"Yeah... something's not right. Rosinante?"
Sengoku was beginning to sense that something was off as well. He called out tentatively, and after sobbing uncontrollably, Rosinante gradually came to his senses—only to realize something terrifying: not even he could hear the sound of his own cries. What was happening? Had he gone mute?
"Rosinante, are you... are you okay?"
Sengoku looked at him with concern. Garp stood off to the side, casually picking his nose as he glanced over.
"I-I'm fine…"
Rosinante opened his mouth slowly. A faint sound came out, but when he tried to say more, not a single word followed.
"Crap!"
That's when it hit him. Rosinante finally realized the gravity of the situation. His lips moved, but no sound came out. If this wasn't sudden aphasia, then there was only one explanation: the Devil Fruit he had just eaten had activated!
Sengoku clearly came to the same conclusion. He turned to Garp and demanded, "What kind of fruit did you gave him?"
Garp shrugged. "No idea. I snagged it off a pirate ship in the New World."
"Lieutenant!"
"Yes, Admiral Sengoku!"
"Take a photo of the fruit Rosinante just ate using a visual Den Den Mushi and send it to HQ. Have the records department compare it with the Devil Fruit encyclopedia immediately!"
"Understood!"
The lieutenant saluted and sprinted off to carry out the order. Meanwhile, Rosinante began experimenting with his new ability. After a few tries, he gradually got the hang of it.
Rosinante discovered that the fruit's power could be triggered with nothing more than a thought just a simple mental command. The Devil Fruit would respond instantly, generating a wave-like pulse and activating its effect in a fraction of a second.
"Admiral Sengoku! We found it!"
The lieutenant returned, holding a sheet of paper as he rushed out of the conference room. He handed it over to Sengoku without delay.
Sengoku glanced at the page and his face instantly darkened. Bold black letters glared back at him:
Calm-Calm Fruit.
The entry read:
The user of this fruit can generate a soundproof space, blocking out all noise within it and creating a state of absolute silence. The size of this soundproof field is proportional to the user's stamina. The stronger the user's physical condition, the larger the area they can silence. The user can also freely control the size of the soundproof zone.
Reading this, Sengoku nearly had a heart attack. He had placed so much hope in Rosinante, but this fruit had effectively crushed any chance of him gaining combat power through Devil Fruit abilities. What use was a power like this? What was there to develop?
"Garp, you damn bastard!"
Sengoku clenched his fists, barely able to contain the urge to beat Garp into the ground. Garp glanced at the entry and muttered, "Wow… this fruit really is trashy."
"You've got some nerve saying that!"
Unable to hold back anymore, Sengoku punched Garp squarely on the head. A massive lump visibly swelled up on Garp's forehead.
"OW! You bastard, Sengoku! You hit me?! Eat this!"
Garp wasn't the type to just take a hit. He swung back, and soon the two were brawling again—not seriously, but enough to create a chaotic scene, mostly to draw Rosinante's attention away from his despair.
Rosinante, however, was utterly devastated. He had sworn he would never eat the Calm-Calm Fruit. He didn't want to end up like the "useless" Corazon from the original story. And yet after all that effort, he hadn't accounted for Garp, the ultimate wildcard!
He began to suspect that in the original timeline, Rosinante must have eaten that trash fruit by accident, thanks to one of Garp's screw-ups. How else could the adopted son of an Admiral like Sengoku end up with such a useless ability? At the very least, he should have been given a powerful Paramecia or an Ancient Zoan-type.
How could someone like him end up with a fruit that made him completely useless in a fight? What an embarrassment to Admiral Sengoku!
Especially when you compared him to Sengoku's old friend Garp's son—Monkey D. Dragon. That guy started off with a fruit powerful enough to command the weather itself. Compared to him, Rosinante was a joke.
You're telling me that's all coincidence? Who would believe that?
He was now convinced that in the original story, it had to be Garp's antics that caused Rosinante to accidentally eat a garbage-tier fruit. That would explain why he became so disheartened, fell behind, and ended up a total weakling!
"My Rumble-Rumble Fruit... sob… my Logia powers… all gone!"
…
"Okay, okay, enough already, Sengoku! You keep hitting me like that and I swear I'll go all out!"
After wrestling each other into a nearby corner, the two old friends finally paused. Garp was the first to let go, rubbing the massive lump on his head. That last punch—Sengoku hadn't held back at all!
"So? Is that kid still crying?"
Garp peeked over at Rosinante. Sengoku did the same and muttered bitterly, "Garp, you bastard... you've ruined Rosinante. That fruit's going to be nothing but a burden to him."
"How was I supposed to know it was garbage? It's not like I've read the Devil Fruit encyclopedia! Besides, if you weren't chasing me, I wouldn't have bumped into him in the first place!"
"You were the one who stole my rice crackers!"
"And I offered to share! What's yours and mine—what's the difference, huh? Don't be stingy!"
"Besides, that kid looks scrawny. He probably doesn't have the body for close-quarters combat. Giving him a Devil Fruit might've been the only way to change his fate."
"Change his fate? Ha! You sure changed it—ruined it completely!"
Sengoku's voice was dark with frustration. But Garp wasn't done.
"Ruined? Nonsense! Give him to me for two years—I mean, let me train him for two years! I'll turn him into a proper Marine, guaranteed!"
"No way. Your training methods aren't suited for my Rosinante. Just look at what you did to Dragon. He came crying to me years ago, saying you were trying to kill him! Said you dragged him to the edge of a cliff and pushed him off. Left him tied up in a forest full of monsters overnight. Even strapped him to a hot air balloon and launched him into the sky!"
"Wahahahaha! That's nothing! I did all that to toughen him up, to make him a real Marine! If I ever have a grandson, I'll train him the exact same way!"
"Uh-huh... are you sure Dragon will even have a son if you keep pushing him like that?"
"Of course! Dragon's my son! He'll grow into an incredible man, a true Marine! That kind of training? Just another day in the life! So how about it, Sengoku? Want Rosinante to try the ultimate 'Real Man Boot Camp'?"
"No thanks. My Rosinante isn't built like the Monkey D. family. He's not made of iron. I'll train him my way."
"That's a shame! Wahahahaha!"
(End of Chapter)
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