Chapter 22
*Pah*
*Pah*
*groan*
*pah*
*eghh*
*owww*
Is all you can hear coming from a small ship floating on the island's harbor.
It's been a few days and I am currently seeing how strong Carina-chan is by letting her spar with Porche-chan, and unsurprisingly, she is weak, even weaker than I or Porche were before our training sessions began.
Fortunately, she does have a few good traits that if nurtured properly could make her a very dangerous combatant.
The main things she shines on are her natural reflexes, which seem sharper then even my own, her mobility, which apparently is one of the only things she is actually trained in, and her ease of movements; she Is extremely nimble and smooth when she moves, even with her large assets getting in the way.
With that out of the way, I quickly stop the spar, or more like the beating, and declare, "The winner is Porche-chan, obviously…Carina, good try…"
She gives me the stink eye for a bit before sighing loudly and replying," Hahh…yeah, I know, you don't have to say it, I was never really an up in front fighter anyways."
When I hear this, I twitch my lips and reply, "Heh, I can see that, but that's going to have to change. The Grand Line is a dangerous place, for everyone. So, if you want to at least be able to protect yourself then you're going to have to work hard with us."
Porche-chan then adds, "He's right Carina-San, you are currently not ready for the dangers of the Grand line, I've heard some stories of the place and it's not a walk in the park as some people may think. However, this is not as bad as it seems, I used to be just as weak as you a few months ago, but with some rigorous training I was able to get this strong, and according to Cade-kun we still have 6 more months before he wants to enter it."
Hearing Porche-Chan's kind words, Carina smiles and thanks her new teammate.
After that quick interaction, I quickly list-off in what I recommend for her to work on in these coming months: Strength, mainly her lower body strength, speed, as she seems agile enough already, and burst power.
And in terms of Rokushiki I recommend the Shave, Kami-e, and the Rankyaku, which she seems to have a large compatibility with.
And with Porche backing me up, she quickly accepts the idea for how she's going to train.
With this all done, we then go into the small cozy cabin and sit down to talk further.
I quickly fetch Porche-chan and Carina some water which they gorge down faster than I could blink, and we continue on to other matters.
With Porche on my left and Carina at my front I start by asking about something very important, "Carina is it true that what you stole was the national treasure?"
She quickly nods and replies "yes, that's exactly what I stole from that Cheese Burger idiot."
When I hear this, I pause for a sec and continue, "And you were allowed to keep this so-called national treasure?"
She again nods and replies," Yup," popping the p at the end, "That Lamb Burger said that after I do it, I can keep it for myself, and to consider it my goodbye gift."
Hearing this I frown and make a hesitant face and question back," Are you sure he wasn't just tricking you? This is a National Treasure after all, it's not something to just hand out like candy."
She nods and nonchalantly replies, "Of course I'm sure, that imbecile only wants the position of governor in order to get closer to his daddy, all he thinks about is his dear daddy, President Ham Burger; he doesn't have the brains nor the mental abilities in order to think about anything else."
And what she said was true, apparently what happened was that when she came to this island, someone from the Thieves guild (Which I just learned was a thing in this world) recognized her as the infamous Phantom Burglar and reported her to this rich young master of the island.
He then sent people to contact her and make a deal with her.
The plan was for her to become a big celebrity with the help of Lamb Burgers men pushing things along behind the scenes, rise the ranks so to speak, followed by contacting the governor of the island in some form, then make him fall in love with her (which according to her was stupidly easy), and when the idiot shows his new love of his life the location of what he is meant to safekeep, steal it right from under his nose.
Yet even with all of these assurances, I am still immensely skeptical of them allowing her to keep it.
And the reason why I am so skeptical is because not only has the national treasure been a crucial part of the safety of the island for decades, but the national treasure is actually a fucking devil fruit! And not just any devil fruit, but a fucking Mythological Zoan devil fruit!
The Spirit-Spirit Fruit, Model Spriggan!
