"It's useless, I'm a rubber man. Your attacks are ineffective against me," Luffy said, getting up from the ground after being punched through the wall by Tom. He walked slowly toward Tom as if nothing had happened.
"Try eating another one of my punches, then you'll know if my fists are useful against you or not."
Tom stood up as well. His left cheek, having taken a heavy punch from Luffy, was slightly swollen. Smashing through the wall with his own flesh and blood had hurt so much he nearly broke out in a cold sweat. Combined with his previous injuries, his condition wasn't great.
But Tom showed no intention of backing down. Since things had come to this, the only thing he had to do now was go all out and beat the other guy sensibly.
And truthfully, Tom really wanted to have an all-out, no-holds-barred fight with Luffy. He wanted to know exactly how big the gap between them still was.
As for the consequences, Tom couldn't be bothered to think about them.
"You think you can knock me down?" Luffy said, stretching his arm far back as he charged toward Tom.
"You think you can really punch me away?" Tom retorted, gritting his teeth against the pain wracking his body as he sprinted full speed toward the oncoming Luffy.
"Don't get so full of yourself, you bastard!"
As Tom swung his fist, closing in on Luffy, the two shouted at each other in unison.
"Rubber Bullet!"
Luffy's fist, stretched far back, snapped forward with rubber-band speed, aiming a vicious blow at Tom's stomach.
"Such a simple move won't work on me!"
Tom sidestepped the attack, then jumped in front of Luffy and without hesitation threw another punch squarely into his face.
BOOM!
Luffy was sent flying by Tom's fist once more, crashing heavily into a wall with enough force to crack the thick masonry.
"I let my guard down. That hurt! Why do your punches work on me?" This time, after taking Tom's heavy punch, Luffy wasn't unscathed. He yelped in pain.
"Get serious! Give me your all, Monkey D. Luffy! Otherwise, you will definitely lose to me," Tom said.
His words made Luffy's expression turn serious. He pushed his straw hat down on his head. "When I first met you, you were really weak. But now, you've gotten so strong, Tom. But I guess that's to be expected. You're the hardest working, most desperate guy in our crew." He paused, looking at Tom. "Next, I'm going all out to punch you away!"
Luffy wasn't lying. In the over month since sailing out with Tom, he'd witnessed firsthand how Tom used every possible spare moment to train desperately. Tom's drive and perseverance, far beyond an ordinary person's, were things Luffy had seen clearly, and it was one reason he trusted him.
"I'm the one who's going all out to punch some sense into you, you blockhead!" Tom shot back, seeing Luffy jump into the air. He hastily took several steps back, putting distance between them.
"Rubber Stamp!"
Luffy, now in the air, aimed the soles of his feet at Tom's face below, stretching his legs down and kicking with tremendous force.
Damn it, that's fast!
Tom saw the two soles appear before his eyes in an instant. He barely avoided them, but Luffy's feet struck the ground with enough force to create a sizable crater, the shockwave sending Tom flying.
"Rubber Whip!"
Tom had just steadied himself when Luffy, back on the ground, stretched his left leg out in a sweeping kick.
"I won't just take hits forever!"
Tom crouched under the sweeping long leg, then with his left hand grabbed Luffy's ankle before it could retract. He yanked hard, pulling Luffy toward him.
"Eat another one!"
Tom's blood-soaked right fist shot toward the face of the oncoming Luffy. At the same moment, Luffy swung his own fist, landing a heavy blow on Tom's right cheek.
THWACK! THUD!
Each took the other's powerful hit and were sent flying in opposite directions, crashing to the ground and rolling over a dozen times before stopping.
"So you had sharp stones tucked between your knuckles. That's how you hurt me," Luffy said, his face now bearing several bleeding cuts. He'd seen clearly during the last exchange: between the fingers of Tom's bloody right fist were four sharp, jagged stones. That's why he'd felt pain earlier.
The sharp stones were embedded so that only the very tips protruded, which was why Luffy hadn't noticed the trick the first time he was injured.
"But if you do that, you'll ruin your hand," Luffy said, wiping blood from his face as he walked toward Tom.
"Don't worry. Before my hand is ruined, I'll make you taste defeat!" Tom panted heavily. His right fist, with the stones still lodged between the fingers, was a bloody mess, trembling uncontrollably.
The reason was simple: when he punched Luffy with all his might, the stones jammed between his fingers were driven deeper into his flesh by the tremendous recoil.
As the saying goes, pain in the fingers is felt in the heart. The bone-deep, searing agony coming from his right hand wasn't something an ordinary person could endure.
Tom's current method of fighting Luffy could be described as a strategy that cost him as much as it hurt his enemy, but it was the most effective method he could think of right now.
After all, Tom didn't know Haki yet. To damage a rubber man like Luffy with his fists, he needed an external aid.
Given time, Tom could probably make spiked gloves, which would make fighting Luffy with his fists much less torturous.
He'd considered putting stones in both hands, but that would limit him to only fist attacks, which was a disadvantage. So he only armed his right hand, using his left for supporting attacks.
Behind Tom, Nami was completely dumbfounded. In her plan, things weren't supposed to develop like this.
Nami had intended for Tom and Luffy to argue, then have a falling out, after which she could seize the chance to persuade Tom to quit being a pirate.
What she never expected was that after a short argument, Tom and Luffy would immediately come to blows. From the look of it, they were fighting as if it was to the death. For the first time, Nami gained a profound understanding that men and women were truly two completely different creatures.
