Ultimate Fruit

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Chapter 54: Breaking Out

Let’s rewind time for a bit.

On a certain island somewhere along the first half of the Grand Line, a young man with white hair was walking unsteadily in the forest.

His skinny look and body full of bruises is enough to tell you that this young man had not lived a good life.

Often, he is bullied and beaten up. His parents are dead and he has no money to eat.

As he was walking in the forest, he saw a strange looking fruit in front of him and hesitated.

He has been looking around for a day now and did not see a hint of food anywhere. Probably, those bullies of his had taken everything already...

Just as he was hesitating, his stomach growled again.

He no longer cared and took the fruit and...ate it!

He ignored the weird taste and simply ate his fill.

Once he was finished, he felt a strange power emerge from him.

Looking at his hands, it suddenly released a black mist and he immediately understood.

What he ate was...death!

He wasn't a person who knew a lot. He didn't know the existence of devil fruits. As such, he could only think of such things.

To him, that strange fruit was definitely poisonous. For him not to die...means he conquered death! And for him to gain such powers...means he now controls death!

His mouth twisted into a weird grin.

But just as suddenly, his face warped again and he brought his hands to grab his face.

No! This...this is not me!

He was disgusted at the thought of him thinking that...he grasped his head tightly seemingly in an attempt to shake off the feelings and thoughts he had earlier.

After a while, he was left panting on the floor. His stomach still growling…what’s more, his hunger also seemed to have been intensified after eating that strange fruit!

“Food...I need...food…hunger...I need...to devour…!”

Unable to find food in the forest, he started to crawl back to the city with his head still muddled.

When he reached the city, everyone looked at him in disgust. Some kids even came and threw stones at him while some went farther and even gave him a few kicks and spits.

This is that kind of country. The discrimination of the rich and the poor are separated cleanly. The useless are thrown off while the others live happily.

He simply ignored them and endured it just like before but...this time, he felt something churning within him.

Something seemed to be calling out to him…

Kill…

Kill…

KILL…!

DEVOUR EVERYTHING THAT STANDS IN YOUR WAY! ZEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

A few hours later. The city that had tormented him was engulfed in darkness! Soon...it was no more.

By the time he snapped out of it, all he saw was a city in ruins.

The buildings turned to scraps...the people...dead on the ground.

Everything started to sink in. He tried to vomit from the disgust that he was feeling but nothing came out as he hasn’t eaten for days now...yet strangely...he felt full!

“I...What...did I do…!?”

His vision started to blur from the shock of what had just happened. Soon, he fell unconscious.

Time passed, the Marines were notified of the incident and sent people to investigate what happened.

When they saw a thin young man full of scars and bruises, they didn’t think that he was the one who caused this massacre. They only thought how lucky it was for someone to be able to survive what had just happened.

The young man woke up and introduced himself as Lucius. After being warmly welcomed by the group of marines and was even given food and shelter, he teared up and thought that he no longer needed to suffer.

...He was wrong.

One night, he had a nightmare.

That was still fine normally but...Lucius wasn’t a normal person. Not anymore.

In his sleep, his ability activated and...by the time he woke up, he woke up just in time to see a marine soldier swinging a sword at him while crying.

“You devil! You deserve to die!!!”

“Why…?”

Darkness moved and stabbed through the heart of the soldier trying to attack him. Lucius was still shocked and didn’t know what just happened.

The soldier’s eyes dimmed as he dropped his weapon to the ground.

“You...bastard...killed...everyone…!”

Hearing that, Lucius looked around and saw everyone dead...once again, he was the only one alive.

Frightened by his own power, he took a rowboat and fled! He didn’t know where he was going...but he still sailed where the seas took him!

When he finally reached an island after several days, he was found by an elderly couple as he collapsed to the ground.

History repeated itself.

He was given warm food...shelter...then he killed them all…

This cycle repeated so much that Lucius had long lost track with how many times he’d kill. He stopped vomiting, stopped crying...until he stopped caring anymore.

He was alone. He had no family. No friends. Nothing.

That’s fine. As long as he’s alive, he no longer cares about what happens to the world.

Over time, he has gotten to know that his powers were from a devil fruit. The Yami Yami no Mi, or rather, the Darkness Fruit.

Still, he was convinced that this fruit was delivered to him by fate and the fact that he can somehow nullify other devil fruits made him think that his power is far superior than the rest.

His ability alone can decide the life and death of anyone he touches! It was enough to call him the God of Death!

Soon, a name seemed to spread around the world. The Black Death. He who touches him is bound to die and that devil fruit powers were useless to him.

However, this was just a name. No one knew what he looked like as he always had his long white hair covering his face.

One day, Lucius chanced upon a newspaper. He saw a man who looked just like him and was said to be the new Shichibukai.

Surprised at seeing someone who looked like him, a word he never thought he would remember started to resurface in his mind.

Family!

He never even thought that it might be a clone or something else. Or rather, he wanted it so much to be real to the point that he wouldn't accept any reason for an answer!

