The Fruits of the Sea Devil

"GOD, DAMN IT!!!" a young woman screamed into the jungle wilderness as she trudged through it, followed by a tanned young man, now missing his trademark shades, as well as two girls, twins, who had been among those of Stark's lot who wielded swords during the fight at Lumen two days prior to the current situation.

They had just negotiated with the sheriff for their release. Turns out, the port town's jail was awfully small and couldn't afford to house many people for pretty much any time at all so as long as they demonstrated a willingness to engage in peace with the town, its people, and their property, the sheriff was more than willing to just let them go.

So now here they are with the rest of the crew having gone on their way to regroup at the ship while this woman blows off some steam and is followed by her closest companions on the crew, save her captain of course.

One might remember the two people who accompanied Stark when he walked into the front yard of the House Hebito.

These two jointly held the title of vice captain of Stark's own crew, The Bright Iron Pirates.

The Man, Jamison Murdock, had his start as a reporter, then an information broker and a part time spy, in the South Blue, so he filled the role of vice captain in most situations given his vast knowledge, being as he was so well traveled.

His wide travels had taken him many places, but it was pure chance that he was in the Kano kingdom researching the Don Family when the Kano incident occurred just a year prior to the present.

There he witnessed first hand Starks excellent physical strength, speed, and decisiveness as he cut down the instigator of the incident, a rogue member of the extended Don Family who had threatened to bomb a port if his demands were not met by either the Family, the Marines, or the Kano Kingdom Royals.

Stark's actions earned the favor of Don Chinjao himself, though he chose not to ask for any reward, and the ire of the local Marines leading to his current bounty.

As for the woman, Chadwick Miranda, she was an older friend of Stark's back at the Dojo in Port Angel, and the twins, Mabel and Marianne, as well were her friends back then who followed her alongside Stark when they had nowhere else to go.

As these figures deftly, but quietly followed a fuming Miranda as she trudged through the jungle to the northeast of Lumen. All of them were keeping their eyes open for the challenges of the wilderness except for Miranda, still distracted by her unending fury.

As she moved beside a tree she wound her bare fist and slammed it against that tree. As she made contact a loud snap could be heard and the tree began cracking, leaning, and finally it created an immense thud as it hit the ground.

When the echo of the tree falling finally subsided, Miranda began ranting aloud.

"We were ready, we should've been ready, for aaaaaaanything that could come at us, but noooooooo. We just had to find the two people in the whole of the west blue that could take down all 12 of us at once and the one absolute BITCH that could one shot that dumbass captain of ours!"

"Miranda." Marianne called, but her friend didn't respond

"Now were stuck between a rock and a hard place. We're hardly capable of warring with marines much less raiding their bases and the absolute doofus of a captain is stuck in a cell somewhere we hardly know..."

"Miranda!" Murdock shouted trying to get her attention.

"WHAT!?" Miranda shouted in response.

"It's fine, we have some time," her colleague informed trying to calm her down and keep her head level, keep her from ranting and raving about Stark as she tended to when he did something truly stupid, "There's only one Marine base on the entire island so we know where he was taken to cash in the bounty. It'll take a couple weeks to organize a transport to a larger prison so we're not pressed for time to come up with some kind of heist/breakout plan."

In response Miranda maintained her gaze, looking Murdock in the eyes, for a second before turning back to look into the jungle, closing her eyes, taking a deep breath in, and out, and opening her eyes again and turning her head to actually get a good look at her surroundings.

She then more calmly addressed her crewmates, "You're right we just need to make a plan of attack and we shouldn't have much of a problem."

When Miranda looked around, nearby she saw a hill where the foliage was almost non-existent and, thinking that she could get better a lay of the land, walked up it and did just that.

When she came to the hill's apex, Miranda was surprised to find that it cut off in a cliff over a small rift in the forest floor but what caught her eye as she looked out across the rift shocked her even more.

"The marine base is on the outer shore of the bay," taking his eyes off Miranda as she looked around, Murdock's eyes darted between her and the twins beside him now.

