Chapter 75: Unexpected Developments
Summary: Waking up to surprises...
Chapter 75: Unexpected Developments
Luffy groaned as he woke, the sensation of an infusion of spiritual energy unmistakable as it jolted him into half-unwilling consciousness. Not used to being on this side of such an infusion, he was nevertheless grateful as the soothing energy refilled his reserves, pushing back the blinding headache and full body soreness he’d woken to. As the headache slowly faded, he became aware that there was text floating in front of him, despite his eyes still being closed.
Still not quite wanting to suffer the additional pain of exposing his eyeballs to the light, he focused on the text, rather surprised to see it. He couldn’t remember his System ever giving him such blatant notifications. Not since the very first day he’d gained it, at least. He normally had to will it to provide information or menus, even the passive HUD he sometimes used being a consciously requested thing.
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Warning! Demonic Energy detected!
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Warning! Unstable Awakening Detected! Due to the host forcing his Spirit Fruit to awaken via Perk Purchases, Awakened Spirit Fruit usage is currently unstable! Use with caution until you’re properly able to control your new abilities!
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Demonic Energy Destroyed! System Administration Thanks You for Your Service to Reality!
+ 15 to All Base Stats
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Luffy’s mind stalled. For long seconds, even as blessed relief continued to flow from who his clearing mind now distantly recognized must be Kaya, he mentally slipped gears, trying to find purchase to make the new information make sense. What the fuck? Slowly, haltingly, he put the pieces into place. Whoever that monster had been must have been the source of the ‘Demonic Energy,’ and destroying it had apparently been a big enough deal to cause the System he’d thought he fully understood to change its behavior. He supposed that, if he’d thought about it logically, there had to be someone in charge of the ‘System’ that he was using. At the very least, some being had to have created it at some point. Since the System has always previously been passive and impersonal, he’d simply never thought about who or what that was.
Of course, even now, he didn’t know anything more than that they existed, did he? In fact, he rather felt like he knew less now than he’d thought he did before. Who the, apparently literally, unholy fuck had that monster been? Had that monster even been in the original One Piece? Or was it something that had changed? Damnit, without Rayleigh stepping in, they’d have all died. Not because they’d screwed up, but because a completely unknown variable had crashed the party.
Wait.
No. Not completely unknown. Just unknown to Luffy. Rayliegh had known the man’s name. Thank all that was good and a few things that might not be that they’d gotten Shakky’s number. Hopefully she and her husband could fill them in on who the fuck that had been. With his senses starting to work properly, he could already tell they were moving away from the Archipelago, so talking to them in person was out.
Wait. How long had he been out? Was everyone okay?
Luffy’s eyes snapped open at that thought, only to slam shut again as the stab of light from the medbay brought his nearly-vanquished headache back with a throb. He heard Kaya snort, even as her hands pulled away, and he opened his eyes more cautiously a second time. Chopper and Kaya were present, of course…but so was a third person who Luffy hadn’t detected and who instantly made his brain slip gears again.
“…Kaya, am I hallucinating or is there some sort of woodnymph in the medbay?”
Kaya giggled, even as the mostly-naked woman, who looked remarkably sexy for being made out of a mix of wood, metal and crystal, waved cheerfully. Her skin looked mostly wooden, with her minimal ‘clothing’ of a bikini string made out of crystals. Her hair had a metallic sheen, and a few bits like her fingernails, eyes, and teeth seemed entirely made of various metals. She had perked up at being mentioned and lept to her feet with that wave, darting toward him in a way that somehow didn’t trigger any negative instincts?
‘Captain~! I haven’t quite settled on a body yet, but Kaya said this one was the most natural looking so far! Even if there’s waaaay too little Lunar Steel in it! Well, my bones are I guess, which sort of fits! But my sexy body should be mostly made of good solid armor, not organic nonsense, even if this wood is pretty tough!’
Luffy’s jaw loosened, even as he propped himself up and instinctively looked at her with Observation. He got exactly what he was expecting, but it only increased how startled he was. That ‘voice’ hadn’t been a spoken aloud after all, instead sort of…echoing in his spirit?
“Ah…Discovery, I take it? Nice to finally meet you?”
The spirit of The Discovery of Storms smiled hugely as she nodded eagerly, head going up and down quickly enough to make a normal person nauseous.
‘Oh, oh, you can understand me! I thought you might be able to, Captain! Kaya can sort of understand me, and Nami a little bit too! The others can’t get more than my emotions though…’
An utterly adorable pout crossed the spirit’s face, before being erased by her natural good cheer. Luffy nodded absently, a distant part of his mind noting that it was probably his ‘Voice of the World’ perks that were making her far easier to ‘hear’ than others would be able to manage.