Reading further, he knew that this ‘brother’ of his also had an amazing ability to actually have a Water type devil fruit!

Lucius had learned a lot in the past few days. He knew that the greatest weakness of devil fruit users was the sea water. Even he was no exception to this.

He stared at the picture of his ‘brother’ excitedly. Slowly, a twisted grin appeared on his face.

That’s right...with the two of us together...no one would be able to stop us!

The two of us can be Gods!

Lucius’ mind was no longer like before with a shred of humanity. But he wasn’t hasty in meeting his ‘brother’. He wanted to know more about him first…

And so he began by following the Strawhat crew first.

In the past, he was already aware of how disgusting and cruel the world was. It was the strong that survives and the weak dies eventually.

But when he saw how Zoro had beared the pain of his captain on his own...he suddenly felt like everything he knew before was a lie.

“...So this is his crew…”

Lucius watched Zoro for a moment before disappearing from Thriller Bark and sailing away.

He then went to where Lucas was and hid himself to observe him.

He saw how different his ‘brother’ was to him. Lucas seemed to be surrounded by people he trust and the people around him are also attracted to him naturally.

There was no deceiving...no mind games...no betrayal…

Right...this was what Lucius longed for...he wanted to have family...friends...loved ones…

He didn’t want to be alone…

Lucius stayed silent. In him, the shred of humanity he thought he’d lost started to gradually resurface…

When Shiki started to arrive, he also stayed and watched everything unfold. From them invading the floating island to killing Shiki.

After Lucas killed Shiki, Lucius was surprised that Lucas had it in him to kill someone.

Strangely enough, he felt closer to Lucas due to this as he simply attributed it to the fact that they were ‘family’.

Lucius kept himself hidden in Merville as he blended in the darkness. Unlike all logia users, his ability doesn’t let him turn into darkness but he can still cover himself in darkness to block any kind of probing. Even Observation Haki doesn’t work on him which was why Lucas did not notice anything.

Finally, Lucas left for Sabaody Archipelago where he witnessed Lucas losing everyone and killing the World Noble.

Aaah...like I thought...we’re the same after all…!

Following that, he stayed in the background, secretly helping Luffy break out and join up with Lucas. And as a ‘thoughtful brother’, he was about to take care of the leftovers so their escape will go smoother.

This was when he finally met Lucas face to face.

Lucius was so happy to finally talk with his ‘brother’ that his mouth twisted into a grin once more.

“LET’S GO AND PUT AN END TO THIS WORLD!!!”

That’s right! The two of us brothers...shall destroy this world and create an even better one! We will be the two Gods who will rule the New World!

To Lucius, everything was going perfectly.

All that was left is for Lucas to join him and everything will be perfect.

...But...things did not go as he planned.

Lucas frowned when he saw the man in front of him that kept on calling him his ‘brother’. He was confused as to who the hell this was.

The original story did not have this development...or this character.

Right now, the person he is currently facing...is most likely someone that he had created.

Not literally of course. It just meant that this person was an effect of the changes that he had made in the past.

Lucas had still underestimated everything happening in the background and thought that nothing much had changed when he killed Blackbeard.

Only now did he know what a huge impact Blackbeard’s death was.

But for the new owner of the Darkness Fruit to be someone who looks like him...just why is that?

It can’t be that he really was blood related to him. Lucas was from another world...wait, another world?

Lucas thought for a moment and remembered from the movies and tv series that he watched before that there are such cases where the same person can also exist in an alternate reality.

Is this who this man is? Another Lucas?

Lucas continued to frown as he spoke.

“Thanks for helping...but I am not who you think I am. I don’t have a brother.”

“...Ah?”

The grin in Lucius’ mouth disappeared.

“Anyway, we need to go. The marines have started bombing the place!”

Lucas did not want to waste time with this ‘brother-wannabe’ of his and just wanted to get out.

Seeing them leave and ignore him, Lucius snapped out.

A huge wall of darkness stretched to the bottom of the stairs which blocked them from getting out.

“Ha...haha...I get it…I get it now…! You're just like them!”

“What the hell are you doing!?”

Lucas’ face turned grim as he glared at Lucius who suddenly broke into a laughter.

“You…! Even though we’re family! You still refuse me!!!”

“Like I said, you're not-”

“SHUT UP!!!”

*BOOM*

Darkness exploded from Lucius and the whole area was covered with nothing but darkness.

Everyone looked around and found themselves unable to see anything. Ace tried to light up but for some reason, his devil fruit stopped working!

Sabo frowned and remembered something.

He tried to speak but did not hear his own voice.

Inside the darkness...their sense of sight and hearing seemed to no longer work. No one can see or hear anyone!

Lucas looked around then closed his eyes as he tried to use Observation Haki...still, it did not work.

He then tried to feel his power.

“Hm?”

His power...still works!

Since that’s the case…

Lucas started to sigh deeply as his body heated up and generated steam.

Heatwave!

*Boom*

Hot air exploded with Lucas as the center and knocked everyone back including Lucius who got thrown to the wall.

