Choice

After they left Roman had called Ori away to talk about an idea that he'd had and been thinking quite a bit about recently. When he heard the idea, Ori looked at his brother slightly surprised.

"Are you sure this is what you want? I mean it was the last gift your mother gave you…"

Roman nodded his head as he replied.

"I'm sure. We're going to be going up against far stronger enemies in the future, and we can't do it alone. That's the whole point of having a crew isn't it? To trust them with your backs!"

"I don't disagree with you, I'm just surprised is all."

"Why are you surprised? I can't use it myself and there's no one else more suitable than him."

"Well that's true, but we don't even know if he wants to eat a devil fruit. You know how much he loves to swim!"

Roman shrugged indifferently as he replied.

"All I can do is offer it to him, whether he takes it is up to him at the end of the day."

Ori nodded as he asked.

"Do you want to tell him or should I?"

"You tell him, I'll go and get it from the ship."

Ori nodded before turning and walking over to Sabo who was sat with Shaya and the others.

"Sabo, remember when you said you were desperate to increase your strength?"

Sabo was confused by where Ori was going with this but still nodded his head waiting for him to continue.

"Well what if there was a way to dramatically increase your strength right here and now, but it came at a price?"

Sabo still didn't completely understand what Ori meant, but then he remembered the way Ori saved his life back in East Blue. Sabo remembered how Ori didn't hesitate to challenge an Admiral who he knew was stronger than himself just to keep him safe when he had no obligation to do so.

[There are going to be more enemies that strong and potentially even stronger in the future, I can't keep relying on him to save my life. I need to be someone Ori and the others can rely on, no matter the cost!]

As he thought to there he got rid of any doubts and hesitations that held him back and said.

"I'm willing, regardless of the price."

It wasn't that Sabo was willing to blindly follow the orders of another, even if it meant risking his life. It was just that the trust he held for Ori was unyielding. He knew that if Ori was presenting this option for him, although it would come at a cost it was still acceptable and in the long run it'd be for his own benefit.

Seeing that Sabo had seemingly made up his mind, Ori nodded and explained.

"9 years ago we got ourselves into a little trouble and ended up being cornered by an Admiral. His name was Sun-Wu. Well anyway Roman's mother saved us by killing him and before leaving she took his devil fruit and gifted it to Roman to use as he sees fit in the future.

Roman just decided that the devil fruit would suit you perfectly."

Sabo wasn't expecting that, he'd always considered eating a devil fruit, but as he loved swimming he told himself that unless it was a devil fruit that was as strong as Ori's, Roman's or Shaya's it wasn't worth it. But he also knew that if Ori and Roman were offering it to him now, it was anything but ordinary, especially as it was one used by a former Admiral. He looked back up at Ori and asked.

"What devil fruit is it?"

Ori smiled as he replied.

"Like Roman's it's a mythical Zoan Devil Fruit."

When he heard that, stars could be seen shining from his eyes. He knew that all mythical Zoan Devil fruits were incredibly rare and powerful. Sabo didn't have time to say anything as Ori continued.

"It's the Monkey King fruit. It allows the user to transform into the body of the monkey king granting not only enhanced physical attributes, but it also grants the user two separate natural abilities:

1. Monkey See Monkey Do – It'd allow you to copy the techniques of others after seeing it only once as long as the complexity of the technique doesn't surpass your capabilities. For example you as a Staff Student would be able to copy the techniques of other Staff Students and Staff Users with ease, and although you could copy the technique of a Staffsman it wouldn't be a perfect copy. The only types of techniques you can't copy are techniques that require the fundamental change of the users body, like devil fruit abilities or like Shaya's Hawk Eye Technique.

2. The other natural ability is the reason Roman decided it'd be perfect for you. It's an increase in natural affinity to Staff play. You already have an incredibly high affinity to the staff so after eating the Monkey King Fruit you'd be able to double the speed of your training with half the effort!"

