Brook led Ariel out of the Hard-Shell Tower, eager to gauge the progress of her Observation Haki. Could she now sense the full spectrum of others' emotions? Did her words carry the commanding weight of a master orator? Could she sway entire crowds with her charisma?
"Brook, I've got a whole fanbase now!" Ariel chirped, her mermaid tail practically dancing with excitement. "They're just like me—totally obsessed with the Hell Pirates!"
She gushed about her recent achievements. Apparently, her speeches were so convincing that people treated her words like gospel. And it didn't hurt that Brook had handed her a cool 500 million Belly to sweeten the deal. For the past week, every fishman or mermaid who attended her talks at Fish-Man Island walked away with 100 to 1,000 Belly in their pockets.
Thanks to this, Ariel's fame had skyrocketed. With Fish-Man Island's population of four to five million, at least a few hundred thousand had seen her in person, and over a million had heard her name. She was now touring the island, delivering speeches to cement her influence. At the Gyoncorde Plaza strength-testing machine, any fishman or mermaid who passed the test joined her personal guard.
The Hell Pirates visited every quarter, recruiting promising fishmen to train at Elan Island, grooming them as future crew members. The Hell Pirates' territory championed racial equality and banned slavery, drawing attention from rare races seeking refuge and opportunity.
"You're saying you've been shaking hands with your fans?" Brook asked, catching a detail that piqued his interest.
He recalled the mechanics of the Mark-Mark Fruit. Its user needed to physically touch a target to "mark" them, enabling attacks with thrown weapons or objects from anywhere. It was a quirky ability, but flawed. For a skilled opponent, getting close enough to touch was a gamble. Worse, the fruit only allowed two simultaneous marks—one per hand. Washing a hand erased the mark, requiring another touch to reapply it. And to avoid marking someone unintentionally during a handshake, the user had to wear gloves.
In the original story, Vander Decken IX went nearly a decade without washing his hands to keep Princess Shirahoshi marked. Talk about dedication! Compared to Bartholomew Kuma's Paw-Paw Fruit, which could teleport to countless locations, the Mark-Mark Fruit felt like a downgrade.
Still, it had one edge: it could hurl massive objects, like the island-sized Oath Ship Noah. That outshone the Paw-Paw Fruit's range in raw power.
Brook mused aloud, "Imagine if we had Shiki float an island, then used the Mark-Mark Fruit to fling it back to the New World. No more escort missions for us! Though, we'd need to test if the island would survive the toss without crumbling."
...
"Oh, totally!" Ariel beamed, waving her hands animatedly. "Shaking hands makes me feel closer to my fans. They trust me more because of it!"
She hadn't realized someone had marked her during one of those handshakes.
"Do you recall a sleazy fishman with four legs?" Brook asked casually.
He knew Vander Decken IX was a four-legged broadbill swordfish fishman. Could this generation's Mark-Mark Fruit user be his ancestor—maybe Vander Decken VII, given the timeline? For generations, the Vander Decken family and their Flying Pirates had hunted for the legendary Mermaid Princess who could control Sea Kings. Their ship, the Flying Dutchman, was practically a ghost ship, rotting away near Fish-Man Island as they obsessively tracked mermaids with unique abilities.
According to Vander Decken IX, their family was "cursed" by the Mark-Mark Fruit, losing their fishman swimming ability. Was that true, or just bravado?
Could Devil Fruit powers actually be inherited?
Or did the Mark-Mark Fruit keep respawning near the Vander Decken family by sheer coincidence? Maybe the fruit itself had a mind of its own, choosing its next host?
Brook's mind wandered to a theory. In the deep sea, where Seastone was abundant, Devil Fruit rebirth might work similarly to a Seastone recycling device. When a Vander Decken died 10,000 meters below, the overwhelming seawater could restrict the Mark-Mark Fruit's rebirth to a nearby location, overriding its usual random respawn.
It wasn't impossible. Improbable, sure, but in a world of infinite possibilities, a Devil Fruit repeatedly respawning near the same family could happen. It was like a lottery winner with a distinctive mole winning multiple times—wildly unlikely, but not impossible. If "fate" wanted the Vander Deckens to keep the Mark-Mark Fruit, they'd keep it.
The "Mark-Mark curse" might just be Vander Decken IX's excuse. Maybe he was the only one who'd eaten it.
But inherited Devil Fruit powers weren't unheard of. Princess Vivi had mentioned that the Falcon and Jackal fruits were passed down as Alabasta's guardian spirits. Did the Nefertari family have a method to recover those fruits? Did they buy them back each time they respawned? Or did the fruits themselves choose to stay in Alabasta?
Ever since Brook learned the Sun God Nika Fruit had its own consciousness, he believed anything was possible. Objects that consumed Zoan Devil Fruits—like the dachshund cannon, Spandam's elephant sword Funkfreed, or Redfield's mythical tanuki pen Pato—showed basic sentience. Pato, in particular, was sharp as a tack, communicating like a living being. This suggested Devil Fruits could indeed have their own will.
Artificial Zoan Devil Fruits took it further. True Beasts and Gifters had to wrestle for control with the fruit's consciousness. So, a Devil Fruit choosing to "inherit" within a family or faction by respawning nearby wasn't out of the question. It just needed to pick a local rebirth point.
-----------
+300 chapters on p@treon/tambeerg