If El changed drastically over these three years, that was hardly surprising.
As an innate monster, no matter how absurd his growth became, it still felt… reasonable.
What truly shocked people was Kuina.
Over the past three years, Kuina's physical foundation improved explosively, pushing the power of her lightning to terrifying heights.
At full output, she could now unleash a lightning calamity, like a true thunder god descending upon the battlefield.
More importantly—
She successfully comprehended the Breath of All Things and stepped fully into the realm of master swordsmen.
The Lightning Swordsmanship she created fused speed, cutting power, and elemental destruction into a single system.
Once she drew her blade, facing her felt less like fighting a person—and more like confronting a natural disaster.
Her speed alone was enough to terrify even seasoned fighters.
In these three years, Kuina also fully mastered the Six Powers (Rokushiki) and developed several lightning-based variations of her own.
One of the most terrifying was her evolved Shave (Soru).
By integrating it with her electric field, Kuina could:
teleport freely within the field
ignore terrain and obstacles
and appear instantly at any point she chose
Once the electric field was deployed, it became her domain.
If Kuina continued to grow, she might truly recreate the glory of her ancestors—
defeating enemies with a single strike and standing at the peak as the world's strongest swordswoman.
Her physique also strengthened tremendously.
In pure physical combat, Kuina could now completely overwhelm both Carina and Nami.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit was an absurdly comprehensive Devil Fruit.
As long as the user's body kept improving, everything scaled with it—
swordsmanship, physical techniques, and raw lightning output.
Once lightning was integrated into movement, Kuina's speed even rivaled that of a Glint-Glint Fruit user.
In the past three years, all four girls—including Perona, who joined last—successfully awakened and mastered two types of Haki.
Their ability to do so at such young ages came from several factors:
the complete Armament Haki training system left behind by Koushirou
the effects of nutritional supplements
and most importantly…
a critical accident that occurred during training
Three years ago, Nami, who had personally killed her enemy in East Blue and completed the sublimation of her will, became the first among the four girls to awaken Armament Haki.
Just as El expected.
Shortly afterward, Nami, Kuina, and Carina entered Asura Form (Three Heads and Six Arms) during training as usual.
By absorbing Nami's experience and understanding through the fusion, Kuina successfully awakened Armament Haki only one week later.
She then shared her radio-wave perception with the others.
This scene sparked a new theory in El's mind.
He had Carina, Kuina, and Perona fuse again—
allowing Perona to directly experience Armament Haki.
The result was immediate.
In just a few days, Perona also awakened Armament Haki.
After confirming the theory, El personally entered Asura Form with Carina and Kuina.
This time, he allowed them to experience his Observation Haki and Conqueror's Haki directly.
The two girls did not disappoint him.
In less than a month, both awakened Observation Haki.
Unfortunately, Conqueror's Haki still eluded them.
However, by memorizing that sensation and undergoing targeted training afterward, they eventually grasped that elusive feeling and stabilized their Observation Haki.
This was the terrifying growth achieved by the four girls over three years.
At their age, mastering two types of Haki already placed them among the elite—even if compared to the warriors of the Kuja Tribe.
Compared to Kuina's explosive progress in Rokushiki, the other three girls lagged slightly.
Carina, aside from being able to physically overpower Kuina, fully mastered Rokushiki but did not develop unique variations.
Nami's physical techniques were weaker than both Kuina and Carina's, and she had not mastered all Six Powers.
However—
Her Flame-Flame Fruit temperature skyrocketed over these three years.
The true reason the island's forests vanished was simple:
Nami had been playing with fire.
Among the four girls, Perona's improvement was the smallest.
Although she was technically the oldest, her willpower did not match the others.
It took her nearly a year just to form the habit of waking early to train.
Much like in the original timeline, Perona remained a house-type girl—
preferring to hide in her room and wander outside with her soul.
Even with Kuina using electrotherapy to help her digest nutrients—allowing her to drink two bottles of supplements per day—
Perona only mastered Shave (Soru) and Moonwalk (Geppo), skills focused on escape.
If not for Asura Form, she wouldn't have awakened Haki at all.
El had no complaints about Perona's "laziness."
Her role on the team was never frontline combat.
Without Asura Form:
Carina served as deputy commander and strategist
Kuina was the frontline warrior
Nami acted as the mage, dealing elemental destruction from behind
Perona was the support, hiding behind them and controlling the battlefield
Asura Form itself was the true main combat power of the crew.
After three years, El and the four girls were finally strong enough.
Aside from their young age, their bodies and strength no longer had obvious weaknesses.
They no longer feared being ambushed or eliminated early by Mary Geoise or Marine Headquarters.
But strength always came at a price.
As mentioned before, the cost of a single bottle of nutritional supplement ranged between 2–2.5 million Belly.
Through long-term cooperation with Drum Island's largest pharmacy, El successfully stabilized the price at 2 million Belly per bottle over the three years.
Daily consumption:
El, Carina, Kuina → 3 bottles each
Nami, Perona → 2 bottles each
That totaled 26 million Belly per day.
Over three years—
They spent an astonishing 28.47 billion Belly on supplements alone.
The pharmacies and wholesalers involved made unimaginable profits from this deal.
If not for the 100 billion Belly worth of gold they had acquired earlier—
Such growth would have been completely impossible.
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