In One Piece, as Hashirama Senju

[151] Fate's Little Prank

Chapter 151: Fate's Little Prank

—

Everyone drowned. They were under the sea, deep within it.

They struggled in the dark, cold water, fighting for air. They kicked and splashed, trying desperately to stay afloat, but their strength was being drained by the sea. They were in their death zone, in the sea.

The currents pushed them down, deeper into the murky depths. Through the blinding panic and desperation, they managed to sense the presence of each other all around, also drowning in the icy water. Tsunade tried to use her ice power to freeze the sea, to save the kids, but she couldn't. Karoo was unconscious, having been unable to hold her breath for long and swallowing too much water.

As time grew, their gasps for breath grew increasingly faint, as they let go and began to sink into the abyss. They wanted to keep fighting, but their bodies didn't listen. The darkness wrapped around them like a cold blanket...

'What?'

Until Hashirama regained his senses.

His vision was blurry with red water; his wound was leaking. He tried to push chakra into his stump to heal it, but there was no use. It didn't regenerate, but at least the bleeding stopped.

With a groan, he called forth a second pair of hands from the side of his chest. With four arms, he swam in the sea. He held his breath and looked around for the girls drowning around him. Thankfully, even if the teleportation didn't land them in a good spot, all of them were here together. He could also see his sword floating nearby. But that meant there were too many to hold in just four arms and two hands. All of them were devil fruit users other than Vivi, who was already trying to save the others.

With a thought, thick vines came out of his body, surprising Vivi. "Mmhm?!"

She looked stunned and hopeful, her face morphed as if she was about to cry in relief, feeling rest assured that he could use his powers underwater. The vines grabbed on the sword, and then gently held the girls one by one, and soon he held all of them, even Karoo.

Swimming with this much weight would be impossible for a normal human, more so this deep under the sea where the pressure was insane. But Hashirama was anything but normal; with superhuman strength, he carried the girls out of the deep water.

His lungs cried, they burned, but he went through it. If anything that could kill him, someone who could heal from everything... well, most of the things now, it would be drowning. Drowning might as well kill him.

Oh, and did he mention how a few hundred sea kings were circling him?

The water spun to create a vortex of worry and anger, the swirling movements of the fishes almost causing a typhoon to form.

How annoying.

Hashirama let out all of his frustration in a burst of unhinged Conqueror's Haki.

— !!!!!!!!

The fishes dropped unconscious, or maybe even dead, as they floated and drowned and the water stopped spinning.

Thankfully, his training from his previous life helped him hold his breath long enough for all this. They had been teleported quite deep into the sea, but he used Wood Release to create spinning wheels on his calves; he managed to swim fast and up.

After a few minutes that felt like hours, he pushed his head out of the water and gasped for breath. All the other girls were lifted up by the vines, also gasping.

"Gah...!"

"H-hah... w-why did I ever eat a fucking devil fruit?!"

They were still weak, submerged to their necks, but Mikita's loud complaint made everyone realize that they were alive at the very least.