Twenty meters away, the three of them watched Tashigi, flames occasionally flickering across her body.
"Are you sure she's okay?" Zhou Qi asked.
"She's fine!" Smoker nodded. "She just ate a Devil Fruit, so she hasn't adapted to it yet. She'll be fine after a while!"
"Oh..." Zhou Qi nodded. After all, he came from a materialistic world. Although he had seen Smoker's Smoke-Smoke Fruit, Tashigi's Mera Mera no Mi still felt especially novel to him.
"I heard Devil Fruits can affect a person's personality. Is that true?" Zhou Qi asked.
"No!" Smoker scratched his head. "I didn't feel like my personality changed after eating the fruit."
"So you liked smoking even before you ate the Devil Fruit?" Zhou Qi asked.
"Yeah!" Smoker nodded. "Didn't you see my name?"
Smoker was a transliteration. His actual name was Smoker, meaning someone who smoked.
"Your parents knew you would smoke when they named you?" Zhou Qi asked in surprise.
Smoker rolled his eyes, his tone calm. "I don't have parents!"
"Huh?" Zhou Qi froze.
"By the time I could remember anything, I was already an orphan!" Smoker said flatly. "I had no parents, didn't know where I came from, and didn't even have a name. Since I liked smoking, everyone called me Smoker. Over time, that became my name!"
"Sorry..." Zhou Qi had not known Smoker had such a past.
"It's nothing. It's all in the past!" Smoker waved a hand. "I don't even care about that past myself. Besides, you didn't cause it! And aren't I doing just fine now? I even became a Marine Colonel. In many people's eyes, that already counts as success and fame!"
Zhou Qi nodded. That was true. So many people in the Zhou family had joined the military, yet not one had even come close to becoming a colonel.
His third brother was probably the closest, since he had attended military academy, but he was only a captain now.
The conversation had reached an awkward point, and they did not know how to continue. Fortunately, flames had stopped appearing around Tashigi. It seemed she had initially adapted to the fruit.
"How do you feel? Has your strength increased?" Zhou Qi asked.
"I think... it has!" Tashigi felt out her condition, then nodded.
"Alright, then let's test it!" Zhou Qi said, taking out the starter pistol again.
Koshiro made his way to the finish line with practiced ease.
Ten seconds later, the test was over.
"8.59 seconds. Nearly a full second faster!"
Then came the standing long jump.
"4.52 meters. An increase of 0.84 meters!"
Reaction speed.
"175. An improvement of 14 ms."
The dynamometer was broken, so they could only test her grip strength.
Tashigi picked up the grip strength tester and squeezed hard!
"198 kilograms!"
An increase of 73 kilograms?
"That's a huge improvement!" Her speed and reaction speed had not improved much, but those were already difficult areas to improve.
The obvious gains in the standing long jump and grip strength better demonstrated the Devil Fruit's effects. It had practically doubled a person's strength outright!
"This is only the initial change!" Seeing no smile on Zhou Qi's face, Smoker thought he was dissatisfied with the results and added, "After eating a Devil Fruit, there'll be a period of explosive growth in strength. Tashigi may still be weak now, but give her three to five months, and she'll be able to stand on her own!"
"Mm!" Zhou Qi nodded. In other words, Devil Fruits truly had the effect of developing human potential and raising one's upper limits. It was not limited to Zoan Type or Paramecia Devil Fruits; Logia Type fruits had the same effect.
Perhaps Logia Type Devil Fruits did not strengthen the human body as much as Zoan Type fruits, but that was merely a difference in emphasis, not an absence of enhancement.
So his line of thinking had been correct. Even if Earthlings had frail bodies, eating the Thunder-Thunder Fruit would allow them to catch up with the powerhouses of One Piece.
The only problem was that Earthlings and One Piece humans had different constitutions. That difference had already shown itself in meditation.
Could Earthlings eat Devil Fruits, then?
"Or I could find someone to test it on, but I can't just grab someone off the street. I couldn't bring myself to do that. But where would I even get close to a death row inmate? And even if I did, there's nothing I could do. They're all under state control!"
Foreigners? Yellow, white, and black people had different genes. What if it worked on them but not on him?
"It still has to be one of our own, but someone who deserves death and isn't in the country..." Zhou Qi stroked his chin. Did such people exist?
They really did. And there were quite a few of them!
"I'll make plans when I get back!"
Before that, though, he should study the Mera Mera no Mi some more.
"Come on, make a flame. Let me see how hot it is!" Zhou Qi took out a barbecue thermometer, pulled out its antenna-like temperature probe, and handed it to Tashigi. "Burn this!"
