That Man

Just as the echoes of Vice Admiral Momonga's pained cry had yet to fade.

The scene before him suddenly flickered like damaged film!

The sensation of being bound to the cross remained, but the excruciating pain of his torn shoulder blades had strangely vanished, as though it had never happened.

Only the fear lingering in his mind remained painfully clear.

What's going on?! Vice Admiral Momonga had barely formed the thought.

The next moment, two, three...

A full five Uchiha Itachis appeared around him at once, completely surrounding him.

Each held a blade burning with black flames, their gazes equally cold.

"For the next seventy-two hours."

All of Itachi's phantoms spoke at once, their overlapping voices forming a chilling echo.

"I will keep stabbing you with knives. Without stopping."

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Five blades pierced Vice Admiral Momonga's body from different angles at the same time!

His chest, abdomen, limbs...

They avoided every fatal point, yet maximized his agony to the utmost.

"AAARGH—!!!"

An even more miserable scream tore from his throat.

This pain was layered, erupting from multiple parts of his body at once, nearly making Vice Admiral Momonga pass out on the spot.

But the Tsukuyomi realm did not allow him to escape.

The scene flickered again and reset.

The pain vanished, but the trauma and fear in his mind continued to accumulate.

Then came another round of piercing, denser and crueler than before.

Ten blades...

Twenty blades...

Time stretched endlessly here.

Every second felt as long as a century.

Vice Admiral Momonga's screams gradually changed from piercing cries into hoarse rasping, until only unconscious groans and convulsions remained.

The willpower he had always taken pride in was ground down bit by bit beneath this endless, repeating mental torture.

His gaze shifted from initial fury, to painful struggle, until only complete numbness and emptiness remained.

Like a doll that had been played with until it broke.

He lost all sense of time, feeling as if he had endured thousands upon thousands of years of torment in this hell.

All of Vice Admiral Momonga's former pride seemed so pale and powerless before the absolute Tsukuyomi realm.

Yet in the real world, this agonizing torment had lasted only an instant.

From the perspective of all the Marines on the deck.

Their mighty Vice Admiral Momonga had been fighting an unknown enemy, and then both men had abruptly frozen in place, completely motionless.

Before everyone's disbelieving eyes.

The mighty Vice Admiral Momonga's body suddenly shuddered, and his gaze immediately lost all focus.

An expression of extreme pain and terror appeared on his face, as though he were suffering unimaginable torment.

His sword clanged onto the deck, and he fell stiffly backward as though his soul had been ripped from his body!

"Vice Admiral!!"

The Marines rushed forward in panic.

Uchiha Itachi stood quietly some distance away. His scarlet Mangekyo slowly stopped spinning, his gaze still calm.

He glanced at the unconscious Vice Admiral Momonga and the chaotic Marines.

Then he spoke again, his voice clearly reaching every Marine's ears.

"Take your people and leave. Ten kilometers. This is your final warning."

Having said that, without waiting for a reply.

Itachi's figure transformed into a flock of crows that scattered in every direction and vanished from everyone's sight.

Seeing the unknown powerhouse who had defeated Vice Admiral Momonga leave, the many Marines had not yet secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

When suddenly, a change occurred!

At first, it was the sea.

The originally calm azure waters before the warship began to churn violently without warning.

It was not the raging waves brought by a storm, but turbulence rising from below.

Like the disturbance caused beneath the water by a volcano about to erupt.

Then, before everyone's shocked eyes.

The seawater swelled as though boiling, forming two incomparably massive mounds that nearly filled their entire field of vision.

Before this force of nature, the warship began to pitch violently like a child's toy. Many soldiers lost their footing and fell onto the deck.

"Sea... Sea Kings?! Why would Sea Kings suddenly appear? They shouldn't be able to sense the warship?!"

The lookout's voice cracked with incredulous terror.

Then, beneath countless horrified gazes, the two water mounds burst apart with a thunderous crash!

They truly were two gigantic Sea Kings, slightly different in shape but equally ferocious and terrifying.

One had a spiraling horn on its head, its long neck covered in bony spikes;

The other had a thick shell like a dragon turtle's and the head of a python.

The deck fell silent.

The Marines forgot to move, forgot to breathe, and even temporarily forgot about their unconscious vice admiral. They could only stare blankly up at the two terrifying behemoths.

Fear gripped their throats, and cold sweat soaked their uniforms.

"W-We're done for! Vice Admiral Momonga is still unconscious at a time like this. We're finished!"

A soldier spoke in despair.

The only one aboard the warship capable of dealing with Sea Kings was Vice Admiral Momonga.

Even with Rear Admiral Yuma aboard, he was absolutely no match for them!

The two beasts lowered their heads slightly, their enormous pupils large enough to contain the entire warship's deck.

Then they opened their mouths and roared down at the humans below, who were no more than ants to them.

A thick, fishy stench immediately filled the air, making the Marines nearly vomit.

"E-Eyes...!"

An officer holding a telescope screamed, and the telescope fell from his hand onto the deck with a clatter.

In truth, there was no need for a telescope anymore.

When the two Sea Kings glared at them, everyone could clearly see their enormous eyes.

Scarlet irises, and within that bloody color, three tomoe slowly turning in a strange pattern!

Those strange eyes were so familiar!

"Impossible... This can't be possible!"

Another colonel who had faced Uchiha Itachi directly turned pale as paper. He staggered back, slamming heavily into the railing, yet he did not notice at all.

His pupils contracted violently as he stared fixedly at that enormous Three Tomoe pattern.

His mind uncontrollably recalled the scarlet eyes of that mysterious black-haired man from before, those same tomoe spinning within them!

They were exactly the same!

Other than the difference in size.

The color, the shape, the bone-deep chill that pierced straight into one's soul—they were completely identical!

"They're that man's eyes! How could that man's eyes appear on Sea Kings?!"

A soldier muttered in a broken voice. His thoughts had become incoherent, but the horror he expressed was the storm raging in everyone's hearts.

Yet beneath everyone's despairing gazes.

The two Sea Kings did not attack them. They merely blocked the route leading toward Kuja Island.

Their strange tomoe eyes stared fixedly at them.

They neither attacked nor retreated.

Gradually, some of the smarter people guessed what it meant.

"That man controlled the Sea Kings?! With his eyes?!"

The Rear Admiral's throat was dry, and his voice came out hoarse and trembling.

"He's warning us not to advance any farther!"