Chapter 4

East Blue - Americas Archipelago 

Old-Town Island – City Center 

Luffy arrives at the town square, locates the saloon, and bursts through the double doors with force. 

The previously noisy environment falls into complete silence, with all eyes on Luffy. 

"Ihaaaaa, folks, which one of you is Lamparina?", Luffy asks, doing a poor imitation of a country bumpkin, hands positioned where a belt buckle would be if he were wearing a belt. 

"And what business do you have with me?", At a large table more towards the center of the saloon, a tall, thin man dressed like a typical cangaceiro, wearing a pair of glasses, extinguishes a cigarette in an ashtray and looks at Luffy. 

"You hurt a friend of mine, and I'm here to give you a beating", Luffy says, snapping his fingers. 

"Ha", Lampião exhales with amusement and says "You're the kid who docked at the port this morning, right?" 

"That's right." 

"Let me see if I got this straight. You, an outsider, come to my island and, in just a few hours, think you have the right to meddle where you weren't invited? Just because you met one of the locals?" 

"She gave me food and was nice to me. I don't see what's wrong with that", Luffy says, confused about why Lampião was complaining. 

"Ha, this kid is funny, isn't he?", Lampião says, looking at his henchmen and pointing at Luffy "What's your name, kid?" 

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy, the man who will become the Pirate King", Luffy says with an easy smile. 

As if a joke had been told, everyone in the saloon starts laughing at Luffy. Not understanding why everyone was laughing but finding it funny, Luffy joined in the laughter. 

"Well, nice to meet you, future Pirate King", Lampião says mockingly. "My name is Virgulino, but everyone calls me Lampião." 

"Well, the talk is good and all, but are we going to fight or not?" 

Looking around while asking, Luffy sees a man in the back glaring at Lampião with anger and disdain. 

Unconcerned, Luffy turned his gaze back to Lampião, who was rising from his seat. 

In this moment of tension, where the two were staring each other down, the theme music of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" starts playing in Luffy's mind. 

With a swift draw, Lampião fires a precise shot at Luffy's head, which misses as Luffy, using Observation Haki, simply tilts his head, dodging the bullet. 

After this shot, silence reigns in the saloon, everyone in shock over what just happened. 

"Phew, that was close", Luffy says, wiping imaginary sweat from his forehead. 

This phrase snaps everyone out of their shock, and all the people in the saloon draw their weapons and aim at Luffy. 

With all eyes on Luffy, no one notices the man from earlier, who seemed to dislike Lampião, sneaking away. 

Suddenly, everyone hears a loud "BANG" from outside, along with one of the henchmen falling dead with a hole in his forehead, blood gushing out, and one of the saloon's windows shattered. 

"What's Mustache Man doing here?", Luffy asks, confused, to no one in particular. 

=FLASHBACK= 

Maria runs at full speed towards the sheriff's office, bursting into Sheriff Jerson's office and sliding to a stop. 

"Sorry, Sheriff, she came running in out of nowhere, and by the time I noticed, she was already here", a panting police officer says, entering the office right behind Maria. 

"It's alright, Morgan, I'll handle it", Jerson dismisses him and turns to Maria, who is catching her breath with her hands on her knees. 

"So, what happened?" 

"Luffy... Lampião's men broke into my house to take me to him, and Luffy beat them up and is now going to fight Lampião." 

"...Sigh... Didn't I tell you that you'd get into trouble?" 

"It doesn't matter now, you have to help, he's going to die if he faces them all alone." 

"Maria, I don't even know this kid well; he got himself into this mess on his own." 

"That's right, he didn't hesitate for a second to protect me from those guys. If not for him, then do it for me." 

"Maria, I can't do that and put the entire city at risk for a kid." 

Maria looks at him indignantly and says "You know what, stay here cowering in fear and running from your duty. I'm tired of bowing my head. I'd rather die than submit to this tyrant." 

Jerson looks incredulously at the girl leaving his office before coming to his senses and quickly following her. 

"Maria, wait." 

"What? Are you going to arrest me?" 

"No, I just realized it's better to die fighting than to live like this", he then turns to one of the nearby officers and says "Silva, mobilize the men. An opportunity to take down Virgulino has arisen. I want a group of men evacuating the area around the saloon, and the rest forming a perimeter around the square and the saloon. I don't want to see a single one of Lampião's henchmen escaping the area." 

