"Uh—"

  Not long after, Lillian took a bite of the fruit in her hand, her face turning a sickly shade of green as she gagged. “So disgusting!”

  “That's how Devil Fruits are,” ented Sally, the Shapeshifter Witch standing beside El. Crossing her arms with a knowing grin, she said, “But when you gain such powerful abilities, the taste is a small price to pay.”

  “Exactly! We’re all a bit envious, you know,” chimed in Nef, smiling. “And you don’t have to eat the whole thing—a sie is enough.”

  “No, better to be thh,” Lillian replied, still holding the rest of the fruit. After a moment’s hesitation, she swallowed it all. It was a treasure worth millions of berries, after all—wasting it would be a shame, especially if ing it all might somehow promise the power.

  “Lillian, you read my mi?” asked the giantess Lily with a mix of curiosity aement.

  “You’re w if I really read your mind and tell what you’re thinking…” Lillian answered, rolling her eyes.

  “Eh?” Lily’s eyes widened in shock. “You really !”

  “Did you guess right?” Linlin asked, equally amazed. “Lillian, what am I thinking about?”

  “You’re thinking the same as she was,” Lillian replied dryly.

  “Wow, that’s amazing!” Linlin’s eyes sparkled in wonder.

  “Oh, please! You two practically wear your thoughts on your faces!” Lillian said, ughing as she shook her head.

  Linlin and Lily exged gnces, and the whole group burst out ughing.

  “Alright…”

  But suddenly, Lillian’s third eye started to shih an unusual light as though she’d glimpsed a vision. She stared at El, who was just about to speak, and blurted, “The Devil Fruit’s powers should take effect soon, so be patient, Lillian!”

  “Were you about to say that, El?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Lillian, what are you talking about?” Everyone looked at her, fused, but El, log his gaze on Lillian, seemed surprised. “Did your eye… just glimpse the future?”

  Given her natural talent for reading others’ thoughts, El was sure she hadn’t simply been reading his mind.

  “What?”

  “Seeing the future?”

  “I thought it was just mind-reading?” The others stared at Lillian, shocked and fused. Could the Gre-Gre Fruit actually give the ability to foresee events?

  “I don’t know… it felt instinctive,” she replied, scratg her head. “Just now, my third eye showed me a strange image, and I couldn’t help but blurt it out.”

  “Is it really fht?” Tsuru muttered in shock. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “I heard that foreseeing the future is the pinnacle of Observation Haki, something only a handful oire sea achieve! The Devil Fruit Encyclopedia doesn’t say the Gre-Gre Fruit lets you foresee the future, just that it allows mind-reading.”

  “Then it’s definitely fht,” El said, eyebrows raised. His fmes bzing behind him, he looked at the Three-Eye girl and firmly called out, “Secret Art: Life Return!”

  In the instant, uhe astonished eyes of Tsuru, Lillian, and the newers, his massive, er-tall body began to shrink. His muscles tracted, flexing powerfully, and even his great wings trembled as his form pressed down to a height of just three meters.

  “What!?”

  “He’s… shrinking?”

  “El… he do that?” Lillian and the others stared in amazement, stunned by El’s ued transformation.

  “This is... how could it be possible?”

  Tsuru, a former Navy officer well-versed in the Six Powers, was stunned as she looked at El’s now much smaller, approximately three-meter-tall figure, a stark trast to his prior massive form. “He’s actually mastered Life Return to this extent!”

  Even most seasoned experts who had Life Return training could only manage minor trol, like moving their hair or slightly altering their size. But for El to press his physique to such a degree was almost unbelievable.

  “With enough dedication, nothing is impossible!” El turned back to Tsuru with a warm smile.

  Tsuru: “...”

  Dedication? That’s absurd! Many Navy soldiers and CP agents had pushed themselves to their limits training the Six Powers until they were utterly exhausted—and it wasn’t a ck of dedication. Talent like his, she thought, was on a whole other level. What a monster.

  “Do you think El onii is like anyone else?” Linlin said proudly as she saw Tsuru’s disbelief. “Just because others ’t do it doesn’t mean he ’t!”

  In her eyes, El was capable of anything, and she was fident he would one day reach the pinnacle of the seas as the true King of the O—and she, Charlotte Linlin, would be the woman standing by his side.

  “Wow…”

  Staring up at the now three-meter-tall El, the elegant Sally, who was at least two and a half meters tall herself, stepped forward with a gleam in her eye. She took his arm, smiling pyfully. “Every time I see El in this form, I ’t help but feel a certain... familiarity.”

  “It’s truly impressive!” Nef said, her eyes wide with admiration as she gazed at El, her heart rag. Though less bold than Sally, she also couldn’t help but stare at his striking form. But she khat both Linlin and Gerd were here, closely guarding their “Eastern” and “Westerory, so she held back.

  “Hey, Sally... don’t push your luck!”

  Linlin and Gerd narrowed their eyes, sending icy gres at Sally, the Shapeshifting entress, exuding a dangerous aura. This woman, they knew, was always looking for opportunities, funtiunning looks and figure as she flirted with El onii at every ce.

  Especially Linlin, who ched her fists in frustration as she looked at Sally’s stunning figure and then down at herself, seeing her long boots in clear view. Envy aermination surged within her. “Ugh, I wish I could grow up faster!”

  “Oh, don’t take it so seriously,” Sally said, ughing with a pyful g Linlin and Gerd’s envious expressions. She leaned closer to El and winked. “I don’t mind taking a smaller p the lineup...”

  She, Nef, and several other women from the Dream House were long captivated by El’s unmatched strength, stunning looks, and unique charisma, uo resist his pull.

  “That’s not happening!” Linlin said, fuming.

  “You’re amazing, El!” Lillian, eyes sparkling, dashed over and marveled at El’s new height. Though he was still taller than her, he was now much more approachable.

  “All right, don’t get too excited… Sally, enough pying around.” Ign the territorial tensioween Linlin and Gerd, El gently pulled his hand away from Sally and patted Lillian’s head, fog on her.

  Looking at the sapphire-like third eye on her forehead, he smiled, “Try to tuo yourself and see if there are any other ges in your body—or specifically in your eye. A your abilities; were you perhaps using Observation Haki just now?”

  This was truly an ued surprise. It seemed Lillian was a hidden gem. He suspected that the Gre-Gre Fruit’s abilities, bined with her natural, powerful Observation Haki and the tent powers uo the Three-Eye Tribe, had fused into somethiraordinary—givihe potential to glimpse the future.

  “I’ll try… I think I did activate my Observation Haki instinctively!” Lillian nodded in sudden realization, then, fog her Haki, activated her third eye, which briefly fshed red.

  And in that instant, she glimpsed another peculiar vision…

  Bleam