Chapter 350: Roy: Luffy's Fruit Awakened?
Honestly, the information Shanks had just brought was something Roy had never seen coming.
'Beasts' Kaido allying with the World Government — allying with Lord Imu himself — his first instinct was that it was impossible. Kaido had personally participated in the battle against Imu at God Valley.
But on second thought, Roy realized that instinct was wrong.
"Kaido fought Imu at God Valley because he had just obtained the Azure Dragon Fruit and wanted to test it in real combat. Beyond that, it was out of loyalty to Rocks."
"Or more precisely — the events at God Valley happened to make Kaido one of the few people with a vague awareness of Imu's existence. And that, in itself, is the foundation for 'cooperation'."
"And more crucially — Kaido's ambition..."
Something cold settled in Roy's chest.
Who was Kaido, really?
Already the 'strongest soldier' in his homeland at the age of ten. A man steeped in war from childhood, a war fanatic to the bone.
The strong survive. The weak die. That was the law he lived by.
Kaido's ambition, Roy knew well, was to ignite the world's greatest war — a war that would drag everyone in without exception. Commoners, royalty, pirates, Marines, Celestial Dragons alike. All slaughtering each other equally. All dying equally. That was the world order he wanted to forge from the wreckage.
By any ordinary logic, an ambition like that made cooperation with the World Government impossible. He wanted to tear everyone down — including the Celestial Dragons.
But...
"Maybe not anymore."
Roy caught himself. That was old thinking.
Based on what he currently knew, he could say with reasonable confidence that within the World Government as it stood now, Imu's regard for the Celestial Dragons had sharply declined.
The God's Knights appeared to have been effectively disbanded, with only Shamrock remaining under a special 'contract'. Recent intelligence from the Star Hunter Unit and the Marines suggested the Five Elders' presence had grown very thin.
"Because of everything The Zodiac has done, Imu has likely stopped trusting the Five Elders entirely. He's taken personal control and is issuing orders Himself."
"Which means the Celestial Dragons may now be nothing more than a liability — a drain on resources — as far as Imu is concerned."
"He can't kill them directly, not without violating the contract He signed with the twenty kings on the Genesis Pillar. But He doesn't have to care about them anymore."
In that light, an alliance between Kaido and Imu made perfect sense.
Kaido wanted to reshape the world through war. For Imu — it didn't matter what shape the world took, so long as The Zodiac and Star Lord were no longer in it. So long as Joy Boy and Davy Jones's plans came to nothing. Then Imu would be the God of this world, free to remake it as He saw fit.
And there was something else, even more crucial.
"The current Imu needs genuine powerhouses."
"Not the hollow power of the old God's Knights — bodies propped up by Devil Fruits and Source Energy of Lineage Factor. Real fighters. People who have reached true mastery of mind, body, and technique."
Shamrock was one. But clearly not enough.
In this era, the most formidable figures on the sea were the Four Emperors.
"Whitebeard knows the world's secrets through Roger, and shares a past with Rocks — cooperation with the World Government is out of the question." "Red-Haired is a Celestial Dragon who defected, a committed enemy of Imu who betrayed his own class from the start." "Big Mom was once a possibility, but Linlin has been eating cake in Dream Wonderland."
"Only Kaido — he's lost the Three Disasters and the SMILE supply is gone, his ambitions stalled. None of that is a problem for Imu, who sits on the resources of the entire World Government. Devil Fruits, a formidable army — He can offer whatever Kaido needs."
Under those circumstances, the two reaching an agreement was the most natural thing in the world.
While Uma was still turning this over —
"Kaido hasn't told anyone under his command any specifics, and intelligence near Wano Country has gone completely dark." Shanks's voice continued.
"So be careful. If he makes a move, the target will almost certainly be connected to The Zodiac."
He said it plainly.
Even as a fellow Four Emperor, the Beasts Pirates — now bolstered, now almost certainly backed by the World Government — were not something to take lightly.
Something flickered in the depths of Uma's eyes.
"Understood."
He had actually just remembered a piece on the board he had placed near Kaido a long time ago. It seemed the moment to move that piece had finally arrived.
What Uma hadn't expected was that even after everything — the secrets of Mary Geoise, Kaido's anomalies — Red-Haired still had more.
"One last thing."
The Four Emperor's expression shifted into something more careful as he looked at Uma.
"On the way here, I received a letter from Mr. Rayleigh. Do you know of 'Monkey D. Luffy'?"
"...The Straw Hat boy? Monkey has run into them before."
Uma blinked first, then nodded.
"Right. That kid."
Something close to worry moved through Shanks's expression as he relayed what the letter had said.
"Fruit awakening!?"
Beneath the horse-head mask, Roy's face went thoroughly blank.
"You're saying — Lu— ahem, the Straw Hat boy's Nika Fruit has awakened!?"
How?
He couldn't make sense of it. The last time he had seen Luffy through Monkey's perspective, the boy might not have even developed Gear 2 yet. How had he jumped straight to fruit awakening?
Had Teacher Kaido, somehow, without Roy noticing, made the journey from the New World all the way to Paradise ahead of schedule to deliver the famous 'three-club lesson'?
"You know about Nika."
Shanks caught the reaction, understanding clear in his expression. He nodded solemnly.
Yes. As the person who had originally handed the fruit to Luffy, Shanks had always known of the Nika Fruit's existence.
More precisely — when he was still an apprentice aboard the Roger Pirates, after Roger completed the voyage to the final island, Laugh Tale, Roger had sat with him and spoken at length. He had passed his will on. It was then that Shanks first heard of the 'Warrior of Liberation', and learned that the consumer of the Nika Fruit had been the Joy Boy who changed the world.
