The sea breeze carried away some of the gunpowder smell, leaving only the scent of blood and scorched earth.
Luffy had just let out a sigh of relief,
when he saw Sanji slowly straighten up, propping himself on his knees, a smile suddenly curving his lips that Luffy had never seen before.
That smile made the hairs on Luffy's neck stand on end.
"Hey, Luffy,"
Sanji's voice was unusually light. He wiped the blood from his eyelids, his eyes glinting eerily in the setting sun.
"Are we... supposed to start the second half of training?"
Luffy blinked: "Second half?"
Before he finished speaking, Sanji's hand had already reached into the inner pocket of his suit, which was practically shredded to rags.
—The pocket had miraculously remained intact—and pulled out a pair of jet-black handcuffs.
The metal gleamed dully in the setting sun, its edges etched with intricate suppression patterns.
Sea Stone!!
Luffy's expression instantly froze.
He subconsciously took half a step back, his rubber soles scraping against the gravel with a harsh sound.
"W-wait..."
He chuckled dryly, his fingers involuntarily curling.
"Sanji, isn't that enough for today?"
"You're so badly injured, and I'm tired too. How about... we continue tomorrow?"
He stole a glance at Sanji as he spoke.
The guy was covered in blood, his shirt torn into strips clinging to his raw flesh, and his left leg was bent at an unnatural angle.
Yet, the smile on his face grew deeper and deeper, becoming less and less like the usual Sanji.
It was practically a devil's smile.
"Tomorrow?" Sanji tilted his head, his golden hair falling to cover one eye.
"But this was Mr. Rayleigh's arrangement."
He dragged his injured leg, walking closer step by step. His footsteps were exceptionally clear in the silent ruins.
"In the first half of the day, you trained Observation Haki, Armament Haki, and Devil Fruit development with me."
Sanji held up the handcuffs, the metal rings dangling from his fingertips.
"In the second half... it's my turn to train your'survival skills under extreme limitations'."
He stopped half a step in front of Luffy, the scent of blood wafting over.
Luffy could see the fist print he had left below Sanji's collarbone, purplish-black and shiny, rising and falling slightly with his breathing.
"Mr. Rayleigh said, 'That kid relies too much on his Devil Fruit; he needs to experience getting beaten while powerless'."
Sanji mimicked Rayleigh's deep voice, perfectly.
Luffy's Adam's apple bobbed.
"See,"
Sanji spread open the hand not holding the handcuffs, which was covered in tiny cuts.
"I followed the rules and fought with you until my bones were almost falling apart. Now..."
He lowered his voice, almost a whisper.
"It's your turn to follow the rules, isn't it?"
He shook the handcuffs, the chains clanking coldly.
"My dear Captain,"
Sanji's voice was sickeningly sweet, but his face was completely that of a devil.
"You wouldn't want today's events—where you used'special training' as an excuse to satisfy your fighting craving, ruined my new suit, and incidentally demolished half an island—to be discovered..."
He leaned in closer, his breath fanning Luffy's stiff face.
"...by Mr. Rayleigh, would you?"
Luffy was stunned.
His brain processed too much information in that instant:
Sanji's devilish smile, the terrifying gleam of the Sea Stone, Rayleigh's Iron Fist education if he found out the truth, and the blood-soaked chef in front of him who clearly had no intention of stopping... A few seconds later, Luffy resignedly closed his eyes, his eyelashes trembling like fallen leaves in the wind.
He slowly, extremely slowly, extended his hands, wrists together, offering them to Sanji.
Clank!
The moment the shackles clicked shut, the color drained from Luffy's face.
A cold, heavy sense of nothingness exploded along the skin of his wrists, like a breached ice sea, instantly devouring the strength of every muscle.
His vision briefly swayed and blurred, his ears buzzed—he could barely stand.
How... how could this be?
He struggled to lower his head, looking at his cuffed hands.
His once plump, elastic rubber skin now clung tightly to his bones, like bark that had lost all its moisture.
His knuckles were stiff; he couldn't even bend a single finger.
An unprecedented feeling of exhaustion enveloped him, as if even the strength to stand was being rapidly drained.
Sweat trickled from his temples, dripping onto the charred stones with a faint sizzle.
He could feel his muscles trembling slightly—not a thrill of excitement, but pure, unwilling weakness.
How could he be so... powerless?
He had heard Rayleigh say that Sea Stone's suppression of ability users had nothing to do with their strength.
It was the crystallization of the sea, representing the rules themselves, an absolute 'negation'.
But 'hearing about it' and 'experiencing it firsthand' were, after all, worlds apart.
Luffy gritted his teeth, trying to fight the weariness that surged from the depths of his bones.
He had once single-handedly stormed Impel Down, withstood Garp's Iron Fist, and battled the Four Emperors on Onigashima until his last breath... His will was tempered like the most resilient rubber, capable of deflecting almost any impact.
