OP C03 - Adam's boon

After that, a lot has happened like the manga anyway. Despite Absalom missing and him not able to order his part of the zombie army, the demon 'Oars' still got Luffy's shadow somehow, Usopp still beat Perona by being too negative in the first place and Zoro beat the wano zombie and received his great grade sword while Brook got his shadow back.

After tossing Absalom's corpse into the sea, Dave split up with the Strawhat pirates and began to roam Thriller Bark. He had prepared a lolita-style dress with frills and lace for Perona on the off-chance they might hit it off, but the chances for that were honestly a little low unless somethingunexpected happens before Kuma arrived.

So he left the dress on the sunny. She was bound to go there in an attempt to flee anyway, so she might discover the gift in the first place.

He also didn't give the Strawhats any tips like using fire or salt or any other weaknesses, so Dave felt a constant earthquake from all the fighting going on on the giant ship.

'Purifying' some random no-name zombies on the way with the bag of salt he brought, Dave made his way to the 'basement' of Thriller Bark right next to a graveyard. His feet felt like they were guided here by a mysterious force, and when he didn't feel or see any zombies for quite some time, he eventually reached a door that seemed mighty out of place.

Opening the door turned out to be easy despite the fact that it looked like it was made of solid gold. The hinges, too, looked like they were out of place. They certainly weren't made with the basic engineering and smithing skills the rest of the ship has seen. Inside the room that was rather small, there was only a small square table with a wooden chest and a letter on top of it.

Using his observation haki as best he could, Dave couldn't find any traps anywhere. He stepped inside and grabbed the letter. His eyes bulged out immediately because the letter wasn't penned in this world's written language but in English instead, making Dave instantly recognized that him coming here was not a coincidence.

'Hey Dave, I feel like it's finally time to tell you a little of my plans for you so that you might stop fruitlessly cursing my name and earnestly seek out strength in this world. You see, there are some worlds that have gods and demigods in them. Actual beings that border on governing the laws that make up the fabric of reality. In any case, there's this world I wanted to send the soul of a demigod to, but instead of the well of souls doing its job like usual, I decided to play around a little. Your soul was fortunate enough to be grabbed by me at random, so rejoice!'

Dave felt like crumbling the letter and stomping on it for a while as he reached there, but swallowed his helplessness and anger and read on.

'Demigods have shorter lives than gods, and their starting point is much lower, but with the right opportunities, perseverance, and luck, their potential allows them to grow beyond their pedigree. I bet you nerd already have at least one demigod in mind as I say this, but I won't spoil your next destination. All a demigod really needs is a sufficiently strong divinity with enough control over it. Something this life and the last few hopefully will provide. Since I've seen that you're going to choose quite the thorny path that would see you die not much later than that boy you wanted to save, I'll grant you your first actual boon. Don't go crying out of gratitude, though. This is a test for your luck. I purposefully didn't peer into the future past this point to see your choice. Hopefully, it's entertaining.'

Dave's irritation continued to grow as he looked at this letter. Adam kept toying with him and now defended all the random shit he's been through by granting him a purpose in his next life? And he shouldn't die just yet, so he gets more entertainment?

With shaking hands, Dave read the last two paragraphs, 'Before you lies a chest with six devil fruits. I was gracious enough to give you one for every life. I already told you your soul is strong enough to house a second, so eat one! However, you must eat one before leaving the room or else they all vanish. And I won't tell you which fruit is which, I'm testing your luck after all. There's only one bad choice, really, so thank me later.'

'Anyway, the contestants for the devil fruit russian roulette are: The Special Paramecia Rust-Rust fruit, making you a rust human. The Logia Cloud-Cloud fruit, making you a weather human. The Logia Wine-Wine fruit, making you a booze human. The Logia Money-Money fruit, making you a coin human. The Mythical Zoan Ape-Ape fruit Model: Sun Wukong's descendant. And lastly, the Mythical Zoan Dog-Dog fruit Model: Nature's Spirit. Choose wisely, I doubt that with the personalities you developed over six lifetimes, you want the divinity of decay, haha. Signed, Adam. PS: Nice job with the conqueror haki, I knew you had it in you.'

With a resigned expression, Dave opened the chest and saw the silhouettes of six fruits inside. Yet no matter how he looked at the chest, all he saw was an inky black 'shadow', like a 'Who's that Pokemon' screen during ad breaks of a pokemon TV episode.

