2,000 push-ups, 2,000 sit-ups, 2,000 kick drills, 2,000 punching drills… Sweat poured down like rain. Even though Mieko was already drenched, his body nearly limp, he still clenched his teeth and stubbornly pushed through.
Every drop of sweat held tomorrow's payoff; spill more sweat in training, and you'll spill less blood on the battlefield! That simple but profound truth had long since become an unshakable life creed for Mieko, who had been a soldier in his previous life—carved deep into his soul.
Time always slips away quietly when you're not paying attention—like a white colt flashing past, gone in an instant.
By the time Mieko finished his 2,000th punching drill, he was soaked through, panting hard, and collapsed weakly onto the ground of the Island Cloud.
The reason Mieko dared to push his body to this kind of limit in a forest crawling with vicious beasts and hidden danger was simple: he had absolute confidence. Those towering thickets were like a natural barrier—ordinary wild beasts couldn't break through that line of defense at all.
More importantly, as the holder of the so-called strongest Logia-type Devil Fruit, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, Mieko possessed the miraculous ability of elementalization. Even if a beast dared to attack, the moment it bit into his body, it would likely be instantly stunned by the electric arcs bursting out when Mieko reflexively elementalized.
"Rest for half an hour first. After lunch, I'll continue developing the Devil Fruit ability!" Mieko panted, exhausted, picking up the towel beside him and gently wiping the sweat from his face, his gaze drifting toward the small wooden cabin not far away. There, half a wild spotted leopard—roasted to a crisp golden brown—hung under the eaves. He'd deliberately saved it as lunch this morning.
Mieko grabbed his water flask, tilted his head back, and gulped down huge mouthfuls without a shred of restraint, the cool water soothing his parched throat. Once his strength recovered a little, he walked over to the cabin, snatched the half leopard, and tore hard with both hands—ripping off a huge chunk of leg. Then, at a jaw-dropping speed, he devoured it in a whirlwind, leaving absolutely nothing behind…
After eating his fill, Mieko immediately felt brimming with strength and full of energy. His figure flickered—like a bolt of lightning cutting across the sky—and in the blink of an eye he was atop the nearby thicket. With a few light jumps, he quickly left his living area.
Developing a Devil Fruit ability often came with massive energy fluctuations. One careless slip could cause wide-area destruction. Mieko wasn't stupid enough to develop his fruit right where he lived, bringing himself unnecessary trouble.
Not long after, Mieko arrived at a desolate stretch of land. Everything here was charred black; broken trees lay scattered in every direction, as if the place had been through a brutal battle. Looking around, this scorched wasteland was clearly the result of his lightning power running rampant—and judging from the traces, this was far from his first visit.
Mieko rolled his shoulders and loosened up. Then his right hand took a thrusting stance, slowly lifting and precisely aiming at a charred broken log more than ten meters away.
"Bzzzt… bzzzt…"
In an instant, dazzling electric arcs erupted from his hand, wildly jumping and flashing, accompanied by a harsh, grating crackle.
"Ten million volts—Thunder Spear!"
With Mieko's low shout, his right hand suddenly burst with blinding lightning, condensing into a sharp, spear-like thrust.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE—
Azure lightning writhed violently. The razor-sharp Thunder Spear pierced straight through that broken log in an instant, momentum unabated, punching through more than a dozen logs behind it—each one left with a fist-sized, charred hole. The sight was horrifying.
You had to understand: blasting a hole through a tree was far harder than simply snapping it in half!
All those countless charred logs around him were the results of his repeated experiments over the past days. To reach his current level, he'd been training here for over a week, repeating this drill who knew how many times.
Thunder Spear was Mieko's self-created technique, inspired by Sasuke's Chidori Sharp Spear from his past life's ninja world. He condensed lightning into a spear shape, stabilized and maintained its form, then fired it out at extreme speed. Its power was enough to pierce through row after row of thick trees that would take several people hugging them together to wrap around.
If that move hit a human body… the sheer horror of it didn't take much imagination.
Mieko had also tested Thunder Spear's effective range. While maintaining strong lethality, it could reach about 200 meters; at maximum range, it could extend to 500 meters.
And if Mieko increased the electrical output, the power could obviously climb even higher.
Fifty million volts was the current limit of what Mieko could control, and what he'd just used was only around ten million volts.
Compared to Enel, who could casually discharge hundreds of millions of volts, Mieko was obviously still far behind. But considering he'd only obtained the Rumble-Rumble Fruit a little over three months ago, reaching this level already counted as downright shocking.
Of course, Mieko also knew Enel's developments of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit inside and out. He naturally wasn't going to miss such a perfect chance to imitate. Not only did he borrow related techniques, he also developed a few basic moves of his own—just with names that might be different, that was all.
"Bzzzt… bzzzt…"
Azure lightning surged through the area again. Countless jumping arcs wrapped around Mieko's right hand, dazzling and ceaselessly flickering.
Gradually, those arcs began to weave together and merge, as if they were becoming solid—an astonishing sight. Mieko slowly raised his right hand toward the sky. In the next instant, from that arc-covered hand, a tangible bolt of lightning more than ten meters long shot out.
"Thunder Cutter!"
Mieko barked low, then chopped his right hand down. The brilliant solidified lightning instantly became like a razor-sharp blade, cleaving down with a crash.
Bang! Bang!
That incomparably sharp lightning blade cut through the broken logs ahead as easily as slicing tofu, neatly severing a dozen or so logs more than ten meters away, one after another.
Because of lightning's damage properties, the cut surfaces of each log were slightly charred—but the cuts were unbelievably smooth, like they'd been severed by an absurdly sharp weapon. It was shocking to see.
"God's Judgment!"
Suddenly, Mieko jerked his right hand up, pointing to the sky. His crackling hand instantly detached at the wrist, turning into a streak of dazzling lightning that shot into the heavens—vanishing from his sight in a blink.
Whoosh!
Fifty meters away, a lightning pillar nearly half a meter wide slammed down from the sky, striking straight into the ground below.
BOOOOM!!!
A tree more than ten meters tall was instantly blasted to pieces. Charred splinters and branches sprayed everywhere, and a bottomless round crater was left in the earth.
"This move, God's Judgment, really is convenient… but I still need to improve it later. Throwing my wrist out after turning it into lightning is still risky. If I run into some hidden expert who cuts it off with Armament Haki or a Seastone weapon, that would be a disaster…"
Mieko watched as his right hand rapidly reassembled, electrons gathering back into shape, and he silently weighed the problem in his mind.
(End of Chapter)
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