Luffy didn't wait for Kuro to vanish again. He pulled both arms back, stretching them far behind him. "Gum-Gum no..."
Kuro, still dazed near the cliff, tried to move, but he was too slow. "...GATLING!"
DADADADADADADA!
It was a wall of fists.
Luffy showered Kuro with punches, a blur of rubber hammering into the butler's face and chest. Kuro couldn't dodge, nor could he block.
He was beaten into a pulp, lifted off his feet, and smashed into the cliff wall.
CRASH!
A massive cloud of dust rose up, hiding the villain. Silence fell over the beach all eyes in the scene.
Then, a voice came from inside the dust. It was weak, broken, and obsessed. "Peace..." Kuro whispered. "I was... so near... to getting my peace..."
Suddenly, the wind shifted. Luffy felt a prickle on his skin. His danger sense screamed. The dust blew away—but nobody was there. Fast.
Luffy didn't look. He reacted. He took a deep breath and compressed. "Gum-Gum no... ARMOR!"
SHUNK.
Kuro appeared out of thin air, his blades swinging for a kill shot. But the claws didn't cut. They sank into Luffy's dense, rubbery waist and stuck fast.
"What is...?" Kuro gasped. He was visible now, breathing hard. His expensive suit was in tatters, his glasses missing, his face swollen.
Luffy looked at the trapped blades. "Shihahaha," he laughed. "Got you now." The words were cool. But the voice was squeaky. It sounded like a chipmunk.
Kuro, desperate and furious, didn't even notice the voice. "LET GO!" He swung his other hand, aiming to pierce Luffy's heart. SMACK. But, Luffy caught the wrist in mid-air.
"Now," Luffy squeaked, his voice high and childish, "let's end this. Shall we?"
He pulled his head back, stretching his neck like a rubber band. "Gum-Gum no..." He slammed his forehead forward. "...BELL!"
TUNNNNNN!
It was a brutal headbutt right between the eyes. Kuro's eyes rolled back in his head. He collapsed instantly, sliding off Luffy's body to the ground.
The fight was over. Captain Kuro was finished.
Luffy stood over the unconscious body, taking a deep, shuddering breath. He focused his mind, releasing the immense tension he had been holding in every muscle fibre.
Slowly, the unnatural density of his body began to fade.
He felt his internal organs—which he had ruthlessly squished together to maintain the "Armor" state—expand back to their natural positions, filling his chest cavity with a sense of relief.
Then rolled his shoulders, feeling his skin loosen and return to the texture of normal rubber again.
Looking around at his crew, the villagers, and the frozen pirates, he expecting silence. He expected fear. He expected awe at his victory.
Instead, he saw faces turning purple with suppressed mirth. Zoro was biting his lip, looking away to hide his expression. The villagers were shaking. Alvida was trembling visibly.
Then, the dam broke. "BWAHAHAHAHA!" Alvida exploded with laughter, wiping a tear from her eye as she leaned on her mace for support. "Captain! What happened to your voice?!"
Luffy frowned, genuinely confused. "What about my voice?" He spoke normally this time. His vocal cords, no longer constricted by the pressure of his technique, had expanded back to their natural shape. His voice was deep and flat again.
Alvida stopped laughing for a second, blinking in confusion. "Oh. It returned to normal now!"
"Was it strange before?" Luffy asked, glancing at his swordsman.
"You sounded like a five-year-old," Zoro grunted, a smirk finally breaking onto his face. "A very angry, squeaky toddler throwing a tantrum."
Luffy blinked. Then ran the diagnostics in his head, connecting the dots. (Compressed chest cavity must have Reduced lung capacity which Constricted vocal cords resulting high pressure forcing the pitch up.)
He clicked his tongue in annoyance. (It's a design flaw. I thought I was in the final phase of development, but it needs more work)
"Hmm," was all he said.
He dismissed the thought. The joke was over, and there was work to be done.
Luffy turned his gaze to the remaining Black Cat Pirates. There were about ten of them left, huddled together, terrified. Their captain was down, their ship was gone, and their weapons hung loosely in their shaking hands.
When Luffy's cold eyes landed on them, they flinched as if physically struck. "You all," Luffy said.
The pirates swallowed hard, a glimmer of hope rising in their eyes. "Y-yes?" one stammered, stepping forward with his hands up. "We... we surrender! We were just following orders! We'll leave right now and never come back!"
Luffy keep looking at them. He didn't see men. He didn't see enemies who had surrendered. What he saw where loose ends. He saw mouths that would run to the Marines and talk about his crew's location. He saw cowards who followed a man who wanted to kill them, yet lacked the spine to revolt.
