" Luffy, you just wait and see."
Shanks ' expression turned unusually serious, and his voice deepened, carrying an undeniable weight.
"From today onwards, you are no longer an ordinary person."
You ate Devil Fruit and gained rubber-like abilities.
The price is that I can never swim again for the rest of my life.
If you fall into the sea, you will sink and die; if no one saves you, you really will die.
Did you understand?
Luffy looked into Shanks ' eyes, and a seriousness that shouldn't be present on that usually jovial face suddenly appeared on his face, a seriousness that a six-year-old shouldn't have.
He nodded vigorously.
"I understand."
"But Shanks-- "
Luffy's voice suddenly calmed down, so calm that it no longer sounded like the child who had just been sulking about the bandits.
Even if I become a landlubber, I'll still be a pirate.
Shanks paused for a moment, then burst into laughter.
He reached Luffy and ruffled Luffy's hair vigorously, making it look like a bird's nest.
"Alright, alright, I know you've got big ambitions."
Shanks stood up, sat back down at the bar, picked up the jug, took a big gulp, and his expression returned to its usual nonchalant state.
But in those eyes, there was a hidden sense of satisfaction that no one else could see.
Roy watched this scene and finished the last drop of wine in his glass.
He saw everything.
Luffy eating the fruit was truly unintentional—the child was genuinely angry when he casually opened the treasure chest, grabbed the fruit, and stuffed it into his mouth.
It wasn't arranged by Shanks, nor was it anyone's scheme.
But fate never works by schemes.
That fruit hidden by the World Government for eight hundred years, that Nika Form deliberately forgotten by history...
Just like that, a six-year-old child took a bite out of me in a fit of anger.
The legend that the World Government had failed to capture despite exhausting eight hundred years of human and material resources ultimately benefited a child who was still angry about his friend being bullied.
Roy put down his wine glass, his gaze sweeping over the still noisy pirates and children in the room, and looking out the window at the calm surface of the East Blue Sea.
This vast ocean is unaware of this.
Tonight in Foosha Village, someone, in a fit of pique, bit off an entire era.
The next day, the sun shone warmly in the Foosha Village as always.
Rouge went to help out at the Makino Tavern early in the morning.
Ace was training Luffy in the back mountains, but Luffy's condition was clearly off today.
This kid has been in a strangely excited state since yesterday. During training, he keeps grabbing his cheeks and pulling them outwards.
Then let go and watch it bounce back, like a little kid who just got a new toy.
In fact, he had just received a new toy, except that the toy was his own body.
"Can you be serious for once?!" Ace punched Luffy on the head.
"I'm very serious!"
Luffy protested, clutching his head, then couldn't resist pulling at his fingers.
" Ace, look, look! It can be stretched this long—whoaaaaah, why did you hit me again!"
Kuina sat on a tree branch not far away, watching the two little devils playing and fighting below, and the corner of her mouth twitched involuntarily.
She simply couldn't connect this six-year-old child, who was still playing with his fingers, with the words " Pirate King ".
Roy didn't go to the training ground today.
He found a window seat in the tavern, ordered a pot of tea, and sat there quietly.
Rouge asked him why he wasn't watching the children train, and he smiled and said he had something more interesting to do today.
"What is it?" Rouge, looking bewildered.
"You'll find out soon enough." Roy picked up his teacup and glanced out the window.
He certainly knew what was going to happen today.
The bandit leader named Higuma lost face yesterday—or more accurately, he felt he had lost face.
What this kind of person can't stand the most is being ignored by others, especially by a group of pirates whom he considers "cowardly and incompetent".
He will definitely come again today.
At ten o'clock in the morning, there were not many customers in the tavern.
Makino was preparing ingredients for lunch in the kitchen, Rouge was wiping tables at the bar.
After finishing his training Luffy sat alone on a chair in the corner of the tavern, swinging his short legs and humming an off-key tune.
Ace went to the beach to collect Beli, Kuina practiced her swordsmanship in the backyard, and Shanks and the Red Hair Pirates repaired their ships at the port.
Then the door was kicked open again.
"Bang--!!!"
Higuma strode into the tavern with the bandits from yesterday, his expression even more somber than before.
He looked around the empty tavern and found that none of the pirates from yesterday were there, only a kid in a red vest sitting in the corner.
He snorted coldly and sat down at the bar with an air of nonchalance.
"It's the same group of people as yesterday."
Higuma chuckled and gestured with his chin toward his subordinates.
"They're just a bunch of spineless cowards."
What pirates?
He didn't even dare to fight back, what a coward.
Luffy's hand tightened suddenly around the juice glass.
He was still sulking about Shanks not retaliating yesterday, but anger aside,
That's his own business. Outsiders can't criticize Shanks, and outsiders can't speak ill of the Red Hair Pirates. Outsiders have no right to do so.
"Shut up!!!"
Luffy jumped off the chair, his small body blocking the bar counter, glaring up at Higuma, who was twice his height, his voice so loud it shook the window frame.
"Don't you dare speak ill of Shanks! Shanks is no coward!!"
Higuma looked down at the little brat who was barely up to his waist, paused for a moment, and then laughed.
"Oh? Who are you?"
"My name is Luffy! I'm going to be the Pirate King!"
Luffy clenched his fist, his voice without trembling.
"The guy you bullied yesterday— Shanks —is my friend. I won't allow you to talk about them like that!"
Higuma's smile slowly faded.
He stared at Luffy, his eyes as cold and menacing as a snake that had spotted its prey.
"Kid, do you know who I am?"
I am Higuma, the bandit king with a bounty of eight million Beli.
Are you tired of living?
I don't care who you are!
Luffy roared back,
You need to apologize to Shanks! Right now!!
As Higuma responded to Luffy's taunts, a large hand suddenly reached out, grabbed him by the back of his collar, and lifted him up like a chick.
He lifted Luffy to eye level, his eyes gleaming with a sinister light beneath the scars.
"You've got guts, kid. But—your guts will get you killed quickly."
"Let me go!! Let me go!!"
Luffy struggled desperately, his rubber body twisting and turning in the air, but against a bandit leader with a bounty of eight million, the resistance of a six-year-old child was nothing more than a tickle.
His kick was casually slapped away by Higuma, and his punch slumped back in mid-air, almost hitting his own face.
Makino rushed out of the kitchen and turned pale with fright when she saw what was happening.
She instinctively turned and rushed out of the tavern, running desperately towards the harbor.