Constitutional Enhancement

Aboard the Spade Pirates' Spadeil.

"That's amazing, Ace! You actually defeated two Vice Admirals." Deuce spoke with a look of astonishment.

At that moment, Ace lay on the deck covered in injuries, a smile on his face. "It wasn't just me. One of the Vice Admirals was defeated by Yota!"

Ace's feelings were undoubtedly complicated right now. It hadn't been easy—among all the deadweight accessories hanging off his Spade Pirates, one had finally become useful.

The other members of the Spade Pirates were equally astonished. They had never expected the new member Ace had recruited this time to be so capable in battle! They had agreed to slack off together, so how had he turned out to be such a powerhouse?

At that moment, Yota, blood still running down from his head, walked over. "Ace, let me treat your injuries first."

"Ah... well..." Thinking of Yota's method of treatment, Ace felt a little uneasy. "I think I'd rather..."

However, Yota had been coveting Ace's body for far more than a day or two, so naturally, he gave Ace no chance to continue. Opening his huge mouth, he swallowed him whole.

"Eek! That looks terrifying!" The other Spade Pirates crew members wore somewhat frightened expressions. After all, this was swallowing a living person whole. Even though they already knew it was Yota's Devil Fruit ability, the visual impact was still more than they could handle.

Perhaps because Ace was more seriously injured this time, it took Yota several full minutes before he finally spat him back out.

"Being eaten and ending up in someone's stomach... that really is a strange feeling." Ace lay on the deck and took a couple of breaths, excitement appearing on his face as he sprang to his feet in one swift motion.

"My injuries are completely healed! The treatment method is a little strange, but Yota, this move of yours is really useful!"

"But how are you going to deal with your own injuries?"

Yota opened his eyes, which he had kept shut until now to conceal the excitement in them. "Heh heh. You'll soon see how I deal with my own injuries! Behold my ultimate move—I Eat Myself. Never seen that before, have you?"

As he spoke, he opened his huge mouth. His lower jaw expanded to an especially exaggerated size, swallowing his entire head from the bottom up, followed by his neck, then his upper body...

Very quickly, Yota's entire body was devoured by his own mouth. In the end, all that remained on the deck was a single, constantly wriggling mouth.

The Spade Pirates fell silent for a moment, their expressions blank with shock. Then, with a scream, everyone panicked.

"What do we do, what do we do, what do we do? Yota ate himself!"

"M-M-M-Monster!"

But soon, the mouth on the deck opened, and with a swish, it spat out a figure. Yota reappeared in full.

"An illusion... this has to be an illusion!"

Deuce rubbed his eyes and muttered as he looked at Yota, who was completely unharmed, his injuries fully healed and his body even more toned than before.

Although the Spade Pirates crew were in a panic, aside from his initial surprise, Ace was simply intensely curious.

"That's incredible! How did you do that? Can a Devil Fruit really do something like this?"

Not only had Yota healed himself, but Ace also keenly sensed that after this whole I Eat Myself performance, Yota's entire bearing had changed. Even his strength seemed to have increased slightly.

Ace's instincts were right. Thanks to Ace's familial contribution, Yota had finally carried out the first round of modifications on his own body using Ace's physical data. While this kind of bodily modification could not completely match Ace's own potential, it still gave Yota roughly eighty percent of Ace's potential.

That was also because Yota had only increased his potential. Thus, Ace merely felt that Yota's strength seemed to have improved a little. If all that potential had been fully converted into strength, Yota's increase would have been impossible to conceal.

As for the change in his overall vigor and spirit, that went without saying. Feeling the boundless vitality and limitless potential of his body, it would have been truly unbelievable if Yota's mental state had not changed at all.

"The Munch-Munch Fruit is no worse than your Flame-Flame Fruit. You just need a little imagination to use it." Yota said with a smile.

"Damn it, if only we could swap Devil Fruits. I want to know what it feels like for the Munch-Munch Fruit to eat itself too." Ace looked pitiful, his train of thought already focused entirely on the Munch-Munch Fruit.

To him, the Munch-Munch Fruit's power was secondary. Its fun factor came first. It was the typical mindset of an adventure-loving pirate.

After that battle, the Marines seemed to stop pursuing the Spade Pirates. Instead, not long afterward, they sent an invitation to become one of the Shichibukai.

Naturally, just like in the original story, Ace quickly turned down the Shichibukai invitation. Afterward, the Marines raised Ace's bounty and did not forget Yota either.

"Defeating a Vice Admiral only gets me a sixty-million bounty?" Yota curled his lip as he looked at the wanted poster in his hand.

"Don't say that. Aside from you and the Captain, only Vice Captain Deuce has a twenty-million bounty in the Spade Pirates. So a sixty-million Beli bounty is already very high!"

A Spade Pirates crew member wearing a skull mask spoke up.

That's because you guys are too weak! What Spade Pirates? You might as well call yourselves Ace and his leg-hugging accessories! Yota secretly complained.

Thinking back to when Ace was executed, the Spade Pirates had not shown up at all. By then, they had already joined the Whitebeard Pirates. Given the current atmosphere within the Spade Pirates, it would definitely be nonsense to say they had been too afraid to rescue Ace.

That left only two possibilities for why they had not appeared when Ace was executed.

The first was that they were so weak that Whitebeard had not brought them along in the first place.

The second possibility was even worse. Because they were so weak, even if they had participated in the Paramount War, they had failed to make any impression at all. Perhaps no one had even noticed them, and they had not been given so much as a single shot in the end.

After glancing at the wanted poster, Yota did not care much about the bounty. Their values were different, after all. He had no appreciation whatsoever for the bounty culture of the Pirate World. In contrast, he remembered the secrecy rules of the ninja world very clearly.

In the ninja world, there were few ninjas who sought the spotlight, and even fewer who survived after drawing attention to themselves!

With Yota's current strength, he did not think standing out was a good thing.