You guys are getting this chapter early because I couldn't wait any longer. Because this is the chapter where Luffy gets his Devil Fruit. By the first few sentences you should know exactly what it is but before you say anything, when Luffy eats his fruit and there is an in depth, non-canon explanation and change/more like add of powers to the fruit. The explanation of the Fruit+ other fruits is important for later down the road. I will explain more at the post-story end note. Anyways enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece, if I did… well certain things would be explained earlier, like where the frickity frack Ace got his devil fruit and Devil Fruit Awakenings.
To Save a Brother's Life
If there was one person on the Whitebeard crew that Luffy did not like at all it would be Marshal D. Teach. According to Thatch, Teach, was on the ship when they had first arrived but left for a mission shortly after, so Luffy had never had an opportunity to really learn the man's presence. But when he returned about two months after Luffy's birthday all Luffy could feel was darkness and an emotion he did not recognize at all. It felt like an ever-encompassing dark feeling but Luffy couldn't place it at all. However, Luffy did not want to voice his concerns because he remembered Shanks had told him that an accusation against a crew member is serious and he didn't want his new family to not like him. Of course, he did tell his big brothers, as they didn't exactly fall under the term crew.
"I don't like that Teach guy." Luffy said out of nowhere, when they were in their room, on the bed.
"Wha?" Ace started, really confused.
It was really rare for Luffy to not like someone, so something like this required his and Sabo's attention.
"Luffy tell us exactly why you don't like Teach." Sabo said.
Luffy looked at the floor, shuffling his feet, before he decided to answer.
"He… he doesn't feel right. He gives off darkness… suffocating darkness, not the nice kind." Luffy said.
"There's a good kind?" Ace asked jokingly.
Sabo quickly punched Ace on the head, telling it wasn't time for jokes. But surprisingly to both of them, Luffy actually answered.
"Yeah! There's the darkness that's comforting and protects you in the night. It hides you when you need hiding. Especially from people like gramps!" Luffy said, with a smile.
Of course, that caused the two brothers to smile at him, cause what he said was kinda adorable. But Sabo decided they needed to return to the original topic.
"Lu, are you feeling this with your Haki?" Sabo asked.
Luffy nodded solemnly before he buried his face into Ace's chest.
"Lu, can you tell what emotion you're feeling?" Ace asked, rubbing his little brother's back, soothingly.
"I don't know at all… I've never felt this before. It's making be frustrated and scared." Luffy whimpered.
"Why haven't you told Marco, Thatch, or even Izo?" Sabo asked.
"Because, Shanks said accusations against a fellow crew member are serious and there might not be people who believe me." Luffy mumbled.
Accusations like that would be pretty serious, Ace and Sabo thought. But also to be honest, what would Luffy do, sure Marco, Thatch, Whitey, Izo, and Whitebeard knew about Luffy's Observation Haki. But everyone else thought it was instinct and instinct can be wrong. What would he say, 'Hey, I think one of your crewmates is pretty evil.' No, it wouldn't work at all. So the two boys vowed to keep an eye on Teach. They then decided to do something to get their little brother's attention of the man.
"Hey Lu, do you want to start training with us today?" Ace asked, smiling when Luffy instantly perked up.
They would have started on Lu's birthday but when Izo saw what they trained with they told him that he thought they meant training via hand to hand. With weapons Luffy had to wait about two more months because weapons were more likely to reopen the wounds. Now though, all Luffy's wounds were completely sealed and would only reopen via sharp objects. So, the trio grabbed their pipes and made their way to the floor that held the training rooms. Thankfully they managed to find an empty room as the rooms are usually all taken by the swordsmen in the crew. Ace and Sabo decided to spar first, to show their little brother what to expect.
