บท 19: Chapter 019 – The Inquisitor
[Kaienreki Calendar 1506, January]
Lupin reached an uninhabited island only a few hours after he left the Sabaody Archipelago, the island had lush vegetation and lots of animals, according to his Observation Haki.
For the next couple of days, the local flora and fauna had suffered a severe mental trauma, having to watch precious relatives getting devoured without remorse by a hungry wolf.
At this point Lupin's hands and body had fully recovered and he just enjoyed a small pause from his training schedule – simply savouring the moment.
After careful inspection, he had even managed to confirm that the longsword he had taken from the Vice Admiral he had killed, was indeed of the same standard as his Wado Ichimonji.
This meant that he had finally found a suitable sword for himself.
Granted he had not searched for one with as much zeal as he could have, but it was still nice to finally have a fitting blade.
Even though his fight against the Marines would make someone question if he really was a swordsman.
Well, Lupin didn't train the sword to solely fight with it. Instead he trained in swordsmanship, because he liked learning it.
The sword itself was roughly four and a half feet long with intricate carvings all over the blade.
One side depicting an angel along with other smaller and different holy motives, like a cross and some kind of holy text. The other side featured a western dragon and its flames – a symbol of evil and sin in most western mythology.
The handle was also relatively long, giving it enough room to be held comfortably with both hands and the words 'The Inquisitor' were carved into it. The strangest thing was that it had been carved in English letters.
The sword also didn't have a scabbard, but a leather belt with a wrapped steel ring on it, which could be worn around one's waist or on one's back.
Lupin himself preferred to wear his swords on his back, as it was more comfortable and wouldn't interfere with his movements.
The blade itself wasn't coloured black like most higher ranked Meito, but a bright silver. Signifying the blade had never been mastered and wielded long enough by a master swordsman to turn into a Black Blade.
A Black Blade was a blade that permanently turned black after having been infused with Armament Haki by a swordmaster over long periods of time, like for example Whitebeard's Murakumogiri or Mihawk's Yoru.
After transforming a Black Blade would become nearly indestructible and more powerful, definitely something Lupin wanted for the Inquisitor.
Lupin could also clearly feel something different in the sword.
While his Wado Ichimonji had a dependable and enduring feel to it, the Inquisitor had a presence slightly similar to the devil fruit users he had met.
It was obviously a cursed blade, but there was also something different about its aura. Something pure and compassionate. Lupin guessed that the sword may be both a cursed and holy blade, which made it even more dangerous to wield than a cursed blade.
Wielding a cursed sword had some inherent danger to it, but those could be overcome with willpower, strength and luck, like Zoro had done. But to wield a holy blade, one had to be pure at heart to unleash the full strength of a blade.
Naturally being 'pure' at heart didn't mean one was an objectively good person, it was more something concerning how honest you were with yourself and your intentions.
Now to wield a blade that was both cursed and holy in nature, one had be still be pure at heart, have strong willpower and personal strength, along with some luck.
If not, it wouldn't just be impossible to master the sword, but one would also incur its wrath and be subjected to its curse, unlike a normal holy blade that would just deny the wielder its inherent power.
Holding the blade in his hands, Lupin could feel its aura trying to prod his own.
"A challenge is it...? If that is what you have prepared for me, I accept.", the young boy whispered.
Putting the sword onto his back, he went ahead and inspected the rest of his loot.
After Lupin had freed the slaves in Mary Geoise, he still had some minutes before it was time to confront the Marines, so he had used his Observation Haki and exceptional senses to look for some interesting loot among the World Nobles possessions. And he had indeed found something.
He had also confirmed his guesses about some other things concerning the Holy City and its master.
Opening his burlap sack Lupin could see several books he had stolen, right next to seastone cuffs, two devil fruits, some spare clothes, an Eternal Pose, a normal compass and his trusty toothbrush.
This may not look like much, but it seemed as if the World Nobles had stored their belongings elsewhere, probably the same place they had hidden themselves from Lupin.
