A Higher Ceiling

Painful, but he could not cry out loud.

He feared drawing the Marines' attention, and even more, he feared drawing the attention of that lecherous Marine with the three whiskers.

He hated that Marine. His parents had been civilians, yet they had been killed as pirates for the simple reason that the man wanted a promotion.

Kill him! Kill him!

"Kill him!"

Mark shouted and jolted awake. He licked his slightly dry lips, then turned toward the window after a moment and saw that the sky was already beginning to brighten.

He slowly sat up and remained sitting there silently for a long while.

Everything in the dream had been so clear. Rather than a dream, it had been a memory—a nightmare.

Over the years, he had often dreamed of the scene where his parents were burned to death by that Lieutenant Mouse.

Their screams seemed to constantly remind him that he had to take revenge... had to kill that man.

"Cocoyasi Village..."

Mark clenched his fist to himself. He would definitely kill that Marine nicknamed Mouse.

After getting up and washing, he practiced with the Mountain-Splitting Axe. Once he had left a series of slash marks on the ironwood, Mark put the axe away.

After wiping away his sweat, he made himself a simple meal of toast, milk, and bread to fill his stomach.

When he arrived at Oakcraft General Store, Jaba was smoking his pipe behind the counter. Seeing Mark enter, he waved him over and said,

"Kid, Daisy is coming back today. I'm going to pick her up myself. Watch the store properly. If anything goes missing, I'll settle the score with you."

Daisy was coming back? Mark seemed to see that little girl again—so haughty toward others, yet so caring toward him, with that adorably dazed expression. Thinking of her filled his heart with warmth.

"Go without worry. Oh... right, Old Man, when you pass Aunt Dong's place, could you bring me some of her braised pork ribs? Please!" Mark pressed his palms together.

Jaba knocked out his pipe, shot Mark an annoyed look, grunted, and turned to leave the store.

Mark was the only one left in the shop now.

He took out a somewhat yellowed book from beneath the counter and began reading it with great interest.

It contained strange tales and unusual experiences Jaba had encountered at sea: peculiar Sea Kings, one-eyed people from families that intermarried, a four-armed race, and all sorts of bizarre legends.

Of course, Jaba himself appeared most often in the book—how he had acted chivalrously and saved some beauty, and how they had then gone through love, hate, and tangled emotions together.

Whenever Mark got to those parts, he flipped right past them.

The old man had clearly been single for over sixty years. Whenever Aunt Dong, who weighed nearly two hundred pounds, took a bath, the old fellow would sneak a look. His tastes were hardly refined.

Suddenly, Mark spotted a passage in a corner of the book that he had previously overlooked. It gave a special description of a Devil Fruit.

Dark-Dark Fruit—

Since he was now a darkness man, he paid close attention to any introduction of this fruit's abilities. Unfortunately, he did not have a Devil Fruit encyclopedia.

The description was brief:

Dark-Dark Fruit: its so-called darkness is gravity, possessing the power to attract and devour everything.

There was only that short sentence, along with an illustration of a purple fruit.

Although he had no idea why Jaba had specifically marked this fruit.

It gave Mark some inspiration.

Mark extended his right hand. His entire hand turned black as he aimed at a chair not far in front of him and activated his ability—

"Dark Water!"

A pull of dark suction came from his right palm. With a whoosh, the chair flew into the air and landed in Mark's hand.

After setting the chair down, Mark used Dark Water on several other objects.

A moment later, Mark stared at his hands radiating darkness and fell into thought.

"It isn't purely gravity. There is some of it, but darkness makes up the larger part. The ability is very complex..."

The chair and other objects he had pulled over seemed as though they could be crushed with only a slight squeeze in his darkness-covered right hand. The Dark-Dark Fruit contained many powers.

Devouring, gravity, erosion.

Its offensive power was also impressive. Though it could not compare to the Magma-Magma Fruit, Tremor-Tremor Fruit, or Glint-Glint Fruit in a direct attack, it could rival the Flame-Flame Fruit, as had been demonstrated in the original story during its battle with Ace.

"The diversity of a fruit represents a higher ceiling."

Besides, he was different from Blackbeard.

Blackbeard relied more heavily on using his fruit, and had not developed it particularly well. What he relied on even more was his abnormal body.

His multidimensional way of thinking meant that his fruit abilities had a higher ceiling. Not to mention...

Mark raised his left hand. The violet tattoo around his wrist flickered in and out of sight.

