Obtained the Flame-Flame Fruit and the Tremor-Tremor Fruit

Boom~

Flames surged upward, a wave of heat rushing over them as the glow reddened the freckled face.

Ace stared at the blazing flames in his hand, disbelief written across his face.

"Fire? This is... the Flame-Flame Fruit!"

"I have a Devil Fruit ability again?"

"What's going on? I clearly tried before—the Flame-Flame Fruit's ability really had disappeared. So how... has it returned to me now?"

A strangely familiar feeling had just welled up within Ace. Though he had long since given up hope, he still instinctively released his Fruit ability.

To his surprise, the Devil Fruit ability had truly returned to him!

How was that possible? Wasn't he already dead?

"Old Man!"

Ace's mouth fell slightly open as he looked toward Old Man beside him, only to see Whitebeard wearing the same astonished expression. A flicker of realization flashed through his eyes.

He raised his arm and clenched his fist tightly.

Crack!

Crack, crack, crack!

Crisp sounds suddenly rang out nearby.

Whitebeard's massive fist slammed fiercely into empty air. Centered on his fist, the atmosphere split apart in fractures like shattered glass.

Seeing this, Whitebeard slowly lowered his arm and stared blankly at his fist.

The feeling from just now—that sensation of being able to destroy all things—was exceedingly familiar to him.

It was the powerful ability that had accompanied him for most of his life, its renowned name echoing across the world—the very embodiment of destruction.

The Tremor-Tremor Fruit!

Though death had greatly weakened him and he no longer possessed the world-destroying Destructive Power he had in life, it was undeniably the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's ability!

"My Tremor-Tremor Fruit has returned too?"

"Can the dead... regain the powers they possessed in life?"

The Lost Souls around Whitebeard witnessed this scene. Pirates and Marines alike gaped, their mouths opening and closing without being able to shut, their eyes bulging as if they might pop from their sockets.

Every one of them stared dumbfoundedly at Whitebeard and Ace.

"The Devil Fruit abilities... have actually returned to Old Man and Ace..."

"How is that possible? Can ability users... retain their abilities even after death?"

"When a Devil Fruit user dies, the Devil Fruit is randomly reborn. That's common knowledge."

"Besides, Blackbeard stole Old Man's Tremor-Tremor Fruit. I saw it with my own eyes."

Compared to the Pirates' shock and relief, the Marines' expressions turned far uglier amid their astonishment.

"Whitebeard and Fire Fist are already dead, yet they still possess such terrifying power."

"Can't we escape the terror of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit even after death?"

"Damn Whitebeard! Is he going to keep ruling supreme even in the Afterlife?"

As Whitebeard threw that punch, the atmosphere shattered and the ground began to tremble.

Boom!

Boom, boom!

The earthquake came without warning and vanished just as quickly. The living Marines on the island were all terrified, thrown in every direction and knocked to the ground by the shaking.

Only the powerful officers could barely maintain their footing through the quake.

"What was that? An earthquake?"

"Could it be Whitebeard... no, did Blackbeard come back?"

"Is the war already over?"

"Hmph, perfect. We can arrest him while we have the chance."

As the highest-ranking commander present, Sengoku watched the fleeting tremor. Light gleamed off his round black-rimmed glasses, and an inscrutable air of someone who had seen through everything naturally arose around him.

"Do not panic. The Blackbeard Pirates have already gone far away. That was merely the aftershock from Whitebeard's earthquake. There is nothing to worry about."

Sengoku's roar rang across the plaza, immediately putting all the Marines at ease.

The old Fleet Admiral possessed unmatched prestige within the military. Even more widely known was his peerless wisdom, which ranked among the finest in the world and had earned him the title of Mastermind.

To many Marines, his words were ironclad law, beyond all doubt.

Seeing the troops settle down, Sengoku's expression relaxed somewhat, and he once again began directing the rescue efforts.

Meanwhile, the Lost Souls not far from Sengoku saw how imposing he looked. The Pirates wore resentful expressions and cursed under their breaths, while the Marines looked at him with admiration and longing.

