48 The New Panther Human
Somewhere in the seas of Paradise,
A large Marine Warship was fighting the aggressive waves of the Grand Line.
"Comil-san! We have a problem!!" An officer barged into the captain's cabin in hurry.
Comil appeared to be calm and composed, he was enjoying his hot coffee before he was interrupted by his subordinate. He slowly shifted his gaze towards the officer standing near the door with a curious look on his face.
"What's the matter?" He asked. Seeing the figure clearly, Comil is a tall, large man with a bald top, but blonde spiky hair flowing downwards on the back of his head. He has a mustache and is dark-skinned.
He dresses in the typical garb of many high-ranking Marines, a red, double-breasted suit over a dark-green shirt with a plain green tie, and also has a Marine coat draped over his shoulders like a cape. He is also carrying a pair of katanas, attached to his right hip.
"We have lost communication with Rear Admiral Akehende and his units!" The officer reported.
Comil frowned upon hearing that "Such an impulsive guy, I have told him to retreat if he finds himself in a dangerous situation" Unlike Akehende, Comil cares deeply about his subordinates thus he was very upset about the news "Not only did his endanger his own life but also his subordinates'"
"What's your orders sir?"
"How long till we reach Asuka Island?"
"Six hours at most" the officer responded.
"I see, keep trying to reach out to Akehende and his unit using the Den Den Mushi. Maybe they're still engaging the enemy and that's why they're not responding"
"Understood!"
"Report to me at once if you receive any more news. You're dismissed." Comil waved his hand and the officer left after giving him the salute "Let's hope they're still alive…Eustass Pirates, it seems that we've underestimated them too much. They are a dangerous bunch"
…
[Asuka Island, Paradise]
"Huff…Huff…man I'm so exhausted!" Killer exclaimed as he collapsed on the ground on his back, grasping for air. He let out a slight groan from the pain caused by his injuries.
"That was quite the show!" A feminine voiced spoke up as the faint sound of footsteps approached Killer from the side. When he tilted his head to the side, he was faced by Kureha who looked at him with a wide grin "For a second there, I thought you'd lose. You're a tough one, I've never seen someone lose this much blood and still managed to stay conscious"
She stated, slowly leaning towards Killer before she easily grabbed him by the collar and carried him in her back. Even though she is extremely old, but she still possessed a significantly high level of superhuman strength and speed.
"What the--" Killer was taken aback by her action but was too exhausted to respond.
"Just hang in there, I'll take care of those injuries in a minute" she said, carrying him back to the Victoria Punk. The ship was surprisingly unscathed, as Killer made sure to protect it during the fight even at the cost of receiving direct hits from Akehende, so it was one of the handful vessels around the port that survived the battle.
Kureha carried Killer to the captain's cabin and put him on a table before she brough her med kit and started treating his injuries. Possessing genius skills and immense medical knowledge as one of the finest doctors in the world, she didn't find any trouble whatsoever while treating Killer.
She stopped his bleeding, cleaned the wounds, stitched them up before applying bandages.
"Thanks" Killer voiced, almost the entire of his upper body was covered in bandages. But he was still in immense pain.
"Here, drink this. It will ease your pain" Kureha said while handing him a bowl that contained some kind of medicine she prepared using herbs.
Killer looked hesitant to drink it at first, he also didn't want to take off his mask while Kureha was looking. He waited until she turned away and quickly took off his mask and drank the entire bowl in one go.
"Blughh!...why does it taste so bad-COUGH--COUGH!!"
"What are you? 12?" Killer only snorted in response.
"Oh yeah, can you go outside and bring in that Marine Rear Admiral?" Killer told her, since he's still alive but unconscious, they could lock him up in the ship's brig until they decide who's gonna get his devil fruit.
"Sure, but what do you intend to do with him?" she asked, since she joined the crew after the battle that happened between them and the Blackbeard Pirates, she didn't witness Blackbeard revealing the methods of stealing devil fruits nor even know if it's possible.
Killer explained to her what they were planning to do and she was quite surprised by it.
"I didn't think something like that was possible…well, better get that guy here before he wakes up again"
A few hours passed after that, Kai and the crew finally came back to the town. They were all surprised seeing the huge destruction around the port.
"The hell happened here?" Kid questioned while scanning the port, countless shipwrecks could be seen, among them a huge Marine Warship. It was damaged a quite a lot, but not to the point of not functioning "A Marine warship?"
