"You blind or something? You didn't notice the ocean just packed its bags and left?"
Zephyr stood amidst the rubble, his voice grave, pointing a massive finger toward the horizon.
But honestly? His grim warning went right over Luffy's rubber head.
"Water disappeared? Who cares! What does that have to do with kicking your butt?" Luffy shouted, steam pouring off his skin.
He bit his thumb, blowing air into his arm until it ballooned to the size of a small house.
"Take this, old man—Elephant Gun!"
Zephyr was totally speechless.
He shook his head, looking at the incoming fist like a disappointed grandfather.
"Unbelievable," Zephyr muttered to himself, grounding his feet. "You're truly Garp's grandson. All muscle and zero brain cells."
Despite the trash talk, Zephyr wasn't stupid.
He knew he couldn't just tank this hit. The pressure radiating from that giant black fist was no joke.
As the rubber fist screamed through the air toward him, the Haki coating it shifted.
'Ryuo', Zephyr realized, his eyes widening behind his shades.
'The kid's already using internal destruction Haki? Impressive little freak.'
For those keeping score, Armament Haki isn't just one thing.
It's got levels.
Level one is your basic armor—hard coating, hits hard.
Level two is Ryuo—where you project the Haki outward, flowing it through the target to wreck them from the inside out.
Level three is the monster stuff—projecting it massively through the air like a cannon, the kind of stuff giants and Emperors do.
For a rookie like Luffy to be messing around with Level Two? That was the foundation for fighting the top dogs of the New World.
"Hmph!"
Zephyr didn't dodge.
He cranked his own "Black Arm" Haki to the max and threw a punch right back.
BOOM!
The collision sent a shockwave ripping through the beach.
Sand turned to glass.
Luffy was blown back dozens of meters, tumbling through the air before skidding to a halt. Zephyr, the tank that he was, only slid back two steps, his boots digging deep furrows in the ground.
Luffy shook his arm, grinning. "I'm not done yet!"
He prepared to launch another attack, but suddenly, a colorful blur dropped from the sky and slammed into the sand in front of him.
"STOP IT, YOU IDIOT!"
It was Buggy.
But he wasn't doing his usual clown act. His face was deadly serious.
"Luffy! Look at the beach!" Buggy grabbed Luffy's face and physically turned it. "If the water recedes that fast, it means a tsunami is coming back even faster!"
"And the more the water gets sucked out," Buggy hissed, sweat beading on his forehead, "the bigger the wave is gonna be when it hits!"
Luffy frowned deeply.
He pursed his lips, his brain visibly overheating as he tried to process the information.
After a long, painful silence, Luffy slammed his fist into his palm.
"I don't get it!"
THUD.
Both Buggy and Zephyr face-planted into the sand!
Zephyr groaned, picking himself up. "Okay, let me explain it like you were 5."
Zephyr: "The water went away. That means a really, really big wave is coming back. Like, right now."
Buggy: "It's gonna be massive. It's going to turn this island into a swimming pool. A deep one."
Zephyr: "If we stay here fighting, everyone dies. Marines, pirates, civilians. Everyone drowns. you get it?"
Luffy blinked.
Then he looked at the dry seabed.
Then back at them.
Zephyr scratched the back of his purple hair, sighing.
"The point is: Truce. We stop punching each other, and we start carrying people to the top of the island. Unless you want to fight underwater."
This time, it clicked as Luffy's eyes widened.
"Oh! Why didn't you just say so?"
Luffy didn't waste a second.
He leaped onto a pile of rubble, took a deep breath, and screamed at the top of his lungs.
"EVERYONE! RUN! GO UP! HIGH GROUND!"
He pointed wildly. "Sanji! Robin! Chopper! Stop fighting and help the purple-haired old man's guys save people! Zoro! Usopp! Grab all the meat and booze you can carry and let's get to the roof for a feast later!"
Zephyr and Buggy exchanged a look.
'Did he really just prioritize the damn meat?'
"Whatever," Buggy grumbled. "Close enough."
Buggy turned to his crew, his voice booming. "Alright, you lot! Cut the crap! Stop fighting! Rescue operation starts now!"
After a moment's hesitation, Buggy did something surprisingly heroic.
He detached his hands and feet, flying around to his strongest subordinates. "Gin! Cabaji! Move your asses! Help the civilians!"
Zephyr wasn't idle either.
He pulled out a Den Den Mushi and patched through to the flagship.
"Momonga! It's Zephyr. Look at the horizon. We have a natural disaster inbound. I'm calling a ceasefire. Get your men to help the civilians or they're all dead men walking."
Vice Admiral Momonga, watching from the ship, looked at the retreating ocean and realized his teacher was right.
This war had been shady from the start... dying to a wave wasn't part of the job description.
"Agreed," Momonga's voice crackled back. "Ceasefire acknowledged. All units, switch to rescue protocols!"
…
Thanks to that weird, chaotic agreement, the next ten minutes were absolute madness.
It was a sight no one ever expected to see.
Buggy was the MVP.
He used his Chop-Chop powers to literally slice massive chunks of the ground off the island.
