Chapter 38: Side-effects
After a few minutes, they eventually reached where Luffy and others were resting.
"Nami-San, Vivi-Chan! Did you miss me?" Sanji who recently felt a bit relieved believing that Nami doesn't actually like Zack after their long conversation didn't hesitate to flirt.
Unfortunately, the way he flirts was quite disastrous for himself.
"You bastard, where the hell was you?" Usopp raised his hand and shouted.
"Wait, are you the Mr. 3?" Sanji spotted a giant next to Straw Hats and shouted.
"Nami, why did you take off your long clothes?" Zack who wasn't interested in Sanji's behavior turned his eyes at everyone and when he saw Nami in a bikini, he panicked.
Seeing him so concerned about her, Nami was very excited but suddenly, she felt an urge to scratch her belly. When Zack noticed that moment, his eyes widened.
"Damn it, it has already happened. Everyone, pack up! We are leaving right now."
"Zack, we can't leave. It takes a year for the log to get reset." Nami bitterly sighed and spoke.
"Actually, we can." Sanji took out the Eternal Log Pose and showed it to them.
Except for Zack, everyone looked at him with their jaws dropping on the ground. Vivi went to thank him by hugging him. Zack couldn't help but feel a bit jealous.
He sneaked his eyes at Nami who didn't notice his gaze. He commanded system to observe nami.
[Host nami have been affected by brantichum gamnybipunia ]
She pulled Sanji's log pose and said "Alright, now we can leave."
"But, what about Dorry? Let's check out on him!" Usopp spoke as he gathered everyone's attention on Dorry.
They all went near him and Brogy started crying but soon, Dorry woke up. Zack truly felt like a miracle. Dorry was injured beyond help but he still managed to wake up.
He doesn't know whether it was because of Giant's bloodline or just their dumb luck.
"Now, we can leave?" Zack asked while they were still busy with giants.
"Alright everyone, let's move!" Nami spoke as everyone rushed toward the ship. While running toward the ship, Zack noticed Valentine. Seeing her, he looked at Nami and asked.
"She didn't help Mr. 3 and his partner?"
"No, not only she didn't help them but she helped us. If it wasn't for her, we would've died." When she thought about that, she suddenly fell in rage as she pulled Zack's collar.
"Bastard, where did you go? We almost died."
Zack chuckled and patted her head.
"You all have grown stronger. Luffy and Zoro were still there."
"I didn't help but this time I needed help." Zoro spoke. At this moment, his tone was a bit cold. He was still angry at himself for getting caught by trickery.
Seeing this, Zack shook his head and said "Don't blame yourself! This world has a lot of people who depend on treachery to win. After all, we are all pirates. Even if someone does rely on an underhanded method, we can't say anything."
Then, he looked at Valentine and asked "Why did you help us? I thought you would happily go back."
"There was no place to go back." Valentine coldly replied without even looking at him.
Zack was surprised for a moment but he quickly understand what must have happened. He sighed inwardly. He doesn't expect Luffy to recruit her so he did make her life miserable.
While he was thinking about that, he looked at Vivi and decided to tell her what happened after they leave this island. Soon, they reached the ship. When they were leaving, they saw the giants slowly moving toward the edge of the island.
Brogy looked at them and shouted "Don't turn around! Just go straight. We will open a path for you. Bagagagaga!"
"Kyakyakyakya!" Dorry laughed as well. Both of them prepared their weapons which were already on the verge of destruction.
Splash!
Suddenly, in front of Merry, a giant goldfish appeared. When they saw that giant goldfish, their expression widened. Among them, Usopp was mostly stunned.
He couldn't help but remember the small age when he used to tell the kids the story of seeing a giant goldfish. He didn't expect that lie to come true in the Grandline.
"Luffy, are we really going straight? This is not going to be the same as Laboon." Nami didn't get as frightened as she got in the originals but still felt responsible for confirming it.
