Rumble in the Market Pt.1

*""* = talking through a Den Den Mushi

/''\ = talking to souls

Flowey's ship had docked at Dressrosas' underground port; regulars at this port recognised whose ship it belonged to and didn't even think about trying to steal it or what was on it. Some didn't care, while others didn't want to die at the hands of the ship. Metaphorically speaking of course.

As Flowey was getting off he heard the flap of wings; looking towards the sound he saw a young woman in her twenties.

She had long wavy, light green hair and brown eyes. She had the build of an average human, but her long legs made her much taller than her average build should allow; she was wearing a blue and white striped shirt and blue bloomers, as well as a set of blue heels.

"Ah~ it's always a pleasure to see you, Monet." Flowey enthusiastically said.

Suddenly Flowey heard a deep distorted voice in his head say "Yuki Yuki no Mi" but ignored it. He could never figure out why his Devil Fruit would say the name of a fruit he was already aware of.

"Please the pleasure is all mine~." Monet said while covering her face with her hand.

Flowey looked Monet up and down. The urge to kill her and take her fruit grew by the second. It was a nasty little side effect that he had to deal with. But one that could be pushed back. For now at least.

He didn't or rather not want to have to kill her. The more Devil Fruits he had the harder it was to control his original fruit and he rather keep another person around to hold a Devil Fruit. And Monet was that kind of person.

"Flowey?" Pudding suddenly said. A look of worry and fear on her face as she looked up at her brother.

She didn't know what had happened or what had caused it but her brother's smile suddenly became a lot more bestial. It was like he was a starving animal that had seen an injured animal.

Monet had also noticed the smile but hadn't commented on it, mainly for fear of possibly angering him.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." He said hurriedly, his smile falling for just a second before returning to normal.

"Let's, just get this over with okay?" He said.

As time went on, Floweys' crew had gone into the market and bought things like food, ammo and a few miscellaneous things for themselves or maintaining the ship. Flowey had plenty of time to spare before he needed to meet Doflamingo so he decided to go to the auction house and so he tasked Laffitte with watching over The Smiling Death.

He wasn't originally going to bring anyone with him but a suggestion from DETERMINATION made him bring Pudding and Monet with him.

/ A while later /

Flowey, Pudding and Monet had arrived at Trade Ports' auction house and had gotten seated on the 3rd row, this row was reserved for people of considerable power and/or influence. The 1st and 2nd rows were on the ground floor while the 3rd row was situated above it on the first floor.

As they were waiting for the auction to start, Flowey noticed that someone had gotten seated above him, which could only mean one thing: celestial dragons had joined the auction.

Flowey didn't pay them much mind as they weren't a threat to what he was going to purchase.

And even if they did he would deal with the situation accordingly.

A few minutes later a man wearing red and black striped clothes walked out onto the stage and stood in front of a podium, something interesting as there was an extension to it, it looked like a metal screen. However, Flowey couldn't tell what was on it.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen, I'll be your Auctioneer for today." "We have some very interesting items up on offer for you and you alone. At the end of the auction, you can collect your purchased items, now then, we shall begin" The auctioneer said.

As the auction continued Flowey had seen multiple items on sale most weren't interesting enough for him to buy unless it was something that Pudding wanted, which was an animal.

After about an hour, quite a lot of items had already gone. Flowey was getting impatient. He wasn't interested in anything and was about to leave until a metallic Passion fruit came up on stage.

Even though he knew it was a Devil Fruit, he wasn't going to buy it. That was until he heard something in his head say in a distorted voice, "Tetsu Tetsu no Mi".

Flowey was upset, not because the voice had told him what the Devil Fruit was, but since it had only talked to him when he was in the presence of a Devil Fruit. Though even that's only when it recognised a Devil Fruit.

He'd guess it was because previous users of his fruit had either come across or eaten the Devil Fruit.

Even though he didn't really want to, the pull of his devil fruit made him stay and buy it.

"Today ladies and gentlemen we have a very peculiar fruit in front of you today! You see this is no ordinary fruit but a Devil Fruit!" The auctioneer said.

Many in the audience were shocked to see a Devil Fruit in person; those who were frequent to the Trade Ports' auction house were getting ready to start bidding as soon as the Auctioneer started.

"The bidding will start at 100,000,000 Belly!"

Immediately a couple of pirates had given up. Either because they were too poor or because of what transpired next.

"200,000,000 Belly, 300,000,000 Belly, oh~ 410,000,000 Belly coming from number 45, 550,000,000 Belly from number 36" The Auctioneer enthustically said.

The number kept on increasing until it became 770,000,000 bellies.

Jack Shen was the one who had brought it up to that and the one who believed that they would win it.

And to a certain extent, he was right. Since no one else had bid in a bit until...

"Oh Woah, number 218 has bided 1,000,000,000 Belly! now then, going once? going twice? SOLD! to number 218." The strangely dressed auctioneer said.

Any and all belief that he would get a powerful fruit was all but trashed when he heard that, he looked around franticly to find the man who took his fruit, however, no matter how much he looked he couldn't see anyone who looked like they were responsible.

No one looked happy.

No one looked like they'd hit the jackpot.

This meant that, that person had to be from the 3rd or 4th row; which one he couldn't tell but either way he was sure that with his "cheats", he was sure that he could take it back.