He hadn't even been able to detect their presence with his Haki and other sharp senses, although he had a pretty good idea where they had evacuated to.
So it was more of a lucky chance that he had come across these things, as Lupin believed them to have only been delivered to that particular World Noble shortly before his arrival. And as Lupin had killed the man and his guards, there was no one who could have hidden them anymore.
There were four books in total with three of them being part of an encyclopedia for devil fruits. The last one was some historical biography he had no real interest in. Much like he had no interest in knowing what had happened in the Void Century.
Lupin generally had very little curiosity towards anything other than fighting techniques and traveling the world.
The encyclopedia regarding devil fruits was several times more extensive than what could be found in the books on the market, which didn't surprise Lupin one bit. It was to be expected that the World Government would try to keep the information regarding these incredible sources of power to a minimum.
The two fruits looked very different from each other. One of them looked like a white pear, made out of small swirl-shaped feathers, the other looked like a black apple with orange-red swirls on it.
After looking through the books for some time, Lupin found illustrations of both of them and got to know what exactly he had managed to steal.
---
Hane Hane No Mi, or Feather-Feather-Fruit, making one a Feather Human upon consumption and giving one the ability to produce feathers from their whole body, which can be controlled at will. The properties of the feathers themselves can be defined at will, making them as hard as steel or flexible like rubber.
---
Tokage Tokage No Mi Moderu: Sanshoo, or Lizard-Lizard-Fruit Model:Salamander, a mythical Zoan fruit that grants the one that eats it the abilities of the mythical fire elemental salamander. The main ability being able to create and control fire from their whole body, giving them the ability of flight through flame propulsion and extreme heat resistance. They would also gain great resistance to poison and healing abilities. No further information known.
---
A Paramecia and a mythical Zoan.
Lupin was pleasantly surprised at the description of the fruits.
Originally he was very unsure if he should consume a devil fruit, as they would give him a significant weakness.
This planet's surface was afterall over eighty percent ocean, which would mean a disadvantaged battlefield for himself nearly everywhere. Not to mention one of his favourite past times was swimming.
Still, Lupin believed with his mastery over Haki, he would be able to shield himself from the ocean water and seastone to avoid getting weakened by them.
He was also very much interested in the Hane Hane No Mi, because even though it wasn't a inherently strong fruit, it's versatility was great.
Also a strong user was easily able to turn every fruit into a dangerous weapon and combat power.
Lupin also had other plans for the mythical Zoan, not to mention he already had the ability to transform into a massive wolf.
"Here goes nothing..."
Picking up the white fruit, Lupin directly bit into it to stop himself from doubting his reckless decision.
*Crunch*
"Ugghhh-"
Using his hands to clasp his mouth shut and to stop himself from throwing up, at the absolutely horrid taste of the fruit, Lupin swallowed the piece of fruit down.
A short moment later though, Lupin's instincts told him that he had made a fatal mistake, as a strange aura invaded his physical body trying to change something inside of him.
His body temperature suddenly shot up, and his beastly instincts awakened full force, while his own aura and spirit instinctively clashed with the invading force.
And as unimaginable pain wrecked through his body, he could feel his whole body shifting into his wolf form and every cell of his being trying to expel and resist the 'devil aura'.
His bodily tissue was ripped apart during the struggle, while he slowly began to lose consciousness. Meanwhile the battle of forces continued, not only inside his body, but also inside his soul.
…
Sometime later, Lupin regained his consciousness and found himself still in his wolf form.
His whole body was throbbing in pain and he was too exhausted to even move. Even his spirit seemed incredibly worn out, so much so that it was hard for him to even use his Observation Haki. Something he had long since gotten used to having activated at all times.
Lifting his heavy eyelids, Lupin took stock of his surroundings, noting that he hadn't really moved much and thankfully also not destroyed any of his belongings.
The grass around him was ruffled and ripped out here and there, and he could also smell blood around him, probably from the wounds that had opened up on his body upon consumption of the fruit.