Chapter 23
That's right, the national treasure of this relatively unimportant island in the West Blue is actually a powerful devil fruit, one that I don't see anyone letting go of without a hard fight.
This devil fruit, the Spirit-Spirit Fruit, Model: Spriggan is an extraordinarily versatile and powerful fruit, with many powerful and scary abilities.
According to the national records on this fruit, once eaten if the user is male, it allows them to turn into a short ugly looking tree imp, which while unpleasant to look at, will actually increase the base strength of the user by a ludicrous amount, and if you're a female it allows you to turn into a beautiful woman with wood fairy like features, this also comes an immense increase in base speed and agility.
These however are the simple base perks of the fruit, the real power of this fruit is that whether you're female or male, once eaten the user gains immediate access to the phenomena of nature.
Users of this fruit were known to wield and manipulate the grass and the trees as easy as breathing, they were also known to be able to command and talk to animals, and one of the users was even known to command the winds and the storms to his bidding.
Another important aspect of this fruit is that it also has a connection to giants in the way that all users of this fruit also receive the innate ability to turn themselves into giants at whim.
This part of the devil fruit is not well recorded and is just given a slight mention in the records.
In total, there have been 3 users of this fruit so far, yet I believe that not one of them has unlocked the full potential of the fruit.
Not only have all the users been high ranking members of the country, who even if given the fruit, weren't able to go out adventuring and pushing the fruits to the limit, but instead became stuck behind a desk in high office, and only occasionally had the chance to fight when large forces of pirates were attacking the island and its allies.
Also, as far as I can remember spriggans are known to be able to do a lot more in the stories of folklore and myths, one of the most important aspects of the spriggans I believe was that they were all great thief's who had the ability to turn invisible and blend in with nature.
Now I don't know about the past user, but if this fruit falls in the hands of someone like Carina, then I'm almost 100% sure she would be able to unlock this innate power and use it to its full extent; and with our help she should also be able to push the limits of what is known of the fruit and develop it much further as well.
When I brought this up with her, she hesitantly confessed to me that she didn't actually know much about spriggans and that she actually wasn't planning on eating the fruit, and that swimming is one of her favorite pastimes, so she doesn't want to lose the ability to do so.
I was struck dumb for a second, but in the end, I laughed loudly because that does indeed sound like something she would do.
To that end however I quickly explained all I knew about the spriggans and their abilities and by the time I was done it was now her turn to be struck dumb.
Once she heard of all the abilities that these mythical creatures are said to possess, she obviously started rethinking her choice.
Not only would she be able to command the forces of nature, become a giant, but most importantly, she would be able to turn invisible. And for someone like her who makes a career out of being a thief, this is basically the holy grail of abilities.
I completely agree on that…It's almost like this fruit was specifically tailored to her and put on her path for her to easily be able to find and eat…*cough, cough from author* anyways it's obvious that if she eats this fruit, not only will she be able to improve her stealing game by 1000% she will also gain a major boost in strength, something that she sorely needs.
Therefore, with a bit more thinking, she decided that she would indeed eat the fruit, and that now all she needs to do is go and get it… at the place where she had previously deposited it for confirmation by the client…as well as the place where she is meant to meet up with her client in a few hours…
Yeah…if this doesn't sound like an obvious trap then I don't know what will.
...
Additional Info:
There is actually a very good reason that will be found out in a later chapter as to why Carina trusted her client with only 'confirming' that she succeeded in stealing the fruit, and not doing anything untoward to the fruit.
Also, she clearly hadn't put too much value onto the fruit itself, she had received a large amount of money prior to even taking the job, so to her it's more like the devil fruit was a bonus that she would quickly sell off to the highest bidder.
Chapter 24
When I heard about this from Carina I made an ugly face, because I was actually hoping to finish off this visit without major bloodshed or trouble.
Sure, we did get into the thick of things a bit in order to find Carina but in the end nothing overtly violent happened, nor has there been any major incidents as of yet.
