"Hello, ma'am. Welcome."
Rorschach greeted Helen Cho with a professional smile.
"Hello, shop owner."
Helen returned the greeting politely while quietly scanning the interior of the store.
Before long, her gaze was drawn to the display case filled with fruits of every shape and color.
"Ma'am, I know what you want to ask." Rorschach spoke before she could. "Yes, that's right. These are Devil Fruits."
A trace of surprise appeared on Helen's face.
She turned to look at him, suspicion plain in her eyes, as if asking:
You're not seriously joking, are you?
These things can actually be eaten?
Of course, good manners kept her from saying it out loud.
"Shop owner, let me ask you something first. Do you know Wade Wilson?"
Helen paused briefly, then fixed her eyes on him and asked the question directly.
"Wade? Of course. He just bought a Slip-Slip Fruit from me yesterday."
Rorschach smiled. "And you must be Dr. Helen Cho, right? Wade mentioned you might come."
Even though he had recognized her the moment she walked in, he could only pretend he had just guessed her identity.
"Yes, I'm Helen Cho." She nodded. "I came here because of what happened to Mr. Wade. What happened to him was so unbelievable that I had to see for myself."
Then she added, honest and straightforward, "Sorry for the intrusion."
"You're too polite, Dr. Cho. I run a business—I welcome customers. How could this be an intrusion?" Rorschach replied generously. "If you have any questions, just ask. I'll answer whatever I can."
"So, shop owner…" Helen's voice still carried heavy doubt. "Did Mr. Wade really heal his face by eating one of the Devil Fruits here?"
"Of course." Rorschach spread his hands lightly. "I'm sure Wade already told you that."
"But with all due respect, shop owner, the idea that a single fruit could contain such miraculous power clearly goes against scientific common sense."
"That's exactly the point, Dr. Cho." Rorschach smiled faintly. "The meaning of common sense is to be broken."
Helen looked disappointed.
To be honest, she was even starting to regret letting Wade talk her into coming.
A fruit that could do something like that?
How could such a thing possibly exist?
Wade must have gone through something else entirely.
"Dr. Cho, Wade told me you're a scientist. That means your understanding of the world may be… a little biased."
Rorschach continued as if he hadn't noticed the change in her expression.
"Oh? For example?"
Helen raised a brow.
If not for her excellent self-control, she might have laughed on the spot.
She was the creator of the Regeneration Cradle—something revolutionary enough to change medicine forever.
And now this young man was telling her her understanding of the world was biased?
What a joke.
"For example… this."
Rorschach repeated the same move as before and slowly raised a finger.
Golden light flickered at its tip.
This time, genuine surprise finally showed on Helen's face.
But she quickly recovered.
"May I see your hand?"
"Of course. Go ahead."
Rorschach stretched it out for her without hesitation.
Helen immediately began inspecting his hand carefully, her brows drawing together.
Because from her initial examination, there was nothing wrong with it.
There was no implanted device inside the finger.
And that hand definitely wasn't a prosthetic either. There was no prosthetic on the market advanced enough to look and feel this real.
"Dr. Cho, I know scientists believe the world is fundamentally material and explainable," Rorschach said at the right moment, seeing her confidence begin to shake. "But the truth is, there are still things in this world that science cannot explain."
"Devil Fruits are one of them."
"I may not have found anything yet," Helen said stubbornly. "But I believe that if I were in my lab, I would definitely be able to analyze something."
She was still stubborn.
Still confident.
Maybe that was just a common flaw among geniuses.
"Is that so, Dr. Cho?"
Rorschach smiled.
Scientists like her were difficult to deal with, sure—but not impossible.
"Then let me show you something else. This time, make sure you keep your eyes wide open."
As he spoke, Rorschach opened his left hand in front of her, palm facing up.
Then he lifted his right hand, extended one finger—
and drove it straight through his own left palm.
Yes.
Straight through it.
His right index finger pierced completely through his left hand.
Helen's expression changed drastically.
This time, she was genuinely startled.
The scene in front of her had gone from strange to outright disturbing.
When Rorschach pulled his finger back out, Helen hurried forward and began checking both of his hands without waiting another second.
This time, she was completely lost.
All the confidence she'd had before was gone.
The impossible scene she had just witnessed had stepped far beyond the limits of her understanding.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't explain it.
"So… Wade was telling the truth?" Helen stood there in a daze for a long moment before finally forcing out the words. "These Devil Fruits… are real?"
"Of course they are, Dr. Cho. The evidence is right in front of you, isn't it?"
Now it was Rorschach's turn to wear the confident smile.
After a brief silence, Helen finally said, "Then please introduce these Devil Fruits to me."
Her eyes landed first on a pink fruit.
"I wonder… what kind of fruit is this one?"
So pink really was every girl's weakness?
Even a cold, top-tier genius goddess like Helen Cho wasn't exempt?
Rorschach muttered inwardly before answering aloud.
"This one is actually quite good. It's the Kilo-Kilo Fruit, also known as the Float-Float Fruit. If someone eats it, they gain the power to change their own body weight."
"Really?" Helen's eyes lit up at once. "So this fruit can be used for weight loss?"
Rorschach almost choked.
He was thoroughly defeated by her imagination.
"Dr. Cho, if all you got from that was weight loss, then you're seriously underestimating Devil Fruits." He laughed helplessly. "And besides, can ordinary weight loss reduce someone's body weight to one kilogram?"
"One kilogram?"
Helen frowned deeply, utterly confused.
"Shop owner… are you saying this fruit can make a person weigh only one kilogram?"
"That's right. The Kilo-Kilo Fruit lets the user freely alter their own weight. Lowering your body weight to one kilogram is no problem at all. In fact, it can go even lower. How light you can become depends on how skilled you are with the ability."
Helen was stunned.
"How is that even possible?"