She didn’t understand. She thought eating the Devil Fruit would make everything better. ‘But how? How could something that looks so beautiful taste so awful!?’

Devlin struggled with everything she had to pry Buggy’s hand away from her mouth. She had barely been able to sink her teeth into it before she felt one of his hands get a grip on her jaw and the other pushing the entire thing down her throat.

“You should know that I’m doing this for your own good. Had you actually- stop struggling so much! Had you actually bitten into it, you probably wouldn’t have been able to keep it down as easily.”

The man he “bought” the Smooth-Smooth fruit from had given him some tips on how to “properly” eat a Devil Fruit.

Tip #1 Don’t take a bite out of it, just swallow it whole.

Tip #2 DON’T TAKE A BITE OUT OF IT. SWALLOW IT WHOLE.

Either way was disgusting, but swallowing it whole meant none of the fruit’s juice would go near your taste buds. Only the far less disgusting skin.

Tip #3 Eat the fruit far away from any people or places you’d rather keep alive and intact.

Devil Fruits were dangerous and unpredictable when consumed. Especially when you didn’t know what you were getting. Nobody wanted to accidentally blow up their friends and family if they happen to get the Bomb-Bomb fruit or something as equally explosive.

This was also the reason their walk just so happened to have landed them near the beach. In case she got something that couldn’t be controlled.

Tip #4 Devil Fruit users eat more than the average person. It’s mostly because using their abilities takes energy that the body can’t produce without copious amounts of food being digested.

Essentially, the stronger and more skilled with your powers you get, the more you need to eat to get to full fighting strength. (This is also true of people who use Haki.)

Buggy always knew there was a reason people on the mainland always found the Roger Pirates’ eating habits to be out of the ordinary. He just never knew there was a science behind it.

Tip #5 (and the last of the useful tips) It’s not just seawater that weakens you, it’s also fresh water and any ‘standing’ water like in a bath or a really deep puddle.

Though, standing water will only affect you if it reaches your knees. Other than that shared weakness, they varied between different fruits.

But one thing the man hadn’t mentioned was that it was only when a user’s skin touched the water that they felt the strength drain from them. Nor did he mention any possibility of building up an immunity of sorts to the sea.

Two possibilities that he himself had yet to test.

And just like Buggy had all those years ago, Devlin froze in shock as she managed to swallow it all in one go. She gagged once, twice, then managed to stop it from happening a third time.

‘That was gross…’ Even as the nausea passed, her stomach was none too pleased with what it was being forced to digest.

But! ‘I have powers now! But what are they?’ She tried once more to push away from Buggy, only to succeed! However, he hadn’t let her go. Rather, she phased through his arms as though they weren’t even there.

Buggy was surprised at first and then elated that she’d gotten exactly what he had hoped she would. A Logia type Devil Fruit. Or at the very least a Paramecia.

“Gyahahaha! Yes!” He slapped his hands together. “What is it!? What did you get!? U-uh…try extending your arm and pushing something out! Aim for those palm trees!” Devlin got caught up in his palpable excitement, as well as her own, and did exactly that.

Both of them stood there, watching in fading anticipation as Devlin’s attempts did nothing beyond possibly shaking the trees. But the wind was most likely responsible for that. Not Devlin.

“Well? Anything? Anything at all?” She tried again. And again. And again and again and again. But nothing happened. No visible changes in the world around them. So she stood there, out of breath from trying so hard to do something.

“Buggy…” She ate the fruit, it tasted horrible, she got powers, and stayed in the crew. “What…? Why…?” So what was the problem?

He didn’t know either. It was like something was building up and causing the trees to shake, but then suddenly fizzle out. “Try again.” He got a worried look in response to his unsure tone. “Devlin. Try again.”

Nodding her head, she aimed at the trees once more. “No.” Buggy stopped her. “At me. Whatever you’re doing isn’t working on the trees. Use it on me.” She opened her mouth to protest but stopped herself.

He knew what he was doing. And if something went wrong…well, she trusted Buggy to be able to handle it.

The man in question forced himself to stay put while Devlin tried one last time to make her powers work. It was much harder to purposely mess up when you’ve been trained as brutally as Buggy has.

In addition to covering the entire front side of his body with Armament Haki, he also focused his Observational Haki as much as he could so as to observe what the naked eye was missing. Because he knew for a fact that there was something happening that he just wasn’t understanding.

