Chapter 70

"They won't be a problem," Zoro said. Vivi looked at him worriedly.

"Are you sure? This isn't like what happened in Whiskey Peak. We're at sea, and they have us surrounded."

"Vivi-chan's right," Sanji said. "I have no doubt we can beat them all eventually, but we'll just waste time and draw attention to ourselves. For now we should just ignore them and get to the island. We only need to engage if they notice us."

"No, like Zoro said, they won't be a problem," Luffy spoke up. "I just put them all into comas. They'll be out for a week." The Strawhats' reactions to this statement varied. Nami and Vivi looked disbelieving, Usopp and Chopper looked awed, and even Sanji looked shocked, although he kept a moderately neutral expression. Zoro just smirked at their reactions.

Chopper was the first to speak. "You can do that Luffy!?" he shouted. "Was it with that haki stuff you told me about?" Luffy had already explained what Conqueror's haki was to Chopper while going over the basics of haki again before he joined the training.

"Yep, that's it," Luffy responded.

"So cool!" Usopp and Chopper shouted simultaneously, only to be yelled at by Nami.

"Don't believe him so easily! How could he just knock out all those people from all the way over here!?"

"How long will you continue to underestimate our Captain? He can do a lot more than this," Zoro commented.

"That was only about 200 people," Luffy stated. "Even if they were spread out, that's not enough to push me to my limits." Usopp was deeply impressed.

"How many people can you knock out then!?" he gasped.

Luffy thought for a moment. "It depends. If they were all that weak, I guess about 150,000?"

Usopp's eyes bugged out of their sockets, Chopper looked at him starry eyed, Nami was clearly still disbelieving, and Sanji looked a bit disturbed.

150,000? If that's really true, he could defeat the Alabastian royal army singlehandedly if given enough time, Vivi thought. Could such a power really exist? And without the aid of any devil fruit?

"That's ridiculous!" Nami said. "You could take down armies without lifting a finger if that was true!"

"Why do you think they call it Conqueror's haki?" Zoro asked lazily. "Disregarding the World Government and its affiliations, you'll find that the most influential people in this world usually possess the King's Will. That's not to say that it's an accurate measure of one's strength, but no one can deny that the ability is what its name implies, a manifestation of one's will to conquer. I can only think of a few exceptions...one of them being this guy," he said as he pointed at Luffy.

"Really?" Usopp asked. "But doesn't he want to conquer the Grand Line?"

"I don't really want to conquer anything," Luffy admitted. "I don't mind making a name for myself, but in the end that's not really my goal. I just think that the person with the most freedom in this world is the Pirate King. I plan on obtaining that freedom...and sharing it with anyone who calls themselves my comrade."

Nami couldn't help but smile. She always wondered what Pirate King meant to Luffy. There were two things she could say for sure that she knew the value of: freedom and money. The world map that she would one day draw wasn't just a means to both, but she'd be lying if she said that the vastness of the open sea wasn't extremely alluring to her. She had to admit, if she was told to choose between fame, power, and freedom, she would always choose the last option. Now if one of the choices was wealth on the other hand…

Usopp was actually tearing up. In a way, that was what being a brave warrior of the sea was all about. It had never been the promise of wealth, fame, or power that had attracted him to this life. Before he knew that his father was on a Yonko's crew, and even now, it was always the promise of freedom that lured him out to the sea. There was a reason why before he became a true pirate, he could spend hours just staring out at the infinite waters.

Sanji was thinking about All Blue. Yes, it was a chef's paradise, but now he realized that it was more than that. Deep down, every human being craved freedom. It was a basic human instinct. There was a reason that he never felt completely satisfied on the Baratie, and it was the same reason he had stayed there. Although his guilt regarding Zeff was slowly releasing its grip on him, Sanji would never truly forget what he had taken from the old man. But that was also the reason he had left. If Zeff's search for freedom could even be partially fulfilled through him, Sanji would make damn well sure that he lived free as can be.

Chopper continued to stare at Luffy in wonder. He thought back to his days with Hiluluk and what the sakura tree really meant to him. He had long since learned that it would take much more to fulfill his dream to prove there was a cure to every disease, but there was a reason that the sakura in full bloom was so appealing. He had grown up in a land of eternal snow. As a reindeer, he was satisfied with that, but as a reindeer/human hybrid, there was always a part of him that looked out towards the sea in curiosity and wondered what else the world had to offer. Hiluluk's Sakura was the first taste of the vastness of the world, and it would always hold a place within his heart, even if it couldn't literally cure diseases.

"Now, full speed ahead!" Luffy shouted, breaking them all out of their thoughts. "To eat at the nearest restaurant! I mean, to save Alabasta!"

In the center of Nanohana, there was a crowd gathering around a local restaurant.

"It's getting pretty noisy over there," a white haired man said as he smoked two cigars.

"Yes, there seems to be quite the commotion," the blue haired woman next to him replied. "Apparently a customer spontaneously died while eating."

"Captain Smoker!" a marine yelled as he ran towards the marine captain. "You're not going to believe who we found!"

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