One Piece: The Archangel's Guide

Chapter 13: The Reason for Strength

Hongo was taken aback by the praise, then shook his head helplessly. "Since when was I that amazing? I can't say if I can cure her until I've done a proper diagnosis!"

"Hongo, you're too modest!"

"That's right, Hongo is the best in the world!"

"..."

In an instant, everyone was convinced that as soon as Yelena returned, Hongo would be able to cure her.

Shanks looked at Louis and smiled. "Little Louis, do you want to learn medicine from Hongo?"

"With your healing ability, once you master it, you'll definitely surpass Hongo and become the world's number one doctor!"

Louis shook his head in refusal. "No thank you. I still have to go to the Grand Line. I won't be staying here for long."

Shanks was stunned for a moment. Then, as if he'd thought of something, he said thoughtfully, "To find Mr. Momora?" He immediately thought of his crewmate who had the best relationship with the Lunarians of Baal, and Louis also had his Vivre Card.

"Yes. I plan to visit him on behalf of my tribe, and then head straight to the New World," Louis said.

"???" Shanks was dumbfounded. Are all kids these days so bold?

The others were also stunned. They knew what kind of sea the New World was. The climate was extremely harsh; the storm they had recently experienced was mere child's play in the New World. The law of the jungle was brutal, with pirates there taking "survival of the fittest" to its absolute extreme. Supernovas with bounties over 100 million were just small fry there. The top-tier rulers lurking in the depths of the New World ground their teeth and drank blood, constantly exploiting the people and preparing to stir up terrifying incidents that could shake the world.

"What are you going to the New World so early for?" Shanks asked, his face full of confusion. He felt that while Louis was young, his courage was anything but small. At such a young age, he was already planning to go to a place that many pirates on the Grand Line wouldn't even dare to enter. For a teenager like Louis with no backing, the New World was still too much, too soon.

To this, Louis replied calmly, "To fight with those monsters, to hone my Haki in the midst of battle, and to constantly grow stronger!"

He never felt that age was a barrier to setting out to sea. Big Mom had torn through a village of giants at age six and had roamed the seas ever since. Kaido, Bullet, and others were no different.

Louis firmly believed he was no worse than any of them. Conqueror's Haki, a monster's physique, outstanding talent—everything they had, Louis had too, and perhaps even better versions. What they could do, Louis could do better! Louis's motto was that since he dropped out of his prenatal education, he never learned how to write the word "coward."

The crew was stunned by his words. They opened their mouths as if to say something, but in the end, nothing came out.

However, Shanks, as if not wanting a friend's descendant to rush so rashly into the New World, clapped Louis on the shoulder. "The New World is still too early for you," he said. "I can feel that you're very strong, but if you set out too early, you won't have time to properly develop your own physical potential!"

In response, Louis mentioned the examples he had in mind.

What Louis didn't expect was that after hearing his thoughts, Shanks burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha—"

He only stopped and scratched his head awkwardly after receiving a glare from his precious daughter and a subtle look from Louis.

Then, under the watchful eyes of his crew, he clapped Louis's shoulder again and said meaningfully, "I see now. You've been blinded by the glorious tales of those people."

"???" Louis didn't understand.

A nostalgic look flashed in Shanks's eyes. "It's not like the stories you hear on the sea, Louis," he reminisced. "Bullet was once our crewmate too. He only set out to sea after he settled down, trained with all his might, and reached a bottleneck."

"Kaido was more or less the same. Even Big Mom, whose legend is the most exaggerated."

"You don't really believe she reached the top just by gluttonously eating and having children without developing her own physique, do you? Haki doesn't lie!"

"Although she caused quite a stir after leaving Elbaf, she also spent time diligently developing her own body."

Then, Shanks looked at Louis mysteriously and said, "Did you know?"

"When Big Mom destroyed a town and got her first bounty, she was a fat little girl!"

"But after that, she didn't appear frequently. By the time she was in her teens, she had transformed into a tall, stunningly beautiful woman!"

"That is the proof that she trained diligently!"

"..."

Louis fell into thought upon hearing this.

Seeing this, Shanks grinned. He knew his bullsh... no, his persuasion, was most likely a success. Of course, what Shanks said was more or less true, with only a few minor details changed. It wasn't a complete fabrication.

Behind him, Shanks's crewmates looked at him with newfound amazement, as if they were meeting him for the first time. It was the first they knew that Shanks's linguistic skills were as powerful as his strength.

Just then, Yelena, having dealt with the source of the poison, reappeared before them. Only this time, she was holding something new.

"Louis, Shanks, what... is this?" Yelena, another graduate of the "no prenatal education" school, held up the strange fruit, her sallow face full of confusion.

The sudden call made both Louis and Shanks turn their heads. When they saw the fruit in Yelena's hand, they both snapped to attention.

"A Devil Fruit?" Shanks's eyes widened.

"A Zoan type?" Louis said instinctively.

Why did Louis immediately think it was a Zoan-type Devil Fruit?

Because the fruit in Yelena's hand was mostly blue and shaped like the skull of a deer. On its sides were two small, antler-like protrusions. In his vague memory fragments, he recalled that the Ox-Ox Fruit from Drum Kingdom and Lucci's Cat-Cat Fruit, Model: Leopard from CP9 had appearances similar to their animal forms.

Yelena was taken aback. "What's a Devil Fruit?" she asked again.

As the only Devil Fruit user present, Louis thought for a moment before giving a concise explanation. "It can grant a person special abilities."

He held out his hand, and a golden light rose from his palm. "After eating one," he continued, "some people will gain strange abilities, like me."

"Others will gain abilities like a natural disaster."

"And there's another type that allows people to transform into beasts."

"The one in your hand should be the type that lets you transform into an animal," Louis said thoughtfully, looking at the antler-like protrusions on the fruit in Yelena's hand.