"Fuck, this tastes like someone puked in my mouth."
The Darkness Darkness Fruit was technically a bad choice for someone who is not used to pain. But my willpower alone can allow me to push through it better than Blackbeard ever could.
If my memory serves me right, which is quite literally perfect with my essence, Devil Fruits have an awakened state. According to Kaido, awakening is what happens when the mind of a Devil Fruit user catches up with their powers. In other words, Devil Fruits require a synchronization of the fruit and the mind of the fruit user.
That means some people are not compatible with their fruits. The biggest example of this is Whitebeard with the Tremor Tremor Fruit. All Whitebeard ever wanted was to have a family yet the Tremor Tremor Fruit only caused destruction so there was always some disconnect between the fruit and the user.
How else do you explain someone who rivaled Gol D. Roger the Pirate King not awakening his Devil Fruits powers?
The reason I chose the Darkness Darkness fruit wasn't its all-consuming nature, that came naturally with being a pirate.
What I picked it for was its amplification of pain or to be more exact, its ability to amplify what you feel. If it can amplify pain, then it can amplify the taste of food, that sense of contentment, that sense of thrill from battle or similar things.
It could amplify all the things that give color to life. Things I never could experience fully in my past. Although I wasn't sure it could do that, it doesn't matter if it can't. I can always make a deal with a crewmate and transfer the fruit to them. Even if they die the Essence of the Grand Line allowed me to recall the fruit to my hand regardless of distance.
My hands were coated with smoke-like shadows. I walked over to a bowl of apples in my cabin and took a bite from one. Not much change. I absorbed the apple with the Darkness coating my hand... well, that didn't work.
Oh well, you live and learn. No reason to cry over spilled milk. I walked out of my cabin a new human. A Darkness Human... or whatever a Devil Fruit user is called.
I walked out of my cabin and looked over to the bow of the ship where my guests of honor were standing. The short girl was most likely some noble and the other two her retainers. I still didn't give a shit who they were but I was hoping they would make things interesting.
I walked over to them while grinning.
"Ms. Gloria, how do you feel?"
The short one, Gloria, looked about ready to hurl. She had green eyes, blonde hair and a green and white shirt with brown pants and boots. Her attire was practically screaming I'm a noble trying to blend in.
She took a look at me but chose to go to the edge of the ship and actually hurl.
I laughed at her and turned to her retainers.
Her biggest retainer, Evelyn, was a redhead and looked quite strong with bulging muscles on her arms. She had a blue shirt and black pants and grey metal greaves and boots. She was also carrying a two-handed warhammer.
Maria was just a bit shorter than Evelyn. She was a much more mature woman than the other two. Her hair had greyed and turned white with age but somehow still had smooth skin. She had a brown tight leather armor and a hat. For a weapon of choice, she had two pistols at her hip and a flintlock type of rifle with a scope on her back.
But the more interesting thing about her was that her right eye was black and her left eye was silver. I didn't ask why but personally I was hoping it was some kind of magical eye.
Evelyn seemed to be the more stoic type. Maria, however, chose to laugh along with me.
"Hahaha, don't mind the young ones. They are just not used to traveling by ship. Say, you don't look that old yourself. What made you choose piracy over sailing for the king's men?"
I raised an eyebrow.
"That was blunt. What made you choose babysitting over an actual job?"
"Babysitting? What are you talking about?"
She lied as easily as she breathed.
"Are you fucking kidding me? Look at this girl, she practically screams I'm a noble trying and failing spectacularly to blend in with the peasantry."
She seemed prepared to argue, but then she shrugged and nodded in agreement with me.
"Ehhh, I'm too old for this shit. Forget my earlier question then, I got another one for you. How did you become captain of a ship and crew like this without even a shred of Runes on you?"
Looks like she had a way to sense runes or things that have to do with runes. I didn't even have guns on me. Rifles just weren't to my tastes and I still haven't found a pistol worth carrying around.
"Tell me this Maria, what do you think is the most important thing for a person in my position?"
I wouldn't ever tell anyone about my essences but just to make conversation I made something up.
"Power? Wealth? Authority?"
"Charisma my fair lady. Charisma is the most important thing for a Captain of a ship, pirate or otherwise. No sailor willingly follows a Captain they think can't lead. My crew in particular? They respect me because they have to."
She furrowed her brows at that and asked.
"What do you mean 'they have to'?"
"It might be hard to believe but I hold the life and death of every single crew member of this ship."
I didn't tell her how or why, I just gave her the impression that there was more going on than a simple threat. Not like knowing the truth would help her anyway.
"I don't know what you mean by that but don't you think something like that could backfire pretty badly?"
I chuckled a bit.
"Remember this my fair lady. I am an ambitious man. I wish to be a legend someday, and legends aren't born from mildness."