Chapter 40: The Four Fruits
North Blue - Unnamed Island
The night was ink-black, the moon was cold, and the waves lapped gently at the shore.
Roy's figure appeared on the beach, the metal case from Bellamy held casually in one hand. He sat on a flat reef, placed the box beside him, and flicked the latch.
Click—
The lid opened, revealing four Devil Fruits of different shapes and sizes, all resting on a soft velvet cushion.
"Heh..."
Roy let out a low laugh, his eyes filled with disdain. "He sent a moron like Bellamy to deliver something this important?"
He poked at one of the fruits, his voice laced with sarcasm. "Was he hoping someone would steal it? Give him an excuse to renege on our deal, then send someone else to 'steal' it back? ...He's as cunning as ever, that little flamingo."
He shook his head and turned his attention to the most striking fruit in the box.
It was an orange-red, dragon-fruit-shaped fruit, covered in swirling flame patterns. Its stem curled upward like a blue-green wisp of fire, and the entire thing gave off an almost tangible heat.
"The Mera Mera no Mi (Flare-Flare Fruit)..."
Roy's lips curved into a nostalgic smile, his expression complicated.
"It really is fate, isn't it, Ace?"
His mind flashed back to all the stupid forum posts and fan theories he'd read in his past life:
"The Mera Mera no Mi? That fruit is GARBAGE!"
"Everyone in the New World can set things on fire! The Mera Mera no Mi is obsolete!"
"In an era of Haki, Logias are useless! Look at what Akainu did to him!"
Those arrogant, short-sighted comments...
Roy just smiled, his gaze calm. "Foolish prejudice."
He gently picked up the fruit, the flame-like swirls feeling warm.
"Ace's failure was never the fault of the fruit," he muttered to himself.
He remembered the massive, spectacular fireballs from the anime. They were dazzling, but they were useless against a truly strong opponent.
Roy sighed. "Are Logias weak? The three Admirals... Akainu's magma, Kizaru's light, Aokiji's ice... every one of them is a terrifying force of nature."
He tapped the fruit, a sharp light in his eyes.
"The fruit is never the problem. The user is."
Ace had focused only on the 'scale' of his fire, not its 'temperature.'
"Temperature..." Roy mused, a dangerous smile spreading across his face.
"What if, instead of just making bigger fires, the user focused on compressing them? On achieving the absolute, extreme limit of heat?"
He clenched his fist, as if feeling the fruit's untapped potential.
"In my mind, the Mera Mera no Mi is in no way inferior to the Magu Magu no Mi. The ultimate form of fire... is to burn everything to ash."
"When the temperature breaks past ten thousand degrees, when it starts burning at a molecular level... that is a power worthy of the sun."
He carefully placed the Mera Mera no Mi back in the box and turned his attention to the next fruit.
This one was a brilliant, opulent gold, shaped like a gourd and covered in rich swirls.
Roy looked surprised. "The Goru Goru no Mi (Gold-Gold Fruit)?"
He chuckled, remembering bits and pieces from his past life. "This is an unexpected harvest... If I remember right, Doflamingo was planning to use this to get in good with the World Nobles, but that guy Tesoro ended up stealing it."
He smiled. "Tesoro... I might just have to pay him a visit one of these days."
He put the fruit back, satisfied. He then looked at the last two fruits.
"That's weird... I don't recognize these two at all."
He picked up the first one. It was a brownish-yellow, long, and lumpy, like a... twisted sausage.
"This shape... it looks like a busted sausage casing."
He picked up the last one. It was dark green, round, and covered in a hexagonal, shell-like pattern.
"This... looks like a cheap knock-off of a Turtle Zoan."
Roy frowned. He had been a One Piece super-fan. He knew the Devil Fruit encyclopedia inside and out, but these two didn't match anything.
Are they new? Or just experimental failures?
Just as he was wondering, a sharp DING! rang out in his head.
[System Loading: 11%]
[ERROR: System load failure due to... uh... administrative error. Re-caching...]
[Partial functions unlocked—Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, VIEW-ONLY... Unlocked.]
"Administrative... error?"
Roy went very, very quiet. A vein pulsed on his forehead. "Don't tell me... that useless Goddess got drunk again..."
(Meanwhile, in a chaotic void.)
The blue-haired, clumsy Goddess was passed out on a sofa, an empty beer bottle clutched in her hand.
"Hic... one more... I can still drink..." she mumbled.
She rolled over in her sleep, and her foot SMACKED the side of a glowing console.
[ALERT! ANOMALOUS INPUT DETECTED IN USER'S SYSTEM!]
[System cache... RESETTING... Partial functions... RESTORED...]
The Goddess just snored. "Uwaah... systems... shmystems... 'm sleepy..."
Roy took a deep breath, fighting the urge to scream.
"Well... something is better than nothing."
He looked at the sausage-fruit, and new information instantly appeared in his mind.
[Animal-Type: Inu Inu no Mi (Dog-Dog Fruit), Model: Dachshund]
[Abilities: Grants a canine's sense of smell (Can track 3km). Body can stretch up to 2m long.]
[Evaluation: Good for a police dog, not for a warrior. (Warning: Extremely low to the ground. Prone to tripping.)]
Roy: "..."
He looked at the other one.
[Animal-Type: Kame Kame no Mi (Turtle-Turtle Fruit), Model: Brazilian Turtle]
[Abilities: Grants a defensive shell (Hardness ≈ iron plate). Can breathe underwater.]
[Evaluation: Good for a punching bag, not for a fighter. (Note: Swim speed reduced by 70%. Can survive 3 months without food.)]
Roy: "..."
He silently closed the box and looked up at the moon.
The sea breeze rustled his hair, and the sound of the waves lapping the shore seemed to be laughing at him.
Roy was utterly speechless.
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