Chapter 15: A New Alternative

(Third Person POV) Location: Wano (A Month Later)

Ever since Crow had returned to Wano, the Lunarian teen had thrown himself into even more intense physical training to get stronger.

The reason for this action was not only did he want to grow stronger quicker but also because ever since the word had gotten out that the teen had come back from his expedition with nine Devil Fruits and was allowed to keep all of them, a lot of the individuals in the Crew who didn't have Devil Fruit powers themselves were angered and jealous at the blatant favoritism Kaidon was showing him.

Most of the crew had been waiting for a Devil Fruit for months if not years, and then all of a sudden, a teen who isn't even a high-ranking member of the Crew gets nine Devil Fruits and is allowed to keep them all to himself without having to contribute anything.

That left a sour taste in their mouths, and the day after Crow returned, most of the Beast Pirates showed outright hostility to Crow and Uta.

Both teens had been attacked out in the open and behind the scenes more times than they could count, with small to large groups attempting to cripple or outright kill them.

Because of this, Uta is no longer allowed to be alone when she's not in the safety of her and Crow's home due to her pregnancy.

However, Crow sees these attempts in his life as an opportunity to display his dominance and test his current strength.

He also decided to make Mikasa his training partner as she was relatively equal to him regarding physical capabilities and skills.

The young Lunarian's physical capabilities and swordsmanship improved by leaps and bounds thanks to Mikasa and King.

However, despite his increase in power, it still wasn't enough for the Lunarian...

Besides Haki and Devil Fruits, Crow knew there were other alternative methods to increasing his capabilities without sacrificing his ability to swim.

However, all the available options had more cons than pros, and they didn't give him the significant boost in power that he needed.

He couldn't get cybernetic augmentations as becoming a Cyborg never sounded appealing to the Lunarian, as he preferred to stay as natural as possible.

Plus, Cyborgs naturally couldn't get stronger and had to upgrade their enhancements constantly if they wanted to get stronger, and that could cost a fuck ton of money, money that he could spend on better things. So, Cybernetics was out of the question.

There was also genetic modification; he knew several people who specialized in that field. However, he couldn't get his genetics modified at the risk of his DNA being stolen and used to create a nigh-unstoppable Lunarian army. That was a possibility he didn't want happening for obvious reasons.

His only viable option was to ask Queen to teach him how to create mechanical and biological weapons. It sounded like a fun hobby and a great way to increase his versatility on the battlefield.

The problem with this choice was that he'd have to be near Queen and that it would take him far too long to be able to produce things that would be half as good as the fat fucks creations.

Crow was by no means an idiot. He was remarkable in fighting, reasoning, adapting, learning, making intelligent decisions, and overall awareness.

However, when it came to any form of science, anything to do with numbers or engineering, he was in simple terms fucked.

If Crow wanted to be anywhere near Queen's level, he'd have to put ten times the effort into memorizing all the knowledge that the fat fuck would bestow upon him, which could take decades.

He sighed.

It was better than nothing, he supposed...

(Timeskip)

The Lunarian was in his drawing room, sitting at his desk, working on a sketch. However, he wasn't alone as Mikasa was seated on a chair next to him, watching the door intently, much to the teen's amusement.

Since Mikasa was his subordinate, Crow gave her the role of being his and Uta's bodyguard, although she protects the latter more than the former for obvious reasons.

Despite being in one of the safest places in Onigashina, the stoic woman took her duties seriously, an admirable trait, although the teen wished she'd loosen up a bit.

Oh well, some things can't be helped.

Anyway, the Lunarian was sketching an armor design and was thinking about the materials needed to create it and how to acquire them.

While armor these days wasn't typically utilized due to the benefits of Haki and Devil Fruits, most notably, the Logia type's wearing armor still had its advantages, especially if certain metals were used to create it.

One of the best examples was Haki Metal, as it's lightweight, ridiculously durable, and has a high melting point. However, its best property is when imbued with Armament Conquerors Haki, or a combination of both forms of Haki will increase the already durable material's strength by leaps and bounds.

The only issue was that the material was rare and cost a fortune. The young Lunarian will have to talk to King about this later and see if he knows anyone who could acquire the material. Once Crow got the metal, he'd have Queen create the armor set for him.

Hopefully, Queen wouldn't bitch too much about it as the armor's design wasn't complex like power armor. The armor set looked similar to that of a modern samurai.

However, if the fat fuck insists on being difficult, he could always get Kaido or King to "persuade" the second All-Star to create the armor for him, as it wasn't much of a secret Crow was favored by the both of them.

Crow sighed.

He could worry about all this shit later...

"You look like you wanna tell me something," Crow said toward Mikasa, not taking his eyes off his sketch.

"...I do. I just don't know if I should," Mikasa said enigmatically, causing the Lunarian to quirk an eyebrow and his curiosity to rise.

"Makes no difference to me if you do or not, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about what you wanna say..." Crow narrowed his eyes at his sketch. "I feel like I made his helmet a little too big..." he began erasing the head and resketching it.

"Will I be able to trust you?"

Crow looked at her weirdly. "I haven't given you reason not to trust me. Does this chat have anything to do with my current problem?" he asked.

The Lunarian made it no secret to Uta and Mikasa that he was looking to increase his strength through other means besides training.

"...perhaps, but you still haven't answered my question."

Crow sighed, stopped sketching, and looked at Mikasa. "Yes, you can trust me. So what is it?"

The raven-haired beauty scanned him for any lies, and when she didn't find any, she said. "Follow me."

He followed her as he was told, and a few moments later, he was brought to her room.

"You know if you just wanted to fuck you could've just said so," he joked, causing Mikasa to blush furiously and narrow her eyes in anger.

"T-Thats not why we're here, you perv..." She went toward her bed and grabbed a small box. "Here," she tossed to him, and he caught it.

He opened the box, and it revealed a syringe with a vile containing a strange golden liquid.

"What's this?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the strange vile.

"..It's to make you grow stronger," she vaguely answered.

The Lunarian looked at it, then back at her, and quirked an eyebrow.

"Is it a permanent performance-enhancing drug or something?" he asked, returning his gaze to the item in his hand.

Mikasa shook her head and looked at the syringe with nostalgic eyes. "It's something much better...it'll grant you the power of a Titan or, more specifically, nine different Titans..."

Crow quirked an eyebrow. "A Titan?"

Mikasa sighed. "You're gonna wanna take a seat...this will take a while..."

End.