Chapter 176: The Wheel of Fortune Turns!!
The sea breeze carried away some of the smell of gunpowder, leaving behind only the scent of blood and scorched earth.
Luffy had just let out a sigh of relief—
when he saw Sanji slowly straighten up while bracing himself on his knees. Suddenly, a smile curled across the corner of his mouth.
It was a smile Luffy had never seen before.
The sight made the hair on the back of Luffy's neck stand on end.
"Hey, Luffy,"
Sanji's voice sounded unusually light. He wiped the blood from his eyelid, his eyes glinting strangely in the glow of the setting sun.
"Shouldn't we… start the second half of today's training?"
Luffy blinked.
"The second half?"
Before he could finish speaking, Sanji had already slipped a hand into the inner pocket of his suit jacket—now almost torn into strips.
Miraculously, the pocket itself was still intact.
From it, he pulled out a pair of pitch-black handcuffs.
The metal gleamed dully in the dying sunlight, their edges engraved with fine suppressive patterns.
Seastone.
Luffy's expression froze instantly.
He instinctively took half a step back, the rubber soles of his feet scraping harshly against the gravel.
"W-wait…"
He let out an awkward laugh, his fingers curling unconsciously.
"Sanji, we've fought enough for today, right?"
"You're hurt pretty badly, and I'm tired too. How about… we continue tomorrow?"
As he spoke, he stole a glance at Sanji.
The man was covered in blood. His shirt had been shredded into strips that clung to torn flesh. His left leg bent at an unnatural angle.
And yet the smile on his face kept growing wider.
Wider… and further away from the Sanji Luffy knew.
It looked less like a smile—
and more like a devil's grin.
"Tomorrow?" Sanji tilted his head slightly, his blond hair falling to cover one eye.
"But this was Rayleigh-san's arrangement."
Dragging his injured leg behind him, he slowly stepped forward. His footsteps echoed clearly through the silent ruins.
"In the first half of the day, you train me—Observation Haki, Armament Haki, and Devil Fruit development."
Sanji raised the handcuffs, letting the metal ring dangle from his fingers.
"In the second half…"
"I train you in 'survival under extreme limitations.'"
He stopped half a step in front of Luffy. The smell of blood filled the air between them.
Luffy could see the deep bruise beneath Sanji's collarbone—the mark of his own punch. Dark purple and swollen, it rose and fell slightly with Sanji's breathing.
"Rayleigh-san said: 'That brat relies too much on his Devil Fruit. Let him experience what it feels like to get beaten when he's powerless.'"
Sanji perfectly imitated the deep voice of the Dark King.
Luffy swallowed hard.
"See?"
Sanji spread open the hand that wasn't holding the cuffs. It was covered with small cuts.
"I followed the rules. I sparred with you until my bones practically fell apart."
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"So now…"
"It's your turn to follow the rules, right?"
He shook the handcuffs gently. The chain clinked coldly.
"My dear captain,"
Sanji's tone was syrupy sweet, but his expression belonged to a demon.
"You wouldn't want Rayleigh-san to find out that today—"
"You used 'special training' as an excuse to satisfy your love of fighting, destroyed my brand-new suit, and incidentally demolished half the island…"
He leaned closer, his breath brushing Luffy's stiff face.
"…would you?"
Luffy froze.
His brain tried to process everything at once:
Sanji's devilish grin.
The terrifying sheen of Seastone.
Rayleigh's iron-fist lectures if he found out the truth.
And the blood-soaked cook in front of him who clearly had no intention of letting this slide.
A few seconds later, Luffy closed his eyes in resignation. His eyelashes trembled like leaves in the wind.
Slowly—very slowly—
he extended both hands.
Wrists together.
He offered them to Sanji.
Click.
The moment the cuffs snapped shut, the color drained from Luffy's face.
An icy, crushing emptiness exploded from his wrists, flooding through his body like a collapsed glacier, swallowing every ounce of strength in his muscles.
His vision swayed.
Blurred.
A ringing filled his ears.
He could barely remain standing.
How… can it be this bad…?
He lowered his head with difficulty, staring at his cuffed hands.
His normally elastic rubber skin now clung tightly to the bones like dried bark.
His fingers felt stiff.
He couldn't even bend one.
A suffocating weakness wrapped around him, as though even the strength required to stand upright was rapidly draining away.
Sweat slid down his temple, dripping onto the charred stones with a faint sizzle.
His muscles trembled slightly.
Not the tremor of excitement before battle—
but the helpless shaking of pure weakness.
How can I be… this powerless?
Rayleigh had once told him that Seastone suppresses Devil Fruit users regardless of their strength.
It is the crystallization of the sea itself.
The embodiment of the rules of the world.
An absolute "denial."
But hearing about it…
and experiencing it firsthand…
were worlds apart.
