Exploration, Explanation, And Learning New Things

Waking up in a bed, Michael thinks for a moment that he is back in his bedroom on earth and that he just woke up from some crazy dream. Until he sees the unfamiliar ceiling above him and the memories oh his last two weeks come crashing back to his mind.

Sitting up and looking at his hands confirms it, his old life is gone and he is probably never going back. Thinking about this, the last vestiges of longing for his old life fade away. While he won't forget all that he did and all his loved ones of his past life, neither will he allow himself to be chained by their memory.

Taking a deep breath, Michael feels a weight he didn't realize he was carrying fall away. He figures that he might as well fully embrace this new life of his as doing anything less would shame all his father taught him. Hell, he even as a superpower now! Thinking about his new power a smile comes to his face that turned a little vindictive when he thought of the voice he heard and their epic clash which ended in his inevitable win.

Remembering what he did last time he tries again to concentrate on the core of his power. Sinking his consciousness down into his core, Michael wants to see if he can still hear the voice that mocked him before so he can laugh in its face about his victory over it. What he finds surprises him though as what he expected to was resentment over its loss but instead, all he can sense is overflowing satisfaction.

Confused by this he sinks himself further into his core looking for the cause of such a satisfied feeling. Doing so Michael starts so see flashes of scenes almost like looking at the memories of another not himself. Seeing a mighty being roaming the oceans conquering all before it's path before feeling a tugging and feeling its mind go black.

The next scene is of a great sized man wearing white robes and a straw hat upon his head he sits there cross-legged and eyes closed. As he watches the scene play out Michael sees illusionary specters of the man and a great beast rise behind his seated form.

The two specters clash and battle for superiority until the man finally comes out victorious with the beast bowing in submission to it. Michael can sense no anger or unwillingness from the form of the beast almost as if submitting to a more powerful bing was the natural thing to do. Seeing the specters of the two slowly merge into one the scene comes to an end.

Waking up after that strange experience Michael thinks about how similar it was to what he saw in those visions and what he experienced before he passed out. Thinking about what he just saw and what he experienced when he, himself clashed with the will that resides in the core of his power, he comes to a realization.

Michael guesses that the great beast in his first vision is the so called leviathan that his devil fruit is named after and the willpower that he felt was not so much trying to subjugate him as it was trying to test his own will to see if he is fit to master it. As for the last vision, he guesses that it was probably someone who had this power before going through the same test.

That brings up the question, are the more than one of a power or are they passed on somehow from person to person? Michael had no answers, but he did know one particular giant that might. With various thoughts running through his head, Michael gets up and leaves the room he was in.

What greets him is a large room with soaring ceilings reaching what looks to be forty feet high. This massive room that he found himself in extended at least eighty feet to his left before being lost in shadow. It was very dark as the only light came from the roots far above that shone through glass windows embedded in the ceiling.

The roots looked to be much dimmer than before. Worried that perhaps something happened to the tree when he picked the devil fruit, it was just one more thing for Michael to add to the list of questions he had on his mind.

Finding the exit after a bit of looking around, what he sees is the skeleton of what could have been, or perhaps what once was a beautiful settlement built completely out of stone. Looking closer at the construction of it all, Michael is shocked to see no cracks anywhere. Not even between the stone ground and the bottoms of the buildings can a gap be found almost like everything was carved directly out of the cavern.

Intricate carving can be seen on all the surfaces depicting various things can be seen all over the place showings a high level of craftsmanship and artistry. The street that he is walking leads from the water all the way to a huge building that looked closer to a mansion or maybe a small castle that was stunningly beautiful in design.

Captivated by its sight, Michael stood there in the middle of the street just admiring the look of it. He had never seen anything like it in his old world and the only thing that he has seen that came close to it is the Notre Dame cathedral or perhaps the building for the state museum in Moscow. Even those paled in comparison and style to the grandeur of this building. The size alone stunned him as each level of what looked to be a five-story complex was at least 50 feet from floor to ceiling.