That conversation was also part of what drove him, afterward, to return to Mary Geoise — to become a Celestial Dragon and a member of the Divine Servants. Because during all his time in the lower world, he had never found even a trace of the Nika Fruit.
It wasn't until he became a Divine Servant that he learned the World Government had long been searching for a fruit called the 'Gum-Gum Fruit'. From that, he concluded the Gum-Gum Fruit was almost certainly the Nika Fruit.
In the end, he snatched it from a Government warship. Before he could decide what to do with it, a series of mishaps led to that kid Luffy swallowing it whole.
It was only recently, when Rayleigh's letter reached him with news of Luffy's awakening, that Shanks became entirely certain — what Luffy had eaten was indeed 'Nika'.
But the problem was —
"His awakening was very sudden."
Shanks held nothing back, recounting everything in full — the physical anomalies Luffy had noticed in Alabasta, the sudden awakening that followed the Aster's appearance on the sea.
"Now he can't control his power at all. The awakened state is appearing at random. This is clearly not a normal awakening."
Shanks's frown was obvious.
He was worried about Luffy — that much was plain. Whether it was concern for the boy himself or concern about what an out-of-control Nika Fruit would mean, he clearly did not want this.
Uma: "..."
The expression beneath the horse-head mask at that moment could only be described as complicated.
"So that's what happened."
As Shanks spoke, Roy had already pieced it together — Luffy's unexpected awakening, it seemed, was quite possibly... probably... almost certainly his fault.
Back in Alabasta, inside Queen Lily's cenotaph, he had once sounded the Drums of Liberation. The timing lined up exactly with when Luffy's body had first started behaving strangely.
And then, when the Aster surfaced — he had been at the helm of Ark Noah, and had sounded the Drums of Liberation loudly enough for an entire sea area to hear.
He hadn't expected that to be enough to kick Luffy's awakening into motion early.
"Freedom calls to freedom — so the Nika Fruit inside Luffy resonated with the Drums of Liberation and awakened ahead of time?"
Roy turned the theory over carefully. It fit.
And clearly, this was the third reason Shanks had made this journey.
"I've already contacted Mr. Rayleigh and asked him to bring Luffy and the others here."
Shanks looked at Uma, his tone carrying real weight.
"If possible, I hope your side can confirm Luffy's condition."
"And determine whether... he's still in a state to keep sailing."
---
Several days later.
"Luffy! Slow down!"
On the deck of the Aster, accompanied by the flow of starlight, a group of figures materialized in the central plaza.
The Straw Hat crew — along with Jinbe and Rayleigh.
Chopper stared at Luffy sprinting ahead and couldn't hold himself back. "Your condition hasn't stabilized yet!"
"Huh? But I feel great right now, hehehe!"
Luffy turned back with a look of genuine puzzlement.
Halfway through his grin, his hair flickered faintly white and a smile of outrageous, boundless delight spread across his face — and then, just a moment later, both the white hair and the expression vanished.
"Hm?"
Luffy blinked at his own hands. "That was weird... I suddenly felt really happy just now."
"That's exactly what I mean!"
Chopper threw his hooves up in frustration.
This was Luffy's situation.
Ever since the sudden awakening, his ability had been wildly unstable. His recovery speed and raw strength had surged — but that special white form kept surfacing without warning, and he couldn't hold it or dismiss it at will.
"Whatever — I'm starving all of a sudden, where's the food around here!?"
Luffy, for his part, appeared entirely unbothered. He slapped his stomach and looked around expectantly.
Nami's expression shifted into something dangerous. "Are you an idiot!? This is The Zodiac's headquarters, not a food market — there's no restaurant just sitting here!"
"There isn't? But I'm seriously hungry!"
"Then be hungry! You eat after we meet the person Rayleigh told us about and he fixes whatever's wrong with your body!"
"Ehh!?"
And as Nami delivered a kick to a sulking, scrunched-faced Luffy —
Unlike the rest of the crew, Rayleigh and Jinbe were watching Luffy with considerably more serious expressions.
Compared to the Straw Hats, whose grasp of Devil Fruits and power systems was still relatively surface-level, Rayleigh and Jinbe were veterans of the sea. They understood Luffy's current condition far better.
Devil Fruits carry their own 'wishes' and 'wills'.
When a consumer's mind and body can meet those wishes and wills, the fruit awakens — that 'wish' becomes their power. When a consumer's mind and body fall short, and they are instead overwhelmed by the wish rather than rising to meet it, the awakening fails.
The consequences of failure were severe. The Jailer Beasts of Impel Down were a living example — all Zoan ability users who had undergone fruit awakening, but couldn't contain the animal instinct within their fruits. They had been all but consumed by it, reduced to near-beasts.
Luffy's situation was something even more unusual.
His strength and mind hadn't reached the point that should have made awakening possible — and yet he had awakened, and hadn't entirely lost control.
Which meant only one thing.
"Luffy... is genuinely suited for this fruit."
Both Rayleigh and Jinbe understood it clearly. That legendary Warrior of Liberation, Nika — and his successor, Joy Boy — had, it seemed, a real and meaningful resonance with Luffy.
Perhaps that was why he hadn't immediately collapsed into full loss of control. Instead, he had landed in this in-between state: unable to command his power, but not replaced by the will of the Nika Fruit either.
As for what to do about it, neither of them had an answer. Awakening was outside their expertise.
"I just hope The Zodiac has a way to handle what's happening inside him."
(End of Chapter)
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