Quirks? Do you eat those too?

by nashandra

A self-insert lands in the MHA world, only to think she's in the One Piece one. She proceeds to bring the latter's insanity to the former by copious amounts of Devil Fruit jailbreaking. Watch as the Copy Woman turns logic upside down and makes you question everything you knew, or her name isn't D (it isn't, she just calls herself one).

10. Vigilantes Arc End: Souls, Devil Fruits

Chapter 010 Part 1:
Souls, Devil Fruits and Secrets
(or D dares to dream)

"Are we really just going to continue like nothing happened?" Pop Step asked from the table, eating a new pudding. "I mean, we did that whole song and dance literally five minutes ago."

"And who's eating dessert right now?" D fired back, trying and failing to copy inanimate objects into another. "I'm just continuing what we were doing before."

She sent a dirty look at the cutlery; forks, spoons and knives refusing to change into each other. D wanted to not end up naked every time she copied an appearance, so either incredibly baggy clothing with multiple layers that could expand when she transformed or managing to copy clothing were her options at the moment. And she was dirt poor, so in reality she only had one.

"I'm still a little disappointed that I didn't get to experience Leap." Koichi commented while making dinner with a cute fluffy apron on. "Do you think you could eventually give Quirks to other people? Also, don't ruin your appetite too much, Pop Step."

The idol grumbled a little, but she stored the second pudding she was planning to eat for later. D tore her attention away from the metallic instruments and considered the question, before giving her theory.

"I don't think so." She began, frowning. "When I became a Leap Woman… that doesn't sound too good… Bouncy? Yeah, when I became a Bouncy Woman, I couldn't use my Copy-Copy Fruit at all, it was like a distant thing that I couldn't reach. I could uncopy just fine, but copying new things just wasn't possible. Normally, two Devil Fruits Abilities can't exist in the same body and forcing it to happen often leads to death. I think I can copy powers exclusively because of my particular ability, while everybody else's… souls are too rigid. Their Devil Fruits forever changed their make-up in a fundamental level down to the core of their being, and every ability is a unique characteristic of the soul that can't coexist with another. That's probably why my Copy-Copy Fruit turns off when copying other powers, my soul can't handle the strain of two active simultaneous ones." She looked up to the ceiling, deep in thought. "…I think I could give powers to people without them, but I could also accidently kill them by messing up a little detail, or because everybody has dormant powers waiting for the right circumstances to awaken… It's just too risky."

Koichi and Pop Step stopped in their tracks and contemplated how D could possibly eliminate the entire Quirkless population by giving them powers of their own. And somewhere, Knuckleduster gave his earpiece a curious look before discarding the possibility as a pipe dream.

"I really wanted to rearrange everyone's power so they could have what they dreamed, but I guess the soul is too complex for that." She shrugged, a little disappointed in herself.

"Huh." The teenager gave the little girl an impressed look at her unattainable goal. "That would have been nice… except you would have probably asked for an arm and a leg in exchange, or pulled out at the last second of the deal despite making a promise you would help."

D groaned, though she ignored the end of Kazuho's sentence.

"I didn't even realize…! I'm such a shit pirate, I could have robbed the rich blind…!" she berated herself. "Free?! Why was I about to do something for free when I could tax the rich for all they're worth and then do it to everyone else for free?! Stupid! Channel your inner Nami, D! You have no money!"

The Vigilantes looked at the ranting girl and suddenly saw her in a new light. She was planning to do it for free? That was… heroic, in a way, helping people get what they wanted. Though if any of them had pointed it out, D would have claimed she was actually a pirate satisfying a whim. So Koichi simply chose to make sure dinner was extra tasty today, and Pop Step decided that maybe their… sisterhood? Nakamradery? …maybe whatever they had wouldn't be a hot mess all the time.

"Still, why are you so sure souls are real and related to Quirks?" Pop Step asked, curious at the strange mind of her supposed captain, trying to understand her better.

"What? Of course they are real, how else would the Soul-Soul Fruit allow their user to rip them out and eat them to extend their lifespan or create new life? Charlotte Linlin is a bloodthirsty maniac who I hope to never see again." she answered, honestly perplexed at them not believing in souls. She realized her mistake when both of her friends froze up in horror. Shit. "Okay, I need you to calm down-!"

"Calm down?!" Pop Step screamed back. "You just said souls are real, and that you met someone who can eat them!"

D was happy for a second there at Pop Step believing she was telling the truth despite how out-there it was from her perspective. The True Man still struggled accepting what she said despite knowing it was true, so seeing her new crewmember accept it without question was nice, despite the circumstances. Koichi was in denial, but that was the first step to reach acceptance so she didn't hold it against him. Then she came down for damage control.

"Don't be afraid! Literally!" D managed to get out under Pop Step's shouts of her soul being off-limits. "She can't rip it out unless you're afraid of her!"

"How am I supposed to not be afraid?!" Pop Step asked and yeah, that was a good question.

"If you're not afraid, then you have nothing to be afraid of! But if you're afraid, then you should be afraid! So don't, and it will be alright!" she explained in a demonstration of circular logic.

