Whispers

The Iron Hammer Pirates, their Captain was someone who cherished his ship and also served as its shipwright.

His second favorite activity was building ships, his third was treasure hunting, and his first was piloting his own ship to hunt for treasure.

About a year ago, he found the "Treasure Cursed by the Great Sea," which was a Devil Fruit...

Although he didn't know what kind of fruit it was, even an ordinary Zoan Devil Fruit would be worth over 100 million!

Captain Iron Hammer was better at dealing with ships, and his crew were all recruited. The brutal crew members became greedy, rebelled against their Captain, and brutally murdered him. However, when they later opened the treasure chest, they found it only contained an ordinary fruit...

At first, they thought their Captain had tricked them, but then strange things began to happen one after another.

When Sailors tied knots in ropes, they would inexplicably tie their own hands by accident. When resting in hammocks, the hammocks would inexplicably tip over, binding them inside. When sleeping soundly in bed, they would wake up to find their sheets and blankets tightly wrapped around them, as if trying to trap them!

When only one or two of these seemingly insignificant strange occurrences happened, everyone just laughed at others for being clumsy.

However, as the situation escalated, and someone even saw the ropes wriggling like living snakes when they got up to pee in the middle of the night, fear spread throughout the ship.

On the surface, they encouraged each other, but in secret... someone stole a small boat at night, intending to escape.

This led to another internal conflict and slaughter!

After losing a third of their members, the escape boat suddenly and spontaneously slid into the sea before them. As they were about to jump off the ship, ropes bound them like living things...

Clearly, something on the ship was getting stronger!

And afterward, they could no longer control the ship, meaning they couldn't follow the direction of the Log Pose to land. Finally, when they ran out of supplies, a numb crew member watched helplessly as ropes seemed to come alive and bind him, and then... food appeared before him!

As long as they didn't resist, food would appear? Although it was just bland food, it was still...

Upon discovering this, the ferocious pirates successively gave up their resistance.

Meanwhile, the strange entity on the ship seemed to grow stronger, beginning to combine into humanoid monsters and kill the pirates who still wanted to resist.

Finally...

The Iron Hammer Pirates' ship became a prison...

The prisoners within could only strictly adhere to their assigned schedules. Even if the storm the previous night had almost wiped them out, they couldn't leave their cells—until it was time for their run.

Even if someone wasn't completely numb and wanted to escape, they could no longer eat anything other than prison food. And as long as an escapee fell asleep outside their cell, they would die silently in their dreams.

Sig "heard" all of this and gradually understood that it was the ship itself that had eaten... or rather, absorbed the Devil Fruit's abilities!

Sig didn't understand if it was a coincidence that triggered the effect of an "item gaining Devil Fruit abilities," or if... the ship had a ship spirit?

There were many examples of the former in the original work, but the specific principle was unknown. The latter's setting was also unclear.

Sig also didn't know whether the ship gained consciousness first, or if it coincidentally absorbed the Devil Fruit and then gained consciousness.

Sig's "Listener" ability was triggered for the first time when the bell rang, at which point the Prison-Prison Fruit began to execute the "running" authority. He continued to hear it afterward because the anti-jailbreak capabilities were continuously in effect.

This meant that when the fruit's effects took hold, Sig could hear the devil's whispers.

And from the whispers he heard, Sig understood some key information—the ship "ate" a Devil Fruit, and currently, it appeared to be the Paramecia-type "Prison-Prison Fruit," similar in nature to the "Castle-Castle Fruit" of Capone Bege, one of the Supernovas in the original work!

The effect of the Castle-Castle Fruit was to turn the user into a "Castle Person," allowing them to accommodate crew members within their body and also transform into a castle giant.

The Prison-Prison Fruit, on the other hand, could imprison enemies within its body. In comparison, it seemed less practical than the Castle-Castle Fruit.

Because the Castle-Castle Fruit could release companions from the castle within its body to attack enemies at any time, while the Prison-Prison Fruit could only "detain" defeated opponents within its body.

Wouldn't it be better to just kill enemies directly?

As for the ability of objects to twist and combine into "Jailers," it also had no practical use!

The "Jailers'" activity range was within the prison, meaning within the user's body.

It was just that this "Prison-Prison Fruit ability user" was special—it was a ship. The things on the deck were theoretically also part of its body, which was why Sig and Arlong encountered "Jailers" "outside," otherwise, it would have been at most an ability to manage prisoners.

Of course, there were likely other abilities yet to be developed.

Now, this ship was about to "die"!

Last night's storm had already caused catastrophic damage to the hull, and the keel was broken, which was why the fruit's abilities had been released.

Part of the reason Sig came here now was also the ship's will...

Arlong was still circling the Devil Fruit, seemingly studying it, and looked ready to pick it at any moment—although the Fish-Man Race generally disliked Devil Fruits, they wouldn't dislike them if they could be exchanged for money!

At this moment, Sig hoped that by "listening" and directly absorbing the fruit's abilities, he wouldn't be too restrained by the sea...

Because at this point, he couldn't control himself either. Arlong's earlier feeling of Sig's body being slippery and cold was precisely the Prison-Prison Fruit's abilities gradually affecting Sig.

However, for Sig, it wasn't unacceptable. This ability was by no means useless—wouldn't it be better to kill enemies directly? No! Boss Tiger wouldn't allow it!

As for the problem of being "cursed" by the sea...

Although the whispers Sig heard now, if translated directly, were still meaningless, after listening for a long time, he began to be able to directly obtain information.

To some extent, Sig also began to empathize with the ship, so he discovered many things.

For example, the hull was floating in seawater. Normally, if compared to a Devil Fruit user, they should lose their power at this point, but for the ship, only the outer hull, the part directly in contact with the seawater, could not activate the "Prison-Prison Fruit" abilities.

Perhaps it was because it was a ship, not a person?

Or perhaps... because this ship didn't directly eat the fruit, but absorbed its abilities under some other trigger condition!

If it was the latter, then Sig being infected by "listening" shouldn't count as directly eating the fruit, right?

However, at this moment, Sig didn't have many choices, because "listening" couldn't be blocked by him, and his body was already undergoing changes.

If this were in Lord of the Mysteries, this would probably be considered... losing control!