One Piece: The Thunder God

[2397 words]

Breezing through the clouds, the only thing in Cain's vision was an island on a vast sea.

His initial intention was to jump towards the sea but upon thinking about the intangibility of his new powers and the unnecessary time it might take to reach land while swimming, he chose to land on the island directly. 

Sure, people might see him but he didn't care about it right now. 

While falling through the clouds, he was trying to get a good look around the island and maybe find another settlement nearby if the one below turned out to be a bust but miles into the sea's horizon the only thing he could see was water.

"Maybe the nearest continent or island is below the horizon? Well it doesn't matter for now. I'll go there after if I can't find anything in this one."

After a few minutes of the vertical fall, Cain turned his body into lightning, zapping towards the ground in a second. His control had gotten so good that he was able to stop right before hitting the ground.

People in the nearby town saw a lightning strike and heard a loud thunder's roar, but couldn't tell what had caused it. It caused a panic amongst its habitat and people since the weather was too good for thunder to ring unannounced.

–

Like what he had done in Skypiea, Cain's first course of action was to approach the nearest town for information gathering. At a glance it looked like a collection of resorts and inns though the people around looked like thugs, relaxing on a vacation after a proper loot.

'Standing out here might not necessarily be a good idea.' Cain thought

Turning towards a random ally he was thinking on how to gather some information when he heard a group in midst of their talk.

"...is hiring pirates from both the New World and Paradise. I'm thinking of joining his crew. He sailed with those infamous Rocks Pirates afterall, he should be strong." One of them said in an excited voice. Clearly joyful at the presented opportunity.

"Yeah, and once we set in the ranks, we can loot and r@pe as we wa–ZerrrZZZZ"

Cain temporarily paralyzed and robbed them. He also asked them some questions but they weren't quite helpful.

"Shouldn't have paralyzed this hard. I still have to work on my control when using my abilities on other people." Cain reflected as he noticed that the group were having a harder time thinking and moving their jaws to talk.

Though not all that useful, he did get a few pieces of information out of them before stopping their heart.

It seems the island Jaya was a major hub of pirates and the thugs he robbed were mostly pirates. Though recently the number had diminished by the Marines or were getting recruited by some recently big names.

Having no other viable option, he entered a random bar and ordered some drinks and food. Even though he wasn't hungry, it helped make the bar owner more talkative.

"So what's the buzz around the island? I think there are more pirates around than the last time I was here." Cain casually asked the bar owner as if he was just a traveler, while simultaneously drinking a god-awful drink.

The bar owner, a grumpy older man with thick beads, answered. "Some time ago, a dangerous pirate crew called Rocks Pirates in the New World seemed to have started a war with the Marines and the World Government. They were defeated and now the broken crew members are slowly recruiting pirates from Paradise. Well it ain't good for business but atleast I get to live in peace for some time. Gahahaha."

The bar owner explained, laughing for no particular reason.

"Oh, Surp, thanks for the info old man. By the way, you know a place where I can buy a book or two? Maybe a map or something? Didn't they say they were going to open a library here?" Cain asked, hoping to find a central place of knowledge on this island.

"Huh, library? What's that? It's a new type of bar?" The owner asked back in confusion.

'That explains the state of this island with a single town and its population. People are not so keen on education it seems.' Cain thought, finishing his noodles.

"Thanks old man, see you around." he said and placed some money on the counter.

Leaving the bar behind, Cain targeted a few people that seemed 'smart' to him. It took him a very long time just to find two of them that filled his criteria.

–

"Aaaggghhh. Wha-what a-are augh."

Cain, who wanted some more direct and useful knowledge, hunted down two people he could label as 'knowledgeable'. He mostly chose them because they looked cleaner and had an air or nerdiness on them.

Kidnapping them was as easy as breathing.

Step 1, get near them.

Step 2, zap and zoom.

Done.

He brought these two to a quiet corner for some good old interrogation.

"So here's what's gonna happen. I'm going to ask you a few questions and whoever can give me a correct answer first, gets to live a little longer. As for the loser? Well…" he let his words trail and the two saw lightning zap in his palm.

"I-I'll answer all your questions. P-please let me go." 

"No, no I can answer more."

Just one zap and zoom had scared the two pirates shitless. They originally were navigators who came from well known countries and had defected for personal goals. 

They also knew about Devil Fruits and how dangerous they were, so without Cain having to say the word, they were more than ready to talk. They really wanted to get out of this situation fast.

"Now, I'll ask you one by one. If I don't like your answer or if you stall or don't have an answer, I'll fry you like a fish, understand?" Cain said with a fake smile.

That smile on a handsome yet 'innocent' face scared them even more.

"So the first thing I noticed was that you reacted like you knew what my powers were. So care to explain?"

"Y-you mean your devil fruit?" said pirate A.

"Yes yes, my devil fruit. I wanna know more about them"

Both the pirates had strange reactions but a loud zapping noise put them in place.

"Th-the Devil Fruits encyclopedia says that they are mysterious, distinctive fruits scattered throughout the world, known for permanently granting their eaters superhuman powers a-and an equally permanent inability to swim. It's also said that an individual can only eat a single Devil Fruit or they'll explode." Pirate A gave a rant hoping the answer satisfied Cain.

"Go on." Cain encouraged.

"Th-These fruits are broadly grouped into three classes: Zoan, which allows the user to transform into an animal as well as an animal hybrid; L-logia, which grants the user the power to create, control, and transform their body into a natural element making them intangible to physical damage; and Paramecia, which offers any of a vast array of strange abilities that do not fit into the other two categories."