"Yes, sir", Silva salutes and goes to carry out the orders. 

"And you, young lady, will stay here with our receptionist", Jerson says to Maria. 

"But I want to help too." 

"I'm sure you do, but if you want my help, you'll have to stay here." 

"Urghh, fine, I'll stay here." 

"Just to be clear, you're already helping your friend", Jerson ruffles Maria's hair and heads to the arsenal to grab a rifle and ammunition. 

He then runs towards the square, climbing onto a roof and aiming his rifle through the saloon's window at the exact moment everyone inside is aiming their weapons at Luffy. 

Without hesitation, he shoots one of the henchmen, hitting him directly. 

=END OF FLASHBACK= 

"SNIPER!", one of the henchmen yells as he throws himself to the ground. 

When all the others finally react, Sheriff Jerson has already taken down five more. 

With a Conqueror's Haki pulse, Luffy knocks out everyone in the saloon except for Lampião, who, despite appearing to have just exercised, sweating profusely, was still standing. 

Lampião looks at his unconscious henchmen around him and then at Luffy. He then empties his revolver into Luffy, who easily dodges all the bullets. 

"YOU SHITTY KID, YOU, THE DAMN OUTSIDER, THE SAME KIND THAT THINKS HE'S SUPERIOR AND NEVER GAVE A DAMN ABOUT THIS PLACE, NOW THINKS HE HAS THE RIGHT TO INTERFERE IN WHAT HAPPENS HERE? TO TAKE WHAT'S MINE? WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THEY KILLED MY WHOLE FAMILY AND USURPED THE LAND THAT WAS RIGHTFULLY MINE? HUH? YOU'RE JUST A KID WHO HASN'T SEEN THE CRUELTY OF THE WORLD YET, BUT DON'T WORRY, I'LL SHOW YOU", realizing his reign is in danger, Lampião explodes and shouts at Luffy, calming down at the end and whispering the last part. 

He then throws his revolver aside and begins transforming into what can only be described as a giant werewolf at least six meters tall. 

"A Zoan?", Luffy says, surprised. 

Lampião practically teleports in front of Luffy due to his speed and attempts to tear Luffy in half with his claws. 

Luffy bends, narrowly avoiding a fatal wound, but still receiving four shallow cuts extending from his left shoulder to the right side of his waist. 

Taking advantage of his open side, Luffy delivers a powerful left cross to the side of Lampião's body, which only moves him a few steps back. 

'Damn Zoan durability, should I take off the bracelet?', Luffy wonders, dodging and receiving some scratches from Lampião's attacks, and whenever an opportunity arose, he counterattacked the sides of Lampião's body, always aiming for the same spots to accumulate damage. 

'No, this is a great opportunity to have a tough fight, I can't let it pass', making his decision, Luffy starts imbuing Armament Haki into his attacks from this point onward. 

The fight then becomes increasingly brutal, and despite not having any serious or deep wounds, Luffy is covered in his own blood, while Lampião has two large, bloody bruises in black, purple, and blue on the sides of his body. 

At this point, Lampião attacks horizontally, trying to cut Luffy in half, but misses as Luffy jumps over the attack, which, although not touching anything, tears through half of the building. 

Still in the air with his legs bent, Luffy leans his body and delivers a flying kick with both feet to Lampião's snout, making a nauseating cracking sound. 

With this attack, Lampião is launched through the saloon's wall and only stops when he hits and destroys the concrete fountain in the middle of the square, raising a cloud of dust. 

From the huge hole in the saloon's wall, Luffy walks through the debris of the broken wood. 

"Is that all you've got, Lamparina?", Luffy says, opening his arms. 

"ENOUGH", throwing a piece of the fountain aside, Lampião shouts, transforming into his full Zoan form. 

From the dust cloud emerges a wolf at least 20 meters tall, growling and attacking Luffy with such speed that it seems to teleport in front of him. 

Luffy reacted too late, managing to avoid being torn in half but receiving four deep cuts stretching diagonally from his right shoulder to his left waist and being thrown back through the hole in the saloon wall. 

Groggily rising from the debris of what used to be the bar counter, he thinks 'Urghh, damn it, I'll have to learn Soru the hard way.' 

His first attempt was relatively successful; he managed to kick the ground five times in an instant. 

