Sword

Chapter 33

Shoko stood alone in a huge, empty bunker. Garp had left her here after dinner, informing her that the room was built to be extremely sturdy for devil fruit users with destructive abilities.

"You can experiment all you want," he said before leaving her to her own devices.

Shoko stretched a hand in front of her. Explode? she thought, leaning as far back from her own hand as she could, to brace for impact. Nothing happened.

She wished she could somehow detach the hand and throw it far away before causing an explosion so close to her body.

But I guess that defeats the purpose of having a body that explodes itself. Garp said I'm immune, right? But what if he's wrong?

Suddenly she had an idea. It was a wild idea, but she was here to experiment, right?

Mustering up all the malice she could, she spit across the room as far as possible (which wasn't very far—she didn't have the most experience with long-distance spitting), then quickly took a step back.

As if in slow motion, she watched her spittle soar through the air in an arc. As it hit the floor, a sizable explosion shook the room, and she fell back on her rear.

Woah.

"Ha!" she shouted gleefully. "That was so cool!"

Just a little bit of spit was enough to knock her on her butt. The explosion was probably large enough to seriously injure a human adult. She checked herself for any injury, but nothing hurt, and the only sign of a burn was the scar on her left arm that she'd had for years.

That should've burned at least a little.... I really am immune to explosions.

With a sudden surge of courage, she punched at the ground with a shout. A flaming explosion engulfed her whole hand, and she stumbled back just a hair, but more from surprise than from any impact. This explosion was much bigger than the one from spitting.

Standing back, she admired the tiny crack in the hard floor that was left behind from her attack. Then she looked at her hand. It was completely unaffected, though a bit warm.

If spit works, I wonder...

She plucked a hair from her head and dropped it. She watched as it drifted slowly toward the ground, bracing for the impact, but when the hair finally touched the ground, nothing happened.

So maybe it needs power along with intention if I'm going to explode something not directly attached to my body.

She took off one of her shoes, picked the hair up off the ground, and tied it around the shoe's laces. Then she chucked the shoe at the ground, making sure it landed so that the hair hit the ground.

The shoe exploded on impact. This explosion was a tiny bit smaller than the one from the spittle. I can prepare arrows with a bit of hair and use that for long-range attacks. These explosions aren't huge so I can be more certain that my far shots won't be lethal.

After only an hour in the training room, Shoko discovered that her saliva, hair, nail clippings, and blood could all be used as explosives as long as they had a powerful enough impact on their target. Shoko and any clothes that were still on her body were completely immune to all force and fire that came directly from a burst, though they could still be harmed by shrapnel or lingering heat indirectly related to the explosion.

So hypothetically, if I were to ever blow up a mountain, I'd be harmed if the mountain's debris fell on top of me, but if I avoid that—even if I'm the center of the explosion—I'd be fine.