Just then, a commotion came from the direction of the village entrance, mixed with the panicked shouts of villagers and arrogant, wild laughter.
Luna’s movements stopped instantly, the training focus in her eyes turning instantly icy.
She looked up at the sky; the setting sun was like blood.
“Time’s up,” she murmured to herself, the corners of her mouth curling into a cold arc.
After waiting for seven days, Mountain Bandit King Higuma had finally arrived “as promised” to complete his “kidnapping” script from the original work.
“Luna!” Makino ran out of the bar in a panic, “Those bandits are here again, and there seem to be even more people this time!
Mr.
Shanks…”
Shanks straightened up, his expression calm, but a sharp glint flashed deep within his eyes.
Just as he was about to say something, Luna spoke first.
“Shanks, Sister Makino, leave this to me this time.” Her voice was not loud, but it carried an unquestionable firmness.
“What?” Makino was stunned.
Shanks gave Luna a deep look, seeing the burning fighting intent in her eyes—not reckless, but calculated.
He remembered the amazed tone in Yasopp’s reports over the past seven days, and the increasingly terrifying prey Luna dragged back.
“Are you confident?” Shanks asked.
“Fifteen out of ten confidence that I’ll punch them flying.” Luna grinned brightly, a smile that inexplicably sent a chill down Makino’s spine.
She turned around and walked unhurriedly toward the village entrance.
Shanks was silent for a moment, shook his head at Makino to signal her not to worry, and then slowly followed behind, maintaining a distance where he could see everything and intervene at any time.
He wanted to see just what level the girl who ate “that fruit” had reached now.
At the village entrance, the scene was already in utter chaos.
Higuma brought over thirty bandits this time, double the number from last time.
Each of them wielded knives and axes with ferocious expressions.
They purposely drove a few looted livestock, rampaging around, frightening the villagers, kicking over roadside stalls, and wantonly destroying things.
Higuma himself stood in the center with a sword at his waist, acting haughty and enjoying the terror he brought.
His gaze maliciously scanned the surroundings, finally fixing on the small figure walking from the direction of the bar—the black-haired little girl who had given him a vague sense of unease last time.
“Oh?
We meet again, brat.” Higuma sneered, stepping forward to block Luna’s path.
Looking down at her condescendingly, he said, “What, out alone?
Where’s your good-for-nothing Red Hair daddy?
Too scared to hide?
Hahahaha!”
The bandits behind him also burst into jeering laughter.
Luna stopped, tilting her head up to look at Higuma with a completely expressionless face.
There was neither fear nor anger, only the calm of looking at a dead object.
This gaze made Higuma very uncomfortable and even gave him a faint creeped-out feeling.
“Hey, brat, I’m talking to you!” Enraged by embarrassment, Higuma reached out to grab Luna’s collar.
“The debt for that glass of milk last time, and the humiliation you pirates gave me—today, I’ll start settling it with you—”
His words came to an abrupt halt.
Because Luna moved.
Without warning or build-up, her body seemed to lose the constraints of all joints.
With speed and angles defying common sense, she lightly slid half a step to the side, causing Higuma’s reaching hand to grab empty air.
At the same time, the right hand she had been keeping by her side clenched into a fist, her forearm retracting slightly backward like a compressed spring—
The next moment, her fist disappeared.
No, it didn’t disappear; it was just too fast, leaving an afterimage in the vision of ordinary people!
“Rubber Instant Strike.”
Luna’s voice sounded blandly, creating an eerie contrast with the terrifying attack.
Higuma didn’t see a thing; he only felt as if his abdomen had been hit head-on by a battering ram at supersonic speed!
That power was condensed to the extreme without dispersing, pouring solidly into his body all at once!
“Ugh ah—!!!”
An unimaginable, excruciating pain exploded instantly!
Higuma’s eyeballs bulged, his mouth opened to the limit but could not emit a complete sound, and gastric juice and saliva uncontrollably spattered out.
His tall body of over two meters was like a tattered sandbag thrown with full force, his feet leaving the ground, bending backward into an eerie “＜” shape, and he flew backward with a swoosh!
Boom!
Crash—
He flew over the heads of seven or eight dumbfounded bandits behind him, crashing heavily into the old oak tree at the village entrance that required two people to hug!
The thick trunk trembled violently, leaves fell like rain, and Higuma’s body stuck against the trunk for a full second before slowly sliding down, collapsing limply onto the ground.
Fresh blood gushed from his mouth, his eyes rolled back, and only unconscious twitching remained.
The sword at his waist that had never truly been drawn dropped to the side with a clang.
Silence.
A deathly silence.
