"Captain! I'm getting stronger — is this what you mean by 'fruit development'?!"
Urouge beamed with pride. His days were filled with training, studying shipcraft, and eating regular meals. For a boy who'd grown up bullied and starving, this was the happiest life imaginable.
"You maniac," Kaido grunted, arms crossed. "Next time you need a sparring partner, pick me. Nobody else can take your hits!"
Moria muttered from afar, "Terrifying… I'd better stay away before he starts using me as a sandbag again."
On Deck
Olivia stepped out with a map and log pointer in hand, dark circles under her eyes. She'd been studying late into the nights, practicing her hearing while everyone else slept. Finally, they'd reached their next destination.
"Is this… Birka?" Urouge asked in awe.
He looked around at the cloud-covered island. "Legends say the gods once lived here. Then they left — went to the 'Infinite Sea.'"
Olivia immediately began scribbling notes, her scholar's instincts kicking in.
Sharn, standing at the bow, smiled faintly.
"Infinite Sea," he mused. "It can mean two things — the endless ocean, or outer space.
If the gods came from the sea, then they must have been heading for the heavens.
If they came from the heavens, then their destination… was the sea."
He looked out across the cloud horizon, a rare moment of quiet contemplation.
Years later, this same island — Birka — would be destroyed by Enel, the man who would master the Rumble Fruit and declare himself God.
"The Red Line and the Moon," Sharn murmured, "one of them has to be where the gods were born."
He raised a hand. Air swirled around his palm — BOOM!
A shockwave burst from his mouth like a cannon blast.
"Good," he said, satisfied. "Air Pressure Cannon works perfectly."
Even the late Bartholomew Kuma hadn't developed the Paw-Paw Fruit this far — Sharn was now bending its power to abstract concepts. If the fruit could repel fatigue and pain, he wondered, could it someday repel life itself?
If he could eject someone's life-force and give it to himself, he'd have achieved a kind of immortality — far beyond the Ope-Ope Fruit's surgery of eternal life.
Kaido spat. "Gods? How strong could they even be?"
Sitting at the ship's prow — a supposed omen of death — Sharn smirked.
"Strong or not," he said, "a god who can bleed is still mortal. The ones who can't bleed — those are fiction."
Kaido laughed. "That's why the D clan's called the gods' natural enemy, huh?"
"Exactly," Sharn replied. "Why should they be gods — and I'm not?"
Birka, the Sky Island of Thunder
The ship docked, and Sharn's Observation Haki spread across the island like a tide. His awareness now reached kilometers, brushing against nearly every living soul on Birka.
Kaido followed, arms swinging. "Doesn't look special — just another island with clouds and temples."
"Don't get your hopes up for ancient ruins," Moria muttered. "This one's too quiet."
When they landed, the locals came rushing — nervous, bowing low. They'd seen the newcomers' monstrous forms, and their reverence came from fear.
Sharn didn't waste words. "I'm looking for a baby," he said coldly. "About one year old. Name's Enel."
Birka's 'god,' an aging man with jeweled robes and trembling hands, paled instantly.
"E–Enel? He's just a child… his family's poor. Why are you looking for him?"
"Take me there," Sharn ordered. His tone alone froze the man in place.
Crowds gathered as they walked through the white streets, whispering. A storm of curiosity and terror followed them until they stopped at a small cloud hut.
Inside, a thin woman sat hunched over a strange, golden-yellow fruit covered in spikes — the Rumble-Rumble Fruit (响雷果实).
Her stomach growled; she was desperate. "Just one bite," she murmured to herself. "Maybe it's edible…"
This was Enel's mother — starving, exhausted, about to change history without knowing it.
Sharn stepped inside.
"Enel," he said softly, "don't eat strange fruit."
Before she could react, he snatched the fruit from her hands. The woman froze, terrified.
That single moment rewrote destiny.
Had she eaten it, she'd have died instantly — unable to withstand the Devil Fruit's curse. Enel would have survived, but the trauma and isolation would later drive him into tyranny.
Sharn tossed the Rumble Fruit into his mouth — and swallowed.
But he didn't activate it; instead, he stored it within his body using his Swallow-Swallow Fruit ability — safely contained, unassimilated.
Kaido's eyes went wide. "Are you insane?! You can't eat two Devil Fruits — you'll die!"
"I didn't eat it," Sharn replied casually, tapping his stomach. "Just… stored it."
He stretched, unfazed. "Besides, my body's built to contain things now — and look, no problem."
Kaido growled. "Unbelievable. Same Zoan lineage as me, yet your dragon form gets all the perks…"
The Fateful Meeting
Inside the tiny hut, Enel's mother wept.
"Why?" she cried. "Why even take our last food? I found it on the beach — it's all we had!"
"Food," Sharn said simply. He snapped his fingers. "Bring her food."
Moments later, crates of Sky Island provisions appeared — bread, meat, fruit.
"Eat. Feed the boy too."
The woman's tears fell freely. "Thank you… I swear, my son will repay you someday."
Sharn looked down at her and the baby — pale, frail, wingless.
"Maybe you belong somewhere else," he said quietly. "There's a place where no one cares whether you have wings or not."
With one motion of his paw, he repelled them through the air — a flash of white light.
In an instant, Enel and his mother vanished.
The god of Birka collapsed in awe. "W–What… what power is that?! A true god…"
Sharn brushed the dust from his hands. "Nosy old man."
He restocked his ship with food and resources, then turned south.
Beyond Birka lay the edge of the White Sea — the "end of the sky."
None of them knew then —
Years later, Enel would return to Birka, avenge his mother's suffering, and destroy the island.
He would then set sail toward the Blue Sea, following the same mythic course as Sharn — to repay the man who had once saved his life.
And by then…
Sharn himself would already have become legend.
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