Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.
It was a misty, plain morning on the Grand Line. The fish were jumping, the sharks were jumping after them, and thee occasionally Sea King jumped after the shark. The bounty of the sea was plentiful for the crew, but not quite enough for the captain. From the lower reaches of the deck, Bard stumbled out onto the main deck with a harpoon in hand.
"Fine!" he shouted. "But I'm not sharing it with you!" IN a huff, he tromped over to the side of the ship and glared down to the water. The waves were normal, with no life stirring in them, which was bad for the hungry captain. "Come on, fish! I'm still hungry!" Suddenly, the water broke with rippling bubbles. Bard threw the harpoon, grabbed the rope tied to it and hauled his catch up. He smiled as he pulled the rope, and Zan came up behind him to see the fruits of his labor.
"How goes it?" Zan asked. Bard hauled up a large, wooden crate with the word 'CURSED' scrawled on its side.
"Not well" Bard said, looking at the box. Zan investigated it while Bard fished and when he finished he joined in with Zan. "What is it?"
"It's a box" Zan explained.
"Ah" Bard grunted, taking a bite of fish to his side. "What's in it?"
"Well, I'm not going to open it if it says 'cursed'" Zan pointed out. "You do it."
"What!?" Bard demanded. "Why me?"
"Because you're the captain" Zan said. "You have to take your crew before yourself." Bard stared blankly at him for a bit.
"Oh, yeah. That's right." Bard agreed. He bent down with his knees and searched for an opening on the bottom, then along the sides, then gave up when he saw how shoddily nailed the crate was on all sides. "Why would they make a box with no opening?"
"It's a mystery" Zan said, blowing smoke at the word on the side.
"Ah, screw it" Bard said, punching a hole in the side of the box. "I'll just tear it open."
"Yeah that's a good idea" Zan said, backing off and preparing to meld down to the lower deck. "Rip open the cursed crate..." Bard, not sensing the dread and sarcasm, ripped apart the crate in one grand motion, throwing his arms out and extending them fully like wings. Inside was dust, dark and thick that sank down to the floor and swept quickly off the boat into the misty morning sea. And the mist left its own remnant, for within the box and under the covered dust was another, smaller box.
"Hey!" Bard exclaimed, bending down and retrieving the smaller box. "It's a box!"
"Amazing" Zan said unamused. He was only waist up on the upper deck, the jolt of the black dust acting as some kind of ghostly force scared him enough to issue a partial retreat. "What's in that one?" Bard used his unnatural strength and ripped the box open, breaking off the tiny lock that was on it. Inside this box was an odly shaped thing.
"It's..." Bard said, drawing it out and holding the treasure up "...a fruit?" A triangular-shaped fruit with many sharp-angled marks on it and a crown of leaves on the shorter end was the reward. Zan cocked his eyebrow and dragged from his cigarette.
"We should call the crew" Zan said "and decide what to do with-Bard, no! STOP!" Zan shouted just soon enough, as Bard was ready to consume the fruit whole with his mouth gaping open. "That's a Devil Fruit!" Bard looked over at him, then down his nose at the fruit, then slowly and carefully drew it back out of his mouth.
"...oh..." Bard said.
Moments later, the crew was assembled at the helm. It was decided that everyone would have a say as to what they would do with the fruit now that they had one. Araly was asked to search through one of the ship's books, a Devil Fruit 'Encyclopedia', to find out which fruit they had in their possession. The morning fog was clearing at last.
"Here it is" Araly announced. "It's called the 'Mask Mask Fruit'...wonder why."
"Let's eat it and find out!" Bard said enthusiastically. Rez drew up his huge gunblade in front of him to prevent him from pouncing out like an animal and devouring the fruit without fore-thought.
"If you eat that" Rez said "then you can't swim."
"Oh" Bard said in disgust. "Who would want to eat it?...present company excluded, Zan"
"No worries" Zan said.
"Hey! I know!" Bard remarked with a stroke of genius. "Zan, you should eat it! Then you'll have TWO powers!"
"You idiot" Zan dejected, leaving Bard to weep. "If someone who ate a Devil Fruit eats another one, their body explodes. A human body can only handle one of these things at a time." Bard looked down at the floor, then picked the fruit up and wordlessly offered it to Rez.
"Hell no!" Rez shouted.
"Why not!?" one of the pirates shouted back. "This thing could be some sort of immortality fruit!"