Sabo and Ace were across from each other, pipe in hand, while Luffy was excitedly sitting on the side watching his brothers. The two boys seemed to move around in a circle, not attacking. It wasn't until Ace charged forward that the battle began. Because the two were very aware of how each other fought it was extremely easy for them to block each other's attacks. All you could hear from the room was the sounds of child-like grunts and the sounds of metal hitting metal. Sabo however, seemed to be getting tired of the fight getting nowhere as he dropped into a crouch and swung his pipe at Ace's feet. Ace quickly jumped, dodging the pipe. However, what Ace was not expecting was for the pipe to change trajectory and slam into his knee, sending him flying to the floor. When Sabo swung at the boy at the floor Ace promptly rolled and darted forward, slamming the pipe into Sabo's back, as the boy had overreached, leaving himself open. The blow to the back caused Sabo to stagger and leave him once again open as the pipe hit the back of his knee, sending him careening to the floor. Of course, Sabo wasn't down yet as he flipped his body, sending his legs flying and managing to trip Ace and knock him to the floor. That had the effect of Ace losing his pipe, it having fallen out of his hand from tripping. Ace scrambled to get the pipe but soon felt cold metal barely touching his head, causing him to slump.
"I win." Sabo said, a triumphant grin on his face.
"You always manage to trip me!" Ace pouted.
"It's not my fault you don't pay attention to your opponents once they're on the ground." Sabo snarked.
The two brothers then turned to their brother to see what he thought of it. When they saw him they saw that he was practically vibrating in excitement.
"That. Was. AMAZING!" Luffy shouted, running to his brothers and narrating the battle, making special effects using his hands.
Ace and Sabo however, by the end were blushing from the praise their little brother, having never really been praised for their pipe-skills.
"Ah, uh, we're not that good, like Sabo said I need to pay attention to my opponents always." Ace said, rubbing the back of his head.
"Yeah, and uh, I need to stop overreaching. That's how Ace managed to get me in the back." Sabo said, doing the same as Ace.
"But still! Ace and Sabo were soooooo coooool!" Luffy said, causing the boys to blush deeper.
To save themselves from even more blushing at the praise of their little brother Sabo spoke up.
"S-so uh, do you wanna try now Lu?" Sabo asked.
"Shishishi! Of course!" Luffy said.
Sabo and Ace did rock-paper-scissors to see who would spar with Luffy. Sabo ended up winning which was probably a good thing as Ace didn't know the meaning of restraint. So, it was with this that Sabo and Luffy were now facing each other. Sabo was in a calm and collected stance while Luffy seemed to be bouncing in place. Not even a minute after getting in place Luffy dashed after Sabo, swinging his pipe, Sabo blocking it effortlessly. The problem for Sabo was that Luffy's assault was unrelenting as after every block Luffy would immediately swing the pipe once more, requiring Sabo to block again. It went on like this until Luffy suddenly stumbled, revealing his back and giving Sabo an open. What Sabo did not expect was for Luffy to suddenly turn and block the swing intended for his back. Sabo kept up the attack, mimicking Luffy from earlier but Luffy didn't block. No, Luffy dodged every single strike. Even the ones that Luffy couldn't possibly see, as Luffy had ended up turning around in some of his dodges, Luffy ended up dodging. Ace who was watching from the side was in shock as well. He suddenly looked to his left and saw that Marco was there watching as well in shock too.
"GAH! Stop dodging!" Sabo shouted, frustrating him enough to not actually think and overreach once more with a strike.
Luffy dodged the strike and slammed his pipe down onto Sabo's back. What nobody noticed, well nobody but Marco probably, was that the tip of the pipe was pitch black. That pitch-black part slammed into the left side of Sabo's lower back which made him go plummeting to the floor, creating a dent in the floor.
"Ow! I give, that was freaking painful Lu!" Sabo groaned from the floor.
Marco however was clapping from the sidelines and then walked up to Sabo and helped him up.
"It's not your fault, your little brother seems to have an advantage over you, yoi" Marco said.
"Ooh, what's that?" Sabo asked, holding the part of his back that was hit in pain.
"Well for one, his impossibly high mastery of Observation Haki doesn't help, yoi." Marco said.
"Observation Haki? Izo mentioned that to us before when explaining Lu's ability." Ace said.
"Yeah, Observation Haki is normally used for the prediction of an opponent's attacks, yoi. But your brother's is on such a high level that he doesn't seem to get the double vision that most Observation Haki users get when they start out, yoi." Marco said.
"Double vision?" Sabo asked, curious.
