"So, is this the island that you were talking about?" Zack turned his head to Nami and asked.
She nodded her head and said "If possible, we could find a way to get a boat here. Even if we don't, we can get some food and go to the next island."
"Well, there is no problem in trying." Zack shrugged his shoulders as Luffy and Zoro went ahead.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Suddenly, one after another, a person shot marbles at Luffy. At this moment, one of the most important crew members of Straw Hat stood up and shouted.
"I am the Great Pirate Fleet Leader, Captain Usopp."
The line that Usopp said made Zack think.
'This guy is probably the most humane character in one piece. I get that he is a coward but most of his reactions are normal. I mean he is a completely normal person with big dreams but a weak heart.'
'God Usopp, a man whose words always seem to come true. It feels a bit odd but he is the expert at lying and being negative. Without him, there is no way our crew can stand against Ghost Girl.'
'And, he is also a person who deeply cares for Merry. Well, it's because this was the gift given by Kaya but the genuine feeling in his heart is true.'
"Zack….. Mossi-Mossi Zack-Kun! We are going to the restaurant." Nami knocked his head and shouted in his ears, taking him out of his deep thoughts.
"Ahhh… Sorry, I got lost because of his face." Zack touched his head and laughed. Zack leaned near Luffy and asked, "Doesn't his face matches Yassop?"
"You know my pops too?" Usopp looked at Zack with sharp eyes.
"So, he is your dad. No wonder, I found so many similarities between you two." Zack nodded his head and answered as they walked into the restaurant and talked.
Instead of Zack talking about Usopps' father, he let Luffy tell the story about him. After a while, Usopp finally remembered the time and left the restaurant hastily.
After he left, three juniors arrived at the restaurant.
"Hey Pirates, what did you do to our captain?" Three juniors raised their hands and shouted.
"Yum! Yum! It was a delicious meal." Luffy remarked while patting his stomach and Zoro looked at them with a deadly grin on his lips.
"We ate him."
"Monsters!" Three of them shouted at Nami and fell.
"Hahahaha!" Zack, Luffy, and Zoro burst into laughter while Nami shouted at them. After things cooled down, three juniors finally took them to Kaya's house.
"Captain, I think I will go back to the boat. I will come return during the evening." Zack turned around and left which surprised them.
Zack was actively trying to avoid these scenarios because each of them is interconnected to finally have the battle with Captain Kuro. He wanted to go back and train a bit.
"Hey, why is he returning to the boat? Don't tell me he is after the treasure?" Nami shouted as she covered her head with her hands.
"Calm down, Nami! He is just like this. Besides, he won't take your treasures and run away" Zoro stopped her and shook his head. At this moment, Luffy was already stretching himself to enter Kaya's house.
Zack silently returned to the boat and wore those training sets. Since he didn't have a sword, he had to do some different exercises and it was a good thing.
While swinging the sword helped a lot, he still needed to do hardcore exercises like pushups, sit up, planks, and lifting heavy weights. All of these were necessary to grow his strength significantly.
'Let's start with push-ups!'
Zack gets into the position and slowly gets his body down. After a while, he puts all his strength into his arms and tries to lift himself.
The problem was the weights on the arms made it harder for his arms to change position. After a few seconds, he finally succeeds in pushing his body up.
'Hah-hah… Although I feel tried, just succeeding on a single push-up is an improvement. I am using the weights to pressurize my body. Before, I couldn't even do one pushup. Let's see how many I can do. I have a whole lot of energy to burn.'
Indeed, he truly had a lot of energy to burn. He knew he had to train a lot so he ate a lot. He tried eating like Luffy. At least, he ate more than Zoro.
As for how many pushups he did. The answer was 10. But, it also took him ten minutes. That means each pushup took him one minute. Even though the first three pushups were faster, the latter consumed a lot of time.
Of course, he didn't end it there. He took two minutes break and continued with another exercise.
'I am nowhere near enough Zoro, Sanji, and Luffy. If I want to have the strength of Monster Trio, I have to spend every bit of time in training and acquire a powerful devil fruit.'
'The problem is that Straw Hats never encountered a single unconsumed devil fruit. I hope my presence here changes things a bit and hopefully encounters a devil fruit.'
'By the way, when I was in my world, I created a theory about how a person can get devil fruits from dead people. It is quite rough around the edges but if it works, then I might be able to gather devil fruits.'
'Though there is ninety percent chance that it wouldn't work. Anyway, I just need to do it. But first, I must finish training.'
After that, he trained his physical strength till the evening. Finally, when it was evening, he walked toward the site where Luffy had fallen.
"Oi Zoro, Luffy, Nami, what are you three doing here?" Zack spotted them as soon as he reached that place. He raised his hand and shouted.
"Zack, what are you doing here? I thought you were training." Nami shouted.
