It was going to be another rough year this harvest.
Bell-mère sighed as she checked the next tree with little hope.
The weather in Cocoyasi had been a bit off for a while even in such a calm place like the East Blue sea… Hell, all of the Conomi Islands had been having a rough harvest this year, it was a bit optimistic to assume her little grove of tangerines could handle the change in climate.
Still, she'd make ends meet.
She had to! Her little girls needed good food to grow up big and strong!
Bell-mère winced at how worn the trees seemed despite her cautious care and handling. Even the lengthy walks to get the purest water, the meticulous checking for weeds and insects and infestations, it was not going to go well this time.
She had already been pushing things a bit.
Both Nami and her older sister Nojiko were shooting up like weeds recently, yet with funds so tight… At first, it had simply been cutting down on snacks and treats, then cautiously only gathering good deals and what little healthy food was available.
But recently, she had been forced to subsist on only these tangerines and what few fish she could catch with what little time she had trying to keep things working.
Any excess food and nutrients had to be for the girls, after all.
She held in a bitter sigh over the injustice of it all.
She had been a captain, a Marine Captain.
Respected. Powerful. Beloved and appreciated.
Betrayed.
Not… Not officially. Not according to any facts publicly known.
But when her people, her subordinates… Sigh.
Fine, it didn't matter anymore anyway.
When her friends were sent off to fight in Oykot, to chase down the rampaging pirates in the local area and bring peace to those deadly waters… Well.
Officially, they had been surprised. Overwhelmed. Unlucky.
The opponents just happened to be prepared for incoming Marines.
And had somehow paused their endless internal conflict to put on a bit of a show for outsiders until the Marines were too close.
Reinforcements had been 'delayed' due to 'poor weather conditions'.
And as Bell-mère lay on the muddy ground, her foes and friends littered as corpses around her own crippled body, she had to admit: This was indeed, unfortunate.
Officially, it was a coincidence that most of the people who died that day were people who objected to the treatment of civilians, to the rape and torture of pirates and criminals, or who had altercations with leadership or concerns over certain decisions that were officially declared to have never occurred.
Officially, Bell-mère had decided to retire.
One of the few Captains to ever live that long, strangely enough. The job was a harsh one at the best of times, even when you weren't being set up for a quick accident... Much less when outnumbered, under equipped, and out maneuvered.
Back then, on that cursed land, her rifle had finished uncountable foes that day.
Her body had been surrounded by uncountable dead friends as well.
She hadn't let that stop her from defeating every last opponent, even if the point was long since gone. Or from finding every single follower, even if no one would care about their burials.
For a moment, laying there bleeding and knowing the many innocents were all slaughtered nearby, the foes long since forced to pass on, and her comrades now resting beside her beyond help… She had considered it.
Not simple retirement.
Just… Letting go.
Falling into the Darkness.
The temptation was strong.
Thoughts flew through her tired mind. Memories. Friendly suggestions that she accept certain practices, ignore low level bribes, allow a 'bit of fun' with captives, notes that she was pushing her authority, official reprimands that were technically prestigious awards but realistically tombstones marking her as potential trouble.
Fighting against all odds and winning is only a desired trait and ability when your leadership wants you to win.
When your defeat was supposed to allow certain political deals to go through… But at a cost she couldn't allow? Well, she had an opinion about such things. Things that, 'Officially', she wasn't asked… And that 'Officially' she hadn't punched a guy through a few doors for suggesting.
It was her fault, in the end.
For believing in the Marines. Or more to the point, their Justice.
That the ideal would be cherished in their hearts the same way she treasured it in hers.
So there in the filth, dying, she considered just accepting the end.
There were no more people to fight.
There were no more people to save.
The ones sending her to her death were likely complicit with the monsters who caused the entire scenario, but even at full health and power she had no ability to alter any of it.
If anything, these results… This moment right here, this was the result of her trying to make the world a better place in the end.
The fruit of her labor, the reward at the end of a hopeless task.
And in that darkest moment, a child holding a baby had found her muddy body lying near death in the rain.
Nojiko and
Nami also had no one and nothing. Little Nami didn't even have memories of a time before now, in the rain surrounded by corpses… Wouldn't make any memories for a while, assuming either child managed to live.
Details didn't matter though.
Not now.
Because at her lowest point with no hope or motivation, Bell-mère was needed.
And in the end, the call of Justice was, to her, about being there when needed.
