Three Devil Fruits

A month later.

Grand Line, Crown Sky Island.

Morning light pierced the mist over the horizon, casting golden radiance across the land. A stone tower stood at the island's center like a silent giant. The leaves of the gnarled banyan tree atop it seemed edged in gold beneath the dawn, vivid and gleaming.

Below the tower, dense woods swayed in the sea breeze, producing an endless rustling sound like whispers.

Yet the clearing before the forest stood in stark contrast to the tranquil morning. Nearly a hundred children, ranging from toddling three-year-olds to sixteen-year-old youths whose bodies had begun to take shape, boys and girls alike, stood in orderly ranks as they underwent grueling, mechanical training.

Sweat soaked through their clothes, glinting beneath the rising sun. Heavy panting mingled with the sound of wind sweeping through the woods.

A muscular man in a black fitted training uniform stood before the formation, a bamboo sword slung over his shoulder.

The vicious scar running from his temple to his jaw looked even more ferocious in the morning light. His gaze flashed as he swept it over every young face gritting its teeth in perseverance, and his voice boomed like a bell:

"Why do you train?"

"For justice!"

The children answered as one without hesitation, their eyes shining with indoctrinated conviction.

"Where does justice come from?"

The man asked again, raising his voice.

"The supreme World Nobles!"

The answer remained perfectly uniform, as though it had long been carved into their bones.

The man nodded in satisfaction, his scar twisting with the motion. He was the chief instructor of this CP training base, responsible for forging these helpless orphans into qualified blades under the World Government.

An hour later, the basic warm-up ended, and under their respective instructors' guidance, the children began attempting to learn the killing arts that surpassed the limits of the human body—the Rokushiki.

At this stage, the gulf in talent was laid bare. No matter how hard most of the children tried, they could not even grasp the exertion technique behind the most basic Soru, or their muscles always fell just short of the necessary tension for Iron Body.

Only a select few could already perform crude versions of the techniques.

The chief instructor remained indifferent. The Rokushiki had always been exceedingly difficult to master. The World Government's CP organizations had vast numbers of agents, but aside from the hidden CP9, only CP0, which answered directly to the World Nobles, could fully master all six techniques.

Agents in the other branches were considered skilled if they mastered one or two techniques. More often than not, they could not use even one.

But in this age overrun by pirates, orphans who had lost everything were never in short supply. A low success rate? It did not matter. As long as the base number was large enough, they could always select a few sharp blades.

The busy yet fulfilling hours of training flew by, and daylight gave way to night.

Cool moonlight replaced the blazing sun, once again draping the banyan tree atop the tower in a veil of silver.

In the clearing below, the other children had already returned to their dormitories to rest. Only a youth in a tall hat, with a white pigeon perched on his shoulder, continued tirelessly honing his skills beneath the moonlight.

At the same time, darkness became the perfect cover for another figure.

Dawn stepped silently onto Crown Sky Island like a Hollow merging with the night. Wrapped in a layer of darkness, he infiltrated the trainee dormitory area without obstruction.

His purpose was clear—to recruit the most professional intelligence personnel for the force he was building. And when it came to intelligence, no one was more professional than the CP organizations under the World Government.

When Dawn decided to strengthen his intelligence network, this CP training base was the first place he thought of. It was the only one he knew about, and Ohara happened to possess a sea chart marking it.

Many of the World Government's secret strongholds did have sea charts. Outsiders simply did not know they were connected to the World Government.

Dawn pushed open the first dormitory door and swept his gaze over several sleeping, youthful, unfamiliar faces. None were named characters from his memories. Perhaps hidden geniuses were among them? But the odds were too low.

With the "answers" in hand, he had no need to waste effort on trial and error. If they could not become his people, they would eventually become his enemies. Dawn had never shown mercy to enemies.

He silently activated his power.

Viscous darkness instantly spread across the floor like a swamp ready to devour its prey. The sleeping trainees did not even have time to murmur in their dreams before they were silently swallowed by the darkness, vanishing completely as though they had never existed.

Throughout the entire process, there was not a sound—only the tranquility of deathly silence.

Dawn withdrew expressionlessly and entered the next room. Once again, unfamiliar faces. Once again, they were silently swallowed by darkness.

Like the most efficient cleaner, he cleared room after room. Anyone not on the "list" was reduced to nothing by the darkness.

In the fifth room, he saw Blueno and Jabra sleeping. A hint of deliberation flashed through his eyes as he quietly activated Black Hole, only to find that neither reacted at all.

"So they aren't Devil Fruit users yet..."

Dawn murmured inwardly. This meant their potential was greatly diminished. Blueno in particular would see his value plummet without the Door-Door Fruit, which possessed extremely high strategic value. As for Jabra, Dawn already considered his potential relatively limited.

Having lost interest in recruiting them, their fate was decided. He activated his power again, snuffing out two future CP9 members at the very beginning of their growth.

After dealing with Blueno and Jabra, Dawn was about to continue to the next room when his steps paused slightly. A thought crossed his mind:

"Could those two guys' Devil Fruits... already be somewhere on this island?"

With that thought, Dawn changed his plans. He temporarily abandoned the search of the remaining dormitories, merged into the darkness, and began silently searching the entire island.

His gaze swept across every inch of wilderness and every corner where an item might be hidden like a radar, but he found nothing.

"Looks like they're inside the buildings."

Dawn turned his attention to the island's few prominent buildings. He silently arrived before a five-story structure, glanced at the internal route map hanging beside its entrance, then headed straight for the chief instructor's office on the top floor.

The office lock was no obstacle to him. The darkness surrounding him easily absorbed any sound that might have been made by opening the door. The room was simply and roughly furnished. Dawn quickly yet carefully searched every drawer and cabinet, even tapping the walls to check for hidden compartments.

However, aside from some training plans, reports, and a small amount of Beli, he found no boxes resembling Devil Fruit containers or any special items.

Dawn frowned slightly but was not discouraged. He left the office and continued searching the other rooms. The warehouse, equipment room, archives... like the most patient hunter, he overlooked no possibility.

Finally, in an inconspicuous room on the building's ground floor with a storage sign hanging outside, Dawn found his target. Several wooden shelves stood inside, and above one was a label reading, "Prizes for Outstanding Graduates."

Three exquisitely crafted wooden boxes sat prominently on the shelf!

Dawn stepped forward and opened them one by one. Inside the first lay a strange fruit with pale yellow skin, black spots, and protrusions resembling leopard ears at its top.

The second box contained a similarly shaped but darker fruit with gray stripes and wolf-ear-like protrusions at its top.

The third held a green, twisted fruit that looked exactly like a miniature door.

Dawn took the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia from his storage space and consulted it, confirming that the three fruits were the Cat-Cat Fruit, Model: Leopard, the Dog-Dog Fruit, Model: Wolf, and the Door-Door Fruit.

After confirming the names of the three fruits, he returned the encyclopedia to his storage space, closed the wooden boxes, and activated his power. A vortex of darkness appeared in his palm, sucking in the boxes and every supply in the room.

Having done all this, he turned and left the warehouse without a trace of reluctance.

Several minutes later, the chief instructor appeared at the warehouse entrance. He made his routine nightly inspection, but when he entered the warehouse and swept his gaze across the utterly empty room, his expression changed drastically, turning black as the bottom of a pot.

He rushed out of the warehouse, pulled out a Den Den Mushi, and hurriedly began dialing, notifying all instructors on the island to assemble immediately.

TO BE CONTINUED