One piece: Evolving Towards a New Race

Ars looked at her and looked at her eyes. "You can start with why are you so desperate for the akuma no mi." 

Koral looked at Ars and for the first time since she saw the akuma no mi, her eyes left it to look at Ars "I had a fiance where we lived before who i loved immensely, we were childhood friends, but when we were about to marry and were already living together, he caught a hard to cure sickness, it wouldn't be hard to cure in reality has long as you had the proper medicine, but we didn't have the means to get the necessary medicine… He died 3 days before the attack. At first when you explained TCP, for a few minutes I had my hopes up, but as you kept explaining the rules of it, I once again felt empty, broken, I felt that all my hopes I was building up, were shattered once more." 

Koral was now sobbing, like a dam that broke it didn't look like it would stop soon but then between the tears she kept going " I know there were people who had it worse than me, i still had my brother, and now i also have you guys, but lately i had been feeling under the weather…at first i didn't pay too much attention to it i was busy dealing with so much loss, then all those changes, it wasn't after a few days after we settled in that place that i realized that even after calming down i was still not better… my main symptoms, nausea, and strange cravings…. Once I calmed down and examined myself, I realized I was pregnant, and decided that I would make sure this child would live well."

Ars was caught by surprised but he approached her and hugged her, and let her cry on his shoulder, after a while she calmed down a little and then looked at Ars "I'm also sorry, that fruit is called Potion Potion no mi, and its capable of creating any kind of potions, with it i would never would have to worry about the lack medical ingredients, or medical supplies because i could create the hard ones to find myself with this akuma no mi, as long i have the stamina i could create not only medical supplies, but also poisons and tonics… "

Then she paused, got out of the hug and looked at Ars in his eyes and continued "And the reason I offered myself was because I was sure that even if you accepted, you would be nice to me and the child… As you expected i don't love you, but in my mind, since i wouldn't lose anything, until now i saw that you are a good person and it would be fine for me to trade myself for that akuma no mi on my mind, after all, even though i didn't follow you for long yet, i can see you cherish the people that follow you… I'm sorry for trying to use your kindness against you, but please can I have it??? "

Koral looked at Ars with tears in her eyes, Ars was angry, not because she had tried to use his kindness against him but because he felt that she was looking down on him. He grabbed her face with both hands and forced her eyes to look directly into his eyes, "Listen well, in my eyes you're already one of my people, i will not mistreat you, or anyone that follows me and follows my rules, might not have made a list of rules yet but i want everyone that follows me to be happy, and finally i can give you easily the akuma no mi you don't have to beg for it, i mean you are asking for akuma no mi that could help not only you but everyone that will follow me, and the akuma no mi fits you better than all the people who currently follow me, you don't even have a runner up going for it as well, but i need you to promise me you only will eat it after you give birth and not before and you won't force yourself again for dumb reasons. Ok??"

Koral looked delighted, jumped on him and hugged him like a koala now crying from relief and happiness "Hum!" Koral nodded and made a grunt with her head buried in Ars chest.

Ars now looked at the small treasure chest with the akuma no mi, he now didn't know if he should give it directly to her or should he keep it until she gave birth and then give it to her.

"Would you prefer to keep it or do I keep it until you give birth?" Koral knew why he asked this question and replied politely " I will keep it…", then she panicked a little. "It's not like I don't trust you, but I will keep it in my small 'clinic', since you could be on a trip and not there at the time."

Ars and Tom looked at each other and smiled because Koral finally stopped putting up a front in front of them, and finally relaxed.

The 10 guys that came with them and the 4 that got released from slavery stayed silent throughout all this, but now the representative from the 10 guys looked at Ars "With this ship we can take more people than the people here right ??"

Ars nodded, but he didn't look too pleased, since he thought that he was referring to the other people that had left before, the idiot didn't realize it but somehow managed to clarify what he meant. " So we can bring our family members, right??"

Ars relaxed, smiled and answered "Yes, but hurry i would like to be home by morning!!"

With that the 10 guys started leaving as fast as they could to go get their family members. The guy rescued from the slaves looked at them and then at Ars and said his farewells "Well i think this is where we part ways." Then he got on his knees and bowed to Ars "Thank you!! Thank you so much for saving us from a most likely miserable future, I hope one day if I live through my revenge I will be able to repay your help!!"

Ars walked and stooped just in front of him then crouched, put his hand on his shoulder, and made him look at him " It's fine, i can only hope you succeed in your revenge… And you're welcome!"

The man then left, and Ars went to tie the small boat to the new ship with a rope, while he was doing that Tom went to check the condition of the ship, and Koral was helping the 3 females relax since they were still very stressed. 

Ars came back shortly after, looked at the 3 girls in their rags, and then looked at Koral and decided to let them stay in the best room in the ship. He signaled them to follow him, and the 4 of them started following him towards the captain room, in the middle of the way there, he remembered something and looked at the 3 girls questioning "Since the kingdom was doing business with the pirates, why did the kingdom guards arrest most of them???", one of the girls simply smiled weirdly " Simply put it was greed, the pirates decided that they were getting underpaid, and started a conflict…"

Ars wanted to say something but he couldn't, that was too normal, two greedy sides clashed over their 'goods'.

They arrived at the captain's room, it had only 1 large bed and one couch where they could rest, the rest was furniture that they wouldn't use for now. The 4 girls slept on the bed, Ars took the couch and Tom after finishing checking the condition of the ship slept on the small boat.

A few hours later the 9 guys returned with their families. From the original 9 now they had an extra 5 children, 2 elderly, 4 young men, 8 young girls and 6 adult women, now in total 34 people were going to return with them.

Their representative started screaming for Ars, and after a minute or two Ars came out and lowered a ladder made of rope and wood. They all started coming on board and once everyone was in, Ars looked at the representative "Is everyone you guys wanted to come along here?" and the representative nodded.

Ars then looked at Tom who nodded back, and looked at the 9 guys. 

"You 9 might not be in the best conditions but I hope you can help navigate the ship." They nodded and Ars went towards the helm, looking back at them "Raise the anchor! ".

Once the anchor was off he added "Lower the sails!" and with that they departed for home.

Ars looked at everyone, all malnourished, sunken cheeks, so thin that looked like a little bit of wind would topple them over. He looked at one of the females "Go to the captain room and ask for Koral!".

After a few minutes, a half asleep Koral came out and looked at Ars questioning what he needed, using his finger he pointed at the group that just arrived "Can you check them out?" 

Koral hadn't realized they had set sail or that the girl that woke her up was a new one until now. She started right away, starting with the youngest ones, and after a half an hour ended with the oldest ones. After checking everyone, Koral looked at Ars "They are heavily malnourished but otherwise they are fine."

Ars was relieved and looked at everyone " The trip is short but if you want to rest you can seek the sailors rooms, it's not the best but it will do for the trip. ". Most stayed looking at their previous home becoming smaller in the distance, and only the elderly and the children went to sleep. 

After around an hour, they arrived at their home island, while preparing to disembark, when they saw Rook coming to receive them in the distance.