Seawater and Seastone are the bane of all Devil Fruit users, while Haki serves as the premier weapon to breach their defenses.
Beyond these fundamental rules, the Logia-type Dark-Dark Fruit (Yami Yami no Mi) stood as a bizarre anomaly among fruits—it nullified all other abilities upon physical contact. That single trait was the sole reason an ambitious schemer like Marshall D. Teach had patiently endured decades of obscurity aboard Whitebeard's ship.
Yet at this moment, Teach's grand ambition was crumbling into pure despair.
It defied all logic. A man who already wielded lightning, tremors, and terrifying physical strength was now actively commanding the boundless ocean itself! Against such a power, the advantage of his Dark-Dark Fruit was reduced to a bad joke.
Facing the towering, ship-sized maw of the ocean dragon plunging from the heavens, Teach roared in primal fury. His thick arms blurred as he unleashed a frantic barrage of Haki-clad shockwaves, the sheer pressure cracking the air before him.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The concussive force of his heavy punches smashed into the water dragon, detonating its pressurized serpentine head into an explosive downpour of scalding saltwater.
However, Darian's chakra remained tethered to the sea. The ocean was infinite. The moment the first dragon broke, the swirling currents instantly reformed, condensing into three fresh, roaring serpentine beasts that lunged straight for the beach.
Teach desperately punched through the second and third waves, but his movements grew visibly sluggish. His stamina was plummeting, and a dense, blinding fog of superheated sea vapor had quietly rolled across the shoreline, obscuring his vision.
"How is this... possible...?!" Teach wheezed, his eyes stinging from the salt and mist.
Before he could gather another burst of darkness to clear the air, a shadow flickered behind him. Darian's water-clone, concealed within the dense fog, materialized at Teach's blind spot, directing a fourth, colossal water dragon straight into his spine.
ROAAAR!
"DAMN YOU ALL—!"
With a desperate, choking shriek of pure hatred, Teach's massive three-meter frame was swallowed whole by the roaring torrent. The ocean dragon whipped its tail, violently dragging the flailing, helpless pirate beneath the dark waves and plunging him into the bottomless depths of the Grand Line.
Puff!
The moment Teach vanished beneath the sea, the clone operating in the mist exhausted its remaining chakra, dissolving into a harmless cloud of white smoke.
On the shore, Darian deactivated Third Gear, falling to one knee on the wet sand as an overwhelming wave of exhaustion crashed over his limbs.
'That was way too close,' Darian thought, his breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps.
A thirtyfold physical amplification combined with high-tier ninjutsu and chakra output was devastating, but the metabolic tax on his cellular stamina was astronomical. If Teach had possessed the monstrous, multi-day endurance of Akainu or Aokiji, Darian's reserves would have run completely dry.
'My baseline stamina and Haki density are still lacking against true New World veterans,' Darian acknowledged, his fingers clenching into the sand. 'I need to accelerate my training.'
He gripped the hilt of Kiyotsuki, pulling the Great Grade blade from the sand and using it as a cane to steady his trembling legs. Forcing his posture upright, he walked slowly and deliberately back toward the ruins of Mock Town, maintaining an aura of cold, untouchable supremacy for any terrified onlookers hiding in the shadows.
By the time he met Nami and the others at the docks, Carmen had already prepared a massive, steaming banquet of roasted sea king meat and fresh carbohydrates. Darian devoured the entire spread like a starving beast, feeling his depleted cells rapidly absorb the nutrients and restore his physical power.
An hour later, the Little Fish dropped anchor off the quiet eastern coast of the island, where an eccentric, two-dimensional wooden facade of a castle stood proudly along the beach.
"You must be Mont Blanc Cricket," Darian called out, leaping lightly onto the sandy shore.
A broad-shouldered, shirtless man with a distinct, chestnut-shaped growth atop his head stepped forward, his arms crossed over his scarred chest. Flanking him were two colossal, ape-like men—the salvage commanders Masira and Shōjō.
