Adventure Dreams, Gathering of Companions

Adventure on the island

Nami thinks it should be like this:

Warm sunlight filtered through the leaves onto the forest path, and the cheerful chirping of birds added a touch of liveliness to the tranquility. Under the shade of the trees, a rabbit gazed curiously at the unfamiliar visitor...

The reality is:

"Aaaaaaahh..."

The blazing sunlight filtered through the leaves and dappled the bushes in the forest. The cheerful calls of birds of prey added a touch of desolation to the commotion, while rabbits under the shade of the trees chased after the unfamiliar visitors with disdain...

With a sturdy, resilient rabbit paw slamming down, a massive crater the size of a house suddenly collapsed into the ground with a deafening roar! This caused Nami, who was already in tears, to regain a significant speed boost.

I believed your lies, Luffy—

"Hehehe, isn't this adventure exciting?"

"What are you trying to provoke me for?!"

"Don't panic, it's just a rabbit."

Roman's calm voice came from the other side, Nami to subconsciously slow down.

"Luffy, let's both attack together and take it down!"

?!

Nami: Then I'm leaving...

"Hehehe, just what I wanted."

Luffy suddenly Luffy on the brakes, turned around, and placed one hand on the ground.

Second Gear!

At the same time, the Haki he had begun to control enveloped his fist, giving Luffy the aura of a 'predator'!

"Armor-Hardening!"

As Roman suddenly turned around, a layer of metallic light enveloped his entire body. At the same time, a longsword fell into his hand:

Buzzing—

A deep sound echoed from the longsword, which was shrouded in an aura of Haki. It wasn't just a simple 'chainsaw weapon' as before; Roman had imbued the longsword with his newly acquired 'Tremor-Tremor Ability'!

Although it didn't yet unleash a white light capable of shattering everything like Whitebeard's, it still elevated Roman's attack power to a whole new level.

"Gum-Gum Eagle Gun!"

"Paper Dance - Vibrating Sword!"

With a Haki fist and a vibrating longsword, the two attacks landed simultaneously on the resilient rabbit behind him! Even a rabbit that could survive on this terrifying island couldn't withstand the combined attack of two of the Straw Hat crew's main forces.

Blood splattered, and the thunderous roar continued. After several minutes of fierce fighting:

"Hahaha, we'll have rabbit meat tonight!"

Overjoyed, Luffy up to the sky and shouted, "If it weren't for Roman, I might not have been able to beat this rabbit by myself—"

Thud! Thud!

Roman Luffy took a punch to the head.

"This is the adventure you were talking about?!"

Nami grabbed Luffy and shook him violently.

"You know I almost got smashed into mincemeat by this rabbit!"

"That's why we need to stay vigilant at all times—"

"Shut up!"

"I shouldn't have believed you guys, but..." Nami, who casually left Luffy, looked at Roman beside her, "What is this terrifying creature? It took the two of you working together to take down a rabbit."

"Well," Roman stroked his chin thoughtfully, "Maybe it's because some Devil Fruit user can 'enhance' creatures awakened Awakening powers here?"

After all, the Jade Emperor can control all beasts, even the Artificial Devil Fruit SMILE. So if her Devil Fruit ability continues to be developed, it's possible that it will enhance the abilities of the beasts under her command.

This explains why the animals on this island are so unusually fierce.

"Well, it's not really important why these animals are so strong. What's important is that they can improve our strength."

A dream supported by strength is a dream; one without strength is merely a fantasy. —It's not that Roman is solely focused on increasing combat power, but rather that the Straw Hat crew must possess formidable strength.

Luffy's dream is to become the King of the Pirates, which undoubtedly requires him to subdue all the strongest warriors on the seas; Zoro's dream is to become the World's Greatest Swordsman, which means he needs to defeat even those like Hawk Eyes; Robin wants to see the Poneglyph, which means she's making enemies of the entire world...

To be honest, Usopp is the Straw Hat crew whose dream has been most fulfilled: to become a fearless Sea Warrior! In fact, he has already achieved it.

