The Reason for His Strength

Hongou was taken aback. Then he shook his head helplessly. "How come I didn't know I was that amazing? Whether I can treat her or not depends on a proper diagnosis!"

"Hongou, you're too modest!"

"That's right! Hongou is the best in the world!"

"..."

For a while, everyone was convinced that once Yelena returned, Hongou would be able to cure her.

Shanks looked at Louis and smiled. "Little Louis, how about learning medicine from Hongou?"

"With your healing abilities, once you've mastered it, you could absolutely surpass Hongou and become the world's greatest doctor!"

Louis shook his head and declined. "No, thanks. I still have to go to the Grand Line, and I won't be staying here much longer."

Shanks was taken aback. Then, as if he'd thought of something, he asked thoughtfully, "You're going to look for Momora?"

The first person who came to mind was the friend closest to Bar, the Lunarian. Louis also had Momora's Vivre Card.

"Yeah. I plan to visit him on behalf of my people, then head straight to the New World," Louis said.

"??" Shanks was dumbfounded. Were kids these days all this fearless?

Everyone else was just as stunned. They knew what kind of sea the New World was.

Its climate was extremely harsh. The storm they'd encountered recently would barely count as a child's plaything in the New World.

Its natural laws were brutal. The pirates there took the survival of the fittest to its utmost extreme. Even a Supernova with a bounty of over a hundred million could only make a tiny splash there.

The apex rulers entrenched deep in the New World bared their fangs and preyed on the people, always ready to unleash a terrifying event capable of setting the world ablaze.

"Why are you going to the New World so soon?" Shanks asked, bewildered. Louis was still young, yet he had plenty of nerve.

At such a young age, he already planned to go somewhere many pirates from the Grand Line didn't dare set foot.

For a boy in his teens with no powerful backing, the New World was simply too much, too soon.

Louis calmly replied, "To fight those monsters, temper my Haki through battle, and keep getting stronger!"

He'd never believed age was a barrier to setting sail. Big Mom had smashed through a Giant village at the age of six, then set sail and rampaged across the seas. Kaido and Bullet were no less impressive.

Louis was certain he was no worse than any of them. Conqueror's Haki, a Monster Physique, exceptional talent—they had what he had, and he was even better than them.

Whatever they could do, Louis could do better!

Louis claimed he'd dropped out of prenatal education, so he didn't know how to write the word "coward."

Everyone was taken aback. They opened their mouths as if to say something, but in the end, none of them spoke.

Still, Shanks didn't want his friend's junior to recklessly charge into the New World. He patted Louis on the shoulder and said, "It's too soon for you to go to the New World."

"I can tell you're strong, but if you set off too early, you won't have time to unlock the full potential of your physique!"

Louis responded by bringing up the few examples he had in mind.

To his surprise, when Shanks heard Louis's reasoning, he laughed so hard he nearly doubled over.

"Hahahahaha..."

Only after his precious daughter shot him a glare and Louis gave him a peculiar look did Shanks awkwardly scratch his head and rein in his laughter.

Then, under the watchful eyes of his companions, he patted Louis on the shoulder and said meaningfully, "I get it. You've been blinded by the legends surrounding those people."

"??" Louis had no idea what he meant.

A flicker of nostalgia passed through Shanks's eyes as he reminisced. "Things weren't the way people around the sea tell it, Louis."

"Bullet was our companion back then. He only set sail after settling down, working hard to train himself, and reaching a bottleneck."

"Kaido was much the same. Even Big Mom, whose story is supposedly the most outrageous of all, was no different."

"You don't really think she reached the top without developing her physique, just by overeating and having children, do you? Haki doesn't lie!"

"Though she caused quite a stir after leaving Elbaf, she'd also devoted herself to developing her physique."

Then Shanks leaned in and said mysteriously, "Did you know?"

"When Big Mom destroyed a town and first appeared on a wanted poster, she was a chubby little girl!"

"But after that, she didn't show herself very often. By the time she was in her teens, she'd become a tall, stunningly beautiful young woman!"

"That's proof she'd been training hard!"

"..."

Louis fell into thought.

Shanks grinned when he saw this. He knew his... no, his persuasion was probably going to work.

Of course, what Shanks had said was mostly true, with only a tiny difference in the details. He wasn't lying.

Behind him, his companions were astounded, as if they were seeing Shanks in a whole new light.

It was the first time they'd realized Shanks's way with words was every bit as formidable as his strength.

Just then, Yelena appeared before them again, having dealt with the source of the poison.

Only now, she had something in her hand.

"Louis, Shanks, what... is this?" Yelena, who'd also dropped out of prenatal education, held up a strange fruit. Her slightly sallow face was full of confusion.

The sudden call made Louis and Shanks turn around together.

The moment they saw the fruit in Yelena's hand, they both snapped to attention.

"A Devil Fruit?" Shanks's eyes widened.

"Zoan?" Louis blurted out.

Why had Louis immediately assumed it was a Zoan Devil Fruit?

Because the Devil Fruit in Yelena's hand was blue all over, with an outline resembling a deer's skull and small, horn-like protrusions on either side.

In Louis's hazy memories, he recalled that the Ox-Ox Fruit in the Drum Kingdom and CP9's Rob Lucci's Leopard-Leopard Fruit both looked like the creatures their users could transform into.

Yelena was taken aback. "What's a Devil Fruit?"

As the only Devil Fruit user present, Louis thought for a moment before giving her a concise explanation. "It can give people special abilities."

He raised a golden glow in his palm and continued, "After eating one, some people gain strange abilities like mine."

"Some grant people powers like a natural disaster."

"And some let people transform into animals."

"The one in your hand should let you transform into an animal." Louis studied the antler-like protrusions on the fruit Yelena held, pondering aloud.