So that day, with two tiny children in shock and mortal wounds on her body, Bell-mère fought through her own destined demise to ensure Justice would be found in this dead land.
And after the doctor stopped trying to patch her massive wounds long enough to get the two little girls treated first, she decided to retire.
Full stop.
These girls would be her small mountain of Justice.
Obviously, the Marines objected. Though they had limited methods of reprisal, as through all official documentation she was a hero and a survivor and a loyal follower and so on.
Things didn't exactly get better later on either, when she started rejecting generous 'offers'. Such as looking the other way on certain things, or rubber stamping certain personnel and statements and deals and so forth. Or supporting groups or plans or… Sigh.
Officially, she was a retired hero to the public.
But she doubted any other Marine Captain had such a tiny retirement income. Or had to pay so many fees and penalties and confidentiality agreements. Or had so many people in the shadows making sure she didn't move too far beyond these small islands in the weakest of the seas.
That she didn't exceed their limits nor attempt to flex her abilities.
But that didn't matter. In the end, none of it did. The East Blue was a weak enough sea to raise two little girls, and that was all she needed.
Just… Sometimes it was a bit hard.
She felt her empty stomach protest, but times were a bit tight… Would be even tighter soon.
Her years of training beyond the limits of humanity meant starvation took MUCH longer if properly prepared for, but at this point she was barely able to punch through a tree, much less show her powerful skills of her heyday.
She frowned at the struggling tangerines. There were enough here for… Maybe a few weeks. If she could fight a little while longer against this hunger, at least. Rationed them out.
It already stung her pride to have to scrimp and save and borrow from the villagers to ensure her girls at least got full meals… But if this got much worse? That might not be enough.
It was on the fifth row of her orchard that she blinked in confusion.
One of the tangerines was purple.
What the hell?
Like, cartoonishly purple. Not rotten or covered in mold or being consumed by some creature, just… The most natural purple shade she had ever seen.
She poked it.
It didn't feel weird.
No odd texture, and her sixth sense didn't feel a threat from this.
Cautiously, she plucked the thing from the tree… And it came off effortlessly.
It was peeled without effort… And the insides were purple too!
Then the aroma hit her.
Her mouth drooled helplessly! What madness was THIS!?
This had to be a mutant fruit or something, but it wasn't like anything she had heard of before. At first, seeing the unusual color, she had a fleeting thought it could be a Devil Fruit, as impossibly unlikely as that would be…
But no, this was clearly some sort of mutated tangerine, however improbable that may be. This wasn't the Grand Line, after all, where the impossible happens beyond every wave.
For one thing, she could easily squish it with her fingers and the juices smelled amazing! What little training the Marines had on the topic (Besides instantly reporting it to your leadership and turning it over) was very clear on this issue: A Devil Fruit was damned near invincible.
It was murmured that in some cases, entire fruit fields would be blasted by cannons just to see if any Devil Fruits had appeared within, as it was an efficient and rapid way to clear out anything else in the area. They were just THAT undamageable, period.
Then again, the rumors also claimed that eating one of those things was worse than sucking down raw sewer sludge. And this impossible mutant tangerine in her hand was beyond tempting, with a smell that made her a bit twitchy.
She forced her eyes back to the tree.
Were there more!? Could she splice this tree onto the others in the grove and start a whole new product? They'd sell like hotcakes, she'd earn a mountain of Beri's, unlimited funding!
More importantly than that, her girls would love these!
Unfortunately, despite carefully checking her entire grove a few times, this was the only purple tangerine in the whole place. She still carefully marked the branch she had plucked it from with a ribbon… Maybe a second would grow?
Still, this raised an issue.
With only one, she needed to make sure it was safe to consume… No way would she allow her daughters, adopted or not, to try an unknown mutant plant.
Thankfully, basic training for all Marines included testing the local food and drinks, if only due to how impossibly varied the local produce and animals could be from island to island. Right, where was her old kit? Third closet, right?
An hour later, one that involved her pulling out a number of nearly forgotten test kit user manuals to make sure she wasn't doing this wrong, she had gathered some conclusions.
First: This wasn't poisonous. Probably. Not any of the common stuff, at least.
Second: This wasn't a normal mutant fruit.
No seeds. Not one. That was NOT normal.
Third: It wasn't setting off ANY of her instincts, and anyone who managed to become a Marine Captain had to have sharpened their intuition to a horrific degree or die trying. Literally.
