Strong-Strong Fruit

Marineford, beach.

Garp stared at the empty ground, his eyes wide in astonishment. "Th-this is a Devil Fruit ability? Why can you go into the water?"

"I have a space by my side where I can store and retrieve things at any time. I was born with it." Zhong Hao spread his right hand, and the Devil Fruit he had just stored away appeared in his palm. With another motion, it vanished again. "Teacher, you have to keep this secret for me."

"It's real! Such an amazing ability... Is it some kind of special bloodline?" Garp lifted Zhong Hao's clothes, wanting to see whether he had hidden it inside them. Just as he was about to pull open Zhong Hao's pants to look inside, Zhong Hao hurriedly slapped his hand away.

"Oh! Right, the barbell you gave me in the East Blue—I saw you using it on the mountain, and I saw you using it on the ship too, but I never saw you carrying it around. So you stored it away. What an incredible ability." Garp recalled what had happened back in Foosha Village. He had been rather puzzled then, but now that he knew the truth, he found it extremely novel.

Zhong Hao nodded. "Well, Teacher, let's head back. I want to look through the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia."

Zhong Hao then followed Garp to his residence. Garp pointed at the foot of the bed. "There. The Devil Fruit Encyclopedia is over there."

Looking at the encyclopedia crushed into a wrinkled mess beneath the bed, several black lines dropped across Zhong Hao's forehead. "The Devil Fruit Encyclopedia is a rare item too. Treating it like this will get you cursed."

Zhong Hao burst out laughing without the slightest embarrassment. "What's the big deal? If it gets ruined, I can just go get another one from Sengoku."

Zhong Hao pulled the encyclopedia out from beneath the bed and held it in his hands. Though wrinkled, it did not affect his reading. He took out the Devil Fruit again and compared it against the illustrations page by page, memorizing each page's contents along the way in case they proved useful later.

"Oh! Found it." He finally turned to a page where the illustration looked exactly like the Devil Fruit they had found earlier.

"You found it? What Fruit is it?" Garp poked half his body out of the bathroom, a wet pair of underwear dangling from his hand. It seemed he had been doing laundry. His coat and shirt had people assigned to wash them, but underwear was generally handled personally.

"It's a Paramecia Strong-Strong Fruit." Zhong Hao read from the encyclopedia. "The Strong-Strong Fruit strengthens every tissue in the body, including muscles, bones, and internal organs. It boosts physical techniques even more than Zoan Fruits do, but it has one fatal side effect."

Garp rolled up his sleeves and hung the underwear out on the balcony. With his bare back facing the light, he looked rather like a good homemaker. He turned around and said, "There's such a powerful Fruit? It can even strengthen internal organs?"

"The encyclopedia says it can strengthen internal organs, even the brain. Yes, strengthen—not enhance. Because after the brain is strengthened, it becomes as though it has been filled with muscle, so the side effect is a certain degree of reduced intelligence..."

Zhong Hao was rather speechless about this side effect. In his previous life, he had often heard people say, "Strong limbs, simple mind. His brain must be full of muscles." Now, this Fruit could perfectly make that saying a reality.

"What a powerful Fruit ability. I think Sengoku ought to eat it. After he does, he won't have the brains to nag me anymore! Hahahaha!" Garp laughed loudly.

"Garp, if Sengoku heard you say that, he'd come looking for trouble." A figure wearing a Marine coat pushed open the door and walked in.

Seeing who had entered, Garp said in surprise, "Eh? Tsuru, why are you here?"

Tsuru glanced at Garp, then warmly greeted Zhong Hao as well. "A Marine reported that you master and disciple had sneakily gone to the beach, as though you were searching for something in the sea. So I came to take a look."

Zhong Hao immediately tossed aside the encyclopedia, stood up, and bowed to Tsuru. "You must be my teacher's wife. Greetings, Teacher's Wife." This was Zhong Hao's first time meeting Tsuru. The previous time, he had been unconscious.

Garp's expression changed drastically, and he frantically waved his hands. "T-Teacher's wife? You brat, don't talk nonsense! That'll get people killed!"

Zhong Hao looked at Garp, then at Tsuru, confused. "But... you two look very much like it."

In his previous life, he had been curious about the relationship between Garp and Tsuru. He had always felt they looked like a married couple.

Tsuru grabbed Garp by the ear and paid no heed to Zhong Hao standing nearby. "Garp, look at the things you've taught your disciple. You're asking for a beating."

