The Minimum Fruit Development

Gray chatted with Jora over breakfast, picking up a few harmless bits of information about the family.

It was through his conversation with Jora that Gray learned the current year.

Marine Calendar 1506.

The year the Lead Amber Disease broke out? Once he knew the situation, Gray didn't give it much more thought.

As a member of the Donquixote Family, he had nothing to fear from the Lead Amber Disease or the crisis that had erupted in Flevance.

That was all he needed to know!

After finishing his meal and washing his dishes, Gray returned to the small courtyard and started developing his Fruit again.

This time, though, he didn't try to sense his own force field. Instead, he picked up a stone, held it in his palm, and used his ability to make it spin.

The Spin-Spin Fruit could only make objects rotate. It couldn't control them in flight, which was the main reason Buffalo couldn't develop any other uses for it in the original story.

Another reason was that he was illiterate. In the Donquixote Family, only strength mattered; education didn't.

If Buffalo had known more, he could have understood how a circular saw worked. All he would have needed was a specially forged saw blade. With it, he could have trained his swordsmanship and Haki and perhaps even challenged Diamante.

But alas, none of that was meant to be!

For most people in this world, being able to read and make sense of a newspaper was the highest level of education they could achieve.

In his previous life, Gray had been from Blue Star. He wasn't a genius or anything, but everyone had received nine years of compulsory education.

After crossing over to this world, Gray felt deeply insecure without strength to rely on. So, before he could rotate his own force field, he wanted to develop a way to fight as quickly as possible.

And the idea came from the stone in his hand.

If this stone were an iron shuriken like the ones next door, I could throw it using my arm strength, then use the Spin-Spin Fruit to make it spin faster. That would give the shuriken greater cutting power. Would that be my best offensive technique for now?

With that thought, Gray searched the ground for flat stones like the ones used to skip across water, hoping to test whether his idea would work.

He tossed the flat stone in his hand and aimed at a crack in the courtyard wall ahead. After backing up a few steps, he stood twenty meters away from it.

He swung his arm hard and activated his ability.

Whoosh—thud!

Too slow! The stone had flown two meters before his ability kicked in and made it spin. It even stalled for a moment, wasting much of the force behind his throw.

I should spin it like a stone skipping across water instead of throwing it straight.

If I throw it with spin, then activate my ability in the same direction, I won't waste any of its momentum, and I can make the final strike even stronger! Gray adjusted his approach and tried again.

Whoosh... thud!

Too slow. Again!

Gray's first conclusion was that he wasn't familiar enough with his Devil Fruit ability.

Whoosh—thud!

Too slow, and my aim's off!

Again!

Thud!

I activated my ability too late!

Again...

He kept at it, over and over, until his right hand ached and he was out of stamina.

"Pant... pant... I don't have enough stamina, and my body isn't strong enough. There's just too much I need to improve!" He plopped down on the threshold and rubbed the sore muscles in his right arm with his left hand.

Gray had noticed the day before, after eating the Devil Fruit, that his body had already begun to grow stronger, albeit slowly.

It was improving much faster than it had when he trained. Gray guessed that even if a Paramecia didn't strengthen the body as dramatically as a Zoan, it still had to provide some enhancement to help its user activate their abilities.

Even so, just three short hours of training, combined with the energy he'd spent using his Fruit, had drained him completely and left his arm aching.

"At least this little bit of development gave me a way to attack." Though his aim was poor, Gray was still pleased. At least he had an offensive technique now.

All he had to do was keep practicing!

That proved his idea had been right!

"If I switch to shuriken, the results will definitely be even better!" Still rubbing his sore arm, Gray began thinking about asking the family to make him a weapon.

"Ha! Throwing darts is just a minor trick. If I develop this ability properly, I'll come up with a better weapon soon enough!" In Gray's mind, his current attack was only version 0.5.

He'd have to wait until he'd developed his ability further and grown stronger before he could reach the final version 1.0.

After resting for a while and regaining some strength, Gray headed toward the family's nearby compound.

"Since I've finished my active training, I can use my rest time to work on passive training!" The previous night, he'd spent ages trying to sense his own gravitational field, but nothing he did had worked. Gray guessed that he wasn't good enough at quieting his mind.

So he planned to find Diamante. As a swordsman, he was bound to know how to meditate and what it took.

Gray arrived at the neighboring compound and headed for the training ground. When they had nothing else to do, the family's officers usually trained in the Training Room.

The training ground at this compound was nothing more than a broad area behind the courtyard, where the buildings had been torn down.

Aside from the training equipment they'd bought, the rest was just untamed land.

"Gray, what are you doing here?" While Gray had been training, Doflamingo had clearly seen the stones clashing and banging through his Observation Haki.

"I came to find Diamante. I want him to teach me how to meditate."

At that, Diamante stopped swinging his sword. As the instructor for the family's newcomers, he naturally made a point of answering their questions as soon as they asked.

So he agreed to Gray's request without hesitation. "Of course!"

"What, are you planning to train in swordsmanship?"

Gray thought it over, then nodded. "That works too. It'd be good to learn the basics of swordsmanship!"

"But what I need most right now is meditation."

"All right, let's go to your courtyard. Beginners need a quiet place to meditate."

As he spoke, Diamante led the way toward the courtyard.

On the way, Diamante explained to Gray, "Meditation is..."

After listening to the explanation, Gray had a basic understanding of meditation.

Then, under Diamante's guidance, he began meditating for the first time.

Meditation wasn't complicated!

It was like the saying went: what was difficult for one person could be easy for another.

Meditation: Simply picture an object in your mind. Ideally, it should be something you know well.

Then, sit in silence and keep picturing and outlining that object in your mind. Just don't let yourself get distracted.

If you could go half an hour without getting distracted at all, you'd have mastered the basics of meditation.