One Piece: Path to Power

Chapter 76: [76] Logia

[2680 words]

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[Six Days Later]

[Mortem Island]

A young boy with curly black hair, wearing a button-up blue shirt, was currently tossing a few atlas stones of a few tons in weight, juggling them.

He heaved a dull yawn, opening his mouth wide enough such that his eye mask almost rolled down onto his face.

Boom!

The balls of stone fell to the ground, loosely tossed aside.

"A-ra-ra! What's gotten into you?" 

His question was directed toward the tree that stood tall by his side, though as of now, it began to shift and shake, almost as if reaching out to the distant horizon.

Kuzan, who felt the dull rumbling all around him, knew immediately what was to come.

"It's been so long... he finally came back!"

The boy exploded into cold air and rocketed toward the makeshift docks below the cliff he was at.

*Krrr*

The air was frozen as the chilly young male arrived just in time to see a boat heading toward him.

Kuzan unconsciously gave a cheery laugh as he waved at the vessel, the air freezing around his arm.

…

"Yo, Kuzan, been a while."

The boy looked up and saw the familiar face that had matured a little since the last time they met.

The previous mild irritation he had disappeared as he saw a fist reaching toward him.

Their knuckles clicked as the two greeted one another with a fist bump.

Another person walked off the boat, this time, a woman. She wore a new kimono that was primarily white with blue wave-like patterns on its lower half and along the end of its sleeves. A blue band ran across her midriff, further tightened by a red rope that also held onto a katana.

[Clothing image (in Discord)]

"Kuzan-kun, you've grown taller!" 

Toki slightly leaned down and gently ran her hand through the boy's curly hair.

"Of course, I'm almost nine years old!" the boy announced with some pride.

He now stood at a minuscule 7' 11" in height (2.41 m), though it was obvious that he had quite a lot of height left to grow into.

…

The trio made their way back to the heart of the island, much to the appreciation of the vegetation along the way.

Kuzan was a little jealous of the singing birds and dancing greenery, the same wildlife that could not wait to dine on him, which were now cherishing the few moments Damien's foot was near them.

…

A little while past, Toki had excused herself to go prepare some special delicacies for the ice-boy.

He could eat just about anything but had a strong attachment to dairy milk and coffee.

"Ahem," Kuzan cleared his throat and said, "Last I recall, you said you would teach me some special techniques if I impressed you enough."

"Did I say that?" Damien, who stood across from the expectant boy, played dumb.

Kuzan raised his index finger, as if to educate the pirate, and quoted, "Your exact words were, 'If you impress me enough upon my return, maybe I'll let you in on some new techniques with your devil fruit.'"

Damien's face warped into a smirk at the cheeky reply, "To think the boy that's usually laying around like a couch potato has such a sharp memory."

"Though you have yet to impress me."

Damien flicked his fingers as if to taunt the boy, a trick that worked wonders.

Kuzan smiled as his body shattered into shards of ice, disappearing with a chilly wind.

The pirate raised an eyebrow as he felt the presence behind him.

.

"Ice Time Capsule!"

.

Within moments, a wave of ice was unleashed, shooting on ahead at Damien. It left a trail of chilled earth in its wake.

Damien watched with interest as he felt both his legs freeze immediately, all the while the chill spread up and through his chest.

Soon, his entire body was frozen.

Kuzan wasted no time and crossed both arms, sending another attack.

.

"Ice Ball!"

.

It was a thick current of pure frost. The ice horizontally screamed onwards and met Damien's rigid body. 

A giant sphere of ice remained, the Sin Incarnate frozen at its core. 

"A double freeze ought to hold him for enough seconds…"

.

"Ice Block: Partisan!"

.

*Creak*

Four sharp spears of solid ice spawned at the drop of the words. They shone with light-blue luster, reflecting a chilly glint.

*Fwoo* *Krrr*

The projectiles shot out ahead and a freezing sound followed as the air in the atmosphere froze alongside their trajectory. 

Boom!

The ice sculpture in the middle exploded into countless bits of ice.

The over-eleven-foot-tall statue sent out a cloud of dust that froze from the concentration of the cold.

Each fine piece of ice shined from the warm sun, creating quite a glittery spectacle.

"..." Kuzan heaved a cold breath in the form of white vapour, watching from afar.

His eyes narrowed at the silhouette that appeared at the center of the dust storm.

"There's more where that came from!" he declared, picking up a few pieces of grass.

.

"Ice Saber!"

.

A quick exhale and the floating blades of grass became an actual weapon, held in the boy's hand.

He did not wait for the dust to clear, instead, Kuzan skied across the floor, his feet mounted with a pair of ice skates that closed the distance between the two.

The two blades left an elegant trail of his movement, matching that of a master ice skater.

