Two fists collided.
Boom——
Sakazuki's arm suddenly exploded apart.
Bullet's fist smashed toward Sakazuki without the slightest hindrance, even though he couldn't quite figure out what was going on.
But the punch didn't pause at all.
Sakazuki's lips curved slightly. Under Bullet's incredulous gaze, the exploded arm seemed to appear out of thin air.
No sign of regrowth—just instantly reformed.
Sakazuki twisted his body slightly. The regenerated arm struck Bullet's chest from a reversed angle.
BOOM!!!!
Bullet's body was sent flying, detonating circles of white shockwaves as it crashed into the sea.
Boom!
A towering wave dozens of meters high erupted and surged outward.
The golden glow in Sakazuki's eyes faded as he withdrew from Magma Mode, returning to normal.
He stomped down and shot straight into the air, flying toward the distant warship.
Meanwhile, the deserted island where the two had been fighting completely collapsed, slowly sinking beneath the waves.
Splash——
Bullet burst out of the water, withdrawing from his demonic aura mode as well. Shaking his head, he returned to the warship.
Taking the towel handed over by a soldier, Bullet wiped himself down:
"Still a long way to go."
"Not quite satisfying either."
Sakazuki shook his head with a faint smile:
"This wasn't a fight to the death, just a test."
"It's enough. Your foundation is solid."
"As for Haki and physique, you can only polish them slowly."
"Without using Devil Fruit powers, pure clashes of Haki and body are troublesome."
Truthfully, Sakazuki hadn't fought to his heart's content either, but there was no helping it.
If the two of them went all out, this little island wouldn't last even four days and three nights.
One Great Eruption from Sakazuki and it would be gone...
Bullet grinned:
"Just troublesome, huh."
Karol, who had returned some time ago, said:
"To steadily defeat Admiral Sakazuki using only Haki and body techniques—hardly anyone can do that."
"In a one-on-one fight, aside from Vice Admiral Garp and Fleet Admiral Sengoku at headquarters…"
"Not sure there's anyone who can beat you."
Bullet smacked his lips:
"That's true."
Sakazuki smiled:
"Your Devil Fruit has been ready for you for some time."
"Now it's about time to give it to you."
Bullet's eyes lit up:
"Oh?"
"What fruit is it?"
Sakazuki smiled:
"A fruit you won't be able to refuse."
Karol handed over a prepared fruit to Bullet.
Sakazuki said:
"Paramecia-type — More-More Fruit."
"It can multiply by factors the objects you touch — speed, strength, size, weight, etc."
"Maximum multiplier: one hundredfold."
"If applied to yourself, speed can be multiplied as well — up to one hundredfold."
"As for Awakening, no one in the records has reached it, so no one knows what it looks like."
"But it's very convenient."
"For example…"
Karol smiled:
"Enel's missiles, multiplied one hundred times, dropping them down…"
Bullet stared wide-eyed at the Devil Fruit, gasping sharply. This… this was the fruit of his dreams.
Even before eating it, countless ways to use it were flashing through his mind.
Without hesitation, he bit into it.
Frowning slightly, he swallowed, sensing its effects, as instinctive understanding welled up:
"Tenfold speed."
He stomped down—whoosh!!!!
A huge hole blasted open in the warship's railing.
Bullet appeared hundreds of meters away over the sea in an instant, turning back toward the warship in shock.
This was already twice the speed of his previous Demon Mode, and this was just his normal speed.
Whoosh!
He instantly returned to the warship, his body swaying slightly, nearly losing control.
Bullet couldn't contain his excitement:
"This fruit is incredible."
He beckoned a soldier to unload a bullet.
Buzz, buzz, buzz——
The bullet in Bullet's hand swelled threefold, wrapped in a shimmering film.
A tiny bullet became a cannonball the size of a millstone.
He weighed it in his hand—size, weight, all perfect, as though it had always been that big.
He tossed it into the distance.
The millstone-sized cannonball vanished in the blink of an eye at one hundredfold speed, smashing into the sea far away before anyone saw it.
Water erupted skyward. One could already imagine what Enel's missiles would look like at that size.
Sakazuki, watching Bullet test the fruit, said:
"Not bad."
"How much can you control right now?"
Bullet grinned:
"Tenfold is fine, but my limit's probably twenty or thirty times at most."
"One hundredfold works too, but it's useless."
"Can't control it."
Sakazuki nodded:
"That's already impressive."
The previous user, Byrnndi World, was just a somewhat stronger pirate. His physical skills weren't much; in the original story, even Luffy, who had barely learned Haki, beat him.
The human reaction limit capped him at fiftyfold.
But Bullet was far stronger, already at the peak. With his reflexes, adding twenty or thirty times more speed…
At close range, even Borsalino or Enel might not be faster than him.
Bullet went to war at eight years old, practically as a suicide bomber.
After joining the Navy, he fought beside Sakazuki for over twenty years, tempered between life and death.
At close range, even light and lightning would be seized by Bullet's Armament Haki hands.
Logia transformations required reaction time.
But if distance opened up, Bullet wouldn't catch them—light and lightning would outrun him; the body has limits.
Sakazuki said:
"Train first. Don't reveal it."
"We'll find a chance later to 'discover' this fruit while clearing out pirates."
Bullet nodded:
"Understood."
It wasn't that Sakazuki was overly cautious—it was too coincidental.
Byrnndi World and Golden Lion both died at Sakazuki's hands.
Golden Lion dies, and right after, his fruit appears in Skarn's hands—who would believe that was coincidence?
But World's case was impossible to explain away. Whenever people saw a new Devil Fruit ability, they'd naturally think about the previous user.
Two powerful users, both killed by Sakazuki, and their fruits conveniently ended up redistributed by him? No idiot could believe that.
Pirates, Marines, World Government—none of them lacked smart people…
...
Days later.
Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
At the harbor, several warships full of training recruits prepared to depart.
Skarn stood at the front, commanding the scene methodically.
Zephyr nodded from the warship.
Fleet Admiral's Office.
Hurried footsteps approached.
Bang, bang, bang——
"Enter."
Crash.
The office doors swung open.
A messenger, panting, swallowed hard:
"Report, Fleet Admiral Sengoku."
"Just received news."
"Admiral Sakazuki and Vice Admiral Bullet have cleansed the Sabaody Archipelago—illegal auction houses and all."
"And the purge area keeps expanding."
Sengoku shot up:
"What!"
"What happened!"
The messenger took a deep breath:
"Seems… because of a Devil Fruit."
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The fanfic is Finished on p@treon/tambeerg. 414 chapters in total