Technically, this was safe enough to feed to her subordinates according to the S.O.P., and if less than 10% of them suffer worse than a few cramps then it was fine to be approved for subordinate consumption during a mission.
Again, according to procedures.
But obviously she wouldn't just use her girls as canaries in a potentially deadly mine. Or as bait to test the waters.
After all, she may be worn down by life, still heavily injured if not degrading in vitality, and so hungry that her power was at record low levels… But she was still a Captain.
Even if this was a lethal poison, she was still strong enough to fight it off long enough to take one of the few emergency pills from her old kit.
Her eyes narrowed. What were the steps?
Best do them one at a time.
First, separate this into its various parts… Fruit flesh, peel, stem, leaves.
Second, one part at a time: The smell test. Hmm… Nothing unpleasant, rotten, or musty. Nor anything pear or almond like, so traces of cyanide was unlikely.
Third, she touched a slice of the tangerine to her skin, on her wrist. A new recruit would need to wait for 8 hours to test for burning, itching, numbness, rashes, etc., but her senses were much more advanced than that… No problem there, this time.
Fourth! She let the slice of tangerine touch her lips.
Now to wait for fifteen minutes.
Damned this thing smelled amazing.
She tried not to fidget as the time passed… Finally! No reactions, good.
Now to take a small bite and hold it in her mouth for another 15 minutes…
Oh. My. God.
Her mind went blank as the next steps flew out of her mind entirely.
It was amazing!
Almost too sweet, with a tiny bit of… Something? This was reminiscent of honey and cinnamon, but so succulent and juicy and…
She realized she had eaten the entire damned thing and was currently chewing on the peel.
The half EATEN peel. And she was actually reaching out towards the other dismantled fruit bits subconsciously, like she was actually about to eat the damn leaves!
Fuck.
That… That was bad. Probably.
With hands slightly shaking, she carefully opened ALL the small boxes of preventative medication in case they were needed. No side effects so far, so… Good? Hopefully?
The next few hours would be very nerve wracking.
Damn it, she had always been a bit of a thug, not one of those brainiacs! There was a REASON why she stuck to combat and kicking bad guy butt!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Shadow was planted in a good woman's Soul.
It was hardened, and beaten by life, and smelted by battle, and forged through adversity…
And she had walked through Darkness every day, carrying her Light inside her. Her Justice.
She was perfect! Gem, you mad woman, great job!
He felt her amused appreciation from the Darkness, but he was super busy right now.
First! To not be an asshole to his new Host!
Step one: Don't be a disgusting Fruit Snack. Which was 100% a success, no question!
True, he had nearly had an issue a few times, and was barely connected to the stupid tangerine for a good chunk of the last however long that had been, but now he was fully bonded to his new best friend and he could move on to step two!
Speaking of which:
Step TWO! Don't horrifically mutate or endlessly torture his new Host!
Because Shadow had ended up soaking the Yami Yami no Mi with a LOT of Darkness these last few… Hundred… Thousand? However many reincarnations this had been.
It was a lot of power, even for a Soul as big and reinforced and durable as this one!
So instead of doing the lazy Devil Fruit trick of exploding the Host and rebuilding her to be more compatible, or having chunks of her body twist into body parts from past creatures that could handle the power better, he was going to go for something a bit more subtle and pain free.
As the Host was filled with his endless connection to the Darkness, Shadow carefully began to soak each and every cell of her body with the essence of his Power.
For now, technically, she would be unchanged. A bit.
But every cell that gets injured, every new cell that was reborn? Bam! An enhanced cell with refined genetic information and tempered by the power of Darkness!
Sure, she might regress a bit until she hit whatever age her genetics says is 'Optimum', which might be like biologically 30 or so but uh… She might end up looking a bit younger than that. Maybe early twenties?
Not that he could see anything yet, this method was SUPER slow and he still wasn't connected to her Soul properly to share vision or help her use her powers or… Yeah.
So instead?
He was just going to pass the time by using his excess raw power to genetically enhance this woman as much as possible and begin detecting any injuries and irregularities and stuff and hopefully jump start the integration process.
After all, a mutilated muscle or torn organ or fractured bone would be prime regeneration material, right? Lots of new Darkness material to be reborn over there!
Take that, past suspicions! Shadow can do subtle too!
Gem was giggling about something, but she does that a lot, so he kept focused on task.
Let's make his Host the most awesome Host she can be!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Bell-mère stared in the mirror with horror and fascination and confusion. "Shit."
