Disclaimer: There will be three parts to the Kuja chapters. However, due to the word limit, each part will cover two pages. To avoid confusion, I will label the next page with the heading "Continued." (‾◡◝)
*****
"I was so close," Luffy said with a surprising amount of calm considering the situation he found himself in. He was in one of three small boats that were carrying the entire crew of the cargo ship.
"WE'RE GONNA DIE!"
"LOOK AT THOSE MASSIVE TEETH!"
All around him, people were panicking and screaming for their lives as they watched the many terrifying Sea Kings destroying and devouring their cargo ship.
"STOP SCREAMING AND MAKING NOISE, YOU IDIOTS!" the captain of the sinking cargo ship yelled. Only then did everyone fall silent, realizing they were just attracting the attention of the Sea Kings. Unfortunately, it was far too late for such a warning; the Sea Kings had already noticed them, and it was only a matter of minutes before they would be targeted.
Many of the massive Sea Kings didn't care. They simply looked away, enjoying their sunbathing. However, the smaller ones—relative to the giants, though still about twice the size of the sinking ship—watched them as they continued to destroy the vessel.
Meanwhile, Luffy was just sighing in frustration. According to the captain, they were almost at East Blue. Just ten more days of sailing in their three-month-long journey, and they would have made it. He was that close to home.
It had been a very boring three-month journey as the ship had to cross over the Calm Belt from the South Blue end, then cross the Grand Line perpendicularly, and then cross the Calm Belt, which bordered the East Blue. They were currently in the second Calm Belt after having successfully sailed through the first Calm Belt and also the Grand Line, and during the entire journey, Luffy had been utterly bored, as there was nothing much to do.
He couldn't train in any meaningful way as he would break the ship, so he had spent his time just activating and deactivating Gear 2, blowing just a bit of air and channelling it around his bones, practising air walk, meditating to train Observation and lastly, his favourite activity to do on the ship - mastering new voices by modifying his larynx.
He had become kinda obsessed with it and would spend day and night perfecting new voices. He had even bought a recorder on Myte Island so that he could record himself doing all sorts of impressions of people ranging from artists in Leo's world to Ace and even his grandpa. He would then play it back to himself to hear if he sounded like whoever's impression he was doing, and if not, perfect it.
Other than that, there wasn't anything else to do. He couldn't get off on any island as they were on the Calm Belt for the majority of their journey. He had already experienced being on it when he was with Reiju, but they were basically on a small moving city, and he had Reiju to spend time with, so he hadn't felt bored then. But on the cargo ship, it was utterly boring as all he could do was stare at the unnaturally calm sea.
He had thought that at least while passing through the Grand Line, they would stop at some islands where he could have some fun, but they hadn't stopped at even a single island. Many small and secret sea currents helped ships to traverse certain parts of Paradise faster, which they were using. Luffy had whined to the captain about this and he had laughed saying that if they didn't have these fast and secret sea currents, there wouldn't be any cargo ships going into any of the other Blues as they would be too scared of the unpredictable weather, would take too much time, and also be afraid of pirates. It made sense to Luffy, and he had begrudgingly accepted it.
So that's why the ship had just gone through the Grand Line perpendicularly without even stopping at any island and had reached the other Calm Belt, where boring days had continued. Although Luffy hated the boredom, he was also kinda glad that nothing had happened during the journey that would have delayed him… but unfortunately for him, things went wrong just days before he could reach his home.
The ships did have a sea stone lining at the bottom, which made them invisible to the Sea Kings below the surface, but in their case, the Sea Kings had suddenly emerged out of the sea right in their path, and upon spotting the ship, they had immediately attacked. One bit off a good chunk of the bottom of the hull before Luffy could do anything, and thus, the crew had abandoned ship and escaped onto the lifeboats. Of course, it was just a matter of minutes before the Sea Kings would attack them too, but the captain was hoping that the Sea Kings would only be interested in the big ship and ignore them.
"Everyone!" the captain whispered, getting the attention of all the people in the three boats, "The only way we'll survive this is by splitting up. All three of our boats will go in different directions, and it's just a game of luck to see who the Sea Kings follow…"
Everyone paled, gulping in fear and apprehension, realizing that they would be using each other as bait. The captain sighed sadly as he continued, "We all knew the dangers of traversing these seas… I'm sorry, but some of us will not survive this…" he trailed off, but then chuckled darkly, "Who knows? There are multiple Sea Kings here, so they might also split up and come after all of us…so…I guess this is it…"
Some sobbed, some became angry, and some accepted their deaths… and that's when Luffy spoke up in a reassuring tone, "Calm down, I'll take care of this. You all start rowing in the same direction."
"…What do you mean you'll take care of this?" the captain, who was on an adjacent boat, asked, confused.
Luffy grinned, showing his fist, "I'll just fight 'em off. Then, we can all go"
"Are you crazy?!" half of them yelled in disbelief and instantly covered their mouths, remembering that they shouldn't scream.
Luffy continued unbothered, "Oleg is the only decent navigator here who can get us out of the Calm Belt, right? Anyone not with him will just get lost and die in the Calm Belt even if the Sea Kings don't attack them."
"Well, you're not wrong…" the captain said, unsure of how to respond, but shook his head when he realized just what Luffy was proposing, "Still?! You want to fight," he gestured to the ferocious Sea Kings ripping and chewing parts of their ship, "Them?!"
"Yep!" Luffy grinned, knowing it would be a great fight as he grabbed the oars and started rowing towards the Sea Kings. The people in his boat all started screaming and dissuading him, but when he didn't stop, they jumped off and swam to the other boats, leaving him all alone.
"Come back! You'll kill yourself!" / "Luffy, don't!"
Most of them had become good friends with him and were trying to dissuade him, but Luffy just continued rowing towards the Sea Kings.
"Shut up, all of you!" the captain yelled at his crew before looking at Luffy with teary eyes, "This young man is sacrificing his life to buy us some time so that we could all escape!"
The rest of them went wide-eyed as they wrongly realized that that was exactly what Luffy was trying to do and became teary-eyed too. And soon, all of them started sobbing and praising him.
"Oh, Luffy…brave young man…" / "I knew he was a great man. He always made us laugh…" / "Luffy! Do you have any last words? I'll make sure to relay it to the people back at your home!"
Some of them started saying that they should go to him and get him back, but the captain silenced their protests by saying, "Do you want to make light of his sacrifice?! He's doing this for us, and you want to throw it all in his face?!"
Luffy, on the other hand, was internally chuckling hearing them come to all sorts of conclusions, but he was more interested in fighting the monstrosities in front of him to care about correcting them, so he ignored them. As he got closer, the Sea Kings stared at him and he waved at them with a smile, "Yo! I'm Luffy. Nice to meetcha!"
As Luffy expected, not even a second later, one of them started moving towards him with its jaw open, intent on devouring him. Luffy cracked his knuckles with a grin as it came closer and started winding his arm up.
"Shishishishi this is gonna be fun… Gum Gum Pistol!" he yelled as he launched his fist at the approaching Sea King's jaw, making its head snap upwards.
"GROAHH!" the Sea King roared in pain as it got shoved back, and before it could even reorient itself, Luffy airwalked right in front of its face. Just as the Sea King's head came down, it saw the grinning face of Luffy and a very long stretched arm behind him.
"Bullet!" Luffy's fist landed right on its forehead, making it let out another roar of pain. Luffy sensed something coming from behind him, so he quickly kicked off the air just as another Sea King's jaw snapped at where he was a second earlier. He looked at the Sea King's snout that was right below him and got a mischievous idea. He grinned as he wrapped one arm around its snout, essentially locking its mouth shut.
The Sea King was surprised and shook its head sideways, trying to shake him of,f which only made Luffy swing wildly in the air. Several Sea Kings, all similar in size, had come near them while Luffy was swinging around wildly, so he took that opportunity to use the momentum of the swinging against them as he whipped several Sea Kings one by one by just stretching his limbs and letting the Sea King do all the work. The Sea King, he had wrapped his arm around, stopped when it realized what was happening and growled dangerously at him.
