One Piece: Star Sea Legend

Chapter 23: Mutual Destruction

“It’s useless. I’m made of rubber. Your attacks won’t work on me.”

After being punched by Qin Ming and crashing through the wall, Luffy quickly got up as if nothing had happened and slowly walked towards Qin Ming.

“Try taking another punch from me, and you’ll see if my fists work on you or not.”

Qin Ming also stood up. His left cheek, which had taken a heavy punch from Luffy, was slightly swollen. Having crashed through the wall with his own body, he was in so much pain that he was almost breaking into a cold sweat. Combined with his earlier injuries, his condition wasn’t great.

But Qin Ming showed no intention of backing down. Since things had come to this, the only thing he needed to do now was to go all out and beat the other guy senseless.

Moreover, Qin Ming genuinely wanted to fight Luffy with everything he had. He wanted to know just how big the gap between them was.

As for the outcome, Qin Ming didn’t bother thinking about it.

“You think you can knock me down?”

Luffy stretched his arm back and charged towards Qin Ming.

“Do you really think you can punch me away?”

Qin Ming gritted his teeth, enduring the pain coursing through his body, and rushed towards Luffy as well.

“Stop being so full of yourself, you idiot!”

As Qin Ming swung his fist at Luffy, the two of them shouted at each other in unison.

“Gomu Gomu no Pistol!”

Luffy’s stretched arm, using the elasticity of rubber, snapped back at an incredible speed, aiming a powerful punch at Qin Ming’s stomach.

“Such a simple move won’t work on me!”

Qin Ming sidestepped Luffy’s attack, then jumped in front of him and delivered another punch straight to Luffy’s face without hesitation.

Boom!

Luffy was sent flying again, crashing heavily into the wall, which cracked under the impact.

“I was too careless. That hurt! Why does your punch work on me?”

This time, after taking Qin Ming’s punch, Luffy wasn’t unscathed. Instead, he cried out in pain.

“Get serious! Go all out, Monkey D. Luffy! Otherwise, you’ll definitely lose to me.”

Qin Ming’s words made Luffy’s expression turn serious. He adjusted his straw hat and said, “When I first met you, you were really weak. But now, you’ve become so strong, Qin Ming. But that’s to be expected. You’re the hardest-working and most determined person in our crew.”

After a pause, Luffy looked at Qin Ming and said, “Next, I’m going all out to punch you away!”

Luffy wasn’t lying. In the month since they had set sail together, he had witnessed how Qin Ming used every spare moment to train relentlessly. Qin Ming’s extraordinary determination and perseverance were something Luffy had seen firsthand, and it was one of the reasons he trusted Qin Ming.

“I’m the one who’s going to knock some sense into you, you blockhead!”

Qin Ming saw Luffy leap into the air and quickly took a few steps back to create some distance.

“Gomu Gomu no Stamp!”

Luffy, now in the air, aimed his feet at Qin Ming’s face and stretched his legs, kicking down with tremendous force.

“Damn, that’s fast!”

Qin Ming barely managed to dodge as Luffy’s feet slammed into the ground, creating a small crater and sending Qin Ming flying from the shockwave.

“Gomu Gomu no Whip!”

As soon as Qin Ming steadied himself, Luffy, now back on the ground, stretched his left leg and swung it towards Qin Ming.

“I won’t just keep taking hits!”

Qin Ming ducked under Luffy’s sweeping leg, then grabbed Luffy’s outstretched foot with his left hand and yanked him forward.

“Take another punch!”

Qin Ming’s bloodied right fist slammed into Luffy’s face as he flew towards him. At the same time, Luffy swung his own fist, landing a heavy blow on Qin Ming’s right cheek.

Bam! Bam!

Both Qin Ming and Luffy were sent flying in opposite directions, crashing to the ground and rolling several times before coming to a stop.

“So you had sharp stones hidden between your fingers. That’s how you hurt me.”

Luffy’s face now had several cuts. He had clearly seen the sharp stones Qin Ming had hidden between his fingers, which was why he had felt pain from Qin Ming’s punches earlier.

The sharp stones Qin Ming had hidden in his fist were barely visible, which was why Luffy hadn’t noticed them the first time he was hit.

“But if you keep doing that, your hand will be ruined.”

Luffy wiped the blood from his face and walked towards Qin Ming.

“Don’t worry. Before my hand is ruined, I’ll make sure you taste defeat!”

Qin Ming was breathing heavily. His right hand, with the stones still wedged between his fingers, was drenched in blood and trembling uncontrollably.

Every time he punched Luffy with full force, the stones dug deeper into the flesh between his fingers. The pain was excruciating, something most people wouldn’t be able to endure.

Qin Ming’s current method of fighting Luffy could be described as “killing a thousand enemies at the cost of eight hundred of his own.” But it was the most effective way he could think of to deal with Luffy.

Since Qin Ming didn’t know Haki yet, the only way he could hurt Luffy, a rubber man, was by using external objects.

If Qin Ming had more time, he might have been able to create spiked gloves, which would have made fighting Luffy much easier.

Originally, Qin Ming had considered using stones in both hands, but that would have limited his attacks to punches only, which would have been a disadvantage. So he only used stones in his right hand, leaving his left hand free for other attacks.

Meanwhile, Nami, who had been watching from behind, was completely stunned. This wasn’t how she had imagined things would go.

