He had already made up his mind. In two years, after retiring from CP9, he would return here and open a bar as its owner.
At that moment, a sharp headache struck him, and he collapsed into a deep coma. The same fate befell the bar's customers and nearby residents—they all fell unconscious.
Lightning crackled in the air as Hikaru appeared beside Blueno, retracting his overwhelming Haki while leaving behind an electromagnetic field to disrupt any surveillance equipment.
Without hesitation, he condensed a white bolt of thunder in his palm and struck Blueno, seizing the power of the Door-Door Fruit.
After experimenting with the newly acquired ability, Hikaru was satisfied. Without a second thought, he killed Blueno, reducing him to ashes that scattered into the wind.
To him, the Door-Door Fruit and the Rumble-Rumble Fruit were both near-invincible powers.
The ability to open doors anywhere and move freely between them alone made it incredibly powerful. But that wasn't all—its potential went far beyond simple teleportation.
It granted the user the ability to create a door on any surface, regardless of how solid or intangible it was.
Not only that, but the doors could take any form the user imagined.
What did that mean?
It meant that the Door-Door Fruit was an ability that scaled with both imagination and strength.
Just by thinking about it, Hikaru could already come up with several near-unbelievable uses for this power.
For instance, he could create a portal to another dimension and enclose himself within it. Any attack directed at him would simply vanish without a trace…
A shiver ran down his spine as he processed the endless possibilities. It took three deep breaths for him to calm down.
He couldn't help but sigh in relief that Blueno, of all people, had been the one to eat the Door-Door Fruit—a simple-minded fool with no ambition.
That idiot wasted his days running a bar instead of fully developing the abilities of his Devil Fruit.
An ability capable of reshaping the world had ended up in the hands of a mere "iron-headed brute."
The only thing Blueno had going for him was the luck to eat the Door-Door Fruit in the first place—unfortunately, he lacked the intelligence to make the most of it.
He didn't even try to dodge Luffy's attack and instead used his fruit's ability to block it, leading to his inevitable defeat.
With a single thought, Hikaru activated his newfound power, and a dimensional door swallowed him whole.
Inside was a separate space tinted in shades of green. From within, he could observe the outside world and move freely, unaffected by anything beyond its boundaries.
In a flash of lightning, Hikaru transformed into thunder and reappeared at the Franky Family's base.
Through an invisible air gate, his Conqueror's Haki surged forth, overwhelming everyone in the vicinity.
His recently awakened Haoshoku Haki was already powerful enough to rival Red-Haired Shanks, and now he had refined it even further.
If an ordinary Vice Admiral were here, they would be left trembling, unable to move under the sheer pressure of his will.
For the weaklings before him, resistance was impossible. The Franky Family members collapsed, slipping into an eternal coma without even realizing what had happened.
Stepping out from his dimensional space, Hikaru appeared next to the unconscious Franky and casually waved his hand.
"Door, open!"
A hidden blueprint lay within Franky's abdomen, completely unguarded—just waiting to be taken.
This was the power of intelligence.
The Pluton blueprints were now in his hands!
Flipping through the pages, Hikaru found that he could only understand bits and pieces—mostly the diagrams and their basic structure…
No matter. Technical matters were best left to professionals.
If the Pluton buried beneath Wano Country was still operational, there would be no need to build a new one. He could simply repair it using the blueprints.
"Goodbye, Franky."
"Thunder Art—Judgment and Annihilation!"
Black lightning erupted from Hikaru's body, utterly silent yet devastating in its destruction.
Everyone in the area was instantly consumed by the Extinction Black Thunder, reduced to nothing but drifting dust.
Franky—the future shipwright of the Straw Hat Pirates—was dead.
"Float-Float: Earth Scroll!"
"Door: Dimensional Rift!"
Hikaru turned around and stepped into the dimensional space. Within moments, the land beneath the Franky Family's base seemed to come alive. Like the gaping maw of a massive abyss, it swallowed the entire base whole.
Then—silence.
The base of the Franky Family had vanished, leaving behind nothing but a vast, newly flattened piece of land. The eerie stillness made the scene all the more unsettling.
"Float-Float: Ragnarok!"
A mysterious force began to stir deep within the ocean.
Aqua Laguna—the wrath of the sea gods—was awakened by Hikaru's will, and a monstrous wave was about to rise.
—
In an office at the top of Water 7, the president of Carrera Company, Iceburg, stood by the window, gazing at the sky in a daze.
Something felt… wrong.
Why does it look like the sun is setting?
A nagging sense of unease crept into Iceburg's heart. An absurd thought surfaced in his mind, but he dismissed it immediately.
It couldn't be Aqua Laguna… could it?
No. Impossible.
Aqua Laguna struck once a year, and the last one had already happened six months ago.
It was probably just an unusually large wave. But even so, as mayor of Water 7, it was his duty to investigate.
He couldn't afford to wait any longer. Turning around, he called out, "Kalifa!"
No response.
Iceburg frowned. His secretary, Kalifa, was always meticulous when it came to work—almost as dedicated as he was.
He waited a moment before calling again. Still, nothing.
Something wasn't right.
With a sigh, he reached for the Den Den Mushi, preparing to make a call—
"Thunder Art—Judgment and Annihilation!"
No warning. No chance to react.
Black lightning erupted, expanding in Iceburg's pupils in that instant… and then, nothing.
His body turned to ash before he even felt pain.
From within the dimensional space, Hikaru reached out and grabbed the unconscious Kalifa before vanishing once more—silent and unseen.
The Door-Door Fruit was proving invaluable for assassinations. His targets had no idea where he was or when he would strike. They couldn't even begin to defend themselves.
Using the same method, he had already assassinated Kaku and Rob Lucci.
And, along the way, he had taken Lucci's Devil Fruit—the Cat-Cat Fruit, Model: Leopard, a Zoan-type ability with immense combat potential.
[At this point, neither Kaku nor Kalifa had obtained their Devil Fruits. They would only acquire them after returning to Enies Lobby following Robin's capture.]
Right now, they were too weak. Killing them had been as easy as crushing an ant.
Unfortunately, there was no chance of recruiting them.
Having been raised under strict World Government discipline since childhood, their loyalty to the Celestial Dragons was absolute. Their minds had been molded to follow orders, nothing more.
Even after being betrayed by Spandam, hunted by the World Government, and discarded like pawns, they still chose to return—becoming CP0 agents two years later.
Unless Hikaru possessed a power like Princess Otohime'sObservation Haki, which could sway hearts, or Charlotte Pudding'sMemory-Memory Fruit, which could alter minds, there was no way to break CP9's deep-rooted loyalty.
He knew exactly what would happen next.
Once Spandam learned of this massacre, he would fly into a rage, desperately searching for someone to blame. And with Rob Lucci and the others missing, all the blame would naturally fall on them.
As Hikaru flew over Water 7, his gaze shifted toward the horizon.
In the distance, a colossal wave had fully taken shape—howling, surging, ready to crash down upon the city.
Below him, confusion and panic had already begun to spread.
"Why? Why is Aqua Laguna attacking Water 7 again?"
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