Assessment

Night, Beasts cafeteria.

"Hahahaha! What's wrong, Oshi? Why the long face? You almost beat me! In the Beasts Pirates, you'll be a big name someday!"

Burufatt gulped down Fish-Man Island's signature strong liquor, vigorously patting Oshi on the shoulder as he did.

"That's right! Big Sister Oshi, even though you narrowly lost to Big Brother Burufatt, with your strength, you can basically throw your weight around anywhere in the crew now!"

The pirates nearby wore fawning smiles as they refilled Oshi's juice.

"Big Sister Oshi, let me toast you."

"I never expected you to be this amazing, Big Sister Oshi! We'll be counting on you to look after us from now on!"

"That's right. Once you get a little more real combat experience, surpassing me will be just around the corner~ What was that saying again? Something about the new generation replacing the old generation?"

"Sigh~"

Oshi ignored the pirates flattering her. She merely propped her chin up with one hand while aimlessly poking at the steak on her plate with a fork.

[Something's wrong. Normally, this girl's tail would be sticking up in the sky by now. What's with her today?]

Seeing Oshi so listless, Burufatt turned to Obe and asked.

"What's wrong with you two?"

"Tch~"

Obe did not answer either. She simply frowned at her sleeve, staring as though she wanted to see every individual thread woven into it.

"Hey! King, do you know?"

After hitting two walls in a row, Burufatt had no choice but to ask King whether he knew what was going on.

King was unusually dining in the cafeteria at the moment. He had removed the lower half of his mask and was intently eating the Flying Fish sashimi on his plate.

Ever since tasting it once while out at sea some time ago, King had been unable to forget the flavor. By sheer luck, a merchant ship arriving today had carried several Flying Fish, so King bought them at a high price and sent them to the cafeteria to be made into sashimi.

"It's probably because of that exam Ra mentioned before."

King wiped his mouth, then passed the last plate of Flying Fish sashimi over to Burufatt and the others.

"Try it. It tastes good."

"I don't like fish. Let these two brats try it!"

Burufatt did not seem particularly fond of seafood, but since King was rarely willing to share, he could not exactly refuse. So he looked toward the two girls beside him, who were still wearing miserable expressions.

"Here, you two try some. This stingy bastard King paid a fortune for it."

"Ahm... huh?!"

While lost in thought, Oshi instinctively picked up a slice of sashimi with her fork and chewed it twice before immediately spitting it out.

"Pwah... ptooey, ptooey~ Why is it raw?!"

"Of course sashimi is raw."

"Take it away, take it away. I don't eat raw food." Oshi hurriedly picked up her juice and rinsed her mouth.

"Then..." Burufatt turned to Obe again.

"I don't eat it either."

The Three Sisters—or rather, You Ling—rarely disliked anything, but raw food was one of those things.

You Ling remembered once inviting a friend out for a meal. The friend had chosen a Japanese restaurant, and out of curiosity, he had ordered salmon sushi.

It had to be said that it looked quite good. But the moment it entered his mouth, he had nearly thrown up in front of everyone.

To this day, You Ling could not remember what that sushi had tasted like, as though his brain had selectively erased that memory.

"If you don't want it, forget it. Come on! You lot, have a taste. This stuff costs several times more than Sea Kings meat." Burufatt directly handed the plate to the lackeys gathered around them.

"What do we do? There's only one day left."

"How about asking Sister Ra to give us a few more days?"

"Then you go ask Big Sister."

"No, you go."

"I don't want to either."

"Sigh~" ×2

"By the way, what exactly is this assessment of yours?"

Having heard about the assessment from King, Burufatt, now full and pleasantly drunk, came over again out of curiosity.

Oshi and Obe both blushed. The former even snapped angrily, "Ugh~ Your breath reeks of alcohol! Go away, go away! Can't you see we're worried? You stinking pervert!"

"How am I a stinking pervert? I haven't done anything to you! Besides, I'm a Fish-Man. I wouldn't even look twice at a little girl like you!"

"You may as well tell us what the assessment involves. We can help you figure it out." Unexpectedly, King spoke up at that moment.

