41 Tsuchi Tsuchi no Mi

"What!?" Diana exclaimed in surprise, and how could she not be after what she had just heard?

Before coming here, Ephon made a trip to the laboratory of Dr. Fuma where he delivered all the data collected. But that wasn't all, he also went through the devil fruit encyclopedia to find out exactly what devil fruit he had picked up on God's Valley.

And he was a little surprised by the discovery, because he honestly thought it was something else, But It was a logia devil fruit, one that he had never heard about before, not even from his memories of his last life.

The 'Tsuchi Tsuchi no Mi', or the 'Earth Earth Devil Fruit', a Logia-type Devil Fruit that allows the user to create, manipulate and become "earth" in its various forms such as dirt, mud, or hardened soil.

That was the information he and Fuma obtained after a little research, and the first person that popped up in his mind when he heard the name of the fruit, was his son Danu.

The thing is, he had tried to get Danu to pick up swordsmanship, but for whatever reason, Danu would always refuse.

And since Danu didn't want to become a swordsman, Ephon would make up him stories about great swordsmen hoping to ignite Danu's spirit, but to no avail.

After a period of observation of Danu's character, Ephon came to the conclusion that Danu didn't have the spirit of a Swordsman.

If it was before, Ephon wouldn't care much, but he knew that in the future, they might have to face the World Government, and his family would be at risk.

And the best way to protect them from danger was to train them to become excellent fighters.

So Ephon switched his tactics, instead of telling Danu legends about swordsmen, Ephon bought him comics about brawlers. You know, Ephon himself was a brawler, in fact, none of his legends have mentions of him being a swordsman.

So he told Danu about his fights also, and surprisingly, Danu was fascinated. Realizing this, Ephon decided to write his own specialized comic for Danu about an adventurer who traveled the world challenging strong fighters with nothing but his fist for the thrill of battle.

In fact, Ephon was the author of most of the comics in Nature's Triangle, so it wasn't difficult for him to make one for his son.

His plan worked, Danu started to challenge him to fight, and during these fights, Ephon trained Danu in combat. And it seems that the apple didn't fall far from the tree, because Danu was very talented.

And this became Danu's biggest obsession, he would then start to fantasize about going out into the world to challenge fighters. He even told his best friend Iris about his dreams, and when she asked to join, he rejected.

Not because she was weak, but because she wanted to become a swordsman, which Danu felt was uncool. So when Nolan suspected Diana of being the one to influence Danu's thoughts, it was actually his good brother Ephon.

"Are you going to give that to Danu?" Diana asked.

"Hm! That's what I planned to do."

"Give me what?" Little Danu asked curiously.

"A 'Devil Fruit' darling, it will give you superpowers like those people you saw in the comics." Diana answered.

"Do you have one mommy?" Danu questioned.

"No sweetie, Mommy is a pure swordsman, she isn't interested in things like Devil Fruits." Diana answered.

But that was actually only partially true, Diana was simply influenced by Ephon's disdain for Devil Fruits, and eventually developed a natural disdain for them, in addition to her swordsman spirit that made her feel a certain way about outside powers.

"What about you Dad?"

"Me? Haha, I don't need a Devil Fruit Son." Ephon answered laughing.

He never planned to eat a Devil Fruit, in fact with Diana's intelligence system, they had already collected a few Devil Fruits Ephon found interesting. But those were simply put aside for Fuma to research on.

Hearing his father's answer, Danu was a little confused, he kind of understood what his mother meant, and since he knew that Ephon was also a swordsman, he expected the same answer, but Ephon's answer left him puzzled.

Seeing Danu's expression, combined with his Observation Haki, Ephon realized that Danu didn't understand what he meant.

Not only he, but also Diana who had the rare Observation Haki ability to read other's thoughts, so it wasn't really hard to understand how.

"He was born with the ability to create and manipulate trees and wood, dear, that's kind of an ability of its own, so he doesn't need to eat a Devil Fruit." Diana explained.

Hearing his mother's explanation, Danu seemed to have remembered something "Ohh, like Iris's ability to manipulate fire!?"

"Yes dear, Iris is a Half-Lunarian from her mother's side, your aunt Lola, so she was born with the ability to produce flames from her body and manipulate it."

"Then why don't I have Dad's ability?"

"That… well you do have one of my abilities son. You were born with my 'Sage Body'. This grants you huge amounts of stamina and strength along with an insane regeneration, but you're still young so it hasn't fully manifested itself yet."Ephon revealed.

Although Diana had also gotten a part of this ability, Diana only got the humongous stamina and regenerative aspects, not so much of the strength and defense part.

But with those attributes alone, her strength and defense were bolstered enough to make her a monster in her own right.

Combined with her swordsmanship and Haki, Ephon judged that she should have surpassed the Admiral rank in terms of fighting ability.

"That's not cool at all, I want to control fire like Iris, that's much cooler… oops! Don't tell her I said that!"

"No problem dear, no problem… hehe." Diana responded with a mischievous smile.

'Shew, that was close' Danu thought, he truly believed his mother's words.

"Well can I have that Devil Fruit Dad, you said I can control and turn into earth and stuff when I eat it right? I think this ability is much cooler than the Sage Body."

"No problem son, here, take your time, I heard that Devil fruit is the tastiest thing in the World." Ephon uttered with a serious expression, while signaling Diana not to interfere.

"Really!" Danu asked with stars in his eyes.

"Yeah, your uncle Nolan told me, he had also eaten a devil fruit." Ephon replied, as he tried to hold back his laughter.

"Alright then, here goes...*Crunch*"