Lia's POV;

“Huff, this is annoyingly difficult”. The only reaction I got was to get laughed at from Lara. We both have eaten our Devil Fruit just now and I have to say they taste like the worst thing in existence, times ten.

Luckily the power granted by the fruit is almost instinctual. Lara was quickly able to vibrate her arm and I could push things away from my palms. Not so luckily was that this was the extent of the instinctual use. Anything beyond was try and fail. And the use of our powers makes us hungry and tired.

Lara was trying to make a stick vibrate without vibrating her hand for the last hour, while I tried to reverse the pressure on myself so that I could hover or even fly. Both of us had not much success.

On the other training front, our bodies, we were having more progress. We were running a lot and lifted things every day since we came to Numuro Island. That was two months ago. The old couple we stayed with were nice enough to let us stay for the whole time.

Yesterday was the celebration that followed after finishing the house. It's a little house in the woods. Seven rooms in total, no second floor. Four of these rooms are for us to sleep in, Lara and I were sharing a room out of convenience. Another one is used as a storage room. One has the kitchen combined with a living room and the last one is stuffed with things that are used for work or crafting.

I'm not really interested in it and haven't looked too much. Lara and I wanted more to explore the forest. There were no real dangerous animals in it. At most a wolf or wild boar. Nonetheless, we had to sneak off to get inside. The forest is ideal for our training. We can climb trees or make weights for lifting out of stones. Lara said there were tools for that inside the crafting room.

“Aha! Now I got it. It's not to concentrate on the vibration but on the thing you want to vibrate”, shouted Lara joyfully from where she was testing her newfound powers.

I tried her words and did not try to influence the pressure itself, but the pressure earth was putting on me. A moment later I felt lighter and made a little hop. The hop turned into a big leap and I jumped almost a meter high. I landed and stopped what I was doing and felt how the pressure of the world returned.

“Now we have to test how to weaponize these powers”, I said in glee and tried to create a constant stream of one sided pressure on the air. This should make a high powered air stream, in theory.

Again I did not try to increase the pressure of the air on one side but focused on the desired effect. The wish to move air in one direction. The air in front of me wobbled a bit and then a soft breeze flew outwards from my outstretched palm.

Happy with this minor success I turned around to look at what Lara was doing and watched how she had put her hand on a stone. Her face was scrunched up in cute concentration and her ears were slightly twitching. Then the stone began to vibrate, at first only a little bit and then more noticeable. A few seconds later a very little piece of it broke off and Lara sat down, panting from exhaustion.

“This is seriously taxing, we have to greatly increase our stamina”, she said after a few deep breaths. Why oh why are we still three years old? I so wish I could do things with her new skills right now, not a single one of them for the eyes of a child.

“What did you expect? We are three. Hell, we can barely run normally. It's only a few weeks since don't have to waddle anymore. Do you know how embarrassing it was for me to waddle like a duck?”, I asked. I walked over to her and laid down next to her, my head on her lap.

She began to caress my hair and softly the ends of my ears. We both found out that the ears are very sensitive and that a soft stroke or touch feels really nice.

“I know, I remember how weak Luffy was. You think my seals from the Naruto Universe still work? I mean they are powered by Chakra and that is nothing else than Qi, which is the same as Haki”, she said. It must annoy her that we could not increase our training if she's thinking about using things from an old world. She once told me that that would be boring and that she tries to keep the use of her inventory as little as possible. Something about the heart of a collector. Only food and materials were okay.

She showed me a layout of her inventory once, it was full of things and I would have said that she was a hoarder. Good that the inventory has no real limit and no maximum for sizes. Seriously, why does she need to have the Infinity, SSV Normandy or a Death Star? She has not enough minions to even use them.

“Hmm, they seem to work, but only with armament Haki and also only as long as you supply them with it. It's definitely not easy and takes a lot more concentration to power them. It should be great for training our Haki and body in combination with a resistance seal”, mused Lara suddenly.

I was so deep in thoughts and relaxed from her petting that I did not notice how she took out a seal from her inventory. I learned a bit about seals after the creation of my body. I had to, our empire run on seals. But I never was as good as Lara.

“Good to know, the resistance will be annoying but helpful. But there's still something else we have to do”, I said and looked at her childish and pudgy face. She was still having a lot of baby fat, but the signs of a beauty were there. And her eyes were so large and green. A pity that they don't stay this large.

“And that would be?”, she asked down at me. My own identical face was reflecting in her big green ones.

“We have to tell our parents how we gained Devil Fruit powers and are no longer able to swim. Yesterday they spoke about a small lake in the forest they want to visit and teach us how to swim”, I said and raised my hand for a little more training. Lara should be able to train and pet me, multitasking is one of our skills.

“Yes, about that. The easiest way is to simply say that we found two funny looking fruits that tasted really bad. Anything else will come after that”, she agreed and, much to my pleasure, did pet me while trying her vibration powers out at the same time.

“How come you aren't affected by the vibration? Shouldn't you get really warm or have a change in your voice from it?”, I asked.

“I don't know. I think that Devil Fruit user are not able to directly suffer from the effects of their fruits. Ace does not get burned by his own flames as well, nor are his clothes. I also think that a normal Devil Fruit user wouldn't have been able to do what you have done a moment ago”, she contemplated out loud.

“How so? It was fairly easy once I knew how to change pressure. It was only hard to increase it”, I asked. Shouldn't it be obvious?

“Think about it, most people are not able to think outside of the box. They would see that they can push things away and most will go with that. The applications of a Devil Fruit stops with the imagination and the word of the Fruit. We should be able to do anything that has something to do with the word pressure or vibration.

