"Amplify—Thirtyfold Speed—Shave!"
On a wild, ravaged stretch of the Grand Line's first half, a black-haired man flickered again and again, shifting positions three or four times each second. Every disappearance left an afterimage, like a mirage.
The Shave steps hissed with needle-sharp sonic cracks that pricked the ears of Karina and the other two watching from not far away.
"Isn't that a bit too much?"
"Master was already a monster. Now he's outright scarier than monsters."
Nami and Karina couldn't help saying it.
Arms folded over her ample chest, Robin smiled. "It still isn't BOSS's limit. At his current size, whether speed or strength, he can't actually push the multiplier to a full hundredfold."
"Every human body has a tolerance limit."
"The stronger BOSS's physique, the less he can lean on the multiplier. Unless he enlarges his body to raise that tolerance, only then can he unleash a true hundredfold boost."
"And if he does, the stamina cost to run the Fruit at full throttle will be enormous."
Almost the instant Robin finished, the girls saw something miraculous.
Yami, who had been "teleporting" in the distance, suddenly stopped.
A clear aura welled up, forming a membrane that wrapped his body.
In a few breaths, both body and clothes swelled before the naked eye.
From a mere 1.89 meters tall—barely a hair taller than Robin, and shorter if she wore heels—Yami became a 37.8-meter giant.
"S-so big!"
Staring up at a man the size of a high-rise, Karina and Nami gaped, struck dumb.
A flash of nostalgia and sorrow passed through Robin's eyes.
The giant Yami brought back the memory of the giant she had met as a child, Saul.
As quickly as he'd grown, he shrank.
Yami released the twentyfold form almost at once.
"In just that moment, it ate that much stamina?"
Feeling the drain inside, he muttered, "No wonder Byrnndi World didn't use giantification much. The larger you get, the more the stamina burn skyrockets."
"Makes sense. Giantifying multiplies volume, strength, and weight all at once. Without a monstrous pool, you just can't feed it."
"If I tried to keep giant form and then multiply speed on top, even a monster would be emptied in a blink."
"Even I can't do hundredfold giantification right now."
"But with just a fewfold giantification, my body can tolerate much higher speed and strength multipliers."
"The trade-off is, stamina drains faster the higher you go."
"Looks like giant form isn't for casual use, or I'll end up like Douglas Barrett."
"I could beat the Supernovas to a pulp in base form, but blow most of my stamina and Haki to make that ridiculous contraption? That's dumb."
After his reflections, Yami strode toward the three girls coming to meet him.
"Master, you got so big just now!"
The first thing he heard on reaching them was that little tiger-wolf line.
Seeing Karina play innocent on purpose, Yami pinched her cheek, then added a head-pat and smiled. "Didn't scare you, did I?"
"Mm-hm!"
Both girls nodded hard.
"Heh, that's not my limit."
"Master can get even bigger!"
"Sugoi!"
The two stared at him, eyes shining.
Robin watched with a smile; in some ways just as straightforward, she didn't catch any double meaning either.
"Come on, time for the next stop."
In rare high spirits, Yami slung an arm around Karina and Nami's shoulders and led the three back toward where the sloop was moored.
With the most important More-More Fruit in hand, it was time to find top-tier Devil Fruits for Karina and Nami and raise the strength of his two little maids.
…
"Master, where to next?"
Once the sloop weighed anchor, Nami asked right away.
"Alabasta."
Yami flashed out of sight, reappeared a few seconds later, and handed her a glass-bead compass. "Eternal Pose for Sainting Island."
"OK."
Nami took the Eternal Pose and flashed an OK sign.
"Alabasta… that's one of the Grand Line's superpowers, right?" Karina said uncertainly as she poured coffee.
"Karina, that's right. It is a superpower, and its island, Sainting Island, is one of the largest in the world," Robin nodded. "Alabasta is among the World Government's top fifty member nations and has never missed the quadrennial Reverie since the Government was founded."
"The kingdom's standing army alone is six hundred thousand. Total population is around ten million."
"Six hundred thousand troops? Ten million people?"
Nami clicked her tongue. "How big is a 'city' to hold that many?"
"Not one city. Six."
Robin shook her head and continued, "As I said, Sainting Island is one of the world's largest, a truly massive island. Alabasta is only one country on it. Even with six cities, the kingdom occupies just a small slice of the island."
"Geography texts say Alabasta's six cities lie to either side of the Sandora River."
"For ordinary folk to go from a left-bank city to a right-bank city, they have to cross the Sandora, then walk at least a day—maybe two or three—crossing a vast desert to arrive."
"That island… is on another scale."
From Robin's description alone, Karina and Nami pictured the size of Sainting Island.
Most of the islands they'd visited so far were small. Even the ones with member nations usually had just one city.
The very first stop, the Starting Island, was like that.
So it was hard to imagine an island where six cities still took up only a small part.
Karina looked toward Yami, eyes bright. "Master, Alabasta isn't on our current log route, right? If we're switching lanes all of a sudden, does that mean there's another important Devil Fruit there?"
"No. This time it's not for a Fruit."
Yami shook his head, turning his gaze to Robin, legs together, posture elegant, and the corner of his mouth curled. "Robin, you've been wondering why I recruited you, haven't you?"
Robin said nothing, looking quietly back at him.
Curiosity filled those dark-blue eyes.
Yami didn't string it out. He began to lay out the woven story.
"…"