Gear Second

On the courthouse roof, Blueno stares at Luffy's changed stance and repeats the word he has just heard: "Gear"? Then, trying to understand the threat in front of him, he asks, "Your technique will evolve?" Luffy answers with his body rather than with an explanation. He crouches low, one fist braced near the ground, and steam begins to pour off him with a soft "Shuuu..." The empty rooftop around them makes the moment feel still and dangerous. Blueno has faced Luffy as a rubber-bodied pirate, but now the air around Luffy is heating, his posture has tightened, and the fight is about to shift into something Blueno has not measured yet.

Blueno tries to dismiss what he is seeing. Steam rises from Luffy's body, and Blueno says, "Emitting steam from your body... are you trying to imitate a steam engine -- what're you trying to bluff?" Luffy does not argue. He simply says, "I... am glad I met you here." Then he begins the attack name: "Gomu Gomu"... Blueno assumes the distance still favors him and says, "Are you trying to snipe me...? You're just giving me a chance to escape." Luffy's expression sharpens into a grin. "Heh... try to aim your best and hit me...!!" Blueno accepts the challenge and vanishes with "Soru," expecting his Rokushiki speed to decide the exchange. The page holds the last instant before Luffy proves that the old speed gap has disappeared.

Blueno moves with "Soru," but this time Luffy is already beyond his reading. The air cracks with motion, and Blueno's certainty turns into alarm: "I can't see him at all!!!" Luffy crosses the rooftop in a blur and drives the attack through him: "Jet Pistol!!!!" Blueno's body folds under the impact as the blow lands before he can properly defend. The sounds and reactions come in jagged pieces -- "!!!?" and "...Kuh!!!" -- because the whole point of the page is speed. Luffy is not merely punching harder; he is moving so quickly that Blueno's trained eyes, the eyes of a Rokushiki user, cannot follow the strike.

Blueno is hurled across the roof, but Luffy gives him no time to re-center. Steam curls around Luffy's body as he follows immediately, and Blueno can only cry, "Whoa!!!?" before the next attack comes. Luffy's leg snaps out with "Stamp"!!! and drives into Blueno with another brutal impact. Blueno coughs, "Gaha...!!" as the force knocks through him. The page tells the fight as pursuit: Blueno's body is displaced, Luffy closes the gap again, and every panel makes the distance between them meaningless. Gear Second has turned Luffy's rubber body into a weapon of acceleration, and Blueno is being forced to experience that change hit by hit.

Blueno staggers and tries to make sense of what has happened. "No way...!! No... there's no doubt...!! That guy surely..." He reaches the conclusion that frightens him: Luffy "has learned how to use 'Soru'!!! and is able to move around with it...!!" Luffy repeats the quiet reason this meeting mattered: "I'm glad I met you here." The line is not gratitude toward an enemy; it means Blueno's techniques showed him the path. Blueno, now pressured, stops trying to answer with ordinary movement. He opens an "Air Door" and slips out of the visible world, leaving Luffy watching the empty space where he stood.

Inside the strange space created by Air Door, Blueno thinks through the danger. "This can't be happening." He recognizes that even before the Soru-like movement, Luffy's body itself has become strong enough to use the technique easily. Still, pride and training fight against the evidence: "But there's no way anybody else... could beat 'Rokushiki' users in speed!!! There's no way we can lose!!!" He chooses a plan with his Door-Door power: "I'll make his body a 'door' and stop his movement. I should be able to take him out with no problem." Then he commits: "I'll go in full power and settle this in an instant!!!!" Outside, Luffy only notes the disappearance: "He disappeared..." The two fighters are now separated by Blueno's hidden space, but Blueno is the one trying to calm himself.

Blueno reappears from a hidden door with "Door Door," but Luffy reacts before the ambush can take shape. Blueno is shocked by the timing: "When you... moved so fast, as if you disappeared," Luffy has been studying the motion, not merely enduring it. Luffy explains, "I saw you kick the ground more than 10 times in a moment before you moved." Then he adds, "I got the hang of it and I'm so glad to know that there's a way to move like that." Blueno braces himself, telling his own body to "fully take the attack" with "the strongest Tekkai" and calls out "Gou" "Tekkai"!!! Luffy comes in through the steam with "Gomu Gomu," already at the rhythm Blueno thought belonged only to CP9.

Blueno hardens himself with Tekkai and tries to receive the attack head-on. Luffy's body coils and launches both arms forward, the motion cutting across the panels in a burst of speed and pressure. Then the name lands with the blow: "Jet Bazooka!!!!" The strike smashes into Blueno's guard and blasts him backward despite his defensive technique. Blueno's face twists under the impact, and the page gives him almost no dialogue because the result is visual and immediate: even the strongest Tekkai he can call up is not enough to stop Luffy's new Gear Second power.

Blueno is left upright only by stubbornness, steam and heat still hanging around Luffy. Blueno admits, "... You really are tough..." Luffy, still straining from the new form, says, "... Then I'll show you something even more interesting," though even that promise comes with a pained "Gnn..." He tells Blueno, "Watch this..." and starts, "Gear..." But before another stage can truly begin, Blueno's body gives out. With a heavy crash and a final huge "!!!", he falls face-first onto the rooftop. Luffy watches, surprised by the sudden collapse. The fight ends not with a second transformation, but with Blueno finally reaching the limit that Gear Second has forced onto him.

