Human Cannonball

"Hehe! I'm a rubber man who ate the Rubber Fruit. I'm not afraid of getting hit!" Luffy said smugly after Alvida's massive iron club struck him on the head.

"A Devil Fruit?" Alvida and Koby stared at Luffy in shock. Alvida had only heard of Devil Fruits before; she had never expected them to truly exist.

It was said that humans who ate Devil Fruits gained miraculous powers. So the rumor was true.

However, Luffy did not yet know about Seastone. If Alvida's iron club had contained Seastone, that blow to his head would definitely have left him bleeding—or even killed him on the spot.

"Gum-Gum Bazooka!" Luffy stretched both hands backward, using their recoil to amplify the force of his arms and strike the opponent before him.

Alvida's iron club was still pressed against Luffy's head, leaving her no time to dodge. At that moment, she finally realized that she and Luffy were not on the same level. But she had realized it too late, and she would have to pay the price.

"Pfft!" Alvida's fat body was sent flying by Luffy's Gum-Gum Bazooka, though she barely managed to retain consciousness.

"That idiot!" William cursed.

Seeing Alvida flying toward him, William was so terrified that his mind went blank and he forgot to dodge. Yet his body instinctively transformed his right hand into a dragon claw. With overwhelming force, the claw caught Alvida's iron club as he shouted, "Stay away from me, you old hag!"

The moment William's dragon claw gripped Alvida's iron club, it left a claw mark on it. Several thin cracks then spread across its surface before the entire club was crushed to pieces in his grasp. Alvida herself was sent flying again by the remaining force. It all seemed slow, but it had actually happened in an instant.

When Luffy sent her flying, Alvida's only thought was, How could I lose? But when William blasted her away, all she could think was, Who is this guy?

By then, Alvida had already passed out. After "flying" for some distance, her fat body fell into the sea with a splash, kicking up water no less spectacular than a cannon blast.

"He actually crushed Big Sis Alvida's iron club?" None of the pirates, Koby included, could believe that terrifying iron club had been crushed apart by someone's bare hand. Was that even strength a human could possess?

"Big Sis... Big Sis got sent flying?" When the pirates saw their captain being blasted away, they panicked. They knew Alvida's strength better than anyone. These two people clearly had the power to defeat their captain in a single move. They were monsters, and the pirates hurriedly fled for their lives.

"Run! Those two are monsters!" The pirates frantically jumped into the sea.

In the pirates' eyes, one was a monster who had eaten a Devil Fruit, while the other was a monster with terrifying strength. Neither was someone lowly pirates like them could afford to provoke. If they knew William was also a Devil Fruit user, some of them would probably faint on the spot.

"As expected of the partner I picked out. He's really strong!" Seeing William send Alvida flying in one move, with power no weaker than his own Gum-Gum Bazooka, Luffy could not help admiring his own judgment.

If William had known what Luffy was thinking, he would definitely have wanted to kill him: Did you invite me because you saw my strength, not because you thought my Devil Fruit power was interesting?

However, William did not notice Luffy's smug expression. Instead, he stared at his right hand in confusion. That move clearly was not a Marine technique, so how did he know it?

William had now forgotten every technique he once knew. Even that move just now had merely been an instinctive reaction. It looked powerful, but he had only used a fraction of his strength.

It seemed the former William had not been an ordinary Marine colonel. He even knew that person's technique. Who knew what relationship the two of them had?

Forget it. He would think about it later. The most important thing now was getting away from Luffy.

"Mr. Luffy, was that person just now your companion?" Koby asked timidly.

"Yeah! Strong, right?" Luffy said proudly.

"But it looks like he left by ship." Koby had actually noticed William and a woman leaving aboard an Alvida Pirates supply ship earlier. He simply had not known William's relationship with Luffy, so he had hesitated to speak.

"Huh? What did you say?" Luffy cried out with an exaggerated expression.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!" Timid Koby was so frightened by Luffy's expression that he dropped to the ground and hurriedly apologized, afraid that Luffy would hit him.

"William, where are you going? I haven't gotten on the ship yet!" Luffy shouted toward the ship William and Nami were riding.

Luffy had not realized at all that William had abandoned him, or that William simply did not want to be his partner. He thought William had boarded the wrong ship or mistaken someone else for him.

"William, I think someone's calling you?" Nami vaguely heard someone on the merchant ship calling William's name. But the distance was too great, and the sound of the waves was too loud, so she was not certain.

"Hm? You must have heard wrong." William froze for a moment. He had not heard anything at all, but then he thought of a certain idiot. He did not need to think to know who was calling him. William was barely managing to survive himself; he had no desire to stay with a born troublemaker like that.

"Oh no!" William suddenly shouted to Nami, "Nami, hurry up and speed away!"

"What is it?" Although Nami had no idea what was happening, seeing even powerful William wear a panicked expression, she did not stop to ask. The two immediately adjusted the sails and used the favorable wind to speed up the ship.

"Koby, hold on!" Luffy had no intention of hitting Koby. Instead, he wrapped his left arm around Koby's body, grabbed the ship with one hand, and continuously stepped backward.

"Mr. Luffy?" Suddenly being held by someone—and by another man at that—left Koby completely flustered. He did not know how to respond.

"Gum-Gum Human Slingshot!" While holding Koby with his left arm, Luffy stretched out his right hand and hooked it over the railing, then quickly backed up several steps.

"Ahhh!" When Koby realized he might have misunderstood Luffy, a violent gust suddenly blew against him. The timid boy found himself flying through the air and fainted on the spot from fright.

Since William was a partner Luffy had decided on, he had to recruit him. Especially since they could hold banquets inside that strange house—just thinking about it excited him.

If William had known what Luffy was thinking at that moment, he would definitely have turned around and killed him.

"That idiot!" When William saw Luffy actually "flying" toward them, he was badly frightened. In this situation, the impact force when Luffy fell was no weaker than a cannonball.

If he hit them, this ship would definitely be smashed to pieces. William was not worried that Nami would drown, but he himself was a Devil Fruit user. If he accidentally fell into the sea, he would be finished.

Devil Fruit users were cursed by the Sea to become lifelong landlubbers. He could not possibly make Nami save him, could he?

But what about Luffy himself? Had that idiot not considered that he was also a Devil Fruit user and could not swim either? Or was he counting on Koby, or William—the other Devil Fruit user—to save him?

Boom!

"Ahhh!" Nami screamed in fright when she realized they had been bombarded, thinking that remnants of the Alvida Pirates were firing cannonballs at them.

"Damn it!" William did his best to keep the ship from capsizing. If it was destroyed, he would not be lucky enough to hide inside a chest this time.

Although the ship barely avoided Luffy, that "suicidal human cannonball," the splashing water still soaked both William's and Nami's clothes.

Thinking about how Luffy's idiotic stunt had nearly gotten him killed, William no longer cared about the plot or anything else. Wouldn't it be better for him and Nami to live quietly in Cocoyasi Village? It was just a matter of dealing with the Fish-Man Pirates, wasn't it?