He didn't really know the result, but what he knew was that his reaction to the fruit was in no way normal. So, as he rested to regain some of his energy – both physically and mentally, he thought about the reason for his plight.
As Lupin was no idiot, excluding his decision of simply biting into the devil fruit without proper assessment, he came to a conclusion relatively fast.
His origins must have been the reason for what had happened. No other person he knew of would react so violently towards the consumption of a devil fruit, no matter their race in this world. Be that animal, giant, humans or even weapons, while his own race however was a total mystery to him.
Lupin only knew that he was from a tribe called Quileute and while his mother had told him stories about the tribe when he was still a baby, they were basically useless to him now, as they didn't contain a clue at what exactly he was.
His simple knowledge amounted to the Quileute being an isolated tribe that birthed warriors capable of taking on the form of massive wolfs.
Was he even really a human? He himself wasn't so sure anymore. Lupin had thought of himself like a normal human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf, but there had to be more to that.
He wasn't so ignorant as to not notice his incredible talent not only concerning physical fighting techniques, but also spiritually.
His Haki mastery easily exceeded the average Admiral at only ten years of age with only five years of training.
Additionally he had noticed some time ago that his Observation Haki was very different from those he met or confronted. His sensitivity and accuracy was probably several times higher than others.
It seemed his origins were even more mysterious than he had thought and maybe he should have looked into it some more, before almost killing himself by eating a devil fruit.
'Thank god, I ate the weaker one. I am not sure I would have survived consuming the other one.', he thought to himself.
Roughly half an hour later, Lupin had somewhat regained enough energy to move his body again.
After standing up on his four paws and moving around a bit to stretch his itching muscles, Lupin felt something was amiss on his back. Like someone had added a bit of extra weight.
Turning his head back as far as he could, Lupin cried out in shock.
"Awo?!"
Two massive wings extended from his back and were currently laying folded on both sides of his wolf body. Their colour was the same coal black as his fur and hair.
'Just what the hell is going on here!?'
Willing his transformation, his body shrunk and changed back into his human form, though he could still feel the wings remaining on his back.
Weren't it for his perfect control over his physical body, he might have even lost his balance as the wings had a considerable weight to them, which had changed his center of gravity greatly.
Sitting down on the ground, while being careful to not sit on his two new appendages, Lupin closed his eyes and began to employ Seimei Kikan along with his Observation Haki to inspect his body and find some clues as to what had actually happened to him.
As he could slowly feel his physical senses extend towards his new wings, gaining control over his newly formed muscles, bones and sinews.
Lupin also sensed no difference in his aura. Normally all devil fruit users he met had some slight similarities in their aura, like a special signature or a taint on their otherwise normal human aura.
And while his own aura always had something beastly to it – which hadn't changed, he could sense no trace of the usual tainted devil aura in his own.
"No trace of a devil fruit in my aura..? Does that mean...?", muttering to himself, Lupin used his hair to grab the seastone cuffs and brought it near him.
Taking a deep breath and anticipating sudden weakness, he grabbed the cuffs with his hand, but absolutely nothing happened.
"So these wings aren't a direct result of a devil fruit, but a result of my body's reaction to that fruit...? How does that make any sense?"
Wholly confused, Lupin had gained a pair of wings and no permanent weakness against seawater and seastone.
Which was all in all, not that bad of a result.
Although it did make him wonder greatly about his origin, as he had the slight suspicion that his new wings were just an evolution or advancement of his shapeshifting ability.
Still, his reckless actions, served as a beacon of caution for him.
Just because he was relatively knowledgeable when it came to this world, he shouldn't become careless like this in the future.
The inherent danger of this world had not changed just because he had attained a modicum of strength.
[A/N: The sword I chose was modelled after one that exist in RL and was made by Ilya Alekseyev, an amazing blacksmith and artist. I recommend you to check out his works on YouTube on a channel called 'That Works'. Here is a picture.]
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GodOfFreedom
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This story is already finished on my p@treon account. I will probably only upload it here occasionally, as this account isn't a priority of mine and just exists to stop others from stealing my intellectual property.
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