Now that he was closer, he could see that it was a large piece of stone that looked like several rocks stuck together. The whole piece was dark gray and a relatively uniform color across its surface. The boy in the straw hat paused for a moment before slowly and cautiously placing the palm of his right hand on the stone. For some reason...
...
...
...
No. Just a normal rock. How strange. Why did he feel like that should have served some purpose? The boy withdrew his hand and began to circle the rock. It was a different color than all the others, so someone had probably put it there. The question was: why?
Luffy groaned as he felt steam rising from his head. Too much thinking.
He watched the gray curiosity and shrugged, raising his fist as he had that day. The straw-hatted teenager slammed his fist forward with a loud crack. However, instead of the expected crunch of stone in the air, there was the crack of Luffy's bones. He hissed in pain, backing away as he blew on his already red and rapidly swollen hand. "What the hell is that?!" he groaned in pain. He knew there was something weird about those rocks!
Luffy kept blowing into his throbbing hand, circling the rocks once more. So he couldn't hit them. He paused for a moment to look at his hand. He definitely couldn't hit them... Well, then what the heck was he supposed to do?
The pain was starting to put him in a bad mood, and he began kicking some small stones on the ground to relieve it. It was working until he tried to kick one of the larger ones. When his foot touched the rock, it didn't move. But he did. Luffy fell flat on his face and extended his hands to break his fall, seemingly forgetting that he had probably broken a bone.
The black-haired teenager yelled as his injured hand absorbed some of his weight, rolling away as quickly as possible to avoid further damage. He still wanted to fight this Treasure guy. His hand would surely get hurt more during the battle, so he needed to make sure he didn't do anything else that could harm it right now. Luffy groaned as he stood up and tried to clench his fingers into a fist, wincing in pain. It was still possible, but it certainly didn't feel good.
The future pirate captain looked down at where he had fallen, his eyes settling on the large rock he had tried to kick. He bent down to examine it. He began toying with it, his good hand digging the point into the ground. Nothing. He grabbed it and yanked it upward, trying to pull it away. Nothing. He shoved it forward, away from himself. Nothing. Toward himself. Nothing. Left. Nothing. Right... Something.
The stone moved about a foot and stopped once again.
Luffy stared at the gray stone, expectant, but nothing happened. He frowned, looking at the stone again. It had moved, but nothing... Why? His head was spinning again, but now he was curious. Maybe if he figured it out, it would lead him to the Treasure Boy! Then he could defeat him, and Nami could take the treasure... Then she would be a pirate with him.
The teenager grabbed the stone again, even more determined to solve the puzzle. He repeated all the instructions, and this time the stone moved forward. He was beginning to understand. The routine continued for a few minutes before he finally managed to place the stone right next to the rock.
A click echoed beneath the teenager's feet, but the large rock remained motionless. Luffy snorted irritably, staring at the rock. He was sure that would fix it.
He jumped in surprise at a loud buzzing sound beneath him, watching curiously as the stone began to rise from the ground. It rested on a metal rod that slowly extended from the stone. The rod stopped rising as the small rock was propelled about thirty centimeters into the air, and the area fell silent once more. The teenager gazed hopefully at the gray rock, pouting when he saw that it remained motionless.
Luffy approached the metal sticking out of the ground and examined it. What on earth was he supposed to do with that thing? He grabbed the mechanism, expecting it to be immovable, and was surprised when the rod moved forward with his light touch. He tried it in the other direction and, sure enough, it moved just as easily.
After trying the rest of the instructions, he concluded that the stick moved across a cross. What was he supposed to do with that information? He had no idea. The boy in the straw hat groaned in frustration when nothing happened, no matter what he did. The joystick-like device seemed to do absolutely nothing. He grunted and grabbed the stick, throwing it furiously in all directions as fast as he could. He looked like an angry child who had lost too many times at a game.
Suddenly, the metal rod jammed, and the sound of gears shifting rose from beneath the rock. The teenager screamed as the metal rod was ripped from his hand, sinking into the ground instantly, leaving only the stone visible once more. He quickly backed away as the rocks he had been trying so hard to move finally began to shift.
The sound of the gears slowly ceased, and the gray rock also stopped moving. Now, directly beneath where the rocks had been, there was a metal trapdoor. Luffy sighed in relief... Finally.
The boy walked to the trapdoor, grabbed the handle embedded in the metal, and opened it, the warm air hitting his face. He looked down and saw a ladder hanging on one of the walls, descending into total darkness, and his body began to tremble with excitement. The adventure had finally arrived! Luffy quickly made his way to the ladder and started to climb down, watching the light as he descended. At least, if this wasn't the right place, he could climb back up and look for another way out.
As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he began to hear gears again.
The future pirate captain stared blankly as the metal trapdoor clicked back into place, the loud crash echoing down his body. Total darkness overwhelmed his vision when he looked up, so he decided to look down... The same thing... Luffy sighed to himself as he continued down the ladder. He really hoped he was on the right track...
.....
Hi everyone, what do you think of the story so far? The book has over 300 chapters. If you'd like to download the complete book, it's available on my Ko-fi page. Here's the link: 👉 🤩 ko-fi.com/winterstar01 🤩