Chapter 13 - Onwards to Syrup Village!

"So let me get this straight... YOU LEFT ONE OF OUR TREASURE BAGS IN THE TOWN?!" In such a beautiful morning, a loud sound ruined the once tranquil and quiet ocean, it was Nami being mad at Luffy for something.

While Luffy was holding the swollen bruise on his head, he still tried to explain to Nami, "Well... You see, they wouldn't have any money left to buy food, daily necessities, or even rebuild their Town, because the Buggy pirates stole them right? So get this, I thought it's a good idea to give them atleast one of the treasure bags to help them!" This explanation was received positively by Ame and Zoro, however Nami was still fuming in anger.

"Hey Nami, Luffy didn't do anything bad y'know? It's good to help those in need and besides, you still have your other bag right?" Ame honestly shared his thoughts, but this didn't help in calming down Nami. Matter of fact, it only served to shift Nami's anger towards him.

"WELL WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW, 'GOOD SAMARITAN' ONE OF THESE BAGS HAD ATLEAST 5 MILLION BELLIES WORTH OF TREASURES INSIDE OF THEM, WHICH I RISKED MY LIFE TO GET!!" Ame, Zoro, and Luffy still didn't get the problem. Nami was about to explain again, but Zoro interjected.

"Are you saying we didn't risk our lives while fighting the Buggy Pirates? You're speaking as if we weren't one of the main reasons you could get those treasures, why do you need so much 'Treasures' in the first place?" Zoro's question instantly stopped Nami on her tracks, like a bucket of cold water was poured on her head.

Her face dimmed down as her expression turned sour, "You... Wouldn't get it... I also need those as much as they do. At least the ones that were invading them are gone, while my town couldn't be so far away from such a future." Nami's last few words were quite muttered but it was audible enough for Ame, Luffy, and Zoro to be able to grasp the degree of Nami's current predicament.

The trio glanced at each other and nodded, indicating that all three of them understood that Nami also had some sort of problem which made Luffy inquire, "Nami, we'll try our best to help if you have a problem. You're our Navigator, Crewmate, and precious Friend after all!"

Nami only smiled and brushed Luffy's offer by waving her hand as he headed towards the Captain's cabin, "Haahhh... Forget, forget it! I can still gather 5 Million Bellies again anyways but this time, ASK FOR MY PERMISSION BEFORE USING IT AGAIN, OKAY?!"

Luffy instantly stood up and saluted, "YES SIR!" While Ame and Zoro couldn't help but laugh out loud, as the tranquil, peaceful, and cheerful air returned in the ship once again.

Nami glanced behind her where she saw Luffy, Ame, and Zoro laughing at each other while talking and thought, "As strong as they are, I just can't bring to drag other innocent people to my problem and risk putting their own lives in danger. I can free my town on my own without endangering anyone..." Afterwards, she her thoughts on the back of her head as she started enthusiastically studying the char of the Grand Line, her recent grim and saddened expression gone without a trace.

Outside, the trio of Ame, Zoro, and Luffy could be seen talking to each other while finally playing the old deck of cards that was on Ame's ship in the beginning.

Mid-way into playing, Ame remembered the Devil Fruit that he obtained which he intially planned on talking to Zoro and Luffy about. "Hold on guys, I have something important to show you guys."

Zoro and Luffy glanced at each other, seemingly curious and clueless about what Ame was going to show them.

After a few minutes, Ame came back to the Main deck with Nami in tow with a fruit looking object on his hands, but it didn't even take Zoro and Luffy a second to acknowledge that Ame has found a Devil fruit.

"So guys, here it is. As you guys might've already guessed, it's a Devil fruit. I think it should a Paramecia type Devil fruit called Daisho-Daisho no Mi, the Size fruit." When Ame finished explaining, the crew was still mesmerized by seeing an actual Devil Fruit up-close which made them uncharacteristically be mesmerized by it.

Nami snapped out of it first, followed up by a question, "Let me guess, it allows the user to alter their Size? Sounds... Underwhelming? I don't know... "

Zoro heard Nami's statement and couldn't hell but also say something, "It's a devil fruit though, so it's ability shouldn't just be like that. There's probably some additional abilities that belong to the same field as altering Size. Regardless, I still and always will think that being a swordsman is better than eat those fruit. I don't like gaining power that I didn't work hard for on my own."

Unlike Nami's scepticism and Zoro's bias, Luffy was excited and enthusiastic. "WOAAAHH!! THIS DEVIL FRUIT MAKES YOU GROW BIGGER OR SMALLER?! THAT'S SO COOL!! YOU CAN BECOME, A SIZE MAN!!"

Luffy's excitement and wonder was akin to a child first seeing the world in sunshine and rainbows early in the life. This makes Luffy's cheerfulness and optimism, contagious for Ame, Zoro, and Nami as they all laughed at Luffy's antics.

Nami chuckled as she stood up, "Well, Luffy's right. It's still a Devil fruit that gives you some special and Magical powers out of nowhere, that's pretty cool if I do say so myself." Nami excused herself first since she wanted to finish studying that chart of the Grand Line, leaving Ame, Luffy, and Zoro discussing what to do with the Devil fruit.