"Mm!" Tashigi did as instructed. Orange-yellow flames rose from her fingertips, and the thermometer instantly displayed a reading.
"557°C?"
"What's that?" Smoker asked curiously.
"A device for measuring temperature!" Zhou Qi retracted the antenna.
"Let me try..." Smoker said.
Zhou Qi was speechless. He was already an adult, so why did he want to play with everything?
Still, Zhou Qi handed it over and said, "Just place that end against whatever you want to measure."
"Alright!" Smoker first placed the probe against himself.
36.8°C.
Then he stuck it into a tree.
14.6°C.
"Interesting!" Smoker immediately became fascinated with it, touching this and looking at that, wanting to measure everything.
Zhou Qi was speechless and too lazy to bother with him. He said to Tashigi, "The essence of burning is an oxidation-reduction reaction. The essence of flames is light and energy. From these three aspects, the Mera Mera no Mi has at least three development paths. The first is oxidation-reduction reactions. This is oxygen's invasion and corrosion of all things. Over a long enough timescale, even steel will be eroded away, let alone the human body. Since you ate the Mera Mera no Mi, you can use your ability to accelerate that process..."
"Once you master oxidation-reduction, in a sense, you'll have mastered time!"
Tashigi blinked. "What is oxidation-reduction?"
She did not understand at all!
Zhou Qi was not in a hurry to explain. "Let me talk about the next one first."
"Light is a byproduct of flames, a radiation of heat. From that perspective, even the Glint-Glint Fruit is a lesser fruit of the Mera Mera no Mi. Of course, light can also condense into fire, so neither is superior to the other..."
Tashigi's eyes widened. She did not understand oxidation-reduction, but she understood the Glint-Glint Fruit.
Wasn't that Marine Admiral Kizaru of the Three Admirals?
In other words, the fruit she had eaten was on the same level as those of the Three Admirals?
Could she become a Marine Admiral too?
Tashigi suddenly thought of the small goal Zhou Qi had set for her before: becoming a Marine Admiral.
She had originally thought it was nothing more than a fantasy. Yet suddenly, that small goal no longer seemed unreachable!
"Light is a fast attack method with long range. It can make up for flames' lack of range quite well. But its low power and insufficient lethality are undeniable, so you need to put more thought into energy."
"Increasing the energy density of flames, in outward terms, means raising their temperature!"
"Your flames are currently less than six hundred degrees. At that temperature, not only can you not melt steel, you would have a hard time even burning wood. But if you develop them to thousands or even tens of thousands of degrees, a single flame could incinerate a powerhouse..."
"Oh, oh!" Tashigi nodded, half-understanding.
She did not understand how the Mera Mera no Mi should be developed, but Zhou Qi had always given her the impression that he seemed to understand everything. Since Qi-kun said so, there had to be a reason for it.
"These three development paths can be pursued at the same time. In battle, you'll mainly use the latter two. As for the first one, its effects won't be obvious early on, but its potential is limitless in the later stages. You can work on it gradually at the same time."
"Then what exactly should I do?" Tashigi asked.
"It's simple. Combine the Mera Mera no Mi with swordsmanship!" Zhou Qi said. "Condense all your Devil Fruit power onto your sword. The more you condense, the higher the sword's temperature will naturally become. Then swing the sword-shaped flames out like sword energy. The faster they fly, the better the development of the light aspect will be, and their power will also be greater!"
"You can name this sword style: Vermilion Bird Sword Style!"
"This method will not only let you develop your Devil Fruit, but will also improve the swordsmanship you know best at the same time, so you won't fall behind in either. By the time your Devil Fruit reaches awakening, your swordsmanship may have reached Great Swordsman as well. At that point, how many people in the world could still be your match?"
"Can I... really do it?" Tashigi blinked. Me? A Great Swordsman? Is that possible?
"I can only say that as long as you work hard, anything is possible!" Zhou Qi said.
"I-I'll work hard!" Tashigi clenched her fists. "As the one who bears the name Vermilion Bird, I definitely won't disappoint everyone's expectations!"
She suddenly got all chuunibyou on him.
Zhou Qi nodded, then added, "Of course, I'm only a master in theory. As for how exactly to create this Vermilion Bird Sword Style, you'll need to ask Master Koshiro to help you design a sword style suited to the Mera Mera no Mi..."
"Yes!" Tashigi nodded earnestly.
Koshiro, who was sitting nearby, had a momentarily stiff smile. So all the hard work was his, but the person she liked most was still Zhou Qi...
But there was no way he would not put his full effort into designing a sword style for Tashigi.
"Ah..." Koshiro sighed. What could he do?
Nothing...
He had been completely wrapped around her finger!
Before you continue