★★★★
Before becoming the boss of the Capone Family, Bege had also worked as a killer, and a remarkably successful one at that. Thus, with an agility that completely belied his stocky figure, he dodged Xie Wen's casual slash, drew a pistol, and fired three consecutive shots right at Xie Wen.
The moment he fired, the lower half of his body rapidly transformed into the shape of tank treads, charging straight at Xie Wen. At the same time, his empty hand drew a large saber, bringing it down viciously toward Xie Wen's head.
While effortlessly blocking the opponent's attacks, Xie Wen still had the leisure to retort, "Didn't you eat the Castle-Castle Fruit? What's going on with these tank treads? Whose castle can grow wheels and run away?!"
Regarding this issue, Xie Wen had already wanted to complain when he was reading the manga.
Although architectural units capable of running around did not seem to be a minority in the One Piece world, most of those were technological creations. By what right did Capone Bege, a guy relying on a Devil Fruit, manage it?!
"Because this is a mobile castle!" Bege raised his gun to shoot at Xie Wen once more, uttering something that sounded completely unreasonable while his heart tightened inwardly-
He had not mentioned what fruit he ate just now, yet Xie Wen recognized it at a single glance... That Colonel Cody really could not be underestimated!
Totally unaware that he had once again added extra scenes for Uncle Cody, Xie Wen dodged the enemy's bullets while continuing his retort, "You call it a mobile castle just because you say so? If I say this is a Space Fortress, can you fly into the sky?!"
Despite making such quips, Xie Wen understood that Bege's words were likely true, because the abilities of Devil Fruits were just that idealistic. A castle growing wheels did not even rank among those weird and quirky fruit applications.
...But he still wanted to complain so badly!
"Space Fortress?" Bege paused slightly.
Because of Xie Wen's banter, he suddenly found the possibility of another fruit development direction.
Taking advantage of the moment Bege was dazed, Xie Wen countered with a slash across his body.
"Clank."
Whether the sound or the tactile feedback, what bounced back felt just like he had struck stone...
Well, to be exact, he had indeed struck stone, because Bege, who had promptly snapped out of it, had already transformed his body back into a brick-and-stone structure.
"Heh... Is this what you're relying on?"
Xie Wen smiled dismissively and waved the nodachi in his hand once more.
Spirit Blade!
It was merely cutting through stone; he did not even need to use Armament Haki.
"It hurts like hell!"
A not-too-deep blade mark was immediately slashed into Bege's brick-and-stone body. Although no blood flowed out, it hurt so badly that he howled wildly.
However, the damage caused by this slash quickly vanished amidst a wave of fluctuations across the surface of Bege's body...
This was precisely why these Devil Fruits were so unreasonable. Clearly a castle of rock structure, yet it could make the body as soft as dough, while the genuine dough human Katakuri could develop dough to be as hard as iron.
Without considering the circumstances of Devil Fruit Awakening, Paramecia-type Devil Fruit abilities could roughly be divided into three categories:
The first type: the body itself is the ability. For instance, the Gum-Gum Fruit before it turned into a Mythical Zoan, Mr. 1 who ate the Dice-Dice Fruit, the Smooth-Smooth Human who ate the Surgery-Surgery Fruit, Buggy the Clown of Conqueror's Haki Luck, and so on-all fell into this kind of situation.
The second type belonged to ability-release classes. The body itself underwent no special changes, but could manufacture, manipulate, bestow, or absorb a certain substance or state. For example, Doflamingo's String-String Fruit, his younger brother Rosinante's Calm-Calm Fruit, Vice-Admiral Mr. 3's Wax-Wax Fruit, and Cracker, who could create clones using biscuits.
The third type possessed both capabilities: they could alter the traits of their own body while also producing and controlling the same substance. Examples included the pseudo-Logia like the Mochi-Mochi Fruit, the Flutter-Flutter Fruit that could turn oneself into a true paper human, and Perona, who could manufacture ghosts while her own soul could also leave her body.
Of course, the ability types of certain fruits were relatively ambiguous, but overall, they still did not deviate from the patterns of these three major categories.
Capone Bege's Castle-Castle Fruit looked like the third type, but actually belonged to the first. His "city walls" looked like stone wrapping around his body, but were in fact converted from his own skin. Shaving off a bit of stone dust was not much of a problem-at most equivalent to shedding some dead skin cells. However, if the cut was deep enough, it could still inflict actual damage.
