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In truth, when it came to choosing a second Devil Fruit, Arthur had an abundance of options.
Take the Door-Door Fruit, for example. It had been sitting quietly in his Pure Gold storage bracelet for nearly eight years.
Back in the West Blue, long before he had ever entered the Grand Line, he had accepted a commission from the heir of a fallen kingdom.
The price for destroying the Happo Navy was the location of the Door-Door Fruit. In the end, he had not only restored Don Chinjao's drill-head but had also gained his loyalty and found the fruit aboard a vessel carrying the Celestial Dragons' tribute.
If it were to fall into the hands of someone capable within the World Government, no pirate—not just Arthur, but every pirate on the seas—would ever know a moment's peace.
Who could possibly sleep, knowing that at any moment, a door could open in the air above their bed and a blade could come plunging down?
That was why, the moment he'd heard of its existence, he had decided he had to have it. It was better for it to rot in his possession than to fall into the hands of his enemies.
For escape, for assassination—the ability to open a door to another dimension was flawless.
You could create a door anywhere—in the air, in a wall of fire, even on a person's body. It didn't matter how hard the surface was. The user could even create different types of doors, or become a door themselves.
But all of that was secondary.
The fruit's true power was its ability to create a pocket dimension, a separate space that could be used for travel or as an emergency shelter. Blueno of CP9 had used it to great effect, defeating Sanji and abducting Robin before escaping Luffy's wrath.
It was a power that was impossible to defend against. You could open a door inside Kaido's body and kill him instantly. It was, in its own way, perfect.
A part of Arthur desperately wanted to eat the Door-Door Fruit. It would elevate his abilities in both support and offense to an entirely new level.
But after a moment's thought, he dismissed it. It wasn't that the fruit wasn't perfect enough. It was that he had an even more perfect choice.
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Then there was the so-called Luck-Luck Fruit, which had yet to be discovered.
If one could absorb enough luck, they could have their every wish granted.
Luck itself was an invisible, intangible force, but no one could deny its existence. With such a power in your hands, you could buy a lottery ticket and instantly win. You could go looking for a Devil Fruit, and it would practically fall into your lap.
Perhaps, if you absorbed all the luck in the world, you could walk into the Holy Land, and the Five Elders would simply abdicate their thrones. You could sail the seas, and every pirate would hail you as the new Pirate King.
It was impossible to say. No one truly understood the nature of luck.
And frankly, Arthur had no desire to ever face such a person. How could you fight a man like that? You could be about to land the perfect, fatal blow, and then, suddenly, you'd pull a muscle in your back. A lifetime of glory, ruined in an instant, a laughingstock for generations to come.
But true powerhouses never acknowledged the existence of luck.
Everything you achieved was the result of your own effort. It was earned. After sacrificing your youth, your sweat, your very soul—could you truly attribute all of that to something as cheap as "luck"?
No one denied that luck was important. But no one wanted to credit their entire existence to it.
Even if that luck were to become a tangible thing, a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit, it would be the same.
Arthur would, one day, find a way to obtain that fruit. He had no desire to have his own plans ruined by some random, inexplicable failure.
He wanted to own it.
But he would never make it his second ability.
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The sea was full of Devil Fruits with miraculous, undiscovered potential. But the ones that always came to mind were the most famous.
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit, the so-called strongest Paramecia. The Rumble-Rumble Fruit, the so-called strongest Logia. The Dark-Dark Fruit, the most evil in history. The Op-Op Fruit, the ultimate fruit. And, in Arthur's mind, the strongest fruit for both offense and support—the More-More Fruit.
Zoans were out of the question. On a purely aesthetic level, he found them ugly, whether they were Mythical or not.
At best, they gave you enhanced vitality and physical strength. Even the Mythical ones just added a few Paramecia-like abilities. So, the Zoan fruits were the first to be eliminated.
Of the remaining Paramecias and Logias, the More-More Fruit was already in the hands of his subordinate, Byrnndi World. Arthur could use Vegapunk's methods to extract the "devil" and transfer it to a new fruit.
The true power of that fruit was amplification. It could increase the size and speed of any object it touched by a hundredfold.
If he were to use that to amplify his ultimate attack—the Raigo—the resulting destructive power would be unimaginable.
But what was the point of such immense destructive power? It would be a massive drain on his stamina, and it would take a long time to charge.
What Arthur truly wanted was a qualitative change in his very being. What good was simply more attack power?
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit was in Whitebeard's hands, but Arthur scoffed at the idea that its power to shatter everything was the "strongest."
It was Whitebeard who was strong. The man known as the World's Strongest Man. It was only under the brilliant, dazzling light of his power that the Tremor-Tremor Fruit was recognized as the best.
When the day came that Arthur himself ruled the seas, that he dominated an entire era, he was confident that his own Rumble-Rumble Fruit would be hailed by the next generation as the strongest Devil Fruit in history. No exceptions.
Only a truly talented individual can allow a Devil Fruit's power to truly shine. Even if their fruit is already strong, even if it starts from a position far beyond most others.
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