With Kuzan's help, Diarmuid didn't have to deal with the murky, filthy seawater and easily retrieved the small chest.
"Looks like a chest used to store a Devil Fruit," Kuzan said with the confidence of someone experienced.
Diarmuid paused for a moment. It did look familiar to him. For some reason, people in this world always seemed to store Devil Fruits in these small chests. He had no idea why.
"Let's open it and find out," Diarmuid said with a smile.
As soon as he finished speaking, he grabbed the lock and snapped it off with a strong twist. The chest popped open.
Sure enough, just as Kuzan had guessed, inside lay a Devil Fruit.
Diarmuid tried hard to recall the appearances of Devil Fruits from the original story.
But the number of fruits shown there had been limited. After comparing a few in his memory, none matched this one.
"Do you recognize it? What ability does it have?" Diarmuid asked Kuzan.
Kuzan reached out his hand.
"Let me take a look."
Diarmuid didn't hesitate. Kuzan was already a Devil Fruit user anyway; he couldn't possibly eat another one.
Besides… to be honest, the Marines were different from pirates.
Among pirates, whoever found something usually kept it.
But for the Marines, anything recovered here counted as spoils of war and had to be handed in.
After all, Marines earned their living from salaries, not from plundering.
So even though Diarmuid had personally found the Devil Fruit, it technically didn't belong to him yet.
Of course, if he were bold enough to keep it and eat it on the spot, the Marines probably wouldn't punish him too harshly.
But that would be extremely short-sighted.
At the moment, Diarmuid felt he had already left a very good impression on several Marine higher-ups.
If he continued steadily down this path, he would surely have a promising future.
Besides, Zephyr was still waiting in Marineford to train him.
There was no reason to ruin everything just for a single Devil Fruit.
More importantly, he had no idea what kind of fruit it was.
What if it was something ridiculous?
For example, a Zoan Human-Human Fruit that turned the user into a human.
If he ate that, he'd just lose the ability to swim for nothing.
That would be idiotic.
Of course, Diarmuid didn't think it would be something that useless.
After all… this fruit had been found on Shiki's ship.
With Shiki's strength and taste, he probably wouldn't bother collecting weak abilities.
Maybe…
It was even a Mythical Zoan.
Thinking about that made Diarmuid a little excited.
Kuzan took the fruit and glanced at him with a grin.
"You really want it, don't you?"
"Of course," Diarmuid replied without hesitation.
"I've said it before—I want power, status, and strength. A Devil Fruit can give me powerful abilities quickly. Of course I'm interested."
He had never tried to hide those ambitions.
"Sounds about right," Kuzan said with a smack of his lips before smiling again.
"Don't worry. Even though Marine war spoils are normally handed in, there are exceptions."
"Devil Fruits being kept privately has happened more than once."
"With how much Admiral Sengoku favors you, if you ask him later, there's a very good chance this fruit will end up being yours."
Diarmuid smiled and nodded.
"I think so too."
After all, he had made a major contribution this time, and Sengoku had always treated him kindly.
If he asked, Sengoku would most likely agree.
That was also one of the reasons he hadn't acted impulsively earlier.
"But before that, help me identify it," Diarmuid added with a grin.
"I don't want to eat some random fruit without knowing what it does."
Kuzan nodded and examined it carefully.
After a long moment, he frowned slightly.
"I can't recognize it either. I've seen the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, but I don't remember everything clearly…"
Diarmuid rolled his eyes at him.
What good are you? Completely unreliable.
Kuzan noticed the look but didn't mind.
"I'm not exactly a specialist," he said with a laugh. "But judging from the pattern, it should be a Paramecia-type fruit."
"If I remember correctly, Vice Admiral Tsuru has the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia. You can borrow it from her and check later."
"Paramecia, huh…" Diarmuid said with a hint of disappointment.
He knew that the patterns on Devil Fruits often indicated their categories—Zoan, Logia, or Paramecia.
So he didn't doubt Kuzan's judgment.
Still, compared to Paramecia fruits, he preferred Mythical Zoans or Logias.
Mythical Zoans didn't need much explanation—unless the ability was absurdly bad, users usually became extremely powerful.
Just look at Kaido, Admiral Sengoku, or Marco.
