One Piece: Path to Power

[2540 words]

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"How'd this become about me?" Damien muttered with some confusion.

Shakky elbowed him from the side, "Looks like you saved us from some trouble, Damien-chan."

The young pirate in question just cleared his throat and firmly said, "It was all part of my plan."

The words evoked a giggle from the woman as the two waited for the giant merman to finish his words.

Neptune regained his bearings and gave an option, "Let's go talk someplace more fitting-jamon."

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[Ryugu Palace]

"The current King is sick and cannot meet you but I will speak on behalf of our people-jamon," Neptune said as he stood beside the throne.

Damien and co had been invited to the palace, a wondrous place with a giant golden dragon hoisted behind it. 

The huge doors that spanned dozens of meters alongside the coral and undersea flowers created quite the contrast.

Rainbow light bathed the Palace with breathtaking majesty.

[Image of the Palace (in Discord)]

"You should know of our anger to humans-jamon," The merman said with a sigh. "Even though we are under the Government, our home is not protected by them so we have to fight back with everything we have."

Newgate sat down on the ground while hearing the words.

"And yet you agreed to help," Shakky said as she puffed out a cloud of smoke.

Neptune nodded, "Though our people, myself included, hate humans more than ever, many will change their perspective after the news of you killing the World Nobles-jamon."

"Hoh Hoh Hoh! The irony leaves me speechless!"

The Knight of the Sea then calmed down and addressed a question: "How long will you stay here?"

Newgate looked up to the towering Fishman and roughly estimated, "Three weeks should be enough for the repairs and new coating."

Neptune just nodded, "Make yourself at home, just be understanding of any stares-jamon."

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[A Little While Later]

"The repairs will begin tomorrow, some young merman by the name of 'Den' will oversee it," Shakky said while getting some belongings from the ship.

"Your little prisoner is in your room, you're more of a playboy than I thought, you won't attack me in my sleep, right?" She teasingly said.

Damien rolled his eyes, "I don't have time for such things."

Shakky then looked at Damien and lightly hummed, "Don't get too lost in your path to power, it will leave you lonely," she said with an air of helplessness.

The woman then hopped off the ship and went to her own devices.

Damien fell in some thought but eventually shook his head and went back to his room.

*Creak*

He saw the girl sitting on the ground, lost in thought.

"Killing Saints," She muttered to the person who came in. "I didn't think there'd be such crazy people in this world."

Damien just gave a small laugh.

"Rahahaha! Sabaody is probably in a full lockdown, the news of the deaths will surely leave them in shambles."

The Celestial Dragons' troubles were music to the pirate's ears.

.

Damien then changed the subject to something else.

"You were able to dive into and out of my shadow back then," he began. "Tell me more about that."

Aurora looked up and hesitated for a second before answering truthfully:

"I can enter what I call the 'Night Realm' with my powers, it's a separate world, and it allows me to carry out my bounty hunting with great efficiency."

Damien nodded at the words, "A perfect power for an assassin."

While thinking inside, 'A separate world… kinda like the Door-Door fruit or the Mirror World made by the Mirror-Mirror fruit.'

"Take me into it."

*Click*

The seastone shackles were unlocked, leaving behind a shocked Aurora. 

"You…"

Damien shrugged, "Hurry up now."

The girl looked up with mixed thoughts but then nodded. 

Her hand reached out to grab Damien's arm. 

*Purrup*

Purple energy soon enveloped him as he felt weightlessness. 

Soon both were pulled down and into his very shadow, leaving behind an empty room. 

Damien's senses went haywire as he felt his balance fall and turn upside down and inside out.

It only lasted a second till he rose out from his shadow once more, to this time the usual scenery of his room was there, but it was as if he was seeing the world through purple-tinted glasses.

The surroundings were coated with violet energy, giving everything a rather unsettling look. 

"I can't sense things beyond this world but I can move around without problem," he muttered. 

Aurora just watched, still a little unsure of her decision to let Damien in. 

Her eyes soon cleared up and she spoke up, "Yes… I can move around here and go back to reality by leaving through the shadows."

Damien saw his room, his bed was casting a shadow that felt like a gateway. 

He then looked at the girl. 

"I wasn't wrong in not killing you," Damien said. "How 'bout it, I will give you the tools to fulfil your vengeance and if you succeed, you will work under me."

Damien had certain aspirations to control power beyond the scope of a pirate. 

