"Then, Boss, I've decided. I want this Squeeze-Squeeze Fruit!"
Now that Fisk had given his approval, Vanessa had no more reservations. She looked at Rorschach with unconcealed excitement and made her choice on the spot.
"A very wise choice, Miss Vanessa. Honestly, this fruit suits you extremely well."
Rorschach smiled at her.
"For a woman, a fruit that can freely absorb moisture—well, I don't think I need to explain what kind of benefits that would have for your skin."
Vanessa's eyes lit up instantly.
In fact, she looked even more excited than when she'd heard about poison immunity or giant transformation.
After all, immunity to poison was just a matter of personal safety—a passive precaution she was forced to consider. Vanessa didn't actually like thinking about things like that.
But beauty?
That was a completely different matter.
The desire to look beautiful was human nature.
Men and women both cared about it, but for women, that desire was often more refined—especially when it came to skincare. It was a genuine, proactive longing.
That was worlds apart from something like poison immunity.
One was passive.
The other was active.
The difference was enormous.
And for anyone who cared about beauty, one thing was obvious—
locking in moisture was incredibly important.
How many skincare products built their entire sales pitch around that one point?
Hydration and moisture retention were absolutely essential to maintaining beautiful skin.
The problem was, skin itself had very limited ability to retain moisture. People could only keep applying hydration from the outside.
But now, if she ate this miraculous fruit, Vanessa would be able to make her skin absorb moisture on its own.
That changed everything.
Her skin would improve dramatically.
It might even outperform those absurdly expensive luxury skincare products.
Just that point alone was enough to make her feel like she absolutely had to have this fruit.
"A power that lets your skin lock in its own moisture? I'd bet every woman in the world dreams about that."
Vanessa's voice trembled slightly with excitement.
"Boss, I want it!"
"I'm glad you like it, Miss Vanessa."
Rorschach smiled, but then added, "That said, you came at an unfortunate time. The shop's discount period has already ended, so none of the fruits are discounted anymore."
The system had informed him just yesterday that the promotional period was over.
And today, Vanessa showed up.
Her timing really couldn't have been worse.
Still, Vanessa didn't care in the slightest.
Right now, all she wanted was to get her hands on this miraculous fruit.
Besides, money at the million-dollar level simply didn't mean much to her.
"It doesn't matter, Boss. Something this miraculous can't be measured by money in the first place. Discount or no discount, we're still getting an incredible bargain."
Vanessa replied immediately.
"Thank you for understanding, Miss Vanessa. In that case, the Squeeze-Squeeze Fruit will be three million dollars."
Rorschach got straight to the point.
Thinking about it, the pairing was actually pretty funny.
One of them could turn into burning steel.
The other could manipulate moisture.
Their powers practically countered each other.
If those two ever fully developed their fruits and got into a fight, who would actually win?
The thought made Rorschach grin inwardly.
"Boss, card."
Vanessa didn't waste a second. She immediately took out a bank card and handed it over.
Beep.
Payment complete.
Rorschach then took out the Squeeze-Squeeze Fruit and handed it to her, reminding her about the one-bite rule.
Of course, Fisk had almost certainly already told Vanessa that.
But as the seller, Rorschach still had to give the proper warning himself.
"Thanks for the reminder, Boss. Then, Fisk, I'm going to eat it now."
Vanessa gave Fisk a quick heads-up before eagerly taking a bite.
"Mmm—!"
Her face twitched.
Suppressing the urge to spit it out, she forced herself to swallow the disgusting, shit-tasting fruit.
And then—
just like every other person who had eaten a Devil Fruit for the first time, Vanessa immediately got excited.
Because she could clearly feel the changes happening inside her body.
"Amazing… so this is what a Devil Fruit feels like? This is incredible."
She clicked her tongue in wonder.
She felt like she had become a sponge.
She could clearly sense the moisture in the air—
and more importantly, she could absorb it.
Yes.
She had just tried it.
And it worked.
She could instantly feel her skin becoming more hydrated.
Vanessa was so thrilled she could hardly contain herself.
"Judging by that expression, I'm sure you've already felt the changes in your body."
Rorschach smiled at her.
"That said, what you've obtained right now is only the Squeeze-Squeeze Fruit's basic level. You might not yet be able to extract toxins freely from your body."
"But that's fine. You just need to practice."
"I understand, Boss!"
Vanessa nodded hard, then launched straight into another round of praise for both Rorschach and the Devil Fruit.
But after thinking for a moment, she suddenly looked up again and said seriously, "Boss, Fisk told me there's a three-fruit limit per person here. In that case, I'd like to buy two more."
[Warning. Warning. Invalid order detected. Host must handle immediately.]
Rorschach had just started feeling excited when Vanessa said she wanted to buy two more fruits.
Then the system dropped that notification on him.
He froze for a second.
Invalid order?
It was obviously referring to Vanessa's request to buy two additional Devil Fruits.
But why was that considered invalid?
Not understanding, Rorschach immediately questioned the system in his mind.
[Wilson Fisk already possesses control rights over three Devil Fruits and has reached the maximum purchase limit. No new Devil Fruit control rights may be added.]
A prompt immediately appeared in his mind with that explanation.
"New control rights?" Rorschach frowned slightly, still not fully clear on the meaning.
[Vanessa Mariana intends to purchase the additional two Devil Fruits in order to give them to Wilson Fisk.]
That explanation made everything click.
Of course.
If the fruits were being gifted to Fisk, then Fisk would hold control over them.
So this was what the system actually meant by purchase limit?
Rorschach immediately asked another question.
"Then, System, if Fisk has already bought three Devil Fruits, and he gives someone else money to buy more fruits for him, that would also count as invalid, right?"
[If Devil Fruits are purchased using Wilson Fisk's funds, then regardless of whether the purchaser is Wilson Fisk or someone else, the control rights over those Devil Fruits belong to Wilson Fisk.]
Rorschach understood.
In the end, no matter what, one person could control a maximum of three Devil Fruits.
It didn't matter whether all three were bought personally.
Or if you gave someone else money to buy them for you.
Or if someone else used their own money, then handed them over to you as a gift.
Once everything was added together, the total number of Devil Fruits a single person could control could never exceed three.
Rorschach got it now.
[Author Note]
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