That did nothing to calm her down, and D considered a surprise hug to overwhelm her with emotions until she reset back to nothing before discarding it as too risky. So, she explained more nonsense to her so she would forget that fact.

"Look, I'm not even sure a Soul Human exists yet! I died in another world and was transferred to this one! That's why I'm mentally seventeen but in a four-year-old body! I know the future because this world was a fictional story back in my Earth, or Oda had visions beyond his universe, or was originally from this one far in the future, or he truly was the Oda God! But I haven't seen a Devil Fruit in ages and you all call your abilities Quirks, so the Soul-Soul Fruit could not even exist yet! There's (possibly) nothing to be afraid of!"

Pop Step was visibly reeling from all the information she was dumping in her head but she was still scared, even if incredulity and confusion were slowly winning out. D kept going.

"This backwater Honshu Island is but a small section of the whole wide world! Out there is the World Government or its predecessor, who will eventually reign supreme! There are giants and fish-men and so many more species that are just born that way and can get additional special powers! There are islands made of fire and lighting, perpetual winters and summers! Islands that defy gravity, that are on top of a turtle or an elephant, or are underwater! The sky is the White Sea, where even more islands dot its waters! This tiny rock you call an island is nothing to the Red Line, a wall of earth that wraps around the planet! And our civilization is nothing to the people who live on the Moon and solar system out in space!"

Pop Step's incredulity fully won out the competition as she stared.

"So don't worry about a Soul Human! Unless they travel to this island, you will never see them! The East Blue is but a small, weak part of the Blue Seas! Paradise and the New World are more likely to have them, if the power even exists yet! I-"

The idol put her hand over the girl's mouth and shook her head robotically. She compartmentalized and concentrated on the details.

"D… ignoring everything you said, have you ever seen a map of the world?"

"No? There isn't one?" she answered puzzled, aware of Nami's dream to map the world.

Koichi frantically rummaged through his desks, already understanding where Pop Step was going. He finally found what he was looking for, a piece of paper that he presented to her. She took it and… it was a map of her Earth. Sure, some lines were different and names changed or disappeared, especially in Europe, but it looked similar enough.

"How many planets are there?" D asked while processing the new information she was being fed.

"Eight."

"…" So that was the secret of the Void Century… "…The world… isn't flooded yet… and there are still eight planets…"

In retrospect, it made sense. How could the World Government hide an entire century on their own? It was much easier to simply take the reins of a world after it collapsed due to an unprecedented natural disaster in magnitudes never seen before, and while struggling nobody recorded what was happening. They then rewrote the records to say they were always in charge to cement their position and nobody could challenge that claim because everything was destroyed underwater. And somehow, the other planet's species got involved and some of their planets were also destroyed, their mass adding to Earth to allow the bigger planet of One Piece to exist.

"Wow… No wonder All Might is the number 1 hero of Japan. I thought it was simply the old name of Wano Country or something, but it really is Japan… and Honshu Island is part of Japan."

D wondered how someone could even go about flooding the world, before realizing someone's notes on her already held the answer. Two words, written across documents she wasn't meant to see but managed to spy by copying the detective's appearance. It was funny how he tried to rationalize her knowledge, believing her to be part of a cult while unaware of that being the case. There were a lot of words she didn't understand, like All for One or Quirk Factor, but one came to mind.

"The Quirk Singularity… will change everything as we know it." She breathed out as the puzzle pieces fit together to form a terrifying picture… before D quickly decided she didn't care about it. "Eh, as long as we don't have space colonies to explain the humanoid-aliens-that-may-simply-be humans Lunarians, the world won't end just yet. We probably won't live to see it, so there's nothing to worry about."

D shrugged, uncaring of what happened a hundred years from now unless she managed to time travel. She was a single person and couldn't alter the course of the world without serious effort, so why worry about it? This world would eventually become the one of One Piece as she knew it and, while most of Earth's population would probably die in the process, it was out of her hands. D couldn't stop basic biology from happening and evolving Quirks. Maybe Haki became a universal Quirk, replacing everything else? Still, she was in the middle of something.

"So, as I was saying, the Soul-Soul Fruit-" D continued their dropped topic before being interrupted again.

"DON'T JUST DROP THAT BOMB AND CONTINUE AS IF NOTHING HAPPENED!" Pop Step shouted in her face while tugging her ear, hard. "ALTERNATE UNIVERSES?! FUTURE KNOWLEDGE?! THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT?!"

"Do you want it written down to make sure you didn't miss anything?" D asked, half mockingly and half seriously offering to do so. D had said a lot of things, after all.

The pink demon returned and she was suddenly struggling to breathe because its hands wrapped around her neck and squeezed, which was really unproductive towards letting her explain further. Koichi agreed and grabbed it before separating the two.

"I don't see the big deal." D managed between coughs from the floor. "There are still decades, if not centuries before it probably happens."

"You are from a different universe!" Pop Step shouted while struggling to escape the hold. "You saw the future! How can you say stuff like that with a straight face, even if you believe it to be true?!"

