In the morning, I checked on my garden. To my relief, it wasn't an untamed jungle. Someone had clearly been harvesting and maintaining my paradise. I would have to find out who and thank them. Checking on my Lembas Plant, the small vine had grown to cover almost half of the wall. It was untouched, and it was a good thing as well.
Pulling out a pair of scissors, I quickly trimmed the vine collecting its leaves. Setting them on a drying rack, I realized I was running out of pills. Finding my supply of dried leaves, I went about preparing a new batch the processes therapeutic in its familiarity. Bottling the finished capsules, I was going to leave when I saw something in the cabinet.
Reading the label marked the vial of clear liquid as Pheonix Tears mk.1, it seemed as if Marco was successful to some degree. Putting the vial away, I retired to my room. Sitting down to meditate, I focused and scanned my body.
It had been a while since I searched for mutations, so I had a few to work with. After cleaning out the dead and weakened cells, I went through my body with a fine-toothed comb. I found several bone marrow cells with a gene for increased blood cell production in my right femur.
After replicating the gene, I moved on, finding three more useful mutations, and as I was about to leave the meditative state, I sensed something. I could feel a group of cells. It was very faint, and the shocking thing was it wasn't coming from my body.
The source was coming from my hip. Sanguinem was reaching out to me, trying to form a connection. Reaching out, our intents fused, coming together. I felt something inside me unlock, and I gasped. I didn't know how long I was in that higher state, but I could feel everyone onboard the ship when I came out of it.
Activating my Observation Haki, I looked over my subordinates and reaching out. I formed that same connection with their cells. Suddenly I was seeing through multiple pairs of eyes and hearing through different ears.
Slowly withdrawing my presence, I left them none the wiser to my intrusive visit. Looking down at myself, I change my fingers into claws then fins in a matter of seconds. The process was smoother than anything I had been able to achieve before.
I smiled as I realized what happened. My devil fruit had awakened. Testing the limits to my new powers, I found that I had no limitations to my transformations. I could change anything about my body, my face, skin color. I could even change my gender if I wanted to.
I finished playing around, I was feeling hungry, and I decided to say high to Thatch. I hadn't found him last night to say hello. When I arrived at the canteen, I was surprised to see that Thatch wasn't at the line's head.
"Hey Bungy, where is Thatch?" The mountain of a man looked over his shoulder at me, "Oh, Thatch had to go on a mission. He should be back in about six months." Sighing, I got my meal and sat at my seat, "You seem sad. What happened?"
I rolled my eyes at Bane, "I wasn't able to see Thatch before he left, and I won't be able to see him for another six months."
Bane smiled, "I know right what kind of Division Leader just leaves for over a year." I kicked him in the shin smiled as my bone-capped toes hurt him, "I know you could handle everyone in my absence, and I was right. Also, thank you for taking care of my garden."
"Yeah, your welcome. I didn't touch your vine, by the way." The rest of the meal's conversation was light, and after I finished, I wasn't in the mood to do much else. Picking up a fishing rod, I joined the plethora of my fellow pirates trying to catch something.
I was almost falling asleep when something tugged on my line. My grin turned into a frown as whatever was on my line almost pulled into the sea.
Turning my feet into claws, I dug my talons into the ship, anchoring myself, "It looks like boss has got a big one." My subordinates started to cheer me on, infusing the fishing rod with Haki, so it didn't snap and started the battle.
After an hour, I started to think that I didn't have a fish on the line. Whatever I had caught was strong, really strong. But it wasn't a sea king, and for some reason, I was considering cutting the thing loose when the line suddenly went slack.
Pulling hard, the fish finally revealed itself. It landed on the deck with a thump, and everyone looked at it sideways. After staring at it for a while, I suddenly recognized it from Earth, "It's a dunkleosteus."
Bane looked at me sideways, "A what?" I smiled, "A dunkleosteus, a prehistoric shark that's supposed to have gone extinct millions of years ago. Supposedly, it has one of the strongest bite forces in the world."
I ran over to the fish, was starting to look stress, and I used my awakened powers. Slowly I gave the shark a pair of lungs and added the impulse to breathe. Slowly but surely, the fish started to relax, its sides visibly expanding as it breathed.
"What are you doing Soren, are we going to eat it?" I shook my head, "Nah, I'm going to keep it." Bane looked at me like I was crazy, "What you mean like a pet?"
"Why not? It looks friendly enough." The shark then snapped its jaws at me with what sounded like a gunshot, "Oh, don't be like that soon enough. I know you'll love me." Picking up the fish I carried it to the small aquarium we used to keep bait and tossed him in.
I would have to see about making a tank for him soon.