{Pirate II}
It was one month, two more 'training sessions' in [The Restless Forest], and another level later that Garp left the island on Marine business that he said would keep him away for an undetermined amount of time, but not less than a year. He left an apprehensive Lu behind in the care of Woop Slap, the mayor of Foosha Village, and Makino, a kind young woman who ran the only bar in town.
The day before he left, the old Marine helped Lu bring her stuff to the small room above the bar that she would live in for the next couple of months. He then left to bring his own things out to the large Marine battleship anchored off the coast. He had already said his goodbyes to her and would leave before sunrise the next morning.
"Lu-chan, can you come help me out downstairs?"
Lu turned from where she stood at her new room's window, watching as the back of her grandfather grew ever smaller in the distance, to glance back at Makino. The young woman stood smiling in the doorway of the small bedroom, sympathy glimmering in her eyes. Lu blinked, confused, in response before realizing that the bartender was trying to distract her from thoughts of her grandfather leaving her behind.
The small girl grinned widely in response and bounced over to the woman, "Sure!"
As they left the room, and its window, behind, Lu chattered cheerfully up at her fellow brunette. "What do you need help with? Are you hauling things around? Or serving customers? What do you serve people? Is it beer? Or rum? Sake? Can I try some?!"
"No, no, you're too young for that," Makino laughed. "I have some juice downstairs if want some though."
"Sweet!" The girl ran forward down the steps a bit before turning back and asking, "What kind of juice?" In a comically serious voice.
Pausing because the child before her had, Makino's mouth twitched slightly at the too serious expression on the young girl's face. "Orange, Grape, and Apple." She replied promptly though.
"Hmmmmm..." Lu considered, seemingly seriously, before brightening and triumphantly declaring, "I shall take the apple!" and returned to bouncing back down the stairs, two at a time.
This time unable to cover her laughter, Makino called after her mirthfully, but with a touch of concern in her tone, "I'll get you it in a moment! Be careful on the stairs though, Lu-chan, you don't want to fall and hurt yourself!"
"I'm fine," was the faint response, the child having already hopped off the steps and bounded into the currently empty room of the main bar downstairs.
Lu's face, now unobserved by anyone else, had taken on a more honestly serious cast, though her voice remained cheerful and bubbly. Quietly, so she could barely even hear herself, she repeated herself, as firmly as she could, "I'm fine."
{The Devil Fruit}
The next few weeks seemed to crawl by as Lucia's apprehension continued to get to her, making her more restless than ever. As one day, and then another came without a sign of pirate flags on the horizon her worries continued to build. What if she'd already done something to change the timeline, and Shanks would miss the opening while Garp was gone? Or even worse, if this wasn't the world she knew from before and he never came at all? What would she do?
As these worries grew ever more pronounced in the back of her head, Lu did her best to distract herself with training and the accumulation of new skills. The [ID Create] skill that she had earned during her first week in [The Restless Forest] came in very handy in this, though it took her a while to figure out all of the quirks of the new skill.
[ID Create] would materialize a sealed off pocket dimension that completely separated her from the outside world. She could do anything in there and come out and though time would have passed, the world was completely unaffected by whatever she had done. To test this she returned to the house she had lived in with Garp (as it was the only empty house in the town) and broke a window while inside the [Instant Dungeon] and when she left it, the window was perfectly intact, as though she'd never even touched it.
The biggest problem she'd had with the [Instant Dungeons] was not in creating them, but actually in leaving them. It took her an embarrassingly long time to arrive on the right command - "[ID Escape]!" - and to leave her first dungeon, nearly making her late for the dinner Makino had made that night.
So far she had found that she had three kinds of [Instant Dungeons] that she could create. The [Empty Dungeon] always took on the same appearance as her current surroundings, and seemed to have no other effect than isolating her from the rest of the world. [The Training Field] was just that - it changed the world around her into a clear, endless field. It had the added bonus of increasing her experience gain by .5% when she trained within it too. She had a decent idea of what [The Restless Forest] would be like, but had yet to try it, having already been traumatized enough by being abandoned in it multiple times.
As far as her other skills went, she had leveled all of her combat skills - including the still annoying [Physical Resistance] skill, and the [Poison Resistance] that had come with eating Garp's food - by a few different levels since she had earned them that first week in the forest, and more had shown up in the time since. [Punch] and [Kick] were joined by [Barehanded Mastery], which just seemed to increase all of her physical parameters passively when she fought without weapons.
