The Thousand Sunny hovered on the precipice of the Downward Plume, the colossal underwater waterfall roaring silently in the abyss. Inside the safety of the Yar Yarman coating, the Straw Hat crew stared down into the swirling, bottomless vortex.
Luffy, pressing his face against the resin bubble at the bow, squinted his eyes into the darkness.
"Hey, guys," Luffy said, his voice unusually focused. "There's a monster down there."
Franky walked up beside the captain, adjusting his sunglasses as his cybernetic eyes zoomed and enhanced the image. Deep within the churning water, massive, undulating shadows moved with terrifying grace.
"That's a Kraken," Franky noted, his metallic jaw clicking. "A giant, mythological octopus. The legends say it can crush multiple galleons in a single blow. It must have made a nest at the bottom of the Plume, feeding on all the pirate ships that have traveled down here over the years."
Usopp's knees immediately gave out. He collapsed onto the grassy deck, clutching his head. "A Kraken?! We can't fight a Kraken underwater! It's suicide! Sunny, put it in reverse!"
"No way!" Luffy grinned, cracking his knuckles. He wasn't intimidated in the slightest by the sheer scale of the leviathan. "If it's that big, it must be super strong! I've decided! I'm gonna tame it and make it our pet!"
"You want to tame a mythological sea monster?!" Nami shrieked, her teeth turning into sharp points. "Are you insane?!"
Before the argument could escalate, a massive shadow suddenly eclipsed the Sunny's rear floodlights.
Down in the ship's reinforced research lab, Ben was standing over an examination table. Wet-Haired Caribou was securely strapped to a heavy steel chair, currently awake and glaring at the Magician. Ben had woken him up to begin questioning him about his Logia fruit's spatial dimensions.
"You'll pay for this, you Blue Sea trash!" Caribou spat, struggling against the seastone - Vibranium cuffs. "My brother Coribou is out there! He'll come for me, and he'll slaughter every last—"
Caribou stopped mid-threat, his eyes locking onto the external surveillance monitor mounted on the lab wall.
On the screen, a familiar, jagged pirate ship was rapidly approaching the Sunny. It was the Caribou Pirates' vessel, towed by the terrified Sea Cow, Momoo. Standing at the bow was Coribou, wielding a massive shovel and yelling battle cries. They had returned to save their captain.
"Coribou!" Caribou cheered, tears of joy welling in his eyes. "I told you! My loyal brother is here! You're all dead!"
On the monitor, Coribou raised his shovel, ordering his crew to fire on the Straw Hats. But before they could even get within cannon range, a colossal, reddish-purple tentacle the size of a skyscraper whipped out of the darkness from below.
The Kraken struck the approaching pirate ship.
The massive tentacle wrapped around Coribou's vessel. With a sickening, silent crunch, the Kraken effortlessly squeezed. The coating bubble popped instantly. The jagged ship was crushed into splinters like a fragile toy.
On the monitor, Caribou watched in jaw-dropping horror as his brother and his entire crew were swallowed by the crushing pressure of the deep sea, their bodies vanishing into the dark, churning water.
Caribou's face went pale. His tongue lolled out of his mouth uselessly.
"Well," Ben murmured, writing a note on his clipboard. "It seems your rescue party has been canceled. Shall we continue the examination?"
Caribou began to weep uncontrollably, much to his own chagrin, realizing he was now entirely alone on a ship of monsters.
Up on the main deck, the crew had also witnessed the swift, brutal destruction of the rookie pirates.
"They're gone," Robin observed mildly, placing a hand on her cheek. "I suppose the pressure crushed their bones into dust before they could even drown. What a tragical way to die. Perhaps the ocean will claim us next in a similarly grotesque fashion."
"ROBIN! DON'T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT!" Usopp sobbed, clinging to Chopper, who was also crying.
"It's looking at us!" Vivi warned.
From the depths, the Kraken turned its massive, glowing yellow eyes toward the Thousand Sunny. Having finished its appetizer, it was ready for the main course.
Luffy rolled his shoulders. Zoro drew Sandai Kitetsu and Shusui.