Her body kept having waves of warm pulses run through it, which felt like the world's most wonderful bubble bath.
Aches and pains she couldn't even recall were being cleansed, scars and marks had continued to vanish, and she had taken four baths since her accidental snack.
Because every pulse of this energy was forcing her body to shift.
The first three incidents were the worst… Layers of black gunk and filth had come from nowhere, oozing from her skin.
The antibiotic and antidote pills didn't have anything for this scenario, and taking random medication was just a death sentence, so she had been forced to try to keep herself clean and basically do nothing.
After all, she STILL didn't feel danger from these changes or the energy, which was sort of rippling through her body like someone tossing gems into a still pond.
Even after the first few gunk expulsion sessions, the cleansing didn't stop… And the changes became more and more noticeable.
She glared into the mirror… And at her own, visibly younger and healthier face.
Bell-mère looked like she had spent two hours in front of a makeup station preparing for some sort of big date, or getting ready to prank her crew and see if any of them would pass out from blood loss at how attractive she was.
Unnaturally pretty.
Her eyes could see a bit farther, even better than her best days, her ears could detect all the local wildlife, she had to brush her teeth three times until she could get the smell and stuff out of her system from that gunk she extruded…
That was NOT a mutated tangerine.
Stupid! The purple should have been the BIGGEST clue!
Damn it!
Bell-mère clenched her fists, ignoring how the metal rod she gripped bent slightly.
She'd found it earlier when her frustrated habits had damaged the kitchen table, so at least she could now twist and bend something without needing to pay for it to be repaired later… It was some sort of stress relief at best.
At least she didn't feel starving anymore?
The warm pulses of power had sort of… Filled her with energy. And that was BEFORE her body began to rapidly adjust itself and begin regenerating her wounds and removing her totally awesome battle scars!
Damn it, she had EARNED those!
Well, most of those. A few were from more sensual combat than fighting for Justice, but damn it, she had certainly earned those too!
Her mental train did derail a bit when she saw her pout in the mirror.
Huh.
At least it should be easy enough to gain a few more 'marks of valor' if she wanted them in the future… Like, a woman THIS hot? Oh yeah, she'd be willing to experiment.
Another pulse of power surged through her body, making her clench her teeth. Her now perfect teeth.
Assuming this was the end of it.
Or that there WAS an end to it.
Hell, she couldn't even claim that fucking fruit had been a Devil Fruit!
Hadn't there been one that was supposed to make anyone beautiful? The Sube Sube no Mi fruit, or something? Though that was about friction negation and being 'slippery' and stuff, so a lot of the guys would make lewd jokes about the topic and…
Another pulse of power seemed to make her hair glow slightly, the long fuchsia hairstyle flickering with some other worldly power for a moment, with highlighted shadows… And then going back to normal.
Shit.
She'd have to ask
Genzo to babysit the girls again, though asking the official sheriff of Cocoyasi Village to handle child care duties was a bit much…
Meh, the old guy was a sweetheart, and he would understand that she wouldn't want to expose the girls to this mess until she knew she was safe.
With another pulse of energy she forced herself to calm down.
Right… Nothing seemed to be going CATASTROPHICALLY wrong at the moment, just the horrific fear of the unknown and her terror at being biologically mutated without understanding or control.
But she was a big girl, she could deal.
She had chores to do, and just because she might be in the middle of mutating into a chibi or potentially deaging until vanishment… Well, none of that was an excuse to not get some chore work done.
With a twist she walked to that STUPID tangerine tree to check one last time that there wasn't any more of those freaky purple fruits and… And… Uh.
She blinked at the sunlight. And absently dropped her twisted metal rod stress toy.
When had she gotten outside?
A glance behind her… Yep, her back door was still closed.
Uh.
Right, um. What exactly had she done?
Her sight flickered to the missing fruit.
The clearly magical fruit.
Something MORE freaky than a Devil Fruit: A Mutated Devil Fruit.
One that didn't follow ANY of the rules that she understood, that didn't match ANY of the records or rumors she had heard of.
Shit.
She really needed a smoke right now. Hadn't had a fix since the funds ran out over a year ago.
No, focus.
Just… Try to do it again.
What had been the steps? She had simply thought about where she was going and turned?
She blinked at the other side of her garden, still in the same spot.
Huh. That wasn't what she had been aiming for. Plus it felt nothing like before.
