Chapter 14: The Beating
When you reach your absolute limit…
How do you break past it?
That was the question that had haunted Eiger for years.
Ever since he'd joined the Marines—ever since he'd realized that despite his effort, his strength would never progress beyond a certain point—he'd been searching for a way forward. A way to go beyond himself.
He had thought of three possible paths.
---
The first path: a battle to the death.
Fighting a terrifying opponent, standing at the edge of life and death—sometimes, that's when true growth happens.
But Eiger wasn't the protagonist of some fated story. He didn't have "plot armor," no miraculous "one-hit-from-death power-up."
He was a cautious man. He didn't rush headlong into suicidal fights hoping for enlightenment.
So, for years, he trained in silence.
He hunted pirates when ordered, captured them, returned, trained again—day after day, repeating that cycle with unshakable discipline.
Cautious. Measured. Controlled.
He'd never faced a true deathmatch.
And maybe because of that, his strength had plateaued—an unbreakable ceiling above him.
---
The second path: a strict mentor.
Someone whose teaching could force you to grow beyond yourself.
But masters of that caliber were rare. Some disciples took years to grasp the essence of Haki… while others, after three swings of a stick, had already mastered it and gone on to become emperors of the sea.
Once, Eiger had considered traveling to the East Blue to try his luck—to find that dog-headed hero whose fists alone could shape the future of nations.
But fate never led him there.
He'd stayed in the West Blue. Always telling himself "next year."
And before he knew it, he was nearing thirty—his ambitions buried beneath the quiet life of a small village.
---
The third path: the simplest one of all—
To eat a Devil Fruit.
A single fruit could change a man's destiny overnight.
In the right hands, it could turn an ordinary person into a monster capable of shaking the seas.
The right one, though—that was the catch.
The Logia, the natural-element fruits, and the Mythical Zoans, those rare beasts among beasts—each one was worth entire kingdoms.
Even the basic Zoan fruits, however, were enough to shatter one's physical limits.
They granted the instincts, resilience, and sheer ferocity of beasts, amplifying muscle and vitality beyond human boundaries.
A good Devil Fruit…
and a man could rewrite his fate.
Eiger had known that well.
In fact, as a man who remembered another world, he even knew where three powerful fruits would appear.
The Goro Goro no Mi, the Lightning Fruit—sleeping high above the clouds on Skypiea.
The artificial Kaido fruit of Punk Hazard.
And the Goru Goru no Mi, the Golden Fruit—auctioned years ago on Sabaody Archipelago.
He had once dreamed of finding one of them.
But back then, he hadn't dared.
He'd been too careful, too bound by the rules of the Marines.
And now?
Now, with the taste of the Devil Fruit still bitter on his tongue, and a chill wind from the admiral's frost curling toward him—
He finally understood something.
Sometimes, you didn't find your chance.
Sometimes, it came to beat the hell out of you.
Back then, he wasn't strong enough to storm Skypiea and steal the Fruit.
Punk Hazard was still one of the World Government's most heavily guarded research sites—impossible for a regular man to even approach.
And the Goru Goru no Mi? He'd gone to Sabaody himself for that one, hoping to slip in during the chaos… but in the end, he'd left empty-handed.
So he'd shelved the idea.
If nothing else works, he'd told himself, I'll just sneak into Punk Hazard someday and grab that artificial Kaido fruit.
He never expected that years later—after retiring from the Marines, after getting married, after deciding to live a quiet life—a Devil Fruit would simply find him.
When Chief Marin first brought it to him, Eiger had taken one look at the green-skinned fruit and thought it was some kind of plant-type Zoan.
But after Enchi the colonel stopped by with a Devil Fruit encyclopedia, the truth left him stunned.
Paramecia-Type: Hikari Hikari no Mi — The Light-Light Fruit.
No wonder Marin had asked, "Why isn't it glowing anymore?"