As for Logias, the future three Admirals were proof enough of their strength.
Even though Logias seemed somewhat weaker later in the story due to Haki counters, their power was still undeniable.
Diarmuid had even thought about a plan before.
If he ever had the chance, he would go to the sky island Birka and see if he could steal Enel's Goro Goro no Mi.
In his opinion, the Lightning Fruit was incredibly powerful.
Being called "invincible" was no exaggeration.
Unfortunately, he simply had no opportunity right now.
Still, it was only a small regret.
If this Paramecia fruit turned out to be powerful enough, he wouldn't mind eating it.
After all—
Only what ended up inside his stomach truly belonged to him.
Right now his strength was still ordinary.
If he stubbornly waited for something like the Lightning Fruit, he might die before the chance ever appeared.
Power was the foundation of everything.
If an opportunity came, he had to seize it.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
After playing with the fruit for a moment, Kuzan handed it back to Diarmuid for safekeeping.
Soon afterward, Marine soldiers finished searching the wrecked Lion's Pride, which had already sunk halfway beneath the sea.
Seeing that everything was done, Kuzan brought Diarmuid back to the warship to find Vice Admiral Tsuru.
By the time Diarmuid returned, the Marines had almost finished cleaning up the battlefield.
After all, the victims here were all pirates, so the Marines faced little resistance during the cleanup.
"Admiral Sengoku has returned!" several Marines shouted in the distance.
Diarmuid and Kuzan turned to look.
Sure enough, Sengoku and Garp were approaching, using Geppo to leap from one piece of wreckage to another across the sea.
It seemed that after failing to find Roger, Garp had gone to help Sengoku, worried about the safety of a Devil Fruit user on the open sea.
Judging by their empty hands, Shiki had likely escaped.
Which was perfectly normal.
Diarmuid wasn't surprised.
Shiki had fled immediately without even leaving a threat earlier—that alone showed how decisive he was.
Even if the environment greatly restricted him, simply escaping was still easy for him.
That was what made Shiki troublesome.
He always seemed to stand in an unbeatable position.
Even if things went wrong, he might not win—but he could always run.
Soon, seeing Kuzan and the others on Tsuru's warship, Sengoku and Garp jumped over directly.
Although they looked slightly regretful about letting Shiki escape, their overall expressions were full of joy.
After all, the Marines had practically picked up a victory for free.
They hadn't fired a single cannon shot, yet had achieved a huge victory.
Once they returned, they could polish the story and spread it through the newspapers—
Announcing that the Marines had won a major victory in the New World, destroying the Golden Lion's Grand Fleet, with only Shiki himself escaping in disgrace.
For the Marines' declining influence in the New World, this would be a powerful boost.
"Diarmuid, well done!" Sengoku praised as soon as he arrived.
If the young man hadn't insisted earlier—and if Sengoku hadn't relented out of sympathy—they might have already turned back without even entering the Edd War Sea.
If Sengoku had later learned what happened here, he would have regretted it deeply.
And they had achieved this victory without lifting a finger.
"Thank you, Admiral!" Diarmuid replied with a playful smile.
Everyone was in a great mood, so they found him increasingly pleasing to look at. No one cared about his cheeky tone.
"What's that?" Vice Admiral Garp asked, pointing at the chest in Diarmuid's hands.
Kuzan answered at once.
"That's a chest Diarmuid found on Shiki's ship. There's a Devil Fruit inside."
"We couldn't identify the ability, so he wants to borrow the Chief Strategist's Devil Fruit Encyclopedia to compare it."
Kuzan's words were quite thoughtful.
He never explicitly mentioned Diarmuid wanting the fruit.
But the meaning was obvious.
If the ability turned out to be good, Diarmuid hoped to eat it himself.
After all, if he had no interest, why bother comparing it with the encyclopedia? He could just turn it in.
Sengoku naturally understood the implication.
"Is that so? Then let Tsuru help."
"If the ability is good, I say we just let Diarmuid eat it."
Sengoku was the highest authority here.
The others were close to him and had no reason to oppose him.
Besides, everyone already saw Diarmuid as promising talent.
He had made the greatest contribution in this operation.
Privately awarding him a Devil Fruit was perfectly reasonable.
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