The interior of the Rain Dinners casino had transformed from a palace of greed into a gladiatorial arena of shifting sand and shattered steel. The air was hot, dry, and thick with the tension of a stalemate that defied the laws of physics.
Monkey D. Luffy, the man who would be King of the Pirates, was moving like a rubber bullet ricocheting inside a metal box. He bounced off walls, vaulted over pillars, and twisted his body in mid-air with impossible flexibility.
Opposite him, Sir Crocodile, the Warlord of the Sea, was a storm of frustration.
"Desert Spada!" Crocodile roared, swinging his arm. A blade of compressed sand, sharp enough to cut a galleon in half, tore through the air.
Luffy didn't panic. With the power of Observation Haki. He saw the intent before the sand even moved.
He tilted his head to the left.
Whoosh.
The sand blade missed his ear by a millimeter, slicing a stone pillar behind him cleanly in two.
"Too slow!" Luffy shouted, using his momentum to snap back. "Gomu Gomu no... Pistol!"
His fist flew forward, stretching twenty meters in a heartbeat, aiming directly for Crocodile's solar plexus.
Crocodile didn't bother to dodge. He stood his ground, a sneer on his face.
Splats.
Luffy's fist connected, but it felt like punching a cloud of dust. Crocodile's torso dissipated into swirling grains of sand on impact, the rubber fist passing harmlessly through his body.
Luffy retracted his arm, frustrated. "Damn it! He's still doing the sand thing!"
"It's called a Logia, you insolent brat!" Crocodile reformed his body, looking bored. "How many times must we do this? You can dodge my attacks, yes. You are surprisingly slippery. But you cannot hurt me. I am the desert itself. You can't punch a desert."
"I'll figure it out!" Luffy yelled, preparing to launch himself again.
The crew—Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Nami, and Ben—stood near the ruined entrance, watching the spectacle. They had cleared their respective opponents, but they knew better than to interfere in a duel of this magnitude. This was the Captain's fight.
"This is bad," Sanji murmured, lighting a cigarette. "Luffy has the speed advantage. But without a way to touch Crocodile, he's just burning energy."
"He needs water," Nami said, biting her lip.
"He needs Haki," Zoro corrected, his eyes glued to the fight. "Real Armament Haki. If he doesn't unlock it, he dies."
Back in the arena, the stalemate broke.
Luffy, growing impatient, decided to try a larger attack. He leaped high into the air, spinning his body like a corkscrew.
"Gomu Gomu no... SPEAR!"
He drove his feet together, launching a piercing kick downward.
Crocodile dissolved into sand to let the attack pass through.
Luffy's feet slammed into the floor.
CRUNCH.
The force was so great that Luffy's sandals and feet punched straight through the ground, burying themselves deep in the ground.
"Uh oh," Luffy said, trying to pull his legs out. "I'm stuck."
Crocodile reformed instantly beside the trapped rubber man. A cruel, predatory grin stretched across his scarred face.
"A fatal error," Crocodile rasped.
He reached out with his right hand.
"Ground Death."
He grabbed Luffy's arm.
The effect was instantaneous and horrifying.
"GYAAAAH!" Luffy screamed, a sound of pure agony.
The crew watched in horror as the vitality was sucked out of their captain. Luffy's arm turned grey and withered within a second. The effect spread to his chest, his face, his legs. His rubber skin lost its elasticity, becoming brittle and dry. His eyes sunk into his skull.
In moments, the vibrant, energetic boy was reduced to a shriveled, mummified husk. He slumped forward, his trapped legs the only thing keeping him upright.
"Luffy!" Nami shrieked.
"Game over," Crocodile scoffed, tossing Luffy's withered arm aside. "Just another dried-up corpse in the dunes."
Crocodile turned to walk away, confident in his victory.
But he heard a whistle.
A sharp, piercing whistle from the sidelines.
Crocodile turned. He saw the man in the trench coat—Ben—casually toss a small, blue, glowing sphere through the air.
"Open wide, Captain!" Ben shouted.
The mummified Luffy, seemingly driven by pure instinct at the sound of Ben's command, cracked his dry jaw open.
The blue pill arced perfectly through the air and landed in Luffy's mouth.
He swallowed.
GULP.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then, a sound like a rushing river echoed from inside Luffy's stomach.
GLUG-GLUG-GLUG.
Steam erupted from Luffy's pores. His skin flushed pink. His muscles inflated. His eyes popped back out.
In the blink of an eye, Luffy was back. Fully hydrated. Fully energized.
"PUH-AAAAH!" Luffy gasped, spitting out a fountain of water. "That was refreshing! I feel like a water balloon!"
