Part eight - Demons of East Blue 9/??

Yosaku was much stronger and faster than Craig, he "digested" all the weapons available to Don, and now he did not care deeply about him - both the weapon and Craig himself. In addition, in terms of the experience of hand-to-hand combat - and, perhaps, just combat - Yosaku could give Craig not just a hundred points ahead, but a good thousand, maybe two. Not only did Luffy, almost without fail, find once a week some pirate-squad-flotilla-group-bandits-venal-marines to fight, he and Zoro were also there. Luffy was of the opinion that the more a student sheds blood in training - no one talks about regular sweat - the less he dies in real battles. And exactly the same philosophy he instilled in Zoro. And although this philosophy undoubtedly worked, because of it, almost every workout turned into a battle for your own life. In the case of Yosaku himself, in the battle for his own lives.

Realizing that Yosaku can be killed with "impunity", Zoro and Luffy began to hold back with him much less than in battles with Johnny. As a result, despite the fact that the Yosaku fruit initially gave him practically nothing in terms of personal strength, he very quickly caught up with Johnny, and even surpassed him in some way. And this despite the fact that Johnny's fruit immediately increased his strength alone by an order of magnitude. I mean, not twice, but really an order of magnitude, that is, having eaten his fruit, Johnny immediately became ten times stronger than himself before. For example, the vast majority of zoan-type fruits increased a person's physical performance by no more than 50%. Of course, there were exceptions here, which strengthened their owner by two, three, and even five times. But in this regard, Johnny really hit the jackpot. And that's why, when Johnny and Yosaku ate their fruit at the same time, the first immediately became incomparably stronger than the second.

It's beyond words how much it hurt Yosaku when, literally in one moment, he became much weaker than his longtime friend. They were always equal, always! And then suddenly this. Yosaku even felt jealous. Why did he choose his own fruit of the two given to them, the power of which was unknown, and not the one that Johnny ate? Luckily for Yosaku, Luffy knocked all those silly thoughts out of his head pretty quickly. Literally knocked out. And he knocked out stupid thoughts not only from Yosaku's head, but also from Johnny's. Johnny, having easily defeated Yosaku, suddenly for some reason decided that now, thanks to the power of the fruit, he became really strong. It was only after Luffy finished with them that Yosaku had completely different opinion of the strength of its fruit. After the given beating, Johnny was able to start eating solid food again only after five days, and only after another two weeks he could return to training.

In turn, bashing or not, Yosaku literally recovered in a matter of minutes, so no one thought to free him from his evening training with Zoro, and then the morning with Luffy. It quickly became clear that the more Yosaku "destroyed" his body in training, the stronger it became after recovery. In fact, what took normal people weeks or days, Yosaku took minutes or seconds. Of course, as compensation, Yosaku had to eat for ten, but in return, if we set aside other parameters, in pure strength and speed, Yosaku began to noticeably surpass Johnny. And the initial, tenfold superiority in strength, provided by Johnny's peculiarities of his fruit, Yosaku was able to reduce in a little more than a month. Most importantly, though, while training with Yosaku, Zoro and Luffy could afford a little less control over their strength, and they didn't have to be afraid to use guaranteed deadly moves. As a result, Yosaku managed to get used to three things: to death, to pain, and to opponents whom he could not even scratch, no matter what his limits he was fighting for.

And now Yosaku was fighting against Craig. The same Don Craig, who was weaker than him, slower than him, and who had already demonstrated all his tricks. From the moment Craig decided to fight Yosaku in close combat, albeit with his Bomb on a Stick, the battle itself was over.

As mentioned, the first thing Yosaku did was take Craig's exploding spear away from him. It was not difficult. Then Yosaku did not restrain himself and for a couple of minutes he happily chased Don with his own spear. Almost accidentally killed him, and therefore hastened to turn the spear into a pile of useless metal. Further, breaking Craig's nose, Yosaku did not stop there, and, two at a time, broke his arms in the elbows. This was punishment for Craig again trying to set the guy's face on fire with his flamethrowers attached to his wrists. Yosaku then took up Don's armor, which he was so proud of. But for the "most durable armor in the world", they broke somehow offensively quickly. Yosaku didn't even have time to have a fun, repeatedly driving his fist into Craig's armored stomach, as it all ended. The armor withstood only three hits in a row, inflicted by Yosaku in full force, and on the fourth blow, they simply shattered into pieces. The hunter was counting on more. In addition, the armor may have been able to withstand three blows, scattering only on the fourth, but Don himself almost died on the first. His so-called "world's most durable armor" was clearly not designed for the blows of a man with the strength of Yosaku. Craig almost splashed inside his own armor, and as soon as they shattered to smithereens, he fell flat on his face in the sand and began to vomit blood.

- You see, - sitting down next to the moaning pirate, Yosaku said peacefully, - everything is as I said. Neither your weapons, nor your armor, nor your strength, nor your people helped you. Do you know why? Because you are weak. And always was. It's just that until today you were lucky not to run into a team like ours, but any luck is ever pumped, and today yours ended. - And with that, Yosaku knocked out Craig with one not strong blow to the head.

- You won't kill him? - Johnny came up in surprise. - After he killed you so many times in a row?

- If I kill him, then everything will be over for him, and I don't want him to get off so easily, - Yosaku got on his feet, shaking his head. - Better let the marines take him away, then he will have time to properly understand everything that happened. Regardless of whether he is executed or sent to prison.

- What a cruelty, - Johnny chuckled contentedly.

- And what am I talking about? - Yosaku smiled with satisfaction. - I think Luffy will appreciate it.

- Fact.

And then Gin came to himself, whom others had the audacity to call "The Devil":

- Don ... Don Craig !!!

Without taking his eyes off the motionless figure of his captain, Gin, on barely bending legs, slowly moved towards him. The man looked as if the whole world had collapsed right before his eyes. In part, it was so. Although, as strange as it may sound, Johnny and Yosaku fully understood him. And you didn't have to be seven inches in your forehead to notice the obvious. It's just that Craig was his own Luffy for Gin, and the guys could confidently say that if Luffy was completely defeated, they would have reacted the same way, if not worse. The very idea of ​​Luffy's hypothetical loss seemed so absurd to them that it was beyond words. And Gin, a few minutes ago, thought the same about his captain.

Seeing tears rolling out of the eyes of what the rest of Craig's pirates called "The Devil", Johnny has done almost the most merciful thing in the whole last year - he punched Gin with the edge of his hand in the neck, sending him into a long unconsciousness.

- Then it would be better to kill, - commented on the actions of his friend Yosaku. - Or then, as soon as he wakes up, everything will start anew.

- Hey, I may have felt sorry for him, but I'm not that kind, - even Johnny was somehow slightly offended ... however, he himself would have found it difficult to answer what exactly. It seems that Yosaku hinted (suspected?) him of being too kind ... but since when did something like that become a reason for resentment? Anyway, Luffy! It's always Luffy's fault! - This guy is a pirate, and from a team of those who love to rob and kill ordinary people, so he definitely does not deserve an easy and quick death.

- In some ways, of course, you are right, - Yosaku rubbed his chin. - That's just ...