Chapter 168 — Two Devil Fruits

Nami fished the wanted posters from the latest batch of newspapers, rubbed the pressure points at the corners of her eyes, and began to read.

As a Marine captain, she at least needed to know what sort of crimes a person had to commit to end up on a wanted list.

Only then could she avoid the embarrassment of brushing past some notorious pirate without ever realizing who he really was.

[Spider Demon Peter Parker]

[Bounty: 250,000,000 berries.]

[Crime: The destruction of Wano and the murder of every male member of the Daimyo Kozuki clan.]

"Hiss..."

Nami drew in a sharp breath.

There really were monsters like this in the world!

She had only learned of the "nation-destroying" class a few days ago, and had assumed such figures appeared once every few decades or centuries. Never had she expected one to leap out of nowhere without the slightest warning.

"In truth, that bounty has been deliberately suppressed."

Wang Huaian's voice sounded beside Nami's ear.

Having no preconceived notions about the word "System," Nami saw nothing wrong with the one she had.

Tilting her head, she asked with an innocent blink: "But this is a great pirate whose bounty broke two hundred million! His bounty was actually held down?"

The answer came quickly.

"Wano is not a member of the World Government, so naturally it receives no protection."

"Closed off from the world as they are, they have only a few ties to the elephant nation of Zou."

"Try something like that with Alabasta, and I suspect all three Admirals would be dispatched at once to hunt Peter Parker down."

"Understood."

Nami blinked and sank into thought.

"The code name Spider Demon... Could this Peter Parker be a holder of a Zoan Devil Fruit?"

She had been searching for a suitable Devil Fruit all this time, and her knowledge had deepened accordingly—no longer as shallow and surface-level as before.

The Zoan Devil Fruits, once dismissed as the "weakest," contained within them that fearsome sub-branch known as the Mythical Zoan.

The Phoenix, the Tyrannosaurus, the Flame-Extinguishing Dragon...

There are no worthless fruits—only worthless users.

Even the most ordinary Leopard Fruit had made its holder, Rob Lucci, the strongest agent of CP9!

"Report, Captain!"

"The two Devil Fruits you requested have been secured at auction!"

Two female lieutenants spoke as they set two wooden boxes down beside Nami.

One was shaped like a purple banana; the other resembled a snow-white pineapple.

Nami tossed the banana-shaped one to the little runt beside her. "This one's yours, Coby. Eat it, quick."

The Mythical Zoan Lighthouse Jellyfish Devil Fruit—said to possess boundless potential, an existence in the Fruit Encyclopedia not one whit inferior to the Phoenix.

Coby swallowed hard and hesitated for a moment.

His hunger to grow stronger drove him to bite down and devour the entire Devil Fruit, mouthful by mouthful.

He did not even peel it.

"Ugh... This is awful!"

Coby's eyes went white, his face ashen, looking for all the world like he might choke to death at any moment.

But he forced himself to swallow the whole fruit.

The change came swiftly.

His skin grew smooth and delicate; his bloated figure turned slender and graceful.

His face narrowed into a delicate oval, leaning further toward androgyny.

Realizing what had happened to his body, Coby looked himself up and down, overjoyed.

Then suddenly, his expression shifted!

"Am... am I still a boy now?"

Coby sensed something ominous.

Between his legs, all was flat.

Where his little member had once been, there was now nothing—only a cool draft.

"Ara... a trifle like that is nothing to fret over."

"The lighthouse jellyfish, as a life form, reproduces asexually to begin with."

Nami patted the freshly made "Third-Sex Coby" and laughed like a wicked older sister. "You can still get yourself pregnant and have children later on, so don't worry too much about offspring."

Coby, now looking like a little girl, wore an expression like he had swallowed three tons of excrement.

Was that supposed to be comfort?

Better to have said nothing at all!

"All right."

Nami's face turned serious. "The Mythical Zoan Lighthouse Jellyfish Fruit. It frees your cells from any limit on the number of repairs they can undergo. Do you know what that means?"

Coby stopped mourning himself and pricked up his ears.

Nami held up one finger. "First: from this day on, you possess an endless lifespan. Unless someone kills you, you will never die of old age."

At that, Coby's heart began to pound.

Young as he was, he understood what immortality meant.

Before Coby could react, Nami raised a second finger. "Second: limitless training potential! Others dare not push themselves to the brink every single day, because the body's capacity for recovery is finite—but you can ignore all conventional limits."

An ordinary person who trained at full effort for an hour would be exhausted; a prodigy might last four hours at most.

After all, that was "giving everything."

But Coby?

He could train twenty-four hours a day!

No matter how weary or drained, two hours of sleep would bring him back to full strength.

"I intend to send you to CP9 for further training. At the very least, I want you to master the Six Powers until you are flawless."

Nami said gravely, "Did you hear me?"

By now, she already carried the presence of a person in authority.

"Yes, ma'am!"

Coby straightened his slender frame, and the voice that came out was like that of a frail, delicate little girl.

...

Looking at the snow-white pineapple-shaped Devil Fruit in her hand, Nami sliced off a small piece with the saber she carried and put it in her mouth.

"Mmm..."

It perfectly embodied the definition of "a flavor no human could accept."

Fighting the urge to spit it out, Nami forced herself to swallow.

The next moment, the remaining Devil Fruit scattered to the winds.

One bite was all it took...

Even a single small bite was enough to grant a person the full power of a Devil Fruit.

Nami lifted her foot, only to find her body had turned transparent—it was even floating.

A Logia Devil Fruit: the Gas-Gas Fruit.

The power reputed to be the strongest for staying alive!

Lacking in combat strength? Hire masters with gold.

But life—you only get one!

Nami saw the matter with perfect clarity.

What was more, as she continued to train and develop it, the Gas-Gas Fruit, once awakened, would likewise grant formidable combat power.

Like a child with a new toy, she drifted here and there all over the place.

Only when her stamina was spent did Nami settle back down where she had started.

She went on flipping through the wanted posters.

[Straw Hat Monkey D. Luffy]

[Bounty: 33,000,000 berries.]

Crimes: Defeat of East Blue's overlord Krieg and his fleet; assault on the Baratie, the sea restaurant.

Ability Awakening: Paramecia-type; the one who awakened the Gum-Gum Fruit.

Krieg was a cunning, treacherous man who liked to disguise himself as a Marine or a merchant vessel and then attack villages and ships alike—a villain beyond all redemption.

Rumor had it that the man had lately been preparing to set out for the Grand Line. Little did he expect that before his campaign of conquest could even begin, he would be shattered and sunk, reduced to a stepping stone for another.

After reading the poster, Nami narrowed her eyes slightly.

"First prey."

The so-called overlord of East Blue was nothing but a joke.

A mere small fry with a bounty of sixteen million berries.

In the other three seas, was there any overlord whose bounty fell below a hundred million?

Luffy, a pirate with a bounty of around thirty million, would serve perfectly to test Nami's current all-around capability.

Strategy, finances, tactics, hard power...