"Ow, ow, ow!"
Garen's handsome face was nowhere to be seen anymore. His formerly dashing features were now swollen like a blobfish stranded on shore.
The ordinary white suit he wore—which merely happened to have been tailored by Alabasta's royal court tailor—had also been shattered into barely wearable rags beneath Ice Fist's storm-like barrage.
Kuzan was responsible for all of this.
He had pushed Garen's "Devil Fruit Ability" to its limit and still wasn't satisfied. Only after beating Garen's physical body to its limit did Kuzan finally stop.
To pass Kuzan's test, Garen had even had to deliberately suppress the Data Mode that was ready to emerge, using his flesh-and-blood face to take Kuzan's iron fists head-on—fists strong enough to bore through glaciers.
And after beating Garen into a state where he could barely care for himself, the culprit leisurely sat nearby and made sarcastic remarks.
"Kid!"
"You have this level of strength, and you've been through so many battles. Why is your tolerance for pain so low?"
"You're making such a fuss, like a rookie who just entered boot camp."
"I..."
Garen glared irritably at Kuzan, who had beaten him up and still had the nerve to stick around, then said indignantly,
"When I fight with my Devil Fruit Ability activated, I don't feel pain."
"I see."
Kuzan nodded with interest, then sighed.
"It completely blocks even pain. That really is a terrifying power born purely for battle!"
At the same time, Kuzan looked at Garen with a little more appreciation and approval.
Even though the kid's pain tolerance was so poor, he had still endured Kuzan's merciless fists until the end.
Though he had howled in pain like a novice, he had remained standing and never fallen.
He truly was someone worth entrusting things to.
Garen didn't notice