Luffy didn't care as he then landed on another Sea King's head and yanked the one he had wrapped his arm around towards himself, which resulted in the two Sea Kings crashing into one another.
"Parkour! Parkour!" Luffy cried out in glee as he jumped from one Sea King to the next, whipping and stomping them any chance he got while all the Sea Kings scrambled to get a bite out of him. He kept making them crash into one another, thereby starting fights amongst them, as he laughed and dodged any attacks from them while delivering blow after blow. He mainly targeted their forehead or the area right between their eyes, where it would hurt them the most and also leave them dazed for a short while. Their hides were extremely thick, so anywhere else on their body would need much harder punches and kicks to hurt them in any way.
After a few minutes of fighting, he had successfully gotten the attention of all the Sea Kings that had initially attacked their cargo ship, and when he glanced towards the side, he saw that the two boats were moving away at a fast pace, with not even a single Sea King following them. His plan had worked. All he had to do now was to keep them occupied for a bit longer until the boats were sufficiently far away, and then he could just jump high up and airwalk back to the boats.
Fortunately, the massive Sea Kings just stayed in place without interfering as the smaller ones were all fighting Luffy. Unfortunately, though, one of the Sea Kings Luffy was fighting suddenly turned its attention towards the two escaping boats. Knowing that they would die if he let it go, he landed on one of the dazed Sea King's head before biting into his thumb. "Gear Third!"
All of the Sea King's eyes bulged out when a sudden Giant arm manifested out of nowhere and watched in bewilderment as Luffy's giant hand grabbed the head of the Sea King that was about to head towards the boats.
"Groah?!" the Sea King whined in shock and confusion as it felt a hand grabbing its head and then felt itself being lifted out of the sea. Luffy groaned as he put all his strength into lifting the Sea King, and then swung it in an arc above his head before whipping it onto another Sea King.
"Gum Gum Sea King Hammer!" he yelled while grinning as he used the poor Sea King as a battering ram against its brethren. The Sea King he was standing on was still in a daze, so Luffy kept going. It was very straining as his Gear 3 arm was already heavy and he was adding the weight of the Sea King on top of it, but he still wanted to do it because it seemed fun.
Sea King after Sea King got slammed into by one of their own as Luffy continued the onslaught. The Sea Kings didn't know what was happening until it was too late and the first one he had aimed at had comically gaped right before it got rammed into. The others, of course, tried to escape but since they were all gathered in one spot because of trying to get a bite out of Luffy earlier, they were all in Luffy's attack range. After the fourth one got rammed into though, they finally wizened up and started diving back into the sea. The one Luffy was standing on also regained its senses and dived into the sea, so he lost his foothold too.
"That's it I guess" he sighed letting go of the Sea King in his giant hand, which plopped down into the sea foaming at the mouth and slowly drowned.
Luffy kept jumping in the air knowing that his Gear 3 was gonna end soon and he needed a solid platform to land on because he would shrink and wouldn't be able to air walk in that form. He looked towards the two boats which were very far by now and realized he wouldn't be able to get to them in time. He looked around for the small boat he had been on and after not finding it, concluded that it had been destroyed by the fight. Thankfully, all his belongings were on him in a small sling bag that went across his chest.
As he kept looking around for a solid platform, a Sea King suddenly popped up right from below him at an incredible speed and tried to gobble him up. It was incredibly fast and had probably charged up from way below the surface. If Luffy didn't have Observation, he would have been swallowed up but fortunately, he sensed the attack from below and managed to dodge it, just barely though as his giant hand was a hindrance.
Luffy was just about to punch the Sea King when another Sea King suddenly popped out the same way, which he again barely managed to dodge. But then another Sea King's tail suddenly emerged from the sea and whipped him hard. Luffy sensed the attack too late and found himself soaring through the air, and at the same time, started deflating coming out of his Gear 3. The force of the tail whip plus the expulsion of air from his mouth made him soar through the sky in chaotic circles while his eyes tried to desperately search for a solid platform to land on.
That's when he caught sight of the massive Sea Kings that hadn't moved since they had surfaced. There were three of them and they were all just bathing in the sun without caring much for anything else.
They were pretty close too and seeing how they were the only things he could stand on, he launched one hand at the largest one and pulled himself onto its head. It was just in time too because as soon as he landed on its head, he plopped down panting hard in his shrunken form. Thankfully, the massive Sea King didn't even register that he had landed on its head while all the smaller Sea Kings that had taken a beating from him slowly reemerged from the sea and stared at him from below. But they didn't do anything else. 'Guess they're scared of the big one and don't want to disturb it?'
Sea Kings were never really explored much in the story, but they all seemed to have their personalities, so the one he was on currently probably didn't like it when someone disturbed its sunbathing and the smaller ones were probably too scared to disturb it.
He shrugged just happy that he was safe for now and looked for the boats. They were pretty far away almost looking like dots on the horizon but he could still see it, so he wasn't worried about getting lost. And all the smaller Sea Kings just stared at him from below not at all interested in anything else but him.
"That sure was fun…" he fell on his back grinning.
He just had to rest for a few minutes now to return to his original state and then he could just airwalk his way back to the boats. But then he suddenly realized that since the Sea Kings seemed to be interested in him, wouldn't they just follow him?
Just as a few minutes passed by and his body became normal again, he was sitting and wondering how to escape without the Sea Kings spotting him when all the Sea Kings that were eyeing him suddenly snorted in unison and turned their backs on him. Some dived back into the sea while others swam a bit away and continued to sunbathe.
"Umm, what just happened?" he wondered looking around for anything that could have maybe spooked them but didn't find anything. He looked at the massive Sea King he was perched upon and saw that one of its eyes was open and trained on him. He was sitting on its elongated snout, so its eyes could perfectly see him and it was looking right at him, not like a predator or in any hostile way, but just a normal stare. "…Did you tell the smaller ones to go away?" he asked and waited for a response but didn't get any.
"Hmmm" he crossed his arms and legs and wanting to talk to the Sea King, he started thinking about the Voice of All Things. When Leo died, there wasn't much in the story about the power but his story counterpart had heard Zunesha talking and also transmitted a message to Momo telepathically during the Onigashima Raid. But it had looked like even Bepo and the Heart pirates had heard him, so it was unclear if it was an application of Voice of All Things where he could just transmit messages to anyone or if it was some other application of Conqueror's. So he had no clue.
Logically, it was a power that he should have currently too as it didn't seem like he had to train in any sort of way to unlock it. Momo was a child and he had still done it, so physical strength didn't matter. Mental strength probably played a role as it gave headaches to story Luffy whenever he heard the Voice but he wasn't sure about that either.
Story Luffy's first instance of hearing Sea Kings was in Fishman Island, unless fillers were to be considered, then it would be him understanding Grandpa Ryu during the Warship Island Arc. Luffy was spiralling into all sorts of theories, so shook his thoughts of the story away and concentrated on his current self. He looked at the massive Sea King watching him and felt like maybe it was trying to tell him something.
'Did the others stop and go away because the big one told them to? If so, why? Was it because it could sense something in me? That I possessed the Voice? Or was it because it was amused that someone small like me had beaten them all? Or did it not like that so many Sea Kings were ganging up on me?'
The boats were still visible in the distance, so he thought he could afford a few more minutes and see if he could somehow hear it talking.
"Hello," he said standing up and waving at the Sea King with a smile, who still had an eye on him. "Can you try talking to me? I want to see if I can hear you"
The Sea King focused its eyes on him more clearly now but nothing else happened. "Hmm if you are talking, I can't hear you…"
The Sea King didn't make any movement and Luffy tilted his head thinking hard. "Voice of All Things?" he said hoping to get some sort of reaction from it but it just stayed silent and unmoving. "Can you transmit something to me telepathically? Can you understand what I'm saying?"
