11 Chapter 11

11

"Now's my turn, Mr. Krabs!" Luffy shouted, before vanishing from where he was. And appeared right before the crab's face, "Dynamic bull needle." He thrusted his naginata inside its head, breaking through the skull and hitting the brain.

A fatal blow, but the crab tried hard to smash Luffy away, but the boy barely avoided getting cut by the caws, getting smashed away in the process. Still he was able to get his naginata out in time.

At least one of them was down. And nineteen more to go. One could see that Luffy's arms and legs were a bit bulkier in size, he even looked taller, while his body looked sharper. And when his shirt fell off he looked like a men's physic bodybuilder, a homage to his own passion for bodybuilding. It was a contrast to his slim build.

The boy jumped back up before he started running as to not give the Crabs any chance to gang up on him. The crabs were smart enough, as they started throwing debris towards the boy.

Luffy avoided the thrown rocks, but he was also winching in pain. The recoil from his technique, and the muscles on his arms and legs —which were now bigger— shrank down to normal size, again. This was a technique to increase his speed and strength by expanding his muscles.

A technique which he was inspired by the Zoro's 'Ni Gorilla', but for him it was his whole body. With it, Luffy could double his speed and strength for a short period of time. But it had one big disadvantage and that was the recoil from using it.

He was in a general sense, forcefully expanding or stretching his muscles to give maximum output of strength. And it was quite stressful, it's as if he would pop any time... but he could bare it. Also, he mostly used the technique to use it with his 'soru', but he had to use this alone. It gave him speed akin to an unmastered version of Soru.

But looking at the bright side, he could increase his Gomu-Gomu no mi proficiency with this, this was a technique that was based off his unique ability. A power that he could fully call his. Of course, this technique was using the basics of Luffy's gear 2 and 3 in a much more compact level, so the boost in physical strength wasn't as dramatic. But it would make his body suitable for other gear-based techniques later.

And he officially dubbed it Gear 1. Heh, totally original.

Luffy looked at the other crabs, and sighed it would take a long ass time to finish this.

He never had used his technique to the fullest. He wasn't a fan of pain, but sometimes you had to ruffle your own feathers.

Well, it's now or never. He activated his technique again and jumped high again as he moved towards his enemy with breakneck speed.

[A/N: For those of you who are wondering, he looks like Gear 4th snake man Luffy without the effects of haki and steam. You can think of it like this Gear 1 gives Luffy more muscles so he can generate more power, similar to Zoro's ni gorrila. And Gear 2 makes his blood run wild, boosting his speed. In theory, both Gear 1 and 2 can be used at once. But that's for the future.]

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On the other hand, Garp had almost lost his shit, when he saw Luffy disappear.

Was that 'Soru', but when he observed carefully, he was dumbstruck. His grandson looked like he had aged five years, and his body had taken on an amazing psychic.

The boy's whole body looked as if they were made out of muscles. A bit of steam coming off them, his veins showing, and even his hair seemed to be standing up.

His once slim body that showed a few signs of muscles was now totally different. Garp was impressed, he had to say, and it wasn't just because of the physic.

His grandson knew how to think outside the box.

He also sighed in relief, knowing that he was using his rubber body to enhance his whole body to basically buff up. Not using soru. Sengoku would be mad if that was the case. But that was almost half of the speed of a 'soru' user.

Even though it was impressive but he had seen this type of usage of power before, but with Luffy's rubber body the boy took it to another level. He had seen skilled pirates and marines in using this sort of muscle-based tactics. It was a simple form of Seimei Kikan: Kami-e Bushin. But it seemed that Luffy figured it out himself.

He almost wondered how much speed he would gain if he used his 'new transformation with soru.

Garp also observed that when Luffy used his technique for speed, just before sprinting towards the enemy, his leg muscles would bulk up just for a second, before the boy disappeared.

Garp grinned, so he wasn't buffing up the whole thing. He knew where the pump was needed and used it. Good thing the boy knew to use his head at least in fighting.

And not to mention that he was already using it in the combination with his naginata as Luffy's arms muscles inflated a bit just before striking. This should really work well with Soru and Tekkie.

Garp even wondered if Luffy could figure out 'Soru' himself. Tempest kick would be easy, with how much speed he was generating. But he already was weapon a bladed weapon, so Luffy might not need that.

Well, it wouldn't be impossible, the workout notes that he gave him was to build muscles for the Rokushiki techniques.

The boy would be a great marine, hmm, maybe he should throw a bone or two at him. Maybe that might inspire the boy to become a marine. Luffy still seemed too sour that he can't wield his gifted naginata. But with how Luffy was progressing, Garp was sure he could gain strength enough to do it.