Chapter 220: Advanced Door-door Fruit
Rumbling sounds came from all directions from time to time, and the smoke and dust rising to the sky also proved the reality of the battle erupting in this discarded village. Nami stood at the window side, looking worriedly toward the direction where the smoke and dust rose.
Her partners were right there.
“Don’t do anything stupid! Miss Nami, even at this point, I’m not afraid to tell you straight—Your Highness has no intention of harming your companions. This is a test, one that will be of great benefit to your companions.”
Farrug sat in the room, gently shaking the wine glass in his hand. The scarlet wine liquid swirled slowly in the glass. Besides him, Lucci was also sipping red wine produced by the Alabasta Kingdom.
Glancing at the relaxed-smiling Farrug, then at the ice-cold Lucci, Nami suppressed the impulse in her heart. With these two here, no matter what she wanted to do, it probably wouldn’t work. Rash action might even harm herself or Luffy and the others.
“That’s right! Miss Nami, you’re a smart person. Don’t you see what attitude Your Highness has toward you all? Why risk harming yourself? Just stay put and wait for your companions to come rescue you. To be honest, your companions do have some skills. Looking at the situation now… that Straw Hat kid might arrive soon.”
Farrug without any hesitation revealed the intelligence he “saw” with Observation Haki.
He was indeed somewhat surprised.
He had personally experienced how capable these former CP9 members were these days. His feeling was that this group had already reached an extremely high level in combat techniques. As long as they made up for the Haki shortfall, they could soon have a place even in the New World.
Especially Lucci.
Looking at the unsmiling man diagonally across from him.
This was a very terrifying guy. Once this guy mastered Haki, he probably wouldn’t even be his opponent.
“Yo, you two are both here!”
“……Your Highness!”
Farrug and Lucci looked at the air door that suddenly opened in the room. The one who stepped out was none other than Prince Sokachio Elus of the Eckmond Kingdom. The two put down their wine glasses and bowed their heads to salute and greet Elus.
“Don’t stand on ceremony. I’m just here to hang out.”
Elus’s smile was kind and approachable, relaxing like a spring breeze.
That cheerful mood could be felt even by a blind man from the lighthearted tone of his voice.
This discovery made Farrug quietly breathe a sigh of relief. As long as it wasn’t because something went wrong here, it was fine. Speaking of which, Elus rarely got angry at his subordinates. But the more so, the more awe Farrug and the others felt. In front of Elus, they didn’t even dare to breathe heavily.
“Miss Nami, how about sitting down and waiting a moment?”
Elus sat on the empty sofa and, by the way, invited the somewhat at-a-loss girl standing at the window side.
“—Okay!”
Looking at Elus, Nami found her hands and feet becoming somewhat stiff.
She couldn’t say words of rejection at all.
Having been abducted by Elus for so long, she actually hadn’t seen Elus many times. The usual contacts were basically with the numerous maids whose exact number she still hadn’t figured out. She could only learn about what kind of person Elus was through casual chats with the maids, piecing it together indirectly.
“Don’t be nervous, Miss Nami. The method I used to invite you as a guest was a bit rough, but I truly have no intention of harming you all. On the contrary, I think highly of your companions. They are still a bit immature now, but in the future, they will all be big shots who can shake the whole world.”
“……”
Nami sat stunned on the sofa, completely unable to understand what Elus was saying.
“However, the waves of the era will sweep over this world with an unprecedented ferocity. If you don’t get stronger quickly… you’ll be abandoned by the era!” Elus turned his gaze to the distance. The battle between Fire Fist and Isca was still ongoing, and Vice Admiral Gumir, commander of the Navy G2 branch, was quietly approaching.
Plus, General Kuzan, codenamed “Aokiji,” of the Navy Headquarters had already set off from Marineford.
Perhaps,
There wouldn’t even be a need for Blackbeard to make a move.
Ace’s fake battle of destiny was about to be in trouble!
