【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

"Wha...what?" Lucci didn't react for a moment, then he noticed that the other customers in the bar were looking at them, some with pity and sympathy in their eyes. He reacted instantly and explained with a smile, "He's not dead, he's just..."

Before Lucci could finish his words, Ace, who was lying on the table, suddenly woke up, raised his head, and blinked sleepily under the light of the tavern. Then he continued what he had not finished before he fell asleep and finished the meal in front of him.

"Falling asleep?!" The customers and waiters in the bar jumped up in shock, stunned and helped Lucci finish his unfinished words.

"I fell asleep again." Ace said as he took a piece of meat from Lucci's plate with his fork.

"Yes, you did, but please don't grab the food from my plate!!" Lucci used the fork in his hand to take back the food that Ace had taken away.

"Did you get any information about my brother?" Ace asked as he took out the wanted poster from his other trouser pocket.

"Not yet." Lucci replied while eating.

"Hey, have you ever seen a boy wearing a straw hat like this come here?" Ace put the wanted poster in front of the servant and asked.

"No, not at all." The attendant was startled by Ace's actions, but still responded to him.

"He may not have arrived in Alabasta yet," Lucci guessed.

"Yeah, it's possible. I'll wait for him here for 10 days." Ace said with a smile, "I hope he won't miss it."

……

The Merry was heading for Alabasta at the fastest speed. It was the fifth day since they left Drum Island, but this sailing life made them feel that time was passing very slowly, especially when Qi required them to conduct domineering training for at least 6 hours every day without interruption.

During this period, even Zoro and Sanji began to feel that this period of training was hell, because Qi required them to fight with him for two hours after training. Within these two hours, they had to dodge at least half of Qi's attacks and use armed color domineering when attacking.

If they fail to do these, they will swim in the water for three hours after dinner. They are going through hellish training. In fact, they have basically never really attacked Qi. How could he be so strong? This was something that Zoro and Sanji did not expect. They could only use the Armament Haki with difficulty, and it was very unstable and could only be used occasionally.

Vivi trains with Nami, and Usopp trains with Chopper, hitting each other with sticks.

Although they sometimes go easy on each other out of sympathy, they will be discovered next and Qi will arrange for Luffy to help them train. At this time, Luffy will be very excited to help them. Then they will regret everything they have done and realize that they would rather be beaten by the other party than let Luffy beat them.

"What happened to them?" Usopp gasped and kept rubbing the bruised areas. His body, muscles, and bones were screaming in pain from today's exercise.

"He's just like a monster. After such a long period of training, he still has the energy to fight." Nami watched as Qi kicked Sanji heavily to the deck, then used the pipe in his hand to block Zoro's knife, and flipped it over to knock the knife down from his hand.

"Why is he so powerful?" Vivi said puzzledly. She had seen Luffy and Qi fighting several times, and Luffy had never won against Qi. This was when he had not used the devil fruit.

"Ki! It's my turn now!" When Luffy saw Ki defeat Sanji and Zoro, he immediately shouted, "Now it's time to fight me!" After that, he rushed directly towards Ki and swung his fists at him. Although he could see that Ki was in deep thought, he didn't care. Ki was the perfect opponent.

Qi didn't realize Luffy was rushing towards him until Luffy shouted. After fighting with Sanji and Zoro, he was about to review the growth and shortcomings of this training with them.

"What?" Odd jumped up just in time before Luffy's arm rushed over with incredible speed, causing his fist to fly over his body and hit the air.

Qi turned his head and looked at the grinning Luffy. Realizing what had happened, he immediately smiled and said, "Don't regret it, Luffy!" Then he assumed a fighting stance.

"You'd better be ready, Qi!" Luffy grinned and took a fighting stance, preparing for the upcoming battle. "I have become very strong, I can definitely defeat you now!"

"Really? Then let me see how much you've improved!" Qi said provocatively.

Luffy didn't waste any time. He stretched his arms out far away and clenched his fists. He was ready to use his strongest move against Qi...

"Rubber-Rubber Gun!" Luffy yelled, wrapping his fists in Armament Haki and pushing forward.

Although his attack power was admirable, even without using Observation Haki, Qi could see the trajectory of his attack before it arrived. After all, it was just an attack they had used in countless battles before, and he knew his moves well.

Qi jumped into the air, did a backflip, and landed safely on the railing. Then Qi said provocatively, "Is this the way you want to defeat me?"

"Just wait and see! Today is the day I defeat you!" Luffy said confidently, then swung his foot back, this time he kicked instead of punching.

"Rubber Whip!" Luffy yelled, swinging his legs at an extremely fast speed and attacking Qi on the railing.

With a bright smile on his face, Qi jumped into the air again to dodge, but this time he did not jump to the side. Instead, he rushed directly towards Luffy, and then swung the pipe in his hand directly at Luffy's shoulder, causing his body to fly to the deck behind and hit the railing heavily, but the railing obviously could not withstand this blow, and was carried by Luffy into the sea.

The others stared at the scene in amazement. Zoro was the first to react. He immediately jumped down and pulled Luffy out.

"How could you damage Merry!!" Usopp screamed as soon as he saw the broken railing.

"Not enough room on the ship," Qi said with a smile, Luffy had improved a lot and was stronger than before he set out to sea, although still not as strong as him.

"This is not fair, let's do it again!" Luffy, who was rescued by Zoro in time, quickly got rid of the feeling of powerlessness, immediately regained his energy, and chattered to Qi.

"But today's training is over!" Qi said with a smile in his voice.

"Great, let me rest for a while!" Sanji groaned and tried to stand up from the ground.

"I think I can do one more time," Zoro said as he wrung out the shirt in his hands.

"Are you crazy or what?" Sanji said, rubbing the injured area.

"If you can't do it, you can leave." Zoro said provocatively.