Space-Space Fruit in One Piece

"That's an easy question." Ava said with a bored expression. "My full name is Ava A. Rich. Born on Recrui, I'm 17 years old right now."

"I have neither dreams nor aspirations. My favorite color is grey, my favorite food are fries. No sauce. Hobbies? Not really any I could think of. Maybe sleeping." Eren was stunned at those answers. Was there nothing this girl liked?

"Things I'm really good at? Nothing. But I'm not really bad at anything. Always just average. Average at navigation, being a doctor, average at cartography, writing books, sewing, doing sports, cooking, baking. There's nothing I can't do, but nothing I'm so good at that I could count myself among the best."

Hearing how monotone she spoke, Eren was slightly sad for her. Such a life truly seemed a bit boring.With no passion or joy, did she really have any reason to live? Maybe this was why she had agreed to join his crew without even thinking for a second.

Enel couldn't believe it either. "Is there really nothing you like?" He asked. "There's got to be at least a single activity you really feel joy in doing."

"This is actually in my DNA." Ava replied to his question. "After all its in my name. My family has carried a long tradition, where all the women are named Ava A. Rich, while the men are named Noir A. Mel. The A stands for average by the way."

Eren didn't really believe that. As someone who had learned about DNA in during his studies, he was doubtful that something like this could be explained through genetics.

'Or it might just be related to the family name. Heritage seems to play a large role in the world of One Piece. As can be seen from the D. I still wonder what the C. in my middle-name stands for.'

When he had told Sengoku his name, he intentionally left it out. Owning a middle-name was a tell-tale sign of being extraordinary in some way. Or maybe it was quite the opposite, like in Ava's case.

"I don't believe it." Eren interrupted. "When we spoke earlier, I felt that you were special. Like I definitely needed you in my crew. Someone so average wouldn't caue such a feeling."

Ava thought for a while before replying.

"Actually, what I said wasn't the entire truth." At this moment she turned more serious. Even some emotions could be seen in her eyes for the first time. They were a mix of longing and sadness.

"The Average / Normal people have one single thing they are extremely good at. For my mother it was being a doctor, which is also the source for my medicinal skills. My uncle on the other hand was an extremely talented blacksmith. Though both of them had died young.

Once we find that area and develop some skills in it, we will undergo a kind of metamorphosis. Our talents in all areas will improve and we enter a period of rapid developement. At that point we have the potential to become the worlds leading figure in that field. We awaken our passion and emotions, truly turning into above average humans."

While Eren was overjoyed, he knew that he had picked up a diamond in the rough, he could also tell that Ava was especially downcast now.

"The only problem is that I haven't found that field until now. I tried all the fields that was ever mentioned by my ancestors. Sewing, medicine, cartography, navigation, ship-building, blacksmithing... you name it. Whatever you can think of, I have tried already."

It seemed like she had already given up on ever finding her destined field of specialization. But Eren felt like all of those fields had one thing in common.

"Have you ever tried anything related to combat before?" He asked her curiously. She had not mentioned fighting with a single weapon. At the next moment he felt like it was a dumb question. If he immediately came up with that idea, then she had obviously tried combat before.

"Well, I have not." Ava replied somewhat dumbfounded. "But its not like I haven't thought of that yet. Its just that I have never heard of anyone in my family awakening a talent related to combat in any form whatsoever. The only thing that might have come close was my blacksmith uncle, but even that was just indirect. It's just not pos-"

Eren silenced her with a glare. This girl was really too dumb. Just because it hadn't been done before, didn't mean it was impossible.

"Lets go onto the deck and test it out right now." He said, his voice filled with enthusiasm.

Once outside, he threw a quick glance at Enel, who immediately knew what he needed to do and formed various weapons made of the Gold he carried all over his body and in the form of his staff.

After a few seconds, the ground before them was littered with a variety of different weapons. There was a sword, spear, glaives, shuriken, daggers, gloves, a gun, lance. Heck, there was even a flail. All of them were hollow to make sure that Ava could swing them around comfortably

"So, how will you know if you have the talent?" Eren asked her. It would truly be too bothersome if she first needed to get acquainted with each of the weapons.