No reaction.
But then he said something that got a very massive reaction out of it. "Joyboy?"
Just as the word left his mouth, the Sea King jerked violently and both its eyes widened with shock looking intensely at Luffy. It started almost swaying and its body started trembling as if unable to control its excitement.
"Okay, that certainly seems to have gotten a reaction out of you" Luffy chuckled seeing the almost childlike enthusiasm in its eyes.
"So that means something to you, right? Can you now try talking to me? Is it telepathic? Voice-based? Or have you been doing it but I'm not able to hear you?"
It just stared at him while Luffy stared back wondering if it was saying something. The silence stretched on for a few seconds when the Sea King's body suddenly stopped trembling with excitement and went still. Then to Luffy's confusion, its eyes narrowed at him as if it was angry and it started growling. And a growl from this massive Sea King was very loud.
'…I shouldn't have said Joyboy?' he questioned himself with apprehension before the Sea King shook its snout violently making Luffy fall off. He airwalked in front of it hoping to understand what had made it angry and tried to start a dialogue "Umm I'm sorry. I don't know what I did wrong. I shouldn't have said that name? I don't know much about the name either and what it exactly represen-"
He didn't even get a chance to finish his sentence when its massive tail suddenly and quickly emerged from the sea and whipped him.
THWACK!
His Observation didn't even have a chance to sense the attack coming before he got sent flying far away by the sheer force. The earlier tail whip from the smaller Sea King was a love tap compared to this one as he flew far and fast. He tried to use air walk to stop the momentum, but the speed was much too great for it to work.
"…I'm blasting off… Man, is this what Team Rocket feels like every time?…" he trailed off with a sigh not even getting amused by his attempt to lighten the mood. The attack was unexpected and painful, and he realized that there was no way he could defeat such a massive Sea King the way he was now. He was thankful that they hadn't interfered while he was fighting the smaller ones.
As he flew, he wondered just what had gone wrong. It was probably trying to tell him something but when he wasn't able to hear it, it got angry? 'Did it think I was fooling it? Wouldn't it get confused rather than angry if I knew the name 'Joyboy' but didn't hear it? Had someone else tried that before? Was there a precedent?' He didn't have enough information to come to any conclusion, so shelved the topic for now.
And that's when he realized a major problem and his face paled. He had been whipped so far by the Sea King that he couldn't see it anymore. Which meant he didn't know where the boats were anymore.
"Nononono…." he paled as he desperately tried harder to stop his momentum by kicking the air. After a few tries, he slowed down considerably and finally managed to stop. While airwalking in place, he started turning in every direction hoping that he was still close enough to spot the Sea Kings but alas, he couldn't see them.
He started airwalking towards where he had flown in from and also jumped higher to get a better vantage point. A couple of minutes later, he could just make out tiny points on the horizon that looked like Sea Kings and let out a massive sigh of relief.
He tried to look for the boats but didn't spot them anywhere, so decided to go near the Sea Kings and then try to spot the boats from there. He would, of course, be high above the surface of the sea, out of range of any attacks from the Sea Kings. He also sucked in huge amounts of air before blowing it out to propel himself through the air in conjunction with airwalk. That way, he could 'fly' in the air for a much longer time without straining his legs too much. He was glad that this was the Calm Belt where there were virtually no winds. Anywhere else, he wouldn't be able to pull this stunt for long as the wind resistance would be too high.
As he got closer though, he could finally make out the appearances of the Sea Kings and realized in horror that this was a different group. Panic slowly started to set in when he started looking around turning in every direction, jumping as high as possible to spot any signs of the earlier group of Sea Kings or the boats… but he was out of luck.
He gulped in apprehension as he made his way towards the group of Sea Kings he had found and landed on the biggest one, which didn't even notice him. He sat down cross-legged and sighed deeply as he looked into the vast blueness that stretched on endlessly. He was lost. He was completely lost in the Calm Belt.
"…The fuck do I do now?…"
———
It had been a week since Luffy got lost in the Calm Belt. He had fortunately found a few broken pieces of a ship on the Sea Kings he had found at the beginning and had grabbed it to use as a raft. It was just a small square-shaped piece of wood on which he could barely lie down on, but it worked as a flotation device. And thus, he had drifted in the calm blue sea.
He wasn't aimlessly going in a random direction either as he was using the eternal poses he had to navigate. They pointed to an island in the Grand Line, so if he followed the pose, he would eventually exit the Calm Belt and enter the Grand Line but with his lack of a boat, he would capsize instantly. So, he was going in the opposite direction to where the pose pointed. That way, he would cross the Calm Belt and exit to the East Blue. But then again, the islands could be lined up such that he was going parallelly to the Calm Belt or lined up such that he was taking a very long diagonal path across the Belt, so he wasn't sure how long it would take for him to exit it, or if he was even going to exit it. The deviations on the pose were too small too, so he could just be going around in circles too and he would never know.
He just hoped his luck would help him here and rowed opposite to where the pose was pointing to. He did jump high up from time to time and see if he could spot anything, but apart from three more Sea King groups sunbathing, he had found nothing over the entire week.
Whenever he found a Sea King group, he airwalked to the largest one and tried to talk to it. He, of course, didn't mention 'Joyboy', but he tried to just communicate with them hoping that he could befriend one and then they could give him a ride out of the Calm Belt. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't hear anything and was unable to communicate with them. He still kept trying to concentrate though and even meditated hoping that he could eventually hear them. He was more of an instinctual learner and his powers usually unlocked in stressful and necessary situations, so he was sure if he was desperate enough, he would eventually unlock it.
He had found food only three times during the week and it was when he found the different Sea King groups. Some had wounds on them with exposed flesh, so just before he left the group, he quickly ripped a small chunk of flesh from the wounds and air walked away as fast as possible. He needn't have bothered though as the Sea Kings hadn't even noticed him.
Being all alone on such a calm sea not knowing if he would ever get out was terrifying, to be honest. At nights especially. Unnatural silence surrounded him as he couldn't hear any waves as there weren't any, couldn't hear any wind as there wasn't any… the only saving grace at those times were the stars and the moon. The tiny amount of light they splashed on this part of the sea was the only thing that kept him from going insane.
Things finally changed on the eighth day though. Early morning, just as the sun rose, Luffy's Observation flared up and he saw a reptilian Sea King emerging from the sea just meters away from him.
It had greenish-brown scales and looked like a reptile, more like a dinosaur really, with huge jagged teeth and fierce-looking eyes. Thankfully, it was the only one that had surfaced and wasn't enormous either.
"Oy vey" Luffy sighed when it spotted him and instantly came right for him. His makeshift raft probably looked like debris floating on the sea from below the surface, so he wasn't spotted that way. But he would of course be spotted when it emerged from the sea and then spotted him sitting on it.
"Hey, can you please talk to me?" he asked as he jumped from his raft and hovered in the air. But it didn't stop and came right at him with its maw open.
Seeing that it wasn't responsive, he didn't waste any time as he launched a Gum Gum Bullet right into its maw, making its head snap the other way. The Sea King groaned in pain and was stunned that it got hit, and more importantly that it hurt. It glared at Luffy after creating some distance between them, now more cautious of the prey and started circling him. He again tried concentrating and tried to hear it speaking but wasn't able to.
"Why do you want to eat me?" he whined when it lunged at him again and he dodged, "I'm the size of an ant to you, so what would eating me even achieve?!"
The Sea King huffed creating a gust of wind, seemingly understanding him and that's when Luffy felt a sudden pang of pain shoot through his head. He heard what sounded like gibberish noises but in between, he thought he could make out a word.
"…punched..."
Luffy was surprised when he heard a word and his face split into a massive grin as he thought that he had finally unlocked his power. In the story, he would always get confused and kept screaming 'Who's there?!' whenever he heard a voice, but currently, he was calmer and knew exactly what was happening. He thought that he could finally start a dialogue with it, so asked excitedly, "Punched? You're mad I punched you?"
