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"The Warp-Warp Fruit…" Danny Rand murmured, eyes narrowing with genuine interest as he reread the entry. "A massive speed boost. That's… genuinely excellent."
He nodded once, like his fighter's instincts had already run the numbers.
Speed wasn't just "moving faster." In a real fight, speed meant initiative. It meant striking first, slipping the counter, turning a lethal exchange into a clean win before the opponent even understood what happened. For someone like Danny, who fights close-range, with precision and timing, extra speed wasn't an upgrade.
It was a cheat code.
He leaned closer and studied the catalog entry again, carefully and thoroughly. Sure enough, it lined up perfectly with what Colleen had described earlier, and, if anything, her explanation was more detailed than the catalog itself.
That alone said a lot.
Danny looked satisfied. Actually, more than satisfied, he looked tempted.
But after a beat, he gently turned the page and set the entry aside like he was putting down a weapon he wasn't ready to draw.
Because he wasn't picking that fruit for himself.
He was picking it for Colleen.
Even though she'd already shot down the idea, with no room for argument, Danny wasn't the type to surrender just because someone told him "no." Especially not when he believed he could keep them safe.
So he kept flipping.
Page after page, his eyes scanned names and descriptions, weighing each one like a fighter testing a balance in his hands. The crowd noise beyond the counter blurred into background static. For Danny, the shop had narrowed down into something familiar:
A choice. A risk. A path forward.
Before long, Danny's eyes lit up again.
He'd found another fruit that caught his attention.
"Shopkeeper," Danny said, looking up at Rosh with focused intensity, "this Strong-Strong Fruit… it increases physical power."
He tapped the page once, controlled but excited.
"I'd like to know, roughly, how much stronger it can make someone?"
It was the right question. Danny wasn't chasing power for fun. He was calculating combat value. If speed changed the rhythm of a fight, raw strength changed the ending.
And strictly speaking… wasn't the Iron Fist itself built on that exact principle?
Danny's whole signature was chi, calling it up from deep inside, compressing it, then unleashing strength that didn't match his frame. One punch turns into ten. Ten into something that felt like a wrecking ball.
More strength didn't just mean heavier hits; it meant breaking limits.
"In theory," Rosh replied with a smile, "the Strong-Strong Fruit has no upper limit to its amplification."
"It depends directly on how far the user develops the fruit."
Then he added, almost casually, like he wasn't dropping a statement that could reshape Danny's entire sense of reality:
"And as far as I know… there's been a Strong-Strong Fruit user who once lifted an entire mountain."
For anyone who knew the seas beyond this world, the name behind that feat was obvious: Jesus Burgess, a monster among monsters, tied to the Blackbeard Pirates.
Danny didn't need the name to feel the impact.
"A… mountain?" His voice cracked upward, eyes widening as if his brain had tripped over the word and fallen down the stairs. "You mean an actual mountain?!"
That wasn't "strong." That was myth-level strength. That was the kind of power that turned geography into a weapon.
For a second, Danny just stared at the page, stunned, like he was trying to picture it, trying to imagine fingers digging into stone, a whole mountain shifting, the earth groaning under the sheer audacity of it.
It was simply impossible to imagine....
Except that Danny had already watched the impossible become real. After Tony's press conference. After Colleen's firsthand experience. After seeing a "Shopkeeper" calmly sell miracles like they were products on a shelf…
Danny didn't doubt Rosh.
He was just overwhelmed by what the words meant.
A mountain.
It was hard to even imagine.
"Of course," Rosh added once the initial shock had faded from Danny's face, "that doesn't mean you'll be lifting mountains the moment you take a bite."
He said it casually, but the words were necessary, like a safety rail placed right before someone stepped off a cliff.
"Even with the same Devil Fruit, the end result can vary wildly from person to person," Rosh continued. "Power isn't just about what you eat. It's about who you are when you eat it."
Danny's expression tightened slightly, the hype settling into something more focused.
Rosh nodded, like he'd expected that shift.
"As I said before," he went on, "How far an ability can go depends on development… and it also depends on the user's physical foundation."
That last part landed especially hard for Danny.
Because Danny Rand didn't get his strength from a gym membership and good genetics. His body had been broken and rebuilt through years of brutal training with pain, discipline, repetition so intense it bordered on insanity. He wasn't just fit. He was forged.
"Shopkeeper," Danny said after a moment of thought, seizing the key point, "when you say 'developing' a Devil Fruit… what does that actually mean?"
He leaned forward slightly, serious now. "Can you explain it in more detail?"
Rosh didn't rush his answer. He spoke patiently, like this was a lesson he'd taught before. "Development," he said, "is basically expanding the ways you use the ability, pushing past the basic, obvious applications."
Then he raised a finger, ready to make it simple.
"Let me give you an example you already understand: Tony Stark's Arms-Arms Fruit."
Danny's eyes flicked up at the name instantly.
"A typical Arms-Arms Fruit user," Rosh explained, "Might only be able to turn parts of their body into conventional weapons like blades, guns, cannons. Straightforward stuff."
