Chapter 209: Gaze-gaze Fruit
Alabasta, Port City Rapeseed Flower.
“Princess Violet, sorry to keep you waiting.” His Highness Elus pushed open the door to the reception room and strode in. He had only returned to Alabasta today. The long journey using the power of the Door-Door Fruit gave him much more insight into its power.
“Very sorry, the Golden Lion matter was a sudden incident. I didn’t foresee that accident happening either, so I came back a bit late······ Hmm, your spirit looks good!”
“It’s just muddling through!”
In Violet, or rather Riku Violet’s forced smile, it was easy to see that trace of bitterness.
“So, Doflamingo threatened you with King Riku III?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“That Heavenly Yaksha guy······ so petty!”
His Highness Elus sat down on the sofa. “But this works out perfectly. If he were too generous, I’d feel bad about making a move······ Princess Violet, let’s make a deal! As long as you agree to my conditions, I can help the Riku Royal Family drive out the Heavenly Yaksha and reclaim the kingship of Dressrosa.”
“······Really?”
Violet’s breathing quickened.
Drive out Doflamingo, save her father and niece struggling in the Bullfighting Arena, return Dressrosa to its former state······ This was her greatest wish. Her overly excited mood made her brain somewhat dizzy.
“Of course it’s real.”
His Highness Elus said calmly.
Violet took a deep breath. She was smart enough not to ask for any guarantees. Facing His Highness Elus, she knew she had no room to bargain. Besides trusting the Black Prince’s credibility, she had no second path to choose.
As for rejecting the deal proposed by His Highness Elus,
She wasn’t foolish enough to choose that dead end.
“Your Highness Elus, what can I do for you?”
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing difficult. What I want is very simple······ Gaze-Gaze Fruit. No need to glare so wide-eyed, I have no intention of killing for treasure. It’ll be quick······ done.” As His Highness Elus finished speaking, a directed burst of spiritual pressure rushed out, and Violet fainted directly.
In just five or six seconds, the apple transformed into a Devil Fruit.
Paramecia Gaze-Gaze Fruit. He had seen it in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia. Regardless of its combat power, its support capabilities were truly strong. Just that vision reaching four thousand kilometers······ its role in war was unimaginably huge.
His Highness Elus took the Gaze-Gaze Fruit and left. He tossed the still-unconscious Violet to Fran to care for.
Anyway, he had no deep connection with Violet. He would of course fulfill the promised matters later, but that didn’t mean he needed to build any close relationship with her. He was after just this one Gaze-Gaze Fruit. Nothing else was worth His Highness Elus spending more time on.
He was now in one of the most luxurious hotels in Rapeseed Flower.
Fran had directly paid to book the entire hotel. Even the hotel staff had been replaced with His Highness Elus’s subordinates. After all, the only one to serve was His Highness Elus himself. There were enough hands. As for security······ if any petty thieves dared show up, Lucci and the others were enough to teach them a lesson in being human again.
His Highness Elus left the reception room and came to the room prepared for him long ago.
After taking a bath and changing into loose casual clothes, His Highness Elus finally sat down on the sofa holding the Gaze-Gaze Fruit. As usual, the kitchen sent up a plate of Ghost Pepper Fried Reaper Pepper Pasta······ then he ate the Gaze-Gaze Fruit.
About five or six seconds passed.
His eyes······ felt a series of very subtle changes. Two strange powers seeped into his eyeballs. In an instant, he found his field of vision had changed. The scenery before him rotated and shifted like a kaleidoscope.
He saw the bricks beneath the wall plaster,
Saw the blue sky and white clouds outside the wall,
Saw the turbulent sea,
Saw the pitching and rolling warship,
Saw the pirates carrying sabers······
“Clairvoyance······· What a completely different feeling!” His Highness Elus carefully savored the differences from the previous times he had eaten Devil Fruits. Depending on the Devil Fruit’s ability, the sensation of eating it each time varied greatly.