"Tsuru, I was wrong! Please let me go!" Garp kept crying, "Ow, ow!"

Zhong Hao watched with great interest from the side. He could tell now that they really were not husband and wife. They were more like family and companions, like Luffy and Nami.

After a while, Tsuru released Garp's ear, picked up the Strong-Strong Fruit from the table, and said, "If someone like Kaido in the New World ate this Fruit, who knows what kind of monster it would create. And Zhong Hao, this side effect is not absolute. If the Fruit awakens and its power can be perfectly controlled, then this side effect can easily be erased."

After speaking, Tsuru put down the Strong-Strong Fruit and picked up the wrinkled encyclopedia. "Although this encyclopedia contains a complete range of Fruit types, its details are not thorough enough. As far as I know, this Fruit fell into the World Government's hands four times. Through observation and experiments, they reached one conclusion: an ordinary person's intelligence will decline after eating it, but if someone whose brain already doesn't work well eats it, they will not get any worse. It is effectively without side effects."

"It can work like that?" Zhong Hao's eyes lit up after hearing this. The first person he thought of was Da Ye, who was still in Naruto. Da Ye had been born with immense strength, and he was not particularly bright either. This Strong-Strong Fruit could not have suited him better.

Although Zhong Hao believed in individual strength, having a helper by his side would make things much easier. Besides, Da Ye was a younger brother he acknowledged. Da Ye obeyed his every word and had never defied him. This Fruit was absolutely the perfect choice for him.

"It seems you already have a suitable candidate in mind." Tsuru was the Marines' chief staff officer and a person of exceptional wisdom. The moment she saw Zhong Hao's expression, she knew what he was thinking.

Zhong Hao nodded and smiled. "I have a younger brother. He was born with immense strength. Although he isn't particularly diligent in training, his raw physical strength is no weaker than mine. Well, he isn't very bright either." By the end, he could not help thinking of Da Ye's simpleminded appearance and burst out laughing.

Garp leaned closer after hearing that. "You have a younger brother like that? Why not have him join the Marines?"

Garp could not go three sentences without mentioning the Marines, while Luffy could not go three sentences without mentioning becoming the Pirate King. They truly had been cut from the same mold.

"I have the same idea. When the time comes, I'll have to ask Teacher to train him hard."

Zhong Hao had long had this idea: bring Ji Mei and the others to this world and have Garp train Da Ye. Tang Ze came from a traditional samurai family and was deeply devoted to swordsmanship. Perhaps he could become a great swordsman like Hawkeye someday. But as for Ji Mei, Zhong Hao had not yet decided what path she should take. As for Kurenai Yuhi, Zhong Hao intended to find her a Devil Fruit with an illusion ability.

With them helping him then, no matter which world he went to, he would have capable assistants who could shoulder great responsibilities. It was just that he currently lacked the ability to bring people across worlds. Perhaps he would only be able to do so once he could store living things in his space.

"Oh, right, Teacher's Wife, take a look at this." Zhong Hao handed Sea Fang to Tsuru.

"Hey! Brat, I told you not to talk nonsense! That'll get people killed!" Garp first bared his teeth at Zhong Hao, then looked at Tsuru in terror.

Tsuru ignored Garp's antics. After examining it for a moment, she handed it back. "It belongs to Bazzel. So you found his remains. Near Marineford headquarters... did they sink together with the warship? It seems Golden Lion attacked them from the air while they were traveling in a straight line after passing through the Gates of Justice. Zhong Hao, point out the location for me. These fallen Marines must be salvaged and buried in the Marines' martyrs' cemetery."

After Zhong Hao pointed out the direction and distance as instructed, Tsuru left.

"Teacher, is Vice Admiral Tsuru really not my teacher's wife?" Zhong Hao had a favorable impression of Tsuru. She looked very kind, especially after bringing such important information about the Strong-Strong Fruit.

"Brat, if you keep talking nonsense, Tsuru will beat me to death!" Garp cursed. He was just like Luffy: marriage was for producing descendants, not because he liked women. Perhaps women had never even formed a complete concept in his mind.

Zhong Hao secretly laughed, pleased to have found something to hold over Garp.

Suddenly, he thought of the sea chart he had taken from Bazzel's skeleton. It looked like a treasure map, so he took the scroll from his space. He could not understand the chart itself, so he looked directly at the writing on the back.

The words were extremely blurry, and he could only barely make out a few.

"...Valboro... burial..."