"Luffy, this hat is my most precious treasure. Someday, you have to give it back to me, okay?"
"This is our promise."
Shanks gently placed the straw hat on Luffy's head.
Little Luffy's eyes turned red, tears welling.
"Shanks… I'll remember. I'll definitely return it to you… sob…"
On the departing ship, Shanks leaned on the rail, watching the tiny figure on shore.
"I'll be waiting, Luffy."
On deck, Benn Beckman rubbed his temples.
"You've really gone and done it now."
Shanks touched the scar at his empty left sleeve and smiled.
"Ma~ It's fine. I'll just train one arm from now on. Don't make such a big deal out of it."
"I bet my left arm on the new era."
Yasopp sighed.
"The arm is one thing…"
"But if Garp finds out we basically groomed his grandson into becoming a pirate… he's going to chase us across the world."
Shanks burst out laughing.
"Hahahaha! Then we'll just avoid him. Not like it's the first time."
He looked back toward Foosha.
"But that kid Luffy…"
"He's exactly like what Captain Roger described back then."
The crew fell quiet. They'd heard that story before.
"Luffy," Shanks whispered, watching the shrinking village, "I'll be waiting."
He straightened and clapped his hands.
"Alright, boys! We're leaving the East Blue!"
"Just in case Garp comes back and finds out what we did—then we're dead! Hahahaha!"
"You're so lame, Captain! Hahaha!"
Their laughter rolled across the deck, washing away the unease.
Loguetown Marine Base – Infirmary
The first thing Jin did after waking from a two-day coma…
Was eat.
A lot.
"Move it, move it, keep the food coming!"
Jango barked like a foreman in a dock gang, directing a line of cooks and orderlies in and out of the room.
On the side, Gion and Tokikake watched, baffled.
"…He wakes up from nearly dying and immediately starts gorging himself," Tokikake muttered. "Did he starve to death in his past life?"
As Jin devoured plate after plate, literal steam began to rise from his head.
Both vice admirals' eyes widened.
"Life Return," Gion breathed. "Innate, too?"
Jin grabbed the bandage wrapped around his chest and tore it off with one hand.
Gion's eyes went wider still.
As he ate, the shallow cuts all over his torso visibly shrank, then vanished entirely. Bruises faded. Knife wounds closed. Some places didn't even leave scars.
Only the big cross-shaped gash on his chest remained—a thick dark scab across his skin.
Tokikake whistled.
"Really not fair, you brat. Natural Life Return, a monster's body… If I had that, I'd train three times as hard."
Jin flicked him a glance and kept chewing.
"Where's Kizaru?"
"He went back to HQ," Gion said.
"Told us to stay until you stopped looking like a corpse, then escort you to Marineford together."
She nodded toward his chest.
"By the way, is that wound never going to close?"
Jin rolled his eyes.
"What, disappointed?"
"This is a scar of glory."
"And Conqueror's-coated wounds don't heal that fast. I'll have to grind it down slowly, let my Haki settle."
He finally pushed the empty tray away, belly comfortably full.
"Urp."
"Boss, two chefs already fainted from exhaustion," Jango reported.
Gion and Tokikake were long past being surprised his men called him "Boss" like a crime lord.
Jin waved lazily.
"Give each of them three hundred thousand Berries. Hazard pay."
He leaned back, picking his teeth with a sliver of bone.
"Kizaru didn't walk off with my stuff, did he?"
Gion let her gaze slide over his now mostly healed torso a little longer than necessary.
"Nope, White."
"Nobody dared touch it. Those things are way too expensive to 'accidentally' misplace."
Jin snapped his fingers.
"Bring it here."
Kuro came in carrying two wrapped blades—Sakura Ten and Deadwood—and a heavy chest.
Jango instinctively moved to leave tactfully, but Jin waved him back down.
"Stay. I don't treat you as outsiders."
As for Gion and Tokikake… he didn't even pretend they weren't in the loop. Their reports to Sengoku were no doubt already half-written.
Jin set the swords across his lap, fingers tracing the hilts.
