Chapter 83 : An unexpected surprise

"Hehe~ Look what I found!" Nami's voice was playfully excited, her eyes sparkling with delight at her discovery.

Robin approached and examined it carefully, furrowing her brow in concentration. "A Devil Fruit? I've never seen this pattern or design before. It's not in any Devil Fruit encyclopedia I've read."

Hikaru walked closer with Maya cradled in his arms and whistled appreciatively. "Wow, it really is a Devil Fruit! My dear Nami, you have incredible luck! Where did you find it?"

"Look right here~" Nami gracefully pointed with her slender finger.

Just beneath the stone platform where the Shichiseiken had been placed, there was a nearly invisible secret door on Nami's side. After unlocking it, she had discovered the Devil Fruit inside.

Hikaru was both surprised and pleased. It seemed that since Nami had joined him, her luck had become extraordinarily good. The Slip-Slip Fruit, the Bird-Bird Fruit: Vulture Model, and now this Devil Fruit—that made three already.

"Nami, you're incredibly observant. This secret door was so well hidden, yet you managed to find it..." Robin's voice was filled with genuine admiration. She ran her fingers along the secret door, noticing it seemed damp and frosted inside. "Did you use your cloud powers to search for it? That's probably how you managed to open it too."

"Exactly! As expected of Robin, you figured out my plan immediately!" Nami smiled proudly. The Cloud-Cloud Fruit that Hikaru had given her suited her perfectly. She had developed various abilities with ease, and many of the smaller applications were extremely convenient.

"I created a small amount of fog and spread it around to search for any gaps, unusual sensations, or other 'elements.' There isn't just a secret door on this side—there's one on the other side too! Vivi!"

Vivi had been waiting on the opposite side for some time. Using her sand powers, she transformed the secret door on her side into sand. A moment later, she revealed another Devil Fruit.

With guidance from Nami, who had more experience developing her fruit powers, Vivi's sand abilities had also progressed rapidly. Just as Nami could control clouds, Vivi could manipulate sand to infiltrate everything around them during their search.

The Devil Fruit in Vivi's hand was green, seemingly related to the white one Nami had found. It also had patterns resembling Reiju's curled eyebrows, with six white stems emerging from the top, each ending in green heart-shaped leaves.

Vivi walked to Nami's side, her water-clear eyes fixed on Hikaru as she proudly displayed her find. "Look, Hikaru!"

Understanding her meaning, Hikaru stepped forward and embraced both Nami and Vivi, praising them warmly. "You two are my lucky stars."

Maya, who had been in his arms previously, looked slightly confused as the three women were now crowded in one person's embrace. Fortunately, all three had slender figures, allowing Hikaru to hold them comfortably.

After a tender moment, Nami and Vivi handed the two Devil Fruits to Hikaru with matching smiles.

"Let's see what kind of fruits these are!"

Hikaru nodded, releasing the three women. He held out White Thunder and used it to extract the power from the Devil Fruit in Nami's hand.

After a few moments, Hikaru tested his new ability, transforming into a large, magnificent white snake. After careful consideration, he found no additional special abilities and shook his head regretfully.

"It seems this is a Snake-Snake Fruit."

"Isn't that rather weak?" Nami and Vivi looked disappointed, though not devastated—after all, they had found these fruits for free.

"Not necessarily. I can feel that this fruit substantially improves physical fitness."

After injecting the snake power into a fruit he had prepared earlier, Hikaru placed it in his storage room alongside his collection of valuable Devil Fruits.

Then he extracted the power from Vivi's Devil Fruit.

After another moment, Hikaru transformed into a large, impressive green snake.

"As I suspected! These two fruits look so similar because they're connected. They're both Snake-Snake Fruits—one white, one green."

"What a shame! It would have been better if they were Logia-type or Mythical Zoan fruits!" Nami spread her hands with a helpless shrug.

"Logia-type? Mythical Zoans? Those are extremely rare. How could they be found so easily?"

[There are only about thirteen Logia-type Devil Fruits in the One Piece world. According to the established lore, Mythical Zoans are supposed to be rarer than Logias, yet there are currently more known Mythical Zoan species than Logia types.]

Hikaru shook his head. Honestly, he thought these two snake fruits were quite valuable and might prove useful in the future.

Half-human, half-snake... the human-snake hybrid forms of these two Snake-Snake Fruits were quite impressive, with human heads and torsos transitioning into snake tails.

Moreover, unlike the somewhat awkward transformations of Boa Sandersonia and Boa Marigold, these fruits provided more elegant snake-human forms.

[Note: These aren't meant to be the same as Hancock's sisters' fruits! They appear less abstract and are intended for Hikaru's companions to add variety and "special applications."]

After sealing the Green Snake Fruit's power into another prepared fruit and storing it away, they took a short break while waiting for Robin to complete her archaeological research.

With no further discoveries, Hikaru guided the four women onto a flying carpet and departed from the cave.

...

At the Mayan witch's residence, Hikaru brought the women to collect Maya's witch costume and personal belongings.

Soon, they heard numerous footsteps approaching outside the house, though no one dared to enter uninvited.

When Hikaru stepped outside, the gathered believers immediately shouted in unison:

"Greetings to the Lord God!"

Hikaru acknowledged them with a nod. He noticed an eager look in the eyes of these followers, as if they had something important to tell him.

Sure enough, a muscular man with a casual demeanor pushed through the crowd and approached with an incongruously fawning expression:

"Please wait a moment, Lord God. Soon, we will present some women as 'gifts.' They can accompany Lady Maya and serve you both physically and mentally!"

Oh? Such an interesting development.

Although these natives—who had never appeared in the actual One Piece series—wouldn't make him stronger through interaction, they could join his angelic maid corps to serve him and his goddesses.

These angelic maids needed to meet certain beauty standards to qualify, and once they joined, they were committed for life to serving the gods day and night...

However, Hikaru wondered if Asuka Island's town had any women besides Maya who possessed goddess-level beauty. The other female residents he'd seen seemed rather ordinary.

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