“What is this! What are those?!”

Looking at the startled Elis, Alexander was very amused because she didn’t wait for him to tell her what the Devil Fruit’s power was, now she was pulling her ears and tail trying to take them off.

“Haha, calm down, that is the power of the devil fruit.”

Alexander tried to dissipate her worry, seeing as she was scared.

“This is? What kind of power is this?”

“Take a few deep breaths and calm down, then try to focus on the new knowledge received from the devil fruit.”

Listening to Alexander, Elis took a few deep breaths while still holding her tail, Alexander wanted to see how it felt to touch but he couldn’t just go and ask her.

After she calmed down, she concentrated and cancelled the transformation, returning her to her normal appearance, then, after checking that everything was as it should be, she transformed back.

“How is it? It may take some time to adjust to your new power, attack me with all you have, this way you would get used to it faster, don’t worry about harming me.”

Hearing his words, she hesitated but, in the end,, she took a fighting posture, she now had an instinctual knowledge that guided her in the usage of the devil fruit.

She took a lower posture with her legs and arms slightly bent, her palms were facing him and the points of her fingers were aiming at him, claws extended from her fingers, looking very sharp and sturdy, they extended from her nails but weren’t too long, just once more the length of her original nails.

While she looked cute in her transformed state, her claws looked sharp, Alexander was very curious to see the extent of her ability and the sharpness of her claws.

Elis kicked the floor and rushed towards Alexander, her speed was very fast, surprising him.

She swiped with her left claws but they passed right through him, Elis maintained her momentum and jumped on the railing behind Alexander, using it as a foothold to jump and take him by surprise, but that couldn’t work with his Hyper Focus and she also couldn’t compare with his speed yet, Alexander grasped her right wrist with his hand and threw her towards the main mast without using much force, Elis didn’t panic and once again repositioned herself in midair to land on her feet, then she used her strong jumping ability to try and take Alexander by surprise again, this time she tried to jump off from foothold to foothold searching for a blind spot, her focus was completely on Alexander and all his movements, from the beginning he didn’t move a step and that made her frustrated, she also found that she couldn’t find a blind spot, her sixth sense told her that.

Alexander could see her frustration on her face and that made him happy because it indicated her dissatisfaction with her current strength, meaning she wanted to improve.

Elis changed her flying posture, her right hand was behind her, preparing for a wide swipe with her claws, that made him curious as to what she intended to do.

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*slash* With the sound of cutting air, four transparent blades came at him, this took him by surprise as he didn’t expect this kind of move, but in the end it just passed through him, he could also avoid it but it wasn’t necessary, after all Elis had still to learn haki.

That also made him curious because the move made him remember how swordsmen also can use a similar move, he wondered if she would be able to use more sword techniques with her claws.

Seeing how her move didn’t work, Elis wasn’t surprised, she didn’t expect it to work, she knew Alexander was too powerful for her, she was only disappointed that she couldn’t even make him move a single step, but she regained her confidence shortly, she knew if she trained hard, things will change, she was also happy because she was able to perform such movements that she thought as impossible for her.

“How was it? Do you like it?”

Alexander spoke, indicating the end of the spar.

“*nod* *nod*!”

Her excited face spoke by itself, who wouldn’t be euphoric when receiving such power.

His gaze wandered to her cat ears, she still had her human ears despite having grown another cat-like pair, he couldn’t help himself and walked to her side and patted her head while also trying to touch her ears, the feeling was very soft making him want to touch them all day.

“C-Captain!”

He was woken up by Elis calling him, looking at her, he could see her face redden, he let himself go too much.

Anemone on the side had a very thoughtful appearance, she seems to be thinking of something, but no one saw her. On the outside there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary but her mind was in turmoil, she had never seen such strength, maybe not even her empress could compare with them and that made her feel scared, that Elis was very weak in the beginning, she even trained her so she was aware of Elis’s abilities, but after she ate that strange fruit that man gave her, she changed so much that it was hard to believe, she didn’t have any confidence in fighting her, that gave her a sour taste in her mouth.

The other four companions of Anemone were also watching from a distance, they couldn’t hide their shock like Anemone, it was clear that they too found it hard to accept as they have seen Elis training before.

Alexander was oblivious to the other girls shock, he was in the dilemma of how to go about finding an excuse to touch her tail, he had already managed to touch her ears and the soft feeling was something irresistible, he couldn’t stop imagining how her tail would feel.

While he was deep in thought about that philosophical question, Elis was aware of her captain’s intentions as he was staring at her tail, she found it strange herself to have such addition to her body but it didn’t feel uncomfortable and it was rather fun to move it around, she didn’t know why he was so curious about her tail, but while she felt embarrassed, she didn’t mind it.

Elis turned around and presented her tail to Alexander.

“Captain, you can touch if you like, I don’t mind!”

Her voice sounded rather loud, scaring him, but seeing her presenting her butt to him and hearing those words, he couldn’t help thinking about other meanings.

“*Ahem*, well, I just want to make sure that everything is all right, nothing else.”

He said that while extending his trembling hand, he didn’t bother thinking that his made-up excuse didn’t stand, he was just focused on touching it. The feeling was softer and more elastic than he thought, it was even better than her ears, the fluffiness and warmth was exceptional, he heard a small gasp from Elis but didn’t stop stroking and caressing her tail.

*Ahem*

He didn’t know for how long he continued with his questionable act, but he was wakened by the sound of someone clearing their throat. Turning his head, he was meet with the face of Robin that had a judgmental expression.

Looking at Elis who had redness extending from her neck to the top of her head, her legs were trembling, and her breathing was heavy, he understood that he may have overdone it.

Alexander let go of her tail and Elis almost fell to the ground, but he caught her before that.

“Sorry about that.”

*shake shake*

He apologized to Elis, acknowledging his mistake, but Elis shaked her head.

“I-Is all right!”

Leaving those words behind, she hurried with unsteady steps inside the ship.