"Yeah, more people means more ideas~ Tell us and let everyone think it over."

Oshi and Obe looked at each other, then nodded.

"The assessment goes like this: suppose you're a... how should I put it? Suppose you're the user of one of those Logia Type Devil Fruits we mentioned before. How would you control your element and turn it into a piece of clothing you could wear?"

Obe did not mention divine power or energy, figuring they would not understand. Instead, she came up with a similar example.

"A Logia Type? Ra is a Logia Type user?! Or are you two?"

Hearing that the assessment involved elemental transformation, Burufatt was somewhat surprised.

"Oh, come on~ Sister Ra and we aren't Logia Type users! It's just an example, an example!" Seeing everyone focus on Logia Type users, Oshi hurriedly corrected them.

"Hmm~ This is troublesome. We don't have any Logia Type users in our Pirate Crew. They're mostly Zoan Types." Burufatt found it rather difficult.

"I've met a few Logia Type users. It seemed they could only turn their own clothes into elements, not transform other things into clothes."

King searched his memories for information related to Logia Type users.

"Right, those Logia Type bastards are strange. Why can their clothes become elemental too?"

Burufatt also recalled a Logia Type user he had encountered before, then looked at King again.

"And you Zoan Types are the same. You're clearly only changing your bodies, yet your clothes transform with you. Boss Kaido turns into a dragon so huge, but when he turns back, his clothes aren't damaged at all!"

King did not answer, because this involved rules from a higher dimension. He did not know either.

"Alright, now isn't the time to discuss bursting clothes... uh~ Well, I guess it's not that different."

Oshi suddenly remembered that King could flexibly control flames, so she asked eagerly, "Oh, right, Flamehead, how do you control your fire? Sometimes you put it on your head, sometimes on your wings. Is there some trick to controlling it?"

"Controlling fire is the talent of my people. You could call it instinct, like breathing. There's no technique I can teach you." King did not mind what Oshi called him.

Well, perhaps he minded a little, but he would not say so.

"Like breathing? King, can you control your flames and make them into a piece of clothing?" Obe asked.

Ever since their spar, Obe had never called King Masked Man again. Mainly because every mention of masks made her think of that twisted face, and then...

"Make them into clothing? I can cover my whole body with flames, making it look like clothing, but the consumption is considerable, and it has little practical combat value."

As King spoke, he stood and demonstrated.

He folded his wings. Then the flames behind him flared up and spread across his body, as though he had draped himself in a cloak of fire.

But after only a few seconds, he quickly dismissed it again.

"So what kind of clothing are you talking about?"

Watching King's demonstration, Burufatt felt it was still somewhat different from "clothing."

"Like this."

Obe lifted the hem of her skirt.

"?" ×n

All the pirates, including King and Burufatt, looked utterly confused.

"The dresses Oshi and I are wearing were woven by Sister Ra from an energy similar to an element," Obe explained further.

"?!" ×n

"W-What did you say?! The clothes you're wearing aren't real?!" Burufatt's eyes bulged as he directly reached over and touched the hem of Oshi's skirt.

"It feels like ordinary silk. If there's anything special about it, it's just that it feels absurdly good."

Meanwhile, King carefully stared at Obe's dress. He did not touch it, but the trembling of his pupils showed that his heart was far from calm.

"This is flame! And an extraordinarily special kind of flame! I can sense a presence from it that is impossible to look at directly!"

King identified the material of the dresses in one breath.

"I never thought there would come a day when I feared fire."

His race—the Lunarian Tribe—were children of fire by nature. Flame was as much a part of them as their own bodies.

Yet King now felt immense pressure from the gentle thing before him, something devoid of the violence and scorching heat flames should possess.

But after suppressing the submission in his heart and carefully examining the two dresses, King discovered something even more shocking.

"This... this was made by reeling flames into threads and weaving them into clothing! Such unimaginable craftsmanship—it is practically a miracle of the gods!" He abruptly rose to his feet, rare agitation showing on his face.

"Huh? There's fire in it too? But Sister Ra clearly said she only used pure divine power?"

Oshi rubbed her skirt with her hand, trying to create a spark or something.