The Combat Bracer's power was what truly gave him the confidence to climb to the peak.

After tidying up the furniture he had scattered with his ability, Mark picked up a piece of wood and began carving.

And the carving tool he used was his Mountain-Splitting Axe.

The handle alone was two meters long, and with its broad single-bladed axe head, it weighed over five hundred pounds. Though that weight was hardly worth mentioning in the world of One Piece—Krieg's Great Battle Spear weighed a full ton.

Using it as a carving tool was still rather unbelievable. Yet doing so could not only train his wrist strength, but also improve the precision of his axe techniques.

This was one of the methods Jaba had taught him to become stronger.

Several hours passed in the blink of an eye.

Just as Mark was about to finish carving, some unwelcome guests arrived at the entrance of Oakcraft General Store.

With a bang, the single-leaf mahogany shop door was kicked flying. A burly middle-aged man in a blue linen shirt, his upper body bare and marked with several knife scars, barged in with several others.

"Who... is Rod Mark?"

After stepping through the doorway, the burly leader glanced around at the store's layout and spoke in an extremely arrogant tone.

The people behind him were no better, touching things here and looking around there while spouting foul language.

Mark's wooden mouse was just missing its tail when the men kicking in the door disrupted his carving. He failed to carve the fur pattern on the tail properly, leaving an extra line.

Mark, who had a touch of obsessive-compulsive disorder, found it unbearably unpleasant no matter how he looked at it. His expression chilled as he clenched his right hand hard, crushing the wooden mouse to pieces. Then he raised his head, looked coldly at the hostile group, and said,

"I am. What business do you have in my store?"

Upon hearing Mark's words, they all turned to look at him. The burly leader's expression became sinister as he strode forward, intending to grab Mark by the collar. But then he noticed the enormous Mountain-Splitting Axe in Mark's hand. His momentum weakened slightly, and he withdrew his hand, though his tone remained vicious.

"Kid, did you go to Yarl Forest yesterday morning?"

His eyes were fixed tightly on Mark's.

Mark glanced at him, then tilted his head and looked at the others behind him, whose expressions were equally cold.

"I did. What about it?"

His grip on the Mountain-Splitting Axe gradually tightened. They were asking whether he had gone to Yarl Forest yesterday, and judging from their hostile expressions, Mark could roughly guess why they had come.

That tall, thin young man he had killed!

Mark's answer made them fall silent. Then killing intent erupted from their bodies and spread through the store.

"Kill him! Avenge Ballas!!!"

The burly middle-aged man shouted, pulling a flintlock pistol from his waist. At his command, the others behind him also drew flintlock pistols from their waists.

Mark's pupils shrank. These people were no ordinary men. Every one of them had a gun.

This was the real world. Even ordinary members of pirate crews often did not have firearms. That alone showed that the people before him were definitely not ordinary.

Before he could think further, he saw the burly man pull the trigger. Mark ducked beneath the counter.

Bang! A bullet streaked past Mark's scalp.

Then came a stream of yellow-orange bullets flying over his head.

"No matter what, we kill this bastard today. He's Lord Buffettla's biological younger brother."

As he spoke, the burly middle-aged man pulled a bundle of explosives from the pouch at his waist, a vicious expression appearing on his face.

Seeing that Mark remained hidden behind the counter, their bullets having no effect on the thick wood, and not daring to recklessly approach, they could only use explosives to force him out.

Sizzle!

The fuse was lit. The burly man threw the explosives onto the floor and shouted, "Go!" before turning and running.

Mark's fruit ability was Logia-type, but the Dark-Dark Fruit could not elementalize him. At his current level, bullets were still extremely deadly.

As he hid behind the counter, gripping his axe tightly, with darkness gathering in preparation for a counterattack, he suddenly realized that the gunfire in the store had stopped.

He slowly extended the axe beyond the counter. Through the blurry reflection on its surface, he saw the figures of the men fleeing the store, and a hint of confusion flashed through his mind.

"What's wrong with these guys? Why did they suddenly run?"

Just as he was puzzled, his nose caught the scent of gunpowder.

Following the smell with his gaze, Mark's expression changed dramatically.

"Explosives!!!"

Mark took off running, but a deadly sense of danger swept over his entire body.

The fuse... had burned all the way down.

The doorway more than ten meters away seemed impossibly distant, and a deep despair engulfed Mark's body.