Time to Train! Part 1

"Are you sure you will be good if I just leave you here?" Billy asked John, his face containing a bit of worry.

"I should be fine. I remember how to get back, and I should be back before nighttime," John replied, cradling his head with his right hand and wincing in pain. He was still a bit hung over from last night.

Both were standing in front of a mine entrance that was run-down and in obvious disrepair. John swears he could hear the creaking of the timber just by looking at it.

"Are you sure you want this mine though? Like I told ya, this mine only struck gold once, and nothing was ever found again. Besides, it is a much longer walk than the other two shafts."

"No worries. If I don't find anything worthwhile in a week, then I will just go to one of the closer mines. That said, I have a good feeling about this one."

Billy could not help but shake his head and give John a knowing smile. "If you say so. Well then, I am going to head to work now."

"Alright, thanks for walking me over here again. By the way, are you sure it is okay for me to keep this pickaxe?" John questions as he holds a decayed pick in his left hand.

"Of course! I haven't tried mining since I had the boy, so it is better off in your hands. Just promise to share some money with me if you make some!"

"You bet. Thanks again Billy!"

"See you around dinner time!"

And with that, Billy left, heading back towards the direction of town.

It was the next day after Billy invited John to stay with him, and last night was quite the party. Billy decided to welcome John to town by taking him to the local saloon, and there was plenty of drinking to be had. Everyone at the bar welcomed him warmly to the town after hearing his story and drank with him and shared stories as if he were one of their own.

It honestly reminded John of the atmosphere he tried to create when he opened his café, and it made him nostalgic. John thought that maybe one day in the future when he had some protection and standing, he would open a café again of some sort to share the magic of having good company and a good drink.

But that was for the future. Today, John was ready to make some money, and learn the limits of his power.

Out of all the jobs he could have chosen, John chose to mine for a few reasons. One, it had the most money potential since any gold he had would be worth a lot of money, and even if he got nothing, he could still sell the regular rocks for some cash. Two, it was the most physically demanding of the jobs he could do, so he hoped to use that fact to train his Strength and Constitution a bit while he was mining. Finally, he chose mining because there were three mines in town that were in use, and this one was a long walk away from the village. Because of this, he could both use his power and train it in peace, keeping it a secret.

In fact, he had already got a head start on the first training task of the day with Billy's help. The task in question was how his Devil Fruit determined ownership over something.

When he originally asked about the mine yesterday, Billy offered John his pickaxe to John to use as he looked for gold. But just now, John asked if he could 'keep' the pickaxe, which Billy said he could. So, while John was holding the pickaxe, he noticed that the value he could sell it for suddenly doubled, meaning the pickaxe now belonged to John, at least in the Devil Fruits eyes.

And with that, John headed towards the entrance of the mine.

Now that Billy was gone…

"…Let the experiments begin!"

Entering the mineshaft, John rounded a corner so he would not be seen from the outside, but there was still natural light coming. Then, using his fruit, bought a cheap lantern that was already lit so he could see a bit better, and placed it on the floor next to him along with the pickaxe in his hand. Than he looked around, trying to find any trash or debris in the area. After looking for a bit, he found a large rusty nail on the ground, most likely from one of the support beams holding up the mine.

"The first experiment, property ownership!"

Saying that, John picked up the nail and gauged its worth. It was inexpensive, but worth more than the random rocks and branches he messed with, probably because it was made of actual metal.

"Okay, now I want to buy a nail that is the exact same as this one in every way."

With that, John bought the identical nail which appeared in his other hand. From there, the fruit gave him a feeling about how much it would cost, and sure enough it was double what the nail was worth if he sold it.

"So, someone owns this then," John looked at the 'stolen' nail. "Well then", John pauses for dramatic effect, "this nail is mine now!"

John pauses for a bit, waiting for something to happen. There is no change in the price of the 'stolen' nail.

"I want it!"

No change.

"Finders keepers!"

No change.

"Whoever owns this nail raise your hand, otherwise it is free game!"

Still no change.

John continued to make various requests both aloud and quietly attempting to claim ownership of the stolen nail, but there was no change in the price, so no change in ownership.

"Okay, so initial testing suggests that to gain ownership over something, it must be either collected by me, or explicitly given to me. I can also assume that things I buy from someone or make myself are probably mine too."

John nodded to himself. While this still needed more testing, the hypothesis was a good one for now and made some sense. Now, it was time to see what happened when it flipped around.

Looking at the nail he purchased in his hand, John stated "I give this nail to Billy."

With that, John could instantly feel the change in price of the nail, dropping to the same price as the 'stolen' nail. So, things given to other people no longer belong to John.

Now was time for the next step, "Never mind, I want it back!"

There was no change in the price of the purchased nail, it was still at half price. John again tried various wordings and rationalizations to reclaim ownership of the nail, but nothing worked.

Then, John bought another nail, and tried something new.

"I totally want to give this nail to my best friend in the whole world, Billy!"

John said this in a voice as sarcastic as he could muster, deep in his mind not wanting the ownership to truly go to Billy. The idea behind this test was to see if sincerity was part of ownership, and if lying effected who owned an item.

To John's surprise, the new nail decreased in price to match the other two nails.

"So, once I give something to someone it is now their property. I can only assume that to get it back to its original value that they would need to give it back to me somehow. And it doesn't seem to matter if they genuinely want to give it to me or not, if they say it is mine, it is mine, and so on. That could be trouble down the line, but good to know."

John thought of this, and wondered if maybe before he took things, or had people sell things to him if he could get them to relinquish their hold over the item first, getting him more money. And did the agreement have to be verbal, or could it be just thinking about it too? Would a written contract work?

