Chapter 25: The night before the performance

"... Huh? Why are you giving me that thing?" Yami had to question his sanity at the moment, doubt filled him about the shrewd man's intentions. 

" Just eat it, yellow kitten, it's not every day that I show such courtesy. We had a deal the day before, I promised you and the other kittens safety, power and other things. Consider this one of the many tokens of our partnership…" The man in question kept his hands and feet posed and tight, the thick cloak and the eye pad shrouded his figure in mystery and ambiguity. They were standing right beside the corpses of the massacred lawless group. 

'... When you approach a wild unsheltered kitten, patting it's head with a friendly smile isn't what you should do' one of the worst things one can show to an orphan, especially a smart one like Yami, is gazing at him with those pair of glistening warm eyes, filled with futile pity and compassion, as if those pompous pair of eyes understood all their feelings, hardships, dire losses… every orphan has faced his own fair share of tough times, acting this way will make you a target of untrusting eyes and suspicions.

Matthew didn't look down on them or their desperate ways of living, nor did he show the slightest displeasure at their hollow appearances and thin bodies. The one eyed devil just asked them for their services and offered one of his enticing deals to them. Treating the bunch as if they were comrades in arms. His words, so alluring and undeceitful, charmed the kittens and lured them, thus he earned their wholehearted trust. Whether undeserving of that belief or not, the brown haired devil frankly didn't pay the subject any care. 

'... My future spymaster, eat your fill and grow stronger. Maybe one day you will learn to stand against the world government and that overgrown bird of theirs' Matthew held the fruit in hand, his expression seemed uncrackable to the young Yami, who knew that he shouldn't trust the devil's sweet words once again. The last time he did, he made an enemy out of every Portelinian underworld figure. God knows what the future holds for them if they continue on this path, one that the devil carved for them. 

'... Is it power that I desire?' Yami often questioned his own desires and what they held in secrecy. He was inspired to do good for the whole world, he wished to see no other child go through the same experience he and his sibling faced, but such ambitions won't be realized if he stayed as powerless as he is currently. There was a limit to what he and the four vice leaders could do without outside help. They forged their whole careers from blood and theft. staying low-key, away from prying eyes, won't let them fulfill those goals in the long run. 

"... Don't shy away, this is a one time experience" 

'Damn you…' Yami silently cursed the faceless devil, his hesitancy will not bear any fruits. He walked forward with unsteady steps, and took the devil fruit. Closely, he examined the weird shape and decided to dig his teeth into what was considered to be the treasure of the sea.

" Wait, what will happen to the peels we sent?" Yami suddenly remembered something very important. Shall he take a bite of the thing, what will happen to the evidence they shipped? Won't it alert their customers that the devil fruit has been seized by someone? 

"... Once you eat, the fruit turns to a normal one, however I used something very special to stop the same from happening to those pieces of skin we sent, you needn't worry" the cold voice of the man responded to him. 

Matthew pondered, haki was truly a miraculous power that he wasn't that knowledgeable about… armament or imbuement is described as coating your body with an inky black thick layer of spiritual energy, in the process of hardening your muscles or basically anything you touch as long as you let it flow freely from your body. Which brings Matthew to question, is haki a physical substance? Perhaps it was something we were born with from the beginning, thus why some can use hardening since birth. A theory that he came to is that everyone possessed their own haki, when they grow and live their daily life, they release this mysterious substance in the air from skin pores or simply from breathing out, which allows it to roam the world freely, hence why it's called world energy. Another theory is that it already exists in the air, and we consume it on a daily basis, but then that also causes more questions to appear than answers, because how come people can control it so easily and have access to it, if it exists wildly in nature? 

Matthew remembered that particular day when he fought William. The latter's attack, despite being able to cut through steel and bones so easily, was only able to pierce his skin and flesh, without scratching any of the white bones. Which brought him to wonder, maybe that day, in a rush of desperation, his body used its own spiritual energy as a self defense, a very basic and early version of armament haki. When he thought back to it, that made some sense to him, so he took it upon himself to research and experiment on his own body… as a result he was now able to enhance things with his own spiritual energy. A very basic and thin layer that should prevent those fruit peels from aging or changing their color and structure. 

As for that inky black coating he saw in the anime… well that would have to wait, adding many layers of spiritual energy and controlling them with such precision will take Matthew a while to do…

" *crunch*... Uhhh" Yami finally took a bite, the horrible flavor caused his skin to turn to a shivering blue color from pure disgust. 'how could something taste this bad?!' he looked at his body, slowly taking a frog shape. Skin receded and took a gray wavy build, with the limbs turning into a frogs, with a transparent sticky substance gluing him to the floor, he took notice of his tongue becoming way longer and an unnatural strength behind its grip, he kept his previous handsome features and gorgeous blonde hair that certainly didn't match his newfound hybrid form. 