Luffy nodded his head.
"Luffy, are you sure we can believe your giant friends." Sanji shouted from the side.
"Yes, don't worry!" Luffy nodded his head as he sat on the top of the Merry.
"Straight! Straight! Go straight!" Usopp kept shouting while trembling. He was also putting his trust in Giants.
At this moment, Zack was at the top of the room. But, he wasn't staring at Goldfish. He was staring at the giants.
These guys have been fighting for hundred years. Even if they are giants, there has to be a limit to how much you can tank, right? In the original story, Luffy beat down Hajrudin with a single attack coated in his haki.
Zack had a faint feeling that these guys can use Haki. Although he has seen people using it in anime, he wanted to see it in the real life. He closely looked at the giants.
At this moment, their hands didn't change. They were still same as before but when they raised their weapons, he saw some bolts of lightning releasing out of their hands.
Whoosh!
"Hakoku"
When they launched this attack, the lightning suddenly disappeared and changed into a powerful thrust of energy that moved like a sword attack. It went straight toward the Goldfish without even touching Merry.
Bang!
Although it looked like a sword slash, it was more like an air cannon. When it landed on the goldfish, it got blasted into pieces. The thrust was so powerful that it managed to increase Merry's speed by several times.
As they started to leave, Zack jumped down from the top. Everyone had already noticed him staring at the giants but they were panicking so they didn't care about what he did.
But now, they were a bit curious.
"Why are you staring at them so much?" Zoro who was very keen on Zack's perception asked. He knew Zack wouldn't do useless things.
"I was watching them using Haki. It seemed like after fighting for hundreds of years, their Haki has gotten so strong that they don't even need to show coating." Zack responded.
"Haki? Are you talking about Armament Haki?" Sanji asked.
Zack nodded his head and said "Otherwise this kind of attack shouldn't be possible, even for giants. Or else, Giants would've ruled the world by now."
"Haki? Haki.... Ahh! You are talking about that power which can beat down that smokey guy." Luffy who didn't get Haki for a moment suddenly remembered it and spoke.
Zack chuckled and nodded his head.
"Indeed! By the way, there is something that I wanted to ask you. Do you feel any kind of side effects from using that punch?"
Luffy asked, "Do you mean the punch where I contract my arm after filling air into my muscles?"
Zack nodded his head.
Luffy thought for a moment and said "If pain is the side effect, then I indeed feel it. Whenever I use contraction to a certain limit, I feel overwhelming pain."
Hearing his words, Zack thought for a moment.
'So, this attack has a different side effect. In Gear Second, Luffy feels weakness all over his body. In Gear Third, Luffy shrinks into chibi Luffy. Since this is more like Gear Fourth where he pumps air into his muscles, he is feeling pain.'
'Ahhh! That makes sense. Luffy already has the wildest imagination so it wouldn't be a surprise that he would create something like that. But, it was weird that he could use it.'
'In other words, he must have used Haki in order to deal with the pain. Maybe that's the reason why he could use Contraction and Stretch at the same time. After all, whenever he punches, he contracts his body in the Gear Fourth even in Snake Man form.'
'Of course, he also stretches it but the raw power comes from contracting his fist or legs as much inside as he can.'
"Ahh! Zack, is there a problem with Luffy using that attack?" Usopp asked when he saw Zack thinking for so long. Luffy naturally didn't care about himself but his crew does.
"Luffy, I think that pain is because you don't have the physical strength to use contraction and stretching at the same currently . You have yet to awaken your armament haki and your body is still not strong enough to handle the stain from it .You shouldn't put your body through such strain."
"You can try increasing your physical strength first. As for that move, only use it when you absolutely need it." Zack suggested to him while Luffy simply just nodded.
He knew Luffy wouldn't care much and do whatever he want to do. Zack shook his head and while they were already on the ship, he decided to talk to Vivi about the recent thing that just happened between him and Crocodile.
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