Reluctantly turning away Michael continued his exploration while looking for the poorly named Seagull. Seeing more of this place he can tell that by the number and size of the building it could fit at least one or two thousand normal sized people but what made him surprised was that the place seemed to be scaled for giants.

Doorways, windows, even the street itself was as wide as a three lane highway. Whoever the people were that made this place were big, really big. His best guess is probably thirty to forty feet tall judging on the doorways and such.

Almost making it to the water Michael finally spotted the big guy that was the subject of his search and the hope of having his questions answering his questions. He was sitting there on the edge of the stone with his feet in the water holding a fishing pole and staring out into space with thoughts unknown.

Coming up and sitting beside Seagull, Michael quietly waited for the big man to acknowledge his presence. Silence surrounded them for a moment before Seagull broke the calm, "I know you must have many questions after what happened yesterday.." Hearing up to here Michael notes that he was indeed out for a full day. Keeping silent he listens as Seagull goes on.

"I am sorry for not warning you about what would happen when you connected to your fruit. To my knowledge, such a thing usually happens right when the Mythic Zoan user first eats their fruit. I had thought you had already gone through the mythic will assimilation and failed the first attempt but your circumstance is a bit different than others."

Hearing all this Michael couldn't stim the questions he had any longer and cut Seagull off, "Wait, what is mythic will assimilation... Does it only happen to people who eat Mythic Zoans or is it the same with other Devil Fruits too?? ..and why am I supposedly different from others?"

Hearing the questions and seeing the burning curiosity of the young lad Seagull decided to share some of his knowledge that is not known to the rest of the world, "The mythic will assimilation is the process that affects only those who have a Mythical Zoan as the spirits that are used to make them are special, showing characteristics of all three major types of devil fruit.

For those that have eaten a mythical zoan if they want to be able to fully awaken their powers, they need to gain the acceptance of the will remnant, which is a fragment of consciousness from the fruit's spirit that was able to remain within the devil fruit when it was made.

Having a stronger consciousness than other types of spirits they have the ability to retain a bit of their will even after going through the prosses of being housed in a devil fruit which usually destroys the mind the spirits and only leaves the abilities..."

Making a weird face Michael replies, "Devil Fruits are made?? ..is there something special about awakening a devil fruit power? and what do you mean by spirit? "

"Huh to answer that I would need to tell you a bit about the origin of devil fruits... Nearly a thousand years ago there were no such things as devil fruits.. Till one day a great genius and leader was born. This great man made many advancements for his people and for the world as a whole and was greatly revered..

So great was his intelligence that he was able to discover parallel dimension to ours, an unseen world superimposed with ours and deeply connected to it. This new world was filled with vast amounts of odd and wonderous creatures with various powers ranging from weak and useless to powerful and awe-inspiring.

Naming these creatures as spirits, this great genius found a way to bring these spirits to our world and house them in special fruits that were genetically altered.. When eaten the fruits allow the spirit and person to merge as one granting the person the abilities of that particular spirit...

These special fruits are known today as devil fruits and to awaken their power one must fully sync themselves with the spirit of the fruit which in doing so awakens the dormant memories of the spirit allowing one to share its experience and mastery of its powers which greatly enhances the person's abilities."

Listening to all this Michael had an amazed look on his face as he tried to picture a man of such stature and what he could have been like. Hearing all that man was able to do truly him to no end. Looking to Seagull, Michael asked, "So how does someone sync with their fruits spirit and why is my situation different from others?.. is there something wrong with the devil fruit I ate?.. is it defective or something?"

Seagull smirked at the look of concern on the boy's face and replied, "Defective?! Boy, do you realize how lucky you are or just how many people would be willing to cut off their right hand to be able to have the fruit you have eaten?!"