' hoh, how interesting…' his haki picked up on every small detail here and there. He checked Yami's stats… 

{name: Yami Yugure

Race: human

Str: 15

Agi: 18

End: 28

Wis: 16.7

Luck: 10

Current state: excited, perplexed, fearful, well fed, cold… 

—--skills: passive—--

Frog-frog no mi model Treefrog (B-rank/ can be further upgraded): a basic zoan type devil fruit. Allows the user to change his cellular structure at will to what resembles a treefrog's, user is granted access to two forms (hybrid and beast form).} 

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"... So this is what it feels like to have a devil fruit ability" Yami seemed unbothered about the change, which amused the devil a lot. 

" why don't you go and test your new powers, I'll keep a close watch from the roofs" after saying that, Matthew jumped abnormally high and landed on a high ground. The slums were packed to the brim with old dusty houses, the walls and roofs were moldy, with the stinky smell being a big turn off for any visitor. His nose has long since gotten used to these horrid scents. Taking off the eye patch, a red crow sigil was left for the world to see it its entirety, he has kept his left eye open for two weeks, the pain has left him to wonder whether or not he was half blind, he kept the right one closed in case his normal vision doesn't overlap with his haki. He didn't need any headaches after all. 

'... Here it comes, tomorrow, Portelin will know of the massacre, caused by the devil Matthew Roberts. That will hasten up my plans…' he saw as some beggars caught sights of the butchered bodies, the women screamed in fright while the men ran as far away as possible from the psychopathic mass murderer. It wouldn't take long for the higher ups to note the long absence of their spies. Slowly, excitement filled Matthew, he couldn't wait to show the many-faced one what he had in store… perhaps, a way bigger massacre…

"say, yellow kitten, it seems you got the hang of it…" his crow's eye noticed the silhouette of a gray skinned frog the size of a horse, sneaking behind him. '... it seems he can blend well in the surroundings with that weird skin of his' thought Matthew while sitting in a meditative posture with both legs crossed, spine upright and hands fondled gently near his stomach. 

" it's uncanny how you can see me in this state, I can even mask my smell and hold my breath, making this beast form perfect for camouflage…" said the gray frog Yami with the same youthful tone despite the beastly appearance. The man before him was truly dangerous, since his instincts have improved with the devil fruit he now clearly felt that ominous aura the devil emitted. 

"... I'm glad you are satisfied. One of the kittens is approaching our place, 350 meters to the south…"

" oh, it should be brother kayn. I told them if I'm not back by midnight, they should send someone to track my whereabouts…" Yami thought interestingly. He approached Matthew and kneeled in his frog form behind the latter's back. 

" Yami, what is it?"

"please tell me how to get stronger…"

" Why do you want power? Is it a selfish desire that you hold, or perhaps do you seek something else…" Matthew asked in his meditative pose, although they both knew the answer. 

"I want to be stronger, I want to shelter my siblings form the evildoers, I want to present them with a better lifestyle…" Yami said with a faint trace of quivering in his voice. 

"hmm, the best advice I can give you is to fight people who are tougher, mightier, more intelligent than you… the experience from the your losses and victories will eventually drive you to become stronger" 

"I'm curious sir, do you fear losing?" this time Yami asked a question that caused the spear wielder to slightly flinch…

" yellow kitten. It matters not the opinion of the judges and their critiques, nor the people who point out how the weak prevailed and strong stumbled, nor those who present the doer of the deeds with other supposedly better options. The credit belongs to the man who actually fights with dignity and pride, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who keeps trying with no fear of failure, who strives valiantly, because there is no merit or effort without error. The one who matters is the one who shows great enthusiasm, great devotion to his own beliefs. Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and if he fails, at least does so while daring greatly, so that his place will never be with those timid souls who never tasted victory nor defeat in their lives, those who seek power and fame with only cowardness to show for their character. How can we grow as human beings without facing hardships and shortcomings along our path to power…"

" I see… I understand now" Yami looked enlightened for a second there. 

" if you truly did, then you should go on your way" 

"thank you sir for the gift, I will treasure it greatly…"

' we will meet sooner than you would expect Yami Yugure' he noted the new figure that appeared in his vision field, dull cheeks, small hooked nose, a hidden neck scar, a pair of unmoving eyes hidden behind a curtain of tight black curls that made up his haircut. He also noticed ongoing one sided conversation. 'Tomorrow will be interesting' Matthew kept the same posture for that whole night, not caring for the chaos he caused. This was his own creative way of resting and relaxing.

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