"Mhm, when somebody unlocks Observation Haki for the first time and until they master it they get double visions, yoi. Basically, what happens is that you get an image overlapped over the person attacking you which can cause delays in dodging, yoi." Marco said.
That brought up a question for Ace, one that Marco hadn't seem to have answered yet.
"What happens when someone masters it?" Ace asked.
"Well depending on their talent in Observation Haki they get one of two things or both, yoi. The one that they will definitely get is where instead of double vision it's a voice that warns you how to dodge which makes it so that there's no delay, yoi. The second thing that is dependent on talent is the ability to sense life and differentiate people by said life, yoi." Marco said.
"That's… really cool. What about Luffy's ability?" Sabo asked.
"That's a bit more difficult to explain, yoi. Only because the only people known to have it are, Gol D. Rogers, your brother, and Queen Otohime, the queen of the fishmen and mermaids, yoi. So, it's hard to explain what qualities or even genetics are required for it, yoi." Marco said.
Suddenly it was Luffy who spoke up and answered.
"Empathy, it requires pure empathy. The ability to understand the pain of the heart." Luffy muttered, out of character for him.
Marco seemed to think about it before nodding.
"That'd actually explain a lot, yoi. Rogers was a very caring person and Otohime is well known for being able to know what's wrong with her subjects just on sight, yoi." Marco mused.
Ace for a second, once again, flinched when his father's name was mentioned but quickly returned to a better emotion. Sabo however, had a question that he wasn't sure he wanted answered.
"… But what would one need to go through to gain that kind of empathy?" Sabo asked, outright flinching when he saw Luffy's despondent and utterly sad expression.
Ace and Sabo immediately moved to envelope their brother in a hug and let him cuddle into their chests.
"…. The kids and some of the adults at the village didn't like me. Said it was cause I was friends with an infamous pirate, so I must be a problem child, right? They'd whisper mean words when they thought I couldn't hear them, the children would throw rocks at me as I walked past." Luffy muttered.
The two boys and Marco bristled in rage, wanting to go back to the village and beat up the people who made this adorable boy sad.
"That's why gramps took me to Dadan's ya know? He said that no child deserved to be hated, even if they wanted to be a pirate. Said that I would be safe with Dadan and would hopefully make two new friends. He mentioned you two by name…" Luffy muttered.
That immediately made the two boys and man's respect for Garp to go up, Marco having been told by Thatch in his report to Pops. It also made Ace want to really learn manners so that he could thank Shanks and Garp for saving his precious little brother. However, right now Ace needed to ask a question.
"But why didn't you hate them back?!" Ace asked, desperately, wanting to know how such a pure and loving person can exist.
Luffy gave them all a half-hearted smile before speaking.
"Cause I figured it wasn't their fault. It's not their fault that they grew up with hateful opinions being put on them. But, I wanted no needed to understand. I wanted to know why they hated me and one morning I woke up knowing why. They felt fear and confusion, not hate and I soon noticed that a lot of the fear from some of the adults were for me not of me." Luffy said.
Sabo's face screwed up in confusion not understanding why it'd be for him.
"Why were they fearful for you, yoi?" Marco asked, voicing Sabo's confusion.
"I asked one of those adults the next day and they came clean. They said that they were afraid, afraid of what would happen to me if I became a pirate. They were afraid that I would possibly end up getting enslaved by other pirates. They said they grew up with stories like that and that even if it meant seeing my sad face they said it was better than a broken spirit." Luffy mumbled.
Marco could actually understand, back then at the time of Roger's reign pirates weren't nice people. Things were very different than today where people became pirates for freedom or One Piece. People became pirates back them for money or because they liked hurting people, Pops' crew and Rogers' crew were the shining lights in the darkness. Of course, there were also that one crew that went missing, the Rumbar Pirates. They were a wonderful bunch who had partied with Oyaji before when he first started out the Whitebeard Pirates, or so Pops told him. Wanting to change the subject, Marco immediately began talking about the other type of advantage Luffy had.
"So, do you guys want to know what the second advantage Luffy had is, yoi?" Marco asked, causing the three boys to perk up and Luffy's smile to appear back on his face.