All the jeering, clamor, and destructive sounds came to an abrupt halt under this punch.
The ferocity on the faces of the thirty-plus bandits turned into extreme bewilderment and fear.
They looked at the black-haired little girl slowly retracting her fist as if she had just swatted away a fly, and then looked at their boss—the self-proclaimed “Mountain Bandit King” with an eight-million-belly bounty who was now collapsed under the tree like a dead dog, not knowing whether he was dead or alive—their minds going completely blank.
The villagers were also dumbfounded; Makino covered her mouth, and Shanks’s eyes burst with astonishing brilliance.
Luna shook her wrist, seeming quite satisfied with the force of that punch.
Rubber Constitution at LV49, stacked with Basic Taijutsu strength at LV47, combined with Elastic Potential Energy Control at LV36 for extreme compression and instantaneous release, and then using Form Control to instantly increase the hardness of the fist’s contact surface—this simple straight punch contained the full essence of her seven days of hard training: strength, speed, explosion, and control!
She raised her head, her gaze sweeping across the dumbstruck group of bandits.
That gaze was calm, yet carried a condescending apathy, like a fierce tiger patrolling a flock of sheep scared out of their wits.
“Who else,” Luna spoke, her voice crisp yet clearly reaching the ears of every bandit, “wants to seek justice for your boss, or for the ’56’ trash he mentioned?”
The bandits collectively took a step back, the knives and axes in their hands trembling.
No one dared to answer; the air was permeated with the smell of fear, thick and unshakeable.
Luna tilted her head slightly, revealing a smile completely out of place with the current scene—carrying a bit of Luffy-esque innocence yet being icy cold:
“If not, then it’s my turn.”
“I am a person who doesn’t like owing favors.
He knocked over my milk and disturbed my training.”
“So, I said—”
Her figure disappeared from the spot like a phantom.
“I was going to beat the shit out of him.”
The battle, or rather, the one-sided annihilation, began.
The whistling sound of rubber, the miserable screams of the bandits, the crisp snapping of bones, the dull thuds of bodies crashing against walls and the ground…
interwoven into a short and violent symphony.
Luna’s figure flickered among the crowd, and every appearance was accompanied by at least one bandit screaming as they flew off.
Rubber whip legs swept down a whole area, spiral spear thrusts felled a few, and occasionally she grabbed some unlucky fellow’s ankle, swinging him like a meteor hammer to smash down his companions…
She deliberately controlled her strength and did not take anyone’s life, but ensured that every beaten bandit had at least a few broken bones, would lie in bed for half a year, and would be left with a profound psychological shadow.
In less than three minutes, the thirty-plus bandits were completely wiped out, lying all over the ground in disorder, with groans and wails endlessly echoing.
Luna stood in the middle of a “mountain of people,” patted the non-existent dust on her hands, breathing evenly without even sweating a few drops.
She walked over to the unconscious Higuma, crouched down, and checked on him.
“Tsk, knocked out by a single punch.
How boring.” She curled her lip, “Still, he shouldn’t be dead.”
She thought for a moment, extended her index finger, dipped it in Higuma’s blood, and quickly drew a few strokes on his forehead.
A crooked yet clearly recognizable character for “Weak” was painted on his face.
“Leaving a souvenir, so you don’t forget who educated you today.” Luna stood up and flashed a dazzling smile toward the villagers watching from afar—especially Makino and Shanks—as if she had just played a pleasant game.
“Done!”
The setting sun sank completely below the horizon, and the last trace of afterglow reflected this dramatic scene at the village entrance: the standing petite girl, the bandits rolling all over the ground, the unconscious “Mountain Bandit King,” and the old oak tree not far away shedding leaves in the wind.
Windmill Village, on this evening, remembered the name “Monkey D.
Luffy” in a completely different way.
Shanks slowly exhaled a breath, the smile on his face becoming immensely gratifying and relieved.
He stepped forward and handed the wine bottle in his hand to Luna: “Want a drink?
To celebrate your first ‘pirate-style’ victory.”
Luna took the wine bottle and took a bold, large gulp.
The pungent liquid made her frown, but she immediately exhaled a breath, her eyes brightening even more.
“How does it feel?” Shanks asked.
“Not bad.” Luna looked at the devastation all over the ground, her eyes flashing with a clearer understanding and longing for power, “But, it’s not strong enough, far from it.”
The future she had to face was the Grand Line, the New World, the Four Emperors, the Admiral, the entire World Government…
and welcoming back her future beautiful crewmates.
Luna clenched her fists, the texture of rubber flowing in her palms.
Seven days of training, testing her sword for the first time—this was only the beginning.