Devil Fruits really are interesting!
I’ve been in a fantastic mood lately.
Compared to the trash-tier Gum-Gum Fruit—which is only good because of protagonist buffs—
I cucked a Devil Fruit that’s a hundred times better out from under someone else.
A moment of silence for Uncle Shanks, whose Devil Fruit got NTR’d...
The fruit I ate was the Bat-Bat Fruit: Model Vampire.
Apparently, it’s a Mythical Zoan-type Fruit.
It had been so long since I’d read the One Piece manga that I asked for the most overpowered Devil Fruit possible.
This must be the Devil Fruit I was promised.
I was sure Logia Fruits were the most broken, so I thought I’d be getting a Logia.
A Mythical Zoan??
The name is, well... kind of dumb as hell, but its performance is no joke.
Once I ate it, I instinctively understood its basic abilities.
First off, just like the Vampire model implies, I can steal other people’s vitality.
I can keep that vitality for myself or give it to someone else.
I can do it by biting their neck, or just by grabbing their neck with my hand.
And that vitality can be used to manipulate aging.
Anyone I steal vitality from gradually grows older.
I can give it back to make them young again, or make someone else younger.
Sounds like it’d be useful when dating older women. Like Makino, for example.
I can also use it to restore stamina, and if I use it after suffering a major injury, I can at least hang on without dying.
It can’t heal injuries, but it can keep me alive until I do heal.
So I decided to call this ability Absorption.
The second function was relatively simple.
Wings grow from my back, letting me fly through the sky.
Eating a Devil Fruit means becoming a hammer in the water, but being able to fly is a fucking great trade.
The third is that I can spread darkness around myself, and when it gets dark, I can hide within it.
If I use this on a dark night, wouldn’t I basically be invisible?
I’ll call it Darkness Spread.
From the day Luffy and I first ate our Devil Fruits,
we trained together to learn how to use them.
But these days, I tend to train by myself.
Because Luffy gets all gloomy about it...
I guess I would too, in his shoes.
Luffy’s Fruit can only make him stretch,
while I can fly around and have techniques dripping with coolness...
But Luffy, you chose that Fruit. Grit your teeth and tough it out!!
You’ve got protagonist buffs, after all...
Even though I said it was overpowered,
I’m not sure whether it’s more broken than a Logia.
Is it because I’m still weak myself?
Both flying and Darkness Spread have far too short a duration and are still weak.
And I haven’t had anyone to try Absorption on yet.
This is before the protagonist comes along.
"Village Chief!! This is terrible!!"
Makino, the tavern owner, burst through the door to the village chief’s house as she spoke.
"What is it, Makino?"
"Luffy was taken by the mountain bandits..."
"What an interesting body he has."
"Yeah... Apparently, punching or kicking him doesn’t faze him at all."
A gang of mountain bandits was tormenting Luffy in the middle of the village.
"Apologize to me, damn it!!"
Luffy charged at the bandit boss, only to get beaten up even worse.
"We could make a pretty penny selling him as a sideshow attraction."
"Let that boy go!!"
The village chief pushed his way through the villagers, who had been unable to step forward while watching Luffy suffer.
"I’m begging you!!"
"Luffy doesn’t even know what he did wrong, and we have no intention of fighting you!"
"If you’ll permit it, I’ll give you money, so please spare the boy!!"
The village chief fell to his knees and bowed, pleading with the bandits.
"No can do!! This brat’s a dead man now."
"Because he went and made this old man mad!!"
"You’re the ones who did wrong, you monkey-faced bastard!!"
"Fine, forget selling him off. Better to get rid of him right here and now."
"No one came to greet us at the harbor, so I was wondering what was going on..."
Shanks appeared behind Makino and the village chief.
"You’re the mountain bandits we met the other day. Luffy! Didn’t you say your punch was as strong as a gun?"
"You pirate bastard... You’re still in this village?"
"Hey, don’t come any closer."
As Shanks slowly approached the bandit boss, one of the bandit grunts pointed a gun at Shanks’s head and spoke.
"Your head might get blown off. Hahaha!"
"The moment you draw a gun, you put your life on the line."
"Huh!? What kind of nonsense is that?"
"It means this isn’t a tool for making threats..."
Shanks said this as he casually pointed at the gun aimed at his head.
Then—
While tearing into a hunk of meat, Lucky Roux took out the bandit who had been aiming his gun at Shanks’s head.
!!!!!
"H-He really shot him!!"
