Illusion - False Tsukuyomi

Gato knew full well that this was the formidable strength of Armament Haki Hardening.

Cold sweat continuously beaded on his forehead as he gritted his teeth against the immense force traveling from Bright Light's hilt.

The muscles in his arms bulged, making his originally slender arms seem a full size larger.

Fortunately, the cannonball's force was ultimately rootless. Since Gato had managed to block it at the outset, it meant the cannonball would sooner or later be knocked away.

When he felt the cannonball's momentum beginning to weaken, he clenched his teeth and heaved, flinging away the cannonball that had "stuck" to Bright Light's blade.

"Whew... whew. He really is a monster of a man."

At this point, Garp was still several kilometers away from Gato. The cannonballs he threw had to fight against the raging winds, yet even so, Gato could only barely withstand Garp's attacks.

The hand holding Bright Light dropped limply. Though Gato had blocked that exchange, he had paid a painful price. He felt as if the muscles in his arm had been torn apart.

He did not dare imagine what would happen if Garp appeared right in front of him. One punch would probably shatter every means he had and leave him unable to move.

This was clearly not even Garp's full strength, because cannonballs were still continuously bombarding Gato's ship. No one's all-out attack could be unleashed so relentlessly.

For the first time, Gato understood the gap between himself and the world's absolute top-tier fighters. Even battling from such a distance, he was in constant danger of death.

Fortunately, not every one of Garp's cannonballs could hit Gato's ship. The distance was still somewhat great, so Gato only had to fend off a few of them. Even so, he was nearly at his limit.

Once, Garp threw four cannonballs at once, and by terrible luck, every one of them was headed within the ship's range. Left with no choice, Gato could only use Divine Void Strike to block them.

Now that he cast Divine Void Strike again, its power was no longer comparable to before. He smoothly shattered those terrifying projectiles before blasting them away.

Gato smiled bitterly to himself. If he had known this would happen, he would have been better off not stopping to make repairs. Running into such a calamity was truly rotten luck.

This could not continue. He might run out of chakra before even reaching the base of Reverse Mountain.

"I can only try that technique. I hope the range is enough."

"Genjutsu—Tsukuyomi False Life!"

Tsukuyomi False Life was a genjutsu Kaguya had created based on the effects of Infinite Tsukuyomi. It required neither the Mangekyo Sharingan nor eye contact. It was a group genjutsu whose effects were the same as Tsukuyomi's.

Of course, its name made the difference obvious. Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto was a god, and Tsukuyomi was a god's eye technique. Adding the word "False" showed that this genjutsu was merely an imitation.

It lacked Tsukuyomi's restrictions but possessed Tsukuyomi's power, solely because it had an even greater limitation: it could only affect people whose willpower and spiritual power were far below those of the caster.

This technique could be considered quite useless. After all, in the pirate world, anyone with sufficiently strong willpower and spiritual power could not possibly be weak. And as had already been said, no matter how many weaklings there were, they posed no threat to Gato.

Thus, this ninjutsu seemed almost dispensable. Gato did not know why Kaguya had given it to him, since he already had no shortage of ways to clear out fodder.

But now, it had become Gato's lifeline. Naturally, he did not hope to take down the strongest group aboard that warship, but a warship was often not controlled by that group alone...

Garp was still enthusiastically hurling cannonballs while his adjutant busied himself resupplying him. Neither noticed that roughly half the Marines aboard the warship had fallen into a stupor.

Some of those Marines fueled the ship, some calculated wind direction and speed, while others continually reinforced the hull amid the storm. There was even a helmsman among them.

Their paralysis caused problems with the warship's operation.

Some of their companions remained conscious, and those who were awake quickly noticed something was wrong. Panicked, they reported the anomaly.

Upon hearing this, Garp's adjutant hurriedly stopped his cannonball barrage.

"Vice Admiral Garp, this is bad! Many soldiers have fallen into a stupor, and our ship is about to become uncontrollable."

Garp immediately abandoned the thought of continuing his bombardment and asked in confusion, "Why is this happening?"

"I don't know, but we are now severely understaffed. If we continue the pursuit, the increasingly swift currents and raging winds will cause the ship to lose control completely. When that happens..."

The adjutant did not need to continue. Garp already knew what their fate would be.

Most likely, they would crash directly into Reverse Mountain's cliff face. Perhaps he could use his inhuman strength to save a few people, and the capable men around him would probably be fine. He might even be able to save one or two others while ensuring his own safety.

But what use would that be? It would already be impressive if they could save ten people, yet there were far more than a hundred Marines aboard this ship.

If capturing Gato meant losing an entire ship's crew, then that was something Garp could not accept.

"Vice Admiral Garp, make a decision quickly! We can still use this wind to leave these waters. If we get any closer, we won't be able to. Many of the ship's systems have already failed."

"Then... turn around and retreat at full speed. First, get out of the waters around Reverse Mountain."

Garp spoke unwillingly. He had thought this would be an effortless mission, yet it had unexpectedly ended in failure.

"Yes, Vice Admiral Garp!"

At last, Gato could breathe a sigh of relief.

Not long after he used Tsukuyomi False Life, the deadly cannonballs vanished.

Taking advantage of the moment, he lay down on the battered deck. The threat of the tiger pursuing him from behind had been lifted. He could rest for a while before properly facing the wolf blocking his path.

This was the second life-or-death crisis he had encountered since arriving in the pirate world. It was even more dangerous than the time he had angered Kaguya. Even if Kaguya was a god, she still possessed reason. This time, however, Gato faced "nature."

The truly merciless things were these natural death zones, and Reverse Mountain was one of them.

"Gahaha! Whatever! How could I, Gato, die in a place like this? Even pirates with bounties of tens of millions can pass through it. Could it really stop me?"

Gato climbed to his feet and watched Reverse Mountain draw ever closer, laughing with half self-reassurance and half soaring resolve.

"Wind Release—Divine Wind Control!"

Gato's ship had drifted away from the optimal course. He used Divine Wind Control to make a slight adjustment, but it had little effect.

The currents here were already more violent than a hurricane, and the impact of water was greater than that of moving wind.

Using control over wind direction to influence the ship was ultimately inferior to directly controlling the water currents. Gato could only do everything within his power.

In the end, his ship still crashed into Reverse Mountain's cliff face. In an instant, the sturdy vessel broke apart completely.