Strength

It's been about a week since they left, and Nami has been asking Luffy and Zoro questions. Questions like 'Where did you grow up?', 'What are your dreams?', and most importantly to Nami, 'How are you so strong?'.

Zoro said he was trained in swordsmanship for the first 18 years of his life. He left his home island and dojo to find the World's Strongest Swordsman, but got lost and wound up in Shells Town. He explained he saw the Helmet guy release his pet wolf in the town and it was about to attack Rika. Helmeppo told Zoro to be tied to a pole for a month in exchange for guaranteeing Rika's safety, to which he agreed.

Luffy explained how his Grandpa threw him into crazy situations like being tied to a bunch of balloons and being told to figure out how to get down or thrown down a cliff and told to find a way up.

He talked about meeting Shanks, getting his dream acknowledged, and promising to give his straw hat back to him once he becomes a great pirate. The excitement he had as he recounted his tale was infectious, leading to an impromptu, 3-person party on their small dinghy with the small amount of booze and food they had.

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"Ughhh… my head…" Luffy groaned out as he tried to rub away the horrible headache he woke up with. He found out last night that he has a horrible alcohol tolerance.

He looked around after his vision cleared and immediately saw an island that seemed to be covered in a massive forest. He jumped up excitedly.

"Guys! Guys! Wake up!! I see an island!!" He screamed out, hangover completely forgotten. The other two occupants of the dinghy groan as they are woken up by loud screaming.

"SHUT UP!!" "STOP YELLING!!!" They both shouted at the teenager, who paid them no mind at all.

"Come on! Come on!! Hurry up and dock!! I smell adventure!!!" Luffy yelled out, eventually running out of patience and jumping to the dock with a massive leap.

*BOOM!!!*

A massive sound resulted from the impact of his landing. He was about to enter the forest, but he stopped when he heard a voice.

"Stop!! I am god! You cannot enter God's Domain!!" The voice shouted, making Luffy drop his jaw.

"YOU'RE GOD?! THE REAL ONE?!!" Luffy shouted out, only to receive another blow to the head from his recently arrived friend.

"Of course, he isn't, He's just up in the trees," Nami explained after hitting Luffy, making him smack the bottom of his fist into his open palm in understanding.

"Oh, I see." He said before walking forward. He sensed malicious intent up in the trees and the next second the sound of a gun went off.

*BANG!!*

Luffy smirked as he leaned back and stared right at whoever shot at him. Said person immediately came down from the tree when he saw this person could dodge a bullet.

Luffy and Nami looked at the guy who was stuck in a treasure chest, as there was no better way to put it. You could only see his head, hands, knees, and feet sticking out from the chest. Luffy couldn't help it and burst out laughing.

"Shishishishi!!! You look hilarious!!" He laughed out as Nami stared at the man with complete confusion written on her face. The man had his hand up in the air when he came out, but he realized these people weren't hostile to him so he put them down. Well, relatively down.

"It's been a while since we've had visitors that weren't trying to steal my treasure." The man in the box said. Luffy stopped laughing and took a good look at him.

"Hey, guy, you want me to pull you out of that box?" Luffy asked with a smile that made the man smile too before he shook his head, making both of them confused. Why would you want to stay in a box?

"My body will fall apart if I leave this chest because it has become molded to fit over the years." He went on to explain how he used to be a pirate and is happy to meet others who are pirates.

He talked about how he and a pirate crew came here looking for treasure, but they couldn't find it anywhere. He went to the last possible place, the summit of the small mountain on the island. Just as he peaked over the edge, getting a sight of the treasure chests he had been looking for, he slipped and fell into an empty treasure chest the crew had found earlier.

When he woke up, he realized he was stuck in the chest and that the crew had left without him.

By the time the story was over, Luffy was bawling his eyes out, hugging the man now known to be Gaimon as best he could. This had woken up Zoro, who was sleeping on the boat.

He marched over to Luffy and smacked him with the hilt of his 'Wado'.

"Shut the hell up, Luffy!!" He screamed at him, getting a pout in return. Luffy sat up straight while he looked like he was deciding on something. He seemingly came to a decision and turned to the annoyed swordsman.

"Hey Zoro…" Luffy started getting his Vice-Captain's attention, who noticed fighting intent in his Captain's eyes. He smirked at him and Luffy returned it before continuing.

"You wanna spar?"

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Luffy grinned at Zoro as he watched his Vice-Captain tie his green bandanna on his head and unsheathe his katanas Luffy could tell were all quite nice quality.

"How about we fight till one gets first blood? I don't want to destroy the box guy's island." Luffy asked with a smile as he unsheathed his cutlass, imbuing 'Armament Haki' into his blade, making Zoro smirk and do the same.

"Sounds good to me, Captain," Zoro responded but before he could say anything more, he saw a scene that confused him.

Luffy swung his left arm out to his side and as he did, his arm resembled a steam pump, coiling up before extending back to normal. Luffy's skin became a light shade of red with steam coming off of his body.

"Gear 2nd!!" Luffy announced the name of his technique and before Zoro could begin to process what he was seeing, he saw his new captain disappear completely.

He felt an incoming threat to his right, hastily crossing his swords to block the attack. Zoro's eyes widened when he realized he could barely keep up with Luffy's speed, even with his 'Observation Haki' running overtime.

"JET PISTOL!!!"

*TING*

The sound of metal colliding echoed throughout the island as Zoro was sent shooting backward, each foot digging a deep trench in the ground.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOOOOM!!!*

Zoro broke through 2 trees before colliding with a very large one, the sounds echoing much louder than from their collision.

Luffy watched as Zoro jumped back into the clearing they were fighting in with a drop of blood going down the side of his head. He had an excited grin on his face.

