... calmed. The homie spirit within it was purified, the chaotic energy stilled. The wave settled back into the sea as gently as a sleeping child.
The display of absolute control sapped the fight from many of the pursuers. They were not chasing pirates; they were chasing a fundamental law of the world that had decided to protect them.
Ahead, the boundary of Totto Land's territory grew near. The chaotic, candy-colored seas gave way to the open, deep blue of the New World.
With one final, coordinated Coup de Burst from the Sunny and a massive, concussive thunderclap from Arata that shattered the remaining pursuers' formation, they broke through.
Silence. The sudden absence of cannon fire and screaming homies was deafening. They had escaped.
The Raiju descended, gliding alongside the battered but victorious Thousand Sunny. Arata stood at the rail, his body trembling with exhaustion, but his eyes were clear. He looked across at his friends, at Luffy's triumphant grin, at Sanji's grateful nod, and finally, at Robin's proud, relieved smile.
They had invaded a Yonko's territory, shattered her wedding, and escaped her entire fleet. They had done the impossible. And they had done it together. The Stormbringer had proven that his shelter could extend even to the very heart of an Emperor's domain. The journey to Wano, to face Kaido, now lay before them, but they faced it not as underdogs, but as a crew that had stared into the abyss of a Yonko's rage and had a god on their side.