“Um…so did giving you a second Spirit Fruit push you over the edge to awareness…?”
The Discovery nodded happily.
‘Yep~! Sort of! I was already reaaaaalllyyy close after Asuka! All that energy from Kaya added to what the whole crew had fed me as you all worked with Haki! I could actually think, and watch, and even helped Nami steer a bit! But I couldn’t manifestuntil you gave me the Mori Mori no Mi! It was an inspired choice, Captain! It totally worked to let us go underwater! Which is awesome, by the way! But it’s also so intrinsically linked to life that I could create a body for myself! I worked hard on several versions all night, so I could introduce myself after the big day! I didn’t want to get in the way of the super-awesome plan!’
Okay, seriously. Could the surprises just…wait five minutes for him to catch up? Was that too much to ask? Luffy had known that the Discovery was developing some sort of Spirit. Though he hadn’t been at all sure what that meant. He’d been expecting something more subtle than…this, though. Which, to be fair, he might have originally gotten from what Discovery was saying. Except then he, Nami, and Kuina had settled on one of the more expensive Spirit Fruits that he’d considered for the ship.
The Woods-Woods Fruit hadn’t originally been one he’d considered all that seriously. It had made it onto the short-list as a Logia Fruit that could allow the ship to alter itself, but he’d thought others were better choices. At least, he had until Kuina had asked a critical question that had thrown all three of them for a wild loop. Specifically, since it could grow and manipulate all plant life, she’d thought to ask…could the Mori Mori no Mi make Adam Wood? If it could, could it take even that ‘treasure’ wood farther via the usual Devil Fruit bullshit? The doesn’t-fully-agree-with-physics properties that let people like Nojiko create crystal far denser than anything naturally occurring?
Once they’d asked that question, once they’d started looking at more than just the immediate gains, the Woods-Woods Fruit had started looking increasingly valuable to an almost insane degree. Far beyond just being able to make modifications to allow the ship to go underwater, could it produce infinite food by interacting with both the mikan trees aboard and the small patches of herbs Sanji had added to the same planters? If they converted some of their extra space, gained from the ship expanding as it ate more Devil Fruits, could they grow an entire vegetable garden?
Ultimately, they hadn’t been able to resist the temptation of finding out, even if it had been a bigger gamble than other options. That gamble had paid off when it turned out that the answer was yes. All the yeses. The ship had grown only a few additional meters this time, but the new extra space was densely filled with vibrantly alive flora, most of it edible. The controls of the ship had also gained a sort of drafting table, where Luffy could sketch new designs and specify materials.
Quick tests had shown that the ship absolutely could grow Adam Wood, if somewhat more slowly than more normal options. It could even grow the mangrove sap from the Archipelago that could be used to completely seal the ship! They’d tested a quick-and-dirty submersible design that allowed them to submerge quite safely, the Discovery having hidden under the waterline and slightly away from the ‘island’ before their plan even got started. Vivi’s Air Doors had provided easy access to the island to start the fun, and the ship not being anywhere the Marines could find had made it the perfect fallback point.
Honestly, their choice of Fruit had been a success far beyond their expectations. Now, it was apparent that they’d underestimated it even further. It made sense, sort of, that a Spirit Fruit that was tied to the creation of living things would interact with the nearly-fully-formed Spirit of the Discovery. At least in retrospect. He could totally roll with this. Also, there were things he really needed to check, since they’d obviously completely pulled out of the Archipelago already.
“Well…it’s great to finally meet you, Discovery. Hmmm, maybe we should just call you Dis? That sounds more like a personal name.”
The ship’s spirit cocked her head, seemed to mull it over for a moment, then nodded eagerly with a huge smile, actually bouncing in place a bit. Her body was a bit too stiff to look natural when she did that, leaving just a bit of uncanny valley about her. Then again, she both wasn’t human and had only had a humanoid body to puppet for less than a day.
‘I like it!’
Smiling at the bubbly response, very curious just why the ship’s personality had come out like…this, Luffy nevertheless tried to focus up a bit.
“Dis it is then, unless you decide something else is better. I absolutely want to talk to you more, Dis…but it sounds like we’re already underway, and I need to figure out how things are going?”
Dis, thankfully, didn’t seem offended at all.
‘Of course! You’re the Captain! You need to do Captain Things! I can wait! Oh, and I can do a report! Everyone is onboard and no one was seriously injured besides you! Yamato had a few cuts and minor wounds, as did First Mate Kuina and Seaman Zoro! No one else suffered more than bumps or scrapes!”