With many questions still needing answers, John decided to sell the nails in his hand to recoup the money before buying a cheap wooden chair to sit on. He sat down and let out a big sigh.

It was time to move on to his next set of tests which he anticipated would be the most time consuming.

He needed to see what could be bought with his Devil Fruit.

First thing to test was physical items. He already knew he could buy food, water, and basic things like clothes and furniture, but now he needed to push the limits of what was possible.

He decided that, coming off his experiment about ownership, it was time to try to buy something someone owned.

"I want to buy Luffy's hat."

John felt a negative feeling. That was not possible.

"I want to buy Zoro's Wado Ichimonji."

Nope.

"Robin's panties."

Nothing.

…

"Brook's panties?"

…

Again, variations of this continued for some time, listing physical things people in the series owned or possessed. Finally, John got a break.

"I want Nami's Clima-Tact."

This gave him a different response than just a 'no'. Instead, John got the feeling that instead of not being possible like the other things, that it was unavailable, like a store being out of stock of something.

"…out of stock of something?" John touched his chin and considered something for a moment before speaking again. "Does Nami not have her Clima-Tact yet?"

A feeling of affirmation came from the within, as if confirming that she did indeed not have her signature weapon yet.

"Well, that's kind of a roundabout way to find out when I am in the timeline." John thought for a moment before asking another question, "can I buy Luffy's current wanted poster?"

A hard negative feeling. It seems Luffy was not wanted yet.

"Can I buy Luffy's wanted poster after the Enies Lobby Arc?"

A positive response. Well that was odd, he could not buy a poster Luffy did not have but could buy one he would get in the future? How exactly did that work?

John tried to follow this train of thought. "Can I buy Luffy's bounty poster with the highest amount he will ever be wanted for?"

This one took a while, but after a few agonizing second the results came back negative.

"Why?"

Another second passed. Then there came a feeling of apology from within. It was reminiscent of speaking to a customer service representative about something, and them not knowing the answer.

"…not knowing the answer…"

John stopped for a minute and thought long and hard about his ability. How exactly did it work when it came to buying things? When it bought generic things that made sense, a chair was a chair, but how did it differentiate between a normal hat and Luffy's hat, especially since John never met Luffy. In fact, how could it offer Luffy's later bounty poster which has not happened yet, but not his maximum amount poster. How did this fruit work?

"How limited are you?"

John decided to ask his power straight up. Whether it was a part of him or a separate entity he seemed to know it had a conscious of some sort, so he hoped it would answer him.

A minute passed.

Then two.

Then five.

And just when John was about to give up, there was a blast of information in his mind that exploded, sending John off his chair, and reeling on the floor. It was like John had to watch one thousand movies all at once, complete with all the colors, sounds and visual quirks. It was too much for one person to handle.

Suddenly, it all stopped, and John understood. He stood up, rubbed his head once more, and sat back down on the chair.

"So, you aren't some omnipotent fruit that can just do anything. You are reading my mind and taking what I am 'selling' you, then exchanging it for something I want and know about, is that it?"

"And the reason you can't sell me that wanted poster is because I do not know what it could be, is that right?"

A long period of silence passed, until there was confirmation.

"Then what about something more abstract then. Can you tell me where the One Piece is, either by drawing me a map or giving me a compass? Or can you tell me what it is, in any way shape or form? Anything?"

A negative feeling.

"Poneglyphs?"

A half hearted feeling. John assumed it perhaps was suggesting the ones he knew about like in Alabasta and Skypeia could be found.

"How about something simpler, an eternal log pose to Drum Island. It was not shown in the story, but one must exist, right?

At this there was a confirmation.

"So, even though I never been there personally because I know that Drum Island exists and roughly where it should be, and that Eternal Log Poses exist, you can make that for me? Am I right so far?"

A positive feeling.

"Devil Fruits?"

Another half-hearted feeling was felt. It seemed like John could, but there was a limitation of some sort. But that could be explored later.

John, who was sitting down and resting his head in his hands sank down even further. He honestly did not know what to think of all he just learned. Reading his mind to know what to get? Does that mean he could buy anything with his imagination, or was it limited to what was possible in this world?

The limits were better defined now, but more questions appeared.

"What exactly are you? In fact, what am I?"

This was a question John had from the very beginning but was afraid to ask. He knew he was now in the world of One Piece, but how did it work. Transmigration? Was he in a coma and just dreaming? Or was he in some virtual reality set-up of some sort like in some anime, he had a system after all!

Just when he felt like his head was about to tear open from the thoughts in his head, and John felt like he was ready to scream from all the possibilities in his mind. So many theories and doubts and fears, he felt like he was ready to crack!

In the memory, he saw Alex, the man who just a few days ago offered him this adventure. He looked straight at John and spoke softly.

"Does it really matter?" Alex said, looking softly into John's eyes, a look of quiet concern on his face.

At that, John's mind stopped in its tracks. Then, John calmed his breathing that had somehow became erratic, and took a deep breathe.

"I suppose you have a point; this is my life now, right?" John put his hand to his chin, thinking of his place on Banaro Island, and Billy who he was going to have dinner with later tonight.

"Who I am and how I got here are important questions, but I can't dwell on them too long, I have to keep moving forward and making progress here. That's what it means to have an adventure, right?"

Now that his mind was calm and his composure restored, John asked aloud once more.

"Sorry about that, I got caught up in the moment. So, back to my previous topic, can I just buy a Clima-Tact, not Nami's specifically?"

There was a long, quiet wait until a feeling of relief came from withing.

Then there was a positive response.

"Good to know…" John frowned a bit to himself.

"…but why is it so expensive?"