Chapter 113: The Battle Plan Reforged
"No threat. They're all allies."
Itachi swept the chamber with a final, measured glance—cataloging exits, assessing force composition, confirming no hostile intent—before raising his hand toward the Silver Fox below. Lan Lan and Kaka waved back with the enthusiasm of tiny signal flags.
He turned to face the room.
And immediately found his vision engulfed by Robin's embrace.
"Itachi! Why are you here?!"
Her arms wrapped around his head with the kind of strength that spoke less of joy and more of barely suppressed anxiety finally finding release. The warmth was considerable. The lack of visibility was absolute.
"Robin—Robin—"
His voice came out muffled against the fabric of her coat.
"I thought you were sailing to the next island with Nami and the others! You were supposed to be with the ship!"
"Robin." His voice was impressively calm given the circumstances. "Let me up first."
She released him immediately, stepping back with a hand pressed to her mouth. A faint flush colored her cheeks—genuine embarrassment, rare and unguarded.
"I'm so sorry. I got a little carried away."
Usopp practically collapsed with relief at the sight of Itachi. "Brother Itachi! You have no idea how glad I am to see you! I thought we were being ambushed! I thought—" He stopped, composed himself, and adopted what he clearly believed was a heroic posture. "Ahem. Good timing. We were just about to begin the mission."
Franky stepped forward, his massive metal arms spreading in an enthusiastic gesture of introduction. "Everyone, relax! This is Itachi—he's a SUPER reliable SUPER fighter!" His star-shaped nipples flashed for emphasis, though the Tontatta were too small to fully appreciate the spectacle. "With him here, our chances just went through the roof!"
The toy soldiers and Tontatta warriors who had been frozen in battle-ready stances slowly relaxed. Murmurs of "Itachilando" and "Usolando's companion" rippled through the crowd.
But Leo—captain of the Dongdong Tower Battle Squad, veteran warrior of the Tontatta Tribe—was not so easily distracted.
"YOU TWO!"
His tiny finger jabbed toward the Silver Fox.
Lan Lan and Kaka shrank behind Itachi's hands.
"Didn't I specifically say you're too young for the Dongdong Tower Battle Squad?! Did my orders mean NOTHING?! And now you've snuck here anyway—behind enemy lines—without permission—"
"Captain Leo is doing the lecture thing again," Kaka whimpered. "I'm so sad..."
"He's going to send us back! I don't want to go back! I want to fight with Itachilando!"
"Stop pretending to be pitiful!" Leo launched himself forward, tiny fists swinging. "I'm taking you back to the kingdom RIGHT NOW—!"
Lan Lan and Kaka dove into Itachi's palms with the practiced desperation of children fleeing a bath.
Leo lunged after them.
Itachi's hand closed gently around the squad captain's waist.
"HEY! Let me go! Who do you think you—"
Leo's arms windmilled. His legs kicked. His formidable Tontatta strength—the same impossible power that had nearly broken Itachi's fingers during their first encounter—found no purchase against the grip around his midsection.
Itachi had observed the Tontatta carefully during his brief time in their kingdom. Their strength was concentrated in their limbs—their arms and legs possessed power disproportionate to their size, capable of shattering tree trunks and breaking human bones. But their waists? The pivot point that connected those powerful limbs to their bodies? That was the fulcrum around which their strength turned.
Control the waist, and you controlled the Tontatta.
"Captain Leo." Lan Lan poked her head out from behind Itachi's thumb, emboldened by his intervention. "You shouldn't speak so rudely to others. It's not proper warrior conduct."
"That's right!" Kaka emerged from the other side. "Itachilando is Usolando's dear friend. If you bully him, he'll be sad. And if he's sad, WE'LL be sad. And then everyone will be sad. Do you want everyone to be sad, Captain Leo?"
Leo stopped struggling.
"Wait. Usolando's friend?"
His head swiveled toward Itachi, and his expression underwent the same instantaneous transformation Itachi had witnessed in every Tontatta who learned of his (entirely fabricated) connection to the great hero Usolando. The righteous fury melted into eager warmth. The accusatory glare softened into welcoming trust.
"Oh! Why didn't you say so earlier! Any friend of Usolando is a friend of the Dongdong Tower Battle Squad!"
Itachi turned his head away.
He couldn't meet those eyes.
I really need to stop lying to these people.
"Alright!" Franky clapped his massive hands together, the sound echoing through the underground chamber. "With Itachi here, we need to rework the battle plan! Time for a SUPER strategy session!"