"I think Tsukauchi's warnings of her being insane are more likely…" Koichi corrected.

Pop Step suddenly stilled, before slumping in defeat, all energy leaving her body.

"Oh… I… forgot about that little tidbit…" she said while fidgeting.

"Well, now that's just rude." D complained while crossing her arms. "Why does nobody ever believe me?"

"You know, if you had proof to accompany your wild claims maybe people would treat you seriously." Koichi informed her, which… was exactly what she should do!

"Koichi you stupid genius!" she exclaimed before running towards the fridge and rummaging for the perfect evidence.

In the end, she found her irrefutable proof and presented it to them, proud and a little excited to have finally thought about it.

"…Those are a pair of cherries." Pop Step deadpanned.

"Hididi, that's where you're wrong! For you see, if I just do this…!"

She concentrated on the cherries as she tried to do what should have been impossible. In theory, there was only one Devil Fruit in existence at all times if uneaten. However, SMILE proved that they could be artificially created, and Green Blood proved you could copy existing Devil Fruits. So, by copying her Copy powers into a fruit, in theory it should create a Copy-Copy Fruit.

She said 'in theory' because, well, she wasn't exactly succeeding. She tried to copy anything into the cherries, but just like the cutlery, she wasn't succeeding. She tried harder, thinking back to how it felt to copy other people's powers and trying to do it in reverse. However, she had no idea how to actually do such a thing and the cherries remained red.

She glared at the cherries she had picked specifically because they were a pair, thinking it appropriate that the Copy-Copy Fruit should be two identical fruits. It fit the power, but apparently the cherries had something better to do than housing her abilities.

"Huh, was something supposed to happen?" Koichi asked, but D ignored him.

"C´mon, become a Devil Fruit already…"

Just to make sure, she touched Koichi and the cherries at the same time and tried to copy his Repel-Repel Fruit into them instead of herself. By remembering how she touched Pop Step to transform Koichi into her, she tried to touch Slide and Glide to transform the cherries into a Devil Fruit.

"Even a Repel-Repel Fruit is fine…" she said while sweating at the exertion, her Copy powers tiring her yet achieving nothing.

Eventually, she gave up that avenue and sat on a chair while staring at the fruit, deep in thought. Koichi and Kazuho were talking but she didn't hear them.

Why didn't it work? Was she completely unable to copy abilities into other people, only being able to copy them into herself? But why could she transform others then? Why was there such an arbitrary distinction between Devil Fruits and everything else? She thought it would work because the fruit definitely didn't have an ability like her experiments with Koichi and she thought it was a failsafe so she didn't accidently kill other people. Was it a problem of the fruit being inanimate like the cutlery then? Could she never copy inanimate objects, period? But the fruit was alive, it wasn't artificial. Shouldn't she be able to copy plants and animals? She hadn't tried it, but D thought she should be able to.

"Why don't you want to become a Copy-Copy Fruit?" she asked it, yet received no answer.

Slowly, ever so slowly, a terrifying thought crept into her mind as she continued to fail. One that she didn't want to believe, but was worming into the forefront of her mind and refused to go away with every failed attempt. Something she had subconsciously denied until now yet could no longer do so with the evidence right in front of her.

Maybe… maybe this wasn't the One Piece world after all.

She didn't want to believe it, but now the doubt was present and eating at her thoughts. Quirks were different from Devil Fruits in so many ways, the planet was an alternate Earth instead of an original world like in One Piece, there were Heroes and Villains instead of Pirates and Marines. There were so many inconsistencies that couldn't simply be waved away with 'it's the Void Century.'

So what if it was true? What if she had been wrong all along?

"Please… just change already…" she begged the fruit to no avail.

This was all wrong! She was supposed to be in a land where dreams come true, where imagination runs wild and every corner hides a new wonder to discover! It was supposed to be a world where she could finally achieve her dream, a world so fundamentally different from hers that it would allow her that small mercy!

Because otherwise she would have to face reality. This world followed strict rules, no natural wonders or adventures to be had. Dreams didn't come true as Koichi attested, crushed under an uncaring society. Deviating from the norm or standing out was wrong, just like in her previous life. They were letting her play around with her power now, but eventually she would have to face the consequences of her actions when she was told to grow up. She had learnt so much about how wrong this world was yet she chose to ignore it until now.

"W-why w-won't you change…?" she pleaded as her voice cracked.

She still remembered her previous life. She tried to force the memories back but they still came.

A monotone life of grays, barely brightened by a small manga and an acting hobby before it came back to the boring grind of studies and solitude.

A lonely life, no family to speak of and friends that were more like people she sometimes shared a space with, no true connections besides the one because she was called too immature for them.

A sad life, where her simple childhood dreams of being happy couldn't be achieved despite how much she tried, until… he… she gave up.

A short life, ended too soon, just as she was slowly accepting the reality of it and becoming resigned and jaded.

