CHAPTER 4

I proceeded in reading all the letters in the box, all of them came from a guy named Stoner. Base on some clues I got from reading the letters, some of which date back from 20 years in the past. It seems that this Stoner guy and Uncle Ray were childhood friends. They joined the Marines when they were in their late teens and slowly climb in the ranks, but due to Stoner being more talented, he later became a Vice Admiral, leaving Uncle Ray in the rank of Captain. The last few letters talk about this Stoner guy retiring from his position and him visiting uncle Ray.

"There has to be something more than this", I said.

I began double-checking the entire room to make sure that I didn't leave behind anything suspicious. I checked the floors to make sure that there wasn't any underground hiding spot. I know it may be a longshot but my time as a soldier in the past made me paranoid about underground tunnels.

When I checked the floor, I saw that there was a lock under the table.

"Jackpot", I said to myself. I unlock the lock and went inside Uncle Ray's real hideout. I close the door that led to this place and began walking in the dark tunnel. I place one of my hands on the sidewall and took careful steps down.

When I was near the end of the tunnel, I saw a small flicker of an oil lamp. I went towards the light and increase the intensity of the flames causing the entire room to be brightened.

"Oh lucky, another one", I said as I spotted two more oil lamps, I went towards them and turned them on.

Inside the underground room, there were multiple tables. On top of those tables were some documents on them, as well as some books.

I look at one of the books and written on its cover was "The Rokushiki Style of the Marines". I read some of it and I was shocked. It turns out this book contains the martial arts that the marine use in combat, I skip some pages and went to the last page. Written on it was a warning;

"My friend I have written this manual for you to use and learn. Memorize everything from this manual and burned it immediately, if the World Government knows that I wrote this manual and gave it to you, then the two of us will be killed, no doubt about it. The World Government won't take kindly to any news about any written copies about their fighting styles, let alone a full manual: From your old friend."

"For a Vice-Admiral to go against the rules set by the World Government, damn they must be really close friends", I said to myself.

I continued reading more letters and I found something interesting, it was a letter that uncle Ray wrote, base on the look of the paper, he must have written this recently. Perhaps he wanted to send this letter to Stoner.

"My friend, I found one. For all my life I wanted to have one of these, to improve my strength but now it's too late. If I eat this fruit I would have the powers I dreamed about whatever it may be; paramecia, zoan, or logia, I could finally have it. But why now?! Why in a time which I am already too old, eating this fruit will be meaningless now. I relied heavily on you to find ways to become more powerful, which led to you reluctantly writing the Rokushiki manual.....but still....this fruit in front of me...I wouldn't be able to use its full potential. I grow sad thinking about this...Why now after all this time.....There only one thing to do now...Reluctant I may be, I just hope to find someone worthy of this fruit that I have....its all I could do at this point...

-From your friend: Ray"

"That's how you get powers? From eating a dumb fruit!", I said as I search the entire room to find that freaking fruit. I was so excited that it took me a while to realize that the fruit was hidden on one of the tables by a large amount of paper. The fruit is double the size of an orange, with instead of the orange it was the color of blue with a white shade. The fruit has weird symbols on it.

"This has to be the fruit... I mean, I haven't seen any fruit this weird looking in my entire second life...The real question now is should I eat it? In the letter of uncle Ray, he said that he was already too old to use the full potential of the fruit, soo, me being young could probably use the full potential of this fruit", I said to myself as I stared at the fruit.

For a while, I thought of the ramifications of me eating this fruit, the possible angry look of Uncle Ray when he realized that this fruit was already eaten.

"Screw it, act now ask for an apology later", I said as I quickly took a huge mouthful of the fruit and swallowed it immediately.

"WHAT.THE.FUCK.THAT'S.NASTY", I said as I finish eating my first bite. That was the most disgusting thing I have eaten in my life, in both lives I might add.

"Okay. Okay..you can do this.....No pain no gain....No pain, no gain.....NO PAIN, NO GAIN!!!", I shouted to myself to gather my strength to eat the monstrosity of a lousy excuse of a fruit in my hand. I open my mouth and began devouring the fruit as quickly as passable. After I finish eating the entire thing, I fell on the floor defeated.

"That.....was.....the....most.....hardest.....thing....I....did....in.....my...life.....", I said to myself as I lay on the ground.

It took me a while to get my bearings, after what I presumed to be 30 minutes I stood up and said to myself, "What now? How do I activate my powers?".

I stretch out my arm and said, "Powers, activated...Nothing happened...Well, what do I do now?".

I was thinking of ways to use my powers when suddenly I heard a whistling sound that was soon followed by a loud bang.

BANG!!

BANG!!

"Shit what was that?!", I said to myself. Small amounts of dirt would fall on me as the banging continued.

"I need to get out of here", I said as I took the Rokushiki manual with me, before I forgot I took one of the lamps in the room and began climbing the stairs. Throughout the entire climb, the whistling sound were followed by loud explosions.