Chapter 63: The Secret Nature of a Devil Fruit

"Oh? You really found it?" Kushina whispered, stunned. "Wait… did you steal it?"

Hikari grinned mischievously. "Of course! They were worshipping it for all the wrong reasons. Enel would've eaten it eventually and destroyed all of Birka in revenge. I saved them, really. They should thank me."

Kushina, Minato, and the others stared at her, eyes wide. It was the first time they had seen Hikari so bluntly justify such a thing.

"Enough chatter! They're closing in!" Hikari snapped, sensing the approach of their pursuers.

"Let's go!" Gin ordered, already preparing the teleportation.

The group vanished in a flash of light. Hikari stayed back a moment longer, vanishing just before the enemies arrived.

At the temple, the priests and guards dug up the sacred site, finding nothing. Whatever had been there was gone—no trace, no residue. Their lock on the fruit had failed the moment it was removed from its pedestal.

Back on Drum Island, Gin and his companions examined the fruit, now safely stored in a secure dimensional vault under Gin's control.

It pulsed faintly with power—the Goro Goro no Mi, the legendary Thunder Fruit.

Hikari glanced at Gin. "So? Do you want to eat it?"

Gin stared at it in silence. "No… not like this. Eating it now would just give me its weakness. With the resources of both worlds and my own growth, I can become strong without it."

He paused, eyes sharp. "But I do want to run an experiment. If we can eliminate its weaknesses, it might change everything."

Everyone leaned in, intrigued.

"You mean… cleanse the fruit?" Mikoto asked.

"Yes," Gin said, stepping forward. "If the Devil Fruits are spiritual constructs—or worse, fragments of chaotic will—maybe we can strip away the corruption. If I'm right, I can help others eat fruits safely. No sea curse. No mental erosion."

"Interesting…," Minato mused. "And if that's possible, could you extract powers from someone who already ate one?"

"That's the plan. Let me show you."

Gin placed the fruit on the altar of his spatial gate, invoking his space-time control authority. The fruit floated, suspended in glowing light.

As he began the analysis, a strange energy pulsed outward. His eyes narrowed.

"This… isn't a law fragment. It's alive—sort of. It's a mixture of human will… desires, regrets, ambitions. This isn't just a fruit—it's a container for human consciousness."

The others gasped.

"A Devil Fruit is the crystallized form of someone's soul?" Kushina asked.

"Not one soul," Gin corrected. "A multitude. Like echoes. Maybe even artificially created… like a psychic experiment from hundreds of years ago. A collective will, turned into power."

As he spoke, he reached deeper, pulling out the corrupted will inside. It resisted, screeched, twisted. But it was no match for Gin's absolute authority. Slowly, the will was torn free—a black mist that writhed and howled before dissolving into nothingness.

Hikari and the others watched in awe.

"Gone," Gin said quietly. "Now it's clean. No malice. No pollution."

The Thunder Fruit now radiated a pure golden light, pulsing like a calm heartbeat.

Gin held it up. "Now, instead of corrupting the mind, it will enhance the user's spirit. The lightning attribute will fuse naturally, strengthening both the body and soul. And more importantly—there may be no more rejection by the sea."

Everyone was silent.

"The ocean rejects these powers," Gin continued, "because they're artificial. They were born of human will, not of nature. The sea—the source of all life—sees them as alien. That's why it drowns their users."

"But now?" Hikari asked.

"Now, maybe the sea won't care. I've removed the impurity."

The group fell into quiet contemplation until Minato asked, "Gin… if you can cleanse the fruit like this, can you also strip powers from someone who already ate one? Without harming them?"

Gin thought for a moment. "Possibly. If the power is bound to the will I removed, we can isolate it. Extract it. Maybe even transfer it to someone else… or restore it to fruit form. But we need to experiment. It's dangerous without more data."

Mikoto smiled. "Sounds like a plan."

Hikari nodded. "We'll follow your lead. No risks without proof."

Gin glanced at the golden Thunder Fruit, then up to the sky.

"This… could change everything."