He was hoping the Sea King would talk more but it suddenly lunged at him with its maw open, which Luffy of course dodged.
"Wait wait I can hear y-" he tried to talk as he kept dodging its attacks but it didn't care as it kept attacking. He decided he would beat it first and then talk to it, so started retaliating. But the Sea King immediately dived back into the sea when it looked like Luffy was getting serious leaving a jumping Luffy in the air.
Luffy sensed the creature with vigilance not knowing from where it would pop out but it just kept swimming underwater randomly. When he finally realized where exactly it was going, he cursed himself. It was going for his lifeline. His only saving grace, the broken piece of wood that had kept him afloat and alive… Before he could stretch his arm to grab it, it was swallowed up by the Sea King.
He kept kicking the air every two seconds making sure to keep himself calm and balanced so that he could keep the airwalk up for as long as possible, but seeing his raft get destroyed, he panicked knowing he needed something else to float on.
He eyed the scales, the teeth, the eyeballs of the Sea King that had resurfaced in front of him and wondered if they floated… he didn't think they would but he had to try at least. He was running on a timer too as he was losing stamina every second he spent in the air, so he quickly flung both his arms back and launched a Gum Gum Bazooka right in between its eyes faster than it could even blink.
The Sea King roared in pain as it got shoved backwards by his forceful attack. Luffy didn't let up as he kept manoeuvring in the air and launched a Gum Gum Stamp right on its head followed by a Gum Gum Spear which tore off a few pieces of its scales which promptly fell into the sea. He watched hopefully if the scales floated but unfortunately, they sunk.
The Sea King was initially overwhelmed and shocked that such a small human was hurting it, but soon its battle instinct awoke too, and finally saw the human in front of it as an equal instead of just prey. It saw his stretching limbs going for its mouth and when it found a chance, bit into one.
Luffy suddenly found one of his legs in the mouth of the Sea King and his face paled. The Sea King then spun its head taking Luffy on a wide arc before slamming him into the surface of the water.
Seeing the quickly approaching sea surface, Luffy quickly flung both his arms behind him and just as he was about to crash into the surface, used a Gum Gum Bazooka right on it. The force of the attack pushed him back up, and he immediately launched a fist at the surprised Sea King. The punch connected and it roared opening its mouth slightly, which was all he needed to yank his foot out. Thankfully, there were no puncture wounds on his leg and looked like it was just stuck between its teeth. He then jumped higher to get out of its range and calmed himself.
He stared at the Sea King, who looked angry that its plan hadn't worked, and knew he had to run away from it. He had almost died then. All it had to do was just dive into the water after catching one of his limbs again and he would be done for. He could use Gear Third and finish it in one punch but he would then shrink and also lose most of his strength afterwards, so he wouldn't be able to use air walk for a few minutes at least. Which would mean certain death in his situation.
Thus, he started airwalking away in a random direction hoping to find something else. He groaned when he saw that the Sea King was following him closely. "Looks like you want a fight huh? Just let me find something to stand on, and you'll get a fight"
He kept airwalking for a few minutes and was already feeling the strain in his legs. He was also sucking in huge amounts of air before blowing it out with force to propel him more in a single jump, thus reducing the burden on his legs somewhat.
'It would be great if I had a wingsuit right about now… Do they even have wingsuits in this world?' he thought as he flew in the air. He could just jump high and then glide everywhere, only using airwalk from time to time, and thus save a lot of energy while also being in the air for much much longer. But then he remembered that he was in the Calm Belt where there were no winds, so a wingsuit wouldn't be that useful… but still, anywhere else, it would be tremendously helpful and not to mention, he would look super cool gliding in the air. He promised himself that he would definitely get himself a wingsuit when he made it out of this predicament alive.
He kept air walking thinking about random things to keep his mind off of the pain he felt in his legs. It was already over its limit and he could feel his leg muscles tearing and screaming for rest. Airwalk was meant to be used just for short bursts of time, not continuously for an hour like he was currently doing. Using just airwalk, he would have reached his limit long ago, but as he also kept sucking and blowing air to propel himself, it alleviated some stress and thus, he was able to go on for so long. But he was reaching his limit.
His legs were bleeding by now as small tears had opened up and were already feeling like they were failing. But Luffy kept on jumping. He was forcing his body to obey his mind as he couldn't let himself die here.
And thankfully, his persistence paid off as he soon spotted a small dot on the horizon.
"Yess!" he cheered and immediately started going in that direction with increased vigour. It could be another group of Sea Kings sunbathing, a boat or a ship but he didn't care as long as it was something that let him stand and rest for a few hours. A few minutes later, he finally could make out that it was a ship causing him to cheer more, and a few more minutes after that, his enthusiasm dipped as he saw that it was two ships being pulled by Sea Serpents.
"Godfuckingdammit!" Luffy cursed realizing who the ships belonged to. "Why god why? I don't want to meet Hancock… Of all the people in the world, why her?"
He definitely did not want to run into her but he sighed in acceptance knowing he had no other choice currently. As he got closer to the ships, the more he felt anxious to meet Hancock. His legs, which were already pushed way past their limits and were barely holding on because of his strong resolve, faltered when his mind faltered. One jump in the sky failed and he found himself falling. He tried to kick with the other leg and it worked but the next kick failed again.
"Fucking work, legs! Don't fail me when I'm this close!" he cursed as he kept kicking and trying to stabilize himself in the air. He fell a good few meters but managed to stabilize himself and continued jumping, but because of this little mishap, he was closer to the surface of the sea now. In range of the Sea King that was still following him.
He sensed the tail coming at him way too late as he only had the time to turn his head in its direction before he was slammed with a tremendous amount of force. The Sea King had whipped him with its tail again. "Stop with the tail whipping already!"
He found himself flying at an incredible speed, his vision blurry because of it, but thankfully he had his observation and it looked like luck was on his side as he was sent flying towards the Kuja ship.
He felt his body crash into the deck as he heard the clear cracking and splintering of wood, and also heard loud surprised yelps from women. Before he could sigh in relief that he had landed somewhere solid, he felt something hit him hard right in his stomach, halting his momentum, in fact reversing it, and he found himself being flung away again the same way he had flown in. He only saw a very long leg dislodging from his stomach just before he got flung back and realized that someone on the ship had just kicked him back!
He definitely wasn't expecting that but didn't have time to think about it as he sensed that he was getting closer to the reptilian Sea King. He already had the momentum so thought he could use it to attack the Sea King, so adjusted his body to punch it, but his speed was too great for him to get a good stance and the Sea King again tail-whipped him back towards the ship.
"Are you kidding me right now?!"
He tried to desperately stop his momentum with airwalk but just wasn't successful because of the speed. He laid eyes on the ship that he was fast approaching and internally gasped when he saw a tall black-haired woman standing on deck… and he was heading straight at her.
The woman casually lifted her hand just before Luffy crashed into her and caught him by his neck. Luffy felt his neck being tightened in a death grip but since his body was rubber, his head and body comically stretched continuing its inertial movement… which resulted in his body crashing into her body and his head bashing against her head before they snapped back.
'...…'
Cold and dark eyes, long eyelashes that accentuated her face, black silky locks of hair that flowed down to her chin which framed her face beautifully, her high forehead which was currently turning a bit red courtesy of the head butt, gold-snake-shaped earrings that gently moved as her face moved from side to side as her annoyed eyes studied him - It was the most beautiful woman in the world, Boa Hancock, and he had just unintentionally smashed his head against hers. The only thought running through Luffy's mind then was 'Fuuucck….'
Luffy liked Hancock from the story. She's bitchy at the beginning with how she kicks cute puppies and kittens, treats her own people like garbage and turns them into stone, but she does get better once her heart melts because of him. She was amazing, strong and seeing her in real life made him realize that her title as the World's Most Beautiful Woman was deserving of her… BUT, he wanted to avoid the whole falling in love thing.
