"Ages, you're only copying my Press-Press Fruit. That doesn't count as developing your ability. Remember, there's no strongest Devil Fruit, only the strongest Devil Fruit User. Devil Fruits aren't inherently strong or weak; it depends on how you develop them."
"Watch closely!"
As Fujitora finished speaking, his peaceful aura suddenly turned sharp.
It was a stark contrast to his previously peaceful manner.
Fujitora slowly drew the sword from his wooden cane. With a gentle turn of his wrist, he swept it upward in a graceful flourish.
Rumble!
Ages immediately felt the ground beneath him shake violently, while the battered crater near the village entrance rose and fell, the earth crashing together with a tremendous roar.
Before long, as Ages watched, the crater at the village entrance slowly bulged upward. Scattered stones floated into the air and flew into the cracks in the crater, filling them in.
A moment later.
The crater Angus had created at the village entrance was level again, with no sign that it had ever been there.
Fujitora also dug out the members of the Buggy Pirates who had been buried under the meteorite and dropped them beside him.
Glancing at the unconscious Buggy and the others, Ages laid on the flattery.
"Wow, Pops, you're amazing! You filled that huge crater in no time."
Fujitora smiled faintly, clearly pleased by Ages's flattery.
"Brat, stop flattering me. Do you know how I filled that crater?"
"I used gravity in the opposite direction, making it act upward so the ground bulged. Do you understand what I mean?"
Ages nodded thoughtfully. After pondering for a moment, he said,
"I get it! Pops, you're telling me to think flexibly when developing a Fruit's powers and not be bound by common sense. Like how, according to common sense, gravity always pulls downward."
"But if we use gravity sideways, it becomes a kind of impact force."
"Use it upward and it can make us float. If we apply gravity from both sides of a person, we can squeeze them. Make the gravity strong enough and we could crush them to death. Am I right, Pops?"
Hearing Ages draw further conclusions from his example, Fujitora nodded in satisfaction.
"Right, that's what I meant. There's one more thing: you already know how to control a Devil Fruit."
"Actually, you can also use what I just told you about understanding how Devil Fruits work-the timbre and pitch of their waves."
"If you can find your own characteristic wavelength, that's the same as developing a new ability. Do you understand?"
Ages nodded, a serious look appearing on his youthful, delicate face.
"Mm, I understand."
(To explain, the characteristic wavelengths I mentioned are like how Chopper uses Rumble Balls to find the Human-Human Fruit's seven transformation points. He has found the Fruit's seven characteristic wavelengths, which manifest as seven special "pitches.")
(When Zoro heard the sound of the iron inside Mr. 1, he used Observation Haki to perceive the "timbre" corresponding to the Dice-Dice Devil.)
Hearing the seriousness in Ages's words, Fujitora finally nodded in satisfaction.
"All right, you think it over. I'll go deal with these pirates."
With that, Fujitora paid no further attention to Ages, who stood there thinking. He lifted Buggy and the others into the air and headed into the distance.
The moon hung like a silver disc amid a sky full of stars.
After completing 1,000 single-finger handstand push-ups and practicing drawing and swinging his sword 1,000 times, Ages wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked up at the silver moon hanging high in the dark sky.
Tonight was the night of the full moon.
He gazed at the full moon, which shone with a holy silver radiance in the night sky, while a few clouds drifted around it, dyed silver-white by its light.
Entranced by the night sky, Ages stared blankly and murmured to himself.
"The moon is nothing more than a barren, desolate celestial body with a surface full of craters, yet reflecting the sunlight, it looks so beautiful and holy."
Just then!
A flash of inspiration suddenly struck Ages as he murmured to himself.
Ages caught that fleeting flash of inspiration and looked down, muttering to himself.
"The moon... craters... meteorites... celestial bodies... gravity..."
"I've got it!!!"
"I've thought of something!!"
Ages suddenly shouted like a madman.
Then he raced out of the inn, out of Pasatemu Town... and toward the sea.
His face full of excitement, Ages raced all the way to the shore as though he had won the lottery.
Fujitora, who had just come out after a bath, saw Ages sprint past him and called out.
"Brat, where are you going in such a hurry?"
Ages looked back as he ran and shouted.
"Pops, I thought of it! I thought of a really powerful move. I'm going to test it..."
Before long, Ages and his voice gradually faded into the distance.
On the shore of the island where Pasatemu Town stood...
Ages was out of breath. After resting for a while, calming himself and recovering some of his strength.
He looked at the cliff beside the sea and smiled mysteriously.
"Looks like this cliff probably won't survive what comes next..."
With that, Ages held out both hands, curling them into claws with his fingers facing one another to form a circle. He closed his eyes and sensed the "devil" inside him.
An invisible ripple spread outward from the center of the circle formed by his hands.
Hum... hum...
A faint humming sound rang out.
A small black sphere appeared at the center of the circle formed by Ages's hands.
At first, it was only the size of a grain of rice. Slowly... slowly, it expanded to the size of a ping-pong ball, then stopped growing.
Ages held the little black sphere as it floated above his hands, then hurled it with all his strength into the air above the nearby cliff.
When the black sphere reached the air above the cliff, it stopped.
Just then!
Ages activated the black sphere, and an immensely powerful gravitational force erupted from it.
Crack... crack...
The rocky cliff crackled without cease.
Then, one by one, rocks were drawn from the cliff toward the black sphere and stuck to it.
As the rocks flew toward the black sphere one after another, the cliff face within a certain range gradually cracked apart. Then, countless rocks of varying sizes were gradually drawn to the sphere.
Boom!
A tremendous crash!
The rocky cliff finally shattered under the black sphere's powerful pull, and all of it flew toward the sphere.
When the cliff broke apart, the black sphere became a floating sphere resembling a small meteorite.
To be continued.
(Lengyue once again begs on her knees for bookmarks, flowers, 10-point ratings, tips, and monthly votes T^T)