Deciding he'd wait for Damian to finish crafting his new weapon, Mirage stood at a distance, watching the ritual while holding his Akuma no Mi.
Mirage: "I hope they don't take too long."
Exactly 30 seconds later, Mirage was already pissed off from waiting, so he started spinning the Fruit like it was a basketball.
Mirage: "Ugh... so boring, they're so damn slow! What a drag..."
Another 30 seconds passed, and Mirage couldn't take the waiting anymore, so he tossed the Akuma into the air and then...
Mirage: "Screw it! I'm done waiting!"
He ate it.
Mirage: "*Gulp!* Bleh! Allana wasn't lying when she said this thing tasted like crap!!"
After eating the Akuma no Mi, Mirage headed toward Yosuke and Damian, but as soon as he took his first step...
??????: "What remarkable eyes... it's like they were made for me... let's see if you're worthy of me."
Mirage: "Wha- ahhh!! Blaaargh!"
He felt a sharp pain in his stomach, as if a fist had pierced through him, and because of the pain, Mirage vomited everything in his stomach—except the Akuma no Mi he'd decided to devour.
Mirage: "Ugh... what was that? No..."
Before Mirage could finish his thought, he mysteriously fell unconscious and immediately woke up, but he wasn't in the lab anymore. The place he was now resembled a noble mansion.
Mirage: "Seriously?! What the hell is going on?! Where am I?!"
Amid the chaos in Mirage's mind, he began to hear an androgynous voice echoing from every corner of the mansion.
??????: "So you held on? You keep surprising me..."
Mirage: "Who are you? Show yourself!"
Looking in every possible direction, Mirage tried to find the source of the voice, but to no avail.
??????: "Who am I? That doesn't matter to you. What matters is that you've proven yourself interesting to me. So, as a reward, I'm going to give you a gift."
The moment the voice said "gift," the mansion transformed into another place. Now, Mirage was in a setting very similar to a Japanese dojo, and at its center stood a humanoid figure that resembled him.
Mirage: "Hey, you annoying voice! Don't ignore me!"
??????: "You're surprising, but not quite at that level yet. So stop whining and listen to me."
Mirage: "Grrr... fine! Let's get this over with! But you're answering me afterward."
??????: "To use my gift, you must defeat this reflection."
Wanting to wrap things up quickly, Mirage gripped one of his katanas. They seemed a bit different, but with no time to think, he pressed on with the strike.
Mirage: "Ishtamariya: Kerael."
Bursting with a flash of lightning, Mirage dashed forward and sliced the reflection in half with a single clean cut.
Mirage: "Done! I defeated your reflection, now explain what's going on!"
??????: "Don't get too cocky. As I said, that was just a gift. As for your questions... I'll only say one thing: I am the Devil Fruit you ate."
Hearing the revelation, Mirage tried to speak again, but when he blinked, he found himself back in Yosuke's father's lab.
Mirage: "What? Ho-"
Before Mirage could finish speaking, his body began to burn, as if he were on fire. The pain was so intense that Mirage nearly lost consciousness several times, but whenever it seemed like he would, his brain reset and kept him from passing out. On top of that, his body wouldn't stop spasming from the pain.
Mirage: "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
Even though he screamed, Mirage wasn't heard. Because at the exact moment he cried out, Mèi woke up and let her snore echo through the room. After that scream, though, the spasms seemed to stop, and Mirage managed to stand again.
Mirage: "*panting* That pain... *panting* What was that?"
Looking around, Mirage tried to find Damian but couldn't. All he could see was Yosuke and a dark orb with silver and red threads in it. A bit worried about his friend, Mirage went to talk to Yosuke.
Mirage: "Hey, Yosuke! Where's Damian?"
Yosuke turned to him, but as soon as he did, he pulled out his pistol and aimed it at Mirage.
Yosuke: "Who are you?"
Mirage: "What are you talking about, you- WHAT?!"
As he answered Yosuke, Mirage raised his hand to point at him, and that's when he saw his own hand... it had no fur anymore, like a regular human hand.
Mirage: "What happened to my hand?"
Seeing the confusion in Mirage's eyes, Yosuke realized it was really Mirage in front of him, even if he didn't look like himself, and he lowered his pistol.
Yosuke: "So it's really you. Looks like you ate the Akuma no Mi."
Mirage: "Yeah, I ate it... was it a Hito-Hito?"
Yosuke: "I don't know, and I doubt anyone will. After all, my dad got his hands on it and couldn't figure anything out."
Mirage: "If that's the case, then tell me if there's anything different about me."
Yosuke: "Well... as you might've noticed, you don't look like a wolf anymore. You're more like a human, like me. Your skin is a flawless light brown, your hair seems the same color, your ears are still on top of your head, and what caught my attention the most... you have four eyes."
As Mirage listened, he poked at himself, and when he touched his own face, he "saw" something strange. His vision was doubled, yet it seemed to complement itself, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
Mirage: "That's... cool!"
After that, the two talked a bit more. But they had to stop because the orb that had swallowed Damian opened up, revealing Damian with a bident twice his height. As soon as he stepped out, he turned toward them, waving with one hand, holding Mèi with another, and pointing at her with the other two.
Damian: "Yosuke! Mirage! Look at this! I made it!"
After getting closer, Yosuke and Mirage turned to Damian and asked him something.
Mira/Yosu: "How did you recognize me?/How did you recognize him?"
Damian: "How wouldn't I recognize him? I've known him for seven years. If I couldn't tell it was him because of a transformation, could I even call myself one of his best friends?"
Mirage: "That was a bit gay."
Yosuke: "A bit? That was totally gay."
Damian: "Screw you guys... where's that little bird? We've gotta interrogate him. After all, we've got a mission to finish!"
Mirage: "Now you wanna do the mission properly?"
Damian: "Shut up and let's go! And Yosuke!"
Yosuke: "What?"
Damian: "If you're gonna prep something, hurry up and finish before we do."
Hearing Damian's words, Yosuke quickly went to his father's desk. Meanwhile, Damian and Mirage headed to where the Skypian they'd defeated was.
Mirage: "You think he managed to escape?"
Damian: "I highly doubt it, but even if he did... I think it's pretty unlikely he'd get far."
To Be Continued