Chapter 10

If you like this fic, and enjoy my writing, then support me on Patreon, comment on the chapters, leave reviews, support this fic with your Power Stones, and help it rise in the rankings, any of these options would make me happy. This gives me the motivation to continue the fic. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

East Blue - Americas Archipelago 

America Island – Jungle 

Six hellish months have passed, six months where Luffy dedicated one hundred percent of his time to training to become stronger. 

During this time, Luffy mastered the basic forms of all the Rokushiki techniques he wanted to learn. 

Starting with Shigan, which he mastered the basics of in a week, he spent hours each day piercing stones with his fingers. He lost count of how many times he twisted or broke his fingers doing this, but luckily, all it took was consuming lots of food and milk combined with a good night's sleep to be fully healed by the next day, allowing him to repeat the process. 

For Rankyaku and Geppo, he needed more leg strength than was required earlier to execute Soru. So, with Reiju's help and her advanced training equipment, he spent two weeks focusing on strengthening his body, particularly his legs, never taking off the sea stone bracelet for a second, and using absurdly heavyweights provided by Reiju that left deep footprints wherever he walked. He spent six hours a day running non-stop and another six hours exercising his entire body, pushing himself to and beyond his limits, creating an exhausting twelve-hour training cycle. By the end of the day, even just lying down was an unbearable task, but Luffy managed to keep going because he knew his body would recover quickly from any damage. 

After those two weeks of physical strengthening, he spent another week kicking large rocks and thick trees until he mastered the basics of Rankyaku, being able to launch air blades from his legs at will. 

The good thing is that all this body-strengthening training shortened his learning time for Geppo, which he mastered the basics of in just a few hours. 

After mastering the basics of these techniques, he spent two months perfecting his Soru, Shigan, Rankyaku, and Geppo until he was somewhat satisfied. 

He could now kick the ground fifty times in each step, creating sonic booms with every step while executing Soru. 

With Shigan, he could now shoot piercing air projectiles from his fingers at a distance. 

His progress in Rankyaku now allowed him to launch air blades from any part of his body, legs, arms, and head. 

And yes, when no one was looking, he tried and succeeded in using Rankyaku with his dick. Curiosity got the better of him, so let's not judge our boy. 

Fortunately, the idea of using Shigan with his dick never crossed his mind, so we will never have the scene of him piercing someone's heart with the dick or him thrusting the air with the dick, shooting air projectiles as if it were a pistol. 

Back to what matters, he could now use Geppo for several hours without getting tired. He wasn't at the level where it looked like he was walking in the air, but he was close, and he also managed to perfectly combine Soru and Geppo. 

In the remaining four months, he continued training with Reiju and the jungle animals, but the most important thing was that he managed to use Gear Second and Gear Third. 

The first time he tried using Gear Second was in a fight with Reiju. He wanted to test himself by going all out, so he removed the bracelet and weights that he had started wearing all the time, only taking them off when he bathed. 

He then closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them, his body turning pink with steam emanating from his pores. 

In this form, Luffy gave Reiju so much trouble that she was forced to use poisonous attacks, not that it says much; she was just stubborn enough not to want to use Haki in this fight, and she also limited her strength and speed to Luffy's level, so what she had left to use were her poisonous attacks, which easily ended the fight. 

From that point on, Luffy had to beg Reiju to help him build resistance to poisons. 

Without going into much detail, but this is how Luffy had his first kiss, that is, with him conscious. 

It was only in the last month of Reiju's stay on the island that they had another fight, where Luffy could proudly say that he was immune to any type of poison—her words, not his. 

In this fight, Luffy gave it his all, pushing his body to the limit and beyond by using Gear Second from the start. He also used this fight to test several attack ideas using his fruit, most of them applying the concept of stretching and twisting his arm to generate more tension and add more power to his attacks. 

All of this forced Reiju to use Haki in addition to her poisonous attacks, which were no longer as effective since he was immune. At the climax of the fight, Luffy attempted to use Gear Third while still in Gear Second for the first time. Inflating the bone structure of his arm and coating it with Armament Haki, he tried to execute an idea that had come to his mind some time ago. While attacking using Soru in Gear Second, which made him incredibly faster than just using Soru or Gear Second alone, he compressed the arm in Gear Third, just like the original Luffy does in Gear Fourth. However, he also twisted the compressed arm to create even more tension. 

The result was a devastating punch that destroyed a large area of the jungle, creating a huge ravine, followed by a massive delayed sonic boom that echoed in the surroundings. 

And for the first time in a fight, Luffy managed to draw blood from Reiju, who was caught off guard by the speed of the attack. Even with Advanced Observation Haki, because she was limiting her speed at that moment, she couldn't react in time to completely dodge the attack. And even then, she wasn't fully hit, so the attack only caused a scratch. 

From that point on, Reiju stopped limiting herself, and instead of being on the more passive side as before, defending more than attacking, she now started to actively attack, barely giving Luffy any room to breathe, with her attacks growing stronger by the moment. 

It is in moments like these that we realize how worth it was for him to train using the sea stone bracelet. 

