The Flame-Flame Fruit

"We spotted an island! We spotted an island!"

Luffy's voice rang out from the bow.

Lott and the other two came out of the cabin.

"Brr~ It's so cold." Ling'er shivered as soon as she stepped outside, the icy wind turning her little face bright red.

Looking out, they saw snowflakes dancing leisurely like little white sprites. A thin layer of snow had covered the lawn on the deck, too.

Ahead of the bow, they could just make out an island blanketed in white.

"Why is it snowing?" Ace tightened his clothes around himself, too. He and the others usually stayed in the training room; only Luffy spent all his time sitting at the bow.

They didn't need a lookout because Lott's Super Mantra covered an area with a radius of twenty kilometers.

"Lott, Luffy, aren't you two cold?"

Luffy and Lott were still wearing short sleeves and shorts.

"Huh? Brr. It's freezing." Only then did Luffy react, and he began shivering uncontrollably.

"Me? My ability's special. I don't get cold." Lott shook his head slightly.

Indeed, over these past few months at sea, Lott had grown increasingly proficient at using his Electromagnetic Fruit.

Right now, he had covered the surface of his body with a thin electromagnetic barrier that blocked all electromagnetic waves.

So he couldn't feel the cold.

"Adventure! Adventure!" Luffy gripped the ship's rail with both hands and hopped with his sandals pressed together, as though performing a very peculiar dance.

At the same time, a string of stars popped up over his head.

"Let's go on an adventure." By the time Lott waved his hand, Luffy had already vanished.

Ace nodded to Lott, then jumped off the ship and chased after Luffy.

Lott left them to it. This was how things had been for the past few months.

He turned to the red-haired girl beside him and said, "Ling'er, let's go ashore, too."

Adventuring was really just sightseeing. Fighting wasn't the norm.

"All right, Captain Lott."

Once on the island, Ling'er skipped about like a carefree kitten.

Watching the lively girl before him, Lott could see that these months of sailing, along with the ship's relaxed, pleasant atmosphere, had clearly helped her move on completely from her grandfather's death. He was happy for her, too.

He knew Ling'er had never left her island since birth and had never seen snow. Now, the girl frolicking in the snow looked no different from Southerners from China on Blue Star visiting the north to see snow.

For a moment, Lott felt as though he had returned to Blue Star.

Lott bent down, scooped up a handful of snow, packed it into a ball, and threw it at Ling'er.

But Ling'er dodged nimbly, as though she had eyes in the back of her head.

After these months of grueling training under Lott, Ling'er had learned the basics of Haki and the Six Powers, so dodging a snowball or two was easy.

The girl turned to Lott, her little face full of confusion. "Hey, Captain Lott, why are you ambushing me?"

Lott grabbed another handful of snow and packed it into a ball. "Ling'er, look. These snowballs don't hurt when they hit you, and they're clean, too. This is a perfect chance to train your Observation Haki."

Ling'er tilted her little head, thought for a moment, then nodded. "Lott, don't go too hard on me."

Whether in the Skybreaker's training room or on an island, Lott had always been equally strict with all three of them. He had never favored Ling'er or gone easy on her because she was a girl.

So Ling'er and the other two were injured almost every day. Fortunately, they had Senzu Beans, which healed every injury instantly without affecting the next day's training.

This was also a major reason their strength had skyrocketed.

"Oh, got it." Ling'er nodded, took a handkerchief from behind her back, and tied it over her eyes.

Once she was blindfolded, Ling'er pouted. "Hey, hey, Captain, you can't bully me by using Observation Haki's Future Sight."

"Obviously, I won't use Observation Haki. I've got over a decade of snowball-fighting experience."

Seriously, as a Northeasterner from China on Blue Star, snowball fights and ice skating had been essential activities every winter.

Lott had forgotten how long it had been since his last snowball fight, and for a while, he became so absorbed in playing that he lost himself in it. Now, he was like a pea-shooting machine gunner.

Even though Ling'er could predict where the snowballs would land, they came so thick and fast that she kept getting hit.

"Ling'er, throw snowballs at me, too. Try to sense my next move."

Ling'er nodded. After being hit so many times, she really did want to get him back.

