Ch 25 - Devils Contract

[A few Hours Later]

It's currently night out and we are currently situated on a roof of a building not far away from where Carina is supposed to pick up her fruit and say goodbye to the island.

It's your bland, everyday looking apartment building, it wouldn't be paid attention to or noticed by anyone if they didn't know what was going on in the inside of said building.

It's apparently been renovated on the inside in order to accommodate the underground scene.

To those unscrupulous people who are involved in this life this location is known as the place where the walking money bags (wealthy people) go in order to safely get in touch with the denizens of the dark.

And as Carina has told me, these buildings aren't actually rare or specific to this island. She has mentioned that buildings like this or similar to it are all over the seas.

Any island that has a population big enough and resources large enough, typically has one of these or more on them.

The reason why people use these buildings instead of going directly to the source or outsourcing directly is because this place has one founding rule and everyone must follow it, in order to complete a transaction, both parties must sign a contract.

And not just any contract, but a devil's contract.

Apparently, the founder of this place has a devil fruit that allows him/her to create thousands upon thousands of blank sheets of papers that if used to create a contract, can actually bind the souls of both parties involved; and if the rules of said contract are broken, then a horrible price needs to be paid.

If for example the contract specifies that no untoward violence is going to happen between the contractor and the contracted for a specific amount of time – a ubiquitous line for these contracts – and one of the parties does for some reason or another actually use violence on the other contractor, then that person's soul can be tampered with in any way the affected party deems fit.

They can simply let that person's soul move onto the afterlife if they no longer want to deal with them. They can bind that person's soul to themselves in order to create a contract slave, or in the much more frequently used case, as far as I know, they can suck that person's soul dry of whatever constitutes a soul and add it onto themselves.

They will then not only get some of the most important memories of that person but also increase their Haki strength if they have access to it. And if they don't, then it makes it much easier to unlock.

However, she also told me that when any contract is broken, for any reason, only 90% of the soul goes to the aggrieved, the other 10% actually goes back to the owner him/herself to do with as they please.

…

When I heard of all of this contract stuff, I was struck dumb so hard that my jaw was hanging below my waist for a good minute.

The revelation that not only is there a scary ass devil fruit in the hands of someone who runs places like this but that this person actually mass produces and distributes these contracts so openly(relatively) and without fail actually gives me a huge scare.

If what Carina says souls can actually do for people, like increasing Haki, then I'm afraid I just discovered a hidden expert in the world of One Piece that was not mentioned even once in the story.

When I asked further about this unknown figure to Carina, all she replied was that there are only rumors known about this individual.

One of these rumors states that this figure was seen once by someone that said he was a giant of a man with feet as long as a battleship, and a head as big as the sun.

Another one states that this figure is actually a beautiful fairy that Is seen flying across the sky in order to spread equality across the realm.

Another rumor that she mentioned, that seems most probable to me, is that this individual is actually closely tied to the World Government, and for the safety of the user and in order to put a leash around the neck of said person, they restrict him/her to only 1 island that can be found near Mary Geoise on the second half of the Grand Line.

There were many other rumors about this individual like the fact that this person is actually a Celestial Dragon, or a powerful ghost or a sea god, or that this individual is actually the secret ruler of the world… OK moving on.

The only thing that is actually known for a fact, is that this individual is a very important person in this world. Not only for his/her abilities but also for their strength, imagine having 1 million+ people's power for Haki… it's a scary and sobering thought.

…

And back towards the current situation we finally see Carina approaching the building with a stout short man and three large bodyguards trailing behind said man.

She seems unafraid of these men as she is walking as if she is going on a stroll in the park.

And it makes sense why she does, in her contract it's also stated that until the time that they shake hands for a final goodbye, neither of them could actually hurt each other, not even indirectly.

Unfortunately, the contract also states that Carina can't take the devil fruit with her without Lamb Burger being there to witness it, nor can she eat the fruit until the deal is done.

Yet, all that this means is that she only has to play the part of the uninterested thief, and then when they finish the deal, she can take a quick bite out of it.

And finally, as the group walks below us and enters the building through its small doorframe, only then do Porche-chan and I move forwards.