"W-why… my… my dream…"

She was supposed to be a D. now. And D's were supposed to be happy and free. They were supposed to make everything better, lift up everyone they encountered and defeat whoever put others down. They were dream chasers, they carried a Will that spanned almost a millennium of history. They…

…She wasn't a D. She was a random person who tried to be one. They were honest above all, yet she managed to somehow lie to herself into a delusion as she tried to be happy for once. When they were sad they were proud to be sad and didn't let it bring them down for long, while she broke down with just so little. They chased dreams, but dreams didn't come true in the real world. They carried a Will that didn't truly exist, an invention from the imagination of some writer for a children's manga.

"Luffy… Joy Boy… anyone, please… Please-just… please help me…" D… no, a nameless girl asked from the bottom of her heart. "Show me a sign…"

A sign of her being right. Something that told her everything would be alright. Anything that would stop the overwhelming pressure in her chest or the tears that were running down her face. She couldn't see, couldn't breathe, everything was spinning in place and she wanted to vomit but she still held onto that hope. She still tried to turn the cherries into something more, yet nothing happened.

…she couldn't do it…

…she was wrong…

…she…

The girl felt hollow as she stopped touching the berries, no longer holding back her crying. But at the same time she didn't sob or make any noises, she just sat there while tears ran down her face as she froze in place. She couldn't even muster the energy to hug her legs and wail, she was just… empty inside, no longer able to do anything.

It took a long time for the little girl to realize how a hand was rubbing circles in her back while she sobbed. Reluctantly and with great effort, she slowly looked up and saw Pop Step giving her a sad smile. She did not say or ask anything, just offering comfort in silence, which just made it so much worse. Like she was consoling her for the death of her dream, which she knew beforehand but didn't tell her about it. Why was she smiling like tha-

The kid's thoughts were interrupted as Pop Step realized she looked up, which prompted the woman to take her pink choker off with her free hand and wrap it around the child's neck, adjusting it so it fit comfortably. At her blank look of confusion, Kazuho beamed with a hint of shyness and explained.

"Ever since I worked to achieve my dream of being an idol, I wore that choker… or a bow, because I didn't want to dirty it as a kid, haka." She added with a small chuckle.

She looked at the idol while touching the thin piece of cloth and noticed how worn it was, rough against her skin and stitches sticking out. She wore it for so long, yet she always fixed it despite being able to get a new, better one because… It… It was her dream, made manifest. As long as she wore it, she would continue to work towards making her dream a reality. It was proof of dreams being worth pursuing, a reassurance of her resolve. While this small black and pink choker with a little ribbon was worn, Kazuho could believe in herself… and she just gave it to her.

Without words saying it, she understood. And distantly, the girl thought of a small, old straw hat. First given to a young boy by an older man believing in his dream, and later on lent to a young distraught woman as a sign of everything being alright.

She looked up to… her Nakama, her Musician, her Crewmember. A fellow dream chaser who had lived in this realistic world yet still believed that dreams were worth pursuing, that they could still become reality. And… her resolve slowly returned.

Even if she wasn't in the correct world… Even if this society was as strict as the last… Even if everybody else thought her wrong… Kazuho still had her back. Maybe she didn't fully understand her grief, but she was still there for her, telling her it would all end well.

And Kazuho was right. She just had to take her life into her own two hands and change the odds to her favor. She would cheat, trick and sucker punch this world into a better one, one that allowed dreams to become true. Because even if she was stranded in an unknown land, she was still a pirate at heart, and pirates didn't give up so easily, less of all one that carried the will of D.

"Thank you…" the girl managed to say between tears.

"Hey, I'm your Nakama!" Pop Step remarked, before giving her a kiss on the forehead. "Our happiness matters." She reminded her.

…Yes, it did.

It didn't really matter if she was in the One Piece world or not. After all, her dream could still come true if she tried hard enough.

D cleaned her face with one hand and took the small cherries into the other, playing with them and slowly coming to accept her failure, though a new wave of misery hit her as she realized something else.

"…You know?" she asked, getting her Nakama's attention. "Despite only wanting them as proof before, I'm still sad that it didn't work. If I had managed to make them into a Copy-Copy Fruit I could have shared it with someone who wanted the power, who imagined being able to do so much more… it's a shame that their dream won't come true…"

So, without really expecting anything, she tried one more time, if only for that hypothetical person's happiness. She thought of how she copied Toshinori's Quirk to test if it really did nothing, which apparently could be passed down, and tried to imagine how it would feel to do so while still retaining the original. It still didn't work, but she had expected it, so she let her thoughts wander instead.

Somewhere, D thought, someone was crying into the night as she had just done because their dreams were impossible. And like Kazuho, D wanted to bring happiness to that person too. She wanted them to give her a big smile and laugh alongside her, as they chased their dreams together.

She could practically hear their laughter as they received the Devil Fruit, a sound of pure joy and freedom, only to choke at the horrible taste. They would berate her, only to accidently use their newfound ability and fall into shock. Then their laughter would come back tenfold, and they would cry as the impossible became possible, testing out their powers in every way they could, hugging and shaking everyone to experiment and enjoy.

