Ortolan: Have I Evolved into Homelander?

A flash of lightning streaked through the back mountain of Cake Island. Immediately afterward, a pillar of thunder shot into the sky, only to rapidly dissipate as though it had never appeared at all.

Meanwhile, where Ortolan and Katakuri stood on the back mountain, crackling arcs of electricity occasionally flickered through the air.

Ortolan was sitting cross-legged on the ground. Electricity occasionally ran through the tips of his hair, while the small box that had been placed beside him had already been opened. The Goro Goro no Mi inside had vanished.

Seeming to feel the thunderous power within his body gradually settling down, Ortolan slowly opened his eyes. His pupils had originally been black, but perhaps because he had eaten the Goro Goro no Mi, they had undergone a very noticeable change.

His black pupils had turned indigo blue, lending him a faintly mysterious air and raising Ortolan's overall bearing by just a tiny bit.

"Didn't you say there wouldn't be much of a commotion?" Ortolan immediately complained.

As he spoke, several arcs of electricity even shot out of his mouth, making him look rather ridiculous.

Not far away, Katakuri said in surprise, "I really didn't expect this. That was quite a spectacle. Is this what you'd expect from the Goro Goro no Mi, known as the 'invincible' Devil Fruit?"

Katakuri had only sensed that rapidly vanishing bolt of lightning for an instant, but the power contained within it had already been terrifying enough. If they had been on a ship or inside a building, that single bolt would have been enough to destroy everything around it!

But soon, Katakuri asked curiously, "How does it feel?"

"It feels..." Ortolan moved his body a little, rose to his feet, and hopped around a few times before saying uncertainly, "It doesn't feel like anything's changed?"

"Try communicating with the thunderous power inside you... The feeling of becoming a Devil Fruit user is very... um... strange? In any case, it'll feel as though you've grown a new organ, or suddenly acquired an instinct you were born with. You have to think about it. You have to dare to imagine it... Only then can you wield it, become familiar with it, and keep developing it!" Katakuri instructed him as a senior Devil Fruit user.

Ortolan silently nodded, then closed his eyes again and quietly, seriously began to perceive the new power within him.

Then Katakuri saw a layer of lightning gradually emerge over Ortolan's body. His body occasionally twisted in extremely unnatural ways—twists that ordinary people could never achieve. It was the movement of elementalization!

After that, Ortolan raised his hand with his eyes closed. Dense lightning elements quickly gathered in his palm. With a bang, a shockwave formed from lightning elements shot from his hand and slammed violently into a tree not far away.

As though it had been struck by natural lightning, the tree exploded outright. Flames even erupted from the core of the impact, quickly dying out and leaving behind a charred black patch.

Ortolan opened his eyes, looked at his palm, then at the tree he had blasted in the distance, and smacked his lips. "I see..."

The feeling really was much like Katakuri had described. After becoming a Devil Fruit user, that mysterious, indescribable power was incredibly wondrous.

It was like how an ordinary person might imagine shooting terrifying heat vision from their eyes like Superman. Even though you could not truly fire heat vision, if you were a Devil Fruit user, then so long as it was within the limits of your ability, imagining it and instinctively circulating the energy in your body could make it real!

At that thought, lightning flared in Ortolan's eyes. Faint thunderbolt markings appeared on the skin around his eye sockets, and then two solid pillars of lightning shot from his eyes like heat vision, streaking straight toward the point where his gaze was focused and directly blasting apart the tree he had struck earlier!

Watching this, Katakuri's eyes filled with surprise, and he could not help saying, "You just ate the Goro Goro no Mi, and you've already developed an attack you can use?"

Wasn't that far too fast?

Ortolan was excited now as well. His eyes searched everywhere for suitable targets. Rocks and clods of earth alike suffered misfortune, blasted into fragments by the laser beams Ortolan condensed with the power of lightning!

After testing it several times, Ortolan finally laughed. "What's so surprising? It's only because this attack is the simplest kind of development—brutal and completely devoid of technique!"

What he had just done was extremely simple. First, he imagined it. Since he already had a familiar template in his mind, that step came easily. Then he mobilized the seemingly inexhaustible thunderous power within him and gathered it in his eyes. Relying on the nature of the Goro Goro no Mi, the process was incredibly fast; Ortolan could finish charging his eye sockets almost in the blink of an eye.

