Luffy punched Arlong in the gut.
"AACK!!"
Swish! BOOOOM!!
Arlong splurted blood as he flung back while being smashed to a nearby line of houses.
"Ah! Damn it! What kind of human is this runt?!"
He was clutching his stomach from the intense pain. Just one punch of the little guy and he almost left crippled. He could feel his spine cracking a little.
When he was about to back up, he saw a giant shadow looming at the sky.
"Gear! Third!"
...
"Waaaaah!!! Look! His arm became big!!" A villager clamored in surprise.
"W-Wait! H-He's doing that same move earlier! Run!!" Another villager shouted in horror. That normal fist earlier is enough for him to piss in fear, now this giant fist must be a couple of times more terrifying.
"WAAAAH!!! RUN!!"
"HURRY!!"
The rest of the villagers also ran away fearing they might get caught from the strong impact.
"Was Luffy always this strong?" Zoro muttered in a low voice. He was truely shocked by this show of power of Luffy.
"You don't know? I guess he was. Luke mentioned he trained Luffy for months." Sanji light up a cigarette as he watched the scene unfold.
Zoro glance at Luke silently. He took a deep breath. Usopp warned him that Luke will confront him if he lost his fight.
Luke noticed someone was staring at him as he glanced back at Zoro. He smiled meaningfully which gives the latter goosebumps all over his body. After a second of exchange glances, he returned his focus on Luffy at the sky.
"Gomu Gomu no.... Giant Pistol!"
ZOOOOM!!
The giant fist without being coated by Haki hurled downwards at Arlong.
Arlong just stared dumbly at the giant fist as his life flashed before his eyes.
BOOOOM!! RUMMMMBLE!!
The magnitude of his punch caused the nearby upside down houses to bounce upwards.
The bloodied Luffy landed calmly. However, he wasn't finished yet. He glanced to a direction before walking towards the Arlong Park tower.
"L-Luffy?" Nami got puzzled when she saw Luffy silently walked away.
"Go. I think he's going to a certain room of that tower." Luke arrived beside Nami as he gave her a hint.
Nami got even more puzzled when her heart skipped a beat. Her eyes went wide as she dashed towards Luffy.
As the dust settles down, Luke walked forward to the pit and examined if Arlong was fine.
"Barely escaped death." He commented as he glanced at the remaining terrified fishmen. He announced,
"You're all no longer welcome in the East Blue. Take your leader and return back to where you really came from."
"W-Who do you think you are?! Why should we listen from the likes of you, inferior beings?!" One of the officers of Arlong, Chew growled. Apparently, this fish never learned his lesson. Other fishmen also agreed as they bared their fangs at Luke.
Zoro flinched as if he remembered those familiar words of the fishmen.
Luke only chuckled. Since the villagers were a bit far from his position, he can finally release some tension.
"Oh it was never a request."
"It was an order."
After he said that, he pointed at Chew while his eyes glowed.
CRACCKK!! CRACCKK!! CRACKKK!!!
"Argh!! AAAHHH!! HELP-"
Before Chew could finish his words, he suddenly floated as his body deformed continuously in a gruesome way. His body continued to compress as if he was encased by invisible circle until he reduced and become a red shiny marble.
Thump!
The shiny red marble drop to the ground as everyone went silent.
There was no exception that even the Strawhat crew glanced at Luke with utter disbelief.
"A-AHH!! M-Monster!!!" As if they woke up from a nightmare, the fishmen scampered away carrying their fallen comrades to the sea.
"Oh right. You didn't see me here. Else, I'll hunt every fishman across the sea and grill them for dinner." Luke reminded the horrified fishmen.
...
"What was that just now Luke?" Sanji was brave enough to question Luke. Apparently, the more he sees Luke, the more he didn't know the guy.
Suddenly, he saw something different from Luke, the latter looked pale and a trail of blood leaked from his mouth.
Luke bowed as he wiped the blood stain from his mouth. He asked back,
"You think I'm scary?"
"What's going on? And why are you hurt?" Sanji frowned as he ignored the latter's question. He didn't see anyone attacked Luke. The only conclusion he got is that ability Luke did towards the fishman.
"Well, I had to scare them away. Let's just say I have a bit of connection with fishmen." Luke shrugged.
"So you over exert your ability and got a backlash?" Sanji saw the light why Luke got injured. So the guy wanted to prevent the fishmen from being imprisoned by some Marines and let them go to their homeland.
"It's fine. My body indeed got injured by someone but it will back to normal soon after I recuperate for some time." Luke smiled. He has a good impression of Sanji as a person. In fact, both of them almost have similar qualities in recognizing people's nature.
"As for the fishmen's matter, it's a one time favor."
Not far away...
Luke saw the towering Arlong Park collapsed. He didn't know what Luffy did there, but it should be enough for the curtain to close from the tyranny of Arlong.
"Anyway, how'd you do that?" Sanji pointed at the collapsing Arlong Tower.
"Oh Luffy's action? Hmm.. I don't know. He relies on me too much. Every word I reveal, he will surely believe it." Luke chuckled as he shrugged his shoulder.
Zoro and other got closer. They saw that Sanji and Luke have some seemingly wholesome conversation so they became curious.
