Chapter 250: Wood Release First Appearance! The Single-celled Captain's Revelation and Farewell
It had been exactly one month since the terrifying, world-shaking slaughter of the Marineford War.
The Calm Belt, Rusukaina Island.
This island, covered in dense primeval vegetation, experienced forty-eight drastic changes in climate throughout the year and was inhabited by countless massive, ferocious, and bloodthirsty beasts.
However, deep in the heart of this perilous jungle, earth-shattering roars were constantly echoing, startling countless birds.
Two familiar figures were engaged in a violent, unbridled close-quarters brawl.
"Bang! Boom!"
Tatsuya did not weave any hand signs, nor did he use any flashy Ninjutsu.
He simply coated his arms in deep, pitch-black high-level Armament Haki and engaged in a primal taijutsu duel with Luffy, who was also using Armament Haki and had activated Gear Second.
The two fought tirelessly in the forest, fists whistling and legs blurring.
Every collision of fists and feet kicked up visible white airwaves.
The towering trees around them, thick enough for several people to embrace, were destroyed in swathes or snapped in half by the terrifying shockwaves of their collision, sending wood chips and soil flying into the air.
In terms of fighting technique and the application of Haki flow, Tatsuya was undoubtedly holding the absolute upper hand.
Every block, parry, and counterattack of his was incredibly precise.
However, Luffy possessed the abnormal durability of true rubber, as well as seemingly inexhaustible stamina.
He was like an unkillable cockroach, blasted away by Tatsuya's heavy fists time and again, smashing through several trees.
Yet, time and again, he would roar and charge back in like a cannonball fired from a chamber.
"I really can't stand your idiotic stamina..."
Tatsuya wiped the sweat from his forehead and sighed helplessly.
Facing Luffy, who was roaring and charging over again like a mad bull, Tatsuya's eyes suddenly narrowed.
He stood in place, stretched out his right hand, and suddenly spread his five fingers.
In an instant, the hard soil under Luffy's feet exploded!
Several thick, dark wooden vines, resembling giant pythons, burst out of the ground and instantly bound Luffy, who had no time to dodge in mid-air, into a giant wooden cocoon.
The moment he was entangled by these strange vines, Luffy felt the power surging within his body being drained away as if by thin air.
The boiling pink steam on his body dissipated instantly without a trace, and his originally tense muscles lost all strength.
He slumped limply within the rough vine restraints, like a pricked, deflating balloon.
"Ah... Damn it!"
"Why is it this move again!"
"Tatsuya! Let me go!"
Luffy twisted his body powerlessly inside the wooden vines, issuing a very dissatisfied protest.
Tatsuya watched this scene, a glimmer of satisfaction flashing in his eyes.
This was a Wood Release Ninjutsu he had naturally awakened and mastered after fully integrating the "Sage Body" rewarded by the system.
In recent practical exploration, Tatsuya was pleasantly surprised to find that the Wood Release he performed had a strange effect of "absorbing and suppressing the stamina of Devil Fruit users."
Although this suppression was not as absolute as pure Sea Stone, it could still be considered a trump card to catch ability users off guard.
Watching Luffy wriggle like a caterpillar, Tatsuya laughed and snapped his fingers, quickly retracting the binding Wood Release vines back underground.
Without the restraints, Luffy fell to the ground with a "thud."
Subsequently, Tatsuya lay on the messy grass in an unrefined spread-eagle position, his chest heaving violently, panting heavily:
"Huff... It's because your stamina is too terrifying."
"If we really kept fighting, it would just be endless."
Luffy also lay limply on the dirt ground nearby, splayed out and panting.
While picking his nose with his little finger in an unrefined manner, he looked at the sunlight filtering through the gaps in the leaves above.
He spoke in a rare, deep, and seven-part resentful tone:
"Huff... It's your stamina that's even more terrifying..."
"Nami... Robin..."
Luffy counted on his fingers, looking nonchalantly at the white clouds drifting across the sky, and mumbled this super nuclear bomb.
Hearing this explosive, suggestive line suddenly pop out of Luffy's mouth, Tatsuya, who had just been lying spread-eagle on the grass, jolted upright as if electrocuted.
He widened his deep black eyes, his eyeballs almost popping out, and looked at the Luffy on the ground in shock as if he had seen a ghost:
"You... Who exactly are you?!"
"How could that single-celled brain circuit of Luffy's possibly contain such things!"
Looking at Tatsuya's stunned expression, as if his worldview had collapsed, Luffy held his stomach and rolled back and forth on the grass-covered ground, laughing uncontrollably until tears almost came out.
After laughing enough, Luffy patted the dust off his shorts and stood up slowly.
He walked up to Tatsuya, put away his grinning expression, and his demeanor became unprecedentedly serious and solemn.
He puffed out his chest and declared loudly and firmly:
"I am Luffy!"
"The man who will become the Pirate King!!!"
Then, he extended his scarred right hand, his clear eyes filled with unreserved trust in his partner:
"From now on, please continue to help me as always, Vice Captain."
Tatsuya looked at this Captain, who was always surprising and appeared single-celled but actually had a side of great wisdom.
He shook his head helplessly, a look of relief spilling from the corner of his mouth.
Then he reached out, firmly grasped Luffy's hand, and used the leverage to stand straight:
"Ah, isn't that a matter of course."
However, just as their hands had released, and the atmosphere was at the peak of warmth and passion, Tatsuya patted the dust off his clothes and threw out a sentence in a flat tone:
"But... I have to go."
"Eh?!!!"
Luffy, who had been playing the role of a deep and mature Captain the second before, broke character the next second.
His eyes widened like copper bells, his mouth opened wide, his cheeks instantly puffed up like an inflated bun, and he protested loudly:
"What... You guy!"
"How can you just leave like that!"
Tatsuya ignored Luffy's protest and shouting.
He smiled, bent down, and picked up the worn straw hat that had fallen on the grass not far away during the fight.
He carefully brushed off the dust and grass clippings with the back of his hand, then walked over to Luffy and solemnly placed the straw hat back on his head.
"For your subsequent Haki training, leave it all to old man Rayleigh."
Tatsuya looked deep into the distance at the turbulent coastline.
"I'm heading to Baltigo."
He reached out and gently pressed the brim of the straw hat on Luffy's head, shading his bright eyes under the shadow of the hat:
"See you in two years, Luffy."
"By then, let's go and turn the New World upside down together."
In the shadow cast by the straw hat, Luffy did not continue to make a fuss.
He was silent for a moment, the corners of his mouth gradually curling up into an incomparably bright and confident arc.
He suddenly raised his head and laughed heartily, facing the dazzling sunlight, his bright laughter completely dispelling all the reluctance and gloom brought by the parting:
"Hee hee hee! Then it's a deal! See you in two years, Tatsuya!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Luffy kicked off the ground and jumped into Tatsuya's arms with his arms wide open.
The two hugged tightly, feeling the indestructible bond and promise between them.
In the primeval jungle where the breeze blew gently, the leaves rustled.
The Captain and Vice Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates officially said goodbye on this isolated uninhabited island, each embarking on a journey of transformation.
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