"What is it! Is it something really cool?!" Luffy asked, his brothers secretly glad that their little brother was back to normal.
"I guess you could call it cool, yoi. It's called Armament Haki. It allows you to strengthen your attacks and weapons and even allow you to attack Devil Fruit users, yoi." Marco said.
"But can't you attack Devil Fruit users regardless?" Ace asked.
"Not at all, yoi. For example, let's take the Gomu Gomu no Mi that I heard from Thatch you guys mentioned Shanks had, yoi. It turns your entire self into rubber from you skin to your bones to even your blood vessels, yoi. This means that you are immune to blunt attacks and non-sharp projectiles because they would just bounce off, yoi." Marco started.
The three boys nodded, understanding so far.
"Well, with Armament Haki it negates the rubber-quality of the skin, yoi. Meaning that someone enhancing their attack with Haki will end up actually doing damage to the person with the fruit, yoi. Then there's Logia fruits, yoi." Marco said.
"Logia?" Sabo asked, not knowing there were more than one kind of Devil Fruit, as books on them were rare in the East Blue since there they were nothing but a myth.
"Yes, yoi. There are three types of Devil Fruits, starting with Parameica, which is what the Rubber fruit is, yoi. Paramecia fruits give your body superhuman qualities or certain traits like rubber body, yoi. Then there are Zoan Fruits, like mine, yoi. They allow you to turn into an animal based on the fruit you ate, yoi. Lastly are the ones I mentioned, Logia, yoi. They allow you to completely turn into an element or substance like magma, ice, or sand, yoi." Marco said.
"Logia fruits sound so cool! I wonder if there's a fire one." Ace mused, causing Sabo to laugh at him.
"Fire would sure suit you, since you're a hot-head." Sabo said.
Ace gave Sabo a look that said he was lucky that Luffy was currently laying against his chest or he would give him hell.
"But anyways, yoi. Logia type users can turn into their substance or element at will, yoi. This makes it where any attacks are rather useless as they would cause the person to disperse into their element, yoi With Haki however, it forces the part of the body you hit into a solid form, allowing you to land said hit, yoi." Marco said.
"So… what would it take to learn Observation and Armament?" Sabo asked.
Marco tilted his head, as if thinking for a moment. He was, he was trying to remember how he had learned, as he had learned it some thirty, forty years ago. Thankfully though it quickly came back to him.
"Mmm Armament Haki requires either meditation or for someone who knows how to use it to repeatedly hit you, yoi. Your body starts to learn how to unconsciously activate it, yoi. From there you have to learn how to remember the feeling that brought upon the Haki, yoi." Marco said.
"Which is faster?" Ace said, ever the impatient one.
"The hitting one, yoi. Meditation takes a while cause you have to find your 'inner self', yoi. At least that's what Pops said, yoi." Marco said.
Ace winced before weighing his options. Wait forever by sitting in place where he'd probably get bored or endure some damage and learn it faster? Obviously is was the second choice, Ace didn't like waiting.
"I guess we'll learn it the second way, can't be worse than shitty gramps' Fists of Love." Ace said.
"And what about Observation?" Sabo asked.
"Observation requires you to have somebody throw something at you that you'd want to dodge while your blindfolded, yoi. Like rocks or something, yoi. Then as you get better in it you move up to deadlier objects, yoi." Marco said.
Sabo and Ace sighed, they were going to have a long road ahead of them with learning Haki. They then decided they were done training for the morning and headed off to eat lunch in the Mess Hall. It was there that Thatch approached them with a smile.
"Heyo, how are you guys doing?" Thatch asked.
"Sore." Sabo said, rubbing his back again.
"Tired." Ace said.
"Hungry." Luffy said as he dug into the food on his plate.
"I'm not going to ask. I came to tell you that Pops is sending me on a mission and I won't be back for two weeks. So, please go easy on my assistants. They're not all as amazingly fast at cooking as I am." Thatch said.
The three boys nodded and went back to eating.
