A Challenge Letter from Windmill Village

Su Hang signed his name at the end of the restrictions.

The moment the pen left the paper, Qi Hai took the operations manual away and pressed the sealing wax with a cutlass emblem.

"From this moment on, the rules are in effect."

Su Hang set the pen back on the table.

"Keep a closer eye on me. If I lose control next time, you'd better have more than a bucket of seawater ready."

Qi Hai patted the Seastone handcuffs at his waist.

"Don't worry. I prepared two pairs."

When the Dawnbringer entered Greenleaf Island's supply harbor, three medical ships had already finished unloading.

The dockworkers carried away the last crate of fever medicine as a mailman squeezed through the crowd and handed a crumpled envelope up the gangplank.

"Sent from Windmill Village. Addressee: Su Hang."

There was no address on the front of the envelope, only a drawing of a Straw Hat and a fist.

Qi Hai glanced at it.

"Who sent it?"

Su Hang opened the letter.

"A brat with a very good memory."

The sheet held only half a page. A dark fistprint was stamped in the center, and beneath it was a crookedly written sentence.

"Su Hang, I can already beat the wild boars in the mountains!"

At the end, there was even a drawing of a pig lying on its back with all four legs in the air.

Qi Hai fell silent for two seconds.

"This counts as a challenge letter?"

"For Luffy, it does."

Su Hang brushed his thumb over the fistprint. The ink had long since dried.

The little hand that had reached for the Nika Fruit in the tavern ten years ago had finally clenched into a real fist.

The back mountain of Windmill Village.

A broken warship mast lay across the mountain ravine, with water crashing against rocks below.

Luffy sprinted along the slick wooden beam, carrying a wooden bucket full of stones in his arms.

Karp stood on the opposite bank, stopwatch in hand.

"Keep your footing steady! If you fall, climb back up yourself!"

"I'm not going to fall!"

Luffy rushed past the middle of the mast when a mountain hawk suddenly swooped down, its talons aimed straight for his Straw Hat.

Luffy ducked, but the bucket pulled his body to the right.

His feet slipped.

"Ah!"

Karp raised a hand, but did not throw a punch right away.

Luffy twisted in midair and grabbed a dangling old cable.

The bucket slipped from his hands. He clamped the rope between his legs and snatched the bucket handle with his other hand.

Water splashed up.

The bottom of the bucket skimmed the stream before he hauled it back up.

Luffy swung across on the rope, slammed his shoulder into the rock wall, and rolled twice before coming to a stop.

Karp looked at the stopwatch.

"Thirteen seconds too slow."

"But I didn't lose any stones!"

"You think the enemy will stand there and wait because you didn't lose any stones?"

"Then I'll be thirteen seconds faster next time!"

Luffy climbed to his feet, the skin on his knee scraped raw.

He ignored the wound, checking the stones in the bucket first before looking back at the ravine.

"That knot loosened just now."

"You noticed?"

"Yeah. Once it took weight, it started sliding outward. If someone hung from it, it would definitely come undone."

Karp tossed him a short length of rope.

"Retie it."

Luffy caught one end, quickly looped it twice around his fingers, then passed it under the rope loop and pulled it tight.

"A rescue knot!"

"It's called a bowline."

"As long as it can save people, that's enough."

Karp raised a hand and smacked him on the head.

"You need to remember the name too! If something happens at sea and someone tells you to tie a bowline, are you going to ask first whether it can save people?"

Luffy crouched down, clutching his head.

"Stinky old man, you hit me again!"

"I didn't even use any strength!"

"You say that every time!"

Karp grabbed him by the back of the collar and carried him to the stream.

"Wash the wound first."

"I'm going to beat the second wild boar."

"There's mud in that wound. If your leg swells up so badly in two days that you can't walk, are you going to headbutt the boar?"

Luffy reluctantly sat down and dipped his knee into the clear water.

Karp took out some medicinal powder, his movements much gentler than his words.

A snapping branch suddenly echoed through the forest.

A Blue-backed Boar burst through the bushes, white vapor spraying from its nostrils.

It scraped its hind legs against the ground, splinters of wood still hanging from its tusks.

Luffy's eyes lit up.

"It came to me!"

"You just washed that wound."

"I'll bandage it after I'm done!"

The boar charged.

Instead of meeting it head-on, Luffy sidestepped the tusks, grabbed its left ear with both hands, and used its momentum to flip onto its back.

The Blue-backed Boar rammed into trees wildly. Luffy lowered his body and hammered his fists again and again behind its ear.

"Stop!"

Bang!

"I said stop!"

Bang!

The Blue-backed Boar turned and charged toward the cliff.

Luffy saw the drop ahead and immediately released its ear. He planted both feet on its back and launched himself upward.

