In the pre-dawn hours, the pure-white White-White Sea was shrouded in black.
Especially up at ten thousand meters, the White-White Sea didn't have the crashing surf of the Blue Sea.
So at night, the sky islands were utterly quiet.
On both Angel Island and the Shandians' Hidden Cloud Village, every household had doused its lights and fallen asleep.
Even on God's Island, Apayado, most beasts had slipped into dreams, with only a few hunting by night.
Enel, who had monitored everything all day, was already weary.
Seeing the mortals asleep, he yawned and slowly shut his eyes, dozing off on his throne.
Even after Enel fell asleep, Yami still didn't strike. He raised a hand and used his mind-reading ability to check Enel's current state.
Only when Enel had sunk into deep sleep did Yami rise, converting stamina into the Dark-Dark Fruit's black-hole gravity and the Momo-Momo Fruit's amplification.
"Amplify: Thirtyfold Speed—Shave!"
Boosting his next burst of speed thirtyfold, Yami opened an air door at maximum pace, blinking to Enel's side as a black-enshrouded hand clamped fast around Enel's throat.
"Mmph… mmph…"
The long-lost pain jolted Enel awake.
The god of Skypiea stared at Yami with terror and disbelief.
Who was this man?
Why could he touch him?
Why wouldn't his body turn to lightning? Where had his power gone?
Crack!
Unfortunately, Enel was fated never to get an answer.
With his grip on Enel's neck and the Dark Water sealing the fruit's power, Yami crushed Enel's windpipe, ending the life of this supremely lucky man.
Still gripping Enel by the throat, Yami carried the corpse back into the other space.
He opened the barrel he'd brought up from the Blue Sea—filled with seawater and some fruit soaking inside.
Yami had prepared several one-shot plans to kill Enel; ambushing him in his sleep was only one.
In fact, Yami could have amplified the barrel and the seawater, then opened a door beneath Enel's throne to dump him into the seawater.
If even that failed to stop an escape, Yami would have trapped Enel inside the other space and let him starve to death.
Fortunately, he didn't need the backups.
Enel wasn't like Kizaru; he was a narrow-sighted, absurdly lucky winner, nothing more.
With the Rumble-Rumble Fruit making him invincible on the sky island, Enel's ego had swelled to the extreme.
Passive elemental defense and his Mantra blanketing two islands left him with zero sense of danger.
And thanks to Yami's caution, the plan went perfectly.
Yami took a fruit from the barrel and, with practiced motions, began extracting the Devil Fruit.
Before long, the black mist sheathing the fruit dispersed.
A wholly golden fruit surfaced in Yami's palm, its rind covered in spirals and marked with a lightning sigil.
This Devil Fruit was the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, reputedly the strongest of the Logias.
After obtaining the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, Yami didn't immediately return to the Blue Sea. He stepped from the other space to the real world, then used Clairvoyance and X-Ray Sight to comb God's Shrine.
Soon he found a set of schematics and a notebook.
The schematics were for Ark Maxim. The notebook covered Mantra and methods for training Observation Haki.
Whoever left it likely only knew Observation Haki, or the notebook wasn't complete.
Even so, it was precious beyond measure to Yami.
With it, he and the three girls could attempt to awaken Observation Haki.
Yami put away both the schematics and the notebook, then used Clairvoyance and X-Ray Sight to locate the four priests.
Once he had them, he took them down one by one, overwhelming them and killing them all.
He'd be bringing the girls up tomorrow to treasure-hunt; he wouldn't let a few small fry spoil the mood.
Since Apayado was Enel's domain and, aside from the beasts, held only Enel and the four priests,
and now that Enel and the priests were dead, there were no other humans on the island besides the beasts,
and since the sky islanders feared Enel and dared not step onto Apayado,
their deaths might go unnoticed for a long time.
Yami had no duty to announce it.
After finishing off the four priests, Yami entered the other space and returned to the Blue Sea.
By the time he reached Jaya, it was three in the morning.
Outside, only a few souls on Jaya were still awake; everyone else slept.
Waiting for Yami in the other space, the three girls had also dozed off.
But when Yami returned to his room, he found his bed occupied.
A girl in cute pink pajamas lay on Yami's bed, curled on her side, hugging Yami's pillow and pinching his quilt between her legs, sleeping quietly like a kitten.
That head of purple hair was unmistakably Carina.
With a glance around the room—familiar furnishings and all—Yami knew he hadn't gone to the wrong place.
"Bold little thing."
Yami chuckled and shook his head.
No one but Carina would dare sneak into his room to sleep while he was away.
Nami, the pure one, certainly didn't have the courage.
Seeing Carina so forward, Yami didn't leave. He placed the Rumble-Rumble Fruit into the chest that held the Paramecia Kengqiang Fruit.
Then he changed into sleepwear and lay down, pulling Carina into his arms like a body pillow, eyes closing as he slipped into sleep.
Though Yami's stamina let him go without sleep indefinitely,
once he chose to sleep, he could sleep soundly.
Since ending his lonely solo voyage, Yami seldom stayed up late unless necessary.
Because at night, being alone was too boring, too lonely.
On a sloop this small, there was no way to train at night.
So when the world grew quiet, Yami would proactively turn in.
"Master…"
Nestled in Yami's arms, Carina didn't wake. She smacked her lips, murmured once, and threw a leg over Yami's body, lost in some unknown dream.
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