Chapter 8
Ace woke up to a flurry of motion. He blinked, slowly focusing on Sabo, who was desperately cramming his papers into the satchel looped over his shoulder.
"Crap, crap, crap," Sabo was muttering, hair a disheveled mess and his clothes noticeably rumpled. "Stayed up too late, stupid, stupid...oh, Ace! You're awake."
"Y-yeah," Ace said, suppressing a yawn. "What's wrong, Sabo?"
The blond sheepishly grinned as he shoved the last paper into his back. "I kind of forgot to sleep last night, and time got away from me...shit! That reminds me, I've gotta go -"
"Wait!" Ace interrupted, his question from the previous night coming to the front of his mind, pushing sleep aside. "Sabo, you've at least got to tell me what a Devil Fruit is!"
Sabo glanced at Ace as he circumvented a chair, reaching for his hat. "It's a fruit," he said.
Ace stared at him. "Really."
The blond laughed at Ace's expression. "Just look it up! My password's 'dragon'."
And just like that, Sabo was out the door and Ace was left hanging, one hand still in the air and a twitch rapidly developing in his right eye. Then he let out an annoyed sigh, let his hand drop, and fell back onto the couch. Despite his burning curiosity about Devil Fruits and the hollowness in his stomach, unconsciousness pulled him under.
Almost an hour later, Ace woke up again, feeling far more awake than he had the previous time. He stumbled into the bathroom and cleaned up, pulling on clean clothes but forgoing a shirt. Pushing his wet hair out of his face, Ace walked over to the kitchen and prepared himself a quick breakfast, looking at the empty fruit bowl with a frown. He'd need to go get more food soon; at least Sabo had money set aside for that.
Once his stomach had been satisfied, Ace finally turned his attention to the curiosity burning within him.
What the hell is a Devil Fruit?
Since the universe didn't seem to be in the mood to just hand out answers, Ace settled on Sabo's laptop. He had no doubt that the password Sabo had given him was a dummy - one that led to a false but functional account and not the real one. Sabo trusted Ace, but not that much.
The machine booted up with a gentle whir and Ace entered the password, casting his gaze around the room while he waited for it to finish setting up. Then he opened up the browser and quickly typed, "Devil Fruits" into the search bar. He immediately realized his mistake upon seeing the sheer number of results, and once he saw that the very first result had something to do with a news report about a man convinced he was being followed by possessed pieces of food - fruit included - he decided to change his tactics.
"Right," Ace muttered, quickly refining the search and trying again. He spent nearly twenty minutes like that, slowly growing more and more frustrated as the Internet failed to yield any reliable results.
Just before he logged out, a link on the page caught his attention. Interest stirring, Ace clicked the link and waited as the page it connected to slowly loaded. Tapping his fingers with impatience, Ace grinned when he saw the title of the book he'd been directed to.
"'Mysterious Devil Fruits and How they Affect the Human Psyche'," Ace read. "Well, doesn't that just sound great."
Scrolling down, he was annoyed to find that anything past page thirty had to be paid for. Since Ace was broke and he didn't know Sabo's credit card number, he settled on skimming the pages he could read, jotting down anything that seemed especially important. Though, given that the title didn't seem to describe exactly what he was looking for, Ace got the feeling that he wouldn't be writing down a whole lot.
That expectation was quickly turned on its head when he found that the first twenty pages were solely dedicated to explaining what Devil Fruits were.
After getting his mental whoop of celebration out of the way, Ace began reading. It took him almost an hour and a half to get through the pages he was allowed to read; the text was dense and kept referencing things that Ace didn't recognize, and only after realizing that the date on the book was very old did he understand why he didn't recognize them.
Eventually, though, he got the information organized. Feeling rather proud of himself, Ace recited what he knew.
"Devil Fruits are strange, fruit-like objects found randomly throughout the world. They can be anywhere, and anyone can take them. A person can ingest a Devil Fruit to gain superhuman abilities ranging from invisibility to gravity manipulation, though accounts have stated that the fruits taste rather bad."
