One Piece: Three Devil Fruits, Beginning with Darkness

**Chapter 26 - A Lesson in Haki**

Borsalino's reluctance was written all over his face.

With a deep sigh, he raised his hands in surrender and said, "Teacher Zephyr, Jiger is still new, and he's a Logia user. If one of us loses control in the heat of battle..."

Before he could finish, Zephyr cut him off with an irritated grunt.

"You don't need to worry about that! Get up here, now!"

Borsalino groaned.

His shoulders slumped as if he had just been sentenced to hard labor. There was no room for negotiation when Zephyr took that tone.

Still, he made one last attempt. "Well..."

Dragging his feet, he trudged toward the open training ground.

As he reached the designated spot opposite Jiger, Zephyr's voice rang out again, this time with a warning.

"And listen here—be serious. If I catch you slacking off, I'll be canceling your extra allowance for the month."

Borsalino froze mid-step.

"What!? Teacher Zephyr, you can't joke about something like that!"

Zephyr gave him a flat look. "Who's joking? You haven't had a serious fight in a long time. I need to see if you've actually made any progress."

Borsalino pouted.

"But what about Sakazuki? Shouldn't he be tested too—"

"Sakazuki? I don't need to worry about him. But you..." Zephyr crossed his arms, giving Borsalino a pointed squint that left no room for misinterpretation.

Borsalino smacked his lips, knowing there was no escape.

"Ahh, old man, you're really unreasonable," he muttered under his breath.

Zephyr, however, had no patience for further complaints. With a swift kick to Borsalino's backside, he sent him stumbling forward.

"Enough whining! Stop wasting time and get started!"

Laughter erupted from the watching recruits as Borsalino rubbed the fresh boot print on his rear.

Despite his grumbling, he knew there was no arguing with Zephyr once his mind was made up. The best thing to do now was to get this over with as quickly as possible.

With that settled, Zephyr turned to the rest of the students and ordered them to step back, giving the two Logia users the space they needed.

The training grounds were vast, but it was still questionable whether they could contain the destruction a battle between light and darkness might bring.

As the recruits retreated to the edges, excitement rippled through the crowd.

Everyone knew Borsalino's strength, but Jiger was an unknown factor. And a battle between two Logia users was rare enough that no one wanted to miss it.

Borsalino let out another exaggerated sigh and flicked the dust off his coat.

Then, looking at Jiger, he said lazily, "Shall we start?"

Jiger, ever polite, smiled.

"Please give me your guidance, Borsalino."

The moment the words left his mouth, Borsalino raised his hand.

A golden flash illuminated the field.

A concentrated laser beam shot forward at blinding speed, striking Jiger dead center and passing straight through him.

The energy blast exploded behind him, leaving a deep, charred crater in the ground. Smoke billowed into the air, and the recruits closest to the blast instinctively shielded their faces from the heatwave.

But Jiger himself remained entirely unharmed.

His body, now partially composed of swirling darkness, had simply let the attack pass through.

Borsalino barely reacted. He had expected this.

As a fellow Logia user, he understood elementalization all too well. Energy-based attacks wouldn't work unless reinforced with Haki. He wasn't trying to inflict real damage—his move had been purely for show.

And, perhaps, to mess with Zephyr.

His old instructor had said not to worry about collateral damage. Fine. In that case, the destruction of the training field was now Zephyr's problem.

If nothing else, the thought of Zephyr having to deal with the repairs made Borsalino's day just a little brighter.

However, Zephyr saw through his antics instantly.

His sharp voice rang out across the field.

"Borsalino! Didn't I teach you how to deal with Logia users properly?!"

Borsalino clicked his tongue, knowing he had pushed his luck too far.

There was no escaping it now.

With a dramatic sigh, he rolled up his sleeves and lifted one leg. A moment later, a deep black sheen coated his calf—Armament Haki.

A chorus of shocked whispers spread through the recruits.

"Is that… Haki?"

"Borsalino already mastered it?!"

"This guy hides his skills well… I've never seen him use it before!"

"Or maybe he doesn't need to use Haki against us," someone muttered darkly.

That sobered the crowd.

"Well, yeah… but do you think Sakazuki has it too?"

"That's a discussion for another time. Knowing too much about these monsters will just ruin our self-esteem."

"Haki or not, Jiger's in trouble now. Without it, he can't even touch Borsalino, let alone hurt him."

Zephyr listened to their whispers but did not intervene.

Instead, he nodded slightly, satisfied.

Borsalino's performance was reassuring—his grasp of Haki was solid.

Of course, Zephyr had another reason for forcing this particular fight.

He wanted Jiger to feel what it was like to be hit by Haki.

Over the years, Zephyr had encountered many Logia users in battle. And almost all of them shared the same flaw.

They were too dependent on elementalization.

Having the ability to dissolve into an element made them arrogant, overconfident. They assumed they were untouchable.

But the moment they encountered an opponent with Haki, that illusion was shattered.

Zephyr wanted Jiger to experience that reality now—before he got too comfortable.