"Tsk tsk… just one step short of Supreme Grade."
Gion, a Great Swordsman herself, nodded.
"If they were black blades already, they'd almost certainly be counted among the Supreme Grade."
Tokikake sidled closer, eyes shining.
"So, uh, White bro…"
"You already have one sword. How about giving me one of these, huh?"
Jin squinted at him.
"You even know how to hold a sword?"
Tokikake thumped his chest.
"I can learn!"
Jin snorted.
"Forget it. Handing them to you would be a waste."
"Better to keep them and find someone truly suited to them."
Tokikake bristled.
"Kuh! What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Shut it," Gion said, chopping him on the head.
The whole HQ is already one big mess of factions anyway, she thought.
Akainu's hawks—execution first, questions never.
Aokiji's doves—capture if you can, kill if you must.
Borsalino's slacker cult—work strictly to the second hand.
Compared to those freak shows, this little "White Ghost faction" doesn't even register.
Jin set the swords aside and flipped open the chest.
Four Devil Fruits sat inside.
Gion pointed them out.
"I've checked them. HQ labeled three of them for you."
Tokikake's eyes went red with envy.
"Damn it, why did Shiki give all that to you…"
"Any one of those Fruits would drive the underworld insane if it hit the black market."
Jin picked up the first one.
An apple-like thing with twisted swirl patterns all over it.
"Paramecia-type: Repel-Repel Fruit," Gion read.
"Can repel and reject anything."
"Top-tier fruit."
Jin's brain immediately went somewhere stupid.
Shinra Tensei. Bansho Ten'in. Universal repulsion, universal attraction…
One bag of rice to carry up five floors…
Gion rested her chin in her hand.
"Pretty tempting, isn't it?"
"If developed properly, that power is absurd."
She gave him a fox-like smile.
"If you don't want it, how about giving it to me?"
"You already ate a Devil Fruit," Jin said flatly.
"What do you want a second one for? To explode?"
Gion leaned in until her perfume wrapped around him.
"I can save it for someone~"
Jin met her eyes.
"So can I."
Gion puffed her cheeks.
"Stingy."
Jin ignored her and picked up the second fruit.
A green, melon-sized thing with wickedly ridged "leaves," like a plant fused with an insect.
Ancient Zoan: Demon Mantis.
He couldn't help grinning.
"Ah. This one's basically screaming Kuro's name."
He looked up.
"Kuro, you want it?"
"Ancient Zoan: Demon Mantis," he said.
"Flight, boosted stamina, speed, senses, natural blades."
Kuro's eyes betrayed a rare, raw hunger.
Tokikake had already told him: even a basic flying fruit went for two to four hundred million in the underworld.
And this was an ancient Zoan with flight.
"Do you really intend to give this to me?"
"This is an Ancient Zoan, it's extremely—"
He didn't get to finish.
Jin just lobbed the fruit into his arms.
"Quit whining."
"Eat it or don't. I think it suits you."
Kuro stared down at the heavy "watermelon" in his hands.
He raised his head once.
"I won't say thanks."
"I owe you too much already. If you need anything in the future, just tell me."
Off to the side, Tokikake murmured to Gion:
"Is this what they call forming a personal faction?"
"Shut it."
As if HQ doesn't already run entirely on factions…
She mentally re-counted the admiral blocs and sighed.
Honestly, compared to those monsters, White-chan picking up two strong subordinates barely moved the needle.
Jin jerked his chin.
"Eat."
"I want to see it in action."
Kuro didn't hesitate.
He sank his teeth in.
"Uech—"
He nearly puked from the first bite.
Jin smirked.
"Finish it."
"I heard people who choke it down to the last bite are more likely to awaken the fruit one day."
Gion and Tokikake both gave him a look.
Kuro proved he remained a lunatic.
Hugging the melon-sized fruit, he forced himself to devour every foul mouthful.
"Ugh… ugh…"
Jin watched him dry heave, still genuinely curious how anything could taste that vile.
"Transform," he said.
Kuro closed his eyes and sank into the new sensation.