No matter how he racked his brain, Dave couldn't find any 'free' devil fruit lying around like Ace's fruit on Sixis or later during Dressrosa since the rules for devil fruit reappearance were changed, so he quickly firmed his mind to pick one of the choices Adam laid out in front of him. And Adam was right. Only one choice was truly 'bad' for his unique case.

Sure, he really wanted a zoan in combination with the Grow-Grow fruit's awakened ability, but before him laid three logia and unless he wanted to conquer the New World, that alone would be a truly busted ability. And while among those he would prefer the Cloud-Cloud fruit, the other two wouldn't be the end of the world.

"Huh, his fruit was never confirmed, but I know a lot of fans were thinking that Dragon ate a fruit like that, no? And what's up with Adam giving me six fruits out of nowhere? What is he playing at? Usually, he would have given me one fruit and told me to suck it if I wanted something else, like with the reincarnation this time around... I could make quite the overpowered crew with this if I wanted," Dave mused, looking at the explanation of the fruits on the letter once more.

Next, he took a closer look at the six silhouettes. In his mind he argued the Sun Wukong fruit would be shaped like a banana and that would make his decision for him since he really wanted a zoan fruit, but sadly three of the fruit were shaped like a stalk of banana.

"Let's go with my lucky number. Six."

His decision made, Dave picked the fruit on the very right, coincidentally one of the 'bananas' and bit into it. Adam wouldn't be Adam if he didn't miss out on telling him that eating a second fruit would be very painful, even if his soul and body had been 'prepared'. At the very least, the pain was so all-consuming that he didn't even get a chance to ponder on the fruit's atrocious taste.

So amid the island rumbling and quaking from the fights, Dave was writhing on the ground with soft whimpers and agonized moans.

With another painful groan, he acknowledged the new knowledge in his mind, inwardly celebrating the fact that Lady Luck favored him despite what he went through moments ago.

With a shift in his thoughts, Dave's human form suddenly turned into a fox that didn't even come close to being able to see the top of the table. His new form would roughly reach his human form's knees, but not with his body but his comically large ears and... antlers? He looked to his white paws, then his body with silvery white fur with a 'blanket' of bronze and earthen brown fur that shone in leaf green if the light hit it just right. Then, he sat on his butt and reached out with his paws to feel his face and discovered his ears and antlers.

"What were they called? Fennec foxes? But one with antlers? Eh, 'Nature's Spirit', I guess," Dave mumbled to himself in a cute voice. "Woah, I sound totally different! Tihihi."

"Now, what makes this mythical? The name suggests I have dominion over... nature? Life? 'Just' plants? Ugh, I hope it is something more than the latter. I can already do that with the awakened Grow-Grow fruit," the fox continued to speak to itself.

Dave changed back into his human form with relative ease and tried changing into any other form. But apparently, that wasn't possible. He didn't have a hybrid form, or he still needed to test his powers to find it. Not that it mattered much.

What he truly wanted was the increased endurance and vitality a zoan would provide. Additional powers would be something for later. He would have likely even eaten Nezumi's Mouse-Mouse fruit if no other option would prevent itself, though he was inwardly very glad it didn't have to come to that.

Looking back at the open chest, Dave easily identified the five other fruits. The Cloud-Cloud fruit was a sky blue stalk of bananas, and the characteristic devil fruit swirls looked much more like clouds. The Money-Money fruit looked a giant pear that was plated in actual gold coins. The Rust-Rust fruit looked like an iron apple that was left in the salty sea for a decade. The Ape-Ape fruit was a golden banana stalk with straight lines reminiscent of staves in between the swirls.

And then there was the Wine-Wine fruit that was more or less decided by elimination, but it was a bunch of wine-red grapes and the fruit itself smelled very much like wine, so it wasn't much of a stretch. It made him so much more sure that it was the wine fruit while that golden banana was the second mythical zoan.

"Now, Kuma will arrive soon, and I should talk to him about joining the Revolutionary Army before he reaches Luffy and the crew. Do I ask him to send me away now, or do I go to Sabaody first to meet Rayleigh and the other supernovas and have Kuma yoink me somewhere else after? How much knowledge do I reveal to get enlisted and not just as an untrusted outer member? I should reveal my awakened devil fruit power... should I?"

