The girl lying on Luffy's stomach stirred awake.
"Did I wake you?"
"No, I was already starting to wake up."
Uta yawned and then noticed Luffy's movements.
"Hey, Dr. Hongo said you need to stay in bed for days!"
She scowled as she watched him sit up and move his arms, clearly unhappy with his decision to push through the pain.
"I'm already getting used to it, so it's fine."
Luffy stretched his limbs. The pain was still intense, but it was no longer as unbearable as it had been. Humans could adapt to almost anything.
"Not listening to the doctor will only make it worse!"
Uta tried to push him back down onto the bed.
"At least let me take a bath and change my clothes. I'm covered in sweat," Luffy insisted, attempting to push her away, though his muscles were too sore to exert much strength.
"I'll handle it for you!"
She noticed the stale scent of dried sweat on him, which had become stronger overnight. Covering her nose, Uta closed her eyes for a moment.
Suddenly, Luffy's surroundings transformed into a lush, green meadow, and the pain in his body vanished.
After recovering her strength, Uta had activated her ability again, pulling Luffy back into the dream world.
"Just stay here, Luffy. Let your body deal with itself," she said.
Outside the dream, a sleepwalking version of Luffy appeared, seemingly unaffected. Under Uta's control, he walked over to his wardrobe, grabbed fresh clothes, and headed to the bathroom.
Uta curiously inspected his wardrobe, but soon closed it, unimpressed by his limited choices of casual t-shirts and shorts. The only notable piece was the black jacket with a sun emblem.
"Luffy, you have a good sense of design. Why do you always wear such simple clothes?" she teased in the dream.
"I'm not really interested in fashion. As long as they fit, that's good enough," he replied.
In the dream world, Luffy moved freely, testing the strength of his imagined self.
"Uta, can you train my body again, like yesterday?"
Luffy gave her a thumbs-up, clearly excited about the idea.
"No way! Have you already forgotten how badly you were hurt?"
Uta firmly rejected him, baffled by his eagerness to repeat the ordeal.
"The Luffy from two days ago was different. I'm a new Luffy now, stronger than ever, so it'll be fine!"
Luffy was hooked on the results. A day of Uta's training equaled at least a week of his own, if not more. That kind of progress was worth the pain.
In his mind, he had it all figured out. Every day, he'd hand his body over to Uta, hiding out in her dream world to focus on other things. The future Luffy could worry about the built-up fatigue and pain. Right now, he was living in the moment, and that was enough.
Like an endless cycle of taking out loans to buy land and using the land to take out more loans, his strength was steadily increasing. As for the "debt"?
Eventually, his body would adapt to the training, and the "interest" of pain and fatigue would diminish to nothing.
Uta looked at him with a mix of awe and disbelief. "You're insane! I won't agree to this!"
"It's your body!"
"It's just a thought," Luffy said, lying back on the ground, aware she wouldn't agree.
"Uta, can you give me something to pass the time?"
At his request, musical notes materialized into a paintbrush, a shakuhachi flute, and other supplies.
…
Back in the real world, Luffy's body returned from the bath, dressed in loose pajamas, and obediently lay down on the bed under Uta's direction. She rested beside him, her mind wandering as she thought of new song ideas and possible compositions.
She also took his body to the kitchen for breakfast.
Dr. Hongo gave Luffy another massage. "The recovery is going well. It looks like he'll be back to normal in a few days. Uta, you can keep controlling his body for light exercise until then."
"Dr. Hongo, can I learn how to give massages?" Uta asked, watching the doctor work on Luffy.
"You don't have enough strength for it, Uta." Hongo shook his head.
Whether it was massage or cooking, both required significant strength and precision. It wasn't that he didn't want to teach her; she simply didn't have the physical power to do it effectively.
"Uta, take me into the dream world! You can train me just as hard!" The round chef, Lucky Roo, suddenly appeared, excitedly begging Uta.
"Nope. I need to help Luffy recover first," Uta replied firmly, rejecting his request. Using her power on too many people would quickly drain her energy.
Lucky Roo pouted, and the other pirates laughed.
"Roo, if you want to lose weight, stop looking for shortcuts and just stick to your diet!"
"Fine! I'll slim down with my 'chicken drumstick' diet!" he shouted, shaking his fist.
"Enemy sighted! It's the Marines!"
Yasopp spotted the Marine flag in the distance and called out to everyone.
"Run for it!"
Following their usual policy of avoiding the Marines, the crew quickly changed course, steering their somewhat battered ship in the opposite direction.
…
"Back in action!"
After two days of rest, Luffy felt fully recovered. With a mere swing of his fist, he could sense the surging power within him.
He made his way to the ship's training room, taking in the sight of the heavy-duty equipment used by the adult fighters on board. He glanced at the massive weights that looked as big as trucks, settling on one that seemed more manageable. He reached for it…
…but couldn't lift it.
Not even with both arms.
"Luffy, that's a 60-ton barbell."
One of the ship's fighters, Gabu the Howler, said as he approached, easily lifting the weight with one arm before setting it back down with a thud that shook the floor.
Luffy was a bit concerned Gabu might accidentally break the ship.
Gabu had dark red hair and sharp, animalistic teeth. Luffy privately wondered if he might belong to one of the world's stranger races.
"Try this instead. A two-ton dumbbell should be about right for you." Gabu tossed a smaller weight to Luffy.
Luffy caught it, focusing his Armament Haki for extra support, and felt the substantial weight settle into his grasp. Using Haki made it manageable, but without it, he fully felt the weight's pressure.
He could now lift two tons with one arm.
Looking around at the ro
om filled with massive, truck-like weights, Luffy accepted that he still had a long way to go to match these high-level fighters.
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