He jumped up, evoking a dull boom from his momentum, and slashed at the dark shadow.

*Shatter* Kuzan clicked his tongue as he felt the glacial blade explode into innumerable pieces with a single point of contact.

'Is his skin made of metal?'

The boy was about to retreat until a large hand shot out from the cloud of dust, tightening around his throat.

"Ugh!" Kuzan groaned as he felt the vice-like grip that held him in the air; no amount of effort could free him.

"Show me more."

The boy heard Damien's voice alongside the two glowing crimson pupils from the clearing dust.

He gulped, though not backing down.

"Hmm?"

Damien squinted his eyes as he saw the boy begin to release frost from his hands, followed by the creaking of the ice.

It took moments before the entire section of the forest nearby was met with the brutal cold, freezing the vegetation as if it were hit by an ice age!

Kuzan grinned and did something interesting.

Instead of trying to free himself, he reached out and grabbed Damien's arm and began to freeze it in place.

"Try this one!"

Damien heard the cocky words, alongside the extreme coldness that exploded out from the youth, far beyond anything before. It was arctic cold!

*Hiss*

The sound was that of a gas leaking from its container. Kuzan was breathing out a chill that began to turn the very air blocks of ice.

"!!!" Damien's crimson eyes trailed up to the sky as he felt the rumbling, a storm was coming amid Kuzan's attack!

Within a second, the skies that had suddenly darkened began to pour a copious amount of rain.

It fell to the point that it resembled buckets of water being thrown down from the heavens themselves.

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"Ice Block: Hailstorm!"

.

The cold air Kuzan had just released forced the water to instantly freeze. Each blob of water hardened like glacial ice, falling at faster speeds.

Kuzan concentrated and began to use his coldness in more accurate ways: creating a cold wind that funneled toward him like a tornado.

Each shard of thick ice was nearly five inches in width, thousands upon thousands of them!

Boom!

Bang!

Boom!

Kuzan smiled as saw the white cloud of frozen vapour explode as each shard hailed onto the Sin Incarnate, burying him in the flurry of extreme ice.

…

Around fifty meters away, bits of ice began to materialize into the body of a young boy. Soon, Kuzan had fully reformed, his eyes glued onto the target of the hailstorm before him.

It was incredible.

The entire portion of the forest, fifty meters in radius, was frozen solid.

The once vibrant greenery had become a tundra!

Icicles hung from the crystalline trees, the soil was white and shiny, and some unlucky birds had been frozen in midair!

There was a certain serenity found in such frost.

[Icy Aftermath Image (in Discord)]

.

Kuzan pumped his fists and exclaimed, "Hehe, it took me almost a whole month to freeze that storm; I had it prepared just for you!"

Unfortunately, a calm voice brought him out of the delusion, "You supercooled the air down here, pushing the warmer air up above and unfroze your stored storm, melting it."

The ice boy was unsurprised by the lax voice; his eyes traced the voice and found the dark shadow behind him.

"The cold turned the water to hail and into that icy attack of yours... consider me impressed."

Kuzan heard the praise in Damien's voice and returned a cheeky smile.

"As much as it hurts for me to say this," the Logia user muttered with an ambivalent expression, "that thebo- thermbo- turbodynamics book was pretty useful!"

.

Damien chuckled at the lazy kid's admission and gave him a love tap.

*Bam!*

"Auggh!" Kuzan fell to the ground, clutching the pulsing dome that rang like a gong.

The Sin Incarnate blew on his fist as if to polish it.

"The technique I spoke of will help you overcome attacks, even like this one that was used with Haki."

"!!!" Kuzan, who was in the process of rolling as if he were on fire, froze. The boy shot up from the ground, ignoring the big bump on his dome and locked onto Damien with bubbling anticipation.

In return, the pirate showed him a finger.

*Fwwm* Damien covered it with Haki and tapped it onto Kuzan's forehead, slightly poking at him.

"Now, concentrate your intangibility toward my fingertip in contact with your forehead."

Kuzan did so, closing his eyes and thinking of the single point.

"I'm going to remove my finger and poke once more. Within the opening, I want you to materialize yourself away from that single point of contact."

"..."

Damien let his words sink in for a moment, enough time for the boy to fully remember the exact placement of the finger.

The Haki-clad finger then was removed.

*Fwooo*

A chill went off as Damien saw the boy's forehead begin to swirl into a blue vortex.

Nodding at the sight, the Sin Incarnate proceeded to poke on ahead once more.

"..."

Kuzan, whose eyes were still closed, felt a dull warmth come near his forehead, spiking the thoughts in his brain.

His body naturally diverged at the point of contact, slowly opening up.

"Now open your eyes."

Kuzan did so, peeking out.