No, uh… Hang on, she could do this!
Right. Focus on her mirror. How she was feeling back then… Sort of a mix of concern and confusion and determination and focus… And then she had turned?
No.
She had T̻̳̜w͖̥̹͎͠i̜s̸̹̬̣t̳͔͘ͅͅe̥͘d̺̱͖̳̻͡.
Bell-mère stared with a blank expression in her bathroom again.
Having somehow just teleported from here, to the garden, and back.
But now that she had the feel for it…
A T̷̴w̴͡i̛҉͞st and she was at her fishing spot.
A T̕wi̢s̵t and she stood at the docks, viewing the sea.
A Twist and she was in the laundry room.
She blinked at her trembling hands. A soft black mist or fog was vanishing like a dream.
It hadn't gotten harder to move with each turn.
It had gotten EASIER.
As if relearning how to do something she had always known.
What. The. Fuck!?
And… Something more? No, not more. Just… A bit over here…
She reached out with a Twist and her partially mutilated stress relief rod was just THERE, in her hands, and she KNEW it wasn't in the garden anymore.
Bell-mère slowly began to Twist something unseen as she absently appeared and vanished around the house, cleaning with an efficiency never seen before.
Lost keys? Just remember what they look like and they were here again. She even felt where they had BEEN and could easily return them.
Outside at the compost pile? Just Twist a bit and all the dust and dirt that had been tracked into the house was pulled from THAT area and now added to THIS one.
Her dazed feelings took another hit when she tried to grab a stained pillow from the couch… And only grabbed the stain.
Leaving a clean pillow behind.
She looked at the gunk in her grasp before a Twist sent it off to the trash bin. Leaving her hands perfectly clean.
Another absent minded Twist had all the filth and sludge and dirt covering her skin, hair, clothing, and possibly even EMOTIONS suddenly vanish away for disposal.
This… She had never FELT this purified before! It was almost obscenely decadent!
She also found that, unless she was moving massive amounts of things or going far distances, the faint traces of that Darkness grew less and less obvious.
Bell-mère blinked as weapons flickered back into her hands and vanished back into their secured locations, easily able to have the ammo and guns appear in any combination desired, fully loaded or not, and then impossibly returned to original locations or even packaging.
After only a bit of effort, there was no trace of HOW it was happening. Just images flashing into and out of existence, like an illusion.
Still, despite how overpowered this new ability felt, and the horrific potential she could already grasp and what it may imply… The more she used it?
The easier it got. And the less strain it took.
Even the effort or energy cost was becoming negligible.
In addition, something in her Heart felt like this wasn't the full scope of her most recent changes.
Yeah uh… This thing had clearly not been a normal Devil Fruit. By any measure.
But… Maybe this could solve the food issue at least?
Not through anything that would grab too much attention, or risk talking to those bastards in uniform that were crippling the true meaning of Justice. And there wasn't a reason to stoop to something unethical, like random theft. Not even from justifiable targets, not yet.
But if it was so easy to grab abstract objects despite not knowing their current location…
A Twist and suddenly she was holding a massive flopping catfish, confused and attempting to escape whatever the FUCK just happened. The fish was unsuccessful.
Her vastly improved body didn't even flinch when a four hundred pound aquatic animal was suddenly being casually gripped with her hand, and a flicker of intent was enough to knock the thing unconscious.
Bell-mère just… Stared at this fresh caught meal.
One that required no tools, no equipment, and no preparation time.
A
hardhead catfish that came from the ocean shore of this island, from that direction, and not too deep in the water either… But far from her usual fishing spots.
Instantly caught, ready to process, BAM! On demand!
Could… Could she do more with this ability?
Devil Fruits were always able to do odd or impossible things, and earlier she had managed to grab a stain left by one of Nami's snacks off a pillow so…
With uncertainty she held her other hand to the side and Twisted…
And stared stunned at the slightly deflated fish in one hand and a FULLY INTACT fish skeleton in the other.
A skeleton that managed to just exist in place in her grip, some bone fragments were just ignoring gravity to continue representing their former location in mid air as the entire thing hung there.
Releasing the bones from her grasp had them collapse into a small pile with no goo or mess, just dry clattering into a mound.
Because, of course, she hadn't grabbed the organs or blood or mucus or membranes or scales or skin… Just the bones.
It was like only taking the yolk out of an egg, but before you crack the shell.
Well. Uh.
Huh.
Yeah, she could work with this.
