To eat or not to eat

"The Marines are here, get them, boys!" A pirate yelled as he waved his sword around in the air.

The rest of the crew responded in a blood-thirsty excitement, they all took out their weapons, all geared and ready to kill as many marines as possible.

Two ships could be seen from a birds-eye view, lock in a bloody conflict, one pirate the other marine, both ships were damaged and barely still floating. The pirate ship had lost its mainmast, it now floated in the sea. The marine ship had a damage ruder, a lucky hit from the pirate canon. Corps in the sea tainted it with red spots, sharks had started a feeding frenzy anxious to eat as much as possible before, bigger predator came to the all you can eat buffet.

The marines had a grim determination in killing these damn pirate scum, these pirates had been attacking any ships, killing and stealing everything for months now. Finally, it was their time to bring down justice on them, after chasing them for two weeks. The fools had left a trail that led them straight to them.

The pirates knew that there was no escape, this time their deaths or capture was a sure thing still, they wanted to bring down as many marines as they could down in hell today. Their captain roared a challenge to the marine captain as they clash, creating a mini shock wave that made those closest stumbles back.

While all this excitement was going on, a young boy around the age of seven. Was in a deep dilemma, for the past few months he got "hired" by the pirates in order to keep the books and help them get a good deal on selling their loot. He also managed to convince their quartermaster in teaching him basic fighting, training exercise and with a few extra coins, he also learned some basics in navigating. At the very least enough not to get lost in the four seas, north, south, east and west blue. After squeezing all he could from them, he slowly influences their captain in attacking higher-profile targets. It wasn't all that hard, once the captain got his hands on a devil fruit, his arrogance went sky high. No one notices anything, they were all convinced that it was their idea, the best part was that they never pick up on the markers he snuck off the ship, in order for the marines to find them. All so they could "rescue" him from the mean old pirates.

"Should I eat it? But what if it crappy, I don't even know if I should. Should I get off this death trap first, then eat it? But still, I'm back to the same problem, what is it?" Zen was sitting in the cargo section of the ship. Holding a devil fruit in his hands, this one look like a pineapple in shape, only the leave on top had serrated edges like points on the sides and their colours was purple. The main fruit had still the same scale-like pattern on the fruit, but with those weird worm-like shapes twisting in odd Kamasutra positions on it. The fruit colour was pink and red swirled around it.

"I don't remember this fruit at all from the show or the manga, or any movies either. Hell, I don't even know if this is a logia a zoan or a paramecia." He groans as he lightly bumped his head on the fruit. He understood that eating a devil fruit would bring up his chances of surviving way up, but at the same time, it would also create some obvious weakness. For one the sea would paralyze him and he would sink down like a hammer, sea stones was another and finally whatever his power was it would either have some elemental weakness or limitation, it also depended on which type of fruit it was logia, zoan or paramecia.

The sound of combat was still going on the upside, but Zen knew it wouldn't last forever sooner or later the marines would win. They already outnumber the pirates two to one, plus they were probably better trained, let not forget that their current captain was a devil fruit user, the paramecia type he had it could enlarge his body ten-time his size using air. He became a ballon man, from what he learn the guy did not have a rubber body all he could do is enlarge his body like a balloon, he seemed to have a less powerful version of the rubber fruit.

The pirate captain had a zoan fruit, but it was one that was considered weak and useless. He had the shark fruit, so his animal form was a complete waste since the only use it had, was to allow him to breathe underwater as he sank like a hammer. His half form was the most useful by far, he had a shark head with all those sharp teeth, he could also regrow them almost instantly if they broke. Add the fact that his skin was now like a thick leather armour, plus his strength shot up, giving him at least five times his normal power.

It would be close but Zen was pretty sure that the marines had reinforcement on the way, so even if the pirates manage to kill all the marines. The ship or ships that were no doubt on their way, would finish off any survivor on the pirate's side. That was why he was confident, that the pirate would eventually lose. Even if they won this battle, having both ships damage to the point of being dead in the water. Add the time they would need to make a semi-functioning ship, they had no chance with the time to build something. With the most optimistic plan, it would at the very least take two weeks, of none stop work at the very minimum time frame. Into repairing their ship or the marines, not enough time to run from the next batch of fresh troops and ship coming from the marines.

