Chapter 2: Reincarnation, and Devil Fruit

'Ugh... My head...' thought Takashi as he held his head and sat up. His skin felt hot and stung, his mouth was parched and dry and his stomach growled as if he hadn't eaten in days. He looked down and saw that he was sitting on a sandy dune. He stuck his hand in the sand and lifted it, watching the fine white grains slip through his fingers and cascade back into the dune. He groaned as he hauled himself up as he felt pain along his body indicating bruising and possibly something broken. He didn't know how long it had been since he had crashed or what happened. The last thing he remembered was seeing the dark ocean water and then fading out of consciousness. He looked around and saw the shore stretching off into the distance and a dark foreboding looking jungle behind him.

'Great. Now I'm a typical stranded person on an island.' He thought

'Now all I need is a bunch of coconuts and a SOS sign made out trees to finish off this cliché scene.'

His stomach let out another unhealthy growl. He took a look into the jungle and decided. Nope. Not Happening. I'm not going waltzing into that jungle. And then he did

He walked into it keeping and eye into the shadows while imagining all sorts of horrors that might lurk in those depths. He wasn't scared, he just felt uncomfortable being in an unknown place where his life was at risk every minute. He stopped feeling fear after a particular incident that took place in hist past during his highschool years. He never told anyone about what had happened that day, the only ones who did were him and Kaede... Kaede. His breath hitched as he remembered his friend. But before he could further wallow into depression and self-pity, he stumbled over a root that he carelessly stepped under and fell down. He rolled over and crashed through a bush leaving scratched on him as he fell into a clearing. Tired, hungry, thirsty and injured, he got up slowly falling down in the process sometimes. He tried to get his bearings as he looked around dizzy. But his gaze froze as he saw a tree in the clearing. It looked old and stood 15 to 20 feet in the air. It was a ancient looking bonsai tree with blue luminescent petal shaped leaves that danced in the wind as the periodically pulsed blue with life force and energy. it was a breathtaking scene that looked as if it was taken straight out of a movie or a novel. Yet what his eyes focused more on was the fruit that hung from a lower branch.

Looking at it, he could feel some kind of force compelling him towards it, trying to get him to eat it. Not that he needed a reason to, his stomach was protesting and making it really hard to restrain himself from running like a madman and devouring the fruit. The gears in his mind started turning as his body started taking involuntary steps towards it. The fruit was a pineapple with blue swirl like patterns on its black skin. The cone shaped leaves at the top were blue and pulsated with light in rhythm with the leaves of the tree. He was stunned, the way The scene looked surreal, glowing trees, and the FRUIT. It looked exactly like a fruit from the movie he had watched onboard the flight. From his favorite Tv show... One Piece. A Devil Fruit. Could it be? Did he somehow end up in the One piece world? Or has he gone insane from dehydration and starvation?

With every step he took towards the tree, the rhythm began speeding up and the pulsing noise increasing alongside his own heartbeat. He slowly took the final steps forward until the pulsing began to drown out everything, second only to the sound of his own heart pounding in his ears. His fingers stretched out until it touched the surface of the fruit when the tree gave a final pulse before going silent and glowing. He pulled the fruit. Ting...

...

A quiet yet clear sound echoed across the clearing as if a drop of water had fallen into a pool of water before the fruit separated from the tree and rested in his hands. The change was instantaneous. The once bright and glowing leaves dimmed and lost their color turning into shades of light gray. The life within the trunk faded and the tree started crumbling into ash swept away by the wind like leaves in an invisible gale. The destruction of the serene and magical place made Takashi feel melancholy as he was the cause. This feeling disappeared however when his attention returned to the magical fruit within his hands.

His mouth watering as its delectable scent entered his mouth. He gave it a distrustful look.

"Aren't Devil Fruits Disgusting?" he wondered out loud

Grimacing at the crackly and whisper-like noise that came out his throat accompanied by the pain of using his horribly dry throat. He hadn't spoken since he had first found himself here in this place. Unable to hold himself back anymore, he took a large bite into the flesh of the fruit trying not to gag or spit it back out. However, surprisingly enough it tasted amazing and unlike any description he had ever heard about them. He quickly finished it with each bite satiating his hunger and thirst. He tried to think or see if the information about the fruit would flow into his head but was disappointed when nothing happened. He tried to leave the clearing but his legs buckled underneath him as they finally gave out from the strain. As he started to get tunnel vision and pass out, he felt a burning pain which began to change him. Whether he would be a human, or a Monster when he wakes up would be up to his will.