On the non-combat side of things she'd managed to level [Observe] significantly by using it on almost everything she came across. Two things seemed to come of her steadily increasing level in that particular skill. She could now see everyone's basic information - name, level, and title, if they had one - floating over their heads automatically. It made it absurdly easy to keep peoples' names straight, despite her horrible memory for faces. In addition, the more she leveled the skill, the more information she got out of it. Her survival skills ([Fishing], [Pyro], etc.) had increased in level through necessity during her most recent involuntary trips to the forest, and her [Run] and [Climb] skills had also increased apace. [Cooking] was still a dead end as far as she was concerned though, because despite increasing her skill in it, the most she could do was either mash berries or burn fish - neither of which were particularly appealing when she had a choice.
After her minor planning session (the notes of which still languished in her [Inventory]) she had decided to wait until her next level to use her stat points. When she had finally leveled up nearly a month ago, she had finally made her decisions as far her points went. She had come to the conclusion that any major increase in her physical abilities before she either grew older or ate a devil fruit - whichever came first - would likely bring attention to her in a very negative way. So, she had placed a couple of points each in Strength, Dexterity, and Vitality, before placing the majority of the remainder in the others, leaving a couple unused just in case something unforeseen happens.
And so, when Lu took a last glance at her [Status] following a training session three weeks after her grandfather left Dawn Island, they looked like this:
[Status]
[Health Points: 450/450
Energy Points: 400/400
Level: 6
Experience Points: 284/640]
[STR: 8
DEX: 8
VIT: 8
INT: 12
WIS: 9
LUK: 13]
[Stat Points: 2
Money: 0]
"Damn." The girl swore before sighing, "It's taking longer and longer to level up, especially when the only things I can do are either train or help Makino out, and she doesn't let me do too much."
Frustrated even more by her lack of progress, Lu kicked the ground of her [Training Field] before raising a hand and saying, "[ID Escape]," clearly.
The world around her warped for a minute, before she found herself once more upon the cliff next to her tree. Turning, she grazed hopeful eyes across the sea and her face fell slightly when nothing unusual caught her eye. Then she doubletaked and, eyes widening, a grin spread across her face before she turned and dashed away from the cliff and towards the town.
Behind her, a black flag fluttered in a distant wind above a large ship, a graphic skull painted large upon it. Behind it were two crossed swords, and three distinctive scars crossed over it's left eye socket.
Lu slowed down to a trot as she reached the outskirts of the small village, but excitement and nervousness still glinted in her eyes. Her grin grew back on her face, only to be masked by a curious expression as she approached the small crowd that had gathered around the harbor area. Squeezing through the crowd, she was so focused on what awaited her beyond the wall of people that she ended up tripping on someone's foot as she neared the other edge of the crowd.
"Uuwah!"
The girl grunted as she hit the clear ground harshly, and a hiss escaped her mouth as she tried to raise herself back up and discovered several scrapes and bruises. Thanks to her Gamer's body, she could feel them vanish as well within seconds. She also felt the involuntary tears threaten to escape the corners of her eyes and cursed her young body. Suddenly, she noticed a pair of feet before her, and as she looked up she was met with the sight of the man who owned them going down on one knee before her.
Before she could do more than feel her eyes widen at the sight of the wide brimmed straw hat on his head, the man spoke, "Are you alright, kid?"
"A-ah," Lu stuttered slightly before sitting up more straight and wiping away any trace of the tears, "I'm fine." She swallowed harshly, and then winced inwardly - she probably just sounded like a kid trying to be tough. Then she thought again - maybe that was a good thing?
Nevertheless, she was quick to turn the conversation off of herself and onto the man. Blinking at him, almost squinting to try and make out his features from where they were hidden by the straw hat, she asked, "Who are you, mister?"
He laughed and tilted his hat back when he figured out why she was making such an odd expression, "I'm Shanks, and you?" He held out a hand to her as the wide grin showed bright against his tanned skin and stretched the scars of his left eye.
She bit her lip and hesitated almost imperceptibly before taking it, "You can call me Lu!" She smiled back at him as he helped to her to her feet, standing to his full hight himself as she did.
"Lu, huh?" He said, and seemed to be about to say something else when he was interrupted by someone else calling out her name.
