Chapter 3: The Blood-Blood Fruit and the Crimson Scythe

Moby Dick

It has been a few days since Enzo settled down into the Moby Dick. In these few days, Enzo had gotten familiar with the whole crew and already felt like the Moby Dick was his home, although he was still a little intimidated by Whitebeard.

Enzo spent the last few days learning about the ship and bonding with the crew. Learning with Marco, eating with Ace, cooking with Thatch, and also indulging himself in a few pranks on unsuspecting members of the Whitebeard Pirates. Everyone had graciously accepted Enzo and his antics and were glad to have him around.

However, not all was fun and games. One day, Marco came up to Enzo while he was having fun on the ship like a teenage sixteen year old should. Enzo immediately knew that it was about something different when Marco approached him this time. His friendly grin was missing, replaced by an expression of seriousness.

"Enzo, Pops would like to see you. Follow me to the meeting hall," Marco commanded. The amount of authority Marco used made it clear to Enzo that refusal would be futile.

He followed behind Marco despite being familiar with the way, already having a vague idea of what this meeting would be about. Of course, Enzo knew that a meeting about him was way overdue. The Whitebeards knew practically nothing about him, yet they are kindly letting him stay on their ship. Enzo knew that they would want to know more about him eventually, before deciding what to do with him.

As they reached the meeting hall, Enzo was not surprised to find Ace and Thatch together with Whitebeard in there. The top commanders would have to be there to come to a consensus about him, after all. The only one missing was Jozu, who was apparently on a mission for the Whitebeards.

Ace had a watered down version of his grin, while the usually cheerful Thatch was solemn on this occasion. As Marco went to take a seat to the right of Whitebeard, Enzo went to take a seat beside Thatch.

"Enzo… it has been almost a week since you landed on this ship," began Whitebeard, "and we have to discuss your future with you. Firstly, do you still remember any events before arriving on this ship?"

Enzo bit his lip upon hearing that question. The Guild… that damned cathedral… the bloody procession… "Yes, I do," Enzo gritted.

"When I found you, you had lost a lot of blood and were lying helpless in a mountain of snow. Miraculously, something stopped your blood flow before I found you. If that had not happened, I'm fairly certain that I would not have gotten you medical assistance in time," explained Marco, "do you have any idea what happened?"

Enzo knew that it was something to do with the Devil Fruit he had eaten. One way or another, it had granted him the power to live on. "When I was on the verge of… death, there was somehow a Devil Fruit in front of me. I knew that it was my best chance of survival and I ate it. It must have somehow saved my life."

Ace raised an eyebrow at this revelation. "You ate a Devil Fruit? Do you know what Fruit it is?"

Enzo shook his head. It was true, he had no idea what fruit he had eaten and the only knowledge about it he had was that it was able to save his life at that crucial moment.

"Do you know what it looks like?" Thatch asked.

Enzo racked his brains to come up with an accurate description for it. "It was… a blood red pear with a bit of a maroon design on its skin. I could recognize that it was a Devil Fruit, but I don't know anything about its powers."

"It's the Blood-Blood Fruit," offered Thatch, "A Paramecia Devil Fruit which offers its user the ability to control blood. I've read before in a Devil Fruit encyclopedia that it had the potential for massive damage if it is well mastered."

Enzo's jaw dropped at that revelation. Just what sort of dumb luck did he have that his Fruit was precisely the one he needed to save him? Not that he was complaining, though. His Fruit sounded like that type which would grant him incredible powers if he put in a lot of effort to master the fruit.

"Blood-Blood Fruit eh? Let's test it," said Marco as he pulled out a small knife from his sash. Without warning, he slashed his wrists horizontally, causing a pool of blood to pump out onto the meeting table. "Try doing something with the blood here," encouraged Marco.

Enzo was absolutely shocked at what Marco just did. There was no need for him just so slash his wrists to get blood for him to practice his powers. He would have to undergo medical treatment… all just for him to practise?

Marco smirked at Enzo's shocked face. "Calm down," he said as he burst into bluish flames, "healing powers, remember?" The slash on Marco's wrist began to disappear, and when Marco retracted his flames, there was no sign that he slashed his own wrist.

