The One Who Saved Su Hang Was Luffy

"You dare jump, and I'll break your legs first!"

Dadan rushed down the mountain path, grabbed Luffy by the back of his collar, and dragged his calf, already stepped into the seawater, back onto the beach.

"Let me go! Su Hang is still down there!"

"With your lousy swimming skills, I'd have to fish out one more person after you go in!"

"Then what do we do? He can't even be seen anymore!"

Dadan picked up the wet rope, wrapped one end around her waist, and stuffed the other end into Luffy's hands.

"Go around the reef, tie it tight, and don't let go."

"You're going to save him?"

"Should I wait for Red-Hair to come back and collect his corpse?"

"Su Hang was dragged that way by the current!"

"You saw him?"

"His hand surfaced once just now. It was behind those waves."

Dadan clenched her short knife between her teeth, rushed into the seawater, and dove beneath the waves once she reached the deeper water.

Luffy hugged the rope, lay flat behind the reef, and braced his feet against a groove.

The rope kept feeding out, and Dadan quickly vanished into the murky seawater.

"To the left, more to the left!"

There were only waves on the surface, with no response to be heard.

Luffy reached toward his feet, grabbed a stone, and threw it toward where Su Hang had last appeared.

After the stone hit the water, the foam drifted to the right, but the end of the rope was being dragged to the left.

"The directions are different."

He threw another stone.

The foam on the waves was still being pushed toward shore, while the underwater rope slid south along the reef.

Luffy lowered himself even farther, pressing his ear against the damp rock.

Between the crashing waves, intermittent muffled thuds came from beneath the water.

Thump.

After a brief pause, there came another.

"Su Hang!"

Luffy grabbed the rope and shouted.

"Dadan, go left! Su Hang is on the left!"

Dadan's head emerged from the sea.

"Which way is left?"

"You're facing the shore, so swim right!"

"That's my right!"

"Just swim toward where I'm throwing the stones!"

Luffy threw three stones in succession, their landing points lined up along the direction the current was shifting.

Dadan wiped the seawater from her face.

"Throw another one, farther away!"

The fourth stone flew over the waves and struck beside a section of floating wooden stake.

A hemp rope trailed beneath the stake, its end slanting down into the seabed.

"I see it!"

Dadan dove into the water, grabbed that section of rope, and pulled it back.

Once the rope went taut, a mass of black hair surfaced underwater.

Su Hang's body had been wedged between two reefs by an undercurrent. The knot at his waist had caught on a corner of rock, and his face was pressed down against the seabed.

Dadan cut the rope with her short knife, slipped both arms beneath his armpits, and pulled him free from the crack in the rocks.

Su Hang did not struggle.

"Hey, fruit-eating brat, open your eyes!"

Seawater poured into his mouth, but there was still no reaction.

Dadan dragged him toward shore. Just as she neared the reef, the backwash caught both their ankles again.

"Luffy, pull the rope!"

"I'm pulling!"

"Use your waist, not just your hands!"

Luffy looped the rope over his shoulder, turned, and crawled toward shore, scraping bloody marks into his palms against the reef.

Dadan used the pull to swim forward several meters, only to be shoved back some distance by a wave.

"Keep going, don't stop!"

"The rope's slipping!"

"Bite it!"

Luffy stuffed the rope into his mouth, clamping the hemp cord between his teeth as both hands took turns inching forward.

The rough fibers sliced open his palms, and blood dripped onto the white stone.

The rope was pulled back inch by inch.

Dadan's feet finally touched the seabed, and she hoisted Su Hang up as she waded toward the shallows.

"Let go of the rope and come help!"

Luffy spat out the hemp rope, stumbled into the water, and grabbed Su Hang's wrist to drag him ashore.

"Why isn't he moving?"

"He drank his fill of seawater."

"Is he still alive?"

"Shut up and get him up there first!"

The two of them turned Su Hang over. There was no breath against his cheek, and his chest did not rise or fall.

Luffy pressed his ear to Su Hang's chest.

"There's no drumbeat."

"What drumbeat?"

"Ever since he ate the fruit, there's always been one inside his body. I could still hear it on the reef just now, but it's gone now."

Dadan pressed both hands against Su Hang's back and slapped him several times in succession.

A small stream of seawater flowed from his mouth, but his breathing had not returned.

"Makino taught me that you have to press on a drowning person's chest!"

"Then you do it. I'll clear his mouth."