But she failed. Its smooth, warm texture felt more like an early summer stream than flame.

"Hey, hey, is it really that exaggerated? It actually made you show that expression, King?"

Burufatt could not understand what was so extraordinary about these seemingly ordinary clothes that could make King lose composure.

"Burufatt, your Fish-Man Karate is a fighting method that manipulates water. Then can you control water, turn it into threads, and weave those threads into clothing like this?" King gave Burufatt an analogy.

"Are you kidding me?! I can turn water into thin streams, but weave them into clothes? I'm not the Sea God. How could I possibly do something like that?! At most, like you, I could temporarily drape seawater over myself."

Hearing King's analogy, Burufatt found it absurd.

"Wait, you mean the clothes these two brats are wearing..."

"Yes. They're woven from threads made of fire."

"Hiss~" ×n

This was a work that could only be called a divine miracle!

The pirates around them gradually understood just how terrifying it was, and they all sucked in cold breaths. The cafeteria suddenly became several degrees cooler.

"Did your big sister turn into a monster or something?! So your assessment is..."

"Mm. Sister Ra wants us to weave a set of clothes like this ourselves. If we can't finish by then, she'll... mmm~ mmmph~..."

Obe hurriedly covered Oshi's mouth. What came next was not something they could say in public!

"That's impossible. You should give up."

King spoke decisively. Had he not seen it with his own eyes, he would not have dared imagine that a dress woven from flame could truly exist.

"Sigh~ So there really is no way..." Oshi looked dejected. They had already tried every method they could think of. They had truly reached the end of their rope.

Unless...

"At this point, we can only cut corners!" Obe seemed to have made up her mind.

"Cut corners? How?"

"Like this, like this... and then that, that..." Obe quietly whispered her plan into Oshi's ear.

"Will that work?! That's completely cheating, isn't it?!"

"You don't have to do it."

"Let's go prepare right now!"

"..."

One day later.

In this clearing that no instrument could detect... ahem, this empty clearing, Obe and Oshi nervously looked at Ra before them.

That training ground had now become something like a tourist attraction on the island, packed with people every day. It would have been inappropriate to conduct the assessment there.

"So, this is the assignment you turned in?" Ra's tone revealed neither joy nor anger.

"...Yes." ×2

Oshi and Obe answered stiffly, their voices full of guilt.

They were like a class monitor and a study representative holding two or three notebooks, then telling the teacher that they had collected everyone's homework.

"You cut corners."

Her tone remained gentle and calm, but hearing it made both girls shudder from head to toe.

"..."

After a suffocating silence, Oshi was the first to break.

"Waaah! Sister Ra, I'm sorry, but I had no choice~ It was Obe! Obe was the one who talked me into it!" Oshi threw herself around Ra's leg and began tearfully pleading her case.

"You!"

Obe's eyes nearly popped out from Oshi's maneuver. She had not expected Oshi to be so utterly shameless.

"Big Sister, don't listen to her nonsense! I didn't..."

"It was you! You were the one who tempted me by saying, 'At this point, we can only cut corners,' and then saying, 'Big Sister won't do anything to us.' It was you!

Sister Ra, believe me! How could an honest person like me possibly come up with such a cheating method? Only someone sneakily wicked like Obe would cheat and try to drag me down with her!"

"Y-You! What nonsense! You're making baseless accusations and slandering me!"

"Ababa... Anyway, you were the one who suggested cheating first. At most, I was an accomplice.

No, I should be a pitiful hostage, a poor little victim you used as a shield. Sob, sob~ Sister Ra, Obe is so mean~"

"Enough acting. I know both of your personalities very well. Obe, you came up with the shortcut, didn't you?"

Ra grabbed Oshi by the collar and pulled her off her leg.

"Big Sister, I..."

"And Oshi, you definitely did not oppose it, did you? With your personality, you probably even pushed Obe into doing it."

"Big Sister truly sees all!" Obe spoke with great emotion, like Dou E meeting Judge Bao, like warm sunlight melting snow from an unjust grievance.

"Um, Sister Ra, how could you think of me that way..." Oshi still tried to shamelessly argue.

"Alright. I'm also at fault for not noticing sooner and letting you exploit a loophole.