He thought for a split second, weighing the pros and cons. The calculation was simple. "I have no use for them," Luffy said, his voice utterly devoid of emotion or mercy. "Zoro. Alvida. Kill them all."
The pirate's jaw dropped, his eyes widening in disbelief. "WHA—"
SHIIIIING! Zoro didn't hesitate, nor did he question the morality. He drew his blade and cut the speaker down mid-word, silencing his plea forever.
"With pleasure," Alvida grinned, the cruelty returning to her eyes.
CRUNCH!
She swung her heavy mace into the crowd, the sound of breaking bones echoing across the beach.
"AAAAHHHH! NO! HELP!"
"THEY'RE MONSTERS!"
The beach turned into a slaughterhouse. Screams rang out as Zoro and Alvida moved through the demoralized pirates with efficient brutality, ensuring no one escaped to tell the tale.
The villagers, watching from the edge of the trees, where pale. They had thought these people were heroes who had come to save them.
Now realizing, with a jolt of pure horror, that they had just traded a Wolf for a Tiger.
Slowly, quietly, they started to back away, trying to slip into the forest unnoticed before the monsters turned on them.
"Oi."
The voice wasn't loud, but it froze them in their tracks. Luffy wasn't watching the execution. He was watching them. His eyes were locked on the them with a terrifying intensity.
"If even a single one of you runs," Luffy said, his voice calm and reasonable, as if he were discussing the weather rather than a massacre, "I will burn your village to the ground."
Then gestured to the patch of sand in front of him. "So be nice. And come here."
__________
Zzzzz...
Buggy was having a blissful dream.
He was standing on a golden podium and below him, thousands of pirates were chanting his name.
"CAPTAIN BUGGY! CAPTAIN BUGGY!" And kneeling in front of him, scrubbing the floor, was Straw Hat Luffy. "I'm sorry, Captain Buggy!" Luffy cried. "I finally realized my incompetence! You are the true King! Please, let me follow your lead!"
Hearing luffy's words Buggy grinned. "Very well! With the imporved Flashy Buggy Balls, we will rule the Grand Line! Now, men! We set sail for—"
THWACK!
Buggy was kicked awake. Hard. "GYaaaa!" He snapped his eyes open.
The golden podium was gone and so was the cheering crowd. He was lying face-down in the dirt, on the beach.
"Who the hell dares?!" Buggy shrieked, his head floating up in rage. "Who hit the Great Captain Buggy?!"
SMACK!
Alvida didn't even look at him, and just swung her iron mace like a tennis racket. Hitting his floating head.
"GYAAAAAA!" Buggy's head went flying, spinning through the air until it slammed into the cliff wall.
BOOM!
Just as Buggy was going to throw trauma.
Luffy's voice was heard. "Quiet," he said, his voice flat. "I'm working."
He was looking at the girl in the coat, Kaya who was trembling.
She was trying not to look at the dead pirates nearby, or the blood on the sand.
Luffy spoke. "So," he said. "Let me get this straight. You are willing to hand over all your assets to me. And you're saying the shipyard also belongs to you?"
Kaya swallowed hard, then looked at the afraid villagers, who were being held at bay by Luffy's threat. "Yes," she whispered. "I will give you everything. The fortune. The shipyard. Just... please promise me." She looked at him with desperate, teary eyes. "Promise you won't harm the residents. Please. Just take the money and go."
Luffy stared at her. But did not say anything, he was thinking.
Suddenly, a gasp went through the crowd of villagers. "W-what... what is that?!" one of the farmers stammered, pointing a shaking finger.
Kaya followed his gaze, and saw something that terrified her more. "I-it's... moving..."
Behind Luffy, Buggy's body was waking up. It was like a scene from a horror movie.
His torso pushed itself up from the dirt. His legs scrambled for purchase. His detached hands crawled across the sand like giant spiders, dragging his arms behind them. The parts were all moving toward the cliff where his head was stuck. They looked unnatural. Wrong. Like a zombie pulling itself together.
The villagers started to panic more. "A monster!" "It's a demon!"
CLICK. SNAP.
Buggy's body parts slammed back together. He pulled his head out of the rock and snapped it back onto his neck, brushing the dust off his coat, completely ignoring the terrified stares of the villagers and the girl. He let out a long, sad sigh.
"So," Buggy muttered, kicking a stone. "It was all a dream. Damn it."
__________
Author ----
Toooo tired ...