"Although I really wanted Mr. Dragon's Storm Fruit, just in case, I should eat one of these unknown fruits instead."
"If I'm lucky, I might directly draw a Logia and won't need to inherit Mr. Dragon's Storm Fruit. If I'm unlucky, Kuma can just push my fruit out."
As Leo picked up the banana-shaped Devil Fruit, everyone nodded. They clearly agreed with his idea.
The technique for pushing out Devil Fruits was actually close to maturity now—
Previously, Kuma had wanted to push a Devil Fruit directly out, but there had been no vessel to contain the Devil Fruit ability, so he had never been able to do it. But after Doc Q's theory came into their sights, all they needed was to press the fruit corresponding to that Devil Fruit against the Devil Fruit User, then have Kuma push it in. Just like that, a Devil Fruit was created.
The connection between Devil Fruits and their users was not actually as close as it seemed.
Although, later on, practically anyone could develop a second-stage Fruit awakening, they still had to abide by one rule: after a person died, their Fruit would be reborn somewhere else in the world.
That proved that the bond between Devil Fruits and humans was not as close as people imagined.
And Kuma could even push out something as abstract as damage.
Then there was Doc Q's theory—if a fruit that was more specific and shared the same origin as the Devil Fruit was nearby when the user was killed, the Devil Fruit ability would preferentially choose that fruit, allowing them to obtain the Devil Fruit.
In the original story, Doc Q had put this theory into practice within one of Four Emperors Blackbeard's fleets. He stripped the Clear-Clear Fruit ability and Fruit from Gecko