“Okay, here goes…everything…” She took a deep, shaking breath in and exhaled as she struck her arm forward.

Even being caught off guard by the sheer force of her wind, Buggy managed to keep himself on his feet as he was pushed back through the sand.

Devlin’s eyes had been tightly shut the entire time in fear of knowing that she’d failed yet again. Buggy’s eyes, however, were open wide with the realization that he couldn’t see what she was doing because one normally couldn’t see the wind.

But he could feel it. Oh man could he feel it. The force of her strike was akin to that of one felt during a Hurricane. And he’d experienced Hurricanes often enough in the Grand Line to know just how much destruction one could cause.

Devlin began to feel lightheaded and weak at the knees. And above that, she felt hungry. So very hungry. Seven powerful attacks done one after another was bound to drain her; Buggy was the same way when he started separating his limbs.

“Did…did it work?” She cracked open an eye. A stunned Buggy stood there, smiling oddly, and muttering something to himself. But something that caught most of her attention was the way his hair was out in the open.

He usually wore a beanie, which was currently nowhere in sight, whenever he was with any of them or in public. She figured he was ashamed of his baldness or something. It was funny, actually. Each of them had a theory as to why Buggy never let them see his hair. Well, except for Solomon who told the girls that he couldn’t care less.

Devlin believed that he was growing bald and didn’t want anyone to see what he was trying to desperately deny. And Lilith believed that Buggy was bald in a ‘I only have hair on the sides and back of my head’ kind of way.

She knew from what rare opportunity she had to see a little more than what he allowed to show that it wasn’t a normal color. It looked to her like it was some sort of purple or indigo. Now, she could clearly see that it was a really pretty shade of blue. Royal Blue if she had to take guess.

‘Why would he hide such nice hair?’ She wondered before shaking her head. ‘Stop it, Devlin. You know you’re just trying to distract yourself. Just ask him what you can do and get it over with. It’s probably a crap power, anyway which means I’ll need to figure something else out.’

But Devlin had no idea just how wrong she was, and Buggy couldn’t wait to tell her. Speaking of…

Buggy walked over to Devlin, after snapping out of his stupor, and raised her up from her knees. “Just tell me Buggy. Is it something-”

His arms wrapped around her and spun her around before dropping her back onto the ground. “It’s a good one? Really?” He nodded vigorously. “Not just a good one, Devlin. Probably one of the best ones anyone could get.”

She hadn’t the strength to do so, but if she could she would be jumping up and down and screaming at the top of her lungs. Instead, she settled for more tears. Only this time, they were tears of joy and immense relief.

At the same time, Buggy’s heart was pounding in his chest. ‘Oh thank God this turned out as amazing as it did. I almost seriously fucked this girl over with my stupid gamble. Can’t let myself get in that kind of position again. How I do that, however, is beyond me.’

“So? What is it? Which one did I get?” Devlin was still ignorant on how Devil Fruit classification worked. So when would be a better time to explain it to her than after she’s already eaten one.

‘I hope she doesn’t get mad that I didn’t explain earlie…ohh~ shit! What’s she going to do once she finds out I had another one I could have given to her?’ And now that she had the power to control the wind…things were not looking good for Buggy.

But one look at her excitement had Buggy push those thoughts aside for later. For now, he’d enjoy this with her. “I haven’t really explained to you how Devil Fruits work, so here’s the gist of it.”

He held up three fingers, “There are three types of Devil Fruits. Logia, Paramecia, and Zoan.” Devlin slowly nodded, paying apt attention. Depending on the type of fruit you eat, you’ll be given powers that no other person will have. At least, until you die. After you die, the fruit you’ve eaten…uhh reincarnates, I guess, in a nearby fruit for someone else to eat.”

“For example, I’ve eaten a Paramecia type Devil Fruit known as the Chop-Chop fruit. As such, I can manipulate my body however I like.” Buggy’s three fingers began to float in mid-air.

“Eating a Logia type fruit will give the user the ability to become, create, and manipulate an element or force of nature. That’s the one you’ve eaten.” He gave her body a quick look but noticed nothing standing out.

“Well, then what element or nature force thing did I get? I couldn’t see anything when I was doing it before.” Buggy shook his head.

“You can’t exactly see the wind, can you?” He waited for her to pick up on what he was implying. “…can’t see the…wind? Oh! You mean I can control the wind, now!? Awesome!”