Only, in this state, Bege would not bleed and could use his Devil Fruit Ability to mask the injuries, so in the eyes of others, it looked as though he had not been wounded at all, but merely hurt by Xie Wen's slash.
Although Xie Wen knew that Capone Bege had eaten the Castle-Castle Fruit, he was not very familiar with the traits of this fruit. Just like everyone else, he assumed his previous attack truly caused no damage, and thus...
He decided to hit a little harder.
However, Capone Bege's decision was even faster. Several gateway holes rapidly opened up on his striped suit, firing out a massive quantity of bullets along with a few cannonballs.
Xie Wen finally understood why this fellow liked wearing striped suits; those door holes opened up right between the stripes, easy to overlook if one wasn't paying attention.
Still, to Xie Wen, this level of sneak attack amounted to nothing. He dodged them with ease, and whatever he truly couldn't dodge, he could block away with a Foresight Slash.
Yet those onlookers eating melons suffered. Although there were quite a few guards among them, not all guards possessed the strength to block these attacks, so a few guards and even merchants were hit by stray bullets, while the cannonballs evaded by Xie Wen blew them into a disheveled mess covered in dust.
Tsk tsk tsk... Being a bad guy really is convenient...
Xie Wen clicked his tongue in a bit of envy. To avoid accidentally harming the crowd, he was still over there having a headache over how to coax Klee Meow, yet Capone Bege didn't care about these "financial backers" at all.
No wonder people in this world were all so fond of becoming pirates.
Voicing heretical theories in his heart, Xie Wen raised his blade again and slashed at Bege.
"Clank!"
Another sound of metal and stone colliding, only this time Capone Bege did not let out any more wails.
By now, he had converted his entire body into a brick-and-stone structure, and his physique had also expanded by a large circle, growing from a height of under one meter seven to a castle human comparable to Gotti that super big bulk, or perhaps even slightly larger.
Because of the increased physique, his "city walls" also grew thicker along with it. Thus, Xie Wen's casual Spirit Blade slash failed to inflict effective damage on Bege this time, at most causing him to scratch some skin.
Was this... a mini-version of the "Big Boss"?
Xie Wen stepped back a few paces and sized him up.
Aside from the gap in physique, Bege's appearance at this moment also differed somewhat from the strongest form in the manga. He did not have that much armament on his body, and the castle's styling was not as complex as the one in his own impression.
So, not only a mini-version, but also a beggar's version? Or simply called the "Mini Boss"?
Xie Wen tried slashing at Bege a few more times. Apart from shaving off some stone chips, it did not seem capable of dealing much damage to him. Bege in this state had not only grown thicker-skinned, but his hardness had also increased.
"Hahahaha!" Believing victory was securely in his grasp, Bege laughed wildly and arrogantly. "Did you see that? This is the true power of the Castle-Castle Fruit! Brat, if you surrender now, I can let bygones be bygones and let you join the Capone Family. In the future, no one will ever dare to scheme against those two Mink Tribesmen either."
Bege had taken a liking to the strength displayed by Xie Wen and the Palicos, and opened his mouth to recruit them.
Because Klee Meow had constantly been using Fire Release, coupled with the Little Plushie—which couldn't throw bombs—having a much weaker desire to attack, Bege still hadn't discovered that Klee Meow was actually an ability user of the Logia Flame-Flame Fruit.
"So, this is your strongest form right now?" Xie Wen curled his lips in disdain. Having not battled a large-scale enemy for a long time, he originally wanted to test the opponent's "Big Boss" form. Yet judging by Bege's appearance, this current look was already the limit of his current Devil Fruit Ability development... He didn't think Bege would mind the fact that this was the royal palace of Gures and deliberately compress his own physique.
This physique couldn't even compare to the smallest-sized Arzuros.
Hence, losing interest, Xie Wen curled his lips and concentrated all the Qi Training Value he had just accumulated onto the tip of his blade, then-
Monster Hunter Style: Super Amped Elemental Discharge Thrust!
In the original work, Bege's Big Boss outer shell was shattered by Big Mom, and then the clones inside his body started bleeding wildly, so his situation and Cracker's biscuit armor were two different things.
As for the three types I wrote in the text, aside from the innate traits of the fruit itself, I feel that a portion of the reason also depends on the user's personal development direction.
For example, No. 3 might not necessarily be unable to turn himself into wax, and Buggy might not necessarily be unable to bestow the splitting ability onto other people's weapons or even bodies. It's just that the development difficulty might be higher, or it might involve circumstances like Devil Fruit Awakening.
Before you continue