The previous few were fine: Door-Door Fruit, Add-Add Fruit, Chain-Chain Fruit······ There was a gap, but not as pronounced as with the Gaze-Gaze Fruit. Feeling the pupil changes so clearly was a first. True to its name, the power seemed entirely in the eyes.
Having mastered a new, particularly interesting Devil Fruit, His Highness Elus couldn’t put it down and began researching its abilities.
Clairvoyance, X-ray Vision, Mind Reading······ He tried every imaginable ability. To test Mind Reading, he even had Fran send over a few test subjects, all grabbed from Rapeseed Flower’s city prison.
Continuously eating Devil Fruits and familiarizing himself with their powers, even different ones, His Highness Elus had made great gains in this period.
He had mastered the Gaze-Gaze Fruit proficiently in no time. At least, he could basically achieve the several imagined abilities: adjusting the range of Clairvoyance, changing the depth of X-ray Vision, Mind Reading····· This was even simpler; just combine it with Observation Haki.
The only technique using tears for combat he hadn’t learned yet.
About that······ His Highness Elus didn’t care. He wasn’t concerned now about having one more or one less combat technique. The Gaze-Gaze Fruit’s greatest use was for investigation and research, but such simple research subjects were really uninteresting.
His Highness Elus pondered for a moment and took out that extracted Door-Door Fruit.
He pushed his X-ray Vision ability to the extreme, trying to see exactly what was tricky about the Devil Fruit, but······· He stared at the Devil Fruit for about half an hour. Not only the Devil Fruit, but even the ancient ruins buried deep underground in the hotel were visible to him, yet he still didn’t see the devil hidden inside the fruit.
X-ray Vision showed it looked no different from ordinary fruits like cantaloupe or pineapple······ But this didn’t dampen His Highness Elus’s research spirit. He took out all the Devil Fruits he had recently collected and placed them on the table for careful examination one by one.
Then he spent two days proving that Devil Fruits indeed weren’t so easy to spot any tricks in.
Thus,
His Highness Elus shifted his target.
Since he temporarily couldn’t see the mysteries of the Devil Fruit, he’d look at ability users. Maybe he could glimpse some flaws from them.
Jabura, this unlucky guy, was unsurprisingly brought over. As one of the only two ability users in CP9 besides Lucci, it was either him or Lucci. Ultimately, facing Lucci’s wolf-like terrifying gaze, the cowed Jabura became His Highness Elus’s research subject.
“Jabura, Hybrid Form!”
His Highness Elus gave the order.
The stone-faced Jabura swiftly transformed into his wolfman form. At first, he refused being toyed with in various ways by His Highness Elus, but after another lesson with a raised fist, the defiant, unyielding Jabura became as docile as a neutered tomcat in spring.
“······ Beast Form.”
“Then Human Form······”
Jabura activated his fruit ability repeatedly, switching constantly between the three forms of a Zoan Devil Fruit User, until he, the Zoan Devil Fruit User, was exhausted like a dog lying on the floor, tongue out panting heavily, before stopping.
“Jabura, go call Kumadori for me.”
His Highness Elus mercilessly directed Jabura to work. Zoan Devil Fruit Users weren’t so frail; half a minute resting on the ground and they could bounce back up lively. Especially if they achieved ‘Awakening,’ then Zoans were truly troublesome—hard to kill outright, and prolonged battles were equally unfavorable.
But even for Zoan Devil Fruit Users, acknowledged as the easiest of the three types to awaken, it was actually something only one in a hundred miles elite could achieve.
Awakening Paramecia and Logia was too difficult.
Jabura’s actions were indeed fast. Soon, Kumadori, still dressed like a kabuki actor, arrived at His Highness Elus’s training room.
“Your Highness Elus.”
Kumadori walked over and cautiously bowed in greeting, not daring to pull his suicidal antics.
“This Devil Fruit······ Eat it.” His Highness Elus pointed at the Devil Fruit on the table.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Kumadori’s speech became neat and tidy. He decisively picked up the Devil Fruit and swallowed it. That awful taste made even this man, whose emotions were hidden under thick makeup and had the bearing of a General, unable to control his facial expression for a moment, revealing a quite ferocious appearance.
