Edmond froze, then slowly sank back into the pool. "What do you mean? With our skills combined, and William's Logia Devil Fruit ability, who in the East Blue could possibly stand against us?"
"What was our main concern to begin with?" Before Gin could respond, William posed the question himself.
Seeing Edmond's confused expression, Sherlock explained on William's behalf, "William has never been worried about Roy or Arcadio themselves. It's the Marines and the World Government backing them that he's cautious about. That hasn't changed. If we just wanted to kill them, William wouldn't have needed to eat a Devil Fruit—we could've acted long ago."
Tony scoffed, interjecting dismissively, "What's so special about the Marines in the East Blue?"
"What about the Grand Line?" Gin leaned back against the edge of the pool, mimicking William's posture, and replied flatly, "Nezumi is nothing more than a short-sighted fool, but Roy is no simple character."
Gin turned to William and Aramis. "Do you remember back when we were with the Danton Pirates, the Marine warship that chased us like rabbits?"
Aramis frowned. "No way... it's him?"
In the East Blue, where many Marine divisions had devolved into little more than regional warlords, Roy's approach of using fleeing pirate crews to stage attacks on villages—then looting the so-called 'pirate plunder' from the villagers—was considered cautious and clever.
While Aramis and the others might have found Roy's methods shrewd, William didn't think much of them. To him, it simply proved that Roy wasn't entirely stupid. Turning to Gin, William asked the key question, "What about Roy's strength?"
"Before you ate the Devil Fruit, you wouldn't have been his match. Now... it's hard to say," Gin admitted, pursing his lips. "I'd need to know more about your Devil Fruit ability to make a proper judgment."
William gestured for Gin to move a bit farther away. Once Gin complied, the water around William immediately began to boil. Strangely, the steam rising from the water didn't dissipate upward as it normally would; instead, it gathered into a concentrated mass under William's control.
Steam itself is colorless and transparent. However, when it encounters cold air and condenses into water droplets, it appears as a misty white vapor.
"So far, I can transform into and control steam," William explained simply. "I can also generate high temperatures, causing liquids to evaporate violently."
The abilities of a Devil Fruit, along with the methods to utilize and develop them, weren't automatically downloaded into the user's mind. Beyond the initial, instinctive powers that came with the fruit, everything else—like learning to walk, run, and eventually perform more complex maneuvers—required practice and gradual mastery over time.
If William's fruit were to follow the naming conventions commonly used in this world, it would likely be called the Steam-Steam Fruit. In addition to the hallmark ability of Logia fruits to elementalize the user's body—in this case, turning into steam—his fruit also came with supplementary abilities, such as increasing temperature to rapidly vaporize liquids.
However, there was a limitation: the heat he generated didn't come from an external source. Instead, it was produced internally, within his own body. At standard atmospheric pressure, water boils at 100°C (212°F). Once the temperature reached that point, William found it extremely difficult to increase it further.
William knew that his potential shouldn't be limited to this. Though he had been a poor student in his previous life, he vaguely remembered that 100°C was merely the boiling point of water at standard atmospheric pressure. By altering pressure, the boiling point could be raised even higher. Moreover, as the fruit's user, William was keenly aware that his ability wasn't about boiling water—it was about controlling the steam it produced. Steam's temperature ceiling was far beyond that of boiling water.
The current challenge lay in the internal pressure of the steam. Just like how a pot lid is pushed off by escaping steam when boiling water, William's body instinctively released steam as his temperature increased. Along with the escaping steam, heat and energy were also lost.
Much of the steam filling the bathhouse was actually the result of William unintentionally releasing it while heating the water in the pool.
Ultimately, the problem was that William hadn't had the fruit's power for very long. He still needed time to study and develop its potential.
However, William didn't share all these details with the group. He was someone who learned from experience, whether it was his own or others'.
Barbarossa, the "Red-Beard," had been defeated because his Devil Fruit's weaknesses were discovered and exploited—first by Zeff, and later by William himself. His death at William's hands served as a vivid cautionary tale.
With such a stark example before him, how could William not exercise caution? Even as a Logia user, he was wary.
Aside from Seastone, William, as a Devil Fruit user, could clearly feel his body's aversion to water. While the widely circulated belief was that Devil Fruit users feared seawater, in reality, it wasn't limited to just seawater.
The pool's water level barely reached waist height, a deliberate choice by William. Any deeper, and the discomfort caused by the water would become unbearable.
As everyone stepped out of the now-boiling pool, Gin remained silent for a moment after hearing William's explanation. Finally, he said, "If that's all there is, the outcome is still uncertain."
Aramis, Edmond, and even Tony all looked grim. They were well aware of William's strength, yet Gin's hesitation after hearing about William's abilities suggested that Roy's power far exceeded their expectations.
Gin turned to William and continued, "Your earlier suspicions were correct. The Marines do have their own unique martial arts techniques—a set of six moves called the Rokushiki or Six Powers. In the weak Marine divisions of the East Blue, almost no one knows how to use them, but they're fairly common among officers from Marine Headquarters."
William caught the implication in Gin's words. "Roy knows how to use them?"
"He's a former officer from Marine Headquarters. He can use two of the Six Powers: Tekkai (Iron Body) and Soru (Shave)," Gin replied with a sigh. "Roy has a high level of prestige at the division base, not just because of his seniority, but also because he demonstrates these moves to every new recruit, reinforcing his authority."
"He even demonstrated them to me. His Tekkai is a defensive technique that hardens his body to the point where it's almost as tough as steel," Gin said gravely. "He had me attack him directly. When I used a blade, I held back and couldn't injure him. Later, he had me use a gun, but even that didn't work."
~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~
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