OP: AMP Ch. 194

Marcus' words made Usopp stop and think about the whole Devil Fruit situation from a different angle. But the more he thought about it, the more complicated his expression became. Those three Devil Fruits that had just appeared kept nagging at the back of his mind. Sure, Marcus had claimed that Devil Fruits actively gravitated toward people whose desires resonated with them. That sounded reasonable enough in theory.

But there was a problem with that theory when you looked at what had happened today.

Two Devil Fruit users had been present when those abilities reincarnated. Usopp himself was one of them, and he sure as hell didn't want the Bird-Bird Fruit, Model: Vulture or the Iron-Iron Fruit. As for the Bomb-Bomb Fruit, he'd already eaten one, so there was no way he'd be "wishing" for another. The whole desire resonance thing didn't apply to him at all.

Which meant every single Devil Fruit that had appeared near Marcus, when there were other potential users nearby, had ended up going to him with a perfect success rate.

One hundred percent.

That kind of track record made it really damn hard to support the "fruits choose their users" theory.

Hearing Marcus explain it so matter-of-factly felt like Usopp's brain was arguing with itself, trying to reconcile what he'd been told with what he'd witnessed.

Marcus noticed Usopp's skeptical expression and shrugged. "Don't ask me why my success rate is perfect. Maybe they're all fighting to get close to me. Maybe Devil Fruits just think I'm a good investment."

Usopp looked at Marcus and his gut instinct immediately rejected that explanation. After all, if he were a Devil Fruit and there was someone out there who could infinitely duplicate him, he definitely wouldn't want to get anywhere near that guy. That sounded like a nightmare scenario for any self-respecting magical artifact.

When you eliminated all the impossible explanations, only one possibility remained.

"Your fruits must be way more attractive for Devil Fruits to attach to, right? And since your fruits don't rot, why not store a massive amount of them on the ship? Who knows, maybe one day a Devil Fruit will just randomly attach itself to one. Free power-up, no combat required."

Marcus spread his hands. "We already do that. Sanji's fridge and storage cabinets are packed with fruit. If we run low, I restock every night. Where do you think your daily fruit juice, jam, fruit tea, fruit wine, dried fruit, and all those pickled fruit snacks come from?"

Usopp froze mid-thought, then everything clicked into place. Of course they'd already thought of that. It was such an obvious move.

"Too bad we've never had a Devil Fruit randomly spawn on our ship," Marcus added. "Not once, despite having hundreds of potential host fruits sitting in storage for months."

He started walking away from the cloud platform, heading back toward the Cloud House.

The meaning was clear enough. Marcus' reputation had apparently been blacklisted by whatever cosmic force governed Devil Fruit reincarnation. Unless a user died extremely close to him, close enough that the fruit had no choice, the abilities would avoid him if given any other option. After all, even the Whisper-Whisper Fruit had conveniently appeared at a time when he couldn't immediately convert it. Bad timing, or avoidance? Hard to say.

Usopp followed behind, lost in thought about the nature of Devil Fruits and whether they might have some form of consciousness or survival instinct.

Meanwhile, outside the Cloud House, the Skypieans had erupted into celebration. The cheering was almost deafening. People were hugging, crying, praying to their god. The destruction of fifty-three pirate ships in a matter of minutes had cemented his divine status in their minds.

The ships themselves had quietly sunk into the White-White Sea. Within ten minutes, the surface had returned to its endless white expanse, as if nothing had ever happened. The sea had swallowed the evidence completely. Of course, more than three pirates had survived the destruction of fifty-three ships. Quite a few lucky souls had made it out alive, especially from the ships further back in the formation.

The explosions on the front ships had been impossible to miss. Some of the more cowardly pirates, or those with better survival instincts, had jumped overboard the moment they'd seen what was happening to the vessels ahead of them. It was basic pirate survival instinct, really. Having your ship blown apart by cannon fire was practically an occupational hazard. Every pirate knew the drill, when your ship starts exploding, you jump and hope for the best. But surviving the initial explosions didn't mean they were safe. What awaited these survivors were hundreds of armed Skypieans, organized into search parties and floating on smaller cloud vessels. The pirates drifting helplessly in the White-White Sea had no way to resist.

Even those with waterproof weapons or advanced firearms couldn't put up much of a fight. The slightest suspicious movement would earn them a spear through the chest before they even had a chance to surrender properly. In the end, only about a dozen pirates were captured alive. The rest either drowned, were killed resisting, or managed to escape into the vast cloudscape.

