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"Aunt May, that is seriously such a terrible idea!"
Peter's horrified protest practically echoed through the pristine walls of the office. The ten-year-old looked genuinely, deeply offended, as if his aunt had just suggested replacing Christmas with tax season.
"What is so amazing about a pile of gold anyway?" he demanded, throwing his hands up in pure frustration. "How can you even compare boring old money to a literal Devil Fruit?"
He folded his scrawny arms over his chest and aggressively shook his head in absolute disappointment. For a second, he looked less like a kid from Queens and more like a weary parent dealing with a reckless teenager.
May went entirely rigid in her chair.
'Did… did my ten-year-old nephew just completely judge my life choices?'
The short answer was yes. Absolutely, one hundred percent yes.
The expression carved onto Peter's face made it painfully clear. It was the exact look someone gives a person who has just willingly traded a sleek sports car for a rusty tricycle. Pure, unadulterated disbelief.
If Rosh had mind-reading abilities and activated them at that exact millisecond, he probably would have found a single, horrified thought looping endlessly through her brain: 'I am currently being looked down on by a child who still needs a reminder to brush his teeth.'
And honestly? The kid definitely had a point. At least when it came to long-term strategic investments in a world that was getting weirder by the second, Peter's instincts were light-years ahead of hers.
"Right. Anyway," May said quickly, her face burning as she forced a wildly unnatural smile. "I was just joking, obviously…. Mostly joking."
She shot a frantic glance toward Rosh. "Please don't think less of me, Manager."
The slight touch of desperation in her voice only made the entire situation ten times funnier.
Rosh, ever the professional, didn't let his mask slip. He kept his expression completely smooth and elegant. "Of course, Ms. Parker."
Without another word about treating his mythical establishment like a celestial pawnshop, Rosh picked up the high-tech tablet Elizabeth had prepared and slid it smoothly across the polished dark wood of his desk.
"In that case, feel free to browse the catalog."
The moment the glowing screen slid into view, Peter's eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning.
"Aunt May!"
He practically launched himself forward, his sneakers skidding slightly on the floor. "I want to see too! Let me look, let me look!"
His tiny arms immediately reached out, his fingers twitching to grab the device. May couldn't help but laugh, the tension melting from her shoulders as she caught the hyperactive boy and pulled him onto her lap, positioning the tablet right where their eyes could meet the screen together.
Within seconds, the duo was completely sucked into the digital catalog.
For May, every single swipe of her finger revealed something more mind-bending than the last. There were fruits that granted absolute control over the raging elements, fruits that could completely restructure the human body, and fruits that bent the literal laws of physics in ways that defied science. The deeper she scrolled, the more dizzying it became. It didn't feel like she was looking at a product catalog anymore; it felt like she was peeking through a keyhole into a fundamentally alien universe.
Peter's reaction, however, was on a whole different level.
A lot of the detailed scientific explanations and advanced medical terminology flew straight over his head. The complex biological breakdowns and power classifications might as well have been written in ancient hieroglyphics to a ten-year-old.
But that didn't matter. Peter didn't need to understand the physics behind it. His brilliant, baseline genius imagination was already running completely wild. Every new fruit made his eyes shine a little brighter. Every newly described power made him sit up a little straighter. He looked exactly like a comic book fan who had just discovered that superheroes were real and available for purchase.
After several intense minutes of scrolling, Peter slowly tilted his head up to look at his aunt. His large, expressive brown eyes were practically sparking with a desperate, melting hope.
"Aunt May?"
"Yes, sweetie?"
"Can you buy one for me, too?" His voice carried enough pure, concentrated longing to melt a block of solid steel. "Please?"
The response was instant, shattering his dreams with lightning speed.
"No."
Peter blinked, utterly blindsided. "...What? Why?"
"No."
"But—!"
"No."
"Aunt May!"
"Peter."
The firm, unbending maternal tone made its official debut. "You are ten years old."
"But what if it's a really, really cool one?" he pleaded, leaning forward.
"No."
"What if it's a super amazing, legendary one?!"
"No."
"What if—"
"Still no, Peter."
Peter's shoulders slumped instantly, deflation taking over his entire body. His grand dreams of cosmic power had been dismantled with terrifying, systematic efficiency.
To be fair, May wasn't just being a buzzkill. A Devil Fruit wasn't a toy; it was a permanent, life-altering genetic rewrite. Handing that kind of power to a kid whose body was still developing was a massive, unpredictable responsibility. On this particular issue, her protective maternal instincts aligned flawlessly with Rosh's own corporate safety parameters. Peter simply wasn't ready yet.