It was a nice dream. She wished she could make it a reality, even if she knew it couldn't happen. This wasn't the One Piece world after all and she was neither Vegapunk, ready to clone and understand Devil Fruits so intrinsically to reproduce them, or whoever actually made them in the first place, possibly Joy Boy. How would you even go about creating one anyway, dreaming very hard? They were dreams made manifest, after all, but there was probably a step she was missing, like gathering the dreams of everyone and consolidating it in a single vessel, but how would you go about it? Would it even work in this different setting?

Still, if she was one of those people and managed to do it, there would be infinite possibilities for this unknown world. So much happiness to spread, so much chaos to cause, so much sweets to taste, so many adventures to be had, so many fights to look forward to, so much freedom… She couldn't help but let her imagination run wild, lost in her own mind of impossibilities.

The reincarnated girl dreamt of giants, trees, beasts and waves that towered over her, yet she still challenged them for what felt like years. She saw visions of a small yet older child who had nowhere to go, standing defiant against the entire world alone and wished to comfort them, give them safety. She felt nature coursing through her veins, an inexplicable feeling she couldn't explain in more fitting words. It was as if she had become a Buddha, her mind telling her of her uncountable arms reaching for the sky… no, not arms… petals, perhaps?

The strange feelings made her bubble up a laughter, loud and free. She was imagining nonsense, but it felt so right she couldn't help herself. At that moment, she couldn't care less about anything but her fantasies, so she forgot about this world and its hardships. Instead, she let her happiness course through her, creating new scenarios in her head to enjoy.

…And slowly, ever so slowly, the red cherries turned pink and developed swirling patterns.

D, who was for some reason in a lotus pose and with a smile frozen in place, stared.

Pop Step, who stopped rubbing circles on D's back after the strange girl began meditating, stared.

The Crawler, who had been about to prepare a dessert to make D feel better, stared.

Knuckleduster, who had his hand on his earpiece and heard the sudden silence, stared.

True Man, who was looking over his notes of D and trying to make sense of her insanity, stared.

All Might, who was falling asleep beside Naomasa while trying to find any leads into Devil Fruit experiments by All for One, stared.

Dr. Garaki, who was currently trying to copy a Quirk Factor for their Nomu project and failing, stared.

Joy Boy, who in theory shouldn't even exist in this world yet was somehow allowed to witness such an event, stared.

…D, with a trembling hand, gently put down the Copy-Copy Fruit on the table and continued to stare at it. She blinked, rubbed her eyes and pinched her cheek, yet the Devil Fruit remained. At a glacial pace, the world stopped staring and finally reacted.

"Hidi…"

"Why is it purple now?! Why does it have swirl patterns?!" Kazuho shouted, slowly realizing the truth yet refusing to believe it.

"Hidididi…"

"What just happened? What did you just do?" Koichi asked while looking at the fruit, perplexed at the change and not understanding the implications.

"Hidididididi…"

"Why are you laughing so creepily, you brat…" Oguro said to himself, a feeling of foreboding running down his spine that he hadn't felt since he ran into that man who defied logic and common sense.

"Hidididididididi…!"

"I think that Devil Fruits may not be real after all, no matter how much I try I can't find any reference to them at all." Naomasa told his friend while sipping his coffee, glad that he had solved another mystery.

"Hidididididididididi…!"

"Ah, what? …Oh, you really think so? That's a relief, if they were real they would cause so much chaos…" Toshinori muttered while he woke up from his unintended nap, relieved at hearing the news.

"Hidididididididididididi…!"

"I know I can create copies, I'm a genius and worked for decades to achieve it after all, so why is this particular one resisting so much?" Kyudai complained at a particularly difficult Quirk which refused to be cloned despite him dedicating most of his entire life to this project.

"Hidididididididididididididi…!"

"…Huh? Did you see that too, Usopp? I felt my Observation Haki flare up, but I'm not sure of what I saw… It felt like-wait, dinner's ready?! ME FIRST!" Luffy screamed as he ran towards the meat, completely forgetting the strange occurrence.

"HidididididididididididididiDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDI!" D bellowed out, unable to contain herself any longer.

It took D more than five minutes to stop laughing. As soon as she did, she grabbed the Devil Fruit and looked at it from every angle, watching the new yet familiar sight and enjoying every second of it. She memorized the very specific shade of pink it had and counted how many swirls there were, cackling all the while. She went so far as to lick it, the most horrible taste she ever had the disgrace of knowing paling in comparison to it, yet not even that could bring down her mood or wipe the grin off her face. She even considered eating it to see if she would explode for having two of the same Devil Fruit, before she straightened her back and smiled at Pop Step.

"This!" she shouted while putting the Copy-Copy Fruit right into her face. "Is proof! I was right! And you're wrong! Suck it!"

D threw her arms into the air and basked in the moment, all doubts and worries leaving her body in an instant as she screamed what she wanted to scream since she arrived, the words she never said because of unknown doubts finally being shouted for everyone to hear.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY LUFFY, BECAUSE I'M THE ONE WHO WILL BECOME KING OF THE PIRATES OR MY NAME ISN'T MIMIC D. INABA! SET SAIL FOR ONE PIECE!"

