That was what he said, but Dunn had no intention of leaving Shimotsuki Village right away.
After all, he'd already paid. Leaving now would be a waste.
"Can you really do what you described?"
Several days later, Koushiro looked at Dunn with a pained expression.
He'd seemed so composed before. How had he suddenly become so ridiculous?
Controlling flames at fifteen million degrees like a garment draped over his body, then covering his sword with them?
What kind of sword could withstand such heat?
And how could flames possibly get that hot?
"That's why I'm asking you for guidance!"
Dunn looked at Koushiro with a serious expression.
Hmm?
Koushiro took a deep breath, forcing down his exasperation.
"Sorry, I can't make sense of what you've described, either. But I can tell you about the Nadeshiko Slash you mentioned. It can indeed be done. Many swordsmen on the sea can coat their blades in Haki and unleash powerful slashes.
"Perhaps a slash like that is similar to the Nadeshiko Slash you described."
After hearing Koushiro out, Dunn scratched his somewhat overgrown hair, sighed, and stood up.
"Thank you, Master!"
"No need to thank me. I haven't really helped you. But I can demonstrate the Nadeshiko Slash you mentioned, though of course it won't come close to the power you described."
With that, Koushiro got up and left. A moment later, he returned carrying a sword with a pure white scabbard and hilt.
"Come on. It's not convenient to do this here."
Koushiro turned and walked off, and Dunn followed.
Before long, the two of them stood atop a cliff on the other side of the island. An endless expanse of ocean stretched before them.
Koushiro took a deep breath and assumed his stance. His right hand rested on the hilt of Wado Ichimonji. The next moment, Armament Haki covered his hand and spread along the blade.
Dunn watched quietly.
In a flash, Koushiro drew his sword and unleashed an extremely fast slash. Then came the sound of the sword sliding back into its scabbard.
The flying slash carved a sword-shaped gash more than a hundred meters long across the sea. In an instant, the gash disappeared.
"That's not right. Based on your description, it should be a vertical slash."
Koushiro shook his head slightly.
The slash he'd just made had been diagonal.
"That's enough. I think I understand now."
Dunn called out to Koushiro, who was about to try again.
Different worlds meant the same techniques naturally had different levels of power.
The kind of flames Old Man Yamamoto from that other world wielded, reaching tens of millions of degrees at the drop of a hat, would be far too difficult to reproduce here.
Especially since Dunn would have to reach that level through his Devil Fruit ability.
Of course, if he really could reach that temperature, he wouldn't need any techniques at all.
No one could withstand tens of millions of degrees.
No, he didn't even need tens of millions. No one could survive temperatures of a hundred thousand degrees—or even tens of thousands.
Even the Magma-Magma Fruit, a superior counterpart to the Mera Mera no Mi, only reached around one or two thousand degrees.
Just a few thousand degrees would be enough to vaporize magma.
But the flames he could control now were only around five or six hundred degrees. Still, he could raise their temperature by combining flame control with other techniques.
Since he had the Mera Mera no Mi, his main focus should be increasing the temperature.
Dunn sighed.
There was no point in having so many techniques if the flames weren't hot enough. Their power would remain limited.
Thinking of this, Dunn's gaze fell on the data panel he had summoned.
[Mera Mera no Mi (Complete Mastery): A powerful Logia Devil Fruit ability that grants the ability to transform into and control fire; continuously strengthens the body; the fruit's drawbacks have been removed (weaknesses and the resident soul); current fruit development (25%)]
Complete mastery?
So the method he'd had in mind was right?
Seeing the changes on the data panel, Dunn understood.
But it was only at 25% development. He'd only come up with an idea and hadn't even found a specific way to increase the flames' temperature, yet it already said complete mastery.
Or perhaps this "complete mastery" didn't mean what he thought it did.
Dunn was puzzled.
Koushiro lowered his stance and saw Dunn frowning in thought. He didn't disturb him and quietly left.
Dunn noticed Koushiro leaving, but remained absorbed in his thoughts.
The changes to the panel had set Dunn thinking, and he followed that train of thought to consider how to make the flames hotter.
Compression!
That was the simplest method.
Compress the flames, and their temperature would surely rise dramatically.
Dunn raised his hand. A watermelon-sized fireball floated above his palm.
How could he compress it?
Haki?
Dunn looked at the fireball in his palm and tried coating it in Armament Haki.
But the result was disappointing.
Armament Haki couldn't make contact with the flames in his hand.
After trying several times, Dunn flicked his hand and extinguished the fireball.
Either Haki couldn't coat something like fire, or his Armament Haki training wasn't advanced enough yet.
If the element had a physical form, perhaps Armament Haki could coat it.
For example, the Numa Numa no Mi, the Magma-Magma Fruit, or the Hie Hie no Mi.
But when it came to the Mera Mera no Mi and the Pika Pika no Mi, their elements had no physical form after transformation.
Still, the Mochi Mochi no Mi was similar to a Logia Devil Fruit, and its user could coat the arms created from mochi in Armament Haki.
If that method wouldn't work for now, was there another way?
A thought struck Dunn, and he came up with another method.
In an instant, another fireball appeared in Dunn's hand.
When he'd first eaten the fruit, he'd manipulated the flames to flow—or rather, to rotate—to cook bird eggs faster.
Making the flames flow faster would draw in more oxygen and accelerate combustion. Or, it would make the plasma that formed the flames more active, generating higher temperatures.
The fireball flowed across Dunn's hand, then began to spin.
Strands of orange-red flames—or streams of plasma—formed several leaf-shaped ribbons. The orange-red flames grew paler as they spun faster and faster. A fiery orange ball appeared in his hand, with blazing white flames at its core.
Damn!
Wasn't this a Rasengan?
That worked too?
The white flames were at least a thousand degrees, which meant the method had worked.
It was just that the spinning fireball in his hand looked way too much like a Rasengan infused with flames.
With that thought, Dunn tossed the fireball in his hand out toward the sea.
But no dramatic scene followed. After flying just over ten meters, the spinning fireball burned itself out completely.
Well, he still had a long way to go.
Dunn wasn't disappointed, nor did he keep trying. He turned and headed back.
The data panel changed again.
[Mera Mera no Mi (Initial Control)]
Its development level had also risen to 31%.
Did that count as advancing a stage?
So as long as he found new ways to develop the Mera Mera no Mi, would it progress from proficient control to complete mastery?
And then what?
Could it be Awakening?
Before you continue