Robin seated herself on a discarded crate, crossing her legs with the poise of a scholar preparing for a lecture. "Franky's right. Itachi hasn't been with us since we split up. He needs the full picture of what's happening in Dressrosa."
The toy soldier who had originally drafted the battle plan—a weathered tin warrior with a captain's hat and a sword that had clearly seen real combat—shifted uncertainly. "But we just finished the planning. If we change everything now—"
"Hey." Usopp settled a hand on the toy soldier's shoulder, his voice uncharacteristically steady. "Trust me, soldier. You want the guy who can fight Doflamingo one-on-one to know exactly what we're walking into."
The toy soldier's painted eyes widened. "One-on-one? Against Doflamingo?"
"Yep. Doflamingo's bounty is three hundred forty million berries." Usopp's confidence was growing now, the familiar rhythm of storytelling overcoming his earlier terror. "Our Brother Itachi's bounty is six hundred million. Nearly double."
"Six... six hundred million?!"
"Our captain, Straw Hat Luffy, is currently at four hundred million. And Itachi here—" Usopp gestured grandly. "—is the only crew member in Straw Hat history to have a higher bounty than the captain himself."
The toy soldier's tin jaw worked soundlessly.
"S-so..." He turned to Usopp, a new respect dawning in his painted features. "If he's six hundred million, and you're his crewmate... what's YOUR bounty?"
Usopp's confident posture crumbled.
Sweat beaded on his brow.
"Th-that's—well—you see—" He waved his hands in increasingly frantic circles. "I'm a classified operative. Secret. Highly secret. My bounty isn't public information. In fact, the World Government doesn't even know I exist. I'm that good. I'm—"
"Sit down, Usopp." Robin's voice carried the faintest edge of amusement.
Usopp sat.
The war council reconvened.
Robin took the lead, her voice settling into the measured cadence of a strategist laying out the battlefield.
"First: the landing team. Luffy, Zoro, and Kin'emon."
She summarized what they knew. Luffy remained trapped within the Corrida Colosseum, his participation in the tournament having taken an unexpected turn. Zoro and Kin'emon were outside the arena, working with their unexpected ally Bartolomeo to extract Luffy without drawing the full attention of the Marine forces encircling the area.
"And Law?" Itachi's voice was quiet.
"Captured." Robin's expression didn't change, but something in her posture tightened. "Doflamingo took him personally. He's being held at the palace."
She paused.
"Fujitora is with him."
Itachi's eyes flickered. "The Admiral went to Dressrosa."
"You knew?"
"I saw his warship departing Green Bit after our battle." His voice was flat. Analytical. "So he chose to stand with Doflamingo after all."
"Then Law's situation is critical." Itachi's gaze drifted toward the ceiling, toward the distant palace where the Warlord held court. "Luffy and the others are responsible for his retrieval?"
"That's the current plan."
Itachi nodded slowly. The gears of his mind were already turning—calculating response times, evaluating force distributions, weighing the variables of a three-front engagement.
"Understood. Continue."
Robin turned to the second front. "Our side."
She introduced Leo, who puffed out his tiny chest with pride. "Captain of the Dongdong Tower Battle Squad! At your service, Itachilando!"
"And this," Robin continued, gesturing to the tin soldier who had questioned the plan revision, "is our primary intelligence source on Dressrosa's inner workings. He knows the palace, the factory, and the Donquixote Family's command structure."
She paused, giving the soldier space to introduce himself.
The toy soldier stepped forward but did not offer his name. His painted eyes—somehow expressive despite their immobility—studied Itachi with the wariness of a veteran sizing up a potential ally.
"We haven't met." His voice was rough, mechanical. "But anyone who fights Doflamingo is a friend of this army."
He extended a tin hand.
Itachi shook it. The metal was cold against his palm.
"Our objectives are twofold." Robin reclaimed the floor. "First: destroy the SMILE Factory and free the five hundred Tontatta workers enslaved within."
"Five hundred?" Itachi's voice sharpened.
"Five hundred," Leo confirmed. "Our brothers and sisters. Taken from their homes. Forced to labor in darkness." His tiny hands clenched into fists. "We're bringing every single one of them back."
"Second objective." Robin's tone darkened. "Eliminate the officer responsible for Dressrosa's current state. The user of the Hobi-Hobi Fruit—Sugar."
Itachi's brow furrowed. "Sugar?"