Huh. That was rather helpful. Also, it represented an incredibly good result, considering just what they’d pulled off. Particularly with the unexpected complications. Of course, some of those complications were bloody well certain to come back and bite them firmly in the ass. None of the Celestial Fuckwits were actually supposed to die, after all. Though that much, at least, they’d had the good sense to consider the possibility of beforehand. Accidents happened and none of them were going to cry about it. It was going to complicate their lives, though. Doubly so if there were more of whatever the fuck that old dude had been. Shaking that thought off, he pushed himself to his feet.
“Thanks, Dis. That’s good to know.”
Instinctively patting the beaming Spirit on the head, his lips twitched as she seemed to preen at the action. There would be time enough to deal with the consequences once he properly knew what they all were. Which meant he needed more information, as well as to check for himself that everyone was okay. He trusted Dis, not to mention that Kaya and Chopper had been nodding along with the report. Though he figured they were only getting maybe two thirds of the conversation. Turning to where they were hovering, he smiled.
“Thanks for patching me up, by the by, you two. I assume the majority of the problem was some sort of spiritual energy drain? I did something new that knocked me out…which, come to think of it, how long have I been out?”
Kaya was quick to answer.
“Yes to the spiritual energy drain. Though it was more than just you running low on energy, your channels were gunked up and scrambled. Whatever you did, you clearly didn’t get it entirely right.”
She frowned at him, but he only nodded. Given what his System had told him, that made sense, but was also implied to be fixable. Likely with training. Kaya, seeing he was entirely unrepentant, sighed and moved on to his other question.
“As for how long you were out? Less than an hour and a half. I stabilized you before seeing to everyone else, since your treatment was going to take the longest and you weren’t in actual danger. Vivi retrieved everyone within less than five minutes of your own return, and we were out to sea…or under it, which is still a weird thought, less than fifteen minutes after that. Nami is watching the helm, but everyone else is gathering to watch the events we recorded from Marineford. They are just waiting for us.”
Luffy blinked in surprise.
“What, they actually waited?”
Kaya smirked and pointed to Dis.
“They had something else equally distracting to keep them from rushing things.”
Luffy chuckled ruefully at that. He had been half expecting something like Dis, even if not quite to this extreme. But none of the others had been. He could only imagine what the reactions had been when she popped up. Pity he’d missed them…
“Fair enough. Well then, time to find out just what the world looks like now, I guess…”
Still aching, but more or less a going concern again after Kaya’s efforts on him, Luffy led the others out to find the rest of the crew.
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A/N 1: Mwhwhahaha, did Dis surprise you? Well, she surprised me too! :-p. Okay, kidding aside, I've always intended for the ship to develop it's own spirit, hence why it's had a stat on its status panel specifically for that from the start. Canon establishes the Klabautermann thing. Luffy's system, not to mention him and Kaya both intentionally feeding the ship Spiritual Energy pure instead of just accidentally by loving the ship, was intended to cover for giving the Discovery's in particular far more agency than normal. It was still mostly going to be a spirit though...right up until I was hunting through canon Devil Fruits to find one I wanted to give the Discovery.
For quite a while, I thought it would be a Paramecia and that I might need to make a variant. A Steel Steel Fruit or Metal Metal Fruit that would allow the manipulation of metal. Since I'd decided to go submersible instead of straight to flight, that seemed the most logical option. Then...I stumbled upon the Mori Mori no Mi. A Fruit that isn't explicitly in circulation yet, since the character who uses it doesn't appear until post timeskip...and has no backstory for when he acquired it.
I very quickly realized it was perfect. For a lot of the same reasons that Luffy and the girls did. When I decided to go with it, I ALSO had a moment of inspiration. I'd always intended for the Spirit of the Discovery to 'wake up' right around now. I realized, though, that if it was kicked over the edge of waking up by one of the only Devil Fruits that actively manipulates organic matter? Specifically LIVING plants? There was a chance here to take the plan for the Discovery to have a spirit capable of interacting with them and dial it to 11 by giving it the ability to 'grow' a body for itself. Something like a Dryad body, though with bits of metal and crystal to represent other parts of her construction.
Thus was born...Dis.
A/N 2: Logically, some being had to make the System. I'm never intending to introduce them, but I've been treating the system something like it was running as a sub system on something like Yggdrasil, the heavenly supercomputer from 'Oh My Goddess!'. Not specifically that, there isn't any element of that series here. I'm just treating it like the System has enough programmed intelligence and directives to detect when something it considers genuinely evil is encountered by a system user. It doesn't push its users into doing anything, but WILL reward them for eliminating problems the system detects as genuinely evil/reality threatening. The 'Abyss' that Imu, the Five Elders, and the Knights use qualifies.