"I see…so the Marines came here after us, Killer must have been the one who fought them back" Kai concluded before a smile formed on his face "and judging by the fact that our ship is unscathed, he must have been the one who came up on top"
"As expected from Killer!" Heat exclaimed with excitement.
"Some marine trash won't be able to take him down" Wire added.
"Let's go inside and check on them!" Bonney hurriedly boarded the ship. The rest of the crew followed behind her.
As they got on board, Killer emerged from the captain's cabin and greeted them.
"You're back" he waved while leaning on the side door for support.
"You look miserable" Kai remarked while approaching him "What happened here?"
"Marines, they sent a Rear Admiral after us…" Killer explained what happened. He also informed them about Akehende's devil fruit ability so they could decide on the person taking it if the twins wish so.
"You were right Kai, it seems that those marine dogs are going to chase us harder now that we made a name for ourselves as Supernova" Kid spoke with a excitement "Let them come…I'll blast them down to the bottom of the ocean".
"A Rear Admiral, huh? I'm really surprised that you managed to defeat them, good job" Kai said with a grin before putting his hand on Killer's shoulder "And thank you for protecting the Victoria Punk" He added with a sincere tone of voice.
"What are you talking about? Of course I will, after all she's a part of our crew and named after our dear friend"
"I told you to stay in bed in rest, you can't be moving around with those kinds of injuries!!" Kureha snapped at Killer, interrupting the ongoing conversation and quickly dragging him inside "And while we are at it, tell me about this dear friend of yours! I'm interested to know!"
"Let's go take a look at this Rear Admiral guy" Kai make his way to the lower deck after that.
"I'll pass, I don't want to take any part of whatever you're going to do to that guy" Bonney decided to stay back, she knew what Kai and the others were going to do as she witnessed Blackbeard do it before. It left her pretty traumatized, as it was very brutal.
Even the others were disturbed by it. Kid also stayed back since he wasn't interested in taking any part of that.
From what Kai understood of what Killer told him, the devil fruit that the Rear Admiral possess is a Zoan type, model black panther. Quite similar to Lucci's fruit, it boosts the user's physical strength, speed, stealth, jumping power and stamina.
Considering the increase in physical strength, it would fit someone who is aggressive, relies on speed and fights in close combat. Other than the ones that already ate a devil fruit, there are two people who match those requirements, Killer and Gin.
Kai considered giving it to Killer at first, but then he thought of a better fruit for him that he had been sitting his sight upon for a while now.
The group entered the ship's jail where the prisoners were kept, Akehende was wrapped up in chains and seastone shackles, he was still unconscious which was a little better since Kai does not enjoy killing people.
Kai turned back to Gin and spoke to him "You're the one getting the ability"
Gin gasped as his eyes widened in surprised, he thought that Killer would surely get it since he was the one who defeated Akehende in the first place "Me?!" he asked in disbelieve.
"Yeah, you don't want it?"
"N-No that's not it, I was just surprised by that. I thought you would give it to Killer surely"
"I'm sure he won't mind that"
Giving the fruit to Gin meant that Kai trusts him, Gin appreciated that more than the fruit itself.
"Hmph, what a waste. You should give it to me instead, I'll make a better use for it" Krieg's voice dripped with confidence as he pointed at himself while addressing Kai.
"It would hardly fit you're fighting style" Kai replied "Anyway, let's finish this quickly"
To steal a devil fruit power there are two ways, the first one is to steal the ability and put it into a fruit. By having one fruit from each type near a person's dead body, the ability would transfer into one of them depending on the type of fruit they usually possess.
Unless someone read the devil fruit encyclopedia or seen the uneaten fruit before, there is no way to know which type of fruit that would be, so you would need to bring one from everything.
The second method which allows someone to directly take the power for themselves without the need of having any fruits, is by cutting out the dead person's chest open, taking out his heart and drinking from its blood.
You usually have around ten to fifteen minutes before the ability transfer to the nearest fruit, so you have to steal it before that time.
"Here, use this" Kai handed Gin his dagger.
For this situation, Gin would need to go for the second method. He looked hesitant at first, but after taking a deep breath and calming himself down, he proceeded to do it.
…
A few minutes later,
"Did it work?" Heat questioned. Everyone looked in anticipation, did the method work or no? Even though Blackbeard demonstrated it in front of them, they still had some doubts about it.
Gin wiped the blood from his mouth before he closed his eyes and focused. Suddenly…it happened! he slowly started transforming from a human form into an animal—a panther.
"It really worked!"
