"Now stay put. This fruit, I'm giving it to my subordinate."
"No… impossible…"
Enel murmured in a daze. "Devil Fruits… cannot be stripped away… that's the law…"
"Law?"
Renzo looked as though he'd heard something amusing. The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
"Here, the only law is 'trouble.'"
He stopped wasting words and slowly raised his right hand, aiming it at Enel.
[Judgement of Sloth, Concept Extraction: Source of Trouble!]
An invisible gray aura, yet one that seemed to carry the primal power of the world itself, instantly enveloped Enel!
"Ugh… AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"
Enel's eyes flew wide as he let out a scream so shrill it barely sounded human.
He felt no physical pain, yet a far more terrifying sensation, like his very soul was being torn apart by force, rushed through his entire being!
He could clearly see it: the lightning power that had been with him since birth, long since fused into his very existence, was being ripped away by an utterly unreasonable, brutal force, torn straight out of him!
Like deboning a living fish.
That agony and panic, born from the severing of a connection at the very root of life, completely shattered him.
"No! Stop! My power! My divine might!!"
He struggled frantically, Seastone shackles scraping violently against the floor with ear-piercing noise.
But it was all futile.
Just a few seconds later.
Thud.
Enel's body went limp and collapsed to the ground, completely unconscious.
Above Renzo's palm, a strangely shaped Devil Fruit hovered quietly, entirely golden, its surface covered in lightning-shaped spiral patterns, crackling faintly with arcs of electricity.
The Goro Goro no Mi.
It had been forcibly stripped from Enel's body by Renzo through a method that utterly defied common sense.
"Th-this is…"
Sanji stared at the terrifyingly energetic fruit, forgetting to even take a drag from the cigarette in his mouth as he muttered under his breath.
Ain pushed up her glasses, her eyes beneath the lenses shining with disbelief.
Stripping a Devil Fruit from its user, something that existed only in legends, had actually been accomplished by Admiral Renzo.
Only Rehn showed no shock at all, his eyes burned with endless fanaticism and worship.
"Lord Renzo… you truly are… omnipotent!"
Renzo examined the "source of trouble" in his hand and allowed himself a faint, satisfied smile.
Good. The noise source was dealt with, and he'd even gained a high-potential "upgrade package" along the way.
Maximum efficiency.
He casually tossed the Goro Goro no Mi to Rehn, who was so excited he looked ready to ascend on the spot.
"Here. It's yours."
"Yes!! My liege!!"
Rehn caught the fruit with trembling hands, as if holding the most precious treasure in the world. Tears burst forth like a broken dam.
"Eat it," Renzo urged impatiently. "After that, go train. I don't want to see a 'lightning fatso' who can't even fly straight."
"Yes, sir!!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Rehn opened his mouth wide and took a huge bite out of the Devil Fruit, said to taste absolutely awful!
An indescribable flavor, like burnt rubber mixed with corroded metal with a little bit of shit, exploded across his mouth!
"Ghk!"
Rehn nearly vomited on the spot, but he forced it down, swallowing the entire fruit, peel and all.
The next second-
"ZZZZZAAAA!!!!"
Blinding golden lightning erupted violently from Rehn's massive body!
Countless tiny arcs of electricity raced wildly across him, ionizing the air around him with sharp crackling sounds!
"AAAAAAHHHH!!!"
Rehn threw his head back and roared, his cry brimming with raw power!
He could feel it, a violent, unprecedented speed and force was madly reshaping his body, fusing into his very soul!
His perpetually squinted eyes snapped fully open, golden lightning dancing within them!
"Th-this is… the power of thunder!"
He clenched his fist!
Crack!
A thick bolt of lightning detonated out of thin air around his hand!
"Speed! Unmatched speed!"
With a thought,
Whoosh!
Rehn's round body vanished from where he stood!
In the next instant, he reappeared at the other end of the cell!
Then he became a streak of golden lightning, darting back and forth through the cramped space, zigzagging wildly!
He was so fast that golden afterimages lingered in the air!
"So fast!" Sanji's pupils shrank sharply.
"This speed… it might not even be inferior to Admiral Kizaru!" Ain whispered in shock.
"Hahahahahaha!!"
Rehn finally stopped, floating midair, feeling the endless surge of power within him as he laughed heartily!
He looked down at his still-fat body, then at Enel lying on the ground like a dead dog, his eyes filled with confidence, and a trace of pity.
"So… you possessed such tremendous power, yet you never even used one ten-thousandth of it."
He shook his head, then abruptly turned and prostrated himself before Renzo once more, kneeling heavily!
This time, his voice no longer trembled; it rang with unprecedented resolve and strength!
"Lord Renzo! From this day forward, Rehn shall become the fastest spear and the strongest shield in your hands! Any existence that dares disturb your peace shall be reduced to ashes beneath this thunder!!"
"Efficiency will be carried through to the very end!!"
Golden lightning shone over his body, illuminating that fat face filled with fanatical loyalty.
From this moment on, G-5 Branch, no, the entire world, gave birth to a new legend,
'Lightning' Rehn!
The fastest fat man in history!
And also… the first truly top-tier combat force under Renzo's command!
Renzo yawned, lazily sitting halfway up from his floating sofa, glancing at Rehn, still crackling with electricity and basking in ecstatic joy.
"Too loud."
Two words, like buckets of ice water, instantly doused Rehn's excitement.
"Eh?" Rehn froze. His floating body dropped with a thud, kicking up dust as it hit the ground.
He scrambled up at once, panic written all over his round face.
"Lord Renzo! I, I disturbed your rest? My deepest apologies!"
"Not just loud-"
Renzo frowned, looking at him with the same "waste-of-space" gaze Enel had received earlier.
"-You're also too slow."
"S-slow?!"
Rehn's eyes nearly popped out.
'Slow?'
'Lord Renzo… are you serious?
'That was lightning just now!'
'Short of light speed, is there anything faster than that?!'
Sanji and Ain were equally baffled.
'This was slow?'
'Then what counted as fast?'
Renzo seemed to see through Rehn's confusion and waved his hand impatiently.
"All speed, no control. You can't even stabilize your movement, dash a few meters, and you nearly tear the prison apart. That's not 'fast.' That's an out-of-control cannonball. And the lowest-efficiency, most energy-wasting kind at that."
"True 'speed' is absolute control."
He thought for a moment, then casually issued his first "divine decree":
"Go to Training Ground No. 7. When you can use ten million volts to precisely peel the skin off a grape, without damaging the flesh underneath, then you may come see me."
"Until then, don't go around disgracing the name 'Lightning.'"
With that, Renzo lay back down and waved his hand.
"Ain. Sanji. Let's go. Back to catch up on sleep."
The CC 1 carried Renzo away, drifting lazily into the distance.
Sanji and Ain exchanged a glance, both seeing the same thing in each other's eyes,
Sympathy.
'Peeling a grape with ten million volts?'
'What kind of hellish training was that?'