Luffy felt power surging from every part of his body.
That cockroach-like toughness had been trained since childhood.
He vaguely remembered Grandpa throwing him into bottomless ravines, into deadly forests, and tying him to a balloon to let him drift into the sky.
He was on the verge of activating.
As they say, a great teacher makes a great student. Luffy's foundation was forged by his grandpa Garp, the Marine hero.
Whether Marine or pirate, the most important thing at sea is vitality.
If your vitality isn't tough enough, you'll likely lose or even die when facing someone a level above you.
If it is, you can stand up again and again and keep breaking your limits.
Luffy's vitality ticked up once more. Facing the incoming cannonball, he grinned. "Gum-Gum Balloon!"
He sucked in a huge breath and swelled his belly.
The cannonball hit and ricocheted away.
Marines on deck stared as their own shot bounced back, eyes wide.
"W-what's going on?"
"A Devil Fruit user!"
Lodi, a lieutenant colonel from Marine Headquarters, recognized it at once. His face hardened.
An ability user in the East Blue?
Another lucky brat, no doubt.
Since cannon fire was turning into the enemy's weapon, they would board.
"Bring us alongside!" Lodi barked.
On the other side,
the ruckus had already jolted Nami awake.
Crackling before dawn—how was anyone supposed to sleep?
Truth be told, she'd slept in a haze last night.
The name Arlong was a nightmare. The moment she saw Bell-mère's photo, she remembered the day Bell-mère was killed by Arlong to protect her and Nojiko, and she'd lost control.
Afterward, Luffy's serious face kept flashing through her mind.
Crews.
The word itself made Nami recoil.
She'd grown up on the sea. How many times had she seen pirates saying "crewmates" one second and stabbing each other the next.
A girl's thoughts tend to be finer. If Nami were some naive sweetheart, she'd have been caught by slavers and sold to nobles long ago, not scraped together nearly a hundred million Berries on her own.
But she felt, truly, that Luffy treated her as a crewmate.
That was why she wavered.
After years of deceit, someone suddenly showed you his heart. Nami found her own softening.
Normally she'd already have slipped away with the treasure.
Luffy said crewmates help each other.
But the terror of Arlong was etched into her mind. So many Marines had come to capture his crew, and before they even saw him, they and their ships were sunk.
Could Luffy and Zoro really defeat Arlong, free the people of Cocoyasi Village, and pull her from the nightmare?
If it were any other pirates, Nami might have played the instigator, pitting them against Arlong.
Win or lose, it would be dogs biting dogs.
But when Luffy's smile rose in her mind, she couldn't harden her heart.
"Calm down. You're really thinking of yourself as his navigator?"
She patted her cheeks, opened the door, and stepped out.
She looked up just in time to see Luffy vault skyward.
Then a fist that blotted out the sky filled her vision.
"S-so big…" Nami gaped.
Could a rubber man turn into a giant?
That was Luffy's question yesterday.
Before this, he'd thought his moves were enough. No need to waste time thinking more.
But if he didn't focus completely while experimenting with ability development, the countdown would start in his ear.
And he'd react at once.
No time for laziness at all.
So in just a day, Luffy worked out a new move.
He called it
"Gum-Gum Giant Pistol!"
On the warship, Marines from Headquarters were about to show their skill when they looked up and saw a fist that covered the sky.
"Are you kidding me?"
"Why is there a giant in the East Blue?"
"Not a giant. A Devil Fruit ability!"
"Open fire!"
Lodi's eyes bulged as he snapped orders.
Where did he think he was?
Anyone who didn't know would think he'd sailed into the Grand Line.
Giants were pure stat monsters.
Size is justice.
Even in the Marines, being a bit bigger gave a clear edge. Among pirates it was even more so. Most of the famous big shots were hulks.
In the East Blue, that was a dimensionality reduction strike.
Ever seen a fist as big as a sandbag?
Not a sandbag—this one was about as big as the warship.
Bullets did nothing to that massive fist.
Damn it.
"Iron Body!" Lodi roared.
He was, after all, a field-grade officer from Headquarters and knew a trick or two of the Six Powers.
Since graduating the training camp, he'd honed this move.
Iron Body is invincible.
"Come on!"
He met the Giant Pistol head-on. At the instant of contact his face warped, and half the Marine warship was wrecked.
Clashes between pirates and Marines were that brutal.
Any other pirate crew, with a result like that, would kill and plunder.
A few years from now, if some Cross Guild showed up, they might even capture Marines for bounties.
Turning the world upside down.
But Luffy's crew had no such thought.
If the Marines couldn't fight and couldn't catch up, that was enough.
"Our captain is that strong?"
Usopp's eyes shone.
How could someone's moves look that cool?
Giants—he'd actually seen one, even if it was only a fist.
"Cool is cool, but the side effects look nasty," Zoro muttered, staring up at the falling figure.
"Catch me, you two idiots!" Luffy yelled.
The move was cool, and the backlash wasn't small. His body had shrunk to a child's size.
At least there was one consolation.
[ Auto-adjusting to body condition. Rest three minutes, then take in food for half an hour. ]
He could eat?
He could use more fights like this.
No—problem one was whether someone would catch him.
Even he would hurt if he hit the deck.
"Honestly, leave you alone for a minute and you make a mess."
With a light huff, Nami stepped in. Luffy felt himself land on something soft, then he was hoisted up.
Up he went.