For the next two weeks, the boys trained and meticulously avoided Teach, but Sabo made sure they did it in a way that wasn't suspicious. Ace and Sabo began to unlock their Armament Haki by having Luffy hit them with the tiny amount of it that he could use. Even though it was only a half a hand's worth of Haki it still hurt but they could slowly feel themselves start to use it unconsciously. That made them believe that they had someone who already used it on them before and instantly thought of gramps. For Observation Haki it consisted of Luffy throwing rocks at them that Marco had gotten for them. Luffy found it a bit funny when Ace got frustrated after getting hit in the forehead with a rock for the thirtieth time. Sabo just told Ace that if they didn't get this down, their little brother would always be beating them in spars. That promptly got Ace to shut up.
However, on the day that Thatch was set to come back they all waited on the deck. Soon enough they saw Thatch's boat sailing up to the Moby Dick and the kids excitedly waited for the man, wanting to hear what happened. When the man hoisted up a small chest they got even more excited, now wanting to know what treasure he got.
"Thatchy! How was your mission?!" Luffy asked eagerly.
"Yeah! What kind of treasure did you get?" Ace asked, almost as eagerly.
Thatch chuckled before jokingly looking around suspiciously and opened the chest revealing a large fruit with giant swirling purple grapes. The three boys gasped in awe. Luffy especially because he could actually feel something from the Fruit. It wasn't an emotion he usually encountered, only when someone was trying to teach him something. It was the emotion of judgement which meant the fruit was judging everyone. Although Luffy wasn't sure as to why it was doing that.
"Is that a Devil Fruit?!" Sabo asked, really excited to actually see one.
"Yup! I found it while on my mission, hanging off of a bush filled with fruit." Thatch said with a smile.
"Are you going to eat it?" Ace asked.
"Nah, I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with it but I know I'm not gonna eat it. After all, somebody's gotta go after Marco if he falls into the water." Thatch said.
Instantly Luffy shuddered, feeling that emotion that he couldn't identify. He slowly looked over his shoulder and saw Teach looking at them. He turned his head back and tugged on his brothers' sleeves, causing them to look at him curiously. He whispered Teach's name, causing their eyes to widen.
"Ah, sorry Thatch we have to go, it's Luffy's bath time." Sabo said, thinking of a clever excuse.
"Alright, see you guys later then." Thatch said, closing the chest before heading off to Pops' chair.
The boys rushed to their room where Ace and Sabo turned to Luffy.
"Did you feel the same feeling from Teach again?" Ace asked.
Luffy rapidly nodded before speaking.
"He, he was looking at Thatchy's Devil Fruit." Luffy muttered.
"What would he want with it? Does he want to eat it?" Sabo mused.
"I don't know but from Luffy's feelings we have to keep an eye on Teach." Ace said, causing the other two boys to nod.
It was later that night when the boys were sleeping that Luffy woke up with a startle.
Fear. Pain. Hate. Bad Emotion. Fear. Betrayal. Dark Happiness.
Those emotions were screaming at Luffy's senses so badly it caused him to get up and follow them. It took him out of the room and across the way to Thatch's room. Fearing what he'd see he slowly opened the door and his eyes widened in fear. On the floor, bleeding from his back was Thatch, who seemed to be fading in and out of consciousness. Standing over him with a bloody knife in one hand and the Devil Fruit that Thatch had found in the other was Teach. The fruit was still giving off the emotion of judgement, but it seemed focused on Luffy and Teach. However, Luffy's attention was purely on Thatch's unmoving body and it alone. The boy then made a quick decision.
"Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatch!" He screamed, tackling Teach with a headbutt enhanced by a tiny bit of Haki.
Luffy slammed into the man's stomach, causing him to go flying back, losing grip on the fruit but not the knife. Luffy then landed on the floor, back first. The Devil Fruit however, was in the air and started falling. Marshall D. Teach watched in horror as the fruit slowly fell onto Luffy and into his mouth, where the boy promptly bit down and swallowed. As this was happening Luffy was thinking one thought.
'I want to protect Thatch.'
Suddenly Luffy could feel the emotion coming from the fruit change. It changed from an emotion of judgement to an emotion of joy. Joy that Luffy could recognize. It was in joy that it had found the right person and it had judged the boy worthy of its powers. The next few seconds were a blur for Luffy as Teach in rage lunged at Luffy.