The two kept throwing snowballs at each other. Unlike an ordinary snowball fight, both were blindfolded. One used Observation Haki, while the other relied entirely on instinct to dodge.

At first, Ling'er was at a disadvantage, but as her Observation Haki grew more proficient and Lott went outrageously easy on her, she gradually gained the upper hand.

Thud!

Something very hard struck Lott on the head, making him see stars.

"Holy shit! Ling'er, you have no honor! Tricking and ambushing an old captain like me!" Lott rubbed his reddened forehead.

"What happened?" Ling'er untied her handkerchief and narrowed her eyes, looking puzzled.

She had been so caught up in playing that she had simply grabbed handfuls and thrown them. Sometimes, she hadn't even checked whether she had grabbed snow.

"What was that?"

Lott felt around in the snow beside him and pulled out something hard.

?!

He looked at the strange fruit in his hand, covered in bizarre patterns.

"Is this... a Devil Fruit?"

Seeing this, Ling'er hurried over to Lott, stars of curiosity sparkling in her wide eyes.

"So this is a Devil Fruit? I've never seen one before."

Looking at the fruit in his hand, he could see that it was identical to the Flame-Flame Fruit from the Dressrosa arena.

"So it really is Ace's Flame-Flame Fruit." In fact, Lott had already guessed that this was probably the Flame-Flame Fruit Ace had eaten.

Holy crap, this, this, this... Lott was a little speechless. What kind of ridiculous luck is this? I found a Devil Fruit just by having a snowball fight? A child of destiny. I'm definitely a child of destiny!

Somewhat excited, Lott checked his System Space.

Including the Devil Fruit in his hand, he now had three Devil Fruits. They were:

Logia Flame-Flame Fruit;

Mythical Zoan Bird-Bird Fruit, Peng Form;

Logia Gold-Gold Fruit.

He had already eaten a Devil Fruit himself, so he planned to give these remaining three to his future crewmates.

After some thought, he decided not to give this fruit, which had originally belonged to Ace, to him. Who said the Flame-Flame Fruit had to be Ace's?

Besides, Lott wanted to see whether the plot would change if Ace didn't eat the Flame-Flame Fruit.

"Ling'er, this is yours."

Ling'er fumbled as she took the Devil Fruit.

"Huh? This is...?"

"It's a Devil Fruit. I told you all about them before, didn't I? And this one's a Logia Devil Fruit."

Ling'er was overwhelmed by the unexpected favor. It felt as though she wasn't holding a Devil Fruit, but a billion Beli, an object of immense weight.

She was still overwhelmed that he had simply handed such a valuable Devil Fruit to her, and even her voice trembled. "Captain, something this precious... even if you give it to me, I won't have any use for it."

"I have a very ambitious dream, but it's incredibly difficult. I can't accomplish it alone. I need people to help me. More than that, I need powerful people to help me." Lott lifted his head and gazed into the distance, his eyes seeming to pierce through countless obstacles and see the enormous city atop the Red Line, Pangaea Castle.

Ling'er didn't know what Lott's dream was. In her eyes, Lott was invincible; there shouldn't have been anything in this world he couldn't accomplish. If even Lott was saying this, then someone as weak as her would probably only become a burden to him.

At that thought, Ling'er's eyes dimmed slightly. "But I..."

Lott stroked the girl's head. "Ling'er, don't sell yourself short. My dream needs the help of many companions. So, on the road toward that dream, will you lend me a hand?"

Ling'er raised her head and met Lott's eyes. "Yes! Captain Lott, even if it costs me my life, I'll help you fulfill your dream."

Crunch~

"Ah, it tastes... so awful!" Ling'er wrinkled her delicate nose and puckered her lips, her cheeks bulging.

"All right, just one bite is enough. Take your time and feel the changes in your body."

"Whoa~ Aaaah! My... my hand's on fire!" Ling'er frantically shook her burning right hand, utterly panicked.

"Are you an idiot? This is a Logia Devil Fruit. You're fire, and fire is you. Besides, do you feel any heat?" Lott flicked Ling'er on the forehead.

"Ow! Stupid Captain, don't flick my head. You'll make me dumb." Ling'er held her head and looked at Lott resentfully.