Perhaps the task I assigned was too difficult, leaving you with no choice but to use this method in an attempt to muddle through."

Ra examined the "clothes" on them.

Beneath the loose long dresses Ra had woven for them was a set of real clothes bought from a shop in town. The two girls had evenly permeated every thread with their divine power, forming another set of "clothes."

This was almost exactly the same as the coating technique of Armament Haki.

It was as though Ra had asked them to submit an original painting, but the two had simply traced one—directly over the original artwork, no less.

What reassured Ra was that both of them had covered their clothes with their own "Authority." Faint golden currents could be seen flickering across the surface of Oshi's outfit, for example.

This was beyond Ra's expectations. She had only told them that her clothes were woven from divine power, but she had not mentioned that she had also applied an Authority over flames to ensure a comfortable temperature—this involved far more advanced energy control.

I never expected the two of them to notice that. They really put some thought into it.

Though in Ra's eyes, the arrangement of their divine power and the fine control of their Authorities were still extremely crude, utterly incomparable to her own naturally formed flame dress, their initiative still pleased her greatly.

At least they had some subjective initiative now, didn't they?

What she did not know was that King, being especially sensitive to flames, had been the first to notice it. After Oshi and Obe learned of it, they had probably added their own Authorities by imitation out of a desire not to be too perfunctory.

But even with that shortcut, making this outfit was no easy task.

Divine power was one thing, but stably applying an Authority to clothing... It sounded simple, but dynamically controlling that energy—keeping it activated while preventing it from damaging the actual clothes beneath—required terrifyingly precise control.

For the two of them, going from merely releasing their Authorities to reaching this level in just a week was already tremendous progress.

Facts proved that when people were pushed hard enough, they could do anything—except advanced mathematics.

But when gods were pushed hard enough, even advanced mathematics was possible!

Ra dispersed her power and watched the plain dress formed from flames and divine power dissolve into specks of light, revealing the golden and indigo "fabric" underneath. That was Oshi's lightning and Obe's gale-force wind.

"Hmm. It's a little rough, but to achieve this much in such a short time, you must have put in a great deal of effort."

Looks like we have a chance!

At Ra's words, Oshi and Obe's eyes lit up as they looked at her expectantly.

"Let's say you've passed for now." After a long silence, Ra finally let them pass the test.

"Yay!" Oshi immediately jumped up and hugged Obe beside her.

Obe, tightly entangled by her, also let out a long breath. The weight in her heart had finally lifted.

"But don't celebrate too soon. Letting you off this time doesn't mean you won't have to keep weaving this 'clothing.'"

Just like every homeroom teacher did, after giving them a sweet date, she brought out a big stick.

"This test will continue until you can truly complete clothing that belongs to you. Once that happens, you'll have graduated from under me, and I won't keep managing your every move."

"Got it, got it."

At this moment, Oshi clearly was not taking it to heart at all. Live for today, drink for today—passing this time was enough. Surely no one actually kept studying after exams were over and vacation had started, right?

At least right now, Oshi's mind was filled with thoughts of going out to sea.

"I understand, Big Sis."

In contrast, Obe was especially solemn this time. Unless she truly had no other choice, she genuinely did not want to brush Ra off like she had today.

In her eyes, this "Big Sis," who had clearly come from the same source as them and was around the same age, always took such attentive care of her and Oshi like an elder.

More than once, she had seen traces of her parents in Ra. Of course, she resembled their mother more often.

Ra always walked ahead of Obe and Oshi, whether in battle or in study... Obe did not know what scenery lay before Ra's eyes, how distant a future her gaze could see, or whether she had already made plans for what was to come...

Whenever Obe looked up, all she could see was that small golden figure from behind. Ra blocked out the entire sky, blocked out the sun.

It made her feel safe, yet it also filled her with contradictory unease.

She feared that if the figure before her disappeared one day, then faced with a completely unfamiliar landscape, she might not have the courage to keep walking.

She wanted to become someone Ra acknowledged—a little sister who would not hold her back, a little sister who could walk shoulder to shoulder with her.

Next time, I won't disappoint you again, Big Sis...