Ori couldn't even say anything else before being interrupted by the excited Sabo.

"I agree!"

As soon as Ori said the words "Mythical Zoan" Sabo had already agreed in his head, when he heard about the 2 natural abilities it was pretty much just the icing on the cake.

Just as Sabo agreed Roman returned with a golden banana with a silver pattern etched into it. When he saw it Sabo looked at it with saliva leaking from the corner of his lips.

"Is that it?!"

Roman nodded with a little smile.

"This is the Monkey King Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit."

Before Sabo took the fruit Ori reminded him one last time.

"If you eat that fruit you won't be able to swim again until you become a transcendent, are you sure you want to go through with it? It's not too late to back out…"

As expected Sabo didn't hesitate as he took the fruit from Roman and shoved the whole thing in his mouth and swallowed it whole.

Ori and the others looked at him as if he were an idiot.

"You were supposed to peel the skin not just eat it whole!"

Sabo ignored his comment as he tried to feel the changes to his body. After a few seconds of waiting he felt nothing new.

"I don't feel any different!"

When they heard that, everyone present who had eaten a devil fruit in the past smiled mysteriously. Benjiro said teasingly.

"Give it a little while…"

As soon as he said that Sabo's face paled, he held his stomach and keeled over. Silk looked worried and couldn't help but rush to him to see of he was alright, but the others…

"HAHAHAHAHA! Do you still not feel any difference!"

Sabo couldn't even respond to their mocking as he started throwing up. Silk looked back at his crew mates who were in stitches and understood that Sabo shouldn't be in any danger but was still wary by the crew's youngest member's sudden outburst.

"Is he going to be alright?"

Benjiro managed to stop his laughing just long enough to explain what Sabo was going through.

"He'll be fine, it's just that the taste of a Devil Fruit is the most disgusting thing you can ever eat!"

Ori who was still laughing added.

"Hahaha and that idiot…

Hahaha he ate the whole thing in one go…

Even the skin hahaha!"

Sabo who was just starting to recover from that vile taste glared at Ori and the others and barked.

"Why didn't you warn me about the taste?!"

Roman who was also laughing said.

"I was just about to but haha…"

He was laughing too hard to finish his sentence and in the end Ori had to finish where he left off.

"You took the fruit and swallowed it before anyone could get a word in haha!"

Eventually everyone contained their laughter. Ori looked at Sabo and asked.

"So other than the taste can you feel the changes yet?"

As he said that Sabo's body began to transform. The first thing everyone notice was the illusion used by Fabian to conceal his appearance was dispersed turning him back into a blonde haired child. Other than Roman who was also a Zoan and Benji who didn't completely understand the profundities of the illusion cast on them, everybody was shocked. Seeing the shock on their faces Roman explained.

"Fabian already said that the only way to disperse the illusion was to erase his aura imprint that was left inside, when we Zoan's do a full body transformation our aura increases and is channelled all over our body so that we can transform. So unless you reach the stage where you can freely control your devil fruit transformations the aura will naturally disperse any other weaker aura's inside the body. This is especially true for Sabo who's transforming for the first time and can't control his aura at all yet."

Ori and the others all understood what Roman implied and looked at Sabo waiting for him to fully transform.

As he transformed his body grew, tearing the clothes he had worn.

Ori who was watching silently couldn't help but be reminded of the transformation of Bruce Banner to the incredible hulk.

Sabo's body grew to the point where he was only slightly shorter than Roman, standing at 6" 2 and unlike Sun-Wu who became extremely muscular when transformed, Sabo still remained rather slim. Although he was slim, he was still extremely lean. No one doubted that his slim, yet lean physique was hiding an astonishing amount of raw power.

Other than his chest and face, his whole body was covered in thick golden-orange fur. His previously black eyes had turned orange with a golden hue to it. And on his head was a golden tiara that seemed to give him an air of nobility.

Sabo clenched his fists with a smile.

"This strength is incredible!"