"Let's go," Zoro grunted, stepping toward the edge of the bubble.
"STOP!" Usopp screamed, diving forward to tackle both the captain and the swordsman by the ankles. "Are you idiots trying to kill us?! If you launch massive attacks from inside the bubble, or if you slash through it with too much force, you'll rip the resin wide open! We'll pop!"
"Usopp is right," Sanji agreed, gritting his teeth. "We can't afford a hull breach at this depth. We're sitting ducks."
A massive tentacle whipped through the water, aimed directly at the Sunny's broadside.
"Evasive maneuvers!" Sunny yelled from the helm. The android boy spun the steering wheel with lightning speed. The Thousand Sunny's paddle wheels engaged in reverse, shifting the massive ship just in time to avoid the crushing blow. The tentacle swept past them, the water pressure alone rocking the deck violently.
"I'm still gonna punch it!" Luffy insisted, crossing his arms stubbornly. "I said I'm gonna tame it, and I'm gonna!"
Merry sighed, stepping out onto the grassy deck. She pulled three sleek, silver briefcases from her spatial storage inventory.
"Papa anticipated you'd do something stupid where you shouldn't," Merry said flatly. She tossed the briefcases onto the deck. "Vibranium nanotech armor. Highly pressurized, deep-sea capable, with built-in oxygen scrubbers and thrusters. It will protect you from the water pressure and let you fight outside the bubble."
Luffy's eyes turned into giant stars.
"I'll take one," Bonney smirked, stepping forward. "I haven't punched a sea monster in a while."
"I shall assist the Captain!" Oimo, currently in his human-sized form, grabbed the third briefcase.
They tapped the briefcases. Instantly, sleek, form-fitting nanotech armor crawled up their bodies, locking into place with metallic clicks. Luffy's armor was tinted red, Bonney's was pink, and Oimo's was a dark, earthy green. Their faces were protected by clear, pressurized visors.
"So cool!" Luffy cheered, his voice transmitting through the ship's comms.
Before they could jump out, the Kraken attacked again. This time, two tentacles whipped toward the ship from opposite sides in a pincer maneuver.
"I've got the left!" Franky roared. He thrust his massive cybernetic arms outside the permeable resin bubble. "Franky Rocket!"
Two high-explosive missiles shot from his shoulders, passing cleanly through the bubble and detonating directly against the Kraken's left tentacle. The underwater explosion forced the beast to recoil.
"I'll protect the right!" Chopper yelled, popping a Rumble Ball into his mouth. "Guard Point!"
Chopper expanded into a massive, incredibly dense ball of fur, absorbing the impact of the right tentacle. The force of the blow didn't pop the bubble, but it transferred the momentum to the entire ship.
The Thousand Sunny was launched backward through the water, hurtling directly toward a jagged underwater mountain.
"We're gonna crash!" Brook yelled, his skull rattling.
Robin crossed her arms, her blue eyes narrowing. "Mil Fleur: Gigantesco Mano!"
Thousands of hands sprouted from the rear of the Thousand Sunny, weaving together instantly to form two colossal, beautifully crafted arms. The giant hands reached out, pressing firmly against the underwater mountain and acting as massive shock absorbers. The ship bounced gently against Robin's construct, halting their momentum perfectly.
"Nice save, Robin!" Nami yelled. "Luffy, now!"
"Let's go!"
Luffy, Bonney, and Oimo stepped through the resin bubble. The moment they entered the open ocean, the thrusters on their Vibranium suits engaged, propelling them through the water with incredible speed.
The Kraken roared—a silent, vibrating burst of water pressure—and lashed out at the three tiny armored figures.
"Age-Age: Temporal Decay!"
Bonney didn't dodge. She flew directly toward an incoming tentacle, placing both armored hands against its suction cups. A pulse of pink energy washed over the limb. Instantly, that specific tentacle withered, its muscle mass decaying into the frail, weak appendage of a dying creature. The tentacle dropped uselessly.
"My turn!" Oimo roared. He swung his massive, spiked mace through the water, the nanotech suit augmenting his giant's strength. He slammed the mace directly between the Kraken's eyes, disorienting the massive beast.
