Bonez ate the Dice-Dice Fruit, and Tant ate the Lion Fruit.
People who have eaten a Devil Fruit can't eat another one, so among them, the only ones who could still eat one were Lena, Martha, and Baccarat—and they were all girls.
Martha was the first to speak up:
"I—I won't eat a Devil Fruit. I can't fight."
Vane nodded.
"Devil Fruits aren't necessarily for fighting. If you want one, I can find a Devil Fruit that suits you."
When it came to medical-related Devil Fruits, the first thing that came to Vane's mind was the Op-Op Fruit. But that fruit should currently be in the North Blue, and he had no idea where exactly it was. He also couldn't remember whether it had already been eaten at this point in time.
If he temporarily set aside the Op-Op Fruit, then Drum Kingdom might have a Shroom-Shroom Fruit. Since they were planning to search for the Munch-Munch Fruit anyway, they could also look for the Shroom-Shroom Fruit along the way.
Lena didn't mind eating a Devil Fruit, but it had to be one that could enhance her marksmanship.
"Do you know what this Devil Fruit's ability is?"
"I guess it might be… the Through-Through Fruit."
Vane's Devil Fruit encyclopedia didn't have any information on this fruit. He was making his judgment based on the identity of the person who appeared.
The big-headed doll he had knocked out the moment he snuck into the secret chamber earlier—Madam Lara had called him Tanaka. That name reminded Vane of the doll's true identity.
Mr. Tanaka, along with Baccarat and Dice, were later subordinates of the Golden Emperor. In the future, they would all be Paramecia-type Devil Fruit users—Through-Through Fruit users.
The Through-Through Fruit was a very solid support-type Devil Fruit. It allowed the user to pass through all non-living matter, offering extremely high flexibility.
"…That's basically the Through-Through Fruit's ability. Of course, this is just a guess. This Devil Fruit could also be something else entirely."
Lena thought carefully for a moment, then nodded.
"Sounds pretty good. I could try developing attacks that ignore physical defenses."
The Through-Through Fruit could give her a certain degree of mobility, and its ability to ignore non-living matter meant her bullets could directly hit an opponent's flesh.
Of course, that would require development.
"Then go ahead and eat it."
Vane looked at Baccarat and said,
"You'll have a chance to eat a Devil Fruit in the future too."
Baccarat's combat ability, like Martha's, was basically nonexistent. Eating a high-powered Devil Fruit wasn't realistic for her—she'd be better off with a support-type ability.
Whether that would be the Luck-Luck Fruit was hard to say. That fruit caused everyone around the user to become unlucky, and without as many people and as large a venue as the Golden Emperor had to harvest luck from, it might not actually be the best choice.
"I will follow your instructions in everything."
Baccarat didn't have many practical talents. If she had to name one strength, it was her singing and dancing. In a team that pursued enjoyment, those skills did hold some value.
Lena took the Devil Fruit Vane handed her and gently bit into it.
Devil Fruits tasted awful—everyone in the Rocket Team who had eaten one said so—so she only took a small bite.
"Ugh—! I only took a tiny bite, but it tastes so bad!"
With a look of pure disgust, Lena threw away the rest of the Devil Fruit.
"Hurry up and feel out your ability."
Lena closed her eyes and focused. Very quickly, her legs began to sink into the ground, and soon after, her entire body disappeared beneath the surface.
Seeing this, Vane said,
"Looks like it really is the Through-Through Fruit."
Lena soon emerged from the ground again.
"It's a bit hard to get used to… I feel like I've turned into an earthworm."
"An earthworm can only burrow through dirt. You can pass through anything without life."
After becoming a Through-Through Human, Lena's mobility increased significantly. She could appear in places others would never expect, and the bullets she fired could ignore all non-living obstacles.
Unfortunately, the Through-Through Fruit didn't significantly increase the actual power of her bullets. If Lena wanted to keep getting stronger, she'd need to rely on technology and eventually awaken Armament Haki.
Otherwise, she'd only be able to clear out ordinary fodder enemies in the future.
If she could coat her bullets with Armament Haki, she might be able to pull off feats like Van Augur of the Blackbeard Pirates—one shot, one Cracker biscuit soldier… though some people said that was just the anime staff going wild.
Still, if the three musketeers under the future Red-Haired truly had no Devil Fruit abilities and relied heavily on pure marksmanship, then using Haki-coated bullets to one-shot biscuit soldiers wouldn't be all that strange.
"Train hard. Once you can apply your Devil Fruit ability to your bullets, armor, shields—even mountains—won't be able to block your line of fire."
Lena nodded and pulled Martha and Baccarat along to train her Devil Fruit ability. Before leaving, Baccarat turned back and glanced at Vane a few more times, as if thinking about something.
"Meowth, tell Electabuzz to stop charging the batteries and come meet a new partner."
Vane pinched a brand-new Poké Ball between his fingers. Ever since coming to this world, whether it was Electabuzz or Meowth, he never recalled them into their Poké Balls unless absolutely necessary.
"I wonder which Pokémon this one will be. Could it be a legendary right away?"
Vane touched the feather pendant on his chest. Because of the Through-Through Fruit, he had gained another Articuno feather.
The first feather had completely lost its energy, and the second was already half depleted. Vane had a feeling that once the energy of three feathers was fully used up, his life level would undergo a noticeable leap.
By then, his recovery speed would definitely increase by another tier. He wondered if he might even awaken some kind of Blood Demon Art just for fun.
"Eiluu!"
The energetic Electabuzz was called over by Meowth.
Taking the opportunity, Vane threw out the Poké Ball. A burst of Pokémon light appeared and solidified.
A dragon that perfectly matched the image of a Western dragon appeared—orange-red as its main color, with flames burning at the tip of its tail.
"Roar!"
"It's Charizard, meow. That's a really good Pokémon."
At the start of the dream, beginners could choose from three Pokémon: Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander.
The most popular and coolest of them was Charmander's final evolution—Charizard.
And Charizard even had two Mega Evolutions later on, which showed just how biased the creator had been when designing this Pokémon.
"Eiluu!"
"Roar!"
Even though it wasn't a legendary Pokémon, rolling a flying, fire-breathing Pokémon was still pretty great. After all, as the saying goes, the Flame-Flame Fruit isn't even something everyone would eat—there are plenty of ways to create fire in the pirate world. Having a fire-breathing dragon of his own was perfectly reasonable.
Still, trading a lizard fruit for a dragon… he had thought it would be a Dragon-Dragon Fruit summoning a dragon.
Wait, that wasn't quite right either. In the games, Charizard's type was Fire/Flying—it didn't even have the Dragon type!
Looking at it that way… it really was reasonable. A non-Dragon-type lizard really was just a big lizard.
Charizard: "???"
This human's gaze was extremely offensive.