"Well, I finished my training and I noticed a pirate ship as well. So, I thought I should go and find you guys." Zack finally arrived near them and answered.
"They are already here." Nami looked at Zack with shock and asked.
"No! They were quite far. I bet they will reach here during the morning." Zack shook his head and answered.
"Ahh! Captain must be sad because of that. Let's go to our Captain!" One of the juniors shouted and ran toward the village. Others also followed him.
"What happened?" Zack looked at them and asked.
"Let's go meet him and find out." Zoro said as he walked toward the village. Luffy, Nami, and Zack hurriedly followed him. After a while, they finally met Usopp and talked about the Kuro pirates.
"People say pirates are evil but they don't see just how corrupted Marines are. Well, it's just how the world is." Zack sighed after hearing the entire story. He looked at Usopp and asked, "So, what do you plan to do?"
Usopp's legs trembled as he said "I plan to face them alone. Even if I told them, they won't believe me. I am just a liar. But, the truth is the truth. Those pirates are still going to arrive. So, I will fight them. This is my village. No matter how much I lie or no matter if they don't believe me, I still want to protect my village."
"I will help you." Luffy said without any hesitation.
"I will help you but all treasures are mine." Nami replied.
"You guys…. are willing to help me….. I'm so touched."
"We are going to help you because enemies outnumbered you." Luffy replied with a straight face.
Zack shook his head and sighed.
'Good grief! Seeing this conversation happening in front of my own eyes feels so unreal. Well, this is the Straw Hats we are talking about. They don't give the crap about being a hero or having sympathy for someone.'
'They are only doing it because they felt like doing it. This is also the reason why they agreed to help Vivi. Well, anyway, I still have one question in my mind. Should I tell them that they will arrive from another way?'
Zack thought for a moment and shook his head 'There is no need to do such a thing. Anyway, a little bit of pain is something that God Usopp can easily bear. This guy was still lifting Luffy after getting beaten by Bullet.'
'And, in the original storyline, he still makes it. Though this time, he won't suffer much since I will be here. But, I am worried that my strength might not be enough especially if that hypnosis guy hypnotizes his crew.'
"Zack, are you listening? Why are you getting lost in thoughts so much?" Nami knocked on Zack's head and spoke.
Zack nodded his head "I am listening. I was just wondering if we can have some dinner before doing anything else."
Thud!
"Come on! Be serious about this. We have to fight someone here." Nami stood up and shouted at Zack. But, he simply blocked his ears and pretend not to hear her.
"So….. what can you guys do?" Usopp looked at them and asked.
"Punch!"
"Cut!"
"Steal!"
"Cheer!"
"You need to fight too." Luffy, Zoro, and Nami turned their heads at Zack and shouted.
"I will hide then."
"You as well." Three of them shouted at Usopp with the same expression.
Nami put her hand on her forehead and said "Zack, don't joke like this. You need to fight and protect me so that I can steal their treasures."
"Alright! Alright! I have been training for that. Anyway, what is the plan? We aren't going to face them head-on, are we?" Zack smiled and looked at Usopp.
"Can't we just punch them?" Luffy interrupted with a bored expression.
"Yeah, let's just cut them." Zoro nodded his head and answered.
"Hmm! Consider your strength, it wouldn't be a problem. But, Captain, you are an idiot and we are fighting against a hypnotist. So, I don't think we can truly rely on you."
"On another hand, Zoro would be a big help but he alone won't be able to face off against the entire crew as well. I can definitely help to fight some but my strength hasn't reached the point where I can truly help Zoro."
"So, we have to rely on tricks. Good thing, they are coming for us. This is our territory for the battle. So, we can prepare in advance." Zack explained which surprised both Zoro, Nami, and Usopp.
"Wow, Zack, you are really great." Usopp shouted while hugging Zack.
"Yeah, just as you said, you are very resourceful." Nami nodded her head and spoke.
"Humph! I won't be fooled by him." Luffy folded his hands and pouted.
'We know you will.' Nami, Zoro, and Zack thought at the same time.
"Anyway, I have a brilliant plan to stop them in a track. How about putting the oil in this path so that they can't come up. Even if they do succeed, it would make them tired and we will be able to attack them with ease." Usopp suggested.
"That's not a bad idea. Let's do it!" Zack agreed even though he knew this would be useless. There is something else he wanted to do.
After they finished putting oil in the ground, they waited till the morning but the ship didn't arrive. Eventually, Nami heard the sound of the pirates but from somewhere far.
"Ahhh! They are in the port where we left our boat." Nami screamed.
"What? Then, isn't this wasted?" Usopp covered his head and shouted.
"Hey Zack, wait!" Zoro and Luffy noticed Zack running away and shouted.
"They are on the north side of the island. We have to hurry." Zack shouted as he dashed away. It's not like he doesn't want to wait but he had something else he wanted to do.
