Chapter 10: 100 Million

Early in the morning, a school of fish can be seen swimming close to the surface of the sea water. Sometimes, two to three of these fish will swim and jump out of the water surface. It's as if trying to show themselves to those creatures above the water.

Caw!

Suddenly, a big red bird flew down from the sky. It dropped so fast and caught one of the fish that jumped out of the water. After that, it flew up while bringing the fish away. The fish tried to wriggle out but was firmly got clamped by the bird's claw.

What a good catch!

The bird happily flew with it's guaranteed meal. Suddenly, a flash of shadow passed by the side of the bird, frightening it. What is that...thought the bird.

Looking at the moving shadow, it could confirm that that is a human flying...no running on air! What the heck? How is that possible? If everyone can do that, what is the point for bird to have wings?

Never mind. That's not a bird business...

The bird continued flying. However, it suddenly felt something wrong. Looking down, it found that it's claws were empty.

Oh crap!

Just now, when it got frightened, it subconsciously loosened it's grip, giving the fish a chance to wriggle out and drop down back to the sea.

Caw! Caw!

The bird was so frustrated that it's cawed noisily, as if cursing that weird running human.

...

The shadow who are running on air is Rex. Right now, he was running on a random direction after he got out of the V island. He didn't have any map on him. That's the reason why he used the dumbest method; picking just any direction, and headed for it.

After moving for almost half a day, he finally saw a vast land in the distance. His eyes brightened as he hurriedly headed towards that direction.

As he moved closer, he can see some building, and people on the land. There are also some people at the seaside, busy with their own activities; strolling around, playing on the beach, and enjoying the sunset. The majority of them are fisherman and just came back from the sea. At this time, the people on the land saw Rex approaching.

"Look Dad! Look there." Said a boy, pulling on the hand of a middle aged man.

"What is it Riki?"

"Look up there. There is a man walking on air."

"Listen Riki. You shouldn't lie to...huh? There really is a man walking on air!"

Everyone were flabbergasted when they saw Rex was walking on air. Instantly, there were many exclamation and whispers in the area as all of the people watch Rex descent like an angel from heaven.

"Excuse me. Are you a angel?"

"Cassy!"

A little girl walked forward and looked at Rex with a star sparkling in her eyes. Her mother in the distance was frightened when she saw her daughter trying to pester the 'angel'. She hurriedly approached her child and pulled her away, while apologizing to Rex.

"Sorry sorry. My daughter didn't mean anything bad when she asked that. We are very sorry." Said the mother, bowing to Rex.

Rex smiled and replied to the lady, "It's okay. She is just curious. Also, she is a sweet little girl. Let me give her some gift."

As Rex said that, a wild blue fruit appeared on his right palm. He approached the girl and gave the fruit. "This is for you."

"Really?"

"Of course."

"Thank you, angel!"

The girl thanked Rex with a wide smile. Rex just nodded to the girl and walked away, heading to the distance town. However, he halted his movement after some steps, and glanced at the little girl.

"Oh, before I forget, let me remind you. That fruit is a special one. So, you have to treasure it." Reminded Rex.

"Is it sweet?"

"Uh...you will know when you eat it."

Rex then hurriedly left while sweating profusely. Sweet? The taste of that fruit can only be explained with one word...Terrible!!

Within a moment, Rex already disappeared in the distance. However, the little girl still looked at the direction on which he disappeared to.

"Girl, that angel is already gone. Let's go home." Said the mother. She then brought the girl away. While walking, the little girl was full of smile as she praised Rex, the 'Angel'.

"Mom, that Angel is so handsome, and so kind. He even give me this special gift."

"Look mom. This fruit look so special. Just with one look and I could almost not help but want to eat it."

"Mom, should I eat it now?"

The girl chattered non-stop, while looking at the fruit with wide eyes. Some saliva is starting to flow out of her lips.

"It's yours. You can eat it." Replied the mother, smiling at the little chatterbox.

After getting her permission, the girl gladly chomped on the fruit. She even gulped down in a hurry the piece that she just bit. Just then, her expression changed.

"Yuck! Uweek!"

The girl could not tolerate the taste, and hurriedly vomited, trying to get the eaten fruit from her system. The mother saw her, and become worried.

"What happened? Are you alright?"

"Uh...mom, that fruit tasted really terrible. Did the angel lie to me?"

"What? Hey tell me. Are you really okay? Do you feel any discomfort? Stomach ache, or headache?" Asked the mother. She hurriedly checked the girl worriedly.

"I'm okay mom." Replied the girl.

"You sure?"

"Yes...No. I feel something!"

"What? What is it?"

"I feel something on my back..."

"Your back?"

Just when the mother was about to check on the back of the girl, a pair of wings instantly grew out of the girl's back. Magically, the wings didn't rip the clothes, but just came through it as it the clothes were part if it.

