"Huh?"
After seeing Luffy's transformation, Moria's face showed panic. "How can you do that too? Are you also from the giant race?"
"For no special reason. Because I have willpower!"
A pressure-filled aura erupted skyward!
Within that aura, Luffy's figure rapidly expanded and grew taller!
His blue-black skin was covered with even more sacred white fur. White flame clouds swirled around him like a cloak. A terrifying, fearsome white giant had appeared, radiating unmatched might.
"Kage Shūgōchi: Nika Form — Gigantification!"
"Impossible, impossible!"
Moria's body trembled with rage.
If he lost his size advantage, what did he have left?
Power?
Don't be ridiculous.
Moria glanced behind Luffy and saw a pile of comrades. Behind himself, there was only rubble.
Humiliated and enraged, he threw a punch—a punch strong enough to shatter the island. But Luffy blocked it effortlessly.
The shadow spikes on his claws that tried to pierce through Luffy's arm, upon contact with top-tier Haki, seemed to have met their bane. They sizzled and could not advance another inch!
"I am strong because of myself—not because I rely on the power of shadows!" Luffy declared loudly.
"You... you..." Moria was stunned.
BAM!
In response, one of Luffy's massive fists slammed directly into Moria's bloated abdomen.
Ughwah!
Moria's enormous body arched violently. It felt as if a high-speed mountain had crashed into his belly. Agony exploded through his entire body.
But this wasn't over yet!
"GIVE EVERYONE'S SHADOWS BACK!"
Luffy's giant fists rained down like a tempest, pounding into Moria's abdomen again and again.
ORA ORA ORA!
Every single punch carried terrifying Haki.
The battle between two giants should have been earth-shattering, a back-and-forth clash. Instead, it had become a one-sided beatdown by Luffy!
Under such relentless, heavy blows, the shadows forcibly stuffed inside Moria's body were already unstable. As Lola had said, when you stuff shadows inside, you need to maintain a sufficiently strong willpower.
In a way, Luffy was right.
You really do need willpower!
The degree to which he had been pushed—Moria couldn't even begin to imagine it.
"No... you are ALL my power!"
Moria clamped his hand over his mouth. The shadows inside his body, like trapped beasts, were frantically pounding the willpower that had been dramatically weakened by pain and shock!
Stuffing in shadows requires not only physical fortitude but also powerful willpower to control them!
In this regard, even though Moria was the user of the Kage Kage no Mi, cramming in far more shadows than his body could withstand didn't bring a qualitative change in power—it brought total collapse.
Instead of becoming stronger, he had become even more fragile than before, unable to effectively control the chaotic power.
"Gomu Gomu no Giant Bullet!"
Luffy's enormous fists worked like pile drivers. With one final heavy blow, he sent Moria flying off the ground!
PFFT!
Like a dam bursting, countless black shadows erupted from Moria's mouth like a volcanic eruption.
They scrambled over each other to escape from the collapsing prison, turning into a sky full of black shooting stars, flying back toward their original owners.
Moria couldn't understand it.
Why had he lost to such a rookie pirate?
He was once a notoriously fearsome pirate, a powerhouse who had clashed with Kaido himself, competing for the position of Pirate King.
And yet... and yet...
Under the double whammy of searing pain and shadow backlash, Moria's consciousness rapidly grew fuzzy.
CRASH!
Just then, the main mast of Thriller Bark—already on the verge of collapse—finally gave way under the abuse of the successive battles. With a cracking sound, it came crashing down.
It fell squarely onto Moria.
Urgh...ah!
One last short, wretched scream was buried beneath the wood and rubble.
Moria — defeated!
Luffy deactivated his Giant Nika form and returned to his normal size.
With Moria's fall, countless shadows emerged from his body, scattering across the sky like a hundred birds returning to their nests, flying back to their owners.
"This guy really is a massive criminal, collecting so many people's shadows." Luffy said.
Sunlight, unnoticed by anyone, had begun to pierce through the thick fog that perpetually hung over Thriller Bark, casting down golden rays.
"Well then."
Beneath the rubble, in the last moment before his consciousness was swallowed by darkness, Moria spat out a curse of unwillingness. "Go and see for yourself, you damned Straw Hat. The real demons are in the New World!"
With Moria's complete defeat, the gloom hanging over Thriller Bark seemed to disperse as well. The long-awaited sunlight broke through the thick fog, shining down on the battered land.
The shadows that had escaped from Moria's body, like weary birds returning to their nests, flew back to their respective owners.
All across the world, people whose shadows had been stolen by Moria stepped out of the shadows at that moment.
Moria had been defeated.
