Kizaru stood frozen, eyes wide, as Lloyd spoke in his calm, distant tone.
"This is the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit. Darkness devours everything, even Devil Fruits themselves. Once I lay my hand on an ability user, their powers disappear."
"What?!"
Gasps erupted around the training field. No one had imagined that such an ability could exist. Even Zephyr, who had seen countless Devil Fruits across his long naval career, stood stunned.
He had planned for Kizaru to teach Lloyd a lesson, yet the situation had reversed entirely. Just days ago, he had warned that Kizaru might suffer a loss in terms of ability, but he never expected it to happen this quickly.
The Glint-Glint Fruit was one of the most versatile fruits in the world. Its destructive power was extraordinary, its speed unmatched, and even in defeat, the user could almost always escape.
Zephyr had always believed that light and darkness were opposing forces, but what he was witnessing overturned everything he knew.
Light itself was helpless under the pull of darkness, and combined with the Dark-Dark Fruit's ability to nullify Devil Fruit powers, the match was overwhelmingly one-sided. Darkness was the natural enemy of the Glint-Glint Fruit.
Kizaru realized this as well. His panic vanished, replaced by focused clarity. Armament Haki coated his free arm as he prepared for close combat.
If he lost in ability, he would win in physical strength. He wasn't just fooling around every day at the Navy Academy.
Lloyd's hand gripped his shoulder firmly, leaving only one arm free to strike. Kizaru gathered all his power in that arm and swung a Haki-coated punch straight at Lloyd's abdomen.
Lloyd couldn't dodge. Using Kamui would release Kizaru. It seemed—for a moment—that he would have to take the blow head-on.
But in the tense stillness of the watching recruits, Lloyd's hand suddenly lit with a cyan surge of electricity. Before Kizaru's punch could even reach him, the admiral candidate's body convulsed violently.
"Thud!"
Kizaru dropped to his knees, smoke drifting from his mouth as he collapsed backward.
Silence swept the yard. Even Zephyr and the recruits looked as if they had been shocked themselves.
Kizaru regained consciousness quickly. Lloyd grasped his arm and pulled him up with a neutral, unreadable expression, brushing the dust from his uniform.
"Borsalino, are you alright?" Lloyd asked.
Kizaru's head tilted weakly. After several seconds he croaked,
"Lloyd… does the Dark-Dark Fruit also produce electricity?"
Lloyd answered casually, "No. Discharging electricity is a racial talent of the Mink Tribe."
"Oh! So you're a Mink!" Kizaru exclaimed.
He studied Lloyd with a puzzled look, then frowned.
"But your skin is too smooth. Where's your fur? Don't tell me…"
His gaze drifted downward toward Lloyd's pants. Lloyd's expression darkened instantly.
"What exactly are you thinking? Both my parents are humans."
"Eh? Then how can you…?"
Lloyd fell silent. Slowly, he tugged open his collar, revealing deep intersecting scars carved across his chest.
Kizaru froze. The playful curiosity in his eyes vanished, replaced by quiet seriousness.
He said nothing more, only rested a hand on Lloyd's shoulder.
Lloyd acted as if the moment meant nothing. He raised a hand subtly. Kuma, waiting nearby, understood instantly and used his ability to appear beside Lloyd in a burst of displaced air, drawing fresh exclamations from the recruits.
Kuma didn't need instructions. Lloyd simply glanced toward Kizaru, and Kuma knew the meaning behind it.
In Kizaru's confused stare, Kuma placed a padded paw on his chest. A red, translucent paw-shaped mass emerged from behind him, drifting free of his body.
And then something unbelievable happened.
Kizaru suddenly felt light. Energized. Restored. All trace of exhaustion vanished from his body. His posture straightened instantly.
He stretched experimentally, eyes widening.
"This feels amazing! What happened?"
Kuma explained his ability calmly. As understanding dawned on Kizaru, two shining crosses of light formed in his eyes. His gaze toward Kuma transformed completely.
Removing pain and fatigue from a person—such an ability was priceless. Anyone with sense could understand the absurd value behind it.
Zephyr clenched his fists on the sidelines, overwhelmed with excitement. He wanted to grab Sengoku and kiss him for granting him such talent through Lloyd.
If Kuma had been a gift before, then now his worth was unquestionable and entirely his own.
A powerhouse who could heal as well as destroy—no one would care about his former slave status after this. He belonged to the Navy. Let the Celestial Dragons complain if they dared.
Zephyr could hardly wait to report all of today's events.
Meanwhile, not far from Lloyd, Kizaru continued stretching with an oddly graceful sway. The red pawprint behind him suddenly twitched and drifted toward him.
Kizaru instantly felt something wrong. He scattered into photons and flashed to the side.
But the pawprint followed him steadily, its speed gradually increasing.
Lloyd called out to him, voice calm.
"Borsalino, if no one receives the pain Kuma expelled, it will return to you."
Kizaru shouted while dodging desperately,
"Then what am I supposed to do? Keep flashing around forever?!"
Lloyd extended a hand. Darkness flowed like liquid, gathering into his palm before forming a black, ominous bible.
A soft breeze rustled its pages open. A swirling dark vortex burst forth from its center, spitting out a half-dead man.
A pirate Lloyd had captured in the Sorbet Kingdom.
He was the last living inmate in Lloyd's bible. His physique kept him alive longer than the others. Those who couldn't endure the void of darkness had long since starved and been absorbed.
When exposed long enough to a Logia user, objects could become elementalized.
Lloyd had turned his dark bible into a stable dark-space storage—perfect for containing the otherwise uncontrollable power of his fruit.
A fixed dark realm, capable of holding people or objects indefinitely.
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