"Then we regroup-" Mabel responded before...

"-And we sail to mount our attack, perhaps a hit-and-run from the shore." Marianne completed the thought.

"Right," Murdock added, "But we should take all the time we have left to recuperate our losses and arm ourselves again using the nest egg the captain keeps in his quarters-"

"No fucking way." Miranda cut him off before sliding down the cliffside of the rift in the opposite direction of her crewmates.

"Miranda?" Murdock called before rushing around the base of the small hill to get a look at where she was going, Mabel and Marianne following out of concern.

As they came jumped down into the rift, whose bottom was filled with plenty of dirt and gravel to set ones feet on, and came up behind Miranda who was staring up at a berry bush growing on the opposite end of the rift, they all followed her gaze.

First they noticed the berries and then the sight of what exactly Miranda was looking at caught their eye.

As he saw it there Murdock recalled his very brief interest and deep dive into these subjects, where he sought out every rumor he could dig up of them and their properties.

These rumors were, however, heavily mythicized throughout the world and the existing wealth of unbelievable or even contradictory stories that he came across made it difficult to parse fact from fiction.

How could a reasonable man such as he even believe they existed at all then, you ask? Easy.

The sources on Whitebeard's ability to destroy the world and Shiki's moniker of 'The Flying Pirate', were themselves usually reputable.

Edward Newgate was, before he was known as 'Whitebeard', once referred to on an official Marine wanted poster by the epithet 'Earth Shaker'.

"Devil-" "-Fruit" Marianne started and Mabel finished as they all stared at what sat right next to two perfectly normal, red strawberries, a black strawberry with bright yellow seeds lining the skin and two, odd, half cone protrusions next to the stem.

After some time staring, Miranda collected herself a bit before she started moving to the cliff and rushed up the side before jumping up and plucking the berry before falling back down. She looked down at the berry, barely the size of one of her fingers yet so mesmerizing in appearance, in her hand before looking up and meeting Murdock's eyes uncharacteristically, as if pleading for his advice.

"Well, shit..." he trailed off, surprise clear on his face as he saw the fruit in her hand, but as he met her gaze and read her expression he straightened himself and explained in his usual confident smugness, "I looked into it a while back. 'Fruits of the Sea Devil' they call 'em. The most reputable rumors I could find said that, in exchange for gaining some kind of superpower, you'll lose your ability to swim if you eat it. Not much else I could find as to the mechanics or specifics was at all reliable. All the same, it's up to you."

"Psh... I've never swam a day in my life," she said before looked down at it determined and bit the whole fruit off the stem and her eyes went wide.

---

"...tasted like shit too," Moria said with his left elbow on his knee and palm to his chin, sat on the back porch of the Hebito household, Unmoved as Stoker leaned against his side watching Elaina work, "I've asked Vik and he told me that he and every single fruit user he met in his 34 years around the blues and even on the Grand line told him the same thing about when they ate theirs,"

The incident at Lumen took place on Sunday and Moria had left for the Marine base the next morning. With Moria returning on Wednesday around noon, here we find ourselves on Thursday afternoon with Moria and Stoker hanging out with three of the Hebito siblings.

"So, wait..." Price butted in sitting on his brother Daniel's leg who was himself sitting on a smooth, cut tree stump a few meters away, "The fruit isn't figurative, you literally found a strange fruit and just ate it like that?"

Cutting off Price came the sound of an axe chopping wood and then a hefty thud from Elaina, wearing loose fitting training pants with a white sarashi around her upper chest, who stood several meters from them, chopping raw logs to break them down into usable firewood, which her family would use or sell to people in nearby towns on the side of the dojo business's fees.

Elaina proceeded to pick up and throw the chopped pieces into a huge pile on the side of a clearing near her before moving to a cart to her left filled with the remaining raw trees.

It was quite the sturdy vessel, it had to be to carry the load of the huge cut-down trunks, easily the length of 3 full grown men stacked atop each other and as wide a those men's shoulders at the smallest.