Unfortunately, Peter strongly disagreed with their logic.
What followed was a small but fiercely passionate protest. The future savior of New York puffed his cheeks out to maximum capacity, crossed his arms tightly over his chest, and launched into a full-scale, weaponized pout.
When that completely failed to crack May's resolve, he escalated the situation to dramatic, high-pitched whining. And when that failed, he went all out.
Before long, May's face was turning a lovely, deep shade of crimson from pure social awkwardness as her nephew conducted a loud, tragic campaign for justice right in the middle of a spotless, high-end executive office.
Rosh sat back, watching the entire theatrical performance unfold from behind his desk. To his own surprise, he found it absolutely, wildly entertaining.
Suddenly, a deeply wicked, dangerous thought popped into his mind.
'I could totally record this right now.'
Just a short, high-definition video snippet. Nothing crazy. Purely for historical archival purposes, of course. After all, how often does a guy get the chance to capture crystal-clear footage of a young Peter Parker throwing a literal temper tantrum because his aunt wouldn't buy him a magical superpower?
That sheer value of the blackmail material was honestly priceless.
Just imagine playing this exact footage back for him ten years down the line. A twenty-year-old Spider-Man, a legendary hero soaring between skyscrapers, saving the city from terrifying supervillains… completely frozen in fear as Rosh pulls up a video of his ten-year-old self, nearly crying on an office floor over a piece of fruit.
Rosh had to bite the inside of his cheek to suppress a dark smirk.
In the end, he managed to resist the burning temptation. Barely. He wasn't quite shameless enough to exploit a kid's emotional meltdown for future leverage.
At least, not today.
"Manager, I have to admit... all of these abilities are absolutely incredible."
May finally placed the glowing tablet down on the coffee table and let out a soft groan, rubbing the bridge of her nose. The bright screen had left her eyes a little blurry, but it was the sheer volume of choices that was currently short-circuiting her brain.
She laughed awkwardly, a faint blush returning to her cheeks. "Honestly, I think I've actually made things way harder for myself by looking at everything. Every single option looks amazing, and now I have absolutely no clue what to choose."
Looking up from the table, she offered Rosh a sheepish, apologetic smile. "Could you maybe give me a professional recommendation? Help a confused aunt out?"
The real issue wasn't that she couldn't find a fruit she liked. It was the exact opposite. May had scrolled past dozens of legendary Devil Fruits that made her jaw drop.
Unfortunately, there was a massive catch.
The ultra-flashy, god-tier powers, the ones that let you control raging elements like lightning or fire, reshape whole battlefields, or turn yourself into a walking natural disaster, were thrilling to read about, but their destiny price tags were astronomically out of her league. Meanwhile, the lower-tier fruits she could actually afford on her one-hundred-point budget felt a little underwhelming and plain by comparison.
Because of this, she was trapped in the absolute worst kind of shopping limbo. She wanted the world, but she could only afford a tiny corner of it, and she had no idea what represented the absolute best value for her destiny currency.
"Of course," Rosh nodded, leaning forward with an easy, reassuring smile. "That's exactly what I'm here for."
Offering personalized, tailor-made guidance was a core part of his business strategy at the Home of the Devil Fruits. But more importantly, the second May had walked into his office, a very specific fruit had popped into his mind. It was a power that suited May Parker's unique position in the universe exceptionally well.
"Based on your current life circumstances, there's one specific option I would strongly urge you to consider."
He reached across his desk, swiped the tablet back, and rapidly tapped through a few complex menus, bypassing the flashy combat types. Once he found the exact entry, he slid the screen back toward her.
"The Health-Health Fruit."
May blinked, staring at the screen. "The... Health-Health Fruit?"
To be completely frank, the name alone wasn't exactly a crowd-pleaser. Compared to things like summoning roaring lightning bolts, freezing oceans, or transforming into a mythical beast, it sounded almost ordinary. It sounded like something you'd find in a basic video game.
Still, this specific suggestion had come straight from the mouth of Rosh himself. And that fact alone meant she had to take it seriously. The mysterious Manager of the Home of the Devil Fruits didn't do anything by accident, and he definitely wasn't known for making random, useless suggestions. If he had singled out this one fruit over thousands of others, there had to be a catch.
Curious and a bit skeptical, May leaned in closer, pulling Peter down slightly as she read the digital description line by line.