"Lu-chan!" It was Makino, pushing her own way through the crowd towards them, "Lu-chan, are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Makino."
"Where have you been?" The woman talked over her reassurance and quickly began to fussing over her scuffed up appearance.
"I was up at the cliff, and then I saw a pirate flag!" Lu exclaimed, eyes brightening with excitement. "It was on this cool big ship and the skull even had scars across the side of it, like this old mister here!" Lu babbled on, seemingly oblivious as Makino grew ever more concerned, and Shanks winced and hung his head, mouthing 'old mister' to himself like it was the worst thing anyone had ever called him. "Why can't Marine flags look that cool? They're all the same no matter what, and that seems really boring-"
"Lu-chan," Makino interrupted gently, a smile growing across her face, "You know your grandfather would be very upset if he heard you say that."
Lu froze at the reminder of her grandfather, almost as if she half expected him to suddenly appear and give her a 'Fist of Love' as punishment, before shaking it off and putting on a stubborn face. "Well it's true anyway, and its not like Gramps is even here to hear it," the small girl said mulishly.
"Oh, Lu-chan," the woman said sympatheticly, before Shanks gave a light cough.
"If I may interrupt," Shanks smiled down at the girl, "I'm quite glad you like my flag, Lu."
Lu let her eyes grow big as she stared up at the man, "Are you a pirate, mister?"
He gave a short laugh, "Yeah, I am," before sighing, "and please don't call me 'mister' again," he winced. "I'm just Shanks."
Makino obviously recognized the name, but before she could say anything they were once again interrupted, this time by a long haired man with a cigarette butt hanging from his mouth.
"Captain," he said, slouching forward, "weren't we gonna go get a drink?"
"Yeah, we were weren't we, Benn?" The straw hatted man laughed sheepishly.
Makino examined the pirates for a moment before smiling, "Well, my bar's the only one in town." She said. "We can show you the way if you like?"
"Really? That'd be awesome!" Shanks grinned again. "Benn!" He cried, as if the man weren't still standing right next to him, "Go get the rest of the crew! We're celebrating today!"
Lu tugged on Shanks' shirt, catching his attention again, "What are you celebrating?"
"Making a new friend of course - that is, if you want to be friends?" He smiled softer at the child.
Lu made a show of thinking for a moment before nodding. "Sure!"
Over the next year Lucia and Shanks became thick as thieves - or pirates in this case. At first Lu's interactions with Shanks felt slightly awkward to her, and she often felt as though she was taking Luffy's place in this world and that she didn't deserve to have Shanks' friendship - but then her Gamer's Mind would calm her down. Once she was able to think more clearly, she realized that whatever may have happened in another world, in this one Luffy didn't exist, and never had. She might have the opportunities to make some similar decisions, or be put in similar situations, but in the end this would be her life, not his.
Once she came to this conclusion, Lu relaxed at lot more and let her childish side out without restraint. Though she still hid most of her intelligence, it was less because she was forcing herself into what she remembered of Luffy's personality and more because she knew that if she showed too much of how intelligent she was too early it could be viewed as unnatural.
Shanks left for a few weeks every once in awhile but always came back, having long since declared the village to be their main base, and with more fantastic stories each time. Despite herself, Lu found herself more and more entranced by the pirate's tales, until she eventually began to beg for Shanks to take her with him when he left on a voyage. He of course refused, knowing it would be far too dangerous for such a small child, and Lu reluctantly capitulated, knowing he was right.
Still, whenever Shanks left she was there to wave him goodbye, and until he returned she would keep a watch from her cliff for his flag upon the horizon. Despite herself, she soon realized that she was growing a fierce crush on the scarred man, and found yet another reason to curse her immature body. Maybe if she was the twenty-one year old she'd once been, she could have had a chance with the unconsciously charming red-head. She knew it wasn't possible though, and soon resigned herself to having a one-sided crush.
As things came closer and closer the future she remembered though, she began to think desperately on how she could prevent her friend from losing an arm in order to save her. She began to train even more furiously than ever when the man was gone to become stronger and stronger. Maybe if she could beat those mountain bandits right off the bat, he wouldn't even need to get near the Sea King that took his left arm. It was the only thing she could think of, because she couldn't see herself not confronting them - though perhaps not as recklessly as Luffy once did.