He definitely did not want her to fall in love with him. It was just giving her false hope as he had no intention of ever seriously considering a relationship, let alone marriage. He wanted to go on adventures, always be on the seas, and only after he became the Pirate King would he even consider the idea of a romantic relationship.
She was an amazing woman and she deserved better than someone who couldn't reciprocate the kind of intense feelings she got for him in the story. And so, he had decided that he would do everything in his power to avoid meeting her if possible, but if they did end up meeting, he would befriend her, because she's very cool and he would love to have her as a friend, but make sure not to say things that would make her fall in love with him romantically.
"Sorry…" was the first thing he said to her when she started rubbing her forehead with her free hand.
"How dare y-" she began but a loud feral growl came from behind Luffy interrupting her and he turned his head around 180 degrees on reflex… before realizing what he had done and cursed himself. He didn't miss the slight twitch of her hand still holding onto his neck. 'Did she just flinch because of the unnatural head twist? Or is she mad I ignored her and turned?… I hope it's the first one…'
He shook his paranoid thoughts away as he saw the reptilian Sea King in the distance still glaring at him, but not coming anywhere near them. The Sea Serpents that were pulling the ships growled softly and the reptilian Sea King just huffed and dived back in.
'Okay… Guess that's that…' Luffy thought as he turned his head back and looked at Hancock who was looking at him with anger and annoyance, 'Now gotta deal with this…'
"Umm Hi. Thanks for saving me"
Hancock scowled in disgust as if just hearing his voice made her skin crawl and dropped him. Luffy felt his feet touching the deck and tried to keep his balance, but his legs gave out and he fell to his knees.
"How dare you intrude upon the Kuja ship?!" two other women growled coming forward brandishing their swords and naginatas at him.
"Did I look like I had a choice?" Luffy deadpanned giving them unimpressed gazes only now noticing the dozens of other women that were on deck, even recognizing a few faces from the story, "The Sea King just punted me here…"
"How unsightly!" Hancock cut in silencing everyone. "Not only do you intrude upon our ship, but you also have the gall to attack me?!"
"I'm sorry" Luffy bowed his head to her "That was just a mistake as you probably know. And I'm completely lost in the Calm Belt, so I came towards your ship when I spo-"
"Silence!" Hancock declared loudly making him sigh internally. "Get rid of this man right now" she simply said to the others as she turned and walked back towards a cabin door not even giving him a second glance.
"Yes, Snake Princess!" the others practically sang and Luffy willed his legs to move as he tried to stand up. At this point in the story and before he changes her with his words and actions, Hancock was quite cruel and doesn't even mind killing her own people. He knew there was no talking to her and in the state he was in, the others would just kill him immediately.
He stretched his arm and grabbed the top of the mast before pulling himself up. He stood on top of the sails, his legs protesting for rest as he studied the entire deck of the ship.
"His hand stretched?!" / "Did you see that?! Did his hand really stretch?!" the women freaked out over his devil fruit powers while he studied the layout and weapons of everyone. There were at least 30 women on deck, all warriors, the best of the best from their entire tribe, and they were all gonna try to kill him in a few seconds. There was no possible way he could actually get out of this without a fight unless he revealed to Hancock that he knew about her brand mark and history, and he wasn't gonna stoop that low. Even if he did, she would most probably personally kill him the moment he mentioned it, and Hancock was leagues stronger than himself, so he wouldn't be able to resist.
Hancock had also stopped when she saw that he was a fruit user and realized that the earlier head butt was unintentional as she stared at him with her dark calculating eyes.
"Get back down here so that we can kill you!" one of the warriors shouted just as another threw a spear at him. Luffy caught the spear when he saw multiple women also pulling their hands back intent on launching spears at him. The rain of spears and also arrows started and he deflected them all with the spear he had caught while trying to maintain a steady foothold as his legs were shaking. His stomach was also rumbling, so he needed food more than anything now as fighting them all on an empty stomach was suicidal.
"I can just leave if you let me rest a couple of hours!" he yelled at Hancock, who was still staring at him.
"You're a Marine?" Hancock glowered as she saw him using Iron Body to tank some of the projectiles being launched at him, and also saw him airwalking earlier.
"Hell no! I'm not a Marine!" he yelled back on reflex.
"You're clearly using Marine techniques. You're a liar too I see. Like all men"
"Just because I use a Marine technique doesn't mean that I'm a Marine. I just saw Marines using it and learned it by myself. I'm a pirate!"
"Quiet, man. It does not matter whether you are a Marine or not. You still intruded upon our ship where no man is allowed to step one foot on. So you have to die."
"I had no choice… I was lost in the Calm Belt for days" he whined, "Can't you make an exception? It's not like we're on Amazon Lily right? We're on the sea on a shi-"
"Stop talking" Hancock coldly ordered before flicking her hair back and looking at her warriors. They didn't need her to say anything to get the message 'Kill him' as they nodded their heads saying "Yes, Snake Princess!"
Luffy sighed tiredly. He knew she wouldn't budge so just focused on his legs knowing he would have to fight his way out of this. One of his legs was useless as it was bleeding profusely with vessels burst internally, while the other was just a few jumps away from becoming useless too. He looked around himself and other than the other Kuja ship, there was nothing in sight. He thought of just running somewhere inside the ship and hiding for some time, but they had Haki, so that wouldn't work either.
Fortunately or Unfortunately, his solution came in the form of surprised yelps of shock from the women on the other ship. Many were standing on the deck while pointing at him with bewilderment and curious eyes. He didn't have time to think as to why they were acting like that as a person jumped from that ship and landed on the mast right across from him. A huge head, green glossy hair, a snake-like tongue sticking out of her mouth, and beautiful mesmerizing green eyes - It was Boa Sandersonia.
"A man?" she questioned tilting her head, "How did you get here?"
"Sonia!" Hancock called out getting her attention and only then did Sandersonia seem to notice that she was also on deck.
"Ah Sister"
"Get rid of the man!" she said dismissively before turning on her heel and retired into her room having had enough with Luffy.
"Yes, Sister" Sandersonia nodded politely before looking back at Luffy, who just sighed deeply before getting into a fighting stance.
"You want to fight?" she asked amused. She had already noticed his legs and knew that he was in no condition to fight.
"Not really. But you are trying to kill me, so I have no choice"
"Why did you even come here then? Thought you could kidnap one of us?" she asked with a glare but it turned into confusion when she heard what he said next.
"A Sea King punted me here…"
"…Huh?"
"Were you asleep or something? Everyone here saw that. The Sea King and Hancock even played a round of tennis using me as the ball"
Sandersonia actually laughed at that "You're kidding, right?"
"No, Sandersonia-sama. The man speaks the truth," one of the warriors informed, "He was whipped here by a Sea King… Also, his arms stretch unnaturally long"
"Damn, I wish I had seen that. I was below deck…" she said amusedly clicking her tongue. "And you stretch?"
"Yep" Luffy said demonstrating it by stretching his lips causing the women to get more bewildered.
" Ah I see"
He saw that she was at least hearing him out, so tried to bargain with her. "Can we not do this? I was lost in the Calm Belt for more than a week now and I finally found you. Just let me rest for a couple of hours, maybe give me a broken piece of wood to use as a boat and some food and directions, and I'll leave…"
"No can do. Sister has spoken" Sandersonia shook her head sadly. She could at least sympathize with his situation and thought he was really pitiful to have garnered her sister's ire.
"Guess I have no choice then. I can't die here" he sighed as he removed the sling bag hanging on his chest and threw it in the crow's nest to keep it safe before getting into his fighting stance.