"It's hard to believe that our captain relies on you. Isn't it the other way around?" Sanji frowned as he asked. Something doesn't seem right as Luke claimed. It was as if the latter was controlling Luffy instead.
"Oh I have also trust in Luffy and I never defy his request out of my respect to him as a captain and as a friend. We spent most time together than all of you combined so it's fair to say that he also trust me more, right?" Luke smiled at the group.
"That doesn't explain his action today. If Luffy blindly follows your words in the future, wouldn't that mean you're controlling him?" Sanji rebutted.
"Luffy is smarter than you think. Anyway, I've no obligations why I should explain to you my bonds with Luffy. He trusted me and I trusted him, that's it." Luke shrugged as he raised both his hands while playing the victim.
"No. We joined this crew because of Luffy, not you. If you affect Luffy's decision, then it only means that you are also controlling all of us." Sanji said with a frown on his face and a tint of annoyance.
"He's right. In fact, you are the only person I'm wary about. Ever since you popped out of nowhere, you slowly imposing some nonsensical rules." Zoro sided with Sanji as he confronted Luke.
"Heh! We'll talk it out later. The villagers are coming. Won't you guys at least smile and wave? After all, we kinda freed them from the hands of Arlong's clutches." Luke pointed at the villagers that were happily running back when they saw the fishmen running away and the destruction of Arlong Park.
"Fine. But don't think you can get away with this. We'll surely talk this out once we left this village." Sanji breath a foul air as he started to calm his agitated emotion.
"Definitely. I'm heading to Luffy now. Feel free to follow." Luke smiled as he started to head towards the Arlong Park.
Seeing Luke was getting out of their sight, Sanji snorted.
Usopp who's usually the most noisy in the group, actually hid behind Liz as he stared at Luke in fear all the time. When seeing Luke's gone and the villagers arrival, he put up a brave front while explaining how he dealt with the fishmen out of the island.
"That guy. I don't like him." Zoro commented in a low voice.
"Well, I guess we all did." Liz also gave her evaluation of Luke.
Apparently, no one followed Luke as they stayed in the village.
...
Luke strolled towards Arlong Park. As he arrived at the tower, he saw many drawn maps of Nami scattered all over the place.
Looks like Nami finished crying session while Luffy was beside her who already returned his goofy attitude.
'Hmm. These two must be getting along now. Well, it's Nami's destiny to be the Strawhat's navigator anyway so it's all good.' Luke commented as he neared the two.
"Oh Rooku! Have you dealt with the remaining fishermen?" Luffy asked while grinning.
"Yes. We all did." Luke smiled as he turned to Nami. He said,
"Should I say welcome back to our little navigator?"
Nami felt awkward as she didn't know what to say. She felt everything was surreal now that her problems were solved.
"Oh yeah. The villagers also knew that you were carrying all the burden all these years. They all knew from the start. That is why they were present earlier and decided to fight back with all they had." Luke tapped her head.
"Nami, you've worked hard. If you want to face them, go ahead." He added.
Nami's tears shred once again. Without hesitation, she ran back towards the villagers.
...
"Looks like we're back to business." Luke chuckled.
"Nshishishi! Yeah! I can't wait to sail the grandline soon!" Luffy laughed happily.
"I thought you're going to finish Arlong when you removed all restrictions on your body." Luke examine Luffy again. He was sure that if Luffy went all out, his fighting capability can stand toe to toe with a bounty of 500 million berries pirate in the New World.
"He got lucky I guess." Luffy replied. His eyes shined as he asked, "Say Rooku, do I have a chance to defeat you now in a spar?"
"Hmmm.. Hard to say." Luke shrugged as he continued, "Since there's no one's around yet, why not give me a strike?"
"OOOOOOHHH!!! I've been waiting for this moment! Yahahahaha!!" Luffy got energized all of a sudden as he jumped while preparing a Gomu Gomu no Elephant Gun without holding back. His bloated arm was coated with Haki and without any suppression on his body.
"Don't hold back. Maybe you might get a chance." Luke chuckled. He was confident he can still block an all out attack of Big Mom right now, Luffy's punch should be easy.
"Here I go!!" Luffy didn't hold back as he punched down with all he got.
"Come!" Luke grinned as he also covered his fist with Haki.
RUUUUMMMMMMBLE!!! CRAAAACKLE!!!! BOOOOOOOM!!!
The peaceful Arlong Park suddenly became chaotic.
Dark lightning was running amoc all over the place with Luke and Luffy in the middle.
Their clash was like the scene of Luffy and Don Chinjao in the original story but with dark lightnings everywhere.
"OOOOOOAHHH!!!" Luffy was fired up.
"Damn you're heavy." Luke commented while his body lifted from the ground as he levitated.
"But not enough to defeat me."
BOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!
"UWAAAH!!"
Luffy got pushed back pretty easily as he dropped not far away.
"You've gone pretty strong, Luffy. It won't be long before you surpass me." Luke secretly wiped away the blood stains from his mouth as he commented.
"Nshishishi!! You betcha!! I'm currently practicing a new technique. So you better prepare for our next rematch!! Yahahaha!!" Luffy laughed out loud.
Luke was surprised before he nodded while smiling. He knew the latter was referring to the Fourth Gear.
"Anytime!"
"Yahahaha!" "Hahahaha!"
Both men laughed nonstop as the conclusion.