Crocodile's cigar fell out of his mouth. "What?!""What was that?!" Usopp asked, his eyes bugging out. "
"Hydro-Pill," Ben explained calmly, taking another drag of his cigarette. "Compressed water. One pill contains about two gallons. Useful for desert travel. Or for fighting sand-men."
Luffy ripped his feet out of the steel floor with a grunt. "Thanks, Ben! That tasted like blueberries!"
"You..." Crocodile trembled with rage. "You dare make a mockery of my power?!"
"I'm not mocking," Luffy grinned, bouncing on his toes. "I'm fighting! Round Two!"
The fight resumed, but the dynamic had shifted. It became a bizarre, high-stakes game of Whac-A-Mole.
Luffy would attack. Crocodile would dodge. Luffy would get tagged by a sand attack. Crocodile would grab him.
Suck. Luffy turns into a mummy.
Throw. Ben tosses a pill.
Gulp. Luffy pops back to normal.
"STOP HEALING HIM!" Crocodile screamed after the fifth time, veins popping in his forehead.
"Stop drying him," Ben retorted from the sidelines.
"Fine!" Crocodile roared. "I'll kill the healer first!"
He turned away from Luffy, focusing his murderous intent on the crew standing by the entrance.
"Sables!"
He whipped up a massive tornado of sand, sending it tearing across the room toward Ben, Nami, and the others. The storm was strong enough to strip flesh from bone.
"Ben!" Nami cried, raising her tact, though she knew wind wouldn't stop sand.
Ben didn't flinch. He raised his wand. He didn't shout. He simply slashed the air in a protective arc.
"Protego Maxima."
A shimmering, translucent blue dome erupted around the crew.
The sandstorm slammed into the barrier with the force of a freight train. ROAR. The sand hissed and ground against the magic, but the dome held firm. It was an immovable object against an unstoppable force. The sand flowed harmlessly around the dome, dissipating into the corners of the room.
Inside the dome, Sanji whistled. "Handy."
Crocodile stared at the barrier, dumbfounded. "Magic? Devil Fruit? What kind of trickery is this?!"
"Pay attention to me!" Luffy shouted, slamming a foot into the side of Crocodile's head (which turned to sand again).
The battle dragged on.
Thirty minutes.
One hour.
Two hours.
The underground casino was in ruins. The walls were gone.
Luffy was panting heavily. Even with the Hydro-Pills keeping him hydrated, his physical stamina was draining. He was covered in cuts and bruises from the sand blades.
Crocodile was also slowing down. Reforming his body constantly and using massive sand attacks was taking a toll on his energy. He was sweating, his breathing ragged.
"Just... die..." Crocodile wheezed. "Why won't you... die?"
Luffy stood up, wiping blood from his cheek. "Because... I haven't kicked your ass yet."
Ben watched closely. He saw the change in Luffy. The desperation was gone, replaced by a hyper-focused trance. The constant dodging, the constant failure to connect... it was pushing Luffy's spirit to evolve.
Luffy looked at his hands.
I can see him, Luffy thought. I know where he is. But my hand goes through. Ben said... Will. Armor. Don't hit the sand. Hit the man.
Luffy charged again.
"Gomu Gomu no..."
Crocodile didn't bother to dodge. He was too tired.
"It's useless!" Crocodile yelled.
Luffy didn't listen. He focused. He didn't think about rubber. He didn't think about water. He thought about hitting. He poured his anger, his determination, and his sheer willpower into his right fist.
For a fleeting second, the skin on his knuckles darkened. It wasn't just shadow. It was a metallic, obsidian sheen.
"...PISTOL!"
The fist struck Crocodile's chest.
Crocodile expected the whoosh of air.
Instead, he felt pain.
THWACK.
The sound of meat hitting meat echoed through the ruins.
Luffy's fist didn't pass through. It dug into Crocodile's sternum. The force of the blow folded the Warlord in half.
"Guh!"
Crocodile's eyes bulged. He coughed up a spray of blood.
He was launched backward, his feet skidding across the floor, until he slammed into a pile of rubble.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Crocodile sat up, clutching his chest. He looked at the blood on his hand. He looked at Luffy.
"You..." Crocodile whispered, his voice trembling with genuine shock. "You hit me. Without water."
Luffy looked at his own fist, eyes wide. "I... I touched him."
"That's it!" Zoro shouted from the dome. "He did it!"
Luffy grinned. "Okay! I got it! I'm gonna do it again!"
He rushed forward, cocking his arm back. "Gomu Gomu no Bullet!"
He swung.
Crocodile flinched.
