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A warm breeze drifted over the water. As they neared the Sabaody Archipelago, the sea lanes grew crowded.
Aboard their commandeered merchant ship, the only sound was a series of violent, retching coughs.
Redfield was on his hands and knees, one hand clutching his throat, the other gripping the remains of a bizarre, deep-purple Devil Fruit. He looked awful. The man who lived and breathed elegance was now pale green, gagging for several minutes straight.
For a man of his stature, who valued his image above all else, it was a moment of profound indignity.
Arthur watched the entire display and burst out laughing.
It was a deep, unrestrained, joyful laugh. Finally, he had witnessed someone else endure the same revolting ordeal he had experienced with the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
You could not even vomit it up.
The taste... God, the taste. It was a flavor so foul that no one who endured it would ever want to experience it a second time.
"Hah..."
Redfield finally got to his feet, wiping a layer of cold sweat from his brow. He collapsed into a chair, breathing heavily, and hurled the half-eaten, foul-tasting fruit out the cabin window and into the sea.
"That," he panted, "is... vile."
He glared at Arthur, who was still chuckling. "I suppose you looked any better when you ate the Rumble-Rumble Fruit?"
Arthur just shrugged. "What is this? I have still got to eat my second one."
He leaned forward. "So? You ate it. Show me what it can do. What is so special about this thing you have been chasing your whole life?"
A Devil Fruit's abilities become instinctual the moment it is consumed. Like breathing, or eating. The basic powers should be accessible immediately.
Redfield nodded. He took a sip of wine to wash away the lingering taste, then slowly closed his eyes.
An inaudible wave pulsed from his slightly open mouth. In the next instant, his entire body disintegrated, exploding into a massive swarm of bats.
The cabin was too small. The swarm shot out the door like a bolt of lightning, coalescing back into Redfield's form on the main deck.
Arthur followed him out, clapping slowly. "Impressive. Not quite intangibility like a Logia, but a different means to the same end. What happens if a few of those bats... do not make it back?"
"I would be injured, I assume, but not dead," Redfield mused. He then turned, his eyes locking onto another ship sailing in the distance.
"Wait here."
Before Arthur could reply, Redfield exploded into the bat swarm again and shot across the water.
'He must be desperate to regain his youth,' Arthur thought.
Ten minutes later, his Observation Haki sensed the other ship fall silent. He watched, through his mind's eye, as Redfield drained the blood of the young crew members, one by one.
He watched as the wrinkles around his First Mate's eyes vanished, as his skin grew taut and his posture straightened. He was thirty years younger, his body restored to the prime he had possessed in his thirties or forties. The only thing that remained of his age was his long, silver hair.
'That is a powerful ability,' Arthur mused, a slow, cold smile spreading across his face. 'I just hope his old ambition does not return with his youth. Or I will have to take that new toy away from him.'
A man's ambition is often a product of his youth. Once old age sets in, a man tends to look back on his memories, his energy for new conquests gone.
Yet Redfield, though his lifespan had not changed, was now physically back in his prime.
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A month later.
As the year 1503 drew to a close, their slow-moving ship finally entered the New World.
Beneath the eternal, swirling thunderclouds, Raijin Island had been transformed.
In the golden palace at the island's peak, the commanders of the Thunder God Pirates were all assembled. Outside, in the sea, the colossal form of Sanjuan Wolf sat, casually grabbing a Sea King and stuffing it into his mouth.
The great hall was packed. The commanders sat on either side, their lieutenants standing behind them, awaiting their leader's return.
"Murunfufufu, the Captain is finally back!" Catarina Devon cheered, chugging her tankard of ale.
"It is about time! I am sick of that mad dog Kaido, meow!" Avalo Pizarro roared, slamming his fist on the table.
For the past month, Kaido—still seething from his humiliation at Marineford—had been relentlessly harassing their borders, leading his three top commanders in constant raids.
Of all the Thunder God Pirates, only Shiryu and Byrnndi World had been able to hold their own. The other commanders, when met with Kaido's forces, had been completely overwhelmed.
Arthur strode into the hall, Redfield at his side. He walked to the high throne and sat, his gaze sweeping over his commanders, their lieutenants, Silver Fox Foxy—who looked far more confident than before—and finally, Jessica, who sat in the front row on his left.
He nodded once, a silent greeting, and raised a hand for silence.
"Forget about Kaido. He is a dead man walking. Fighting him now is a waste of resources. Let him wait."
'In a few years...' he thought, '—when I have the Op-Op Fruit, I will put that invincible beast on a slab and find out what makes him tick.'
The Op-Op Fruit's Room was the ultimate operating table. It was a space where the user's power was absolute, a space where they could cut anything. As long as the user was strong enough, they could bypass any defense.
Arthur refused to believe that, with his power combined with the Op-Op Fruit, he could not break Kaido's invulnerability. If that failed, then the Beast truly was unbeatable.
In truth, the stronger his own body became, the more he realized that Kaido's durability was an anomaly. It was not something a human could achieve. Once he had the Op-Op Fruit, he would uncover that secret.
'And who knows... maybe I can even apply it to myself.'
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