Suddenly the deck lurched violently.
Barrels rolled. Rigging snapped taut. Men shouted as the Black Pearl groaned under a sudden, crushing pull.
Will barely had time to open his mouth and ask why his father was on a cursed ship—but before the words could leave him, Daniel vanished from the cabin.
One blink—gone.
The next moment, he stood above the sea itself, boots hovering just above the churning surface as massive tentacles burst from the water, coiling around the Pearl's hull like living chains.
"The octopus is back," Daniel muttered.
Then he dropped.
He hit the water like a meteor, not sinking but standing on the surface, waves exploding outward from the impact. Morning light cut cleanly through the sea now—no darkness to hide in, no shadows to retreat to.
And there it was.
The Kraken rose.
Its immense bulk twisted beneath the surface, a mountain of flesh and suction and rage. Eyes like dark pits opened as it recognized him.
Daniel smiled.
"This time," he said, cracking his neck, "I'm making calamari."
A tentacle whipped toward him—fast, heavy enough to shatter masts. Daniel caught it barehanded. The impact sent a shockwave through the water.
"You know," Daniel said casually, as black energy spread outward from him, "I've always wanted to try this—something I saw in an anime once."
***
On the deck, the crew stood frozen, staring at the suddenly calm sea.
For a heartbeat, no one spoke.
Then Pintel swallowed. "Do… do you think it's gone," he asked, voice thin, "or just circling back for seconds?"
Ragetti shook his head, clutching his wooden eye. "We should've left when we docked at Tortuga," he muttered. "I said it then. I said it very clearly."
A few others nodded vigorously.
"Aye." "He's right." "I had a bad feeling about today."
Before anyone could argue further, the sea buckled.
A massive wave slammed into the side of the Black Pearl, rocking her hard enough to throw men off their feet.
"Look!" someone shouted, pointing over the rail.
Something was rising.
At first, it was only a shadow beneath the waves—too vast, too wrong to understand. The sea itself seemed to recoil as the darkness pushed upward, water sliding away in sheets.
Then metal broke the surface.
Not flesh. Not bone.
Steel.
A colossal humanoid machine surged out of the ocean, towering over the Black Pearl like a god of war dragged straight out of legend. Its armor was angular and brutal, plated in dark steel etched with faint, glowing lines.
Water poured off its shoulders and chest as it planted its feet on the surface of the sea, the pressure alone sending waves racing outward.
The crew stared in mute horror.
"…What in the hell?" Pintel whispered.
The Gundam moved.
One massive hand snapped forward and clamped around a Kraken tentacle, the limb dwarfed in its grip. The creature shrieked beneath the waves as the machine hauled upward, dragging the monster's bulk toward the surface by sheer, overwhelming force.
Another tentacle whipped out, wrapping around the Gundam's arm, then another—then three more—coiling tight, straining, trying to pull the giant under.
The Gundam didn't budge.
Its eyes flared brighter.
With a violent jerk, it ripped one tentacle free, tearing it clean off. Black blood exploded across the water. The machine pivoted smoothly, using the momentum to swing the severed limb like a club, smashing it down into the sea where the Kraken's body lurked.
The impact detonated the water.
The Kraken erupted upward, forced fully into view—vast, furious, wounded. It screamed, a sound so deep and violent it rattled the Pearl's timbers and sent half the crew clapping hands over their ears.
"Ah," Daniel said calmly from within the cockpit, watching the monster coil beneath him. "Classic setup. Gundam versus monster."
The Kraken answered by lashing out.
Tentacles surged upward in a storm of motion, dozens of them whipping through the air, thick as masts, aiming to wrap, crush, and drag the machine beneath the sea. The water churned violently as the creature committed everything to the strike.
The Gundam's eyes flared red.
With a sharp shift of stance, Daniel raised one arm. Energy condensed, and a blade formed in his grasp—long, luminous, humming with restrained force.
The machine moved.
Not wildly. Not clumsily.
Precisely.
The sword flashed in clean arcs, each swing perfectly timed. Tentacles were severed mid-strike, crashing back into the sea in heavy coils. Black blood sprayed across the waves as the Kraken shrieked again, pain and rage twisting together.
But then Daniel noticed it.
The cut ends of the tentacles twitched.
They writhed—and began to grow.
"…Regeneration?" Daniel muttered, eyes narrowing. "Didn't know you had that trick."
The Kraken pressed the advantage, regrown limbs surging forward again, faster this time, more desperate. It roared and closed the distance, determined to overwhelm him through sheer mass.
Daniel exhaled once.
"Doesn't matter."
The Gundam's free hand shifted, armor plates sliding and folding with a heavy mechanical snap. The limb reshaped itself, compacting into a massive cannon. Dark energy gathered at its core, the air around it warping as power condensed.
The sea itself began to steam.
The Kraken sensed it too—tentacles hesitating for a fraction of a second.
Too late.
A beam of black energy erupted from the cannon, tearing across the surface of the ocean. The water vaporized instantly, leaving a glowing trench in its wake as the blast slammed into the Kraken's body.
The explosion was deafening.
Light swallowed the monster whole.
Tentacles disintegrated mid-regeneration, flesh unraveling under the force. The Kraken screamed one last time—short, broken, terrified—before the blast consumed it entirely.
The sea collapsed inward, waves crashing back into the void where the creature had been.
Silence followed.
The Gundam lowered its arm, steam rolling off its armor.
"Monster eliminated," then struck an unnecessarily dramatic victory pose, as if the entire ocean were an audience.
"Yahoooo!" Daniel whooped inside the cockpit, laughter spilling out of him. "I've always wanted to do this—can't believe I actually got to pilot a Gundam and fight a monster!"
He pumped a fist in the air as the waves settled below.
"Love you, Uncle," he added breathlessly. "Dream officially checked off."
*****
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