"In theory I should know after just swinging them a few times. It should feel destined in some way." She said after looking at all the weapons greedily. Eren's words had reignited her hope.

She immediately picked up the first one - a sword. After swinging it seemingly randomly for a few times and making Eren and Enel retreat a few steps, she laid it down again. Her face showing a hint of disappointment.

"Seems like the sword is not the one. But hey, there are still many weapons left." Eren tried to ligthen up the mood again. He realized that his casual words had caused her to regain her hope. This was good in itself, but if she failed to find the one that suited her now, then she would only break even harder.

'Let's just hope that the weapon she is destined to wield is among those in front of us. Otherwise I would truly feel bad.'

After putting down the sword, Ava picked up the dagger next. It seemed like she went in the order of which weapons she would like to use the most. She stabbed the air a few times, but eventually shook her head and laid down the weapon once again.

This rouine continued for several minutes, as they went through at least 30 types and shapes of weapons, but none of them seemed to be the one. As time passed, Eren started to sweat in anxiety while Ava's mood turned gloomier the more longer the whole thing went on.

Eventually she had held each weapon a single time, but none of them were destined for her. Eren wanted to say something, but didn't know what.

"H-Hey, don't lose all hope. While we tried out many weapons, there are still many we weren't able to create now. Like those that need some materials aside from metal. There are still things like a dagger on a string, or maybe a bow left. Maybe its not even a weapon but instead a combat technique."

His words fell on deaf ears, as Ava's expression turned completely blank. She slowly walked towards the cabins, walking almost like a robot.

"Look, all I'm trying to say is... do-don't lose all of your hope. You're still young after all so there's much time to explor-"

Eren wanted to continue, but the door had already closed behind her. He tried to look at Enel for help, but he only shook his head.

"Not cool man, not cool. We definitly gotta lift her spirits somehow."

Eren thought for a while, but couldn't really think of anything. So he just went to her room and knocked on the door.

"You can come in." Ava's voice came out slightyl muffled from the inside.

After gaining the permission, Eren opened the door slightly and put his head inside.

"Hey, I just wanted to ask if you still have some things in the city that we should move onto the ship." He felt like making her cabin more like at home might improve her mood in a way, by making her more comfortable in the new environment.

After thinking for a short time, Ava seemed like she had remembered something. "Right, there's still some equipment from my mother as well as a harp that my grandma left behind. It was her field of talent and she bequeathed it to me after her passing."

Thinking about the fact that they would soon have some music on their boat, Eren smiled. Though it wasn't exactly the genre he liked listening to back on Earth, some music was still better than none at all.

He simply nodded his head, before he closed the door again, leaving Ava to her own devices.

"We need to get her harp." He informed Enel.

Luckily they already knew where her house was located since she had gathered some bandages there when she healed Wyper earlier.

Eren even used his fruit's power to shorten the journey, allowing them to arrive in front of the white two-story house within just a few seconds.

When they suddenly appeared out of nowhere, the people walking on the street nearby were scared at first. But after recognizing them as their saviors, they immediately went over the greet them.

Eren and Enel entertained them for a few seconds, before informing them that there were still things they had to do.

"Being a hero is truly exhausting." Enel noticed while they were searching the house for the instrument. "That's why I always strive to be feared and unapproachable. Its just much easier."

Eren simply shook his head after hearing Enel's statement, before entering one of the rooms. Inside there stood the instrument, with a beautiful arch made of carved wood with engravings and beautiful decorations.

There was just one problem: Many of the strings were hanging down without any tension, just disected in the middle. There was only a single one that remained intact.

"Who could have done this? There's no obvious motivation to willfuly destroy such a beautiful instrument." Eren wondered. It was truly a pity that it no longer worked.

"Let's just transport it to the ship for now. We can always change the strings later as long as the main corpus remains intact." Enel sighed, before picking up the heavy instrument. With his high bodily strength, it might as well not weigh anything.

Afterward Eren immediately teleported them to the Arc Maxim out of convenience. No one strong was close-by, and this would spare them from another round of conversation with the citizens.

Once there, they knocked on Ava's door again, ready to deliver the bad news.

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Number of Onions found in Ava's house: 52