Chapter 84:Animal Path.

Successfully landing on the strange island, Chiga surveyed his surroundings.

The area was littered with shipwrecks—likely merchant vessels or pirate ships swept in by the wild currents surrounding the island.

Currents, giant birds, shipwrecks—these oddities concentrated in one place gave Chiga a strange sense of familiarity, as if he had heard of this place before. Yet, he couldn't quite place it.

Shaking his head, Chiga circled the island a few times but ultimately found nothing of note.

Returning to the shore, he felt a pang of disappointment. He had initially believed he'd stumbled upon some hidden dungeon, but it turned out to be just a slightly dangerous, uninhabited island?

Still, Chiga remained unconvinced. Given the number of shipwrecks here, there had to be a substantial amount of treasure waiting to be recovered.

He wasn't exactly rolling in Berries, so why not scavenge what he could?

With that thought, Chiga snapped his fingers.

"ROOM."

Buzz. The ROOM space expanded, enveloping the entire island.

"Scan."

Within moments, the appearance of every object inside the wrecked ships materialized in Chiga's mind. He had to admit—the sheer volume of treasure was impressive.

Reaching out, he opened a shimmering doorway in the air. With a thought, all the treasure aboard the ships instantly transferred into his Door-Door Space.

The interior sparkled with golden brilliance, practically blinding.

Chiga smiled, satisfied with the mountain of treasure now in his possession. If not for a few hidden wealthy elites among the Marines, he might have just become the richest Marine of all.

He wondered about Kizaru's finances. Once he became Fleet Admiral, perhaps he'd give Kizaru a raise just to test whether the phrase, "With salary in place, Yonko laid to waste," held any truth.

Finished with his treasure collection, Chiga didn't leave just yet. He used ROOM: Shambles once more.

During the earlier scan, he had detected a lifeform inside one ship's cargo hold. Judging by the outline, it seemed to be a giant bird.

Swish!

Sure enough, a massive bird materialized before Chiga. It was nearly the size of a ship itself—how it had squeezed into a cargo hold was anyone's guess.

The bird stood there, frozen. It had gorged on rotten food and even swallowed some treasure. Suddenly, everything vanished—then reappeared. Its brain, clearly too small for its body, couldn't comprehend what had just happened.

It shook its oversized head vigorously, then noticed Chiga standing at its feet.

Hmm? A new "snack"?

That's right—the bird knew humans. To it, the wrecked ships were just floating takeout boxes. Every time a new one washed ashore, more "little chunks of meat" like Chiga came along.

"Chirp!"

The bird chirped gleefully. It hadn't eaten "meat" in a while and was getting impatient.

Chiga stared blankly at the oversized bird, then calmly dispelled the ROOM space and casually threw a Simple Punch at its gut—as casually as one might swat a fly.

Thump!

"Chirp, chirp, chirp!!"

With its stomach hit, the giant bird squawked in pain, its beak opening wide as it vomited up a mix of debris—rotten food, coins, and a beautifully decorated small box.

It then stared at Chiga in utter terror.

Normally, the "little chunks of meat" would be injured, sometimes dying. This was the first time one of them had struck it down like this.

Not willing to fight something it couldn't beat, the bird tried to flee.

But the moment it spread its wings, Chiga's glare locked onto it.

Under the chilling gaze of Chiga's Rinnegan, sweat beaded on the bird's massive head. Trembling, it folded its wings and curled up, shrinking into an egg-like shape as it tried to look harmless.

Chiga ignored it, instead turning his attention to the small box lying in the sand.

"Did I just get a drop?" he muttered.

He raised his hand, drawing the box to him. A quick Water Release jutsu washed off the slime—it had just come from a bird's stomach, after all.

He didn't bother scanning it with ROOM. He wasn't worried about traps or poison—he just wanted the thrill of opening it blind.

With a flick of his wrist, he opened the lid. Inside was a fiery red fruit.

Chiga blinked.

A flicker of disappointment flashed across his face.

It looked like a dragon fruit, with flame-shaped markings. Its identity was unmistakable: the Mera Mera no Mi—the Flame-Flame Fruit. Famously dubbed the "fruit not even dogs would eat."

No wonder this place had felt familiar. Wasn't this the Ant Nest Hell mentioned in Ace's spin-off novel?

Ace had eaten the Mera Mera no Mi here. Starving, he'd split the fruit with someone else. He swallowed his half first—and gained his flame powers.

As he suspected, this was just a mid-tier dungeon. The enemies weren't particularly strong, so he shouldn't have expected a high-tier drop.

Chiga turned to glare at the cowering bird. Startled, it tried to disappear into itself like a turtle retreating into its shell.

Sighing, Chiga examined the Mera Mera no Mi in his hand with a touch of exasperation.

Objectively, it wasn't a bad fruit. A Logia-type, high-damage Devil Fruit. Despite the nickname, it held value—Doflamingo even used it as a tournament prize to lure powerful fighters.

But to Chiga, it was more of a white elephant. He had no use for it himself, and he wasn't going to waste a valuable absorption slot.

Besides, Akainu's Magma-Magma Fruit was its hard counter. Regardless of debates about whether magma could really beat fire, Oda had declared it canon.

(He's trying to say Magma killed Ace, But we all know he did it to shield Luffy. I've seen many theories related to that actually.)

Chiga considered giving the fruit to someone close to him—but found no one suitable. And he certainly wasn't giving it to Ace. He owed Ace nothing. If Ace still chose the pirate path and crossed him, Chiga wouldn't need Blackbeard's help to handle it.

Then a mischievous smile spread across his face.

A wickedly fun idea came to mind.

Placing a palm on the ground, Chiga let out a low growl.

"Summoning Jutsu."

Boom! A dog larger than even the giant bird appeared. It had three snarling heads—it was the most powerful summon of the Animal Path besides Medis: the Cerberus.

Chiga tossed the Mera Mera no Mi toward the middle head.

The fruit slid straight down its gullet.

Moments later, flames burst from all three heads. The Cerberus snarled as fire wreathed its jaws—it had become a literal Hellhound.

Chiga looked at his masterpiece in satisfaction.

Who said the Mera Mera no Mi wasn't fit for dogs?

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Yo, And I was excited for a sec....

Also bro would get a logia in the future.

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