"Captain, we've got so many Devil Fruits on board. How about giving one to Taeyeon? That way, she'll at least have some ability to defend herself."
Yuristine made the suggestion to Shirakawa. The Devil Fruits on their ship had all been looted from the Celestial Dragons' vessel, and among them were some genuinely powerful ones.
"I'll ask Taeyeon about it."
Shirakawa replied. After all, eating a Devil Fruit meant becoming a hammer in the water—unable to swim ever again, unable to survive in the sea.
"Mm." Yuristine responded lightly.
"Taeyeon, come over here for a moment." Just then, Shirakawa happened to see Taeyeon stepping out of her room.
"What is it, Captain?"
Taeyeon asked, a bit puzzled.
"Your current strength is too weak, so I have a method that can rapidly increase your power. I'm wondering if you'd be willing to use it."
"Of course I'm willing." Taeyeon answered immediately. She desperately wanted to possess real strength.
"But this method of gaining power comes with a side effect."
"Whatever the side effect is, I'm willing to bear it." Before Shirakawa could even say what the side effect was, Taeyeon cut him off.
"Alright then. But are you sure you don't want to know what the side effect is?"
"What is it?" Hearing Shirakawa's question, Taeyeon grew a little curious and asked in a low voice.
"You'll become a hammer in the water forever. You'll never be able to learn how to swim."
Shirakawa said with a solemn tone.
"Oh, so that's it. No problem. I can't swim anyway, so I'll just never learn. No big deal."
Taeyeon said nonchalantly. Perhaps because she'd nearly drowned in seawater before, she had a certain fear of it.
Riding on a boat, fishing, strolling along the beach—those were all fine. But when it came to actually going into the sea, Taeyeon still hadn't overcome that fear.
A moment ago, she'd been worrying about how to tell Shirakawa that she couldn't swim. Now, she had a perfectly legitimate excuse.
"Alright then. Since you've agreed, come with me."
With that, Shirakawa led Taeyeon to the ship's treasure room, which held all the riches they'd looted from the Celestial Dragons' vessel the day before.
After all, from the moment their new ship had set sail until now, they'd only encountered that one other ship.
On the way to the treasure room, Riedel had already laid out the Devil Fruits. Not too many, not too few—about seven of them.
Calculated at a value of one hundred million berries each, these Devil Fruits alone were worth seven hundred million berries.
"Pick whichever one catches your eye." Shirakawa said to Taeyeon.
He had no idea what abilities these fruits corresponded to, so for Taeyeon, this was a gamble.
With good luck, she might pick an incredibly powerful Devil Fruit. But with bad luck, even if she picked one, she'd have to slowly train herself up from scratch.
Staring at the seven Devil Fruits before her, Taeyeon fell into hesitation. Her eyes darted from one to another, as if she had choice paralysis.
But Shirakawa could understand—after all, this concerned her future fate.
On the way there, Shirakawa had already explained Devil Fruits to her, and she'd learned that a person could only ever eat one in their lifetime.
"Shirakawa, which Devil Fruit do you think I should choose?"
At a complete loss, Taeyeon turned to Shirakawa for advice, hoping to get some input from him.
"Uh, I can't help you there."
Shirakawa had no intention of doing such a thankless task. If she chose well, fine. But if she chose poorly, he'd probably end up shouldering all the complaints.
"You'll have to rely on yourself. Choose based on your own gut feeling. Trust your luck."
"Fine then."
Taeyeon pouted. She'd been hoping to get some advice from Shirakawa, but it seemed she couldn't count on him after all.
"This one."
Suddenly, Taeyeon pointed at the second fruit from the right. The choice seemed random, but in her heart, Taeyeon had a premonition—that Devil Fruit seemed to be calling out to her.
"You're sure? That one?"
Shirakawa asked doubtfully. He didn't see anything special about that particular Devil Fruit. Why would Taeyeon pick that one?
Or rather, no matter which one Taeyeon picked, Shirakawa would have been curious. He wanted to hear what her selection criteria were.
"Yeah, that one."
Taeyeon nodded, answering with certainty.
"Why?"
"I don't know. I just feel like this Devil Fruit is a perfect match for me."
"Alright then."
Shirakawa raised both eyebrows and said indifferently.
Taeyeon then stepped forward and picked up the Devil Fruit.
"How am I supposed to eat this thing?" Taeyeon looked at the strange patterns on its surface and asked Shirakawa.
Did she need to peel it, or just eat it directly?
"Uh, I don't know either, but I think you just eat it directly."
Shirakawa answered, recalling the image of Buggy eating a Devil Fruit—he'd just swallowed it whole in one gulp.
Salar on their ship had done the same, biting straight into it without any peeling step.
"Really?" Taeyeon said, half-doubting, but in the end she chose to trust Shirakawa's words.
She took a bite. She still remembered what Shirakawa had said—that this thing tasted like shit.
Just as Taeyeon bit down, Riedel came running over in a panic, a book in his hand.
"Captain! There's a Devil Fruit encyclopedia here!"
But it was already too late. Taeyeon had already swallowed the fruit.
It truly was melt-in-your-mouth. The moment it entered her mouth, Taeyeon felt the Devil Fruit dissolve into a refreshing stream that flowed into her stomach.
And the remaining chunk of the fruit in her hand seemed to have lost its demonic essence.
Instantly, an absolutely revolting taste flooded her mouth. But Shirakawa had already prepared water.
He handed it directly to Taeyeon, and she gulped it down—glug, glug, glug—an entire bottle gone in seconds.
Still, the disgusting taste lingered in her mouth, though it was much fainter than before.
"Why didn't you bring that out earlier?"
After dealing with Taeyeon, Shirakawa asked Riedel.
"Hehe, didn't I just find it?"
Riedel laughed sheepishly. He'd arrived just in time to see Taeyeon bite into the Devil Fruit, but by the time he called out a warning, it was already too late.
"Forget it."
Shirakawa took the encyclopedia from him directly. He first searched through the Logia section and found no fruit matching the one Taeyeon had eaten.
Then he searched through the Paramecia section and found nothing there either.
"Don't tell me she happened to pick a Zoan?"
It wasn't that Shirakawa looked down on Zoan types, but Zoan fruits had the highest number of useless ones. Only Ancient Zoans and Mythical Zoans were formidable, and those two types weren't so easy to come by.
Among the known Mythical Zoan users, Shirakawa only knew of two people—one was Marco, and the other was Sengoku.
"As expected." Shirakawa found the fruit Taeyeon had just eaten in the Zoan section.
"Zoan, Mythical, Fairy Fruit." Seeing those words, Shirakawa was stunned for a moment. Could her luck really be this good?
Shirakawa looked at Taeyeon with eyes full of disbelief.
"What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that? Did I pick a really crappy fruit?"
Taeyeon asked with a frown.
/-\
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