But at this moment, that will was like a punch thrown into the air, finding no purchase.
Sea Stone's 'negation' was not an attack, but a stripping away.
It didn't contend with him; it simply, silently, and completely took away the 'characteristics' he relied on for survival.
For the first time, Luffy so clearly touched the boundaries of 'rules'.
As someone who had cheated death, he was an 'anomaly' in this sea, a miracle that had broken free from the constraints of common sense.
But these shackles, this cold black stone, silently proclaimed a deeper, insurmountable absolute law.
Even though he was one of the top powers standing at the pinnacle of this sea,
Even though his Haki could shatter the sky,
In the face of this pure 'negation', he was as fragile as a newborn.
"...So that's how it is."
He murmured, his voice hoarse with weakness. It wasn't fear, but a kind of astonishment, almost an enlightenment.
Rayleigh's words echoed in his ears:
"The stronger one is, the harder it often is to truly experience the taste of 'absolute powerlessness'."
"—But that taste, you must remember."
Now, he remembered... "G-gently..." he mumbled softly.
"Don't worry."
Sanji clicked the handcuffs shut with a crisp sound, his movements swift and decisive.
"I will 'properly' guide you, Captain."
He stepped back half a pace, looking at Luffy's body, slightly hunched from weakness.
The devilish smile on his face finally broke, transforming into an undisguised, blood-tinged, brilliant laugh.
~Sizzle sizzle sizzle!!
An eerie sound came from Sanji's ankle, like electricity coursing through bone fissures.
Luffy barely managed to lift his heavy eyelids. In his blurry vision, Sanji's right leg, which had been bent at a strange angle,
was now undergoing a terrifying transformation.
Broken bone fragments rapidly reconnected and healed beneath the skin like living things.
Purplish-black bruises were quickly absorbed and dissipated by surging new tissue.
No, it wasn't just healing.
A blue electrical arc, more violent than during the previous battle, appeared out of thin air, wrapping around his healing calf.
It wasn't the fiery crimson of Diable Jambe, but a deep-sea blue, with a high-pitched, teeth-grinding whine as the current crackled.
Sanji stood still, his head slightly bowed, his messy golden hair obscuring his eyes.
Only the curve of his mouth, illuminated by the eerie blue electric light, appeared cold and cruel.
"First lesson, Captain."
His voice was very soft, yet it overpowered the hiss of the electricity.
"In true 'despair'...
Before he finished speaking—
—Whoosh!!!
No run-up, no sign of charging.
That right leg, just repaired and still wreathed in violent blue electricity, was like a deep-sea behemoth breaking free of its restraints,
transforming into a blurry afterimage, tearing through the air,
and striking directly at Luffy's undefended abdomen with a speed beyond visual capture limits!
The air was compressed and ignited by the extreme speed, emitting a brief vacuum explosion.
Blue electric light trailed a comet-like path; wherever it passed, even scattered dust was instantly ionized and vaporized.
Luffy's red pupils only reflected that rapidly expanding blue light of death.
The shackles of Sea Stone were heavy as mountains, stripping him of all reaction ability.
He could'see' the attack's trajectory,
his brain issued frantic dodging commands,
but his body was like a lead-filled puppet, unable to even make the slightest sideways movement.
Absolute powerlessness transformed into cold despair, clutching at his heart.
Time seemed to stretch.
He saw a complex glint flash in Sanji's eyes.
It wasn't pure viciousness, but rather a long-suppressed heat, mixed with anger, helplessness, and resolve.
Then... Bang—!!!
A heavy thud, like a drumbeat, exploded against Luffy's defenseless body.
It wasn't a gruesome scene of flesh flying; that blue-electrified kick, upon contact, seemed to have subtle power control.
Most of the destructive kinetic energy was converted into intense impact and penetrating force, passing through skin and muscle, straight to the depths of his internal organs.
"Ugh ah—!!"
Luffy's body suddenly arched, like a shrimp struck by a giant hammer.
His internal organs instantly shifted, and a tidal wave of excruciating pain drowned all other sensations.
He was sent flying backward by this immense force, his feet leaving the ground.
Clatter—
The Sea Stone shackles' chains tautened in the air, emitting a harsh scraping sound, then loosened as his body flew.
He sailed through the air above the charred ruins like a tattered sandbag,
finally crashing heavily into a pile of rubble more than ten meters away, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The dust slowly dispersed.
Luffy stood amidst the rubble, his body uncontrollably trembling violently,
stiffly enduring the searing pain that spread from inside out.
Sanji stood still, slowly retracting his leg.
The blue electrical arcs on his right calf gradually extinguished, leaving only faint reddish marks on the skin surface.
He looked down at the tip of his foot that had just delivered the kick, silent for two seconds.
Then, he raised his eyes, looking towards the distant figure twitching slightly in the dust.
His voice returned to calm, even carrying a hint of chilling clarity: "...An enemy won't give you time to adapt."