Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 225 FIERY SEA

After the confrontation with Big Mom the welcoming of the island cooled down a little. We decided it was best to head out. The royal family didn’t much mind that the candy was eaten, we had saved all of them, Jimbei was the more vocal about the issues.

“Why won’t you join my crew?” Luffy asked the big fishman. 

“I need to quit Big Mom’s crew in person,” the blue dude said. “Try to maybe smooth over some of what you said.”

“Don’t bother, she sounded mean,” Luffy said. 

“I know, but men leave crews in person, not through a letter,” Jimbei said. “I will catch up to you soon enough.”

“Fine, let’s get going,” Luffy said and was running up the gangplank, excited for the next adventure. Shirahoshi was there waving goodbye to us. Crying as she did so. Angiea was with her as well. She was acting all super secret about what they were working on together, but I didn’t much care. 

“See yah, Shirahoshi, Angiea.” They waved goodbye to me. “Hey, Jimbei, Angiea there is your biggest fan.” The black and white merwoman flipped me off, but as Jimbei turned to face her she blushed and turned away. I laughed loudly as I got on the ship. The other royals said goodbye to the crew. They had made a point to make time for us to show their gratitude. 

It wasn’t long until we were sailing back toward the entrance we came in from. Other people out for a swim waved goodbye to us and we exited without much concern. As we passed through the bubble, our own coating was inflated and we were back under the sea. The current was slight but it moved us up toward the sun. 

“Nice watch,” I told Nami. 

“Hmm?” She looked down to the new ornament on her wrist. “This is an upgraded Log Pose,” she said with a lot of pride. “Now we have 3 options for islands instead of one.” On the wrist mounted Log Pose was 3 spherical orbs with 3 needles pointing in different directions. “I’m so excited to not have to be stuck with the most dangerous route possible.”

“Good luck with that,” I laughed. “Which one are we headed toward?”

“This middle one is all shaky, so not that,” Nami said.

“Why?”

“I was told that the more shaky the needle is, the more dangerous,” Nami said. “I’m thinkin-” She stopped as she noticed Luffy over her shoulder. 

“Which one?” He asked. 

“Luffy no!” Nami yelled. 

“What? I’m the captain, we should go to the middle one,” he said, his eyes wide with wonder.

“Please no,” she said.

“Too late, set course for the middle,” he said in glee. Nami groaned but did as instructed. I moved to my spot on the railing. Laying down as I watched the light from above. We were still about 30,000 feet deep, but there was a sister tree to the Treasure Tree Adam, called Tree Eve. The Eve tree allowed light from the surface to reach down below into Fishman Island. As we raised up and headed in the direction of the next island the light disappeared, but this trip had less drama since Luffy got his fill of being underwater. 

The boys fished off the back of the ship. Having bought special poles and bait for deep sea fishing. They yelled out now and then when they felt a bite as the lures trailed behind us. 

“Do you really think I can figure out this Nen thing?” Nami asked. She was currently gathering it in her hand. 

“I know you can,” I said. “You know the wind supernaturally. And I don’t see any reason you can’t turn your Nen into it. It will take time though?” 

“How much?” She asked. 

I thought back to the HxH manga. Gon and Killua had to manifest their knowledge of strength when they were trying to earn a spot in the Greed Island Video Game. “Week or 3?” I asked. I doubted it was much more than that in the manga. 

“Really? That quick?” She asked. 

I nodded. “This isn’t Haki or some secret art, Nami. There is no set way to do it. Your Nen is your lifeforce, it’s what keeps you alive. I was told that your lifeforce changes based off of who you are as a person. Your Nen is good at what you are good at. Me, I’m good at punching. So I’m working out how to put that into my Nen. You are supernaturally good with the weather. Start with wind. You have a nose for it. Out on the surface feel it on your skin. Then reflect what you know about it with your Nen. I think you’ll figure out how to do it before I will.” 

She smiled. “You have a lot of faith.”

“In you, of course. Use that Navigator-sense of yours, I’m sure it will guide you,” I said laying back down. I was itching to try out my devil fruit, but I didn’t trust not bursting our bubble. I started playing with my own Nen. 

I knew that Gon was Enhancement. How he used his Nen was he focused it on his fist and used it all in one hit. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that. I was more about endurance. So I wanted to figure out a way to bring out a lot of Nen and fight constantly. Then again I had Kame Mode. I hadn’t tested it enough to see if my Nen was replenished at all. Turtles lived for a long time, maybe Nen was refilled in the Mode. 

I continued to practice holding as much Nen as I could in both fists as the water became brighter. Monstrous sea kings appeared ever so slowly as we went up. Then we were pulled into a new current and Nami did what she could to keep us on course. Pulled away, the current only got faster. Speeding us along as we went. 

“Weston! Luffy! Do something,” Nami yelled. We were close to the surface, but the current was too strong. It kept us under the water. 

I poured chakra out, trying to branch the current away. Luffy stuck his arm out of the bubble. Stretching it out impossibly long he grabbed the fin of a humongous humpback whale. He pushed his feet against the rail and began to retract, forcing us to lean toward the whale. 

With both of us working together we finally broke away from the current and surfaced at the edge of a sea of fire. The bubble around our ship popped and the other’s gasped as a wave of heat assailed them.

“Turning around!” Nami yelled as people backed away from the fire. I frowned, annoyed that I still wasn’t feeling intense heat or cold. 