Dave pondered out loud and looked to the chest, "I could buy myself in with these fruits, but I kinda want to keep them, especially the logia to make a powerful group that is on my side. The paramecia could bring ruin to a battlefield in the right hands, but I bet what would truly gain me favor is the zoan. Sun Wukong was famously fighting against the heavens, seeking equality and freedom. I bet Sabo would be the perfect recipient for it with his lifelong goal. It matches well with his brother Luffy, too."

Closing the chest and taking it with him, Dave left behind the letter in the room, and as he closed the door he came through, he found that the door was no longer there. He shook his head and decided to head back to the Thousand Sunny where Kuma would arrive to send away Perona first.

Through the fog hanging over the giant ship, Dave could faintly make out a giant hanging onto the main mast that was more like a towering heavenly pillar. So Oars was still influenced by Luffy's memories, and Perona was about to head to the Strawhat crew's ship with the contents of the Thriller Bark treasury?

'No need to interfere. Let them have their fun. They are all stronger than their originals anyway, thanks to my meddling. Plus, Absalom is already dealt with, so Sanji and Nami are with the group instead of at the shotgun wedding with the unconscious bride... I'll beat up some riff-raff to train my observation haki on the way, though,' Dave idly thought as he made his way back from where he came, purposefully being loud enough to rouse all the zombies closeby from their slumber.

As he beat up and with his wooden spear dismembered hordes of weak monsters that slowly but surely had enough and fled from what they dared to call 'monster', Dave was pleasantly surprised that all his movements turned more fluid, his reaction time drastically decreased with every dodge, and his strength was growing with every moment he was actively fighting - even opponents as weak as those cannon fodder.

"Holy shit, mythical zoans are so busted," he mumbled under his breath after the last of the zombies fled the scene.

With his observation haki, Dave noticed nobody on the ship so he placed the chest down on the deck near the entrance, turned into his fox form and decided to rest while trying to explore his new abilities.

Even a good hour later, nothing came to mind, but his observation haki picked up several animals entering his range. Perona was coming with the treasure, so game time was upon him. Kuma was about to appear!

None of the zombies paid him any attention, likely thinking he was one of them with his out of the world appearance - which fox had antlers after all!? But Perona was different. She stopped directing the zombie horde and hurried toward Dave, picking up with shining eyes.

"You are so cute!!! This princess has decided to name you her new pet guardian! I just lost Kumashi after all to that despicable long-nosed hoodlum! Say Kumafifi! Are you strong?"

As a man of culture who liked big tiddy goths GFs, Dave rated the pinkette in front of him a solid 10/10 despite her comically large eyes that only looked bigger thanks to her black eye-shadow. The big round crown on her head was a bit ridiculous, but her build was perfection, as was the case for most women he had seen in this world.

"My name is not Kumafifi. It's Link Dave. Pretty lady, please put me down or start scratching me behind the ears," Dave demanded in his cute fox voice that had Perona squeal and ignore everything except for his request of scritches.

"What a cute voice! I'll allow you to talk whenever you feel like it!"

It didn't feel like he had reproductive organs in this form, which he didn't mind at all because he wasn't a furry or into bestiality, but getting scratched behind the ear in his fox form by a beautiful woman was nothing short of orgasmic. He wasn't proud to admit it, but Dave even did that leg thing dogs did when they got a nice ear scratch.

"Pretty lady, I made a dress that I think you might like. It's just behind the door. Like literally behind the door, it's why your underlings didn't see it," Dave eventually said as his mind came back to earth.

Intrigued, Perona entered the door and closed it to see a frilly, black lolita dress hanging on it. Uncaring if the zombies or her new 'pet' saw her naked, she immediately started undressing in the hallway. Standing in only her ringed white and black long socks and pink panties the same color as her hair, she slowly put on the dress, giving Dave a very nice show.

The corset of the dress was to be tied in the front, so Perona had no problem dressing into her new dress on her own. The corset made it so there was a bit of wiggleroom for the measurements as he simply took Nami's as reference when he made it and it was short enough that it wouldn't drag on the ground despite Dave miscalculating the woman's height. She was much, much shorter than Nami, after all. At least their bust size was comparable, so he didn't use too much or too little fabric for that part of the dress.

