The shockwave faded, and the gale winds died down.
Thump.
Darian, who had struck a cool pose after launching Bakal into the ocean, suddenly collapsed. His legs gave out, and he sat heavily on the deck.
Using his power twice—once for the lightning, once for the vibration punch—had completely drained him. The Devil Fruit was powerful, but his body was still new to it. He felt like a battery that had been short-circuited.
Nami rushed over, grabbing his arm to help him up.
"Darian! Are you alright?" she asked, her voice laced with genuine concern.
"I'm fine," Darian panted, wiping sweat from his brow. "Just... exhausted. It takes a lot out of me."
"Who are you?! What happened?!"
Two pirates suddenly stumbled onto the deck. Their faces were flushed with alcohol, their eyes bleary and confused. One of them waved a rusty cutlass, looking around at the burning wreckage of the captain's cabin.
These were the same two guards Nami had robbed earlier while they slept. The explosion and the subsequent fire had finally woken them up.
Seeing the armed men, Nami instinctively reached for her weapon, only to remember her bo staff was snapped in half. She froze, looking nervous.
"It's okay," Darian said, his voice steady despite his fatigue. "Leave it to me."
He raised a trembling hand, aiming his palm at the two drunkards. He scraped the bottom of his energy reserves.
Crackle.
BOOM!
A single bolt of lightning forked out.
Thud! Thud!
The two pirates didn't stand a chance. They weren't monsters like Bakal. The lightning struck them both, turning their hair into smoking afros and scorching their faces black. They collapsed like sacks of potatoes, unconscious before they hit the floor.
"Wow!" Nami's jaw dropped. She looked at Darian with sparkling eyes. "Darian! Since when could you do that? How did you suddenly become so powerful?"
Darian leaned back against the railing, trying to catch his breath. "I told you. I ate that fruit in the storage room. It gave me superpowers."
"Oh," Nami nodded slowly. "You ate a Devil Fruit."
Her expression turned serious. Then, slowly, terrifyingly, her eyes transformed into Berry symbols ($$).
"You mean... the 'Treasure of the Sea'?" she asked, her voice dropping an octave. " The kind that grants magical powers... and sells on the black market for at least 100 million Berries?"
Darian, naive to the danger he was in, nodded. "Yeah! That's the one. What's wrong?"
The air temperature seemed to drop ten degrees.
Nami's face morphed into a shark-like mask of rage, rows of sharp teeth appearing out of nowhere. She grabbed Darian by the collar and began to shake him violently back and forth.
"You idiot! You absolute bastard! That was 100 million Berries! No, a good one could be 1 billion!"
"Ack! Nami! Stop!"
"You ate it! You literally ate my money! How are you going to compensate me?!" she screamed, shaking him like a rag doll. "Spit it out! Spit the money out!"
Darian felt his brain rattling inside his skull. Just when he thought he was going to die of shaken-baby syndrome, a weak cough interrupted them.
Cough! Cough!
Nami froze. She dropped Darian and looked toward the sound.
It was one of the women from the captain's cabin. She was lying naked on the deck, coughing up blood. She was the one Bakal had thrown through the wall.
Despite her injuries and her profession, she was stunning—slender waist, long legs, and a beauty that would have made her a celebrity in Darian's old world. Here, she was just collateral damage.
Darian scrambled over to her.
"Don't look!" Nami barked, instinctively smacking Darian on the back of the head.
But this time, there was no thump. Her hand hit his head and... slipped. It felt like hitting a piece of oiled glass or wet soap. The force of the blow slid right off, dissipating harmlessly.
"Eh?" Nami looked at her hand, confused.
"She's dying," Darian said, ignoring Nami's failed assault. "Maybe my ability can help her."
He placed a glowing hand on the woman's bruised abdomen.
A faint white halo spread from his palm across her skin. Under the light, the woman's breathing steadied. Her pale complexion regained a hint of color, and her skin seemed to become smoother, almost glossy.
"Is... is she okay?" Nami asked, leaning in. She eyed the woman's suddenly flawless skin with envy. "Wait, does your power make skin perfect? Can you do that to me?"
Darian shook his head, withdrawing his hand. "I don't know if she'll make it. Whether she survives depends on her will."
He was beginning to understand his powers. The fruit gave him properties of Rubber, Silicone, Vibration, Lightning, and Lubrication.
His "healing" was actually the Lubrication ability—similar to the Slip-Slip Fruit. He had made her internal organs and blood vessels frictionless, reducing the internal bleeding and allowing clots to pass easily. It wasn't true healing, but it might keep her alive long enough to recover.
Suddenly, Nami sniffed the air.
"Fire..." she muttered. Her eyes widened in horror. "THE FIRE!"
She spun around. The captain's cabin was now a raging inferno. The flames were licking at the ceiling, and more importantly, at the desk where the treasure chest was hidden.
"AH! MY MONEY!"
Nami shrieked, clutching her head. She spun back to Darian, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him again.
"It's all your fault! Why did you use lightning inside a wooden ship?! Do something! The treasure chest is in there!"
"Stop shaking me!" Darian felt dizzy. "Let go! I'll think of something! Maybe I can—"
"Go!"
Before he could finish his sentence, Nami shoved him toward the wall of fire.
"Go save the money!"
Darian stumbled forward, nearly falling face-first into the blaze. She really would kill me for money, he thought with a wry smile.
The heat was intense. The air shimmered and distorted. An ordinary person would have been singed just by standing this close. But Darian only felt a pleasant warmth.
"Hey! Darian! What are you doing?!" Nami yelled, suddenly panicked. She had pushed him toward the fire, but she didn't expect him to walk into it. "Get back here! You'll burn to death!"
Darian ignored her. He walked straight up to the roaring flames and extended his right hand.
A white halo pulsed from his palm.
"Absorb," he whispered.
The moment his hand touched the fire, physics seemed to break. An invisible suction force erupted from his palm. The raging flames didn't burn him; instead, they twisted and spiraled, sucked into his hand like water down a drain.
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