Michael looked at him with a blank face

"Humphh Let me tell you brat, all devil fruits suffer from a single flaw.. Those that eat them and gain their powers lose all their strength and become helpless when in standing water. ...And before you ask even though I know how it came to be, other than perhaps Dr. Vegapunk who is the leading scientist of his generation, no one understands why such a weakness works the way it does.. not even me. Every fruit has this same weakness.. all except yours."

Learning this only makes Michael more confused and he waits for Seagull to continue his explanation.

"You see lad, back nearly a thousand years ago in the days of the great genius there was a catastrophic war between two opposing factions that made up the majority of the world. The genius, who came to be the leader of one of these factions due to all his contributions, also had a younger brother.

As youths, the two had been inseparable with their love of science to bond them but as they grew older the younger brother grew jealous of his older brother's accomplishments and the adulation they created as his own work went unappreciated.

Feeling lost in his brother's shadow he started to hate his older brother and blame him for all his woes. With the discovery of the genius's greatest creation, the younger brother finally couldn't take it anymore and launched a sinister plot.

Sometime during the late stages of this great war, the younger brother of the genius that he loved and watch grow betrayed him at a critical moment leading to his forces being wiped out and himself being fatally poisoned...

In a rage over what had been done the genius killed his little brother that he had once loved so much, but not before the brother got one last bit of twisted revenge. With his dying words, he told his big brother how he had created a virus that would change all the flora of the world on a genetic level and that the change could never be undone..

He told him that he had already released it into the oceans for it to spread around the world and when the users of his devil fruits die and the fruit is reincarnated into an infected fruit the person would be affected with the virus that somehow reacted to standing water causing the person to lose all their strength.

With the genetic manipulation done to the original devil fruits too perfect for the younger brother to crack completely, he told his older brother that his one regret is not being able to completely figure out how to destroy the geniuses greatest creation and only managing to leave a chink in its armor.. a single flaw in an otherwise perfect creation.

This is the story of how the curse of the sea came into being...

With regards to your fruit is said to be the fruit that the genius himself ate. It is not affected by the curse because the type of fruit that was used to make it was unique and resistant to the flora virus. The fruit of a tree, that was known back then as the Millennial Eve Tree and these days as the sunlight eve tree, was unique as there was only one of these trees in the world said to bear a single fruit once in a thousand years. while all the other devil fruits have reincarnated at least three or four times "

Michael marveled at all he was hearing and wanted to know more, "So what happened next?? You said the genius was poisoned.. was he able to cure himself? What about the war? who won? You said devil fruits reincarnate? how does that work?? ..and you haven't told me how to sync with my spirit yet!"

Hearing these rapid fire questions caused seagull to laugh, "Kid, slow down... As for syncing with your devil fruit and awakening its memories and experience, you just have to practice your abilities.. Learn all there is to know about how your fruit works..

As you get more proficient in its use and understand it more deeply you will come to a threshold that when passed causes you to absorb the memories of the spirit, letting your mastery in all your abilities spike.

Usually, there is a bit of a bottleneck there that keeps many from passing through that threshold and awakening their devil fruit but again you won't have an issue with that as you have already gained the remnant wills approval which you managed to pull off yesterday.. so now all you need is a little hard work and a lot of practice.

With everything else regarding the true history.. Well, if you want to know that bad why don't you just find out yourself! I will even help you out.. Since we are stuck in here for the time being all teach you all I can that way when you leave here you will be prepared to face the world.. I'll even teach you to read the ancient language.. hmm, by the way, do you even know how to read at all?"

Hearing that Seagull is willing to teach him all he needs to know, an excited expression comes to Michael's face only to be flushed red in embarrassment the next moment. "Ummm no... I don't but I will work hard in learning everything I can from you I promise!"

Snickering at his answer Seagull replies with a sadistic grin, "Oh don't worry, if there is one thing that you will have in abundance in the near future.. it is hard work... I'll make good and sure of that.. HAHAHA"