Baby-5's Development Direction

Chapter 13: The Development Direction of Baby-5

"Good grief, this again!" Clutching his throbbing head, Gray felt like he reeked of alcohol.

"Trebol, you snot-nosed freak, I'll remember this!" Thinking back to the drinking contest last night, Gray added another tally against Trebol in the little notebook he kept in his mind.

"Gray-sama! Come on, drink this hangover soup and your headache will go away!" Just then, Baby-5, who had already been up for a while, walked in carrying a bowl of soup.

"Ah, thank you, Baby-5!" Baby-5 didn't just like wearing a maid outfit; she genuinely enjoyed doing maid work.

"Ah~ doing things for Gray-sama is my duty!" Her face flushed, and Baby-5 fell into a state of self-moved bliss.

After drinking the soup, the effects were quite good, and the headache eased significantly.

"Baby-5, come here for a second."

"Hm? What is it, Gray-sama?"

"It's nothing major, but my Fruit ability is very helpful for strengthening the body." As for this little maid and young girl, Gray naturally intended to cultivate her.

After all, he was already planning to have her join his crew in the future.

A designated crewmate who was also a childhood friend—how could he not start training her now?

"Field Rotation—Activate!"

"One-times gravity!"

"This is the gravity I'm applying to you. Living in a high-gravity environment will make your body strengthen much faster!"

"Only when we both become stronger will no one be able to separate us."

"So, Baby-5, let's work hard together! I need you to become stronger!"

Gray's solemn declaration made Baby-5 realize that she was truly needed. "Yes! Gray-sama!"

"Now, take a few steps and let me see if the gravity is too much for you."

"It's not, Gray-sama!"

One had to say, she was truly a child abandoned from a young age; in order to survive, her physical constitution was far stronger than Gray's had been when he first joined.

She handled the one-times gravity environment even better than Gray had initially. One had to remember that by that time, Gray's body had already been somewhat reinforced by his Fruit.

Of course, this also indirectly showed that the Paramecia-type Fruit's physical reinforcement was indeed quite negligible.

Seeing that Baby-5 was fine in the gravity field, Gray activated his own two-times gravity.

After a week of training, maintaining the gravity for two people had become quite easy.

This didn't mean Gray had become significantly stronger.

Although he had improved, it wasn't by that much. The reason he could maintain the consumption so easily was that his development of the Fruit had deepened.

Furthermore, the Spin-Spin Fruit's ability, aside from requiring a bit of effort to initiate, relied on rotational inertia, meaning it didn't require much stamina to maintain for long periods.

And so, after Gray got up, he even had the leisure to sit in his wheelchair and let it carry him around, which proved he still had energy to spare.

After eating breakfast in the cafeteria, Gray found himself idle again. While waiting for Baby-5 to finish washing the dishes, he began to think about how to pass the time.

Now that both he and Baby-5 were fine with their physical training, the future training with the Family would focus on combat skills.

But since Lao G hadn't returned yet, they lacked any foundation in martial arts, so talking about combat was simply out of the question.

Therefore, he couldn't spend his free time like he had the previous week—just blowing in the sea breeze and sleeping all day.

"Got it!" Suddenly, Gray thought of a way to pass the time while also improving himself. "Auntie Jora, does the Family keep any books?"

Jora, who was lost in her art nearby, was startled. She looked up at Gray. "Why, Gray? Are you looking to learn how to read and write?"

"I already know how to read; I just want to learn more knowledge." This remark actually stunned Jora. For pirates like them, being able to read was considered a graduation of sorts; they never thought about learning other subjects.

"Learning, huh? That's such a distant term!" After sighing over the past, Jora thought for a moment and said, "There aren't any particularly good books in this branch base."

"Even if there were, what everyone is interested in is mostly adventure novels and the like. Are you interested in those?"

"I don't need those books right now." Gray shook his head; he had absolutely no interest in the adventure novels of the pirate world.

He could go out to sea himself, and as for the different scenery of each island, he could just go see it for himself.

The knowledge Gray was interested in now was scientific knowledge.

"Then there's nothing I can do. Aside from the books left behind in this rich district, I don't know about the rest of the island."

"You could check the logistics department. We collected some things when we first arrived on the island; there might be what you need there."

"Okay! Thank you, Auntie Jora!"

"It's nothing. I'm glad I could help."

Having received his answer, and with Baby-5 finished with her chores, Gray immediately led the way toward the logistics department.

The reason Gray wanted this scientific knowledge was to cultivate Baby-5. No, to be precise: to cultivate the Baby-5 who had eaten the Weapon-Weapon Fruit.

The Weapon-Weapon Fruit allowed a person to turn into any known weapon. In the original story, Baby-5, much like Buffalo, was limited by her lack of knowledge, and her development of the Fruit was a complete mess.

They only ever cycled through cold weapons like broadswords, or firearms like muskets—at best, they had cannons on pirate ships that couldn't hit a target to save their lives.

One had to realize that many islands in this world were already using submachine guns; as members of the Donquixote Family, who were arms dealers, it was impossible that they had never seen one.

Yet, in the original story, Baby-5 never transformed into anything of the sort.

Based on this situation, it could be inferred that to develop the Weapon-Weapon Fruit, one first had to understand weapons in order to transform into them.

With this as a prerequisite, Gray intended to train Baby-5 as a weapons researcher to prepare her for developing her own Devil Fruit.

The potential of the Weapon-Weapon Fruit was far greater than what was shown in the original work; if developed to the point of awakening, it would at least be at the level of an Admiral candidate.

Therefore, starting now, he had to make Baby-5 absorb knowledge to prepare for her future research.

Arriving at the logistics department, it was just as Gray had guessed: all the books were completely disregarded, left in a corner to gather dust and grow damp.

Gray sifted through the pile of books, selecting those that provided foundational knowledge.

For Gray, who had plenty of free time, whether it was medicine, navigation, or anything else, it was all just material to broaden his knowledge base.

As for the arrangements for Baby-5, they were strictly limited to science-related books.

As for things like weapons research, one only had to think about it to know that such things couldn't possibly exist on this island.

"Baby-5, starting today, we're going to begin our studies!"

"As long as Gray-sama needs it, I have no problem with that." That was the good thing about Baby-5; she wouldn't ask why, nor would she complain about hardship or fatigue. Whatever Gray instructed her to do, she would strive to complete.

"Hahaha! You little fool, knowledge is power, too!"

"Without absorbing knowledge, I wouldn't have been able to develop my gravity-based techniques. You'll be eating a Devil Fruit in the future, so you need to prepare in advance."

"I see!" Nodding in realization, Baby-5 also wanted to develop powerful techniques after she ate her own Devil Fruit. "Then I will absorb knowledge, too."

Her resolute words proved that Baby-5 wasn't joking.

And she wasn't worried about being unable to obtain a Devil Fruit.

Not only because she was in the Donquixote Family, but also because Gray had said that even without Doflamingo, he would find a fruit for her.