He tapped the counter once, and a small punctuating sound rang.
"But Tony Stark used that same ability to create an entire suit of armor."
"That's the difference."
"In short," Rosh concluded, "Development is about using your brain. Devil Fruit development requires thinking."
He paused, then added the fundamental core of it:
"It's about imagination. Your what if."
Danny absorbed that quietly. His face didn't change much, but something in his eyes did, like gears turning behind them.
To be fair, Rosh privately suspected "imagination" might be asking a lot from Danny Rand. The current Iron Fist wasn't exactly famous for strategy or creativity.
But Danny's physical foundation? That was a different story.
Even without genius-level innovation, his body was on a tier most people never reached. He wasn't an average fighter. He was a man who'd survived K'un-Lun's brutal training and ruthless selection and came out the other side carrying a legendary title.
That kind of foundation mattered.
Even if Danny's creativity wasn't stellar, his Devil Fruit wouldn't be mediocre, not with those reflexes, that conditioning, and that endurance.
At least… not compared to an average person in the Marvel Universe.
"I understand," Danny said finally, nodding slowly. His expression had settled into something thoughtful, grounded, like he'd just been given a new lens to look through.
And in Danny's mind, he quietly filed it away as a serious contender. If he didn't find something more fitting, he'd likely come back to it.
"Thank you, Shopkeeper," Danny said sincerely. "I'll keep looking."
He lowered his gaze again and continued flipping through the catalog, page by page, searching for the fruit that didn't just look strong…
but felt like it belonged to him.
Not long after, Danny's eyes brightened again, like he'd just spotted a weapon that actually fit his hands.
"Colleen, look," Danny said, tapping a page with his finger. "This Heat-Heat Fruit also seems pretty good."
Colleen leaned in, reading fast, brows lifting a notch as the description clicked into place.
"A fruit that can raise your body temperature…" she murmured, then glanced up with cautious interest. "And heat other objects?"
Colleen's expression tightened into thought. By now, she understood Devil Fruits well enough to see past the "simple" wording. Heating wasn't just warm hands and party tricks. Heat could scale. Heat could climb and climb until it stopped being a sensation and started being a weapon.
If it truly had no meaningful ceiling…
Then it had terrifying potential.
But potential wasn't the same as practical combat. The details mattered, the limitations, the range, the conditions. She would need the Shopkeeper to confirm how it actually behaved.
Before either of them could even ask, Rosh spoke first, as if he'd already read the question on their faces.
"You're right," Rosh said smoothly, not waiting for Danny to form the sentence. "The Heat-Heat Fruit allows you to alter your own temperature at will."
"It also allows you to transfer heat into other objects, raising their temperature as well."
"And how hot can it get?" Colleen asked, still measured, still cautious.
"As hot as the user can take it," Rosh said, calm as ever. "Same principle as always. It depends on the development."
Danny immediately followed up, "Shopkeeper," he asked, "does it require direct contact to heat something? You said it works through heat transfer."
"That's correct," Rosh replied. "It heats things by transferring thermal energy."
Danny's mouth tightened, thinking. In close combat, contact was fine; Danny lived in striking range. But ranged options changed everything. They meant control and flexibility.
Rosh glanced at him and added, almost casually, "But Danny, don't forget."
"Air can carry heat too."
That single sentence hit like a clean punch to the jaw.
Danny's posture shifted, not outwardly dramatic, but you could see the understanding lock into place. The last doubt evaporated.
If air could carry heat…
Then contact wasn't the only path.
That meant range.
That meant Danny could weaponize heat through the space between him and his opponent, through the very atmosphere they were forced to breathe.
And where on Earth was there no air?
"There's another point worth mentioning," Rosh continued. "When I say 'heating,' I don't mean only temperature."
Danny and Colleen both focused in.
"Heat is energy," Rosh continued. "The higher the heat, the more energy you're holding."
He leaned slightly forward, the explanation tightening into something sharper.
"When your fist is heated to an extreme level, it isn't just 'hot.'" He paused, letting the idea form fully in Danny's mind. "The destructive power behind your punch multiplies, too."
And at that, Danny's eyes immediately lit up because that wasn't just a new trick, that was a perfect match.
The Iron Fist was already a technique built on condensed energy, chi focused into a single point, released in a strike that shattered what shouldn't shatter.
Now imagine that same strike… with heat-energy stacked on top of it.
A fist that wasn't just empowered. A fist that was superheated, carrying kinetic force and thermal devastation, turning every punch into something closer to an impact event.
Danny didn't say it out loud, but the choice was written all over his face.
Compared to the Strong-Strong Fruit, the Heat-Heat Fruit didn't just make him stronger.
It made him more himself.
And that meant it was dangerous in exactly the right way.
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Next Chapter: Two Million Dollars, Two Futures
Next Next Chapter: Perhaps I Can Call Myself a God
Next Next Next Chapter: Natasha's Report
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