Blood That Wouldn't Boil

"Refusing to pay Celestial Gold?" Mousse's curiosity was immediately piqued. "I'd only heard that nations refusing to pay Celestial Gold would be stripped of their World Government membership. Without the Marines' protection, pirates would naturally make those defectors regret it. Why are they taking direct action now? Have they torn off their hypocritical mask and decided they don't need any shame at all?"

The officer answered with a bitter expression, "I don't know either. The higher-ups only said that the Faros Kingdom must be completely destroyed rather than allowed to fall into pirate hands. It may be cruel to the people of that country, but it is for justice, for the peace of the entire world."

"They have the nerve to call such atrocities justice? When it comes to thick skin, us pirates really can't compare to you high-and-mighty officials!" After Mousse sarcastically mocked them a few times, he began recalling the sea charts of the area.

Then he guessed why the World Government was being so ruthless this time. "Heh, I hadn't noticed before, but the Farol Islands are in a crucial location!"

The Farol Islands happened to lie between the Giant Kingdom of Elbaf and Marine Branch G1—the location of the Marines' new headquarters two years after Marineford. On one side was the Calm Belt, which the Marines still found difficult to cross, while Totto Land stretched out on the other.

Clearly, once the Farol Islands fell under pirate control, the connection between the World Government and Elbaf would be severed. (Note 1)

Not only would it become difficult to obtain new recruits from the Giant Kingdom, even the Elbaf giants already serving in the Marines might become unsettled.

On the other hand, if Elbaf's Giant race lost the World Government's economic support, they would likely return to their old trade as pirates. The Giant Soldier Pirates, who had once given the World Government endless headaches, might reappear—and the consequences would be even more terrifying.

No wonder the World Government was willing to tear off its mask and directly send the Marines to destroy the Faros Kingdom after it voluntarily withdrew from the alliance, all to prevent it from joining under some Great Pirate.

After learning this information, Katakuri and Mousse immediately realized that they could not stand by and do nothing. An army without limits was capable of anything. If they did not intervene at once, even if Grandpa and Grandma were still alive now, they would soon meet with disaster.

Although the fleet this time was led by two Marine Headquarters vice admirals, one of whom was the battle-hardened and renowned elite vice admiral Grumir, they were not among the Logia-type powerhouses the Marines had focused on cultivating. Katakuri estimated that he could defeat them alone.

However, Katakuri had always been cautious. Even though he was confident, when preparing to attack the warships in the harbor, he still intended to bring along the two people aboard who could use Geppo, ending the battle as quickly as possible in case anything went wrong.

But just as Katakuri was about to leave with Amande and Castard, his fourth brother, Charlotte Oven, who had been born from the same womb, unexpectedly gave him a huge surprise. "Katakuri, I've learned Geppo too. Take me with you!"

"What? I remember you hadn't even learned Soru, Oven. How can you use Geppo now too?" Katakuri knew that his fourth brother would never lie to him, but he could not help asking a few more questions.

Because the triplet brothers were so tall and had such long legs, learning Soru and Geppo had been especially difficult for them.

Furthermore, the Charlotte Family had not possessed Navy Rokushiki for long. At present, only Katakuri, thanks to greater talent and harder work, had mastered both Soru and Geppo. His two younger brothers had yet to master even the foundational Soru.

How had Oven suddenly learned the more difficult Geppo as well?

"I can use Soru too," Charlotte Oven promptly added.

Then, seeing his second brother's expression, Oven realized that was not what he had been asking. He hurriedly corrected himself. "Thanks to little Mousse's guidance, I used my Devil Fruit ability to heat up my body. I found that my mind became sharper, my reactions faster, and both my explosive power and agility improved greatly. I suddenly managed to use Soru, then I tried Geppo too. A few hours later, I mastered it as well."

"How many times stronger?" Even Katakuri's usually calm voice could not help trembling. For Oven, who previously could not even learn Soru, to rapidly master the more difficult Geppo in such a short time, the improvement was definitely not merely one or two times.

"I only heated myself up a little, and my explosive power increased five or six times. But I can only exert twice my normal strength at most, otherwise my body can't withstand it." Oven's answer startled even Mousse, the one who had made the suggestion.

"Five or six times the explosive power? That's too exaggerated, isn't it? Even if metabolism speeds up by more than ten percent for every 1°C increase in body temperature, it shouldn't increase that much. For one thing, it isn't a linear relationship with muscular explosive power. Even if the former surged three or four times, the latter might not even double. For another, there should be a limit to how much body temperature can rise, right? Could it go beyond 100°C? The blood would boil! Even with a powerful body maintaining pressure, it could only reach around 120 or 130 degrees at most, right?"

But Oven had no reason to lie to him. No matter how rationally Mousse tried to reason through it, an absurd thought arose in his mind. "Brother Oven, how many degrees Celsius did you heat your body to back then?"

"I didn't use my full strength. I only heated it to a little over 300 degrees, around 300-something, I guess? A bit hotter than frying oil." Charlotte Oven's answer indeed overturned Gauss's scientific common sense.

Heated to over 300°C, and his blood still had not boiled? This Devil Fruit ability was far too unscientific!

Not only could it protect the body from being burned, could it even prevent blood—and all bodily fluids—from boiling?

A Devil Fruit ability universally regarded as trash could actually ignore the most basic laws of nature?

Fortunately, Mousse was not a dogmatist. Since Charlotte Oven truly could heat himself to several hundred degrees Celsius without harm, he had to acknowledge that reality.

This also served as a reminder to Mousse: the differences brought about by a different world were far greater than he had originally imagined.

In the future, aside from the most fundamental scientific way of thinking, every bit of knowledge—even common sense—that he had brought from before his transmigration would need to be thoroughly verified through practice before he could trust it.

Especially when it involved the extremely "unscientific" existence of Devil Fruits.

This realization would undoubtedly help Mousse avoid many mistakes in the future. At the same time, it loosened the reins on his imagination, allowing him to develop his Devil Fruit ability more freely and creatively. In the long run, the benefits would be immense.

Though it still paled in comparison to the improvement Charlotte Oven had gained.

Note 1: The sea between the Farol Islands and Totto Land was still quite open, so it would not be completely sealed off. But once pirates occupied both sides, their sphere of activity would completely cover this stretch of sea, making shipping risks terrifyingly high.

Of course, the Marines could provide escorts. But an escort force that was too weak would simply be delivering itself to the enemy, while sending Sengoku, Garp, or those Logia-type vice admirals every time would leave the rest of the world unattended.

Not to mention that protecting the Celestial Dragons in the Holy Land Mary Geoise alone required a sufficiently powerful Marine Headquarters Marineford force to remain stationed there.