Luffy jetted upward, hovering right above the Kraken's head. He bit into his armored thumb—the nanotech shifting seamlessly to allow the action—and blew air into his bones.
"Gear Third!"
His armored arm expanded to the size of a battleship. He coated the massive limb in pitch-black Armament Haki.
"Gomu Gomu no... Elephant Gun!"
Luffy brought the colossal, Haki-infused fist down squarely on the top of the Kraken's head. The impact created a massive underwater shockwave.
The Kraken's eyes rolled into the back of its head. The legendary beast, capable of crushing fleets, went entirely limp, utterly defeated by the trio.
"Shishishi! Good boy!" Luffy laughed through the comms, patting the unconscious monster's head. "Now you're my pet! I'm gonna call you Surume!"
"Excellent work, you three," Ben's voice came through the earpieces. He had returned to the deck, leaving Caribou secured in the lab. "Now get back to the ship."
As the three armored pirates began to swim back, Bonney paused. "Hey... what is that?"
Swimming casually around the unconscious Kraken was a massive, incredibly large Great White Shark. It wasn't aggressive, but what caught Bonney's attention was that the shark was explicitly wearing a red and white striped t-shirt.
"A shark in a shirt?" Oimo blinked.
Before they could investigate the strange fashion choices of local wildlife, the ocean suddenly shifted.
The Downward Plume, the colossal underwater waterfall they had been hovering near, surged. The violent, churning current grabbed the Thousand Sunny and the three armored pirates, sweeping them all up in its unstoppable downward flow.
"Current caught us!" Nami yelled, gripping the railing. "Sunny, angle the rudders! Ride the draft! If we fight it, we'll spin out!"
"Rudders angled!" Sunny shouted, wrestling with the ship's wheel.
The Thousand Sunny plummeted into the dark abyss, riding the massive aquatic slide. But the chaotic, churning waters separated Luffy, Bonney, and Oimo from the ship, sweeping them away in the darkness.
"Luffy!" Zoro shouted, peering into the gloom.
"Their suits have tracking beacons and automatic propulsion!" Merry assured the crew quickly. "They won't sink!"
The plunge felt like it lasted for hours, though it was only minutes. The violent churning slowly faded, replaced by a deadly, freezing calm.
The Thousand Sunny leveled out.
The crew looked around. The water outside the bubble was no longer the deep navy of the Disphotic Zone. It was pitch black. An absolute, oppressive darkness that seemed to swallow all light.
"Sunny," Ben ordered softly. "Maximum floodlights."
The ship's exterior lights flared to maximum output.
The crew gasped.
They weren't alone. Drifting slowly, silently around the Thousand Sunny were horrors straight out of a nightmare. Massive, bioluminescent anglerfish with jagged teeth. Serpentine eels the size of skyscrapers. Gelatinous, transparent blobs with pulsing red veins.
The Deep Sea. Depth: 7,000 Meters.
A realm where sunlight has never reached. The Underworld of the Sea.
"This... this is terrifying," Usopp whispered, hiding entirely behind Brogy's massive leg. "They're everywhere."
"Fascinating," Robin smiled, admiring a massive, glowing jellyfish that drifted past the hull. "So many beautiful, undiscovered ways to perish."
"Where is the Captain?" Dory asked, gripping his shield and scanning the darkness. "And our brother Oimo?"
Vivi turned to the android girl. "Merry, can you locate them? Are their suits holding up to this pressure?"
Merry nodded, her eyes glowing slightly as she processed the data. "Suit integrity is at 100%. The Vibranium is easily withstanding the external pressure. I have their coordinates. They are approximately half a mile behind us, and they are already using their thrusters to head toward the ship's beacon."
"Good," Zoro relaxed slightly. "Let the idiot swim for a bit. Serves him right for jumping out."
As they waited in the chilling darkness of the Deep Sea, Franky adjusted his sunglasses and looked over at the ship's doctor.
Chopper was panting, his tongue hanging out. He had shifted out of his Heavy Point and was currently trying to fan himself with his hooves.
"Hey, Doctor," Franky asked. "Is something bothering you? You look SUPER overheated."
