North Blue — Ruins of the Arx Navalis Marine Research Base
The wind howled across the sea, carrying the chill of a place the world had forgotten. Once, the Arx Navalis Base had been a proud Marine research center. Now it was just bones — metal ruins clinging to jagged cliffs, half-swallowed by the sea.
Few dared to dock here. Rumors whispered of cursed experiments and ghosts of failed weapons.
Rael D. Lior, cloaked in black, stepped onto the rusted walkway in silence.
His ship, unmanned and small, floated quietly behind him.
He had come alone.
Inside the compound, dust covered shattered consoles and broken glass. Faint marine insignias still hung crooked on cracked walls. But Rael wasn't here for nostalgia.
He followed a hand-drawn map stitched together from Revolutionary scraps, stories of a "forbidden fruit" stored after the death of a traitorous researcher.
> "Black gravity. A fruit that devours all. Too dangerous to be replicated."
Rael moved deeper, passing the collapsed remnants of sealed chambers. Finally, he found it:
A containment vault. Still sealed.
In its center, inside a glass pod bathed in dull light, floated a strange fruit — black as void, shaped like a cluster of fangs, swirling with unnatural shadow.
> The Yami Yami no Mi.
Rael stared at it for a long moment. Then, slowly, he placed one hand on the pod.
The metal shivered beneath his touch.
A click echoed from the shadows.
Rael didn't flinch.
From the darkness emerged a tall, half-mechanical figure in a tattered Marine coat — Unit X-4, a failed Pacifista prototype, forgotten by the government but still operating under its last command:
> "Secure and eliminate all unauthorized life."
Its body was cracked and sparking, but its laser cannon still glowed red.
> "Identity: Unknown. Threat level: High. Engage."
The blast fired.
Rael vanished.
He reappeared beside the machine, palm extended — his fingers curled like a claw.
The beam swerved midair and collapsed into itself — as if the light had been eaten by something unseen.
Rael hadn't eaten the fruit yet. But the vault's proximity had begun resonating with him.
> "Even sealed," he whispered, "your hunger calls to me."
The Pacifista lunged, swinging a serrated arm.
Rael caught the strike with one hand and held it in place — not through brute force, but with pressure.
His Haki flared like smoke behind his eyes.
Then, without hesitation, he turned and shattered the pod.
The Yami Yami no Mi fell into his hand, pulsing with weight.
He bit into it.
The taste was horrible — ash and oil, like swallowing a dying sun.
And then —
BOOM.
A shockwave of darkness erupted from Rael's chest, devouring the light, consuming sound, and dragging the Pacifista into a swirling pit of black gravity.
Its body was crumpled like paper, compacted and erased by the darkness.
When the shadows faded, Rael stood alone.
Steam curled off his shoulders.
His eyes glowed with cold hunger.
> "So this is true gravity," he said softly. "The power to erase. The power to judge."
He looked at his hand.
> "The first piece… has awakened."
Before he left, Rael burned every remaining file in the base — blueprints, fruit logs, weapon tests. If others found the ruins, they'd find only rubble.
He sailed away under cover of storm clouds, leaving nothing behind.
No one saw him arrive. No one saw him leave.
No bounty. No name. Just a ripple in the world — a faint one.
But the ocean felt it.
Something old had stirred.
And Imu, seated upon the Empty Throne, paused for the briefest moment.
Far away, a black star had just begun to rise.