4. Devil Fruit

Thinking of that I ran to a nearby stream and looked at my reflection.

I was a young child with long blond hair, some streaks of green on the right side and I had deep red eyes. Although I was a child one could see some hints that I would!d one day become quite handsome, fortunately I came more after my mother, as I always found the face of Whitebeard a bit strange with his jaw and all, so I thanked that god that I didn't come after him.

To measure my height I went to a nearby tree that already had various markings along his trunk.

These were the markings I carved into the tree since I was a child and first went to a normal town and saw how I compared to a normal human.

And oh boy, I was really huge.

The first time I met someone my age I was 2 and I was twice as tall as him. Of course we didn't become friends, he was even scared of me. My luck as I didn't want to become friends with children this young.

And it was also that day I could finally compare my height with a normal human, the mother of that scared toddler.

I could easily reach just above her navel. She appeared to me to be at around average side wise, around 165cm. So I concluded that I was around 110cm tall.

Since then I regularly marked my height on the tree, to see my growth. And compared to that time I would say that I'm currently at around 175cm.

Well it is pretty tall for a five year old, I hope I don't get too tall later on as I didn't find that many beautiful woman that are also tall in the series.

My grandma is also pretty tall by the way, around 350cm I would say. And concurrently my mother should have been pretty tall as well, around 360cm to 400 cm if I had to guess, as she was a bit taller than granny, at least from what I could see at that time.

After I checked my current looks and height I again went into the jungle to explore.

Since I went here often I could already move soundlessly, well most of the time. Sometimes I would accidentally make noise, when I move too fast or get careless.

So I really wonder why I never saw any beast. In the one year that I was exploring, I never saw any beast. Not even once.

My best guess is that granny is following me and taking care of any beasts in my way.

I didn't know that my guess was correct. Granny was in fact following me all the time.

A few hours into my exploration.

Ah I am really tired, even though I am running every morning for a while now to get my stamina up, I am still only a child of 5 years old. So I decided to take a short break and end head back.

This was my usual routine, running, stretching, bathing, breakfast and then exploring until I was exhausted, taking a break then head back for lunch. After lunch it would be lessons on strategy or navigation, then either playing chess or shogi against grandma or self study for navigation then dinner, afterwards playing some games with granny, which she brought from outside, or if she is in the mood she tells me stories about the world and my mother or the clan, then going to sleep and repeat.

But today was kinda different, as just when I was relaxing to recover some of my stamina, something fell on my head.

It was a strange fruit, it looked like an apple, but not an normal apple but with black swirls, that had some kind of violet sparkle in the middle. I directly knew what this was, a devil fruit.

And as I was inspecting it closer, I suddenly saw a window pop up before me, with the information of the devil fruit.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Name: Kuiki Kuiki no mi (Domain Domain Fruit)

Type: Paramecia

Rating: 7

Description: Allows the user to erect a domain around himself

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Wow I really have some luck, a devil fruit just hit me on the head.

And this fruit even sounds really interesting. I think I like it, so let's eat it.

I didn't hesitate for long before directly taking a bite out of the fruit. And it really tastes horrible. And all the description in the various fabrics and the manga didn't give this horrible taste justice.

But just as I have taken my first bite Grandma Aria suddenly arrived in front of me and snatched the fruit.

„Quick Young Master spit it out! Do you know what you just ate?"

I was a bit shocked at her reaction but I had already swallowed it and even if I hadn't I wouldn't spit it out. I mean how can one have an adventure in One Piece without a devil fruit. But I won't say that

„Sorry grandma I already swallowed. And no I don't know what that is, but it really tasted horrible."

„Then why did you swallow if it tastes horrible?"

„But didn't you say wasting food is bad?"

Grandma grew speechless by my reply. After she got herself together again she sighted

„Sigh, I indeed said that but this thing is different. This thing that you just ate was a devil fruit. After you eat a devil fruit you will gain some kind of special ability. And even though that sounds good, but you will also loose your ability to swim forever. And you should know how bad that could be in a world where there is so much water.

And since every devil fruit gives a different kind of power, ranging from good ones, like the gura gura no mi, that can create extremely powerful earthquakes, to bad ones, like the human human fruit, which would allow you to turn into a human and since you are already a human it does nothing for you except take your ability to swim away.

So you should never eat a fruit before ascertaining what powers it would give you. Also never eat such a fruit again since you will explode if you eat two devil fruits or more."

Even though I already knew most of what granny told me, it still warmed my heart to see her getting so agitated for my sake.

„Ok Granny I understand. I'm sorry."

„Sigh, it doesn't matter. So what kind of power did you get?"

Hearing the question of Grandma I grew curious too. I closed my eyes and started to concentrate, to see if I felt my new power. It didn't take long for me to feel a new kind of energy cursing through my body. And with that, a lot of information,of what I can do, also entered my brain.

I opened my eyes and an invisible barrier appeared a meter around me. And inside this barrier, the temperature grew slightly. Then I retracted the barrier and after concentrating for a moment a new one appeared, this time the temperature slightly dropped.

„I ate the Kuiki Kuiki no mi, making me a Domain Human. I can create and control a domain with my ability. I can define the specific characteristics of each domain every time anew. If I understood it correctly, then there is no limitation to what my domain can do. Also I won't be negatively affected by the power I set my domain to."

After I finished my narration and the display of my domain grandmas eyes widened in surprise. I can't really blame her, as I am the same. This fruit is really versatile and if used correctly very powerful.

„Young Master, you really lucked out on this one. It is one of the most versatile fruits I have ever heard of. And it could easily be the same as if you had eaten multiple devil fruits. This fruit let even me feel a little envious. My Wakeru Wakeru no mi (Tear Tear fruit) really can't compare, even though it is also versatile."

After that granny explained her fruit. Turned out that her teleportation ability isn't the main perk of the fruit. It is more offence orientated. As she could tear anything that isn't too strong apart.

For example her teleportation is an application of her tearing the space between two places apart and then she simply jumps through. But that is only possible for her, and she would be normally unable to bring anyone with her. If she wants to do that she has to coat that person in her haki. That is also the reason she can't bring anyone with haki with her. As the haki of that person would interferer with her own.

After granny explained her devil fruit to me she grabbed me and teleported us back to the house. Seems like we really talked a lot as it is already time for lunch.

Lunch was simple, some meat from the animals on the island together with vegetables from the small garden outside of the house.

As we spent the mealtime in silence, like normal, I slowly thought about how I can use my devil fruit, and how I should integrate it in my future fighting style. I already had some ideas,but they needed further study and practice. As such I started to plan a new routine for myself.

I would still do my usual routine of running and stretching in the morning, followed by bathing and breakfast. I would still explore the jungle behind the house until exhaustion, but I decided to try some of my ideas, that are applicable to the exploration. For example using a domain that won't let travel sound outside my domain. Then a break and further thinking of what I can do with my domain. After I rest enough heading back for lunch. Then attending the lessons on navigation and strategy, followed by the games of chess and shogi against grandma, but I decided instead of the self study of navigation I would train my fruit, if grandma doesn't want to play. And after dinner I would still spend time with grandma to play games or listen to her stories.

I followed this routine for the following year, until I was 6 and deemed ready to start my official training, the road to my dreams, of going adventuring and seeing the world.