His dark pupils widened as he saw the finger in place as it was before, though this time, he did not feel it at all, even though the finger was inside of his skull!

Damien smiled at the sight and explained, "Logia users can be countered with Haki, anyone can attest to that. However, the best users of these powerful fruits can also counter this very weakness by elementalizing around Haki attacks."

"My finger clad with Haki should technically blow your brains out, but it doesn't; you've reformed your forehead around the finger, essentially overcoming it."

He finished by saying, "Once you are familiar with Observation Haki, this should become far more usable."

.

Damien recalled a scene from the anime: when Kuzan, or more correctly, Aokiji, was against the future Whitebeard.

While being stabbed through the chest by the Emperor's glaive, Aokiji was able to ignore the attack by simply materializing himself around the glaive.

[Image (in Discord)]

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"Awesome!"

Kuzan, who felt the power of the technique, could not help but feel joy.

The moment he lost his concentration was the moment his powers broke, reforming his brain back.

"Idiot."

Damien's eyes flashed red in Observation as he foresaw the boy's head explode like a watermelon from the finger lodged into his brain, pulling back in time.

Kuzan, who had no idea what happened, was met with a flick of the pirate's finger, sending him ten meters back, crashing into some frozen trees.

.

Damien ignored the boy who had disappeared, leaving a trail of broken trees, instead focusing on the mess in front of him.

"He's not even nine years old and he changed the forest into a tundra, this concentrated frost will stay for months to come."

A wry smile spread across the pirate's face, "Logia are true monsters, let alone in the hands of future Admirals."

He then raised his hand toward the frozen circle.

The hand turned gray within seconds while a white fern-like pattern emerged.

.

"Equilibrium Restoration."

.

The white light shined brightly in a pulsating pattern as if sucking up the frost.

It took barely ten seconds before the tundra returned to normal temperatures, the ice nowhere to be seen.

From a scientist's eyes, the condition of the region was ideal with standard temperature and pressure, an impossible occurrence amongst natural order. 

Damien clenched his frosted arm, reining in his ability, "That's better."

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A storm had built up a few days before the arrival of the Sin Incarnate at Mortem Island. One caused by the pirate himself.

[Sabaody Archipelago]

A bright sky, pleasant winds yet masses of people left perplexed.

"I can't believe it!" a citizen of the archipelago exclaimed. "The Government had to hold the Reverie over Transponder snails due to the threat of the pirates!"

Another group of men chimed in their thoughts: 

"Who would have thought, for the first time in history, there is such a threat to their rule-"

"Shhhh! Don't speak too loudly, idiot!" 

The man then whispered a warning, "My cousin's aunt's brother's daughter's dog's father's owner's nephew told me that their babysitter went missing after talking about the situation to some kids!"

"Yeah, yeah, I heard a similar story in the pub just last night, it's crazy!"

…

Many conversations were going off about the recent topic that swept the masses.

The World News Agency, which had regained quite a lot of popularity by now, released the official announcement of the alterations made to the Reverie.

It came down to a few points found in the TL;DR section:

- Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Reverie of 1484 will be held remotely.

- All fifty members will be sent secured snails to ensure absolute privacy and confidentiality.

- The Remote Reverie will be held in three weeks.

Author: Morgans.

Naturally, something as official as the World Summit being forced to be held in such an odd way garnered attention.

It was not hard to connect the dots that due to the threat of the pirates in the New World, the World Government had to take this path. But of course, they did not want the people to know too much of the situation so they opted to dub it as 'unforeseen circumstances'.

…

Not only did this news spread like wildfire, it even reached the ends of the world such as the Four Outer Seas.

Many Nations and their people were graced with the bombastic headlines that would surely go down in history, or will it?

…

[A Snowy Island in the Grand Line]

The news also arrived on an inconspicuous and eternally cold island.

However, its few residents were not overly keen to read the news as another event was currently taking place.

A dull shack stood at the base of a mountain.

A woman, who was nearly out cold, was seen pushing to her wit's end within the said shack.

"Waaaaah, euuuugh!"

Slowly but surely, a large child was birthed, much to the woman's contentment.

An old lady cleaned the newborn, placing it into the mother's hand.

*Creak*

A man with broken teeth and scruffy black hair watched from the side with great emotion. His odd-shaped body made him stand out though the stench of booze pushed away any curious eyes.

"What will you name him?" the woman asked, through her eyes stuck on the boy.

The man leaned in, tracing his finger on the child's wrinkly cheek.

"Teech," he answered. "Marshall D. Teach."

To Be Continued…

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Author's Corner.

More to reconnect the plot to Kuzan's advancements. All the while a certain someone has been born on the other side of the world... 

Images are available on Discord alongside other niche details: https://discord.gg/aJHHHPvb6q