"Who the hell are you brats?" Cricket grunted through the smoke of his cigarette, his sharp eyes narrowing. "Trespassing onto my shore uninvited... this entire stretch of sea belongs to the Saruyama Alliance."
"We didn't come looking for a fight," Darian replied smoothly, raising a hand in peace.
Sensing no hostile intent, Cricket studied the tall, handsome newcomer. Suddenly, his cigarette nearly fell from his lips as his eyes locked onto Darian's face.
"Wait... you're 'White Emperor' Darian! The rookie with a fresh 150-million-Berry bounty?!" Cricket blurted out. He had just read the morning paper detailing the execution of Crocodile in Alabasta.
Darian raised an eyebrow. 'My bounty jumped again? 150 million?'
He glanced back at Nami, who shrugged in equal surprise.
"Since you recognize me, let's keep this simple, old man," Darian smiled. "We need your expertise to calculate the exact timing and coordinates of the next Knock Up Stream."
"The Knock Up Stream?" Cricket paused, letting out a dry, self-deprecating chuckle. "Don't tell me a big-shot pirate like you actually believes in those ridiculous children's fairy tales. You honestly think there's an island floating in the clouds?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Darian countered, pointing a finger straight toward the heavens. "The Sky Island of Skypiea exists, and the ancient Golden City of Shandora rests right above our heads. Your ancestor, Mont Blanc Noland, was never a liar. The best proof will be the day the great Golden Bell rings its song across the sea once more."
Cricket froze, the mocking edge in his demeanor vanishing completely. His hands trembled slightly as he stared into Darian's dark, unwavering eyes.
For ten agonizing years, Cricket had braved diving sickness and deep-sea predators every single day, desperately searching the ocean floor to prove his bloodline wasn't cursed by a four-hundred-year-old lie. Countless pirates had passed through Jaya to mock him, but not a single man had ever looked him in the eye and spoken of Noland's integrity with such absolute, unshakeable conviction.
"Are you... truly serious about this, brat?" Cricket asked, his voice rough with emotion.
"I don't waste my breath on fairy tales, Uncle," Darian grinned. "Just tell us how to ride the current, and I'll make sure that golden bell rings loud enough for you to hear it down here."
Cricket took a long, trembling drag from his cigarette, turning to gaze out across the rolling waves.
"Perhaps... this really is fate," Cricket murmured softly. He turned back to Darian with a fierce, determined grin. "There's a massive, violent ocean current building beneath the crust. According to my calculations, the next major Knock Up Stream will erupt south of here at noon, the day after tomorrow."
Over the next forty-eight hours, the Saruyama Alliance worked tirelessly alongside Darian's crew to reinforce the Little Fish. They installed broad, wooden aerodynamic wings along the hull and reinforced the mast with specialized rigging to catch the vertical updrafts.
During the preparations, Darian took a brief, twenty-minute flight back to Mock Town. Locating Bellamy the Hyena bragging in a local tavern, Darian severed the arrogant rookie's head with a single supersonic draw of Kiyotsuki, wiping out the Bellamy Pirates entirely to eliminate any future nuisance before setting sail.
At dawn the following morning, the heavily modified Little Fish steered directly south across the open sea.
Right on schedule, an apocalyptic wall of towering, pitch-black Cumulonimbus clouds—the "Emperor Clouds"—dominated the southern horizon, completely blocking out the sun and plunging the ocean into an eerie, unnatural midnight.
"What incredible luck!" Nami cheered from the helm, feeling the rapid shifts in barometric pressure against her skin. "The cloud ceiling is centered directly due south!"
Robin stood by the railing, gazing up at the colossal dark cloud bank with intense focus. Knowing an ancient Poneglyph was hidden within the sky ruins above, her pulse quickened.
"The Emperor Clouds are in position," Robin observed, her brow furrowing slightly. "Now we only need to pinpoint the exact epicenter of the eruption."
"Leave that to me!" Nami called out, a confident, brilliant smile lighting up her face as she gripped the ship's wheel. "I can already feel the ocean's heartbeat accelerating beneath our keel!"