As a result of this resolve, she finally brought herself to use her [Restless Forest] instant dungeon for training. In the fake forest, she was consistently attacked by wild animals, and often they were freakishly large in size also. Still, she somehow managed to survive and eventually earn another three levels through this reckless method of training.
[Status]
[Health Points: 600/600
Energy Points: 550/550
Level: 9
Experience Points: 40/1280]
[STR: 8
DEX: 8
VIT: 8
INT: 12
WIS: 9
LUK: 13]
[Stat Points: 32
Money: 0]
This time she carefully considered, before deciding to wait to use any of the points she'd earned until after she ate the devil fruit Shanks would find. Or rather, that she hoped he would find. There was no guarantee he would even discover it, but it would be much easier to pass off any increase in strength as a side effect of a devil fruit than trying to explain her weird power to someone. She wasn't even sure if they had RPGs in this world! Well, on second thought, they probably didn't. Although she should probably think of a way to explain it to someone soon - she had no intention of hiding it from her crew when she was older. She was still debating the pros and cons of telling Ace when she met him though.
She sighed and looked out across the sea from her spot up in her tree. Shanks had already been gone for two weeks this time. He should be back soon. She couldn't say she was really worried about him - she knew how strong the man was - but when his trips dragged on she often worried about him ever coming back. She knew how dangerous it would be for her to go with him, but she still didn't like the idea of being left behind. It seemed to be something that was starting to form a pattern in her mind. She had never even met her parents in this life, then Garp left her behind, and now Shanks would leave her too.
She sighed again and shook off the depressing thoughts. The girl then looked up and said, "[Inventory]." The screen appeared before her and she reached up to slide the windows over until she found what she was looking for. Reaching into the storage space, she pulled out the knife and looked at it contemplativly. If she was guessing right, it was now getting close to the time that Luffy had given himself that scar beneath his left eye.
She sighed again and then shoved the knife back into the [Inventory]. There was no way she was doing something that stupid. Maybe she'd get a tattoo in the same spot when she was older or something, but she wasn't going to be stabbing herself in the face anytime soon.
Catching sight of something on the horizon, Lu squinted at it but couldn't get a good enough view. She then looked down, braced her feet beneath her on the branch, and stood, raising her hand to shield her eyes from the bright sun as she peered again from the higher perspective. A smile grew on her face as she watched the spot on the horizon grow bigger. Eventually it grew enough that she could she the black flag hanging from the top of the mast.
He was back!
"Let's drink up and celebrate!"
"To our greatness!"
"To adventure!"
"Gahahahaha! Drink! Drink!"
"Sake! Bring out more sake!"
"You need more already? Slow down and savor it!"
"Hey! That's my meat, idiot!"
"Shut up! It's mine!"
"Hand it over!"
"Stop it with the drunken brawling already!"
Three hours later found Lucia, Shanks, and his crew crowded into Makino's bar, with the majority of the latter well on their way to getting quite drunk. Lu found their antics completely hilarious, and was smiling to herself over a glass of apple juice. Beside her Shanks had nowhere near the same restraint and was laughing his head off as two members of the crew argued drunkenly over a piece of meat that Lucky Roo, another member, had already eaten.
"Ne, Shanks, can I come with you next time?" Lu asked, as she always did, when the captain finally subsided into chuckles.
"No way!" The man laughed again, "You're still too young, kid," he reached out and ruffled her short hair as a smirk grew on his face, "besides, I know you still can't swim - and being an anchor is a weakness a pirate can't afford."
"I'll be fine as long as I stay on board!" The girl protested. The [Swim] skill was something that she just couldn't seem to get no matter how hard she tried. Her body just wouldn't cooperate for some reason. It was frustrating, but Luffy had managed without being able to swim and so could she. "Besides, I can fight pretty well too!" She added on.
"Reeally..." The man propped his head up with a hand and replied dully, a teasing glint in his eye.
Lu played along and shouted at him, "And what kind of reaction is that supposed to be!"
A small conga-line of pirates danced by. As they did, they caught sight of her upset face and called out to her, "Lu! You seem unhappy!"
"You've got to be happy if you wanna face what's out there!"
"Yeah! A pirates life is hard, but it's great too!"
"The sea is wide and deep, with a new adventure on every island!"
"Nothing is greater than that kind of freedom!"