“I’ll figure it out after I get my devil fruit figured out,” I decided. Breathing in deeply it was good to be on the surface once more. If I wanted to travel under the ocean, I could have done so from a submarine. Man wasn’t meant to sail under the seas. 

The sky was dark as we continued to move away from the fire. “What is that?” Chopper asked. 

“A volcano,” I said as the sonic boom from the top exploding finally hit us. Lava geysered out from beyond the field of fire. 

“We have to go to that island!” Luffy said excitedly. 

“I understand, Luffy, but none of the needles are pointing to that island,” Nami said. “That current threw us off course.” 

“Perfect! An uncharted island,” Luffy said. 

“You heard the captain,” I said. “I’m gonna go check out the fire.” 

“What? Why?!” Nami yelled. 

“I want to get closer to it,” I said. “Training purposes. I’ll be back.” I jumped over the side and walked on the wavey water toward the sea of fire. The flames were huge as I approached. I purposefully did not use my quirk as I approached. But every step I took closer, I didn’t feel anything. The same temperature as always I walked up to the building high flames and stuck my hand in.

When I did I finally felt something. Just a little heat, not too much though. Frowning, I walked directly into the fire. My clothes burst into flame, but I didn’t. Dunking myself down in the water to put the fire out I resurfaced outside of the flame. Sitting on the water I thought on it for a bit. 

“Muscular was able to make himself stronger….but how did he do that?” I asked aloud. “By adding muscle to the outside of his body….that muscle acted as armor.” 

“Armor,” I said, moving my hand into the flame. I didn’t feel anything. “When I trained with Aizawa I reflected back attacks. Like I was wearing armor. Is that what I’m doing? Reflecting the heat away from me?” I asked. It was hard to tell if a fire got more fiery from reflected energy. 

I froze a patch of water in front of me. Moving my hand to it I didn’t feel cold, but I wondered if the ice got colder. “Was it really that simple? I’m unconsciously reflecting back too much heat and cold. Armoring myself….but then what was the strength clue that psychic gave me?” I asked. 

I felt like maybe I was getting closer to the answer to my quirk evolution. I had been thinking of the ability all wrong. When I was attacked I was armoring against physical blows. Reflecting back the energy. I thought I was actually rejecting it. So if I could reflect, I could absorb, but the clue was strength. Muscular could multiply his strength. So maybe what I can really do is reflect back energy and multiply it.

I stuck my hand out to the heat. Pulling it into me the flame dimmed as an inferno bloomed in my hand. I thought of increasing the power, and to my surprise it did. But quickly it became too much. I pushed it out of me and a wave of heat sliced through the flames like an energy beam. 

A smile split my face. “My laser,” I said. I had been practicing with it last in MHA, but hadn’t gotten it very far. I stood up and moved closer to the fire. Absorbing the heat all around my body at once, the spread out heat wasn’t near as bad. I focused, tensing my muscles and the energy grew. Quickly I centered it at my chest and forced the power out before it could hurt me. A red beam was let out of my chest, burning through my shirt. 

“Fuck, that’s awesome,” I mumbled. Feeling better about my quirk as I thought of the possibilities. “Not only can I do heat, but also physical strength. Can I make a physical force beam? Like a concussive blast?” The possibilities were exciting. 

“Weston!” Luffy yelled from above. I looked up to see him, Robin, Zoro, and Usopp on the Mini-Merry. Floating on the top of a cloud roadway. The cloud was reminiscent of the clouds they were able to drive atop on Skypiea. I guessed Nami had learned to make them on Weatherpiea. 

“We got a distress call from the island. We are going to check it out!” Luffy yelled. “Want to come?” 

“No! I’ll stick with the boat. Be careful!” I yelled. 

“No! Weston, save me. We drew lots and I lost,” Usopp yelled. 

“You’ll be fine, don’t be a baby,” Zoro growled. I laughed as they went up and over the fire. Landing far ahead somewhere that I couldn’t see. The flames blocking my view I played around a little more. 

“I don’t want any more Berri rewards. Give me more Weakness Eliminators,” I told whoever was listening. I really wanted to get rid of my quirk’s weakness so I could potentially hold more heat in. It wasn’t long before I was heading back to the ship. 

I was more than a little surprised to find a small submarine docked up to it. The Thousand Sunny didn’t have anyone on the deck that I could see. Hiding myself in chakra I ran up to find people talking on the ship. 

“Looks like some others already went to shore,” a garbled voice said. 

“If they went in on the fire side, they’ll be dead soon enough. Gather them up, more people to do testing on,” another voice said. I leapt up to the deck to find 5 men wearing large old-fashioned Haz-mat suits. They weren’t the sleek yellow plastic I was used to. Instead they wore full length thick wool clothing with tiny glass windows at their eyes to see. 

“Howdy boys,” I said, causing them to stop what they were doing as they noticed me. They had been lifting up my passed out crewmates. One of them hadn’t been shy about where he was grabbing Nami. 

My anger flared and an ice bullet went through his skull. Then another and another causing him to be thrown back and fall into the water. “Rule 1,” I said as I lifted the rest up in the air by the water of their bodies. “Don’t touch my girl.” 

I pulled my Chikyugi Necklace out of my Status Screen. “Rule 2. Whoever cracks first, gets to stay conscious.” I said as I drew them into the Makuramoto. 

The first one broke and the other’s were put to sleep. Ripping off his mask I glared at him as he openly cried. “Now, tell me about the island and what the hell you thought you would do with my crew.”