Whispering

The Iron Hammer Pirates' captain loved and cared for ships, and he also served as the shipwright.

His second love was shipbuilding, his third was treasure hunting, and his first was taking his own ship treasure hunting.

About a year ago, he found the "treasure cursed by the sea"—in other words, a Devil Fruit...

Although no one knew what kind of fruit it was, even an ordinary Zoan Devil Fruit would be worth over a hundred million!

The Iron Hammer Captain was better at dealing with ships. His crew had all been recruited, and the brutal pirates grew greedy. They rebelled against the captain and cruelly murdered him. However, when they opened the treasure chest afterward, they discovered that it contained nothing but an ordinary fruit...

At first, they thought they had fallen for the captain's trick, but strange events began occurring one after another.

When the sailors tied knots in the ropes, they would inexplicably trap their own hands. When they rested in their hammocks, the hammocks would inexplicably flip over, tying them inside. When they slept soundly in their beds, they would wake to find the sheets and blankets wrapped tightly around them, as if trying to imprison them!

When only one or two such seemingly insignificant incidents occurred, everyone merely laughed at the others for being clumsy.

However, as the situation grew worse, and someone even saw the ropes slithering about like living snakes when he got up to urinate in the middle of the night, fear spread across the ship.

On the surface, they encouraged one another, but behind the scenes... someone stole a small boat one night and tried to escape.

The result was another bloody internal conflict!

After a third of their number had been lost, the small boat carrying the escapees suddenly slid into the sea right before their eyes. When they tried to jump overboard, rope after rope bound them like living creatures...

Clearly, some kind of "thing" aboard the ship was growing stronger and stronger!

Moreover, they soon became unable to control the ship, which meant they could no longer follow the compass toward shore. Eventually, when their ammunition and food had run out, a numb sailor watched helplessly as the ropes came alive and bound him. Then... food suddenly appeared before him!

As long as they did not resist, food would appear? It was merely food without any oil or flavor, but...

After the savage pirates discovered this, they successively gave up resisting.

At the same time, the eerie presence aboard the ship seemed to be growing stronger and stronger. It began combining into humanoid monsters that killed any pirates who still wanted to resist.

In the end...

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

The prisoners inside could only strictly follow the schedule arranged for them. Even if the storm the previous night had nearly wiped them all out, they still could not leave their cells—until it was time for their morning run.

Even if someone had not yet become completely numb and wanted to escape, he could no longer eat anything besides prison rations. Furthermore, as long as an escapee fell asleep outside the prison, he would silently die in his dreams.

Sig "heard" all of this, and gradually understood that the one that had eaten—or rather, absorbed—the Devil Fruit ability was this ship!

Sig also did not know whether this was some kind of coincidence that had triggered the effect of an "item gaining a Devil Fruit ability," or whether... this ship had a ship spirit.

There were plenty of examples of the former in the original work, though the exact principle was unclear. The setting for the latter was equally vague.

Whether the ship had first gained consciousness, or had happened to absorb a Devil Fruit and gained consciousness afterward, Sig had no way of knowing.

Sig's Listener ability had first been triggered when the bell rang. That was when the Prison-Prison Fruit began executing the authority to conduct the "morning run." The reason he continued hearing things afterward was that its anti-prison-break ability remained in effect.

In other words, whenever the fruit's power took effect, Sig could hear the Devil's whispers.

From those whispers, Sig learned some crucial information—the ship had "eaten" a Devil Fruit, and judging by its current abilities, it should be the Paramecia "Prison-Prison Fruit," similar in nature to the "Castle-Castle Fruit" belonging to one of the Supernovas, Capone Bege!

The Castle-Castle Fruit allowed its user to become a "Castle Person." Not only could it accommodate crewmates inside the user's body, but the user could also transform into a castle giant.

The Prison-Prison Fruit, on the other hand, could imprison enemies inside its body. By comparison, it seemed less useful than the Castle-Castle Fruit.

That was because the Castle-Castle Fruit could release the allies inside the body-castle at any time to attack enemies, while those "admitted" into the body by the Prison-Prison Fruit were all opponents who had already been defeated.

Wouldn't it be better to simply kill the enemy?

As for the ability to twist and combine items into "prison guards," it was not very useful either!

The "prison guards" operated within the prison—in other words, inside the user's body.

It was only because this "Prison-Prison Fruit ability user" was unusual—a ship—that the things on its deck could theoretically be considered part of its body. That was why Sig, Arlong, and the others encountered "prison guards" outside. Otherwise, it would at most have possessed the ability to manage prisoners.

Of course, what other abilities it might have still had to be developed.

Now, this ship was about to "die"!

Last night's storm had catastrophically damaged the hull, and the keel had broken. That was why the Devil Fruit ability had begun to separate.

One reason Sig had come here was also to fulfill the ship's will...

Arlong was still circling the Devil Fruit, seemingly studying something, and looked ready to pluck it at any moment. Although the Fish-Man Race generally hated Devil Fruits, it was another matter if they could be exchanged for money!

At that moment, Sig hoped that by directly absorbing the fruit's power through "Listening," he would not be too severely restricted by the sea...

Because he could not control himself either. Earlier, Arlong had felt that Sig's body was slippery and cold, but that was actually the Prison-Prison Fruit's ability gradually affecting Sig.

For Sig, however, it was not impossible to accept. This ability was definitely not useless—wouldn't it be better to simply kill the enemy? No! Old Man Tiger wouldn't allow it!

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

Although the whispers Sig heard at that moment remained meaningless if translated directly, after hearing enough of them, he began to be able to obtain information directly.

To some extent, Sig also began sharing the ship's feelings, and thus discovered many things.

For example, the hull was submerged in seawater. Normally, if it were compared to a Devil Fruit user, it should have lost its power by then. But for the ship, only the outer hull plating—the part directly touching the seawater—was unable to activate the Prison-Prison Fruit's ability.

Perhaps it was because this was a ship rather than a person?

Or perhaps... it was because this ship had not directly eaten the fruit, but had absorbed its power through some other trigger?

If the latter was true, then Sig being infected through "Listening" should not count as directly eating the fruit, right?

However, at that moment, Sig did not have many choices. "Listening" was not something he could block, and his body was already beginning to change.

If this were in Lord of the Mysteries, this should count as... losing control!