"It's cute that you think you have a chance"
Sandersonia lunged at him intent on punching him into the sea and ending the fight quickly, but Luffy moved his upper body just enough so that he dodged her before delivering an uppercut to her chin. She was too surprised by the fact that he had dodged to even notice his hand coming at her and thus, she was caught off guard and got shoved off of the top of the sails. The others were stunned at seeing one of the strongest warriors being punched, but Luffy knew that that hadn't done much to her. She was just caught off guard and had just lost her balance, that's all. As he expected, she jumped back within a couple of seconds while smiling. "So you have Haki too? That's rare for such a young person like you"
She lunged at him again being more careful this time. Luffy side-stepped and punched aiming at her face again, but she dodged that quite easily and aimed a kick at his legs. Luffy spun around her dodging the kick while aiming an elbow jab into her stomach, which she swatted away before bringing her hands above his head intent on slamming him down, but Luffy sensed that and kicked off the ground to accelerate and head butt her in the stomach, making her go off balance again. She jumped back surprised by the short spat.
"Pretty impressive Observation too. We're almost evenly matched" Sandersonia praised.
"Nah, I'm better" Luffy smirked, "I'm not using my legs much, so even with that handicap, I can still keep up with you"
"I just wasn't serious yet. Let me show you how I am when I'm serious" she smiled disappearing from Luffy's sight before he suddenly felt a very hard punch right in his gut. He got flung down towards the deck where he crashed unceremoniously and before he could even think, he saw Sonia flying straight at him with her leg outstretched. He turned and barely managed to dodge her kick before lifting his left hand defensively as he sensed Sonia's punch. He then sensed a kick aimed at his legs which he tried to intercept, but his legs were too slow and he felt the Haki-coated kick connect on his leg. He grit his teeth in frustration feeling the pain course through him. 'So this is what Haki-infused attacks feel like…'
"So? What do you have to say now?" she said in a mocking tone.
"Who said I was serious?" Luffy smirked at her before activating Gear 2. His body started steaming and Sandersonia's eyes widened as he disappeared from her sight but soon saw Luffy's eyes just centimetres away from her own before her forehead exploded with pain as he had just head-butted her. Luffy didn't let up on the attack as he grabbed her shoulders before throwing his head back and slammed his head against hers again, disorienting her. He didn't let go of her shoulders as he stretched his legs behind him and delivered a Jet Stamp straight into her gut. He then wound his legs around her waist before falling back. He twisted his upper body multiple times before his hands touched the deck and while doing a handstand, he lifted her off the deck using his legs and then let his body unwind, thus creating a lot of momentum before slamming her into the deck head first. The deck broke and created a hole to the below deck through which Sandersonia and Luffy fell.
This had all happened in the span of three seconds and Sandersonia was too disoriented from the head butt to notice anything else. She was still in a daze because of the continuous attacks to her head, and since they were below deck, Luffy ran away intent on finding food. He needed every ounce of energy to get out of his current predicament, so he limped around following his nose to sniff out any morsel of food. Almost all the women on the ship had gathered on deck to get a glance at him earlier, so the inside was pretty empty.
His nose soon led him to the kitchen which was filled with all sorts of food and he happily devoured sack after sack of food in the pantry not even seeing what he was eating. He only spotted that there were cooks at the counter cutting up some vegetables after he was done with his fourth sack and noticed that they were all staring at him with their mouths agape.
"Um Hi? I'm just gonna eat some stuf-"
"Kyaaaah! A man!" One finally screamed while some of the others brought out their weapons. He was hoping the cooks wouldn't be combat warriors at least but it looked like a majority of them were warriors. But compared to Sandersonia, these were weaklings so he continued stuffing his face in hoping to consume as much as possible before everyone else showed up because of the scream. The cooks didn't attack as they were too shocked watching Luffy stretch his mouth unnaturally wide and just shove everything at once before gulping it down. By the time the others arrived, Luffy had bulged up considerably and was now looking like a blown-up balloon.
"Haaah! That was delicious! You guys are good" Luffy praised them patting his bulged-up stomach. The ones who came in hearing the commotion also stood still staring in shock.
It was only when Sandersonia came that things changed. "What the heck? How did you become so fat?!"
"Just ate" Luffy answered before getting on his feet and compressing all the food into energy. His body took just 5 seconds to transform from its bulged-up state back to its normal state and he again got into a fighting stance seeing how he was pretty much surrounded.
"…Okay, your body is weird" Sandersonia said with a weird look.
"Are all men like this?" another asked.
"Of course not!" another shouted. "I've seen men before. They definitely could not do whatever he just did"
"Then how is this possible?"
Before Luffy could say anything, Sonia immediately pounced on him. Luffy, now with more energy, was faster and immediately activated Gear 2. He started dodging and attacking as fast and hard as he could while trying to use Armament too. It only worked sometimes, like one in 20 punches, he would successfully use a Haki-coated fist, but it was still way too weak. He still hadn't quite grasped the concept and wondered if he could learn anything from the current fight. He tried to feel how it felt whenever Sonia attacked him with Haki-coated attacks and started learning.
The two continued to fight making a complete mess of the kitchen as tables and benches were thrown everywhere. Sonia was in her human form and she couldn't perform any attacks that would damage the ship, so she wasn't using her full strength. And that gave Luffy a fighting chance against her. Even if her Haki-coated attacks hurt a lot, he saw it as a training exercise and tried to desperately coat himself in Haki too so that her attacks wouldn't hurt him too much. Again, it only worked once every few times.
The other women also started attacking with arrows and spears soon, so Luffy had to dodge all those while also fighting Sonia. Some came at him with fists too, and he used that against them by dodging at the last second and making them attack each other. They were veteran warriors though, so that plan didn't work much. He was losing, so decided to change the battlefield. He grabbed one woman who was attacking him and threw her at the others near the door, before quickly using Soru to run out of the kitchen. He got two arrows embedded in his back for this little stunt but he was out in the corridor now where attacks could come from only two sides and it would also hinder Sonia a lot as her huge body would be a downside in such a small space.
The fight become easier in the corridor as the spears and arrows could only come from two ends, and the small space also meant they couldn't gang up on him. He put up a strong fight for 20 minutes taking out a warrior one by one but Sonia was formidable even when her huge body hindered her. She finally grew tired of fighting in such an enclosed space, so made a run at Luffy and kicked him upwards with all the strength she could muster. Luffy broke through the ceiling and found himself outside again and landed on the deck panting hard. He was bleeding from pretty much everywhere but he was used to fighting in this state. He had trained himself by purposefully putting himself in similar states after all, so he stood back up with unbroken resolve.
Sonia also jumped out of the hole and stretched her body "Now this is more like it. Fighting in stuffy places is too constricting"
Luffy just stared at her and all the women behind her pulling their bows and spears back getting ready to attack. This was gonna be an all-out attack by them and Luffy was in his battered state. He felt his lips twitching upwards at seeing such a hopeless situation though.
"Why are you smiling?" Sonia asked bewildered and thinking he had something up his sleeve.
"I've been feeling rather hopeless these past few days… Getting lost, having my raft eaten, having a Sea King chase me when I couldn't fight back… It was frustrating to say the least. I'm more of a punch my problems kind of guy so when I couldn't punch the Sea King, I was really pissed… But now I find myself in another hopeless situation. But this time?" Luffy raised his fist with a smirk, "I can punch my problems"
"…You're weird. Most people would be begging for their lives or trying to run away"
"I just know that I'll come out of this stronger than before. Haven't really fought a strong opponent for a while, so this is good exercise"
"You're really treating this like an exercise? You do realize you're going to die here right? You're just extending the inevitable"
"Nah. I can't die until I become the Pirate King"
"You? Pirate king? Do you even have a crew?"
"Not yet. But I will soon"
"Well sorry to burst your bubble, but you're dying today"
Luffy let out a deep breath and relaxed all his muscles as he got ready for the toughest fight of his life yet. "No, thank you"
And then the assault began. Arrows and spears were launched continuously at him which he barely dodged because of his damaged legs. Many warriors leapt at him with their swords and naginatas, and Luffy was deflecting weapons making them attack each other, tanking hits, running around the deck and making sure he wasn't getting overwhelmed. He kept using his rubber powers to whip and twang his hand to attack many women at once while his legs bled out more and more. Sandersonia mainly kept trying to finish the fight by punching him into the sea but Luffy was extremely cautious of that and even if she did manage to punch him hard enough that he got flung off the ship, he would stretch his hands grabbing the railing or bow or anything he could get his hands on, before snapping back and using that momentum against them.