An area that existed in the grey zone between the Navy and the Pirates. He needed fitting personnel to oversee this. 

The choice to gain power at the cost of working for the man whom she had tried to kill had left Aurora a little befuddled.

Recalling the 'Haki' and its evident strength cleared up that fog.

'He has no reason to lie,' she thought.

Damien saw her ambivalent expression and added a little fire, "Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves."

The girl was instantly lost in Damien's profound words, not knowing he had shamelessly stolen it from a wise person from his previous life.

A few moments passed and Aurora came to a decision: "I'll do it!"

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[The Following Night]

Damien decided to give the assassin girl a main goal to give up her sight and focus on her surroundings solely on her devil fruit power, experimenting if her ability to sense the darkness around her could awaken Observation Haki.

He also had a different task of his own.

"Three weeks before entering the final sea, my devil fruit mastery is still stuck but perhaps that man can help me…"

He eventually made his way to an abandoned area of Fishman Island.

It was far from the main populace and under some coral hills.

Damien studied the terrain and found his target.

"You wandered all the way here, brat."

The young pirate gave a helpless laugh at his senses once again being fooled by the much stronger pirate that was sitting atop the hill with a barrel of alcohol.

Damien jumped to the top and stood near the giant man with the white stache.

*Gurrup* The man drank the liquid while watching the Sunlight tree Eve.

.

"What do you think the Marines will do?" the younger pirate casually asked. 

Whitebeard paused his drinking and gave a casual answer.

"Heh, don't expect much truth, they've been extinguishing Rocks' actions for a while now; a cover-up is natural."

Damien nodded at the words.

"They don't have resources for anything more down here, the New World is too chaotic."

The man then drank a few more liters of the drink.

In the middle of his gulping of alcohol, Newgate took another glance at Damien and narrowed his eyes.

"A year ago Rocks sent me to bring Kaido to him, and now you," he said. "But you're not like that war-driven fool, why come under Rocks' flag?"

Damien looked at the man more than twice his size and answered, "I want strength."

Newgate looked away from the youth and went back to drinking.

"The only thing you'll find at the Hachinosu is the worst scum of mankind."

Whitebeard's eyes changed, they grew fiery, "The sea can't be tamed by a bunch of fools who lack a moral code!"

"They'll kill themselves before grasping even a hint of power!"

The cliff began to tremble with slight vibrations at the annoyed pirate.

Damien took a breath and asked, "Why do you stay under Rocks then?"

"..."

A silence broke out as the giant man once again glared at the young pirate beside him.

His sharp eyes befell the youth with an expressionless face.

*Gurrup*

Newgate gave a slight sigh and drank another few mouthfuls of saké.

"Just repaying a debt," he said. 

Though his tone shifted to a more yearning one: "I'm also searching for something."

Damien naturally asked, "What's that?"

"A family."

"..."

Whitebeard glanced at the boy who simply nodded.

He raised his eyebrow and couldn't help but ask, "You don't find that odd?"

Damien just smiled with a shrug, "Who am I to judge."

Whitebeard lowered his saké cup subconsciously, "Gurarara! You're a funny kid!"

.

The two then returned to a brief silence as Damien voiced out:

"I came here for a favour."

"And what's that?"

Damien turned his gaze to the future Emperor, "I've been at a threshold with my devil fruit…"

He then touched a coral sticking out of the ground.

The sound of pixelation resounded as the coral glowed red for a second and then exploded into tiny pieces, too many to count.

Whitebeard seemed interested in the power, seeing it for the first time.

"Oh? It's a dangerous power but fits a bold kid like you."

Damien then allowed some of the red mist to sizzle out of his palm as he examined it from close-up.

"I ate the Pulverize-Pulverize Fruit and became a Pulverizing human," he explained. "The power is listed as the same destruction-class fruits as yours."

Whitebeard completed his sentence: "And you think that I can help you."

He then put his jug of saké by the side and stood up, casting a giant shadow toward the rocky terrain.

Suddenly, the man reeled in his right fist, almost driving it into his opposite shoulder.

He then swung it forward.

*Crack*

The air soon creaked and shattered like glass as the incredible power shook the very ground the two were on.

It was an astonishing sight of a single punch quite literally shattering the fabric of space.

Following the attack, a powerful wave of expanding air and concentrated destruction shot out and travelled to a nearby hill.

BOOM! *Rumble*

The hill exploded into a rain of debris with dust.

The Tremor-Tremor Fruit—the power that could destroy the world.