Health-Health Fruit
Grants the user exceptional regenerative capabilities and dramatically accelerated physical recovery. Injuries, illnesses, and severe bodily trauma can be repaired at extraordinary speeds, vastly increasing the user's overall survivability and long-term health.
May read the short paragraph twice. Then she read it a third time, searching for a hidden clause. Finally, she looked back up, the confusion on her face growing even more obvious.
"Manager..." May pointed a manicured finger at the screen, tilting her head. "Am I totally missing something hidden here?"
"A great deal, actually," Rosh replied smoothly, his tone perfectly even.
"Because to me, this just sounds like a standard healing power."
"It is."
May spread her hands wide in a helpless gesture. "Then... why are you recommending this to me, of all people?" Her expression was completely sincere, devoid of any ego. "I'm not a superhero, Manager. I'm also not a soldier. I'm definitely not running around the streets of New York in a mask fighting colorful supervillains."
She glanced back down at the tablet, chewing her lip. "This feels like the exact kind of ability someone would buy if they fully expected to get violently punched through a brick wall on a regular basis."
Rosh offered a slight, knowing smile. "A perfectly reasonable conclusion to draw, Ms. Parker."
"Then what am I not seeing?"
Rosh folded his hands neatly on the desk, his demeanor shifting slightly. The casual, easygoing vibe in the room suddenly grew a bit heavier, more grounded.
"Ms. Parker, you're already aware that my unique abilities allow me to look at a person and perceive their baseline Luck and destiny, correct?"
May nodded slowly, a sudden wave of seriousness washing over her. "Right. Elizabeth explained that."
"When I examine your current spiritual profile and your future circumstances, one specific detail becomes immediately apparent." His voice dropped into a more measured, highly professional cadence. "The first chapter of your life is remarkably stable."
May's brow furrowed, a faint frown marring her features. "First... chapter?"
"Your current life trajectory possesses significantly more fortune and safety than the average civilian," Rosh explained quietly.
Suddenly, the entire office felt incredibly quiet. The faint hum of the air conditioning seemed to fade into the background. The warm smile completely vanished from May's lips.
Why? Because she was a smart woman, and she hadn't missed his specific wording. Not even a single bit of it.
'First chapter.'
He hadn't said her life. He hadn't said her future. He hadn't said her entire destiny. He had specifically used the words first chapter. It was a terrifyingly precise phrase, and phrases like that in Rosh's mouth carried massive, world-shaking implications.
A sudden, ice-cold sensation crept slowly down her spine, making the hairs on her arms stand up. Slowly, May sat up straighter in her chair, her maternal instincts immediately locking onto the dark, hidden meaning buried beneath his calm words.
If the first chapter of her life was full of fortune and safety... then what on earth did that say about the second chapter?
Her heart skipped a violent beat against her ribs. Did Manager Rosh, a man who could literally see the threads of fate, just subtly imply that something absolutely terrible was waiting for her further down the road?
"However..."
Rosh paused, his casual, easygoing demeanor evaporating in an instant. A sudden, heavy gravity settled over the desk, making the air in the office feel thick and hard to breathe.
"When I look past that first chapter and examine the later sections of your life, the entire picture changes. Dramatically."
May's stomach tightened into a painful knot. The sudden shift in his tone was terrifying. "What do you mean?" she asked, her voice dropping an octave.
"The trajectory of your Luck experiences a sudden, violent collapse," Rosh said, his eyes locking onto hers with unbending focus. "A steep one."
May swallowed hard, her throat suddenly feeling as dry as sandpaper. "How steep?"
Rosh didn't blink, and he didn't soften the blow.
"It drops to nearly zero."
Those five words hit the room like a physical hammer blow. For a few agonizing seconds, May could only stare at him, completely paralyzed. Then, a visible wave of paleness washed over her skin, erasing whatever warmth had been left on her face.
She was an adult living in a dangerous city; she wasn't stupid. She understood exactly what a "near-zero" metric implied in Rosh's world.
"Zero...?" she whispered, the word barely catching on her lips.
Rosh gave a slow, measured nod.
"Ms. Parker, do you understand what a near-zero Luck threshold actually represents in the grand scheme of destiny?"
A violent chill crawled straight down her spine, making her shiver. Her fingers clamped onto the edges of her armrest so tightly her knuckles turned entirely white. "I... I think so. A catastrophe? Some kind of horrific, fatal accident?"
"Possibly," Rosh replied, his voice remaining unnervingly calm and steady. "But regardless of the exact details or the format it takes, the ultimate conclusion remains identical. You are marching directly toward a massive, life-threatening crisis."
