"Pretty lucky. You haven't been eaten yet."
Strolling through the laboratory, Austin had no interest in watching the Straw Hat Crew fight Caesar and the others. It was nothing more than a bunch of rookies pecking at each other.
Every so often, they even played around with poison gas, drugs, and the like.
Things that were completely useless before true powerhouses.
He brought Kuina to Vegapunk's old laboratory, where there were products of Vegapunk's past failed experiments.
A replica of the Azure Dragon Fruit.
The Pink Dragon Fruit.
Perhaps due to some butterfly effect, Momonosuke had not eaten the Pink Dragon Fruit this time. It still lay quietly in the laboratory.
"If you want to make up for the shortcomings in your physical abilities, this should be a very good choice."
With a snap of Austin's fingers, the artificial creation, whose patterns were clearly different from those of ordinary Devil Fruits, instantly appeared in his hand.
He then held it out before Kuina.
Facing such a rare treasure of the seas—a Devil Fruit that Austin claimed was of very high quality—Kuina swallowed nervously.
She widened her eyes at Austin.
"Master Austin, will I become stronger if I eat this?"
"That's right."
Kuina nodded, then opened her mouth and began eating.
"It tastes awful!!! What a weird, disgusting flavor!!!"
The taste made Kuina feel as though her throat were retching, her muscles spasming as she wanted to vomit it back up.
"Don't spit it out. Swallow it."
Hearing that, Kuina forcibly suppressed the urge to throw up and swallowed the food in her mouth.
Austin had tasted a Devil Fruit once in his life. It really was so awful that it challenged the limits of human endurance.
Being able to swallow one whole like Buggy had actually been the better option.