Chapter 2: Rubber Idiot and the Red-Eyed Magician
"Who is it!! Who dares to cause trouble on my ship!!"
"I am the most beautiful person on this sea—Miss Alvida!"
Accompanied by a roar loud enough to shatter eardrums.
A fat woman with a freckled face, brandishing a huge spiked iron club, charged into the center of the deck with a rumble.
With every step she took, the deck seemed to groan.
"Which bastard just injured my men? Is it you, you shorty Koby?!"
Alvida's small eyes, squeezed into slits by her fat, glared around before finally locking onto the trembling Koby.
"N-no, it's not me! Miss Alvida!"
"No matter how you look at it, it's not me!"
Koby was so scared that snot and tears flowed freely, and he desperately shook his head while pointing at Luffy and Tatsuya.
"It's these two weirdos who crawled out of the wine barrel!"
Alvida snapped her head around, her fierce gaze glaring at the two culprits.
One wearing a Straw Hat was picking his nose, while the other black-haired, red-eyed boy was looking at her with a tilted head and a smile.
These two guys!
They didn't take her seriously at all!
"You two brats!"
Alvida felt her dignity had been severely challenged.
She raised the mace high and smashed it down hard at Luffy, who looked the most punchable.
"Since you dare to provoke me like this, then turn into meat paste!"
The sound of whistling wind scared Koby and the surrounding pirates, who all scurried away with their heads in their hands.
"Hey, that... auntie, who are you?"
Luffy looked up with a dazed expression, watching the mace crash down without even trying to dodge.
Thud—!!
A heavy, dull sound.
The expected scene of blood splashing everywhere did not occur.
Alvida felt as if she had hit a piece of incredibly tough, thick rubber. The massive recoil made her hand go numb, and she almost couldn't hold onto the iron club.
Luffy's head was seen being deeply dented, then it suddenly snapped back, returning to its original shape.
"Waah! It hurts! What are you doing, you savage auntie!"
Luffy cried out while clutching his head.
"Y-you're actually fine?!" Alvida's eyes were nearly bulging out in shock. "Are you a Devil Fruit user too?!"
Standing not far away, Tatsuya's eyes flashed with a faint red light.
"The Gomu Gomu no Mi... seeing it with my own eyes is indeed quite unique."
He quickly analyzed in his mind.
Although he had the Sharingan and Chakra, his current physical fitness was only at the level of an average person, not even as sturdy as these pirates who lived on the sea year-round.
And Luffy's constitution, which was immune to blunt attacks, was simply a natural meat shield.
"I don't care what kind of ability user you are! In this East Sea, defying me, Alvida, is a death sentence!"
Alvida, humiliated and angry, swung her mace again, preparing for a more violent attack.
"Gomu Gomu no—"
Luffy also took a stance, stretching his arm backward to counterattack, "Pistol!"
However, at the very moment the punch was about to be thrown.
Grumble—
A thunderous sound, even louder than Koby's crying earlier, came from Luffy's stomach.
Luffy's stretched arm instantly went limp like a deflated balloon.
His whole body collapsed to the ground like a salted fish that had lost its dreams.
"Ah... I can't do it, I'm too hungry, I have no strength at all..."
Luffy said weakly as he lay on the ground.
The entire place went silent.
Even Alvida's hand, holding the mace, froze in mid-air, her mouth twitching uncontrollably.
"Are you playing with me, kid?!"
Tatsuya sighed and placed his hand on his forehead in exasperation.
As expected, he couldn't rely on this single-cell organism, Luffy.
But, according to his memory, shouldn't Luffy have sent her flying with one punch?
"Hey, you red-eyed kid over there!"
Alvida felt she had been completely toyed with, and she shifted all her rage onto Tatsuya, who looked more like a normal person.
"Since you're together, then you can die in his place!"
The spiked mace swept toward Tatsuya's waist with a whistling sound.
This strike was incredibly heavy; if it hit, an ordinary person would definitely be snapped in half.
"Mr. Tatsuya! Run!" Koby shouted in despair from behind the wooden barrel.
Tatsuya stood his ground, motionless.
His crimson Single Tomoe Sharingan spun slightly, and the world slowed down once again in his eyes.
Alvida's seemingly fierce attack was full of openings in his eyes.
The exertion points of the muscles, the instability of her steps, the shift in her center of gravity... everything was laid bare.
"Too crude."
Just as the mace was about to touch the hem of his clothes, Tatsuya moved.
He didn't retreat but instead took a step forward, his figure cutting into Alvida's blind spot like a ghost.
The mace swept past his back, the resulting wind making his clothes rustle loudly.
"What?!"
Alvida's strike missed, and the massive inertia caused her fat body to stumble forward uncontrollably.
"Rubber, Pistol Leg!"
"Whoa! Isn't that the name of my move?!"
Tatsuya appeared at her side, his right foot exerting sudden force as he accurately kicked the back of Alvida's supporting knee.
Crack!
A crisp sound.
"Ahhh!!"
Alvida let out a scream like a slaughtered pig, her massive body instantly losing balance and toppling to one side.
Before she could hit the ground, Tatsuya's figure flashed again, appearing right in front of her.
At this moment, Alvida was wide open, looking at those emotionless red eyes with a face full of terror.
"It's over."
Tatsuya clenched his right fist, Chakra condensing on his knuckles, and slammed it mercilessly into Alvida's fat chin.
Bang!
A dull impact sounded.
Under everyone's horrified gaze.
Alvida, who weighed at least three hundred pounds, was actually punched off the ground by this seemingly frail youth.
Her whole body spun two and a half times in the air before finally smashing heavily against the main mast.
Her eyes rolled back, foam came out of her mouth, and she was completely unconscious, having passed out cold.
A deathly silence fell over the deck, with only the sound of the sea breeze blowing.
The pirate lackeys who had originally wanted to charge forward were now all frozen as if petrified, their weapons clattering to the ground one after another.
The woman known as the most fearsome pirate in the East Sea... was actually insta-killed?
And she was insta-killed by a boy who looked weak and fragile, with his bare hands?
Tatsuya slowly retracted his fist and lightly flicked his wrist. The red light in his eyes gradually faded, returning to their original jet black.
He exhaled; for him, who was not yet familiar with this, it was not an easy task.
"S-so powerful..." Koby's mouth hung open, his glasses nearly falling off.
"Whooooooo!!!"
Luffy, who was lying on the ground, suddenly jumped up like a spring from some unknown source of strength.
His eyes turned into sparkling stars again as he excitedly rushed in front of Tatsuya.
"You really are amazing! Those red eyes, and that punch just now, were so cool!!"
Luffy grabbed Tatsuya's shoulders and shook him vigorously.
"Hey, hey, Tatsuya! Be my partner! Join my pirate crew! Let's go find the One Piece together!"