“Lucci, go! Fukurou has been defeated, but Fukurou did very well this time. The Rokushiki ‘Shave’ and the variant of Finger Pistol ‘Beast Strictness’ are both good techniques… I hope you can do better than Fukurou. Oh, and I’ll give you a restriction: unless you think you’ll lose, otherwise… no using the power of your Devil Fruit.”
Elus’s order made Nami’s mouth form an O shape.
This was—
Really testing Luffy and the others!
That said, with such a harsh order… would that guy named Lucci really agree?
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Lucci agreed without any hesitation.
He didn’t think this was a harsh order at all. Just a little pirate who had entered the Grand Line from East Blue not long ago. Beating Fukurou did show some skill, but the problem was that Fukurou, aside from being decent at Shave, was solidly at the bottom of their small group in overall strength—probably just a bit stronger than Kalifa.
Moreover, after this period of training with sparring partners like Farrug, he wasn’t like when he was lurking in Water 7, standing still in place.
“Prince Elus, you this is…”
“Didn’t I say it? I harbor no malice toward you all. Personally, I don’t like pirates much, but pirates like you… I don’t dislike. Of course, that doesn’t mean I like you. Pirates are still pirates. Even if you haven’t done bad things, the name ‘pirate’ itself is a destruction and trampling of order.”
“Forget it, why am I telling you this? Um… Miss Nami, has there been any lack of hospitality during your stay here recently?”
“……No, it’s pretty good.”
Elus’s attitude was very polite, which instead made Nami speak softly as well.
“Then, have you gained anything? I heard from Fran that you’re learning navigation? If possible, I think Miss Nami, you should pay more attention to your personal combat power. Not to mention anything else, some escape methods are necessary. It’s okay if you can’t beat the enemy, but if you can’t even run away, that would be bad.”
“Why are you so kind?”
Nami looked at Elus warily.
“……Alright! Since Miss Nami is unwilling, I won’t force it. The good show is about to start. You can see it from the window side.”
————
“Damn it, Beast Strictness is clearly my move, cha ba ba ba.”
Fukurou lay among the broken bricks and tiles, looking at the cloudless blue sky, muttering full of unwillingness.
He lost.
After an intense battle, not only did Luffy steal his Shave and Beast Strictness, but he also used a pirated version of his ultimate move ‘Beast Strictness: Owl Random Fists’—that ‘Rubber Beast Strictness Eagle Gun Random Hits’—to knock him down. Simply… humiliating!
Too embarrassing.
Several bones were broken, and lying on the ground, he completely didn’t want to move.
Straw Hat kid… what kind of monster is this! Progressing way too fast?
While Fukurou was racking his limited brain pulp to ponder this defeat, an air door opened beside him. Whipping chains wrapped him up and directly dragged him into the door. But he found he didn’t stay in the green world inside the door like before; instead, he emerged from another air door, appearing at… the former police station in the center of the discarded village.
“Your Highness?”
Fukurou was dizzy and somewhat bewildered.
Did he fly that far in the door-inner world? How did he end up here in the blink of an eye?
The Door-Door Fruit wasn’t teleportation—this much Fukurou and the others knew well. It seemed elusive, but actually, it was long-distance movement completed in the door-inner world, a distance one-to-one with reality. But the problem was, Fukurou felt he had stayed in the door-inner world for no more than two seconds.
Elus retracted the chain.
He was too lazy to explain to Fukurou that his use of the Door-Door Fruit had reached a new realm. Combined with the Gaze-Gaze Fruit’s ability, he could finally distort distances in the door-inner world, achieving transfer effects like instant movement. That’s how he appeared in this discarded village, and the same reason for retrieving Fukurou.
The cheerful mood came from this as well.
Of course, this ability wasn’t yet heaven-defying like Kakarot roaming the universe. He could only do this instant transfer within the Gaze-Gaze Fruit’s field of vision, and the farther the distance, the longer it took—still plenty of room for improvement.
“Farrug, go help Fukurou set his bones straight.”
“Got it.”
