Pirates: Trainer on the Straw Hat Ship.

"Luffy!"

Realizing something, Akagi suddenly stopped what he was doing and focused his eyes on Luffy's health bar on his attribute panel again.

next moment……

Luffy's health value changed again.

0.5……1……3……12……30……

As the drum sounded as if it came from eternity, Luffy's body suddenly and violently spasmed as if he had been electrocuted.

White gas floated along his scarred skin.

And with every leap of his body, the health bar on Luffy's attribute panel would begin to recover in an irregular but increasingly significant manner.

In the blink of an eye, his health bar was full again.

However, even so, Luffy's blood volume changes did not stop. Instead, he broke through the original health limit in one fell swoop and quickly rushed to a higher level!

"coming soon!"

Realizing that Luffy had successfully entered the awakened state, Akane looked even more nervous than before.

He instantly turned off the machine panel in front of him, without having time to remind his companions around him, and directly increased the effect of his psychic vision, staring straight at Luffy.

In an instant, his sight penetrated directly into this turbid material world.

In the red eyes, the whole world turned into pieces of free spiritual energy and individuals existing in the state of soul!

And Luffy's soul was right in front of Akashi.

However, compared to Luffy's health bar that was constantly rising, his soul at this moment had not changed at all and remained the same as before.

One could even say that... because he had just experienced a near-death state, Luffy's soul fire was much weaker than usual, and he looked visibly lethargic.

At the same time, Luffy, who was originally lying on the ground, suddenly exuded an extraordinary aura.

A sharp domineering aura suddenly gushed out from his body, shaped like a pitch-black lightning, causing Nami and others who were originally gathered nearby to suddenly change their expressions. They couldn't help but take a step back, away from Luffy at this time.

The drumbeats became more and more obvious and more and more intense!

Even the sea kings wandering around Fishman Island were awakened by the ancient drum sounds. They inexplicably opened their eyes and looked towards the direction of Fishman Island.

"This is!?"

The sea kings, whose intelligence is no less than that of humans, felt this familiar yet unfamiliar drum sound and looked at each other with confusion.

After all, their king has not yet fully grown.

According to the agreement, it is not yet time for them to set out.

and so……

Why did Joy Boy appear at this time! ?

There was a look of surprise and doubt in the huge eyes of the sea kings.

Because this means that from this moment on, the originally written fate suddenly changed.

They cannot determine...

Is this change a good thing or a bad thing?

……

……

the other side.

The red nerves are still tense.

Luffy has more and more Nika characteristics.

Based on his impression of the anime, in a few seconds, Luffy will show a weird smile in his comatose state, and then turn into a laughing "Nika"!

He must stop everything before Luffy becomes happy!

It seemed to be in response to Chihong's voice.

At this moment, a magical mental power suddenly appeared out of Luffy's body and quickly enveloped his soul.

At the same time, with the emergence of that special mental power, the "Nika Power" gushing out of Luffy's body also suddenly increased.

It seems as if all this power is prepared for this moment!

"Appeared!!!"

The red pupils that had been ready suddenly dilated.

The next moment, he immediately took action.

The surging spiritual power turned into a sharp arrow like a roaring torrent, and quickly shot towards the spiritual power contained in the ability of the fruit.

And it turns out...

That strange spiritual power is indeed the will of the fruit hidden in Luffy's body.

Because after discovering Chihong's mental attack, the mental power miraculously turned suddenly and avoided Chihong's mental attack.

Fortunately, Chihong had anticipated this.

He quickly transformed his mental power into a barrier again, directly blocking the path of the power of will.

At the same time, Chihong suddenly shouted loudly: "Brook!"

Brook, who had already taken action, responded immediately:

"Leave it to me next!"

"I will never let the power of the devil fruit affect Luffy!"

As he spoke, Brook, who had transformed into a green will-o'-the-wisp ghost, directly conjured up countless fists, and then smashed towards Luffy's body like a rain of pear blossoms, but perfectly avoided the vital parts of Luffy's soul, causing the least damage to Luffy as possible.

After all...his purpose is not to keep Luffy completely silent during the time when he is still not awake.

Instead, he wanted to trigger Brook's magical characteristics in this way!

Characteristic: Wandering Soul. The effect is that when fighting with the enemy in close combat, there is a certain probability of completing soul interaction with the enemy!

That's right!

Red and Brook's plan is to use Brook's characteristics to completely protect Luffy's soul.

As for whether Nika's will will infect Brook?

Chihong felt that this possibility did not exist!

If Nika's will could so easily combine with someone other than fate, it wouldn't have been unable to find a host other than Joy Boy for eight hundred years!

The fists that Brook throws in the soul state can also be regarded as close combat, and can also trigger Brook's wandering soul characteristics...

And this is the best solution that Red thought of to help Luffy avoid the invasion of Nika's will!!!

Brook, who had already practiced in his mind for a long time, did not disappoint Chihong.

Almost at the moment when hundreds of fist shadows fell, his characteristics were successfully triggered.

Under the magical power of Pokémon's characteristics, Brook, as a will-o'-the-wisp, directly drilled into Luffy's body.

Instead……

It was Luffy's soul that turned into a soft and strange form and flew out of his body and flew towards Brook's body.

In an instant!

Nika's will, which was still madly attacking Luffy's soul, suddenly stopped and stood still as if the machine had crashed.

Obviously, even the will of Nika, who represents the divine power of the pirate world - the sun god Nika, never imagined that one day he would encounter such a situation.

Just as Chi Hong expected...

When the soul of the original destined person no longer appeared in Luffy's body, the will of the Nika Fruit directly lost its target and was at a loss.

Of course Chihong would not miss this great opportunity!

