SMILE Fruit Side Effects

Katakuri was right. Donuts are peak---

The next day was something I was not expecting. Queen put a pause on our punishment and instead instructed for a video den den mushi to be turned on. The three of us who stood on the Sumo platform watched in confusion as Queen waited in anticipation for some woman named Komurasaki to show up in the projection on the stone wall. Or maybe he wasn't. As I said, we're pretty confused.

"What's going on?" I thought aloud.

"What's the place on the screen?" Luffy questioned as well.

"That's the Prisoners' Quarters in Rasetsu Town. Many criminals are held there, though not as many as here," Hyo answered. The screen displayed a man being tied up onto a very tall cross before said cross was lifted up to stand tall. Once the man's face was in plain view and the cloth covering his hair fell off, Hyo gasped and took a few steps back. The crowd created in a similar manner.

Luffy quickly took notice and asked, "Do you know him?"

"Yea, I know him pretty well..." Hyo responded, "That gentleman... used to be one of the Daimyo who served under the Kozuki Clan along with Oden-sama... He is... Shimostuki Yasuie!" Of course, that name did not mean much to the two of us, but to the citizens of Wano, it was clearly big.

The people in the crowd started shouting for someone to take him back down, and Yasuie laughed in response, like he wasn't about to get executed. I looked back at Hyo who was clearly having a hard time with this. "So he served under the previous family... that explains why this is being made so public..." I reasoned.

I returned my attention to the screen when the man on death's door began to speak to the crowd, "It is no use, everyone! Orochi will not let me go! First, I want to apologize to everyone about two things! Then I want to say one thing to the stupid Orochi! After I say those things, I can leave for kingdom come, laughing."

He was shot promptly after that last sentence. I cringed a bit, seeing as the shot skimmed his head, making it bleed. The crowd screamed the man's name in horror while the shooter began to list off what Yasuie was being charged for. On the given list, the it said that Yasuie was the famous thief of the Flower Capital, according to a confession. Yasuie quickly admitted that he lied about being the thief.

After that, he let out another laugh and said, "Shogun-dono is such an idiot, I feel sorry for his subordinates! Now, everyone! Look at the beautiful Flower Capital! The view of the Land of Wano is magnificent! For generations, this scenery was developed by the Kozuki Clan and the common people. We take pride in it! You cannot take the credit for that, too! Kurozumi Orochi! Do you hear me Orochi?! There used to be immense forests and fields with vegetation. Rivers! Villages! And you are just contaminating them with dirt of greed! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT VERMIN!"

Old man Hyo walked closer to the screen as tears ran down his face, staring at the man he knew long before any ruin came to this country. I turned my gaze away from him and set my eyes on Luffy, who returned my attention. "This Yasuie guy is pretty incredible to be using his death to make an announcement," I hummed.

My captain nodded to me, "Yea, I wish we could have met him."

Our eyes flicked back to the image displayed on the wall when Yasuie stopped laughing and returned to his speech, "There is another thing... that I want to apologize for. About the flyer with the symbol that went around recently. It has been 20 years since the name Kozuki perished. Now I cannot gather enough soldiers to seek my revenge, and I feel bad about the Kozuki Clan. So I made the flyer! The symbol does not mean anything! That is... just a prank! AHAHAH!"

My eyes widened at this. He knew about the symbol before anyone even told him about it. The plans must have been leaked, or else this guy wouldn't be trying to make up some cover story for it.

"20 years ago, Oden died, and Orochi asked the four remaining Daimyo, including me, if we would serve under Kurozumi. What a laugh! You had a great debt to Oden, but you seized the position of Shogun by a cunning trick. It was unacceptable! Daimyo and people from every region drew their swords without hesitation, but the monster named Kaido got in the way of their retaliation and the Land of Wano was consumed in flames. I did not wish to, but I survived and lived secretly in Ebisu Town, but I did not want to just live on and die a natural death. So, channeling my inner child, I came up with the flyer prank idea and gave it a shot. Please forgive me! But Orochi was a bigger coward than I thought... He got flustered and jailed the innocents who had the moon tattoo which was a popular design!" Yasuie's speech stopped when he looked like he saw something that wasn't showing on screen. His wide smile didn't change, but something did feel different when he spoke again, "....Here he comes. Orochi, it has been a while! Orochi, let's see... Do you want me to recite the curse that binds your heart? 'A man of such small caliber... shall never know the taste of oden for as long as he lives!" He let out a huge laugh right after he finished speaking.

Tears gathered in his eyes and he finally finished, "Cover your eyes, children! The last Daimyo who served under Kozuki.... I mean, Ebisu Town's happy-go-lucky guy...will cross over to the other side! Let's sing as I go! Here we go!" He started dancing a bit just before he was shot in the head. The barrage of bullets began soon after the first shot. All of the bullets caused his body to move. That must be why he was dancing before it happened.

