One Piece: The Saiyan Pirate

Chapter 54: Into the Belly of the Beast

The Going Merry drifted forward, its crew transfixed by the massive black wall towering before them, blocking out the horizon. The shadow stretched across the churning waters, casting a foreboding darkness that blanketed the ship in uneasy silence. Nami clenched the railing, her eyes widening as they neared this monolithic shape.

"Is that…?" she whispered, her voice lost in the crashing waves around them.

"Can anyone make out what it is?" Zoro's voice cut through the silence, wary but curious.

Sanji, stationed in the crow's nest with a better view, leaned forward, squinting against the wind. Suddenly, he staggered back, his eyes wide in shock. "It's… it's not a wall. It's… a whale!" His words hung in the air as the massive creature let out a deep, guttural cry that echoed through the cliffs of Reverse Mountain.

The bellowing sound reverberated across the waters, shaking the Going Merry and making the crew instinctively cover their ears. The whale's mournful wail bounced off the cliffs, each note louder and more unsettling than the last.

"What the hell is this thing doing here?" Usopp yelled, his face pale as he clutched onto the railing, looking nervously at the colossal creature that could easily swallow them whole. "This thing could eat us in a single gulp! It's… it's enormous!"

Gin, gripping the rudder, watched the creature with narrowed eyes. "I remember seeing this beast," he said, his voice almost drowned by the creature's cries. "The Grand Line's full of oddities, and this whale guards the entrance. I came through this way before, back with Don Krieg. Krieg wanted to attack it, thinking it would be easy prey. The fool tried, and that beast destroyed over a dozen ships in less than a minute. Krieg finally gave up." He shook his head, an expression of mild respect for the creature evident on his face.

"Krieg was always an idiot," Sanji muttered from above, scowling at the memory of his former foe. "What kind of lunatic thinks he can take down a creature that size?"

"Obviously, a dumb one," Zoro added, adjusting his swords as he kept his gaze fixed on the whale. "Anyone who tries to fight that thing is asking to be obliterated."

Despite the warnings, Goku's face lit up with a familiar excitement as he gazed at the giant creature. "That's a lot of meat," he murmured to himself, almost as if he were daydreaming. His eyes narrowed with a determined gleam. "If I took it down, we'd have enough food to last us for months!"

Nami shot him an incredulous look, but Goku seemed oblivious to her expression. Ignoring her, he began to walk toward the front of the ship, a thoughtful look in his eyes as he considered his next move.

"Wait... what is he thinking?" Nami's expression shifted from surprise to concern as she watched him stride forward, his shoulders tense, his gaze focused entirely on the whale.

Goku took a deep breath and raised his arm, pointing it directly at the giant whale. A small orb of energy formed at his fingertips, glowing with a fierce blue light and crackling with an intense power. The ki blast was roughly the size of his fist, but the energy radiating from it was enough to make the air hum with tension.

"Goku!" Nami gasped, realizing what he intended to do. "What the hell are you thinking?!" She didn't wait for an answer. In a burst of instinct, she lunged forward and tackled him to the deck just as he released the blast.

The ki ball flew from his hand, arcing through the air with a sharp, sizzling sound. It narrowly grazed the whale's massive form, barely missing it, and then slammed into the side of the Red Line. The explosion rocked the cliffside, sending debris tumbling into the ocean with a loud crash as the cliff trembled from the impact.

"Goku!" Nami shouted, her voice filled with fury as she pushed herself off him, her face red with anger. "What on earth were you trying to do?"

Goku blinked, momentarily stunned by her tackle. "Nami, what are you doing?"

Nami's eyes blazed with frustration. "What I'm doing? Are you serious?" She gestured at the whale, which continued to cry out in its plaintive wail. "I should be asking you that question! You nearly provoked that giant creature! It could swallow us whole without even trying!"

Goku, looking somewhat abashed, scratched the back of his head. "I don't know… it was just like something came over me," he mumbled. "I just thought, you know, it's meat… and we could use it…" His voice trailed off as Nami's expression grew darker.

"Excuses, excuses!" she snapped, crossing her arms and glaring down at him. "You could've gotten us all killed!"

Before Goku could respond, the whale's cries abruptly stopped. A deep, unsettling silence settled over the waters as the giant creature's head dipped slightly, its dark, wet skin glistening in the dim light as it slowly descended below the surface. For a moment, everything seemed calm, as if the whale had lost interest.

But then, in an instant, the enormous eye of the whale emerged from the water, filling the crew's view. Its gaze locked onto the Going Merry, as if it had just noticed the tiny ship bobbing on the surface. The eye was vast, almost the size of the ship itself, and seemed to convey a mix of curiosity and anger.

The crew held their breath as the whale's gaze bored into them, each of them frozen in place as the creature sized them up. And then, with a low, rumbling growl, the whale let out a shriek that shook the waters, its massive mouth slowly opening to reveal rows of jagged teeth and a cavernous throat that could easily consume them.

"Oh no…" Usopp whimpered, clutching the railing as the ship began to tremble, drawn toward the massive maw of the whale by an invisible force. "We're gonna get eaten! This thing is going to swallow us whole!"

The crew scrambled into action, each of them desperately grabbing onto whatever they could to keep themselves steady as the Going Merry was slowly pulled toward the whale's open mouth.

"Everyone, hold on tight!" Gin shouted, bracing himself against the rudder as he tried to steer the ship away from the whale's pull, but the force was too strong.

"Can't you do something, Goku?" Zoro barked, gripping his swords and narrowing his eyes as he tried to think of a plan.

Goku, still on the deck where Nami had tackled him, quickly scrambled to his feet, his eyes darting between his crewmates and the yawning mouth of the whale. "Uh… I don't think a ki blast would help here!" he shouted back, realizing that attacking might only make things worse.

Sanji cursed under his breath as he jumped down from the crow's nest and rushed over to the deck, grabbing onto the railing beside Usopp. "We need to think of something fast!" He glanced at Nami, his face grim. "You're the navigator. Any ideas?"

Nami, her knuckles white as she held onto the mast, shook her head, her mind racing. "There's no way to steer out of this! The current's too strong, and that thing is pulling us in like a whirlpool!"

The Going Merry creaked and groaned as it drew ever closer to the whale's open mouth, the air around them filled with the sound of crashing waves and the low, guttural growls of the whale.

The crew watched in horror as the blackness of the whale's mouth loomed over them, its cavernous throat stretching on into what seemed like endless darkness.

[A/N: Read 15 to 20 chapters ahead available on patreon.com/saiyanprincenovels]