Luffy, being the best source for profoundly stupid and creative idea, never failed to suggest something absurd this time, however this idea of his managed to light up the spark of curiousity inside of Ame and Zoro.

His idea was, "Hey guys, since Zoro don't want to eat it because he likes swords more. I can't eat it as much as I want to since a person could only eat one devil fruit in their lives or else they'd literally disappear, and Ame doesn't want to eat devil fruits in the meantime for some reason. How about we give this to the turtle?!"

The idea was so absurd that people should logically think that it's stupid, or it's impossible or that it shouldn't work but one fact came to these three's mind. The fact is that, no one ever tried to see if it would work on animals... And that simple thought was enough to fuel their drive to try it out.

Part of the reason why they wanted to do it was because, even if the Turtle ate the devil fruit and it didn't work, it would pose no danger for it since it had never eaten one before in the first place, therefore it's risk free!!

After all, the three of them wouldn't do it if it risked their only pet's life, but since it wouldn't. They immediately headed towards the turtle's terrarium inside the Captain's Cabin, making Nami jump out of shock from the sudden appearance of the trio.

Currently, Ame, Luffy, and Zoro were making their final decisions with Zoro finally breaking the ice, "Hey, since it wouldn't endanger the turtle, let's just feed it."

Ame placed the Devil fruit of the turtle's terrarium whom they named, Lurome from Luffy, Zoro, and Ame's name.

The three of the watched as Lurome began eating the devil fruit while Nami was dumbfounded and wanted to cry from seeing a turtle eat a devil fruit possibly worth a hundred million bellies.

Lurome eventually finished eating the devil fruit but nothing happened, this made Luffy, Zoro, Ame, and Nami breathe out a sigh of relief, but Zoro, Ame and Luffy was a bit disappointed seeing as the Lurome didn't gain the devil fruit's powers like they wanted to happen.

The trio was going to face the smack of Nami's handmade paper stick but suddenly, the ship started shaking. The crew immediately looked at Lurome who was growing visibly bigger, and bigger by the second.

As everyone was witnessing both of one of the greatest discoveries in the world, as long as the worst decision they have ever made in life as Lurome was showing no signs of stopping its growth, breaking the walls of the cabin and already making the deck floor start creaking from the weight.

Just before the floor was going to collapse, Lurome the turtle fortunately stopped growing as its height reached up to everyone's waist while Lurome's width almost reached the total space of the ship's Captain's cabin.

Before everyone was going to celebrate succeeding in their experiment, they snapped back to the harsh consequences of their experiment.

The walls of the Captain's cabin were broken into pieces, leaving a huge hole towards the Storage Cabin. Lurome's terrarium was shattered into bits and pieces along with the Bedside table it was sitting on, while the floor of the cabin was cracked with signs of breaking down with just one small step.

Just then, Lurome shrinked to the same size as its old terrarium rendering its old terrarium useless and uninhabitable for its size.

Ame broke the silence as he said, "Lurome's natural size has also increased after eating the Size devil fruit. So in the bright side, even if the terrarium didn't break, it still wouldn't be usable for the turtle, haha..."

Zoro shook his head at Ame's poor attempt of making the situation better, "Except it's not just the terrarium that's broken, but the entire Cabin room... "

"Well, i'll fix it later don't worry about it! At least our turtle and devil fruit theory actually worked! Maybe we could have a new ally in our adventures and not just a pet!" Ame's words made Luffy get excited once again by the thought of their turtle joining them in their adventures.

Nami managed to contain her anger this time, as she was slowly getting used by the trio's "miraculous" Works. She just straight-up climbed up the second floor bedroom of the ship to continue her studying while denying that what happened with ship was real.

When Nami disappeared unto the second floor bedroom. Ame, Luffy, and Zoro started laughing at each other and what just happened, seeing as they couldn't change the present, they decided to just laugh it off since it was their fault anyways and started cleaning the scene while also cheerfully talking with each other and the turtle.

Lurome the turtle simply retreated below the table near the window and comfortably settled and nested inside it, while the trio cleaned and started fixing the ship.

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After yesterday's events, the crew deemed it was necessary to get some new materials or better yet, find a professional shipwright to fix their ship.

Ame was able to patch up the ship, but in order to thoroughly fix and return the ship to it's old condition, its either by buying new materials or by finding a good shipwright, but Ame preferred to fix it himself in order to level-up his Repairing skill so it'll be more efficient in the future in case the ship gets damaged in the middle of nowhere.

With that objective in mind, the ship changed it's course towards the nearest island, Syrup Village, per Nami's intructions.

According to Nami's information, that village should have a family who owns a Ship wrighting business, where they hope to be able to find someone to fix their ship or atleast buy materials to fix it.

Now the Strawhat pirates has changed their course and has started sailing towards the Syrup Village after destroying a part of their ship from their "innovative" experiment.

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{Chapter 13 - Fin}