"It's... it's really hot," Chopper wheezed, wiping sweat from his furry forehead.
"He's right," Usopp agreed, tugging at the collar of his vest. "I'm sweating. But we're at the bottom of the ocean. It should be freezing down here."
Nami walked to the edge of the deck, looking out into the water. She noticed the water outside the bubble was no longer crystal clear. It was murky, filled with dark, swirling clouds of what looked like underwater dust.
"Smoke?" Nami frowned. Her eyes widened. "That's not just smoke. Those are hydrothermal mineral deposits! Water this deep, filled with heat and smoke, can only mean one thing."
Nami turned around, her face pale. "We are in a deep-sea volcanic region! We are sitting directly above an active fault line!"
Right on cue, the ocean floor beneath them began to glow with an ominous, angry red light. The water temperature spiked violently.
"Sunny!" Nami shrieked. "Move the ship! Get us away from the volcanoes before they erupt!"
"Hard to starboard!" Sunny yelled, spinning the wheel frantically to navigate the Sunny away from the glowing red fissures opening up on the sea floor beneath them.
As they fled the volcanic zone, Brogy stepped up to the bow, pointing his massive axe into the distance.
"Look there, friends!" Brogy rumbled. "A light in the darkness! Have we reached Fishman Island already?"
The crew rushed to the front. In the pitch-black distance, a large, warm, inviting sphere of light was bobbing gently in the water.
"It looks so peaceful," Sanji noted. "Like a streetlamp guiding us home."
Sunny adjusted the ship's floodlights, aiming the high-powered beams directly at the peaceful sphere of light to get a better look.
The lights cut through the darkness.
The warm, inviting sphere of light wasn't a streetlamp. It was the glowing lure attached to the head of a gargantuan, monstrously ugly Anglerfish. The fish was larger than the Thousand Sunny, possessing a mouth filled with rows of jagged, yellow teeth the size of houses.
"IT'S A TRAP!" Usopp screamed, bursting into tears.
The massive anglerfish, blinded by the ship's lights, let out a furious, bubbly roar and lunged forward, its massive jaws opening wide to swallow the Thousand Sunny whole.
"Brace for impact!" Franky roared, charging his laser.
Before Franky could fire, a massive, fleshy hand the size of an entire galleon suddenly reached out from the darkness. The hand grabbed the giant anglerfish by the side of its head and brutally punched it.
WHAM!
The underwater shockwave rocked the Sunny. The anglerfish was sent tumbling sideways into the darkness, completely knocked out.
The Straw Hats stared in disbelief.
Stepping out of the gloomy abyss into the light of the ship was a humanoid creature so incomprehensibly massive that it made Dory and Brogy look like action figures. The creature had a round, bald head, a goofy expression, and a massive, bloated belly.
"An Umibozu!" Usopp shrieked, recognizing the mythical sea giant from East Blue folklore. "A monster of the deep!"
"No, you idiot fish!" the giant creature spoke, its voice deep and incredibly slow, echoing through the water. It wagged a massive, scolding finger at the unconscious anglerfish. "Ankoro... I told you not to eat the ships... Captain Vander Decken will be very mad at you if you ruin the treasure..."
"Vander Decken?" Robin raised an eyebrow. "The mythical captain of the Flying Dutchman? That is a ghost story."
As if summoned by her words, the water temperature dropped. A thick, eerie fog—an impossibility underwater—began to roll across the ocean floor.
Brook stiffened. He gripped his cane sword, his empty eye sockets staring intensely into the fog.
"Do you hear that?" Brook whispered, his voice entirely devoid of his usual humor.
"Hear what?" Zoro asked, his hand resting on his swords.
"Singing," Brook said softly.
From the thick, underwater fog behind the giant humanoid, a faint, haunting melody drifted through the water. It was a slow, mournful dirge.
Slowly, the rotting, barnacle-encrusted bow of an ancient galleon pierced the fog. Its sails were tattered and torn, glowing with a sickly, ethereal green light. The wood looked as though it had been decaying at the bottom of the sea for centuries.
The Flying Dutchman had arrived.