During today's training, he realized something. Although he trained a lot, he knew this training won't make him as strong as the monster trio. Zoro literally trained every day but he never surpassed Luffy.
Training does help but there are limits that training creates. The only way to surpass those limits is to battle the stronger opponent.
Luffy beat down Crocodile and got stronger. Zoro beat down Mr.1 and learned something new about the sword. Luffy beat down Lucci and got stronger and the same thing happened to Zoro.
It wasn't because they were stronger from the beginning. It's just that each battle pushed them to the limit, forcing them to surpass their own strength.
He could prevent that oil situation. He could have asked Usopp to put the oil on both paths. But, he didn't do that. If he had done that, Luffy and Zoro would've defeated the enemy with ease and he wouldn't be able to push himself to the limit.
He isn't Nami.
He isn't Usopp.
He is Zack. He is a man who wants adventure. Joining Luffy's crew will give him adventure and also prevent him from dying but it can't make him strong on its own.
He has to work hard. He has to push past his limits. He doesn't have training like the monster trio. And, he has just begun to train a few days ago. If he doesn't face death, he will not see what's next.
While Nami and Usopp were still behind, Zack reached in front of the path that leads the enemy to Syrup Village.
"Hu! Hu! Hu! Hu! Zack, you ran too fast." Nami panted after she caught up with Zack.
"By the way, where are others?" Usopp looked back but didn't see anyone.
"Captain must have lost his way as for Zoro….. He is also someone who would lose his way. I guess both of them lost their ways." Zack answered.
"Haha! Actually, it was my mistake that Zoro fell into the oil." Nami cutely smiled and winked at both of them.
"What? How could you do that? Did you forget that we need him to fight here?" Usopp turned his head at Nami and shouted.
"But, someone has to come for the treasure." Nami innocently answered.
"It seems like they aren't interested in your treasure and more interested in our lives." Zack looked at the group of pirates rushing toward them and answered.
"What are we going to do?" Usopp and Nami panicked at the same time.
"You two, stay behind and don't interfere, or else they will come for you." Zack spoke as he slowly walked toward them.
"Are you serious? You have been training but you can't face them alone." Nami shouted as she looked at Zack.
"Yes, I can't but I must."
Zack smiled and walked toward the pirates. He clenched his fist and took a deep breath.
Can he defeat them? If he had to answer, it would be no.
Although they are weak, they still have the advantage of numbers.
'This battle is not going to be easy.' Zack took a deep breath and continued.
"Ha! That bastard thinks he can take down all of us. Kill him!"
One of the pirates snorted as he stabbed his sword forward and rushed toward Zack.
Zack moved to the side and caught his hand, kicking him in his face.
Bang!
He caught the sword as the man fly back.
Ding!
Another pirate slashed his sword but Zack quickly moved and blocked the sword.
Bang!
He took a step forward while the swords were colliding and punched his face. Suddenly, a pirate slashed his sword from behind.
Splash!
The sword slashed his back but it only scratched him. He managed to dodge it properly, even so, the numbers of pirates were too much for him.
"Hu!"
Zack let out a powerful breath and jumped. He swing his body and kicked the head of that pirate. He slammed a few pirates away while flying back. Zack didn't stop there as he continued to punch and kick others.
But while he was doing some great job, he was getting constantly injured.
"Hey stop, what are you doing?" Nami stopped Usopp who almost shot one of the pirates.
"Why are you stopping me? Can't you see he is in a tough situation? And, he is bleeding a lot. We have to help him." Usopp whispered at her.
Nami pulled his hand away and whispered "Didn't you hear what he said before? If we interfere, these pirates will come at us as well. Do you want to face them directly?"
"You are right. We should wait and trust him." Usopp nodded his head as he backed down without a single thought.
Nami sighed but her eyes were filled with worries. While Zack was pushing them back, he was constantly getting injured by those pirates.
"Damn! He is strong. We can't defeat him like this." One of the pirates spoke as he dashed back. Following him, everyone else also ran away.
"Captain, use hypnosis on us. We can't fight him without that."
Zack looked at them and picked up another sword. He took a deep breath.
'I am strong enough to defeat them but when I think about it, they are the weakest pirates in the world. Most of the pirates in East Blue are the weakest. This is not my limit. I still haven't reached my limit.'
'I have to get stronger.'
Zack grabbed his sword while Jango hypnotized his crew. In an instant, their strength increased by many times. They all ferociously rushed toward Zack while holding their weapons.
Ding! Ding! Bang! Ding!
Zack took a deep breath and rushed toward them without any hesitation. His swords swing but they had no patterns. They were basically blocking each strike from his enemy while he was constantly getting punched and slashed.
Each time, he gets injured, he takes down one pirate. His body was bleeding as he continued to take down more pirates.
'No, this isn't my limit. More! I need more.'
"Ha!"