"You cowards!!"
"Cowards?"
"What a stupid thing to say. Did you think you were up against saints or something?"
Yasopp and First Mate Benn Beckman answered the bandits.
"The ones standing before you are pirates."
Shanks said.
"Listen up, mountain bandits... You can dump alcohol or food over my head,
or spit on me, and I’ll laugh it off and let most things slide.
"But I won’t forgive anyone who hurts my friends!!"
"Shanks..."
"Hahahaha!!! You won’t forgive us?"
"You dare pick a fight with mountain bandits? Kill them!!"
But when First Mate Benn Beckman stepped forward, everyone except the bandit boss was taken care of in an instant.
"Don’t get cocky, mountain bandit..."
"If you want a fight with us, bring a warship at least."
The first mate spoke while aiming his gun at the lone remaining bandit boss.
"Wait a second, this brat was the one who picked a fight with us!"
"You’re wanted criminals anyway."
Shanks replied to the bandit.
"Tch!"
The bandit threw down a smoke bomb, then successfully escaped with Luffy.
"It’s a smoke bomb!!"
"Ah! Ah! I let my guard down! Luffy!! What do we do? What do we do!!!"
Shanks grabbed his head in panic as he spoke.
"Don’t panic. If we all search, we’ll find him in no time."
A small rowboat out on the sea.
"We fooled them completely!"
"They’d never imagine a mountain bandit would escape out to sea!"
"I brought you along as a hostage for now, but I’ve got no use for you anymore!!"
The bandit dodged Luffy’s last, defiant punch, then kicked him straight into the sea.
"Goodbye."
At that moment, a monster burst out from beneath the sea and swallowed the bandit boss and his rowboat in one gulp.
Then it opened its jaws and approached Luffy, who was flailing in the water.
All Luffy could do was scream at the approaching sea monster.
"Shanks!"
At the decisive moment, Shanks saved Luffy.
"Get lost."
Shanks unleashed Conqueror’s Haki at the monster.
The terrified sea monster fled.
"Thank you, Luffy. Makino told me everything. I hear you fought for us."
"Hey, don’t cry. You’re a man, aren’t you?"
Shanks spoke to the crying Luffy.
"...But... Shanks...!!"
"Your arm!!!"
Shanks’s left arm had been torn off.
"It’s fine. It’s only an arm... I’m just glad you’re safe."
I realized it far too late.
I had grown attached to Shanks, and this was something I desperately wanted to prevent.
But I’d been too absorbed in practicing my Devil Fruit abilities...
Had I really become a child?
Or was it guilt because I could have stopped it but failed to?
I couldn’t bring myself to stand before Shanks after he lost his left arm.
Several days passed.
The Red-Haired Pirates were preparing to leave the village.
Shanks was talking with Luffy.
"Is it true that after this departure, you won’t be coming back to this village anymore?"
"Yeah. It’s been our base for quite a while, but it’s finally time to say goodbye."
"You’ll miss it, won’t you?"
Shanks’s words, telling him not to be sad, seemed to push me forward from where I had been unable to step out from behind them.
"Shanks, I’m sorry!!"
"If only I’d been in the village, Shanks’s arm...!!"
Tears streaming down my face, I ran to Shanks.
"Haha, I feel lighter now. I like it even better!"
Shanks said, patting my head.
I couldn’t even answer. All I could do was cry.
"One day, I’ll gather comrades strong enough that we won’t lose even to this crew!"
"I’ll find the greatest treasure in the world!!"
"And I’ll become the King of the Pirates!"
Luffy shouted loudly to Shanks, as though making a vow.
"...So you mean to surpass us."
"Then... I’ll entrust this hat to you."
Shanks placed the straw hat he had been wearing atop Luffy’s head.
Luffy cried beneath that hat.
"And Jin..."
"I’ll entrust this sword to you."
With his remaining hand, Shanks handed me the sword he wore at his waist.
"Jin, I don’t know whether you’ll become a pirate or not,
but this is my precious hat and sword. Make sure you come return them to me someday."
"After you’ve become a big shot."
Leaving Luffy and me crying behind him, Shanks walked toward the ship.
"Those two are going to become something great."
Shanks said to his first mate.
"Yeah."
"They’re exactly like I was when I was young."
"Luffy is the spitting image of my personality, and Jin is the spitting image of my looks."
"...That part, not so much."
"Set sail!!"
Ignoring his first mate’s remark, Shanks gave the order.
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