"Shh… The Darkness will protect you, young D." a voice that sounded similar to the Devil Fruit's emotion's voice spoke to him.
Everyone else on the ship instantly felt an overwhelming pressure which forced them all to wake up. Ace and Sabo quickly realized that Luffy wasn't in the bed with them and they dashed through the open door and were wide eyed at what they saw. Pure black and purple energy seemed to pour off of Luffy and slam into Teach before wrapping him in it. Teach's screams could be heard throughout the ship as the Darkness did what it did best, consume and absorb. It absorbed and consumed all the life energy from Teach, from the man who did not deserve the Devil Fruits powers and had dared to attempt to murder for its powers. By the time this was happening Marco, Izo, and Whitey as well as a lot of the other crew members were there too and also staring in shock at the display.
About half a minute later the darkness dispersed, returning to Luffy and leaving a pure black gem the size of a fist that seemed to thrum with energy. What was left behind of Teach was a wilted, completely dehydrated, and clearly dead body of the former man, knife still in hand.
Ace and Sabo quickly rushed over to Luffy who was somehow still awake while Izo rushed over to Thatch's body and shouted for people to help him get Thatch to the infirmary. Marco however was examining Teach's body, overlooking the damage.
"What happened, yoi?" Marco asked, more himself, as he was confused.
"T-teach tried to kill Thatch for the fruit." Luffy said, now crying for his friend that he hoped wasn't dead.
"What?!" Marco shouted, leaving out his usual verbal tic.
"Luffy had been feeling bad emotions from Teach ever since he met the man. They worsened when Thatch had returned with the fruit." Sabo explained, rubbing circles on his little brother's back.
"Why didn't you come to us about this?" Whitey asked, crouching by the distressed boy.
"B-because, Shanks told me accusations against crew are taken seriously. I didn't want you guys to hate me." Luffy said between choked sobs.
That caused Marco's and Whitey's faces to softened. Whitey promptly joined the giant hug group that Ace, Sabo, and Luffy were having. Marco however, had one more question.
"What.. was that purple and black stuff, yoi?" He asked.
"I-it w-was the Fruit… It fell into m-my mouth when I headbutted T-Teach. It told me that the Darkness would protect me… and it did." Luffy said, smiling a weak smile at the end, no longer crying.
"The… Devil Fruit spoke to you, yoi?" Marco asked, confused.
"Y-yeah. When Thatch returned with the fruit I could feel emotions from it but only one. Like it was judging us to see who was worthy. When I ate it.. it felt joy and happiness that I was the one to eat it." Luffy said.
Ace however, finally noticed the gem on Luffy's chest and picked it up, feeling the thrum of energy from it.
"My question is, what's this? It appeared after the darkness finished doing what it did to that bastard Teach." Ace said.
As soon as Ace spoke Namur stepped into the room with a large book in hand, opened wide.
"The Yami Yami No Mi, the Logia Fruit of Darkness. Also, known as part of the Muttsu no Handan or the Six Judgements. It allows one to control gravity and black holes with access to pocket dimensions, as well as negate Devil Fruit powers. Most of all, it can do what darkness does best, consume and absorb." Namur read from the book in his hands.
"What's that book, yoi?" Marco asked.
"It's the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, I remembered spotting it on Teach's personal bookshelf before. I'm going to guess that the gem there is Teach's life force." Namur said.
Luffy grabbed the gem and felt it in his hand as well as 'listened' to it with his Haki.
"It… has a voice. But… but, it's not Teach's. It sounds… pure?" Luffy said, not sure.
"If it sounds pure maybe it, I unno, purified that bastard's life force?" Ace said, throwing a random thought out there.
"That… could be, but then why is it black?" Sabo asked.
Suddenly Luffy felt a little nudge in his mind that whispered words into his head.
"Ah, the fruit says that the outside represents the personality of the person the life force came from. The color is based on the level of intensity and type of personality and that pure black means the person was a truly evil person. Whatever that means." Luffy said, shocking the others.
"The.. The fruit is still talking to you?" Ace asked, concerned for his little brother.