He was abusing the hell out of Gear 2 too as he kept pumping his blood harder and kept using all of his Jet attacks while adding twisting limbs in frequently. He had never abused and pushed his body more than he was currently doing, but he was having the time of his life as he was on full auto-pilot as he dodged, tanked, retaliated and didn't fall down. Everyone could see him abusing his own body, pushing it way over its limit and many of them felt a sliver of respect flare up inside them. They were warriors after all and seeing him fighting with all he had against so many opponents with all odds stacked against him made them respect him. They were also ashamed of themselves as they were teaming up against a lone person, who was already heavily injured from the start. The ferocity of their attacks lessened considerably after they realized that weren't fighting with honour.
Sandersonia was the most affected as she completely stopped fighting him after seeing his undying resolve. She didn't think he really deserved this. From what she heard, he had actually set foot on their ship by a complete coincidence, swatted by a Sea King of all things. He was lost in the Calm Belt and she knew how precarious that was, but he had still survived and found them. He wasn't behaving disgustingly either like most men they met, who would gawk and stare at them with lust, so that was another plus point about him in her book. On top of all that, the way he fought even with the state his body was in was admirable.
She just stood there as she watched the others slow down their attacks too. Things actually came to a standstill after a spear got embedded in one of his legs and he fell to his knee. But much to everyone's surprise and admiration, he kept his fists up despite losing one of his legs and kept his eyes wide open looking for the next attack. The fire in his eyes never left, and even though he was panting hard, it was calm and controlled breathing which wouldn't hinder him.
Seeing that no one was attacking, Luffy took that moment to pull the spear out of his knee and threw it down. Blood was literally pooling all around him, but he didn't care as he stared at all of them challengingly.
"Sandersonia-sama, maybe we should stop?" one of the veteran warriors suggested feeling immense respect for Luffy. "I wish to fight him in a one-on-one duel honourably and kill him"
Sonia was about to agree with her when an angry voice rang out on the ship, silencing everyone.
"What is the meaning of this?" Hancock said in a cold voice eyeing the still-standing Luffy and then the others.
"Snake Princess!" the others all bowed down in shame for forgetting that she had specifically ordered his execution.
A sweat broke out on Sonia's brow as she had totally forgotten that Hancock was even here and she had specifically ordered her to take him down. "Sister…"
"Why is that man still standing? I told you to take care of him"
Sonia averted her gaze slightly trying to think of any way to get out of this situation when she caught a glimpse of all the gawking women on the other ship, and a lightbulb went off in her head.
"Sister, this man is strong. Why don't we use him?" she said pointing to the other ship. "He should be enough"
"Hmm?" Hancock eyed Luffy coldly and then at the women on the other ship before shrugging "Very well. It will cut down the time taken to do this disgusting task, so yes"
"Yes, Sister" Sonia bowed before Hancock turned on her heel and went back into her room again.
Luffy was utterly confused by the interaction. 'Use me?' he wondered seeing the other ship full of gawking women and then back at Sonia. As soon as Hancock retired to her room again, Sonia turned back towards him with a smile. "Guess you're not dying any time soon"
"What are you talking about?"
"I'll explain but let's get you treated first yeah? You look like you're dying"
Luffy thought for a moment before shrugging and relaxing his battle stance. It was only now that all the wounds on his body registered in his mind and he grimaced seeing the many wounds. He shrugged it off before trying to Sonia and asking "Can I get some food?"
"You just ate the entire kitchen down there! And you're still hungry?!"
"Yes" Luffy shamelessly responded.
Sonia gawked at the audacity before smacking him in the head.
"Hey! What was that for?" Luffy whined.
"You're an idiot I see…Now lets first get you treated before you die"
"Sure su-" Luffy got cut off when she suddenly grabbed him and threw him onto the other ship. Luffy landed with a thud on his back not being able to use his legs and after a second, rolled over to get up but froze when he saw a bunch of women staring excitedly at him. An unconscious shiver ran down his spine watching all their eyes and something told him that he was just caught in some trap. Thankfully, Sonia landed on deck and dispersed the crowd before taking him down to the doctor's office.
The doctor was a tall and beautiful blonde who looked to be of the long-leg tribe as her legs were very long. "A man?" the doctor asked in surprise but immediately went into doctor mode after spotting all his wounds and started treating him, "My god, what the hell happened to you?"
"Believe it or not, he got swatted by a Sea King onto the other ship apparently" Sonia answered.
"You're kidding me right?"
"Nope. That stupid Sea King first devoured my raft and then kept following me for hours…" Luffy answered studying the doctor curiously. She seemed to be a bit different somehow with how she didn't gawk at him like he was a strange creature.
"Following you?" the doctor asked as she cleaned all his wounds and grimaced at the truly bad state he was in. "Following you how?"
"I was jumping in air to escape it"
"You a Marine?" Sonia interjected.
Luffy became irritated again "Do they have a monopoly over air walk or something? I just saw them using it and taught it to myself"
"Well, I guess that's true. And it's called Moonwalk I think"
"I call it Airwalk"
"Oh okay. Then, what are you and what were you even doing on a raft in the middle of the Calm Belt?"
"I'm a pirate. Well, not yet technically as I promised to set out at 17 which is still a few months from now… And I was just going back to East Blue on a cargo ship. Long story short, Sea Kings emerged, destroyed the ship, I got separated from the crew, drifted alone, and days later, I finally spotted your ships… Made a beeline to here but the Sea king tail-whipped me right towards this ship, then Hancock kicked me right back, and then the Sea King again whipped me back… I never imagined I would become a ball in an impromptu tennis match between Hancock and a Sea King. Shishishi its funny in hindsight though"
Sonia and the doctor had started laughing their ass off when Luffy got to the tennis match part. "SASASASASA You have a sense of humour at least" the doctor laughed.
"Shishishishi"
"What happened next?"
"Well, the fight started I guess. And when it was going well, Sonia said some cryptic words of wanting to 'Use me' to Hancock and she agreed to let me live and here we are"
"Oh you want to use this guy for that?" the doctor said nodding her head in understanding.
"Yeah, and what the hell do you mean it was going well? You were about to die"
"Nah, I still had a few tricks up my sleeve. I would have escaped"
"Sure you would have. Why didn't you use it then?"
"Last resort kind of thing. And what the hell does 'use me' mean?"
"You'll know soon enough… Is he gonna recover anytime soon, Leah?"
"Nope. Guy has burst the blood vessels in his legs that should've killed him but I guess he's a devil fruit user given how he stretches-"
"Rubber fruit" he answered while wondering just who Leah was that she knew about devil fruits. He glanced at Sonia casually when Leah said that and there was definitely some reaction from her. He couldn't understand what but knew there was more to this Leah person as she knew about devil fruits and also looked like she was used to being around men.
"Right, and he's abused his legs like hell…" Leah continued not having noticed anything, "I don't see this healing any time soon… At least a couple of weeks"
"Just give me meat. I'll heal faster"
Sonia completely ignored him, "Well, he doesn't really need legs for what he's needed so I guess that's fine"
"Rest of his body is battered too. Give him a day at least"
Sonia sighed "Fine. Make him sleep, I don't want to see him walking around"
"Sure" she said and before Luffy realized it, she had stuck a needle in his arm which immediately made him drowsy.
"Fuck…" was all he could curse before his world blacked out.
———
Luffy felt someone touching and stretching his body first. He then slowly regained his consciousness and opened his eyes but his vision was too hazy. His whole body ached and his head felt like it had been put through a grinder.
"He's awake! He's awake!" he heard muffled voices as his sense of hearing came back to him. His vision also slowly cleared after blinking a few times and what he saw made him yelp in shock.
