He awoke on sun-baked sand. The heat was immediate and oppressive, a vast, endless ocean of ochre stretching to the horizon. Alabasta. He was here.
Kenji was no longer a slightly overweight student. His body was lean, muscular, and toned to perfection, clad in simple, functional desert attire – a dark vest, rugged trousers, and a wide-brimmed straw hat of his own, though not that straw hat.
His new body was already humming with latent power, a side effect of the Apex System's physical conditioning. But he needed abilities.
Scanning his surroundings, he spotted a small group of the Alabasta Royal Guard on patrol, led by a man wielding a simple cutlass. Perfect.
Kenji closed his eyes and focused, activating his Apex Duplication.
• Target: Simple Cutlass Technique (Royal Guard Captain).
• Copying...
• Apex Enhancement Active...
• Resulting Ability: [Apex: Island Carver Swordsmanship] Acquired.
He opened his eyes. Where the Captain's simple grip and stance suggested basic competence, Kenji's mind now held the blueprint for a transcendent form of swordsmanship. It wasn't merely the ability to cut; it was the concept of cutting, amplified to a ridiculous degree.
He reached down and picked up a piece of discarded steel pipe. Gripping it, he took a breath. He didn't even swing. He merely focused the intent of his new power into the air before him.
Fshhh!
A nearly invisible ripple of energy shot forward. A hundred meters away, a lone, sturdy sandstone spire, which had stood for centuries, suddenly separated perfectly from top to bottom, the upper half sliding gently sideways before crashing with a deafening roar.
Kenji watched the destruction. Awe-inspiring. That was the word.
"Okay," he muttered, adjusting his hat. "This is much stronger than I thought. Island Carver isn't a boast; it's a literal instruction."
He needed more. He spent a precious few days tracking down small pirate crews and Marine patrol ships, moving like a phantom.
• From a Marine Rifleman: [Apex: Hyper-Velocity Ballistics Mastery] (Can fire pebbles with the force of cannonballs).
• From a low-level pirate with a Logia-like ability (smoke): [Apex: True Elemental Mimicry (Smoke)] (Perfect Logia properties without the Devil Fruit weakness, with immediate control over the element on an enormous scale).
• From a bounty hunter with minor observation skills: [Apex: Omniscience Haki (Future Sight & Emotion Reading)] (Allows clear, five-second future sight and the ability to read the subject's emotional state flawlessly).
He arrived at the port town of Nanohana at the perfect time, his appearance that of a formidable, mysterious wanderer. He was ready for the main event.