This balanced the battlefield a bit. Despite still receiving shallow cuts from all the attacks, Luffy could now react and attack again. 

From this point on, as the fight progressed, his execution of Soru improved. After being able to kick the ground ten times in a row in an instant, he put into practice the idea that had come to his mind: trying to kick the ground a greater number of times in each step. 

After managing to give fifteen consecutive kicks, dodging and attacking Lampião became very simple and easy. To make the most of this fight, Luffy slowed down his speed to match Lampião's. 

From this point on, he focused on improving his Observation and Armament Haki to the point where, without using Soru, he could easily dodge Lampião's attacks, and his Armament-imbued attacks caused significant damage. 

This all led to the climax of the fight, where a tired and blood-soaked Lampião realized that Luffy would win. He then attacked head-on, trying to bite Luffy with his sharp teeth and cause as much damage as possible before falling. 

Luffy, using Observation and Soru, dodged to the left, ending up behind Lampião as he bit the air. He then spun on his own axis, positioning his torso parallel to the ground and delivering a thunderous spinning kick to the side of Lampião's head with his right heel imbued with Armament. 

The impact of the kick made Lampião's head collide with the ground, creating a crater at the spot and raising a dust cloud. 

Still in the air and continuing his spin, he hit Lampião with another kick, this time with his left foot. 

This kick caused Lampião, who was clinging to consciousness and trying to get up, to crash once more into the ground, further enlarging the crater and breaking his teeth in the process. 

This attack was the breaking point for Lampião, who could not endure and fell unconscious. This turned the giant, blood-soaked wolf back into a bloodied and beaten man. 

Luffy landed on the ground next to Lampião's unconscious body and, realizing the fight was over, thought 'Damn, I should have used this fight to learn Shigan, Geppo, and Rankyaku too.' 

He then flipped Lampião's body, which was lying face down, and began patting his face, saying "Come on, Lamparina, wake up. I want to try some new moves." 

But no matter how many times or how hard he patted him, Lampião did not wake up. 

"It doesn't look like he'll be waking up anytime soon", Jerson said as he approached Luffy. 

Luffy left Lampião and said, "Awwnnn, man... sigh... well, it's not my fault he couldn't take even a little beating." 

Jerson looked at the blood-soaked, injured boy in front of him, incredulous at what he had just heard. Looking at Lampião's body on the ground, also soaked in blood and covered in injuries, he shook his head and said "Well, come on, let's take you to the city doctor to patch you up." 

"Nah, no need. Just give me lots of meat, milk, vegetables, and a place to sleep, and I'll be fine." 

"I'll ask them to bring food while the doctor patches you up." 

"Oh, why didn't you say there'd be food before? I'm starving." 

They then started to move away from Lampião's body. When Jerson called one of his subordinates to arrest and move Lampião, they heard a loud gunshot "BANG" from behind. When everyone looked in the direction of the shot, Luffy recognized the shooter on Lampião's bullet-riddled corpse as the man who had been glaring at him enviously. 

This man then emptied his gun, riddling Lampião's corpse with bullets. 

"MUAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHA, finally, now that he's dead, everything he achieved will be mine, and nothing will stop me." 

"Shishishishishi, this guy is funny." 

Jerson looked at Luffy with an expressionless face and said "No, I'm almost a hundred percent sure he's just plain stupid." 

"You filthy mudbloods, you've learned to fear the wrath of Lord Vold-", he couldn't finish his sentence as he fainted from a Conqueror's Haki pulse directed at him. 

"Wrong universe, Tommy Boy. Come on, Mustache Man, I'm starving", Luffy said, then began walking out of the square with no idea where the doctor was. 

=Scene Break= 

As they were passing through a market on their way to the doctor, Luffy noticed an Akuma no Mi at one of the fruit stalls. 

He ran up to the stall, grabbed the fruit, and asked the stall owner "Auntie, how much is this fruit?" 

The woman looked confused at the strange fruit and said "Oh, this fruit appeared out of nowhere; it wasn't here a few minutes ago." 

"So, how much does it cost?", Luffy asked, knowing that this was Lampião's Akuma no Mi. 

"Hmm, since I don't know what kind of fruit this is or if it's expensive or not, I'll sell it to you for 5 Berries." 

"Alright, here", Luffy paid for the fruit and continued with Jerson, who was waiting for him. 

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(AN: 2,427 Words) 

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