"Impossible!"
This time, it was Admiral Sengoku who loudly retorted, his golden spectacles flashing. "You are a pirate! A murderer! How could your heart possibly be inclined towards the light?! What a joke!"
York smiled without a word. The facts had already proven that further verbal arguments would be a waste of breath.
So, he decisively unleashed his magnificent Conqueror's Haki.
KABOOM!!
The black and red Haki transformed into a massive, tangible pillar of energy, enveloping his entire being and piercing straight into the heavens. The dark clouds above Water 7 began to violently rotate, using the pillar of light as the eye of a terrifying storm.
"After waiting for so long," York's gentle voice rang out from within the blinding pillar, "I'm sure you are all very curious about my trump card. Don't worry. I'll show it to you now."
The Haki pillar slowly contracted. York spread his arms to the sides, closed his eyes, and assumed a completely defenseless posture, letting the transformation take hold.
Seeing this, Garp didn't hesitate for a fraction of a second.
SWOOSH!
Garp vanished, reappearing directly in front of York. He pulled his Haki-blackened fist back and slammed it squarely into York's face.
"Fist Bone!"
CRASH!!
York was sent rocketing backward like a fired cannonball, smashing through dozens of stone buildings and warehouses before disappearing into a cloud of debris.
"It's come to a life-or-death battle!" Garp roared, dusting off his knuckles. "Did you really think we'd just stand here and patiently wait for you to gather your strength?!"
"Heh heh..."
A soft chuckle echoed from the ruins.
York slowly stood up from the crater, raising a hand to wipe a thin trail of blood from the corner of his mouth. He wasn't angry at the interruption.
"It's useless, Garp," York smiled, stepping out of the dust. "An Awakened power cannot be stopped by a mere interruption."
As he finished speaking, dark, corrupting flames materialized out of air. They sparked from both sides of his waist, wrapping forward and upward over his shoulders, then backward around his neck. They formed a floating, celestial ribbon of dark fire that hovered silently behind his head—a Hagoromo.
At the exact same time, York's neatly trimmed black hair seemed to ignite. It transformed into brilliant, pure white flames that burned and ascended erratically, defying gravity.
This appearance. This specific, divine posture with the floating celestial ribbon. It was unmistakably the Awakened form of a Zoan-type ability user.
Seeing this scene, Garp, Sengoku, and Tsuru all narrowed their eyes. They had anticipated a trump card, but only Sengoku's vast tactical knowledge caught the immediate anomaly.
"That Awakened form..." Sengoku stepped forward, his eyes widening. "You are supposed to be a Paramecia-type user!"
"That's right! Originally, I was a Paramecia!" York grinned mysteriously. "But my Devil Fruit is... a bit special."
Before this Awakening, York's fruit was 100% a Paramecia. Truly and unequivocally.
But after Awakening, that was no longer the case.
'My Devil Fruit wasn't found on a tree,' York thought, feeling the immense, dual nature of the power coursing through his veins. 'It was obtained by twisting reality through extreme willpower during a moment of absolute trauma. It wasn't a conventional Devil Fruit with a Lineage Factor solidified over centuries.'
From a certain perspective, his Devil Fruit was a unique newborn. And what a newborn becomes upon reaching adulthood is influenced not just by its innate endowments, but by its upbringing.
The essence of the Happy-Happy Fruit was desire. The manifestation was holy light. The effect was absolute corruption.
These contradictions stemmed from York's shattered state of mind when he first wished the fruit into existence. Before his parents died, he harbored a mundane, worldly lust—wanting a power to do whatever he pleased with beautiful women. But when his parents were gunned down by a Celestial Dragon, his mind was flooded with extreme, apocalyptic anger and a desire for absolute destruction.
These two radically opposing desires twisted together, birthing the Happy-Happy Fruit.
York only learned all of this after conversing with the 'Fruit Devil' within his inner Awakening space 38 days ago.
The entity had told him that because the fruit was a blank slate, its conceptual nature was still highly plastic. Until York died, the ability could be influenced by the legends and stories he attached to it.
In other words: York could DIY his own Devil Fruit. As long as the lore was self-consistent on a conceptual level, reality would accept the modification.
That was why York had delayed leaving Skypiea. Over the last month, he had been fabricating a mythology to rewrite his fruit's fundamental origin.
He had created the legend of the Dual Suns.
The Legend of Ra and Apophis.
Legend has it that in ancient times, the universe gave birth to the sole Sun God, Ra.
He forged the sun disk from pure light and nurtured life with gentle warmth, revered as the 'Father of All Things.' His divinity was like unblemished gold leaf, spreading hope and balance.
One day, Ra wished to observe his creations up close. But his true form was too scorching; if he approached, the world would burn. Thus, he split off a piece of his soul, transforming into a human avatar to walk among mortals.
This experience allowed him to witness the beauty of humanity, but he also became tainted by their endless, suffocating desires. When the avatar merged back into the main body, Ra's pure divinity began to twist. Poisoned by human faith and lust, the distortion grew.
Ultimately, to avoid destroying the universe he loved, Ra voluntarily tore his own soul in half.
Thus, Apophis, the Dark Sun God who governed desire, corruption, and eclipse, was born.
From the perspective of the cosmos, Ra and Apophis were two independent entities. But from the perspective of human mythology, the Luminous Sun God (Ra) and the Dark Sun God (Apophis) were merely two sides of the exact same coin.
Therefore, when this legend was successfully imprinted onto the blank slate of the Happy-Happy Fruit, the two gods merged into a single, unified power.
The Paramecia had evolved. It was now a Mythical Zoan.
The Hito Hito no Mi (Human-Human Fruit), Mythical Model: Sun God.
Influenced by York's fabricated lore, the new fruit was divided into two distinct forms:
* Dark Sun God (Apophis Form): This inherited all the traits of the original Happy-Happy Fruit. It wielded the corrupting dark flames and governed the manipulation of absolute pleasure, desire, and destruction.
* Light Sun God (Ra Form): This was an entirely new ability. Its specific manifestations were based entirely on York's raw perception of the sun's purifying light and life-giving fire.
Pulling his thoughts away from his inner world, York hovered slightly above the shattered cobblestones.
With the dark flame Hagoromo floating ethereally behind his head, and his hair burning like brilliant white starlight, York looked down at Garp, Sengoku, and Tsuru.
His lips curled into a half-smile.
"Now," York asked softly, his voice echoing with dual, overlapping tones. "Do any of you know what the true essence of the sun is?"
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