One Piece : From Slave to Fleet Admiral

The room still carried traces of smoke and dampness. Sakazuki studied Jake, the remnants of his smile lingering as he spoke.

"All trust has value and reason. Why do you place such faith in me? Tell me your thoughts."

Jake took a deep breath.

"There are two reasons. First, before trusting you, I trust myself. I believe in my ability to resolve Flevance's issues, thereby securing significant prestige and political gains for you."

"Second, it's simple—I trust the justice upheld by a man worthy of Lieutenant Commander T-Bone's loyalty."

This time, Sakazuki didn't suppress his smile.

His typically stern features softened briefly before sharpening again.

Then, with unmistakable approval in his voice, he said.

"You'll become an outstanding Marine—perhaps even surpass me. Enough talk. Since you've both accepted my terms, you have less than two months left. I'll remain here as much as possible to thoroughly train you. If you fail to rank among the top three in the elite training unit, all of this is meaningless."

Jake and Monet immediately straightened their postures upon hearing this, saluting Sakazuki before responding.

"Yes!"

*****

It was the season transitioning from late spring to early summer and the winds of Water Seven always carried a salty scent.

Jake and Monet stood in a relatively secluded corner of the training ground, about four to five hundred meters away from the main group of Marine trainees.

After all, Monet was a Logia-type Devil Fruit user, and the area of effect she could create before mastering control of her powers was significant.

To avoid disrupting the other soldiers' training, Sakazuki naturally couldn't allow these two to be too close to the other Marine trainees.

Looking at the pair before him, Sakazuki first gazed at Monet before speaking slowly.

"Monet, how far have you progressed in developing your Devil Fruit abilities?"

Hearing this, Monet immediately straightened up and answered.

"Reporting, Vice Admiral! Currently, I can slightly affect the surrounding temperature within a small range, condense moisture to create ice and snow, use the snow to induce hypothermia and slow enemies down. I can also compress the snow I create to significantly increase its hardness, briefly obstruct vision with snowstorms and create some obstacles. As for other applications, I haven't thought of them yet."

After listening to Monet's report, Sakazuki pondered briefly, then the towering figure whose sense of justice differed almost completely from his own came to mind.

He shook his head and said.

"Your abilities are very similar to our current headquarters Vice Admiral Kuzan. In theory, you might have progressed better under his guidance. According to the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, the Snow-Snow Fruit is considered a subordinate ability to his Ice-Ice Fruit, but I don't agree with that view. The development of fruit abilities largely depends on the user themselves, not just the fruit alone."

"The abilities of snow and ice are quite similar. Based on Kuzan's development methods, his initial training with the Ice-Ice Fruit focused on temperature control. Whether it's the Ice-Ice Fruit or Snow-Snow Fruit, the primary condition for generating ice or snow is having the surrounding temperature within a sufficiently cold range. If you can't make the environment cold, your fruit's power would be mostly nullified."

"Therefore, Monet, I want you to now exert your full power to lower the surrounding temperature. Meanwhile, I'll use my own abilities to continuously heat the environment. This will train your control over extreme cold temperatures."

Though Monet hadn't responded yet, Jake was nodding inwardly at Sakazuki's words.

Having studied physics in his previous life, Jake had some understanding of snow formation.

To create snow, some conditions must be met: when water vapor in the atmosphere freezes directly into ice crystals, skipping the liquid water stage and these crystals then clump together to form snowflakes.

The large-scale ice coverage that Kuzan could achieve was actually an additional effect brought by his monstrous physical strength.

In other words, even if Kuzan had eaten Monet's Snow-Snow Fruit, he would still have been able to create an ultra-wide-range freezing ability like "Ice Age" due to his nearly monstrous stamina.

Therefore, if Monet had been directed toward large-scale freezing from the beginning, Jake would definitely have questioned Vice Admiral Sakazuki's teaching methods.

For Monet at her current stage, as long as she could create an extremely low-temperature environment within a small area, even without actively attacking enemies, the frigid temperature alone would be enough to kill most pirates.

Thus, the direction of Monet's Devil Fruit development, at least for now, should still focus on the concept of temperature.

Thinking this, Jake glanced at Monet, only to meet her striking golden eyes.

Before any inappropriate thoughts could arise in his mind, a sharp pain on his head left him momentarily dazed.

"You damn brat, what were you thinking?! Didn't you hear me talking to you just now?!"

Rubbing the lump on his head, Jake felt his nose sting as tears streamed down uncontrollably—not because he was emotionally fragile, but because the pain was physically unbearable.

Sakazuki's punch had genuinely overwhelmed his tear ducts.

Seeing Jake crouched on the ground clutching his head, Monet worriedly said.

"Vice Admiral, Jake was probably just thinking about his own Devil Fruit development direction. I don't think he spaced out on purpose."

Before Jake could respond, Sakazuki cut in sharply.

"Petty Officer Monet!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Starting now, use Jake as your test subject and begin lowering the temperature around him!"

"Huh?! But Vice Admiral Sakazuki, Jake is—"

"Execute the order!"

The next moment, Monet looked helplessly at Jake, who gave her a tearful smile and reluctantly spread her hands.

As snow descended, Jake felt the temperature around him plummet at a visible rate.

Sakazuki's voice rang out behind him.

"For Zoan-type Devil Fruit users, development basically involves brutal, self-torturous physical training. You understand what I mean, don't you?"