The young man eyed the strange Fruit. There were lines crisscrossing the surface of it, making patterns finer than any lace. He poked the thing as if he expected it to come alive and eat him.
It wasn't like Ace didn't know what it was that he was dealing with; after all, even his little brother Luffy had Devil Fruit powers. That wasn't the problem, not why Ace was so wary of it.
"What can you do?" the freckle-faced man asked the Fruit. Though it refused to answer verbally, Ace felt something in it, some power that radiated from it like the sun.
Ace held up the round fruit and examined it in the dying sunlight. The forest hadn't been half so trying as this single Fruit. There were no fierce animals to try the pirate's strength, nor had the terrain been all that rugged. It had been a pathetic trip: uneventful and uninteresting.
The Devil Fruit that rested in his hand, however, was different. Two seconds of greed or idiocy would be a lifetime of either strength or weakness. Ace would not allow himself to rush into this like Luffy had.
A sound echoed through the underbrush as Ace sat down, the Fruit in his hand. The thing looked so... harmless, so unassuming. And it had the potential to be just so, if the combination of power and wielder were just right. Ace grinned. Given the right kind of user, even the most docile Fruit could be turned to pugnacity, that is, if Luffy were any kind of guide.
Was it a zoan? If so, what kind of animal? A bird, maybe? Or a fox? Ace shook his head, unable to seem himself as a fox, bird, or any such creature. Could it be a logia? Unlikely, but if so, what element? Water? Ace laughed at the irony. Perhaps wind, or electricity?
It was probably a Paramecia class, something so toothless Marines from each of the four oceans would mock him. What, would he become a bubble man, or a slippery man? The thought caused Ace to drop the Fruit into his lap.
"What can you do?" Ace asked again, shifting so that he could better see the fruit in the fading twilight. It rested lightly on his thigh, poking him in the leg with its small stem. He moved again, and the Fruit fell to the ground with a very light thud. Ace winced and picked it back up gingerly, holding it close to his eye for better inspection.
Ace's mouth dropped into a frown, and without thinking he started to trace over the patterns with his finger. Above all things, the youth was surprised to feel some sort of warmth emanating from the fruit, which had been so unresponsive and lifeless seconds before. The traveling fingers came to a halt and as they rested against the skin of the Fruit, Ace was shocked to feel a pulse of some sort at his fingertips.
The living Fruit did nothing as Ace stared at it. It had seemed so... weak, so pathetic to him not two seconds ago. A Devil Fruit had always struck him as worthless without a master. It couldn't unleash its fury upon the world without a user.
But that's all that a person was: a user. They were nothing without the Fruit. And if the user was careless, then they would get the watery grave they deserved.
Ace smiled at the Fruit.
"I want fame," he said to it, "I want to become known throughout the world, and recognized from here to the end of the Grand Line and back. What about you? You're not so different. To the world, you're nothing more than a potential threat. Despite the price on you, you're worthless to the world. And you haven't done anything yet, you haven't really even been born. Why does the world already hate and fear you when it doesn't even acknowledge your existence?"
As the pirate fell silent, Ace imagined his younger brother smiling up at him. Luffy had the habit of stretching his cheeks far beyond human limits just for a laugh. That kid had eaten the Fruit without fear or hesitation, and had turned a seemingly worthless ability into something of a weapon.
The youth didn't waste another second as he hoisted up the fruit and devoured it in three bites. It tasted disgusting, like every bitter hatred and enraged frenzy had been made edible and shoved down his throat. There was another taste, though, one that reminded Ace of home, and despite himself, he let a small tear trickle down his cheek.
It tasted like freedom.
Ace stood and started out of the forest. He walked slowly, somehow unworried about whatever abilities he had gained. Whatever strengths he had earned, he was just borrowing. Ace wasn't the master, he was the surrogate. The youth refused to stop, to turn his head, as he went: the deed was done and there would never be any turning back.
A light sound joined Ace's footsteps, but the youth refused to see what was accompanying him as he walked. The crackling noise seemed angered by being ignored, and in a fury it roared, screaming enraged curses at the pirate's back.
Sand found its way under Ace's feet and only when water was lapping at his toes did the youth turn to face the inferno his Fruit had caused.
The flames excited him somewhere deep inside, and Ace's laughter joined the roaring of the conflagration. He laughed, long and hard, sometimes with the pure joy of a child praised by parents and other times with the spite and malice of a thousand cruel warlords. Ace's laughter continued even after the flames had died and the blaze left naught but ashes behind.
Ace hadn't laughed alone, though. He had laughed with the strength of a demon.
And the will of a devil, free from hell.
AN: At Naka Kon this year I decided to enter the Iron Fic competition, two hours of fan-fiction-ey goodness based upon the prompt "Mostly Harmless". In those two hours I came up with this little one shot piece, which I am fairly happy with. Sure, it didn't win me anything, but it was still fun and I do plan on doing the competition again next year. Also, One Piece (C) Eiichiro Oda.