Luffy watched as one of the shadows returned to Nika, who had been sleeping nearby. "This girl really slept through the whole thing."
Nika stood up groggily, having no idea what had just happened.
But there were plenty of people far more excited than her.
"It's back! My shadow is back!"
Lola, the captain of the Rolling Pirates, looked down at the shadow that had appeared under the sunlight. She was crying buckets, her nose running.
Because the wild boar bride had carried Lola's shadow, Lola had been somewhat influenced and had acted very familiar with Nami.
"This is good news, Lola. You can continue your own adventures now." Nami smiled.
Lola suddenly lunged at Nami, almost knocking her off balance with the sheer force. "Miss Nami! Thank you so much! If it weren't for you, we'd probably be stuck in this dark, sunless place as zombies forever!"
Nami naturally understood how Lola and her crew felt. They had lived for so many years in darkness, terrified even of seeing sunlight. Now, finally, they could walk under the sun. And the tyrant who had oppressed them, Moria, had been defeated. It was just like when Arlong had been defeated by Luffy, freeing her from that cage.
Still, seeing Lola crying with snot and tears streaming down her face made Nami feel a mix of emotions—and even made her wonder if she had looked that ridiculous after Arlong and his crew were defeated.
That would have been so ugly.
But then, upon hearing Lola's next words, Nami's eyes instantly turned into Berry symbols, sparkling with golden light.
"We know where Moria hid all the treasure he looted!"
Lola gripped Nami's hand firmly. "To show our gratitude, let us help you move everything from his vault onto your ship."
Treasure?
"Really?!" Nami's eyes lit up.
Even though her crew had already achieved so-called financial freedom—able to cut off a chunk of gold and trade it for tons of Berry whenever they were short on cash—a pirate had zero resistance to treasure. Or rather, Nami had zero resistance to treasure.
When it came to money, wasn't more always better?
Her mind had already started calculating how many billions of Berry that treasure would be worth.
"This is great! Lola, you guys are so kind!"
Just then, Vivi, Robin, and the others arrived hurriedly at the rubble.
Seeing that Nami was safe, Vivi visibly relaxed. But her gaze was immediately drawn to the modified yet still gorgeous short wedding dress Nami was wearing.
Had Nami been wearing a wedding dress when she left the ship?
"Nami, are you okay?"
Vivi asked with concern, but her eyes kept drifting toward Nami's wedding dress. "That outfit you're wearing...?"
Outfit?
Only then did Nami remember that she was still in the wedding dress. A blush rose to her cheeks. She was about to mumble some vague explanation when little Merry raised a small hand and opened her mouth in her tiny voice: "Nami-san and Luffy were in the bath—"
"Merry!"
Nami's eyes and hands moved fast. She clamped a hand over Merry's, pulled her aside, crouched down, and whispered quickly, "Merry, what happened in the bath earlier is our little secret. You can't tell anyone—especially Vivi-neesan! Or else... or else no more candy!"
Merry blinked her big eyes and nodded, not quite understanding but going along with it.
Whether she actually understood or was just pretending, who could say?
Just as Nami breathed a sigh of relief, Merry added, "But I have one condition."
Little Merry really was small in body but big in attitude! The only thing clear was that Merry's loyalties were with Luffy—so biased it was ridiculous.
Vivi watched the sneaky scene of Nami and Merry with Merry's mouth covered, and her expression grew even more suspicious.
She leaned closer to Nami and couldn't help but asked, "What exactly happened?"
"Nothing at all!"
Nami forced herself to stay calm, trying to change the subject. "Look! We didn't just defeat Moria—we also got all of Moria's treasure! We're rich!"
"Do I really look that easy to fool?" Vivi's attention clearly wasn't so easily diverted. She stared at Nami's wedding dress, then looked over at Luffy in the distance, her expression complicated.
Robin, however, rested her slender fingers on her chin, observing Nami's outfit with great interest. A meaningful smile played at the corners of her lips.
"Hehe. This wedding dress is very uniquely modified. It suits you well, Nami."
Robin's deep, knowing eyes seemed capable of seeing through everything. Nami didn't dare hold eye contact with this older sister.
Perhaps those two had experienced some romantic encounter on this ghost ship.
But unlike Vivi, Robin didn't try to dig to the bottom of it. She clearly had her own agenda. Regardless of whether anything had happened between Nami and Luffy in that bathroom, this wedding dress was a pretty good excuse. Maybe she could find an opportunity to try it herself someday?
Vivi had tried it. She had also tried it.
It had Robin's gold seal of approval—everyone who tried it said it was good.
A mature woman's thoughts were always more flexible and daring than those of still-green young ladies like Vivi and Nami.
***
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