That was what he said, but Ban had no immediate plans to leave Shimotsuki Village anyway.
After all, he had paid for everything here—leaving now would just mean he was wasting his money.
“Is what you’re saying actually possible?”
A few days later, Koushirou looked at Ban with a look of clear frustration and confusion.
Just recently, he had been so calm and sensible—how had he suddenly started talking about such strange things?
Controlling flames hot enough to reach 15 million degrees Celsius, and using them like a layer of armor covering your body, or wrapping them around the blade?
What kind of sword could withstand that kind of extreme heat?
And how could fire even reach temperatures that high in the first place?
“That’s exactly why I’ve come to ask you for advice, Master Koushirou!”
Ban looked at him with a serious expression.
Hm?
Koushirou took a deep breath and forced himself to push aside his feelings of helplessness.
“Sorry, I can’t really understand everything you’re talking about.
But I can tell you this: the technique you mentioned—’Nadegiri’—is actually possible.
And many great swordsmen across the seas can use Haki to coat their blades, allowing them to strike with incredible cutting power.
“Attacks like that are actually quite similar to what you described for Nadegiri.”
After listening to Koushirou’s explanation, Ban scratched his slightly longer hair and sighed before standing up.
“Thank you very much, Master!”
“There’s no need to thank me.
I didn’t really help you much anyway.
But I can try to demonstrate how Nadegiri works, even if I can’t produce the exact power you mentioned.”
With that, Koushirou stood up and walked away.
He returned a moment later holding a sword whose hilt and scabbard were completely white in color.
“Come on.
It’s not very suitable to practice here.”
Koushirou turned and began walking, and Ban followed behind him.
Soon enough, they reached the cliffside on the other side of the island.
Before them stretched the endless, boundless ocean.
Koushirou took a deep breath, got into his stance, placed his hand on the hilt of Wado Ichimonji, and the next moment, Armament Haki covered his hand and spread out along the length of the blade.
Ban watched quietly.
In an instant, there was the sound of a sword being drawn, followed by a single, extremely fast and powerful slash.
Then the blade slid back into its scabbard.
The wave of energy that shot out cut a clear line across the surface of the sea, stretching over a hundred meters long, before fading away completely.
“That’s not quite right.
According to what you said, the strike should have been a vertical cut.”
Koushirou shook his head slightly.
What he had done had been a slashing motion from the side, not straight down.
I think I understand now.”
Ban stopped him before he could try again.
Different worlds had different rules, so techniques that worked in one place would naturally produce different results here.
In another world, an old man named Yamamoto could control flames reaching temperatures of millions of degrees—but achieving that level of power here would be far too difficult.
Especially since he would have to rely solely on his Devil Fruit abilities to reach such extremes.
Of course, if he could actually reach that kind of temperature, he wouldn’t even need special techniques anyway.
No one—no matter who they were—could survive being exposed to temperatures of tens of millions of degrees.
Actually, he didn’t even need that much heat.
Even temperatures of tens or hundreds of thousands of degrees would be enough to kill anyone instantly.
Even the magma produced by the Magu Magu no Mi—another Logia fruit that was considered superior to the Flame-Flame Fruit—only reached temperatures of around one or two thousand degrees Celsius.
Just a few thousand degrees would be enough to turn magma into gas.
Right now, though, the maximum temperature of the flames he could control was only around five or six hundred degrees Celsius.
Of course, by controlling the flow and nature of the fire, he could raise that temperature higher if he wanted to.
Since it’s the Mera Mera no Mi, the key to developing it should definitely be focusing on increasing its temperature.
Ban sighed.
Having too many different moves was useless if the temperature wasn’t high enough—the destructive power would always be limited.
Thinking this, Ban’s eyes fell upon his data panel.
[Mera Mera no Mi (Completely Mastered): A powerful Logia-type Devil Fruit ability that grants the power to transform into, manipulate, and generate fire; continuously strengthens the body; all fruit weaknesses have been eliminated (resistance to water and spiritual possession removed); Current Development Level: 25%]
Completely mastered?
So, the method he was thinking about was actually the right one?
Seeing the change on his data panel, Ban was suddenly enlightened.
But it was only at 25% development, and he had only just started thinking about it, hadn’t even found a concrete way to increase the flame’s temperature, yet it was already “completely mastered.”
Perhaps this “completely mastered” wasn’t what he truly imagined “completely mastered” to be.
Ban felt a little confused.
Koushirou, who had finished his demonstration and put away his sword, saw Ban frowning in deep thought.
He didn’t disturb him and quietly walked away.
Ban sensed Koushirou’s departure but didn’t let it break his concentration.
The changes on his panel made Ban fall into deep contemplation, and he continued to think about how to increase the temperature of his flames.
Compression!
This was the simplest method.
If he compressed the flames, their temperature would surely become extremely high.
Ban raised his hand, and a watermelon-sized fireball floated above his palm.
How to compress it?
Ban looked at the fireball in his hand and tried to cover it with Armament Haki.
But the result was not satisfactory.
His Armament Haki and the flames in his hand couldn’t touch each other.
After several attempts, Ban flicked his hand, extinguishing the fireball.
Either Haki couldn’t cover an entity like fire, or his current Armament Haki training wasn’t sufficient enough.
If it were a physical elementalization, perhaps Armament Haki could cover it.
For example, the Swamp-Swamp Fruit, the Magma-Magma Fruit, or the Ice-Ice Fruit.
But with fire and light, if you really wanted to talk about it, they didn’t have a solid form after elementalization.
However, the Mochi-Mochi Fruit, which was very similar to a Logia, could be covered with Armament Haki after creating mochi arms.
If this method didn’t work now, was there another way?
A thought struck Ban, and another method came to mind.
In an instant, another fireball appeared in Ban’s hand.
When he first ate the fruit, to speed up the process of roasting bird eggs, he had once controlled the flow, or rather the rotation, of the flames.
Accelerating the flow would absorb more oxygen, speeding up combustion, or rather, it would make the plasma forming the flames more active, creating a higher temperature.
The fireball flowed in Ban’s hand, then began to rotate.
Streams of orange-red flames or plasma fluids formed several ribbon-like blades.
The orange-red color of the flames faded, and as the rotation speed increased, a fireball, entirely orange-yellow with a core of intensely hot white flame, appeared in his hand.
Damn!
Isn’t this a Rasengan?
This works too?
The white flame meant the temperature was at least over a thousand degrees Celsius.
This meant the method was successful.
However, the spinning fireball in his hand looked incredibly similar to a Rasengan infused with fire.
Thinking of this, Ban directly threw the fireball towards the sea.
But then, no spectacular scene occurred.
After flying only a dozen meters, the spinning fireball completely burned out.
Well, it’s a long road ahead.
Ban wasn’t disappointed, nor did he continue to try.
He turned and walked back.
And on the data panel, changes appeared again.
[Mera Mera no Mi (Beginner Level Control)]
And the development progress had become 31%.
Is this an advancement?
So, as long as he found new ways to develop the Mera Mera no Mi, with the progress of development, it would become “mastered” and then “completely mastered.” And after that?
Could it be awakening?
“Monday to Friday – Update 3 Chapters a Day”
“Saturday and Sunday – Off”