Luffy felt a continuous stream of strength emerging from all over his body.
This indomitable, cockroach-like resilience had been trained into him since childhood.
He vaguely remembered being thrown into bottomless chasms by his grandpa, left in dangerous forests, and tied to balloons and set adrift in the sky.
He was just missing the activation!
As the saying goes, a famed master produces a stellar disciple. Luffy's foundation was laid by his grandfather, the Marine Hero Garp.
Whether as a Marine or a pirate, the most important thing on the high seas is vitality.
If your vitality isn't tenacious enough, you're very likely to fail, or even die, when facing someone of a higher caliber.
If your vitality is tenacious, you can stand up again and again, breaking through your limits each time.
Luffy's vitality had taken another small leap. Facing the cannonball flying through the sky, he grinned. "Gomu Gomu no... Balloon!"
He sucked in a huge breath of air, inflating his abdomen.
The cannonball flew over, hit him, and was directly bounced back.
The Marines on the deck watched in wide-eyed shock as the cannonball they had fired came flying back at them.
"W-what's going on?"
"It's a Devil Fruit user!"
Roddy, seeing this, immediately recognized it. As a Lieutenant Commander from Marine Headquarters, his expression turned grave.
A Devil Fruit user had appeared in the tiny East Blue?
Must be another lucky individual from somewhere.
Cannonballs would just become the enemy's weapon. In that case, they would resort to boarding action!
"Bring the ship alongside them!" Roddy roared.
On the other side.
The commotion was loud enough to wake Nami.
All that racket first thing in the morning, didn't they let anyone sleep?
But to be honest, she had slept fitfully last night.
The words "Arlong" were practically a nightmare to her. The moment she saw Bellemere's photo, she remembered the scene of Bellemere being killed by Arlong's own hand to protect her and Nojiko. That's why she had been so agitated.
Afterwards, the image of Luffy's earnest face kept popping into her mind.
Partner.
To a certain extent, Nami found these two words quite repulsive.
Having grown up around the seas, Nami had seen plenty of pirates who talked about being partners one second, only to stab each other in the back the next.
A girl's heart is always a bit more delicate. If Nami were some naive, sheltered girl, she would have probably been captured by slavers and sold to nobles long ago. How could she have single-handedly gathered nearly 100 million Berries by now?
But she genuinely felt that Luffy regarded her as a partner.
It was precisely because of this that Nami was conflicted.
After years of deceit and treachery, suddenly someone appears who is completely open with you... Nami found herself softening.
Under normal circumstances, she would have long since found an opportunity to sneak away with the treasure.
Luffy said partners should help each other.
But Arlong's strength was deeply ingrained in her mind. Over the years, how many Marines had come to capture the Arlong Pirates, only to be sunk, ship and all, before they even got close?
Could Luffy and Zoro really help her defeat Arlong, save the villagers of Cocoyasi Village, and in doing so, save her from that nightmare?
If it were any other pirate crew, Nami might have tried to redirect the trouble, setting them against the Arlong Pirates.
In her eyes, whoever won would just be a case of dog-eat-dog.
But... Luffy's smiling face surfaced in her mind, and she just couldn't bring herself to be that ruthless.
"Get a grip. Do you really think of yourself as his navigator now?"
Nami patted her cheeks, then opened the door and walked out.
She looked up and saw Luffy leaping into the air.
Then, a fist large enough to blot out the sky appeared within her field of vision.
"Th-that's huge..." Nami's jaw dropped.
...
Can a rubber man become a giant?
That was the question Luffy had been pondering yesterday.
Before, he felt his moves were sufficient and there was no need to spend more time thinking about such things.
But yesterday, if he didn't concentrate fully on experimenting with his ability development, the countdown would sound in his ears the moment his mind wandered.
The reaction was immediate.
It gave him absolutely no time to be lazy.
So, in just one day, Luffy had figured out this new move.
Named,
"Gomu Gomu no Giant Pistol!"
On the Marine ship, the soldiers from Headquarters were preparing to show their prowess when they suddenly looked up and saw a sky-obscuring fist descending from above.
"Are you kidding me?!"
"Why is there a giant in the East Blue?"
"It's not a giant, it's a Devil Fruit ability!"
"Open fire!"
Roddy's eyes widened, and he quickly gave the order.
Where the hell had he been sent?
Anyone would think he'd wound up on the Grand Line.
Giants were pure stat monsters.
As they say, size is justice.
Among the Marines, even a slightly larger size offered a clear advantage. It was even more true among pirates; most of the famous, great pirates were huge brutes.
In a small sea like the East Blue, this was simply a case of overwhelming superiority.
Have you ever seen a fist the size of a sandbag?
Well, maybe not a sandbag, but a fist roughly the size of a Marine warship was coming right at them.
Bullets were utterly useless against the gigantic fist.
Damn it.
"Tekkai!" Roddy shouted, his face grim.
After all, he was an officer from Headquarters; he knew a move or two from the Rokushiki.
Roddy had graduated from the training camp and had been diligently practicing this one technique.
Tekkai is invincible!
"Bring it on!"
Roddy met the Giant Pistol head-on. The moment it made contact, his face contorted, and along with him, over half of the Marine warship was destroyed.
Encounters between pirates and Marines were just that brutal.
If it were any other pirate crew, after achieving such a result, they would slaughter and plunder everything.
If this were a few years later with something like the Cross Guild, they might even arrest the Marines to claim a bounty.
Doing something that turned the world upside down.
However, Luffy and his crew had no such thoughts.
As long as the Marines lost the ability to pursue them, that was enough.
"Our captain is that powerful?"
Usopp's eyes shone.
Why did someone else's moves have to be so cool!
A giant... he'd actually seen one, even if it was just a fist.
"It's cool alright, but aren't the side effects a bit too big?" Zoro couldn't help but stare at the figure falling from the sky.
"...Catch me, you two bastards!" Luffy yelled.
The move was indeed cool, but the side effects were no joke. He had shrunk down to the size of a child.
The only comforting thing was.
[Automatically adjusting based on physical condition and status. After resting for three minutes, please replenish with food for half an hour...]
I... I can eat?
Could we have a few more fights like this?
No, the current problem is whether someone can catch him.
Even he would feel pain if he fell from this height!
"Honestly, the moment I'm not around, you all cause trouble."
Nami snorted lightly. Luffy felt himself land on something soft, and then he was lifted up.
Held high.