Luffy knelt beside him and stacked his hands over Su Hang's chest.

"How many times do I press?"

"You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?"

"Makino said thirty times, but I can't count that fast."

"Then count! If you count wrong, start over!"

"One, two, three, four..."

Su Hang's rubber chest caved under the compressions, then pushed seawater toward his throat as it rebounded.

By the seventeenth press, Luffy's palms were soaked with seawater and blood.

"Don't stop just because your hands hurt!"

"I'm not stopping. Eighteen, nineteen, twenty!"

Dadan held Su Hang's chin and cleared bits of seaweed from his mouth.

"Thirty. Now give him breaths!"

Luffy pinched Su Hang's nose and leaned in, only for Dadan to shove him aside.

"I'll do it. You get ready to keep pressing."

"Why won't you let me do it?"

"Your mouth is full of hemp-rope scraps!"

Dadan blew two breaths into him. Su Hang's chest rose, but there was still no response when it fell.

"Press again!"

Luffy put his hands back in place.

"Su Hang, weren't you pretty quick when you snatched that fruit? Wake up!"

The compression came down.

"You said you wanted to see me find an even greater path!"

His chest rebounded again.

"If you die, who am I supposed to fight?"

At the twenty-third press of the second round, a faint sound came from Su Hang's throat, and seawater poured from the corner of his mouth.

Dadan rolled him onto his side and slapped his back with her palm.

He coughed out a huge mouthful of seawater.

Su Hang's body curled up, his lungs spasmed several times, and he finally drew in air again.

"Cough, cough..."

Luffy sat on the sand and raised his scraped-up hands.

"He's alive!"

"Don't shout. Hold his head steady."

"Su Hang, can you hear me?"

Su Hang opened his eyes, seeing nothing but scattered red light.

[Nika Core reactivated.]

[Current compatibility: 3%.]

"System, check the modules."

[Stretching Module available.]

[Rebound Module available.]

[Host's current stamina is insufficient.]

Dadan grabbed him by the collar.

"What modules are you babbling about the moment you wake up?"

"My power is still there."

"You nearly lost your life, and the first thing you check is the fruit?"

"If the fruit were gone, I'd have suffered an even bigger loss this trip."

Luffy raised his palm.

"Look at me!"

Su Hang turned his head and saw the wounds in Luffy's palm, rubbed open by the hemp rope.

"You pulled me back?"

"Dadan went into the water, I found your position, and I even pressed your chest."

"You did a good job. None of my ribs are broken."

"How could a rubber person's ribs break?"

"I'm only rubber. That doesn't mean I don't have bones."

Dadan smacked the back of Su Hang's head.

"You can still talk back, so you won't die. Stay away from the sea after we get back."

"This time, the wooden stake broke."

"Who picked that stake?"

"Me."

"Who tied the rope?"

"Also me."

"Who wouldn't let Luffy come along?"

"Still me."

Dadan flung her wet hair behind her.

"Then what else do you have to say?"

"Inadequate preparation, bad judgment, and the system didn't exempt me from the rules' weaknesses either."

Luffy squatted beside him.

"You said there were three layers of insurance."

"Three layers tied to the same rotten stake only count as one layer."

"I told you I should pull the rope."

"You couldn't hold against an offshore current."

"But I found you."

Su Hang braced himself against the sand and sat up, every breath sending a stabbing pain through his lungs.

"Yeah. You won this time."

"You owe me a fight."

"That's far too little."

"Then give the fruit back to me?"

"That won't do."

"See? You're welching again."

"I'll cook for you."

"Meat."

"Meat and rice. Serve yourself as much as you want."

Dadan picked up the broken rope.

"I'm going in too."

"There's a share for you."

"You think you can smooth this over just by cooking?"

"If you run into trouble at sea in the future, as long as I'm still alive, you can count on me once."

Luffy immediately held out his hand.

"It's a deal!"

Instead of high-fiving him, Su Hang grabbed his wrist and checked the wound on his palm.

"Let's go find Makino first. The wound's full of sand."

"Aren't you going to thank me?"

"Thank me after the food's ready. Empty words don't fill your stomach."

Cannon fire rang out over the sea again.

This time, the cannonball flew over the northern cliffs, passed over the Red-Haired Pirates' ship, and fell toward Windmill Village.

Dadan hoisted Su Hang onto her shoulder.

"The food can wait. That ship near the coast is firing at the village first!"