Three naked women were next to him, two on his right and one on his left, all looking at him with excitement as they played with his arms stretching and pinching it with curiosity. Three more women were near his legs observing him carefully and playing with his stretchy legs.
That was all his mind processed before he yanked his arms back and threw himself backwards, crashing into the headboard of the bed he was on. Some of the girls got dragged along with him and ended up falling on him with surprised yelps. He hastily crawled away from under them falling off of the side of the bed while looking around everywhere trying to figure out where the hell he was and only then did his memories come rushing back to him. Him landing on the Kuja ship, fighting Sonia and all the other warriors, her cryptic words of her 'using' him, and then the doctor injecting him with an anaesthetic.
His first realization was that his head and nape were empty, so ignoring everything else, he frantically started looking for his hat. Luckily he spotted it near the bed itself and stretched his arm to grab it.
"You're finally awake… Come back…" one of the girls drawled sultrily licking her lips.
"The fuck is going on?!" Luffy demanded putting the hat back on his head.
"What do you think?" another blushed, "We want you to get us pregnant"
"WHAT?!" Luffy was even more shocked and wanted to quickly run away from there. He used his Observation and realized he was still on the Kuja ship. He also sensed Sonia nearby, so decided to go to her. He wanted answers and she was the one who probably set this all up.
He made a dash to the door and the naked girls didn't move much other than calling him back. He ran out the door making a beeline down the corridor and thankfully didn't run into anyone. He reached a door behind which he sensed Sonia and burst into the room without warning, too pissed to care about manners. Sonia, who was sleeping, got startled by the sudden noise and sat up in bed confused.
"Wh- You?!" she yelped in surprise.
"The fuck Sonia?! Why was I being raped the moment I got up?!"
"…You're naked…" Sonia said eyeing his almost naked self with anger laced in her voice as he had dared to barge into her room so disrespectfully. "At least cover yourself up first"
Luffy only then realized that he only had his boxers on and sighed as he grabbed a cloth he found on a nearby sofa to cover himself up. He had turned his back to her while reaching for it and when he turned back, he saw that the look of annoyance and anger on her face had reduced significantly and now looked blank. He didn't understand why in the moment and didn't think about it until much later.
Sonia, who was about to punt him off the ship in anger, froze and flinched when she had seen the burn scar on his back when he turned. Any anger instantly melted away and was replaced with dread, and it was only because of years of practice that she had managed to school her expressions and kept her face neutral. Bad memories flashed before her eyes, but on top of that, she realized that not only did he have the brand, but it was also exposed and many people had seen it… and it was all because of her. And to her who would rather die than have her brand exposed, she felt that she had done something extremely horrible to him. She didn't know what to say or do as her mind had become chaotic in such a short interval of time, so she just remained silent and neutral.
"…So?" Luffy asked when she just stared at him not saying anything.
"That was my favourite shirt…" was all she managed to mutter out latching onto a random topic. She decided to focus on the conversation and not think about anything else, hoping to forget the brand and also what she had done.
"Who cares? Now answers, please? I didn't think the Kuja would do stuff like this…"
"Do what?"
"There were six naked girls using me! And they wanted me to impregnate them!"
"They were already doing it while you were asleep?"
"Yeah!"
"I did tell them to wait till you woke up…"
Luffy blinked and thought about it, "Well, they were just stretching my arms and legs…"
"You are unique, so guess they got curious…"
"Yeah…" Luffy calmed down but then asked, "Why were they naked though?"
"So that you can bed them when you woke up"
"The fuck would I do that?!"
"I thought men liked such things…" she trailed off thinking of the time she had overheard two mothers conversing where one had said that men liked seeing naked women when they woke up, "You didn't like it?"
"Of course not!"
"Really?" she asked confused as she didn't really see the problem. All men she had seen and all the mothers who had come back to the island after getting pregnant had told her that men liked such scenarios.
Luffy calmed down seeing the genuinely confused look on her face and realized that this was her worldview. The three sisters were used as slaves and god knows what was done to them by those disgusting Celestial bastards. That caused them to develop a fear and hatred for men, so he didn't blame her for her lack of understanding. Also, with the glorified and perverted fantasy stories of the woman-only-island they probably heard and especially with Hancock around, pretty much every man they came across most probably looked at them with lust and perversion. So the thought of a man not liking something like this probably didn't even cross her mind and thus, she saw no problem with it.
"Did you really not like it?" she asked genuinely curious.
"Of course I didn't like it!" he snapped back irritably but sighed and calmed himself down. The six girls had never even met a man, so more than being sexual, they were more curious about him and were experimenting with him. Which was also bad, but their ignorance was just too great for him to get mad at them.
Luffy let out another deep sigh, letting his annoyance go as he sat down on a nearby chair with his parts covered "Sorry…"
Sonia didn't say anything and just studied Luffy as he ran his fingers through his hair.
"I understand you've met the worst of men and I really don't blame you for having your worldview… there really are some fucked up men out there…"
Sonia just stayed silent staring at him with surprise.
"But you need to understand that people don't like waking up and randomly finding themselves being played with…" he said in a serious tone looking at her before sighing and getting back on topic, "Why did they want me to get them pregnant though?"
"…You do know that Amazon Lily is an all-women island right?"
"Yeah… Ah, I see" Luffy nodded understanding the situation, "So, you take some women out to the world from time to time and they get pregnant…"
It was just glossed over in the story as a woman would just leave the island for a while and come back with a baby to maintain the population. 'So this is how it happened in reality.'
"Yeah, we have a few regular islands we cycle through the years and were on our way to one such island when you literally fell out of the sky. And you're pretty strong too, so wouldn't mind adding your genes to our pool"
"Yeah I get it, but no way in hell am I getting anyone pregnant"
"Why not? It's not like we're asking you to raise the kids"
"I promised myself to never have kids until a certain event and I intend to keep my promise. Besides, if I did have a kid, I want to raise it"
"Really? I've heard that all men are ecstatic to hear that they don't have to raise kids"
"…How do you select the men?"
"Usually just go to a bar or something, find some strong men and the girls seduce them."
"Yeah well, there's your problem. You go to bars and all where men usually gather to hook up, so that's all you'll see…"
"That's all there is to see"
"You look for one-night stands, so that's all you'll get… Haah forget it. No matter what, you guys don't really want a relationship either, so I guess it works out… But I'm out"
"The only reason you're alive is because we wanted to use you for this," Sonia snarled, "Just get those girls pregnant and we'll let you go. You don't have a choice."
"Well," Luffy jumped up tying another cloth around his torso and got into a fighting stance, "Guess you're back to trying to kill me and I can finally show you what my last resort is and escape"
Sonia glared at him for a while as he vigilantly watched her before she sighed falling back on the bed. "Just get lost. Go to Leah"
"And then what?"
"You're disturbing my sleep. Get lost"
Luffy sighed as he relaxed himself. The entire conversation had been so strange. She was talking and answering his questions while her mood flip-flopped around from angry and calm. One moment she would be angry and ordering him, then the next she would be back to neutral… He just didn't understand what was happening.
And he was right. Sonia's mood was indeed flip-flopping like crazy. She focused on the conversation and was surprised by his soft and understanding tone while talking about how he didn't blame her for her worldview. She would want to rebuke or say something in return, but the brand mark would suddenly pop up, she would realize what she had done to him and her mind would go blank. Then she would shake those thoughts away and try to concentrate on the conversation, but it would pop up again. When he challenged her to a fight and told her that he would rather escape than bed someone, she grew irritated, finally snapped and dismissed him.
"Goodnight, see you tomorrow" she heard him say softly before the door clicked shut. She immediately regretted it, though as the room descended into silence and she couldn't escape thinking about what she had done anymore. In her mind, someone seeing her brand was akin to death, so now that she had subjected it to someone else, she was feeling incredibly guilty. She couldn't take the silence and called Hancock immediately.