"She's the one who transforms people into toys," the toy soldier said. His voice, already rough, took on an edge of raw hatred. "Anyone she touches becomes a living puppet, bound to her will. And the moment they transform..." His tin hands trembled. "Everyone who ever knew them forgets they existed. Their families. Their lovers. Their children. Erased from memory. Erased from history."
Itachi's Sharingan spun slowly.
"Toys are... human beings?"
"Every toy you've seen in Dressrosa." The soldier's voice cracked. "Every doll. Every puppet. Every stuffed animal walking the streets. They were all people once. Citizens of this country. Husbands. Wives. Parents who will never hold their children again because their children don't remember they were ever born."
Silence hung in the chamber.
"The darkness behind Dressrosa," the toy soldier continued, his voice dropping to barely more than a whisper, "the blood-soaked rule of the Donquixote Family... it's beyond anything you can imagine."
Itachi absorbed this.
When he spoke, his voice was calm. Cold. The voice of a man who had seen darkness before and knew exactly how to respond to it.
"I understand."
He briefed them on his side of the operation in turn.
The Big Mom Pirates' arrival. The Queen Mama Chanter. The ultimatum. The Thousand Sunny's escape via Coup de Burst.
And the countermeasure.
Usopp's face went white.
"YOU KILLED THEM?! The Big Mom Pirates' entire ship?! You MURDERED them?!"
"I neutralized a threat."
"THAT'S THE SAME THING!"
"They'll retaliate." Usopp's voice had climbed into a register usually reserved for small frightened mammals. "The Big Mom Pirates will hunt us down. They'll send their whole fleet. We'll have an EMPEROR after us!"
"Not immediately." Itachi's tone was measured. Clinical. "I destroyed their communications room before departing. The Den Den Mushi. The Eternal Pose to Whole Cake Island. Every method they had of contacting reinforcements."
Usopp's panic paused mid-spiral. "You... you thought of that?"
"It seemed prudent."
"But..." Itachi's gaze drifted toward the ceiling again, his expression troubled by something he couldn't quite articulate. "I didn't confirm the kills."
Robin leaned forward. "What do you mean?"
"After the engagement, I verified the status of every combatant. All were confirmed deceased—except the Castle-Castle Fruit user, whom I submerged in seawater. Devil Fruit users typically cannot survive extended immersion."
He paused.
"But I failed to behead them."
Usopp made a strangled noise.
"The Yellow Monkey escaped Amaterasu through his light-based regeneration," Itachi continued, his voice taking on the quality of someone reviewing a mission debrief. "Fujitora suppressed the black flames with gravitational force. In both cases, abilities native to this world allowed opponents to survive what should have been fatal engagements."
His Sharingan gleamed.
"If a next time presents itself, I intend to confirm death through decapitation. It eliminates ambiguity."
Robin nodded thoughtfully. "That seems wise. Some Devil Fruit abilities can preserve life even after catastrophic injury. The Egg-Egg Fruit, for example, allows resurrection through transformation. Without proper confirmation..."
"Eight pieces," Itachi said.
"Excuse me?"
"Given sufficient time, dismemberment into eight sections provides more reliable confirmation than simple decapitation. The nervous system ceases function, but the separation of major anatomical structures prevents regenerative abilities from reconstructing a viable whole."
Robin's eyes lit up with academic interest. "Would the optimal division points follow standard anatomical planes, or would you recommend a radial approach for maximum—"
"ARE YOU TWO MADE FOR EACH OTHER?!" Usopp shoved himself between them, arms waving frantically. "Normal people don't have conversations like this! NORMAL PEOPLE discuss things like—like—like NOT cutting enemies into eight pieces!"
Itachi and Robin exchanged a glance.
"It's practical," Itachi said.
"Efficient," Robin agreed.
"I'M SURROUNDED BY MONSTERS," Usopp wailed.
Leo, who had been following the conversation with the slightly confused expression of someone who understood the words but not the context, tugged on Itachi's sleeve.
"Itachilando... what's a 'decapitation'?"
Itachi looked down at the tiny captain's trusting eyes.
"...A technique for ensuring enemies don't return."
"Oh!" Leo nodded sagely. "Like when you pull up a weed by the roots so it doesn't grow back!"
"...Yes. Precisely like that."
"Makes sense!" Leo turned to his squad. "See, everyone? Itachilando knows proper garden maintenance AND battle strategy! Truly a warrior of many talents!"
The Tontatta cheered.
Itachi closed his eyes.
I am going to hell for this.
End of Chapter
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