It took immense willpower for him to eat the Devil Fruit.
Skin, stem, not a scrap left.
“Your Highness, this is······” Kumadori naturally understood by now what Devil Fruit he had eaten. He gently shook his hand, and a section of iron-colored chain fell from his palm. If he remembered correctly, this was one of the abilities His Highness had mastered.
“Figure out and master the Chain-Chain Fruit yourself, right here. Ignore everything else and focus on researching the Chain-Chain Fruit’s ability.”
His Highness Elus stared unblinkingly at Kumadori.
The Gaze-Gaze Fruit’s ability was already active, seeing through Kumadori’s flesh and skin, trying to find the source of the Devil Fruit’s power.
Kumadori was baffled and clueless······ but he didn’t dare slack off. He devoted himself fully to developing the Chain-Chain Fruit. The training room was spacious enough, with floors and walls specially thickened with steel, so no worry about damaging the building during ability tests.
Speaking of which, he quite liked this Chain-Chain Fruit’s ability.
Having mastered Life Return, he could manipulate his hair for Finger Pistol, but hair’s hardness was limited after all. This Chain-Chain Fruit ability could make up for the hardness issue, and it had a multitude of uses. Ideas piled up in his brain like a volcano erupting.
————
“Jabura, where’s Kumadori? Why are you the only one coming down?”
Finally freed and getting a temporary rest, Jabura came to the restaurant. Kaku, Kalifa, and a few others were eating. Kumadori had been here before, but Jabura called him away. In a blink, Jabura returned, but Kumadori was gone.
“Kumadori’s with His Highness! If I’m not wrong, that guy Kumadori is in luck this time.”
Jabura wandered the buffet area, then sat at Kumadori’s previous spot with two large plates of food.
“In luck? What do you mean?”
Kalifa pushed up her glasses; her curiosity was clearly unstoppable.
“Don’t forget why His Highness didn’t pick others but specifically called me to the training room?”
“Devil Fruit ability?”
Kaku answered without thinking.
“Exactly. These two days I was exhausted, constantly using the Devil Fruit ability, endlessly switching back and forth between different forms······ I think His Highness is researching Devil Fruits. Calling Kumadori now must mean benefits waiting for him! When Kumadori returns, we’ll probably have one more ability user among us.”
Jabura ate and drank heartily while still chatting with his companions.
“Researching Devil Fruits?”
Kalifa blinked, thinking of His Highness Elus’s array of complex abilities. “Still researching······ How many abilities does His Highness want to master? By the way, Jabura, do you know how many Devil Fruit abilities His Highness has mastered now?”
“No idea.”
Jabura shook his head vigorously.
“Though I don’t know exactly how strong His Highness is now, I’ve figured it out—with His Highness’s skills, even if he overthrows the Holy Land someday, I wouldn’t be surprised. Those CP0 snobs looking down their noses definitely aren’t His Highness’s match.” After being thoroughly beaten by His Highness Elus, this guy Jabura not only became much more obedient but even turned into a loyal fan of His Highness Elus.
He truly believed His Highness Elus would one day overthrow the Holy Land’s rule and become the world’s new master.
“Jabura, you······”
Kaku’s gaze was complex.
“Right, Kaku, how’s that orange-haired little girl been these past two days?” Jabura suddenly asked.
“What do you want? Don’t be stupid, Jabura! Miss Fran said she’s a guest invited by His Highness.”
“Tch, what are you saying, you bastard Kaku! I was thinking, didn’t that little girl say she wanted to learn Rokushiki before? Any progress? If not, I can teach her.”
“Jabura······ Why are you suddenly so proactive?”
“If I don’t contribute more, how can I get His Highness to swap me a stronger Devil Fruit? If I can get a powerful Devil Fruit, I can definitely beat that Lucci guy.” Jabura was still obsessed with defeating Lucci. This fixation left Kaku, Kalifa, and the others speechless.
“Do it if you want, whatever. That little girl somehow fooled the gullible Fukurou, and now she’s probably learning with Fukurou!”
