"Y-you… you bastard…"
Buggy's hand trembled as he pointed at Luffy, like he'd just seen a ghost.
"Aren't you a rubber man?! How the hell can rubber stop a blade!!"
Luffy rolled his neck with a loud crack-crack. With splinters flying, he casually tore free of the wooden stocks—already split apart by his brute strength.
He stood up, flexed his wrists, and wore the proud grin of someone who'd put in the work.
"Idiot! Of course rubber's weak to blades!"
"But I'm— a 'Bronze-Skin Iron-Bones' rubber man!!"
"Bronze-skin iron-bones? Don't make me laugh!!"
Buggy snapped, humiliated. He couldn't accept that the kid he'd toyed with before had become this strong.
He tossed aside the broken sword. His hands separated, each gripping a dagger—using the Chop-Chop Fruit to rocket toward Luffy!
"DIE!!"
Luffy didn't even dodge.
"Armament—"
His right fist hardened like iron. It wasn't fully black yet, but the sheer weight of it—the pressure—was suffocating.
"—PISTOL!!!"
BAM!!!
A simple, brutal, unreasonable punch.
Luffy's fist ignored Buggy's flashy flying daggers and slammed straight into Buggy's proud red nose.
"GWAAAHHH—!!"
Buggy screamed.
This time he didn't even manage to split his body to disperse the impact.
The "power" and the "Haki" in that punch pierced straight through his defense.
Buggy flew off the execution platform like a baseball blasted out of the park, carving a tragic arc through the air.
BOOM!
He crashed beside the plaza fountain. The stone ground caved in, forming a crater several meters wide as rubble and dust exploded outward.
The so-called clown captain—once a crewmate of the Pirate King—rolled his eyes back, foam spilling from his mouth, and instantly passed out.
Not far away, atop a tall clock tower—
A silver-haired man in a Justice coat, two cigars clenched between his teeth, stared down at everything from above.
Smoke curled around his face, but it couldn't hide eyes as sharp as a hawk's.
Navy Headquarters Colonel, "White Hunter" Smoker.
He had watched the entire sequence: Luffy breaking the execution blade with his neck—then one-punching Buggy into oblivion.
"That Straw Hat kid…"
Smoker exhaled a thick stream of smoke. His brow tightened, more serious than ever.
"He's not just some Devil Fruit user."
As a marine elite who had guarded Loguetown for years, Smoker had seen countless rookies pass through.
But never one that gave him this kind of dangerous feeling.
"No wonder his first bounty is fifty million…"
Smoker's gaze shifted, sweeping across the other two carving through the fodder in the plaza.
Zoro—three swords, demonic aura.
Sanji—flashy kicks, every strike lethal.
Then his eyes stopped at the edge of the square.
There stood a black-haired man holding a black staff, a bundle on his back.
He wasn't fighting—only watching.
Yet the calm, condensed presence rolling off him made Smoker instinctively wary.
"This crew… isn't simple."
Smoker crushed his cigar and slowly drew the jitte from his back.
His body began to turn into smoke—white vapor spreading eerily through the dark, rainy air.
"Looks like it's not just Straw Hat Luffy I need to watch."
He issued a cold order to the marines behind him:
"Notify everyone. Surround the harbor. Block every route to sea."
"Our turn."
As his words fell, a bolt of thunder split the sky—and torrential rain poured down.
"We cannot let the Straw Hats reach the Grand Line. In the name of Justice."
…
Loguetown, central plaza.
Dark clouds churned overhead, thunder rumbling deep within the heavy sky.
Fine rain began to fall, tapping the ancient stone streets and bursting into tiny sprays.
"Hehehehe—!!"
Luffy leapt down from the towering execution platform, his red vest snapping in the wind.
He landed solidly, looked at the Buggy pirates sprawled everywhere, and held his straw hat as he laughed without restraint.
"Like I'd die that easily! I'm the man who's gonna become Pirate King!"
That laughter cut through the rain, full of mockery toward fate—and absolute confidence in what came next.
"Honestly…"
Ronan carried that heavy black staff and walked up to Luffy, annoyed.
"You really can't stop causing chaos, can you?"
"You scared me to death!!"
Nami ran over and yanked Luffy's cheeks outward, tears still clinging to her eyes.
"For a second I really thought your head was going to come off! That red-nose guy's blade actually came down!"
"Yeah, yeah!!" Usopp's legs were still shaking as he clung to Ronan's arm like his life depended on it. "My heart almost stopped!"
"Hmph."
Zoro sheathed his swords, glancing at the faint pale mark on Luffy's neck, the corner of his mouth lifting in satisfaction.
"What are you panicking for? This idiot's got the basics of Armament Haki now—and he's pushed that 'Thirteen Guardians' hardening all the way to bronze-skin iron-bones."
"A blade like that was never cutting him."
"Exactly."
Sanji adjusted his tie, exhaled a smoke ring, and spoke with quiet pride.
"We're not the rookies we were when we first set sail. Normal slashes feel like scratches to us now."
Their confidence wasn't empty bravado.
Weeks of hellish training had pushed their bodies beyond what "normal humans" could be.
Ronan looked at his fired-up crew, then finally at Usopp—still trembling—and smiled kindly.
"Hey, Usopp. See that?"
He pointed at Luffy's neck—where even the blade hadn't left a real wound.
"That's what training gets you. You can never have too many ways to stay alive."
"S-so what?" Usopp had a terrible feeling.
"I bought a lot of supporting herbs from the shops."
Ronan patted the bulging herb bundle on his back, his gentle tone somehow terrifying.
"Tonight we start medicinal baths. Work hard. Even if I train you half to death, I can just toss you into the tub and you'll recover fast."
"NOOOO—!!"
Usopp's scream ripped across the plaza.
"I'm gonna die! I'm absolutely gonna die!"
And right at that "joyful" moment—
A synchronized, heavy, disciplined marching sound approached from all directions around the square.
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