"I feel so pretty in this, thank you, Kumafifi! It's my good fortune to get a pet as cute and useful as you," the woman squealed in delight as she picked Dave up again and twirled around with him.

But that was when their fun stopped. After a final twirl, Perona's eyes popped out of their sockets. She paled and started sweating heavily. There was a warlord of the seas behind her! And something changed from canon, Nami wasn't here to see it in her wedding dress.

"T-the 'Tyrant', B-bartholomew Kuma," she stuttered out with a horrified expression.

Dave jumped out of her arms and sat in front of his chest as he watched their interaction. Kuma asked if they, her and the zombies, belonged to Moria, and Perona admitted to trying to flee just now. Eventually, it led to Kuma asking if she wanted to go on vacation somewhere specific, and Perona dreamily replying that she wants to go to an old castle drowned in darkness and malice to spend her time singing cursed songs.

Kuma then slapped all her ghosts away as she tried to sneak attack him by pressing his palm forward and sent her away with a silent 'patsu'.

All the zombies started panicking, but Kuma merely turned to Dave, who quickly turned into a human and held both hands up in surrender.

"Can you talk? Or do you have a line open to someone?" Dave cryptically asked hurriedly before Kuma would slap him away.

Kuma took a while to think about Dave's words and eventually said, "Speak."

With a short burst of conqueror haki, Dave knocked out all the zombies around them and asked Kuma to see with his likely stronger observation haki if they could talk. Once Kuma confirmed the coast was clear, Dave began his sales pitch.

"I know about your secret affiliation as I know about many other things. But I don't mean to blackmail you! Quite on the contrary, I want to join the... cause. I was recently tortured by CP9 and want revenge on the WG by getting rid of Cipher Pol and slavery, standing up for the little people. I figure you guys are the shortest path to as much information as possible and as much help as possible."

Kuma weighed his words in mind, though he was very much vigilant against this random someone who knew about his secret identity, "Continue."

"I came here on the ship of your leader's son, and I want to ask you to send me to Kano Country in West Blue when we meet the next time! That should give you enough time to discuss my matters with the big boss. In the meantime, I want to show my sincerety by presenting you this mythical zoan in the hopes you would give it to Sabo. In case you didn't know, he is the blood brother of both Ace and Luffy, and it was thanks to Luffy's crew that I managed to get away from Enies Lobby during the buster call. From all I know about him, the fruit would be perfect for Sabo: Ape Ape fruit Model: Sun Wukong. A legendary character that rebelled against the heavens."

"You know quite a lot," the giant bear-hat-wearing pacifista in front of him said after quite a while.

"I do! And I already have a mythical zoan fruit, which is why I don't mind parting with this one if it helps plead my case! There's also one piece of information you guys really want to hear, but I'll reserve giving it to you when next we meet. Take the zoan in the meantime, and thrash Luffy's crew for me. Those idiots want to go to the New World after having heard about haki from me for the first time, not two weeks ago..."

Kuma lifted an eyebrow and asked, "And you...?"

"Oh, I can't teach them. I unlocked oberservation haki by accident and conqueror haki after getting tortured for a week. Nobody should suffer learning haki from me," Dave waved away as he handed over the golden banana stalk.

"And Kano Country...?"

"You heard of their martial art, right? Happo Navy's Hasshoken? I really want to learn that. I mean, if you guys have a cooler martial art in the army, I'm not complaining. Though, while I respect Ivankov and his strength, I would prefer not learning his Newkama martial arts," Dave explained with a shrug.

"I see... farewell," Kuma said as he popped out of existence after regarding Dave in silence, for a full minute.

With that, Dave was left alone on the Thousand Sunny. He kicked all the zombies into the ocean since they didn't wake up after his use of conqueror haki and started his imagination training once more.

Several hours later, he figured out a trick that would come in handy quite a lot in this ruthless world. Delayed growth. With that, he could plant a small splinter on someone from afar and have it grow inside them like it did with those CP9 agents after some time. He was still testing its limits.

It wouldn't be as perfectly irremovable as his 'art' on those three, but it would hurt like hell, possibly even kill and unless he was stupid enough to use it on someone with crazy overpowered observation haki, he would be in the clear.

Eventually, Chopper arrived on the boat and hurried toward the infirmary despite his own miserable state. By now, he hid the chest with three logia and a special paramecia on the ship by growing wood over the chest, so he followed along as Chopper hurried back to his friends with emergency medicinal supplies.