"Three-Sword Style…" He started as he went into a stance holding one of his swords horizontally above the shoulder of his sword arm.

"1080 Pound Phoenix!!!" He does a circular swing that launches three compressed air slashes that merge into one large one spiraling towards Luffy, who grinned at the incoming attack.

"Divine One-Sword Style…" Luffy sheathed his cutlass and held it in both hands as he crouched down.

"Divine Flying Dragon!!!" Luffy sent out a massive compressed air slash in the shape of a dragon.

Both massive attacks, reaching over 20 meters tall, collided causing massive gusts of wind that reached out past Nami on the sea.

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Nami couldn't believe anything that she was seeing. She had only ever seen anything similar when the damn fish showed off his strength to get rid of any thoughts of rebellion.

She watched as the two sent out flying sword slashes and moved faster than she could see.

She felt the foreign emotion of hope well within her before ruthlessly stomping it out.

'I barely even know them. Why would they help me? They are pirates, they don't help anyone.' Nami thought as she watched the entire forest get torn up and thrown around as the two continued to fight.

Luffy had stopped using his sword after the first hour as well as whatever made him steam and stuck to using his fists, kicks, and devil fruit since. It just passed the 4th hour of the fight as she's almost numb to it at this point. Wait, his devil fruit was probably what made him steam, right? But how does being a rubber man make your skin turn red and produce steam?

She's seen Luffy grow his fist to the size of a giant and she's seen Zoro cut down hundreds of trees with a swing of his sword.

She saw the two stop and talk back and forth for a second before Luffy jumped up into the air and made his fists massive again. She watched as Zoro crossed his blade in a stance.

The next thing she saw was Luffy's massive fists clashing against Zoro's sparking swords before she had to cover her eyes. The backlash from the attack sent her flying into the railing of her dinghy, even though they were more than 300 meters away…

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*TING*

Luffy's haki-covered fist slammed into Zoro's haki-clad katanas. A massive shockwave spread all around them.

They fought against each other's strength for a moment before both jumped back. Luffy grinned at his vice-captain.

"I knew you were strong!! This is so much fun!!" Luffy shouted out in glee as Zoro smirked at him.

"Last one?" He asked his Captain who nodded and jumped up as he blew air into his fists.

"Gear 3rd!!!" Luffy shouted as he threw his massive fists back and covered them in as much 'Armament Haki' as possible. Zoro did the same with his katanas.

"Three-Sword Style…" Zoro muttered as he got into a stance with his two swords crossed across his body and the sword in his mouth horizontally behind them.

Luffy throws his fists forward at the same moment Zoro launches himself up towards him.

"GRIZZLY MAGNUM!!!"

"PURGATORY ONI GIRI!!!"

*BOOOOOM!!!!*

The entire area around them was destroyed from the shockwave of their attacks. It even caused Nami, Gaimon, and the animals to brace themselves because of the sudden waves.

After she collected herself, Nami brought the dinghy and platform back to the shore and ran over to the two idiots after docking.

As she got closer, she could hear them talking to each other.

"Shishishi!! That was fun, Zoro!! Though, it would be more fun if we could use our full strength." Luffy pouted at the end to which Zoro nodded at.

"You're right. If we went all out, there's no way Box Guy and the animals could keep living here." He said as he sat down up against a tree. He looked around for any sake, scowling when he saw none.

"Shishishishi!!! You're right!! Well, whatever. that was still fun." Luffy laughed before he shrugged. Both of them felt a punch hit their heads.

*WHAM* *WHAM*

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO IDIOTS DOING?!! YOU PRACTICALLY DESTROYED HALF THE ISLAND!!!" Nami shouted at them while having an increasingly terrifying aura around her, making Luffy and Zoro break out in a cold sweat.

"Well, look on the bright side. You still have that treasure you took from that Buffoon guy, right?" Luffy asked, hoping to distract her. Thankfully, it seemed to work.

'He's right. I'm only 1 million off of 100 million with that bag and with these two around, getting the last one will be easy! And didn't they say that wasn't their full strength?!' Nami thought to herself, trying not to let her emotions show on her face. She didn't realize both her friends could sense what she was trying to hide.

Luffy and Zoro looked at each other for a moment after feeling the countless different emotions surging through Nami at the moment before shrugging. They started walking back to the dinghy, Nami following them silently after a few seconds.

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"Man that Box Guy was awesome, I wish he agreed to join my crew," Luffy said with a pout as the three of them were in their dinghy, getting pulled along by Levi.

It has been a few days since they left andNami has been quiet since, not that Luffy or Zoro thought it was any of their business.

"Joyboy, I see land ahead" Luffy heard in his head, making him playfully scowl at his friend.

"I keep telling you, Levi!! That's not my name!!" Luffy yelled out as both Zoro and Nami looked at him confused.

"Who the hell are you talking to?" Zoro asked with Nami nodding along. Luffy just looked at them like they were idiots.

"Levi, who else would I be talking to? You guys didn't hear him say he can see land up ahead?" Luffy asked, genuinely confused about what his friends were trying to ask.

The two looked at Luffy for a while before looking at each other. After a while, they just shrugged. They have figured out by now being confused is a recurring theme when traveling with the straw-hatted young man.

They took another minute to process what Luffy(or Levi) said, and when they did they all looked past the sea king to see a dot in the distance. Luffy smiled widely at Nami who couldn't help but smile back.

"Nami, what island is that?" Luffy asked in an excited tone that made Nami giggle.

"That, Luffy, is the Gecko Islands. We are going to be docking at a place called Syrup Village." Nami answered with a smile. Luffy felt a smile grow on his face.

"That place sounds familiar!!"