Enzo heaved a sigh of relief. For a trained tactician, he sure was careless to overlook some of these details. All the fun he was having in the past few days must have made him less alert.

Enzo then focused on the small pool of blood which was now present on the table. He did not know what to expect when he tried to manipulate it. Would there be a feeling that would just click? Or would there be no feeling at all and he somehow would get it right? It was more of the latter, for when Enzo concentrated hard on the pool of blood, he did not feel anything particularly different.

At first, absolutely nothing happened. As the commanders all watched him intently, he felt so embarrassed that he was not able to do anything with his powers. They were masters of their own fruit, and could easily take down an army with their powers, and yet here he was, not even able to do something to a small pool of blood.

"Try to think of something you want the blood to do," offered Ace.

Enzo took Ace's advice and shut his eyes while putting his full concentration on the blood. He imagined that the blood would rise and form a heart shape, and raised both arms at the pool of blood.

"There we go," cheered Thatch. As Enzo opened his eyes, he lost his concentration, causing the blood to splash back into a pool. However, he did catch a glimpse of what he had done, and the blood had indeed risen up into the shape of a heart, exactly like how he wanted it to. Despite feeling a sense of accomplishment, he was absolutely exhausted at using his powers for the first time.

"Well done," complimented Marco, "We know that you must be exhausted by now, it all happened when we first tapped into our powers. We just have one last thing to ask you."

Whitebeard started, "For the past few days, all of my sons have enjoyed being in your company…"

"And we all really like you…" Marco continued.

"And we want you to stay with us…" Ace went on.

"But ultimately, it's your choice and we will respect your decision," concluded Thatch.

Whitebeard reached out an arm towards Enzo. "What do you say? Will you be my son and join our family?"

The tactician side of Enzo screamed at him to consider this carefully, to think about the consequences it would bring and how his future would be. However, Enzo's heart yearned for nothing more than to accept the invitation and join his new family. In the end, his heart overruled his thoughts, and he found himself grabbing Whitebeard's hand.

"Of course I'm joining, Pops," Enzo said with a huge smile on his face.

Upon hearing this, Marco had a huge grin on his face, while Ace and Thatch both cheered. From then on, Enzo was part of the Whitebeard family, and he would have a reliable band of brothers and sisters to depend on, and a place to call home.

XXX

It has been a week since Enzo officially joined the Whitebeard Pirates. Over the past week, he had been diligently training with his Devil Fruit, experimenting with a variety of both offensive and defensive moves. Although it taxed his body hard, he felt himself getting more and more familiar with his powers.

However, he discovered one major flaw of his fruit. There needed to be blood which was exposed to him before he could activate his powers. He could not magically work his powers when he did not have a source of blood.

It was a huge problem when he was in battle. If his opponent was skilled enough to avoid all of his attacks, his powers would be basically useless. As such, he was currently in a discussion with Thatch and Ace to decide how to solve this problem.

"Get a weapon!" Ace suggested as if it was the most obvious thing to do.

"Not just any weapon, but a sharp one which would be able to draw blood," added Thatch, "Ever thought of becoming a swordsman? Vista could train you well."

Enzo shook his head. He had tried to learn swordplay in the past, and it went horrible. He somehow managed to slash himself with his own sword. Even the Sensei who taught him acknowledged that he was not cut out for the way of the sword and urged him to pick up a different weapon.

"Well, if we keep giving you suggestions, it might not suit you very well. After all, you're the one using the weapon and you know yourself best, is there anything you would like to try?" Thatch asked.

"I guess something with a wider range would be good… it gives me time to use my Fruit powers," Enzo said.

"Ranged,eh?" Ace said with a glint with his eye, "you think the weapon we have in our armoury would suit him well?"

"Ah, that," Thatch said mysteriously, "It would fit him well, and it's a great weapon…"

Enzo watched in confusion as Ace and Thatch beckoned him to follow them to the armoury. He did not know what to expect, but he knew that it'll be a hell of a weapon.

XXX

Armoury of the Moby Dick

The armoury was gigantic, but it was well organized. The huge room was split into sections of guns, swords, maces, etc. Weapons of different shapes and sizes were littered in their respective sections, and whichever crewmember wanted a weapon could simply pick up one of their choice.