Because, my friends, even while being pushed and beaten relentlessly, Luffy didn't fall for anything. That, and the absurd fact that he sustained using Gear Second and Gear Third simultaneously for six straight hours of fighting. As the fight progressed, he only grew stronger, forcing Reiju to continually increase her own level. 

The result of this fight is what we see now: a large area of the jungle completely devastated, and at the center of it all, a relatively injured and breathless Reiju, but still standing, and near her, a tiny, unconscious, beaten, and blood-covered Luffy. 

'What the hell was that? How much endurance does he have? I was using Advanced Observation and Armament Haki, and he still lasted all this time. Is he a cockroach or something, never falling for anything?', Reiju thought as she looked at Luffy while trying to catch her breath. "Damn", she said, taking a deep breath, impressed with her Captain's endurance. 

=Scene Break= 

And the day for Reiju to leave finally arrived. She and Luffy were at the town's port, saying their goodbyes. 

"Don't forget what we agreed on, Bubblegum", Luffy said softly, hugging her tightly. 

"We'll meet again in three years at Water 7. I'm going to miss you, but by then, I'll be much stronger. That way, I'll personally beat up my father and brothers if they cause us any trouble, so you better get a lot stronger too, or it would be a huge embarrassment for the future Pirate King to be weaker than one of his crew", Reiju said, teasing him, but deep down, she had no desire to leave. 

"Hmph, when we meet again, I'll be insanely stronger. I won't even need my arms to beat you." 

"Pinky promise?", she said, stepping back and holding out her pinky finger to him. 

"Promise", Luffy said, locking his pinky with hers. 

Reiju then began to move away, returning to the ship before saying, "If you're not stronger than me when we meet again, I'll scratch your entire Skyline." 

"HUH, you wouldn't dare do that, Bubblegum", Luffy said, stunned by what she said. 

"Did you forget that it's my hostage now? Because your boat doesn't have space to carry it, and let me also remind you that a pinky promise is a very serious thing, my dear Captain", she said, already climbing onto the ship. 

"Don't do anything you'll regret, Bubblegum. I'll pay the ransom", Luffy said dramatically, attracting everyone's attention at the port. 

"Goodbye, Luffy", Reiju said as the ship moved away. 

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-", Luffy kneeled on the ground, screaming to the heavens before suddenly stopping, leaving all the onlookers confused, and heading toward his small boat with Chico to move them to the other side of the island. 

After docking the boat on a small beach on the other side of the island and releasing Chico, asking him to stay nearby, Luffy returned to his training. 

A week after Reiju left, Luffy noticed a strange phenomenon occurring in the area around the ancient temple where they found the Fune Fune no Mi. 

No animal, not even insects, dared to approach the area. Wanting to test something, he captured an animal and took it near the temple ruins. 

As soon as he entered the area surrounding the ruins, the animal collapsed, foaming at the mouth. 

'Could this area be enveloped in Conqueror's Haki? But then, how did Bubblegum and I not sense it before?', Trying to solve the mystery that had formed, Luffy returned to the chamber where they had found the Akuma no Mi. 

Trying to find clues to solve this mystery, he noticed that, unlike all the other walls in the chamber, which were completely smooth except for the inscriptions carved into them describing the Akuma no Mi and recounting some legends related to it, the wall behind the altar had no inscriptions, only a slight round indentation that would have been imperceptible from a distance. 

Out of pure and simple curiosity, Luffy placed the fingerprint of his index finger into the hole. As soon as he touched the wall, he felt a prick and quickly withdrew his finger, but there was no time to think as the wall receded slightly, and a small pillar with a rounded top emerged from the floor where the wall had been. 

Luffy spent a good twenty minutes trying to figure out what this pillar was for. He tried placing his palm on it, thinking it was some kind of palm scanner, brought his eye close, thinking it could be some kind of retina scanner, and tried numerous other things. He even tried going around breaking everything, but in the end, nothing worked—until an idea popped into his head. 

He then took off his straw hat and placed it on the pillar. The fit was perfect, and as soon as the hat was placed, the pillar receded back into the floor, leaving the hat in Luffy's hand. 

He then heard the sound of gears moving, followed by the sound of decompression from the wall in front of him. Luffy then witnessed a vertical line appear in the middle of the wall, and it opened like a set of sliding doors, revealing a smaller chamber than the previous one, with a blue Poneglyph positioned in the center of the room. 

"Man, I'm loving this whole thing of exploring and solving mysteries more and more", Luffy whispered to himself. 

He then focused and began to hear what the Poneglyph had to say. 

{How do I start this conversation? Uhhh, well, you know, I've seen and lived through a lot of crazy things, but this whole talking through time thing is new to me. Anyway, I guess I'll just start with a greeting. Hey Luffy, my friend, how's life been treating you?} 

"What? Who—", Luffy was utterly shocked that a Poneglyph, which must have been over 800 years old, was saying his name. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(AN: 2,056 Words) 

If you enjoyed this fic, support it with your Power Stones, it helps a lot. 

If you enjoy my writing, please consider supporting me on my Patreon page. There, you'll find advanced chapters of everything I write or will write: patreon.com/_Luizinho_