He floated entire city blocks—loaded with screaming civilians—up the mountain like makeshift elevators.
"Don't throw up on my shoes!" Buggy yelled at his passengers. "This is a first-class flight!"
Zephyr was a beast. He didn't need a Devil Fruit. He jump into the water, grabbed the anchor chain of a stranded Marine transport ship full of evacuees, and dragged the entire vessel onto the land and up the slope like he was pulling a sled.
His muscles bulged like steel cables.
The Straw Hat Pirates were everywhere.
Sanji was kicking debris out of the way.
Robin was sprouting giant hands to catch falling grandmas.
Chopper was in Heavy Point, carrying injured people on his back.
The Marines maintained order, shoving panicked crowds toward the "Buggy Elevators."
The pirates dealt with the unruly ones. If a civilian refused to move because they wanted to pack their gold? A pirate would just knock them out, throw them over a shoulder, and keep running.
Amid the impending doom, the two warring factions worked together like a well-oiled machine.
It was bizarre, yet... it was beautiful!
Zephyr paused for a second to wipe sweat from his brow, looking at a pirate and a Marine lifting a heavy beam off a trapped civilian together.
The sight actually moved him!
'Maybe there's hope for this messed up world after all,' he thought.
...
With just two minutes left on the clock, the rumbling sound changed.
"LOOK OUT!"
Luffy stopped running and pointed to the coastline.
It was here.
A wall of dark blue water, towering nearly 700 meters high, was curling over Water 7.
To put that in perspective, the entire city of Water 7, from the sea to the highest dock, was only about 300 meters tall.
"Holy crap..." Usopp's knees buckled.
A tsunami of this magnitude meant the city was going to be crushed. Even the highest points where they were standing were going to be under extreme pressure.
At the sight of that towering wave, the panic set in. The civilians who were still climbing started screaming, their legs turning to jelly.
Usopp, Nami, and Chopper were trying to keep people moving, but they were terrified.
Nami, in particular, was hyperventilating.
She slumped against a brick wall, sliding down until she was sitting in the dirt.
"I just ate a Devil Fruit yesterday!" Nami wailed, tears streaming down her face.
(T﹏T)
"I'm a hammer! If that hits me, I sink like a rock! The ocean is so cruel! I don't want to die!"
Seeing his goddess in distress, Sanji immediately swooped in.
He planted himself between her and the ocean, lighting a cigarette with trembling hands but looking cool as hell.
"Don't worry, Nami-swan!" Sanji declared, his voice smooth as silk. "Seeing you scared breaks my heart... but it also made me realize something."
He looked back at her with a tragic, heroic smile.
"My inability to get the Clear-Clear Fruit... that was fate. Fate denied me that power so that I would keep my ability to swim. Just so I could be the one to save you when the sea tries to take you away."
For a moment, Sanji felt like a legend.
He was basking in a radiant, knightly aura!
Nami stopped crying. She looked up at him, eyes wide.
For once, she didn't have a snappy comeback. She was genuinely terrified—this was her first time facing the ocean's wrath as a cursed human.
And Sanji standing there? It actually made her feel safe.
But the moment didn't last.
From a few meters up, Robin called out.
She was using her fruit to create a net of arms, pulling people up a ledge.
"Sanji-kun," Robin said calmly, though her eyes were serious. "Save me too while you're at it, would you?"
Sanji's head snapped toward her so fast you could hear the whiplash.
The "Cool Prince" persona vanished instantly.
He turned into a noodle, waving enthusiastically with hearts in his eyes.
"OF COURSE, ROBIN-SAN! YOUR SAFETY IS MY LIFE'S TOP PRIORITY! I'LL SAVE YOU TWICE IF I CAN!"
Nami's face went flat as a vein popped on her forehead.
—╬(′-灬-｀). 'I hate him.'
Behind them, Zoro slammed down two massive barrels of booze he had "rescued" from a bar.
He ignored the simping cook and fixed his single eye on the front line.
His only priority right now: Making sure his idiot captain didn't drown.
At the very front of the pack, facing the wall of water, was Luffy.
"GEAR THIRD!"
His arm inflated into a giant's limb.
He smashed through a row of abandoned buildings that were blocking the path to the highest plaza, clearing the debris in one swing.
"THE TSUNAMI ISN'T HERE YET!" Luffy roared, his voice cutting through the wind. "IF WE MAKE IT UP, WE SURVIVE!"
He turned back to the crowd, grinning like a maniac.
"DON'T GIVE UP! MOVE YOUR LEGS! WE CAN MAKE IT!"
At that moment, whether they were Marine, pirate, or civilian, everyone looked at that small boy in the straw hat swinging giant fists against the apocalypse.
In the shadow of a 700-meter wave, Luffy shone like a tiny sun.
The despair broke.
"He's right!"
"CHARGE!"
"Screw fate! Move!"
"The higher we go, the better our chances! Don't let the ocean win!"
"Hold onto your kids! Grab something sturdy!"
"You heard the rubber boy! Let's go!"
In this moment, the badges and the flags didn't matter.
There were no pirates.
There were no Marines.
There were just people, fighting to live.
---------
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