…Maybe dreams could really come true.

Chapter 010 Part 2:
?-?

They had been quite happy with their new lives for their own reasons. A kid believed that this was far easier than the gruesome trek that had been being forced to train to survive the Marines looking for the few remaining strays, and an adult believed this to be a chance at redemption for past sins that no one knew about, for killing people who didn't deserve death. So, they kept their secrets and didn't talk about memories that didn't make sense to anyone but them, both coming from the same world yet not having met due to their secrecy.

…Until a chill ran up their spines and they were confronted with a feeling they both knew quite well. An electric feeling that brought both fear and excitement for what was to come, the familiar rush everyone in the world had felt when a certain man had spoken his final words before his death. Despite not hearing anything, they just knew, the air had changed and there was either a lightness or a rock forming in their stomachs.

A new age was coming, and they weren't sure what it meant.

"No way…" the child nearing adolescence uttered, refusing to believe this was happening and having abandoned hope long ago. "It can't be… But who else…? Captain?" The kid uttered with fragility, before tears ran down and, with a shaky voice, continued. "Or is it… No… Did you…" Snot ran down and ruined the homework, but the adult trapped in a child's body couldn't care less, the question needing to be asked despite how much it hurt. "Did you d-d… …decide to finally become King of the Pirates? Did you achieve our dreams, so now you visit me in the afterlife to tell me the good news?" …However, as was usual for this person, sadness and vulnerability quickly turned to anger. "You better have! I don't care what Rayleigh's said about adventure and mystery, I want to hear all about Raftel and what happened since I died!"

"…Gold Roger…" The man said to himself, ignoring the strange looks his family was sending him as they hadn't felt the world shaking from the beginning of a new era. "Or, perhaps not… But who els-" he tried to think, before the answer came to him in a flash while his eyes went wide in realization. "Oh… Of course… If it's not him, then… I guess I can't really escape my ghosts anymore, can I?" He got up from the table and looked outside the window, towards the star-filled night sky. "I guess I deserve it, don't I? If… If it makes you feel better…" he struggled to get the words out, despite having practiced them for the moment he died and was forced to face his sins. "…I am sorry for causing your death, Ace."

So, both people prepared for the wave of chaos that would soon follow. One in hopeful happiness, and the other in resigned sorrow. The world wasn't prepared for it, yet they both knew it was inevitable.

A new golden era of piracy was beginning.

…They just hoped their guess about who caused it was right.

Chapter 010 Part 3:
Pirate Rapping is serious-serious business
(or her captain is an indecisive dumbass with the naming sense of a literal child)

"YO! Ya-yo, ya-yo!" D began with a tune, making Koichi's already dumbfounded face go even dumber.

"Dreamin'! Don't give it up, Ina!" she sang while pointing at herself.

"Dreamin'! Don't give it up, Pop Step!" Kazuho was unprepared for the hug.

"Dreamin'! Don't give it up, Crawler!" Koichi was too.

"Dreamin'! Don't give it, give it up, give it up, give it up, give it up, give it up, give it up, give it up-NO!" D shouted to everyone and everything, so much raw emotion in that single negative, as if being pushed down by the entire world and somehow pushing back. All that hatred, vitriol and fury unleashed in a single statement of refusal, Pop Step was shocked that the little girl could compact so many feelings in a word and she almost fell on her butt from reeling back in surprise.

D maintained her anger for a moment, before she began to dance to her own song in happiness again. While Kazuho was interested in the lyrics or that… outburst, she couldn't help but continue to look at the Copy-Copy Fruit on the table.

D… had just created a way to clone Quirks, hadn't she? No… she had just created a way to clone Devil Fruit abilities, because what she was staring at certainly matched the descriptions she had been given before on that night they talked about nonsense while staring at the signed hoodie. Mechanically, Pop Step raised her hand as she remembered all the insanity that D had spewed and before horror could overtake her, she slapped herself.

Kazuho, right at that very moment, decided that unless it directly affected her or she needed the information, she would just listen with one ear to whatever D said and let it go out the other, because if Devil Fruits were true, was the apocalypse and downfall of society also true? So, as long as she didn't need the knowledge, she would delete it after hearing it unless directly proven like the Quirk giving fruit in front of her eyes.

"What… what just happened?" Koichi repeated himself, because there was no better way to convey his sheer confusion. "What did she just do?" he questioned, mystified at the pink and swirly cherries.

"Her name is Ina! (That's Mimic Di Naba!) Gonna be King of the Pirates!" the girl sang in the background as he tried to process it all.

"Hey, can't you stick with a name?!" Pop Step shouted, deciding that concentrating on something else would do wonders for her mental health.

"Eh, what do you mean?"

"You just called yourself D, Inaba, Ina, Di and Naba in the last two minutes! Just pick one already!" …Well, maybe it wouldn't be good for her mental health, but it would be less worse than the former topic.

"Mmh… I got accustomed to D, so if you want to keep using it, it's fine. I think I like Dina though…" Dina said while rubbing her chin in thought.

