One Piece: The Archangel's Guide

Chapter 23: Siren

Hearing their words, Uta seemed to understand. A hint of loss appeared in her purple eyes, and the hair tie on the back of her head drooped unconsciously. She looked around at the crew and saw that their once adoring and doting gazes had become complicated. She spoke timidly, "Don't you... like the world of song?"

Just then, Shanks stepped forward, giving Uta a helpless look. He sighed, "You're still young. You shouldn't be thinking about so much right now. Wait until you've experienced more with us. Make your decision after you've grown up!"

Shanks knew that in his quest for what Captain Roger had entrusted to him, he had neglected many of Uta's inner thoughts. Therefore, he felt that he needed to pay more attention to her from now on, guiding her step-by-step to give up her desire to indulge in a virtual world.

Uta looked up at Shanks and nodded firmly. "Okay!"

Seeing this, the crew all breathed a sigh of relief. They treasured Uta, and no matter what, they didn't want her to drown in illusion, walking step-by-step down the wrong path, sinking deeper and deeper.

Soon, the Red Hair crew, with their unusual way of thinking, moved on from the matter. They enthusiastically began to flip through the Devil Fruit encyclopedia again, searching for detailed information on the other fruit.

They quickly found a similar fruit in the book. It was also a twin-stemmed Devil Fruit.

"The Love-Love Fruit? No, the patterns are different."

"..."

After a long time, they had searched the entire encyclopedia and still couldn't find a fruit that matched it exactly.

"It's not in the Devil Fruit encyclopedia?"

"It seems to be a fruit that hasn't been recorded..."

Although Devil Fruits were rare, there were still some that had not been recorded. Some were erased from history, while others were lost in remote places, rarely ever appearing. The crew speculated it was one of these two cases.

In the end, having found nothing, the Red Hair crew decided to store the fruit away.

Just then, Louis spoke up, revealing the fruit's name. "It's the Siren Fruit."

The crew was stunned, looking at Louis in surprise. They never expected Louis to know of a fruit that wasn't even in the encyclopedia.

Louis continued, "The Siren is a monster from legend with the face of a human and the body of a bird. In mythology, its wings were plucked, and it was transformed into a mermaid-like sea demon. It often uses its incredibly seductive singing voice to lure sailors, dragging them into the deep sea to be devoured."

"The Siren Fruit. After eating it, one gains a hallucinatory singing voice, sound wave abilities, and so on. After awakening, one gains the ability to transform into a harpy, and the mermaid form can also summon sea beasts and fish through song."

Hearing this, the crew's eyes widened. "A Mythical Zoan with two forms?"

Shanks's mind flashed back to an elderly figure, and he had a sudden realization. "I see. Is this Ms. Alina's ability?"

Years ago, he, Roger, and the others had witnessed the ability Louis described on Baal. It was extremely difficult to deal with. Her song had briefly controlled everyone except for Roger, Rayleigh, Gabban, and Oden. In the end, it was Captain Roger who acted decisively, using his Conqueror's Haki to break the ability's hold. Even so, her song was still terrifying. The people on the Roger Pirates' crew were by no means weak, yet they were still controlled.

"Yes. It's the fruit she once ate," Louis confirmed.

Alina was the strongest warrior of her tribe in the previous generation. When they were being besieged by the World Government, it was she who used her song to control countless Marines and CP agents, forcing them to commit suicide. She broke through the encirclement, allowing the remaining 20-odd tribe members to be carried away into the deep sea by sea beasts, successfully escaping.

She had intercepted the Siren Fruit from the World Government and had fully awakened its power, using it to its utmost potential. Her hallucinatory song was something that nearly a dozen Vice Admirals and CP0 agents had no resistance to; they drew their own swords and killed themselves, their blood splashing on the spot. According to the few surviving elders, all officers and soldiers below the rank of Vice Admiral were wiped out instantly. If the Marines and Celestial Dragons hadn't had more than one top-tier powerhouse, her people might have been able to escape with ease.

But unfortunately, she herself was no match for a Marine Admiral or the Celestial Dragons' top fighters and couldn't save more of her people.

The other members of the Red Hair crew looked at each other in shock.

After a long moment, Lucky Roux recalled the description of the mermaid form and said thoughtfully, "A mermaid? Can it swim in the sea then?"

"No," Louis replied after a moment's thought.

"..."

Lucky Roux was stunned. Then, he couldn't help but complain, "A mermaid that can't go in the sea... what a weird picture."

Louis gave him a rather surprised look. "Other Devil Fruit users can't swim in the sea either. What's so strange about this fruit not being able to?"

"Besides, if you eat it and fall into the sea, you can still breathe while you wait a long time for your friends or a sea beast to rescue you. Other ability users would drown in minutes!"

Lucky Roux and the others were stunned again as a similar picture flashed in their minds.

"That makes a lot of sense. You wouldn't drown if you fell in the sea. That's a real advantage over other fruits..."

"You could also summon a sea beast before you fall in..."

Louis ignored them and stared straight into Shanks's eyes. "Shanks, can you sell this fruit to me?"

Louis didn't try to deceive the Red Hair crew about the fruit's abilities. Instead, he honestly revealed the information before stating his intention. Although Shanks was a Celestial Dragon, he had been acknowledged by Roger and the people of Baal. He was one of their few friends and currently stood in the camp of the opposition. As long as their ideals didn't clash, Louis would not treat him as an enemy. Therefore, Louis disdained the idea of using deceit to achieve his goals.

Hearing his request, the crew stopped talking, not wanting to disturb Shanks's thoughts, and quietly awaited his decision.

However, to Louis's surprise, Shanks didn't hesitate at all. He picked up the fruit and tossed it to Louis.

"..."

Louis instinctively caught the fruit, a puzzled look on his face. "I haven't told you the price yet."

Shanks just waved his hand at Louis and smiled. "The price? We can talk about that after you've had your adventures at sea and found some treasure!"

Shanks was very casual about it. None of them ate Devil Fruits. The only one who needed a Devil Fruit for self-protection, Uta, had a ticking time bomb in her head. Until he could change her way of thinking, Shanks had no intention of giving her one. Therefore, since Louis needed this fruit, he gave it away without a second thought. As for the price or payment, such things had never even crossed his mind.

"Take it, Louis!"

"We've never really cared about these things. If you need it, just take it." Seeing their boss had spoken, the rest of the crew chimed in with their agreement.

After a brief moment of shock, Louis didn't say anything more and gratefully accepted the fruit.