"Ok, let be real for a moment, will I have another chance like this? I'm I confident that Il survives without a devil fruit in the future?" Zen was rubbing the bridge of his nose as he went over the pros and cons. He could hold on to the fruit, and sell it, but to who the marines. The risk of getting sent to some prison was all too likely of an outcome. Oh, he was sure he wasn't impelled down material, but it remains that his small bounty was still out. One thing he found enraging, was that the government of this world would never back down from a criminal charge, even if it was complete bull.

He might have more chance in bargaining his bounty termination if he had some power to back him up. Like if he was a powerful devil fruit user or had a big background. But he had nothing but himself, a seven-year-old orphan child with a small bounty of now two hundred bellies. No secret guardian sweeping down to save him, no plot armour, no system, no-op powerful bloodline coming on in a moment of crisis. He had the scars to prove it, his last attempt at blackmail with the patch eye smuggling bastard, had ended with him being stab in the gut. He had to escape from a hospital when he came to, the marines chase him around until he lost them in the sewers. He surviving on filth and trash for days, until he snuck on the pirate ship and was forced into joining their crew.

"The only good thing is that my bounty didn't go up too much, hopefully, I will be able to keep it low, guess no one really bothered with me. Ok Zen, let's be real I need this power, I just hope it's worth it." Zen closed his eyes giving a small prayer to any god that was listening.

He opened his mouth and bit into the most disgusting thing ever, even the sewer food he found was better than this. He knew that just one bit would give him powers, but he kept eating it until it was all gone. On one side he had a faint hope that if he ate the whole thing, he would get better abilities. The other side was he didn't want to leave any trace of him eating this devil fruit.

"Oh, my God, why, why did the creator of one piece think it would be funny to have a bad tasting power fruit. A sadist that what he is, a fringing sick sadists, having it all taste like shi..... Oh God, I'm going to puke. No, hold it in, mighty power come to me!" Zen stood up from having crawled from the floor after eating the devil fruit. Suddenly information about his new powers came to his mind, it was a weird feeling half of it was knowledge at the very least the basic of it. The rest was a more instinctual knowledge of how to activate his power.

"Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no no no nononononononononononononononononononoo! This can't be happening, this is crap, all that and I get crap." Zen crash down on his knees, barely feeling it so great was his shock he just stared off into space with a blank look on his face.

His fruit was called the iron belly fruit, not to be confused with its stronger counterparts. Which are the eating fruit or the factory fruit, the good thing about his fruit was that for the future he could eat anything. Even if he never trained his power, this power had anything he ate and digested turn into energy, leaving nothing to waste. Same thing with any devil fruit that had a special dominion on the human body. It had certain perks, for one if you ate poison for at least a few days. You would develop immunity to that poison. This could be repeated as many times as one wanted, the stronger the poison the more it covered the weaker ones. Passive immunity also included toxins, corrosions and acids. The only rule being he had to digest them before, gradually letting his stomach break them down until his body built an immunity to them.

Even with all this passive defence, this fruit had zero combat ability, besides a weird quirk, his stomach would forever be as hard as metal. Another bonus was whoever ate it would never need to exercise ever again. By digesting everything and turning it into energy. It would go into the body, strengthening it in all kinds of ways. Better bones, muscles, organs and blood. The more one eats the more one's body becomes better.

Sure you could exercise, that would only make the process faster and give you an even stronger body. Another perk was the longer healthier life span you got from this fruit. You wouldn't be immortal but your body would remain in a better condition than most other paramecia types. Since by eating a lot of food your body could regenerate say a missing limb, as long as you had enough food, your head and most important your stomach.

If Zen had a book on devil fruit, he would have found a whole page on this fruit in the book. It explained that this fruit was popular with nobles. It wasn't for its power that it was popular, it was its passive that was attractive to them. The poison immunity alone was reason enough, but the painless and effortless body-building effect. Was what every noble wanted, imagine having the ability to eat anything and still look like a perfectly physically peak Olympic championed athlete, at all times without putting in any effort.

"I knew that this was too easy, I should have had my doubts when there wasn't even a lock on the chest, I bet there was a reason for the crew and captain to not really care about this devil fruit enough to put a lock on it. Shit, this is pure evil." Zen was depressed and angry, he was in a real blender of emotional turmoil, but he still needed to get off this ship. The worse of it was that now he had to be careful not to drown. He also needed to find out everything about this power. Once he did he would know if this was a blessing or a curse.

Getting back up he slowly walked to the bag filled with bellies, he half dragging half lifted his new fortune, making his way to a life boat so that he could leave before the marines reinforcement arrived.