As though with no effort, without breaking a sweat, the cracking of twigs and bark emanated as Elaina casually dragged the tree trunk out of the cart before hoisting it over her shoulder and carefully turning it around to walk the log over to her original spot before beginning again to chop away.

"Oh yeah..." Daniel added, "We haven't really let you in on the whole deal of this stuff, have we, Price?"

"No," his brother confirmed.

"Well..." Moria responded while looking over to Elaina, "maybe we could arrange a demonstration."

Moria nudged Stoker with his elbow and as Stoker sat upright, looking on listfully, waiting for his favorite anomalous sight in the world, much more than just seeing a person there and being wary of touching them lest you cut yourself, and Moria walked up to Elaina

"Oi, Elaina," he called, and as she stopped chopping she looked up towards her towering Captain, "You've already done over half, let me get your shadow and do the rest."

"You know you don't need to bother," she responded, thinking through his intentions a bit more and realizing what he was trying to do, before walking past her captain, intending to go over to the shaded area on the porch below an awning, "Alright fine. I'll take a rest, just make sure to get the best out of it."

"Gotcha," he said before following Elaina back.

Moria took a small pair of scissors, twirling them in his hand, out of his pocket before they stopped.

Moria stood under the sun while Elaina's body was mostly in shadow to the point where the shadow she cast was just peeking over the awning's. Stoker stood just in front of Elaina with his hands outstretched, as though awaiting her.

Moria reached down, seemingly grabbing at nothing, and took in his hand a dark substance that seemed to come straight from the shadow. As he drew the shadow out, Elaina flinched and grunted, as though beset by a stinging pain, and when the human shaped black figure was finally mostly off the ground, Moria took his scissors and cut it off at the base.

Elaina fell forward into Stokers arms, and began panting, her shoulders heaving before she got her bearings and got up before sitting down comfortably in the shade. Stoker didn't react at all to the contact or Elaina's exasperated disposition.

Moria held the thrashing shadowy mirror of Elaina in his hands with very little reaction to the thrashing on his part.

He sternly commanded it, "Calm down," before explaining to it, "you will return after some time, I just need your help for a moment. Your master agreed so don't worry."

In response the thrashing stopped and when it did Moria brought the figure closer to his body. The shadow began to fade into his chest and once it was completely inside no visual traces were left at the entry-point.

After a moment, Moria's whole body twitched and morphed. His shape didn't change but his muscles became notably bulkier and he grew several centimeters in height.

Once his body stopped changing Moria raised his hand, moving and flexing his fingers while rolling his neck and shoulders to ensure everything about his body was in order.

When he was finished with that, Moria turned around to the wood Elaina had been chopping and started to work away at breaking down the logs, his movements mimicking Elaina's besides accounting for his larger size.

"Wow," Price said, having been watching all this time in shocked silence, before looking to Stoker and Elaina and asking "So there are other kinds of these powers? How Many? Where do they come?"

"Woah, woah, woah," Stoker responded, "Calm down Price, we can only answer so many questions at once."

"No one knows how many devil fruits there are," Elaina responded to the question having recentered herself after the strain of having her shadow taken, "nor where they come from, or even what they really are..."

"...but Vik says that there are three categories, although both his and Moria's power are in the same category so we've never really seen any of the other two in action.

"Moria can take people's shadows and strengthen himself or others by putting them into his or their bodies or even use them to animate objects while Vik can make a blade out of any part of his body."

"So that's just how shadow's work and Moria's devil fruit just takes shadows away from where they normally stay?" Price asked.

"It seems like it," Elaina added, "As Vik puts it: the shadow is a second soul, it contains some of a persons strength along with their muscle memory for performing actions. But the living which are without shadows cannot exist under the sun and in so doing that contradiction turns them to dust to blow away in the wind."

A moment of silence fell while Moria's chops echoed at regular intervals as everyone present envisioned such a grim fate.