"It says that it will until it feels that I won't accidentally kill myself with its powers. Hey! I'm not that stupid! Oh, well I guess… It also said it wouldn't want the first one it judged worthy to die quickly." Luffy said, arguing mid sentence.
That caused Marco to remember what Namur had said earlier.
"That's right, Namur you said it was part of the Muttsu no Handan, what does that mean, yoi?" Marco asked.
Namur flipped through the book before finding the right page.
"Light, Darkness, Magma, Ice, Nature, and Weather. These are the elements that are inherently dangerous for anyone in the world to control because they can encourage creation. Thus, it is hypothesized that these six Devil Fruits; the Pika Pika No Mi, the Yami Yami No Mi, the Magu Magu No Mi, the Hie Hie No Mi, the Shizen Shizen No Mi, and the Ten Ten No Mi have all developed a minor level of sentience. This sentience allows them to judge whoever eats them whether they're worthy of using the powers of the fruit. If found worthy the fruits' full power is granted to its user and they are effectively immune to the sea because the elements of creation are not bound by it. If found guilty of being unworthy the fruit effectively locks away its most effective ability and the sea is twice as effective for those who have no respect for the elements of creation are judged guilty by the sea as well." Namur read.
Everyone in the room was stunned at that revelation. If what Namur had said was true then that meant that Luffy did not have the weakness of the sea or sea stone like every other Devil Fruit user. However, in some minds like Marco's that brought up a bad thought.
'I really hope that bastard Akainu wasn't considered worthy, yoi.' He thought, shivering at that idea.
"What are the most powerful abilities?" Sabo asked, ever the scholar.
Namur flipped the page and found the paragraph he was looking for.
"Light has the power to encourage and improve life, Darkness the power to absorb and give life, Magma the power to form life's home, Ice the ability to create the ocean's life and heal, Nature the ability to create the land's life and provide sustenance for it, and Weather the ability to promote life and create the sky's life." Namur read.
"Wait, Ice can create fish and heal? Wouldn't water be better suited for that?" Ace asked, confused.
Marco answered that one for Namur.
"It's probably talking about elements in their primal state, yoi. The oceans were formed long ago from ice melting which gave birth to ocean life, yoi. And a lot of strong medicine nowadays requires cold temperatures to make it, yoi." Marco said.
"That's nice and all but what does each of those abilities mean?" Ace said.
Whitey took this one, having studied a lot about life in general. The woman was a survivalist after all, knowing about life was important.
"It means, the Light Devil Fruit can help things grow and strengthen them, Darkness can take the life force of things and give it to others, Magma can form islands, Ice can heal and create fish as you said, Nature can grow plants and create animals as well as nutrient efficient food probably, and Weather can improve environmental conditions as well as create flying animals." She said.
"So… you're saying that Luffy can make people old really fast or make them young really fast?" Sabo asked, trying to simplify it for his little brother.
"Mhm, that gem, I'm sure if Luffy tried and I dunno, pushed it into someone, he could improve their health and or de-age them." Whitey said.
That brought a thought to Luffy's mind immediately, causing him to get up and run out the door. That shocked everyone and caused Marco, Ace, Sabo, and Whitey to follow him. Luffy ended up leading them right to Whitebeard's room where the man seemed to be awake with Izo explaining what had happened. What was the focus of Luffy's attention were the medical apparatuses hooked up to the man, due to his old age.
"Ah, it's the little one who saved Thatch's life. Izo just finished explaining everything to me. I'm sorry you had to do something like that." Whitebeard said softly.
"It's okay, Teach was going to kill Thatch. But Thatch is alive now. But that's not why I'm here." Luffy said, in his serious mode, before climbing up the man's pant leg and up into his lap.
Marco, Whitey, and Namur seemed to suddenly realize what Luffy was going to do and tried to stop him but they were too late. Luffy took the black gem and put it to Whitebeard's chest before pushing. Suddenly the gem sank straight into the skin before disappearing with a ripple. Whitebeard's body was then engulfed in the black and purple energy that the others had seen attack Thatch but it seemed more benign then earlier. Minutes went by as everyone watched in abject horror or interest as the darkness moved around the man. It then quickly cleared and revealed something that shocked everyone but Whitebeard, as he couldn't see it. Whitebeard's body now had not a scar on it, his face no longer having the signs of old age on it, and the man had shoulder-length golden blonde hair now. The man looked to be in the prime of his life now, rather than teetering towards the end of it.
