One Piece: Dungeon Shop. Scamming Garp, Reward: Eight-Tails Jinchuriki-Chapter 322: Touching the Dragon’s Inverse Scale, Jessie’s Death-Defying Moment

Chapter 322: Chapter 322: Touching the Dragon’s Inverse Scale, Jessie’s Death-Defying Moment

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Chapter 322: Touching the Dragon’s Inverse Scale, Jessie’s Death-Defying Moment

The thick, heavy dust within the Pewter Gym began to settle, coating the floor in a fine grey silt. In the center of the cratered arena, the massive Onix remained motionless, its mountainous stone head buried deep within the floorboards. A single, agonizing twitch of its tail signaled the end; the titan of stone had completely lost its will to fight.

Silence, absolute and suffocating, gripped the hall. Brock , the Pewter City Gym Leader, stood frozen. His gaze drifted from the jagged, terrifying crack splitting his Onix’s hardened jaw to the small, crimson fish on the other side of the field. The Magikarp stood—if a fish could be said to stand—with an air of predatory arrogance, its red scales gleaming under the gym’s spotlights without a single scratch or chip. In that moment, the logical foundations of Brock’s world didn’t just crack; they disintegrated.

"I... I lost," Brock whispered, his voice like grinding gravel.

With movements as mechanical as a programmed droid, he reached into his vest and produced a small, octagonal grey stone—the Boulder Badge. He walked toward the trembling Lilly, his footsteps echoing in the hollow gym. As he handed over the badge, he wasn’t just giving her a trophy; he was handing over a piece of his shattered sanity.

"This... this belongs to you now," he muttered, his eyes never leaving the fish.

Back in Foosha Village at Makino’s Partys Bar, the atmosphere was electric. Fleet Admiral Sengoku was practically leaning into the screen, his fingers digging into the wooden counter. His face was a mask of pure, unadulterated disbelief as he stared at the "dead-fish king" who was currently eyeing the Pokémon world with the disdain of a conqueror.

"Is that... is that really a Magikarp ?" Sengoku stammered, his voice climbing an octave. "By all known laws of nature, that thing should be useless! All it does is Splash! So how in the five seas did it just perform a ground-shaking Tackle like some kind of armored battering ram?"

"Bwahahahaha!" Monkey D. Garp roared, his laughter booming so loudly it rattled the bottles on the shelves. The Marine Hero was doubled over, clutching his stomach as he nearly slid off his stool. "Look at him! Even as a fish, Kaido is still a stubborn bstrd! That’s the ’Strongest Creature’ for you!"

Sengoku ignored him, rubbing his temples as he spiraled into a deep skepticism of biology. "This isn’t scientific. This violates every rule of the Dungeon Shop system... or perhaps, it’s the ultimate proof of it."

Lilly stepped out of the gym, the cool evening air of Pewter City hitting her flushed face. In one hand, she clutched the heavy Boulder Badge ; in her other arm, she cradled the surprisingly heavy Kaido. The setting sun bled across the horizon, painting the sky in shades of bruised purple and gold.

She raised the badge toward the fading light, her eyes shining with a mix of leftover terror and new-found pride. "I did it! I got my first badge!" she shouted, her voice ringing out across the quiet street. "I’m really going to do it... I’m going to become a Pokémon Master!"

Kaido gave a sharp, annoyed twist in her arms and blew a face-full of pond water directly into her eyes. Shut up, you noisy brat, his dead-fish eyes seemed to say.

Yet, as he felt the girl’s heart racing against his scales—a rhythm of pure, unshielded joy—something shifted. Deep within the frozen, jagged tundra of the Yonko’s soul, a microscopic spark of recognition flickered. This tiny human, who had been ready to bolt in terror, had stayed. She had commanded him. Perhaps... she wasn’t entirely a waste of space.

The moment of peace was short-lived. A sudden, neon-pink explosion of smoke erupted from the alleyways, swirling around them in a gaudy, chemical mist.

"Prepare for trouble!" a sharp, feminine voice rang out.

"And make it double!" a melodic male voice echoed.

Three figures emerged from the fog, striking poses so flamboyant they would have made Doflamingo blush.

"To protect the world from devastation!" "To unite all peoples within our nation!" "To denounce the evils of truth and love!" "To extend our reach to the stars above!" "Jessie!" "James!" "Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!" "Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth, that’s right!" the talking cat added with a wicked grin.

At the bar, Garp was literally crying tears of laughter. "What the f*ck are those three?! They look like they fell out of a circus and hit every branch on the way down!" 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Kaido, however, wasn’t laughing. His pupils narrowed into pinpricks. He didn’t know who these fools were, but he recognized the stench of "trouble" anywhere.

"Weezing, go! Use Smokescreen !" James shouted, tossing a sphere.

Acrid, black soot filled the air, blinding Lilly instantly. In the chaos, a massive mechanical claw—painted with a mocking red "R"—shot down from a hidden hot air balloon.

"Ah!" Lilly cried out as the metal pincer slammed into her. She was knocked sideways, her knees scraping painfully against the pavement. The impact tore Kaido from her arms. Before he could even flop, a specially reinforced, insulated net dropped from the sky, entangling him in its cords.

"Give him back!" Lilly sobbed, reaching toward the ascending balloon. "Give me back my partner!"

"Finders keepers, brat!" Jessie cackled from the basket, looking down with a sneer.

In the bar, the atmosphere had turned cold. The pirates were no longer laughing; seeing a child bullied by such underhanded tactics sparked a low, dangerous rumble of indignation. Even Doflamingo adjusted his shades, his smile turning sharp. "Crude... but effective. I suppose there’s a certain charm to such shamelessness".

High above, Jessie began to rummage through the net. "Alright, let’s see what kind of ’powerhouse’ this kid was hiding!" She dumped the contents onto the floor of the basket.

Her face fell. Her excitement turned into a mask of pure, vitriolic disgust. She looked down at the red fish flopping helplessly at her feet.

"Are you kidding me?!" she shrieked. She reached down, grabbed Kaido by the tail, and hoisted him up like a piece of stinking laundry. "All that effort for a Magikarp? This is the world’s weakest waste! All it does is Splash around like a moron! It’s utterly useless! Even if we made it into sashimi, there’d be more bone than meat! You garbage fish!"

The insults hit Kaido with the force of a physical beating. Garbage. Useless. Waste. The image of being hung from a tree like "cured meat" by Doflamingo flashed in his mind. The humiliation of being poked by a Rattata. The shame of being squeezed by a common stone snake. It all built up into a singular, white-hot point of absolute, world-ending fury.

"Jessie , don’t waste your breath on a stupid fish, meow," Meowth said, pointing toward a grimy sewer grate below. "Just toss it in the gutter where it belongs".

"Hmph. You’re right," Jessie sneered. She swung Kaido toward the edge of the basket, ready to discard the Yonko like a piece of trash.

That was the final mistake.

The dead-fish king’s eyes, once dull and vacant, suddenly flared with a terrifying, crimson light. His pupils contracted into lethal slits. The dragon’s inverse scale had been touched.

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