Then there was no need for any extra technique. He only had to focus his attention and release the energy gathered in his eye sockets!

The entire process had practically no technical difficulty at all!

Come to think of it, I have a body of steel. I've got Steel Bones and Iron Muscles! Super strength? I have Innate Divine Strength, sir! Super speed? I'm already a Goro Goro no Mi user, so teleportation shouldn't be a problem either. Heat vision? I just pulled that off. Flying? That's a basic ability of the Goro Goro no Mi—easy enough!

Damn, I'm basically Superman now... Well, that's a bit exaggerated, but calling myself Homelander shouldn't be a problem, right?

Should I say, "I don't eat beef," later?

After clearing those chaotic thoughts from his mind and discussing a few things with Katakuri, Ortolan looked at him expectantly. "Next, please let me enjoy the basic privilege of being a Logia-type user..."

"Elementalization?" Katakuri smiled. "That's not a privilege reserved solely for you Logia-types..."

If anyone else had said that, it might have sounded boastful and arrogant. But it was perfectly reasonable coming from Katakuri, because his own ability was exceptionally special.

He was the user of the Paramecia-type Mochi Mochi no Mi, but the Mochi Mochi no Mi's unique transformations allowed him to freely alter his own form, producing the same effect as the elementalization of a Logia-type user!

Therefore, his Mochi Mochi no Mi was one of the rare Devil Fruits known as a Special Paramecia!

Sure enough, after teasing him, Katakuri's arm changed. A trident squeezed out from it. Judging by its length, the trident was definitely longer than his arm, yet it somehow emerged from his arm anyway. This was one way Katakuri had developed his special ability: like the Logia-type Swamp Swamp Fruit, he had created a storage space within his body!

There was no way Ortolan's Goro Goro no Mi could achieve something like that. It was determined by the nature of the Devil Fruit itself.

And Ortolan strongly suspected that Katakuri's original reason for developing this ability had probably been to store massive amounts of donuts inside his body so he could enjoy his favorite food whenever he wanted.

Holding the trident, Katakuri did not say another word. He raised his hand and thrust it straight at Ortolan's chest!

The trident came with fierce momentum, but it was not imbued with Haki. Naturally, Ortolan had no intention of dodging either.

With a ripping sound, the trident in Katakuri's hand pierced straight through Ortolan's body. Yet crackling arcs of electricity flickered around the pierced area, where flesh had already transformed into lightning elements. That was the effect of elementalization, and because of it, Katakuri's strike had no effect on Ortolan whatsoever!

But Katakuri did not withdraw his weapon. Instead, he held the trident steady and looked at Ortolan. "Imagine how you would escape from this attack..."

Ortolan nodded and took a deep breath, as though sensing something. Then a flash of electricity ran through the ends of his hair beside his ears, and in that lightning-fast instant, his ability activated.

Like a bolt of lightning appearing out of nowhere in the distance, Ortolan's figure flashed and appeared there in an instant!

Teleportation!

Compared to his laser eyes from before, this ability clearly involved greater technical difficulty. When Ortolan's feet touched the ground, his body had yet to adapt to balancing at such speed. He staggered and nearly fell flat on his face.

But Katakuri nodded approvingly. "Not bad. I thought you'd need at least several attempts before you could manage this kind of transfer. I didn't expect you to succeed on your first try. It seems you're highly compatible with the Goro Goro no Mi..."

Once Ortolan had steadied himself, he smiled. "You might not believe it, but before I got the Goro Goro no Mi, I'd already fantasized about this kind of power countless times. So maybe I had a whole set of development ideas in my head and have plenty of experience?"

"Lots of experience from daydreaming? Hahaha..." Katakuri laughed as he teased him.

"Didn't you just say that developing Devil Fruit abilities relies on imagination? Isn't that basically daydreaming?" Ortolan retorted.

As the beloved son of Charlotte Linlin, a top-tier Devil Fruit user, Katakuri was also a Devil Fruit user himself, so his words were quite fair.

The power of Devil Fruits was indeed exceedingly mysterious. Their development also depended heavily on the user's own "imagination." It had a real "I reckon" sort of feel to it.

I reckon this ability can be used this way, and then you work hard to develop it in that direction—there really was a chance you could develop some bizarre effects!

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