One Piece: Reborn as Satoru Gojo

"What the…" I breathed out, my voice shaking, barely audible over the pounding of my pulse in my ears.

A thin ribbon of red swirled around my leg, unfurling in the water like smoke in the air. My mind raced with possibilities, none of them good. Sharks? Or some freaky One Piece ocean monster?

And then I saw it.

A shadow moved beneath me, long and serpentine, writhing in the water.

My chest tightened. The chill of the ocean was nothing compared to the cold fear clutching at my heart. This wasn't just a predator. This was something out of nightmares - a monster that should exist only on paper, on screens, but never in life.

The shadow slid closer, and instinct screamed for action: swim, dive, run - whatever. But my mind whispered louder: stay where I was. I couldn't swim away, and if I didn't provoke it then maybe, maybe everything would be okay.

He leaned away for a moment. For the briefest of moments, I held onto hope. Maybe it'd lost interest. 

But no.

The water exploded in front of me, an explosion of foam and fury. A huge sea serpent broke the surface, its emerald scales catching the sunlight, glittering like shards of glass.

Water poured off its body in streams as it rose high above me, casting a huge shadow that swallowed me whole.

Its head was monstrous, the size of a house, with eyes that burned bright and cruel. Those eyes met mine, and I felt like pitiful prey. In its eyes, my value was no more than a piece of floating meat.

A guttural hiss ripped through the air, so loud and deep that the sound itself seemed to bite into my bones.

'Move!' my mind screamed, and as its jaws lashed out at me, I lurched to the side, desperation giving me speed, incredible speed.

Its teeth missed by inches, but the force of its blow sent a wave crashing down on me. The water rushed in, dragging me under before spitting me back to the surface. I gasped for air, coughing and choking as panic threatened to overwhelm me.

The snake writhed in the water, its movements frighteningly fluid for a creature its size. It seemed to be playing with me, enjoying itself. Then it leaped again, faster this time.

I had no choice. I dove beneath the surface, the cold grip of the ocean swallowing me whole. Through the dark depths, I watched as its massive body sliced ​​through the water above me, creating a vortex that pulled me along with it.

When I emerged again, gasping and spluttering, the creature was ready to attack again. My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would burst, but the adrenaline kept me going.

I need something. Anything.

My hands searched the water in blind desperation, but there was nothing there—no stick, no rocks, no weapon. Just the endless, uncaring ocean.

The snake lunged at me again, its massive head cutting through the water with a terrifying hiss. I swam away again, desperately, barely escaping its snapping jaws, but one of its scales grazed my arm.

"Ah!" I screamed as a searing pain shot through me. Blood ran down my arm where the razor-sharp scales had left a shallow, stinging cut.

"Fuck!" I cursed through clenched teeth, my voice breaking as fear and rage wove through my chest.

It wasn't just pain that drove me now. It was something primal. Survival, rage—an inexorable refusal to die here.

The snake struck again, and this time I didn't just duck. With a roar of despair, I lunged at it, clutching at its slick, scaly face. My fingers burned as they met its razor-sharp surface, each scale tearing into my flesh, tearing it to the bone.

"Son of...!" My voice burst out, breaking into a hoarse scream, muffled and full of despair. Anger and fear tangled into something wild, primal, pushing me to do the impossible.

The snake responded with a roar so deafening that it penetrated my head and rang in my ears like a clap of thunder locked inside my skull.

it's massive body shuddered in a mad dance. I felt like a grain of sand caught in a hurricane. Each blow of her scales against my body left behind thin, burning cuts.

I grabbed her head, feeling my fingers slide and cut on her razor scales. Blood flowed from my palms in stormy streams, mixing with salt water, and the pain grew, filling me entirely.

It was a living, almost sentient pain, screaming, "Let go! Let go!"

But I couldn't. Somewhere inside, deep in my tortured soul, another voice was louder: Fight or die.

I pulled myself up higher, my fingers shaking but not letting go. And then her eye was in front of me. Enormous, shiny, like a dirty gem, sparkling with a fierce malice from within.

"Take that!" I croaked, and drove my fist into her eye with a force I didn't know I had left.

My body felt the fist pierce the shell of my eye with a wet, sickening squelch. Her roar—that damned roar—suddenly rose to a new, unbearable level. It was such a sound that it could have caused stones to crack.

Her head jerked up, and then with incredible zeal, she pierced the water. She began to sink, fast and inexorable.

Her powerful body disappeared into the abyss, dragging me along with it.

I pulled my hand out of her eye and swam away with a quick jerk. It was hard to say how I managed to do it, but my fingers finally unclenched.

Her figure disappeared into the depths, flashing once more before dissolving into the darkness.

But I was still underwater. Too deep. My lungs burned as if a fire had fallen upon them. Every second in this salty hell lasted an eternity.

Swim! Swim, damn it!

I pushed myself forward, my legs flailing at the water, my hands straining toward the weak but still visible light above. The world around me began to narrow, becoming black and dense, like night.

And then - I broke through the surface. The air rushed into my lungs with such force that it seemed to burn my throat. I choked, coughed, gasped for air like a drowning man clutching at a straw.

Somewhere in the distance, the last weak roar of a snake was heard, slipping away like a nightmare that was almost forgotten. Its shadow dissolved into the depths of the ocean, disappearing from my life like an evil spirit sated with my pain.

I lay on my back, letting the waves rock me like a helpless rag doll.

Blood dripped from cuts, salt water ate away at fresh wounds. Every cell in my body screamed from fatigue and pain. But one thought, the only one, sounded louder in my head than the roar of the monster.

I survived.

❖✿❖

If you find any mistakes or incorrect word usage in the text, please let me know.

English isn't my native language, and my practice mostly consists of watching streams/videos and talking with friends on Discord, so I might not be familiar with all the nuances that native speakers know.