Farrug cheerfully agreed, walked to Fukurou’s side, and with a series of operations on his hands, only a few crisp cracking sounds were heard— all broken bones reset. As a master of Strangling Technique, his understanding of human bones was no less than those professional doctors, and his bone-setting skills surpassed many old doctors.
“Your Highness, I…”
After his bones were set, Fukurou could already sit up, his tough physique needing no further explanation.
“Shh! Quiet down, the good show is about to begin.”
Elus made a “shh” sound.
Farrug immediately shut his mouth, even his breathing becoming light.
Fukurou could only close his mouth too, swallowing his words of self-criticism, thinking to find a chance to say them later.
“Luffy!!!”
Nami, standing at the window side, saw that familiar figure—wearing a red vest and blue knee-length jeans—tears uncontrollably falling. Over two months apart felt like three years… Even though she hadn’t been mistreated here at all—strictly speaking, the living standards here were much more comfortable than on the Going Merry.
It’s just that,
She still missed the partners on the Going Merry, missed those noisy, headache-inducing but never tiresome days, missed the orange tree transplanted from her hometown to the ship.
“Nami!!!”
Luffy also saw Nami standing at the window side.
But Lucci blocked his path, preventing him from rushing over immediately.
“Nami! Wait a bit longer, I’ll come to you right away!!”
Obviously, Lucci could block Luffy himself from approaching, but he couldn’t stop the sound from spreading.
“I, I, I’ll wait!!”
Tears gushed out completely.
Nami cried her eyes out, sobbing uncontrollably in this state, unable to raise her voice, so she just nodded vigorously.
“Done talking?”
Lucci calmly sized up the guy in front of him who had defeated Fukurou, unhurriedly loosening his wrists. “If you’re done, let’s play! If you can defeat me here, you can see your companion. Of course, if you can’t, no need for me to say the result…”
“I will definitely defeat you.”
Luffy shifted his gaze to Lucci.
He issued a victory declaration in that extremely resolute tone.
“I’m looking forward to it.” Lucci was unmoved. With a slight movement underfoot, he instantly moved behind Luffy in a breath, thrusting a Finger Pistol viciously at Luffy’s back of the head. Elus had said no Rankyaku, but if he couldn’t even dodge such a simple attack, even if punished or killed afterward… he didn’t care.
Weakness is the original sin.
Nothing to complain about.
“So fast!”
The Finger Pistol grazed past Luffy’s hair tips.
Luffy, who timely lowered his head, dodged Lucci’s surprise attack and simultaneously launched a counterstrike.
“Rubber Beast Strictness Gun.”
“Iron Body!”
The fist hitting Lucci’s chest felt like striking thick, solid armor. That astonishing hardness made Luffy’s fist ineffective.
“Fukurou’s Beast Strictness… is pretty good, but useless against me.” While speaking, Lucci raised his hand and swung a fist. No need for Finger Pistol anymore; he directly greeted Luffy with the most violent and direct fists. Even without transforming into human-beast form, the fists were already heavy enough to make this Rubber Human Luffy struggle.
Fists without Haki coating couldn’t damage Luffy’s rubber physique.
But that didn’t mean he could ignore the impact force of Lucci’s fists. Those extremely fast fists struck with ferocious power, forcing Luffy to retreat nonstop. Lucci also discovered that ordinary punches seemed unable to harm Luffy.
So,
“Tempest Kick.”
The sudden slash grazed past Luffy’s shoulder, a line of blood spraying out.
The wound wasn’t deep; it bled a bit and quickly stopped.
But this was clearly just the beginning. Discovering Luffy couldn’t immune slashes, Lucci’s attacks immediately diversified: Finger Pistol, Tempest Kick, punches alternating. This time, Luffy wasn’t just retreating nonstop; wounds on his body visibly increased at a speed the eye could see…
This won’t do!
Luffy deeply felt this reality.
In this state, he couldn’t deal with the man in front of him. He needed faster speed, stronger power.