Just as the Mori Mori no Mi later proved to be a Logia while the similar Mochi Mochi no Mi remained a Paramecia, the Light-Light Fruit shared the concept of "light" with the Glint-Glint Fruit, yet could not produce elemental light.
Instead, it absorbed it.
A fruit that allows the user to draw strength from nearby light sources—
to never feel hunger or fatigue beneath its rays,
and to move, fight, and heal with several times the power they normally possessed.
But in darkness, that power vanished.
To most, it was a disappointment—too situational, too unreliable.
After all, what kind of fighter shines brightest under the sun, only to wilt the moment night falls?
But to Eiger, it was perfect.
He didn't need world-dominating power.
He didn't need invincibility.
He needed a way to break his limits.
He hesitated at first.
Who knew if fate would offer him a better fruit someday?
But as the setting sun cast its last golden light over his body, muscles tightening, veins glowing faintly with a radiant warmth—
Eiger could feel it.
For the first time in years, he'd broken through the barrier that had caged him.
He knew this strength wouldn't last. Once the light faded, he'd return to normal.
But he'd touched that state.
He'd seen what lay beyond.
And that was enough.
He also knew better than to get cocky.
A single fruit didn't make him equal to an admiral.
Kuzan had endured battles that would've broken men a hundred times stronger—his mastery of Haki, technique, and experience were beyond comparison.
The man wasn't just a wielder of ice; he was one of the pillars of the sea.
But win or lose, Eiger had to show some dignity.
You couldn't just stand in front of your future father-in-law looking like a clueless slacker.
If anyone deserved a beating in that situation, it was him.
So, yes—Eiger wasn't afraid.
From the moment Kuzan appeared, he'd already decided:
This isn't a fight. It's just… meeting the in-laws.
At worst, he'd get pummeled. A little sunlight, and he'd be fine again.
That's why he'd eaten the fruit—why he'd finally made up his mind.
He had no dreams of ruling the seas. No need for hesitation.
All he wanted was to push himself a little further—to feel alive again.
Now, as the cold winds of the admiral's power swept across the mountain, the frost vanished the moment it touched Eiger's glowing form, melting into droplets that glimmered like dew.
Eiger raised his axe, its edge gleaming with light, and pointed it forward.
"Come on."
Kuzan blinked once, recognizing the faint shimmer radiating from him.
"So it really is the Light-Light Fruit, huh?"
His tone was calm, almost lazy—but a faint smile tugged at his lips.
"If you think a single fruit will make you strong enough to cut down Sakazuki, you're dead wrong."
Eiger froze.
So he knew.
Of course he did. The man had probably read every report the Marines ever filed on him.
He'd probably even been there—watching quietly from a distance when Eiger and Nico had exchanged vows.
Eiger's mouth twitched.
He wondered what Kuzan's face had looked like when he realized the girl he'd once protected had married some no-name ex-Marine.
Shock? Disbelief?
Maybe disappointment. Maybe something like regret.
"You've got that look again," Kuzan said flatly, eyes narrowing. Frost spread from his boots. "And I hate it."
Then his voice dropped, low and lazy as ever:
"Forget it. You stole my photo—so you're getting what's coming to you."
Eiger's lips twitched.
Still using the photo as an excuse, huh?
He looked exactly like a furious father scolding the punk who ran off with his daughter.
Before he could say anything, however—
"Ice Age!"
Kuzan's voice cut through the air, sharp as cracking ice.
In an instant, the world froze.
A wave of glacial power surged outward, swallowing the mountain in a tide of white. Trees, stones, air itself—everything turned to crystal frost.
It was like winter itself had descended from the heavens, sealing away all warmth, all motion, all escape.
The forest fell silent. The air stopped moving.
Eiger's grip tightened around his axe. The biting cold crawled toward him, freezing the ground at his feet.
He swallowed.
Wait a damn minute—
He's starting with his ultimate move?!
How was he supposed to fight that?!