You're just having an argument! Is it necessary to fight to the death? Look at you, you've already wrecked several houses!
Seeing Tom and Luffy fight more fiercely, the commotion growing louder, with neither showing any sign of stopping, Nami began to worry. If this continued, wouldn't one of them really end up killing the other?
What Nami found hardest to bear was watching the wounds on both Tom and Luffy increase while she could do nothing.
Earlier, when she heard Luffy say he'd punch Tom away because of her, Nami thought Luffy was just saying it.
She never imagined he and Tom would seriously start beating each other up. This was the first time in her life, filled with contempt and hatred for pirates, that Nami's view of pirates began to change.
Remembering how Luffy had repeatedly called her his partner stirred a strange emotion in Nami's heart. Then she thought of Tom. Back at the Shells Town Marine Base, this guy had also risked his life to save Zoro.
Could it be that the so-called "Pirate Hunter" Zoro, known as the "Demon," was also their companion? Is that why he went all out to save Zoro then?
I must be overthinking it. How could that pirate hunter possibly join them and become a pirate?
Besides, would a pirate really bet their life for a companion? Pirates should only know how to ruthlessly plunder others' treasures. They're just incompetent marauders, right?
If Tom bullies me in the future, I'll tell Luffy. Would he still help me beat Tom up then?
For some reason, amidst her swirling thoughts, this idea suddenly popped into Nami's head.
If Tom knew what Nami was thinking right now, even in the heat of his fight with Luffy, he would jump up and yell at her: You're too ruthless, woman! Tricking the simple-minded Luffy into being your free enforcer? Would I ever have a peaceful day again?
"Take this, Tom!" Luffy panted slightly. He had been struck dozens of times by Tom's stone-filled right fist. His body, face, and hands were all bleeding. As he spoke, he stretched both arms far back behind him.
Tom knew immediately Luffy was about to go all out. Gritting his teeth, he clenched his blood-soaked, numb-with-pain right hand. Breathing rapidly, he dragged his wounded body and charged at full speed toward Luffy. "Bring it, Monkey D. Luffy! No matter who the opponent is, no matter how strong they are, I will never retreat half a step! Especially when the opponent is you—I can't run away!"
Both Tom and Luffy, having been beaten down hard by the other, looked disheveled and covered in dust.
But their expressions and eyes were strikingly similar: equally unyielding, equally determined. The fierce light blazing in their eyes—each could feel the other's indomitable, stubborn will to never admit defeat.
"Because I know that's the kind of man you are, that's why I have to punch you away when you make a mistake, Tom!" Luffy said, looking at Tom. At the same time, he unleashed his stretched-back arms with lightning speed toward Tom. "Rubber Rocket!"
"If yours is a rocket, then mine is a Shattering Cannon Blast!"
Seeing Luffy's fists flying toward him, Tom took a step forward with his left foot, cracking the floorboards under the force. Standing his ground, Tom clenched his fists, veins bulging on his arms, gathering all his strength to meet Luffy's two oncoming fists.
BOOM!
Tom and Luffy clashed fist against fist with everything they had. The violent collision of their four fists immediately generated a powerful shockwave that made their clothes flutter wildly.
After a brief moment of deadlock, the tremendous impact sent them flying apart once more.
CRASH! BOOM! CRASH! BOOM!
Tom plowed through three houses in a row, crossed two streets, and finally came to a stop, collapsing powerlessly to the ground. His whole body felt as if his bones had been dismantled, the pain was excruciating. The stones he'd been clutching finally fell from his fingers.
During the final clash, those stones had severely damaged Tom's right hand. The wound between his middle and index fingers was so deep the bone was visible!
Luffy, after smashing through two structures, slammed hard into the wall of a third. His left hand, wounded to the bone by the stones in Tom's fist, could barely muster any strength now. Covered in wounds and pain, he couldn't get up immediately either.
During their final exchange, Tom had deliberately exposed the stones between his knuckles to their maximum extent to seriously injure Luffy's left hand. But the more the stones protruded, the farther from his knuckles they were, the greater the recoil damage he suffered.
It could be said that in their all-out brawl, the current result was mutually assured destruction, though Luffy's condition was slightly better than Tom's.
Tom tried several times to get up, but felt utterly weak. His consciousness grew heavier and heavier. Finally, unable to withstand the physical pain and exhaustion, he passed out. In the moment before blacking out, Tom thought he heard Nami's voice, though he couldn't make out what she was shouting.
He didn't know how much time had passed. Tom felt something licking his face. It tickled. He slowly opened his eyes to see a white dog licking his cheek.
"Woof! Woof!"
The dog looked somewhat dirty. The moment it saw Tom was awake, it began barking urgently.
Struggling to sit up, before he could even gather his thoughts, Tom saw a cannonball flying toward him from a distance.
What made Tom utterly speechless was that he could see the big red nose painted on the cannonball.
You son of a gun, Buggy! You're coming at me with a cannon again!
If not for this white dog, I'd have died without even knowing how.
Thinking this, Tom hurriedly scooped up the dog and, forcing himself to ignore the intense pain all over his body, moved away from the spot at top speed.
With a deafening BOOM, the blast wave from the exploding cannonball sent Tom and the dog tumbling forward to the ground.
Tom looked back at where he had been lying moments before. It was now complete ruins. An entire row of the town's buildings had been utterly obliterated by Buggy's cannonball...
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T/N :
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