"Sons, why are you staring at me like that?" Whitebeard asked, confused as he had lost his sight for a few minutes.
"Oyaji… look." Whitey said, taking out a mirror that she kept on her not for appearance sakes but for infiltration missions, you never know when you need a mirror to look around a corner or blind someone.
The man carefully grabbed the mirror and looked at himself in the mirror before his eyes widened a little bit in shock.
"How…? I look I was when I was just started the Whitebeard Pirates at thirty." Whitebeard said in shock.
Marco quickly explained the powers of the fruit that Luffy accidentally ate as well as the mechanics behind it. Whitebeard gave Luffy a bright smile before asking a question.
"Why do this for me, son?" He asked.
"Because… I could tell that Oyaji was going to die soon.. I don't want Pops to die!" Luffy said childishly, calling Whitebeard Pops for the first time.
That shocked everyone, but mostly Ace and Sabo as it made them, mostly Ace, realize that they couldn't hold off on calling Whitebeard Oyaji much longer. Whitebeard however just laughed happily.
"Gurararara! Thank you son," Whitebeard said with a smile.
Whitey however smiled the brightest and decided to speak her mind.
"This calls for a party! I'll break out my best stuff! After all, your nurses can't say anything anymore Pops!" She said, with Whitebeard smiling and laughing.
That resulted in a party that lasted all night long. Whitey made sure to save half a bottle of the good stuff for Thatch when he woke up. Luffy, in his adorable little way, decided to save some of the food for Thatch when he woke up. Ace and Sabo were just happy that Luffy was okay and cuddled him the whole night.
Alright, hopefully you're still with me. Yes I de-aged Whitebeard. This is important for when we reach the canon timeline. The second thing I'm addressing is the sentience of the Six Judgements. I believe that Logia Devil Fruits with the power to practically change the world should have some form of defense mechanism if the person plans to use it for evil or just for power. Otherwise it's just plain stupid. Next, I'll explain Luffy's powers here because they're pretty straight forward. For one, the aging thing. I took that from the fact that Darkness is a consuming-type element. Yes, this functions similarly to Bonney's aging paramecia but for one, he can't age people without a gem. And when he does it consumes the gem. But what he can do is use the gem and then re-age someone to get the gem back, but it'll look differently. For two, where Bonney can just tap someone and age or de-age them Luffy has to remain in contact with the person for a few seconds, depending on how much he wants to age or de-age them. Next, Luffy can control gravity, I figured I'd stick with that. In this fic I get pretty creative with that idea because Teach just flings it around like it's candy. Next, Luffy can use his darkness to smother light but this also works in reverse, Kizaru can smother Luffy's darkness with light. Neither is superior to the other but rather they cancel each other out. God, this end AN is getting long, anyways, Luffy can for a lack of better term steal and swap devil fruits and he can potentially hold two devil fruits in him but they have to be of differentiating categories. He can't do two Logias or it'd forcefully spit out the one that he attempted to assimilate. He can also give a person a second Devil Fruit (I'm only implying this from Dressrosa when that one dude implies that he's going to steal Sabo's new Mera Mera no Mi) but he's not really going to do this unless you guys actually want me to. Second to last, concerning the fact that Luffy's not affected by water, well at the moment it really doesn't mean anything. Luffy still sucks at swimming so he'll sink regardless. He just won't lose his devil fruit powers in the sea or while cuffed with seastone. LASTLY, Luffy's darkness-body functions differently than how canon does it. It works just like as if he was sand, fire, light, etc. It means that physical attacks don't work on him unless enhanced with Haki. Now some may be like, how is that different, well in canon because Darkness is an abstract element Teach is forced to absorb attacks rather than let them phase through. Well, I thought that stupid and changed it. Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Please give suggestions about what you want me to do with Lu's powers! Even though I have like four/five more chapters ready doesn't mean I can't change them!