"That's literally the only combination you didn't say, D." Pop Step deadpanned.

"Not true, I still didn't say Dinaba… Actually, I like that one best besides D, so either of them is fine." Dinaba decided while nodding to herself. "Sounds dynamic, has that certain uniqueness to it that differentiates it from the real Inaba I took the name from."

"You just stole your first name… And Mimic? Seriously? Couldn't think of anything better?" Kazuho judged in disbelief with a hand on her hip and an eyebrow raised while Koichi gaped at them for moving on so fast from everything that just happened in the last five minutes.

"Well, I thought of Chameleon because it's an animal, but I wanted my surname to be two syllables, and Mimic still fits since there are Mimic Octopuses."

"I don't know, sounds like a stretch to me." the idol dismissed, though her eyebrow was twitching at her captain's… unconventional requirements for a name.

"Oh, think you can do better?" Dinaba challenged.

"Oh, absolutely." Kazuho then proceeded to take out her phone and type chameleon on a translator before cycling through all languages.

"Hey, that's cheating!" the girl complained while trying to swipe the device. "I came up with this name all on my own, you can't just search the answer!"

"I can and I will." Pop Step said while dancing around D's little body, knowing that the moment she managed to touch the idol she would grow in size and possibly be naked again, which no thanks. "Let's see… The Greek of chameleon is 'chamailéontas,' so you could be Chamai D Léontas, or the Latin version, Chamae D Leontis, a way better name than Mimic."

"That sounds really cool but it's also a boy's name!" Léontas said while puffing out her cheeks.

"Yeah, I can see your point. So… how about… in Singhalese, Cæmē D Liyan, so exotic that I don't even know where it's from."

Liyan stared in confusion, pausing on her attacks to just think about it.

"How… how do you even pronounce that surname?"

"Hakahaka! Beats me, even I don't know how I said it, it's almost like I wrote it instead!" Pop Step shrugged while The Crawler slowly backed away, afraid that D's insanity was contagious. "Do you think the Gaztelania's Kame D Leoia fits you?"

"Wow, were you trying to fit all the vocals in that name?" Leoia asked, not even trying to stop Kazuho anymore and simply enjoying the banter.

"Hey, blame the translator. I personally like Hawai D Niya, provided by the Hausa language."

"But that sounds more like Hawaii than Chameleon!" Niya whined, deeming it the worst of the bunch at what they were trying to accomplish.

"Well… there aren't a lot of good translations that can still be recognized as chameleon while being different from it." the woman said, scrolling through the list and not seeing any that felt right. "So, will you give up that weird surname for one of those? I think Chamai D. Inaba would suit you best."

"No! Why are you so against it?!" D asked, aghast at the lip service that her Musician was giving her.

"Because you can't just have an English word as your surname." she explained to the literal child who didn't know better, mental age be damned.

Right now, Pop Step was feeling like a mother trying to explain to her daughter why she couldn't dress up in her Dracula costume outside of Halloween, which was much more stressful than she thought possible. She wanted to apologize to her mom for going out in her younger Pop Step costume, except she didn't even know she had done it, so she apologized to God for forcing him to watch such an embarrassing sight instead.

"I totally can! The Monkey surname is from a well-respected family, with members such as Garp, Dragon and Luffy!"

Pop Step was about to retort, only to stop and blink as she heard the names.

"…One of those isn't like the others." She couldn't help but observe. "But still, there's gotta be something better than Mimic. At least cut off the 'c' and let it end in a vocal so it sounds more natural, Mimi is such a cute surname."

D raised a finger to begin a lecture on how her chosen surname couldn't be surpassed in any way, shape or form, but she slowly lowered it as she actually thought through the latest proposition.

"…Mimi D. Inaba… Mimi Dinaba… Mimi Di Naba…" D tried out the sounds and heard them out loud. "There's lots of 'i,' but I kinda like that there are so many… And it does go better with the song…"

"See?" Pop Step couldn't help but keep the smug out of her voice.

"I kinda want to reject it on principle because of that tone you just made, but it does roll off the tongue quite well…" She said it a few more times before she was finally satisfied. "I… quite like it, to be honest, it reminds me of mimir or sleep, which I enjoy doing. And it doesn't feel fundamentally wrong to choose, like Camie for Chameleon. That name fits, but for some reason my gut tells me I shouldn't choose that name… Camie… oh!"

D lightly hit her own head while sticking her tongue out, feeling quite silly for not having thought about it.

"Kami! It's phonetically the same but totally different at the same time! That was what I was missing! Kami D. Inaba! Or Kami D. Mimi, since you worked so hard for it!" Suddenly, D's eyes shined as she arrived at the answers of the universe itself. "No, wait, I got it! Mimi D Kami! It totally sounds like 'Mimi The Kami,' which would be 'Mimi The God'!"

Pop Step cringed, hard. D went from Dracula costume to Yahweh costume.

"You… you can't just have your first name be Kami…" Pop Step said while looking at her captain. "Do you even realize how vain and delusional you sound by basically naming yourself the god?"