Nami had planned to make Qin Ming and Luffy argue, leading to a fallout, so she could convince Qin Ming to stop being a pirate.

But what she hadn’t expected was that after a brief argument, Qin Ming and Luffy would start fighting so fiercely, as if they were trying to kill each other. It was the first time Nami truly realized that men and women were completely different creatures.

“You’re just having an argument! Do you really need to fight to the death? Look at you two—you’ve already destroyed several buildings!”

As Qin Ming and Luffy fought harder and the commotion grew louder, Nami began to worry. If this continued, one of them might actually end up killing the other.

What bothered Nami the most was that she could only watch as Qin Ming and Luffy accumulated more and more injuries, unable to do anything.

When she had heard Luffy say he would punch Qin Ming because of her, Nami had thought it was just talk.

But now, seeing how seriously they were fighting, Nami, who had always despised pirates, began to see them in a new light.

Remembering how Luffy had repeatedly called her his “crewmate,” Nami felt a strange emotion stirring within her. Then she thought of Qin Ming, who had risked his life to save Zoro at the Marine base in Shells Town.

“Could it be that Zoro, the pirate hunter known as the Demon, is also their crewmate? Is that why Qin Ming went all out to save him?

No, I must be overthinking it. There’s no way that a pirate hunter would join them and become a pirate.

Besides, would pirates really risk their lives for their crewmates? Aren’t pirates supposed to be heartless thieves who only care about plundering?

If Qin Ming ever bullies me, I’ll just tell Luffy. Would he still help me beat Qin Ming then?”

For some reason, this thought suddenly crossed Nami’s mind.

If Qin Ming had known what Nami was thinking, even in the heat of battle, he would have jumped up and shouted at her, You’re too cruel! Tricking the naive Luffy into being your free bodyguard? How am I supposed to live peacefully after this?

“Take this, Qin Ming!”

Luffy was breathing heavily. He had taken dozens of punches from Qin Ming’s stone-filled fist, leaving him covered in cuts and bruises. As he spoke, he stretched both arms far behind him.

Qin Ming knew immediately that Luffy was about to go all out. Gritting his teeth, he clenched his bloodied, numb right hand and charged at Luffy with all his might. “Come on, Monkey D. Luffy! No matter who the opponent is, no matter how strong they are, I won’t back down! Especially when the opponent is you—I can’t run away!”

Both Qin Ming and Luffy looked disheveled, covered in dirt and bruises from their intense fight. But their expressions and eyes were strikingly similar—unyielding, determined, and filled with an indomitable will.

“Because I know you’re that kind of person, I have to punch you away when you make a mistake, Qin Ming!”

Luffy looked at Qin Ming as he spoke, then launched his stretched arms forward with lightning speed. “Gomu Gomu no Rocket!”

“If yours is a rocket, then mine is a stone cannon!”

Qin Ming planted his left foot forward, cracking the ground beneath him from the sheer force. He stood his ground, fists clenched, veins bulging on his arms, and unleashed all his strength in a punch aimed at Luffy’s incoming fists.

Boom!

Qin Ming and Luffy’s fists collided with tremendous force, creating a powerful shockwave that made their clothes flutter.

After a brief moment of stalemate, the immense impact sent both of them flying in opposite directions.

Crash! Boom! Crash! Boom!

Qin Ming crashed through three buildings, flying across two streets before finally collapsing, completely exhausted and in unbearable pain. The stones he had been gripping between his fingers finally fell out.

During the final clash with Luffy, the stones had severely injured Qin Ming’s right hand. The wound between his middle and index fingers was so deep that the bone was visible.

Luffy, on the other hand, crashed through two buildings before slamming into the wall of a third. His left hand, injured by the stones in Qin Ming’s fist, was now too damaged to use effectively. Covered in wounds, he couldn’t get up either.

In their final exchange, Qin Ming had deliberately exposed more of the stones in his fist to maximize the damage to Luffy. But the more the stones were exposed, the more they hurt Qin Ming in return.

In the end, Qin Ming and Luffy’s all-out fight had left them both severely injured, though Luffy was in slightly better condition than Qin Ming.

Qin Ming tried several times to get up, but his body felt completely drained. His consciousness grew heavier, and eventually, he succumbed to his injuries and exhaustion, passing out. Just before he lost consciousness, he thought he heard Nami’s voice, though he couldn’t make out what she was saying.

Some time later, Qin Ming felt something licking his face. It was itchy, and he slowly opened his eyes to see a white dog licking him.

“Woof! Woof!”

The dog looked a bit dirty, and as soon as it saw Qin Ming awake, it started barking urgently.

Qin Ming struggled to sit up, but before he could gather his thoughts, he saw a cannonball flying towards him from a distance.

What made Qin Ming speechless was that he could see the big red nose on the cannonball.

“Damn it, Buggy, you bastard! You’re firing cannons at me again!

If it weren’t for this dog, I wouldn’t even know how I died.”

As Qin Ming thought this, he quickly picked up the dog and, despite the intense pain coursing through his body, ran as fast as he could to get away.

Boom!

The explosion sent Qin Ming and the dog flying forward, crashing to the ground.

Qin Ming looked back at where he had been moments ago. The area was now completely destroyed, with an entire row of buildings in the town obliterated by Buggy’s cannonball…