However, with the revelation that our new partner in crime is about to walk right into a trap, it's obvious that unfortunately all of these hopes of mine are quickly going right into the metaphorical trash bin.
This is, however, unimportant, but what is important is that we come up with a plan of action in order to safely get that fruit into Carinas hands and into her mouth, because in this world it's a known fact that when a devil fruit is physically damaged, even slightly, it will lose its power and transfer onto a perfectly healthy fruit somewhere else.
So, with this goal in mind, we quickly come up with a plan of action, nothing overly complex or intricate like Carina initially wanted to make it, but simple and straight to the point.
The reason is because I honestly don't believe that anyone in the West Blue, except for maybe some high-ranking marines and a few dangerous pirates, are actually my opponent.
With my understanding of the Rokushiki, even if it's just Shigan, as well as my devil fruit abilities…that let me hit or even stab someone however many times I want, and my physical abilities that I've been honing for the past 6 months, I should be one of the strongest beings on these seas.
The only other beings that I'm 100% sure are stronger than the current me that also reside on these seas is the Chinjao family.
Not only do their members know the Hasshoken, that when mastered to a high degree acts similarly to the world destroying Tremor-Tremor fruit, but more importantly is that a few of the members actually know Haki; and even with all of my outstanding abilities, I wouldn't last a second against someone who actually knows Haki.
That is the main reason for me putting off my trip to Kano country, it's because even if I slow someone down immensely, I don't currently have a way of truly damaging someone that knows armament Haki.
Even if I use my pattern attacks or my slow slow sword it would not do me all that much good in the end.
Like anything in this world, any power can be countered by Haki, therefore they can simply use Haki and the slowness effects immediately becomes much weaker.
And if their Haki is strong enough then I suspect my slowing abilities won't have any effect whatsoever, until I get much stronger and learn Haki myself that it.
The only remedy I can think of for this future problem is to learn Haki and infuse it with my attacks in order to make them much stronger and somewhat immune to Haki users in the future.
And in terms of damaging someone that's using armament Haki, the only possible way is with my meteor shot, but would anyone actually let me implement it?
Maybe if I freeze them over and over again until their Haki can't keep up, while simultaneously punching the projectile until it becomes as strong as a meteor, then it's possible, but that's not a very dependable strategy.
Too crude a strategy to believe it would even work out in battle, where every second can make a difference, and anything can happen at any time.
It was made to be a super move, a move that I can charge up and fire at a target or enemy, like the supremely powerful 'King Punch', not one of my regular attacks.
The good thing however is that very few people know anything about Haki in any of the 4 seas as well as in Paradise, so for a good long while I'm actually relatively free of worries in terms of combat.
That includes now, a few people may be able to counter my abilities but these schmucks?
Pfft… yeah right, no one on this island is actually strong enough to give me a challenge if I go all out. That's why the plan consists of this:
Firstly, Carina walks into the building as if she doesn't suspect anything is wrong…she then simply takes the fruit from where she placed it before… or she finds the holder of the fruit and takes it from him/her.
Then it's most likely that she will be surrounded by the enemy, so when that happens Porche and I will simply walk in behind them and Boom, problem solved… no hassle.
I mean there could be 1 or 2 complications here and there, but there couldn't possibly be someone strong enough to contend with me on this island, right?
…
And as our mc boldly states this, not too far away from there appears to be something out of this world approaching the shore of the island.
And as we take a closer look, we can see that it's actually a slick black speed boat that would feel right at home in a spy movie, and not in a backwards place like the world of One Piece.
And on this marvel of technology, you could find a group of 5 gray-clad individuals standing around a small black Den Den Mushi, listening into what is being said through it.
"Your mission is simple, you must capture this so called 'Hellcat Carina,' and return the fruit to President Ham Burger, if these objectives are failed or incomplete, then you all will be terminated, and your branch will be forced to undergo a harsh reevaluation."
With this being said all of the hooded figures simultaneously nod in acceptance and loudly chorus together, "Affirmative!".