"Now that Ian put it that way, it does sound pretty reasonable. What do you think, Mosen?" Michael turned to ask him.
"I'm not sure either. Rather than make wild guesses here, we should try a couple more times.
"Paddy, sorry to trouble you, but could you find another prisoner who's almost frozen to death? We'll wait outside with this basket of fruit," Mosen said.
Paddy nodded and turned to leave.
A little over ten minutes later, Paddy came back carrying two prisoners wearing Seastone Handcuffs.
"Paddy, why did you bring back two?" Michael asked when he saw them.
"I only meant to bring back one, but someone suddenly attacked me. So I beat him up and brought him along too."
Everyone's eyes turned in unison toward the prisoner, whose face was covered in blood.
"This guy looks kind of familiar!" Ian said after staring at him for a while.
"More than kind of. When we were first brought here, this guy was the boss of Extreme Cold Hell. He had a bounty of 360 million Beli and even possessed Conqueror's Haki. Back then, he tried to make me his woman!" Mia chimed in.
"So it was him! No wonder he hates me," Paddy said awkwardly.
"Hates you? Did you do something to him?" Mosen asked.
"It wasn't Paddy who provoked him. He wanted to use her to make an example of someone.
"You came later, Mosen, so you wouldn't know. Back then, he thought Paddy's bounty was too low, so she couldn't be very strong. He wanted to use her to scare the rest of us newcomers into line.
"But Paddy beat him easily, making him look bad in front of all his underlings. They decided he wasn't strong enough and deserted him overnight. That left him all alone," Michael explained.
"I see. Do you know what kind of Fruit User he is?"
"He's a Zoan User," Ian said.
"A Zoan, huh? Let's try him first, then. Paddy, put him down!"
After hearing Mosen, Paddy tossed the bloodied prisoner onto the ground.
But before Mosen could do anything, Michael pierced the man's throat.
"Michael, you..."
"I've never forgotten how he humiliated me back then. I just wanted revenge," Michael explained.
Mosen chuckled at that. He'd already figured out during their time together that Michael was interested in Mia.
Ian had probably noticed too. Even without anything else, during the month Mosen was away, Michael had given most of his food to Mia and even helped her steal food from the other two. Ian had found it pretty suspicious.
Still, Mosen and Ian had tacitly agreed not to say anything. Paddy was a bit slow on the uptake, so there was no way she'd notice something like that. Mia was rather oblivious when it came to romance and hadn't thought of it that way at all. She simply considered Michael a companion.
It made things rather interesting.
In a place like Extreme Cold Hell, wasn't it nice to have something fun to ease the tension?
"Ahem, well, uh... Mosen, the fruit in the basket hasn't changed at all!" Perhaps feeling a little embarrassed by Mosen and Ian watching him, Michael took the initiative to change the subject.
"It really hasn't! Let's take this fellow who's nearly frozen to death into the room, kill him, and see what happens!"
Everyone nodded and headed back inside together.
Paddy set down the prisoner who was nearly frozen to death. Mosen casually shut the door, then finished him off.
A few seconds later, the pineapple in the basket changed. First, it turned blue all over. Then a series of swirl-shaped patterns appeared on it, and a pair of black horns grew from its sides.
"From this, it seems the conditions for a Devil Fruit to reincarnate are probably twofold. First, when a Devil Fruit User dies, the devil within their Lineage Factor will randomly possess the nearest fruit of the same type, turning it into a new Devil Fruit.
"Second, being in a space where the walls and doors are infused with Seastone can greatly increase the chance of possession," Mosen concluded.
Everyone thought that made sense and nodded.
"So what kind of Fruit is this?" Paddy asked curiously.
"Judging by the shape of those horns, it's probably a type of the Ox-Ox Fruit," Mosen replied.
"The Ox-Ox Fruit, huh? Doesn't seem all that useful. It'd only make you a little tougher," Ian said after picking up the fruit and inspecting it.
"True, this Fruit is pretty average. But the Phantom Fruit is different. Even that good-for-nothing Carmain Rodornado got a bounty of 320 million Beli after eating it, and he managed to leave a Marine Branch helpless.
"If a normal person ate it, the Phantom Fruit's potential would be immeasurable. Mia, are you interested?" Mosen asked her.
"Why me?" Mia asked, taken aback.
"Because you were born with Observation Haki. I went to Infinite Hell with Mr. Garp before and saw the legendary Lone Red, Patrick Redfield. His Observation Haki terrified me.
"You were born with Observation Haki just like him. As you grow older, your Observation Haki will grow stronger too, and your ability to see the future will improve.
"Just imagine: if you ate the Phantom Fruit and fought an enemy, you could first use Future Sight to predict their attack, then summon the corresponding phantom with the Phantom Fruit to counter it.
"If you developed your Fruit well, then with that one trick, pirates with bounties under a billion would pose almost no threat to you."
Mia's eyes lit up as she listened to Mosen. It really did seem like a great path for her to grow stronger.
"Then, Mosen, how does the Phantom Fruit summon phantoms?" Mia asked.
"By touching photographs or images."
"Bounty posters too?" Mia continued.
"Of course."
"Then if I go out and collect a bunch of bounty posters, won't I be unstoppable right away?"
"In theory, yes."
"Then I'll eat it!" Mia said, eagerly taking the Phantom Fruit from Mosen and biting into it.
"Wow! It really does taste awful! Like a rotten apple. Good thing I only had to take one bite." Mia tossed the Phantom Fruit aside with a look of disgust.
"Huh? You only have to take one bite of a Devil Fruit?" Ian asked, taken aback.
The others smiled awkwardly and said nothing.
Ian's face instantly darkened. These guys had all known, yet they'd watched him eat an entire fruit.
"You..."
"Mia, I've got a bounty poster here. Want to try it out?" To keep Ian from complaining, Mosen hurriedly changed the subject.
"Sure! Whose poster is it?"
"This guy!" Mosen said, pulling a bounty poster from his pocket.
Everyone glanced at the person on the poster, their expressions turning serious in unison.
"Take a guess: who do you think is on the bounty poster?"
Before you continue