A horrible phantom taste crossed Ace's tongue and he made a face before continuing. "Once ingested, the Devil Fruit takes several minutes to make the necessary alterations to a person's body, though the time may vary between Fruits. There are three main types of Fruits: Logia, Paramecia, and Zoan. According to the severely limited data available, Logia seems to take the longest to make the changes to the user's body."
Ace paused to take a swig of the water bottle he'd grabbed earlier, when he'd taken a walk to work off some of his frustration with the Internet.
"Logia are regarded as the most powerful Devil Fruits because they grant the user a body made of whatever element the Fruit contained, as well as the ability to control that element. This elemental body grants them immunity to most physical attacks, which is partly why they are considered so dangerous. Some examples of Logia Devil Fruit elements include mud, fire, and light. Paramecia, on the other hand, can provide the ingester with any range of superhuman abilities, and display the greatest variety of all the Devil Fruit types. Zoan are perhaps the most interesting and easiest to study Fruit, since they grant the user the ability to transform into a certain animal to varying degrees. In some cases, users of Zoan-type Devil Fruits have displayed traits of their transformation animals, which will be explored later in Chapter Six."
Ace grinned, wondering which one he had. He was leaning between Logia and Zoan; though, he didn't really think he had any of the tendencies of an animal. Although, with how broad Paramecia's definition was, he could be that too.
Raising a hand, the teen gazed at the skin, wondering if his body would just give him the answer. The light from the computer screen made a kind of halo around Ace's fingers, but gave him no hints. He was still no closer to figuring out what kind of Devil Fruit he had. At least now he knew what they were.
Flicking his gaze back to the screen and lowering his hand, Ace read the last pieces of information.
"All Devil Fruit users, regardless of type and power, display a weakness towards the sea; all water seems to drain them of strength, but its effect is limited when the water is merely freshwater. Most importantly, several groups have figured out how to use Sea Stone - a semi-rare material that mimics these effects - as a weapon or restraining tool for rogue users because it denies them access to their abilities, though prolonged exposure has been shown to damage users mentally and, in some cases, physically. Those effects will be explained in greater detail in Chapter Nine."
"One other, largely unknown method of combating Devil Fruit users is known as 'Haki', which comes in three forms: Observation, Armament, and Conqueror's. The last type is the rarest, and its capabilities are a mystery, as a user has yet to be properly documented. Observation Haki grants the user incredibly enhanced perception, a kind of sixth sense that is far greater than a normal human's. Armament Haki, on the other hand, is designed to increase the durability of a person's body or weapon while also granting any parts coated with it the ability to make solid contact with a Logia user, rendering the Logia's ability to ignore physical attacks null. When in use, Armament Haki can appear as a black coating or sheen on an object or body part.
"More detail on Haki and how it affects Devil Fruit users can be found in Chapter Four."
Of course, Ace didn't have access to anything past Chapter One, so he ignored that last part, though he had written it just in case he somehow got ahold of this book and wanted to check that chapter.
He drummed his fingers on the laptop, debating the pros and cons of scouring the internet again. Considering that this was the first real lead - and best source of information - that he'd found after so long, Ace wasn't inclined to keep looking. Plus, he was hungry. And fidgety.
Closing the browser and logging off, Ace left Sabo's room and went back to the kitchen, making himself a quick sandwich with the limited ingredients he had. As he ate, he looked out the window, eyes on the distant horizon but not quite focused. A cloud covered the sun and Ace blinked, realizing that he'd zoned out after finishing his food.
Deciding that he needed to do something, Ace rearranged the furniture in the sitting area and pulled out the mat, quickly beginning his stretches. As he shifted from stance to stance, he thought about those pipes in Sabo's armory. They were undoubtedly made of Sea Stone, and if the intensity varied with each one…
They probably contained different concentrations of Sea Stone, which would explain both the "experimental" label - no doubt the incorporation of Sea Stone into staffs was recent - and why they got heavier each time. Sea Stone didn't seem like a light material, especially after the regular metal pipes had been light and weighted nicely.
A bead of sweat slipped into Ace's eye and he blinked it out, resisting the urge to break the flow of his movements to wipe it away. Another slid down his back, and he ignored that as well.
Thoughts of Devil Fruits and their counters swirled around Ace's mind, and the young man found himself cursing his lost memory - not for the first time, and certainly not for the last.
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