Mira, So This Is What You're Really Like?

Hughes stared at the changes on the panel, lost in thought. After he devoured the black-and-red flames that Balrog the Flame Demon had turned into, the Flame-Flame Fruit's Awakening had risen to 5%.

After that, no matter how Hughes trained in private, the Flame-Flame Fruit's Awakening remained stuck at 5%, never budging.

Now, after sucking up a few mouthfuls of the Devil Origin from the demon inside Mira, the Flame-Flame Fruit's Awakening had risen to 6%.

So as long as he devoured more demons, he could quickly grow stronger?

A flame sprang to life at Hughes's fingertip. Although its Awakening had only risen by 1%, the flame was a little deeper in color than before, and its power had visibly increased.

Hughes closed his hand, extinguishing the flame on his fingertip. He was pleased with this discovery. After all, there were plenty of demons in this world!

But Balrog the Flame Demon was a demon who used fire, and Hughes had obtained the Flame-Flame Fruit after devouring him.

Yet after devouring a little of the Devil Origin from the demon inside Mira, he had increased the Flame-Flame Fruit's Awakening instead of gaining a new Devil Fruit ability!

These were two demons with completely different abilities!

Was it because he had absorbed too little Devil Origin to awaken a new Devil Fruit ability? Or was it like the Pirate King world, where an ordinary person could only possess one Devil Fruit ability?

After pondering for a moment, Hughes put the matter aside for now. There were too few examples to make sense of it.

For now, all he could say for certain was that increasing the Flame-Flame Fruit's Awakening required absorbing Devil Origin. Training was useless, which suited a lazy person like him.

In a slightly better mood, Hughes turned his gaze to the task section. He was relieved to see the word "none." The task rewards were good, but the utterly nonsensical objectives were a headache.

After these few tasks, he had more or less figured out how the system's tasks worked.

Wherever he was, anything that could be connected to the Pirate King world could trigger a task.

As for the connections, they were a complete stretch.

He could understand Mira being Oars the Demon, since she would later be nicknamed the demon herself, but why was the forest Vulcan the king of Mount Colubo?

"Let's eat first!"

While he was worrying over it all, Mira, who had finished cooking, brought some food over and gently set it down beside Hughes.

It smelled as delicious as ever, whetting his appetite.

Hughes took a few bites while it was hot, then couldn't help giving her a thumbs-up. The girl was a great cook.

His gaze lingered on her, and he looked mildly surprised. He pointed repeatedly at her right arm. It was a human arm.

"Wait, your arm's back to normal?"

"Mm!" The girl nodded and stretched out her fair arm, waving it in front of Hughes.

"After I changed back from a demon into a human, it changed back too. But..."

The girl kept him in suspense as magic power surged around her palm, and her fair arm transformed back into a fearsome demon arm.

"My arm can switch between human and demon whenever I want now." As Mira finished speaking, her arm returned to normal.

Hughes gaped in astonishment at the demonstration. Had she mastered part of Take Over Magic?

No... that wasn't right. Mira didn't even know what magic was.

Shaken by a genius once again, Hughes got up and walked several circles around Mira.

Then he looked down and examined himself. Right, they both had one head, two arms, and two legs!

No... one and zero were a little different after all...

Hughes scratched his head. They had gone through this together, so how had Mira gained so much while he... his physical abilities had improved again, and the Flame-Flame Fruit's Awakening had risen by 1%.

Oh, I gained a lot too. That means I'm a genius as well, so never mind.

Instantly feeling balanced again, Hughes sat back down and patted the soft grass, motioning for Mira to sit too.

"What happened on your end while I was dealing with those forest Vulcans? Why did you suddenly lose control?"

The girl sitting beside Hughes looked up at the blue sky. Now that she was back to normal, she was clearly in a good mood, and even her answer to Hughes was full of energy.

"At the time, we were afraid we'd hold you back, so we ran a good distance away and hid under a tree..."

Hughes nodded repeatedly as he listened. Mira had done the right thing, but who could have predicted that a group from the Black Magic Cult just happened to be following those magic beasts?

They spotted Mira and the other two, then used magic to sneak underground beneath them and drag Elfman and Lisanna below.

Hughes didn't have to think to know why they had captured the two children, Elfman and Lisanna. They were going to sacrifice them to Zeref.

The people he and Mira had dealt with probably weren't from the same group as the ones in Mira's village. Otherwise, they should have recognized Mira when she had transformed into a demon.

Still, it was X778 now. Hadn't the Magic Council purged the Black Magic Cult less than two years ago? How had he already run into its members twice?

Was he unlucky, or were Mira and the other two unlucky?

After going over everything that had happened to him since childhood, Hughes fell silent for a moment before deciding that Mira and the other two must be the unlucky ones.

He... he was very lucky. Everyone at the hospital agreed!

Hughes threw the unpleasant thoughts out of his head and turned to Mira. "So you were the one who let the demon inside you out? Do you know you had already lost control back then?"

The white-haired girl nodded. "I don't know the Take Over Magic you mentioned. In that situation, all I could do was try my hardest!"

Mira braced her hands behind her as she spoke of it, showing no regret at all.

She didn't care about turning into a demon or anything like that, as long as she could save Elfman and Lisanna.

"Hughes, I've decided. I'm going to become a wizard, a really, really powerful one!"

Hughes raised an eyebrow. The girl who had once shut herself away had already begun to face reality.

"Here, take this!"

Mira took off her thick cloak and handed it to Hughes, pointing at his pants.

"I don't need this anymore. You're the one who needs this cloak now!"

Hughes looked down. The pants that had come with him when he crossed over were already in tatters, leaving him half exposed.

His mouth twitched as he remembered. After his episode had started, he had used Tekkai to take Mira's demon beam head-on so he could show off.

His pants could undergo Elementalization along with him, but they couldn't use Tekkai with him...

Hughes took the cloak and glanced back, catching sight of what Mira wore underneath.

A little black tank top and black hot pants...

The delinquent girl's outfit made his eye twitch, and he flung the cloak straight into Mira's face.

"Damn it, what kind of girl dresses like that? You're even more indecent than I am! Put it on!"

"Hah!" A vein mark suddenly appeared on Mira's forehead.

"Hah?"

Mira eventually gave in to Hughes's iron fist. Her hair in disarray, she promised she would definitely change from now on.

"Lisanna, get me a pair of pants and I'll forgive you!"

"Huh! Brother Hughes!"

"What do you mean, huh? How old are you to be saying huh?! And you, Elfman... forget it." Hughes sighed, too lazy to comment.

Elfman: ...Brother Hughes, how about you say something to me too? You're scaring me even more like this...