"Master, the Log Pose hasn't finished setting. Which Eternal Pose should I use to leave?"
Under the night sky, a sailboat glowing with lantern light drifted across a sea strewn with stars and a round moon.
On deck, after fixing the helm's heading, Nami looked at Yami, who had trussed up Poli Breed like a rice dumpling, and asked.
"No rush. I'll drift a bit first, then tell you my plan."
Yami balled up a cloth and stuffed it into Poli Breed's mouth, then lashed him to the rail.
After that, Yami said to the three girls, "Come on, let's head inside."
In the lounge, Yami sat on the sofa, brewing tea with practiced ease as he came clean: "I need a pirate alive. I'm sending him to a Marine branch so a prison ship can take him to Impel Down. I'm going to find the deep-sea prison."
"Impel Down?"
As usual, Carina reacted in an instant and asked, "Master, the place you were searching for earlier—was it Impel Down?"
"Yeah."
Yami nodded. "Unfortunately, Impel Down sits in the Calm Belt. Clairvoyance from the Gaze-Gaze Fruit can't locate it."
"Gaze-Gaze Fruit?"
Robin blinked, staring at Yami, her tone skeptical. "BOSS, is that Paramecia—the Gaze-Gaze Fruit—your ability?"
As Oharan scholarship's youngest member, Robin knew Devil Fruits far better than Carina and Nami.
When someone like her said even the Rumble-Rumble Fruit counted among the 'invincible' powers of the three types, it meant something.
So Robin knew the Gaze-Gaze Fruit didn't seal other users' powers.
Could Yami be something other than a pure human, an unknown race whose innate talent sealed Devil Fruits?
But Yami's next words shattered her worldview.
"Heh… I forgot to mention when I introduced myself."
Yami gave a meaningful smile and reintroduced himself: "I'm Yami, user of the Logia—Dark-Dark Fruit, Paramecia—Door-Door Fruit, and Paramecia—Gaze-Gaze Fruit."
"Im… impossible!"
Robin's pupils tightened as she blurted out, "In this world, each person can only eat one Devil Fruit. How can there be a multi-Fruit user?"
Like eating when hungry or sleeping when tired, even in the East Blue where Fruits were 'legendary treasures of the sea,' everyone knew the rule: eat a second Fruit and you die. It was common sense.
Now, with common sense broken before her eyes, of course Robin denied it on reflex.
But when she saw one of Yami's hands shrouded in black mist and the other opening an air door into empty space, she had no choice but to accept reality.
"…"
Unlike Carina and Nami—who both hissed in a sharp breath to express their shock—Robin fell silent.
Had Yami been using Observation Haki, or simply reading her mind, he would have sensed the tempest raging inside her.
No wonder she had been helpless. The man who caught her was a monster who broke the rules of the world.
At the same time, Robin felt both heavy and relieved.
Heavy, because a monster who breaks the rules isn't like West Blue riffraff—she couldn't use him.
Relieved, because he was a limitless golden pillar to cling to.
With Yami's protection, her safety would be secure, and the difficulty of finding history stones would plummet.
Her feelings were a tangle.
Before Robin could settle them, Carina's next line made the iron-nerved beauty's pupils shrink again.
"Master, are you going to Impel Down to hunt ability users and seize their Devil Fruits?"
Seize… Devil Fruits?!
Robin stared at Yami in disbelief, eyes filled with shock and incredulity.
Not only could he nullify a user's power—he could take another's Fruit?
What kind of monster was this?
In that moment, Robin let out a long breath.
She no longer feared Yami would hand her to the Marines or the World Government.
Compared to them, Yami was the one who unbalanced the world.
If his ability became public, the whole world would quake. Countless ambitious giants would fixate on him, craving that power.
Pirates and the World Government alike.
With Yami's help, any faction's foundation would skyrocket.
Worse, Yami could rapidly form a terrifying force—an army of ability users—by simply hunting. A power none could dismiss.
And beyond that, he himself was an unprecedented multi-Fruit user who broke the rules.
If there were no upper limit on how many Fruits he could eat…
Then by hunting and taking more and more, wouldn't he eventually ascend to a godlike existence?
At that thought, Robin felt a thrill.
If moments ago she'd been thinking of slipping away, now she was thinking of winning Yami's trust and truly becoming one of them.
Such a superlative golden pillar was not to be missed.
With his help, she would surely find true history.
Yami didn't know what she was feeling.
Hearing Carina's question, he nodded without concealment. "That's right. The Devil Fruit I want most has already been eaten. Its user is in Impel Down."
"The Fruit you want most?"
Carina and Nami both had their curiosity hooked; the former couldn't help but ask, "Master, which Devil Fruit is the one you want most?"
Robin also watched Yami closely.
For him to call it the one he wanted most, it had to be a top-tier power.
If such a user was locked in Impel Down, he must once have been a major name who roamed the seas.
Who could it be?
Yami's lips curled. He spoke a single name.
"That Fruit is… Paramecia—Moa Moa no Mi, the More-More Fruit."