Whitebeard paid no attention to his sons' discussions. Instead, he looked at Kenma before him, unconcealed shock filling his eyes.

"You did this, didn't you?"

"I tried it right after I died. I couldn't use my ability at all. But after making a contract with you, I immediately regained my Fruit ability..."

"This must be because of the contract we formed with you."

To Whitebeard and Ace, who had personally experienced it, the truth was practically obvious.

Hearing Whitebeard's words, the Pirates around him all stared at Kenma in disbelief.

Old Man couldn't be wrong.

Then... this truly was the work of the King Enma standing before them!

Under Whitebeard and the others' gazes, Kenma gave a slight nod.

"I did indeed do it."

"After all, letting you retain your original abilities feels more fitting."

It also suited Kenma's own impression of them better.

Whitebeard without the Tremor-Tremor Fruit and Ace without the Flame-Flame Fruit always felt like something was missing.

After receiving Kenma's confirmation, the Lost Souls present could not help drawing sharp breaths as cries of amazement rose one after another.

"Gasp, he can even do something like this? That's terrifying."

"Forget Ace's Flame-Flame Fruit—he even managed to take back the Tremor-Tremor Fruit Blackbeard stole..."

"Such an absurd ability is practically a miracle!"

"As expected of King Enma—strong and powerful indeed."

Looking at the still-expressionless Kenma, Whitebeard was filled with emotion.

It seemed he really had been saved by someone extraordinary.

No, Kenma had always been an extraordinary figure.

"Gurararara, what unimaginable power. How did you do it?" Whitebeard asked curiously.

"This is one of my Zanpakuto's abilities. It allows me to connect myself to anything different from myself."

Kenma quietly explained his Zanpakuto's ability to Whitebeard.

Helping Whitebeard and Ace recover their Devil Fruit abilities had been a new idea of Kenma's.

He had not expected his very first experiment to succeed so easily.

Kenma had once closely studied his connection ability. It seemed powerful, but it had a limitation.

It could only connect himself to other objects; it could not connect two objects to each other.

In other words, Kenma could connect with A and connect with B, but he could not connect A and B.

By all rights, he should not have been able to connect Ace and Whitebeard to their respective abilities.

Yet Kenma had found a way around it.

Using Ace as an example, he had not directly connected Ace to the Flame-Flame Fruit. No matter what, that was impossible.

Kenma first connected himself to Ace. That way, he became Ace.

He then used his connection ability again, connecting the Flame-Flame Fruit to himself as Ace. Once the connection was complete, he possessed the Flame-Flame Fruit, and Ace also gained the Flame-Flame Fruit's ability.

However, unlike when Ace had been alive, the Flame-Flame Fruit had essentially become Kenma's ability. Ownership of the Fruit now belonged completely to Kenma.

Kenma had merely granted Ace the right to use the Flame-Flame Fruit.

To put it bluntly, Ace's existence was nothing more than a vessel Kenma used to house the Flame-Flame Fruit.

As long as Kenma wished it, he could take it back at any time.

The same principle applied to Whitebeard.

However, compared to Ace, the process of allowing Whitebeard to regain the Tremor-Tremor Fruit had been much more troublesome.

Ace had only recently died, and the Flame-Flame Fruit was still within his corpse.

Through the subtle connection between Ace's soul and body, Kenma had his threads connect to Ace's corpse, then to the Flame-Flame Fruit, and simply pulled it over.

But Blackbeard had already stolen Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit. Fortunately, Blackbeard had not gone far yet.

Kenma spread his perception outward through his threads, easily locating Blackbeard before immediately connecting himself to him.

Kenma then sent Kiritsugu's Severance ability along the connecting threads and onto Blackbeard, severing Blackbeard's connection to the Tremor-Tremor Fruit in one stroke. Only then did he hook onto this Devil Fruit with the greatest Destructive Power.

This entire series of precise operations had not consumed much Spiritual Pressure, but it had demanded tremendous concentration.

Such intense focus easily led to mental fatigue.