"Quit it with the encouragement, guys." Even as Lu's eyes began to sparkle at the thought of it, Shanks shot it all down, voice slightly muffled by the food in his mouth.
"But it's the truth, right?" Lucky Roo commented.
"Right!" They all cheered.
"Captain, why don't you take him with us one time, it's not that big a deal." Another man said, and it was followed by murmurs of agreement.
Shanks had already turned back to his food "Ok, then next time one of you get off the ship and let him take your place."
"I think we've said enough! Let's get back to drinking!"
"Yeah!" They all turned away from the conversation, quick as anything.
"What kind of friends are you!" Lu half growled playfully, before finishing off her juice and wandering away.
"Lu-chan," Benn caught her attention and waved her over as she meandered through the crowd of rambunctious pirates. Benn Beckmann was Shanks' first mate and often seemed to be the only voice of reason on the crew. He also seemed to be the only one that realized that she was a girl. "Lu, try to understand the captain's feelings."
Lu looked up at him, surprised. "Oh, I understand - I'm just too young yet." She replied.
Slightly surprised, he raised an eyebrow and continued, "Then you know that while a pirate's life can be interesting, it is also hard and dangerous. He isn't making fun of your ambitions to be a pirate; he's our leader, and if he can't protect you, or you can't protect yourself, he won't take you along."
"I get that," Lu deadpanned, "but Shanks just seems to like taking me for an idiot."
Shanks snorted behind her, laughter coloring his tone once again, "Can't swim!" He sniggered.
"See!" She pointed at the laughing redhead.
"Captain-san, you seem happy today, as always!" Makino popped out of the back, hauling a new barrel of alcohol with her.
"Yep, making fun of this kid is my only joy!"
Lu kept pointing.
"Well, he does seem happy..." Benn finally trailed off, at a loss over his captain's antics, and returned to puffing on his cigarette.
"Lu-chan, are you ready to eat?" Makino chuckled.
"You bet!" The girl cheered.
Lu immediately dug in, joining Shanks in silence for a time as they both ate.
"Shanks?" The girl eventually asked quietly.
"What is it?"
"How long are you gonna stay here?"
Shanks looked up, a more serious expression on his face at this question. "Well, it's been almost a year since we started using this town as a base..." He seemed to ponder his answer of a moment more before continuing, "I'm planning on only a couple more trips before we start heading further north."
"Oh." This all sounded very familiar - was it that day already? She nearly began to panic, before her [Gamer's Mind] forcibly calmed her down. If things went as she had read a lifetime ago, nothing too bad would happen today. She deliberately turned her thoughts away from the events that were to come, and responded to Shanks' answer. "Well, then I'll just have to learn how to swim before then." She declared.
"Alright then, I'll look forward to it!" The man returned cheerfully, "Goodluck!"
Lu had already looked away by then, trying to suppress the tears gathering in her eyes. She didn't want him to go, but she knew he would regardless. As she turned, a bright light that nobody else seemed to notice caught her eye. Following it, she came to a small chest left abandoned on a side table. Above it, a glowing screen hovered.
[Mysterious Chest]
The words didn't give much of a hint as to what was in the container, but Lu already knew what it was.
A Devil Fruit.
No. Her Devil Fruit.
Slowly, she opened the chest and was greeted by an almost blinding light that soon faded away to reveal a circularly shaped purple fruit, with darker purple spirals etched all over it and a strangely curled stem. Lu recognized it immediately. She quickly used [Observe] on it anyway.
[Gomu Gomu no Mi]
[The Rubber Fruit]
[When eaten, this fruit turns the user's body into rubber. Stretchy and bouncy, the user's body will resist all kinetic force or blunt physical attacks.]
[+ 5 STR
+ 5 DEX
+ 5 VIT
- 2 WIS]
Tough decision - not! She'd already spent months debating the pros and cons of this choice. She was going to eat it. And she did. Quickly biting into the odd fruit, she was immediately struck by just how disgusting it tasted. Swallowing the first bite quickly, she was interrupted by the harsh sound of the door slamming open with a clatter. The bar-room immediately went dead silent, and everyone turned to look at the tall, scruffy man standing in the door.
Unlike the others, Lu's eyes went to the words only she could see hanging over the man's head.
[Higuma]
[Mountain Bandit Leader - Lvl. 7]
She almost snorted in derision. This man was lower in level than her let alone Shanks who, like her Gramps, was so high in level that she couldn't even see the number. She managed to suppress it though, not wanting to draw attention to herself or the fruit she was still eating. She took another bite as the foolish man began to talk.
