Devil Fruit

Despite all his efforts, Ryujin still fell into the dream world. Inside that wonderland he dreamt about his life back on earth, his family (both his original and new ones) and all the novel things he had experienced since coming to this new world. He was sure that he wouldnt wake up from this dream, being as pleasent as it was, he was sure that this was his own life flashing before him. Portraying everything in a good light made him completly forget all the hardships he faced, all the enemies whom he annihalated.

Until he woke up wincing in pain. His surroundings were different, he was laying down on a soft and comfortable bed. The entirety of his being was bandaged with gauze which had blood seeping from. He looked around, besides him was his satchel. He made an effort to grab the bag but his body prevented him from moving freely, as he streched his arm outwards, his shoulder cried out in pain realesing a crunchy cracking sound, in response he delivered a weak shriek.

Near him, to his left, another man was recovering, an enourmous beast of a man which like Ryujin was also heavily bandaged yet in contrast to Ryujin was sound asleep. His arms spread out widely and the bottom half of his legs were sticking out from the bed, needless to say he was too big for the small bed.

Ryujin strived to copy the man and attempted to sleep yet was impeded by the damage caused upon his body, he turned to his right and experienced pain, turned left and the same result. Soon, he grew restless, incensed with anger. He screamed internally unable to lie down still, but nothing would change the fact that he could not go back to sleep.

Later, two men came to check up on Ryujin. A slenderly built man with his chest thrust out and a gleam apparent in his eyes, he was dressed quite formally with his hands deep inside his pockets. The second man was an elderly person in a wheelchair which avoided eye contact with Ryujin instead choosing to stare into a vacant space of the air.

They approach the awoken Ryujin and questioned him on how he was feeling. He replied with a smiling expression in his face trying to hide the fact that his mind was constantly being assaulted by a burning sensation. He wasnt a good liar as such both Kamut and the old man saw through him.

"Where are we?" Ryujin asked looking upwards in the direction of Kamut. "We are inside the Black Mamba's hideout, they have this entire place set up to act as a nursing area" Kamut replied.

By now Ryujin had already grown slightly accostumed to the pain and was able to move, even if in small amounts. He slowly reached for his bag, taking a hold of it and placed it beside him.

When he opened it, a weird fruit was revealed. It had the same size as an average apple but it had black colored fur covering its surface. The fruit itself was light brown and bore weird patterns akin to that of clawed scars. The stem had morphed into a large white spike, with four other smaller spikes growing from it.

'Kuma Kuma no Mi, Model: Arctodus Simus' was the name of the fruit. Based on an ancient bear species it allowed the user to travel at high speeds, posses immense strength, mild regeneration etc. all of which were enchanced further due to the user's personal skills and the hybrid form.

'Yes! my plan worked' Ryujin thought. He planned before the final showdown against the Slim Reaper and took the apple from the prison so he could keep the devil fruit to himself. If he had not done that the fruit would had recreated itself through the closest fruit near the corpse of the Reaper, which needless to say would have caused trouble.

"Where is Tadalla?" Ryujin interrogated the two men in a faint voice. Kamut responded instantly, not verbally, instead with a simple point of the finger. Tadalla was right beside him all this time, and he had not noticed until now.

Kamut got closer to the injured Ryujin and handed him a red berry, immediately recognizing the berry he shoved it in his mouth. He felt much better, with the pain evaporating from his body he seated himself.

"I got good news my friend" Kamut said, hoping to entice his comrade. "The marines are already on their way, you will receive a big sum of 10 million berrys for taking down the infamous Slim Reaper!"

Ryujin's eyes glowed golden with greed as Kamut's words reached his ears. If not for the fact that he was mortally wounded he would have celebrated massively, but alas he had to contain himself as the Aipel did nothing besides removing his pain.

"But there is also bad news, they will take around a week to get here as this island is quite far from any proper marine establishment." Kamut pronouced, however the gleam in Ryujin's eyes did not dissipate.

Sentoki approached Ryujin with his head tilted down, " I... I will teach you something once you get well, i... it is the least I can do for putting your life in danger." he said awkwardly. Ryujin thanked him greatly with a huge smile on his face, having faced death made him want to live even more.

"Can you tell what it is that you are going to teach me?" Ryujin vocalized. The old man fell silent, he didnt want to ruin the surprise. Several seconds of silence passed before the old man finally gave voice to "Well, I cant exactly tell you that right now, I dont want you to over exert your damaged body."

Ryujin was visibly dissapointed, his face dressed in a bitter fake smile. Sentoki noticed this and continued his speech, "But, I will share with you a piece of my story. Maybe you might just learn something from it!"