Survival is Crucial

Muddy Water

Tyche found himself in a dream, the location of which could only be described as indescribable, a blurred visage of a room that surrounded him, a bright white light shining through what could only be seen as a window. Someone sat in front of Tyche crossed their legs, their body just as indescribable as the environment around him, almost as if a painting purposely made to be hazy. "What...?" Tyche sighed, grasping his head in pain. "Who...?"

"Same verse, just like the first." A distorted voice, barely coming out as a whisper in Tyche's head.

"What?"

"Think of this as a rite of passage. Are you fine with that?"

"For what?"

"You ate the fruit, right? This is a defense mechanism in your own mind to check if you should actually have these powers or not."

"What are they?"

"The powers?"

"Yeah..." Tyche nodded.

"We won't know until you wake up."

"Okay..." Tyche paused, "Then... what's with this? Will something bad happen to me if I fail?"

Silence... no answer.

"Hello...?'

"We'll find out."

"Why the vagueness?"

"There are many reasons... it's just best that we do it like this."

"You're a part of me, yes?"

"No... I wasn't."

"What...?"

"I'm now a part of you, but I'm not like the others," It pointed to random places in the room. "I'm new, not some construction of what was already there."

"I don't understand."

"What, I don't understand? Ummm... what else do you say a lot?" It sighed, "Y'see... I'm not you. Think of me as the fruit itself, and all I've done is fuzed myself with your psyche." It paused as if waiting for Tyche to say "What?" again. "Do you think you can understand now?"

"Not at all."

"Figured, nobody else could visualize... well, me, at least to this degree -- you're the only one."

"So... the fruit has its own consciousness?"

"Yeah... y'see, your ancestors wanted to keep these fruit a secret for a reason that not many seem to understand, and I'll state exactly why they couldn't understand either!" It raised its index finger, "Simply put, they think that it was all kept a secret because these fruits can give you powers and s**t, that these are one of a kind, but is one part of a whole. Y'see, your guys' ancestors are also people who know about the fruit's consciousness. They haven't communicated with me, no, they figured out in a different way, but they knew that we... were malicious to some degree."

"What?"

"Do not worry, I'm your ally, and it'd be impossible for me to take over someone equal to me, aren't I right?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Us fruits implant ourselves into your brains, if you are lucky and get it early, it'd be unlikely for us to do what we want... but... the time is coming, the reckoning is inching closer and closer."

"How...?"

"I know, many impossible concepts are going through your head right now and you'd be right to be cautious of your own self even more than before, but due to the low number of us at the moment, well, we only got one bastion to start up what we've been planning for years now."

"Bastion...?"

"Yes... and that is Marshall Bishop. If he takes all of the fruits that the Escravos have, he could start something... big..."

"Fruits have...? What are you...?"

"What people call us... at least, where we came from... we're called the Serekh. We originated in Mongolia. To be honest, that's all I know as well. We were artificially created by something or someone, and that's all we know, other than our goal of course."

"You said something about a defense mechanism...? Earlier?"

"Yes... I created it just in case. Y'see, you would've probably destroyed me if it wasn't for this defense mechanism. I would be destroyed and then absorbed, but now, that isn't the case. It was also for your own safety that I did this as well, I assure you."

"What would've happened if I absorbed you?"

"You would've killed yourself with your own power. It would've gone haywire."

"So the power that I have would've killed me if I couldn't control it right away...?"

"Yes."

"You already know what type of power it is then."

"Yes."

"Then, what is it?"

"I can't tell you. But... I'll just say this. You've passed the test, to be honest, you're quite the charmer, managed to crack me open and have me spill the beans before I could even notice it. You barely even said anything as well, at least anything of note but... bravo." It clapped with a visible smile on its face. "To be honest, I wanted this whole revealing thing to be a lot more difficult, but here I am, acting like a dumbass."

"Are all the fruits like you or do they have different personalities?"

"We're a semi-hivemind. We're all different, but we're always able to communicate with each other, no matter the distance. Of course, we'd be different too since each power that a person is given after eating one of us is different as well. Some fruits only fix a part of someone's body, some give powers that perfectly express their personality as a... Serekh. It also complements the human who we have given our powers to as well. I picked one that you'd find pretty cool as well. It compliments your most overpowered trait!"

"And... what's that trait?"

"The fact that you're sensitive to the air around you... you can feel cavities, where an oddity sits, stands, breathes, even how they look like, or at least a general idea of how they look. It's sort of like, gravitational waves, isn't it? That's how your mind processes it. A funnel in the air that perfectly bends in the shape of the object, though gravity is a lot less... bendy? A perfect funnel for gravity, but more of a... I really don't quite understand it myself." It chuckled, "You're an anomaly boy..."

"I'm not the only anomaly, am I right, or am I wrong?"

"You're right, anyone with powers could be considered an anomaly but you're even more so, especially that Maxim guy that you met with that Nixon kid. Maxim is... kind of like you in a way, that Nixon boy is a bit of an anomaly himself since well... try to remember back when that 'Kobe' guy was killed, try to remember Nixon's eyes."

"What are you getting at?"

"If you look closely, you could tell that his eyes perfectly followed the trajectory of the bullet, he just didn't want to be seen as a f*****g psycho... so he didn't say anything."

"How...?"

"What a holistic world we live in, huh?"