Whoosh.
The punch passed straight through Crocodile's shoulder, dissolving into sand. Luffy stumbled, off-balance.
"Huh?" Luffy blinked. "It didn't work."
Crocodile seized the opening, turning his arm into a sand blade and slashing Luffy across the chest.
"Luck!" Crocodile roared, backing away. "It was just a fluke!"
Luffy fell back, rolling to his feet. He looked at Ben. "Ben! It stopped working! Why?!"
Ben stepped out of the protective dome. The danger was high, but the lesson was critical.
"It wasn't luck, Luffy," Ben called out, his voice cutting through the wind. "You lost the feeling because you got excited. You tried to force it."
"Force it?"
"Haki is spirit," Ben explained, tapping his own chest. "It flows. When you hit him just now, you weren't thinking about winning or losing. You were just focused on hitting. Recall that feeling. The weight. The hardness. Imagine your skin isn't rubber anymore. Imagine it's invisible steel."
Luffy closed his eyes.
Crocodile charged. "Die! Desert Girasole!" A massive sinkhole of sand opened beneath Luffy.
Luffy didn't move. He stood on the edge of the sinkhole.
Steel, Luffy thought. Not rubber. Armor. Spirit.
He felt the presence of Crocodile approaching. He felt the malice.
Luffy opened his eyes. They were calm.
He raised his arm to block a sand-sword strike.
His forearm turned black.
CLANG.
The sand blade shattered against Luffy's arm as if it had hit a diamond wall.
Crocodile froze. "What?!"
Luffy didn't smile. He stepped in.
"Gomu Gomu no... Whip!"
His leg turned black.
WHAM.
He kicked Crocodile in the side. Ribs cracked. Crocodile was sent spiraling into a wall.
"I remember it now," Luffy said, clenching his fists. The black coating flickered, fading in and out, but it was there. The gate was open.
The fight that followed was a brutal deconstruction of a Warlord.
Luffy launched a barrage of attacks.
Pistol. Miss.
Stamp. Hit.
Bazooka. Miss.
Gatling. Hit. Hit. Miss. Hit.
The percentage of connection was rising. At first, it was one in ten. Then one in five. Then every other punch was landing with the weight of a cannonball.
Crocodile was terrified. For the first time in decades, he was in a physical brawl. His Logia intangibility—his greatest shield—was failing him. He was being beaten bloody by a rookie.
"I am... a Warlord!" Crocodile screamed, desperate. He unleashed his awakening, turning the entire remaining structure into sand. The ground, the walls, everything became a swirling death trap. "Ground Death! Cycle of Erosion!"
The world turned to dust around them.
Luffy leaped into the air, using Geppo to stay above the decay.
"It doesn't matter who you are!" Luffy shouted from the sky. He bit his thumb. He blew air into his muscles, expanding his chest, but this wasn't Gear Third. This was pure adrenaline and Haki.
He twisted his body into a tight coil. The air around him seemed to vibrate.
"You messed with my friends!"
His arms stretched back, coated in the deepest, darkest shade of Armament Haki he had managed yet.
"You made Vivi cry!"
Crocodile looked up. He gathered every grain of sand he could control into a massive, jagged sword pointing at the heavens. "Desert La Spada!"
"I'M GONNA SURPASS YOU!"
Luffy unleashed the coil.
"GOMU GOMU NO..."
He spun. The centrifugal force added to the rubber tension added to the Haki weight.
"...STORM!!!"
Luffy descended like a furious tornado. A barrage of thousands of punches rained down.
DADADADADADADADADA!
Crocodile thrust his sand sword up.
Luffy's Haki-coated fists shattered the sand sword instantly.
The barrage didn't stop. It continued downward, smashing into Crocodile's face, his chest, his shoulders.
"Impossible..." Crocodile thought, as his vision went white. "He's... stronger..."
CRASH.
With a final, earth-shattering BOOM, the massive pyramid of Rain Dinners seemed to jump into the air. A plume of dust erupted from the center of the room.
The crew shielded their eyes from the shockwave.
When the dust finally settled, the silence returned.
In the center of a massive crater, Sir Crocodile lay unconscious. His golden hook was shattered. His coat was in tatters. He was beaten, broken, and stripped of his divinity.
Standing over him, panting, bleeding, but standing tall, was Monkey D. Luffy.
He raised a fist to the sky.
It wasn't black anymore.
But it was the hand of a winner.
"I WIIIIIIN!" Luffy screamed.
Ben smiled, extinguishing his cigarette on the sole of his shoe.
"Lesson learned," Ben whispered. "Welcome to the big leagues, Captain."