Starting as a Roger Pirates Apprentice-Chapter 449: Still Don’t Understand?

"Pretty lucky—you haven’t been eaten yet."

Strolling through the research facility, Orin didn’t find much worth watching in the battle between the Straw Hat crew and Caesar’s group. It was nothing more than a bunch of rookies pecking at each other, occasionally playing around with poison gas, drugs, and the like—things that were completely useless in front of truly strong opponents. He brought Kuina to Vegapunk’s old laboratory, which housed the failed products of Vegapunk’s past experiments: a replica of the Azure Dragon Fruit—the Pink Dragon Fruit. Perhaps due to some butterfly effect, Momonosuke never ate the Pink Dragon Fruit this time around, and it was still lying quietly in the lab.

"If you want to make up for shortcomings in physical ability, this should be a pretty good choice."

With a snap of his fingers, the artificial product—its patterns clearly different from ordinary Devil Fruits—instantly appeared in Orin’s hand, and he handed it to Kuina.

Faced with such a rare treasure of the sea, and a Devil Fruit Orin claimed was of very high quality, Kuina swallowed hard, visibly nervous. She widened her eyes and looked at Orin.

"Orin-sensei, if I eat this, will I really become stronger?"

"That’s right."

Kuina nodded, then opened her mouth and began to eat.

"This tastes awful!!! Such a strange and disgusting flavor!!!"

The taste made Kuina feel like her throat was retching, her muscles spasming as she wanted to vomit.

"Don’t spit it out. Swallow."

Hearing this, Kuina forced herself to suppress the nausea and swallowed what was in her mouth.

Orin had tasted a Devil Fruit once in his life—it truly was so bad it challenged the limits of human tolerance. Someone like Buggy, who could swallow it whole, actually had it easier; chewing it was pure mental torture. Even a resolute female swordsman like Kuina couldn’t help but grimace.

After taking one bite, Kuina was just about to throw it away when Orin spoke faintly at that moment.

"There’s a legend that if you don’t eat the entire Devil Fruit, the ability will be weakened~"

This was, of course, a lie. But back then, Orin had figured that it never hurt to be cautious, so he had eaten the entire Warp-Warp Fruit himself—and naturally, he’d advise others the same way.

Hearing this, Kuina’s expression turned strained.

"But this taste..."

"Don’t talk. Keep eating."

At long last, following Orin’s instructions, Kuina swallowed it all. She soon felt warmth spreading through her body. As a swordsman with a solid physical foundation, Kuina guided this power, and her body began to change gradually. Her pupils shrank to needle points, large patches of pink scales surfaced on her body, slender dragon horns emerged from her head, and her teeth grew sharp. Most noticeable of all, as she transformed into her human-beast form, her body began to grow taller. In the end, her pink dragon-humanoid form stood nearly three meters tall, up from her original height of 1.7 meters.

Orin watched the entire process, pinching his chin as he commented.

"Doesn’t look too grotesque—actually pretty handsome..."

"The awkward color Vegapunk designed is, honestly, not bad at all on a female user."

Kuina was also adjusting to this body. She clenched her fists, feeling an endless surge of power rushing through her.

"From today on, at least in terms of strength and physical ability, you won’t lose to Zoro anymore."

Orin said with a smile. There was no helping it—that was the power of a Mythical Zoan, the top-tier power among Devil Fruits, the meta-defining answer of the era. The physical gap Zoro had built through years of training was instantly evened out by a single Mythical Zoan. In pure hand-to-hand combat, Zoro might even be at a disadvantage against her dragon-humanoid form.

"Right now, the gaps between you and a true expert are two things: Haki, and swordsmanship. Both can be made up for through battle."

Even Conqueror’s Haki might be awakened naturally in life-and-death struggles against powerful enemies. With Kuina’s unwavering heart in pursuing the sword, there was no reason she wouldn’t awaken the same Conqueror’s Haki as Zoro—after all, they were childhood rivals.

That was bound power.

"Next, let’s test your current strength. That kid Zoro is on the island right now too~"

Orin egged her on. After all, that was exactly what he wanted to see—childhood sweethearts fighting each other.

...

Meanwhile, the Straw Hat crew and Law officially formed an alliance, beginning their joint effort on Dressrosa to defeat Caesar and two officers of the Donquixote Family, preparing to rescue everyone. Law had also made up his mind to destroy SAD—the raw material for artificial Devil Fruits—in order to take revenge on Doflamingo.

He successfully entered the interior of the laboratory, only to encounter Vergo there. This undercover agent who had become a Marine Vice Admiral now stood calmly before them, holding Law’s heart in his hand. On him was also a Den Den Mushi connected directly to Doflamingo.

"Fufufufufu... Law, I spared you more than ten years ago. Why have you come to your death again?"

"Not every time will Orin just happen to save you."

With his heart being squeezed, Law’s expression was extremely ugly.

"What I carry is Corazon’s will! I will absolutely stop your evil!!!"

Doflamingo could no longer smile. The corners of his originally upturned mouth began to fall. Clearly, the name Corazon put him in an extremely bad mood. Ever since the Minion Island incident, Orin had let Corazon go, and Doflamingo had truly never targeted him again. Afterward, Corazon became an ordinary officer in Paradise, effectively living under an assumed identity, and Doflamingo only paid minimal attention to him on rare occasions.

The two brothers were, in effect, strangers.

"Is that so? Then take Corazon’s share of naivety with you on your final journey."

Doflamingo couldn’t smile anymore.

"Vergo."

Law stared intently at this unsmiling, flat-topped muscular man wearing sunglasses.

"Clang—"

He saw Vergo holding a bamboo stick, which instantly turned pitch black.

With his heart being held, Law was beaten without any ability to fight back. Smoker’s appearance finally gave him a moment to catch his breath. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"I’ll personally eliminate you, you disgrace of the Marines!!!"

Unfortunately, with just a single punch, Smoker was sent flying, blood spraying from his mouth. Vergo’s hands were jet black, his expression terrifyingly cold.

"Still don’t understand? Smoker..."

"Even though we’re both Vice Admirals, my Vice Admiral rank isn’t the same as yours."

"After all, my Haki..."

"Clang—" Vergo’s overwhelmingly powerful body was instantly wrapped in a thick layer of Armament Haki.

"...was taught by Orin-san."

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