THE FIERY SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE; A ONE PIECE FANFICTION

Synopsis: We all know that Devil Fruit return to circulation when the former user dies. What if, instead of one of Doflamingo's lackeys, the newly recreated Flame-Flame Fruit was found by a young man in the West Blue? GIVE THIS STORY A CHANCE BEFORE WRITING IT OFF AS A BS MARY SUE!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece. The wonderful man known as Eiichiro Oda does.

Chapter 1:

Sprangu Island, West Blue…

An older teen lay on the branch of a tree with his hands behind his head.

The young man had a brown mullet going just past his shoulders with two different colored highlights; mostly red with a little bit of blonde. He wore a dark green T-shirt, brown trousers, and tan sandals.

For the longest time, this young man had dreamt of becoming a pirate and having adventures on the high seas. He didn't really care too much if he found the legendary One Piece or not; that would just be a perk if he did. What he was after was excitement, going to new places, and meeting new people. His mother knew how much this dream meant to him so she had made a deal with her son; do the best he could in school and the day after his eighteenth birthday, she would allow him to head out to sea.

The young man met his mother's expectations, easily being among the top five most educated children in town. He was only ranked fifth but fifth out of twenty four wasn't bad.

Anyways, he could hardly contain his excitement… as tomorrow was his eighteen birthday… which meant in just two days; his dream would begin to come true! He knew he would become a renown pirate, following in the footsteps of several buccaneers who were also West Blue natives such as Capone "Gang" Bege, the sole survivor of the Ohara buster call, Nico Robin… not to mention one of the Four Emperors; "Red-Haired" Shanks himself!

Deciding to head home, he sat up on the tree branch, ready to jump to the ground… when he noticed something. He had been in an apple tree and he just took note of the fact that one of the apples was larger than it should be. Not to mention the fact that it was a bright reddish-orange color and there were strange swirl marks covering it.

The young man grasped the strange apple and plucked it from the tree. With produce in hand, he slid off the branch and touched down on the grass.

'I bet Uncle will know what this is. He's very knowledgeable about weird stuff," he thought, studying the fruit in his hand, 'heh… almost looks like a fire ball.'

He walked back to town, straight to his uncle's shop.

"Ah…" the man said, "how's the birthday boy doing?"

"Birthday man, Uncle," he replied, "I'm turning eighteen."

"Ah yes. Sorry about that," the man nodded, "say… what's that you got?"

"I found it in the apple tree I was resting in," he held it out so his uncle to examine it.

… only for his uncle to pull back in shock.

"My boy, do you know what that is?!"

"A big, weird apple."

"No. Much more than that. That… is a Devil Fruit."

The young man's eyes lit up, "a Devil Fruit?! For real?! I always wanted to eat one!"

"That's not just any Devil Fruit," his uncle continued, "remember the Paramount War five months back?"

"Yeah, both Whitebeard and 'Fire Fist' Ace were executed. Things got pretty crazy."

"Things will get even crazier," his uncle went on, "for you hold the source of 'Fire Fist' Ace's power in your hand. That… is the Flame-Flame Fruit."

"But I thought no Devil Fruits were the same?"

"They're not. But when someone who has eaten a Devil Fruit dies, the fruit's power will eventually manifest itself in another piece of fruit. You see, no two of the same Devil Fruit exist… at the same time."

"Then this is really the one that made Ace so infamous?" The young man had a hungry look in his eye as he eyed the prize he held.

His uncle nodded, "indeed."

The young man smirked, "then there's only one thing to do."

His uncle watched in fascination as his nephew raised the fruit to his lips and opened his mouth…

And there's chapter one, folks. I don't know if any other fanfic writers have tried this angle but I'm going to go with it. If you liked it or are intrigued, leave a comment. If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all. Thank you for taking the time to read this first chapter regardless. *bows in gratitude*