Cultivating Feelings

Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Azure Dragon form.

After eating this Devil Fruit, the beast form should logically be an Azure Dragon.

Yet the form Shusui evolved into was a black dragon with a black back and red belly.

How had this happened—

Perhaps it was because Shusui was a black blade.

Maud did not delve into it. He raised his hand and lightly tapped Beli on the head, then took a few steps forward and gently scooped up Shusui.

Shusui obediently draped himself over Maud's arm, raised his dragon head, and looked at Maud from close range.

The joy in those black-and-red eyes was impossible to hide.

"Watching you be born gives me a wonderful feeling."

Maud smiled and reached out with his other hand to gently stroke the black dragon's head. He said softly, "Then I'll keep calling you Shusui from now on, all right?"

"Aw-aw!"

Perhaps because of the change in his emotions, Shusui's cry was no longer a low whimper. Instead, it was a vigorous, energetic roar.

"Are you a dog?"

Beli glanced at Shusui and muttered under his breath from the side, clearly annoyed.

Maud let out a laugh and pretended not to hear Beli's muttering.

Shusui, meanwhile, alternated between gazing at Maud with watery eyes and baring his teeth at Beli.

He had probably understood Beli's muttering.

Lafitte and Luo studied the mischievous Shusui. Perhaps because they loved Maud, even they, normally as emotionally stiff as steel, could not help showing faint smiles.

Suddenly.

They each glanced at their own weapons and began imagining things without realizing it.

Feeding their weapons Zoan Devil Fruits might not be a bad idea.

Besides, quite a few Zoan Devil Fruits were still sitting unused inside Maud's Shadow Box.

For example—

The Zoan Devil Fruits of a mammoth, a