"Why the hell are you trying to arrest me?"
David jerked upright, heart hammering—then relaxed when he recognized the room.
The moment that tension left his body, agony crashed over him like a wave.
He gritted his teeth, every nerve screaming.
He finally looked down at himself.
Bandages.
Everywhere.
He'd been wrapped up like a mummy—layers upon layers of white cloth, the work so clumsy and uneven it was honestly painful to look at.
"I passed out, huh…? So they carried me onto the ship?"
David narrowed his eyes and forced himself to his feet, wobbling to the cabin door.
Outside, the Ghost Ship was sailing on an endless stretch of blue.
From the way the sails were set and the faint whistle of the wind, it was obvious the girls had raised the anchor and were using nothing but wind to move.
David pulled out the Eternal Pose from his pocket and gave a dry laugh.
On the Grand Line, the weather changed faster than a conman's expression.
Without him burning soul power to stabilize things—and with no real navigator on board—it was a miracle they hadn't overturned and drowned already.
"No idea how long I've been out… The whole Alabasta incident's probably off the table by now."
He groaned and fell back onto the bed, closing his eyes to examine his state.
A long sigh escaped him.
All the soul power he'd scraped together with such difficulty…
Gone.
This time, he had burned it clean.
There wasn't a drop left.
Right now, even the fruit-spirit soul-servants were in a weakened state, barely hanging on with no spare soul energy to nurse them back to full strength.
"Massive losses…"
Still, the fight hadn't been without gains.
He'd obtained the incredibly practical Munch-Munch Fruit, and—more importantly—he now had a fully powered Eustass Kid as a soul-servant.
He might look half dead at the moment, but if you only counted potential battle power, he wasn't actually that much weaker than before.
Soul energy existed everywhere. Kill enough small fry and you could slowly refill the tank.
But powerful souls—like Kid's—were rare opportunities.
"Magnet-Magnet Fruit, huh…"
David stared at the flickering soul-flame that represented the fruit's power, a smile tugging at his lips.
He was genuinely tempted to make this his primary development path.
Fruit mastery ultimately depended on imagination and control. And this particular ability was insanely strong—on top of that, it fit his current fighting style almost perfectly.
Magneto isn't cool enough for you?
Now imagine Magneto… but with a full arsenal of multi-fruit soul weapons under his control.
He'd been worrying about how many high-end weapons his body could practically carry.
With Magnet-Magnet, that concern almost vanished—his "equip slots" had just gone semi-infinite.
Three-sword style?
That was yesterday.
In this era, with this fruit, all he had to do was raise his hand and—
King's Treasury, raining soul-weapons from the sky.
He pictured himself floating in mid-air, arms folded, calmly smashing enemies into pulp with soul-forged weapon barrages…
Very tempting.
"Speaking of which…"
He turned his right hand over, and another soul-flame ignited in his palm: the Munch-Munch Fruit.
During his battle with Kid, the gluttonous soul-servant had gone berserk, swallowing everything it could.
After the fight, it had even "cleaned" the battlefield as if it were a vacuum.
The other fruit-spirits had nearly been blown apart blocking attacks.
This one nearly popped from overeating.
With a thought, the Munch-Munch soul opened its "mouth."
A pile of objects poured out and crashed onto the floor.
Among them, two were especially eye-catching: weapons.
One was Red Princess, the sword that had been yanked away mid-fight by Kid's magnetism.
The other was a long, pitch-black katana etched with dark red patterns along the blade.
"Jin'etsu…" he read the inscription softly, delight flashing in his gaze. "Now that is a beautiful blade."
The Munch-Munch Fruit could eat anything, turn it into part of the user's body, or recombine it into new forms.
But even with that enhancement, he could clearly feel that Jin'etsu was sharper and faster than Red Princess.
Which meant it had already been a high-class blade even before enhancement.
"A good match for a main weapon."
He weighed them for a moment, then made a decision:
"Red Princess for the Smooth-Smooth Fruit—my 'Slippery Princess'. Jin'etsu will be my personal side-arm, depending on the situation."
After playing with them for a while, savoring the feel of the blades, he finally tossed both back into the Munch-Munch soul's storage.
The ability really was convenient.
A swallow-type fruit that doubled as a spatial inventory.
He dismissed both new soul-servants and turned over his hand again.
A ping-pong-ball-sized orb of soul-flame appeared in his palm.
This one came from little Furt—not from death, but from David's "soul seed" gift. It wasn't a complete soul-servant, more like an imprint—a hybrid of insight and raw soul energy. It couldn't manifest as a true servant like the others.
He had only given the seed on a whim.
He hadn't expected it to bear fruit this fast.
Within that tiny flame was Furt's experience awakening Conqueror's Haki.
During the battle with Kid, the reason David had been able to suddenly unleash Conqueror's—and lightly touch the realm of Conqueror's coating—was largely thanks to this little seed.
Conqueror's Haki—the power David had wanted for so long, yet never knew how to grasp.
When Garp had taught him Haki, he only said:
"Conqueror's is kingly aptitude. You're born with it. When it's time, it awakens."
So David had always assumed it required some immense shock, some extreme desperate moment…
He'd been quietly disappointed ever since.
If watching my village be slaughtered, consumed with rage and helplessness, wasn't enough to awaken it… then what was?
He'd asked himself that countless times.
Is it really like Garp said? A 'kingly qualification' you're either born with or not?
Am I just… not the type?
Are kings truly born, not made?
That doubt had lingered deep inside him.
Until the moment he chose to gamble his life—pulling every soul-servant back into his body, forcing himself beyond his limit—and for the first time truly felt the process of Furt's awakening.
In that instant, the fog cleared.
Haki, at its core, was just will made manifest, imposing itself on reality.
Conqueror's Haki demanded a stricter condition, but fundamentally… it was still the same thing.
Strong people with Conqueror's Haki were everywhere in this world.
Were all of them "kings"?
In David's eyes, the so-called "kingly aptitude" was something else entirely:
A will that never wavered.
A belief that never bent.
A conviction you'd stake your life on without hesitation.
Do I have that?
The answer was clear—because he had awakened Conqueror's, and even brushed against Conqueror's coating.
So yes.
He did.
Then came the real question:
What exactly is my conviction?
Luffy's was to become the Pirate King.
Zoro's was to become the world's greatest swordsman.
Whitebeard's was to build and protect a family.
Big Mom's was to create a multi-race utopia, "Totland."
Roger's belief had been so immense it shook the whole world.
Their dreams varied wildly.
But all of them believed, without doubt, that they would achieve them—
And moved forward, every second of their lives, toward that goal.
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