“Not only can you control the wind, if you concentrate hard enough you can become the wind. Or at the very least you’ll become intangible. Unless you can do that without trying. In that case, you’d need to concentrate on staying tangible.”

“Ooooh this is so exciting! But…you said there were thee types. Logia, Paramecia, and-” Buggy cut her off with a sigh. “Zoan. Yeah. Just be glad that you didn’t get that one.”

Devlin was confused. If The first two sounded cool, then why not the third? “What’s so bad about Zoan type Devil Fruits.” Buggy made a face, not really wanting to even answer the question.

“Ugghhh, ok. Nothing’s wrong with Zoan Devil Fruits. It’s mostly just my personal views and experiences with a group of people known as the Mink. More specifically, it reminds me of someone I’d really rather not remember.” It was almost painful to talk about her.

“Oh. Ok.” Devlin could see the faraway look in his eye and switched topics. Kind of. “So, what does a Zoan type do?” She’d ask Solomon about the Mink. He was a pretty knowledgeable guy and Buggy obviously didn’t want to talk about it.

“Uh, Zoans…basically they’re…hmm…They allow you to transform into another species or a inter-species hybrid form. And even more than that there are different ‘series’ and ‘subclasses’ A series would be like, uhhh”

What was a series he knew about? Oh. “Cat series. Dog series. Snake series. And a lot more. And then there are the subclasses: Ancient Zoan, Mythical Zoan, Carnivorous Zoan, and I think that’s all of them. I’m not too sure.”

Devlin could see Buggy slowly getting less and less excited about her new powers and decided to let the conversation go for another time.

“Buggy, how about we go get something to eat and talk some more afterwards? Just the two of us? No sense in disturbing the others. I…honestly don’t think I can wait that long.” She’d only just now realized how ravenous she was.

He perked up at that, feeling up for eating some more and moving past the topic they were on. As well as the prospect of not needing to pay for two extra mouths.

“Sure, yeah. Let’s go.”

-

Solomon was fast asleep on the floor within seconds of laying down and covering himself with the blanket he’d kept from his room on the ship. It was a good thing he’d had the foresight to bring it on account of the bed sheets being too small.

But even so, a full stomach and a warm blanket was all he needed to enjoy a good night’s rest.

Lilith, on the other hand, was having a restless night constantly tossing and turning. Every time she had tried to go to sleep, she was plagued by the same vivid nightmare. It petrified her as she felt the flames and heard the screams.

There were sounds of large cannons booming in the distance. Followed by the screeching of incoming cannonballs and the subsequent explosion. Explosions. There was more than just one. Dozens of them destroying the place she once called home.

She couldn’t tell who or what was attacking her home, but she wanted it to stop. She tried screaming and struggling with everything she had only to remain immobilized. Forced to sit and watch as the library she claimed to have hated but couldn’t imagine truly being gone was burned to the ground, along with it the knowledge it once held.

This was when she’d wake up in tears, not understanding why she was having these horrible nightmares.

After several harrowing tries, Lilith finally manages to drift off to sleep without the accompanying nightmare. But not before she suffered through it one last time.

Only this time, the dream ended differently. As the island burned violently in the background, there’s the shadowy outline of a man grabbing her shoulders tightly, his head moving as if he was speaking.

But there were no words spoken. And even if there were, the raging inferno that was once Ohara was roaring in her ears.

She woke up the next morning, disturbed at the sight of her bed. The sheets had been ripped into shreds, the pillows had thrown to the floor with large gashes in them, and the bed was covered in what she had hoped was sweat.

She was scared. She was scared, and she needed to tell someone about this.

There was an almost eerily timed knock at the door causing her to jump in fright. “Lilith? You awake yet? Solomon, Devlin, and I are going to go find a place to eat breakfast. If you’re awake, we’ll wait for you to get ready. If you’re not…well, I guess you won’t answer then.”

She took a moment to calm herself. “Y-yeah. Ok, I’ll uh…I’ll be down in a few minutes.” It was hard to keep the waver out of her voice.

“…Alright. We’ll be downstairs.”

That slight hesitation before he spoke…damn. She knew he knew there was something wrong. And she couldn’t help both cursing him for being so damn perceptive and thanking him for knowing without being told.

She took off her pajamas, sighing as she saw the large ring of sweat around the neck. “I can already tell today is not my day.”