"Shff… chhhh…"
His body warped, joints lengthening, carapace forming, arms splitting.
A demon mantis loomed where the man had stood—sleek wings buzzing, scythe-arms folded.
Except his arms weren't single blades.
Beneath the main mantis "forearm," rows of small, razor-sharp blades bristled in layers, like a built-in meat grinder.
Swish. Swish, swish.
Kuro swung once.
CRACK!
The infirmary bed in front of him exploded into neat little chunks, shredded as if fed through a blender.
"Tsk tsk tsk. Now that's an ability," Jin said.
"Go test your flight outside before you cut the whole hospital into sashimi."
Kuro nodded and half-leaped, half-buzzed out through the balcony.
Bzzzz—
He hovered for a bit, getting a feel for his wings, before landing on the rail and reverting.
"My speed, strength, eyesight… everything's jumped," he reported.
"As expected of an Ancient Zoan."
"Want me to give you a punch to really test it?" Tokikake asked, cracking his knuckles.
Kuro's eyes glinted behind his glasses.
"Go ahead."
"If you're still only using half your power, I'm not nearly as fragile as before."
"Let's take it outside," Jin said.
"Try not to destroy the base while I'm still technically a patient."
They headed down to the courtyard.
Crack, crack, crack…
Tokikake rolled his shoulders, grinning.
"Ready…"
"Take this!"
Soru!
Kuro barely finished setting his stance before Tokikake appeared in his face.
"So fast—!"
Kuro hastily crossed his mantis arms.
"Get back!"
Tokikake's fist slammed forward.
BOOM!
Kuro flew backwards, smashing through a stack of crates.
Crash, bang—!
Dust billowed.
Kuro climbed out, dazed.
"If that was still just fifty percent of your strength… I'm not getting one-punched anymore."
"Not bad," Tokikake said.
"Ancient Zoans really are busted."
"That was sixty percent, by the way."
Back upstairs, Jango could barely contain his envy.
"That fruit is insane…"
"I had no idea Devil Fruits were that overpowered."
"Just stay alive," Jin said.
"Cross the Grand Line later and you'll see worse."
That was when a group appeared at the door.
Leading them was a white-haired man with a cigar in his mouth and a permanent scowl—Smoker.
Behind him walked Belle-mère, with Nami and Nojiko peeking out from behind her legs.
"Oi, oi, what the hell were you doing just now?" Smoker asked, looking Kuro up and down.
"That guy just ate a Devil Fruit, didn't he?"
He looked every bit the neighborhood punk who'd somehow become a captain.
Jin's grin turned immediately mischievous.
"Yo, Smoker."
"Word is you mouthed off to your superiors and ignored orders, so they exiled you to the East Blue?"
"You bastard…"
Smoker exhaled twin streams of smoke.
"You're the last person who gets to say that to me."
Jin shrugged.
"We're different cases."
"I told you before—don't rely on your fruit too much. You didn't listen."
He skimmed his Haki over Smoker's body.
"Two and a half years at HQ and this is it?"
Smoker's forehead vein twitched.
"Is your hobby insulting people you just met?"
Jin laughed.
"Hahahaha."
"Come in. You three too."
Nami and Nojiko's eyes sparkled as they shuffled in.
"We heard you were hurt," Belle-mère said.
"So we came to see you."
"Here, Big Brother Bai!"
Nami held up a small basket.
"These are oranges Nojiko and I picked ourselves!"
"For you!"
Jin took the basket and ruffled both their heads.
"Thanks, Nami. Nojiko."
"Grab a seat."
He looked at Belle-mère.
"So?"
"You don't look like the type to visit sick people out of pure kindness."
Belle-mère clicked her tongue around her cigarette.
"You really don't know how to flatter a girl, you brat."
She dropped into a chair.
"Fine. I'll be honest."
"I want back in."
"I want to rejoin the Marines."
Her jaw tightened.
"I want to get stronger."
"I never want to live through something like that again."
"Nami! Nojiko!"
She hugged the girls closer without noticing.