Pirate A stopped at this point but pirate B, wanting to earn some points continued,

"Rather than 'inability to swim', it's more accurate to say that they can't move inside a large body of water. Despite this obvious weakness, Devil Fruits have empowered many of the world's most significant individuals, especially among the Great Pirates and Marines. This, along with their general rarity, causes them to be highly sought-after; single specimens may be valued at hundreds of millions in Belly."

"It is said that there are more than 100 different Devil Fruits in the world, but only one of each Devil Fruit exists. Additionally, all Devil Fruits are known to taste very bad and have weird shapes and/or colors."

"Are there any weaknesses other than being submerged in water?"

'So he's an ability user too', Pirate B thought.

"I don't know about them. They are too rare to have any proper information to go around." Pirate A said while Pirate B simply shook his head.

"You said 'according to The Devil Fruits encyclopedia', where can I get one? Or better yet, do you have one on you? If yes, I'll let you go without further questions."

Pirate B jumped at the offer, "I have one on my ship. I can get it for you."

"Sure. Then let's go after I finish all my questions with your friend here."

He turned to Pirate A and continued some of his questions on Marines, other pirates, Kingdoms, nearest lands - big or small - and few more.

After getting most of his answers, he concluded a few things.

First, it seems that most of the questions he had were common knowledge to pirates. Well, except for the one related to the World Government. Neither of them knew more than what was commonly known which was surface level information he could find anywhere. 

The World Nobles, Admirals, Fleet Admiral stood at the top of power. Though it didn't explain exactly how the power dynamics actually worked, it gave him a proper picture to go on with for now.

–

Cain and Pirate B went towards the latter's ship. Cain just wanted to get the book and be out on his way but Pirate B had other ideas.

As soon as they were near the ship, Pirate B blew a loud whistle using his fingers. It seemed to be a signal to inform his crew of danger so they all ran towards the two in a few seconds.

Cain didn't make any move and wanted to see where this would lead to so he let them get near.

Seeing his crewmates, Pirate B created some distance from Cain and laughed, "Hahaha kid. You should have killed me when you had the chance, now you will pay with your life. Because like you my captain is also a man with devil fruit power. He ate the Numa Numa no Mi (Swamp-Swamp Fruit) making him a Numa-ningen. On top of it, it's a Logia on which physical attacks don't work at all. Hahahaha, you should have run, kid but don't worry, I'll make sure your death will be slow."

'A Logia? Nice. I was thinking of testing how durable logia intangibility is. Today is really my day.' Cain smiled with that thought.

Tak Tak

A dirty and ugly man approached the group with slow yet loud steps like he owned the place.

Marsh Fenland was a relatively new pirate but with a bounty of 156 million Belly on his head. He had started as a nobody but after eating Numa Numa no Mi, he more or less became invincible in the Grand Line, or at least for the first half of it. 

He killed and plunged many villages, and his favorite method was to choke his victims to death. Plus with his fruit, he was becoming a big problem and equally bigger pervert.

"So you put your hands on my crewmate huh? I'm going to enjoy choking you to death. Than I'm going to--"

"[Divine Thunder]"

Before Marsh could finish his words, Cain pointed his right palm towards him and shot a large amount of electric discharge. A dense, cylindrical shaped electric energy charged out of Cain's hand, that was large enough to cover Marsh's upper body. 

After the attack ended, the pirates could only see their captain's two legs, which seemed to be wobbling.

For a normal man, this would be a death sentence but to everyone's amazement, Marsh's body started to regenerate at a visible speed.

His face was pale since that attack had taken him by surprise.

"Y-you ---"

"[Thor's Hammer]"

Cain attacked again but this time he channeled his attack with his golden staff, which he kept in the shape of bracelets under his sleeve.

On top of the staff, lightning was covered in the shape of a hammer.

He struck Marsh's entire body using this hammer, crushing him down to the ground.

"B-boss", seeing their boss getting crushed under an attack, some of the pirates called out on reflex.

As the hammer was slowly lifted, there wasn't anything under it except for a puddle of dense mud which was boiling and steaming. The Numa-pervert had been squashed and steamed.

While Marsh wasn't dead, he didn't go unscratched because as his body reformed again everyone could see the burn marks on him. This took everyone by surprise. 

Normally, a logia user cannot be hurt physically, but the element they transformed to could have natural enemies. Just like a swamp, which is just a big puddle of saturated dirty water that has a natural enemy; heat.

The Swamp-Man was barely able to recollect his overheated body and stand when he heard Cain's voice again.

"[Thor's Divine Thunder]"

This time Cain channeled more of his lightning onto the hammer which swelled up in size to cover the Numa-ningen and his whole crew.

And just like that, a new and uprising crew with a powerful captain fell without even having the opportunity to resist against a single opponent who was simply using them to test out his powers.

'This proves the theory about Devil Fruit and their possible weaknesses. Which also means anything that can disrupt lightning naturally should be able to affect me too.' Cain, with some paranoia from the army, never believed that his powers were invincible. 'Everything has a weakness and my fruit's weakness should be natural and artificial insulators.'

But he put that thought at the back of his mind for now and turned towards Pirate B who he had purposely avoided, "So now that your crew is dead, how about you be a good boy and fetch me some of that book before you join your friends" Cain said.

"P-please, don't k-kill me. I-I know I was wrong, I'll d-do anything. Just please don't K-kill me." At this point he was on all fours.

A crowd of other pirates and citizens had gathered around them by now so Cain didn't want to stay there any longer.

"Fine Fine. You still have some use left. So do as I say and you'll live. Capis?"

"Yes yes anything."

Running with his tail tucked, the man went up the now empty ship with Cain following him right behind.