The roof goes quiet after Blueno falls. Luffy stands over him, breathing hard: "Haa..." then "Haa!!!" His body sways, and he admits the cost of what he has just done: "I'm dead tired..." He looks down at himself and thinks, "I guess my body hasn't gotten used to it yet." Then he decides not to dwell on it: "... Oh well, I don't care... About my body for now." The important thing is still Robin. Looking toward the great structures of Enies Lobby, he says, "He wasted a lot of my time already." The victory over Blueno is only a door opening; Luffy is exhausted, but the rescue cannot wait.

Back on Enies Lobby Main Island, the battle crashes toward the courthouse. Guards panic beneath the advance of the giants and the allied force: "We'll be crushed!!!" "Shit, what's going on!?" and "Fire!! Fire the cannon!!!" The giants answer with fearless momentum. One roars, "Me, too--!!! You won't stop me!!!" while the other declares, "It's no use!! I won't stop!!!" and dismisses the defenders as "Puny guards!!!" Oimo calls out, "Yo, bros!! Courthouse is right there!!" and the charge continues with "Charge!!!" and "Oo-waa-aah!!!" Nearby allies still marvel at the turn of events: "I really can't believe this!!" "These troublesome gatekeepers are now our friends!?" The map inset marks the route from the Main Gate toward the Court House and Tower of Justice, showing how the battlefield has opened.

At the courthouse front plaza, the invading force has reached the building but not yet the next passage. People shout, "The pirates are in the courthouse!!!" and "What're you doing? Get inside already--!!!" Another voice answers the problem: "And we can't enter!!" because "there's a frog at the center door." Yokozuna holds the line with "Gero" and "Gero Gero!!!" while allies plead, "Don't let anybody in, Yokozuna!! Stand firm!!!" The defenders understand the danger: "If this guard is broken through, thousands of people will rush in!!!" Meanwhile, inside the Courthouse Right Tower, the mission becomes clear: "Hold them off until the drawbridge lowers!!!" and "No matter what, pull the drawbridge lever upstairs!!" Only one person needs to reach the top, but every corridor is packed with enemies and impacts like "GAKIIN!!"

The struggle spreads through the Courthouse Left Tower and the courthouse interior. Mozu is called out to -- "Mozu ane-san!!!" -- and she is told, "Make sure to get the Straw Hats to the Tower of Justice by lowering the drawbridge!!!" She answers, "Don't worry about me!!!" while cutting through the chaos. Elsewhere, enemies try to halt the advance: "Stop them. Don't let them go further!!!" One ally yells, "Nue!!! Don't get in our way!!!" Another refuses to explain anything to the Government forces: "Why would we answer you!!?" The Franky Family's worry cuts through the tactical noise: "More importantly! Is Franky Bro safe and sound!!?" They are fighting toward Robin, but Franky's fate is just as urgent to them.

Upstairs in the courthouse, the Government soldiers realize how badly the defense is failing. One shouts, "Shitty bastards, I can't believe there's still so many of them inside!!!" Orders fly: "Attack!!!" and "Kill the pirates!!!" Chopper barrels through the crowd, scattering bodies while someone warns, "Hey, don't toss them this way, Chopper." He roars, "Get outta the way--!!" and a beaten enemy coughs, "Buhaa!!!" On another part of the route, Zoro and Sogeking confront enemies with cold comedy: they say "Guilty." and "Guilty." When one enemy demands, "What the hell do you want?" the answer is the real destination: "Bring Franky and Nico Robin to the Gate of Justice!!?" Sanji's message is confirmed from below: "That's right, just do what I said!!!"

At the Tower of Justice, Spandam pushes the transfer forward. A report says, "However, sir, the armed convoy," and another adds, "Departing from the 'Gate of Justice,' is not ready." Spandam snaps, "That's fine!! We'll just wait on the other side of the gate!!" His logic is simple: "Once we pass through the 'Gate of Justice,' they can't touch us any more!! We need to take away the pirates' main objective!!!" He also orders, "Also, gather all 'CP9' members immediately!!!" Then he turns on the captives and sneers, "I'll take the time to corner the pirates later on!!" before commanding, "Now, stand up, guys!! Let us embark quickly on a trip to the hell!!" Robin watches in silence while Spandam laughs, "Wahahahaha-hahaha!!" At the Main Island Front Gate, Chimney and Gonbe watch the giants rampage. Chimney says, "Nyaa nyaa nyaa" and sings, "Giants, giants, giants are our friends!!!" while Kokoro says, "Just watch, Chimney... Whether they survive or not," because "The world will be astounded by something that nobody has done in past hundreds of years..." and "Anybody with common sense would never touch this island..."

Kokoro's thought completes over Luffy's upward-facing face: "When this battle is over... that Straw Hat brat's name... will be known throughout the world." Then Luffy makes that prophecy feel immediate. From the rooftop edge of Enies Lobby, he throws his voice across the island: "Ro--bi--n!!!" and then, louder, "I've come for you--!!!" The cry reaches the Tower of Justice. Spandam's face twists in shock, Sogeking jolts with "!!!", and Robin turns toward the voice. Franky grins and says, "He's here." Robin, shaken and almost unable to speak, whispers, "Luffy..." The chapter closes on that arrival: Luffy has beaten Blueno, crossed the first impossible barrier, and announced to Robin herself that the rescue has truly reached her.

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