Of all the Straw Hat Pirates present, only Luffy had ever seen what Alvida used to look like
When the others heard him claim that this stunningly beautiful woman, with her perfect figure, and gorgeous face, had once been obese, they were shocked into disbelief.
Nami gave Alvida a thorough up-and-down examination, her eyes filled with doubt.
Zoro was also surprised, but for different reasons. After spending these past few days with Luffy, he could tell that the rubber boy was an emotional idiot who wasn't swayed by beauty, nor was he the type to maliciously insult a woman's appearance without reason.
As for Usopp, well, he was just a regular guy. The moment he'd laid eyes on Alvida, he'd been completely captivated by her beauty. So when Luffy said she used to be fat, he literally couldn't picture it in his mind.
"Hey, hey, hey, Luffy! No matter how you look at it, this lady has nothing to do with being fat," Usopp protested.
Nami nodded in agreement.
Luffy quickly tried to explain by taking a deep breath and puffing out his belly.
Seeing Luffy's ridiculous demonstration, Alvida touched her own perfectly defined abs and admitted, "Well, that's true. Back then I was... a little chubby."
The fact that Alvida wasn't angry and had even admitted it herself surprised Luffy even more. After all, the last time he'd called her fat, she'd flown into a rage.
"You've really become beautiful though," Luffy said with his typical straightforward honesty.
Alvida was clearly pleased with the praise, but then she hefted her massive spiked mace and said, "None of that matters now. Ever since you sent me flying, I've been thinking about getting revenge on you every single moment."
Luffy pulled an uncomfortable face, clearly unwilling to fight her.
Seeing his reluctance, Alvida laughed. "Well, you don't get to refuse anymore."
Without further warning, she launched into her attack, swinging her mace down.
Luffy jumped backward, narrowly dodging the strike.
The ground exploded where the mace hit, sending chunks of stone and debris flying in all directions.
Nami, Usopp, and Zoro all quickly scrambled to get out of the combat zone.
The three Straw Hats didn't interfere, no matter how you looked at it, this was clearly a personal grudge between Alvida and Luffy that they needed to settle themselves.
Marcus, on the other hand, watched the fight with interest.
After all, in the original story, there had never been a rematch between Alvida and Luffy. This was completely new territory.
Especially considering Alvida's Devil Fruit abilities. The Slip-Slip Fruit meant that both blunt and slashing attacks couldn't harm her. Without Haki available to them, it wasn't clear how Luffy would handle her now.
He was ready to enjoy the show, but Kira seemed confused by the whole situation. She tugged on Marcus' sleeve and asked innocently, "Marcus, why does Alvida insist on fighting this straw hat guy? Just because she got sent flying? She seems like someone who got dumped by her boyfriend."
It wasn't a completely unreasonable assumption. Ever since Kira had boarded their ship, she'd only seen Alvida's beautiful and powerful side, and had found her surprisingly easy to get along with.
The other three Straw Hats perked up their ears, suddenly very interested in this gossip.
After all, hearing dirt about Luffy's romantic life was something they were quite curious about.
Seeing everyone's eager expressions, Marcus said, "In a sense, that's not wrong."
After all, thinking about it objectively: Luffy had suddenly shown up at Alvida's place, trashed her ship, insulted her to her face, punched her into the stratosphere, and then... when she appeared in front of him again, didn't even recognize her.
That did sound like pretty typical heartbreaker behavior.
Hearing Marcus confirm their suspicions, Nami, Zoro, and Usopp all gave Luffy teasing looks.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Luffy protested while holding down his straw hat and dodging Alvida's aggressive swings. "You were the one who attacked first back then, and you were the one mocking Koby's dream!"
"That's because you crushed my heart first!" Alvida shot back relentlessly. Her expression had turned serious now as she sped up her attacks, trying to corner the rubber boy.
But no matter how much she increased her speed or changed her angles, Luffy always managed to dodge from some impossible direction.
It was getting frustrating, she couldn't land a single hit.
Seeing that she wasn't going to listen to reason, Luffy finally stopped his evasive maneuvers and stood his ground.
"Fine, if you want to hit me so badly..."
The spiked mace came swinging down.
It struck Luffy's body, and felt exactly like hitting a pillow.
The impact was completely absorbed and dispersed, leaving him completely unharmed.
"I'm a rubber man who ate the Gum-Gum Fruit. Blunt attacks don't work on me at."
Although Alvida had expected this result, feeling that weird, unsatisfying sensation again made her purse her lips in annoyance.
Of course, during their time on the ship, she'd already thought about how to counter Luffy's rubber abilities.
The obvious answer was slashing attacks.
But she didn't know swordsmanship, and she didn't have a blade to work with anyway.
Still, she'd come up with an alternative solution during one of her conversations with Marcus about Devil Fruit development.
Fire!
The Slip-Slip Fruit's power was simple: it reduced the friction of her skin to zero. But the effect was limited to her body, more specifically, only to areas covered by skin.
She could reduce friction to nothing, but she couldn't increase it in the opposite direction.
But that limitation was still enough to work with.
She reached into her cleavage and pulled out a small packet of powder that she'd prepared specifically for this moment.
She sprinkled the contents over her mace, then ran her hand along the weapon's surface.
Instantly, flames burst to life along the entire length of the spiked club.
Swinging the now-blazing weapon, she swept it straight toward Luffy.
Naturally, Luffy wasn't stupid enough to just take a fire attack head-on. He rolled away from the flaming strike.
"What's wrong, coward? Weren't you done dodging?" Alvida taunted.
Luffy replied, "I'm not dumb enough to let myself get roasted. But that was really cool, what was that powder stuff?"
He was curious.
Alvida sighed in frustration. Up to this point, Luffy hadn't even tried to attack her once.
If she was being completely honest with herself, most of her anger had already dissipated the moment Luffy complimented her new appearance.
The real reason she'd sought him out wasn't entirely about revenge. Part of it was wanting to prove to herself that she was no longer the fat, pathetic woman she used to be, that she'd earned a fresh start in life. And yes, there was also a mischievous part of her that had wanted to see if he would change his tune and start drooling over her now that she was beautiful.
The reality?
His attitude was exactly the same as before. He treated her without a hint of romantic interest or even physical attraction.
Even his dialogue was identical to their first meeting.
As for the fact that this Straw Hat brat had caused her pirate crew to fall apart, well, yes, she still felt some resentment about that. But after meeting Marcus and having her entire life trajectory change, her hatred for Luffy had mellowed.
Marcus watched as Alvida took a few more halfhearted swings at the ground before clearly giving up on the fight.
He shook his head.
As he'd suspected, the Slip-Slip Fruit was basically just a beautification tool for Alvida, with the added bonus of being able to slip away from attacks.
It was a purely passive ability with very limited potential for combat improvement.
The flame trick she'd just used? That had been a mixture of gunpowder and magnesium powder that created a brief but impressive flash burn. And even that idea had come from his suggestions during their shipboard conversations.
The lackluster fight was over almost before it had really begun.
"That's it?"
Alvida tossed her mace back to Marcus and shrugged. "I'm not fast enough to catch him, and he's still refusing to actually attack me. Clearly, now that I've become beautiful, he's too embarrassed to me."
She paused, then looked at Marcus. "But you look disappointed that I didn't beat the Straw Hat boy. Were you hoping for a more exciting fight?"
After all, she'd definitely noticed his head-shaking during the battle.
"I was shaking my head at your Devil Fruit development," Marcus said bluntly.
Alvida didn't argue. After all, Marcus' abilities were both mysterious and incredibly powerful. If he said her fruit development was lacking, she wasn't going to deny it.