His body fell to the ground and the guns stopped firing. The screen panned to all of the people laughing in the crowd after a second of Yasuie's body having fallen.

"Yasuie-dono.. I can't believe he was alive until today..." Hyo cried, his hand holding his face. 

I looked between the image on the wall and the crying man, a confused frown on my face. "Why are you... why are you just brushing off that people are LAUGHING at that man? Weren't they calling his name earlier?! I thought they cared for him?"

Luffy grabbed my shoulder and continued looking to the screen, "There has to be a reason right? It doesn't matter who he was... No one in this world deserves to be laughed at... as they die!"

Hyo looked between the two of us before wiping his tears away and saying, "That's probably because of the Smile. You can find some of those people who can only laugh here, too... Smile fruits were traded for weapons created by Kaido. Kaido's men ate the fruit and either gained an artificial power or were stuck with the side effect of a permanent smile and the loss of the ability to swim. The people laughing may have eaten them unknowingly."

I nodded, "The name for that shit definitely makes sense now. I didn't think it would have such a strange side effect, nor did I think there were any side effects at all. I guess Caesar wasn't as smart as he thought he-"

I stopped talking when a little girl entered the scene on the execution grounds. Orochi was heard to be screaming at her in the background of what was showing on screen, and then a gunshot sounded off. It was definitely heading for that crying little girl. I thought I was going to witness another horrible murder, but instead a crash and a cloud of dust overtook the video.

The dust settled which exposed that Sanji and Zoro were the ones to jump in and save the kid. I let out a huge sigh of relief. "Zoro! Sanji!" Luffy shouted beside me, expressing his excitement immediately. I smacked him on the head. He rubbed his head and whined.

A fight broke out between Zoro and Sanji first before their attention was drawn to the fact that now they would have to fight their way out of the Flower Capital. We watched as they wreaked havoc, and so did the rest of the prison.

Luffy couldn't keep in his cheering while we watched, even though I continuously reminded him to shut his mouth, which drew Hyo to ask, "Hey, Straw Man. Are those your crew that the Light-Scroll Snail is showing?"

"What? Well uh..." the teen made his famous 'I'm definitely lying' face and then decided to avoid the question all together by returning to cheering on our crew.

"This is no good..." Hyo muttered.

I sighed and nodded, "Yea, tell me about it."

"Yea! Zorojuro! You can do it!" Luffy cheered again.

"Oi, Straw Hat, that green head is your friend?" Queen asked. "That's Zorojuro, the serious criminal who killed a magistrate, right?"

Luffy's lying face came back as he looked away and uttered, "Like I said, I don't know him!" 

I grabbed Luffy's face and pushed him to switch Queen's attention onto me, "Yea! Of course we don't know him! We're just enemies of the country and we want anyone who rises up to-"

"Get him, Zorojuroooo!" Luffy yelled behind me. I facepalmed.

"It's too obvious!" Queen laughed out. "How interesting! Of all people, he's trying to kill Orochi!"

"That scum deserves to be chopped up!" Luffy shot back. He turned back to the screen and raised his arms, "Do itttt!"

Queen huffed in amusement and said, "But he's up against Kyoshiro, who is quite tough."

I raised a brow, "Kyoshiro? Is he the one with the blue hair? Is he a swordsman, by the way?"

The blond man nodded, "Yea, he's one of the best we've got."

I rubbed my chin and looked at the screen as the blue haired man pulled out a sword. Well, if Zoro is gonna be the best swordsman then he's gotta beat this guy too. Wonder how this will go.

My curiosity for the craziness in the Flower Capital was killed when the gates to this place opened. In came a man with a long blond ponytail and after him.. was Kid. According to the one of the guards that escorted him, Kid pretty much surrendered after yelling at the blond guy that came in with him.

"Kid! You're so dumb!" Queen said after he heard the story. Everyone proceeded to laugh with him about how Kid was taken in, even the blond guy in front of him.

"He took the trouble of escaping, so why did he surrender himself?!" Luffy thought aloud.

I crossed my arms and huffed, "It seriously doesn't make any sense. He's definitely not dumb since he managed to get out of here so easily, so what coulda happened?"

Kid paid no mind to the prison's laughter, even when it was at his expense, and instead focused on the man chained with him. "Hey, stop!" he yelled at him, only to be ignored as more laughter escaped the bandaged blond. "I said stop! I remember how you didn't like the way you laughed. You even stopped laughing out loud at some point. Everyone who mocked your laugh would be nearly beaten to death! Please... stop... You started wearing a mask to hide your face at some point...That's the person I knew... what happened to you?! After we got separated, what did Kaido do to you?! Or did Orochi do something?! Where's everybody else?! Answer me! Hey, answer... please! Killer!"

Both Luffy and I reacted to that name, which caused Hyo to ask Luffy where we knew him from.