The room fell into a heavy, suffocating silence. It was the kind of quiet that felt like it was actively squeezing the oxygen right out of your lungs.
Of course, all the technical jargon Rosh used, the talk of trajectories, curves, and fortune metrics, was just the professional framework he used to translate his god-like system into human concepts. But the underlying truth? The actual danger? It was completely real.
In the original timeline of the universe, May Parker's future was incredibly bleak. It was a cosmic rule that the people closest to Peter Parker always ended up paying a brutal, heartbreaking price just for loving him. Eventually, May herself would become one of those tragic casualties.
And that was the exact, hidden reason Rosh had pushed the Health-Health Fruit across the table.
It wasn't because it was flashy or cool.
It wasn't because it would make her a frontline avenger.
It was because it was practical.
It was a literal lifeline. When that inevitable disaster finally came knocking on her door, that fruit wouldn't just be a superpower; it would be the thin line between surviving the night and becoming another tragic memory that motivated Peter's hero journey.
Whether May chose to believe his dark warning or laugh it off as a cheap sales pitch was entirely up to her. Rosh had done his job as the manager. He had handed over the map; she had to choose the path.
But May Parker was a protective aunt, and she knew exactly who she was sitting across from. This was Manager Rosh. His shadow stretched across the entire globe. He was a man who casually chatted with world leaders, multi-billionaires, and elite superheroes. A guy with that kind of power didn't need to invent fake, cheesy doomsday prophecies just to trick a middle-class woman into buying a relatively cheap Devil Fruit.
Her breathing hitched, becoming shallow and uneven. Mechanically, she raised a trembling hand to cover her mouth.
"Oh my God..." she breathed, the raw terror finally breaking through her composure. "A fatal crisis? Me?"
Fear settled deep into her chest, cold, heavy, and terrifyingly real. For years, she had lived a completely normal, mundane life. She went to work, paid the bills, raised her nephew, and tried to make ends meet. Now, a man who could see the future was calmly telling her that a literal death sentence was waiting for her in the shadows of her own timeline.
"Manager," her voice shook, tears threatening to blur her vision as she looked down at the tablet display. "So what you're telling me is... there's something out there waiting for me. Something bad enough to completely erase my future."
Suddenly, the boring, uninspiring description of the Health-Health Fruit didn't look so boring anymore. It wasn't a luxury item. It wasn't a fun party trick. It was insurance, the ultimate form of life insurance.
"This fruit," May stared at the glowing screen, her perspective completely flipping. "It's meant to keep me alive. To make sure I survive whatever is coming."
Rosh inclined his head just a fraction. "If my assessment of your destiny is correct? Yes. That is exactly what it's for."
May drew in a shaky, trembling breath. A thousand terrifying questions started racing through her brain at a million miles an hour. 'What kind of disaster? When is it going to happen? Can I run away from it? Is Peter going to be in danger, too?'
The thoughts came faster than her brain could handle, threatening to spiral into pure panic.
"Heaven help me..." She let out a weak, breathless laugh, though there wasn't a single drop of humor behind it. "To think something like that is waiting for me down the road." She pressed her palm flat against her racing heart. "I'm sorry, Manager. I just... I really need a moment to process all of this."
"Take all the time you need," Rosh said smoothly, leaning back comfortably into his leather chair.
He didn't pressure her. He didn't try to slide a contract over, and he didn't launch into some aggressive, high-pressure sales pitch. He just gave her the quiet, respectful space she needed to digest the reality of her own mortality.
Across the room, even the hyperactive Peter had gone uncharacteristically, terrifyingly quiet.
The ten-year-old boy didn't fully grasp all the adult talk about luck metrics, destiny curves, or fatal crises. But he was a brilliant kid, and he understood the basics. He knew something incredibly heavy was happening. More importantly, he could see the raw, naked fear swimming in his aunt's eyes.
And for perhaps the very first time since walking through the doors of the Devil Fruit House, the energetic future Spider-Man just sat there in total, breathless silence, holding onto his aunt's hand as May Parker tried to find a way to face a future she had never imagined.
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Next Chapter: From Buyer's Remorse to the Ultimate Jackpot
Next Next Chapter: Nick Fury's Ultimate Contingency
Next Next Next Chapter: The Merciless Execution of the Winter Soldier
Visit my P@tr3on or K0‑fi ''Isopuff'' page and unlock +20 extra chapters and daily updates!