The Strawhat's doctor had picked up on a weird smell, but everything smelled weird on Thriller Bark and he didn't have much time so he paid no attention to it as Dave stealthily followed in fox form. When he reached the ruins of the fight, Dave learned that pretty much everything turned out like it had in the manga.

Kuma had obliterated the exhausted Strawhats despite them being better off compared to the original fight, so the outcome turned out to be the same. Zoro did his manly gesture of taking all of Luffy's pain, impressing those two zombies and Sanji who told Robin by accident since he wanted to keep it quiet because Zoro didn't do it for thanks.

Charlotte Lola did her bid of proposing to everyone and eventually presenting Nami with a signed piece of Big Mom's vivre card, which would later show the Strawhats just how far Charlotte Linlin would go for power since she hated her estranged daughter so much for running away from the political marriage that she even tortured her identical twin sister Chiffon for it every time she saw her.

Nobody seemed to pay any attention to Dave in his fox form as the party slowly started among the survivors, which was very weird to Dave. He even sat close to Brook sometime later as the skeleton made his way to the piano that somehow survived all the carnage, yet nobody even looked at him. He chalked it up to it being a part of his fruit's power, like 'blending into nature' or something.

"Yohoho~! Yo-hoho-ho~!"

Despite being a fox, the avid OnePiece fan got goosebumps all over when Brook eventually started singing Binks Sake and started tapping his paw in the nostalgic rhythm. That was also when Brook finally noticed him and since everyone was singing along loudly, nobody noticed that the musician himself stopped singing and only played the song with one hand as he leaned down to pick up Dave and sat him on his bony lap.

"Aren't you a cute one? Yohoho," Brook whispered in a cheerful voice.

"It's me, Dave. You know, the quiet guest on Luffy's ship?"

"Oh-hoho. Then it is rather inappropriate for you to sit on my lap. Even if it's just bones!" Brook jovially countered as his hands continued dancing on the piano's keys.

Dave was a big fan of the musician, as most OnePiece fans were, and inquired, "About that. I don't know if it works, but I could try growing your flesh back? As someone who ate the Grow-Grow fruit, the limit of what I should be able to do is only my imagination."

"YOHOHO~! YO-HOHO-HO!" Brook excitedly shouted in reply, matching his song and continued in whisper, "Truly, Mr Fox? Yohohoho, being alive is truly great! Sure, give it a try tonight."

Sadly for both him and Brook, his imagination truly was his limit. After only managing to grow out the skeleton's afro a little more, which greatly elated Brook regardless of the outcome, Dave swore that he would work on his fruit's power and try again someday.

A few days later, the festivities with Lola's crew and the other remaining pirates Luffy and his crew freed were over, and the Strawhats walked to the Thousand Sunny for their journey forward. After not seeing him for a few days where Robin and the others feared for the worst since Brook didn't disclose his encounter, they found Dave quietly sitting on top of their mast, 'messing around' with their main sail.

"Hey Dave!! I thought we lost you somewhere," Luffy shouted excitedly, completely ignoring that the last time they saw each other, they had a minor unresolved disagreement with Absalom dying at Dave's hands.

The rubberman quickly stretched out his arm and shot toward Dave to see what he was doing. When he saw what it was, he turned his head upside down to better see and found with shining eyes that Dave had embroidered stylized faces of all his crew members into the sail!

"That's so cool! You took all these days you were missing to get this detail just right?"

Dave, immensely proud of his work, slumped his shoulders in defeat.

"Luffy, I know you're not trying to be hurtful, but every compliment from you feels like an insult at the same time."

Luffy picked his nose and answered, "I don't get it."

"No worries. In any case. No, this just took me a few hours. You didn't see me because I unlocked a new ability from my fruit, and I was training it," Dave explained without mentioning he was able to eat two fruit. Knowing that wouldn't help anyone, least of all him, so he left that piece of information out.

Luffy excitedly shouted, despite sitting right next to him on the beam, "Oh cool! Is it powerful? Show it to us!"

He finished his embroidery work and jumped down to the rest with Luffy while turning into his fox form mid air.

"See this? I'm a nature fox or something," Dave explained in his cute fox voice.

"EEEH!?"