He directly increased the output of mental power, which instantly turned into an unbreakable mental power net. Taking advantage of Nika's dilemma, he directly wrapped him up.

Then he pulled the mysterious Nika Will out of Luffy's body.

"It's okay, Brook!" Red shouted again.

Brook, who received the order, immediately cancelled the wandering soul characteristic, allowing his and Luffy's souls to be transformed back again.

"In this way, Luffy should be able to awaken the power of Gear 5 without being infected by Nika's will, right?!"

Red showed an expectant look and looked at Luffy's body.

But what Chi Hong didn't expect was...

As the Nika Fruit disappeared, the Nika power that had been surging out of Luffy's body began to gradually subside.

Even Luffy's hair, which had been dyed white, began to turn black and white.

"What's happening here!?"

Brook, who had just returned to his skeleton body, immediately asked in surprise when he saw this.

Unfortunately……

At this moment, Chihong also frowned, completely confused about the condition of Luffy's body at this moment.

"Does it have to be Nika's will in order for the power of Nika in the devil fruit to work?!"

"So... the awakening of the animal-type fruit ability is likely to be integrated with the fruit will in the body?!"

"That's why there are so many failed people who have awakened their animal-type fruit abilities in Impel Down."

"Perhaps it is because the souls or wills of those ability users are too weak, so that their souls are directly replaced by the will of the fruit, and they become so stunned..."

A bold guess suddenly flashed through Chihong's mind, and he felt that this was most likely the guess closest to the truth.

"In other words... Luffy's fruit ability awakening failed?"

Looking at Luffy whose Nika power was constantly fading away, Akane couldn't help but look at Nika's will trapped in his hand by the mental barrier.

He is sure...

As long as he loosens the constraints on Nika's will and allows it to continue to merge with Luffy's soul, Luffy can still awaken the Nika form smoothly.

In that case, once Luffy, who is affected by Nika's will, enters the Nika form, he will be in a weird state of laughing no matter what situation he encounters, just like in the anime.

perhaps……

This is the fundamental reason why Nika's Will came to Luffy.

Nika's will may have had no malicious intent from the beginning to the end.

The reason why he chose Luffy, besides the saying that it was fate's choice, may also be because the soul strength of others is simply not enough to bear the fusion of Nika's will.

Even Luffy, the protagonist, found it difficult to control his emotions after being fused with Nika's will.

If it were someone else, it is very likely that their consciousness would be directly destroyed by Nika's will, resulting in failure in awakening.

only……

Letting Luffy's will be influenced by external objects for the sake of power is something that Red cannot accept at all.

So rather than Luffy becoming weird, he would rather Luffy fail in his awakening.

"Forget it, let's just fail."

Thousands of thoughts flashed through my mind in an instant.

Chi Hong sighed softly in his heart, and then said confidently:

"Anyway, even without Nika's power, the power of the machine is enough to push Luffy to the top!"

however……

Just as Akane was thinking about how to comfort Luffy who failed to awaken...

A magical power suddenly burst out from Luffy's body again!

At this moment, Luffy, who was originally unconscious, suddenly opened his eyes.

"Red...Everyone!?"

“…What’s wrong with me?!”

Luffy, whose body was still half-Nika-ized, blinked in surprise.

But the next second, he seemed to suddenly realize something and suddenly looked at his hands.

"This is……"

A hint of doubt first appeared in Luffy's eyes, but then he suddenly jumped up from the ground.

Feeling the remaining Nika power in his body, he seemed to have inexplicably grasped a mysterious key!

The door corresponding to this key had appeared in front of him long ago.

Luffy didn't hesitate at all. Almost instinctively, he reached out the key and opened the tightly closed door.

In an instant...

The fairy attributes that had been difficult for Luffy to control and fully awaken suddenly surged out from the mysterious unknown space and quickly occupied Luffy's entire body.

The brilliance of evolution suddenly bloomed on Luffy's body.

Seeing this scene, the Straw Hat Pirates, including Red, all looked surprised.

The next moment, the drum of liberation that had been stopped started to sound again.

Through his powerful perception ability, Red instantly realized the changes taking place in Luffy.

From a macro perspective, Luffy's physical condition at this time can be simply described as:

The Nika Power, which was about to have a new home under the guidance of Nika's will, was about to return to the origin of the fruit after discovering that their general Nika's will had disappeared, waiting for the opportunity to be truly liberated...

However, at this moment, the awakened Luffy, relying on the characteristics of Nika's power, actually directly awakened the more mysterious fairy energy in his body!

And because the fairy energy in Luffy's body itself comes from Luffy's Nika Fruit, it can be said that he has a natural affinity for the power of Nika.

So to put it in a more anthropomorphic way...

After the awakened fairy energy discovered the power of Nika in Luffy's body, it clapped its hands:

"Your boss is gone, from now on I am your new boss!"

The power of Nika, which had no independent consciousness, actually bowed down after feeling the enthusiasm of the fairy energy!

In this way, under the guidance of fairy energy, Luffy's awakening continued.

The radical drumbeats soon enveloped the entire Fishman Island.

And when enveloped by the shining light of evolution, Luffy's body also changed rapidly.

Although many things happened in this instant, from Luffy's awakening of Nika to the fading of the evolutionary light, it only took a few tens of seconds, less than a minute.

The drastic change of state brought great psychological pressure to the Straw Hat people.

And when the light of evolution turned into star spots and faded away, a brand new Luffy appeared in front of everyone.

But unlike the strangely happy Luffy in the anime, although Luffy at this moment had an exaggerated smile on his face, everyone could see that...

This smiling face is the expression Luffy often shows when he is happy!