However, Thatch and Ace seemed to be bypassing all these sections. They walked deeper and deeper into the depths of the armoury, with a lost Enzo following. He had never been into the bowels of the armoury before, he only looked at the sections during his tour of the ship. He had no idea what lay in the depths of the armoury.

As they neared a door, Enzo saw Thatch whip out a key from his coat. Enzo's confusion began to change to anticipation. There must be something behind that door, something which was more valuable than all of the other weapons.

As they reached the door, Thatch inserted the key into a lock, and the door began to swing open. Enzo tingled with excitement as he looked into the room adjacent to the armoury.

The room was dimly lit, but there were an assortment of weapons hung on the wall. These weapons all radiated sheer power, and it was obvious that they were top tier. Intricate designs decorated most of these weapons, and the aura emanating from them overwhelmed Enzo when he first stepped into the room.

"These weapons are all of the highest caliber, and they are incredibly rare. Only a handful of people around the world possess weapons like these. They seem to have a life of their own, and will oftentimes cause you more trouble than aid you. However, there is a legend from very long ago that if the wielder of such a weapon is able to fuse his spirit with that of his weapon, they will display strength like no one has ever seen before," explained Thatch.

"Now, now, don't go touching any of these weapons carelessly, like Thatch said, they could easily slice off a limb or blow out your brains if they decide they do not like you," Ace cautioned.

Enzo nodded, but he was still in awe of all of these. He had heard of the many collections of weapons which were insanely rare when he was in the Guild. For swords, they were the 12 Saijo O Wazamono and the 21 O Wazamono swords. He knew that the strongest swordsman in the world, Dracule Mihawk, wielded one of the 12 Saijo O Wazamono, and was said to be insanely strong.

Enzo was grateful that the Whitebeards are willing to give one of the rarest weapons in their possession to him, and he vowed that he would master the weapon to show his family that the weapon was not wasted on him.

Suddenly, Ace and Thatch stopped in front of a weapon. The weapon was a scythe, and its pole had maroon coloured designs imprinted on it, similar to that of a Devil Fruit. At the tip of the pole, the curved blade glinted even in the darkness, and there was a slight tinge of red coloured on the metal. There were three orbs of red on the intersection between the handle and the blade, and they seemed to be flashing and floating around every now and then.

"This," proclaimed Ace, "is the Crimson Scythe. Made by Seikan Kanemoto, it is one of the best, if not the best, scythes in the world. The handle was made with the strongest metal in the world, reinforced with the blessings of the blacksmith in the design. It's blade was tinged in red, symbolizing the bloodlust of the weapon."

"It provides long range combat, and it is able to cut down anything in its way. We believe that this weapon suits you the best," said Thatch.

Enzo stared at the weapon, and felt himself getting drawn to it. There seemed to be an invisible force beckoning him towards the weapon, as if the weapon itself was inviting him to wield it.

As Enzo grabbed the scythe, he was suddenly jolted into a serene state. The sounds around him got softer, the world around him got dimmer, but the scythe radiated raw power in his hands.

Who the hell are you?

Enzo's eyes widened as he heard the voice. "Who's speaking?" he asked in alarm.

Ace and Thatch looked at Enzo in concern. Enzo could see their mouths moving, but he could hear nothing. Whatever they were saying could not get through to him. Despite telling himself to keep calm, he could not suppress the rising sense of panic that the scythe brought to him.

The scythe pulsed with increased intensity, and unleashed a devastating wave of power towards Enzo.

The last thing Enzo remembered was seeing a blood red demon claw into his mind, before he blacked out.

A/N: Firstly, I would like to thank all of you who bothered to check out this story, especially those who followed/favorited/reviewed. It's my source of motivation to keep putting out content, and I really appreciate all of your support. Secondly, I received a PM about whether Enzo will learn Haki. I plan for this story to be Enzo with the Straw Hats, not with the Whitebeard Pirates, so having Haki might seem a bit overpowered. Of course, I plan for Enzo to have Haki eventually, but when he first meets the Straw Hats, he will have knowledge of it, but he will not be able to use it. Hope this clears up some confusion. Good bye!