Word about Shiki the Golden Lion recruiting pirates, and about even more pirate ships heading toward Skypiea, quietly spread among the Angel Island population over the next few hours. But surprisingly, not many people panicked about it. After all, they had Lord Usopp, their god, watching over them. With him around, what did they have to fear?

Of course, where there were people with unwavering faith in the future, there were also those who chose to break their own spines and submit to whoever held the power. These were the same people who could rationalize anything. Even though Shiki had released those beasts that destroyed their homes and killed their friends and family, as long as Shiki himself hadn't personally murdered someone right in front of them, they could always find some excuse to justify serving him.

The mental gymnastics went something like this: A man as powerful as Shiki didn't kill us directly, which means he must have mercy in his heart. If we join his crew now, we can avoid the dangerous elites he's recruiting. And really, serving him might be a better option than staying here anyway.

It was the same logic they'd used under Enel's rule. That god had governed them with overwhelming power and harsh tyranny, using his ridiculous "word crime" system to execute people for trivial offenses. But they'd survived it, adapted to it, even thrived under it in some cases. Now it was just a matter of switching to a new god. They were experienced at being ruled. Subjugation was something they understood. A group of about thirty people slipped away under cover of darkness, quietly separating from the main population. They even brought along someone who claimed to be a "captain," one of the captured pirates who'd managed to talk his way into a leadership position.

After all, Skypieans didn't really understand how Blue Sea pirates operated. Having someone who claimed to be a captain seemed good enough to follow. But that particular "captain" who was leading this group of defectors wasn't happy about the situation at all. There was no joy in his escape, no sense of victory. All he wanted was to get off this damn sky island as quickly as possible.

Join Shiki's fleet with a bunch of random civilians who'd never held a sword in their lives? Was this supposed to be an insult to him or an insult to Shiki? Either way, it was bad.

Of course, none of these events had anything to do with the Straw Hat crew currently relaxing in the Cloud House. Even if they'd known about the defectors, they wouldn't have cared. It wasn't their problem. But inside the Cloud House at that moment, things were considerably less relaxed.

"WHAT?! You're saying Shiki has known we were here this whole time?!" Nami shouted, her face going pale.

They had participated in fighting the beasts. They'd protected Skypieans during the attacks. But they hadn't asked Usopp to use the Exploding Eggs on a large scale, most of the work had been done by the locals with their own weapons. And explosions didn't necessarily mean his abilities anyway. Angel Island had plenty of explosive weapons. Bombs, powder kegs, volatile chemicals. Explosions were just explosions, right?

"Why are you only telling us this NOW?!" Usopp looked equally shaken, his hands trembling slightly.

Chopper started running in panicked circles around the table, his voice high and squeaky. "We're dead! We're completely dead! A legendary pirate knows where we are!"

Marcus reached out and calmly pressed Chopper down with one hand, stopping the reindeer's panic sprint.

"If he wanted to come for us, he would've come already. And even if he did show up, it's not like we can't escape. He thinks we're not worth the effort. He'd rather just keep an eye on us from a distance. As long as we don't cause a major incident or directly challenge him, he probably won't bother coming down here."

"Oh..." Nami let out a long breath, some of the color returning to her face. "That's kind of reassuring. A legendary pirate showing that kind of restraint."

Everyone relaxed. The tension that had seized the room began to dissipate. Then, as if on cue, they all seemed to remember something at the same time. Heads turned in perfect synchronization, everyone's eyes locking onto Usopp. He clutched his head with both hands. The art style around him started warping, colors twisting and reality bending. His face morphed into a perfect recreation of Edvard Munch's "The Scream."

"OH GOD, I JUST DESTROYED FIFTY-THREE PIRATE SHIPS! THAT'S DEFINITELY A MAJOR INCIDENT!"

Marcus waved his hand dismissively. "If he hasn't sent anyone after all this time, you're probably fine. Just eat your meals quietly and try not to blow up anything else for a while. Besides, those pirates were almost certainly small-time crews from the first half of the Grand Line. Paradise pirates looking to make a name for themselves. A legendary pirate like Shiki isn't going to care about losing some cannon fodder. He only cares about recruiting strong people, and those ships were full of weaklings."

Marcus' prediction turned out to be accurate.

At that very moment, inside Shiki's monitoring room high above the clouds, Shiki himself was watching footage of Usopp single-handedly obliterating fifty-three pirate ships.

One of his subordinates stood nervously nearby, waiting for orders. "Admiral, shall we—?"

"Not worth my time," Shiki interrupted, waving his hand dismissively.