Jin tilted his head.
"And so you came to me?"
"Yeah."
"No point being coy."
"The way those idiots under you fought…"
"I want that kind of strength."
Jin looked at her.
Then at the Repel-Repel Fruit in his hand.
Is this fate… or just Devil Fruits being picky again?
He thought for a moment.
Then tossed it.
"Catch."
"If you want to be strong, eat it."
Belle-mère snatched the apple-shaped fruit on reflex.
"…This is a Devil Fruit?"
Jin nodded.
"Paramecia: Repel-Repel Fruit."
"If you develop it right, there's basically nothing you can't shove away."
"You're just handing this to me?" she asked, stunned.
"You sure?"
Jin arched a brow.
"What?"
"You planning to pay me back with something?"
He gave her a long, obvious once-over.
Belle-mère slapped her chest with a wicked grin.
"Then big sis will take the loss and let you have your way, huh?"
"PFT—"
Tokikake spat an orange segment halfway across the room and started coughing.
Gion's gaze turned instantly frosty, boring into Jin.
"I didn't think you were that kind of man," she said sweetly.
Kuro leaned against the wall, thoroughly entertained.
Jango looked like he'd just heard the most romantic confession in history.
Nami and Nojiko blinked innocently.
They had no idea what was going on, but everyone's faces were very complicated.
"Cut the crap," Jin said, mouth twitching.
"Eat, or don't. Your call."
Belle-mère smirked.
"You're so handsome it's not exactly a loss for me."
She lifted the fruit.
And chomped down.
"UEGH—"
She nearly spit it out, but Jin's voice cracked like a whip.
"Don't puke it up."
"Finish the whole thing."
She glared daggers at him while chewing.
"You getting revenge on me or something?"
Still, she forced bite after disgusting bite down.
Tokikake pressed a hand to his heart.
"What a terrifying woman…"
When she finally swallowed the last of it, Jin nodded.
"Try your ability."
Belle-mère rinsed her mouth, then snapped her hand toward a cup on the table.
Bang!
The cup flew across the room and shattered against the wall.
"Whoa!"
Nami and Nojiko jumped.
"They didn't even touch!"
Belle-mère exhaled, eyes bright.
She leveled her palm at Jin and pushed.
He felt the repulsive force smack into his chest—weak, but very real.
Jin smiled.
"Not bad."
"If you train a few years, you might be able to shove me around."
"But by then, I won't be standing in the same place anymore."
"Tch. Heartless brat."
Belle-mère rolled her eyes.
Jin dug into the chest again and pulled out the third fruit—a spiky, pineapple-like thing.
He tossed it to Jango.
"Here. Ancient Zoan: Saber-Toothed Tiger."
"Fits your brawling style perfectly."
"Eh? For me, White Boss?!"
Jango's eyes went glassy.
"White Boss, you're the best—!"
"Shut up and eat it."
Jango bit in without hesitation, fighting through the taste.
"ROAR!!"
He dropped forward, body swelling, fur bursting out, jaw stretching.
In moments, a huge saber-toothed tiger crouched in the infirmary, fangs and claws absurdly oversized.
"Woooah, a tiger!" Nami and Nojiko squealed.
The others barely reacted.
Belle-mère, though, nearly dropped her cigarette.
Jin nodded.
"Good."
"Develop it well."
"When we get to HQ, do seastone resistance training early."
"Otherwise you'll collapse like a jellyfish whenever someone pokes you with a seastone stick."
"Seastone?" Jango repeated.
Kuro and Belle-mère both looked confused.
Smoker tapped the end of his jitte against Jango's flank.
"Ah—oh!"
Jango instantly deflated, muscles going limp.
"Seastone, also called the crystallization of the sea," Smoker said.
"It suppresses Devil Fruit powers. The purer it is, the more it drains you."
Gion added:
"But if you build up tolerance to it, then aside from being unable to use your Fruit, your body won't be crippled."
Everyone nodded, filing that lovely fact away.
Then…
Only one fruit remained.
Jin had noticed it from the start.
