As The Deep In The Boys

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….

After feeding the dolphin and his three friends, Kevin decided to start developing the non-combat aspects of his superpower. 

After dozens of articles on mirages and his increased control over his Devil Fruit from training, Moskowitz had every reason to believe that the hardest part was behind him.

First, he concentrated on feeling the photons around him. Then, he slowly began to refract the surrounding light rays, and, almost as if following a textbook, he started to get results after ten minutes. 

At first, the beach around him seemed to ripple and constantly change. 

After Kevin got used to the new sensation caused by the changing position of the light rays, he abruptly changed the angle of refraction several times, causing the world around him to turn upside down, and it seemed to The Deep that he was standing on an island floating in the sky.

"Whoa!" came from Peter, who was watching The Deep's actions.

"I agree," Kevin said in an excited voice, trying to hold the rays in that position and not dispel the miracle he had created with his own hands.

"You're flying! How did you do that? Can you teach me? Can other people do that?" the dolphin began to bombard his friend with questions at a breakneck speed.

"Not all at once. What you're seeing is called an inferior mirage, and usually, this phenomenon is extremely unstable, but because of my powers, it's now perfectly creating the illusion of me flying. In reality, it's a distortion of light, and I'm still standing on the ground, but I can make others see something different, just like you are now. So, what was next?" Kevin thought for a second. 

"You can't learn this, sorry. And only a couple of unusual people could probably replicate something like this, but most of humanity is incapable of it," Kevin answered all of Peter's questions, still feeling like a little boy who had just tried the coolest ride in the park for the first time.

"So it's not real?" Peter asked, his voice full of crushed hopes.

"No."

"Aw, man, and I was already thinking you could fly like a bird," the sea dweller said with disappointment.

"Well, sorry to disappoint, but speaking of flying, I need to check something," Kevin began to ponder an experiment.

Stopping the mirage, he released his control over the light rays and stepped aside. 

Yesterday, during the moments of accelerated perception, The Deep had been too scared and hadn't thought about the sensations, but now, diving into the crystal-clear memories, he realized that the slowed time had allowed him to experience the process of creating solid light in more detail, and a couple of moments in the workings of his superpowers had caught Moskowitz's attention.

Concentrating on those moments, Kevin began to repeat the process of creating solid light, but instead of compressing the photons all the way, at the last moment, he imbued them with the power of the fruit and stretched them into a square on his hand. 

A second later, Kevin was smiling as he observed the flat and, most importantly, very sharp yellow square that had formed on his palm.

As he began to feel his creation, he immediately realized that the object was as hard as most of the crystals he had created during the night, but he would need additional tests to determine its limits of durability.

Grabbing the glowing object with both hands, The Deep slowly increased the pressure, trying to break the light construct. 

After a few seconds, cracks appeared on the square, and with a sound like shattering glass, it broke into tiny particles that dissolved right before his eyes.

"So, its durability is almost equal to iron," Kevin concluded, extremely pleased with uncovering the basis of one of Admiral Kizaru's most powerful abilities.

Having tested the first point of interest, Kevin moved on to the second controversial aspect of creating solid light. 

Starting to concentrate a crystal again, Moskowitz abruptly reduced the power feed from his abilities midway through the process and forced the solidifying light to seek other sources to replenish its energy. 

Half a second later, Kevin lost his sight for a few milliseconds, and when his primary sense returned, he saw a tiny, fingernail-sized crystal of solid light in his hand.

Frowning, he began to examine and test his creation for differences from a normal crystal created with the power of the Light-Light Logia. 

The first thing that stood out was its size, which was several times smaller than the criteria initially set when he was manipulating the photons. 

There were also some irregularities and, to The Deep's great disappointment, its durability was comparable to ordinary glass.

But not wanting to be discouraged, Kevin decided to repeat his experiment, this time setting the crystal's size to the maximum his control skills currently allowed. 

As he began to concentrate a crystal the size of a full-fledged Harley, Kevin again reduced the flow of his energy midway and allowed the creation to replenish the lack of photons on its own. 

A moment later, the superhero's surroundings were shrouded in darkness that lasted for several seconds. 

When it cleared, a crystal the size of the top of a regular baseball bat appeared before the surprised Kevin, who only at the end realized what had happened.

"Was that a mirage too?" a frightened voice called from the ocean.

"No, can you describe what you saw?" The Deep asked, turning to his friend.

"Darkness started spreading from you, swallowing everything it touched. I was already starting to think it was going to swallow me too when there was only half a fin's length between us, but then it suddenly disappeared. It was very scary!" the dolphin said, genuinely frightened by the event.

"Sorry, I didn't expect that effect either. But it wasn't dangerous. If you had been inside, you would have just lost your sight for a few seconds, that's all," Kevin apologized, trying to calm the dolphin down.

"Can you please not do that again?" the dolphin pleaded.

….

If you want to read ahead by 10+ chapters from here you can check out my patreon.

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