116 Surprise after surprise! (2/2)

Amidst loud chatter and even louder rebellious stomachs we barreled through our lunch, there was little to no information that was shared amidst the collective.

Halfway through the banquet however, Barts, who had been until that point sending Rein the stink eye spoke up.

”Captain, I'm quite new to the pirate life, so I wanted to know,” and from within the folds of her recently-changed-into dress she brought out a pink fruit. It had spirals all over the sides and a pointy stalk that called out conspicuously to all those around. The fruit, though mango shaped obviously was too big to belong to common conceptions of the mango.

” Can I eat this? I found it a few hours before we left fragrant island…” She said, quickly silencing herself as she took in the gob smacked expression that I knew that most of the crew shared. I must confess, the only reason that I remained silent for as long as I did, having Barts loudly call out to me over three times, was because I had lost most cognitive function, I mean what were the odd?

A sigh and a few Heimlich maneuvers later, when we had finally calmed down I looked at her again. ”hah…. Most pirate crews even in the new world follow this policy, Barts. At least when it comes to devil fruits. Finders keepers. You found it, so do what you want with it. The captain has no control of what a crew member does with a devil fruit he or she has found.

But, if you want to eat it, I want to remind you of this. You will never be able to swim again!” I said, my final words just being spoken when Barts already slammed the fruit into her mouth. Two bites later, she had swallowed it.

As if that curveball wasn't enough however, another jumped out of the corner to assault me almost immediately. Rein, who had been silent over the last exchange finally looked at me.

”Lorean. No, captain. I want to ask you something.” He rumbled out, his baritone voice cutting through the racket that Barts snap decision had caused. Again the crew settled into silence, Sorren pausing in his attempt to toast the recently inducted devil fruit user.

”Go ahead, Rein.” Was my only reply. The man would have my undivided attention, if he requested for it, then I suppose that it was important.

”I want to join your crew.” He said, simply and succulently remarking as if to ignore the absurdity that he had just spouted.

I still regarded him seriously however. Though all my many instincts begged me to spit take, I looked at him calmly. Through the entire situation my brain roared at me to accept, to toast him and her. But I could not, so instead I could only nod.

As soon as I did, as if an ironic replay of the scene that had just occurred he pulled out a sweat cloth from his breast pocket. With deft fingers he unknotted the cloth before swallowing the purple grape underneath. It was another devil fruit!

Throughout the ensuing celebration I could only sit mute, the captain and his first mate had been successfully dumbstruck.

Oh and, later that day, we entered the New World!