.

Whitebeard then grabbed his drink once again and sat down, "You saw it? The difference in how I used my power?"

Damien thought it over and arrived at an epiphany.

"I see," he slowly said. "You let the full power loose without any attempt to control it, rather than to forcefully direct it."

Whitebeard nodded at the words, "When it comes to a destructive and volatile force, trying to control it will only limit its power."

"But it can be hard to fully concentrate your power efficiently, especially when it is so devastating."

Damien nodded in agreement, his eyes soon wandering to the large glaive resting on the ground.

"Is that why you use that weapon? It helps further concentrate your attacks?"

The large pirate grinned, "That's right, maybe you should look for a suitable weapon too."

'A weapon…' Damien thought.

But he then turned his attention elsewhere.

He gazed at the red energy emanating from his palm.

They were tiny crystalline shapes that slowly rose out in a frenzy manner. 

"Rather than controlling it, it's better to embrace its destructibility…"

Damien's mind was spit-firing thoughts as Whitebeard just watched in intrigue.

Soon Damien's body began to gather the red energy from every pore and directed it to his palm. Rather than locking them down into his hand, he instead began to allow it to flow out.

*Fwoooo*

The emergence of such energy summoned screeches from the air that had recently been shattered and were now being crushed apart.

Damien waved his glowing hand as a large stream of crimson energy exploded out and began to form a field surrounding him.

The crimson dome soon fell upon the land and began to crush and ravage everything within. 

*Hiss!*

The air violently shrieked as if everything nearby had begun to tremble and shred apart. The field expanded to around ten meters in all directions.

Crimson lines shot out from Damien's body, mimicking magnetic field lines, digging and drilling into everything within its scope.

[Fruit Mastery has reached the Intermediate Stage.]

Whitebeard chuckled at the sight of Damien's revelling in his newfound power.

He opened his palm and felt the crimson energy drilling into his skin, leaving it numb, 'Another monstrous brat.'

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[Midnight]

Damien had left Whitebeard's resting area feeling energized.

His new powers allowed him to expand his influence into the nearby area, crushing everything within a certain area.

It even reminded Damien of the level of Awakening of a Paramecia fruit, but naturally, it wasn't it.

'Sibyl, tell me a little on Awakening a devil fruit,' he asked in his mind.

[It is the final stage of a fruit power, vastly stronger and more supreme than any fruit applications beforehand.]

She continued, [Awakening a devil fruit is not easy, if anything, you can use the star count of a power to realize its difficulty.]

Damien stopped in his tracks.

'Awakened Paramecia from what I recall in my past life were Doflamingo, Katakuri, Kid, and Law.'

Damien then listed each fruit based on their masteries, referring to the vast array of knowledge he had obtained two years ago and Sibyl's insights.

[String-String Fruit – 5.5 Stars]

[Mochi-Mochi Fruit – 6 Stars]

[Magnet-Magnet Fruit – 6.5 Stars]

[Ope-Ope Fruit – 7 Stars]

Doflamingo's power was quite powerful in his hands but it seemed to reach a certain threshold and simply could never go beyond. It was rather Doflamigo's intelligence and knowledge that made him a grave threat.

Based on his fruit rating, it would be fairly easy to Awaken in the hands of someone with a high affinity to the power.

Katakuri's fruit was sitting at six stars, this would make it a step harder to Awaken than the String fruit.

The same idea was expanded to the Magnet fruit. It was at the same level as Damien's fruit power, with the ability to wreak havoc of great proportions.

Kid had Awakened in his early twenties—an impressive feat.

"The Ope-Ope Fruit is ranked as a 7-star fruit… no wonder it was so damn broken!" the pirate exclaimed.

Such a fruit was coined as an Ultimate-Class devil fruit by Sibyl.

[The difficulty in Awakening such ultimate fruits can vary, they are the ones that can manipulate the Laws of Nature and Reality.]

Such a fruit rating should be harder to Awaken, yet Law did it by the age of 26.

"Is it the 'Will of D.'?" Damien asked himself.

"My fruit power should Awaken naturally in six or so years," he calculated. "Yet God Valley will happen much earlier than that…"

The young pirate clenched his hand, ambition once again fuelling his spirit: "It's too slow... I'll need to step up my game!"

To Be Continued...

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Author's Corner:

Damien died after the release of chapter 1030, the same chapter Law's and Kid's Awakening was first shown.

Images: https://discord.gg/aJHHHPvb6q