"Huh? Wings???"

The lady was stunned as she saw the white wings grew out and spread out wide. The shock was written all over her face, as she fell back on the ground. After some time, a flash of realization came to her mind.

"Devil Fruit!!"

...

At the same time, the culprit who gave the fruit to the girl was walking calmly in the town.

"Will that little girl think that she become an angel after eating that fruit? Hopefully, she will not be disappointed after knowing that I gave her a Zoan ability." Mumbled Rex, still thinking about his sudden desire to give that fruit to that girl.

A few days ago, while exploring the V island, Rex found the fruit. At first, he didn't know the ability of this Devil Fruit. However, he accidentally 'borrowed' the ability from the fruit when he touched the fruit with his palm.

After that, he used the new borrowed ability, and found out that he got a Zoan ability, a white winged swallow. This made Rex so curious. Though, his curiosity was not on the new ability, but on his own ability.

This accident made him realize that not only can he 'borrow' power from the ability user, he also can directly borrow the ability from the source, which is the Devil Fruit on its own. With this new knowledge, Rex then decided to experiment his own ability once again.

With the help of the newfound ability, it was a lot easier for him to do the experiment. After several phases of experiment, he managed to find out more about his borrowing ability.

His ability can be divided into, borrowing, returning, force return, and no return.

Borrowing is just the act to take away the ability from the source ability, whether it's from the Devil Fruit user, or from the fruit on its own. The only requirement is for him to touch the source ability with his palm. Touching with his other body parts won't let him borrow the ability. As for how many ability he could borrow, he haven't manage to know yet, as he have only been dealing with just one source ability.

Next is returning. Everytime he borrow an ability, he will feel the instinct to return back the ability to it's source. If he return back the ability voluntarily and without using it, it will return back to it's source, and it will not affect him. If he return it after using the ability, it will be returned with some of his energy as interest, which will boost up the source of ability.

He have the feeling that if he repeatedly return the ability with his energy as an interest, he will eventually help the source ability to gain its awakening. However, this is only his hunch.

As for force return, this will happen if he used the ability he borrowed until he reached a certain limit of use. Everytime he borrow a power, there is a limit on how many time he could use it, for example, he was limited to use Yuwa's ability for seven times, and the Blast Blast ability for three times.

Rex concluded that different ability have different uses limit. However, after the uses limit is reached, the ability will return on its own to it source, together with heavy 'interest'. This is the condition for force return.

Lastly is the no return. Rex can decide to not return the ability back. However there is a condition to fulfill it. The condition is to make the source power being 'unable' to receive back the power.

The 'unable' condition can be because the source ability died, or in a state which the source ability couldn't not receive back the ability, for example the person as the source ability got handcuffed by seastone cuff, or submerged into the sea. This is also applicable to the Devil Fruit, by submerging it into the sea.

With that, Rex can permanently gain ownership to that borrowed power!

On the other hand, he could decide to return back the permanently owned ability if the source ability didn't die. If it died and Rex still decided to return it, the ability will be released from him, and will go to a random fruit in the vicinity to transform back into a Devil Fruit.

Those are all the options that Rex found from his experiment. As for awakening his ability, he haven't know yet how to do so.

...

Rex strolled around the town and randomly asked some guys about the current time, to find out which timeline he got transported to. After some inquiries, he knew the timeline, and it made him frown with worries.

He got sent to three years into the future!

That's mean, he is in the year where Portgas D Ace got caught by the Marine, and eventually died in Marine Ford.

"This is bad. Hopefully, I still have time to find him before he got caught." Mumbled Rex while feeling worried. "I should go get some map of the Grandline. Should I go check on Luffy? If he just started his adventure, that's mean I still have the chance to save Ace and prevent him from getting caught by Blackbeard."

Many thoughts came to Rex as he contemplated his next plan, in order to save his brother. In the end he decided to go find Luffy first. With that, he entered a nearby shop that sell maps, and bought the map that he wanted.

"Young man, the map to Grandline is not complete. If you want the complete map, you can go ask the Marine or the government for it. Though, I bet they will not easily give you that map." Reminded the shopkeeper. "Also, you are still young. Think again before you decide to head to Grandline. That place is too dangerous for you."

"Thanks for the advice."

Without caring much about the advise, Rex left the shop, while the shop owner could only shook his head. Young people nowadays is really stubborn. They don't know that the Grandline is really a terrible place, until they experienced it. Though, many will regret it after knowing it!

Rex proceeded to rent a room to rest for the day, and decided to continue his search the next day. Just then, a newspaper was thrown to him by a news coo who happens to fly by the area.

Rex took the map and decided to check on the content. As he opened the news, some bounty papers dropped down on the ground. He looked at it and saw a bounty.

Monkey D Luffy

Bounty: 100 million