"Hey, maybe I am a god!" she rebutted, like it made sense.

"What do you mean 'maybe I am a god'?!" Pop Step shouted, utterly stupefied by the nonsense D was spouting. "How can you not know that?!"

"Well, Luffy didn't realize he was the Sun God for like, over a decade." Kami shrugged. "Maybe I'm just like him. Or I can just be like Enel and call myself god because I felt like it and punch anyone who disagrees, I don't mind."

Kazuho held back the scream she wanted to let out so much, because right now she needed to convince her idiotic captain that naming herself Kami was a bad idea, even if later the world bent itself backwards to actually make her a god… No, there had to be a limit, D couldn't just imagine herself into godhood, could she?

"Why can't it be Camie?" she asked instead through gritted teeth. "It's a good name."

"Because I feel I would have to fight all the Camies in the world until I was the only one standing" D answered with, obviously, more pure insanity. "It's like there's this person that's important to the world who has that name, and I fear what the world would do to me if I took it for myself."

Pop Step wanted to refute that claim as clearly impossible, but she faltered as she stared at the Devil Fruit on the table and reconsidered. Maybe… maybe she shouldn't tempt fate like that.

"…So why not Camilia?" she offered after thinking for a moment, "It's a longer version of Camie."

"Because it's three syllables! It doesn't flow well with the song!"

The musician did not shout at the reasoning, because it would get her nowhere. She considered offering to make a new song for D, but that 'NO!' she screamed during it… she was clearly attached to the song, so she would most likely refuse. Maybe…

"You called yourself Ina during the song, so why not take Camilia and only call yourself Camie in the song? That way you have a two syllable name for the song and you don't anger the world for having the name of Camie." D was clearly considering it her offer, so she went for the knockout punch, sure that the silliness of it would win her the debate. "And if you're named Camilia, you can go 'I'm Camilia the Chameleon,' which is funny, isn't it? Look, hakahakahaka, so funny."

Her clearly fake laugh somehow managed to convince Camilia, which she hadn't actually expected… only to soon regret her suggestion.

"Yes… Yes! That's genius! I will be Kami D. Camilia The Chameleon! It sounds so much better than anything else! And it goes really well with the original Monkey D. Luffy because now both names end in 'i' with a different vocal before, unlike Mimi!"

"But… but gods aren't animals…" Pop Step tried to counter.

"They totally are! Zoans are animals, and they include humans and gods, so Kami is fine!"

Haneyama Kazuho proceeded to try and convince D to please not call herself that for the rest of the night as Koichi just stared at the byplay, not understanding what was happening before deciding to just stop thinking and cook dinner.

In the end, they finally chose a name… That is to say, D stubbornly refused to change her choice despite her Nakama's insistence to the contrary.

"Okay, take two." D said with a cough, before filling her lungs with air and roaring.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY LUFFY, BECAUSE I'M THE ONE WHO WILL BECOME KING OF THE PIRATES OR MY NAME ISN'T KAMI D. CAMILIA! SET SAIL FOR ONE PIECE!"

…Maybe dreams could really com-

"Shouldn't it be Queen of the Pirates though?" Koichi pointed out while serving the meal and putting the Copy-Copy Fruit inside the fridge, pretending it wasn't magical food.

"...God damn it Cruller, just let me have this." Camilia said while slumping in defeat, though she still dug in, food was food despite an asshole making it.

Just for that comment, she wouldn't make Koichi her Cook. She was petty enough to carry that grudge to her grave… He would at best be part of her future fleet, once she got enough people.

"Wait…" the girl muttered as she realized a horrible truth, "What is my pirate crew called?"

Suffice to say, the food was quickly forgotten as the two-member crew fought one another over what the best name was, never reaching a conclusion despite shouting well past midnight.

(You know, Mimic D. Inaba was the placeholder name I had in future documents detailing the story in case I couldn't come up with anything better. Mimic is obvious, but Inaba is in reference to Oda's wife. After trying out different chameleon translations and hating Camie's existence with all my might for taking that name (and being slightly perturbed with googling Mimi from Paper Mario fanart), we ended up with Kami D. Camilia, an incredibly vain choice of a surname for anyone else, but a fine choice for someone who plans to rock the world to its foundations.

In other news… a Copy-Copy Fruit. Yeah… in theory, if D had a basic Copy Quirk and copied it into a fruit, the fruit could theoretically gain the ability but it obviously wouldn't change appearances, even less into that of a Devil Fruit. So… it makes one wonder, doesn't it?

But hey! Totally irrefutable proof we are in the One Piece world! …maybe… …possibly… …at least from D's perspective, which is good enough for her and everyone else can go suck it.

Now, I'm really interested to hear who you think will eat the Copy-Copy Fruit! I already decided and I doubt you will get it unless you start throwing random names, but I want to hear your personal choice and why. Ah, and before anyone says it, no, the Copy-Copy Fruit will not be eaten by D after she gets her power erased by the Yakuza, because that would be boring and I want chaos.)