Luffy clenched his teeth fiercely, trying to resist the exhaustion rising from deep within his bones.
He had stormed Impel Down alone.
He had endured Garp's iron fists.
He had fought a Yonko to the very last breath on Onigashima.
His will had been tempered like the toughest rubber in the world—capable of rebounding from almost anything.
But now…
that willpower felt like a punch thrown into empty air.
Seastone's denial was not an attack.
It was removal.
It did not struggle against him.
It simply, silently—
took away the very trait he relied on to survive.
For the first time, Luffy clearly felt the boundary of the world's rules.
As someone who constantly defied limits, he was an anomaly upon the seas.
A miracle freed from common sense.
Yet these cuffs—
this cold black stone—
were silently declaring a deeper, absolute law.
Even if he stood among the strongest fighters in the world…
Even if his Conqueror's Haki could shake the heavens…
Before this pure denial, he was as fragile as a newborn child.
"…I see."
He murmured hoarsely.
Not fear—
but a strange realization.
Rayleigh's words echoed in his ears.
"The stronger you become, the harder it is to experience what absolute powerlessness feels like."
"But that feeling…"
"—is something you must remember."
Now he understood.
Now he would never forget.
…
"E-easy…" Luffy muttered weakly.
"Don't worry."
Sanji snapped the cuffs shut with a crisp motion.
"I'll give you proper guidance, Captain."
He stepped back, observing Luffy's slightly hunched posture caused by the sudden weakness.
The devilish smile on his face finally broke—
turning into an unrestrained, blood-tinged grin.
Bzzzt—!!
A strange sound came from Sanji's ankle, like electricity surging through bone.
Luffy forced his heavy eyelids open.
Through his blurry vision, he saw Sanji's right leg—the one previously bent at an unnatural angle—
undergoing a terrifying change.
Broken bone fragments shifted beneath the skin, reconnecting and mending rapidly like living creatures.
The dark bruising was swiftly absorbed by newly regenerating tissue.
No—
it wasn't just healing.
A far more violent blue electric arc than during their earlier fight suddenly appeared, coiling around his recovering calf.
This wasn't the fiery red of Diable Jambe.
It was a deep oceanic blue.
The electricity shrieked with a high, biting frequency.
Sanji stood quietly with his head slightly lowered.
His messy blond hair hid his eyes.
Only the curve of his mouth remained visible—cold and cruel beneath the blue glow.
"Lesson one, Captain."
His voice was soft, yet it drowned out the crackling electricity.
"In a real desperate situation…"
Before he finished speaking—
WHOOSH!!!
No running start.
No visible preparation.
That newly healed leg, wrapped in violent blue lightning, exploded forward like a deep-sea monster breaking free of its chains.
It became a blurred afterimage tearing through the air—
shooting straight toward Luffy's completely defenseless abdomen.
The air compressed and detonated from the sheer speed, producing a brief vacuum explosion.
Blue lightning trailed behind like a comet tail.
Dust particles along its path were instantly ionized and vaporized.
In Luffy's red pupils—
only that rapidly expanding blue flash of death was reflected.
The Seastone shackles weighed on him like mountains, stripping away all his ability to react.
He could see the attack's trajectory.
His brain screamed the command to dodge.
But his body felt like a puppet filled with lead.
He couldn't even twist slightly.
Absolute helplessness clutched his heart like freezing despair.
Time seemed to stretch.
He saw a flicker of complicated emotion flash through Sanji's eyes.
Not pure violence—
but something suppressed for a long time.
Anger.
Frustration.
Resolve.
Then—
BOOM—!!!
A heavy, thunderous impact exploded against Luffy's defenseless body.
It wasn't the brutal carnage of shattered flesh.
At the moment of contact, the lightning-wrapped kick showed delicate control.
Most of the destructive force was converted into overwhelming impact and penetrating power, surging through skin and muscle straight into his internal organs.
"GHH—!!"
Luffy's body bent violently like a shrimp struck by a hammer.
His organs lurched.
A tidal wave of pain drowned every sensation.
The sheer force lifted him off the ground, launching him backward.
Clatter—!
The Seastone chain stretched tight in the air with a harsh metallic scrape before slackening again as his body flew.
Like a ragged sandbag, he soared across the scorched ruins—
before crashing heavily into a pile of rubble more than ten meters away.
Dust rose.
Slowly drifting away.
Luffy stood among the shattered stones, his body trembling uncontrollably.
He endured the burning pain spreading from the inside out.
Sanji remained where he stood, slowly lowering his leg.
The blue lightning around his calf gradually faded, leaving only faint redness on the skin.
He glanced down at the foot that had delivered the kick.
Silent.
Two seconds passed.
Then he raised his head and looked toward the trembling figure in the distance.
His voice returned to calm.
Cold.
Clear.
"…An enemy won't give you time to adapt."
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