Chapter 5: The Paramecia-Type Decompose-Decompose Fruit
Yukari Yakumo had gone full lurker mode without a moment's hesitation. Right now, she was in a state of questioning her entire life — or rather, questioning her entire yōkai existence.
The first Daily Sign-In had given her 1 Point. Fine. She could write that off as a fluke.
But then she'd failed to grab a single thing from the Gift Package.
She could accept losing to the Admin or the planetary consciousness — those were beings on a different level entirely. But losing to Kaguya? An ordinary human girl?
That was beyond what "coincidence" could explain.
Yukari was seriously starting to suspect that someone in Gensōkyō had put a curse on her. A luck-draining curse, specifically.
It wasn't impossible. Gensōkyō was hardly a peaceful place, and she had her share of rivals and grudges.
Like a certain someone at Eientei, for instance.
Ryū, for his part, wasn't particularly worried about her. His exposure to the Touhou series was limited — mostly secondhand knowledge picked up from fan-fiction. But it was precisely because of those fan stories that he knew better than to take Yukari's dramatic moping at face value.
A yōkai who'd been alive for untold millennia wasn't going to stay "depressed" for long.
Give her a few hours, and she'd be right back in the chat, spamming messages like nothing had happened.
Never overestimate Yukari Yakumo's capacity for shame.
RawrSoFierce:
"@Edward Newgate — Quick question. Do you know what specific ability this Paramecia-type Devil Fruit has?"
Edward Newgate:
"Give me a moment, Admin-dono. Let me dig out the Devil Fruit encyclopedia."
Edward Newgate:
"I could've sworn the encyclopedia was right here… ah? Here it is! Found it. Let me take a look."
Edward Newgate:
"It's a Paramecia-type — the Decompose-Decompose Fruit!"
Ryū blinked at the message.
The Decompose-Decompose Fruit? He was pretty sure that had never appeared in the original One Piece manga.
A fruit that had never shown up in canon.
Then again, that was perfectly normal. How many Devil Fruits actually existed in total? Nobody knew — not even one of the Four Emperors.
Setting aside Logia and Paramecia types entirely, just the Zoan category alone was staggering. If every species of animal had a corresponding Zoan fruit, then the One Piece world — with its millions of species — would have millions of Zoan fruits.
Ryū weighed the heavy "Decompose-Decompose Fruit" in his right hand and turned his attention back to the chat.
Edward Newgate:
"The previous owner of this fruit was, if I recall, a rather famous pirate. But the Marines took him down about twenty years ago. Died in the New World."
Edward Newgate:
"If memory serves, this fruit's ability is to decompose objects… something along those lines."
Kaguya-sama:
"The power to decompose objects? Um… does that work on living things too?!"
Kaguya-sama:
"Because if it works on living things, wouldn't that be invincible? You could just decompose a person into a pile of scattered cells!"
Edward Newgate:
"I'm not sure about the details. I didn't know the previous owner very well — I just happened to hear about the fruit."
The Little Wandering Planet:
"Decompose objects… could it decompose an entire planet?"
Edward Newgate:
"I'd say that's unlikely. Decomposing a planet would be a bit too absurd, even for a Devil Fruit."
Pulling his consciousness out of the chat group, Ryū bounced the Devil Fruit in his hand a few times. This thing was about the size and weight of a cantaloupe.
Based on what Whitebeard had said, this seemed like a genuinely excellent fruit.
Ryū was, by his own admission, a complete disaster when it came to science. But even he knew the basics: "Matter is made up of molecules, atoms, and… and… some other kind of -cle." If this fruit could instantly decompose an object down to those three levels…
Then this power was potentially on par with Whitebeard's own Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
Of course, it all came down to how well the user developed the ability.
There was no such thing as a useless Devil Fruit.
Only useless users.
With the Nine-Tails' rampage bearing down on Konoha, Ryū needed to make sure he had enough power to survive the coming catastrophe. The Devil Fruit's downsides were obvious — but that was still infinitely better than remaining a powerless background character.
Actually, being a background character was something Ryū could live with.
The problem was that this particular background character could drop dead at any moment.
When your own survival was on the line, every decision became critical.
Just as Ryū had psyched himself up and was about to take a bite, a private message popped up inside the Dimensional Chat Group.
That's right — this thing really was identical to a messaging app. Group members could even direct-message each other.
But what caught Ryū off guard was that this DM hadn't come from any of the group members. Its sender tag read: "System Notification."
[System Notification: Admin "RawrSoFierce" — would you like to spend 1,000 Points to remove the Devil Fruit's weaknesses to seawater and Sea-Prism Stone? YES / NO]
It clicked. Ryū recalled seeing something called "System Notifications" when he'd been going through the group's features earlier. He hadn't paid much attention to it at the time — it seemed like a minor, forgettable detail.
He hadn't expected it to activate on its own.
This feature apparently alerted group members to relevant options automatically.
"Only 1,000 Points to remove both of the Devil Fruit's weaknesses?"
That was extremely tempting.
But there was one enormous problem.
Ryū only had 100 Points.
Where exactly was he supposed to conjure up 1,000?
He'd only had the Dimensional Chat Group for half a day.
"Forget it. I can save up and remove the weaknesses later. Right now, the priority is eating this fruit, testing the ability, and developing it enough to survive before Kurama tears through the village."
Decision made, Ryū didn't bother with any formalities — peeling, washing, none of that.
He shoved the fruit toward his mouth, bit off a small chunk, and swallowed it whole without chewing.
Even with that lightning-fast approach, it wasn't enough to save him.
The instant the fruit made contact with his tongue, it was as though someone had smeared the inside of his mouth with something that should never, under any circumstances, be consumed by a living being.
The flavor was so profoundly, existentially vile that words could not do it justice.
His expression contorted involuntarily.
And that was with him swallowing instantly — no chewing whatsoever. If he'd actually been stupid enough to chew, he would've needed to brush his teeth several hundred times and gargle a few hundred more just to feel human again.
He set the bitten fruit down on the table beside his bed.
Devil Fruits didn't need to be eaten whole. Even a single bite was enough to acquire the ability.
And once bitten, the fruit lost all its power — reverting into an ordinary, if strange-looking, piece of produce. Even if someone else ate the rest, they wouldn't gain a thing.