Baby-5's Development Direction

Chapter 13: Baby-5's Development Direction

"Honestly, this again!" Holding his aching head, Gray felt like he reeked of alcohol from head to toe.

"Trebol, you snot-nosed freak, I'll remember this!" Thinking back to their drinking contest last night, Gray added another mark beside Trebol's name in his mental ledger.

"Gray-sama! Here~ drink this hangover soup, and your headache will go away!" Just then, Baby-5, who had already gotten up, came in carrying a bowl of hangover soup.

"Ah! Thank you, Baby-5!" Baby-5 didn't just like wearing a maid outfit; she also liked doing maid-like things.

"Ah~ It's only right for me to do things for Gray-sama!" Her face flushed red as Baby-5 got carried away with her own heartfelt devotion again.

After drinking the soup, Gray could tell it worked quite well. His headache had eased considerably.

"Baby-5, come here for a moment!"

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

"It's nothing serious. My Devil Fruit ability can help you get stronger." Gray naturally wanted to train this little maid and young girl.

He was already hoping she would join his crew someday, after all.

She was a crewmate in the making and his childhood friend. Shouldn't he start training her now?

"Force Field Rotation~ Activate!"

"One-times gravity!"

"This is the gravity I'm applying to you. Living in a high-gravity environment will help your body grow stronger faster!"

"Only if we both get stronger will we be able to keep anyone from separating us."

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

Gray's earnest words made Baby-5 realize how much he needed her. "Yes, Gray-sama!"

"Now take a few steps. Let me see if the gravity's too much for you."

"It's not, Gray-sama!"

Perhaps it was because she'd been abandoned as a child and had to fight to survive, but her physical fitness was far better than Gray's had been when he first joined the family.

She handled the one-times gravity even better than Gray had at the start. And back then, his body had already been strengthened somewhat by his Devil Fruit.

Of course, this also showed that Paramecia Devil Fruits didn't do much to strengthen the body.

After confirming Baby-5 had no trouble in the high-gravity environment, Gray switched himself to two-times gravity.

After a week of training, maintaining the gravity for both of them had become quite easy.

That wasn't to say Gray had gotten much stronger.

He had improved, of course, but not by that much. The reason he could maintain the gravity so easily was that he'd developed his Devil Fruit ability further.

Besides, the Spin-Spin Fruit only took effort to start up. Once it was going, its rotational momentum meant it didn't take much stamina to keep it running for a long time.

In fact, after getting up, Gray still had enough energy to sit in his wheelchair and have it carry him around. That proved he still had some strength to spare.

After breakfast in the cafeteria, Gray found himself with time on his hands again. As he waited for Baby-5 to wash the dishes, he started thinking about how to pass the time.

Neither he nor Baby-5 had any problems with physical training now. Once they joined the family's training program, they would work on their combat skills.

But Lao G hadn't returned yet, and they didn't have even the slightest foundation in martial arts. Talking about combat was simply ridiculous.

So, he couldn't spend his free time lazing about and sleeping in the sea breeze every day like he had the previous week.

"I've got it!" Gray suddenly thought of something that would pass the time while also enriching his mind. "Aunt Jora, does the family have any books?"

Jora, who had been lost in her art, froze and looked up at Gray. "What, Gray? Do you want to learn to read and write?"

"I already know how to read. I just want to learn more." His answer left Jora bewildered. For pirates like them, knowing how to read was already enough to count as having finished their education. They would never think of studying anything else.

"Studying... Now there's a word I haven't heard in ages!" After reminiscing for a moment, Jora thought it over and said, "There aren't any particularly good books at this branch."

"Even if there are, people are mostly interested in adventure novels and the like. Are you interested in those?"

"I'm not looking for those right now." Gray shook his head. He had no interest in adventure novels from the world of pirates.

He could go to sea himself and see the different scenery on every island.

What interested Gray now was more scientific knowledge.

"Then there's nothing I can do. Other than the books left behind in this island's wealthy district, I don't know where you'd find any."

"You could check the supply office. We collected some books when we first arrived on the island, so you might find what you need there."

"Okay! Thanks, Aunt Jora!"

"No problem. I'm glad I could help."

With his answer in hand and Baby-5 finished cleaning up, Gray immediately led the way to the supply office.

Gray wanted books on science because he planned to train Baby-5. No, more precisely, he planned to train Baby-5 to use the Weapon-Weapon Fruit.

The Weapon-Weapon Fruit let its user transform into any weapon they knew about. In the original story, Baby-5 and Buffalo were both held back by their lack of knowledge, and their Devil Fruit abilities were developed terribly.

They kept coming back to the same things: a large bladed weapon for melee combat and a pistol for ranged attacks. At most, they could turn into the kind of cannon on a pirate ship that never hit anything.

After all, many islands in this world already had submachine guns. As members of the Donquixote Family, a family of arms dealers, surely they'd seen submachine guns before.

But Baby-5 had never transformed into one in the original story.

Judging by that, if someone wanted to develop the Weapon-Weapon Fruit, they first needed to understand weapons. Only then could they transform into them.

With that in mind, Gray planned to train Baby-5 to become a weapons researcher, so she could develop her own Devil Fruit ability.

The Weapon-Weapon Fruit's potential went far beyond what it had shown in the original story. If she developed it to the point of Awakening, she could at least reach the level of an Admiral candidate.

So from now on, Baby-5 needed to absorb knowledge and prepare for her future research.

When they reached the supply office, they found exactly what Gray had expected. The books weren't valued at all; they'd been dumped in a corner and were already getting damp and dusty.

Gray sifted through the pile and picked out books that taught general knowledge.

With all the free time Gray had, subjects like medicine, navigation, and anything else were simply ways to broaden his knowledge.

As for Baby-5, he picked out books related specifically to science.

As for books on weapons research, it went without saying that they wouldn't have anything like that on this island.

"Baby-5, starting today, we're going to study!"

"As long as Gray-sama needs me to, I'm fine with it." That was what was great about Baby-5: she never asked why, and she never complained about hard work or getting tired. Whatever Gray asked her to do, she would do her best to complete.

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

"Without knowledge to draw on, I couldn't have developed my gravity techniques. You'll eat a Devil Fruit someday too, so we should prepare in advance."

"I see!" Baby-5 nodded in understanding. She wanted to develop powerful techniques of her own after eating a Devil Fruit too. "Then I'll learn as much as I can."

Her firm words proved she wasn't joking.

And she wasn't worried that she wouldn't get a Devil Fruit.

Not only was she part of the Donquixote Family, but Gray had also said that even if Doflamingo weren't around, he would find a fruit for her.