If Jiger believed himself invincible just because he was a Logia, he was in for a rude awakening.

The boy needed to understand—elementalization was not absolute.

And if a lesson had to be taught, Borsalino would be the perfect teacher.

On the battlefield, Borsalino adjusted his sunglasses and lazily reminded, "Jiger, be careful. You might actually get hurt."

Yet, despite the warning, Jiger remained calm.

If anything, he seemed almost inviting, standing still with an air of quiet confidence. It was as if he had no doubt in his ability to handle whatever was thrown his way.

Borsalino tilted his head slightly, intrigued.

Then, without another word, his body shimmered.

Golden light erupted around him as he transformed into a stream of photons, vanishing in an instant. The next moment, he reappeared right in front of Jiger, his leg already mid-swing.

The kick, coated in Haki, aimed directly for Jiger's waist.

It was too fast for most of the spectators to follow. By the time the watching recruits processed what was happening, Borsalino's strike had already landed.

Or at least—it should have.

Yet, instead of Jiger being sent flying, something unexpected occurred.

Borsalino's Haki-infused leg passed right through Jiger's body as if kicking through thin air.

The sheer disbelief made him lose balance. His momentum carried him forward, and he spun a full 360 degrees in the air before awkwardly regaining his footing. He barely avoided falling flat on his face.

Murmurs rippled through the crowd.

"What just happened?"

"Did Jiger… dodge that?"

"But how? He didn't even move!"

Even Zephyr, who had seen countless battles, felt his brows furrow in surprise.

His sharp eyes flicked toward Jiger, quickly analyzing the situation. With his wealth of combat experience, it didn't take him long to piece together what had happened.

Jiger had predicted the attack.

Not only that—he had altered his elementalized state in advance, shifting his body's presence before the strike landed.

Zephyr's eyes narrowed.

For a Logia user to react to Borsalino's speed in real-time was nearly impossible. That meant Jiger had sensed the attack before it even happened.

Observation Haki.

And not just any level of it—his mastery was well beyond the standard.

Zephyr's mind flashed back to their earlier encounter.

At the entrance of the training ground, Jiger had grabbed his arm, moving in sync with his actions as if he had foreseen them. At the time, Zephyr had thought it might be instinct or luck.

Now, he was certain.

Jiger had awakened high-level Observation Haki.

And considering his age…

Zephyr could only sigh inwardly.

"Another monster," he muttered under his breath.

However, what he didn't know—what no one knew—was that Jiger's ability wasn't Observation Haki at all.

Jiger had long since discovered something unique about the Dark-Dark Fruit.

Unlike what most believed, his Devil Fruit could be elementalized, but its nature was fundamentally different from other Logia abilities.

Normal Logia users turned into their respective elements to evade damage.

But darkness was different.

The moment he became intangible, any attack that struck his form would be absorbed, devoured by the void. That energy would eventually be returned to him—but at the painful cost of double the damage.

To avoid this brutal drawback, Jiger had developed a different approach to "elementalization."

Instead of letting his body be struck and absorbing the hit, he had learned to slip parts of himself into a separate dark space—a void beyond the physical world.

The result?

Attacks would pass through him, as if he had vanished into thin air.

Even Haki couldn't touch him.

This method was inspired by Obito Kamui from Naruto, so Jiger named this special element Kamui.

Of course, it had its limitations.

While in that state, Jiger couldn't attack. His presence was entirely removed from the battlefield, leaving him untouchable but also unable to act.

Worse yet, if he remained inside the darkness too long, he risked losing himself to it.

At his current level, he could maintain this void-state for about ten minutes at most. But as he continued to refine his mastery over the Dark-Dark Fruit, he knew that limit would grow.

Still, against an opponent as dangerous as Borsalino, it was more than enough.

And Borsalino knew something was off.

His usual nonchalant expression was replaced by mild disbelief as he examined his still-Haki-coated leg.

"Strange…"

He adjusted his sunglasses and stared at Jiger, curiosity flickering in his golden eyes.

"Very strange."

But before he could test the ability again, Jiger made his move.

A black vortex swirled to life in his palm.

The moment Borsalino laid eyes on it, his instincts screamed at him.

A sensation he rarely felt—danger.

Without hesitation, his body burst into golden light, scattering into countless photons as he attempted to retreat.

But it was too late.

Jiger calmly raised his hand, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Universal Pull."

The very air seemed to ripple.

The dispersed light particles—Borsalino himself—froze in mid-air for a split second.

Then, as if yanked by an unseen force, the photons snapped back together, reforming into Borsalino's physical body.

Before he could react, Jiger's hand gripped his shoulder.

For the first time in years, a rare look of genuine panic crossed Borsalino's face.

Because in that instant, he realized—

He couldn't activate his Devil Fruit.

His body refused to turn to light.

The golden glow that had always surrounded him was gone, devoured entirely by the abyss clinging to Jiger's fingertips.

For the first time in a long, long time…

Borsalino felt trapped.

And the feeling was far from pleasant.

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