After being struck, the darkness disappeared and everyone finally saw each other.

Lucas saw the others had new bruises and cuts, he was angered. His skin started to boil as he turned around and faced Lucius.

Turning his head slightly to Luffy and the others, he shouted.

“Go! I’ll hold him off!”

“What!? I came here to rescue you! I’m not leaving you behind!”

Luffy ignored his wounds and tried to stand beside Lucas.

“Luffy, did you forget where we are? This prison is at the bottom of the sea, I can escape whenever I want! Now go!”

“You...fine! You better come back, you hear me!? I will wait for you in Sabaody!”

“Go!”

After hesitating for a moment, Luffy finally turned around and left.

Behind him, Lucas could faintly hear Sabo saying he wanted to find Ivankov and Ace saying he needed to go to Marineford.

Turns out, before taking Ace, Sengoku had a backup plan and had captured another member of the Whitebeard crew to lure Whitebeard. This was simply in a rare case that Ace manages to escape, at least they can still lure Whitebeard.

Ace knew about this since Garp told him before Lucas arrived in Level 6.

After Luffy and Sabo heard what Ace wanted to do, the two decided to follow him to Marineford.

Hearing that, Lucas’ mouth twitched a number of times.

DAMMIT! I JUST GOT YOU ALL OUT OF HERE, WHY ARE YOU STILL GOING TO MARINEFORD!!!???

Lucas lamented...why did he go through all this trouble for if this was still going to happen...he should’ve just waited in Marineford if he knew…

That damn Sengoku and his backup plan. I’m gonna teach him a lesson when I see him!

After cursing Sengoku a number of times in his head, Lucas finally paid attention to this man in front of him.

Lucius coughed as he stood up. When he did, he glared at his ‘brother’ hatefully.

He did everything to help his ‘brother’ just so they will be together...but in the end, his ‘brother’ still refused to treat him as family!

Unforgivable!

Unforgivable!!!

UNFORGIVABLE!!!

“Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!”

With a beastly roar, Lucius charged at Lucas in top speed as he reappeared in front of him.

Darkness covered his hands and turned into a claw. He swung it at Lucas who only glanced at it and let him hit.

When the dark claw touched Lucas, his body splashed like water and reformed itself.

Lucas could tell that Lucius does not know Haki. He was merely using the effect of his Darkness fruit to neutralize his opponent’s devil fruits.

But that doesn’t work on Lucas. Though, if it had been Haki, then it would be different.

Lucius appeared shocked and confused why his attack did nothing.

Lucas ignored his reaction and swung his fist at him which exploded after the hit.

Lucius flew black and Lucas followed after, sending another punch to make him his the ground.

“Gah-!?”

The ground shattered into web-like cracks underneath Lucius.

Due to the Darkness fruit, the pain he felt had amplified. Still, Lucius was used to the pain and only gritted his teeth. He touched the floor and soon, darkness began to spread on the floor and Lucas could feel an unknown force sucking him down the ground.

Seeing this, Lucas kept calm and placed both hands on the ground as well and blasted it!

The ground crumbled and dispelled the darkness.

With none of his attacks working, Lucius covered himself in an armor made of darkness and charged back at Lucas.

Lucas shot out some high pressured water shots but the darkness armor simply devoured the water as Lucius continued to charge.

Knowing that he can’t hit Lucas, Lucius instead made a prison of darkness which would slowly devour Lucas inside.

Naturally, Lucas wouldn't just stand around and let him do that.

Lucas’ fists trembled as he controlled the water surrounding Impel Down.

Suddenly, a hole opened up from the wall and a powerful stream of water shot out which took Lucius by surprise.

Lucius was unable to devour all the water at once and was soon pushed back by the water. It only took a moment for the floor to soon be filled with water.

Lucas looked around at the prisoners still left and Magellan who was unconscious, he sighed and left.

Maybe this was for the best. After all, no one on this floor is good. Just let the water wash them away.

Lucas took a fleeting glance at his so-called ‘brother’ who was now unable to swim as the water surrounded him.

He turned around and no longer paid him any attention.

With his body turning to water, he let himself flow out of Impel Down.

When he resurfaced, he could see Luffy and the others taking a marine warship and sailing away.

Kizaru, who was also in another warship, tried to give chase but suddenly, his whole ship seemed to be crushed by the water beneath and Kizaru could jump away and used Geppo to walk in the air.

Turning around in midair, he saw another figure in the skies with huge wings behind him.

“You!”

Seeing Lucas, he changed his target and his body turned to light.

The next instant, he was already in front of Lucas with his leg stretched out clad in Armament Haki.

Fast!

Lucas quickly crossed his arms to defend but was still thrown back down to the sea.

Kizaru waited for Lucas to reappear again when suddenly, the waves started to churn.

From where Lucas dropped, a huge wave started to rise and form into a gigantic...man!

Luffy and the others who were sailing away noticed the disturbance and took a look.

As soon as Luffy turned around, stars suddenly filled his eyes.

“SO COOL!!!”