Pear-shaped. Dark-skinned.
Black markings crawled over its surface, looping and curling until—
They formed something like a smiling face.
"Pretty surprising, right?" Tokikake said, unable to hold it in.
"When I first saw it, I nearly flipped the table."
"Except for a few minor details, it's almost identical to the one in the encyclopedia."
"Gion and I still aren't certain if it's that Fruit, so we didn't label it."
Gion frowned.
"It's too similar to be a coincidence."
"But there are differences."
"You'll have to decide for yourself."
Everyone leaned forward, curiosity burning.
Whatever it was, it wasn't normal.
Jin turned the fruit in his hands.
"…Huh."
"This one…"
"It feels like it's watching me."
Like it was breathing.
Like it was waiting.
Kuro rubbed his chin.
"Didn't you say Devil Fruits choose their users sometimes?"
"Maybe you and that Fruit are… highly compatible?"
Even then, this is a bit much, Jin thought.
This wasn't "compatible."
It felt like a reunion.
"Decided yet?" Tokikake asked.
"If you turn it in, HQ will owe you a lot of favors."
Jin tuned him out.
He stared at the pear.
Then bit down.
He chewed twice.
First impressions:
Absolutely indescribable.
Like rancid mud.
Or a corpse that had fermented in a swamp.
"Ugh—"
He forced it down.
"Gulp."
Smoker smirked, cigar bouncing.
"Pretty nasty, huh?"
"Serves you right. You laughed hard enough at everyone else."
Jin ignored him and shut his eyes.
His consciousness fell.
When he opened them again, he wasn't in the infirmary.
He found himself floating in a dark, endless sky.
And in that sky…
A dragon curled.
Not like the long, serpentine Eastern dragons of Wano.
This one had four limbs and wings, but its body still coiled endlessly through the clouds, vast enough to blot the horizon.
It opened its jaws.
"So you're finally here."
"I have waited long, long…"
"So long that I've forgotten the count of years."
"I only stirred from my sleep today…"
"Because your aura was too familiar to ignore."
"I am not sure if I should call you descendant…"
"Or something else."
Jin stared up, stunned.
Hive-like golden eyes looked down on him.
"You can call me whatever," the dragon rumbled.
"Titles mean little to me now."
"But since you've come…"
"Feel my power."
"Sense it."
"Awaken it."
"Control it."
The dragon coiled, muscles rippling.
Then dove toward him like a falling star.
Every beat of its wings churned thunderheads.
Lightning danced across its scales.
"WOOOOO—"
He didn't know how long it took.
In the end, the massive dragon crashed into his chest and vanished.
Outside, Jin stood very still.
Then he covered the upper half of his face with his right hand, leaving only his eyes.
His lids slowly opened.
Two golden vertical pupils stared out.
Everyone in the room felt it immediately.
Pressure.
Like the world itself turned hostile.
"—guh."
Nami and Nojiko slumped over, fainting on the spot.
"Conqueror's?" Gion whispered.
"No… this is different."
Tokikake hissed.
"This is bad."
"Really bad."
They all gritted their teeth, forcing themselves not to buckle.
Jin blinked.
His eyes returned to normal.
"…Haaa."
Everyone exhaled.
"What is it?" Gion asked, eyes shining.
"A Mythical Zoan?"
"Dragon? Same as Kaido?"
"That'd give the Marines another admiral-class monster…"
Everyone stared at him.
Jin steadied his breath.
"More or less."
"But very different from Kaido."
He looked down at his chest.
Gion followed his gaze—and gasped.
The cross-shaped scar was burning.
Thin, pale golden flames licked across the wound, knitting flesh as they passed.
It didn't feel like fire.
More like… life itself rewinding.
Gion and Tokikake exchanged a look and couldn't keep the grin off their faces.
Another Mythical Zoan.
And one that clearly liked him.
The Marines just hit the jackpot, Gion thought.
(And for anyone outside the story watching all this…)
(We're already in One Piece with isekai nonsense. At this point, arguing about "realism" is kind of pointless, isn't it?)
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