Next up is Chopper: who creates a panacea that can cure everything—if you don't mind, Roman's Blood Bottle Paper plus the Phoenix Blue Flame could also be considered half a 'panacea'.

Others' dreams: Nami's dream of drawing a world map; Franky's dream of watching the Sunny Merry arrive at Laugh Tale; Brook's dream of circumnavigating the world; Jinbe's dream of Fish-Man and humans living in peace.

And then there's the moment when Roman saw everyone's dreams come true... To achieve these things, one must possess sufficiently powerful strength!

It might even require the power to overturn the world.

As for Sanji's dream: a large fresh fish market... let's not even mention it.

Sanji: My dream is to cook for Luffy!

"Roman, your Armament Haki has gotten stronger again."

While waiting for the roasted rabbit, Luffy glanced at Roman beside him: Although Luffy could now reliably use Three Types of Haki, aside from his naturally powerful Observation Haki, his Armament Haki could only achieve localized entangling effects, and as for Conqueror's Haki, it was still an indiscriminate, large-scale AOE attack...

"You think it's easy for me?" Roman rolled his eyes. "I almost got punched to death by your grandfather!"

And it was a truly gruesome death, a death so horribly blasted to smithereens...

"Haha, so you were training under Grandpa? That's really tough for you~~"

Luffy patted Roman on the shoulder sympathetically.

"When I was a kid, Ace and I almost got beaten to death by my grandfather several times."

Luffy,

When Nami was about to offer words of comfort, Luffy simply smiled and waved his hand.

"I'm fine. I've done the best I could, and I even caused Roman to have to join the Navy."

"Even if I couldn't save Ace, I have nothing to regret. But—"

Snap,

Pang Lei on the ground with his hands resting on his knees, Luffy looked intently at Roman and Nami, revealing a confident smile with his teeth showing.

"I will never let this happen again!"

To become stronger than anyone else—

Only then can one be called the King of the Pirates;

Only then can we protect our companions!

·····

"Don't worry, Luffy."

Roman pointed to the 'Den Den Mushi Paper' next to him. It was a rare gathering, and the other members of the Straw Hat crew were all 'present'. —Although it was just their voices, everyone was familiar with each other and could picture each other's expressions in their minds.

"We will become stronger and will never let what happened in Sabaody happen again."

"Of course, I'm going to become the World's Greatest Swordsman!"

"Luffy, hiccup~~ You can't do without me~~ hiccup~~"

"Luffy!"

"You're going to be the King of the Pirates."

"Super cool! Just wait for my Franky 2.0 to make its debut!"

"Yo ho ho, Mr. Luffy. Charge on!"

"Aaaaaah, can you please rescue me from this hell?!"

After a round of encouragement from the Straw Hat crew, Sanji's style suddenly changed. Roman even wondered if Sanji would be driven to a pervert if things continued like this—although he already had some perverted tendencies.

"Alright then, Sanji."

Roman spoke up and came up with a solution.

"If you defeat King Ivankov of the Okama Kingdom, I'll ask her to send you to the other people. Don't worry, I'm now a major financial backer of the Revolutionary Army, they won't refuse such a small favor."

"Okay, it's a deal!!"

Go on, go on, poor Sanji.

Don't let Ivankov's comical appearance, personality, and fighting style fool you. His strength is anything but! He held off Kuma for a short time, and even managed to exchange a few blows with top-tier fighters like Magellan and Akainu. Surprisingly, he wasn't seriously injured afterward. Considering Sanji's current strength...

Pressure is a motivator, so Sanji will probably train hard every day from now on, right?

The meat is cooked!

As Luffy tore off a large piece of rabbit meat, Nami picked up her wine glass, and Roman, still drinking orange juice, gestured towards the Den Den Mushi Paper placed on the other side.

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky, Brook, and others all raised their glasses at the same time.

"Cheers to our Straw Hat crew's 'online banquet'!"

Cheers! X10

P. S.: That's all for now, because I'm being dragged out to do manual labor tonight...