"Then it's the last thing I want!" Rez shouted back. "No Devil Fruits for me! I don't want an unnecessary power that I won't use..." Bard put a hand to his chin and thought for a second, then offered it to Araly. She just hit him with the book.
"Oh, here's the description" Bard said, the book draped over his face. He took it in one hand and the fruit in the other. "It says that the fruit enables its user to generate masks that can manipulate mood and add miscellaneous powers based on the mask used, including levitation, fire-breathing, ice-breathing and general face protection. The masks can stimulate emotions in anyone who looks at them and are triggered by whoever wears them..." Bard cocked his head to the side.
"That's interesting" Zan said. He stole the fruit and held it with the tips of his fingers. "You know, I'm sure there are other people in the world who would want power like this..."
"Yes!" Bard said. "We'll send it as a present to some less fortunate pirates!"
"WRONG!" Rez roared, slamming him with the blunt end of his cannon-sword. The two boys scuffled while the other pirates decided amongst themselves.
"It could fetch a hefty price" Marco said. "I heard if you can sell a powerful enough fruit you never have to worry about money again."
"They say if you can find 'Black-Kunckled Bart's ' treasure you don't have to worry about money again" another pirate added.
"It could be dangerous" Zan noted. "The Black Market that takes these things is full of scammers and thugs. We could easily get killed if someone found out we were holding a Devil Fruit. We'd have to sell it at the first opportunity."
"So we could get a bum deal" Marc analyzed "or we could wait and possibly get killed."
"The market is a scary thing" Zan said.
"BORING!" Bard shouted, kicking Rez out of scene as he jumped back in. He swiped the fruit and held it up high, since only a few pirates on his crew could reach up and grab it now. "We'll have a martial-arts tournament."
"NO!" Everyone shouted.
"Seriously" Zan said, grabbing the fruit again "what is it with you and tournaments?"
"They're fun!" Bard exclaimed.
"Fun doesn't win wars or money" Zan chided.
"Let's just get rid of it!" Rez suggested. "If it came in a 'cursed' box, it obviously won't be worth the trouble..." The pirates seriously considered his proposal, since it made the most sense.
"Oh, come on!" Araly huffed. "You guys don't really believe in a silly curse, just because it was on a box!?" The pirates avoided looking at her, with no way of justifying themselves to her. "Oh, COME ON! You guys are supposed to be hardcore, maniac blood-spilling pirates! How can you be afraid of an unproven, un-biased curse!?"
"This is the Grand Line, missy" Marco said. "We were just recently attacked by a monster that could have swallowed our whole giant ship's hull in a few gulps! Curses aren't as far-fetched as you think around here..."
"Indeed" Zan affirmed, nodding his head. Bard plucked the fruit once more.
"Alright, final decision!" Bar announced. "Who wants to eat it!?" No one raised their hands, seeing as no one wanted the burden of responsibility that came with having so much power in a war against everybody they met. "Okay, who wants to sell it?" Only a few pirates raised their hands, a staggering minority. Araly raised her hand, of course.
"Okay then..." Bard said. He paced over to the edge of the deck, pulled up a cannon and stuffed the fruit inside. Everyone froze with horrified looks. "Bye bye, Mask Fruit. I hope you find a better owner across the sea..." and then he lit it. By the time everyone rushed over to stop him, it was to late. The fruit sailed through the air, a trail of smoke, and then it hit the water. Everyone looked with terrible expressions while Bard waved, smiling, as if seeing off an old friend.
"You guys are jack-asses!" Bard grumbled loudly. While his crew worked about on the ship, Bard was forced to fish for the duration of their trek to the next island as punishment for his brash and stupid ejection of the Devil Fruit. They all hoped that they could, by chance, recover the fruit as he fished, but it didn't seem that the pile of fish he had already accumulated was going to produce fruit anytime soon. "I'm the captain here, and we did it fair! You all decided to-"
"Not out of a cannon!" Marco shouted.
"It may not even exist anymore" another pirate lamented. The immediate regret of not holding it to sell gripped everyone tightly, except Bard, who wanted to see how it would work.
"Stupid ocean" he said, looking down. A school of fish in the water kept bobbing up and down around Bard's line, desperately trying to hook the discarded Devil Fruit on Bard's hook so they wouldn't have to suffer any potential curse. "I told you, I don't want it!" he harshly whispered.
