Hungry, So He Ate the Fruit

"Brrr, brrr, brrr, brrr, brrr!" An urgent Den Den Mushi rang through the office. It took quite a while before someone answered.

"Bastard! If this isn't something important, you're interrupting my nap."

"When you get back, you can go guard the prison gates."

Donquixote Doflamingo was sitting in a recliner, answering the call that had woken him from his afternoon nap.

"Young Master! There's been a change!" The voice on the other end was clearly a little uneasy.

"Hm?"

"It seems you won't receive today's newspaper until tomorrow at the earliest."

"The Marines have also tightly restricted news of the matter. The Sea Fruit being transported by CP0 was seized by unknown enemies during transit."

"Oh? Now that's interesting." Doffy let out a low, amused chuckle.

"One severely wounded, three lightly wounded. A crushing defeat. The enemy's strength is estimated to be Admiral-level." The caller gave Young Master Doflamingo a brief analysis.

"Mm. Keep monitoring the situation. Find out where that fruit is if you can!"

"Young Master..."

"Is that fruit important? How does it compare to the Devil Fruit that went missing some time ago?"

The young Doflamingo had also begun dealing in Devil Fruits.

"Hmph! Last time, a Devil Fruit was put on display at an auction, and the Celestial Dragons didn't interfere. This time, they had their highest-ranking watchdogs transport it directly. What do you think?" Doffy was clearly displeased.

"Yes... yes, sir. I'll do my best to find its trail. Please rest assured!"

Click! Doffy hung up. He leaned his head back against the recliner as harsh sunlight stretched in through the window and fell across his eyes.

He reached back and pulled a navigator's log from the desk beside him over his face, muttering, "Will someone from the D. Clan truly come to punish us in the future?" Then he quietly fell asleep.

A beautiful maid who had been about to bring him his meal saw that he was resting, gently placed the pastries on the table, and withdrew.

"Waaah! I want food!" Unlike Doflamingo, who had maids delivering meals, Swain was practically struggling to survive in the wilderness. He could not find a single thing to eat in this wooden house.

Then he looked at the blue fruit sitting on the table.

"Let me see what this tastes like."

He was truly starving. Even though he knew eating the fruit might turn him into a landlubber, might give him some bizarre ability, or might even grant him something as useless as the Fence Fruit—

Ever since he had taken over this baby's body, he had gone three days without food. The only thing he had eaten was half a banana.

Fortunately, people in the world of One Piece had relatively strong constitutions. Even a two-year-old child could endure three days without eating.

Swain laboriously dragged over a wooden stump from elsewhere. By the time he had moved it into place, he was already panting heavily, and he wiped the sweat from his face with his somewhat shriveled little hands.

"I reached it! Ow, ow!" He accidentally fell down together with the fruit, which conveniently smacked him right in the face. He howled in pain and swore he would eat the fruit to vent his anger!

"Crunch." Swain took a bite. It was truly "fresh and juicy."

After eating more than half of it, he was full. After all, he was only two years old and did not have much of an appetite.

As for the taste, he did not find it nearly as awful as the legends claimed. Soon after, he fell into a deep sleep.

When he woke again, Ape-Man was pinching him awake by the ear.

"Waaah, waaah, waaah! Wuwuwuwu!" Swain's eyes instantly filled with tears. It hurt far too much!

"Did you eat this?" Ape-Man pointed at the Devil Fruit on the table, most of which had already been bitten away.

Although Swain had transmigrated here, he could understand what Ape-Man was saying. He nodded through his tears, not forgetting to look at him with big, "sincere and harmless" eyes, as if to say that he had been forced into it and it was not his fault.

"What a little bastard!" he said darkly.

"Since you're still young, I'll let you off this time. Don't go eating things carelessly again!"

Ape-Man warned him in a deep voice.

Though it was only a warning, Swain still felt a trace of warmth. So he was angry because Swain had eaten something carelessly, not because Swain had eaten the fruit he had stolen!

When Ape-Man had carried him onto this island, Swain had carefully observed that this was not some random deserted island. It was likely where Ape-Man had lived for a long time. But the place was simply too remote—there were no other islands nearby, nor any traces of human activity.

There was something else. Swain realized that Ape-Man seemed to have lived alone for many years. Did he have no clan members? No companions of his kind? And judging by his appearance and movements, he should have been something like Chopper!

"Grrr..." Swain's stomach growled again, protesting the lack of food.

Ape-Man glanced at him, placed some tinder in a shallow dirt pit, and began roasting meat.

"Slurp, slurp!" The aroma of roasted meat spread through the room. Swain stared without blinking, swallowing hard several times, his little hands twitching helplessly at his sides.

"This is for you."

"Careful. It's still hot."

Swain hurriedly caught it and was about to take a bite, but then he pushed the roasted meat toward Ape-Man.

"I'm not hungry right now. You eat first."

Ape-Man kept smiling as he watched Swain wolf down the meat.

But as he smiled, a glimmer of tears appeared in his eyes.

Swain could not speak yet, but he could gesture with his hands. He asked why Ape-Man was crying.

Ape-Man kindly rubbed Swain's head and said, "Me..."

"I once had... many family members too."

Hearing that, Swain understood. No matter how passionate and free this world appeared, only the strong were worthy of possessing such things.

The atmosphere had grown quiet. Ape-Man seemed to realize that he should not reveal such emotions, so he changed the subject.

"My name is Woli."

"Come to think of it, you little fellow are quite interesting. You actually have some connection to the great pirate Rocks."

Swain was shocked when he heard that. "I'm related to Rocks?"

This body has too few memories. He only knew his own name, and that his mother was a beautiful dancer. As for his father, he knew nothing.

He had never seen his father since birth. He only remembered his mother saying that his father had gone out to sea while she was pregnant, searching for traces of Swain's grandfather.

Could my grandfather be the great pirate Rocks?

But the thought only flashed through his mind. He was still too young, and knowing too much would not do him any good.

"Can't you speak?" Woli asked twice before finally breaking Swain out of his thoughts.

Swain hurriedly shook his head, indicating that he could not read and found speaking difficult. At the age of one, he had been separated from his mother due to war and had lived on the abandoned island where he had originally been left behind until Woli rescued him. During that time, he had never had contact with the outside world. The only reason he could understand speech was because the soul of a young man from the twenty-first century was answering for him.

"Tomorrow, I'll teach you to read!" Woli made Swain's plans for the next day.

"No! I don't want to study!!" Swain made muffled noises to protest, but... his protest was ineffective!

At night, a bright moon hung high in the sky, while several coconut trees bent in the wind.

"Achoo!" Swain sneezed, then wrapped the leaves around himself more tightly.

Several miles out in the direction of his sneeze, the sea suddenly became turbulent, waves dozens of meters high rising up before the waters returned to calm a moment later.