"Kira, try to control those animal forms and fuse them together," Marcus said. "Grow eagle wings, snake eyes, a lion's face, a honey badger's body, horse legs, gorilla arms, a cat's tail... and if you can manage it, maybe even add some cow hooves?"
He rattled off his suggestions, and needless to say, Kira was shocked by the ambitious list.
Everyone else was equally stunned.
"You can actually do that?" Usopp asked in amazement.
But after a moment, the others started to think it actually made sense. After all, this was supposed to be the legendary Chimera, having all these different body parts didn't seem completely unreasonable for a mythical creature.
Kira gave it her best effort. She managed to sprout eagle wings from her back and transform her eyes into those of a snake, but her body and head uncontrollably shifted into snake form. Weirdly, though, the snake's body was covered in fur instead of scales.
After her struggle, she ended up as a complete hodgepodge... an abstract, indescribable existence.
Overall, she looked like a winged snake, except this snake had fur and horse legs sticking out at odd angles.
"..."
"Sorry... I'm not controlling it very well," she said in her usual soft voice, which sounded bizarre coming from her current chimeric form.
"It's not your fault, Marcus set the bar way too high," Nami said with a comforting smile. Though when she reached out to pat Kira's head, she hesitated. The appearance was just too abstract to approach casually.
"That's right! It's not your fault, it's all Marcus' fault for being unrealistic!" Luffy was the first to back her up.
Then Usopp joined in, followed by Johnny and Yosaku, all nodding in agreement and pointing at Marcus.
In an instant, the ship erupted with boos and playful jeers aimed at him.
Marcus' eye twitched.
"You guys!" He clenched his fists in mock fury and chased after the laughing crew members.
The laughter and teasing swept away much of the earlier disappointment and worry.
Seeing this, Kira's dejected mood lifted considerably, and she broke into a smile.
After the playful moment passed, Marcus sighed and took a more practical approach. "You're right, setting such a high difficulty level from the start was unrealistic. Let's break this down step by step. First, just focus on growing wings and maintaining that form."
Kira followed his instructions, and a pair of wings sprouted from her back.
"Good. Now hold that shape, don't let it change. While you're at it, practice flying a bit. Once your body gets used to that transformation, we'll gradually add more body parts."
"Oh, and according to mythology, Chimeras can breathe fire too, so feel free to experiment with that when you're ready."
With those instructions given, Luffy and the others had already wandered off to entertain themselves elsewhere. Everyone understood Kira's situation, too much attention would only make her more self-conscious and interfere with her practice.
Usopp, however, was still concerned about her safety. He tied a rope around Kira's waist as a precaution, just in case she accidentally flew off while practicing her new abilities.
Meanwhile, Marcus went off to experiment with his Transmutation Tablet.
He found Usopp working on some of his inventions. "Got any string?"
"Yeah, here you go." Usopp rummaged through his bag and pulled out a roll of fishing line. "What are you making?"
"You'll see in a minute."
Usopp watched curiously as Marcus tinkered with various materials for about half an hour, until he finally produced what looked like a very pixelated fishing rod.
"That's... a fishing rod?"
"A fishing rod that doesn't need bait!"
"Huh?" Usopp looked skeptical. "O... Ok?"
"Hey, Luffy! Want to have a fishing competition?" Marcus called out.
Johnny and Yosaku immediately perked up and came over, eager to join in on any kind of contest.
Marcus quickly crafted five more fishing rods using his abilities.
"Seriously? No bait required?" Johnny asked, still stunned by the concept. "Can you even catch anything without bait?"
By now, everyone on the ship had at least some understanding of just how incredible Marcus' Devil Fruit abilities were.
"Better than that, it doesn't even need there to be any fish in the water below us."
"What?!" Yosaku was even more shocked. "No fish in the water, but you can still catch them? How is that even possible?"
Marcus decided a demonstration was worth more than explanations. He cast his line with a flick of his wrist.
The fishing line extended from seemingly nowhere, stretching out about five meters from the ship.
Within just a few seconds, the bobber began bouncing up and down rhythmically.
He watched as bubbles rose to the surface near his line. When they disappeared and the bobber suddenly sank, he yanked the rod.
"Got one!"
He shouted excitedly while the others just stared.
That's it? He caught something? But there definitely weren't any fish in these waters!
Then, smack, a book hit him in the face.
"What the hell?"
He checked his inventory and found an enchanted book sitting there quietly.
"Unbreaking III... and Curse of Binding?" he read the enchantment details.
On one hand, getting an enchanted book immediately was pretty lucky, especially one with Unbreaking III, which was valuable. On the other hand, why did it have to come with Curse of Binding, one of the most annoying enchantments possible?
"How'd it go?" Luffy asked curiously.
"I caught some treasure. You guys might run into similar stuff, apparently you can fish up all kinds of random things like shoes, seaweed, and other junk too."
The group spent the rest of the afternoon engaged in their impromptu fishing competition.
Half a day later, Marcus was staring at a chest full of rotten flesh and several pairs of leather boots.
Seriously? Did I use up all my luck with that first enchanted book?
Meanwhile, Usopp, Johnny, and Yosaku were hauling in fish like seasoned professionals, though none of them managed to find any treasure among their catches.
Luffy, on the other hand, had the same kind of "luck" as Marcus when it came to the fishing mechanics.
Besides the occasional fish, he caught all sorts of random junk, lily pads, leather scraps, old shoes, string, and basically everything from the Minecraft fishing loot tables except what he actually wanted.
But Luffy found it all fascinating and never got bored with the process. After all, he could see meat, even if it was rotten flesh. To him, the fact that you could fish meat directly out of the ocean was satisfying enough, regardless of its questionable quality.
Naturally, Marcus warned him that rotten flesh was technically edible but would make him hungrier the more he ate, and it probably tasted awful. If Luffy really insisted on trying it, he should drink milk with it to counteract the negative effects.
Just to be safe, he placed two buckets of milk in Luffy's storage chest in case the captain really decided to experiment with his catches.
As night fell, the five-person fishing crew finally called it quits for the day.
The ultimate winner was Usopp, who had caught over 500 fish. Johnny and Yosaku each managed around 400 catches, with the gap mostly due to them occasionally reeling in junk instead of fish.
As for treasure, aside from Marcus' initial enchanted book, nobody had found anything valuable all day. He also confirmed something important about the fishing mechanics, whether it was him, Luffy, or Alvida, anyone who had eaten a Devil Fruit seemed to have dramatically different fishing results. Instead of catching fish normally, they almost always pulled up junk, with only a very small chance of getting treasure.
Despite the lack of actual fish, Luffy was absolutely delighted. He'd managed to reel in over 300 pieces of rotten flesh, which he seemed to consider a major victory.
"Hahaha! From now on, you can call me the Fishing King!" Usopp boasted proudly while eating some of the grilled fish from the day's catch.
"I'll give you that, you're definitely skilled," Marcus admitted, offering praise.
Usopp's nose was practically pointing toward the sky with pride.
Meanwhile, Luffy sat hugging his chest full of questionable loot, staring at Marcus.
"Hey... when can I try eating this stuff?"
Clearly, his main interest was still focused on that pile of rotten flesh, despite all the warnings about its effects.