"It not only perfectly replicates the ability user's powers," Shiki explained, his voice full of a strange, almost jealous excitement, "it allows the eater to instantly master all of the ability user's techniques. No flaws. No training need."
He leaned in, his grin widening as he saw Nami's dawning horror.
"In other words, little girl, after you eat that, you'll immediately possess all of Kaido's Devil Fruit skills."
Shiki's words were far more devastating than any physical blow.
'All of Kaido's skills? Instantly?' Nami's mind didn't just go blank; it felt like it had been shattered and reassembled in the wrong order.
This meant she wouldn't just gain the power of the Azure Dragon; she would instantly know how to use it at a Yonko's level.
The sheer, overwhelming scale of this gift was terrifying.
"This... this is too valuable..." Nami murmured to herself, her gaze locked on the fruit.
Her heart was a painful, chaotic knot of conflicting emotions—a desperate, burning longing for this power, mixed with a crushing, confused gratitude for the man who was just giving it to her.
"Why... why are you giving me such a precious fruit?" she couldn't help but ask, her voice a trembling whisper.
Ron seemed to see through her turmoil, his expression unchanged.
"You don't need to overthink it," he said calmly. "For convenience. Eat it, and become my personal mount. That is your value."
'Mount'.
The word was cold, demeaning.
But the power was absolute.
Nami fell silent, then took a deep, shuddering breath and slowly reached out.
Her fingers trembled as she took the fruit.
She knew this was it.
The moment her destiny changed forever.
"I... I understand."
She brought the fruit to her lips and, without another moment of hesitation, bit down.
An indescribably revolting taste flooded her mouth, like rotten fish and ash, but she endured the disgust, forcing herself to swallow the entire, terrible piece.
The effect was instantaneous.
Her body shuddered violently as a powerful, alien force erupted from within, sweeping through her entire being like a bolt of lightning.
She cried out, a sound that was half-scream, half-animalistic roar.
Pink, shimmering scales, hard as steel, began to surface on her skin.
Her body elongated, bones cracking and reforming at an impossible, agonizing speed.
Her limbs stretched, her fingers sharpening into terrifying dragon claws.
A pair of elegant, pink dragon horns sprouted from her forehead, wreathed in faint, tangible clouds.
Her eyes... her vision shifted, the world becoming sharper, her pupils elongating into vertical slits that shimmered with a pink, otherworldly light.
A powerful tail, covered in the same scales, burst from the base of her spine.
Her human form was torn away, replaced by the slender, majestic, and terrifying body of a true Divine Dragon.
Pink flame clouds—the same kind Kaido used to fly—materialized beneath her new claws, lifting her massive draconic form into the air.
The sensation was overwhelming.
"I... I'm flying!" Nami's voice, now a strange, echoing chorus, exclaimed in pure, childish joy.
"Robin, look! I can actually fly!"
On the shore, Robin looked up with a genuine, pained smile on her face.
'She's so happy,' she thought, her heart aching. But that joy was built on a terrible sacrifice.
'My friend... has become someone else's mount to save me.'
Unnoticed by the ecstatic dragon in the sky, Robin's eyes glistened, her own aura of sadness now overwhelmed by Nami's new, overwhelmingly powerful presence.
"Wait!" Nami suddenly grunted in the air, her massive dragon head shaking in confusion.
Countless pieces of information, complex and detailed, were flooding her mind.
It wasn't memory; it was pure, unadulterated instinct.
Techniques, applications, the feel of the wind, the taste of fire...
These were Kaido's signature skills, and she understood them all perfectly, as if she had been using them her entire life.
"Is this... the power of the 'perfect grade' fruit?" she murmured, overwhelmed.
A fierce, primal impulse rose within her.
She had to test this.
Her gaze hardened as she fixed her sights on the empty sea far below.
Scorching, unimaginable energy gathered deep in her throat.
"Boro Breath!"
A brilliant, superheated pillar of pink fire erupted from her mouth, striking the ocean.
The sea itself exploded.
A mushroom cloud of steam and vaporized water shot skyward, sending colossal, tsunamic waves rolling out.
The residual heat instantly vaporized countless sea kings, their charred corpses floating on the boiling surface.
Witnessing the scene, Nami felt utterly shocked.
'I... I did that?'
But the instincts surged again. Her body coiled in the air, her dragon mouth parting slightly.
"Bad Wind!"
A powerful airflow surged from her, condensing instantly into countless, invisible blades of wind that shrieked through the air.
They carved deep, clean trenches into the sea's surface, as if the ocean itself were being diced by an invisible giant.
A final, overwhelming impulse, the pinnacle of this power, surged through her.
Her gaze deepened.
"Great Fire Dragon Torch!"
Scorching, pink-gold flames began to manifest around her, clinging to her scales.
They coalesced, growing in intensity, enveloping her entirely.
Her entire, massive body had transformed into a living magma dragon, a being of pure, destructive heat.
The air around her ignited, and the sea surface below her evaporated on contact, creating a vast, roiling cloud of white mist.
"So… powerful…" Nami murmured, her voice a low rumble, complex lights shimmering in her draconic eyes.
The sheer, world-ending sensation was both thrilling and terrifying.
Slowly, with a conscious effort of will, she let the power recede.
The magma dragon cooled, the scales faded, the dragon horns and tail dissipating.
Her body shrank, reforming into the familiar, human shape of Nami.
She landed softly on the shore, her legs trembling, her body drenched in sweat, but her eyes, now human again, were filled with an awe, a terror, and a power that had not been there before.
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