I stared at the blond man with wide eyes. "I never would have guessed that was Killer. He's totally different now, and apparently that's something that's unusual to Kid. Must be why he got caught, trying to save him and figure it out," I concluded once Luffy told Hyo the story of how we know him.

"How cruel..." Hyo sighed, "He was forced to eat the Smile fruit and was given a mask of laughter that he can never take off... Damn Orochi, how could he do such a thing?!"

Kid was thrown into a rage by the bizarre state of his friend, which in turn caused Luffy to get angry as well. Honestly, I was both confused and angry. Why would they give Killer a smile fruit to begin with? I know he wouldn't turn on someone like Kid, that would just be a death sentence even if they weren't close to each other. Did they give him a defective one on purpose just out of spite or something?

"OI, BALLOON!" Luffy's shouting brought me out of my thoughts.

"What do you want, Straw Hat? Why are you yelling?" Queen answered, apparently just accepting that his nickname was balloon.

"C'mon, let's just start the sumo matches!" Luffy said.

"Yea let's- oh wait," I stopped talking upon realizing that I never asked Raizo if he got my key. I'm still just a weakened version of myself that can momentarily use Haki. Suddenly, I am no longer pumped to be doing this fighting arena ordeal.

Even with my dissatisfaction of my unfair handicap, the show must go on. Before our matches started, Kid and Killer were both tied upside down above a giant tub of water. They were lowered into the water on Queen's command, who explained that water torture would be best since they're both devil fruit eaters now, although it doesn't seem like Killer got the power from the fruit he ate.

"Oh, that reminds me. I thought of an exciting game..." Queen muttered. He raised his voice to announce, "Thank you for waiting, you damn fools! The Sumo Inferno... is back ON! But we have new rules. The moment you step out of the ring, you'll be killed by the spikes in those collars! That hasn't changed, but the new rule is... as long as you guys are alive," Queen motioned to those of us in the ring, and then looked to Kid and Killer, "those two will be submerged in the water. That means only when you and that old geezer die, will we pull them out of the water!"

"Don't be ridiculous! They have nothing to do with us!" Luffy protested.

"Yea, that's probably true... But then, why do you seem a bit upset?" Queen questioned. "Is it because you two are rivals from the same generation? Well, you could always sacrifice you lives for them immediately. No matter how notorious or how many hundreds of millions of berrys a bounty is, all humans... will drown in a mere five centimeters of water."

I tapped my chin, "Really? Maybe you would like to show us an example. Try it yourself since you're so strong, ya know?"

"I won't fall for that!" he shouted. I shrugged; it was worth a shot with how stupid everyone here is. He quickly regained his composure and then snapped his fingers, "Now, let the games begin!"

The chains behind us squeaked and the two above the water were lowered again. Luffy and I spun around and watched as it happened. With every passing second, the teen beside me was growing more and more irritated.

"What do you want to do?" I asked him. I don't really see a way of solving this that includes us living and them living at the same time. Don't get me wrong, I love Kid and Killer, very cool guys... probably, but I also love not being dead... as of now.

"We have to end it right now," he responded. When I gave him a look of confusion, he only turned towards Queen and carried out with his mystery plan. "Why don't you come in here?!" he yelled at the huge man. "I'll kick your ass and end this!"

He shot a fist at the man, but it was caught before it could land. "Who do you think you're talking to? Don't push your luck! You bastards!" Queen roared, throwing Luffy's hand back.

I grabbed Luffy before he could go skidding out of the ring, keeping him from getting spikes to the throat. He was about to thank me, but I stopped him by whisper shouting, "That was the plan?! We're in limited space! We can't even jump out of the way effectively with how big his range is!"

He frowned and said, "But what else are we-"

"I don't know! But there's no taking it back now!" I quietly panicked.

The two of us looked back to Queen when he loomed over us menacingly, "I don't see how you can be so hopeful. Do you really thing you can get out of here alive? Do you think you can beat us? You fools are gonna die! One by one!"

Luffy pushed me behind him as a protective gesture and glared Queen down, shouting, "SHUT UP!" He clenched his fists and started walking back toward the front of the ring, having slid to the back end before I caught him, and stopped right in front of the boss of the prison. "When it comes to where I die... I'll do the choosing!"

My eyes widened. That was actually really cool. Hyo seemed to be pretty moved by it, too.

BOOM

Everyone looked toward the prison entrance. The sound came from that direction. Queen asked what the noise was, but he received no answer. Heavy footsteps slowly approached the prison gates, and we all waited patiently. It was something or someone absolutely enormous. I don't know why, but whatever it is, is giving me goosebumps.

---Guys. Why is Law so hot? It just doesn't make any sense.

Also, for the sake of my love for Sanji... I am going to continue to ignore that he hid in the bathhouse, and I will go as far as to omit it from this story bc.............. i love him.

Also also. Sorry. I am very bad at updating rn cuz im stressed hehe