The boar could not stop in time, half its body rushing over the cliff edge.

Luffy caught a vine in midair, spun back around, and kicked the boar hard in the flank, forcibly sending it back onto the mountain path.

Man and boar rolled into the mud together.

Karp remained where he was and did not intervene.

The Blue-backed Boar tried to get back up, but Luffy had already rolled over and mounted it, pressing his fist against the bridge of its snout.

"Still want to charge?"

The boar panted heavily, its four hooves gradually flattening against the ground.

Karp walked over.

"It can't understand human speech."

"It understands fists."

"Then why did you stop hitting it?"

Luffy hopped off the boar's back.

"If it doesn't charge at me, I don't need to keep hitting it."

Karp looked at the boar as it tucked its tail and fled into the woods, then suddenly burst into laughter.

"You're starting to look the part!"

Luffy wiped the mud from his face.

"I've looked the part for ages!"

"You're still far from it. Starting tomorrow, you'll cross the warship mast carrying two buckets of stones."

"Why is there another bucket now?"

"Because you won today."

The smug look on Luffy's face instantly collapsed.

"Shouldn't I get meat if I win?"

"After training."

"I want to eat a whole one!"

"Memorize the tide chart first."

Karp pulled out a chart from his clothes.

It marked the tidal times around Windmill Village for an entire month, along with the locations of submerged reefs and return currents.

Luffy's head hurt just looking at it.

"Isn't having strong fists enough?"

"If you go to sea without even knowing which way the tide flows, who's going to fish you out if you fall overboard?"

"I can swim."

"When the waves are thirty feet high, show me how you swim."

Luffy snatched the tide chart and sat cross-legged on a rock.

"Why does the tide rise twice a day here?"

"Figure it out yourself."

"What's this curved arrow?"

"A return current. Someone who falls into the water gets carried away from shore first, then swept back toward the reefs."

"Then you can't just jump in to save someone?"

Karp's gaze shifted slightly.

"Judge the current first, then throw a rope. If you aren't sure, send out a small boat. Don't turn one person overboard into two."

Luffy looked down at the short rope by the stream and tied another bowline.

This time, the loop did not slip open.

At dusk, the two sat atop the wrecked warship, eating roasted meat.

Karp crunched through a leg bone and asked quietly.

"You still have that fruit on your mind?"

Luffy's mouth was stuffed full of meat.

"I do."

"Do you hate Su Hang?"

Luffy swallowed the meat and thought for a long time.

"A little unwillingness."

"Why?"

"My hand was already reaching for it back then, but he was faster than me."

"So you think he stole your destiny?"

"What's destiny? Can you eat it?"

Karp smacked the back of his head.

"Answer seriously!"

Luffy clutched his head and glared at Karp.

"The fruit being taken only means I didn't grab it back then. Next time there's something I want, I'll be faster."

"Nika is a fruit the World Government has hunted for centuries."

"So what?"

Luffy grabbed a piece of roasted meat and took a fierce bite.

"There's only one god-tier fruit, but there are people who can throw punches all over the world."

Karp looked at his grease-covered fist, his laughter startling the seabirds from the mast.

"Good! Extra swimming practice tomorrow!"

"What does that have to do with the fruit?!"

"You need to train even more if you don't have a fruit!"

"Damn old man!"

A few days later, the reply was delivered to Greenleaf Island.

After reading the training records Karp had enclosed at the end, Su Hang did not laugh.

He took out his own ability-testing booklet and tore out copies of the early records.

Qi Hai pressed a hand over the pages.

"Rubber stretching distance, rebound interval, joint stress limit. You're planning to mail your weaknesses to your challenger?"

"Old data."

"A weakness is still a weakness, no matter how old it is."

Su Hang picked up his pen and wrote a line.

"By the time he figures out a fighting style from this data, I'll already have new weaknesses."

Qi Hai let go.

"You really aren't afraid he'll catch up to you."

"I'm afraid he won't come."

Su Hang folded the copies into the envelope and added another sentence.

"Luffy, next time we meet, I won't hold back. If you want to fight me, first learn how not to fall into the sea."

After sealing the envelope, the system screen unfolded.

[Monkey D. Luffy has given up waiting for external opportunities.]

[His physical skills, rescue abilities, and navigational knowledge have improved in sync.]

[The predetermined fate loop has changed.]

[The target worldline's weight continues to rise.]

Su Hang closed the screen and handed the letter to the postman.

Far away in Windmill Village, Luffy climbed onto the mast of a new warship.

With a barrel of stones slung over each shoulder, he shouted at the mail-delivering seabird.

"Tell Su Hang that when I set sail, the first person I'll punch is him!"