Cement and Steel — Chapter 9: The Sculptor of Despair
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The sun rose crimson over the jagged cliffs of Vulcanis Island — a land of black rock, fire-spewing fissures, and ruined temples. Legend spoke of ancient forges buried deep beneath its crust, where weapons of unimaginable power had once been crafted.
Luffy, naturally, wanted to see if one of them was a giant frying pan.
But Kaito sensed something darker.
As they docked, the air felt wrong — heavy, like the breath of some waiting beast. The crew disembarked cautiously, Nami checking her weather-sense, Robin scanning ancient carvings etched into stone walls.
Kaito crouched by one of them. "This is pre-World Government script. The island was a stronghold of an ancient weapon maker — they called him *The Sculptor*."
Zoro's brow furrowed. "What kind of sculptor needs a volcano?"
One answer came in the form of an explosion.
A plume of black smoke erupted from a nearby ridge. Then came the tremors — deliberate footsteps. Heavy. Mechanical.
Emerging from the smoke was a towering figure — over eight feet tall, with a massive stone chisel on one arm and armor made of sculpted volcanic basalt.
"Straw Hat Pirates," the figure growled. "You tread on sacred ground."
Luffy cracked his knuckles. "Then maybe you should've put up a *no trespassing* sign."
The Sculptor — or rather, the man calling himself **Marl Vein**, wielder of the **Chisel-Chisel Fruit**, ignored the quip. His eyes locked on Kaito.
"You. Cement man. You defile stone with imitation. I'll chisel your legacy into rubble."
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Marl charged like a juggernaut, carving the ground beneath him with every step. His Devil Fruit let him shape and weaponize any mineral surface within seconds. Pillars of stone shot upward, trying to impale the crew.
Kaito stepped forward, activating **Stoneheart** instantly.
He extended his arm, forming a wide cement barrier that blocked the incoming spires. Shards flew, but Kaito's shield reformed with seamless control.
"You want to test mastery?" he said, voice calm. "Let's carve."
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Their duel began with a collision that sent shockwaves across the cliffside.
Marl's chisel-arm carved furrows through the air, but Kaito dodged with enhanced speed, his cement flowing like water and hardening mid-motion into blades, whips, and shields.
He countered Marl's downward strike with a cross-shaped cement block, redirecting the force through a twisting wall that spiraled up to trap Marl's arm.
But Marl laughed, his other hand striking the cement directly — *chiseling through it like butter*.
"You can shape cement," Marl growled, "but I sculpt stone down to the soul!"
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Kaito backed off. Marl was more dangerous than he looked. He wasn't just brute force — he was a master craftsman. Each movement refined, precise, and destructive.
So Kaito adapted.
He activated **Cement Resonance**, his armor shifting to translucent density, vibrating with power. Shards danced around him like a miniature orbiting storm.
Marl slammed the ground, creating a rising wall of obsidian.
Kaito answered by launching his shards at high speed — but this time, each shard split mid-flight, maneuvering around defenses, reforming behind Marl.
One stabbed into his shoulder.
Marl roared, but the wound hardened into onyx. "You can't shape *me*, boy. I *am* stone!"
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But Kaito wasn't trying to pierce — he was testing structure.
That shard he'd embedded? It was a marker — part of a new technique he was developing: **Cement Domain**.
As Marl lunged forward again, Kaito clapped his hands. The air around them shimmered. The ground rippled — and then hardened beneath Marl's feet into *a grid of runes*.
A massive **cement dome** erupted around them, sealing the two inside.
"Welcome to my forge," Kaito said coldly.
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Inside, Kaito had total control. His cement reacted to thought, shifting floors, weapons, and walls faster than Marl could strike.
The Sculptor tried carving escape tunnels, but each was closed within seconds. He smashed his fists into the walls, only for the dome to absorb and redirect his force.
Kaito struck with tendrils that became hammers, lances, cages, fists.
Still, Marl endured.
He carved with primal rage, turning the cement into rough gravel with each blow — but he was slowing down.
And Kaito… was just getting started.
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"You think control is strength," Marl gasped. "But raw power — instinct — that's what survives."
Kaito's voice was like stone grinding. "No. True strength is will. Precision. Adaptation."
He raised one hand.
From the dome's ceiling, dozens of thin **Haki-infused cement strings** dropped, anchoring into the ground, forming a binding lattice.
"I've studied pressure patterns," Kaito said. "I know how cement compresses, how it shatters — and how to stop it."
He made a fist — the strings tightened.
Marl's body jerked as pressure pinned him in place. His limbs cracked as the cement found the fault lines in his basalt armor.
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With a final step forward, Kaito formed a sword of flowing cement, dense and shimmering with black Haki.
He stopped just short of Marl's neck.
"You lose," he said.
The dome dissolved.
Marl collapsed to his knees. "You… made stone dance."
Luffy gave a thumbs-up from the ridge. "Nice job, Kaito!"
Zoro nodded. "That was some advanced control. Almost like Enma — but with minerals."
Robin walked over, eyes thoughtful. "You've built something more than a power. You've crafted a legacy."
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Later that evening, as the crew rested at a safe spot on the island, Kaito stared at his hands.
His control over cement now extended beyond simple manipulation. He could trap, shape, reinforce, repair, and even use cement as a sensory tool. With time, he believed he could rival the Logia-type users in versatility.
He wasn't just a warrior anymore.
He was a sculptor of battle.
And as they prepared to sail onward, the crew could sense it too — Kaito Moriyama was no longer a mere addition to the Straw Hats.
He was becoming one of their mightiest.