"Heh~ So this is what pirates look like, huh?" He snorted as he arrogantly scanned the room. "It's the first time I've ever seen a pirate, but they all look pretty dumb to me." He declared.
Lu deadpaned. 'Well, you look pretty dumb to me.' She thought sarcastically.
He casually strolled up to he counter, a dozen or so people following behind him. "We are bandits," he sneered, leering at Makino. "We're not here to cause trouble though," he said, "we just want to buy a dozen barrels of sake."
"I-I'm very sorry," Makino stuttered, starting to sweat, "But we are out of sake."
"Oh~ How strange. What are they all drinking then? Water?" He asked mockingly.
"No, it's sake, but that's all we have." The bartender answered.
"Ah, I'm sorry," Shanks interjected, drawing the bandit's attention from the young woman to himself. "Looks like we must have drank all the sake here!" He smiled, seemingly oblivious as the other man's eyes narrowed. "Here, this must be the last bottle; you can have it."
Shanks handed the glass bottle over to Higuma. Even though Lu knew it would happen, she still winced as the bandit immediately took it with a false smile before smashing the bottle into the side of Shanks' head. Makino gasped, covering her mouth as if to hold in the noise. Shanks wasn't budged an inch by the force of the blow, but his hat, clothes, and the floor around him were covered in sake and shards of glass.
"Just who do you think I am, huh?" Higuma snarled, not even seeming to notice how little Shanks had reacted. "Don't take me so friggin' lightly - one bottle isn't enough!"
"Ahhh~ Now the floor's all wet," Shanks mourned.
Lu turned away as Shanks spoke, now certain that things were going as she remembered, and quickly finished the fruit while Higuma showed off his 8,000,000 belli bounty to a man with one that was probably thirty times that amount at the least, broke another few glasses of alcohol, and insulted the pirates he was surrounded by some more before leaving, seemingly mute lackeys trailing behind.
Makino immediately rushed to the captain's side as the bandits left, "Are you alright, Captain-san? Are you injured?" She hovered over him, fussing in much the same way that she sometimes did over Lu when she came home injured from her training.
"No, I'm fine," he waved her off and chuckled slightly.
As if his response had given them permission, his crew began to laugh too, commenting on how silly the redhead looked covered in glass and sake. Lu sighed at their antics and went over to help Makino begin to clean up the glass.
"Next time, just punch him out, Shanks." The girl said dryly as she crouched beside him.
"It was just a bottle of sake though." He replied cluelessly.
"One that you hadn't paid for yet." Lu said.
He raised a finger as if to protest before pausing. "Ah. You're right." He then turned his eyes on Makino, "Sorry about that."
Finished picking up the worst of the glass now, the girl rose to carefully place the shards in the trash, before turning to leave. Shanks caught her arm and began to speaking before cutting himself off, "Leaving already, Lu-"
"Well, yeah. This entire room stinks of alcohol now, and I -" Lu stopped herself mid sentence as well, and for much the same reason that Shanks was gapping at her now. "Huh?"
It was the oddest feeling in the world - she could actually feel herself stretching. It wasn't painful, just really strange, like using a muscle you didn't realize you had before. Her wrist, still caught in the grip of Shanks' hand was now halfway across the room from the rest of her body. "Whoa..."
The entire population of the bar was gaping too as Shanks finally found his voice again. "His arm...is stretching...?" He almost stuttered.
"WHAT?!"
"No way!"
"That's-"
"IT'S GONE!" Lucky Roo's voice thundered over the shouts of the rest of the crew. "Captain, it's completely gone! The fruit we took from the enemy is gone!"
"What?!" The entire room continued to gape, and then suddenly Lucky Roo was in front of her, a pad of paper with a picture of the fruit she had just eaten drawn on it in hand.
"Lu, did you eat this...?!"
"Uh...yeah?" She played clueless, "It was desert wasn't it? Though, it didn't taste very good."
Shanks released her arm at last and she watched as it snapped back into place with fascination. Then the captain had her by the shoulders, face very serious, "Lu, that was the Gomu Gomu no Mi - a fruit of the devil, and one of the rarest treasures in the world! Whoever eats it will become a rubberman and will never be able to swim again! What were you thinking, you idiot!"