That's a lot. Pushing things away or letting a sword vibrate are only minor things. We have to test a lot to get the maximum effect of our fruits and can't allow ourselves to think that there is a limitation”. Lara's explanation made sense and I agreed. Everything in the manga pointed at that. The limits the characters showed were only made by themselves and their stamina.

“Lara! Lia!, where are you?!”

“Mom found out that we aren't in the garden, now is as good as any time”, said Lara, she helped me up and we both walked towards the searching shouts of mother.

“Mom!”, shouted Lara a few meter before we were out of the forest. She then runs off towards the house and I had to follow her if I didn't want to get left behind.

She was still way faster than me, thanks to her body trait. And while I only got out of the forest Lara was already in the arms of mother. She was also already getting berated for going inside the forest. Good, now I don't have to hear the brunt of it.

“Lia, you too. What have I said about going inside the forest?”. Or not.

“Not without you. Not with anyone else”, I repeated while walking up to them.

“Mom, we found something in the forest. It were two fruits, they tasted really bad”, began Lara speedily. Mother understood her, even with the fast and almost incoherent words, and paled significantly.

“You did what? How do you feel? Does something hurt? Did something happen?!”, she asked loudly and turned Lara around as if something was sticking to her.

“Is something honey?”, asked father now from the side of the house. He was working on a couch for us.

“Leo come quick! I think Lara and Lia ate something poisonous or, beware, god, a Devil Fruit”, shouted mother back. A clonk told me that father let his hammer fall down and the next second he has picked me up and was looking at me.

“How did the fruit look like you ate?”, he asked me sternly.

“All swirly, mine was orange and Lia's green. It tasted really really bad”, answered Lara for me. I was too much occupied with not puking. Father thought it was a good idea to grab me by the legs and hold me head over.

“Leo put Lia down. Once you ate a Devil Fruit you aren't able to spit it back out”, reprimanded mother. I was put down on the ground, next to Lara and both of our parents were looking at us as if we had done something bad. Which we might have if we had not fully developed personalities.

“Why did you eat some strange food that was lying around?”, asked mother both of us.

“It looked funny and you said we should not waste food”, explained Lara. Again it was her that was speaking, I'm still not used to it after all these years. I am either too formal or offensive, but I'm learning. I always avoided speaking with others. It got better in the last two hundred years, but there was still the feeling of speaking with something inferior.

Anyway, the answer was not to mother's liking and she buried her face in her hands while beginning to cry silently. Is it so bad to eat a Devil Fruit?

“What is wrong? Will we die?”, I asked. We have at least pretend to not know what will happen. I'm sure we are already a bad excuse for being children. Our vocabulary and grammar are way too good for a normal child of three years. But acting like a child is so hard.

“No sweety, it's just that people with Devil Fruits won't have an easy life. You're now no longer able to swim and strange things will happen. Do you two think that something is different?”, said father. He hugged me and not mother. I think she needs more counselling than me now.

Oh, never mind, Lara is hugging mother.

“Uhu, I can let things vibrate and Lia can push things away”, declared Lara brightly. Mother was now returning the hug and father looked to be in deep thoughts.

“Luna, I think I should train Lara in the art of swordsmanship. Her ability could be good in combination with a sword. And Lia might be good with practising her ability by shooting pebbles at targets”, suggested father.

“How can you think about fighting? They are three”, asked mother loudly and in slight disgust.

“I'm just accepting that they now have a strength that makes them sought after and it would be the best if they can defend themselves”, he said back in an even tone. Stating the facts and acting accordingly, that's how I like it.

Mother seems not to do. She broke down in tears, grabbed Lara and run to the house.

“Why did she took Lara?”, I asked father.

“She is just afraid of what might happen”, he said with a weak smile. He picked me up and we followed them inside. The sound of sobbing came from their bedroom. Inside we found mother on the bed with Lara firmly pressed to herself. Mother was crying and repeatedly saying that she doesn't want to lose us while strocking Lara's hair. Lara tried to tell her that we wouldn't go away, with minor success.

“Lia? Can you stay with mom for the day? She needs a long hug from both of you”, asked father. I nodded and climbed up on the bed. There I hugged mother like Lara was doing and stayed silent. Mother repositioned me, so that I was in front of her, next to Lara, and continued to sob and pet us.

Father was gone now.

“She cried herself to sleep”, I mumbled half an hour later. I tried to get up but noticed that the grip of mother and Lara was too strong. Especially Lara with her Haki. Seriously, her arms were purple.

“Is that Haki?”, asked father numbly from behind. I looked around and saw that he was staring at Lara's arm. A tray with three bowls of food in his hands. Looks like we won't be able to hide that tad bit any longer, not that it lasted long, to begin with. Curse you Lara and your desire to hug me!

“Lia?”, asked father. I looked at him but stayed silent. He tried to pick me up, but I was glued to Lara, who was glued to mother and me. He sighed deeply and put the tray on a table before sitting down on the bed. He softly woke mother and Lara up and waited for mother to get fully awake.

“Leo? Is it true? Do our little babies really have Devil Fruit powers?”, she asked. She sounded still afraid, yet already a little accepting.

“Yes, Luna and we need to help them with it. You know that some bad things might happen if they don't learn how to control their power”, he said with a sad nod. Mother stayed silent and looked down. This was my chance, Lara was still out from the nap.

I grabbed mothers hand and squeezed it as soothingly as I could. I then looked in her eyes and said;” We're good, we won't leave you”. The tears were back and I almost thought that I did something wrong, but then mother said thank you sweety. A thank you was good, it meant it worked.

“We can think about possible training methods at a later time, you need to eat something. All three of you”, cut father in. He gave mother a bowl and then looked over me and Lara, while we ate our own.