Experimenting

They continued along when Nami approached Thirteen during the night. His tail flicked and looked at her, she put her hands on her hips and said "You smell." Thirteen replied "A year in a forest will do that." Nami snorted and added "Well, you're not in the forest anymore. Go take a shower. I left clothes for you in there."

Thirteen looked at her and his ears twitched as she bent down and grabbed his cuffs, he pulled his hand away and said "What are you doing." Nami looked at him and said "Are you gonna wear these forever? Let me see." Thirteen stared at her and she rolled her eyes, adding "What am I going to do to you? Honestly." before grabbing his hand and pulling it towards herself, looking at the lock hole. Thirteen commented, "You can't unlock them." Nami gave him a wink and said "There's no lock that's safe from me!" Unfortunately, he was completely unresponsive and just stared at her as she tried to pick the lock.

After a while~

Nami pushed his hand away and grumbled "What kind of locks are these…" before stomping off and adding "Go shower." Thirteen looked at her back and blinked before getting up and walking into the cabin.

He eventually found his way to the shower and undressed himself before turning on the water and sitting in the shower. He thought about all that happened today, wondering if not killing that kid was okay, after all, they would definitely tell people about him.

As he thought about it, he dug his hands into the bullet holes on his body, digging out the bullets one by one and dropping them on the floor without even so much as a grunt. His blood flowed and he curled up his tail, shaking it as he stood up, wetting himself.

He grabbed the shampoo and washed his body, ignoring the stinging pain from the soap on his fresh wounds. His hands pressed against the wall as he let the water wash him down, looking at his extremely long hair. It was almost touching his tail, he didn't like it.

The other minks he had seen in hell were covered in fur, he wondered why he was the only one without any. Maybe he didn't fit in with people who were like him either? He stared at the ground before turning off the water and drying himself off.

His hand reached out and pulled the clothes to himself, he threw the shirt on before poking a hole in the back of the shorts and slipping into them, putting his tail through the hole in the back and flicking it around for good measure.

After a final look in the mirror, he left the shower and walked to the deck, before sitting on the railing. Thirteen looked out to the sea and pulled his hair to the front before looking at his other hand and making a chopping shape.

He focused and his hand sharpened, he wondered what 'Devil Fruit' he had eaten. He needed to experiment with it and find out what he could and couldn't do. With that thought in mind, he chopped at his hair and cut right through it, leaving it a bit above his shoulders.

With a final shake of his head, he threw his hair into the sea and went back to the deck before curling up in a corner and going to sleep, keeping his ears open just in case.

The next day~

Thirteen woke up and grabbed the hand reaching for him, seeing it was only Zoro, he let go and sat up. Zoro looked at him and said "Alert." Thirteen replied "Have to be." Zoro just grunted and said nothing, walking away shaking his wrist and grinning.

Thirteen got up and walked to the back deck before starting his training routine. He worked out for most the day before starting to experiment with his new powers, though he didn't particularly like swimming, he'd rather not lose it for nothing.

He did as he could do before, making his hand sharper and heavier, he pierced the hair and heard whistling coming from his hand. He still didn't know what the power was. He continued testing and found that he could 'harden' any part of his body, making it sharper and heavier almost like jagged rocks.

Still Thirteen had a feeling he was only scratching the surface of what he could do… He tried 'hardening' his chains and he was able to! But there was a very precise control he had to maintain and he just couldn't keep it up while the chains were moving and such. Therefore he tried something else and 'hardened' his hair, strand by strand, leaving them like that as he continued training.

During his training, he would try and 'harden' his entire body for the entire time, while leaving his hair 'less hard'. It was extremely difficult as he was basically doing 3 things at once. But he never gave up.

Days passed like this, sometimes he would talk to Luffy and Zoro would join him in training, but other than that, nobody else really talked to him. Usopp still looked scared while Nami just glanced at him every now and then, looking pensive. He would hear her mutter "What kind of locks are those.." to herself when he passed by.

Finally, they reached their destination. A ship that was shaped like a fish, called the Baratie.