"Oh." The small girl scratched her head. "Is that a bad thing?"
Taken aback by her nonchalance, the crew simmered down and Shanks finally released his grip on her shoulders. "Well, not nessecarily..." He managed to say, "There are plenty of people who have eaten them and been fine, but..."
"Then what's the problem?" She asked, now confused by the overreaction.
"Well," he hesitated, confused by her sheer lack of reaction, "As long as you aren't upset, I suppose it's fine..." But why wasn't she upset by it, was the unstated question.
"Well, it's not like I could swim to begin with, and being a rubber person sounds really cool." She replied and tried stretching her cheeks in the way she could remember Luffy doing in the manga. "Shheee! Ishn't iht neeeaht!" She then released them and let her cheeks snap back into place.
There was a moment of silence, and them a crewmember chimed in, "That was pretty interesting, Captain."
"Yeah."
"Never seen a rubberman, er, kid before."
"Wonder if everything stretches like that - Ouch!"
"Don't say such inappropriate things about a kid then!"
The rest of the crew quickly chimed in as Shanks began to relax. As they grew noisier around them, the man leaned forward again to rest a hand in Lu's messy hair. "You sure you're okay then, kid?"
Lu flushed at the soft tone of voice, but nodded and said, "Yeah!" firmly.
"Alright then," he called out, swinging the girl up onto a shoulder in one swift movement. "Let's celebrate then!" He snatched up a half empty glass of rum with his free hand and raised it up. "To Lu's new power!"
"To Lu's new power!" They all cheered.
Lu laughed as Shanks spun around a few times before setting her back on the ground. And Lu just laughed more as all around them the pirates started partying again as if there had never been an interruption in the first place.
Of course, that wasn't the end of it. The mayor and Makino both worried over her even more after all was said and done, though of course they showed it in different ways. Woop Slap scolded her repeatedly for being so careless, and Makino began to keep a closer eye than ever on her, which made it ever harder to find time to train alone. Unlike the other adults of her acquaintance, instead of worrying over her more, Shanks instead seemed to worry less - though he'd never been very obvious with his worry over her to begin with - and she found herself grateful for that.
Fortunately, despite the lessened training time, she had still had over thirty status point to use from earlier levels, and so her stats were most definitely higher than Higuma's in all respects. When she went to look at her stats that first night after eating the fruit, the expected initial increase in her stats from just eating the fruit was waiting alongside a new addition to her main [Status] screen.
[Status]
[Health Points: 600/600
Energy Points: 550/550
Level: 9
Experience Points: 60/1280]
[STR: 13
DEX: 13
VIT: 13
INT: 12
WIS: 7
LUK: 13]
[Stat Points: 32
Money: 0]
[Permanent Status Effects]
[Rubberman]
[Anchor]
After thinking on it for a moment, she could guess what the [Status Effects] meant, but she then proceeded tap them to see any further details anyway.
[Rubberman]
[Strechy, bouncy, immune to blunt physical attacks, kinetic energy, and all electricity - your body is made of rubber.]
[Anchor]
[Man overboard! Forget about ever swimming again, because the energy of the sea is now your greatest enemy.]
As expected then - she could say a swift goodbye to the prospect of ever learning to swim, and she had a rubber body. Yay, but she'd already known that. The important part was that they were marked as permanent, which made her worry a bit about whether she would still have those effects in her next 'life' as well. But she can put off worrying about that for a long, long while.
Now, what to do with her stats?
Well, she had long since planned to boost her Strength, Dexterity, and Vitality by quite a bit once she ate the fruit, and she had enough to easily push them each above 20 with a decent amount of points left over. And she wanted to keep her Luck and Intelligence stats fairly high as well...
As for Wisdom, it seemed like the world was conspiring to keep that stat as low as possible, but she could spare a couple of points to put it back to where it was before she ate the fruit at the very least.
[Status]
[Health Points: 600/600
Energy Points: 550/550
Level: 9
Experience Points: 99/1280]
[STR: 21
DEX: 21
VIT: 21
INT: 16
WIS: 9
LUK: 15]
[Stat Points: 0
Money: 0]
[Permanent Status Effects]
[Rubberman]
[Anchor]
Satisfied with her now much higher stats, Lu went to sleep that night with a small smile on her face, contented - for now anyway - with how things were progressing.